QB Draft with Daniel Jeremiah and Hard Knocks Lessons

Published Jul 18, 2024, 10:20 AM

Gregg Rosenthal is joined by Patrick Claybon and Jourdan Rodrigue of The Athletic to get you caught up on news from around the NFL, including the latest development in Davante Adams' future with the Raiders (02:00), Patrick Mahomes speaking about last season's let downs (05:45), what we've learned about the Giants from Hard Knocks (12:50) and more! After the break, Daniel Jeremiah joins the show to draft all 32 QBs (20:12). Who will have the better group? 

Note: time codes approximate. 

Welcome to NFL Daily, where the Giants would never prioritize us in free agency. I'm Greg Rosenthal and beyond lucky today to be joined in the studio for the top of the show by Patrick Claybonn and Jordan Rodrigue of The Athletic Do not forget the of the athletic part.

Nailed it.

It's important.

He's gonna be at training camp next week covering the Rams. For now, we got you here. It's a little bit different of a show. You guys are joining me for the news portion, and then I'm gonna throw it to your mortal enemy, Daniel Jeremiah Patrick Claybonden. We're gonna draft some quarterback.

I'm trying to develop this this DJ at Patrick rivalry. But the dude is carried. He's carried before a long time. It's best.

How are you doing, Jordan, Oh well, I'm doing good.

I'm ready for the slow burn and frenzy of training camp into the season.

Stoked about it.

You showed up today to the office, Jordan got got their hours early, like gate game face on, game face on saying, kind of your off season is over built for this. You're ready to go.

I'm locked in. I'm built for this. One other cliche, I got a chip, best shape in my life.

There it is what, it's what, the chip tracker. Patrick Patrick is the Internet's foremost chip on the shoulder tracker.

The chip tracker normally this this next week is when I need help because some people will notify me. Like when there's a shoulder chip. The most important part is the chip has to be self applied. Weekend. We can talk about what a teammate says, he oh yeah, Baker's got a chip on the shoulder. That doesn't count. It's most important when the player themselves says that they have a chip, and that's how we can add it to the tracker.

Jalen Brown this week self applied a rare off season chip on the shoulder for not being put on the Olympics teams. I'm tracking that situation in the meantime. Look, Texans are officially practicing, they're in camp. Patrick Mahomes is throwing footballs. We're going to talk about him. The Ravens and the Chiefs are under fifty days away. Like things are happening, and let's get to the news to start it all off.

He has still scared me.

I knew it was whoever that scared me. That news drop in a folder titled Randy's Big Dumb Idea. We love you, Randy, we love your big dumb ideas. I think that's gonna stick. But y'all are who are listening, can can let us know what you think? You know who else is stick at Davante Adams. We talked about him a couple of days ago and just the summer of Davante and all the speculation, and I really think this is just because there's been no news going on and he's been a fun topic for the morning shows. But his agent released a statement, his agents, Kenny Chapman and Frank Bauer, and they were quoted saying this is baseless, an unfounded speculation, and Davante is expected to be with the Raiders as there have been absolutely no trade talks period. So they just tried to shut this story off for a little bit.

I wish they would give us a link in the statement as to what particular assertation was speculation, like the idea right like.

Where it came from?

Cit I think it's ESPN, Like what's the specific one, because I feel like there's just like conversation about like hypotheticals before to necessitate a statement.

It feels like that's at somebody.

Right to go like full galaxy brain and say maybe it came from nowhere, But it's just continuing the conversation.

You just put it out there.

Well, it's part of the DeVante Adams and Aaron Rodgers talking about it and him getting asked about it. But ESPN is needed to drive some morning programming this week, and I think there was one and it was just an opinion that he thinks this is going to happen. If you were going to trade DeVante Adams, you would never do it before the season. Could you do it in the season if the Raiders are really struggling, I don't think it really makes sense. Doesn't make sense for their cap, doesn't make sense to try to win games.

I think it's a important for everyone to remember that the peak of these emotions that he expressed happened a long time ago in football timeline, you know, context, Like the show Receiver just came out, and obviously they're on the publicity tours and the press tours for it and all that stuff, getting asked us of questions about it. But like the peak of the emotion of this situation has already passed a long time ago. Coaching staff overhauled. Quarterback in question was is gone like this all happened a while ago. So and Antonio pears it sounds like has really made some inroads with players and all of that. So, I mean, it's I think that's important context to remember too.

There could be two trade situations that don't make sense but could make sense. As Twitter user pretty Ricky two to one to three suggested this week that maybe it's DeVante Adams for Brandon Ayuk and the four right they get some of that this year Juice and the Raiders could could solve a problem. That's that's what pretty Ricky two to one threes.

And Antonio Pierce knows.

It's not crazy.

Brandon and I you pretty well if I recall from pre transfer, go Devils.

Wow, let's throw that out into ether. Just release a statement on Adams, and you know what. The money isn't nearly as bad. When I looked, a trade would only couset seven point eight million dollars in dead money if it happened during the season. It would be the same if it was in the off season. And they'd save save a lot of cap rooms. It's actually one of those things that you hear and you're like, oh, that'll never happen, but that could happen. That actually makes sense to me. I don't think it would happened until yeah, the season, but that would be fun. Uh. You know who is throwing football's right now, not at this exact moment, but earlier today on a football field the Super Bowl MVP Patrick Mahomes, how about that?

Did you do your throwing motion again? Because I really think the people watching on YouTube?

Did I do one?

How I mean? I mean no, Actually I wouldn't ax.

Yeah, I wouldn't actually categorize it in that category necessarily, but you know the people.

It's for the people.

I mean, I throw the ball around at the beach a decent amount, you know, me and my son, but that's about it. It's not a regulation ball those you know, my hands not big enough. Let's listen to Patrick Mahomes who talked at Kansas City Chiefs training camp. It is happening. It's their quarterbacks and their rookies for now, but that means Mahomes and the rest of the veterans will be there in a couple of days he talked about how last year wasn't always the best time.

I mean, obviously the end result was awesome, but I mean I think a lot of us still have a weird feeling in our mouth because I mean, we really didn't play the football the way we wanted to play all year long, and it wasn't fun. I mean, all the every single week, having to try to just continue to get better and better and results not paying off the way you wanted to. It wasn't a lot of fun. We have a lot of those same guys back.

I thought that was noteworthy. First of all, we you know this, this came up in Connie's courtroom.

Great by the way you enjoyed that, not she First of all, she knows this, she is an icon. Second of all, that was so funny. Patrick's rant was really I disagreed with you know a certain thing. You know, we'll get to it certain rulings, But that was really fun.

It was kind of what I was getting. I'm not I'm not doing this to point, you know, pat myself on the back of that last year wasn't always the most fun for them. But I thought that was noteworthy because I think they want to add a little more fun back into the offense. Andy Reid talked a lot about going deep. Patrick Mahomes had, you know, a year where he did not throw the ball very deep whatsoever. Xavier Worthy was on the field one of those rookies practicing. That's noteworthy because he missed most of the off season with a hamstring injury, and he was ready to go. And Mahomes said in that press conference, like, we don't have time for him to get used to things and get up to speed, like he's going to be a big part of the offense right away.

And when I like because ultimately you could hear the reaction for people. You can feel how people are going to react. It's like, oh, you win the Super Bowl. That's not that's not fun. But it was a way and a guy who has done nothing but get buckets his entire career, go back to high school. Right in college, they're scoring a billion points a game. The defense kind of carried them to.

A championship, even in the Super Bowl.

Literally in the game.

I didn't I didn't rewatch that game until recently, until about three weeks ago. And yeah, I you forget, just like, oh yeah, Steve Spagnola and the Chiefs won the Super Bowl, which is which is had a nice symbiotic balance because the Chiefs defense was pretty trash in the Super Bowl before and Patrick Mahomes saved them. So that's how you win super Bowls. Up at each other out, you know what.

You know, it's fun. Speed, speed is fun. Catching the ball is fun. Speed and catching the ball are both fun. I think that when a lot of times these young people come out for the draft and they're training the entire offseason for specifically one thing, and that is the combine in their pro day, and all of this major conglomerate now exists to basically train all of these athletes for these specific moments which do eventually and you hope, you know, add zeros to their paychecks and things like that. But it's really easy to tweak a hammy. It's really easy to once you get back into football movement. Your body hasn't been doing actual like football movement. You've been training for testing and those types of things. So you hear this a lot when when rookies have their first like onboarding or uploading period in OTAs that the teams are just extra careful with them a soft tissue, especially being something that can come up as a big problem when you have.

Really fast twitch athletes.

So I do think that it's going to be really fun to watch him get immersed into this offense. And like I said, speed is fun, Speed is really fun. I want to see a little I want to see a little Andy Reid meets Mike McDaniel vibes happening in this offense a little bit.

It's going to be fun.

So Marcius Brown also part of this team, doesn't not always as consistent catching the ball, but gets open. And to me, if you put him on last year's Chiefs team, I would have taken him over rookie Rashi Rice for most of the year, Like I think he would have been the Chief's best receiver. I think Xavier Worthy is a much better route runner. Now, I just got bucket getter in my head. Like then people give him credit for like he was absolutely the one on the same team with Adi Mitchell because he was just open all the time. The defenses were going towards him and he got open. He is not just a speed threat. So I'm excited. But they need those two guys to stay healthy because Rice might not be there for the beginning of the season. Andy Reid did say he has not heard anything no surprise era in terms of what the timing is going to be with the potential Rashi Rice suspension, so we will see on that. The Broncos did some news on Wednesday, No Tuesday rather signing Quinn Minors four year. He did eighty million dollars.

Now you're going to chick it out and you did it. I love it.

Five year, really a five year eighty three million dollars because it's attacking in and if you're watching on YouTube, yeah, please like and subscribe, and uh, just a marvel at at the belly of Quinn Miners.

It's it's funny because Jordan is making me think of, you know, the exhaust training and all this stuff for wide receivers and running a fast time and then you have to Quinn Miners aspect where it's.

More about this peak athlete right here, it's it's.

More about facilitating a vibe and he's still doing it. He's still doing it.

So right like Serena got a lot of credit for winning the Australian Open pregnant, but Quinn Miners played a whole NFL season. I mean that's impressive.

That's so mean.

I mean, I mean he's got his belly.

I will say, I do. I am a bit I'm a little bitter.

Uh.

You know, millennial fashion is we get roasted a lot by by gen Z.

Crop tops are back.

I'm not a crop top girlie myself can't pull it off.

Never could.

Kind of blame Quinn Miners for the inspiration on some of this, uh, some of this crop talk stuff. People walk into Target now and everything is a crop at this point. This is gonna be my millennial rant.

I love that. Yeah, it's I'm a hearing from our producer Jason. It's popular with the six year olds even too, so it's it's out there and yeah, that's the most we'll probably talk about Quinn Minors this season. But a nice career. He showed up at the Senior Bowl. I'm serious. Like he showed up at the Senior Ball as a D three athlete who had a season canceled to COVID, hadn't played football in over a year at that point. He won practice Player of the Week. Like the Senior Bowl can really change lives. He got drafted in the third round and now he's getting recognized as a top shelf guard. We've had a couple of little, you know, pup things that have caught my eye as rookie show up Rocky Piersall's not healthy, Theo Johnson an interesting tight end rookie for the Giants, not healthy, so they're on the p P list early. Sticking on Giants, let's wrap this news with some takeaways from Hard Knocks. I've really enjoyed this season of Hard Knocks. I'm now into watching it the night it comes out. I think it's the best overall Hard knock product. In a minute, it's just different, and we're learning things and and you're you're part of moments that you normally wouldn't expect, including this moment. This is Joe Shane, the general manager of the Giants, when he is talking to Saquon Barkley's agent, essentially telling him that they are not going to resign by good day.

For you, good day to what's again? What's gonna get north of what you said?

What would have happen a p y tony five guaranteed?

North of that.

Again, We're not gonna We're not gonna go there for how.

Is it is?

It in the division.

I just I'm trying to prepare myself mentally for what's gonna happen. I mean, that's all hm hmmm. Shane prepared himself mentally. You could stream all the episodes of Hard Knocks on Max like I do. I learned a bunch of things in this episode, so I'm going to go through a few of them. One of them you kind of heard there that I think the Giants misread the running back market. I think, based on what we saw on the show, they never really wanted to pay Saquon is money that seemed obvious enough, even from the outside. But I think he thought that they were going to save at the position because they presented how many running back free agents were available, and look, oh, Devin Singletary, who they loved, healing got a one year two point five a year ago. There's so many out there. We're going to get someone. They ended up paying Devin Singletary at nine million dollars, not that much below where their initial offer for Saquon was. That total that he heard from the Eagles, and the Eagles topped it even by another million was not a surprise to him. They knew that money earlier in the day. At no point did they really sound that interested in him. It just sounded like Shane was trying to be respectful and balanced dealing with his boss, because it was pretty clear that John Mahra, the owner, would have loved to have take one back, and I think Shane was trying to be respectful to his owner but also make a tough decision.

To move on.

What I really liked about this and a couple of other moments in the season of Hard Knock so far, is you are seeing that like I don't want to say tension, but you are seeing that emotion come through from the guy who owns the team. And then how the other people in management do have to navigate that. I mean, that's his boss, So how you navigate making a decision that your pro scouting department and your front office has already like rationalized to itself and going through all of the logic of that and it could end up to backfire, we don't know yet, but going through all of the points that they created within that pro scouting department, but then also navigating the owner walks in with a cup of coffee and he's nervous about it, you know, and that's a dynamic that we don't often see.

So that's what I appreciate about.

This season is is seeing some of that, like push pull, some of that like just that's very that's very real in buildings that happened.

The Eagles, part of it was real. I don't think that they were happy about that. John Mara especially. I think Shane might have gotten in his feelings a little bit. And it is edited heavily, but there were a couple of little moments that you could tell the holdout last year he said, like that put ten years on his life, and that's not the reason why we don't want to go through it again. But you could tell like he thought he made such a good effort to Saquon a year ago and Saquon didn't sign that, and maybe the Giants were painted as the bad guys. That to me, I thought he might have been in his feelings a little bit because it was not unanimous. You could tell even in his own personnel department, they would have liked some of them would have liked to have Barky back.

Well.

Yeah, And I think people who have interacted with Sequon could see why why you would want him to be on your football team. But I think the silver lining I guess for fans that might be frustrated by it, is the only way that this can work is if ownership isn't making all of these decisions. Like, ultimately, people need to be empowered to make the decisions that they want to make. They can be wrong, right, and people will probably feel that if Saekuon goes for two seventeen against the Giants in MetLife, of course everybody's gonna instantly react and feel like it was wrong. But if it's you're not building this whole team around one person regard, right, whether it's a quarterback or not. You still have to have a system and a structure and a plan to go in place. And yeah, like to me from the outside looking in, the plan was never to have Psycho On.

It was just I agree, they just didn't. They wanted to spend on the offensive line. They wanted to sign three offensive line starters. They wound up with two John Running who they extended more money than they really expected, Jermaine Illuminor, and they were hoping to get Robert Hunt, and once the Brian Burns contract came in, it just was too much. And the Panthers came over the top so they couldn't get Robert Hunt. So I'm going to just fire through a couple other things. Number One that I that were my takeaways. Number One, the Panthers could have gotten more from the Burns Field because the internal conversations when it started in the Giants building was they thought it was going to be a one plus and it wasn't a one plus. And I give Shane credit, and of course they show the parts that make them look good. I don't hate them for it. But like even when the Panthers tried to come back with a seventh at the very end.

So that's an ego seventh. Yeah, no offense or to anyone. Obviously, I think Dan Morgan's gonna do a good job over there, but like that's a okay, just like make this look a little different than what it is, right.

And Shane was not having it, and he was just like, come on, like you're my guy. And that's that's another thing we know. We hear like, oh, it's all about relationships, you know, in the NFL player movement, different things, like I can promise you if Dan Morgan was not in Joe Shane's wedding or vice versa, whatever, it like, they're really close, like Brian Burns would not be on the Giants, not that they didn't have mutual needs and it made sense. I think it did make sense, especially for the Giants, but it just wouldn't have happened. It happened because they're like such good friends and that to me, that's kind of crazy that that's how it works, but it makes sense. That's how life works. They all watch NFL Network a ton, like it's on all day, Like Judy Batista all over this episode. Love that when Mike Garritfolo announced it. I want to get this clip for a future show. The joy of Joe Shane's face when they talked about Joe Shane and he like looks at Mike Garrifolo like like, I just it was like heartwarming. I just they have it all all over. And that's it for my main takeaways. I think it's been fascinating again. Yeah, check out the new season of Hard Knucks. I've been enjoying it. Also check out Jordan at the Athletic and Patrick Claybonn who's just been all over this week. Appreciate you, buddy, and you guys are going to say goodbye for now, okay, and we're going to say hello to move the sticks. Daniel Jeremiah. On the other side of the break, we're gonna draft quarterbacks for twenty twenty four only this was compelling.

Have to have a front row seat.

I finally proved I know more about quarterbacks than Jeremiah was.

The segment exactly thirty seven minutes long.

Nothing Back after the Break, Welcome back to NFL Daily. When I ask my next guest, Daniel Jeremiah to come on this week, I thought like, let's get DJ while he's not busy before it gets really crazy. Little did I know this is like the last thing he is doing before going on vacation to Alaska. So Daniel Jeremiah, thank you for squeezing in a little time while you can before the season gets going.

And I appreciate you having me Greg and appreciate you Simmy the memo on us dressing you know on all block today. Let's keep this thing. Yeahs, keep this thing locked in.

Check us out on YouTube. DJ represent an app state, very popular team on the New EA Sports College football game. Supposedly he influenced that happening just a little bit, so I listened to move the sticks regularly. I know we've had we've put an ad fun over the years, kind of joking about like, oh, is that a podcast? Is it not a podcast? But Daniel Jeremiah does a great job hosting with Bucky Brooks, and I think it's a great idea because it's it's a podcast that just exists during NFL draft season and then goes away for the rest of the year when Daniel gets too busy. So I know you're you're hankering for more drafts, Daniel, And I'm always impressed you and Bucky do these mock drafts and it'll be complicated to be like all offense or all defense, and you bang them out in like twenty five minutes, and I'm I'm jealous of how efficient and how you aren't long winded. So we're gonna try to do the same thing. But we're gonna draft quarterbacks NFL quarterbacks. You were the person who I wanted to hear the opinion on more than anyone on this your former quarterback, of course, and I don't get to hear you draft NFL quarterbacks. So here are there parameters, DJ, We're gonna go quick. We already said that we're each taking one quarterback from each team, so only thirty two picks. No matter what, you can't you can't take a backup on a team. You can only take one guy. And it's just for this year. It's you know, it's just twenty No lifetime achievement, no lifetime achievement, no next three years either, which would obviously help out the young guys. And yeah, I want you to start. I'll give you the first pick overall, let's do this.

Okay, great, Any guess on how many soap slash mayonnaise reads that I give you in the midst of this ranking question?

Okay, Yeah, when we launched this show, I just said, can the first show? Can we just not have a ad before the first show? I don't want the first thing people hear about NFL daily Daniel Jeremiah talking about Irish rings. Second show, that's great, or even middle of the show, that's great, but I don't want to open the show with that.

Okay, before I make my first pick, I will say that through this whole time, and it's great to see you back and excited for the guys and what they have coming up. But the the I did discover the Reddit thing just that the for me selfishly the best thing that's happened over the summer. It was me discovering this Reddit page and discovering how much disdain there is for my ad reads.

You have no idea the joy. I know that I try to keep my head down, but oh it's fantastic. I love it was fantastic. I'm gonna take Mahomes. Yeah, that's simple. I was doing something for last week. I saw he was the first player in seven years to hold the ball as long as he held it and throw it as short as he threw it, which is like, Okay, they're gonna throw it deeper this year. But I want a little more exciting Mahomes. I'm going exciting at number two. I'm going to Josh Allen. I know there's a lot going on around him this year, but and he's a little streakier than you would want, but I still think he has an MVP season in him. You kind of forget he's twenty eight, a season where he puts all the mental sides together in the physical side. So I feel good about Josh Allen it too.

Yeah, he would have been my number two pick as well. So I'm and I'll tell you what, as somebody who pushed all his chips in on Kincaid going into that draft. It's it's only the second year, but I feel like we're getting ready to reap through awards of that.

Like I thought that was.

I loved him individually as a player, and I couldn't have loved the fit more with him and Josh. And I think with Dig's gone, now you're going to see him. That's another podcast for another day, but I'm I'm very.

Thank you year. Look, he was top ten. Yeah, I know.

If Laporta doesn't have the year he has, I think there's even more buzz on him. But all right, so now I get to the third pick, and again it's I want I.

Just want him to stay healthy.

If he stays healthy, I think Burrow is kind I'm gonna feel really really good about this. I know he didn't get off to a good start even when he was healthy last year, but I'm gonna choose to believe in the best of Joe Burrow and getting the ball out on time. And I think having a you know, I don't I don't always buy into people going to their contract years and and uh and now they're hungry and now they care. I don't know if I buy into all that, but I do believe in the talent of d Higgins, and there is obviously extra motivation there to go along with Chase. So I'm gonna take Joe Burrow with my next one.

I didn't even write down notes for Burrow because I just knew I thought you would take him ahead of me, because I got a few people ahead. Borrow just I like traits. I'm not a scout, but as great as he is, a couple injuries and the trades just aren't quite as exciting as the other options, including Lamar, who's my pick at fourth. Overall, everyone wanted a season where Okay, let let's see your volume go up, Like, Okay, he'd have about six hundred and eighty dropbacks last year. His efficiency went up. They asked him to do more. He came through. He's not the extraordinary best of all time runner that he used to be, but he's still one of the top five runners in the NFL, and I just think he's processing better. It's a nice offense for him. But he showed to me that you could ask him to do everything, have the ball like that back, you know, dropping back on every play, and I think he's gonna be better in year two of this offense.

So I like, lamar, Yeah, by the way, Will there'd be a team. This is a good topic. We can do another day, or you can go ahead and do it on your own, Greag. But I would love to eventually have kind of that long conversation about the best who are going to be the best twelve personnel teams, who are gonna be the best tight end personnel teams? And I think with them, with the Ravens, with likely seeing what he could do last year, get Andrews healthy for a full season, I would I could make the case that's the best twelve personnel team in the NFL.

We we did talk about that a little bit, not who's the best, but just talked about the teams like the Packers the Ravens that are really the Bills will be there and uptick and just have two great tight ends the Raiders Ravens rather as well.

A team that might surprise you that's gonna be a big twelve personnel team is going to be the team that I'm going to take their quarterback with the next pick, and that's Justin Herbert.

With the fifth.

And you talk about traits, there's none better, just in terms of the traits and the one of the things and calling all of his games. It's still it's still funny to me, like when you go down to the field before the game and I have friends on all these different teams, and if it's somebody from the personnel department, a GM, a scouting director that hasn't you know, maybe they've seen him in college, but they haven't seen him in the NFL.

I haven't stood next to him.

I love getting the reaction when you go down there on the field and they kind of run out and they all just kind of they kind of lose their focus on the conversation, like that.

Dude is huge. I'm all, yeah, no, you don't appreciate this how this guy is.

But I think you're gonna see Disley and Hurst and kind of an underrated, a different style of twelve personnel team with how they're gonna try and run the ball with those guys, and then I think they'll get some matchups that they like, even though the receiving corps is gonna be all brand new, But Justin Herbert would would be my pick there. I don't know that statistically it's going to be some crazy year. Like if we're doing this as a purely fantasy football draft, I don't know that I would take him there. But if you're saying, who's going to help me win the most games and doing what's asked of him, I'll take Herbert.

Yeah. I love that, and that's that's see, that's why we have dj On. I haven't heard anyone talking about that. Too tight and set and those are quiet signings, but they were priority signings where the charge also makes you wonder, you know here and there it is. Jim Harbour as a coach, wouldn't mind seeing justin Herbert, just use his athleticism and in the run game just just a little bit more. Famously, Jeremiah ranked Herbert like a little low say the name, say the name twentieth. He was one spot below I believe, Ross Block, Ross Blackbot, And after a while I felt like I was even though Jeremiah is far more successful and athletic and tall and handsome than me, I felt like I was actually punching down on Jeremiah with this, just killing him for this, over and over and I was like, I'm gonna stop it. There was a point where I was like, I'm no longer going to bring it up. But then the last time I think you were on the show, you brought it up. So I was like, Okay, it's open season, I'll bring it up again. Yeah.

You know what's funny though, is obviously not the Ross Blacklock part of that whole thing.

But the other part of that.

This is what's so great about the draft is that you can have literally articles written winners and losers. Right the draft has just completed, They've not even had a practice yet, and then the verdict is in. And then in that draft, do you remember because I initially had Jordan Love ahead of Herbert, and then through the process, you know, the Senior Bowl and everything, and I ended up putting Herbert over Jordan Love. But then, you know, for two three years, it was like, how could that even be a conversation, Like, Jordan Love doesn't play justin Herbert is this elite you know, gonna be the best quarterback in the NFL. And then all of a sudden, just like that, now it's like you'll see legitimate conversations between those those two guys, are about those two guys as we kind of head on into the future. So that's kind of like a little snippet of the life of a.

Scout. I guess when you're going. It's a good example too, because yeah, I'm sure love is coming up. But I agree with you on Herbert. I struggled to rank just doing this Herbert or my next pick. C J. Stroud ahead, and that's where like, yeah, we'll see in three years, maybe I'm getting ahead of over my skis, but where I was going first. The second year leap is usually really impressive for quarterbacks. The processing he led the NFL in QB rating versus zone coverage, which I just think shows his mental ability. He's obviously got all the intangibles, the leadership. I feel like I could talk about c J. Stroud every show, but just such a pretty ball and if you told me like he could be the second best quarterback in the league, I don't know. I think pound for pound probably the best rookie season that I've covered. It's close. Herbert's there, luck is there. RG three was certainly great Newton, but I think pound for pound, Stroud was like the highest of just like top level traits as a rookie, so I have a hard time putting him any lower. He was an interesting study.

I went back after probably after the draft was over, had a little bit of time, but I wanted to go through his tape and just see, like, this was incredible, what you know, just seeing what he accomplished, and wanted to see more so than just how he played, but what the progression was of how they used him. And if you go back and look at it, it was like the first two games that drop backs like fifty five fifty nine times, and then they took like three to four weeks, maybe even five weeks or he didn't drop back to throw up more than thirty five times, and it was almost like they let the waters kind of calm down, They let him just get comfortable and then let him see everything. And then it was like I think the Tampa game where he has an unbelievable game, they come back and win, but then like the rest of the season, he just took off and literally it was like the training wheels were removing those from the bike. You can do everything, and just the game's not supposed to be that slow for a rookie. He made it look really, really slow, So no, it was he would have been my pick there. So I'm with you on CJ.

Stroud.

This is where it starts to get kind of interesting, I think, because now we go from but I don't know where you were, But like the previous picks, Mahomes was his own guy, but after that it was kind of if you're slotting on, it was this guy or that guy.

There's a there's two names. Easy for me. I agree. I pretty much had a clear top six.

Yes, but I mean like even in the top six, you're like, okay, it's to me like Herbert Stroud Lamar Burrow, like there's kind of a look. Now, it's like you're in the ocean and there's like you know, there's a million different options you can go with, and you can go with different theories in different styles. So I'll tell you what this is. This is going to be the opposite of what you said because you were and I should be probably this way as a scout that you are, you were locked in on traits. This guy is not going to allow you at traits. But I think he's proven himself to be really, really good at playing the position. So I'm going to go with brock Perdy with my pick, and I know that if we're going to stack him up traits wise, he doesn't stack up. But I'm at some point in time like we have to stop excusing his success. And I feel like last year I got to the point where I was like, Okay, the processing, the decision making, the accuracy, if we're going to say those are probably the three most important parts of playing the quarterback position over you know, pure arm strength and pure athleticism. I talked to Adam Peters, who's the GM of the Commanders, and we were talking about his you know, process going through trying to pick between you know, Caleb Williams and and you know, doing his homework on Caleb Williams as well as doing his homework on the on the quarterback that he ended up getting in Jayden Daniels and and you know, talking about that and then looking at Drake May and he said, I said, well, what's the lesson you learned from per Like you guys just went through this thing, guys, mister relevant, what's the lesson?

He said?

The lesson is our job was to get the guy who's the best at quarterbacking.

And I thought, like the way he said that.

I was kind of like, yeah, because we can talk about everything else, right, arm strength, you know, the ability to improvise, the creativity to play. He's like, at the end of the day, can you communicate the play call? Can you execute the play call? Like that's what he does really, really well. So I'm gonna take party.

You know, he was way lower in my list, but he has improved incrementally, Like he was definitely a much better player by the end of last year. I think people have this first image that he has and he's a very young quarterback, so he can keep improving. But I'm glad he didn't take him. Yeah, I struggled with where to go here, but I'm going traits, Like I said, I'm going Matthew Stafford for now. I just think he finished last season playing as well as ever. I think the way McVay keeps him engaged with the play call, Like I'm not saying he's gonna have a Brady like run. He's not, and I would just worry about his health and that's the risk here. But we've seen with Rogers and Brady like some some times quarterbacks can play some of if not their best ball mid to late thirties. I thought Stafford did last year. I think he can do everything. So he's my pick.

All right, I've got three guys I'm looking at here, but.

I'm on to Okay.

In terms of this is this is someone who I think obviously has a ton of talent, has continued to get better. I love the system that they have around him. I love the continuity, which you know, one of the things. I won't get way off track because I know we'll run out of time here, But I read this book. You'll love it. It by Adam Grant. You read Adam Grant's stuff Now, I Think Again is a book that he wrote that did really well. He has a book called Hidden Potential, and in it it's you know, it's a lot of stuff you can carry over from like a business world into the football world. But he talked about Finland's education system and how one of the things that they do and why they've been so successful is this thing called looping, where you have the same teacher, maybe from first grade, all the way through sixth grade, so that when you start the next year, you don't start over. They know where each student is and they can pick up where they left off. And then that's why you have more growth. And I thought man continuity might be the most underrated aspect in the NFL in terms of offensive play caller and quarterback. And I think Ben Johnson staying in Detroit and Jared Goff getting another chance to move on and continue to grow in that system with the talent around him, I think he has a monster year. I'll take Jared Golf.

Okay, I'm happy. I'm happy, I'm I hear you. And yeah, my son had a second and third grade they had the same teacher. Did make a big difference. But look, I want I want someone that can learn, no matter who the teacher is. This guy Dak Prescott, you know Walker up. My son looked at this list for me. This was his big take was Dak is too high on your list. But I think people forget he was so good last year. He's been he hasn't had that continuity. Some of his numbers are crazy. His numbers last year in terms of like, he was the best in the league when he was pressure, in terms of QBR, he was the best outside the pocket. Like he doesn't want to play there, but when he has to, like he can. I think some of the situation around him has been tougher than it's made out to So I'm thinking about the whole season, the postseason, and has obviously been a problem for him. But I'm taking Dack. Okay, I'm gonna go Jordan Love. Yeah, he was next for me.

And that's why to me, those three guys I had Golf Prescott and Jordan Love. Those guys were all touching each other for me. So that's why when you get into this part of it, it's not a decision of this guy or that guy. It's usually like three, four or five different guys you're trying.

To pick from.

But I'll go Jordan Love. And again, that whole group is just growing up together. So you as good as it was at the end of last year. Everything's just everything's on the trend, turnt it up.

I had one more guy in that group, and it was Jalen Hurts, who's I think born months apart from Jordan Love, which you don't think of them together, but basically the same age. Loves interesting because when he would play in the preseason and pff franks big time throws and turnover where he plays and he was always like first in the league and percentage wise of both of them. But last year he really didn't put the ball up for grabs. He still had the big time throws, but he was pretty careful with the ball. So it's just sample size. Ceiling wise, he could be top five, top six. But he reminds me a little bit of Kaepernick, just not as a player at all, but justin when Kaepernick came out that first offseason, I was like, this guy could do absolutely everything. And then once there's a little more tape on him, he was still great that next year. But I just want to see a little more at Jordan Love. And that's why I'm giving Hurts a bit of a pass for last year. We've seen what his ceiling is, which is one of the greatest Super Bowl performances ever. We know the floor he has in terms of his running ability with that provides and short yardage, great deep ball thrower. He's had some ups and downs in terms of how he handles it, but he wasn't He wasn't healthy last year. But I like that he's played a lot, you know, whereas Jordan Love necessarily hasn't. And I think people are a little too quick to just throw him out of the top ten because he wasn't expected to be this great quarterback when he came into the league. But I always appreciate it you went out of your way to put him higher than most going into that draft, because you just said, you talked to too many people that said there's something about this kid, even if you don't always see it with your eyes, that he's gonna have a better career than he expected. And you were right about that.

Yeah, his makeup was off the charts, and at some point time, you're like, this guy's too competitive, he's too tough, and he's all that stuff is going to kind of just pull his talent level up to catch up with where.

He needed to be. So uh, yeah, no, I think I'm with you on that one. All right.

This next one, I'm between two guys and we'll see if you take the one I was going to take. But I'm actually gonna go I'm gonna go maybe against the green a little bit here. I'm gonna take Kirk Cousins with my next pick.

That would have been my next pick, just because.

I think Kirk Cousins, yeah, coming off the injury, but again I don't think that isn't is an injury. For him, that's going to be as impactful as it would be for others. He's going to sit back in the pocket and he's by the way, my TV just came on. The NFL network just turned the lights on and and this other TV which.

Is good, looks good. We got a fly Bucky style through the rest of this, which.

I don't know why they did that because A I'm not on the network today and B we don't use those lights. But anyways, if I start sweating, that's why I feel like a chicken McNugget in here. The yeah no Kirk cousins to me, And I talked to Kevin O'Connell about it last year, and you know, they wanted to bring him back. It didn't work out in Minnesota, and Kevin's like did He was on his way to be in the MVP of the league last year, So I still think he's, uh, he's he's going to have a big year with all the stuff they have there in place in Atlanta.

I'm surprised. I'm for the first time I'm going off my board picking someone that's a one spot lower because now that he's just sitting there at this late too good of a value. I'm going to take Trevor Lawrence. Yeah, maybe not as down to down as consistent in the progress that you want. But it's like, and I've probably always been lower on consensus just off what he's done in the NFL than Trevor Lawrence. But what he has been it isn't absolutely an above average quarterback that can make every throw. And like this, maybe the ceiling isn't quite as high as we expected, but he's been a top ten to twelve quarterback. He should still be getting better. So I feel good about getting in this late. Yeah, I was going to take him there.

That was my choice with Kirk and Ham and Trevor not being healthy last year and I think not being able to practice it all during the week.

I think that had a big impact.

He's got to get better though, just like the situational stuff, and that was maybe the tiebreaker. You can't you can't be down inside the ten yard line, turned the ball over, you can't. You know, you got to just be a little bit better at some of the quote unquote quarterbacking stuff. So all right, at this point in time, I feel like it's I mean, don't we have to uh, don't we have to account for for Tua's production at this point in time. I know that the skills, you know, he's not going to wow you with that. But I think in terms of drafting for this year, in the in the system that's been tailor made for him, and it's skinny to it now, like he's all like in great shape and everything.

So we'll see what that looks like. Hopefully he stays healthy.

But at this point time, I think it's just disrespectful if I don't take him based off his production.

Wow.

Yeah, I'm not worried about respect I'm just worried about building a championship. I don't know what that means, but maybe we'll.

Put up by the by the way, is there there there. Their comparison that I've used on them is that they are they are. Remember how the Colts we would just always say, and during those years the Peyton run like there's nobody more dependent on being at home in the playoffs than the Indianapolis Colts. I think the Miami Dolphins are the modern day Colts, where if they can if they can get home field and get healthy going into the tournament, I think they could they could be a Super Bowl team, I really do. But they are dependent on playing in their own environment.

Well, then they need to jump out like the Colts would do it seemingly every season at like nine and two. You know, yeah, they always just got so far ahead in the race. I'm excited Kyler is here. I thought he showed some really exciting things over the last half of last season because you could tell he wasn't one hundred percent there physically, but I thought he threw more over the middle of the field. I think he was a nice fit for that offense. I still think he's the ceiling. We've seen the ceiling. He can have like a stretch of five to eight games like a Kirk Cousins, who to me is streakier than people realize. Where he looks like an MVP can. It's flattening out the bad weeks. But man, I still think the best is yet to come for Kyler Murray. Yep.

I'm excited to see that group. I think it's kind of like a sneaky, decent support cast when you look at what they have there.

Okay, about halfway through this draft, we are gonna take a quick break. Hopefully we hear DJ talking soap welcome back to NFL Daily Daniel Jeremiah has got to catch a bird here, so we will continue the second half of the draft. DJ, you are up, okay, all right? Where do I want to go here?

With this?

Next one starts getting a little tricky. I'm gonna go like I'm gonna go with Gino Smith here.

Oh my god, that hurts me. What did I I just should have moved them up. The fact they don't have Geno Smith in this draft is killing me. Wow.

So, by the way, how how uh how much did you how much did you enjoy your How much did you enjoy your friendship with Mena? Now that it's over, by the way, you want to talk about that?

Or no?

Why why would that be? You just left? You just gave me Gino Smith with this seventeenth I've been pumping up Gino Smith so hard for so many years. It's almost like a parent that watches you know that he's at college, he's getting all the love, he's winning the heisman. I did my job. People are giving him. It's been the off season to Gimo. I think you give him time. Everyone knows, so dice you now, it's just common conventional wisdom. How good he is. Look, you're even taking him this high.

But I do feel like Gino just chose to live with dad.

That's what I That's what I just think what happened right there. Aaron Rodgers, we both have doubts clearly that he lasted this long. I thought I had him so low that there was no chance I would get him. He was below Geno for me, but he is next on my list. And Yeah, it's crazy how deep quarterback is that we're putting in below average right now, like below we're past sixteen, So I just pretty great. Yeah, I don't know. They wasn't that good last time he played, and he's coming off again.

I'm not going to overreact to what you saw in four plays, but him holding the ball on quick game, you know, for the four snaps didn't get me super inspired about what that's going to look like. Anyways, we'll see what happens there, all right. Next one for me, I'm gonna go with Baker. Okay, I think Baker getting comfortable and settling in there. I think he takes another step.

I think he's the best of those guys that are just kind of stop gap quarterbacks. But I did have him lower than some of the exciting young players, including Caleb Williams. I know he's a rookie. I mean, we've seen enough.

To hold my water on that. I was hoping I'd just push it off, just another pick freaking Baker Mayfield over Caleb Williams that way.

I mean, we've seen rookies come in and you know, when I watched him in May, I'm not like you're watching all these guys so much every year, but just for a prospect, he was the most exciting I could remember since Luck and I may was in that conversation too. To me, maybe like a little blow though, but just in terms of excitement. And I don't see why if Justin Herbert and Stroud can play that well as rookie, why why can't Caleb Williams.

Let's go.

Yeah, look, I just spent so many months talking about Caleb that I was just I was hoping that maybe you hadn't done your homework.

Hey, no, you got to get Baker running around there getting caught trying to make play on the uh.

No.

I just think I think, I think the the launching point is not going to be as immediate as Stroud, like Stroud by as we talked about kind of you get to like week eight, week nine, I think you could see Caleb struggle a little bit more than Stroud did. And I think you'll see Caleb in like the last quarter of the season. I think when you'll see his ability kind of jump jump out. All right, I've mine as well, just SA if we're gonna do the rookie thing, then I'll just turn around to take Jade Daniels, I think, and I think Jayden the supporting system support cast is not nearly as good as Chicago, but I think just in his development, and I said this throughout the draft process, I'm playing the long game with Caleb. I think Jayden's gonna be a little bit ahead to begin with.

Okay, and yeah, like like a lot of these guys, but especially Jane, you know, the running provides a floor of gonna be able to get first downs and just when plays don't go right, And am I not with that offensive line, I'm going with Anthony Richardson next. I was impressed how he got to his second read pretty quick. He took too many sacks, but you saw some good things in those those games that he played anticipation, like not incredibly accurate, but we know what he adds as a runner, Like why why can't he be at least for now like a poor man's Jalen Hurts or you're get even closer and then who knows, maybe by the middle of the season he's even better than.

That, all right, I mean at some point in time, though, I just I think I have to just kind of have to hope that you're going to see something from Deshaun Watson that we saw when he was young.

I mean, it's just to me, it's at this.

Point in time where I'm like, I just I'll just take the I'll take the risk here that somehow that player, who I do not feel like he's a great fit in that offense, in that system, but somehow we're all proven wrong there. But I have to bet on the talent at some point in time. So twenty third pick for crying out loud.

He just he doesn't play with confidency. He doesn't doesn't have any even without getting in either right, even without getting into you know why he was suspended every he doesn't speak or play with a guy with a lot of freedom or confidence like he's enjoying. Doesn't fit that system. But yeah, maybe that's why I'm gonna go Drake May next. I know he's not the Week one starter necessarily. This may be too low. If Andy Richardson could be a refective right away, I'm not buying that. It's going to take forever for this dude's traits to just come out. Maybe it's not all perfect, but I I liked what he did do in quarterbacky things, especially his junior year at UNC. I didn't It's not like he didn't show that. So I'm excited to have Drake May. Let's go.

Okay, all right, not the sexiest pick, but I think of where we are going to be efficient at this point in time, it's.

The Derek Carr portion of the of the drafts. I'll take car. Yeah. It's funny because when you said not the sexiest pick, I just you know who I'm taking. He knew it was Derek Carr, which is ironic because his brother, you know, very sad. Will levis intriguing type of guy I fall for who man is good games are are really good, great traits. It has a chance here, I think has a little bit better of a chance. I think maybe it was you that compared him to Jake Coulor. I've heard other people. I kind of like that, and man Jay Cutler made a lot of money and had a really good career, And if Will Levis had that career, I think the Titans would be happy. All right, we're speed round. I'm gonna go with Russell Wilson. Yeah, that's the next time I list.

Yeah, they like, they like what they've seen thus far. So everybody's optimistic this time of year. But everything I've heard of so few teams.

I've given up on him. The Broncos. You know, I have to eat so much money to dumb, but that he would have been my pick too. I'm going Daniel Jones. It's just hard to evalue it because he's never protected, but he does. He does throw a nice ball, he can run. If he ever was protected, he'll provide a baseline. That's that's fine, all right.

I'm gonna go with Bryce Young and hope that we see improvement. That's all just. I don't need greatness, I need improvement, So we'll go there.

I think he should enough to get just a little a little bit of optimism. I'll go Donald because I just think I can't believe I ended up with Donald and you ended up with Gino Smith in this draft. Something something's wrong because I've always been can we yeah, please please? I think he'll wind up playing more. I think it's a great situation. This is his chance. This is you guys have thought that this is his chance like four different times to finally be proven right. But I really think this is his chance because I think it's a good situation. I think he'll be he'll play well in it. Yeah.

I would actually make that trade because when I was going through, I totally I.

Was gonna, Okay, let's do it. I get Gina trade and I need two for one, so give me. Uh so we have two teams Donald, Okay, let me.

Just get through.

Let's just get these last two guys pick because I'm already four minutes late from of the sixth grade.

Let's go. Uh, I'll go. You already went Levis, So he's gone, Oh my gosh, you have the Broncos and the Raiders next. So we said thirty two teams have to be covered. Okay, so those only the only ones. Those are the only two teams left yet.

Okay, Uh, I'll go Bix.

Then give me bon X. Yeah, and why not a O'Connell A little pretty. I'm going to O'Connell DeVante Adams favorite quarterback. Apparently he seems to really like a O'Connell as fourth round rookies go. He uh he outplayed the number one over I'll pick give him credit for that, you know.

Yeah, no, he diced up the Chargers. I was there for that one, all right, for making you late? Yeah, finally, yeah, I will offer you a two for one. I will give you, uh Donald and who are some and Daniel Jones for.

I'll take I'll take Donald and Levis. I'll take Donald and Levis for Gino. All right, You're that's done. That's why you're a future GM. This guy is so good he's still I'm just arming, pitched soaping and freaking maya mayonnaise. Man, that's all I'm here for these.

Stiff arming job offers left and right, just to read read ads with us. I appreciate you have fun in Alaska and yeah, I hope to get you back on NFL daily.

Uh.

On the other side when when you're nice and rested, da Djudy, All right, thank you again to Daniel Jeremiah off to tape another podcast and he's off to Alaska. Hope to get him on during the rest of the season. Stay tuned for our last show the week. Really excited about this one with Nick Chook on Friday. Till then d next time.