Speaker 1: Welcome back to the Fantasy Pros NFL Draft Show. My
Speaker 1: name is Derek Brown and with me as always the
Speaker 1: Minnesota mad Man four nine drum. On today's show, we
Speaker 1: are gonna talk about the deep sleepers of this NFL
Speaker 1: Draft class. Thor and I have run through all the
Speaker 1: top guys and every position. We've given you all of
Speaker 1: these guys. This is the episode you need to be
Speaker 1: tuning into. We are gonna get really into the thick
Speaker 1: of it. Thor, are you ready for this, ma'am?
Speaker 2: I am yeah. I mean we've hit draft week. We
Speaker 2: have talked, We've gotten position by position, we have talked
Speaker 2: about all the top guys in this class. So now
Speaker 2: that people want to know who are our favorite pet
Speaker 2: sleepers in this class, you guys are about to find out.
Speaker 1: It's gonna be a blast man. Before we jump into
Speaker 1: these top ten players that we're gonna discuss today. Gotta
Speaker 1: tell you again, we talked about this on last week's episode.
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Speaker 1: into this man. These guys that we're gonna talk about
Speaker 1: in first position up here, we're gonna talk about some
Speaker 1: running backs here man, and our parameters for these guys.
Speaker 1: You couldn't pick anybody inside the top fifteen running backs
Speaker 1: per consensus. Who is the first guy you want to
Speaker 1: mention here?
Speaker 2: Well, so let's start out with the quarterback position, which
Speaker 2: it's you know, we talked about the top ten guys
Speaker 2: and with the perimeters. Not wanted to discuss guys that
Speaker 2: we did before. You have to go outside of that,
Speaker 2: which already makes it pretty deep. With that quarterback class.
Speaker 2: We're getting into UDFA land. So my favorite guy of
Speaker 2: the UDFA quarterbacks and again we're getting pretty deep here.
Speaker 1: But my top thirteen persensus man outside of the.
Speaker 2: Top thirteen, So this is a guy who I believe
Speaker 2: will be a UDFA. But the guy that I think
Speaker 2: is kind of interesting there is John Rice Plumbley from UCF.
Speaker 2: And the reason why is you have the athletic trades
Speaker 2: there with a guy who has the arm talent. And
Speaker 2: we know this because it plays on two different athletic
Speaker 2: fields and it has on the same day in the past.
Speaker 2: UCF once put out a video where he was playing baseball.
Speaker 2: He was on the baseball team both at Ole Meds
Speaker 2: and UCF, and that he later in the day was
Speaker 2: played in the i think the spring football game at UCF.
Speaker 2: But he's a he's a dual sport kind of a guy.
Speaker 2: You see this with him at quarterback, both the good
Speaker 2: and the bad aspect of it. But you know, in
Speaker 2: terms of the good aspects, he is one of those
Speaker 2: guys that absolutely can throw on the run and can
Speaker 2: do the thing that you love to see from those
Speaker 2: guys of throwing it from the multiple different arm slots.
Speaker 2: He's very natural with that he has more MP in
Speaker 2: that arm than you would think as those and I
Speaker 2: know that you fit into this category, Debro, as those
Speaker 2: who have watched Javon Baker's film are well aware. So
Speaker 2: that's what you like. And as far as the athleticism
Speaker 2: will hit that before I get into the negatives with
Speaker 2: him nearly six feet two hundred three pounds in an
Speaker 2: eighty eight percentile athlete. And further on the athletic stuff,
Speaker 2: this kid is such a good athlete that early on
Speaker 2: in his career, back when he was at Ole Miss
Speaker 2: in a Rich Rodriguez offense at Ole Miss, Rich Rodriguez
Speaker 2: actually better for Matt corrall for John Rice Plumbley. Of course,
Speaker 2: the Rich Rodriguez system, the old West Virginia system. People
Speaker 2: remember Pat White and the whole thing that they were
Speaker 2: doing back then, back in the day West Virginia. That's
Speaker 2: what Rich rod was preferring that John Rice Plumby did
Speaker 2: as opposed to Matt Correll. And that's Matt Correll's career
Speaker 2: almost went wayward there for a second because of that.
Speaker 2: But then things was, you know, started to go sort
Speaker 2: of the opposite way. But for for then, for a
Speaker 2: year after that John rice Plumbley played, he shifted and
Speaker 2: played some slot receiver at all miss Then, of course
Speaker 2: when the new coaching staff came in, Matt Correll took
Speaker 2: back over at quarterback. John rice Plumbley played slot receiver
Speaker 2: for a campaign before then transferring to UCF, kept playing
Speaker 2: baseball throughout, went back to quarterback. So so John rice
Speaker 2: Plumbley bit of a renaissance man. And again the thing
Speaker 2: that I like, you definitely see this snappy arm with him.
Speaker 2: He has a playmaking bent. He made takes more I like,
Speaker 2: I'll just say it NFL caliber throws. Then you would
Speaker 2: think from the profile from the frame, uh then you know,
Speaker 2: just heading into his tape, the the things going the
Speaker 2: other way and the reason that he is going to
Speaker 2: be undrafted and the reason that some people listening to
Speaker 2: this don't know who this guy is. Is there the
Speaker 2: bouts of inaccuracy with John rice Plumbley. And then the
Speaker 2: other thing, the frustrating thing watching his tape and the
Speaker 2: thing where the translation to the NFL of can they
Speaker 2: teach him this? John rice Plumbley and Debro you know
Speaker 2: this as well from watching Javon Baker's tape and the
Speaker 2: other UCF guys he locks onto reads a lot. And
Speaker 2: that's you have when you you have these kids that
Speaker 2: go from you know, the one level to the next,
Speaker 2: and you like physical traits of theirs, you like the athleticism,
Speaker 2: you like the arm, but you see them so often
Speaker 2: locking onto the pre delineated read and then you see
Speaker 2: a guys streaming open and he just didn't see it
Speaker 2: because he was locked onto the one thing. It's hard
Speaker 2: for that kid at the next level to be taught that.
Speaker 2: Ken Jenre has fumly be taught that. And then the
Speaker 2: mechanics stuff. I think that is more fixable because again
Speaker 2: this is a guy who going back years he played
Speaker 2: in the multiple different systems in college, might have been
Speaker 2: three or four, going back to Ole miss with the
Speaker 2: multiple coaches, then with gusmels On at UCF, and then
Speaker 2: was playing the multiple sports. I think you can work
Speaker 2: on the footwork and the upper body mechanics mirroring that
Speaker 2: to the lower body more to improve the accuracy. But
Speaker 2: the thing of John, we have to teach you how
Speaker 2: sitting in the pockets, surveying your options. The systems he
Speaker 2: has played in and the way that they sort of
Speaker 2: worked around that with him. I don't know if that
Speaker 2: will be fixable for him. However, you have the and
Speaker 2: this is why I'm a little bit more bullish on him.
Speaker 2: You have the multiple bullets because of those athletic traits
Speaker 2: and because he has play slot receiver in the past.
Speaker 2: I don't know if people in the draft community are
Speaker 2: giving them enough credit for that. I think you have
Speaker 2: the first bullet with him as the quarterback. And what
Speaker 2: are you showing there? He was pretty good at you see,
Speaker 2: have to pass a couple of years. He showed some
Speaker 2: stuff in the pass. It will miss if it doesn't
Speaker 2: work out there. You have Plaine size, Taysom Hill. But
Speaker 2: you know, now we can kick them to the slot
Speaker 2: receiver and you have some gadget utility type stuff with
Speaker 2: them as well, potentially kick them down the line. If not,
Speaker 2: he's going to be a pretty good UFL player or
Speaker 2: else he can go back to baseball. But an interesting player,
Speaker 2: I thought, Debro Yeah, I.
Speaker 1: Mean, look at this point, what we're looking at for
Speaker 1: a lot of these different guys. Do they have the
Speaker 1: athletic traits? Is the package there? If they could put
Speaker 1: it all together that what can they be in the NFL?
Speaker 1: Because a lot of these players, like you're talking about
Speaker 1: with plumb Lee, when you're playing multiple sports. I mean,
Speaker 1: come on, we're like, we all know this. So you're
Speaker 1: playing multiple sports even growing up, like narrowing your focus
Speaker 1: down to just one sport is all gonna help you
Speaker 1: as well. So looking at the skill set, that's what
Speaker 1: we're going for here, Like guys that have the traits,
Speaker 1: maybe they might not be as refined. Some of these
Speaker 1: guys were gonna get into a bounced around smaller schools
Speaker 1: and stuff, and look, that's gonna bring me to my
Speaker 1: net my first guy and going with the first running
Speaker 1: back here again using guys only RB fifteen or lower.
Speaker 1: And he's gotten a little bit of talk out out
Speaker 1: on social media, but in the NFL draft circles, he's
Speaker 1: not getting talked about enough, man, And that I want
Speaker 1: to bring up Blake Watson here running back out of Memphis,
Speaker 1: and I turn on Blake Watson's film and you see
Speaker 1: the analytics immediately when you watch him, Like his numbers
Speaker 1: just on paper thor are impressive. Man. Over the last
Speaker 1: two years, he's been thirty fourth and fourth in yards
Speaker 1: of the contact per attempt. In twenty twenty two, he
Speaker 1: was fourth amongst all running backs with at least one
Speaker 1: hundred carries in PFF elusive rating. So we're talking about
Speaker 1: a good rusher of the football as well as a
Speaker 1: player who was twentieth in yards per rout run last year.
Speaker 1: So there's receiving utility here. And the thing I want
Speaker 1: to bring up about Blake Watson man is is he
Speaker 1: a little bit undersized? Sure? But can he play? Man?
Speaker 1: And watching his film that he has better leg drive
Speaker 1: than people would give him credit for at his size.
Speaker 1: You look at his contact balance and he's a tough
Speaker 1: interior runner man like he pinballs off dudes in the
Speaker 1: second level. I said this out on social media and
Speaker 1: I'll say it again here on the show. I think
Speaker 1: Blake Watson is who everybody wants Bucky Irving to be,
Speaker 1: an undersized running back that runs tougher than his size.
Speaker 1: And hey, guess what Blake Watson actually tested Well? He
Speaker 1: ran a four freaking four at as Pro Day, so
Speaker 1: with a short airy agility I don't think is amazing,
Speaker 1: but I think he's a good runway back. I think
Speaker 1: you get break tackles. I think there is pass game
Speaker 1: utility because they did line him up a little bit
Speaker 1: in the slot and out wide, and while it wasn't
Speaker 1: a ton of reps, you saw him also run a
Speaker 1: few outs curls. I think that ability. Again, we're looking
Speaker 1: at skill sets that could translate. Maybe we see a
Speaker 1: little more pass game utility in the NFL, but I
Speaker 1: like Blake Watson's game. Again, Also talking about a guy
Speaker 1: that you talked about Plumblee bouncing back and forth between
Speaker 1: baseball and football, Blake Watson was still learning the running
Speaker 1: back position. Like when he got to Old Dominion in
Speaker 1: twenty nineteen, he was a wide receiver and they transitioned
Speaker 1: him to running backs, so he didn't even go to
Speaker 1: the college playing the position. So we're talking about a
Speaker 1: player that Okay, yes, has he been playing running back
Speaker 1: for a few years now, Okay, that's fine, but that's
Speaker 1: still not the same as been I've been playing running
Speaker 1: back since high school or since pee wee football. So
Speaker 1: there's still some growth that can happen. Man, But tell
Speaker 1: me what are your thoughts on Watson because we have
Speaker 1: again we have not talked about any of these guys
Speaker 1: on the show yet.
Speaker 2: Yeah, he's an interesting guy where he shows up at
Speaker 2: Old Dominion and he was this pint sized receiver guy
Speaker 2: to high school that had been sort of overlooked, and
Speaker 2: initially he red shirts and was a kick returner guy,
Speaker 2: special teamer. Initially twenty eighteen, he was the special teamer,
Speaker 2: red shirt you know whatever. Twenty nineteen he conferenced USA
Speaker 2: honorable mention as a special teamer. And then it begins
Speaker 2: a starcross kind of a thing for Blake Watson. We're
Speaker 2: in twenty twenty Al Dominion was one of the very
Speaker 2: few FBS programs that had their season outright canceled by COVID.
Speaker 2: Nothing you could do about that comes back in twenty
Speaker 2: twenty one. That's where he had balked up enough and
Speaker 2: in conjunction with a position change that helped facilitate it
Speaker 2: by bulking up to running back. That's where he really
Speaker 2: broke out and burst onto the scene for yours, truly,
Speaker 2: de bro As you know, I run that fifty team
Speaker 2: college fantasy football league that is only for the sickest
Speaker 2: of the sickos, and Blake Watson was a guy that
Speaker 2: I picked up in September of that year. Started to
Speaker 2: see that he was getting usage for this old Dominion team.
Speaker 2: After having switched positions and down the stretch, they started
Speaker 2: to use it more and more and more, and you
Speaker 2: knew that he had the receiving utility. Well, it turned
Speaker 2: out that he was a really good running back. Then
Speaker 2: of course he transfers to the bigger school last year
Speaker 2: and at the bigger location showed out even more. And
Speaker 2: then you mentioned the pre draft process, really open eyes
Speaker 2: there with the athleticism as well, this kid's a really
Speaker 2: good receiver. He has shown it as a running back
Speaker 2: the past couple of years. He has return utility as well.
Speaker 2: He's a bit of a late bloomer. And I think
Speaker 2: that that is why, whether you want to say overlooked
Speaker 2: or whether you want to say outright disrespected, to me,
Speaker 2: it was disrespectful that the NFL did not give him
Speaker 2: a Combine invite. Like there's you know, it's like, you know,
Speaker 2: combine snub. But then there's other guys where it's like,
Speaker 2: all right, there's really no justification for this. Blake Watson
Speaker 2: was that there's really no justifications for this. You look
Speaker 2: at what he did the past couple of years at
Speaker 2: two different schools and the two way utility both as
Speaker 2: you know, again the runner and as the receiver and
Speaker 2: then also a three way utility really if you want
Speaker 2: to toss in the returning and when you watch him,
Speaker 2: it's like, you know, you knew he was around that,
Speaker 2: you know, the two hundred pounds whatever, but it's like,
Speaker 2: you know, so it's like slightly beneath the threshold. But
Speaker 2: it's not like he's the world's tiniest person. I didn't
Speaker 2: really understand. And he the athleticism. He appeared to be
Speaker 2: athletic on tape, which then he proved during the pre
Speaker 2: draft process. Somebody made a mistake with that. This kid
Speaker 2: absolutely deserves to get drafted, and I'm with you, de
Speaker 2: bro he absolutely is a sleeper. Would not surprise at
Speaker 2: all if he began making an impact as a committee
Speaker 2: back this coming season, you know, if he grabbed a
Speaker 2: hold of a role in that and it became a
Speaker 2: bigger and bigger part of it as it went along.
Speaker 1: Well, when people looking at a rankings Liver on Fantasy
Speaker 1: pros at after watching him and writing him up, dude,
Speaker 1: he's my RBA to this class. People might be surprised
Speaker 1: by that, but again, putting respect on his name, five
Speaker 1: nine two hundred pounds has an eight point nine RAS
Speaker 1: score thor he ran a four four forty. He jumped
Speaker 1: forty one inches in the vert which is a ninety
Speaker 1: nine percentile outcome, had an eleven to three broad Now
Speaker 1: you can ding him a little bit for his short
Speaker 1: shuttle and his three cone again, but that shows up
Speaker 1: on his tape. If you give this guy's space, he
Speaker 1: can hit dangers.
Speaker 3: Man.
Speaker 1: I love his game, so again, putting respect and people
Speaker 1: looking at I think a lot of us are looking
Speaker 1: at this running back class and we're looking at, Okay,
Speaker 1: who can be one of the heroes of this class?
Speaker 1: If a guy steps forward? Could it be? You know,
Speaker 1: people have talked about Isaac Garrindo, people have talked about
Speaker 1: Tyrone Tracy. There are guys in this class with some
Speaker 1: really interesting skill sets, and I think Blake Watson is
Speaker 1: another one that people need to be discussing. So yes,
Speaker 1: like looking at all these parts of pieces to his
Speaker 1: I like him a lot, man, I mean that definitely
Speaker 1: shows up and where I'm ranking him now. But keeping
Speaker 1: this rolling, dude, who is the next player that you're
Speaker 1: going to bring up here?
Speaker 2: Kimani Vidal and he you know I have I have
Speaker 2: brought him up on some of the shows this spring,
Speaker 2: but he was outside the consensus threshold to make our
Speaker 2: last running back episode, which means that he qualifies for
Speaker 2: this one. And you know, we we like his game,
Speaker 2: and in particular I love Kamani Vidal's game, but the
Speaker 2: industry continues to sleep on mister Vidal, so so you know,
Speaker 2: we have to serve the function of giving him his flowers.
Speaker 1: Well, speaking of the respect, where do you have him
Speaker 1: in your ranks right now for running backs? Because I
Speaker 1: think we're still handholding right yeah, we are in.
Speaker 2: So on my five hundred board, Kimani Vidal is RB
Speaker 2: seven for me, and I have him as a top
Speaker 2: half of the fourth round type guy. Now do I
Speaker 2: think he's going to go in the fourth round? Not necessarily,
Speaker 2: you know. I mean he's gonna get picked at some
Speaker 2: point on Saturday, probably a bit later than that, but
Speaker 2: not We are not alone on Kamani Vidal. He has
Speaker 2: some ardent supporters out there, including Jim Nagy of the
Speaker 2: Senior Ball says. Jim Nagy says that Kamani Vidal is
Speaker 2: one of his favorite sleeper running backs in this class
Speaker 2: as well, goes absolutely nuts about him. The Kamani Vidal
Speaker 2: hive is strong. I would imagine that Kamani Vidal has
Speaker 2: some enormous fans inside of NFL buildings as well, so
Speaker 2: we'll see how strong those voices are as well. But yeah,
Speaker 2: he I don't want to say that he is an
Speaker 2: acquired taste, but he is a guy where if you
Speaker 2: just look at him, you know like the I mean,
Speaker 2: he's a small sort of a dude coming from the
Speaker 2: Sun Belt right and see like you just like the
Speaker 2: the height he's beneath five to eight, he's two. He
Speaker 2: is two hundred and thirteen pounds. So the classic buwlling
Speaker 2: ball built. And when he came into the process, people
Speaker 2: did not think he was athletic. He didn't catch a
Speaker 2: ton of balls at Troy, but he he shocked a
Speaker 2: lot of people with his test and tested as an
Speaker 2: eighty eight percentile athlete, and particularly with the speed in Indianapolis,
Speaker 2: proved the concept of that.
Speaker 1: I'll own it. He surprised me. We talked about this
Speaker 1: pre and I said, look, I think he's got maybe
Speaker 1: four or five four six speed. So when he came
Speaker 1: out he ran a four to four six. I'll own that.
Speaker 1: I did not see that coming, dude.
Speaker 2: I wasn't gonna call you out for it, but if you,
Speaker 2: I mean I'm calling.
Speaker 1: Myself out for it. I mean I'm keeping it real man,
Speaker 1: like you have talked about Kamani a ton this entire process.
Speaker 1: I'm just glad people get to hear this.
Speaker 2: Take yeah, Dal the other thing. So, you know a
Speaker 2: guy who's on the smaller side, but the last couple
Speaker 2: of years proves the concept that he can handle bell
Speaker 2: call and I'm talking true bell call usage. So in
Speaker 2: twenty twenty two, over fourteen games, two hundred and thirty
Speaker 2: one carries twenty six reception, two hundred and fifty seven touches,
Speaker 2: which he turned into undred and seventy two yards and
Speaker 2: ten touchdowns. Last year on another very good Troy team
Speaker 2: in the Sun Belt, two hundred ninety seven touches I'm sorry,
Speaker 2: two hundred ninety seven carries sixteen hundred and sixty one
Speaker 2: yards on the ground, fourteen touchdowns. Then he had eighteen
Speaker 2: more receptions two hundred one yards through the air and
Speaker 2: another touchdowns. That's three hundred fifteen touches from scrimmage for
Speaker 2: eighteen hundred and sixty two yards fifteen total touchdowns. So
Speaker 2: like you had all that stuff again, one of the
Speaker 2: nippicks with him on the field was, oh he didn't
Speaker 2: get a ton of catches. Well, the constitution of the
Speaker 2: Troys offense it was, Kamani, you are the early down
Speaker 2: bell Koo. So they give them the ball, give them
Speaker 2: the ball, give him the ball, which the defense knew,
Speaker 2: which is why Kamani vedal faced about his He was
Speaker 2: basically the Blake Korum of the G five where the
Speaker 2: defense started to move guys up on the early downs
Speaker 2: because and Troy they would their offense, you know, like
Speaker 2: they had the different formations where the on the early
Speaker 2: where the defense knew it was coming, they tried to
Speaker 2: have the different blocking angles, so they'd move guys up,
Speaker 2: so those little chess match like that. But then on
Speaker 2: the passing downs on the third and six, when the
Speaker 2: defense knew the passing down was coming, usually Troy would
Speaker 2: keep Kamani back. They keep him on the field, but
Speaker 2: they did not send him out usually as the receiver,
Speaker 2: unless it was like they keep them back to Chip
Speaker 2: and then they would have them after that if they
Speaker 2: didn't need them, then he would go back out and
Speaker 2: just be the dump off guy. But the point I
Speaker 2: wanted to make about this, I talked to Kamani Vidal
Speaker 2: down in Mobile, and he talked to me about how
Speaker 2: in Mobile the number one thing he wanted to prove
Speaker 2: to NFL evaluators is I am a good receiver. They
Speaker 2: just didn't use me as much like that. But what
Speaker 2: I did show with Troy is I'm a very good
Speaker 2: pass blocker. This is something that Jim Nagy was going
Speaker 2: nuts about on Twitter about how Kamani Vedall is the
Speaker 2: best pass blocker in this class. Like that was the
Speaker 2: thing that Troy said, like, Kamani, like, that's what we
Speaker 2: need you to do is pass block. Kamani Vidal is
Speaker 2: stunningly good pass blocker. You wouldn't think it because of
Speaker 2: his frame, and I don't think the linebackers realize that
Speaker 2: when they they just come screaming down through like open
Speaker 2: holes and then it's just like Kamani Vidal and it's like, oh,
Speaker 2: we're gonna run over this torp and then we're gonna
Speaker 2: annihilate his halpless quarterback. And then Kamani Vidal gets down
Speaker 2: with a wide base and then just goes right down
Speaker 2: into your lower half. He'll chop you down right beneath
Speaker 2: your hips. You see him flip guys over, You see
Speaker 2: him stone guys where it's and you see like their
Speaker 2: eyes bulge out of their head because it's like a
Speaker 2: like a humby or a suburban that goes full speed
Speaker 2: into like a you know, like a on the highway,
Speaker 2: like a median right, and all of a sudden, it's
Speaker 2: just like this high speed collision. It just stops on
Speaker 2: a dime and and there's problems you don't get past
Speaker 2: Kamani Vidal. He he's just so good with the technique
Speaker 2: of it. He knows where to attack on it. And
Speaker 2: again he you know, he gets under sold even by
Speaker 2: the competition, but the technique of it, the way he
Speaker 2: gets after it. He denotes where the guy's coming from.
Speaker 2: He knows where the danger as he steps up. But
Speaker 2: the thing I want to talk about more, I think
Speaker 2: he's super duper undersold as a runner. To the point
Speaker 2: of what we're doing here, fantasy players, this is particularly
Speaker 2: topical for you. The bowling ball thing. Again with the athleticism,
Speaker 2: that's way better than people thought heading into the process.
Speaker 2: Kamani Vidal, because he was given all this usage. He
Speaker 2: was the engine of that entire Troy offense. And these
Speaker 2: Troy teams were good. Both of them were at the
Speaker 2: top of the sun Belt. The team last year went
Speaker 2: eleven and three.
Speaker 1: Of the year.
Speaker 2: Before the Trojans were twelve and two, so these were
Speaker 2: very good Troy teams. The entire offense was Kamani Vidal,
Speaker 2: so teams will begin to stack the box. One example
Speaker 2: of this people want to see this is the kid
Speaker 2: when they stepped up in competition against Kansas State, they
Speaker 2: started doing the eight man boxes. Against Commani Vidal, there's
Speaker 2: one rep where he blows through the eight man box.
Speaker 2: All of a sudden he's running behind the defense, so
Speaker 2: you get to see both his ability the acceleration through
Speaker 2: the hole even with all the traffic getting through there,
Speaker 2: and then his wheels downtown the acceleration. I really like
Speaker 2: his sort of hide the ball under the cup routine
Speaker 2: behind the offensive line because he's so small, he's not
Speaker 2: a he's sort of unorthodox for a type of back
Speaker 2: like he is like he physically he sort of is
Speaker 2: similar dimensions to Blake Korum, but a very different kind
Speaker 2: of a back. Blake Koram is the uh. He's like
Speaker 2: the patient guy. He's like waiting, waiting, and then it's
Speaker 2: like the the side to side agility right like and
Speaker 2: it's like the making miss and then and then trying
Speaker 2: to like run through the arm tackles a different stuff
Speaker 2: like that. Like Kamani Vidal is nor south. He wants
Speaker 2: to go nor south, north south, and he can where
Speaker 2: his agility comes into play. He has the one cut,
Speaker 2: but it's he is trying to go north south and
Speaker 2: he'll try to change your vantage point right before the
Speaker 2: contact point to force what is a flush tackle attempt
Speaker 2: into an arm tackle attempt that he will then invariably
Speaker 2: run through. Kamani Vidal is very very good at breaking
Speaker 2: tackles in part because of this, and he has the great,
Speaker 2: great great contact balances. Was the last thing I was
Speaker 2: gonna say about him, the true spinning top from inception.
Speaker 2: You know, you could think about him like that reminds
Speaker 2: me the guy that I comp him to is Jalen Warren.
Speaker 2: I got to ask him about that down at the
Speaker 2: Senior Bowl. Jalen Warren, his last year at Oklahoma State,
Speaker 2: was number two in the FBS that season in forced
Speaker 2: miss tackles. Last season, Jalen Freddian slip. Last season, Kamani
Speaker 2: Vidal was number two in the FBS as well in
Speaker 2: force miss tackles. I think you're gonna get sort of
Speaker 2: similar usage and the way that he looks in the NFL,
Speaker 2: I think it's gonna be a similar thing where he
Speaker 2: gets paired up with somebody else as the one B
Speaker 2: to someone else's one A, and it he offers sort
Speaker 2: of a fascinating change of look, kind of element to
Speaker 2: what they get from the other kind of a guy
Speaker 2: and gives defense his problems a different kind of a
Speaker 2: look than than they're anticipating. But really like Kamani Vidal's game.
Speaker 1: Oh man, you we have talked about Kamani Vidal all
Speaker 1: the way going back to Senior bowl Man, and I've
Speaker 1: really warmed up to his game through the process, and
Speaker 1: I've gone back to his film twice and to put
Speaker 1: a bow on this, he's my RB five of this class.
Speaker 1: I do have him over Blake Korum, and I do
Speaker 1: have him over Brayleen Allen. My com for him and
Speaker 1: maybe this maybe I need to come around to the
Speaker 1: Jalen Warren comp has been Devin Singletary. But to your point,
Speaker 1: he is a better athlete than Devin Singletary was coming
Speaker 1: out and the other parts of his game, and and
Speaker 1: you talked about the bowling ball like he's he pinballs
Speaker 1: off of guys in the second level. I mean he
Speaker 1: uses his size definitely to his advance. At five seven
Speaker 1: two thirteen. He talked about the athletic testing. I mean again,
Speaker 1: the eighty eighth percentile short Shuttle, the eighty eighth percentile
Speaker 1: avert much better athlete than I gave him credit first
Speaker 1: pass through his film. But the numbers also stand up
Speaker 1: for you. Talked about the volume aspect to him. Fifty
Speaker 1: seven percent of his games in his final collegiate season,
Speaker 1: he had at least twenty three carries. So people need
Speaker 1: to let that simmary. He has proven that he can
Speaker 1: handle volume in that season as well, twenty first amongst
Speaker 1: all FBS and FCS running backs with at least one
Speaker 1: Hunter carries twenty first in PFF elusive rating. So dudes
Speaker 1: got chops and he can play. Man. I'd love to
Speaker 1: see him go round for the NFL draft. Probably not
Speaker 1: gonna happen, probably because of this class and the strengths
Speaker 1: in other areas of this class. Probably a round five guy.
Speaker 1: But if he ends on up on a depth chart
Speaker 1: and with the coaching staff, that says, look, we're gonna
Speaker 1: take whoever can play and can prove themselves in camp.
Speaker 1: Don't be surprised if he makes noise. And he's the
Speaker 1: one being a committee and he's pushing for starter reps
Speaker 1: in his rookie season. I don't think it's out of
Speaker 1: the range of outcomes, man, And I know that sounds
Speaker 1: hyperbolic because people hate this running back class. Oh do
Speaker 1: they hate this running back class. But there are some
Speaker 1: guys that can play, and we're trying to put respect
Speaker 1: on names here man, and again talking about giving respect
Speaker 1: where it is freaking due, is gonna lead me to
Speaker 1: the first wide receiver we're gonna bring up here. And
Speaker 1: the guys we're talking about in the wide receiver grouping
Speaker 1: on this show outside of the top twenty one wide
Speaker 1: receivers per consensus. Soor, I was add this guy to
Speaker 1: the list of players with Javon Baker and Jermaine Burton
Speaker 1: that when I went to their tape, I was not
Speaker 1: expecting to see what I saw and and it shows
Speaker 1: out in the numbers. Man, and the guy that I
Speaker 1: know I'm burying the lead here, but I've been impressed
Speaker 1: with him as g and Cocher out of Holy Cross.
Speaker 1: You look at all the wide receivers for us getting
Speaker 1: into the analytics all wide receivers of the last two
Speaker 1: years out of all guys in FBS and FCS with
Speaker 1: at least fifty targets. Jalen Cocher checks boxes man ninth
Speaker 1: and yards per route run eighteenth and yards per out
Speaker 1: run of the last two years ninth and fortieth and
Speaker 1: PFF receiving grade. I was not expecting to see a
Speaker 1: guy that the movement skills are definitely there. You see pacing,
Speaker 1: you see head fakes, jabs things in his routes where
Speaker 1: I'm not expecting this out of a guy that comes
Speaker 1: out of Holy Cross and I'm watching his film and
Speaker 1: I'm like, whooh hah, whoa dude, come on, you just
Speaker 1: made this corner look silly, Like did you have to
Speaker 1: do him like that body control when he's in the air.
Speaker 1: I mean some of these sideline catches and back shoulder
Speaker 1: catches he's making in the air. You're just like, h okay, yep,
Speaker 1: that's that's an NFL quality. Rep mm hmm. Definitely, definitely.
Speaker 1: And it's not just the route running, and it's not
Speaker 1: just the ability to play above the rim. He can
Speaker 1: offer you some act too. He could break tackles, and
Speaker 1: you're seeing on the reps from the quarterbacking play of
Speaker 1: Holy Cross. There's times and there's two definitive plays I'm
Speaker 1: thinking about in my head right now where Jalen Coker
Speaker 1: runs a freaking dig route. He comes back to the
Speaker 1: quarterback and he's throwing his hands up in the air
Speaker 1: and he's like, throw me the ball and then it
Speaker 1: doesn't come out. It's very key and slovas ish, where
Speaker 1: it's like, I'm gonna count to four and then I'm
Speaker 1: gonna wait till the cornerback runs on top of you,
Speaker 1: and then I'm gonna throw the ball. And so now
Speaker 1: you're in a contested situation when you really shouldn't have
Speaker 1: been because you burnt the guy and left him in
Speaker 1: the shadow realm and you had three steps of separation,
Speaker 1: but by the time the ball got there, Yes, sadly
Speaker 1: it wasn't the case. Man, But tell me, do you
Speaker 1: do you need to talk me off the ledge about
Speaker 1: Jalen Cocher because I know you went back to his
Speaker 1: tape the night before of us recording this show. What
Speaker 1: did you think about him?
Speaker 2: Yeah, you were going so nuts about Jaalen Cocher that
Speaker 2: last night. I had the occasion like it sort of
Speaker 2: forced me to go back and watch the entire catalog
Speaker 2: of Jalen Cocker's twenty twenty three work, which then led
Speaker 2: me back into his entire catalog of his entire twenty
Speaker 2: twenty two catalog, which sure and I quickly realized with
Speaker 2: the deeper dive that on the limited the couple games
Speaker 2: that I had seen of him before, I had gotten
Speaker 2: the wrong impression of Coker. I had understold him in
Speaker 2: my initial rankings. When you get the longer look at him,
Speaker 2: the ball skills of Coker explode off the screen was
Speaker 2: the thing that was just so wildly impressive to me,
Speaker 2: just the one after the other after the other after
Speaker 2: the other. There was one play down the sideline. I
Speaker 2: forget the opponent. I think this was they did play
Speaker 2: some FBS teams.
Speaker 1: Boston College, because that was one of the most games
Speaker 1: I watch.
Speaker 2: I don't know. I don't think that was against Boston
Speaker 2: the one to play that I'm talking. But they did
Speaker 2: play Boss and Dogs. They did play Army the year
Speaker 2: before they played one, So he has he does have
Speaker 2: experience against some FBS teams for people out there, but
Speaker 2: you know, he does come up from the FCS in
Speaker 2: Holy Cross, but in this game, he's he lines up
Speaker 2: on the far side boundary, so on the on the
Speaker 2: top of the screen, and he goes, you know, I
Speaker 2: don't know. They must have been twenty five thirty thirty
Speaker 2: five yards away from the end zone. And it's not
Speaker 2: bad coverage by the cornerback, except the cornerback is terrified
Speaker 2: now because he knows that the ball is going to
Speaker 2: be coming his way, and he's he's terrified that Coker
Speaker 2: is going to do what he does to everybody, which
Speaker 2: is the ball's coming and then Cocher is just gonna
Speaker 2: jump over him and just steal it. And so the
Speaker 2: cornerback it's like, it's like he's a child throwing a tantrum,
Speaker 2: and he grabs Cocher's left arm like like a child
Speaker 2: with his father, Like no Dad. Cocher grabs the ball
Speaker 2: with his right arm and catches it in the end zone.
Speaker 2: They score the touchdown. The ref throws the flag and
Speaker 2: Cocher like, and I didn't even blame him for this,
Speaker 2: he like, because the cornerback ends up on the ground
Speaker 2: and Cocher like, And it wasn't super egregious, especially because
Speaker 2: the cornerback spent like ten yards like literally just holding
Speaker 2: onto onto his arm, and it was in the end zone,
Speaker 2: you know, where he catches the thing with one arm.
Speaker 2: Cocher had to do a little yap in there. He's
Speaker 2: not the there's there's bigger guys or yeah, like you know,
Speaker 2: like Javon Baker. There's a couple other guys in this
Speaker 2: class that are way bigger talkers. But that that was
Speaker 2: an and but the bigger ball scale with him that did.
Speaker 2: I loved the subtlety. The late hands thing with him
Speaker 2: is really cool, to the point where it's almost even
Speaker 2: beyond the late hands thing. Uh. Sometimes down the sidelines
Speaker 2: he doesn't almost doesn't even telegraph anything whatsoever. Where there
Speaker 2: was a couple of times I had to go on
Speaker 2: slow motion because he almost doesn't put them up at
Speaker 2: all if he doesn't have to. Like there was one
Speaker 2: play where it was down this this another one now
Speaker 2: it isn't FCS. It was another one I think whereas
Speaker 2: against an FCS one. But the the what happened at
Speaker 2: the catch point, it's the same manifestation, you know, as
Speaker 2: for instance, to play before where he had to do
Speaker 2: it with one hand because he's literally getting the other
Speaker 2: one taken away from him. This one, uh there the
Speaker 2: throw because of that, and you know, because of the
Speaker 2: way that this thing happened. There's this guy, the guy
Speaker 2: who's on him in coverage. There's things down the sideline,
Speaker 2: and the row has him up the sideline. They might
Speaker 2: have been like ending up around like the ten yard line.
Speaker 2: And because of the way that the defender was, Cocker
Speaker 2: does not want to let the guy know that the
Speaker 2: ball is coming, and so he basically doesn't put his
Speaker 2: hands up at all, Like the like Coker's on the
Speaker 2: inside towards the boundary and the defenders like on his right.
Speaker 2: So Coker just lets it go over his shoulder, basically
Speaker 2: doesn't put his hands up at all, and then just
Speaker 2: catches it like right when it cuts, like doesn't show
Speaker 2: the defender whatsoever it was. It was almost like an
Speaker 2: optical illusion that the ball ended up in Coker's hands.
Speaker 2: Like I said, I had to go back a couple
Speaker 2: times of like when does he actually flip his hands
Speaker 2: up into like cups when the ball goes over the
Speaker 2: shoulder there were and then just the hands themselves. He
Speaker 2: extends very very easily outside his frame to spear these things.
Speaker 2: Now that that those are the things that I love.
Speaker 2: The ball scales are fabulous with that kid, his hands
Speaker 2: are awesome. He does all those those cool ball scale things.
Speaker 1: Only two drops last year. One occurred on a poorly
Speaker 1: located ball and another one was versus Lafayette in the
Speaker 1: freaking rain. So just to throw that out there.
Speaker 2: And watch if people are only going to watch one
Speaker 2: of his watch his contested catch one is very fun,
Speaker 2: he postized. People. It's very fun. The the the nippicks
Speaker 2: with him or not even impis just the fair things
Speaker 2: lack speed, uh, you know in the NFL. He know
Speaker 2: he is not going to concern anyone with his speed.
Speaker 2: The the thing that and the separation. I I don't
Speaker 2: know that he's going to be torching anyone. You know.
Speaker 2: It's like the dee bro. You made a good point
Speaker 2: with the route running. I think that that will open
Speaker 2: up some of the windows. But like the the the
Speaker 2: ball scales, I think to me proves the concept of
Speaker 2: you know, you open up just a little bit of
Speaker 2: those windows. Then you have the ball scals, you have
Speaker 2: the late hands thing, you have that little trick. I
Speaker 2: think to me that proves enough of the concept to me.
Speaker 2: That kid, he gonna hang received wide receiver four or
Speaker 2: five initially, no doubt about it. And to me, there
Speaker 2: is upside here. Potentially the ceiling to me is the
Speaker 2: possession wide receiver too. I think that is the Bonanza ceiling.
Speaker 2: Potentially could get there. I mean, certainly that is bonanza
Speaker 2: Bonanza ceiling. But I don't see this thing being any
Speaker 2: worse than the you know, initially, like I said, the
Speaker 2: wide receiver four or five, because he's not gonna embarrass
Speaker 2: himself with those ball skills, and he has the at
Speaker 2: least the explosion. What I saw was that burst which
Speaker 2: which you see out of some of those route breaks,
Speaker 2: you know, like you're talking about Deepro. You mentioned sort
Speaker 2: of the head deeks and some of the nuance that
Speaker 2: he has. The athletic trade that I noticed in deepro.
Speaker 2: The vertical is where he showed this, and the ten
Speaker 2: yard split doesn't have the long speed, but you see
Speaker 2: this off the line and then out of the rout
Speaker 2: breaks is how he will get some of the separation
Speaker 2: with his athleticism in addition to some of those running imaginations.
Speaker 1: I mean six to one three eighths six one and
Speaker 1: three eights inches two oh eight his hand size jumps
Speaker 1: off the page two eighty seconds eighty second percentile. Now
Speaker 1: you talked about the long speed, and I agree with
Speaker 1: you there, I don't he's not a burner. He can
Speaker 1: win deep, but he wins deep based off of his
Speaker 1: ability at the catch point and his route running. And
Speaker 1: again there's a lot of and I'm not drawing the
Speaker 1: direct comparison, but watching his film, there are a lot
Speaker 1: of similarities in what the things that I really like
Speaker 1: about Javon Baker's game that I like about Jalen Coker's game,
Speaker 1: and looking at you talked about the ten yard split
Speaker 1: seventy six percentile, but yes, dude, he jumped out the
Speaker 1: freaking gym. Vertical was at forty two and a half
Speaker 1: ninety eight percentile. His broad was one twenty eight eighty
Speaker 1: six percentile. So the leaping is definitely there. Man. So
Speaker 1: he's got the athleticism, he's got the short area chops
Speaker 1: at I agree with you. I think he lands on
Speaker 1: some team as the wide receiver four maybe five. But
Speaker 1: all he needs is to get into an NFL room,
Speaker 1: get even better coaching at the next level, and to
Speaker 1: unlock all the other parts of pieces of his game.
Speaker 1: I would not be shocked if he in two years,
Speaker 1: We're looking at a guy that has ascended to be
Speaker 1: a wide receiver to on an NFL depth chart, and
Speaker 1: it might sound spicy, but the kid's got talent.
Speaker 2: What round do you think he ends up going?
Speaker 1: I think I think round five probably if you were
Speaker 1: to tell me and and and maybe I'm just out
Speaker 1: over my skies. But if you were to tell me
Speaker 1: he gets into round four, I wouldn't be surprised. What
Speaker 1: do you think?
Speaker 2: I think probably round five? Wasn't you were a Round
Speaker 2: five receiver from last year's that you just think you're
Speaker 2: a fan of. Forgetting the name of that kid, we'll.
Speaker 1: Just call him Pooka juice. We'll go from that. We'll
Speaker 1: just we'll just go with the short handle. Okay, Yes,
Speaker 1: I knew you were gonna go there. I knew it.
Speaker 1: I knew it was coming. I knew it was.
Speaker 2: Who's this clus It's happened.
Speaker 1: It happened the higher process, and I'm just like, I
Speaker 1: didn't you know. I'm not gonna answer, not gonna answer it, man,
Speaker 1: But look, who's who's the guy from this?
Speaker 2: The rookie fifth roader from this classic shatters NFL records.
Speaker 1: Oh jeez, man, the questions have been real. Dude, it's
Speaker 1: been a it's been a fun draft process, man, I'll
Speaker 1: tell you that it's been a really fun draft process.
Speaker 1: And before we get the next player in here again
Speaker 1: talking about fun draft processes, man, like this, this show,
Speaker 1: the Fantasy Pros NFL Draft Show, has been a labor
Speaker 1: of love for Thorney. This has been our baby. We
Speaker 1: have absolutely loved recording every single episode of this weekly
Speaker 1: for everybody. So we really hope that y'all have enjoyed
Speaker 1: this ride as much as us. And this is not
Speaker 1: like we're going away like this sounds like I'm building
Speaker 1: up to, uh, we're not coming back. But no, this
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Speaker 1: as much as we have, please help us out. This
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Speaker 1: and review before the NFL Draft is complete. So look,
Speaker 1: you got till Saturday. Okay, when the clock strikes midnight
Speaker 1: at the end of the seventh round, mister irrelevant has
Speaker 1: been picked. Get your review in before the Bewitching Hour,
Speaker 1: and next week we're gonna shout out all the names
Speaker 1: or user names of everybody that leaves us a review
Speaker 1: on next week's show, when Thor and I are going
Speaker 1: to rock through our NFC and AFC draft grades for
Speaker 1: all these teams. So please get in there again Fantasypros
Speaker 1: dot Com slash Reviews.
Speaker 2: Thor So Zebra, you're saying everyone who writes us a
Speaker 2: review on iTunes in the next week that we you
Speaker 2: will give a shout out to on the next one
Speaker 2: next week show.
Speaker 1: We're mentioning him all man, I don't care if it's
Speaker 1: two in her names. We're gonna run through all of them.
Speaker 1: Everybody's getting some getting some puff and some praise because look, okay,
Speaker 1: you're tuning into this show. Wow, we're trying to give
Speaker 1: value value back to you, man, Like that's the what
Speaker 1: we've been trying to do this entire process. So we've truly,
Speaker 1: from the bottom of our hearts appreciate everybody that is
Speaker 1: tuned into this show all the way across the process.
Speaker 2: Man.
Speaker 1: But I'm gonna get all choked up here, Thor because
Speaker 1: the next guy again we're talking about loveless guys. Just
Speaker 1: give this name. I'm just gonna sit here and sit
Speaker 1: back and listen to you give all the good puff
Speaker 1: and praise about Luke McCaffrey.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I yeah, Luke McCaffrey and the ten yards split.
Speaker 2: I have to go back to the ten yards foot
Speaker 2: about how about Jayleen Cocher First, Jayleen Coger's ten yards flit,
Speaker 2: by the way, so at his speed was the exact
Speaker 2: same as Adana Mitchell at four three three, Lat McConkie
Speaker 2: and four three nine. They all had one five to
Speaker 2: ten yard split.
Speaker 1: So interesting for a person second round graded prospects.
Speaker 2: Interesting interesting explosion there for mister Jalen Coker. So interesting
Speaker 2: to say that Luke McCaffrey, the guy who absolutely annihilated
Speaker 2: his FBS conference, now on the lower tier of the FBS,
Speaker 2: but at a position that he was brand new to
Speaker 2: over the last two years, had just switched to it
Speaker 2: after being a quarterback in his formative years of his life,
Speaker 2: becomes a receiver the last two years and the first
Speaker 2: two years he did it absolutely annihilated Conference USA. And
Speaker 2: his brother is one of the NFL's best players. His
Speaker 2: father is part of NFL royalty as well. And somehow
Speaker 2: and then Luke McCaffrey comes into the NFL draft process
Speaker 2: and tests as a tremendous athlete as well, he.
Speaker 1: Which comes away. Do you know what his ten yard
Speaker 1: split is?
Speaker 2: There?
Speaker 1: Thors? Speaking of putting respect on names, do you want
Speaker 1: to know who has a one point five to two
Speaker 1: ten exact?
Speaker 2: Same one five to two? Interesting? Interesting, very very interesting,
Speaker 2: And mister McCaffrey was also like, yeah, obviously the athletic
Speaker 2: jeams there with the McCaffrey, the ninety four percentile size
Speaker 2: adjusted athlete, and mister McCaffrey did not duck any tests
Speaker 2: unlike some of these other guys were like, no, I
Speaker 2: don't want to do the agility stuff or you know
Speaker 2: what one of the tests that they wanted out on.
Speaker 2: The mccaffreys don't duck any of those. They're they're totally fine.
Speaker 2: Comes in at almost six foot two, almost two hundred pounds,
Speaker 2: and that the ninety four percent a guy who can
Speaker 2: has shown that he can do some of the outside stuff.
Speaker 2: Played predominantly in the slot at Rice that has had
Speaker 2: analysts right from the get both under selling his game,
Speaker 2: which I find odd, both because of those bloodlines, both
Speaker 2: because of the production brand new at the position, and
Speaker 2: then of course the that size adjusted athletics score at
Speaker 2: the size that that I just mentioned. But I think
Speaker 2: that the other thing is like they're like, oh, you know,
Speaker 2: he's just a slot because he he played seventy five
Speaker 2: to eighty percent of that at RICE last two years.
Speaker 2: The context I need to give for people again is
Speaker 2: those were his first two years at the position. And
Speaker 2: then the other thing is in the RICE system and
Speaker 2: down there at the G five just in general, A
Speaker 2: lot of times you see this they will put their
Speaker 2: best receiver inside in the slot because the quarterback play
Speaker 2: down there is so bad. They want the best receiver
Speaker 2: closer to the wide receiver. And the Luke McCaffrey was
Speaker 2: indeed pounded with targets at all. Three were levels of
Speaker 2: the field, which is why I'm more bullish with him.
Speaker 2: You saw him winning downfield rather consistently, including he has
Speaker 2: this crazy skill to win in congested quarters and in
Speaker 2: contested situations including and I made this point, d bro,
Speaker 2: you know where I'm going with you.
Speaker 1: Know exactly where you're going. If you weren't going to
Speaker 1: make it, I was go ahead.
Speaker 2: He had more catches that were that he he secured
Speaker 2: when he got smoked and his helmet popped off that
Speaker 2: I saw than the rest of the wide receivers in
Speaker 2: this I.
Speaker 1: Mean the rest of his class combined like this. It's crazy, man, Like,
Speaker 1: somebody needs to go talk to the equipment manager at
Speaker 1: Rice and be like, old, no, man, like we got
Speaker 1: to look at these chin straps or something. Dude, like
Speaker 1: his helmet pops off like three times or four. I mean,
Speaker 1: I'll lost count.
Speaker 2: Honestly, it's absolutely insane. The concentration with him was something
Speaker 2: that jumped out on his film because you know, he
Speaker 2: was able to get closer to the quarterback playing in
Speaker 2: that slot. But opponents, especially last season, knew what was
Speaker 2: coming because McCaffrey a very good athlete, you know, like
Speaker 2: like we were mentioning before, when he came out of
Speaker 2: high school, he was this bally who dual threat quarterback
Speaker 2: who signed with Nebraska. Everybody wanted him, and and the
Speaker 2: way he got to Rice, I mean usually this doesn't
Speaker 2: happen with like you know, NFL royalty bloodlines getting down
Speaker 2: the Rice as slot receiver. The way it happened was
Speaker 2: he failed at both Nebraska and then very briefly had
Speaker 2: this brief dalliance with Louisville trying to be a dual
Speaker 2: threat quarterback. Well, the arm, it just was not working,
Speaker 2: the accuracy. So finally he gets down to Rice and
Speaker 2: they convinced him to switch to receiver. Well that's where
Speaker 2: the athleticism played there. It's like now, okay, now we're
Speaker 2: cooking with gas. So but then but then Rice, they
Speaker 2: just and JT Daniels the end of his time there,
Speaker 2: and then that he was injured and has now medically retired.
Speaker 2: The backups that would come in when JT would get hurt,
Speaker 2: they would just force the ball to Luke McCaffrey. It's like,
Speaker 2: oh boy, we got a stud. It's like, how lucky
Speaker 2: we were playing with Luke frigging McCaffrey. So they would
Speaker 2: force the ball up to McCaffrey, like I said, at
Speaker 2: all three levels, but sometimes they would try to fit
Speaker 2: it into McCaffrey double covered. It's like all the safety
Speaker 2: coming down, but he's got a step on the corner.
Speaker 2: Try to fit it in between the two guys, McCaffrey,
Speaker 2: the concentration between the two guys. Then what he about
Speaker 2: to get smacked? Like I said, exemplary the hands vice grips.
Speaker 2: I have the stat in here somewhere, But he doesn't
Speaker 2: drop balls last year in the contested situation, just to
Speaker 2: speak to that, seventeen for eighteen in the contested situations,
Speaker 2: he only dropped three balls last year in total on
Speaker 2: one hundred and twenty targets over the some of it.
Speaker 2: I think you could do different stuff like that with him.
Speaker 2: Last year the cut with him, it was seventy one
Speaker 2: point five percent of his snaps happened in the slot.
Speaker 2: The rest of them happened at wide. I do think
Speaker 2: as he learns more, you can get more work for
Speaker 2: him out wide. Like I said, he has that ability
Speaker 2: to win at all three levels of the field. I
Speaker 2: think as he learns more nuanced of the craft and
Speaker 2: stuff like that. But we know that receiving a ball,
Speaker 2: catching at the athleticism, everything like that. It runs in
Speaker 2: the family. So because of all these different things, I
Speaker 2: am more bullish on him than the rest of the
Speaker 2: industry seems to be. They proved all the concepts through
Speaker 2: the process. He hasn't on other boards, in my opinion,
Speaker 2: not enough. I think this kid is a sleeper. I
Speaker 2: think someone is going to get value on him at
Speaker 2: some point on Saturday. But Dee bruh. I don't think
Speaker 2: he is going to go quite as early as he
Speaker 2: probably should.
Speaker 1: He's not because people when they talk about the bloodlines
Speaker 1: of players, you hear Frank or Junior, you hear Brendan Rice,
Speaker 1: you don't hear Luke McCaffrey. And I told you this
Speaker 1: whenever we were down a mobile, I thought one of
Speaker 1: the most blasphemous, slapping the face kind of things with
Speaker 1: so many people in mobile asking him about, Oh, what's
Speaker 1: Christian doing at the super Bowl, when I'm like, stupid,
Speaker 1: you need to talk about Luke McCaffrey's game, like you're
Speaker 1: getting a chance to talk to this kid and ask
Speaker 1: him about his game. And it's been a fantastic wild
Speaker 1: ride of his collegiate career.
Speaker 2: One of the more interesting sleeper receivers we have in
Speaker 2: this class. And that's all they could ask was about
Speaker 2: was his brother.
Speaker 1: It's crazy, man, and I'm not trying to take shots
Speaker 1: of people, but we need to put respect on these kids'
Speaker 1: games and ask them about what the process is and
Speaker 1: talk to him about them, because again, give him the respect.
Speaker 1: You're in there talking to him for a player that
Speaker 1: you talked about the athletic testing thor. I'm gonna sit
Speaker 1: here in double down on that man. His three cone
Speaker 1: eighty seven percentile, his twenty yard shuttle ninety first percentile.
Speaker 1: So for a player that also is twenty sixth in
Speaker 1: PFF receiving grade last season, I'm with you on all
Speaker 1: parts of pieces. Man. I've loved his game and I
Speaker 1: have him ranked where some people can think this is aggressively,
Speaker 1: I have him ranked as my wide receiver eighteen in
Speaker 1: this class, over Brendan Rice, over Jayleen McMillan, over everybody's
Speaker 1: favorite Darling, Jalen Polk, over Malachai Corley, over tes Walker.
Speaker 1: I'm putting respect on his name, and people need to
Speaker 1: be doing the same, man, because the kid can play.
Speaker 1: He can win from the slot, he can win outside,
Speaker 1: and I think there's another evolution of his game that
Speaker 1: will happen in the NFL. And my comp for him,
Speaker 1: and this is not lazy taking the former quarterback aspect
Speaker 1: of this, but for a player that made the same
Speaker 1: position change and really had to come in to the
Speaker 1: NFL improve people wrong and continue to continue and continue
Speaker 1: to prove it. My confolute McCaffrey is Jacobe Myers. I
Speaker 1: love his game. I'm with you love it.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I rank McCaffrey wide receiver seventeen. And the last
Speaker 2: thing that I wanted to say about him, I mentioned
Speaker 2: the downfield utility that I don't think he gets enough
Speaker 2: credit for the other thing though, as far as the
Speaker 2: short and intermediate utility that you get for McCaffrey. That
Speaker 2: and also the keep in mind again former dual threat
Speaker 2: quarterback who the thing he was the best at it
Speaker 2: was running the ball, because the thing that he stunk
Speaker 2: at was throwing it. It's why he had to switch positions.
Speaker 2: But I think that there is some sneaky, beaky gadget
Speaker 2: utility with this kid as well. Twenty over the last
Speaker 2: two years. So again this is when he moved me.
Speaker 2: When he goes the rise, he's a receiver over the
Speaker 2: Over that time, I mentioned how he didn't drop any
Speaker 2: balls last year was the three drops over the one
Speaker 2: hundred and twenty turrets. But over the last two seasons,
Speaker 2: McCaffrey twenty five broken tackles those last two seasons with
Speaker 2: zero fumbles.
Speaker 1: So he is.
Speaker 2: Also very reliable. And if you manufacture touches for him,
Speaker 2: not only do you have the athletic kid and the
Speaker 2: brother the best running back in the NFL is also
Speaker 2: going to break the tackles and reliable with the ball.
Speaker 2: In addition, you're not gonna put it on the carpet.
Speaker 1: Somebody's gonna get a steal for him in the NFT
Speaker 1: steal he's gonna go probably round five and some team.
Speaker 1: We're gonna look back on it next year and say,
Speaker 1: how the heck did he get that low? And people
Speaker 1: are gonna take the.
Speaker 2: MVP guy going that low. No one's gonna understand it.
Speaker 1: It's gonna be fun. Man. But onto another player that
Speaker 1: I think we need to be put in respect with,
Speaker 1: and that's Jamary Thrash, wide receiver out of Louisville. And
Speaker 1: in breaking down his game, am, I'm going to tell
Speaker 1: you that Jamuriy Thrash is gonna be a wide receiver
Speaker 1: one or wide receiver two in the NFL. No, I
Speaker 1: don't see that, But I think Jamari Thrash can can
Speaker 1: develop into a rock solid wide receiver three. And if
Speaker 1: he lands in the right situation, can he become an
Speaker 1: underneath weapon for a team and be a guy that like, look,
Speaker 1: he just soaks up targets because he's open all the
Speaker 1: freaking time. I think Jamari Thrash can absolutely do that.
Speaker 1: Twenty twenty two he was fourteenth in yards per route run,
Speaker 1: twenty eighth and PFF receiving grade. And well, I don't
Speaker 1: think that you're gonna see him go down the field.
Speaker 1: He's not gonna be stretching the field. He can absolutely
Speaker 1: torch guys underneath. He's a smooth operator. He's got easy
Speaker 1: change of direction, and that's really what I think his
Speaker 1: superpower is man quick feed off the line. He has
Speaker 1: problems at the catch point, only a thirty two point
Speaker 1: six percent contested catch rate in college. And again, not
Speaker 1: a burner, but a player that I could see utility.
Speaker 1: And I hate that this guy and this is my
Speaker 1: comp form, hate that he got hurt and we never
Speaker 1: saw what he could have been going from the Atlanta
Speaker 1: Falcons to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. My conference is Russell Gage,
Speaker 1: and I think you get have a very similar career arc.
Speaker 1: What are your thoughts on Thrash.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I'm just a little bit lower on Thrash. Although
Speaker 2: the thing that I like about him when you you
Speaker 2: just have to get the ball in his hands, like
Speaker 2: when yeah, it's it. Like I loved him both going
Speaker 2: back to Georgia State and then of course at Louisville
Speaker 2: last year. I loved that when brom identified him because
Speaker 2: then you get him into the Ron Dale role in
Speaker 2: that offense. But you when he gets the ball in
Speaker 2: his hands, it becomes the chicken and the coop thing.
Speaker 2: It becomes like it's like the car chase, you know,
Speaker 2: like he's just very hard to get your hands on
Speaker 2: at that point. But like you mentioned, the balls also turned.
Speaker 1: On the Benny Hill music.
Speaker 2: That's exactly what it is, and and that's where the
Speaker 2: fun starts to them. But it's like the it's you know,
Speaker 2: and this is going to be going to carry the
Speaker 2: day as far as where does his career go in
Speaker 2: the NFL and how long is his career in the NFL?
Speaker 2: Like what he needs to figure out how to get
Speaker 2: that ball in his hands, right, Like, yeah, because they're
Speaker 2: not going to be in the NFL. People learn how
Speaker 2: to win that themselves, right, Like, it's not going to
Speaker 2: be the same thing in college where they're manufacturing that
Speaker 2: for him and he's not as physically gifted over the guys,
Speaker 2: you know, analogous to him on the other side of
Speaker 2: the ball, where where teams are going to be incentivized
Speaker 2: to use a portion of their offensive snaps to do
Speaker 2: that for him. So he's going to have to learn
Speaker 2: to win as the route runner and a little bit
Speaker 2: further along down the field. But the thing with the
Speaker 2: ball in his hands speaks for himself. It is really
Speaker 2: really fun. So if he can learn to the route running,
Speaker 2: winning a little bit more, winning a little bit further
Speaker 2: down the field, the thing with the ball, you know,
Speaker 2: as the runner that will play at the NFL level.
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Speaker 1: get real door running backs. Maybe we talked about a
Speaker 1: few of them. Let's go back to the position here again,
Speaker 1: talking about the guys outside the top fifteen perkinsensus. Who
Speaker 1: is the guy you want to bring up here?
Speaker 2: Yeah, since we were doing our you know, it's draft
Speaker 2: week and we're almost there and this is gonna be
Speaker 2: our last one in the weeds. I we had to
Speaker 2: hit a guy that I'm pretty sure that we had
Speaker 2: not hit yet, if even briefly had to hit him
Speaker 2: out the door. Is Dylan Johnson. I think there's some intrigue.
Speaker 2: There is a guy that I think is going to
Speaker 2: hang around for a while and could have some flashes
Speaker 2: in the future. Stretches of utility for Fantasy owners out
Speaker 2: there because he has utility in two different aspects of
Speaker 2: the game. And I appreciate his game, and I think
Speaker 2: that coaches are going to as well. He's a kid
Speaker 2: who was relevant in college football for the last four
Speaker 2: years and last year was a big time contributor on
Speaker 2: a team that was all went all the way to
Speaker 2: the College Football National Championship Game with Washington. I thought
Speaker 2: what was really interesting about Dylan Johnson's college career. He's
Speaker 2: a kid who's almost six feet tall. He's two hundred
Speaker 2: and seventeen pounds, so he's slightly above threshold size back.
Speaker 2: But he signed back in the day during the COVID
Speaker 2: season recruiting class with Mike Leach's Mississippi State team to
Speaker 2: be an air raid receiving back, and that's what he
Speaker 2: was initially during his collegiate career. So get this, his
Speaker 2: true freshman season back there, at twenty twenty eleven games
Speaker 2: only has fifty one carries for Mississippi State thirty six catches. Okay,
Speaker 2: as a sophomore eighty nine carries sixty five catches. Then
Speaker 2: as a junior eighty nine carries forty eight catch for
Speaker 2: Mississippi State. Then uh and and I'm sure like I
Speaker 2: didn't hear Dylan Johnson talk about this, and I almost
Speaker 2: hesitate to even bring this up cause his the other
Speaker 2: coaches and teammates that I've heard talk about Dylan Johnson,
Speaker 2: UH love him. Kalin de bor raves about him. Dylan
Speaker 2: Johnson and Mike Leach had a disagreement at the end
Speaker 2: of Dylan Johnson's time at Missippi State, which led Dylan
Speaker 2: Johnson to transfer. UH. Mike Leach had the medical thing
Speaker 2: right then, and you know, had the tragically passed away,
Speaker 2: so that that was very obviously unfortunate. Dylan Johnson then
Speaker 2: goes to UH Washington. What it became for Dylan Johnson.
Speaker 2: He had proved that he could be the pass catcher.
Speaker 2: He also wanted to show that he could be the
Speaker 2: bellcow guy and get the full usage. And I think
Speaker 2: that was a part of the thing that UH in
Speaker 2: his discussions with Leach, wanted to be on the field
Speaker 2: more and stuff like that. With de Boor, it was
Speaker 2: the shot to be on the field for a higher percentage,
Speaker 2: but also to show that other aspect of his game
Speaker 2: where it was the more pass catching stuff. In the
Speaker 2: Mississippi State offense, he got to show the other stuff
Speaker 2: with the Washington offense. Everyone that watched the Huskies last year,
Speaker 2: you know that when Pennix went back to throw looking
Speaker 2: at a dunesday first, and then if that wasn't there,
Speaker 2: that's when you're looking for whether it be McMillan, whether
Speaker 2: it be paulk and then after that Westover Colby, you know,
Speaker 2: et cetera, et cetera.
Speaker 1: This wasn't exactly looking to check the ball down very often.
Speaker 2: Dylan Johnson speaking of check I mean Dylan Johnson was
Speaker 2: further down the line, you know, of that continuum, right.
Speaker 2: But what Dylan Johnson did do last year, and this
Speaker 2: is what I like for his evaluation. He ran the
Speaker 2: ball two hundred and thirty three times. Dylan Johnson ran
Speaker 2: the ball more times last year than he had in
Speaker 2: his entire three year career prior to that, only caught
Speaker 2: the ball twenty four times. Well, he'd already proved the
Speaker 2: concept that he is one heck of a receiver prior
Speaker 2: that in a true blue air raid offense from the
Speaker 2: godfather inventor of the air raid offense as we know
Speaker 2: it in modern football. So Dylan Johnson very good receiver.
Speaker 2: One hundred and seventy three receptions in college last season,
Speaker 2: didn't drop the ball one time at Washington. The versatility
Speaker 2: speaks for itself. He was the belcow on the Washington
Speaker 2: offense last year and the one off season switch over, like,
Speaker 2: we didn't know like that he was. I didn't know
Speaker 2: if he could do the you know, just act sort
Speaker 2: of as that for an offense like Washington after he
Speaker 2: had just been used more or less as the pass
Speaker 2: catcher under Leach. I had no idea, and he proved
Speaker 2: that he could do it last year. The other thing
Speaker 2: I love about that kid tough as nails. He plays hurt.
Speaker 2: He did it at Mississippi State, and then last year
Speaker 2: he was badly compromised down the stretch. I don't know
Speaker 2: that people, and you see him get ranked pretty low
Speaker 2: on some people's rankings. My theory is that they are
Speaker 2: watching tape on him from down the stretch last year
Speaker 2: and don't realize the context that they are watching him
Speaker 2: playing when maybe other players would not have been playing,
Speaker 2: you know, particularly like in the college football playoff. I
Speaker 2: thought that maybe he shouldn't have even been out there.
Speaker 2: He was badly, badly compromised down the stretch. So keep
Speaker 2: in mind. You know, people, when you take a look
Speaker 2: at his work down the stretch, he was gutting it out.
Speaker 2: He had to get carried off the end of the
Speaker 2: Texas game, so you know, and there was the games
Speaker 2: down the stretch where it was and there was actually
Speaker 2: I'm not going to get into the whole thing because
Speaker 2: we don't have time, but that caused a fascinating thing
Speaker 2: with the clock where it stopped because they had to
Speaker 2: get Dylan Johnson off the field because he could not
Speaker 2: physically get himself off. But then he came back for
Speaker 2: the Football Championship game eight days later.
Speaker 1: Whatever.
Speaker 2: I didn't think there was any chance. The kid is
Speaker 2: a warrior, is the whole point. Plays hurt, thats the
Speaker 2: threshold size. The only thing that he has the versatility,
Speaker 2: the only thing lack speed, categorically lack speed. You see
Speaker 2: this on his film as well. But he does have
Speaker 2: the skills and he does have that versatility. I think
Speaker 2: that this is a guy that goes into the NFL
Speaker 2: and is the committee dude right away, right like he's
Speaker 2: the mix and match fella for you. You bring him
Speaker 2: in and he does that. There are limitations on his
Speaker 2: athletic profile that probably prevent him from ever being a star.
Speaker 2: But this is the kind of guy that NFL coaches
Speaker 2: really like because he can do a little bit of everything,
Speaker 2: and I think his game plays best because of the
Speaker 2: patient style that he has and certainly what he showed
Speaker 2: last year at Washington. Probably a zone blocking scheme would
Speaker 2: be best for his skill set as a runner, but
Speaker 2: in general offense that throws a little bit more to
Speaker 2: the backs I think would behoove or a play up
Speaker 2: the value proposition that he is going to provide in
Speaker 2: a discount on the price tag that you were going
Speaker 2: to get next week, and I think on Saturday when
Speaker 2: he is selected assuredly late because that athletic profile.
Speaker 1: Yeah, man, I like his game. I've got currently at
Speaker 1: RB twenty in my rankings. There's lots of like about
Speaker 1: his game, and I think there's a lot of utility
Speaker 1: in the NFL. And that moves me over to a
Speaker 1: guy that I have at RB fifteen that I agree
Speaker 1: like that. I think that he has similar utility, that
Speaker 1: there are some shortcomings to his game. But the guy
Speaker 1: that I got to bring up here is Kendall Milton,
Speaker 1: and people could say, well, this is really not deep enough,
Speaker 1: and I know he comes out of Georgia and stuff.
Speaker 1: Kendle Milton's not getting hype in this class man people
Speaker 1: like that, at least not enough to where I think
Speaker 1: that he should be. You're talking, we're talking about a
Speaker 1: running back that last year at Georgia amongst all guys
Speaker 1: with at least one hundred carries in college was thirteenth
Speaker 1: and yards of the contact per attempt twenty first and
Speaker 1: breakaway run rate. And are there physical limitations as far
Speaker 1: as the long speed because he ran a four to
Speaker 1: six two. Sure, but if we get better context and
Speaker 1: thor you and I both know that tackle breaking ability
Speaker 1: translates more if we're looking at one metric on that,
Speaker 1: not the short area of stuff. It's the ten yard split.
Speaker 1: And Kendall Milton gets up to the top speed quickly
Speaker 1: man eighty six percentile ten yard split. And also he's
Speaker 1: not a bad athlete in the sense that he also
Speaker 1: had an eighty third percentile broad jump, so there is
Speaker 1: athleticism there. And the guy that I kept watching when
Speaker 1: I was watching Milton, and the guy that I kept
Speaker 1: thinking about the entire time, was he reminds me of
Speaker 1: Roshan Johnson with a little bit less pass game utility,
Speaker 1: and in the sense that he's a downhill runner, he
Speaker 1: can make He's a one speed thumper kind of guy.
Speaker 1: Give him one cut, get him into the second level,
Speaker 1: and just let him punish people. I think he can
Speaker 1: definitely do that. Now, is he gonna break.
Speaker 2: Off home runs? No?
Speaker 1: Is he a little bit more of an upright runner
Speaker 1: and you can kind of chop him down at certain time. Sure,
Speaker 1: but if he can get into the second level, get
Speaker 1: him three to five yards pass the line of scrimmage,
Speaker 1: he can he could put a hurting on people. And
Speaker 1: the part where I eventually especially want to highlight about
Speaker 1: his game is I think that he can be he
Speaker 1: can also play on passing downs, and this is not
Speaker 1: talking about his route running. I think he'll be a competent,
Speaker 1: not standout receiving back, but he can protect the quarterback.
Speaker 1: Dude seventy three point one pass blocking grade gave up
Speaker 1: zero sacks or hurries in twenty six pass blocking snaps
Speaker 1: last year. So as a player that if you were
Speaker 1: to thrust him into a three down workload and say
Speaker 1: we're gonna give this guy twenty carries a game, can
Speaker 1: he hold up. I think he can. He's got the
Speaker 1: size and the ability to do that. Now, what kind
Speaker 1: of run game scheme you're gonna put him in? Probably
Speaker 1: more gap, more inside zone, get him downhill immediately. But
Speaker 1: he's got pass pro chops, he could break tackles. There's
Speaker 1: utility here, man, So I think the deep parts of
Speaker 1: his game and where he can be utilized. I'm not
Speaker 1: telling you that he goes top three rounds in the
Speaker 1: NFL draft. He's a few eventual future starter. Does he
Speaker 1: go round five? Can he land on the depth chart?
Speaker 1: And if injuries occur, can he step forward and handle
Speaker 1: the starter's workload? And who knows? Man, could he get
Speaker 1: a job and then say, look, I got the reins
Speaker 1: on this play well and not let it go. It's
Speaker 1: threading the needle, but it could happen.
Speaker 2: Yeah, he's the thing. So not super sexy of a profile,
Speaker 2: but he's a guy who's gonna hang around for sure
Speaker 2: for the reasons that you mentioned. Short yardage guy absolutely,
Speaker 2: and then the pass pro which is underrated. People don't
Speaker 2: talk about it, but it's the thing that keeps you
Speaker 2: on the field on those passing downs. He can't he's
Speaker 2: not a good receiver. Georgia never used him as that.
Speaker 2: But he absolutely is a reliable pass catcher and he
Speaker 2: absolutely will grind out those short yardage things, the short
Speaker 2: yardage situations. Georgia effectively use him with that. So that
Speaker 2: is what kind of we'll bring to the NFL. That's
Speaker 2: why he's gonna stay on an NFL roster for a while.
Speaker 1: Absolutely. Man, So final guy you're gonna bring up here?
Speaker 1: I know again we're getting into the weeds. Dude, we're
Speaker 1: going outside the top twelve tight ends. Who's the name
Speaker 1: on your list?
Speaker 2: So yeah, so we we had to toss out a
Speaker 2: tight end and I'm gonna be just totally transparent here
Speaker 2: outside of those you know, we we had talked initially
Speaker 2: about the top ten consensus tight ends. Outside of that group,
Speaker 2: I'm looking through this trying to find for you guys
Speaker 2: a deep tight end sleeper that I think could eventually be,
Speaker 2: you know, someone for Dynasty guys to potentially target. It
Speaker 2: starts to get slim pickens real quick for this tight
Speaker 2: end class, like the you know, we find that this.
Speaker 2: You know, running backs and the receivers tossing those ones out,
Speaker 2: those ones are easier and you know, especially these guys
Speaker 2: and the receiver one we could have gone a lot longer, deeper.
Speaker 2: I think we had to sort of cut ourselves off
Speaker 2: and limit ourselves. Yeah, this tight end class was kind
Speaker 2: of tough. We were like, man, we really should toss
Speaker 2: out at tight end, but we're both were kind of like, yeah,
Speaker 2: we don't. You know who's gonna take.
Speaker 1: I want to culp the smaller athletic, but he's basically
Speaker 1: where we're gone.
Speaker 2: You go with the other one west over, you go
Speaker 2: with Yeah, like who do you go with? Uh?
Speaker 1: So I like the name you picked here, though I'm
Speaker 1: gonna say that I like the name you picked here.
Speaker 2: Yeah, And I did watch it after my UH, after
Speaker 2: my session with mister Cocher last night, which that was
Speaker 2: the true fun last night. I I what I spent
Speaker 2: the next portion of my evening with the twenty twenty
Speaker 2: three UH spin through again on UH. Mister mclachland Tanner
Speaker 2: McLaughlan from Arizona did another spin through on him that one,
Speaker 2: though I remained exactly where I am I was before. However,
Speaker 2: that's that is sufficient to make him worthy of the
Speaker 2: shout out for the purposes of this which again there
Speaker 2: are so few eyes after those consensus top ten tight
Speaker 2: ends that could fill a role in the NFL of
Speaker 2: catching that you could even project to catch forty balls someday,
Speaker 2: right like that even have the physical ability to maybe
Speaker 2: do that someday. Tanner McLaughlin fits that bill, and that
Speaker 2: is why he is getting the shout out here. The
Speaker 2: thing that he can't do its block. He ain't gonna
Speaker 2: do that for you. You're not going to put him
Speaker 2: in line. The question for him becomes is he a
Speaker 2: good enough receiver that that he can justify the roster
Speaker 2: spot going forward as that? And then the question for
Speaker 2: fantasy owners is it and then for his livelihood going
Speaker 2: forward visa VI that is he a good enough pass
Speaker 2: catcher where he is one of the thirty best at
Speaker 2: that the big slot thing, right like, one of the
Speaker 2: twenty best at that where he demands that sort of
Speaker 2: usage and utility from his NFL team where he is
Speaker 2: getting that thirty five forty plus catches per season, where
Speaker 2: he's around that sort of thing, So he becomes fantasy
Speaker 2: see relevant. He does have some ball scales, I will
Speaker 2: give him that. I love watching Arizona tape because I
Speaker 2: so so enjoy watching their quarterback. Noah Fafida, the little
Speaker 2: pine size scrambler guy who is so fun to watch
Speaker 2: in the pocket when he's zooming around. He's the opposite
Speaker 2: of watching the quarterback. He displaced Jaden Delora, who is
Speaker 2: a quarterback who found his way into this class. That's
Speaker 2: a story for another day. But McLaughlin can move a bit.
Speaker 2: His testing profile six foot five and a shade over
Speaker 2: that two hundred and forty four pounds and a seventy
Speaker 2: six percentile athletics score. His four six one decidedly above
Speaker 2: average in this class. He lacks arm length, hands are
Speaker 2: a little bit smaller. It's not perfect, you know. Again,
Speaker 2: and and because of the lack of play strength, he's
Speaker 2: not gonna be able to play in line. But he
Speaker 2: does have those ball skills. Like I said, I saw
Speaker 2: him create separation again and again during his tape. He
Speaker 2: was not the first option invariably when you were watching
Speaker 2: his cut up. Generally it was mister McMillan and the
Speaker 2: secondary one was mister Cowing. But McLachlan was effective in
Speaker 2: especially over the intermediate range. He presents himself because he's
Speaker 2: the tall fella you know who moves pretty well, especially
Speaker 2: in the pac twelve right, and so he would flash
Speaker 2: himself he would get open and can get down the
Speaker 2: seam as well, and Fafida would find him when he
Speaker 2: flashed himself open. I think that that is enough to
Speaker 2: you know, again call out, shout out as a sleeper
Speaker 2: here and for guys that are in deep dynasty leagues
Speaker 2: out there, he would be the guy that I would
Speaker 2: point to. There's other you know, like like I see
Speaker 2: him right around qualitatively, for instance, like a Jared Wiley,
Speaker 2: who other people see as like a top five six
Speaker 2: tight end in the entire class. I see McLaughlin more
Speaker 2: or less like right with him qualitatively as a pass
Speaker 2: catching tight end heading to the next level. So you know,
Speaker 2: and I rank McLaughlin right next to jaheem Bell, who
Speaker 2: from the fantasy community jahem Bell has gotten way more hype.
Speaker 2: I would put those guys right next to each other.
Speaker 2: I think McLaughlin has the same odds that jaheem Bell
Speaker 2: does of carving out that role of getting that thirty
Speaker 2: five to forty catches for three four five seasons in
Speaker 2: the NFL. So Tanner McLachlin got to keep an eye on.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I agreed, And just to add a little more
Speaker 1: flavor around the edges here, because look, you talked about
Speaker 1: the athletic profile seven point six raz eighty th percentile,
Speaker 1: vert ran the forty at four to six one and
Speaker 1: ninety third percentile outcome, and even you pointed the analytics man,
Speaker 1: amongst all tight ends last year least twenty targets, Tanner
Speaker 1: was twenty first and PFF receiving grade eighth in miss
Speaker 1: tackles force. So there is some utility and some ability
Speaker 1: after the catch there. So I like the call man
Speaker 1: again getting a tight end here, because we know that
Speaker 1: people play in dynasty leagues that are tight end premium
Speaker 1: and trying to, you know, wedge these guys into your
Speaker 1: taxi squad. And I'm gonna go deep down the weeds here, man,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna get deep into it. And your ears kind
Speaker 1: of started burning and your eyebrows perked up whenever you
Speaker 1: saw this name on the show sheet this morning and said,
Speaker 1: oh baby, we really are getting deep. But a player
Speaker 1: that I think people need to be looking at, and
Speaker 1: we'll be We'll see where he goes. I'm not telling
Speaker 1: you that he gets drafted, maybe goes UDFA, but I'm
Speaker 1: be very curious and I will be stashing him on
Speaker 1: a ton of taxi squads, and that's Raymond Jefferson. And
Speaker 1: if you have not heard the name Raymond Jefferson, you're
Speaker 1: probably not alone at this point. But some backstory on
Speaker 1: mister Raymond Jefferson. First of all, as a running back
Speaker 1: coming out of Kentucky, unfortunately he did not see the
Speaker 1: field very much of the last two years. He can,
Speaker 1: unfortunately thank mister Ray Davis for that. But Raymond Jefferson
Speaker 1: started his collegiate career at Maine, then transferred to sam Houston,
Speaker 1: balled out at sam Houston from twenty twenty to twenty
Speaker 1: twenty one. Then, unfortunately, if you were hoping Raymond Jefferson
Speaker 1: goes somewhere bigger school, gets some puff, and then we'd
Speaker 1: be talking about him in a different ilk if Ray
Speaker 1: Davis had never gone to Kentucky and looking what Raymond
Speaker 1: Jefferson brings to the NFL, he sat on the bench
Speaker 1: at Kentucky for two years. So, going back to his
Speaker 1: film and his analytics, when he actually got playing time
Speaker 1: at sam Houston twenty twenty to twenty twenty one, amongst
Speaker 1: all running backs, at least a Hunter carrees, this guy
Speaker 1: was six. The miss tackles force per aid attempt twenty
Speaker 1: second in yards of contact per attempt and sixteenth in
Speaker 1: explicit runs. He's got the size, he's five nine, two
Speaker 1: hundred pounds. Now, the receiving utility is not fantastic, only
Speaker 1: eight targets and zero point three yards per out running college.
Speaker 1: But if we're looking at a player that checks boxes
Speaker 1: as far as the athleticism, because again putting respect on
Speaker 1: this guy's name, talked about the size. His vert was
Speaker 1: thirty nine and a half ninety fifth percentile, outcome broad
Speaker 1: was ten to seven, ninety fifth percentile. His ten yard
Speaker 1: split thoor was eighty seventh percentile at a one point
Speaker 1: five to five and even as forty checked the box
Speaker 1: at four point five to three. So the athleticism is there.
Speaker 1: The tackle breaking, yes it was a lower conference, is there.
Speaker 1: I liked his film too short, squatty guy. I love
Speaker 1: guys that are just bowling ball mentality. They get in
Speaker 1: the second level, they're pinballing off guys. I mean, there
Speaker 1: are similar qualities that I can point back to and
Speaker 1: talking about Blake Watson's game that I can talk about
Speaker 1: with Raymond Jefferson. You get him into the second level
Speaker 1: and he's showing more tackle breaking ability. At his size
Speaker 1: that people are gonna give him credit and a lot
Speaker 1: of this that dude is thick man. His calves are thick,
Speaker 1: his legs are thick. It is hard to bring him
Speaker 1: down in the second level. He's just creating odd angles
Speaker 1: for tackles to try to bring him down. He's slippery
Speaker 1: through the hole. I like his game, dude, And I'm
Speaker 1: not telling you he's a home run hit or anything
Speaker 1: like that. But if you combine the tackle breaking metrics,
Speaker 1: you combine the athleticism and the size to where if
Speaker 1: somebody asked him, can you tote the rock? Can you
Speaker 1: get fifteen touches per game? I think he absolutely can
Speaker 1: do that. But for a guy that you're not gonna
Speaker 1: hear a lot of draft shows out there talking about
Speaker 1: freaking Raymond Jefferson, Dude, what do you think about him?
Speaker 2: Yeah, he was a guy that was sort of star
Speaker 2: cross by the situation and unfortunate at the end of
Speaker 2: the career. Obviously got stuck on the same depth chart
Speaker 2: by mister Ray Davis and Ray Davis a guy who
Speaker 2: had hopped around in his career and then mind's out
Speaker 2: Big Kentucky and Jefferson was a guy that we thought
Speaker 2: throughout his career, you know, was going to get that
Speaker 2: opportunity break out in a big way at you know,
Speaker 2: the high level of the the fbs there and didn't
Speaker 2: quite end up happening. But he has that athletic juice
Speaker 2: and retain some of that shine. So you know, that's
Speaker 2: what you're looking for when you're looking, you're looking deep
Speaker 2: in the weeds, deep deep deep in the weeds on
Speaker 2: the profile of some of these guys as someone who
Speaker 2: could potentially break out. You know, that's some of the
Speaker 2: guys that I like, way way way down there in
Speaker 2: the running back class of the UDFA is they they
Speaker 2: fit a sort of similar mold of like guys that
Speaker 2: have athletic trades where on the UDFA free for all,
Speaker 2: if I was in a front office, I would be
Speaker 2: giving some of these guys a slightly elevated UDFA signing
Speaker 2: bonus offer just on the athletic trades to bring them
Speaker 2: in for these reasons like that's that's the way you
Speaker 2: do it. There's a kid for Southern Illinois that was
Speaker 2: there one beatback who has incredible athletic traits and had
Speaker 2: his per touch efficiency numbers and explosive numbers were very good.
Speaker 1: Justin Strong, we're talking about Justin Strong, Yeah, figure I
Speaker 1: almost talked about him and brought him up on this
Speaker 1: show too.
Speaker 2: He put up a nine to nine to six RAS
Speaker 2: at almost six feet two oh six, and yeah, the
Speaker 2: per touch numbers were very, very good. There's he was
Speaker 2: plat tuning with another guy who was in this class.
Speaker 2: That is a very unorthodox five foot five running back
Speaker 2: that I have them lowered down in my rankings. I
Speaker 2: don't think it translates quite as well to the next level,
Speaker 2: but the Southern Illinois staff obviously liked him. But Justin
Speaker 2: Strong is the one where those traits potentially could translate
Speaker 2: pretty well to the next level. We'll just have to see.
Speaker 2: But like again, that's what you're looking for with this stuff,
Speaker 2: when when you're going further down, you're trying to pick
Speaker 2: out some of these traits that you know translate by
Speaker 2: the data to NFL success potentially. So you know a
Speaker 2: couple of guys like that going way way deep in
Speaker 2: the weeds, we thought we would toss some of those
Speaker 2: guys out. One from the receiver class again way down
Speaker 2: in the weeds, that that I kind of liked was
Speaker 2: Sam Schnee from Northern Iowa. That that kind of intrigued me.
Speaker 2: A guy that's going to go undrafted for sure. And
Speaker 2: then the testing freak from way off the beaten track
Speaker 2: is John Giles from down there was six three twenty
Speaker 2: two eightieth percentile athlete, tested very well. Also kind of
Speaker 2: intrigued by Bull Corrales, a guy who started at UNC
Speaker 2: that went down to Texas Tech. Had been injured a
Speaker 2: little bit, but I think his career could have gone
Speaker 2: a little bit better, and his testing was was very good.
Speaker 2: Sort of some of the shine retained back there. But
Speaker 2: six foot three, two hundred and fourteen pounds, ninety first
Speaker 2: percentile athlete. So a couple more deep deep sleepers to
Speaker 2: keep an eye on that are going to be udfas
Speaker 2: but potentially could could show something campaign around and justify
Speaker 2: a developmental look from teams.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I agree. Jayden Sherdan at a Mammouth almost made
Speaker 1: my list as well. Five nine and his numbers just
Speaker 1: jump off the page. Three point nine to six yards
Speaker 1: of contact per attempt, finished with a fifty four percent
Speaker 1: breakaway rate. Some issues with his vision, but the athleticism
Speaker 1: is definitely NFL quality man. So some other guys we
Speaker 1: want to bring up before we get up out of here, man.
Speaker 1: But again, we are going to be live on YouTube
Speaker 1: baby for night one and nine two of the NFL Draft.
Speaker 1: Night one we're kicking off at seven pm Eastern, So
Speaker 1: get into the Fantasy Pros YouTube. Get ready. It is
Speaker 1: gonna be lit, dude, before we get up out of here.
Speaker 1: For one other guy that we wanted to bring up here,
Speaker 1: but we can't talk about him as a prospect because
Speaker 1: unfortunately he's not a prospect. He is already signed to
Speaker 1: an NFL contract. I will let you gonna lay this out,
Speaker 1: but we have to mention mister Dante Miller here.
Speaker 2: Right, Yeah, yeah, doing the five hundred board and and
Speaker 2: and you know, researching as many prospects as I do
Speaker 2: during the spring and then and then cutting it down
Speaker 2: to the five hundred and how that goes, and and
Speaker 2: the position rankings. It's a little bit deeper.
Speaker 1: He was in the five hundred two, wasn't he You.
Speaker 2: Miller came out, So Miller was not in my five hundred,
Speaker 2: but he was in the prospects that were just outside
Speaker 2: of it. And my position rankings. For people out there,
Speaker 2: they're deeper than the five hundred, and they are dropping
Speaker 2: on Fantasy pros this this week with the skilled ones.
Speaker 2: I do the comps for all the deeper ones as well.
Speaker 2: So if you think the five hundred comps are wild,
Speaker 2: you get even more in the position rankings to check
Speaker 2: that out on Fantasy pros, the quarterbacks and running backs,
Speaker 2: the receivers. I think with the receivers, I have like
Speaker 2: one hundred and ten or one hundred and fifteen comps
Speaker 2: on those. It gets gets truly stupid. But Dante Miller
Speaker 2: wash off the top of I had a fifty in
Speaker 2: the fifties or something in the in my running back rankings.
Speaker 2: I but it it. I seen that he had signed
Speaker 2: with the Giants after his Pro day, and I was like,
Speaker 2: what the what the hey? Uh? And so I I
Speaker 2: look into because it's like, you know, obviously, it is
Speaker 2: not a every year occurrence for me where someone in
Speaker 2: my active draft rankings in the you know, as I'm
Speaker 2: doing my cross checks, you know, finalizing these position rankings
Speaker 2: has signed with the team. So I was like, well,
Speaker 2: I must have screwed something up, you know, So I'm
Speaker 2: looking into this. No, no, no, that's that's not what happened.
Speaker 2: Dande Miller had gone to his pro day at South Carolina,
Speaker 2: UH and had ripped it up. He ran in that
Speaker 2: what what was it.
Speaker 3: Like?
Speaker 2: You're being one through it real quick.
Speaker 1: Dude at five eight one ninety he tore it up.
Speaker 1: I mean seven point six raz But here's the highlights, baby,
Speaker 1: four point three eight forty yard dash ninety eight percentile.
Speaker 1: Ten yard split was at one point five ninety eighth percentile,
Speaker 1: his vert was three thirty seven and a half eighty
Speaker 1: eighth percentile, his broad ten to nine ninety seven percentile.
Speaker 1: But again go ahead thor yeah.
Speaker 2: So you know, because of that, the teams were obviously
Speaker 2: very interested. But it brought up an interesting point, which
Speaker 2: is team started to wonder is this guy eligible for
Speaker 2: the draft because he had got So here's the thing
Speaker 2: with Dante Miller. Last year, prior to last season, he
Speaker 2: had or what year was it, the he had transferred
Speaker 2: from Columbia. I guess prior to the twenty twenty He
Speaker 2: has such a confusing story after the twenty twenty one season.
Speaker 2: So he had started with South Carolina prior to then
Speaker 2: in the twenty twenty two season was his first year there.
Speaker 2: They but he thought that he was going to have
Speaker 2: another year of eligibility. This past season, the NCAA ruled
Speaker 2: Dante and he thought he was going to take over
Speaker 2: as the lead back because Steve brows Man, Crush Mershawn
Speaker 2: Lloyd transferred to the other usc in the offseason and
Speaker 2: the game cox is running back room now was wide open,
Speaker 2: wide open, and in fact, because of this development that
Speaker 2: I'm going to tell you about in a second, they
Speaker 2: had problems filling that all season. They also had the
Speaker 2: rants and offensive line we talked about when we talk
Speaker 2: about Spencer Rally. But anyhow, right before the season, the
Speaker 2: NCAA told Dante Miller that he was ineligible, which goes
Speaker 2: back to the when Dontee Miller began his career. It
Speaker 2: was at Columbia in the IVY League. He had one
Speaker 2: breakout season in twenty twenty one, which is how he
Speaker 2: ended up getting interest from the Power five schools. Ended
Speaker 2: up transferring to South Carolina, had that that one season there.
Speaker 2: But in the IVY League they have different rules than
Speaker 2: the other Division one conferences, and you know, different, you
Speaker 2: know whatever. And in the IVY League you just get
Speaker 2: four seasons of eligibility. They don't the red shirts and
Speaker 2: the COVID seasons and they don't give you the other
Speaker 2: you know, like that that we get in the other
Speaker 2: conferences get.
Speaker 1: I never knew that was a thing until we started
Speaker 1: talking about Dante Miller last year.
Speaker 2: Yeah, you hear all these other guys of like, oh,
Speaker 2: it's a six year senior, Like that's not a thing
Speaker 2: in the IVY League. And so he had gotten a
Speaker 2: one year exception to go for his first year at
Speaker 2: South Carolina, but he wanted and thought he was going
Speaker 2: to get the sixth year for the other one, but
Speaker 2: the NCAA ruled him ineligible. Like I said, right prior
Speaker 2: to the twenty twenty three season, when he thought he
Speaker 2: was in contention and very well is going to be
Speaker 2: the belkov starting running back for the South Carolina team
Speaker 2: last season. And if he had been that we might
Speaker 2: have been talking about him as who knows, a different
Speaker 2: reality sliding doors. Maybe we're even talking about him as
Speaker 2: potential draftable kid in this running back class. But instead
Speaker 2: he gets he gets ruled ineligible. So last year in
Speaker 2: the fall, he practices with South Carolina all season, but
Speaker 2: you know whatever then of course, so he's not playing,
Speaker 2: he just practice. Then he does the pro day stuff. Well,
Speaker 2: then people were wondering, well, well, hey, the NCAA ruled
Speaker 2: him ineligible for twenty twenty three, is he actually eligible
Speaker 2: for this draft if that was the case, So the NFL,
Speaker 2: they asked the NFL. The NFL looks into it. In
Speaker 2: the NFL is like, no, Actually, technically he was eligible
Speaker 2: for the last draft, and seeing as though he went undrafted,
Speaker 2: he has technically been a street free agent and just
Speaker 2: didn't realize it since after the last draft. So he
Speaker 2: was wild granted his free agent on the spot. So
Speaker 2: he starts getting free agent offers. This is again right
Speaker 2: after this awesome Pro Day performance that he had put on,
Speaker 2: you know, within the past month plus whatever, and so
Speaker 2: he got offers from multiple teams, one of which was
Speaker 2: the Giants, which of course was a local team for
Speaker 2: him when he had gone to Columbia and been in
Speaker 2: the IVY League, and in the twenty twenty one season
Speaker 2: that was in the IVY League, that was when he
Speaker 2: had broken out eight hundred and fourteen yards and he
Speaker 2: had the explosive play metrics debro. You were going into those,
Speaker 2: we were. We had some fun looking into Dante Miller
Speaker 2: and the past blocking as well. He has some interesting
Speaker 2: aspects to his game and then the juice as well.
Speaker 2: But I ended up having, of course, because of all this,
Speaker 2: to take him out of my draft rankings, my position ranking.
Speaker 2: So I apologized to mister Dante Miller. I was not
Speaker 2: aware because the NCAA didn't tell me. They didn't tell you,
Speaker 2: the NFL didn't tell you that you were in the
Speaker 2: last draft class, so I couldn't put you in my
Speaker 2: last draft rankings. But we wanted to tell all that
Speaker 2: the fantasy owners out there that Dante Miller is in
Speaker 2: the NFL right now, and we wanted to apprise you
Speaker 2: of his existence because he fell through the cracks last year.
Speaker 2: But this kid is super duper athletic, and he has
Speaker 2: big time.
Speaker 1: Wheels, absolutely man, And I'm looking through all of his
Speaker 1: stuff as you're giving his entire backstory. I did not
Speaker 1: know his nickname was Little Turbo. So if Little Turbo
Speaker 1: is out there, it's beautiful. I love it. So if
Speaker 1: Little Turbo is sitting out there on the waiver wire
Speaker 1: in any sleeper leagues dynasty leagues that you're in, go
Speaker 1: toss some sneaker you see if you could sneak them
Speaker 1: through waivers, because technically he is in the NFL Baby,
Speaker 1: but Thorn and I got deep into the weeds Man.
Speaker 1: We wanted to give all the prospects that we really
Speaker 1: think deserved. Turn the light on, put the shine on
Speaker 1: for this class. Really hope that everybody enjoyed this episode
Speaker 1: and we will see you later this week live on
Speaker 1: YouTube for Night one and Night two of the NFL Draft.
Speaker 1: Turn on notivacations. Get ready for that. It's going to
Speaker 1: be a blast for this episode. We'll be back next week.
Speaker 1: We're going to talk about AFC and NFC draft grades
Speaker 1: on this show.
Speaker 2: Baby.
Speaker 1: Until then, we're out of here.
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