Combine Risers Who Just Became Fantasy Targets || Fantasy Football 2026

Summary

Footballguys Fantasy Football Show: Combine Risers Who Just Became Fantasy Targets || Fantasy Football 2026

Date: March 2, 2026
Hosts: Dave Kluge & Joey Wright
Episode Theme:
A deep-dive, position-by-position analysis of the major risers and fallers emerging from the 2026 NFL Combine, with a focus on how their performances impact rookie draft rankings and fantasy football outlooks.

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Episode Overview

Dave Kluge and Joey Wright dig into the key storylines coming out of the 2026 NFL Combine, spotlighting explosive athletic performances, major risers up the rookie draft boards, and a few notable fallers. The conversation covers running backs, wide receivers, tight ends, and quarterbacks, drawing from the Footballguys Rookie Guide and firsthand combine impressions. They discuss how testing metrics like the Relative Athletic Score (RAS), 40-yard dash, and positional drills influence player evaluations—all with fantasy football implications in mind.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Big Picture Takeaways from the 2026 Combine

[02:01]

• The top prospects solidified their standing: Jeremiah Love, King Nut, Kenyon Sadiq were all as-advertised or exceeded expectations.
• Few "losers" from this year’s combine; trend of players skipping drills likely influenced by agents.

Joey Wright:
“These elite players that we put at positions met or exceeded expectations... Jeremiah Love, King Nut, Sadiq—they deserve to be at the top of your draft boards.” (02:01)

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2. Running Back Risers

Mike Washington Jr. (Arkansas/Buffalo)

• [03:05–06:16]

  • Measured 223 lbs, 4.33 40-yard dash (second fastest, size-adjusted in NFL combine history)
  • Perfect 10.0 Relative Athletic Score (RAS) but skipped agility/bench press drills
  • Emotional, passionate about football; highest value rising to RB2 consideration.

  Joey Wright:
  “After what we saw from him at the Combine, I don’t think it’s out of the question [to have him at RB2]… It came against the SEC, he earned it himself with hard work.” (03:48)

  • Dynasty rookie draft spot: as high as 1.07 depending on league priorities.

  Dave Kluge:
  “He earned everything with hard work... Not crazy he ducked the agility drills, but his story and traits make him a quick riser.” (04:34)

Adam Randall (Clemson)

• [08:15–11:43]

  • 233 lbs, ran a 4.54 40 (third-best size-adjusted speed behind Love and Washington Jr.)
  • Versatile: ex-QB, ex-WR, now a running back with pass-catching upside.
  • Ideal landing spot: Minnesota, with unique skill set complementing exiting RB group (Jordan Mason).
  • Player comp: Cordarrelle Patterson 2.0.

  Dave Kluge:
  “A big fast guy, a converted wide receiver still learning the RB position, passed the athleticism test with flying colors.” (08:15)

Eli Heidenreich (Navy)

• [12:05–15:25]

  • Versatile gadget player; 9.2 RAS before bench, finished at 8.5 after doing every drill.
  • Could thrive with a creative play-caller (ideal fit: Patriots, Rams).
  • Dynamic, multi-position usage; conceivable fantasy upside if he lands in the right offense.

  Dave Kluge:
  “A very unique player, Navy literally tailored an offense to his skill set.” (13:54)

Seth McGowan

• [15:44–18:42]
  • Elite broad/vertical jumps, solid 40; concerns about age (already 25), lack of passing-game work.
  • Comp: Damien Harris—a violent, early-down runner.
  • View as an older "redraft" value pick if NFL gives him decent draft capital.

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3. Wide Receiver Standouts

Jacoby Lane

• [18:56–20:26]
  • Fluid on-field, 9.69 RAS, strong gauntlet drill.
  • Projected as WR15 in Footballguys’ guide; expected to go in late 3rd/early 4th round.
  • Baltimore flagged as a good fit (red zone threat, insurance for Bateman).

Brendan Thompson

• [20:26–22:22]

  • Ran 4.26 40, fastest at the combine, but top-end speed alone isn’t a surefire NFL or fantasy success indicator (see: John Ross, Henry Ruggs).

  Joey Wright:
  “The 40 time matters for hype… these are guys I pick up off waivers and drop a week later.” (21:28)

Bryce Lance (North Dakota State)

• [22:22–24:58]
  • Trey Lance’s brother, 9.95 RAS.
  • Potential for fun speculation about positional switches in the pros.

Deion Burks

• [25:10–26:43]
  • 99th percentile athleticism, but very small and injury-prone.
  • Could see 3rd-round investment by a WR-needy team (Dallas mentioned as a dream fit).

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4. Quarterback Takeaways

Taylor Green

• [27:37–31:31]

  • One of the most athletic QB showings ever; comped to Anthony Richardson.
  • Declined WR drills—sticking with quarterback ambition.
  • Ceiling/floor discussion compared to Richardson; expected to land as a developmental QB.

  Dave Kluge:
  “I like that he just said he’s going to be a quarterback… If he went out as a wide receiver, teams would immediately throw out any idea of him playing QB.” (29:02)

Drew Allar

• [31:31–32:03]
  • Pre-injury, expected as top QB; injury dulled excitement.
  • Could land as QB3/QB4 depending on draft dynamics (behind Mendoza, Simpson).
  • QB2 race (Simpson, Payton, Green, Aller) remains open.

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5. Tight End Athleticism: The Year of the Freaks

• [33:53–44:06]

  • Kenyon Sadiq: NFL record 43.5” vertical, ran 4.39 at big size.
    • Projected as a Round 1 lock; dream landing spots include Commanders, Chiefs, Titans, or even late for 49ers.
    • Tight end testing matters: only one TE with >9.5 RAS has gone Day 3 in last decade (George Kittle).
    • “If you want to be an elite tight end, you need to be big, fast, and strong.” (34:09)
  • Eli Stowers: Broke Sadiq’s vertical jump record by two full inches (!)—now in conversation for TE1, though blocking skills debated.
  • John Michael Gillenborg: 9.92 RAS, raw TE prospect, ex-basketball player, huge riser to TE6 in Dave’s ranks.

  Joey Wright:
  “I do love a good basketball player that turned tight end!” (44:06)

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6. Notable Fallers & Context

Emmett Johnson (RB)

• [46:30–47:35]

  • Worst RAS among RBs; only RB to do every drill.
  • Still a 58th percentile athlete all-time; praised for “having that dog in him,” tackling drills, and production/receiving.

  Joey Wright:
  “If you’re going to run a slow 40, I want to see you bowl over people. That’s the kind of RB he is.” (46:47)

Malachi Fields (WR)

• [49:09–49:40]
  • Slowest 40 among WRs, but dominated at the Senior Bowl.
  • Lack of production at Notre Dame more about scheme than talent.

Chris Hilton Jr. (WR)

• [51:12–51:34]
  • Needed a great combine to boost draft stock; disappointed, now a likely Day 3 pick.

Makai Lemon (WR)

• [52:31–53:00]
  • Viral interview and rumored poor team interviews—potentially overblown, but flagged as something to watch.

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7. Key Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On Combine Testing for WRs:
  “I said, you know, we have to pay attention to the testing. But for me, like the gauntlet, and it’s very much so an eye test… that’s what I really care about.” –Dave Kluge (22:22)

• On Tight End Metrics:
  “If you want to be an elite tight end, you need to be big, you need to be fast, you need to be strong. That’s why we put so much weight in the testing here.” –Dave Kluge (34:09)

• On Pro Days vs. Combine Numbers:
  “If I see a bad pro day in combination with a bad combine, then I'm going to start worrying. [But] team rumors are worth their weight in feathers.” –Joey Wright (53:54)

• On Draft Rumor Season:
  “Every year I make stupid, irrational decisions leading up to the draft because of rumors… I’m going to Hawaii and not bringing my phone.” –Dave Kluge (54:41)

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Timestamps for Important Segments

• Initial Takes, Combine Overview: 02:01–03:00
• Mike Washington Jr., RB2 Debate: 03:05–06:16
• Adam Randall RB Profile: 08:15–11:43
• Eli Heidenreich Versatility: 12:05–15:25
• Seth McGowan Age Debate: 15:44–18:42
• Wide Receiver Risers: 18:56–26:43
• Quarterback Risers (Taylor Green, Drew Allar): 27:37–32:03
• Tight End Athleticism (Sadiq, Stowers, Gillenborg): 33:53–44:06
• Running Back & WR Fallers: 46:47–53:00
• Closing Thoughts (What to Watch Next): 53:54–54:41

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Closing Thoughts

• Upcoming work: Watch for pro day performances, as bad combine results can be offset by strong pro days—especially for potential fallers.
• Beware the “Season of Lies”: Don’t overreact to pre-draft rumors or anonymous reports; focus on tangible data and on-field results.

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Further Resources

• Footballguys Rookie Guide:
  "Free at footballguys.com/rookieguide—over 150 prospects with stats, scouting reports, and more." (06:16–07:40)
• Find Joey Wright:
  All content at Footballguys, including The Home League Show and March Madness specials. (55:51–56:30)

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Summary Statement

This episode is an essential listen for fantasy footballers looking to key in on the biggest rookie risers following the combine, and for those looking to avoid the yearly trap of pre-draft rumor-mongering. Kluge and Wright balance metrics, tape, and context in evaluating how athletic testing really impacts fantasy draft boards—especially at RB, WR, and TE. Watch out for more Footballguys content as the NFL draft cycle heats up!

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Transcript

[A]

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[B]

Have you gone down the rabbit hole, Garth Brooks being a serial killer?

[A]

Oh, my gosh. I have not. No.

[B]

Yeah, that shouldn't be the cold open because I don't want Garth because he plays fantasy football. I don't want Garth seeing this. But there's, I would say Zodiac. There's, there's a lot of information on Zodiac. Can't find a solution. And then Garth Brooks right there, right next to him, the two unsolved murder cases.

[A]

So I've got, there's like, if I had to, like, evenly divide my vinyl collection into two categories, it would be like, these are the ones that I listen to, like, when I'm by myself and I want to get, like, introspective. And that ranges everything from, you know, metal to Seagull Ross to anything else. And then I've got my, like, I found this one for $10. And it's fun to play when people are over Garth Brooks. No fences. Definitely in the ladder. And it is one, like when you have people over and you start spinning Garth Brooks. Like, people don't realize that they know, like, every word to every Garth Brooks song.

[B]

Yeah. If you put friends in Low places on, people will sing it. Even if they don't want to, they're going to sing it.

[A]

So, yeah, it doesn't matter what range you sing in. Like, everybody's dropping into their lowest octave to sing Thunder Rolls. Like, it's just, it's a good album. Welcome in to a new episode of the Football Guys Fantasy football Show. I am. Dave Kluge joined today with Joey Wright. And we are going to talk about the NFL combine that just happened over the weekend. Much to discuss. Winners, losers, takeaways, all that good stuff. Joey, Joey, first question I have for you. Any major takeaways before we get into the nitty gritty? Talking about every single player here. Any big picture takeaways from this year's combine?

[B]

Yeah, I mean, I think when you're watching that many players compete in that many drills, it kind of starts to blend together. But the biggest thing for me is these Elite players that we put at positions met or exceeded expectations. Jeremiah Love, King Nut, Sadiq, like they looked absolutely incredible to where the people that were playing behind them looked great. But these two guys looked so, so good that yeah, they deserve to be at the top of your draft boards. And that was just kind of solidified for me this weekend.

[A]

Yeah. And I mean even Fernando Mendoza didn't even need to step on the field. Just stepping on a scale alone, he was able to exceed expectations. So yeah, I think we've got, you know, some, some questions answered here and not that we had a ton of questions about a guy like Jeremiah Love, but coming out and running a 4, 3, 6, like just absolutely smoking every single drill out there, he solidified his name a top the running back rankings. But let's talk about some of the surprisers here and we're going to talk a little bit about winners and a little bit about losers. But truthfully, there weren't any major losers or fallers from this year's combine and we'll talk about that as we get into the show. But first of all, if we're talking about risers, we have got to talk about Mike Washington Jr. And this has been a favorite of the show for anybody who's been listening to the Dynasty show over the last couple of months. Anybody who's been tuning in and reading the football guys rookie guide. Mike Washington Jr. 223 pounds, ran a 4, 3 3, 40 yard dash, second fastest size adjusted speed of any running back that we have seen in NFL history. A perfect 10.0 relative athletic score. I mean this guy did everything that we hoped and then some big strong, fast, all the traits that you cannot teach here. So Joey, my question for you. Is it crazy now when you're doing these rookie running back rankings to have Mike Washington Jr. As high as RB2?

[B]

I don't think so. After what we saw from him at the combine, I don't think it's out of the question. Jerry and Price had a really good combine as well. He's probably the RB2 in a lot of people's minds right now. But what we saw From Mike Washington, his 40 score and everything he did, I mean the emotion, then he's crying, breaking down like that's what you want to see in these players. You know, they were not very tongue in cheek on the broadcast about it, but I think they really kind of honed into like the this kid cares about what he's going to do out here today, he cares about what he's going to look like. I love seeing that from him outside of the combine. I think my favorite thing about him is that his best year came at Arkansas. It came against the sec. It didn't happen at Buffalo or New Mexico State. It happened when he was at Arkansas. And so I don't think it's crazy to take him at RB2 at all.

[A]

Yeah, and you know, when he was playing at Buffalo, he was behind Seth McGowan, who's a couple years older than him and had the experience. Another very good running back who had a good weekend. So yeah, Mike Washington Jr. His whole story, his whole arc through college came in as a two star recruit. Like didn't get a lot of buzz. Like everything that he got in college, he earned himself with hard work. So yeah, now we know, you know, the, the size and the speed on display at the combine, but this is also just a polished runner. You know, I, I, I, I'm not crazy that he ducked the agility drills. And you're going to hear that with a lot of the players that we talk about here. You know, these guys are starting to get good. They probably have agents in their ear saying like, hey, don't do these drills that are negatively going to impact your score. So when you look at that 10.00 relative athletic score, that's on a 0 to 10 scale. That means that of the 2100 plus running backs that have tested since 1987, he currently has the best score. Now you have to participate in a certain number of drills to qualify for that. He participated in the drills that he knew he would do best in the 40 yard dash, obviously get the 10 and 12 or the 10 and 20 yard splits there. And then he did the broad and vertical jump. He was second behind Seth McGowan in both of those. So no agility drills, no bench press. We don't have the full picture here, but either way, just a good story, a fun player and somebody who is quickly rising up draft boards. Last question I have for you about Mike Washington Jr. Joey, got to spend some time talking about him. Where's the earliest you think he should be going in Dynasty rookie drafts?

[B]

I'd say one of seven. Our rookie guide big board has him at 110. I prefer Love, Mendoza, Sadiq and then the three wide receivers. But if he's your RB2, if he passes price, I don't think 107 is out of the question.

[A]

Yeah, you know, six days ago I did a show with Jeff Bell and I said it wouldn't surprise me If Mike Washington Jr starts to sneak into the back half around one and now we're talking about him as early as 107. So combine, you know, everybody can say it doesn't matter all that much, but it matters quite a lot for these running backs and especially the tight ends. We're going to talk about a little bit later. Now, Joey, you just referenced our rookie guide. For anybody watching the show that hasn't checked this out yet, we're going to footballguys.com rookieguide. We have a guide available that we put so much work into over here at football guys over 150 prospects. We have stats, we have scouting reports, we have strengths, weaknesses, player comps, everything you could possibly want. We're running an update right now that'll be up in two days. So right now you can get kind of a sneak peek at what we did pre combine, but we're updating with all the combine weights, all of the drills, all the participation times, measurements, all that good stuff, updated scouting reports, all of that will be available in two days. But still, you can get [e-mail] RookieGuide this is just a great tool. I know there are a lot of people that weren't really familiar with the rookie class that were just sitting there with the rookie guide open while they were watching the combine this weekend. Just a great crash, crash course to get you up to date on all this, these incoming rookies. And like I said, it's free footballguys.com rookieguide so please check that out. Joey, I know you were researching the rookie guide quite a bit and using that as kind of your guiding light this weekend. Right?

[B]

Yeah, that's, I think I might have said to you, like, hey, the way that I watch this combine is I open up the rookie guide and then I watch it along with it. And it's just, it's nice when there's a commercial break to like, okay, I just watched, you know, Sadiq, like, what happened? Where's he from? Like, it's nice to look into that stuff. So I love our rookie guide. I've said very transparently it's where my rookie research starts every year. Once you guys put that out, I'm very lucky that I now get it earlier than anybody else because I have to proofread it. But I still, that's where my rookie research begins is when you guys put that rookie guy together. One of the few things I don't actually have my hand in. It's fine.

[A]

I believe you are credited there for moral support because there's a lot going on that time of year where Jeff, Mike and I are crashing out on a daily basis trying to hit all these deadlines and you are there for moral support and we appreciate it, Joey, but let's go ahead and jump into the next guy. We want to talk about another running back who just looked fantastic this weekend and Adam Randall out of Clemson. This is another one of my favorite guys. Mike Washington Jr. And Adam Randall are guys that I've just been enamored with from the jump. Randall weighed in at 233 pounds, ran a 454-yard dash that is the third best size adjusted speed behind Mike Washington Jr. Who we just talked about and Jeremiah Love who we opened up the show talking about. So this is a big fast guy, a converted wide receiver who's still kind of new to playing running back but just passed the athleticism test with flying colors this weekend. My question for you, Joey, what would be the the most fun, the best landing spot for Adam Randall in the NFL Draft?

[B]

1 hour ago you if you would have asked me this question, I would have said Houston. But David Montgomery is now landed there in Houston. So not might not be the worst landing spot for him if he ended up there. If Seattle moves on from Kenneth Walker, I don't think they're going to I think he would work really well in Seattle. The team that I kind of honed in on at this point though is Minnesota. They're going to be moving on from Aaron Jones. They've already said it. And Randall provides a very different skill set than Jordan Mason does. I think he could get work early in the season if he were to end up in Minnesota.

[A]

Now Adam Randall, and again, when we talk about this rookie guide, I did the running backs, Jeff Bell, who's a regular on this show, everybody knows him, he did the wide receivers and then Mike Khashuba did all of the running backs. And then we kind of split up the tight ends a little bit but or I'm sorry, he did all the quarterbacks and then we split the tight ends. But when I was doing this running back exercise and I'm going through scouting 40 plus running backs for this rookie guide, Adam Randle was one that really jumped out to me. And a very interesting story. He was a quarterback in high school, was recruited as a wide receiver, did almost nothing for his first few years at Clemson and then there was a game in his junior season where every running back was hurt at the end of the year and they just put him in there as kind of an emergency Running back and he excelled and he looked great. So following that year they transitioned him to running back. So this a guy with a wide receiver skill set, 6 foot 3, 230 plus pounds, can run routes and catch the ball. And now he's just starting to learn how to play running back. So when you watch him, there's not a lot of nuance in his game. Like he doesn't have the vision or the patience or things like that. He is just a battering ram. But then he's also got the skill set to catch passes. So to me, when I was watching him, one of the easiest player comps out there, I said, this is Cordell Patterson 2.0. And then our Mike Kshubo, when he was at the Senior bowl in Mobile, he asked Adam Randall, he said, is there a certain NFL player you style your game after? And he said, Cordell Patterson is the type of player that I want to be. So you know, talking about landing spots here, I don't think he's just a plug and play running back. That can be a three down back from the jump. But if you put him on a team like Houston, even with David Montgomery, David Montgomery can be that early down guy. Adam Randall with the pass catching set can come in on third down. Similarly, he can do that in Seattle, coming in on third down. So I think he might be a little bit reliant on some kind of gimmicky usage early in his career, but just such a fun player with a unique skill set. And Joey is our Mike Cash likes to say you can't teach big and strong. And Adam Randall is very big and very strong. And now we know he's also very fast.

[B]

We were saying the other day like, I'm like, man, I missed the days of just big strong running backs. The only thing I really want to see him improve with his game is he runs really upright. And I mean if you watch the combine, you saw that a lot. If he just tilts, it forks a little bit. I think it'll work. I mean I'm not a scout, but that's what I would like to see from him going forward. Just tilt it for a little bit, buddy.

[A]

Mike Washington's another very upright runner. Le'Veon Moss, who didn't test this weekend, another upright runner. There's a lot of those in this class, but you know, that's where you can get some extra speed. It doesn't help the contact balance, but that's why we've got a lot of burners in this class now. If you're watching the show on YouTube, please do us a favor and give us a thumbs up. It's the best way to help the show grow. If you're not subscribed already, please do that. We took some time off here on the YouTube channel, but we will be back three times a week. It's going to be a little bit of Joey Wright, a little bit of Jeff Bell, a little bit of Sigmund Bloom, Matt Waldman, Bob Harris. We're going to be rotating the entire Football Guy staff here on this channel, so please subscribe to see everything that we've got coming this season. We're going to be focused on rookie and Dynasty content through the NFL draft. Then we'll be turning the page to best ball, redraft everything else. So subscribe like all of that good YouTubey stuff. Joey let's jump into the next player. This was one of the most fun players for me to watch. Had very little expectations for Navy's Eli Heidenreich, but he came out and he looked absolutely fantastic this weekend. A 9.2 relative athletic score before Sunday's bench press. Still, he didn't shy away from a drill. He wasn't. He knew he wasn't going to do well in still went out and bench press and ended up dropping his relative athletic score to 8.5. Still 85th percentile overall. This was a guy that really fun, unique usage at Navy, but I had massive question marks about his athleticism. I think he answered those questions this weekend.

[B]

Yeah, 100%. I mean he seems like a great fit for like a creative offense. Like I, I don't think if he goes and he lands on the Ravens, it's going to work out. He needs to be with somebody like Sean McVeigh. You know, in San Francisco. I think they've already got like four guys like him so it wouldn't work there. They have a hole for him, but if he landed with the Rams, I think they could do some really creative stuff with them. I'm excited to see what he does. It was super fun to watch.

[A]

He is and again a very unique player and we see these kind of tweeners all the time that like don't really have a position that you see in the NFL and like the, the behind the scenes stuff. Well, Jeff, Mike and I are trying to work on this rookie guide. We are constantly passing players back and forth saying like, you know, I'm doing running backs but I don't know if this guy's a running back and Heidenreich was one of those guys where I sent him to Jeff Bell and I said, I'm pretty sure this guy is a wide receiver. And then Jeff sent him back to me and said, no, he's a running back. So I did the scouting report, but I actually comped him to Chris Hogan, a slot receiver. And if you watch. Yeah, and just such a unique player, like if you watch what he does at Navy, the offense ran through him. He left as the all time yardage leader for Navy, but just, you know, they, they'd run like a jet sweep on one play and then he'd line up as a tailback and they'd hand it to him in the middle and then he'd kick out out wide, he'd catch a ball 45 yards downfield. I mean, he was just all over the place. They called him the snipe, which is a position I had never even heard of before. Like where he was just, they, they, they literally tailored an offense to his skill set. So another player that might be reliant on some gimmicky usage. But Joey, like, how do we not get enamored about a guy like this? Like, especially in fantasy football where we know targets are worth a lot, where we know positional versatility can help players excel, I see a guy like Heidenreich that you could potentially be playing as your running back that could also play part time slot receiver. Like this guy could be getting six to eight targets per game while still getting double digit touches per game. Like, I don't know what the upside is for here, but it's hard not to get excited about him.

[B]

Yeah, if he gets the usage like the, the sky's the limit. We've seen guys like him. You mentioned Chris Hogan on offense. I mean, you, you hate to say the Patriots, it's like low, low hanging fruit. But we've seen guys like this like Julian Edelman and Wes Walker work so well with the Patriots. And so, you know, if he ends up on the right offense, he's gonna be really exciting.

[A]

And you know, sometimes you do have to take the low hanging fruit in that football guys, rookie guy that I mentioned, footballguys.com rookieguide we do ideal team fits. And my top ideal team fit was the Patriots. Sometimes it just makes a little bit too much sense. Also, fun fact, Steve Belichick, Bill Belichick's father, coached at Navy for over 40 years. So we've got that connection as well. Yeah, I think that would make a little bit too much sense. Another big winner at the running back position from the combine, we've got Seth McGowan and had the best broad jump, the best vertical leap, also had a decent 40 time. The big concern here is his age. He's already 25 years old. You know, I'll let you the, the listener look into it if you want. But had to leave school for some legal purposes. Missed a year of school, got some extra eligibility. But Joey, when you're looking at a player like this, how much does age concern you? Because I think, you know, there's two different conversations here between Dynasty and Redraft. But I know the, the age is going to scare a lot of people off. How much do you factor that in?

[B]

So the age concerns me only because he has a lack of work in the passing game. And you would have hoped that his age, he would have kind of accumulated that at this point, his career, but he doesn't. So that concerns me a little bit. Also the efficiency dropped each year that he was in college. I'm a little worried about that. But I will say he did look good in the combine and he had to follow love every time. So he was kind of running in the shadows of him after every single drill. He had to run after him in the 40 and he still looked really good. So I, I'm very optimistic for him, but mainly just a first and second down back. Like he really doesn't have any work in the passing game. So I think how backs, you know, it's, it's tough to see him pulling a role like that.

[A]

And my comp for him felt like another. Like sometimes comps you really have to think for and stretch for and sometimes they're just so easy. To me, this is Damien Harris 2.0. Like he is just going to clobber you on early downs. He's a violent runner, doesn't have the breakaway speed, doesn't have the pass catching chops. But when we talk about age, there's a few reasons that age gets talked about. One, in Dynasty, you know, we, we want to theoretically hold on to these guys forever. So if you're drafting a running back that's 25 years old, let's say he gets, you know, a four year deal because he goes within the, the top three six. This guy, by the time he hits his second contract, he's gonna be 30 years old like that. That's pretty much the end of the career for most NFL running backs. The other fear is that these guys who are a little bit older in college, you know, when you're 25 years old, beating up on 19 and 20 year old boys, it's a little bit easier. So that is the other concern here a little bit still. I'm gonna kind of let the NFL be my guiding light here deciding where they want to draft him. Like if he goes round two or three, I'm not going to ignore that. But if he falls late into round seven, not going to ignore that either. So Seth McGowan, definitely a tough guy to get a read on, but we'll get some answers here at the NFL draft. All right, Joey, I think we covered all the running backs here. Were there any other standout running backs, good or bad, that, that we want to discuss or can we move on to the wide receivers?

[B]

No, I mean, I. Robert Henry Jr. Kind of, yeah, made my eyes open a little bit. Just looked super athletic out there and really fun. It'd be cool to see him land somewhere nice, but I think we hit the major risers on that one.

[A]

I think the. My favorite fun fact about Robert Henry, we know he's a big play guy. In each of his first four games this season, he logged at least one run of 74 plus yards. I mean, just unbelievable when he gets the ball in his hand and yeah, looked athletic out there next to his peers. Let's talk about some wide receivers though, and we're not going to talk a lot about a lot of the big names. I refuse to participate in the Carnell Tate 40 discourse. I think he did just fine there. And yeah, I mean the whole like, oh, agents actually said he ran faster than the laser timing I'm not going to get and all that. But let's talk about like the, the good here, Jacobe Lane. This guy one looked incredibly fluid when you watched him in the field. I think he ran the nicest gauntlet of any wide receiver out there. That's one of the few things that I pay close attention to with the wide receivers. Also a 9.69 relative athletic score. The size was there, the speed was there, the fluidity is there. So Joey, he checked the boxes for athleticism, passed the eye test. How early could you see him potentially getting drafted in April?

[B]

So we have him as our wide receiver 15 in the rookie guide. And so when I'm looking at wide receiver 15, I'm looking like end of round three, beginning of round four maybe. And when I look around that range, I see Baltimore eighth overall and he could be that red zone, that red zone threat that they need. I like that as a fit for him a lot. So I think 80th overall. It's like the middle of the third round. It'd be a little bit of a reach and if you see a team reaching a little bit on a player, just up the optimism there. So I like him at 80th overall to Baltimore.

[A]

That would be excited. That would be a lot of fun. And I think that he can kind of, you know, it makes sense. He can do a lot of the things that Rashad Bateman can do. And Rashad Bateman has not been a, a beacon of health throughout his career. So Jacoby Lane potentially just giving them insurance if things don't work out with Bateman. I like that call out a lot. And you talk about it, you know, he is wide receiver 15 overall in our consensus rankings. I am the high guy on Jacoby Lane. I've got him at wide receiver 12. I have liked him from the jump. I think Makai Lemon gets a lot of the buzz from usc, but Jacoby Lane was the big, physical ex receiver that played opposite Makai Lemon, who did a lot of the yards after the catch stuff. I think that he has a skill set that can be very, very good in the NFL. So Jacoby Lane, a big riser coming out of the combine and a guy that I was happy to see do well. Next guy, we got to talk about Brendan Thompson, right? Like if you go out and you run a 4, 2, 6, we can't not talk about him. But I think what I want to talk about more than just Brennan Thompson specifically Joey, is just the 40 yard dash. Does it matter for wide receivers?

[B]

It doesn't matter for me. It matters for hype. I, I think I'm going to give you a list of some wide receivers here. Xavier Worthy, John Ross, Henry Ruggs, Marquis Goodwin and Tyquan Thornton. They might have been waiver wire pickups that you worked well with. Xavier Worthy is probably the most successful out of all of them. I probably shouldn't have included Henry Ruggs on this list. He was just there on the list. But these are the guy that ran the fastest 40s at the combine of the wide receivers. And it just doesn't matter a lot for me. Now at the running back position, you see the top 40 time of running backs, Chris Johnson. So I would say he had a pretty good career in the NFL. I don't think that's a secret, but for me, the time, it doesn't guarantee success. It's nice, it's a nice little thing to say, but I feel like these are the guys that I pick up off the Waiver wireless and then end up dropping a week later. I'd rather go down the board a little bit, find a guy with some more athleticism, maybe a little bit of height, a better vertical. That could do better for me.

[A]

And you know, there are different positions that I think the combine matters more and less for. And wide receivers. Like I said, like you and I were talking before the combine even started about what we're going to be watching. And I said, you know, we have to pay attention to the testing. But for me, like the gauntlet, and it's very much so an eye test, but like, can you stay on that line? Are you able to catch the ball away from your body? Are you putting up a nice target for the ball to hit your hands? Like, that's what I really care about. 40 time. It can also be impacted so much by like, what did you have for breakfast? Did you get a good night's sleep? Are you feeling 100% like, you know, just a little thing like that, like you eat something wrong for breakfast, that shaves 0.1 off your 40 and now all of a sudden you're falling down draft boards. I think it's silly. So, yes, we like speed. You can't teach speed. But at the same time, looking at the list of the other best receivers at the 40 yard dash, not the most prominent list, promising list. And then similarly, you can look at guys that had bad 40 yard dashes. Cooper Cup, DeAndre Hopkins, like, there are a lot of guys that didn't perform well in testing and still went on to have very good NFL careers. So yeah, I think there's so much more important things to look at here. So Brendan Thompson, you know, I'm sure that speed is going to push him up and do day two. Somebody's going to want to take a risk on that speed. But we don't want to just blindly look at 40 times as something to get excited about. Another guy I want to talk about here, Joey Bryce Lance out of North Dakota State. And if you're thinking, hey, I, I know a Lance that went to North Dakota State. Yes, this is Trey, Lance's little brother. And they measure almost identically to each other. They even look similar. And he had himself a very strong weekend. 9.95 relative athletic score. Now, when I talk about these relative athletic scores, that's got a scale of 1 to 10 in dating back to every prospect from 1987. So when I say a 9.95 relative athletic score, that means that Bryce Lance is testing inside the 99.5 percentile of every receiver since 1987. Just an unbelievable showing this weekend. So Joey, maybe a little tongue in cheek here but if Bryce gets drafted inside of day three, Trey Lance, just a couple years older, should he maybe think about switching positions here?

[B]

So I really like this, I like you brought it up. This is the portion of the show, you know, there's that thing that guys can just sit in room and just say guys names and just have a great time. This is the portion of the show where I just started listing names of people. I'm going to do it one more time today. But you think Terrell Pryor, Julian Edelman, Hines Ward, Antoine Randle L and Jacoby Myers all converted quarterbacks to wide receiver. Terrell Pryor is probably the most famous example because he did it actually in the NFL.

[A]

The rest of these guys for a thousand yards.

[B]

Yeah, exactly. Other guys, they did it, you know, coming out of college into the NFL. But yeah, I mean there's definitely a spot for Trey Lance. He's got the athleticism. I would like to see him at least try.

[A]

So yeah, and I don't want to say that his like career is completely over at this point, but he's been on a few teams now, hasn't really had much of an opportunity. When he does step in here and there, kind of looks like the same player that he looked like when he was at North Dakota State. So you know, I'm just saying if his brother is out here looking like him with similar athleticism to him and he gets drafted, might not be the worst idea to make that switch. But let's talk about one more wide receiver winner here, Deion Burks. And this guy, if you look just at his testing alone, 99th percentile in everything, his vertical, his broad jump, his 40 yard dash. But he is very, very, very tiny. So Joey, my question for you regarding Deion Burks college career was completely marred by injuries. But we've got to imagine that some teams are going to want to be allured by this athletic profile. So what would you need to see in the NFL Draft to get excited about his potential outlook in 2026?

[B]

So I am looking up kind of like what team probably needs a slot wide receiver because that's kind of where I see him playing. It's where he played the majority in college. And I look at a team like Dallas who just put the franchise tag on George Pickens. They're set on CD Lamb for the next two seasons if Dallas trades up from 112 because they don't have a third round pick. So if they were to trade up into the third round and grab Deon Burks, I would get very, very excited for him. You see a team, you know, they're making the move to go get the guy they want, maybe overdrafting them a little bit. That's what I would need to see to get really excited for Dion Burks.

[A]

I like that call out quite a bit because I'm not sure if you saw the news that quickly followed up the news about the Cowboys franchise tagging George Pickens. But within about 24 hours of that story coming out, we get the story that George Pickens will not play without a long term contract. So as much as they would like to keep him there on the franchise tag, they might be looking for a wide receiver two this season not every

[B]

sale happens at the register before AT&T

[A]

business Wireless, checking out customers on our mobile POS systems took too long. Basically a staring contest where everyone loses.

[B]

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[A]

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[A]

all right, Joey, let's jump into some of the quarterbacks that we want to talk about here. I'm sure anybody who watched the Combine knows the first player that we're going to talk about. We cannot possibly talk about quarterback winners without talking about what Taylor Green did. One of the most athletic showings we have ever seen from a quarterback in NFL Combine history. Just a blazing 40, shows up almost 6 foot 6, the best vertical jump of the group. I mean he just did everything that we want to see here. Mike Kashuba, the comp that he came up with four tailing Green and our rookie guide was Anthony Richardson. And sure enough, Taylor Green just went out there and was on par with Anthony Richardson for all of his athletic measurables. So my question for you Joey, do you think the start of Taylor Green's career will be better or worse than Anthony Richardson's?

[B]

As a Florida Gator fan, let me just say it can't get much worse. You know, I was hoping Richardson was gonna have a better career. It looks like he's gonna be moving on from the Colts, but I think what Green's gonna be afforded that Richardson wasn't is he's not going to need to start it all right away. He a team is going to see his athleticism and they're Going to draft him and kind of develop him a little bit. I, I kind of have a question for you, though. That. And it was the first thing that kind of popped up the announcers are talking about on tv. He declined to do any wide receiver work and they were wanting him to. Do you like that or do you like the confidence is like, no, I'm a quarterback. Because we've seen a guy say I'm a quarterback before in Tim Tebow and he wasn't in the league very long. Yeah.

[A]

And it's funny, you know, we were just kind of joking, tongue in cheek about Trey Lance. And I think that's a different story because Trey Lance has been in the NFL for a few years and hasn't really had that opportunity and hasn't developed. I do kind of like Taylor green just like 10 toes down. Just like, nope, I'm a quarterback and I'm going to throw the ball. I believe he said, I'm not going to quote him exactly. He said he said something about throwing the ball and how that's what he likes to do. I'll let you look up the quote yourself if you're listening. But I do like that he just said that he's going to be a quarterback. Like, I think that if he went out there and started practicing as a wide receiver, then teams would just immediately throw out any idea of him playing quarterback the next level. And the reality is like, he does have a big strong arm. He struggles with some accuracy issues, but if he ends up in a situation where he can be developed properly, ends up in a system where they can set him up with easy reads to make those throws. There's no guarantee. I mean, how often do we see these toolsy quarterbacks coming in that never really figure out. But I still, like, that's what he wants to be drafted as. Just for fun, I went to ras.football.com ras ras relative athletic score. That's what we've been talking about a lot on this show. And what you can do is you can change the positions on players. So just for, you know what, in kicks, I said, let me see what Taylor Green would rank at with his athletic testing and his size as a wide receiver. There were two guys that ranked better than him. One of them, Joey, was Calvin Johnson, you probably know the name. The other one was Matt Jones, a guy who went to the combine as a quarterback and then was drafted in round one as a wide receiver. So, you know, if that is any showing of what to expect going forward. Taylor Green, if he did choose to play wide receiver, he would immediately become one of the most athletic wide receivers in NFL history. So to answer your question, I. I like that he stuck with the testing, but could be fun if he wants to make a change. All right, next guy we want to talk about here, Drew Aller. And this is a guy. Many thought that he could be the QB one in this class, but shoulder injury last year ended his season early. Also, Penn State never really took that step forward that they had hoped for while he was there, but looked really good in throwing. So Joe Joey, he was expected to be one of the top quarterbacks, but that injury calmed excitement a little bit. What's the highest you think he could get drafted? And you look at this like, we know Fernando Mendoza is number one. Everybody has just kind of accepted that Ty Simpson is going to be QB2. But is there maybe a little bit more of a discussion about who the QB2 can be in this class?

[B]

I think if you look at Ty Simpson and you kind of split his season down the middle, I think if you watch the beginning when he wasn't dealing with injuries as much, you can see the talent. You can see why he was standing out so much. So for me, he is the QB2 in this class. Once you get past Simpson, like, if there's not a team looking for an athletic quarterback, I think it's going to come between him and Cole Payton. You'd have to have a team that doesn't like Nussmeier for them to go QB3. I think QB4 would be. It wouldn't surprise me as much, but I think that might be the height of where he could go in this draft.

[A]

Yeah, and I think that you're onto something there. And it's. It's so tough. And we talked about this. We did a quarterback show on the Dynasty, a quarterback episode on the Dynasty show with Mike Kishuba last week, if you want to check that out. And we talked about it, all of the potential options for QB2 are just such different players. You've got Ty Simpson, which is kind of your prototypical in the pocket, little bit of mobility here and there, can extend plays. Like, that's the guy that you would think is probably going to be the QB2. But then you got Cole Payton, that is also in the discussion, who is just like a gigantic athlete, big arm, toolsy, a guy you can build around. Then you've got Taylor Green, who's even a bigger, more athletic version with more inaccuracy issues. And I think what. What Mike Khashuba said about Cole Payton. It's not so much inaccuracies, it is just like it takes him a while to process where Taylor Green can process. He just doesn't throw the ball accurately. But then you've also got Drew Aller who, you know has a lot of the things that we want to see in a franchise quarterback. So it really is kind of a pick your flavor type of draft. We know Mendoza is the clear cut QB1 going first overall, but QB2, we don't know who it's going to be. We don't know if it's going to be a first round pick or a round two pick. There's still so many question marks around here. So we'll talk about it kind of at the end of the show here. What we'll be paying attention to between now in the NFL draft when it comes to moving these guys around in our rankings. But yeah, I think right now it's still a wide open race for that QB2 spot. Got a couple more winners we want to talk about. And as we said, tight ends very strongly impacted by the combine. We know that there's a strong correlation between relative athletic score and draft capital. Joey, I'll I got a quick trivia question for you and I know you know the answer because we talked about this over the weekend. There's only been one guy who has finished with a 90 or 9.5 relative athletic score or above that has fallen to day three in the last decade. Do you know who that is?

[B]

That would be San Francisco 49ers tight end George Pickens.

[A]

George Kittle, Yes.

[B]

And why'd I say George Pick? Because we were just talking about Pickens

[A]

because I made it too easy. You knew the answer.

[B]

I knew it. I just. And I got all confident. I looked in the camera, I gave a little smirk. Oh God.

[A]

George Kittle. Yes. It's like the only time that the NFL has made this mistake in recent years and they're not doing it again. Like if you want to be an elite tight end, you need to be big, you need to be fast, you need to be strong. So that's why we put so much weight in the testing here. And similarly, a lot of guys that we get excited about that don't test well are going to fall down draft boards after the NFL combine. But Kenny and Sadiq comes out and immediately looks everything that we thought that he would be, sets the NFL record with a 43.5 inch vertical. Also comes out and just smokes the 40 yard dash with a 439 with a big size as well. So the production wasn't great when he was in college and there are some questions about his skill set. But I'm kind of at the point that I just say I don't care. When you've got an athlete that's this big, this fast, this explosive, just draft him in round one and see where it works out. So, Joey, what do you think would be like the highest he can go in round one and then his potential floor in round one?

[B]

So I asked you this question and I actually, I was like, hey, I could see him going seventh overall to the Commanders because they were talking about Kansas City. I'm like, well, Kansas City's got to trade up. And what did you say to me?

[A]

I said four at Tennessee is crazy. But like, but also, if you look like you look at the guys that Tennessee has drafted early over the years, AJ Brown, Trailin Burks, Justin Hunter, Durile Green, Beckham, like, they love these freaky, athletic pass catchers. And Kenyon Siddiq fits that mold.

[B]

Absolutely. Yeah. I don't think he gets past Kansas City at 9. And I. The more I thought about this and I was crazy on Sunday, I woke up and they were making Kenyan Sadiq run through the combine all his drills over again at like 8 o' clock in the morning. I couldn't believe it was a repeat. But no, like, I don't think he's going to make it past Kansas City. In fact, I think a team, if they would need to get past Washington, is going to need to trade up at this point. I think we might see Kansas City make a leap. I know there's this big question mark with Travis Kelsey going on right now. Is he going to return this year? Is he not? I think Sadiq is that talented enough. Even if Kelsey is there this year, you have to smash the draft button on him.

[A]

I think you're right that he probably goes in the top half of round one, but I have. You know, we see crazy things happen all the time and there's a lot of smoke about him falling to 27, which I think would be like near impossible. But 27, San Francisco. I mean, Sadiq can do a lot of the things Kittle can do. He can do a lot of the things that Jusjet can do. They can kind of use him in this hybrid move all over role like that is what I want to see him in is either one of these Shanahanian or a Quebecian. I don't know. What do you call a Kubiak offense, but where they have these guys that can kind of play this fullback, tight end sort of hybrid role that also asks them to catch the ball occasionally. I don't want to see him playing Patrick Ricard where he is like just a pure fullback, but that kind of move fullback that also plays tight end and also runs routes. I think Sadiq could really flourish in a role like that. So I think 27 at San Francisco is probably a little bit too far. I think they're pretty set with tight ends and pass catchers in the Chargers at 22, but you know, like Green Bay perhaps like if, well, they traded that pick to Dallas so that wouldn't work out. I do think you're right that he goes like top 10, top 15, but if he can fall into some of those, you know, even Chicago or Buffalo a little bit later, there's some really fun landing spots late in the first round that I don't think he'll make it to but would be fun to dream about Now. I'm just getting word in right here. Joey, I just talked about Kenny and Sadiq having the best vertical jump in NFL history among all tight ends. Well, it turns out that Eli Stowers just a couple of minutes later goes out and not just breaks that record, breaks it by two full inches. So Joey, there's been much ado made about the depth and how top heavy this tight end class is and we got answers to both of those questions this weekend. There are just a lot of physical freaks in this prospect class and the tight ends led by Kenyon Sadiq. But now there is potential rumblings that Eli Sowers could be up there as the tight end one in this class. What are your thoughts there?

[B]

Yeah, Sadiq looked fantastic. Stowers looked amazing as well, but Sadiq just looked so incredible. I think the best.

[A]

Let me reshape this question for you because I think the major question about Stowers is people saying like, well, he's not that good of a blocker. Right? I'm sure you've seen that narrative. Do you think it matters all that much?

[B]

I do think blocking matters for tight ends because it keeps you on the field. But we've seen teams like Atlanta with Kyle Pitts just lean into, okay, he's a tight end but he's really a pass catcher. So I don't think it's going to kill his draft value if he goes somewhere and they're like, we don't need you to block. We're basically just going to make you a wide Receiver. So,

[A]

so I, this is, this is a debate that there is no right or wrong answer to. I am of the belief that you need to be a good blocker because I think what makes these tight ends, the reason they play tight end and they don't play wide receiver is because beating a cornerback, a primary cornerback in coverage is hard. Like that's what they do. That's all they do, is they cover wide receivers. So a lot of times these tight ends, they have the size and the physicality, but they don't have the nuance and the route precision to garner separation against cornerbacks. So what I like so much about these tight ends they can block is that they can dictate what they're going to do based on what the defense shows them. So if you can block and if you can catch passes, you come out and all of a sudden the defense puts a linebacker on you. Well, now you can get to the line, see that you're covered with a linebacker, and just change it. And now you're not blocking anymore. Now you're going to run a route and, and that, that, that, that tight end that can run her out is going to beat a n backer, a linebacker, 99 times out of 100. Now, in the same vein, you line up and they put a nickel corner on you. Now you can change the call line of scrimmage, run the ball, and that linebacker is just going to block that nickel corner all the way out to the sideline and just make it easy for the running back. So I don't think it's imperative to be a blocker because we have seen Isaiah, likely, Mike Kasicki. There are some of these guys that, like you said, just kind of play as a wide receiver, just kind of like a big power slot. But I think if you want to be one of those tight ends that just breaks football, they can create and seek mismatches on the field. You do need to be able to block a little bit. All that's being said to say I don't think Stowers is quite as bad of a blocker as people will make him out to be. But anything else you'd want to mention about Stowers and just the, the weekend that he had here? Joey?

[B]

No, I mean, I think it was just overshadowed by Sadiq. I mean, Sadiq looks so fantastic and it is almost like the broadcast was one to say, oh yeah, and then Stowers settle these records. But look at Sadiq. I think Stowers is going to end up somewhere and he's going to do fantastic. It just, there's a definite draft when you're doing like rookie drafts this year. I mean, Sadiq is for me, he's like a top four pick at this point. Like, I think he's that much of a difference maker. I wouldn't be surprised to see Stowers go in the second round somewhere.

[A]

And I updated my, you know, positional and super flex and big board rankings, all that stuff over the weekend. I have Stowers just two spots behind Sadiq right now and I think that he does get kind of cast in that shadow a little bit. But I've got sours going actually ahead of Mike Washington Jr. I've got Mike Washington Jr. At 108 and I've got Stowers at 107 because I expect him to fall somewhere. I talked about all of those really nice landing spots at the end of round one. If Stowers ends up in one of those good landing spots, which I think is very, very likely, then we're looking at somebody who could be an immediate contributor on a good offense. So Stowers, big time mover for me. Now we're going to continue talking about relative athletic score and these size speed freaks because that's what matters at tight end. And I, I should know how to say this by now because I've talked about him on like a dozen shows. I don't know if it's John Michael Gillenborg or John Michael Gillenborg, but either way had himself a huge, huge weekend. This guy is 6 foot 6, 250 pounds, logged a 9.92 relative athletic score. And our Mike Kashubo, when he was down in Mobile at the Senior bowl, talked about how this guy is just impossible to ignore him on the field, that he is just bigger than everybody else out there and then he comes out with the size and the agility that we want to see as well. So Joey, how much do you weigh athleticism when ranking these tight end prospects?

[B]

Well, I mean when you're looking at the day two and day three tight ends, you know, and athleticism, it seems like a good indicator. So look at that RAS score you mentioned, George Kittle already. The profile is really similar to him. And then you've got Dallas Goddard, Noah Fant, Mike Kasecki, all guys since 2017 that actually had lower RAS scores than he did. I think it matters a lot when you're looking at moving into round two or round three. I think he did a ton for his draft stock and even in a rookie guide it says it right there. Like, he is going to be one of the biggest risers come the combine because of how athletic he is. So I think it's going to factor in. Really good for him. He ends up at a good landing spot. He could be somebody, I'm not saying like a Colson Loveland, but somebody that we weren't talking about a month ago, but we're talking about heading into the draft.

[A]

Absolutely. And I think that NFL teams really value this sort of athleticism as well. Like, again, say it all the time, but like, you can't teach size and speed. And he has both of these things. Also a polished pass catcher. And something that Mike talked about a lot is that he's still very new to playing tight end. He didn't even play tight end in high school. He started playing football as a college athlete. And like, he has still just been playing organized football for a few years. He was a basketball player, so he's got this like very natural, fluid athleticism. Still new to playing football as well. So a player that is really, really easy to get excited about here. I think you're right. I think day two all but locked in at this point. You just don't see players with that sort of athleticism fall to day three anymore. So a big time riser and a guy that. I moved all the way up to tight end six in my rankings.

[B]

I do love a good basketball player. That was a. They used a tight end that used to be a basketball player. Like we said, I do the stuff. Yeah, yeah. For the March Madness stuff. Like, yeah, just give me all those former basketball players. I'm still waiting on Elijah Higgins. I still. I just think Miami missed the boat. They should have just kept him. I think he would have just been great.

[A]

You know, I do think. Remind me, I think he's with Arizona next year. I believe he's under contract.

[B]

Yeah, he's with Arizona. Yeah.

[A]

Yeah. And you know, we're seeing teams start to run more of these two tight end sets now. So, you know, we know Trey McBride is going to be drawing the majority of the coverage over there if they start running some more two tight end sets in Arizona. I don't think Elijah Higgins story is done completely yet. So I'll. When he finally has that big breakout game, Joey, you'll. You'll be getting blown up on Twitter by everybody we know. We know you're the Elijah Higgins guy. All right, so we're going to talk about some fallers here. But before we talk about the fallers, I feel Like, I need to put like an asterisk here. I was writing an article this morning and every single year I do combine risers and fallers and I feel like it's like not fair to talk about fallers this year. Like the, the. It has just changed so much. Like, we know that agents are telling players, do this drill, don't do this drill. Only do things that are going to improve your draft stock. Don't do anything that's going to hurt your draft stock. So the first guy we're going to talk about here, Joey, I have listed as a faller, Emmett Johnson, because you just have to like, if we have to talk about rises and fallers, Emmett Johnson is a faller. He had the worst relative athletic score of the group, ran one of the worst 40 times, only bench pressed 16, which was the fewest amount of reps of all the running backs. But I kind of like it and here's why. He was the only running back that participated in every single drill. He was the only running back that did the three cone drill when he already had a bad relative athletic score. After Saturday's testing, he went out and still did the bench press on Sunday, which negatively impacted his relative athletic score even more. So to me, there's a part of me that's like, I don't care that he tested bad because he's got that dog in him. Like, he's not afraid to compete like everybody else is. He's out there the only guy running a three cone drill. And even that, when you put it all together, everybody says, oh, worst relative athletic score of the entire class. He still ranks inside the 58th percentile all time. This guy is still, over the course of every running back coming to the league since 1987, still an above average athlete and he didn't duck away from any of the competition. So I understand that there's this narrative about EMT Johnson not being that athletic right now, but Joey, we've seen a lot of guys with similar athletic profiles that have found success in the NFL. Who are some of those guys that we want to talk about today?

[B]

So, like Ahmad Bradshaw, Kyron Williams, Devin Singletary, Devonta Smith, and for me, Dave, these guys all have one thing in common. And when we were watching the combine, I actually sent you a thing. I was like, I like the way Johnson ran and I was like, because he just seems like he's running angry. I still think the stopwatch is broken. I still, it just, it seems like he was going faster. But I think these are guys that Break tackles. And I went and looked. He forced 68 missed tackles in college in his last year in Nebraska and defenders missed him on 27% of his carries. If you're going to run a slow 40, this is what I want to see. I want to see you just bowl over people. And that seems to be the kind of running back he is. I was seeing the relative athletic score from him. It's discouraging. But when I looked up the broken tackles, I got a little more optimistic for him.

[A]

Yeah, and, and I think that's the type of player he is. Like he has good contact balance. He's also a very vision based runner. Like he is patient and he handled a massive workload at Nebraska last year, led the FBS in receptions for running backs. So we know he can run routes as well. And I'm glad he brought up Ahmad Bradshaw. That was my comp in the player guy or in the, in the rookie guide. And we come up with these comps before the testing. But I remember like watching him and there was a lot of talk about Emmett Johnson being this really fast speed player. I heard comps to Jameer Gibbs and I get it, like there were a lot of breakaway runs, but he also had a lot of just blocked wide open where he was able to just run to the end zone untouched. But I didn't see speed that translated. Ahmad Bradshaw, his relative athletic score was 2.85, even worse than Emmett Johnson's. So there's other guys too, like Bucky Irving. Like you watch Bucky Irving on the football field and you know that he is just an athletic, dynamic player. Also had a terrible relative athletic score. So Emmett Johnson a little bit undersized, but there's still some good to take away from here. And I think the, the biggest good in my opinion is that he didn't shy away from things that he knew could negatively impact. Impact him. He still went out there and did every single drill. So well, technically he falls into the faller bucket, you know, emit Emmett Johnson, for what it's worth, he won my respect this week. And I'll.

[B]

I'll just say that put in the work.

[A]

Exactly. Another faller, Malachi Fields, had the slowest 40 of any wide receiver who ran. But I do want to ask, were there any bright spots, was there anything positive that you could take away from Malachi Fields this weekend?

[B]

I think if I had a DeLorean, I could find something positive and that's to go back and watch the Senior bowl because he really did stand out there. So I'm just hoping he had a bad day. Like, that's where I'm at with fields. Like, please just tell me he had a bad day. Like, you never know what these guys. Like, you said. You don't know what they ate the day before that morning. Could just had a bad country omelette somewhere, and it just impacted them the wrong way. So that's. I'm. I'm just hoping that he gets to his pro day and we see the Malachi fields that we saw at the Senior bowl, that was lighting people up, that got people so excited for him.

[A]

And he's one of those guys that. Matt Waldman talks about this all the time, wins with, like, suddenness and patience. Like, it was weird. And. And I've heard Knox about the production. Well, he played at Notre Dame. Like, Notre Dame, they just didn't throw the football, so he's not going to have a lot of production there. And then even when he was running routes, over 30% of his routes were on go routes, which he would, like, never throw go routes. So he was just kind of used to, like, stretch the field. Like, hey, you go run that way and hopefully one defender runs away from you. So that's one fewer guy that Jeremiah Love has to worry about. That was basically his usage at Notre Dame. So we saw him, like you said in Mobile, just dominating the Senior Bowl. So this is another one of those that, like, I think people are going to overreact to the testing, but the tape tells us that he's a good player. He can separate, he can make contested catches, he can do the things we want. So, yeah, probably not a lot of good to take away from this weekend. But I think if there's any huge reaction to his poor testing, that's just telling me that people didn't watch how he played at Notre Dame and what he did at the Senior bowl because I think he's a good football player. Now, Chris Hilton Jr. I think this is a little bit different of a discussion, you know, marked as one of the Feldman freaks didn't really have a lot of college production. I think his hopes of getting drafted were that he would have himself a very, very impressive combine, and that just didn't happen at all. He had one of the worst combines of any of the receivers there for. So for a guy who didn't have a lot of production in college, a guy who was hoping to get into the NFL just based on his athleticism alone, how much does this poor performance, you think, impact his draft stock? Joey?

[B]

Yeah, I mean, we talk of fallers, and this is really a faller for me. When your strongest suit is athleticism and you just don't have a good combine, there's not much more for teams to look at. I'm sure he's now moved to a day three pick for sure. And if a team picks him up, you know, you just have to hope it's a good landing spot. I. I'm really pessimistic about him going forth.

[A]

Yeah, that's kind of how I feel like a guy like Chris Hilton Jr. Like, his only saving grace would have been his athleticism. And if you went out there and just, you know, smoked the 40 track and look good in all the drills, then I think some teams would get excited. But I do worry that this just pushes him completely off of draft consideration for a lot of teams. Last guy we want to talk about, I don't even know if this is fair to call him a. A faller. It seems disrespectful. But. Makai Lemon, I. I just want to open up this discussion a little bit. He had this viral interview going around where he's looking like KA from the Jungle Book, you know, being. Being a little bit weird with his demeanors. And it wasn't just that, though. We also got word after that that he bombed his interviews and that teams have just completely removed him off their draft board because of how he acted during these team. Team interviews. Now, of course, it's all unnamed sources coming from accounts on Twitter, so we don't know how much weight we could actually put into these reports. But does this weekend impact your feelings about him whatsoever?

[B]

I mean, I'm. I feel like these rumors for. People don't like Guns and Roses because it was more Axl Rose than kah. I did like the KA shout out, but I just saw him move in. I'm just like, okay. No, I mean, if the rumors stick, maybe I move Tyson or Tate past him. But for now, he's still. He's still the top wide receiver in this class. For me, I'm not worrying too much about the interview.

[A]

Yeah, and Jordan Tyson is still my wide receiver. 1. Even if he lifted his butt up when he was doing bench press reps, I mean, it was still pretty impressive to be able to do that. And he looked darn good.

[B]

Lift your butt when you're doing the bench presses.

[A]

Also, another guy who looked good in the gauntlet, you know, passed that eye test, and that's always something that I want to see. All right, Joey, we talked about some risers we talked about some followers. Let's have a little closing question here though, to wrap up the show. And first of all, if you're watching this show, thanks for tuning back in. You know, we took some time off, but we are back now. Like I said, three days a week we'll be doing this show. Joey will be joining me every Monday in season. We'll be doing multiple shows a week with Joey Wright as well. So again, if you haven't yet, please give us a thumbs up if you made it this far into the video. Please subscribe. And if you're listening on Apple Podcasts, let us know what you think about these new episodes coming out as well. But Joey, last question I have for you. Cecil Lammy likes to dub the next month and a half here the Season of Lies. Everybody is just smoke and mirrors whenever they can to impact draft stock. So between now and the NFL draft, what will you be paying attention to regarding these prospects and what types of things could potentially help you move players up and down?

[B]

So I'm going to look at some of our followers that we have and some of the ones we didn't list. And if anybody didn't have a great pro, great combine, man, I made it this far without calling the combine the pro day. I'm going to look to their pro days and I'm going to kind of hone in on that. Emma Johnson's a great example. Like, I'm going to be glued to his pro day to see what I see. You know, it's a little more favorable at people's pro days to see, you know, the talent. But if I see a bad pro day in combination with a bad combine, then I'm going to start worrying. But I, you know, I've said team rumors are worth their weight in feathers. There's just really not a lot to them. There's so many flying around the 72 hours for the draft, it seems insane. I'm not going to pay too much attention to it. It's fun. I like rumors. I like gossip. It's fun. But I'm not going to buy too much into that. But the pro days, I'm going to be watching those pretty closely if they had a bad combine.

[A]

You know what I did this year, Joey? Because every single year I end up making like stupid, irrational decisions in the couple of weeks leading up to the NFL draft because people just start these weird rumors where it's like this guy who was a consensus day three pick and now all of a sudden teams are viewing him as a top 10 prospect or this quarterback that nobody was thinking about and they're saying now he should be going inside the first round. I'm taking a vacation. First week of April, I'm going to Hawaii. I'm not bringing my phone with me. I don't care what news is being reported that time. I will check for injury updates. If somebody injures themselves to the pro day, that's pretty much the only thing I am doing to move it. I feel like we see this every single year where agents and PR teams and colleges and everybody starts swirling these rumors and this so hard to just take anything at face value this time of year. So we put in the work over here at football guys. You can find all that [e-mail] rookieguide we'll be continuing to watch more games, updating these rankings, but trying our best to decipher what's real from what's fake. So be sure to stick around as we do that over the next couple of months here before the NFL draft. I want to thank you all so much for tuning in. Joey, before we tune out or before we turn this one off, let everyone know where they can find you on social media, things you're working on at football guys, where they can find the home league show, all that good stuff.

[B]

Yeah, so everything I do is at football guys. I love this company. No. Yeah. So I've got, you know, the home league show mentioned with Kevin Murray. We're doing our draft dynasty series coming up. So we're going to teach you all about how to create the perfect dynasty league or how to take your already existing dynasty leagues make it even better. Those pop out usually every Monday on the home league channel. But yeah, everything I'm doing is at football guys. We got a March Madness video probably coming up from me. Probably going to go out and record that this week. So if you enjoyed those in the past, we're doing another one of those. But yeah, lots of fun stuff coming up this offseason. But looking forward to being here with you on Mondays. That's going to be fun.

[A]

I'm looking forward to it as well. And this week we've got Jeff Bell coming back on Wednesday to talk a little bit more about the NFL combine. On Friday, I'm going to be joined with Bob Harris where we're going to be doing an NFL free agency preview. We'll be back next week. Joey's going to be here on Monday, Jeff will be here on Wednesday, and Bob will be here again next Friday to do a free agency free agency recap. So every Monday and Wednesday and Friday in the offseason we'll be doing bringing you five shows a week in season. Want to thank you all so much for tuning in and we will see you soon. Marketing is hard, but I'll tell you a little secret. It doesn't have to be. Let me point something out. You're listening to a podcast right now and it's great. You love the host. You seek it out and download it. You listen to it while driving, working out, cooking, even going to the bathroom. Podcasts are a pretty close companion. And this is a podcast ad. Did I get your attention? You can reach great listeners like yourself with podcast advertising from Libsyn Ads. Choose from hundreds of top podcasts offering host endorsements or run a pre produced ad like this one across thousands of shows. To reach your target audience in their favorite podcasts with Libsyn Ads, go to libsynads. Com. That's L I B S Y N Ads. Com. Today.