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Pat and Matt welcome on Thor Nystrom to discuss his draft grades, and why he graded the Patriots draft as an F.  Prize Picks! Get in on the excitement with PrizePicks, America’s No. 1 Fantasy Sports App, where you can turn your hoops knowledge into serious cash. Download the app today and use code CLNS for a first deposit match up to $100! Pick more. Pick less. It’s that Easy! Go to https://PrizePicks.com/CLNS  Take the guesswork out of buying NBA tickets with Gametime. Download the Gametime app, create an account, and use code CLNS for $20 off your first purchase. Download Gametime today. Last minute tickets. Lowest Price. Guaranteed. Terms apply.  #Patriots #NFL #NewEnglandPatriots

Transcript

00:00:00 You're listening to the Patreon Nation Podcast.

00:00:05 All right, welcome to another edition of the Patreon Nation Podcast.

00:00:33 This is your host, Matt St. Gene.

00:00:54 And today we have on a guy that's been on the show, I would say the last four years,

00:01:11 and he's a tough grader.

00:01:23 He's a very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very,

00:01:45 very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very,

00:02:03 very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very,

00:02:18 very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very,

00:02:36 very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very,

00:02:52 very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very,

00:03:14 very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very,

00:03:42 on the curve. So there's two A-pluses every year, there's two Fs and then the other grades

00:03:46 are evenly distributed through there that, the fan bases of the teams I gave the A-plus

00:03:52 and the As too, like in the radio stations there, they want to have me on to fluff their

00:03:58 class up a little bit. And then it's the opposite way. Every year I got to go on the stations

00:04:04 and answer, I was on WEEI like a week ago, 10 days ago. I had to answer for my F grade.

00:04:11 And it's just, again, it's just by my numbers, my metrics, my pre-draft board. So there's,

00:04:20 I could be wrong for sure. I've been wrong before. You mentioned one of them. I've been

00:04:25 writing a lot of guys. I was the only guy in the industry that had Lamar Jackson as

00:04:28 a top five overall player. His class, Arif Hassan recently put out an accuracy thing,

00:04:33 ranking your top hundred guys on your big board over a five-year sample of individuals.

00:04:38 You're talking to the guy who finished number one. So it's like I have misses, have hits,

00:04:43 it just is what it is. And of course the day after the draft, you can't say, it's just

00:04:48 your read on guys. Like you mentioned, it's 500. So you're making 500 predictions on outcomes

00:04:54 that you don't know in advance. It's just my read today, right? Or the day after the

00:04:58 draft, whatever. But they could absolutely be right on these. I mean, that's the cool

00:05:03 thing about the future has to play out. Again, it's just, I did the work on the guys and

00:05:07 that was my take in the moment.

00:05:09 So yeah.

00:05:10 I like that you grade on the curve the way you do, because it's very easy to just say

00:05:15 this team got better because they drafted players. They get a B. But every team does

00:05:19 that. So forcing, you know, two A pluses, two Fs, it kind of controls for the fact that

00:05:24 every team is adding players here. So just because you got better, if you think you got

00:05:30 better, if every other team in your division got even better than you did, that's not a

00:05:34 good thing.

00:05:36 For sure. Yeah. You know, like all this stuff, you know, the 500 comps and then, you know,

00:05:41 some of these different things, they're all a response. Maybe the things when I was like

00:05:44 a kid or I was in high school, I was in college and early on in my time in the industry where

00:05:49 like, it was either like, why doesn't that exist? That's why for the 500 player board,

00:05:55 the 500 comps, I just wanted that to exist before I had the opportunity to do it. So

00:05:59 finally, you know, I answered the question with that. But then like with other things,

00:06:03 like the grading methodology, you know, of like both trying to put, you know, metrics

00:06:07 beside it that are, you know, were my pre-draft thing. So I'm not, you know, just sort of

00:06:11 eyeballing it. But a couple other things in there, they're just responses to maybe pet

00:06:15 peeves that I had about the draft grade cottage industry before I started doing this. And

00:06:20 one of them was great inflation. You know, it seemed like the lowest grades you'd ever

00:06:26 see on some, some fall, it was like B minus, right. Or a C plus. Well, if you have all

00:06:31 the grades clustered like that, how do you say for the audience, the thing that you're

00:06:36 reading for, you're hoping that someone who has done that work, you know, like you have

00:06:41 a different job, you work, you know, you're a, you're a lawyer, you're an accountant,

00:06:45 you don't have the time to all spring long and in the years advance of this, have watched

00:06:50 all these different guys and then, you know, gone through us. So you're just going to that

00:06:53 to try to get that person's opinion of how they, they see your draft class. Then the

00:06:58 next day, if you put all your grades, they're all A's and B pluses. You're, you're not really

00:07:04 telling the audience what you actually think about the classes. So, so that's why I ended

00:07:08 up doing it that way. And then one other minorish pet peeve about it was you'd see people, you'd

00:07:14 see artificial inflation of grades for teams that have more draft equity and an artificial

00:07:20 deflation on the limited, you know, scaled up picks that the grades that they were even

00:07:25 given out for the teams that had less draft equity. And so like, I wanted to remove, you

00:07:30 know, that from it as well and, and try to more judge the ball where it lies, right?

00:07:35 Like, you know, how did you do in the slots that you had? So that's, you know, that's

00:07:39 why I ended up doing it that way. Even if it gets me a lot of crap from fan base at

00:07:44 the next day, I, and you guys are great. The Patriots fans are great. The, the worst one

00:07:49 ever was, do you guys remember the year when the Raiders with Mayock had three first round

00:07:54 picks and they had Alex on Alex Leatherwood was one of them, right? That was the next

00:08:00 year. I believe this was the Jonathan Abram, Josh Farrell, Farrell. Yeah. And the top four.

00:08:07 Well, and they, you know, and then the second round, the Clemson corner, um, was it, did

00:08:14 you hate him? No, right. No, um, Mullen, I think. Yeah. But like all those guys were

00:08:19 in the top 40 when he, how, you know, and you look the next day, everyone in the industry

00:08:23 was giving them a is a minuses at worst B plus because they had had this metric ton

00:08:28 of draft equity.

00:08:29 So how are you going to say they didn't improve? Well, I gave him an F right. Because in my

00:08:33 opinion and based on my pre draft board, all they did was reach every single pick like

00:08:38 Farrell. I had 15, 18 spots beneath that Josh Jacobs. I had, you know, maybe 10, 15 spots

00:08:46 beneath that. Uh, Abram, I had is like a fifth round guy. I, I, I, I didn't like Jonathan

00:08:51 Abram, uh, that the game he had, I didn't see how it translated to the modern NFL. And

00:08:56 then Mullen Ida. So it was like, when you looked at my, they had by far squandered the

00:09:00 most draft equity, you know, my, my pre draft board was saying, so I didn't really have

00:09:05 a choice on that.

00:09:06 It was just a metric thing, but yeah, I got man, those Raiders fans came for me, they

00:09:10 found my Facebook page and they were taking the pictures off it. And then like one of

00:09:15 the guys, he made this graphic, like me getting tarred, you know, like, you know, like they

00:09:20 were doing all this kind of crazy. So it was, it was insane. But you know, again, like I

00:09:24 went on the show that asked me and that too, not many people came back on the other side,

00:09:30 apologize into Thor, but it's like, you know, you just have to get in. You call like, you

00:09:34 see it, that's the job. So happy to happy to talk about all that.

00:09:38 Also we have someone in the comments, we have someone in the comments upset that you call

00:09:41 yourself Thor. They are, they're upset that your name is Thor. It's like, what's your

00:09:46 name? No, that's his real name. Ladies and gentlemen.

00:09:50 I would pull out my driver's license right now. If that wasn't weird or a credit card,

00:09:55 if you know, you guys couldn't steal it from me, but yeah, that's my name. So my birth

00:09:58 also, also we missed out on a great opportunity should have been entitled the podcast should

00:10:03 have been the Thor hammers the paths. I mean like we just, I blew it, I blew it. I just

00:10:08 totally blew it. All right. So let's get into the draft. Let's get into the Patriots draft

00:10:13 and, and kind of where you, uh, you know, what it looked like for you. We'll start

00:10:17 with Drake May. And I said that you, you know, had, had comps to every player and you did

00:10:25 have real players for every comp except for one.

00:10:29 That was Drake May. And I actually DM you cause I thought it was a mistake and it was

00:10:32 not a mistake. Uh, but you had Carson Pence as, as your, um, as your comp to Drake May.

00:10:42 And so just explain that and also explain why you had him as your, so you had him as

00:10:45 your eighth overall player and as your QB for, um, so just explain, uh, explain why.

00:10:51 Yeah. So I, I don't like doing mashup comps and I don't like doing like, Oh, you know,

00:10:57 poor man's version of, or like, I like it to just fit in the box. But like with me,

00:11:02 I couldn't get one that I thought perfectly encapsulate at least gave that reader like

00:11:07 a, a good totem of where I saw it in my mind. Uh, there was like one dude. Um, and like

00:11:13 basically the, you know, and you also had the Carson, you know, and so you put it together

00:11:18 and then it's Carson Pence, but you know, Carson Palmer and Carson Wentz were the two

00:11:22 guys I was trying to, to mash up there. And Palmer spoke to the upside as the pocket passer

00:11:28 that I, that, you know, everyone sees in, in Drake May and his ceiling on that. I think

00:11:32 I see it pretty similarly to everybody else. You know, if that thing fully realized what

00:11:37 that would look like at the next level, the arm town speaks for itself. Um, but I also,

00:11:41 you know, he has that, uh, you know, that people would be like, you'd hear him come

00:11:45 to like Josh Allen or, or Herbert or some of those guys. He's not the same kind of runner

00:11:50 or athlete as those guys. Like he's a tough kid and he'll grind out the short yardage

00:11:55 stuff. I think in the NFL, um, he can steal some yards, you know, if it's not there, but

00:11:59 like I thought that part was getting a little bit overblown. And so I was trying to think

00:12:03 of someone where that better, uh, you know, the athleticism element was more, so I saw

00:12:09 more Carson Wentz in, in terms of that. And then also trying to not just like, I was a

00:12:15 little bit lower on Drake May. So, uh, the Carson Wentz one also lowered the Carson Palmer

00:12:20 a little bit, but, you know, while embedding sort of the athleticism element, cause I thought,

00:12:25 you know, that evoked more of a Carson Wentz as opposed to just the running thing, as opposed

00:12:29 to, you know, say Josh Allen. Well, like Carson Wentz too is such a, he alone, if you're invoking

00:12:35 his name can be all over the board for what exactly that means or how high the ceiling

00:12:40 is, how low the floor is. Cause you know, we saw how good it could be and we saw how

00:12:45 bad it could be with him. And I feel like there's a lot of that in Drake May, uh, one

00:12:48 of my comps for him, like I thought he had some Jordan love in his game where it was

00:12:52 just like, you know, he can be, he has those moments where it looks really good and he

00:12:56 has this structure and he has those out of structure moments and he's a good runner.

00:13:00 But, uh, there's just enough of those holes in the game where it's like, all right, he's

00:13:04 going to need to take a couple of steps forward at the next level. And he isn't, he isn't

00:13:08 the overwhelming athlete that Josh Allen is. He's like, you know, 90% of that or 85% of

00:13:14 that.

00:13:15 Yeah. And you know, it's funny cause like I, I, you know, all spring long, you know,

00:13:19 of course I'm coming to you guys from Minneapolis right now and around here was all about, you

00:13:23 know, the trade up and then what quarterback could the Vikings, you know, around your guys

00:13:27 parts, obviously it was, it was not about the trade, but if you know what quarterback

00:13:30 are we getting? And so it, you know, the questions became, it was May and JJ cause they were

00:13:36 the two obvious best fits for KOC system. And so a lot of, um, sort of stuff like that.

00:13:41 And so you had a lot of opportunities to talk about Drake May before this and the way that

00:13:46 I refer to it was, you know, and this, this will hit Pat on the question about, uh, just

00:13:50 ranking them a little bit, maybe lower than, than some other folks that think they're not,

00:13:56 um, how do you say like the, the, those aspects of his game that I don't like as much, they're

00:14:01 not nullifying and there is no guarantee that they remain there longterm.

00:14:06 And if they don't, he is going to be a superstar. But what I referred to them as was weeds.

00:14:12 There's a couple of weeds in that guy's game that just need to be plucked out. And so I

00:14:17 was advocating patience for him early on, whatever organization you went to, whether,

00:14:20 you know, in terms of the, uh, speaking as him as a potential Viking, you know, it was

00:14:25 more trying to get the fans, uh, at least prepared for that element of it, of like,

00:14:30 yeah, the upside really, really high. But it's like initially there maybe should be

00:14:36 a little bit of patience exercise there while some of those things get pulled out.

00:14:40 The thing, you know, people talk about the glitching that you sometimes see with him

00:14:45 and that's, that's, you know, something that needs to be worked on for sure. The thing

00:14:49 that, uh, one of the weeds that I was thinking about more though, like if you exercise the

00:14:54 first year patience, you're trying to pull it out right away was I noticed that when

00:14:58 sometimes he excuses mechanics, even when it's, um, a cleaner pocket, but that's not

00:15:03 as prevalent with him. But where I saw it all the time was when the pocket was about

00:15:08 to collapse. I loved, I love how he sets up immediately in the beats after getting that

00:15:13 bond shotgun. I love his little back pedal. You know, he doesn't square right away. He

00:15:16 does a little back pedal. So he's, he gets to see the, the, the releases. And then the

00:15:20 first few beats out of the entire field. Like I love that. And then I love the way that

00:15:24 he is moving around to try to keep the, the half halo in front of him at all times, like

00:15:30 in the beats after this now so that he has the runway to throw into. So, so I like sort

00:15:34 of the way that he'll subtly move this way and that, cause you know, just to sort of

00:15:38 manipulate that pocket and keep that runway in front of him. But it was the, so all that

00:15:43 stuff was good. It was like, but up until the moment when he starts to denote like,

00:15:48 Oh boy, Drake, the, the pockets about to collapse. And that was where I noticed the fast forwarding

00:15:53 of his mechanics. I'll put it that way where it was like, but also a fast forwarding of

00:15:57 his decision-making process. So it's like, Drake, we gotta, we gotta get this ball. We

00:16:01 gotta, you know, maybe before he would need to, he's, he's got some more beats, but instead

00:16:05 it's like, we gotta, we gotta, and then, and then just totally a skewing. A lot of

00:16:09 times the lower body wouldn't be there and he wouldn't even be squaring up some of the

00:16:12 times. And you saw like the accuracy go down and you saw more balls throwing up because

00:16:17 of this. That's the thing that one of the weeds that I would work on. But just to the

00:16:20 stats on that last year under duress, 43.3% of 90 passes under pressure last season for

00:16:27 a seven to five TDI and T rate. And with sack 28 times, that's, that's just one element

00:16:32 of the game. Again, like work on that, but you, you get those weeds out, you pluck them

00:16:37 out early. You got to start quarterback, maybe a superstar quarterback on your hands for

00:16:41 sure. What would be your development path? You know, if you're a head coach or offensive

00:16:46 coordinator of the new England Patriots year one, year two, year three, how are you trying

00:16:50 to develop him? And what are you trying to put around him on the field? So I would tell

00:16:56 him right off to get like, and maybe this would be a mistake, but I would tell him right

00:17:01 away, like we, you are a long-term guy here. You are the face of the franchise, but we're

00:17:06 going to go slow with you initially. Like, we don't want you going in there balls to

00:17:10 the wall to, you know, you against Jacoby every day. It's more like Jacoby is going

00:17:14 to be mentoring you. And we think that Jacoby is going to be starting early on in the season.

00:17:20 And meanwhile, I would, you know, you're the offensive coordinator there. You're the quarterback

00:17:24 coach there. I would, and of course they went through the entire evaluation with him. So

00:17:28 they know the elements of his game, obviously that they love and what that ceiling could

00:17:31 look like, but also the specific things to address what I'm referring to as weeds, those

00:17:35 guys, it would be like, I would have a, we're going to have a Thursday night movie session,

00:17:41 Drake, like after practice is done, after everyone else leaves the facility, we're going

00:17:44 to give you a big bowl of popcorn.

00:17:45 We're going to sit down in front of the projector today. We're going to work on this, this,

00:17:51 we won't call it a weed in front of Drake, but you know, today we're going to focus on

00:17:54 this element and you know, maybe we do the thing I just talked about, about that underdress

00:17:58 thing. It's not enough to say like, you know, and I never said this during the process of

00:18:04 like, Oh, he panics under pressure. Cause I don't think that that's what it is. I think

00:18:08 that no one ever walked through with him in this moment. Like you've done everything right

00:18:12 to this point, but your receivers aren't separating, but now you're starting to denote it. Notice

00:18:17 how often you are just that your decision, you're like, it's sort of a Yolo thing. And

00:18:22 then you're just a skewing the mechanics. We need to have a backup plan there. Cause

00:18:26 that's what I was sort of, it was sort of my theory for it is like, he was never walked

00:18:30 through that and you didn't see a backup plan with it, but it's like Drake and what moments

00:18:33 there with, with the pressure around you, would you have another beat to square your

00:18:38 shoulders? Maybe survey what moments should you just eat the sack? What moments should

00:18:42 you see if you can get lateral at least outside the hashes and then just throw that ball away

00:18:48 when we go to the Chucktown guy a little bit more, but like try to give him specific examples

00:18:53 on the film while you're sitting next to him in your sweat pants and you're eating the

00:18:56 popcorn. Like here's a specific example where you could go this, you know, keep this in

00:19:01 your head for when you see that on the field, that's how I do it with him. And maybe in

00:19:05 November, if he's developed a rapport with the guys, he knows the playbook. Well, you

00:19:10 feel good about that. You pulled some of those, those weeds out. Then if he, you feel like

00:19:14 he gives the team the best, then I put them out there. But I want to make sure that those

00:19:18 weeds were pulled first. And I feel by the way, the same way about the Vikings actually,

00:19:22 where it's like, I'm not trying to rush anyone because I don't think they're going to be

00:19:25 a Superbowl contender either way. Like if I was the, I know the Patriots fans really

00:19:29 want to see him, but that would be my concern is that the coaching staff and the organization

00:19:34 feels like a pressure of, we gave this guy a top three draft equity. So we gotta, we

00:19:39 gotta toss him out there right away. Show what he's got. Cause I wouldn't want, you

00:19:43 know, for some of these things to crop up right away. And then some of those are bad

00:19:47 habits to get embedded.

00:19:48 Right? No, it's a great point. It's a great point. And I, I gotta tell you like one of

00:19:53 the things that I, that I like about it. And of course there's, there's people upset in

00:19:56 the chat. I don't blame you. I don't blame you for being upset. It's okay. Also James

00:19:59 with the let's hope, let's hope McAteer is a weed whacker. But you know, the thing for

00:20:05 me is that one of the things I like about it, and again, it's an F and I know what's

00:20:10 an F and people don't like that. I understand. But one of the things I like is that you are,

00:20:18 you readily admit that you certainly could be wrong. And not only could you, could you

00:20:23 be wrong, but not that there's a possibility that, Hey, I didn't like this guy here. That

00:20:28 doesn't mean he's not going to be good. Right? And so, and I think that that's one of those

00:20:32 things that we have to understand is that these guys are rookies, right? And so you

00:20:38 see it one way and I might see it a different way. And we're going to talk about Jalen

00:20:41 Polk in a second because I think that Polk is, is interesting. And maybe we can talk

00:20:44 about that right after this.

00:20:45 I got a stronger take on that one, but with me, yeah, I'm not, I'm not arguing to get

00:20:49 like, again, I think I see a ceiling like other people. What people need to understand

00:20:52 in the chat is I put them eighth in QB4. It was a recognition of what I felt was the risk

00:20:59 of the, of the asset. I think I see the bonanza the same way everyone else does. It's just

00:21:04 from what I had seen a Drake may, I just thought it was a little bit elevated. And so to be

00:21:08 fair on that, if your own evaluation, you have to bake that in as well. So I thought

00:21:12 that that was the most accurate representation of that, where I put them.

00:21:15 Okay. All right. So let's, we've got to take a quick break. Let's take a break. And when

00:21:19 we come back, let's talk about Polk. Cause I know you have some stronger feelings about

00:21:22 that one. And that's one of those things that, that I think we can, we can hash out. Cause

00:21:28 I don't know if I disagree with you. I don't know if I agree with you, I should say, but

00:21:32 we'll, we'll hash it out. And I think it should be good conversation. So don't go away. We'll

00:21:36 be right back.

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00:22:40 All right, that's clearly that's an old ad reading. I had to get rid of that LeBron James

00:22:47 got swept out of the first round. But But okay, let's you watch the fight in two hours.

00:22:52 That's right. Can't win it. Maybe they'll maybe they'll meet the they'll actually give

00:22:56 the Celtics some competition in the finals. You never know. Maybe get there. They're early

00:23:00 to say that, but they're, they're killing it right now. So all right, let's get into

00:23:05 Jalen Polk. Jalen Polk, of course, goes 37 of the Patriots. You had him as your wide

00:23:08 receiver 19 122nd on your big board. And for me that this is where and of course, Caden

00:23:16 Wallace is a whole nother story. We I don't know if I disagree with you on the Caden Wallace

00:23:19 one. But But Jalen Polk, I think is where we're going to see the biggest kind of skew

00:23:25 of what Matt and I might think and what you think. So what's your reasoning for having

00:23:29 Jalen Polk, you know, almost, you know, past 100 and then wide receiver 19? Well, whenever,

00:23:39 you know, my whole argument with it is if if Jalen McMillan doesn't get injured in September

00:23:44 of this past season that that Jalen Polk, I don't think my ranking would have seemed

00:23:49 outlandish at all. I think he goes there or later in in the draft. Fortune smiled upon

00:23:55 him when when McMillan gets injured. McMillan have been the clear number two. In fact, the

00:24:00 year before is closer to, you know, the targets and stuff with the doomsday. But like I said,

00:24:05 Polk was always wide receiver three was wide receiver three at the beginning of the year.

00:24:08 And then he gets to step up when he gets starts getting more targets when McMillan goes down.

00:24:12 That's when he went ballistic. But the end of it, you know, that was against some of

00:24:15 these these crappy teams like, you know, Michigan State's defense or Arizona's defense or Arizona

00:24:21 State's defense or Stanford's defense. But at the end of the season, McMillan comes back

00:24:25 and it sort of reverts back to he's Polk is the afterthought guy again in this really

00:24:31 explosive passing offense that had what over 5000 passing errors, two active games in November

00:24:36 there where he didn't have one catch, you know, the average that he had in November

00:24:42 and then on in that season when they go to the title game is average and I had in front

00:24:47 of me but under 40 receiving yards per game, you know, and again, most of that was when

00:24:51 McMillan had come back. And also just as far so that's the constitution of the offensive

00:24:55 court and the prerogative of one of the great offensive minds that we have in this sport

00:25:00 right now, Kalen DeBoer is so so smart at this. It goes from what was it? And I a a

00:25:05 however, however you say and I a or however, and I and a I easy for me to say, but like,

00:25:12 you know, eight years ago, nine years ago, and now he's the head coach at Alabama. You

00:25:17 know, and then the panics who apparently Terry Fano was the eighth best player in the or

00:25:22 higher, you know, according to reports on his board, but like, you know, that that was

00:25:25 the constitution of their offense. And that that's what it ended up being. But as far

00:25:29 as the projection, like I don't I don't see him and I never saw him as an outside dude

00:25:34 in the NFL. I see him as a as a bigger slot. I think you're going to get the efficiency

00:25:38 that the part of his game that I like, I guess it's two things that you know, the thing that

00:25:42 he's sort of led by the hands are obvious. He has very good hands. And then he's got

00:25:46 the acceleration. So you know, you can get the crafty efficiency out of the guy, the

00:25:52 guy who's not going to flub anything. But I just didn't see him as a dude that should

00:25:56 be, you know, is should be playing on the boundary, or certainly there would be a standout

00:26:01 at that. And I think when I think guys like Polk can be hard to evaluate to a degree to

00:26:07 because it can be hard to tell exactly how fast he is exactly how quick he can move and

00:26:13 what his capability is a route runner can be. You know, some people have him as a top

00:26:18 40 guys, some people like you have him as a fourth rounder. And I think it's he's you

00:26:23 can get either impression from the tape. A lot of it is what you value in a player like

00:26:27 this too, I think. And he is, I think he's interesting, because there's some similarities

00:26:33 to what you know, Ron Wolf liked in receivers and what you get out of Jalen Polk. And I

00:26:38 think that makes sense. But yeah, I one of the things I read your piece on him, so I

00:26:44 went back and watched his tape today. And what's interesting is that even from game

00:26:47 to game from rep to rep, his quickness, his suddenness, his burst out of breaks, looks

00:26:52 very different. And it's hard to tell what's going into that. Because I think if he can

00:26:57 be that guy who's, you know, given it a full go and maximize that route running ability,

00:27:01 I think he could be a number one that he could be an accident, he could play outside the

00:27:05 numbers as a guy who's going to win with physicality. But also, if he doesn't quite have that burst,

00:27:13 he is, you know, a second or third option, who's going to play on the inside and be his

00:27:16 own beater, which is valuable, but not pick 37 valuable.

00:27:22 For sure. Yeah. And I saw more like the latter, you know, and it's, you know, I thought he

00:27:26 was certainly draftable, you know, that he should have gone right around the middle there.

00:27:31 You know, top top of the fourth round, I you know, is where I think we're at where I ended

00:27:35 up having, but like, I think he'll start in the NFL. But you know, again, like I, and

00:27:39 obviously with the draft equity, he will be starting but like, I just saw it as more of

00:27:42 that sort of big slot. And I do think you'll get the efficiency with it. But I want a guy

00:27:47 where I can project more of the explosive element. And if I in the slot, for me, it

00:27:53 would either be the receiver, the slot receiver who can has some sort of downfield elements

00:27:58 of their game, or it'd be the big, you know, the big slot, the tight end dude that they

00:28:03 can stretch the seam. But like, I do see him as more of like the paper cut guy. And I know

00:28:08 like the situation that he was in there. You know, I'm even arguing, maybe I suppose that

00:28:13 he was miscast, he should have been the dude in the slot. And maybe he should have been

00:28:16 in the Macmillan role. But like, the part that benefited him was, Odunze got all the

00:28:23 attention on the other side. Odunze was pressed, maybe the most in the nation last year, I

00:28:28 forget. But if not, it was certainly was at the very tip top of this class. And by margin

00:28:33 over the second guy. And then he always had the cornerback one over there, and then the

00:28:38 shading of the coverage. So you know, Polk got the opportunity to play against the CB2

00:28:43 when there was never any threat of a double coverage. And a lot of times there wasn't

00:28:46 any help over the top. So it's like you could sort of argue it both ways as far as the role

00:28:51 he was in.

00:28:52 Yeah. Well, you know, it's interesting because a comp that we saw a lot was Joey Myers. And

00:28:57 I think he's got a little bit more speed than Cody Myers. But I think as as a Patriots fan,

00:29:03 it's my take on it as a Patriots fan. It's very simple. The Patriots have gone for and

00:29:09 allegedly they were trying to trade back and not allegedly they were trying to trade back

00:29:13 into the first round. And I think they had their eyes on Xavier Leguette. And I'm happy

00:29:18 they didn't get him. And I'm happy they didn't get him for a very easy reason. They've gone

00:29:23 after guys like Leguette for years, and they've struck out every single time they've drafted

00:29:28 a guy like that. Every single time they've gone after a guy like Leguette, who's fast,

00:29:34 isn't a great route runner, isn't super crafty like, but he's like, you know, explosive and

00:29:38 he's big and look at that guy and he looks great with shorts on and without a shirt on.

00:29:42 It's great. That's awesome. But can he play friggin football? Right. And so like you can't

00:29:50 and then you can't develop them and it's a disaster. And so I look at Polk as a guy that

00:29:55 can be that steady guy. Now listen, is to me, is he going to be a home run wide receiver

00:30:01 one pick? Probably not. But if he can be a consistent guy, wide receiver two, even a

00:30:08 wide receiver three, to me, that's valuable for the Patriots because they haven't been

00:30:12 able to find guys like that. And again, for me, and listen, you know, maybe that's not

00:30:18 the value you want to pick 37, but that's kind of in my scar, like emotionally scarred

00:30:25 brain Patriots brain where I've, you know, we've missed on so many wide receivers. I

00:30:29 feel good about Polk because I feel like the floor is high, even if the ceiling isn't as

00:30:34 high, but again, I pick 37. You want to get a guy whose ceiling is really high, who you

00:30:40 think can be an all pro. And I just don't know if, if Polk was ever going to really

00:30:44 be that guy.

00:30:45 Yeah. And, and your points while taking, cause I, I agree with you that the floor is, is

00:30:49 high on Polk, right? Like I, you know, like I said before, I think he's going to start

00:30:53 for years. It's just, you know, I guess the more than my way of seeing it as out of the

00:30:58 slot as, as the efficiency guy could end up getting a lot of targets with that. But you

00:31:02 know, I could be wrong, right? Like, I mean, it was certainly on the Washington team that

00:31:05 made the championship game last year, he was a boundary receiver. So we'll see if that,

00:31:10 that ends up being the case again. But I agree with you that explosive element is the one

00:31:13 part of his game that, that I didn't really see. And I can't really project that to the

00:31:18 next level, but I think you're going to get efficiency out of this slot as well. If I

00:31:22 was them, I would have tried to do, you know, cause yes, I think, you know, it's a safer

00:31:26 one as far, as far as the floor, but I think you could have had the best of both worlds,

00:31:30 for instance, by staying in your slot and taking lad McConkie, a guy who's got like

00:31:33 a ludicrously high floor to me.

00:31:35 And you also have the higher ceiling, at least, you know, my way of seeing those, those two

00:31:39 guys, but you know, we'll end up seeing them.

00:31:41 Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Before we move on to the next one, cause you mentioned Joe and make

00:31:46 bone, do you think you would have been a good fit for new England with the Drake may, or

00:31:49 do you like the bowl winner with what may bring us to the table?

00:31:53 Yeah. I mean, like I know you guys have pop Douglas and you know, you need bodies there,

00:31:59 but it's like, you know, I'm curious to see how that goes. But Macmillan of course is

00:32:02 the pure slot. I think the page, you know, I haven't seen any of the cause cause I've

00:32:05 had, I've been doing the UDFA rankings. So did they, did they mention they see him as

00:32:10 an outside guy? I assume by where they took them, that that was the case.

00:32:13 Paul, cause they haven't said, okay, I'm going to have some kind of camp this weekend. I'm

00:32:21 pretty sure. And there's going to be press at one of the days. So we might get our first

00:32:24 inclination of where they want to use him. Yeah. But yeah, as far as McMillan, I did

00:32:30 have McMillan above him, but it would just be about, you know but I see both those guys

00:32:34 as slots of the next level. I just think McMillan is going to be better at it, you know, and

00:32:38 speaking to the thing I was talking about before last, last two years, and you know,

00:32:42 as if you saw my draft grades column, but I have this stat in there, but the last 20

00:32:46 games, so there was 20 games last two years where Jalen McMillan, Jalen Polk were on the

00:32:50 field together and completed the game. 20 of them. McMillan had 124 catches in those

00:32:55 games for 1,657 yards, 14 touchdowns. Polk had 68 catches. So, so nearly half as much

00:33:02 for 1,210 yards and nine touchdowns, you know? So again, like, but yeah, I just see the both

00:33:08 them as slots and I just like McMillan more. Yeah, I will say I did. I've been studying

00:33:13 up on what Alex Van Pelt did with the Browns and how they use like Amari Cooper. There

00:33:18 were, there's a lot of plays where it's either he's backside one on one with a three by one

00:33:24 or they get him into the slot somehow and dial up things for him that way. And there

00:33:29 are a lot of routes there that I think Jalen Polk has shown on tape. So I think he's not

00:33:34 Amari Cooper, but I think some of that stuff you can ask him to do it and he'll be at least

00:33:38 somewhat successful. But yeah, how they use them, it's going to be very interesting for

00:33:42 sure. So, all right, let's the next one's Caden Wallace and I don't want to spend a

00:33:46 ton of time on the two offensive linemen. We could just kind of lump them together because

00:33:49 they got drafted back to back because I do want to get the Javon Baker as well. But like

00:33:54 those two offensive linemen, I think we can both agree. I think we can all three of us

00:33:58 agree that certainly Caden Wallace was a reach. Now the Patriots have said that they felt

00:34:03 that he could play left tackle, but I don't like, I haven't heard that from anyone else.

00:34:09 He played no left tackle in college. And so then the question becomes, well, maybe you

00:34:13 did think he'd play left tackle, but you took him at 68. Like, do you think you could have

00:34:17 gotten him at one Oh three? Like did anyone else see that? You know? And so that's, that

00:34:22 to me is the, is the question mark there. Now again, maybe they believe that, but like,

00:34:27 I don't know. I just, it's surprising to me. Laden Robinson's fine, but like not the kind

00:34:33 of guy I want to spend, you know, my top fourth round pick on.

00:34:37 For sure. Yeah. And that's sort of how I saw it. And it would have been, you know, some

00:34:41 of these things, you don't know how it went down in the war room. But like the way that

00:34:47 it sort of came across to me is that they were like, okay, you know, the third pick

00:34:51 we decided on May. So good. We're coming out of there. And then it's like, they're heading

00:34:56 into Friday and it's like that first pick, it's going to be a wide receiver. Right. Like,

00:35:00 you know, and they were, you know, you mentioned that they were possibly attempting to, they

00:35:04 either I've read reports where it was like, they wanted to get to fall to them, but then

00:35:08 there's other ones that they were, you know, thought they could get snipes.

00:35:11 They're trying to move up and however it goes. But anyway, obviously that dream was, was

00:35:15 dead heading into Friday, but it's like, they stayed on that path of like, it's going to

00:35:19 be a receiver. And I think they knew, I think the trade down would indicate, and I think

00:35:24 they might've even said this. So like they, it's like, they're at the very tippy top there

00:35:29 for Paul. He must've been the next, obviously the next highest receiver on their board.

00:35:33 I think I just would, I think remaining more open to the possibilities around you, even

00:35:39 if you see the prospects different than me understand that in the, on Thursday, that

00:35:43 was when it was the gold rush for the offensive tackles. If it's me and I'm the Patriots and

00:35:48 I'm seeing the environment I'm in where, you know, everyone's jumping over themselves,

00:35:52 the trade up that I'm looking at from the top of the second into Thursday, it's not

00:35:56 for Xavier like yet it's for an offensive tackle.

00:35:59 If that's what you're, you know, a position that you're going to prioritize, it feels

00:36:03 like they got caught on the wrong end of it. You know, like they, they took a different

00:36:08 receiver fair enough. They, at least they traded down once, but then they, because they

00:36:12 had done that, then the next pick, it's like offensive tackle. Well, they, all the good

00:36:15 ones are already gone. Right. But then, so it feels like they just reached up on, on

00:36:19 someone there and it was, it just felt like they were, you know, and I don't know, but

00:36:25 that's what it sort of came across like to me, but yeah, Caden Wallace, even at the point

00:36:29 we were at in the draft there, what pick, what did it end up being with him in the slot?

00:36:34 Early 68. Yeah. It's tough, man. Cause you got, we had the historic run of the offensive

00:36:39 tackles early on. And then right before that end of the second round, Rosengarten goes

00:36:44 and Suamatea goes in quick succession. Now we're, we're really in trouble as far as the

00:36:49 tackles go. And if you consider Brandon Coleman and tackle, I consider him a guard, but play

00:36:53 tackle at TC, but then he just went one pick before you, I would have done something else

00:36:58 there. Either get aggressive in the environment you were in trying to get up with a second

00:37:01 round pick to get into the back end of the first, to steal one of those other tackles

00:37:05 before they dry out. Or I would have something else, but it felt like they sort of had the

00:37:10 worst of both worlds. And I obviously do not see Caden Wallace like they do. I not only

00:37:16 am I, you know, if I'm wrong, people in the chat, feel free to clip this after the fact

00:37:20 to make me look like an idiot on Twitter. It wouldn't be the first ones, but I don't

00:37:24 left tackle is not a thing for me with Caden Wallace. For me, it was like, maybe you'll

00:37:29 see in camp if he can end up hanging at right tackle, but otherwise we're going to have

00:37:34 to try him at guard was more the way that like, I obviously did not like his tape as

00:37:39 much as the Patriots. They obviously see something different in him.

00:37:42 Yeah. Yeah. Which is risky for sure to go that far. And I do think, yeah, the Patriots

00:37:48 got stuck in a weird spot here where, you know, you're picking around the right spot

00:37:52 to get the wide receivers and the tackles you probably want, but they also go right

00:37:56 in front of you in both times. The new and ever reaching twice. And that's not usually

00:38:03 a recipe for success, although it doesn't, it doesn't mean those guys can't be good.

00:38:06 It just means that statistically that works out less of the time. I appreciate Ron on

00:38:12 my gachi from Yale was still on the board and they'd like, would you have taken him

00:38:16 there instead if you were going to go with a tackle?

00:38:18 Yes, I would have. Yeah. And I think if, if he hadn't been nicked up, you know, and then

00:38:23 miss the draft process cause of that and could have played in the senior bowl and then he

00:38:27 could have tested and everything. I think that kid goes quite a bit higher, but that

00:38:31 was like, you know, from memory, that was like one of the very few tackles that you

00:38:36 could get him. And then I assume a tear were like, but soon I tell you, you can see that

00:38:40 one so many different ways. Cause he's like the big band outcome guys, the guy, you know,

00:38:45 like he, yeah, the upside is there that he could potentially be one of the better tackles

00:38:49 that come out of this class or he could flame out immediately. So it's like, you know, you

00:38:53 sort of had to take him is betting on your own offensive line coach.

00:38:57 That's what it is. Yeah. Like his technique needs to be ironed out and the consistency

00:39:01 needs to be ironed out. But yeah, like with Wallace, it's, it's just like a lower ceiling.

00:39:05 And again, like, you know, at least my read of it, right? Like they, they obviously disagree

00:39:09 with me if they're already talking about left tackle with him, but you know, at least you

00:39:13 have the bullet of, you can kick them inside the guard if it don't work out a right tackle,

00:39:17 you know, even if I'm right about that. Yeah. Well, I'll tell you the thing for me is that

00:39:22 the, the Steelers stole my draft because I really, I wanted the Patriots to trade up

00:39:29 back into the first round and take Fortuno. I think that he was, you know, one of those

00:39:34 guys at left tackle that really could be a stud. And again, I don't know. I know some

00:39:39 people that protect him as a guard. I think that's insane, but whatever I looked at him

00:39:44 as, you know, as a really, really solid offensive tackle prospect that I thought was going to

00:39:49 drop a little bit towards the twenties and he did. And then he ended up there at 20 and

00:39:54 it was like, man, you gotta go get them. And then they take Layden Robinson over Mason

00:40:00 McCormick who McCormick is, was one of my favorite watches.

00:40:03 Cause he just was like this mean little guy with a massive frigging like cowboy call or

00:40:10 just wrecking people on South Dakota state. And it was awesome. And you know, Robinson,

00:40:14 I think has a chance. The interesting thing about Robinson and both Robinson and Wallace,

00:40:19 every Scott and report I read was like, yeah, they're not great. They're fine. They're not

00:40:22 great. But they could be starting day one. And I was like, okay, like they may have some

00:40:28 talent. And again, I feel like it's similar to the poke situation where they're not, there's

00:40:33 not a high ceiling, but there is a decently high floor for both guys.

00:40:37 Now, if you're projecting Caden, Wallace's left tackle, that's a pretty low floor, right?

00:40:41 But like overall as a player and as an offensive alignment, it's a fairly high floor. Um, and

00:40:47 so that's the way I kind of looked at those picks. And I think maybe that's what, that's

00:40:52 what they were going for was that higher floor, even if that ceiling was a little prohibitive.

00:40:58 Yeah, for sure. Yeah. And, um, uh, with Robinson, I feel like I, there's been guys like that

00:41:06 before that I've liked more in previous years and I've, I've gotten burned on it. And so

00:41:11 I think you could argue there that maybe I was a little bit punitive with him in my rankings

00:41:14 because of passing, having something to do more with past experiences than anything to

00:41:19 do with him. But like that sawed off, like, um, uh, like it, it, yeah, just like the,

00:41:26 the strength coming forward from the sought off dude is like springing forward. But like,

00:41:30 you know, on, you know, you start to think about him more in the NFL with that, the past

00:41:34 pro stuff and hit, you know, that was the one thing in college where it could come and

00:41:39 go. And then it's like, if he, you know, the technique doesn't get better, cross them up,

00:41:44 uh, the, the speed guys, that was my concern with that. But you know, like I said, some,

00:41:49 some of these guys in the past that were like that, I used to like that kind of guy more

00:41:52 and it, it, it just didn't work out a couple other times. So I, I could definitely be wrong

00:41:56 on, on Robinson might be the exception, but I do like that aspect of it. It's like, um,

00:42:02 it's like, uh, you know, like an alligator and then it's just like strikes, you know,

00:42:05 it's like, that's him coming out of the staff and he has the long arms and he has that North

00:42:09 South springiness.

00:42:10 I was trying to think of a better way to say, but it's like, that's what it is. Like, I

00:42:14 like him in the run game quite a bit. And I think, you know, you're talking about embedding

00:42:17 the floor. I think that's the thing that embeds floor. I, he gets on top of guys right away

00:42:21 and he gets to initiate the dance. Cause he's going to get off the snap. And then those,

00:42:25 those long arms that he has for a guard deceivingly. So for that more sought off frame, but, um,

00:42:30 that in past pro technique just needs to be worked on a little bit. And he has the length

00:42:34 for it. So we just got to make sure when you're, you know, cause some guys are just, and you

00:42:38 guys know this, um, like for Shanu, uh, from Penn state was like the opposite version of

00:42:43 this where that's a guy who's more comfortable sitting back on his heels and then we'll shuffle

00:42:47 with you. We'll shuffle with you. I will just keep you outside of me. And he's like, you

00:42:50 know, for like going for a Sunday drive. But when he has to go forward, like for sure,

00:42:53 it's the other way where he's like, ah, I don't know what to do. And you know, blah,

00:42:56 blah, blah. The feel is, is different. You know, even UFC fighters are like this, the

00:43:00 guys where it's more, you know, when they're coming forward, they're more comfortable than

00:43:04 when they have to sort of sit back and Perry and stuff like that. And Robinson will be

00:43:08 an example the other way. Can you get the, the feel for the past pro better potentially

00:43:12 than he plays way up.

00:43:13 Yeah. But I, I do, I do wonder here how much input, you know, new offensive line coach

00:43:18 Scott Peters has in this. And if there's a certain type of guy they're looking for where

00:43:22 they think, Hey, we know we can correct these issues. Um, so we're okay reaching a little

00:43:28 bit on this because we think he's going to turn into something better. You know? Um,

00:43:33 I think I've held for a while with how expensive offensive linemen are and how hard it is to

00:43:38 get five good ones. And if you have a good offensive line coach, that might be the best

00:43:42 value thing you can get in football because that's not a capped expense. And you can keep

00:43:46 that guy for as long as he wants to be in football and you can get a cheaper offensive

00:43:50 line because of it. So if Scott Peters can be that guy in turn, you know, third and fourth

00:43:54 round picks in the, in the starters there, um, that becomes a huge thing.

00:43:59 A hundred percent. Also Pat stats, uh, pointed out that, um, that yes, uh, Mason McCormick

00:44:05 is not little. He is in fact six, four. Um, but he looks little just when he plays, he

00:44:10 looks, he plays a little of the ground maybe. I don't know. Uh, but let's get, let's get

00:44:13 into your favorite pick. And the only pick that you didn't have as a reach for the Patriots.

00:44:18 I think it might be everyone's favorite pick of the draft for the Patriots. And that's

00:44:21 J Vaughn Baker. Um, just, you know, pick, pick it one 10 and C feels like a home run

00:44:30 slam dunk. Uh, you know, grand slam, all of the, you know, all of the, all of the accolades

00:44:37 you want to give it, give it because I, I love the pick. I'm very excited about it.

00:44:41 And uh, you know, and obviously you seem to be excited about it as well.

00:44:45 Yeah. Um, I, I love Javon Baker. I was hoping the Vikings would get access to him, but you

00:44:50 know, obviously that didn't happen and they weren't taking receivers, but like I, any

00:44:54 fan base that they got him, cause you knew you were going to get them on a discount because

00:44:59 beginning of his career is the five-star guy. He goes to Alabama that didn't work out. Then

00:45:03 it seemed he transferred to Kentucky just for the shortest amount of time. And it seemed

00:45:06 like him and the coaching staff weren't getting along his first couple of weeks there. So

00:45:09 he books it again, goes to UCF. And then it was like this, um, you know, in that offense

00:45:15 that Gus runs, you recall, uh, like talking about Bo Nix and early in his career and the,

00:45:20 the things that he had to do in the Melzahn offense at Auburn that didn't suit Bo Nix's

00:45:24 game, like sitting back in the pocket and then having to go through your options and

00:45:27 throw it down the field, that element of it. Um, Javon Baker, he was the leverage downfield

00:45:32 dude. They, uh, UCF didn't like, uh, John Rice Plumlee. He's a good, he's a great athlete.

00:45:37 You know, he played a center fielder on the UCF baseball team in addition to being the

00:45:41 quarterback and he's got the arm strength to get it down there, but the accuracy with,

00:45:45 with John Rice needs, needs some work. And so Javon would, would all this stuff downfield

00:45:50 if it's one-on-one Javon Baker's coming down with that thing. He just tilts it so far in

00:45:54 your direction. But I think the thing that people missed about his game is he has all

00:45:59 this other stuff that UCF just did not have the, the accuracy and the timing and their

00:46:04 passing system with the, with the quarterbacks that they have in terms of that for him to

00:46:08 be able to show, for instance, his skill winning in the intermediate area consists of, you

00:46:13 know, over the long haul just because of the constitution of the office and then breaking

00:46:16 the tackles after, um, he catches the ball. But I love his release package. His feet are

00:46:21 just like crazy legs, harsh. It's like, well, you know, the quarterback, it's like, you

00:46:25 know, like putting them in a trance and it's like, you're not getting your hands on that

00:46:28 dude out the line. He also has the strength. Even if you get a glance and shot on him,

00:46:31 you're not dictating the terms of that dance. You're not funneling him where you want to

00:46:34 go. He's, he's getting his free release and then he's, he's on his way. Um, and he's got

00:46:39 the burst. He doesn't, his downtown speed, it's not the greatest in the world, but he,

00:46:44 he has that burst and he knows how to stack corners is the other thing. So he'll, he'll

00:46:48 get you behind, you know, it's like on the racetrack, you're not getting past that car

00:46:51 and now he's in front of you. So he gives himself the best look for it. Downfield love

00:46:54 his hands. But yeah, I just think that the skillset for him, it's more fleshed out than

00:46:59 he was given credit for. I think, but you know, by, by the draft public, the other,

00:47:03 the other thing about Javon's agent is calling me right now. I'll get to it. Um, but the

00:47:09 other aspect about it was that I think where the NFL overlooked or not overlooked, but

00:47:13 maybe waited a little bit too much as I compare this, his Javon's personality to Stefan Dix,

00:47:19 who was another guy who fell further down the board and my hometown team got to take

00:47:23 advantage of that one. But it's the same thing where it's a dude who ardently believes he

00:47:27 is the best receiver in this class. If you ask Javon Baker, he'll tell you I'm the best

00:47:31 receiver in this class. And he doesn't understand. He thinks we're the crazy ones that we don't

00:47:35 see it. Right. And he just wants the ability to prove that. But that, you know, it was

00:47:38 the same thing as with the digs thing of like, come on another former five-star recruit that

00:47:43 fell down the board. And it, you know, it was like, is his, that, that part of his personality

00:47:48 where it's, you know, very loud and very, you know, you know, get me on the field. I

00:47:52 want some of the stuff he said after the draft, like Javon, maybe, maybe keep that part to

00:47:56 yourself. You know, I know you're excited, but maybe keep that to yourself where, you

00:48:00 know, like some teams may be thinking like, is that worth, you know, commensurate to the

00:48:04 pick, but where you got them, that's a smash value either way. You know, you guys heard

00:48:08 in the pre-draft process, you know, some of this stuff on the other side of it, where

00:48:12 people got upset with him, the blow and the kiss to the Oklahoma sideline was that was

00:48:17 the classic one. And every time, every time I talked about Baker on any of these shows,

00:48:21 I have to give this context because no one ever does. They're like, oh, you know, he

00:48:24 did the, he's a showboat and all this stuff. It's actually not what that was in that game.

00:48:29 So Oklahoma goes to UCF, UCF at the time, I think it was two and four, Oklahoma was

00:48:34 undefeated. Oklahoma was a 22 point favorite in that game, heading to down to Orlando or

00:48:40 whatever. And the Oklahoma had just scored. This is at near the end of the first half

00:48:45 Baker on that play gets deep, gets, you know, obviously takes it to the house to answer

00:48:51 that touchdown and keep the game close heading into halftime. When he ran by their sideline,

00:48:55 he like, they couldn't contain him in the first half. And that's basically what he was

00:48:59 doing. Like, I'm going to be here all day. Like we're not going away. So the game goes

00:49:03 into halftime where UCF is still like, we, we actually have a shot of, of killing Goliath

00:49:07 here. You know? And part of that was the energy that was in the crowd. UCF came within a failed

00:49:13 two point conversion at the end of that game from sending it into overtime against Oklahoma.

00:49:17 They ended up losing by two because they didn't get that two point conversion. But the only

00:49:20 reason that game was closed and it was like that was because Javon Baker went ballistic

00:49:25 and you get that other element of his personality sometimes where, you know, can come across

00:49:29 his showboating or it can come across as me, me, me same way with stuff on decks.

00:49:33 Right. It's just, that's the personality when the situations are in, things are going well,

00:49:37 you never hear that stuff about stuff on digs. It's the same thing with Baker. So like if

00:49:41 things are going well in Oz, you're not going to hear one thing about it. It's only if the

00:49:44 situation goes the other way, but I really love his game.

00:49:48 Right. Yeah. He's fun to watch. I think you need receivers who play with that kind of

00:49:53 an attitude, you know, at the position you play by yourself away from the formation,

00:49:57 a lot of one-on-one opportunities, whether it's wide receiver or defensive back, I think

00:50:02 you need a guy who has crazy belief in himself. And you know, it's funny, you mentioned stuff

00:50:08 on digs, you know, I think they're somewhat similar as, as players. I think Baker relies

00:50:14 on the contestant catches a little bit more than, you know, digs did. He's a little bit

00:50:18 bigger of a player, but similar attitude, similar pedigree, taking it similar spots

00:50:23 in the draft. Not saying it's a one-to-one, but he has the error bars and what Javon Baker

00:50:30 can be are very wide here. Yeah. Positive and negative.

00:50:34 Yeah. But I I'm, like I said, I'm bullish and I think like, I think he's better than

00:50:38 Polk. You know, I know the factors that led to it going the other way. I knew Polk was

00:50:42 going to get taken higher, but like, I think Baker is going to be the number one receiver

00:50:45 on the Patriots and, and, and not going to take them along. Cause I, here's the thing,

00:50:51 like people are like, Javon, shut up, like stops. But I, I agree with some of the things

00:50:56 that he says that people are like, Javon, shut up. Like I do, he's the best receiver

00:51:00 in my opinion, that's on the Patriots right now. Like, and I think, I think he's going

00:51:04 to prove that. I think he's going to blow past Polk and it's, it's going to be more

00:51:07 about like, am I going to lead this team in targets this coming season? But yeah, he,

00:51:12 he's a really good talent. It's just, you're going to have to work with him, you know,

00:51:16 with some of the other stuff, cause he's a guy who, you know, just like Stefan Diggs,

00:51:21 he emotes. And so you, you just have to make, you know, work with them and have a good environment

00:51:26 around him and, and understand that sometimes like he just has to let off steam and maybe

00:51:30 not take it, some of the stuff he's saying too, too literally and seriously. Yeah. Yeah,

00:51:34 no, it's a good point. It's a really good point. So I'm excited about Javon Baker, Javon

00:51:39 Baker. I think everyone should be more excited after hearing Thor. And, and so that's a good

00:51:44 thing. Now, listen, we got to take one more break. When we come back, we're just going

00:51:47 to blow through the rest of, I don't, we don't even want to talk about everyone, but this

00:51:51 one guy I want to talk about. And then someone had a question about the UDFA. So we'll bring

00:51:54 that up and then we'll get Thor out of here. By the way, I don't think I mentioned this

00:51:58 at the top, but you can read Thor's draft breakdown on fantasy pros goes through person

00:52:04 player by player has the rank. What I love about it is you like clip it and have the

00:52:08 rank next to the pick where you had them as a position, and then you go through your explanation.

00:52:13 So I like that a lot. So if you go on a fantasy pros, you can find Thor's AFC and NFC of course,

00:52:18 pictures in the AFC clearly. But you can see that and then, and you can go from there.

00:52:22 So anyways, take a quick break and we'll be right back. The Celtics are in the playoffs

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00:53:29 All right, we're back. Okay, so I lied to you. I do want to hear your thoughts about

00:53:35 Jaheim Bell quickly, but we also have to hear about Joe Milton. What you thought about Joe

00:53:39 Milton just super quick, taking about where you expected him to be taken. I just feel

00:53:45 like he's probably just a backup quarterback, right? But he's such a fun backup quarterback,

00:53:50 isn't he?

00:53:51 Yes, he is. Yeah. Yeah, he's like Nuke LaLouche. You know, it's like he, he, he might have

00:53:57 the strongest arm for throwing a football on planet earth. It's between him and Josh

00:54:01 Allen. There ain't no one else. I mean, put them all in. Those are the two that they had

00:54:05 the record for max Velo throw, you know, at the NFL combine Milton matched Allen for that

00:54:10 62 this year, but just absolute bazookas. And he's a crazy good athlete too. I don't

00:54:16 know if people realize how good of an athlete, like he's been, they clock them over 20 miles

00:54:19 per hour. I think it was the touchdown run against Florida. I forget that the long touchdown,

00:54:24 but the GPS had him really high. And then he'll do standing back flips before the game.

00:54:28 Like this guy's a stupid athlete with an absolute bazooka, but like, you know, obviously he

00:54:32 lost his job in Michigan earlier in his career to McNamara, then to Tennessee for, for Hypo.

00:54:36 And then last year had it for the full season, but you know, it didn't play as well as we

00:54:40 wanted and for him. And that's one of the easiest offenses as far as the progressions

00:54:44 that should have helped him with that. That's the one thing with him. It's, you know, he's

00:54:48 a great kid. Everyone raves about him, loves him. Jim Nagy couldn't stop. It's like, Jim,

00:54:51 you just met him one time. Like, you know, you know, Nagy was talking about like how

00:54:55 with all the helpers there in mobile, like Milton was going around and thanking them

00:54:59 all and like just doing different, you know, thank you notes to people and stuff. So, so

00:55:03 you love all that stuff. It's like, but he had the two good coaching staffs. And then

00:55:06 the last one, one of the better, more Kibbe friendly systems that we have and we're cleaved

00:55:11 the field and have for him. And some of the decisions still were, were not very good.

00:55:15 And then the, the, the technique and the mechanics need to be worked on. He's one of those Lloyd

00:55:20 Christmas, dumb and dumber. So you're saying there's a chance there's a one in a million

00:55:24 chance or maybe one in a thousand. And the other realities, he, it could be quick for

00:55:29 him and then he's got to go down to the UFL or maybe he doesn't even do football anymore,

00:55:33 but there's one shot, you know, where if, if that light turns on and it's the right

00:55:37 guy and it makes sense to him, he has all the physical ability in the world. You could

00:55:42 argue that he is more physically gifted than even Anthony Richardson, who went number four

00:55:46 last year, but he's way far away as far as the decision-making and then the vacillation

00:55:51 of the accuracy.

00:55:52 Yeah. Yeah. I, I totally agree. Totally agree with you. Matt and I have talked at length

00:55:57 about him and I love it. So, all right. Super quick on Jaheim Bell. Just give us, give us

00:56:06 the, you know, the, the 32nd view of, of the Jaheim Bell pick.

00:56:10 Jaheim Bell is, you know, he's a guy you're going to have to play at H-back or move him

00:56:14 around. He can't play the inline, but if you want to delineate, you know, whether that

00:56:19 or whether it's the big slot, you know, however you want to do that, that's where you would

00:56:22 deploy him out of. And the thing you want to do with, he has a very diverse, he's a

00:56:27 very interesting prospect. Like he was at South Carolina the season before they had

00:56:32 their injuries in the backfield were so bad. They, they just were like, Jaheim, can you

00:56:35 play running back? And then Jaheim became the running back. And then at the end of the

00:56:38 season, he was running for more than a hundred yards. You have that element, you know, you

00:56:41 just use them as, as the runner or, you know, the stuff that the manufacturer and touches,

00:56:46 but the thing you have to get that ball in his hands, but that's where he could do some

00:56:50 stuff. He breaks tackles, but you know, and he's got like good vision as a runner as well.

00:56:56 It's not like a crazy high ceiling, you know, he's not going to be winning down the field.

00:57:01 He's obviously short that the dimensions, you know, it is what it is, but like, if you

00:57:05 can get the ball to him short intermediate, if he can justify not only getting on the

00:57:09 field, but also I deserve a, you know, X percentage of that pie of the targets. But that's once

00:57:15 you get on the ball, that's where his special sauce is a manufacturer in the yards after,

00:57:20 after he gets that ball. Yeah, I agree. I agree. So now it's good. It's good. I'll tell

00:57:26 you what we got it. We DKB right here. Ready to be mad at the war coming in, you know,

00:57:32 just for clicks, but grades make a lot of sense. So I like it. See, this is what we're

00:57:37 talking about. So I hear, sir. And so, all right, here's a question here. We, someone

00:57:42 wants who is it? Sumo pockets wants your opinion on the UDFA signings. You don't necessarily

00:57:47 have to grade them, but maybe give us, you know, your, your favorite or who you think

00:57:53 could have an impact on the roster. Yeah. My, my favorite one was John three Hunter,

00:58:00 both in terms of where I ranked him on my board, but also, you know, the guy that I'm

00:58:05 most intrigued by. And I, I recorded, you know, not only is my UDFA grades out on fantasy

00:58:10 pro my, the class rains, but we also me and D bro on our, my Derek Brown, my, my colleague,

00:58:16 who's our top NFL guy. We, we have, we had a draft show this spring and we did a two

00:58:21 and a half hours on the UDFA classes. And so I, I talked about this on there. They came

00:58:26 out today on the, the dynasty feed of the, of the podcast deal or whatever. But if anyone

00:58:30 wants to check it out, but with, with Hunter getting a little bit deeper into it, calling

00:58:34 him what maybe the strangest sort of off the wall evaluation from, from this class in a

00:58:41 weird way. But the thing with him is he's, he's a, he's a terrible athlete. He gets,

00:58:47 you know, 26 percentile by, by res. He misses a bunch of tackles. The last two seasons combined,

00:58:53 he missed 50 tackles and you cannot drop him into coverage, especially if he has to have

00:58:57 his back turned to the quarterback. It was always bad when even in the Sunbelt, whenever

00:59:01 that happened. And so it's like, well, why, you know, why do you have the highest ranked

00:59:05 or why, why did the Patriots sign him? It's because that guy's good at one thing and one

00:59:10 thing only, but he's actually super skilled at this, which is getting after the quarterback.

00:59:14 If you put some, he's very clever with that, getting through the creases and the small

00:59:19 things he'll, he'll, he'll bounce off the glancing shot and keep his momentum going

00:59:23 forward. Coming downhill, coming downhill with that guy is, is what you want to do in

00:59:27 the run game. If he could, if he could fix that, the tackling for, he gets there. It's

00:59:32 just like he lets so many fish off the line, but it's all the stuff is the downhill stuff.

00:59:37 And he, he scared quarterbacks in, in the Sunbelt. So can they get, can he convince

00:59:42 them in camp that that skill is sufficient to at least convince them to give him the

00:59:48 developmental opportunity to potentially be a blitzing linebacker in the NFL? That's what

00:59:53 he's, that's his mission. I don't know if right now the tackling technique might be

00:59:56 so bad. You can't even use them on special teams. So I imagine that, you know, it's more

01:00:00 convincing them of the practice squad spot in year one, but that skill of his, of getting

01:00:05 to the quarterback and putting the pressure on when he gets sent, it's sufficient enough.

01:00:09 And it's a valuable enough thing in the NFL that he might be able to do that. So that

01:00:13 was the signing of theirs that I really liked.

01:00:15 I was going to say, if there's only one thing that you're good at, that's, that's a pretty

01:00:19 good one. Pretty good thing to be good at. Not a bad one. Good at one thing. Right. Yeah.

01:00:23 So we'll see. And I think, I think it's an interesting class. And again, you know, I,

01:00:29 I know I keep reiterating this, but one of the things that I, that I enjoy when you're

01:00:32 looking and talking, why I like talking to you so much about this stuff is that when

01:00:37 you come into it realistic, they're prospects, we don't actually know what we think. And

01:00:42 so, yes, we have our opinions and they are just that our opinions.

01:00:47 They're not a fact that we're not sitting here saying, you know, you're not sitting

01:00:51 here, Drake may sucks and JJ McCarthy is going to be incredible. And so, you know, and that's

01:00:55 one of those things that, Hey, you had an opinion about this. I have an opinion about

01:00:58 that. And then we'll see in three or four years how that opinion shakes out. And then

01:01:02 of course, sometimes it's like, well, yeah, I had that opinion, but the team, you know,

01:01:08 ruined or, you know, they didn't put them in the right situation.

01:01:10 They didn't put guys around them. And there's a lot of reasons why a guy could fail too.

01:01:13 So you know, when you look in a vacuum, yeah, maybe we're not happy with the grades, but

01:01:18 I think, I think that the reason that you're skeptical is reasonable. And you also look

01:01:26 at it and say, yeah, I might be wrong. And the Patriots may have done okay here, you

01:01:29 know? And so, um, you know, so we'll see. But again, it's, it's one of those things

01:01:34 that we let's have an actual conversation about the draft and look at it like a normal

01:01:39 person, right. And say, Hey, we don't know what we're talking about. We know we do, but

01:01:44 we still don't, you know, even the guys that know what they're talking about, don't know

01:01:47 what they're talking about for sure. Yeah. I mean, NFL teams miss on guys all the time.

01:01:51 What was the quarterback class? The last one we had with all the first round guys and how

01:01:55 many of them blamed out. Yeah. Like it just, you know, it just is what it is. And again,

01:01:59 like, you know, I, you know, it's just my take on the guys right now. And I put in the

01:02:03 writeup with the Patriots, even with the back grade, I gave him, I said, this is all going

01:02:07 to come down to if Drake may as a superstar. And if he is, it doesn't matter what happens

01:02:10 with the rest of the class, I'll be wrong one way or the other. Right. So like, and

01:02:14 on, on the other guys, you know, it's just, you know, again, my take, I was a little bit

01:02:17 lower on Polk, a little bit higher on some of the other receivers, but just my take.

01:02:20 And, and you know, if they prove me wrong, look, you know, like you mentioned at the

01:02:24 top hat making 500 predictions of 500 outcomes that haven't occurred. I have done this now

01:02:29 six, seven years, you know, with the, I think it's yeah, either six or seven, but I have

01:02:34 eaten, uh, can I swear on this or no? Yeah, sure. Okay. Well, I'll say crap. I eat crap

01:02:41 every year, right? Like you're going to be wrong on several, every single year, the NFL

01:02:47 team, they only get seven picks and they're wrong on multiple of them. So, and then their

01:02:51 UDFA flyer, they're wrong about a lot of them. So it's like, yeah, it just is what it is,

01:02:54 but it's a fun process. I, you know, I cover, as you can see behind me, college football

01:02:59 is my love. I covered these guys since they come out of high school, get years of exposure

01:03:03 to them. And then, you know, the ability to sit down, uh, do watch their cutups PFF ultimate.

01:03:08 I love that thing. It is just bang it all up, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang. Um, and

01:03:11 then, you know, they're, you get their testing data and everything, and you can start putting

01:03:16 this stuff together and ranking them against other dudes. I just love the whole process.

01:03:20 So I love doing it. Patriots fans. I'm sorry for my grade. Understand it's the bell curve

01:03:24 methodology. It's out of my hands. It was before the draft. Um, but I wish, I wish him

01:03:28 all the best and I hope Drake may becomes a star because he, he's one fun player to

01:03:32 watch. Yeah. We appreciate that. If you don't know what the bell curve is, I teach it actually

01:03:37 in high school. So go back to go back to school, do a little Google, check off what the bell

01:03:41 curve is and then we can go from there. So, um, but no, it's, it is fun. It's always fun

01:03:46 talking to you. Um, do you, do you have time to discuss the, uh, do you want to discuss

01:03:51 the, uh, I know you might have some strong opinions on it. The Austin rivers comments

01:03:55 on the, uh, Oh yeah. Yeah. Okay. All right. So, so Austin rivers, okay. Gets on the Pat

01:04:00 McAfee show the other day and says that he believes that there are 30 guys in the NBA

01:04:05 that could walk into an NFL locker room and play immediately. But there are zero guys

01:04:11 in the NFL that could walk into an NBA locker room and play right away. Um, I think that's,

01:04:17 I think 30 is an insane number, by the way, just a completely insane number. Um, what,

01:04:23 what's your opinion on this?

01:04:24 I think there's one guy named Austin rivers who wouldn't have been in the NBA as long

01:04:28 as he was, if his dad wasn't an NBA coach. What do you think about that? Let's get some

01:04:33 nepotism stats on that guy. Yeah. Yeah. And as far as the comment, it's like, it's, it's

01:04:39 just a weird thing to say. And especially for the source it's coming from, it's like,

01:04:43 Oh, it's a shut up. Why don't, why don't you let one of the good players say it? Uh, if

01:04:45 you're going to say, you know, whatever. But like, in addition to that, there are two different

01:04:49 sports, right? Like one of them prioritizes like the length and grace, right. And then,

01:04:55 you know, the hand eye coordination in particular, and I suppose lateral agility and vertical

01:05:00 explosion as well. But like, then the other one, there's, there's all the other elements

01:05:03 of other aspects that it, so it's like, it's, it's weird to compare them. I know we've seen

01:05:08 some basketball players, you know, college ones, Rico Gathers and Antonio Gates before

01:05:13 that, you know, all the guitars played some, uh, uh, Keon Coleman in this class was on

01:05:17 Thomas's class for a little bit, but you, you know, I mean like, I don't know, it's

01:05:21 like guys that can be skilled in that way and playing that, that, but like the number

01:05:24 that he said, walk off the court right now and get out of here. Those guys, like, I think

01:05:30 you probably have a better shot the other way if it was, you know, someone who was good

01:05:34 like in the NFL, cause at least physically, you know, but like, like you, you, you have

01:05:39 to have pretty high level technique and then the know-how, this is like, cause the thing

01:05:42 about the NFL, it's, you know, every single play, all the players' performance, they're

01:05:46 intertwined with everyone else. One of the great things about evaluation is you have

01:05:50 to watch them up close and in college and then try to unspool it from all the circumstances

01:05:56 around them and each play and all the things that go into that. Um, whereas the basketball,

01:06:00 it's more free flowing. It'd be tough to teach an NBA or the other way. Whereas at least

01:06:05 we all know where you step on a basketball court, everyone at least knows it's just,

01:06:08 so it's like physically, could you hang, would you have the skill, but stupid comments by,

01:06:12 by Mr. Austin Rivers. Yeah. As you think, I think you could probably find a decent number

01:06:18 of players who are like, Hey, we're going to put you on a practice squad for three years

01:06:22 and coach you into this. And you're going to be a backup tight end by the end of it.

01:06:27 But I don't think that's what he meant by that.

01:06:29 I don't think, yeah. Yeah. And you know, and like, I think you can argue for, you know,

01:06:35 cause there's the argument of like what sport has the best athletes on, on earth. And if

01:06:39 you want to argue that for bad, I'm like, I'm not gonna cause it's like the guys who

01:06:43 have the most unique dimensions. There's only so many, you know, seven footers walking the

01:06:46 earth right now in the NBA basically took all the most out of the ones. And so it's

01:06:51 like, yeah, I mean, in terms of some of that stuff, it's like, yeah, I get that, but I,

01:06:55 I don't understand. We're comparing apples and oranges. And then we're trying to say

01:06:58 that the orange is better, even though there's no way to prove that it's just a weird thing

01:07:03 to say. Yeah. By the way, when we're saying best athletes on the planet, I'm going to

01:07:07 give a shout out to hockey players because they can do so much incredible stuff and they

01:07:11 have to do it while skating. Uh, that has always blown my mind. So yeah, that one's

01:07:18 wild to me. And I, the other thing for me is that the, I don't know if there's any NFL

01:07:24 guys that walk into the NBA and play basketball only because I look at it this way, right?

01:07:30 Steph Curry is one inch shorter than Randy Moss, right? Like Steph Curry is the small,

01:07:36 one of the smallest guys in the basketball court. Randy Moss, one of the tallest guys

01:07:38 on the fourth one, the football field. And you're talking about one inch separation.

01:07:42 So like you take as big, physical, dominant wide receiver and put them in the NBA and

01:07:47 all of a sudden he's a shooting guard. Right. And so like, that's the only thing I look

01:07:52 at and say like, well, yeah, it's the, and the hand, I coordination and stuff is, is

01:07:56 difficult and the very specialized thing like shooting is a very specialized technique.

01:08:01 And so I understand it from that point of view. And you know, you can make the case

01:08:07 and I was listening to a podcast earlier today and they were saying, you know, Jordan, Mulatto

01:08:10 was drafted without literally without ever playing a snap of football. Right. And so

01:08:15 like, I, I understand, I get it. Like you can teach that guy eventually, but the level

01:08:21 of physicality, right. The level of physical, I mean, these NBA guys can't take any physical

01:08:29 contact and the level of physical contact that has to be there.

01:08:33 What about a game in a practice? Right. Like that to me is something that I don't know

01:08:40 if any of these guys are prepared for, right. Like Anthony Edwards looks like this big dominant

01:08:45 guy dominating and going hard in the paint and do it. You put them on a football field

01:08:51 and you know, let them run across the middle and let some safety take his head off. Like,

01:08:54 and of course it's a little different than it was, you know, 20 years ago, but still,

01:08:59 you know, that's, you know, you ask him to crack back, blog, you know, come down and

01:09:03 kick out at a defensive end or something like that. Like that's just not happening, you

01:09:06 know? And so that's the part where I look at it and say, look, man, I don't know. You

01:09:12 know, I don't know if, if I think it would be more likely for an NBA guy to be able to

01:09:17 make a switch into the NFL, but I just don't know if they could actually hang in the NFL.

01:09:21 They might be able to like, Hey, you might look good in shorts and a t-shirt, you know,

01:09:27 seven on seven. You want to tell me it's flag football, seven on seven flag football. Absolutely.

01:09:31 Those guys would be great. That's not what we're talking about. That's not the game.

01:09:35 And so, you know, it's, it's, it's a different situation, right? You want to say, Hey, you

01:09:39 know, for, for the seven on seven Olympics, you know, if I'm Canada, shoot, I'm taking,

01:09:46 you know, three NBA guys.

01:09:48 Cause I don't know anyone that plays football. Hey, you want to come play flag football in

01:09:51 the Olympics for Canada? Absolutely. Let's do it. You know, like, so, but again, you

01:09:55 talk about real football. I just, the physicality and the physical nature of it. I just don't

01:10:00 think they're built for it. Yeah. I, you know, like, I think he was trying to say we're better

01:10:05 athletes than NFL players. And I think if I was him, I just would have stuck to that.

01:10:09 Cause I, I totally agree with that. Like, even if, you know, you're, you can project

01:10:13 this specific athlete from the NBA. It's like, you know, like when LeBron, remember when

01:10:16 he came out of high school and then it was like a couple of years in, they were like,

01:10:20 Oh, he would have been like the best tight end ever. And it's like, well, well maybe,

01:10:24 but it's like, you know, to do that, you'd have to transition over and then you'd have

01:10:27 to teach them all the routes and, and, and, you know, what have you. It's not just about

01:10:32 the athletic projection of it. There's the NFL game. It's especially at that position,

01:10:38 but like, even like the ones that would project to receiver. So receiver, I don't know if

01:10:43 you guys saw this, there was a dude who had put a tweet out right before the draft. And

01:10:46 it was about the positions in the first round that have the highest bus rate. And he did

01:10:50 it. He basically did it by who got second contract, each position, safest position was

01:10:55 centered. The only one boss was Billy price. And then it was all the way down. Well, one

01:10:59 of the ones that had the highest bus rate, it was wide receiver. And my supposition for

01:11:03 that is because at that position, the athletic traits are overvalued. You constantly see

01:11:10 guys go and maybe the NFL is getting a little bit like 80 Mitchell did fall to the fall

01:11:14 to the middle of the city. That's around where he was on my board. I think I had him as a

01:11:18 late second round guy, but like maybe they're getting somewhat better at this, but historically

01:11:23 they will pump those guys way up at that position that are great athletes. But here's the thing.

01:11:27 You don't get separation by being a better athlete than someone you, you get away more

01:11:31 from subterfuge and efficiency of your footwork and keeping them off the beat of your sense.

01:11:36 And then the efficiency in and out, then the acceleration out. It's the whole package of

01:11:41 that. But like, why did Pooka Nuku go at the end of the fifth round last year? Because

01:11:45 he, he does, he's not a great athlete when you put on the shorts and then you, you know,

01:11:48 you have to do the test or whatever, but on a football field, when, when you're in pads

01:11:53 and then there's all the concepts as well that you have to, he becomes with the tracking

01:11:58 data, it plays way up. Cause there's no hesitancy. Like he, he understands, like he's got like

01:12:04 a supercomputer at it. And this is why he always gets separation, even though the guy

01:12:08 covering them invariably, if they went back and put on their, their, their shorts and

01:12:12 they went onto the track would be a better athlete than him objectively on the track

01:12:16 field. But he doesn't move as well on the field or as fluidly or, you know, and he's

01:12:21 getting tricked by Pooka over and over again, taking false steps.

01:12:23 If we was like, gotcha. And now you're getting stacked and bye-bye, you know, and they get

01:12:27 hit and hit on the hands and, and, you know, now he sees everyone, you know, like the,

01:12:31 it's just that, that sort of stuff. And I think that's the thing where Austin Rivers,

01:12:35 you probably just should, you want to make the argument, they're better athletes do that.

01:12:39 I think you could do that, but like the thing of like, Oh, we could just start sending guys

01:12:42 over there and they're going to be NFL standouts. Right. I don't think so.

01:12:47 Yeah. Yeah. Discounting the intricacies of the game. Yeah, for sure. But exactly, exactly.

01:12:54 And that's what I'm talking about. That's a great segue. That's a great way to finish

01:12:57 because that's my argument for the Jalen Polk pick is that, Hey, listen, he may not be,

01:13:03 he may not be the, the you know, the, the greatest athlete in the world, but I do believe

01:13:08 that he has that high ceiling, that high, that high floor that it will allow the Patriots

01:13:13 to at least have a guy that is competent at the wide receiver position, which they haven't

01:13:18 been able to draft in a long time. So, you know, that's, that's where I'm at.

01:13:22 I want receiver because it's so technique heavy development in the NFL can make a difference

01:13:27 there too. You're not just who you are when you come in and like from everything I've

01:13:32 read, it seems like the best way to approach wide receiver is just draft a lot of them.

01:13:37 Like you can find them in any round, find them at any spot. You can find them with basically

01:13:41 any combine performance, just kind of keep taking shots. So we all talk about the Steelers.

01:13:45 It's a great wide receiver drafting team. Go on pro football reference to go look at

01:13:50 the Steelers drafts at wide receiver. Look how many busts there are in there. There are

01:13:54 so many of them, but they just keep like every other year, a second or a third rounder. They'll

01:13:59 keep investing. And if you know, a quarter of those guys hit, you have good receivers

01:14:04 for sure. Exactly. So, all right, well, this has been a ton of fun as always, before we

01:14:10 let you go, you need to tell the people where they can read you and see you and hear you

01:14:14 and everything else. They're probably sick of me by now with that discussion we just

01:14:18 have with everyone who came in and why it's appreciated at least hearing me out. And again,

01:14:23 I hope I'm wrong. And when I am, then you can come in. I'll say it. I'll apologize.

01:14:27 I am all my misses. I, you know, hand up on it. I don't hype for that stuff. So I hope

01:14:31 I am wrong, but I appreciate you guys having me. It's always awesome to talk to you. You

01:14:34 can find me on Twitter, Thor KU, and then like the UDFA stuff that I was talking about

01:14:39 and all that sort of stuff. My post draft stuff is on fantasy pros.

01:14:44 Love it. I love it. So, well, thank you so much again. And we're going to have to have

01:14:47 you on again next year for the draft recap. And hopefully you'll be apologizing already

01:14:52 about the F from this year and we'll see what the grade looks like next year. So hopefully

01:14:56 it's become a yearly tradition and I've been higher on Patriots, you know, so, so the guy

01:15:00 that was saying like it was for clicks or I don't like new England or whatever. It's

01:15:03 like, you know, it's just, you know, it's year in year out thing, but yeah, we'll be

01:15:07 back to either either way. I think like 2022 they drafted Cole Strange

01:15:12 in the first round. I don't think you liked that, but I remember 2021 you're like, Oh

01:15:15 yeah. Mac Jones, Christian Barmore. You got, I think they got like an A in that year's

01:15:18 draft and that one didn't work out as well, but yeah, it is what it is. So what are you

01:15:23 going to do? So I like strange more than most that year, you know, I might not have had

01:15:27 him as a first round on my board, but I was, I was higher on him. I think Adam is a second

01:15:31 rounder than other folks. Yeah, I think you're right. I think you're

01:15:34 right. I don't remember you hating that draft. So anyways, but nevertheless, so we will,

01:15:38 we'll do it again next year. I'm already looking forward to it. And, uh, and thank you again,

01:15:41 door and everyone out there. Uh, appreciate you guys. Thank you for coming through. Also,

01:15:46 someone asked about what we thought about the Brady roast. We actually did that on Monday.

01:15:49 So if you want to go back to our, uh, in the annals of, of PNN here, uh, we do have that

01:15:54 show. You can listen to it, uh, if you want to go back and look at that. So, uh, anyways,

01:15:58 thank you very much. And we'll be, thanks again, door. Thanks to everyone else. And

01:16:01 we will see you guys on Monday, uh, of next week, unless something crazy comes up scheduled

01:16:07 coming out next Wednesday. Pretty exciting, pretty exciting. So we didn't even get into

01:16:11 your Viking store, but you know, it's, uh, you know, it's okay. They crushed the draft

01:16:16 in my opinion. So, uh, nobody wants to hear my JJ McCarthy takes anymore, especially now

01:16:20 that he's on the Viking. So it's great. You know, if it works out, it's going to be the

01:16:26 best thing ever. And if you run out of my state, if it doesn't, if it doesn't work,

01:16:31 I was going to be playing over here.

01:16:33 Just make sure you keep refreshing and Zillow just in case. Yeah. Hey, where's the room?

01:16:41 We'll take you here in new England if you want, you know, there's some room for you.

01:16:43 Yeah. I mean, if they forgive me after that, then for sure I'll be down there. All right,

01:16:49 guys. Thanks, man. We'll talk to you.

01:16:50 Appreciate it.

01:16:51 [BLANK_AUDIO]

Why Thor Nystrom gave the Patriots draft an F | Patriot Nation

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