Is It Worth Spending Big At WR & DE? & Why Sonny Styles Isn't Isaiah Simmons 2.0 | 'Take Command'

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Welcome back to Take Command with Logan Paulson, um, Grant Paulson.

Next week's gonna be really busy with free agency.

Not only will we have our normal pods, but if big, free agency news,

breaks, we'll get you some emergency breakdowns, ASAP, uh, into your feed.

So make sure you subscribe, rate, and review to this podcast.

All right.

I want to start here.

I'm just going to go in the order that I save these, um, wolf pack party three, I think,

or something like that.

These are always funny to read the name of these, like, really?

Um, he says, always enjoy the pod.

Can you guys break down the difference in former prospect Isaiah Simmons and sunny styles?

He says at the, uh, time, Simmons was a freak of freaks athlete.

Similar buzz post combine, obviously styles is bigger and better based on the combine

results, but Simmons never was close to the eighth overall pick.

So I don't necessarily see those guys as the same player, having said that, I get the

point.

Like everyone said Simmons was his can't miss free, free, unbelievable athlete.

How would you juxtapose the two?

Yeah.

Well, I think it's important to understand like who those players are.

And so, you know, Isaiah Simmons was like a safety like he was this big.

I think it was six, four, two hundred and thirty five, two hundred and forty pound type

guy that everyone was kind of comping to Sean Taylor.

And again, the combine was crazy.

The movements were crazy.

He could play edge.

He could play linebacker.

He could do all these different things.

I think the important thing to remember about football is it is a, it is a physical, violent

football game.

And the one thing Isaiah Simmons was not very good at was being physically violent when

it came to tackling, when it came to taking on blocks, right?

And so like that was something that was always in the crawl.

Like he was this big athlete, right?

It's the same thing when you're talking about like receivers, for example, like you

can find big athletes everywhere, right?

Like Jeff Caldwell from Cincinnati, he's six, five, two, seventeen, but he's probably

going to go on the fifth round.

A big reason for that is because he doesn't do some of the technical things at the position

very, very well.

When you watch the sunny styles tape, it's like that is not even on the radar for him.

He is physical.

He's downhill.

He's instinctive.

He knows how to take on blocks.

He's an excellent tackler in space and in the box.

And that's just something that when you watched Isaiah Simmons, that wasn't really a thing

for him.

Now everyone kind of remembers like, this is what I'd say too, is in the YouTube era of

highlights, which is a great tool for scouting as you can kind of like get a quick comp of

all their big plays, it's easy to forget that those are their best place.

You also have to look at their worst place.

Like what do their low lights look like?

And so going back and watching some Isaiah Simmons film yesterday, like the low lights were

very, very low.

And so I will say sunny styles, again, freak athlete, crush the combine.

But the most important thing about him and the evaluation is his film is fantastic.

And I think that's the thing that you got to remember is that the fundamental football

of sunny styles game is fantastic.

And that's why he, that's why like when we first started this process, Grant, and you

were like, sunny styles at seven, I was like, absolutely, because he's, he's objectively

good at football.

And Isaiah Simmons, that wasn't the case.

He was a big athlete.

He needed to find a home for not overly physical.

sunny styles missed two tackles last year.

Yeah.

That's what I would say.

I mean, this guy is a form legitimate open field tackler.

Simmons was a freak athlete.

You know, I certainly understand the hype and the comps in terms of defensive players that

could play multiple positions and move around and have freak profiles.

But I just think sunny styles is a better football player succinctly.

It's a good question though.

And it's like when you, like when you watch some of these other guys like Arvel Reese, you

know, some of these guys that are like positionless, quote, unquote, like the first thing you

got to look at is again, like there is a, there's a technicality in the position, but there's

also a, a physicality requisite that both these guys check the box of.

So you know, obviously if you're a commander's fan and you wind up with Arvel Reese or sunny

styles, which as we get closer and closer to the draft seems more and more unlikely, they

are good.

They're objectively good football players, quote, unquote, right?

Because they do the fundamental things well and they're tough as hell.

So I think that's the thing about them that make them make my confidence level significantly

higher than with someone like Isaiah Simmons.

Here's a question from RSC.

He says, hey, Grant Logan, I'm addicted to take command you guys do an outstanding job.

Thank you very much.

He says, I'd love to see a segment sometime on how some of the guys on reserve futures contracts

are developing.

He mentioned some guys specifically like Chiquori Brooks, Carlin figures and Tim McKay on

the offensive line.

Any chance of some of those guys bubbling up to the main squad this year.

So just candidly, I would say for both of us, we don't really get a lot of updates on

those guys.

And there's not a lot of intel or information, like I'm not allowed out at practice.

You get to see the very beginning when there's stretching and doing a couple of indodial

things.

I don't know your access is like even during practice, Logan, but that said, other than

what the coaches say during the season, it's hard to get a lot of information on those

guys.

But I thought it was worth just bringing up to see, are there any names among those

players who you're circling to take another look at at training camp that you really were

impressed by last year?

Yeah.

I think the context here is super important because again, like it's very rare that these

kind of practice squad guys like take a huge developmental step, like it's something

that is, it's just a hard environment, right?

Because you're kind of like if you're a receiver, sometimes you're playing DB in practice,

like you're not getting reps with the team.

So it really is up to you to kind of cultivate your own development arc and improve on your

own pacing here.

But like one of the guys I'm going to point to here is like if you guys are familiar with

John Kym, like at the end of every year, he'll go to the coaching staff and ask, are there

any practice squad guys that stick out?

He'll ask players, is there anybody from the practice squad you think is kind of ascending?

And the name that he came up with on his podcast, and I texted him before the show just

to confirm, is your Corey Brooks, right?

You know, number of the coaches said he was really sharp with the routes, DB said he was

hard to cover.

Now like when you hear that, everyone says, oh my gosh, like here's the next guy, he's

going to be a starting receiver, like he still has a long way to go before that happens.

But I do think that like that's an important thing to acknowledge, right?

He was practicing well, he was doing what he needed to do.

People found it difficult to cover, like that's good background.

And so I would say, your Corey Brooks is a guy that to me sticks out as someone maybe coming

in a training camp, if he takes a couple of steps, pushes for the 53 as a special team's

guy to start and maybe your fifth wide receiver.

But again, that's going to take a little bit of work on his part.

Landon, kind of a bigger picture thought here, but asks, he says, hey guys, lifelong commanders

fan, a long time listener and big fan of the pot.

He says, I'm curious to get your thoughts on basically generating a rush with four.

He says, you know, looking around the league, the teams who have continued to be successful

and competitive, none of them have, you know, one of the elite tier pass rushers like Miles

Gerder, Max Crosby, seems like more consistent success comes from having multiple BB plus

guys, rather than a star, he goes on to ask, my question is, is it a defensive end worth

investing the number seven pick in?

He talks about basically rushing the quarterback with four as opposed to like having one superstar

be your top pass rusher.

What are your thoughts just philosophically on that?

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It's a great question, and it's a great perspective, and so I'm going to do a couple things

here.

One is I think when you watch some of these top pass rushers, for example, Miles Garrett,

Michael Parsons and Dallas, Max Crosby, is I think defensive coordinators rely on those

guys a lot.

They rely on them a lot to be physically dominant when they're one on one, which is good,

which is important, and that's an important part of the position.

However, I think when you look at some of these teams with the B plus pass rushers, the

coaches are more cognizant of scheming those players open.

I think about watching the Super Bowl with the Seattle Seahawks, and how they're able

to, through pressure packages and design and spacing, able to create a lot of really

good matchups there.

What I would say is I do think that there is this weird crossroads where teams with

really good pass rushers do less schematically because they rely on that player to be more

dynamic than players than teams that have less dynamic pass rushers.

I think about the Minnesota Vikings, like how they create pressure through different

spacing, different pressure looks, Seattle was kind of the same thing in the playoffs.

Again, New England very similar, and I think back to my time when I played, and the team

that at the time was the best at cultivating pass rush was the Dallas Cowboys, and what

they used to do with the Marcus Ware and Anthony Spencer, whatever the other guy's name

was, number 93 for them, is they would not only would they rely on those guys to win

their one-on-ones, but they'd also have an element of schematic elevation, which I think

is something that needs to be considered in this specific question is usually the good

players will win, right?

But are they winning enough is the question, schematically can we elevate those players?

And I think when you look at Miles Garrett from three years ago, like one of his best

years, which was when Schwartz was there, and they're moving them all around the formation

to find the best matchup, JJ Wat, moving them all around the formation to find the best

matchup, their needs to get the most out of that player, there needs to be a schematic

elevation.

When you watch Las Vegas right now with Max Crosby, they're kind of like, hey, man, line

up on the left side and go rush the passer, it's like, that's great, but are we maximizing

that piece?

I think about Mike Parsons and Dallas, and then Mike Parsons and Green Bay, like Mike

Parsons and Green Bay is lining up over guards and centers and tackles, right?

And creating this really dynamic, instant pressure.

And so to answer the question, I think it's kind of a mix, like when you have those average

pass rushers, there's more schematic innovation happening, happening, usually obviously there's

exceptions, like the Philadelphia Eagles.

Last year, we're kind of like, we're going to rush for, but they would still bring kind

of exotic pressure looks to find good matchups.

So to me, it's kind of this weird mix of talented teams don't usually do exotic things,

and when they do do exotic things, they maximize those players.

So I think it's kind of a chicken or the egg thing with regards to that question.

Yeah, what he's getting at, and he kind of summarizes it with, are there certain positions

outside of obviously quarterback when it is more strategically advantageous to have a

star level player?

Maybe this is a case for Jeremiah Love at seven.

It's just interesting thought.

I like our listeners are sharp and it's something to throw out there.

Just looking at Super Bowl winners, if you're working back from the result, Seahawks, Eagles,

Leafs, Chiefs, Ram, like you don't find one of those great edge pass rushers.

Now, Aaron Donnell, best defensive player in the league, got pressure from the interior.

Chris Jones for Kansas City's in all pro, one of the great defensive tackles of all time.

There's actually much more of a case when you watch it, actually, and look at these.

It's like the interior pass rushers of the Super Bowl winners.

Now that is also just, again, it's a sample where you're looking at who won the Super Bowl,

and then what are they good at?

It's not always the best way to do it.

But look, this year, the final four teams had the best pressure rate from the detackle

position in the league.

Top four were all in the championship game, so it's not necessarily nothing, but that was

a good question.

It's a good point.

And so I think the other thing, too, is like teams are just getting better at tackles

specifically in quarterbacks about kind of setting that high edge and stepping up in

the pocket.

And so having guys that are on the interior that can rush the passers and kind of compress

the pocket are really important, also, there, too.

So.

All right.

Last one for the mailbag here.

Greg wants to know, what about spending big at wide receiver in free agency?

We've talked a lot about other positions already.

We're going to get deeper into our wide receiver dive.

I'm going to shoot you some guys to watch the tape on.

I want to break down on Alec Pierce and Rashit Shaheed, John Jennings, some of the top

guys on the market in case they do spend big there.

But we know they want weapons.

We know they want speed.

It would stand to reason with Terry McCorn probably going into his final year, something

we could talk about down the road.

But it's very possible.

This could be his last season in DC based on the extension he signed.

That's a real need.

They have three guys in our contract.

And if you view just, I'm not saying this is going to happen, but hypothetically, if this

is the last year of Terry, then beyond this season, you've got Jalen Lane and Luke McCaffrey

under contract.

That's a way, way, way bigger need than maybe people are thinking about.

Yeah.

And I guess the more I thought about it, because I thought, oh, you can get away with

like the Alamedez Aqueous route or something like that, like where you get a really good

player, kind of a good value down the board.

But the more I think about it, the more I'm kind of, because again, there was a period

of time where I thought, oh, like after we did, so after we did our free agent on the

tight ends, we kind of took a deep dive on that.

I kind of thought, oh man, like, I don't know if there's the talent here, right?

But then you look at the receivers and I have to start watching them in earnest here probably

today.

Like, I think about Pierce, I think about Shaheed, I think about Jennings.

And I'm like, man, there's probably a more dynamic piece there for this offense.

Now, it'll be more expensive.

But I've kind of come around to this idea that maybe that's the way you solve the playmaker

piece in the offense.

I was talking to somebody of the day and basically I was like, you know, if you have Terry

and you sign a big name for the agent and you look at this offense at receiver and you

look at this offense, all of a sudden, it feels really dynamic, right?

Because you have two outside playmakers, you've got a young kind of tight end room, which

I, again, in this offense, I think will be elevated by scheme, your offensive lines in

a good spot.

And obviously, young running bags, you need to do some work there in terms of free agency.

But like, it really covers up a lot of ails of the group just with one big perimeter

signing.

Like, if you were to sign a big name tight end, I still think you need to find someone

on the perimeter opposite Terry.

So if you sign that big receiver first, kind of like spend your big money, ticket item

there, it kind of, it just changes the landscape of the offense in a really nice way.

And it makes me think that that's going to be perhaps a more viable option than I thought

we first entered for agency.

Logan Paulson, Grant Paulson, take command, NFL free agency is coming.

We're going to react.

Everything going on will also continue to preview different positions as well as we get

closer to the start of the league year.

Appreciate everybody checking us out.

Take thanks to our producer, Evan O'Brien for Logan, I'm Grant, saying so long.

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