Latest / 3 Yards Per Carry - Miami Dolphins / The Low Redzone Episode 1.2
Transcript
- 0:09[SPEAKER_00]: Welcome to the low-red zone draft show with me, Simon Townsley, my special guest, Mr. Carcrans, as always from A to Z sports, how I can't get weak.
- 0:17[SPEAKER_01]: I'm doing good, how about yourself, Simon, set it again.
- 0:19[SPEAKER_01]: I'll be back on a bit.
- 0:20[SPEAKER_01]: Itching to talk a little bit more draft.
- 0:22[SPEAKER_01]: I don't have enough draft makes in my life, so this is a healthy outlet for me.
- 0:25[SPEAKER_00]: It's exciting, excuse me, it's exciting.
- 0:28[SPEAKER_00]: You and I have just sat through the, we should tell our listeners, we are, if you don't know.
- 0:31[SPEAKER_00]: We are Miami Dolphins fans, we've just sat through our the opening press conference for our new general manager and your head coach.
- 0:38[SPEAKER_00]: And I've been about you, but I am literally ready to run through at least one more of Jeff Affleister speaking.
- 0:43[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, the the whole sleeping under the desk thing and the grind and how he's come up through coaching, it really is an interesting case study and I'm excited to see what kind of fruit it bears long term.
- 0:58[SPEAKER_01]: Obviously, don't have expectations for super prosperous 2026, but talk about laying infrastructure and all that feeds in through the draft, right?
- 1:06[SPEAKER_01]: And it's like these are the guys that help teams that have healthy infrastructure and have sustainability
- 1:13[SPEAKER_01]: Um, it's part of what's kind of fueled my passion for the draft for a really long time and the magnitude that that carries in teams that stay ahead of the curve with their personnel.
- 1:23[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, 100%.
- 1:25[SPEAKER_00]: Before we get going, you can chat to kind of myself on our discord.
- 1:29[SPEAKER_00]: We've got a discord channel.
- 1:29[SPEAKER_00]: It's called Only Finns.
- 1:31[SPEAKER_00]: If you're a Miami Dolphins fan, you probably not want to join if you're a bills fan or an Eagles fan.
- 1:34[SPEAKER_00]: but if you're a dolphin's fan, you don't know about it, you can find out about it with the details on the screen right now.
- 1:40[SPEAKER_00]: Right, let's get into this because we had a fascinating national championship game on Monday night, Miami, Indiana, and it had some pretty big implications for the draft, no one was so.
- 1:50[SPEAKER_00]: then at the very top.
- 1:51[SPEAKER_00]: What did you make first of all of the readers being there in such full force?
- 1:54[SPEAKER_00]: You know, owner Mark Davis, Tom Brady, John Spitech, the general manager, can we put now, for NMDMN, those are to the to the readers, as if it was ever in doubt, but can we finally put that one to bed and move on to pick two now?
- 2:06[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, the draft starts at two this year, right?
- 2:10[SPEAKER_01]: It's not, there's not really a secret to be had.
- 2:13[SPEAKER_01]: And I think a lot of years where maybe you have multiple quarterbacks, their kind of is that value in playing the game within the game and being cute to about, oh, maybe we like this guy, but we do like this guy too, and just kind of keeping your options open.
- 2:28[SPEAKER_01]: But when you're in the Raiders situation and you look at that division where the Broncos are in the AFC championship game,
- 2:34[SPEAKER_01]: And the chargers have 11, 11 wins the last two years.
- 2:36[SPEAKER_01]: And the cheese had a down here, but they still have any reading Patrick and Holmes.
- 2:40[SPEAKER_01]: Y'all got to get this spot figured out a quarterback, right?
- 2:42[SPEAKER_01]: And there's one guy.
- 2:44[SPEAKER_01]: And the fact that he plays for Indiana and was there on display at the National Championship.
- 2:51[SPEAKER_01]: And you got a chance to see when the chips were down, there were some plays made with his legs, some big time throws in moments.
- 2:59[SPEAKER_01]: I thought it was interesting kind of the game plan offensively for Indiana to mitigate what was a very clear talent advantage for the Miami Hurricanes defensive line and kind of allow Fernando to make some decisions with ball handling and RPO structure and let him make snap decisions after this nap.
- 3:20[SPEAKER_01]: I thought that reflected well on him as a quarterback.
- 3:22[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, absolutely.
- 3:23[SPEAKER_00]: And look, if you're in that division, as you mentioned, whatever you think of Bonaix, he has been fairly integral in terms of getting them to the AC, and obviously he's not going to play in it because of the broken ankle, but that's a division with three things, with pretty set of quarterback.
- 3:36[SPEAKER_00]: And obviously it starts with my horns, but just in her, but we'll get Mike McDonald this year, and we'll be interested to see how that plays out.
- 3:41[SPEAKER_00]: And Nick's works really well within that structure of the Sean Payton offense, and actually, what you just said there, Batman does a lead into my next question, and you kind of touch a little bit on it,
- 3:51[SPEAKER_00]: what I thought was really interesting about Monday night's performance by Fernando.
- 3:55[SPEAKER_00]: In a good way, it showed him having to win a game in a way that we really haven't seen all that often, not just a season but during his career at Cal, you know, the patients, he had to be extremely patient because what they usually rely on really wasn't working, the toughness,
- 4:11[SPEAKER_00]: And I thought it showed him in a light where he was able to win a chess match game and he had to find different keys on his keychain to unlock a really difficult defense.
- 4:22[SPEAKER_00]: And to me in many ways, that was perhaps more impressive than the him drawing for 350 yards and four touchdowns.
- 4:27[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, I could take or leave the passing stuff.
- 4:30[SPEAKER_01]: It was the look, you have the fork down call and he uses his legs, right?
- 4:36[SPEAKER_01]: Like nobody's got a, nobody's three bullet points on the pros on the Mendoza scouting reporter going to start with his legs, but he's got enough.
- 4:44[SPEAKER_01]: And he's got this long build, but he's still a big kid, so like there's that toughness component to take hits where
- 4:52[SPEAKER_01]: maybe you just kind of see him in passing glance and you see the long limbs and the tall frame, but there's some density there and be able to absorb those hits.
- 5:00[SPEAKER_01]: And in that moment, when the chips are down, make that play and extend and hold onto the ball the way that he did.
- 5:08[SPEAKER_01]: it was a gritty game and I like guys that have some gritty on the resume, right?
- 5:14[SPEAKER_01]: Because it's the silver spoon quarterbacks that play at Alabama and just to use Alabama as an example, but all these programs that have blue blood talent all around, right?
- 5:25[SPEAKER_01]: And it's really not constructed that way in the first place.
- 5:27[SPEAKER_01]: Now they have a lot of
- 5:29[SPEAKER_01]: physically mature players because they've been so transfer portal heavy with Kurt Sidney as the quarter bat or as the head coach there, but that construction.
- 5:37[SPEAKER_01]: They're not getting by on just raw talent, but that you I think this was a game where you saw enough of the raw talent pieces for Fernando to say, okay, like I kind of have a sense of there's enough here physically.
- 5:54[SPEAKER_01]: that you can get a guy that can win you games, not just a guy that's going to keep it between the lines or a guy that's going to properly execute the scheme as it's available but struggle with the other stuff.
- 6:05[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, I think as well, if you're Tom Brady and I'm again, not comparing the two in any way shape before, but if you're Brady, I think you're looking at that performance specifically and thinking there are elements
- 6:17[SPEAKER_00]: of the way in which I used to play the game in terms of winning a chess match, finding the different keys on my keyring to unlock a difficult defense.
- 6:26[SPEAKER_00]: And I think if you're Brady, you go away from that thinking, if you weren't already thinking that, you know, this is a kid I can win with you.
- 6:33[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, I think so too.
- 6:34[SPEAKER_01]: And you know, I think they can
- 6:37[SPEAKER_01]: the offensive outlook with the Raiders last year was a mess with Chip Kelly.
- 6:42[SPEAKER_01]: I think they'll have a great chance to kind of reassess.
- 6:45[SPEAKER_01]: They probably knowing that they're picking in the pole position and that quarterback that's coming.
- 6:49[SPEAKER_01]: I think they are going to set themselves up pretty favorably to make some decisions on what that's going to look like and to give an infrastructure that can lean into his strengths a little bit and I would expect that to be the case because it always was kind of an
- 7:06[SPEAKER_01]: with Pete Carroll and like how that fit together and they played like a very disjointed effort.
- 7:12[SPEAKER_01]: I think they have better pieces than what they were able to put on display from an individual talent versus the sum of the whole product in Las Vegas.
- 7:19[SPEAKER_01]: And I think knowing that you're in that position and making this head coach last offensive coaching staff higher, I think that does give them a great chance to kind of amplify the skillset even more.
- 7:33[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, and we talked about the toughness as well, you know, a little bit revenge, I suppose maybe against Miami linebacker Wesley Bissante for that hit last season when he was playing for cows, he trucked him on the way to the end zone for that, that touchdown run, but I was impressed about how he stayed in the, you know, the, the, the shot lead to, kind of the,
- 7:48[SPEAKER_00]: under the chin staff from Jacobie Thomas, he kind of stayed tough and wasn't really phase, unless the thing that he read a lot, I read Bruce Feldman's piece and the athletic in the days running up to it, talking to coaches and defensive coordinators and things he played against him and said, look, you can
- 8:04[SPEAKER_00]: you can hit him, but you're not going to face him, you know, you can pressure him, but you're not going to get him out of his rhythm, and I think that was one of the really intriguing things.
- 8:14[SPEAKER_00]: I think for people who maybe don't follow college football and only watch a national championship to be able to see that, okay, there is more to this kid than just chucking touchdowns.
- 8:22[SPEAKER_00]: And for Miami, I think that they were almost wild to win for a certain portion of that game right by two players, and that was,
- 8:30[SPEAKER_00]: Ruben Bain and a key method or who, to me, was so good that my own good in Yan and not been anything going, because Mendoza has no time to even say his feet, but they also made some pretty good in the Analyment.
- 8:42[SPEAKER_00]: I just met the big, kind of offensive line of the year.
- 8:44[SPEAKER_00]: Look pretty ordinary.
- 8:46[SPEAKER_00]: We talked about those guys, we talked about Bain specifically, but what we'll take away is on the performance of Bain and Mendoza or in terms of how they would just say,
- 8:58[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, I think that's exactly what you're hoping to see from those two guys as far as it was not guys just running up the field and running the arc, right?
- 9:08[SPEAKER_01]: It's like you get guys that have a great first step against a heavy-footed offensive tackle and they terrorize opposing offences and you just got to start shifting some extra attention that way.
- 9:18[SPEAKER_01]: But with these two guys,
- 9:19[SPEAKER_01]: It there was a power and a physical element of it that allowed it to be sustainable even if you were trying to bring extra attention like the blocks were just getting deconstructed so consistently and they were playing on the plus side of the line of scrimmage that that's for me where you see the translated ability for both guys is no
- 9:40[SPEAKER_01]: You can be a speed guy who turns corners really well, but what kind of core strength and what kind of ability do you have to get your cleats in the ground when you're getting lateral pressure applied to you when you're trying to run the arc and a guy actually can't keep up with you and kind of
- 9:56[SPEAKER_01]: put his hands on you, but if you're going through 315 pounds and you can press that player back and create soft angles to play through soft contact then they can't get their hands at that is the sustainable way of playing that's what I think what you saw from both of those guys.
- 10:11[SPEAKER_00]: And I thought Bane was just so impressive in the run.
- 10:13[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, you know, this is not something new, is it?
- 10:15[SPEAKER_00]: But I thought just how impressive he was.
- 10:17[SPEAKER_00]: Because, you know, that is a really, it's a really hard hitting.
- 10:21[SPEAKER_00]: It's a really powerful, in the end, a run game.
- 10:24[SPEAKER_00]: And they did such a good job with it.
- 10:25[SPEAKER_00]: But I thought just how he uses that heavy handedness, how he uses his leverage to win, to hold up.
- 10:31[SPEAKER_00]: And then, you know, even on that kind of, on the sweep outside where I think it was Roman Hember, who was,
- 10:36[SPEAKER_00]: swept outside and he was just able to run that way down from, you know, just break through tackles and I'll break through Lyman and take him down and just show the range.
- 10:46[SPEAKER_00]: I did wonder over the last four-year hours with the news of Robert Sala taking over his hey coach of the Tennessee Titans and, you know, Camelwood certainly needs a lot of
- 10:54[SPEAKER_00]: you know, a lot of weapons on that offensive side of the ball, but your Robert Salas sat a number two having Ruben Bain there on the board, you know, it's a pretty nice way to, to look at building a defense isn't it if your Robert Salas come into the draft, I mean, because that's a guy that you absolutely be covering, I think.
- 11:13[SPEAKER_01]: And Holla's got a really extensive track record of rotating guys, but that is a guy.
- 11:19[SPEAKER_01]: You probably make some concessions for to keep out on the field.
- 11:22[SPEAKER_01]: And if you're going to go with the defensive line rotation, the fact that bane on passing downs has the ability to reduce inside and you can kind of get multiple with, do you think about
- 11:31[SPEAKER_01]: It's their different builds, but kind of like how the force buck or an Eric Armstead could play out on the end, but then can also play inside and rush like you get that same flexibility.
- 11:42[SPEAKER_01]: It's not a one for one, but there's plenty of track record of guys that have that alignment diversity that I think Rubber Bay would be able to give them as well.
- 11:50[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, I agree.
- 11:52[SPEAKER_00]: And the thing about Messador is that I don't think he's as, he's certainly not as prolific of a run defender as Bain is, but you know, I was studying, I did a piece for the low reds on sub-stack, I took 20 players and the more I was watching him through the season, but certainly through the playoff is that you think, okay, our his number's being magnified by the fact that he's playing opposite Ruben Bain, right?
- 12:12[SPEAKER_00]: And I just kept coming away with a sense that actually he's getting his own clean wins.
- 12:16[SPEAKER_00]: He's not, he's not just benefiting from having a
- 12:20[SPEAKER_00]: And for a guy whose size has got some bend to the outside shoulder, he can duck inside when rushing off the edge.
- 12:28[SPEAKER_00]: He's a four point stance guy, they line him up inside as he just mentioned.
- 12:32[SPEAKER_00]: And he's got a vast array of kind of rushmen across shops that club swims the rips, the two handed swipes.
- 12:39[SPEAKER_00]: You know, he can get to the court back in multiple ways, and I think, you know, we touched on it last week that the shoulder issues and that the problems that he's had medically may and his age may be an issue, but he's got the intangibles that are a really good player, and I think, you know, combined in a huge room in terms of the medical, but we're looking first round, aren't we?
- 13:00[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, a huge mess of what I think.
- 13:02[SPEAKER_01]: Probably with kind of the the state of this class where you're getting a lot of work guys with warts or untraditional warts and and I think it makes the taste in your mouth for the idea of a 25 year old address in the first round is a little bit more little less bitter knowing that you get outside the top 20 and you're looking at the names and it's like.
- 13:25[SPEAKER_01]: All right, well, I really don't love this guy.
- 13:27[SPEAKER_01]: This guy probably ideally is a guy that's closer to pick 45 to 50.
- 13:32[SPEAKER_01]: Just type it that in.
- 13:33[SPEAKER_01]: You go through the full game.
- 13:34[SPEAKER_01]: It plays a marquee position and does have alignment diversity in his own right.
- 13:39[SPEAKER_01]: I think there's it's not going to take long for that kind of risk reward analysis of well, he'll be 30 by the end of his rookie contract if we take him in the first round.
- 13:50[SPEAKER_01]: Okay, you know, like there's sometimes that that was probably part of what helped fuel Judea Barron sliding down a little bit last year as a 24 year old corner, right?
- 14:01[SPEAKER_01]: And and you would at least think that some of these edge guys and past Russia's some of the major more gracefully than what the corners do.
- 14:08[SPEAKER_01]: So with Barron last year, it was oh, well, ideally is a nickel player who plays inside in a perfect world and he'll be 29 by the end of his rookie contract.
- 14:17[SPEAKER_01]: You saw a slide that the risk versus the reward very quickly won out once you hit the 20s.
- 14:22[SPEAKER_01]: I kind of expect measured order kind of be that version of this player this year.
- 14:26[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, give me five good years.
- 14:28[SPEAKER_00]: You know, that's that's the long time, right?
- 14:30[SPEAKER_00]: If you if you do draft them in the first round, we talked a bit last week when we kicked off the show about the quality overall of the draft and again, you just mentioned it there and there doesn't seem to be a lot of difference between what might be picked by a 25 and play a 65.
- 14:45[SPEAKER_00]: But it's a good draft to fill out the middle of your roster with solid players who are going to come in and play 5, 6, 7 years.
- 14:52[SPEAKER_00]: Mine would be super stars, but we'll just do a really good job.
- 14:54[SPEAKER_00]: And it was a good night.
- 14:56[SPEAKER_00]: My new night, I thought it was a good night.
- 14:57[SPEAKER_00]: And generally a good play off for a few of those guys, so I think it will be solid, middle of the roster players.
- 15:03[SPEAKER_00]: Whether that's...
- 15:04[SPEAKER_00]: You know, Mikhail Kamara in the Anna Kiyonte Scott had a big pick in the in the semifinal pack, Kug in the centre, came over from Notre Dame, Roman Hembe, who we just talked about.
- 15:13[SPEAKER_00]: He didn't fish to the line back there, there was more the safety.
- 15:16[SPEAKER_00]: Kaelan Black, you know, I mean nobody runs harder in college football, pretty much so in Kaelan Black and there's Cooper the Miami.
- 15:22[SPEAKER_00]: Marmy God, there was some, you know, everybody's kind of focused on the bands and the the men, those as of the world, and obviously Manakantoni is not draft eligible, but there's some good mid-range talent in that, there was some good mid-range talent in that game, wasn't there in terms of just a few of the players will come in and do a job for it to even the NFL.
- 15:38[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, and I'm gonna scratch the edge that I know Alf is feeling off-screen right now and talk a little bit about Kiyonte Scott because I know that's his guy, but man, he really is an easy player to love and I think you can see some of the instincts and the plays that he's made being up on the line of scrimmage in the nickel and and.
- 15:58[SPEAKER_01]: needing that kind of reactive quickness to trigger an attack and the physicality to beat blocks and be a run support player, all the best teams in a league have some guy at Nickel that whether it's Jalen Petrie and Houston or what Terran Johnson's been in Buffalo for a really long time as does to examples.
- 16:16[SPEAKER_01]: You can even go further back than that when it was like
- 16:25[SPEAKER_01]: but you have guys that are tailored to fit a certain kind of role within your defense that maybe okay we maybe we live in sub and he's out there and he's a 90% snap taker force but if we don't you know when we get into this personal grouping or if we get 12 personnel we know we can roll this guy out there and our run support and our coverage is not going to be compromised
- 16:45[SPEAKER_01]: Like, that's a perfect example in my mind of the kind of players that you can find in this draft that maybe are not the deluxe marquee 100% snap taker pass rusher or a lockdown perimeter corner.
- 17:01[SPEAKER_01]: or a game-changing wider, see it like, I get it.
- 17:04[SPEAKER_01]: That's what you want when you have these more key picks.
- 17:06[SPEAKER_01]: But there's plenty of examples of those kinds of players, not just in this draft, but then also like across the league, the successful defenses have that kind of skill set that exists.
- 17:17[SPEAKER_01]: And I think he's a great example of that from this year.
- 17:20[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, two-time former JuCo all-American at snow.
- 17:24[SPEAKER_00]: And if you're looking at guys like this, and he's going to be 25 before the draft, I mean, it'd be 25 before, I'm not before the drafts over full training camp.
- 17:32[SPEAKER_00]: He's too much younger than Derek Stingley.
- 17:34[SPEAKER_00]: He's just finished his fourth season in the NFL.
- 17:36[SPEAKER_00]: But...
- 17:37[SPEAKER_00]: guys like that when you're picking in the sort of the late day to early to mid day three somebody that's just got a really great football brain he brings some versatility the versatility in terms of where he could potentially line up but also he's going to be a key player on special teams he's got from return juice on special teams he led the SEC in punt return yard isn't 2023 I just think you know a playout that just feels like a kind of mid-round home run where you know
- 18:00[SPEAKER_00]: Again, he's not going to be a star, but he'll just do a load of things for you, especially at that nickel position.
- 18:07[SPEAKER_00]: And I think it's some good, you know, Chanda Rivers, there's a kid at Arizona.
- 18:09[SPEAKER_00]: I really like trading steaks.
- 18:10[SPEAKER_00]: And then if you've got Chanda see him yet, some pretty good, some pretty good nickels.
- 18:15[SPEAKER_00]: They're talking to me a little bit.
- 18:16[SPEAKER_00]: as well about that Indiana run game, just in terms of him being a black feel like two contributors of a position that's over the last few years has kind of been devalued a little bit and now we've kind of seen it come back in both in catch the ball, both come run hard, you know that they might not be stars, they might not be starters, but just as rotational players in an offense both would seem to have a future would you agree?
- 18:41[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, I think so.
- 18:42[SPEAKER_01]: And, and Hembie, I love the way in which he runs.
- 18:45[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, I love kind of the physical.
- 18:46[SPEAKER_01]: He's got that dense build right six foot to 10.
- 18:49[SPEAKER_01]: So he's not one of these lean body backs.
- 18:52[SPEAKER_01]: He's he's kind of built like.
- 18:57[SPEAKER_01]: I'll never forget when I got to the NFL combine and who was it?
- 19:02[SPEAKER_01]: Was it Wayne Gaulman and you saw Wayne Gaulman and we saw like what his body type was and what he was listed at and you're like, there's no way like he's got that on him.
- 19:11[SPEAKER_01]: But he did have it on him and I think Hambi's kind of built the same way and if you told me that this ends up being a Wayne Gaulman.
- 19:18[SPEAKER_01]: tight player where there's he he'd really developed in past protection and I think Hemby's really capable of that.
- 19:27[SPEAKER_01]: I think there's still some...
- 19:29[SPEAKER_01]: I think he built in, but was way better this year in Indiana, right?
- 19:33[SPEAKER_01]: Like, exactly the kind of role that I could see for a Hemby who's coming out as a 23 he I mean he'll turn 24 during training camp of his rookie season.
- 19:43[SPEAKER_01]: So like an older player
- 19:47[SPEAKER_01]: a ton of workload and like hasn't been running to the ground for the last three years as kind of a bell-call running back between his time at Maryland and Indiana.
- 19:57[SPEAKER_01]: Like that's a mid-round back that maybe in a typical NFL draft.
- 20:03[SPEAKER_01]: Maybe he goes fifth, sixth round just because of positional value that maybe goes four, five this year, right?
- 20:09[SPEAKER_01]: Like I could totally see that being a pathway for Hmb and him having a productive role to fill for an awful thing.
- 20:15[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
- 20:15[SPEAKER_00]: And black just feels like a business is the business decision for only defensive players going to have to tackle him.
- 20:20[SPEAKER_00]: He just runs so hard on me.
- 20:21[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, he's uh, he does not waste any steps.
- 20:26[SPEAKER_00]: Anyway, he weighs nothing.
- 20:28[SPEAKER_00]: He weighs nothing.
- 20:29[SPEAKER_00]: Listen, it's Thursday when we record and he's tomorrow, Friday is the deadline for the final tranche of underclassment involved in the national championship to announce their intentions as to whether or not they're going to enter the draft.
- 20:40[SPEAKER_00]: Yes, today Wednesday, Mark L. Bell, who's Miami's kind of skyscraper of a left tackle, 69, 340 pounds declared.
- 20:47[SPEAKER_00]: But really, we're kind of waiting on three players.
- 20:49[SPEAKER_00]: Now, aren't we in the anniversary of Roma, Cooper Jr.
- 20:52[SPEAKER_00]: It's team-made the Angela Ponds and then Miami defensive tackle.
- 20:55[SPEAKER_00]: I'm Mad Moton who was outstanding in the national championship and you know And actually we talked about Bain and Mestor sort of dominating quarters two and three Moton pretty much dominated quarters one and two And yeah, he played until he got injured.
- 21:08[SPEAKER_00]: First of all on Belle, what's your what should take on him because he is a large human being, isn't he?
- 21:13[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, and it you go back to seeing your bowl and guys there and I remember got like Zach Banner, right, who out of USC, just a monstrous mammoth player and he he never really had like breakout, but he always kind of had like roster spot opportunities because people that size with that length, they don't exist very often.
- 21:34[SPEAKER_01]: So.
- 21:34[SPEAKER_01]: I think Bell's one of those guys for me that you can very clearly see there's above average movement skills relative to the stature and it's it's he's going to be a scheme specific type player for me that I think teams that run in between the tap preferred to run in between the tackles like to have in kind of wider blocking surfaces and and fronts by having tight ends out there and probably multiple tight ends and look to run gap schemes and run downhill and run
- 22:04[SPEAKER_01]: That for me is kind of the sweet spot for Mark L. Bell.
- 22:10[SPEAKER_01]: I think if you're that kind of mentality of a football team, I think that's where you could pull out the best version of him as compared to, hey, we're going to sprint off the ball and the first three steps.
- 22:19[SPEAKER_01]: We really want to create a lot of horizontal stretch in the front.
- 22:23[SPEAKER_01]: Because you have to be able to react and have pliability in your frame while on the run to react if somebody tries to duck inside of you or you've got to hit that landmark and if he's a moving target, I just think there's too much mass there to reliably redirect.
- 22:39[SPEAKER_01]: But if you're downhill running team, like I think he's a great target as a developmental player just because they're all traits that he has.
- 22:46[SPEAKER_00]: I did this right at the morning, I showed watching his take this morning because so-so-so-so-so-so-so-so-so-so-so-so-so-so-so-so-so-so-so-so-so-so-so-so-so-so-so-so-so-so-so-so-so-so-so-so-so-so-so-so-so-so-so-so-so-so-so-so-so-so-so-so-so-so-so-so-so-so-so-so-so-so-so-so-so-so-so-so-so-so-so-so-so-so-so-so-so-so-so-so-so-so-so-so-so-so-so-so-so-so-so-so-so-so-so-so-so-so-so-so-so-so-so
- 23:13[SPEAKER_00]: but then just on the move like it, and even in the National Championship when he went out and destroyed the Angelo Ponds, he moves like Tyson Fury moves around the ring and it was like I was like put some boxing gloves on this dude and it's literally, it's literally fury, but also a cover of another interesting nugget is that he was, he was 400 pounds when he was at high school.
- 23:33[SPEAKER_00]: That's how he did, he got no offers at all, he went to the Holmes Community College of Mississippi.
- 23:37[SPEAKER_00]: He was 5 foot 10.
- 23:39[SPEAKER_00]: in the eighth grade, and by the time he left high school, he was six for eight.
- 23:43[SPEAKER_00]: But his parents are eleven, his dad's six to his mom's only five for eight.
- 23:47[SPEAKER_00]: But you talked about, you talked about Zach Ballardet, it reminds me of the senior boy that you and I were both at that in 21, 22, Daniel Falele, you know, there's made a decent enough curie for himself inside a guard and playing some tackles well for Roger Rosendart was drafted with the Ravens and the
- 24:08[SPEAKER_00]: you know, some similarities there in in size.
- 24:10[SPEAKER_00]: What about the other three in terms of Cooper, Ponds and Moton, do you think they're coming out and what's your kind of general sense on that trio?
- 24:17[SPEAKER_01]: one of the thought that just came to me, Holland Pierce from Rutgers last year is probably a very applicable name to the bell conversation.
- 24:30[SPEAKER_01]: We'll see what ends up happening with Ponds.
- 24:31[SPEAKER_01]: He was put out as an acceptance for the senior role at the beginning of the week.
- 24:36[SPEAKER_01]: I have heard some buzz that like, maybe not a participant, but I think that would be a welcome addition,
- 24:44[SPEAKER_01]: and he's a gamer, and he's super scrappy, he's fearless, and I know from a yet another it's he's a great embodiment of the talking point we keep circling back to in this draft class, where 174 corners
- 25:02[SPEAKER_01]: On the outside perimeter guys usually don't like you get knocked for that big time think about like what Kobe Bryant did last year out of Kansas and went undrafted right very combative he had a great week at the shrine But he just felt because he was tiny and then he got some playing time this year and you saw the combativeness, but you also saw the size limitations that showed up, but puns has
- 25:25[SPEAKER_01]: great instincts.
- 25:26[SPEAKER_01]: I think he's got great confidence, great instincts.
- 25:30[SPEAKER_01]: That's a player for me that he's going to be hard in the middle rounds to say no to just because of, um, there's an arrogance in the way in which he plays that he doesn't have the business having because of his stature, but he still makes it work and then you watch the Ohio State tape, right?
- 25:49[SPEAKER_01]: And you see
- 25:55[SPEAKER_01]: resume game tape to hand teams is say we have concerns about your size.
- 26:00[SPEAKER_01]: He says okay here, watch tape.
- 26:02[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, yeah, absolutely.
- 26:04[SPEAKER_00]: And again, it's the same conversation that we have a key on to skies.
- 26:07[SPEAKER_00]: And what can you do for me in terms of just being able to fulfill three or four different roles as well as being a great kid in the building and leadership and and those sorts of things?
- 26:18[SPEAKER_00]: We're going to go to break when we come back, Arla and I will talk about the Shrine game
- 26:25[SPEAKER_00]: Welcome back to the second half of the low-rids on Draft Show with me Simon Kancy and my good friend and as special guest Kyle, perhaps some eight as it's book out.
- 26:34[SPEAKER_00]: Practice begins tomorrow morning in Frisco.
- 26:37[SPEAKER_00]: The Shrine Bowl, the first I suppose are the major all-star games which culminates on Tuesday with the East, playing the West.
- 26:44[SPEAKER_00]: This game, this and these practices specifically less about the game really, but often seen as kind of or have until very recently often seen as kind of the little brother,
- 26:53[SPEAKER_00]: the senior ball, but Eric Galko, the director who took over a couple of years, has done a great job has any in terms of expanding the reach of the game, making it almost as big as a senior ball drawing in high caliber players, and we saw that last year with Shiddlestanders, who obviously went Aaron and practice, there was a kind of an uncomfortable and slightly strange social medial media back and forth between him and Jim Nagu and Jim
- 27:17[SPEAKER_00]: It's a bit strange, but he has done a credit error.
- 27:21[SPEAKER_00]: He's done a great job as the interns of just being able to just improve the magnitude of this game.
- 27:26[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, and very funny to watch the spat last year where I consider both Jim and Eric like good friends.
- 27:33[SPEAKER_01]: I've gotten to know them both like very well Eric was used to work it before I got full time into to football as my profession.
- 27:41[SPEAKER_01]: I did personal training and Eric worked out at the gym that I was at and we like kind of over like all at the gym right and.
- 27:48[SPEAKER_01]: Jim Naggy's been very hospitable with some of the places that I've been and come down and I would go down and December and spot out some stuff for doing events during Senior Bowl Week and He'd have us in the Senior Bowl office and we'd be sitting there watching tape and talking about the board that they had so I know both of those guys very very well and I will give Eric all the credit in the world for understanding when he came in He needed to kind of change the perception of the game and I he did that in a way in which
- 28:18[SPEAKER_01]: changes uncomfortable right and Eric kind of came in and did not back down and kind of went to bat for players that he and his group had a lot of conviction in to get in the building and you've kind of seen a steady trickle where I guy this year and then two guys and you mentioned Shoulder Sanders I remember being at the shrine last year they had it in Denton they had the practices in Denton where North Texas is and I'm standing next to Kenneth Grant Jordan Phillips and I'm
- 28:46[SPEAKER_01]: These are NFL bodies for sure.
- 28:48[SPEAKER_01]: I could tell you that right now, okay.
- 28:50[SPEAKER_01]: So they turned into pretty good rookie players as far as I'm concerned.
- 28:56[SPEAKER_01]: But yeah, I look at the roster that they have this year for the shrine.
- 29:01[SPEAKER_01]: I know you're planning on talking about a couple of these guys and I've got a healthy list of guys that that I think I can see being successful NFL players and some guys
- 29:15[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, there's some really good names on the area.
- 29:17[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, when I was just jotting some down, I felt bad about the guys that I'd left off, but you know, you got your K-Tlobniks and you're down Jack D'Rill Jackson's and Hal Pekins and Eli Hyden Rye can fall in York, the tech-sending linebacker who I'm going to talk about in a sec, I absolutely love it.
- 29:32[SPEAKER_00]: Diego Pounds, the Ole Miss Left Tackle and the John Stribbling and Skyler Bell
- 29:37[SPEAKER_00]: by Lee Lee Farmo of Wake Forest and Tyreeksap, and just to name but a few, but give me some of the other names that you're excited to see that you're looking out for this week.
- 29:46[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, I'll go off the bell, or off the list of some of the names that you mentioned, and I'll mention a trio of Cincinnati kids who don't take Corleon, the defense.
- 29:56[SPEAKER_02]: That's a good idea.
- 29:57[SPEAKER_01]: They got father, Jay Golday, at linebacker, and then even Jeff called while at Wild receiver, I think is a pretty intriguing skill set.
- 30:05[SPEAKER_01]: I know there's some instances with the catch point there, but had a good look at some of the Cincinnati passing game when I was sitting here rooting for Brennan source, me to come out and be in this year's class before he hit the portal, a quarterback.
- 30:16[SPEAKER_01]: I think those three, that's a really good nucleus and trio of players from one program to be represented.
- 30:24[SPEAKER_01]: You mentioned Tyreaks app, but those big body-dend players, right?
- 30:29[SPEAKER_01]: Like they always have my attention because if you could ever just have the light bulb fully come on and it click in the place like,
- 30:36[SPEAKER_01]: That's a player that can be very disruptive.
- 30:40[SPEAKER_01]: I would mention who else do I have.
- 30:43[SPEAKER_01]: I have.
- 30:45[SPEAKER_01]: Andres the tight end from Texas.
- 30:48[SPEAKER_01]: Very productive.
- 30:49[SPEAKER_01]: I think it's like 1100 crew receiving yards of Texas.
- 30:51[SPEAKER_01]: It's a pretty impressive receiving profile that he has.
- 30:55[SPEAKER_01]: And I am a big time sucker for Cole was new ski.
- 30:57[SPEAKER_01]: This this big out of Texas tech.
- 31:00[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
- 31:00[SPEAKER_00]: Well, thanks.
- 31:01[SPEAKER_00]: Give me a few weeks, guys.
- 31:02[SPEAKER_01]: before that was at North Dakota State.
- 31:05[SPEAKER_01]: And you just see so many of this archetype player that come in and they live on the second level more frequently at the NFL level, but there's pretty healthy pipeline of these guys doing this now.
- 31:19[SPEAKER_01]: And I see him as a player that
- 31:27[SPEAKER_01]: I could see him living in that world because I think it's over three three three.
- 31:30[SPEAKER_02]: I mean, this is a beast even being.
- 31:32[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
- 31:32[SPEAKER_01]: This is not, oh, he's a 210 pound safety that needs to bulk up.
- 31:37[SPEAKER_01]: He's already there and he tackles very well.
- 31:41[SPEAKER_01]: And I know that Texas defense had all kinds of strong representation and that they loaded up on the NIL, right?
- 31:49[SPEAKER_01]: And they made the big splash and everybody talks about the past rush and
- 31:53[SPEAKER_01]: David Daley and they talk about the nose tackle, Lee Hunter, and they talk about the other past Russia, is another one of these 25-year-old guys who's out there and looks great Russian the pastor, but with Newskees kind of the one that I thought flew under the radar out of that collection of town that I think can be a meaning at a floor, a core four-special teamer, and a meaningful sub-package player at the NFL level on defense.
- 32:19[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, absolutely.
- 32:21[SPEAKER_00]: You mentioned one of the guy, I am bizarrely picked three linebackers.
- 32:23[SPEAKER_00]: You mentioned one of them, Jake Golday, since now he's a good player, I mean, he aligns inside and out, but to me, I think he projects best, obviously, as a, as a Mike, but you look at length and block avoidance and versatility, just extremely athletic, kind of off-ball by eight, three years, I think it's central Arkansas before transferring to the Bearcats of fifth year senior.
- 32:43[SPEAKER_00]: But I mean, this is a guy that reportedly runs a four, four, four, two,
- 32:49[SPEAKER_00]: Freaks, less member of Reservance Freaks, less member, and it's kind of just played all over really, you know, I think in in 24 he was using a Sam and a kind of an overhang defender, even the slot in in Tyson Vites is sort of three, three, five skiing that the Bearcats use just looks good in space a good zone cover guy can close the distance in the run game.
- 33:11[SPEAKER_00]: He's a he's definitely a play towards the run.
- 33:13[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, he's, um, this, you could say a lot of things about this year's draft class, thin on linebackers.
- 33:20[SPEAKER_01]: I do not think is one of them.
- 33:21[SPEAKER_01]: I think there's, if you're looking for all fall guys that have some alignment versatility, uh, goal days just one of the names of the list, but I think it's one of the better top-to-bottom positional rooms that we have in this year's class to pick from.
- 33:35[SPEAKER_01]: And
- 33:35[SPEAKER_01]: this extra exposure in a crowded class, these extra exposures where teams get a chance to know you and have intimate time spent with you and extra interviews and it really can help move the needle.
- 33:46[SPEAKER_01]: So I expected to help him when it's all said and done.
- 33:49[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, 100% a couple of guys I'm Kenosay.
- 33:51[SPEAKER_00]: I mentioned Tory in York.
- 33:54[SPEAKER_00]: Just a, I just love the story.
- 33:55[SPEAKER_00]: Actually, there's much to say anything.
- 34:02[SPEAKER_00]: He essentially
- 34:05[SPEAKER_00]: and he was told, he was a safety, he was told to move on, so he was a lima, he told to move to defensive end because he was a had a soft core.
- 34:12[SPEAKER_00]: He took that hard every single day, since that day, he completes 530 acitats to prevent that coach wrong.
- 34:20[SPEAKER_00]: Which immediately gets me in the room with him, right?
- 34:22[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, I'm brought in, right?
- 34:24[SPEAKER_00]: When coaches arrived, they had to stay in and coached the Rive at Mike Elco, etc., etc., at 5pm to school.
- 34:30[SPEAKER_00]: His car is always in the park in a lot.
- 34:31[SPEAKER_00]: He's always running the wind sprints in the dark, because apparently he's scouting service once said to him that he needed to improve his speed.
- 34:37[SPEAKER_00]: So he's just out there running the wind sprints.
- 34:39[SPEAKER_00]: He is thick in the lower half, he is active, he's chunked just good instincts.
- 34:44[SPEAKER_00]: In his first two seasons at Texas, he had 122 blades for first contact on ball carriers, which was tied for fourth-most amongst FBS defenders.
- 34:53[SPEAKER_00]: I, he's not even going to be 20 at the moment, won't turn into anyone until just before training camp.
- 34:58[SPEAKER_00]: And one takes San and coach described into me as the most intrinsically motivated player I've ever been around.
- 35:04[SPEAKER_00]: I, yeah, you talk about what we say and what's Jeff, Jeff Haffley and John Eric Sullivan in terms of we run through.
- 35:11[SPEAKER_00]: Well, I run through all for this kid, it turns what he wants to do.
- 35:14[SPEAKER_00]: He's a good player and he's only going to get better given his age profile.
- 35:17[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, and you know, some people might get wrapped up on the size profile at 510, but you can hide just like running backs can hide behind offensive linemen, you know, you if you're reading those blocks, you can hide behind your defensive linemen and you can show up in gaps where guys don't expect you to make plays and
- 35:35[SPEAKER_01]: Well, say all that about the size profile and what not, I think we've got a career missed tackle rate that's right around 10% could have been a percentage or two lower sure, but I've seen a lot of guys that have worse missed tackle rates than this, and I think he's really come a long way.
- 35:52[SPEAKER_01]: But the other thing about him too, when he was last year, they used him as a pressure player, pretty decent amount of ad like, I think he was close to a 50
- 36:03[SPEAKER_01]: pressure rate on blitzes.
- 36:04[SPEAKER_01]: So when you gave him opportunities, he made the most of them and was a disruptive player in that regard as well.
- 36:11[SPEAKER_01]: Now, do I think he's the best passing down linebacker in the class?
- 36:14[SPEAKER_01]: No, but if you're talking about a guy who is wired the right way.
- 36:20[SPEAKER_01]: to find and will an opportunity and a role, you often see who was the kid from this past year at Sean Dolac when he was a kid and he kind of had like this same like infectious enthusiasm and the football instincts were apparent and he tested well.
- 36:40[SPEAKER_01]: I was surprised he went on draft despite the fact that his protee tested well.
- 36:43[SPEAKER_00]: But then he's out there, he's played a little bit as well.
- 36:47[SPEAKER_01]: Yes, he's already found himself in a role.
- 36:52[SPEAKER_01]: nobody wants all fall line backers but yet here we are and like this is where you're going to find meaningful players this year on the graph.
- 36:58[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah and with York to me it's like can you get to the bull carrier quicker than anybody else you know can you and that's what he brings.
- 37:04[SPEAKER_00]: I think we talk about you know 511 on the opposite end of the scale six six is Eric Gentry who's the the USC guy who I'm really interested to see because he is super athletic super long arms I think he'll be the tallest middle line back in the NFL if he ends up there.
- 37:19[SPEAKER_00]: He is somebody a bit like Jalen Phillips of the now the Eagles for me the dolphins had step away from the game actually It's the way in 2024 because of what he called a number of concussions suffered in a short space of time He's been back.
- 37:32[SPEAKER_00]: He's a physical player.
- 37:33[SPEAKER_00]: He can bend.
- 37:33[SPEAKER_00]: He's explosive.
- 37:34[SPEAKER_00]: He can explode out of his hips.
- 37:36[SPEAKER_00]: He runs well Rob Ryan said that you know
- 37:40[SPEAKER_00]: I've never coached a guy and cover, I've got the quote here, and I've never coached a guy and cover every Titan in the country he can.
- 37:45[SPEAKER_00]: All these Titans like powers on all those who are killing people, they haven't seen Eric Gentry, which is obviously coach speed, talking his guy up the way, you know, he's a little bit light to 28 to 29, and the medical history, obviously there's going to be issues, but there's some reps on tape that are pretty compelling, and I think he's an interesting week for him, Dan and Frisco.
- 38:05[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
- 38:06[SPEAKER_01]: And it's it's such a unique profile.
- 38:10[SPEAKER_01]: And then you look at that.
- 38:11[SPEAKER_01]: And you consider.
- 38:12[SPEAKER_01]: He played more than a hundred snaps in the slot last year.
- 38:15[SPEAKER_01]: Like it just the fact that you've got a skill set with a size profile that can live out in that world with some level of competency.
- 38:24[SPEAKER_01]: is going to be the thing that's going to get him into rooms where defensive coaches are going to say, okay, what's the plan here?
- 38:31[SPEAKER_01]: Maybe not everybody wants to have that player and say we have to have a tailored plan.
- 38:36[SPEAKER_01]: Maybe we have too many players where we have a tailored plan for so we don't want another one.
- 38:40[SPEAKER_01]: But there will be some coaches that say, yeah, we can get in a long and late downs and get them out here and you see the length, you see the ability to play out in space, maybe we want to be a pressure front, we want to show pressure and we want to have guys that can be mugged up and drop out or guys that can come and disrupt throwing windows.
- 38:59[SPEAKER_01]: And that's the kind of player that I think can fit into a puzzle piece like
- 39:04[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, he's a very good blitzer as well, and he's a very good, a guy that can kind of attack the line of scrimmage through the A or B gap or from off the edge.
- 39:12[SPEAKER_00]: So I'll be interested to see how his weak as we goes.
- 39:15[SPEAKER_00]: That's it.
- 39:16[SPEAKER_00]: We're done.
- 39:17[SPEAKER_00]: Thanks for listening.
- 39:18[SPEAKER_00]: You can catch Carl.
- 39:19[SPEAKER_00]: Obviously, that eight as it sports or at grinding the tape on Twitter, you can catch me on my sub stack, which is simply called the low red zone or I'm at the cyclancy.
- 39:28[SPEAKER_00]: On Twitter, we'll be back next week, where we'll review the Shrine Packs.
- 39:31[SPEAKER_00]: This will find the winners and the losers and talk about, you know, what happened, who did what, who was talking to who, and then we'll look ahead to the Senior Bowl week in Mobile.
- 39:39[SPEAKER_00]: Are you going to the Senior Bowl?
- 39:41[SPEAKER_00]: I will be down.
- 39:41[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
- 39:42[SPEAKER_01]: So we have a massive winter storm that's going to do like.
- 39:46[SPEAKER_01]: three quarters of the country that's supposed to come through Sunday in the Monday.
- 39:50[SPEAKER_00]: Okay.
- 39:51[SPEAKER_01]: My flight was supposed to leave on Monday for Pensacola.
- 39:54[SPEAKER_01]: So I moved my flight up.
- 39:56[SPEAKER_01]: So I'm flying out on Saturday to get down there before the storm because I think anything east of Nebraska, you're getting like snow and ice except for the state of Florida.
- 40:06[SPEAKER_01]: So I'm going to Florida and then I'll just drive over from Pensacola.
- 40:10[SPEAKER_01]: So I'll be there next week.
- 40:11[SPEAKER_00]: be safe, be safe, take your microphone with you, obviously.
- 40:14[SPEAKER_00]: Oh, I got it.
- 40:15[SPEAKER_00]: Don't worry about that.
- 40:15[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, it's not that bad.
- 40:16[SPEAKER_00]: We'll get some great insights.
- 40:18[SPEAKER_00]: Thanks, obviously, to Carlos, always.
- 40:20[SPEAKER_00]: Alph on the controls.
- 40:21[SPEAKER_00]: Thank you for watching your listing.
- 40:22[SPEAKER_00]: We'll see you in a week's time.