Speaker 1: The late fifteen to ten touched up Suck. What's up?
Speaker 2: Guys?
Speaker 1: Welcome into a special edition of Chargers Weekly, Live from Indianapolis,
Speaker 1: twenty twenty four, scouting Combine as was Joey by Mattmuddy
Speaker 1: Smith in the Flesh though, brother.
Speaker 3: I know exactly not not on a couple of TV
Speaker 3: screens in Indianapolis in the radio row if you will,
Speaker 3: area all the teams surrounding us. And this is Tuesday
Speaker 3: that we're doing this. So we had the Joe Ortise
Speaker 3: presser a little bit earlier. I have the one highlight
Speaker 3: Jim harbonugh not going to speak to the media in
Speaker 3: terms of people from the Chargers that will be.
Speaker 1: Doing Jim said enough February first hundred percent.
Speaker 3: So this has been and you know, to Jim's to
Speaker 3: quote him, this is the time that Joe is Batman.
Speaker 3: So this is when Batman is doing all the press.
Speaker 3: And that's what Joe was doing earlier today had his presser,
Speaker 3: did the CBS, the NBC, the Serious XM, all of
Speaker 3: those rounds had it chance to catch up with them
Speaker 3: a little bit after his presser, And I think it's
Speaker 3: worth just sort of setting the tone what we heard
Speaker 3: today and look, it's misinformation, it's misdirection, it's an agenda.
Speaker 3: There's so many things that go into what a team
Speaker 3: wants to present, and I think Joe did quite a
Speaker 3: bit of that from the podium today.
Speaker 1: He did seven AM pacifics, so it was early. A
Speaker 1: lot of you guys probably watched that on a replay.
Speaker 1: But you know, first of all, Joe's gonna tell us
Speaker 1: what he's gonna do. No, okay, there was a lot
Speaker 1: of questions about the cap and Keenan and Mike and
Speaker 1: Joey and Khalil and what they're going to do there,
Speaker 1: because that kind of sets the table for free agency.
Speaker 1: He did, I think, unprompted, talked about the wide receiver
Speaker 1: depth in the in the draft. Somebody asked them about
Speaker 1: the offensive tackle and offensive line depth, and obviously said
Speaker 1: good in both those fronts. But at number five overall,
Speaker 1: there's so many different things that they can do. And
Speaker 1: what JJ McCarthy and Michael Pennix and Bo Nix and
Speaker 1: the guys outside of the top three quard by what
Speaker 1: they do this week money could kind of dictate what
Speaker 1: other teams are thinking about the quarterback and maybe trade
Speaker 1: up for five.
Speaker 3: Yeah, you know, I've done I don't know how many
Speaker 3: combines going way back to when actually when NFL Network
Speaker 3: really first jumped in with both feet. Unfortunately, they've gotten
Speaker 3: out of the pool and they don't do nearly as
Speaker 3: much as they used to. But I used to sit
Speaker 3: on the field and I remember in the Andrew Luck
Speaker 3: RG three draft that nobody wanted to throw, and you know,
Speaker 3: Andrew Luck went. You know, obviously RG three was going
Speaker 3: to run the forty. And Andrew Luck did everything and
Speaker 3: all of but he didn't want to throw. And so
Speaker 3: what my takeaway from that draft was Russell Wilson started throwing,
Speaker 3: and he started spinning it. And the next thing you know,
Speaker 3: Cousins Brandon Whedon gets out there and starts throwing and
Speaker 3: he wasn't supposed to throw, and Ryan Tannehill Rantanna was
Speaker 3: hurt so he couldn't. But then Kirk Cousin gets and
Speaker 3: next thing you know, you've got this competition, and this
Speaker 3: quarterback competition emerged. And so what I think we're going
Speaker 3: to see is while a lot of people are off
Speaker 3: out of the drills because they're locked into the top
Speaker 3: ten and perhaps there's nothing for them to gain in
Speaker 3: Thelik neighbors and Marvin Harrison, and obviously Caleb Williams and
Speaker 3: Jade and Daniels. I don't know if we've heard from
Speaker 3: Drake May yet or not. I don't know if he's
Speaker 3: thrown around. He may be, he may be, but uh
Speaker 3: and I retweet. I retweeted Dane Brugler, who does it
Speaker 3: for the athletic. He said, JJ McCarthy's got the spotlight,
Speaker 3: like it's all him. We've heard he's gonna ace the interviews,
Speaker 3: and he now has an opportunity to go out there
Speaker 3: and put on a show and perhaps improve his draft
Speaker 3: status of where he thought he might go. And I
Speaker 3: bring it up because I think that is best case
Speaker 3: scenario for the Chargers, is there are four quarterbacks, not three,
Speaker 3: Because I just don't it's hard for me to envision.
Speaker 3: I've said this repeatedly on the pot.
Speaker 1: I just don't.
Speaker 3: Envision a scenario where it's not one, two three, where
Speaker 3: it's not Drake May, Jade and Daniels after Caleb Williams
Speaker 3: and you know, whichever order I ultimately think'll be Drake
Speaker 3: May second, Jayden Daniels third. But I just to me,
Speaker 3: that makes too much sense. It's just it lines up
Speaker 3: too well, they're all way too talented not to go one, two, three,
Speaker 3: and now you've got to figure out, you know. And
Speaker 3: what Dane had had tweeted out was he feels like
Speaker 3: there is enough buzz that it's beyond just trying to
Speaker 3: create something that one of these teams in the top thirteen,
Speaker 3: if you cap it at the Raiders and Broncos there
Speaker 3: at you know, Vikings, Broncos, Raiders in that order, one
Speaker 3: of those teams is gonna want JJ McCarthy and they're
Speaker 3: probably gonna have to trade up to get him. And
Speaker 3: that's that's what we're looking for.
Speaker 1: So if we're looking at obviously we know the Broncos
Speaker 1: and Raiders looking for a quarterback, but the teams that
Speaker 1: I think that we would prefer to trade with are
Speaker 1: teams like the Falcons at number eight overall, even the
Speaker 1: Giants at six, to move up a spot to ensure
Speaker 1: that you get the quarterback that you want because Daniel
Speaker 1: Jones may not be the guy beyond twenty twenty four.
Speaker 1: Maybe you pick up an extra second there and then
Speaker 1: you can kind of build in a crew from there.
Speaker 1: But I'm just looking at, you know, seeing Raheem Morris
Speaker 1: and tear Font. Knowing those guys they were here, you
Speaker 1: could tell that they feel like they're a quarterback away
Speaker 1: and maybe that is a JJ McCarthy or mich or
Speaker 1: maybe it's a Kirk Cousins, or maybe it's a that's
Speaker 1: a thing. It's a question of, you know, free agency
Speaker 1: is going to impact which of those teams. You know,
Speaker 1: I was talking with with Popper a little earlier, you know,
Speaker 1: we were breaking out the old Jimmy Johnson trade chart
Speaker 1: and trying to figure it out, and he was saying, Oh,
Speaker 1: I'd rather have a next year's number one from the
Speaker 1: Falcons instead of this year's number two. And to my point,
Speaker 1: I said, if that's you know what we're talking about,
Speaker 1: what I would then prefer to go down to eleven
Speaker 1: with Minnesota. With Minnesota so I can get the one
Speaker 1: and the two, Because if you're going eleven to five,
Speaker 1: you're gonna have to give up your two, and you're
Speaker 1: gonna have to give up next year's one and I
Speaker 1: And that's where I start to question, you know, how
Speaker 1: much can you really get for JJ McCarthy. I don't
Speaker 1: I don't know if a team would be comfortable giving
Speaker 1: up their first two picks in this draft, and there
Speaker 1: their number one next year. Now, if you're you know,
Speaker 1: you think about what the Texans did and all the
Speaker 1: incoming they took for trading back up to get will
Speaker 1: will Anderson because you know, Tamiko Ryans believed this is
Speaker 1: going to be the quarterback of our defense. This is
Speaker 1: going to change our culture, this is going to set
Speaker 1: the tone. And he was right because the number one
Speaker 1: that he traded for will Anderson was number twenty five
Speaker 1: overall or twenty six overall this year. Wherever that one
Speaker 1: comes in, uh that that Arizona ends up getting in
Speaker 1: lieu of will Anderson at number three overall. So I
Speaker 1: think it's again it just takes one team, and it's
Speaker 1: a team that maybe has that vision that JJ McCarthy
Speaker 1: is that special that can do the Chargers that favor
Speaker 1: of getting that extra top one hundred pick, maybe even
Speaker 1: two extra top one hundred picks if you don't want
Speaker 1: to hold him up for a one next year. So
Speaker 1: if you trade back with the Falcons at eight, you
Speaker 1: could probably still get a I A agree or neighbors
Speaker 1: he's got three or four seven.
Speaker 3: I just Dunsa is going to put on a show
Speaker 3: like I've I've talked to enough people there. He is
Speaker 3: going to put on a show. He's going to probably
Speaker 3: run a sub four four and he's gonna run it
Speaker 3: at six foot two, two hundred and fifteen pounds, and
Speaker 3: he's gonna he is going to light the freaking drills
Speaker 3: on fire.
Speaker 1: So that's the thing. Okay, So if that's the case,
Speaker 1: you get four quarterbacks gone and you have all three
Speaker 1: wide receivers.
Speaker 3: Well three, I think, I think you're guaranteed three, and
Speaker 3: I just I feel like, yeah, I feel like a Douneesay, Neighbors,
Speaker 3: and Harrison are probably going to be the next three
Speaker 3: guys off the board unless the team wants to trade up.
Speaker 3: I think that's what you're gonna see as quarterback, quarterback, quarterback,
Speaker 3: wide receiver, wide receiver, wide receiver, unless somehow McCarthy works
Speaker 3: his way into that. So if that's the case, then yes,
Speaker 3: you could trade back to eight and perhaps get yourself
Speaker 3: either Neighbors or a Duneesay. I just you know, if
Speaker 3: you look at the Titans and you think about how
Speaker 3: it's it's one of the worst offensive lines in football,
Speaker 3: it'd be very hard for them to pass on a
Speaker 3: Joe alt or a Fashano someone to set at least
Speaker 3: get them on track on their offensive line. That's just
Speaker 3: kind of the one wild card in that that could
Speaker 3: then end up seeing you get one of the wide
Speaker 3: receivers to sip. But I again, I go back to
Speaker 3: what Joe said, Joe Ortiz said at the presser, and
Speaker 3: that's a really deep wide receiver class, and I just
Speaker 3: think there's more value to me just knowing what the
Speaker 3: premium of a position is. And you know, we talked
Speaker 3: I think we talked about this last week, Chris. Where
Speaker 3: you know when you're when you have the same great
Speaker 3: you know, if if you can, if you've got your
Speaker 3: horizontal you've got your horizontal boards right, so it's positioned
Speaker 3: by position. So here's your tackles, here's your wide receivers,
Speaker 3: here's your tight ends, here's your corners. And then you've
Speaker 3: got your verticals of how you rank each of those
Speaker 3: position groups. And then typically on a board over here,
Speaker 3: you'll have your vertical one fifty. So if I'm looking
Speaker 3: at this vertical one fifty and I've got all my grades,
Speaker 3: you know, here here's a six nine, a sixty seven,
Speaker 3: This guy's a six ' four. This guy's a six
Speaker 3: two and I'm now getting into the five. You've got
Speaker 3: to think about what the gap is. But on your
Speaker 3: wide receiver rankings, on your corner rankings, on your tackle rankings.
Speaker 3: To me, those are the three big positions for this
Speaker 3: team this draft, right, and that's what's going to dictate. Hey,
Speaker 3: if we don't, if we don't, you know, draft roma
Speaker 3: doun say at number five, how do we feel about
Speaker 3: Troy Franklin? How do we feel about one of the
Speaker 3: Texas receivers? About Polk from Washington? About you know, Thomas
Speaker 3: isn't kind of slide into the second round, But like
Speaker 3: that's what you got to start asking yourself versus how
Speaker 3: do we feel about this tackle versus one of Fuaga, Fashanu,
Speaker 3: all Latham, you know that group that we feel good
Speaker 3: about getting even if we trade all the way back
Speaker 3: to to thirteen or fifteen or.
Speaker 1: Something like that. So it seems like I don't know
Speaker 1: if there is a consensus at tackle. Maybe it's all
Speaker 1: you know, I feel like if you had to pull
Speaker 1: most people, it would be all at number one in
Speaker 1: terms of tackle. But when you get to eight or
Speaker 1: ideally eleven, you're in Brock Bauers territory too. There you are, like, so,
Speaker 1: so maybe you can get a guy like Brock Bowers.
Speaker 1: But before you even try to put that puzzle together,
Speaker 1: Joe's got some cap issues to deal with, starting with
Speaker 1: Keenann and Mike Williams. And how is that going to
Speaker 1: shake out? And how does that dictate how you rework
Speaker 1: the wide receiver room? Joey and Khalil, who you're gonna
Speaker 1: put on the other side of Tooley next year? Are
Speaker 1: both guys going to be gone? Is one guy gonna
Speaker 1: stick around? Those are all these questions that are going
Speaker 1: to be answered the next couple of weeks, then free agency,
Speaker 1: and then based on what you did in free agency,
Speaker 1: I think you can really start to put the pieces
Speaker 1: of the draft together.
Speaker 3: So what I got a lot of, you know, a
Speaker 3: lot of correspondence with the kite, the cap spiking as
Speaker 3: much as it did. Nobody expected it to go up
Speaker 3: thirty million bucks. They may be expected four to five million.
Speaker 3: Chargers are still in fifty five million dollars a cap.
Speaker 3: Hell that they've got to restructure thirty million bucks means
Speaker 3: they are now only thirty five million dollars have KEP
Speaker 3: But so They're like, well, does that you know, And
Speaker 3: a lot of people are asking, does that mean they
Speaker 3: can keep Joey? Does that mean they can keep Khalil
Speaker 3: and maybe even Mike Lintz. Yeah, it does. But the
Speaker 3: first thing that I thought of is that now opens
Speaker 3: that trade door a lot more than it had before
Speaker 3: when you add the thirty million dollars. Now maybe there
Speaker 3: is a team that did not anticipate having that thirty
Speaker 3: million bucks that can immediately plug in Joey Bosa's thirty
Speaker 3: million dollars and they're happy to give you a Day
Speaker 3: two pick, you know, a second or a third.
Speaker 1: Or Khalil's the missing piece for exactly.
Speaker 3: Or Khalil, And now you can trade a third or
Speaker 3: a fourth for Khalil Mack and that completely changes the
Speaker 3: dead cap situation for the Chargers. Now you'll probably have
Speaker 3: to maybe take a little bit of that money on,
Speaker 3: and however much you take on can determine, you know,
Speaker 3: what kind of pick you're getting back. But that's the
Speaker 3: first thing I thought of, is now, where maybe you
Speaker 3: had a very limited number of people that would be
Speaker 3: willing to engage in a trade for one of those players,
Speaker 3: maybe now they're open to it. They're a little more
Speaker 3: open to it. So and maybe now you can restructure
Speaker 3: mic and make it a little more friendly and cross
Speaker 3: your fingers and hope he stays healthy, and you know,
Speaker 3: maybe I can think. The thing that's interesting about Mike
Speaker 3: is like, I get what they were doing by playing
Speaker 3: him inside and trying to move Keenan outside, and let's
Speaker 3: just mix up our looks and let's pressure the defense more.
Speaker 3: But just Mike's just a straight line runner, man. He's
Speaker 3: a straight line fifty to fifty guy. He's so tall,
Speaker 3: and when you put him inside, you just you invite
Speaker 3: those sort of injuries to happen with all that traffic
Speaker 3: in there. So I think that's one where it'd be
Speaker 3: an interesting discussion, like, hey, was this a product of
Speaker 3: maybe is talented as he is. We get what you're thinking,
Speaker 3: but ultimately you don't want him in that mix in there.
Speaker 3: That's where bad things happen. So it'll be interesting. Getting
Speaker 3: the extra thirty million bucks and that was the big
Speaker 3: breaking news from this last week certainly changes the discussion.
Speaker 3: But I think it changes it on both sides. Teams
Speaker 3: that are willing to give up draft capital for your players,
Speaker 3: and what can the Chargers now do with these guys.
Speaker 1: Because of the wide receiver depth. Though it also leads
Speaker 1: the question of, hey, do you just kind of reset
Speaker 1: Justin Herbert's weapons now right? Get guys on rookie deals.
Speaker 1: Quentin's already in his rookie deal year two, and you know,
Speaker 1: we'll talk to Sam Watson about a ton of draft
Speaker 1: stuff here coming up, but can you kind of reset
Speaker 1: what Justin's weapons look like with a brock Bauers with
Speaker 1: with a Neighbors or a doing say with some of
Speaker 1: these guys in the second and third round because of
Speaker 1: the depth, and really have these guys on cost controlled
Speaker 1: deals while Justin's contract is so you know, gigantic. You know,
Speaker 1: you kind of reset the market in terms of who
Speaker 1: you have at your pass catchers, retool the running game,
Speaker 1: and then defensively. You know, we'll get into some of
Speaker 1: the maybe the Michigan guys that you can get in
Speaker 1: the draft and what you'll do in free agency. But
Speaker 1: I just think it's an interesting conversation and nothing can
Speaker 1: really be said until we know what Keenan and Mike
Speaker 1: look like twenty twenty four and beyond me.
Speaker 3: I think that And there's also a name that's as interesting,
Speaker 3: if not more. And that's Josh Palmer, you know, if
Speaker 3: you want to try to do an extension with him
Speaker 3: right now? And I look, I believe Josh is a
Speaker 3: top easily he can be a two. You know, if
Speaker 3: he's a one, he can be a Keenan like one
Speaker 3: on an offense. Right, So to me, that's an interesting one.
Speaker 3: You know that no one's talking about. He's coming up
Speaker 3: on the last year of his deal. Do you want
Speaker 3: to avoid him going into an unrestricted free agency or
Speaker 3: is Josh Palmer that perfect comp pit guy where you
Speaker 3: think he's going to have a big year, he goes
Speaker 3: into free agency coming off a monster year, gets signed elsewhere,
Speaker 3: and now you're looking at a third round comp pick
Speaker 3: because he's a one thousand plus yard receiver with eight
Speaker 3: plus touchdowns and he signs a big money deal somewhere.
Speaker 1: That probably makes more sense because these guys haven't had
Speaker 1: they haven't got their hands on Josh yet, they've seen
Speaker 1: the tape exactly.
Speaker 3: So that's that's the question. Though, Is that more of
Speaker 3: a value than Hey, Josh, how about how about three
Speaker 3: years thirty eight million bucks? How's that sound to you?
Speaker 3: You know, three years thirty five million bucks. You know,
Speaker 3: let's get a little bit of money in your pocket.
Speaker 3: You're not going to break the bank with a thirty
Speaker 3: million dollars a year wide receiver type contract. But we're
Speaker 3: comfortable enough. And now you've got Quinton on a rookie deal.
Speaker 3: You've got Palmer at an INCREDI affordable number, Keenan at
Speaker 3: a spot in his career where clearly he's not gonna
Speaker 3: have the same you know, if you just keep his
Speaker 3: number where it is now that's up and you've completely
Speaker 3: reset it.
Speaker 1: Similar to what Tom did with Austin, right, he kind
Speaker 1: of said, hey, you know what, we want you a charger.
Speaker 1: We're gonna give you a nice little.
Speaker 3: Bump twenty eight million bucks over four years. It's not
Speaker 3: twelve million a year, but it's your set for life, yea,
Speaker 3: you know, it's generational money.
Speaker 1: Then he outplayed it, and then that's what happened. But
Speaker 1: that's what happened exactly. Hey, we have a great interview
Speaker 1: with Sam monson PFF coming up in tons of interviews
Speaker 1: all week, but without further ado here Sam all right
Speaker 1: money as promised. Sam Monson PFF joins us here live
Speaker 1: from Indianapolis and Sam, we've talked about the Chargers at nauseum,
Speaker 1: obviously with Joe Hortiz speaking at the podium. Your thoughts
Speaker 1: on this team now with hardball, horts and tow and
Speaker 1: the number five overall pick.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I mean, I think they're gonna be one of
Speaker 4: the most interesting teams in the NFL because of that
Speaker 4: right and new regime, one of the most compelling names
Speaker 4: the NFL at the head of the whole thing and
Speaker 4: draft capital. You know, they're picking up at the top,
Speaker 4: and they're picking up at the top with without a
Speaker 4: quarterback need. You know, in a draft where quarterbacks could
Speaker 4: go one, two, three, So they're gonna have this prime
Speaker 4: pick to get one of the best, one of the
Speaker 4: top blue chip players in the draft, probably, you know,
Speaker 4: in a position of need.
Speaker 3: We heard in his intro presser. You know, compicks was
Speaker 3: a big theme of Georgie's You know how Baltimore's drafted
Speaker 3: all these years. Sam, So some have described it as
Speaker 3: top heavy blue chip at number five, What do you
Speaker 3: think makes the most sense for when you look at
Speaker 3: the Chargers roster, if there is a willing partner, you
Speaker 3: can pick up an extra maybe second, maybe even a
Speaker 3: future one, depending on how far you go back. Would
Speaker 3: you take the blue chip at five or would you
Speaker 3: be looking to say, get somewhere inside the top fifteen.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I mean it always depends a little bit exactly
Speaker 4: who's there.
Speaker 5: You know.
Speaker 4: I think generally speaking, they're going to be in a
Speaker 4: position where they can get one of the best wide
Speaker 4: receivers in this draft. And if you assume Marvin Harrison
Speaker 4: Junior will be the number one guy, he'll get h three,
Speaker 4: he'll go four, He'll probably be gone by five. In
Speaker 4: any other year, I think Melik Neighbors or Roma Dunze
Speaker 4: would be wide receiver one. You know, it's only because
Speaker 4: Marvin Harrison Junior is there that those guys probably won't
Speaker 4: be this year. So you know, you could look at
Speaker 4: it and say, well, we're drafting wide receiver two or
Speaker 4: three at this spot. But I think in any other
Speaker 4: year you're drafting wide receiver one. Right, you're drafting a
Speaker 4: top tier talent of that spot. So that's not to
Speaker 4: say you don't move off that if somebody's willing to
Speaker 4: offer or something crazy and you don't have to drop
Speaker 4: back that far, you know, maybe you could get the
Speaker 4: other one right, Maybe you could draft Melik Neighbors at
Speaker 4: five and Roma Dunze at nine or ten or whatever.
Speaker 4: And I think that's still a deal you should take
Speaker 4: if that's on the table. But you know, I think
Speaker 4: either way, they're in a good situation.
Speaker 1: Sam when you look at five, let's say they move
Speaker 1: out right, the difference between a Maleague Neighbors in Rome
Speaker 1: with Dunza as opposed to a Brian Thomas or some
Speaker 1: of these other wide receivers. Knowing that Justin Herbert is
Speaker 1: your quarterback, right typically, you know, if you have a
Speaker 1: blue chip wide receiver five, you probably want to take
Speaker 1: that guy. But because Justin's your quarterback, because you can
Speaker 1: accrue some other picks, what's the the gap between those
Speaker 1: first three guys and then four through whoever?
Speaker 4: Yeah, it's funny. I mean there's there's two different ways
Speaker 4: of looking at it.
Speaker 6: Right.
Speaker 4: There's the let's evaluate them all as prospects, let's put
Speaker 4: them through the grading system, let's sort of figure out
Speaker 4: where we think they live.
Speaker 6: And then there's let's remember Pooka and Akua.
Speaker 4: He's the best wide receiver in you know, in the
Speaker 4: rookie class, and all this might be irrelevant, like we
Speaker 4: might be talking about a guy in the sixth round
Speaker 4: that's the best guy in this draft as well. So
Speaker 4: I think when you look at them, there is a
Speaker 4: gap between adun Say neighbors Marvin Harrison Junior and the
Speaker 4: next group. I'm higher on Oregon's Troy Franklin than a
Speaker 4: lot of people. I think he's closer to that trio
Speaker 4: than most people do. But after that, I do think
Speaker 4: that that you see a drop off. They're just not
Speaker 4: as It's not that they don't have the skill set,
Speaker 4: they're just not as consistent. They don't have the clean
Speaker 4: bill of health in terms of all areas of of
Speaker 4: being a high level prospect. But I do think this
Speaker 4: is a really strong wide receiver draft class. It's deep
Speaker 4: as well, and you know, given how much success we're
Speaker 4: seeing of wide receivers just come into the NFL, hit
Speaker 4: the ground running, translate really well and doing it all
Speaker 4: the way through recent drafts. Not just Pooka and Akua,
Speaker 4: but you know, Tank Dell was a third rounder, looked
Speaker 4: amazing before he broke his leg. I think if you
Speaker 4: can get more swings at the at the bat, take it.
Speaker 3: Yes, you know, we were at Joe Ortiz's presser a
Speaker 3: little bit earlier, and I don't think he was. It
Speaker 3: wasn't solicited. I think he just offered it up. He
Speaker 3: talked about the depth of the wide receiver group and
Speaker 3: how every single year since he's been doing this, there
Speaker 3: are more and more because of the style of play
Speaker 3: of college football. So I don't know if that's an
Speaker 3: indicator if he's planting a seed. But I think for
Speaker 3: the folks listening because you know, they want the shiny toy,
Speaker 3: they want the running back, the tight end, the wide receiver.
Speaker 3: They don't get too excited about offensive line. But and
Speaker 3: listening to Greg Roman and listen to Jim Harbaugh, even
Speaker 3: Joel Hortiz, that to me, that is being signaled that like,
Speaker 3: that's sort of what they would like to do. So
Speaker 3: in all of your evaluations at PFF, SAM, how deep
Speaker 3: is this tackle class? If you can think back historically,
Speaker 3: how often do you see top tackles drafted outside of
Speaker 3: the first dround?
Speaker 1: Right? For me, I feel like we just don't see that.
Speaker 4: So I think this is a deeper tackle class than
Speaker 4: it usually is. Since PFF has been great in college football,
Speaker 4: so that goes back to twenty fourteen, I feel like
Speaker 4: it's been a very barren stretch of offensive tackles coming
Speaker 4: into the NFL generally, and multiple times we've kind of
Speaker 4: looked at the landscape pre draft and we're like, there
Speaker 4: aren't good tackles in this draft, Like where are all
Speaker 4: these guys. This is a better year than that, and
Speaker 4: it's deeper than that as well. So it's a reasonably
Speaker 4: good offensive tackle draft class. But no position is like
Speaker 4: wide receiver at the moment, where there's just so many
Speaker 4: of these guys so deep. Like we're going through, you know,
Speaker 4: doing our draft study and you're like twenty guys deep
Speaker 4: and you're finding receivers you still like, you know, and
Speaker 4: then yeah, and even then you're getting beyond that, there's
Speaker 4: people like, wow, you got to watch this guy, Like
Speaker 4: I haven't even looked at him yet. I mean, Puka
Speaker 4: and Akul last year was somebody that the PFF data
Speaker 4: had identified that that the tape was good obviously, and
Speaker 4: you know, we we didn't really get deep enough into
Speaker 4: his tape to sort of fully appreciate what he was.
Speaker 4: But it's not like he wasn't a guy that like
Speaker 4: there was no evidence that said he was gonna be
Speaker 4: good the next Lecal it was all there we just
Speaker 4: didn't get that deep. Like that's what the wide receiver
Speaker 4: draft class is looking like these days. So and I
Speaker 4: love what the Green Bay Packers tend to do as
Speaker 4: an organization in terms of, Okay, we need a wide receiver.
Speaker 4: We're not gonna take one, We're gonna take two or three,
Speaker 4: and then maybe it's not the guy that we thought
Speaker 4: was the best one ends up being the guy like
Speaker 4: Dontavian Wicks was their best rookie wide receiver. So I
Speaker 4: love that as a strategy as well. Maybe we don't
Speaker 4: take a receiver at five, maybe we trade down, but
Speaker 4: then we're gonna draft two or three of them and
Speaker 4: one of the guys is gonna end up being the
Speaker 4: player that we needed to be.
Speaker 1: Just stick with wide receiver. The Chargers have decisions to
Speaker 1: make on Mike Williams and Keenan Allen, and you know
Speaker 1: we're a you're removed from drifting Quinton Johnston in the
Speaker 1: first round. What was the grade that you guys had
Speaker 1: on Quinton, Because forgive me, I don't have it up,
Speaker 1: but just drops were obviously the problem with Quinton this year.
Speaker 1: Can you see him rebounding in a new offense under
Speaker 1: Jim Harble.
Speaker 4: I think there's a skill set there that can work.
Speaker 4: I think he's clearly a limited wide receiver. He's not,
Speaker 4: you know, a complete total package, a true number one guy,
Speaker 4: but he does have things that he does really well.
Speaker 6: He's big, he's strong, he's fast.
Speaker 4: The weirdly, the best thing that he does is catch
Speaker 4: a hitch, immediately turn up field and use like direct
Speaker 4: line acceleration speed and that kind of thing. I was
Speaker 4: a lot lower than him on him than most people.
Speaker 4: Given last year's draft class, it was really deep, but
Speaker 4: it did it wasn't as top heavy as this year's group,
Speaker 4: So I still think he belonged, you know, in the
Speaker 4: top four or five guys.
Speaker 6: I think I still had him number three.
Speaker 4: I'm perpetually kicking myself that I didn't have the guts
Speaker 4: to put Tank Dell above him in my rankings. I
Speaker 4: had Johnson three, Tank Dell four, and I couldn't bring
Speaker 4: myself to put a five foot eight, one hundred and
Speaker 4: sixty pound guy ahead of Quinton Johnson. I was like, no,
Speaker 4: he must be better than that. But I think we
Speaker 4: saw last season. You know, there's not enough to his
Speaker 4: game yet. But wide receiver is a position where a
Speaker 4: very flawed type of player can still have a really
Speaker 4: good role because you don't have to be a complete player.
Speaker 4: You can do three things. And if all you can
Speaker 4: do is three things, we can find a way of
Speaker 4: making that work. Now, you can't have a whole receiving
Speaker 4: core that can only do that, because that then the
Speaker 4: jigsaw puzzle doesn't work. But if we have one guy
Speaker 4: that is very limited, is very flawed, but can do
Speaker 4: a couple of things really well, we can fit that in.
Speaker 4: So I think there's still a role to be played
Speaker 4: for Johnson, but you're gonna need to build the receiving
Speaker 4: corps around him and then slot him into the puzzle.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 3: The worst thing was that Mike Williams got hurt because
Speaker 3: if there's one thing that Clinton wasn't it was Mike Williams. Yeah,
Speaker 3: tracking the ball over his head, catching the ball that
Speaker 3: that's just you know, deep balls in that particular situation,
Speaker 3: just was that was his app weakness.
Speaker 4: Yeah, and now you needed to push him into a
Speaker 4: role that he just wasn't suited for.
Speaker 3: Uh, you mentioned the nugs. You know, you guys, you
Speaker 3: and Steve on the on the pod always come up
Speaker 3: with with players that you identified that other people, you know,
Speaker 3: may be lower on the one that I think of
Speaker 3: that Steve just would pound and you know, good for him.
Speaker 3: Was Christian Barmore, like he was just bar more part NonStop?
Speaker 3: Who is it this year? Have you identified the sam
Speaker 3: player that that you are much higher on than everyone else?
Speaker 4: I think Jalen Polk might be that guy, the Washington
Speaker 4: wide receiver. Everyone's focusing on a Dunza. Jalen Polk was
Speaker 4: a guy that jumped off the tape as much as
Speaker 4: a Dunze when you were watching Washington tape.
Speaker 6: I think when I went through and did the.
Speaker 4: Sort of whole wide receiver group, I was a little
Speaker 4: bit less high on him than I thought I was
Speaker 4: going in just because of the sort of highlights that
Speaker 4: I caught. But he's a really good player, I think.
Speaker 4: And he's good at the right things, Like he separates well,
Speaker 4: he gets open, he understands how to how to beat
Speaker 4: man En zone coverage. And he's sort of bigger. He's
Speaker 4: bigger and stronger than people think he is. Like he
Speaker 4: gets kind of pegged as a smaller slot guy that's
Speaker 4: not madonze. He's like six two to ten, Like he's prototypical. Yeah,
Speaker 4: it's like prototypical wide receiver size. So I think he's
Speaker 4: gonna be a guy that I'm higher on the most people.
Speaker 1: Eighteen Michigan guys are here. Yeah, eighteen Michigan guys are good.
Speaker 1: In fact that Jim Harball is the head coach. If
Speaker 1: you had to identify maybe like two or three that
Speaker 1: would fit really well based on Jesse Minner being the
Speaker 1: DC and some of the needs that the Chargers have.
Speaker 1: Who would those guys be even early mid rounds whatever?
Speaker 1: I mean.
Speaker 4: I think the most obvious one is actually sticking with
Speaker 4: wide receivers. It's Roman Wilson and he people are talking
Speaker 4: about him gonna run extremely quickly at the combine as well.
Speaker 4: He had an amazing senior ball during the practices as well,
Speaker 4: and his tape is good, Like you look at the tape,
Speaker 4: you're not again like Pukinakua. It's not hidden, like this
Speaker 4: guy has had a really good college career and it
Speaker 4: fits in need and it means that maybe you don't
Speaker 4: either don't use number five on one of those receivers,
Speaker 4: or you come back again in the mid rounds and
Speaker 4: grab a guy like Roman Wilson and unlet's double up
Speaker 4: and add two playmakers instead of one.
Speaker 1: What about defense?
Speaker 4: Yeah, I mean defense. I think that group is insanely good.
Speaker 4: Obviously we saw it a year ago. I'm you know,
Speaker 4: the Chargers have got some holes, so I think they
Speaker 4: could definitely dip into the Michigan well and grab a
Speaker 4: couple of those guys.
Speaker 3: It's not a sexy, but you know it's not. Maybe
Speaker 3: it will be a forty, but Chris Jenkins is gonna
Speaker 3: put on a show. Yeah, he is going to put
Speaker 3: on a show at the Combine. And I wouldn't be
Speaker 3: surprised at all if he's snuck into the first round
Speaker 3: when it's I mean, I know the measurables aren't quite there,
Speaker 3: he's not quite as tall, but my god, he's just
Speaker 3: gonna explode on that field.
Speaker 4: Yeah, and he's just a great example of a guy
Speaker 4: where I don't think the measurables mean that much. You know,
Speaker 4: his tape is amazing. He's just a good football player.
Speaker 4: We know what his dad was able to do in
Speaker 4: the NFL. He's gonna be good.
Speaker 3: I want to go back to the tackles because I
Speaker 3: just I don't know, I have this feeling that that's
Speaker 3: and I don't know if it's interior, if it's a
Speaker 3: center in the second round, if they add a second
Speaker 3: second rounder and use those two to trade back into
Speaker 3: the first round of Powers Johnson is available, but just
Speaker 3: kind of where you have where you and everyone at PFF,
Speaker 3: if you want to, you know, I guess speak for
Speaker 3: them as well, have kind of the tackles stacked, knowing
Speaker 3: that they've got it. And I believe that that Rashaun
Speaker 3: Slater can can be the best offensive lineman in football
Speaker 3: at some point in his career. So if he's stacked,
Speaker 3: if he's locked in at left, if you're drafting the
Speaker 3: right tackle, or let's just say you trade back far
Speaker 3: enough where Powers Johnson becomes a serious conversation. What do
Speaker 3: you see on that right side? Are you comfortable in
Speaker 3: what you've seen from all to flip him to the
Speaker 3: right side? Is it fuaga because he's your natural sort
Speaker 3: of road greater right? Like, what would you do at
Speaker 3: right tackle? Or would you take that center knowing that
Speaker 3: Corey Linsley's probably going to retire right?
Speaker 4: I mean Powers Johnson really the only read the only
Speaker 4: red flag negative about him is injuries, you know, which
Speaker 4: is a question mark his tape is insane, his production
Speaker 4: is nuts. He's going to be an amazing player as
Speaker 4: long as he's healthy, but that is a factor. You know,
Speaker 4: he got injured at the Senior Bowl. He's he's an
Speaker 4: injury question mark at this point. The right tackles are interesting,
Speaker 4: Like I think, generally, if you're taking a player in
Speaker 4: the draft, you can probably assume that you can move
Speaker 4: him to right tackle day one with no issue. Right
Speaker 4: as a general fault starting position. Now, not everybody is
Speaker 4: going to be able to make that switch. There are
Speaker 4: going to be guys where it just doesn't work for
Speaker 4: some reason. You know, they're incredibly one sided and it
Speaker 4: just doesn't function swipt swapping them over. But generally speaking,
Speaker 4: I think it does and as long as you do
Speaker 4: it day one, it's not a problem. The problems start
Speaker 4: to occur. I think when you take a guy that's
Speaker 4: played one side, you know, in the NFL for a
Speaker 4: long period of time, and then you start messing around
Speaker 4: asking him to flip sides, that I think can become
Speaker 4: a problem.
Speaker 6: But you know, I don't.
Speaker 4: I think now the two positions are the same. It's
Speaker 4: not that you know, in traditional senses, you would if
Speaker 4: you go back a few years. You would look at
Speaker 4: Olo Fashionu from Penn State and Fuaga from Oregon State,
Speaker 4: and you're like prototypical left tackle, prototypical right tackle. You know, footwork,
Speaker 4: pass protection, little bit of a weakness maybe as a
Speaker 4: run blocker. And then on the other side you got
Speaker 4: road grading monsters as a run blocker, and if he
Speaker 4: has a weakness, it's going to be in the past
Speaker 4: pro side. I don't think that exists anymore. They just
Speaker 4: happen to fall into the stereotypes that they'll work. That
Speaker 4: being said, if you've got two guys that are equal,
Speaker 4: take the guy that's already playing in that position. Because
Speaker 4: you don't have that variable, you're not adding an extra
Speaker 4: question mark to it. So you know, I think all
Speaker 4: three of those guys are elite level tackle prospects. Fashion
Speaker 4: News pass protection, his footwork is insane. I think Joe
Speaker 4: Altrom Notre Dame is like the best composite where he's
Speaker 4: just good at everything. He's a massive body, like six ' eight,
Speaker 4: he's just huge, great technician, strong, and then Fuaga is
Speaker 4: this guy who he's got the offensive line equivalent of
Speaker 4: that the touch of death that MMA guys talk about
Speaker 4: right where he hits you, You're dumber, right, he gets
Speaker 4: his hands on you in the run game, forget it,
Speaker 4: you're out of the play game over. And he's good
Speaker 4: enough as a pass blocker. He's not this like liability
Speaker 4: at that side. So I think any of those guys
Speaker 4: are honestly in play. Maybe not quite at five. I
Speaker 4: maybe I'm just being falling into that stereotype trap. But
Speaker 4: for I go at five feels a little rich. The
Speaker 4: other two guys I think are definitely live options.
Speaker 1: There sam the two hot names among Arder fans. We
Speaker 1: read about it every week. It's brock Bauers and it's
Speaker 1: Molak Neighbors. Kay give me your thirty second elevator pitch
Speaker 1: on each guy.
Speaker 6: I mean, elite Neighbors is incredibly good.
Speaker 4: He's a technician, he's got prototypical size speed, play after
Speaker 4: the catchability. The only thing that scares me at all
Speaker 4: about Neighbors is he doesn't use his hands at the
Speaker 4: line of scrimmage to defeat press. He like shrugs his
Speaker 4: shoulders and tries to get a round press. You can't
Speaker 4: do that in the NFL. Like, that's gonna have to
Speaker 4: be fixed, But it's a fix that can be made.
Speaker 6: It's not a difficult thing.
Speaker 4: So that's the only thing I think that's any in
Speaker 4: any way, shape or form a negative or a concern
Speaker 4: for him. Brock Bauers incredible playmaker. He's undersized for the
Speaker 4: tight end position. I think he'll end up weighing about
Speaker 4: what he's listed at, which is like two forty five
Speaker 4: something like that. I don't know if he actually is
Speaker 4: that size. I mean, we were at the Super Bowl.
Speaker 4: Who's a picture of him standing next to Gronk. Yeah,
Speaker 4: we talk to those are not those human beings are
Speaker 4: not the same size, right, very big difference. But he's
Speaker 4: more of a move tight end. He's more of a
Speaker 4: receiving type player. I think the biggest thing working against
Speaker 4: him is the Kyle Pitts thing hasn't worked out yet. Yeahright,
Speaker 4: And the last time we took a tight end this high,
Speaker 4: it hasn't quite all come together. He's got that kind
Speaker 4: of ability though. He's an amazing route runner. He's great
Speaker 4: after the catch, he's great just generally receiving.
Speaker 6: He should be a top ten pick, maybe top five.
Speaker 4: Teams are scared away from that because of the size
Speaker 4: and the fact the last guy we took that high hasn't.
Speaker 3: Been a superstar. Last thing, Sam will let you go.
Speaker 3: We appreciate it. Running back I know is fallen out
Speaker 3: of favor. It's not a sex So you had a
Speaker 3: nice run last year with Timir Gibson and be Sewn Robinson.
Speaker 3: Does not seem like we have that this year. I
Speaker 3: don't know how much work you guys have done already.
Speaker 3: I know the drafts little ways away on running back,
Speaker 3: but Eckler's a free agent, Joshua Kelly's a free agent.
Speaker 3: Isaiah Spiller has found himself inactive on game days. Thoughts
Speaker 3: about the backs in this draft and maybe where if
Speaker 3: you need a Bellkow and that's the route you're gonna
Speaker 3: go where you should start thinking about drafting when and
Speaker 3: if that person exists.
Speaker 4: It's funny, this is like the perfect analytics draft for
Speaker 4: running backs, right because there is no first round draft pick.
Speaker 4: There's no Bjehon Robinson in this draft. But there's a
Speaker 4: ton of guys that in the mid rounds I think
Speaker 4: are gonna be good NFL players. And it's you know,
Speaker 4: it's where analytics says that's where you start looking for
Speaker 4: running backs anyway, So I think in a way it's
Speaker 4: a perfect draft for that kind of thing. There's no consensus.
Speaker 4: I don't think in terms of who the number one,
Speaker 4: number two guy is. I think Blake Korum from Michigan
Speaker 4: is a a perfect like he's my number one back
Speaker 4: in this draft. I think he's the best guy. Last
Speaker 4: year wasn't as good coming off that knee injury. But
Speaker 4: you go back and watch the twenty twenty two tape.
Speaker 4: I have a play that I tweeted the last couple
Speaker 4: of days. It's just ridiculous, Like there's a freeze frame
Speaker 4: where there's four or five guys around him and he
Speaker 4: just makes a cut, goes underneath them all and scores,
Speaker 4: like hases it from fifty yards away. There's a lot
Speaker 4: of Austin Eckler in his tape, so you know, if
Speaker 4: you're trying to replace that guy with the Michigan connection,
Speaker 4: he's an amazingly explosive player. Maybe he doesn't have the
Speaker 4: top end speed. You know, he hits the rev limitar
Speaker 4: pretty quickly once he gets away from people. But it's
Speaker 4: kind of like the Barry Sanders thing right, Like you
Speaker 4: might catch him from behind eighty yards into the play,
Speaker 4: but at that point he's eighty yards downfield.
Speaker 6: And who cares.
Speaker 4: Blake Korms I think similar like, you might get him,
Speaker 4: but he'll be fifty yards away from the line of
Speaker 4: scrimmage at the time he did, so he's great. Jonathan
Speaker 4: Brooks from Texas is a lot of people's number one,
Speaker 4: but he's coming off a knee injury, and if you
Speaker 4: need him to play day one and be the starter,
Speaker 4: maybe that's not the right you want to go. But
Speaker 4: I also think there's a ton of guys lower down
Speaker 4: that are amazing sleepers. Will Shipley from Clemson. I think
Speaker 4: it was an amazing player, has great vision, incredibly shifty.
Speaker 4: Reminded me a little bit of Christian McCaffrey in terms
Speaker 4: of there's so many plays where it looks like he's
Speaker 4: about to take a massive shot and then somehow just
Speaker 4: takes a slight step, slight roll and just gets beyond
Speaker 4: it and keeps going. He could be a great sort
Speaker 4: of mid round sleeper that ends up being like a
Speaker 4: bell Cat type of player quite early.
Speaker 3: All right, I know I said last thing, but I
Speaker 3: gotta get what I believe is you might be able
Speaker 3: to deem this racist because.
Speaker 6: Great perfect starts. Yeah, you.
Speaker 3: Interview has been great, so far Budy, Let's just stop
Speaker 3: it now. Did you watch Six Nations on Netflix? Did
Speaker 3: you watch the documentary?
Speaker 6: Huh?
Speaker 1: Do you?
Speaker 6: How?
Speaker 1: Like?
Speaker 3: Where do you come out on people asking you about
Speaker 3: Ireland rugby and expecting you to be an expert in that?
Speaker 1: Are you?
Speaker 6: Do?
Speaker 1: You love Ireland rugby? You love Six Nations? What did
Speaker 1: you make?
Speaker 5: I mean?
Speaker 4: Look, expert is a word that gets people into trouble.
Speaker 4: I know what I'm talking about when it comes to
Speaker 4: Irish rugby. Yeah, I'm fine. I thought that documentary wasn't great.
Speaker 4: It was I figured they didn't They didn't get a
Speaker 4: ton of access and they didn't really do anything new,
Speaker 4: and it's from a tournament that happened a year ago,
Speaker 4: so it's like, yeah, what am I getting out of this?
Speaker 4: They also so a lot of the personalities you know
Speaker 4: that they zoomed in on as the sort of focal point.
Speaker 4: We're boring as hell people, So that didn't help. That
Speaker 4: being said, the Six Nations is going on right now.
Speaker 4: Ireland are three for three, We're going to win it again, hopefully,
Speaker 4: We're ideally going to get a back to back Grand Slam,
Speaker 4: and therefore all is right with the world, and we
Speaker 4: just don't mention the World Cup that happened between those things.
Speaker 3: How big of a like, if you could put it
Speaker 3: in NFL terms, how big of a star was I
Speaker 3: forgot his same the guy that just three salmon? Yeah,
Speaker 3: how big of a star was he in that particular
Speaker 3: sport in Ireland?
Speaker 4: So he's he was arguably the best Welsh player in
Speaker 4: their nation. He's one of the biggest youngest stars in
Speaker 4: the kind of northern Hemisphere rugby. He's, you know, as
Speaker 4: big as it gets in terms of a young up
Speaker 4: and coming superstar, like on the scene in NFL terms,
Speaker 4: we're talking b John Robinson, We're talking like a legit
Speaker 4: superstar on what he's doing is unprecedented. Guys have tried
Speaker 4: to make that switch before. Nobody at his level, at
Speaker 4: his age has tried to get the difference.
Speaker 3: Yeah, he's not coming over at thirty, right, he's twenty
Speaker 3: three rugby to try to play he's twenty three.
Speaker 4: I mean he was playing for Gloucester in England. He
Speaker 4: could have walked to France where all the money is,
Speaker 4: or Japan where all the money is, and had like
Speaker 4: he could have been one of the top five best
Speaker 4: paid players in the world. That he's taking a run
Speaker 4: at this knowing that even if it doesn't go well,
Speaker 4: he can come back at twenty five and still have
Speaker 4: that deal waiting for him.
Speaker 1: Right, Sam, before you go pub the PFF tools, because
Speaker 1: we've been doing mock draft simulators and all the fun
Speaker 1: stuff on PFF tel the fans.
Speaker 4: Yeah, mock draft simulator. You can go there, play at
Speaker 4: GM to your heart's content. I think thirty MDS is
Speaker 4: the promo code for thirty percent off that as well,
Speaker 4: so you can get in on the on the cheap
Speaker 4: and spend your entire offseason fixing your team with the
Speaker 4: mock drafts in that real.
Speaker 1: Quick February twenty seventh, the Chargers pick who number five.
Speaker 4: I think they end up with neighbors. I think that's
Speaker 4: the most likely one. Neighbors or trade down at MARMA two.
Speaker 3: Yeah, there we go, and we're gonna start it three
Speaker 3: rounds by draft. Ready, go, there we go. Let's see
Speaker 3: we are on the clock. We've got neighbors alt A
Speaker 3: dooneza fu waga. Well let's just leave it between alt
Speaker 3: neighbors and A dudes.
Speaker 6: He just neis, Yeah, we gotta go neighbors.
Speaker 1: Want to go? Neighbors all right, So we're drafted neighbors
Speaker 1: and here we go. Charger fans be happy with that. Yeah,
Speaker 1: they're gonna love you.
Speaker 3: Second round we are looking at let's see boy, go
Speaker 3: Chop Robinson edge opposite to Lee being interesting. We have
Speaker 3: a uh, you can get your tackle here in the
Speaker 3: the Bruce Feldman freak list.
Speaker 6: I would go one of those edge rushers, John Robinson
Speaker 6: or Darius I.
Speaker 1: Like, CHOP's a big ten guy. Jim's Jim's face Chop
Speaker 1: all right?
Speaker 4: Or hang on, wait wait, wait, wait wait what how
Speaker 4: can we possibly how can we possibly leave JJ McCarthy.
Speaker 6: Saying he's the number one player in the draft.
Speaker 3: All right, we're drafting shop. Whoops, didn't mean to open
Speaker 3: up the profile, which is always great though, just to
Speaker 3: make sure we're drafting the right guys. So we draft
Speaker 3: Chop and now we get to the third round. We
Speaker 3: have need uh on the offensive line, we get Junior. Yeah,
Speaker 3: run here, there we go. That's where our Michigan runs
Speaker 3: Starling and Dyone Henley and Junior moving forwards. P perfect, Yeah,
Speaker 3: it's we. We always tell people to check out the
Speaker 3: mock draft simulator. We do it every week on the pod.
Speaker 3: Sam We appreciate it anytime. Thanks for having the best man. Thanks,
Speaker 3: and now that Sam has got up and walked away,
Speaker 3: we can mention the real reason we had them on
Speaker 3: because we want an invite to the open barred Saint
Speaker 3: Elmos and the PFF party tomorrow night. So you know
Speaker 3: a little bit of a trade off there. We put
Speaker 3: you on for twenty five minutes, we plug your product
Speaker 3: and then you reward us with free shrimp cocktail with
Speaker 3: extra spicy Horse Radish sauce and free beer.
Speaker 1: I'll be there. That's how we make this thing work
Speaker 1: all right for the show. Jordan Reed joins us here
Speaker 1: on Chargers Weekly, and Jordan has been a minute man.
Speaker 1: Congrats on all your success and I know that this
Speaker 1: is a big week for you know.
Speaker 5: Yeah, absolutely, thank you guys for having me on. It
Speaker 5: is always a pleasure, and this is like the lead
Speaker 5: up to Christmas for me. I'm so excited to get
Speaker 5: the fellowship with everybody, figure out some information about all
Speaker 5: the prospects and then just realizing them reaching their dreams
Speaker 5: is just this awesome.
Speaker 3: I guess the difference is you got to work on Christmas.
Speaker 3: Your Christmas is a working day for you. How much
Speaker 3: in your experience, how much changes like between combine pro day,
Speaker 3: what you're hearing through the interviews, how much movement realistically
Speaker 3: do you think you see and are their position groups
Speaker 3: that tend to move more than others.
Speaker 6: Yeah.
Speaker 5: I mean with the quarterbacks, you always want to see
Speaker 5: if they're gonna throw or not. And that's more so
Speaker 5: for our entertainment. You love to see them go out
Speaker 5: there and be competitive. But if they don't throw, it's
Speaker 5: not really a huge deal to NFL teams, just because
Speaker 5: they understand that the advantageous things that could happen with that.
Speaker 5: I mean, some guys that you're throwing to, you maybe
Speaker 5: have met them for the first time when you're connecting
Speaker 5: flight coming here. Yeah, so just understanding that there is
Speaker 5: some advantages to it, but also some disadvantages for it
Speaker 5: as well. And then offensive lineman. I love seeing the
Speaker 5: offensive lineman going out there and competing, especially in the
Speaker 5: drills and things of that nature. You get to see
Speaker 5: who your true leaders are, who's outspoken, who's more so
Speaker 5: laid back, and the DB's as well. You get to
Speaker 5: see their hips and how fluid they are too.
Speaker 1: George, what's the lead in this draft in terms of
Speaker 1: the position grips. We know the quarterbacks, it looks like
Speaker 1: maybe three going the top five. But outside of those
Speaker 1: three quarterbacks, you know, what are you looking at from
Speaker 1: a position standpoint, just kind of being the lead of
Speaker 1: this draft.
Speaker 2: Offensive tackle and then also a wide receiver.
Speaker 5: Those are your two positions that are absolutely loaded in
Speaker 5: We may not see a defensive guy go inside of
Speaker 5: the top ten, which is something that we haven't seen
Speaker 5: in a very long time. So this draft class is
Speaker 5: really led by the offensive tackles and then also the
Speaker 5: wide receivers in I know neighbors in Marvin Harrison Junior.
Speaker 5: They're not performing here, but you're gonna get to see
Speaker 5: plenty of other guys, whether it's a Rome or Dunze,
Speaker 5: and then some of the other guys. Adne Mitchell's another
Speaker 5: from Texas that will get to see a lot as well.
Speaker 5: So both of those positions I think are going to
Speaker 5: be the headliner of this class.
Speaker 3: What do you think the likelihood is that either JJ
Speaker 3: McCarthy or a fourth quarterback ends up working his way
Speaker 3: into let's say, well, how about number five where the
Speaker 3: Chargers sitting, Because I think that's what Joe Ortiz would
Speaker 3: like to see that the team would be willing to
Speaker 3: trade all the way up to five. Do you think
Speaker 3: that's a possibility, And if so, like what kind of
Speaker 3: percentage of a possibility do you think that is.
Speaker 2: I think so.
Speaker 5: I will put it at like thirty percent right now.
Speaker 5: But once again, there's always that fourth quarterback that just
Speaker 5: makes the ascension of the draft board as we go along,
Speaker 5: and I think JJ is going to be that guy,
Speaker 5: especially with him electing to throw him being young, just
Speaker 5: turning twenty one years old in January, and then what
Speaker 5: I like to call the thrill of the unknown with him,
Speaker 5: just because there's always those coaches that feel they have
Speaker 5: the secret ingredients to uncover that next layer of a
Speaker 5: quarterback's development. And JJ's really unproving as a passer. I mean,
Speaker 5: he played in twenty eight he had twenty eight career starts,
Speaker 5: he only had twelve of where he had twenty five
Speaker 5: or more passing attempts in those and he's one of
Speaker 5: the highest of moments that you can think of. But
Speaker 5: for the Chargers, I think that's going to work in
Speaker 5: their favor, especially they have five teams right after them
Speaker 5: that have big holes at quarterback, whether it's the Giants,
Speaker 5: at six, the Falcons at eight, and then that stretch
Speaker 5: of eleven through thirteen with the Vikings, the Broncos and
Speaker 5: then the Raiders of where they could trade up for
Speaker 5: a quarterback. So the Chargers are sitting in a really
Speaker 5: good spot if they want to trade back.
Speaker 1: There's a lot of needs on this team right now,
Speaker 1: especially when you're bringing a new GM or new head coach.
Speaker 1: And you know, we talk about the offensive line, the
Speaker 1: wide receiver. Defensively, though, you know, corner is a position
Speaker 1: that they're gonna have to replenish. When you look at
Speaker 1: this corner class, what are your kind of twenty thousand
Speaker 1: foot view thoughts and can he get a guy in
Speaker 1: the early second that could be a Day one starter? Yeah,
Speaker 1: I think so.
Speaker 5: Now there's not that Devin Witherspoon and some of the
Speaker 5: other players that we saw in last year's draft class,
Speaker 5: but I think the depth through the third round is
Speaker 5: really good for this outside corner group. And you mean,
Speaker 5: you're gonna hear names like Cam Hard of Notre Dame
Speaker 5: that could go somewhere in that top seventy five. Kyrie
Speaker 5: Jackson from Oregon is another that could be a third round.
Speaker 2: Pick as well. So the depth of the outside corner
Speaker 2: class is really good.
Speaker 3: What about rock powers like where it really does seem
Speaker 3: to be one of the great mysteries. It's not fair
Speaker 3: to maybe point to Kyle Pitts as to why you
Speaker 3: wouldn't take him, But just when you're grading him, when
Speaker 3: you're reviewing him, just on his talent, you know, the
Speaker 3: super Bowl picture that's making the rounds to him, nobody
Speaker 3: looks good standing next to Rock, But like, what is
Speaker 3: your evaluation of him? What if you're just doing your
Speaker 3: vertical where where does he fit in high impact player?
Speaker 5: And I think he's more so of a receiving tight
Speaker 5: end as opposed to with inline blockers. So you have
Speaker 5: to treat Brock like he's strictly a receiver. He's not
Speaker 5: gonna give you a lot of value in line. He's
Speaker 5: not gonna be like George Kiddle or anybody like that
Speaker 5: that's just destroying guys. As a run blocker, he's not
Speaker 5: gonna be what I call a plus one for your
Speaker 5: run game right away. But if you're strictly evaluating him
Speaker 5: as a receiver, I definitely think he's worthy of a
Speaker 5: top ten pick.
Speaker 2: Now top five. That's a little bit touchy.
Speaker 5: Just because you want more so of a player that's
Speaker 5: gonna help you at a premium position. But with Bowers,
Speaker 5: he's definitely gonna help you right away. But with tight end,
Speaker 5: we've seen so many of those highly drafted guys really
Speaker 5: fail their first few years in the league. And I
Speaker 5: think with the Chargers they need that player that's gonna
Speaker 5: help them right away, just because when I think of
Speaker 5: Jim Rball, I think of somebody that's gonna come in
Speaker 5: and try to change the landscape and the culture of
Speaker 5: that team right away. And I don't know if Bowers
Speaker 5: is gonna do that right away at a premium position.
Speaker 3: So I'd love to follow up because this is I
Speaker 3: think it's something that people kind of I feel like
Speaker 3: our listeners struggle to kind of reconcile it when you
Speaker 3: say he's a receiving tight end. I just I think
Speaker 3: of the's of Sam Laporta last year. You can make
Speaker 3: the case he was the most important pass catcher on
Speaker 3: the Lions last year. How is it that that particular position.
Speaker 3: I'm trying to think the best way to put it.
Speaker 3: You know, we think of Travis Kelcey as receiving tight end.
Speaker 3: How does that impact your football team. How is that
Speaker 3: like a better Let's just say you're sticking and picking
Speaker 3: at five him as a pass catcher versus Roma Dunes.
Speaker 3: Say it's a pass catcher Elik Neighbors as a pass catcher.
Speaker 3: Where is that value because he's a tight end instead
Speaker 3: of a wide receiver.
Speaker 5: It comes down to the financial specifics the things then,
Speaker 5: just because when you're taking a tight end inside the
Speaker 5: top ten, he's probably gonna be probably in like the
Speaker 5: top twelve range as far as where he's getting paid.
Speaker 5: But now we're seeing wide receivers get over you know,
Speaker 5: twenty five thirty million dollars a year. So I would
Speaker 5: rather have that control cost wide receiver for four to
Speaker 5: five years as opposed to the tight end. Now, all
Speaker 5: those guys are going to contribute right away, but we're
Speaker 5: talking about the financial specifics of everything, and we know
Speaker 5: with the chargers they're in a cap situation of where
Speaker 5: they may have to share some salaries at some certain positions.
Speaker 5: They're not in the best cap situation. So I would
Speaker 5: rather have that wide receiver that has a little bit
Speaker 5: more high end talent that's more cost control.
Speaker 1: Speaking of that cap situation, you look at edge Shoey,
Speaker 1: Bosa Khalil Mack. Decisions need to be made and made soon.
Speaker 1: Kind of a two part question Tully to a Pilow,
Speaker 1: two Yeah, burst it onto the scene. Do you remember
Speaker 1: what you thought of him last year? I know that
Speaker 1: when you have to evaluate a ton of guys at
Speaker 1: twenty twenty four, some of that stuff goes out the window.
Speaker 1: But Tully first, and then is there another guy in
Speaker 1: the second, third, fourth round that you could pair with
Speaker 1: Tully and be kind of that future? Yeah?
Speaker 2: I remember evaluating Touley. I loved him a lot.
Speaker 5: He was really productive his final year at USC and
Speaker 5: I mean he could have kept all this stuff in
Speaker 5: his dorm room and right over to the Charges. So
Speaker 5: it was good that he ended up getting drafted by
Speaker 5: the Chargers. He ended up working out for him, so
Speaker 5: he was a really good player. And then some defensive
Speaker 5: ends that I like. Lisa Isaac of Fenn State. He's
Speaker 5: one that I like quite a bit. I think he's
Speaker 5: one that is going to be a really big tester.
Speaker 5: And if you're looking more so of a late round guy,
Speaker 5: Gabriel Murphy of UCLA. He's one that's a little bit undersized,
Speaker 5: but he could help right away.
Speaker 1: Keep him home.
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, oh the Murphy's only one terrible, But it's
Speaker 3: just the way, yeah it is. You mentioned the defensive
Speaker 3: you know, just it's an offensive heavy draft. Does that
Speaker 3: mean that defense is and is highly graded for you
Speaker 3: or is it just that those groups really stand out
Speaker 3: this year as opposed to there's a lack of or
Speaker 3: is there a lack of edge, interior, defensive line, linebacking, corner, safety,
Speaker 3: all that sort of stuff.
Speaker 5: Yeah, money, I think it's just how good this offensive
Speaker 5: class is. You have the offensive tackles that are really deep,
Speaker 5: the wide receivers we could see as many as seven
Speaker 5: from each position go in the first round. And then
Speaker 5: you have the quarterbacks, the top three guys at the
Speaker 5: top that could probably go one, two, and three at
Speaker 5: the top of the draft. So I think it's more
Speaker 5: so just the strength of this offensive class. Now we
Speaker 5: don't have that high end rusher like an aid In
Speaker 5: hutchinsoner Cavon Thibodeau in this class, and then we don't
Speaker 5: have that high end corner like we saw with Devin Weatherspoon.
Speaker 5: There's no Sauce Gardner or no Derek Stingley in this class.
Speaker 5: So there isn't that blue chip, high end guy on
Speaker 5: the defensive side. But this offensive class is really really good.
Speaker 1: I think Jim has an advantage in that not only
Speaker 1: does he have eighteen guys here from Michigan at the combine,
Speaker 1: but just the big ten play being able to see
Speaker 1: the guys from Penn State in Ohio State. I've been
Speaker 1: asked this question, I think throughout the draft process, but
Speaker 1: just guys from Michigan that you think could fit on
Speaker 1: the Chargers right away, knowing the mentor scheme, knowing Jim,
Speaker 1: and maybe the learning curve not being as big for
Speaker 1: a rookie because you know those guys.
Speaker 5: Oh man, how much time do we have that there's
Speaker 5: a lot. I think Blake Korn could be a really
Speaker 5: good fit for them. They have a need at running
Speaker 5: back depending on what happens with Austin Eckler. But one
Speaker 5: that I love if you're looking for a nickel corner
Speaker 5: is Mike Senrasteel. He's one of my favorites overall in
Speaker 5: this draft class. Actually started as a receiver at Michigan,
Speaker 5: then transferred over to the defensive side. And if there
Speaker 5: was one player who I thought was the best on
Speaker 5: Michigan's defense last year and the most consistent Samer Steel.
Speaker 3: He was absolutely terrific last year. What about let's go
Speaker 3: other two levels. How about Chris Jenkins, how about Junior Colson? Like,
Speaker 3: what about those guys? And it seems as though maybe
Speaker 3: Chris lines up for second round Austin Johnson free agent
Speaker 3: Sebastian Josepha is gone. You know, you have a couple
Speaker 3: younger guys, Scott Matt Locket. It seems like they're more
Speaker 3: developmental prospects on this team. But interior line is a
Speaker 3: big need for this team as well. I just feel
Speaker 3: like Jordan more focused so much on offense because of
Speaker 3: Justin Herbert, that were not realizing how bad the depth
Speaker 3: situation is on the defensive side of the ball for
Speaker 3: this team.
Speaker 5: Yeah, Jenkins, he's a fantastic run defender. That's something that
Speaker 5: you see frequently on tape with him. Now, the pass
Speaker 5: rush production really wasn't there for him last year. But
Speaker 5: with Michigan's scheme and with Mintor, they don't really have
Speaker 5: that high end rusher that you want to get multiple
Speaker 5: sacks throughout games. So he's really just holding up at
Speaker 5: the point of attack and he's just doing his job,
Speaker 5: but some of the flash plays that you see for him,
Speaker 5: you know it eventually is going to click for him.
Speaker 5: He has the NFL DNA. His dad was a terrific
Speaker 5: player for the Panthers for a long time. So he's
Speaker 5: one I think is going to get better over time,
Speaker 5: but more so of a second round player. So if
Speaker 5: they're looking for a Day two defensive tackle, he definitely
Speaker 5: could be a fit. And Junior Colson, depending on team
Speaker 5: or scouts that you talk to, they say he's the
Speaker 5: best linebacker in this draft class, a plug and play
Speaker 5: guy I think is gonna be really productive.
Speaker 1: Safety seems to be a little light in terms of
Speaker 1: depth in this class. Obviously it starts with Irwin James
Speaker 1: in that secondary, but the Chargers do need safety help
Speaker 1: as well. Is there anybody that kind of flashes in
Speaker 1: those bid rounds?
Speaker 5: Yeah? Jayden Hicks from Washington State is one that I
Speaker 5: like quite a bit. He's one of my favorite safeties.
Speaker 5: I think I have him as my fifth ranked safety
Speaker 5: at the position right now. I don't think there's a
Speaker 5: first round guy in this safety class, but second, third, fourth,
Speaker 5: I think that's where you're gonna start to see these
Speaker 5: players really come off the board quite a bit, so
Speaker 5: Jadan Hicks would definitely be one Tyler Nuban if they're
Speaker 5: looking for somebody on day two of Minnesota. He's one
Speaker 5: that the buzz has kind of fizzled a little bit
Speaker 5: with him, But I think as we get closer to
Speaker 5: the process, we're starting to see him be a little
Speaker 5: bit more visible. He didn't end up playing, he didn't
Speaker 5: play in the Senior Bowl, but once he starts to
Speaker 5: become a little bit more visible, he's gonna test here
Speaker 5: this week as well. I think he's gonna really do
Speaker 5: a good job. One of the things you often hear,
Speaker 5: you know, Jordan, your money rounds are three four, like
Speaker 5: right in there. And I guess it's so much if
Speaker 5: it comes down to evaluation and what I guess how
Speaker 5: you evaluate when you are trying to project what you
Speaker 5: think these players are gonna do at the next level.
Speaker 5: How much of those rounds for you are traits versus production?
Speaker 5: If that makes sense, Yes, it does. I think it
Speaker 5: just depends on the position. Honestly, just because we've seen
Speaker 5: defensive ends, a lot of teams take those guys in
Speaker 5: the second or third round. Maybe they didn't have the
Speaker 5: production but they have the traits just because eventually you
Speaker 5: know it's gonna click for them. Liked Neil Hunter is
Speaker 5: a great example. I think he only had like ten
Speaker 5: sacks during his time at LSU, but eventually it ended
Speaker 5: up clicking for him. So defensive end is more so
Speaker 5: traits based, but wide receiver. You want to see those
Speaker 5: guys be productive, just because if you didn't produce in college,
Speaker 5: you're probably not gonna produce in the NFL. So I
Speaker 5: would say it's more so positioned specific. When you're talking
Speaker 5: about that center. We've talked about JPJ from Oregon, it's
Speaker 5: is he number one in your eyes? Yeah?
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think he's the best closes.
Speaker 5: I don't think it's gonna be after the Combine, especially
Speaker 5: how he played after the Senior Bow or at the
Speaker 5: Senior Bowl too. I think he really distanced himself to
Speaker 5: being in his own tier. I think his clock probably
Speaker 5: starts at sixteen with the Seahawks, and then I would
Speaker 5: be surprised if he got past Dallas at twenty four.
Speaker 5: So I think that's probably where his range is gonna
Speaker 5: end up. But it's a really good center class Like
Speaker 5: I like Zach Frazer of West Virginia. I like Cedric
Speaker 5: Van Pryan of Georgia. He's more so probably fourth and
Speaker 5: fifth round guy. And then also Graham Barton of Duke
Speaker 5: He's another that you're gonna hear quite a bit about,
Speaker 5: but there's some depth later on in this center class.
Speaker 5: Hunter Nor's that of Penn State is one name that's
Speaker 5: created quite a bit of buzz. A bowl Lemmer of
Speaker 5: Arkansas is another name, probably fourth and fifth round that's
Speaker 5: created some buzz too.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it feels like, you know the way that it's
Speaker 3: lining up for the Chargers, especially after the press conferences,
Speaker 3: what Jim Harbaugh had to say, what your teas had
Speaker 3: to say, what Greg Roman then had to say about
Speaker 3: the run game in terms of like hitting doubles, like
Speaker 3: you don't want to I think you said it a
Speaker 3: little bit earlier, like you can't afford to w like
Speaker 3: it's right. Where are those doubles? Do you think in
Speaker 3: this in the in the draft, that that makes sense?
Speaker 3: It shit offensive? Like if you're picking at five, which
Speaker 3: you feel, and even if you trade down to eight
Speaker 3: or ten, are you more comfortable with a high floor
Speaker 3: for one of the old linemen or are you more
Speaker 3: comfortable with the high floor for one of the wide receivers.
Speaker 5: Yeah, money, I think it all depends on how they
Speaker 5: feel about Trey Pipkins. What is their true feeling about
Speaker 5: Trey Pipkins. Do you feel as if he fits your scheme?
Speaker 5: Can he fit and being a run dominant Greg Roman scheme?
Speaker 5: Also can he stay healthy?
Speaker 2: Of course?
Speaker 5: And then what is his projection? His projection higher than
Speaker 5: a Joe Ault or Olu Fashion who with some of
Speaker 5: these other Talise Fluogga, some of these other tackles. And
Speaker 5: if it is not, if you don't feel comfortable with that,
Speaker 5: I will look to trade back and recoup some of
Speaker 5: those Day two picks and then trade or excuse me,
Speaker 5: take a Talise Fi Wagga or a JC Latham or
Speaker 5: somebody like that.
Speaker 1: Last one for me, Jordan, And it kind of speaks
Speaker 1: to the running game.
Speaker 5: You know.
Speaker 1: The Chargers have I think guys like Joshua Kelly and
Speaker 1: Isaiah Spiller in the fourth round and for whatever reason
Speaker 1: it hasn't worked out. We haven't seen much of Isaiah
Speaker 1: Spiller at all with the Chargers, so maybe this is
Speaker 1: a new era for him as well. But in terms
Speaker 1: of the running back position, they want to kind of
Speaker 1: retool this room. So whether they do it free agency
Speaker 1: or the draft, is there a guy or a couple
Speaker 1: of guys that may be starting in a round three
Speaker 1: or four that you could see as bell cows or
Speaker 1: guys who could be productive in a Jim Harball system.
Speaker 5: So I did a Q and A on Twitter the
Speaker 5: other day, and I'm gonna speak this position and this
Speaker 5: player and this team into existence. Braylan Allen of Wisconsin
Speaker 5: and Jim Harborough or a matchmate in him for each other,
Speaker 5: Like it's so perfect. I can just see Jim watching
Speaker 5: film on him, just seeing the six foot two, two
Speaker 5: hundred and forty five pounds twenty year old running back
Speaker 5: and just being a sledgehammer in his offense.
Speaker 1: I just love the fit.
Speaker 5: Now you have to pay more so or receiving running
Speaker 5: back with him, just because he's not going to give
Speaker 5: you a lot of production as a receiver. But Braylan
Speaker 5: Allen is just such a perfect fit in Greg Roman's offense,
Speaker 5: especially plan a lot of twelve and thirteen personnel, those
Speaker 5: tight condensed formations. It's just him being a sledgehammer in
Speaker 5: that offense. It's a match made in head.
Speaker 3: It's a big ten guy too. You know what, how
Speaker 3: about pairing him with Frank gorse Kid. Yeah, you know
Speaker 3: little Frank or back on the back on the roster, right,
Speaker 3: last one. And we certainly appreciate Jordan uh same same
Speaker 3: question really, but just different room. Tight end And we
Speaker 3: already talked about brock Bauers and let's just take that
Speaker 3: off the table. Gerald Evert's free agent Donald Parhamp Like,
Speaker 3: when you look at that tight end room, it does
Speaker 3: look like for what this offense wants to do, probably
Speaker 3: gonna need to be remade. Just why tight end, even
Speaker 3: a blocking tight end? What does what does that look
Speaker 3: like in this particular draft? And do you see something?
Speaker 3: And maybe it's the Big Ten, Maybe it's Ohio State
Speaker 3: and Michigan where you go get those guys? Yeah, two
Speaker 3: guys come to mind that. I think hardball is gonna
Speaker 3: like Theo Johnson of Penn State more so of your
Speaker 3: He's kind of a mixture of why an f tight end.
Speaker 5: You can move him around a little bit. He's not
Speaker 5: gonna give you a whole bunch as far as a blocker,
Speaker 5: but receiving production. He had seven receiving touchdowns during this
Speaker 5: final eight games at Penn State. He came on really
Speaker 5: late in the bowl game against Old Miss too, So
Speaker 5: he's one. He's actually my third ranked tight end right now,
Speaker 5: behind Bowers and Jatavian Sanders of Texas. And then THEO
Speaker 5: Johnson I just talked about and then also I just
Speaker 5: drew a blame. THEO Johnson is the one that I
Speaker 5: really like.
Speaker 2: He's one.
Speaker 5: I can't remember the other. I had another on my mind,
Speaker 5: but THEO Johnson is one of that. Oh it's cased
Speaker 5: over another big ten guy. I was like, who's the
Speaker 5: other big ten guy? But yeah, cased over of Ohio
Speaker 5: State is another that I like quite a bit.
Speaker 1: This isn't like a Kincaid Musgrave Laporta type draft though,
Speaker 1: where it's it's it's deep like last year, though.
Speaker 5: Is it?
Speaker 2: Uh No, I don't think so.
Speaker 5: It's more so of a pick of flavor that you
Speaker 5: liked with this tight end class last year, it was
Speaker 5: a combination of both, and I think all those guys
Speaker 5: had high end trades. You don't see those big time
Speaker 5: receiving guys after Bowers and Sanders. It's kind of like,
Speaker 5: do you want the inline guy, do you want the
Speaker 5: receiving guy? Do you want the one that's more so
Speaker 5: just gonna be a blocking guy. So just depending on
Speaker 5: what flavor that you like. This really isn't a combination
Speaker 5: of both or high end trads in this group.
Speaker 3: I know we should last thing, but I'm gonna add
Speaker 3: one more because it just came to mind. We've told
Speaker 3: this story on the pod before that Jim Harborugh told
Speaker 3: when he was hired at San Diego and he said
Speaker 3: he had a conversation with coach Bo and Bo said,
Speaker 3: you know you're going to have a tight end the
Speaker 3: place with his hand in the ground, Yes, sir, You're
Speaker 3: gonna have a fullback, Yes sir. Are you gonna run power, yes, sir.
Speaker 3: So he said, all right, then you could be a coach.
Speaker 3: Is there a fullback in this draft? Is there a
Speaker 3: recard that John Harbaugh has in Baltimore that Jim can
Speaker 3: welcome to the Lorenzo O'Neil to get that position back
Speaker 3: in the good graces of the Bolts.
Speaker 5: Ben Soonnott of Kansas State, who has one of my
Speaker 5: favorite stories in the draft. So he was a six
Speaker 5: sport athlete in night sport. Yeah, you played every single
Speaker 5: sport that you could think of, and he only had
Speaker 5: one offer coming out of high school and it was
Speaker 5: a D two school. He ended up walking on at
Speaker 5: Kansas State and he built himself up over time. Start
Speaker 5: off as a fullback, transition to more so of an
Speaker 5: h type of tight ends where he can move him
Speaker 5: around quite a bit. But if you want him to
Speaker 5: be that sledgehammer and lead in the aformation, he can
Speaker 5: do that. You want him playing hip of the offensive tacole,
Speaker 5: he can do that as well. So Benceon not definitely
Speaker 5: is one. You know what, I got one more?
Speaker 3: There we go go all day, just because I called
Speaker 3: a ton of Standford games when when Jim Harpo was
Speaker 3: there and Owen Marisic was one of my favorite players.
Speaker 3: Obviously we don't get a lot of two way guys.
Speaker 3: Are there any two way players in the draft?
Speaker 1: Yeah?
Speaker 5: So Siva from Oh yeah, yeah, I like him better
Speaker 5: as a running back. They played him at safety, Yeah,
Speaker 5: safety destroyed the ball, destroyed them. Oh, I think he's
Speaker 5: gonna be awesome. I would play him as a running back.
Speaker 5: I think he's one player that we look back on
Speaker 5: this draft. You're going to be like, man, I wasn't
Speaker 5: he drafted higher? It's like everybody's looking at him.
Speaker 1: As a safety.
Speaker 2: He should have been her running back the entire time.
Speaker 1: So he's one dude got he's got the answers to
Speaker 1: the test. And of course that's that's why I'm comfortable
Speaker 1: Pepper and him. Some guys I want Pepper Jordan feel
Speaker 1: good about it. You're the best. And this is what
Speaker 1: fans love, names, right, names that they can like look
Speaker 1: at over the next couple of months, do some research
Speaker 1: on and actually watched her in the combine and and see, okay,
Speaker 1: this could this be a future charger. A lot of
Speaker 1: big ten guys. So I hear Penn State, to hear Wisconsin.
Speaker 1: I'm like, all right, Jim knows these dudes, you know, independent,
Speaker 1: just Michigan. So hey, you're the best.
Speaker 2: Thank you so much, appreciate it, thank you, so.
Speaker 1: Mondy out of the gate, Jordan and Sam. Fantastic interviews.
Speaker 1: A nice kickoff to the week. Yeah, and you know,
Speaker 1: today we had all the head coach and all the
Speaker 1: GM pressers. So tomorrow will be a little bit more
Speaker 1: player centric. All the groups will be in town either
Speaker 1: going through their medicals, their team interviews, all of those
Speaker 1: sort of things, and we'll do I think, you know,
Speaker 1: continue to do our deep dive onto this draft class.
Speaker 1: You know, Nate Tice gonna join us tomorrow from the
Speaker 1: Athletic does a great job breaking down film. We'll have
Speaker 1: Lance Zerline nobody does better with offensive line, and Lanson.
Speaker 1: Interestingly enough, both of those guys their dad's legendary offensive
Speaker 1: line coaches in the NFL.
Speaker 3: We have both of them. We've already reached out to
Speaker 3: a number of other folks as well, Jared, surprises are coming. Factly,
Speaker 3: you know, I won't even mention names. Surprises are coming.
Speaker 3: We got a lot of folks that will end up
Speaker 3: joining us, so be sure to Again, it's not just
Speaker 3: one day, it's not just two. We're gonna end up
Speaker 3: having three odds this week from the Combine, so be
Speaker 3: sure to check in Wednesday and Thursday.
Speaker 1: Yeah, adjust your schedules accordingly. Charges Weekly Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday.
Speaker 1: This week we will be back Wednesday for buddy Um Chris.
Speaker 1: This has been Chargers Weekly from the Combine and Indie.
Speaker 1: We'll see you next time.