Latest / Patriots Unfiltered / Patriots Unfiltered at the Combine 3/2: Day 3 News & Notes, Mike Rodak on Alabama Prospects, Top DB and Specialist Fits

Transcript

Patriots Unfiltered at the Combine 3/2: Day 3 News & Notes, Mike Rodak on Alabama Prospects, Top DB and Specialist Fits · Patriots Unfiltered

0:02
Speaker 1: From the twenty twenty three NFL Combine. This is Patriots Unfiltered.
0:09
Speaker 1: All right, guys, it's Duson Lazar back at the combine.
0:12
Speaker 1: Pe you with the combines. Who knows, maybe we'll get
0:17
Speaker 1: our own past the deuce and Lazar. We're back, guys.
0:20
Speaker 1: We're here at the scouting combine. We just wrapped up
0:22
Speaker 1: a day with the defensive backs and the special team.
0:25
Speaker 1: So this is going to be our long form podcast
0:27
Speaker 1: to kind of hash out um, you know, just a
0:29
Speaker 1: little bit more detail. We shot a video already, you guys,
0:31
Speaker 1: can you want to get the quick hits, you go
0:33
Speaker 1: to that um, but this is going to be a
0:34
Speaker 1: little bit more of a longer form discussion and be
0:37
Speaker 1: sure to stay tuned. At the end, we had an
0:39
Speaker 1: interview with Mike Rhodak, who had time with the Patriots
0:42
Speaker 1: in the early twenty tens and now has been down
0:44
Speaker 1: at Alabama. So some great insight from Mike about Bill O'Brien,
0:47
Speaker 1: about Mac Jones, about how you know, the offense might
0:49
Speaker 1: come together with those two guys, as well as a
0:51
Speaker 1: lot of the Alabama prospects, um, some of whom we
0:54
Speaker 1: got to see today. So we can teach some of
0:56
Speaker 1: that up. We may or may not have covered all
0:58
Speaker 1: thirteen prospects with Mike Better here from Alabama. I was
1:01
Speaker 1: Pepper and him, we walked. It was it was great,
1:03
Speaker 1: And I mean, Mikes knows his stuff, and certainly it's
1:06
Speaker 1: it's cool to talk to somebody from the college ranks
1:08
Speaker 1: who just knows it inside and out. So he when
1:10
Speaker 1: you were bringing up certain plays and stuff, he knew
1:12
Speaker 1: exactly what you were talking about. But off the top,
1:15
Speaker 1: let's you know, let's talk about special teams. That was
1:17
Speaker 1: the first thing we saw. And of course Jake Moody,
1:19
Speaker 1: kicker from Michigan, was MVP of the Shrine Bowl Game.
1:23
Speaker 1: Got to hear from him today and it's a lot
1:26
Speaker 1: of people. You look at the mock drafts, anybody with
1:27
Speaker 1: the mock draft, they probably have Jake Moody, maybe in
1:29
Speaker 1: that last pick. I don't know if he's gonna last
1:31
Speaker 1: that long, but as far as today, he seems like
1:33
Speaker 1: he's going to be an NFL kicker. Some of the
1:35
Speaker 1: buzz that we're hearing here in India about Jake Moody
1:38
Speaker 1: is that the Patriots might need to pounce earlier than
1:41
Speaker 1: maybe some people would want them to pounce. I think
1:44
Speaker 1: we're all on board with Jake Moody as the Patriots
1:47
Speaker 1: kicker in the future. And no disrespect to Nick Folk,
1:50
Speaker 1: who's been money for them, but he's getting up there
1:52
Speaker 1: in age. It's going to be thirty eight, thirty nine
1:54
Speaker 1: years old next season. I think it's time to start
1:57
Speaker 1: to look for the next generation at that position, and
2:00
Speaker 1: just like any other position, Jake Moody, though, I think
2:03
Speaker 1: the fifth round is his floor. I don't think he's
2:05
Speaker 1: getting out of the fifth round. And that's going to
2:08
Speaker 1: be an interesting approach for the Patriots. They have three
2:11
Speaker 1: projected fourth round picks. They potentially could have four sixth
2:14
Speaker 1: round picks, so they have a bunch of picks, but
2:17
Speaker 1: they don't actually have a pick in the fifth round,
2:19
Speaker 1: so they could potentially move up. I suppose with the
2:22
Speaker 1: sixthler moved back with a fourth there try to find
2:25
Speaker 1: that sweet spot for Jake Moody. But I think he's
2:27
Speaker 1: going to be a fourth or fifth round guy. So
2:28
Speaker 1: we talked to Michael Turk as well. We were kind
2:30
Speaker 1: of we were you know, we just got a shout
2:32
Speaker 1: out to us real quick because a lot of people
2:33
Speaker 1: they didn't show up this morning at eat thirty for
2:35
Speaker 1: the special team. They did not. I didn't see a
2:36
Speaker 1: lot of the Boston beat was wasn't here for that one.
2:39
Speaker 1: They were until the nine thirty when the dvs came out,
2:41
Speaker 1: But Evan and I were here along with the hardcore people.
2:44
Speaker 1: So Michael Turk, punter from Oklahoma, talked to him a
2:47
Speaker 1: little bit, another Shrine Bowl guy, as well as Adam
2:50
Speaker 1: Corsick from Hey, he went to Rutgers. So but I
2:53
Speaker 1: didn't even really all of a sudden you walk up
2:54
Speaker 1: and hear the Australian accent, you realize, Hey, this guy's
2:56
Speaker 1: a little bit different. A lot of cool stuff kind
2:59
Speaker 1: of coming out of that though, left us, you know,
3:00
Speaker 1: chatting a little bit about Australian style punting and all
3:03
Speaker 1: the different things that he can do. So Turk is
3:07
Speaker 1: garnering some late buzz here in terms of rising up
3:11
Speaker 1: the board, Yes, rising up the board for a punter
3:13
Speaker 1: I know from the Shrine Bowl. Had a great week
3:16
Speaker 1: out there, looks a lot like a guy that potentially
3:19
Speaker 1: could get drafted. But Corsic from Rutgers is the consensus
3:23
Speaker 1: top punter in this draft. This draft at punter is
3:26
Speaker 1: not like the draft that we had last year, you
3:29
Speaker 1: know where we had guys like Jordan's stout right, this
3:31
Speaker 1: is not as good of that of draft there, but
3:34
Speaker 1: they do have some good draft punter eligible guys that
3:37
Speaker 1: will be later in the draft. This is where maybe
3:39
Speaker 1: the Patriots could send a seventh round pick out there
3:43
Speaker 1: and just get him before he hits priority free agency,
3:46
Speaker 1: where they don't have to compete with him as a
3:47
Speaker 1: u UDFA with a bunch of other teams. I thought
3:50
Speaker 1: what was really interesting about Corsic is that he feels
3:53
Speaker 1: like he can use all the different clubs in his
3:56
Speaker 1: bag to almost change up the returners. Right. One time
4:01
Speaker 1: it's an Ausi punt. One time it's a traditional punt,
4:04
Speaker 1: one time it's a boomer. One time it's like a
4:06
Speaker 1: coffin corner, right, And you can sort of do all
4:09
Speaker 1: these different tricks of the trade that might be appealing
4:12
Speaker 1: like that that might be a little bit different. So
4:14
Speaker 1: we'll see, all right, guys, don't worry now we're off
4:17
Speaker 1: the special team's talk. So for we only went two
4:19
Speaker 1: minutes on special teams, but two minutes we'll go an hour,
4:22
Speaker 1: so don't worry about it. So if you want even
4:23
Speaker 1: more explanation of that, go to catch twenty two, which
4:26
Speaker 1: will be going live here today at two o'clock, so
4:28
Speaker 1: you can catch that on demand as well by the
4:30
Speaker 1: point that this gets posted. So let's move on to
4:33
Speaker 1: the defensive backs and the guys that I was most
4:35
Speaker 1: excited to see it was just Brian Branch, because look,
4:38
Speaker 1: he has a great film. I mean, this is a
4:41
Speaker 1: tackling machine. He anticipates, he sees it, he goes, and
4:43
Speaker 1: he takes guys down, and it's just a lot of
4:45
Speaker 1: fun to watch. And I think for good reason, a
4:47
Speaker 1: lot of people, you know, even though it's not a
4:49
Speaker 1: huge need, sometimes connect into the Patriots. Mike Rodak had
4:51
Speaker 1: plenty to say about Branch. He seems like he's going
4:54
Speaker 1: to go in that kind of mid first round range.
4:56
Speaker 1: Not a big need, but certainly seems like a guy
4:57
Speaker 1: who's a Patriots fit. Yeah, we had a great conversation
5:00
Speaker 1: with Mike about Branch. I won't go too long on
5:02
Speaker 1: him here, but I think the main thing that you
5:04
Speaker 1: see with him is that he's working out with the
5:06
Speaker 1: corners this week instead of the safeties. And I asked
5:09
Speaker 1: him what went into that decision, and he just said
5:12
Speaker 1: that the combine came to him, said where do you want,
5:15
Speaker 1: who do you want to work out with? Because he
5:17
Speaker 1: is more of a slot star type of corner and
5:20
Speaker 1: that slot defender role and he said corners. Now to me,
5:24
Speaker 1: if the Patriots draft him, I think that he's a
5:27
Speaker 1: perfect candidate to move to the back end, just like
5:30
Speaker 1: Devin mccordy did coming out of college at at Rutgers.
5:33
Speaker 1: He has the cover skills to maybe do that a
5:35
Speaker 1: little bit. But I think the clicking clothes, the instincts,
5:38
Speaker 1: the range at free safety would fit in extremely well
5:41
Speaker 1: for the Patriots in the back end of this defense.
5:44
Speaker 1: So I could see that being the case where they
5:46
Speaker 1: draft him. Maybe he plays early on in that sort
5:50
Speaker 1: of star or slot defender role just because that's what
5:52
Speaker 1: he's most comfortable with, but eventually he transitions to free safety. Now, now,
5:56
Speaker 1: two other guys that I that I underline, two guys
5:58
Speaker 1: that I was interested to see. You're Brown and Sydney Brown.
6:01
Speaker 1: The two Browns, just two guys that listening to them
6:03
Speaker 1: talk and based on their versatility and the type of players,
6:06
Speaker 1: they are again strong safety types and don't you know,
6:08
Speaker 1: I don't know if that's exactly a need. How much
6:10
Speaker 1: free safety can they play? But those two guys. To me,
6:13
Speaker 1: just listening to them, I'm like, I could see these
6:15
Speaker 1: guys in that locker room in New England. Jayre Brown's
6:17
Speaker 1: an interesting player because he plays on fire. He's somebody
6:21
Speaker 1: that flies around the field, excellent motor. That that type
6:25
Speaker 1: of player that I think that they love, those types
6:27
Speaker 1: of guys that just love ball, love ball and want
6:30
Speaker 1: to be out there and want to play. I can
6:32
Speaker 1: see that. But we talked about this in the short form.
6:36
Speaker 1: I asked him, what do you want to do out there?
6:39
Speaker 1: Like if the play call comes in the huddle and
6:41
Speaker 1: he says he wants to blitz, And I was like, no, no,
6:44
Speaker 1: wrong answer, No, just kidding, but no, in all seriousness,
6:48
Speaker 1: a downhill player, right. And that's where I think that
6:52
Speaker 1: maybe there's not a U as much of a fit
6:54
Speaker 1: for the Patriots with their needs currently. I think Antonio Johnson,
6:57
Speaker 1: who might be the second safety off the board behind
7:00
Speaker 1: Brian Branch and I don't know if you want to
7:02
Speaker 1: call brand to safety or a corner, but whatever. He's
7:05
Speaker 1: one of those guys too that NFL dot Com compares
7:07
Speaker 1: to Kyle Dugger. So do you want two Kyle Duggers
7:10
Speaker 1: or do you want something a little bit different. I
7:12
Speaker 1: think a lot of the guys like that in this
7:14
Speaker 1: draft are you know, like Jaire Brown for example, are
7:17
Speaker 1: in that mold which is a little bit worrisome, I
7:19
Speaker 1: would say, I mean Jerry Brown. It seemed like Kyle Dugger,
7:22
Speaker 1: like just his deep voice, just to the way he
7:24
Speaker 1: like the intensity in his isaac. I'm like, this is
7:26
Speaker 1: Kyle Dugger. But again, it's like you fall in love
7:29
Speaker 1: with these strong safety types, like how many? How many
7:31
Speaker 1: do we really need? There are other needs, of course.
7:33
Speaker 1: I just I wanted to bring up Trey Dean too,
7:35
Speaker 1: a guy that you know you you had in your
7:36
Speaker 1: first mock guy who played at the Shrine Bowl again,
7:39
Speaker 1: heard him today talking a little bit about how cool
7:41
Speaker 1: it was, you know, to play there and get some
7:42
Speaker 1: coaching from the Patriots. So you know there are some
7:45
Speaker 1: later kind of round options. Chris Smith was another one
7:47
Speaker 1: you brought up from Georgia. Um, it's just it's it's
7:50
Speaker 1: hard because you like these guys, they play tough there. Wow,
7:52
Speaker 1: you could bring an element to the team, but you
7:54
Speaker 1: just see other needs probably bigger. Yeah, Chris Smith is
7:56
Speaker 1: probably the one true free safety that I think is
7:59
Speaker 1: going to get drafted in the top one hundred potentially,
8:01
Speaker 1: and he's someone that's a little bit smaller than the
8:04
Speaker 1: rest of this group, doesn't have that type of physicality
8:08
Speaker 1: or be able to play in the box type of
8:10
Speaker 1: skill set, but maybe that's what they need. And I
8:13
Speaker 1: think the one thing I've always looked at with the
8:15
Speaker 1: Georgia defense is that is an NFL defense right in
8:18
Speaker 1: terms of scheme and play calls and design. Kirby some
8:22
Speaker 1: arts out there. He's running a match, he's running ripples,
8:25
Speaker 1: he's running eyes, he's running zeros like he's running the
8:28
Speaker 1: whole book. So that's I think something that I've always
8:31
Speaker 1: thought was interesting that they haven't necessarily dipped into that
8:34
Speaker 1: Georgia pipeline yet because Kirby obviously comes from Saban, who
8:37
Speaker 1: comes from Bill so there is a big connection there.
8:40
Speaker 1: So I wonder, at what point in time do we
8:42
Speaker 1: finally see a Georgia defender make their way to New
8:46
Speaker 1: England quay Walker and a Kobe Dean like Davante Ohi
8:50
Speaker 1: last year, like, there's so many names that we just
8:52
Speaker 1: kept on throwing out there and it just seems to
8:54
Speaker 1: not ever happen. The funny thing for me last year
8:57
Speaker 1: real quick was when I first watched Trayvon Walker. And
8:59
Speaker 1: we all know my draft process. I know nothing until
9:01
Speaker 1: I watch, and at that time, I think early in
9:03
Speaker 1: the draft process, he was, you know, a mid first
9:05
Speaker 1: round maybe second round guy was and I watched him
9:07
Speaker 1: and I was like, oh my god, I'm like, can
9:09
Speaker 1: we like? This is what I want? Right? Of course
9:11
Speaker 1: it goes first overall, and you know, hey, I guess,
9:13
Speaker 1: I know, I know what I'm talking about. What do
9:14
Speaker 1: you know? I guess? So let's move on now because
9:16
Speaker 1: the cornerbacks and that's really the what we took from today. Um,
9:20
Speaker 1: it's just to dine in my class. And you know,
9:22
Speaker 1: I think first, I just want to preface this with
9:24
Speaker 1: a little bit of a since we're on't our long
9:25
Speaker 1: form pod, you've heard Evan probably mentioned rip Liz, which is,
9:29
Speaker 1: you know, kind of the new thing that was developed
9:31
Speaker 1: by Bill Belichick Nick Saban. It's you know, match coverage
9:34
Speaker 1: and and and I've been really trying this offseason to
9:37
Speaker 1: dive into it a little bit, just to get a
9:39
Speaker 1: little bit of what why teams are going this. And
9:41
Speaker 1: I almost equated to you know, Josh McDaniels, and in
9:43
Speaker 1: that offense was a little bit famous for, you know,
9:45
Speaker 1: having route adjustments. So you know, what is the defense
9:47
Speaker 1: going to do, We're going to adjust to them. Um,
9:49
Speaker 1: this is almost a counter to that where the defense said, look,
9:53
Speaker 1: it's going to become man at some point it starts
9:55
Speaker 1: out his zone. But once you declare your routes, we're
9:57
Speaker 1: going to disperse and we're gonna cover whatever you can.
9:59
Speaker 1: So my point being, I know we've been talking a
10:02
Speaker 1: lot this offseason and just generally about how the Patriots
10:04
Speaker 1: love man coverage. They play a lot of man coverage.
10:07
Speaker 1: I don't know what those numbers mean exactly, because another
10:09
Speaker 1: conversation we add, how much is it is pure man?
10:11
Speaker 1: How much are these people who are watching the game
10:13
Speaker 1: tape looking at it and saying that looks like man
10:15
Speaker 1: to me, Well, yeah, you know, three seconds into this
10:17
Speaker 1: now it is man. It becomes man. But you know
10:19
Speaker 1: it's it's actually match coverage. So my question really to
10:23
Speaker 1: to kind of start off this cornerback thing is what
10:25
Speaker 1: are we looking for a cornerback? Are we still looking
10:27
Speaker 1: for a true press man coverage or are we looking
10:30
Speaker 1: for a smart tackling guy who's going to understand how
10:33
Speaker 1: the routes dispersed and where he has to go and
10:35
Speaker 1: process that quick. You've mentioned a couple of times here
10:37
Speaker 1: and all the content we've been spitting out right now
10:39
Speaker 1: of guys from these that we've been listening to saying
10:43
Speaker 1: they have experienced in ripples and match coverage. So just
10:46
Speaker 1: to kind of set it up, I think that's that's
10:48
Speaker 1: kind of where I'm at philosophically. Which one of these
10:50
Speaker 1: guys do we get on at? What traits are we
10:52
Speaker 1: looking for? Are we still looking for that press man
10:54
Speaker 1: coverage or is this something different? Now? Well, first of all,
10:56
Speaker 1: we're gonna have to get a whiteboard out and do
10:58
Speaker 1: some ripples at some point, because this is it's awesome
11:01
Speaker 1: and really where it comes from. Not to go too deep,
11:04
Speaker 1: because this is I actually asked Belichick about this a
11:07
Speaker 1: couple of years ago and he said, well, I mean,
11:09
Speaker 1: we could write a book about this, but he so
11:12
Speaker 1: he gave a short form answer of it though, and
11:14
Speaker 1: basically what happened was is when the Browns would play
11:17
Speaker 1: the Steelers in the nineties, the steel the Browns were
11:20
Speaker 1: predominantly a Cover three defense. Believe it or not, Bill
11:23
Speaker 1: Belichick under Bill Parcels was a Cover three zone defensive coach.
11:27
Speaker 1: He wasn't a man coach yet, and they got to
11:30
Speaker 1: Cleveland and Pittsburgh would run four verts and just flood
11:33
Speaker 1: the deep part of the field against Cover three, and
11:35
Speaker 1: they had no answer for it. They would just really
11:38
Speaker 1: struggle in that. So Saban and Belichick got together. Saban
11:41
Speaker 1: had a little bit more man coverage experience than coach Belichick,
11:45
Speaker 1: and they got their two minds together and they created
11:48
Speaker 1: Rip Lizz, which is a match Cover three zone. So
11:51
Speaker 1: Saban has ripples, he has Cover seven which is a
11:54
Speaker 1: split safety version of ripples as well, and you can
11:57
Speaker 1: bracket receivers and we won't get all into that right now,
12:00
Speaker 1: but basically, as the point that you're making is that
12:05
Speaker 1: you see a lot of that now in New England,
12:07
Speaker 1: and you see that I would say a lot of
12:08
Speaker 1: that around the NFL. I think a team that's really
12:11
Speaker 1: adopted a lot of those types of rules as well
12:13
Speaker 1: as Cincinnati Bengals, and they don't necessarily have a dominant
12:17
Speaker 1: corner in their secondary. But you know, lou Amon Rimo
12:21
Speaker 1: is great at disguising and doing a lot of the
12:23
Speaker 1: same things the Patriots do. So the couple guys though
12:26
Speaker 1: to kind of continue on this point that I think
12:29
Speaker 1: really fit that. I don't know if he's going to
12:32
Speaker 1: be on the board at fourteen, but Christian Gonzalez from
12:34
Speaker 1: Oregon is a perfect matchup with that. Like he can
12:38
Speaker 1: play press man and he can play match zone. There's
12:42
Speaker 1: so many times on film where you know the receiver
12:45
Speaker 1: that he's lined up over runs a shorter route and
12:48
Speaker 1: under and he gets depth right and he gets up
12:50
Speaker 1: the field and ends up taking the vertical in a
12:52
Speaker 1: match zone, and there's so many times where you get
12:55
Speaker 1: some people's faces and plays press man. I think he's
12:57
Speaker 1: the easiest transition into something like that, besides maybe the
13:02
Speaker 1: actual Alabama Georgia Corns that are in this draft, like
13:05
Speaker 1: Achille Ringo or an Eli Ricks. But in terms of
13:08
Speaker 1: what Christian Gonzalez can do, I'm really impressed with his
13:12
Speaker 1: instincts as awareness and coverage and his smarts and his
13:15
Speaker 1: intelligence to be able to play those multiple coverages. So
13:19
Speaker 1: he's someone at the top of his draft that if
13:21
Speaker 1: the Patriots come away with him at fourteen, you have
13:23
Speaker 1: to be thrilled. And let's stay at the top because
13:25
Speaker 1: I think we're both really impressed by Joey Porter Jr.
13:27
Speaker 1: And you know, as Patriots fans may be growing up,
13:29
Speaker 1: we're expecting to see angry dog Joey Porter, you know
13:31
Speaker 1: what ROI you know, and he has definitely a different personality.
13:36
Speaker 1: Was asked you know about Hey, if he went to
13:38
Speaker 1: the Ravens, Hey, if he went to the Patriots, has
13:39
Speaker 1: all the right. I'll let you respond to what he
13:42
Speaker 1: said about the Patriots, which was great, But you know,
13:44
Speaker 1: I think that was kind of my question coming in,
13:45
Speaker 1: is like, you know, is is he this kind of guy?
13:47
Speaker 1: But he didn't seem like that at all. He seemed
13:49
Speaker 1: like he's got, you know, just a really level headed
13:51
Speaker 1: kind of player, physical, Penn State guy. I don't know
13:55
Speaker 1: if that matters, but another guy who fits very poised
13:58
Speaker 1: up there, very poised, very in control. And I would
14:02
Speaker 1: say that you can look at guys like this and
14:05
Speaker 1: more and more even despite their fathers played temperament or
14:09
Speaker 1: their father's attitude, which we know Joey Porter has always
14:12
Speaker 1: been a very outspoken, competitive ra ra type of guy.
14:15
Speaker 1: It doesn't seem like that trickles down to the Yeah,
14:21
Speaker 1: and he's very very chill, very you know, confident in himself.
14:26
Speaker 1: And he was asked about the Patriots and his father.
14:29
Speaker 1: Obviously a rivalry a competitiveness there, and he mentioned that
14:33
Speaker 1: he thinks his father would actually be happy about getting
14:36
Speaker 1: drafted by the Patriots because he knows that Bill Belichick
14:39
Speaker 1: is there and it's gonna be putting Joey and Joey
14:43
Speaker 1: Junior in the best position to succeed. So I thought
14:45
Speaker 1: that was an interesting answer. He's another one of those
14:48
Speaker 1: guys that's sixty three, I would say maybe six two,
14:52
Speaker 1: extremely long. His wingspan is gonna maybe be record breaking
14:56
Speaker 1: for a cornerback prospect. He's got a huge wingspan. He
14:59
Speaker 1: can play press and he can play three because of
15:02
Speaker 1: his length. And the guy that you hear the ceiling
15:05
Speaker 1: comp you hear a lot of Sauce Gardner. No, Sauce
15:07
Speaker 1: Gardner was an All Pro corner right out of the
15:10
Speaker 1: gate as a rookie, very rare. So I wouldn't necessarily
15:13
Speaker 1: put that on Joey Porter Junior, but he definitely has
15:15
Speaker 1: that type of potential. So just a few other guys
15:17
Speaker 1: I you know that I've been kind of looking at
15:19
Speaker 1: that that I like, I mean, Clark Phillips, Emmanuel Forbes,
15:21
Speaker 1: who's just got crazy ball production. Riley must have been
15:24
Speaker 1: on the fence about like listening to him though today
15:26
Speaker 1: he said a thing like mid round guy or fourth
15:29
Speaker 1: round if they miss out on some of this top wave.
15:32
Speaker 1: Devin Witherspoon, though, is an interesting one because he's another
15:34
Speaker 1: one of those top probably three corners. Super physical, I mean,
15:38
Speaker 1: she's he's lighting guys up left and right in the backfield.
15:41
Speaker 1: But did not speak today. They were like he's getting
15:43
Speaker 1: an MRI, which I was kind of surprised that they
15:44
Speaker 1: would just like put that out there as if like
15:46
Speaker 1: they found something serious. But I know you like Julius Brents,
15:49
Speaker 1: Tyree Stevenson was talking for a while. I know you
15:51
Speaker 1: asked him a couple of questions, but these are just
15:53
Speaker 1: and lastly, I just want to say Garrett Williams was
15:55
Speaker 1: a guy that I took in my mock draft that
15:57
Speaker 1: you know, just coming off an ACL and I can't
15:59
Speaker 1: quit those guys that are like he's a prototypical guy.
16:02
Speaker 1: He does everything they need. He's coming off a ECL.
16:04
Speaker 1: Talk to him. He said, Hey, I think I should
16:06
Speaker 1: be cleared by Camp. So that's a positive development for him.
16:09
Speaker 1: He just reminds me, though of a guy like you've
16:10
Speaker 1: already got one up the top maybe you grabble him
16:13
Speaker 1: in the third or fourth round, and now you've got
16:15
Speaker 1: two good sized corners that are really going to reinforce
16:17
Speaker 1: the room. It's just funny because all these names that
16:19
Speaker 1: you mentioned, besides maybe the exception of Witherspoon, are all
16:22
Speaker 1: over six feet tall. Like all these guys are big.
16:25
Speaker 1: I really like Julius Brands from Kansas State. Thought he
16:28
Speaker 1: had a great Senior Bowl week. I think he's got
16:30
Speaker 1: that length at six foot three, physicality on the outside.
16:34
Speaker 1: He needs to work on his ability to play the
16:37
Speaker 1: football in the air and down the field a little bit,
16:40
Speaker 1: but I think that he's somebody that can project really well.
16:42
Speaker 1: I mentioned Clark Phillips, and I'll just quickly on Jordan Addison.
16:46
Speaker 1: I did ask him about. He went a total tell
16:49
Speaker 1: with Jordan Addison twice at Utah, and I really kind
16:51
Speaker 1: of one of those marquee matchups, and that was something
16:53
Speaker 1: that I was really trying to do a lot of
16:55
Speaker 1: as much as I could with these corners and these receivers.
16:58
Speaker 1: Is let's see best on best when you go up
17:00
Speaker 1: against you know, Juju Brands against Quentin Johnston, Clark Phillips
17:05
Speaker 1: against Jordan Addison, Like these are the matchups you want
17:07
Speaker 1: to see, and I thought Clark Phillips really battled with
17:10
Speaker 1: Jordan Addison. Addison got some ws, he got some WS,
17:14
Speaker 1: and it really went back and forth. And the one
17:16
Speaker 1: thing that he mentioned about Addison was how patient he
17:19
Speaker 1: is with his route running. He's really good at pacing
17:21
Speaker 1: his routes and he really makes the defensive back almost
17:25
Speaker 1: antie of w where are you going, because he's really
17:28
Speaker 1: really patient, and all of a sudden he hits the
17:30
Speaker 1: gas and goes. So I thought he was. Phillips came
17:33
Speaker 1: away really impressed with Addison's route running. He also mentioned
17:37
Speaker 1: his elusiveness as well. So we'll talk to Addison tomorrow
17:40
Speaker 1: and he'll be a star of the weekend, I'm sure
17:42
Speaker 1: for Patriots fans. So it was interesting to pick people's
17:45
Speaker 1: brains about guys they went up against. You know, I
17:47
Speaker 1: was talking to Cam Smith about about Jalen Hyatt, right,
17:51
Speaker 1: and going up against Jalen Hyade, Cam Smith South Carolina kid,
17:55
Speaker 1: Stefan Gilmore, JC Horn like that's kind of becoming cbu
17:59
Speaker 1: to a gree down there. And he was mentioning going
18:02
Speaker 1: up against Hiatt and how they got back into the
18:05
Speaker 1: meeting rooms on Sunday in South Carolina, and he said,
18:09
Speaker 1: give me Hyatt. I want him, give him to me. Now.
18:11
Speaker 1: When I watched the film and I asked him about this,
18:15
Speaker 1: he played eight yards off of High at the entire game,
18:18
Speaker 1: never challenged him, and I was a little disappointed in
18:20
Speaker 1: that because I wanted to see him have that alpha
18:23
Speaker 1: and just kind of not just give up eight yard
18:25
Speaker 1: hitches the entire game and really try to challenge him.
18:27
Speaker 1: But he mentioned that they run a lot of option
18:30
Speaker 1: style routes where they give Hyatt the choice of going deeper,
18:34
Speaker 1: sitting it down, and that type of thing. So he
18:36
Speaker 1: was just trying to get him to sit it down
18:38
Speaker 1: every single time, and that's ended up what happened. Especially High,
18:41
Speaker 1: who reminds me like a Taykwon Thor and just the
18:42
Speaker 1: body type, and you just love to see, you know,
18:44
Speaker 1: how can you press him? Can he get can Hi
18:46
Speaker 1: get off the line? It was more about Hyatt two,
18:49
Speaker 1: It was about both of them. I wanted to see
18:50
Speaker 1: Hyatt challenged at the line of scrimmage and it just
18:52
Speaker 1: didn't happen. All right, Well, great stuff. Really a lot
18:55
Speaker 1: of great players today and plenty for us to you know,
18:57
Speaker 1: continue to dig into this cornerback class trying to find favorites.
19:00
Speaker 1: Fine fits, we're gonna give you guys right now. We
19:03
Speaker 1: talked to Mike Roadac from AL dot Com. Gave us
19:05
Speaker 1: a bunch of insight into Bill O'Brien. I can check
19:08
Speaker 1: that out here, all right. We're excited to be joined
19:11
Speaker 1: now by a name that Patriots tans are probably pretty
19:13
Speaker 1: familiar with, Mike Rodak, who you started with, Mike Reese,
19:15
Speaker 1: you went up to Buffalo for a while, and now
19:16
Speaker 1: you've been with Alabama, so you're with AL dot com now,
19:20
Speaker 1: and we're excited to welcome Mike in. We got some
19:22
Speaker 1: big questions here obviously about Bill O'Brien, and we know
19:25
Speaker 1: the Alabama connection. So thanks for joining us, Mike. How's
19:27
Speaker 1: your combinement going so far? It's been good. It's been good.
19:30
Speaker 1: It's just, you know, it's part of basketball season when
19:32
Speaker 1: you cover college sports, so you kind of got to
19:34
Speaker 1: stop for a few minutes and go back to football
19:36
Speaker 1: and remember, oh, yeah, they're thirteen Alabama guys here, and
19:39
Speaker 1: remember what to ask them, and you know all these
19:41
Speaker 1: games that happened back in the fall. Because as soon
19:43
Speaker 1: as you shift to basketball sometimes your brain kind of
19:46
Speaker 1: turns off football for a while. And when you see
19:49
Speaker 1: Bill Belichick out at Alabama's Pro Day pretty much every year,
19:52
Speaker 1: and he's out there with saving I always see the pictures,
19:55
Speaker 1: but what have you just sort of witnessed of Bill
19:57
Speaker 1: at pro days at Alabama spe typically. Yeah, so they
20:01
Speaker 1: had no Pro day two years ago because of COVID.
20:03
Speaker 1: This past year he was there and you know, he's
20:06
Speaker 1: walks in. I think it was Matt Patricia last year
20:08
Speaker 1: and they're talking to Bill O'Brien who happened to be
20:10
Speaker 1: there last year. And now they kind of watch, they
20:13
Speaker 1: kind of stand back and talk to each other, and
20:15
Speaker 1: it's one of those things for a while. I'm sure
20:17
Speaker 1: people are saying, we'd love to just hear what they
20:19
Speaker 1: have to say. And then I think NFL Film said
20:21
Speaker 1: that documentary a few years ago where they miked them
20:23
Speaker 1: up during dad and you know they're talking about players
20:26
Speaker 1: and where did you take this guy? We'll does this
20:28
Speaker 1: guy do well? And all that, And obviously we can't
20:31
Speaker 1: really walk up and listen to that. I'd love to,
20:33
Speaker 1: but yeah, you know, you always hear Nick Saban talking
20:37
Speaker 1: about his time with Belichick because he does like a
20:38
Speaker 1: weekly radio show and he's always telling these old stories
20:41
Speaker 1: about being in Cleveland and some of the things that
20:43
Speaker 1: he learned from Bill. And it's just two guys who
20:47
Speaker 1: disappointed a career are just trying to keep on winning
20:50
Speaker 1: and see how long they can do it. Same thing
20:52
Speaker 1: in Alabama. People don't know how long Nick Saban's gonna coach,
20:54
Speaker 1: and we'll have to see how many more he wins.
20:57
Speaker 1: So the obvious question is you saw Mac Jones play
20:59
Speaker 1: when the National Championships. You've watched Bill O'Brien for a
21:02
Speaker 1: couple of years. I'm sure you're probably with the Patriots
21:04
Speaker 1: when Bill O'Brien was the offensive coordinator there. Just what
21:07
Speaker 1: is kind of your expectation of how those two guys
21:10
Speaker 1: are gonna come together and what do you kind of
21:12
Speaker 1: expect to see from the offense with Bill and Mac. Yeah,
21:15
Speaker 1: obviously the story everybody knows about Mac teaching Bill O'Brien
21:18
Speaker 1: to playbook when he got to Alabama, But yeah, it's
21:22
Speaker 1: you know, Bill O'Brien was obviously, quite frankly not well
21:26
Speaker 1: liked by Alabama fans, and there's we can talk about
21:29
Speaker 1: it more, but it's the standard is so high down
21:31
Speaker 1: there that if you're not winning every game by forty
21:34
Speaker 1: or fifty points, you're not winning every game and winning
21:37
Speaker 1: national championship every year, people are gonna look for somebody
21:39
Speaker 1: to blame. And because of Nick Saban's success and the
21:42
Speaker 1: seven rings that he has on his finger, nobody's really
21:45
Speaker 1: gonna blame Nick Saban. So it's always gonna flow down
21:48
Speaker 1: to coordinators. And it was really both sides of the
21:50
Speaker 1: ball last year. So that's kind of why Bill O'Brien
21:53
Speaker 1: I think caught some of the flak. It's just the
21:54
Speaker 1: dynamics of fans not wanting to blame Saban, but really
21:59
Speaker 1: the offense was great at Alabama and how much of
22:01
Speaker 1: that gets carried over to New England. You know, they
22:04
Speaker 1: really run Alabama's playbook there, they run what Saban wants.
22:08
Speaker 1: It's all the offensive coordinators they had, they've kind of
22:12
Speaker 1: passed that terminology down. So he's going back to what
22:14
Speaker 1: he had in the NFL with New England with the Texans,
22:18
Speaker 1: I'm sure, and that was successful with Tom and with
22:22
Speaker 1: what the pieces they had around him back then. And
22:25
Speaker 1: you know, personality wise, I think him and Max should
22:28
Speaker 1: get along. I think Max an easy guy to get
22:31
Speaker 1: along with from what I've known at Alabama, a lot
22:33
Speaker 1: of players liked them there, and you know, he's fiery
22:36
Speaker 1: a little bit, and we've seen that emotion from Mac.
22:38
Speaker 1: We've seen the emotion from Bill O'Brien over the years,
22:40
Speaker 1: and you know, it's not a bad thing. I think
22:43
Speaker 1: both of those guys are passionate and I think they'll
22:45
Speaker 1: they'll work well together. You mentioned the infamous story of
22:48
Speaker 1: Mac teaching Bill O'Brien the playbook. What do you actually
22:52
Speaker 1: know about that story, because I don't think it's ever
22:55
Speaker 1: been explained to me further than just the fact that
22:58
Speaker 1: they might have had a day or two two together
23:00
Speaker 1: and they might have taught the playbook to each other.
23:02
Speaker 1: A good question. I have never dug deeper into that myself,
23:07
Speaker 1: but I mean Bill O'Brien got down there. That was
23:09
Speaker 1: like right after the Ohio State National Championship games. That
23:12
Speaker 1: was in January, probably the second or third week of January,
23:15
Speaker 1: and then Mac wasn't drafted until the end of April,
23:17
Speaker 1: so that's three months where Mac was probably working out,
23:20
Speaker 1: and um, I know he was still around to a
23:23
Speaker 1: pretty good extent during us three months, so I think
23:26
Speaker 1: it was more than just like a single day two
23:28
Speaker 1: day thing. I think it was. They were both around
23:30
Speaker 1: the facility a decent amount. And again, it's saving, as
23:35
Speaker 1: always said, like you're running my system, and it's I
23:40
Speaker 1: think that's tough for some guys to come in and
23:42
Speaker 1: kind of give up that that power and what they've
23:44
Speaker 1: run for for a long time. And yeah, I don't
23:48
Speaker 1: know exactly if they're doing on a whiteboard or how
23:51
Speaker 1: exactly it all worked but wrong right if he was
23:56
Speaker 1: quizzing him or any of that. But yeah, I think
24:00
Speaker 1: that's that's certainly built a relationship between those two and
24:03
Speaker 1: I think it was more than just a single day thing,
24:05
Speaker 1: even if they're you know, running Nick's playbook. Was there
24:08
Speaker 1: anything that you saw from Bill O'Brien that just said, hey,
24:11
Speaker 1: that reminded me of what I saw from the Patriots,
24:13
Speaker 1: Just elements anything that you kind of can do over
24:15
Speaker 1: the years. Yeah, I mean definitely the screen game. I
24:17
Speaker 1: think they use more than what they had done under
24:20
Speaker 1: Steve Sarkaesian before that, where I think sark was give
24:22
Speaker 1: me a little bit more of RPO stuff, slants over
24:26
Speaker 1: the middle, and you had Alabama people just screaming for
24:30
Speaker 1: Bill O'Brien to run more slants over the middle. But
24:32
Speaker 1: that's also because back then they had Jerry Judy and
24:36
Speaker 1: Jalen Waddle and de Monte Smith and Henry Ruggs to
24:38
Speaker 1: run no slants, take the ball and run seventy yards
24:41
Speaker 1: and they didn't have those guys with Bill O'Brien, and
24:44
Speaker 1: so yeah, you kind of had to take it more
24:46
Speaker 1: and smaller chunks with the receivers they had. They've had
24:50
Speaker 1: a couple bigger, I want to say, slower but not
24:53
Speaker 1: blazingly fast receivers that Jalen Waddle was. And you kind
24:56
Speaker 1: of have to use the personnel the best way you can,
24:58
Speaker 1: and I think Bill Obriant did that, and again I
25:01
Speaker 1: think the screen game was certainly part of that. You know,
25:05
Speaker 1: some of the swing passes to the running backs every
25:07
Speaker 1: reminded me of New England going back to like Shane
25:09
Speaker 1: Vereen and some of those guys. But they had a
25:11
Speaker 1: great running back to do that too, and Jamir Gibbs,
25:13
Speaker 1: so he used to personnel that he had and I
25:16
Speaker 1: don't think he can just snap his fingers and um,
25:18
Speaker 1: you know, make an ad R touchdown out of thin air.
25:20
Speaker 1: And I think fans, again, we're just mad that stuff
25:22
Speaker 1: wasn't happening. It's quite as often. Yeah, it just before
25:25
Speaker 1: we move on to some prospects, and I'm definitely gonna
25:27
Speaker 1: pepper you a slew of those, But just in general,
25:30
Speaker 1: I've always fascinated by Nick Saban's conversation that he had
25:34
Speaker 1: about we need to evolve on offense. I think it's
25:37
Speaker 1: like twenty fifteen, twenty sixteen somewhere around there, And how
25:41
Speaker 1: did you see Bill O'Brien jump on to that bandwagon
25:44
Speaker 1: of we gotta light up the scoreboard now in college
25:47
Speaker 1: football that compete and not be this ground and pound
25:49
Speaker 1: type of tea. Yeah. Yeah, it's interesting because it's there's
25:52
Speaker 1: some thought that it could go a little bit backwards
25:55
Speaker 1: for Alabama this year, but um, yeah, they really moved
25:58
Speaker 1: to the spread and having you know, a quicker pace
26:02
Speaker 1: under Laying Kiffin, like twenty fifteen, twenty sixteen, and then
26:04
Speaker 1: Brian day All did that, and then Steve Sarkisian and
26:07
Speaker 1: then Bill O'Brien and that's you know, they were moving
26:10
Speaker 1: quickly at some points and I had three or four
26:13
Speaker 1: guys spread out and that's kind of what college football
26:15
Speaker 1: had become, and that's what Nick Saban wanted to run,
26:18
Speaker 1: but there was actually their running game wasn't great, and
26:20
Speaker 1: there was a few situations last year where they needed
26:23
Speaker 1: a couple of yards, needed to chew the clock a
26:25
Speaker 1: little bit, and they just couldn't run the ball, and
26:28
Speaker 1: that was I think a source of frustration for Savid,
26:30
Speaker 1: and Saban's already talking about wanting to get back to
26:32
Speaker 1: more balance on offense next year. So I think O'Brien
26:36
Speaker 1: certainly embraced it, but I think sometimes the forces move
26:40
Speaker 1: in both directions, and if they were able to run
26:42
Speaker 1: the ball for three plays in a row at Tennessee,
26:44
Speaker 1: they probably win that game instead of lose it, because
26:46
Speaker 1: otherwise they couldn't run the clock down and balling back
26:49
Speaker 1: to Tennessee and they won that game. So we'll make
26:53
Speaker 1: the jump into some prospects now, because I mean, as
26:54
Speaker 1: at the Alabama guys are always the top the list
26:57
Speaker 1: for from Patriots fans in I just want to start
27:00
Speaker 1: with Brian Branch, who clearly not a huge knee for
27:02
Speaker 1: the Patriots. We know every year they seemed to take
27:04
Speaker 1: you know, those kind of hybrid strong safety types. But
27:05
Speaker 1: the two safeties, I mean, both of them are really good.
27:08
Speaker 1: How do you see those guys you know, I mean,
27:10
Speaker 1: I think that it's probably out of the Patriots range
27:12
Speaker 1: right now, but it seems like Brian Branch is a
27:13
Speaker 1: plug and play player for him, Yeah, if they needed him.
27:15
Speaker 1: I feel like mid first round is still where it
27:17
Speaker 1: seems to be projected. So if you want to spend
27:19
Speaker 1: a first round peck on him, I think they probably could.
27:21
Speaker 1: He probably would be there at fourteen. You know, it's
27:25
Speaker 1: a guy who I think came in with comparisons to
27:28
Speaker 1: Making Fitzpatrick. I don't know if he ever met those,
27:32
Speaker 1: And that's not a knock against him. Making Fitzpatrick was
27:34
Speaker 1: a fantastic, like all American level player at Alabama who
27:37
Speaker 1: was making plays all over the field. You know, Brian
27:41
Speaker 1: Wrench wasn't quite to that level. I think it's a
27:42
Speaker 1: little bit unfair to like judge him by that, But
27:45
Speaker 1: that was kind of the comparison from playing style standpoint
27:48
Speaker 1: that people thought of him as and he played a
27:50
Speaker 1: lot as a freshman, actually didn't play much as as
27:53
Speaker 1: a sophomore as much just because of there's another guy
27:56
Speaker 1: who kind of played his spot and it was a competition.
27:59
Speaker 1: They went back and forth. Then he really didn't find
28:01
Speaker 1: his true footing. I would say until this past season
28:03
Speaker 1: as a junior, where you know, played a lot of
28:06
Speaker 1: in the box safety type stuff, but can cover slot receivers.
28:12
Speaker 1: Did a really good job against Brock Bowers. I would
28:14
Speaker 1: say again, you know against Georgia, he was probably the
28:17
Speaker 1: best tight end in the nation next year, and he
28:21
Speaker 1: can cover tight ends, he can probably cover the slot.
28:23
Speaker 1: He didn't play much deep safety, so that's a projection
28:27
Speaker 1: to see if he could do that at the NFL level.
28:29
Speaker 1: He probably could um Whereas Jordan Battle played a lot
28:32
Speaker 1: of deep safety and you know, made some plays there
28:36
Speaker 1: as well. So two different players. I think they would
28:40
Speaker 1: both work in the defense and in two different ways.
28:42
Speaker 1: And you know, there's there might be some overlap between
28:45
Speaker 1: Branch and Dugger, but I think they could still be
28:47
Speaker 1: both on the field at the same time. I found
28:49
Speaker 1: it fascinating that one, he's working out with the corners
28:52
Speaker 1: this week instead of safeties. In two, he's one hundred
28:55
Speaker 1: ninety pounds maybe, and you'd project him into the box
28:58
Speaker 1: at one hundred ninety pounds in the NFL A little
29:00
Speaker 1: bit of a concern. And I when I was watching
29:02
Speaker 1: him on film, like, well, he's got the speed, he's
29:04
Speaker 1: got the instincts maybe this is a Devin mccordy like
29:07
Speaker 1: transition where he plays more on the back end in
29:09
Speaker 1: the NFL. He's a really good tackler, so I think
29:11
Speaker 1: that makes up for his size and that he's just
29:13
Speaker 1: fundamentally technique wise, a really good tackler who didn't really
29:16
Speaker 1: miss money tackles. He's also, you know, a good pass
29:20
Speaker 1: rusher too. They used him to get after get after
29:23
Speaker 1: it on blitzes and had a few sacks and also
29:26
Speaker 1: had a few picks too, so he was able to
29:28
Speaker 1: do a few different things. But yeah, you know, he
29:32
Speaker 1: more positioned wise, he did play corner like within the
29:34
Speaker 1: Knick Savings system, he was more of a corner because
29:37
Speaker 1: he played in the slot with the star position and
29:39
Speaker 1: then played in the money position, which is almost in
29:41
Speaker 1: a linebacker type role. Never really played outside corner, but
29:45
Speaker 1: also didn't play it deep safe to either. And there
29:47
Speaker 1: was some talk like because he every They had three
29:50
Speaker 1: juniors declare for the draft right after the Sugar Bowl,
29:53
Speaker 1: and two of them were obvious and Bryce Young and
29:54
Speaker 1: Will Anderson. Brian Branch awaited like until later that day
29:58
Speaker 1: to make his decision, and there was some talk that
30:00
Speaker 1: morning then maybe he comes back to school for fourth year,
30:03
Speaker 1: plays deep safety and shows teams he can do that,
30:06
Speaker 1: because that was the big question about him. Any other
30:09
Speaker 1: guys the Alabama group that that particularly stand out to you?
30:12
Speaker 1: Maybe ping the Patriots radar a little bit. Yeah, you know,
30:14
Speaker 1: there's you never quite know. Like I was surprised when
30:17
Speaker 1: I took Christian Barmore because like Barmore didn't do a
30:19
Speaker 1: whole lot of Alabama and he's turned into a really
30:22
Speaker 1: good player in the NFL like he was. That was
30:23
Speaker 1: a projection on their part, not a guy who I
30:25
Speaker 1: would have thought of. But so you're not one hundred
30:28
Speaker 1: percent sure about you know, who do they like exactly?
30:31
Speaker 1: Cameron Latto at tight end? I think would be interesting
30:33
Speaker 1: if one of my guys. Yeah, we'll have to see
30:35
Speaker 1: obviously what happens with you know, John hu Smith long term?
30:38
Speaker 1: Can I put Cameron Latto in one of those roles
30:40
Speaker 1: and have two tight ends that that can move like
30:43
Speaker 1: Latto has got some athleticism to him and showing he
30:46
Speaker 1: can catch the ball too, So you know, mid to
30:49
Speaker 1: late round guy. It seems like with him, you know,
30:52
Speaker 1: Jamire Gibbs is not gonna be on the board. I
30:53
Speaker 1: don't think and when they pick in the second round,
30:56
Speaker 1: because he'll be late first early second. But they could
30:58
Speaker 1: use that pass catching back that he is kind of
31:01
Speaker 1: that outlet for mac like Brady used that for twenty years.
31:04
Speaker 1: And like, you don't have the receiver's open, you throw
31:07
Speaker 1: your running back, you get five or six yards and
31:08
Speaker 1: that's effective. Like that's a good thing to have. You know,
31:12
Speaker 1: Stevenson can do that, but he's also your your bell
31:14
Speaker 1: cow running back and have him down all three downs
31:18
Speaker 1: on the field is tough. So they could use a
31:20
Speaker 1: guy like that. Um, if he drops or if they
31:24
Speaker 1: move up or something like that. But um, there's not
31:27
Speaker 1: a receiver in this draft. Relabama fans are upset about that.
31:30
Speaker 1: And no, but you're talking about language with Gibbs because
31:34
Speaker 1: I'm not a running backsky. I'm a running backs don't matter. No,
31:37
Speaker 1: no running backs in the first round. That's me. But
31:41
Speaker 1: I was watching Alabama against Kansas State. I was really
31:44
Speaker 1: watching Tyler Steen and then Gibbs just I mean, every
31:48
Speaker 1: every time he touches the ball, it's like he's shot
31:50
Speaker 1: out of the cannon. Yeah, And I like, this guy
31:52
Speaker 1: is in a different level of speed, and like you said,
31:55
Speaker 1: they can throw the balls out of the backfield. They
31:58
Speaker 1: can move him in the slot like Bill Ryan did
32:00
Speaker 1: a little bit and play him at receiver in a way.
32:02
Speaker 1: I would label him for the Patriots fans because I
32:05
Speaker 1: know I can hear it already, Mike, I have the
32:07
Speaker 1: Patriots draft Gibbs, They're gonna Patriots fans will lose their
32:10
Speaker 1: mind running back early in the draft. What are we doing?
32:14
Speaker 1: Offensive weapon? He's a he's a weapon on offense. Ti Montgomery, Yeah,
32:19
Speaker 1: better right, yeah? And you you don't don't get too
32:23
Speaker 1: caught up in the RB right of it. And I
32:25
Speaker 1: think with Rmandre, Rmandre can be the between the tackles,
32:29
Speaker 1: you know, workhorse running back and Gibbs is more of
32:31
Speaker 1: your playmaker. And I could see that work and that
32:34
Speaker 1: that's a big part of it. I think the Bill
32:36
Speaker 1: O'Brien offense historically is what kind of having that guy
32:40
Speaker 1: he was Verene when he was there, and Kevin Folk
32:42
Speaker 1: before that, and was you know Charlie Wis. So yeah,
32:45
Speaker 1: that can help. I mean Tyler Steen just to go
32:47
Speaker 1: back to him for a something like I think he's
32:49
Speaker 1: probably gonna play guard at the NFL level, that's what
32:51
Speaker 1: he I think he practiced the Senior Bowl there and
32:53
Speaker 1: he was a solid tackle for all of him. I
32:55
Speaker 1: don't know if I would spend an early round pick
32:59
Speaker 1: on him to play tackle in the NFL, but you
33:01
Speaker 1: can take a flyer on him mid rounds and maybe
33:03
Speaker 1: he's a guy who can play both tackle and guard
33:05
Speaker 1: and kind of be a backup for you and see
33:07
Speaker 1: what you can mold them into. Anybody else, have anyone
33:10
Speaker 1: before we let Michael he mentioned a bunch of the names.
33:13
Speaker 1: The only other name I would mention his Eli Ricks.
33:15
Speaker 1: I don't know. Yeah, depending on him. He came out
33:17
Speaker 1: blinged out at the podium earlier. It was not. It
33:21
Speaker 1: was a little bit of a disaster for him. Quite
33:23
Speaker 1: frankly for Ye at Alabama this year, huge expectations coming in.
33:26
Speaker 1: Who was a freshman All American at LSU, top ten
33:29
Speaker 1: prospect at LSU and had a great freshman year there
33:33
Speaker 1: and then was heard a second year transferred Alabama. People
33:36
Speaker 1: were already talking with as a top ten pick back
33:38
Speaker 1: in May, and you know, preseason All American he was
33:42
Speaker 1: gonna start for him. He didn't even earn a starting
33:44
Speaker 1: job out of camp. He didn't play the first six
33:47
Speaker 1: or seven games out of the year and finally earned
33:49
Speaker 1: that job in the middle of October, and then a
33:51
Speaker 1: couple of games later got a concussion, was out again
33:54
Speaker 1: for a little while. So just a bit of a
33:57
Speaker 1: disaster in terms of learning to playbook. And I don't
34:01
Speaker 1: think there was off field issues necessarily with him, but
34:03
Speaker 1: just there was certainly issues and learning Sabans playbook that
34:05
Speaker 1: Sabans talked about that Rix has talked about and it
34:08
Speaker 1: came along really slowly for him. But he's long, and
34:11
Speaker 1: that's his biggest traits. He's long and he's tall. For
34:14
Speaker 1: me personally having covered the Patriots twenty ten to twenty twelve,
34:18
Speaker 1: the name that comes to mind is Rosi Dowling. I
34:21
Speaker 1: want to think of Eli Rix. So again there's you
34:24
Speaker 1: can project him that he's long, and that can you
34:26
Speaker 1: can use that against tight ends or whatever. But we'll
34:28
Speaker 1: have to see what he runs into forty because I
34:30
Speaker 1: don't know how fast he is. I'm gonna put you
34:32
Speaker 1: on the spot before you let it go. If there's
34:34
Speaker 1: one Alabama player, just in general, who do you see
34:37
Speaker 1: the Patriots taking, then one guy that you would say
34:39
Speaker 1: is this guy is a Patriot branch? Yeah, yeah, just
34:43
Speaker 1: personality wise, position versatility. I can see Branch being a
34:47
Speaker 1: fit for them. He's Mike Rodack. Mike, thanks for joining us.
34:50
Speaker 1: You the authority, Alabama, the Patriots. Nobody better, so I
34:52
Speaker 1: appreciate you taking the time with us. Thank you. All Right,
34:55
Speaker 1: that's gonna do it for Evan and I here at
34:57
Speaker 1: day three of the combine, day two of pros, and
35:00
Speaker 1: I mean it's only going to get better here on
35:01
Speaker 1: Friday and Saturday. We got quarterbacks, wide receivers, tight ends,
35:04
Speaker 1: running backs, and offensive tackles, offensive line. It's going to
35:08
Speaker 1: be really cool. A lot of big eats into Patriots.
35:09
Speaker 1: I know it doesn't quit, and you know we won't
35:11
Speaker 1: quit for you guys. We got you covered every way
35:14
Speaker 1: you need, written, pods, videos, it's all coming at you.
35:17
Speaker 1: Two more days of content. Let's get it.