Is he having mock drafts withdrawals?!

We have not spoken with Ryan Wilson of CBS.

It hasn't been that long. It feels like so much longer because we love talking with Ryan. But I guess the last time we talked it was about mock drafts and all of that. He is the mock draft maven for CBSSports.com.

So my first question to my friend Ryan Wilson is, do you have mock draft withdrawal when you have to stop doing them? Ryan Wilson- Good afternoon, Adam. I'll just tell you what I just told Victoria. She asked me how my trip was on my vacation. I said I stayed at home. I didn't do anything.

I just sat in the room and enjoyed the silence. So I am not having mock draft withdrawal. In fact, I'm dreading the idea of only having whatever, 12, 16 weeks, whatever, till I get back into the mock draft routine.

Adam- See, here's what's funny. I pay so close attention to how long off seasons are. But the off season in the NFL is arguably, and I'm not saying this definitively, I'm just saying it's arguably more interesting than the season. There are so many things to think about and do and talk about. And obviously, a lot of your work is done then as well. I mean, watching games is fun.

I don't know about watching tape and trying to definitively rank players who play different positions in different spots in the country. I don't know if that's fun, but the off season, there's more to do for you. Ryan- Yeah, it actually is fun for me. I have a little bit of OCD, so I enjoy the idea of trying to find some organization and looking at however many hundreds of people end up watching.

So that part for me is a lot of fun. And also, as you know, it's sort of hard to watch 15 different college games on Saturday and then watch NFL game on Sunday. So the ability to sort of watch these players separately after the fact, scratch that itch. But to your larger point, I think you're right because football season's about, okay, the game's on Sunday, this player's hurt, this player gets benched, sort of your typical storylines.

This is the time of year where all bets are off. Anything and usually everything happens, whether it's the, thank goodness Aaron Rogers finally found a place to play, because that would have been a lingering storyline that we all got tired of. But you guys like Saquon Barkley saying, I may not show up. Ryan Burns, understandably wants to get paid. He's doing all the right things to climb digs, conversations with him and Sean McDermott about whether he's going to be there.

He showed up today and those sort of tension points on some really good football teams or problems for not only the coaches and the GMs and the front office folks, but also for the fans trying to figure out, okay, is this the year we're going to make a run or is it going to be because of this one player who wants this and doesn't get it that upsets the apple club? Ryan Wilson, cbssports.com, cover three, I'm sorry, pick six podcast, which we talked to Chip about an hour ago. So I apologize for getting podcasts mixed up.

I listened to both of them. So let me start with a couple of Panthers things and then we'll move on. You already mentioned two of the players I wanted to ask you about, but we know the Panthers kind of, it's not really on the low. We knew it was going to happen. It really doesn't matter now anyway, that Bryce Young was elevated to QB one. I realize I think like, okay, not to, I mean, I love Andy Dalton as a backup, but he's never going to be the starter.

It's really Bryce Young's job to lose. Is that a fair way of looking at it? Oh, absolutely. And by the way, there are worse things than being accused of being a member of the cover three podcast. So I'll take any association with chip Patterson with it without fail.

Uh, but yeah, I mean, this was just a formality, right? And there were some clips last week of the week before floating around in Tennessee where we saw we'll have us air mail a throwing net and that got a little buzz. And at the end of the day, it doesn't matter, but Bryce Young by all accounts has been on point. Um, Frank Reich has been incredibly impressed and I would imagine he's a pretty tough guy to impress when it comes to quarterback play. The only issue is, uh, and you know, I'm sure he talked about this when those first photographs came, uh, Bryce, I'm going to Carolina Panthers helmet. He looked like he was in fourth grade and it looked like he was wearing Derek Brown's uniform.

I think that was proud. He didn't want to fit. And he looks like he's in Alabama, uh, where he's much more of a football looking player, but it doesn't matter. We knew all the physical limitations and quotation marks about Bryce young before he arrived, but he's a better than advertised. And I think he's proven that now. And, and the question is going to be how quickly does he assimilate as being a face of the franchise in the NFL after facing a lot of those same pressures, uh, at, you know, the high profile Alabama, but this feels like another sort of checkbox.

You take off as you go down the list of things you need price to do as we get closer to August and then to September, but, um, no surprise. And I think Andy Dalton is probably one of the guys you want as your backup, because he understands his role and he's not looking to make any waves in the locker room. And he's been, you know, he's been down this road several times before.

Yeah. Look, I think Dalton can be a dynamite. I, you know, we joked around few years ago when Derek Anderson was the backup in Carolina. And I, I think I coined the term, the phrase of franchise backup and Andy Dalton can certainly be that. I mean, because, you know, if, if he had to, he could start a few games. I had no problem with Andy Dalton in an emergency, having to start or get you out of a game if Bryce young can't finish it for one reason or another. So, uh, and if Dalton who does appear to have accepted the role, Dalton wants to be a franchise backup by all means, man, you can play another five to six years in the NFL. Yeah, no, he, he's gotten a lot of mileage out of that backup bowl after B the guy who I think was part of the five-year stretch.

I think he had the entire stretch of five-year straight going to playoffs the bagels. And of course they didn't want a football game until Joe burrow came along in January, but that that's something certainly to, to hang your hat on. The other thing that's sort of interesting to me in the large of you picture, Adam, is that macro was a third round pick last year and macro much like Malik Willis. I just talked about Will Leveson, Tennessee, Lake bullets for the third round pick in Tennessee. It just shows you how quickly you can move on from a guy that you think might have an opportunity to be a starting quarterback for you. Even a day two guy, uh, if things don't work out relatively quickly and you know that he got injured, I get that with Matt corral, but if you have an opportunity to take a Bryce young, you do it. And the Titans traded for Will Leveson. They apparently weren't impressed enough with Malik Willis last year and in limited duty to stick with that.

So it just goes to show you, this is a short-term situation. Even if you're a high profile guy, like Zach Wilson clearly is going to be sitting on the bench with Aaron Rogers playing in New York. I look at the Zach Wilson thing and I don't think he's ever going to play.

I really don't. I don't think he's ever going to play for the jets again. I think he is there until they could figure out the successor to Aaron Rogers to two Rogers. How happy was he that mandatory mini camp is now is no longer anything.

It's God, they canceled it. This is, uh, Robert Salah taking a page from who the Doug Peterson, uh, playbook and just get rid of it. Yeah. It's funny because we, we were sending our, my buddy Rick Spielman to the Jaguars, uh, mandatory Mandy camp, uh, and it got canceled.

So he, he, he didn't have to go there and report CBS sports HQ. Um, you know, different times, a little bit. We've seen, you know, in the past coaches do this thing. I think in terms of Aaron Rogers, whether it means it, part of me wonders, is this going to be a situation where the jets for an obstacle, just have, it's going to have to try to walk on eggshells running and Rogers, keep them happy. Or is this a team building exercise? Was this going to be happened? Whether someone else was a quarterback.

And I think these are things that you're going to be looking out for to see, okay, is this to placate the, the boss? I mean, Aaron Rogers or the situation that is beneficial for everyone and was in the planning already, because we know that Aaron Rogers can be prickly and, uh, he he's not hidden that fact and he's come out and said as much Mike McCarthy can confirm it. And I would imagine the current coach and GM Green Bay would confirm it as well.

So I want to see how that plays out, especially to just start slowly to the season. But again, we have a lot of time to talk about that, but, uh, I would imagine Aaron Rogers is quite happy as someone who was close to 40, that he didn't have to go to his job. That's basically manual labor, but he showed up for OTAs and all the other stuff, which Aaron Rogers would have never done. He said that this is the most fun he's had in years.

Of course it is. Uh, Ryan Wilson, CBS sports is joining us here on the Adam Gold show. So Dalvin cook or Ezekiel Elliott, who would you like?

Huh? That's, that's an interesting question. I wonder my first question would be if I'm a team is who's cheaper if I'm talking to their agents because, um, they're both really good football players, both have battled injuries and both, I would imagine want to get paid, not having spoken with them or their agents. And I get that. So I think it's a half dozen, a one, to be honest with you, Adam, I like both players. I just think the concern with Zeke is that he was dressed too high and that wasn't his fault. And Dalvin cook was the second round pick and had great value as a second rounder and was a great teammate, uh, as Zeke has reportedly been in Dallas as well. So I think at the end of the day, it's just money. If I'm the GM or the coach, because the, the fit is the fit, right? I mean, these guys are both in their, uh, late twenties after 25.

Anyway, they're not quite 30 and they still have a couple of years left for sure. It's just a matter of how much of the salary cap we're going to have to vote to one of these two players. And the question for the running backs might be this.

Okay. Do I want to maximize my value by that? I mean, get as much as I can in this contract and play for a terrible team or don't want to give a discount and go to a place like Kansas city, for example, or the Eagles, for example, for an opportunity to win a Super bowl, because that I also have to have to factor in and, um, those decisions either way, it's going to be up to the player, not necessarily a wrong or right one, but I think for me, I'm happy with either players, just whichever one comes cheapest.

If I'm the, if I'm the team. Could you imagine Dalvin cook in Kansas city's offense? Yeah.

You know, it's funny. We said that about Le'Veon bell and he really didn't do anything, but he was done. He was done by the time he got there. Dalvin. Cook's not done.

He is not done, but it's a situation where you could be Judas Schuster and you could be a contributor and you don't have to do the heavy lifting. And in the right case, the running back you're behind Isaiah Pacheco. So you split and carries and you're getting all the benefits playing with Andy Reed and Patrick Mahone. And none of the headaches is having to answer tough questions when your team loses from the media. So that to me feels like a discount. Like I don't want to say it feels like a couple hundred thousand dollars a year discount because that's insane to say out loud, but that's something I would imagine you would think about if you're Dalvin cookers and gala.

I think you would have to final thing. So yesterday the bills sort of announced that man, Stefan Diggs is not here. And Sean McDermott was it's concerning. And Diggs agent said, nah, he's there. He reported yesterday. How, how does that happen?

I mean, I don't know. Maybe he wasn't hanging around the facility on, on Tuesday, but I mean, he's either reported or he hasn't reported. We shouldn't get that wrong. Right. To your original point, though, this is what happens in June.

This doesn't happen in October, by the way. Stefan Diggs has never been late as far as we know, or no show to a, to a practice or a game. He's always been there. And I think that's part of the off season dance of, okay, is it time to, to re up? Stefan Diggs is contract is Stefan Diggs looking to relocate.

Is he unhappy? Because now what we go back to is like, remember the last time he was on the field, he and Josh Allen weren't, weren't besties as they lost that game to the Cincinnati Bengals in the playoffs. Again, if they had won that game, no one cares. It goes back to that. And no one cares that maybe Stefan Diggs wants more money because they would have won enough games, perhaps gotten to the super bowl.

So on and so forth. I think the interesting thing about this situation is that Josh Allen is the face of this team. No doubt about it. The offense runs to Josh Allen, but number two on the list is the bond. Like he is incredibly important to what they do. And you could argue pretty easily that when Stefan Diggs arrived in Buffalo, that's when Josh Allen's game took off once the dental or not. The other issue is that it's rare that someone who isn't a quarterback has any leverage in the NFL in terms of negotiating. Stefan Diggs has a little action because after him, there's gay Davis on the depth chart, a wide receiver and you know, and that's about it now yet. You have Dawson, Knox, Jackson, Dalton, Kincaid, both tight ends, but I don't think you're going to revamp an offense without Stefan Diggs around the running backs and Josh Allen. So I think if there's something Stefan Diggs wants to happen, maybe it happens because it's hard to move on from him and expect this office to look like it has the last few years, even though Josh Allen has gotten better each and every year, disregarding the issues when he struggled with the elbow injury.

Ryan Wilson, CBS Sports. I appreciate your time. Go back to doing nothing because that's what you wanted to do. And I don't blame you one bit for doing nothing when after all that you did for 13 months of last season. I appreciate it, man. I'll talk to you soon. Thank you, Adam. You got it. Ryan Wilson, cbssports.com. He is their draft, their mock draft expert.