JR SportBrief Hour 1

Hey, I'm Andy.

If you don't know me, it's probably because I'm not famous. But I did start a men's grooming company called Harry's. The idea for Harry's came out of a frustrating experience I had buying razor blades.

Most brands were overpriced, overdesigned, and out of touch. At Harry's, our approach is simple. Here's our secret. We make sharp, durable blades and sell them at honest prices for as low as $2 each. We care about quality so much that we do some crazy things, like buy a world-class German blade factory.

Obsessing over every detail means we're confident in offering a 100% quality guarantee. Millions of guys have already made the switch to Harry's, so thank you if you're one of them. And if you're not, we hope you give us a try with this special offer. Get a Harry's Starter Set with a five-blade razor, weighted handle, shave gel, and a travel cover. All for just $3, plus free shipping. Just go to harrys.com and enter code SMOOTH at checkout. That's harrys.com, code SMOOTH.

Enjoy! This episode is brought to you by Progressive Insurance. Whether you love true crime or comedy, celebrity interviews or news, you call the shots on what's in your podcast queue. And guess what? Now you can call them on your auto insurance, too, with the name of your price tool from Progressive.

It works just the way it sounds. You tell Progressive how much you want to pay for car insurance, and they'll show you coverage options that fit your budget. Get your quote today at Progressive.com to join the over 28 million drivers who trust Progressive.

Progressive Casualty Insurance Company and affiliates. Price and coverage match limited by state law. We really need new phones. T-Mobile will cover the cost of four amazing new iPhone 15s. And each line is only $25 a month.

New iPhone 15s? Only at T-Mobile. Get four iPhone 15s on us and four lines for $25 per line per month with eligible trade-in when you switch. Minimum of four lines for $25 per line per month with auto pay discount using debit or bank account. $5 more per line without auto pay. Plus taxes and fees. Phone fees, 24 monthly bill credits for well-qualified customers. Contact us before canceling accounts to continue bill credits or credit stop and balance on required finance agreement due. $35 per line connection charge applies.

See T-Mobile.com. It is the J.R. Sportbrief show here with you on the Infinity Sports Network. Thank you so much to everybody locked in and tuned in on what is draft day 2024 for the NFL. Some of the young men that we're going to talk about tonight, we may be talking about them for the next 10, 15, 20 years. Maybe some of these men are going to go into the Hall of Fame.

Some of them, we might really never hear from them again after the first year. Either way, we got you covered here on the Infinity Sports Network. Thank you to everybody locked in and tuned in all over North America. This is when this show gets started, the J.R. Sportbrief show, every single weekday at 6 p.m. Eastern, 3 Pacific.

Yes, today is a very special day. I'm going to be here with you for the next six hours, but because of the NFL draft, today's show, J.R. Sportbrief is shortened to two hours because two hours from now at 8 p.m. Eastern, 5 Pacific, we got your draft coverage right here for you on the Infinity Sports Network. The minute that the first round starts and gets underway, myself and Bart Winkler, who follows my show here on the Infinity Sports Network, we have the entire first round covered for you. You will hear the picks live as they happen. You will learn more about the players. You will learn more about the teams that they're going to in the NFL. We will provide our commentary, give you our analysis, and you don't have to move anywhere because your full draft coverage from beginning until the end of the first round is right here on the Infinity Sports Network.

So don't go anywhere. For the next six hours, we will be hanging out, holding down the fort, and giving you everything that you need to know. Thank you oh so much, oh so much to super producer and host Ryan Hickey.

He's helping lead and navigate the ship. He's holding things down for my show, the draft show, and everything. Super producer and host Ryan Hickey, how the hell are you?

You good? I am good, you are excited. It's going to be a lot of fun tonight.

Draft show, I think is going to be a blast. So if you're driving in the car, turn us up. We've got you covered for four hours, and I'm excited to see finally some answers. We have a lot of questions, a lot of speculation. We finally get answers in a few hours.

We're going to get some answers. Where are these quarterbacks going? This is obviously going to be an offensive heavy draft. Who's going to be the first defender taken here in Atlanta, Georgia?

I know there's a lot of folks looking at Dallas Turner and hoping that he's the guy. And then there's a lot of offensive linemen. I really feel that this entire first round is going to be based on quarterbacks, wide receivers, offensive linemen, the guys who chase down the quarterbacks, the edge rushers. And then after that, it's just like, okay, now we can start getting into the corners. Maybe we'll get a cornerback or two kind of sprinkled in.

There's a couple of defensive linemen that that'll probably go maybe one or two, I think, in the first round. And so things are going to be real easy. Listen, if you're listening to me right now, if you're locked in, I should say to me right now. Thank you. I said it.

Hickey said it. This is the place to be for the entire first round of the NFL draft. You can always listen on the free Odyssey app. Put it on your phone. You can go from the car into the house back into the job. You can go outside, do what you need to do with the free Odyssey app. Thank you so much to people listening all across North America on their local Infinity Sports Network affiliates.

If you got Sirius XM, you can definitely lock in on Channel 158. And if you have a smart speaker at home at work, I don't think you could have a smart speaker outside unless you live in the woods and have electricity. You can ask that smart speaker to play the Infinity Sports Network. But then also, if you have a you got if you got electricity in the woods, that's easy. I guess you got to get Wi-Fi from the sky.

You got a 5G. Hickey, they don't got Wi-Fi in the woods, right? Bears don't have Wi-Fi. Not that I'm aware of, but I mean, it's 2024. You never know these days. Yogi the bear might be the only bear with Wi-Fi.

He's the smartest bear that I know. Listen, folks, if you want to holler at me during the JR Sport Reshow over the next two hours, this is your chance. This is your opportunity. Because Bart and I are going to be holding it down at the first round of the draft. We will not be able to go ahead and just get your calls up on the air.

So if you want to talk to me beforehand, you got a question, you got a comment. The phone number here has not changed. It is 855-212-4227.

That's 855-212-4227. Me? You can find me online.

I am all over the place, as I've been since 2009. I am at JR Sport Brief. That's at JR Sport Brief every place on social media.

The day's finally done. The NFL draft is taking place in Detroit, Michigan. I can remember, and I will certainly share the photo in the next break. I remember being in Detroit. The last time I was in Detroit, it feels like yesterday.

It was actually two years ago. And I remember walking through downtown Detroit. And we know Detroit is all about just building things and automotive and cars and trying to expand and you go downtown and it's about the arts. There was a big gear outside downtown.

Everybody knows about the Joe Louis Fist and GMC building, GM building, everybody knows about that. There was a gear outside. I guess a nod to the automotive industry. There was a gear outside and it had a clock right in the middle. Now, typically when I see clocks in major cities, the clocks don't count down anything good. In New York City, Hickey, where's the debt clock? Is it on 14th Street? Did they move it? Times Square, 42nd, somewhere around there, right?

Somewhere around there, yeah. In New York City, there's a debt clock and it just shows the U.S. national debt. And I don't know how the numbers still fit on a damn board.

I feel like every year, every month, they got to add a new panel just to count the national debt. Somewhere on earth, I hope not in the United States of America, I'm sure there is a doomsday clock. I don't want to participate.

I don't want nothing to do with that. But in Detroit, Michigan, me walking by, minding my business downtown right around the corner from the Nike store, amongst all of the new buildings that are going up in downtown Detroit, there was a clock counting down the NFL draft. And if I remember correctly, that clock said 630 days away.

I believe I was in Detroit in August. So there you have it. And now the NFL draft is only two hours away. And as I stand in this studio in Atlanta, Georgia, and look at the screens in front of me, the man who's projected to be number one overall, Caleb Williams, is currently chatting it up on ESPN as he walks the red carpet.

Roma Dunze from Washington, big old wide receiver, just walked the red carpet. And it's nice to see some of the participants that will actually be at the draft because the NFL invites a lot of guys out, players who are projected to be first rounders. Only 13 said I will show up. 13.

Last year, it was 17. And Hickey, we talked about this a few weeks ago. There was a lot of noise about why some of these prospects like that they didn't want to show up. There was speculation. It's like, hey, I can stay at home or hey, I got money already from NIL. Why do I need to show up to the NFL draft?

Hickey, the athletic. Did a report, and it's kind of every single reason that we discuss. And this sucks.

This one actually is bad, if you ask me. This is the ninth time the NFL has decided to hold the draft at a remote location, a different city. Hickey. Some of the folks that they interviewed anonymously inside the NFL. Oh, no. Some of the fans. Excuse me. Some of the players cited the city. Oh, no. Some of the players said it's Detroit.

Why am I going to Detroit? That's what some of the players said. I mean, I guess not shocking that they would say that. And when you're granted anonymity, you can be honest. Not great for the city.

No, it's not. Did you say if it was Miami, they'd show up, right? Miami, you know, L.A., SoCal, a few other cities. I'm sure you would maybe get a little bit bigger participation than what is it, the number 13, you said? 13 picks. These are the young men that you will actually see in person tonight or hear from at the NFL draft. Caleb Williams, Jayden Daniels, Drake May. Terry Arnold, a cornerback from Alabama. Marvin Harrison Jr. J.C. Latham from Alabama, offensive tackle. Lightu Latu, the pass rusher.

I mean, when you almost have no pro football career, you're going to soak all of this in. We'll talk about him throughout the course of the night, especially following his neck injury. Quignon Mitchell. Nobody know who the hell this guy is out of Toledo. Of course, he's going to show up for the draft. Malik Nabors, Brian Thomas out of LSU. And I told you about Romo Dunze, who just walked the red carpet not too long ago. Darius Robinson, who might not be a first round pick, maybe coming out of Mizzou. And then Dallas Turner, who I already told you a lot of people are hoping ends up here in Atlanta to help wreck quarterbacks. And so those are the 13 men.

That actually accepted the NFL's invitation to tonight's draft in Detroit. And so the city is one reason. Another reason. People just won't stay home.

We had mentioned this to Hickey. It's just a matter of a lot of people are used to working from home like Covid came by. You're stuck in your house.

A lot of people still haven't come from out their house. And so it's just like, do I want to go to Detroit? Or do I want to stay home and eat grandma's cooking?

That's the second reason. Grandma's cooking is undefeated. She is.

She is not lost to any city. That's for sure. I think Miami would lose to grandma's cooking.

Miami would lose. I think so. You taking a dump on that overpriced Cuban food on South Beach?

No, I've not. So I can't speak for I'm just going to say just with how good grandma does cook. Right. I mean, come on.

Nothing. No city can hold a candle to a chicken whip up. She was your favorite meal. OK. Touche is grandpa and grandma got to cook for like 50 people.

If you're an NFL draft prospect, I'm sure you got like a community with you, right? You got to have at least 20, 30 people. You probably got to tell people, no, you can't come over to grandma's house because they no room going to put poor grandma on the grave.

How much is going to be in the kitchen? Yeah. Yeah. We don't want grandma slaving in the kitchen. OK, good idea.

Do catering instead. And that's the second reason. The third reason. And we've seen this a lot.

And if this is the case, then shame on you. There are prospects who don't want to sit around past the first round. There are prospects who aren't sure that they're going to be selected.

And so they have taken the approach of. I'm just going to stay home. I'm not going to be embarrassed. I'm not going to be Lamar Jackson. I'm not going to win myself a Heisman at Louisville. And then I'm just going to have to sit until the end of the draft. I'm going to have to sit until number 32. I'm not doing that. You got a lot of prospects, I guess, who don't want to be Will Levis.

They don't want to sit around in day one with the pump, the circumstance. The shoes, the jacket. Fancy haircut, the interviews just to sit around having an expectation that you're going to be selected in the first round. And then you don't. And then the lights go off. The fans leave, the cameras go away, microphones turn off for a night, and you got to wait a full 24 hours at minimum to try again. Will Levis had to experience that last year.

He left. It's painful, right? I guess it won't be painful if he can find success with the Tennessee Titans, but that has to suck. Nobody wants to deal with that.

Nobody. So tonight at the NFL Draft, yeah, there won't be more than 13 players out there to hug Roger Goodell. And by the way, Hickey, did you hear that Roger Goodell had back surgery? I was going to say someone's got to throw him a bone and be like, I want to protect Roger, not hurt him. The guy's on. I just the last thing I saw is a game time decision right now.

Oh, wow. I certainly know that there was an expectation this year. At least do not hug Roger Goodell. Don't hug him.

You might screw up his back. I know there's certain players who would love to put him in a bear hug knowing that he's recently had surgery. But yeah, I guess the experience this year is going to be different.

No, this is not Roger Goodell in his basement in Bronxville, New York. This is not the covid draft, but we only have 13 prospects in attendance in what is certainly going to be a game changing draft. If you wanted to take a look at how the NFL is changing and developing based on offense, hey, later tonight, let's look at all the quarterbacks who are going to get drafted. Let's look at all the wide receivers that are going to get drafted. Let's look at the offensive linemen that are going to get drafted.

And then let's look at the defenders who are actually going to be out there trying to rip the quarterbacks head off. The J.R. Sportbrief show here with you on the Infinity Sports Network. We're going to hear from some of the players and their commentaries as we lead up to the draft.

But we're going to take a break. And when we come back, we're going to have a conversation with John Ledyard. This man has an audibles and analytics podcast where he breaks down the NFL draft, amongst other things. He also covers a hardcore Steelers cover all of this stuff. So I'm going to talk to John Ledyard on the other side.

Eight five five two one two forty two twenty seven. We have so much to do next hour. We'll talk to Jason Staples of twenty four seven sports. And of course, as I told you for the first round of the NFL draft, myself and Bart Winkler will be here with you on the Infinity Sports Network.

Don't move. Interview with John Ledyard on the other side. It's the J.R. Sportbrief. Hey, I'm Andy. If you don't know me, it's probably because I'm not famous, but I did start a men's grooming company called Harry's. The idea for Harry's came out of a frustrating experience I had buying razor blades.

Most brands were overpriced, overdesigned and out of touch. At Harry's, our approach is simple. Here's our secret. We make sharp, durable blades and sell them at honest prices for as low as two dollars each. We care about quality so much that we do some crazy things like buy a world class German blade factory.

Obsessing over every detail means we're confident in offering one hundred percent quality guarantee. Millions of guys have already made the switch to Harry's. So thank you if you're one of them. And if you're not, we hope you give us a try with this special offer. Get a Harry's starter set with a five blade razor, weighted handle, shave gel and a travel cover all for just three bucks plus free shipping. Just go to harrys.com and enter code smooth at checkout. That's harrys.com code smooth.

Enjoy. We really need new phones. T-Mobile will cover the cost of four amazing new iPhone 15s and each line is only twenty five dollars a month.

New iPhone 15s? Only at T-Mobile get four iPhone 15s on us and four lines for twenty five bucks per line per month with eligible trade in when you switch. Minimum of four lines for twenty five dollars per line per month with auto pay discount using debit or bank account. Five dollars more per line without auto pay plus taxes and fees, phone fees, 24 monthly bill credits for qualified customers. Contact us before canceling accounts. Continue bill credits or credit stop and balance on required finance agreement to thirty five dollars per line.

Connection charge applies to T-Mobile dot com. All right, football fans, the NFL Draft is almost here and the free Odyssey app brings you the latest coverage from the biggest sports radio stations across the country. Which players will help your team the most? Who will make a draft day trade?

Will they be ready for week one? The local conversations about the team you love all streaming free right here on the Odyssey app. A.U.D. ACY.

Download it today. You are listening to the J.R. Sport Brief, the J.R. Sport Brief show here with you on the Infinity Sports Network. The first round of the NFL Draft is a little more than 90 minutes away.

To give us a little bit of a preview as to what we might see over the next several hours, who might go where, what surprises we might encounter. It's time to have a conversation with someone who covers the NFL, the NFL Draft for the Audibles and Analytics podcast. Also knows everything about the Steelers on the line with us right now is John Ledyer. John, how are you, man? I'm doing well, man. Thanks so much for having me. I appreciate it.

Well, thank you for taking the time to hop on. Obviously, we know about the big name who's expected to go number one in Caleb Williams. How do you think those next few picks are going to play out between Washington, New England, etc? I think you're going to see quarterbacks come off the board.

I'm not going to buck the trend that everybody's kind of on right now. I think it's pretty accurate once you get to this point in the draft. You usually have a pretty good idea about these next couple of picks.

I think you'll see Jayden Daniels and you'll see Drake May. I think Arizona might actually stick and take Marvin Harrison. They just already have so much draft capital. They're going to have to weigh that against their trading down.

I think they're going to stay. It gets interesting at the Chargers pick where I think at five they need to take one of the two receivers that's left Roma Dunesay or Malik Nabors. They may ultimately decide to go with an offensive lineman. Maybe they do that after a trade down, someone trying to come up for a quarterback. I would at least trade down if I were them if you're not going to take one of the wide outs. To me, these guys are game changing wide receivers.

There's three of them in this class. We almost never get that. I don't know how you pass on one of these guys if you're there. There's a lot of good offensive linemen, but you can get those later in the draft if you need. I just think you've got to get one of these game changers or wide out. Well, John, you talk about the wide receivers and we know they all have their interesting skill sets, whether it's Marvin Harrison Jr. or you take a look at Malik Nabors and a Dunesay. What's the separating factor between each player or is it a matter of team need? I think they're different stylistically for sure, but with some of these teams at the top, I mean, what don't they need a wide receiver when it comes to Arizona or Los Angeles to release the Chargers? Even the Giants, same thing.

You look at the room and you're like, who's here that we're really sure is going to be around long term? These teams don't have long term solutions to that position. I always think about building your wide receiver core sort of like a basketball team in some ways and skill set wise. I think that these guys are just starting from the ground up, these teams, and so they can probably draft anybody and have it fit. I mean, I would just guess that Roma Dunesay, I've guessed that he is playing more of a fit for the Giants, for the personality, the Giants staff and some other teams.

The Chargers, very well, probably one of those teams could be more of a neighbor's team, I think, if he's the guy for them. This isn't just guesses, but I would mean just when you think about a fit perspective, we just haven't seen Justin Herbert with great speed at the wide receiver position. McKeon Allen's a great player, not necessarily known for his speed. Mike Williams, a contested catch guy, certainly a vertical threat, but not a blazer.

It would just be nice to see an arm like that coupled with some rare speed and acceleration and neighbors definitely have that. It could be a very fun combination on Mahomes, Tyreek Hill-esque combination there with the Chargers if they take neighbors, and that's who I'd be pounding the table for. But there's a lot of smoke on this J.C. Latham and Jim Arwell loves them and all this stuff with that pick, so we'll see what they end up doing.

John Ledyard is here with us from the Audibles and Analytics podcast, covers everything NFL draft. When you think about the teams that don't necessarily need a QB, especially in that top, I guess, 10 or 15, what team do you think is most likely to say, all right, I'm going to trade out of my spot and let somebody else get in here? We know Minnesota certainly has capital at 11 and 23. I think Atlanta is the one that makes the most sense. I mean, like I said, the Chargers could definitely do it.

There's been talk about Tennessee being the team that does that as well. Atlanta is the one that makes the most sense to me just because they've made a lot of moves in recent year, recent off-seasons in drafts. And so they're a team that it feels like the rosters, they really need corner and they need defensive line, edge rusher, pass rusher. Can they move back in the teams and probably get a pretty good player at one of those positions? I think so, given how the tackles, the wide outs and the quarterbacks are getting pushed up the board in this draft. So they may feel like they can move out three spots to Minnesota.

They probably still have everybody that's on their board. They've made moves at wide receiver. They've made moves in their offensive line as in they've drafted offensive linemen like crazy for the last several years.

They have two tackles. I mean, they're certainly think they could improve those position groups that they wanted to. But it's a nice draft for them to be able to take advantage of what other teams need and just kind of move back and still be able to get everything they want. John, when you look up and down the board, we all know about the big names expected to be taken, primarily offensive players.

We'll get into that in a bit. Who are some names that you think might shock people that might climb the draft board that aren't necessarily getting the same type of buzz? You know, it's always hard to know projection wise, like who's going to end up going, you know, if I'm predicting who's going to end up going high.

But there are some players that I really like that I feel like right now. It's like, oh, it's Johnny Newton for Illinois defensive tackle. Is he going to fall out of the first round altogether? There's you know, he's at the tail end of some of these mocks, some of these mocks.

He's not in there. And so I find that one really fascinating because I think there's a good chance he's the best defensive player in this class. And so I feel like he should be. He'd be. I'd be considering him in Atlanta at eight, Chicago at nine.

Um, Latu is another one. You know, I think Latu is the best pass rusher in this class, an edge pass rusher. And so I would be taking him pretty high as well. Obviously there's the medical concern with him and I can't really speak for that to the degree that teams will be able to. If he falls, you would guess maybe that's part of the concern, but, um, I just think he's played out the last two seasons. He's been on the field for every game. He's been dominant, dominant production, dominant tape.

His testing was pretty good. Um, so I just feel like he's the full package at that position. And those guys are somehow sometimes in the back end of the first round or in Newton's case, not at all. So those are two guys I'm definitely higher on.

And if they go higher than what's being projected right now, I certainly will not be surprised by that. Uh, so there, those two are ones that I'd look out for tonight. Yeah. Drazan Newton expected to be a world-class wrecker in the middle of a line.

John Ledyard is here with us, the JR sport reshow on the infinity sports network. What does it say to, to how the NFL has evolved where we can look at a draft and just go quarterback, quarterback, wide receiver, offensive lineman, and then just say, okay, now who's going to go chase the quarterback? How has the draft and the approach changed from like 10, 15, even 20 years ago?

Yeah. I mean, obviously we've been trending this way for a long time now, but those frontline players that can be, can make plays behind the line of scrimmage. I mean, most valuable position on a defense, you know, paid like the most valuable players on defense.

I think our top six or seven highest paid defensive players are maybe more than that. Our, our frontline defensive players, defensive tackles or edge rushers. And so very easily the most important positions on a defense. So you, those guys that can win one V one up front, then create disruption against the run, against the path, um, to get their hands on the ball front, all of those things. And you don't have a ton of them in this class, but I think, I mean, latus one to me, I think Johnny Newton is really good. I, Byron Murphy from Texas, those three are really, I have first strong grades on them. And I think Dallas Turner, you know, he's might be the first defensive player off the board.

He is my number two edge. He certainly has a chance to be one of those guys. Uh, if he can continue to develop, I do like him.

I don't love him quite as much as some other people. And then there's some other guys, maybe as you get down the board, I'm not quite as high on the other guys getting to that level of those three or four Turner can keep developing. I if you have a couple like that in this draft, those guys usually go in the top 15 picks of the draft. So this year, unusual situation for quarterbacks are going to go top 10. Probably you could see six in the first round.

They say, well, Bob, believe that when I see it. Um, but I think those are all like possibilities that you can end up getting some of these guys later than you would in a normal draft, just because of some of the abnormalities at the top of the draft with all these quarterbacks, all these tackles, and then three game changing wide receivers that pretty much are universally thought of as top 10 picks. John Ledyard is joining us from the audibles and analytics podcast. You talk about Lattue from UCLA. If this man didn't get the neck and that knocked him out, potentially could have ended his career flattened period, where would he be drafted? Like he's, is he going to fall because of the injury? Is somebody just going to go forget his neck? We're going to draft him.

Yeah, I think he's still going to end up going before pick 20. I mean, there's just too many teams that need that, that role, that pass rusher. He's been healthy for two years now. There's no signs of any type of injury when you watch him play.

He's even adopted just how he plays as a tackler. I was reading the other day to make sure he keeps his neck out of collisions and things. So it certainly just feels like at this point that that stuff's in the past. Teams could have a totally different opinion on that.

They could think that this is degenerative. Um, I just don't know from my vantage point. So it just doesn't sound like there's been all this negative buzz around him. Most of the forecasting type of draft media, the guys who kind of are more on the reporting side, they still seem to be mocking him in the top 20. And so I still think he's probably projected to go in that range of the draft. And if he falls, that would be, you know, maybe those storylines are creeped back up.

But right now it doesn't seem like there's a whole lot of smoke there. Now, John, when you talk about the quarterbacks projected to go at the top, there's some conversations as to whether or not Jayden Daniels or Drake May, who do you think grades out better than the other? Drake May looks like more of a project.

I think there are things about Drake May that are more of a project. His accuracy concerns me on tape quite a bit. I still do have him at QB2 behind Caleb in this class.

I have a tear below Caleb. I think it's pretty close between him and McCarthy. And I don't think Daniels is a distant force for me, but I do think with Daniels, I'm really concerned about how little he stands in and throws in the face of any type of pressure or when he has to move off his first read. His first initial kind of reaction is to get out of the pocket and usually to run. Now, he is an unbelievable athlete, and when he does throw from the pocket, he is very good. He's a very accurate quarterback. But some of his tendencies in the face of pressure or when that first read isn't open might not work as well in the NFL as they did in college.

May is more of a mechanical issue, I think. Like, there's times where he gets, his situation was horrendous, by the way. Daniels was in a very QB-friendly offense, some of the kind of some of the offenses we've seen in Washington this year, Tennessee last year with Enden Ochre, like a lot of these offenses. You're just not going to get all this space that you have in the college game in the NFL to throw the ball. And so I do think things will get harder for him in the NFL, where May, there's a little more pro-stop stuff, but at the same time, you know, he was, I think, mechanically a little bit further behind with some of the other guys. Now, he's capable of making throws from different platforms probably better than anybody in the draft, except for maybe Caleb. There's a lot of throws in his tape where he's got the guys hanging on him and he makes a throw way down the field and he threw the left-handed ball with a defender on his back for a touchdown.

And so he can do some really cool second reaction improvised out of structure stuff. And he wants to play in structure, but the structure was so bad at North Carolina, the protection, it wasn't just the O-line, the backs, the tight ends, everybody. It was just a terrible protection situation at UNC. So he's really running for his life this whole past year. The offense was different than the year before.

I think that really hurt things. I don't think he had the same level of talent as a wide receiver and so guys weren't open as often. He had to really create and make a lot of magic happen for that team. And I don't think he was as good as the year before because of that, but I do wonder if in the NFL a better situation, if he gets in a better situation, that very much remains to be seen. If New England takes him, that's a little bit scary. But I do think he could be even better in the NFL.

And McCarthy, people are kind of missing, I think. This guy has really, really good tools. I think he's not like a Mac Jones. People talk about him like, oh, he's just a Mac.

There's no ceiling here. No, he has a cannon for an arm and he's an awesome athlete. He might be a better athlete than most of these other guys that are getting drafted around him. And so I think he can be really good in the NFL. The questions with him are what happens when defenses are preparing for him rather than for this Michigan run game and for all the play action and everything.

Is the team going to be as friendly, right? They got him a lot of good stuff at Michigan just from their scheme. Not a lot of pro-style stuff, but he could go somewhere that happened to be a totally different type of quarterback, a shotgun quarterback, a spread quarterback, something like that. That's not who he's been. I can't say what he'll look like. Whereas I've seen May and Williams and some of these other guys, Daniels, in different offenses, different situations, and I've seen a little bit more. So that's the unknown with McCarthy, knocks him down people's boards to me more than anything, because I think what you see on tape is generally pretty clean.

There's some things here and there that I think can continue to be ironed out. But I do think these are three pretty solid quarterback prospects. I don't think anybody's quite on the level of Caleb Williams, but I think they're pretty good prospects. And I think you have to take them in the top 10 and take your chances if you're an NFL team.

Well, John, final question for you before I let you go. Nobody talks about Bo Nix. There's so many of the prospects at the quarterback position that jumped in front of him. What about Bo? Yeah, I mean, very much a point and shoot offense at Oregon, color in the numbers type of system, first read, lots of screens, just a design spot to put the ball all the time. Very low averaged up the target. So he wasn't throwing the ball down the field all that often.

I think the tools are okay. Like, I think he's probably solid enough in that capacity. But I mean, when he was in more of a real offense at Auburn, it was kind of a mess. And I think now even when you see when he is forced off that first read, when things do go awry up front, or protection breaks down, just how much his game falls apart is really concerning. I think that offense at Oregon, I give him a lot of credit, he did look like a draftable player at Auburn, and then they brought him in and they turn him into a guy who could potentially be in this first round. We'll see.

And they deserve credit for that. But and he does too, for buying into the system. But I do think he is pretty much a guy you have to scheme pretty heavily around. And so I'm just not usually as excited about quarterbacks like that, where you know, they're kind of going to be propped up by everything around them, in my opinion, more so than who they are.

I just think that keeps up to the lid and the feeling on what your team is capable of doing eventually. So that'll be a flavor for somebody could be Sean Payton. We'll see how he has that confidence to think he can fix any quarterback or get any quarterback to be good enough in his system. So maybe that ends up being a surprise fit in the first round. But I just thought that interested him in round one. Well, we'll find out soon enough.

Yeah, I'd be shocked if he was taken in round number one. Well, John, thank you for taking the time to hop on and lend your expertise. Where can people follow you when you work whether it's with the Steelers, the audibles and analytics pod? Fill us in.

Yeah, for sure. So I do podcasts about the Steelers a couple times a week for the yins no ball podcast that one's free and available for everybody wherever you listen to podcasts. And then I also run a substack and my audibles and analytics podcast is several times a week I do that with Ollie Connolly, we are in depth football's X's and O's player evaluation scheme breakdowns, we do that stuff in the NFL season, we do the draft free agency, we do all that we hit it all pretty hard and go pretty in depth. So if you're a pretty big football fan, you like to go a little bit deeper than what you might get on TV and things like that. Definitely a good spot to subscribe.

It is like a couple bucks a month and it's like 417 a month $4.17 a month if you do the annual subscription, or $5 a month, so it's a pretty cheap cost. But we do podcasts a couple times a week over there. And so my written stuff, my draft board and all that can be found over there as well. And then always on Twitter at Ledger led y a r d NFL draft on Twitter. Hey, John, thank you so much and enjoy the draft.

And we'll see what happens. All right. Take care, my man. Absolutely. Thanks so much. Appreciate you having me. No doubt about it that John Ledyard covers the NFL draft and also has the Steelers podcast.

Go ahead and check that out. Audibles and analytics is the JR sport b show here with you on the Infinity Sports Network. We're going to take a break and we come back on the other side. We'll hear from some of the the prospects and also hear from some of the prospects that, well, we didn't just talk about someone like Michael Pennix Jr. It's the JR sport b show on the Infinity Sports Network. You are listening to the JR sport brief. It is the JR sport b show here on the Infinity Sports Network about an hour and 15 minutes away from the start of the NFL draft. Myself and Bart Winkler here on the Infinity Sports Network. We got all of your first round coverage.

You don't have to go anywhere. So the JR sport b show will run you all up until about an hour and 15 minutes from now and we'll get you going on that first round coverage. Thank you so much to John Ledyard for joining us in the last break. Keeps up with the NFL draft audibles and analytics podcast.

And he certainly came through and broke it down. And this is the part that that none of us will know. Like we can all think about the players and the teams and what they need. But until we actually get going in the first round and every team has that block of time in between every selection, that's when we're going to find something out who's going to get traded, who's trading down, who's trading up, who's packaging up teams. Like I would be I'd be shocked, OK, from the minute that they acquired number twenty three a couple of weeks ago, about a month ago. I would be shocked if the Minnesota Vikings don't just say, hey, give us number, you know, take number 11 and 23 and let us move into the top 10.

Like that's that's hard to pass up. And I got to be honest, if I'm looking at some of these these quarterbacks and the prospects, I'm not going to sit here and tell you that I saw every single game that Drake made played in. But he's a prospect, man. You think about the current and modern NFL. Yeah, everybody that gets drafted, everybody that's never thrown a pass. They're all prospects. But you want somebody who you can rely on out of the gate. When I say out of the gate, unless you really got it. Nobody's waiting on like some Jordan Love situation. He had the benefit of sitting behind Aaron Rodgers. Like that's that's not in it for everybody. Most teams draft a quarterback that high.

They want to put you to work. Caleb Williams is going to be a starter for the Chicago Bears from day one. Jayden Daniels, if he ends up in Washington, he's going to be a starter from day one. Drake may. If the Patriots take him and say, hey, you're going to sit and learn under Jacoby Brissett, is it going to be for a year or they just going to wait a year? They're going to wait for Brissett to get injured.

That's that's a tough one, man. He could be here a long time. Think about the NFL, the quote unquote prototypical passes.

How many of them do we have? And yeah, Drake may can get out and run. He's an athlete, but he ain't Josh Allen. Like there's only one dude I could think of that just you can rely on him to throw the ball and throw the ball. And they can actually probably tamper down the amount of times he throws the ball. And that's Justin Herbert.

Hickey, what do you think about May? He, I think, has to go to the right spot. And you mentioned the Vikings before. Kevin O'Connell is a really good offensive coach and he's really creative. And obviously having Justin Jefferson and now Aaron Jones on your team like he's set up in a really good spot. I think Drake may have to go to a team like that in order for him to succeed versus a team like the Patriots, for example, where I mean, you look at that team and it's like who the hell is he throwing the ball to? Who's blocking for him?

Who's he handed it off to? Like he has a lot of talent. I think they're like he does need some refining. But if he goes to the right spot, I think he could play right away and learn on the job pretty quickly. But it's all about that key spot. And I think Minnesota is a good one on the flip side. New England, bad, bad landing spot for him. Yeah, I agree.

I agree. And yeah, Minnesota would be great on the flip side if I'm Justin Jefferson. I'm looking at Drake, man. I'm going, wait a minute, I'm going from Kirk Cousins to to him. I remember was it two months ago, Justin Jefferson, then he then he kind of kind of throw some some flowers and leaves towards Justin Fields before he ended up with the Steelers. That was Justin Jefferson, wasn't he? That was him.

Yes, that was him. Like if I'm Justin Jefferson is sitting down on a beach somewhere watching the draft, waiting to see what the Minnesota Vikings do at the quarterback position. And he's going and then also, by the way, I'm on St. Brown just got his new contract yesterday. He's now going to make 30 million dollars per year. I think when you average it all out, he's making two hundred thousand dollars more a season on paper ahead of Tyree kill.

But they basically both make 30. And Justin Jefferson is the next dude up. You don't think Justin Jefferson is saying to myself, y'all better empty out the or back up the Brinks truck. You better throw me the bag. I want the Scrooge McDuck paper. I want the coins.

He's going to want to swim through all of the money if they end up with a Drake May at quarterback. And so I'd be real interested. And I know this is the era of social media. You got to go online and and express yourself.

You got to tell people how you feel. If they don't draft somebody to his liking, it is not that this is how Justin Jefferson operates, but do we get like a frown emoji, a sad emoji? Hickey, that's another element I can't wait for tonight. Whatever athlete, whatever active NFL player goes on social media and is the first one to kind of give us like the rolling eye emoji. I'm waiting on that, too. I don't think I'll come from Justin Jefferson just because I mean, the alternative is Sam Darnold.

Oh, my God. You know, that's one of those things where it's like, yeah, Drake May, he's a project and maybe he's a bust or JJ McCarthy's not shown a lot. But your other alternative is that is Sam Darnold. Oh, well, I think Sam would be a better option, at least right out the gate than him, at least right out the gate. But it's it's a long season. We'll see what happens.

Speaking of wild things online, I don't know if folks have heard about this. Cooper Dijon. This man is a cornerback safety slash everything for Iowa. You know, also plays for Iowa or play for our Caitlin Clark.

She just got drafted last week. And Cooper Dijon is like plays basketball. He does everything. So he was talking to Yahoo!

Sports, which is online. And he was asked about his days as a basketball player and whether or not he could beat Caitlin Clark. Listen to his response. I wouldn't say it's really weird, but a lot of teams have asked me if I could beat Caitlin Clark one on one.

This is just being from Iowa. I said, I think I can. I think I can. I think I can. She probably scored a few buckets on me, but I think I could pull it off. Well, Hickey, there's your latest. You know, it's a funny question, right?

Sitting in a draft room, talking to some executive. Hey, could you beat Caitlin Clark in a basketball game? Yo, go to the same school. It's like he's supposed to say yes, I'd annihilate her. That's the answer, right?

I was going to say that's one of those questions. It's no win. It's either, oh, look at this clown. No respect for Caitlin Clark thinks he could beat him one on one or it's look at this loser.

He thinks he would lose to Caitlin Clark. That's not the mentality we want. You get it's damned if you do, damned if you don't. Yeah. Hey, well, welcome to the world of NFL draft meetings and combines. But it's all going to come to an end in about an hour from now.

The first round is going to start up in an hour from now. We got you covered here on the Infinity Sports Network, myself and Bart Winkler. It's the J.R. Sportbreeze show for one more hour before we hit the draft show. We come back on the other side. Yes, we'll hear from some of the draft prospects, especially the QBs. And then we'll have a conversation with another guest. Jason Staples will join us from 24 seven sports.

It's the J.R. Sportbreeze show, the Infinity Sports Network. We really need new phones. T-Mobile will cover the cost of four amazing new iPhone 15s. And each line is only twenty five dollars a month. New iPhone 15s is only a T-Mobile.

Get four iPhone 15s on us. Four lines for twenty five bucks per line per month. Eligible traded when you switch a minimum of four lines for twenty five dollars per line per month without a pay discount using debit or bank account. Five dollars more per line without auto pay plus taxes and fees, phone fees, 24 monthly bill credits for qualified customers. Contact us before canceling accounts. Continue bill credits or credit stop and balance on required finance agreement.

Do thirty five dollar per line connection charge apply. See T-Mobile dot com. All right, football fans, the NFL draft is almost here and the free Odyssey app brings you the latest coverage from the biggest sports radio stations across the country. Which players will help your team the most? Who will make a draft day trade?

Will they be ready for week one? The local conversations about the team you love. All streaming free right here on the Odyssey app. A.U.D. A.C.U.I. Download it today.