- 2 days ago
From SumerSports, Lindsay Rhoades joins Chris Thomas Tonight to break down why the Raiders need to play Fernando Mendoza early if they draft him, and what that means for Kirk Cousins.
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00:00the kirk cousins era officially officially officially officially officially ends today
00:05when he signs uh i don't know about you but that tweet by schefter where he's like oh it's a
00:10five
00:10year 172 it's like come on man we all know what's going on here but that's not the point the
00:15point
00:15is i think kirk should start next year because there's no reason to throw mendoza in the fire
00:22when you bring in kirk cousins and lindsey they're projected at five five and a half wins next year
00:27so why not yeah so there's two ways to look at this i think if you're going to take fernando
00:32mendoza number one overall i think you kind of have to get him in there unless you are just like
00:40um real scared of your offensive line like that's pretty much the only scenario in which i would
00:45just throw the year away um i think obviously i have concerns about their ability to put people
00:53around fernando mendoza for that early career success and i think that that is so vitally
00:59important i think i mean if that trade to baltimore had gone through i would have felt so much more
01:04comfortable with that whole situation if they had a pick at number 14 but as it is i would i
01:11would just
01:12be a little bit shocked if they didn't want to get him on the field right away to expedite his
01:17learning curve um but but this does give them some wiggle room in that in that department if
01:23they get him in the building and they realize that either the o-line isn't performing the way that
01:29they are they're not able to like get that where they want it to be and or if he gets
01:34in the building
01:35and they realize that he's maybe a little bit away from like on his developmental curve if he could use
01:41a few weeks to just get comfortable um but i i wouldn't prioritize kirk cousins would be a
01:48like a backup plan for me that gives me a little bit of leverage in that way i suppose um
01:54as opposed
01:56to the plan at this point so sticking with the quarterback theme here to me the one guy that i
02:02keep asking everybody that i have on about is ty simpson to me excuse me he is an absolute conundrum
02:08i don't know if he's worth taking with a top 15 pick or if he's a third round pick and
02:13i see the
02:14unfortunate thing is i'm sure you see it too the mock drafts that are all coming out he's all over
02:19the place too there is no consensus on where he should go so at this point just a couple of
02:24weeks
02:25before the draft where do you pencil him in i don't know if i have a spot to pencil him
02:30in and i
02:30agree with you but with and the things that you said i think look everything after fernando and to be
02:36honest fernando in some ways at the top of the draft is a different number one overall quarterback
02:43than a lot of the number one overall quarterbacks that come out there are things that that teams
02:48love about him and a lot of the intangibles frankly but like he's not an elite trait guy it's not
02:54a it's
02:55not a thing where you look at him and you go oh this is obviously going to translate to the
03:00nfl in such
03:00a way where you know i mean and i'm about to say a name that people also didn't think was
03:05an obvious
03:06translate to the nfl so i guess that's fair enough but like you know patrick mahomes is like the guy
03:11who drags the offense along with him like a josh allen who also had to come along but like there
03:16are
03:16some guys that are like the um the tractor as opposed to the trailer and then there's other
03:21quarterbacks that can absolutely be good enough um if everything around them is good enough to sort of
03:27put them in a position where they don't have to pull everyone up and so this is an interesting
03:32class in that sense um this is a long-winded way of saying that like once you get past fernando
03:37the rest of the quarterbacks i think it's i mean ty simpson was the name that i heard over and
03:43over
03:43and over again every time i talk to somebody who's qb2 but there's a there's kind of a big like
03:49not a but that goes along with that but it's it's certainly not an excitement level it's not a like
03:54yeah and and it's real close or he's he's qb2 due to circumstance not due to talent yes
04:02yes that's a much more efficient way of saying what i was trying to kind of bumble around but i
04:08guess so where i'm going with this is the teams that need quarterbacks still need quarterbacks
04:14and are you going to take that are you going to take a guy who has kind of an asterisk
04:19next hand
04:20because he's the second best guy available in this class and and then take him in the first round
04:26which means that you've used a massively high value asset on that that has to work out and probably
04:32have to start right away like it's just i i feel like it i don't necessarily see it so and
04:39i think
04:39that the second round even becomes a tricky one now shuck was taken in the second round and i think
04:44he probably checks this same box i know a lot of a lot of people around the league were not
04:48excited
04:48about shock were really wary of him the thing i loved about him was his completion percentage
04:52over expected to the intermediate middle of the field i think that that particular stat is maybe
04:57um there's some signal there about quarterbacks that can throw into high traffic areas um but i just
05:04i think that that second round also becomes a little bit muddy and then once you get into the third
05:08round
05:08i think that's where guys that you want to develop go to die so it's such a weird year for
05:14quarterbacks
05:14and i would not be surprised i think the need from a need standpoint people are pushing ty simpson up
05:21the board all the rest of these quarterbacks but i will not be shocked on draft day if he doesn't
05:26go
05:26till round three okay so perfect segue talking about teams that need quarterbacks with cousins going to
05:32vegas the stealers become automatically the most interesting team left with a potential quarterback need
05:38if aaron rogers does go back what do you think they're sealing it
05:45aaron rogers is such an interesting quarterback at this point in his career because i think that there
05:50are clear and obvious physical limitations and this happens with everyone we started this conversation
05:55with kirk cousins who i think there's a moment when when he was on netflix's quarterback show
06:00that i think was so interesting and it wasn't because of age at that point it was because he was
06:06coming
06:06off an injury but he described a scenario when you're on the field and your brain says make the
06:13throw now and there's the window but your your body can't you know like it just can't deliver and so
06:20in
06:20that situation he was talking about how weird it was and how discombobulating that is for a quarterback
06:25who spent so much of his career getting mentally to the point where you know exactly what the rhythm is
06:30and what the pieces and when when the windows open and when it's not and and you think you can
06:35get the ball
06:35there when quarterbacks get older they have to navigate the abilities declining and sort of
06:43readjust the brain to match that so you have to know my body can't do that anymore and i think
06:49what aaron rogers was with the jets was maybe the guy um that didn't have a complete understanding of
06:57that yet like one of the biggest signs statistically that a quarterback is on the downslope or maybe should
07:05think about stepping away is when the average depth of target drops uh i did a study for the
07:11evaluation our draft show about age cliffs for quarterbacks and the age 39 popped up as the year
07:17for the the quarterbacks who are fortunate enough talented enough to stick around until that age
07:22those are obviously very high-end quarterbacks there is a consistent pattern of a lot of them that fall
07:28off a cliff in year 39 and you can see it in the average depth of target it comes way
07:34down and i think that
07:36that probably has to do with arm strength and or accuracy you don't have the ability anymore to get the
07:42ball
07:42downfield accurately as consistently as you have previously in your career uh so aaron rogers average depth of
07:49target the last two years has been like the lowest in the league like lowest of his career with the
07:57jets
07:58and then it came down even further this past year it was like 6-3 i want to say even
08:02with long-winded way
08:03again as you can see there's a pattern of saying that he is not who he once was so it
08:09requires you to
08:10ask him to do very specific things which i think they kind of navigated a little bit last year
08:15even with uh dk metcalf that is even more surprising that you have a downfield threat
08:21like that and you just you can't get him the ball down the field anymore being one of the best
08:26deep
08:27ball throwers we've ever seen total sidebar here as we're talking with our friend lindsey
08:30roads of sumer sports make sure you check out all her great work there when you were talking about
08:35navigating the pocket and all of that kind of stuff it reminded me of what we saw a couple of
08:40weeks ago i'm sure you caught this where tom brady at whatever he is 47 years old
08:45was able to do that vintage slide around the pocket with people trying to you know at this
08:51point it's not flatten him but it's get his flag and throw a bullet to gronk down the field like
08:57as you mentioned tom brady was never known for his athleticism but his ability to manipulate the
09:03pocket i think is a huge reason why he looks like he can still play today and it's a very
09:09different
09:09type of athleticism right like we talk about a lot of times when we talk about people's ability to
09:15navigate the pocket or like athleticism in the pocket you're talking about a quarterback who has
09:21the ability to tuck it and run or flush out of the pocket and then keep their eyes up and
09:26throw down
09:26field and throw on the move and tom brady's is a very subtle athleticism within that space like his ability
09:33to maneuver so subtly in such a small space is the thing that i mean his entire career my entire
09:43time
09:43working at nfl network at the time that was all anyone talked about like uh analysts when they were
09:47talking about what really really floored them about tom brady's abilities he's he's an absolute outlier
09:54in his ability to do these things and make these really subtle adjustments and have a sense and a feel
10:01for where the pressure is going to come and when to step up and when to just slightly step away
10:06and
10:07um yeah he's he's one of one in so many ways and by the way that age cliff study that
10:13i told you about
10:14like full-on just take him out of the mix completely like he didn't match anything he didn't match any
10:20of
10:20the data patterns he was an absolute one-of-one outlier yeah and you watch him out there in the
10:26flag
10:26football you're like man i think i think you know if baker stinks again the bucks might want to call
10:31him back at this point it's crazy please don't do this to us it is no we got to be
10:36done we got
10:37to be done with tom brady we have to collectively agree to move on we are and now he's getting
10:42involved in other leagues in the whole nine yards and the raiders and we know all that all right
10:45couple more here uh back related to the upcoming draft with the chief signing kenneth walker is wide
10:50receiver the only and obvious move for the chiefs
10:55who i don't know that there isn't only an um obvious move for the chiefs in the draft at nine
11:01uh i mean i think that you could go corner i think a lot of people are plugging in a
11:05corner there
11:06i think uh delane is a guy that a lot of people are looking at um i talked to our
11:13main offensive line
11:15scout today or i'm sorry i mean offensive tackle scout today at summer sports collecting some material for
11:21our draft show um and he actually mentioned them as a possible team to take an offensive tackle at nine
11:30um and i think on the outside it kind of looks like they might be okay there that might not
11:34be a
11:34direction that they go but um you know it all it all kind of i mean it all starts with
11:42the offensive
11:43line and we've seen so many example none more glaring this year than the chargers of just like
11:49how important that offensive line is and i think that if you look at the chiefs last year um and
11:55some
11:55of the problems that they had on offense maybe you could point to the offensive line for some of those
11:59issues as well i think um i i could see them going in a handful of different directions i don't
12:07know
12:07that there's one it would either be for me it would either be uh an offensive tackle or uh someone
12:14maybe in that defensive backfield um and and i i uh put the card in for months we're delaying in
12:21our
12:21our 10 team mock draft that we did on the sumer sports show earlier this week we could only do
12:2610 as
12:27you may have picked up on here i tend to talk a lot and so does my co-host dan
12:31brockhouse so we could
12:32only get through 10 in an hour well you know what that would make you a pretty darn good sports
12:36talk
12:37host if you ever wanted to dip your feet into those water i listen lindsey i do i do four
12:41hours monday
12:42through friday it's just me oh man so you know we're here putting in the gift of gab that's that's
12:47exactly what it is all right before i let you go uh classic case of open mouth insert foot um
12:53but i
12:54actually want to know what you think logistically of this aaron glenn says geno smith can lead them
12:59back to the promised land do you think geno smith has anything of the seattle geno smith left in him
13:04or it was the vegas experiment last year the i think that uh i think vegas was an absolute cluster
13:15last
13:15year in so many ways and in ways that i did not see coming i was floored by their lack
13:21of success in
13:21every possible way last year but there's no doubt that they were just a mess they were a mess on
13:26the
13:26field they were a mess behind the scenes which explains some of the ways in which they were a
13:30mess on the field i don't think that it is fair and i know that a lot of people you
13:35know don't care
13:36about that and they're like yeah he looked terrible he did look terrible geno smith is one of those guys
13:42sam darnold maybe too and maybe it's not fair to come you know put everybody in this box that checks
13:47that um that that like comeback quarterback uh we call them phoenix quarterbacks who have risen from
13:54the ashes in order to have success again um but the one thing that we know is that they've proven
14:00that
14:00they can have success if the environment is good enough so we already knew that about geno um and i
14:06think that the environment was better for him in seattle it was terrible in las vegas will it be better
14:13in new york that's the question i think you know is is new york a team that can put a
14:17an environment
14:18around him where he can be good enough but um to answer your question i think he absolutely is good
14:25enough to be fine for them as a stop gap as long as the o-line and the pass catchers
14:33are okay and then
14:35that ultimately ends up being i think the biggest question for us about the jets next year one bonus fun
14:40one here we uh unveiled our new uniforms here in atlanta did you like them and are you a uniform
14:46junkie in general or do you not care not even at all i i like i'm i'm one of those
14:52people that like
14:53unless it's super different and i actually i will i will tell you and this is going to tell a
14:58lot of
14:58people that are listening that they should stop listening to my opinion for the rest of this
15:02um answer but like the uglier the uniform i the better for me like i love the the really loud
15:09fluorescent seahawks uniforms i love the like uh the the pittsburgh ones that make you look like
15:16you're going to jail like i mean i love the weirdest uniforms possible so the people who
15:21like uniforms that actually look good i think there's a lot a lot more subtlety to these uniforms
15:28so i'm definitely not a uniform connoisseur i didn't necessarily think that the falcons uniforms
15:33looked all that different from the falcons uniforms that i'm familiar with but i did like the
15:37matte black helmet and i liked the stripe down the pants those are the two things that i was like
15:43yeah that looks different to me and i like them what everybody wanted was the red helmet all red
15:47everything but uh we learned today that that's going to be a throwback that we will lindsey get
15:54four times a year but there's a lot of people here in atlanta that wanted those classic red helmet
15:59red jersey uh uniform combos but the falcons decided to go in a different direction and honestly i tend to
16:05agree with you i was just kind of like you know they're nice i think they're slightly better than
16:09what they were before but i i certainly wasn't jaw dropping or anything like that when it comes to
16:15it lindsey great stuff as always appreciate you we'll chat soon
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