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Touchdown Jaguars!
Touchdown Jaguars!
Episode 114: An "Intangibly Rich" Draft
James Gladstone makes a bold statement in his first draft as Jaguars GM by trading up to secure Travis Hunter, signaling a new era of aggressive team building in Jacksonville.
• Trading picks 5, 36, 126, and a 2026 first-round pick to move up to pick 2
• Travis Hunter represents a potential game-changing player who can line up at both cornerback and wide receiver
• Team plans to primarily use Hunter on offense with situational defensive snaps
• Adding Caleb Ransaw (DB, Tulane) and Wyatt Milum (OL, West Virginia) in the third round to address secondary and offensive line
• Later picks focused on adding depth at running back, linebacker and offensive line
• Signing Emmanuel Ogbah immediately after the draft shows proactive approach to roster building
• New regime establishing clear identity with "intangibly rich" player acquisitions
• Dramatic contrast from previous management's conservative approach
James Johnson and Phil Smith bring you the best and most up to date Jacksonville Jaguars news. "Touchdown Jaguars!" is a tribute to the prospective ownership group "Touchdown Jacksonville!" In 1991, the NFL announced plans to add two expansion teams and "Touchdown Jacksonville!" announced its bid for a team, and Jacksonville was ultimately chosen as one of five finalists. In November 1993, the NFL owners voted 26–2 in favor of awarding the 30th franchise to Jacksonville. James and Phil have been fans of the franchise ever since and have had the honor (and sometimes dishonor) of covering the team professionally since 2017. The rest as they say, is history.
Still ready. And no, that is a no no. Touchdown Jacksonville. A hundred and nine yards Incredible Play action. Bortles Upstairs Wide open. Tommy Bohannon, touchdown Jacksonville. Looking for Jimmy in the end zone. Touchdown Jaguars. Touchdown Jaguars. Touchdown Jaguars.
Speaker 1:Welcome to the Touchdown Jaguars podcast. Here are your hosts, james Johnson and Phil Smith. Hey everyone, welcome back to the Touchdown Jaguars podcast. I'm your co-host, phil Smith, and joining me, as always, is your other co-host, james Johnson, and Jay. We are here after a crazy NFL draft weekend and you know there were plenty of scenarios in our head where we're like, yeah, maybe they can pull this off, but is it gonna happen? Probably not, and I think what we learned over this past weekend, jay, that's the old way, that's the old guard. We're in a new era here in Jacksonville with Jimmy Gladstone, jimmy G, the Jimmy G wheeling and dealing over the weekend and it resulted in Travis Hunter becoming a Jacksonville Jaguar. Of course, we're going to talk about the NFL draft as a whole, but, man, jay, it started off with a bang and I am excited to talk about it.
Speaker 2:No, yeah, man, like this is. This is the stuff I was talking about, Right, when we, you know, we got rid of Trent and got a new GM these are the scenarios I talked about that we ordinarily wouldn't see, with Trent trading up boldness, which they've been talking about right out of the gate. Fishing on James Gladstone's first draft is the icing on the cake, man. Now, we had discussed in our thread the possibility of trading up right, but, as you said, like we didn't really like think it would come into fruition, right, we just knew that the Browns would be probably smart enough to stand pat where they were and take one of the blue chippers right, which we figured it wouldn't be Jente, but it would be like Carter or Hunter. That being said, james Gladstone, shout out to him for calling them. I think they said this had been in the works. They spoke with them and put the deal in place on the 7th, and so April the 7th. So shout outs to him for doing his homework, getting that done. I think we're going to see the unfolding of that on the hunt. They showed a little teaser about that. So, yeah, shout outs to them for being prepared to have that done.
Speaker 2:And yeah, man, like just looking at the compensation we gave up which you know we'll talk about it later and how we feel about it but knowing God's beautiful blue, green and white earth, trent Baalke would have done that right as soon as they would have said first for return. He would have probably had an aneurysm. So I love this bold new stance that the organization is taking and you know they saw opportunity to come up to get a blue chip player. You know the draft wasn't necessarily one that was deep, so when you put those two things into, like your mindset, I understand why they did it. And yeah, we'll talk about that a little bit later. Man, I'm very excited about this pick man, to say the least.
Speaker 1:Yeah, trambalky would have been like, like okay, but can you give me some sixths, can you give me some six round picks and then maybe we'll uh, we'll talk. But yeah, we're gonna break down the nfl draft and, like I said, what was a very, very uh eventful weekend, and not just for the jacksonville jaguars. I do want to have a conversation, jay, uh, kind of akin to what we had in our group chat about Shador Sanders, just for the sake of the conversation. But let's focus on the Jaguars first before we do so. Welcome. Thank you so much for all of our returning and brand new listeners to the show. Make sure you check out the Linktree link in the show notes of this episode to find everything you need to keep up with us over on social media, as well as the website touchdown jaguarscom. And you can still use our promo code touchdown Jaguars over on Seageek to save $20 on your first purchase off of your first purchase. But yeah, let's just go, uh, let's just do a rundown here of all the picks that the Jaguars made over the weekend, of course, starting off with round one. Pick two overall Travis Hunter, db, wide receiver out of Colorado. They didn't pick again until the third round picked 88 and 89.
Speaker 1:After another trade, caleb Brand saw DB out of Tulane and then Wyatt Milam, inside offensive lineman from West Virginia. In the fourth round they won Bashaw Tutin, running back out of Virginia Tech, a true speedster. Jack Kaiser, linebacker out of Notre Dame, at pick 107. And then in rounds six and seven they go Jalen McLeod, linebacker out of Auburn, rayon Lane safety out of Navy, jonah Monheim center, from USC, and then their final pick in the seventh round, laquint Adam, another running back out of Syracuse. So, jay, let's start with round one. Uh, you know, we did not have to wait very long. We weren't really gonna have to wait too long to begin with, because they originally, of course, held pick number five, but rumblings throughout the day that the Jaguars and the Browns had been talking and that the Jaguars were in were very much interested in coming up. Now I feel like a lot of times rumors like this swirl in every single draft and ultimately like not very much happens, and this year certainly was not the case. So here's what happened Cleveland received the number five pick, a second round pick, which was pick number 36, a fourth round pick, which was number 126, and then a 2026 first round pick from the jaguars and in return we received, of course, that number two pick, a fourth rounder pick, number 104, and a sixth round pick, pick 200, and that was news that broke very early into the draft.
Speaker 1:I do. They are a are a division rival, so of course, we love any opportunity to have the spotlight taken away from the Titans. I do feel a little bit bad for the kid in terms of Cam Ward, because this is a huge moment to be picked number one overall for a guy that went through what he went through in terms of Cam Ward and being a zero star prospect. You know I do feel a little bad for him in terms of getting that moment taken away from him. But again, it's the Titans, so it is what it is. So Travis Hunter ends up being the pick number two overall and Jay, very rarely and James Gladstone talked about this in his press conference very rarely do you get to take a player that can change the game of football, and we very rarely see trades of this magnitude for a non-quarterback right. But Travis Hunter, I feel like and a lot of people feel the same way is a special case. So take us back to Thursday night where we're hanging out.
Speaker 1:I was actually recording for my other podcast, so things were kind of hectic. I was all over the place. But news breaks the Jaguars are moving up. We're on the clock. What?
Speaker 2:are your thoughts? Yeah, I were. I was getting settled still while the news was coming in and they were making um the pick for cam, who, um, by the way, I think after I watched him on film and put him on my big board, I think the kid has some talent you know you'll be wanting to watch out for. So I don't know that. You know I rated him over Shador and I think I had Cam at nine, shador at 16 on the big board I posted. So I didn't see like a big talent discrepancy or you know, in terms of ranking him as prospects. But yeah, he's going to be interesting to watch man and, as you said, like you hate to see the spotlight get taken from him but at the same time when you realize he went to the Titans, it's all good. Like you get over that real quickly.
Speaker 2:In terms of you know, the Travis Hunter situation man like it was, it was kind of euphoric man from the standpoint of you know I put him as the number one player on my big board. So you know, from that perspective I saw that we were getting the top player who not only that I felt was the best player in the draft but a lot of analysts agreed with that right. So it was exciting for that and you know, like I couldn't put it into words at the time but now I can. It kind of feels like when we got Jalen Ramsey right Two kind of in some ways different personalities but at the same time two similar personalities right and of course they both played a cornerback position. I would probably say Jalen is more outspoken than Travis in terms of trash talk, but Travis isn't a guy that you're going to go on the field and push over either. But now that I'm processing it now, it feels very much like we're getting a Jalen Ramsey-like superstar. And you know, I like that because it hurt a lot of us when we lost Jalen Ramsey right. So I think, like I said, at that time I couldn't process it.
Speaker 2:But yeah, to be able to get a superstar that magnitude and also to, as I said, in regards to the new regime, showing how bold they will be. Because you know, as you know, phil, like one thing that I really hated about the Trent Baalke regime is just not just the complacency but just how scared he was to trade up right. We talked about the only one that comes to mind in terms of him trading up and being somewhat bold, was Calvin Ridley right, but me and you have said, had the other team said, give us a first round pick, that trade wouldn't happen. So the conversation was always like well, when push comes to shove and the team is in a place where they need just that one more blue chip player or that one last blue chip player to get them over the top, is Trent Baalke the person that could get us that blue chip player, and a lot of times it takes a first round pick to get that player sometimes right, and the answer that I kept coming up with was no, no, he wouldn't. That being said, it's good to see right off the bat.
Speaker 2:In his first draft, james Gladstone showed the boldness and also too, I guess I'll talk about the compensation we gave up and what it costs to come up. I'm okay with it, you know, and I'll flip this over to you and ask if you're okay with it, because I'm of the mindset that our division is like one of the weakest in football and it wouldn't be surprising if we're picking in the back half of the first round next year. Anyway, you know, and that might not even necessarily be because we improved drastically, but because the Texans didn't improve as much as they should have. You know it could be something like that, but you know we could very well be in a division where it's not very hard to win.
Speaker 2:We already know the Titans. They're rebuilding, right. They have a rookie quarterback in Cam Ward. They're not going to be good right off the bat, you would think. And then we already know the Colts situation. They can't even figure out their quarterback right now. So we've had that conversation many, many times because we're Jaguars fans, when you don't have a quarterback, you're pretty much lost, unless you have this elite defense like we had in 2017. So I can envision us overtaking the Texans, right, and being picking 20 or something later than that. So I don't mind it one bit. But, yeah, I want to know your thoughts on how you feel about the compensation giving up yeah, f them picks right.
Speaker 1:That's the the new mentality. But no, I am okay with it as well. Like we said and like james ladstone stated, that we already discussed, you know, when you have an opportunity to take a guy like a travis hunter and you feel like you know that opportunity is within grasp, then you do it. You know, and we're sick and tired of being complacent here in Jacksonville could it not work out? Possibly could we be in a situation like you know, the Panthers were, where they ended up also having the number one pick again next year. I guess it is possible because we're the Jacksonville Jaguars and things just happen to us for some reason. But I also agree, I believe they could be competitive at the very least in a division.
Speaker 1:Like you said, that is really kind of scrambling outside of Houston, you know, and even they have issues when it comes to specifically offensive line, like what are they going to do? They picked up some really solid receivers, receivers that we are fans of over there in Houston. But also, you know, if they can't stop Trayvon Walker and Josh Hines Allen, then you know what I like our chances. So we'll see how that goes. But yeah, I'm totally okay with it and also they reloaded a little bit later with those two-thirds and getting two third round picks for next year is huge and I think it also goes to show you that they weren't going to, you know, reach for players that weren't necessarily hiring their boards a little bit later on in the draft as well. So they'll have the ammunition to move and to maneuver back into the first if they want to, if they identify that player, um, in terms of like the back half of the draft.
Speaker 1:Obviously I don't know what the draft class is going to look like this year. Nobody knows because I think a mock draft at this time last year you know the way too early mocks had, like Carson Beck as a top eight pick. So no one knows what the hell is going to happen a year from now when it comes to the NFL draft. So I'm totally OK with it and believe, at least from what I've seen so far, that if they do see an opportunity to move around and maybe get back in and identify a player that they like, they'll be able to do so.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I agree too. Yeah, you hit on something I forgot to touch on. Like you know, picking at five, you were kind of in a compromising position, like you. You know we had wrapped our mind around and we're okay with it, them taking gentee there. But again, my argument was always is that the best use of resources? You know? And obviously what we found out by the end of this draft, right, phil, is that they, it would appear that at the very least they might love what they have at the top of their depth chart at running back. You know, we'll talk about the two pickups they got, obviously, and they got some undrafted people probably too, but we'll talk about what they got at the running back position. But what that says is that they like their top two guys taint bigsby and travis et and at least enough, right? So I mean and you know there's always the argument that none of them are anywhere close to on Jente's level but yeah, I think, like picking at five, like they weren't going to be satisfied, like fully satisfied with what they would end up with, right, whether that was Graham who you know they might've had some concerns about, for whatever reason, people kept, you know, magically mocking him to them, but their willingness to trade up speaks otherwise. Like that, there might've been some concerns there. Again, you know, when you talk about Gentee, that's a great pick and all, but is it the best use of resources, right, picking a running back that high? So, yeah, that's a good point that you make, man, they weren't happy with necessarily picking that five. Maybe, and I mean I like their, you know their boldness to move up out of that spot. And again, you know, kudos to James Gladstone for realizing to that.
Speaker 2:And this probably comes from being with the Rams for so long. Not only are we talking about next year. That pick may not be as high in the order as we think it could be, but what if the Jacksonville Jaguars aren't picking high for a very long time because they're just good for a stretch of three years or whatever? I mean, I know that's crazy to say because we're the Jacksonville Jaguars, but that's stuff that the Rams have had to deal with. Right, they were so good for such long stretches even though they didn't have first round picks. Even if they had the first round picks, right, like they would have been very in the back of the draft order. You know they won the Super Bowl one year, who's to say? We might not be picking in the top 10 for years and years and years to come, not just next year alone, but the years after that. If everything shakes out like it should, it very well could be that way.
Speaker 2:Because, again, james Gladstone didn't inherit this roster. That was terrible. He already has all of the premium positions in place. Because, again, james Gladstone didn't inherit this roster. That was terrible. Right, he already has all of the premium positions in place. That's why it's a shame that Trent Baalke couldn't capitalize on it. Who in God's name would have their quarterback in place, their two defensive ends in place, and still be picking in front of the draft order? Like it makes no sense at all. So James, on the flip side, understands that, like this roster is good enough for me to be good for three years or so, we might not be picking in the front of the draft order next year or years prior to that, right.
Speaker 1:So when you feel like you are close and that was the whole thing about the Ashton Gentry pick is Ashton Gentry like you, like we'll use example for like Saquon Barkley like, yes, saquon Barkley was leading the Giants to the playoffs, uh, when he was there, when he was in New York, but they weren't ever like legitimately Super Bowl contenders. But when you move a Saquon Barkley to the Philadelphia Eagles, all of a sudden, that puts them over the top. They were already a really great team. Now they are unquestionably the best team in football. I didn't feel like we were an Ashton Gentry away from winning a Super Bowl. And also, with Ashton Gentry, could you be realistic with yourself and say the Jaguars are going to win a Super Bowl within the next five or six years, when a running back then, at least by NFL standards, is essentially playing for a second contract for a different team, right? So we're talking about looking this far down, looking way ahead. Is Ashton Gentry even part of the team in 2030? You know, whereas with the Travis, travis Hunter you want that guy hopefully to be around for 12 years. So that's also another thing too that while we did talk ourselves into the Gentee pick, it was like, yeah, but you know, is that really going to put us over the top? I don't know, not with the. Uh, you know, and they probably would have addressed receiver a little bit later, in different ways, you know, as opposed to getting Hunter early on. But you know, and they probably would have addressed receiver a little bit later, in different ways, you know, as opposed to getting Hunter early on. But you know, who knows what would have happened. But yeah, that's, that's why I was.
Speaker 1:Another reason why it's like, okay, well, this is a guy that you hope will be part of the culture, like, think about coming into 2020, what? Eight, 27, 28, when the new stadium is here. You know, we're talking about Trevor Lawrence, brian Thomas Jr, travis Hunter, trayvon Walker, probably Josh Hines-Allen in another three years. We're talking about a really great core coming into a whole new era of Jaguar football. It starts with those guys and certainly has continued with Travis Hunter Very exciting. I do want to ask Jay I loved that they put him on the phone with both coordinators. You know he talked about that in the pre-draft process about wanting to make sure he was able to play both sides of the ball. Love that. What is your level of? I don't want to say concern, but like what do you see him as with us? You know very, very early on. Obviously we'll learn a lot once they get to training camp and all that. What is your realistic expectations for him to be able to play both sides of the ball effectively here in Jacksonville?
Speaker 2:oh, yeah, I mean, I have concerns for sure, um, about him being able to do it, but I think, um, they they have a plan in place to minimize those concerns. Right, you know one thing that Pete Prisco saying we should really start listening to Pete Prisco. I mean, we already did, you know, we already had a great deal of respect for Pete, but we really should start listening to Pete now because of how close he is with Tony Bocelli. You know one thing Pete was saying is you know, from what he hears, is they really want to have him as an offensive weapon that can maybe come in on defense, on third downs or crucial downs or something like that. So we're more so looking at a receiver than a cornerback. Now, look, travis has a way of getting his way and not in a bad way, like you know. He's just a guy that he's infectious, you know, and he may can get on the field more than he should, and you may could talk Liam Cohen into getting him on the field more than he should. But I think, yeah, the primary goal, and especially when you look at the philosophy of the coach, his mindset of Liam Cohen being an offensive coordinator at his heart, in his mind an offensive mind. I think when you trade up anyway and give up what they gave up, their mindset is probably like we got a premium wide receiver to pair with Brian Thomas Jr.
Speaker 2:Now again and I'm writing the the scout report and it might be done today in terms of can he do it? You know, you certainly can't tell him that he can't do it. He believes he can. But one thing that I noticed when I was writing the scout report it never really dawned on me is he does have a little bit of an injury history, right, and I've kind of mentioned this in our thread as well, but it really didn't like come into like a full blown realization until I was writing the scouting report. But he has a little bit of an injury history and also one of the things that I wrote on the scouting report is that he has a frame to add mass, but he doesn't have a lot of mass on his frame right now. So when you look at that and you consider, like you know, he's been through a few injury situations and what have you that you know, limiting what you're going to do with him on defense might be smart, because right now I don't know that he has the frame to withstand the NFL.
Speaker 2:And look, man, we're talking about the NFL. These owners are talking about adding an additional game eventually, right, and you already have players while he is coming into the league. He's new to the league, need I remind you. He's coming into the league saying I want to play both sides of the ball consensus.
Speaker 2:And most players already in the league are saying right now heck, we're playing too many games as it is. If we had it our way, we would have one less game. And basically the argument has been like they're asking too much out of us in terms of what our bodies can take. That's always been the battle between the NFLPA and the owners, right? So, that being said, like most players in the league right now, probably you know, when he is fully established in the league, he'll tell them like man, hey, I know you have fun doing this and everything, man, but just for the wear and tear on your body, you know, it might be wise to just like stick to one side of the ball or go with the plan that, like I said, that Pete Prisco kind of mentioned, was having him play predominantly receiver, come in maybe on third downs or something, but even that's kind of questionable early in his career, at least until I feel like he adds more mass to his frame.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I didn't pay like a whole lot of attention to colorado football, but I do remember him uh, you know, missing some time. So, when you talk about like the amount of snaps that he was playing in college, like it's just not going to be sustainable in the nfl. To the same, when we're talking about pure, just numbers, when we're talking about how many steps he could play in the in the NFL, so definitely I'm excited to see how they're able to utilize him on both sides of the football. But, yeah, when you're talking about like the elite of the elite when it comes to athletes, you know like what is it? Two percent of college players ever play professional football, and then it's an even lower number than that that stick around. We're talking about the, the top tier athletes and people that also are very aware of who you are and what you represent and how you're confident that you can play both sides of the football. Where there's going to be a guy that's playing safety or on the opposite side of the ball playing, uh, you know, wide receiver or running back or tight end, that's going to be like all right, well, let's show this kid really what it's going to be like if he wants to be on both sides of the football. So but in terms of just him as a person and what he adds to this team and also this community, I mean just an infectious guy when you talk about his joy that he brings to not just football but also life and I know there's going to be conversations about that relationship and listen, we'll let other people talk about that what's going on with Travis Hunter and his personal life? But in terms of what we've seen from him, we talked about this in the very first 2025 draft preview episode. We did, jay. It told me everything I needed to know about Travis Hunter when he brought that kid from Colorado State on. After they kind of got into it and he got hurt in that game and you know, the Colorado State kid was getting like death threats and stuff. That told me all I needed to know about Travis Hunter, the person. So all we need to do is put it together on the football field and we're going to be in good shape for sure.
Speaker 1:But let's move on to the rest of the draft here. Once again, they did not pick again until pick 88 in the third round, where they want DB again. Jay, obviously one theme we definitely saw with three picks in this draft is they are not happy with secondary. They are not happy with how that group looks, and they addressed it a couple different times in this draft. And the number 88 pick was Caleb Ransaw DB out of Tulane a guy, jay, that I know nothing about, was not paying attention to Tulane football whatsoever, and I don't think you were either, but you have gotten a chance to watch some film and do a little bit of a breakdown on him. So what are the Jags getting as, at least as far as what you've seen so far from Caleb Ransaw?
Speaker 2:yeah, I saw one tape of him against Navy and, um, yeah, he's a guy that he was a little bit taller than I thought he was too. When I like, looked at him and, of course, like immediately what we found out. Because everybody was like, whoa, what are we doing? Another cornerback, right, we immediately found out, like that, james Gladstone, in his press conference he was saying, yeah, we're probably going to put this kid at safety, where he's better suited for his skill set is probably better suited for the safety position. You know, I did see a guy who you, you know, keeps his eyes on the target, on his target for the most part, which sometimes can get you in trouble too, because football is a deceptive game. You can see one thing, but it's actually something else. But he, you know one thing I noticed that he does keep his eye on the backfield and what's going on in the backfield. And another thing that I noticed I think actually they might have mentioned this on one of the scouting reports that he tackles well as well. So, you know, I love seeing things like this, because this is something that we talked about for four years with Trent Baalke. Every year he would watch this team miss tackles on film and not go in the draft and address it with people that could tackle better. It made no sense, right? Like I literally got a tweet up last year about in January like Trent needs to be looking for sure tacklers and the tackling didn't feel like it got worse last year. You know what I'm saying. So this is something obviously again talking about stark differences between this regime and the past regime.
Speaker 2:They recognize right off the bat not only that, what you mentioned, that that secondary was terrible, which you've heard me say it, phil, I hated watching our defense on film. It made me sick, it really did. I mean our offense wasn't great either, but the defense especially just it really did. I mean our offense wasn't great either, but the defense especially just disappointed me. They realized that that secondary wasn't it right. You know they got rid of guys like Andre Sisco, right. Then you get a young kid here in Ransaw. They got rid of Ronald Darby, right. That also shows their displeasure, not just the additions they made in the draft field, but them getting rid of two guys that played a lot of snaps for us last year, you know, and I don't want to say like getting rid of them per se, but not resigning Cisco, and I think they flat out cut Darby, so they got rid of him.
Speaker 2:So yeah, that being said, man Caleb, I want to watch some more film on him, but what I did see is I do feel like they're right to believe he has more of a safety skill set. Now, I think I read on Twitter too, where he transferred from a school previously because he was following the coaching staff that was with that school that eventually became the coaching staff of Tulane. But when he was initially with the first team that he was with I think it was Ransaw that they were talking about he was a better scheme fit fit. So a lot of people just feel like, schematically, in Tulane he wasn't a good scheme fit and had he been a good scheme fit, he would have probably gone a lot higher than he did. But the Jacksonville Jaguars, you know, and James Gladstone case saw through it and they saw like, hey, you know this this kid's playing out of, but he'll make a darn good safety. So, yeah, I can't wait to see, like, what plans they have for him in the future.
Speaker 1:Yeah, obviously a need at safety and yeah, as you mentioned and this is from the PFF report a very low missed tackle percentage throughout his career. Strong run defender with good play, strength and um, yeah, I, I was, like I said, not familiar with caleb ransaw or tulane football in terms of what they've done in the last few years, but certainly a solid pick there, from what everybody along with yourself is saying, jay, um. And then they also picked at pick number 89, the, the very next selection, I believe in a trade with Houston Don't quote me on that if I'm if I'm incorrect, but I'm pretty sure it was Houston. But they want offensive line, jay.
Speaker 1:When we spoke with Luke last week, you know we discussed, you know, are they going to be able to address offensive line within those, those first three rounds and hopefully come away with a starter, and he stated it's going to be difficult. So there is some movement here with them moving back up to pick 89 and taking Wyatt Milam from West Virginia, a guy PFF grade 91 last year and a guy who did not allow any sacks last season at left tackle. So what do you think from what you've seen from Wyatt so far, is this guy a future starter. And what did you see when you put on the tape?
Speaker 2:I think so I believe he is a starter. And I didn't go deep into the offensive line class after that big board I made. I think I went into about 50 players maybe. So when you get into the third round it got a little bit murky. So I had to watch him after we drafted him. Him and, um, yeah, no, I think you know, because I was concerned with what Luke said about there not being, um, the potential to maybe grab somebody in the third round that would be a starter for this offensive line, because I knew it was going to come to that feeling. Lo and behold, we were right.
Speaker 2:They weren't able to address the offensive line in the first two rounds, partially because they traded for Travis Hunter, which you'll take that trade off, you know, but at the same time, like we're talking about keeping Trevor Lawrence upright, so it is an important thing. So, yeah, anyway. That being said, yeah, I think we got a starter because just looking at, like, the PFF grades which I went and watched film afterwards, but looking at the PFF grades is, you know, he had like a 91 in terms of his overall grade, if I'm not mistaken. As a matter of fact, I'll pull it up right here. I got it in my, yeah, a 91 overall grade, 89.2 in terms of run blocking and then for pass blocking he was a 92.5. So, yeah, in terms of what I saw on film, I saw a long arm, long, just in general, like he looked like a Trent Baalke guy. I hate to say that, but at the same time I saw a guy that was, you know, very strong in the run game. I saw a guy that would get flat out extensions on defensive tackles, defensive ends.
Speaker 2:Now, again, his snaps were at left tackle and I noticed that he did. And after I noticed that I went back and read the scouting report after that that said the same thing. I noticed he seemed a little bit heavy footed for playing tackle, offensive tackle and that's totally fine, right? That's why they're moving him to guard, right? He just doesn't have the feet to play tackle.
Speaker 2:And, as we mentioned, phil, like when you're playing offensive tackle, you're dealing with the most elite athletes in the game. Arguably, you know you're talking about these defensive ends, like Josh Allen, and what's your guy named from the Dallas Cowboys that's escaping me right now. Defensive end Now, jesus, micah Parsons, micah Parsons. Yeah, I almost call him a car part. Micah Parsons. Micah Parsons, you're dealing with athletes like that routinely, but you know that's OK that he's heavy footed, that's OK that he doesn't have the footwork to play offensive tackle because they're moving him to guard. Now look, if push came to shove and you're in a pinch and they've talked about this you might put them at offensive tackle for a game, right, depending on the opponent. And that's one thing. They kind of stress is like let's get versatile guys as well.
Speaker 2:But going back to them played guard at the senior bowl. I think that caught a lot of people's eyes. I sent y'all a video of him getting like super aggressive in the practice drills with one guy, like they were almost about to fight, which you love to see in terms of a guard. You know like it didn't get too crazy. Nobody threw any punches or anything. But yeah, like I said, I saw a strong guard presence there. Like I said, he got full extensions with his long arm lift. It seems like he has long arms. I'm going to pull up my notes, the rest of my notes here. I did see him whiff quite a bit and I did see him he kind of looks uncoordinated when he reached the second level in terms of the linebackers. So that's kind of one of those things you kind of see with some players, offensive linemen when they're in space and they're not in the phone booth or in close quarter situations, they kind of look lost and they whiff on linebackers and things like that. But again, with him playing at guard, he won't have to deal with a lot of these things that I'm mentioning.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean, aside from all of that man, I just saw a powerful player that we've long missed.
Speaker 2:Man, I've talked about it for a long time. Man, god bless his soul. Man, I miss the days where we had Vince Manowai just moving people at ease, right. I miss the days where we had guys like Tony Pashos moving people with ease I'm probably showing my age here and all of those guys and where Maurice Jones, drew, just kind of had his way with offenses and I seem, it seems like the Jacksonville Jaguars, and especially Liam Cohen, want to get back to that and yeah, that's what they got here with this kid. Also, one more thing that I couldn't help but notice in his interview, you know, with the media right off the bat he's talking about. I'm not letting anybody touch Trevor Lawrence, man, like right off the bat. I love that. Again, it might take him a little time to get adjusted to the NFL game, but I think that's what training counts for and I think we got our future starting guard. I think he's probably going to start week one at guard for us and take the place of Ezra Cleveland.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I'm coming out and saying I'm not going to let anybody touch Trevor Lawrence. That is a great way to appreciate yourself with your new fan base, and yet he just looks like a mauler man. You know, from what I've seen and you know, all I can really do on my end is you know, type his name into Twitter, see what comes up, see what people are saying about him. And one thing I know is that I did see is that Texans fans wanted him. So suck it, houston. That's certainly something that makes me very happy to make sure that you guys didn't get him. But, yeah, I'm very excited about that pick and, again, the potential to get a full-time starter and a long-term starter at guard in the third round is very exciting as well.
Speaker 1:Moving on into the fourth round, they had another two picks here and relatively close together. Once again, the running back went. This is where they went running back and not any of the names that, not a name that we had been circling. You know, of course, rj Harvey went before we had an opportunity to take him. That's the guy that we had been circling for quite some time. But Basial Tootin running back out of Virginia Tech at pick 104, and then linebacker Jack Kaiser at pick 107 from Notre Dame. So talk about those two picks there. Jay Tootin is just a full-on speedster, right, probably one of the fastest players in the draft, so where does he fit in? We'll start there in terms of that running back room, and you know what kind of impact do you think it has, if any, on Travis Etienne and Tank Bigsby?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean I don't think like he's gonna push either one of them like immediately. I think he has a little bit of work to do in terms of just being a flat out running back. That can help this team. I think I read this somewhere that they want to use him more so for special teams things, for special teams usage. That being said, when I watched him on film I think I seen two tapes of him, two full tapes of him. One thing I noticed is I think I've seen like two tapes of him, like two full tapes of him.
Speaker 2:One thing I noticed is, while he has all of the speed in the world, he's a little bit of a one cut person and he's not going to like necessarily dodge a lot of people. A lot of people think like speed and explosiveness translates to elusiveness. Sometimes that's not the case. I didn't see him in a situation where he was able to dodge a lot of tackles. Especially it was times in space where they'll hit him on like a zero route or something out in the flats and you know he wasn't like necessarily making people miss. So I think he's a little bit of a one cut guy from what I've seen, and I think Daniel Jeremiah even said that too as well when we drafted him. You know how they put a little graphic up of what they do. Well, and that was one of the things that popped up and I noticed that as well. But, yeah, no, as you said, like explosive, explosiveness in the, in a sense of straight line speed, is there. He was what the fastest running back, I think, in the combine, if I'm not mistaken, if not him, it might be somebody else we drafted, but one of the fastest running backs in the combine in terms of this year. If not, the fastest might be somebody else we drafted, but one of the fastest running backs in the combine in terms of this year, if not the fastest, definitely a guy that can help him on special teams.
Speaker 2:And I, you know, I wouldn't be shocked now, even though, like I said, I don't know that he's a threat to Tank and ETN right now. But with the way that Liam Cohen's mind works and the you know offensive expertise that he offers, I wouldn't be shocked if you know they are trying to work him in and get some snaps at running back and in that backfield, and you know we have to account for this. Travis Etienne could be gone next year. So you know you got to start, you know, maybe training somebody to potentially take his place.
Speaker 2:And you got to also factor this in too. I mean, last year we witnessed Liam he didn't make the draft decision, but they got Bucky Irvin what third round, fourth round, something like that and he's one of the best running backs in the league right now. So I wouldn't be shocked if Liam could get this kid where he needs to be faster than I can project him to get there. But yeah, he was a guy that, like I said, he was just more so a one-cut guy, but somebody I did feel like could probably help them, more so on special teams than on offense for the time being yeah, I think more of a complimentary piece than anything and also possibly another special teams guy that we could see that back there.
Speaker 1:I think I saw some clips of him doing some punt returning. What do you think this means? You know, just because selfishly, you know, since I'm a Texas fan they took Keelan Robinson in the fifth round last year. We didn't really see him too much in 2024. Do you believe he's probably the odd man out? I really don't see them carrying four running backs, right um, not necessarily.
Speaker 2:Um, I have to look and see how many running backs that temple kept. But I mean, in this day and age, like I don't think it's absurd to keep four running backs on the roster when you're playing 17 games. Right, we kind of had that conversation with doug peterson. You know how he kind of, when he won the super, that's how he won it with a committee of running backs. Right, you're going to endure injuries at that position, right, you know, we've seen it. You know, and people, you're just going to have it. It's so physical of a position it's going to happen. So, no, not necessarily.
Speaker 2:And you know, one thing I kind of mentioned last year, phil, when we implemented the new kickoff rule, is you need more than one returner. You know what I'm saying With how they do things in today's day and age, at least in my opinion, and also too, you know, maybe you know you want to get, you want to kind of work Parker Washington out of that return a role, because you might need him more as a receiver. We'll see, time will tell. So maybe this has more so to do with that than maybe trying to get Keelan Robinson out. But you know, we always hear the whole mantra of you know, this regime doesn't owe anything to the past regime and you know none of these guys. They have to make a commitment to none of these guys.
Speaker 1:But no, I don't think necessarily it is a threat to Keelan Robinson. Yeah, good point, you know, and they can also find ways to keep him around if they don't want to carry him on the main roster. You know practice squad and all of that as well. I do want to talk about some breaking news that just came through. Shout out to Boogie for sending this in the group chat. The Jaguars did just sign free agent defensive end Emmanuel Ogbach to a one-year deal, so they are loading up on depth at the defensive end position. So, Jay, what do you think about that? I don't really think they addressed edge in the draft. So this is a depth move and also a good veteran guy. What are your thoughts on this?
Speaker 2:Yeah, that took me by surprise. That's what I get for not taking, uh, a look at the thread here and there, man. But uh, I mean, I like hearing about, like, and I've never been like a big agba guy, right, but making this kind of move after the draft, like you can't complain about that at all, right? Um, because what it says in james gladstone I'm not shocked by it, because james gladstone actually kind of mentioned this in the press conference they didn't address defensive line like they wanted to in the draft, right, and he said like, hey, we can look at some of these undrafted kids. I think they got about 20 undrafted kids. We can maybe address it in that way, or we can look to some veterans, right. So, yeah, this could be a move that works out. I mean, we've seen it where I think, like late free agency pickups have helped this team. Right, one that comes to mind was I'm blanking on him, he's with the Titans right now that he said he built Jack.
Speaker 2:Oh the mayor, yeah, there you go.
Speaker 1:Not Calais Campbell Arden Key.
Speaker 2:Yeah, arden Key, right, right, Arden Key, that was one of the biggest late pickups we ever had, right, like the one season that it was here. So, yeah, no, no. That being said, man, I like this in a sense that it kind of shows that you know this team again, this regime thinks so much differently than the last regime. Right, like, hey, we didn't get what we needed in the draft necessarily, and that's sometimes that's how the draft shakes out, right, you don't address everything you need. Okay, let's pivot. Let's go get a guy, a veteran guy, here, because chances are the undrafted guys that you looked at probably won't make the team. Let's go get a veteran guy at a key position for us.
Speaker 2:By the way, you know like a position that's going to get a veteran guy at a key position for us. By the way, you know, like a position that's, you know, essentially, probably I'll have to see what they're going to do with them and what they'll play them, but you would think like he's probably going to come in and a role behind Josh Hines, allen and maybe Trayvon Walker Again, time will tell on that, but you know you're getting a veteran guy as opposed to a young guy behind them and that can help tremendously. Again, the example that comes to mind where it really worked out for us is Arden Key, and we had a pretty good all around rotation as a result of getting a veteran there, as opposed to trying to rely on some kid that is an undrafted free agent or a late round pick.
Speaker 1:Yeah, adding that depth, like you said right after the draft love it and addressing a need, uh, that they literally just talked about the transparency between this regime and the previous one is is insane like it's. It's crazy to think that literally just three months ago we were in hell. And look at us today we got travis hunter on our roster and they're making moves that you know, know the day after the NFL draft. And so crazy, crazy work, man. What about the other fourth round pick here where they went linebacker, they address linebacker and back to back picks, albeit fourth round and sixth round, but yeah, notre Dame linebacker, jack Kaiser. What do you think about that selection? What have you seen so far?
Speaker 2:Yeah, man, jack is a guy. Um, I noticed that the athleticism is lacking. That's okay. We're talking about fourth round picks here, right, like I didn't expect to go out there and see freaking ray lewis or nothing like that, you know. But, um, the athleticism wasn't there necessarily.
Speaker 2:But what I do like about him and we've talked about this in the podcast and I can see why James Gladstone went this direction too now that I'm like thinking about it, phil, it's one thing I noticed as a downhill runner and a downhill linebacker. Uh, it's kind of where he flourished. It was a lot of times where, um, he was pretty good at taking on blocks or avoiding them. When it comes to downhill situations and getting to the backfield or the running back, avoiding blocks, shedding blocks or whatever the case may be, getting skinny and making a play on the ball carrier If it's a running back quarterback, the reason that's important because Phil is and you heard me mention this in the thread and on Twitter is times where we'll flat out see Devin Lloyd like, avoid contact in those situations, right, and a play will end up going for more yardage than it should. So here you have a guy in Kaiser. I guess what I'm saying is a little bit opposite than him in downhill situations. So, that being said, I can understand that pick, and then I can also understand it from the standpoint of this too, phil and I only seen one film, one piece of film on him, and it was also, coincidentally, it was against Navy as well. But he, you know you look at the intangibles right, and this is going to be a recurring theme right On this podcast, because that's what you know James Gladstone is into, but intangibly rich, that he is Right. And Mia even said that she put him in one hour mock drafts because of that or one of her mock drafts I think it was her first mock draft on 1010XL. She's like, yeah, this kid is exactly that. And you know, while we're at that subject, phil, I want to talk about that too. This whole mantra, you know, and I've even saw I forgot who it was.
Speaker 2:Somebody said they were kind of tired about hearing the phrase already intangibly rich and this, that and the other. I want to talk about that with you real quick, phil. I don't mind how many times we've heard this, and the reason I don't mind it is because, essentially, what they're saying, they're asking for each player, is for the player, and he said this many, many times Gladstone has. They're asking for each player to come in and be themselves. But also, too, I think what people are missing is when you have a group of 53 players who are all being themselves, they all excel, you know, at something. You know, not in all cases, but in a lot of cases, this guy might excel at something different than the next guy. This guy might excel at something different than the next guy. So when they're all coming in and being themselves, they're essentially making a complete team. You know, and I think that that's huge, but I think it's also huge that we keep hearing this about that and being intangibly rich, because I just that that's huge, but I think it's also huge that we keep hearing this about that and being intangibly rich, because I just love that.
Speaker 2:There's communication, transparency and, first and foremost and the most important thing, phil, an identity.
Speaker 2:Finally, an identity.
Speaker 2:We went through three years with Doug Peterson, where we couldn't get in Brent Martineau mentioned this too Peterson where we couldn't get, and Brent Martineau mentioned this too we couldn't get Doug to say what our identity was because we didn't have one, first and foremost, for three years.
Speaker 2:We couldn't get that out of Trent for three years and that's a long time to go without looking at an organization and saying what is that organization, what do they do, what's their identity? So for me, to hear what James Gladstone has said these what last three months, and repeatedly say it, I don't mind it at all, because we went through four years three well, yeah, four years when you include Balki and Urban four years of not having an identity, not having a clue what we were. And now to hear it so much throughout these three months is kind of refreshing to me. And you know, maybe down the road it'll wear on me and it'll annoy me to hear it, you know, and especially when things aren't going good. But right now I love it from that perspective because we didn't know what we were for four years. Now we do.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I agree. If you look back at the last, you know, at the Doug Peterson era, and you try to identify what that team, what the identity of that team was, I don't really know what that answer is, other than Trevor Lawrence trying to do whatever he possibly could on one side of the ball and Josh Heinz Allen trying to do the same, and Trayvon Walker we'll throw him in there as well, because it was always what took up all the headlines was who's calling the plays? Who's calling the plays? When are we going to get this defensive coordinator out here, when you know we're? We're excited about the new defensive coordinator? Oh no, he's bad too. Uh, you know what the hell happened with Andre Sisko and Devin Lloyd and all these guys defensively specifically, like we were trending upward right and then fell off a cliff. Like that's what the identity of the team was, was you know 2022 was. We were trending upward. We have that incredible run and you go into the season, you're in contention for the number one seed and Trevor goes down and it all falls apart. You know the really good teams can weather that storm and Doug Peterson could not and Trent Bulkey could not. So that was what the identity of this team is.
Speaker 1:So I don't want to hear it. Who's the? Who is the poster child of intangibly rich Travis Hunter? That's why Travis Hunter is here in Jacksonville. Did you see him, with his goofy smile, putting on that helmet? That wasn't meant for him, by the way, that was just a prop helmet did you see him how excited he was to come to Jacksonville? Of all places and you know the media is not happy about this they are not happy that he is in Jacksonville, just like they weren't happy that Trevor Lawrence ended up in Jacksonville. So that's why they want Mason Graham to come to Jacksonville, because you don't have to talk about Mason Graham, but now you got to talk about Travis Hunter and you have to talk about Trevor Lawrence and a new head coach in this new regime, and they're not happy about it. So that's what I have to say about it yeah, yeah, I agree.
Speaker 2:Yeah, the phrase you said about travis hunter being the poster child for intangibly rich, yeah, that's it right there, right, that's so on on brand, but yeah, I mean, I love having an identity, like you know. I mean you I kind of mentioned this to boogie in the thread, right, right Of, like you know, boogie was like I don't get what the hype is around, like people like Jalen Walker, and I was like I'll tell you what the hype is around. Jalen Walker, if you look at the Rams roster, they're made up of a bunch of intangibly rich Jalen Walker, like people you know, and like that's their identity. That's what the fascination is with him, is not just this.
Speaker 2:All the time, the intangibles go outside of their performance on the field, but how do they think in pressure situations and what have you? It's other things that go into that. That being said, man, yeah, man, I don't mind. Like they can say it as many times as they want, man, I don't mind it because I finally know what this team is and even if we're not that, I know where they're trying to get to in terms of which would be where the Rams are. Essentially, I know where they're trying to get to, even if they don't get there this year, I know the identity that they want to have, even if they don't get there this year.
Speaker 1:I know the identity that they want to have, right, yeah, I agree. And to bring it back to Jack Kaiser, yeah, in terms of what I've seen, just a very little, I do see that. You know that concern when it comes to the athleticism. But also just see a guy I talked about this in our mock, the only mock that we did here on the podcast, bringing in guys from winning cultures and Notre Dame is certainly that Colorado, varying levels of success, but Travis Hunter still a winner. Um, and you guys, you know, talking about West Virginia, virginia Tech, big name schools, you know.
Speaker 1:And also, again, we don't have uh too much to uh in terms of a report yet from a guy they took in the sixth round, rayon Lane. You know, a Navy kid coming to a Navy town. I think there's something to be said about that. The other linebacker they took Auburn, usc, syracuse, you know, and while these schools haven't necessarily outside of, like Notre Dame, they're not necessarily competing for championships, these are still big-time historical universities when it comes to football. So I think there's something, uh, that is uh, there's definitely something to be said about that. To lane, obviously a bit of an outlier. But, like you said, if caleb bransaw is playing for uh, you know, if he goes to florida state, you know he's we're probably having a different conversation about him.
Speaker 1:But to round out the draft here, jay, I know you haven't gotten to the sixth and seventh round guys uh, jaylen mcleod from Auburn A lot of people seem to be surprised he was still available in round six. Rayon Lane, like I just talked about. Safety from Navy, seems like he might be a really solid special teams guy. Jonah Monheim from USC he is a center. And then LaQuint Allen running back out of Syracuse. I know you haven't gotten a chance to really do any kind of deep dive into these guys, but do you have anything you want to add on as we get to, uh, you know, towards the end of this episode?
Speaker 2:yeah, I'm real curious about um jonah because, as everybody know, I'm not a luke fortner guy and, uh, the sooner we can pack him up the better, um, even though, look, um liam cohen does have ties to him. He coached luke fortner in college, so you know they might think more highly of him than we do, but, yeah him, I want to definitely watch some of um mcleod for the simple fact that, um, you know, auburn is one of our um biggest rivals, and when I say our, I mean the georgia bulldogs, the south's oldest rivalry, and uh, yeah, he was a guy that I didn't get to like study, because you know that that rivalry at for the time being and this is no disrespect to Auburn it's not like what it used to be right Down to the wire type rivalry where it goes down to like literally the last snap. So I want to check him out because, yeah, I mean we do need some help on that edge, you know, I mean, I know they got Ogba, obviously, we just talked about that, but still, you always want to have that young pass rusher in the waiting right, phil, every roster needs it, because it's going to come a time where you might have to lean on him? Josh Allen might we saw last year, was it last year?
Speaker 2:Josh Hines Allen dealt with some concussions right, had to exit the game and the pass rush just looked just terrible when he was gone. I mean, the only person we had that could really generate pass rush was Trayvon, so he'll be an interesting one to watch. And the Navy kid is Lane right. His last name, phil, you said.
Speaker 1:Yes, it is Rayon Lane.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I want to check him out too as well, because, again, you know just kind of going back to what I was saying about Caleb Ransaw is you know, the secondary was despicable to look at, man, and I want as many of these kids, including the undrafted guys, I want to see as many of these guys competing for roster spots, because you know what Trent Baalke built, isn't it in that secondary, you know? So I'll be watching these kids over the next probably day or so. Like I said, I got the Travis Hunter scouting report that I'm working on right now, which is essentially done. I might post that tonight, then I can move on to some of these late round kids and see what they're working with.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and then the Jaguars did add 20 undrafted free agents here. I know, jay, you kind of took a look at the list. Nobody really stood out, not seeing any names that we were discussing in terms of the draft process here. I won't name all of these, but there are a few receivers on here. I see a quarterback, some defensive linemen, offensive linemen as well. So if you want to check out those names, head on over to social media and you can check that out.
Speaker 1:But overall, really really exciting and optimistic draft. Of course, all that starts with the trade in the beginning with Travis Hunter. I believe the response from the mainstream media has been pretty solid as well. In terms of draft grades. We won't really know what the grade for this draft is going to be until two or three years down the road, but NFLcom, a-usa Today B+, new York Post, espn, cbs Sports all with a B, pff, a B+. So all really really positive feedback when it comes to their moves and it seems like people are optimistic about what the future looks like when it comes to these draft picks.
Speaker 1:But, jay, we'll wrap up here in just a moment. I do just want to talk to you about this Shador Sanders thing, because it was the story of the weekend. Now, first off, what I'll tell you guys for some of you that may not be on social media as much, which good for you. That is a solid, solid, healthy choice. But first off, if you weren't following this, shador Sanders got prank called on the night of the draft. I believe it was in on day two Now. Shador Sanders had a cell phone only for NFL front offices, so when he got drafted they would call that number. He got a phone call from somebody who claimed to be, I believe, the GM for the Giants. I'm not 100% sure, but a video came out of that prank call and it was from a student at the University of Ole Miss prank call and it was from a student at the university of, so from old miss. And in that video, jacks ulbrich, who is the son of falcons defensive coordinator, jeff ulbrich, is in the video and he has come out and apologized.
Speaker 1:It turns out he is the one who leaked that phone number and that's how they were able to make that phone call. And that was was making rounds and he made a you know, a BS apology on social media. The Falcons have now released a statement as well, and the whole Shador thing already was just very strange and kind of fishy to watch. You know, when it comes to sports I tend to stray away from conspiracy theories, just because a lot of it is just is a lot of nonsense. It is sometimes fun if it's harmless to look into, but this whole Shador thing, jay, kind of rubbed me the wrong way and I want you to talk about a little bit.
Speaker 1:You know what you said and when we were talking with our buddy Josh about why this may have happened, because to me me as somebody who did not watch a lot of Colorado football, all I can really do is, during this draft process, I hear that he is a kid that is very accurate but does not have the strongest arm but is a. He's won wherever he has gone, despite the lack of a running game, despite the lack of an offensive line, um, but at the end of the day he is Deion Sanders' son. So what happened here, do you think in your mind? I also hear that you know he's not working out for certain teams. He didn't work out of the senior bowl, the shrine, and you know the shrine, uh bowl. He didn't work out of the combine. You know all of this stuff I'm just collecting and sitting back and wondering what the hell happened. So what do you think happened and do you have any comments about you know this? This BS prank phone call he got as well, because that's just nasty work.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so, and yeah, we're still getting the facts on this because they're coming in. But yeah, I pulled up Sporting News here, a tweet from them, very reputable company. Right, it was not just your door, Tyler Warren, Tyler Warren yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, got a call Kyle McCord, who we mocked Kyle McCord to. He's from Syracuse, the quarterback, and a gentleman named Chase Lunt. I'm not familiar with him, but another prospect and some anonymous, undrafted free agents too as well. It says here. So yeah, man, like a whole list of kids were getting these calls, just you know, because some kid from again and I got to see the details on it and read up on it Some kid got a whole piece of electronic that he shouldn't have his hand on. I guess they said that he may have gotten it off his dad's iPad or iPad or something like that, these numbers. So again I got to look at the facts and see how he got it.
Speaker 2:But yeah, this kid just doing too much Right and just ruining what is supposed to be a great moment in these individuals. Life should do his life Right. You know what I'm saying. And Tyler Warren's life, who Tyler was going to go with like top 10, we thought you know what I'm saying, just ruining these moments for these people who worked so hard for so many, many years to get there Right. So, like I mean, I get it. I don't know how old this kid is. Some people might be like, oh, it's a young kid, but still, man. Like, coming from a football family, as this kid has, you should understand the value in these moments for these individuals and this is not something to make fun of or put them on high alert for. Whatever the case may be, you know what I'm saying. Coming from a football family, you should have the decency and the knowledge to know that that wasn't cool, right? So there's that. I think I got a message here just saying that the coach won't receive any disciplinary action for from Adam Schefter. I I have to pull out that tweet. You know how the alert just pops up on the front screen of your phone so I can like touch it in time to see. But it looks like he won't get disciplined for it. But NFL will like re-evaluate their protocols for how they acquire these numbers for these players and what happened.
Speaker 2:But yeah, in terms of the Shador Sanders situation, yeah, like we talked about it in the thread and, um, you know one thing I will say like. So I started the conversation off in the thread by saying this I think that part of it was you know, I can remember two years ago, right, phil Deion Sanders showing up on different podcasts I can't remember what podcast they might have been on Barstool or whatever the case may be. You know, just saying like hey, like we might have to pull an Eli and if this team wants to draft him, you know we might have to do this or whatever the case may be. And also, too, something that also stood out to me was Deion. Two years ago, when people were like Shador should enter the draft, he'll be a top 10 pick. You know, deion kind of was answering that for him and Shiloh Shiloh is the kid that plays safety, that's Deion's other son and Deion would answer it like for them, like no, you guys aren't going to the draft yet. Like you're staying here. And like I always like.
Speaker 2:One thing I will say about that is like, as grown men, let them kind of make their own decision and be their own voice, right, and if Shador doesn't want to play for a certain team, let him be the one to do that. And also, too, you want to do that kind of stuff behind closed doors. You don't want your father being out there on a podcast, kind of like trying to strong arm you to whatever team he wants you to go to, like. So I think that part of it rubbed the NFL wrong. Now, as I said, I don't think the NFL is validated by how they did Shador at all. And that's the next point I want to make as well, and I said we literally just said this in the last podcast with Lou Easterly the NFL has a quarterback problem. Part of the quarterback problem is the egos and the decision makers that make the decisions on bringing in these players. They have egos. That's part of the problem.
Speaker 2:That being said, with the quarterback problem that the NFL has, so many teams have bad quarterbacks and bad quarterback rooms and don't have an answer at that position, to the point where I do not understand how Shador Sanders lasted past round two. Now, sure, I can get it, he wouldn't get drafted in round one, I can understand that. But after round two it started to get a little bit ridiculous. And you've seen my big board. I had him 16th on my big board, right, and we're talking about a kid, two years.
Speaker 2:These talent evaluators can say what they want, right, phil, but we're talking about a kid here who has stepped his game up on every level. They went from Jackson State and this includes Travis too, travis Hunter, because he followed them on this path. They went from going to Jackson State and basically being unbeatable there to going to the Division I level and while the success wasn't initial, they eventually became a successful team on the Division I level. They have elevated themselves Shador, shiloh, travis, hunter, coach, deion Sanders. They have elevated their level of play on every level that they've been to, whether it's Division I or anything below that. And when you see a quarterback that is able to do that in Shador Sanders elevate his play from going to Jackson State to playing Division I prospects at Colorado right that to me spoke volumes about his field and that alone was, you know, like that and you know just the whole situation.
Speaker 2:As I said with you know Deion kind of trying to maybe strong-arm his sons to whatever team he wanted them to go to. That can be thrown out of the window when considering how bad these teams are at the quarterback position. That's stuff that if I'm a GM I'm overlooking. I don't care what Deion said two years ago. I don't care if he tried to strong arm his son to a certain team. Now, the competitive side of it, not competing in the senior bowl and things of that nature that's worth knocking him for, because what you want to see is a quarterback that is competitive in terms of wanting to face every level of high competition that he can, but still that doesn't excuse him not going, at the very least, at the second round. Maybe that can knock him out of the first round, but not the second round. The very least at the second round, maybe that can knock him out of the first round, but not the second round.
Speaker 2:So, that being said, man like I think this kid is somebody who's going to come into the league motivated and also to feel I think this kid and I hope he does this because, as I said, the NFL is an ego driven league that has a quarterback problem that can't fix it, and a lot of it is they're getting on in their own way. I hope this kid proves a lot of GMs wrong and I hope this kid puts these GMs in a predicament where their owners are saying like well, he was there for us to take in round one, round two, you didn't take him, and now he's on the other side of the field literally kicking out behind. Take him in now he's on the other side of the field literally kicking out behind, and I wouldn't doubt that he has. He's a Sanders kid. I don't doubt that he has the ability to do that one day. I think the talent is there. As you said, the arm strength, you know, not the greatest, but we've seen plenty of quarterbacks get away with not having good arm strength Kirk Cousins, so on and so forth.
Speaker 2:I think they've inserted a battery into this kid's back to the point where I think he's going to make some people pay, and when I say pay, not necessarily us we didn't need a quarterback but the team that did. He's going to make these teams pay and I am going to be eating it up. It's going to be box office TV for me if he does it. Man, I'm rooting for the kid and, um, I'm happy that he did get drafted, you know, albeit it's not as high as it should have been.
Speaker 2:But I do think like he's in a situation, too, where Joe Flacco isn't going to be there that long. I think Joe Flacco they signed Joe Flacco right, phil. It's going to be there that long and he knows that, and he's going to dedicate his time and efforts into unseating Joe Flacco. And in a few years, I think this kid is going to dedicate his time and efforts into unseating Joe Flacco, and in a few years I think this kid is going to be something special and, by the way, he went to a very good offensive line. I do like that part of it. Kevin Stefanski is going to really help this kid get where he needs to get, and people are going to have to pay for it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, where you lose me in terms of like some of these teams if they try to explain this away, is when you know the Browns themselves take Dylan Gabriel before Shador Sanders or Tyler Shuck. I don't care that Tyler Shuck had this rise during the draft. The film speaks for itself. You're not going to convince me that the Saints are OK with going into their season with Tyler Shuck, spencer Rattler and Derek Carr. You're just not going to convince me of that In a division that is winnable. When you talk about the NFC South and putting Shador like a lot of comparisons with Shador Sanders and I don't think he's going to be this good, but a lot of comparisons were with Drew Brees, like not the strongest arm but got to play in a dome four games out of the year, you know when you talk about Atlanta and New Orleans and that worked out for him really, really well, so I will also be rooting for Shador.
Speaker 1:The whole Deion stuff like people wondering is would you bring in Shador?
Speaker 1:And then, all of a sudden, deion is also, you know, speaking on your franchise while not actually being there. Well, if that's the case, then that's your problem, that's your fault that your front office and your coaching staff isn't strong-willed enough to keep that away from their locker room, to keep that away from their team. So you think that Mike Tomlin was going to allow Deion Sanders' talk to overtake his locker room? You think Cameron Hayward or TJ Watt or those guys were going to allow Deion whatever Deion Sanders talk to overtake his locker room? You think Cameron Hayward or TJ Watt or those guys were going to allow Deion whatever Deion Sanders was saying to affect them?
Speaker 1:No, so the Steelers, specifically, I think definitely should have taken him and instead you're waiting around for what Aaron Rodgers and you're going to throw Mason Rudolph out there week one, give me a break. So yeah, we just had to discuss that because obviously it was the biggest story of the weekend. You know. Also hearing that the league was sending the Sanders family a message like all that just is nonsense to me. I don't like it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I feel like man. You look at those quarterbacks that went before Shador man. And again, I had. I had a man as a first round graded pick. I had him 16th on my big board. You know, the only quarterback I had above him was Cam Ward. That's the only one I understood right I mean rightfully. So. You know, I just said Cam Ward, albeit with the tights, I think he's going to be a good quarterback one day, not necessarily off the rip, but one day.
Speaker 2:But all of these quarterbacks, like you said, tyler Shook, like all of these guys going ahead of him, like it was really a slap in the face. It was getting ridiculous right, and it was getting to a point where you know it kind of. You know, if we didn't have our connection to the Jaguars, it was kind of hard to watch the draft at that point. Obviously, you know we want to know who we're getting and we kind of want to monitor our division rivals and stuff. But, like you know what I'm saying, if I was a casual fan, seeing that would have made me turn off the draft personally, just how they, how they did the kid man and all of these quarterbacks that went over him.
Speaker 2:But that being said, man, I do think he's in a situation where he, you know, eventually he can find his way on the field. I hope the Browns do right by him. That's another thing you have to watch out for. I hope the Browns do right by him, because they do have a loaded quarterback room. But, you know, I do like the aspect of him getting to learn from a Kevin Stefanski who what a year ago was the coach of the year right, Phil, if I'm not mistaken. So there's that, and it's a situation worth monitoring ahead and forward for sure, man.
Speaker 1:Yeah, he will certainly have the opportunity to compete for that starting job. He's definitely better than Dylan Gabriel. I mean, granted, I didn't watch really any Dylan Gabriel film, but I have a lot of confidence in saying that because you and plenty of other people had a first-round grade on Shador Sanders that he could be better, and should be better, than Joe Flacco and Dylan Gabriel. So, and then, of course, you know the other quarterbacks they have in that room in Cleveland. But, Jay, this was another great episode. We are excited about what comes next and we'll wait to see when the rookies report and keep track of that. And with James Gladstone in this front office, who knows what's going to happen next? I mean, they're out here signing Emmanuel Ogba a day after the draft man. They are certainly not content to just sit still and let things happen, but we will certainly keep an eye on that. Anything else you want to mention to our audience before we wrap up and start focusing on the next one?
Speaker 2:No, man, just an exciting time to be a Jags fan, man. I'm glad that again, like me and you said, we were at a point where we didn't know if we'd be recording this show. Now it's a joy to record again, right, until they started losing. But yeah, man, like this new regime is definitely inserted a battery into the back of this podcast, man, and I can't wait to see where these kids go, man, because you look at it, I mean like, from a name standpoint, it's not like this, like flashy draft, aside from the Travis Hunter pick, obviously, but everything else isn't like super flashy, but yet we're talking about how excited we are to see these kids and how they'll be incorporated into the roster, man. So, yeah, like you said, man, rookie camp, I can't wait.
Speaker 2:Again, a lot of these are names that we didn't even study initially, right, and I'm still excited. And a lot of these are names that we didn't even study initially, right, and I'm still excited. That speaks volumes about what the Jaguars have done here and James Gladstone have done. So be on the lookout for that. Like I said, the scout report is on the way. Travis Hunter should get that out today and, yeah, we got much, much more on the horizon. Man Can't wait. Man Guess all of that, you name it. But yeah, man, another great episode and, uh, yeah, I hope to have many, many more on this class yeah, so make sure you keep up with the show.
Speaker 1:click the link tree link in the show notes of this and every single episode. You'll find the website touchdown jaguarscom. You'll find where you can locate all of our social media pages, both personal and the social media for the podcast. And, of course, make sure you head on over to Apple Podcasts, spotify. Leave us five-star reviews. That is so helpful and beneficial to the show. We appreciate everybody that has done so so far already. But, folks, that is my co-host, james Johnson, and I am Phil Smith and don't forget to tune in to Touchdown Jaguars for each and every Jaguar touchdown, and don't forget to tune in to Touchdown Jaguars for each and every Jaguar Touchdown, and we will see you next time.