00:00Do me a favor here, Joe.
00:01Help me out on Mendoza.
00:03We saw Brady there on the sidelines, obviously.
00:05The general manager, the owner, Mark Davis, was there as well.
00:07They got the number one overall pick.
00:09You look at the box score, Joe, for Mendoza, and you're like,
00:13eh, you know what?
00:14But if you watch the game, it was a completely different feel for you.
00:18The guy was competitive.
00:19The guy had heart.
00:21The guy was a leader.
00:22It kind of doesn't match up.
00:24And there's kind of a Brady quality to the way the guy plays the game.
00:27Is this guy the number one overall pick, in your opinion?
00:31This year, yes.
00:33And again, I agree with everything you absolutely said about the intangibles,
00:38the stuff that doesn't hit up on the box score, being that quiet leader,
00:42knowing that he's in the huddle and that the players and his teammates buy in
00:46around him.
00:47That's exactly what Fernando Mendoza does.
00:50Is he a generational talent a la Caleb Williams?
00:54And what we saw with Jaden Daniels last year,
00:56I don't put him on the same level.
00:58But is he a winner?
01:00Absolutely.
01:00And he displayed that a couple of years ago against an under-average Cal team.
01:06He stepped up and performed his best in big matchups.
01:10That's what you want to see.
01:11So I think he is the number one overall pick for Las Vegas,
01:14if they do, in fact, keep the pick and don't trade it away.
01:18You know, Joe,
01:19I had a lot of people that were telling me when Carson Beck went to Miami
01:24that, you know, this guy was a turnover machine when he was in Georgia.
01:28If you go back and you look at that offensive line that they had in Georgia,
01:31his final season there,
01:32wasn't quite the old school Georgia Bulldog offensive line
01:35and some of the playmakers that we saw.
01:37However, you see the moments.
01:40We saw it in SMU.
01:42We saw it a little bit against Louisville.
01:43And obviously we saw it on the last play in a national championship game.
01:47Is this guy worthy of taking a chance on in the later rounds?
01:52Would you draft him?
01:53Or do you think he's a UDFA, an undrafted free agent?
01:56No, I think he definitely can be a seventh, you know,
01:59in that area from four to seven because of the prototypical size
02:03and exactly what you said.
02:05Let's not forget,
02:06when you look at Georgia's offensive line this year
02:08and their rushing attack,
02:10they average about 189 rushing yards per game.
02:13When Carson Beck was on their center,
02:15they averaged 129 rushing yards per game.
02:19It was one of the worst under Kirby Smart
02:21over the last eight or nine seasons.
02:23So I agree with that assessment.
02:25The rushing attack wasn't as consistent.
02:27But again, if he can go into the right scheme,
02:30go with a quarterback coach that can coach him up
02:33and really, you know, coach him up to the next level,
02:37reading coverages, reading progressions.
02:40That's what he needs, I think, to elevate his game.
02:42Is he still raw?
02:44Absolutely.
02:45But with the right scheme, I think he could be well
02:48and be a potential outside starter in the league.
02:53Could you see him like a Brock Purdy?
02:57Purdy had 38 starts at Iowa State, Joe.
03:01And to me, I think that was one of the things
03:03that helped get him ready to be able to go into a system
03:06like a Kyle Shanahan.
03:07So to your point, he's got to go to somebody like a McVeigh,
03:12a Kyle Shanahan, somebody like that,
03:15that's going to be able to help him understand
03:17on reading coverages, correct?
03:18Yep, absolutely.
03:19And again, I think the one thing when you look at Georgia
03:22is he did utilize the tight end.
03:24Had Oscar Delp, had Lucky Lawson,
03:27that helps on the next level.
03:29When you have a quarterback that can look to the tight end,
03:33that always translates to the NFL.
03:35I think that's a part of his game that goes unnoticed.
03:38And again, I think he could be utilizing
03:39the right scheme, to your point.
03:4230 seconds.
03:43Do you think Mario has silenced the critics
03:45of his in-game coaching?
03:47Yeah, absolutely.
03:48Absolutely.
03:49With those wins in the college football playoff
03:52leading up to the Indiana game,
03:54he absolutely erased all the negativity
03:56surrounding the program over the last two or three years.
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