.
THE MODERATOR: Thank you for joining us today for NFL Network analyst Daniel Jeremiah's media availability to preview the 2022 NFL scout and combine.
I wanted to provide some information regarding NFL Network's coverage. NFL Network's live coverage of the 2022 NFL Scouting combine on-field workouts begins Thursday, March 3, with the quarterbacks, wide receivers, and tight ends, and continues with the running backs, offensive linemen, and special teams on Friday, March 4th. Linebackers and defensive linemen on Saturday, March 5th, and defensive backs on Sunday, March 6th.
Coverage of workouts begins at 4:00 p.m. eastern time on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, and at 2:00 p.m. eastern on Sunday on NFL Network.
NFL Network's more than 50 hours of live combine week coverage kicks off Tuesday, March 1st, with NFL Now starting at 1:00 p.m. eastern time.
Finally, NFL Scouting Combine Today Show stream on NFL.com, the NFL app, video on demand, and social platforms Thursday March 3 through Sunday March 6 with Bucky Brooks, Lance Zierlein, Matt "Money" Smith, and Kimmi Chex from inside Lucas Oil Stadium.
NFL Scouting Combine Today streams Thursday, Friday, Saturday at 3:00 p.m. eastern, and Sunday at 1:00 p.m. eastern. Now we'll turn it over to Daniel for some opening remarks. Daniel?
DANIEL JEREMIAH: Thanks, Andrew. Thanks you guys for joining us again this year. It seems like it definitely snuck up on us with the kind of condensed schedule after the Super Bowl. But definitely excited to get all the draft conversation kicked up and cranking.
This is a fun draft class. I think it's different than some of the years we've had recently where from a quarterback standpoint I don't know we have the star power. I don't know that we'll have a top 10 pick there.
So I think a lot of people have kind of looked at the top of this draft and have their thoughts about whether or not it stacks up with previous years, but I would just say kind of as I'm going through this process and watching all these guys and then paying attention through the postseason and seeing the Rams win the Super Bowl, I think the discussion about the Rams being a superstar team is obviously very valid, but I think if you look at that team and who some of their key players are and the home run picks they've had outside the first round to help really build the nucleus of that team, it shows you the importance of depth in a draft.
I think this is a really good depth draft, especially when you get into the second, third, fourth round. There's a lot of quality there, a lot of starters.
Really looking forward to the combine in Indianapolis, watching all these guys work out, and looking forward to chatting with you guys, so fire away.
Q. Hoping you can help me sort through Kyle Hamilton, fantastic prospect, but maybe the value of drafting a safety at No. 2 for a team like the Lions, would you take that over a Hutchinson or Thibodeaux or one of those pass rushers if they're there, and maybe your thoughts on him in general, too?
DANIEL JEREMIAH: Yeah, I think it's a great question. To me there's a real debate going on around the league about just how high you take safeties. I'm a little more biased in favor of them. You know calling the Chargers games for the last four years and seeing every game that Derwin James has played there and the impact that position can make, and think back to my time with the Baltimore Ravens and seeing what Ed Reed could do.
So I don't necessarily agree with the conventional wisdom on that, of how high you take a safety. I think this kid is pretty unique. He's so tall and long and rangy. The ability to make plays from the deep middle as well as to drop down and play down low and be a physical player, he can erase tight ends.
The interception against Florida State is as good as it gets, and I think from a makeup standpoint, I haven't got all of the background information on him, but when you watch him cover punts as a gunner and see how hard he plays, I think this guy checks all those boxes.
In a draft like this one where to me Hutchinson is my top player, but after Hutchinson, if Hutchinson is off the board and he goes 1, I would have no issues whatsoever with them taking Kyle Hamilton and saying this is a plug-and-play guy who's going to give them something they desperately need and that's somebody who can make a play.
In a different draft, and maybe if you had some guys that were different level of grades, you could say, okay, I'll lean towards the edge rusher positional value. But I think Kyle Hamilton stacks up really well with everybody in this draft.
Q. Just want to get your assessment of the top Georgia guys that we're seeing in a lot of first rounds, Dean, Jordan Davis, Travon Walker and Wyatt, Devonte Wyatt.
DANIEL JEREMIAH: Yeah, there's a bunch of them, man. I have everything kind of set up to give you a peek behind the curtain. Everything is set up in my excel sheet. When I got to Georgia I have to like really scroll to get to all my notes because there's so many of those guys.
I'll go through them one by one. Nakobe Dean, I remember Vilma when he first came into the league and I remember during the scouting process and something that people had concerns about size or this, that or the other and the guy was just dripping with instincts.
Everything was so natural to him. He saw things and was two steps ahead of everybody on the field. That's who Nakobe dean reminds me of. When you talk about the center of your defense and having that intelligence, the toughness, the leadership, he's got all that stuff in spades.
I think he's outstanding. He can cover. You see him mirror backs. He's a real crafty blitzer. In my notes I wrote this guy does everything fast. There's nothing he does that isn't fast. He's probably the greatest disparity in terms of how I have a guy graded and where I have him going because I can't get a feel for where he's going to go in the first round.
He's a top-10 player for me, but I know in talking to a lot of teams, teams are obsessed with trying to find the longer, rangier, off-the-ball linebackers. They're looking for Darius Leonard, they're looking for Fred Warner, and I think some of that kind of dings Nakobe because he doesn't have that size and length.
I'm curious to see where he goes, but I'll bet on him. I think he's going to be a really, really good player.
Travon Walker is one that I think I upset the majority of the New York Giants fan base by giving him to the Giants in this latest mock draft. And I wasn't trolling. I legit think this guy has got a chance to go all the way up there.
He's going to go to the combine. From what I was told from what he was doing at Georgia, he's going to be 6'5", anywhere from 265 to 275 pounds. He's probably going to have close to 35 inch arms, which is ridiculously long, and he's going to run in the low 4.6s.
So literally is -- he's a special, special athlete. When you watch him on tape at Georgia, I know some people will joint to the pressure percentage numbers, the pass production, and be a little disappointed, but when you study him and you see how tight his alignments are there and what he's asked to do, they don't loosen him up on the edge and just let him go.
I think an NFL team is going to give him that opportunity, and I think you're going to see a really, really good player. But this is somebody, when you're talking to GMs and personnel directors on an almost daily basis, this guy's name comes up almost every day. This guy has got a lot of love around the league, and he's going to go a lot higher than people anticipate.
Bonus on him. If you want to see one of the better plays in this draft, go watch what he does against Florida when he drops in coverage and tips a ball up in the air that gets picked off. It's pretty incredible.
Jordan Davis I would say is a pretty polarizing player from folks around the league. Obviously he's a giant. He's enormous. He's really got some knock-back to him as a pass rusher. He's got some sneaky quickness to go along with that. He's got range against the run.
The big question on him was how much can you play him and how big is his gas tank. In that first Alabama game, that bothered some folks because you thought he got really gassed out. They went with a little tempo, kept him on the field, and gassed him out.
I think he goes somewhere in the 10 to 20 range in this draft just because he's such a unique player because of the size. He's an interesting one.
I'll go to the next one in Devonte Wyatt. He's going to put on a show at the combine, as well. He is a freak. He was dominant at the Senior Bowl, super, super twitched up. He's going to be 300 plus pounds and he's going to run in probably like the 4.8s or something like that.
He's going to go flying up the board because everyone is trying to find interior pass rushers.
Quay Walker can play off the ball, can over the tight end, real physical. He's got tremendous range. I think he probably goes in the second round would be my guess in this draft.
And then Cine is just a real physical safety. He's a great run support player, plays with a lot of speed. I think his thing is going to be in coverage. You can see him in coverage, there are some times he gets beat by tight ends, and that's a little bit of the concern there, but you love the temperament and how he plays.
Q. I was wondering if you could speak to the effect that 2021 is going to have on 2022; and I know last year we spoke about how there was about as third as many prospects in the pool so the pool of candidates for the draft was shallow. This year are we seeing what we expected, that there's going to be value in rounds 6 and 7? And also, if you could kind of speak to the return of the cluster busting or the group think with the return of the combine. How is that going to all affect this year's draft?
DANIEL JEREMIAH: Yeah, last year was definitely unique, not having the combine. I think when you look at what we anticipated last year, it's kind of interesting because yes, we do have -- I think it's going to be a good day 3 when you get into rounds 6 and 7. I think there is some good depth there.
I don't think it's quite what everybody expected, though, and I think part of that has to do with the extra year that all these guys still have that wanted to go back. I think we saw a decent number of guys do that, and talking to college coaches around the country, I know there's some frustration with trying to get your arms around the NIL stuff.
But one of the things it's done is I think it's allowed them to keep some players that maybe would have come out in other years. I think maybe the huge wave of numbers we thought we'd see this year, I don't know that it's necessarily there for those reasons.
The combine being back, though, yeah, it's back, but I don't know that every organization is sending their full allotment of people like they normally would. I know some people are coming in for a little bit and then leaving. So some of the group think stuff that would go on in years past, I don't know if we'll have that to that full extent.
There are a lot of clusters, when you talk about cluster busters in this draft and closely graded players. I mean, I've said similar things in years past, but this year especially, the difference between the 15th player and the 60th player in this draft is very small, and teams are going to have these guys in all different orders.
It's going to be fascinating to see how it all comes together.
Q. I wanted to ask you about the Patriots and maybe the potential for them to upgrade their receiver room. We talked during the season and you called Mac Jones a trailer with truck upside. Are there any guys in that 20 to 50 range, they're picking at 21 and 53, that could come in right away and help Mac Jones get a little bit closer to that truck upside?
DANIEL JEREMIAH: Yeah, I think there's a ton of guys in that range. The two guys I would keep an eye on with that first-round pick who I think are going to probably come off the board right around there -- now, I say that going into the combine know that -- I'm talking about Chris Olave from Ohio State and Jahan Dotson from Penn State. Both these guys are going to run in the 4.3s, so they're going to fly around in Indy, and maybe that helps elevate them up the board a little bit.
But both those guys are pristine route runners with big time speed, and I think that would give them some play-making ability.
Talk about Mac and the deep ball he was able to throw this college. He throws a beautiful touch deep ball. When you got guys that can get over the top, takeoffs, posts, double moves, things like that, that what's Olave and Jahan Dotson can do.
I think Dotson for me, I think he has the best hands in the draft. He really attacks the football. He's got outstanding ability to adjust. He can catch it back hip, above the rim. You name it, he can do it. So he's a really intriguing player to me.
Both these guys, I think the reason why they would be there in the 20s is because of the play strength question. Both of them are going to be under 190 pounds, and you just wish they were a little bit physically stronger. But I think both of them, they come off the board in that range.
The other one in the first round, we'll see what happens with Jameson Williams from Alabama, because in a world where he doesn't get hurt, he's a top-10 pick.
But coming off of an ACL you would think there would be a full recovery there, and that could end up being -- man, it could end up being a tremendous value for somebody towards the bottom of the first round if he ends up sliding down there.
A couple other guys that I think are kind of like Patriot-type players, Skyy Moore from Western Michigan. Probably going to go in the second or third round, but he's got some -- maybe it's just the Mac thing, but I saw some Antonio Brown traits from him when you studied him, minus some of the newer Antonio Brown info.
But that dude with just eat cushion, he's really dynamic and crisp. The Patriots love guys like that. He's quicker than a hiccup. Just puts guys in a blender. Just really fun to watch.
Then an outside guy that gets some steam is Christian Watson North Dakota State who is 6'4", 211 pounds. Had an awesome week down there at the Senior Bowl, and he's going to run really fast, as well. And actually was a more fluid and smooth route runner down in Mobile than maybe you anticipated off the tape.
It's a great wide receiver draft. I feel like we could copy and paste the comments on wide receivers and use it for the next 20 years, because the college game is giving us a ton of these guys every year.
Q. I'll keep it with receivers here. The Eagles have drafted one in the first round in back-to-back drafts. Is it a realistic possibility that they do it again? And if you're looking at this crop, would it make sense for them to try to draft someone that would complement Devonta Smith?
DANIEL JEREMIAH: Yeah, when you've got three ones I think all options are on the table. When you study Howie and how he operates and how that personnel department operates, you know there's going to be at least one, if not two bigs if they keep all three of those picks.
I would imagine you're going to see at least one defensive lineman, maybe two, or maybe it's one defensive line, one offensive line.
But yeah, I think there's a strong case to be made for one of those wide receivers.
I would love Garrett Wilson in there. I think he's the best receiver in the draft in my opinion, and he can do everything. He is a complete wide receiver.
We talk about the speed guys in this draft and we talk about the physical play-above-the-rim guys, I think he gives you a little bit of both of that with what he can do after the catch, as well.
I think he'd be a really nice complement. From just a pure size skillset standpoint, you'd say Drake London would be kind of the power forward that they don't necessarily have there opposite of Devonta.
I think he's exceptional. Again, watching the Chargers and seeing what Mike Williams does, I think Drake London can do that stuff. He can play inside. He can play outside. He's got outstanding hands. He's got outstanding feel and instincts. A lot of contested catches, which you talk to some people around the league and they celebrate it, and you talk to other people around the league and they say, oh, it's because he can't separate.
I don't know. I know the guy is big, and when the ball goes up in the air, he comes down with it. He's a really intriguing player, and everything that I've been told about him from a character, competitiveness, makeup stuff, it's just completely off the charts.
Q. I wanted to ask, you will be shocked by the question, but wanted to ask, as teams sort of try to reverse engineer and maybe perfect some of their processes, especially after COVID, how are you seeing teams draft differently in the middle rounds and sort of maximize opportunities to get the right guy in sort of what has previously been thought of as maybe a toss-up sort of process?
DANIEL JEREMIAH: Well, I think teams have been really smart about kind of the positions that they attack in those middle rounds and realizing that -- you look at wide receivers, you look at linebackers, you look at safeties, that's again one of those lessons that the Rams -- from the Rams. Their ability to be able to do that is why they are where they are, as everyone knows, as you know.
You look at the safeties, the number of safeties, I have it right here, that go on the second day -- let me pull that up and find it. I've got it on here somewhere.
I'll get back to that later.
But there is a lot -- you can find tons of safeties. You can find starters there on day two and day three. Yeah, that's the Rams' thing. I think that's going to catch on around the league, too, is people are going to realize when you target the right positions outside of round 1, you can survive without a first-round pick.
Q. How do you think not just the Rams, but how do you see teams -- what is their process in identifying those? Are you seeing trends in that regard of the, quote-unquote, right positions to sort of value more in that space specifically?
DANIEL JEREMIAH: I don't know if there's any trends in terms of how you're evaluating them. I think it's probably more just how you stack your board and knowing what positions you want to target in those specific areas.
When you look at rounds 2 and 3, they average there's five and a half safeties on average over the last 10 years that go in that range. It's a good spot to find those guys.
But yeah, I don't know that there's any trends in terms of what you're looking for or how you're evaluating them. I think it's just saying, hey, we've got to get the big rocks in the jar first, which are your quarterbacks, your pass rushers, your offensive tackles, your corners, and then knowing you can go shopping for guards, safeties, running backs, tight ends, all that stuff in those middle rounds, and I think teams have really started to figure that out.
Q. Also interested in the Eagles a little bit and if you start looking at edge rushers specifically in that mid-range, what do you think Howie might be looking for and what kind of differentiates those guys?
DANIEL JEREMIAH: Yeah, it's a really good group of depth here when you get to these edge rushers. You're talking about the middle of the first round or --
Q. Yeah, middle of the first round, basically 15, 16, 19, so that's where they're --
DANIEL JEREMIAH: Yeah, we talked about Walker already. I think he's going to be long gone by then. I think the guys that you're probably going to be looking at, it's probably going to be like a Karlaftis, Ojabo. I think Jermaine Johnson is probably going to be gone by then from Florida State. He's taken off from having a really good season and having a great week of practice down there in Mobile at the Senior Bowl. He's just -- he probably moved himself right out of the Eagles' range there.
But Karlaftis is a legitimate one. I know it's polarizing, I guess, but just about everybody I talk to in the NFL feels like this is a real high-floor player. I wrote down in comp that he reminded me of Kerrigan, and then you find out they're both Purdue guys and him and Kerrigan talk and they've got a good relationship, which would be an interesting connection to the Eagles.
But to give you an idea on car Karlaftis, when the scouts went in there they said this guy is --they had to kick him out of the facility, he bought an apartment right next to the facility so he could get there all the time and literally he's just a football junkie. He's a big time power rusher. He plays extremely hard.
I know some people think of that as a knock on somebody when you say he's got a real big motor and plays really hard. It's like you're trying to cover up for something else. But no, this guy has got some quickness. He's got some power. He's just not real loose or bendy at the top, but I think he'll be in that mix about where they're picking.
Then Ojabo is a fascinating one at Michigan who's just really started to come on on the other side of Hutchinson. He's got a big-time get-off. He can bend better once he gets to the top of his rush than Karlaftis. He just needs to be a little stronger, more consistent, and kind of earn more reps to play the run, which he didn't get a ton of there at Michigan.
I would say those are probably the names you're looking at. And then maybe if you slid back a little bit, which Howie loves to move around, so now if you slide back you get into a new set of names when you start talking about Boye Mafe from Minnesota who can end up going. He's an interesting one, and there are some other intriguing names that are a little bit undersized but are really, really good players who could play kind of a Sam for them, who could drop a little bit. A guy like Nik Bonitto could do some of those things from Oklahoma, who I think is probably going to end up going in the second round.
Q. It's no secret the Giants still need to build out that offensive line, still need to keep adding edge rushers, and it seems like the Bills consistently invest in top picks along both lines when Joe Shane and Brian Daboll were there. Who are some of the best fits for what they need to build at 5 and 7 in your opinion?
DANIEL JEREMIAH: Yeah, I mean, correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't remember, did Buffalo -- I don't think they took a first-round offensive lineman with those guys there, didn't they?
Q. First couple rounds, yeah.
DANIEL JEREMIAH: Yeah, no, they did that with Cody Ford and company in the second round. Yeah, when you look at guys that can fit them, they're going to value physicality, and Joe is big on that. Joe is really big on character and makeup, competitiveness, toughness.
I think Ekwonu would be a slam dunk if he got to them. I don't know that he's going to get there, but if he did, I think that would be one they'd probably just turn in the card.
They're going to be in a tough spot, though. I think everybody acknowledges they need to upgrade the offensive line for sure. But if Ekwonu is gone and Evan Neal is gone, now I think you're in a tough spot. Trevor Penning, it's probably early there, and they have other areas they need to address with their team.
So it's easy to say they need an offensive lineman, they're taking an offensive lineman, but if it doesn't fall that way, I don't necessarily know that they're going to force it.
When you look back at the Bills, they've built that offensive line to be a serviceable offensive line, and they've done it without a first-round pick. There's other picks in the draft to be able to go and address that.
You know, it kind of gets to the philosophy on how you build an offensive line, which I think has changed. I think it was just a few years ago when the Cowboys had the best offensive line in the league and it was all these first-round picks, and okay, you've got to dedicate all these resources and high-value picks to your offensive line, to now, hey, your offensive line is as good as your worst player, so you don't need five Tony Bosellis. You just can't have any tomato cans out there.
And you can build that in the middle rounds. You can find really good offensive linemen in the second and third round.
I went back and looked up the five last Super Bowl teams. If you go back and look up the last five Super Bowl teams, that's Super Bowl winning teams, that's 25 starting offensive linemen. Of the 25 starting offensive linemen, three of them were home-grown first-round picks; four of them were day two picks; seven were day three picks; one was an undrafted free agent; and four were veterans that were acquired in free agency or via trade.
You can build an offensive line without using all your first-round picks to do it, and that's why I think the Giants are in an interesting spot if those top two guys are gone. I don't know that they necessarily need to force that.
Q. The Ohio State -- obviously the consensus is that Chris Olave and Garrett Wilson will be first-round picks. I'm curious about the others, kind mid-round, second round or mid-round guys maybe starting with Jeremy Ruckert. Can you address where you think those guys might fit?
DANIEL JEREMIAH: Yeah. Again, it's a good group. You start getting to -- I'll start with Ruckert. Ruckert is somebody who didn't have a lot of opportunities there in terms of targets. Only had 42 targets this year. He's kind of a good, true wide tight end, hand-in-the-ground, not real flashy, not real explosive, but he can help you out in the run game and he's a reliable pass catcher.
I gave him a grade that kind of puts him in that fourth-round range for this draft. I think it's a pretty good tight end draft. There's no Kyle Pitts, but there is a ton of depth, so I think that's probably about where he stacks up.
Petit-Frere, the tackle is probably -- I have him more in that third round. I wouldn't be shocked if he snuck into the second round. But he's got real quick feet. He can really work his hands. I thought he just needed to play with a little more strength. He gives a little ground versus power. But he's got a lot of athleticism. There's a lot of stuff to work with.
Tyreke Smith I think is probably in that fourth-round range. He's talented. He's got a lot of twitch. He's got a lot of juice coming off the edge. He just needs to be a little more firm in the run game. He got washed a little bit too much with that.
Haskell Garrett, which I have probably called him Garrett Haskell at last 10 times already in the draft process, so I'm sure I'm going to screw that up on draft night.
If you watched Akron you'd think he was going to be the first pick in the draft. He loved playing the zips. He had three sacks in that game and got after them, but he's probably somebody that's more of a fifth-round guy.
And same for Thayer Munford. Where do you play him? Do you play him at guard? Do you play him at tackle? He's got good awareness. He just played really high, and that got exposed a little bit against some of the better competition.
Q. A couple questions on the quarterbacks. First, which quarterback do you think is ready to play now and maybe who has the highest long-term ceiling, and which of those guys do you think might fit best in Nathaniel Hackett's system there in Denver?
DANIEL JEREMIAH: By the way, we were 32 minutes in before we got the first quarterback question, so that tells you it's a little bit different draft.
But ready to play right now, I would say Pickett. Pickett has got a lot of experience. He to me is somebody when you watch all these guys and you kind of watch them all one after another, he's just different with how quickly he operates, just getting through progressions, getting the ball where it needs to be.
He doesn't have wow arm strength. He doesn't blow you away with that, but he's got really good vision. He throws with anticipation and timing. I think he'd be ready to come in and play right away.
In terms of the upside, I don't know how you'd see anybody other than Malik Willis just in terms of what he can do once he gets it all figured out, but he's got a huge arm. Not real tall obviously, just a little over 6 feet tall, but he is built. He is a powerfully built guy who can drive the ball.
You saw it at the Senior Bowl when it was raining and everybody else was struggling. He didn't have any issues whatsoever. This guy can really power the football. He can make off-platform throws. He can create. You can use the -- you know, design quarterback run game with him and he's outstanding with that. He's just so strong and physical. I think he would be the one with the most upside.
And then the third part of that question, who fits best? Yeah, I would probably say Pickett. Matt Corral is really intriguing, but I would say with how they operate and what they want from the quarterback position, I would probably lean towards Pickett as fitting them best.
Q. Earlier you mentioned to Jordan that teams can survive without a first-round pick given the depth in this draft, which could be good news for the 49ers who currently don't have one. But with their first pick coming in the second round, two positions that come to mind are cornerback and O-line. It's early, but are there any prospects that make sense to you for San Francisco there or a different position group overall?
DANIEL JEREMIAH: No, that's a good question. Corners, I think it's a solid group of corners. Where they're picking I'll be curious, you know, where does Kaiir Elam end up going from Florida, who's really, really tall. He's a press corner. He's got big-time makeup speed.
There's some stuff in the transition that he struggled with a little bit, gave up a little bit of separation, but I think there's a lot to like about him in kind of that range of where they are.
And then with the offensive line, you're going to be able to find tackles pretty much throughout this draft. A guy like Max Mitchell would be intriguing to me from Louisiana. He's got really good feet. He's a really good athlete, and he's got the ability to reach and seal guys in the run game.
You think about the run game with the Niners and what they ask of those guys movement-wise, he'd be up for the challenge. He can really move. He would be a fun one, I think, that would fit really well there.
Q. Got to ask about the Canadians.
DANIEL JEREMIAH: Metchie, let's go. Let's go with Metchie.
Q. I figured you would want tos tart with him, but also Jesse Luketa, the Penn State edge, and from London, Ontario Western University, Deionte Knight and any other Canadians you might have heard about?
DANIEL JEREMIAH: I haven't done Knight yet from the Shrine Bowl. I don't think he's going to the combine if I am correct. But I will get to him. I promise you I will get to him. You can hit me on Twitter and I'll get back to you on that.
But Metchie is going to be a great value pick in this draft. He is a ready-made slot. He is really, really a crisp route runner. He's tough. He's strong. The ACL injury is just a matter of where you take him, but I don't think his game was really ever built on speed, so -- and I think -- I wrote down in my comparison he reminded me of an Amari Rodgers type player who went to the Packers because he can do a lot of different things.
In terms of those whip routes they ask him to run, he's outstanding at it. I would guess with the injury and a pretty deep receiver corps, he might -- third, fourth round. Maybe he gets in the fourth round. It would be a heck of a pick for somebody.
And then Luketa, he's just a real versatile player. You talk to some coaches around the league right now and kind of where everything is going, we've been talking about positionless players forever. He's a different style when it comes to that in terms of what he can do. But he can do more than one thing, so his ability to play off the ball, his ability to rush off the edge.
I love the fact that the guy just plays with fantastic energy. He just is always bouncing around. He's got a lot of juice. He's got a lot of life. He's got really, really violent hands when he takes on blocks. Some of the change-of-direction stuff and some of the stiffness you're just going to have to live with.
But I would say Luketa is probably a third-round type guy, somewhere probably in that range.
Q. The aborted bobble aside, do the agents have a legitimate gripe about the conditions at the combine regarding nutrition, scheduling, rest, and that sort of thing? And do you think there are going to be any less or fewer guys that are going to run this year?
DANIEL JEREMIAH: Well, I mean, my phone -- I got a lot of calls when that was announced of what the restrictions were going to be. A lot of these places where they train these guys, they are creatures of habit. They have a process that they go with. These guys are on very strict nutrition in terms of the workouts they're going through and all the prep work, so I think the last-minute change on that was -- startled them.
I think you probably would have seen a good number of them carry through on that threat and not done it, so not worked out. I was glad to see everything worked out the way that it did. Everybody can be safe as well as give everybody the opportunity to put their best foot forward in the workout.
I'm glad it all worked out. But I totally understand where they're coming from just because you've been going forward with one idea in mind of how you're going to get ready for this event and then that changed late.
I do think we'll see the majority of the guys that were planning on working out working out. I don't think that there's any reason -- if you hadn't decided a long time ago that you weren't ready, those guys are in their own pile, but I don't think because of this little back-and-forth deal that we'll see anybody not run that was going to.
Q. A general question really about the value of the combine itself. I know it's changed over the years, but with all the technology that's been added for the league, Steve Keim was telling me that they use FaceTime more than they ever thought they would in their lives just to further interview prospects. Can you talk about the value that it still has for teams today and how much the combine has changed overall?
DANIEL JEREMIAH: Yeah, I still think it has value. It definitely has changed. We talked earlier about some of the guys coming out doing their media obligations and then going back home. But you also have the ability through, like you were saying, with FaceTime or Zoom or whatever you use to be able to get a lot more interviews and conversations with these guys.
I think it's still valuable from the standpoint of watching these guys all move around on the field together. When you've got corners and you've got four corners that you've got the same grade on and you think they're potential starters, have them all kind of in your third-round stack and they're out on the same field at the same time doing the same drills, it really helps you to be able to separate those and evaluate those guys in terms of how they move.
I have always said the combine, the All-Star games, they don't provide wild swings, but they can break ties, and I think there's still value there.
I think some people would say, well, you see everything on the tape so you don't need to have the combine, and what's the point of the pro day. You have all this technology. Yeah, well you know what? If I watch a corner and he never plays press, I want to see how he moves when he gets up in there. If you watch a corner and he's always in a side turn, I want to see how he pedals.
So you get in these drill sessions, you get a chance to fill in some of the gaps for some of these guys doing things they haven't done before.
You may have a defensive end that's 230 pounds and you've got to write him up as an off-the-ball linebacker, I sure as heck would like to see him do some linebackers drills, and it helps for context to see him do those drills with other linebackers.
So I still think there's a lot of value to it.
Q. You obviously mocked Aidan to Detroit at No. 2, but I'm curious in your evaluation, what's the biggest difference between Hutch and Thibodeaux when you watch and evaluate them on tape?
DANIEL JEREMIAH: Well, I think first of all, Hutchinson has more ways to get to the quarterback. I think he's got more tools in that regard. I also think he plays a lot harder on a consistent basis.
I think that's a little bit of a knock on Thibodeaux, is there's times where the effort kind of comes and goes a little bit. You don't ever see that with Hutchinson.
I think both guys have a little bit of ankle tightness that shows up. I don't think either one of them are elite bend-at-the-top-of-your-rush guys, but I think that Aidan is showing a little bit more snap and explosiveness with his hands on contact.
You see it in flashes with Thibodeaux, but I think overall kind of the theme is that Hutchinson, especially on this year when you compare those two guys, just down in, down out, game in, game out, was just more consistent throughout the season.
Q. A couple questions, one more general, one more specific. It's kind of with Kyle Hamilton. You hear some people say that safety isn't a premium position, which I'm kind of at a loss in today's NFL. Where do you stand on the importance of a safety in any defense? Everyone is looking for the next Micah Parsons in this draft. Good luck, but is there a guy like Devin Lloyd or someone else who could be that off-ball edge kind of hybrid right away?
DANIEL JEREMIAH: Yeah, there's not -- I love some of the players in this draft, but Micah Parsons is pretty unique in that regard.
I'm with you, though, on the importance of safeties. I said it a little bit earlier, but I've been around some really good ones, and I absolutely see the value.
I think today I'd argue it's more valuable than it's ever been because it's such a space game, and you need tacklers. You need guys back there that can cover and guys that can tackle, and then if you have the versatility to be able to do multiple things, cover in the slot or match up with tight ends, I just think it's never been more important to have guys like that.
If you've got a safety that can't consistently cover a tackle, you are in big trouble with the way the game is right now with all the spread and speed that you're going to see. Yeah, I'm with you. I know league-wide you hear a mixed bag on that. I still think there's tremendous value at that position.
In terms of like the do-everything guys off the ball, on the edge, Devin Lloyd is my first choice there. He's explosive. He's not going to run as fast as Micah did, but he's got length, he's got instincts, he's outstanding in pass coverage. Like if you watch the Stanford game, he's got a pick six in that game that's pretty cool.
But no, he's somebody that can do a little bit of both from that regard.
I would also add, we talked about him a little bit earlier, but from Georgia, Quay Walker, he can do some different things, too. He's kind of a unique package with his ability to play off the ball and rush, as well.
Q. I know you talked about Kayvon Thibodeaux a little bit, but talk about Verone McKinley, Oregon prospect, and also Mykael Wright and some of the other Ducks prospects you see, as well.
DANIEL JEREMIAH: Sure. McKinley has got a ton of production, that's for sure. What did he have, six picks, I believe. Yeah, he plays in the middle of the field. He's got really good eyes. I thought there were some times he got a little bit greedy.
You don't get six picks without being willing to take some chances, so there's times he gets a little bit aggressive. There's some missed tackles in space that bothered me a little bit. That's probably why I dropped him down a little bit lower.
But you've got ball production. You've got somebody that plays pretty fast. I think he's somebody that's going to -- where I have him graded, we'll see how this whole draft shakes out, let's see him run and all that stuff, but I have him more probably in that fifth-round range.
Mykael Wright, he's got a real slight build. He's really fluid from off. He's somebody that's usually in good position except when he's looking at his wristband against Ohio State, and I think it was Garrett Wilson that went right by him. He got caught peeking on that one.
But he's another one I just think you want to see him be a little bit stronger, maybe a little bit more physical. You're talking fourth, fifth round for me.
Q. I know we've seen sort of the evolution of the tight end position a little bit over the last few years and more basketball player type players and guys who were explosive. You talked a little bit about Jeremy Ruckert; how hard is it to maybe project and fit him into that role in the NFL based on what he was asked to do at Ohio State?
DANIEL JEREMIAH: Yeah, I mean, you got to see a little bit of it down at the Senior Bowl. Got a chance to ask him to do some different things.
But I remember seeing this kid at the opening, at the Nike opening, which was for all the top high school players. We were covering that for NFL Network that year that he was coming out. It was Justin Fields and Trevor Lawrence, and he stood out. I noticed him as a high school kid, just his ability to really go get the football.
You know he can do that. I don't think he's ultra, ultra twitched up and explosive, but I think you want guys that are dynamic. But it's also sure nice to be able to put your hand in the ground and be a friend to the running back and not just the quarterback, and I think he can do that. I think that's where he's going to help his value a little bit.
The numbers and the production aren't great, but if you go and look at the top tight ends in the NFL and for the most part look at their production with guys like George Kittle, it's a traits-over-production position right now. You're trying to find guys that have the ability to do those things. You don't necessarily need to have seen them do it, but they need to have that ability.
That's why I could argue corners in terms of workouts and pro days and combine, I think corners have the most riding on it because you've got to really be able to run there. I would say tight ends are second because it's really evolved into being a traits position. You get the traits and you can figure the rest of it out.
Q. A Jets question with 4 and 10. One school of thought is you have to do everything possible with your resources to help your quarterback as much as possible to reach his potential, but you also have a head coach who's a defensive guy, whose defense was 32nd in the league in most of the categories. If you're Joe Douglas it might be an interesting dilemma. How do you think Joe proceeds?
DANIEL JEREMIAH: Well, I think it's hard with any of these teams this time before free agency to say with any certainty they need to do this, that, or the other. I think they're in a great cap situation, and I think they've kind of positioned themselves to be pretty aggressive.
I would expect they'll be pretty active in free agency, and I think that might clear the pictures up in terms of where they could go with 4 and 10.
But it's a good thing and a bad thing. The bad news is you've got a lot of needs. The good news is you've got a lot of needs. So you can take the best players that are available in those spots.
I think they've got to come through this off-season, they've got to get another playmaker to help the quarterback. I think they need an interior lineman to help the quarterback. I think they need a tight end to help the quarterback.
Now, the good news is tight ends in free agency, it's a really deep crowded group. The tight ends in the group are a deep, crowded group. I don't think they need to devote any early resources in the draft to get that problem solved.
And I think from an interior offensive lineman standpoint, there's some guys in free agency that are interesting, and then you also have the prospect of getting guys on day two.
When I look at their picks in the first round, I look at some of their remaining needs and I think playmaker. A receiver would be interesting if you love a guy. And then obviously on defense I think an edge rusher and a corner. I think those three positions, I think you probably get two out of those three.
Q. The Cowboys have spoken a lot about Dan Quinn's influence on their personnel philosophy. I'm curious how much you factor that in when you looked at what you thought would be a good fit for the Cowboys this year and how you think he's influencing what they're looking for.
DANIEL JEREMIAH: Yeah, I mean, Dan is -- I think when they were in Atlanta, the phrase that him and Thomas Dimitroff would always use is "urgent athletes." They were looking for guys that were just sudden, explosive, and pretty dynamic.
Micah Parsons definitely fits the bill when you're thinking about those traits. When you look at them in this upcoming draft and you say, okay, defensively you need a corner, I mean, Kyler Gordon from Washington is somebody I think would be a fascinating fit there because he's got the size and length that you love. He's big time explosive.
When you get to the combine he's going to jump over 40 inches. He's going to run in the 4.3s. He's a dynamic athlete. It would be fun to see him on the other side of Diggs. I think he would be a great fit there.
And then I believe I've had Nakobe Dean going in there in some of these mock drafts who's the definition of an urgent athlete. He might not have the big-time size that you look for, but in terms of just playing with your hair on fire and playing fast from snap to whistle, he fits that.
And then also the added bonus is you have all the intelligence and all the leadership, and I think you could take some stuff off of Parsons' plate, maybe free him up a little bit more to do some stuff off the edge. I would love to see that fit with Dan Quinn.
Q. I was looking at your latest mock and you have Washington at 11 going a different direction, not quarterback, despite all five being there. One, why did you go that direction? Two, which of the quarterbacks do you think is the best fit for the commanders?
DANIEL JEREMIAH: Yeah, I mean, it's just challenging because none of the quarterbacks just completely blow you away that say, okay, slam dunk, you've got to take him.
I just think about Ron Rivera, where he's at in his career, and look at some of the pieces on this roster and I'm just wondering if they end up trying to go the veteran route. When you do these mock drafts you play with different scenarios. The first one you do you say, okay, they take the quarterback, this is the path they go down.
But when you look at some other options that could be out there from the veteran market and you say, okay, if they were to go with a veteran quarterback, what's the play here? And if Scherff is leaving in free agency, which I think a lot of people expect to happen, you're going to have a hole there.
Did I have Kenyon Green going there? I think he's the best interior lineman in the draft who's got some real power, some real strength. He can anchor down in pass pro.
It's going to be fascinating to see who kind of blinks when it comes to these quarterbacks. I don't have one with a top 10 grade, but I also don't have a dying need for the position personally in the Jeremiah household. I'm curious to see who the first team is to say, okay, yeah, we're all in on one of these guys.
Q. My question is actually on the Jags' behalf. You've spoken on the receivers already. It looks like we know what they pretty much can do at first overall between Neal or one of the pass rushers that you've already talked on, but with the 33rd overall pick is my big question. Is there a wide receiver one or wide receiver two prospect that has wide receiver one or wide receiver two potential, a prospect that would be available there at 33rd overall that you think they could get? Clearly aside from the offensive line they need help at wide receiver.
DANIEL JEREMIAH: Well, we see receivers that are first-round guys fall out of the first round every year, and part of it's just because we have the sheer numbers. But if you look at the wide outs that have been taken in the second round over the last handful of years, you're going to see a ton of studs from -- just look at Ole Miss, from D.K. Metcalf, AJ brown, Elijah Moore, those three wide receivers from one school, Terry McLaurin, on and on and on and on. We can go through Deebo Samuel. Every year we se guys with big grades that end up falling into the second round just because of the sheer number of wide outs that we have.
So yeah, they could end up getting a No. 1 or No. 2 receiver. I'm curious, we talked about him a little bit, but Jameson Williamson, where does he go? Does he still go in the first round off that injury? If he doesn't, you're the Jags, shoot, you talk about hitting a home run, when he gets healthy, you've got a dynamic player for Trevor to work with here.
That would be kind of a slam dunk no-brainer. We've talked about Olave and Dotson, does one of them fall out. I think Treylon Burks will be long gone. Kind of a wildcard, it might be a little early there with that first pick, but George Pickens from Georgia who's had some injuries is really, really gifted.
To me I think -- I kind of thought he'd be more back end of 2, but we'll see how he goes through the spring because that guy, he can really go up and get the football. He just has that ability to play above the rim and he's a pretty crisp route runner for somebody who's 6'3".
He's an interesting one. I think those are kind of the names I'd keep an eye on. After that you slide down a little bit, you get into the David Bells, the Christian Watsons, the Skyy Moores, the Jalen Tolberts of the world.
Q. You pretty much hit the nail on the head with what I was thinking with Pickens. He was a name that came up, a kind of freaky athlete kind of hurt by the ACL situation. And Williams, a lot of people say what they like about Trent Baalke, but Williams with the ACL injury falling to them, that's the ideal Trent Baalke situation --
DANIEL JEREMIAH: I've heard that. Everybody likes to have fun with the ACL with the Niner days. No, I don't think you'd have too many complaining Jags fans if they end up with Jameson Williams the top of the second round.
Q. What do you think teams learned last season about the evaluation without a draft and doing a pro days, and how do you think they'll apply it this year now that the combines are back?
DANIEL JEREMIAH: That's a good question. I think really it's been discussed a little bit, but the ability to communicate with these guys over Zoom and be able to use that technology to your advantage I think is something that's going to carry over in a big way.
Getting a chance to watch tape and share your screen and go over video with players, you used to not be able to do that. In order to have a film session with somebody you got your 15 minutes at the combine, and you had one opportunity to bring him into the facility, and then maybe you'd go out there for the pro day and you've got 30 other position coaches that are trying to meet with the same kid the day before, so that can get kind of tricky.
Now you can do it almost as much as you want to get with him and really get a sense for how they learn and what you're seeing and what they're seeing and how that meshes. I think that's definitely something you're going to see carry over.
I think the GPS stuff, that's real. I think a lot of people relied on that. A lot of teams relied on that last year, and that's going to be, again, the case. The one thing I would say is there's a discrepancy; some of the stuff you get from different schools, some of the numbers I've received from some schools I'm not necessarily buying because it doesn't match up. I have a hard time believing some of these tight ends are faster than Tyreek Hill. Some of that stuff you've got to sift through and sort through, but I do think that teams have their own software that they've been able to use some of this GPS stuff off of the tape and trying to get real game speed numbers versus just what we might get at a 40.
Q. Switching from the Giants to the Jets, I know you were high a couple years ago on Mekhi Becton. Do you still feel that way, because I'm looking at your mock and gave them Ekwonu and they have Becton. So with a team with a lot of needs you went tackle. Is that because you think they could take a tackle who could play guard, whether it's Ekwonu or somebody else? Is that why you did that with two tackles already on the books for the Jets? You were saying earlier that you could get tackles pretty much anywhere in this draft.
DANIEL JEREMIAH: Yeah, Ekwonu to me, if he went to the Jets year one would be playing guard, and I think him and Vera-Tucker would be two of the strongest, best young guard duo in the NFL. Like this dude is so powerful and so strong, and he would have no issues kicking inside there and doing that.
Now, with Becton, look, I'm not privy to all the information in terms of where he's at with his head space or where he's at -- I know there's been a bunch of stuff written and said about his weight. I don't have that information. All I know is I love the way he played when he was coming out of Louisville and thought he was the best tackle in that draft.
When he was on the field as a rookie I thought he played at a pretty elite level and was on his way to establishing himself as one of the best left tackles in the NFL, and then this year was a complete waste. He got hurt and didn't come back.
I still go off of what I've seen of him with his cleats on on the grass, and I think the guy is really, really talented and pretty rare in terms of the ability that he has. The rest of it, I guess we've all got to see how that sorts itself out, but I don't have any doubts about that guy's ability. That's for sure.
To me the offensive line, again, Vera-Tucker was a tackle who played guard, Ekwonu is a tackle that could play guard. I think that would be pretty easy to slot him right in.
Q. And then he goes to right tackle next year?
DANIEL JEREMIAH: Correct, correct.
Q. There's a perception here in Baltimore that the Ravens need to fortify both their offensive and their defensive lines. Do you see one of those as a greater priority, and where do you think they'll have more options at 14?
DANIEL JEREMIAH: Yeah, that's a good question. Man, when I look at the options that they'll have, I don't know there's going to be that much difference. The one player, if he's there, I just would write it in as Trevor Penning from Northern Iowa, because when you watch him, this guy is just a Raven. The way he plays, the physicality, he's huge. He's 330 pounds. He's almost 6'7".
One of my favorite nuggets on him was the guy literally watches horror movies the night before the game to get into character. I can think back to my back to my time in Baltimore when we had Orlando Brown, Zeus, the original Orlando Brown, and I thought, oh, my gosh, this would be Zeus reincarnate here with Trevor Penning. That would be kind of a great fit for them.
And then outside of that, when you look at the defensive tackles that would be kind of in the mix there where they're picking, they go big. If you want to go big, you could definitely do that with Jordan Davis.
They've always had big guys like that, so I could see that making some sense there, while a guy like Devonte Wyatt would maybe give you a little bit more interior pass rush. But the Ravens have a long history of enjoying the company of large human beings, and Jordan Davis and Trevor Penning would fit that bill.
Q. I was wondering what your breakdown is, if you've done much work on Dustin Crum, if you've got an idea of strengths, weaknesses, and a projection for him.
DANIEL JEREMIAH: Sure, let me give you what I've got here. Justin Crum, where are you? Here we are, Kent State. You know, to me I thought he's just more of a touch thrower than a power thrower. I thought he was a little bit late of just seeing things, getting the ball out of his hands.
Obviously he's a really good athlete, can create, make some things happen. Thought he did some good things at the East-West game when I popped that tape on. I gave him a practice squad grade, so that's kind of a -- it's like a sixth, seventh round grade, but somebody that I think you've got a chance to develop and stick around and see where it goes from there.
Q. You talked about the Giants possibly being able to use round two, round three to address their offensive line. I'm curious, who are some of the guys maybe on day two you think that could step in and help right away?
DANIEL JEREMIAH: Yeah, I mean, I think there's a good group. I think we'll see what happens with these tackles, but Bernard Raimann from Central Michigan, he's just a fun player to study. Came over from Austria. He's got such tremendous strength and power. He's still raw. I thought the Senior Bowl was a little bit up and down for him. I thought there's a good chance he goes in the middle to 20s maybe in the first round.
But we'll see. There's a chance he could slide out and be there in the second round.
Max Mitchell we've talked about earlier.
I'll tell you the guy who's like my crush right now, I think he's going to end up going in the first round, but maybe there's a chance he's there in the second round, but Tyler Smith from Tulsa. He's one of the nastiest offensive lineman you'll see. Just big time explosive. He can bend and recover. He can uproot guys in the run game. He just plays pissed off. Like looking for a comp, I was trying to figure out who a comp was, and somebody on Twitter used it and I'm stealing it from them, so I apologize, but I said Roy Kent from Ted Lasso. So I thought, yeah, that's a good one. He's just really angry. But he's one I think would be interested in the second round.
Sean Rhyan from UCLA probably mid second, maybe he even gets to the third rounds. He's a good player who has played tackle. Can kick inside and play guard.
Some other interior guys, usually you don't see a ton of interior guys go early, so Zion Johnson is one from Boston College who's just really smart, really tough, can play any of those three interior spots. He'd be one I'd keep an eye on in that area.
Then you start getting into guys like Luke Fortner from Kentucky, Joshua Ezeudu from North Carolina. I think all those guys are going to be able to come in and play real early.
Q. I wanted to ask you about the Georgia defensive linemen Wyatt and Davis, and specifically how they might fit into a 3-4 Steelers type of a scheme. I guess with Davis obviously he's a nose, but can you get any value from him as a sub-package guy?
DANIEL JEREMIAH: Yeah, he's an interesting discussion. We talked a little bit about him, but this is a debate I was having with a GM the other day. We were talking about him, and this is what you needed to decide. I've always said, and kind of pretty popular opinion, I think, with defensive tackles, is that even if you're not a pure pass rusher, if you're a pocket pusher, well, there's value in being able to collapse the pocket. It just condenses space. It allows your edge rushers to get home. It's clogging the view of the quarterback.
This general manager came back and said, you know what? It's got to be sudden collapsing, though. Like any quarterback and any offensive coordinator in the NFL will sign up for guys that are going to slowly get walked back, because the ball is getting out. The ball is going to be gone. So you're not going to be able to impact it. If you're just kind of a slowly-walk-the-center-back-to-the-quarterback guy, you're not going to have as much impact.
I think this guy can do a little bit more than that. I think he's a little bit more explosive. You'll see him, on occasion he'll get on an edge and do some things there. So I think he has a little bit more to him there as a pass rusher than you might think.
And then Devonte Wyatt, he could play the 5 technique. He can stack blocks if you want him to. But his value is going to come once you get him to sub-packages. Out him in a 1 technique in the shade of a center or a 3 technique, edge of the guard, and just let this guy get up field where he's really, really explosive.
Q. You already talked a little bit about the strength of Kenny Pickett. His hand size aside, could you elaborate on some weaknesses there? And more specifically I'm wondering if when watching his tape, what explains his touchdown output ballooning from 13 scores to 41 passing scores this past year considering the system didn't change, not like he was throwing into any highly touted targets.
DANIEL JEREMIAH: Yeah, I think he was healthy. In talking to him I asked him the same exact question. I think he had battled an ankle injury the year before and played through it. I think that was a big part of it. You saw somebody whose confidence began to grow. We've seen a lot of these late bloomers.
Obviously Joe Burrow is the poster child, and he's not Joe, but this is somebody that got it figured out with the benefit of having him and reps and health. You saw the guy's ability really start to come out and shine.
The hand size stuff I'm sure we're all braced for that. That's going to be a big discussion. I would say it was pretty much put to bed with most of the teams that I've talked to. I don't know that anybody really cared much about it.
And then the Senior Bowl we had some bad weather down there one day and he struggled. He really struggled throwing the ball. I think that kind of resurfaced a little bit, and I think there's at least a curiosity I would say to see what that looks like, what his hand size looks like.
But it's kind of unique, a unique situation, because he's like double jointed and it's unique. I don't know that I've ever seen a situation where the quarterback -- having this type of discussion about his hands, because it's not just the size, it's a little bit of a -- a little different.
Q. What would it take for the Panthers to be one of those teams that blink first and select a quarterback at 6?
DANIEL JEREMIAH: Well, I think they have to fall in love with him in this process coming forward. If you go through these meetings and you fall in love with them, and I had heard that they really liked Mac Jones and were impressed with him having been around him a Senior Bowl. Maybe that emboldens them a little bit to say, hey, if we feel great about a quarterback in this class that we meet with and feel like he's going to be a great fit for us, then let's go ahead and pull the trigger.
Yeah, they're in a tough spot. They're pot committed here with Sam financially. Gosh, I know everybody has kind of punted on Sam, but golly, maybe I'm just a slave to my college grade, but I liked him so much coming out of USC, and you still think that's in there somewhere, if they can find a way to put the other pieces in place. I wouldn't totally give up on that one yet.
But yeah, they definitely need to do their homework, and if they fall in love with one of these kids in this process, maybe they are that team that blinks.
Q. Penn State players obviously have the reputation of testing very well --
DANIEL JEREMIAH: That they do.
Q. Brandon Smith coming out early is an interesting case given his physical tools that are clear, but some inconsistencies in on-field play and production. How do you evaluate him going into the combine? And then who do you think in this group can kind of be the Penn State guy like maybe Odafe Oweh or Micah Parsons was last year in terms of workouts?
DANIEL JEREMIAH: Well, Dotson is going to fly. He is going to run in the 4.3s, so that will be an easy one. Brandon Smith is going to test extremely well. Him as a player, he's off the ball, he's kind of more of a dip under blocks, play around blocks. I didn't think he was real physical that way.
The speed is real. You see it with his range. You can see his speed and his ability to run and cover, but I thought instinct-wise he's a little bit late to turn and find the ball in coverage. He's a count late to kind of key and read and flow against the run.
He's still -- I think you kind of hit it. He's a work in progress. But he was one of those guys I was tipped off to a while ago this guy is going to test in a big, big way. So he'll create a lot of buzz that way.
One of the other Penn State guys we haven't really talked about that's fascinating to me is Rasheed Walker, the tackle. He's got -- if you want to like him you can find tape that you will really like him. If you want to be bummed out about him, you can find tape to be bummed out about him.
And the crazy thing is it's all in the same tape. It's 57 pass rush reps against Michigan. You see his ability to kind of drop his weight, shoot his hands, anchor, slide and mirror, and then in that same game, you see him open up his gait, he gets beat, you see him lunge, he's on the ground. He has some issues with twists or gains in that which caused him to question some of the awareness.
But this guy has got it all in his body. He is true wildcard guy. If he gets with the right offensive line coach he could end up being a really good starter or he could end up really struggling somewhere.
So he's kind of to me a true boom-or-bust player.
Q. I know you noted in the opening comments, and it's obviously popped up through the questions here, there's just not a love for this QB group at the top of the draft. I wanted to get your opinion on risk tolerance when drafting a QB outside of the top 15 picks, particularly for a rebuilding team like Detroit. I know you swapped out Malik Willis for Jordan Davis in your most recent mock for the Lions at that 32 spot, but if most observers don't expect these guys to develop into franchise passers, does it really make sense to roll the dice on a quarterback when you have so many holes on your roster like Detroit does?
DANIEL JEREMIAH: I think you bring up a really good point. That's why I think I had Malik Willis going to the Steelers in that one. He's the one where, okay, yeah, there's risk involved with any of these quarterbacks, but he provides the upside to warrant taking the risk.
If you're going to take a, quote-unquote, flier on a quarterback at the bottom of the first round, I sure as heck would like to have a big payoff at least as a possibility. He's that guy. When you look at the quarterbacks in this draft, he's the one with all that upside.
I think you could look at some of the other guys and say, okay, they've got a chance to be starters, but I don't know that anybody is saying they've got a chance to be high-end starters. I think Malik Willis, while there's obviously plenty of risk and that's why he could be there at the end of the first round, there's also the potential of a big payoff.
That would be the one that I could kind of target if he was there. Outside of that, I don't know that I'd be super fired up to avoid filling what you mentioned are several other needs you could fill at that spot.
Q. And this is a situation where you're comparing and contrasting against Jared Goff, correct? You're looking at what can these guys a ceiling be against what Goff's ceiling is?
DANIEL JEREMIAH: Yeah, if your comp or your ultimate upside for the player is Jared Goff, you've already got him, so don't waste a pick. That's why I think Malik Willis could potentially give you a little something different, and if it all works together and comes together, he could give you a little bit more.
That to me is the one that I would keep an eye on.
They need to really get to know him and get comfortable with him and find out if that's a good fit or not, but as it worked out, I sat next to him on the plane after the Senior Bowl flying from Mobile through Atlanta, and I think teams when they're around him, they're really going to like him.
He is a good kid. He's impressive. He's got just a good presence about him. He's humble. He's smart. He's got a good sense of where he is and what he needs to do to get where he wants to go. I think teams will really like getting to know him.
Q. If you're the Cowboys and you're looking to replenish your offensive line, you probably don't want to do so dying too much money to it so the draft seems like a logical avenue. The left guard, they really need a starter there. Center, maybe they can live with Tyler Biadasz, but certainly they could stand to upgrade, as well. With their defensive needs and the different spots they could go, if you were intent on going offensive line, starter, say left guard, being open elsewhere, how would you navigate round one, day two, and so forth?
DANIEL JEREMIAH: Well, especially if you're looking for an interior offensive lineman I would wait. I would wait until round two and try and find one there. I think there's going to be some good options. We mentioned some of those names.
I really like Luke Fortner. I think he's going to be a long-term starter. Zion Johnson who we've talked about. I think both those guys would be good fits. There's actually a lot of love on the streets in talking to folks around the league for Luke Goedeke from Central Michigan. There's a good group of interior guys.
I think if they want to find somebody that could potentially plug and play, I don't know they necessarily need to do that with their first round pick. I think they can do that outside of round one with this group this year.
Q. The general consensus is that the Dolphins' top priority this off-season is offensive line, and they might address that in free agency, but in terms of the draft, who do you see as the best fits for that zone running scheme that Mike McDaniel is going to implement? I know the new offensive line coach, Matt Applebaum, he has some guys from Boston College, like Zion Johnson and Alex Lindstrom who are going to be in this draft, but who do you see as good fits?
DANIEL JEREMIAH: Yeah, I think both of those guys would be good fits. I like Zion a little bit better as a player. He would be a good fit there. Cole Strange is somebody that I think all those outside zone teams are going to love. He can really move. He started 44 games. Only one of them was at center, but then he goes to the Senior Bowl and played center all week and was really competitive.
You look at the Dolphins' coach and how smart he is and his reputation, and then you look at a guy like Cole Strange who was looking at the service academies and was an engineering major and is really a brilliant guy, I think that's an interesting fit.
Luke Fortner, Zion Johnson, all those guys are intelligent. Luke Fortner is going to have two masters degrees, so you've got guys that can move and guys that are really, really smart, and if you look at what the Niners have tried to do, they've really tried to zone in on those two things: get guys with really good smarts, particularly football intelligence, and guys that are really athletic and can move.
So those would be a couple I think that would be really, really good fits in that scheme.
Q. Going back to where you had Trey Lance graded last year, when you look at the quarterbacks this year, if Lance had gone back to North Dakota State, had a big year, stayed healthy, would the 49ers move up last year and take this year's No. 1 pick?
DANIEL JEREMIAH: In my opinion, yes. He's more talented than any quarterback in this draft class coming out, and I don't even think it's particularly close. If he had a chance to go back to school and continue to grow and play and develop, yeah, I think he would have been the first pick in this draft.
But I can go through and look at last year's draft and how loaded it was up there at the top that I could make a case -- I did this with somebody the other day on the phone. You could go through and I could find probably 10 guys that would have an opportunity to be the first pick in this year's draft. This year's draft has got a lot of depth and there's a lot as you go outside of the top 10 that you love as you go through it.
But in terms of being top heavy, I think last year's draft, man, again, you could come up with probably 10 names that would have a chance to be the first pick this year, and Lance would definitely be one of them.
Q. To sort of play off the risk-tolerance question you got earlier about quarterbacks, I look at a situation like Washington. If they don't address a quarterback in the veteran market, they may be in position to take one at 11, but you and others have already established this is not the sexiest of classes, but you need that position. But then they also are looking at, say, Mike linebackers. I don't know if you think any of the top guys could fill that need, but they're obviously pretty talented. How do you weigh that needing the quarterback but then there may be other guys who are just simply more talented?
DANIEL JEREMIAH: Look, when you have a need there I would say -- I disagree with the thought of, well, you always just take the highest player on the board. Because to me, if you have a quarterback that you think is a really good player and you think is a solid starter, you would take a solid starting quarterback over maybe an exceptional player at another position. You'd do that.
To me, when you look at some of the gap in this year between some of the top position players and the quarterbacks, it's going to be a little bit more difficult. That's why I say it's going to be kind of a -- see who's going to blink and do it first. There is going to be a sizable gap between the quarterback decision they have to make there versus their highest available player. I'd be very surprised if the position player wasn't carrying a much higher grade. That's the tricky part about this draft.
That's why I'll be curious to see which teams can eliminate that need by going the veteran route and trying to get one in hand so that they don't end up having to bypass what they think is a much, much better football player at another position.
Q. Is there one of these guys you think could play Mike linebacker, one of the guys higher up, Lloyd or Dean, or are they not that kind of guy?
DANIEL JEREMIAH: I think they absolutely both are. I've talked a lot about what Nakobe Dean brings from the intelligence and leadership stuff. Kyle Whittingham has been doing it for a very long time, and when he tells every scout that goes through there this is the best defensive player I've ever coached, pretty darned strong praise.
He's kind of that same type of guy where you get all that leadership you need out of that inside linebacker position.
Yeah, those are my seventh and eighth players in the entire draft with Nakobe Dean and Devin Lloyd, and because of positional value and teams not necessarily having a need there, I think you're going to see those guys be two of the better value picks in the draft because they probably do slide down a little bit.
Q. I've got a Bengals question for you --
DANIEL JEREMIAH: Offensive line.
Q. Okay, I think we're all set. No, here's the question. I think you had Tyler Linderbaum going 26 in your latest mock. What's the likelihood that he's still there for the Bengals at 31? If not, who could help the Bengals on the offensive line right away at 31? And then my UC Bearcats question, what do you think happens with Desmond Ritter in terms of how high he goes?
DANIEL JEREMIAH: Congratulations on the year. What a sports year in Cincinnati this year. That's fantastic.
When you talk about Linderbaum, he is going to be really one to watch on draft day. Because, again, this is a player. Just purely as a player0 he is my 19th player, I believe, at this point in time. Yeah, he is a good player. He takes great angles. He's nasty. He's got unbelievable football intelligence.
Talk about having FBI, he's got it. He's everything you want from an intelligence and a toughness standpoint. There's just times where he gets a little bit of size on his nose, and he struggles a little bit with that.
Here's where the challenge of trying to slot him in. He's a center only who really kind of fits the outside zone teams who really want a center that's athletic and can move. If you don't need a center, you cross all those teams off. And then if you weren't in this type of a system, which is pretty popular now with all the McVay and Shanahan tree heading out all over the league, but if you don't run that system you're not going to like him as much.
And then you have a little bit of the ghost of Garrett Bradbury, who's a guy that I quite honestly loved coming out of NC State and who's ultra athletic, and he went to one of those teams that runs all this stuff.
But his issues with power and size have carried over to the NFL, and I think that could scare some teams a little bit on Linderbaum. While I think he's a fantastic player, it's hard to slot him in. To say there's no way, he's too good, he wouldn't slide down to where the Bengals are picking, I don't think we can all say that's a lock. He's one to keep an eye on.
And when you look at Ritter, how high he can go, look, I like him. He's got that kind of whippy motion. He's got a real live arm. He's a smooth athlete. I just thought the accuracy was the concern, just consistently placing the ball where it needs to be. That to me was the problem. His base gets a little bit wide at times and the ball takes off on him and sails. To me I think he's a second-round range I think is where you see him come off the board.
If he aces it, if he aces this process going forward, meeting with these teams and workouts and shows you that he's improved some of those things, everything I've been told as an off the field character, intelligence, leadership, outstanding. Maybe he's got a chance to sneak his way into the bottom of round one, but I would say at this point in time, where I have him, where most people have him that I talk to around the league, he's kind of viewed as a second-round pick.
Q. Kind of a bigger picture question about the Ravens. When you got a chance to look at the Michigan tape last year, kind of what sticks out to you about what this defense asks players to do? And then translating to the Ravens, are there any positions that you think would best serve the Ravens because of the kind of value that his system sets up guys to succeed with?
DANIEL JEREMIAH: Yeah, the good thing is the Ravens, once they get healthy you're going to have a bunch of corners. You can never have enough, but they're going to be called upon there.
I think about what made that defense go and we can look at the edge rushers obviously with Hutchinson and Ojabo, stand-up guys, stand-up on the edge and kind of have the versatility, run pass, be able to hold up there, I think that if you're looking at that defense and the Ravens trying to find one of those unique players like a Daxton Hill, whose ability to play in multiple locations, in the nickel, to play high, that's why like I wouldn't be shocked at all if that was their pick. You have the Harbaugh connection, you have the defensive coordinator there, and this guy's ability to do so many different things and allow you to be versatile and be able to change the picture if you want to after the snap. He gives you the luxury of being able to do all those things.
I don't know if the Ravens have that particular type of player on campus right now.
Q. Talking about Willis earlier with the Steelers in mind at 20, but any other quarterbacks that could be there? And if they don't go that way, what position could you see them addressing?
DANIEL JEREMIAH: Yeah, trying to figure out where these quarterbacks are going to go is one of the bigger challenges in this draft. I know they're going to have options there if you kind of look at those big five quarterbacks or however you want to sort those guys out. There are going to be one or two or more of them that are going to be there. Whether that's Howell, whether that's Ritter, Willis, and then Corral, we haven't really talked about Corral much on this call, but he's intriguing because he's a little undersized, but really, really athletic. Everything is quick: Quick feet, quick release, quick eyes.
He can give them some of the athleticism it looks like from listening that's something they're really after, and that's why you hear Willis' name mentioned. Corral is not as big, not as strong, but he can probably throw it a little bit better, a little more consistently at this point in time, and he does give you some of that athleticism to be able to move around.
So the more you kind of look at the Steelers and what they're looking for, maybe Matt Corral is one of those names you could pay attention to.
Other positions, I know they've addressed the offensive line. In recent years they've thrown some draft picks at it. I just don't love everything they have, so I would continue to go back down that road and see if you can't continue to add to that offensive line.
That would be an area that I would look, especially I think Chukes is a free agent, isn't he? So I think they're going to be down a tackle here.
Q. I had a couple questions about the Raiders. One, do you have any kind of idea what the philosophy of new GM Dave Ziegler will be in his first draft with the Raiders? And then at 22 they pick. I think they need a corner, but my guy Sauce Gardner will be long gone.
DANIEL JEREMIAH: Yeah, if Sauce Gardner is there when they pick, then the Ziegler era is off to a heck of a start, I can promise you that.
Look, to me you just go back to the Patriots. They even said pretty much the same thing at their press conference. You can kind of identify -- the teams I worked with, you kind of look at, okay, this is a Patriots' type player. What does that look like? Usually it's somebody that's got some versatility, they've got outstanding football intelligence so they can be able to do different things, and they can handle volume because it's an offense and a defense that morphs and changes all the time.
Those types of players I think you can try and identify them in that way. I am excited by the way. I'm sure all Raider fans, that there's never been a coach and a player that were more matched up than Hunter Renfrow and Josh McDaniels. I'm excited to see how that comes together and how they play.
But no, they have needs at corner. I think they need to find a wide receiver that's young, that's got some real juice and some real ability to take some things off the top of the defense.
I look at Olave and Dotson as two guys with big-time speed who I think have that -- the intelligence and the polish that Josh McDaniels would really covet. Those would be two names I think would really fit them with where they're picking down there at 22. I think both those guys would be right down there in that range.
Q. Going back to the Dolphins, at the skill positions, you and Buck on Move the Sticks always talk about the basketball lineup in the receiver room. Do you think Miami should go more towards a DeVante Parker type or more towards Jaylen Waddle types? Which of those complements Tua Tagovailoa's skillset? And then whatever your answer, which players in the draft would fit that mold?
DANIEL JEREMIAH: Yeah, you go a couple different ways. One of the things with this offense that's coming in, they usually like those guys to be interchangeable. So yeah, we talk all the time about basketball team, right? But a lot of times when you're talking to guys that are in this McVay-Shanahan system, they talk about having guys that can play all three positions, they're interchangeable.
So they don't really have that same philosophy in terms of building a basketball team.
If I'm looking at them, and golly, let's see, what number are they picking? They're picking 29, so looking at who could be there at that point in time, gosh, now you're getting into some of those other names.
You know what? Again, Jameson Williams, they want to take a flier on that. If you get him in there, you know what he can do with the slant. Tua, the best thing he does is RPO slant people to death. That's where he's in his comfort zone.
You get a chance to get somebody like that, you've got him and Waddle that you miss a tackle and it's over. I would love to see them to just continue to add those type of guys instead of saying, oh, you need to get the bigger, more physical player. I would try and build a track team, a run-after-catch team with Tua, because his best thing he does, survey the field, get the ball out quick, accurately underneath intermediate, and then it's up to them to do something with it.
Q. Just regarding the Eagles, I know they're mentioned with all these veteran quarterbacks that they could possibly trade for, but I suspect they're going to draft one. Do you foresee maybe because they have the luxury of three round picks, they could surprise and maybe take a quarterback or even a linebacker there? Or if not, as far as the quarterbacks go, who do you think would you evaluate in that third round, fourth round area they could try to target?
DANIEL JEREMIAH: You know, the interesting one, I'm excited to do a little bit more work on him, but Jack Coan. I've watched a little bit from the fall, but the other day I went and watched the All-Star Game stuff at the East-West, and he was intriguing to me.
He was not somebody on a lot of teams' radar, but he's 6'3", 217 pounds. He makes good decisions. He's really, really comfortable and poised inside the pocket. He was accurate, especially in that game. He's one of those guys I have kind of on my list highlighted to go back, and I want to watch some more from him because he looked like one of those intriguing mid-round type guys. Obviously he's a transfer from Wisconsin. He's played a lot of ball.
That was one that was interesting to me as kind of a mid-round guy. I said last year in my absolute statement that the Giants would never trade back because Dave Gettleman has never done it, he'll never do it, I'm going to stop talking about it because it will never happen, and lo and behold it happened.
I will say this year I have changed now to my absolute statement being that the Philadelphia Eagles will never draft a linebacker in the first round, because every year we talk about it, every year we talk about do we mock draft this guy here or there, and they're not doing it. They never do it. It's up to Howie to prove us wrong.
Q. You had the Browns going with an edge rusher 6at 13. They also have needs at receiver and D-tackle. How would you sort that out for them at 13 given they're going to have a bunch of other picks in the draft?
DANIEL JEREMIAH: Yeah, I mean, I think you hit on it. You've got opportunities to get all these things accomplished. It just kind of comes down to what you want.
I just put such a premium on edge rush, and as much as I love, love these receivers you can get, I feel pretty comfortable with being able to get other guys outside of round one if you have to if you're the Browns.
A lot of it's contingent on what happens with Clowney. He played pretty well last year, so he's gone to free agency, getting another edge rusher up there I think would be important. That's something that -- that was kind of in my thinking there as to why they would do that.
Defensive tackle-wise, again, when you look at how it fits up with where they are, I just think value-wise, I just think the edge rusher group right there of who you could be staring at, I think that would be pretty appealing to me. I don't hate it if they want with one of those wide outs.
Gosh, I love Garrett Wilson, so I wouldn't hate that at all. I think I have all three of those wide outs, Treylon Burks up there and Drake London, all three of those guys I think would be great picks. It's just a matter of where you want to find the other positions, and most teams, if it's close, they're going to lean towards the edge rusher.
Q. The quarterback class being not the greatest, I'm wondering if you can get into the why a little bit. Maybe you could just write it off as it's cyclical. I would argue that it's never been a better time for quarterback development in the college game, private quarterback coaching, high school even, college. The money is great, the longevity and the rules at the NFL level is great. Why are we having a down year at quarterback?
DANIEL JEREMIAH: Well, first of all, I'm disappointed you didn't ask me who the Padres are going to put in left field. That's disappointing. We've got some work to do before we get to the season.
Look, I think the pandemic is part of it. I really do. You think about the time that was lost during that time, no, I think that was -- some of these teams, seasons were cut short. Arizona State the year before I think they played like three or four games or something. You had spring ball that teams lost out on. You also just had the way the math works, we had five -- six guys, and then if you look at last year with Davis Mills what he did, we ended up with seven guys starting last year.
Last year was a big year. You never want to get too far ahead of yourself, but look, if you watched the bowl games and the playoff games, you can see that there's quarterbacks coming next year, as well.
The one thing that I would encourage teams is, I was guilty as anybody in 2017 in the Patrick Mahomes draft with Deshaun Watson, and we were talking about the excitement of Sam Darnold and Josh Rosen in the next year and then we had two -- the best young quarterbacks we've seen in forever right under our nose.
It's not easy to evaluate these guys, and the majority of us feel like this isn't the best year of quarterbacks. But we've been proven wrong before, so we'll see what happens.
Q. The Eagles right now, they have Miles Sanders going into his last year of his contract, and they also have Jordan Howard who's had a lot of injury concerns. What running backs do you see either like say day two or especially day three who would primarily fit on this team?
DANIEL JEREMIAH: I'm stoked that we got that question, because I don't think we've said one thing about running backs here. I love this running back group. Again, I don't think there's going to be one that goes in the first round. I think this is a really deep group. I was talking with a personnel director the other day and said, Let's just circle the fourth round.
You're going to get a great back in the fourth round, especially if you want a bigger back. This draft -- to me Spiller from A&M is my top guy, but you've got Breece Hall right there that's really, really close. I'm anxious to see him in person. I haven't seen what they look like or how they move in person, so I'm curious to see that.
Those guys are legit. Tyler Allgeier is a big power back. The power backs I really like him, you've got Bryan Robinson from 'Bama; Kenneth Walker runs much bigger than his 212 pounds. He's a really good player.
Snoop Conner from Ole Miss is somebody I think is going to be a fourth round pick. He's got speed and wiggle. He's a really, really fun player to watch.
And then Ty Davis-Price, I'm a sucker for any LSU running back. It's something about that uniform and how they fit it and how they run. This guy is 232 pounds and he's just a bowling ball, just running over everybody.
He killed Florida this year. Ran for a zillion yards. I think they're still picking up the Texas A&M safety off the turf from that game, too.
You've got Hassan Haskins. There are going to be running backs in the fourth and fifth year this year that are 215, 220 plus guys that can play, and then if you want kind of the change up which I think the Eagles would probably be looking for one of those bigger guys, but James Cook is just the ultimate toy. Dalvin Cook's little brother. He jet sweeps, screens, draws, split him out wide, let him run away from corners. He's a fun weapon.
I think you probably see somebody do that probably in the third round, but he's a fun one.
Q. Going right off of the Dalvin Cook segue, I wanted to ask about the Vikings. Obviously it's been multiple years since the Vikings were at the combine with someone other than Rick Spielman at GM. I was curious with the new leadership and whatnot for Minnesota, what you expect their philosophy to be and maybe a couple names that they could be eyeing ahead of the draft?
DANIEL JEREMIAH: Yeah, I'm fascinated to see how it all comes together because when you look at Kevin coming in there from a coaching standpoint, I don't know that scheme-wise it should be that dramatic of a shift. But I do think it's very quarterback friendly.
One of the reasons -- I've talked to some buddies around the league about this, kind of the proliferation of coaches from the Shanahan and McVay tree, and I read that stat out a little bit earlier about how when you look at these Super Bowl winning teams over the last five years, only three of those 25 offensive linemen were home-grown first-round picks, and I think it goes together because that offense, you don't have to have the most talented offensive line in the league to be successful because all that stretch, you're moving the pocket, there's the boot stuff off of that, there's getting the ball out of your hands quick. You're not getting yourself in too many unfavorable situations down-and-distance wise because you're throwing the ball on early downs, that whole system that they're bringing in there and that they've used somewhat previously but I think they'll take it to the next level, it's not going to be as offensive line dependent as maybe some other teams.
Then it's about getting -- continuing to add weapons, which they're in a pretty good spot but continue to add towards that, and then defensively they need some work. They need more pass rushers. We'll see what they do with Danielle Hunter, but they definitely need some help with more pass rushers, and it feels like we've been talking about corner kind of still being something they're looking for on a yearly basis.
Q. You mentioned a question or two ago about all the running backs who you think might be available like mid to late rounds. I wanted to ask you specifically about one guy you didn't mention, Leddie Brown from West Virginia. What do you see about him? Where do you project him going, and do you think he might be a good fit for the Eagles?
DANIEL JEREMIAH: Yeah, I have Leddie kind of below that group of guys, but he's fun to watch. He's another one, he's got a real thick lower body, he's got two 1,000-yard seasons. I liked him better as an inside runner than an outside runner. He's got a nasty little stiff arm.
He's got one bad habit. He's got four fumbles, and when you watch him he swings the ball. That's something you can correct that, but he's got to stop doing that.
Then in the pass game I think he's still a little bit of a work in progress, kind of a gather and absorb. I'd like to see him be a little bit more aggressive with the pass protection stuff.
Yeah, I think he's a good player. I have him kind of more in this running back group, which is really, really deep and really good, I think he could be somebody that's in the fifth, sixth round in this draft.
Q. I have another obligatory Bengals' offensive line question. You have them taking Raimann I think fifth or sixth tackle off the board. They need help all along that line. Assuming Green and Linderbaum are gone, are there interior guys that wouldn't feel like a reach at 31 for the Bengals?
DANIEL JEREMIAH: Well, there's going to be -- just in terms of my personal list, they would be probably taking somebody outside of that range, but you're drafting starters, so I don't want to necessarily say they're reaches. I've kind of gone through some of those guys.
The one name I had going I think right before them, I think I had him going to the Dolphins, we talked about him a little bit earlier, but I'm telling you, the train, the Tyler Smith train is getting ready to take off. I think that probably takes off as we get to the combine, from Tulsa. Again, he's 6'5", 332 pounds.
He's somebody I think could play guard if he wanted to and be hell on wheels as a guard but play tackle. That's one I think that's really, really intriguing. But the good thing with the Bengals where they are right now, they've had all this success.
We know they have the needs on the offensive line. They're going to be able to find upgrades to the offensive line throughout this draft. They're going to get players in the third, fourth round in this draft that are better than the guys, some of these guys that they trotted out there and started in the Super Bowl. They're going to have a lot of opportunities to address that position.
Q. When it comes to receivers and the Cardinals at 23, can you see a receiver, maybe a big-body guy or a guy who plays bigger than he is like Olave or anybody else going to them at 23 if that's the way they go, and who else would be in that mix along with Olave?
DANIEL JEREMIAH: Golly, I would love to see Treylon Burks somehow get down there, but I don't think that's going to happen, just because some of that jet sweep stuff you could go with having to deal with Rondale Moore and his speed and that little compact package to all of a sudden going from that little Maserati to now you've got a big ol' SUV with Treylon Burks who can do all that stuff. You can line him up in the backfield. You could do some of the Deebo Samuel stuff with him if you wanted to.
He's just a really, really fun player. It would be fun to see him with all the different weapons that they have. But I'm doubtful that he will make it there.
So when you're looking at Olave and Dotson would be home run fits there, and then Jameson Williams is the other one. That's kind of that group that would -- you'd be staring at hopefully one of those guys, makes it there, and then I think all of those guys would add a fun dimension. They're collecting speed. I love that aspect of it. When they get all those guys healthy and on the field together, they're a handful.
Q. I wanted to ask you about the offensive line. The Raiders took Leatherwood last year to be a right tackle. They kicked him into guard. Would you try him again at tackle, and if not, do you see a right tackle that could slide in there right now and be that guy?
DANIEL JEREMIAH: No, I think I would be good on him staying inside at guard. I think I would just let him get more reps there, get more comfortable there, and then off you go going forward.
For them, where they're picking at 22, I mentioned Tyler Smith; I wouldn't hate that at all. I think Penning will be long gone.
Cross is a fascinating one. We haven't talked about him yet. He's a little bit -- I'm low on him. There's guys when you watch them, you put the grade in early and then you go through and you start watching more and more guys, and then as I kind of go through this process, and I'll get a chance to circle back as I update my top 50, it's one of those guys like I'm a little hard on him. I need to move him up a little bit.
So there's a chance -- there's probably a really good chance he's gone. He wouldn't be there when they pick, but I think he would constitute an upgrade there.
Raimann needs a little bit of work, but I think he's better than what they're playing with at right tackle.
Then kind of the fascinating one would be Daniel Faalele from Minnesota, who he's only 6'8", 387 pounds. But you look at the success that the Patriots had with a very large man, that success did not translate over to the Raiders, but now that you've got the Patriot people with the Patriot type player, maybe that would work here with the big man from Minnesota.
THE MODERATOR: That concludes today's call. Thank you, Daniel, for your time, and thank you, media for joining.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports