The 2021 NFL Draft is in the books, and Jenny, Conor and Gary talk all things draft weekend, starting with—for a second straight year—Aaron Rodgers's unhappiness with the Packers. Is this the end? Is this another Rodgers power play? And who will he be playing for Week 1 of next season?
As far as the draft goes: Why Trey Lance was always the right move for the 49ers—and why he's the perfect fit for Kyle Shanahan—whether the Justin Fields trade up buys Matt Nagy and Ryan Pace more time in Chicago, the Jets' aggressive rebuild around Zach Wilson, and why there's a lot to like about the Patriots' draft.
Plus, Eagles awkwardness with Zach Ertz and otherwise, Dave Gettleman is cool, whether the JOK slide was a pushback on positionless football, a moderately needed Nickelodeon feed and a much-needed Adult Swim feed. And that covers literally everything about draft weekend.
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Hello, and welcome to the m m QB Monday Morning NFL podcast. I'm host Gary Grantling. I am joined by both Jenny Brentis and Connor Or of the week Side podcast, and we're all wearing our our veriest formal wear for this one because it is the specialist show of the month of May at least, and when we recap the draft, we are going to do all the biggest storylines. Is we're just starting. I'm just I'm guessing this isn't go on for like three hours. So I hope you guys, I hope you used the bathroom before the show started and uh, and we'll see how this goes. But I guess each of you, I just want to hear how how did you survive Draft weekend here because it's always a fun but also taxing a couple of days for us. I got a mid afternoon text from Greg Bishop on Saturday being like, hey, who was picked number one? And I was like, oh, they're not out yet, Like, yeah, it was the Tom Brady pick we had just done a story about, so he was eager to see who it was. It ended up being a defensive lineman drafted by the Vikings. Uh. Jalen Twineman I believe was the name. Um. But yeah, so that was just one representation of how long the draft can drag on. Gary. As you know, our our draft night, Uh, we spent the hours of about eleven until three o'clock in the morning together on Thursday in an exercise that we always say we're never going to do again, and then we end up doing again and saying that, oh, it's going to be easier this time. But the round two and three mock draft is um among the worst things on the planet um for several reasons. But it was good to uh to talk of, you know, some some Pete Warner with you deep into the night on Thursday, and the number of things we shuffled at the time seemed, uh, at least to me. I mean, I think you were over it. I was like, oh, listen, con sorry, we gotta move Pete Warner down, like he's not going sixty six year, He's gonna go seventy four that when that happened, I am not gonna lie I I ejected any care concerned I had for this project. Like I saw, I entered Pete Warner like this, and I'm sure Pete Warner is a fine person, but like in the grand scheme of things, very middling for what we're trying to do here. And then like I put him like to this spot, to the Bengals, and then I just watched Gary in the Google doc take him and move him down like four places, and I was just like, you know what, I I don't I'm not gonna I'm not gonna do anything else with this Connor. You're just being ridiculous. I actually think you would sell you higher than than than that than Warner did. Actually go pretty high. Yeah, yeah, good for you, Pete. Keep an eye on him. We doubt him now he's gonna he's kind of jo less or or something. Is that the takeaway from the day to mock Draft. I don't know. The universe is showing us something. Yes, yes, so uh as a as a lot of you know, I read a lot of fan fick uh crossovers of movies with the word day in them. Uh, you know, like Gary Marshall's Valentine's Day and Independence Day. It's pretty good stuff. But this one, really, this draft really uh. One of my crossovers with with Draft Day and with Groundhog Day, it was a lot like that, because that Aaron Rodgers for the second straight year is the story of Draft Weekend. And I know I went a long way for that joke that wasn't very good, but uh uh it's done now, wondering where it was for a while there, But ething I like better than when someone else is telling a circuitous joke that may or may not land. Then watching Jenny watch the joke and it's so much better than anything else because it is normally me doing it, And then I just get a kick out of watching her be like where is this landing? You know? I actually thought of this today. I was with a friend and her toddlers and the older child was encouraging the younger child to head up the stairs in the park and he was saying I'm right here, I'm right here to encourage her to move up the stairs and she looks at him at one point and goes oh, And I was like that is me, Like this is how I respond to Connor all of the time, like like it's like, oh, I see as your joke was. There was a todd that literally you know, using my line, it was it was tremendous. There's just more view out there which is good for the world. It is. It really is good news. And by the way, kind of I wrote that joke while doing the Day two mock draft, So there it is for you. But anyways, probably what people want to hear about. And now we're going to let you all down because none of us have hard information on what's gonna happen with Aaron Rodgers here, so we're gonna play sort of a gut field type of game here of is going to happen with Aaron Rodgers and the Green Bay Packer at this point because it uh, you know, the latest was what Tariko tracked him down at the Kentucky Derby and he didn't want to talk, but he said he was bummed out that that the that the the friction got out there and it doesn't seem done. It seems maybe like done, though I would put it at I think you're underestimating the calculations that Aaron Rodgers has made throughout this process. I think the leaking of the information, the timing of the leaking of the information, the fact that he knew that he was going to be at the Kentucky Derby to be reached for comment, and then uh, faux posited himself on the moral high ground. Is all completely textbook here, and I can't, like, I can't believe that anybody is like, oh, well he wished the Packers fans, Well, that must mean that you know that that's really what he's thinking. No, this guy is a plotting, you know, machiavellian human being, like capable of incredible things, including disrupting, completely exploding the Packers draft room minutes before the draft started. And I think that was entirely on purpose. Well that is a strong take, Connor, but I appreciate your commitment to it. Um. I mean, of course, the drama this year was because of what happened last year. So he was the story on two consecutive first nights of the draft because of what happened last year on the first night of the draft. I would agree with you, Gary, And maybe it's just like my you know, you always allow for the possibility that something can be worked out, and I would say it's not a cent at this point. I thought Matt Lafleur, who was in a really impossible position, and I mean, it really seems like Rogers has this rift with the front office, who made the decision to draft Jordan's love a year ago and here's your head coach. Now, of course there may be things going on between Rogers and La Fleur. There has certainly been a lot of attention on that relationship, but well, Fleur did everything he could to assert that Rogers was the guy and say I won't even let my brain go there. Like he gave a very strong you know, this is not what we want um on the final day of the draft. So I did think that was interesting and also felt like, yeah, he's just kind of trapped in a really difficult place here. It's uh, it is interesting. I was, you know, I was starting to sort of formulate my thoughts of what a Jordan's Love led Packers team might look like one and what's gonna what's gonna have him going forward? Here? Who the market might be apparently wants to go out west? Is it the Broncos? Is it? I mean? I even know who else would get involved in the sweepstakes? I mean, is is there? Uh? If you really want to get the clicks rolling in, do you propose the Aaron Rodgers for Russell Wilson trade where the two discrimpled quarterbacks change change uh teams to I guess general areas where they have some sort of link to at this point. But uh, I, you know, it's it's not quite what the Texans situation was with the Shaun Watson back in February, where you were saying, well, if they if they move on from him, they really don't have another option unless they get a quarterback or get a high draft pick, and all the Packers have their option in house. They just I don't know how you possibly get anything resembling fair market value for Aaron Rodgers at this point. I enjoyed that UM Pro Football Talk a couple hours before the draft kind of leaked his Rogers ideal destinations and um, obviously the forty Niners are there. UM and the Broncos and in the Raiders because he wants to be out into the West Coast. And if I'm Brian Kuta Kunst, I said, great, you go ahead and you play for the Raiders. That's what I would do. I would trade him to the Raiders. I would say, if that's what you would like to do, you would like to go play for John Gruden and the Raiders, then go right ahead, and I I only want a first round one first round pickback that's it, and and we'll all move on and just watch him torch his career at the end of his career to the ground. That's what I would do if I was an angry, passive aggressive general manager. Um, but you know, I I maybe I'm just too well practiced as an angry, passive aggressive person. But that's what I was thinking about that throughout the entirety of Thursday afternoon. Yeah, I thought the list of potential destinations was strange. And obviously it's limited by the teams that haven't made other quarterback moves this offseason or don't have you know, or a team like the Chiefs for instance. But um, you know, I don't think either the Broncos or the Raiders would be at the top of my list. First of all, you're in the same division as Ma Homes in the Chiefs. Also, you know, there are some things to like about the Broncos roster, and they're adding to a strong defense and there would be a lot of weapons there. But you know, is that a good marriage with the offensive staff, which is of prime importance to Rogers. So I think your point is a really good one. Connor is that are either of those situations going to be ultimately what he wants. It's very different from Brady becoming a free agent and then you know, hand picking a team where he wants to go, the U, all the quarterback movement process when you're under contract with the team and listen. I fully support all players exercising their will and their power and their leverage. I think we need more of it in sports. But it's very different when it requires a trade versus when you're like Brady and your contracts coming up and you can pick a destination. Alright, so everyone has to make their make their claim. Now, who is Aaron Rodgers going to be playing for in Week one next season? And if you're wrong, we're just gonna I don't know because we ever had this conversation Connor, where is he playing next year? He's gonna play for the Packers? Like this is just dumb. This is like, um, this is the audible thing all over again. Um with the with the training camp story, and it's like troubles brewing and then they're gonna grovel and they're gonna sign him to a big extension and everything's gonna everything's gonna be fine. Um. And just to note, I think that it's unfair and presumptuous to have wielded the Jeopardy job the way that it was wielded. Um As someone who takes Jeopardy views Jeopardy as a very sacer sanct program. Uh at my seven o'clock staple to assume that you already had the job, which is basically how it's sounding saying, well, if he doesn't play, he's just gonna go host Jeopardy. Well, I think Anderson Cooper might have something to say about that, and I think Ken Jennings might have something to say about that, and Katie Kirk and all the other people who did a tremendous job guest hosting Jeopardy. You weren't the only one that did a good job. So that's that, Jenny. I'm going to go with the Packers as well. I think it will come down to a commitment beyond that's when his guaranteed money runs out. And so I think he's going to say it's more than just words at a press conference or in a letter on the team website. You need to back it up with something that locks you in financially that you can't back out of, Like I need to know that I'm your guy. I played, I was an m v P last season. Maybe you hope that I would fade out. I haven't, and you need to put up in order to keep me. I also think the Packers we weren't very fun on this one. That was not. Yeah, so I should have spiced it up. I should just kidding seeing Connor's reaction, Texans, Oh that alright. Uh, look the story of the day going into Draft day, before all the Rodgers stuff went and then before all the Tim Tebow uh comeback stuff got out there. That that was. That was a fun hour where it was Aaron Rodgers and Tim Tebow was making all the headlines here. But uh distracted from the forty Niners choice at number three. I guess the question is now do they do they trade for mac Jones in order to get him on the roster there, But for now they are going with Tray Lance as the we'll call it sort of an air apparent situation here with Jimmy Garoppolo. I don't know, I Jimy Garoppolo gets to claim narrow apparent. It seems a seems a little too formal. But Tray Lance is gonna be a guy there and I said this and more, you know, in a more mealy mouthed manner, leading up to the draft. But I will claim now it was it was always going to be Tray Lance going to the forty Niners. The fit is too good and too many other things added up here. I can't understand how the forty n weld have looked at these quarterbacks and say it, Uh, there's just no one else like Matt Jones. So when you say we like one of the guys who would fall to us, just stylistically, Mac Jones is so much different than the other four guys, it doesn't make sense. Like you had to you had to pick from of the others. I thought Zach Wilson and Trey Lance were the most similar guys in this in this draft class, and Trey Lance is gonna be the guy, and he's a great fit there. Yeah, I think it made sense all along. I think, you know, the only reason that you know I'm sitting here kicking myself is that at midnight, you know, before the draft, I changed the Trey Lance pick to Mac Jones after saying it was going to be Trey Lance for the better part of three months, even before they made the trade um. But uh yeah, I I think it makes the most sense. And and we've said this a million times, but Kyle Shanahan said as much. I mean, he's done press conferences where he's talked about his time with Robert Griffin and almost like in a in sort of a longing way, discussing like how his system works better when the quarterback forces the defense to account for an eleventh man and the math changes. All the stuff he can do with right wide receivers change, and that's what Trey Lance is going to bring to the forty Niners. But you know, you would hope, or you would believe that there's probably you know, more room for him to grow as a quarterback beyond what r G three provided in Washington. So I think there's just a lot of reasons to be excited about it. And it's a system now that every team in the NFL is basically borrowing or running from to some to running with for to some degree. But now we get to see it evolve in a way that we really haven't seen before, and I think that's exciting too. I have two remaining burning questions. One is how did so many people because become allegedly so certain that it was Mac Jones. It's one thing to get a pick wrong in the mock draft. I mean I got plenty wrong, but I never said I know it's going to be this guy. It's like, all this makes sense, right, But there were so many people saying, I know it's Mac Jones, It's always been Mac Jones. I don't know. And I think that's like a real indictment on our industry, to be honest with you, is that people take a scrap of information and they turn it into this um, you know, unimpeachable certainty about something when there's you know, in in many situations that are it's rare for you to have that degree of certainty, especially with something like a draft pick. My second burning question is Kyle Shanahan said that he really mishandled the line about Jimmy Garoppolo when he said, you know, who knows if anyone will be alive on Sunday. And yes he did mishandle it, But what was he trying to say? Like, I just it's not like, you know, you got the words jumbled up. It's like, where was he going with that? And he said, oh, I called Jimmy afterward, and I explained it to him. But I just can't imagine any explanation that would be satisfactory after that public performance, Jimmy, I'm sorry to talk about your untimely death. Um. Let's I mean, I would not be satisfied by any explanation. I really just say, oh, I see and hang up the phone. Well, yeah, that's exactly what would happen. Um. But the problem was when he said it to it looked like a predetermined line, Like it looked like a line that he had walked in there with right like he was he was ready to fire that thing when he said it, um. And I don't know if maybe he just didn't bounce it off some other people first and and sort of try the room before he went in there. But uh, it was grim. You know, that is that's that's not a fun thing to hear on. You know, that's not a fun thing to hear on like a random Tuesday, you know. Yeah, And you know, not to make too much out of a single comment, but I do think a relationship between a head coach and a quarterback, especially when you're deemed a quarterback guru. And obviously there's no question Kyle Shanahan's offense has changed the league and has become the predominant offense and the one that everyone's trying to replicate. But do you think part of succeeding is your relationship with your quarterbacks? So, you know, I think people need to devote equal time. Now, obviously they're they're shifting from Jimmy to trade lance. But if your trade lance and you see that comment and then you're going to play for the head coach, I don't know, Like it was just so it was just such a jarring thing to say, and there were a lot of jokes about it. But I do think there's something underlying here and that like interpersonal skills are like important. You know, listen, there's a lot of different ways to coach. And I'm not saying that one comment means everything, but it was just a strange comment, and I think it means a little bit more than something like, oh I just misspoke and I quickly walked it back. I don't know that you can really walk back something like that. You know, It's really interesting is that, um I think one of the reasons that Kyle had held on to uh, you know, he blocked La Fleur and uh McDaniel from interviewing for head coaching jobs for a long time, UM wasn't crazy about Robert Salo interviewing for head coaching jobs. UM. And I think part of the reason is because, especially with Salo, was so much of their like and cultures and air quotes here. But like some of the identity that the team actually built throughout that Super Bowl We're run had to do with a lot of people that weren't Kyle, you know what I mean, Like there's other coaches on the staff that if you talk to people kind of got credited with, you know, the their their identity or their culture or a lot of the things that the coach typically brings. And so that's an interesting point to raise, Jenny, is that, like, you know, what is he now? Um? Without some of these guys that have kind of come in and been the ra ra, have been the soft touch, have been the motivating factors. You know, do you miss something like that when when some of these coaches go away? And I think that's a that's a really worthwhile question. As someone who consistent the opens a show with bad one liners, I can relate to not bouncing your material. Lots of people before you run it out there. Sometimes you just gotta do it. Gary, I could see you saying a version of what Kyle said. If I called you and I was like, Gary, I think I really bombed this story, and you would have been like, well, I can't guarantee that you're going to be alive on Sunday, Connor, So what's the big deal? You know? Now, now thinking of that, maybe my maybe I know my analysis is a little bit too harsh. I don't think so. It's the it's the it's a much harsher version of um what my mentor in journalism school used to say, what, uh well, Connor, it's just a story and tomorrow people are going to use it to wrap dead fish. That's what she could say say. There you go, there you go. That's just you know, that's what we're all trying to really say. Let's let's move on to Chicago. Here, the Bears the other Really, we'll call this the headlining move. We're still gonna go go to Mac Jones and and some of these other teams that did things we like or maybe we didn't like on a draft weekend here, but the Bears make the move, jump up and get Justin Fields. Uh. Look, I I fully poured this for a couple of reasons. I don't know how you cannot support it. Uh. Number one, sure, if Andy Dlan is gonna be your starter this year, that's fine. He's not gonna be your star in two. Uh. If you're looking, it's way too early. But if you're looking at the draft class and trying to shape up, uh, you know who's gonna be available. Maybe there's a Zach Wilson type that emerges. But Uh, if Justin Fields had gone back to school, he'd be the odds on favorite to be the first overall pick next year. So to get him this year and to not have to completely, I don't know, blow up your drafts forever at this point is uh certainly worth the price. At this point, I think Fields was unfairly criticized for his on field stuff as far. You know, a lot of a lot of people getting into the you you Sarah time his first read. There were a lot of option routes at Ohio State. When you run a lot of option routes, especially at a college program where you don't have the same practice time as as like an NFL team might have, Uh, you stare down your receivers because you have to know where that receiver is going before you let the ball go. So that's kind of by design. I think you can bold him a lot of different ways and come up with a really good quarterback here. And you know, I I guess the first question is is Matt Naggie able to do that? Certainly the returns weren't very good with Mitch rich Robisky, who was not necessarily his pick, but certainly he was brought in to develop. And I guess the other questions sort of singing out to me is we all are kind of assuming that this is playoffs or bust for for Matt Naggie, for Ryan Pace. But does this buy them more time? I mean, you don't necessarily want to draft Justin Fields and then switch coaches after the first year if you don't have some sort of Freddie Kitchens esque implosion of your of your entire program. Yeah, I mean I would agree with that, Gary, but the way things play out, that's often not the case. Right. There's a couple of recent examples that come to mind. You know, Anthony Lynn and and he did a great job with Justin Herbert in his first year didn't get to coach him beyond that first year. Todd Bowles with Sam Donald and his first year got fired after after that, so it doesn't always unfold that way. I think the Bears are in an interesting position because they had this number seven seed playoff birth. They weren't exactly what you would consider a playoff team last year and only were one because of the expanded field. So when theory they are coming off a playoff appearance, um not an inspiring one. And so now this same regime stays in place and they get to pick the new quarterback, and so you would like to, you know, give that player some consistency to develop, but the NFL doesn't always work out that way. Now, I think the fact that they stuck with Neggie and Ryan Pace indicates that perhaps they will give you know, them that time to see what they have in fields and not have a situation where they rush fields out and try to play him early, or don't go to fields because they're worried about their jobs. I mean, ideally those are not factors in the rookie quarterbacks development, but you never know. In the NFL. I'm I'm kind of in the minority on Neggie I think a little bit in that. I mean, he did take and and Gary, I knew you've said this in the past two but did take two kind of bad teams to the playoffs and playoffs and quotes right, I mean, because last year it was the seventh seed in the Nickelodeon game. But at the same point, I do think that we were celebrating some of his ingenuity during his first year um without realizing. I think that it was to make up for so much of what Trabinsky couldn't do, you know, and it's like, oh, these fun play calls were like the running backs throwing the ball, and it's like, well, you have to do that because there there really isn't any other options. He can't trust his quarterback to do the things that he wants him to do. And you know, maybe that's a lack of developmental ability and and you could certainly point in that direction. But I'm excited just to see him with a different guy. And you know, if it buys a bad coach an extra year, then that's a bummer because there are a lot of coaches, like Jenny said, who don't get that opportunity and don't get that leeway. But Um, if there's a potential to marry the best of the coolest of what we've seen with the Bears with a quarterback that I think has a lot of talent um, that would be a lot of fun to see them kind of start propping themselves up a little bit in the NFC North. Yeah. You know, I have had this burning question about offensive coaches that come out of the Red Tree, and Gary and I talked about this on a Monday Morning episode a couple of months ago. Is that when you first come out of this offensive think take that Andy read is created in Kansas City, and you take that offense. You've seen some of his disciples have immediate success doing that. Matt Niggie at that first year in Chicago, that was successful, Peterson won a Super Bowl with the Eagles. But then the farther you get out of that offensive tank think tank, can you keep pace? Can you continue to diversify and adapt your offense based off of what opponents are learning about you? Can you continue to grow outside of that same offensive think tank? And I think that's still an outstanding question about Aggie. Is he you know, it's one thing to install the offense that you know you developed and worked freshly the year before and have a strong year in Chicago. So now I think this is his opportunity. As you mentioned, Connor, he can do a lot of different things with Justin Field as a quarterback. It opens up a lot of options, uh that he did not have with Mitchell Troopisky. So now I think will be a good truth serum if if he is the coach that can do that with Fields and the Bears. I like that. You've had three burning questions so far on this podcast. By the way, Oh gosh, wow, this is my new Connor or te Lee Calcion days. You know, really, I'm just gonna go through and say I have a burning question for every team, So hashtag Jenny's Burning Questions. The questions are burning, and we have more of them coming up here. But yeah, as far as the Bears go, you know what, you made the playoffs last year, and let's see you make the playoffs again. I guess is the mandate we'll see you have to Yeah, it has to be playoffs, right, it has to be playoffs and not just the Nickelodeon game. You have to make it beyond the Nickelodeon game. But they had a good draft. Like I thought the move for fields was shrewd. They took an opportunity, as you laid out earlier, Gary, and I thought the the move to get Tevin Jenkins was was also a good one, and that was a player that a lot of people thought would go in Round one. So I think they made some targeted uh targeted moves. I've now said moves three times in the last twenty words. But you know, I thought I thought it was a good a good draft for a team that has been criticized for some of its recent uh moves. Yea, because because of you, Connor, Jenny is now sitting there tallying like each phrase, and I know that was not a fair thing for me to do. No, it's okay, it's okay, it's I need to be held accountable. Wasn't there some children's book like The Burning Questions of So and So? I'm pretty sure that in my childhood there was like a young adult novel that I read at that age. So we had somebody right in last week correctly pointing out that Toy Story was a notable petrilogy. So this week, if anyone has read a book in their childhood, The Burning questions of X, Y and Z, please answer this burning question of mine? Is it the burning questions of Bingo browned by Betsy Buyers? I don't know. It might be that might be it actually came out. It's got three ratings on Amazon, one five star and to four star reviews or nine came out. That that could be it. I'll have to do some research. Connor said, it was so much confidence it has to be correct. Wow. Yeah, I mean, how many children's children's books that would be the I would but I would have been four, so this could have been a book that I would have easily read in middle school or whatever. So yeah, this must be it. Connor, good work. I'm gonna have to do some research on this. Some hyper critical reviews of this on Amazon, by the way, trite trite. Oh wow, well that this couldn familiar boy looking into a mirror anyways, Bengo Brown. Alright, the New England Patriots have a quarterback, and Jenny, you have some thoughts on mac jone to the Patriots and really the Patriots in general. Well, I really liked their draft. Gary. I know some people questioned the move up to get Christian Barmore was the price worth it. But their run defense was awful last year, and so they basically made some really you know, I thought, you know, they sit and they get mac Jones at fifteen, and then in the second round they move up to get a player that will really help them. But I think now is when we're really seeing the post Tom Brady era start. A few people responded on Twitter, Gary you may have seen and they were like, are you a moron? Clearly the post Tom Brady era started last year. Well guess, but like this is when it really starts. Last year was just kind of like a gap year for the Patriots. I mean, they league high eight players opt out, They didn't sign their starting quarterback till June. Then that starting quarterback was on the COVID list and it interrupted a promising start to the season. So it just ended up kind of being a nothing here. But what came out of the nothing year was the number fifteen pick, uncharacteristically high for the Patriots. They hadn't picked that high, I think in thirteen years. I think the last was two thousand and eight. Um, And so now we saw them go on this free agent spending spree. We see them draft a quarterback which is the highest quarterback Bill Belichick has ever drafted, and they addressed some of last season's glaring holes, which were a result of both players opting out and also years of poor drafting. UH. And now I think is when we really see what what the plan is. UM. I think Belichick has to do things differently. We saw last season that it wasn't as smooth a transition out of the Tom Brady eras perhaps we might have thought, and out of necessity, he's doing things differently. So he spent in free agency because he had to also potentially to take advantage of the shrinking cap and slightly depressed markets, and he drafts a quarterback high because he has to. And so I think a lot of the moves seem uncharacteristic, but really they're just what makes sense when you're trying to build a team differently than you have had to over the last two decades. I thought that's a great point, and I was blown away by the um Well, the Paul Fine Bomb thing. I think he got the mileage that he wanted out of that. He wanted attention for that comment to say that Belichick had gotten lazy, UM and that there was a real concern that he was, like, you know, basically preparing to run this franchise into the ground. And I thought that was such a ridiculous leap from a seven and nine season that was not that bad, Like it was. You know, you you had like half of your team opt out and you had a very limited Cam Newton at quarterback and you still won seven games. Is kind of how I would look at it, and I would consider myself a Belichick apologist to a certain degree. But this is a good draft. And everyone's like, oh, he's just drafting Alabama players now, but this is a version of what he's always done. He's always gone where he's gotten the best information. He used to be really good friends with Urban Meyer and he drafted a lot of Florida guys during that time. He was very close with Greg Ciano, and he drafted a ton of Rutgers guys. And now he feels that his best information is coming from Nick Saban and so he's going to draft a lot of Alabama guys. Like it. It makes sense, And you know, people can knock the draft record for what it is, but if you've been drafting for twenty years, obviously there's gonna be a larger sample size to pick apart and say, well, this guy didn't work out, this guy didn't work out. Um you, oh it's only Tom Brady when I think that's ridiculous. I mean they they've had some pretty tremendous mid round hits and guys that have gone on to to be pretty successful in the NFL. Well, and if you're gonna criticize their last four drafts or so before this one, which is is totally fair, they were bad draft, but they were not because they were just you know, plucking the same guys are the same programs. I mean, you know, they they were trading down and and rolling the dice on on you know, the the the Derrek Rivers type guys. Not to pick on Derrek Rivers, but uh, I mean that's that's what they were doing. This draft to me, didn't really match what they've been doing in recent years. So it I mean, look, if if Mac Jones can play, uh you don't have any problem with it. I think it's Mac Jones and he is interesting because I just think the position is going in such a different direction around the league that uh, you know, we'll we'll, we'll see it. When you're a quarterback who doesn't have mobility to fall back on and can't create your own time and space. I don't want to overstay that with mac Jones because he does move fairly well. I probably put him in, uh, you know, one of the kirk Cousins comps what everyone uses. But as an athlete, I would put him in the kirk Cousins comp as far as his as far as his movement skills go. But uh, it's just it's a thin line you walk when you don't about it self stuff to fall back on. And uh, you know, if if the more condensed pocket in the NFL becomes an issue for him, and you saw it was an issue for two a last year. Not that two is someone you're right off at this point, but I mean it might fall up our firm and they might be back to square one with a quarterback again. That's fair Gary. Yeah, And I think a lot of how this draft works out, or most of how this draft works out, depends on if mac Jones works out. But to Connor's points, clearly, Belichick was getting an unvarnished report from Saban. He would have more in depth knowledge than anyone else from his college coach about what works, what doesn't work. He has an offensive coordinator who has a lot of experience developing an offense around a quarterback whose mobility is also not a strength. Again, not to compare mac Jones to Tom Brady, but in that category that you know, that's not a huge part of their game obviously. So you know, I think they have some challenges to to make it work, but they've also supplemented the offense in other ways too, and clearly believe that they can win games with his ability, that it will not be a limiting factor for them. Yeah, if you're looking back in the last couple of years, By the way, he took the two Georgia guys in eighteen, Isaiah Win and Sony Michelle. I mean Sonny Michelle. Sure, Sonny Michelle was kind of reach at thirty first pick. When you look back at it now, I say Wins, I wouldn't call him as aster by any stretch of the imagination. Uh, other than that, I mean, you know, he's He's drafted to Alabama guys in the last four years, both third round picks Anthony Jennings and Damien Harris in nineteen. So I don't know, I don't think there's a I don't think there's much of a narrative to be picked on here as this being extension of their sort of drought over the last couple of years. As far as the drafting goes, Uh, let's go to you. Oh, I guess we should reference the number one pick of the draft at some point. And if you're a Clemson fan, I guess you're now a Jaguars fan because they have Trevor Lawrence and they have Travis Etienne and they are they're building something there and we'll see how quickly gets going here for the Jaguars. And by the way we had it seems like a lot, but it's probably not a lot. But you had a lot of like quarterbacks reuniting with their old buddies here, so you know, Jalen Hurts gets an Alabama guy. Uh, and of course Joe Burrow gets Jamar Chase. I have a question for Connor because I noticed I'm not going to call it a burning question. I'm just going to call it a question. Connor gave the Jaguars a C plus and his draft grades, which I think is a little bit, a little bit of a Maverick opinion. So Connor I'd be curious what you did not like about the draft. Well, I think I wanted to grade everything on a curve. And so Trevor Lawrence is kind of like, okay, like you nailed the first essay question, which was put your name on the papers. You know that's there, and yeah, that's like you know, and then I I just thought afterwards, like your your biggest need was was run defense, and you kind of went with Travis et N and you have plenty of talent at the running back position, and um, you know he's starting to talk about well he's going to be a third down weapon and we're going to use them like Percy Harvin. Um, what on your who on your offensive staff is has the built in creativity to make this work? Like this is not? Um, you know, this is kind of like a shot. You know, it's a Brian Schottenheimer production. This is not you know, I I can't see Travis et N being featured in a way that would warrant that pick when there were really good other players on the board. Now you know, they got lucky in the second round and they had you know, the safety that they need to drop to them. Um, but I just think like there were some I think that there's like some of his sensibilities that are still very collegiant, where you know, we're just going to overload people with speed um, but it's not gonna necessarily work that way. I just don't think Travis e t N is going to be Travis E t N in the NFL. Yeah. No, I didn't disagree with the grade. I was just curious what went into it. And I think that those are all really important points. I mean e t N is somewhat of a luxury pick, and that's a guy that maybe, you know, we could have seen the Buccaneers taking at thirty two, a team that has you know, all of its returning starters from the Super Bowl right or you know, maybe the Bills who who want another another piece to get over the hump or something along those lines. So I think those are all fair and yeah, as for the overall outlook, it does seem to be the sort of college team building approach where you take you know, the five star recruit types, uh and build a team that way. And it is a very different game in the NFL. I my Twitter mentions can't handle defending a first round running back here, so I'll tread lightly. Um, I don't mind the the tam pick. I think the I don't want to call it a better comp, but I think the better ceiling comp is probably an Alban Kamara type role. I don't know why he threw out her. I mean he had percy harm and that's why you throw it out, Uh, Darryl Bevil I, I don't want to overstate it. I think Darryl Bell did a really nice job in Detroit. I thought he remade that offense. Uh. And frankly, I thought he did a decent job in Seattle. He's a little bit conservative as a play caller, but I thought as far as what his sort of general designs were and and sort of their identity, I mean it worked at a time when I think a lot of offensive coordinates around the league didn't know exactly what to do with Russell Wilson, Who's a guy who's really, you know, an improvisational master, but maybe not uh, you know, a traditional Okay, you know, we're we're gonna draw. We're gonna look at this offense and draw the same thing and borrow some of their things, etcetera, etcetera. So uh, I'm I'm bullish on the Jaguars here going into this season. I I still think this whole I think this whole system is messed up. I'm want to put the whole system on trial here as far as allowing a team to just tank their way into a Trevor Lawrence. But uh, that's that's a whole that's a whole other thing to talk about. On another show, Zack Wilson goes to the Jets, and I guess the thing that's sort of standing out to everyone right now is they never really built around Sam Donald, certainly not effectively. Uh. They try to, it just didn't really work out. What they're building around Zack Wilson at this point though, looks kind of intriguing. And I was kind of I was going back and watching some Corey Davis and and you know, sort of looking at what the forty and rams do out there. And the more I think about it, I actually really like Corey Davis fit uh in this offense here, and you just look at it. Uh, you know, Denzel Mims is a guy, is still like it's like a deep threat. Elijah Moore is really interesting to me as their second round pick. Uh, it's I think a lot of people are surprised. You see, Jameson Crowder is already on the roster. Jameson Crowder is still in effective slot receiver in the league. Jameson Crowder is sort of I feel like he's like the old idea of what we think of as a slot receiver, the guy who kind of separates underneath and his security blanket type type of guy. Elijah Moore is a vertical threat, uh from the slot, and that is behome is so in vogue because you have so many teams playing cover two at this point, and that's a that's a way of busting that cover too. So you get a slot receiver who can do work down field. That's what Elijah Moore brings. Theoretically we'll see how he does in the NFL, but theoretically that's what he brings that at Jameson Crowder does not bring. So you have a different way of attacking here. And obviously, again on paper, you look at the left side of this line with McKay Beckton and and now Elijah vera Tucker and you you really like what you see at this point, Yeah, I thought it was um, you know, Elijah Moore is going to be that guy where you know, Sam Donald never had that could if you're in a if you're in a bind, or especially early in the game when you're just trying to get him in rhythm, he can take that that bubble screen or that quick out and then he can gain you know, eight or nine yards and move the offense a little bit and just get your quarterbacks some confidence, which I think is super helpful. But this is an aggression that we haven't seen UM in sort of a sense of urgency that we haven't seen UM with the Jets in quite some time. And you know, I think we've always kind of had this, uh, you know, outside of Mark Sanchez, who really did have a great offensive line to work behind UM and and kind that kind of informed their UM process throughout the quarterbacks that they taken. Since then, I have not had this luxury. And I'm not calling anything great at this point, but you're much better off now than you were before. And I thought that UM, it felt like they were gonna go edge with that second first round pick, but to be as aggressive as they did and move up to get Vera Tucker Um and just kind of show that commitment to locking down to those offensive line spots. It's like, Okay, we get it now, but it's interesting. The one knock on Wilson has been that he had a ton of time in the pocket and b y U and so are you trying to kind of do your best? I mean, everybody wants to create pocket time, but are you a little bit concerned about how quickly he's going to be able to get the ball out? And thus you know you're spending that kind of capital to to beef up the offensive line. I know the Vera Tucker pick, you know, moving up to to get him, got a little bit of criticism or the Jets are moving up for our guard. But I think Vera Tucker is really versatile and he's also a player that after I put out my mock draft, to my great regret, a lot a lot of feedback that I was hearing was just that he was really underrated and that teams really loved him, and the Jets moving up to get him speaks to that they knew they couldn't get him later. And their first four picks, we're really a statement. After taking Zach Wilson, they took an offensive guard, they took a wide receiver, and took a running back basically saying we're not just going to take you, We're going to support you. And I thought that was a really uh strong message to send right after drafting him to overall, especially because that was not what Sam Darnold had. Yeah, if you're gonna design the type of run game that they want to have there, which is obviously you know Mike Daniel coming off the Shanahan Tree from San Francisco, I think a guard makes plenty of sense. And you know, the caveat with all these guys is it wasn't the right guy. Can you play in the NFL. We're about to find out. Uh. And if you can't, it was a bad pick. And if he can, he fits what you want to do and he's gonna help you build your identity. And uh, I think he made all the world, all the sense of the world to jump up and get him at that point. And uh yeah, just just just as far as goes, I mean, you're gonna see that they're gonna move Zach Wilson around a lot. They're gonna try and create the big wide thrown platforms like you had a b y U. Nothing will be quite like that. But um, they have a way of making this work. You look at this team and and see solutions at this point where maybe you couldn't see that in the past. The only other thing that stood out to me with the Jets, I thought they were going to take it tight end. I thought you're gonna see much more of a Shanahan approach, where you say, uh, we're gonna put heavy personnel on the field and put you in basse and then we're gonna use these guys in different ways. They didn't take it tight end. They're they're going to be a three receiver base here. I mean they have a ton of receivers they have. You know, if if you believe in Chris Herndon still uh, they have maybe one starting caliber tight end on the roster. I think it's gonna look a lot like what Sean McVeigh does with the Rams. Not they have to copy someone else's offense every time you look at this stuff. But uh, as far as using you know, the way McVeigh uses a Robert Woods or a Cooper cop almost in almost in a tight end ish capacity, I think you're gonna see that with a Corey Davis uh, and and see some of these sort of uh you know, concepts that you normally was with a tight end with with the receivers and sort of build it out that way. And as we know, Zach Wilson can make plays off platform. And I think, uh, I think they're probably feeling pretty good as long as as long as the quarterback can play. They are building things logically at this point, and I think there's stuffing to be celebrated there. It really is the first time. Uh well, I mean, you know, Jenny and I covered those Jets teams and the for for at least sometime there seemed to be kind of a sensibility to the way that they were building things for for the quarterback. But the rest of the quarterbacks that the Jets have drafted since then have really entered, you know, overwhelmingly scatter shot uh positions. Like you know, even when Todd Bowls was there, I don't think the first selection of offensive coordinator was probably what he would have done if he had to do it all over again. And there was some disastrous, um, you know, results there were you know, nobody was on the same page. There was a lot of issues there. Um And you could say the same, uh, you could say the same as this moved on through the Adam Gaze era too so and Gino Smith. Um, you know, you go from Marty Morning wig Tony Sperrano, you know, all that kind of stuff. And so I think this is the first time when everything seems to be lining up where the personnel department is kind of feeding the coaching staff the kinds of things that they need to make this work the right way. Another team that selected a quarterback with their first selection this raft is the the Houston Texans. Uh, I mean, I think we're all in our our group text and jaws were dropping when the when the Texans selected Davis Mills in the third round. I'm not sure what to think about this team or this organization at this point, or at least it's it's not anything I want to put on the air in case. I don't know, maybe they have a plan, maybe we just don't see it, and maybe, uh, they are going to unlock some greatness out of some of these uh interesting free agents they brought in, and uh, we're gonna see a very surprising, I don't know, little giant style team this year in Houston. But you're just looking at this roster. This is it's an expansion roster. Like I don't, I don't know how else to say it. Uh, I mean, is Owen seventeen in play here? It's it's just it doesn't look like it's going to be competitive here. Yeah, I mean it's you know, the the Davis Mills thing to me, I mean, I don't know, it seemed to tip me off and in that in order for this is a team that needed so many things. It's like, so many things you could throw a dart at this roster anywhere and spend your highest amount of draft capital on that person, and you know, I saw how it was immediately couched. It's like, oh, well, if Deshaun Watson comes back, it's a great backup. It's like, well, but you don't need a great backup. You need everything. You need offensive line help, you need wide receivers, you need tight ends, you need you know, everything on this roster. And I think that after Mills, they did a decent job at getting guys in the late rounds of a bad draft that could probably contribute. But you're right, I mean, this is um this is a minor league roster at this point, and uh, I don't know what the what the goal is here, because if you have some foresight, like, wouldn't you rather have spent your best draft equity on a guy who's who can help you right away and do things right away because you're gonna tank out and then maybe you get the number one pick next year anyway, and you get a quarterback, and then what do you do with Davis Mills? I don't know. Maybe Davis Mills is great, and he could very well be very good, but the the whole thing was just sort of jolting when when we saw it happen, and I think really driving home, that's the situation that they're in. When they would list all of the team's draft needs usually be two, three, four positions. Right they put on the ESPN ticker, Texans come up mel Kiper's needs. You know, it's stretched across the whole bottom graphic. What do they have? Basically, they have a left tackle, They're fine it running back? Um is that it? I mean, you know, it's a really it's a really thin roster and it's easier to uh, it's a much shorter list to name the things that they don't need than the things that they do. Interesting times in Houston, Yeah, I I mean I will say as far as Davis Mills goes, obviously developmental guy, and you know a lot of Day two picks at quarterback don't pan out. Uh, well, see how we go. I mean pet Hamilton's and Tim Kelly are professional coaches there, and that gives you something of a chance. It's just I mean, I don't think you put them on the field this year with this roster in the team. But we'll see how this goes. And I still I mean, we talked about this on the on the Mock Draft show. I don't know what they're gonna do defensively, if Levey Smith is going to install any of the concepts that he ever used throughout his coaching career, none of these guys fit what he does. So it's like, I don't know, I don't know how this adds up when it's all said done. I don't know if they mind going out there and losing a bunch of this bunch of games and saying this is a reset year anyway and shrug your shoulders and move on. But uh yeah, that was that was something really was the Raiders. I will I will start with the defense of the Las Vegas Raiders and say when you get when you get around the late teens, like late teens to forty. All those guys, all those prospects are kind of, you know, they're kind of at the same level and doesn't really matter who you pick when it's all said and done. So I've tried to couch all of my criticism of the Raiders by saying that you can't say that a team had a good draft because they drafted all the guys that Todd McShay said, we're good, right, and that this is the trap that we fall into every year right where we grade or you know, I've noticed that I tend to bias migrating a little bit on like, oh, well, this team has three guys that I had heard of before this started, you know, and and started working on this, and so that must mean they had a great draft. And so I think in a lot of ways, it's kudos to Mike Mayock and John Gruden for thumbing their nose at the system, certainly, and but but after the first year with Cleveland Farrell and then uh, you know, with our Net and now Leatherwood, it's like these guys are so far off on other teams draft boards at it's not just were Raider haters and you know all this stuff. It's like, maybe something is wrong in your process. You know, if if you could have gotten that guy in the second round, then you know, you need to work harder at this. And you know, if there was a better tackle out there that could have helped you sooner, you should have drafted him instead. And I think that there's a difference between criticizing them because they're not going by the Daniel Jeremiah top fifty and criticizing them because none of these picks seemed to be working out. You know, I think it would be different if you know, Cleveland Farrell was a sack monster, you know, or our Net was you know, really breaking out. But instead they're already at the point where they're drafting guys to replace the guys that they drafted before that aren't working out. And so at what point does the owner of the Raiders look and say, you know, because a lot of owners are draft junkies, it's something that and I put that in air quotes, but it's something that they can like kind of understand and they see a lot of stuff written about it. But if you're Mark Davis, it's like, do you look around and say, like, isn't it weird that like every year we're picking a guy that is nowhere near anybody's you know, top player available, like and and and that we haven't made the playoffs yet, Like doesn't that seem odd to anybody? Yeah, the criticism is fair because the first few years of this new direction or this you know, renewed John Gruden era have not gone the way that they were promised to go. So the scrutiny is very valid. I agree Connor. It speaks to credibility, and that credibility has not been earned over the last couple of years. The Eagles leap frog the Giants, and when it happened, we all kind of said, well, this is weird. The Giants were gonna take a receiver, so why did the Eagles bother jumping up ahead of them to get to Davante Smith. But it turns out they were right, and the Giants were reportedly going to take Davante Smith and the Eagles jump them again him. So victory there for the Eagles, which would is good. I don't have a whole lot else to say about the Eagles draft class. I don't know if you guys wanna want to want to chime in on any thoughts on that, But I did want to bring up real quick because it's like all of my least favorite things combined into one thing, the Zach Earth's situation, where uh, it's one for the second time this offseason. Howie Roseman doesn't seem to realize how the rest of the world assesses his own players, Like when he thought Carson Wentz was going to be traded for a Matthew Stafford package, and it was like, well, you have one team and they'll give you a little bit more because they don't want to go through the you know, they don't want to embarrass Colton want to embarrass Carson Wentz by saying like, hey, we just got here for a six rounder. Uh, come be our quarterback. And it's also this like, look, Zach Ertz has been there for a long time. I'm not gonna start to go fund me for him. He's made a lot of money, he's had a lot of success, He's had a wonderful career. Uh, he doesn't want to be there anymore. Just move him, move him for a round pick. That's his value now. He was he's thirty years old. He struggled badly last year. No one is going to give you a day to pick for zach Ertz unless somehow their entire tight end depth chart gets decimated in August, and then you're just kind of a jerk for hang onto zach Ertz until the absolute last minute and creating this discomfort with a guy who was a corner stone player on the Super Bowl team. So just do right by your player. If he wants out, and it sounds like definitely wants out, just move him and just take the draft capital do what the Patriots did with Rob Manarkowski. They could have held on too Gronkowski and held him hostage and said, uh, we're just gonna keep you and sit you if the Bucks don't make this a second round wherever it is. Rob Markowski's better than Zach Hurtz was last year. He was more valuable. You're not getting a day to pick for zach Ertz. Just trade him for a low draft pick and move on and just just do the right thing by your player. That's it. That's my rant, I think. Uh. In addition to that, Uh, there's been very little talked about the did you see the video of the frantic Howie Roseman fist bump thing. Did anybody see that? I Like, after they made a pick, like in their war room, he just came like flying in like he wasn't there. And then he just came flying in like oddly, like very quickly, fist bumping everybody. But then like seemed to get into an argument with somebody who like had the facial expression of a guy who didn't love the pick, and how he was like, what's wrong? Like why don't you like this? And uh it was like I'm just I'm projecting a little bit there. Um, but that person zach Ertz. But yeah, that that was kind of left left unexplained. My only question with the Eagles, and I never got a satisfactory answer. Um. I think Rich Eisen brought it up on Draft night was like, why why is this trade even happening? Like these are division rivals that play each other twice a year, and the Cowboys are like, yeah, sure, go get a great wide receiver. We don't care. Um, And the answer was like, Dad, these young gms just mix it up and do things differently. Well, these young gms are Howie Roseman and Jerry Jones, so it's not like this is like um, you know, I don't know, So it's value here, you know, it's like two fists of a boy band there. Yeah, And so I just never got a satisfactory answer there. I mean, the Eagles didn't seem to have sacrificed a ton of draft capital. Um. From the beginning. Their goal was to get one of the two Alabama guys, and they did that. Um, But that whole thing was just weird to me, Like why would you allow them to go up and get that guy? And I don't know, were you trying to keep them away from the Giants because you thought the Giants might use them more effectively or I don't know. The whole thing was just kind of interesting to me. Yeah, because you knew exactly who are they were going for, which i'm and isn't play in in some amount of draft trades. But even if they didn't tell you that you knew who they were going for, I mean it was it was pretty well out there that they were targeting receiver and the Giants clearly had the needs so they would have to leap frog them. So I agree, like I would be interested to learn what went into that decision. As for that exchange, Connor so I think it was addressed a little bit. The the Eagles feat reporters don't miss anything, right, so I believe they asked about it. So it was an awkward exchange with Tom Donohoe, UM, the Eagles senior personnel evaluator, and uh. I think he was frustrated that Roseman had traded back and thus lost the player that was went off the board in the couple slots. What they moved back three slats or something? Um. So that was interesting because there has been a lot of focus on the potential tension in the Eagles front office, turbulent offseason and basically we even a friend of mine texted me like, why did they even do these cameras in the draft rooms. I mean everyone's always just cheering and high fiving. I was like, wow, except for the Eagles. They're the only team that was not like that there was an issue that was caught because you're right, Usually it's a celebratory environment and if there is an issue, people go go off the screen. So this was quite unusual that, like it was just laid bare for everybody to see. I did enjoy, like, so I watched the first round. Part of the first round with my wife and when the Lions took penay sewell, uh, the reaction in the war room was magnanimous. Like there was like grown men just like jumping around and hugging each other. And She's like, didn't they know like he would be available? Like like it doesn't seem like this is this should have been that much of a surprise. And I was like, yeah, right, this is like this is ridiculous, and but it's it's great for those little moments like the Howie Roseman won, like Nike Belichick sitting at the table, um, you know, those are the little things that you do it for. Patriots draft set up today this year was very morose by the way it was like it did not look like it looked like it was like an a rented red roof in and like everyone was just like kind of unhappy. You know. That just a subplot to keep an eye on. All right. Well, I will say as far as the Lions, I think there was some level of surprise maybe. I'm sure in their scenarios as they went through they one of the potential scenarios would be that Tool was still there. But given the caliber of player that he is and the projections that most teams had on him. I do think there is a little bit of like did this really happen? Like did this player last to our pick? I think there was a little bit of that that was fair, and I like the enthusiasm. You know, part of it's just you know, like I get that way before every week side podcast. Um, but not everybody can get to feel that every daylight, every every Monday like I do. So you know, they also have to keep up appearances to an extent because if if Dan Campbell's war room is just like politely clapping in the first round pick, that's not true that they should have been celebrating to the point where people were punching each other's face. That's really what we're going for. But didn't quite get there next year, so you know, we know the Cowboys went all defense, which I mean, look, hey, we thought that's what they should do, and they took it literally and basically did that. But I do want to touch on the Giants here. Of course, they had that trade down, uh, first time ever Dave Gentleman trades down and ends up getting Cadarius Tony, which was a bit of a surprise, and then you get a zz Ogilari in the second round, which that clinches it. Giants did win the draft with that pick. That was that was when it was over. Uh, and we are we are, we are well on our way to adjust Giants super Bowl fifty eight matchup at this point. But um, the Tony pick. We'll touch on this real quick, because sure they needed another weapon. You just figured it, Okay, They just you know, signed Kenny Galley to this big contract. I think Kenny Gollady meshes very well with what Daniel Jones does. Uh. Danny Jones isn't a big arm guy, but he is a guy who will give his playmakers a chance to go up and get the ball. And Kenny Golladay is a dominant contested catch guy. And now they add in Cadarius Tony, a guy who can absolutely you know, blow defensive backs away in the middle of the field and create a lot of separation here. Um, and I like Sterling Shepherd just fine. I I just I think star Sterling Shepherd is kind of a complimentary player here. But you have kind of again in theory, uh, sort of an elite downfield contested catch guy. And now you have sort of an elite guy who can not only stretch the middle the field, but also it's just gonna constantly be opened in the middle of the field. And uh, you know, we we've said a lot. You know, is this make or break year for Daniel Jones? I don't really, you know, I don't think it's that binary. But uh, Daniel Jones certainly has every opportunity to make a big leap forward in Yeah, I like the I like putting a lot of pressure on, you know, putting a lot on his plate after the holiday trade, like you said, and um, the focus of their draft this year. Um, if you're the if you're the Giants, you're in a good spot because this roster is still super young. Um, you still have a great defensive coordinator, Patrick Graham, who you hope you can hold on to. Um if you want to make a change. But now Daniel Jones, like I think that this third year is a very fair evaluation if he remains healthy and the offensive line remains somewhat intact. UM, I think you know what you have. And if you're the Bear, you know, if you're the Giants, you can almost you know, flip the escape patch. Um, even a little bit sooner than the Bears did on Trabinsky and you know, and not kind of punish yourself for it as much like they did. Yeah, and as for ogil Ary, I guess this year's edge class because it was such a uncertain group. You know, there were varied evaluations on a lot of players. There were some players who opted out, there were some players with medical issues, there were wide range of skill sets. It seemed like everybody had something that teams were kind of unsure about. So perhaps it does make sense that a talented player that there would be one or two that would slide. But still getting him at pick number fifty is just an incredible steal. I mean, uh, I thought he could have been a mid mid first rounder just based on how how some teams seemed to love him. So that was that was tremendous. And yeah, obviously picking up the extra draft capital for next year. Dave Gentleman really showed them in this year's draft. I love that Dave Gettleman and Bryan Pace turned into cool hand Luke this weekend, like of all the people, but secretly, like I'm I'm very happy for Dave Getleman now that he is an analytical darling. It is it is completed the one eight that we needed to make as a society. So I like it. I like it a lot. Yeah, aziz Ogilari he he was the best edge guy in this draft. Ye. That fast and that bendable around the edge, even if you eat some pot I mean that that's so much to work with. That's like in the battle. I think. To finish my point or what I was trying to say is I could see a talented ed rusher slipping it, I would not have guessed it would have been. He was not one that I would have expected to slip. Yeah. Uh, we're gonna get to a lightning round that probably won't be very lightning round in a minute here. But I just did want to touch on this real quick because one of the things I found really interesting when we did our mock draft exercise, our mock draft. See, he's the quadrilogy that you all, uh no one love uh you know that exercises. It's based heavily on team needs and we're assigning who you know, we would kind of take, uh when thinking about those team needs first and foremost, And because that's some guys who are probably valued higher end up in the twenties and etcetera, etcetera. Uh, we ended up assigning Jeremiah Wusu Coamoa to the Browns at twenty six, and it just sort of felt like, well, you know, on draft night, obviously you won't be available there, but you know he's a guy who would fit really well, but they need and instead on Draft night they get him at fifty two. So, uh, what sort of stood out to me for this pick? And obviously you know, I'll I will speak for you guys and say we all like the pick. Uh Isaiah Simmons. This time last year it was all about positionless football and Isaiah Simmons you can do anything you want with him. And for the Cardinals it kind of became this kind of thing where it was like they didn't know what to do with him. And I don't know if that's necessarily a huge knock on Mancy Joseph, who I think did a tremendous job with that defense last year, but they just couldn't find the right use for Isaiah Simmons and did that sort of rub off onto uh, the guy they called j Okay And is that the reason he ends up slipping is you had a lot of defensive coordinators saying like, I I get it. You know, here's a linebacker who you can almost play as a defensive back if you have to. But what is he what's you know, where do you end up playing him in our scheme? What's his position? And are we sort of maybe very quietly sliding away from positionless football because guys, I don't know, he seemed to he seemed to scare teams off in the end. Yeah, I think you're right, Gary, that precedent often does affect future players. And because the Simmons situation was somewhat hard to figure out and some frustrating, right, because he was this exciting player, one of the most talked about players, at least defensive players in last year's class, and to not see him make the impact that perhaps you would have hoped last season, I think did affect the stock of others this year. And I perhaps you look at j Okay and say, well, he doesn't even have everything that Simmons had, So Simmons couldn't succeed, then there's even lower chance that he could. But for the Browns, I mean I think that they also had a really tremendous draft and have a lot of you know, you know, they were a good team last year obviously, but here they used their first two picks on defensive players that can really make that unit even better. And you know, fill in some gaps make a strong secondary stronger. And I think they will find a place for j Okay. I think he will be a difference maker in their defense. Yeah, I think like just because one guy, you know, can't figure out how to use the tremendous player. And we talked about this all throughout the the preseason last year, but there's quotes um where their defensive coordinator saying, well, we're not going to really be able to use them, Like if we did it Clemson, why not you know what I mean? Like the drives me nuts, Like Clemson figured it out. Why don't you just figure it out? And so I think that they're probably hopefully other teams that are still bought into the idea of positionless football. And uh, you know, I think the Browns got to score here. I mean, they really did upgrade to the point where I think they have players that are good enough to cover just about anybody you know that they're going to face. And they really did a tremendous job of upgrading that defense. Alright, guys, we're gonna lightning is round this thing to wrap it up, and this will just be it'll be potpourri, it'll be miscellaneous, and we'll we'll go through drafts. We liked drafts, we didn't drafts we uh didn't really feel strongly about. But just want to call out one way or the other. Um I'll start. I I do want to mention the Falcons real quick, because look, I was hoping the Falcons either take one of the quarterbacks or trade out. I I, you know, I don't think they're a tight end away from from solving their issues, and I would have liked to see them just sort of load up on picks and and maybe use that on defense, etcetera, etcetera. But uh, you think about a guy like Kyle Pits, and you think about sort of the history of the Falcons, and when the Falcons came up and got Julio Jones that year and they gave up all this draft capital to jump up for a wide receiver, and it was kind of like, oh, well, this makes no sense unless Julio Jones ends up being like a Hall of Fame player, and well, Jones end up being a Hall of Fame player who kind of defined that, uh that franchise for a couple of years there. So maybe they get something similar here in Kyle Pits. If anyone in the draft, in this draft class is going to be that guy among the non quarterbacks, it's going to be Kyle Pits. So it was it was a look. Arthur Smith now has something to work with. He obviously has a plan for Kyle Pitts here and we'll see what what happens in Atlanta? All right? Is it our turn now, Gary to light around? It is? I just wanted to continue to express frustration, not frustration, but surprise and this kind of go sort conversation a couple of minutes ago. But I can't believe the Bengals passed up on school. I know Jamaar Chase is a tremendous weapon. He is a guy that any team would be lucky to have. He clearly has a college connection with Joe Burrow. But I feel as though they did an insufficient job of addressing their offensive line in this year's draft, and that was clearly the biggest need for the team. You know, all you have to do is look at Joe Burrow's knee right. He's rehabbing um because of protection struggles last year. And so the fact that Sewell wasn't taken by the Bengals is stunning to me. But also after that, even after taking Chase, they didn't aggressively go after that position in the way that they could have. It just makes so much It would have made so much more sense for them to get Sewell. And then Um, you know, there's there were still four or five really good receivers left on the board in the second round, and I think historically it just makes more sense that to do it that way, Um and the Bengals have had success getting guys in the second, third, fourth round at wide receiver before. I just I don't I don't understand the uh the order there. And then really I think what the really kind of knocked them out in my mind was that you also traded back in the second round, Um, and you missed out on like four or five that there was like that tackle run Um right there in the second round where you missed out on like Leah Mikenberg and a lot of a lot of these guys that would have been good value for your picks there. And then you end up with, you know, the player from Clemson who has injury issues, not really sure if he's gonna play guard tackle, And you know, why wouldn't you have just stayed there and and and gotten the guy that you knew you wanted. Um, I don't know. I think a lot of that was just the little bit scatter shop for me. Yeah. Absolutely, I've written this. I don't think I've spoken it out loud, But I do think this probably has something to do with the fact that, look, Joe Burrow was kind of reluctant coming out of LSU to be joined the Bengals organization. I think the Bengals are probably looking at what's going on with Aaron Rodgers and Russell Wilson and Matthew Stafford and other guys around the league and saying, well, let's let's get ahead of this a little bit. And if Joe Burrow was really stumping for his guy, because it's not like Jamaar Chase was like, you know, a guy he was gonna go second round. Um, he obviously is a very good player worthy of the of the draft slot. But you guys make a great point. I mean they, you know, they kind of missed out on their chance to address it in the second round, and you wonder if they sort of moved down thinking like, wow, certainly there won't be a run on offensive tackles here, and then it happened, and then you know, look, maybe Jackson Carmen was a guy all along, and he's a you know, interesting guy. He's probably gonna transition to guard here and we'll see how it goes. But uh, that's uh. I think that was the Bengals kind of getting ahead of I don't know, any kind of friction with their franchise quarterback, or at least franchise quarterback to be connor, it is your turn, mm hmmm. Um. I will say that if I had, if I had a gripe, necessarily, I mean, this is weird. This was because of the thinness of the draft class. I think that you could point to a lot of teams, like when I did the graft grades, the lowest grade that I gave a team was a C. I didn't give any d s or fs or anything like that. And I think that because of the relative thinness of the draft, I think a lot of teams that were in weird positions still had a chance to do okay things and and to to get decent players and so, um, I don't know, I thought it was like I thought it was on the whole, like not a completely destructive draft, like outside of the Raiders, like the Bengals made you could follow their thought process there, um outside the Raiders necessarily, Like there wasn't a team that I looked at and just said like, oh god, you know, like what's happening here? Um, you know, Miami for example, I really liked what they did because you're you're, you're just you're taking the home run swing at this point. You've done all the work to get the roster to this point. And then you get Jalen Phillips, who could be great, um or you know, could have his a long line of injury issues that forced him into semi retirement. Jalen Waddle could be great, um or you know, you might have an inability to use him correctly as an offense. But um, so I really like the teams that recognized where they were at as a roster and decided to just kind of go for it given the way that this class was set up. And so I thought that was kind of an interesting subplot of this draft. Yeah, I will say as far as Miami goes uh again, I worry about two a tongue of violoa and and the tape you put out last year. And I think all the things that we sort of said were strength for him, you know, pocket movement, accuracy, uh, decision making. I think all those things were problematic last year, which uh you look around the league and see the guys who are succeeding your your Josh Allen's or Justin Herbert's. The guys who sort of break out after year one are the are the traits guys. And I don't think Two is necessarily a trade guy. And I just think it's gonna be fascinating what happens the next couple of years because they might have now built this thing properly around him. You didn't have enough weapons. They had a lot of injuries at that receiving corps last year, and they did need to address that, and they did. Along with taking Jane Lottle, they add Will Fuller. Now you've got to speed guys who can absolutely separate uh. To seem to have some issues with sort of you know college open versus NFL Open last year, that's not an issue when you have guys who can sort of blow people away here. But it's uh, it's just gonna be fascinating. They threw away a season in order to get him, and they've if you look at it, they passed on Justin Herbert, they passed on uh, you know, uh Tree Lance, Justin Fields, mac Jones this year. If you want to go with one of those guys with the third pick. Uh, they have really gone all in on a quarterback the way that a few teams. Frankly, they just sort of had this fluky trade with Houston that gave him that number three pick, but a few teams have sort of had to do that, I don't know, recommitment ceremony to their uh maybe shaky rookie quarterback after year one year, and Miami is one of those teams and they're sticking with their guy and we'll see how it plays out. In fairness, grey Area will say that passing on Herbert looks a lot different now than it did a year ago. Right. I think there were few teams last year that preferred Herbert over to it was it was certainly overwhelmingly the other way around that that too was ahead of Herbert and Herbert took a huge jump in the NFL, and um, I think surprised a lot of people around the league. But yeah, I uh, basically, they executed a plan. They've executed the plan well in terms of accumulating draft capital and having a lot of chances to get top players economically, but that whole plan hinges on did they get the quarterback rights? And I think we have yet to know that answer. The other thing that's interesting is that there has just been a lot of turbulence on the Dolphins coaching staff and now they're going into a third straight year with with different offensive coordinators. It was O'Shea and then it was Gaily and now it's the co coordinators between Gods and Eric Stutsville. So, um, I think that will be interesting too because they haven't quite figured out that role under Brian Floores. He hasn't gotten what he wants from that position on his coaching staff and will this be the year that he does get what it is that he wants there? Did uh? Did you guys watch NFL Network or ESPN? I watched ESPN. I watched the Nickelodeon broadcast that would have been see. Now, the draft would be perfect for well I guess would be a little late for kids. Though. What happened to the after the Nickelodeon did a great job with the NFL broadcast, they were like, well, we're gonna do this with all sorts of properties, Like you're going to have whatever the cast of is. Below Deck a show, Yes, blow Deck is a Bravo show where they're like, people work on like a yacht. Okay, like the staff of the yacht. And they said like, well, like, okay, you'll watch a game with the below deck people, or you're watch a game with Okay Maloney and Mariska Harget from Law and Order, you know, like and it's just your favorite thing. Plus the NFL in a way to like juice ratings um and and perhaps divide us even further as a nation. I don't know, but um, you know, where was the idea for the draft? I would love to watch you know, uh, you know see um Jamaar Chase coming off the board, um with Mr Crabs and SpongeBob and uh and all my friends in bikini bottom. You know, I think that was the entertainment that we really needed, you know, And this is no fault of any of the networks that are broadcasting, but it's just a really rough combination with the ambient noise inside the draft set up and people on the stage entertaining and the fans up there. It's just like I just found the noise to be very overwhelming on night one. Um, and it was just a really painful listen. Um because of that, not because of what anyone was saying on the set, not because of anyone in the roles. I just like it was almost physically painful. Just's like the different sound inflections and variations was giving me a headache. I was gonna say, that's a really rough criticism of Leon. And you know, I thought it just to have Roger Goodell kind of pull it all together and be as cool and collected as he was. Um, you know, was really sort of an under uh, kind of an underrepresented storyline of this. And we can do an entire podcast really on how well I thought he handled everything, how I feel like he's growing into this sort of presenter role. He had like almost a Jimmy Fallon kind of vibe. I thought, Um, what here, Connor, I'm I'm just like stunned by this. Sorry to keep a straight face through that. Um, but yeah, It was fun, but just a little less Kings of Leon next time, Yeah, I had ESPN. I usually watch NFL Network. It was blacked out for some reason on my cable provider, but I watched the ESPN version and my Greenberg did it did a fine job. All those guys did a nice job. But uh, there was like a twenty minute period where like Mike Greenberg said Kings of Leon like I don't know seventeen times, and my wife was listening to the other room and she was just like, what are you watching. I was like, well, it's it's the Draft. Kings of Leon is playing that song. It's a it's a good it's it's a good song, perfectly good song. Nothing wrong with the band. I guess they're they're they're fine, but they're pretty okay. But like a strange that song was a strange marriage for Draft night, like wouldn't you want like a pump me up type song? Or like it was kind of a melancholy, little little little little tinge of emo. Well, em, I guess when I think Draft, I don't think my sex is on fire? Is all I'm saying. Is that one of their songs? Yeah? That well, that was their one and then use Somebody or whatever is the other one. Yeah, use Somebody was the one that I was like, why is this being played on draft nights? Yeah, just like a strange combination. It was. It's a statement about the I don't know ownership lab relationship in the NFL. Every draft should just start with Lou Holtz reading Dr Seuss. Oh the Places you Will go. That's the only way I just say. I was gonna say, Connor, I don't want any of that, Like, I don't want the Nickelodeon stuff. All I want is uh an adult swim version. I want Tim and Eric to put the whole production together. But I think Tim and Eric would not have to do a whole lot with lou Holtz reading Dr. Seuss to make it feel like a Tim and Eric production. There, it's just perfect. I would just like an option to mute the ambient noise. Okay, I'm with you there, all right? You want We're finishing the show on a very reasonable request. I don't I don't know if this fits the brand. Yeah, well we started off with a pretty hot take and say Connor say something crazy on the way out. Uh, Aaron Rodgers is gonna be a jet, back up, backing up, Zach Wilson. Boom. Alright, guys, you guys are back on the week Side podcast tomorrow. Go subscribe to that if you don't already, and we will be back with another medy show next week because we will have just tons more to talk about at this point in the NFL off season. The mm QB Monday Morning NFL Podcast is Jenny Brentis Connor Or and me Gary Grantling. We're produced by Shelby Royson. SI's executive producer or podcast is Scott Brody. Mark Rabig is emeritus editor of the MMQB, and you Annoy is the founder of the mm QB NFL Podcast. Be sure to subscribe to this feed, as well as the feeds for The week Side Podcast and the Albert Breer Show. They're all for free on Apple Podcasts and what you do, leave a rating and review for all of them. It really does help other people find the shows, which are also available on Spotify Radio dot com, Stitcher, SI dot com, and wherever else you listen to podcasts.