NFL: Move the Sticks with Daniel Jeremiah & Bucky BrooksDaniel Jeremiah, Bucky Brooks and Rhett Lewis are back together to recap all the action from the 2024 NFL Draft in a new episode of Move the Sticks. To start off, the guys give their overall takeaways from the draft (:22). Next, the trio go through the top 10 picks of the draft (8:52). After, the crew do a deep dive on the Falcons' surprising pick of Washington quarterback Michael Penix Jr. with their 8th overall pick (24:23). Then, DJ lists his top 5 draft classes (39:27). To wrap up the show, the trio give their final thoughts (47:56).
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And now move the sticks with Daniel Jeremiah and Bucky Brooks. What's up, everybody. Welcome to move the sticks, DJ, Bucky, Rhett as we get our recap in little draft recap in guys, Buck, start with you. How we doing man?
Good?
Djay, A great job by you and the crew on the ground in Detroit. Rett and I held it down with a few of the other guys. It was a long, exhausting weekend, but it was one It was really compelling, made for really good TV in terms of just watching a the offensive centric draft go the quarterbacks go in the top twelve, and then just watching some teams take advantage of the Blue Chippers falling down the charts because it was such a runal offensive players and quarterbacks early.
What'd you think, Rep, Yeah, I think yeah, I've had that kind of question, you know, as as we all kind of you know, assessed with our different platforms in the way in which we're talking about the draft, like that was kind of the question, you know, it was like, all right, it is it a state of you know, the way football is being played these days, and that we got so many of the offensive guys, and I'm like, well, if there were. I mean, if there was better defensive players, they would have been taken.
In the top ten.
That's just you know, that's kind of the way it went, you know, And that's that's the way it goes. And you know, the league obviously valued them a little bit lower than everybody else, but that's what happens when you get six qbs and a bunch of offensive linemen.
And then we got the run on receivers as well.
So I love that we actually have some cold hard data points to talk about here after about a million mock drafts and projections.
So let's rock and roll.
Yeah, I want I want to hit buck yet on this one first before we get into all the recap here. But I had a assistant GM of a team first of all. Too one reached out to me literally a couple hours for the draft and said, I think we're going to get six quarterbacks in the first thirteen picks. He was pretty confident about that, which I, okay, interesting that happens. This is crazy. Ended up being six in the first twelve picks. But the second one was after the first round. I was to a GM and I talked to all the time assistant GM. I talked to all the time, and he was like, you know, it's it was really helpful all the conversations we had kind of scrimmaging this stuff out of how this thing could fall and how this thing could go. And I thought back to what I love so much about this platform and what we get to do on Move the Sticks is that we get to we get to, you know, think through all this stuff before it happens. And Buck, I don't know if you thought the same way I did, but as the draft was unfolding, I went, we kind of we kind of nailed this when we did the offense only first round mock draft and Bucky and I we got through. We got through the thirty seven. Yeah, I remember, I got more names. We can keep going. We did the defensive only mock draft and I'm not kidding it with like eighth or ninth pick, and Bucky and I are like, what, oh my gosh, Like we had like Samers still was like he was like the twelfth pick or something like that. Like we just ran it was gone. We're like, man, this is a lopsided draft.
It was a lopside of draft.
And DJ is one of those things because it seems like a silly exercise is to do a one sided draft. But what it does is unless you know where the depth of the talent is. And going through that first round on our offense, man, we just could have ratted off so many more names at the end, and then we get to the defensive drafts and we're pulling guys that I mean we have on our respective sheets is like third and fourth round players. They were now having to put in the first round of a mid draft. So when you get to draft day and you're not even paying attention to the run, right, You're just like, okay, this player at that player, You're like, man, you know what, we haven't had a defensive player picked, you know. And then so you're down to fourteen and fifteen, and now you're like wow. And then you go through it and you talked about it. Twenty three offensive players picked in the first in the first round. And not only that, the other thing that stood out to me DJ was looking at the first round and the positions. We always talk about the premier positions, like what are the premium positions on our team? And so we talked about eight offensive talents to come off the board, right, So that seven wide receivers coming off the board, six quarterbacks, and so we're like.
All right, well, here we go.
We talked about a lead that is about passers, pass protectors, playmakers, and pass rushers.
Like it's all laid out in the way that the.
Draft came off, and so to me, it just continues to talk about the changing dynamics of the league and if you're not up on it, you can get left behind.
Yeah, we had lost rep for a second. I think he's back with us. Rhether, are you up and running over there? Maybe not, because he's not replying here. So I'll take it from here. What's he doing by? What is he doing?
He's just trying to figure it out. He just lost. He's trying to figure out.
I do have more on that, DJ like when it comes to the market positions. So I pulled out the research packet the first three round We always talk about the core players, and so we talked about passes, pass protectors, pass rushers, and playmakers. So eighteen offensive tackles selected in the first three rounds, sixteen wide receivers selected in the first three rounds, fourteen cornerbacks, and eleven edge rushers selected in that span.
And then you saw like ten defensive tackles.
So when you combine the d tackles and the edge rushers, because what we've seen in free agency, because you've talked about this, the pass rushing defensive tackles, you gotta pay a whole lot of money.
For those guys on the open market.
And you're just seeing that those five positions are now the marquee spots that the money is going to, and also where people are putting the investment the draft capital going to those marquee spots.
Yeah, I also think there's just some drafts where you're gonna be light in some other areas. Like I just remember, you know, last year, I was baffled by the fact that you had some teams that had at least a semi tight end need that didn't address it. And I'm like, this is the best tight end draft we've ever had. You're gonna get tight ends in the fifth and sixth round last year and it proved out that are going to be really, really good quality players. And then you flip around to the next year and it's like we fall off a cliff at that position. So to me, being able to identify the strength of a draft and to be able to even get on the back end of that. There's so much value. You're getting so much value and there's you know, no guarantees of what that's going to look like in future drafts. So I thought that was fascinating there, Buck.
I want to bring Red in on this because we'll eventually have the Michael Pennant's conversation. But DJ, you brought up something that made me think about this. So you talked about being able to look ahead. So we've all worked with teams and part of the thing that you do is you know this year's class, but you also know what's coming down the pipe.
I do wanted to run on quarterbacks early.
Is that an indictment on the twenty twenty five quarterback class and maybe what these teams are projecting out A was in twenty twenty five and maybe what's even in twenty twenty six when it comes to signal callers.
Yeah, sure, I mean, like you think about that. You're looking at what Quinn Ewers from Texas. You know, look a kid from Miami. He was kind of thought about going to the league ward and you know there's yeah, yeah, of Corse standards, you know, be a part of that. And now now, I mean, you guys know this, but I've I've heard it from a couple of gms that you bring you bring the scouts back in, you know, a little bit closer to the end of the process, and you start to get their thoughts, you know, preliminary thoughts on the twenty five class because they've already you know, been into that tape a little bit. Right at this point, some of those guys and have kind of a feel been into some of those schools. They've seen, you know, some of these guys play a little bit looking at other prospects. So I mean, you do need to have some context there on what's coming down the pipe coming down the pipeline. Ultimately, you still want the value kind of regardless, but it's good to have an idea at that point.
Yeah, I'll push back on that from the standpoint, and I've had this conversation with the team, and I had this conversation with the general manager, who then had to have this conversation with his owner because it was like, well, it doesn't look like, I mean, this is the year to do it, because the next year and then while you guys are having that discussion. I went back through and pulled it up, like I mean, you can go back through the ears. Jayden Daniels this year, perfect example. Nobody talked about it.
Yeah. J J.
McCarthy before the year, nobody was talking about him like this. Anthony rich Burrow, Yeah, Anthony Richardson the year before this. Yeah, Joe Burrow, you just mentioned. You can go back through obviously, Zach Wilson, Trey Lance, you know, Joe Burrow. You mentioned Jalen Hurt's going as high as he did, you know, Daniel Jones, Like we can go Baker Mayfield being the first pick. Like every year these guys pop up. There's gonna be quarterbacks every year at some point time. Every now and then, you're gonna run into the Kenny Pickett year where like you know, or the the oh my gosh, why am I going to draw Geno Smith here? J Manuel. That's what I was thinking of, like that year where those are going to happen. But those are rare. Those are like once every seven eight years. But we'll get I want to get to the Atlanta think in a minute, but we'll get there. Everybody's been buzzing, but I think it's easily the most discussed UH pick of the draft and decision and the philosophy around it, and we can delve all into that, but I do want to start up at the very top and just kind of unloads stuff that you know, when the draft's going much time to get all that stuff out, and there's some stuff that we gather that you know, you don't share, and then you're waiting until the draft comes. Then we can kind of let some of that stuff out of the bag here. But so Caleb goes one. We talked a bunch about that decision been made forever put that one to bed. The first decision of the draft was two with Washington, and I had a chance to talk with Adam Peters about what he liked about Jayden Daniels a day or two before the draft, and I said, I'll trying to kind of go through a couple of these guys. And so when we got to Jade and Daniels, some of the things that he said that I thought I found fascinating was one of the things he mentioned was like it hasn't been easy for him, and that's a good thing. He's like he's had to go through the grind. He said, he's earned every single thing that he's gotten. And you know, being at the facility every day at five am, the fact that receivers then started coming in with him at five am, Like, you've earned it, You've shown the work ethic to be able to grind through this thing. Like all that stuff. He's like, he's not the loudest guy in the world, is not gonna be the loudest guy in the room, but his work ethic is so off the charts that everybody else kind of falls in line with him from that standpoint. I don't know how many people you know, knew that about him or appreciated that about him, which I thought was fascinating. Then when we got to the UH, when we got to talking about him as a player, I asked him, I said, what did you learn? What did you learn most about Purty? Like hitting you guys obviously hit on Purty And what was the lesson you took away from that? And he said, at the end of the day, like who quarterbacks the best? He was like like in quarterbacking, meaning in the pocket on time, getting through progressions, getting you out, you know, getting you in the right play call, making the right checks, protecting the football understanding down in distance, like all those factors, you know, the clock, all that stuff, like there's that's quarterbacking. You know, it's not just throwing, it's not just running, it's not being an athlete. It's actually quarterbacking. He said, we learned with Party. Party was really good at quarterback. And then he also had the ability to make a man miss if necessary a few times a game. And enough athleticism. We've talked about that a lot on here. Just enough if you're gonna give him some free yards, he take it, and enough where you can escape and make some plays. But the gist of it was quarterbacking, and they felt like just him doing the quarterbacking stuff that they were in love with. And then you combine that with and this is exact phrase that he used, there's something about being able to in one play with your legs or your arm, the ability to flip a field. He's like the explosives like he can give you in the NFL. It's so hard to string together drives. He can flip the field in one play with his arm or with his legs.
Bucket.
Okay, So there's so much good stuff to Adam share with you about Jayden Daniers. I will say this like going all the way back to his time at Arizona State. When he left Arizona State, I talked to people that were on the staff there, and no one expected him to become what he became at LSU. Like it was almost like like not quite a good riddance, but kind of like a shoulder shrug when he left. So then he goes to LSU and when he picked LSUDJ. I'll be the first to admit having known Jayden from watching him at the LAD eleven. I was like, man, I don't know what this marriage is gonna be like with him and Brian Kelly.
We all know Brian Kelly. We all like Brian Kelly, but Brian Kelly coaches hard, and I was like, man, I don't know if he can do it.
And Jayden not only voluntarily went there, he went there to win a job, stayed.
There, and then he eventually flourished.
So what that told me is, oh, this is a guy that you can put anywhere. He can deal with any type of coaching and find a way to get to the other side. Then you hear the reports about him coming in at five am. How the receivers and teammates liked him and loved him, something that was completely counter to what you heard at Arizona State. Then you begin to think, like, hey, man, this guy is a little different. I talked to him over the summer at an event, and he has a maturity about him. And I know people knock some of these quarterbacks on their ab because of the transfers, but DJ at that position when Adam talks about quarterbacking, it takes some experience and some maturity in my mind to get to that point where you can handle all of that and keep everybody on the same page. So it is interesting that Adam Peters and the commanders really raved about those parts of Jayden Daniels.
And I'm also kind of interested guys in DJ.
I don't know if you had any you know, intel on this, but how the Patriots then viewed kind of the flip side right for Drake May who had been through some hard stuff this last year, but man had really you know, passed with flying colors in twenty twenty two, and then kind of got the flip side of the Daniels Burrow bump right.
Yeah, to me, interesting things on that the efforts made there were substantial to get that pick. So I know it had been put out there that New England. I mean they hadn't They didn't feel like they had a serious offer that would you know that they would contemplate moving with the third pick. They were not trading the third pick in hindsight, because the offers that I know of that got sent in there were very substantial at the end, like it was a lot a like a massive overpay in terms of the chart, like lots lots lots of good stuff. It wasn't a combination of second third round picks, let's just put it that way. And they stuck in and were able to pick there. And one of the things to me that that was telling there was I think, not only do they love you know the you know, the size, the athleticism, the tools, all that stuff, which to me matches the division.
Right.
We talked about building your team to match your city, to match your division. That's that's division that's run by Josh Allen. It's a you're playing in some cold weather there with the Jets and the Bills, and obviously playing your games in Foxboro, big rugged, physical guy, so you've got all that stuff. But I also think that going in there, in the juice and the energy that he brought, I think I think that sold them, like you know, like that was kind of the tipping point there. If we're kind of a defensive team right now and offense and searching in search of an identity, I think where and not a shot at Mac. But I think Mac could bring kind of some of the bravado and the confidence, but didn't necessarily have the tools behind the bravado and the confidence to match, if that makes If that makes any sense to whereas I think Drake has all that stuff and then he is like it just it just oozes with energy and juice and passion and excitement, but not in a turn you off kind of way, kind of more into like this guy, this guy loves ball is a ball of energy.
So I think a lot of the stuff that helps Drake is his basketball background, right so growing up in it, Luke doing it, his brother Bo doing it, like his dad was a three sports standout in high school.
He's been around it. In fact, his dad started.
His granddad is affiliated with a Charlotte Sonics, an AAU programmed that had Jeff McInnis and Jays and all those guys come through when my dad had AAU team facing him in the finals all the time. And what I can say is, when you've been on that AAU circuit or you've been in that basketball world, you got to be able to connect with a lot of different personalities. So when I see Drake show up to the press conference with his brothers and his girlfriend and he talked about when you get me, you get them.
To me, that was like everything.
And then Redd had talked about the messages that his brothers left on this stuff. To me, I think he just has it like and I don't know if anyone you guys heard about him playing four on four the night before the draft up in Detroit. His buddy's getting there. To me, DJ, that is what it's about. The Carolina people just talk about how he's just that guy. He just has that infectious personality where you just want to be around them. And I just think about when he came on the podcast and he's yes, sir, no, sir, all that, which is great, But his ability to connect with his teammates. We always talk about quarterback being uh like a leadership position, but it's one where you got to connect. It's one thing to lead. It's another thing you got to connect to really leave people. He has that, and I think when Elliott Wolf talked about he was the only quarterback who showed up each and every week at the podium win or loss, speaks to his his his leadership ability, and his professionalism and maturity that that is significant.
There's some self awareness there too. There's some loyalty there too. We know the potential offers that he was given to leave you and see and go to an even bigger, you know, program, and then oh wha, wha.
Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa whoa. We're talking about bigger. You can talk about bigger.
Sorry, better, stay better, stay better, wealthier, Okay, all.
Right, yeah that's it.
No, but yeah, look and I remember talking to him in the summer and and just kind of being like, hey man, you've been a big man on campus now since you know, the last couple of months, since this season, and you know, people are already talking about you being you know, number one, number two pick in the draft, Like do you get any time to kind of be a student and you enjoy He's like, not really, that's all right. Living my brother, Like we talk ball all the time. We play ball all the time, like it's all about ball for me. And so you combine that with the tools, obviously, which are pretty important prerequisite, and you feel good about a face of the franchise that you're getting here, which is also part of the equation.
No doubt. Let's get through a couple more of these picks and we'll kind of get through the top ten. Then we'll go have some big picture teams that we liked and such. Quickly. Four said it at the time, there's a time for quantity, then there's a time for quality, and Buck always uses this line when we're talking about championship teams. At the end of the day, you're still going to need those eight to twelve Blues. You got to have the blue chip players. You win championships in this league by having a core group of elite players. The Cardinals is starting to establish a little bit of roster depth. They had all these extra picks, They're able to get more depth. They needed blue chip players. There was no way they could get cute and trade off of Marvin Harrison Junior. You got a blue chip player at a valuable position, and it's a need for your roster stick and pick. They took him number five the the charters. Then I'll get you guys thoughts on these. Ripped through these real quick. We told everybody that had ears to listen for months and months and months. This is not there. We're not trying to fake you out. They're Jim Harbaughs, not not trying to create a diversion. From every time he got before a microphone, whether it was at his introductory press conference, the Combine owners meetings, pre draft conference call, all the guy talked about was offensive line and running the football and protecting Justin Herbert. It was not a smoke screen. This is meat and potatoes. This is steak and milk.
Like.
This is not a guy who's trying to trick anybody. This is exactly who we are, is exactly.
What we do.
I'd said it on the we said it on here before, and I said on the draft, this is him going to Stanford and saying Oregon and USC and all the high flying stuff. That's great. I'll go I'm not chasing five star receivers. I'm not chasing five star dbs. I'm gonna go sign every offensive lineman and tight end that I can possibly find and We're going to run it down your throats like that is his core philosophy. Did the same thing with Ohio State. It took a while to get there, but that's eventually what he got to and they ended up beating him up, so that was not a surprise. And then at six we had said through the whole process, I don't believe that they are a JJ McCarthy team. They are a Drake May team. They're gonna try like crazy to get from six to three. If they can't get Drake May, I think they're gonna be comfortable. And it's not just with Daniel Jones. I believe Drew Locke. He's got a really good shot of winning that job. He's going to be in the mix there. So they were comparing, you know, Daniel Jones and Drew Locke, and I would emphasis on Drew Locke to the quarterbacks that were going to be there, and I think the line for them was Drake May. After that, they weren't taking that, And I thought the Minnesota Vikings were smart and correctly reading that situation and not mortgaging to go up and get JJ McCarthy. They held their water, paid a little and sh urrants to get it up one spot at ten and ended up getting them. So those are my thoughts on kind of you know those top six six picks and obviously seven once we got to the Titans, they were going to take one of the top two tackles. That wasn't a mystery either.
So two things with both of the teams, well, two of the teams that you mentioned. One with the Chargers, charge Daman true to the identity Jim Harbough telegraphs that he said, this is what it's going to be now with Tennessee Titans. We all know Rank Carthon right. Ran Carthon is a believer in physicality and toughness, and even though they brought Brian Callahan in and the things that they did in Cincinnati, Ran Carthon stayed true to what he believes.
Wins football, and that is at the line of scrimmage.
We talked about being able to get an offensive tackle early, coming back later, getting the defensive tackle up front, to be able to bully people.
That is how the Tennessee Titans want to do it.
Because as much as we want to build it around Will Levis and allow him to do his thing, at some point, the best way to protect him is a really good offensive line and a really good defense that shrinks the game and doesn't put so much on them. So teams that were trying to stay I would say true to the brand to me that stood out in the top.
Ten, Yeah, I'd say that.
And then I'd say a theme that we kind of watched throughout the draft, especially for the teams that took quarterbacks in the first round. The first twelve picks went out and supported their quarterbacks later on. None bigger and better than the Chicago Bears, who after all the talk, maybe it's a tackle, maybe it's an edge. No, no, no, no, no, it's a wide receiver. We're going to put this dude in the best possible situation to succeed better than we've seen a number one pick at quarterback get dropped into.
I don't know in recent history, did you.
I can't think of another one that's gone one overall and it's been in a better spot with talent around him than Caleb Williams, especially after the Roman Dunes A.
Peck Yeah no, And then we would scream that form the mountaintops, I kept hearing edge rusher, edge rusher, this will be a tackle or this will be a wide receiver. But I was happy to see him get a Dune's that I always text with the buddy in that personnel apartments, santamas Is. Look, it's my opinion. Take it, leave it whatever it's worth. But it's my favorite kid in the draft. I mean, you just throw him in there, and someone who's gonna get a master's class in route running from Keenan Allen every day at practice. It's like you couldn't have a better set up for him. I'm gonna get we'll circle back that. We're gonna take a break after ten. We'll circle back to eight because I know we've got something to chew on there. But then you get to ten. Obviously, you know we mentioned Minnesota. They get JJ McCarthy, they trade up their one spot. The Jets trade back one spot. They had the you know with the receivers gone and off the board. I thought that made their decision easy. It's it's a tackle, it's insurance. And then even if even if if he doesn't win the starting job, which I don't anticipate for Sean and will I mean have a chance to I guess he will compete with Morgan Moses potentially at right tackle, but really he's gonna he's gonna rep every day in practice. Tern Smith doesn't practice, so you're gonna play left tackle every day in practice, get all those reps, useful reps, and then eventually, you know, I hope it doesn't happen, but the track record is what it is that eventually one of those thirty three year olds is going to break down and then he'll he'll be the insurance that can get on the field there. But I thought that was their decision there for them to make at that point in time. Let's take a quick break, guys, because I wanted, I know we all want to get some bites at the apple here at picking them break with Michael Pennock's the surprise pick of the draft, going to the Atlanta Falcons. We'll get to that right after this, all right, Buck, I have not had a chance to hear your thoughts on this. Rhett as well, we haven't had a chance to visit. We've been running around like crazy, So I want to get your guys thoughts on this thing. So Bucky, why don't you go first here with Michael Pennox going to the Falcons at.
Eight Okay, So I'm gonna say exactly what I said on TV. Good plan, questionable execution, good plan, and the means of a I am all about the quarterback and making sure that we have a quarterback that can play. Regardless of the amount of money paid to Kirk Cousins, it is always good business they have a backup quarterback or a young quarter back in the hopper that can eventually take over. I would say the questionable execution would be okay if we really thought this was going to be a possibility, and we had to know this because free agency happened after the combine, so we had an opportunity.
To meet and see all the young quarterbacks out there.
I don't know if we had to go and get the most expensive free agent quarterback on the market to do it.
I'm just saying it like so.
And I know we can talk about salary cap percentage and forty five million is and what it used to be based on how much it escalated, But what you did and going and get Kirk Cousins and then coming to get Michael Pennix, it just appears that you just don't know what your original plan was. And so I come from the green Bay school of Hey, you get a quarterback, you have somebody. You always have somebody ready. This though, is just different because the execution of the plan was so drastically different than any other plan that we've seen when it comes to having a secession plan in place. Tom Brady was not a top ten pick to back up, you know, Drew Bledsoe. And then even with Tom Brady was there and they got quarterbacks, they didn't quarterbacks in the first round. Now, I like Michael Pennix the player, and I like Kirk Cousins the player. I'm just saying, because this is so drastically different than anything that we've seen, it just takes us a while to get comfortable with the notion that you spent premier money to acquire free agent quarterback and premier draft capital to get a quarterback. Even though I support the plan, the execution, to me, is the question mark that everyone has to answer.
Yeah, look, I think I think I can kind of see this from both sides of the coin, and if that makes if that makes any sense, like I kind of understand the logic to have some a need and a want for quarterback continuity. I gotta tell you, man, it takes some guts, like if you're Terry font though, because you know, this is a guy we weren't quite sure was still going to be there to make this head coaching higher and be a part of that search this year after the way things had gone the last three years, and now if you're talking four or five years down the road, like, I don't know if you get that much patience in this league anymore. And so I think it takes some guts to pull the trigger on a pick like that. And so I'll have tip to that. And then look, you know, especially for a defensive minded head coach and Raheem Morris, and that's obviously the place that we had been going. It's clear the league valued the defense a little bit lower down the board, and I think we kind of saw that manifest itself. I'd really be curious to see where Michael Pennix was on that board, you know, and whether the receivers, whether the offensive lineman you know, we're all really close up there, or whether he was you know, that blinking light that we talk about at the top of the board. I understand it. And look, I know the guaranteed money DJ with Cousins, is you know, two years of guarantees essentially is where we're at. And so would it really be that egregious if you don't see Penny until year three. The weird part is he feels like an NFL ready, dude. You know that's the part that feels a little odd to me.
Okay, this makes no sense to me whatsoever, none Like it made little sense to me when it happened, and honestly, hearing all the reasons of why it makes sense, it makes less sense to me after having had time to digest this. And I'll lay out a couple of reasons for you here. Tell me that all start with the first point here, Bucky, you mentioned it. You have all of the college football season, you have the run up to the Combine, the Combine, you get a chance to visit with these guys. No, not to mention the guy played in the Senior Bowl as well. So we've got a college season, We've got the Senior Bowl with the quarterbacks looking at them there. Then you've got the Combine. You know that who's picking in front of you. You know the number of picks at any point in time, any point in time through this process was Michael Pennix ever talked about being concerned that he would be gone before they would have picked at number eight. Never, not once was that discussed that he would be gone to that point in time. So if you were so in love with that, it would have been easy for you to say, Okay, we'll keep the forty million dollars or we're going to pay Kirk Cousins one hundred million dollars, whatever the number is, the guarantees, and we'll just be aggressive in this deep quarterback class. We like all these guys, and we like Pennix. We'll either get him there or we'll have to do it. We do, we'll move up and get him, but let's get a placeholder in free agency, and you know, we can get one of these mid tier guys, but you went and got the guy at the very tippy top of the market. So that's the first part of it that doesn't make any sense to me. But here's the next part. This They went out and used as their explanation for this pick as the model for green Bay, and I've heard that from a bunch of people say and using that as as the model, this is not even close to the same model. Brett Farv had been in Green Bay for over a decade, Brett Favre had won a Super Bowl. Brett Favi had won MVPs. Brett Farv had the locker room. Brett Farv had the city, he had the fans, he had everyone and behind him. Aaron Rodgers, over a decade in Green Bay, won a Super Bowl, had this. They all know how good this guy is. He's got equity out the wazoo, within the city, the organization, in the locker room. You give Kirk Cousins all this money, but Kirk Cousins has zero equity with his teammates. He probably hadn't even met half of his teammates. He has zero equity in the city. And now you just backstopped him with a top ten pick. The first bad game, maybe it's the first bad throw. You're gonna have the entire city clamoring for the guy behind him. And how is Kirk Cousins gonna feel like he's got No, he hasn't built up anything, any kind of equity to be able to say like, who cares, I've already done what I've done. All of his accomplishments are They're numerous in terms of individually, none of them in Atlanta. So that's totally apples to oranges and puts him in a rough spot where the pressure like there's there's a difference between motivation, like you pissed off Aaron Rodgers and you got two MVPs out of him. There's difference between being pissed off and then being also uncomfortable, like you are making him in a very pressurized like. I don't think Aaron Rodgers felt pressure. I think Aaron Rodgers was upset, whereas Kirk Cousins is going to feel a tremendous amount of pressure. Oh, by the way, go ahead and learn a new offense, and learn your new teammates and try and figure all that stuff out, and then now you've got it. Just that to me, it sets up for what could be a real, you know, tender box there that could explode. And then the other argument that I'll push back on, which was, well, we're such a good team, we'll never be picking up here again, so we better get our quarterback. And I say, well, you can't have both things, Like you can't say that we don't want to have a drop off from Kirk Cousins before we get the next guy. But then we also we're never going to be picking this high. Those those two things compete against one another. In other words, kirk Cousins plays great for two years and then maybe kirk Cousins starts to dip. Well, once kirk Cousins starts to dip, you are going to be picking that high. And you would have an opportunity to pick a quarterback. And oh, by the way, if you pick the quarterback two to three years from now, you'll get the full four or five year benefit of having a cheap starting quarterback to be able to fill out the rest of your roster. You're foregoing that now at this pace. By the time he gets on the field, you're gonna get one or two years of that benefit of having a cheap quarterback.
That is it. Yeah.
The only way I can kind of like scrimmage is out is they must have had such an astronomical grade on Michael Pennix that they were forced to do it if they were going to retain their credibility within the room.
With the scouts. Like, that's the only way that I could see it.
Are they so late to that evaluation?
Bucky working to go whatever we gotta do?
Four four would have traded out five would have traded out both those like if you don't know, I don't.
Know, because like if we if we go by the normal timeline that we use when it comes to scouting, they should have known that he was going to be in play for them based on all of the stuff that was done ahead of the combine, because the combine happens before a free agency, after you met with him, after you to work out. If you watch him at the Senior Bowl, after you've done all of this tape, you should have had a great awades. It's like, whoa, this guy's gonna come in with I mean, I'll just throw a mythical grade. He's gonna come in at seven four, like he is at the top of the charte, like we we love him.
We got to have.
Him to go through all of that and to go and get the top free agent. And this isn't even the same example, because I've heard Pete Carroll talk about this when they got Matt Flynn, but then they took Russell Wilson.
He was like the cost of money deals.
I know that number, no, no, no, but I'm just saying, but at the time he was like the cost of doing business and free agency cannot impact who eventually plays in what you do in the draft. So when it comes to Kirk Cousins, that's not true because Kirk Cousins has to play and DJ, let's just talk about the dynamics of the city and let's talk about the dynamics of the team. So now you have Kirk Cousins, an older quarterback coming into the locker room. You got all these young playmakers and Bijon Robinson and Drake London.
And Kyle Pitts and all that.
Michael Pennix, a younger player, walks into that room, it's gonna be different the connectivity. While they may respect Kirk Cousins, they're gonna hang with Michael Pennix and so what can happen. The chemistry and connectivity could be vastly different. And so for Kirk Cousins, you talk about the pressure and we haven't even talked about the elephant in the room. The pressure is on him coming off of an achilles. So now Kirk Cousins, when he's practicing, if he feels a twinge or anything like, he can't just say, oh, all of a sudden, this went out this and that, Like if he gives the ball to Michael Pennix, he may never get the ball back, you know.
And so that's the thing we all know.
In many camps or whatever, it's just a different it's just a different animal.
And I like Michael Pennix, and I think I was lobbying. I was getting crucified for saying I thought the Raiders should have taken Michael Pennox if he was there, And I kept putting him there and people saying, there's no, he's a second round player, you can't take him there. I'm like, nah, he's better than all the quarterbacks that they have, well Kirk Cousins, and you can ask Kevin O'Connell about this, but like he felt like he was on his way to be an MVP last year. If he doesn't get hurt like he was putting up huge numbers, I think that's a different quarterback room he's going into there than he would have been going into to the Raiders. But I want to be careful because I do want to let you know, like i'd like Michael Pennix, this is not a pro Cousins anti Penix. This is just I just didn't understand like you could have done one you could have done. President could have done Yeah, you could have done Cousins all in on Cousins, or you could have said, we're gonna wait and we're gonna go Pinick and we're alling on Pinis. I think either one of those are plans I can get behind. I can be excited about. I think the two of them combined together that that's when I just don't have hard time just figuring that one out.
Okay, so give me this. How could they ever make it right?
Like, how could we look back at this decision in three or four years and say that the Atlanta Falcons got it right by doing it the way that they did it.
I would say that almost the same thing kind of happens is like, you know, Cousins starts off the year on an absolute tear and God forbid, but something happens and then bam, Michael Penix comes in and they still go to the postseason and win, you know, win a couple of games, and like they don't have any they don't have the quote unquote drop off that they've been trying to avoid, whether that happens year one or year two, like but uh, you know, or that's the only scenario where I can see you like where you're like, oh, thank god we did that right, thank god we get thank god we got Penix when we still had had Cousins rolling and playing really well.
Yeah.
And the last thing you don't wish that up on any No, of course not.
And I hope that look the perfect world is Kirk Cousins plays an unbelievable high level for two years and then Michael Pennix takes the baton and it's just the Super Bowl smooth ride, and then Michael Pennox is your quarterback for the next day. And I think that's what people have been championing, is this is the plan. You're perfect two years or two of Cousins and then off to the Michael PENNOCKX era. I'm just telling you it doesn't always go that smoothly, and it could be a tough situation for a lot of people. And you nailed it with the young guys because I and this is different from the standpoint even with Carson Wentz and Hurts, because people could look at it and say, well, aren't they glad they took Hurts because that worked out? And yes it did. But Carson had already established himself there had you know, was on his way to an MVP before he got hurt. They won a Super Bowl and blah blah blah blah blah. So even that, you know, it was that was a situation in Philadelphia. You remember that all the young guys had all those young receivers, and they all went towards towards Hurts, which means picking Hurts wasn't the wrong thing. In hindsight, maybe you shouldn't have paid Carson Wentz, which is what we could be saying, you know a year from now, is like, hey, look, Pennix has done great and he's taken over and he's won the job. Well, then that's awesome, But then man, you way overpaid. You shouldn't have done what you did with Kirk Cousins. Like that's why I'm getting that. It's like it's hard for both of these to be right, Like it's gonna be one or the other.
It'd be fascinating.
What they've done is they've created a conversation around the team that will never go away. It won't go away. It's not gonna go away for the next three or four years. So Rahiem Terry Fino.
They have to as long as Kirk's there.
Yeah, yeah, they have to be comfortable living in the white noise. And even when Kirk isn't there, then all the pressures on Michael Pennix to do it, because now he has to justify and validate why he was selected eight and why they felt compelled to op for another quarterback as opposed to the quote unquote weapon to help Kirk Cousins. It just creates a conversation and a narrative that will not go away. And so they play, and they have to play really well.
So many layers to it. I mean, we could literally do hours and hours of all the different layers because we haven't even talked about the fact that we always talk about here. Once you've paid the quarterback, you have to maximize your dollars. And the value of a top ten pick is you get a premium player at a premium position for dirt cheap, which then you can use that savings instead of having to pay a pass rusher twenty five million a year at a premier price, I can get a premier pass rusher and I'm paying him eight million dollars a year. Now I've got all that extra money that I can dive you up around the rest of my roster. Well that's gone. They just put more money into the quarterback room there. So there's a million, a million levels to it. But who knows, you know, maybe this will maybe we'll all look back on it and it was the you know, I want to go down as one of the smartest moves in uh AN off season history here and uh and and all. At least I would have to apologize at that point in time.
New trend I have What's that?
Was that right?
I didn't hear you.
I just said it would be a new trend, A new trend, yes, yeah.
Yes, yes, a new trend that has been set in place. So here's here's my uh here's my draft post draft analysis request. I know draft grades, they do, huge clicks. Every every place does them. I've had to do in the past. I know. I'm sure Buck you've had to do them. I don't know if we'rett you've ever had to go down that path. I'm sure you guys are. You might be doing one path to the draft this week. Get them today, baby, it's the worst. Uh So in lieu of that, how much more sense does this make? So instead of just pulling a letter grade out of your backside. How about what Jack, our buddy Jack Andraid has done in research. At least for me personally, I have my top one hundred and fifty players. So he goes through and he puts a point value to it. The number one player on my board is worth one hundred and fifty points. The number one hundred and fifty player on my board is worth one point. So instead of me guessing and throwing an arbitrary grade out there, he literally tells me the teams that have the most total points in terms of who got the most value and through the draft. So for me this year, it was the Cardinals, followed by the Commanders, the Steelers, the Bills, and the Eagles. So based off of my opinion, that's not like me guessing. Those are actually the numbers that are represented there, at least in my personal opinion. When I get asked who I thought had the best draft, I can confidently say, well, the Cardinals, the Commanders, the Steelers, the Bills, and the Eagles. Those are my top five drafts.
I mean, so you already talked about You already talked about the Cardinals. But let's talk about the Steelers, right, and the Stillers, we all have ties in that build. I will say this, DJ, there is something about a team that drafts to the brand. And I feel like there were a couple of years but the Stellers didn't necessarily draft to the brand.
They're all the way back now.
The one thing that shows up in all the players that they took, there's an innate toughness and physicality that shows up in all of the games, even Roman Wilson.
They play tough, hard nosed ball.
They fit in and everything that you see on tape, I can look. I can watch the tape and I can hear Mike Tomlin's voice talking about what he believes in when it comes to it. So when those things match up, that's when the really good stuff happens. So the Pittsburgh still is being back on track. You talk about the three offensive linemen that they took, McCormick, Fraser, and Fontana. Yeah, that that all works, and then Peyton Wilson. Look, look, I'm a favorite of like all of that stuff just kinds of work. I can just see the Stillers being back on track because they drafted guys that fit the brand.
I yeah, I love it. Let me it was third on my list, Rhett. But then if you were going to say who gets the bonus points for the identity the Steelers, I mean that's they tapped into who they are in a big way.
Yeah, one hundred percent.
I'll double down on that, and I'll give you one other team from beyond your list that I liked. So with the Steelers, you know, starting to kind of notice a trend there because we were sitting there on the draft broadcast, we were showing Zach Frazier absolutely mashing dudes's face into the mat on the wrestling mat.
Right.
Then they come back and they get Peyton Wilson, also a champion wrestler, and then in the sixth round.
This, okay, let me take it back.
So it was texting with with somebody in that building after they made the Wilson pick. I was like, yeah, you guys can install wrestling that in the middle of the locker room and watch these two guys get after it. And they were like, yeah, go all the way back to last year with Keanu Benten and they were like, it's something we value. And then they come back and get Logan Lee, a two time high school state champion wrestler in the state of Iowa.
In the sixth round. They're gonna have a been battle Royale in there each and every week during practice.
I'm like this, so we talk about basketball and other sports making a difference with the Steelers. Like that toughness, that blue collar mentality both mentally and physically comes to play with how they want this team to look. So I love that, and I love the way that they kind of followed their blueprint the Rams. Rams hadn't had a first round pick in almost a decade, right since twenty sixteen. They come on the clock, patiently, sit and they get you know, arguably, you know, one of.
The best edge rushers in this class, right.
You know, there's some camps like our buddy Lanzerlin had Jared Versus his fifth overall player.
Loved Jared verse Obviously the Rams did as well.
They took him at nineteen, and I love that they get to come back in the second round and take his teammate Braydon Fisk, both of whom transferred into Florida State for smaller programs, excelled at the higher level of competition, played really well together, and now get to do it.
But the best part of about it. DJ is.
They tried to get Jared Verse to make the call to Braden Fists to say that he was going to be a RAM, but he gets just look in LA and traffic and so he just was pretty slick.
And else. I love Blake Korum fits what they do. I loved it all.
Yeah, No, they did a great job man. I would also add I was having a conversation with Howie Roseman and we were talking about just the different philosophies and strategies when you're approaching the draft, and I remember saying, look, there's different ways to look at it. You can spread all your resources around, or you can identify what is our biggest problem and ferociously attack it and say we're going to attack our greatest weakness and we're going to solve that. Now we got other not like there other aren't other problems elsewhere. We got to try and sort that out. But take them, take a ton of resources and eliminate your biggest weakness and their biggest weakness. We would all agree. You can look at all the numbers into it was their secondary and they were not good against the pass last year. So you go out and you get the other choice. They got the top corner in the draft and quenya On Mitchell was you know, they either could have taken him or Terry Arnold. Terry Arnold, I don't think there was a wrong decision. I think terry On was nine overall from me, Mitchell was twelve. So and I both elite players, elite competitors, elite makeup all that stuff. So they get that and then they come back as you start to see Cooper Dejeene start to slide a little bit, and they're armed with those second round picks and they just get aggressive and go up and get them. So now you go from a secondary that's a major issue to now you bring back Chauncey Gardner Johnson, who's fit in well with with your team, was great for them previously. Now I've got Cooper Degene who can play in the nickel and be your big Nichols, an excellent tackler as well. And now on the outside of at Quoanya Mitchell, they just freaking attacked their biggest weakness and just like that, I think they not only turn it from not being a weakness. I think you can make his case if they've got it's a strength like this is a This turned out to be a really really good secondary now.
And DJ in essence, what they did is some some of the strategies that we talked about. You double down position. To me, you just don't get one player, you get multiple players. And even though we can project Cooper Jjen as a nickel, he also can play corners, so you get two DB's and then they came back and got a safety as well to go and attack it. But we've seen the Eagles do this before, like going all the way back when they did Leadership Shepherd and Sheeann Brown and all those other guys like they have done this in the past. So pass off to them for being really really aggressive and doing that. And the other thing that the Eagles tend to do, they tend to do it while they still have veterans in place that can play. So having Darius Slay still around to be able to mentor and kind of teach quinnyon Mitchell to me is important. We won't talk about this because it's not a draft thing, but I thought it was very creative and slick that they signed Makai Becton kind of slide him in to the thing, because.
That seems like that's another Eagles type move, and then we'll look at.
Awe if he plays really really well, Like some teams just get it, interpeers that the field, thephy Eagles just get it.
When it comes to putting together a roster.
Yeah, and if I was an offensive lineman he needed to rehab, I would go to Jeff Stoutlin. So just as if you know, I was asked by somebody who had options. I don't even know how it ended up. I haven't looked at it, but it was it was an agent who had a you know, was going to have an undrafted quarterback, and he was giving me the long list of teams that they had options for, of which San Francisco was one of them. And I was like, well, yeah, they send him Shanahan, Like that's no question, Like who cares if he makes a team or not. Just touching the coat is going to help him out with him. Yeah, he's gonna he's gonna get valuable instruction there. And then also you have the point that people are like, okay, if he's been touched by him, Like okay, I'll uh, he's got a big tree. Now, Shanahan's got a big tree. And if he's not going enough to make their roster. You can hel him out somewhere else. But yeah, I think to me, you have to know if you are not going to get a starting job, go where they're going to help you. Man, go where they're going to be able to develop you and get you right. So I thought, actually, that was a smart move by McKay Beckton to go to Philly. Anything else to you, guys, we are we're running up against it here at the end of the at the end of the time, reht Buck any other final thoughts.
Here, Yeah, I mean like there were other you know, other teams we kind of mentioned it that double down on, you know, on on position groups. You know, we talked about the Steelers with Fatanu and Fraser, Raiders did it with Jackson Powers Johnson, which you know, we thought was a pretty damn good value for a guy that that could have been a first rounder if things had fallen the right way. And then they come back and get Delmar Glaze after getting brock Bowers in the first round something. I don't think I read a single mock that had brock Bauers going to the to the Raiders at thirteen. But what a damn good player that's going to be for him to utilize. So I think about little like things that we didn't necessarily see projected anywhere as always kind of fun nuggets to see how it ended up that that That was something.
I think the wide receivers at the bottom of the first round were intriguing in terms of where they went. One that's most intriguing to me. I think people are using the incorrect cop when they talk about Xavier Worthy going with Andy Reid. They keep throwing up Tybreek Hill. But I want them to think about DeShawn Jackson in Philadelphia and how and how Andy Reid used DeShawn Jackson, DeShawn Jackson being a pump returner and exposive playmaker and just the amount of plays that DeShawn Jackson made in Philadelphia for Andy Reid. I think that's more the comparison. Then, oh, he's gonna do with Tyreek Hill? Did different style player more similar to DeShawn.
Jackson as a vertical threat to playmaker.
Yep, that was fun. And then I also thought it was interesting with some of the fits we thought for players in the first round, if they didn't go that route, it was interesting to see them get a similar effects simile of the player later on, like the Falcons. We thought maybe they take Murphy the DT from Texas. Well they don't. Then they end up getting Dorless, you know, I think in the third round. Yeah, yeah, well they got a Roal Road then. To me, but a roll ro is not the that's not the Murphy style player. Dorless is that real upfield guy. So they got a little knockoff version of that. We I talked about the forty nine ers trying to get their version of a tank Dell and maybe Xavier Worthy could be their tank Dell. Same offense they running Houston Kyle could really use this toy. Well they don't get tanked del but they end up getting the kid from Arizona and Jacob Cowing who's again undersized flyer receiver. So that to me was always it's always interesting when you have man, I know what, I have a real good feel that they want this type of a player, but they have to decide that they want the premium one or are they willing to go down and take in the same category. But maybe, you know, maybe it's a third or fourth round, a little knockoff version of the same type of player. All Right, guys, this has been fun. We're going to take a little bit of a break here, so we have a little bit of a pause on the podcast. But I do appreciate everybody hanging with us here and appreciate Buck, you and you and RHTT keeping this thing rolling during a real busy, hectic week. So I appreciate all you guys, and I'll hopefully catch up with you guys soon and we'll catch up with the audience here after we take a little pause here, but we if you had a blast. It's been a great draft season. I appreciate you so much, and we'll see you next time right here on Move the Sticks.
