NO GENERATIONAL TALENTS?: Sonny Style, Caleb Downs and Commanders' Edge Value EXPOSED in NFL Draft

Sonny Stiles had himself a historic NFL scone and combine workout, but that isn't enough

to label him a generational talent yet in this year's NFL Draft.

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TJ coming through.

I think I gave TJ credit for a question on our last mail bug that wasn't actually TJ's

question.

I apologize if I got that wrong.

Who asked the question?

Regardless, just like this one is a great question.

As well TJ, this one for short TJ asking who is the true generational quote unquote talent

at number seven is the week quarterback class inflating edge value, very astute.

Does Hall of Fame potential lie with Caleb Downs Ohio State's safety, sunny styles Ohio

State linebacker or main sort of lane LSU cornerback rather than Jeremiah Love Notre Dame

running back, our Val Reese Ohio State linebacker slash edge Ruben Bain Jr. Miami, Florida

edge.

Detail.

He needs to be an interior deep as alignment or David Bailey, Texas tech edge or could it be

a wider seer?

Lots of layers to the question that are TJ, but I think you hit on something very specific

that I think is having an impact on the way people were talking about this year's draft.

Apart from Heisman winning quarterback Fernando Mendoza, quarterback from Indiana, the national

champion who did defeat my Ohio State Buckeyes in the big 10 championship game, unfortunately

for me, there is no consensus number one overall pick.

And if we're being honest, Fernando Mendoza is the consensus number one overall pick because

it does quarterback in the class and Las Vegas Raiders, you pick number one overall, desperately

need a quarterback.

What this has done is can create a public vacuum, not a not a inside the NFL vacuum, but

a public vacuum where edge players and hybrid defenders are being pushed up the draft

boards.

These guys are going to be drafted higher than they would in a lot of other classes because

typically you have what to maybe three quarterbacks that are going to be considered top 10 picks.

So that means you're about about seven of these, you know, positional player guys going

in the first round.

But in this first round, you're looking at nine.

I don't know.

I don't think Ty Simpson is going to work his way into the top 10 of this year's class.

So it looks like you're going to have nine positional players, whether it be receivers,

D linemen, edge, whatever, going in the top 10 where normally they would not go in

the top 10.

So the number seven pick dilemma at this point is at this pick, Adam Peters is in position

to catch someone who's going to slide because the teams ahead of them, the Raiders adjusts

the cardinals among others are still trying to figure out their quarterback plans.

Now, there is no one generational player from most people's opinions in this draft.

Instead, there are three distinct tiers of players who, you know, I don't know if you want

to call it Hall of Fame ceiling, but basically have different levels of ceilings.

And you have the first, the big three, and again, this is just my impression.

If you reading other outlets or reading other draft experts, I'll tell you right now,

I tend to stick to Daniel Jeremiah, Bucky Brooks and Trevor Sikima.

But if you're reading other people, you might have a different vibe out there.

Caleb Downs, the Ohio State Safety is the quote unquote cleanest prospect.

Daniel Jeremiah has him as a top 10 lock, even though he's a safety and safety.

You don't typically go top, go top 10.

TJs does seem to think Caleb Downs has generational traits, but it's not really athletic.

It's his IQ.

And that's going to help him continue to climb up the boards where basically someone can

convince himself that Caleb Downs is the is the defensive equivalent to a franchise quarterback.

To me, if you're going to have a defensive equivalent to a franchise quarterback, you would

have to be an off-ball linebacker that sets the defense does all these things, makes the

most of the checks and all that kind of stuff.

And that guy could be Ohio State linebacker, sunny styles, who has obviously got the physical

part down, right?

If you watch his NFL scouting combine workout, I mean, 43 and a half inch vert, the 40, the

workout, like this is a dude who has just blew all the all the evaluations off the board.

So if you want a hall of fame based or a hall of fame ceiling based on just the measurements,

sunny styles has got to be the most likely guy, but even sunny styles like as most people

love the athletics and love the measurements and all that, like you turn on the tape and

you see a very good running linebacker not running back.

Do you see generational talent?

I don't know so much that you do Mansort Elaine.

I've said it on this show.

I think he's the number one cornerback in this class.

I think he's got locked down cornerback potential.

But again, I'm going to tell you he's the best cornerback I've ever seen enter the NFL

draft.

And I haven't been covering the league as much as or as long as a lot of these guys

have certainly haven't worked in the league like people like Daniel Jeremiah and Bucky

Brooks have.

No, I'm not going to tell you that he's the best, but is he the best in this class largely

due to Germain McCoy's injury history and what he's coming off of.

In fact, he's yet to work out things like that.

Yeah, I would say that he's the best in this class.

And I think that you also look at that inflated edge market that TJ brought up because of

the scarcity of the quarterbacks in this class, the value of guys like Ruben Bay and Junior

David Bailey certainly are going up.

I don't know if I would say they're skyrocketing like I think both of these guys would be in

the top 10 conversation regardless, but I have a lot of doubts on Ruben Bay and Junior

as an edge rusher.

I don't think he's an edge guy.

I have some doubts that David Bailey, like I'm not going to sit here and guarantee you

in any way, shape or form that David Bailey is going to be this elite edge rusher to be

quite honest with you.

Are they generational?

No, I think they're the best in this class in a class where there's only one quarterback

and so their pick spot is going to be elevated.

Then you have Arville Reese, who's kind of the best hybrid middle ground, right?

You can play off ball linebacker.

You can play edge.

He's got the athleticism.

I think he's probably out of the names of all these guys that we've just talked about

he's probably the best fit because like even man's sort of lane, who is certainly one

of my favorites for number seven, doesn't have the athleticism that you would think that

Doront day Jones will probably want.

He's got a lot of other things.

I think Arville Reese has the best combination of athleticism and all that other stuff.

Maybe sunny styles also Caleb down certainly could make that argument.

The other Cver wild card like TJ brought up carnal tape.

A lot of people were talking about his four or five three 40 and you know, is he slow

and all these other things like.

You have guys with questions up and down the board, but I think what we're doing from

a public standpoint is we're trying to find, okay, Fernando Mendoza, the automatic number

one, who is the defensive or positional player that's going to be the goose that lays the

golden egg?

Maybe it's a golden dome or Notre Dame running back Jeremiah love.

I think of Jeremiah love and Ashton Genti, who was last year's first running back taking

off the board.

We're in the same draft.

I think Jeremiah love would come off the board first.

So I do think Jeremiah love is better this year than last year's number one back.

Was, but again, I'm not going to sit here and tell you the Jeremiah love is going to

be the greatest running back, you know, he's going to just completely transcend what running

back, doing the national football league.

So, you know, if the question is, is there someone in number seven who can be a generational

player?

I don't think it's fair to put that tag on any of these guys coming into the NFL draft.

I don't think we see, you know, a Calvin Johnson, a Quentin Nelson and Andrew Luck.

Like, I don't think we see that guy.

Like when those guys were coming out of the draft, people were talking about them as generational

players.

That's okay.

Because there have been plenty of generational players who were not talked about as being generational

players when they came out of the draft, JJ Wat comes to the mind.

There are plenty of those guys out there.

So I'm not too worried about like from my standpoint and on lockdown commanders, you're not going

to hear a lot of talk about like, you got to go get a generational player, no, you don't,

you got to go get a guy who's going to be good and is going to fit your system.

Whether or not he becomes generational, honestly, has a lot to do with individual personality

work ethic, ability to say healthy, which is a little bit of a crapshoot.

But a lot of it also has to do with coaching and fit and the scheme and how things go in

the organization.

So I'm not going to be too wrapped around the axle about it.

I understand the question.

I think it's a good question to talk about because the national narrative is certainly

out there.

But I think that we as a public and not necessarily even TJ who asked the question or anybody else

who's listening or whoever, but we as a public, whether you're media or fans, I think we're

just, we are so used to having like the blue chip players, the top of the NFL draft that

we just have to have one.

I think this draft is very good.

I think it's deep, but I don't think you have this like guaranteed slam dunk generational

player at the top of the board.

So that being said, good question there from the mailbag moving on.

We've got a question I put out a, I posited right a theory where Tyler, if we can speak

Terry McClure and moves into the slot for the Washington commanders.

Does that potentially push another Washington commanders receiver off the depth charts?

The answer is yes.

Why Traylon Berks doesn't work if my theory on Terry McClure and is correct coming up next

on today's episode of Locked On Commanders, part of the Locked On podcast network, your

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This one coming overseas, more eats.

Ask the question more.

Hopefully I'm saying that I met you in Spain, so I feel really bad if I'm mispronounced

in your name.

So if I am, do not hesitate to correct me, I definitely want to make sure I'm saying

that right.

But the question is, if Terry McClure moves into the slot more, is there still room on

the roster to justify resigning Trail and Berks since that's his best position and to

be fair, that saying that's his best position is actually a little bit supported by fact

and history.

But it's also a take that I had on this show and I don't know that's where you're getting

it from.

But I want to just not expose, but identify here as we have this conversation that I was

on this show talking about Trainland Berks coming about to be that power slot compute

Luke McCaffrey go after that job, right?

But then later on, struck me like an anvil to the head chasing a road runner.

Terry McClure could benefit from moving into the slot more.

So it does bring up the question I have actually thought about this.

I just haven't had the conversation yet.

We're going to have it now.

So Terry McClure is moving into the slot more.

You already got Luke McCaffrey who can fit the power slot back up role.

Is there room for Trail and Berks because if this is happening and the reason we think

this is possibly happening, I should say I can't even say we think it is actually happening,

I think possibly happening is David Blow in his one on one interview with John Derand WS a

nine telling us that he wants to get Terry McClure and 10 plus targets again.

And I'll tell you right now, if David Blow is playing as a good Terry McClure and 10 plus

targets a game, as he lines up 77% of the time as the X receiver split far wide left.

David Blow may not be around very long as you're on the way to the watch.

Because that's like trying to shoot logo 3s as your primary source of scoring the thing

and you're going to win games.

It's just not going to happen.

So Terry's going to have to move around and I think he's going to do it in the slot.

So with Trail and Berks, now you're looking at him needing to play more of that exposition,

more of that Z position.

And when you look at Trail and Berks's game, join the watch compares mid season in 2025

after being waved by the Tennessee Titans, he certainly has potential.

You saw that catch.

He made great catch.

He's certainly that he's always flashed that potential, but he finished the season with

just 10 catches 130 yards.

Now you try not to weigh that too much because I didn't have can't didn't have all the right

like he's joining midstream.

It's hard.

It's difficult.

But he is currently an unrestricted free agent.

The market value suggests three and a half million dollars as a proven deal, very reasonable

price.

If you even justify spending three and a half million on a backup slot, if he's going

to be your backup backup slot, right, because Luke McCaffrey fits that role.

Terry McCorns is going to be in there 30, 40% of the time, potentially in this scenario.

Luke McCaffrey is going to be in there, what another 15, 20% of the time.

Are you going to put Trail and Berks in there the other percentage of the time and pay him

three and a half million dollars?

I don't know that you are.

And with Trail and Berks, he's not a burner six foot two to twenty five pounds.

He's got a very physical presence.

Just can play does he a little bit on the outside, but in Tennessee, he struggled from

the outside.

And what he struggled a lot in doing, talking to people who watch Titans football a lot

closer than I do, is playing that receiver position outside of your position, because

you got to go up and catch a lot of passes and you got to come down with those balls.

And that's where he struggled one.

He struggled to secure the passes when doing so too.

He's struggling to say healthy.

The dude doesn't know how to fall and he gets hurt a lot when he's doing it in Arkansas

like college.

He was that kind of power slot type receiver and dominated.

So that seems to me kind of like the role that he needs to play.

But if you've got Terry McClore, like I said, the plans move Terry inside, you've got

Luke McCaffer.

You can also move inside.

Does it really justify bringing Trail and Berks back?

It's not just like we just talked about this in Larry McTunsell, right?

It's not just the team.

Even if the team is like, Hey, dude, we'll bring you back on a vet, men, minimum, and

we'll let you kind of grind it out, compete.

And Berks, like what is he going to want is he, well, one is he can have offers.

That's number one.

Number two, if he does have offers, is he going to want to go out there and try to see,

well, maybe I can compete for a true blue number two job or true blue number three job

and not be out here competing for the third power slot job in Washington.

If David Blowr truly wants an offense that is explosive, Trail and Berks on his lack

of explosive speed, look, he's got decent wheels, right?

And he would beat me and erase any given Sunday, every and twice on every other day.

But is it enough for this new system?

I don't know.

And if the Terry, like I said, is moving inside, then you want a pure vertical threat to play

that x-roll.

When Terry is not there, you want a vertical threat to play that z-roll to clear out when

Terry is not there.

I don't know.

The trail and Berks really fits that deal, didn't get a lot of play time with Jay Daniel.

So we don't know if the rapport would be there really, you're kind of having to rebuild

that.

You're only going to keep probably about five, six receivers.

You have some special teams, you know, things like Jalen Lane is your part returner,

Loot McCafferies, your kick returner, yeah, Trail and Berks can do some kick return

stuff.

We saw that last year as well, but is that really enough to justify keeping them on the

roster?

I don't know.

So more eats, you brought it up.

And to me, yeah, I think that if the wash commanders are planning on moving, Terry McCloren,

into the slot more, I don't know that there's room for Trail and Berks to come back on this

roster.

So I think it's a great question.

I think you, you called out a flaw, but, you know, originally I talked about Trail and

Berks being that power slot back up to Loot McCafferies, and then we had the great idea

of moving Terry McCloren inside.

So you point out a great, like trickle down here of, hey, like if this happens, maybe

you got to reverse this, this original thing from previous, so I think you hit the nail

on the head right there, which is why we do these mailbox, man, because they're great,

great times.

That's going to do it for this mail back series.

And that's going to do it for today's episode.

Next time on Loot McCafferies, we're going to start our preview, our position group preview,

who's on the roster?

How's the depth chart?

Look, where do the washing commanders need to go in free agency, and I'm even going to

make some predictions on who they're going to sign that way?

You can celebrate me and you can curse me all during the week next week, as these players

actually start to get signed.

If you never miss it episode, the everyday club is built for you, locked on commanders.supercast.com,

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agency all one word to the everydayers.

I see you every day.

I appreciate you every day.

And I thank you for coming through yet again today to everybody else and all the everydayers.

Thank you for coming through today.

And until next time, stay safe, be kind.

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