Post Draft day analysis.

Two last night, our guy Will Brinson, senior NFL writer CBS Sports.com, who does right now because he loves, loves, loves writing. All right, not about Bryce. Well, you and I have talked about Bryce for a ton. Thoughts on what the Houston Texans did, CJ Stroud at number two, and then trading from 12 to three to get Will Anderson.

Clearly they wanted both, and they didn't feel like if they could have traded, drafted Anderson first, nobody was going to trade with them to get CJ. I hadn't, I hadn't heard that from them, and by the way, I'm going to try my best today to be a little more close. Yesterday, apparently, I was, I was on DC radio, and they said I sounded like I was, quote, shot out of a cannon to write stuff about the draft.

That's fine. It's very exciting. Yeah, exactly. So what I've heard that I think is really interesting, Adam, is that they didn't, and this is, this is all speculation. You know, you never know with, with the team like this. And I also have a theory that Nick Caserio may have floated the rumor that he was going to leave the Texans after the draft himself in order to try to leverage his owner or his boss, the owner of the tech and Cal McNair, uh, who's really just, you know, has an incredible resume in professional football. Um, essentially the buzz, the chatter you hear is that they, that Demika Ryan's, their new head coach and Nick Caserio, the GM were in lockstep and ready to go with Will Anderson, uh, you know, the linebacker of Alabama, Cal McNair stepped into the process late and was like, no, we're taking CJ Stroud. And those guys didn't love CJ Stroud. But when, when the owner says we're taking this quarterback and we, you know, Panthers fans can, can emphasize, sympathize, I guess, or emphasize, um, you know, you're taking that quarterback.

We talked about this at length. And so essentially they kind of reached a compromise where Cal McNair got to do what he wanted to take CJ Stroud because he's the owner. And then they traded back up to three where there was a very desperate Cardinals team to get out of the third deck. They give him a future first, which could end up being a really good pick. And, uh, they, they got their guy, Will Anderson.

And so you come away from the stress. They look, you got two top five picks. It's hard to knock, you know, sort of, sort of pick apart the draft at the same time. It really depends on how the Texans perform in 2023, because that 2024 pick could very well be a top 10 pick.

If they're not very good or CJ Stroud bust out. And then you're left wondering, wow, did we make a mistake? Not just taking Will Anderson, seeing how the season goes and then picking up Drake mayor, Caleb waves.

It's hard to judge that, but that's how it's going to be judged. Yeah, I, I totally agree. And certainly if you drafted Will Anderson at two and then told Cal McNair that you can go back to your toy set, uh, we are a world trade up to number three. There would probably have been a lot of competition to trade up for three and that would have driven the price of the trade up because Stroud was clearly the QB two on a lot of boards, obviously it could have been Richardson. Well, yeah, I would say too that, like, I think also what happened was the Titans allowed it to really get out there that they were interested to get the three for CJ Stroud.

And then you had to cult at four, right? So you have the Texans basically Cal McNair probably got played through the media by division rivals. I speak, I covered air, like you joke about the place that, uh, I don't know if you're talking about this.

There's a story stage. Rosenthal's tells how like David Carr told him way back in the day. He's like, I just met Cal, you met him. He's like, no, he's like, he did his office. He's got a beanbag chair and an X-Box and that's his office. It's unbelievable. Yes, it, no, I, I was sort of, uh, referencing that, but yeah, I thought I'd call it that. I mean, he, he really has no football acumen at all.

He's, uh, he was born, uh, with a silver controller in his mouth. Um, so that, I mean, that's just, uh, unfortunately what it is. All right, Lamar Jackson deal got done. Uh, and don't, you know, the Jalen hurts contract was the barometer. So he got like a little bit more in all areas than Jalen hurts got, which makes a ton of sense.

Is everybody happy now? Well, and I'm looking at the Jalen hurts contract by the way, because as of Tuesday, and I would guess it's filed now, they had not filed it with, it's still not, let me see if it had been filed with it, like in the NFL's contract system, which is really rare for it to take that long, but yeah, it's filed now. And so you look at it and like, basically when it takes that long, it usually means there's not as much guaranteed money as they prompted up to.

Right. I think Lamar's might end up being the same way. What was shocking to me is that, you know, we like, what was the point of the stand he was taking? You know, like you want to try to get to Deshaun money, um, fully guaranteed deals.

If you really want to make the stand, don't get me wrong. I'm taking the 180 billion or even as 130 million, I'm taking that. Cause I want that you're, your kids, kids, kids are set. Yeah. Or how many ever generation? It is generational wealth for the Lamar Jackson family. Yeah. And like the franchise tag is borderline generational wealth too. But yes, the deal is generational wealth. And, um, I think too, like Lamar may have just basically tired, maybe he's been tired of it. You get that every day. It's, it's a constant discussion. You don't have that agent.

It's a grind. And you know, the Ravens did say, all right, we're going to, we got to go back home, which I thought, you know, little overblown, but still they wouldn't have gotten that guy. And then they dropped a wide receiver and they fired. So I love first ever Boston college wide receiver taken in the first round. And then in that school's proud history of professional football, uh, dating back a long time, even past Tommy Bryan. Uh, and I think they probably made a promise that they would take a receiver if he had to be able to take a receiver. And I think you look at that often, Tom monkey coming in from Georgia, man, they can run the ball effectively.

They have some real interesting weapons. Uh, and I think Dave flowers, they will probably use it in a creative fashion, both horizontally and vertically to try and stress defenses. Well, I think the Ravens did well, and I think Lamar Jackson is happy. And if Lamar Jackson is happy, then the, then the Baltimore Ravens should be happy. And they knew it was going to cost him a lot of money.

So I'm not even, uh, bent out of shape. So one final thing, cause here's, uh, when, when the jets traded back, when they swapped ones with green Bay and green Bay goes to 13 and the jets go to 15, the only way that wasn't going to be okay is if they ran out of tackles that were worth taking in the first round. And don't, you know, that's what happened to the jets. So did the jets, I don't care how good the kid is that they drafted the edge rusher from Iowa state. Uh, even if he's great, it almost doesn't matter. Did the jets kind of blow that because they didn't draft a tackle in the first round and their offensive line is still a question mark.

Yeah. And if you look at it, um, you know, we talk about Daniel Jeremiah, who is tight with Joe Douglas or dating back, you know, years where they were working with the Eagles and the ratings together. And typically speaking has been very accurate with his jets mock draft.

I believe he had, he didn't have Broderick Jones going, he mentioned him several times. And then you see the jets who traded with the Packers and fell below the Patriots who were at 14 Patriots in the Steelers trade and the Steelers come up and get Broderick Jones, who was almost certainly a target for the jets at that point. Now, having given up all the compensation they did for Aaron Rogers, they probably wanted to be a little careful about trying to move up. And you know, there's no way in hell the Packers are trading with them after they did that swap. And there is definitely no way in hell the Patriots are trading, right? You're going to be called Belicheck and be like, Hey, can we come up?

And he's like, no, you're the jets go away. In fact, Belicheck was probably willing to take less to have the Steelers come up and grab the jets guy. Uh, and yeah, I mean, I think it's, it goes back to that, you know, that deal they did for Rogers. And you say, I mean, we said at the time, it's like, you know, you couldn't have just stood firm on the 13 for the 15 swap. Like that really caved on that.

I would have been, and it did bite him. So, you know, they got the edge rusher that's, that's important. Carl Lawson probably not going to be there next year, but you know, Rogers needs protection up front and you have to be concerned about getting sniped like that as part of the year in Rogers trade. It's possible that Carl Lawson won't be there this year and the, uh, the jets will try to get out of that trade, get it, get out of that contract. But, uh, I'm saying is that the jets had to get an offensive lineman out of this draft. I realized they've got, you know, picks coming up, but they're, the quality has, there's a giant gap between the, uh, the first few picks, first few offensive tackles and the next group of offensive tackles. Theoretically, although what do I know since I am not a draft evaluator, maybe the jets know better than, uh, than I do. I don't know that the jets history, uh, indicates that they do their better. So that is true history.

Uh, history is spotty at best. Will Brinson. Oh, uh, by the way, did the Eagles did the Eagles win the draft?

Oh yeah. I mean, look, I mean, shout out to my boy, we don't live here, but shout out to my boys, heart and buzz, who, uh, hearts, uh, a dog fan, a buzz is an Eagles fan, a bird's fan. And like how he runs it. I kind of like the strategy. Why don't we just draft Georgia defenders? They have an NFL, they have a historically great NCAA defense. It was really an NFL defense compared to everybody else. They were playing good.

So why not just make them an NFL defense? I mean, Jalen Carter at nine and then Nolan Smith at 30. That's a, uh, that's a pretty good draft. They got two last year, two and Jordan Davis and, um, uh, another I'm brain dead.

I got two hours. Me too. Uh, they just drafted, they are the dogs by the way. Good for, uh, good for them. Uh, all right. Well, Brinson, I appreciate your time.

Uh, the set, there is a second and third round today. I'm not sure you're aware. I am. We will be doing a live pick six podcast afterwards, uh, breaking out our biggest takeaways. And of course, uh, people who listen to your show know that Ryan Wilson, uh, is a great draft analyst. We'll be doing the whip to first pick podcast and CBS sports HQ as well. All those channels, check it out. Hey, it hurricanes your boy goal here.

He's an OG, but it comes to covering that team. Get away to get us to sleep. Get some rest already. Yeah, I need, uh, I need Sunday off. I appreciate you. I appreciate your support. Well, I'll talk to you later. I appreciate we'll support. We have already talked about that today.