00:00It's a post-draft Tuesday, so obviously we're talking all things NFL, and because of that,
00:07we're going to welcome in Eric Edholm. He's going to join us on the Sweet James Accident
00:11Attorney Hotline, and I always love talking to you, Eric. And look, man, I got a bunch of stuff
00:17to cover. The draft, obviously, storylines galore. I know you've covered them a ton
00:21with yourself on NFL.com, but I want to start with something that's kind of Falcons-adjacent.
00:28The Rams picking up that first-rounder from James Pierce trade a year ago, and they use
00:32it on Ty Simpson. Now, to me, Eric, this is the most polarizing pick of the draft. A lot
00:38of people say, oh, Les Snead thinking ahead, setting himself up for when Matthew Stafford
00:43leaves, but also you felt like you could have been a player away from a Super Bowl run.
00:48So where do you stand on the Ty Simpson drama, and do you, in fact, think it was a good
00:52move?
00:53Yeah, on the one hand, you know, it's like you said, we've been sort of crying for years for
00:59teams to take a more proactive approach at quarterback, right? So they're not left in
01:03the lurch, and they have a succession plan in place. And, you know, for all the people I heard
01:08praising the Raiders for signing Kirk Cousins, you know, some sort of insurance for their first
01:13round pick, I heard to say a lot of folks, and again, I'm just sort of pointing out, you know,
01:17from the neutral perspective, you know, a lot of people pan the Simpson pick. Now, look, if you
01:22want to say it isn't good value at the 13th selection, it's hard not to agree, right? I mean,
01:29it's, you look at the situation, he's a one-year starter, he's an undersized guy, he was hurt for
01:34half that year, and the play reflected it, right? I mean, he was good to start the year, and you
01:38thought, maybe this is the first round pick we're looking at here, you know? This could be it. And then
01:43things kind of tailed off now. Obviously, the Rams are a unique situation, but yeah, I think the fact
01:49that they're kind of so close to contention makes you think, boy, wouldn't a Makai Lemon look good
01:55in the offense, or, you know, couldn't they add one more piece to kind of boost things up? But
02:00clearly, they didn't think whoever was available was worth more than the idea of having Simpson in
02:07their back pocket, knowing that Matthew Stafford could be in his swan song season. So, you know,
02:15I can see it both ways. I didn't love the value, but I can understand the thought process.
02:20Hey, Eric, taking a look at Atlanta, we're so close to it, and I saw in your power rankings,
02:24you have the Falcons at 22 as far as the draft. What's the national perspective on Ian Cunningham's
02:30first draft of the Falcons?
02:31I think all things considered, look, no first-round pick, given the hand they were dealt, they did
02:36pretty well for themselves. I mean, you know, the Avion Terrell pick was not just, for me,
02:43a brotherly love thing. I think it was the great value at where they got him. Now, obviously,
02:48you know, he didn't run well, and there's an injury situation there, but, you know, I think
02:51he'll be fine. I'm not worried about that. Obviously, the fact that he paired up with his brother
02:55makes it a great, feel-good story. But just from an upgrading your secondary perspective,
03:00I think he's going to help. So I loved it from that. He was a player that I considered
03:05late in first round at one point. You know, I think the pick that probably got me the most
03:11excited was Ontario Thompson. He was a really interesting player, kind of came on my radar
03:16a little later. I didn't watch him that much. And, you know, you see some juice there.
03:22You see some ability to get into the backfield, and he might be an interesting sub-package
03:26rusher. And, look, Harold Perkins a few years ago, I mean, was a game wrecker. And LSU kind
03:33of tinkered with his role, and it just never felt like he settled in properly. He was an
03:37undersized edge, so they moved him to linebacker. He wasn't as effective there. You know, you
03:42have to remember, he's only been playing the position, really, a couple years. And if they
03:45are indeed sticking him at linebacker and staying there, then, you know, you might see the
03:51best out of him in the coming years. So, I'm interested. I think Zachariah Branch's
03:56speed and skill will play well on turf. You know, overall, you look at the class and you
04:01say, yeah, there's two or three players. And I think that's really what most draft classes
04:07end up reducing down to, is if you can come away with two starters and one contributor
04:11out of a draft class, especially one that doesn't have a first-round pick, it's pretty good
04:16in my opinion. Eric, the
04:20thing about the first round is it kind of sets the trend of how the draft's going to
04:23go when there's a run on positions. And it was very surprising to me that
04:28nine offensive linemen were taken in the first round, seven
04:31tackles. Were you surprised by that, or was there something else in the first
04:35round that surprised you more? Yeah, I mean, I had just been hearing
04:39leading up to the draft, talking to people around the league, kind of getting their
04:43sense. And, you know, I mean, obviously GMs, assistant GMs, scouting directors,
04:49they're going to play close to the vest as far as their own team's plans and
04:52everything. But nearly everybody mentioned the fact that given the makeup of
04:57this class, not a lot of blue-chip players at the top, some pretty
05:03concentrated strengths at offensive tackle, especially, you know, wide receiver,
05:09pass rusher, other positions too. But that offensive tackle position, what you
05:13noticed was it dropped off a cliff. You know, the first seven guys were rated
05:19significantly higher than the next seven, right? I mean, there was a huge gap,
05:23basically. So it didn't shock me. I had been putting nine offensive, or sorry, eight
05:30offensive linemen in almost all my first-round mocks. I didn't have a second
05:34guard. I think I did one time. I think I had chased Besantis as a first-round
05:38mock guard. But, you know, we ended up getting Keelan Rutledge instead. Besantis
05:43went a few picks later. There were a couple other tackles who went quickly in
05:47round two. And, yeah, that just kind of told the tale. The interesting little
05:51subplot to the draft was the run on tight ends. And centers, too. The center market
05:58really heated up with Logan Jones going to 57 and then going on from there. So,
06:03what did it tell me? I mean, teams are bulking up. You know, I mean, they saw what
06:07the Rams did. They saw what multiple tight end teams could do. They saw the
06:12dearth of O-line prospects. You know, ask a pro personnel guy what the hardest
06:18positions, non-quarterback positions to fill are. And, you know, it's like pass rusher,
06:23corner, O-line. I mean, those are the spots that you always want depth at. So,
06:28definite theme to a draft where lacked maybe some of the blue chip talent that
06:33we're used to up top. And I think that kind of helped usher in that run.
06:38Hanging out with Eric at home, NFL.com here on the morning shift. Eric, I want to
06:42stay right there. One of the questions we've been kind of kicking around is about
06:45fit, about who actually, you know, was the best player. And one of the names that
06:49comes to mind for us is obviously Caleb Downs, highly thought of and is going to be
06:54an impact player. Is there a fit just in terms of like the first rounders
06:58or guys at the top of the draft that you thought, boy, he's really going to
07:01flourish when he gets to that team? That was the one that immediately came to
07:05mind for me. I mean, I'm sure I'd come up with another one. But, yeah, that's the
07:09one where you thought, look, Dallas had six interceptions last year. I know the
07:13Jets had zero. But Dallas had six, and that's not great. The worst number, in
07:18addition to all the yards they gave up passing, was 42 passes defended. The next
07:22lowest team had 52. So, that was the Raiders. Ten fewer passes defended than any team in
07:27the league last year. They just were so unimpactful in the secondary. I think he's
07:32going to raise all the boats in that harbor. I think he's going to absolutely
07:36kind of bring the floor up and probably raise the ceiling as well. Because, you
07:42know, towards the end of the season, you started to see Caleb get in on more
07:45plays. He wasn't just that last line of defense. They put him in a position. I
07:50think Dallas will have to do that. I think Dallas is going to have to try to move
07:53him a little bit closer to the line of scrimmage, get him in coverage, you know,
07:57not just stick him back in single high deep coverage, right? He can do that. I
08:01mean, he's going to be very good at it. But I think he's going to end up being a
08:06big, impactful piece for them. And so, he's the one, I think, that makes the most
08:12sense, the best value, the best kind of combination of need and fit in the entire
08:18first round. I mean, look, obviously, Fernando Mendoza, Raiders, he's hard to
08:23argue they couldn't, you know, they had to take him, right? But in terms of
08:27looking a little bit beyond the first pick or two, that one felt like the best
08:31sort of fit. Hey, Eric, I want to go back to our feel-good storyline here in
08:36Atlanta with Avion Terrell and AJ Terrell. Can you remember the last time a
08:40couple of brothers have lined up in the same position group? Yeah, same position
08:44group, that's a tough one. I'd really have to cut a rack by brain a little bit, but
08:48it's a great story. They're different corners, too. I mean, that's, you know,
08:52they're different players. I think it's not one of these things where, you know,
08:56they kind of have similar skill sets and, you know, you're going to put them out
09:00there and everything's, you know, fine. I mean, no, I think Avion's going to be a
09:03nickel. I think he's going to be a, you know, he's sort of uniquely built for that
09:08position given his size limitations, but he does have the reactive quickness. He does
09:13have the fierce edge in his play for a guy that size. What I love this year was that
09:20there are about four or five DBs who fall below the normal threshold of what you would
09:24accept as, like, outside corner size. Almost all of them are going to be projected inside,
09:30but, you know, they're all such tenacious players. You know, D'Angelo Ponce, who went
09:36to the Jets as well. I'd put them in that same bucket. You know, there are a handful of
09:40guys that kind of fit that mold in this draft. I think they're all going to compete
09:44and overplay their positions or come darn close. It was a good year for that kind
09:49of template for that player, and every year we have one or two. It felt like this
09:53year we had a little bit more of the 5'10", 190-pound corner who, you know, is
09:59fearless and will go up there and take on any comer.
10:04Eric, when you look at the NFC South, you know, I thought that all three, all four
10:09teams, to me, kind of did pretty good value. Which one of those teams, other than, not
10:14take Atlanta out of the mix, but those other three teams, which one do you think did the
10:18best job of improving in the draft?
10:21I really like Tampa's draft, I gotta say. I mean, I thought, you know, they found good
10:27value and good talent. Obviously, Reuben Bain kind of falling into their laps at 15 was
10:32great. You know, Josiah Trotter, I think, will have to learn how to play in coverage, but
10:38he is, man, he is an absolute hammer in the run game. You know, his dad, obviously, for
10:42years in Philly was great. His older brother played, has played the last couple of years
10:46with the Eagles, and I think Keontae Scott was another guy. They got Ted Hurst. So, yeah,
10:52I mean, their first four picks made a ton of sense to me. Carolina had a real solid draft
10:57as well. I mean, you know, nothing I could really nitpick too much with. Obviously, there
11:02was a lot of question about where they'd go with their first-round pick, but, you know, given
11:06the long-term need at tackle, and short and long-term, I guess, just given Ikwanu's injury
11:12and everything. So, yeah, I thought they did a really solid job. The Saints obviously took a
11:18little more risk injury-wise with Jordan Tyson and Kristen Miller, and, you know, every year
11:23it feels like they're willing to roll the dice on a player who's got a little bit of an injury
11:27history. Chris Alave, obviously, and other guys, but Brian Bracey, I think, had some stuff
11:32he dealt with before the draft, but, you know, if they hit, it makes a lot of sense. So, I
11:38thought,
11:39you know, Tyson was the perfect kind of weapon to pair with Tyler Shuck. So,
11:44Oscar Delp, nice pick in the middle rounds as well. I mean, pretty good draft. I thought
11:50you could make the case that all four kind of maximize their picks. This is not a great draft.
11:54I don't think we're going to look back in 10 years and say, oh, gosh, you guys remember,
11:58you know, the summer of 2026, spring of 2026, man, it just doesn't have that feel to me.
12:04But I think there will be good, productive players, and, yeah, the South did pretty well
12:09for themselves.
12:10Post-draft, Eric Edholm, he's a hard man to find. He's a busy dude, but we always appreciate
12:14you carving out the time, buddy. Thanks again.
12:17Have a great morning, you guys. See ya.
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