00:00I'm so on to the Falcons now.
00:03And this article, and I'll plug it again,
00:06it was Nick Baumgartner from The Athletic,
00:09and he did a nice job, kind of just a little tidbit on every team
00:12and undrafted free agents and who all could have an impact.
00:15And I think that you and I both leading up to the draft, Bo,
00:20the closer we got there, I think the week of,
00:23I was certain that the second round pick was going to be a corner.
00:25I just felt it a set number of times on the show.
00:28I was like, yeah.
00:28But as we moved throughout the draft, I kept saying,
00:31and you and I were working on Grant, and he kept saying,
00:33what do you think they're going to do here?
00:34That was Saturday.
00:36I kept thinking, interior offensive line.
00:38I think they're going to surprise us,
00:39and they're going to go interior offensive line, possibly a tackle,
00:42but I think they'll go interior offensive line.
00:44Which brings me to the Falcons pick in this article,
00:46which is James Brockermeyer, the center out of Miami.
00:50Before you get there, do you want to talk about, is it Onanawa,
00:54who the tackle from Ohio State, who might move to guard?
00:58Because it looks like he's being projected to move inside.
01:01So they did kind of take a pick maybe in the draft and get somebody interior.
01:07Yeah, and I theorized as I was watching his film at the end of that draft show,
01:12I was like, I don't think he has the feet to play out wide.
01:16Yeah.
01:17And that was one of the, I'm watching him going,
01:19I don't see it.
01:20And so I remember at the end of that draft show going,
01:22I'm not surprised if they don't try to move him down inside.
01:24Real quick, I want to get to Brockermeyer because he's very intriguing.
01:28What about the tackle's feet do you watch?
01:30Is it the quickness in getting in your pass set with your feet moving back
01:37and not being off balance?
01:39Because you kind of shuffle your feet a little bit, right?
01:42Yeah.
01:42And it's kind of like, how quick can you be in your backs
01:46and getting into your stance without getting off balance
01:51and keeping the right width, right?
01:53I think it's more of like a quicksand effect to me when I'm watching it.
01:57Like, do they look like they're moving in quicksand?
01:59Does he look like he's pass protecting on the beach, right?
02:02Or does he look like he's, you know, on a basketball court?
02:04And we always use the term feet popping.
02:07Like, you can hear the feet, like pop, pop, pop, pop, pop.
02:09Like, you want to see the feet kind of pop a little bit.
02:12And I'm trying my best not to go way too deep here,
02:15but the best thing about an offensive lineman that's really good
02:18is when they have really good core strength and their hands
02:20and their elbows are connected to their feet, right?
02:22If you're a defensive lineman and you're trying to rip and go one way,
02:26are you moving just his hands out of the way
02:28or are you having to move his whole body out of the way?
02:30You know what I mean?
02:31Is his elbows locked into his obliques?
02:33You know, is his core locked into his hips
02:35or his hips locked into his feet?
02:36And if in that moment when an defensive lineman uses a rip move,
02:40a swim move, any kind of pass rush technique
02:42or anything in the run game as well,
02:45does your whole body move and do the feet move along with it?
02:49And that's really what I'm watching.
02:51And it's weird to say because we're talking about feet
02:53and you have to talk about feet for offensive linemen,
02:55but it really comes with how quickly can your feet move
02:58as your whole body is moving
02:59and as your kind of elbows are built into your obliques
03:02and like I said, your hips.
03:03The kick stability.
03:04Everything has to be moved at one.
03:05It doesn't matter if I weigh 330 pounds
03:08if all the defensive lineman has to do is move my hands out of the way.
03:11If all he has to do is move my hands out of the way
03:12and my feet don't move along with them,
03:14then it doesn't matter if I weigh 330.
03:16He's going to get around me.
03:17You have to keep balance.
03:18You have to be balanced and stable
03:20and with the strength to stall.
03:23Right.
03:24And look, that's hard to find when you talk about bigger athletes
03:27that have the feet to be able to do that
03:29because I think you can look at a guy who's 5'11", 6'0",
03:34and he's got that kind of lower style of like fulcrum in his knees
03:39and he's going to be able to pitter-patter a lot better
03:40because he's got probably larger quads and everything else.
03:43It's harder to find that in taller players
03:45and to have the knee bend, to have the leverage
03:48and everything that comes along with that.
03:49So, again, not to get too deep into the weeds,
03:52but if you can find a guy that has leverage to be able to do that
03:54and actually the smarts and everything that comes along with it,
03:57watching the feet is kind of the sum of a lot of parts
04:01coming together at that point.
04:02Well, that's like Brockermeyer, he's 6'3", 300.
04:04He's essentially Ryan Nuzel.
04:06I don't think Nuzel's quite as tall,
04:09but they're essentially right there around the same height.
04:13It's interesting you say that because I thought when I saw his physique,
04:18I thought Todd McClure.
04:20But Nuzel is 6'3".
04:22Yeah, standing on two books.
04:24Yeah, well, it's hard to tell his height
04:27because he's so barrel-chested.
04:28Right.
04:29But, anyways, Brockermeyer, you know, I watched a little bit on him,
04:35and he doesn't blow you away with anything,
04:37but his, talk about feet, his balance is really good.
04:41Yeah.
04:41Even when I saw him being pushed,
04:43he was able to stay engaged on the defender
04:47and move with the defender, staying in front of them
04:50and never getting really off balance.
04:52Now, he'd got pushed backwards a little bit,
04:54which sounds like he's off balance,
04:56but I feel like there's a difference in being moved
04:59and being off balance.
05:00If you can stay in front of the guy,
05:02now you might give your quarterback room to step up
05:08as long as you can stay engaged on the block, right?
05:11Again, and that engagement comes along with,
05:13like I'm talking about, keeping the elbows locked,
05:16almost having your thumbs in, like, that kind of 45-degree
05:20driving position, and that allows it.
05:23Like, look, you go back and watch,
05:24and I watched a little bit of his senior bowl tape.
05:27And let me just back up for a second.
05:28James Brockermeyer signed at Alabama out of high school.
05:31The crazy story about James Brockermeyer
05:33is that James Brockermeyer was not supposed to be
05:35nearly as good as his brother, Tommy.
05:37They were, I think they're twins.
05:38They at least signed in the same class.
05:40Tommy used to work on the docs, right?
05:42Yeah, I guess so.
05:42So Tommy Brockermeyer and James Brockermeyer
05:45signed out of high school.
05:46They were supposed to be both really, really good.
05:48Tommy was a little bit higher rated,
05:50but they both ended up signing to Alabama.
05:52Both of them left.
05:54James Brockermeyer kept playing football,
05:55and his brother Tommy, who was like a five-star recruit,
05:58had to actually retire from football.
05:59Never did, couldn't make weight, got injured,
06:02had a number of things that went wrong with him.
06:04I think he ended up at TCU before he stepped away.
06:06James Brockermeyer, though, continued to get better,
06:09and he ends up at Miami,
06:10and I think he's making a pretty good amount of coin,
06:12and then he makes his present felt
06:15on a national title game run.
06:16Yeah, I like, I'm somewhat excited about this guy.
06:21Yeah.
06:22Because I liked what I saw.
06:23I think he's already,
06:24I liked what I saw from him
06:26more than I ever liked anything from Javon Gwynn,
06:28which is not to be a jerk,
06:29but I never saw this kind of strength
06:33and kind of technique from Javon Gwynn.
06:37I'm glad you brought that up
06:39because the, um,
06:41Ani Anwa,
06:42if I'm hopefully, I'm getting that name right.
06:44Well, I know I'm butchering it,
06:45so you're better than me.
06:47To look at what he is,
06:49and I said this at the time,
06:50I said, man, I'm not so sure
06:51they're not going to move him inside
06:52when I'm watching his feet.
06:53His feet just don't have quite the amount of pop
06:56when he's kick setting,
06:57and I think that he would be better served moving inside.
06:59But I said at the time,
07:01if they do,
07:02this is a distinct message
07:04to the style that they are trying to move towards.
07:06If you're going to draft a 330-pound lineman,
07:09he immediately becomes the biggest guy you have.
07:11Right?
07:12320-pound lineman, whatever it may be.
07:14Those guys,
07:15these kind of guys are immediately what you have.
07:17Now, there's a distinct difference,
07:19in my opinion,
07:20in the weight that James Brockermeyer carried
07:22and what Javon Gwynn was carrying.
07:24Javon Gwynn was drafted here
07:26to be an athletic guy
07:27that can climb to the second level
07:28and latch on to linebackers.
07:30That's what he was good at.
07:32Now, he never got a chance to quite do that here,
07:34never really flourished,
07:35whatever you want to say
07:36about the role he played,
07:38but Ryan Neusel was better,
07:39and Ryan Neusel took his spot,
07:40and Ryan Neusel is still here.
07:42James Brockermeyer, though,
07:43to me,
07:44there's a distinct style difference
07:46between what Javon Gwynn was
07:48and what Ryan Neusel and James Brockermeyer are.
07:50I do think Brockermeyer can do
07:51some of the second-level stuff, though.
07:53Oh, there's no doubt.
07:54No doubt.
07:55I wouldn't say it's going to be his strength,
07:57but there's no doubt he can do it.
07:58I think the best part,
07:59and I'm not saying Gwynn was or wasn't this,
08:01but I think the best part about Brockermeyer
08:03is he has a really good understanding
08:06of what's being asked of him.
08:08In other words,
08:09he does a really good job of studying,
08:11trying to figure out what is being asked of him,
08:13and kind of knows exactly where...
08:15I watched a couple of pieces of film
08:17where he did get out to the second level,
08:20and this was the guy that knew exactly
08:23where he was going
08:23and nothing got in his way.
08:25He didn't get caught up in the trash
08:26at the line of scrimmage.
08:28He just went right in it.
08:29I mean, I absolutely obliterated a DB.
08:32Yeah, and, you know, look,
08:33one of the reasons I had said Tom McClure earlier
08:36is he was the best I ever saw
08:37at using mental techniques
08:40to be able to block,
08:41and I'm talking about crossovers,
08:44head fakes, the whole thing,
08:45and he was able to get the most out of his ability,
08:47and that was one of the reasons.
08:49I thought...
08:51What was your old teammate that took over?
08:55Hawley.
08:55Joe Hawley.
08:56I thought Joe Hawley was very much
08:57in the same vein as Mudduck,
09:00where not the biggest,
09:02but kind of knew what they wanted
09:03and played a little nasty.
09:04Yeah, played a little nasty for sure.
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