Let Me Tell You Something: Gannon Is Useless Without a Bobby Ferrante in the Middle

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2:04I am not explaining cover for anybody. You want the scheme break down, go find one of those football nerds online. I love them. God bless them, but that is not what we are doing right now. Right now we are talking about something simpler. From that connects directly to why this draft might be the most important thing, green bay does all off season. Pack nation, follow the logic chain with me, stay with me here. How does Jonathan Ganon get sacks? To get a sack, the quarterback has to be in the pocket. For the quarterback to be in the pocket, the offense has to be passing and for them to be passing, they cannot be running. You follow what I'm saying? If the offense can just hand the ball off all day, run it down your throat on first and second down, stay ahead of the chains, drain the clock, they never have to throw. And if they never throw, it does not matter how many stunts Ganon draws up. It does not matter how good Michael Parsons is.

3:07It does not matter if we have the greatest defensive coordinator in the history of the NFL on our sideline because he does not have the foundation he needs underneath them. And that foundation is a nose tackle, a big mean, 320 pound nose tackle who takes on double teams and does not move, who makes offensive linemen miserable just by showing up. That is the missing piece. That is what we have got to fix in this draft. But first, I need to tell you a story. Now look, some of you just heard me talk for 30 seconds and you were thinking, Sal, you do not sound like you grew up ice fishing in Marinette County. And you are right. I am from Jersey, Northern Jersey. I came up here when I married Darlene, never went back, no regrets. But I still talk like I'm about to order a sandwich at a diner off the turnpike. And there is absolutely nothing anybody can do about that.

4:09Not even Darlene. And she has tried. Back in Jersey, I knew a guy, big Bobby Ferrente, Bobby worked the door at this bar in Hackensack. I am not naming the place because I am about 70% sure. At least two things happening inside it on a Friday night were not fully legal. But the point is, Bobby was enormous. Six foot four, 300 and some pounds, arms like telephone poles. And you know what happened when Bobby was standing at that door? Nothing. Nothing happened. People would walk up, see Bobby planted there like a piece of furniture that grew fist, do the math at about half a second and just turn around, go home, reconsider the whole night because his presence before anyone made a single move, changed the entire calculation. Bobby took one night off. They put some skinny kid on the door.

5:11Nice guy. I'm sure. God bless him. And by 10 o'clock, there were three separate incidents and somebody threw an actual pool queue across the room. Three incidents in one night. That is what it means to not have a nose tackle. Offensive coordinators see nobody big in the middle. They eating double teams and holding the point of attack and they reach for run plays. Every single drive, first and 10, run it. Second and seven, run it, third and two, absolutely run it. Your linebackers are chasing, your ends are grinding. And by the fourth quarter, your past rushes are standing there, hands on their knees while Ganon stands on his tablet like a man who just found out somebody ate his lunch. We gave up on those tackle. We gave up Kenny Clark, who anchored this defense for years as part of the deal that brought

6:15in Micah Parsons. And look, I love that trade. I was doing back flips, spiritual back flips because my actual knees have not been cleared for that since 2014. The Parsons is generational and I stand by it. But the run defense suffered badly in 2025. Teams figured out that if you kept your head down and ran the football, eventually that middle would crack. And it did. Not always early, but latent games, when it mattered most, the sloughed middle was getting exposed. And Ganon cannot do what Ganon does without somebody clogging that gap first, which brings us to the 2026 draft. And packed nation, I have got some good news and some challenging news. And you are going to want to hear both. Craving the coffee flavor you love. But without the caffeine, Kachava's got you covered with their newest coffee flavor.

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8:22your drinks. Learn more at What'sTheDamage.org. Brought to you by Virginia DMV. Tyler Reddick here from 2311 Racing, another checkered flag for the books. Time to celebrate with Chamba. Jump in at chambacasino.com. Let's Chamba. No purchase necessary. VTW Group. Boy, we're prohibited by law. CCNC. 21 Plus. Sponsored by Chamba Casino. The good news. This draft class has some real nose tackle options. Guys with size. Power. The kind of anchor ability that can change the defensive line overnight. The challenging news. We do not pick until around, pick 52 in the second round. And the top guys, they are probably going to be long gone by the time Green Bay is on the clock. Of course they are. The two names everybody keeps drawing around at the top of this nose tackle class. Caden MacDonald out of Ohio State and Lee Hunter out of Texas Tech. MacDonald, 6 foot 3, 326 pounds.

9:23A throwback nose tackle, this league does not produce very often. Three sacks, nine pressures and over 200 pass rush snaps. Not just a runstuffer, a guy who helps you on third down too. And Hunter out of Texas Tech, 6 foot 4, 325 pounds. A scheme wrecking runstuffer with length, leverage and a mean streak that coaches love. Both of them are most certainly going to be off the board before we get to pick 52. Are you hearing this? Am I crazy? Tell me I am crazy. I am not crazy. So here is where the packers have to be smart. You cannot sit back and say, oh well, the top guys are gone. Let's see what happens. No. You find the value. You find the guy who falls. You find the diamond, some other teams, jagged off scouts, overlooked.

10:24And the name I keep coming back to, the guy I believe could still be on the board late in the second round is Chris McClellan out of Missouri, 6 foot 3, 320 pounds. This man had 48 packers and 6 sacks in 2025, 6 from a nose tackle. You understand how rare that is? Most nose tackles you are thrilled to get two and a half on the season. McClellan started at Florida, transferred to Missouri and just exploded. He can anchor the run and push the pocket. If he falls to 52, you do not think. You do not blink. You do not trade down. You take him and you say thank you. Stay with me. Two more names. There is demand take, k part at a Clemson, 6 foot 4, 320 pounds, advanced scouts love

11:26this kid, a bear at the point of attack, does not always light up the box score but makes every offensive line in the crossroom have a very long Sunday. He frees up your line backers and makes parts his job easier by eating two blockers so someone else can go free. Projected third round may be late second. Green Bay should be that team that takes him early. And then you have got Dominique Orange out of Iowa State, 6 foot 4, 325 pounds. The town is there but I have heard from team sources that this kid may not always be the hardest worker in the building. And that is why he will fall to the third or fourth round when he should be a second round pick. If you are going to be the guy in the middle, the guy whose whole job is absorbing punishment.

12:28So everyone else makes plays, you had better want the dirty work because nobody puts you in a highlight reel. Nobody builds your social media following around a two yard tackle for laws that sets up third and seven for Parsons to feast on. My daughter came home from school last week, she is 11 and she says daddy my teacher told us the most important job is usually the one nobody notices until it is gone. And I stopped what I was doing and I just stared at the wall because that is nose tackle. That is exactly what we are missing right now. The guy nobody talks about, the guy who makes everything else possible. And Darlene walked in and saw me standing there frozen over the kitchen sink and she just shook her head and walked away. She knew.

13:30So pack nation watch this draft when the second round starts and these names come off the board, McClellan, K part whoever is still standing, you watch what Green Bay does because at the packers walk out of Pittsburgh without a legitimate nose tackle, Ganon system gets limited before it ever gets started. You cannot get to the quarterback if you cannot stop the run. You cannot stop the run without a Bobby Ferranti in the middle. And we do not have a Bobby Ferranti in the middle right now. Fix it good at Coons, give Ganon the foundation he needs, give Parsons a partner who does the dirty work nobody celebrates and give Big Sal something to smile about for a change. If you are getting value out of the show, subscribe, hit the like button, drop a comment

14:33and tell me which nose tackle you want the packers to take. I read every single one. I am Big Sal from Jersey by way of Pesh to go and until that middle of the defensive line is fixed. Let me tell you something, pack nation, we are going to keep talking about it.