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PST SPECIAL: Looking At NFL Draft Prospects And Draft Analysis With Matt Waldman · The Philadelphia Sports Table | Philly Sports News & Views

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Hey there, everybody, we wanted to let you know we recorded this podcast
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episode on Monday, April fifteenth, twenty twenty four. By the time you
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hear this, some things may have changed here there, but we hope you
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enjoy this discussion and this episode. All right, everybody, you are listening
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to the Philadelphia Sports Table podcast show, the longest running weekly Philly sports podcast
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show in the world. That's right, eleven years strong. We have got
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a great PST special podcast coming your way this week. Yes, we have
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the one and only Matt Waldman from the Rookie Scouting Portfolio. We wanted to
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put this into our feed as a PST special podcast just based on the plethora
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of knowledge that Matt is giving us here on this podcast show. It's not
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it's not your everyday, average, run of the mill type of content that
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you're gonna be getting here from the PSD podcast show. So I will just
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say that Matt has done an incredible job over so many years he's been on
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this podcast, appearing every single year before the NFL Draft to talk about what
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we're gonna be seeing in terms of new talent in the NFL and really helping
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us to break down the game of football in a lot of different ways.
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So without any further ado, let's get to the discussion here with Matt Waldman
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again from the Rookie Scouting Portfolio. If you are interested in that publication,
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get it. Get it. It is so detailed. The analysis is absolutely
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incredible as it pertains to the guys coming in, but also you know there's
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some fantasy football type stuff as well that Matt dives into as well. So
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search him out, look at everything that he is doing, and let's get
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to the discussion right now. A fantastic discussion coming your way and joining us
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this week to get into this upcoming NFL draft, the talent that we are
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going to be seeing and what that talent means to the incoming NFL Draft class.
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In the NFL in general, he's one of the best in the business.
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From the rookie he develops the Rookie Scouting Portfolio and it is a fantastic
2:21
and amazing document that you really should get. And if you are a scouting
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and a prospect, an NFL prospect fan, you should definitely get the Rookie
2:32
Scouting Portfolio. We've got the one and only Matt Waldman with us. How
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you doing Matt. I'm doing great, Jeff. It's great to see you
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again. Yes, and I hope everything's going well with you. Absolutely ya.
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As I mentioned before, you know, we hit the record button here
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eleven years that we've been doing this podcast, and I could find no better
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way than to spend a little bit of time here with you talking about my
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favorite sport and sport of football, and the talent that we are going to
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be seeing in this up coming NFL draft, and to get us started here.
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Matt. It's such an interesting quarterback class, and it's one that you've
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been analyzing now for quite some time. You've been talking about it a lot
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on other podcasts as well. I know you've got a slate of different podcasts
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and appearances you're gonna be making over the course of the next week and a
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half here, and I'm hoping we can kind of start off the conversation really
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talking about the quarterback position in terms of their I guess you'd say number one,
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pocket management and number two the way that these guys process the information that
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is in their brains and how that's going to relate to how they're going to
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perform at the NFL level. So if you don't mind. Let's get into
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some quarterback talk here. Caleb Williams obviously slated to B and I would say
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perhaps because anything gonna happen in the NFL draft, but slated to be the
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Chicago bears next quarterback if he does end up going there. Let's talk a
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little bit about Caleb Williams here, his pocket management, his processing. What
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have you seen thus are and how would you analyze top quarterback he may be
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in the NFL? Sure, I think before we even get to any of
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the prospects, I mean when we talk about pocket management and processing, really
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it's really important to understand that these are the skills that tend to separate the
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very best NFL quarterbacks from the guys who don't earn second opportunities to start,
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or don't even complete their first opportunity to start, regardless of how early they
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were drafted. Because we know that the NFL has a thirty three percent hit
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rate or somewhere in that range, somewhere between thirty and forty recently with first
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round prospects. And the reason I believe that is is that the things they
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think that can't be taught big arm, height, weight, winning program statistics,
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completion percentage, those are just, honestly, some of those are made
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out to be more than what they should be. Some of them are just
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things that should be expected. And the things that they think, well,
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with experience they'll get better at are the things that are already ingrained into their
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games. I mean, listen, I'm at I'm looking at Jeff and the
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background of his room and I see, you know, five guitars and a
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keyboard. So he knows this better than anybody. Is that when you play
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music, especially if you improvise that Really, when you're playing music, or
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whether you're doing comedy, or whether you're doing any kind of stage performance medium,
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there's theory, there's the physical techniques of playing the instrument or performing.
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There's experience with being in situations where they're unpredictable and you don't always know the
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outcome. Yes, I have to. You have all these things, and
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the best performers integrate the physical, the technical, the conceptual, and then
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have the experience to deal with the unexpected that's almost always going to occur at
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some point during the stage performance and be able to integrate that into what you
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would say viable and compelling solutions. Yep, Okay, so pocket management is
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very much an integrated skill of footwork, being able to read blitzes, being
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able to read coverage, being able to understand how to take all of that
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and find solutions that are efficient. And then the same thing is true with
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being able to read pre snap and early post snap changes with the defense,
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incorporate what they're seeing with what's unfolding with their routes, and knowing what their
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routes are ahead of time of where they're going to wind up, and looking
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at at really the leverage of which a defender or a set of coverage usually
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a triangle of defenders in any given area have relative to a receiver, and
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knowing a do they have enough time and space to get the ball out there
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and be will they do it confidently and quickly enough to place the ball only
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where the receiver can catch it or the best possible place for him to make
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play. Right, All of that I just say. I mean, I
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know that's a mouthful, but all that that I just stated, if you
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have it ingrained as a musician or a stand up comedian, that certain things
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trip you up. Because you learned a certain way for several years. It
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takes a lot of time and time away from the stage to really unravel all
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that, untie the knots, and then retie them in the correct manner that's
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going to be optimal for your game. And what people don't realize is they
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look at a guy like Caleb Williams or Drake may or jayde Daniels or bow
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Nicks and they say, well, see what he did there, he'll get
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better in the NFL. Or what he did there is NFL caliber, and
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really a lot of what college players do that's NFL caliber. People go,
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see, that's going to be good. That's a great throw, and you
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go every NFL quarterback And then I look at and I go, you know
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what every NFL quarterback can do that. It's some of the higher end processing
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decision making things where they take the easy throw, they turn a difficult looking
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scenario instead of trying to be the hero to do the roll out of the
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pocket and throw against the grain with a you know, flat trajectory fifteen yards
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into a tight zone of coverage. You look at that and go, Okay,
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great, you just tried to do a low percentage play. Now you're
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Mitchell Trubisky and your backup or you're Kenny Bicker and you're a backup, whereas
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you know you're Tom Brady, Joe Burrow or Brock Purty and you avoided that
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whole mess in the first place. It's like a driver basically going, you
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know what, I could try and like weave my way through all this rush
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hour traffic, or maybe I'm just gonna wait five minutes and I'm gonna also
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take this particular route and it may be a little bit of a longer route,
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but I'm actually going to get there earlier. And it's like that level
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of understanding situations that people miss out on. So when we get to Caleb
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Williams, people look at Caleb Williams and they say he runs around like a
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madman in the pocket. He throws the ball in all sorts of directions,
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some of them are going to lead to mistakes, and did lead the mistakes.
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He must have a bad processor, He must be someone who doesn't manage
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the pocket well. But when you actually chart his games and look at what
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works and what doesn't work for him, yes, there are times he's tried
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to take more on than he should. Is it so much more that it's
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a major concern I would say absolutely not. In fact, when you look
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at his the offense that he had last year, it didn't do him any
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favors in terms of, you know, allowing him to play efficient football as
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often as he could have as he did, say in twenty twenty three or
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twenty twenty two. Excuse me, yep. So there's a lot of logic
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when he breaks the pocket when he generally he likes to move in the pocket
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and move in an efficient manner where he can find the open throw without having
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to break the pocket. He doesn't create additional pressure when he doesn't have to.
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And a lot of quarterbacks who get praised for break being able to get
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outside the pocket often generate more pressure than they should because they just undermined the
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leverage position of their tackles or their guards hello Jalen every now and again,
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or Drake may to a huge extent. Caleb Williams doesn't do that. He
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plays with there's a lot more logic to his game, and the same I
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would say with processing information. And sometimes you're put in situations where you take
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too many chances. That's a maturity thing. But there's a more than enough
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tape where you see him reading the leverage and getting the ball out at that
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appropriate moment, and you need to have the confidence of speed to do that.
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It's like with comedy, you've got to be able to land a line
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in a manner that it's so timely that the rhythm of it hits. Yep,
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it's all about the time. So like a good example of this is
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that Alex Smith would be a comedian way back, you know, back in
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the day who had brilliant material and all the comedy writers probably praised him for
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the writing that he did. If you put him, if you had him
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right for your show, you probably and you had a good performers reading his
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material, it landed and it was great. If he did it, you
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needed a laugh track, yeah, okay, And more often than not now
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if you took Brett Farv and you know, like, go to watch any
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comedian with their timing, and most comedians who are really good to have great
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timing. But you're gonna if you count all the Netflix special jokes that you
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hear from a comedian, I bet you you would find that their hit rate
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of what you laughed at is much smaller than you thought. It doesn't make
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them bad comedian. It's the nature of the game, just like the NFL.
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So if you take Brett Farr as an example, maybe he doesn't write
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all his own material. He's written a few though that really landed great,
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you know, And maybe he doesn't understand the theory to the level that you
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know Alex Smith does, you know on a whiteboard. He might not be
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able to explain to you all the different schematic ways of like creating good jokes
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and teaching a course on comedy. And maybe a lot of what he tells
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are fart jokes, okay, But when he tells a fart joke, he
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has great timing and believability and it lands and even if you hate fart jokes,
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you find yourself laughing. And it's like that's the difference. And with
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good processing and bad processing. Caleb Williams can tell good jokes. He understands
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how to, he understands how they work, and he has that timing and
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sometimes he's gonna bomb and he's gonna take chances that he shouldn't. But so
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did Richard Pryor, so did Robin Williams, So did Eddie Murphy, you
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know, so does Dave Chappelle. Go Count Dave Chappelle. Or you know,
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Bill bur jokes, yea, and would I'd be willing to bet at
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least thirty percent of them suck the but the sixty percent are incredible. And
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even if we flip flop it and say sixty percent sucked, the gravity of
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the thirty percent that do land get them Netflix specials and make them millionaires because
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most people can't even hit thirty yep. And that's the that's the deal with
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Caleb. A great analogy. It is a fantastic analogy, Matt, And
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it's it's interesting to correlate those two, you know, from an artistic standpoint,
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even, you know, because what we see in the NFL are guys
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who are at the top of their game in terms of their art. You
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know, the NFL is an art form. Whether you're playing quarterback, wide
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receiver, you're a defensive back and offensive lineman or an edge rusher, whatever
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the case, it is an art form. What do you think about Drake
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May and Jaden Daniels in terms of their potential, you know, and and
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their pocket management and again they're processing as well. It's kind of touched on
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Drake May a little bit. Yeah, because again, you know, that's
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the problem with the NFL's hit rate is that I think they they approach this
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as a science when it's actually a craft. It's an artistic craft. It's
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a stage performance. Yeah. So Drake May as a stage performer right now.
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He looks like he rolled right out of Central Casting. And Hollywood put
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him through the studio system back in the day. They you know, like
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kind of like you know, Clint Eastwood. They had him playing rowdy yates
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on Rawhide and doing all sorts of different things and weird sitcoms and you know,
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playing bartenders in different spots and all whatever, you know. And Drake
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May certainly's got the arm. He has the mobility, he's tough, he'll
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take a hit and try and get the ball out. He has some vertical
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accuracy that can be good. And so you look at him and you see
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shades of a Trevor Lawrence or a Ben Roethlisberger in the sense that the athletic
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ability, toughness, arm that's there. The problem is that he has a
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lot of little issues and big issues too. He does not process the field
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as well as he needs to. People will talk about his accuracy, but
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they talk about heating Matt Pack here. They'll say, well, completion percentage
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in the middle of the field is really good. When you look at our
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heat map, you know, it shows how good is completion percentages. But
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here's the thing, and I'm not trying to tell you that stats people are
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trying to fool you. Okay, that's not my intent. There's a lot
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of great workout being done out there with the analytics community. There's just a
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little piece of the puzzle. It's a little piece of the puzzle. It's
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a layer. Yeah, and sometimes there's unintentional issues but that they're not maybe
16:30
aware of, or maybe that they need. They have limited data and they
16:33
have to sell what they got, you know. And one of the things
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is is that completion percentage is not the best way to determine accuracy. And
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you might go, Matt, well, how the hell do you do that
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then, because I mean, that's all we really got, right, is
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like that they complete the pass. But really, Scott's have been doing for
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years. I've been doing it for years. Is charting accuracy. Baker may
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Field had great completion percentage accuracy, and I argued that that was a misnomer
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because if you chart his games and you chart how he throws against zone coverage,
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man coverage different areas of the field and track whether the ball was pinpoint
17:18
accurate based on the rotten coverage, meaning whether it was caught in stride or
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whether it was caught only where the receiver should logically make that you know,
17:27
like a back shoulder fade that's not in stride. They got to make an
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athletic adjustment, but that's where the ball should be. Or if you're throwing
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in between two defenders and you know that low and away and the receiver's going
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to have to make a low and diving dig out of the ball so that
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they don't get creamed, that's a pinpoint throw, even if it doesn't look
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like it. So when you chart from that perspective and you have that pinpoint
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accuracy or what I call general accuracy, which is the receiver had to work
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for it, but shouldn't have had to work for it to make that catch,
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Baker mayfield against man coverage mightily in that area compared to what the completion
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percentage said. When you look at Drake may it's the same thing that his
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completion percentages hits the Bill Parcells sniff test, But when you look at his
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charted accuracy. It's not up to snuff yet. And some of that has
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to do with some mechanical issues. Some of it has to do that he's,
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you know, one, you know, a half to one and a
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half seconds late throwing the football when he saw what the comedian, you know,
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he saw his line, the opportunity to hit that line, and he's
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like, I'm not sure you let me wait for additional confirmation, NFL flat.
18:45
You know, Like I joked that Alex Smith would have made a great
18:49
economist because you know, you may not. You wouldn't have known that a
18:53
recession was coming. But when he got all the data and he told you
18:57
six months after you already lost your job and your house was foreclosed and your
19:02
car got repolled that a major recession hit, yeah, you would have known.
19:07
He didn't have all the data. But Brett farre might tell you,
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dude, you might want to get your money out of the bank right now.
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You just might, you know, you might want to you know,
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hey, I'm just saying. I'm just saying, you know so, I
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mean, it was one of those things with Drake May It's the same kind
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of thing. He can wait a little bit too long. So the combined
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with some of the footwork with the throwing that leads to some inaccuracies early pre
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snap, he'll see some opportunities and he'll look elsewhere, not to manipulate,
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just to look for a bigger opportunity, and he misses the easy opportunity that
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the good quarterbacks make. It's got to mature there. He's a beat,
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you know, he's a half a beat to a beat and half late in
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terms of getting the ball out when he does see advantageous coverage, which a
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lot of young quarterbacks do and end up ultimately failing in the NFL as starters.
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And these are things that you look at Jalen Hurts. I'm not Jalen
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Hurts. You look at Jordan Love. And Jordan Love to me was a
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guy that I said, listen, this guy needs years to sit. If
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he gets years to sit, he has a fighting chance. But he but
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based on how the NFL is, he's not a draftable guy in an NFL
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where they're going to play you right away. But they the Packers had a
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plan. They sat him and you could see year one as a full time
20:30
starter. The feet were better, the processing was quicker because he was confident
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in everything he was doing. If you never played country music, Jeff,
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which you were like a metal if you were a metal player, I am,
20:44
you know, okay, see, I'm just looking at your guitars kind
20:48
of guessing. You know, if I told you to go down and play
20:52
in Nashville with somebody, you'd probably be like, you know what, you're
20:56
going to be thinking of things like, you're gonna be thinking so much about
21:02
stylistic things that you're gonna make mistakes on things that you got down back in
21:07
high school. Absolutely, yeah, you know you're gonna be like and when
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you listen, you're gonna you're not even gonna want to listen to yourself because
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you're gonna go Dude, I already know it was horrible because, like I
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had, there's technique things that I've practiced every day since I was ten.
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Yes, and now I'm fumbling over this because I was thinking too much about
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the music. It's the same thing when you get forced into the lineup early
21:32
and when people go, well, how could they have even drafted this?
21:34
Dude? His footwork's horrible. His arm looks bad. He can't even get
21:38
this ball. His arm looks like a noodle and You're like, it didn't
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look that way in college, but now that he's got to overthink everything in
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the NFL. Go back and watch Jalen Hurts as a rookie compared to now,
21:51
even as good as he was as a rookie, go back and you'll
21:53
go, Holy cow. You know, you know, because he had to
21:59
think about things. He said, football, you've got to ingrain everything to
22:03
the point that it's that it's like seems instinctive. Yeah, So may'scot needs
22:07
some time, and arguably he needs a year. Maybe I think he needs
22:12
at least a year to sit and if he gets that, good for him.
22:17
If he doesn't get that, I think that he's at he's at higher
22:21
risk of bombing. Yeah. I remember years ago, Matt, when you
22:26
and I were talking about one specific prospect and I went to my best friend,
22:29
who is a Jets fan, and I said, I was just talking
22:32
to Matt Waldman on the show about Zach Wilson because the Jets were thinking about
22:36
drafting him. And I said, in so many words, Zack Wilson's not
22:41
going to be able to deliver this line very well. He's not going to
22:44
be the time you have had that line he's not going to be able to
22:47
drop it. Well, of course I didn't actually say that to him,
22:49
but in so many words, after our conversation, you were absolutely right about
22:52
Zach Wilson and the type of career that he had correlating with what our conversation
22:57
is. Right now, from that artistic standpoint, the poor kid just wasn't
23:03
ready to be thrown to the wolves, for sure. But it goes to
23:06
what you were saying that at the Rookie Scouting Portfolio, you are charting accuracy
23:11
and folks, that is what makes Matt special. Seriously, it's what makes
23:15
the Rookie Scouting Portfolio special. And I want to make sure that folks know
23:19
where to get it, Matt if they would like to purchase it. I
23:22
believe it's like twenty one twenty two dollars or something like that. Correct,
23:26
Yeah, you can. You can get it at Matt Waldman dot com Waldman
23:32
and it's twenty one ninety five. You get a pre draft, and then
23:34
if you're a fantasy person, you get a post draft. Is regardless whether
23:38
you're a fantasy person, but if you do fantasy football you get a post
23:41
draft as well. I'm a senior staff writer, a football guy who's been
23:45
running about fantasy football since two thousand and three. But I focus solely on
23:49
the skill positions, and it is and if you're just a draftnick and a
23:53
football fan, listen. It's one of the two most purchased independent draft analysis's
24:00
analysis out there by NFL people. According to recruiters I speak to, like
24:07
Alex Brown, who was the head of recruiting to SMU and now at Ole
24:11
miss YEP as a recruiter, so he meets with these guys on a regular
24:14
basis, So, you know, just just to put that out there.
24:18
Matt Waldman dot com twenty one ninety five, all right, very good,
24:22
And make sure you're following Matt on social sites as well, folks at Matt
24:26
Waldman on Twitter, slash x, and he's also on Instagram and threads at
24:30
Matt Waldman RSP. Fantastic follow fantastic information that he's dishing out on those social
24:37
sites to folks who really want to learn about football as well. But Matt,
24:41
as we're as we're moving along here, and look, I know you
24:45
don't necessarily get into offensive linemen like you said, you really are sticking with
24:51
the skill players and positions but I did want to talk from an offensive standpoint
24:56
about offensive lineman just for a brief, brief minute, and I'm I'm hoping
25:00
you can maybe possibly get into the history of maybe how offensive linemen and their
25:03
athleticism has really altered over the years, because like for US Eagles fans,
25:07
we remember a guy like John Runyon back in the day, a big,
25:10
powerhouse type of guy. He of course athletic, but you know, not
25:15
quote the most athletic. We also remember guys like you know, Tony Boselli
25:18
who are so good at their position, He's in the Pro Football Hall of
25:22
Fame. I mean, these guys were athletic, sure, but it was
25:26
a different type of athleticism. They weren't like the athletic phenoms necessarily that we
25:30
see today. Guys like Lane Johnson on the Philadelphia Eagles, who really I
25:34
think in a lot of ways paved the way for a new type of athleticism
25:40
within the offensive lineman structure here. So I'm wondering, can you just kind
25:45
of talk about how the league and the talent at this position has kind of
25:48
changed over the years into it you know what we're seeing now in the field.
25:52
Yeah, I mean, I think what probably happens is that players like
25:56
tackles are really what you're seeing today is just to response to what happens on
26:02
defense. You know. So when you look at how defenders have changed over
26:07
the years, you see that they've gotten lighter. Some of them have gotten
26:11
lighter, they've gotten more flexible, because defensive coaches have figured out that if
26:18
there is an if there is a position that can be taught with some level
26:23
of skill after they get out of the college game, it's defensive end or
26:29
edge rusher, however you want to put it, and you're looking just for
26:33
the core efficiencies of being able to bend the hips and be able to turn
26:40
with those hips bent with a lot of speed. You know. So if
26:45
you've got that initial explosion, that ability to bend, they can teach you
26:48
enough to become good. Now, if you already have some skills and a
26:55
good feel for the game, you can become great. And there's a lot
26:57
of similarities between defense even or edge rushers, as there are wide receivers,
27:03
because a lot of the moves are the same, a lot of the footwork
27:07
and the hand counters, especially the hand counters are the same. So as
27:11
a result of that if you're facing athletes of that caliber, you have to
27:15
be an athlete of that caliber to some extent. You've got to be a
27:18
little bigger, but you also have to have that short area quickness and explosion,
27:27
and you also have to be technically sound. And I think the NFL
27:30
has changed on the level that the more technically sound defenders have gotten, the
27:36
more technically sound edge blockers like tackles have to be. And you see,
27:44
you know, like Duke many Weathers, you know, annual conferences where players
27:51
get together and literally self scout and scout defenders and scout other and scout their
27:57
team their years to help each other get technically more sound than they were because
28:07
they realized that the defense. Defense always has an advantage and they always have
28:11
an athletic advantage on top of that. So I think, if anything,
28:15
what's happened is they have become more athletic. They and they've been recruited as
28:22
such to become The high school and college has figured out that the size type
28:30
and go, let's identify these types and do everything we can to get them.
28:34
My son in law is a about six I think he's six' five
28:41
and a half, probably around two to eighty. He was a marine.
28:47
He went to school in Athens, Georgia in high school, and he didn't
28:52
play. He wasn't interested in playing, okay, but coaches followed him around
28:56
trying to recruit him to play football for a team that you know, Brad
29:02
Johnson's son was quarterbacking probably for yeah, probably for I don't know, at
29:08
least since he was in eighth grade. Goodness, So you know that's because
29:14
they know they know this. You don't see guys like that very often when
29:18
you see when you see those builds, they identify and and so these guys
29:23
become a little more technique savvy earlier. They there's opportunities to kind of work
29:29
on the techniques a little bit earlier. So the NFL's kind of figured those
29:33
things out. I think that's probably part of it. And spreading out,
29:37
you know, when you spread out offenses, spread out defenses a little bit
29:41
more, there's a lot more one on ones going on too, in manners
29:45
where you're just not like you know, so there's some of that as well.
29:48
All right, Well, as we're moving along here, we are going
29:52
to take a quick break, folks, but we are going to be back.
29:55
We're going to get into some wide receiver and some running back talk.
29:59
Stick with us. Will be back in just a second. All right,
30:02
we are back and again talking to Matt Waldman from the Rookie Scouting Portfolio.
30:07
He is a great great follow on Twitter, slash x at Matt Waldman and
30:12
over on Instagram and threads at Matt Waldman RSP. So, as we're kind
30:18
of running out of time here, I wanted to talk about the running back
30:21
and wide receiver positions with you, Matt. You know, I remember our
30:23
conversation last year about the running back position and we were talking about how the
30:29
position has really altered so much over the years in terms of the talent that's
30:33
of course drafted. You know this year. You know Jonathan Brooks, Jalen
30:37
Wright. There are the two, you know, some of the top prospects
30:40
here in the running back class. But you know they they may not potentially
30:44
get drafted till late first round, maybe you know, second round. And
30:48
again we're seeing this, the quote devaluation of this position time and time again
30:55
here. Why do you think we're continuing to see this or is the talent
31:00
just thin within this year's draft class at the running back position. I just
31:04
think it's the devaluation of the position more than the talent, because when we
31:08
look judge classes. After I went back and looked, especially for writing this
31:12
year's rookie scouting portfolio, I found that really, when you look at valuable
31:18
starters with multiple years of production, a good class is three running backs and
31:23
average classes two classes one, So it's really not that big of a difference.
31:30
Good there's some really strong talents in this class. I would argue that
31:33
after who I think is the top one to two prospects in this class,
31:38
there's another nine to ten players that if they find the right fit, land
31:44
in the right spot to where they get an opportunity early and can show that
31:48
they have developed enough of some of the deficiencies that they had that are minor
31:56
to moderate, which are manylayers are capable of doing with even just a summer
32:01
camp, of getting the right kind of focus and coaching, you know,
32:06
either away from their you know, usually away from their team teams, just
32:10
coach scheme and game plan. If they do that and it works well,
32:15
any one of those nine to ten players who people are saying it's not a
32:19
very good class could wind up having some of the best production this year.
32:22
All right, very good. Well, let's move on to the wide receiver
32:24
position here. And you know, some folks are saying that this is a
32:29
very quote deep wide receiver draft class here in twenty twenty four Matt, you
32:35
know, but with some talent that has different skill sets of course. I
32:39
mean, we're seeing a lot of various wide receivers that could do a lot
32:43
of different things on the field in terms of their skill set. You've done
32:46
some great analysis on guys like you know, Keon Coleman, Malik Nabbers and
32:52
many others as well. What are we seeing this year with the wide receiver
32:57
position when it really comes to the lot receiver typically known as the wide receiver
33:02
and also the ex receiver, who is you know, that prototypical quote outside
33:07
receiver as it pertains to just the varying skill sets in this year's draft.
33:12
What have you been seeing thus far? Well, I mean, I think
33:15
this is one of the strongest classes potential, and when we're talking about their
33:20
potential in recent memory, the twenty fourteen class was probably one of the strongest
33:24
classes we saw with Odell Beckham and Mike Evans and Brandon Cooks and Sammy Watkins.
33:31
I mean again, Sammy Watkins didn't work out the way that a lot
33:35
of us saw him, but he did have a couple of strong seasons and
33:38
there were a lot of players along those lines. I think Devonte Adams was
33:42
a part of that class as well. It was a very This class has
33:45
a chance to rival that, and so you have a lot of players.
33:49
And also because of today's game and the way that we've spread out the spread
33:54
the field, a lot of players now actually can play multiple positions, and
34:00
so a lot of the slot receivers that you see are guys who could also
34:02
be a flanker and occasionally they can play all three positions. So there's guys
34:07
like that, like Malik Neighbors is a good example of that who can do
34:10
a great job of that. You could probably, you know, take Lad
34:13
mcconkin, probably put them at flanker and that would work out. Jermaine Burton
34:16
can play all three, Ricky pearsall can work inside out. There's guys like
34:21
Malik Washington and the Nia Smith who are all really strong prospects who in other
34:27
classes might be considered top five talents and now they're going to be pushed down
34:31
the board and it might limit their opportunities and fits in different places. But
34:37
from the why position, you've got that. And then with the ex position,
34:39
we've certainly got some you know, Mark Marvin Harrison Junior is certainly one
34:44
of the preeminent X options in this particular class, but so is Brian Thomas
34:47
Junior. He's high up there, probably could play multiple more roles than Marvin
34:52
Harrison Junior could. And then you and then you have some of your classic
34:57
speed guys. There's a lot of variet with this class and enough depth of
35:01
talent that if they didn't have to compete with other people on rosters that already
35:08
are established starters, you would have you would probably see more players with immediate
35:14
impact than you've seen in quite some time. The realistic part of it is
35:17
you may see four to six who really work out well, and it looks
35:22
and you're like, well, what what's this about eighteen players? Well,
35:25
I mean in three or four years, we may see, you know,
35:29
six to seven players work out if they can stay healthy or they're mature enough.
35:34
Absolutely, all right, we just have a few minutes left here,
35:37
Matt, but wanted to final finalize our discussion here with regard to some under
35:43
the radar prospects. I know a lot of folks probably ask you about this
35:46
as well, you know, talk about those diamonds in the rough. Do
35:51
you have a few players maybe you can tell us who you like that fit
35:54
into this, you know, under the radar mold. As we're heading into
35:57
the draft, Sure, let's start off with quarterback just quickly. Yeah,
36:01
I mean, you know, if we're going to look beyond the obvious names,
36:07
and people will talk about Spencer Rattler as an obvious name, as a
36:10
guy who's a diamond in the rub, but that's an obvious name. I
36:14
think Austin Reid of Western Kentucky and Jordan Travis of FSU are two players who
36:19
may never become long term starters in the league, but have the chance to
36:22
become journeyman contributors who can give you maybe that Ryan Fitzpatrick potential or a case
36:29
Keenum type potential with their games. Read as someone who throws with a lot
36:34
of confidence in tight windows. He's got a big arm. I think he
36:39
has the best chance to become that journeyman. He kind of reminds me of
36:43
a little bit of a aspiring Tony Romo esque type of player, but may
36:50
never quite get to that level. Jordan Travis to me is kind of a
36:52
mix between Jeff Blake and I know Eagles fans for him and Jeff Garcia,
36:59
kind of a you know, the arm may not be unbelievable, but he
37:02
throws a lot of beautiful moonshots. He's got confidence to get the ball into
37:07
tight coverage or let his receivers go up and win it. And he's mobile
37:10
a running back some diamonds in the rough. I mean, listen, Dylan
37:15
Johnson of Washington, to me, is one of the five most talented running
37:21
backs in this class. Now it's an again, this class is an amorphous
37:24
blob. It can shift pretty quickly with ten among those ten I mentioned.
37:29
But he's six feet two seventeen, runs very hard, breaks a lot of
37:32
tackles, often multiple tackles within the same run. He's an intelligent decision maker
37:39
who catches the ball well played for Mike Leach just got beat up a fair
37:45
bit. If he can stay healthy, and he's a little quicker than advertised,
37:49
and I think he is. You know, maybe he's somewhere in that
37:52
range of an Alex Collins or Spencer Ware. Maybe he can exceed that if
37:55
he's if he's even savvier than that, maybe we may see a little Arian
38:00
Foster esque type of aspirations. I don't think he I don't know about that,
38:05
but it's but he's closer to that than I think people may realize.
38:09
Blake Watson out of Memphis is a favorite five nine. I've been saying a
38:15
lot that. Listen. If you take his receiving skills, his ability to
38:20
run between the tackles, he's a He's a powerful back for his size.
38:25
He's a he's the best pass catcher in terms of hands. He needs work
38:30
on routes to be more than just an underneath guy. But still if you
38:36
look at his total game, there was a guy that came around maybe eight
38:39
years too early for him to be the player he could have been in the
38:44
league, and that's Giovanni Bernard. Giovanni Bernard. If he came along eight
38:47
years later and played for the Los Angeles Chargers, we might not know who
38:52
Austin Eckler was. I think that's how good Giovanni Bernard is. I think
38:58
that's what Blake Watson has an op opportunity to be. And I can give
39:00
you a couple more if you'd like, well, we're kind of running out
39:04
of time here. Don't want it to end on est Again, folks,
39:08
Matt Waldman from the Rookie Scouting Portfolio. Check out everything they have to offer
39:14
again, charting that accuracy is so very important in terms of analysis with this
39:20
upcoming NFL draft. Matt, thanks so much, buddy. I hope to
39:22
talk to you some other point down the road, my friend. Sounds good
39:24
to look forward to it. I absolutely love how Matt is able to explain
39:30
things and kind of bring it down to a level where most of us can
39:36
understand what he's talking about when it comes to football analysis. I loved the
39:40
way that he was specifically talking with regard to the quarterback position, but however
39:44
even relates to other positions as well. He was talking about stand up comics,
39:47
talking about it being an art form, what these guys are doing out
39:52
on the field, and how in some ways what is happening at the college
39:58
level may not necessarily be trans lating to the NFL based on a number of
40:02
scenarios. Is a guy going to be able to quote land that line in
40:08
terms of his comedic stand up act? You know, we see that a
40:13
lot with NFL players too. Are they going to be able to land it?
40:16
Are they going to be able to make that jump, make that leap
40:21
to the NFL with the skill set that they have, and you know,
40:24
what does it look like for them in the future. So it's it's going
40:28
to be a fascinating NFL draft. And again, I wanted to make sure
40:31
that we put this PST Special podcast in the feed as that a PSD special
40:37
podcast, Share with your friends, share with your family members who may be
40:42
football fans, because the information that Matt just provided us is a fantastic analysis.
40:46
It is. It is great, great football analysis, and I'm so
40:51
very grateful that he was able to jump on the PSD podcast show here as
40:54
we're as we're starting week week, as we're starting year eleven here at the
41:00
show, and it's a great way, great way to start year eleven.
41:04
So all right, folks, that's gonna do it for us here on this
41:07
PST Special podcast, head on back into the podcast feed. We had a
41:10
great table talk interview this past week and discussion with our friend Josh Schuster from
41:16
Philadelphia Soccer Now. We talked about women's sports and just how women's sports rule
41:22
right now at this point in time and a lot of different factors with regard
41:28
to that, and we got great content coming your way this week with our
41:31
Opposition Territory podcast and also with our regular show. We're gonna get in a
41:37
lot of the Eagles talk. I gotta be honest with you, since the
41:39
draft is right around the corner, and specifically after our conversation with Matt here
41:44
because they haven't gotten into a lot of Eagles talk, but Davonte Smith,
41:47
oh, it's on that contract extension. Lenn and I are gonna be getting
41:51
into that this week for sure on the show, as well as some more
41:54
Phillies talk, some more Sixers talk since postseason. It's just around the corner
42:00
here. Everyone, take care. Hope you're having a good day, Hope
42:02
you're having a good evening. We will catch you next time.