Who has the most at stake in the 2026 NFL Draft?

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Welcome to the Athletic Football Show. I'm Robert Mays, fun show on tap for you guys today.

Each year we like to talk about the teams that have the most at stake in an upcoming NFL draft,

which teams have a ton riding on how this thing is going to go? That could mean because they have

a lot of picks, that could mean because the general managers on the hot seat, there's so many

different considerations that drive the stakes in a given draft in a given year. And so Derek and I

wanted to spend a little bit of time today digging into about 10 or so teams that fit the bill.

Those are the teams that because they have a ton of top 100 picks like the dolphins,

or because it seems like their GM is in an inflection point like the Ravens,

have a ton riding on this draft specifically. So that's what we dug into today,

the teams that have the most at stake in the 2026 NFL draft. If you're listening on Apple podcasts,

you can now watch video there too. Just update to the latest iOS and head to our show page to start

watching.

I've done the show over the last few years and I think it's just a good table setting exercise

as we really dig into draft season here and just think about who really has the most riding on

this draft. And we've typically focused on teams, Derek, but I think we'll be able to dig into

why these teams are in this conversation and who associated with these teams really does have

a lot at play when it comes to the 2026 draft class. Yeah, I'm excited for this one because I think

we have, I don't know, a dozen or so, maybe just shy of that teams. And I think they're probably

like very different reasons for half of them to be on there. Like half of these teams are good

teams, but half of them are very, very bad. And so it's just a very, it's a wide array of teams

that we're going to head here. Well, yeah, I mean, this is, here's an example I'll throw out, right?

The Saints, right? Like the Saints have a top 10 pick in this year's draft. The Saints don't have

like a ton riding on this draft. They're in the middle of like a, in my opinion, kind of well

orchestrated reset. Like it would be great if they found a really nice player with the seventh

overall pick. Obviously, as you're trying to accumulate young pieces as you're starting a new era,

it's really important to hit on some of these drafts. But if the seventh overall pick in this draft

isn't a star for the Saints and they come out of this draft with like one starter, it's not

necessarily going to derail who the New Orleans Saints want to be over the next five years.

Yeah, if that guy's not a star and they still go like eight and nine and Chuck looks fine again,

it's like, they'll probably be okay. It's not really a make or break season. Like nobody's

going to lose their job over a draft like that. And you find this, you find a starter in the

second round. Your third round pick is like a rotational piece on your defensive line. Like

that's acceptable. For other teams, there is a lot more riding on this for a whole variety of

reasons. And so let's start with the first team that was on my list. And it was funny when you and

I were going back and forth, you were like, I forget to mention this team, but in reality, they have

a ton riding on this draft. How about the Las Vegas Raiders? How about we start there? We should

probably start with the team that has the first overall pick. Yes. And when we were going back

and forth, I was like, I kind of just forget to talk about them because the first pick is pre-spent.

But that doesn't mean that the first pick is going to be good. Like I think I really like

for Fernando Mendoza. I think a lot of people like Fernando Mendoza, but there's no guarantee

that he's going to be good. It's not like this is like a Drake May caliber prospect or like Caleb

Williams or Andrew Luck or anything like that. Like he's good enough to go first overall. But this

is no like guarantee like we get with some other guys at this position. Yeah, when you're taking

a quarterback with your first round pick period, but if you're taking a quarterback with a top five

picker for the first overall pick, you obviously have an unbelievable amount riding on the draft,

even if there is some certainty in what your pick is going to look like because I was trying to

figure out the right number of years to attach to the sentence that I'm curious where you would land

with this. How many years of your franchise, if you had to guess, just throw out like an estimate,

are tied to this quarterback that you were taking with the number one overall pick. How many of the

next years of your team will this dictate in a good or bad way? I mean at least a half a decade

because let's say he's not great and you spend two or three years trying to figure out how good he

is. And then you get to the end of that road when it's time to like pay him and you're not sure

you want to do that. And then you've got to restart it quarterback. Well, even if the even if the next

quarterback is good, the first year or two of that, there's going to be residual effects of like maybe

our team never accomplished enough. They're still not good enough. Now you're trying to reinsert a new

21 year old rookie into this like there is at least a half decades worth of stuff going into

this. And that's not always quite true right like the Cardinals obviously. It's usually worse. I

think that's the best case scenario. It probably is like there are some very small layers, some very

rare outlier circumstances like the Cardinals, for example, they cast Josh Rosen there immediately

like that sucks. We're going to Jeff Kyler Murray and they ended up pretty good like pretty quickly.

So sometimes you can get that more often than not, you end up like kind of running the mill again

where you kind of end up on this the quarterback treadmill pretty consistently. So if you look at last,

the last like five to 10 years of quarterback picks and how long it took these teams to rebound,

I think the most realistic answer here is seven years. And in here's why I landed on seven years.

You're going to spend the first three years tinkering with that guy. It doesn't really matter how bad

your one is in year two. You're going to talk yourself into a little bit of an improvement. And

then after your three goes bad, that's when you know that this thing is probably over. That's how

typically goes outside of outlier cases like the Cardinals that you mentioned. Then it depends on

how the rest of your team goes. For the most part, even teams that miss on a quarterback in the top five,

they're allowed to spend other resources in such a way that the rest of the roster gets good

enough. Where even if the quarterback is bad, you're not necessarily utter dog shit everywhere

else. So if you're somewhere like a middle of the road team, then the next two years because you

don't have a pathway to picking another quarterback, you spend the next two years tinkering with veteran

options that are kind of like off ramp quarterbacks. This is where I mean, they didn't take three years,

but this is exactly where the Vikings are right now with Kyler Murray. This is where the jets were

with Aaron Rogers. Like, this is what happens if you miss out on the first round guys. Like,

all right, well, now this deal is did this exactly in this bow with Kenny Pickett. They're still

moving through this. And so now it's like, all right, this guy didn't work out, but we have the

14th pick in the draft because our defense was good. We don't really have an avenue to find

another guy. So who's available at quarterback? You spend at least a couple of years figuring out

that version of it. Then that doesn't work out. And usually you've done enough borrowing and

compromising and trying to get the most out of that version of the roster where then you spend

another two years having to dig out of that hole. So if you look back on it, seven is what I landed

on. I think there are two teams that jump out to me. Kyler and two are very interesting cases,

right? Because Kyler wasn't necessarily a huge swing and miss. But you're almost better off

just completely swinging and missing than having to like go ride through the middle for two

additional years. Like, we're seven years removed from Kyler getting drafted by the Cardinals.

We're six years removed from two of getting drafted by the dolphins. And those are the two teams

that I think if you look at the entire NFL are the most tearing it down and starting over

franchises in the league. So it really is like at least five and often seven years that are attached

to this sort of pick if you're drafting a quarterback this high. And I think those two cases in

particular, I would say, especially the Cardinals are really important cases for what you were

talking about where it's like, if the quarterback is not definitively like a top eight guy where he

can kind of survive almost any roster build, you do have to be pretty good at building the rest

to the roster around him. And like the Cardinals in particular just did not do that. The dolphins are

a different consideration where it's like, they kind of speed ran like just like pumped up the credit

card for a couple of years and they didn't quite win what they wanted to and then it blew up and

they were like, we're going to move on. But the Cardinals were like, they kind of just didn't build

a very good roster for two or three years there and things started to fall apart around Kyler Murray.

You change head coaches after a guy, you know, away from a guy who in theory his offense fit him

better. And then now you've got to do all this recycling. And so the Cardinals really probably are

like the best example of kind of what you're talking about here. Yeah. So seven years since Kyle

was drafted, Zach Wilson was 2021. It's going to be at least 2028 before the jets are competitive again.

The best example to me, again, you said the Steelers, that was one where I had down. It's been four

years since they messed on Kenny Pickett. They're still working through it. The best case scenario here,

like the off ramp kind of presentation that I had where you're going to a veteran guy who's

available. You're trying to make the most out of that version of it, even if the guy you drafted in

the first round wasn't your long term starter, the best possible version of this is Tom Brady with

the bucks. Like that is the case where it actually worked out, but that is such a unicorn like once

in a lifetime set of circumstances that had to fall into place. For the most part, that's not happening.

And the the fun part about that is who is the guy now drafting Fernando Mendoza and having to

make sure that he's avoiding that scenario. It's Tom Brady. It's Tom Brady. That is a really funny

like way to circle it around. Yeah. Like if the only way to get out of this hole is to just sign

the 40 year old Hall of Fame quarterback who still has plenty of juice. I mean, a team should just

do that every year. All right. So that's the team at the top. Obviously you have a ton riding on a

draft when you're picking a number one overall. No matter how much we like or don't like Fernando

Mendoza, who is the next team that you wanted to mention? I mean, I think the easiest one to go to

is just the team that has a million picks, which we've already talked about a little bit is the Miami

Dolphins. Like I in the sense of like are people going to get fired over this draft immediately? I

don't think so. Like this, this regime is probably going to get more than one year almost no matter

what. But when you have this many top 100 picks, like we almost never see a team have this many

top 100 picks. So they have two first drum picks. They have pick 43, pick 75, pick 87, pick 90 and

pick 94. Like it's an unbelievable amount of draft picks. And so we talked about it before. When

you give up who was, I mean, would you say Jalen water was the best player on the roster when they

traded him away? Probably. Yeah. It's what you could get the most for. I think it's undeniable, Jalen

water 100%. And so to trade away your best player, you really only have like one or two, maybe three

other guys who could even in great circumstances get to a proble like a Devon H&N, maybe like a Jordan

Brooks. Other than that, this is a roster that is entirely stripped down. And you really need to go

into this like it's I think this is also a really good, interesting thing with the Dolphins too in

that they're bringing over so many Packers guys and the Packers guys for the longest time have

been like draft and develop, draft and develop, draft and develop. And so to immediately go into

their first draft class with a million draft picks, I do think is really interesting. So they have

seven top 100 picks. And my brain went to the same place. How often does that happen? And so there

was there's no clean way to do this. Like if you go use like pro football reference or standard,

maybe there is one and somebody should let me know if there is. But I was trying to figure out

who's had the most top 100 picks in a single draft over the last like 10 to 15 years. And so I

literally combed through every draft over the last 15 years to look. There has been one other team

that from again, maybe I missed one. This was a very analog way of doing this. But I found one other

team since 2010 that had seven top 100 picks. It was actually very recent. Can you guess who that

team was? Wait, I feel like I was just doing this. Was it the Cardinals in like two or three years

ago? Was it them? Yes. Okay, because I was just we're going to talk about them as well. So I was

combing through some of their draft classes. And they drafted a dozen players and what was it? 23?

24. 24. That's right. They had seven top 100 picks. And so I want to talk about the directions

of this sort of draft can go because it's not a guarantee. Even if you have seven top 100 picks,

that this is going to be kind of the arsenal of guys that restocks your roster. So the Cardinals

top seven top 100 picks in 2024. Marvin Harrison, Jr. Darius Robinson, Max Melton,

Tray Benson, Isaiah Adams, Tip Rhyman, Cornerback, Elijah Jones. Those are the seven top 100 picks

for the Cardinals in 2024. I would say at best, the results have been mixed with those seven top 100

picks. That's not great. Like they're like I would say Milton is a pretty good player. Marvin

Harrison, Jr. is such like a mystery box. Like I think in theory, he's a good player. He's had

some moments, but that's just like I don't even know what to do with that, which given you spent

like a top five pick on him, that is pretty concerning. And then like the next best win,

there's what like Tip Rhyman is a really good tied into for you. And you spent a third round

pick on that like that. That's a tie down to I mean, it's a tie down three. He's very much a role

player, which is fine. He's also been hurt a lot. Right. Yeah, Tray Benson's been banged up. They

literally just signed Tyler out here. So that room wasn't solid enough with just Tray Benson and

James Conner. So that not a great result for the team that had the most top 100 picks in the

last 15 years. There were four other teams. If the Cardinals had seven that year that had six.

To me, the best case scenario here, the draft you are hoping for if you are the Miami Dolphins

is similar to the draft that the Lions had in 2023. That's when they got Jameer Gibbs,

Jack Campbell, Sam Laporta, Brian Branch. There are other two top 100 picks that you're

hand in hooker and broadrick Martin. Okay. That is those first four is like that's about as good as

it gets. That's good. And the other one we're hoping for if you're the Dolphins. We did it on

a mailbag like two weeks ago. What is a good draft for the Dolphins? And I think we said four to five

players of those seven top 100 picks. And that's what the Lions got. Yeah, you want that or again,

like we talked about it on the mailback. What the Browns did last year where you get a couple of

guys that are like very obvious going to be like playmaking players for you, probable type of

players for you. And so yeah, if they could have that Lions draft or I mean, those are obviously

pie in the sky, right? And so maybe if you get only three great players instead of that,

that's still probably a good hit. But those two are like that. And that is about as good as it gets.

So the other one, the other draft, the other three that there were six top 100 picks in the same

draft 2020 Dolphins with those two additional first round picks. That was the two Austin Jackson,

no egg binogamy draft. They also drafted Robert Hunt, Rayquan Davis and Brandon Jones.

The 2016 Browns, Corey Coleman, Emmanuel Agba, Karl Massib, Sean Coleman, Cody Kessler, Joe

Schobert. Awful. And then the 2012 Rams, which this is one where these are some names, boy,

Michael Brockers, Brian Quick, Isaiah Pied, Janores Jenkins, Tremaine Johnson, Chris Givins,

were the Rams six one top 100 picks that year. Jenkins and Tremaine Johnson were a pretty good

cornerback, Joe. They were good. They were just think about what we wanted. We wanted Brian Quick to

be something so badly. We all wanted Brian Quick to be just something he never was. But that's

it. Like though. So those are the six times or the five times that it has happened with six top

100 picks or more since 2010 that I found. And there was only one with seven. And that's where

the dolphins are right now. And you know what? If we're being realistic, that Rams draft is like

probably like the median-ish outcome right where it's like Brockers is a pretty good. Yes, like

you take Brockers high in the draft, end up being a pretty good player for you. And then through

those other mid-round picks, you get like a mix of like fine-ish role players and then like two

good starters in Tremaine Johnson and Jenkins obviously. But how scary is it that we have five

examples of this with at least six guys. And there are two of them where you're like, I could

live with that. That's it. 40%. This is the thing. I think we all love draft picks as Dart throws.

Dart throws can be anything. That's the problem. And you're going to get these draft picks where

or these draft classes where 15% of your guys are good. And that's just obviously,

it's not what the dolphins want, but that's where you can end up.

There are a lot of teams with five that there are probably it does in examples of five,

but six and seven. Those are the outliers. But one of the other ones that you wanted to mention

that I get why you have this team on your list. But it was at least a little bit surprising when

you sent this over. You think the Los Angeles Rams are one of the teams that has the most

that stake in this draft state your case. They're trying to win a Super Bowl this year.

They're like, this is it. I know we've done the thing with Stafford for a couple of years now,

but like, this is it. This is it. This is it. This is the last ride for Stafford.

They have some other MVP again. They have some new other medical contraption to put him in for

the offseason. And we don't have a man. Exactly. Like, yeah, neither of his arms are real at that

point. So he's actually only 38 right now. So it'll be 39 next year when we have this conversation

again. But with all the back stuff, it's like, you got to tack on a couple of years. You know, he's

he's functionally like 42, 43. There is no better example in the NFL right now. We're probably in

professional sports right now than the look at him. He's a miracle. I can't believe he's still alive.

And he's 38. Matthew Stafford is six months younger than me. I'm talking about him. He's dragging

his limbs around just getting banged up everywhere, man. He's he's a true ironman one way or another.

But my my case is like, so obviously they they had multiple first drum picks. They trade one of

them away to go go get Trent McDuffie, which they should their other first drum pick, though, is

higher than they typically pick at 13. Like they don't always get picks that high. And this is going

to be a range where in this class, if they really want to load up on offensive line again. I'm like,

I know McClendon has been fine and Jackson has been fine. But if they want to upgrade at tackle,

they could do that. If they really want to upgrade at linebacker, like there might be a guy

that they like there. If one of those guys falls or if they really love Anthony Hill or whatever it

is, or maybe you trade back and get a C.J. Allen, like they have a chance to get a serious playmaker

at 13 in a way that they always don't. And that when you are trying to fight for a Super Bowl,

and you are, I would guess right now that they have like the third best Super Bowl odds or

something like that. It's number one. They're first that that's totally made sense. And to hold that

crown, getting a guy like at 13 who could be like a true, true star for you, I really do think

that that's the thing that could kind of kick them into overdrive and actually give them a shot

again. They're one of the more fun teams. And I'm sure we'll do this exercise a million times. We'll

do it on on the clock. Maybe next week, Katie, I can't count. So they might be one of the six teams

we're doing next week at 13. We'll do this very soon when we talk about the different options they

have. They're one of those teams I think is really fun just because you could justify anything.

Like if you wanted to leave the top 13 and say, oh, we could live with more McClendon at Red Tackle,

like he was fine when haven't signed out her last year. We could do that for one more year even though

he's in the final year of his deal. That's a rationalization that you wouldn't even have to

talk yourself into that. He'd be like, oh, we can do that. Devante, his contract is up after this

year. This team is still an 11 person else 60% of the time. And I mean, this, they're and them

specifically is so funny because every year, it seems like they want the shiniest object possible

and just ignoring whatever the practical move happens to be. They tried to trade out for Tadaro

and McMillan. They tried to trade out for Brock Bowers. So if like, my guy lemon is sitting there

for them at 13, even if they know the more prudent thing might be taking the tackle that is going

to be an upgrade is going to be a foundational piece for you for the next five years. I wouldn't

be the least bit surprised if they were just like, ah, we're taking the playmaker. We don't

really care. Or Kenyans to Deek where it's like, yeah, you really wanted, but we're so bad.

Justify that after after drafting Ferguson in the second round last year. Listen, I like

Terrence Ferguson. He's a nice player. Kenyans to Deek might feel like they don't make many dudes

who are like that type of player. Yeah, I I'm with you though. I mean, I just think that because the

timeline is so truncated because they're pushing all their chips in, if this can be a guy that helps

take them over the top, they do have a lot more riding on this draft than a team with their level

of success and with how complete of a roster they have, you might think at first glance.

All right, we're going to take our first quick break here and then come back and talk a little

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See offer page for details. All right, let's go from the teams that are trying to win Super Bulls

to one of the other teams that has all the picks in this draft. Both of us on our initial list

had the New York Jets who have four picks in the top 44 of this draft. Why other than that,

anything specific other than the volume of picks that pushed you to include the Jets here?

Right, it's a lot of the same conversation we just had about the dolphins the volume of

picks is important, but with the Jets specifically like they're different than the dolphins because

the dolphins to clean slate for everybody. New head coach, new quarterback, new GM, all that stuff.

That's not the case with the Jets like Darren Moogie is obviously new there. And I think

when we look at this roster and we look at the coaching regime and stuff, if we're being realistic,

it's more likely than not that this Jets team is kind of just mediocre again at best and

potentially airing Glenn gets fired. Obviously they had a ton of overturning of their coaching staff

this year. And so I think with that in mind, there's a chance that the GM stays because GMs in a

lot of cases can outlive the coaches, even if they're the ones who hired them. And so I think

for him with the roster being clearly in reset mode, you shift the way some of your best young players,

you have four top 50 picks. Like we're talking about a top 100 picture of some of these teams.

They have four top 50 picks. This is a spot where he clearly needs to make sure the roster is

set up for potentially the next head coach. He hires and obviously there's a really nice scenario

where maybe all these draft picks hit. Geno Smith is an upgraded quarterback and Aaron Glenn can

get this team above 500 and maybe they keep everyone and that's great. But in not that scenario,

he needs to make sure that the roster is set up for success so that he can sell it, keep his job

and then hire the next head coach. This is an interesting one because I don't disagree that they

have a ton riding on this draft, but they have more picks and next year's draft. Like they have

three first round picks in the 27 draft. And so this is a multi-year consideration for the Jets,

but I'm with you for the exact same reason where the dynamics of this on Mugi's end of it to me or

what caused a lot to be riding on this draft for both him and the Jets. How many times are we in

this situation where if you're a Jets fan, the future of the organization, who you're going to be

everything about like where you're putting your hopes and dreams right now, the head coach is

it's over. Like I don't think any single Jets fan is looking at Aaron Glenn and saying like this is

the guy who's going to dig us out of this. I think what they're looking at is what Mugi has done over

the last two years of the last year or so to kind of assemble this arsenal of picks and be like,

all right, this is the plan moving forward. Like he is clearly right now the most important figure

associated with the organization and how often does that happen with a GM and especially a GM

who's never won anything with a jam who's never won anything not of not very often like the fact

that he's being able to wield all of these picks this way and I do think and it's important. I know

they have a bunch of picks in next year's draft. They have all the first round picks and stuff.

I think there is a chance that like if this draft class is bad from the jump like three of these

top 50 picks like cannot play. He might not be the one making those three draft picks next year.

And so I for that reason, I think it's like super important for him. I think that it's probably

reasonable to assume he's got a decent amount of runway here because of the way that they've done

this like outside of something catastrophic. He's probably going to be able to see this through

over the next couple of years. But you really have put a spotlight on you and what your draft

record looks like when the most important meaningful things that you've done over your entire

tenure is trade away real players and just get draft picks like that makes the draft picks so,

so important. And even if there are more of them next year, at a certain point along the way,

the draft picks are going to have to start to hit. And that includes the top the four top 44 picks

that you were talking about right now. If the jets go five and 12 this year, I think it's more

likely that he keeps his job and Aaron Glenn loses his job. And so I think he has insulated himself

in that way because of the way that they've done this. If you were Woody Johnson and the team was

bad, other than like you just said something catastrophic with this year's picks, it would be so silly

to fire a guy for having a bad season after this. But it's just I can't remember a situation like

this where the the head coach was such a secondary figure in like the narrative around why the team

might dig themselves out of this. And by making yourself the central figure, you inherently put

pressure on yourself as part of that process. Totally, because I feel like I guess the closest

you can get is like some of those browns runs where they had a bowl of picks over those. Very good

example. Like that's probably as close as like that. Versace Brown. Exactly. Exactly. Like

this it's not a guarantee that this thing's worse out for you because it's not even like I think

getting median outcomes of draft classes and draft picks when you leverage yourself so far

this way and have this many picks, it almost feels like that's not good enough, right? Like when you

are so clearly like pushing everything into like we are going to like supercharge this roster with

the draft. If you just get like middle of the row draft classes with those two, even though by volume

that would be a good number of players, when you are selling the idea that like yeah, we're going to

kick ass in the draft and then it kind of falls flat a little bit. That just does not put you in a very

good position. Like you kind of have to knock both of those classes out of the park. Yeah, that's

the best recent example is I think the browns and then the other one that I would say where it was

kind of like this, the Texans felt like this in Kacerios early years, where they were kind of like

they're all these machinations going on and they're trying to like figure it out and they were

cycling between these head coaches and like the front office moves are almost completely divorced

from the results because I think we all kind of understood what was going on there. So those to

me are the two most analogous situations, but it just doesn't happen very often. Let's get to the

next one here. This team is again, a very in a very different circumstance than the jets are,

but I still think has a ton riding on this draft and their general manager specifically, we both

said the Baltimore Ravens. Why the Baltimore Ravens for you as you're going through the teams that

have the most at stake in this draft? Yeah, like, I mean, in similar, not really, I guess because

they're both GM's, I'm saying it's similar, but like obviously Eric DeCosta and the Ravens with

when John Harbor was there, that was a very long running thing. I mean, Harbor was one of the most

tenured head coaches in the league for a while and Eric DeCosta has not been the GM for the entire

of his run, but for a lot of it and especially like the more recent what we know as like the Lamar

Jackson era and stuff like that. And I think after the way that last year had gone and after some

of the frustrations, one of those two guys was clearly going to go. It obviously ended up being

John Harbor. And so now there's a lot of pressure on Eric DeCosta to kind of reinvigorate this roster

in a way that proves like, hey, we can hire a head coach who can do a better job than John, the

roster was fine enough. And I'm going to make one or two improvements that get us to where we want to

be, get us into the AFC championship and stuff like that. So it's again, a lot of putting a lot of

pressure on the GM because of some of the moves that he's made obviously by firing a very long

standing head coach firing a very long standing head coach who I believe he had a very good personal

relationship with. He said openly in the press conference. He said, I think some of the things that

we've done as a front office or the reasons that John no longer has a job like openly saying that

think that's totally fair. And so if you keep your job while the head coach loses his, there's

obviously increased pressure to make sure you're getting this right. And I would say there's even more

layers to it than that. You mentioned that the ramps have a higher pick than they typically do in

these drafts. The Ravens are picking 14th in this draft after missing the playoffs. So you're

picking in the top half of the first round. You add on to the fact that you weren't supposed to have

that pick. You're supposed to be gone in the crossby trade. And so it almost has even more

importance now because you were supposed to trade from Max Crosby. He's no longer on the roster,

even though Trey Hendrixson is. So I think that pick becoming something real and tangible becomes

very important. And the other part of this is everything attached to the crossby trade.

The fact that you did probably have a role in the head coach getting fired in some of the erosion

of the roster. I think the reputation of both Eric the cost and the Ravens organization as a whole

took some hits this spring. I don't think the Ravens right now feel quite as bullet proof as they

have over the last five to 10 years in the way that we talk about them. And I think that only

adds increased scrutiny to them making sure that they really kind of turn things around from a

draft perspective compared to how they've been going over the last few years. I think that's a great

way to put it like I don't think anyone thinks that they're a poorly run organization now, but it's

like they had they had built up such a benefit of the doubt that when a couple of things went wrong

here and there it was like, oh, they'll be fine. They're the Ravens or if they're operating this

way, it's fine. They're the Ravens. All the process makes sense that with the way that last year

fell out, obviously you changed the head coach is some of that changes. I also think to spin it

to this draft class specifically, I think there's a lot of pressure in terms of like the specific

players they can pick. Like one thing that I would say is we've talked about this a little bit.

When the Ravens were drafting really well from let's just say like, oh, nine to like 2018, 19,

20, whatever it is, a lot of the edge players they were picking were a certain archetype. It was

the 260 plus like those thick, long like type of rushers. And so more recently they started to go

away from that. The David Ajabos, Adafi, oh, it was obviously a guy who's really more speed oriented.

Mike Green last year was a little bit smaller and speed oriented like they went for a different

archetype than they had built this thing from. This is a draft class where it's deep at edge

period, but specifically for the guys that used to fit their archetype and do fit the archetype

of a Jesse Menter defense where you want these long edge setters, Celtic Falk could potentially be

there at 14. TJ Parker is a first shot pick. Zion Young might be a first shot pick. Like these are

all guys that fit the mold for what they used to do really well. And if they want to go back to it,

they could do it. And then I would say the other thing is the Ravens actually almost on the opposite

end for the entirety of time that I've been aware of the Baltimore Ravens. They have struggled to draft

size at wide receiver. They've been able to find other guys in other ways like Hollywood Browns,

a Flowers, like some of these other smaller guys, but they've almost never drafted big receivers.

Well, Jordan Tyson is in this class. Denzel Boston, Chris Bell out of Louisville, Malachi Fields

from Notre Dame. Like these are all like six to two oh five plus like you can find real size on the

outside. So there's a lot of pressure for them to find these two things that I think would be

really important for their team building moving forward. You mentioning the edges in the first

round. I think that's another interesting layer to this is that the Ravens rosters in a position

where I don't think you can really take edges ever a luxury pick. That's not what I mean, but

that if they took an edge rusher in the first round, right now, after signing Trey Hendrixson

and devoting that amount of resources to a guy in free agency, that room, you're drafting a guy

for depth, right? Like that's your building and contingencies to a position group that's on the

roster right now. I'm not sure the Ravens right now, based on the current state of the roster,

are in a spot to be building in contingencies to anything. Like they still need a center. They

arguably need another interior offensive lineman. Like you said, they probably need a receiver still.

The corner situation is not what it's been in years past. And that's another part of this is that

a lot of the time the Ravens were in a spot where it seemed like they were often operating from

a position of strength coming into these drafts where they were never scrambling to find answers.

It was all about, well, if this good player falls to us, that's fine because we're not sitting here

needing to fill a lot of needs come draft day. And right now, I just don't think you can really

say that about the Ravens roster. That's not the overall quality that we're talking about. And I

think that's kind of what we're used to with this team. That is a good point. Like that's why they

can get away with drafting centers and safeties and all these other guys who typically maybe wouldn't

go in that range. But I think I would maybe push back a little bit on the idea that edge would be

depth. Like I think whoever they draft would very clearly be their edge too. Wouldn't they?

Yeah, maybe, but isn't that isn't that crazy? Like after starting to try hundreds into a $30

million a year deal? And I don't necessarily believe they were going to get cross via entry

entries. Well, that was an obvious lie. But that's what they were doing nonsense.

But like after drafting Mike Green in the second round last year and paying tray

Hendrix in $28 million a year, you still need to draft an ed rusher in the first round based on

the state of that room. It's not a good place to be. I don't think you're necessarily wrong,

but it's like holy shit. Really? It's not a good place to be. But but quarterback edge and tackle

might be the three positions where I'm like until I know it's solved. I'm okay. Throwing picks at it.

So yeah, but I think that part of it where it just seems like it gets scrambling a little bit more

than usual. And we're going to we're going to have a conversation next week that I'm really looking

forward to and I didn't have time to do this whole exercise for the Ravens before doing this show.

But we're going to do a show next week about where reputation and reality align when it comes to

how we talk and think about these these teams and what they get from the draft. And

the Ravens are one of the teams I wanted to do this exercise for. Like when you're thinking about

why you want to do something and why you want to study something, often a few teams come to mind

and you're like, I want the answer for X team. And I think the Ravens are one of them. Like when we

actually dig into it, are the Ravens the drafting team that we make them out to be? I don't know the

answer to that right now. That's why we're doing it. But they in particular are one of the teams

I'm most curious to really dive into because I'm wondering if the results might be a tiny bit

surprising to us. They really are the figurehead because I think more than any other team we just say

like, Oh, whatever the Ravens are doing in the draft, it's good process. And like how much of

that process has actually yielded good results? I don't know. Here's where I think the differences.

And if I'm trying just off the cuff to try to pin down where over that stretch that you said from

2009 to let's say 2018, they did a lot of kind of bursting their reputation. It was finding guys

late in the draft. That that's why we would always talk about the Ravens a certain way. Like in my

opinion, the best possible example of this is the 2013 draft where they draft Matt Elim and Arthur

Brown in the first two rounds. Those guys are swings and misses. But then you get Brendan Williams

in the third round Kyle, you check in the fourth round, Ricky Wagner in the fifth round and Ryan

Jensen in the sixth round. That's how it used to be. Like even if they had swings and misses at

the top, they were consistently finding contributors later in drafts, the Patrick Queen and JK Dobbins draft.

They get non-day out in Mount Avique in the third round and then they get Geno Stone in the seventh

round. And that just seems to be happening less and less. Like if you look back at the last four or

five drafts, Isaiah likely was a fourth round pick. But other than that, like there just aren't a lot of

guys contributing for them from the fourth round and beyond. And that's not how we should judge

whether a team has good or bad drafts. I think a lot of teams have fallen into that category.

But the Ravens specifically had become one of those teams where this draft is a perfect example

of this. The Ravens in this draft have eight picks in the first five rounds. They have like four

fifth round picks. And it used to be a situation where if they had four fifth round picks, we would

just assume one of those guys, even if it took two or three years, would become a really important

piece to the Ravens pipeline that we had just kind of come to assume that it existed. And now I just

don't think that pipeline feels quite as strong as it did a decade ago. 100% like it gave their

roster a floor that it feels like currently the Ravens roster does not have that kind of floor.

Looking back at some of these drafts, the Ravens in 2022 had one, two, three, four, five, six,

fourth round picks. That's obscene. That should be a little. That's also that's also part of this,

right? Is that one of the reasons that they were able to say this for so long. This is a volume

game, man. It helps to find players in the fifth round when you have four fifth round picks in a

given draft. And they do again. And maybe this is just a case of volatility in the draft, the

likes of which we see all the time, or over time, this stuff is going to even out. But if you're

Eric DeCosta, I think you're feeling a little bit more pressure right now to have this thing start

evening out again after the way that this offseason went. All right, let's stay in the AFC North.

You wanted to talk about why the Cincinnati Bengals have a lot riding on this draft. Why the

Bengals for you? This is more spun towards head coach Zach Taylor. I think there was a chance that

he was maybe at least it like really on the hot seat last year because they have now gone three

straight years where they have not made the playoffs. And I know that they've always been like.

You mean that Taylor, the only AFC North coach to retain his employment after last year?

Zach Taylor. Zach Taylor, the longest tenured head coach in the AFC North, which is just

completely insane given how long Tom and Harvall were there. But I think there was a chance that he

maybe was going to get fired after last year. Obviously, they've been competitive the entire time.

They've had decent stretches with backup quarterbacks, all this stuff. And I know that Joe

Burrow has missed a lot of time over this period. But we're now at a point where regardless

of how competitive you've been or regardless of the circumstances, three straight missed playoffs

is a lot. They've already changed the defensive coordinator and given him a year to try to get

things in place. The QB is obviously not going anywhere. That's an organization where the general

manager is like kind of fake and a different consideration compared to a lot of other teams. And so

to me, like if anybody has pressure in the building, it is going to be Zach Taylor. And I think

that yeah, I think it's just a matter of like who you can point to if things go wrong. Yes, exactly.

Like if you asked most NFL fans who the general manager is for the Cincinnati Bengals,

first of all, they'd get it wrong because Mike Brown is the general manager technically.

But the guy who oversees the personnel department is Duke Tobin. I don't, I mean,

the sicko solution to this show probably know that Duke Tobin pulls the strings for the Bengals.

The general NFL fan watching red zone on Sunday probably has absolutely no idea who Duke Tobin

is, even if he knows who how he rose minutes. Yeah. And they shouldn't. Like let's be real.

You don't need to know who the fake GM of the of the Cincinnati Bengals is. And that's fine. And

like, and yeah, it really is just a matter of like who is going to get the blame for this. And

this isn't even to say that like I think Zach Taylor is a bad head coach or anything. It's just

that like if this draft class, let's say they spend two of those top three picks on defenders.

They'll probably spend all three, but let's just say two out of three. Let's say neither of them

are good again. And the defense struggles again. And it's like, maybe they missed a playoff.

There are really like losing games 40 to 38 type of team again. And they go 8 9 9 8.

Even if we think Zach Taylor is not necessarily the problem at a certain point that's going to

fall on him. And so that's why I think this draft class really, really matters.

I'm trying to figure out if Mike Brown is actually the general manager for the Bengals and

people are going to yell at me. It's hard to find a real answer. But it's entirely possible.

They simply do not have someone with that title. I thought for a long time that he actually was

the the real general manager by title. But I know the duet open is the de facto general manager of

the bank. How much faith do you have in the combination of boy, mafe, Brian Cook, Jonathan

Allen, the steps forward from the last year's draft class. And this year's draft class, which I

assume will be heavily focused on defense again, being enough in year two of L golden to get the

Bengals defense to a place where trying to figure out how I want to frame this. They don't actively

make you want to throw things at the TV. Um, I have a good amount of faith in the vets. Like I do

think boy, a mafe is going to be, um, is going to be a really nice piece for them. He'll give them

a little bit and run defense. Obviously, he's, he's like a pretty nice race car type of pass

raster for them. Jonathan Allen, I think does give them more in the middle. Like this was,

even though I think their run defense up the middle was a little bit better last year. And the

defensive tackles were weirdly like the best part of the defense. I do still think adding a little

bit more there is nice. Brian Cook is a huge upgrade at safety. They had some of the worst

safety playing the league last year. The rook, the rookies and the young players is where I have

my questions. I think there's a chance that some of the other young players in the secondary like,

DJ Turner and guys like that could look a little bit better if the front is a little bit better

and they're just not, you know, getting destroyed. Um, that way, the linebackers, I, I'm going to be

honest. I have very, very little faith that those guys are going to turn out like and maybe they do,

but I just, I would still be wanting to add to that room if I could somehow. I'm still surprised

they didn't do anything in free agency and they're just rolling with those guys. Maybe they do

something a little bit later. I mean, there are guys still out there, but the fact that linebackers

not one of the positions they addressed, I get if you spend two mid-round picks on linebackers

being like, we want these guys to develop into these roles, but I just expected after the way

that they played last year and how poor it was. You said the safety place was as bad as any

position in the league. The linebacker play was, they had the worst linebacker play in the league

last year. I think if you watched front to back what their season looked like and maybe those

guys get better, but banking on that is, I think that there's a lot of risk involved there.

Actually, I want to talk about here a team of two first-round picks thing that will come up a lot

in when we talk in all the teams we discuss here, but to me, Dallas Cowboys have a ton

riding on this year's draft. I mean, beyond the fact that they have two first-round picks,

now they have that third-round pick back in the Ocedogazooa trade, and so overall,

they have a decent arsenal of picks, but I think the reason that this first-round pick

and the additional one is so important, not only from a on-the-field football perspective,

but from an overall optics perspective is this is it with the Micotrade now. If you look at it,

they already traded next year's first-round pick away, and the trading a fourth-round pick

and the two for Quinn and Williams, they just don't have a lot of additional draft capital waiting

for them anymore. It kind of all came out in the wash. In the money, I think there are two

arguments for trading, Micro Parsons. One was the opportunity cost with the amount of money you'd

have to pay him, right? And so, Micro Parsons, this is a very crude way of doing well, but

bear with me here, it has an APY of $46 million. So, if you just treated it as, okay, now we have

$46 million to play with against the cap, even though I know that's not how it works. They've already

pretty much spent all of that money, and it was really just on Kenny Clark and Rashad and Gary.

That's most of what the money is. Here's caps off in a way.

Back that, but that's the funniest part about this is. So, that's how why you have to take the

picks and the APY into consideration, because you can make a joke about, well, now the Packers and the

Cowboys just changed places with the players, but you got the picks back. And so now, the picks have

to turn into something for that move that you made and that kind of calculus that you followed

to be justified in trading Micro Parsons. And so, I think that making sure you're getting the

most out of these two first round picks, just as a bit of messaging coming out of the Micro Trade,

because a couple of years from now, when we're looking back at this, if Micro Parsons is still in

all pro, we're going to have Micro Parsons on one side of the graphic and we're going to have all

the other shit on the other side of the graphic. And this is where you have to make sure that

that doesn't become a one-sided thing. You know what I do think is funny about this though, and I

totally agree. The biggest thing at stake here is the optics of the Micro Trade and stuff like that.

But who is really under heat for this? Jerry's not going anywhere. He's probably not going to

fire Shotinheimer for this. That's not going anywhere. The fact that we were having this conversation

already makes it a win for Jerry. It truly does. It truly does. It's just funny that almost all of

these are some things at stake for someone. I guess the Rams are in a different consideration where

nobody's getting fired there either, but it really is just kind of an optics thing. What I will say

is I do think that this is a really interesting position for them to be in where I think when you

are in like a we have to get these draft picks right sort of situation them being in a spot where

they don't even have to think about offensive line. I think that is like it kind of makes these

two picks like really fun to wield like they can really go in a lot of other directions and

not feel like they have to like invest even further into like the meat and potatoes of the roster.

Like they can kind of go any way they want and these two picks are probably going to be defense

no matter what it is, but I think them not having to feel like maybe we need a guard here or

something like that. I actually do think that unlocks their draft plan a little bit.

And the football part of this and the last thing I'll say about Jerry it is funny that like if you

have no shame optics never there's never stakes and optics if you're a shameless person and so

like that's kind of where we are with Jerry and the Cowboys. But on a purely football out like level

here, there is a ton at stake on a football basis. Like with the current state of their defense and

we talked about the Bengals not adding anybody at linebacker. The Cowboys not doing anything at

linebacker. And if you look at the overall defensive roster like they need a couple more

difference making defensive pieces like I think that you could argue that they need one it's

safety. They need one at linebacker. And so this is potentially the draft to do it. I floated

this to Trevor Smith. Trevor seconder earlier this week. I'm curious what you think about this.

Do we think the Cowboys are like maybe a sneaky trade up team in the top 10 for one of these

like true difference making defensive players now that they have that third bound pick back.

I mean, maybe that kind of sounds like something they would do because like I

I'm trying to figure out who it would be like maybe if sunny styles falls

that's kind of a lot of picks. You do it. Maybe they're a team that really loves like a

Rubin Bane like something like that if he falls a couple of picks like I actually think that

that is a good if one of if one of the four elite defensive players in this draft I'm just throwing

out numbers here falls to like seven. Do you start making call I guess seven would be Washington

so maybe not but like six whatever it is it's going to be like I could totally see that or maybe

maybe even it's a little further than that they want to trade up to like eight to get Caleb

Downs especially when you're trying to hop ahead of teams like Cincinnati and the chief specifically

who both could use a safety if they really wanted to like I think that that is entirely possible.

They brought back Malikooker and a five million dollar deal. I don't think that necessarily

precludes them from doing something it's not a player and PJ lock is like purely depth and so

the Malikooker deal only being a one year deal even after adding Jalen Thompson I think you could

probably justify that and like I mean like you said like edges still something they could probably

do even after trading for Roshan Gary but why I'm back it to me is just like the big blinking light

and I just the idea of them dropping like I just I was asked player into that thing and just like

I don't know there's just something about it that speaks to me. He sunny styles in a cowboy's uniform

that does go hard that that goes pretty hard and just there's so many different elements to it like

wanting to make a splash and like the mic a draft the the need that you have the fact that he is

kind of a rare prospect at the position you have the picks to do like again I have no idea if

this is their thought process heading into it but there's just something about it that I think

makes sense to more that you kind of sit with it and like the last thing I'll say on defense

they do like a lot of those like insane athletes and sunny styles obviously just tested out of the

park and just about everything and so that's you're selling me on this I like this one that this

we'll see if we get there but I like it. I'm glad I'm I'm gonna try to like incept everyone

about this for the next month or so before we get to the draft we're gonna take one more quick

break and then come back and shout about three more teams. Hi this is Pablo Tore from Pablo Tore

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this is another one that I hadn't thought about but as soon as you put it in there I was like yep

I'm I'm there with this you think the Minnesota Vikings have a lot at stake in this draft why

Minnesota I sure do and I think it's a similar ish argument to what I was saying about the

bangles where the GM is now gone uh Kevin O'Connell now has a veteran quarterback again and I know

the JJ McCarthy thing obviously did not work out but any time O'Connell has had a veteran it has

kind of worked out and so obviously he's got what he wants there and I think in terms of if we're

trying to think of like who are we pointing the finger at if things go wrong I know Kyler maries a

high profile player you're paying them a million bucks if things go wrong I think the blame is

probably going to fall more on Kevin O'Connell and then I think if we think about even the rest of

the coaching staff like Brian Flores has earned a lot of like benefited the doubt from a lot of

people like I think people think that he is clearly overqualified for his position I think that he

is like he's one of the best defensive play callers in the league and so I think even if the defense

takes a little bit of a step back because obviously there had a bunch of moving pieces there I think a

lot of people believe that he is a great coach and so if the if the roster falls off the curve

the team falls off again they don't get to where they want I do think that there's a lot of pressure

on Kevin O'Connell and then I would also say the other thing with the Vikings they just cut a

number of veterans they're kind of in cap hell and they don't have that many young's like

upcoming second contract players that I think that you would want to pay maybe Jordan

absent anybody in the draft for four years exactly exactly like you've got the last really really

good one is like Jordan Addison but there were trades this there were talks this offseason that

maybe they would trade him and again maybe that's a money consideration but it's a money

consideration and also a off of the field choices consideration exactly which like and that

matters for stuff like this if we're trying to talk about like who do we want to pay that amount

of money to on second contracts you've got maybe Dallas Turner who I think took a step last year

but I still think it's probably realistically like at best in edge two like this is not like a super

star that we've hit and then Donovan Jackson I'll leave like TBD obviously only a one year player

so you just don't have that many like second year that guy's a consistent pro bowl or we're about

to pay for you on your roster right now yeah I think this is really good I think the veteran quarterback

part of it matters here because Kevin O'Connell has done a very good job with Kirk cousins with

Sam Darnold I've said this before and I think the volume on this will get turned up a little bit more

if this team is middling again offensively go look up where the Vikings finished in like offensive

DVOA or EPA per play in the year where they had Sam Darnold in the last year where they had Kirk

cousins it's not as high as you think it's not as high as you think it they're finishing like

outside of the top 12 in a lot of these metrics and it's fine right and you can make an argument that

well they're doing it with Sam Darnold and Kirk cousins but Sam Darnold just won the Super Bowl

like a Sam Darnold isn't something like tarnished asset anymore where you're the only one who can

get this out of him and so them going back to Caramory this idea and Kevin O'Connell saying

quarter organizations fail young quarterbacks more than young quarterbacks fail organizations

there's obviously going to be examples where the quarterback is not salvageable and there's

nothing you can do and may image maybe Jason McCarthy is that guy but we've seen

Caramory at least be a capable quarterback in the NFL and so if you can't lift up Caramory then

this reputation that you've really started to get as a guy who lifts up all these quarterbacks

I think starts to take a little bit of a hit and so I do think that there is a ton riding on

a ton riding on this year for him and I think making sure you're coming out of this draft

with enough pieces to really kind of help that process and accelerate what you can be this season

I think is a really important consideration right because if he just makes Caramory look good

but the draft picks don't hit it's like okay we've saved ourselves for a year but the roster's

not set up for us to like actually sustain this thing if you get both and it's like okay I've

secured my position as head coach and clearly proven I can do this with vets oh and also we have

two like young rookie pro bowlers like that that could really do a lot for changing how they can

sustain this moving forward I think and even I mean I think that for some people it might sound silly

to put the quality of a draft on a head coach and I still think it probably is but I think then

firing the GM like seem to Kevin O'Connell has consolidated a lot of power in that building in

how this all went and so if it when that happens I think there does become a little bit more scrutiny

and what the wins and losses look like here moving forward and I think that's exactly what's going to

happen two more here that we wanted to hit I think both of us had this one the Kansas City

chiefs absolutely are one of the teams with the most at stake in the 2026 draft they have three

picks in the top 40 they have four picks in the top 75 when what do you know in the last top 10

pick the there the chiefs when the last time the chiefs made a top 10 pick that was their pick

do you know what that was it's the Eric Fisher draft 13 mm-hmm so it's been 13 years

since the chiefs picked in the top 10 with a pick they originally owned obviously they traded

up the draft Patrick Maholbs they've only drafted in the top 20 with their own pick one other time

in that range and it was 2015 when they drafted Marcus Peters that's the only other top 20 pick

they've had since because they make the playoffs every year even when it was Alex Smith before

Patrick Maholbs they were making the playoffs every damn year so now they have the ninth overall pick

right is a nine it's nine yes nine overall pick then they again they have four picks in the top 75

that's the thing is it's not just the fact that you're picking ninth it's that you're picking at the

top of the second round like you are just you're in a position in this draft that you were just

very rarely in and we've talked about this a lot when it comes to positionally how should you

maybe be thinking about this because you are in a rare spot like you are in a position as the

chiefs to find a past pressure that you might not be able to find maybe a receiver that you

might not be able to find an offensive tackle that you might not be able to find and so the top 10

pick becomes hugely important and now you have that after first round pick and you know with some

teams you have you can like try to build an argument an example of how having an extra first

round pick might accelerate or might help you as you hit like a mini reset with the chiefs

there's nothing amorphous about it like we we have a very real tangible example of them doing

this like the hope is that you just do the same thing this year that you did in 2022

that you draft the Trent McDuffy and so that in those two first round picks to hopefully go through

the exact same process we don't really have to use much imagination to picture how this can work

out well for Kansas City totally and like I know that we've said I think maybe on our last

show and we were talking about Simmons in the offensive line I know that we said you know you don't

always want to be living in this range where you're having to draft a tackle who had like some knee

issues coming out or you're having to draft a corner like Trent McDuffy who's a little bit smaller

and hoping that he can work out the way that he obviously did you don't always want to be doing

that but that track record back there is like fine obviously they've got some misses were like

FAU did not turn out very well for them and they've got some misses in that range but obviously

like Clyde Edwards hilarious didn't work out but like they've got a couple of hits there and so

if they can maybe get lucky and one of those guys turns out the way that they've hit a couple of times

and then that top 10 let's say that ninth pick is like Caleb Downs or something like that or

or it's one of the tackles that they really like like a fan or whoever it's going to be

that goes a really really long way for like instantly giving this roster juice in a way that

they have not had for a very very long time yeah I mean it's a hugely important season because

you guys are picking in the top 10 because you have that extra first round pick like this becomes

the most important chiefs draft I mean probably of the Andy Reed error right I mean I think that

obviously the maholms draft we didn't know going in that it was right looking back it's obviously

the most important but in the lead up to the draft in the way that we're talking about the draft

this becomes the most important chiefs draft in a very long time they've had two for picks before

but one of them wasn't 10 that you could maybe argue that like when they traded away Tyree Kills

like in obviously going into that new era maybe that's one but like they were still at the height

of their like they were still winning and going to Super Bowl like that's a much different

consideration than where we're at now with them again that those picks were 21 and 30 you know it's

like they weren't picking in the top 10 they had four picks in the first two rounds but they have

four picks in the top 75 this year and so I think that it's a similar consideration and because

they're coming off of a down year and because that that first pick of theirs is so high and such

a rare opportunity I do think you can make a solid argument that there's more writing on this draft

than there was on the 2022 draft the last one I wanted to throw out we don't spend a ton of time

on this but I do think you can make a real argument than there is then that they're in this conversation

is the bears there is a serious because anytime this is the case because anytime we do all of this

teams ahead of schedule the way the way those teams end up not on schedule is they mess up the draft

immediately after that that's how you get off schedule that's exactly right I think so many times

we have these teams that jump out and are better than we thought quicker than we thought and then

they get out over their skis a little bit and do things they might not have otherwise the bears

didn't do that you know they did not do that this offseason they actually scaled back a little bit

but I think in order to make sure you don't suffer the same fate as some of those teams you have to

continue to draft well and that part of it even aside they have three top 60 picks in this draft

three top 60 picks and they have needs with those picks like they need a safety right now they

need another front piece right now and then the Dolman part of this now needing to solve center

moving forward in a way that you didn't a month ago like I just feel like there is after the DJ

more trade if let's if DJ more had been they got a fifth for DJ more or a fourth for DJ more

I think there's maybe a little bit less pressure to get this thing right but now the fact that you

have those three top 60 picks and you probably need to find a long term answer at center there's

just a lot more writing for on them in this draft than we ever could have predicted in like November

like imagine them being on this list in November you'd be like oh **** like they're playing with

house money there's not a lot writing on this draft and now because of how kind of everything is

unfold that it really does feel like there's a lot at stake for them next month totally and it

it feels funny too because like I think usually when we do this with teams like oh they need to

hit on the draft it's like oh they just don't have a lot of good young players the quarterbacks

to good young player they've got two quality young receivers like Holston leveling is young they

just hit on a backup running back last year was who was good they have but those are all like

just your offensive skill players like they need they need more I think like again you talk

about they need a new center they could probably use they still need to find a left tackle I know

trapello played well but they're not confident that he's who knows how he's going to be after the

injury and who knows if he's even like a true long term starting tackle there and then like on

defense they've got a couple of youngish players but it's not nearly the same core that they have

like on offense and like they need to hit a couple of picks on that side of the ball and I think the

other part of this is that if you're a team that maybe was better than people expected and you

do try to microwave things a little bit often that involves trading away draft picks and involves

being really aggressive in free agency and so then the draft picks become a little bit minimized

one because you have fewer of them and two because you might have fewer holes coming into the season

at first glance but because they didn't do that and now the improvements have to come via the draft

the draft becomes even more important than it would be otherwise I do think to this is this is

going to be a great experiment of sorts after we are just coming off the heels of like what Houston

did and then what Washington did with like oh we got the young quarterback immediately like let's

microwave it and like obviously Houston's still a pretty good roster in a lot of ways but like

Washington fell apart last year and I still look at their roster I'm like I don't know if they're

going to be good again because of the way that they microwaved some things whereas like you mentioned

the bears even with some disaster hitting them like with Dolman retiring they didn't really like

freak out and go do a bunch of moves they were just like these are kind of the smart team building

things that we're going to go about it we're going to go about it slow we trust our core we trust

our coach and hopefully you hit a few of those picks to keep it going yeah and if you want to overcome

some of the regret like the regression concerns and you want to

stave off some of the issues that have pulled teams back down into the muck after a season like

this drafting well is how you would do that all right that is all we've got for today we will be

back tomorrow chatting a little bit more about the specific prospects in this draft a lot of

outliers in this draft for a bunch of different reasons size age production so we're going to talk

about a lot of those players tomorrow and what we make of those outlier characteristics which ones

are truly worrisome which ones can we look past probably talk about I don't know what they're

a dozen players tomorrow that fit that mold in somewhere or another yeah I think so and it's a lot

of edge players I'll give that as a sneak peak all right that's all we got so you guys tomorrow

appreciate you listening thanks for tuning in make sure to hit that subscribe or follow button so

you never miss an episode if you enjoyed what you heard please like comment and leave a rating we'll

see you next time

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