HR1: Nationals home opener is finally here! | Kevin rants on J.J. Redick | How many 1st rd grades are in this draft class?

not a bad day for a home opener. You know, good morning, everybody. The

gnats at home for the first time in this 2026 season. Let me

clear my throat. Be ready for the show. 105 first pitch, not a bad

setup for a home opener, right? I mean, a Friday afternoon, get

out of work early. Nice weather supposed to be much nicer than it

was yesterday, 70s, maybe upper 70s, some sun, hopefully, the

two time defending champion Dodgers are the opponent, perfect

setting for a party and a home opener day. By the way, I was

looking this up, this will be the 22nd home opener since the team

moved from Montreal back in 2005. First ever home opener against

Dodgers, that's never happened before of the previous 21 home

openers, the Mets and Braves have been the opponent the most

five times each. The Marlins have been here four times for a home

opener and the Phillies three times Arizona Cincinnati Pittsburgh

and yes, the Yankees in a much delayed home opener during COVID in

2020, the home opener didn't come until late July, but yeah, the

Yankees were the home opener that particular year. They are the

other teams, though, that have been a part of Nats home openers

since the team came here in 2005. Never the Dodgers, though, until

today and the Dodgers, if you haven't followed it, they are a

heavy, heavy favorite, like literally a two to one favorite to win

a third straight world series this year. They are off to a four

and two start, but it has been a very slow start offensively for

Shohei Otani. He's hitting just 167 and through six games, Max,

not one RBI, not one. Now he did pitch once and was lights out in

his only pitching start so far. The Nats are three and three, but

they've looked good so far. You know, two of the three losses have

come by one run. The last one in extra innings against Philadelphia.

They've been very good offensively through the first six games.

They are second in the National League in batting average, second and

total hits, fourth and on base percentage, fourth and OPS, and

they've been productive offensively without James Wood hitting.

He's batting just 111 with get this 12 strikeouts in 27 at

bats, first pitch, 105, first beers at the bullpen, probably an hour or

two before that, I would imagine. The caps missed out on a huge opportunity

last night. Man, they had everybody that they needed to lose in front of

them. They all lost pretty much, but they lost to seven to three on the road

against the Devils, the Olympic hero, Jack Hughes scored two goals and

had three assists for New Jersey, a team behind the caps in the

standing. So the caps remain three points out of the last wildcard spot, four

points behind the islanders for third place in the metropolitan division.

If they were to finish third in the division, they would automatically get a

spot. But there are three other teams ahead of Washington chasing down the

current playoff position teams, meaning the caps not only have to, you know,

play really well over their final six games like win five of them, minimum,

maybe all six, but they need several teams in front of them to falter a

little bit. But big mischance, right, Max? For them last night to gain

ground. I mean, I think they'd be sitting right now one point off the wildcard

last wildcard spot. And two points off third place in the division had they

won. I'm a, I would imagine you were a bit upset last night with the

performance. I mean, just a little, you know, it's kind of the story of this

team all year has been up and down. And now is the really the time to lock in

this really your playoff chance. Your playoff time starts now in April.

So it's, it is disappointing. I am glad that all everybody else lost. So not

too much ground was lost. But yeah, it just, it gets that much harder in the

mountain, gets that much taller. So I'm not sure what the playoff is.

You're a massive caps fan. Were you into it last night following the

scores of the other games? Like, this is like that time of the year where

so that's all you got to do in hockey is get in. Yeah.

Like anything can happen once you're in it. That's the thing, man.

I was so focused on the game last night that like, I can't

dart my eyes around until I know that we've got it in hand. Because that's

how that, because that's just hockey, you know, right? So I, yeah, I wasn't

really keeping track of the other games. I was more locked in to the, to the caps.

But once it was 4-2 and they, they got that extra insurance goal.

Yeah, it just, you know, sucked the way that way. They play Buffalo at home

tomorrow and they beat Buffalo a few weeks ago on the road and Buffalo is very good.

A red hot this year. Yeah. If I had to pick a playoff team that wasn't the caps,

it'd be the sabers this year. Really? Yeah, they're fun.

What's the root for or two root for for sure?

Why? Because it's been a while. Because it's been a while.

And the fan base deserves it. And Buffalo's just been through their hockey

community's been through so much that, yeah, they definitely deserve it.

But if I had to pick a team to win, Colorado Avalanche

are just dropping everyone still. So it's hard to pick against them.

Yeah. I mean, Colorado has, I think we talked about this recently.

They got 108 points. They're going to win that president's trophy for

the regular season. They've been very, very good this year out west.

All right. There's your hockey talk for the day.

I, let me just say while I'm not a big caps fan like, you know, die hard,

I like when they're in the playoffs. It gives us something to talk about games wise.

And there's something of like a tradition of being somewhere doing a show for the draft

and a caps playoff game is going on simultaneously. It feels like every year during the draft,

the caps are playing playoff games at the same time. Probably not this year.

Several tweets and emails here in the opening segment cover multiple topics.

This from eWags, eWags writes Kevin, relax on your wizard's April fools joke.

Loosen up a little. It was hilarious from red 33 Kevin calm down.

They're just trying to entertain in other ways since they can't do it with basketball.

It was a joke. Thank you for that eWags and red 33.

Both tweeted me Max prior to the team issuing its apology.

I didn't say just so you're clear. I didn't say that I had a major problem with it.

I just said on the show yesterday before they issued the apology, I just thought in context,

you know, the team being as bad as they've been for as long as they've been bad.

And kind of just being lucky that people show up to their games. It was

something that just I said felt off. Like I wasn't personally really offended by it at all.

I care more about next year in the team being good next year. I just thought it was going to fall

on, you know, kind of in that place that maybe was off putting to people.

And clearly it was, you know, I mean, I actually wondered out loud with Max yesterday on the show.

I'm like, I wonder if that guy was like a plant turns out he was.

He was an actual plant like they called this thing a skit in their apology. So I don't know.

I the whole thing scripted played out like a skit which really wasn't necessarily a factor in how

people, you know, we're going to feel about it in the moment. And apparently just a lot of people

did have a problem with it. So yeah, I mean, it was enough that people had enough of a problem

with it that the team felt compelled to issue a public apology. I don't think that's the result.

They were looking for when they came up with the idea. And again, like I said yesterday,

I it wasn't that I was personally offended by it. I just kind of guessed that people would be

in that it was probably in context not the best thing for them to do. As it turns out,

it wasn't the best thing for them to do because I don't think they wanted to issue an apology

about an April Fools joke, but they did. This from Miles, Miles writes Kevin,

Tom's line about punishing the player by making him stay wasn't about DJ Swearinger.

It was about Sua Cravens. So funny that you wrote that, Miles. And the reason I'm reading it

is because Max said the same thing to me yesterday. I forget if it was on the air off the air,

but I said, I said, who was the player that Jay Gruden cut on Christmas Eve? And you said

Sua Cravens. I'm like, I don't think it was Sua Cravens, but I looked it up. It was in fact DJ

Swearinger. The team cut him on Christmas Eve 2018. He had gone on radio. I looked this up because

I forget I forgot the details of it. He had gone on radio and criticized defensive coordinator

Greg Manusky a few days earlier. And that was the final nail on the coffin for him. He had been

warned by Jay Gruden and others in the organization about criticizing the team and doing it publicly,

which he had done prior to that. Jay's quote after he released Swearinger was, we made it pretty

clear that we try to keep our business within these walls. And we've had many a talk before

about that. And unfortunately, he chose to go to the media again and talk about his displeasure

with some of the calls. Swearinger said, Jay just said it was the third time I've been in his office

and we're going to release you. I know Jay has told me and probably many others in recent years,

getting rid of him was way overdue in that moment. I looked it up. Swearinger only played two more

seasons and with three different teams and like maybe 14 total games. So his career was kind of

over. He actually was not a bad player here when he was here. The Tom quote if you're not familiar

with it, but it was brought up by our emailer. Tom said, you know, shortly after they cut Swearinger

with me, he said, if they really wanted to punish DJ Swearinger, they would have made him stay,

which considering the organization in those days was hilarious. By the way, speaking of

Sua Cravens and I was going to read this last week and I just forgot to, but Sua Cravens

was very active. I guess he is very active on social media. Remember, he was the second round

selection in 2016 after they selected Josh Doxan in the first round and just a bust of first two

picks and there were a lot of red flags on Sua Cravens. He had gone a wall at USC for time being

and it was a good player, but Jay Gruden had said about Cravens and I don't know where he said

this, but he said recently, you know what, I think it may have been with me. I'm pretty sure it was.

Yeah, I'm pretty sure he actually said this with me. Sua Cravens was a player that we had a

lot of different opinions on. I didn't want the guy at all. Yes, he did say this with me,

just because he didn't fit. He wasn't a safety. He played outside linebacker. We didn't, you know,

he's too little, not because he wasn't a good kid or a good player, just that there's nowhere to put

him. Well, Sua Cravens read that and then responded to it with a rather lengthy tweet. He wrote,

I'd agree. When I was drafted, they told me I'd be playing safety at first, but when I arrived,

I was thrown into the linebacker room as an inside linebacker, a position I had never played in my

career before. So it felt like I had to relearn the game of football and made me kind of doubt my

own ability as a player at times, coming from USC and having a revolving door of systems and head

coaches didn't help me develop as either a safety or a linebacker. I played a, I played three,

four different, I played three to four different positions at USC and just happened to have been good

at all of them, but never really mastered one. By the time the lead came, it felt like Washington

was just spitballing what they'd want from me on a week to week basis. One week on a true inside

linebacker trying to get off double teams at 220 pounds and the next I'm basically playing safety

in guarding wide receivers tight ends and slots depending on the formation. I believe if it's

why I ended up dealing with so many injuries in my short NFL career, on top of the fact that I almost

went blind from a concussion trying to play aggressively while being undersized. I never had issues

with Jay Gruden in Washington. I liked him as a head coach and trusted him enough to actually

cry in his office and private like a baby when I told him something doesn't feel right with my eye.

I don't feel the same, something's off. After my concussion before the 2017 season,

after my concussion before the 2017 season, I have a ton of regrets when it comes to my football

career. My biggest is not staying at USC for my senior year, learning how to really play inside

linebacker and devoid getting drafted by Washington altogether. But I'm grateful for the opportunity

and hope none of these kids in the future go through the same injuries I went through and I am in

no way offended by Jay's words. He and I have always kept at 100% whether he liked it or not and

vice versa. It's a mutual respect on the situation that didn't work out in the end. Look, you know,

Jay, I've said this many times because people have told me this about Jay including Scott McCluen

who worked with Jay. A lot of people that were close with Jay and football said two things about him.

One, he is a master designer of a pass offense and two, he's a terrific evaluator of talent.

Scott McCluen said he was the most talented evaluator. He was the best talent evaluator of any

head coach he had ever worked with. So his opinion on Sua Cravens was clearly different from

everybody else's including Bruce and you know the front office at that time and look, the front

office was not very sharp as we know during those days. I will say this about that 2016 draft,

though, I wanted them to draft Josh Doxan. Oops. Anyway, I saw that Sua Cravens thing from

last week and I meant to to save it and read it and thank you for reminding me of that miles

on Sua Cravens. And then these two emails that had basically the same idea from my guy Yale,

Yale writes Kevin, if next year's draft is as good as advertised, why shouldn't Peter's be trying

his best to load up on picks next year? Trading back from seven or even from their third round

position might net more attractive picks in a deeper draft next year. And then I got this from

Upper MC44, Upper Montgomery County, maybe. Haven't heard you talk a lot about the 2027 draft.

Yes, and you're not going to hear me talk a lot about the 2027 draft. We will be wrong two to

36% of the time, two out of three times talking about this draft. But anyway, Upper MC44 continues.

It's been called the deepest in a long time. How many picks do we have and can Peter's add to it

with picks in this draft or even trading somebody like Doran Payne? And are you telling me that

the chargers wouldn't have given up a fifth or sixth rounder next year for our center?

Seems like something how he Roseman would have pulled off.

So real quickly next year's draft Washington has all seven of their selections.

You know, first, second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth, and seventh rounds have all seven of them.

So look, guys, Yale Upper MC44. For starters, if next year's draft is supposed to be so great,

and I have read some of the same things that you guys have read that next year's draft on paper

is supposed to be much better than this year's draft and one of the best and deepest in years.

Don't you think other teams know that? So it's not like you're going to trade your third

rounder in this draft for two twos next year or a second rounder next year. If teams know that,

if other teams know that too, but here's the other thing too that's even more, I think, more relevant.

And that is, do you know that this time last year, the 2026 draft was being talked about

in the same way the 2027 draft is being talked about now, especially, especially with quarterbacks.

You know, this time last year, it was like, Cam Ward, you know, just be careful. If you need a

quarterback, just wait, wait for 2026, Cade Clubnik, Arch Manning, Nussmeyer, you know, the sellers,

the list just went on and on. By the way, you know, who wasn't on any of those lists, Fernando

Mendoza, or Ty Simpson. None of those guys, there were, you know, there was a big got to wait for

Arch, got to wait for Nussmeyer, got to wait for Clubnik. Who am I missing from that? They're like

five or six of them, you know, Lenora Sellers from South Carolina, got to wait for him. I mean,

and here we are a year later and one quarterback may go in the first round. It looks like Ty Simpson's

slipping, you know, as of today, the odds on him are actually more or better for him to go

early in the second round than even in the first round. So it may be one quarterback. And neither

one of those two quarterbacks, neither one of them, where the quarterbacks were among the quarterbacks

mentioned in the very deep, very exciting 2026 draft, especially when it comes to quarterbacks,

just the way it is, man, football impossible. Like I think I said this before, before free agency,

I mean, you would have had to have your head examined if you would said back in August that the

number one free agent quarterback when we get to March is going to be Malik Willis.

But he was. And this time next year, who the hell knows what the draft will look like. And in terms

of the players that they're projecting right now next year, you know, some of those same names.

I mean, you're seeing Club Nick, you're seeing Arch again, you're seeing sellers again.

And there will be more to come between now and next year. Yeah, I don't.

If next year's draft really is super deep and there's a feeling that, you know, it's just going

to be even if it's not what they end up thinking it's going to be, it's still going to be better than

this year. Then everybody knows that. And it's going to be hard to accumulate picks. Now, the one

thing that upper MC44, you mentioned, I think is going to continue to be the offseason number one,

you know, mystery question mark. And that is Tyler Biotis. Why did they cut him?

Did was there any interest? Did they really export? I can't imagine that Adam Peters didn't

explore a potential trade before he released him. But really, to me, that is not as significant as

will we ever find out the reason why? They weren't talking, you know, earlier this week in Phoenix

when asked about it. In fact, you know, Peter's basically said, we're not going to talk about

the reasons why, wishing the best of luck. I'd like to know. We'll find out at some point.

I have a feeling it's a combination of three things. It is that the performance was good,

but it wasn't great. And number two would be, it may not be the right kind of center for what

they're going to do with Blau. And then thirdly, in Ben and I, I think talked about this the other day,

or recently, is that perhaps they did want to keep him, but at a lower number and he wasn't

willing to stay at a lower number. And that was that, you know, Peters saw value, but at a certain

number. And we've seen that unless he's absolutely smitten with a player like Ken Law last year,

or maybe like, oh, way this year, that, you know, he's got his number. And he's pretty disciplined

around that number. And there was no more guaranteed money left on the deal for Beodish. They didn't

owe many things. So it was restructure and stay, or we'll, you know, we'll try to trade you or

release you. And he decided to move on. Now, when you're doing that, you should have a solid,

you know, plan A, plan B. And it feels like Allegrette and Julian Good Jones is more like a plan C.

I think Tyler Lindermom may have been plan A, but the money went nuts on him. I don't know what

plan B was. Maybe, maybe that was the plan. You know, there was the cushion berry guy from

Tennessee, some talk around. Maybe there was some interest there until he failed his physical.

Who knows? All right. There was something that happened last night that

J.J. Reddix is going to really feel the brunt of for a long time. I'll explain when we come back.

Kevin Chienshow, the team 980 and the team 980.com.

Oh, we'll do an MRI tomorrow. Left hand string. We'll know more tomorrow.

It was discussed in half time. I thought we'd give those guys about six minutes. And then we were

going to, you know, if we didn't cut into lead, we were going to pull them. And obviously it was

around that time that I don't remember the exact time, but that happened. We checked him out.

He had worked on. He was cleared. I mean, again, we're not going to put a player at risk.

Those things happen. Yeah, except you did put a player at risk last night. And it could be a

devastating injury for the Los Angeles Lakers. Who before last night's 139-96 loss to Oklahoma City,

they had won literally four in a row and 13 of their last 14 and had risen all the way up to

the number three spot in the Western Conference. Yeah, the Lakers have actually been playing great

basketball. Lucas has been playing great. Luca right now, the third pick in the MVP odds race

after SGA and Victor Wimbanyama. So what happened last night was first of all, the Lakers got

absolutely blown out. 139-96 for context, that 43 point loss to the Oklahoma City Thunder is the

worst margin of defeat for a team with 50 wins. Since Oklahoma City did it to Dallas two years ago,

they won by 49 in the game over the Mavericks in the regular season. But those are the only two,

those are the top two, all-time margins of defeats for a team with 50 wins. The Lakers are 50 and 27

after last night's loss. Here's the problem that J.J. Redic has is that Luca Dantich, first of all,

has had some hamstring issues recently. And then in the first half, a first half that ended,

listened to the score. Oklahoma City had a 31 point lead at halftime. The score was 82 to 51.

They gave up 82 in the first half. They were down 31 points. And in the first half,

Luca appeared to tweak the hamstring that's been bothering him. And yet they put him back into

the game to start the second half in a game that was over. Now it is the NBA. And when I hear J.J.

Redic say we're just going to put him in for a few minutes to see if we could make a run to get

the lead back to get the deficit down to a workable number. I get that. But this is one of those

where is the juice worth the squeeze. Your best player has had some issues with the hamstring to

begin with. And then in the first half, he appears to tweak it. And he's got a little bit of an

issue there. And then down 31, you're going to put him out there in a game that just is not

going to happen. You're not playing a bad team that just got lucky in the first half. You're

playing the best team in the league, arguably, who has absolutely run you out of the building

in the first half of the game. That is a Luca. You tweaked it again. You're not going out there.

That's a no brainer. And if you read through the quotes, the medical, you know, cleared him,

he was cleared of fine. That doesn't mean you play him in a game in which you're down 31.

At half time, he's out there in the third quarter on a bad hamstring in a game which by the way,

they immediately went down by like 37 38. That is, it is his job to manage that situation.

That game is lost. It's over. And you've got a player, your best player, who's kind of been

dealing with this for a few weeks anyway. And then re-injured it in the first half. And you're

going to put him out there in a game like that. That is really, I mean, I, you, his tone was

measured. And they weren't on the attack necessarily. He was asked about it a couple of times,

cleared medical. Yeah, we just wanted to make see if something happened in the first six minutes.

No. Once he re-injured it or tweaked it as it was described in the first half, my best player,

who has carried me more than anybody else, to 50 wins in a three seed at this point.

I am not putting him at risk. And you know, it's not like it's a, you know, a sprained finger.

It's a hamstring. You know, everybody understands those things, soft tissue.

If it's severe, it could be the rest of the season. It's going to get an MRI today.

That will be one of those, man, if you're, if you're a Lakers fan or if you're doing sports talk

in LA today, you have to be killing JJ Reddick for that decision.

I mean, this, look, that's a big game, right? You know, you're, you're playing the Oklahoma City

Thunder. You actually, you know, can't catch them for the two seed. That's over. You know,

they've already clinched the two seed. But you are trying to stay ahead of Denver,

who's in the four spot and just a game behind. You want to keep that three seed. You know,

you'd, you'd rather face, I mean, Minnesota and then maybe San Antonio before OKC, whatever.

But you can't do anything without Luca. I'm not even the biggest Luca fan, but I recognize

you're not doing anything without Luca Donchitz being on the floor and healthy.

That's, that's going to be a decision. I'm actually surprised, maybe it might be me here

and I could be missing something. I'm surprised like on Sports Center last night. I didn't see more

of an outrage over the decision to have him in the game in the second half. This is a dude just

so you know, heading into the game last night. Now, he actually had to serve a suspension

for the game that they had on Monday night because of course, Saluca had exceeded the technical

limit because he is a serial complainer. He may be all time in terms of complaining to

officiating. It's, it was so bad during those playoffs in which they got to the finals against

the Celtics. They kept winning, you know, until the finals. But you know, I was in here talking

about it. It was just so, it was terrible to watch because he does it on the dumbest of,

of caught miss calls. He thinks and then you see the replay and it's like, dude, you're complaining

about something they were 100% right about. And meantime, they're playing five on four on the other

end because you, you stay down to argue and instead of getting back on defense. But just see,

you know, prior, prior to the injury in the month of March, Luca Donchitz averaged 37.5 points per

game. He had a game in which he scored 44. He had a game in which he scored 51. He had a game in

which he scored 40. He had a game in which he scored 60. He had 43, 41 and 42 and three consecutive

games before taking the floor last night. Again, he got suspended for the game that they had on Monday

night. That was against, by the way. Yes, you're Washington Wizards, right? Didn't, wasn't he out for

the Wizards game the other night? Yes. Okay, look at the, I mean, the fewest number of points

during the month of March that he scored in the game, Max. Let me just see how many games there were

that they played. Three, six, nine, 12, 15, 16 games in March. The Lakers played. He had three games

less than 30. That's it. And in those games, he went for 28, 27 and 27. Every other game was 30 or more

and one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine of them were 35 or more.

Seven of them were 40 or more. Yeah, I mean, that's not a team that's going to

win, you know, even a game more likely than not in a best of seven without Luca. That's crazy

that he put him out there in a game like that. They got absolutely destroyed early in that game.

It was 44 to 21 at the end of the first quarter. And again, 82 to 51 at half time. And you got a

guy that's limping around and you're going to put him back out there in the third quarter.

Good. God. That's insane. I mean, it reminds me and maybe some of you, obviously not the same

situation, but it's like, what was Jaden doing in the game at the end of the Seattle game? That game

had 0% chance of becoming competitive with him or without him. And if you were going to keep him

in the game, it should have been just a hand the ball off, not to run an RPO on the goal line

on a condensed field. That's going to be interesting, man. What if Luca, if Luca's lost for a

significant period of time going into the postseason, that is an all time coaching blunder.

It seems to me it is I could be missing something here. I was watching some of this last night

I was surprised that there wasn't more outrage in JJ Reddix direction.

All right, when we come back, how many first round picks this year of the 32 will actually have

first round grades? Somebody answered that question. I will share that information with you when we

return. Kevin, she and show the team 980, the team 980.com. Don't forget you can watch the show

on our YouTube channel. Just hit the subscribe button and hit the like button when you get there.

What I got is that Sean McVey during these Phoenix league meetings was asked about whether or not

the coaches that come off history compared to the coaches that come off the Shanahan tree,

if it should be called more the Shanahan tree or the McVey tree. We know all of the coaches that

have come off the Shanahan tree and Sean's had a bunch of them as well. Here's what he said.

Isn't it called the Kyle Shanahan coaching tree? Why did it? Why is it the McVey? It should be.

It should be. Here's the thing. I think it's like you guys are friendly towards each other.

It's a Mike Shanahan tree. We all started under his dad and Kyle was the coordinator and so,

look, I have such appreciation for the history of this game. It's not like everybody that's come

through our building. They've contributed and I've learned from them too. And I learned and Kyle,

somebody that I learned from and I worked underneath him as an assistant. I can remember,

you know, when I was responsible for the red zone trying to get plays in and when he'd end up

getting those in, you're excited about it. So it should be the Shanahan tree. I agree.

Yeah, my fault. He did with the question was from K Adams at the NFL network about Kyle Shanahan

or Sean McVey tree. Look, Jay Gruden will tell you and by the way, Sean McVey will mention it too

that a lot of the coaching tree talk and I think we talked about this not that long ago

is also off the Jay Gruden coaching tree. The whole Jay Gruden and Mike Shanahan thing kind of

got pushed together because Kyle's first job was with John Gruden. Sean's first job was with

John Gruden. And then Kyle went to Washington and then Sean got, well, I'm sorry, the first

full-time coaching gig was Kyle with John Gruden. Sean ended up with Mike. Kyle ended up

back with Mike, but Jay said many times a lot of those guys really came off of my brother's tree

as much as they did off of Mike's tree. Sean McVey's coaching tree though. I mean, here's the list.

It doesn't include, you know, this year. Sean McVey's coaching tree, Zach Taylor,

Matt Lafleur, Brandon Staley, Jed Fish who's the head coach at Washington, Kevin O'Connell,

Rahim Morris, Liam Cohen, and now Michael Lafleur who got the job in Arizona. Pretty impressive for

a guy that was just hired in 2017. So Matt Miller is one of the many ESPN NFL draft analysts.

I actually like the way he lays it out. I like the way Matt thinks. He put out a multi-round

mock the other day, but yesterday or this morning, actually, he put out the players that he has

first-round grades on. We know there will be 32 players selected in the first round and they will

forever be referred to as first-round selections in the 2026 draft. But how many of those players

actually have true first-round grades? This is something that gets discussed every year is

how many players legitimately are first-rounders? And that is, you know, a big question

for teams to consider because if it's only, you know, 15 and you've got the 18th pick,

you'd rather trade back and trade out of the first round because you're not getting a player

in your opinion that has a first-round grade. So Matt Miller came up on his board with the players

that have true first-round grades. Last year, he only had 13 first-round graded players in the

2025 class, but the 2026 class actually ends up with fewer. He's got 12 players in this draft

with first-round grades. He wrote for context, the final list in 2024 had 18 names on it,

and the 2023 list I had 20 players. He writes great as with first-round grades. So just 12

this year. Not good. Here are those players. At quarterback, he also gives comps for these players.

At quarterback, he does consider Fernando Mendoza to be a first-round graded player. He also

comps him to Joe Burrow. Hmm. Burrow's super accurate, just like Mendoza. Running back,

one running back with a first-round grade, Jeremiah Love. The comp, Reggie Bush, we've heard that comp

many times for him. He does write, Matt Miller. Love is on par with recent prospects,

such as Bijan Robinson and Jameer Gibbs in terms of talent and upside. That's his belief.

I disagree, but I don't have a draft column. Receivers, there are just two in this year's draft

with first-round grades. Makai Lemon, the smaller probably inside slot receiver from USC,

he comps him to a monrossing brown, not a bad comp, and then Cornell Tate. He's got a first-round

grade on and he comps Cornell Tate to Cooper Cup and says that Tate from a body perspective looks

like Cup or Justin Jefferson and comps his college games to Cup and to Justin Jefferson. Tide

Andy's got one with a first-round grade. That one is Kenyan Sedeek. There's been a lot of Kenyan Sedeek

talk because of how athletic he is and how scouts were buzzing coming off Indy. The comp for him

would be another freak of nature athlete Vernon Davis. Offensive Tackle, just one Francis,

Mauanoa from Miami. He comps him to Darnel Wright and he doesn't have one interior offensive lineman

with a first-round grade. On offense, he's got six players with first-round grades. Mendoza,

Love, Tate Lemon, Sedeek, and Mauanoa from Miami, the Tackle, which everybody now assumes will be

the first Tackle selected. None on the interior offensive lineman. Now he's got another six with

first-round grades on defense. I'll share those with you when I come back because there is one missing

that I was surprised about. Kevin Chiencho, the team 980 and the team 980.com.