NFL draft is done, and now we’re on the Carolina Panthers preseason.

Jordan Reed from ESPN. Now joining us, a central grad, which I think is cool. We have to, we have to develop very, very deep ties here, Jordan. How you doing, ma'am? I'm great. Thank you for having me on.

It's a pleasure being here. All right, well, we're going to talk some future NFL draft, and here's, you have been following whatever, you know, what we were all following going into this draft. You had your mock draft. Real quick, how did you evaluate Bryce Young and did the Panthers get this right? Hey, I was a big fan of Bryce coming into the year. He was my quarterback one exiting last summer just because of everything that he was able to accomplish coming off of winning the Heisman Trophy and everything that he was able to do during his time at Alabama.

I was expecting big things from him prior to last season, and he answered every question that I have for him. And yes, he doesn't have the biggest size. He's not the biggest quarterback in the world, but he plays much bigger than what his frame does indicate. Plays the game with the same heartbeat, no matter the magnitude of the situation. I think that's the most impressive trait about him.

It's just his poise. And even in the two games, Alabama lost last year, which came against LSU in Tennessee. He gave them a fighting chance in both of those games. There was a defense that let Alabama down and those two losses. And that's what you want to see from a franchise type of player. And a lot of people, they kind of forget that Alabama wasn't as talented as what we have been accustomed to seeing on the perimeter, especially at wide receiver. They didn't have a first round receiver like they typically have. So Bryce wasn't really working with some of the players that we saw or what we're accustomed to in years past.

So he's a really special player. I think he's got a chance to be that face of the franchise player that they've been lacking since Cam Newton left. And the truth is, is that he's always been small and he didn't have very many passes batted down, even playing in the SEC against the likes of a Georgia and a Tennessee and an LSU and an Auburn.

I mean, there just weren't a lot of, you know, a lot of problems for him throwing the ball. If it were close between Stroud, in terms of the quarterback skills, and this is not a knock on those guys, more about elevating Bryce. If it were close between Stroud or Levis or Richardson, although Richardson is a different beast altogether, I think.

Wouldn't they have been the pick over Bryce simply because you can't teach size? Well, it really just depends on what exactly you're looking for in a quarterback. And I think all of those guys bring different things to the table.

And I'll just start with Richardson. You know, the athleticism is what's going to be talked about with him. He's really a carbon copy or a replica of Cam Newton.

He's not quite as big as cam, but he's just as athletic as cam. I think he has just as strong of an arm as cam too, but he's just really inexperienced only starting 13 games. And just to give you some context on the type of inexperienced player that we're talking about here, there's only been since the year 2000, there's only been two players that have went on to become a first round fix that started 13 games or less. One was Mitchell Trubisky during this time of Carolina.

He only started 12 games and the other was Mark Sanchez during his time at USC. So it's very rare to see a player as inexperienced as what Richardson was to end up going to the first round. But whenever a player has those types of traits, you're willing to bet on that. And then with CJ Stroud, he's just so natural at the position and the way that I try to help other people picture it and that he's like an ace pitcher on a baseball mound. Everything's so fluid. It's so easy with him.

Nothing feels forced. He can hit the strike zone. He can put it outside of the strike zone if he needs to. And then his experience and his mastery or his wizardry of what he was able to accomplish at Ohio state with all those weapons that he had.

And yes, he was thrown to a lot of dudes on the perimeter, but he was putting them in positions to win as well. Jordan Reed from ESPN draft expert joining us here, NFL draft expert. So let's talk, let's look toward the next class. So here, we are hyper focused on Drake May, but of course, Caleb Williams, the Heisman trophy winner from Southern Cal is out there as well. How would you stack the quarterback class today for next draft?

Yeah, so you guys caught me at a great time. I'm working my way through all of these guys right now. And I just finished up with Drake May and Caleb Williams last week.

Watch both of those guys over the weekend. Both of them are exceptional players and Caleb is, he's really special. He's got a chance to be one of the better quarterback prospects that we've seen in a very long time. But him is just, he's not a super big guy. He's only about six foot one, 210 pounds, but he's such a natural at the position. He can play within structure. He could play outside of structure. He has a very strong arm.

He's very accurate. And then he just makes things happen at the position. He's really smart too. So he's one, obviously is going to be a contender for the number one overall thick.

And then Drake may actually was there for his first career start against Florida and him. When I'm live scouting throughout the year, he was a player that I had on my way too early. This of course, looking at Josh downs as well. And he was one that just stood out immediately.

Six foot four, 220 pounds. He has a very, very strong arm, very mobile, which I think is an underrated trait about him. And then him stepping into Phil Longo's offense after his time, how exited putting up prolific numbers in him going on to win ACC rookie of the year. And he's a player that's going to be a strong contender for the number one pick two biggest area of improvement for Drake may.

That's a really good question. Just consistency with this accuracy and his ball placement. I thought as the year went on, that kind of went away a little bit, especially in the title game against Clemson, then also in Oregon, he struggled with the bowl game against Oregon. He struggled with his ball placement a little bit. So I think just the consistency with this accuracy, his decision-making being a little bit more decisive as far as things happen in quicker form, which is going to come with time. A lot of people have to remember that he was a first year starter last year. So things are going to slow down for him significantly this year.

So I think he's going to be better with his decision-making and just his in-game consistency with his ball placement. Could that simply be a factor of just needing to get stronger and because you wear down over the course of the season that just the little things tend to lag? Yeah, that and Josh Downs being hurt every now and then. That's a big peak too. Not having him out on the field, that definitely does hurt him.

And then it's just experiencing too. A lot of people forget when you're studying this quarterback that this is their first year starting. So our expectations are so high for them that we forget that he's only started in 13 or 14 games in his career. So him having a that year of experience under his belt, the game is only going to slow down for him, but there is going to be a little bit of an adjustment period for him.

Having a new offensive coordinator now there, Phil Longo being gone. So there may be a little bit of a learning curve for him early on, but I think he's going to be very good mid-season towards the end of the year too. Jordan Reed from ESPN. You can follow him on Twitter at Jordan underscore Reed and NCCU alum and they're one of their NFL draft experts. Who do you think is that for me quarterback? I understand we overvalue quarterbacks or overrate or overdraft quarterbacks.

I don't think the other two things are accurate, but maybe we overdraft quarterbacks. Who's the best player in this upcoming draft right now? It's Caleb Williams of USC. He's the best one that I've seen, but last year's draft, there was a lot of starters going into the year. I think that are starter worthy players, but this year's draft class, you have a lot of stars and at the top, you have Caleb Williams, you have Drake made, but offensively, this draft is loaded. You have Marvin Harrison Jr at Ohio state, Brock Bowers, the tight end from Georgia.

Who's a phenomenal player. You have Olufus Shanu who's off at the tackle from Penn state. And then also Joe all offensive tackle from Notre Dame. So offensively, this is going to be one of the better draft classes that we've probably seen in a decade. And now you're talking about players that have like pro bowl potential walking through the door. So they have that potential like we saw from Aiden Hutchinson and Sauls Gardner to be those pro bowl or all pro type of players significantly as rookies. All right. Final thing for Jordan Reed for me, SBN, and this is sort of a curve ball, but I hope you can hit the curve from basically the guys that we are going to watch here in the triangle on a year-to-year basis or, you know, weekend week out basis throw in Wake Forest or anybody else in the state of North Carolina.

Who do you think the best pro prospect is not named Drake May? Ooh, you're coming for a loop. I did see. Yeah.

I have a great curve ball by the way. I'm still working my way through a lot of these players. If there's no answer, there's no answer. There's no obvious answer that should tell us.

Yeah. There's not an obvious one right now, just because with the transport portal and new players being in the area and things of that such. So there's some, some players that still need to emerge, but there's a lot of talent in this area. NC state has some players that a lot of people are looking at. Shaheen battle was a cornerback that I think is going to make a really big name for himself this year. So he probably would be the one that I would say right now, but there's, there's a lot of different players, Brendan Armstrong coming over from Virginia. He's another player that a lot of people are looking forward to seeing this year, him at NC state. So there's not like that star power that we saw last year with, you know, it's not a Josh down. There's not, there are people were hoping that Sam Hartman would declare last year. He probably would be another name to throw in that tier, but he ended up going another day. So there's not a lot of notable names outside of Drake May this year, honestly. So we'll see. Somebody's going to emerge, but that's what the season is for.

I'm sure we'll be talking about a first round pick from the child. You got it. I appreciate your time.

Jordan Reed, Jordan at Jordan underscore Reed from ESPN. Thank you much. Hopefully we'll talk again. Absolutely. Thank you guys as always. You got it.