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Transcript
And that's the crazy thing about next year.
So we'll get to next year now.
Like I, like I, I, I don't know that there's someone, it doesn't feel to me at least like there is what Caleb Williams was 3 years ago.
We're going in.
To that 23 college season you knew this guy's gonna be the top of the draft in 24.
I think Drake May was somewhere in that category too.
Jaden Daniels was like maybe a little bit later to the party, right?
Like, but you know the way Trevor Lawrence, you won the Heisman and everything else, but yeah, right, right.
I, I, I, I, I, I, I would argue this.
I, I think there is.
You know, when Caleb Williams first came out of Oklahoma, the success he had right away, and then even at USC winning the Heisman, like there was already, he already had that, right?
Jaden earned it that last year and honestly played the best of everyone that final year.
And then Drake, you know, he didn't have his, his greatest final year, but the year before kind of put him more on the map.
Like, but that was it.
Like you kind of those three that we're talking about.
This is like, again, it's like, it's an insane list of like potential guys, and I know I say potential, but You know, if you're gonna look at what Ty Simpson did in 1 year and he's gonna be a 13th overall pick, there's a lot of names we can sort of throwing in the conversation of just having one good year who also have prior starting experience that throw into the fact that maybe they changed schools, they learn a new offense, they excel in that system and offense after one year and it might be worthy of that.
OK, so I have 12 names written down.
Um, one of them leave one off.
One of them you actually leave one off, huh.
I think you're gonna leave one off.
That's what I gave you, I, I actually got one from you, so that might be the one you're because I, I texted with you about this a few weeks ago, and there was one that you gave me that and I'll tell you when I get to it, OK, but here are the 12 I've written down.
Dante Moore from Oregon.
CJ Carr from Notre Dame.
Arch Manning from Texas.
Julian Sane from Ohio State.
Lenora Sellers from South Carolina.
Sam Levitt, who was at Arizona State, is now at LSU.
Darian Mensa, who was at Duke, is now at Miami.
Drew Massammaker, that's the name that you gave me.
He was from North Texas, I think he's now at Oklahoma State, right?
John Matier at Oklahoma .
Nico I Amaliava at UCLA.
Jaden Jaden Mayava at USC Mayava, OK, at USC and Trinidad Chambliss at Ole Miss.
So that's 12, and, and, and, and I think, um, there's one while you're going through the list that kind of escaped me at the moment, but, um.
I would say DJ Lagway, interesting prospect to me because I saw there was something there.
If, if he ends up having the year, I think he could have it.
Baylor, we'll see, um.
You know, I don't know that I view Matier, uh, and it could be just size-wise, but again, like you're talking to that guy who's 6-1, and so, but he's got to progress.
I don't know how much the injury played a factor in him last year.
You know he got to such a hot start when he was a Heisman favorite, and then it kind of simmered , simmered off, and again, he, he was playing with a hand injury, so it very well could have impacted that, but I would say that's, that's the list.
And like, to me personally, and I, I noticed that you put him in a certain order.
Where it feels like maybe that's how you had them ranked.
No, it was just rand.
OK, all right, it was just random.
It's just as I thought about, but maybe, maybe subconsciously it was, you know what I mean?
Like I just, I just kind of jotted them down, but it wasn't, it was, yeah, but yes, like I mean you, you look at it like that's probably like roughly how I would, yeah, OK, and, and that's the thing is like that would list in my opinion like you.
I think you brought up Niko I Maiava .
He's kind of like the forgotten man of all this.
Like another guy I'd throw into the mix is Josh Hoover.
You know, he's played a lot of football so far at TCU, transferred down to replace Fernando Mendoza and Kurt Signe's system in Indiana.
He's looking to do that same thing.
Um, like, it's just, it, it's pretty wild if you really comb through, like, even deep into this, like Kevin Jennings has brought a lot of success to SMU and what he's been able to do for that program.
Uh, Connor Wigman was a really high recruit coming out of .
High school, initially at Texas A&M.
He's now at Houston.
We'll see what that looks like.
Um , you know, Gunner Stockton is another name that's, uh, there's just, there's a ton of names.
I mean, Aiden Childs was very highly coveted by Jonathan Smith to go to Michigan State in the first case.
He's a kid who's got all sorts of talent abilities.
So even like mid late rounds, you, I mean, you're talking about a ton of quarterbacks who will be eligible.
And with the NCAAA and providing a 5th year, that'll obviously prevent some of these guys all from going, um, either just cause their play or having an initial year of eligibility and not wanting to compete with those guys, but to me, there's like 1012 guys that you're, you know, we're gonna say after the season, like, probably could go top, you know, 1st, 2nd, 3rd round, somewhere in that somewhere in that ballpark.
How many of those guys do you feel comfortable saying, I think he's a 1st rounder right now?
Uh, look, everyone's gonna say it's biased, but I think you know how I feel about CJ Carr.
He started one season and to me, if you put him in this draft class, like, I think upside, everything else, the, the, the nature of his throws, how he's still able to create, keep his eyes downfield, um, some of the clutch plays.
I mean, he's throwing no-look passes at his first start at Miami.
Um, it's just like, He, he'd be up there.
Dante Moorovs is up there.
Arch is up there, especially the way he played the second half of the season.
I don't know that Joan Sand's getting enough credit, but I think he also, um, falls a little bit in that category of like size-wise, similar to Ty Simpson, uh, super accurate.
I'm just concerned with how he reacted under, you know, pressure under duress versus Miami.
Like you go back to that and you're like, well, you're gonna be drafted in that situation, so what's that gonna look like?
Look, Lenora Sellers, I think if he develops, continues to develop from the pocket, he's a guy that you could throw into that conversation too because he's physically imposing, he's incredibly athletic, he's got a rifle for an arm.
Uh, Mess tomaker is the one that I just, I have a feeling that people are gonna fall in love with him.
I'm just, I'm putting that out there now cause, you know how a lot of the front offices are.
Sometimes they come from these small schools, they love, like, finding that diamond in the rough, and he's a North Texas guy now at Oklahoma State and Everyone will probably write him off that system, he should put up a lot of numbers, but he's the prototypical size .
He's a very capable athlete running the football.
He's got a very simple motion.
It's like very calm, very easy, hasn't played the position for a long time.
That's the other part of it that usually like NFL they love, you know, taking a guy like that.
So, so it's like the Ryan Tannehill thing a little bit, but I wouldn't compare him to, to Ryan.
I mean, again.
I, I, I think there's some similarities there.
I don't know how to make the direct comparison, but, uh, and then Trinidadholmes is another one that I think proved a lot with what he did in the playoffs.
Like I'm really excited to see what he can do this year cause he oozes with talent, you know, Lane knows quarterbacks who can sling it, and, and even though he's not with them anymore, there's a reason why he was the start of this past year at Ole Miss.
Um.
Do you think Dante Moore goes into the season, if you're an NFL GM, does he go into the season as the leader in the clubhouse to be the first overall pick?
Yes, I think his body of work, I, I, I think when we talk about if it would have came out this year , what that would look like, he's just a smoother, pure passer, you know, when you watch him again, the, the, the nature of the throws he was asked to make at Oregon, uh, and watching him, I think he's probably a little bigger arm too than Fernando, but Even the way he conducts himself too, and, and again not compared to Fernando, but separately, he's just very poised for it.
Like he's been prepared for this moment, the big stage, you know, running a program or running, um, An organization since he was like a high school kid.
He's super, super mature for his age.
So, uh, I, I, I think he's gonna go into this draft as the #1 in the clubhouse.
I think Arch is probably right there at #2.
I think CJ Carr is the next one with Julian San and, and how those two guys this season, what that looks like, uh, may determine that.
Then after that, I think there's a bit of a gap to talk about some of the other quarterbacks that are part of this group.
So I guess I got the right 4 1st then.
You did.
And that's why I thought maybe you're going in that order.
I mean, like I, like I would look at a guy like Sam Levitt, and, you know, there's a poor somebody who was asked to do at Arizona State where you're like, all right, can he get to the next read?
Can he be more than just like a, a one and run, one and done quarterback?
Uh, he'll have the chance to prove that at LSU with, with, with Lane to a degree, but that was some of the concern there with him.
Um, we talked about a lot of the other guys who are part of the list .
I'm actually my, my, my is another one, by the way, who like snacks a lot of boxes.
I mean, honestly, like he.
He's continued to improve.
He's, you know, done extremely well so far.
He's a prototypical size.
He's a really good athlete.
He's a tough kid.
He's the other one I think kind of falls in that, maybe that, that 5th quarterback of that group.
OK.
I do wanna ask about Arch specifically because you saw him at the very beginning of the year, right?
And the expectations could not have been higher.
It's obviously a unique case because I mean he's from legitimate royalty, right, um, when it comes to his family, but one thing that like when I've talked to people who evaluated, one thing that kind of keeps coming up is he's not who people want him to be and like people think like it's just Eli or Peyton with athleticism, and that's not really it like he's a little bit more.
Maybe like his grandfather than his uncles, right?
And that he still needs to get better and more polished at the quarterback stuff, right?
Like the actual operating from the pocket, his footwork in the pockets being like accuracy to all levels, like that's the stuff he has to work on.
But he's a big athletic kid who when you get him out on the edge, he can make plays and you see him, you just, you almost see like, I think, From what I understand, like, there's a rawness to his game that maybe you wouldn't expect to see from a Manning.
Is that fair?
Uh, yeah, I think that's fair, but I mean, you said the name.
I mean, I didn't get a chance to really see Archie play, but, you know, he's, he's a mix between the two.
And, and I'm looking at it just say, he's kind of really perfect for what this day and age of playing quarterback in the NFL requires, even in college football for that level.
You know, he's got the ability to impact the game with his legs.
He's got a strong enough arm to make all the throws.
He's obviously got the football IQ and the pedigree to, to be what you want him to be, and he knows how to handle the spotlight.
He's been handling that since he was in high school.
So, like he's, he's prepared for all of it.
I, I think the toughest part was, you know, you begin the season versus Ohio State, you know their defense is gonna be good.
You just don't really know how good.
And so then that kind of led me to keep going back to like, all right, well, how many teams are scoring that many points against them?
And, and you go, all right, well maybe that performance like first one out of the gate.
I always felt like That's one of the things that kind of gets lost in the shuffle in college football is you don't have like layups, you don't have preseason.
It's not even like if you wanted to, you could knock off some, some rust or like beat down some directional school, you know, you're, you're usually starting out the gate with a tough opponent.
Like I remember my senior at Georgia Tech, like we played down in Georgia Tech, night game.
I mean, everyone's hammered just, you know, doing whatever they can and like, that's a team that went on to play for the ACC championship that year.
Now, like, no one thought of that at the moment.
I think we dropped in the polls even though we won a tight game on the road, but, um, they don't, they've realized like, hey, John Tanua can call a good defense, you know, they've got, you know, other studs that are on that team, guys, you know, across, across the defensive front and, and in their secondary too, so.
I don't wanna make too much of one game.
And so as I watched him every single week throughout the course of the season, you did see his confidence come back.
You saw him begin to grow, um, and, and honestly, I will say this, and this is just my raw opinion.
I felt like there was something going on mechanically with him with his shoulder or something in that Ohio State game and maybe early in that season, because when I looked at the 3 games prior and the year before, there was something about like his, his arm slot seemed a little higher.
It felt like it was lower.
You could see him at times like wincing when he threw, so I'm not trying to.
It didn't look like he was comfortable throwing.
So I don't know if it was a hit in that game, whatever else.
I know this.
I know he's tough, and I know I'm sure he's being told to like never complain, never make excuses.
So I also know that's the hard part about it is if he was playing injured, like we'd never know.
Like no one would ever know, besides maybe Sark or the medical staff there in Arch, but, um, I, I just, I love everything about his game and I think it, it's, I would not be shocked at all if he doesn't end up being the first one taken when it's all said and done.
OK, well, we started with Notre Dame, we'll end with Notre Dame cause CJ Carr is one that like really intrigues me, um, because of his background, for people who don't know, he's, you know, the , the grandson of Lloyd Carr, who the national championship-winning Michigan coach.
Um, but he's a very highly rated recruit.
I know it's a big deal for Notre Dame to get him, um, and for anybody to get him away from Michigan.
And like, he is a kid who does have pretty high-end tools.
Um, so I think you probably have some pretty special insight, you know, you know, you're, you being, you being a Notre Dame guy and everything else.
What can you tell us about CJ Carr as an NFL prospect?
Yeah, I think he's one of those guys that, you know, kind of the way I talked about Dante Moore being prepared for that moment when he, you know, initially got into the college ranks.
Like CJ has been prepared for it to me the entire time.
Um, you know, I would have loved to see what that season would look like with him as a true freshman, just because he's that talented of a passer.
Um, he is the type of deep ball thrower.
That is lethally accurate, and he's going for your jugular.
Like he's throwing knockout punches again and again and again.
He control the rest of the offense, but it's like the balls on a string, man.
Like he's super accurate, he's got extreme deep ball accuracy and still the athleticism to create.
Keep his eyes downfield and find a big player, create something out of nothing, which is all the things you need.
And on top of it, he's got the pedigree again, we talk about these football backgrounds.
He knows the game.
Like he's got complete command of everything up the line of scrimmage.
You know, I think the toughest thing for him probably this year is he's got two new receivers from your alma mater, Ohio State, that you're trying to develop that chemistry with.
And in the spring game, it's, it's tough to have enough time then.
I suspect by the time they're done with training camp, they'll, they'll be good to go.
Um, but I think if you look at their schedule, I have high expectations.
I think he's in for a huge year.
And I think if he does that, he'll, he'll project himself to a lot of the conversations about the big awards, the playoffs, etc.
everything else, but also as, as that first overall pick.
Because again, he's a guy who's kind of young in nature in that way, right?
We're only talking about his second year starting, but he's got enough experience to make you feel good about where he's at and size-wise, he checks those boxes.
Um, I would say this too, uh, and, and I've got to know their family.
You know, he, he, he lost a brother and he is one of the more grounded people as far as his perspective and understanding like what he's playing for, what football means to him, um, what he represents, you know, for himself, for his family, for the brand.
And I think there's, there's elements to that, that play in his, his confidence, his faith, everything else.
Uh, and so, you know, again, I, I could go on and on about this class cause I think you've got a lot of that in this class, but he epitomizes that as far as being a guy that's like you want as the face of your organization.
Like that's, that's what I love about him is, is he actually still in Notre Dame right now for at least another year, if not more, and, and they're lucky to have him.
Yeah, you know, it's, it's actually really interesting cause you do hear about.
And, and so like this year like the stories I heard about Fernando Mendoza were unbelievable, like just how prepared he is, how maniacal he is.
I think it's exactly what you were referencing with Brady and like the early stuff that I've heard on them, right?
Like, so Dante Moore, um , CJ Carr, Arch Manning, Julian saying, like, like everything you get back on those, like those four, and, and I, it may be I'm not leaving anybody out here, it's just the four that I, that I've actually heard this about.
Like just outstanding, outstanding kids, and if there is a way to make it, and this is an important part of being quarterback in the NFL , right?
Like if there is a, if there is a path for them to succeed, they're gonna find it, you know what I mean?
Like, and so like I think that that's sort of, it's a huge part to it, right?
Like some of these guys go into bad situations in the league and there's nothing you can do, but if there is a path, like if there's a reasonable path for, for, for, for, for these guys to succeed and become franchise quarterbacks, they're gonna find it.
Yeah, I, I think that's, that would be the expectation, you know, and, and it's, it's, again, these guys walking into the NFL is as prepared as ever before with everything else that comes along with, with the money of being paid.
You know, that was one of the kind of things that I think we, we overlooked just as human beings.
You just expect like, all right, you, you walk into the NFL and, and you have everything else off the field taken care of too or someone's helping with that.
It's like, no, not when this is the first time that anyone's in your family has ever done this, right?
Like there's a learning curve there.
And I think for them to be able to kind of maybe even, I'm not saying that anyone went through growing pains, but just to learn that process and have those things taken care of.
So when you do get to the NFL like you don't have to worry about like finding a financial advisor or You know, having figuring all those things out that you have to figure out when you do, you know, first receive that big lump sum of money.
Like that stuff matters.
Like being able to eliminate those distractions and have everything in place makes it to me at least a much easier transition for them too.
100%.
Like, and you hear that from like NFL people all the time.
It's like you don't have to guess anymore.
Uh, like how a guy's gonna handle instantly becoming rich, you know what I mean, because most of them already are, and so you don't have to worry about how he's gonna adjust to that, how he's gonna handle it, like some of the family dynamics that are at work, you don't have to worry about that quite as much anymore , um, you know, it's a really interesting thing because I, I, I remember, and I probably said this on the radio show to you guys before, but like, you know, Troy Brown, who, who's an awesome, awesome guy, you know, he was a great receiver for the Patriots back in the day.
Um, you know, in the early years of, of, of Brady, um, he had this saying, he used to say when we did TV together, uh, money only makes you more of what you already are.
And so like, you know , I think it's a great way to encapsulate like how whatever a kid is money is gonna highlight it.
Like if, if, if you have the right mindset, the right intentions, you're gonna spend that money to make yourself better.
If you've got all these issues over here now you're gonna have money to make those issues worse, you know what I mean?
Like, so in a lot of ways these evaluations become clearer.
I would also point this out, I think we're getting to like a golden era era of quarterback, um, play in the sense of, if you really think about when the private quarterback industry started to like hit and take off.
How old, these kids were probably just being born.
Like, I would, I would, I would say around 2000, early 2000s was when things started to take off.
I mean, I was coming out of high school, 2003 was my graduation year.
So Elite 11 wasn't like a big thing nationally.
I know it was huge in California and they usually had a lot of Cali kids, but you had to go to Nike camps in order to even qualify for different Elite 11 levels.
And then all of this stuff came along since then.
But the reason why I point this out is A lot of these, these young kids who have been playing quarterback almost their entire life, they have refined the tools and everything that they need to be in regards to their talent throwing the football for years.
And so they're a much more finished product when they get to the NFL than ever before.
You know, the specialization of sports and everything else.
All that stuff's become way more mainstream in the past 1015 years, and all these young men have grown up through that.
So that's the other, like small piece about this that I think maybe gets lost in the shuffle, where it's like, I was a three-sport athlete, you know, I, I was getting to Notre Dame, still working on like different things mechanically and footwork and all that stuff.
Even in the NFL there was still kind of tweaking stuff and you had quarterbacks where you had all these things.
All that's gone now because everyone's so in tune with like just that throwing motion since the time they're 1011, 12 years old.
They're like that's the life that they were born into.
They're like golfers, right?
Like, I mean, it's like I, I, I was amazed because like, you know , my kid goes to this like this passing academy and my 11 year old, and he's a, he's a little 5th grade tight end, um, so they let him, so he goes for free, right?
Like receivers can go for free.
And so I watch, I watch the quarterback, all the quarterbacks, and they have, you know, a couple of groups, they have the, the, the younger kids and the older kids, and I watched them all throw, and what strikes me, Brady.
It's like, when I was a kid, when we would, when, when you'd line up all your friends and throw a football, like we all throw football differently.
They all look the same.
Exact same, exact same.
Like, like the Tom Houses of the world, like they, they've now like been able to teach legions of, of coaches out there too and people who have taken their stuff and kind of done their own.
But at the end of the day, it's, it's so different.
Like I always tell people, they're like, well, what, I'm like, well, one, it's more of like a torque kind of with your, you know, kind of lower half, the way you're, You know, kind of disconnecting the two and creating that whip as opposed to like before it's like over the top.
It was a much different throwing motion.
So, uh, all that's evolved and changed since then.
And, and again, these guys have been born into it.
So they, they're actually getting in on like the upswing and obviously the, the best part of it, whereas like I was learning some of the stuff late in my career.
I'm like, you can't change.
When, when did you first have a mechanics coach?
How old were you when you first got a mechanic?
I mean, probably the NFL as far as like as someone who's like looking at more mechanics.
I mean, I, I, I used to, um, I used to try to work with a quarterback coach , but so much of it was like kind of football 101, you know, drops from under center, like you worked on your footwork so much more than your upper body mechanics, you know, my throwing motion came in large part out of like playing baseball and pitching and catching when I was like forever since I was 9 years old.
And that was just how it was like, hey, that's how he throws, no one's gonna mess with that.
So it's, it's just kind of interesting to see like the, the specialization comes at such an early age now compared to what it used to be.
I, I remember, you know, like, cause, you know, my, you know, my dad played football and passed it down to me and like I remember when we were, when I was a kid, um, going to Fenway , and we saw the Red Sox play the Texas Rangers.
And I remember seeing Nolan Ryan and the Rangers pitching staff in the outfield warming up with the football, and Tom House was on that pitching staff, right?
And I remember asking Tom about it, like all these years later, and he said, he basically said to me, he was like, you know, back then, and I remember this cause I'm, you know, I'm older and everything else now, but like I, I, he said like, you know, back then, like everybody said, throwing a football and a baseball were like totally different things.
And I always thought that was bullshit.
Like, and it wasn't true.
He's like, you should be throwing it the same way.
Like, it's all rotational athletes should be working the same way, and he's so ahead of his time with that, like in that, and he was like, that's what that was like, like when you had to grip a football, you had to maintain a certain throwing motion that was good for your baseball throwing motion.
So that's why we use a football to warm up, you know, it's almost like putting a doughnut on your bat, you know, like I just, it's interesting the way all that stuff's evolved.
Yeah, no, and, and, and again, he's so knowledgeable.
I was unfortunate enough to have back surgery that allowed me then to be in LA where I had surgery, where I was recovering and rehabbing, and so I got to go visit with him.
And at this point in time, it was, you know, year 7 in the NFL and I'm like, well, I, I need to first get back so I can move because obviously I wanna drop foot and other things from the injury.
But like, even more so than that, I was like, man, I don't know that I can physically like torque the way I need to on my back and everything else.
Um, and plus even be able to do it once you go to a live game.
I mean, that's the hard thing is other guys went to him to try to change and tighten up their motion.
I won't name names, but there was one where he was out there working out.
And I was like, yeah, it looks the same.
I like that I I that hasn't changed at all, um, but they tried because once you get into a live game scenario, you always revert back to your greatest form of training, and that's the hard part is like you kind of are what you are at that point.
