Who would be the #2 pick?

NFL Draft tonight. We are in fact six hours away from the Carolina Panthers being on the clock. Frankly, they've been on the clock. When you have the first pick, when the next pick is yours, you are on the clock from the moment that pick belongs to you. So, from the moment Carolina made the trade more than a month ago, they have actually been on the clock.

And there is every, every, every indication that that pick is going to be Bryce Young. But let's talk about that and a few other things with Jon Breach, CBSSports.com, part of the Pick 6 Podcast. Super friends, he joins us.

Sir, thank you very much. There's nothing going on today, right? No, I was taking a nap when you guys called. It was a down day, slow day.

I don't know what else to do with my time. Any indication that this is going to be somebody not named Bryce Young? I think that it would be the biggest shock, maybe in NFL Draft history, if the pick is not Bryce Young. I mean, all signs are pointing at Bryce Young. And if you just look at the other quarterbacks, they all have, you can make whatever complaint you want about the other quarterbacks. It's Bryce Young is the best all-around talent.

Obviously, his height is the biggest setback. But as far as on-field talent, it's just Bryce Young seems like the easy decision. If it wasn't Bryce Young, I enjoy doing this because I think it speaks to how we think and I would love for all of us to kind of get out of a group think when it comes to the NFL Draft. But if it wasn't Bryce Young, who would you take?

If it wasn't Bryce Young, probably CJ Stroud. He just seems like the second most talented quarterback. I love the mystery of Anthony Richardson.

He's obviously an athletic freak. But when you look at the historical nature of the draft and you have these guys who don't have a lot of college starts under their belt like Anthony Richardson, they generally don't play well in the NFL. I think Mitchell Trubisky was the last guy who had fewer than 15 or 16 college starts and they just struggle at the NFL level. So Anthony Richardson would scare me. I don't think I would spend a first-round pick or number one overall pick on Will Levitt. So I would probably go CJ Stroud if not Bryce Young. What you're articulating is that CJ Stroud is the safer pick and here's why I wouldn't take him at number one or number two is because I don't look at CJ Stroud and see star. I look at CJ Stroud and I think he could be a good quarterback. And if I'm picking number one, that's not what I want.

I want a star. And to me, I'm not saying I would take Anthony Richardson number one, but if I wasn't taking Bryce Young, that's the guy I would take because even though the odds probably are not in his favor, if he hits, he's probably even better than Bryce Young. Yeah, absolutely.

Yeah. The weird thing though, is that Frank Reich is just such an interesting person to be a part of this because we've seen what his quarterback luck has been, uh, you know, for the past few years, he can work with anyone and everyone, whether it's somebody, an all pro like Andrew Locke or, uh, to a guy on the tail end of his career, like Matt Ryan, Phillip rivers, whatever. So you do have to feel good that no matter who that quarterback is that Frank Frank Reich is the guy you want in charge when you're bringing a new quarterback into a system.

John breach, cbssports.com is joining us here on the Adam gold show. So how many teams that are picking in the first, uh, 10 and right now here's the list Panthers, Texans, Cardinals, Indy, Seattle, Detroit Raiders, Atlanta, Chicago. How many of those teams need a quarterback? That doesn't mean they'll take anybody here, but how many of those teams really actually could use a quarterback better than what they have? Uh, obviously Carolina, even though I love Andy Dalton as someone from Cincinnati, uh, the Houston Texans, obviously there's a mystery of the draft because they could absolutely take a quarterback. Um, but then there's just so much talent at the top of the draft, as far as defensive players go. And so wouldn't be surprised to see them do that. Uh, the call set for the Seahawks at five are also intriguing because it's not like that long-term deal they gave Gino ties them to Seattle for eight years.

It's they can get out of it after one year. So that's a possible quarterback spot. The lions, they haven't given Jared Goff an extension.

So that's something they could get out of in the next year or two. The Raiders again, not tied to Jimmy Garoppolo forever. The Falcons are another intriguing name.

So, I mean, where are we at? We're at Falcons Raiders, Seahawks, Texas, man. I mean, it's, it's a lot of teams that if someone fell in the lap, if CJ Stroud fell to eight with a Falcon, say, Ooh, we didn't expect him to be here. Should we pivot and take a quarterback? So yeah, there are a lot of teams that could conceivably take a quarterback, even if it doesn't feel like they're going to do that right this second.

Yeah. The answer is all of them can use a quarterback and I would put the Cardinals in that category too, but they won't because they just went through the business of paying Kyler Murray. And he is to me, the poster child of exactly what you don't want as the number one overall pick is that I think they, I think they regret that contract today. I think if they could, if they could do a do over, they do it.

Yeah. Well, the thing is you will hit the top quarterback contracts right now. And I think a lot of them are being regretted, whether that's Russell Wilson in Denver, maybe Kyler Murray's.

Yeah, exactly. And so I'm sure that's part of the reason the Ravens are a little bit scared of giving Lamar Jackson a fully guaranteed deal is just that, Hey, look, it hasn't worked out so well for these other teams. And even the Kyler Murray situation is interesting because you had a team that look, they drafted Josh Rosen in the top 10 one year and we're like, yeah, he's not good. So we're just going to move on and use another pick on a quarterback. So the philosophy there, even though I don't think they would take a quarterback, but yeah, you could certainly argue that, Hey, Kyler Murray is not going to be ready. Let's bring someone in John breach.

CBS sports.com is joining us here on the Adam gold show to just away from the president. Let me ask you this. If did you, I don't know if you did a mock draft or not, because there's only, I think only three people have done mock drafts this year across the universe. It might be more than three, but I think it was three. Who's the best player in this draft who's not a quarterback.

That is a tough one. There's just so many, you know, obviously will Anderson is at the top of a lot of lists, but you know, how good is he? Is he going to be, is he somebody, if he goes number two overall, he's going to change the franchise and, and, and change the Texans and, and turn that defense into one of the top ones in the NFL.

I don't know. It seems like everybody who's not a quarterback has a lot of, there's a lot of knocks on them. I mean, you've heard there's experts saying that, Hey, this is not one of the best draft classes.

This is just down, whether it's will Anderson, Jalen Carter, Tyree Wilson, all of these guys, there's just one minor knock. We say, I don't know if I should be taking him in the top three. Um, but I would probably go with will Anderson as the safest non quarterback best guy to draft. If I'm the Texans, I take him there or Tyree Wilson, and then they pick 12. I'll bet you there's a quarterback there.

I would do the same thing. If I were the Detroit lions, I would take the best player on the board at six and at 18. If there's a quarterback there, like maybe that's a spot for Hendon hooker at number 18 in the draft. If you're the lion, somebody you can play golf for another year, maybe, I don't know how long, maybe one more year. And then Hendon hooker might be ready to go in year two. That's what I would do if I, like, I don't know if you saw the video of Mike Greenberg from ESPN losing his mind when Mike Tannenbaum suggested that the jets take a quarterback.

They're not going to do that in the first round, but if I'm the jets and there is a legitimate developmental prospect at quarterback sitting there in the second round, I'm considering it. When you love someone, seeing them struggle with their mental health can be one of the hardest things in the world, especially when you know they need help, but don't know where to turn. That's why 988 lifeline is here. 988 trained crisis counselors are available 24 seven by phone or text to provide you with the resources and support you need to help the people you love. No one should have to struggle alone.

Call or text 988 suicide and crisis lifeline day or night. 988 hope has a new number. Yeah. I mean with the jets, I think it's a little bit different situation because you don't want to completely throw Zach Wilson under the bus, which it's already been kind of done. He got benched last year. I mean, it's a number two overall pick.

You have them under contract at a cheap rate. Why not let them sit behind Aaron Rogers, see if it helps them this year. And then if it doesn't, you go into next year's draft with that philosophy for, Hey, well, let's hope Aaron returns for a second year. Let's get a quarterback who may be a project to come in here and work under Aaron Rogers.

But I would give Zach Wilson at least one year to kind of learn under Aaron Rogers. But I love the ideas with the lions and the Texans don't reach for a quarterback. You know, these quarterbacks are only going high or projected to go high because they're quarterbacks. That doesn't mean there's a top 30 talents in this draft. If this was 2005, you know, when quarterbacks weren't going at the top of all the top five picks and these quarterbacks probably don't go as high as everyone thinks that are going to go. So yeah, I think the lions, if you wait until 18, maybe you could trade up.

If someone falls down to 14 or 13, cause it's a lot easier to trade up from that spot than it is from six where they currently are. And even the Seahawks could do that because they pick it five and 20. So maybe Seattle says, Hey, you know what? We'll take our defensive guy at five and we'll cross our fingers and maybe we'll be a quarterback at 20. And if not, then we'll take somewhere else that fills the spot. And the Titans too, I think are interesting because they're at 11.

I really feel like they could end up taking a quarterback and it wouldn't shock me at all if they end up trading up. No question about it. All right. A final thing before we let John breach go, I've asked this question of other people. We haven't really talked about it today, but you mentioned Lamar Jackson. So you have three options. Lamar Jackson plays in week one for the Ravens. He plays in week one for another team, or he does not play for anybody in week one.

I'm going to go with option one. It just feels like it's kind of trending that way with Lamar returning to Baltimore. You know, it was one of those situations where there was just nonstop drama and things leaking out during the whole entire month of March. And now we've kind of reached the no news is good news. Both sides have kind of piped down and gotten quiet. Nothing's leaking out except for a couple Lamar cryptic texts and tweets.

And we have no idea what those mean. They might not be related to going back to Baltimore. So it does seem like things have kind of calmed down and that he'll end up and maybe it's on the franchise stack. I don't know if an extension will get done, but I do think he'll play in Baltimore at least one more season. And to me, this feels like the Aaron Rogers situation in green Bay from last season, you know, where it was a Rogers is going to leave. He doesn't want to be in green Bay. And then two days before the start of pre-agency, he signs that extension and ends up in green Bay for one more year. So I do think that Lamar and Baltimore will be together for at least one more season.

But who knows after that? Is he playing on the franchise tag? That is a light number for the franchise tag for Lamar Jackson.

Yeah. I mean, if I'm Lamar, I am upset. I'd be irate if I have to play on the franchise tag, but I'm not going to sit out of these.

I mean, no one's really trying it except for Le'Veon Bell, and that was a total disaster. So I don't think that option would really be on the table. I don't think Lamar Jackson would do that.

I don't think he would hold out. Yeah, I just think he would be unhappy going into training camp if he's playing on the franchise tag, but I do think he would show up. Yeah, but by that time, the Jets might be in the market for another quarterback. So the Jets, like they signed Le'Veon Bell, they could sign Lamar Jackson.

It always comes full circle so we can dump on the Jets. John Breach, at John Breach on Twitter. I thank you very much, man.

We'll talk again soon. Yeah, thanks for having me, Adam. You got it.

John Breach, CBSSports.com. See how we can always spin it to kind of, you know, knock the Jets? Yeah.

You know, I didn't ask him the other of the Aaron Rodgers question, can he be their tomato juice? Right. To mask the skunk of being the Jets.

And again, I have my doubts. I don't think people realize just how skunky Jets are. Well, you would know being a former fan. Absolutely. And they, because I'm no longer of them, are the most delusional, but at the same time, impressionable. They legitimately believe that they are Super Bowl contenders today.

Yeah. They may be right. I mean, stranger things have happened.

I don't. I don't believe that they are Super Bowl contenders today. I do believe they got better at quarterback. Or yesterday. They got, whenever the deal was finally struck, when Aaron Rodgers showed up and looking like he really was excited to be there. Of course, he said the words that nobody has said.

I'm excited to be a New York Jet. Right. Yeah.

Nobody's ever said that. Thanks, Darkness. Except the, exactly. Hiowaska. Yeah. Thank you, hallucinogenics. It helps. All right.