Chris Simms' 2021 NFL Draft Wide Receiver Rankings | Chris Simms Unbuttoned Ep. 251 (FULL)

[Music] the use of the bidet is spreading i don't know if it's from me right actually i do know it's from there i i was talking about it and my my brother-in-law was like i was like yeah we got it from you and we will never go back and i go no one will ever go back if you ever go to bidet you will never go back oh that's right we're right we're not on the bidet right now we're talking football uh at least we hope we're not on the bidet right now that would not be cool what's up man you doing good good to have you back it's been a long time it has been damn you've been sitting on the bidet for a long time yeah i mean geez it's getting a little awkward i mean the number of bidet uses between the last time i was on this podcast is a lot that is a lot okay good good no it is good to be back i've been listening you and paul thank you for crushing it thank you uh i was bummed i wasn't here during the whole quarterback rankings uh hubbub with zach wilson who is now the player of the podcast like our our future right rides on exactly yeah no pressure zack or anything if he if he falters at all in the nfl yeah this podcast goes away well like we cannot continue well i'm glad you've been paying attention i wish you were there for some of these too you know you're always good with helping with the backlash and things like that or making light of it yeah we'll see i mean you know again trevor lawrence is going to be the number one pick i had enough people in the nfl reach out to me already that's what i told you before we started here today for me to go i i have i'm in a good place with my zach wilson number one i don't think i'm the only person or guy that's uh in the nfl right that uh has him as the number one question we won't put our name on it well i will not go out there and help call these people out there but but certainly uh that'll be fun to watch here and just see what the jets do all of that but you got a lot of draft stuff coming up for us but uh i will say though and when that when that happens every time that happens and you say something that you feel and you've always mentioned this you have a career in mind maybe you're doing this in the future and so you just want to be right you don't want to create uh waves and click it's not about waves but what i'll say is that when you do this every time yeah click bait is made everywhere else like everywhere else i look it's like chris sims has put zach what it's like everyone accuses you of making click bait stuff which you do right everybody else everybody else writes an article about what you said i know no joke like i i i literally was like you know what my rankings are becoming a pretty big deal yeah they are uh for this the first time this year i've kind of felt that way and here's the funniest part about it why because like some tick-tocker my little boy watches who talks about yeah football quarterback he did a thing on chris sims top five rankings so that i mean that to me when i was like oh i'm next level now he goes dead super star i have arrived can you believe that he was excited to show me talking about you on the talk yeah uh so today so maybe who knows will create more waves today we don't know that can happen from time to time we've got the wide receiver rankings some good ones uh this is another really good class like last year was a really good class deep class this one i'm interested to get into your head and see what you think and how this one compares to last year um so we're going to get into your rankings you think there were there are six worthy of being in the first round i mean listen maybe more in some in some capacity now this is where this is where i get into this conversation right and just think of things like you you know we've been working together for a while all right like hollywood brown two years ago yeah he goes in the first round you know i don't underst you know kj hamler comes out last year he's the second round pick by the broncos i want to go it's every bit as good if not better than what i saw from hollywood brown the year before i don't understand it now i know you had a little injury concerns like i've always said even back then you know the difference was hollywood brown got to play with kyler murray and baker mayfield and kj handler at penn state got to play with nobody right there's a few of those guys in this draft where i go hollywood brown kj handler guys and what i mean by that are smaller undersized three rockets up their ass type wide receivers right there's a few of those where i have size concerns but i would go there enough speed and explosiveness here to where they can be justified in the first round and we're going to hit on those after we do the top six here to where i go i'd watch out for these guys all these guys i'll say the best of the rest that we'll mention on later on here they're they're top 50 picks of the draft type of guys and guys that can be huge difference makers so it's a good class all together so you're so good at separating the quarterbacks from their environment from their offense from what they were dealt with from the talent around them is it harder to do it with wide receivers you know because if you have a bad quarterback how do you ever shine a wide receiver is it is it harder to separate them from their environment well no it's it's actually not it's very similar the same thing you know again it's just vice versa to where you know the quarterback you go okay yeah that was an incompletion but nobody was open where do you want him to throw the football i don't understand okay i'm not going to give the negative to the quarterback there there was pressure there was no one open he's not superman wide receiver yeah it's the same thing it's a little bit like chase claypool last year i went you know yeah the stats are good but when you really look at it they should have been better he was open a lot more you know so i take that into account too not necessarily just to look at the guys and go well the stats okay yeah they're pretty good let me now let me get in here the stats are good let me see if the the tape justifies it no not at all you know you got to look at just the pure athlete the pure specimen does he have the pure physical tools to play the position of wide receiver and really not worry about the stats and the catches or anything like that because you can get stuck in a crappy offense with a crappy quarterback i mean they'll take you back to the you know the the dk metcalf and the aj brown conversation it was the same thing i was arguing that year yeah you know they were the top two receivers in the draft or i had them two of the top three i believe and they just go well yeah the stats aren't good i don't know it's like they were deliberately not trying to throw in the football and the offense made no sense and the quarterback wasn't that great so uh no i to your point though long story short it's it's not that hard as long as you don't get infatuated with the stats because there's guys on here that we're not going to talk about that had some of the best stats and the best separation rates and all the college football and all that and i want to go that's fine but stats and separation and all that can be created by an offense and a good offensive game planner and a play caller that way yeah to where that can give that receiver a huge advantage so my last question before we get into the top six rankings right of chris sims wide receivers in the draft class of 2021 we know what you like on the quarterback side it's like i think you you probably correct me if i'm wrong have a preference to arm talent able to make things happen out of nothing yeah um everyone has their preference every every scout out there has kind of their preferences things they look for things that make them different and i think make them a better evaluator are there things on the wide receiver side i know you're a huge fan of tyreek hill you had him as the number one wide receiver right and so you don't necessarily need the wide receiver to be six for 215. the greatest route runner in the world either right what do you think your you know preferences are what could go into your rankings that may be different than other people's well i think i think the the first thing that i always look for more than anything is just pure explosion you know speed explosion acceleration like there are there are there are traits there that make that player special that way you know i think that's the first thing i always look at now it's not the end-all be-all now if a guy has okay it's not a plus speed and a-plus acceleration but it's a minus or a b-plus but he's got a plus size and the ability to catch the ball in traffic you know then you balance it out like t higgins last year yeah i wasn't sitting there going oh wow he's so fast and explosive this is unbelievable but i went he's fast he'll scare you well he catches the ball and can turn up field pretty quick that's pretty good oh and damn he's a giant out there so even when he's covered he's not covered and then you have to balance it out that way but i think the first thing i always start with is just the ability to separate you not not the offense for you not they moved you around and put you in the slot behind somebody and you got the benefit of the creative game planning for that perfect coverage to catch the ball that way can you separate can you run away from people you know can you come out of brakes and re-accelerate that way that's what i look for more than anything and then you start to take in the size and the ability to catch 50 50 balls and their adjustments i think you go from there and start to piece it together so we go into your head and we get the six players that you think are a cut above this year so here it is our prospect rundown presented by applebee's boom all over chris sims rankings for the draft class of 2021 this year and let's start with a look back you always got to evaluate how you do no that's what we do right and you learn from it and you build towards the future you've had a good track record you mentioned chase claypool all over him dk metcalf aj brown so you've done well with receivers in the recent past here's what you did last year right if you're watching on youtube you can see it right now cd lamb was your number one guy justin jefferson who you were higher on than most yeah number two when always i remember back i always thought you put him one well i talked about like everybody kept when i would get done explaining people would go you talk like justin jefferson's your number one right and i was like you know i kind of do you're right it was very close between him and c.d lamp yeah now looking back at it justin jefferson i should have been one cd lam was really good yeah there's no doubt but i do also think cd lam was a little bit of a benefactor of playing in the big 12 and a wide open offense and a good quarterback and he's had other talent around him to where it wasn't the same for justin jefferson so that's where if you had to make me re-evaluate i would go yeah jefferson should be one henry ruggs was three for you he was the first wide receiver taken last year at number 12 overall by the raiders a little bit of a disappointing year he had some injury issues yeah right uh kj hamler was number four for you uh he didn't get a whole lot of great quarterback but came on at the end of the year he did he did huge moments explosive right long touchdowns one i think he had two long touchdowns late in the year and then t higgins was number five for you yeah so you look back at your rankings you wish you had put chase clay i i let the circumstances like i do every year a little bit i and i'm not doing it this year i'm going to have somebody in here that i think is going to surprise people in the top five but yeah you heard me i talked about chase claypool all year i was telling friends around the nfl he's the number one he's a first round pick a wide receiver and all i let some of the factors we just talked about about not evaluating wide receivers and things like that influence me and then you know hearing where other people might have them and all that i'm i'm i'm so mad at myself when i do that but i would say what i'm more disappointed with that i didn't have him in there right and you know even the other one i'll say i missed out like brandon ayuk okay the shanahan 49ers pick that is probably the other one i wish i probably would have had in there too i mean just to look after the evaluation and everything like that but you know i really like kj handler and i'm not giving up on him yet i still think he could be a star well i think you're being hard on yourself too because yeah you were higher on justin jefferson than a lot of other people because jefferson ended up going what 22 overall he was the fifth wide receiver taken right um and you didn't listen to all the critics when they were yelling at you for not having jerry judy in your top fiver a lot of people adam number one right as the top receiver he was the number two receiver taken um and i think that got proven right yeah that he wasn't at least the one or two the top two receivers i think that's you know whether he deserved to be in my top five or not hey let's let's see how the year plays out or the next year but you know i think at least i was justified at not having him in the top three for sure so i'm going to give you for last year thanks an a minus all right thanks i'll take an a minus i'll take an a minus you would have gone with your gut and had jefferson one i would've given you an a plus yeah a minus very good better than most we're going to exceed that this year so yeah let's just get right into it right you ready yeah let's do it number six in your chris sims 2021 nfl draft wide receiver prospect list i'm going to say that every time wow that's a good way that's a tongue twister there number six is going to be terrace marshall jr aka justin jefferson jr a little bit coming out of lsu you know really interesting prospect first off a lot of similarities to justin jefferson not quite the same player you know i'm not as as high on the guy overall but when you look at the player altogether there's not there's not much not to like i mean first off he can do it all and when i say that i mean hey he's got size 63 200 and when i say he can do it all i mean he can play inside or out he has the versatility to do that he did a lot of the justin jefferson slot type things that he did for joe burrow and that offense put him in the slot he runs slants in front of him from the slot fake slant come back out little in cuts over the middle so really when you look at him from you know the aspect of route running it's a he's a good route runner i'm not going to sit here and tell you he's as good as justin jefferson as a route runner i don't think he's got the same type of hips and wiggle but uh as far as pure speed goes it's right there with justin jefferson i think just the absolute pure speed aspect of it and he has unbelievable feet too you know so his ability to kind of chop stutter at the line of scrimmage get off jam coverage or you know get up to the 10 yard mark and then chop and break inside on an in-cut route is really special now when i talk about like hips and things like that yeah he doesn't have the hips to maybe you know go this way with his upper body and then i'm going this way and then turn the hips real seamlessly and go another way right almost a disconnect between the top and the bottom half like that's what a lot of good route route runners can do yeah like make it look like i'm going this way hey i'm going this way and all of a sudden their legs are going over there or they can do that that sort of he he misses that a little bit in his football game so i think that's one thing that i didn't love about him overall but you know you know the size you know the ability to route run and a pretty good knowledge of how to set people up that way and then i think you know you talk about the big play ability it's not as big playability as justin jefferson but it's still damn good he's still catching slants and seam routes in the sec and scoring 40 and 50 and 60 yard touchdowns you know hands are not perfect i think that's the other aspect too if you got to talk about negativity there is a little bit of a stiffness in the hips and then when i look at the hands as compared to some of the other guys we're going to talk about you know there's a few too many concentration drops and um i'm big with the wide receiver position too you know especially when you're playing over the middle with ripping the ball out of the air you know that's the difference sometimes between a 40-yard gain and a 12-yard gain you know you go down and you can watch two receivers to go well they're both really fast why is that guy breaking this play and the other guy's not well because one guy's you know catching it and okay let me put it away okay i got it where the odell beckham jrs of the world and the other you know really top five receivers it's running a million miles per hour and they they rip it out of the air and they don't ever lose that gear of running or anything like that that's an element too that he does not have uh that makes him number six but either way i do think he's a first round talent and at the very worst i think he's a top 45 pick with that size that speed he's a pretty damn good overall football player so african batman was asking who is this year's justin jefferson and you made a lot of comparisons there not just the school yeah he's going to right but a lot of things he does similarly but also not similarly he's an interesting player because um i was looking up his his bio in his past right he was a five-star recruit out of high school in louisiana yeah some had him as the number one wide receiver in that uh high school class sure played basketball in high school so he was an athlete he was the man and those players are always interesting to me because it seems like sometimes they ride the hype train all the way through it's like oh he wasn't quite because i don't think he had for being the number one ride receiver in high school he didn't have that kind of a college career no he did not um but you're evaluating him just on what you saw on the tape and so it's not like he's still riding that same hype train from when his when he was in high school in louisiana definitely not you know one he's very worthy of being in this conversation from everything you see there you know i was aware that he was a big recruit coming out yeah but but also you know kid's young okay i think he's 20 you know and when you look at also he got he got stuck in a tough spot where he couldn't be the guy yeah i mean jamar chase is a superstar we're going to talk about him later on here yeah justin jefferson we just saw this year he's kind of a superstar so you know he's a year younger than them he didn't really get the chance to be that go-to guy him not having jamar chase there this year i think was great for him because it kind of forced probably lsu to go wait we gotta get this guy the ball it would have been nice to have joe burrow still no that's definitely one of the things you do when you evaluate too with terrace marshall you know just like we talked about with some of the receivers a minute ago you know there's the stats could be better there's money plays and even some of the drops that i take into account where i go well i mean that ball's it's a helicopter i know he dropped it and he should catch it because he got two hands on the ball but as far as like catchable footballs man there's a lot of balls that were thrown his way as far as from the quarterback and not having that consistent play let alone different quarterbacks too and doing that one of his coaches said his ceiling if he fills out continues to get stronger right i don't know if he's going to grow anymore but with development he could turn into a julio jones type i mean he's got elite traits to have that size you know run the way he does i don't think i don't think he's ready to say it's i think his top end speed might be faster than justin jefferson like just as pure like once he opens up and goes yes it it might be it's every bit as close it's right there with it acceleration ability to break arm tackles and make people miss in space with the ball in his hands that's where justin jefferson was really good too yeah jeff that's where he was special but either way this kid is a special special talent and he's going to help out some team i think right away in year one one negative that popped up on yeah yeah was that he was an inconsistent blocker i don't see that that often is that anything that you look at well i do i look at it a little bit but not to where i don't over do it that's where to me that's where scouts a little sometimes can get a little too far into it and i just want to see is there is here their will to do it i don't need a guy that going in there to kill people and do all that either yeah and that's not what he's put on earth for um so yeah i understand like people get picky with that type of stuff yeah but but trying to look for something after a while you know what the other thing i look for with stuff like that too just when you go into physical contact and blocking yeah you know one the nfl is gonna breed him to do it a little bit more because the coach is going to mother f home and he's going to realize like damn the running back's pissed of me because that could have been a 20-yard run but i didn't so you start to feel like the personal i've let you down aspect of it but another thing i just look at for when it comes to that aspect is when he has the ball in his hands or he's running over the middle and people are head hunting him he's going to get crushed you know once i see a few times he's willing to put his shoulder down and do that and he's not like oh gosh there's contact let me get out of the way once i see that i go he'll block he's going to be physical i'm not afraid about that that aspect of his game so terrace marshall jr can be physical can be a justin jefferson type player which would be huge for any team that drafts him he is number six in your rankings i did want to mention that everyone kind of sees this as a big three right this year deep class yeah a lot of good talent yeah but a big three with jamar chase jalen waddle uh devonta smith we'll see if it plays out that way i got my own big three okay two of the three there but it ain't gonna be those three i would say i got my own big three and then we got two here that we're about to talk to who i think are just outside the big three that are kind of their own animal here pete clip that put that on twitter send that right now that's that's our sound bite uh okay so that is number six so now i'm really so let's just go five four real quick and then go to your top no uh number five for you and your wide receiver rank number five i'm gonna go with cadarius tony from florida okay all right and he could be easily number four too to me it's a little bit here of like what you want as a football player but with cadarius tony i mean what else is more to say i mean weapon explosion everything you know yes is he the most nuanced route runner there is yet you know no there's not he's kind of raw when it comes to route running but you know again i'm not going to over analyze it there's enough where i see oh he runs five yards and he makes a sharp cut or you know certain routes where i go okay that was really well done he's doing it more right now with just the pure physical ability because that's what he can do yeah he's he's got incredible acceleration i would really say you know it's top tier as far as anybody involved in this draft as far as getting up to top speed in the first two to three steps you know and really rare too with a weapon guy like this like there's a physicality element to his game you know with the speed sweeps the slants over the middle you know i would say really jamar chase who's going to be in that top three where are we talking about to me it's those it's jamar chase and tony who are the most dangerous with their with the ball in their hand because one of course hey they're fast as hell they're quick as hell to make people miss kadarius tony but you know they're just they're not afraid to lower a shoulder and bounce off somebody they run through a number of arm tackles to go along with that so i think that's the thing you talk about when you talk about kedarius tony it's acceleration it's twitchiness and then you know top end speed is pretty damn elite too so there's nothing not to like he fits the nfl game no matter you know okay yeah i'd like to see him be a little different as a rat runner or just a little bit more experienced that way but i've seen enough to know that's totally a possibility and he has all the physical tools to be a great great rat runner watching his highlight film yesterday and his nickname's the human joystick yeah i understand it it appears as though on some of his cuts that he does not have any knee ligaments it's like he doesn't have him it's like his knees and legs are bending all different which way and it has no effect on him no it's amazing i don't think i've ever seen as many plays from a guy like that it was like kind of barry sanders well it is it is that's why something's on the route running and you know if you're really going to break it down is a little raw but he doesn't need to because like what you're saying there's such elite quickness and twitchiness to where like hey we're supposed to like you know go out here and you know make a break and break to the left and then we're gonna break back inside he just will go up and just kind of just be like he'll just come to a jump stop and then explode over the middle and it just doesn't matter because he gets the guy to freeze for half a second and then he accelerates and he runs away from them you know but but i think what you're talking about too is that and the ability to like stick his foot in the ground yeah you know at full speed see those are the things i saw enough of to go okay it's not every play i'd like to see it more on certain routes and things like that but see enough on film to go oh he's going to be able to do this it's not even going to be you know a huge adjustment for him altogether but i think again too the other thing you talk about like you know with the with a guy like this is speed a weapon and then the icing on the cake to me is the the he plays bigger than his size that's where i really like his game too you know he's a guy that even though he's six foot you could throw 50 50 balls up on the sideline and he goes and gets the football i think that's the thing i was really surprised too too so there's no doubt that he is a first round pick and really really worthy of being a top 20 pick top 25 pick somewhere in that range but difference maker and a guy too that again you could put him outside and he can run by people with pure speed or you could have them in the slot doing all that tyree kill debo samuel stuff and really never miss a beat that way either yeah pro football focus called him uh quite possibly a generational talent with the ball in his hands once he catches the ball they have him marked as breaking 32 tackles on only 80 catches over the last two seasons the quickness is unreal yeah the guy we're going to talk about next is the only guy that i think rivals the quickness and i won't go there yet okay all right but i will say the pure top end speed like when we're just talking about now top end we've opened up right we're past the acceleration phase he's not the same speed as the other three guy the top three we're going to talk about in a little bit okay top three guys that we're going gonna talk about have like 100 meter track speed can can outrun anybody tony is really fast and i think he'd probably run a low four four you know maybe a high four three but it would be an incredible first 10 stuff like that where i think he'd really get out of the hole in a hurry so he kind of mentioned where he might fit but isaac bonilla asked a question here oh he just moved it there it is do you have an opinion on some offenses that tony would best fit in so well you know i he's gonna fit in any offense because he's so talented i mean there's really not one that i sit there and just go oh you know for this day and age in the nfl this is this everybody wants these kind of guys everybody wants to have that some sort of element it doesn't matter who you are you know even the most basic of offenses now are doing fake speed sweeps and doing stuff like that so except seattle but everyone else seattle could do more of it that's for sure even they started to do a little but you're right i mean again i i don't know if i have a spot right now that jumps out to me you mentioned debo samuel kind of used like him but tyree killish any you know any of those top those top receivers that are weapons in that way yeah uh yeah that that's how i i look at this player but yeah it's more of it's more of that the tyree killish um i don't want to say stefan diggs i know there's somebody else i'm probably missing here dj moore my guy from carolina it's that kind of guy it's a little bit more again of the almost a running back you know playing wide receiver type aspect of his game and it's special and it's a highlight reel and it's fun to watch it is it is fun to watch if you if you have not seen cadarius tony and most people probably haven't you know if you're not following the college game uh do yourself a favor go look at some highlights those are fun to watch so he is your number five number five wide receiver and now is when it gets interesting yeah now we're into the top four right and you've already mentioned the fact that your top three may look different than other people's top three so i'm going to stall for a second because you're just flipping through pages i got a lot of pages i'm full of notebooks here right now number four in the chris sims wide receiver rankings number four and i'm telling you it's close between me and number four and five to me again but this is where i'm gonna go with jalen waddle as number four oh yeah okay he is on the outside of the big three for me all right i really like jalen waddle let's just make sure everybody knows that right now i'd be really happy if i was a quarterback and jaylen waddle was playing wide receiver for me i guess listen the reason i got jaylen waddle is number four is because i think he's a true slot receiver okay i do have a little bit of a um a concern as far as size of the player now he's really good at getting off jam and getting off he's good at the line of scrimmage but again as nfl db's and on the outside i'm not i'm not sure i'm sold he can win on the outside play after play after play against the top tier wide receivers in all of football that's that's that's why he's four and not in the top three or anything like that all right i think he's a true slot not to say he can't go outside a little bit and do that yeah i know he can but i think between that all right so you talk about the size a little there and then acceleration twitchiness quickness off the charts good but speed pure straight line speed is not as not as good as the top three i'm going to talk about nor do i think is pure straight line speed is as fast as you know kedarius tony out of florida that we just talked about but now when we talk about route running and being a nuance game day one game one ready nfl slot receiver excuse me that's where i mean waddle's ready to go wado understands everything i mean first off he's still fast so don't get me wrong here i mean we're talking a guy that i still think would be mid four fours something like that but probably unbelievable five ten five and three cone drill and being able to change his body and doing all that but really it is the route running and not only just because the physical ability and to be able to you know jam the foot in the ground and come out of a break and do all that but he really understands how to set dbs up oh you're covering me he understands how to attack you and the leverage and set it up and create the separation by himself let alone forget the offense and what they can do for him so i think that's where he's really really special incredible hips can stick the foot in the ground accelerate at a break so you know now we're talking about yeah he can do all these hips things right he could get you thinking this way and then it's boom and he sticks it and goes that way and he loses no speed when he sticks his foot in the ground separation whereas you know going down the field db's may be able to catch up but he'll get that quick that's that's where that's to me where it is the slot guy because anywhere in that 10 to 15 to 20 range he's going to create any or underneath of course yeah he's going to create the separation he's got unreal suddenness too and also within you know he understands how to change speeds and he understands how to you know hey i'm i'm running at 70 and we're running and then all of a sudden it's you know boom jam the brakes on and then accelerate out and the db's a little caught off guard because he's like wait i thought we were kind of just striding it out here and all of a sudden you went crazy on me and you're gone yeah we had an agreement right right we had to get right but that's where he's really good at setting d but drawing them in get a little closer you know and then boom i'm out of the way or you know oh yeah here stay outside here stay outside you know attacking leverage is such a big part of wide receiver route running but you know you got a guy out here so many of the times you see college receivers with a guy over here they try to kind of almost run away from him which plays into the db's hands because now he's like oh wait i don't have to worry about behind me now i can come forward and attack you and the receiver so like the good ones like a waddle like yo the guys out here he understands where yeah he wants to go in there but he's gonna back that guy off to where it's not gonna be easy for him to go in there and he's gonna really threaten that leverage to make that guy go that way he's protecting to then for hit the brakes or hit the after burners to cut away from him that's where waddle was really good so how do you balance that because he can be an elite slot receiver yeah maybe he can't win on the outside yeah and he can but just not i don't think this is made for him and you think to be top top top of your draft class type wide receiver you need to be able to do a little bit of both i i do yeah i do and you know more i value of course the ability to go on the outside i do because again not everybody well you know not everybody's going to get put in the perfect offense and get the advantages of being in the slot are we going to perfect you so right off the bat the really good football tell us that we need someone out there outside who can handle it well you just need to handle it right so that that's the first thing i want to see what if you get stuck with some crappy offense who doesn't do motion and now they put you outside a lot and two you know one tight end two backs and there's two receivers you're playing outside receiver a lot you know i take that into evaluation here to i go i don't think jaylen waddle is going to be perfect for that formula you know that's not his he can be successful but i don't think it's like made for him to me he's made to be you know there's three receivers on the field he's the inside of those three receivers and he works the middle of the field he's smart and he's got you know all those attributes to be that special player that way so i think that's what i challenge it on you know outside guy have to have to me really special speed straight speed or size to go along with it to be able to win with your physicality aspect too and that to me is where waddle you know again the lack of straight long speed and the lack of size just scaring me a little bit with him on the outside as a regular receiver did have to play behind a lot of other wide receivers at alabama on the depth chart jerry judy ruggs devonte smith as well so it was never the number one guy no they're in alabama right a mark against him but um there were other guys that were there so let's put this into like a little i like waddle better than i liked ruggs or jerry judy last year yeah and so he's number four on this right here for me but i like him more as an nfl football player than either one of those guys hey ruggs was a projection rugs was a projection i don't know what else to say he was it was a little bit like huh i wish the tape were a little better but damn he could do some freaky things we've seen on tape and we think he might be able to come into being a superstar receiver with that type of speed and he was tough and those type of things he was a projection okay he's got these elite traits he hasn't really put it all together we'll see if he can be what we think he can be like i think we've seen waddle we know what he is and he is got punt return value and kick return value and all that stuff that's special but i think yeah at the end of the day he's a really good awesome slot receiver in the nfl with some outside value so here's the crazy thing is that we were talking about last year's draft class as being generational we haven't seen anything like this in a long time we won't see anything like this for a long time in the future that may have been wrong right because if you have waddle as better than rugs you had rugs third last year yeah so how do you see this i mean is it in general is it the top four guys are better than the top four guys but maybe last year's class had more of this deep like how do you compare it it's a good question i think the top end of this class is every bit as comparable to the top end of last year's class okay like i think if you took maybe they're a little different and of course you know size speed the different kinds of guys and all that all that but i still think just pure talent i think when you take like the top eight or ten it's comparable to last year and then it falls off last year it it never really fell off you got to like eight or ten and you were like well man guy 15 is somebody might think he's just as good as guy eight on the list you know what i mean you know and i understood that you know last year there was legitimately 20 something receivers you looked at and you went they could be good they could all be in the top 50 of the draft and i wouldn't be mad at it i understand it i think this year yeah we probably got more like 10 or 11 that are that way and then there's then there's a drop-off so jalen waddle many people have him in the top three some have him up to two and i think some try to make the case that he could go against jamar chase he's number four for you number three yeah in your wide receiver here's my guy this is my guy right here you've tabbed him your guy yes well this is the guy that i just don't understand why nobody's talking about this guy that's that's why he's my guy this is my let's say my chase claypool of this year right okay uh and i didn't chicken out and not put them in the top five but diami brown deamy brown from north carolina to me this is the and and let me just preface at this we got the top three here and i think the top three are close all right i think it's close i'm not sitting here going oh number one is purely number one number one two and three to me are special like special superstars like can really can have a bright future and diamond brown to me was the one that like out of all the guys i watched in the draft or i just went whoa who's who's this guy like okay i saw a little north carolina football this year i remember watching them catch like you know one deep pass and whatever else but you know me i'm a casual college guy i'm not like breaking it down during the season yeah but as i turned him on it was literally from like the first snap i swear to you the first snap i went whoa whoa okay it's play one i'm not trying to judge but play one looked like superstar um so what was it do you remember what caught your eye i think just the way he took off like they said set hut and the way he took off in like the first ten steps i just went that looked like a superstar i don't know i haven't seen anything else yet let's see if he can catch i don't know and he can do anything else but the way he moved and took off i went uh-oh like acceleration top-notch top-end speed it's odell beckham jr with the ball in the air type speed i mean it's he has another gear there's nobody that can run with this kid nobody i didn't see one game that anybody could even run with him in fact and in so many of the games it's good dbs who are nine yards off and they're they're running back at the start of the snap they're like said hi and they're literally running back like you can have the 10 yard curl route we'll give it to you i'm not going to let you put me on a highlight for a 60-yard bomb can he do that in the nfl he can do that in the nfl and this isn't just some speed straight line guy first off route running i thought was through the roof in all aspects you know again being able to break down stick your foot in the ground you know coming back to the ball was one thing that i didn't like early on in the film and i went as the year went on i went oh no he's coming back to the ball so this guy he adjusts his adjust on the fly to fix some of the issues he had all together but you know pure raw speed and ability whether that's top end speed that i think's probably 4-3 type speed right maybe faster i don't know all right then you know acceleration that we talked about with waddle and cadarius tony it's it's right up there with them as far as the acceleration is concerned it's special you know maybe he's not quite as twitchy in the jitterbug those two guys are like that slot type there they are but still this is unbelievable feat at the line of scrimmage you know and really understands how to set db's up and has incredible start stop ability so double moves you know or a fake curl ratty breaks down and then re-accelerates again i mean i was just blown away by the guy all together let alone it's not just some track guy on it it's not just some guy who just fasts and does all that you know again you go back to the physicality thing and that man he catches the ball over the middle snatches it out of the air which i love which means when he's he can catch slants and go for 70 yard touchdowns and it it's it's there's no shying away from contact he's got no problem with that i mean really i think you know as you could tell i'm very excited about him because he's just one of those guys that just go i don't understand why he's not getting a little more credit well you you mentioned tracks yeah um he ran track in high school okay the 100 meter yeah what'd he do and he ran it in 10 78. that sounds fast yeah i really have nothing to compare that to that i think that's fast well 1078 in high school is yeah it's really fast if you used to run it now it'd be even faster well yeah i would think so i would think he would be faster now we should run it just to compare like i should go back out in the parking lot and run it right now his speed is is you know super and okay i mean listen we know who the top two receivers are gonna be and you can don't get away no i know but i just say between pure top end him and devonta smith from alabama are have another gear that they're in that nobody else has so just as pure top end speed you know chase's is really close right there but i don't think his top end speed you know 30 through 60 yards is on the level of of d'ami brown and devonte smith who when they open up it's like yeah good luck you're not catching them pete ran track in high school yeah he can confirm 1078 is fast yeah yeah so he faster than pete believe it or not he would be able to barely edge pete now in a race uh he averaged over 20 yards of catch as a sophomore and this past year as a junior at unc um the knock is that that's basically how they used him right it was a lot of vertical a lot of deep routes right there wasn't a whole lot of variety they found something that worked in the acc and just exploited it as much as they could do yeah can he do all the other stuff or do you have no doubt no i have no doubt i i you know i figured that would be the knock you know and it's just funny when it's like well we just found a way for him to run by everybody that's the only way we used them all yeah you know it can only run by everybody so that's why we put him out there yeah okay that's why he he did that role because mac brown who's like i haven't had a guy that can run like this holy cow he's got rockets up his ass so he can run by people but no i was really impressed with the route running and i was impressed with whether it was the six yard hitch route or the slant route or anything like that it wasn't like i was really impressed with the like i said the ability to snatch the ball but instantaneously get up field and look for yards after the catch and do those type of things but yes whether it was in cuts deep comebacks all of those things i thought he had a great feel again of changing speeds like we talked about right you know especially when you're really fast because everyone's always worried about you they're running the go route right so now you know guys like kim and devonte smith does this too you know they come off the line of scrimmage and they're kind of running like 90 percent and the db's still like okay wait he might hit the afterburners on so i'm still worried about the go route and then you know maybe at 15 yards they hit it hard yeah and all of a sudden the db is like oh gosh he is going deep they go crap he was only going 50 percent before right and he hits it so now they're now they hit their other gear because they go i better get on my horse he's going to run by me and then boom at 20 yards they can break he breaks it down and he's wide open for an easy completion for the quarterback so what do you think other people are missing on him i i don't know and you know again i have no feel for like how other coaches or the nfl has feel for him right now it's not like he's totally out of left field i would be shocked if we don't start to hear more about this guy as we get close longer in on this you know again a lot of my nfl friends they're just getting into draft stuff so that i you know i have some friends who are just like oh yeah i've seen a little on him but i haven't seen him yet and all of that yeah but i would think this is a guy as we get closer to it where you're gonna hear he's riding up he's rising up draft boards yeah yeah because we didn't even look at him before well you don't have a draft board so you heard it here first right you are looking at these brown before nfl teams two you are this is the the first you're here you're you're finding out if you're listening to this quicker than your favorite nfl team well the scouts have seen it front office people have seen it but coaches who i who i talk to more than anything are not all the way through the draft yet and uh yeah yeah but too many elite things about the game elite speed elite acceleration you know has good size and route running is borderline elite too i mean i think this guy has superstar written all over him like i'm i'm a huge fan of him and again i know he's number three but it's like you for to me you could almost go one a one b and one c with what we got here is one two three down the stretch diami brown i like them yeah because growing up my nickname from some of my friends was ami is that right yeah did you watch any of him did you see any highlights of him or anything would he impress you what do you think they're you know some of these guys are similar right you look at their tape and you're like they're all kind of like shifty guys twitchy guys and so yeah he did i didn't watch a ton yeah um but i know well that's where highlights can be different from film too because you get to see the whole picture and sometimes what film does compared to tv you see a replay of a play yeah and they show that guy you know either in the screen by himself or you know he's in the screen by himself with the you get to see the db a little bit unlike the back end of the screen right but what would really like where film is great especially for receivers you get to see their speed in relation to the whole field you know that's where it all 22 view and you get to see the whole field there you get to start to see oh whoa oh he caught this ball all right i see all these guys on the field from this school they're fast and he's faster than all of them he's running by tape over here is moving faster it doesn't sound like he was impressed with it though there i was disappointed to hear it no i mean i didn't see a ton of them yeah you're the guy that watches all the film but i will say that i am influenced mostly by the uh the soundtrack in the highlight reel and the use of slow motion so if they didn't use a lot of that with the um brown i was not impressed so that i can be easily fooled so he is number three for you so we have a top two your number two wide receiver in the chris sims 2021 nfl draft rankings davonte smith will be my number two okay okay and again that's my trophy winner heisman trophy winner alabama has it all okay and obviously jamar chase is going to be my number one but this i mean this is neck and neck you know neck and neck with with my man d'ami brown just being barely on the outside of these these two guys to go along with it all right so let's talk the first thing i mean first off we know devonte smith is a freak of nature i mean you've seen it you saw enough college football you can be the most casual of football fans there are to know wait wait number six in alabama is the real deal who the hell is this guy all right but here let's just dispel some of the rumors right off the bat you know he's 6-1 he's 175. 100 you know maybe 180 pounds he's too skinny not sure if that can work and everything like that first off he has a frame to me that shows he's going to get bigger all right so and i you know i played with guys uh and i can't remember the other name there's like two players ever who have been like above six foot and weighed under 180 and like one of them was snoop minutes out of florida state okay few years i played with him and played with him at tampa this is a different body than a snoop menace snoop is really narrow and like small hipped and legs were close together it was devonte smith is a high-cut high-waisted guy okay with some more thickness in his legs and again i don't know what his size is but the way he looks as a human being and just my history being around football he looks like a guy that it's not going to be like hard for him to get bigger as he gets older here i think there's going to be natural weight that comes along with it but despite all of that like there's nothing on film to say that strength is an issue with the game nothing like there's absolutely nothing you can look at to go you know oh well this concerns me see this is i've seen 10 clips like this where he gets jammed at the line of scrimmage or the ball's in the air down the field and the guys are hand fighting and he's totally just getting thrown off kilter and he can't hold his ground right even with his weight he's not getting thrown around he's got an incredible play strength and and physicality to his game that i thought was the most pleasant surprise of all that's why i like the diamond brown too i didn't really get to hit on that aspect he plays through contact i'm big with that at receiver they're not gonna call pass interference every play so what can you finish your routes at 15 and 20 yards down the field when you've been arm barred or hit you know some of these guys we could talk about later where that's why i go they're not in the first round conversation they get hit and they're the route's over they're all over the place like devonte smith he can play through contact the 50 50 balls catching the ball through traffic is really good you know when people do get a hand on him at the line of scrimmage he can fight right through it and has no issue the play is not ruined right and let alone at the line of scrimmage he's incredible at getting off the ball and not letting you get jammed you know like you know like jamar chase devonte smith dearmi brown they have great jump cut ability and what i mean by that like in jump cut ability is again if you're a wide receiver you know and you're getting stuck with split stands too much going around dbs and jam coverage if they get their hand on you you're gonna lose your balance yeah like smith and diami brown and jamar chase are awesome at coming off the ball you know stutter stepping right so now the db's like this and then they get to this spot right here they go right here almost to a split stance and now they can go either way and that gives the db you know there's no tell and then of course they're in a strength position even if you do get the hand on them to be like no i got a base underneath me and i'm going to be able to rip through that hand or whatever else that hits me yeah that's where devonte smith has that um so just that was the first question i needed to have answered because i was i heard about the rumors and i see the player and what he looks like you go i heard a rumor he was skinny and then you look at his like he is kind of skinny he is skinny i understand that you know but but the film doesn't show a skinny guy that's going to be affected by you know the jalen ramsey's of the world contested catches he's pretty good he's really good at it that's i think the other thing i was blown away by and that's why i like matt you know mac jones there's a number of plays where hey he's covered you know mac jones sees he's covered they put it in the right spot he can adjust to the ball the right way and yeah people are hanging on him and touching them it doesn't matter he grabs the football after practice there was a rumor out there that he would catch a hundred passes off the jugs machine every day after practice that's been confirmed people said that was true so he's got the work ethic there uh he did yeah lead the country right in screens so they were definitely scheming for him right so here's what i'm gonna say yeah you were enamored with the big numbers and they all came on screen well that to me also speaks to a little bit like would dispel the physicality thing yeah you're not throwing like one guy all these screens if you don't feel like he can make people miss and be comfortable like oh i've caught the ball two yards behind the line of scrimmage and now i'm i'm coming up the middle and there's defensive lineman and linebackers and i'm in the scrum with all of them like if he was some you know lack of a better phrase wimpy i'm going to get down type wide receiver they wouldn't have been doing all that and it's a great compliment because the other aspect like the guy we just talked about with diamond brown who these are the two fastest receivers in the in the draft like the speed is special it's really special so you know he gets into that jump cut like we talked about amen and i don't care sccdbs whoever it is when he gets in that position and if somebody's close he's going to run by them he's running by them his ability to get in that jump split and then take off and within two or three steps be even with a guy and now oh wait the ball's going in the air and it's another 20 yards downfield i'm gonna go catch a 30-yard fade route on the sidelines he pulls away from everybody right you know so it's it's all around special let alone he has way better strength and physicality than i was expecting king of buffalo could devonta smith be the best wide receiver on your team or does his intelligence and skill set make him even more valuable if he's your second best well i think he's got the he's got superstar he could be the best player on your he can be the best player best wide receiver on your team he does have that but to that to the point there that's also what makes him special i think you know and really maybe where i make him and jamar chase one and two he shows all those intangibles too uh you know here's mac jones nobody's open and he's moving in the pocket and devonte smith was sitting in some zone and people around him and he's got a great feel to go like oh let me get over here here's a good spot where i think you know the quarterback can find me in the whole of the zone or whatever he's got a great natural instinct of how to play the game and he's a great route runner um it just there's really nothing not to like about him the only thing you're going to question is that size and physicality and i'm sure that when he goes to personal workouts that's what people are going to test them with more than anything you know but two i mean he can he has a knack to where i'll say him and jamar chase are the only they're they're above everybody else even better than my man d'ami brown at this too where you know they have a knack of like go to the widescreen kristin here just for a second where you know let's say you know i'm the receiver the quarterback's over there the db's over here right he's he's so i've run a curl route and the db's behind me they have great feel for davonte smith of going like he's run the route now he's comes out he's gonna get the ball and he just catching it and literally going like the db's here he had a feel for where he was yeah and he just snatches it out of the ground and seamlessly it's almost like man i think he started running before he even caught the ball he's that good and it's the difference sometimes between a 10-yard crow route or wait he caught a 10-yard curl route and ended up getting 22 yards because you know he caught the ball and took three steps up the field and he was already 15 yards down the field before everybody kind of you know gathered in and trying to tackle what about yeah another added benefit of him back in high school in uh the championship game he had 111 yards receiving had a interception return for a touchdown so he was playing defense but he also had a kick return for a touchdown and there are some uh scouts out there that say he could be a punt returner kick returner he can do all of that both the alabama guys really any of these guys that we're talking about all have that capability but he's so small do you really want to use him no i would i would go no like let's not let's not do that to any of these guys really let's let's not they don't need to be returning kicks or punches which is why most teams don't do that right yeah all right you know maybe maybe in a big game whatever hey it's the playoffs you know that's like joey galloway used to do that with tampa like when we had a big moment or a big part of the game okay now he's gonna go back and return the punt but you don't want him doing it like all game long every week that's when you're you know a recipe for disaster so you really like devante smith i do you were going crazy over him which means that you must really really like your number one guy no i really like all three of my top three as you could tell but there's something that you like about jamar chase over those other two well i jamar chase to me is just a slam dunk that that's where it's like okay devonte smith you know okay the size thing is a little skinny okay it's not perfect you know diamond brown maybe you could say a little yeah i'd like to see wishy got used in a few different ways right like you talked about it was just to go like okay i'm being nitpicky jamar chase is just it's the safest let alone it's really awesome and the best too i mean it's just phenomenal now again i don't think the gap is like like i said i think it's okay he's won davonte smith is one a and dearmi brown is one b i wouldn't be mad if any of those three went off the board if somebody went oh this we picked this receiver first i'm not gonna go well that's just so stupid how could you pass up that other guy yeah i think they're all worthy of it in my opinion i i know but yeah when it comes to jamar chase he just has everything i mean first off he has the ability to be an elite slot receiver so he could be an elite slot receiver he's not the most like technique well-schooled route runner yet but again it's like our old thing like let's not over evaluate the guy that we've seen can do every movement on the planet with his hips and his his feet and just because no one's taught him exactly how to run the routes yet let's not say oh he's not a good route runner no there's plenty of good but you know one he could be the best slot in football but he also could be like the best outside weapon in football too and just run by you with pure speed and i think between all the other guys too we're talking about maybe other than the guy from florida cadarius tony this is the best receiver with the ball in his hands that's where he's special so one he can separate route running two he plays way bigger than six one two hundred you know that's the one thing i like about him devonte smith you know and and um and dearmi brown you know they're six foot six one all that but man when the ball's in the air it's not 50 50. that's the other thing you know like you've heard me say before it's kind of like 70 30 yeah when the ball's in the air with these guys so he has that aspect but as far as going over the middle and being fearless he's the most fearless of all of them you know and again snatches the ball out of the air and is a guy that is looking to make big plays happen hey matt casey casey look there he is baby he's looking yep the jets aren't getting him sorry um but i am uh i'm really excited about jamar chase because he is again awesome receiver weapon he can do everything you want on the offensive side of the ball where it's like you could line him up a tail back and give him the toss sweeps you could do it all with him yeah he uh everyone's keeping the praise on on him in that title game did you go back and watch the the national championship game versus clemson nine catches 221 yards couple touchdowns most of that against aj tyrell most of it and to me was you if you remember last year in the quarterback rankings that to me was one of the positives of aj terrell everyone going well he got beat in that lsu game i want to go no no he never got beat he was there with jamar chase jamar chase just always caught it he just couldn't break the ball up yeah but i thought that was a big thing for me but it was also a positive for jamar chase to go oh look even when he has a guy that can run with him a little bit and has talent he's still a real option down the field so he's special you know just from that aspect of being able to win one-on-ones outside you know like smith and d'ami brown he has the jump cut when we talked about he gives himself the two-way go off the line of scrimmage so it's boom you don't know which way he's gonna go he always says balance and like those other two guys too within three steps he's by you and on top of you and now putting his hand up and you're going uh oh watch out a couple of the comps for him which yeah i think are interesting every once in a while daniel jeremiah over at nfl network said he is like a faster anquan bolden uh jamar himself said that he respected dez bryant uh growing up you see him kind of in are those similar at all to what you see from jamar i mean i underst but he's more explosive than they are away speed that's where i look at it you know those guys are great because they can make people miss and do that and that's where i mean he can do that he's awesome at catching a slot slant over the middle and now there's a linebacker there and he hits the brakes and he makes him miss and then it's up the field five yards and that was a safety and he makes him miss and now he turns it on and he tries to outrun everybody like there's a lot of that but like that's where dez bryant and anquan boldin couldn't do that yeah you know they could make you miss but they weren't going to re-accelerate and now beat people 50 yards down the sideline for a touchdown that to me is where he has another gear really you know you know i'm trying to and i didn't write down a whole lot of pro comparisons and i know i've already used this one already this this today where i said this but to me it's again it's a better version of like a dj more you know from carolina it's that kind of guy again too where it's yeah he could catch a screen and go for rady he could just beat you over the top for 80. he could catch a slant break a few tackles make people miss do all that for a 50-yard gain um yeah it's it's it's he's a really special player and again i think he is the number one receiver in the draft but i don't think it's by the leafs and bounds that i think i've seen some people try to say it is jen's jewel says you were high in justin jefferson last year which you were who's better of the lsu kids jefferson or chase um the chases chase was better than jefferson last year you know the one thing that just think about chase is yeah we didn't get to see him play football this year well that's the question too is that he had all this success huge year yep helps when you got joe burrow sure helps when you have joe brady yeah there as well no doubt about that so it was a good environment around him it was it was a good environment but still the specimen himself is the real deal he's definitely worthy of a a top 10 top 15 pick anyway he's a he's a game breaker i mean that's that's really all there is to say and again i you know the big thing too will just be knowing the guy and knowing the player there this is where teams are going to have to do their due diligence this year just as you know what kind of guy is this kid did he just like during the season this year just put his feet up and drink chocolate milk the whole time and chocolate might milk shakes or yeah or was he a kind of guy that we know was working and like staying on top of his craft and drinking almond milk and drinking better shapes milkshakes and all that i think that's what you know teams are going to have to figure out and if he is that guy that stayed in shape and done all done all that then yeah i i i expect him to be the number one number one receiver off the board fran saressa says what team is the best fit for jamar chase i'm gonna answer for you any team well yeah they're again like a lot of these guys we talked about you're right it's not there's not gonna be any um any system that they don't fit into right right and let me pull up and if they don't you got to get rid of the coach and bring in a coat another coach well yeah exactly right the the top five or six guys we've talked about here today all have really really special traits and should be able to fit anywhere and i'm just looking here yeah i guess that's the question because it's interesting like last year as deep as that draft class was what was the first pick the first pick in the draft was henry ruggs 12 overall and so when you do have a lot of guys that are really good yeah sometimes they can drop down right because you know quarterbacks need to go up you're going to get some offensive tackles and then you're gonna go well we really like jamar chase but you know kaderius tony we could get him maybe in the second round yeah you know maybe he'll fall that far you you have to play that that's where it's going to be how you scout them how they're ranked on your board right yeah okay what if you have jamar chase as your number one receiver and he's got a 6.8 grade yeah right and you're and let's just say you're the dolphins at number three but you got devonta smith at six seven and diami brown at six seven yeah and kedarius tony at you know six six five right and that may be where you go well maybe we if somebody wants to trade up with us we trade down yeah and we might not get the guy that we have number one but we have two three four and five just barely underneath them and now we got an extra first round pick or an extra second round pick that'll be what teams have to decide all right so how high do you think a wide receiver could go this year i know the ultimate all right i i mean the dolphins are the team i look at there but i don't think they're they're number three yeah but i don't think they're going to do it you know they have demonte parker they have preston williams and they just signed will fuller and i don't think that group down there brian flores you know being new england is a we're going to pick a number three wide receiver in the draft i just that's just my what my heart tells me you know i don't think the falcons i don't know if they're going to go there right now not with julio and ridley yeah the bangles i don't expect either you know be interesting but you know it's a pretty good core receivers they got there as well yeah they weren't maybe as good as we thought they were no no you're right but when you take in boyd and um t higgins right and then yeah autumn tate you know maybe they think about it maybe the eagles certainly have a need there's a question of the need hey the eagles christopher jones should the eagles take mac jones trey lance or the top one or two receivers because there is talk about the eagles wanting to take a quarterback right even though they got there there is yeah they just want uh they want more controversy well they just got rid of the contract why would you have more i've talked about you know i mean if they're gonna take a quarterback it's number six then you have to trade jalen hurts because everybody gonna do this whole same problem over again so you know they would be a team that i certainly would look at to be in the wide receiver conversation i will say though you know i don't think teams like taking receivers in the top five not this day and age right now in the nfl where we see all these receivers year after year like you're talking about there's still some good free agent receivers on the market you're seeing the market for free agent wide receivers the money is not as great i think because of all these aspects we're talking about so i don't have a good answer for that yet as far as where these guys go because i also need to see the rest of the draft right i need to see defense ends a little bit more you know i need to finish the corners uh i got to get into offensive tackles where i haven't got you know those are the positions where especially tackle defense alignment they're more of a premium and usually those guys go in the top ten because they're not growing on trees like some of these other positions okay so uh we're going to get into your honorable mentions here in a second but let's just recap yeah what you did with your top six here take a look at it one through six you got jamar chase number one devonte smith two deamy brown you're really high on number three out of north carolina jaylen waddle kedarius tony and terrace marshall jr and that was the prospect rundown presented by applebee's yeah applebee's whoop i do like applebee's people people think i say that just because they're a sponsor and i'll be honest with you that does help you know i do feel you know like i can raise them more but there's a natural liking of it it's very naturally sad i get it yeah and if i didn't like them i just wouldn't bring it up yeah i just wouldn't say it at all right uh pete's got a pop quiz right here all right who was the last wide receiver taken top five overall in the nfl draft see this is to my point though you're right so this is a good question give me because like you know you know i saw julio jones on the field in the pregame in the national championship against texas and i remember sitting there going oh my gosh what a freaking nature this guy is you know that's a top five pick and he went what like number nine first number seven but six okay so he was close okay hold on a second here the last wide receiver to go top five is this really corey davis for the tenants wow 2017. yeah i didn't give that the greatest review anybody else wants to go watch my grading of that pick uh i did not you know my big thing i like corey davis a lot i never saw a pure raw just explosion and things like that to me that's you know like the guys we just talked about and even they won't go that's right and i mean the other thing for corey davis is this right here this is always my big clue if you're a receiver and you've gone to school for four years then i yeah i don't know if your top five specimen you know the really freaky receivers are like ready to leave after two years like jamar chase and then the third year they're like watch me i'm going to kill college football and i'm definitely a top 15 so this is interesting you go back to all the top five receivers here recently right 2015 we had one amari cooper went fourth overall okay yep uh 2014 we had one sammy watkins went fourth overall oh yeah 2012 justin blackman went fifth 2011 aj green went fourth right okay 2007 you got to go back there kelvin johnson two uh braelyn edwards was a top five pick in 2005. larry fitzgerald charles rogers wow there are some misses there so that probably affects some thinking too so corey davis 2017 will be the last ever wide receiver take in top five this group could challenge that though this group could we could see a top five guy gone this year i will say this i think we can i think there's a good chance you could see those top three guys off the board in the top 15. i i would i would say that strong i wouldn't be surprised if this year maybe we have two guys go in the top 10 at the wide receiver position you know it just again what you have to also look at the teams that need receivers we we talked about the dolphins yeah i expect the jets to go with zach wilson so i don't think that's going to happen the bengals could be a team that maybe so you got the dolphins the bengals the eagles the lions at number seven they they all could use receiver help yeah carolina the broncos and the cowboys and the giants at eight nine ten and eleven and then the 49ers of 12 and then really the chargers of 13 do not need receiver help so it's going to be about those teams we first mentioned there and are they going to you know bite the hook or are they going to wait till later on and maybe the top of the second round to get a guy they like okay so let's go you've done the work you looked at like what 30 receivers about 30. so let's go kind of speed round stuff yeah cool some of these all right and we'll start with speed round style your honorable mention yeah we do that yeah you leave them off you have them do you want me to read them do you want me to read back your own yeah you just said you just say we'll go one by one whatever you want to do north texas yeah jalen darden ooh like one of my favorite watches there are a weapon you know again this is a guy that fits into like i was talking about earlier it's it's hollywood brownish right it's it's that it's kj hamler it's that type of guy but like small slot jitterbug who has incredible speed and acceleration like this guy might be like i i wrote down he could have 4-2 speed in the 40s i wouldn't be shocked it's that type of speed you know plays tough can run routes i really liked him he is a weapon and i just what there's no doubt you know for me he's a top 50 pick in the nfl draft jalen darden has some of the best first quotes out there he said slow feet don't eat and he also said making someone miss is like waking up in the morning and brushing my teeth i gotta do it every day gotta well he the the the one of the the first guy never makes a tackle on on jaylen never it really so his ability to make people miss and then shoot up field is really special like i mean it's top of the line in this day and age in the nfl too i'm not worried about five nine 174 the way that offensive coordinators move guys stack guys and do all that stuff he's my number one just because of those two quotes he goes to numbers it's a good those are good questions list uh from louisville to atwell same type of guy same type of guy similar i mean there's nothing not to like about 2-2 out well other than just like a jalen darden it's just it's small it's really small okay but but like top of the line you know ability to change directions you know burst in and out of brakes and then you know the top end speed again it's 4-3 range you know this is why i you i said there's eight or ten guys to me that are top 50 pick material because they're game breakers you know he has got a really really special talent that way and like a legit superstar slot receiver but also like that weapon ability like we talked about like the tyree kill or whatever where you can give him a speed sweep and he could turn the corner and go up 80 yards for a touchdown so he's in your honorable mention as well as is marquez stevenson out of houston yes i mean more of a straight liner i'm going to say he's a step below those guys that i just talked about not quite the route runner all right a little bit more of like a denzel mims who came from baylor last year as far as just a straight line if there's an alley to go straight away he's going to outrun you and make some things happen he can outrun you just going deep and doing all that maybe not as quite as quick or as physical as some of these guys with the ball in his hands and making people miss that way but like this the speed is undeniable and would think he's another guy that's probably a 40340 type of guy weirdly western michigan has produced some wide receivers in the nfl dwayne eskridge could be another one you said it's the same kind of guy it's like it's where it's like these smaller slot receivers who have superstar top end speed to go on the outside and beat you that way right but just like 2 2 at well or darden you know i would say you know 2-2 atwell darden from north texas and eskridge i think they're i would put them in a group right outside that top six where i'd have the houston guy below them okay but but the same type of thing i mean it's it's yeah i wish they weighed a little bit more there was a little more strength to their game but it's not like it's like so oh they're so small if they get jammed they're going to be all over the place and you know they're not going to be able to run the ball catch the ball over the middle and do those type of things you know for the smaller type guys i was really impressed with you know their their fearlessness over the middle and how they did kind of weave in in and out of traffic and all that so yeah there's another guy to me again the nfl as you heard me say during the year it's about homers and strikeouts you know guys that can catch a six yard out route that's cool and we want them on our team but i want guys that can catch 60 yard bombs and that's what we're looking for here it's elite traits and these guys have elite traits and that's usually what determines whether you go in the first or second round remember when we clone that sheet dolly yeah what if they've done it with nfl wide receiver what if they've just cloned a bunch of these guys because they're all in the same mold it's twitchy i mean fast really i you know as i sit here and look at it i wish i could go through and flip through all but like darden's five nine one seventy four yeah two two out well five nine one sixty five it's all the hollywood brown kj hammer type of guy right where yeah in the old days people would have been scared but now with the rules about hitting protected receivers over the middle yeah and the way receivers are used and offenses and moved around like we talked about i don't think that fear is nearly as big as what it was you know 10 15 years ago okay time to get grilled by the homies right they don't even know your rankings yet but they're ready to grill ready to grill me uh garnett west why idiot why is yeah these rankings are terrible i can't wait to see him i know why is rashad bateman from minnesota not getting the recognition in recognition like the others there's seriously no weakness in his game i like rashad bateman he's a mid-round pick it's a good question but rashad bateman would be the poster child of like how we started off the podcast when you talk about you know the stats and some of the nuanced things you can look into are misleading you know first off they have a pretty good offense in minnesota second off they put him in the spot to always kind of be the game plan play hey we're gonna do all this so you can catch the ball and be wide open on the eight yard out route and the slot route right here we got we got three receivers out here you're the inside of three these two guys on the outside we're gonna create all the space to know where you can be the main guy that catches the ball so there's good there but there's nothing elite about his play and he would scare me to death on the outside you know as far as against like legit nfl corners to where i would think he'd have a hard time separating so he's kind of a big slot that way he could he could have a a solid career in the nfl i'm not trying to say anything like that but to me he has no traits that say he's a top 50 picks he's really elite at this aspect and that's why you know he'll go in the first two rounds i'd be shocked i think he's kind of a late third fourth round type guy is he similar remember van jefferson last year in florida i think she's different i think it's advanced smaller right yeah different kind of a player but the idea was that okay older you did a lot in college can do a lot of things really well and like you can put them right into an offense right now but you don't think that there's necessarily that athletic upside no i think like vance had more athletic help upside like at least with vance i got to see a lot of sec oh your man-to-man this guy's a good corner and he could make the he could oh guys from auburn who are both in the first round i can make him miss and and and get open and do that stuff he was a really nuanced really quick great route runner bateman i'm not going to say is is that you know he's a good route runner but not a great route runner doesn't have some of those skills van jefferson has but still a slot guy with some size and dependable hands and played some football and he'll find a role on the team for sure ben money morris yeah why do you hate the big ten rondale moore from purdue went from a ton of hype two years ago yeah to not a lot this year why is that well because he's obviously had injury issues yeah there's got to be he's played seven games over the last two years so that says it all it to me was in one of the more disappointing watches of all really well i i watched him a lot as a freshman i don't know why that year i kept turning on purdue games and just happened to be on and and i kept going oh my gosh this kid's a superstar he's going to be we're going to be talking about him for a top 20 pick in two years kentucky gatorade player of the year in high school right you know um what is it the the brahm the coach there at purdue he was the one that got him there i think that's what kind of got my eye on him a little bit but there there is a lack of explosiveness and speed in his game that he lost with these injuries over the last two years i don't know any other way to say it he's the kind of guy that he he's probably going to get drafted in the middle of the draft but hopefully somebody's got the inside track on oh but he'll be okay in a year or two from now or you know or we can waste this fifth round pick we got a few extra late round picks let's take it on him because he can be a star in a few years but the injury history the size of the player and then the way the film looks this last year there's just there's no way you could take him in in the top two rounds of this draft mike twice what do you think of nico collins from michigan no one's talking about it yeah well nico's good he's gonna have a role in the nfl too it's a little bit more like the bateman thing you know the thing i like about nico is he's a man okay that's the first thing i'll say i mean his game is predicated on his size and his strength i'm covered or get off me it doesn't matter i'm still going to catch the ball he's really good that way but like route running and speed are less than as far as we're talking about first two rounds first three rounds of the nfl draft no i mean i i i wrote i think he's probably a high four five maybe low four six type of guy but guys like this too can be better in the nfl than they are in college if he can play like the slot a little bit and show the ability to run routes in there you know the big slot is a real thing in the nfl and to be able to go over the middle and you know catch the ball in the trash between linebackers and safeties is a real thing so i like the player i just don't love him and he's not he's not elite as far as you know the top guys in the draft so a couple more here yeah uh jaime escobado seven yeah what do you think about tylan wallace from oklahoma yeah you know really crafty smooth athlete not a great route runner and not great speed now you're going to get fooled because you're going to see some big plays it's oklahoma state it's the big 12. there's always big plays it's a flag football game so you can't get fooled by that sometimes but you know just from the pure again you know top end speed explosiveness no to me this is the guy that's you know big slot understands how to you know work the middle of the field find holes do things like that he's very good at catching the ball when he's covered but there's just not enough pure you know physical ability for me to sit here and tell you that he's in the class of some of those other guys and i'm just let me let me just i was just going to say like chris has been doing these last few just off recall alone here which is an amazing feat i am well i mean i got to nico eventually like as i just said here and look but i just wanted to make sure i don't you know you know the other thing that thailand bothered me a little bit and you know doesn't make anything happen after the catch i think that would be something i should have said for him rashad bateman and really nico collins niko collins probably makes the more most happen after the catch because at least he can break arm tackles and run through people with his power that way but i think you know it's good natural hands he's got great body control but he's not a great great route runner doesn't make a whole lot happen after the catch you know and overall the the speed was not special to scare people and i had too many clips of where i p people jammed them in the line of scrimmage and that's that scares me too uh dan sulis says do you consider kyle pitts more of a receiver than a tight end so he's at florida yeah a lot of people think he is awesome right um and we'll be the number one tight end on a lot of lists out there yep yours is coming in a few weeks did you look at kyle pittsburgh i've just seen him in crossover stuff right you know and when i'm watching other receivers of course i'm watching cadarius tony you know i've watched i've already watched a lot of the dbs so of course sec has a lot of the good nfl db's right i've seen it there i mean i'm gonna i'm gonna rank them as a tight end so i don't have them a part of this yeah um there's like there's nothing not to like about the guy i mean he can do everything i do think it's still a tight end though you know again where and tight ends can be drafted in the top 10 as we know i mean you can if you can do everything you become quite a mismatch and an issue for defenses all that way but just as compared to like our top five receivers i i don't look at it and go oh my gosh he's explosive like that right he's a guy that you're gonna be able to put out there and he is gonna be able to be dbs with his ability but his size to go along with it um but but i am evaluating as a tight end and he's certainly impressive i just got to look a little deeper there all right last one t greasy teagrazy says who has the highest ceiling and highest floor i always think that's a hard one to answer because it seems like if you put a guy number one you think like he can have the highest like he could be the hall of fame wide receiver um so it seems like chase probably to you has the highest ceiling right no i honestly think he has the highest floor oh okay so that's where i'll go with him first i think he's the safest bet you know he'll be a pro bowl wide receiver for years to come i think he's got definitely multiple pro bowls in his game yeah i just don't see any like thing to wear i would scare me okay right okay we talk about devante smith and dearmi brown okay they're a little slender you know or they track guys all that stuff okay there's a little negativity there listen i think all those guys have pretty high floors really but i think like ceiling ceiling ceiling i really think maybe smith and d'ami brown might have higher ceilings than jamar chase yeah i i think there's there's the possibility of that i do just because i think their speed is that special that i look at them and their ability to run routes like chase still has groom to grow as a route runner out of like the top four he is by far the least polished route runner of the other of the of that group you know between him uh you know the guy from waddle from alabama smith's you know right and diami brown he is the least polished rod runner he's just doing it with his pure ability for the most part yeah but i i honestly think i'm going to say diamie brown or deontay smith might have the highest ceilings jamar chase has the highest floor interesting interesting all right good i think that i think is there anything else that any other players i mean went through a lot of them i think there's a few other guys i'm going to go through i mean hey there's some other guys that certainly are worthy of the conversation of being a third and fourth round pick uh and maybe we'll revisit but it's a good good group all together and i'm very excited about the top you know eight nine guys and this draft as far as receiver is concerned it is interesting to see is this like a two-year thing we've just had you know great wide receivers elite top threes or are we starting to get to a world where we can produce wide receivers like this every few years every few years we're getting better at producing wide receivers like we we are i don't think it's i don't i think it's going to be a thing you're going to see i think you're going to see the wide receiver marquee get devalued you know like kind of like a running back you're like we can find a guy in the third round that might be exactly a game breaker exactly i think there's a few things that play into that it's a good conversation but the first thing is i think all the guys like cadarius tony in the world yeah they would have been running backs like 20 years ago they would have been dj moore at maryland they would all be like i'm a tailback i'm a tailback i'm a tailback all those guys i think have gone hey playing running back i'm going to play receiver so i can have like a 10-year career and not only get one contract a contract is a running back right so i think you're gonna you're seeing more do that and more you know just with again like the quarterbacks all the seven on sevens and the camps and things to go to the receivers are just well schooled that way and i think you've also taken off to where this current athlete this day and age also the kid who was like almost six one i'm going to try to be an nba point guard i think they've gone no you're not point guards in the nba are six four six five you're not so go play another sport and they i think they've gone well i'll play receiver i can do that i think you're seeing more of that and i think that's why you're seeing more freaks at the position than ever before well that was uh that was a deep dive into a lot of receivers you did the work and kristin correct me if i'm wrong right there was the first f-bomb no i think i had one other one did you have one one other one earlier oh okay okay may have slipped one in unbeknownst to kristen and myself well i hope it wasn't during the applebee's segment hey who knows applebee's is a fun place you know people swear there yeah what's their logo again uh in the neighbor feeling good in the neighborhood and feeling good sometimes in the neighborhood i was always a big fan of their fries yeah their fries kill kill it they had a quesadilla burger where it was like a quesadilla yeah but they just put a hamburger in there right always like that yeah i don't know if they still do that that can't go wrong with that um okay well so next up on wednesday you're going to the people who are going to try to cover these guys in the nfl got dbs and safeties i mean corners and safeties and it's it's an interesting group there's a lot of hybrids so i got my work cut out for me as far as how exactly i'm going to rank some of these guys but either way that's what we'll be doing wednesday safeties corners break that down if you've got any more questions about my wide receivers rankings i want to break that down anymore i know i'm gonna get done here and go oh i wish i could have said this about this guy and said that about that guy but we'll dive into it more everybody be good tune in on wednesday chris sims unbutton ahmed you're the man clap it up [Music] yo yo what's up come on man subscribe on youtube to chris sims unbutton podcast i need you please hit the subscribe button please 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: 163,907

Rating: 4.7829208 out of 5

Keywords: NFL, College Football, Chris Simms Unbuttoned, Chris Simms, Ahmed Fareed, Chris Simms WR Rankings, WR Rankings, 2021 NFL Draft, NFL Draft, NFL Draft rankings, 2021 NFL Draft rankings, 2021 NFL Draft WRs, Wide Receivers, WR rankings, Ja'Marr Chase, Terrace Marshall Jr., Kadarius Toney, LSU, LSU Tigers, Florida, Florida Gators, NCAAFB, Dyami Brown, Penn State, Penn State Nittany Lions, Jaylen Waddle, DeVonta Smith, Alabama, Alabama Crimson Tide

Id: nLpVuMHR2as

Length: 89min 48sec (5388 seconds)

Published: Mon Mar 22 2021

Reddit Comments

[u/g0dzilllla]

How have his WR rankings historically been?

[u/Flamethrower50]

Here are his rankings for the top 6 prospects, he explains in the video

1. Jamarr Chase

2. Devonta Smith

3. Dyami Brown

4. Jaylen Waddle

5. Kadarius Toney

6. Terrace Marshall Jr.

[u/Tags331]

Simms always gives detailed explanations for his rankings, and is never afraid to go against the grain. Has had pretty good success, especially at the QB position. Don't know why he gets so much hate from this sub.

[u/Landlubber77]

Is he still buttoning the top button on his dress shirts even when he's not wearing a tie? Because if he's still buttoning the top button on his dress shirts even when he's not wearing a tie then I'm not interested in his opinion on anything until he stops buttoning the top button on his dress shirts even when he's not wearing a tie.

[u/Actuvishun]

I haven’t watched nearly as much tape as Simms but he tends to be a good evaluator of talent, so I’m inclined to agree with his judgement. Nobody is perfect but he does give good explanations as to why people are ranked in each position. The margin of difference between the top three players is super small, and he has to rank guys somewhere, so take what he says with a grain of salt. It’s not easy to place these guys in a particular order. That being said, every one of these guys has a highlight reel that will drop your jaw. They’re all freak athletes. I can’t wait to see this class develop and compete with last years WR class.

[u/HeJind]

Idk how Simms can claim Waddle doesn't have elite straight line speed when there's literally a video of him running stride for stride with Ruggs

[u/TurdsforNipples]

Surprised he's still kickin' after Eli murdered him

[u/Ballsohardstate]

I’m glad that I’m not the only one who isn’t in love with Bateman as a first round guy.

[u/Weapwns]

Always interesting to see his takes on non-QBs