Chris Simms' 2021 Draft Linebacker Rankings | Chris Simms Unbuttoned Ep. 258 (FULL)

[Music] hey ahmed i'm a big fan of the pod which by the way we got a lot of those thanks that's good if you say that at the top of your message you get on the show yes we're getting a lot of those yeah so people have caught on so we might need a big fan of the show you guys suck by the way oh yeah that's right kristin's unbutton ahmed fareed's here send us nice kind comments and we will read them on the podcast that's right that's a threat or i don't know what that is a threat we will read your comment if you're nice to us if you're nice to us that is a threat what's up everybody we got a good one today got some news and notes to hit on around the nfl definitely but it's going to be dominated really this podcast by more draft talk we got some ask me anythings uh towards the end of the pod i think we're going to hit on rankings first right off the bat and that will be linebackers today lbs baby special special you know human being to play nfl in the you know nfl linebacker there there's no doubt about that pretty good class not gonna say great okay uh but i think there's some top end guys that could really be great the rest of it you know solid but i'm not going to sit here and tell you i think it's super deep or special so we'll get through all the linebacker rankings we'll take a look at how you did last year like you mentioned we'll get through the ask me anything because this has become a uh every podcast thing now yeah it's just like normally we talk about the quarterbacks and it's like all right we move on but this group of quarterbacks is so interesting and i find myself on twitter defending your view on mac jones right every day now i've become obsessed yeah i have become obsessed and there are some people that say ahmed you should be more of like a like adversary on the podcast like battle chris you know what no i am a chris sims stan at this point forward whatever you say i will defend it to the death and that's just the way it's going to be thank you it's not going to be like maybe every once in a while if you give credit to the bears or something i might you might push back exactly what we're a team is what you're doing so i have become obsessed on twitter talking to 49er fans defending yes oh and chocolate covered pretzels is that why you you don't like those i mean i tried florio bought me some because i had never had it before i tried it yeah it's okay i mean it's nothing like that that's that's an insane take but i will defend you for it so you love them too dude they're very good yeah they're really good uh you got a haircut i did yeah yeah look at you i thought it got a low it got a little well i got the kentucky derby coming up here oh in three weeks and so i like to get kind of that haircut now i like three week advance growing period yes what yeah no that's too long sorry i could back you up with a lot of things that's one i gotta go against y'all see it puts me in a weird spot though cause you never i never want to get the haircut right before the show because then it looks like johnny poindexter johnny poindexter who's that who's shotting poindexter that's me right after the square guy exactly is that what you're talking about okay i like that i like that look at you going all johnny on me over there all right don't do that because i won't defend you anymore okay so let's get into the uh the linebacker uh rankings also we will talk about um your interviews with kellen monde and diami brown which i watched really good and i got some thoughts on those thanks so let's get right into it our prospect rundown presented by applebee's the chris sims 2021 draft linebacker rankings um and this question comes from one oh regular contributor to the show my man here do you prefer linebackers who are better in coverage or better in tackling so basically what are you looking for when you scout these linebackers yeah well listen i mean yeah ideally of course you know you want both all right i mean that's for sure yes and yes you know it's it's a tough blend there it is a tough blend as far as what you're looking for but you know as a whole i think again you know if you're gonna make me choose either one right and we're in the car i'm gonna probably pick the guy that's a little bit better in coverage or in space okay and then just go hey wait i think we can work on the tackling stuff as compared to maybe the vice versa to whatever's loose one is asking is where it's like oh yeah guys great tackler you know hey yeah i think maybe we can work you know on coverage and things like that but you know that's a tough thing to correct the time looseness in the hips the ability to turn you know is he just gifted enough of an athlete to put his foot in the ground and kind of accelerate and break on the ball and do those things so you know yeah i guess i guess if you're going to ask me and break that down to that i'm going to pick more of the spatial stuff to be the tiebreaker as compared to the tackling and thumping assets so in your top five that we're about to see are they players who can do both or do you see some that are that are more one or the other there's some that are better at one than the other but yeah i'm looking for both i am and not even that you have to be like the best tackler in the world either again this is almost goes back to a little bit of like my safety conversation you know the one thing with linebacker you know i i i don't it's a position of no hesitation there can't be hesitation in your game you can't think and be like oh do i want to come downhill and take that full back on oh there's a guard coming you know how should i play this that that's got to be a like these are like the toughest of the toughest the strongest of the strongest when you're talking about middle linebackers it's a really really special blend of size explosiveness raw strength to take on humans that are way bigger than you and then also like rare speed to chase down people who are much smaller than you but yet you're gonna be expected to be we need you to run with them you know that's where is it's a rare animal i mean it really is that way so uh i guess what we're gonna see here mostly though is a blend of that but we have some different things in different areas with certain guys it's funny when i was growing up it was like linebacker and middle linebacker was a the guy right on the defense right he's calling the defense he's a lot of times the most he's got big shoulder pads on with a neck roll like chris spielman and the lions but then in the exactly chris field is a perfect example but then the last you know few years you see the patriots and bill belichick go heavy in the secondary you this past year have said those big dudes up front they can clog everything up those guys have become very important in the nfl and so this one comes from michael heim with how good some defense is like the rams have become has the importance of the linebacker position declined ooh that you know it depends it depends on certain defenses right you know the rams i will say this they have enough talent in other areas and creativity to kind of make up for their lack of production at that linebacker position but i would say no to that answer you know and again it's a good really good question because there are some schemes where it's just not as dependent on maybe the middle linebacker as far as make or break their defense but i could get into other defenses you know again you know i think if we talk about the 49ers and what they were you know in the super bowl run a few years ago oh wait we got you got two freak linebackers huh dre greenlaw fred warner fast as they get in football you know that's really important to that scheme sure you know it's why you see dion jones in atlanta that scheme the seattle scheme that linebacker is really important because it's more than a linebacker they're asked to do things in coverage department that a lot of teams ask their safeties to do and things like that so i would say for that team you know that scheme no it's every bit as important i'll even throw in another one like new england you know with what they've done you know they do a different approach and a little bit by committee they try to find versatile guys to where it's like wait is it 3d lineman or three linebacker is it 3d linemen and three linebackers oh so it's gonna be a three down front oh wait one of those linebackers can play defense end it's a four down front you know so they find the versatility guy that can match up and do a lot of different things like i always go to dante hightower yeah middle linebacker can smash guards and take on centers like a big strong guy but then can cover backs pretty good in the ba you know in the back end as far as coverage wise and then they can put him at defensive end and he can add a little pass rush and set the edge and do all that stuff so i guess long story short sorry for the long answer is no i still think it's a i still think it's a very valuable position in the nfl look at the pittsburgh steelers right right there's another team we're going to talk about but it's you can find ways to mask it if you have deficiency there one of the coolest things about football is that there are multiple ways to win right multiple ways to do it right and you see it throughout the nfl and especially throughout college well you do you take top defenses in football right just to expand on this washington yeah one of the best well oh linebackers can you name one of them probably not right i don't mean to be a jerk they didn't need them they didn't use them exactly well they had a front four that's special yeah and they had some safeties that can do linebacker stuff so it was like okay you're not a necessity but then you get in the tampa bay buccaneers the team that won the super bowl you go well i don't know if they win the super bowl if they don't have two great linebackers that can cover and do that type of stuff so i think speed of the defense when people usually talk about whoa this defense is really fast it usually means they have really fast linebackers yeah that's you because the secondary we know everybody's fast there when you get the linebackers that are fast with it then you start to go holy this team seems like there's extra people out here on the football field right now all right so before we get into our rankings we've got to look back always we've got to go to school see how we did assess it so we go back to your 2020 nfl linebacker draft rankings here you had isaiah simmons number one who had a weird year yes he had a lot of hype coming out hybrid player right only played i think 30 something percent of the snaps um so that was uh unfortunate for simmons i want to get your take on him patrick queen on the other hand and kenneth murray played a ton patrick queen started every game uh for uh baltimore kenneth murray played a ton too zach bond did not play that well he's not four right and josh uh josh uche had a lot of injuries injuries and the only player much to the end of the year for the patriots so what start with simmons what what happened with simmons well simmons you know again this was the problem with him coming out was a little bit of just like where's he comfortable where are we going to find the role for him to play and i think that took a little bit for the cardinals to figure it out he did come on though towards the end of the year you know and they just they got him in the middle of the defense middle linebacker go chase the ball go do that and i thought i saw growth in him as the year went on yeah you're right early in the year they were very picky about situations when he played and did things like that um but that was the the issue with the simmons as far as the evaluation yeah it's raw and you don't get to see him at one position to go oh wait he's really great at that you kept going oh he's pretty good at safety oh he's pretty good at outside linebacker oh he's pretty good at middle linebacker you know he had all the oh he's playing nickel here oh he can cover her slot receivers so i think this is a guy that just has to be hey this is your position we got to keep coaching you at your position and he'll grow into the player we expect them to be i don't see any problems with them especially physicality-wise you happy with those rankings says patrick queen's funny because he played a ton you know it was all over the place pff had him it wasn't good lowest rated rookie it was not an impressive year he kind of was like a you know a chicken with his head cut off at times in that defense you know there was a lot i think it was you know again he's a raw i came from lsu i'm just gonna run and go get the ball right and in college football sometimes this is really all it gets to go get the ball okay yep coach i'll go get him right i'm great i'm a great athlete and college football you get away with it the nfl is different there's more moving parts there's more deception there's more offensive schemes to go with it yeah there was like games where i mean i'm not even a joke like the new england patriots remember they upset the ravens on that sunday night football game on nbc yeah they they went after patrick queen they basically went i don't know if he'll know how to fit this hole the right way if we pull the guard and add a full back in there is he going to figure out you know exactly which gap is his i think it was a learning experience for him and the same goes for the third guy kenneth murray is really awesome specimen but i think again coming from the big 12 or at seven on seven every play it was a little bit like wait i gotta not worry about a screen pass and a pass every play there's there's gonna be blocking on me and the guards are gonna pull and they're gonna do all these different things in the run game i think it was a little adjustment for him there too yeah patrick queen specifically had 22 missed tackles that tied zach cunningham for most in the nfl last year for uh pro football focus still i mean that's rookie here a lot of experience for those guys um some guys later in the draft who was not all missed tackles are created equally sure that's where i would go like you know like his miss tackles to me jump out my mind and don't stop your thought here after this yeah but like as compared to cunningham who played in this defense and you know he's going above and beyond and like oh wait this guy didn't get this guy let me dive in there and try to make the tower i missed it well you go you missed a tackle and it's like well okay yeah he missed a tackle but like he was putting himself out there in a no-win situation to maybe make the tackle yep right yeah exactly context always matters context matters um pro football focus had yeah uh michael walker from fresno state played for the falcons as their top-rated rookie linebacker last year didn't play a ton of snapchat i was gonna say barely got the minimum so you know any other rookies that were like at least significant snaps that jumped out as far as the position uh logan wilson a third rounder for the bengals from wyoming yeah uh jordan brooks was a first rounder who you did not have from texas tech with seattle yeah i like it he was just here right on my outside of my list there last year but it wasn't like it wasn't like any linebacker rookie linebacker jumped out and like dominated no i don't think there is that one guy there's no doubt about it so this year watch out for them all right i think they jump out even our guy in new orleans bond uh from wisconsin yeah i would i would think they find a spot for zach this year you think they take a leap all these guys in year two i do i do and i i think in you know this this linebacker in college football it it's just a different animal than the nfl yeah it just is that the game in college is all spread you know in the nfl it's not all spread you know like we just talked about you could play the ravens or play the new england patriots of last year and go wait it's been 12 runs in a row and every run is a different type of run you know where in college football they could go it's been 22 plays in a row and i haven't seen her run it's been a throw every play so there's definitely an adjustment there so seeing how they performed last year those rookie linebackers does this year's class have a chance to be better in their rookie i do i think that it's a little less raw this rookie class especially especially i would say the top three guys in this class i think they are more ready and you see more of the things we're talking about on film from these guys to go wait they've seen enough of this they understand and they're kind of built to play that way anyways and i don't think they're i don't think the top three especially really are going to have any like adjustment period as far as like some of the stuff we just talked about with last year's class all right so we'll get to the top three in a second but we start yeah at number five number five in the chris sims 2021 draft linebacker rankings from missouri nick bolton nick bolton that's right i mean and he will be bolting through the line of scrimmage if he sees a hole to go tackle a running back you know here's another guy he's not going to have a problem i've seen enough of him to go wait he's seen run concepts between the alabamas of the world and things like that in the sec that he's going to be completely comfortable we're talking smaller like smaller explosive you know tightly packed in type of linebacker when we're talking about 5 11. 237. yeah compare him to devin bush sure very physically similar very physically similar there's no doubt about that you know i mean there's almost a yeah the way they run is a similar style the way their body looks in the uniform is a similar style except i would just go devin bush's is greater devin bush's is the like the explosion was really special with devin bush when you talk about and you know again hey vertical jump the 40 yard dash they kind of showed that you know devin bush's legs were special legs and ass that nick bolton doesn't have devon bush's ability to accelerate was of that of a top running back in the nfl you know let alone when you have that kind of vertical jump power you know what that tells me like with the devin bush and everything like that when you have that kind of stuff that that they are able to i'm in a total standstill in the hole and here comes derek henry and i he's running and i'm not i'm just planted and now that ability to like squat and uh and like drive those hips forward sure that's where the vertical leap if you want to talk about how you can kind of take things and go wait how does that work to the field right that would be the one thing but bolden yeah how does he make up for similarities yeah he's he's not going to be able to do it to the extent of what devin bush did there's a reason devon bush was you know the number 10 pick in the draft and everything like that that's why he's special but i think like to your point there and everything there's similarities as far as the read and react ability that's where he'd probably have to make up for it a little bit have to be ultra awesome with his brain but he is a guy and where hey he diagnoses things and he comes downhill and he's going to smack you i love that about nick bolton i mean there is any way possible oh can i hit you as you're falling down i'm going to get in there and get my hit in so i love all that stuff with the most force there's the same amount of force as bush but he's given everything he has given every he's not afraid to mix it up and you know me that's big with me the linebacker position you can't have any like business decisions or thought about business when it comes to that you know and the acceleration is real that that's the one thing and again at linebacker hey i want speed top end speed and all that too but the acceleration to me is more important than anything you know again your game is played mostly between the tackles and maybe a little outside that edge so your ability to get out of the box right and that first 10 yards you know the whole game is there for you for the most part if you're a linebacker he's great at that he's got really good like short area quickness to adjust and go get a tackler in the open field you know we talked about as a physicality he is a little bit stiff and of a straight liner right so there is like he's not your perfect coverage guy even though he runs well at all that i don't think he's necessarily the greatest and changing direction or flipping hips and doing stuff like that in that department you go that's why i say straight liner he's a little bit like hey i want to go this way i'm going to turn my body and zoom i'm going to take off that's kind of what i mean by the straight liner aspect of it you know but everything about the player is fun to watch you know but he is undersized and that pops up that's the biggest thing there is you know the reason he's not a top linebacker or a first round linebacker or anything like that is just because there's going to be too many too many snaps on tape of him being swallowed up by bigger offense alignment and then not being able to get off the blocks right so that's going to be his issue he'll have to deal with and even for being a smaller guy again not that you always have to be able to take on the blocks and do that then you're gonna have to be able to win with your elite speed and quickness at times and it's not quite elite enough for him to do that you know so nick bolton really good football player he i would be shocked you know he could be starting for somebody next year there's no doubt about that but the size and just a little lack of elite athleticism is what makes him my number five guy he seems like a football player a guy that likes playing football that's it grew up in the dallas area yep uh he was a three-star linebacker but he played all 13 games as a true as a freshman in dallas in high school so it's like he's been playing at a high level for a lot of years in a row now and i hope that shows on film you can see yeah so that is number five for you nick bolton out of missouri number four another lsu linebacker like a factory there number four jabril cox gabriel cox is um how do i want to explain them to start first off a freakish-looking stand-up middle linebacker that's what it is and if you i'm just trying to paint pictures of what the guys look like in their uniform he's he's the guy that i think is closest to looking like isaiah simmons all right as far as you know they'll look in the uniform and what they are as a specimen that way 63 232 pounds yup transferred to lsu last season after graduating from north dakota state yeah so that was interesting his body looked the part right but you always had the concern like will he play the part at a big school he and he did and there was a little adjustment period like early on and i think listen that's gonna be a positive two teams are gonna look at and go wait wait he went from you know real good one double a to big time division one he played at a really high level and he got better as the year went on i think with the adjusting with how he's gonna play but like freakishly smooth awesome looking athlete that's where the conversation starts he's one of those guys where you just turn on the film and you go wait who's who's number 19 standing up in the middle there he looks really awesome in his uniform now lsu has a few of those guys no doubt about that but just like extremely smooth with everything we talk about the coverage and the inability a little bit with nick bolton and things like that man this guy is silky smooth and the ability to flip the hips coverage find the ball do those type of things it's really good you know so space the game of in space the passing game the screen game all of that i mean jibril cox's is off the charts good as far as that's concerned so you're not going to ever have to worry about anything like that yeah scouts note that he's able to do it in multiple different coverages like he's like a coverage guy he he really is a lot of the times for their defense he almost played a like out there will linebacker slash nickelback um over the slot receiver the extended tight end i have this run game fill but if they drop back to pass i'm gonna have to cover this guy up the seam or cover him in the flat and do that type of stuff yeah he had three picks return one for a touchdown really natural playing the football i mean that's to me where the value is and then you go okay so we got a great athlete here who's got length he's really smooth his change of direction ability is really good he is really fast i mean really i i would say like as far as just pure speed i mean it's it's up there with the fastest guys at the position group as far as just the ability to accelerate run do that so you got that aspect and now when you have all that you go okay so now what about the physical aspect of the game you know where is he in that department and like i said earlier in the year there was maybe i don't want to say hesitation but lack of just like hey you got to come downhill here and you got to run down and set the edge and not let that guy outside you to run the you know a 25-yard toss sweep or do that you know but he was really good from the get-go i'll say this of taking on blockers and being able to stay on his feet and kind of still watch the ball on the edge of the defense and do those type of stuff to where you could see like listen power's not a problem he can handle the bigger people in football that way and does not get swallowed you know swallowed up by bigger lyman you know again that's big in the nfl he's not on the ground much when he takes on pulling guards anything like that let alone because of the athleticism and the length of the arms and things like that he can really disengage you know and get off these blockers and go attack the football and i think that's what i really liked about him a lot back in high school he played receiver safety corner linebacker and quarterback scored 31 touchdowns his senior year he was a four-year starter on the basketball team and so he was super athletic but had no big time offers coming out of high school that's amazing that's why i went to north dakota state and he's got to fight that from you know right it's like you've got to fight where you start if you're a five-star recruit you don't need to convince people as much um lsu has had a lot of really good linebackers you've mentioned a couple already i think nicole we have uh a graphic of some of them here does he remind you of any of these lsu guys absolutely he's a little different than the typical lsu guy you know because this all these guys are just little sticks of dynamite like it's all a bunch of like 5 11 6 foot densely muscled you know in the high 220s to low 230s and can just i'm explosive it can fly devon white quan alexander kevin minter deanne jones if you're listening i mean those are just like they're compact and just all about you know power and explosiveness this guy is a little bit more about length and smoothness and because of his size has some power aspects to his game but it's not going to be like oh my gosh there he is through the hole and he ran over the full back and then crushed the tail back like that stuff so is that why he's not higher is that why he's not i would say it's a little that's probably the biggest reason you know when they get into it you go like my last things i wrote here you know i've talked about not getting swallowed up by the the blockers and all that right the speed is real good the acceleration is real good ability to cover tight ends big wide receivers and running backs is really damn good i wish he was a hair more physical but it's not a concern you know and then uh i just i just again wrote takes on blockers you know makes makes a lot of tackles not on the ground very much and i was comparing somebody else that i didn't want to give it up yet and i wrote he's very good at setting up the edge and then the one of the big notes i wrote at the end too as the season went on he learned how to come downhill and play more you know again the running back position this is where i talk about the hesitation thing and if anybody's watching or anything you know okay you're sitting there at five yards off the ball right right you know in high school peewee league football whatever hey i'm the middle linebacker hey i'm five yards off the ball here i am oh there's a hole in front of me here it is all right hey i'll just hop up a little bit and when that guy comes through the hole i'll make the tackle that's not how life works in big time college football in the nfl you can't sit there and wait for them to get to you like you have to go wait there's the hole i need to come down and stop that fullback's momentum for opening this huge hole up or i got to get up in that hole to not let the running back hit full speed before it gets to me and now i can't adjust or do anything to make a move or slow him down before he just flies through the second level and then before you know he's through the third level and he's gone so he showed the ability to get better at that stuff as the year went on too all right i like him a lot yeah hearing you talk about him yeah there's a big-time potential with this it's going to be hard to convince me that he might not be better than three two or one yeah you talk about uh cox a light a lot to like about kyle it's more of a little bit of a potential yeah it's a good player i don't think the the floor is low like real low yeah you know but i do think that yeah this could be one of those guys where the ceiling is is very high okay yeah but not high enough right now to get you into the top three linebackers of 2021 number three out of tulsa zavin college oh baby dave and kyle i mean this listen to me this is where we get into special even bigger even bigger than cox i know i mean significantly bigger 6'5 259. oh big old smooth boy here the big old boy i mean that's really what he is and again to paint a picture about what the guy might look like a little you know in his uniform the closest thing i can get to as far as stand-up middle linebacker or anything like that would be like a dante hightower when he came out maybe a jamie collins for the patriots and that does this guy is this guy's a 3-4 middle linebacker three four teams are the ones that are gonna like him you know to be 260 and as be as athletic as he is you know the ability to change direction and flip the hips and coverage and do all that stuff like ahmed it's special you don't see a lot of guys that are 260 that can come along and do this yeah you know so you have all that aspect to go wait wait he's this big all right he moves like that now what's he do with the line of scrimmage and he's awesome at the line of scrimmage you know you just again for that size he can stone cold stop big time offense alignment in the hole and go nope that's it it stops here and now the running back's got to go through this little narrow gap here because i've stopped it you're not gonna just blow this wide open so he's great at that i mean he's special at taking on blocks and doing that and the three four teams are gonna love that you know again for you know for the the fans out there listening three four teams you know you're going to have some plays and some defense alignments where you know unlike the 4-3 teams the guards are uncovered they're going to get up to you you're going to you're you're going to have to take on a free guard who's got a free run at you yeah and you're gonna not have to not be not get blown back or they you know like you see like the patriots do sometimes they'll ask you as a three-four middle linebacker sometimes to stand right in there in the a-gap and be like no no we need you to like stop the a-gap if they block down or double-team you and that's the things he can do you know added on to that too but like great eyes to disengage really like doesn't just take on blockers to go like oh i'm going to hit you hard and i have no idea where the ball is always knows where the ball is if he does catch them with his hands he's always paying attention to the balls that's where he's really really special but like really great in all his movements natural athlete in all areas you know loose hips like we talked about he's an awesome player an awesome athlete he has value as a true edge rusher was the other thing i added to this you know there is something to his ability there you know and then you know even uh i i thought really between the tackles this was the best between the tackles linebacker in the draft and we got two good ones coming up so he's good between the tackles he could be a very good edge rusher yeah that's a complete package he's the complete package that's that's what he is now he i don't know if he'll be everybody's cup of tea that's the thing because the size and maybe the overall just true lack of speed i don't know if some of the four three seattle teams can get into that right it's just not quite you know explosive enough or quick and short areas i would argue with them and go wait wait no there's he's plenty of quick like he's he's just as quick as kj wright was if not quicker than when he was coming out of mississippi state so i think he can do all of that stuff he can play in any defense but i think ultimately it is going to be the 4-3 type teams that love him the patriots the titans the miami dolphins you know i think when you start to get to those teams when you get to the dolphins at 18 and that might be a little too high but you get to the tennessee titans at 22. you know i think that starts to be zaymon collins you know cat you know area of where you could see him go off the board but like i would be shocked i think like the dolphins have picked what 36 in the second round or something like that or 37 like i would be shocked if he fall falls past past that exactly right so we have a uh a comp from regular contributor to the show cj easterday he's on the show more than i am easter i mean really him and eberfelis are they kill it uh do you think xavin collins is more of a pass rusher who can drop back when needed or a coverage linebacker who can occasionally rush the pass or he reminds me of an anthony barton that's a nice combination there that is i mean anthony barr was more the vice versa he was more the guy who he played defense end in college anthony barr he didn't play stand-up linebacker it was a total projection to go and i think this guy needs to be a stand-up blind bagger but there you go so that just says it to me right there too man it's really com comparable anthony bart was the ninth overall pick in 2019 and like again anthony barr is playing in the defense that we were just talking about mike zimmer it's a 4-3 defense it's a little more predicated on your athleticism and speed and all that yeah and zaven collins yeah that's where i'll argue he can do that stuff he can and he's got great feel you know for the game overall you know yeah but that's what's going to be interesting is just where it goes in that department as far as what team who likes them has that you know but one of the last things i wrote was has plenty he is plenty good enough athlete for a 4-3 linebacker size length acceleration are all really damn good i wrote he's bigger and faster than kj wright so that was one of the last things i wrote can't cover like parsons or jeremiah owusu coramoa but still damn good to match up with backs and tight ends and i wrote he's d he's a first round talent three four teams will love him no way he gets past the dolphins at 36. and then i wrote maybe miami at 18. and i wrote dante hightower underlined underline underlying underlying right if he can be anthony barr who was drafted in 2014 um that would be that would be a good career for zavin collins who is another one just like jabril cox who yeah in high school was a three-star recruit had zero power five offers for a guy that big that's amazing which is crazy so then he goes to tulsa he wins the bronco nagurski award he wins the chuck ben eric award for the nation's best defender right first team associated press all-american so he's got all these awards but you still have the question of okay he did it at tulsa and that's always going to be a question for guys that play in a school like tulsa no you're you're right it is he's was always the biggest baddest dude on the field for the most part you know yeah he didn't have to go into georgia or alabama or florida and go whoa you know but you know uh would i love to see him against that type of competition there's no doubt about it um but i think from what i've seen on film and just being around enough it's not not a great concern for me not not that much no but that's probably what's different with like between him and anthony barr though to a degree and why you know he won't be a top 10 pick like anthony barr first off i think anthony barr showed a little bit more true explosion on tape maybe compared to the comparable numbers we just saw with zaven collins and all that but then maybe the other aspect of what you just kind of brought up yeah he was at ucla you got to see him against some really good organ teams and you know usc at the time was pretty damn good so that made evaluators feel better it's definitely yes and some of these smaller conferences the offensive linemen are not as big not as powerful and you know just not the overall players that some of these linebackers in the sec have to deal with so big schools for your top two in your linebacker rankings yeah at number two out of notre dame jeremiah owusu coramoa oh baby i mean this i arguably might my favorite watch in the whole draft i think any position up there it's up there i mean if you just want to see speed explosiveness craziness i don't give a about my body i'm gonna throw it around and try to make a tackle i don't give a damn if i missed the tackle either because i tried to dive three gaps over to do it you know any of that i mean then jared while coramoa is your guy i mean he's your guy you know first off this is like the first thing i'll say because again i'm trying to paint pictures of all these guys at least to start it with like i don't know he could be darius leonard or fred warner he could be darwin james i you tell me who you want him to be he could be darius leonard or derwin james they're basically like the same one guy's a safety one's a linebacker they're basically the same height and height and size except one's a safety and one's a linebacker so you're not even saying like he could be a good linebacker good safety you say he could be an elite linebacker or he could be an elite coverage they could figure like you could that's where i think the beauty of this player is here where he is going to be amazing to matching up with two tight end sets or all the different personnel sets we see in the nfl to where you just can always go wait we got him in okay he can cover oh wait he can get in the in the box and stop the run there's just there's nothing to his game that he won't be able to fit in with could it be an isaiah simmons problem though where it's like you get him and you're like oh no how are we going to use him no because this is you got to see him definitively in a linebacker role here it wasn't like he was playing free it was a good question it really was i mean pete gave me that question yeah but i delivered it in a great way great way you got to be careful with pete but but like i mean no you're this is a guy that you truly got to see in a spot and you get to see him thrive in that spot yeah and then go above and beyond in a lot of areas too okay no i i'm not gonna lie i mean and maybe people saw what happened with simmons they're like oh let's not let that happen with with him yeah i mean let's know how we want to use them but if you like you say it doesn't almost matter sometimes no it'll do well do well in a row that's somewhere near the line of scrimmage yeah you don't want to be in a free safety but if he's down there in the strong safety cam chancellor spot or the linebacker darius leonard spot he is going to be fine and dandy and he's going to be awesome i mean first off the acceleration is off the charts it's as good as anybody in the whole draft you know just when you talk about like getting up to full speed it's two steps with this guy i wrote you know has zero facts about his body and when i mean that is because he doesn't care he is going to throw his body around and try to make the tackle take on the block do whatever change of directions off the charts good short area quicks and explosiveness off the charts good you know ability to read and react and go make a play and just fly up into the hole and do that it's off the chat the charts good i mean you know all his movements his ability to cover people all that you know runs with slot wide receivers vertically i'm in just a little short story here like that's how i got to know the guy this is where like you know it was great this is where it's great to see guys in person you know working for nbc and going to notre dame two training camps ago i'm there on a random day it's double session practice for notre dame they're trying to figure out who their next linebacker is going to be uh and so this is you know not last this so this might have been last year i'm getting my years mixed up here time flies so there was two training camps to go i'm right you didn't leave the house last year last year messed me up right i'm like wait you're right i didn't leave the house last year so it's two training camps to go but they're trying to find their next will linebacker and i'm sitting there watching drills they're watching they have the deep nickelbacks and the weak side linebackers doing some coverage drills on slot wide receivers and i'm sitting there and oh he's a pretty good nickel back that guy pretty good very good then this guy number six comes up and i go damn nobody he's big let's let's see a safety he's the best coverage guy there is and then you know you ask a coach or the water guy whoever i ask like who's number six they're like oh that's a luciker mother i think he's gonna be our starting linebacker starting linebacker they don't got a nickel back that can cover as good as he can and that's really where he popped onto the screen there and that's where he's going to be have great value for you know really what it's going to be is a 4-3 team that's looking for that will linebacker that can just fly around the field and go get the ball and that's really what he's going to be because of his speed his instincts you know his just pure ferociousness as a player uh they're really really special how about his weight yeah that's the problem that is the problem is gonna be his weight you know yeah there's some size and and physical limitations sometimes when you talk about you know the ability to play in the box take on pulling guards and doing things like that but he makes up for it you know and the fact of like hey the guard's coming at me yeah he's gonna win all right i'm gonna fly at him and take his legs out or i'm gonna just fly at the outside shoulder because that's my gap and that running back is gonna have to go to the other gap you know so it's not like a concern to where it's like where i said with nick bolton and maybe some other smaller linebackers we talked about where you go man he just gets swallowed up and there's some issues there that really scare you at times now he's really damn good at kind of like avoiding blockers too oh you're coming at me and he can kind of just like he dips and gets around and makes a tackle because if it's a weak elite quickness and like change of direction ability and that's how he kind of makes up for that too super smart guy i was reading somewhere where he got a 1310 on the s.a.t coming out of bethel high school in virginia so not only athletic and can play multiple positions but a super smart guy which you have to be to be able to do that yes and i guess that the concern for any scout or any nfl team is that you mention the small size is that what could ruin this pick injury right and it's tough because everyone gets injured and so trying to project injuries is almost a valley because you're like anyone can be injured right is it more likely in the case of this player though not necessarily no not necessarily not when you're built like he is you know and again i i always find it the you know the aggressive teams the physical teams the physical players they usually get hit hurt less i mean that yeah you know that's really just a kind of a fact of life it's almost like when you're trying to protect something you're going half speed it's like i'm not sure i want to do that that's when you do you you know you go to tackle derrick henry half speed you're probably gonna get hurt you're gonna get a knee full speed in your head that's what you're gonna get you know instead of like you know what i should have been the aggressor and just flown in there and chopped his ankles out yeah and then i'd have been okay instead i was a little hesitant because i was scared of him and he put his head right into my head and now i'm concussed and out of the game yeah you know so there's there's a little give and take with that conversation i think that's a good question though but no i don't worry about the injury with this kind of guy having seen him the way he moves the way he's built all that yeah the size is a little less than what you would like but he's just got a great instinct and you know way above you know his size strength ability and everything like that and one of the last things i wrote you know i mean he he's really really like really good at playing in the trash you know his ability to avoid blockers and and and taking them on is way better than you would expect for somebody that you're about to watch at 215 pounds you know i really i found it like almost on par with with micah parsons in a lot of ways you know because i'm going to talk about parsons here in a minute i know he kind of would at times because he's a great athlete he tries to avoid blockers at times and do things like that it gets them in trouble at some times too um but you know and they ended up with jeremiah was a coramoa i just wrote he could be fred warner he could be cam chancellor he could be derwen james he could be darius leonard you know you just got to figure it out what you want him to be but either way he's at the line of scrimmage six yards off the ball just going to get going to get the ball perhaps your favorite player that you have scouted this season so uh he's out scratcher yeah how did you put micah parsons from penn state over him well michael parsons is special and you know again even though like coramoa might have been maybe a hair more of a fun watch it doesn't necessarily mean i think it's going to translate better to the nfl and don't get me wrong parsons is a really fun watch too sure i mean parsons is your just your traditional stud i mean that that's why i mean there's i don't have any questions about like where i just talked about coramoa we talked about the size and things like that yeah i got a little concerns about that there's no doubt about that there's a deficiency there to play the linebacker position six three two forty six for parsons see it good enough there's nothing there's no like absolute zero physical questions you have about micah parsons as a football player hand size 11 inches which is 100th percentile 40 yard dash was 439 in the 99th percentile broad jump 126 inches 93rd percentile so that's what i mean you're talking about a guy here that is arguably again more athletic than jeremiah at least on par with them right yeah and then you go wait he's also 30 pounds heavier and that means he can do you know more things in between the tackles and you can expect more of them in those type of situations and things like that but i mean great looking body i mean first off right off the bat length stoutness athletic i mean everything you want like a middle linebacker to look like you know special in the way he moves comes downhill fast i mean he again he's not looking for like oh i want to make the tackle but give you a four yard gain he's coming downhill thinking like no no we're penn state and we're giving you zero yards to gain that's what we want to do i love that you know i talked about his ability to avoid blockers for a bigger guy he's actually really special in how he can do that now it's also a negative and can get him in trouble at times every now and then sure but he'll learn i'm not worried about that i think the other thing that was really impressive to me of course is the speed and sideline to sideline but also i'm into like you know what you would call scrape right like you remember middle linebacker you got scraped down the line of scrimmage right and kind of like wait i think the hole is coming at me no he's bouncing okay wait let me keep following him and staying square he was like really good at doing that of course with nobody on them but what i was impressed too was like hey there's a guard on them and you know the guard's hitting him on his left shoulder and the running back still running out to his right he was okay fine you're on me that's no big deal i'm going to keep shuffling and i got this arm free and as soon as i see that running back make a move or commit to something i'm going to push off of you and go run him down and make the tackle and i love that aspect about him you know so he's an elite athlete with elite size to go along with it and you know really can do anything you want at the position and that's why he's the number one pick and that's why i'd expect him to be top 10 top 15 for sure he did not play last year he opted out of 2020 and pro football focus noted that not many linebackers in college football history can rest on their true sophomore tape and still be a top 10 pick it's insane but it was that good for you and he wasn't that old like they mentioned there so he had an elite sophomore year there is a question about him off the field though he was named as an assailant in a hazing lawsuit uh at penn state yeah there was an incident off the field at penn state with a former teammate hughes zero zero two zero says hey chris your biggest fan from canada here how much would you be concerned about the off field issues for micah parsons yeah i mean again it's uh you don't know the guy i don't know the guy you know so it's it's it's that's going to be on the teams to get to know the guy you know the stories you hear a little bit hazing things like that you know again that that that can be a a broad conversation sometimes again these are young kids you know yeah you can get carried away like hey it's been fun picking on this guy and now we just keep picking on him and keep picking on him and now he's pissed and wants to fight and the knife comes out and it's like oh wait we were just hazing you and being stupid 19 year olds and now you know it's gotten like serious and i'm being judged by it two years later i don't know i'm just saying there's a lot of gray area well that's the problem right you don't know exactly right it could be a situation where it's just like hey that's what happens sometimes and eve regrets it or it could be a situation was like no that crosses the line and it's his character that is seriously in question it's a good question from our guy in canada and you know again i'll answer it the same way i answer a lot of these this is where you lean on your area scout you know your area scout is going to know you hope like hey this guy's been doing this area of the country for a long time yeah he knows some people at penn state that will tell him some things that you know maybe other teammates might not say or maybe the new coach on the staff might not want to say it and rat the player out right so that's where that comes in handy to find out like wait is this a one-time stupid thing or does this guy have meanness in him a little bit and we've seen a few little scuffles in the in the weight room and a you know a fight in the locker room and all those type of thing if that's thing if it's that much and that and it starts to add up then that that's going to be concerning to some teams but if it's just that one thing then don't worry about that it could be a problem too because he's been away for a year you don't know if it's gotten better you don't know if he's a champ you know you don't know he hasn't been around the same people over the last year so the area scout might not have anyone to talk to you that's been really around him a lot a great point um which is why there's more uncertainty in this draft than ever than there has ever been in a draft um before uh so okay so how how high can he go seeing that uh yeah let's just say that the teams have talked to them they're okay with the character right the player and they're going off the film here here is gary gas coin hi chris loving the podcast from the uk my surname is pronounced gas coin so you don't butcher it nailed it look at this guy i mean you really are what up gas coins that's awesome i mean i'll never mess up gas and coin perfect what do you think about micah parsons to the giant so yeah how how high could he go here because i've even seen michael parsons to detroit at seven i don't think it's like i don't think that's a crazy thought you know yeah i think detroit could definitely be and again this is we're talking about a three down linebacker we just talked about all his ability to stop the run and do that stuff i didn't even get you know much into his pass coverage which is also a leak with that length and his ability to run and you know his his hips and all of that i mean it's all awesome he's a three down you know could be a pro bowl type linebacker the one i got my eye on here for gas coin more than anything hey the giants i do think yes michael parsons he's gonna be anybody's cup of tea but the broncos of the team i look at at number nine to go that could be where it really starts for him you know they're a team offensive line is pretty good they got the pass rushers they got some decent corners safety's okay you know there's a team that's really like if you really break the broncos down there's not a lot of positional need and you know it's an important part for again a 3-4 defense vic fangio he's been in san francisco with navarro bowman and patrick willis yeah then he went to chicago and they went they signed danny chevathon and drafted roquan smith you know so i would think that they're in the conversation or tossing around the idea of michael parsons as being that pick at number nine he is definitely worthy of that if the off the field stuff checks out and everything again just to hit one last thing on the player i mean size speed length great instincts reading recognitions really good the only negative i wrote was like maybe i wish he was a hair more kamikaze with throwing his body around okay but that's being really picky because i don't want that to get confused with like he's physical he's very physical he really is you know he doesn't turn down any hits or any tackles i'm just saying i guess i wish there was just a little bit of like more recklessness just a hair um and then he can commit himself up into the line of scrimmage a little too fast at times like i talked about his ability to come downhill he can come downhill so fast and oh there's a hole there let me get it and fill it and no wait now it's an outside run and because you're down in the trash you can't get sidelined to sideline because you're kind of down there stuck in an area with people around you yeah i mean those are minor minor negatives but uh i really look at denver as being that team that that could that could uh do that there a couple negatives maybe but not enough to move them off your number one linebacker in this draft class so let's recap your top five here yeah micah parsons number one j-a-o-k number two out of notre dame zavin collins three jabril cox four nick bolton five and you like this crew and it seems like i'm gonna guess you think that there are three maybe four first-round linebackers yeah i think no i think it's three three i think it's three i think one and two there parsons and iwuzu koromoa are no doubt like first rounders i think xavier collins is a first round talent no doubt about that either you know i just i guess i wonder how it shakes out like you heard my things with the three or four teams well the 4-3 teams like him i don't i don't know but i think he's certainly worthy of if he got picked it if he got picked at 18 by the dolphins i wouldn't go what a stupid pick that's horrible i'd go damn that's a good pick he's a really damn good football player and they got a need for the position it makes a lot of sense uh i think cox and bolton are definitely second round talents somewhere in that range uh and you could see maybe another you know two or three running backs go off the board somewhere between you know 45 and 70. that is the final word that is the prospect rundown presented by applebee's but here's the thing it's not the final word because we have honorable mentions too yeah uh let's go let's go quick hitter through these guys yeah kentucky's jamin davis what did you think of him no i mean that's the guy that i figured i'm gonna have the most questions about it's the most popular name at the position right now you know as far as like when you talk about you know i go on the you know in the news or any website they talk about linebackers i feel like he's getting more hype than anybody again you know the specimen is is is real as far as like you know the length of the athlete the size of the athlete and then hey the speed is it's eye-popping it's unbelievable i mean his his it's like he runs like jeremiah lusa cora moa i was accelerates just like him except he's 20 pounds heavier so there's something really special about that aspect of that but he's a little stiff as an athlete that's the biggest thing and then here's to me one of the first things i wrote down that started me a little bit on a negative path to where i was like wait this is not a top five linebacker nor is he a first round linebacker no matter how fast or how high he jumps because i found myself like in the i think the middle of the second game going oh he almost made the tackle and it was like i was like i've said that like 12 times already now it's like i've watched the game and now i'm starting another game and i'm i've said that a bunch like in my brain as i'm sitting there i'm going oh oh he just missed the tackle oh oh that was close you just missed it there's just too much of that there is too much of a physicality aspect about his game that i just from that standpoint couldn't throw him in the top five and and nor do i think he's a first round talent because of that you know you know first off i think he's a little raw at the position you know he's not going to square up blockers really he's not going to do that he sees running lanes and doesn't fill it um and he is one of those guys i talk about where it's like hey there's a huge hole right in front of you they're running at you go up there make the tackle he'll kind of just sit at five yards and wait for them to come and hope he can make the tackle then and that's even you know a little at times not not a for sure thing because he's not the greatest tackler in the world you know he's not a physical hitter that way um you know and i wrote just looks uncomfortable in the trash at the line of scrimmage mixing it up with the big boys pulling guards and those type of things he wasn't real natural at all that you know and there just was too many missed tackles so i think those were the biggest reasons of why i'm a little more down on him maybe than most i think he probably still goes in the second round because he's what six four 234 and ran what four three and jumped 41 inches or something like that yeah because of that and that you do see some of that on film he will i think be a hair overdrafted just because of those measurables then you'll get him be like oh he almost made that tackle that was good he was almost there so that is jamie davis out of kentucky how about chas serat out of north carolina who was a dual threat quarterback in high school and played quarterback his first two years at north carolina interesting prospect here okay that that's never great like i would i wouldn't want to be called an interesting process i know well it's interesting and it's it's in a good way all right it's in a good way but he's he's he's an interesting host yeah yeah right right he's like there's a lot of things about his movement you like you know he's really a natural loose fluid athlete i mean moves like a safety like a really good coverage safety you know physically there's some detractors not because of unwillingness again it's not because i go oh he hesitates or anything like that i don't see any of that he is like he's new at the position he's not good at getting off blocks and maybe like being a natural like playing middle linebacker because of the quarterback thing you talked about and all of that right you know so yeah there's there's that a little bit and he can be fooled a little bit again because he's seeing the ball from a different perspective but where i look at him and like and again i don't think this guy's like a second round pick or anything like that i just think he's interesting because a little bit like we talked about with wusu-kuramoa like yeah he's a linebacker but why couldn't you make him cam chancellor or a derwin james type and that type of defense to go wait let them play safety we don't have to depend on them all the time to be in the mix and take on pulling guards and all that but he can do it and get better at it but he's going to be great at all the coverage stuff and all the space stuff that's where i just thought he was a little bit interesting that way i ended up writing down and and one of the reasons i'm glad you brought him up was just like yeah he's a work in progress like i said right you know he can be fooled easy you know and you know one-on-one you know he can't always just fight through all the trash and do all that thing but i also wrote like this kid might be a legit third safety or like a jeremy chin type right that we saw thrive with the carolina panthers a kyle douglar uh douglar who the the patriots took last year duggar sorry okay yeah that that's where you know i thought it was kind of a neat evaluation of a player x quarterback he kind of looks not tough in his picture without his uniform on i was like can this guy really be good like what there's no way and you turn on the film and you know the last thing i wrote is he's tough he doesn't back down from contact in any way he just doesn't have quite the power and the strength to hold up against the big boys in the middle but everything else other than that is really damn good when you talk about him running and coverage all that type of stuff just interesting prospect could be the highest drafted linebacker who played quarterback in college like ever like i mean really that used to be a thing yeah like like jim kelly i know he got recruited to play linebacker to penn state right okay uh that was a thing a little bit back in the day but yeah you don't hear that too often when you had to play both sides of the ball you know [Laughter] playing both ways uh two more players yeah real quick mentions baron browning ohio state oh baron browning to me if you had to make me call like a guy where i went here's a mid-round pick and you got to pick one that can maybe be a superstar you know barrett browning would be that guy he'd be like what i would go the navarro bowman in this draft right navarro bowman was a i believe a third round pick who like again just for those who may not pay to might not pay attention to nfl football five six years ago like was no doubt one of the three or four best middle linebackers in football oh yeah you know no doubt i mean the crazy thing was they had the best middle linebacker maybe patrick willis and they truly you might have been go the second best middle linebacker football might be the guy right next to him they were special right i mean you were out there in san francisco they were awesome yep this guy could maybe be that first off he's built like that he's just got shoulders and arms and an unbelievable body and there is some like legit elite twitchness twitchiness to the way he moves and shuffles inside the tackle box and does stuff like that and they asked him to play on the edge a lot to that almost to where he was out over the slot receiver and everything like that but man he could be like i said navarro bowman demario davis type of player because he's got no physical limitations i think he just got to learn to like take a game over a little bit more trust what you see you know maybe get in the nfl and they simplify things in your role a little bit and you don't have to worry about as much because you got other players who were good too where they just go hey we no just this gap we don't need you to worry about the bubble screen and the sea gap and the quarterback keeping the run play right well we need we gotta we have a great defense end who runs 4-2 don't worry he'll stop their quarterback raid our corners will stop the you just have to worry about this like sometimes that's how guys can thrive he could be a guy that i look at uh that you know little coaching around the nfl atmosphere where you go he might be something one day and staying in the big ten yeah out of purdue derrick barnes yeah derek barnes i think would probably be the the next guy up you know if i had to make my top five you know or after after bolden i think that was the guy i i picked apart with he was one of the last guys i watched but really a lot like bolden except a little bit bigger with a little less speed you know interesting guy because he played a good amount of defense to end uh and has some pass rush ability and he's more of a thumper type of guy right more of your traditional linebacker like when we grew up sure but still good enough speed to where you're not worried about it it's not his strong point you're not gonna be like oh wow he's so fast and he's all over the field um but i think the big thing is downhill physicality the teams that value bigger type linebackers i think he could be on their radar there late second early third round all right and that closes the book boom on chris sims talking linebackers i'm backers here on this day let's get into the ask me anything portion of the podcast here it's a lot of quarterback stuff i kind of want to start with um kelanman okay your thoughts on your talk with him listen to it 40 minutes it was really good he was really open about a lot of things he was you can tell that um this couldn't tell this quarterback has a chip on his shoulder definitely right that came out to me too part of it was i was like okay because he was he's heard he's inaccurate he's heard these things and part of me didn't like the fact that he's like trevor lawrence is an accurate team zach wilson's an actress too it's like oh you don't need to say that necessarily but it was in a way that was just trying to be honest and call out the fact that which i think is true for him it's like how come when i do these things people say well that's why he's not very good and when other quarterbacks do these things they just gloss over right i i probably the thing that stood out to me more than anything too i you know he's he's a really nice natural guy yeah and you could tell he's got perspective and he's smart and the game means something to him you know yeah in my heart of hearts so i go you don't even say some of that stuff don't even just just let everybody else figure that out on their own you know you don't need to fight that way that's why i'm here i'm the big mouth with chris sims on button i'll tell everybody that right right but but you know also too though he's he's bringing up some real points not that it's not true it's not that it's not true exactly right yeah for whatever reason he doesn't get the benefit of the doubt or you know the talk of some of the positives that he does compared to some of the other guys in this draft class i don't get that so yeah i think that does bother him because he wants to be great i think there is that in him to where yeah it's not necessarily fair fair that way you know there's a lot of things we could talk about fair not fair yeah i know i mean there's been you know like we've talked about you know all the quarterbacks and um you know yeah other ones have been inconsistent maybe like a kell and mon was right we don't talk about that you know we talk about the talent level and byu you know that you know the not great talent level there but then we don't talk about as much like i don't hear people on tv hey that point doesn't get made on the vice versa about hey alabama comes into ohio state we're always way more talented the game looked better you know there's like that's where the themes of the draft drive me insane sometimes you know going back to zach wilson you've probably heard me say this already and i'm going to say it again but like zach wilson still the number one thing you hear is competition competition the competition he played against the competition he played against right but and again i don't care about any of this i'm just trying to bring up the but then yet trey lance plays against lesser competition nobody doesn't get brought up it's not a topic and his team was clearly the better team on the field like alabama and clemson and ohio state and a lesser level of football but it's not a question for him and that's where i just don't get it and that's where i think players like kel and mom get frustrated at times because they're like wait i'm being questioned on this yeah i've watched this guy on tv he had like three games like the one i'm being questioned on but nobody's talking about it with him but for me it's the main talking point yeah and that's where you can get frustrated as a player coming i did it in a tough conference where i didn't have the talent advantage no i was talking about it no no no exactly right that's a dicey dicey one and you can get yourself in trouble by doing that you know by what you brought up like pointing out the other guy's flaws yeah it wasn't a great look i i understood what he was doing right and i and and and like i say and it gave him a chip on his shoulder and that's a positive um but you're right you let you do that talking he doesn't need to do this let me do that talk and let your play do that talking the smart coaches who really know are going to know that yeah you know don't be bitter you don't want to be bitter you just want to be confident and no pump yourself up well what you learn in the nfl is you just you worry about you right you worry about you that's all you can do and it doesn't matter who you're competing on against your own team and your own you know coaching room or anything like that that they don't matter it's about can you be the best version of yourself and can that best version of yourself beat out that guy next to you deandre loehm yeah first of all shout out to pete the phantom of the podcast the phantom whoa i like that new good nickname right there pete wants to know this is not his burner account so this was not pete this is an actual homie do you think if mon goes to washington should he sit a year under fitzpatrick's i mean you've you've said he's a first round quarterback i don't know that he will be right it doesn't seem like it's trending that way um but if he is i mean do you think he should sit for a year would that be a good situation for him yeah i think it's you know that's one of those that yeah that's it's a good situation for him to sit and learn and do all that yeah you know you can always start off with that and then you go through training camp and you start to go wait guy's good right he can handle the offense and throw and then then you adjust from there we've seen plenty of teams do that you know and i do think he's that's why i love him too you know he is pro ready he has been playing pro football the last few years at texas a m with what he's asked to do with the lesser talent like you're talking about he's had to throw in to as many tight windows and with people around him in the pocket as anybody i've watched in this draft and he passes the test with flying colors over and over you know so i i would love that for the the washington football team yeah it like you're right though right now it seems high i really think george i think he has a chance to be maybe a jordan lovish type of thing and again i will say his film is way better than jordan love and yet people had no issues with talking about jordan love as a first round pick last year and this guy can't get first round love i don't understand it his arm is every bit as powerful he's just a good at athlete and then he's way more consistent and a better decision maker than jordan love and i was a jordan love fan so i'm just like letting everybody know that's where i don't get it that's where the draft is crazy to me i want to be like what like but but yet johnny manziel's got drafted in the top 30 no problem nobody batted an eye about it i want to go his film kills a johnny manziel kills it but i think anywhere from 20 to 40 is where we see kelanman he's got elite traits that show up on film and if you watched him play and that has been the knock on mac jones that he can't run and that he does not have quote unquote elite traits dl book says i get you are saying that kyle shanahan would take mack jones yeah but if you had that third pick is that who you would choose you've always been a draft elite traits guy and there isn't anything elite with mac no listen it's a good point i mean listen the first thing i say is i i wouldn't i wouldn't have trade up to number three anyways regardless i don't think any of these mac jones fields treylands i don't think any of them are top five picks at quarterback i don't i never have thought that lawrence and wilson are one and two whatever way you want to put it i don't you know i think wilson's won lawrence's two that to me is a class of its own you know i i said i think from the get-go i thought mac jones was a top 10 pick you know i did say from the get-go he's a better prospect than two was last year you know again that's another point of our point here nobody was mad about tua but now you've got all these people trying to start saying like listen there's a lot here that's better than tua last year and nobody wants to hear it and it's just like nope tula's fifth pick of the draft you move on to the next conversation and i you know this guy's better but everyone's like you can't go in the top ten why you know so if i had the position of taking the third quarterback yes i would take mac jones i am an elite traits guy there's no doubt about that yes but you would have wait if you were kyle and you would have been directing his every move yeah you would have said wait for him see if he's there at 12 yeah or maybe move up a little bit but i'm not going to move up to no i wouldn't have moved up to number three no that i guess the issue comes if the cost of moving up if they with all their negotiations with other teams right if the cost of moving up to say eight and then the cost of moving up to three isn't that the difference isn't that great no to move up to eight they were like yeah we want your two future first round picks and you're like well might as well move up all the way well yeah i think there could be some logic to that thought ahmed you know also to the fact of like hey we moved up to number eight and oh wait it did nothing for us two other teams have jumped us now and now we're like i hope we get a quarterback at eight and that's why we moved up so i think that's probably the predicament they were in a little bit right sure so that's why i kind of came up with the phrase like i think shanahan was taking fate into his own hands he was kind of like i don't know what's going to happen i'm not going to sit back and wait i'm going to be in the position of power i think ultimately that's what he went to again to answer that question i know yes there is no big overall elite trait what's different and again where i always try to keep myself accountable and scout and do anything like that the way he plays is elite i think that's what he i got to come back to yeah you know yeah i know justin field's arm power is elite and his running is elite but his accuracy is way below elite it's troubling at times you know the decision making also is just average so yeah while he might have two elite traits he's got a few other traits that i look at that go you know what's the opposite of elite i don't know what can i say but either he's got some bottom bottom traits that i really don't like yeah and i think that's what scares me trey lance a little bit of the same way you know so mac jones again he's elite because he's the best decision maker in the draft he's the most accurate passer in the draft i would say working the pocket it's between him or zack wilson for the best that work within the pocket to move and slide and make those type of throws right so there are some things there at the quarterback position that are really elite and also to me are elite in the ability to translating into the nfl and i think that's why i would go number three but listen what was our man's name that answer asked this question deal book d.l book listen i'm it fields and lands are some of the two of the harder evals i've ever done i'm not gonna lie because i see the eliteness i do i just see some things too that scare the out of me and that's where i'm a little undecided about with that did you see anything from fields uh second pro day there wasn't a whole lot that came out not a whole lot no you know you know again fields it all it's like it's never going to look bad in any of that stuff it's not but some of the mechanical stuff yeah it's still there you know i i don't know pete what was how many throws do you think we saw in that video we watched i'm going to say 20 throws you know again you know my issue of course we talked about footwork and everything like that but it's really more than anything sometimes hey when you're a quarterback like we've talked about a little you want to be able to turn that shoulder create the opposites between the upper and lower body fields doesn't really get any opposites created he kind of keeps his shoulder there and then he does it tries to do it with just the elbow and doing it that way and that to me is the biggest issue and that's why even in a workout like yesterday if i just took one take away he can't just let it fly that's where i want to go like if you watch the other guys right lance mac jones trevor lauren zach wilson they can let it fly like i'm dropping back i know i'm throwing that guy and i'm gonna let it rip i don't worry about where it's gonna go i got enough control to keep it in the general area yeah fields to me in the both workouts has a little bit of like okay wait i'm in the line and all right let me throw okay good complete all right i completed it all right good a little bit like i just want to complete it instead where the other guys are just going i want to throw my perfect 100 mile per hour perfect fastball you know and they just let it go that to me is an element that that he misses a little bit in these workouts i think we have nicole do we have some video of it so here it is so this is if you're watching on youtube and if you're not you got to go to youtube uh yeah it just seems a little more finesse a little more right right he's guiding it a little bit yeah there's not a lot of arm speed there it's a little bit of like yeah i'm i'm not quite sure where it's going to go so i'm going to be careful with you know all my moving parts and things like that it's it is you're right so thank you yeah so i pointed out to a few people oh and there's shanahan oh shannon is there gonna come confirmed pick confirm it's over pick three he went to a camp with justin field and now he saw his pro day and they're talking it's over pick three and kyle was wearing his white hat and whenever he does that means he's in a good mood and so he's gonna take him yeah um but another knock on field has been the decision-making right and it's slow to release the ball yeah revenue jj says if justin fields knock is that he goes through the reads too slowly isn't decisive enough isn't that coachable it is coachable there there is you know those are and and justin's fields defense it's not the greatest offense in the world you know they they because they are more talented are simple at times and i also sit there at times and go i'm not sure exactly what he's reading or what this play is and how you're i mean so there is definitely some of that were there some long developing routes too yeah it's like it required him to hold the ball for a while yeah they're definitely some of that or just plays where you go like really this is the only option he can throw to here he's not covered what is he supposed to do yeah so yeah i mean listen i take all that into account you know but that's one of those that's it's hard to project all the time too you know there are enough plays of like i said where you know the inaccuracy thing i'm not so sure how much you can coach that out of the guy i'm not sure you know it's you're gonna have to know the guy and have to work with him a little bit to see how quickly he can adapt and change you know and then that's the same with some of the decision making too again yeah you get to know the guy hey he's smart loves football awesome but you're still gonna in the back of your mind go wait i saw some plays where you know like get off the first read go to the second guy get to the third guy or hey he got off the first read and the second guy's not open don't sit there on the second guy and now try to throw some crazy throw just to get it in there like you know there's just there's stuff of that so that's where he's tough to really you know pin down and quite figure out so zach wilson checks a lot more boxes for you he's your number one quarterback and this one comes from andre brown jr i think this is a good question cool cool if guys like wilson rogers and mahomes weren't so good at detaching their upper body from their legs would it simply be considered bad mechanics footwork how do you differentiate yeah sometimes you know you say you got to get your feet in the same spot and you got to be active that's how you're accurate well it's like wilson rogers mahomes sometimes their upper body's going one way lower body is going the other way yeah well or is that not happening we just think it's happening yeah it's not happening when things are clean and right and you know this this is a good question this is because there's there's a few layers to this those guys have become such machines and doing it the right way and then of course are extremely talented that they don't need to be perfect to get perfect results anymore they've drilled it into them so even like even when their feet are in bad spots their upper body still stays in so many good spots and that does the right thing that they can make up for it let alone they have tremendous amount of repetitions and then of course they're extremely talented right so that gets away from it but i think if like we sat here and broke down those kind of guys josh allen rogers mahomes right and we took away plays where we go wait like here's here's the play here's the first read he got the ball he looked at the first reading through it you're more times not going to go oh his his mechanics were pretty special that way right you know but now it's the other ones where it's hey wait he's looking at the first read he was about to throw it oh and the guy's kind of covered and he just kept his foot there and then just went oh wait there's somebody over there let me just turn my body and throw it over there and do that like yeah he's just talented enough those guys are talented enough to do that but that's through great work and repetition that got them to that it's like my little boy who you know wants to catch the one hand odell beckham jr catch i have to always tell him no but odell caught with two hands 95 million times first before he started doing that yeah you know steph curry you know didn't just go like let me shoot it and look away and practice like that he became a machine and then he could start shooting threes any which way he wanted to throw you know same thing with rogers and mahomes or brett favre if you go through time you look at them they were kind of by the book at first but then it was like okay buy the book they're great at it and they've worked at it so hard that they don't have to be by the book to get to buy the book production you know so does that answer that question there totally it's like a video game you have to unlock levels right you can't unlock the legs going one way arm going the other way until you get to a certain point no but there are still even with that with zach wilson and those guys their best throws are still a lot of the times when they're in perfect like mechanical positions with their body you know that's when they can maximize and do the most special stuff the things that makes them special is the things that i we love them for so much oh things aren't perfect and they're not in the perfect spot and the coverage was you know really good and nobody's perfectly open in their passport oh it doesn't matter they still threw the perfect ball that's that's what makes them who they are okay all these quarterbacks really haven't talked a ton about trevor lawrence it's boring right he's going to go number one it's just like the generational talent we don't talk about anymore um but chris has got him as the number two quarterback there was some news made um this is a a quote that came out i think it was via sportsillustrated.com nicole's punching it up on youtube right here and this was trevor lawrence on his motivation i want people to know that i'm passionate about what i do and it's really important to me but i don't have this huge chip on my shoulder that everyone's out to get me and i'm trying to prove everyone wrong i just don't have that i can't manufacture that i don't want to i think people mistake that for being a competitor i think that's unhealthy to a certain extent just always thinking that you've got to prove someone wrong you've got to do more you've got to do better end quote that is on uh that is not illustrated.com i think his father later said that it's yeah it's not the end-all be-all to him to go out there and win a super bowl it's not what motivates him you know yeah and i think he said he could walk away from the game and that's okay yeah like his old high school coach said yeah old high school you can see him walking away from the game right it's not like the end-all be-all to him um what do you think about that all right so let me like the first quote right that first part about like i'm not a chip on my shoulder all that type of stuff that's fine why would he everyone's been gushing well that's right and not everybody like you know i think we're all a little bit like oh tom brady's got the chip on his shoulder because of the six six round pick yeah and that's work so you need to have a chip on your shoulder no no you don't you don't like the patrick mahomes doesn't have that chip on his shoulder patrick mahomes just wants to be the best player he can be he wants to maximize and i think that's what trevor lawrence is like i'm a competitor i want to be great you know but i'm not i want to be the great and the goal like this person doubted me red marker rifle i'm gonna shoot them one day like i mean he's not like that that's not what he does yeah that's fine there's plenty of quarterbacks that are like that a lot of great ones really brady's the most chip on his shoulder type guy we've ever seen really you know from that standpoint so i have no issues with that that aspect of that quote you know this the super bowl thing listen teams aren't going to love to hear that they're not going to love to hear that i don't know what else to say when you're two years removed from andrew luck in the nfl sure they don't want to hear that that's that's scary that's still scaring teams andrew luck's retirement that's one of the bigger things that teams try to get out of a guy correct me if i'm wrong is how much do you love this game right it's going to be very difficult it is right that's where like it's it was a little bit with the justin herbert thing last year too i remember that he likes the bubble of oregon we're not sure how much he likes football he's a real smart guy played an extra year at oregon when he could have come out right he's got brains so at some point in his life he might go you know i can do other things in my life so that scared the out of people especially year after andrew luck so i think there is the the repercussions of that still kind of reverberating through the nfl world when it comes to that and then yeah of course nobody wants to hear the super bowl thing everybody's in it to win a super bowl you know i think he was trying to play the thing like they were trying to play this angle of like i'm more than just this meathead football guy yeah and you know i love football but it's like not the end-all be-all and i'm not like you know like he's saying he's chippy or crossing people off a list and keeping names and doing all that stuff but i will say with all that right the high school coaches quote yeah yeah scares teams and it does look a little weird like i i can't deny that especially when we've gone through the last two weeks of people questioning justin fields and his love for football sure and doing all that like listen i think we'd be doing justin fields an injustice if we didn't bring this up you can't have that kind of talk around him with no evidence to back that up none i mean no no evidence yeah oh the guy that got big ten football back on playing football he's not the one that like he's like what yeah i don't you gotta have some evidence there or say something to me for me to that to ring true that way right and yeah like i'm not gonna lie if he said that there'd be a big issue about it right now i don't think there'd be any doubt about that it'd be a big issue you think that's along racial lines i don't know if it's racial lines it goes back to again what i just look at it with like i for some reason it's swept under the rug with one guy and another guy we make a big deal about it i i don't get it and that's what bothers me about the draft a little bit i mean i think it it it's refreshing sure and i think that isn't necessarily doesn't have to be because trevor lawrence is white um i think part of that is that he has for so long been this guy yeah he's number one he's the number one player i think anyone at the top and you know michael jordan number one player if he said you know it's like yeah it doesn't drive me it's not the end-all be-all it's like you can he's earned that because like he's already proved that he's gotten to the top of the mountain here with that philosophy if people really do believe and a lot of people do that trevor lawrence has gotten to the top of the mountain as a prospect for the nfl draft they've been talking about him as the number one guy for a long time right so i think if if we had been talking about justin fields like that for a couple years i think he could probably get away with that too you know it's one of those things where if you are the guy you can be like yeah it's not at the end i'll be all to me but if you're not the guy and you say that you don't want to be the guy you don't want you're not the guy you can't say that but i think trevor lawrence sees himself as the first pick people have been telling him that for a long time and it feels like he can say that yeah i i think there's probably some truth to that you're right you know yeah they've he's been built up and feels he's in the spot to where i can be like yeah there's anything exactly right nobody questions anything i'm a good player we went to two you know uh we were in the final four all three years i won a national championship as a freshman and like yeah like all right screw you you know i yeah but but it's not necessarily fair that way i don't think that some of the other quarterbacks could have got away with that quote yep i think you're right and and he's got to look at your top five quarterback list and then he wouldn't be saying get chippy how dare sims put put put me on the list uh yeah and he just got married too that was a big big weekend for him all right that is it one final thing i want to say right i hope that the lions draft diamond brown at some point because watching your interview with him i love that guy and i know one of the things that you had to love hearing from him is that he didn't even start playing receiver until he got to north carolina i know so he is still raw raw raw i mean and then like didn't go to bama and ohio state and clemson because he wanted to make unc a football powerhouse like i kind of like that aspect of it yeah you know and i will sit here and go like again dearmi brown is a first round receiver i don't know if he's gonna go first round i'm just telling you he's a first round receiver for my money he should be somewhere between 18 and 32. i think he's that special and what i would say to that really and this is where this is messed up where i want to go like if he went to alabama or clemson or ohio state he probably would be but it's north carolina and it's not quite the same and just i don't know a thousand yards and 20 yards per reception is not as the same thousand yards and 20 yards perception as if it was at clemson or bama or ohio state but yeah maybe top of the second top of the second probably not going to be happy if he's still there at the time i'll be very happy uh but yeah i could see that anywhere from 20 to 40 for diamond brown so if you haven't checked out the dm brown interview you can go do that on the youtube channel if you haven't checked out the calendar you can do that as well yeah they were good interviews good interviews and if you're listening to this and want to see when chris was talking about things that were on youtube you can go check it out on youtube check it out on youtube that's right if you want to see ahmed in his red pants check us out on youtube it's the time of the year where he takes him out about every other show people sometimes do white in the spring i do red you do it right red comes back i think i like that i mean honestly i'm getting to the point where i would go like if you're going to do the pod you have to wear your red pants it's like my signature yeah it's kind of like you have to do that energy drink red pants glasses that's me yeah right from that one yeah all right peace out tight ends next time it's tuesday you're back in the fold right yep all right last position oh i'm gonna be so happy when this weekend's over i really am i'm not gonna lie yeah i get anxious it's fun it's fun in the beginning and then as the grind goes on it's just it's anxiety always because i'm always like whoa i got a lot of guys on my list oh my gosh i gotta keep checking them off i'm sick of thinking like that hope everybody else is good out there questions were great let's keep talking ball together send them in pete aka what's his nickname now phantom fan phantom of the pot phantom pete will keep track of all those type of things ahmed you the man great show everybody have a good weekend we'll see you tuesday tight end rankings coming up clap it up [Music] hi i'm mike tarico and thanks for watching make sure to hit subscribe for the latest news and highlights from nbc sports

Channel: NBC Sports

Views: 73,237

Keywords: NFL, NBA, MLB, NHL, PGA, Golf, Athlete, Tennis, Olympics, nbc sports, chris simms, chris simms nbc, chris simms unbuttoned, chris simms nfl draft, chris simms draft, nfl draft, chris simms rankings, chris simms nfl, nfl draft prospects, nfl picks, nfl draft picks, nfl draft 2021, nfl draft lb, 2021 NFL Draft, Micah Parsons, Penn State, NFL draft rankings, Chris Simms Unbuttoned, Jabrill Cox, LSU, Nick Bolton, Missouri, Zaven Collins, Tulsa, Jeremiah Owusu-Koramoah, Notre Dame

Id: 8oEFKVH5114

Length: 92min 50sec (5570 seconds)

Published: Thu Apr 15 2021

Reddit Comments

[u/WayyTooFarAbove]

I like and want him on the team over any other defender in the draft. But I don’t think he’ll work as an ILB in our scheme

[u/NotAppendges]

He kind of reminds me of KJack. They hit like a guy that's 20 pounds heavier.

[u/Metafirebird]

Fuck I wish JOK was like 10 pounds heavier. But since we have Fangio it still may work out.