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TE Draft Countdown (Part 2) 2026

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Ken and Alec Pulianas continue their discussion of the top TEs in this draft class from a Ravens-centric perspective.



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TE Draft Countdown (Part 2) 2026

Filmstudy - Baltimore Ravens Talk

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Filmstudy - Baltimore Ravens TalkTE Draft Countdown (Part 2) 2026. Machine-transcribed; use the interactive transcript above to jump the player to any line.

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If you enjoy journalism that drifts into mild panic, wild overthinking, and a guaranteed nervous breakdown, Lunatic in the newsroom is for you. It's news like you've never heard before. The only newsroom with a panic button, you'll laugh, you'll cry, and gasp and horror as the show spirals completely out of control. It's not just news, it's emotionally unstable. Lunatic in the newsroom, listen today. Hi folks, welcome to the episode of Film Study. This is Ken McEuzick, and we're back for part two of our discussion or campdom of the tight ends in this year's draft. We had an interesting part one of the show, Alec Pullianas, join me for it, and Alec we had a lot of differences in the back half of the top 10, that's for sure. Yeah, I thought it was kind of cool.

We started off just like swapping like 8, 10, 9, you know, and I was like, oh it's going to get a little boring, but then 8 in 7, we're off your board, and yeah, got fun. I'm excited to hear who you have on your board and continue the conversation. All right, so I've got six guys left and you've got five, so we don't have the same five guys. We at least know that. So somebody at least on my list is down outside of your top 10. So my number six guy on my list is Dekwan Wright of Ole Miss, and let me go down to my notes on him, and 64, 246 ran to 455 other 40, so not a combine 40, you've got to be always very careful about that. He'll be 23 in September, so he's not completely out of the age range. Flex tight end, he's most typically a slot guy, 46% in line, 40, this last year, 40% for his career. So one of the interesting things he has has really been four years of being a primary target.

So if you look at his receiving metrics last year, 11.5 yards per target, a yak of 10.1 per target. It's a very dangerous with the football on his hands, 8 out of 7.7, pass the rating, throwing to him 132, and his mistakels forced, were good last year at 0.18, and they're fantastic for his career at 0.26, and you look at him. He's a big physical specimen of a player, very muscular, and built well, very well proportion, looks like a running back in a lot of ways. He's not as small as Noah Kowski is, and you know, Noah Kowski carries the same weight two inches shorter, and carries it very well, but they go on right out of the real adonis of a physical specimen. A really exceptional transition from catch to run was one of the things that really jumps out. He had a big meal against LSU to seal a game. That may have been in the huddle, but I love game management awareness, which is out there and clear on the tape.

Not a particularly good contested catch player. I'm not that concerned about it giving how effectively he's caught the football in general and moved with it after the play, very much at bottom of the barrel run blocker, and this is the major concern. He's not an inline guy, and I would say more than that, watching his tape, you really see a lack of effort. And that's one of the things that kind of tightens my colon a little bit. But on the other hand, it is a coachable, fixable thing, presumably, particularly for someone I came who has got perfect even size and lots of strength and whatnot you'd expect to do that. He had 13 plays of 30 plus yards on just 168 career targets, so he's in a replacement for Andrews. He's not a replacement for their inline guys, definitely not a replacement for Charlie Kohler, but he is a guy who is an alternative to a big slot receiver needs to play special teams, which he may not want to do. Lack of effort in the run game is usually an indication a player would not like to play

special teams. Yeah. I didn't scout him, so I don't want to go too far off base. I was watching a highlight package as you discussed him. And as you mentioned his kneeling, at the exact moment, it was when he did it. I understand what you've seen him though. He definitely has burst, a very fluid mover, ability to, like you said, transition from the catch point into a gang yak going down field, kind of a one-cut guy. It looks like to me, yeah, I think he's a great pick up. If I had fully scouted him, he might have made my top 10, just from like the brief amount I've seen. So yeah, definitely a good guy. Reasonable, highly thought of. I probably like him more than I've seen in other sources, but I think he could be a fourth round pick for the Ravens. There are people who think they too pick. I mean, there are people who say that I'm not in line with that. I think he's a on par value in the fourth round and a good value in the fifth round.

And if the Ravens get him there, then I'd be. I'd be legitimately excited and we're going to have a, my voice going up an octave. I'm sure I'm draft night if that, if that were to happen. Awesome. All right. Up to your number five guy. Justin Jolie of NC State, a smaller guy at six three to forty one. You mentioned how you had a guy, you know, tight ends like to jump and stuff. For whatever reason, when I watch Jolie, I feel like he always wants to be falling down. The second he catches the ball, he's like leaning forward. He's always just like on the edge of maybe leaning too much forward. Unfortunately, he didn't compete in the combine. Protects more as a move blocker without the top end speed. I thought he had good hands in contestant situations, uses long arms, 33 inches. He has a wide receiving background at shows. He gets a lot of likely comps out there and I don't personally see it and I like to be like myself as early on likely and I just, I don't quite, I don't quite get it.

I think Fanon had that. I think Fanon had a likely factor. I didn't see it really as much with with Jolie. He has a lot of highlight catches. One thing I didn't love about him and I think this is one of the different shares with likely is he rounds out his routes. He has 91% towel hands. Isn't that crazy? And like I said, he's looking for a wide receiver. He put on weight. So yeah, Justin Jolie. Make your board. Also my never five guy. So I like him a lot and there's a lot of things I would point to. I think I can see some of the likely cops. I'll take the other side of that coin as part of his discussion. He's a really good contestant catch player and that's one of the things we saw. Sure. Out of likely from 23 to 25 was a lot of going up for the football over smaller defenders and he's able to do that. I mean, even likely his last catch as a Raven was that incredible fourth down conversion between two Steelers on the back end where the Steelers think they've lost the football game. Yeah, their sideline is despondent over likely's, you know, perhaps made in there.

I only played about 45% in line. He's, it's the results so far and relatively few pass blocking snaps, you know, have been just fine, but I wouldn't trust it at the NFL level. I don't think that's where he's he's suited to make his money. He could be a guy like likely who blocks in level two and level three, but I don't see him being a guy who is part of a, you know, major part of a blocking scheme against a big defensive end that you want to try and stop. It's certainly not someone where you might be down blocking on a three tech and he has to take that defensive end alone or after a chip from an outside tight end. I just don't see that at all. But he's got a fair amount of elucidness in the open field despite a very low yak is 3.6 last year. This may go with a lot of your fall down king stuff 5.5 for his career. So that's a lot better. He's had a massive number of career targets. He's got probably the most of any draftable tight end or it's very close anyway with 233

targets over four seasons. I mean, that's like an NFL, it's like a high utilization NFL tight end to have that many targets. So, you know, it's been impressive at least in that way that they've been trying to get him a football. He also was the bailout target for Bailey. And so that meant he's probably got some decreased value marginal targets as we talked about with some of the other guys in the first show. And that's, you know, that probably dragged down his overall stats, which are not that good. Yards per target at 7.1, the passer rating throwing to him is 94 last year 100.5 for his career. So that's not really that exciting. He's got some sideline awareness. I think I understand the cop for likely, and he is, I think, a likely replacement in so far as he won't play in line much, and he'll have to make his living blocking as likely did. The chance of him reaching likely is not, well, I think he's not particularly high. Sure.

Yeah, I can buy that. All right. So that's my number five guy. Also, we jumped to your number four guy and I'm guessing now we have the same top four guys. Yeah. And I'll be honest with you, I moved some guys in the last minute, you know, 11th hour movement. I watched a little bit more. So my number four guy changed from when it was when we are the baseball game, but Michael Trigg is my number four now out of baler. These baler guys, they usually fail me. So I'm a little, a little skeptical there, but 604 to 40. The guy's dynamite though. He has some crazy catches that you'll see really good body control, fluid mover. Just awesome. I gained the ball loads of highlight catches kind of has bad intentions because I just like you'll run into you. He'll move the pile by himself.

He takes that into the blocking games. Sometimes he just like rams into a guy rather than like blocking properly with his hands. There are character concerns about him. I can understand it just from watching his film. He's got all field problems just from watching his film. I mean, it's like, okay, I can buy it, you know, like the guy, but I don't know if there's a more exciting player in a way, like some of the stuff he did explosive. I think he's going to block inside and out just the form might be, you know, a little questionable. I think he's able to match up with DBs with his speed and also his physical enough with linebackers. Yeah, I don't know. He's a fun one. If we draft it, it might be, I'd be pretty stoked, but I hope he doesn't flame out on us. I have my number three and I'm very excited about him. I like him a lot. In fact, I've got him higher than one of the other kind of consensus guys that's up

there. Let me see what you didn't say in this thing. So he is the single best tackle breaker in the cat class. He's even better than Riley and Okawski in that sense. He's 0.34 per catch, 0.29 career, has 179 college targets. So it's not a fluke. Two years is the focus of the Baylor offense. And once again, it comes up that he's probably has some decreased marginal value to targets, only 27.2% of his snaps in line. So he's a pure flex tight end, really a big slot receiver in his case. He's not really an ex-receiver, but there are people who will talk about him and two of the other guys that are a little higher up in this class as being just really ex-receivers. And I like him a lot. That's very well when slanting. And Baylor did a just a ton of that, where they have him in the slot, and he's slanting, he's cutting towards the middle of the field, and he presents himself well, has big soft

hands, unbelievable catch radius, just unbelievable. Probably the best in the entire tight end class in terms of his ability to reach back. And that's saying something, a lot of one handed catchability, which that certainly increases catch radius significantly, and didn't test at the combine, which was interesting. So he's got this 470 other, you know, that always has got to go with a double asterisk for me, 40, but you know, not testing is not a great thing, but the tape is fantastic. And one of the things that is weird is that even though he has this big catch radius, it's not really a great contested catch guy, didn't have poor, didn't have great results in that, and there were five interception of his targets. Now I think that's about him being the focus of the offense, and again, he's getting some lower value marginal targets as a bailout guy. So it's got to kind of be looked at, and I didn't have the energy to look at all five of those interceptions and try and see on what plays they occurred, look up the individual

highlights, which is by the way, fairly complex process that I'll go through if I'm looking at all the interceptions for a corner or a safety, for example, because I want to see what are they doing? Are they loose bracketing on the back end or the undercutting route? So they picking up trash in the middle of the field, are they coming in as a robber and taking a rail route and making a play, are they reading the quarterback? What might it be? But in the case of a tight end, I'm not going to try and figure out why the interceptions occurred on the balls that happen to have him as a target, and that's quite difficult to break the out of fine. It can be done, but it just takes a lot of effort to go through that. And unfortunately, nobody makes highlight takes of, here's all the interceptions that happen. I would love that. Somebody make a cut up of that. Figure out how to give me all the bad plays for Michael Trigg, and I'd love to look at that. Yeah, so anyway, I like him a lot. He's my number three guy. Nice. So, did you run for me, Edmond? I guess not. Yeah, so I have, I mean, number four guy, and that, let me make sure who it is, yes,

Max Claire of Ohio State. So at one year of Ohio State, and then before that, he was at Purdue, three years. And let's skip to my notes on him here. So you know, another guy's 470 and other, so I don't trust that as a, as a, as a number, I think I likely, one of the things that dropped him to the Ravens was the fact that he ran about 480 on that funny coastal Carolina track. But the 470 number, I think, if anything, is a, an estimate that's too high in terms of, of how good Max Claire speed is, a little bit short arms, but that's not a huge problem. His receiving metrics are decent. I guess he did have, he did not have Howard throwing to him because he Howard, he was at Purdue in the years before, but he has 154 targets in two years plus five games as a starter, which is an outrageous number, very high target share. Miami, he had a very consistently large target share by game, and then Miami completely

shut him out in the cotton bowl in the quarter final game. Only 43.2% in line for his career, so he's really a flex player. He's been about 4% in the back field as well. Most of the guys are, if they're 4 or 5% in the back field, I didn't even note it. My notes been, in his case, for some reason I did, Purdue used him in a multitude of roles. They had him on a flea flicker, on a wheel route for a 62 yard game that was his career long in Illinois in 24. He had another 48-3 yard play action reception in a game where he accounted for more than 10% of his college yards on those two long catches in that single game. Anyway, a good contestant catch player, he's a flex tight end for the Ravens. Again, this would be another guy to be replacing likely more than anything else or replacing Andrews. You'd have to play special teams, you'd have to block better than he has so far, but I don't really see him projecting to a big blocking role in the NFL.

I probably didn't like him as much as a lot of the other clearoids who are out there extremely high on him. A lot of people are saying he's a second round pick. No way in hell. No way in hell. I think I wouldn't be surprised at all if it happens, but I get why you would say that. Yeah, should I go? Yeah. Absolutely. Yeah, he, so that's like kind of what the reshuffling was all about. He's my number three guy. I did have him in number two before the base before we started what's the baseball game. I really liked him. I thought he was really explosive after catching the ball. You have to really go back to the Purdue tape, though, in order to see him be the focal point and kind of all the things that happen. He got lost in the shuffle in that Ohio state offense with many top playmakers. You only maybe got three or four targets a game. Shouldn't that have helped him? Shouldn't that have helped him?

If you've got all these other targets around, we talked about decreased marginal value of targets that are bailout guys face. He should have helped him in terms of his yards per target stats is rate stats that went there underneath that. I, you know, I can live with the lower yards per out run. I want to see his yards per target. I want to see his yards after the catch. I want to see some of the rate statistics be better because of all the weapons that were in that offense. That's fair. Yeah. I thought he'd track the ball well. I already mentioned explosive breaks and fluidity. I thought as a blocker, you can kind of tell he's like, you know, you know, he's like nor to it. He gained a lot of weight in order to, you know, play tight and he actually was also a baseball player coming into college. And I think he's definitely passable though as a run blocker, but I don't think that's what he's going to make his hay on, like you mentioned. Very interesting to see that he has a little bit of a cult following. I didn't know that. Yeah. I get it.

I told Jason if I didn't know any better. And I just saw him. I could have believed that he was the number one guy in a class. I don't know if that's like, I'm just saying like with no other context, if I just watched him, I could have believed that he was, you know, maybe the top prospect in the class. But yeah, I like them. All right. So we just had the only difference we've got so far in the top five is a flip of trig and clear at number three and four. And I'm guessing we got the same number two and number one guys, but why don't you introduce number two for us? Sure. Eli Stowers, a late mover. Oh, my God. Vanderbilt 604, 239. So it's more guy, but that 4.5 140, great vertical record setting vertical, 45.5 inches, nice arms at 32 and 5, 8.

The thing is though, the guy doesn't really block, peer projection, if he's going to get there from a blocking perspective, kind of lay in the plants, lacks the play strength. But when you look at him just as a wide receiver, you know, a slot wide receiver, potentially, he is explosive. He has great hands. He is pretty darn great. You know, like he's an exciting player. He's new in the tight end position. He's only played for three years. He used to be a QB. It takes to say in him. I think my only thing with him is, let me tell you about the online cannabis company that's changing the game, mood.com. They created an entirely line of functional gummies, 100% federally legal THC blends, discreetly delivered right to your door set. And here's the best part. You can get 20% off your first order at mood.com with the promo code Ravens. Now I've tried a bunch of their gummies myself. Each one's totally unique. The sleepy time gummies knock me out right away. They help me unwind fast, leave me refreshed the next morning.

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I thought it was more north-south and he liked to spin to get out of contact and create more yak opportunities. But very electric player, you could call him a wide receiver if you wanted and I think it would be excited with his pickup. Yeah. I haven't scouted the wide receivers yet, but I think I'd be excited with him as a past catcher. I don't know if I really see him being a real even-moved tight-end in the NFL. I don't know if 100% sold on it. Yeah. I think he's the next receiver. I mean, honestly, that's what I think he is. All of this couple of tight-ends here were blurring the lines between 11 and 12 personnel. But Stowers is a guy. I really like his receiving skills, but he's played 24.9% of his snaps in line. Really doesn't have many run-blocking plays at all. Very polished route runner, though, and presents well in the zone. You look at his yak also.

He's got 6.1 yak per play and on the surface, there's a lot of tight-ends who are in that range or higher. But he doesn't get his yak by catching the ball behind the line of storage. He's crossing the middle of the field between level 2 and 3, or he's behind the defense. Yeah. And he's picking up a lot of yak that way. He's a guy who is a very dangerous receiver, and he played with a running quarterback. He was an extended play bailout option, which probably reduced the statistics of anything. He still had 9.0 yards per target with a not particularly great quarterback, and a 101.5 passer rating. This last year, 109 for his career, he's got 10 plays of 30 plus yards in his college career. That's a really outstanding total, because he's also got three years as the centerpiece of his offense and 202 targets at Vandy and New Mexico State combined. So he's really, even though the two years in the SEC are their legitimate battle-hardening

time, and for him to get average 9.0 yards per target, even in a season in the SEC, is very good. His MTFs, strangely, are mostly power. They're not speed, which is really, I mean, he does cause some angle issues for defenders that they don't always line him up properly to tackle him and all of a sudden he's by them kind of thinking, kind of a little like Keaton Mitchell, but obviously he doesn't have Keaton Mitchell's speed, but they underestimate his speed and his safety can go to the wrong spot. I think he would replace Andrews as the Flex Titan in 2028, but just the fact he's doing that is kind of limited. If you thought he could replace Beatman at the X receiver, you might be more excited about the pick, except you'd have to pay him like a wide receiver probably come franchise tag time, because that could be a first round pick. So he'd be a guy who ends up getting a franchise tag. And I think our last guy, those fiscal concerns, are central to the story, are absolutely

central to how you value him. But in Star Wars case, I think if he ends up being a good extra receiver, it's just, well, okay, good. He's a good extra receiver, but now we're going to lose him because of that. So anyway, like him, I mean, there's potential there to be more even as a receiver of a very polished guy or as a route runner, I think you mentioned that and I'm positive about that. But anyway, my number two guy, and I see him as a, really a round three guy for the Ravens to get value on that. I don't think they can take him at 45, but if they, if they took him at 80, I'd be excited about the value for him. And I know a lot of people would have him higher than that. So, Ravens probably don't end up with it. Yeah, I think so. So, am I going to go to number one? Absolutely. All right. Wilkes Merrick out of Ohio State now. Yeah, thanks a dig, Oregon. Honestly, I don't really want to say too much about him because I know you're going to have

something really great about him and he's awesome. He's absolutely built a fluid mover. There's another level to his speed and his ability to pull away from defenders. You saw in his 40 time, good vertical leap, like, would have been, would have been great if it wasn't for the fact that the Stowers test doesn't tie that in, right? And third best broad jump, physical blocker, his muscles have muscles, you know, like he, I thought he had good technique when blocking as well, ability to high point the ball. I mean, everything about him. It's a, he's a top tight end prospect. I would have had him above Lovelin and Warren last year, which is saying something because I really like Lovelin. But this guy is special. I think it's only to merit as the six three, you know, but he plays bigger than that and be a good pick at 14. I wouldn't be upset about it. Yeah, I'd be super excited about it. And I think there's more reasons than just what a good player he is and how unusual an

athlete he is. But let's start with the fact that he's six, three, two, forty one right now, four, thirty nine, forty, he turned twenty one in March. He's one of the youngest players in the draft. Crazy. Okay. And he's the young, I believe he is the youngest of the draftable tight ends. When you think about it, tight end is a position where it is normal to be older and develop more physically because you're, you're growing into a much bigger body, a bigger frame. And yeah, you know, normally takes longer to do that. He is the best athlete ever at the position. One hundredth percentile jumps, you know, a forty is the, is the almost the best there's ever been. Vernon Davis ran four thirty eight way back when, but Vernon Davis did do the other things as well. He's a one fifty four ten yard, one fifty four ten yard. He benched twenty six times nine, you know, it's a tight end, it's ridiculous. So there hasn't been an athlete as good as him. His receiving metrics are outrageous. Now, I, here's, here's what I got to say about, about, can't use the deep.

Don't major in minors when you're looking at his receiving statistics and I'm not trying to beat on anyone because I heard this comment generally that the, that people want to point at drops and he's got a nine percent drop rate as PFF scores it for, I believe his entire career, which is still a relatively small number of catchable targets with something like eight drops career. So right now, we know sample size is not, is going to be a problem. Second of all, drops are often a, a correctable problem, okay? But third of all, and probably most important, it didn't do a damn thing to affect his effectiveness as a receiver. He had a one thirty nine point nine pass rating, growing to him this last year, one thirty nine point seven for his career. So it's not like he, he's failed in that way. This high mistackle force rate of point twenty five career that was data point one six with a lot higher, I think, focus on him as, as a player they need to defend it organ this last year. He has two years of higher volume play with very similar rate stats.

So it's not like, like, you know, we had a fluke year or something to do it with the one thirty nine last year, one thirty nine point nine. It's played only twenty seven point seven percent in line, which is about the lowest of the draftable tight ends. I think what with towers might have been lower. Well, a couple of the guys were right around the same at the bottom. Yes, towers was twenty four point nine. So it's one of the lowest of them. You mentioned he played bigger than his heights. I think that's certainly track excellent sideline awareness gets his feet down and bounce well, he's, okay, this, this point I really need to make contested catches are more than just X over Y in terms of contested catches over contested targets, okay, and he's something like five for twelve career. Actually, I think he might be eight for fifteen. So he's barely fifty percent for his career and that's okay, but it's not great at field boy. Well, it's just an average contested catch player. There's been zero interceptions thrown on a hundred and one career targets he's had. Now, that's just not on the quarterback. That's on him not tipping a ball and putting into play for the safety behind him.

He's him not, not, you know, being able to play defense at the catch point when that's necessary and that's a really significant factor in his contested catches. We're not even close to getting the biggest reason why you go after Kenyans to deep, by the way. So that is that he is so much blurs the line between eleven and twelve personnel and he's not a polished route runner at this point, but he could be your guy who is taking the space budget on that left side of the field as effectively the extra receiver. He's just a split tight end and you could end up getting wide receiver production out of him, even if you didn't use it all the time. And there might be a reason for you not to use it all the time is that you keep him in that tight end class for purposes of the fifth year option and the franchise tag. The fifth year option for a two time pro bowl tight end was fifteen point zero million for two thousand twenty six. Twenty seven point three million for a wide receiver, fifty five percent of the same value.

It is would be fiscal irresponsibility not to try and have a tight end in extra receiver clothing if you have the option to do it. So that's why at number fourteen Kenyans to deep is my guy over some of the top wide receiving talent in this draft. So I mean Jordan Tyson, I have I promised with a couple of things about my Kyle and so think he's going to be a hell of a player, but I'll take Kenyans to deco over those guys. He's a guy who just brings the organization much more value and by the way the fact that he's got a fifth year option year and then a franchise year that you can basically build into the start of his contract. He's going to be a Raven for six years and even then he's only going to be twenty seven in that last year. He's going to be twenty six in that last season. But then you know, at that point you had two years of opportunity to put that guy in purple for the rest of his career and put him in the ring of honor. Is there a chance of a boss, sure, it's always a chance of a boss, but I think he's got

a lot of so many positives and so much fiscally that's going for him that you hope. The question has been raised by the way very legitimately is would he argue I'm a wide receiver, I'm not a tight end and somehow file a grievance against the Ravens. What that results in is the player and the team getting together and hammering out of contract because hey, we don't want we don't want it to be decided by the grievance arbitrator. We want this to be decided by us and just coming to a agreement on me staying in Baltimore for the next six years. Yeah, I also just don't I don't worry about it too much because I think we'll use him as a tight end like like I understand that he has that ability, but I think he'll be in line like I think that he'll block like you know what I mean like I just I don't think he'll play such a role where it's so obvious he's a wide receiver that's a bunch of an issue. I mean we have there's plenty of other tight ends that have you know been basically just wide receivers and they never became a grievance. They they had the problem with Sugs years ago on this and they double franchised him of course

and they agreed to go to a midpoint I believe between the defensive end and the outside linebacker number and it might have been all linebackers and defensive ends and so defensive end would have been more money and and Sugs would have been called that and the Ravens you know obviously want to call him outside linebacker. I think that's the way it was anyway he he the kid agreement Travis Jones this year you know he had the Rashad Beatman late for camp or whatever it was thing and and that facilitated a contract with Beatman it facilitated a contract to have that occur and I think if if you have this kind of dispute it doesn't just act as a wedge between the player and the team there might be a grievance file but the Ravens are really good about lubricating these these relationships and getting it getting it back in shape after that. So you know city no matter where he goes he'll probably want to be paid like a wide receiver even if he's a tight end but they'll they'll come to some agreement that I think makes

sense for for for both sides. I just I love him as a player too I don't want to I don't want to let that get lost in all this he's been terrific during his years and he's so young there is still room for growth. Yeah it might be the most exciting part of his profile is they so young you know that the Ravens value that I mentioned it when they draft a Wiggins and just in general you guy you tend to go with the younger guy yeah I think you the here's the thing though right Ken like we're all here say it'd be great to get my 14 I just think don't see it happening like I just don't see him falling that far you had Loveland and Warren go 10 and 11 if I recall correctly last year definitely before 14 and we're saying he's a better prospect this this class isn't as top heavy right so I I feel like he's a top 10 pick this year maybe but we'll see if he falls to us I'll be very interesting to see if there's anyone else on the board that could have this away from him I mean there's definitely players I draft over him but I just don't know how realistic they are to make it the 14 as well

you know the one thing of sediques there and then another thing if there's you know two guys we did it we did a show you know it just came out today the magnificent seven which is something I look at every year is trying to pick like seven players who might reasonably be available at that number 14 spot I mean I love the group that's available and and one of the things that's interesting about this is sediques tight end I've never ever advocated for a tight end to be drafted the first round never not not taught heap not anybody but this is a this is a very specific special case and it's specific and special because of the fiscal concerns if it weren't for that I you know 18 20 that be you know the the highest I'd be willing to go on sedique maybe but you know he shoots up the board because of this and you and you might be right that he gets taken anyway before that but there's so many good options for the Ravens because of their broad set of needs which is a double I sort of course but they but they've got you know too good interior offensive lineman they might

draft at 14 that I think everybody be happy with they've got a cornerback I absolutely love who if he falls to 14 I hope they don't pass on and you know there's just there's a lot of choices that might really work out yeah for sure I'm excited about it I'm glad we got the pickback and we'll make the selection I think it'll be a good player I think 14 is a sweet spot in this draft where we're still going to have access to players that works are exciting and I think there might be a little bit of a fall off after so yeah definitely a very very exciting draft and I don't have much more to say about sedique I just think that he's going to be an exciting player every goes and yeah I just hope he doesn't bust and become like a pits situation although pits they don't even even if they bust they're not horrible you know they're just not like these world-changing tight ends and maybe they're built to be OJ Howard or yeah yeah okay oh well that's yeah I mean I can't deny the Bustrick Risk exists I just think you have a

guy come into an offense like what the Ravens run they face a lot of zone defense yeah it's just going to be pretty darn easy for Jackson to get him the ball and Jackson's extended playability a player like sedique is gonna go to eviscerate the offenses with that I agree I think I think it he in particular should not fail here I will I will say as well kind of going to your point about advocate for first round tight end and that being unique it's I think even particularly unique in this draft where you're saying day three is loaded with guys we've traditionally draft them in day three and they've become all pros and pro bowlers and done well and gotten good second contracts etc etc so does take a pretty special talent I want to go first round pick on a tight end but he's one of those guys so very keen to see what happens all right fantastic we can great discussing this with you is there any other maybe guy you want to discuss from your honorable mention list that it's like boy I really like this guy and I didn't even be able to do

already hit on your guys that yeah I think we pretty much exhaust the list like I mentioned Roger Maryland I think he's kind of neat everyone else the I didn't watch enough of the say much of I think actually I've talked about every player on my list at some point a Gillenborg out of Wyoming or Nate Borkerture of yeah I have them on my list but I didn't I don't have much to say about them all right all right well fair enough I mean there's lots of guys that that if they if they come to the Ravens and the sixth or seventh rounders UDFA's and by the way the seventh round has become a UDFA claiming spot Ravens are very good at running the UDFA system and trying to try to get the guys but there's a whole bunch of guys that one team out there will is willing to pony up some money and then the Ravens are bit out the Ravens literally have like 20 guys on the phone as I understand it with agents trying to negotiate the deal specifically and bumping their offers by a thousand dollars at a time with a limited pool of money but there are a lot of

guys who who could end up with the Ravens I think that Ravens will be pretty attractive place for a tight end to play so so that should help them agreed yeah I I I even view six round picks typically as a super priority UDFA pick but definitely seventh round yeah that's definitely when you're into priority UDFA mode and you're you have almost no total draft value there so you're you're you're priority UDFA's you can you can lock up for for relatively little JJ point value or or really any system value truly all right like always enjoy talking football with you tell folks where they can talk football with you online sure you can find my website polianist.com you can message me on a very social media sites I can find me on discord and then mention that last episode very frequently chatting there about football but yeah feel free to reach out always going to talk football with you can all right really appreciate you all the

folks out there please use hashtag film study mailbag if you have questions for Friday morning GM a lot of people this time of year hey everything's really off-season roster milling things so that people want to generally ask their questions there but if you have questions that you want an explanation of something if you want to discuss a draft strategy element I'm happy to do that and I'd love to have you on the show this time of year I'd like to just mix that in with the other graph content which is obviously heavier and longer with some shorter content to attract new listeners to the show Alex thanks again for coming on thanks so much again we'll talk to you next time on film study this time of year the school calendar really starts to fill up spring activities testing season

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