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- [00:00]
Podcast Host/Announcer
This is an iHeart podcast. Guaranteed Human.
- [00:04]
Julian Edelman
This is Julian Edelman from Dudes on Dudes with Gronk and Jules. All right, real quick. Take a look at yourself right now.
- [00:11]
Dbro Derrick Brown
Why?
- [00:11]
Joey P. Joe P. Zappia
What's wrong?
- [00:12]
Julian Edelman
Nothing's wrong. You look like a guy running on three hours of sleep and vibes.
- [00:17]
Joey P. Joe P. Zappia
Okay, yeah, I'm tired, kind of cranky, and very thirsty.
- [00:21]
Julian Edelman
Congrats. Those are some of the potential signs of mild dehydration. And I bet your last bathroom break showed you another sign your body might be throwing you a penalty flag.
- [00:33]
Joey P. Joe P. Zappia
So what's the play?
- [00:34]
Julian Edelman
Call Liquid IV hydration multiplier. One stick in water helps hydrate faster than water alone. Okay, but where's the proof? Liquid IV's clinical studies. Not just a guy I know. Real science. Results you can trust.
- [00:52]
Joey P. Joe P. Zappia
Well, take a look at me now. Liquid IV is officially part of my daily hydration routine. Pass the firecracker. Popsicle flavor.
- [01:00]
Julian Edelman
Stay hydrated like a pro, not like Jack before this. Stock up on liquid IV hydration multiplier@liquid-iv.com and use the promo code nuthouse for 20 off your first purchase.
- [01:17]
Joey P. Joe P. Zappia
It's time to park it right here for the tailgate. It's me, Joey P. Joe P. Zappia. With me, dbro Derrick Brown, the king of bros, and Andrew Erickson, Mr. Big Pot Energy. And today on the tailgate, we're going to talk about the latest NFL news. Could some big piece of the Giants defense be on the way out? We're going to talk about that. We're going to talk about also some of the the needs of certain teams in the NFL draft to really have the best draft ever. We'll discuss that later in the show. And the main part today we're going to get into some of the possible landmines of the prospects that we think could blow up in some of the hands of many of the NFL squads that are drafting this season. But before we get to any of that, speaking about blowing up and Andrew Erickson's on a 90s kick of action films, which is really exciting. So he got a lot of crap because he had never seen what conair and face off in some of those movies. And now he's gone full Jean Claude Van Damme. Ericson, how's that going for you? How was time cop? Did you enjoy it? What's it like the theory of possibly, you know, occupying the same space of matter with two different Jean Claude Van Dammes at one time?
- [02:21]
Andrew Erickson
It's not a good idea. You don't want to occupy the same Space of mass as your older or younger self from 10 years in the future or 10 years in the past. Don't recommend to anybody. But, yeah, it's been a lot of fun. Me and my old friends, we've just been watching these random movies, and we'll talk about them every single week. It's a good time. And it's. It's weird. I'm thinking, like, why did my parents never introduce me to any of these movies? And then there's like, these random, like, sex scenes where. Okay, that's why I never saw this. I was like, wait, this movie.
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Joey P. Joe P. Zappia
There's always that one random exposed nudity moment.
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Dbro Derrick Brown
You don't even get the full thing. All you get is, like, Jean Claude Van Damme's butt.
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Joey P. Joe P. Zappia
Like, yeah, there's like a side boob or Jean Claude Van Damme's.
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Andrew Erickson
That's the reason why the kitchen baby. That's why we never brought this home for family movie night. But that being said, as an adult now turning 32 year 32 this year, I can now watch these movies. I'm by myself, so a lot of fun.
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Joey P. Joe P. Zappia
There you go. There you go. It's nice that you're allowed to watch. All right, so we got to give him more recommendations here. Dbro. I'm more of a. A child of the 80s 90s, maybe, than you. By maybe a couple years, but not many. So do you have, like, a 90s action film that you want to throw in there for Erickson on the list to put in there? Dude, I mean, I said Demolition Man. That's a must. That is Demolition Man. You can watch with the family. There's no nudity in that. Some really funny moments. You got Stallone, you got Wesley Snipes in the future. It's ridiculous. He's almost like a Dennis Rodman type character. It's crazy. Wesley Snipes. It's so much fun. It's so silly. But the action's kind of good. And all restaurants are Taco Bells in the future. That's something.
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Dbro Derrick Brown
Well, and apparently they're supposedly making another one very soon. Or like a dem. I don't know if it's a sequel, but they are.
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Joey P. Joe P. Zappia
I heard about that. Yeah. I don't know how I feel about that.
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Dbro Derrick Brown
How do you make a sequel out
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Andrew Erickson
of that demolished demand? Is that it?
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Dbro Derrick Brown
I'll give you a few. Few of American and. And we'll just run through this real fast. Have you seen Last Action Hero? Oh, got to. Speaking of family movie Point Break. Not the remake, the original.
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Joey P. Joe P. Zappia
The OG Point Break.
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Dbro Derrick Brown
Yeah.
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Joey P. Joe P. Zappia
And. And Patrick Swayze. And this is the part where in the YouTube comments where people go, fast forward three minutes to start the show. No, that's what the tailgate is. We're hanging out. We're talking about the stupid 90s action movies, and we're talking about football, and we're gonna do all that stuff, and maybe we'll come back to the action movies at the end. But first, let's talk about the Levante David quotes about Baker Mayfield. So Levante David retired, and now he's just talking to everybody about everything. So here's a quote from Levante David. He said, quote, I'm telling you, Baker was going through a lot. Baker had a lot of injuries. You didn't expect a quarterback to play through. He had the oblique injury, he had the shoulder injury. He had a lot of things like the ankle injury, the knee injury. Did we even know he had the ankle and the knee, too? He had a lot of stuff that he was going through, and we were going through a lot of stuff watching him try to play through it last year. Last part of the quote, the season's over now, and I could talk about it, but he had a lot of stuff that he was going through, and he was really trying to push and really trying to be the player that we needed him to be. So good on. Baker Mayfield. That's what leaders do. Deo, I'll start with you on this one here. To me, this makes me want to buy back into the Buccaneers and Baker Mayfield because he was playing MVP level football for the first five or six weeks of the season. We talked about it on plenty of our fantasy pro shows. Right. And I feel like a lot of people are going to be down on Baker Mayfield going into the season. No Mike Evans, all this stuff. But I think it was really the injuries and health of Baker Mayfield that was the biggest negative to why the Buccaneers fell apart as the season progressed. But what are your thoughts on Levante David? Kind of throwing this piece out here, this red meat for the media and all of us, too, to look at it and say, maybe we should give Baker Mayfield a little bit more grace for 2025.
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Dbro Derrick Brown
I think we could definitely handle this situation a lot better than the Cleveland Browns did, because the last time we saw Baker Mayfield play through a crap ton of injuries, Browns trashed him, said he was garbage, ran him out of town and said he wasn't good enough. And it's like, all right, I guess, well, that's a choice. Good luck with your quarterback situation. Right now. Cleveland, have fun with that. But dude, I think it's a really good point. Yeah, like Tampa Bay, like, take some futures. Baker Mayfield, like, was in the MVP conversation at one point last year and not only like with Baker's health. Zoom out. That offensive line was banged up the heck back last year. So if we get worse, was hurt. You talk about this every year.
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Andrew Erickson
The.
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Dbro Derrick Brown
The war of injury attrition last year was terrible for Tampa Bay. If we get more health, does Tampa Bay look like, I don't know, a dark horse super bowl favorite going into the season? Dare I say.
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Andrew Erickson
Dare you say.
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Joey P. Joe P. Zappia
It's a long pause.
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Andrew Erickson
I know you're just throwing that into the ether.
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Joey P. Joe P. Zappia
He did. He said, I tossed it to you.
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Dbro Derrick Brown
Much like a Baker Mayfield sidearm pass.
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Andrew Erickson
I don't know if they can win with. No, I shouldn't say they can't win with Todd Bowles because they did win
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Joey P. Joe P. Zappia
a Super bowl with.
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Andrew Erickson
With Todd Bowls, right? Yeah, they did that with Tom Brady. So clearly that's still in the range of outcomes. I would say, too, with the Buccaneers 4th most injured team last year on offense. That's according to FDN's adjusted games lost. And that's not considering Baker Mayfield didn't actually miss any games last year. I know that he went down to the wire with one game. We thought that Bridgewater was going to play, and then Baker Mayfield ended up gutting it out. And of course, it was the disaster. Down the stretch in the second half of the season, however, are the. The market's not really sleeping on Tampa Bay because they're still favored to win the division. So that's kind of where I'm. Is there a lot of value in like, plus 165 for them to win the NFC South? Do I want. I mean, I like a lot of these teams in this division, and considering how this division usually shakes out, it's you win nine, eight, ten games and you win this division because it's always close at the end. So I don't see a lot of value here. I think I'd rather wait a little bit and get Baker Mayfield.
- [07:53]
Joey P. Joe P. Zappia
Maybe.
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Andrew Erickson
The Buccaneers have a tough opening stretch to the season where you're getting Baker Mayfield more as an underdog because remember, the thing that was so comical about them at the end of last year was they were favored in every single game and they always kept losing every single week against the spread. And straight up, it's like, you can't bet on Baker Mayfield as a favorite. So I think that I want to wait and see a little bit of how the actual market reacts. Because right now it doesn't really suggest that, oh, well, everyone is sleeping on Tampa Bay, especially if they add a dynamic defensive piece with the 15th, I think, is where they're picking in the draft overall pick. It does feel like Todd Walls on the hot seat. That's the other thing, too. And losing Mike Evans, losing devonte David. I think, Joe, you pointed this out on one of the fantasy pro shows where that's a lot of leadership that's now absent from the team on both the offensive and defensive side of the football. It's like, like Mike Evans knew Baker Mayfield was injured, but clearly he was like, no, I don't want to play here anymore. I want to go somewhere else where, again, there's more income tax than in Florida.
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Joey P. Joe P. Zappia
So, yeah, that's true. Well, but look, I mean, maybe it's also time for a change, or maybe they just, I think it was also, you know, them starting to look forward to the future, too. And it happens. It happens. The NFL, it's a business. As Bogs likes to say, not for long. Right. That's what the NFL stands for. More quotes flying around, too. This one from Blake Corm about his old teammate in College in Michigan, one J.J. mcCarthy. So I want to throw this out here to you guys, too. The ceiling is so high for jj. Quote Blake Corum on Good Morning Football on NFL Network. You've got to think his rookie year went down with the injury last year. A bunch of injuries as well. So he hasn't been on the field much. He's really not had a lot of playing time that the quarterbacks need. It's a lot different going to college, going from College to the NFL. JJ's a great field general. I think he's going to take the challenge that's been given to him. Obviously, bringing Kyler Murray, there's going to be competition that's going to light a fire under him. But he's an overall good human being. He's a competitor. And I know he's not someone who's not going to just let the naysayers or outsiders determine the type of player is going to be. He still has the pencil in his own hand. He's still writing his story. God, that was really poetic. Blake Corum. I love this play. Corm Quote I think it's going to be a great year for jj and I'm super excited to see him prove everyone wrong. Erickson. They're talking about this being a competition. I think this is a Bunch of nonsense. I don't think it's a competition and open at all. I think that the only way J.J. mcCarthy is the quarterback of the Vikings is if there's an injury. In the last week of the training camp scenario going into the season where Kyler Murray's hurt. I think there's a 0% chance otherwise that JJ McCarthy's the starter. But what do you think? Do you think that there is still an open competition as. As the Vikings front office is kind of throwing that out there?
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Andrew Erickson
I do not think that there is an open competition. Kyler Murray would have to get injured. Carson Wentz would probably have to get injured too.
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Joey P. Joe P. Zappia
Carson Wentz.
- [10:40]
Andrew Erickson
You can't justify to the offensive personnel guys like Justin Jefferson to trot out what we saw last year from JJ McCarthy so maybe he can showcase more improvements during the off season. But look, Justin Jefferson was visibly frustrated last year and he is one of these receivers that I think, for the most part tries to keep his emotions in check. And even him last year he was getting visibly frustrated playing with J.J. mcCarthy. So he only has 10 starts under his belt. It's his third season, but he's only 23 years old. We're going to talk about this player a little bit later, but he is one month younger than Ty Simpson and he's already been in the NFL for two seasons. So.
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Joey P. Joe P. Zappia
True.
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Andrew Erickson
Is his NFL career over? No. I think the biggest thing with him is guy just needs to get healthy and just not get injured because I think that's what's kind of setting him back where he's not able to take practice reps and get those repetitions that you need to play the NFL quarterback position because he's always rehabbing these injuries. So I think that's a big deal and he needs to get healthy. Like that's the number one thing for me.
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Joey P. Joe P. Zappia
These D RO it's like the fat bastard cycle. Like, I eat because I'm unhappy and I'm unhappy because I eat. You can't get better at quarterback if you don't play quarterback, but you can't.
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Andrew Erickson
Yeah.
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Joey P. Joe P. Zappia
Play more quarterback if you're not good enough to play quarterback in the NFL. Right. Like, so you're trapped. It's the same thing Anthony Richardson's trapped in. This is vicious cycle. I feel like Erickson's right. He's still very young. He'll probably be in the league for a while and they probably will get another opportunity because you know the. The skill sets there. But you can't get better if you don't get the reps, and I just don't know when those reps are going to come. And I don't know if they're going to come at the expense of injuries to the guys in front of him or if it's just eventually somebody, you know, just moves on with J.J. mcCarthy to another organization, then maybe he gets to compete for it. But again, it's hard to get better if you're not getting those reps, especially when you didn't get years and years of starting in college.
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Dbro Derrick Brown
I'll just hearken back to a Kevin o' Connell quote. Young quarterbacks don't fail franchises. Franchises fail young quarterbacks. Oh, funny. Look where we're at, o'. Connell.
- [12:41]
Joey P. Joe P. Zappia
The calls coming from inside the house.
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Dbro Derrick Brown
A quarterback that started 10 games and you're already throw it in the freaking towel for all of Kyler freaking Murray. Like, can we all understand that we've lived in the same world of the last two years. Kyler Murray has not played good football.
- [12:57]
Joey P. Joe P. Zappia
Yeah, but I, I'm.
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Dbro Derrick Brown
I'll.
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Joey P. Joe P. Zappia
I don't care. De Bro. And now we're told that you can't sell me another year. J.J. mcCarthy is, is a better idea than going forward with. With kyler.
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Dbro Derrick Brown
He started 10 games and we all lived in the same world where in weeks 14 through 18, he won every single one of his starts. Amongst 37 qualifying quarterbacks, he was 13 yards per attempt. He was first in hero throw rate and he was 15th in CPOE. And yet it's like, oh, but matchups and blah, blah, blah. We don't really care. Let's just, just continue to crap on the kid. Like, you talked about it like, he was hurt. And the other thing, I'll zoom out too, and talk about you have a guy that hasn't had enough reps and practice time and stuff like that, and they choose not to play him at all in the preseason because that makes a lot of freaking sense. I just, I don't understand at all what Minnesota is doing. Like, and we could talk about that. Some of this also falls at the feet of Justin Jefferson. I also lived in a world where Justin Jefferson didn't look like himself for much of the season, regardless of whoever was under quarterback. Like, so I think there's a lot of blame to go around for a lot of different people. Yes, I'm a JJ believer, but also, it's like you have Kevin o' Connell puffing at his freaking chest about, you know, teams don't fail young quarterback. Like, well, you did. And when have we seen like for this quarterback guru, okay? He's taken retreads and throwing the ball a crap ton with them and they've played, okay? And now he gets to hand pick his future quarterback and franchise guy, and after 10 starts, he just tosses him to the wayside for Kyler Murray, who I agree with everything y' all laid out. This is not a competition at all. Kyler is going to start. This is not a competition. This is not a camp battle. That's all BS and crap. Because the other part about the people aren't talking about enough is Kyler put in his own freaking contract or got it negotiated that they can't franchise him. So is he gonna go there right now and say, I'm betting on myself for a real competition and the fact that I might be sitting on the bench? No, that's not gonna happen.
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Andrew Erickson
No.
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Joey P. Joe P. Zappia
I don't know how many options he had, but look, regardless, he landed in the best option in the best spot. But I'm not buying this hole. It's an open competition nonsense. I just. I'm not buying that at all. And I hope JJ gets a fair shake somewhere else eventually. I just don't think it's going to be in Minnesota. I just think we're going down that road now where, okay, we wanted this to happen and it's just not going to happen here. But it doesn't mean it won't happen at all. I mean, look at Sam Darnold we talked about on the last show. Next bit of news here. And the last one before we start talking about prospects. Sexy Dexie might want out of New York City, so. Or at least New Jersey, I guess, technically. So. Defensive tackle for the Giants, Dexter Lawrence requests a trade. He is not expected to participate in the offseason program. He came into the league out of Clemson in 2019. Three Pro bowl selections from 2022 to 2024 last year. A bit of a down year, but obviously a player that really, if you look at the Giants up front, is where they're good defensively, right? They got the pass rush. They got Dexter Lawrence. Despite the fact it's down year, I still think Lawrence is a really good player. If I was the Chicago Bears, I'd be calling the Giants right now. That's a team that needs to learn to stop the run a little bit. I'd love to have a piece like Dexter Lawrence, but I'm just not sold necessarily that we're going to get a trade here before the draft. I think this is going to linger into the summer. Maybe, probably into training camp. Maybe we get a deal done at some point. Dbro, what are your thoughts here with Dexter Lawrence? Because it feels like Harbaugh, you know, the first thing he wants to do is be good in the trenches. And if you want to be good in the trenches, I don't think trading Dexter Lawrence is the way to do it.
- [16:26]
Dbro Derrick Brown
I agree with you. I think, you know, he wants a new contract to totally understand that a guy that's not too old to where it's like, can we give him another contract? Like, you know, he's going into his age 29 season, he's got two years left on the deal. I think you see like, probably like a moderate, like extension, like maybe some funny money in there where they give him like another, say four years, but it's really two and guarantees fall off. So I think this gets hammered out, man.
- [16:53]
Joey P. Joe P. Zappia
Erickson, what's your prediction? Giants or somewhere else for Dexter Lawrence in 2026?
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Andrew Erickson
Yeah, this one's tough because I do think that your first move coming in as the new head coach, oh, someone wants to hold out, wants a trade. We immediately have to extend them. That you're setting that kind of precedent, right, where, oh, you just have to hold out and then we'll immediately pay you. So how will. I mean, Harbaugh's played hardball with Lamar Jackson, like, and that's a quarterback, not a defensive tackle. So I don't think this is easy as, like, you know what, coming off a down year, we're gonna, we're gonna extend you. We're gonna give you a fat payday as you turn 29 years old. I know he had an interception last year, which was big, but everything else was season lows for him. Now, that also may have been due to the fact that he was coming off a season ending injury in 2024. But the Giants run defense, we've talked about it in some of these mock drafts where we're adding additional interior defensive health because the run defense was cheeks last year. It was bad. Like, teams were running all over the New York Giants and Dexter Lawrence played last year. So that was a problem for New York. So when you're looking at this draft, you look at, okay, defensive tackle depth at pick 37, where the New York Giants have their second pick. There's a lot of guys that could end up being there, especially with the concerns about kind of the volatility when it comes to guys like the Kayla Banks, the Peter Woods, a lot of like, okay, this guy could go as early as top 15 or fall outside of the round one because there's a lot of question marks around some of these types of players. McDonald from Ohio State. Again, mostly a run stuffer. So could they get more value by just drafting a replacement for Dexter Lawrence and trading him versus extending him, especially if someone else wants. We want more of an immediate defensive. You know, the Giants trying to win in 2026. Like, is that the goal here? Like, I don't necessarily know. I mean, they have a franchise quarterback, so they have that. But their defense was a mess last year, so that's, that's a big concern. So I don't think it's as easy as I signed checkbook here because I think that Harbaugh has showed he plays hardball.
- [18:55]
Joey P. Joe P. Zappia
All right, so a little NFL news for you. We're gonna get to the prospects. Before we do talk about some prospect landmines, I just want to throw a couple other action movies out there for Erickson. Under Siege, Great Steven action movie that you should see. Not all Steven Seagal movies are worth watching.
- [19:13]
Dbro Derrick Brown
The fake action star.
- [19:15]
Joey P. Joe P. Zappia
Oh, no. But Under Siege is a good one. The one in the book. That's a solid one if you want a very stylistic one. Desperado, Antonio Banderas and Salma Hayek. That one does have a little bit more of the hanky panky going on, too, but some amazing violence in that movie. You got to see that one and the other one too. If you like the artistic end of the 90s action movies. The professional. Very good. Gary Oldman plays the villain. That's a great one. Drop your favorite 90s action movies in the comments below and you can win some free stuff here, including the George Pick and sign Steeler jersey we got given away, plus $100 extra in pristine Auction credit. So we're going to give that away to somebody here again, just for subscribing to tailgate. NFL. Subscribe to the channel here on YouTube. Drop your comments below. That's it. That's all you got to do to be eligible to win. We're giving that away this month here on the show. So again, Pristine Auction provides us with the jersey and $100 in pristine auction credit. It's all going to be yours right now. And we'll be announcing the win right here on the channel. So make sure you ring the bell till it goes ding for notifications so you know when new content from Tailgate drops. Our newest channel here in the fantasy pros family. Again, this is just all things NFL. We have fun. We talk football. That's what we do and of course we can let you know if you are the winner of the big prize. We're going to switch gears now to the main meat and potatoes of the program today, the prospect landmines. And speaking of quarterbacks who might not have enough starts behind them on the old resume, that's where we begin today with Ty Simpson, who's gotten a lot of helium lately because some comments from Dan Orlovsky, some hot takey stuff on the ESPN because that's what they love. They live and die by that stuff. They can't get enough of it. Throwing out big takes and then people just jump all over it. It's starting to feel a little bit like we got that will Levis 2.0 where we're kind of bored. So we're going to start hyping up somebody else here. Now look, to Ty Simpson's credit, he's got ability, he's got some skills, he has got some speed, he's got some arm strength, he played at a big time school in Alabama. All those things are true. But when you start to look at the list of the guys who had less than 15 starts before transferring to the NFL, okay, in the big portal known as the NFL draft, you've got the Matt Castles, you got the Achilles Smiths, you got the Anthony Richardsons, you got the Mitchell Trubiskies, you got the Dwayne Haskins. Now you do have Cam Newton. So that's the one outlier here with 14 starts. But Erickson, it's not a great grouping of guys where you could just point and say success, success, success. It's not a lot of that. I will say Ty Simpson reminds me a little bit of Mitchell Trubisky when you watch the tape. Mitchell Trubisky was a guy that was much better on the run than he was in the pocket. An athletic kid, somebody that people hyped a lot in the draft process. I think that's a pretty good comp for him. I think if Mitchell Trubisky landed somewhere better, maybe his story would have been different. He did not. He landed with the Bears, a team that does not historically give us a lot of great quarterbacks. So talk to me about your assessment of Ty Simpson, Andrew, and what you think could lean teams towards the wrong direction of maybe selecting him too high and maybe setting back their organization.
- [22:24]
Andrew Erickson
He just has a lot of red flags for players that end up being busts at the position. You kind of outline the starts, not a lot of experience and we're seeing the real Life example of quarterbacks benefiting from staying in college longer. Tyler Shuck, Bo Knicks, Jaden Daniels all came out of college with a ton of experience playing four or five seasons and they immediately hit the ground running. And even though guys like Drake May and Caleb Williams didn't play as long as those other quarterbacks, they also had youth on their side. So there was more room for them to grow when they did. When we saw them go from rookies in bad situations and to then taking massive leaps in year two under better coaching staffs, where does Ty Simpson kind of fall into that spectrum? He's kind of in no man's land because not only he's 23 years old, we talked about, he's the same age as J. McCarthy who's been in the NFL for two seasons. So he's not necessarily like the youngest prospect. Does it, does he need to sit more? Does he need to start more? He sat already a ton at Alabama. Like he's been sitting his most of his college career. So we need to get this guy playing here. So now our team's feeling we need to force him into action in year one whether he's ready or not. And then you also have the size. He's undersized, just over 6ft tall, 211 pounds. And what caused the big issue last year was he got banged up in the second half of the season. There's no doubt that the first nine, eight weeks of Ty Simpson during the 2025 college football season was really good. Not first nine weeks, 20 passing touchdowns, one interception. Like you're like, oh man, like. And there was a reason why people were excited about Ty Simpson. But then things started to get derailed as he got banged up taking a lot of sacks. So I understand where there are his supporters in terms of the high upside types of throws that he's been able to make. You look at how he did at the intermediate level last year. 92.9 PFF passing grade. He had the most big time throws from 10 to 19 yards at the intermediate level. That is now the bread and butter in terms of the NFL because the two deep safeties, you have to be able to win over the middle of the field. And Ty Simpson has shown that I can make those big throws. He was also really good against man coverage, but bad against zone coverage. What does that mean to me? Oh, a player that needs more reps, he needs to see more defensive coverages and he hasn't gotten that type of experience so.
- [24:43]
Joey P. Joe P. Zappia
Well, isn't it also a little bit easier at Alabama to be better against man coverage, considering the kind of athletes that you have on your squad because your athletes are better than everybody else's athletes. Athletes on the field, right? Do you like, that's, that's how I look at a stat like that. I was like, oh, well, of course the Bama guys are going to win one on one more because they're faster, bigger, stronger, more athletic. That's why they end up in Alabama. They're five star recruits. You know what I mean? Like, that's easy for them to win. It's much harder, you know, to. In the NFL, you see a ton of zone. Now, I mean, if you can't throw against zone, you're. You're kind of shit's creek a little bit.
- [25:13]
Dbro Derrick Brown
Yeah. And the other thing I'll say too, the, the sample size too with man coverage and press coverage in college is, is very minuscule. Like college teams just don't play a lot of man. And so man impressed, they don't. You're seeing most corners are sitting three, five yards off of it. It's a lot of zone and stuff like that. So I mean, for me, with Ty Simpson, I think it's like, you know, for all the red flags we've already discussed, I mean, can we also talk about like the all 22 that I looked at for him and I didn't. I parsed out all the games before the supposed back injury versus South Carolina. So I was like, I'm not watching any of these games where he's heard and stuff like that. I'm not letting that, you know, flavor the Kool Aid that way. So like, for me, I just watched all the beginning of the season and I didn't think he was anything special.
- [26:00]
Joey P. Joe P. Zappia
Man.
- [26:01]
Dbro Derrick Brown
Like you talk about checks at the line, you talk about protections, you could talk about, okay, everything between the ears is good, but I don't, I don't see a special quarterback. Like, I think if he'd have gone to another college not named freaking Alabama, not an SEC school, we wouldn't be talking about Ty Simpson as a first round quarterback. Whether it's the starts, whether it's the injuries, whether it's the fact of his play declined, and however we want to frame that, it still declined. That was one of the funniest things I thought about the Orlovsky stuff is that as he's like talking about and kind of shading Mendoza, we're not talking about the fact that Ty Simpson kind of crapped the bed down the back half of the season for whatever way you want to frame it still wasn't freaking discussed. And Ty Simpson, if you look at his numbers Overall man, like 33rd in adjusted completion rate, he was 90th in a dot, 58th in yards per attempt. He was outside the top 30 quarterbacks in FBS last year. At least 150 drop backs in deep ball. Adjusted completion rate, pressure, adjusted completion rate, clean pocket pass rating. I mean from a guy that like he's going to have to win from the pocket like he's, he's not athletic enough to win as a dual threat quarterback and being able to solve equations in the NFL like that, I just don't see it, man. Like, so I've got him buried in my ranks. I don't see it. I think he's an absolute landmine and I'll just throw my comp in for extra shade here. Jake Browning.
- [27:19]
Joey P. Joe P. Zappia
Okay. I mean is there a landing spot? Either of you think like maybe a second round spot where you go okay, well maybe under that tree he could learn. I mean is there, is there a place where he's not a landmine for you?
- [27:29]
Dbro Derrick Brown
Maybe Arizona, if he gets to sit and then with all the skill players around him, if Lore is going to operate in Shanahan, he drops to the second round.
- [27:38]
Joey P. Joe P. Zappia
I could see Arizona doing that.
- [27:39]
Dbro Derrick Brown
I think he drops the second round. I don't think he's gonna be a first round pick. Maybe I'm wrong.
- [27:42]
Joey P. Joe P. Zappia
I don't think he should be a first round. I don't think Erickson, do you think the team will, will. Can he picket him into the first round?
- [27:48]
Andrew Erickson
There's a lot of teams that need quarterbacks. I know. So that's.
- [27:52]
Joey P. Joe P. Zappia
But it's like is it disciplined to not do it wrong in the first.
- [27:55]
Andrew Erickson
I don't think it's the right decision to draft him in the first round. But NFL teams do really weird things. Coaches are on hot seats and what do we, what do we see all the time with these coaches that are on the hot seat? What's your, your joker that you pulled out right? D Tried to do it last year with Jackson. Darts. Like, all right, the minute that I'm going to get fired, throw the rookie quarterback in and hopefully he can save my, save my bacon. And unfortunately you don't want him to
- [28:18]
Dbro Derrick Brown
go into the Jets.
- [28:19]
Andrew Erickson
Then Aaron Glenn, I mean even with the Jets.
- [28:22]
Joey P. Joe P. Zappia
But Arizona just got a new head coach.
- [28:24]
Andrew Erickson
Right, but like Floor at least is a offensive minded guy. The thing with the jets, and that's the issue with me connecting them or Ty Simpson There is because number one he's not a Frank Reich quarterback at all. Frank Reich likes big statue, 6 foot 5, 225 pound quarterbacks. That is the farthest thing from Ty Simpson and Aaron Glenn make him that way anymore. Aaron Glenn won't get any how much credit he going to get for the development of his quarterback if he's a defensive mind to head coach. So if the offense is cooking but the defense is terrible again Aaron Glenn's getting, he's getting fired by week eight so it doesn't even matter. So I, I, it's really hard to find. I think that's the issue with maybe there is an evaluation where in a vacuum you could see Ty Simpson. Okay he can be a first round guy. Quarterbacks usually get pushed up the board but then you're actually connecting the dots of like okay well then who's gonna pull the trigger on him? I know in one of our mocks I think I just threw him to the Cleveland Browns because I know that they've done a lot of work and I don't think that they're necessarily super bullish on the quarterbacks I have in house and I think that smart organizations just if the price is right, he's the highest Conor board hey, they drafted Cheur last year again the price was right and they eventually just took him. So if he's there at the top of the second round and he's the he's the highest guy on our board then we're taking Ty Simpson and we're going to have another crazy quarterback summer of the Cleveland Browns football Support for
- [29:41]
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- [30:41]
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- [31:12]
Joey P. Joe P. Zappia
All right, Number two on the list that the guys put together for the landmines potential is actually kind of surprising because on some people's list he's the number one wide receiver in the draft. That's Jordan Tyson from Arizona State. Debra, I want to start with you on this one because I am surprised that he's on this list because I put his name.
- [31:27]
Dbro Derrick Brown
I'll say I added it.
- [31:28]
Joey P. Joe P. Zappia
All right, so let's own it here. Why? Why is he a potential landmine? Because most scouts will point to him as, like I said, their favorite guy in this draft. So what is it you see in some of his tape that makes you a little concerned? Or is it just a matter of landing spot potentially hyping him too much?
- [31:45]
Dbro Derrick Brown
I think first thing that's going to lead the conversation and I get it and but that's not where I'm going here mainly is the injuries. If he continues to be enabled to play a full season, stay on the field and stuff, then I mean one of the greatest skills out of any NFL players availability and Jordan Tyson has had a hard time with that. And so whether you want to talk about the injuries his profile people want to talk about, like we could talk about early career production. We can talk about, you know, yards per route run. There's also some holes in this profile, guys. Like in the last two seasons he's ranked 192nd and 92nd in Yak per reception. So not a guy that's producing a lot of yak. The thought of Jordan Tyson and the upside of Jordan Tyson is tantalizing. The thing about Jordan Tyson is he's also not like a fully formed player in the sense of there is some tick tocky footwork at the top of his stems and off the line and things like that where he's got areas of his game that he needs to clean up. I talked about this last year with Travis Hunter, and everybody's like, oh, he's a God mode wide receiver prospect. I'm like, okay, sure, you, whatever. You think that's cool, that's all good. And it gets lost in the conversation because everybody wants to talk about how great the players are.
- [32:57]
Joey P. Joe P. Zappia
Well, I feel like everybody in this room talking right now had Ted McMillan over Travis Hunter last.
- [33:03]
Dbro Derrick Brown
Yes, we did, emphatically. But I was told at that time Ted didn't watch film. Tet was too slow. Ted wasn't fast enough to be a top 10 pick, you know, what have you. But it's all good. And that just show that he's that dude. But it's the ability to create yak. And Tyson hasn't done that, like 5.1 yards of the catch per reception over the last two years. He's only forced 13 missed tackles since 2024. The other part about it, if we want to talk about not even the. The footwork and the route running for his size and the athletic ability, he's not a consistent catch point winner. A 43.8% contested catch rate in his final season in college. You add the injury stuff on top of this. I think that there's. There's issues and concerns with Jordan Tyson that gets lost in the general narrative. I'm not telling you that he could be a. But like a total, just extravagant bust where we're like, oh my gosh, like, he's Darius Hayden, babe, this is terrible. But could he be new Marvin Harrison Jr. Where we're all talking about him. He's amazing, he's talented, he's awesome. And we're all like, yes. And then his rookie season comes out and we're all like, oh, man, I know.
- [34:09]
Joey P. Joe P. Zappia
Well, what, Harris, hold on. Harrison had the fact that his dad and you got the name recognition there. You got the Ohio State wide receiver culture, too. There was a lot of reasons to be excited about Marvin Harrison Jr. And plus, he was very good in college.
- [34:25]
Sponsor Voice
Has he.
- [34:25]
Dbro Derrick Brown
Did he pay off on the height, though?
- [34:27]
Joey P. Joe P. Zappia
No, but also we could point to again, landing spot, having a lot to do with that too. And whatever.
- [34:34]
Andrew Erickson
It's not his job to get the ball to Martin Jr. It's not his job.
- [34:38]
Joey P. Joe P. Zappia
No. But you know what? When it was his job to get the ball. DeAndre Hopkins, they were pretty good. Just saying, like Kyler Murray had a pretty good season.
- [34:47]
Dbro Derrick Brown
Runs over the middle of the field and Kyra can't see that Anyway, to,
- [34:51]
Joey P. Joe P. Zappia
to Debro's point, just to go through the injury history again, 2022, you had the full blowout. ACL, MCL, PCL, all the Cls you could possibly have. 2024, fractured collarbone. 2025. Ha. So there is an injury resume here that's concerning. Erickson, are you concerned about Tyson being landmine?
- [35:10]
Dbro Derrick Brown
Still dealing with the hamstring, by the way.
- [35:11]
Andrew Erickson
Still doing with the hamstring. He's still not tested in any capacity. We're still waiting. He's having a private workout on April 17th. So basically going down to the wire before the NFL draft. So there is a chance that his draft stock in terms of the betting odds where, you know, number one wide receiver off the board again, Carnell Tate is the heavy favorite. I think that makes the most sense. But we're also seeing draw McCoy, the cornerback from Tennessee he tested and all of his odds are just skyrocketing. I threw in the betting pros discord that I was taking McCoy to be a top 10 pick. I think it was like 7 to 1 odds. This was like right after he tested. You look at those. Now it's 2 to 1. It's 3 to 1 for him to be a top 10 pick. And now I don't believe Daniel Jeremiah wouldn't be surprised if Gerard McCoy is the number one cornerback. So just goes to show how much a healthy player, when he finally announces himself as healthy, can really move his draft stock. So that's kind of what we're waiting on with Jordan Tyson. So the thing with me with Tyson is especially on the fantasy side of things, you're really shooting for upside. And Jordan Tyson is a profile that not perfect by any means, but it's really elite in some aspects. In terms of an alpha wide receiver, early breakout age, he's 21 and a half years old. He has bloodlines to the NBA. Jalen, his brother is in the NBA, right? So this guy comes from a freaky family of athletes. He was absolutely dominant this past year before his injury. Weeks 1 through 8, second in the nation, targets third in catches, 35 target share, 15 targets above expectation. You know, else checked off that box. In terms of targets above expectation and metric by Sports Info solutions, the last two seasons, Rashi Rice and Pukua, those are the last two guys that had over 15%. So commanding targets at an elite level, no matter how you do it, usually is a indicator of future success at the NFL level. Especially when you consider how young he has been able to produce. He's been coached up by Hines Ward. I like that in terms of his toughness translating to the NFL level. So I agree that there are red flags in terms of the risk, but the upside with Jordan Tyson, if he doesn't end up being a landmine, I think is a smash hit and a smash pick. So I think that he has a lot of upside.
- [37:29]
Joey P. Joe P. Zappia
Okay, well, it's good to talk about the downside of players, too, because sometimes we just talk about the upside. We're not doing our due diligence, too. So when you guys have these, you know, rookie drafts or you're just an NFL fan and you just, you know, enjoy your, you know, team getting a big time wide receiver, just understand there's a little bit, especially the health stuff, some real stuff there.
- [37:46]
Andrew Erickson
Go ahead. Last thing on the health thing, he's always come back from all these injuries. So that is the one thing where kind of like the undertaker, where it's like, hey, I injured my collarbone, he comes back, I hurt my knee, he comes back, I hurt my hamstring. So if he tests on April 17 and rips off a sub four or five, it's like, we're back, baby. Just, we're back again. So that's something to keep in mind that even though he has dealt with these injuries, he's had a knack for overcoming them time and time again.
- [38:12]
Dbro Derrick Brown
But. But if he doesn't test, though. If he doesn't test though, we're still on The Marvin Harrison Jr. Corollary, are we not?
- [38:18]
Andrew Erickson
It's definitely not great, but it means that there's a more likely chance that he goes to the Patriots. So I like that.
- [38:25]
Dbro Derrick Brown
Now we're.
- [38:25]
Andrew Erickson
Now we're whiskey.
- [38:26]
Joey P. Joe P. Zappia
Oh, yeah. Speaking of coming back, by the way, Dbro, I want to throw another 90s action movie that Andrew should watch if he hasn't the Crow. One of the great soundtracks of all time. Have you seen the Crow, Andrew?
- [38:40]
Andrew Erickson
I mean, if there's any semblance of violence.
- [38:43]
Joey P. Joe P. Zappia
19, 9 or.
- [38:44]
Andrew Erickson
There's no way my parents showed me any of these movies, so.
- [38:47]
Joey P. Joe P. Zappia
God, you're watching. He was watching All Dogs Go to Heaven in Fern Gully and stuff like that. That's what.
- [38:53]
Andrew Erickson
See, what happened was my mom rented the movie Dodgeball one time for family movie night, and then my dad said that she lost her movie night privileges.
- [39:01]
Joey P. Joe P. Zappia
What? Dodgeball's a classic.
- [39:03]
Andrew Erickson
It's not appropriate for children.
- [39:06]
Joey P. Joe P. Zappia
I don't know, man. I mean, sometimes some of these teams trying to watch them, watching them, you know, what? Hump a doorknob, you know what I mean.
- [39:13]
Andrew Erickson
I mean, I enjoyed the movie. It was good. I thought it was good. I thought it was hilarious.
- [39:17]
Joey P. Joe P. Zappia
Dodgeball's amazing. I remember going to see that in the theater with my friends and laughing so hard like that.
- [39:22]
Dbro Derrick Brown
Weird. I don't have to drink my own
- [39:23]
Andrew Erickson
urine, but,
- [39:26]
Joey P. Joe P. Zappia
like, the dance. God, Rip Torn is so good in that movie. So good. Really good.
- [39:30]
Dbro Derrick Brown
He's so good
- [39:33]
Joey P. Joe P. Zappia
without Patches. Oh, Houlihan. I don't think it's the same movie.
- [39:35]
Sponsor Voice
I just.
- [39:36]
Dbro Derrick Brown
It's not.
- [39:36]
Joey P. Joe P. Zappia
But you should. Seriously, though, the crow. 10 out of 10. Fantastic. Like, it definitely has, like, that 90s, don't watch the remake vibe to it. No, none of this. And it's such a shame because, like, the first one's so stylistically cool, and then anything they've tried to do since I didn't see the latest one that they just made. If the remake is really bad. Is it really bad? He's a good actor, the guy they put in it.
- [39:58]
Dbro Derrick Brown
20 minutes, I turned.
- [40:00]
Joey P. Joe P. Zappia
He's good.
- [40:01]
Dbro Derrick Brown
Yeah, he's good, but still, I like
- [40:03]
Joey P. Joe P. Zappia
him as an actor, but. See the crow. See the crow. Great soundtrack, but I don't know if you're into, like, the, you know, 90s grunge kind of stuff. The Cure's got some ones on there. Trent Rezner's got some songs, and there's a. All time great soundtrack of a movie.
- [40:18]
Dbro Derrick Brown
Pilots Erickson listening to the Cure as he's doing his yarn board about connections through the NFL.
- [40:23]
Joey P. Joe P. Zappia
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Time will take her home. Her dizzy head was a the D coordinator. Yeah.
- [40:31]
Dbro Derrick Brown
We're not a karaoke, Joe. We're not a karaoke right now, okay?
- [40:35]
Joey P. Joe P. Zappia
Andrew and I do like karaoke. All right, let's talk about Chris Bell from Louisville. Wide receiver again. Another guy, you know, a lot of people do like. So who wants to. I'm gonna throw the red meat out there to you guys. Like, who wants to take first shot at Chris Bell? Why? He might be a landmine, potentially.
- [40:53]
Andrew Erickson
The chat. So that's his guy.
- [40:56]
Dbro Derrick Brown
I'll own all these names that I'm throwing in here. And the thing with Chris Bell is, is he athletic? Sure. Are there reasons to like him? Yep.
- [41:04]
Joey P. Joe P. Zappia
Are you interviewing yourself? Yes, but the price.
- [41:07]
Dbro Derrick Brown
I am, but the concerns with Chris Bell is the limitations of his game. And how much of was. Was this a Louisville thing versus a Chris Bell thing? I think it also is very telling that in 2025, his ADOT was 9.4. In 2025, 63.2% of his targets came within 9 yards of the line of scrimmage or behind it. Last year as well, 59.9% of his routes were either a hitch, slant, cross or flat or a screen. So basically everything's short. And if he's going to be this guy that can he stretch a defense, can he threaten you at all three levels of the field, or is he really just run horizontal routes and that's all you got. And everybody goes to the A.J. brown thing with him and it's like, sure, that's the A.J. brown, like Ole Miss routery. Fine. Oh, see, I don't see AJ Brown though. We also needs to talk about Chris.
- [42:02]
Joey P. Joe P. Zappia
Can I throw you my comp for him? I don't know if you're gonna like it or not, but I think it might play, it might play in a little bit to your feelings about him. Is Chase Claypool. That's what he reminds me of a little bit.
- [42:12]
Dbro Derrick Brown
Okay.
- [42:14]
Joey P. Joe P. Zappia
Big strong guy like A.J. brown.
- [42:15]
Dbro Derrick Brown
A.J.
- [42:16]
Joey P. Joe P. Zappia
brown, big strong guy, like he's got, he's got some size, he got some strength, got, you know, going on there. But I'm not saying like he's got the same mental capacity. Chase Claypool, I don't want to put that evil on him, but that's. I think he's more Chase Claypool than he is A.J. brown, personally.
- [42:31]
Dbro Derrick Brown
See, and I went with another oldie but goodie. But this player sadly, like it was just injuries that crush his career, but similar play style. Quincy and Noonwa.
- [42:41]
Andrew Erickson
Yeah.
- [42:42]
Joey P. Joe P. Zappia
Oh, I remember Quincy and Noona. That's a good one. Ericson, got any thoughts about Chris Bell?
- [42:46]
Andrew Erickson
Well, he's coming off torn ACL that he tore in November and he had surgery on it in December. So there are question marks about his availability. Although the news around him. I know Tony Pauline has done a lot of great job reporting on the NFL Draft Insider about how, you know, he should be good to go by June. So he's expected to be at OTAs or training camp for whichever team ends up drafting him in this year's draft. Projected to be anywhere between a second and third round pick. He's probably not. I mean, there has been some hype about him being a first round pick. That's probably overly aggressive just to take a guy coming off a torn acl. Even though again, he seemed like he was potentially on his way to doing that before his injury. I think more like a top 45 type of pick because the size is tantalizing. 6 foot 2, 222 pounds. However, not a ton of production really. It was this past year where he had his breakout season, 2022 did nothing as a true freshman. 2023 he played with Jamari Thrash who was a late round draft pick a couple years ago and a guy, Kevin Coleman, 2026 draft prospect, also in this draft. They played together at Louisville. 2024 thrash went to the NFL and Bell was behind Jakory Brooks who was a transfer from Alabama and he ended up being undrafted free agent. 2025 and he's with the Commanders now. So he didn't really do a lot amid not like the most elite talent and then he kindly blows up this past year. So that's a red flag for me. I think that when you look at some of the comp scan we mentioned Quincy New I know that that's Connor Rogers comp from the NFL stock exchange and that's kind of I thought too which watching him, he's like a big guy.
- [44:18]
Joey P. Joe P. Zappia
Oh, that's his comp.
- [44:20]
Dbro Derrick Brown
Oh I didn't know that.
- [44:22]
Andrew Erickson
So I think that one is, is pretty spot on just based on him kind of being like a big target, big frame, get this guy the ball and let him run. So I think that that profile just is a lot of boomer bust to it. Player profiler. His comp is Xavier Leggett, right? Who when you look at Leggette, what did he do? He did nothing his entire college career and he blows up his senior year.
- [44:46]
Dbro Derrick Brown
And then very similar routery too.
- [44:48]
Andrew Erickson
Big guy, similar runs fast and of course he went to the Carolina Panthers and it just like the Jonathan Mingo like Xavier Leggett like that triage and obviously they broke the mold with getting Tetra McMillan who's a different receiver than those other guys but that's who he kind of reminds me of, of that type of ilk. And we've seen a lot of busts with those types of players. Now that being said, the fact that you are getting an ACL injury discount, he's turning 22 years old. I'm not really worried about his knee being something that's going to deter him in the long term. So I do think that if you do get a discount on some of these rookie drafts because he's coming off torn acl, that that does make him a little bit more of an option because I think that if he was healthy and he was a back end round one pick, he would probably be a much stronger fade as a back end rookie pick in the first round of some of these rookie drafts. So that's to me Chris Bell and honestly when I Watched him, I was expecting more. I don't know. I don't know if Debra, if you felt the same way, but I, I'd kind of heard the hype about him, like, back end, first round pick was on his way to be a first round pick. So I turned him on thinking like, man, this guy's getting caught for A.J. brown. I freaking loved A.J. brown. Ole miss. I cried in my hostel at the draft because the Patriots drafted to kill Harry instead of A.J. brown.
- [45:56]
Joey P. Joe P. Zappia
But we all did.
- [45:57]
Andrew Erickson
I, yeah, I wasn't, I wasn't as impressed with Chris Bell after, after watching him a little bit.
- [46:02]
Dbro Derrick Brown
So, yeah, I, I wasn't impressed either. And I heard all the AJ Brown stuff and like, I, I take all that kind of stuff with a grain of salt when I walk into a player's film and, and that's, you know, arriving to this process. But yeah, like the landmine stuff to Chris Bell, like the absolute way this goes wrong is if Chris Bell is a limited player, if he doesn't come back with the same explosiveness from the ACL and a team tries to shove him, like basically the Xavier Leggette stuff is how this goes wrong. If a team tries to take him, which I always saw Leggette was like, make him a big slot, let him run away from people, put him on the crossers, let him do what he does.
- [46:39]
Joey P. Joe P. Zappia
Well, isn't that what they try to do with Chase Claypool, make him a big slot?
- [46:42]
Andrew Erickson
Fair, fair.
- [46:43]
Joey P. Joe P. Zappia
But I just like, I don't know, like, I like the Annuna comp. It's fair, but like, I just feel like as you guys talk more and more, I just hear more and more Chase Claypool stuff.
- [46:52]
Dbro Derrick Brown
Yeah, Leggette, they tried to make him into a true ex wide receiver and he's not that. And that's what I worry about with Chris Bell. If they try to make him into a true X and run the entire route tree, it's like, at what point of his collegiate career have we seen him succeed at a high level doing that? So.
- [47:13]
Joey P. Joe P. Zappia
By the way, I asked artificial intelligence to tell me a little bit about some of the guys who tore their ACLs, because I was like, how many guys have torn their ACLs and in recent memory and we're still number one or first round picks? Todd Gurley in 2015, Jameson Williams in 2022, Jeffrey Simmons in 2019, Willis McGee in 2003, and and of course, Dominic Easley. Remember him?
- [47:37]
Dbro Derrick Brown
2018. That's a deep hole.
- [47:39]
Andrew Erickson
Yeah.
- [47:40]
Joey P. Joe P. Zappia
Good job, Bill Belichick. All right, let's go to the next one on our list here. Which is kind of interesting because it's not really a name, it's more of a delineation. So, D bro, you want to walk us through this?
- [47:51]
Dbro Derrick Brown
I mean, yes, we're talking about who is the soon to be named rookie RB2 for this draft class for fantasy. However you want to contextualize this. And all these guys have holes in their prospect profiles. It's like who could be the landmine? Like Jadarian Price is a first round pick. Mike Washington. We love him, Joey. I know we do. But there are holes in the profile. You want to go down. Further down. Jonah Coleman, the testing, the lack of explosive metrics in his profile. Like whoever the RB2 in this class could be a landmine in the sense of like they're. Because of the state of this prospect class, the position and just these players overall, could they hit? Sure. Could any one of these guys, whoever you want to put in that spot, like Erickson, like whoever your RB2 is, can you say they're. They're bulletproof as a prospect? I can't. Even though I like some of these guys.
- [48:50]
Andrew Erickson
No, you can't say that the RB2 in this class is someone you should be overly bullish on because I think that the RB2 is not going to be evaluated on their talent as much as if it's their situation, their draft capital and their landing spot. So that's how we get into trouble in fantasies when we're overvaluing the non player traits. And obviously at running back, that's where you have to consider it more. But you're going to see a running back that gets drafted by Seattle or that gets early round two or mid round two draft capital. Shockingly similar to what happened with RJ RJ Harvey in drafts last year. Some of these best ball Drafts was a 16th or 17th round pick. Because he was projected to go in day three. He ends up being around two selection and ends up skyrocketing in some of these drafts. Now he ended up finishing as an RB2, but that's just a sh. That's just to showcase how much momentum this player may get and whether that's warranted or not. And based on the skill talent, I don't think it is. And I think it's really interesting to look at this class compared to the 2024 running back class which was also very bad. The only difference being Jeremiah Love is in this class and he deserves all the flowers. So we talk about and poo poo this Class, it's from the RB2 down because Jeremiah Love is one of these elite running backs in the ilk of Bijan Robinson or Ashton Genti. So he deserves that type of credit. But after him, it really does fall off a cliff. And it is the wild, wild west in terms of how you need to be cautious when you're trying to draft these guys. Especially if, hey, I really like this running back that got drafted by Seattle. Well, should you take him over a Denzel Boston who got drafted at the top of the second round, or KZ Concepcion, he got drafted at the top of the second round. Well, they're not first round picks, so that's where I get kind of hesitant. And when you look at the way that the NFL treated the running backs in free agency this off season, it was very similar to what they did in the 2024 off season. Seven running backs had totaled at least 5.5 million per af per year in 2024 in that weak running back class where Jonathan Brooks, a guy coming off a torn acl, was the first running back drafted in that class. Like that's how good that class was. And then it was followed by three guys in round three. Trey Benson has done nothing. Blake Corum had a really bad rookie year, but did improve in his second season. And then the last guy is Marshawn Lloyd, who still has an injured hamstring. And we all know what happened to last year's third round pick, Caleb Johnson. He was, he did. He did nothing. So round three is really where you're starting to see guys. They look a lot more like round four and day three running backs versus closer to round two. So I think the delineation between is a guy taking round two versus round three is going to be big. Seven running backs this offseason got paid at least 5 million per year. Six got north of 6 million. Last year's free agency. Class one running back got that amount in free agency because everybody knew the running back class was strong. So I would be surprised if again, Cam Scatter Boo got drafted in round four. If he was in this year's draft class, he'd be like a round two pick.
- [51:47]
Joey P. Joe P. Zappia
He'd be a.
- [51:47]
Andrew Erickson
Like, it would be a no, it'd be a. So that's why he'd be the clear
- [51:52]
Joey P. Joe P. Zappia
issue with his class, especially with the stats and the way he played in the college playoffs. So, like that, that, that main attention that he would have gotten because of that moment, those moments that he had.
- [52:01]
Andrew Erickson
So I think that the raw draft capital, some of these running backs get is going to be not necessarily exactly right in terms of projecting them the rest of the season into their dynasty outputs. So I just want to like, word to the wise, it's just be very, very careful with whoever is deemed the biggest winner among the running backs because that's not going to go unnoticed. Their price is going to go up and I'm not sure it's going to be worth the value. So it's, for me, it's like the work shopping take is the easiest fade in dynasty rookie drafts is whoever everyone like loves the most as the RB2 and conversely, whoever falls the most, whoever gets the worst landing spot, whether it's one of these Penn State running backs. If Nick Singleton attested, he'd probably go on right next to Mike Washington. But he's not because he didn't test. But we all know he's pretty athletic. He just broke his foot. So it's things like that that I'm trying to think about from a, you know, taking a, a full scope of this rookie running back class and trying to opt out of drafting most of these running backs unless I get them really, really late.
- [53:02]
Joey P. Joe P. Zappia
All right, one more guy to talk about here on this list, and it's a tight end. So let's discuss Michael Trigg here for a moment. Deeper. I'll start with you on this one here. Trigg obviously is, you know, you look at the Baylor tape, I mean, there's some good stuff on there. I don't know if he's too slender to play tight end in the NFL or too big to play wide receiver. I don't, I don't know where you want to start with Trig here and your thoughts about him, because I understand why people might look at him and like him, but why do you think he might potentially have some downside?
- [53:31]
Dbro Derrick Brown
I threw this into the slack, like, weeks ago whenever I was going through his film and I was like, I'm out on Michael Trigg. And Fitz was like, wow, you sound triggered. And I was like, oh, that was well done.
- [53:42]
Joey P. Joe P. Zappia
Always the wordsmith, are we, Fitzy? Fitzy never stops. Never stops.
- [53:46]
Dbro Derrick Brown
Michael Triggs. Okay, so I, I think he's a landmine because every analytics department is probably going to talk, like all the spreadsheet bros and, and the, the front office people that care about analytics are going to love Michael Trigg because, yeah, spreadsheets, he looks great. Like over the last two years, 13th and 20th and yards per route run, second and 10th, the missed tackles forced. And I'm, I'm Telling you it is the most fraudulent production profile. Why it's. You turn on his film. He's not a detailed route runner. You watch him. He has like these highlight reel one headed catches. He is not a good route runner. He is not good in contested situations. He also can't block to save his life. The play strength is not there. Like there are times where he moves like a. Like a big wide receiver and then other times you're just like, dude, what are you doing? Stop with the dancing at the line. Like get into your freaking route. Like he gets pushed off at the catch point. He got. He has a 45.2% contested catch rate in college. Also. Drops are a problem. 10.7% a drop rate in college. So as well as he decided to test and do some things and we found out that he's maybe not that athletic because he couldn't jump. 27 inch vertical jump.
- [55:00]
Andrew Erickson
So. No.
- [55:03]
Joey P. Joe P. Zappia
It's also 26 inches higher than yours. Dude.
- [55:05]
Andrew Erickson
Bro.
- [55:06]
Joey P. Joe P. Zappia
Just for measurement.
- [55:07]
Dbro Derrick Brown
Fair. But I'm not going out to try to play move tight end in the NFL.
- [55:10]
Joey P. Joe P. Zappia
Well, you got bad ankles now too. That's.
- [55:12]
Dbro Derrick Brown
Yeah, it's fair.
- [55:15]
Joey P. Joe P. Zappia
Erickson, do you have any thoughts on trig here?
- [55:17]
Andrew Erickson
He's a player that I probably would have been all over in rookie drafts five years ago in terms of looking at the. Well, top five yards per reception, first yards per route run.
- [55:28]
Joey P. Joe P. Zappia
Nerd. Is that why? Is that what it is? Yeah, but excel Boros.
- [55:31]
Andrew Erickson
First in air yards, first in broken tackles, force per attempt. So not only was he putting up numbers after the catch, but he's also putting up numbers downfield. But D Rose point, the way that he did it is. It's just a guy that has a basketball background that's just kind of going up there and just not adding a lot of nuance to the tight end position. He dealt with injuries throughout, getting played at three different schools. It was till this final year where he finally had a big season his fifth year at a third school. When I was trying to look at comps for him, the best one I could come up with was. Was Tim, right, formerly of the Buccaneers and the New England Patriots. A wide receiver, tight end, type of convert player. Lance Zurline, Compton to Gerald Everett, who again going back to.
- [56:13]
Dbro Derrick Brown
I would have loved.
- [56:14]
Andrew Erickson
I love Gerald Everett. I still do.
- [56:16]
Dbro Derrick Brown
Mine is by the way, Kenny.
- [56:18]
Andrew Erickson
That's a good one.
- [56:19]
Joey P. Joe P. Zappia
Yeah. That's another goal. This is a funny game.
- [56:21]
Andrew Erickson
There's tantalizing what dudes like to do.
- [56:23]
Joey P. Joe P. Zappia
They like to sit around and just
- [56:24]
Andrew Erickson
name old Players, there's tantalizing upside with what he does on the highlights. But in between those plays, what is he doing now? I was reading some scouts notes that he sometimes takes plays off if he's not getting the rock. He was suspended for disciplinary reasons at Ole Miss and Baylor. And this was a report from Tony Pauline from the Baylor pro day. So he didn't work out in Indy because he said he had a hamstring injury. He didn't run the 40 at his pro day. He did the vertical jump like Dbro said, 27 and a half inches. But then he said the bail. Then the scouts at the Baylor pro day said, yeah, he was kind of completely checked out by that point. So then you have a concern of how dedicated is he to his craft and has he really just kind of been, hey, I'm the more talented player. I can just kind of show up, make big plays. I used to play basketball. I'm a big, big slot tight end. Where is he more of a tweener and is he willing to make the commitment to, I'm going to be a big tight end. I'm going to make the shift to wide receiver. So there's just a lot of flags. So I think that he's not someone that I'm necessarily gravitating towards in some of these late round rookie picks. Again, I would rather have. And this happened in one of the discord rookie mock drafts I ran on Monday. Somebody took Michael Trigg in the right after Eli Heyrich went and I was like, this, the next cmc. That's who I should have drafted instead. So take him. Oh, oh gosh. He's got way more upside than Trig does in these rookie draft. I'm just saying, like in the fourth round like that.
- [57:40]
Dbro Derrick Brown
I understand that that's who we're debating
- [57:42]
Andrew Erickson
between and I'd rather have the run
- [57:43]
Joey P. Joe P. Zappia
go back and watch our last show. If you want to know more about him on the tailgate, of course, subscribe to the channel and of course support our sponsors here. And that is Hard Rock bet Florida Sportsbook. And right now we got the NBA action in full swing right now at Hard Rock Bet. He got same game park parlays going on there and we've got a whole lot of NBA action. So you're never late to tip off with Hard Rock bet. Sign up today and double your winnings with your first 10 bets. Max of $50. That's right. Double your winnings on your first 10 bets. So if you would have won a hundred bucks, now you make it 200. So download the hard Rock Bet app today and get the party started with all the hardwood action of the NBA. Also MLB too going on right now too. Go watch our MLB Channel Fantasy Pros mlb. Get our best bets every single day over there and do them over at Hard Rock Bet payable and bonus bets not a cash offer offered by the Seminole Tribe of Florida in Florida offered by the Seminole Hard Rock Digital LLC and other states must be 21 plus in physically present in Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, New Jersey, Ohio, Tennessee or Virginia. Play terms and conditions apply. Concern about gambling in Florida, call 1833 play wise in Indiana. If you are someone you know is a gambling problem wants help, call 1-8-809 with it gambling problem, call 1-800- gambler in Arizona, Colorado, Illinois, Michigan, New Jersey, Ohio, Tennessee, Virginia all right, before we wrap things up for today, I was thinking to myself, who really needs to crush the NFL draft this year? What team needs to get it right more than any other? And I think there's a lot of different answers, a lot of different approaches you could take to this. I took the approach of a team that has 11 picks in this draft, a new quarterback, a new head coach, but maybe a small window in which to be successful, but a lot of needs. I chose the Miami Dolphins. They have 11 picks this year and they haven't won a playoff game since the year 2000. Let that sink in. There's an entire generation now of Dolphin fans that are not old enough to have seen a Miami Dolphin playoff win. And I think there's a lot of pressure on them because the Buffalo Bills are still great with Josh Allen. They're still going to be at the top of that division, fighting for it. All of a sudden. The Patriots you thought were kind of in rebuild mode, well, they just went to the Super Bowl. So if you're the Dolphins, I think there's a lot of pressure to get this right right away. And if they don't get these 11 picks, or at least a good chunk of them correct, I think in two years if Malik Willis doesn't succeed or there's not enough around him to succeed, all of a sudden you're going to turn around and look and say maybe it's tan, you know, we're going to change things around again. Time to move on from the head coach, move on with this quarterback. This just doesn't right decision and the Dolphins are going to be right back at it again, look at more picks, looking at other quarterbacks. So I think the Dolphins have the most pressure on them to get things right this year in the NFL draft. Andrew Erickson, what organization do you think has to get it right in the NFL draft this year? The most?
- [60:26]
Andrew Erickson
New York jets. Because Aaron Glenn doesn't pick the right guys that can get interceptions. He's not going to last very long as the head coach of of New York. They're in a interesting situation again. They have the draft capital. Two first round picks, two second round picks. I do wonder who is now in control where. I think last year Aaron Glenn was more of the bigger voice in the building between him and Darren Mogi. But now I think that that power dynamic may have shifted more towards the GM after again, trading away guys like Sasgard and Quinn Williams didn't help make Aaron Glenn's job easier last year. Trading away your two best defensive players. So to me that signals, hey Aaron Glenn, you're starting to lose a little bit of this here, of this. Not necessarily a power struggle, but it's not all about you. It's not all about 2026. That being said, the players that they do get in this draft have to be able to contribute this season or else Aaron Glenn, he's cooked. His job is over. So I do think that the jets, with the draft capital they have, it's really easy to call teams with multiple picks, especially when it comes like the Dolphins or the jets as winners after the draft because, oh, you have so many picks. Like how can you possibly mess this up? Number one, it's the jets and Dolphins. They'll find a way potentially to mess things up. But number two, it's also about did they get additional draft capital? Do they move up and down the board? Do they get value on these picks? I mean, remember last year when the Falcons had Jalen Walker fall into their laps, it was such a great pick and then they pissed away all the value when they traded over James Spears Jr. So things can change really dramatically. But I think that the jets have a lot riding on this draft just based on all the picks they have. And I think that something that can't go on, something that has to be addressed, is they're putting a quarterback that they draft next year in position to succeed, whether that is Dante, Dante Moore or Archie Manning, that they don't just draft defensive players, that they draft offensive players so they can drop in their quarterback next year to have success.
- [62:26]
Joey P. Joe P. Zappia
See, I thought about the jets for this answer, but I think said to myself, I don't think they have enough expectations yet to fail. I think everybody just Expects them to fail again and be right at the top of the draft. And look, I'm. It's like, it's funny, but it's true. Like, I think they look at it as like, we're still far away, whereas the Dolphins, I feel like, just a little bit more pressure because, well, we're just kind of a respectable team that was getting into wild cards a couple years ago and playing playoff games in Buffalo with Tua and Tyree Kill, and all of a sudden, like, we've just fallen off the map completely. And it's a whole new situation there with a whole new regime. Head coach, quarterback, the whole thing. Dbro, what's your answer here? Who has to crush the NFL draft in 2026 the most?
- [63:04]
Dbro Derrick Brown
I went with another team that also has 11 picks in this upcoming in draft and has not lived up to expectations outside of winning a lot of games in the regular season. I'm gonna go with the Baltimore Ravens, man. Look at their last few draft classes, dude, with Eric DaCosta at the helm since 2023, what are we talking about as hits? Okay. Malachi Starks, maybe from last year, I think he played good, but he wasn't like, you know, we weren't talking about, like him as a absolute game changer. Nate Wiggins, Roger Roser, Garden, Zay Flowers. But like, this is a team that we use like. And I think continually still gets talked about as they. They just slam these. These late round picks and they're so freaking smart and da, da, da, da. Okay, last year's class, round five, on which this year's class, the. The Ravens have 1, 2, 3, 4 fifth rounders, a sixth and two sevenths. So ton of picks. And this used to be the team. We're all like, oh, my gosh, all these smart picks. Okay, well, the last three draft classes on round, tell me if any of these guys you feel like have been true difference makers for the Baltimore Ravens. Carson Benson, Bilal Coney Tyler Loop, Lejounte Westerly, Aeneas Peebles, Roger Longer Beam. Not making up these names. I swear to God I'm not making up these names.
- [64:23]
Joey P. Joe P. Zappia
I think that was a carrot. Wasn't that a character from Time Cop? I'm pretty sure. Didn't Van Damme have to fight Longer Beam? It's got to be a character named Time Cop.
- [64:30]
Dbro Derrick Brown
Devonte Walker, TJ Tampa, Rasheen Ali, Devin Leary.
- [64:35]
Joey P. Joe P. Zappia
All right, we get it. It's bad. Stop. He's already dead.
- [64:38]
Dbro Derrick Brown
But that's my thing.
- [64:40]
Joey P. Joe P. Zappia
Well, now it's all on his shoulders. Now it is.
- [64:43]
Dbro Derrick Brown
It absolutely is. And also when we zoom out, too, for a team that backed out, the Max Crosby trade signed Trey Hendrickson, if they don't turn those picks into really good players and Max Crosby goes out and he balls for the next two to three years and they have egg on their face and the picks don't hit, Eric Decoster is going to look like a fool.
- [65:06]
Joey P. Joe P. Zappia
All right, those are all some really good answers. What's your answer? Drop your comments below. Subscribe to Tailgate NFL over on the YouTube side. Remember, if you subscribe, you drop your comments, you get possibly a shot to win the George Pickens autograph jersey and a hundred dollars a pristine auction for you to use in credit so you can buy more fun stuff there. Also, we want you to drop your favorite 90s action film. It could be a cheesy one, it could be a great one. Whatever you want, drop it in the comments below because we like to have fun here with you. And again, this channel is gonna be talking football all summer long, all fall, all winter, 365, 12 months a year. We're gonna be talking ball here at the tailgate. So we want you to be a part of that here. Great show today, gentlemen, as always. That'll do it for us. They're kicking us out of the parking lot. We'll see you next time on the tailgate.
- [65:57]
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