We Nailed Some Picks… And Completely Blew Others | NFL Draft Reaction Show

This episode brought the full draft experience to life as we broke down the first round of the NFL Draft by stacking our mock picks against reality, celebrating the hits, owning the misses, and calling out the picks we loved versus the ones that had us completely confused, then zooming out to recap how teams across the NFL performed over the entire draft, spotlighting who built contenders, who took risks, and who may have missed the mark, with a closer look at how the New York Giants and New York Jets division rivals handled their classes, and wrapping it all up with some unforgettable moments like the Arizona Cardinals having the wrong phone number for Jeremiah Love, a perfect reminder that even on draft night, chaos is always part of the show. 

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:02

Welcome back to another edition of Ari Squared. We are your hosts, Ari Lev and Ari Berkowitz coming to you live on Sunday, April 26th. And we are here to react to the NFL draft. It was definitely an exciting one. Um, some very, very surprising picks, you know, just to throw it in out there. Ty Simpson to the Rams at pick 13. Definitely did not have that um on my bingo card. Um, they probably could have gotten him in the second round, but hey, I I guess Lesnead knows what he's doing. Um, but definitely an exciting one. Um, it was very cool for me to kind of follow along. Um, I had actually fallen asleep, and then all of a sudden, you know, I don't know why, but at like 445, I wake up and I look at my watch, and like I don't even have my glasses on. I'm like, oh, it's 445. That means our pics are in. So I literally grab my phone and I'm like with one eye still closed, I'm like looking at my phone and I see who we drafted, and I was like, hell freaking yeah, let's go, baby. Um, so that was a fun thing to do in the middle of the night. So, all right, we're gonna break down everything, get into some of our favorites, then we're gonna do something cool. We're actually not gonna talk about the Giants draft or the Jets draft. We're actually gonna focus on each of our divisions. So that would be both the NFC East and the AFC East. Um, and we're gonna divvy up the teams and do something kind of fun. How we felt that the draft went for our division rivals, and I think this will give a much kind of more fun um outlook because I have no doubt, Ari, that if you and I were to talk about the Giants and the Gents drafts, we would spend the entire episode talking about nothing but that. But I will say this before I kick it over to you, Ari. Um, really, in a sentence, as a Giants fan, after all three days, I am a very, very happy Giants fan.

SPEAKER_01 2:15

I'll just say okay, okay. Um, I wish I could say the same about uh about the Jets draft. Um, yeah, but like I said, I'm not I'm not gonna get into it because it's there there's just too many ins and outs. And um honestly, well, at some point, maybe the next week, maybe the week after that, we'll we'll dedicate a lot more time to breaking down not only uh the our team's drafts, but also to how the roster now looks all to get put all together now that we have all the pieces, it it makes a lot more sense to give a more whole look at at the teams.

SPEAKER_00 2:57

Oh, absolutely. Um, what's interesting is you know, I'm looking now at our graphic from our mock draft, and I'm looking at how many picks we got ripe, or how many of the picks actually even went uh in the first round. And while we definitely nailed some of the picks, uh, you know, just for example, um Mansur Delane going to the Chiefs, he didn't actually go at their spot at number nine, he actually went at number six when they traded up. So that was one that uh we got right, just not in the in the right spot. Uh, there were some other people who ultimately did get picked, um, but not per se in the spot that we thought that they were going to get picked. Um, but most of the players that we did have on here got picked. I would say one that just completely like we totally misread was Jerm McCoy. That's not our that's not on us, though. No, no, it is definitely not on us, and you've gotta question how fragile his knee must actually be to have dropped all the way down to the fifth round.

SPEAKER_01 4:09

He was drafted with the first pick in the fourth round. I I assume that based off of what you're saying, you didn't see the report, but I think it was Ian Rappaport. Um, he has a degenerative knee issue, and most teams don't think that he can play in the NFL until his second contract, and that's why uh most teams had an undraftable injury grade on him. And again, this did not come out until uh during you know the draft itself on day three. So there really wasn't you know any way for us to to know what what I will say about the draft, which I find uh really fascinating, is that I think that when you compare it to what actually happened, beside for a key a few key pivot uh you know pivotal uh uh picks, we kind of got like the general sense of what teams were going to do. For example, um we had Spencer Fano going to the Ravens at 14. Obviously, Spencer Fano wasn't there, so they went with Iowane, who wasn't okay. Um, similarly, we have um, you know, the Cowboys going with the defensive back. Obviously, we have the whole issue with Jermaine McCoy, and honestly, if McCoy was going to be there, it would make sense for the Cowboys maybe to stick there. And again, the same thing with the Chiefs trading up. You can make the claim that if there's two, Delayne and McCoy, you don't necessarily need to move up to six, and that kind of mess that had a snowballing effect on the entirety of uh the first round. We we still had the Giants drafting Ohio State, we had the Commanders drafting Ohio State. So, all things considered, even though we may not have hit on as many of the picks as we want, I think that we had the intention was there for the vast majority of them. Again, um, it was very hard to tell someone like Mikai Lemon, and who all the reports had come out about character issues and maybe some football smarts, uh, not exactly understanding where he would go talent-wise, he is a top 15 player. Um, so again, like he slid, and so the Eagles traded up for him. Like that that all makes uh sense, but it's it's very hard to tell. And the opposite direction with Jordan Tyson. Jordan Tyson has injury concerns and he is a phenomenal player. No one's questioning that he is a top five. You know, when when the draft uh when would when they just started coming out with uh you know legitimate rankings toward the end of the college season and the last quarter of the NFL season, I originally looked into Jordan Tyson and I thought that he was a fantastic pick for the Jets at number two in the draft, and that that's just a testament to his talent. He could have gone that high if not for injury. So, you know, again, very hard to peg where someone like Jordan Tyson would end up. But I gotta say, Ari, that your call with uh CJ Allen to the 49ers, didn't that end up happening? Um, no, it didn't.

SPEAKER_00 7:16

CJ Allen oh he went to the Bengals in the second round. I believe he went to the Colts in the second round. Oh, you're right, you're right. Okay, I'm talking about mistaken. I believe Pat McAfee was the one who actually announced that pick. Um, let me just double check. Yeah, he did go, he did go to the Colts actually in the end. Um, and I thought what was interesting to me is we did again, we didn't necessarily get the exact spot where they ended up going, but a good chunk of the players that we had in our mock draft ultimately did get picked in the first round. So I do think that in terms of that, we did a good job in terms of what they did. And like you had mentioned, you know, if we take, for example, the um, if we take, for example, the Steelers, right? So we had them going with Kaden Proctor at 21st overall. Ultimately, they didn't go with him, but they ended up drafting Max. I'm never gonna I I his name is pronounced Ianature. Thank you. I was like, I was looking at them like I'm not gonna get this one right. Um appreciate that. Um, but they did go offensive tackle because, like we had discussed in our previous episode when we did the mock draft, the reason why we felt that they were gonna go with offensive tackle is because at the end of the day, especially if it's you know the geriatric Aaron Rodgers, you know, under center there, they needed to shore up their O-line in order to protect him. Um, and ultimately they that's the route that they went with. So I thought that it was a pretty thrilling and exciting first round. I feel like this draft is a general thing. There were lots of trades, lots of movement, like we had anticipated, not a lot of giving away assets for next year. Um, a lot of that did not happen. We saw all with all the activity and buzz of the trades, we definitely saw um, you know, a lot of movement, but again, really focused around this draft and this draft only. We saw the bills, which you know we'll elaborate on a little bit more in depth as we go through them, but you know, seeing them trade back twice uh was kind of cool and just shows really that everybody firmly believed that once you got past pick like let's say max 15, everybody knew that essentially it was second round grades anyway. So the order in which people went isn't as surprising as we as we thought. And so, you know, to me, it was you know, when all said and done, we we kind of got things right, and you know, another one where we got position right but player wrong would be the bears. We knew they were gonna go with the safety. Um, we had already they ultimately did go with um Dylan Thieneman, right? Is that how you pronounce his last name? Absolutely. Um, we had um Manuel McNeil Warren going to them, but because um Dylan Thien was already off the board in our mock draft, but ultimately we did get it right, they did ultimately go with safety over there. So yes, I thought it was pretty cool. Um, in terms of that, let's just go with what was overall, obviously, you know, if it ends up being a player that the Giants or Jets drafted, we will come from an unbiased opinion. Who was your favorite pick from the first round, Ari?

SPEAKER_01 10:39

So before before I get into that, I just want to say one more thing about uh the first round is that um for whatever reason the NFL has the you know, basically someone starts picking a position slightly earlier. In this could like in this case, we had um the second offensive lineman going 14. That was already the third offensive lineman, and a whole uh uh basically trend of picking, you know, there was a run on offensive linemen, offensive linemen went early and often, and defensive ends or edges kind of slid into the end of the first and even into the second round. And that was interesting, and again, it goes a lot into uh what you mentioned, Ari, which after a certain point, a lot of teams just had second round grades on a lot of players. Um, and the other thing that I wanted to mention is at 32, if you remember, Ari on last week's podcast, I was talking to you about the Seahawks drafting Jadarian Price at 32. I decided, you know, Cassius Howell is still on the ball on the board, it makes sense, but I was this close to getting Jadarian Price uh to the Seahawks at that spot. So good for them. Um, so your question was what was my favorite pick?

SPEAKER_00 11:58

Yes, but before you answer, hold on, I am gonna interrupt you because of what you just said. Because please go ahead. It's another interesting tidbit, is that let's talk about running backs just for a moment and focus in on that. Number one, this is the first time where two of the same team's running backs actually got picked in the first round because we had Jeremiah Love um go to the Arizona Cardinals at three, Kadarian Price go to the Seahawks, like you had just mentioned at 32, and while staying on running backs, there were only three running backs selected.

SPEAKER_01 12:34

Did you say it was the first time that uh same team's running back went in round one? That the same team's running backs went in the first round, yes. That that is not accurate. Really? That is not accurate. I'm thinking of at least two other times.

SPEAKER_00 12:49

Um, look that up because again, I'm going up on my own. I forget where somewhere on X, I forget who posted that.

SPEAKER_01 12:57

Um, which I did find to be you continue talking, I'll organize all my thoughts and and and I'll respond to that in time.

SPEAKER_00 13:04

All right, excellent. So just expanding my thought, what was also interesting if we're staying on running backs for a minute is is that only three went in the first three rounds, period. And it what's crazy to think is that two of those play on the same team, and two of those went in the first round. So essentially, after the first round, you had one running back go over the course of both the second and third rounds. So go ahead, fact check me, and then tell us your favorite pick.

SPEAKER_01 13:36

Yeah, so um I had a couple that came to mind. Um, I think there's even one other that I'm not thinking of um from Alabama or uh uh another uh SEC school, but the one that I I knew for sure was the case is in the 2000, what draft was this? 2005 NFL draft. Uh Ronnie Brown um and Cadillac Williams went uh second overall and fifth overall, both from Auburn, both actually drafted by I think Florida teams. Um, with Ronnie Brown going to the Dolphins, yeah, and Cadillac Williams going to the Buccaneers. No? Buccaneers. Buccaneers. Buccaneers, yeah. So that was uh that's like the famous time to me. Um, I'm I think that there was another time uh with like a big school like Texas or Alabama, but um it's it's always close. I know that there have been many times where backup running backs have gone uh in the second round and early, like with Reggie Bush um in 06 and then Lendale White going this early in the second round, but uh that's that's more commonplace. Um, I'm going to think about uh not not AI, not anything. I want to think about, I want to think if I can think of some other uh recent uh occurrences of you know two first round running backs because that's a good one. Um, but yeah, it's definitely cool. All right, so Ari, who is your favorite pick? Okay, so this is gonna be a uh surprise because it was a surprise to me, but my favorite pick from the first round is Keelan Rutledge to the Texans at 26. Okay, um, it's kind of it's kind of crazy, and again, this speaks to the run on offensive linemen. Most people had Keelan Rut Rutledge as uh a second round uh guy, but like you said, Ari, uh you know, second round guys pretty much started at like 18. So Kaelin Rutledge and and I think the Texans are taking uh uh a play from the Seahawks playbook, where last year they decided, you know what, we don't have many holes on your our team. What can we shore up the most to make the biggest impact for our team for competing for a Super Bowl? And they decided we're going to draft a guard. And look what happened to the Seahawks, and I think the Texans are following a very similar blueprint. I think the Texans had a great draft overall, and I think Keelan Rutledge can be an impact starter day one and can be a top 10 guard in the NFL as soon as next season. So I love I love that pick.

SPEAKER_00 16:26

All right, I hear you, and I like it, and I definitely give you points for creativity. Um, and at the risk of just being an over-enthusiastic Giants fan, and I'm really saying this unbiasedly my favorite pick in the first round would be Arvell Reese to the Giants at five. Many, many, many, many people out there had Arvell Reese as the consensus number two pick in the draft going to the Jets. Many people had uh Arvell Reese as the number one overall prospect overall in this draft. I did, and there you go. Many people had him, and even if he wasn't the consensus number one, a lot of people had him like a 1A, 1B with Jeremiah Love. So the fact that we had gone the Giants were able to get him at number five, to me, that was an insane, insane pick. And I will say this everybody's going, oh well, like even God bless him, right? But we go ahead and have our number one wide receiver on the Giants go ahead live on a podcast with Michael Parsons React. And I'm talking about, of course, Malik Neighbors, and he goes, When we pick um Arvell Reese, he goes, Where are we gonna play him? But respectfully, if you look at what he did, what Arvell Reese's strengths were, he was not lining up at edge. In fact, only about 0.6% of his snaps were taken on the edge. The guy is an off-ball linebacker, a hell of a tackler, and he is going to be an absolute beast playing the will. And since he's so young, he's only still 20 years old. When Jermaine Edwards' contract ends, I could see him then taking over the mic spot and getting the green dot in his helmet. But the bottom line is, and I am saying this unbiasedly, given just who he is, the pedigree that he's bringing in, and overall skill that he's bringing in terms of value. Um, the Giants getting Arvell Reese at number five, my favorite pick with that.

SPEAKER_01 18:39

I I hear you, and I have a lot to say about this entire thing, and this is kind of why I'd like to have time to cover this um in its own right. Um, what the Giants may do with uh Arvell Reese this year, why it's such a great situation for him as a player, how it how it couldn't have fit the Giants uh better, and how I'm very jealous. Um, but all of that we can cover at a later at a later time and go really really in depth because it it really deserves its own its own conversation, and again, how it impacts, you know, Kayvon Thibodeau and Brian Burns and Michael McFadden. You know, it's uh it's a very impactful move, and um, you know, uh including you know the rest of what the Giants did. It deserves being broken down by a Giants fan and someone who is uh known to be critical of uh teams and what they're trying to do. And and we'll we'll kind of we'll give it it, we'll give it its time in the sun and we'll really uh we'll we'll we'll discuss it. I I wanted to highlight and and just specifically one team jumped out to me seeing our mock draft now, okay, and that's the Cleveland Browns. Yeah. Randomly, the Cleveland Browns, okay. I don't know how they did this. I mean they did have two first round picks. They ended up with four of our first round mock uh picks, okay. They ended up with they ended up with um Emmanuel McNeil Warren and Denzel Boston, who we had going 25 and 26 um on top of their other two first round picks. So like that is some kind of job by the uh Cleveland Browns. And again, like I wasn't too high on Spencer Fano. I see him more as a uh guard than a tackle, but they needed any kind of offensive line help in the worst place possible, in the worst, and and honestly, um the Browns is something really uh interesting because at uh when uh when their second pick came up, they would have kind of been in a very awkward position with how the draft ended up going and who they could take at offensive line. I had the draft going a little bit different, but either and and this is something that we can never really know. Did the Browns picking uh Spencer Fano at nine set that whole thing in motion? If they wouldn't have, then the draft would have gone different. But that was definitely the first domino to fall, and I'd say that the team being most uh uh you know basically shit out of luck because of what the Browns did was the Patriots, who ended up having to reach pretty significantly for Caleb Lomu because they desperately needed a tackle. And um I don't know, I I'm just very, very mixed on both of them. Again, like I spent a nice amount of time watching the uh Texas Tech game uh against Utah, where you had Spencer Fono and Caleb Lomu versus David Bailey and Romelo Heights, who's now on the 49ers. And beside for what David Bailey did to Spencer Fono, which again we'll speak about a different time, Romelo Haidt, who I believe went in the third round, had his way with Spencer Lomu, and some of the plays just Just made him look ridiculous, Caleb Lomu rather, and he made him look kind of ridiculous. So that's my curious uh uh move of of that. And with that, I wanted to ask you, Ari, which team kind of like you think nailed this year's draft?

SPEAKER_00 22:16

That's a great question. And I gotta tell you, I don't know if I could pick one specific team. I feel like a lot of teams did really well in terms of value picks, filling needs. It would be very, very tough to highlight one specific team. And I think that speaks to, you know, I feel like this year, given that we knew it was more of a depth, um, more of a depth draft to begin with. I think teams did a very, very good job um doing that. I will say this, because you did speak about them, it would be very difficult to argue that the Browns themselves didn't weren't one of the teams that had one of the better drafts out there. You know, you look at their pick and the way that like some of their biggest glaring needs, which were offensive tackle and wide receiver. I mean, for them to get both Casey Concepcion and Denzel Boston, like that's pretty good in terms of what they did. Um, I always say this, it was a little bit confusing um that they drafted yet another QB. Yes, it was the first pick of the sixth round, but the fact that the Browns took another QB was pretty wild. Um, but I would say is that the teams that you expected to have the really, really good drafts went ahead and did that. Uh, a team I'm gonna highlight, and again, I'm I'm I'm purposely leaving out the Giants, because I do believe, and again, I'm saying this unbiasedly, the Giants were definitely one of those teams that had a really, really, really good draft overall. Um a team that I'm gonna highlight, which might come as a surprise, is actually the Las Vegas Raiders. I think that aside from getting the getting Fernando Mendoza, who I think is gonna be an excellent, excellent um QB in this league, um, they did a really good job in terms of maximizing their picks, getting players that are gonna help kind of restock the coverage in the immediate. And I think again, I'm not saying that they had the best draft out there. I I am full disclosure, I I cannot, as we sit here right now, say, oh, I am gonna highlight team X of the 32 teams and say they definitively had the best draft over any other team. Um, many teams will receive an A, you know, in the A's draft grade because they really did that well. Um, but I think the um Las Vegas Raiders, when all said and done, did a pretty good job with what they what they were looking to do and shoring things up.

SPEAKER_01 25:02

So and and and with that, who do you think had the most disappointing draft? Does any team come to mind? I know you said before with the caveat that you thought a lot of teams did very well. Um, does any one team come to mind that kind of disappointed you or not even disappointed you, but did something that was you were like, I don't really get what's going on here.

SPEAKER_00 25:24

Um, I'm gonna actually give the Rams that award. I I think the the and this boggled my mind that they did this. Taking Ty Simpson at at 13 really was just outright bizarre to me. They are a team with Matthew Stafford at the helm that is in a win now type of mindset. They know his window is closing. And while, yes, is it good to go ahead and pick their heir to him? Absolutely, give him the opportunity to sit behind. But if you're trying to win now, they didn't have a lot of picks to begin with. And yes, you I guess you can consider their other first round pick being Trent McDuffie, because ultimately they took a first round pick and traded it for Trent McDuffie. So you could say they got a great corner for in the first round, but given the fact that they had five overall selections, and as opposed to getting a wide receiver or you know, even what we mocked, or so you specifically mocked to them, which was you know, Kenyon Sadiq, who would have been great for them. Hi Simpson, I don't love it. So, yeah, if I had to highlight a team that I think probably did not do well in this draft, it would be the Rams. They would be my I would probably say at the bottom of my list in terms of teams that really better themselves and put themselves in a position to really win now, or even that matter for the future, yeah, it would be the Rams. What about for you, Ari? Who are who's your team that kind of did not did do well?

SPEAKER_01 26:59

So it's actually very interesting because I'm staying in the same division and I'm actually not even going with the Arizona Cardinals here. Um, I'm going with the San Francisco 49ers. I thought that that their pick and and they had they had a nice amount of picks um as opposed to the Rams, who only had a handful. Um, and they actually they were the team to end their draft earliest. Their last pick was at 179, so they ended their draft earliest, and they did hit up a lot of positions. And what's always interesting to me about the 49ers is they have a track record for um pulling out those like mid to late draft picks, um, and and have them you know really succeeding. So, you know, that it could be someone like again, like Ephesians Prisock, um, and Grayson Halton. It could be that they're they're they just changed the way that this entire draft looks. But to me, the picking, uh, I'll start with Dejon Stribling, where drafting Dejon Stribling um first in in in the second round, especially ahead of guys like Denzel Boston, I think was a gross uh reach. And it reminded me a lot of the Seahawks when they started bombing their drafts and they drafted, and now I can't remember the receiver's name. Um, his his his name was D something. And uh I was like, oh, the Seahawks, they always hit on these guys. Um, he doesn't have to have such a big role um at in the early uh in his early career. They added a ton, and we just kept on talking almost all offseason about how much the Niners have done to add to their receiving room. And like for them to just go ahead and pick DeJan Stribling here, um, it's it's just strange. It's it's a bit troubling. And then you go a little bit further and you see like adding Romelo Height and Grayson Halton with two of their next four picks. And to me, it screams again like I'm having a bit of an identity crisis. And I was concerned last year, but I thought, okay, this is a good direction. So the Niners hired Robert Sala back to be their uh defense coordinator last year, and they went as a Jets fan, I knew this very well, they went so Robert Salah with their defensive draft picks, especially on the defensive line, especially in the early in the first three or four rounds. And now they're higher, they hired Raheem Morris. They need to pivot to a different kind of defense, and for the second straight year, they're adding defensive pieces who now this year they don't really fit with the guys who they drafted last year. Uh do. So it's kind of confusing in an overall scheme of things. I really like Grayson Halton. He reminds me a lot of the Falcons defensive tackle, Grady Jarrett. He reminds me a lot of Grady Jarrett, which is really high praise. And I I could have seen him going much earlier. They had there were two uh defensive tackles that um I really liked, but they were limited because they're mainly into pass rushing, and defensive tackles' main responsibility is stopping the run. Um, that being said, overall perpet perplexing draft from the 49ers, and I'm very curious to see if this leaks into their season. Um, and we're gonna kind of see like a uh wishy-washy, you know, not exactly 49ers-esque uh year from them.

SPEAKER_00 30:20

Listen, I don't know if that will necessarily just to touch on that for a moment, I don't think that's necessarily gonna affect what their season looks like overall, because I feel like when I agree with you, like very puzzling draft overall for them, and but to necessarily say that this is going to negatively affect the team throughout the season, I don't know. They let's not forget what they did last year with the worst injury bug ever, and just the fact that they were able to go into the playoffs and do what they did. Um, let's also not forget that one of the uh best signings of the offseason was Mike Evans to the 49ers, which didn't get a whole lot of fanfare. Great signing, great pick. I feel like while they didn't draft so well, I don't think it's gonna per se affect their season this year. I feel like it's going to have a lot more of an effect on coming years where this draft class may very well end up being a whole bunch of wasted time and busts. So I feel like if just my take on the 49ers would would be that. Um I would say I do want to point out, you know, overall that what I think is so special is you watch the you watch the the players when they get they know that they're about to be drafted, and you see some really beautiful moments of the thing that I've been working for my entire life since I was three years old, and I put on my you know, I played football for the first time in in in in Pee Wee, you know, Pee-Wee football, and now I've just been drafted into the NFL. To me, that is such a cool thing to see happening for these guys, and you know, you hope that many of them are gonna go ahead and be able to turn that into long-lasting careers, that they can set up their family. So I think that was beautiful. And one of those moments that stood out to me was um for Caden McDonald, who was in the green room night one, did not get picked. Um, Goodell invited him back. He sat till he was picked um by himself in the green room, and then after getting selected, you see him go and just he happened to notice some random Texan fans in the crowd, and he just ran over to them, he gives them this huge hug, they're all hugging and celebrating. And to see such a pure moment after you know, going through the embarrassment of sitting in the green room and not getting picked, and it to me, that was like one of the more beautiful moments um in this draft. And I enjoy overall seeing these guys really get like that that moment, that moment that you know you can, you know, it's equivalent to let's say a person graduating med school or you know, passing the bar, and they get to have that moment, and I think it's just so special. And you know, when you see them have that re like you see a lot of them start crying, and and I love that. The ones that walk around going, look at me, look at me, like I don't like that. Like, I like the fact that you know Fernando Mendoza not only celebrated at home uh so he could be with his mom who has MS, but what a wholesome moment. And I love those things. And to me, when we get to the draft every year, I think it's beautiful that you get to see those moments. Uh, Pittsburgh, the crowd that showed up. I mean, now I get why they canceled school, record-breaking turnout in terms of the crowd, which I thought was really, really incredible to see. And I gotta tell you, I love the fact that the the draft is now on the move. The draft, you know, they really find a big open space for everybody to to enjoy and have fun with. I can tell you that, you know, I mentioned this on the previous pod. My daughter Vigal actually went to you know to Hudson Yards, had an absolute blast, and really got to enjoy it. And there were giant friends from like all over the tri-state area that had come in. And it was just it's fun. It's fun, it's exciting, it gets you excited for the upcoming year. And and to me, these are the kind of special moments that you know people remember really for a lifetime, no matter how their career ends up playing out. The fact that they get to have these moments, I think, are really, really cool. So those were just kind of my thoughts um on that. Um, any special moments, you know, again, let's say away from the actual picks themselves. Did any special moments stand out to you?

SPEAKER_01 35:09

Um nothing comes to mind uh specifically. Um, so I'll I'll pass. I do have another, I do have uh another direction to take that whole conversation to, but I think that that would be perfect for closing remarks about the draft, and we'll keep that for later. And so I would like to pivot into um a couple teams and what we think about a few teams and what we think about their overall drafts. And I wanted to know if you'd like to get us started with the Patriots, Ari.

SPEAKER_00 35:41

Okay, so yes, I will be happy to um um get us started with the Patriots. Um, I mean, let even before getting to the picks themselves, um the cloud that is currently hanging over that organization, given everything going on with their head coach, it's you know, uh to be very honest, like how many people are gonna remember anybody drafted by them this year ever? Like, maybe if they end up having Hall of Fame careers, but there is such a cloud hanging over the the um the Patriots organization right now that their draft really became secondary. And I cannot imagine any Pats fans out there are sitting here walking away from their draft, going super being super exciting again, and that's not a knock on any of their their players that they had here. I gotta tell you, is that um what stands out most to me about their draft is the fact that you know I spent a lot of time leading up to this draft, listening to different podcasts, really trying to get to know as many of the different players out there, and I gotta tell you, just looking at their list, and you had already touched on their first round selection, which was puzzling. I'm looking at the names on this list, and none of the names on here are any name that I had even ever heard of. And I listened to hours and hours of draft podcasts that did deep dives on players, and I literally do not remember any one of their players' names being mentioned, not as people that had stood out at the senior bowl or at the shrine bowl, or so just coming into this, my overall thought on their draft beyond again the extreme distraction that existed there and the fact that their head coach couldn't be present for the third day of the draft because he was in counseling, I don't think they did very well. These names don't stand out to me at all. Yes, did they fill some needs? Sure, but to tell you, as a team that had gone to the Super Bowl, do I think that they're with their draft ready to step right back in there and defend the let's say Super Bowl loser title? I think that what they're ready to defend is being a loser. And I anticipate, you know, if you had mentioned about the 49ers and how this draft is going to affect their overall season. I absolutely believe that this draft and everything that led up to it is going to have a very negative effect on the Pats organization. And I think that they are probably going to end up if we're looking at the division. Forget the fact that it's going to be a clear runaway, you know, Bills win it again. I have now, I now have the Pats a lot closer to the Jets and Dolphins than I do to the Bills.

SPEAKER_01 38:54

Wow, that is something of that is something a take. I I have so I have so much to uh say about a lot of different you brought up so many uh just absolutely fascinating points. Maybe maybe we'll have time afterward. I want to get into the breakdown of the Dolphins draft, yeah, so that we could just move things along just a bit. And I gotta say that um the Dolphins had a really interesting draft. Obviously, they had the first uh two the two first rounders, um, and they and they they didn't necessarily go. I think they may have reached on on both to fill positions of need. Um, but then what they did in the middle rounds was astounding to me. They got Jacob Rodriguez, who I think many people will look back at this draft and be like, how did he go 43rd overall? Like, what? What if you turn on any point of his highlights or any Texas tech game, he just shows up. You just you can't help but notice that guy. Oh, yeah, and then Chris Bell. Okay, Chris Bell. I don't know, I don't know how much you know about him, Ari, but to me, he was a surefire in conversation with Carnell Tate, Jordan Tyson, all of the top guys, sadly, he blew out his knee, and um he's still on the mend and may not even be back this entire season. He's projected to come back some point in the second half, but as we see from Jermad McCoy and others, knees are tricky. Um, and then Kyle Lewis, Kyle Lewis, uh, he would have gone again, he would have gone where around where Jacob Rodriguez went. He is a an undersized linebacker. He came into uh pit as a safety. Um, he's one of those jack-of-all trade kind of guys, and just because the NFL wasn't sure what to do with him, he dropped to the very end of the fourth round. He, too, is going to be a really interesting guy to watch. You can just see like the the depth of um Packers'ness in this draft, with Jeff Hafley, their former defense coordinator, literally drafting three linebackers in the second to fourth round, totally remaking that position. They're going to be fast, they're going to hit hard, and it's going to give a completely different feel to the Dolphins defense, which was uh extremely underperforming last year. And I say underperforming specifically because their talent they had a lot of talented players, but were seemingly in the back five of almost every single defensive uh team statistic. With that, Ari, I'll throw it back to you to cover the Bills.

SPEAKER_00 41:47

So I actually, if I may, uh I wanted to jump over to the Eagles before I go to the Bills, if that's okay with you, just to kind of mix it up. Oh, you don't want to fit. I just figure we may as well finish the AFC East and then move to the end of the day. Okay, I'll do that. While I'm transitioning over to the Bills, um, I wanted to say something that was funny that it came up. So the in with pick three, the Cardinals picked Jeremiah Love. Now, for those tracking, it took them a while to get the pick in. Now, everybody thought, oh, they're fielding trade offers and they're really taking this down to the wire. No, in classic Arizona Cardinals fashion, the reason why it took them so long to get that pick in was because they actually had the wrong phone number for Jeremiah Love and couldn't get him on the phone. Okay, well, that is fucked up. So that was like a funny tidbit, and I was like, I I I I as I was like pulling up the teams here, I I remembered because I was thinking of something else because I was thinking of the Eagles, and I'll talk about them when I get to them.

SPEAKER_01 42:56

And so and Ari, just go go ahead. You can just do the Bills and straight into the Eagles. I know you're champing at the bit to talk about the Eagles, so just take the Bills, go in right into the Eagles, and then I'll cover the other two teams of the NFC East.

SPEAKER_00 43:08

All right, excellent. Okay, so first thing that stands out to me about the Bills would be the fact that they traded back not once, but not twice in the in the first round, and ultimately didn't even end up making a selection in the first round. Their first pick ended up being third overall in the second round. I think that they got a great player in TJ Parker. I think that was a good choice of what they did. In terms of otherwise, you know, look, they are a team that is ready to win, ready to win now, for the most bit do draft um pretty well. And all in all, I would say is they did pretty well in terms of what they were looking to do, what they were looking to come away from. They definitely needed help on the edge, which they filled. They needed a wide receiver to tell you that Skyler Bell is going to be the best wide receiver out there. No, not necessarily, but I definitely think um that it filled the need. And I'm hoping in terms of the fact that they um the they drafted a punter, I'm hoping that they ultimately walk away with a better outcome from their punter this time around versus the last time that they drafted a punter, which was when and it was unfair to this dude. You know, talk about dreams coming true and then being yanked away. They had um they had um yanked being the operate operative word here, Ari. Yes, they they had um drafted their punter, and he was like the punt god, and uh, I think his name was Ariza, maybe Matt Ariza.

SPEAKER_01 44:40

You can't spell without Arias, but we'll keep that for a different uh exactly.

SPEAKER_00 44:44

And they went ahead and had a um, and then that whole story, which again, poor guy, it was false, he came out innocent, and it destroyed his career, unfortunately. What could have been a long career? Um, all in all, I think they walked away with a decent route. I think that they I don't think any pick here specifically was a reach or particularly puzzling. Again, none of their names overly really, really, really stand out aside from TJ Parker. So I do think that they they did go ahead and get a good edge player, um, and one of the let's say top 10 in this draft at the position, so they got good value there. Um, I think overall they walked away with a decent draft, not like wow, they did amazing, or wow, what were they thinking? I think they did decently. Um, and time will tell if these are the picks that will go ahead and get them um, you know, over the top and over the top. All right, I've been very much wanting to get to the Eagles. And um, the first thing I'm gonna start out with was number one, Harry Roseman. Like, I hate to say this as a Giants fan, but that guy is a freaking genius, and it it pains me of how good of a um uh how good of a GM he actually is, given the fact again that I am a Giants fan. But speaking of phone calls, and again, this triggered the Jeremiah Love thing. So they they move up and go ahead and select Makai Lemon. Now, let's start with the fact that the fact that you're able to trade up with a division rival in the Cowboys is a is a very, you know, is a very um you know interesting feat to even pull off to begin with. Then take the fact that Makai Lemon, while they pull off this trade, Makai Lemon is in the green room and he is on the phone with the Pittsburgh Steelers, and they are literally telling him, We are going to draft you, and they're having that whole excited conversation, which if the pick had gone through, would have made it on social media. But no, Howie Roseman finagles a trade with the Cowboys and swoops on in, one pick right before, and goes ahead and picks Makai Levin. So that to me was a really cool kind of tidbit that had happened. And as much as it was again done by the Eagles, I thought it was cool. The fact that they then go ahead and select Eli Stowers in the second round, I thought it was a great pickup for them. You know, we had discussed on the previous pod the fact that they were going to go, you know, it was a 1A, 1B. Maybe Stowers ends up being the better tight end than even Kenyan Sadiq. So the fact that, you know, the rich keep getting richer, and then stepping away from a moment just from the people that they picked, something that is worth mentioning as well is the trade that they pulled off in the middle of all of this. So they went ahead and trained, um, they went ahead and traded for Pro Bowl linebacker Jonathan uh Greenard from the Vikings, and they pulled that off. They didn't give away too much, they did give away a, I believe it was a third or fourth rounder next year, in addition, but they go ahead and they immediately re-sign them to an extension. And if we think for a moment about how they had traded for Jalen Phillips, tried to re-sign him in the offseason, he ends up getting a much larger contract with the Panthers and goes and signs with them. They go and sign him for, I believe it was 30 or 40 million less. I believe it was an 80 million dollar um extension, which was less than ultimately Jalen Phillips went for for 120 to the Panthers. So sadly as a Giants fan. Here we go, yet again. The rich keep getting richer, and the Eagles not only had a very good draft, certainly in the you know, in the front end of things with their first three picks, but the fact that they pull off that trade and shorp what was already a very, very strong defense by getting greener, you know, just says everything. So the Eagles, unfortunately, yet again had a good draft.

SPEAKER_01 49:09

Oh, hooray, hooray for the Eagles. All right, so I'm gonna get started with the uh commanders, who I can't even believe that Sonny Styles, who I thought was the third uh best player in this year's draft, maybe the fourth best player, is there at seven for them to take. Um, so that's uh kind of remarkable, especially because they really needed that kind of like that was that was their wet dream was to get Sonny Styles at number seven. Yep. Um, and then I love Antonio Williams. I can couldn't believe that he was still there in the third round. Um, and again, like Matt Golbin, who they got in the sixth round as a center. Um, I could have seen I can see him having a very long NFL career. He's not like the sexy treats offensive lineman that everyone tries to get these days. He's just like a guy, you know, they used to call them lunch pale guys. I don't know if they still can't.

SPEAKER_00 50:05

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 50:06

All right. Um, and he is just a good offensive lineman. You watch Michigan State and you're just like, there's nothing that this guy necessarily can't do. So getting that kind of guy at the end of the sixth round, phenomenal. So, all things considered, um, was this like, oh, such a sexy draft? Let's get, you know, um, you know, the what the Browns did, not necessarily, they pretty much went sexy with Sonny Styles. Um, and then they just filled in a bunch of uh needs with with interesting players at positions of need. And uh, oh, and they got the the the the Rutgers Greek uh quarterback. I had some some thing about him, but I can't remember what that was, and they drafted in the seventh round. So that that's that's the commanders, you know, not nothing too crazy, but I didn't think they had to do anything too crazy again. Their biggest uh offseason edition obviously is just Jaden Daniels coming back and being healthy, yeah. And as long as he can be healthy, they have a legitimate shot at that division. Um, going into the Cowboys, I think the Cowboys had an absolutely phenomenal draft. Um picking Caleb Downs at 11 um is to me even more shocking than getting Sonny Styles at seven. Uh, I think Caleb Downs is an absolute game changer. And adding Malachi Lawrence, who's like who is the ultimate wild card, you know. I had I had a couple guys, and again, it was really like your flavor, but like Malachi Lawrence is such a cowboys edge guy. Like he's just he's such a cowboy's, and whether that has to do with the fact that his last name is also Lawrence, yeah, you know, uh obviously, right? But um also they they they draft like these smaller school edges that seemingly you know aren't as uh uh heralded as other teams. They've done this with Osa Udigazua, who they just moved on from. And you know, looking at what they it the fact that they're in a spot that they continue to add to that defensive line, which now has Quinn and Williams, um, and uh I can't remember who the other edge that they have is off the top of my head for some reason, but then they continue to add Malachi Lawrence and then Jay Sean Barum. Again, anyone who saw Michigan, like this guy was like a player. He really similarly to he actually really reminds me of the guy that the Cowboys drafted last year, who again, I'm not recalling his name, but had a phenomenal rookie season. And you know, this is a very quick remodeling of uh defense that with Christian Parker from the Eagles, who I'm just reminding everyone, he was my favorite uh defensive coordinator pickup this in this entire draft uh process. I think he's uh a rising star and won't be on the Cowboys for very long. Um, they they can they could really put some things together and do some very interesting things on their defense. And I'm I'm a big fan, you know, they didn't do a lot for their offense drafting uh you know backup uh tackle and a wide receiver in the seventh round. But that being said, uh I think the Cowboys had a very Cowboys Jerry Jones draft. And yes, and I think that it's time for them to you know get back to that. And uh them too, they've also put themselves in a position, as you said, with the Giants and with the Eagles, just like the Cowboys and the Commanders. And after our conversation that we had about the Niners and the Rams having like two of the worst drafts, uh, I'm kind of thinking that the the strongest division in football next year is trending. I'm not saying it's there because there's there's still questions at quarterback in the NFC East. Um, every single team has uh, you know, basically Dak Prescott is the most sure thing at quarterback in that division. So it's hard to say that they're the best division, but the parody from top to bottom is definitely the smallest out of any division, and I don't think it's particularly close. We can really see any team of that division based off of something as normal as injuries end up in first place and end up in last place. So that's going to be a really uh interesting division to watch. So, Ari, with that, we've now gone through the NFC and the AFC East and their drafts. And honestly, um, I think we did a phenomenal job of covering exactly what who did a good job, who was more peculiar. And I wanted to ask you this as uh one of the closing remarks for the ending of the draft podcast. When do you think will be the first international draft held?

SPEAKER_00 55:07

Oh, that is a great question. Um I think we're still five to ten years off of something like that happen. I think that there's they're gonna give an opportunity to, I don't know if they're gonna give all 32 teams the ability to actually host the draft, but they're gonna there's a lot more teams within the NFL that deserve the draft to be held there prior to it going abroad, and I'm also not certain that they are going to do have it go abroad because then you're gonna run into all kinds of issues. For example, let's just throw it out there, and let's say that they decide to host the draft in Germany. So if you think of the time difference, you'd have to have the draft going on in the middle of the night, local time, in order to accommodate the 8 p.m. start of the first round. I don't know if I per se see that happening. I could sooner see teams maybe having local representatives in different countries than when it is time to do certain picks, they cut over to that um site or they go ahead and have that. I realistically don't think that prior to having a franchise abroad, I do not believe that we're going to see an NFL draft happen abroad.

SPEAKER_01 56:39

So I I just wanted to say that given that yeah, the time difference is one of the craziest aspects of it. Um, there are a couple uh options in order to circumvent the easy one is like Mexico City, um, because they're on the same, you know, obviously either Mexico or Canada, pretty much. Um, that could, you know, if you do in Toronto, you do Mexico City, you could avoid that. And then the other one is Australia, where they're having a game in Melbourne, I believe, this year, which I think is 11 hours um ahead. Um, something in the 10 to 14 range. I'm not exactly sure. Um, but that could really work. Like you could basically have a mirror draft happening uh, you know, at seven, eight o'clock, just like the regular time, and have it start eight in the morning in Melbourne. And it could that could really be something that that would be worth looking into. Obviously, London and Berlin and other places in in Europe uh being five hours ahead, that would be a huge mess up for the primetime ness of the event. Uh, that being said, they're even having just to to your to your uh uh what you're saying, is that there have barely been drafts not on the eastern or central time zone. The only one that they had was Vegas in 22, but that's it. Every other draft has only ever happened in eastern or central time.

SPEAKER_00 58:04

So yeah, I just in closing on that specific thing, and then there's one other thing I wanted, just cool little tidbit I want to throw out there before we bring this to a close. I the more I think about it as you were speaking, is I I just I don't see how that goes out of the US, even to Mexico or Canada. I just think if you see every year the crowds are getting bigger and bigger at these drafts and what that does for the local economy and for the teams, and to think of all the fans that would want to fly, yes, you give the opportunity for international fans to go and see the draft live, but what you'd be taking away from the local fan bases, I don't know. I don't see it. I don't see it. The thing I wanted to end on is um the the Falcons. So, number one, the Falcons um are doing a great job at really messing up people's fantasy drafts by having two running backs whose first initial is B and last name is Robinson, with B John Robinson and Brian Robinson Jr. So that's already gonna screw people over. And then while this is sweet and kind of cool, they now went ahead and drafted another A Terrell brother to play cornerback, so you will now have two Terrell brothers um lining up as cornerbacks in the backfield for the Falcons. But if you are in a fantasy league where you can actually select defensive players, um that could end up getting confusing. So I just wanted to end on that um in closing notes. Um, but God bless the Falcons. What can I say? Have two brothers ever played in the same defensive backfield? So getting back to our question, remember, I asked you this and it drove you nuts for like a week about uh QB brothers. Um, I have not done the research to answer that question. You're the sports almanac, so I'm gonna leave that to you. Offhand, I there have been very few occurrences, and we know this again from having checked with QBs. Um, there have been very few occurrences that brothers have been on the same team, period. Um, but I would be hard pressed to think that if it's ever happened on oh, wait, hold on. The Seahawks had the Griffin brothers, and that's happened fairly recently.

SPEAKER_01 1:00:37

Yeah, but they weren't in the that's the thing. One was a linebacker and one was a corner. Um, Shaquille and Shaqem uh Griffin. Wasn't it a safety in a corner or a linebacker in a corner? What did I say? Linebacker and a defensive back. Um Shaquille Griffin was, I believe, a cornerback, and Shaquem Griffin was a linebacker who mainly played special teams. Um, and I just get confused because like in the late 90s, early 2000s, there were like four Woodson defensive backs who are all uh who are all perennial pro bowlers, and I think two or three are in the super are in the super bowl, are in the hall of fame, and I do not think any of them are related actually. No, I don't think they are so there was Darren Woodson on the Cowboys and Rod Woodson and Charles Woodson, and it all gets very confusing. So that that thing I that really threw me, but I know that two of them played for the Raiders and maybe at the same time, but again, I don't think that they're brothers. I don't know if it's ever happened.

SPEAKER_00 1:01:41

So definitely something we can look into, and we'll bring up on our next pod after we've done our research. But no, I do believe that this is gonna be the first time that brothers are playing together on defense, um, you know, in or starting corners per se. We will look into it. So Pendle Fuller and Kyle Fuller, did they ever play together? Great question. We'll have to look into it. Okay, all right. We will need to look into it. All right, I'm gonna bring us to a close then. All right, so thank you to everyone for tuning in today. Please go ahead and find us on Spotify and I believe now Ari Uh uh iHeartRadio. There we go, that's it. Uh, as well. Please leave us a five-star review. Please go ahead and share this as widely and as broadly as possible so we can continue to join our uh to grow rather, our community and have new members join. So, Ari, this has been fun as always. Um super excited for what the NFL season has to bring. And OTAs are now our next step along with rookie minicams. So we will cover a lot of that in our next episode. So Ari, on behalf of us, both here at Ari Squared, thanks. We are