Baker Mayfield, Trayvon Walker, Sam Darnold discussed on The Paul Finebaum Show
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Always great to bring our friend Mike tannenbaum in heading to the draft tomorrow and talking about it nonstop, the former GM and director of player personnel for a number of NFL clubs. Mike, thank you. Great to see you. So if you're sitting there at number one, which Jacksonville is, you've got your quarterback. What do you do? What do you do Thursday night? Yeah, great to be with you, Paul. I take 8 in Hutchinson. He's a really good player, and he brings a lot to that Jacksonville locker room. I've been to their Michigan's practices this year. I've seen him live. He's a really good player, maybe not miles Garrett, necker, Joey Bosa, a notch below that as a player, but he will infuse tremendous football character into that Jacksonville locker room. So having said that's what you would do, what do you think they will do? Sounds like they're leading towards Trayvon walker, who I think Paul is going to be a good player. You saw him a lot. I'm just scared of death values production, only 6 sacks this year. Only 52% of his snaps at defensive end. We all saw what he did at the combine at 274 pounds, but to me, for the number one pick, Paul, we want Amazon stock. We want certainty and we don't have that in Trayvon walker. That is interesting because I know you've seen it before because you've seen it all, but his ascent to that position, assuming that's the way they go. What would you compare this to? If anything, in recent history, but that's a great question. Would you go back over the last couple of years, there's been such certainty in terms of the quarterbacks. I think it goes all the way back probably to Baker Mayfield, where nobody was sure was going to be maybe Josh Allen, Sam darnold for a minute, wound up being Baker Mayfield, but I think we have to go back four or 5 drafts with this sort of major question marks 48 hours out. The quarterback position is always the one that we obsess over other than this year. So considering the prospects you have, of course, Malik Willis, you have Kenny Pickett who seems to be highly regarded by many. Who will go first and why? Can he pick it? I think goes to Carolina at 6. If we go back to Matt rule a temple, he recruited Kenny Pickett, so I think there's a connection there and he's thinking either do I try to win with Sam darnold or can he pick it? Now maybe they try to train for Baker Mayfield. I don't think that's likely at this point. So I think pick it going 6 to Carolina is where we see the first quarterback. I know another player that you've been high on is jamison Williams, the transfer to Alabama who had such a big year. He is also had quite a climb up the charts assuming that's how it works out Thursday night. Paul, I went to the SEC championship game thinking I'm going to be just raving about this great Georgia defense. I love talking about I think I just saw the next tyreek hill with jamison Williams, his speed, his game changing play speed is unbelievable, assuming he gets back to a 100%. He could be tyreek hill. I think he could be the best football player out of this draft, and I think he doesn't get out of the top ten despite tearing his ACL in the last game. And that's so amazing because when that happened, we all collectively took our held our breasts for a lot of reasons, but mostly because you just don't want to see him hurt his chances. I realized surgery, that surgery is way advanced compared to maybe 5 or 15, 20 years ago, but take us through that that trajectory, because it really does seem gob smacking when you think about it. Yeah, it's all about risk and reward and just making sure that at some point it's going to be healthy. And I think Paul, as we talk about injuries and durability, I don't think they're all created equal. So take somebody like David a jabo from Michigan, Jameson Williams from Alabama. They have significant injuries, but we saw cam Akers, for example, come back from a torn Achilles, but then you look at someone like Derek stingley, who only played a full season once in 2019. That would be a much bigger concern if we were running a team poll because now we have a three year pattern of behavior, whereas guys like Jameson Williams, David abo, they're more of an isolated incident and you hope that they come back quickly. And I would also put John Cena into that group also from Alabama. We haven't talked much about Matt corral at one time, there were speculation that he could go extremely high. He got hurt too, very badly in the sugar bowl. What's your assessment of Matt? Yeah, I think I have going 32. When you look at the last number of years, Lamar Jackson, teddy Bridgewater, they won 32nd. I think a team will try to take a quarterback there. I think it's Matt. He's a very good athlete. So many of his throws, though, Paul are behind the line of scrimmage that RPO game that we know that lame kiffer likes to run. But he has a lot of athleticism. He has a good arm. I like his quick Twitch. I think his game has the ability to translate to the pro level. It may not happen overnight, however. You mentioned Trayvon walker early on and we're going to hear a lot of familiar names at least from where we work here, Mike. But the collection of Georgia players, especially on the defensive side, is going to be, I think, a shock to people who don't follow the SEC and college football very closely. How difficult is it? I know the combine helps, but when you watch that unit this year during the season, trying to differentiate one from another because it was such an amazing unit. It's a great point. I mean, we could talk about quay walker Devante, why did Jordan Davis dean Channing tindall? I mean, you could just go on and on and on. It just shows you the great job that Kirby smart did recruiting and developing players. So they all have fascinating stories to tell. And when we look back, I think 6 or 7 of them will have meaningful NFL careers. Now, historically, they don't all pan out, but boy, they are just great football players. They're well coached. They have great motors and it's going to be fun to see them come off the board Thursday and Friday night..