Mock Draft Part III: An Answer for the Raiders, How Steelers Can Avoid Foolishness | NFL Deep Dive

Published Apr 19, 2021, 8:00 AM

The epic Draft Series Quadrilogy reaches the 75% point, as Conor and Gary work through team needs and identify prospects for picks 17 through 25.

It begins with the Raiders, who have found few answers on defense despite trying, but who also tore down their offensive line this offseason. Do they take another swing at the defensive side of the ball, or are they looking to take advantage of an unusually strong O-line class?

Then, the Dolphins get their second crack at Round 1 and a chance to either get a Brian Flores building block or more help for Tua, the Football Team stares down a chance to make Dave Gettleman *really* jealous, the Bears get to address one of their many, many, many roster holes, and the Colts will take a left tackle... or will they?

And would the Steelers really take a running back in Round 1? Conor says he will do something unspecific but definitely gross if they do.

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Hello, and welcome to the mm QB Monday Morning NFL Podcast. I'm your host, Gary Grambling. I am joined by just one co host on this one. Connor Or is here. Jenny Prentis is uh taking the week off. She's going to do some advanced work on part four on the mock Draft series, and Connor and I were just we're just gonna do the two of us on part three. I mean, it was just me and Jennifer. Part one seems only fair at this point. It's it's it feels good after you guys irreparably damage the top eight without my permission to then allow me to go do the same thing to the middle, the middle third of the draft. So I'm very excited about this, so real quick, let me run down the teams we're doing in this one, because it always gets a little dicey because teams, you know, teams have two first round picks that you all know how the draft works, and we're gonna do all thirty two teams. So now we're like moving past pick twenty four. But you'll you'll get it. But uh, in this one, we have Waters Dolphins football Team, Bears, Colts, Titans, Jets, Steelers Jaguars. Let me give you the quick rundown of the first sixteen picks of our mock Again, we do no trades allowed in this mock draft, and we also give them the guys that really they should take. So once again, when you're watching the draft in ten days or so, if your team's pick does not match up with what we have given them in the mock draft, you you are right to be upset because they did not do the right thing. Uh. We are going. Jaguars took Trevor Lawrence, Jets took Zach Wilson forty Niners, Trey Lance, Falcons, Pennay Sewell Bengals Rashawn Slater, Dolphins, Jamaar Chase, Lions, Davante Smith Panthers justin fields. That's right, they still need a quarterback. At nine, the Broncos took Mac Jones Cowboys Patrick Certained the second. Giants took Kyle Pitts. What a steal for the Giants. Dave Gentleman, great work, uh, Eagles. At twelve, Jalen Waddle Chargers take Christian Derrissaw Viking is Jalen Phillips the edge Rusher. Patriots take Micah Parsons and the Cardinals took Caleb Farley, the cornerback from Virginia Tech, and that lands is on the Raiders. And I know you agree with the Connor. The Raiders are just it's it's right on track. They are mistake free for a couple of seasons now. And I mean, do they just they just pass at this point? Do they need a first round pick? Yeah? I mean, if you're Jon Gruden, you've done such a good job to this point in building the roster that, um you could you could take a year off. Can I just add, by the way, that I'm a hundred percent certain that Justin Fields is going to the forty niners. Now this isn't a report, but or Justin Fields or Tray Lance. Yes, uh, it's one of those two. Um, I just have to I just have to say that I think the mac Jones thing is gonna look so silly and about three weeks I agree with you, and we might look incredibly stupid ten days from now, but I agree with you. I think it's gonna be Trey Lance. I wouldn't be shocked by Justin Fields. I still would be shocked, somewhat shocked. I mean, everyone else is thrown out there, so I can't be that shocked, but but still somewhat shocked if they took Mac Jones. It's just it's Kyle Shanahan sees what's going on around the league. He wants one of He wants a guy you can like, you know, run around a little bit and you can make some off platform throws and you can expand your playbook a little bit. I don't think he just wants uh Kirk Cousins Jr. Yeah, And it's funny. I mean, and I do this exercise with a lot of teams when you're building your mock draft, because there are those moments when coaches are unusually candid UM in a press conference and they talk about things that they actually do like and things that they actually do need that they don't have. And there's been two or three times that Kyle Shanahan sat there and said, we need a guy to run the like quarterbacks to run the football. And it's just like, it's crazy to me that that is being so overlooked UM at this point. But UM to spend it four to the Raiders pick. I just think that UM, that theme is universal. John Gruden just happens to do it a lot more than other coaches. And he happens to because he happens to need a lot more things than other coaches because he's not good at what he's doing. Um, but uh, you know there are certainly some breadcrumbs I think, um that he's left out on the trail as well. Well, what what bread crumbs do you refer to? Connor? Can you not see him? Uh? I have UM. I mean again, this entire my appearance on this podcast is just me fighting for the things that I in my own mock draft, So I will just I'm speaking for myself. UM, but I have them taking um Micah Parsons from Penn State and um for the first reason being like couldn't you just see him coming out on draft day and just being like yeah, man, Penn State linebackers, Like that's that's what's going on, Like we need to get tough and you know this guy is a tough guy and Penn State linebackers, um, And then that's what would happen. However, Um, the other side of that coin is like they've been three for three now on first round picks, two for two. I think first round picks for everybody's just like, what was that? Um? Uh so, who knows. But because Parsons would actually seem to make a little bit of sense there he can rush the pass or he's going to be in the middle of that defense. Um. You know, Gus Bradley needs that guy that can get sideline to sideline to do a lot of stuff like that. And I don't think you can run that system without somebody like Parsons, So that to me makes sense as the pick there. Yeah, but Parsons is off our board Connor, so the question, Yeah, Parsons went oh fifteen to the Patriots. I should have known. We have the Penn State or on the podcast last year, so we're we're looking at I think these these two time backers are really interesting. Parsons, I think is a guy who can do it all. But if I were taking Parsons, I think I'd be most excited about his blitz ability or even the ability to just put a hand in the dirt and just line up as an edge rusher and obvious passing situations. Uh. Jeremiah Wusu Coamoa out of Notre Dame. He's a guy who I'd be much more excited about matching up with a tight end and and maybe even standing over slot receiver a little bit, and and sort of holding his own there as his own defender. I think his strength is coverage. Now, if you're if you're looking at us where I mean on our board, Elijah Vera Tucker is still there. Uh, I'm gonna I'm gonna say one moderately complimentary thing about about Jon Gruden's roster building here. Uh. I don't think you need a great offensive line, uh in Vegas when Derek Cars your quarterback. Derek car has always been very good at getting the ball out. One might say earlian is here a little too good at getting the ball out quickly. And it really made uh, you know, people thought Donald Penn was basically Walter Jones playing left tackle there. And he was fine. He was a good player, but he wasn't, you know, spectacular. He didn't give sacks because you know, ball was coming out immediately. It was like what Ben Roethlosberger did a year ago. So I actually didn't have a huge issue with kind of the tear down of that offensive line. I think they were a little over invested there and it's not a crucial part of their offense. I know that sounds ridiculous to say, but you know I I was okay with them moving on so I could see them addressing offensive line like you said that. They boy, they have spent on that secondary. They've spent draft picks on that secondary since since Mayott got there. With uh, with Gruden and those dudes, just it really hasn't worked out. It's it's it's a rough group. And he almost feel bad being like, well, let's go back to the well with another defensive back here. Uh. I mean, it might be too early to pull the blog on some of these guys, but uh, it's not working back there. I guess the other issue is they really haven't had a pastor so the last couple of years. And now you're adding Doc Way and maybe you have something cooking there. But um, that's a lot of stuff I just threw out there. And uh, I know your heart is still mending after being reminded of Michael Parsons is not available on this exercise. So here's the perfect thing, though, is that if any coach were to make a draft pick and send in the card of a guy who had already been selected by another team. Uh, you know, so you think it would be John or or like or like a half asleep Dave Gettleman. So like, okay, all right, everybody, there's some some complications with the zoom call. Um okay, so I agree, UM, I think that offensive line is probably the next best option in there. That said, UM, you have me nervous now, Like I have to go back now three or four times just to look at um all the people who um who got taken. You know there's a J. C. Horne, you know you could take someone like that. UM at this pick. Um. You know a guy that I've really gotten to love, and I'm gonna mispronounce his name, so it shows like crushes my point here. But Trevin Um Murrig Woodard from TCU UM is really fun to watch. You can play a bunch of positions. UM, super versatile. UM. You know, maybe that's the guy that you want there. But offensive tackle does seem like you know, the pick at this point, just because if you look at there, if you look at what they are right now up front, Uh, it's not good, right, I mean, it's it's a little bit of an unmitigated disaster. And yes, Derek Carr gets the ball out quick, but like you know, right now you have Brandon Parker is your right tackle. Um, maybe Richie Incognitos coming back again to play guard. Colton Miller actually did play a lot better last year. Um, but um, I mean you know that at least takes care of some of your business that keeps Josh Jacobs moving a little bit. Um. So, I don't know. I mean this is a tough one. I think you scapegoted though to your point, you scape go to the defense so much last year, and you switch coordinators to the point where you can't ignore that either, and you and you probably can't go into the season with Damon Arnett and I don't know, Travan Mullen as your cornerbacks. I mean that's the plan. I guess that's the thing. It's like, Look, Damon Arnetts, the first round pick from last year, Traymon Mullins a day to pick from the year before. Uh. I don't again, I don't want to see here and say like, oh, those guys can't play. Uh. You know, Mullin's been let's call it up and down generously for two seasons, and and our Nett probably wasn't quite what you need them to be last year, So, uh, do you do you need to go get another cornerback and or do you just sort of get caught up in the again sunk cost fallacy is what it might look like in a year or two. Yeah, this is tough. Yeah, I mean there's a few things, like there are some things you could probably if you're Gruden, look at and say, Okay, I can probably talk myself into this, Like, right, I can convince myself that Karl Joseph and Jonathan Abram is going to be a formidable safety duo. I can convince myself that Cleveland Farrell, Jonathan Hankins and Solomon Thomas and Max Crosby could get it done on the defensive line. I don't know if I could convince myself that of two things that this linebacking were is going to be able to operate um Gus Bradley's defense, and that these cornerbacks are going to be able to hang um in this defense. And it's a different system. You know, it's not um what Paul Gunther runs. You know, maybe if your mayok, you're all of a sudden looking for different guys and you're looking for different things. You know, it's all these are all questions worth asking, you know, And so I think to me, it's still it's it's linebacker, it's cornerback, or it's or it's offensive line. But and and you know, luckily if you're the Raiders are so bad that you know, and any of these seem like a good idea. So I like the idea of j. C. Horne here and Gus Bradley off of and and you could take our net and make him your full time slot guy, and um kind of kind of lay your head to sleep at night and feel okay about it. I do. Look, we have Vera Tucker kind of sliding here. I really like Vera Tucker. Like I said, I think you could play Elijah Vera Tucker at tackle if you wanted to. He's probably best at guard. I think we just haven't found a team with that howling need at this point, uh to take him off of our board. But uh, I like Jase Horne here. If if I was gonna go defense, I think that's my favorite picker for the Raiders. I like it. And I think that Vera Tucker slide could be ending very soon. All Right, we are onto the Miami Dolphins, who obviously we uh we had to pick with them what two shows ago, they're they're picking up at six. We gave them Jamaar Chase, so they have at this point. You know, if if they hypothetically have added Jamaar Chase along with Will Fuller coming in this offseason, then you already have Demante Parker on President Williams. We can we can pretty much cross off wide receiver as a need on this board. But yeah, so you're looking again offensive line. Uh that is another spot, you know, kind of similar to the Raiders. It's like, okay, well you have made investments there. How do you feel about Austin Jackson at this point as your left tackles left tackle of the future. Uh, you know, how do you how do you feel about uh, you know, Robert Hunt? There there are ways you could sort of squint and be pretty uh you know, warm and fuzzy about this young offensive line, but you know there are certainly spots you can get better here. Yeah, and yet did Matt Scura in the off season. So you know, I I think this is a good unit. But again I think that there's so much there's going to be so much um effort put into legitimizing to a tongue of volo and kind of making it happen for him this year that I think you probably just do the safe thing and and and you give him a guy here. I mean, I'm trying to think of what else. You know, what else does Miami need? They need safety play right, they need um and and with Brian Flores, could he theoretically be pounding the tape able for that Patrick Chung type player who can sort of arrange all the pieces. Um, Which is why you know, I kind of liked um Murig Woodard from TCU, Like I thought he was a great player that could slide in nicely there. But um, but if if the value is as such, right and the board is set the way that it is, I think it would be difficult for them to ignore, um, someone like um, you know something like that, or you know Elijah Vera Tucker. Um, you know, Tevin Jenkins is still on the board. Um, Sam Cosmi is still on the board. You know there's some there's some offensive line talent, you know. Yeah, I would uh, And I hadn't really thought about Mr rig as Amurig Woodard as an option here for Miami. I like that a lot now that now that you mentioned it, Uh, they could use some edge help. Of course, Brian Floors, being uh Patriots disciple, you you manufacturer, your pass rush is supposed to loading up on pure edge guys. So, um yeah, I probably like Vera Tucker here too. You're you're probably gonna keep Robert Hunt at tackle for another year. I think a year ago you would have talked about moving into guard, but uh, you could probably take a Vera Tucker and slide him in at right guard for the time being, and and see how that end up ends up working out. Solomon Kinley becomes sort of a nice reserve dude to have, and Eric Flower stays in the lineup, and everyone's a pretty happy when it's all said and done, especially if Flowers continues to develop, like I do think he's gotten slightly better every year, um since that awful year, um, the awful rookie year in New York. Like I do think he's getting better. Um and and and if not, you know, if the bubble bursts there, then Vera Tucker is nice. You know, you have someone that you can kind of punch in and any of those spots and you can play two positions well, And I just think it's so important because here's another thing. Flora's comes from the Patriots tree that obsesses over what cross training offensive lineman, offensive lineman who can do multiple things and and and fit into multiple positions. And so I think that's uh, you know, that's good. That's that checks the box. Lots of boxes checked here For the Dolphins in this draft, they get Elijah Vera Tucker here with their second pick of the first round, and that moves us to football team. Uh, and their first pick here, and uh, I mean, look at they are. They are still in that market for quarterbacks. We probably don't have another guy coming off the board in the first round. The the the big five will call it. If you want to throw Mac Jones in, there is off the board in this exercise. Davis Mills probably doesn't quite. I could see him slipping it around one if someone wants to get that fifth year option on him, but uh, probably doesn't quite work out for him this high in the draft. So uh, if you're looking at Washington, you're probably again looking at addressing that offensive line. You know, is Jarren Christian your your answer at left tackle? You're probably not wild about it. Uh, They as we know they've they've invested quite a bit in that front seven. Uh, maybe the linebacker spots a bit of a weakness and uh, you know they they Uh boy, who do they? Who do they flip in? They ended up getting William Jackson after losing Ronald Darby in the defensive backfield. It's pretty good look at defensive backfield at this point. Uh So those are probably your needs here in Washington. Connor, what direction would you like to go in? It's an interesting question because if you're Washington, you're almost the exact opposite of Miami, where you know, in Miami or New England do you use your secondary to create the pass rush, But in Washington you have the pass rush, and not that you can ever lapse on secondary because you'll get killed if you do that. But um, you know, I think that there are more sing needs. Um. And the temptation is there where if you hit on a left tackle you probably have the there's a chance that you have one of the best offensive lines in football and the best defensive line in football, which is probably pretty tempting. Uh. If you're Washington, like I would lean offensive line here just because you can control both lines of scrimmage. In a crappy division that you could win with eight you know, eight games, you know, eight wins. Again, I think that that's the strategy. Especially, you know, you give Ryan Fitzpatrick time back there, and he can make anything happen. So I like all these things. God, you make Dave Gentleman so jealous if you had had a great offensive line and great defensive line. As far as the remaining offensive line offensive tackles specifically prospects on our board, you're probably looking at Jalen Mayfield out in Michigan and Tevin Jenkins at Oklahoma State. I like Jenkins. I think Jenkins is more likely to translate to left tackle. And again we we sort of overstated it because you know, left tackle right tackle not a not a huge difference in the modern NFL. But uh, I think if you're looking for a guy with sort of a chance to hold up as in sort of the classic left tackle role, I think Jenkins is more likely at this point than than Mayfield, who to me is a little bit more of a question mark, a little bit more of a project. There. Yeah, I I have Jenkins there in my mock draft. Um, I think he's great. Um, he's gigantic. Um, he can. It was so fun to watch Oklahoma State play. Um, you know some of the more inferior opponents on their schedule this year and just watch him just clopper people. Um, he's just like a giant guy. And I think that's fun. So I'm totally down with that. I think that's a good pick um. And uh, you know Dave Gettelman again, Uh, just doesn't get his hog molly and he gets to see a hog molly going in somewhere else in the division. So that's not fun. No, No, just tears streaming down his face with this one. As football team selects Tevin Jenkins the off of the tackle out of Oklahoma State to bookend with Morgan and Moses there. Uh and that brings us to the Bears at twenty Bears. We know they're in the quarterback market. That's probably not going to happen at this point. Uh, so you're probably again this is a team. Two needs kind of stand out to me here. Um one is offensive line, which I think they have They've kind of addressed the interior of the last couple of years. They really haven't addressed the tackle spots a whole lot and just not been a very good line And the issue for them is you are going to have to lean on that run game quite a bit this year. And look, it worked against some sort of bad opponents in the second time last year. Do you trust that going forward or not? I'm not quite sure you can. Uh. The other spot is cornerback and which it just it didn't seem like it was going to be in need for them. And then they had to move on from Kyle Fuller because uh, and I want to be clear, this is only because the cap got lowered, is why they had to cut Kyle Fuller. It's not because they, I don't know, did stuff like throw obscene amounts of money at Robert Quinn to record two sacks over the course of the season. It was it was all because of the cap. But they suddenly have a need at cornerback here. You know, even if you are trusting Jalen Johnson to take a step forward in year two here, I I just desmon Trufont was just a wonderful player in his prime. Uh, and it's just not there for him anymore. I don't think you can trust a true font already Burns. I mean, it's it's kind of looking nasty um at that cornerback spot at this point. So those are the two spots I kind of struggle for them offensive tackle and cornerback. And you wonderfully sort of had Ny on cornerback when they decided that Kyle Fuller is gonna be a cap casualty. Yeah, I had cornerback for them in my mock draft. It just makes the most sense if you break out, you know what's well for in our exercise based on what's left on the board, A and b um kind of that hierarchy. I have a feeling that they are going to take a high upside developmental quarterback in round two. Um, so maybe they try to get back up for um. A Mills or a Kellen Mond has been linked to them quite a bit, and so I think those are kind of interesting names for them. But yeah, I mean, if you're Ryan Pace, like you're just trying to like, you know, it's like those old fashioned telephone switchboards, So if you're trying to get one thing to make the other piece work, and maybe if you improved your coverage a little bit. I mean, Cleo Max has been phenomenal there, but you know, maybe it just makes him that much more phenomenal and noticeably phenomenal, and so I think that, uh, you know, maybe that's maybe maybe that's what you do, but yeah, then need help with a lot of places. Um, this this roster is like raiders ask almost you know, it's not good. And the thing that's the one thing I'll say in Ryan Pace's defense, it's like, you know, we're going this here, and it's like they have a playoff mandate. It's playoffs are like they're gonna clean out. And it's like, well, I mean, they made the playoffs last year. I think they I think they deserved some degree of credit and we you know, we all know it was a little bit flukey, okay, but they still made the playoffs. They played in the playoff game. And it's almost like had they just collapsed last year and went five and eleven, six and ten and been picking a little bit higher and then maybe the quarterbacks are arranged, so you know, it's it's it's tough. It's not easy being Ryan Pace right now, I will say this in his favor. There are a lot of things that I like about Ryan Pace, and well, not a lot, because I'm gonna list them it's there's two things. The first is that he's aggressive, and the second is that he doesn't allow himself to be pigeonholed by bad decisions like everyone's like, he screwed up the quarterback Uh the selection process. Yes he did, there's no doubt about that. But what did he do. He didn't sign him to a second bad contract and you know, uh, and and pinch his ears and throw a fit and fire the coach and get a million people to try to fix him. He knew that he messed up. Everybody knew that he messed up, and he got another guy in there. And so I do like the fact that like he does seem to be acutely aware of the mistakes that he makes over the course of time. And so you know, that was why I made the case for him drafting a quarterback in the first round. I don't think there's anybody the position that's in a better spot, because you know, imagine how much better you would be the second time around if you screwed up. But you don't. You never get that chance, right, You never get that chance to to take a second one. But I would be interested in how many of these guys would do a better job if they learned their lesson the first time. You know, I don't know, those are just a no, it's look, it's a good point. And the general manager whose team just won the Super Bowl this year. No, granted it doesn't take a rocket science scientists say Tom Brady wants to play on our team, let's let's let him play on it. But uh, you know how many how many people sort of survived messing up with the first overall pick Jameis Winston didn't work out in Tampa, and and uh Jason like got another chance, and now he is a super Bowl champion. So um, as far as who we are giving the Bears here, I think Greg Newsom is kind of the the the clear cut top cornerback left on our board. I like Newsom a lot. I think Newsom could easily end up being the second or third best cornerback in this class here. And and plus he he just he lives right there. He you know, went to Northwestern, so a lot on uber stuff. You know, they wouldn't have to pay him. They could do what um the Browns did in the movie Draft Day, and they could have him at the facility, um like minutes after the pick, you know, and that I think that would be a nice thing. So there there you go. Do you ever find yourself doing that, By the way, when you do mock drafts, like you constantly give like like I feel like every year I mocked like an L s U guy to the Saints because it's like, oh, well, yeah, of course he's you know, he's right there. They couldn't they couldn't miss him. They must have seen his game at some point. The thing that I do reflectively while I'm doing mock drafts, and I've talked to Jenny about this a lot. We both before we came here worked for UM the Star Ledger, which is the state the paper of record for the state of New Jersey, and UM every year the draft was an obsession in finding everyone from New Jersey because that's all you did was do stories about people who lived, you know, And even if it was like, you know, one time, like the ninth overall picks spent like a summer in Millburne and you were like yes, And so I still like find myself reflexively get super excited over every prospect has played one year of high school football in New Jersey. So that's like my odd draft tick. But I do like that one too, Like, oh, that's neat, like he lives there and then the team could be right there. Well, what a what a great story here for the Bears taking Greg Newsom, the second cornerback out of Northwestern. No sportswriter will try to tackle that one and all will be forgiven for all of the missteps that is that have happened hometown to euro to the Chicago Bears. And that brings us to the Colts at twenty one. Who are there? Look, they're looking for a left tackle here. I don't know if it's as desperate a need as it would have been if Philip Rivers was still your quarterback. Obviously, Carson Wentz has his issues, but he is a guy who can protect himself to an extent. So I think they're in a spot where if they're taking a tackle here, it's a guy they like. If they're not taking a tackle, I mean, you're you're probably looking at you know. Do do they try and ramp up this pass rush a little bit more? Do they address the cornerback spot? Uh? Something like that? Although they've I mean they've done so well with a defense. Matt Eberflus is going to be like a victim his ownA success here. You're just gonna say, like, I don't know, we never we never put a ton to this defense. We've got him divorced Buckner and other than that, it's just much of dude's and they're fine. So uh looking at the board here, I think the tackles are really interesting again Jalen Mayfield. I like Jalen Mayfield. I think he's a bit of a developmental guy. I don't know if he's a guy who's going to be particularly strong uh in past protection. I think he's a guy who's gonna need some help out there. Uh. And frankly, you kind of already have a guy like that in Brandon Smith. That again not a liability, but he kind of don't want a situation where you need help on both sides of the line. Um. But it's a pretty steep fall off after that. I like Sam cost Me, the the the Texas guy, the six seven dude, I like Alex Leatherwood um out of Alabama as guys who are probably riskier and probably a little bit uh. If you're making a straight up draft board, they're gonna come in after Mayfield. But I like them as guys who potentially could hold up in sort of classic left tackle spots if you were to try and develop them that way. You wonder too if um, you know, I know that they obviously did a lot of homework on Quentin Nelson and you know, with their time there, with their connections there, if they didn't find a way to fall in love with someone like Leah Mekenberg from Notre Dame. Who's the guy that I think could slip into the first round, um, you know, probably more like the back end of the first round, but he does have the size, UM and being a left tackle for Ian Book, Um, you know you're gonna run a lot of similar offensive concepts, um, you know, and and do a ton of that zone blocking, and I mean that offensive line was super dominant, and you know, you know, I guess you'd have to go back to UM, you know, the Alabama game and see how he graded out there. But you know, did make some really nice plays against Clemson, UM and had some you know, good games against you know, some of their better opponents there. So I don't know that's a guy that could jump on the board there. But I agree, I mean, I have them taking a pass rusher. Um, pass rusher makes a lot of sense for me. But um, you make a good point with um with ebra Flus, I mean, he's done such a good job that maybe you think, Okay, let's let's bolster the Wentz pick here a little bit and give him something to to work with. Yeah, they're they're in a bit of a best player available type of spot here. If they wanted to go with a Gregors or a Quity Pay or uh one of those guys. Quity Pay is still on the board. Quit Pays on the board. Jalen Phillips is still on the board. No, Phillips has gone Phillips. We gave that's right, John Gruden did that again. Sorry, um so, um man, this is fun. Um. I don't know. We kind of said they can go best player available. You got really excited about Quitty Pay, who I I like, just fine? Ah yeah, Uh, this is tough. I don't know. I I think if it was anybody else that wasn't Chris Ballard, I would automatically put a tackle there. But but Ballard is not, Like I do think he's above the administrative BS and wouldn't just draft a left tackle to make the Carson Wentz trade look less bad. Um, So, I don't know, maybe let's do a pass rusher here, all right, we can go quity pay here to the Colts and look, it's like like Sam Cosmi and Alexway, those guys might still be on the board round two. You know, I don't know if they quite one of these three tackles that we mentioned is going to be there for them. Yeah, yeah, I mean I I think you could live with whoever you end up taking in round two again. And look, it's gonna come down to do they do they like who's there? Do they like the player? Uh? But we'll get quite you pay here and we'll move on to over saying the a f C South with the Titans here, who of course, Uh they've been trying to figure out this pass rush that has just not been very good at all. Uh, Bud Dupree is in. He'll play opposite Harold Landry Jeffrey Simmons. They hope emerges as sort of like a superstar here and we'll see how this one ends up going. But uh yeah, as far as uh, there are other needs go, I mean they basically every cornerback whoever played in the state of Tennessee was was sent packing. So they have a need at cornerback here. And uh, you know, other than that, you're probably you know, we as we know right tackle is still is still a need for them. Uh and other than that, I don't know, you're you're you're maybe shopping for a tight end after losing um John new Smith. I I love John new Smith, and now I just I feel bad. I'm gonna penciling and a very nice apology letter. But uh, yeah, so they they have some holes in this roster here. I mean they you look at the corner that they went out and got generous Jenkins and Kevin Johnson as sort of patchwork guys here. Christian Fulton's a guy they took a year ago, so they kind of were building towards this. Chris Jackson played kind of pretty well for them for a for a Day three pick last year. But uh, I feel like it's just such a such a glaring need at cornerback right now after they had you know, maybe that's just a result of having three good ones for so long. Yeah, I would say reading the tea leaves on this one and kind of keeping an eye on who they've been uh doing some work on I feel very good about the fact that the Titans are taking a cornerback here. Um. Uh, not that our next pick I'm gonna actually etch into stone, But this pick I would probably like, I would mold into a firm clay. So I like that. That's where I feel about that. But the question is who. Yeah, I have someone that I like. I don't know who do you like there? Who do you? Kelvin Joseph is the last guy on my sort of uh we'll call the half as big board here. I honestly, look, I think there's a good chance a J. C. Horne or a Greg Newsom, or maybe even a Caleb Farlow you keep on hearing about his medicals, Uh, ends up falling to twenty two here. But as far as this exercise goes, you're probably looking at um, you're looking at Kelvin Joseph. Um, the other dude I really like who is not going in the first round. But uh, I think he ends up coming off the board and say, Robert Rochelle, who's he the He's the he's the testing guy. I'll say it. It's fine, I'll admit it. I like it. But Uh, he's a what what was the Central Arkansas uh prospect here? Who? Who? Look, I think he's going to play in the NFL. I think he would be really good, but I think he's probably a Day two pick. I've another name to kind of just throw hat into the ring. There is Eric Stokes Um from Georgia, fastest cornerback in the draft. Um, we know with the Dory Jackson, they love the measurables, you know, they love those, like the things the play speed that you can't really replicate. And maybe they're hoping that the aggressiveness and everything like that, like you can teach um, you know, you can kind of teach him the system. But um, you know, I think with the way that the uh, the way the league is going, and how many you know, speed centric, speed dominant wide receivers are in that division, especially like maybe look at a guy like that who's gonna match people step for step and and at Georgia did not get beat on deep balls, so it's pretty incredible, um, you know, and kind of seasoned under DeAndre Baker a little bit there and then came into his zone as a starter there. But that's another guy like there. But I I think they're doing their homework on the cornerbacks. I I feel pretty good about that. I'm I'm good with Eric Stokes there. The thing that's kind of funny to me about the Georgia cornerbacks here Eric Stokes, and then you have a little bit more of a uh size speed project in Tyson Campbell if you if you go in that direction. Uh. I feel like the biggest reason people are downgrading them is because, look, they did not farewell against the Alabama wide receivers. But by the same time of like, nobody farewell against the album, Like everyone every cornerback who played Alabama this year that's in the draft, and anytime someone wants to put together like their their Twitter thread, I'm like, I don't know about this guy. It's always like Davante Smith like cooking him up up and it's like, Wellboti Smith kind of did that to everyone. Like you know, you can you can grab your I don't know, not to bust on Greg Newsom. You can grab your Greg Newsome Rutger's film and be like, I'll look at him, walk these guys down. It's you know, it's Demante Smith. He's hard to cover. Nobody covered Jalen Waddle. He's hard to cover. That's the way it goes. Yeah, think about Eric Stokes, UM, And I guess I'm a little bit biased. Um. You know, we're gonna have a story on him next week coming out. But I did talk to him last week, and I thought it was really interesting that, you know, he was he was kind of talking about exactly what you're saying. You know, He's like, Yeah, I played Jalen Waddle, I played Smith, I played Jamar Chase, I played you know, um, all these great you know, the great Joe Burrow l s U offense, like I played all those guys, you know, Jefferson, all those guys you know, and you know, and every day in practice, you know, you're you're playing against kind of the heart of the sec talent wide receivers and stuff. And why isn't that your baseline, especially if of guy's got great measurables and he's healthy, like I would guess that, Like, why isn't your thought process the same as it is with wide receivers where you'd want to start there with a guy who has the most practice against elite talent like that, um, in the most experience. Um, you know, and that defense seems to translate relatively well to the NFL, and so I think there's a lot of things to like there. Eric Stokes is our guide to the Titans at twenty two, which brings us to the Jets, who also could probably use a cornerback at this point. Uh, this is obviously the jets second pick of the first round. We haven't taking Zack Wilson with the number two overall pick, but uh, if you're the Jets, you could probably even though you brought in Carl Lawson, you're probably still looking for maybe another edge guy for Robert Sale's defense here. Uh, tight ends the spot. I don't know if there's a second tight end who goes in the first round here. Um, I mean, look at their their rebuilding. We you know, as you know if you listen to this podcast, you know the Jets already one free agency at this point. So, uh, they're on the right track. They address some needs, but I think it's kind of finding system fits and and and look, one interesting thing that they did last year. And interesting I say that in kind of the nicest possible way. Uh, they have issues on the offensive line. They brought in kind of a bunch of dudes. And similar to you know what I said about the Raiders defensive backfield, or or what I said about the Dolphins off in the line, you could probably look at and be like, oh, yeah, you had some signs of good things maybe coming here. But you know, if you have a chance to to upgrade, I think you go ahead and do it on the offensive line. Yeah, no, I agree. I think all those things, you know, the offensive line makes me very nervous, especially if you're drafting a you know, a quarterback at number two. Um. But um, this is the one pick that I feel like you could probably chisel and stone. I think Robert Saul is getting an edge guy with the second first round pick. I think that the first first round pick is for you know, um uh, for Joe Douglas and for the future the franchise. The second first round pick is to make his defense work the way that he needs to work it. And uh, I think it's best edge available. I think he's gonna I think he's gonna pound the table for that. Well, we got in our exercise here, we got Greg Grusso just sitting there. After that, you're probably looking at Z sitting there. I love Ogilary, and I feel like no one else loves him like I love him. I would, I would. I would take Ogilari like in in the early teens. If one of those teams hires me as a general manager in the next three or four days here, I just I mean, look. The other thing is I'm absolutely terrible at actually assessing edge rushers because anyone who's super fast and bendable I just think is going to be I don't know, the next uh whoever your favorite and may have been fast yess, that's who they end up being. I think they're all like, uh, I think he's just a faster Bruce Smith is what I think he is. Kind now it's uh like Harold. I thought Harold Landry was just going to be an absolute monster in the NFL, and he's fine, Like he's totally fine. He's just you know it. Could AZ's o Gilari be another Harold Landry probably, but I would take him very high. Joe try On Is is another guy. Uh. He also try on I always try to mock to like odd front defenses and have him standing up because that's what he did at Washington. But yeah, yeah, now I I would be happy with any of these edge guys. I don't know if Gilari is necessarily like, you know, I don't know if you want someone slightly heavier there. I mean, he's gonna come in about two pounds, and yeah, are you gonna want his hand in the dirt there? Are you gonna? Like? Would you be more interested in him if you're a true three four team laws? Yeah, Lawson is already a bit light um on that one edge, so you're probably not gonna go with another super light guy, which which probably has you looking at again, you're probably got Rousseau? Um and who else did I throw out there? You're probably looking at Rousseau the way our board is shaken out here. Yeah, I I think that's good. I mean, I like that pick. I mean I have a weird feeling to that, um just looking at kind of reading the tea leaves and seeing how good of a job because a lot of this is salesmanship from the coaches too, from the college coaches, and I think that many Diaz being down there has really helped the player transition to the NFL. Like, I think he's done a good job of selling people on these guys, you know, and uh, and making some of these guys into first round picks, and so I think that's you know, worth noting. I think he probably pounds the table for someone like Rousseau, and you know, there's a lot of talent there. And you know, I don't think that anybody's gonna complain about the opt out thing. I mean, our colleague Alex Proud did a great story with Rousseau. But you know, that doesn't bother me, and I don't think it's gonna bother teams either. Yep. No, I think you're really gonna worry about Rousseau. It's you know, kind of a one year wonder type of deal. And and I think you just you live with that, and that's that's just the way it is. Uh So, Gregory Rousseau to the Jets at twenty three, which brings us to the Steelers at four. Now, the Steelers that you you could probably circle uh cornerback as a need. Maybe you want a little more depth that linebacker after things kind of fell apart there in the worst possible way. Though you're probably you're probably feeling okay about it. With Devin Bush coming back, maybe you want to go find uh you know, do you believe an Alex Highsmith at this point, and even if you don't, maybe you want a third head rusher. But the thing that I find fascinating about the Steelers offense is are they gonna do how they do something different than they did last year? They never evolved past this sort of uh you know, they came out early in the year with this quick strike offense and this this motion and this horizontal attack, and it was new and it was like, oh, that's really cool. They never did this stuff before, and just wait until they start building off of it. And then they just never built off of it. They just stuck with the same quick strike thing all year. Uh. If you are opting to do that, and I don't think that's a great idea, But should they opt to do that, you're probably looking at the offensive line and just saying, Okay, yeah, we're fine with uh, you know, chewy a Cora four and and zack banners or tackles, and you know, because it's just not kind of like we talked about early in the show with Derek Carr, it's just not a high priority thing to to build up your pass protection when the ball is coming out two seconds after the snap. If you are going to expand your offense, which I think they should probably try to be doing, then you're probably looking at getting some reinforcements for this offensive line. I agree. I mean, Matt Canada is, you know, the new coordinator, and you know, I think a guy who was super underrated in terms of his influence on the league. A lot of the Sean mcvays stuff came from some of the stuff that Canada was doing in college at the time. Like some of that motion stuff was stuff that was really heavily sampled from, uh, some of his work. And so you need offensive line help to make that work. I mean, you know, all the teams that run versions of that um you know, gimmick and versions of that kind of flavor of their offense need offensive line help. And I just think if you're Pittsburgh, like I mean, they're going to draft another pass rushing linebackers, So why are we talking about this? But um, you know, are you really going to go into next year needing a quarterback a left tackle, like like maybe you gotta like you gotta fix one of these things, now, you know what I mean? And and and take care of one of them, because you know, like how threadbare is this roster going to be here in a year, especially when Ben Roethlisberger leaves. So you're probably looking at the offensive line project. Jayleen Mayfield again, Uh is a guy who again we're speaking in shorthand because there's not a huge difference between left tackle right tackle, but uh, he's probably more right tackle slash kick him inside type of deal. I don't know if he's a guy you plug and play immediately. If you're looking in that direction, you're probably looking at Alex Leatherwood or Liam Eichenberg if you want immediate help there. Even if those guys are not quite the the difference makers that um that Mayfield has a chance to become down the line. Uh, And then you're you know again you're looking at Sam Costomy, You're you're you got some other options there, But I think those are the guys that circle uh Leatherwood in Eichenberg. We will we will lazily throw uh into the same category as sort of the maybe safer options to plug onto your offensive line, and then uh, Mayfield is kind of the maybe not quite ready for rhyme time, but probably the higher upside guy. Yeah, um, yeah, no, I think I'm good with any of those. And I don't know. I mean, if you're the Steelers, like I just I just don't know what else you're gonna do, right, Okay, I just I think any other pick seems insane to me. Right, running back has been being thrown around. There's them they did it. I remember they did it with the Shard Mendenhall and it was kind of like, oh they just you know, it was one of those like well he was high on our board. We didn't need him, but we took him. Uh, if they took running back in round one, let me think I will, let me think you're gonna immediately regret it. Well, they're gonna immediately regret it, but well now everyone regrets it. I hope you're gonna if they take a running back in round one, I'll come on here, I'll come on your podcast and I'll eat whatever anybody says like you can you can mail it in and as long as it's like non toxic and edible um and you know it's not gonna do any sort of digestive harm, then uh, then I will do that. But there's I would be stunned. I think that would just be like outlandishly stupid. Yeah, it happens. I mean it's it's the way it goes. But they don't. They don't typically make outlandishly stupid mistakes, you know. Okay, Colbert is as good, I would say, as solid of a GM as as there is in the league. I because we mentioned him earlier as as a Cults prospect. Let's give him Liam Eichenberg here. I'm also looking at his name right now, and then we can cross off a list. I'd be good with any of those tackle projects. Again, it's it's a weirdly deep tackle group this year, which we just never say anymore. Uh, but yeah, they I just when you're picking this late, you can't say, well, we'll wait until round two because the dudes left might not be the dudes who you want. Yeah. Uh, let's move on. Oh, last one of the show. We're already there. We are at the the Jaguars, who of course are taking Trevor Lawrence first overall in this draft. And uh, I mean they Trevor Lawrence is going to be as shocked as anyone at this point. Uh. Yeah. The the Jaguars, look, they they did a lot of rebuilding with Irman Meyer coming in and again we'll we'll see how this kind of works out in the long run. But if you're looking at the Jaguars right now, like you know, I don't not not to bust on the guy. I I don't know if ray Sean Jenkins is your answer at safety. I don't think Andrew Wingard is a guy you want to play back there? To me, they have a glaring hole at safety on this team. Uh do wanna get you know, your your pretty set a linebacker? Do you worry about Miles Jack long term? Do you do worry about you know how much longer shoberg gonna go for? And you know, do you want a second edge rusher here with Josh Allen? Is it too early to give up on a on a Kalaman Chasen at this point, who looks more like a rotational player, although I guess he's very young. So now I'm just being a pessimistic turd. But uh, other than that, uh, offensive line you can never have enough of at this point? Do you believe in Joan Taylor? Your your day to pick from a couple of years ago. But yeah, I think you're you are feeling pretty good about life right now. If if uh, if you're the Jaguars and Trevor Lawrence is already coming in, so maybe they go offense early and then defense with their second pick. Here. Yeah, I had UM safety or UM oddly UM interior defensive line, which I thought was kind of a a zag when everyone else was zigging. And the only reason that I did that was because again we talked at the top of the show about reading the tea leaves UM on on various UH people's you know, coordinator's comments and everything like that, and I think one thing stick stood out to me UM about UM what Joe Collins said about his defense UM. He said this couple uh in his introductory press conference. A lot of people say it's a throwing league, but if it's second and three and third and one all day, you're not going to have the opportunity to get after the quarterback. And to me and and Jacksonville was very very bad and like painfully bad against the run last year, and so I agree with you that safety is the top need. They have a great we have a great person on the board that we've mentioned a few times that I think slides in very nicely there. UM. But I would also I would also like say, it wouldn't be surprised because you you have you picked a litter for interior defensive line. Then you have that you can take the top guy in the class, whoever you believe that to be. But I know it's kind of recency bias because Christian Barmore just sort of like wrecked everyone in the college football playoffs here. But uh, I would put Christian Barmore at the top of the list of defensive tackles here. I think all of them are kind of fringe first round guys. I think Barmore is the guy who if any of them are going to emerge as like absolute forces in the league, I think Barmore is a guy who ends up doing it. And and uh, you know, Joe Colin, you were in Baltimore and you only worked with Alabama defenders while you were there, so that probably feels familiar. Um, I could totally I could totally live with that. I think that makes plenty of sense for UH, for the Jaguars here, even though they've they've spent some draft capital at that spot. Obviously new regime, they're they're not gonna be tied any of these guys, so UH or do you do Trevin Murray too? I mean, you know, that's what I'm saying, Like you have an excellent safety there too, and so I think it's a toss up. Um, you know, I of I love that pick too, And if you're Cullen coming from Baltimore, you understand more than anybody the value of that position too, And so I think you couldn't go wrong there. I mean with either of those two guys, Um, you know, you could hit a home run there. Yeah, It's like they brought in Shatt Griffin to uh to play opposite to C. J. Henderson here. So it's almost like, do you feel good enough about your cornerbacks that you can kind of live with sort of a little bit shaky play at at safety going forward here. I like both of those. When when you brought up Uh, you know, the culing factor and what he liked to do in Baltimore and and the way they built that defensive Baltimore bar more probably makes a little more sense at this point. Um. I do realize that the Ravens had at Reid for many years and then they had Earl Thomas for a little bit, and they always had good safety playing that stuff. But um, they were always really set up front, uh with the Ravens. And I do kind of like Christian Barmore here now that we sort of talked it out in our war room, I like it. Yeah, I would say for the most part, outside of the fact that um our war room might not be speaking to one another when you're the Panthers and you drafted justin fields, for the for the most part, we have a very amenable war room. This is uh, this is not like they tell me it is in the movies. So so that's gonna that's gonna do it for this batch. For for episode three here of the mock Draft series, I'll give the quick recap because that's always the best part of the show. Uh. At Raiders at seventeen, we had J. C. Horne. Dolphins took Elijah VERA. Tucker Football team took Tevin Jenkins, The Bears took hometown hero Greg Newsom, the second Colts Quitty pay Titans took Eric Stokes, Jets took Gregory Rousseau, Liam Eichenberg to the Steelers, and then Christian Barmore to the Jaguars. Uh. It's gonna be Draft week next week, so we're gonna We're gonna do this. We're gonna finish the mock draft before to do the actual draft. I think that's that's the way to go. Uh. And we still have plenty of interesting teams here. We also have the teams that don't have first round picks. We are going to assign just completely random prospects to, like the Seahawks at fifty six and the Texans at sixty seven, which uh is always I mean, that's always everyone's favorite part of the show. How are the Texans? How are the Texans gonna fix this franchise with pick number sixty seven, because they'll definitely do it. Uh. And we'll figure out who that savior is going to be. Dig it all right, Connor, good work in the war room this week, and we will We'll see you next week III. Captain. The mm QB Monday Morning NFL podcast is Connor Or and me Gary Gramling. We are produced by Shelby Royson Sizes. Executive producer of podcast is Scott Brody. Mark Ravick is emeritus editor of the MMQB, and Andy Benoit is the founder of the MMQUB NFL podcast. Be sure to subscribe to this feed as well as the feeds for the weak Side Podcast and the Albert Rear Show. They're all for free on Apple Podcasts, and once you do subscribe, please leave a rating and review for all of them. It really does help other people find the shows, but are also available on Spotify, Radio dot com, Stitcher, s i dot com, and wherever else you listen to podcasts.

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