Latest / Know Your Personnel Pod / KYP - Ep #5 - Kyler Murray, Future of Danny Dimes, NFL Draft, and Combine Winners and Losers
Transcript
- Jarod McInroy: There it is. Nathan Hawthorne: Always season at the beginning, huh? I'd like to feel a little energy as we get into it. We got so much great stuff to talk about, you know? Why not be totally stoked to the max about it? Ladies and gentlemen, if you're here, welcome to episode five. That's right, number five of the Know Your Personnel podcast. My name's Nathan Hawthorne. I'm here with my co-host, Jared McEnroy. We are so excited for you to be here. Jared, we've got a loaded episode. Tell us what we're gonna break down today. Jarod McInroy: Ugh. ⁓ yeah. We're doing, an NFL episode today. I mean, we'll see at the end, but for the most part, we're gonna be diving into a few things. ⁓ Just some big that kinda hit today ⁓ that might shake the NFL. ⁓ Kinda couple teams will have a few different ⁓ at the quarterback position and ⁓ we'll talk about that. ⁓ There's a few unrestricted free agents that also are hitting now that we're seeing people ⁓ get taken off the franchise tag ⁓ And teams that have committed to not franchise tagging some of these players. Um, and then We'll get into the combine a little bit. I have my own particular feelings about that that we'll get into later. But yeah, we'll talk some draft combine bunch of nfl. let's start with the big one Kyler Murray announced he's going to be or they announced that Kyler Murray will be released. Um, next week. Um, i'm going to start with one thing on that and then I want you to Nathan Hawthorne: Yeah? Jarod McInroy: to give me your opinion on My position on this is I think everyone knew, ⁓ all knew that Kyler was gonna get released if he didn't get traded. ⁓ I think this is their last ditch effort to try and bait someone into trading for him, ⁓ that they can't release him until next week. So they're making it public to like, hey, we're releasing him next week. Nathan Hawthorne: Okay, let's get down. Jarod McInroy: If anybody wants to have a leg up over everybody else and not chance the free agency market and have him have to pick your team, come make us an offer. What do you think about that? Nathan Hawthorne: I would say that if it was the current staff, I shouldn't say the current staff, the old staff, if you still had Gannon and the old GM in there, that would totally make sense. But because it's a new crew, I genuinely think it's because they know that Kyler already doesn't want to be in Arizona. It doesn't matter who they hired. They could have hired his best friend who also would have happened to be a great head coach. I'm not saying this person exists, but they could have hired his best friend and he still wouldn't want to be in Arizona. He's just unhappy there. So I think what they are trying to do is not necessarily get ahead of it, they're just trying to see if somebody's gonna take the bait. And I don't think anybody necessarily wants it. Otherwise, I think we would have seen more of that action last year when he wasn't playing. It's in the middle of the season. And maybe because he hasn't been playing, you can maybe get yourself a better deal. don't, so yeah, I don't think this is, you know, them trying to offer like, hey, like get ahead of the game. I just think it's them trying to get people to take the bait. You know what I mean? Cause he's not gonna be very expensive. Cardinals are going to have to shoulder the majority of his salary, I think to the tune of somewhere north of 38 million, and you can sign him for the cheap? What do you think? Jarod McInroy: Mm-hmm. Yeah, no, I that's that's exactly what I was trying kind of alluding to is I feel like if you're the Cardinals at this point, you know, he's gone and now you have to eat a bunch of his contract. So it's like, what can we do to even try and maybe get someone to be like, Hey, we'll do a fifth rounder for him or six, honestly, seventh rounder at this point to just eat the contract, get ahead of our competition and lock him in because there's some desperate teams that are going to be going after him. ⁓ Like the Vikings at this point ⁓ that, know, they might be willing to pay. Vikings aren't really spending too much money anywhere else. So I mean, if, that's going to guarantee you Kyler Murray and not have to ⁓ have him field offers from other teams like Miami and I know the Cardinals will probably be, or not Cardinals, sorry. The Falcons will probably be in on him a few different teams. ⁓ Yeah. I mean, just locking, locking probably the top, top prospect right now in terms of quarterback. Yeah. Nathan Hawthorne: My struggle is I see teams that are kind of quarterback needy or maybe don't have the right spot in the draft so they can't go out and trade a bunch of picks to go get up there. But I see a lot of new head coaches that are like, do I want to risk my locker room with Kyler Murray? And unfortunately, and I don't know Kyler Murray personally, so I don't want this to come across as a slight where I know more than somebody does because he's an incredible athlete, a great football player. If you are a new coach and you are trying to set a standard, are you willing to bring him in and deal with the potential off the field stuff to have him be your quarterback? Because outside of what, his first year and a half, he hasn't been superb. He's been great scrambling, we know that. At times he can play like an all-star quarterback, but then other times we just see some of the limitations due to his height. And honestly, what has sounded like his willingness... or lack thereof to prepare for NFL football. And I think that kind of makes it tough. So you talk about, who wants to get a jump on all these other teams and not have to have Kyler get fielded a bunch of offers? I don't know how many offers he's going to get. Like Justin Fields, not saying they were in the same situation. We've seen better work from Kyler Murray, but kind of same situation. No one was chopping at the bit to bring Justin Fields in to be their starting quarterback. Jarod McInroy: Yeah. And I think that's the exciting part of the NFL for agencies. It's just a giant game of chess. Everybody's trying to just call people's bluff and see who plays their hand first and who makes the desperate move. it's, yeah, it's a big game of chess. So yeah, at the end of the day, we could see nobody go after Kyle Murray. We could see really just the market be very... ⁓ you know, stagnant, not many people are going after him, no one really wants him as QB1, and then he signs to a team as a backup. It could very well be the case. I don't think that's the likely option, but ⁓ you never know at this point. Nathan Hawthorne: Okay, I'm gonna throw out one little quarterback rehab with the Rams perhaps. You get a little bit of insurance with Matt Stafford being injured. We already talked about what we said Jimmy Garoppolo is the number two right now. Not the guy if Matt Stafford goes down. I think that was it or is it? Yeah. Jarod McInroy: And that team, yep, that team will implode and beat, I'm not joking, in a top five pick next year if they lose Matt Stafford early on and don't have a good backup plan. Nathan Hawthorne: Right, so hear me out, Matt Stafford gets injured or Matt Stafford decides three days before training camp, actually I want to retire. Now you've got Kyler Murray on the roster, but the more realistic situation, we were right with the Minnesota Vikings. We've heard that name pop up for Kyler Murray. Just got to say, we know our personnel, ladies and gentlemen. Make sure you're tuning in to get that early inside info. Second, why not the Miami Dolphins? Jarod McInroy: Yeah, we do. Why not the Miami Dolphins? ⁓ Nathan Hawthorne: Why not? Is it a no because you don't want him in with the Miami Dolphins? Or do you feel like there's a business case here? Jarod McInroy: No, it's not that at all. I would take him. I would take him a hundred percent. think that the team has to fully commit in one direction. ⁓ and that's, that's going to be what we kind of decide over the next few months. ⁓ with this draft specifically in this free agency specifically is what do we think about the quarterback position? Is there an option right now for somebody that we see being our guy for the next five, eight years or. Is that person in the draft next year? Cause we can turn this into a three year rebuild. ⁓ the model I'm thinking of is I go back to the Bengals in 2019. Follow me for a second here, 2019, the higher Zach Taylor, right? They don't know if he can coach. They don't know if he's the guy, but they're giving him a chance. They're giving him a roster that was very incomplete. Didn't have much going for it. Starting to kind of add some pieces. ⁓ They were terrible the first year. They then go and get Joe Burrow in the draft. He obviously got injured his first year. And then year three is when he kind of blossomed. So I kind of want to follow that same timeframe. So it's either we don't commit to a quarterback this year. We leave with whatever we have on the roster, whatever we draft, whatever, and then go in on a quarterback that we see fit next draft or ⁓ If we do go the route of Calamari this year, it's, gotta be a quick rebuild. And that means going after other free agents that might be filling positions. means drafting heavily for cornerbacks right now. have nothing. Our secondary is depleted. We've lost all of our safeties. Minka Fitzpatrick is on the trade block again. He doesn't even want to be here and we just traded for him. So, ⁓ and we're paying him a bag. So getting rid of him would be great. ⁓ revamping our, ⁓ Nathan Hawthorne: right? Jarod McInroy: pass rush, just lost Jalen Phillips last year to the Eagles. He's a free agent this year as well. Let go of Bradley Chubb ⁓ and then Chop Robinson coming off an injury so he'll be back healthy but it's replenishing some of those positions. Honestly, on the offensive side of the ball, adding a guy like Keller Murray really would improve what we have going on. mean, we have pieces like Devon Aitchain, we have Jalen Waddle, ⁓ Malik Washington is unbelievable. ⁓ Nathan Hawthorne: Let go of Bradley Chubb. It like a stud. Looked like a stud. Jarod McInroy: Yeah, no, he's a name to watch out for for sure. And he's a piece we'll continue to build off of. ⁓ Isaiah likely has been tied to us, so that's another weapon. But it's like, what's the point of going and getting that if it's not gonna be this like, okay, we're fully committed and bought in on going in on this. So I would rather the first option that I mentioned, but it's one direction or the other. There's no in between here. It's either we run out these young guys we see for the next two years. if Halfley is at least a decent coach and shows some promise or we lean into, we're giving them a bunch of guys right now and we're gonna go get it done. ⁓ So we'll see, just commit to one way. No more purgatory, no more running back the same thing. I'm done with that, can't do that anymore. Nathan Hawthorne: What I'm getting from this dissertation you just went on is that I need to draft Malik Washington in around three of my fantasy football draft. Is that what I'm hearing? Is that what I'm hearing? Okay. Jarod McInroy: ⁓ yeah, well okay depending on who we get at quarterback. If we're running out Quinn Ubers, probably not. ⁓ But hey, if we go get like an Anthony Richardson or somebody like that, that's like a low, like costs us nothing but we know they're gonna go throw it all over the damn place, like why not? Nathan Hawthorne: No. Yeah, at least he'll let it fly. No, like quite literally all over the damn place. That guy is throwing less than 50 % completion. He's putting them in the stands. Jarod McInroy: Yeah, ⁓ yeah. If we go get Anthony Richardson, that means we are committing to losing. Nathan Hawthorne: I don't know. Speaking of committing to losing, Daniel Jones. Daniel Jones signs not the franchise tag, but the transition tag. So they're paying them a little bit less, about $6 million less this year with the Indianapolis Colts. Wow. Indianapolis Colts. To me, this feels like a losing scared move. People are trying to spin this as confidence. ⁓ like we're going to work on a long-term deal. He just got injured, so we're gonna give him one year to kind of prove that he can come back from this injury. No, he's not coming back from that injury. If you didn't want to pay him, like I get it, you keep your guy in the locker room continuity. Shane Syken knows that this might be his last year if things don't go his way. But I just think that that was a lame move. I think it was a lame move. I think it displays no confidence in Daniel Jones. It's not like you can use both. It's not like you can. Jarod McInroy: Yeah, there we go. Nathan Hawthorne: It's not like you can use both the franchise tag and transition tag in one year. You get to use one of them. And if you're going to use it, why not just pay the guy a little extra six million? And I know that yes, cap space, you can maybe bring some guys in. Alec Pierce wants money. Maybe he is worth it. Maybe he's not. I don't think he is personally. But I just think signing him told everybody that you're not entirely confident in next year. Jarod McInroy: Yeah, well they need to run out of quarterback. Remember that there has to be somebody playing the position. So you give them, this is the beauty of the transition tag is now you, again, it's a game of chess. You bait the market. Somebody come say you're going to pay him this X amount of money. Nobody's going to do it. And you get him on a discount and it, the tag is always the play for him at this point. When you're coming off an injury like that, like you said, you have to go prove it. ⁓ I just, he's probably not the guy. I'm comfortable saying that. Like he looked really good last year. It is a tough injury to come back from, but worst case scenario, go lose, you go lose a bunch of games and you're in the midst of a ⁓ draft that has a bunch of quarterback options. So there's really no, it's, there's no losing situation other than a bad season of football. Like Nathan Hawthorne: Lower leg injuries are hard. Yeah, and then you've got to restart everything. I don't think Shane Steichen stays around if there's another bad year of football. He can't keep getting these excuses. That's what I'm saying. you can't, right, but that's what I'm saying. Now you've got to redo everything. So like by signing Daniel Jones and I think committing to it, you got to redo 95%. Dog, that's 95 % if you fire the head coach. Jarod McInroy: Then sayonara, there's 10 guys waiting for his job. He's not the GM. He doesn't make those calls. Yeah, not everything. You gotta redo one position. Nathan Hawthorne: I'm saying if you have a bad year with Daniel Jones and you throw in the towel, Shane Steichen will not be your head coach in 2027. Jarod McInroy: Could be. Zach Taylor's still coaching. Nathan Hawthorne: I, well he has Joseph Burrow and he got blessed with Jamar Chase because Joseph said, hey, go sign my guy. And if you don't sign him, I'm not going to play. Zach said, okay. And that's where he's hanging around. You know what I mean? It's not, it's not a safe place if you are Shane Stiken right now, because you had the issues with Philip Rivers when you first got there, you tried and you swung and you miss on Anthony Richardson. Jarod McInroy: okay okay i hear what you say that i a i hear what you're saying i hear what you're saying Nathan Hawthorne: You brought in Daniel Jones and this has backfired not by your doing right. This is extremely unlucky, but you brought in Daniel Jones. That doesn't like your you're out of lives to pull this thing together. And not to say that he can't be a great head coach again in a couple of years, you know, maybe go in a little two year coordinator restitution and then come back as a head coach in a couple of years. Maybe that's the case, but I don't know. Time's up in Indianapolis if it doesn't work with Danny J this year. Jarod McInroy: Alright, bookmark it. Nathan Hawthorne: Bookmark it, tweet it, or exit? I don't know. We said tweet it. Jarod McInroy: No, we still say tweet. ⁓ What do you think about the David Montgomery trade? Nathan Hawthorne: ⁓ I think it's really smart for both teams. I think both the Lions and the Texans recognize what they're doing. One, the Lions decided we're committing to Jameer Gibbs in two years. Right now Montgomery is only worth, not worth, he's only being paid five and a half million next year. I think it's a little over seven. So that's not that bad. But he's going to want more money because of his performance playing next to Jameer Gibbs, right? And you're not going to want to pay that. So what do you do? You offload him a year early with two years left on his contract. Houston looks at this and says, OK, I can get a high quality running back. Running back health and consistency has been a problem for the last several years on this team. Woody Marks in and out of injury last year, took a flyer on Nick Chubb hoping he was going to come back a little bit healthier. And then Joe Mixon, I can't figure out what exactly was going on with his health last year, but it wasn't great. You still have those three guys on the roster. Now you bring in Dave Montgomery. It's who do you want to pair him with and who do you move on from? So yeah, I think the Lions get out of paying Dave in Montgomery and they did it a year early before those awkward conversations of, how much are you going to pay me? And then that breakup is even more embarrassing. And then Houston basically gets a two year rental with Dave in Montgomery to kind of stabilize that offense and that inconsistent run game. I think it was a great move for everybody. Jarod McInroy: Yeah Yeah, I think this also ⁓ and I don't know if they're actually gonna go this round in the draft But I think this gives them the opportunity to finally go young ⁓ at the running running back position knowing that he's handcuffed to somebody who's ⁓ gonna be stable for them They traditionally like you said going after chubb mix and these are a bunch of and now montgomery there are a bunch of guys who've kind of been around and we know that the the life expectancy of a running back in the NFL at this point is quite low. ⁓ You're in like four year primes at most. ⁓ So maybe they go young, go running back in the draft in the second, third round, because there's some good options out there. ⁓ Yeah, I don't mind the trade. It's like you said, in the lines, it always made sense. Clearly they're trying to one, ⁓ get rid of money that they can get rid of ⁓ however much it is. That way they can go allocate that for other positions. And then at the same time, it kind of feels like they're really trying to move on from this, this Ben Johnson ⁓ lingering feeling in the building. I mean, you, you see what he does with running backs. loves this two headed monster approach like he's doing right now with Swift and Manungai. And, and for them, yeah, it just kind of gives them a an opportunity to kind of move on and move into a new era. ⁓ But speaking of running backs, Brice gets the franchise tag, Brice Oliver in New York, and they're talking extensions. I don't know. I don't know what the jets got going on, but I think I can make some sense of it. ⁓ Let me hear what you have to say first. So then we'll see if we're on the same page. Nathan Hawthorne: Tag them up. If you don't want to pay the guy, you're not going to pay the guy. If you haven't decided already that Breece Hall is going to get one of those upper echelon, maybe not quite Saquon Barkley money, but you're going to get him some up there Saquon Barkley money. If you haven't made that decision already, you're not going to make that decision in a year. And all you're going to do is force him to play a year. You're going to give him high volume, a crazy amount of touches. He's going to be extremely productive. He's going to scream for even more money. And then you're going to look at him and say, Yeah, into your rookie deal. Do you remember what happened to Ezekiel Elliott when he had all that high volume and then they paid him and then it didn't pan out like, we're just a little bit nervous, you know, like, I don't know. And you already had that Achilles. All these excuses that they're already using now to try and shortchange them on the money, they're going to use next year with even more validity after a year of a ton of volume because they're going to have to use them a ton next year because they don't have anybody else outside of my boy, Garrett Wilson. All due respect to the rest of the roster. So if you're not paying him now, you ain't gonna pay him next year. So the best thing to do is yeah, if he officially signs, I'm not sure if he's officially signed that, yeah, look to move on from him and get something out of it. Jarod McInroy: Yeah. Yeah I I don't know about this one. i'm right there with you. It doesn't make much sense for either party for breeze It's time to move on your years are dwindling Go win some football games somewhere if that's actually something that matters to you. ⁓ But then on the flip side, I thought about it a little more the jet's offensive line is really shaping up ⁓ they've went tackle the last two drafts and and they seem to be working out. They have a couple pieces in the middle that they can probably go get. ⁓ but they have three first round picks next year. They have two this year and they have, and I'll, I'll talk about them a little bit more later. ⁓ I have some opinions on the jets are not in a bad position, but what they are missing are pieces that will be able to stick around and matter over the next two or three years. ⁓ you mentioned Garrett Wilson, like he's, he's worth having. He's a weapon worth having. ⁓ And same with Breeze, but. You need pieces that also have value if you do look to trade them for other assets that can then revamp this rebuild like quicker than you initially anticipated. You don't want to draw this out over the next five years, especially if you plan on drafting a quarterback this year, maybe with Simpson, probably next year. ⁓ So there has to be somebody in the building. Take away, Brice, take away Garrett Wilson, name another person worthy of naming on the jets. Nathan Hawthorne: I do not know my personnel. On the jet seat. But that's the point. Yeah, that's the point. Jarod McInroy: Exactly. No, you know your person now. That's exactly what I'm saying. There's no one there. So You gotta have somebody you have somebody's one to sell tickets. They need money I mean, there's still business at the end of the day, but ⁓ No, I think they got some options don't don't mind Nathan Hawthorne: Yeah. What are the Jets picking this year? Mid? Yeah, so they're second and 16. Yeah, you can do a lot with that. You can do a lot with that. I don't hate Garrett Nussmeyer at number two. Jarod McInroy: They're second and 16. Mm-hmm. Nathan Hawthorne: Alright. Jarod McInroy: Hey listen, hey, if you'd like we can get into the trade up, trade down segment right now. Nathan Hawthorne: Let's talk a little trade up, trade down. This is purely hypothetical. Some scenarios here, likely. Other ones, not likely. But let's break it down. What do you got? Who needs to trade up? Jarod McInroy: Okay, so I'm gonna have I'm gonna do a trade back to start with the Jets because we're talking about them. Okay, okay Who at the second pick? Transforms the Jets like there's and trust me when I say Arvel Reese is going to be an incredible player in the NFL. I think him I think Bailey I think Caleb Downs I think ⁓ Nathan Hawthorne: Trade back. Yeah. Jarod McInroy: Bain from Miami, there's names, right? I just named five guys that you would take any of them and they would all impact the Jets at the same level. So why not trade back maybe four picks to the Browns, make them trade up and it's all about baiting somebody into wanting their guy. Because again, if you're a team that has so many holes, you'll be happy to take really anybody. you'll take any of those names and you know they're gonna fit in. ⁓ they need to turn this into value elsewhere. ⁓ I think somebody, trading back to somebody like the Browns at ⁓ five or six, I forget which one they have right now, that makes a lot of sense, especially because then let's say you trade back and then you give them somebody that helps their roster out. They also have the 24th pick. All of a sudden you have, Nathan Hawthorne: Best guy. Best guy available. 6. Jarod McInroy: Six, you have 16 and you have 24. So if you can get them to buy in on whoever their guy is at two, you can fleece the Browns and now you have three first round picks this year and three next year. ⁓ Another idea I had for the Jets was maybe a trade package for, with the Raiders for next year. Hear me out. Okay. The Raiders get Garrett Wilson and pick 33. Nathan Hawthorne: Listening, listening. Jarod McInroy: So the Jets will have picked 33 this year in the second round. So they'll get Garrett Wilson in the second. And the Jets get their first next year in the 36. So basically they're trading up three spots in the second round and get Garrett Wilson and the Jets walk away with a first next year. And then basically the same second round pick this year. So it's basically an idea to get the Raiders, so the Raiders now have a big name target for ⁓ Mendoza. The Jets now have four first round picks next year. Nathan Hawthorne: Another first, yeah. Jarod McInroy: And they still have their two this year. So now next year, let's say the Raiders thing doesn't work out. Mendoza has a not so good first year. Kubiak's still finding his footing. You might have a chance to have your pick the litter at quarterback, because they're probably going to tank and get the first pick. And then maybe you go get Jeremiah Smith also to pair with them. And now you have Garrett Wilson, Jeremiah Smith, and you're in a quick rebuild. The Jets are back all of sudden. Nathan Hawthorne: Didn't you just say that you were moving on from Garrett Wilson? You were giving him away? Jarod McInroy: Yes, sorry, sorry, yes, giving away Garrett Wilson. I meant Breece Hall. So you have your quarterback running back and wide receiver one all of a sudden. Also, you have all these first round picks this year. Go get another receiver. There's tons of them. We like a lot of them. Nathan Hawthorne: There's a this is a really high quality receiver draft. There's a lot of guys and it feels like every single draft there tends to be even more wide receivers who are coming out polished and just playing at another level. So are they becoming a little bit more of icing on the cake and maybe there's some other positions I need to get because I can get another high quality guy like in the mid to late second. I don't know but that would be wild to have four first round picks for the New York Jets. That's the clip right there. Jarod McInroy: Mm-hmm. Nathan Hawthorne: four first round picks for the New York Jets. That'd be wild. Okay. Jarod McInroy: Yeah, that's all I'm saying. the, the, so the moral of the story here is the jets have a ton of room to work with. They got a bunch of picks. They got a bunch of picks next year. Um, use them in, in w when you have these deep drafts, trade back. I'm, I've want the Miami dolphins to trade back. They're my other trade back team at 11, like there's so many names that can help you in the late first round that some desperate teams will give second, third rounders. And those are really valuable this year. So, um, Nathan Hawthorne: Yeah. Jarod McInroy: What do you think in trade back wise? Who did you have in that portion of this? Nathan Hawthorne: Man, I think the Saints should be trading back. Kind of a similar note to the Jets, I don't think that there's anybody that aggressively changes this team, whether that's offense or defense. And just because I think this first round is so stacked with talent, especially on that defensive side and that wide receiver side, if you're trying to go for a tackle, you're probably reaching. If you're trying to go for a weapon to replace Alvin Kamara with Jeremiah Love, Okay, maybe you can get Sonny Styles a little bit later. I'm sorry, not Sonny Styles, uh, Katrin Allen a little bit later in the draft. Like I just don't think that they need to force themselves to stay in the top 10. Like you could even just drop back one pick with Kansas City. know Kansas City might want to be looking at getting, getting themselves a running back or running back can mask a lot of issues on the online just from their talent. Uh, so Kansas City could try and make an aggressive move. But yeah, I just, the saints with Kellen Moore, You're not in a position to get a quarterback. You're not going to reach for a quarterback. You're going to roll out, like you said, whoever you roll out, maybe they're in that Kyler Murray sweepstakes and you trade back and you get yourself a weapon at wide receiver. That's who, that's why I think who should be trading out of the first round. Everyone not necessarily out of the first round, just back a little bit further. Everyone else I'm looking at like Raiders. You've got to stay up there. Jets, Cardinals, I'm sorry, not Jets, Giants, Browns, Washington, like they need guys. Those first seven picks, like it would not be wise for them to move out, but Saints are kind of the team that are a few more steps away from really changing anything and should probably just scoot back a little bit. Jarod McInroy: I have them in a third category and that is the sit tight category so Yeah, so I added a sit tight before I get into my trade-ups because I thought about the middle of Earth sorry the back half of the top ten and I have seven through ten all sitting tight I think the commanders and Saints for one reason which is they can't lose their assets Nathan Hawthorne: The Saints in the sit tight category? I don't hate that. Jarod McInroy: They have nothing to trade up with, so trading up is not an option. And trading back, I think they need to make those picks to make those teams better in the top 10. They need a top 10 player, both of them. And then the Chiefs and Bengals, have it because they need to add pieces to those rosters that can get better right now. mean, they're already polished. Go get your glamorous pieces. There's nothing you're going to get in the draft in the second, third round. Like you don't need volume and you don't need like four or five great players in this draft. If you can go get one big name, um, you know, another big name receiver from a homes or, um, maybe Sadik for Kansas or for Cincinnati, um, or Kansas city, both of them that could use him. Um, and then on the other side of the ball, you never, you never hate. Nathan Hawthorne: Mm-hmm. Yeah, either one. Jarod McInroy: Defensive players, so I'm like it's it's a win-win to stick with those and then again I kind of mentioned this to you earlier with the Chiefs winner. You're get another top 10 pick Just use it. So they're my sit tight on the flip side of that On the flip side of that there's the trade-up and that's where I have the Cowboys I think they need to get their defensive identity back and They they have a they have a clear problem Nathan Hawthorne: I can respect that, I can respect that. Jarod McInroy: They've lost their defensive identity over the last few years of getting after the quarterback having solid ⁓ Having a solid secondary, but I think they need to go get one of these names. That's been Bailey styles any of them Styles his draft stocks kind of rising but he was kind of already projected toward the back half of that the top ten ⁓ So maybe slotting in somewhere around there ⁓ Let me hear what you have to say about the Cowboys before I mention my second team. Nathan Hawthorne: No, I was going to say the same thing. think that they in the minimum need to get inside the top eight, which would mean bumping down a team that you said sit tight. ⁓ the saints who I kind of have them paired with, but yeah, bumping back and seeing who falls, whether that's our real Reese, ⁓ probably not, ⁓ David Bailey, but sunny styles and get yourself somebody who's going to be physical on the defensive line since DeMarcus where, right? You've had, ⁓ DeMarcus Lawrence Dexter Lawrence, DeMarcus Lawrence. And then you had Micah Parsons. You had a great run of these edge rushers, guys who were, again, like you said, the tone setters. Micah Parsons is gone, Lawrence is old. You've gotta build somebody on that front end. And I see a lot of people talking about potentially trading up to get ⁓ Theoniman from the University of Oregon. I like that pick, but my problem is, is if your front four isn't right, it doesn't matter how good your back end is. If you have problems getting to the quarterback, It doesn't matter how great you are covering if the quarterback has an extra second, second and a half to throw. You need somebody who on an individual level can either A, take over the game or at least B, within a quarter make a play that will just change the course of the game. And to do that, they need somebody on the edge in the D line. Jarod McInroy: Yep, and that that division is looking to be opening up they've been dominated by dominated by the Eagles the last couple years and The commanders are clearly coming onto the Giants we don't really know what they have going on at this point. So It's it's now or never kind of for for the Cowboys the second team Nathan Hawthorne: Yeah, that's the name of the game. You get their quarterback and you keep your safe. Right now, you've already got your guy. You've got Dak Prescott. You've signed the dotted line for basically the lifetime contract. So go start trying to get theirs. Get you some help on the defensive side. Jarod McInroy: Yeah. Exactly. Mm-hmm. I have the second team that should trade up as the Vikings and the main reason is because I already hear Addison's name on the market. Why not use him for a pick swap? So Maybe you're going up, know ten spots whatever it is Or even just like just outside of the top ten. They need one of these Guaranteed lockdown corners. I know there's a lot of good corners in this draft but the Vikings need a solid name and it needs to be ⁓ Monsoor Delane or it needs to be Jermod McCoy. I don't know which one of the two you like better, but go get one of them. And I want the Dolphins to get one of them, but if they're gonna trade up to 11 and get them, cause they're probably both gonna fall outside of the top 10, I'll make that trade with them. Give us Addison if you want. We can do this quick rebuild. Now I'm bought into your Kyler plan all of a sudden. ⁓ but whoever they trade up for, I think, I think they need to go, need to go get one of those guys and lock it in rather than hope one of them fall to 18. Nathan Hawthorne: Ha And you're saying on the defensive side, even though wide receiver, if you get rid of Addison, now you're looking at just Justin Jefferson, essentially, who hasn't necessarily been happy in Minnesota. I'm not saying I hate the defensive route because you. Pretty much got one more year of Brian Flores, who's a great defensive coordinator. Give him as much support as you can. Have a great defense and maybe be like the Broncos have the last couple years. Great defense quarterback just kind of figuring things out. Maybe that's the thought process there. ⁓ It's hard. Because why go get a receiver? Yeah. Jarod McInroy: But you have to even it out somehow, right? I mean, Jedis is one of those guys, he's gonna be open no matter what. And there's opportunity to go get a lot of potential, or a lot of guys who have potential to then fill around him, and all of a sudden they have a good season here there. Of course they still need to figure out the quarterback position, but they're clearly not going draft for that. they... focus on another area they've been incredibly weak in the secondary for a couple years now ⁓ they they started they were looking really good obviously when they had you know Patrick Peterson they had Harrison Smith when he was in his prime ⁓ I mean you can name you can keep going on on and on ⁓ yeah what's his name who just went to ⁓ the Colts I can't think of his name right now ⁓ Nathan Hawthorne: Xavier Rhodes, Captain Amika Nukamura. Jarod McInroy: safety. Anyways, yes, they need to beef that secondary up and that's only way I see them doing it. At least go get one young guy in the draft ⁓ and then maybe a free agent as well. Nathan Hawthorne: That's fair. Jarod McInroy: it's going to be very interesting draft. ⁓ Just there's so many that can benefit from all of these guys. When, when you have a deep draft like this ⁓ and so many of ⁓ are measuring in great the combine, they look great. They all have a good head on their shoulders. There's so many names this year that ⁓ are really exciting for lot of teams. So you don't, ⁓ you don't know how your pick is at any given moment to another team. ⁓ I mean, I could see. ⁓ the best defensive tackle in this draft probably following that late. I don't see many teams that are going to be going tackle. So ⁓ yeah, they might need to or they might not. We don't know and we probably won't know until draft day. Nathan Hawthorne: Yeah. Yeah, we'll see. Jarod McInroy: speaking of the combine who you got for combine winners and losers this week we got we we had a pretty interesting time how watching watching some of these guys Nathan Hawthorne: Yeah, you know, I think the biggest winner is not a player. It's a school. And it is the University of Oregon. I think they come out the biggest winners out of this draft. Number one, Ohio State. Ohio State, you already knew the guys who were showing up. There's no question about styles and downs. I can't remember the other cat, what I'm spacing right now. You knew that they were going to show up. Kenyon Siddique shows up from the University of Oregon. Everybody had a good idea of who he was, absolutely showed out. Looked stellar, looked smooth. He's big, he's physical. Is he as tall as you want him? Maybe not. Jarod McInroy: Okay. Nathan Hawthorne: But he is an absolute gadget. You've had Thienemann, one of the safeties for the University of Oregon, Tosh Lapoy, moving him all over the place. He's got tons of experience. He shows out and runs a sub 4-4. That's incredible for a safety. And he's physical. He's big. He's got range. Bryce Betcher looked great. Noah Whittington, a guy who'd been coming in and out of injury, he looked great. Offensive tackle, Isaiah Wuerl. You talk about guys who all moved up. Malik Benson, a wide receiver. Jarod McInroy: you Nathan Hawthorne: All of these guys, everyone watched and said, ⁓ wow, why are they not higher on our boards? So I think the University of Oregon in it of itself as a homer. The University of Oregon certainly had ⁓ a draft win, you could say. I'm sorry, not a draft win, a combine win. Jarod McInroy: I hate to admit it. I have in my notes, it literally just says the Oregon boys. ⁓ They looked great. They looked great. Nathan Hawthorne: Just dog and here's I'm not going to get into a rant because I'm going to have to save this for a later time to gather more information. But you know how I felt about Will Stein, right? Will Stein and Tosh Lapoy, offensive coordinator, defensive coordinator. Tosh Lapoy with Dan Lanning, every single year that defense got and looked better. I was proud of that and I was happy that I thought he was a little bit too young to be having that position. But Dan Lanning is a young head coach. Everyone was learning together, but the defense looked stellar. Did Indiana put up a ton of points? Yeah, but that was after the back was already broken because your offense wasn't doing anything. Will Stein's offense at no point did it highlight the innumerable amount of weapons that the University of Oregon football team had. And that still has. I just, it makes me sick to see all these guys showing out in the draft knowing what could have been. Could you imagine if Kenyon Siddique Jarod McInroy: You Nathan Hawthorne: was on Georgia, like replace him with like where Brock Bowers was, what he'd be doing and how we'd be talking about, you know what I'm saying? Like that kind of stuff, like just, it's a... Jarod McInroy: No, I hear you. I hear you. It was tough to watch for you guys, but watching your downfall year in, year out is my favorite thing. It's the best. Nathan Hawthorne: Yeah, and Jayden Canaday. Dog, elite coroner. I rest my case. That rant will come later, I promise all of you. All you KYP listeners out there, that rant will come. And it'll come after Kentucky has a sub-500 season. Jarod McInroy: I hear you. The other ⁓ I have another winner ⁓ Just watching some tape ⁓ Two winners actually ⁓ I've really liked I mean we this one's kind of a no-brainer with Jordan Tyson I mean he looks awesome and he kind of just And again, it's gonna be really hard to pick the order of I think the top four guys ⁓ It's kind of pick your poison at like whatever you feel the need to go and get for your squad. ⁓ Tyson, Tate, Denzel Boston, McKay Lemon, pick one, you're gonna be happy. think ⁓ they looked incredible. Who I think a lot of teams should be looking at in this early second round and I think they'll start to. ⁓ He's kind of slotted for a third round maybe. Jacoby Lane out of USC. Guy has hands. He's smooth with it. ⁓ I just say it just watch out He's he's a name There's some sometimes you just you know, you watch someone And it's just the eye test you you watch him and you're like god this guy is he's got it. He's smooth He's not the fastest you've seen. He's a big body. He's like six four. ⁓ Nathan Hawthorne: Mm-hmm. Jarod McInroy: But he's not running like a 6-4 guy. He's not just running straight like T Higgins. He's moving. we'll see. We'll see how he fits into a team, into an ⁓ NFL game, in the speed of an NFL game. But that's a name. I wouldn't be mad if my team drafted him. Nathan Hawthorne: I want to talk about two names real quick. ⁓ One of them we were just chatting about kind of offline. Talon Green, Arkansas quarterback. We both don't really know a ton about him, but for some reason. ⁓ Okay, this guy's huge. Jarod McInroy: What an animal. He's got 6'6 and he just clocked a 4'4'1? Nathan Hawthorne: Right, and instantly everyone's like, ⁓ my goodness, he's quarterback? Like that? Jarod McInroy: But his arm though, he's got a gun. Like he's whipping it around. Not very accurate, but there's something there. Nathan Hawthorne: He's got a gun. I mean, at what point do you look at somebody as having like the Josh Allen accuracy or the Josh Allen arm strength with it's just like a lot of body. It's not necessarily efficient with your arm throwing talent and ability, but as soon as they kind of lock those mechanics in. But we also said something similar about Anthony Richardson. We are hoping that you can kind of contain and harness. And I got to watch some more tape on this man, but that that name jumped out after we were texting and I was like, ⁓ my goodness, this guy is for real. Jarod McInroy: Here's one thing I'll say about that though, is that's the beauty of this draft is all of those names that we're talking about the Aller, the, ⁓ Taylor and green, the Nussmeyer, they're all going to be third, fourth, fifth, sixth round picks. So you don't have that. ⁓ we drafted Anthony Richardson really high and now he's a bust and we look like idiots. There's you have a fail safe of, it's just a late round quarterback. take a chance and if he pans out you're a genius. There's really no skin in the game so man if he's on the board you have a late round pick why not. Nathan Hawthorne: Yeah, why not take a flyer and they say you should you should they say you should draft a quarterback probably You know every year if anything it doesn't it doesn't it doesn't yeah It doesn't matter if you have the guy or not just have somebody so you make sure you have a quality backup You know get a guy who's nice and seasoned because the NFL is a what have you done for me lately league? We've talked about that before so when I have somebody ready and then the next name ⁓ Danny Dennis Sutton he's the cat the the Jarod McInroy: You get three quarterback spots. You get three spots on the roster. every other year at worst. Mm-hmm. Nathan Hawthorne: Edge from Penn State. He was kind of supposed to be a little bit more of the second coming of Micah Parsons in terms of that Penn State pedigree defensive line. I don't think his productivity was great this year at Penn State. Granted, the whole fiasco with Allers injury and James Franklin being walked out the door kind of made some things difficult for him. But he looked amazing. And I didn't realize he was that rangy. He had a sub seven three cone drill. So you're not looking at a guy who's just, you know, athletic. You're looking at a guy who's got shiftyness. Jarod McInroy: Mm-hmm. Nathan Hawthorne: He's not just a big physical presence that can run fast. Like he can dip that shoulder. He's got that ankle flexion to get underneath the pads, know, getting skinny. Jarod McInroy: Angle flexion, I didn't know you were going to bring that out today. Nathan Hawthorne: You gotta have the angles. You gotta rip that shoulder by. Get under. So I think he's a guy that you can watch out for. Maybe not as like a, ⁓ my goodness, this guy's game changer, but you'll talk about him having high levels of productivity, I think, in the NFL. Jarod McInroy: Okay. And that's the identity of this draft is those guys that are kind of flying under the radar that look like they could be first, second rounders in any other draft. There's a lot of them. Nathan Hawthorne: There's there's there's Hall of Famers in this draft. There's Jarod McInroy: I know. Hey, let's talk stinkers though now. Who did we not like? Give me one, give me, you can even just give me one name if you need to. We don't need to hate on anybody too bad, like who? Nathan Hawthorne: ⁓ I got a little list here. The one ⁓ probably Malachi Fields, the Notre Dame wide receiver. I think his 40 time was disappointing. And then he didn't necessarily and this is one we also kind of talked about ⁓ the gauntlet drill. It's catch, catch, and then you're going you're looking both ways. It just didn't look smooth. And I think he's a great athlete. And that's a little bit harder to tell. But there's a there's a ⁓ Jarod McInroy: Yeah. Didn't look great. Yeah. Nathan Hawthorne: There's a smoothness, you know, maybe the untrained eye can't see it, but there's a smoothness to that gauntlet drill. And when you see somebody execute against it, you're like, that's it right there. The soft hands, the uninterrupted movement forward, the ability to turn the shoulders and the chest. It just, there's something about it that's musical. And I wasn't hearing the music. I wasn't hearing the music. Jarod McInroy: Mm-hmm. Well that actually brings me into my biggest loser of the week. And it's the NFL. And let me tell you why. They make a spectacle out of everything they possibly can. Everything is an event. Everything is the bright lights, the cameras, the everything. And the combine is not one of those things. It is, in my opinion, one of the dumbest events of the year. And it's just an excuse to get everyone in the building so everyone can do their due diligence, but us, we sit here and we talk about it. And yes, we're falling victim to it a little bit right now, but you go and listen to all these analysts on the ESPN and all these people talking about this, like this is the tape. From a quarterback's perspective, let's just start there. You have to go throw to a bunch of guys you've never thrown to. have to go off your timing and timing routes and timing throws. You have to throw deep balls to these guys of different speeds, heights. Nathan Hawthorne: giving them what they want. Jarod McInroy: ⁓ All these different factors with these receivers and then you're judged on it as if like you're gonna your draft pick is on this one thing it It's it's absurd to me now we go into receivers this stupid gauntlet drill where you're running in a freaking line Catch him pass pass drop drop half of them. They're not even catching the passes They're just literally just swatting them down over and over again. I can't stand it. I'm I don't know what they're doing with this, with this combine and we're measuring hands and all this stuff. I get it. The, the little things matter and it could be the deciding factor into one person over another, but over and over again, we've seen that the people in the NFL are the ones that, Hey, go watch the freaking four years of tape they have from the last four years of playing football against all these other people. Let's, let's look at the tape. Let's look at the experience. Let's look at what's between the years and let's stop being lazy with analyzing a prospect based on one day of work. That's my rant. That's all I gotta say about the biggest loser of the week, the NFL. Nathan Hawthorne: I love how at the top end of the draft we had a winner that was not a not a player and a loser that was not a player I love I love how we think I love how we think that's what I'm talking about Yeah, it's the it's the Underwear Olympics and we've known this you know these guys are showing up to just running a straight line, right? You get that they're they're tight fitting whatever on and they're just and they're just going and they're just going after it Jarod McInroy: Nope. We're not gonna hate on people alone. These are kids who are working their butt off trying to get into the league. Come on. No. Underwear Olympics is crazy. Nathan Hawthorne: And I love it because it shows, I shouldn't say I love it. What I find interesting is that for a 40-yard dash time, you can train to get a tenth, two tenths off just by a strong start, transition, and finish, right? And again, running in a straight line isn't always indicative of being the best. Otherwise, Dre, Archer, John Ross would have had the best careers in NFL history. Xavier Worthy has been one of the guys who I think has been more productive based on that speed. But when you start looking at too many metrics and numbers and you're not looking at the fluidity of somebody like you're saying, you're not looking at their fluidity in pads. Okay, that's right. They can run straight, but can they decelerate? NFL is all about accelerating and decelerating. Can I, especially at the receiver position, can I get you to flip your hips and then can I stop and slow down and you keep going? Can I separate from you out of my brake? And I don't think there's an excellent representation of that. Jarod McInroy: They're also not that fast in pads. Nathan Hawthorne: In the combine. I do think that there's some coordination that you can glean from it I think that there's more of the off the off the combine field stuff Like you're talking about the interviews the meetings the whiteboard stuff where you get to know the players But yeah, like that you can't put too much stock in a combine But you can see who didn't didn't prepare and how people and how players didn't didn't prepare like there's guys that will show up Probably weren't as dialed as I should have been maybe looking a little bit heavier or not heavy enough, or maybe their 40 looked sloppy or their routes looked sloppy. You can kind of identify some of those things, but then also there's guys who are just nervous and you start stepping outside your frame a little bit and now you're slipping. It's the Underwear Olympics. It's the first pressure test. Can you show up and execute at least a little bit? Jarod McInroy: No. I'm over it. ⁓ let's, can we move on to next week already? We got, we got the lead, we got the, the new w what is it? The new league year starting next week when people can actually start making moves. So we got some, we got some exciting stuff coming. ⁓ the other thing to wrap this up, I do want to clarify one thing. I want to hold my hand up for a second for lazy reporting. Malachi Tony has put to rest all rumors of him. Nathan Hawthorne: You Let's move on. Jarod McInroy: going to Ohio State and he's sticking with the Miami Hurricanes. It was a real thing, it almost came to fruition and it did not. Hand up, I'll own it. And that's what we gotta do is, you know, I would like to consider as journalists at this point, ⁓ put the hand up, we're good. Nathan Hawthorne: Okay. Hey, LeBron, we're good here. You know what, I appreciate that accountability and look forward to more of that throughout this year. We're gonna be right, we're gonna be wrong, we're gonna be a little bit of the in-between, but we will always raise that hand and we will take some accountability. Jarod McInroy: when it's time. Alright, take us home. Nathan Hawthorne: Ladies and gentlemen, that's going to actually do it for us today. We're to talk to those free agents next week. Once that new league year starts to get a little bit closer, there's going to be a little bit more chatter. Teams are going to start gaming against each other for draft positions. We're going to see maybe who signs early, who doesn't. So stay tuned for that next week. Thank you so much for tuning in. This is the Know Your Personnel podcast here, episode number five. I can't believe it's episode number five already. We're just turning this stuff out. Can't believe it. My name's Nathan Hawthorne. This is my co-host, Jared McIlroy. Thank you so much for tuning in. YouTube, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, you can find us anywhere. See you guys next week. Jarod McInroy: can't believe it.