Latest / NFL Now / Discussion on Lance Zierlein's Mock Draft, Sam LaPorta Joins the Show, & The Colts moving up from #4
Transcript
- 0:05Speaker 1: NFL Now is a production of the NFL in partnership
- 0:08Speaker 1: with iHeartRadio. It might be the best tight end draft
- 0:21Speaker 1: in a decade coming up one of the fastest tight
- 0:23Speaker 1: ends in said class. Sam Laporta from Iowa. Is he
- 0:26Speaker 1: the next big tight end in that great Hawkeye tradition.
- 0:30Speaker 1: He will join us on this hour in the NFL
- 0:32Speaker 1: Now on NFL Network from our news room in Los Angeles.
- 0:34Speaker 1: Find names. Andrews ceciliotic. Great to have you again here,
- 0:36Speaker 1: Steve White, glad to be here. This Lanzerline mock draft.
- 0:41Speaker 1: I mean, that's the news of the debt. Have you
- 0:43Speaker 1: seen the Lancer Line mock draft. It is serious business.
- 0:46Speaker 1: We're leading with the mock draft because it is that
- 0:48Speaker 1: time of the year, That's why. And because Lance mock
- 0:51Speaker 1: draft is different than all the other kids. Yeah, he's
- 0:54Speaker 1: got bright Song at one, boring, just kidding. He has, however,
- 0:57Speaker 1: Tyree Wilson at two the Texans pass our quarterback, say
- 1:01Speaker 1: war or that later, and he has c. J. Stroud
- 1:04Speaker 1: at Wait, how did the Ravens get four? You ask?
- 1:09Speaker 1: Because Lance has the Cults signing Lamar Jackson giving up
- 1:15Speaker 1: the two ones, including four overall. Again Lamar Jackson of
- 1:19Speaker 1: the Colt CJ. Straut of the Ravens. Lance has taken
- 1:22Speaker 1: a lot of shrapnel because remember Lance lives in Houston everybody,
- 1:26Speaker 1: so he has the Texans not taking the quarterback at too.
- 1:28Speaker 1: Even his son doesn't like it. His eighteen year old
- 1:33Speaker 1: son his texting Dad saying, what kind of mock is that? Dad?
- 1:40Speaker 1: Lance right now is otherwise occupied defending his draft all
- 1:43Speaker 1: around Houston. So Jeff Jide is here as well, so
- 1:47Speaker 1: we're gonna try to make sense of it. Jeff. Starting
- 1:50Speaker 1: with the trade at four, The understated part of all
- 1:53Speaker 1: of this is that Lamar Jackson would be a cult
- 1:57Speaker 1: for this to all work. Yeah, it's crazy. I thought
- 2:01Speaker 1: angel reason Caitlyn Clark was the big controversy of the
- 2:03Speaker 1: last two days, and Lance just blew out of the
- 2:05Speaker 1: water with this, with this trade. It look I heard
- 2:10Speaker 1: Chris Ballard at the owner's meetings talking about how, yeah,
- 2:13Speaker 1: they'll look into the possibility of making a deal because
- 2:17Speaker 1: Lamar Jackson's a great player and he is available. But
- 2:20Speaker 1: it's hard for me to imagine one of the Houston
- 2:22Speaker 1: Texans passing on CJ. Stroud and two that this would
- 2:26Speaker 1: come down. This is still with Lamar Jackson a money situation,
- 2:30Speaker 1: and it's it's just I know the Coats have done
- 2:32Speaker 1: a lot of move with veteran quarterbacks for the last
- 2:34Speaker 1: few years. This would be way way outside the box.
- 2:38Speaker 1: I just Steve, I know it sounds sexy, but I
- 2:41Speaker 1: just can't imagine this. CJ. Stroud whinds up in Baltimore
- 2:44Speaker 1: and Lamar Jackson's playing for the Colts next year. Well,
- 2:46Speaker 1: the first part of what you said is, but I
- 2:47Speaker 1: can't imagine it's that the Texans pass on a quarterback,
- 2:51Speaker 1: whether it's probably Young or c J. Stroud at number two,
- 2:54Speaker 1: because land Zerline might not be the one need to
- 2:57Speaker 1: get property in Colorado. That might be Texans GM Nick
- 3:00Speaker 1: Casserio if he passes on one of those two prospects,
- 3:03Speaker 1: after which happened at quarterback for them the past couple
- 3:06Speaker 1: of years. I'm not I'm not so you know, crazy
- 3:10Speaker 1: thinking that maybe the Colts try to make a move
- 3:14Speaker 1: for Lamar at number four if they don't get their quarterback,
- 3:17Speaker 1: if they don't get the quarterback they like in the draft,
- 3:19Speaker 1: they may call it Baltimore and say, okay, let's try
- 3:21Speaker 1: to get something done here. I just don't see the
- 3:23Speaker 1: Ravens coming off of Lamar jack I just that's the
- 3:26Speaker 1: part I don't see happening. But again, the part is CJ.
- 3:30Speaker 1: Straw being available at four. That's not going to happen
- 3:34Speaker 1: because should he get by the Texans at two and
- 3:36Speaker 1: they make that mistake, that's where some other team comes
- 3:39Speaker 1: up to three, a team like Tennessee from eleven comes
- 3:43Speaker 1: up to three to get the Ravens getting away from
- 3:46Speaker 1: Lamar Jackson. A lot depends on if let's say the
- 3:49Speaker 1: Colts make and offer what that offer sheet looks like.
- 3:51Speaker 1: Do they want the fourth overall pick? Is it a
- 3:53Speaker 1: contract that they actually want to match and have to
- 3:55Speaker 1: live up to. There are a lot of variables here.
- 3:58Speaker 1: Lance again who lives in Houston. Has the Texans then
- 4:01Speaker 1: with their other first round pick, trading from twelve up
- 4:05Speaker 1: to seven with the Raiders and taking Will Levis, which
- 4:09Speaker 1: means Anthony Richardson Jeff falls out of the top ten
- 4:13Speaker 1: and with all this Mac Jones noise out there falls
- 4:15Speaker 1: to Bill Belichick at fourteen. Yeah, even harder to imagine.
- 4:20Speaker 1: And I know that Anthony Richardson is a very interesting
- 4:23Speaker 1: prospect with all the tools and mesterables, but some questions
- 4:26Speaker 1: about just what he can be with the limited amount
- 4:28Speaker 1: of starts at Florida. But again, like I just can't
- 4:31Speaker 1: see Tennessee passing on him. I can't see the Falcons,
- 4:35Speaker 1: who have Desmond Ritter but this would be a better
- 4:37Speaker 1: option passing on him, even the Raiders, you know, having
- 4:41Speaker 1: an opportunity to take him where they could take him.
- 4:43Speaker 1: I just can't see him ending up being in the
- 4:45Speaker 1: middle of the draft with so many teams eating quarterbacks
- 4:48Speaker 1: and having a chance to take a guy who really
- 4:50Speaker 1: is highly regarded in coming on strong Steve Ye's look.
- 4:55Speaker 1: I'm sure Will Belichick this is something he probably would explore,
- 4:57Speaker 1: but he's probably got to trade up to make a
- 4:59Speaker 1: move like this. He's not going to be there at
- 5:00Speaker 1: fourteen because even if Tennessee eleven were to pass on him,
- 5:03Speaker 1: which I just don't see happening, that's where team like
- 5:07Speaker 1: you know, Minnesota or Seattle with a twenty pick Minnesota
- 5:09Speaker 1: twenty three, tries to skydive in to get a quarterback
- 5:13Speaker 1: knowing and you know, they're in situations where maybe next
- 5:16Speaker 1: year a developmental player like Richardson could be their starter
- 5:20Speaker 1: for the next four years. So I just don't see
- 5:22Speaker 1: him getting the fourteen. But then again, I don't see
- 5:25Speaker 1: the Patriots maybe exploring that being a possibility. Yeah, I mean,
- 5:28Speaker 1: the quarterbacks are always the most intriguing part of the
- 5:30Speaker 1: shiny objects. If you will love this mock draft. Lancer
- 5:33Speaker 1: Line is going to chaos theory here in the first round,
- 5:37Speaker 1: which is as we stand here, twenty three days away,
- 5:41Speaker 1: chaos theory. By the way, a superb red wine from
- 5:43Speaker 1: Brown Vineyards up in Napa. It's very good stuff. Stevie Sr.
- 5:48Speaker 1: Drigging a lout of it right, vinter in making going
- 5:50Speaker 1: back to UC Davis to get a graduate degree. Here
- 5:52Speaker 1: he's going to grow his own grapes. Thank you, Steve. Jeff.
- 5:56Speaker 1: You can go to NFL dot com right now and
- 5:58Speaker 1: check out Lancerlines mock draft. He does not have interesting
- 6:03Speaker 1: Hendon Hooker in the first round. However, other mocks do.
- 6:08Speaker 1: DJ Brooks, for example, we were just talking about Hendon
- 6:13Speaker 1: Hooker and his rehab of it. He Andrew with Stacy Dales.
- 6:16Speaker 1: Mike Caripolo now with us for Insider Report. Hooker is
- 6:19Speaker 1: meeting Mike with teams that could be interesting first round pairings.
- 6:24Speaker 1: The Saints have twenty nine. The Saints do have twenty nine. Yes,
- 6:27Speaker 1: and Hendon Hooker is visiting the Saints, a team that
- 6:31Speaker 1: has their veteran quarterback for the short term at least
- 6:35Speaker 1: in Derek Carr after signing him as a free agent.
- 6:38Speaker 1: So Hooker is a guy coming off an aco obviously
- 6:41Speaker 1: will not be ready immediately, So no matter where he goes,
- 6:44Speaker 1: it's going to be a place where he is going
- 6:46Speaker 1: to sit and get healthy and learn while he's sitting
- 6:49Speaker 1: as well. But there is upside here for a guy
- 6:52Speaker 1: who seems to be pretty firm as a first round
- 6:57Speaker 1: possibility here. So the Saints there twenty nine could be
- 7:01Speaker 1: right where we're looking at Hendon Hooker to come off
- 7:03Speaker 1: the board. Now, they are a bunch of tea teams
- 7:05Speaker 1: that have interest in him that are going to bring
- 7:07Speaker 1: him in for a visit. The medical is going to
- 7:09Speaker 1: be a big part of that, and that's a big
- 7:11Speaker 1: reason why teams want to meet with him. So don't
- 7:14Speaker 1: be surprised if you see a bunch of teams either
- 7:16Speaker 1: late first round or even early second round, because we've
- 7:19Speaker 1: seen teams kind of jump into the first round to
- 7:21Speaker 1: get that extra year on a deal for a quarterback,
- 7:23Speaker 1: that fifth year. So Hendon Hooker looking to be a
- 7:26Speaker 1: late first round pick and meeting with teams that are
- 7:29Speaker 1: either again either picking there or could jump up into there.
- 7:31Speaker 1: The most notable example of the team trading up to
- 7:34Speaker 1: get that fifth year would be Ozzie knew some of
- 7:35Speaker 1: the Ravens in twenty eighteen. They traded up and got
- 7:37Speaker 1: Lamar Jackson with the thirty second overall pick, the bottom
- 7:40Speaker 1: of the first which means five year contracts. By the way,
- 7:43Speaker 1: Lance has CJ Strout going four to the Colts, which
- 7:47Speaker 1: would be I'm sorry to the Ravens, which would be fascinating.
- 7:50Speaker 1: CJ Strout today, Mike or in the near future is
- 7:53Speaker 1: meeting with the Texans who have two. I believe it's Wednesday.
- 7:57Speaker 1: I believe it is tomorrow. CJ Strout meeting with the
- 7:59Speaker 1: Houston Texans. The Texans did not have a large contingent
- 8:03Speaker 1: at any of the pro days. They're preferring to do
- 8:05Speaker 1: their homework on these guys on campus. So yes, that
- 8:09Speaker 1: is what's going to happen with CJ Strout as he
- 8:11Speaker 1: meets with Houston Texans. Were sitting there at number two,
- 8:14Speaker 1: and if Bryce Young goes one, you would think that CJ.
- 8:17Speaker 1: Strout would go to to Houston or vice versa. However,
- 8:20Speaker 1: it's going to Texans obviously need a long term quarterback
- 8:24Speaker 1: solution and are in the position to do that, as
- 8:27Speaker 1: are the Indianapolis Colts sort of sitting at number four,
- 8:29Speaker 1: and they worked out both Bryce Young and CJ. Strout
- 8:32Speaker 1: on Monday. Another team that said, no, don't worry about
- 8:36Speaker 1: that pro day stuff. We'd rather do our own work.
- 8:38Speaker 1: So they worked out both of those guys in southern California.
- 8:41Speaker 1: I'm told both of them through for them, both of
- 8:43Speaker 1: them happy to throw for them. Bryce Young through well
- 8:45Speaker 1: at his pro day, definitely impressed teams with his ability
- 8:49Speaker 1: to put the football in the air. So you would
- 8:51Speaker 1: think that the cults came away impressed with both of
- 8:53Speaker 1: those guys. Now the question is will either of them
- 8:55Speaker 1: be available at number four? If you ask Glands zero line,
- 8:58Speaker 1: you'll get one answer. If you ask everybody else, you'll
- 9:00Speaker 1: probably get a different answer. So about his son just
- 9:05Speaker 1: crushing him on what kind of mock was that? Dad?
- 9:08Speaker 1: I love that, But Lance is comfortable with his mock.
- 9:11Speaker 1: He's going to tweet that text from his son, right, yeah,
- 9:15Speaker 1: I mean taking trapped and leave him from inside his
- 9:18Speaker 1: own home. The Raiders might have been front and center
- 9:21Speaker 1: on this quarterback pro day circuit. Now they're bringing him
- 9:25Speaker 1: into Vegas, the latest being Anthony Richardson and front and
- 9:29Speaker 1: center when it came to Richardson after his Pro day workout,
- 9:32Speaker 1: when Dave Ziggler, the Raiders general manager, was the first
- 9:35Speaker 1: one to greet Richardson. So it's either some kind of
- 9:39Speaker 1: really intricate employ here to also bring him in for
- 9:42Speaker 1: a visit on Friday and to jump up there and
- 9:45Speaker 1: say hello to him, or it's a sign that there
- 9:47Speaker 1: is interest here, that there is a high ceiling we've
- 9:49Speaker 1: talked about earlier Hendon Hooker and Derek Carr. Well, how
- 9:52Speaker 1: about Anthony Richardson the possibility of not only Jimmy Garoppolo,
- 9:56Speaker 1: but also Brian Hoyer Hoyer agreeing to terms with the
- 9:58Speaker 1: Raiders according to his agent earlier today. So the Raiders
- 10:02Speaker 1: have two veteran quarterbacks potentially ahead of Anthony Richardson if
- 10:06Speaker 1: they wind up drafting him, or Will Levis or another
- 10:09Speaker 1: quarterback whoever it winds up being. So, yeah, look, Richardson
- 10:13Speaker 1: needs that fine tuning, finer seasoning on his game. No
- 10:17Speaker 1: matter where he goes. The expectation is he would probably
- 10:20Speaker 1: sit and learn a little bit more behind a veteran quarterback.
- 10:23Speaker 1: So if it's the Raiders, yeah, make a ton of sense,
- 10:25Speaker 1: would it. It would make a ton of sense. Jimmy
- 10:28Speaker 1: Garoppolo gets the contract and maybe he could be the
- 10:31Speaker 1: next guy up. Brian Hoyer, by the way, joining the page,
- 10:34Speaker 1: I'm sorry, joining the Raiders. If you were to start
- 10:36Speaker 1: a game for the Raiders this year, it would be
- 10:37Speaker 1: the eighth team for which he has started one shy
- 10:41Speaker 1: of the NFL record of nine held by that bearded
- 10:45Speaker 1: guy on the TNF pregame show at Amazon. Thank you,
- 10:48Speaker 1: Mike Carofolo. Lancer line. Has Quentin Johnson go to the
- 10:53Speaker 1: Cowboys at twenty sixth overall the TCU wide receiver. That
- 11:00Speaker 1: would be interesting, certainly as Jackson Smith and Jigboo the
- 11:04Speaker 1: Ohio state wide receiver as his first wide out off
- 11:08Speaker 1: the board. Starting to feel real today, Jane Slater annual
- 11:11Speaker 1: meeting was last week. Now we're like, I know, three
- 11:13Speaker 1: weeks away from the draft, but just Aaron Rodgers in
- 11:16Speaker 1: this Aaron Rodgers in the draft. So let's try to
- 11:18Speaker 1: make sense here. The Cowboys sitting a twenty six looking
- 11:20Speaker 1: at who they're bringing in on visits and try to
- 11:23Speaker 1: get some ideas to what they are doing. What are
- 11:25Speaker 1: you hearing? Well? If I may just real quick defend
- 11:28Speaker 1: my man Lance. I've known him for well over a
- 11:30Speaker 1: decade and he and myself and Peter Burns went to
- 11:34Speaker 1: New York Wants to find one of the best restaurants
- 11:36Speaker 1: and the experience involved pop rocks to clean our palettes.
- 11:40Speaker 1: It was a shocking experience at first, but memorable none
- 11:43Speaker 1: the least, and that's why I quit his mock draft
- 11:45Speaker 1: of being So there you go, Lance, Now let's get
- 11:48Speaker 1: into wide receivers. I love that he's got Quentin Johnston
- 11:51Speaker 1: up there for the Cowboys. The Cowboys were busy in
- 11:54Speaker 1: the offseason trying to address that position. They just weren't
- 11:58Speaker 1: getting enough out of that wide receiver room. Now, a
- 12:00Speaker 1: lot of people think that Michael Gallup is going to
- 12:02Speaker 1: come along a lot quicker here in a second year.
- 12:05Speaker 1: But it seems like they're looking for insurance and they
- 12:07Speaker 1: got that via trade with Brandon Cooks, and they of
- 12:10Speaker 1: course have ceedee Lamb, but that's not preventing them from
- 12:13Speaker 1: bringing in guys. We've heard that they brought in zay
- 12:15Speaker 1: flowers this week as well as Jalen Hyatt, two guys
- 12:18Speaker 1: that could be there at twenty six, but certainly an
- 12:21Speaker 1: area that they seem to want to address. Now. If
- 12:23Speaker 1: you look at some of their rumored thirty visits, we're
- 12:25Speaker 1: hearing a lot of them pop up. I talked about
- 12:27Speaker 1: Steve Avula earlier. He's now tweeting that he's up there
- 12:30Speaker 1: at the Star. So there, Ego confirmed getting some extra
- 12:33Speaker 1: time with the Cowboys. They seem to be putting a
- 12:36Speaker 1: wide net out. In other words, they're doing their due
- 12:38Speaker 1: diligence at all the positions. And they can do that
- 12:41Speaker 1: when they've addressed a lot of these positions of needs,
- 12:43Speaker 1: like that wide receiver spot as well as the cornerback
- 12:46Speaker 1: spot with Stephan Gilmour. Okay, so if it is a
- 12:48Speaker 1: wide receiver here just playing a long knowing we're twenty
- 12:51Speaker 1: three days away, where else could the Cowboys potentially go
- 12:54Speaker 1: on Night one? I think if Bjean Robinson there is
- 12:58Speaker 1: at running back, they would absolutely go that direction. I
- 13:00Speaker 1: just don't think he will be Andrew, So we've got
- 13:03Speaker 1: to start looking at some other positions. I think this
- 13:05Speaker 1: one's a grab bag this year. I mean we've talked
- 13:07Speaker 1: about in years past, we've sort of had an idea
- 13:08Speaker 1: where they were headed. They haven't been as active again
- 13:11Speaker 1: in free agency as they were this year. So with
- 13:14Speaker 1: that being said, we talked about offensive line being an
- 13:17Speaker 1: area they could address. How about Titan Dalton Schultz was
- 13:19Speaker 1: a guy they felt very high on last year. They
- 13:22Speaker 1: gave him the franchise tag. This year, didn't even give
- 13:24Speaker 1: him an offer. He ended up signing with the Houston Texas.
- 13:27Speaker 1: Now they feel good about the young guys Jake Ferguson
- 13:30Speaker 1: and Peyton hender Shot, But how about guys like Mike
- 13:33Speaker 1: Meyer or You've got Dalton Kincaid. Two very different tight ends,
- 13:38Speaker 1: but two guys that address their need there. Although I
- 13:40Speaker 1: tend to think that this tight end draft is very deep,
- 13:43Speaker 1: I don't know if they necessarily need to go get
- 13:45Speaker 1: their guy at that position. They could probably find one later,
- 13:48Speaker 1: but that's also an area of one of those guys
- 13:50Speaker 1: is there. I could absolutely see them point the trigger line.
- 13:52Speaker 1: All right, Dallas Cowboys picking twenty sixth overall at least
- 13:56Speaker 1: for now, Night number one of the twenty twenty three
- 14:00Speaker 1: NFL Draft. Jane Slater covering the Cowboys as she always
- 14:02Speaker 1: does well for us. Thank you, Jane in Dallas, Iowa
- 14:09Speaker 1: in Kentucky Territory, looked for the screen back over the
- 14:12Speaker 1: middle to Sam Laporta. Good played design, can't have Laporta
- 14:17Speaker 1: do this to go down? Sam Porta patrons fires this
- 14:24Speaker 1: one's low over the middle to Laporta. Touchdown, and here
- 14:27Speaker 1: goes Sama Porta, Hello, how do you do all the
- 14:33Speaker 1: way down to the twenty two play? Fake left, goes
- 14:36Speaker 1: back to the middle, touchdown, touchdown, Sham Laporta, touchdown Isla.
- 14:43Speaker 1: There's a long tradition of tight ends coming out of Iowa,
- 14:47Speaker 1: whether it's Noah Fant or t J. Hawkinson or some
- 14:51Speaker 1: guy that was doing wrestling stuff at so far over
- 14:54Speaker 1: the weekend, or the next guy. Let's get to know
- 14:57Speaker 1: the next guy name is Sam Laporta. You're gonna have
- 15:01Speaker 1: to know his name when we get ready for the
- 15:02Speaker 1: draft in twenty three days. He joins us live from
- 15:04Speaker 1: that Phil he joins us after it. Guy George Kittle
- 15:09Speaker 1: was able to set up the WiFi and get you
- 15:12Speaker 1: Sam on television. Welcome to NFL now, thank you for
- 15:17Speaker 1: having me. And so so, George Kittle is back from
- 15:19Speaker 1: wrestling and he actually was just in the room and
- 15:22Speaker 1: he truly did help you get on the air. He
- 15:25Speaker 1: was he was helping me out with the password and everything.
- 15:29Speaker 1: Is the password something to do with the WWE, It's not.
- 15:33Speaker 1: It was a bunch of letters and numbers. So so
- 15:35Speaker 1: it just sounds like the factory thing on the back
- 15:37Speaker 1: of the router. Okay, yeah, gotcha, Sam. Would you see
- 15:40Speaker 1: those names? Joking aside on that list? What does it
- 15:42Speaker 1: mean to you to be the next guy up out
- 15:44Speaker 1: of Iowa your position? Yeah, it's really cool. Um, there's
- 15:48Speaker 1: a long list of tight ends that came from the
- 15:51Speaker 1: fraternity of University of Iowa, and it's really cool to
- 15:55Speaker 1: be associated with those guys. And it's even cooler that
- 15:57Speaker 1: I get to come out here and do, you know,
- 15:59Speaker 1: training stuff with them and learn from the best. So
- 16:02Speaker 1: it's been really great. It's been awesome, and it's been
- 16:05Speaker 1: awesome to see a come back from d surgery on
- 16:07Speaker 1: this path to the draft. Go to Indie run of
- 16:09Speaker 1: four or five nine, which was the third fastest among
- 16:12Speaker 1: the tight ends there at the combine. And when you
- 16:14Speaker 1: sit down and do the interviews, I'm sure you get
- 16:16Speaker 1: asked lots of silly questions. I'm also sure that you
- 16:18Speaker 1: get asked about a play. Actually down the road from
- 16:21Speaker 1: where you are now at the Music City Bowl. We
- 16:24Speaker 1: played it moments ago in your highlights. Can we get
- 16:27Speaker 1: that up again where Sam? I think you broke how
- 16:31Speaker 1: many tackles here? Six? I don't know, let's count them off, one, two, three, four, five,
- 16:41Speaker 1: stiff arm I count six there, Sam. Yeah, that's not
- 16:46Speaker 1: too bad. Not too bad. Yeah, that was right there. Yeah, yeah,
- 16:51Speaker 1: I mean it's absurd, and it's it's it's not too bad.
- 16:54Speaker 1: Taking into account the fact that you had a knee
- 16:56Speaker 1: injury and you came back specifically to play in that game,
- 17:00Speaker 1: a lot of guys Sam would have packed it up
- 17:02Speaker 1: and said, I'm getting ready for the draft. Why did
- 17:04Speaker 1: you want to come back and play? You know, I
- 17:06Speaker 1: just wanted to play one more time with my boys.
- 17:08Speaker 1: You know, football's a really special game to me, and
- 17:12Speaker 1: we were have a great year and the chance to
- 17:14Speaker 1: compete one more time with all my buddies. I started
- 17:17Speaker 1: the year with them and my intent was to finish it.
- 17:19Speaker 1: And I was out there for that last game and
- 17:21Speaker 1: you know, created a lot of fond memories and one
- 17:24Speaker 1: cool highlights. So yeah, a cool highlight. Joking aside, You
- 17:27Speaker 1: do get asked about that in your meetings, right, yeah,
- 17:31Speaker 1: I do. I do? And what do you tell them
- 17:33Speaker 1: if the highlight or the game why I came back?
- 17:35Speaker 1: Oh yeah, I mean you just didn't want to go doubt?
- 17:37Speaker 1: Is that like Kirk Parren says, don't underestimate you, right,
- 17:41Speaker 1: that some people underestimated you out of high school? I
- 17:44Speaker 1: think that play tells that story pretty well. Yeah, I
- 17:49Speaker 1: kind of agree. My mentality when I got the ball
- 17:51Speaker 1: in my hands is don't let the first guy bring
- 17:54Speaker 1: you down, or you know, two, three, four, or five
- 17:56Speaker 1: maybe even six guys after that. So just being a
- 18:00Speaker 1: tenacious and tough football player, and that's what University of
- 18:04Speaker 1: Iowa produces when you see, you know, the long list
- 18:06Speaker 1: of tight ends and plenty of other guys as well.
- 18:08Speaker 1: What has this path to the draft been like for
- 18:13Speaker 1: you and how badly do you want it over? Sam?
- 18:16Speaker 1: We're twenty three days away. It's been a really long path.
- 18:20Speaker 1: I think if you ask any of the guys involved
- 18:22Speaker 1: in this process, it just takes a really long time.
- 18:25Speaker 1: And you're anxious because you're looking for your helps home,
- 18:29Speaker 1: and you know, you're just excited to start that next
- 18:32Speaker 1: chapter in your life. So you know, I'm anxious, but
- 18:35Speaker 1: I'm ready for the next step. We've heard a lot
- 18:37Speaker 1: of cool and interesting I think Sam stories from pro
- 18:40Speaker 1: days about like guys meeting with two teams the night
- 18:42Speaker 1: before their workout, like two different dinners, some of the
- 18:45Speaker 1: same restaurant. Your story is different here as well. You
- 18:49Speaker 1: got a parking ticket, Sam, actually got a warning and
- 18:54Speaker 1: a parking ticket, So two things on your windshield when
- 18:58Speaker 1: you were working out. Yeah, that was That was the
- 19:01Speaker 1: day of the pro day. I gave my roommate parking
- 19:05Speaker 1: tag for the rest of the semester. So when I
- 19:07Speaker 1: parked my car there for eight hours, I got that
- 19:09Speaker 1: warning and I got that ticket as well. So fifteen
- 19:13Speaker 1: dollars later to the University of Iowa parking and Transportation staff.
- 19:19Speaker 1: You know, that's all. It was fifteen bucks. Yeah, the
- 19:23Speaker 1: first one was a warning, so it was no payment necessary,
- 19:25Speaker 1: But the second one was fifteen bucks they got me,
- 19:28Speaker 1: so full disclosure, Sam, I went to Syracuse when I graduated.
- 19:33Speaker 1: Before I graduated, before I was allowed to graduate, I
- 19:36Speaker 1: got a letter that said I owed like three hundred
- 19:39Speaker 1: bucks in unpaid parking tickets because I just never paid them.
- 19:44Speaker 1: I figured I'm just leaving anyway I can get away
- 19:47Speaker 1: with them. These university tickets, they don't really count, right,
- 19:50Speaker 1: It's not like a city parking ticket. And they sent
- 19:53Speaker 1: me a letter that said I cannot graduate until I
- 19:56Speaker 1: pay my parking tickets. Yeah, I wasn't in that situation
- 20:01Speaker 1: supposed to graduating me. Maybe I would get a big
- 20:03Speaker 1: list of tickets and I haven't paid yet, But I
- 20:06Speaker 1: think I'm aware of every every ticket that I've paid
- 20:09Speaker 1: so far. You think a good situational awareness here. One
- 20:14Speaker 1: last thing, Sam, do you have any feel at all
- 20:16Speaker 1: for where you're going? Not really. I think there's a
- 20:20Speaker 1: lot of teams across the league right now and need
- 20:22Speaker 1: of a tight end, and you know, it's kind of
- 20:26Speaker 1: becoming the popular position again. You know, we're asked to
- 20:29Speaker 1: do so many things on the field, a variety of
- 20:32Speaker 1: things from running a receiver route tree, but also sticking
- 20:35Speaker 1: our hand in the ground and blocking you know, defensive
- 20:39Speaker 1: ends and things like that. So being involved in so
- 20:41Speaker 1: many aspects of the offense is really cool. And I
- 20:44Speaker 1: think every offense can use a great tight end. So
- 20:47Speaker 1: hopefully I step into that role for the team that
- 20:49Speaker 1: I go to. Yeah, and every tight end could use
- 20:51Speaker 1: a great it guy, Sam, We do have a picture
- 20:54Speaker 1: just just to prove that I'm not making this up here?
- 20:56Speaker 1: Can we put it up on the screen here w
- 20:59Speaker 1: W Superstar and noted it professional the areas George Kittle
- 21:03Speaker 1: in the background is yeah, just chilling. After figuring out
- 21:08Speaker 1: that the back of the router is the Wi Fi password.
- 21:11Speaker 1: Sam Laporta working out in Nashville. Best to Lucktia, Sam
- 21:14Speaker 1: twenty three days away. Awesome, thanks for having me. Washington
- 21:17Speaker 1: and Fronalys. Turned back to the NFL draft. The Colts
- 21:20Speaker 1: are picking fourth overall. Land Zeroline in his latest mock,
- 21:24Speaker 1: which is taken the Twitter by storm, has the Colts
- 21:28Speaker 1: getting Lamar Jackson giving up that four to Baltimore. Okay,
- 21:34Speaker 1: Stacy Dales. That's interesting. Also interesting the fact that Arizona
- 21:39Speaker 1: is sitting there at three one ahead of the Colts,
- 21:41Speaker 1: and a lot of people think, you want a quarterback,
- 21:44Speaker 1: you've got to get ahead of Indianapolis. My Chris Ballard
- 21:46Speaker 1: get aggressive and just go four to three himself. Well
- 21:51Speaker 1: that's a great question, Andrew, because he wasn't aggressive several
- 21:54Speaker 1: weeks ago and jumping up to the number one spot.
- 21:56Speaker 1: And the Colts love to do these private workouts which
- 21:59Speaker 1: they are engaged with this week CJ. Stroud, will Levis
- 22:02Speaker 1: is coming up by Bryce Young and CG. I think
- 22:05Speaker 1: we're yesterday or today, and I know that he has
- 22:08Speaker 1: met with Hendon Hooker and their staff have met with
- 22:11Speaker 1: Hendon Hooker and Anthony Richardson. So they're doing their due diligence.
- 22:14Speaker 1: They just love the intimacy of meeting with these guys exclusively.
- 22:18Speaker 1: So maybe that's why a few weeks ago they didn't
- 22:20Speaker 1: move to one. But your question is well put, Andrew,
- 22:23Speaker 1: because now they may be forced to given some of
- 22:26Speaker 1: the rumors that were twenty three days away from the
- 22:28Speaker 1: NFL Draft here in a couple of weeks that teams
- 22:33Speaker 1: that need quarterbacks are willing to move up. We know
- 22:35Speaker 1: the Raiders have a ton of draft capital as they
- 22:38Speaker 1: sit here in this draft right now, at what are
- 22:41Speaker 1: they number seven? Obviously the Tennessee Titans that you just
- 22:44Speaker 1: mentioned are there at eleven. So if they covet one
- 22:48Speaker 1: of these guys, you would think they would have to
- 22:50Speaker 1: consider maybe giving up something next year in order to
- 22:54Speaker 1: do so, and obviously look at what they have in
- 22:58Speaker 1: this year's draft. But for these Indianapolis Colts, Chris Ballard
- 23:02Speaker 1: has never had a draft pick this high. This is
- 23:04Speaker 1: the h they've drafted since Andrew Luck in twenty twelve.
- 23:07Speaker 1: They're sitting at number four. Do they move up or
- 23:10Speaker 1: will they land their guy right there? And what guy
- 23:13Speaker 1: is it? Because he loves accurate quarterbacks. He knows they're
- 23:15Speaker 1: more athletic right now in terms of what the skill
- 23:19Speaker 1: set is has become at the position. But they don't
- 23:22Speaker 1: want to give the football away. And he can't miss
- 23:24Speaker 1: because he has missed on a number of veterans, the
- 23:27Speaker 1: most recent being Matt Ryan. This has to be a
- 23:30Speaker 1: sure pick if it's a quarterback, which it should be.
- 23:33Speaker 1: I want to go back to the Titans. You mentioned them.
- 23:35Speaker 1: Daniel Jeremiah has mentioned on The Move the Sixth podcast,
- 23:39Speaker 1: keep an eye on them. They could move up. They
- 23:42Speaker 1: are sitting there at eleven with a brand new GM
- 23:44Speaker 1: and Ran Carthon, but Stacy, they also do have Ryan Tannehill.
- 23:49Speaker 1: They do for another year under contract, and they have
- 23:52Speaker 1: vowed Mike frabledhead coach. Ran Carthon, as you just mentioned,
- 23:57Speaker 1: has vowed that this will be their quarterback moving forward.
- 24:00Speaker 1: But you know, as the rumors continue, maybe they'll move up.
- 24:03Speaker 1: They've been reported to have met locally. Obviously, with Hendon
- 24:07Speaker 1: Hooker there in Tennessee. Will Levis, I saw them at
- 24:10Speaker 1: his pro day Anthony Richardson, I believe a private meeting
- 24:14Speaker 1: with them. But the reality is, if it is Ryan Tannehill,
- 24:19Speaker 1: what do they need from Tanny and this offense? They
- 24:22Speaker 1: need playmakers. I've talked to a couple of people with
- 24:24Speaker 1: this franchise Andrew, and they've got to add more perimeter power,
- 24:28Speaker 1: star power, and they've got to get him moving, play pass,
- 24:32Speaker 1: play action, get him moving, get an intermediate game. Obviously
- 24:36Speaker 1: you have Derreck Henry who's a factor in all of this.
- 24:39Speaker 1: But they think that if they can do those things
- 24:41Speaker 1: with Tannehill and add some power to the perimeter game
- 24:44Speaker 1: and stretch the field a little bit, they can be better.
- 24:47Speaker 1: Because the reality is bottom five scoring total passing offense.
- 24:52Speaker 1: And by the way, they gave up forty nine sacks.
- 24:55Speaker 1: If you look at the players that they have visited
- 24:57Speaker 1: with in this process, Andrew a number of offensive linemen
- 25:01Speaker 1: outside of the quarterbacks. I mentioned a number of receivers.
- 25:04Speaker 1: One Quentin Johnson, the TCU big play receiver, and I
- 25:09Speaker 1: mentioned those alignment Oh Cyrus, Torrence Darnel, right, Roderick Jones.
- 25:14Speaker 1: What if they strike there at an offensive line that
- 25:17Speaker 1: needs much improvement. If they are going with Ryan Tannehill,
- 25:21Speaker 1: it'll be interesting. Do they move up for a quarterback,
- 25:24Speaker 1: do they stay put, do they draft an offensive lineman
- 25:26Speaker 1: to better this offense, or do they get another playmaker,
- 25:29Speaker 1: which to me is what they need most. Darnell writes
- 25:32Speaker 1: an interesting one because he played down the road in Knoxville.
- 25:35Speaker 1: Thank you, Stacy Dale's the latest on the Titans. NFL
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