C (5:18)

So I'm really glad that you just said a couple things that you said. It's funny because I kind of did an overview of a. A quick overview of each team on today's Ross Tucker Football podcast, because these shows are always about 27 minutes. So if you're getting through 32 teams, you got to be quick like I was. But I, I, I, I'm with you on the Browns, you know, I mean, for them to trade down and still get the number one offensive lineman, at least on their board, and Spencer Fano, and then they get concep, who I know, I know Todd Monkin looks at him and thinks, Zay Flowers. I just know it, you know, like, and he knows how to use them, knows why that's important, all those things. But then you're right. Denzel Boston and Emmanuel McNeil Warren, people would have thought they were both going in the end of the first round. So to get both those guys in round two. I don't know if you know this, Emory, but I went on the radio in Cleveland. I know you go on with those guys sometimes as well. I went on Friday 923 with my guys, Nick Wilson, Jonathan Peterlin, and, you know, the Browns had taken their two first round picks, but they, they wanted to talk about quarterbacks. And they said, you think we should take a quarterback? You think Todd Monkin wants somebody? Who do you think it should be? And I said, I mean, you got two young guys with Gabriel and Shador. You know, if anything, maybe you. Maybe it makes sense to, to take a shot on a guy like Taylor Green, because we saw what Monka did with Lamar Jackson in the passing game. You know, Taylor has truly unique physical ability. Maybe Monkin can refine him more in the passing game like he did with Lamar Jackson. I gotta tell you, when they took him memory, it was like that. I was so happy. It was like, you know, it's just nice when you make a call like that and it comes through.

B (7:31)

Absolutely. We kind of did that and you know, with. On CBS Sports hq, I did it with Ty Simpson to the Rams. It was me, Brian Kelly, and also Damien Harris. And we were talking about where Ty Simpson could potentially go, and Ben Denucci was up there as well. And I'm like, wait, listen, don't sleep on the Rams being a possibility, because it's a situation where the Rams answered a lot of immediate needs in free agency. With the trades, they can now start looking for the future, and this would be the perfect spot for him to go. I was thinking second pick in the first round. I wasn't thinking first pick in the first round, but I felt like that was a great spot for him. And then we also had this roundtable discussion. First of all, Brian Kelly is phenomenal as a coach, as a talent, too. He is, he is, he is. He was awesome on TV and he's funny as hell. And so we were talking about who's going to be the first DB off the board. And we all came to the conclusion it's Mansour Delaine. You know, and the fact that they traded up to go get man Sword. Delaine was, Was also cool to see how it played out. So, yeah, there was a lot of surprising moments. But Taylor Green also, again, that draft for The Browns looked like it was on a mock draft, simulated, like, there's no way all these players are going to be there, because at some point in time, outside of Taylor Green, all the first four picks were all, you know, seen in first round mock drafts all throughout this process. So just a phenomenal draft for everybody and one of many teams that had these type of drafts, too.

C (9:10)

All right, so the other thing is that you touched on that I want to dive into a little bit more Andrew Brandt on the Business of Sports podcast, which is part of the Ross Tucker Podcast Network. He got a tweet. He said something on his show that got a lot of attention. You just hinted at it, Emory. He said he talked to an NFL scout last week who said that rounds six and seven were wiped out from. From nil last year and that this year, rounds four through seven were wiped out from nil. And I, I guess you kind of touched on it or hinted at it, but your thoughts on what that scout supposedly, you know, not supposedly, what that scout said to Andrew Brandt. And I'll give you my thoughts as well.

B (10:11)

I completely disagree. If we just by sheer of what we saw last year, how many day 3 guys and undrafted free agents ended up starting for teams in the NFL. Shador Sanders was a day three guy. Like, and we know he should have went in round one or at worst, round two. And so just on the surface of that statement, it is patently false. And to. In this year now, now he goes from six and seven to, yeah, all of day three. Like, no, bro, nah, nah, nah, nah. I'm not gonna let y' all get off with that one. Like, nah, there's great talent in the fourth round that went. We saw Gerard McCoy, Jermaine McCoy go in the fourth round, albeit via injury, but he went in the fourth round, right? And so there was a ton of talent that went. Hezekiah Masses was a day three pick for the Raiders. Another outstanding corner out of California, Gary Nussmeier, who. Who these same scouts probably say it was, you know, the number one overall pick goes on day three. So day three was not wiped out by, if anything, add two more rounds to it, you know what I'm saying? Because that's how talented the draft has gotten because of all of these guys playing more and more college football. So I just thought that was a, you know, that's a. That's a lazy. Take a cop out, you know, and as someone that. And I'm surprised it came from the scout because as someone that evaluates a lot of Players, more so than anybody in the. In the digital media, in media space. To hear that from a scout, I was like, all right, bro, that's.

C (11:42)

That.

B (11:42)

That's a. That's a wild take.

C (11:47)

Don't go anywhere. I got to pay some bills real quick. Hopefully you guys have stocked up on Labat. You know what I love about Labatte beer? It's brewed for the chirps. Everything you say to your friends and your text message exchange, especially around the draft time. Listen, the best kinds of friendships are the nicknames you didn't approve. Don't even get me started on that one. Stories you can't escape. And just enough roasting to keep things honest. So when your team is staring down third and long, crack a cold one, roast responsibly and give a toast to the people who give you the hardest time. Labat brewed for the roast. Well, a couple things. First of all, if you're saying last year or two years ago, let's just say last year a bunch of guys stayed in school for an extra year because of Nil. Okay, I can. I can buy that. I can buy that. Okay. Or maybe the year before. Remember all those Ohio State guys returned, right? Now, how much of them was returning because they wanted to win the national championship? How much of it was because of nil? Probably a combination of both. Guess what? That same thing happened from last year to this year. I mean, you mentioned nussm. Cade Klubnick probably would have been drafted higher last year. And you know, Emory, I live in Central Pennsylvania. Okay. Drew Aller would have been higher last year. Nicholas Singleton definitely would have been higher last year before the injury. Who else? Shelton denied. Dennis Sutton.

B (13:33)

LT Overton.

C (13:34)

Pens off the top of my head. Yeah, just pens off the top of my head. Had five or six guys that could have gone pro last year that returned this year because national championship, because Nil. They didn't have a great year. Clemson, by the way, had several guys doing that. Parker and woods and those guys. And guess what? They were in this year's draft. And a lot of them went on day three. And so then whatever guys are this year that could have gone pro but decide to stay because they were day three and they can make more from Nil. Well, then they'll be in next year's draft. So we're like one year away from that not even being a thing or a talking point, because every guy, like, if you're going to make the argument, well, then the guys that should have gone pro last year are in it this year. Right? That does. That's not even logical. And I just named off the top of my head like 10 guys that could have gone last year. Penn State had five or six. And then there's the quarterbacks and we could go to a bunch of different places where guys did that. So I'm not really buying that being a long term excuse at all. You know what it is? I think it's smart that those guys stay and get legit guaranteed money, because you don't know what's going to happen in the NFL. You can get drafted in the fifth round, then cut. So if you're going to get a bunch of money in college, it's smart. You probably should do that.

B (14:58)

I agree. I totally agree. And if anything, it adds to the depth of the class because, wow, we got a Nick Singleton on day three. Wow, we got a Cade Klubnick on day three. Nussmeier in round seven. Like that. That to me sounds like a deep draft class, doesn't it? So I just, I didn't, I didn't like that statement.

C (15:18)

The other thing I want to get your thoughts on Emory is there's a lot of talk about consensus boards. And I, I've seen it as it relates to the 49ers, you know, quote unquote, reaching a bunch for guys that they take earlier than what's on the consensus board. And by the way, the consensus. Well, I'll let you talk about that. And then the Jaguars. So I think that's a really interesting conversation as well. But since you're one of the experts in the industry, kind of your thoughts on all this talk about draft consensus or consensus board.

B (16:02)

For me, Ross, number one, I've always had the philosophy that if I'm drafting for a team, if I'm a gm, I'm drafting for my team. I don't care about what everybody else think. I got to go out there and win. I got to go out there and build a team that's going to help us get to the ultimate goal of the Super Bowl. So I like the L. Davis approach of forget consensus. I hired my scouts. Y' all go look for what we want to look for in a football player and let's go from there and we'll play from there. Right. It may look different because if I'm the GM, I'm taking Saquon Barkley one in the 2018 draft and I'm taking Lamar Jackson at number four for the Browns with those two top five picks and I'm going to win a Super bowl, the consensus will say I failed because I took a running back high and I took Lamar Jackson in the draft that had Josh Rosenberg, Josh Allen, you know, Baker Mayfield, Sam Darnold. But if we zoom out and look at it from a damn, that would have been two excellent picks I would have won for my team. But the consensus would have said I was wrong. Now, second point, when we look at the media side of things, I get why they're so defensive and defensive in the media. Because it's like, hey, we're evaluating, too. We all have the same access to tape, the difference between the media and the pros and cons. They have more interviews, background information, all the important stuff, medicals. We just evaluate the tape. So we're looking at it from a tape evaluation standpoint, which, hey, if you know what you're looking at, you're going to be able to go toe to toe with some of these NFL teams. The problem is with the consensus, it's probably not worth anything. The media consensus that is, it's probably not worth anything outside of the top 80 players, right? Because if. That's why I don't do a big board, because if I do a big board grading over 1200 players to juxtapose somebody else in the media that only graded like a top one 50, our perception or perspective isn't the same. So it would throw off the. That's why on day three, a lot of people in draft media go quiet because they pretty much focus on the top 150, right? So that's another part that kind of throws it off when you see stuff like, hey, man, who the hell is this guy from, you know, from Texas Tech get drafted? Caleb Douglas. I don't have a grade on him. It's like, that was the leading receiver at Texas Tech, you know, a team that was in the postseason. So for me, it's like as much as there are some, some planes where you're equal in terms of film watching, but if you don't do the depth of film watching in terms of like, the amount of players that the NFL team does, then it can skew your, your consensus ranking. And so I just thought it was fascinating because both sides are right. You know, we, we got two eyes. If we, we can see this guy is probably an okay player, but the NFL feels like sometimes they can be high and mighty and like, nah, we know more than you. And then when a guy comes to prove to be an average player, well, you know, he wasn't a scheme fit. He did. But the media Side had it right. So both sides can. Can argue their points. But the, the, the. You're right, you're wrong when they're all saying they're all in the same highway, just different lanes. That's what made it fascinating. But I'm glad we can wrap this up today because, bro, they was going at it from what, Friday to close a business today. They got, they got until close the business today, Ross, to wrap this, this issue up so we can see, we can move on. If I see the word consensus one more time, I'm done with it.

C (19:37)

Well, so what's interesting about the consensus is I do like that someone goes out there and they take, you know, whoever it is, Mel Kuiper and Brugler and, you know, Daniel Jeremiah, and they combine them all and then try to have like, the averages. I'm, I'm down with that. That's actually helpful for me because I don't necessarily need to go to each one of those guys. Let's get them all combined. And I can see what quote unquote the. The media analysis is. Do I think teams should follow that at all? No. What is fascinating, though, is if you're a team like the Jaguars and you're taking guys way ahead of the consensus, you, first of all, I got respect for you because you got some. You know, what's. And I guess ultimately they're either good players and you win or they. Or they don't. But that's one where you're. You're head. Your. Your owner is a lot more likely to ask questions if you're taking picks that are outliers as opposed. If you went more with the consensus. And I, I'll say this too, Emory. Like, just as it relates, like the Eagles, the last few years, they've just kind of waited, or maybe they move up one spot or a couple spots, but the guy that was supposed to go higher, that didn't. Then they just, like Jalen Carter, Quinion Mitchell, Jihad Campbell, Makai Lemon. You know, they. They did a bunch of mocks, and in every, in every mock, Makai Lemon went in the top 15. So when he was still there at 20, they were like, yeah, let's get him. So there is some value in knowing what they can and being like, okay, well, we thought he was really good. Like, let's take him. So I guess I can sort of see both sides of that.

B (21:38)

Right? And that's the thing. Like, both sides had a point. And another example of if I was a gm, I'm probably the black Al Davis, Ross, and nobody knows it yet because my number one this three years ago, like number one free combo say I think it was free safety went undrafted and people like, ah, you're number one free safety when undrafted. He started as an undrafted rookie in Ardarius, Washington. So what did I see as the rogue GM that the consensus didn't see? But if I was drafted for my team, that's the kind of guy I want. And so I think that's where, you know, I can understand the league side of things. But I can also, if I was in the media, be like, hey man, this guy is better than what y' all think. It makes sense from the media side. It's like why? Well, we see it differently over here. I that's why we don't know until it plays out and we can see who was more right or who was more wrong.

C (22:31)

I want to get your thoughts since I know you cover the team and I thought their first couple of picks were fascinating. The Giants, the Giants to our point. Hey, they're getting ARVL Reese. Maybe later people thought he would go. Maybe they're getting Maui Noah later than we thought he would go. But then they're supposedly going to use Reese as an off the ball backer and move Maui Noah to guard. Your thoughts?

B (22:56)

Love it. Because the whole point we was making Ross about. Let's start with Reese about the inside linebackers. Why we were so heavy on Sonny Styles to create that, that, you know, three, two zone basketball. Look where you have Tremaine Edmonds on one end and you have Sonny Styles and now you got all this length on the middle of the field. Quarterback can't get it over the middle of the field. He's holding the ball edge. Rushes come game over, right? Well, you can do the same thing with ARV Reese. So now you plop him right in the middle. You still create the lengthen and passing windows. He's better off the ball anyway. And you still have your pass rushers. Ma, we know it makes sense because when you, if you want to move him the right tackle, he can because he started there. But he's a good, he has good enough skill set to play guard. And now you really strengthen your offensive line. You can get your best five on the field. JMS as your center. Andrew Thomas is a left tackle. You have Maui Noah now as a right tackle. And then you can still work behind the scenes. Behind the scenes with Marcus Bowe who played really well. They can play guard and or tackle and whatever you can get out of Evan Neal also makes sense to kind of, you know, rebuild his career because I still feel like he's a good player. He's got to be put in the right spot as a guard. So I loved it for the Giants on top of what they've done in the off season, the free agency, this was the cherry on top.

C (24:14)

Okay, I got a question for you because I've seen this on social media. If you're going to take an off the ball linebacker, can you make an argument that Sonny Styles is a better off the ball linebacker and why not take him than Arvell Reese or and I saw this too, forget the Maui Noah herniated disc, that's a different category. But if you're going to take Maui Noah to play guard, why not take the best awesome guard and Vega Ione from Penn State?

B (24:47)

I, I listen, I agree with you there, but I feel like there's a pathway for Maui Noah to play also tackle too. They could probably see him as a tackle and what if they get the best out of Neil and or Marcus Bowe as a guard? And as far as Reese, I think the difference between Reese and Styles in this particular case, Reese can blitz better than Styles can. So you get that added bonus with Reese.

C (25:11)

Right. And listen, I mean just because they say Reese going to be an edge or is going to be an off the ball linebacker doesn't mean they can't use him as an edge rusher at times. They might have just been saying that because they were trying to act like they weren't going to trade Kayvon Thibodeau who they may or may not trade. And then with Maui Noah, it's nice to have like let's say you think he's gonna be an awesome guard, that's great. But it's also nice to have that versatility if one of the tackles goes down that you can bump him out. And you know, I don't think I only can play tackle. I wouldn't do that. So Maui Noah having that versatility I think is helpful. I also, man, there's a lot. I'm excited, Emery, really excited for our divisional series because I, I got a lot to talk to you about as it relates to the Jets. I think what the Rams did is fascinating. The Cardinals, I think there's a discussion to be had there about them taking, you know, Jeremiah Love number three overall. What I will tell you is that it's still a good time to get the draft guide. Footballgameplan.com 2026 draft guide. It becomes a Preseason NFL Game guide as well. And as these free agents, these minicamp tryout guys, these next couple weekends, get the draft guide footballgameplan.com 2026 draft guide. Follow him at fballgame plan. I'm at Ross Tucker NFL. We are at Ross Tucker Pod. The keg is kicked. We are all tapped out.

B (26:46)

Thanks for tuning in to College Draft. Make sure to also check out the Ross Tucker Football Podcast, Even Money and Fantasy Feast all on the DraftKings network, YouTube, or subscribe to the podcast on your favorite platform.