Jeff Bell on the new storylines from the Draft

0:00Spring times the perfect time to turn the page and refresh your home style. The only problem? It can be expensive. Luckily, there's a better way to shop while we're the pieces for less. At Bob's discount furniture, Bob's negotiates with manufacturers to get you the best everyday low prices, giving the shopping power back to you. The power to get more style, comfort, and quality for less on amazing pieces. Like stylish mid-century dining sets made for hosting those big spring branches, pop up sleeper sectionals with all the bells and whistles so you can turn any room into a guest room and next-level bobbopedic mattresses so you can get a great night's rest after you've finished redecorating every room. So, when you're ready to spring into new style, stop into your nearest store or shop online and see how you can get while we're the style for less with Bob's discount furniture. I'm Brian. I work at UDOT Healthcare. So Brian, why do you care? I care because I don't want to leave anybody behind. I oversee one of the biggest resource center in UDOT Healthcare. I see people walk in in my office every day,

1:02just like my parents. They have no idea about the healthcare. I feel like they are my uncles, aunties. I treat it as people's life family. I'm Brian and I'm committed to care. That sofa was four days old. Should have ordered from Wayfair. Or what if it's that material that makes that noise? It was a sofa, I swear. With Wayfair, there's no what it. Just style you love, quality you can trust, and furniture that actually fits your life. Visit Wayfair.com or download the Wayfair app. Wayfair every style, every home. It's my show. Last night at 12.30 in the morning, I ate a can of mushrooms. I did. Pieces and stems if you're wondering. As opposed to buttons, it was Pieces and Stams, which will be my next year's fantasy football

2:07team name. Pieces and Stams. And the bulldog. It should be a shame to admit this publicly, but whatever, how long we've been doing this? I'm a junkie. I can't be trusted. Not WGR. Sports Radio 550. Pieces and stems have to get in line at this point. Too many other fun ideas for team names, including one today. When I got the email, you told me you also get this email from the Buffalo Croquet Club, announcing the plans for the big summer event. I guess it's like a big event. People from around the country, if not the world, come to Buffalo, Delaware Park, and compete in Croquet. And I read the whole email, loved it. I'd kind of like to see it. This sport, not a sport I've ever been to. I played it in my grandma's yard. I even air B&B very close by. Yes. If I can't get a ride to Delaware Park, I can't get home. But in the course of the email,

3:11announcing all the times and location and everything, it said, you know, you got to wear white for all the competition, all white for Croquet. But for the social events, business casual with Croquet Flair. And if you don't think I'm not naming a team, Croquet Flair, we just don't even know each other. We can't be friends. I just loved Croquet Flair. I want a wrestler, Ric Flair, Croquet Flair. Let's see it. I love it. Here is Jeff Bell, footballguys.com. We hooked up with Jeff about a month ago. Wanted to do a couple more visits here before the draft. This is our next. Hi, Jeff. Hey, I don't really know how I can tell a mushroom sense in Croquet, but it's great to see here. This show is a trip. Jeff, you'll get the note. I had a friend yesterday asked me what my favorite ever fantasy team name was. And I was terrible at answering. Because I don't do like the, oh, I have Devon Funches on my team. So therefore it will be named Honey Funches of Oats. But I don't even do the puns. So they're just two random and esoteric

4:17and I just don't have a favorite. But Croquet Flair will be up there, Jeff. Do you get, since we're here, creative with your team names? You know, I like to go with the fictional movie teams or fictional TV teams, kind of my team names is kind of where I end up this whole thing. I never really got into the punny player names, but like the Dylan Panthers or something like that occasionally. Okay. Right. Little Friday night lights action. If I have a team named for Alvin Camera, I'm going to lead where a guy has a team lights Camera action. I can't trade Alvin Camera like I have to rebrand if I move. I feel like I'm hamstrung by that. So you know I run your team that way. I do not tied to these rules. Jeff, we last spoke before the combine. What are a couple of things if there are a couple of things that the combine did to shake up the rankings? Yeah. I think seeing Mike Washington Jr. the running back come out running that 433 really the highest speed score ever at 225 or so pounds and getting that big back, maybe solidifying

5:24him as the potential running back to and what was a wide open class. That was probably the biggest movement we saw. I mean, seeing players were very, very cautious with the testing and making sure that they were not going to put themselves in a bad situation. Do you think testing that took advantage of their strengths? So Washington at football guy is rookie guy that you're a part of each analyst, including yourself, ranks him as the number two running back. What will that probably look like come the draft? Is that a day two pick? Day two likely. I would think I don't see that being a first round pick for sure, but between him today and price, you got a couple other players in there that potential day two picks. We did see a hot market in trade and see a running back moving around, but I think that we would expect the next tier of running back to behind Jeremiah love to be day two picks. Yeah, I did see some reference to with the way running backs were handled across the league during the first week of free agency, Jeff, that it might be an indicator that this year's running back

6:24class is nowhere near what last year's was. There was a lot of talk about the depth of last year's running back class. I know, speaking to folks like yourself all through the spring, was like, you're going to get guys who are going to play meaningful staff right away on Saturday. Maybe this class didn't have that, which is why teams invested in more of the guys they quote unquote, new already. Yeah, I think that was a big part of it. Also, just seeing the values probably, grabbing players that are specific to the role that you want to fill, always plays into it as well. Whereas there's some ambiguity about what really is the skill set for some of these running backs in the draft. And it's certainly definitely no comparison to a class last year that we had the three Van Hunterson and Quiche on Jenkins kind of overshadowed by obviously Vash and Judgedy at the top, but then I'm here in Hampton as well. Yeah, you know, I'm at a point, I guess we all get here, Jeff in dynasty fantasy, where you've had sort of hard running backs, usually day three picks, one injury away, guys, Martian Lloyd in green Bay, Kendra Miller in New Orleans, this type.

7:34And now it's been a couple of years and it's at the point where maybe it's time to give up. Not a question. I mean, spring times the perfect time to turn the page and refresh your home style. The only problem, it can be expensive. Luckily, there's a better way to shop while we're the pieces for less at Bob's discount furniture. Bob's negotiates with manufacturers to get you the best everyday low prices, giving the shopping power back to you. The power to get more style, comfort and quality for less on amazing pieces, like stylish mid-century dining sets made for hosting those big spring branches, pop up sleeper sectionals with all the bells and whistles so you can turn any room into a guest room and next level Bobo Piedic mattresses so you can get a great night's rest after you've finished redecorating every room. So when you're ready to spring into new style, stop into your nearest store or shop online and see how you can get while we're the style for less with Bob's discount furniture. I'm Spencer and I work at United Healthcare. Suspenser, why do you care? I care because my daughter Adeline has special needs.

8:35I am motivated by Adeline who inspires me every day. I am driven to help families like mine navigate the healthcare system. I'm so blessed to lead an amazing team at United Healthcare focusing on the member experience and making that better. I'm Spencer and I'm committed to care. Just style you love, quality you can trust, and furniture that actually fits your life. Visit Wafer.com or download the Wafer app. Wafer every style, every home. I'm asking here about this year's rookies, I know, but it's kind of it's challenging sometimes to know when is it over and I wonder if a team, maybe you have an interesting thought on this,

9:36like players like I mentioned or others around the league like it. I would say Ray Davis, except he was the first team all pro kickoff returner. Just where a team might feel like it has more juice with a day three pick, rookie than a guy that's maybe had a couple of injuries, like the players I mentioned and has been around. Yeah, and really probably part of that is looking at changes in coaching staff and you mentioned Henry Miller down there in New Orleans with Kellyn Moore coming in last year and then bringing Devon Neill and obviously bringing traffic. It's not ETN anymore. If I know how to say it now, but obviously being aggressive and afraid and seeing addressing that position, but being see a lot in the draft rumors with Jeremiah Love, it seems to be the New York Giants hot and heavy there with Jim Carball coming in or John Harball coming in as new coach, putting potentially Tyrone Tracy, but in Kim's category, potentially as a backseat or even if it's Tennessee to grab love. And there's a lot of pieces still to move through this running back market.

10:36Are we by the way, Bulldog? Are we allowed to refuse the players request on how to pronounce his name? Are we allowed to just not do it? Like ETN now wants to be closer to H&N, like ETN, something like that. Yeah. And I just want to say no. I mean, we're used to a certain pronunciation here. There's a guy in the league at your position whose name is very close to that, just too confusing. B. John Robinson last year, Jeff did an interview and he basically was like, it's Bajan actually. And then people decided whether they were going to start to call him Bajan. And then he was talking about himself a month later and he said, Bajan. So he doesn't even know. And I don't know. I don't want to try that hard. I feel kind of jerky refusing, but I will admit that the 100 or 1000 times that the clip of this player this weekend came up on my feed. I never listened to him say it once. You don't care at all. I just decided I was going to,

11:40well, I figured I just wait and let someone like Jeff Bell tell me how to say it. And then I would just follow his lead. That's my lot. No pressure, Jeff. Has anyone asked Trevor ETN how to say right? Is he in on it? Does he have a different idea of how his own name is pronounced than his brother does? Yeah. Well, to cap on running backs here, how many guys really in this draft are, if you will, live for you to be like relevant players? I mean, you're going to have however many 10 or 20 get drafted, right? And most of those guys will be on rosters or many of them will. How many running backs in this class have a chance of being, you know, good. I thought the interesting tier was between running back two and running back seven. There were about six different guys that are in there. Obviously, we know if love, I mean, it's landing spot that really comes on to it because we could have had the same conversation at this point last year. And I mean, I don't know that Bill Crust, you may have got all the way there, but he certainly was

12:40pretty interesting for stretches. And he was the last running back off the board. And so, we see some of these backs landed in prime situations. We've seen it over and over again. James Robinson coming out from under-afted. So it's really hard to put a spardan number on it because there are situations. Yeah, at all is a prime situation that somebody could land in, later pick, they seem to be devalued in a position. And we know it can open up. But I think that when you're looking at the top end, really, there's some ambiguity probably running back two to running back six or seven. Okay. I know you to be a bills fan, Jeff. It's James Cook who led the league in Russian. Davis, who I mentioned, first team all pro kick returner and back up and then tie Johnson for third downs all under contract again. Is there anything you'd like to see them do here? I mean, you always want to consider other needs, right? Is there a certain type for them or should the bills just not be so inclined to draft a running back at all? No, I don't see them in the running back market just because they do have those guys under contract. I mean, so we know the special

13:41teams value of Davis. We know they love to go to a tie Johnson. So I'd be surprised, especially losing that second hand pick in the trade for DJ Moore. I know they got a fifth back and then they were cooped to seventh and the tyrant Johnson moved. But yeah, I think down potentially, especially some early draft capital, I don't think they're going to touch unless it's super super laid, but kind of the ramps philosophy of continuing to grab the guy every single draft. We've done a nice job of segueing us into our next position because wide receiver, obviously, DJ Moore, that trade happens. I think a lot of people who cover the bills and talk about the bills like we do are now assuming no receiver, certainly not with 26. They don't have the second, like you said. I might not expect to see another receiver chosen. If they choose another one at all until Saturday, even myself, with what it costs to acquire DJ Moore, what do you think of that as a premise? And is there an idea you down the board into Saturday?

14:43Yeah, I think they set themselves up not only DJ Moore, but then going out and getting CJ Garter Johnson, getting Bravige Hub trying, they seem to be trying to address potential needs to maybe go best player available early. But you know, Brandon Bean has deferred to defense in the first round. It feels like more often than not. And they probably move that direction. Looking down the board, there's a lot of size. There's a lot of bigger receivers that can play outside in this class. And so I think that when you're looking down the board, we feel pretty good that we should have DJ Moore be productive for the next couple of seasons. We feel good about secure. It comes down to that, you know, Ken Coleman, Question Mark, could step up and maybe backfill that large receiver outside, Charles Shaver stepped up a little bit last year. But I think that that's probably, it's a good class for that. If they want to move in that direction to add a big receiver outside. But yeah, looking at Saturday most likely. There was some report about KC Concepts Yon and a knee scope today. Is that is that something that matters? I'm not really concerned with it.

15:51I mean, you've got back our history. You would be drafted with McGay and that turned out okay for the portion of his career. I think that conceptions should be tied to the board and bills. I definitely would still be in on that. I think that he sets the profile. But we see with DJ Moore of close care, kind of the right receivers that have Josh Allen has been comfortable with throughout his career. And these guys that can separate and create separation work be independent of steam potentially. Born in Rochester, by the way, I recently learned from Selkobage. Maybe this isn't your pick exactly, Jeff. I know it's a team effort at football guys on this rookie draft guide. But your and your teams number one ranked receiver is Mackay Lemon from USC. And for every player, it's a very sharp looking display. And not only is there a lot of insight, your comfort lemon is DJ Moore. So can I draw from this on top of what you have just said? That, you know, on more, first of all, that you like this, maybe a lot for the bills.

16:54I do like it. And I think that maybe there was some shock initially to see that second round pick go out. But looking at the market, obviously, we haven't seen AJ Brown move. We haven't really seen maybe my Devon's mood. But other than that, wider receivers that you look at the high income that can potentially move the needle. And I was initially helping it be a third round pick that would be moving for more because of the uncertainty. But it's definitely a premium position. And there had been big names going to the market. We just haven't seen any movement there. Maybe AJ Brown is frozen that market. I think there's something to be said for getting in, grabbing a guy with a coaching staff is comfortable with filling that need. Even if you don't love giving up the second forum, it's getting a fist back. You're not adding any additional pieces onto that. When you look historically at some of these wider receiver trades, I think it stacks up pretty favorably. How much separation for you is there between Lemon and anybody else? Almost none. I think between Lemon, between Carnell Tate,

17:55between having Jordan Tyson there as well. And you can make an argument for any of the three being the best wider receiver in this class, really seeing where the landing spot where they land, who they're able to link up with their quarterback will probably, I mean, in my final race, that will settle how it's called out between the three of them. How about tight ends? The bills are probably all set. I mean, they reworked Nox's contract to get rid of that absolutely unlivable cap figure. Can Cade, we expect them at some point here to pick up that fifth year option so they'll be tied to him for two more years, provided he stays in good health. And they just drafted Jats and Haas last year, and he carved out a nice little role that maybe we'll even expand. But with that said, I'm just, as we're talking here, Dan Brugler for one just basically tweeted out, there's no bottom to this tight end class. I just keep adding names. There's just guys all over the place that are going to play. How do you feel about the quality of tight ends? I would expect, I think the bill they're going to add a tight end. I would expect that they

18:57did rework Nox, but we know the value that they have in the position. It can rule out the top guys. I don't, I can't imagine that Pinyan Cade could be on the board. I mean, Ely Stowers, I think it's very interesting, but really duplication, he can't really play with Nox as the two of those tight ends because neither really profile as a strong inline tight end. But outside of Jats and Haas, Nox obviously has two more years open questions about what it's going to be beyond that. It hasn't really lived up to that first round billing. And then Nox, there's obviously comfort level there with Nox, but they did rework the deal they had to. I think the importance of the position and the current NFL and probably where they're looking long-term, there's enough upside to be able to, that's a strong position that you want to take a shot at. Are you optimistic for Concade? I know, not particularly. I just don't see really when you come down to him, you're seeing some of these guys, especially a Cadek or Stowers coming

19:59in. You're, you're expecting a little bit more after the catch, probably than what we're getting out of Concade. I think that's really important. That's what Kelsey has done for years, I got it after the catch, and it doesn't seem, Concade definitely seems to fall more in the decker after the catch territory. Go down and don't get hurt sometimes as opposed to these guys that are really explosive and creative after the catch. Don't tell me we're headed for a day where there's a did Dalton Concade break a tackle, Twitter account. I don't know. That was the that was Earth's life there, maybe still is, I mean, still in the league. So you like the bills to be drafting a tight end. What kind, like what, what type of tight end Bulldogs talking about as you are as well, how deep it is, when do we want them to do this? I mean, we're talking again, probably Saturday, day three, realistically, that first Trump pick, you know, they invest in the defense of Lyon, day two last year, but I don't know how much upside they really got out of that,

21:00and we know that past rush was a problem on the team last year. So between that and they do like their playmaking safes and defensive backs that seems to be a regular pick there, I think that they're probably going to go defense on the first round. You're talking day three, and then I have really liked Jackson Haas a lot. Obviously, there's limited upside there, but what he does, it's the John Bates in Washington type, the racer in the run game, there's a lot of value in that in what we're seeing with two tight end sets now. I think you can feel pretty good about a young player being in that position. If they were to go to the tight end position, it would probably be potentially backfilling Kincaid or setting up a replacement. Should you decide to get to that point of the contract that he's not going to be worth keeping around? There is a player from Wyoming on this list, Bulldog. There is. John Michael Gillenborg, and his Rascore is incredible. That's a very tight ending name. Is it? Yes, I think so. To me, I need clarification on that, but we don't have to waste Jeff's time. John Michael Gillenborg, Wyoming, he's your and football

22:07guys overall, tight end seven, right? Yeah, our buddy Mike Kishuba handled the tight ends, and he really liked John Michael Gillenberg, what he didn't offer in the fancy game. This is a receiver there. So he was really high on him, and he's a subject matter expert. I see the high world, because I thought I'd score a command, and he earned him a good spot in my ranks as well. You know, Jeff, not that it's really pertinent to our audience or bills fans at all, but quarterback has continued to be just really the one man band with Mendoza right at the top. Do you think we'll get like a push? Maybe there's been some of this already. We'll get enough traction for it to matter. Like, oh, somebody like Simpson and the Steelers are hoping he falls to them at 21 or whatever stuff you get out there that's probably planted just by some team that's hoping another quarterback goes so that it just pushes another good player down the board near where they're picking. Do you think it'll end up being just Mendoza, or do you think someone else Simpson most notably gets pushed into the first round? And what about the rest of the

23:12class? I do think it's going to be Mendoza comfortably. Maybe somebody like the rant, there was early talk with the Rams looking at Simpson. Maybe they decide to go there as a potential grooming him for a match staff over a place that they have two firsts, so maybe they could go there with their second first. We have seen teams change dramatically over the last 10 to 15 years from the time, I mean, the Jake Locker draft, it seemed like anybody that approximated an NFL quarterback was going to go top 10. Now teams are are a lot sharper in that regard. They'll rather just take the blue chip at the early and then see who falls. I think there's a lot of interesting depth quarterbacks. It's you're almost making the rock party case for some of these guys. You've got a lot of guys that have played a lot of college football and there's upside and there's Drew Aller was a big riser at the combine. I mean, that's just the classic falling into looking like an NFL quarterback and checking some of those boxes and then pale and green. Well, he did athletic laid basically like Anthony Richardson athletic laid it.

24:14So maybe somebody gets a takes a chance there, but I think there's some there's some deeper quarterbacks that have played a lot of football and that that seems to be what works well. Somebody is very experienced and being able to land in the right situation to prognosticate who it's going to be. I think that's kind of hard right now. One more plug for the football guys rookie draft guide. Maybe a smaller thing. Well, literally, it is, but I love the the icons. So if you if you are labeled as a no rushing threat, there's a there's the statue liberty. You get you get the statue. And as is the case with Carson Beck out of Miami, not only does he get the statue, but he I mean, this is right to the point. Old. And if you if you get the old badge, there's a guy in a walker. Oh, jeez. I mean, we're good. We're going pretty far there, Jeff. He's 23. I know. Not that I mind it. 23 relative to having some 20, 21 year olds and all that.

25:15Everything's relative. Do you have a favorite one of these, by the way, that maybe was your idea or just you like the most cleverest? I find it the white receivers lightning bolt. I think was one that I like to get to just a kind of a explosive playmaker play threat ended up being that one fair amount. I always felt bad like giving somebody the old badge or something like that. Yes. Yeah. That's some level. Can I can I find something positive to be here while I not really? So you get the old badge by default, but I really tried to defer to having some positive things there. Play extender, a rabbit coming out of a hat. Love it. That's smart. Yeah. Poor footwork is like shoes. I can't tell if they're tap shoes or I don't know what that is. Quick processor is a calculator. It's good. We don't even need words. No, it works. Thank you, Jeff. Anything. Go ahead. Oh, I guess we tried to do a little bit of a madden. Was our inspiration there? Yeah. As you see those badges in madden. Right, right. Anything else you wanted to mention or plug? No, it's definitely the rookie guy. We got version two.

26:19Now that we've had the combine, we'll have version three of the rookie guy. That is when that goes behind a paywall, but we do that after the NFL drafts. We get that out very, very quickly. Out of the NFL drafts, I'm going to Denver drafts. We can hang out with my good friend, Dave Kugi, who also does the rookie guy. We're going to be pulled up, watching football and doing player profiles, looking at teams, looking at how these new players fit into these depth charts. And it is an exciting time of the year. Now that we've removed past some of the speculation, we've gotten through really the meat of free agency and set some of these pieces in place. Then we look towards the draft and it really created the colors who might be available in the draft. And plus by then, tax season will be over. Tax season will be over. Free to breathe and watch college players. Thank you, Jeff. We'll try to connect with you one more time before the draft. Absolutely. Thank you. You're welcome. Jeff Bell of footballguys.com. It's Sigmund Bloom's website. Sigmund has been with us. I'm with us many times. Dozens maybe? Yeah, of times. All right. 803-050 for your calls. We did some sabers in the first hour as well.

27:25Next game tomorrow night in Las Vegas with pregame for that one at nine tomorrow. Mike's open the bulldog here. Salat five. This is WGR. I'm Brian. I work at UDOT health care. So Brian, why do you care? I care because I don't want to leave anybody behinds. I oversee one of the biggest resource center in United health care. I see people walked in in my office every day just like my parents. They have no idea about the health care. I feel like they have my uncles, aunties. I treat it as people's life family. I'm Brian and I'm committed to care. Attention fans of jury duty. The groundbreaking comedy series is back for season two. Featuring an all-new cast, this installment takes the comedy out of the courthouse and into the mountains above Malibu for an annual company retreat. The catch? Everyone but the new guy is an actor. Oh yeah, and the company is fake. Get to know all the employees of rock and

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