Scott Van Pelt talks his top NFL Draft prospects & thoughts after NFL Combine results

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1:04At Bombas, we're pros too, pros at making socks. Our sport assortment has specialized socks for whatever sport you're committed to. Running, hiking, golf, Pilates and so much more. Maybe sweat wicking yarns, blister fighting details and targeted art support. Bombas sport is pro level socks from the pros of socks for another pro. You go to bombas.com slash audio and use code audio for 20% off your first purchase. That's bombas.com and use code audio. Scott Vampelt came on with me the other day on my podcast. I wanted to play some of it back. The indie combine in the rear view free agency ahead of us. And he had some thoughts on Mike Toreco's performance at the Olympics, which I thought were interesting, but I just started with kind of the combine and coming off of it. How he felt. Does anything from the indie combine weekend change the way you feel about a player after watching him all season long? No, it's funny.

2:04Stanford Steven, I were just talking about that. And I mean, the human context of things, the moments where the running back from Arkansas had been a buffalo in the Mexico state who ran like a 4-3-3 and was in tears and you think about what that could potentially mean, right? Does that change the trajectory of somebody because that's a pretty eye-opening speed for a running back? You know, those types of things are, I don't know what's the word, cool. I always hate that word, feels like a catch all, but I appreciate seeing those moments for somebody. But like, for instance, Cornell Tave ran slower than I think reached the defensive and slash linebacker from Ohio State, but every time I watched Tade, I thought this is a great route runner, a great wide receiver and it doesn't, I don't worry that, let's say Washington was able to get Tade at some point, would I be worried that he couldn't play because he didn't run a great time?

3:05No, I just put the tape on, you know what I mean? I feel like, especially players like that that have played a ton of high level games in college football. The body of work matters a whole lot more than, you know, 4.4 seconds of their life on a field and Indianapolis. So do you, based on, you know, being a massive college football fan, let's just talk about a couple of these players. Let's just talk about quarterback for a moment. Are you a believer in Fernando Mendoza that he's going to be a great quarterback in the NFL worthy of the number one overall? I wouldn't say great, I'd be really hesitant to say great simply because the NFL failed so often at identifying anyone that's great at the next level, right? I'm impressed by what he showed this year at Indiana and high leverage moments, he was always really good and I was on the field for a number of those games at LAN and Miami and the ball went exactly where it was meant to go, impressive, an impressive guy.

4:05But the Vegas situation, I mean, if there are lines as bad as it was last year, I don't care who it is. Josh Allen would suck on that line, okay? I mean, I'm overstating it but they're all lines is that bad. So you have no chance if your line is horrendous. But I was impressed by what Mendoza showed in the biggest moments that you could possibly have in college but I wouldn't say great just because I wouldn't say that if I want any quarterback in this draft. I would hesitate to say that about really anybody coming out a couple of years ago when it was Caleb and Jaden and I was a guy from Carolina, I was just like, yeah, Drake Maher. I'm sorry. Well, those three, the trio that went one, two, three, like I would say it about them, I thought they, I thought they could be these guys, I don't know, Mendoza, his situation feels really, really challenging because the Raiders have just been that bad.

5:06How good do you think Jeremiah love is going to be? Excellent. Excellent. I think his combination of size and speed is exactly what you'd hope for at that position. Anyone had ran sub four four. He showed an amazing toughness two years ago when Notre Dame made the playoffs and he was injured but he fought through that one like Abdul Carter hit on the goal line for Penn State if you remember. Just willed his way into the end zone. And then he's got real life straight line speed that's obvious and I think he'll be, I think he'll be excellent. And I mean, the question is, do you take a guy at that position top five, top ten? I mean, the returns we've seen for guys that are taken in the fourth and fifth round that are huge producers at that position always make me really hesitant to want it to do that. But I mean, you know, if he were, if you were watching and you got there and you had a choice of say, say Bain or Bailey or one of these D N or love, what would you, what

6:10would you want? I'd want Bailey of, I mean, I hope he's the guy that's there at seven or Caleb Downs. I mean, I think those are the two things that I've seen on the field produce. And Bain too, Reese, I'm hesitant on it. I just wouldn't take Jeremiah love there only because I don't view him as Bijan or Gibbs or McCatley or you're, you're okay, but you just talked about like the arguably the three most dynamic running backs in the National Football League. I know that. That's like when people do this, okay, I interrupted you. No, go ahead. But I mean, I think when people do that, do that thing about quarterbacks or they're like, well, he's an MVP and a multiple Super Bowl winner. I mean, there's, there's levels to this where you could be a really good quarterback, but you know, you're not that. So I think Gibbs McCaffrey and, um, and Bijan are truly special difference making type

7:13backs, but, and that's what I would take that lie. If you, that's all I'm saying is you said, I'm with you, I'm with you. Yeah, I mean, when, when you can get, when you, when you can get backs like, you know, um, Deandre Swift or, uh, Kyron Williams or, I mean, we've just seen backs second, third, fourth, fifth day, three picks turning to great backs. If I'm going to take a back in the top 10, I want to know that I'm getting Bijan McCaffrey Gibbs or sake one and I view him as a faster version of Josh Jacobs, which by the way would be great. I mean, phenomenon, that'd be a hell of a player. Be a hell of a player, but, but not worth number seven over. That'd be a home run. Yeah. That's fair. That's fair. I mean, look, in, in specific to Washington, I think your needs are probably greater, um, along the Bailey Bane type, deal. I mean, Bane's the, the one all season long that I would joke around with, uh,

8:16Dusted of War check in particular when he'd come on with me. I love when he comes on with you. He's really good. He's still, you're exactly right. And he's, and he's got this amazing, uh, want to, like this work ethic, he's flying from all over just to be part of our show, which we really appreciate. Uh, but we would laugh. I mean, we'd show Bane wrecking, wrecking the film. And I'd say, nah, nah, nah, you, you don't understand us. His arms are short. You're not going to want him, right? Yeah. Cause he's got, he's got short arms and he'd love it. And he'd laugh. And yeah, I guess, I guess I don't know how he's able to sack him with these tiny little arms of his, you know, like, and of course it comes up because he doesn't have long arms. But I somehow miraculously, in spite of that, he's able to produce that. That's what I guess I mean about the whole thing, as it relates to the combine, that hopefully if you've got, if you've, if you've got several years worth of productive tape, I don't understand why, you know, one cone drill or whatever is going to suddenly talk you out of somebody. It didn't make any sense. Well, from 2023 and I, and I did this in the open,

9:19the biggest winner out of the Indie Combine by far, consensus big winner was Anthony Richardson because of, of course at quarterback Scott, you really want your quarterback to be able to broad jump 11 feet or vertical jump 41 and a half inches. And he was an athletic freak. He ran 443. And look, maybe there's another act to Anthony Richardson. We've seen it with quarterbacks all the time. But in a last year, it was Shamar Stewart and Matthew Golden and the guy that got panned loser, loser, loser from the Indie Combine was Luther Bird and the third who I loved watching play at Missouri. And he fell into the second round. And look, he, why did he fall? Because his hands were small. He had eight and a half inch hands. And it wasn't like he was great this year, but you could see it coming at the end of the year. No, sure. He was, he was a productive part of, of an offense that took a giant step forward in Chicago. That's it. I love the point you make

10:22the one Richardson because this was a guy of Florida who was compelling athletic, but just hadn't played a lot of football. And it, look, at that position more than any other people will squint to see what it is they, they want to believe they see. And nothing was a clearer illustration than Richardson of that. And, you know, he comes in and he's had some moments where he threw some absolutely breathtaking like 55 yard and in the air passes to like Alec Pierce. I want to say is the one I remember. And okay, cool. And then what? You know, I mean, it's, you know, now he's going to, as you say, a second act. And perhaps he's still a very young man who hasn't played a ton of football. So maybe there's, there's, there's another chapter or multiple chapters for him, but you're right. He comes out of India. And he went forth in the draft, despite the fact that he hadn't played a lot. And it's, it's wild to me how how smart people seemingly all for the dumbest tricks when it comes to, you know, the draft. Yeah. I mean, it's funny because I was going to

11:27ask you, what do you think the teams say about this past weekend? It's been, what do you think the teams get out of this weekend? Because you say they fall for the dumbest tricks. Do they, I guess they do occasionally, but what do you think they get out of it? Because look, the attendance is lighter. More and more players are going to their individual pro day and individual workouts. I mean, I wonder whether or not we'll have an indie combine in 10 years, but of course, we will if it's getting television ratings. Yeah, I think, I think it's, the importance of it, I think, dependent upon teams that have an approach that, you know, if you like how you do it, you probably just go there just to do industry grab ass and hang out and go to St. Elmo's and he's fake, you know, and shrimp cocktail is seen and be seen. I mean, it seems like that's as much of a part of it as anything as everybody just goes to hang out. But I think you, you definitely, I would,

12:28I would guess I'm not part of a fun office. I would think you want to go and spend time. If you, you like a guy, but you haven't sat with him. Like, go sit with you in a room and have an interview and have a conversation. You know, how do you react? And I'm not talking about these gotcha questions where I'm trying to see how you react and you, you say ridiculous things to people to see if they react negatively. I'm talking about just talking to a human being and finding out, like, do you really love this? Do you, do you love the work? Do you love what it's going to be required to be great at this? Because we think you, we think you could be great at this, but we want to know how invested you are in the process of becoming, you know, the best version of you that you can be. And, you know, what can you, what can you really gather from somebody in that? I, I would think there's value in it. And that's the part that's worthwhile. Not so much do you run four, three, five, or do you run four, four, seven? You know, that, I think the human element would be, would be have value. Who's the player that you really like in this draft? Is there one? I mean, we can focus in on watching till it's seven. So do I?

13:32Did we talk about this before? The other day, Steve, Stephen, no, Steve, the other is funny. The other night, Steve and I were talking about, it was like, I think it was respain in Bailey. And I said, if you like the best of that, it's real. I said, give me Bailey. And he said, that's funny. I think, I think I might like him third. And I mean, I have great respect for what Steve sees through his eyes is very different because his eyes have, you know, have been the guy on the field. He gets it better. I just feel like the, every time I watch Texas Tech, I felt like Bailey was, was destroying something 100% and I just think he's got a lead speed off the edge. And, and I also, I don't think his arms are short. Those, those short arms have, yeah, he's got long arms, but he's got long arms. Yeah, yeah, the longer or what? I mean, Bayonid be a winner as well. I just, I think, I think that's a position where if you're, if you're truly elite, you know, your impact is, is almost immeasurable and how you can change games. So that that's something that I would love for, for Washington to be able to land on. Yeah, that, that's my guy too. It's because every time I turned on Texas Tech, he and that guy,

14:36Rodriguez and number 10 were just ruining games. Yep, yep. Over and over again. The combination of those two, yeah, exactly right. They were, they, they seem to have a, well, let's meet at the quarterback plan and it, it often was pulled off. Yeah. Well, I mean, there's, there's a chance, there's also a chance all of those defensive players and sunny styles after the weekend he had, because look, it's really important with sunny styles broad jumped. There's no doubt about that. I mean, he killed it. He did kill it though. I mean, in terms of what you can do to elevate your stature before the draft, I think he did it. Like I think he, even the teams that go there to play grab ass and go to St. Elmo's and just yuck it up and maybe, you know, discuss a trade or two, they probably were, yeah, I think paying attention to what sunny styles did athletically. At Blinds.com, it's not just about window treatments. It's about you. Your style, your space, your way. Whether you DIY or want the pros to handle it all, you'll have the confidence

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16:42you don't have to be a home pro. You just have to hire one. You can hire top rated pros, see price estimates and read reviews all on the app. Download today. Sure, I mean, of course, because look, having a lead athleticism and all those traits, and that's, there's no downside to that, obviously. But as you and I think have probably said a hundred times, like we're not ever going to get the fourth and two and set up cones and do the shuttle time. And whoever has the best shuttle time gets to either possess the ball or you have to surrender it. Ultimately, can you play or can't you? And that's why I just don't get talked out of guys based on poor tests as opposed to buying into someone that hasn't shown it, but tests well. So I think we're probably I'm probably being redundant at this point. We're a week away from free agency. I mean, does anything interest you more than anything else? I mean, I suppose I let's speak of Richardson, right? Here's a guy that, you know,

17:42got drafted high and didn't work out. Well, Malik Willis was drafted in Tennessee and terrible situation had no chance. And then now has has it would appear played himself into an opportunity to go be a highly compensated starter somewhere based on a small sample size of solid, solid play. But more than anything, Kevin, it's just the the market that's just starving for anything that passes for being competent play and him being it would it would appear more than just competent, but like maybe having a chance to be good. Where's the land? You know, I mean, there's a bunch of teams that clearly need some help. And so I think his his next team is interesting to me because if you're Miami or Pittsburgh or some themes that I mean, Pittsburgh, we don't know what a Roger will do, but there's, you know, wherever he doesn't go, now they do they get desperate, you know, and then you start swinging at something else, right? I mean, a year ago, I thought I

18:44I wouldn't have been more wrong last year. I thought, you know, going to the Raiders, I thought, okay, yeah, Pete Carroll, you know, that that'll be good. They were disaster. Yeah. So what I'm interested in often could be, you know, I could be looking in the wrong direction, but it starts with Willis at quarterback. Yeah, that's a good comp to in terms of Richardson. Could he land in a place in which he, because I think Willis landing in Green Bay with Matt LaFlora was obviously big for him. Not the chainstike and doesn't know what he's doing because he does. All right. I saw something over the weekend that I had not seen and I knew you felt this way, but one of my boys sent me the thing that you did about Mike Tereco off of the Olympics, you know, coming from a Super Bowl to the Olympics and and I'll just let you tell everybody that didn't see it. What you said about Mike Tereco is a broadcaster. I just think he's reached a place that he's singular. I think he's the best broadcaster on television and the ability to call the Super Bowl and then go call the

19:50Olympic Games as the host and to do, I thought to close out that remarkable gold medal game with a succinct and brilliant on the cuff off the cuff on the fly essay, it just puts him in a place that is singular in this profession and what I said with Steve and I'd say the same to you, you're one of my best friends forever, you've known me forever. Like I don't want this to sound arrogant and it sounds it when I say it that having hosted as long as I have, I'm very confident about my ability. I don't overrate it because in Mike and I laugh like we don't view what we do as being very important at all. We just talk about something somebody else does. I think I'm pretty good at that, but I don't think anyone's close to as good as Mike Tereco at that and I rarely look at anyone else and think, geez, I don't have that shot. Maybe it's like walking up and down the range and you're

20:50a pro and you've won some tournaments or whatever to keep this analogy going. I just think Tereco's ability as a broadcaster now is singular and Bob Costas was brilliant. Jim McKay was brilliant, but I don't think anyone was as gifted in both lanes as Mike currently is and he used the line Kevin that this was a generational build for the United States team and I think from Mike, I know for a fact, this was a career that was all pointed towards these three weeks that he had and the opportunity to call Super Bowl and then host an Olympiad and to get it exactly right in my opinion all across the board is just an amazing thing. We've been very close friends, he and I did a radio show together and we've been very good friends through the years and so he high rolls at me and gets upset that I make a big fuss about him because he doesn't overrate himself,

21:53but my god, I what a run the man had doing his job and am I opinion? Yeah, I actually think the thing that he's best at is play by play and I think he's a very good host. Don't get me wrong, but I think he's become the best football play by play guy we have. Of all the number ones in the NFL in particular, I think he's the best. I think he understands the game the best from a play by play standpoint. I think he's incredibly, you know, smooth, just as flawless, doesn't make any mistakes, works so well with basically anybody that you'd put with him, but I think that's his best thing. What do you think his best thing is? The point you make regarding the play by play that I would add to is that his grasp of time, timeouts. Yes, that's what coaches should be doing. No doubt. Explaining it to the viewer,

22:56telling you, well, actually, you know, they're going to, if they get this exactly right, they're only going to be able to milk the clock down to about 28 seconds. He's got the math in his head, his grasp of rules and applying the rules in real time in a way that isn't suffocating. It's actually making the broadcast better. I just don't think anyone's close. Not even close to that. Nobody is. And having done golf with him for a while, Kevin, there'd be situations where we'd be calling the Open Championship. And there'd be a rules situation. And I'd be thinking, I walked it with the RNA and I'm not positive, is this stroke and is this drop? Is this like, I don't know. And I'm kind of laying out to wait for somebody from the RNA to get involved and give me some clarity. And Mike inevitably, Kevin, would say,

23:57well, this is actually a situation I think where, but he would tell you exactly what it was. But he wasn't bogarting you. He wasn't rules, Mick Johnny. He wasn't trying to make anyone look bad for not knowing what he knew. But so I guess, I guess I don't do play by play, so it's hard for me to, I mean, but I consume it, obviously. I watch games. All I do is watch games. I think he's the best there is at that, the administrative adjudicating all these things that can really be cumbersome and getting away, but he does it in a way that makes the broadcast better. I think he's the best at that, for sure. But then just as a guy who is a host to watch and be just, I think he does something I admire where he's able to talk with the smile, where he's smiling. And it sounds like, you know how you can hear a smile and somebody's, like, does that

24:59make sense? When you're smiling and talking, it sounds different than if you're not. And he does it in a way that doesn't feel forced. I'm not great at that. And I admire his ability to do it. And if somebody that I joke with him, I've been nominated for an Emmy all these years, and I'm like, I seem to, you see the ability, and I just marvel at it across the board. So I mean, either or, I don't think there's a wrong answer. Well, you're preusually you're selling yourself short on the hosting side, because I think you're reputating. I know I said I think I'm really good at it. I'm just not that good. Honestly, I think as a host, you are. In fact, I think there's a certain what's that word, gravitas. I think there's a certain authority in gravitas that you have as a host.

26:00Sometimes it's just tone and voice. Sometimes it's personality that I think that you have that I don't think he has. I don't think that's his thing necessarily. He makes up for it and everything else. Being, you know, not only incredibly knowledgeable, but like you said, not only when he knows what the answer is, he's not telling you what he knows the answer to be. He's acting like, I'm pretty sure it's this, but he doesn't want to act like like you said, you know, rules, rules of McJohnny. He does a great job with that. But play by play wise in terms of knowing the game. That's what I meant when I said in terms of really having a feel for the game. I don't like anybody's even close to him. He's great at it. Yeah. Yeah, well, I just, I marveled at it and I saw someone put it kind of the way you were describing that he does an amazing job of, he knows

27:01everything, but he doesn't talk like he knows everything. And there's a gift in that because you can come off, it can be off-putting to be an authority on everything, but you want everyone to know, you know everything. Yeah. Never like showy about it. It's just, it's additive. It's never derivative in how he does it. So I don't know. It's, again, he would be mortified to have this level of praise being given to him because he just doesn't, he's not great at accepting it. I just am, please do me a favor and just let, just let people say this stuff about you because everyone means it. And I would think to get this kind of praise from your peers, hopefully is, you know, is more validating. That's not the right word, more rewarding than anything else. When your peers have this much love for what you do, you know, that's when you know you nailed it. Talk to you later, thanks. Always enjoy it. Scott Van Pelt, everybody. Nikki Javala will jump on with us at 11 when we

28:03come back. March on Latin War got released at the end of the show on Monday. I was off yesterday. I will respond to some of you who are trying to hold me accountable for the trade next. At Blinds.com, it's not just about window treatments. It's about you, your style, your space, your way, whether you DIY or want the pros to handle it all. You'll have the confidence of knowing it's done right from free expert design help to our 100% satisfaction guarantee. Everything we do is made to fit your life and your windows because at Blinds.com, the only thing we treat better than windows is you. Visit Blinds.com now for up to 45% off with minimum purchase plus a professional measure at no cost, rules and restrictions apply. This episode is brought to you by progressive insurance, whether you love true crime or comedy, celebrity interviews or news, you call the shots on what's in your podcast queue. And guess what? Now you can call them on your auto insurance too with the name your price tool from Progressive. It works just the way it sounds. You tell

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