Latest / Sports Avenue Twisted Podcast / SATP Ep.33 Part II feat. Jim Wickens(The Draft Professor)
Transcript
- 0:00Speaking of the Buffalo Bills, since we're Bills fans, like we
- 0:03have 10 picks in this year's draft and we know that they are
- 0:08in need for certain positions like a wide receiver, like a
- 0:12quarterback, perhaps a safety. Do you think there's a necessity
- 0:17of targeting those guys or do you think Brandon Bean will
- 0:20continue to do best player available?
- 0:25I think you do. Best player available at a
- 0:28position of need. I think BPA is just like APR
- 0:35wording right? That's just like a standard
- 0:38reply that people give to so that the media gets a sound
- 0:41bite. I would be shocked if Buffalo's
- 0:46first three draft picks were not defensive tackle, corner and
- 0:50edge in some order kind of thing and I'm in.
- 0:56Granted the two second round picks are so close to each
- 0:58other, right? But you know, actually my next
- 1:02podcast that I'm doing after this, we're doing a 32 team mock
- 1:07draft at the end of the week and we have 7 Bills draft people.
- 1:14We are setting up our draft board for that event and the
- 1:20discussions for Buffalo specifically are when do you
- 1:24prioritize defensive tackle over corner?
- 1:27Right when like is it, is it Trey Amos, then Kenneth Grant or
- 1:31Kenneth Grant then Trey Amos? What should their order be on
- 1:35the board? Because by most accounts, Grant
- 1:39is the better prospect. And I believe that if we want
- 1:43that large one tech, my opinion is that has to be the first
- 1:48pick, right? Because it's easier to find
- 1:52corners on day 2 and day three than it is going to be to find
- 1:57the defensive tackle that we need on day 2 or day three.
- 2:01So that's my opinion, but I don't know that my other Bills
- 2:05war room counterparts agree with me.
- 2:07So, and that's why we call it a war room because we're not going
- 2:10to agree, but we're setting the board for the event because it's
- 2:15going to be a busy events. So we want the board that we're
- 2:19going to use set before it begins.
- 2:21So I'm looking forward to the discussion with my friends and
- 2:27some of their friends on, you know, what we think the Bills
- 2:29should do. I think our war room for that
- 2:32event is about 7 or 8 people deep.
- 2:35So it it it will be a lot of fun, but my opinion is for
- 2:40Buffalo, defensive tackle should be the first pick followed by
- 2:46corner and edge. And most of that is because
- 2:50that's how the board stacks up. I don't think the defensive
- 2:54tackles that would help Buffalo fall to pick 56.
- 2:58But I could tell you plenty of corners we could take 56 that
- 3:02would start and I could tell you several edges that we could take
- 3:07it 56 and 62. There will be starters next year
- 3:11after Epinessa leaves. So that's what I would do, but
- 3:16that's not necessarily what Brandon Beam will do.
- 3:18So we'll see. But that I mean, that's my
- 3:21prediction, so. This wide receiver class is a
- 3:26very interesting 1. You have Jalen McMillan, who I
- 3:29think most people would agree is probably going to go with the
- 3:32first wide receiver off the board.
- 3:34But who would you think or who would you rank right after that
- 3:39in this class? Like you said again, it's it's
- 3:42it's a class that are, you know, going to be mostly number twos,
- 3:45you know, number threes. But who are some guys that that
- 3:50that you really like in this class and some some interesting
- 3:53names you want to talk about? Sure.
- 3:56So I do not think Ted McMillan will be wide receiver one.
- 4:00Oh wow. Coming off the board, yeah.
- 4:03So it to me, there's five wide receivers that are fighting to
- 4:08be that first wide receiver taken after Travis Hunter, Ted
- 4:11McMillan from Arizona, Matthew Golden from Texas, Luther Burden
- 4:16from Missouri, Amika Ibuka from Ohio State and Jayden Higgins
- 4:20from Iowa State. OK, so those five guys are
- 4:25probably for me, those are the top five wide receivers in the
- 4:30class, right? It's those five and then there's
- 4:33a drop off. But those five wide receivers
- 4:38don't play the position the same way, right?
- 4:42DK Metcalf doesn't play wide receiver the same way Jamar
- 4:45Chase does, right? So the question is, did you do
- 4:49you want the guy that plays like DK or do you?
- 4:51And we don't have a Jamar Chase in this class.
- 4:53So I don't want to pretend. But you know, it's like if you
- 4:58think of Ted McMillan, like Keon Coleman, right?
- 5:02Like he's he's a big guy and he's going to catch what you
- 5:05throw him, but he's not going to get away from a defender.
- 5:08He may not be the the best route runner.
- 5:11So if you're looking for a route runner, you want to Mika Igbuka
- 5:16or Jayden Higgins. And the question is, do you want
- 5:19your route runner on the line of scrimmage?
- 5:21That's Higgins, or do you want them in the slot?
- 5:24That's Igbuka. And then you have Burden, Luther
- 5:29Burden, who he's going to be like a gadget receiver.
- 5:32You can use them in the slot. You can use them out at the Z.
- 5:35He can run some downfield patterns and some intermediate
- 5:39patterns. OK.
- 5:41So do you want, like, Ted McMillan, who's going to be a
- 5:44possession receiver? Do you want Luther Burden, who
- 5:48you can, you know, use in a lot of different ways at the slot,
- 5:52at the Z? And he has some downfield
- 5:55presence. Matthew Golden is probably the
- 5:58best downfield separator. I think Matthew Golden should be
- 6:02wide receiver one, right? But not every team is going to
- 6:06need what Matthew Golden brings, right?
- 6:09If you're Pittsburgh and you already have DK Metcalf, Matthew
- 6:12Golden would be redundant. You'd be better off if you're
- 6:15Pittsburgh with a receiver like Higgins or a Buka, who's going
- 6:20to be a better route runner, right?
- 6:22Because if you look like, you know, DK Metcalf had JSN when he
- 6:27was in Seattle, a Buca is like JSN, right?
- 6:32I mean, they went to the same school.
- 6:33He's not like that because they went to the same school.
- 6:36But it it that comparison is there for a reason.
- 6:39Like we're pretty confident Seattle isn't drafting A Buca,
- 6:44but Seattle could be in on any one of the other four wide
- 6:46receivers that I mentioned, depending upon what they think
- 6:49that they need. Like do they want Golden to
- 6:52replace what DK did? Do you want Jayden Higgins, who
- 6:56can be an ex and he could he's he's, he can line up on the line
- 7:00of scrimmage. He's going to be a good route
- 7:02runner. Like if you talk to a Packers
- 7:04fan, Higgins is their wide receiver.
- 7:09Green Bay, Everybody I talked to a Green Bay, they want Jayden
- 7:12Higgins and they want him in Round 2.
- 7:14The question is, does he fall to Green Bay in Round 2, right?
- 7:17Does he last that long? But I would say that the top
- 7:22five receivers again, T Mac, Matthew Golden, Luther Burden,
- 7:26Mika Igbuca, Jayden Higgins, and I would say the three of those
- 7:31five guys will be the first 3 receivers taken before there
- 7:37might be some other guys that start getting into the mix.
- 7:41I could see T Mac falling to round two.
- 7:44I could see Burden falling to round two.
- 7:46I can see Golden and Igbuca all falling to Round 2.
- 7:50I don't think all five of them fall to Round 2, but I could see
- 7:55a world where one or two of them do because if you need a wide
- 8:01receiver, it's the sweet spot in this draft is actually round two
- 8:07and three. It's not round one, so if you
- 8:11have like 2 positions of high need on your team, let's take
- 8:15Seattle. They need a wide receiver and
- 8:18they need interior offensive line.
- 8:21They would be better off doing the interior offensive line
- 8:24early and then looking at the wide receiver board in round two
- 8:29as opposed to hoping that one of the interior offensive lineman
- 8:33that is available in round two to them could start right away.
- 8:38Those types, right? It's a meaning that, well, most
- 8:41wide receivers take a season anyway, so you may as well not
- 8:47invest the first round pick in them.
- 8:50So how the wide receivers fall in this draft for me is that's
- 8:56going to be one of the wildest stories that we're going to be
- 8:59telling in about 21 days. So who do you think could be a
- 9:04surprise in this year's draft? Because there's always that one
- 9:08player that always surprised people out of nowhere.
- 9:11Like last year, I believe we had like Bo Bo next.
- 9:14That should have been a second round pick that turn out to be
- 9:16like a 10s or 11, right? So who do you think could
- 9:21possibly jump up to draft or even in the top ten that could
- 9:24come out of nowhere. Yeah.
- 9:27So I think that this is the, you know, as we started the show and
- 9:32I said, this is a draft where you're going to be able to get
- 9:34starters. And here's one of the reasons
- 9:36why. When you look at how players get
- 9:42graded, and yeah, I'm at the draft professor.
- 9:46We podcast on the draft twice a day.
- 9:50And not everybody grades the same, but everybody creates
- 9:55player grades. And the fascinating part of this
- 9:59draft is you could have a player graded at 20 and somebody else
- 10:04is going to have that guy graded at 65.
- 10:08And neither person is wrong. So don't look at the rankings of
- 10:14a player on a board because you don't know how they're graded.
- 10:19You only know how somebody decided to stack them on the
- 10:23board because the the number of times I've heard I have the same
- 10:28grade on both players. I just like this one more.
- 10:32So I ranked them higher. So the grading is objective,
- 10:36right? They're putting a number grade
- 10:37on the player, but there's a lot of players that are getting the
- 10:41same grade and they're choosing who to rank higher.
- 10:44So if I had to pick some guys where maybe you're seeing them
- 10:50at 65 or 100 on your favorite mock draft simulator, by the
- 10:55way, your favorite mock draft simulator is either
- 10:57draftprofessor.com or you're wrong.
- 11:00But, but I, I, I, I think, I think a couple guys that
- 11:06probably aren't getting a lot of attention or Ty Felton from
- 11:10Maryland. Now, Ty Felton kind of burst on
- 11:14the scene this year. He was leading the Big 10 in
- 11:18receiving for a good chunk of the year.
- 11:22So he's, you know, some people have him in round 5.
- 11:27And I think on a simulator that's not mine, you can grab
- 11:31him in round five. My opinion is don't believe the
- 11:35simulator. I could see Ty Felton going in
- 11:40Round 2. I could see Ty Felton going in
- 11:43round two. I think A-Team, like Kansas City
- 11:46would absolutely love him. Some people have comped him to
- 11:50Stefan Diggs. I don't quite see it, but hey,
- 11:54it's, you know, that's good company to be in.
- 11:58So I would say Ty Felton would be 1.
- 12:02And then there's a couple of others.
- 12:05So Jalen Royals wide receiver from Utah State, I think it's
- 12:09going to be a wide receiver that we're going to be hearing about
- 12:12a lot. And then Jalen Noel is another
- 12:18one. A very polarizing wide receiver
- 12:23is Savian Williams from TCU. So Savian Williams is going to
- 12:30get comp to Cordell Patterson because Savian Williams plays
- 12:34running back and wide receiver, but he, he's a legit like, you
- 12:39know, 63220 and he can, he can run.
- 12:44So he's from a wide receiver standpoint, he has the ability
- 12:48to get behind the defense. He he's also big enough that you
- 12:52could use him at running back like Cordell Patterson.
- 12:55The difference though, is that Williams is coming in and he can
- 12:58run better routes than Cordell Patterson could.
- 13:02So I'm curious to see where Savian Williams lands.
- 13:06And again, my favorite thing with Savian Williams is to get
- 13:10him with an offensive coordinator.
- 13:12That'll unlock. You don't want him with Arthur
- 13:15Smith, right? But if Joe Brady got his hands
- 13:18on him or Andy Reid or Sean McVay or Kyle Shanahan, oh,
- 13:26Savian Williams is going to be a lot of fun because the you have
- 13:30to manufacture touches until he learns how to play wide
- 13:32receiver. But those manufactured touches
- 13:35are going to be what, you know, creates the highlights that we
- 13:37all watch on Sunday night. Couple of other wide receivers.
- 13:44And I definitely want to shout out Jack Besh from TCU.
- 13:48So draft professor was on Jack Besh in early November.
- 13:54When we covered Besh for the first time in November,
- 13:59immediately Randall Slifer, one of the draft professor, said
- 14:02he's not getting out of round two.
- 14:04And don't let the TCU fool you. He was on LSU and was the
- 14:11leading receiver on a team that had Justin Jefferson, I believe.
- 14:19And who's the other LSU wide receiver?
- 14:21I'm trying? Oh Brian Thomas junior, so he
- 14:25was on a team with Justin Jefferson and Brian Thomas
- 14:28junior and he led LSU in receiving but then he got hurt
- 14:31so then he had to transfer to TCU so he could get playing
- 14:34time. OK, so this is a 5 star athlete,
- 14:40top recruit just got hurt, came back from the injury, but other
- 14:47podcasts that other people watch didn't cover Jack Besh until the
- 14:51he was in the Senior Bowl and draft professors.
- 14:55We were covering him like two or three months earlier.
- 14:58So I think like Jack Bash, I think you know, you could comp
- 15:04him to Cooper Cup. Is he is he a tight end?
- 15:07Is he a wide receiver type situation?
- 15:11I think this draft through round four could have boards that are
- 15:18upside down. Somebody that you saw was a top
- 15:2225 player falls to round four. Somebody that you saw 110 on the
- 15:27big board is going to go get picked in round one.
- 15:31And it's going to be really difficult to sort through that
- 15:35because the grades are nearly flat in that range.
- 15:39Like definitely from 20 to 65, the grades are flat, which means
- 15:46that we could have somebody that we're talking about at the top
- 15:48of round three that some people were thought were going in round
- 15:51one. I think it's easier to predict
- 15:54the fallers right now than the risers, meaning that like, I
- 15:59think James Pierce falling to day three would not be unheard
- 16:04of, right? There's just some character
- 16:07concerns there, things like that.
- 16:09So I think it's easier for me to predict who's going to drop.
- 16:14I can't with a lot of confidence say this guy at 65 is going
- 16:19around 1:00. But I guess if I had to pick
- 16:22one, it would be Xavier Watts, the safety from Notre Dame,
- 16:26where maybe not a lot of people have them in their top 32, but I
- 16:30think he's going to go much closer to round one than he is
- 16:34to the end of Round 2. So let's go the other way on
- 16:39this question. Who are some guys that you feel
- 16:43in the first round are getting maybe perhaps a little bit too
- 16:46much height and that potentially have have that like bust
- 16:52potential I guess you would call it?
- 16:57Shadur Sanders. So Shadur Sanders, Kelvin Banks,
- 17:09those 2 immediately come to mind.
- 17:15And again, like, I don't want to pick on the quarterback.
- 17:17So I'm just I'm not even going to mention that player's name as
- 17:19I've scrolling through my list, James Pierce Junior, the edge
- 17:26from Tennessee. I think Harold Fannin I don't
- 17:34want to like, I think there was a lot of hype and some people
- 17:37had him going early in Round 2 two months ago.
- 17:43And I, I feel like we've cooled off on them for good reason,
- 17:47like for, for being at a smaller school.
- 17:51He's, he's a good pass catcher, but he is not an athletic
- 17:57outlier. And usually if you're a small
- 18:01school tight end, to succeed in the league, you need to have a
- 18:05high athletic score. And Fannin doesn't have that.
- 18:09So I think there's a lot of hype around Fannin that has already
- 18:13faded, but if you haven't been paying attention, maybe you
- 18:17didn't know that it was fading. And then I think Benjamin
- 18:22Morrison, the corner from Notre Dame, would be another one.
- 18:25And the reason that I say that about Benjamin Morrison is that
- 18:30he's had like a shoulder injury and a hip injury.
- 18:33And hips for a quarterback are kind of important.
- 18:38So to have an injured hip, if he is not medically cleared, he's
- 18:44going to be the story of day three of the NFL draft.
- 18:48Like who's going to take a chance on him with the injury?
- 18:52But if if the medicals didn't come back clean, he's going to
- 18:56drop out of the top one-on-one. So.
- 19:02All right, So which team is in dire need to improve in this
- 19:08year's draft class? Because I know that there are
- 19:10certain teams that need to improve.
- 19:12Maybe the team that comes up in mind is a Jaguars to maybe the
- 19:15Titans, but what are your thoughts on that?
- 19:20The team that needs to improve the most is the New York
- 19:23Football Giants, and it's not close.
- 19:26OK. And the reason why I say that is
- 19:28that if the Giants don't have a winning season, Brian Dabel will
- 19:32not make it to 17 games. So I think the Giants have more
- 19:37riding on this draft than any team in the league.
- 19:40It's and to me it's not really close.
- 19:44So you'd like to say, OK, the Jaguars need to improve.
- 19:47I I agree. But the Jaguars GM is new and
- 19:51the head coach is new, right? So they have a honeymoon this
- 19:55year, right? Like we don't know what they're
- 19:59going to be. So my number one team with the
- 20:03most to gain is the Giants. But my sneaky #2 team that's
- 20:09going to improve the most is the New England Patriots.
- 20:13And the New England Patriots are going to improve because Drake
- 20:17May is entering Year 2, right? I in my opinion, the Patriots
- 20:22could F up the draft. But you're getting Drake May in
- 20:24Year 2 and that's going to be better than a lot of other
- 20:27situations around the league. If the Patriots can figure out a
- 20:31way to put an offensive line in front of Drake May and get him
- 20:36some guys, get him some weapons like I'll I'll be disappointed
- 20:43if the Patriots 2. If two of the Patriots 1st 5
- 20:47picks are defense, I will be very disappointed in New England
- 20:51because they're not doing Drake May justice in my opinion.
- 20:56It's OK if New England goes at dual Carter 4, right?
- 21:01He might be the best player available there, but then once
- 21:04you do that, you got to help your quarterback out fast
- 21:08because you got to get him a left tackle and a right tackle.
- 21:11You got to get him a center, you got to get him a left guard and
- 21:13a right guard. And he still doesn't have
- 21:15anybody to catch his passes. So you need to get him some guys
- 21:19they can catch too. So if the Patriots drafted 5
- 21:23offensive lineman, 2 wide receivers, and a running back,
- 21:27that would be a good draft for them just to give Drake May more
- 21:31than he already has, right? Because right now I think he's
- 21:36got Mac Collins and Steph Diggs as his top 2 wide receivers.
- 21:41So I don't know if Buffalo's cutting any of their receivers
- 21:45next year, but maybe that's who New England's going to target.
- 21:47I don't know. But I, I think New England has
- 21:54an easy way to improve because The Jets and the Dolphins, no
- 22:01matter how good their draft is, I see their draft position next
- 22:05year worse than it is this year, right?
- 22:10Like, do any of us think The Jets will be better than one of
- 22:15the bottom seven NFL teams entering next year?
- 22:20Like their quarterback situation isn't great and then Miami,
- 22:29they're hanging on to veterans and they're my opinion is
- 22:34they're overpaying them and eventually that you're that that
- 22:40credit card is going to come due.
- 22:42So I actually think the Dolphins and The Jets are going to
- 22:46regress and New England, New England's in position to make
- 22:51the play offs. If they have a good draft, New
- 22:53England's going to be in a really good position to finish
- 22:56first or second in the AFC East. They make the playoffs next
- 22:59year. So I think that was your
- 23:03question, right? Yeah, that was my question about
- 23:07like who, which teams. But you you answered it
- 23:09perfectly. Trades always happen in the
- 23:13draft and I know you've mentioned prior that, you know,
- 23:17trade ups and, and stuff are are always hard to to to to predict,
- 23:23but who are some teams that you feel could possibly make trades
- 23:28in this draft, whether it be up or down?
- 23:33Yeah, great question. So especially if we're in rounds
- 23:382 through 7, the team that's at the top of the list that's going
- 23:42to make a lot of trades, it's the Buffalo Bills.
- 23:45Because Buffalo has 10 draft picks, six or seven will be able
- 23:49to make the team. So they're they're going to be
- 23:52moving around the board to get the guys that they want.
- 23:58So I would say Buffalo is definitely going to be a team
- 24:04that is going to make more than one trade.
- 24:08Other teams that are going to make trades.
- 24:12I would be willing to bet anybody a very large cup of
- 24:17coffee that Minnesota does not make their first round pick.
- 24:24So I I have a high amount of confidence new or Minnesota
- 24:27doesn't have a lot of draft capital.
- 24:30So if there's a team that's looking to move up to Round 1,
- 24:33Minnesota will trade back and there's not necessarily going to
- 24:37be a pick premium there. New England just wants more
- 24:40picks because I believe they only have 4 picks.
- 24:44I believe Atlanta only has 5 or 6 picks.
- 24:48So I would I could see if if there is a second trade up place
- 24:53in round one, it's Atlanta. The problem is Atlanta's pick is
- 24:57really high. So you're going to have to pay a
- 25:01huge premium to get up that high.
- 25:04And I don't know that there's a player that's 15th overall in
- 25:07this draft. It's worth that premium, right?
- 25:11So I could definitely see Atlanta trading like in Round 2,
- 25:15taking their second and trading back.
- 25:18It's much cheaper to trade in round two, a fourth round pick.
- 25:24If you, if you package A2 and A4, you can move up about 6 to 8
- 25:29spots in round two. But if you offer a one and a
- 25:34four, you get to move up three spots in Round 1.
- 25:38So it's just it's easier to trade up in Round 2.
- 25:43So I could see that the Rams don't have a second round pick.
- 25:50So I can see the Rams being a team that wants to trade back.
- 25:54I think that's a good team. Again, if you're trying to trade
- 25:58up into round one between the Vikings, the Rams and the
- 26:02Falcons, I think those are where the trade UPS happen in round
- 26:05one, just because those teams don't have a lot of draft
- 26:08capital. I also think Cleveland is going
- 26:11to be very active. Cleveland has more draft capital
- 26:15than any team in the league. I think they have like 5 sixth
- 26:19round picks plus very high picks in every round, plus like
- 26:24Buffalo's third round pick from the Amari Cooper deal and stuff
- 26:27like that. So Cleveland has a lot of draft
- 26:30capital. I I see them moving around a
- 26:32lot, but at the same time, Cleveland could make 15 draft
- 26:36picks and all 15 could make their team.
- 26:39So it's not like they need to liquidate picks.
- 26:45They just need to make the picks they have count to make sure
- 26:48that they get the guys that they like.
- 26:52And this is also the first year in a long time that Cleveland
- 26:55has had a first round pick, right?
- 26:57So the Deshaun Watson fleece is officially over and Cleveland
- 27:03actually has draft capital. And when you talk to Cleveland
- 27:06fans, OK, the trade for Watson was a bust, But the bigger
- 27:11problem is you lost three years of draft capital.
- 27:16And it's the fact that you couldn't draft or replenish the
- 27:20roster which created as much of a problem.
- 27:24It's the quarterback not working out, right?
- 27:27Because if we look at any of our teams, we've had picks that
- 27:30didn't work out, right? Whether it's JP Loffman in
- 27:34Buffalo or Cody Ford Buffalo, or you look at like, you know, did
- 27:38Garoppolo work out in New England or whatever, right?
- 27:40We all have picks that didn't work out.
- 27:44But as long as you didn't give up next year's picks, there's
- 27:47always next year. Well, with Cleveland, there
- 27:51wasn't a next year because they didn't have the picks they get.
- 27:53They had already given them up. So I think one of the lessons,
- 27:57and we've heard Brandon Bean, if you're a Bills fan, we've heard
- 27:59Brandon Bean say this before, you don't want to give up next
- 28:03year's draft capital this year. It's OK to give up this year's
- 28:08draft capital this year. And I even said that about
- 28:10Shudur at the beginning of the program, right?
- 28:13I said if you're going to trade up to get him, you're best off
- 28:17trading this year's draft capital to go up and get him.
- 28:22Don't give up a first round pick next year because next year's
- 28:26first round is looking better than this year's is already.
- 28:31So you don't like, you don't want to give up like that
- 28:34premium pick next year in a class that's looking a little
- 28:38bit better than this year. All right.
- 28:44I got a list of positions that you could name them and who you
- 28:49think could be an impactful player.
- 28:51So starting off with the safety, who do you think could make an
- 28:54impact? Xavier Watts, Notre Dame
- 28:58cornerback, quarterback. Like the one that throws the
- 29:03ball right. Corner, corner.
- 29:05Sorry. Oh, corner.
- 29:06OK, there's a, there's several corners I like.
- 29:10I'm going to say Jade Baron round one, but another guy that
- 29:16I like. That's good.
- 29:17Probably going to be a day two. Name is Noel Williams from
- 29:19California. Defensive tackle.
- 29:25Defensive tackle. So I love Kenneth Grant.
- 29:28If the world will let Kenneth Grant get drafted by Buffalo.
- 29:32Life is good, yes, but I I want to also shout out TJ Sanders
- 29:40from South Carolina. It definitely has some
- 29:46flexibility to move to a couple different spots along the
- 29:49defensive line, but I definitely like TJ Sanders.
- 29:54Offensive tackle. I'm going to go Jalen Travis.
- 30:01Running back. La Quinta Allen from Syracuse.
- 30:07All this. Edge.
- 30:12There's a lot. OK, so I'm going to give you
- 30:17this. I'm a Buffalo Bills fan, so my
- 30:19Homer picks are going to be Landon Jackson or Femi old Udajo
- 30:25from UCLA and the other one would be Braden Swinson.
- 30:30And then a a, a light round gem for you.
- 30:34You don't hear his name a lot is Q Robinson from Alabama.
- 30:39Robinson has, I don't want to say has had a raw deal, but it
- 30:42it it his college journey hasn't been perfect.
- 30:45He's four year player from Alabama.
- 30:49He played behind some pretty good Alabama edges.
- 30:53Chris Roswell, Dallas Turner. Those are top 64 NFL draft
- 30:58picks, so the players ahead of them on the depth chart were NFL
- 31:04players. He played special teams his
- 31:07first three years was starting this year and he was setting
- 31:13offenses on their heels until he got hurt.
- 31:16So he played like 7 games there. He's a five star recruit.
- 31:22So he's, you know, talk. Yeah, Brandon mean always talks
- 31:25about, you know, can you get the five star recruits and you don't
- 31:28always get the premium athletes when you're picking.
- 31:30It's 30th overall, right? So Q Robinson would be like the
- 31:34just and shorter of edges. He he hits all of the checkmarks
- 31:39coming out of high school and he's played special teams.
- 31:44His college career has seven games of production.
- 31:49So I'm looking forward to seeing whoever grabs Q Robinson from
- 31:53Alabama on day three. Tight end.
- 32:01So again, I could go with the Homer pick of Elijah Arroyo
- 32:05from, well, I guess Elijah Arroyo is from Miami.
- 32:09And then I could also go with a Ronda Gadson from Syracuse.
- 32:12I think those are two guys that I like.
- 32:14Arroyo has some injury history that could push him down, but if
- 32:20Arroyo had a clean bill of health, I don't think he makes
- 32:22it out around 1 so. Interior offensive line.
- 32:30Luke Kandra from Cincinnati. And one more position, defensive
- 32:35line. Defensive line so Kenneth Grant
- 32:42yeah TJ Sanders and then give me a minute here.
- 32:48Let me look at my listing. I'll get you a light run guy
- 32:50that I like. Oh, I got to mention Walter
- 32:55Nolan. If Walter Nolan from Ole Miss,
- 32:58he's not going to be a late round guy, but I think Walter
- 33:01Nolan has a chance to be the best defensive tackle in this
- 33:04draft. I'm looking to see if I can look
- 33:09at maybe one more Thor Griffith. OK, there we go.
- 33:14Thor Griffith, defensive lineman from Louisville.
- 33:17So Thor Griffith went to Harvard, graduated, transferred
- 33:22to Louisville, so he has a reasonably good athletic
- 33:26profile. Tape at Louisville isn't great.
- 33:30I'm not saying it's bad, but I think whoever gets Thor Griffith
- 33:36is probably going to get a defensive lineman.
- 33:38They're going to be able to play in a rotation for four years.
- 33:41He may not be your starter, but he might be your number one
- 33:44defensive tackle off the bench right in some type of rotation.
- 33:49So I definitely like Thor Griffith.
- 33:55Which team, in your opinion, do you feel could have could end up
- 33:59benefiting the most from this year's draft?
- 34:05I think whichever team wins the Super Bowl is going to point to
- 34:09the draft and be able to say, you know, we were able to get
- 34:13345 quality starters. So I would definitely like this
- 34:19is a Homer pick, but it's Buffalo.
- 34:22I can see Buffalo if if, if we were to Fast forward to 2026.
- 34:28So we're talking about next year's draft.
- 34:30I think Buffalo could point back to this draft and say we don't
- 34:34have holes in 2026 because we drafted well in 2025.
- 34:38We could fix our defensive line room, we could fix our edge
- 34:42room. We can fix our linebacker room,
- 34:44safety room, corner room. We can add a piece to our wide
- 34:47receiver room. We can get our third string
- 34:49tight end. We can have nearly all of those
- 34:52pieces in place to the point where next year if we want to
- 34:56trade up and like do a Julio Jones type trade to like get
- 35:01that dynamic guy, we could do that next year because this year
- 35:05we filled all of our holes. So I, I can see Buffalo getting
- 35:106 or 7 starters out of this draft, like 6 or 7/20/26
- 35:15starters out of the 2025 draft. That being said, I'll point to a
- 35:21couple of other teams. Cincinnati needs to have a good
- 35:25draft. They don't have the free agent
- 35:27money to spend. A Bengals fans want more draft
- 35:32picks because they only have 6 and they have more than six
- 35:35holes on the roster. So if Cincinnati comes away from
- 35:41the draft with the right pieces, they have a really good
- 35:46quarterback with the best wide receiver in football, and they
- 35:51have to get by the Ravens. Like, I don't know that they're
- 35:53worried about the Steelers or the Browns, but they got to get
- 35:56by the Ravens. So I think the Bengals having a
- 35:59good draft could set themselves up.
- 36:02And I'm also going to come again, I'm going to come up with
- 36:05a cheap answer, but the winner of the AFC S, whoever wins the
- 36:12AFC S is probably going to point to the draft and say we drafted
- 36:19well and that's how we were able to win the division.
- 36:22Now the AFC South, in my opinion it's the weakest division in
- 36:26football. So I realize it's a cheap
- 36:29answer, but if you look nearly every year we have a team that
- 36:33goes worst to 1st. Did any of us have the
- 36:35Commanders making the playoffs last year?
- 36:38Did anybody, did anybody have the Texans making the playoffs
- 36:41the year before? These were teams that were
- 36:43drafting in the top five that became playoff teams.
- 36:48Can Tennessee make the playoffs? Like we actually talked about
- 36:56that on a podcast last night. And the Titans fans thought I
- 37:00was, well, they probably thought I was a knee breeder or
- 37:05something, but I'm completely sober.
- 37:08They they thought I was off my rocker.
- 37:10But I'm like, you should be going into the draft thinking
- 37:13that if you make the right moves, you make the playoffs.
- 37:15You're in the division to do it. The Colts don't have an answer
- 37:19at quarterback, right? Are we going to put any money on
- 37:23Daniel Jones leading the Colts to the playoffs?
- 37:26Really The Jaguars, I'm not a believe.
- 37:30I'm not a Trevor Lawrence believer, right?
- 37:33So if we look and then the Texans, their offensive line is
- 37:37in shambles, right? So if there's a division where
- 37:43the the Titans can do it, they have a lot of holes on the
- 37:45roster. But I'm not saying that they're
- 37:48going to like win home field advantage throughout the
- 37:50playoffs. I'm simply saying they're going
- 37:52to be 9 and eight in a bad division.
- 37:57So those are a few answers for you.
- 38:02Jim, we appreciate you being here, man.
- 38:04You had some great insight, great information, man.
- 38:07You talk so, so deep about the draft, man.
- 38:10Where can we find you in social media and everywhere else?
- 38:14Oh absolutely. So I run draft Professor.
- 38:18So draft professor, you can find us on X at NFL Draft Fanatic.
- 38:22No, I am fanatic. It is the same handle on
- 38:25YouTube. Draft professor has daily draft
- 38:28podcasts. So literally as soon as I hang
- 38:31up here, I got to go get my next podcast ready, right?
- 38:35And we do 2 podcasts a night. We have 52 podcasters.
- 38:40Draft professor is 52 people. It's not just me. 52 people
- 38:45pumping out daily content. Sixteen of those 52 podcasts
- 38:49with us once a week. The rest of them fill in.
- 38:53You might know some of the names of the podcast with us,
- 38:55including Sam Tees and James Foster.
- 38:58We have guests that come in from A-Z Sports 3013 freelancers.
- 39:03And ultimately what we're trying to do is give everybody a voice
- 39:10for the draft. So if you've got a board and you
- 39:13want to be able to talk about it with other people and compare
- 39:16evaluations, that's pretty much what we do.
- 39:19It's all of our podcasts are typically two people comparing a
- 39:23group of players or talking about how to fix a team.
- 39:27So we have Epic Mach 25, that's Thursday, Friday, Saturday from
- 39:346:15 to 11:00 Eastern and you're going to see war rooms all over
- 39:41the Internet. So what what that means is that
- 39:43while draft professor has the main podcast talking about every
- 39:47pick, multiple teams are going to have war rooms where if you
- 39:51want to just see what the Buffalo Bills perspective of all
- 39:53the draft picks are, we're going to have seven Bills content
- 39:57creators in our war room. So while I'm on the main podcast
- 40:01channel, there's going to be other Bills content creators in
- 40:04the war room. Discussing what should Buffalo
- 40:08do in this situation? We have trade offers that have
- 40:10already came in. We will be discussing the trades
- 40:13as to why we would do it or not do it, so should be a lot of
- 40:17fun. I'm working with about 40 people
- 40:22to put this on because we have 32 people picking for 32 teams
- 40:25for seven rounds, so I couldn't create this content without all
- 40:30of my closest friends. So appreciative to them.
- 40:33I'm really appreciative to both of you for bringing me on.
- 40:37This has been a lot of fun and I hope we can see you guys on a
- 40:42Draft Professor podcast soon. Oh yeah, definitely.
- 40:45That would be awesome. And that's such a great concept,
- 40:49man. You got going there really cool.
- 40:53But you know, we, we appreciate you and thank you for joining us
- 40:57today, man, It was fun. You know, I got to learn a lot
- 41:01about the draft too. So you know, it's all about
- 41:04learning, learning, learning myself as well.
- 41:07So it was great. Thanks for joining us today and
- 41:10hopefully we can get you on the future.
- 41:12And we'd loved, we'd love to join one day in one of those
- 41:16podcasts, man. Awesome, awesome.
- 41:19Well, thank you very much for having me, guys.
- 41:21Thank you. So we will place the description
- 41:23below where you can find Jim and the draft for several
- 41:27professors. So till next time, take care, be
- 41:30kind to each other. Signing up from the Sports Ave.
- 41:33Twister podcast on Tuesday, April 8th, 2029.
- 42:18None.