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Danny Hyffens
This episode is brought to you by Brooks Running connects us to a rush of energy that flows through our world. The cheers of friends that unlock a new gear within us, the intersection of interests that inspires a run crew, the support that gets you over the finish line. Connection is why we move forward and what inspires us to keep going. Let's run there. Learn more@brooksrunning.com. Foreign. Welcome to the Ringer NFL Draft Show AKA the Ringer Fantasy Football Show. My name is Danny Hyffens. Today I'm joined by Danny Kelly and Craig Korbeck and we are going over the riskiest players in the NFL Draft for 2026. DKR draft expert here at the Ringer, we going to go through the players that could be really great or also suck. Like dk. You go through every single draft every single year and you're like, wow, I remember that everyone told me that guy would be great and then he sucks.
Danny Kelly
Yeah, it happens a lot actually. And you could make the argument that everybody is high risk, high reward because no one knows. We we, no one knows what we're talking about. You know, some guys just end up being a lot better than the pros. Some guys suck. You just never really know. But we try. We try every year.
Danny Hyffens
It would be a long show if we just did. Every single player could be good or bad. So we're going to go with the players who have the highest risk of being really good or really bad. But first I wanted some news. Jackson Smith and Jigba for dk. Seattle Seahawks signed a contract extension that it's they say it's 40 million a year. It's really $30 million a year. But Jackson Smith and Jigba a lot of money, four year extension. So he's under contract with the Seahawks DK for basically six more years, $30 million more a year. And there's a lot to this, the Seahawks offseason. I want to talk about the Ohio State Room he came from, but I'm curious, I want to start with Craig. If you were just going to start a Madden franchise like and how many wide receivers would you take ahead of Jackson, Smith and Jigba?
Craig Korbeck
I think there's just a top tier and he is, I think it's him. Jamar Chase, Puka Nakua, probably that's it. Maybe CD Lamb is in there, but I think it's Puka, Jamar Chase and JSN are in that tier and they're interchangeable to me.
Danny Hyffens
What about Justin Jefferson? He's in there too, right?
Craig Korbeck
Yeah, Justin Jefferson I would include as well.
Danny Hyffens
Yeah, dk. How as reductive and simplistic as it is to just be like, well, this guy's the fourth best receiver in football. Is Jackson Smith in JP the fourth best receiver in football? Where does he actually rank?
Danny Kelly
I think that's. I think that's about right. Yeah, I think that's about right. I would probably still put Jamar Chase number one overall and that's probably not going to change for me for a long time unless he tears his knee or something crazy. He's just so explosive and so powerful. But Jackson, Smithy, Jigba proved, I think what a lot of people didn't think he could do, which is be a number one receiver, play on both the outside and in the slot because he was a slot receiver. He was known as a slot receiver coming out of the draft. That was basically what he did for the most part at Ohio State. He did play some outside and it was pretty successful. But for the most part he was a slot guy. And so I think he's shocked a lot of people in terms of what he can be in the NFL. And he's been just an absolute clutch go to guy for the Seahawks every time they need a big play. It felt like he came up with one.
Craig Korbeck
I think the thing that jsn, I feel like he's already underrated. I think he doesn't have a physical, standout character. Jamar Chase is basically like Saquon as a wide receiver. Puka Nuku is a psychopath. Justin Jefferson has kind of a more identifiable body type, playmaking style. JSN is kind of just like rock solid and yet I had him in fantasy this year. The most consistent elite player in the league last year was JSN. I mean he was on pace to have 2000 yards for most of the season. He was a unbelievable, unbelievably consistent and maybe half of that you have to give to the system. Clint Kubiak, who's who's gone now but I don't know, I already think he might be underrated.
Danny Hyffens
That's an amazing take. I think you're right though because it's the extension of what we kept saying about a Monroe St. Brown where not even just real life but even for fantasy where all of a Monroe St. Brown's production should matter more. We are so anchored to what we think of these guys immediately that it takes forever to adjust. Jamar Chase was supposed to be amazing. He was amazing immediately. Justin Jefferson was a first round pick but then it was like he was good almost from the job like week two or week three. I forget when he took off he
Danny Kelly
was like setting records for most yards in the first X amount of games or whatever. You know he. He was incredibly productive right away.
Danny Hyffens
And the fact that JSN was just used as a like line of script. So funny. He was used as a Gadget Player Year 1 with the Shane Are we live Waldron which that clip is aging like fine wine.
Danny Kelly
Nothing has aged better you could argue.
Craig Korbeck
I love Shane Are we live Waldron.
Danny Kelly
He's like, he's a good person and
Craig Korbeck
remember he's in Miami now. Is that right? Where is he? No, he's in Jacksonville.
Danny Hyffens
He's in Jacksonville, Florida.
Danny Kelly
The big takeaway for me is JSN made more like jaw dropping plays this year than I think I could have ever imagined him doing in terms of just like shaking guys in coverage. The and there was actually a play from the 2024 season. I don't know if you guys remember this but it was like the IQ1000 player where JSN saw that Geno Smith was scrambling so he just ran like a vertical route and was like looking back and holding his hands up like he' going to catch a vertical pass or whatever, like a downfield pass. And then his. The guy that was defending him was just playing him really close. And then that allowed Gino Smith to run to like gain a bunch of yards as a scrambler. So he is just like a smart, tough. This is the Seahawks thing. Smart, tough, reliable is sort of like what they've always had under John Schneider. He's just, he embodies all those things. So I'm super stoked to see him get paid. By the way his contract is pretty team friendly for the Seahawks. He's obviously getting a ton of money and, and he's moving all his cash payments closer like to basically this year and going forward, but they haven't for six more years. And the cap hits don't really start kicking in until 2028 in terms of like really affecting the cap. Like, the cap numbers according to over the cap in 2026 is 10.3 million. In 2027, it's only 15.6 million. So he's a deal for the next two years for the Seahawks.
Danny Hyffens
You want to reward people who are the model for how you want to play. And so I think the Seahawks, the guys for Seattle, it's JSN on offense and it's Devin Witherspoon on defense. Like, if you ask the Seahawks how should you be a Seahawk, then it's Devin Witherspoon. And I think he's going to get a contract too. Yeah. I think it's also a slice of humble pie. I'm also, I'm at it myself because I wrote down after that Rose bowl where Ohio State played Utah and he
Danny Kelly
had like 400 yards.
Danny Hyffens
Yeah, JSN. And I wrote down in my notes. I created a note for the following year, like the draft, after the draft. I didn't have any notes quite yet on that draft. And I just was like, Jackson, Smith and Jigba may be the greatest receiver I've ever played, I've ever seen. Don't let people talk you out of this.
Danny Kelly
Yeah, yeah.
Danny Hyffens
And then like over the. He gets a hamstring strain. It's really play. And then they're like, well, he's big. What's his trait? His trade is that he's fucking incredible at football.
Craig Korbeck
Yeah.
Danny Hyffens
And it's not quantifiable with statistics or with athletic profile. And people get lost by the, well, what, what's the speed? What's the agility? And I'm like, I don't know, man. It's like he just is incredible at football at every single skill.
Danny Kelly
His body control to me is, is the big takeaway in terms of when you're trying to, to apply lessons of previous years going forward. The big lesson for JSN is like speed is overrated. And this is something that we've kind of known implicitly, but it always is. It's overrated. In fact, if you look at fantasy production, it's actually negatively correlates to, to overall speed. So speed is not the end all be all for receivers. That's something to keep in mind with Carnell Tate who ran like a 45 and people like oh he's not super explosive. But it body control how to how they leverage their bodies, you know, relative to the defensive player in terms of like positioning and just a natural feel for catching the football. A natural feel for route running. JSM is incredible different.
Craig Korbeck
Like it's stupid. Watch the game, you'll be able to tell like is this person struggling to get open because of lack of puka? Nuku is fine. Like it's. Yeah, it's fine.
Danny Hyffens
It's not just speed though, it's also the ability to change direction.
Craig Korbeck
Yes.
Danny Hyffens
To be throttle down. It's like acceleration. The NBA combine probably doesn't have a. Maybe they do where just like how fast can you dribble a basketball up a court? It's like that's not really how basketball works. It's like how quickly can you get around someone? And there's a thousand ways to do it, but it's ultimately comes back to the same handful of skills. It's like how good is your ball control? How able are you to deceive people with.
Craig Korbeck
If only, if only we had dozens and dozens of games we could watch to see if these guys could do that and not just three tests in Indianapolis.
Danny Hyffens
I can't wait to then go to the risky guys and talk about how fast they all are because man, these guys are fast. I want to just also because again Jackson Smith the jig. But I do think he's a good representation of just sometimes we mark a guy as high floor, not high ceiling. And I think Jackson Smith the jig was one of my favorite examples of all time of that of like everyone thought he'd be an NFL player. Few people thought he'd be this. Unless you had just not watched football after his. You didn't watch his final season of college. You'd be like yeah, he'll be this. I want to just note. The packers took Lucas Van Ness 13th overall, a pass rusher didn't start in college, who now doesn't really start in the NFL. Craig, your Steelers took Broderick Jones 14th a tackle that you hate.
Danny Kelly
The Jets I got him as a note later by the way.
Danny Hyffens
Yeah, the Jets.
Craig Korbeck
Oh good.
Danny Hyffens
The jets took Will McDonald, an undersized pass rusher that they've since traded to the Titans to go back to Robert Sala. And then Washington, the worst of all took Emmanuel Forbes, the 160 pound cornerback over not only JSN but they also took him over Christian Gonzalez, which is Incredible. But the fact that these four players in a row went over Jackson, Smith and Jigba, it made sense. Like now it looks insane, but it also would have been insane when the college football season ended. Only when the college football season ended does. Does like Roderick Jones and Lucas Van ness and Will McDonald go over JSN.
Danny Kelly
Will McDonald is not the one that they traded to the Titans, by the way. But that's irrelevant because your point stands.
Danny Hyffens
Oh yeah, sorry.
Danny Kelly
Jermaine Johnson was one. But still, I remember very vividly I was at the Ringer headquarters doing all the draft coverage. You know, night one of the draft, everything's so excited and JSN just kept inching closer and closer to the Seahawks spot. I remember Kaifitz, you were there. I was like looking around, I'm like, there's no way this is going to happen. Right? Like they are going to be able to get jsn. I was so stoked. And I mean this is, I think this is a good example of, you know, hindsight. This is not a hindsight thing. Like I was super excited to get him. I agree that I didn't think he had maybe elite superstar potential. He was just going to be a really good NFL player. But yeah, I mean it's like I do feel just teams overthink things constantly. Constantly. And that's, it's one of the biggest takeaways every year from the draft is that like they just overthought it. And that is going to be a good segue into kind of what we're talking about today.
Danny Hyffens
I think that's what a great, what a, what a great segue and overthinking there. I don't even know how to get into this, but there's been a lot of conversations about Ty Simpson, the quarterback from Alabama this week. I don't know, do we. I don't even know if we want to just fan the flames here. But if you basically. So what's the Dan Orlovsky. ESPN was saying that Ty Simpson's the number one quarterback and I don't think that's the case. I will try to be open minded about all these opinions, but I think that I'm trying to be polite here. I'm trying to.
Danny Kelly
You're being real careful here.
Craig Korbeck
It's fine. Orlovsky basically said that Ty Simpson has, has made and is asked to throw more NFL type throws in college than Mendoza who's just like ripping RPOs. And that's what Orlovsky was trying to make, trying to claim, look, it's March 24th. We've officially reached phase two of the off season where, yeah, yeah, we make up. We're playing flag football and we're coming up with takes like, like Ty Simpson is better than Mendoza and that is where we are. And you know what? Look what's going on right now. We have a week's worth of content. Orlowski's on McAfee and everyone's all in a tizzy because this is what, this is why the draft should be like February 29th or 28th. That's not even a real day.
Danny Hyffens
If you moved it up all the fourth year.
Craig Korbeck
Yeah, March 1st should be the draft and everything will be fine.
Danny Hyffens
All the coaches and scouts would revolt and they would do better in the draft Hundred. It was literally just that.
Craig Korbeck
Do better should be two weeks after the combine. A week after the combine.
Danny Hyffens
Fine.
Danny Kelly
By the way, just the whole ESPN sort of content making machine has been great because Orlovsky said this. Mike Tannenbaum retweeted Orlovsky saying that and said he's heard this from several teams as well. Orlovsky went on to double down and said he texted 12 to 15gms and decision makers this week with the comment, Tyson is the best quarterback in this draft class. And he said only two of them disagreed with him. The funny response for McAfee was like, okay, how many actually responded to you? You know, but like, still, basically, this is a. This. He's driving this narrative hard. And then I saw that they were talking about it on with Mel Kuiper and asked him kind of his opinion. He was like, I haven't heard anybody
Danny Hyffens
say that two things are true.
Danny Kelly
It's just really funny that, like, I don't know, this is just such a funny, manufactured thing. I can't believe this is actually happening, but it is. So we'll enjoy it.
Danny Hyffens
Multiple things are true. We can sit here and be honest and be like, look, nobody really knows about any stuff. It's hard to predict the future. I also know that if Orlovsky the first pick, he wouldn't fucking take Ty Simpson. Well, he would take.
Craig Korbeck
He's so he hedged. So at the end of that clip with Greenie, he was like, I think Ty Simpson in the middle of the first round is a better pick than Mendoza at first.
Danny Hyffens
Okay, so that's.
Danny Kelly
Why didn't you just say that the first time, pal?
Danny Hyffens
Because it's on first takes. But yeah, this is the real take I want to talk about. This is a question I have and this is not because Of Dan. I wanted to talk over this episode because it all blew up this week. But I've been wondering this for like six weeks because I resolved at the end of the college football season to not like Ty Simpson because I hated how he played down the stretch. My caveat, my asterisk and the stupid thing I'll look back on years from now when Ty Simpson sucks is do we just throw out the second half of Ty Simpson's season this year at Alabama because it seems like he was hurt, he hurt his back. It is like night and day. The splits from before, his completion percentage dropped from like 70 to 60. Half the touchdowns, twice the interceptions. After he hurt his back, he had gastritis, which you don't know why, but it seems like frankly that's what happens when you take a lot of pain pills. Pain pills are actually steroids. They're for anti inflammation and that can fuck with the lining of your stomach. So he couldn't digest anything. So it seems like Ty Simpson lost like 12 pounds during, in like a few weeks during the season which when you're an athlete you lose like 14 pounds during the season. Like that's a lot of weight. That's not like a normal person. Like they, they like that's a lot of weight for a quarterback to lose in the middle of the year. In a handful of days he was
Danny Kelly
already undersized by the 612 10.
Danny Hyffens
He dropped to 61190 in the middle of the year. So I wonder. Yes, I know. Yeah, it really is. So we're going to go through the richest players in the draft. But I want to start with Ty Simpson because DK the thing I keep wondering what the jets have the second pick. We all think they're going to take Arvo Reese or defender at number two. And why shouldn't the jets just take Ty simpson with the second first round pick they have at number 16 overall?
Danny Kelly
I personally don't think so. I do think you could make the argument. I think that's a much better process to take them with the 16th pick than try and reach and go up, you know, early in the draft to get him that kind of thing. To me, like the, the Ty Simpson argument or whatever to me is more you almost want to just take away everything you don't like. You almost want to just not watch him. I know that's kind of like an antithesis to what we do here. You just don't watch him and just look like. Truthfully, I'm being serious. Like the, the case against Simpson is not anything you see on tape. It's against his track record and resume as a starting quarterback, which is. And. And his size and his. Basically his analytical profile. So first of all, he's undersized. He's already got that working against him. He's like 6 foot 1.
Danny Hyffens
Yeah.
Danny Kelly
2. What was he, 210 at the combine
Danny Hyffens
or something like that? Bulked up to get to 210.
Danny Kelly
6, 1, 2, 10.
Danny Hyffens
Yeah.
Danny Kelly
And by the way, when he started playing crappy, it was when he got hurt and he. And that's like the big worry that you have with undersized quarterbacks is they're going to get hurt more often. It's a big man's game. You're getting hit really fucking hard on that stomach lining. Yeah. And so his play dropped off a cliff. So number one, he's small, got hurt, his play fell off a cliff. Number two, he's old. He's older than he's. He's 23 years old. That's. That can be a good thing if it means that you've had a lot of experience. It can be a good thing if it means you have a lot of experience under your belt. However, the problem is he's old, Bonex. He's old with one year of starting experience. He has 15 total college starts.
Craig Korbeck
15 starts.
Danny Kelly
And this is where the small sample size thing really hurts. Because, look, you can talk about how well he played early in the year, but it's a very small sample. And then he started playing poorly in the back at the end of the year. Very small sample. What do you get from that? I don't know. It's a small sample. It could be anything. It could be a boat. So that if you look at the history of quarterbacks, and these are some stats I've seen from Dane Brugler and other people around the web, basically, quarterbacks with 15 or fewer call. He had 15 starts in college, 15 or fewer starts in college in the last 10 years. In the first round. Mitch Trubisky, Dwayne Haskins, Anthony Richardson, even if you expand it to 10 more games, 25 or fewer stars. So basically an extra season. Almost 25 or fewer starts in college, first round. Since 2015, the one guy that has turned out really good in the NFL, like, undoubtedly good, is Josh Allen. Guess what? He's a freaking alien physically.
Craig Korbeck
Exception. That proves the rule.
Danny Kelly
He's the most athletic, like, strong arm. He is the prototype you want at quarterback.
Craig Korbeck
Also was like, almost a disaster, like, for two years.
Danny Kelly
Right. And so here, let Me, Let me go through these other ones. Heavens. Real quick.
Danny Hyffens
Oh, my God.
Danny Kelly
So 25 starts Josh Allen and CJ Stroud. We know what's happening with CJ Stroud. Like, I think the, the book is still kind of out on him 24 or less because I want to include those two guys. So I didn't feel like I was cherry picking. 24 or less. Here's the, here's the guy.
Craig Korbeck
24 or less starts, right?
Danny Kelly
Sam Darnold, Tua, Carson Wentz, Justin Fields, Kyler Murray, who might be an exception, but he's moving on to a new team. Trey Lance, Mac Jones, Dwayne Haskins, Mitchell Trubisky. Again, the only guy who's really worked is Josh Allen. And I think you, like, you look at the other ones. Kyler Murray again, physically outstanding.
Danny Hyffens
He's.
Danny Kelly
He's small but very, very fast with a very good arm. And then the rest of those guys, I mean, do you want any of those guys in the first round? Sam Darnold has been on five teams.
Craig Korbeck
Well, also, all of these guys are physically more impressive than Ty. They at least have something you can like, latch on.
Danny Kelly
I would say the only guys that, that Simpson I would be more impressed by in terms of just physical tools, probably more than Tua and arguably more than Mac Jones.
Danny Hyffens
I would quibble. Your list is concerning and it's a good counter.
Danny Kelly
That's to me, like, that's like, before you get into the argument of like, what Tysonson is, I, I, that's what I want you to consider. You're betting on a massive outlier, so that's fair.
Danny Hyffens
I would also say, despite all that, a lot of those guys you picked are, were in the top five off the top of the head. I mean, Trubisky was third. Trey Lance was picked. Really, you traded up a crazy amount for third. Anthony Richardson was top five. Josh Allen was like, all these guys still Darnold, all these guys went really high. So I'd say keep that in mind. Number two, Ty Simpson does have some physical stuff. He's a smaller guy. He's fast. Ty Simpson's fast, or at least fast enough. Like, I would say he's kind of like Trubisky in that way where he has wheels, has an arm. Took forever to start. Trubisky didn't start at UNC for forever. And then it's. I. The funny thing with Ty Simpson, to your point, it took Ty Simpson like four years to play at Alabama. And if, like, he couldn't start until last year and I don't know if Ty Simpson wouldn't start maybe if he went back, which is a little concerning.
Danny Kelly
Right.
Danny Hyffens
I would counter quibble with in college. In college. Well, they have prospects, they have good. I mean he would beat out the guys probably right now. He, he, Ty Simpson does stuff at the line. My issue was down the stretch was he was really hurt. But the mental mistakes were crazy. Like I thought Ty Simpson like looks so frazzled and everything. And the thing is, if I'm overrating how hard he was, like I would, I wouldn't take him in the first or second round. Like Ty Simpson was so bad in the games that mattered in the cultural playoff. Like he was mentally fried and he's supposed to be like a strength of his. If he's doing more stuff at the offensive line than other, other quarterbacks, maybe because he was in the same system for so long, which I think that's the other piece teams love is like he's the only guy left that didn't transfer for playing time and the loyalty meant something. I don't know. I, I have very mixed feelings on him. My question is just if you're the jets, what's your fucking alternative? And like that's the thing is wait, wait a year.
Danny Kelly
Don't burn a fucking first rounder on a guy that you don't think is going to work out. You're already the jets history is working against you like tenfold. Then don't bet on an outlier. How about that?
Danny Hyffens
I think the jets passed the Jackson Dart less.
Danny Kelly
Here's the only thing, the only reason I, the only I think instance I can see Ty Simpson turning out to be an above average starting quarterback in the NFL as landing spot. You can talk me into it. If he lands with the, with the Rams, that's great for him and he can sit for a couple years or a year or two behind Stafford and develop. And I could see that working out really well for him. If he goes to the jets, no shot, right? Like, there's no chance he would develop into anybody though. I, if it goes to the Cardinals, good luck.
Craig Korbeck
You know, I'm of the mind that you should just keep taking shots at quarterback. And like Andrew Barry basically said that at the combine he's like, yeah, I don't have a single problem taking a quarterback every year, which brings. I think there are really like four teams that could realistically take Ty Simpson in the first round with the potential of him actually starting in the next year or two and being their franchise guy. I think the Rams at 13, the jets at 16, the Steelers at 21 and Cleveland at 24. I think those are the four teams that.
Danny Kelly
I think those are all realistic. Yeah.
Danny Hyffens
And. And all those are all teams that if he. Yeah. If he goes to. He would fail on Cleveland or the Jets.
Craig Korbeck
Part of me is like, I don't know. Thank God we are always so wrong with our quarterback analysis in the NFL draft that I'm like, maybe I do want the Steelers to take him at 21.
Danny Hyffens
That's kind of what I'm thinking. I'm like, it's close enough that you take a guy and you're like, oh, it's probably going to be bad. Well, you know what? The play the other player you take might be bad too. Quarterback. It's just so much more important than everything else. And this is the thing we forget during the draft that during the season it's like how many players you would trade on your team for a serviceable quarterback.
Craig Korbeck
Well, yeah, I mean, part of me is like, you take the Steelers. If Rodgers comes back and Ty Simpson sits for a year behind Aaron Rodgers, he has Mike McCarthy who, you know, is a good quarterbacks coach and has made it work with good quarterbacks. I'm like, this is not. I would not be upset at the process. Even if Ty Simpson ends up being a fucking disaster. I'm like, the idea and the process of that is not bad.
Danny Hyffens
So I just got ESPN alert. Craig Horlbeck says, already started complimenting Mike McCarthy loves the hire. It's a hot take season.
Craig Korbeck
Look, the process of taking Roger Jones by Omar Khan made sense. I'm not going to be upset at taking shots at tackles. Not going to be upset at taking shots at quarterback.
Danny Kelly
I fully acknowledge, Craig, that we're usually wrong on this.
Craig Korbeck
We're always wrong. So why not just take this guy? But.
Danny Kelly
No, but to me, it's like the history. You're betting on an outlier. I think you're more likely to be outlier.
Danny Hyffens
Which part concerns you more? It's not him being small. It's that he needed four years to think play and he couldn't beat out.
Danny Kelly
It's small. And then also he only has 15 starts, which is a really, really, really simple.
Craig Korbeck
To be honest with you, looking at this, I mean, Josh of. Of the guys with 25 or less starts, Josh Allen, CJ Stroud, Sam Darnold, Kyler Murray. I'd take all those right now. Mac Jones, I'd take all five of them on the Steelers right now.
Danny Kelly
Well, you had a chance. You can Go get Mac Jones. You know, probably for less than their first round pick.
Craig Korbeck
I would welcome Mac Jones.
Danny Hyffens
That's a fair question. Just give the Niners a second.
Danny Kelly
I'd rather have Mac Jones. At least he has some experience in the NFL.
Danny Hyffens
Okay, so let's go through the rest of the risky players here. Craig, you want to take us through?
Craig Korbeck
Yeah, because I want to go. The next guy here is a guy near and dear to my heart who is my favorite wide receiver prospect in this year's draft is Jordan Tyson out of Arizona State. Dk. The funny thing with Ty Simpson is with. When a player is risky, the idea is that there should be a high reward. There should be a great reward.
Danny Kelly
See, that's kind of what I was trying to get at.
Craig Korbeck
Yeah. I think it's like the risk is the floor, but the reward with Ty Simpson is like he's serviceable. With Jordan Tyson, I think it's a little different where the risk you can get into a little bit, but at least the upside, the reward is there for Jordan Tyson, right?
Danny Kelly
Yes. To me, the reward. Tyson, and I said this before, he has, I think, the highest ceiling of the receivers in this class, but I also think he is maybe the lowest floor guy in terms of just. There's a lot of ways that it might not work out.
Craig Korbeck
Are there? Or is it mainly just health to you? Like, if he had never gotten hurt, is there really a terrible floor?
Danny Kelly
I think to me it's more than just the health thing. The health is the big thing. That's the biggest variable. He's been hurt every season the last four years. He's got Jordan Tyson.
Danny Hyffens
Yeah.
Danny Kelly
And he's coming into this draft process hurt again. His hamstring is hurt, so he can't work out. So there's just like string.
Craig Korbeck
String. I want to.
Danny Kelly
I'm just saying this is. We're talking about risky players. I view this guy as a risk because of injury situation. However, it's more than just injuries. And the reason I have him, I think, as my wide receiver, four in this class, is I just kind of. And I. I think that this is a very true thing. People just have types when it comes to receivers. They like certain types of guys over different, like pro profiles. And I just saw too many instances where Tyson was kind of like pushed off his route, pushed off the catch point, overpowered, boxed out by corners, kind of like just didn't win at the catch point in terms of using play strength to. To overpower smaller corners. And I know that this is like a strong Word and has connotations and I'm not trying to do that, but like there were times where I felt like he played soft and I didn't. I don't like that. It's just like kind of an ick for me. He might turn out to be an amazing player. I think his upside case is like Garrett Wilson. I've seen Amari Cooper thrown out there. I'll even throw out like a really, really high upside case, like a Devonte Adams type player. That's where the quickness, the route running, the size, all that stuff comes into play. Um, but to me, I just saw him get pushed off too many routes and it just kind of annoyed me and that's why I pushed him down ever so slightly again. He's still in first round for me.
Craig Korbeck
He's.
Danny Kelly
I still would be excited to see him on my team, but if we're ranking these guys, that's just where I put him. Um, he also has really short arms for being six foot two. He does 30 and a quarter inch arms, which is 11th percentile for receivers. And his wingspan is really small.
Danny Hyffens
Well, it's about the catch radius because to decay, it's the combination of all those things. He gets open very shortly. That's quick. But it's a combination of. He doesn't have the elite speed down the field. But with DK saying short arms. But it's the. We also got. I can't we call him soft. I'm proud of you, dk, but like the weak the week, you know, it's all right.
Craig Korbeck
Heinz Ward coached this guy in college. How dare you call him son.
Danny Kelly
I think I would have seated a little more on the field then.
Danny Hyffens
I guess these signs were maybe.
Craig Korbeck
You know, I was reading a little bit about my guy, Jordan Tyson. There are a lot of scouts who say he is quite tough. The game against Texas Tech, they said he hurt both hamstrings, stayed in the game and, and closed the game out.
Danny Kelly
I know I will say I did. I, I was watching that game and he was like writhing on the ground. I was like, oh my God, did this guy. And then he came back in a few plays later.
Danny Hyffens
It was like when the scatter Boo was like throwing the garbage can between the, the quarter breaks and then he just like ran 70 yards.
Craig Korbeck
Also the reports are that he like cares about football. Like he like is taking the time to learn about the game and wants to improve and all that stuff.
Danny Hyffens
And just.
Danny Kelly
I want to be clear that it's not like I dislike.
Craig Korbeck
You hate him.
Danny Kelly
You Hate him.
Danny Hyffens
You think he's a soft.
Craig Korbeck
You think he's soft?
Danny Kelly
You have to take side.
Craig Korbeck
He's a basketball player like his brother and he shouldn't be on the field.
Danny Kelly
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Danny Hyffens
I. I do want to just lay a little groundwork for Jordan Tyson. So he's young, he's 21 years old, still 22 over the off season. He's. Athleticism's insane. As Craig just said, his brother's on the Cleveland Cavaliers. So like there's crazy athleticism. To DK's point, we don't. We can't measure the athleticism because Jordan Tyson did not do combine or pro day workouts because he was hurt and he's hurt again. So just to recap the. The injury stuff because it sounds vague. Torres ACL, MCL and PCL at the end of 2022 at Colorado. So he transferred, missed all 2023 at Arizona State and then broke his collarbone in 2024. And then he pulled his hamstring in 2025, which is like whatever in the hamstring. Then he seems to have maybe tweaked his hamstring again because he's not doing the prote work or he's not. He didn't run like that kind of stuff, the prote. But then did the bench press and almost broke the receiver record for bench press short arms with one.
Craig Korbeck
Which.
Danny Hyffens
Well, that's. That's kind of why I think Reuben Bay didn't do the bench press.
Craig Korbeck
He's not a T. Rex.
Danny Hyffens
I think guys 11th percentile do the bench because they don't want to be known for in the lines. And so the. But I will say I was kind of like, why is he. Why did he work so hard at that bench press? I'm like, well, he could pull the same string. He can't do legs.
Craig Korbeck
It's the only muscle that's healthy right now.
Danny Hyffens
So I will say that's a lot. It's a lot of injuries. Like that's a full knee Reconstruction basically in 2022.
Danny Kelly
Then the collarbone thing is a freak counter.
Craig Korbeck
Yeah. One the collarbone. I could care less. That's a freak injury. Any that could happen to anybody hamstrings, okay. I still would not be concerned about that. And then the knee, the like quadruple knee injury. Acl, mcl, pcl. My counter to that was like he was fucking. We've already seen him look fucking awesome after the injury.
Danny Hyffens
No question.
Craig Korbeck
What's the big deal there?
Danny Hyffens
So I think that let's say for a moment that Jordan Tyson stays healthy because it's not fun to be like, well he could get hurt. I think the question is dk, I told you he's going to be healthy for, for, for a decade. Jordan Tyson probably is the most upside of any of the receivers like his ceiling of how good he becomes. You mentioned devonte Adams. Like I've seen Stefan Diggs, like there's a lot of like he could be really great and he's not necessarily yards after the catch creator but he just gets open man.
Danny Kelly
I think it's his body, his body control, his footwork, like very quick feet, very twitchy for his size which I, which I absolutely love. And again, I would make this super stratosphere comp and Devonte Adams for him if I didn't actually like him. But these are the, these are the worries that we're talking about.
Danny Hyffens
But devonte Adams, like Josh Allen sucked for two years and fans hated him. Devonte Adams couldn't catch for two years and like not couldn't catch, but devonte Adams. Everyone thought Devonte Adams was like not going to make it in the NFL. Yes, for a year. Really like a year and a half into his career, people thought devonte Adams was a huge miss by Green Bay. I think Jordan Tyson, it's not exactly the same with the hands, but I think that for a player as acrobatic and athletic, frankly like he for someone who has so many highlight real catches, I don't think his hand like DK are Jordan Tyson's hands. His ability to receive the football, would you call it a strength?
Danny Kelly
Yeah, I think his hands are good because he's like one of those guys that has some incredible highlight reel catches. But I think the consistency needs to improve pretty dramatically in the NFL.
Danny Hyffens
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Craig Korbeck
Okay, well then let's. I want to go on to the next guy because this guy's also very fascinating. Kenyon Sadiq, the tight end out of Oregon. Dk I would like for my, for my basic troglodyte brain. Give me some worst case best trog Maxing. Yeah, I'm tr. I'm trog. Max me here a little bit. Give me Kenyon Sadiq. Worst case, best case.
Danny Kelly
Yeah. So what do you want first? Best case or worst case? What do you like worst? How do you like to do it? Okay, so worst case for me, the Sadiq thing, a worst case scenario is a Eric Ebron slash Noah Fant type player where everyone gets super enamored with the physical talent which is very clear. I mean he's truthfully one of the most athletic tight ends we've ever seen in terms of his combine testing. Ran a 4:3, jumped out of the gym like one of the highest jumps. He would have made more history if Stowers hadn't kind of mogged him or whatever on in the jumping ability. But yeah, Eric Ebron type guy where Erod didn't really do anything until his second contract. He was a huge disappointment. I think teams didn't really know how to use him. Well, no offense, I could. I think it's kind of in the same boat where yeah let's just guys
Craig Korbeck
flash offensively every once in a while and that's kind of it.
Danny Kelly
You start to kind of get enamored with the types of explosive plays they can create but then you forget about everything else.
Craig Korbeck
It's the guy Duncan and warm ups.
Danny Kelly
Right.
Craig Korbeck
Wow, he can windmill. Yeah.
Danny Kelly
But then so I think there is a fear for me with, with Sadiq where we're overrating the athletic traits and then I think underrating or not paying enough attention to like how he's going to be, how he's going to be deployed on the field if a coach is going to trust him to be a true tight end or is he going to be like a tight end two type guy kind of like Isaiah likely has been relegated to tight end two duties for for most of his career. Even though there flashes are incredible, I'm worried that'll be kind of what happens with Sadiq. And so this is more of just like a fantasy question is, is he ever going to be a big time producer? Because the, the you know in his college career he was never a big time producer. In fact his best season was last year. It was 560 yards and 8 touchdowns. His yards per out run very middling. 1.62 yards per out run. When you compare that to some of the other top tier tight ends that have come into the league over the last couple years, it's very low. So you know, and that's really only one year of production. So his production profile is. Leaves you wanting and basically what you're hoping is the athletic. Athleticism will translate to the next level, which it could. It honestly absolutely could. But I think there is a. You're going to have to pay a lot to find out if it will. You know what I mean? You might be better off just signing him to a second contract.
Craig Korbeck
Hyphens. You're smiling.
Danny Hyffens
I agree with a lot of things. DK said I would take him even further. I mean I, I think he's. I think the Vernon Davis upside thing is probably the right comparison. It's like his upside and I. That's.
Danny Kelly
Oh yeah, that was my best case is like a Vernon Davis. I originally comped him to Sam Laporta because they're about the same size. I think you can utilize him as a blocker, but he's not like an elite blocker. Yes.
Danny Hyffens
So I. Well, I agree with what you're saying. I just think it's nothing against Kenyan Sadiq because I think Kenya Siddiq again coming out of Oregon, he's clearly the best tight end in his class. Although I think we might look back a year from now and say that actually this Jamar Johnson who's like the other Titan, Oregon probably coming out next year, probably better than Kenyan Sadiq.
Danny Kelly
Yeah.
Danny Hyffens
But I think Kenya Sidi is definitely the best tight end in this class. The reason I think he deserves to be on this riskiest players thing is do you know how many athletic tight ends with kind of meager production have come and gone and like we just memory hole and like Sadiq did catch stuff at Oregon. Like I think he led the Oregon in catches last year. I think he had the second most yards. He led Oregon in receiving touchdowns. Like he didn't do nothing but he had like half of the catches that Tyler Warren did last year. You know what I mean? Or I guess two seasons ago. I mean it is when we talk about like there's been good tight ends recently that have produced but they've been elite at something. Kyle Pitts first tight end hit a thousand yards, but he was like the best tight end prospect since whenever. Brock Bowers is great, but he was also like as good of a prospect on the most Incredible Georgia teams you ever saw. Brock Bowers was like the best player on the team. Tyler Warren had like basically the most catches ever for.
Danny Kelly
He like led the country.
Craig Korbeck
He did everything for that.
Danny Hyffens
Yes. And it's like, okay, like, this is like one of the most productive, like, catches and yards at the tight end position ever. The most catches, I believe, in a game by a tight end was Tyler Warren. Harold Fannin, even last year he was good. He's kind of receiving. Led all of college football in yards per run. Like something that was exceptional in terms of production for most of these guys. Sadiq is probably more exciting for the athleticism, tight ends, a mystery box position. It's the joke. So like, would always fail from Family Guy where like, do you want a boat or the mystery box? It's like, well, the boat. The mystery box could be anything. It could even be a boat. And you look at the fast guys. Well, Sadiq has the fastest 40 yard dash. It's Vernon Davis and he has all this and it's like. But he didn't run any of the agility drills. Like, he didn't run any agility drills. Is all speed, jumping, explosiveness. But no, no 3, none of that stuff, which is one thing for me. And it's just like DK mentioned Noah Fant, who was probably a better overall athlete, but like a less willing blocker. But Noah Fant was also a first round pick out of Iowa, which was a tight end factory and like, kind of did nothing.
Danny Kelly
Eric Ebron, same year as T.J. hawkinson, I believe.
Danny Hyffens
Same year as Hawkinson and like, I
Danny Kelly
think same team too.
Danny Hyffens
Sadiq is a willing blocker. I don't think his technique's very good. He can manhandle guys who aren't defensive line in college. I think Sadiq will have to eventually learn the technique to be linebackers in the NFL. I think part of me is like, you know, no offense. A good example. Remember O.J. howard, like, who was six, six, three inches taller? He ran a four, five. He, he tore his Achilles. But that was four years into his career. Like, he wasn't that good. So I look at Sadiq as a guy that I wouldn't be shocked if he's an all pro. But to DK's point, is he gonna like, need four years to really come into himself and then he'll be good at 26? Because that to me is the risk of a first round tight end is with the exception of like four guys in the last five years, very few tight ends are good in the first three years of their career. But you need tight ends right now in the NFL, so I think it'll go high.
Danny Kelly
I think, yeah, this is such a cop out. But it really does matter where he lands and how they utilize him. I know that that's like not helpful, but I think we did our mock last week.
Craig Korbeck
We put him on the Niners.
Danny Hyffens
Yeah, but you have to be like Miles Garrett for that to not be true.
Craig Korbeck
Yeah, right.
Danny Hyffens
It's like, yeah, guys go to bad teams are probably going to be worse.
Danny Kelly
If.
Craig Korbeck
If you had never seen him shirtless and had never seen him run and jump DK and you just watched the tape, would you feel differently about him?
Danny Kelly
No, I think I'd feel the same. I. I do like him a lot. I think he. The upside, like we've talked about is. Is insane. I think he has. He shows the burst. I think he shows the speed on tape. The explosive plays are there. And he's a beast at the catch point.
Danny Hyffens
He.
Danny Kelly
I think one kind of knock on him is he has a bunch of drops. I could, I would say that's a little bit overplayed. He had six drops according to PFF last year, which is, you know, not astronomical, but not nothing.
Danny Hyffens
They're lenient.
Danny Kelly
Yeah. But he to me, had enough plays where he was mossing dudes in the end zone kind of deal that I'm like, this guy can catch the ball. He just, you know, needs to be a little bit more consistent. So. But to me, yeah, he, he's the blocking stuff. He tries really hard.
Danny Hyffens
He wants people up.
Danny Kelly
Yeah, he's like a he. He's not some, you know, just I want to be a glorified receiver. He's not like that. And that's kind of why I comped him to Samuel Port, is because, like, he can get the job done. He's probably going to get overpowered by a big defensive end, but he can get the job done in space. If they want to use him in the screen game, if they want to use him as like a second level block guy, he's clear.
Danny Hyffens
Laporta is a bad blocker. Laporte is not respected as a blocker. I think that Sadiq, but he plays
Danny Kelly
most of the snaps is the big deal.
Danny Hyffens
Yeah.
Danny Kelly
And he's the tight end one on that team. So that's kind of the big question with Sadiq is will he be the number one tight end on your team and play 70 plus percent of snaps?
Danny Hyffens
But to steal a post from underdog fantasy Kenyan Sadiq has the same 40 times. Jonathan Taylor, the same broad jump as Dez Bryant, a higher vertical than Vince Carter, and then same top speed on his 40s junior games.
Danny Kelly
Yeah, that's. That's insane.
Craig Korbeck
Out of control. But again, I wonder how many tight ends. I mean, I. There's no tight ends that probably hit those marks, but how many tight ends in the last 10 years have we seen come close to that then?
Danny Hyffens
More than you think. And, like, you're like, can you. Oh, cool. Can you jump that high and then catch a ball? Someone's kicking the shit out of you. Oh, no. It turns out, no. Cool.
Craig Korbeck
All right, let's go to some other positions here. Let's move on to tackle, offensive tackle. A couple guys we want to get to. We'll start with Spencer Fano out of Utah. Dk. Why is he a risky pick for you?
Danny Kelly
So Heifers and I were talking about this a bunch offline. Basically, everything that we were talking about last year with Will Campbell has seemingly not been discussed with Spencer Fano or Fano this year with. With regards to the arm length. Now, I recognize that Will Campbell was viewed as a left tackle, and that's a big difference between Fano, who is more like a right tackle. At least that's what he played mostly at Utah. But the arm length is an issue. And, you know, I think even though his arms magically grew going from the combine to the pro day or what was it the. Is that what it was? He got like. His arms grew like a. Yeah, his arms.
Danny Hyffens
It's cool. His arms grew almost a full inch from the combine.
Craig Korbeck
He's like the Grinch.
Danny Kelly
Yeah.
Danny Hyffens
Yeah.
Danny Kelly
He stretched him out.
Danny Hyffens
Yeah.
Danny Kelly
But I mean, the question remains, like, does he have the length, the arm length to play on the edge in the pros? And how big of a risk is it to take him in the top five, which is basically where he's being projected most. Most of the time. Top 10, at least, when you have this pronounced lack of length. Because tackles in the NFL, 34 inch, 35 inch, 36 inch arms. I think it's obvious why the arm length thing matters in the pros. Like, just in terms of. It's. We talk about this all the time. It's a game of inches. But you're going up against guys that are the best athletes on the field, and having that extra reach can help slow guys up on the outside. It can give you a little bit more leeway. It just gives you more room for error, I think, in terms of what you're doing with your feet. And all that.
Danny Hyffens
So do you think an extra inch gives you. Gives you a bigger margin for error? You think an extra inch or two makes a big difference?
Danny Kelly
You just have to be less skilled if you have that extra inch, you know?
Craig Korbeck
Yeah. You can't just rely on talent, you know. So yeah, I do, I do think
Danny Hyffens
you say hard work beats talent when talent doesn't work hard.
Craig Korbeck
And I'm working hard so you don't
Danny Hyffens
have to worry about me.
Danny Kelly
I'll give you some examples. Here's, here's best case, worst case type deals with guys who have around 33 inch arms. So some of the best examples of offensive tackles in the pros of the last like 10, 15 years with sub 34 inch arms. Penny Sewell of the Lions, who it doesn't matter. Goddamn. Like I haven't seen it matter one time in his career that he has like sub 34 inch arms. He's awesome. He's just an ass kicker. And then Rashawn Slater was another guy who some people thought should move to guard when he got to the pros. But he's just such a smooth mover, so athletic. I think those are kind of. Spencer Fano is like that too in terms of he's just a really smooth mover, athletic. And I don't really think the, the lack of arm length is going to be a massive difference for him.
Danny Hyffens
I want to back up from the arm length for a second and then I want to get way too deep into it, but I want to. Spencer like, he played a lot of football. He played three seasons, played like over, you know, 37 starts or something. He's good. He won the Outland Trophy, right? Like the, you know, first team all American. So like, Spencer father, like had a great career as a tackle, as a right tackle. Athletically, he checks all the boxes of like he is good enough to play tackle in the NFL. The question is, is the arms are the second percentile. So as in Craig, 98% of people play tack or have gone to the combine of longer arms than him. And also his hands are small. He has the Kenny Pickett baby hands. Spencer finals hands are only 9 inches wide, which is also like second percentile among tackles. But here's the weird part. Arms are 2 2nd percentile. Wingspan is 20th percentile because his chest is broader than Will Campbell. And then you could also. So not only is his chest longer, you could argue that he's not stubby small. Yeah, his little baby hands. But who cares that you got baby hands? You got to grab stuff and hold without getting called. But you could argue if you're talking about the hinge really measuring from the wrist if your hands are so small. He's probably gaining an inch. You know, if you think about it.
Danny Kelly
But I really getting granular here.
Danny Hyffens
I just can't believe the way they measure these fucking things the NFL teams really give a shit about. They measure this shit to the eighth of an inch and then they don't even measure gu guys. They can't agree on where the the back meat begins of the arm length. They're the back meat. They can't agree where the base is. And then meanwhile they measure hands from thumb to pinky. How does that help? I can't believe you're sitting there and it's like you wouldn't even think to go middle finger to wrist. It's.
Craig Korbeck
I know that cost me a couple inches with McShay. I don't have wide hands.
Danny Hyffens
That's so stupid. It's like as if you only grab, you're. They're treating your hand like it's a one dimensional object. Like it's a straight line as opposed to the shape of a hand. Kawhi.
Danny Kelly
Anyway, the perfect example of why this is important and also means nothing.
Danny Hyffens
Yeah, it's important. It's stupid. It's like, yeah, it's like you need to beat the most athletic people in the world at defensive end to win as an offensive tackle. Also I kind of think Spencer Fano is going to be good, but he's the Reuben Bain Will Campbell of this year at offensive tackle. And it's like he could go to the Browns at 6, he could fall because teams think he's a fucking center.
Craig Korbeck
So then let's go to the opposite side of the spectrum but stay at offensive tackle with Monroe Freeling out of Georgia, who is a big boy.
Danny Kelly
Oh yeah.
Craig Korbeck
6, 7, 34 and 3 quarter inch arms, big old hands. DK. Why is he risky?
Danny Kelly
Because he's inexperienced. This is going back to the thing, the lack of starts in the college game. I think he had 18 total starts. So basically a year and change as a starter. And so that kind of worries you a little bit. I think he's another guy that needs to get a little bit stronger as he gets into the pros. This is a betting on upside and betting on the frame and athleticism and overall talent. He's built like you want a left tackle to be built and he moves like a left tackle should move. But I think is he ready to start day one? That is the question Is he strong enough to hold up on the left side from day one? It's going to depend on which team is looking at him and what they decide. But I mean, yeah, to me he's just kind of high variance because the lack of experience and you're betting on traits and you're probably gonna have to pay up for those traits because he's been moving up all the draft force that I've seen in terms of like mock drafts and things like that, like, and heifers. You talked about this on our mock draft show the other day and I'm starting to believe it more and more. There's going to be a run on tackles early in this class because there's just no good guys in the second round. So that could mean freeing goes in the top 10 and then you're betting on a guy being living up to that. Those athletic traits, even though you haven't necessarily seen it quite enough on tape yet, if that makes sense. So he, he's like the comp I made for him is Cold Miller, the tackle for the Raiders who kind of was the same in the same boat where it was just like, awesome athlete, he moves different, he's built perfectly for the left tackle spot and hopefully we can develop him and he turned out great. Um, but the worst case. And Craig, sorry for this, but like, it reminds me somewhat of the talk around Broderick Jones when he came out, um, where it was like this guy, super athletic, like basketball movement skills, great length, all that stuff. He just hasn't really panned out.
Craig Korbeck
Which type of risk, Looking at Spencer Fano and Monroe Freeling, are you more likely to be comfortable taking?
Danny Kelly
I think I would be more comfortable with the Spencer Fano type risk where I've seen him play very good football before. If my job is on the line, probably that take the guy who played
Craig Korbeck
well and maybe has measurements that aren't what you would like rather than the guy who passes all the physical tests. But the experience and the on field stuff is a little bit more up in the air.
Danny Hyffens
Right.
Craig Korbeck
Okay.
Danny Hyffens
I don't mind taking him on row freely. I like Spencer Fano.
Danny Kelly
I mean, I like them both to be clear.
Danny Hyffens
But yeah, I get why certain teams especially this is why we thought the Eagles losing Jeff Stoutland was such a big deal. The offensive line guy for the Eagles. Because you, if you're the Eagles, you take Monroe freely because you're just Stouton can teach them. If you have an offensive line coach that you think is dependable and is going to be able to mold a guy, then you're like, yeah, if he could be like a Taylor Luan or something, then I, yeah, I want a really great left tackle or a really great right tackle. So I, I'm okay with the ball of clay. So that's the thing. It's like you're hiring. It's like, well, what department's he going to? How do we feel about it?
Danny Kelly
Like that's freely freeling, to be clear, is one of the best athletes we've ever seen at tackle.
Danny Hyffens
He's 6, 7, he's 3:15 and he ran a 4, 9, 40 yard dash, not that offensive.
Danny Kelly
And he jumped 33 inches.
Danny Hyffens
It's just the, like, that's crazy. The idea that a 315 pound person could jump 33 inches is insane.
Danny Kelly
He's a great athlete and I think a lot of coaches will look at that and be like, I can make him into an all pro. And they might be able to.
Craig Korbeck
Okay, speaking of physical outliers, let's go to edge rusher here, Ruben Bane Jr. Out of Miami DK. Best case, I want to know, I want to start with the best case for Ruben Bain because I feel like there's a lot of negativity around his short little arms. So give me the best case for, for Ruben Bane in your eyes.
Danny Kelly
So Ruben Bane, his arms are what, 30 inches? And change one of the short like first percentile, 31 inches.
Danny Hyffens
Anyway, he is the third shortest arms of any player to go to the combine since 1999. But the point is those guys weren't drafted. Ruben Bane will by far have the shortest arms of anybody taken in the first.
Danny Kelly
The best case scenario is you get a player like Michael Parsons who has 31 inch arms, like an elite edge rusher. A guy that can, he just wins because he's more powerful, more explosive, plays harder, more vicious, you know, just a like explosive, hard nosed guy who's just going to wear down offensive tackles. I think some more realistic comps. And Craig, I know you hate these because like this is what I did with all the receivers where I'm like, you just tell me a bunch of like number two receivers in the NFL. How am I supposed to get excited about this? Well, this is the type of draft we're in. But like some more realistic cases I think for Reuben Bain are Melvin Ingram who had 58 career sacks, he was a good player. Kyle Van Noy, who had very short arms, he was an outlier with short arms. He had 57 career sacks and Shaq Barrett. These are all Guys I found that had really short arms but ended up having good career. Shaq Barrett, who had 59 career sacks, he actually led the NFL. And sacks in 2019, I think those are more realistic in terms of upside comps. You're not going to get Michael Parsons, probably. Micah Parsons is a very rare player, but a guy who can come in and be just a productive edge rusher for you. I can see that. And I think it's realistic for Ruben Bay.
Craig Korbeck
Okay, and then what's your worst case?
Danny Kelly
Worst case again, I'm picking on you a little bit here. A guy like Jarvis Jones, my God,
Craig Korbeck
how did the Steelers manage to just pick the only shitty players on Georgia?
Danny Kelly
I know, right? Jarvis Jones, I think this is a little, this. It's not a one to one comparison, clearly, because Jarvis Jones was a horrific athlete. He just wasn't very athletic. And that was like, why are you taking him in the first round? Everybody at the time knew it was a bad pick. And then he had six sacks in four years.
Danny Hyffens
Bane is not an elite athlete by defensive end standards. Like, he, he didn't, he didn't do any testing either. Miami protein came, he did drills. But Ruben Bane did not do testing.
Danny Kelly
But Reuben Bain on tape. I, I believe, like when you watch him, you're like, oh my God, that guy's explosive.
Craig Korbeck
I do agree.
Danny Kelly
Like, he's like, he's powerful. Yeah, he.
Danny Hyffens
Reuben Bane. Honestly, Craig, you got to do the Bane impression.
Craig Korbeck
Bane from Batman?
Danny Hyffens
Yeah.
Craig Korbeck
What do you want me to say?
Danny Hyffens
You gotta be like, oh, expect one of us to the wreckage, brother.
Craig Korbeck
I am Gotham's reckoning.
Danny Kelly
Do the. Do the dark.
Danny Hyffens
You were.
Danny Kelly
I was born in the dark.
Danny Hyffens
I was born with Shoto.
Danny Kelly
I was born.
Danny Hyffens
But I, I, Reuben Bane, he is like a, like a villain when he's going against you. Like, I kind of wanted Indiana to win.
Danny Kelly
I kind of like that his name is Bane. Just makes him sound like a fucking badass.
Danny Hyffens
Bane is sick. But I mean, just, I mean, look, Ruben Bane, if you didn't know the arm thing about him, I feel like I never would have noticed. Like, I heard about it mid season and if I wouldn't have noticed, honestly, because he just wins every goddamn rep. He never gives up. But like, I just feel like when you watch Miami, the tip of the top competition, like it doesn't have to. I don't really give a shit when they beat up on like North Carolina A and T. And no offense if anyone went to North Carolina A and T, listen to the show. But like, I don't care. It's like when he played Ohio State. It's kind of kicking the out of tackles and guards at Ohio State. Oh, Indiana. Reuben Bain wrecked the first half of the. Of the championship. Like, Ruben Bane was like, just like. Like the whole Indiana offensive line, they had a coalesce around getting the ball away from Ruben Bane. Like, he's just a wrecker. He. I just look at Reuben Bain and I'm like, I am. In a weird way, I get why you don't want to bet an outlier, and I get how it's weird to bet on an outlier and be like, okay, well, he's the shortest arms ever. These thresholds exist for a reason. I get why you might not want to put your career on the top 10 pick for him, but in a weird way, I think Ruben Bane has a high floor, because I think the worst case for Ruben Bane is he is like the tackle version of where they're like, well, maybe he's a guard. He might not be a defensive end, which there's five. There's all these weird words they use. But, like, he's probably A3 tech, which in normal people speak is like a defensive guard. Like, he's probably like an undersized defensive.
Danny Kelly
You're rushing against guards. Yeah.
Danny Hyffens
Yes. And like, he's. At the very least, Ruben Bane is such a high floor at run defense, and I think that, like, he's. He. The. The arm length is only a thing if they get your arms on you. But his hand movement, his arsenal, his technique is, like, so developed. He has so many moves, and they're so refined. Like, he has the. You know, he tries to do a version everyone wants to do. Like the Von Miller ghost move Mensch was talking about. He's got the hump move from Reggie White, but he just has a lot of moves and counters kind of like John Wick, I think it's like, to
Danny Kelly
just really distill it down. What you're saying right now, and it totally resonates with me, is like, the arm length doesn't matter because guys can't get their hands on him because he's so violent with his hands. You know what I mean?
Danny Hyffens
Exactly.
Craig Korbeck
Well, and they're so short, like, they can't even find you.
Danny Hyffens
But that is a real thing. Like, they're doing jiu jitsu. Like, these guys are up there. They're doing judo, karate, whatever you want to call it. Like, it's hand fighting. And also, again, I always feel weird dishing this out as a compliment, but Ruben Bain, he plays violently. He's very violent. Like, he.
Danny Kelly
It's a physical game and he is one of the most physical people on the field.
Danny Hyffens
He. Yeah, Vince Lombardi is like. It's not a contact sport, it's a collision sport. Reuben Bain fucking collides with people. Like, he is the. He is the person inflicting everything. Like, even when they do stunts, he's destroying guards, like, when they have to do all this stuff. So I. I think Reuben Bain, if the worst thing that happens is he's not an elite pass rusher the way you think of him, but he will be able to play defensive end. He'll probably be able to kick into three Tech. He can move around. He will hold his own and run defense. And maybe he's not elite pass rusher, but, like, he will be in the NFL. I think he will be in the NFL at eight to 10 years. Like, I'd be surprised if that didn't
Danny Kelly
happen just for some context. He led the country in pressures, according to pff. Yeah, the production. The production's outstanding. And that, I think, must be kind of stated emphatically here. It's not just that, you know, he's explosive and he has short arms. Like, he was producing very, very consistently.
Craig Korbeck
It would be fascinating if we were able to, like, hire a draft analyst who could only watch college football. And then the second the season ended, we just locked him in the basement.
Danny Kelly
Can't listen to anything.
Craig Korbeck
All he can do is watch tape of the season and then he has to build his rankings off that and then just reemerge on draft night. I would love if that happened.
Danny Kelly
That's Ruben Bane.
Danny Hyffens
You know what's funny is it's probably. That's what Mel Kuiper should be. Mel Kuiper's probably not on the Internet.
Craig Korbeck
Get him down in the basement with. With unlimited pumpkin pie and then he'll come back in late April. Yeah, you know, I do think it's.
Danny Kelly
It should be said, and this is like just the nature of the draft business and the. And sort of the NFL, the transition from college to the NFL. And I've heard Dane Brugar said this, like, some people are going to have Akeem Messador higher on their draft boards than Baines.
Craig Korbeck
Well, let's get into him. Because of my army.
Danny Kelly
Yeah.
Craig Korbeck
Yeah. He's 25 years old, so give. Give me his kind of brief rundown and why you consider him to be risky.
Danny Kelly
I mean, truthfully, the biggest thing and the only thing that I don't like about his profile is he's going to be a 25 year old rookie. And you know, that is a big red flag. You don't see very many guys come into the NFL as 25 year old basically.
Craig Korbeck
I was a 25 year old intern at the ringer. Did you know that?
Danny Kelly
Sure. Yeah. But you're 101, Craig.
Craig Korbeck
Actually, that's not true. It's 24 and I have long arms, so I feel like that kind of made up for it.
Danny Hyffens
Anyway, it's not just, it's not just 25 year old rookie. It's a key message or it's a 25 year old rookie with I believe issues with both feet.
Danny Kelly
Yeah, and that's the other thing is
Craig Korbeck
also like he's already got gout.
Danny Kelly
You know, he's got, he's got the king's disease. He's got gout. No. I don't know what's wrong with his knee or his feet.
Danny Hyffens
Craig has turf toe, so. Yeah. What old people get with their feet, you know, he's probably got bunions.
Craig Korbeck
You got to get those things shaved off, dude.
Danny Kelly
Bunions.
Danny Hyffens
Have you guys ever gotten a pedicure?
Craig Korbeck
No.
Danny Kelly
No.
Danny Hyffens
I, I got a pedicure last year and it's insane because they kind of like the first time you do it, it's, you know, your whole life has been building to this and they kind of take really. It's like a cheese grater and they just grade stuff and it's like this pile of mozzarella looking you.
Craig Korbeck
Oh my God.
Danny Hyffens
A little pile.
Craig Korbeck
All right.
Danny Kelly
This is, this is making me nauseous.
Craig Korbeck
I didn't like the way you said it to a pile of mozzarella.
Danny Kelly
This is worse than the booger conversation. Let's, let's move on.
Danny Hyffens
Yeah, I, A key mess story. I, I is that's my outlier. I don't know if I want to bet on because I think a key message was a classic like a team that need. The Tampa Bay Buccaneers are perfect for Kim Ecador because Todd Bowles is super gonna get fired if they don't take them or if they don't have a good pass rusher this year. If you have like some ball clay that isn't going to develop for three or four years and it's not on your timeline. And Todd Bowles is one of the older coaches and you need a pass rush. It's like, go get a K Messi to work.
Craig Korbeck
He can contribute right now.
Danny Hyffens
Yeah, exactly. He's. He might have been better than he had. He had an incredible season I'm just like. But if you're like the br. If you're a team that's looking at a longer horizon and you're like, all right, well, he's 25, so if he signs a second contract to be 30, so like the odds that you're bringing him back on one of those fat free agency contracts is like, let's be honest, it's a little low. I rarely think about that. But 25 is extreme. 25 with. I. I believe he had surgery on at least one foot, but I think it's both. I could be wrong about that. And it's. I. That's the one where I'm like, I'm concerned by this and I don't want to. That's the kind of thing in the first round I might want to avoid.
Danny Kelly
Yeah. The very bullish version of this is that he's just Jared Verse. And Jared Verse actually kind of is a good comp because I think versus just so in intense, explosive, just brings massive amount of power and burst off the edge. And I think that's kind of what you're getting with the key Message or Jared vs 24 at the draft. Turned 25 during his rookie season. So he was a little bit younger, but not by a lot. You know what I mean? It's pretty close, I think. I think akeem Messador turns 25 in April, so he's maybe like six years or six months older than. Than Verse or whatever it is at the time of the draft. So that's the good case, but the bad case is basically he's already maxed out with his development. He, his. He was so successful because he's going up against guys 25, three or four years younger.
Danny Hyffens
Joke.
Danny Kelly
Yeah, yeah.
Danny Hyffens
25 years old, man playing college football.
Danny Kelly
Right. So. And that matters because if you look at, I mean this is like the perfect example. Talking about Monroe Freeling, who's still sort of developing and you know, lifting weights and getting bigger and whatever, like learning how to keep weight on and all that. And then like you got McKee Mestor, who's like a full grown man with a mortgage and four kids. No, I don't know how many kids, if he has any kids. But. But you know, it's like that is a huge difference. And so that's kind of the worry there. And there's just like not a long. There's not a strong track record of 25 year old rookie pass rushers coming in, especially early round rookie pass rushes coming in and being good.
Craig Korbeck
Let's talk About Arvel Reese now, which I was surprised that you put him on this list. This is a guy who's widely projected to be a top two or three pick in the draft this year. Why is he considered one of the riskiest players to take in this draft?
Danny Kelly
I think he, he's just interesting because he is kind of a tweener, you know, based on the fact that he basically split time between off ball linebacker and pass rusher. As a pass rusher he has electric athleticism, speed, burst balance, power. The traits are all there. But and honestly like the only risk I see is like if an NFL team kind of screws it up with him because I think he has the talent to be a superstar. You know, you got like a Josh Heinz Allen slash again, Micah Parsons type
Danny Hyffens
player where he, what team could possibly take our Val Reese and screw him up?
Danny Kelly
The Cardinals come to who's gonna take them or the jets or the Jets?
Danny Hyffens
The near Jets. Yeah, I, I, I do think that's why I wanted to mention him. I, I want the jets are going
Craig Korbeck
to take Arvl Reese and Ty Simpson and just them both up.
Danny Hyffens
Yeah, exactly. But I just what they do, there's, there's nothing, Look, Arville Reese, to be clear, is one of the coolest players in the, the whole draft. Like he is incredible. Like everything about him, he's an insane.
Danny Kelly
I'm not actually worried about him, I'm just worried about deployment and how teams are going to maximize him.
Danny Hyffens
But if we're being honest, a lot of players and the reason I want to bring him up is there's nothing specifically about evil Reese. That's concerning nothing.
Craig Korbeck
Right?
Danny Hyffens
What's concerning is how many players that we had zero doubts about their ability have not been very good. And like I'm not just talking about like Kyle Pitts, if you look at a good example is like Chase Young, another guy from Ohio State that was probably more of a prototypical defensive end. Zero question.
Danny Kelly
Felt like a Bosa, you know.
Danny Hyffens
Yeah, he was like that Bosa line and it's like it was like Joey Bosa, Chase Young, Nick, like all these guys are incredible. Chase Young's fine. Like he's on the Saints now. He's probably the Saints best edge rusher but like Washington let him go and like he had some injuries but also he wasn't that good in Washington. He was kind of, he was kind of overrated. And I think that you can look back, there's a lot of guys, it's sneakily like all these guys that are like no doubt. Kind of hit more like two out of three times, three out of four, then it's like 100%. And if we're being honest, anyone who could genuinely play two positions has a risk of being screwed up by their team. Yeah, I think actually our vote. Reese's highest upside is as a linebacker, defensive end, hybrid. I think that's like defensive player of the year category. Because if, like the Seahawks got our vote, Reese, I think he would genuinely be defensive player of the year in two years. If the, if the Ravens got Arville Reese with like Jesse Minter. If one of those people who are now trying to do like positionless defense could put him anywhere. The true answer is the safer thing is to kind of stick him as a pass rusher and let him be and like, let him drop sometimes. But, like, he's a pass rusher and like, eventually can and like, be a free end, you know, instead of the DN to kind of move over, do the Miles Garrett, Michael Parsons, I'll pretend to do a cross up, dribble over the center or something. But like, I. The reason I wanted to talk about him is just the idea that it's not crazy to me to think that the jets are going to take our little Reese at number two and then Aaron Glenn's going to get fired at the end of the season and then
Danny Kelly
like, they're just going to bring someone else in. Yeah, yeah.
Danny Hyffens
And then they hire a different coach with a different defense with a different vision. And so whatever Aaron Glenn teaches our vault receiver, let's just say they want to make him a normal defensive defensive end. That's fine. And then like a new coach is like, no Arville Reese, like, they pitching Woody Johnson again.
Danny Kelly
And then they're like having him gain weight and then lose weight.
Danny Hyffens
Yes, exactly.
Craig Korbeck
Snap, snip, snap.
Danny Kelly
Yeah. You know, the emotional toll it takes.
Craig Korbeck
The physical, emotional toll.
Danny Hyffens
Dude, it's. If you add this is what the cow. I mean, Mozzie Smith is not succeeded with Dallas, but one of the reasons Mozzie Smith, who was like the top,
Danny Kelly
they didn't know what to do with him.
Danny Hyffens
He kept having to wane. Gain 10, lose 20. Gain 20. If you ask players, it's. It's not like normal people. It is so hard to gain 20 pounds of fucking muscle and maintain it during an NFL season. It's like so hard that. So then the next coach from Aaron Glenn, is he going to be good? Well, if he gets fired and the new coach comes in is like, oh, is a linebacker DM like gain the weight back and well, do you know that to me is the answer.
Craig Korbeck
So Aaron Glenn was a defensive minded coach. I mean do you not trust that he would be able to. To get the best out of Arvell Reese?
Danny Hyffens
I think he's going to be fired and a new coach will be there next year.
Danny Kelly
Yeah, that's lame. He's a lame duck coach for a year.
Danny Hyffens
It's the organization screws the player up because there's a different person with different. It's like any other company where it's like this goal matters, this metric matters. Nope, that metric matters and people are. It's just like this slow thing. Jeff Bezos has talked about this at Amazon where he's like, someone told him you have, you have just enough ideas to kill this company. Because Jeff Bezos was like not spacing. He was giving too many ideas at the same time and then everyone was like scrambling, trying to make everything happen. Not that the jets are Jeff Bezos and Amazon, but it's more like if the next head coach the jets are after, Aaron Glenn sucks and then he gets fired, is there a chance Rvo Reese has not actually known what position to develop at? And again, I know I'm kind of extrapolating here but like pull up any draft you want and you will find somebody that we said with Lock no doubt is going to be great. That is like kind of meh and like usually go to bad teams.
Danny Kelly
You know who kind of. This is not a like a one to one comp or anything but it kind of reminded me a little bit of. It is Leonard Floyd, who was a top 10 pick for the Bears back in 2016. And the talent was always, you know, super apparent. He was very athletic, tall, long and versatile type of guy. But it just didn't feel like the Bears ever really figured out exactly how to make him into a star. And then they ended up moving on from him and he came over to the Rams and you know, playing on a line with Aaron Donald and some other guys, he. He was able to kind of flourish but it just kind of didn't feel like they ever had the right plan for him to turn him into a superstar that he could have been early on in his career. And this obviously very different type. Not. Not the same type of players exactly, but it just kind of reminds me of where when you have a quote unquote tweener type player and he's the definition of one because he played two positions in college, I think that's just like a little bit Worrisome. It's like, how is he going to be deployed by the. By the coaches?
Danny Hyffens
I kind of think Arville Reese should be a linebacker. Like, yeah.
Danny Kelly
And the fact that we're even, like, there is a discussion because he's good at both spots.
Danny Hyffens
You know, he's one of the best tackling prospects. Ollie Connolly, who is a great sub stack, but he's. He was like a linebacker. Scout said that Arville, he's got the highest grade he's ever given a player for tackling, which stood out to me from someone who's trained as a leadbacker scout.
Danny Kelly
I mean, he's his. He's so talented. So I'm not. I'm personally not like, worried about him, but I'm worried that jets will. The NFL does this with some guys. Like, it just kind of crazy how they don't really know. Have a good plan. Even though you take him so high in the draft, sometimes that happens.
Danny Hyffens
Yeah. Okay.
Craig Korbeck
Are there any other guys you want to hit? Dk? There's a couple injured guys who might. Basically, if they're healthy, you think that they will. People. Teams will reap the benefits. Like Jermaine McCoy out of Tennessee, the cornerback, or Caleb Banks out of Florida, the defensive tackle.
Danny Kelly
Yeah, the.
Craig Korbeck
Is that all injury based? Like, if they can stay healthy, you think there'll be huge values?
Danny Kelly
Yes, I think so. Jermye McCoy, he got. I think he tore his ACL last year, January. So it's been over a year. Still not working out. Did not work out at his. At the combine, which was a surprise to a lot of people. And so now there's sort of like this question, is he healthy? What are you getting in year one? Is he going to be able to play year one? I think if he's. If he had worked out of the combine and done well, ran really fast and did everything he was supposed to do, he's probably like a top 15 pick, maybe even higher. But now I don't know what. Like, obviously it's up to teams in different medical. You know, staffs have different opinions on guys. This is. We saw this with Max Crosby, so who knows where he'll go. Now there's a chance he goes into the late part of the first round. Maybe he even falls further. We always see guys fall because of injury. Like, it's always kind of a shocking thing on draft day where you're like, oh, my God, this guy is so awesome. And he's falling, falling, falling. That could be McCoy this year.
Danny Hyffens
Yeah. Johnson at Michigan was probably Going to be the highest. Take the cornerback.
Craig Korbeck
Yeah.
Danny Kelly
He went in the second round, right?
Danny Hyffens
Yeah, second round injuries.
Danny Kelly
And Caleb Banks is another very fascinating one because. Well, at the combine, before he got hurt, he broke his foot at the combine.
Danny Hyffens
I believe that's all you need to say. No one's taking you. Like that's bad.
Danny Kelly
Before he broke his foot, he was doing incredible. Like, he was one of the most athletic big men we've seen in a really long time. But he was hurt for most of the 20, 25 season and then he got hurt at the comb.
Danny Hyffens
Well, what injury did he have during the season?
Danny Kelly
He had a foot injury.
Danny Hyffens
Yeah.
Danny Kelly
So this is a huge worry with a guy who's, you know, £360 or whatever is. £350. When those feet. You have feet injuries, that's always a massive concern.
Danny Hyffens
£360 is. Yes. You hurt your foot multiple times. Like that's bad because even then you're leaning on your other leg and it's like, yeah, it's a lot of yeah.
Danny Kelly
But if he can be healthy, if he can stay healthy or get healthy and stay healthy, you know, the sky is the limit with that guy because he showed you the length and explosiveness and athleticism, movement skills. It's very scintillating for any team. But it's going to be a huge risk because you just might, you know, never be healthy.
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Craig Korbeck
All right, so those are the riskiest players in this year's draft. What else is going on? You guys watching March Madness?
Danny Kelly
Little bit. Not a lot.
Craig Korbeck
Is your bracket busted?
Danny Kelly
Here's the thing, big time.
Craig Korbeck
No One's brackets are busted anymore because there's no Cinderellas anymore. And that's the sad truth of March Madness is that we've the last two years. There's no Cinderellas this year. The Sweet 16, every team is from a power.
Danny Hyffens
That's not true. Florida lost, defending champions, one seed lost in the second round. That's still a big deal.
Craig Korbeck
By Cinderella I usually mean a mid major small schools. Iowa is not, not a powerhouse basketball school. But. But they are a power conference school. There is not one mid major team in the sweet 16.
Danny Hyffens
It's all power conference sucks. It does feel like nil second straight
Craig Korbeck
year two years in a row. Only power conferences in this.
Danny Hyffens
It does feel like the way that mid majors used to win was just having experience and like just the same group of guys there for a long
Craig Korbeck
time who five gritty white dudes on Witchita State who've been playing together for four straight years who take down Kentucky. Now the second they notice a guy's good, he'll go get paid to play at like Texas A and M or something like that. However, what you sacrifice in the first two rounds you, you make up for in like the elite A. In the.
Danny Hyffens
Yeah.
Craig Korbeck
Now you get like St. John's against Duke, which is cool.
Danny Hyffens
I do want to shout out though the Iowa game to Iowa to beat Florida. Yeah, that shot that I, I would made a three.
Craig Korbeck
Yeah.
Danny Hyffens
To take. They were down two and they took a three to beat Florida. And I thought it was. It was like a picture perfect recreation of like the Ray Allen shot with the Heat where he just backpedaled perfectly into. There's not that much space there. It almost looks bigger on tv. The space in the corner of the three point line.
Danny Kelly
Barely get your foot in.
Craig Korbeck
Well, you also have to. And you have to remember these guys feet are fucking huge.
Danny Hyffens
Yeah, you could like it's funny to Isaiah likely feet. We always joke about whether like we're like oh Craig. Craig's hottest take is he thinks he can make three of five threes in an NBA game. If he got the. If he was wide, he's like, they wouldn't cover me. He can make three for five. The funniest part is kind of the same way of could I hit a fastball at the Major League Baseball. The real answer is you'd probably just fucking duck. Like you wouldn't swing. You would actually just like, like, like flinch and like try not to like look scared. Most people couldn't even take the shot. You would just step out of bounds because it's such a small space and. But I couldn't believe how seamless that was.
Craig Korbeck
Great shot. Also the, the follow up play to close the game by Florida was terrible.
Danny Hyffens
Oh, that was, that's a. We should rank maybe over the off season. Sports icks basketball teams. When you have a chance to tie or win, not getting a shot up is really high.
Craig Korbeck
Also I got the other really interesting game. The St. John's Kansas game which came down to the wire was fascinating. I haven't seen this in a long time. I don't know if I've seen a team have this many fouls to give. Kansas had four fouls to give St. John's and there was 15 seconds left in the game. Oh wow, it's tied. St. John's has the ball and Kansas basically had to like waste two seconds. Foul St. John's but don't let them, you know, try to get a shot off because then they would obviously get to shoot free throws. So Bill Self and Kansas did actually a fantastic job of like strategically burning two or three seconds off the clock and fouling and they got it all the way down to like two and a half, three seconds left and still St. John's got to the hole and had a game winning layup. So it was like perfect play from a fouling standpoint from Kansas and St. John still won.
Danny Hyffens
I was root for St. John.
Danny Kelly
Can we talk about the big white dude for St. Louis?
Craig Korbeck
What's his seven foot? Not. Oh no, you're talking about. Oh, I thought you're talking about the Florida guy who's 7 foot 9. You're talking about.
Danny Hyffens
You're talking about Cream Abdul Jabbar.
Craig Korbeck
Cream Abdul Jabbar.
Danny Kelly
Cream. Cream Abdul Jabbar. Also Magic the Gathering Johnson. Some of the people, there's so many good ones. There's Shane Gillis, Alexander. Some of the names are so good for this guy. He's got incredible passing talent, I gotta say.
Craig Korbeck
Yeah, his name is Robbie Avila.
Danny Kelly
Yeah, I, I just enjoyed that part of the whole thing.
Danny Hyffens
Magic the gas really good.
Craig Korbeck
I saw some tweet that was like this man has the greatest 12 points, 5 assists highlight I've ever seen in my life. And you watch him and he's a fucking magician out there.
Danny Kelly
Cream Abdul Jabbar. By the way, I want to point out I'm in first place in our bracket.
Craig Korbeck
What?
Danny Hyffens
No.
Danny Kelly
If you go look at it, check it out.
Craig Korbeck
Wait, out of, out of the 7,000
Danny Kelly
people, 99th percentile, you'll never be able to prove it's not me.
Danny Hyffens
Are you serious?
Danny Kelly
It's someone named Danny Kelly.
Danny Hyffens
Oh, you're lying.
Danny Kelly
Cheeky little bastard.
Danny Hyffens
It's not actually nobody else. Oh, someone named Danny Kelly.
Craig Korbeck
Yeah.
Danny Hyffens
Made a bracket for that.
Danny Kelly
You're making me look good. 99th percentile bracket right now is 506 points. This bracket, he's got Duke winning it all. You can check me at rank out of. There's 7950 in the one that I joined. I know that we had two, but I am 5,456. I'm not doing so great, dude.
Danny Hyffens
My dad once had a 99.9% sell bracket. I've never heard. I've never heard the end of it.
Danny Kelly
So, yeah, Danny Kelly, number one in the ringer bracket. No big deal.
Danny Hyffens
Thank you, everyone, for joining. Yeah. Wow, that's crazy. My bracket's. I had Florida. Although I. We did talk about. It's so funny because Florida scored 144 in the first round. I'd never seen a college basketball team score 144 points. I don't think. And so they put oliver in the 7 foot 9 guy. And me and my friends, honestly, instead of really locking in on the games, we kind of just talked about that guy being 7 foot 9 for like half an hour.
Danny Kelly
Just came up with nicknames.
Danny Hyffens
He's just incredible. You see the photo of him and Tracy Wilson? He's like 2ft taller than Tracy Wilson.
Craig Korbeck
Dude. He. There was a photo of him next to a 68 guy, and it looked like his son.
Danny Hyffens
He was like. He was like, you big boy.
Craig Korbeck
Shouts out to everybody who joined our bracket. By the way, we got 8, 000 people, which is pretty sick. My team is in the 43rd percentile.
Danny Kelly
43rd.
Craig Korbeck
43rd.
Danny Kelly
Mine's in the 35th. So I feel pretty good about it.
Danny Hyffens
This is the worst bracket I've ever had. I'm in 22 million.
Craig Korbeck
Which is funny because you could have just picked all the favorites and it would have been pretty much fine.
Danny Hyffens
It was a reminder that March Madness is like fantasy football. I picked High Point because I like that the kid danced on the selection show. And 20 minutes before the game started, I changed it to Wisconsin because I was like, you can't pick a kid because he danced on the show. And then you know what? I should have. Because they.
Craig Korbeck
Yes, you can.
Danny Hyffens
And yeah, you know what? That's. I gotta remember that. Like, don't. Don't bring an Alice. Don't. Don't let facts get in the way of your feelings when you're filling in a Bracket.
Craig Korbeck
Did you guys see that? The Falcons signed Brian Robinson. So now, brilliant. They have Bijan Robinson and Brian Robinson, who only have one letter difference.
Danny Kelly
B. Robinson.
Craig Korbeck
There's a J swapped for an R. That is the only letter difference in their first and last name. One letter.
Danny Kelly
Oh, my God.
Craig Korbeck
So you're going to see B. Robinson, ATL now, and millions of people are going to get screwed.
Danny Kelly
Bijan gonna have to change the nameplate to like bi or are they gonna care?
Danny Hyffens
I They're gonna have to do something.
Danny Kelly
Yeah.
Danny Hyffens
Even an R and an I with the certain fonts don't look that different.
Craig Korbeck
I know. I don't know. Why would the Falcons care? I don't think it matters to them.
Danny Kelly
They might not.
Danny Hyffens
I just was total confusion. I the numbers are going to.
Danny Kelly
They got numbers for a reason. All right.
Craig Korbeck
Yeah. No one's like reading the last name on the team.
Danny Hyffens
I this is going to be great. We got great emails one year from this guy who had drafted Brian Robinson by accident over Bichon Robinson. Because I think on Yahoo we're saying it said B dot Robinson.
Craig Korbeck
Yeah.
Danny Hyffens
And then everyone made fun of him relentlessly. And then like eight weeks in, he was like eight. No, because Brian Robinson was doing so well or something. And Bijon wasn't playing.
Danny Kelly
He had outscored Bijan, I think.
Danny Hyffens
And yeah, I this is just. That's really funny. Also, him replacing Tyler Algier is just like whether we have.
Danny Kelly
They have a type sniped. Yeah.
Danny Hyffens
The only one other piece of news before I want to talk about this flag football game, the first thing I just want to mention. Levante David, the Bucks linebacker is retiring. And I wanted to acknowledge him because I think Levante David is the best player I ever saw play football. That is completely, wholly unfamous.
Danny Kelly
Yeah, he's not really in the discussion a lot.
Danny Hyffens
Levante David is the ratio of how good he was and how good his career was to famous he is is the biggest Delta.
Danny Kelly
If Levante, he's a Hall of Famer.
Danny Hyffens
I think he's hall of Fame. If he was on the Jets. If Levante Davis was on the Cowboys, he would be electric. I mean, he made the all decade team from 2010 to 2020. That's a real ass team. Look, pull up the all decade teams. Those things are legit. And then there are a couple stats that I thought were amazing I had in my notes from years ago. But through his first eight seasons, the only players in NFL history through eight years that had a thousand tackles, 20 sacks and 10 interceptions are Ray Lewis and Levante David. Yeah, like incredible career.
Craig Korbeck
Also only played on one team.
Danny Hyffens
Bucks one of the last one team guys. One of stuck around a shitty Bucks team and then won a Super bowl when Tom Brady came. And then they had that good defense for a long time. And I also wanted to note ESPN had this one. Levante Davis, one of just three players to have 40 sacks and 35 takeaways in their career. The only other guys do that are Ray Lewis and Brian or Lacquer who are just hall of Famers. And then this big company. He just 1700 tackles. The list of guys who have 1700 tackles are Derek Brooks is hall of Famer for the Bucks. Ray Lewis is hall of Famer. Junior Sarah is a Hall of Famer. Bobby Wagner will probably be a Hall of Famer. Zach Thomas hall of Famer and the London Fletcher. So it's. Yeah. Levante David, cool career. We never talked about him once.
Danny Kelly
He's a. He's a perfect. He's a good guy to talk about during the draft process because he's one of the sort of all time examples of don't look at the measurables or the athleticism. Just look at how fucking good he is at football because he, he came, he came out of Nebraska. My dad's a hu. Nebraska fan and I just remember at the time like he's just. He's not that big. He's 6'12, 33 coming out of. Coming out of college and didn't run all that fast. Like he was just kind of an average athlete. But he just had the most insane rare instincts.
Danny Hyffens
Yeah.
Danny Kelly
That you've ever seen. He's just always around the ball, always knew exactly where the ball was going. Just an absolute natural playmaker. And I think he's. He's kind of just one of the all time sort of examples of that. Like sometimes the. I mean he was a late second rounder and I think it's mostly because of the size and the speed limitations.
Craig Korbeck
A good lesson for us all.
Danny Hyffens
Take linebackers who. When they hit people, the people go backward.
Danny Kelly
He was so. He's so freaking natural. He's just instinctive. Yeah.
Craig Korbeck
Speaking of size and speed limitations, dude, watching the flag football fanatics championship thing.
Danny Kelly
You watched it today, Craig?
Danny Hyffens
I have been waiting.
Craig Korbeck
I watched two games.
Danny Kelly
Okay, give us the. Give us the scouting report on what happened. So first. First laid out what happened. The NFL players got their asses kicked.
Craig Korbeck
Yeah. There are three teams. It's like the. The team USA team. The team that's going to be in The Olympics, we think, which is like the guys who actually do this for a living versus two teams that were comprised of mostly NFL players and then like influencers like Logan Paul.
Danny Hyffens
It was mostly NFL though. It was like one team, Tom Brady. The other team at Burrow, like Stefan Diggs was there like, yeah, Miller was, was there like better than that.
Craig Korbeck
I mean, the team that made the championship, quote unquote against the Team USA was Joe Burrow, Jaden Daniels, Devonte Adams, Saquon Barkley, DeAndre Hopkins, Odell and Kyle Use, Jack like that. And then the defense was like Luke Keakley, Jalen Ramsey, Harrison Smith and then Logan Paul. But yeah, this is the whole thing. It's like five on five flag football to promote the Olympics in two years.
Danny Hyffens
And it was supposed to be in Saudi Arabia because it was fanatics getting a check from Saudi Arabia and then obviously they're not able to. Able to go there right now.
Craig Korbeck
Right. So it was in LA. It was at where the, the soccer stadium in LA. Team USA kicked the. Out of the NFL players, dude.
Danny Hyffens
The flag football players who are all 5 foot 4, 5 foot 5. Like, honestly, I. That guy, remember that quarterback came out, was like, I'm better for flag football for America. I would represent America better than Patrick Mumson. Flag football.
Craig Korbeck
Yeah.
Danny Hyffens
And I gotta tell you, we have made fun.
Danny Kelly
Don't go back and listen to our podcast.
Danny Hyffens
When we discussed we made so much fun. Don't you guys? We. The. The. We owe them an apology. Like the Shack to Christian Wood. He's like, I apologize. I was not familiar with your game. Yeah, dude.
Danny Kelly
Some of the that they're doing on the field reminds me of the laser guy from oceans of 12 or whatever.
Craig Korbeck
Yeah, he's.
Danny Kelly
They're like going through a laser field. The way that they're moving is so funny.
Craig Korbeck
The Night Fox.
Danny Hyffens
Yeah, Night Fox.
Craig Korbeck
I think that was his name. The French guys. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, look, it's two ways basically. Yeah, the flag football guys know how to play flag football and are trained. Their body types are completely different. They're all like skinny and skinny and shifty and they know they're basically dancing out there the way they blazer their
Danny Kelly
breakdance fighting the way they can like
Craig Korbeck
their hips can avoid getting flagpoled is very unique. And then you have like brute NFL players who are just like running into people. With that said, I don't know if, if, if you gave that, that lineup, I just listed two years to practice and learn the rules. I still would. Would be dubious. I mean, the championship Game. The borough team lost to Team USA. It was like 2414.
Danny Hyffens
Well, they didn't get a stop. The flag football team, they scored in, like, every possession in all three games.
Craig Korbeck
They did, they did. But I don't know. Part of me is like, these. These NFL players just showed up. They barely know the rules. They had no scheme. Burrow was drawing up plays on his hand like Terry Bradshaw in the 70s. Like, they were just making up. It was the other team.
Danny Hyffens
No, no, they were not completely making up. Sha Payton and Tom Brady's team had a wristband with 40 plays, and Sean Payton's on a headset calling in plays to Tom Brady.
Danny Kelly
Like, he's like, hold on, hold on. I got to get little. Little Jordan Humphrey out here. Hold on.
Craig Korbeck
In the majority of the game, Burrow is like, huddling everybody together, and he's like, okay, Devonte, you're going to do this. You go deep, say Saquon, you're going to do a curl right here. Like, there's making up.
Danny Hyffens
And then the flag football team is like, flash, flash. And they're like, wait, who's the flash? Like, flash, hybrid X. And then they do a crazy. They have two quarterbacks, and so they're throwing and it makes so much sense. They're playing like, hot potato. It actually looked like. You ever seen, like, women's lacrosse, they have their shot clock. They're trying to kill the clock. Like, they are just like having a lateral on either ends of the field. And so if their pass rusher gets them, just lob it over. And they have only three guys downfield, but two quarterbacks playing patty cake. And the moment they all rush, then the quarterback just takes off. They were like, quite literally running circles around these guys. Like Von Miller, who is old, got left in the fucking dust by one of these guys and they're all mic'd up. So he runs by and he was like, he gone. Like he dead. Like, it was like, actually they were. Luke Keakley was cooked.
Craig Korbeck
It looked like. It looked like people trying to chase chickens.
Danny Hyffens
It was. It was like, here's the thing, Mike,
Danny Kelly
the headless chicken, I think it's easy
Danny Hyffens
to say, well, it's a different sport. They're built to hit people. Sure. Yeah, I know. And I agree with Craig. Like, the. If all these NFL players took it seriously and trained for a year, they would be better. Sure. I was still shocked by the degree to which these men absolutely fucking dominated the NFL players. Like, it was so uncompetitive. Tom Brady had that one cool highlight To Stefan Diggs in the corner. They couldn't do anything again. They couldn't stop him on D. They could not move like it was. I was actually a little shocked. And maybe that's the thing with the Olympics is. You know what? We have a problem boys, because we should not send the cool NFL players to the Olympics. We should send these guys. But the NFL is going to want the players of the Olympics because the goal is not to win for the NFL is not to win a gold medal in flag football. The goal is to get the NFL popular in other countries by putting Joe Burrow and Patrick Mahomes on their television. And after watching this, I'm like, if we send NFL players, we're gonna fucking lose.
Danny Kelly
Do you see Joe Bros getting like hit hard a couple times in this game?
Danny Hyffens
I'm thank God no Giants.
Danny Kelly
I feel like teams are gonna put a put in. Like they're gonna nix this going forward. They're like, no, you can't go out there.
Danny Hyffens
Burrow took hits. Cause here's the thing. One that the injury risk. Gronk. Cronk was fine. Gronk. Then the edges of the. They had real grass, but the edges were artificial turf. So then he got. He fell down. Then he got up and put his leg onto the artificial turf and slipped and he's fine. The. The real. I think the real takeaway from this
Danny Kelly
though, Tom Brady can still play.
Danny Hyffens
Well that too.
Danny Kelly
He could sign him up, get him back out here.
Danny Hyffens
Jalen Hurts was horrible.
Danny Kelly
Oh yeah.
Danny Hyffens
I gotta tell you, I have in the off season I got in a huge argument. One of my friends listens to show Sean we had. He's a huge Eagles fan and he, he actually could have been like a legit college football offensive lineman but he had like, he had like a back coach didn't put him in. But we have huge arguments about Jalen Hurts. And then at the end of this I. The, the fanatics game happens and I just start sending him all these fucking clips of Jalen Hurts. One getting sacked by the flag football guys.
Danny Kelly
How many picks did he throw?
Danny Hyffens
One pick. Six. But worse, he got sacked by Logan Paul.
Danny Kelly
That's.
Danny Hyffens
Did you see Jalen Hurts get sacked by Logan Paul?
Craig Korbeck
I did. I will say Jalen Hurts, I think made the best throw of the entire tournament to Devonte Smith, which was very, very good. Okay, just saying. He was point that out.
Danny Hyffens
I'm just saying, look, I, I actually was amazed to see it in like, like distilled form. Jalen Hurts has so little wiggle in the Pocket. Yeah, that. I, I just. I. I don't know.
Craig Korbeck
Football is the worst sport for him. It really showcases his like, like stiff hips. You know what?
Danny Hyffens
You got to be able to run to the throw.
Danny Kelly
No, push. Push.
Danny Hyffens
Dude. Tom Brady was so much more limber than Jalen Hurts. It was so concerning.
Craig Korbeck
Brady also had like a, like the, like the wrist playbook. Like, he was out there really dialed in. Burrow was kind of out there, like winging it. Brady was fucking dialed and they lost Brady.
Danny Hyffens
Well, Brady won. He doesn't have anything to do. This is the only thing he's got. You know what I mean? It's like this is. Burrow actually has a season. Brady. It's like this is his last shot.
Craig Korbeck
And you know what was tough for Brady? Brady's out there playing. Right. Which means, you know, because this is on Fox. You know who's announcing Burkhart, kb. But with Greg Olson.
Danny Kelly
Oh, no.
Craig Korbeck
And they were great together.
Danny Hyffens
Olson was really good and locked in.
Craig Korbeck
What.
Danny Kelly
What is FOX doing?
Craig Korbeck
They took it kind of seriously. Like Olson and Burkhart were having fun, but they were also like, you know, like leaning in and pretending like this is a real game and like giving analysis. They actually like taught you the rules pretty, pretty smartly. And I was just like, man, this is better than Brady.
Danny Kelly
Horrible. What is this like fucking. What's that show where they just. It's like a bachelorette show or whatever, but it's like way more spicy. There's a bunch of them.
Craig Korbeck
I probably.
Danny Hyffens
Yeah.
Danny Kelly
Love Island. It's like a love island. People pairing people up. You shouldn't be pairing together. There's too much sexual chemistry over here, dude.
Danny Hyffens
It really was because Brady treated the game like his Super Bowl. Like he was really prepared. But Greg Olson as an. He came out firing and he was just like. Yeah. So just to remind everyone. So it's like 50 yard field, 25 is the midfield. The H team starts on five. And he was like, the difference. I'm not really sure if these NFL players are prepared for our shift. And he just had like a two minute breakdown on why he thought they're going to kick.
Danny Kelly
Yeah, he can only go by.
Craig Korbeck
He can.
Danny Kelly
He just is always on one speed.
Danny Hyffens
He was on the clock management for the fucking flag football.
Craig Korbeck
He was trying to come up with advanced analytics on the spot. He was like, maybe you actually just play the two point conversion and maybe it's like they score six, you score eight every time. And like you almost allow them to score because you know that you can get the two point conversion and say stop them. Because inside the 10 it becomes more like traditional football where the NFL guys can actually have an advantage.
Danny Kelly
I was like, this is, this was like watching you guys break down hurling the on the first time.
Danny Hyffens
You watched the first one, we didn't know one figured it out by the second game. Three hours in, Craig is just like the scoreboard's wrong and flag down the ref that you were right. Anyway, I, I, I, I think flag football is going to work. I was, I was entertained is the point. I actually had way. It was fun to watch these guys, these random guys kick the out of these.
Craig Korbeck
Oh my, my takeaway was, man, tackle football is so much more fun to watch. Like, I was like, this is a cool idea for the Olympics and it'll be fun to watch maybe professional like NFL players do it. But like, I would never turn on a flag football game.
Danny Hyffens
But you didn't like the pros versus Joe's element of it where like, oh my God, like, I know that, I know these guys practice it all the time and the NFL guys don't. They're just getting a check because it was supposed to be in Riyadh. It was supposed to be a lot of money. I get that. That. Having said that, I was just surprised to learn, I guess, how many more people there are out there than I think that can like pretty effortlessly catch Alvin Camara's flag. Yeah, they didn't make it look very hard.
Craig Korbeck
But like, if, like, are you going to, if that. If the team usa, if those guys were in the fantasy football, I mean, the flag football league that was on television every week. Are you watching that?
Danny Hyffens
No, I like the, the element that was cool was the NFL players playing them. And I'm concerned because, like, I think if we will send NFL players and we will lose, lose like an organized group of really athletic guys from a different country if they play it all the time. I think my takeaway was they will be NFL players because they're not. Like, the NFL players will not win the gold medal.
Craig Korbeck
It will be fascinating if we just
Danny Kelly
like the dream team versus, like when they used to send just college players or whatever.
Danny Hyffens
Yeah, yeah, it's. But, but here's the thing. But the NFL, they, you need famous players to do this. Like, what is the point? Whatever.
Craig Korbeck
Well, you also have to cast the right guys.
Danny Hyffens
Like, like, like dudes Tyree Kill and Lamar would win.
Danny Kelly
Well.
Craig Korbeck
And like Garrett Wilson, he's like really shifty guys who can maybe like, they kind of match the body.
Danny Hyffens
Yes.
Craig Korbeck
Types of The. The flag football guys like, you got to pick the right people.
Danny Hyffens
Honestly, the most. The best person ever at the sport.
Craig Korbeck
If Jaden Daniels are pretty good.
Danny Hyffens
Well, do you know who the. If they weren't such a.
Danny Kelly
Was he a quarterback or. I thought he was playing like receivers.
Craig Korbeck
He did. Two time quarterback. You can have two quarterbacks if you want. And Burrow and him were straight sharing.
Danny Hyffens
Kaderius. Tony would be the best player.
Craig Korbeck
Like, oh, he'd be ever.
Danny Hyffens
Where is Tony?
Danny Kelly
And honestly, probably not too busy right now.
Danny Hyffens
Kadaris. Tony could actually throw like that's like he actually said, oh, that's true. Kadiris Tony. There were points for Kadira Stoney could throw further than Daniel Jones.
Danny Kelly
Odell would be really good playing in this. Oh, okay. There we go.
Craig Korbeck
He was good. Yeah.
Danny Hyffens
Okay. Anyway, I just. I. Eagles fans who are angry at me about the Jalen Hurts thing. I know. But I'm like, look, he got tackled by Logan Paul and I'll never get over that.
Craig Korbeck
So there's no one there. I was like, never get over the
Danny Hyffens
biggest ick he got. He tried. The problem was he tried and it didn't work. He didn't just be like, oh, you got me. It was like. He was like, I'm gonna spit out of this. Anyway.
Craig Korbeck
Logan Paulo has the benefit of being able to take steroids.
Danny Kelly
Fair.
Danny Hyffens
It's a good point. Emails. I want to just remind people to vote for this nurse, Tyler Taniguchi, to throw out the first pitch of this Mariners game on May 5 because his wife, who thinks our podcast is weird, emailed and asked for help. And so. And he seems like a good guy. Makes his breakfast. He makes breakfast for his wife every day for five years. So that link is in the episode description. Vote for Tyler. And I think we can actually vote every day. So we should just vote right now.
Danny Kelly
That's big news.
Danny Hyffens
Yeah, Just vote for Tyler. Okay, couple emails. Okay. I wanted to talk about a few days ago I was gobsmacked. Or a few episodes ago, I was gobsmacked because we talked about how Pat Riley was drafted by the Dallas Cowboys.
Craig Korbeck
Correct. 11th round, 12th round, despite playing college basketball only.
Danny Kelly
I love that.
Danny Hyffens
And I just. I couldn't believe and like the whole world of what teams used to do with these, like, long drafts and everything was fascinating to me. So we got a bunch. So someone pointed out to me and I'm sorry, I've lost your name and how you contacted me and I apologize, I didn't write your name down. I'm sorry.
Danny Kelly
Make Something up.
Danny Hyffens
Elbone.
Danny Kelly
Elbone.
Craig Korbeck
Nice.
Danny Kelly
All right.
Danny Hyffens
The. In 1964, in the second round. So the famous GM Tech Schramm, who's running the Cowboys the second round Cowboys. Do you know how long The Cowboys took? 6 hours to make their pick in the second round because Tex Schramm wanted to fly a doctor to Oregon to examine this guy Mel Renfro's knee.
Craig Korbeck
And then they invented the NFL combine.
Danny Hyffens
And then they invented the combine. So in the middle of the draft, he's like, oh, hold on, I gotta get on with Dr. To Oregon.
Danny Kelly
Wow. There was no timer on the draft.
Craig Korbeck
Wow. Apparently think things through. Or, you know, we just kind of did.
Danny Kelly
Flying by the seat of your pants.
Danny Hyffens
It's like term limits. They were like, yeah, we don't need
Craig Korbeck
to write it down.
Danny Hyffens
And they're like, super. Need to write it down. This is from Josh.
Danny Kelly
Josh, jbone.
Danny Hyffens
Josh's breakfast was a slate protein latte and apple cinnamon oatmeal.
Craig Korbeck
What. What is a slate protein latte?
Danny Hyffens
I assume that's either a brand or a coffee shop.
Craig Korbeck
Okay.
Danny Hyffens
It's probably a protein.
Danny Kelly
It's a brand.
Danny Hyffens
So Josh says. Craig talked about some of the big swing draft picks the Cowboys have made, which led to us talking about how many rounds there are. There's a famous pick taken by the Buffalo Sabres in the 1974 National Hockey League Draft. At the time, the NHL Draft was very long, very slow, phone in process, almost no media coverage. So for context, the NHL Draft now has seven rounds, like the NFL, but at the time, the NHL Draft had 25 rounds.
Sponsor Voice
Wow.
Danny Hyffens
And in the 11th round of 1974, Buffalo drafted a center named Taro Sujimoto from the Tokyo Katanas of the Japan Ice Hockey League.
Danny Kelly
Okay.
Danny Hyffens
And the NHL process of the pick, and then weeks go by, and the Buffalo Sabres, I guess, at the league meeting announced that there was no Taro Sujimoto, there is no Tokyo Katana's team, and there is no Japan Ice Hockey League.
Danny Kelly
There's even a league.
Danny Hyffens
And they made it. And they took the guy as a joke to make everyone realize we should make the draft shorter. None of you even noticed. No one noticed for weeks. And they made their point. And then the NHL shortened the draft.
Craig Korbeck
That's such a petty move. Like, that happens all the time. I feel like. Like people do that now to this day. It's like, oh, yeah, you saw the movie. Was your favorite character just making it? That's fucking amazing.
Danny Hyffens
They're like, there is no hockey league in Japan. And all the other teams were Too afraid to point it out. And the best part is this guy became this fake person that was invented, is now a cult legend in Buffalo. His name is still on the draft list of, like, the history of Sabers. You can buy this jersey. And if you ask, there are still people in Sujimoto jerseys at Buffalo Sabres games.
Craig Korbeck
That's fucking cool.
Danny Hyffens
And the Buffalo Sabers inducted him to their hall of Fame.
Danny Kelly
Dude, that's great.
Craig Korbeck
The decision to take this player was made by Saber's general manager. Punch Imlock.
Danny Hyffens
Shut the Punch. Punch the monkey in the zoo.
Danny Kelly
Punch Imlock. Was he a real person either? Is it like, layers to this?
Craig Korbeck
He appears to be real.
Danny Kelly
Oh, damn. Punch Imlock.
Danny Hyffens
Craig, you got to do the. That's. Punch Imlock is just. You know what? That's the next one. We did all these players, old baseball players, send us the names of coaches with crazy names. Punches from all these different. Punch. And the Cowboys GM did it was named Tex.
Danny Kelly
Oh, my God.
Danny Hyffens
Punch.
Craig Korbeck
Love it.
Danny Kelly
How did he get his nickname?
Craig Korbeck
Not sure.
Danny Hyffens
Could be anything. Craig. This needs to be a new thing. I think that, you know, in the rewatchables, Craig's big things make movies shorter.
Craig Korbeck
Right?
Danny Hyffens
This is. Make drafts shorter. And so you. We should get you a Sujimoto jersey.
Craig Korbeck
I would love one. I would. If. If we do a live show around the draft, I'll wear it.
Danny Hyffens
Oh, hell yeah. Get him a Sigi Moto jersey. The other one I just. Matt emailed in. He said he immediately jumped at the Pucker Butt pepper company mentioned because they mentioned the hot sauce Pucker. But yeah, yeah, I. Apparently Pucker Butt invented the Carolina Reaper, the hottest pepper in the world. And then now they invented the newest, hottest pepper in the world, which is called Pepper X.
Craig Korbeck
Like, when you say invent, like, genetically engineered it.
Danny Kelly
What?
Craig Korbeck
Apparently, like, they're in the lab making new peppers.
Danny Hyffens
I, I, I was shocked to learn your science.
Danny Kelly
Were so enamored with the idea that you could do it. They never asked if they should.
Danny Hyffens
Right. Your butt was so worried about whether you could do it.
Danny Kelly
Yeah.
Craig Korbeck
We need to direct our minds on other issues. We're good on hot peppers, I think.
Danny Kelly
By the way, the Pucker Pepper Company, I was talking about the logo and how it's a. It's flames in a circle.
Craig Korbeck
Okay.
Danny Kelly
I was kind of insinuating this, but my buddy who is in marketing Shout Out JJ sent me this and said basically, it's. That's the ring of fire that we're talking about.
Craig Korbeck
Yeah.
Danny Kelly
That's very provocative, evocative. If you will of your burning butthole.
Craig Korbeck
Are you familiar with the term red ring of death?
Danny Hyffens
Oh, man, that's a real, like. That's a real spongebob Millennial thing. That's like, yeah, that is, like, the good, glorious bathroom.
Craig Korbeck
I'm like, oh, you played Xbox. What's the Red Ring of Death?
Danny Kelly
Is that, like, where it turns off and never turns back on or something?
Danny Hyffens
If there was a.
Craig Korbeck
If your Xbox showed the Red Ring of Death, it was a sign that it was an unfixable Xbox.
Danny Hyffens
It was a very specific manufacturing problem that Xbox had for the Xbox 360, where they were crazy expensive and, like, you couldn't replace them.
Craig Korbeck
Like, you would you go to school the next day and be like, guys, disaster last night. Red ring of Death. It's over. I need to go to your house.
Danny Hyffens
Okay, One. One more email. We'll get out of here.
Craig Korbeck
Okay, sure.
Danny Hyffens
So this is from Raphael.
Craig Korbeck
Raphael, our bone.
Danny Hyffens
This is. My name is Rafa. I'm from Brazil. I came across a new guessing game for the pod.
Danny Kelly
Nice.
Danny Hyffens
It was not my idea. So, prop props to the Allegedly Speaking podcast. I guess he put this in the idea of I guess the podcast called Allegedly Speaking. So I guess ripping them off via Raphael, and he's our middleman, but he lifted some examples from them and added a few ones. So shout out to this Allegedly Speaking podcast. And Raphael says the game is pretty straightforward. Obviously, it's similar to all the ones we've been doing of Coachella Band or Pokemon. Is this a luxury candle scent or a celebrity's baby name?
Craig Korbeck
That's good, Rafi. This is some of your best work.
Danny Kelly
Allegedly speaking.
Danny Hyffens
Luxury candle scent or a celebrity baby's name. Wow.
Craig Korbeck
I'm already trying to think. Okay, I can't wait for this. Genuinely, this is the most excited I've been in weeks.
Danny Hyffens
Shout out to Allegedly Speaking.
Danny Kelly
Okay, weeks.
Danny Hyffens
First up here. Luxury candle scent or celebrity's baby name? Sage Moonblood.
Craig Korbeck
Fuck.
Danny Kelly
That's a celebrity name.
Craig Korbeck
Moon Blood. Makes me Sage Moon Blood. Last celebrity baby name.
Danny Hyffens
Okay. Do you have the celebrity that is Sylvester Stallone's son?
Danny Kelly
Nice son. Oh, I was thinking daughter.
Craig Korbeck
Sage Stallone. Cool name.
Danny Hyffens
Okay. Amber Noir.
Craig Korbeck
Candle.
Danny Hyffens
I think it's got to be.
Danny Kelly
I'm gonna say celebrity name.
Danny Hyffens
It is a candle scent.
Danny Kelly
Amber. What is it? Amber Noir.
Danny Hyffens
Amber Noir. Next to Eternal Jasmine.
Craig Korbeck
God, if this is a celebrity name, I'm gonna be gobsmacked. I'm gonna guess candle.
Danny Kelly
Same.
Danny Hyffens
I think they want you to guess candle.
Craig Korbeck
I think they do, too.
Danny Kelly
Eternal Jasmine.
Craig Korbeck
I'm going with my gut.
Danny Hyffens
It's Candle scent.
Danny Kelly
Shit.
Craig Korbeck
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Danny Kelly
Sounds.
Danny Hyffens
I blew it.
Danny Kelly
Sounds lovely.
Danny Hyffens
Yeah, I blew it. Winter Mercy.
Danny Kelly
Winter Mercy.
Craig Korbeck
That's I Celeb.
Danny Kelly
Celeb name.
Danny Hyffens
I think it's a celeb, too. It's Alanis Morissette's son. Is Winter Mercy.
Craig Korbeck
I would have said girl.
Danny Kelly
Winter.
Craig Korbeck
Kind of a cool name.
Danny Hyffens
Yeah. We got Winter Mercy, Bear Blaze.
Craig Korbeck
Has to be a celeb.
Danny Kelly
Yeah.
Craig Korbeck
What the is the scent then? Burning Bear. Kate Winslet's son is named Bear Bear Blaze Winslet.
Danny Hyffens
Or I guess I don't know what her husband's last name is.
Craig Korbeck
That's crazy.
Danny Hyffens
All right, what is it? Who's she married to?
Craig Korbeck
No, I don't know.
Danny Hyffens
Okay, Candle center. Celebrity baby name Scarlet Rose.
Craig Korbeck
This one's a tough one.
Danny Hyffens
That's hard.
Craig Korbeck
I'm gonna go with celebrity.
Danny Kelly
Same.
Danny Hyffens
There has to be a candle named Scarlet Rose.
Craig Korbeck
Probably.
Danny Kelly
Yes.
Danny Hyffens
Like, even if it says celebrity name, like, there has to be a candle somewhere named Scarlet Rose. I'm going candle. It's Sylvester Stallone's daughter.
Craig Korbeck
Yeah, I'm perfect so far. God damn it.
Danny Hyffens
Craig just buys more candles and knows more celebrities than I. Sunday Rose.
Craig Korbeck
Sunday Rose.
Danny Hyffens
God damn it. Sometimes people send these in and they fade.
Danny Kelly
I'm gonna say candle.
Danny Hyffens
Incredible.
Craig Korbeck
I think it's celeb.
Danny Hyffens
I'm going candle. I'm going back to the well. Keith Urban and Nicole Kidman's daughter. His name's Sunday Rose.
Craig Korbeck
Bang, bang.
Danny Hyffens
Lira, Antarctica.
Danny Kelly
Jesus Christ.
Craig Korbeck
Lyra, Antarctica.
Danny Hyffens
Lyra Antarctica.
Craig Korbeck
I'm gonna go celeb.
Danny Hyffens
Yeah, it's Ed Sheeran's daughter.
Danny Kelly
Lira Antarctica. Okay. Is that where she was conceived? This is like a Taysom Hill thing.
Danny Hyffens
Is that. What is Taysom Hill's name? Because he was conceived in Taysom.
Danny Kelly
Yeah, he was conceived in Taysum Rotary Park. In. In, like, Provo or something.
Craig Korbeck
Really?
Danny Kelly
No, actually, I don't know if that's the official story, but he's named after
Danny Hyffens
that park, Rotary Park.
Danny Kelly
I don't know if he was. I don't know if he was conceived in the park. That was my assumption.
Danny Hyffens
But yeah, Taysom Rotary Park, Pocatello, Idaho.
Danny Kelly
Yeah, Taysom Rotary Park.
Danny Hyffens
It's a nice park. Anyway, if anyone here is listening to the show and you're in this park right now, I want you to email immediately.
Danny Kelly
If you're a celebrity and you're famous, super, super famous, your kids already, you know, might get. Get bullied for being, like a. Whatever. Maybe just name them something normal.
Danny Hyffens
Baccarat Rouge.
Craig Korbeck
Baccarat.
Danny Hyffens
Baccarat, like the game, like the casino game. Rouge, like the. Like French Moulin Rouge.
Craig Korbeck
I mean, what scent is that? I'm going celeb.
Danny Kelly
Candle.
Danny Hyffens
That is a candle scent?
Craig Korbeck
Yes. Damn it.
Danny Kelly
It's like a smell of a casino. It's like cigarettes and booze. Or maybe we're talking like a high class baccarat where it's.
Craig Korbeck
These are mahogany.
Danny Kelly
Many leather bound books.
Danny Hyffens
Thank you to Raphael for that incredible list. And thank you to Allegedly speaking for letting us steal that. Thank you to. Thank you to Carlos. Thank you to Cam, thank you to Abu, thank you to Austin. Thank you to everyone for listening. Thank you to everyone who votes for Tyler Taniguchi. We're going to get him to the first pitch of this Mariners game.
Danny Kelly
We're doing this.
Danny Hyffens
Tyler, here's a deal. You. You have to practice the first pitch. Like, if we send you out here and we get you on this first pitch at the Mariners game in May and you bounce that shit to home.
Danny Kelly
Stinky cheese. We need the high heat.
Craig Korbeck
I would love. I would love to throw the first pitch out of the game. You think I could throw the first pitch out of the Dodgers game? How do they do they let anyone do that? Is there like, once a year they just let, like, a fan do it?
Danny Hyffens
Well, I mean, I think. Why don't you go to nursing school?
Danny Kelly
I want.
Craig Korbeck
I want. If he wins, he's actually done something with his life. Life. I. Why would they let me do it?
Danny Kelly
Because you're famous. You're the. You're the third most famous Craig I know.
Craig Korbeck
You know Craig Knight. Craig Knight. There's 81 opportunities a year. Can I get one of them?
Danny Hyffens
We'll work on that. Email us if you can help us get Craig to throw the first pitch.
Danny Kelly
I think the. The requirement for this, for this guy, if he wins the first pitch thing, he has to throw it as hard as he can.
Danny Hyffens
Oh, that's a great. Here's the thing, though, how.
Danny Kelly
I don't care if you air mail.
Craig Korbeck
It would legitimately practice for a month.
Danny Hyffens
So are you gonna do. How much pitching motion are you gonna do?
Craig Korbeck
I would do a full wind up.
Danny Kelly
Yeah, full wind up.
Danny Hyffens
I think you got to do, like,
Danny Kelly
over the head, dude.
Craig Korbeck
I was a pretty pitcher as a kid. I would like. I would go back to my roots. I would try to get. I'd try to sign with the team after that.
Danny Kelly
I kind of feel like Craig would do like the Dennis Eckersley, like the submarine pitch, where it's like rising for Some reason I see you doing that on Southpaw, too. Oh, my God. Impossible to hit that.
Danny Hyffens
Timothy Chalamet could up a 90.
Danny Kelly
Randy Johnson over here.
Craig Korbeck
Of course you didn't see it. Of course you chased it. Curveball in the dirt, strike two. You chased. Of course you did.
Danny Hyffens
Thank you, Lord.
Danny Kelly
Lord, thank you. The Dare.
Craig Korbeck
The Dare?
Danny Kelly
Yeah, you know that song? Like, I like the Girls who Do Drugs. I don't know if there's a controversy around this song or not, but I
Craig Korbeck
don't know that song.
Danny Kelly
Pretty good song.
Danny Hyffens
Formerly known as Turtlenecked.
Craig Korbeck
The band is called the Dare.
Danny Hyffens
No, it's just the day. It's a band that sounds like a guy. It's just one guy.
Danny Kelly
It's a guy.
Craig Korbeck
Oh, the guys. The guy's named the Dare.
Danny Kelly
And this he produced a song by Charlie xcx. Wow. World's good.
Danny Hyffens
He made guess
Danny Kelly
I just mentioned Charlie xcx. Not. I did not know the connection here.
Danny Hyffens
Instead, he later moved to Portland and he attended Lewis and Clark College. I gotta tell you, I feel like I don't. I feel like Lewis and Clark, we don't talk about them enough. Like, going across. Like, I don't know as much about them as I should.
Danny Kelly
There's. Yeah, there's a book about their. Their trip, and I'm trying to remember the name of it. It was by. My brother told me David Ambrose, I think is the guy who wrote D Day or whatever.
Danny Hyffens
It sounded really interesting, and my brother told me about it. And then I never read the book.
Danny Kelly
Apparently it's just like 95% of it is them going across the country getting a bunch of STDs. So that's. That actually makes me want to read the book.
Craig Korbeck
I want to.
Danny Kelly
Want to hear about that. Like, very curious how that went. No, this is how you get guys to go on a cross country trip when there's very little prospect of surviving is. Apparently there's a lot of sex on the way.
Craig Korbeck
Jeez.
Danny Kelly
So, yeah,
Craig Korbeck
it's a good point though, Hive. It's. I feel like everyone knows them by name, but that's kind of as far as it goes.
Danny Kelly
And Sacagawea, the most famous Oregon Trail thing is the game.
Danny Hyffens
Yeah. Yeah. It's like Sacagawa. It seems like she did all the work, didn't really get much credit. We put her on a coin like 200 years after she died. Kind of a raw deal. And then I couldn't tell you anything else. The only part I remember is that Thomas Jefferson sent them us on the trip and he thought they'd find woolly mammoths. He thought they were still alive, but the. The idea that they didn't know what the was out there anyway. All right, you guys are just looking down and scrolling. So I'm gonna.
Danny Kelly
I was trying to find this book. Sorry. I was trying to. Oh, it's called Undaunted. Courage is the name of the book. If you're interested in STDs on the Oregon Trail, Stephen Ambrose.
Danny Hyffens
That'll be the pot announcement. If you're interested. Undaunted Courage. If you're interested in STDs.
Craig Korbeck
Undaunted Courage, the story of a man who got 15 STDs
Danny Kelly
and he was undaunted.
Craig Korbeck
I'm gonna keep going.
Danny Hyffens
Goodbye. Must be 21 and present in select states for Kansas in affiliation with Kansas Star Casino or 18 in present in DC, Kentucky or Wyoming. Gambling problem. Call 1-800-GAMBLER or 1-800-MY RESET. Call 1-888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org chatincenectic or visit md gamblinghelp.org In Maryland, hope is here. Visit gamblinghelplinema.org or call 800-327-5050 for 24. 7 support in Massachusetts or call 1-877-8-Hopeny or text Hopeny in New York. For Louisiana, call 1-877-770-7867.
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Danny Hyffens
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Hosts: Danny Heifetz, Danny Kelly, Craig Horlbeck
Date: March 25, 2026
This episode dives into the NFL Draft’s riskiest first-round prospects—players whose boom-or-bust potential has the draft community buzzing. The trio debates the logic behind “risky” picks, explores this year’s most polarizing names (with deep dives on Ty Simpson, Jordan Tyson, Kenyon Sadiq, and others), debates the value of college starts, discusses how team context can make or break a unique talent, and detours hilariously into flag football, March Madness, and an absurd candle-or-celeb-name game.
Loosely structured, quick with jokes, equal parts dead-serious football analysis and self-aware sports banter. Plenty of self-mockery for how often draftniks (and NFL teams) get things wrong. Willing to detour for fun, but always anchoring back to draft philosophy and why “risk” is worth analyzing.
The crew wraps by fielding listener emails, riffing on draft oddities, discussing the legendary Levonte David, and encouraging listeners to vote for nurse Tyler Taniguchi (see show notes) to throw out a Mariners first pitch:
The episode is a rollicking, insight-heavy journey through the riskiest 2026 first-round NFL Draft prospects—debating boom-or-bust wide receivers, QBs, linemen, injury riddled “mystery boxes,” and what history says about outlier bets. It’s full of devotion to nuance (and, at times, the value of simply trusting the game tape over the combine), mockery of NFL groupthink, and capped with flag football humility and an absolutely absurd candle-versus-celeb-name guessing game.
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