Latest / 2nd City Gridiron / Making Monsters Draft Series: Missouri's Zion Young, Josiah Trotter & Chris McClellan
Transcript
- 0:09[SPEAKER_01]: I'm welcome back into another episode of Making Monsters.
- 0:11[SPEAKER_01]: I'm Taylor Doll, Eli Hoff, joining me today.
- 0:14[SPEAKER_01]: You probably recognize him.
- 0:15[SPEAKER_01]: We chatted last year, Eli about Luther Bird, and you cover obviously Missouri Sports Beatwriter.
- 0:20[SPEAKER_01]: for the St. Louis Post Dispatch.
- 0:21[SPEAKER_01]: Well, we love Luther.
- 0:23[SPEAKER_01]: Good news about that.
- 0:24[SPEAKER_01]: He's fantastic.
- 0:25[SPEAKER_01]: I think it took a little bit to get going in the offense, but some of that was Ben Johnson being very clear of, okay, you have to, he held out a little bit during camp.
- 0:33[SPEAKER_01]: So you've got to earn your role into the softens, but once that happened, everything you told us last year, the type of, the love for football, the type of player.
- 0:41[SPEAKER_01]: He is the energy.
- 0:42[SPEAKER_01]: He brings, I think, uh, everybody would say they love Lutheran.
- 0:45[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, that was a lot of fun to see Luther's progression there.
- 0:49[SPEAKER_00]: I was a little worried for him coming out of camp, just with how that went.
- 0:52[SPEAKER_00]: And I was like, oh, I hope this works out.
- 0:54[SPEAKER_00]: But the player he became by the end of his rookie season, I think is very much a sign of what's to come.
- 1:01[SPEAKER_00]: So yeah, a ton of excitement here from Missouri people watching that play out.
- 1:04[SPEAKER_00]: And I'm sure a lot of Bear's fans were really excited to see a talent like that.
- 1:08[SPEAKER_00]: Falled with them in the first place, and then we came out on the field.
- 1:11[SPEAKER_01]: We were all shocked, especially because there were some hesitations in the beginning.
- 1:14[SPEAKER_01]: They take Colson, loveland with their, their foot, that tent, pick and everyone was like, you already have Colk about what are you doing?
- 1:20[SPEAKER_01]: And then Luther Burton falls to them and you're like, okay, Ben Johnson's trying to build this offense to score points.
- 1:25[SPEAKER_01]: And they went from 31st total offense in 2024 to 9th.
- 1:30[SPEAKER_01]: Offence and just one season with those guys, so it's a lot of good things.
- 1:34[SPEAKER_01]: We like and he laid full into the Packers rivalry, and so we did love that also But I'm here to chat some other guys are several Azue guys that have been kind of trending whether it's linked to the bears or just maybe fits that may happen when it comes to Some of those things, but I want to start when we're talking about some of these prospects and I want to ask you to begin about the Missouri defense as a whole
- 1:56[SPEAKER_01]: Because I think that sometimes we'll talk about these players without knowing what the defense looked like or how certain aspects fit into it So start with that just this Missouri defense last year what it looked like what kind of made that that defense tip
- 2:09[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, the defense was fantastic for Missouri last year.
- 2:11[SPEAKER_00]: So this was a, if you're not someone who watched Missouri last year, which I don't blame you if you weren't, Missouri won eight and five last season.
- 2:17[SPEAKER_00]: It was a team that had college football playoff aspirations, but obviously didn't get that close to it by the end of the season.
- 2:24[SPEAKER_00]: That was not the defenses fault by any means.
- 2:26[SPEAKER_00]: It was offensive struggles all the way in Missouri defense.
- 2:29[SPEAKER_00]: If you look at the numbers was on par with a lot of defenses that
- 2:33[SPEAKER_00]: made it into the CFP and made deep runs.
- 2:35[SPEAKER_00]: So this was a truly elite, best in the SEC type defense for Mizzou.
- 2:39[SPEAKER_00]: Really, at all three levels, but especially the front six, when you look at the defensive line and the two linebackers they use defensive end.
- 2:47[SPEAKER_00]: I'm sure we'll talk about Zion young here in a second, but defensive end was as good a group as this come out of this program in years.
- 2:54[SPEAKER_00]: The defensive tackles were productive.
- 2:56[SPEAKER_00]: A linebacker, Josiah Trotters, one of the,
- 2:58[SPEAKER_00]: He's been one of my favorite players to watch, and I think he's going to be a pro at the next level.
- 3:02[SPEAKER_00]: A good pro at the next level, I should say.
- 3:04[SPEAKER_00]: So there was just so much talent up and down on this defense, and it led to a really productive season on that side of the ball.
- 3:10[SPEAKER_01]: Yes, I, and young, I think that's where we have to start here.
- 3:13[SPEAKER_01]: This is somebody that we have seen mopped to the bears and being drafted.
- 3:17[SPEAKER_01]: Um, so when you talk about 20, 25, 9, 6, 9 and a half for loss and interception, I think he ended up running and got attached down the off for that interception to pick sex there.
- 3:26[SPEAKER_01]: So those are fun, but what do you got better throughout his time at Mizzou because I think that's the big thing.
- 3:31[SPEAKER_01]: You want to see these players be able to be coached, you know, be coached and coachable and kind of see that development throughout their time and college.
- 3:37[SPEAKER_01]: And I feel like he's a player where you can link that.
- 3:40[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, you absolutely can.
- 3:41[SPEAKER_00]: So he spent two years at Missouri.
- 3:43[SPEAKER_00]: He started his career at Michigan State spent, I think two seasons there, and then the transfered over to Mizu.
- 3:48[SPEAKER_00]: His first season, the 2024 season was one where you could, you could see the potential in him.
- 3:54[SPEAKER_00]: So he was seeing the field pretty regularly.
- 3:56[SPEAKER_00]: Coaches really like what they saw in practice.
- 3:58[SPEAKER_00]: You look at his bill, his athleticism, all of that stuff was present at that point.
- 4:02[SPEAKER_00]: It just didn't lead to a whole lot of production.
- 4:05[SPEAKER_00]: And then you saw him come out in the 2025 season
- 4:10[SPEAKER_00]: on whatever side of the field he was on on a given play in the production just skyrocketed.
- 4:15[SPEAKER_00]: He went to I think he bond up with 57 pressures and like 570 snaps is about a pressure every 10 snap snap.
- 4:21[SPEAKER_00]: I know was not that bad at all right So the production was crazy there.
- 4:26[SPEAKER_00]: He he'd improved as a run defender He became someone who could set the edge and seal the edge a little bit
- 4:31[SPEAKER_00]: And then after this season, you've seen a lot more and some of those senior bull reps just the one on one ability and some of the raw athleticism there.
- 4:39[SPEAKER_00]: But I think the program really liked as well was how he emerged as a leader in just being an energy guy of vocal guy on that defense where there, in today's college football, there's a lot of transfers, a lot of new pieces every year.
- 4:50[SPEAKER_00]: So he became a really core bit of retention for them on that defensive line that I think certainly contributed positively last season.
- 4:58[SPEAKER_01]: Would there say, would you say there was a better fit for him depending if he was lined up against the right talk or a left talk or did you see even production where it went on each side?
- 5:07[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, I'm trying to think back, I don't think there was anything too crazy to spare anyways.
- 5:13[SPEAKER_00]: You know, certainly he's someone who went, when he got one on one, he tended to win that a lot, because he just had so many tools to win one on one with the hand placement.
- 5:22[SPEAKER_00]: Just coming out of his stance, it's crazy to watch.
- 5:24[SPEAKER_00]: He had a rep at the senior bull, where he'll get down in a four point stance with bent elbows.
- 5:29[SPEAKER_00]: That to me is just like, if I tried to do that in my office behind me, like,
- 5:32[SPEAKER_00]: My hands would give out a nice face plant, but he does that and explodes out of it.
- 5:36[SPEAKER_00]: So I think he's he's just so quick coming out of his stance that when you do get him one on one, he's going to win that pretty often.
- 5:43[SPEAKER_00]: And he's big enough that when he does double, he can still plug a gap that way.
- 5:46[SPEAKER_00]: Like it's hard to shift him out of position.
- 5:49[SPEAKER_00]: But as far as right or left, that's not something that I saw a crazy disparity from him.
- 5:54[SPEAKER_01]: Now when you talk about because the bears, the issue for a while now has been being able to get
- 6:01[SPEAKER_01]: You feel like last year I mentioned you fix the offense.
- 6:03[SPEAKER_01]: You feel like you add all the pieces between a close and love line and a Lutheran and a common on guy later on the draft and then now you turn to being like, okay, now it's time to fix this defense because there are moments in time.
- 6:13[SPEAKER_01]: I think on the on the road they allowed like 32 points of game.
- 6:15[SPEAKER_01]: That just can't happen.
- 6:17[SPEAKER_01]: The only thing this defense did good was take the ball away, but upfront they couldn't stop the run, they could get to the quarterback.
- 6:23[SPEAKER_01]: So someone like this do you think he's someone that could plug and play in a defense right away and get production?
- 6:29[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, I think so.
- 6:30[SPEAKER_00]: You know, it's when you see guys make the jump to the NFL right like it might be a Lutheran type arc where right out of the gate he has to be in a rotation there and he's on the back end of that and then he takes on more and more as he does but he certainly was productive enough with get
- 6:44[SPEAKER_00]: pressure at the collegiate level, but I think he can do that.
- 6:47[SPEAKER_00]: He wasn't just a contained guy, he wasn't just a run-stop-in guy.
- 6:51[SPEAKER_00]: Frankly, the number of pressures he had could have been even higher.
- 6:53[SPEAKER_00]: Mizzou just had such a good pass for his last year that there were a lot of plays where you'd have both edges get to the quarterback and it's like, well, I, you know,
- 7:01[SPEAKER_00]: maybe you credit both with a predator, but you probably don't think if whoever gets there first.
- 7:04[SPEAKER_00]: So he can certainly do all of that.
- 7:08[SPEAKER_00]: I think that will, you know, Mizzouza approached last year, put a lot of trust in him because the secondary was the weak point of the defense.
- 7:15[SPEAKER_00]: So when Mizzou was constructing its schematic identity, it was a whole lot of,
- 7:19[SPEAKER_00]: We need the past rush to be good enough so that our back end of guys don't have to hold up for that long and that that relies on getting pressure on the quarterback that relies on on altering the play from that end and and that's that's where Zion young was was so important for Missouri.
- 7:32[SPEAKER_00]: So I think that that will lend itself to him being able to get after quarterbacks at the next level.
- 7:37[SPEAKER_01]: That sounds like what Dennis Allen preaches in the Russian cover type of defense.
- 7:41[SPEAKER_01]: And so that was what the bears were missing and why the defense and under DA didn't probably look how people wanted it.
- 7:47[SPEAKER_01]: But you had one player like that in all of a sudden.
- 7:49[SPEAKER_01]: I feel like a cross from a monetized Montez sweat.
- 7:51[SPEAKER_01]: You are able to get some, you know, some past rush going and it does take some pressure off of the corners having to cover guys for five, six, seven seconds.
- 7:58[SPEAKER_01]: Let's never what you want to see.
- 7:59[SPEAKER_01]: And I'm sure that it was probably some of the stuff that Masu addressed.
- 8:02[SPEAKER_01]: let's move over to linebacker to sciatrata.
- 8:04[SPEAKER_01]: You mentioned him at the top a little bit.
- 8:06[SPEAKER_01]: The bears did address obviously to remain admins.
- 8:08[SPEAKER_01]: He, they part of ways which remain admins, but they re-sign a guy named Markov Jackson who had a really good season step, filling some shoes last year, and then they go and get Devin Bush from the Browns.
- 8:17[SPEAKER_01]: And so they did address the linebacker room, but I wouldn't be totally shocked if it's something they're looking at still just because I do feel like that room and being able to have guys that you are talking about in the future and developing.
- 8:28[SPEAKER_01]: I think that's a smart thing because you're paying a lot of contracts now and there's
- 8:31[SPEAKER_01]: There's Caleb Williams contract coming up soon so you've got to get a little shifting with some of this.
- 8:36[SPEAKER_01]: To talk about him a little bit, what type of linebacker he is, where does he fit in D-Fensis?
- 8:41[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, so he's a really interesting prospect in my eyes.
- 8:44[SPEAKER_00]: He fits dramatically as a mic.
- 8:46[SPEAKER_00]: He was a middle guy at Missouri.
- 8:48[SPEAKER_00]: He has a hard-hitting athletic guy, has all of that.
- 8:51[SPEAKER_00]: But to me it was the mental approach that was really fun to watch because he's the type of guy who you notice where he was pre-snap.
- 8:57[SPEAKER_00]: And then the ball gets snapped and you know you lose focus, you're watching the quarterback and all that stuff and I listen he's just popped up somewhere else right where the ball is like he has the most for the ball and a really good ability to read the game and a lot of that I think is because he comes from a family of linebacker so his dad Jeremiah is in the ring of honor with the Eagles his brother Jeremiah junior.
- 9:16[SPEAKER_00]: won the Super Bowl of the Eagles a couple years ago and and came out of Clemson has made a career as a linebacker.
- 9:21[SPEAKER_00]: Now you have Josiah Trotter who's the next in this lineage.
- 9:24[SPEAKER_00]: But I think it's going to be a star at the next level.
- 9:26[SPEAKER_00]: Now he might be a little bit more of a kind of stash guy, especially for his first year or so.
- 9:32[SPEAKER_00]: He's young.
- 9:33[SPEAKER_00]: He only spent three years in the college ranks and only played two.
- 9:35[SPEAKER_00]: He got hurt his freshman year at West Virginia.
- 9:38[SPEAKER_00]: Then was
- 9:39[SPEAKER_00]: a freshman all American with the mountaineers came to Missouri had a really good year in the SEC and is off to the draft.
- 9:44[SPEAKER_00]: So when you have someone that young again, it might take a year or two for him to physically be ready for the NFL, but if it's a situation where you're okay with him just being a rotation and special teams guy in year one, and maybe it's not until year two or year three that you're really counting on him.
- 9:59[SPEAKER_00]: I think that's ideal.
- 10:01[SPEAKER_00]: He'll have no way she would adjusting to the to the mental side of the game.
- 10:04[SPEAKER_00]: I think that understanding will probably already be there It's just giving him a little time to adjust physically because he's gonna enter the league is like a 20-21-year-old guy And that's that's pretty good when you can have that on your program
- 10:16[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, and that's honestly interesting because it almost everybody I've talked to about Devon Bush is almost opposite where if you put him in a defense where he doesn't have to think too much is when he's at his best and then you have other guys like this that my climbbacker especially in the NFL with the green dot a lot of times are the ones that you are you're kind of counting on but I think somebody like him may fit just because I think the bears would be looking for
- 10:36[SPEAKER_01]: uh, whether it's situational rotational guy initially and then able to develop him and have him after some of these maybe a T.J. Edwards has gone coming up and stuff like that.
- 10:45[SPEAKER_01]: So we'll see um another guy wanted to talk about the defense Chris McLean.
- 10:48[SPEAKER_01]: McLean, is that how you say it?
- 10:50[SPEAKER_00]: McLean, yeah.
- 10:50[SPEAKER_01]: McLean, um because obviously a defensive line was another, it's a, it's a topic being talked about in Chicago when you talk about
- 10:57[SPEAKER_01]: not being able to stop the run when you talk about it.
- 10:59[SPEAKER_01]: No interior past rush.
- 11:00[SPEAKER_01]: You just mentioned the guys up front and you said seven different guys that you're you're counting on on that missuit defensive front to be able to make plays.
- 11:07[SPEAKER_01]: Was he one of the guys that you would be talking about?
- 11:10[SPEAKER_00]: Yes, yeah, absolutely.
- 11:11[SPEAKER_00]: So he came in.
- 11:12[SPEAKER_00]: He started his career.
- 11:13[SPEAKER_00]: He's out of somewhere in Oklahoma, I think Tulsa area in Oklahoma, but came in as a big athletic.
- 11:18[SPEAKER_00]: I went to Florida at first, actually, and got on the field pretty early for the gator.
- 11:21[SPEAKER_00]: So he's had a lot of years of SEC football, and again, that tells you the baseline physicality and athleticism that's there.
- 11:28[SPEAKER_00]: He came in at the same time as I'm being actually in had a very similar market.
- 11:32[SPEAKER_00]: Missouri spent two years there.
- 11:34[SPEAKER_00]: First year was getting snaps, but it wasn't super productive.
- 11:37[SPEAKER_00]: It wasn't bad, but I mean, it just wasn't a ton of juice behind it.
- 11:40[SPEAKER_00]: And then in his senior year this past season really broke out and became a force up the middle which for Mizzou was something new.
- 11:46[SPEAKER_00]: Mizzou had tended to go with just kind of the gap fill or run stopping defensive tackles who are going to be fine in there, but you're not going to see a whole lot of pressures coming up the middle.
- 11:55[SPEAKER_00]: Chris McClellan changed that for Mizzou and gave a lot of pressures up the middle.
- 11:59[SPEAKER_00]: Again, good ability to win one on one.
- 12:01[SPEAKER_00]: He's pretty quick for his size.
- 12:04[SPEAKER_00]: Again, that's relative to college ranks, right?
- 12:06[SPEAKER_00]: So,
- 12:06[SPEAKER_00]: It's probably just what you need to contribute at the NFL level.
- 12:10[SPEAKER_00]: But he's someone who just the progression he's taken from each of the over the offices in the last really two or three seasons.
- 12:17[SPEAKER_00]: I think if you get him in NFL franchise, get him in that that offseason program, he's really going to be able to take a step forward with that athleticism.
- 12:26[SPEAKER_01]: any of these other guys you have coming out there's a Kevin Coleman just going through the PFF rankings in order and they have Kevin Coleman obviously wider seaver keegan tross who's a tackle Jalen Catalan will be interesting the bears probably they they went in a got Kobe Bryant as safety but they lost both their safe safeties and Kevin Kevin buyer to Andrew Pombrisker this last off season so I could see them addressing that safety position but any of the other
- 12:51[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, you know, I think Kevin Coleman's an interesting one.
- 12:54[SPEAKER_00]: I don't see it fit for the Bayers.
- 12:55[SPEAKER_00]: He's a slot guy.
- 12:56[SPEAKER_00]: He replaced Luther Burton at Missouri down to the Jersey number.
- 12:59[SPEAKER_00]: He was a slot receiver where number three.
- 13:02[SPEAKER_00]: He's had a good pre-draft process and you know, he's a good intelligent guy, but I'm not sure if that makes sense draft capitalized for the Bayers.
- 13:10[SPEAKER_00]: Keegan chose to be interesting.
- 13:11[SPEAKER_00]: He's in older prospect.
- 13:13[SPEAKER_00]: He spent six years in college.
- 13:15[SPEAKER_00]: So, you know,
- 13:16[SPEAKER_00]: maybe not what you're looking for there.
- 13:18[SPEAKER_00]: I think he could be adept offensive lineman for MNFL team.
- 13:22[SPEAKER_00]: He was a really, really good right tackle for Missouri in just one year there.
- 13:25[SPEAKER_00]: He made the jump over from wake for us.
- 13:28[SPEAKER_00]: He's an interesting piece, but again, I think it has to be the right situation just because he's in all their prospects.
- 13:33[SPEAKER_00]: You're getting what you draft with him.
- 13:37[SPEAKER_00]: Caroline had a pretty disappointing season for Missouri.
- 13:39[SPEAKER_00]: He came in really highly
- 13:44[SPEAKER_00]: It was replaced as a starter by the end of the year for Mazoo.
- 13:46[SPEAKER_00]: He's an undersized safety as well, so I'm not sure what kind of NFL team will look at that model of safety and think that's what they want.
- 13:55[SPEAKER_00]: So yeah, that's kind of the portrait on those day two, day three, Mazoo guys.
- 13:59[SPEAKER_01]: yeah it will be because that's what i mean you're looking a little bit later and sometimes you're taking chances but yeah i's just on his only he's five ten so probably a little shorter than what most people would want the next guy on this list is center corner uh talison was he your starting center this last year
- 14:15[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, he was.
- 14:16[SPEAKER_00]: So he actually was the starter for, for four seasons that Missouri all way back to 2022, long time starter.
- 14:24[SPEAKER_00]: He's undersized for the Center position, especially at the NFL.
- 14:27[SPEAKER_00]: It was fine at Mizzou, you know, just enough there.
- 14:31[SPEAKER_00]: He was kind of a weird case where if he had declared after the 2024 season, I think he would have been better off than if he came back for 2025.
- 14:40[SPEAKER_00]: Just seemed like it was a little bit of aggression.
- 14:42[SPEAKER_00]: He was coming off an ACL tear that had happened late in 24.
- 14:45[SPEAKER_00]: He wasn't 100% for the start of the 25 campaign and that held them up a little bit there.
- 14:50[SPEAKER_00]: He can be a good run blocker.
- 14:51[SPEAKER_00]: It just didn't really show this past season.
- 14:53[SPEAKER_00]: So he's an interesting guy who I think would be a good undrafted show, you know, get him in there and see what you have.
- 15:00[SPEAKER_00]: Just after this past season, his stocks slid from certainly would have been drafted
- 15:08[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, it always kind of sucks a little bit to see that because you do see the players were like, you know, like, man, if you just left a year earlier, I kind of been leading that with, like, trying to do a shameless, for example, like, this is the perfect year.
- 15:19[SPEAKER_01]: I feel like you could enter the draft when it comes to the quarterbacks we're talking about and he's going to stay.
- 15:23[SPEAKER_01]: And we'll see if that works or not works, but it is, unfortunately, when you see the guys who, you feel like if just one season earlier, they would have been in that draft talk in the now it's dropping a little bit.
- 15:33[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, and that's what we talk about with NIL, right?
- 15:36[SPEAKER_00]: That it's more lucrative for someone like Trinidad Chambles, or even to a lesser degree Connor Tollison, who we're talking about here, it makes a lot more sense for them to stay in the college ranks than it certainly did in years past, but it's the trade off, right?
- 15:50[SPEAKER_00]: You know what you're gonna get money-wise when you come back for one more year of college football, but if that comes at the expense of your draft stock, I don't know.
- 15:57[SPEAKER_00]: Now, of course, you see it go the other way too.
- 15:58[SPEAKER_00]: We're guys coming back and make more money and then they're stock rising.
- 16:01[SPEAKER_00]: So it can go both ways, but that is the, that's the change landscape with NIO now.
- 16:06[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, the NIL and Portal world, the amount of guys that I've been covering this last week, getting ready for the draft that are in their like fifth and sixth year of college, like there's another one, there's another one.
- 16:16[SPEAKER_01]: But so I think we'll see more and more of that.
- 16:17[SPEAKER_01]: But you know, I really appreciate your time as usual.
- 16:20[SPEAKER_01]: We'll see if next, if we're talking about another Mizzou Tiger as a bear, I know Luther would probably like to see some of his guys, but I appreciate your time as always.
- 16:28[SPEAKER_01]: And I know this type of year is very, very busy for everybody.
- 16:31[SPEAKER_01]: So I appreciate it.
- 16:33[SPEAKER_00]: No, of course.
- 16:33[SPEAKER_00]: And next year, the name to know a mod Hardy running back to Missouri returning all American.
- 16:37[SPEAKER_00]: He'll be draft eligible next year.
- 16:39[SPEAKER_00]: So if you're, if you're I in a tail back next year, he'll be the guy to talk about.
- 16:42[SPEAKER_01]: Keep that in mind.
- 16:43[SPEAKER_01]: Thank you.