Sam, how are you?
I'm doing good, man. You know, I'm out here in Indianapolis. I'm trying to add into my data science background some of the, you know, inside knowledge, asking a lot of questions about Matthew Stafford, how that affects the draft and how it affects these prospects.
Well, absolutely. Well, we certainly heard a lot about Matthew Stafford and where he may or may not go. We got journalists who are fighting about it. What are the odds that you think he moves on from Los Angeles?
Obviously, of course, it's just a matter of negotiating. Do you think he goes elsewhere? Look, given my discussions today, I'm in my mind think it's probably more likely that he's gone than not. And that was a little bit different than what I thought this morning. It's going to be interesting. I think it just is going to come down to how the next days play out, just in the personal relationship between Sean McVeigh and Matt Stafford.
We have an excellent video that we tried to get up as fast as possible. It's on YouTube right now interviewing Jordan Rodriguez, and she really broke down how this has really been bubbling up over the past two, three years. And this isn't just a new thing with with Stafford wanting to be paid and compensated at the rate of a star quarterback. This is a longstanding bubbling discussion that they've had.
They're very open in their conversation. I think that's why we're hearing about it now that everyone's here at the timeline with an understanding that that he wants more money wherever it comes 50 mil plus. What are some alternatives for the Los Angeles Rams at quarterback? Are we naturally looking at an Aaron Rodgers?
This is a team that has a young roster and shocked people by going ten and seven, even pushing the Eagles. You mentioned Aaron Rodgers. I think he is in the cards. I think they've made some interesting staff moves. Alex Van Pelt seems to be on staff with the Rams now. He's a Rodgers guy, and I think there's just been discussions of how Rodgers could potentially fit on the Rams. But Dark Horse and this, they really love Jimmy Garoppolo, who's already under contract with the Rams, played the final game of the year. And I really think they like Jimmy Garoppolo more than the consensus does. Oh wow, that's surprising. How many more throws does Jimmy's leg have left in him, huh?
It's a great question. And talking about Stafford getting older, he seems a little bit more durable than Jimmy G and Rodgers. I think this is going to be an interesting test case for that excellent, less need-led front office of the Rams. You know, they did the impossible last year. They turned a whole defense over in one year, and moreover, they replaced, or for the better part, replaced.
I don't think he could ever really be replaced. Aaron Donald with two blue chip players after the rookie seasons were done in Braden Fisk and Jared Verst. I think they're confident that they can do it again on the offensive side. I personally, again, being an analyst, understand how hard it is to succeed in the draft, and so it'll be interesting to see if they can pull it off again. Sam Brookhouse is joining us from Sumer Sports.
It's the JR Sport Reshow on the Infinity Sports Network. You talk about being able to turn over a team. There are a lot of teams at the top of this draft who are looking for a player or a few players who can change their draft fortunes. What do you first see at the top of the draft with the Tennessee Titans and the Browns? So here's what I'll say. I think it's going to end up being two quarterbacks.
Here's the reason why. Analytically, the value that you can get from picks one and two is substantially more if you draft a quarterback, and that's without necessarily caring about who the names are, just looking at the consensus big board and taking the two top quarterbacks. But this year, people don't really seem to love or think that the two top quarterbacks are at the same level as past years, and moreover, I think they think there's guys in the second and third rounds that they can get of very similar projection. As a result, whether it's the Titans and the Browns selecting two quarterbacks as two quarterback needy teams, or it's some desperate teams, particularly the Giants, maybe the Raiders, if both of those teams aren't able to get Matthew Stafford, maybe they'll trade up, get a little bit desperate. And there's some teams that I'd love to think, you know, maybe the Steelers have a needed quarterback.
I don't think they're going to get too desperate, but there's a lot of teams that need the most important position in football. Well, Sam, we know the biggest prospect, the guy who walked away with the Heisman is an anomaly. He told us today he's not going to participate in the combine.
No shock or surprise there. What do you think the what do you think the future holds for Travis Hunter? I came in thinking that there was a distinct consensus that he was going to play cornerback in the next level. And maybe there was a chance he was going to be a package guy, a wide receiver, three perhaps, or a gadget player on the offensive side of the ball. However, I've come to learn talking to people around the league that there's a substantial amount of people that believe he could be a wide receiver. Another video on YouTube or Twitter, you can go check out Sumer Sports, S-U-M-E-R Sports.
Check out that account with Charles Davis. He thinks that he's a wide receiver and he brought up an excellent point. Owners love to sell jerseys and what sells jerseys better than touchdowns? Who scores touchdowns? Wide receivers. An interesting point that I didn't consider, a separate interesting point. Andrew Berry from the Browns sitting there at two said that they viewed him as a wide receiver on the podium yesterday on Media Row.
I didn't really think anyone that was of that mind. It's interesting to see he throws a little wrench into the top four picks. What team do you think is best suited to bring on his talents and abilities? I really think he fits well with the Giants. I think the Giants do have a need at quarterback, but I think they actually have, you know, a little bit of offensive line talent. This is an offensive line rich free agency class, particularly in the interior and draft class. They're calling it the meat and potatoes draft because you can go get, you know, those beefy guys that can be a part of your rebuild, but they may not be the shiny objects that the wide receivers and the quarterbacks are. I think they can address that need there. They can get a quarterback elsewhere and then they can add a key cornerback to, you know, dredge up the spills that they had last year defensive backfield. They actually had one of the better pressure defensive lines.
Then you're also kind of adding a wide receiver tool that can be used alongside Malik Nabors seems like a perfect fit for me. Sam Brookhouse is here with us from Sumer Sports. When you think about Abdul Carter, we know he has a stress reaction. It's not a stress fracture. He's going to take some time off.
You're on the ground in Indianapolis. Does anybody care, especially the fact that it appears that he's not going to need surgery? It was very interesting. You know, first day we were here, I wasn't hearing a lot about Abdul Carter. My assumption was that people just thought he was the go-ahead consensus top guy.
I didn't really understand that. Again, sometimes as an analyst, you've got to be a little pessimistic. The core belief here on Radio Row is that there's six or seven edge rushers that could go in the first round. You know, me as an analyst, I don't know if I can pick out of seven first round talents who's going to be the best. I want to know why everyone thought Abdul Carter was at the top.
I wasn't really receiving any answers. Turns out that he has an injury risk and I think that's really going to change his evaluation a little bit. I've heard something like if it's severe, if he would need surgery or something like that, it'd be an 8 to 12 week injury that obviously wouldn't affect the season. Keep in mind, he had a shoulder injury too during the season. I don't know really what it's done.
I haven't gotten a clear picture of it yet. It seems like people still think he's the consensus top guy, but it is interesting to note that these concerns are starting to arise in a uniform setting. This isn't people just spreading rumors. This was checked by league doctors and guys over here at the combine in an open and uniform session. Well, Sam, we know that the combine has certainly changed over the years. We got players who have a lot more leverage than they used to have, don't have to show out today. Have you noticed any issues with any management with just having meetings and not seeing guys perform? I mean, we see them on a football field, but the players do have a little bit more stroke now. So to the contrary, really, I think that there's certain teams, including the Rams who we talked about very confident in their abilities, who don't even approach the combine in the same way and that they're not even sending people other than for media and interviews.
Like most of their crew is back in LA right now. I think the idea is it's tough to glean what's actually going on when you're at the combine and you can get the official readings afterward. It's actually a little better to watch the telecast to get multiple angles and take stuff away from that. I think that some management teams think that this is actually a better way to evaluate players of some of these guys sitting out and maybe it adds a little less bias. We have some research on consumersports.com that indicates that a lot of these combine drills really don't align with the production super well anyway.
At the highest, it's really the tight end position. It's only like 40% correlation and that's not really anything too big or predictive. So it is interesting to see how they approach it. The thing that I will note is we're losing historical data on top prospects. The reason that the combine is so valuable is because they've been doing the same thing in a uniform environment for many decades really at this point.
It gives us something to compare to in a way that you know even with the tracking data or some of the advanced stats we don't necessarily have. The loss of that with guys like Travis Hunter or Jalen Walker or Abdul Carter who are all sitting out is something that will hurt our data moving forward. As Sam Brookhouse is here with us on the JR Sport Reshows, we start to wrap things up. We know about some of the big names that I mentioned that you mentioned.
Is there a name that you're looking forward to seeing and hearing about over the next three days that we should pay attention to in April? Yeah, I'm sitting here watching the telecast of the D-line and the guy that I thought could really increase his stock is Shamar Stewart. I think he put up like a 40-inch vertical, the reports were. I haven't seen his 40-time yet going back and forth through media row. But he's a guy who sits there at about 18.
He had a bump from the finger bullet. It wasn't as big as I expected. This man's like 6'5", 6'6", 280. Brief physical profile and wasn't super productive at Texas A&M but led the team in pressures which is a little bit more predictive stat than sacks per se.
You obviously want to see him close those pressures into sacks. But moving forward, it's very interesting and sure enough I'm getting shown Shamar Stewart 4'5", 280 pounds. Gotta thank my guy for walking over and helping me out. Incredible from a guy that size. And he is 6'6", almost 300. He just ran a what, a 4'5", you said? 4'5", 9. That's nuts, man. You know, I was a linebacker and when I cut down I was like 215 when I played at Tulane and I was around that range.
That guy weighs like 70, 80 more pounds than me. Hey listen, I don't know what they're feeding folks but it's certainly a different world. Hey Sam, thank you so much for the time. Where can people follow you and all of your work with Sumersports? Yeah, so all the latest news and notes that we've collected here, you can go follow Sumersports, S-U-M-E-R sports on YouTube or Twitter. We're trying to get those out blazing fast because stuff is changing quickly. Also check me out at Sumersports.com or the Sumersports Show Draft FM podcast. I'm on both of those.
You can find those wherever podcasts can be listened to. Hey Sam, appreciate you, man. Go green wave, okay? Yeah, roll wave, baby.
