00:00But I wanted to play a lot of what Adam Peters said last night following the selection.
00:06This was Adam Peters on the moments of improvement that showed, you know, in this year, 2025 for Ohio State,
00:15that showed he can do it in the NFL.
00:18When you talk about the improvement he made as a linebacker, were there some moments that you saw, maybe some
00:24really big improvements that kind of convinced you, like, he's really taken off.
00:28This is a guy that can keep doing this in the NFL.
00:31Yeah, I think it really in every kind of portion of the game, John, I think, you know, you see
00:38him playing in the box and using his hands and shedding blocks and reading blocks and then getting to the
00:43ball and playing like physical, like taking on guards and it got better and better.
00:49And then as a blitzer, he got better. And I think he's just scratching the surface there and he's going
00:54to be a great blitzer.
00:55And so all those things that, you know, come with changing positions, you saw it kind of come to life
01:04and you saw it in the playoffs.
01:05I mean, he played against Indiana. His game against Indiana was incredible.
01:09And you just made some big time plays in the Miami game as well. Indiana wasn't the playoffs, but, you
01:17know, you know everything about them.
01:18So, yeah, John went to Ohio State. John's a big Ohio State guy. John Kime is.
01:23He was outstanding in that Big Ten title game against Indiana. No doubt about it.
01:28I thought two things about that answer from Adam Peters. Number one is I think that the thing that not
01:36everybody was talking about when it came to styles leading into the draft is going to be featured in a
01:42Durante Jones defense.
01:44And that is he can be an outstanding blitzing pass rusher.
01:47Secondly, you heard him emphasize, you know, in the run game, taking on guards and shedding guards and making tackles.
01:56That's the thing that, you know, at the NFL level heading into it will be something that he's going to
02:04have to prove that he can do at 6'5", 244 as a former safety, you know, in the box
02:11safety at times.
02:12But that's going to, you know, there's a difference with, you know, big guards and big offensive linemen coming down.
02:19And can you, you know, can you hang in there, shed the block and make the tackles?
02:25But there was improvement there, as you heard Adam Peters said. Sure, they wanted to see that, no doubt.
02:32Fred Warner's been comped to Sonny Stiles.
02:37And the interest that Washington, you know, had in Sonny Stiles heading into this draft was in part because in
02:46San Francisco, Adam Peters, when he was there, knows what kind of impact a great linebacker like Fred Warner can
02:54have.
02:54So he was asked about, can Stiles have a Fred Warner-style impact?
03:00You saw the impact that Warner made in San Francisco.
03:03And what kind of, can he make that kind of an impact here?
03:08And what kind of impact could he make just overall like that?
03:11Yeah, I don't want, like, I probably don't want to make the mistake of getting into comparisons on that because
03:17Fred's, you know, he's a gold jacket.
03:19So, you know, if he can be like Fred, then we're all going to be really happy.
03:25But, you know, Sonny's, you know, speaking just about Sonny and his size and his length and his ability to
03:31cover the whole field, I think those things, for any NFL linebacker, you know, you covet those things.
03:38And so, yeah, I kind of want to stay away from that, knowing how good Fred is and the person.
03:46But they're both, you know, elite people and they're both guys that you want in your locker room for sure.
03:53You know, the interesting thing about the Fred Warner comparison is when you look at him physically at 6'5",
04:00he is the tallest of the comps, you know, whether it's Fred Warner or Roquan Smith or Zach Bond or,
04:09you know, I mean, he's at 6'5", 244.
04:13He is taller, he is taller, longer, and just growing into being a different body type than some of these
04:21guys.
04:21And it'll be really interesting to see, you know, how that plays out.
04:25I guess the closest would be somebody like Tremaine Edmonds in terms of height, you know, and weight and, you
04:32know, length.
04:34So that was him in talking about the Fred Warner comp.
04:41So there was a question about the opportunity to trade down.
04:47I would just suggest everybody, strongly suggest, that trading back wasn't just on their mind, but it was on the
04:55minds of a lot of teams that weren't named the Raiders.
04:58Um, because this is that kind of draft in which there just was a big question mark about the number
05:05of true, you know, projected blue chip, all pro perennial pro bowl kind of players.
05:13And so if you're not sure that these players are going to be that, then get more picks.
05:19So I think that a lot of teams in Cleveland was the first to be able to do it.
05:24Arizona, no one was willing to get up to three for whatever they were asking for.
05:30Um, and Cleveland was the first to be able to do it.
05:33And then it happened a lot, you know, when we got to, uh, after the top 10, but Adam Peters
05:40was asked about whether or not there was an opportunity to trade back.
05:45Here's what he said.
05:46Um, a two part question, just to squeeze in another question.
05:49Um, did you have an opportunity to move down and, you know, would you have taken it if he weren't
05:56still on the board?
05:57And then, um, I'll, I'll leave.
06:00Yeah.
06:02Yeah.
06:03Um, it was kind of funny.
06:05We, we didn't, we, we did a lot of work on, on the move down.
06:08We did, we, we spent a lot of time on it.
06:10Brandon back there was, was with me looking at all the different iterations of moving back.
06:16And, and everything like that.
06:17We didn't look to move up.
06:18Um, but, uh, crickets, it was crickets.
06:23So really, we were just looking at my phone and nothing.
06:26So, um, you know, we're, we're, we're, we were so like happy.
06:30We're happy to stay and pick there.
06:33There you go.
06:33Um, so you, you, you heard of me just said they were certainly looking at that.
06:39I think a lot of teams were, uh, in this draft, uh, but where they were crickets and it was,
06:46you know, I, I think about the way the first round broke and it could have broken with,
06:51you know, Mendoza, Bailey, love styles, uh, and then potential or tape then styles, you know,
07:01and then at six, I mean, Washington wasn't that far off with perhaps being faced with,
07:09uh, you know, a Reese, uh, answer at seven.
07:13I mean, he only went two picks prior to that.
07:16Um, but the fact that love and Tate and Bailey were off the board, um, that left kind of
07:23delaying in styles as the guy, as the people, as the two players that people were talking
07:28about the most, there was some down stock and certainly there was some Bain talk as
07:32well.
07:33Um, but good job out of them.
07:36You know, they stay and they get, you know, a plug and play at the very least, a plug and
07:42play starting solid inside linebacker with a big brain, a big brain on old Brad, uh, and
07:51Sonny, uh, in this defense and a guy that can really, really move to add to all of the
07:58other guys that can really, really move.
08:01Um, this was, uh, Adam Peters, uh, talking about when he locked in on styles being the guy
08:10that they wanted out of, at the, uh, league meetings, I asked you if you had already at
08:15that point, knowing what guy you want, you would want to get all things being equal.
08:20When did you kind of, what's, I guess, when did you kind of lock in styles was a guy that
08:26you did want?
08:27Yeah, it, it was, uh, it is this week and, um, it was really cool.
08:34I just, we got a lot of great input from everybody in the building, you know, coaches did a great
08:40job, um, you know, our R and D and, and our scouting department to ask a lot of different
08:47guys, all right, here, this group of players who are likely to be there, what's your order
08:51and why.
08:53And, um, you know, so I was able to get a ton of different perspectives.
08:57You know, you get Brandon's perspective, um, you know, which is different than a scout's
09:01perspective, which is different than R and D. So I really got to see, you know, all the
09:05different sides of the decision and that really helped crystallize the decision and then making
09:10it, you know, um, just putting together tapes on all these guys and, and, you know, you fall
09:15in love with a lot of them because they're all really, really good players.
09:18And, you know, there's a lot of really good players that got picked before us and then
09:21some after, but, you know, Sonny, yeah, that would, I felt really, really good about him,
09:26uh, really throughout the process, but certainly, you know, after the 30 visit and then this
09:30week, um, kind of getting all that input.
09:33And yeah, I mean, one of the things going to the off season, one of the things you hear,
09:37uh, from Adam Peters and that answer is just the uncertainty of everything related to post
09:45Mendoza in this draft.
09:46Like who's actually going to be there?
09:48Have no idea.
09:49They had no idea.
09:51Uh, and then comparing a lot of these players, you know, was there clearly a best player on
09:58the board or was it really close?
10:00My sense is it was probably really close between a lot of guys and they weren't sure
10:05which one would fall to them.
10:06I mean, he, he told you that was an honest answer to Ben's question about when did you
10:11realize he was the guy this week, this week, and certainly the 30 visit helps.
10:18Um, but it was, you know, this was a lot of, I'm sure very close calls in terms of their
10:27board order for sure.
10:29Uh, I don't know how they felt about Jeremiah love.
10:32It may have been that love was clearly their number one guy, or maybe Tate would have been
10:36the guy had he fallen there.
10:39Um, we'll never know.
10:41Styles is a really good player though.
10:42This was Adam Peters on kind of what they learned about Sonny Stiles, the person.
10:52Hey Adam, I guess it's good that it was crickets that you couldn't hear anything.
10:57But while when you look at Sonny, you had a chance to talk to him beyond just who he is
11:03as a player, but that conversation with him as a person, what did you see most out of him
11:09as who he is that person?
11:12Um, you know, he's, he is an outstanding young man.
11:16And, um, but you know, the words I would, you know, just kind of, he's, he's mature beyond
11:22his years, uh, I think.
11:24And, uh, he's very curious.
11:27He wants, he wants to know what the great ones do.
11:30He wants to know, he wants to be great.
11:31He's really humble and, uh, he's very driven.
11:34And so those things, you know, made us all really confident that he's going to reach his
11:40ceiling.
11:42Comes from a family of players.
11:45His father was a player.
11:46His brother is a player.
11:47He's a player.
11:48Um, you love that aspect of it, but by all accounts, and we knew this leading up to the
11:53draft, just on all of the due diligence, you know, checklists for these players, Sonny
12:00Stiles was a plus when it came to that downs was a plus when it came to that.
12:06A lot of the guys in this draft were, um, at least according to, you know, the reporting.
12:11Stacy doesn't benefit.
12:11So now, Ilyn, moving to you tonight.
12:11We've.
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