00:00Let's talk some NFL draft.
00:01You know, it's coming up in two weeks from Thursday,
00:04and the Commanders pick seventh overall unless they pull some pre-draft jiu-jitsu
00:08and either move up or move down.
00:10Moving up is unlikely.
00:11Moving down is sought after by many, like good old tradeback Paulson,
00:17who loves the old tradeback.
00:19But let's just assume they take a player at seven.
00:22Here is the mock draft from Peter Schreger of ESPN,
00:28formerly of NFL Network.
00:30They're now one and the same.
00:32ESPN has swallowed the NFL Network.
00:35Sonny Stiles, linebacker, the Ohio State.
00:40Here is what he wrote in his mock draft.
00:43I believe Washington is going to go defense.
00:45It gave up six yards per play in 2025, tied for third worst.
00:49Is that good?
00:50No, that's terrible.
00:53Stiles shows a lot of the same traits that Fred Warner has displayed in San Francisco.
00:58I mean, first of all, if we're name-dropping Fred Warner, I'm all in.
01:02I love that guy.
01:04That guy's amazing.
01:05Who was the third-round pick?
01:07Right.
01:10He showed a lot of the same traits that Fred Warner has displayed in San Francisco
01:14and GM Adam Peters, who came from San Francisco.
01:17Oh, grown.
01:18Here we go with the whole, hey, he's shopping in the San Fran 49ers store.
01:22I know, I get it.
01:23Knows what Warner has meant for the Niners all these years.
01:26Stiles had 77 tackles as a sideline-to-sideline defender last year.
01:31Then lit up the combine with a smooth 4-4-6 in the 40-yard dash
01:39and a 43-and-a-half-inch vertical jump.
01:43I like this fit.
01:46Peter Schrager, mock draft.
01:48The floor is yours, Brian.
01:49Well, I mean, he will be – I think he's a good player for that pick,
01:53but there's no guarantee.
01:54I think, yes, they gave up six yards per, but if you look at the team right now,
01:59as they would tell you, it's totally different than it was last year
02:02with all the moves they made.
02:04And I think what they've done, they've put themselves in a position
02:06where they don't have to go defense.
02:09They can go offense.
02:10They can go defense.
02:11They can go wherever they want.
02:12They can go the best player available.
02:14You know, and I know people hate to hear that,
02:16but when you go into a draft with that mindset,
02:19you have situated your team going into the draft
02:23where I am not forced to do anything.
02:26And I like Sonny Stiles, but if they're going that way,
02:31you got three pass rushes that could be an impact more than a linebacker.
02:36Well, that's the thing.
02:37In today's NFL, the interior linebacker position has been devalued
02:43almost as much as running.
02:45It used to be a glory position, the likes of Ray Lewis and Erlacher
02:50and others, you know, the mythical middle linebacker to stop the run,
02:55erase plays in the middle.
02:56Now it's all just about edge, edge, edge, sack the quarterback,
03:00sack the quarterback, sack the quarterback.
03:02And I get why.
03:04In a passing league, sacks usually end drives.
03:09Yeah.
03:09If you look at the stats, very few drives that have a sack of the quarterback
03:14end up not in a punt.
03:17And so therefore the premium is on edge guys.
03:20Now, according to the mock by Schrager,
03:23he's got the commanders taking Stiles one spot ahead of Reuben Bain Jr.
03:29who he's got mocked to the Saints, which brings up this specific question.
03:34How would you, as a commander fan, feel if they pass on Bain
03:39to take an inside linebacker?
03:42See, the thing I like, I wouldn't care if they go with Sonny Stiles
03:45because he has, the thing that Durante Jones like is guys that could do
03:49multiple things.
03:51And when you look at his bill, he's 6'4 1⁄2",
03:54he's a guy who also can rush the passer.
03:57You can line him up in different spots.
04:01My whole thing, and I haven't heard many of all these draft people
04:04ever discuss that, can he cover?
04:08Because he run 4-4-6, I want to know, can he cover a tight end?
04:12Because if he can cover tight ends, which tight end is as sexy as any receiver
04:17in the league at this point now, can he cover them and take them out of games?
04:21Because you're going to have some games where they don't care if you're
04:24inside tackling.
04:24And they're going to just pick on the person checking your tight end.
04:27And if he can stop that, also be able to be a guy who would in run game
04:31and possibly every once in a while rush the passer,
04:34you got you something special there.
04:37But, but, if I'm going to go with a person,
04:41I'm going to pick a person who I know is damn good at one thing.
04:45And we know that Ruben Bain is violent as hell.
04:48And he is going, he could have one-eighth of his short arms or not.
04:54But the person that's going against him, at the end of the game,
04:57know they were in a fight.
04:57Yeah.
04:58And I would go with that first.
04:59Yeah.
05:00Now, the one thing about Sonny Stiles is that, according to Schrager's mock,
05:05as I flip through it here, he is the only real inside linebacker in the first round.
05:11Everyone else that's a defensive player is either edge or tackle or even safety.
05:17He's got a lot of safeties and other guys going.
05:19When I was scanning, I was like, okay, who else is not really an edge?
05:23Now, the one guy that could be a combo guy is Arbel Reese,
05:26who the Cardinals are likely to take at three,
05:28but he's listed as linebacker slash edge.
05:31So, he has more pass rush ability than Stiles.
05:34Now, anyone can rush the passer occasionally in the right packages.
05:39It's a matter of what do they do best and what are they going to do the most often.
05:42I wouldn't feel great about them taking Stiles over Bain.
05:48I just wouldn't.
05:49And maybe that's my Bain bias now coming through because I feel like I'm becoming
05:54more and more mentally pot committed to get Ruben, Ruben Bain.
05:59You know, I just, as a fan, you can become mentally pot committed to certain guys
06:04with no basis in anything other than just you read a draft report and said,
06:09I like this guy.
06:09As I look at these mock drafts over the years, of late the last few years,
06:16what I noticed, you're going to watch a lot of them come out and then you're
06:20going to get somebody that's going to be completely out.
06:23I'm going to be different than everybody else.
06:25And I always ask the question, has any one of them hit on the top five picks,
06:32top six picks, you know?
06:34Yeah.
06:35And the answer would be no.
06:37And if the answer is no, then I don't put too much stock into them.
06:41I go through them.
06:42I understand fans like them.
06:45But I can go and pull up all these names too.
06:49But I'm just saying, if I talk to you, say I'm going for office alignment,
06:53and then I look at the, I can look at the, what's it called?
06:56And they see the top 10 office alignment.
06:58I can make a mock draft up.
06:59I think it's a waste of time because you know what?
07:01Know what?
07:01What I found out talking to general managers and talking to some front office people,
07:06half the time they think they go in and figure out what they're going to do.
07:09And once the draft starts, it completely changes because if you get a run on a certain position,
07:14it makes you say, oh, wait, we want to get so-and-so, you know?
07:19And you can't stick to your gun, so you got to go get somebody else.
07:21You start getting draft fever.
07:23The people that's making the picks, hell, they don't know.
07:25How do you think these other people know?
07:27It is a very inexact science.
07:29This is the first time I've seen anyone say Washington's going to take Stiles.
07:33Oh, really?
07:34Yeah.
07:34Okay.
07:34He's the first person.
07:36I think we need to come up with a whose mocks do you respect and whose mocks will you listen
07:42to?
07:43Because everyone can do a mock.
07:44But I think some guys are, if not more honest brokers, they're just better brokers of football information than others.
07:52Like to me, Daniel Jeremiah is a very respected broker of, okay, sensible, I will listen to his mock.
08:00Yep.
08:01I do.
08:02Traeger is also in that category.
08:04I listen to Jeremiah, too, but then again, as I look at him, I think, listen, man, after the first
08:09round, nobody knows.
08:11Remember when they used to run contests, like pick the first round exactly right, and you won a prize?
08:15Yeah, and nobody ever won that prize.
08:16Nobody got close.
08:16In a million years, nobody got close.
08:18So my thing, though, Dave, is like, you look at him, and when you get to fourth round, after the
08:27second round, nobody knows.
08:29No, nobody knows.
08:30So, like, you know, people used to always do the first round mock.
08:34Yeah.
08:34Then they start doing the whole draft.
08:36And I'm like, I guess your job will give you enough money to be able to do that.
08:40Well, it's...
08:41Because that has to be boring as hell to me.
08:42It's got to be very boring.
08:43But you know what?
08:44It's content people will click on, and they'll want to read.
08:47Because there are people that love the draft.
08:49They love being into the draft.
08:50And that's fine if that's your thing.
08:52It's not my thing.
08:53But for some people, they love just being draft nicks and knowing about all these guys.
08:58Because then sometimes when they say this dude who's going to be a third rounder is going to be great,
09:03and he turns out to be great, you feel good.
09:05This is like a hobby for people to go, yes, I was really following this guy coming out of college.
09:10You know what I would ask, though?
09:11If he was a third rounder, it was great.
09:12Why are you even drafting him a second round?
09:14Right.
09:15See, my thing is, I don't care where you're picked.
09:19I care what you do once you get to the place.
09:21I agree.
09:21And if you drafted a guy, let's say, first pick of the third round, why the hell wouldn't he draft
09:26the middle of the second round or something else?
09:31Well, that's the thing.
09:31You begin to wonder.
09:32Sometimes teams will scooch up five or ten spots to go take a guy in the third round, maybe.
09:37And that guy turns out to be good, and then everyone lauds the team for going, they were so smart
09:42to move up.
09:42And I go, why'd they pass on him then?
09:45But the previous two rounds.
09:46Yeah, yeah.
09:46Like, they could have waited and gotten jumped by somebody else, and they would have missed this guy.
09:51They're like, they're so smart, they knew so-and-so would be good.
09:54They moved up five spots to get him in the fourth round.
09:57Well, why'd you wait so long if you knew he was going to be good?
10:01Or pick the guy in the top five, and he stinks their whole career.
10:04Oh, God.
10:04And you wonder on that one, like, okay, then, why was he picked?
10:07Oh, God.
10:08So, my whole thing is, once you're in the building, are you the person that's going to work hard enough,
10:15and do we have the people that can get you where you need to be?
10:17Yeah.
10:18That's more important to me.
10:19Styles lines up on the defensive front, makes adjustments if needed, discipline, and sifting
10:24through pre- and post-snap eye candy, pops and separates from climbing blockers with a crisp punch.
10:29This is the scouting report on him.
10:31I love the terminology.
10:33Constricts run fits by using size, force, and technique.
10:37Scrapes quickly to the action without losing leverage.
10:40Impressive talent for slipping through traffic and into tackles.
10:43Versatility and athleticism can be weaponized for coverage disguise.
10:47Gains depth and widens to the flats with above-average quickness.
10:52Impeccable tackle finisher.
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