40s and Free Agents: Rookie Progress Report and the Jacob Rodriguez Fan Club

Welcome to 40s and Free Agents. Me, Bucky Brooks, LZ, on the mic talking all things rookies today. But before we get to that, LZ, what's going on? Not much, Buck.

You know, I'm in Houston, so things aren't great right now. No?

Things aren't great?

They've been better. They've been better.

Really? I can't imagine what's going on down there in H-Town. What's happening?

Well, you know, I mean, they started 0-3 last year. Now they're starting 0-4 this year. You date back to the preseason, they were 0-3. You date back to the last loss of the regular season, they've lost eight straight games. Now, we're not counting preseason, but five straight games that matter. You've lost five straight games that matter. And the worst part is your quarterback, C.J. Stroud, is playing really well.

I mean, who would have guessed that C.J. would be the one carrying the offense and the offense would, well, for two of the games at least. But he didn't play poorly in the other two. And then the defense has been the big letdown him. You know, Bucky, it's interesting. We'll talk about the rookies who are in the NFL right now and how they're performing, but that's one of the things that is always interesting from an evaluation standpoint, not just of a team but of a player. You can't just assume that whatever you saw last year is going to be the same thing this year. Guys get drastically better, and some guys fall off from one year to the next in college, and you have to find out why.

Yeah, no, it's funny because success isn't linear, and there are no guaranteed next steps. And what the Texans are finding out, like a lot of young people, look, next year is not promised. You're not promised to be better. You're going to have some struggles. How do you bounce back from those moments? You can talk about the Texans.

We can talk about the Chargers. There are some teams around the league that we expected more from that are falling short of expectations, just like we're talking about these rookies. There's some young guys that we thought were going to take the league set the league on fire as soon as they stepped in. And there's some unheralded guys. But let's start on offense. Who are some of the rookies that are catching your eye?

Well, so I've got an article that I'm finishing today, the top 10 offensive rookies. And just to tell you a little bit about my process, you know, I went and scraped all the data I could for, well, no quarterbacks. We don't have to worry about quarterbacks this year. No. Running backs, wide receivers, tight ends. And then I went and watched– a bunch of offensive line tape, because there's only one way you can do that. You just have to get to the tape with them. And what struck me is besides just the player, it's been the offensive linemen who have really stamped themselves as guys to, you know, to, to watch in this year's draft, at least for the, for the 17 games, more so than the offensive talent.

Jeremiah Love has played well. Um, Tate just had a really big game. There's some flashes and there's some reasons to be impressed or excited. But I think the thing that stood out to me after doing this exercise, Bucky, was it Blake Miller and Spencer Fano and Banga, you know, Iwane. And surprisingly, in my opinion, Austin Barber, who was a third round pick, the 86th pick by the Cleveland Browns.

These guys are right there on the top 10 list because they've played good football.

Yo, it's so funny when you talk about it, like offensive linemen, and it comes after hearing a clip about Kyle Shanahan talking about offensive linemen and how people find comfort in taking linemen because it's hard to really bust at O-line because you can hide them somewhere within that five. And look, if they're just okay, then it justifies you taking them where you took them. And so you talk about that. I think about Max Ahanachor playing and starting right away for the Pittsburgh Steelers when we talked about him being a developmental guy, but yet he's on the field.

I got to say this, man. I watched the Panthers the other night and you talk about Blake Miller, like, I mean, I'm on real feeling getting on the field like right away and, and how people are showing a willingness to play the young players, even though we talk about like, it may take a year or two for them to settle in. They're like, well, yeah, those, those years, they're going to get them that on the job training.

He's not going to sit on the sideline. He is going to play his way into being ready to play in the pros.

I think that, I think it's a function of, The five-year contract, I mean, you need to know by year three if your guy is going to be a five-year guy, if you're going to give him a fifth-year contract. I'm talking about first-round players, obviously. And I think teams also recognize there's such a big jump from rookie contract to second contract now that they want to make the most of their rookie contract. And if that means you take some lumps for that player, that offensive lineman, to gain experience, they're willing to do it. Because if you don't do it in year one– then they're still trying to gain experience when the bullets are flying in year two. So I think that's one of the reasons is it's just

so advantageous to have a rookie contract nowadays because of that jump. And you need to know who you have, number one. And number two, you need them to get game experience. And it's not always good for quarterbacks. It's not always good for offensive play callers because a lot of those guys are bumpy. But I think some of the guys like Fano, like Blake Miller, have done a good job at the tackle position this year relative to expectations as rook.

Yeah, relative expectations, like it's funny you talk about Spencer Fanone being able to step in there and how the Cleveland Browns are playing well right out the gate. Surprisingly, he's been a big part of a reshuffled offensive line that has provided solid protection for Deshaun Watson, and they have been able to run the football a little bit.

I think about some of those other guys that you have listed and how, man, evaluating offensive linemen, we talk about this in every position, but fit and scheme has never been more important when we're doing the guessing game that we're doing, playing matchmaker, right? Hey, which lineman should go? Like we talk about mock drafting, which guy should go where?

Who's a perfect fit and how does that turn out? And if you're able to correctly assess someone who fits in whatever gap scheme, duo scheme, zone scheme that you're playing, it just allows them to play sometimes above what your expectation would be when you're just making a generalistic evaluation.

Yeah, it's funny you say that because now more than ever, it's a mixture of gap and zone. Like it's not pure zone teams. And yet there are certain types. Like you don't have to be a pure lightweight athletic player to play in an outside zone scheme. In fact, there are plenty of teams who are willing to, you know, willing to have a less than 50% hit rate on the backside cutoff blocks on zone. And, you know, it comes back to Haunam. You have those defensive ends crashing down.

or defensive tackles crashing down and making tackles. But I think teams understand we want to get the right guy that fits who we are as a team. Some of that's schematic. Some of that's philosophy. Some of that's lean muscle mass. Some of it is arm length. Some of it is personality. You know, every team may have a little different click to what they're looking for, but you're right.

There are certain players who fit certain teams. I can't say that all 32 have a type. But you and I know when we see, like, everyone knew Iwane was a Raven. Like, we just all knew that.

Yep.

He looks like a Raven. He fit a Raven's need. He was going to be a Raven. And he's on my list as well in the top ten.

Yeah, now let's talk about these running backs because I feel like there's a bit of a renaissance at the running back position. I'm looking at the game on Monday night. One, the Robinsons are running like crazy, right? Bijan and Brian Robinson having success. I look at the Bears, DeAndre Swift and Calvin. I got both ranked. in the top ten rushers.

But then we had a guy that was taken number three overall in Jeremiah Love, and he certainly hasn't disappointed. I'm looking at him with 55 rushes, 223 yards. He's averaging four yards an attempt. He has a touchdown. He also has 11 receptions. But what is the tape telling you that he's doing?

Well, it's the same as Notre Dame. He just has less running room. It's just better competition across from the offensive linemen. I don't really see a difference with them. He is, you know, I feel like his, his vision is pretty good, but he is a, he has violent cuts when he he's not just violence into contact. He has violent, aggressive cuts. So he's able to elude a tackler or break a tackler because nothing is done with, with gearing down. He just doesn't really gear down. And, uh, If all he can get is two yards, then he's going to make the most of that run to get to two yards. So I think it's his attitude, the way he's running. You love that. It's the same thing I saw in college. And then as opposed to Ashton Genting,

who really found the going tough, and I thought that might be the case with Jeremiah Love, they're feeding him the rock. He's had the last two games, he's had 21 and 14 carries. That's been a much more competitive– I know they're 1-3, but that's been a very competitive team. They've hung in against some teams and done a good job offensively against some of the teams. And Jeremiah Love has been one of the reasons for that. So on tape, he's just as decisive as he was as a college player.

And that's not always the case with pro running backs. Sometimes when they jump up from college to pros, there's such big holes that once it shrinks up a little bit and they don't have that clear point of entry– They kind of stutter step. They get a little indecisive. I don't think Jeremiah Love has much indecisiveness.

No. So it's funny you talk about indecisiveness. I feel like the next running back that we'll talk about, Kalen Black, there was a lot of indecision on him when he was selected in the third round. And I don't know where you had him rated. I don't know. if many people had him coming off the board when he did, but I'm looking at these numbers and they're 31 attempts, 120 rushing yards, 3.9 average, kind of ho-hum production. Did you like him when he was coming out of IU?

And how do you feel about what he's done to start out his NFL career.

So I thought he was just kind of a guy, you know, late day three, maybe undrafted free, big, strong, tough, not that different from the other back that they had over there who I had a higher grade on. His name slips my mind right now. But is a try-hard player. And it kind of fits. San Francisco frequently drafts guys that I don't love because they just, they don't care about all the same things I care about, and yet they have success. I think they do. a pretty good job of finding running backs. What stuck out to me watching Black run this year is also the carryover of physicality.

He's built a certain way in the lower body where he's able to run through contact. Now, I just think, yeah, okay, I had Kalen Black 199 out of my top 300. So Drew gave me the number there. So, you know, I guess like six round, six round type guy. And the other running back was him be, and I had him one 92. So I had him close, but black Bucky runs really hard. Like I was, I was impressed with them against the Rams in the first game. I saw some runs against Arizona. I liked as well, but in general, I do think there are some limitations. I think he's more of a hammerhead between the tackles. He's not going to be as dynamic. And I think, complimentary running back who can get tough yards is probably who

he is and what he's going to be, which I don't have a problem with that. I don't know if I, if I'm making that pick in the third round and 90th pick for that type of back, but I also, he's also a, you know exactly what you're going to get type of running back. And there's something to be, to be said for that as well.

Yeah. Like it's, it's so funny when you talk about, you know exactly what he's going to, I think the Niners take comfort in that, right. For so long, people in the Shanahan system were really, um, prone to getting guys that they call one-cut guys, right? They were very decisive when it came to being able to run it, and that worked well with that zone-based system. And Black, I think you can kind of know what he is and be excited about that. But, man, if you don't have burst or next-level trace to do things when you get to the second level, it makes it hard in a game where we're seeing special lead to spectacular runs and plays and points on the board. I just talked about it. I mean, we just saw B. John Robinson

go crazy. on like the last two games that we saw him on a Thursday night, then on a Monday night where that talent showed up. And so there are levels to it. Jeremiah Love being a third overall pick, Blackman a 90th overall pick. There should be a gap in terms of their talent and their potential. And I think that shows up. Mike Washington was someone who people talk about.

That was the guy I wanted. That's who I wanted for San Francisco. They had the 90th pick and I thought the Raiders stole him at 122. Yeah.

I mean, so like, man, I see him. And the flashes are just flashes, right? Like he's playing alongside Ashton Gentry, who's going to get the heavy workload. But I look up like a couple of weeks ago, like against New Orleans, he had 54 yards on five carries. The opener against Miami, he had 41 on seven. So he's shown flashes of being able to pop and get loose. Just haven't seen enough of it, but he was someone that's intriguing. And I think he is a nice compliment to what they already have in Gentry.

Yeah, really nice. I like that quite a bit. Let's move to the wide receivers. Carnell Tate, is getting better and better and better. He's starting to click, and that's not unusual for a rookie wide receiver to get better as the season goes on, especially with another young quarterback, which is what he has in Cam Ward. But, Bucky, the last two games, he's had nine targets and 12 targets.

In those games, he had six catches and nine catches, 58 yards against the Giants, but last week against the Ravens, 145 yards, including a long of 33 yards. He's starting to figure it out, and I think more importantly, Cam is starting to trust him, and they're starting to develop a rapport.

Yeah, they need to develop it quickly because it seems like the Natives are trying to run Cam out of town.

They own Cam.

Ward's head hard in Nashville. And I'll say this because it applies for both guys. I think Titans fans and even their coaching staff have to exhibit a little patience when it comes to this connection, finding their way and their rhythms. You talked about the last two weeks, they've combined 15 connections, completions between Cam Ward and Cardinal Tate.

We've seen two explosive plays against the Baltimore Ravens that were over 25 yards. And so as he's settling into his role as their number one receiver, and I remember, I would say the biggest question that I had for him coming in, he was drafted in the top five like he was the number one, but he didn't play the number one role at Ohio State because Jeremiah Smith is the number one. Can you make that transition from college number two to pro number one? That's what I worried about. It appears that they found a way to get him the production that he needs to deliver as a top five pick, but we still need to see, can he be comfortable being the lead horse in that passing game?

Well, I know who is comfortable and that's Denzel Boston. And man, what a job Andrew Barry did this year from a draft standpoint. I mentioned, I mentioned Barber, Austin Barber at guard who went from tackle to guard. He drafted Spencer Fano. He drafted Casey Concepcion, who we'll talk about in a second. And he drafted this guy, Denzel Boston, who has been the most impressive wide receiver from a consistency standpoint. He has no 100-yard games, but he's got 59, 95, 41, and 89. He's averaging just under 22 yards per. Per catch, Bucky, he's got a couple touchdowns. And I think most impressively in every game he has, all four games, he's got at least a catch of 25 yards or more, an explosive.

So this is a big wide receiver. There wasn't a 40 time on him headed into the draft, but teams have their data now off the catapult and the wearable technology. They can go to the school or they can also, they've got computer vision where they're creating their own MPH numbers on these players. So first pick of the second round, Denzel Boston is unbothered on the field. He looks extremely confident and he's been a big reason that I think Deshaun Watson's gotten a little bit of swagger back.

100%. And I'll say this because it was a catch to Denzel Boston in the season opener against the Jaguars that I believe unlocked Deshaun Watson's confidence and really helped him become the player that we've seen the last three weeks. Late in that contest, man, he drops a teardrop from about 40, 50 yards away to Denzel Boston right on the money. And Denzel Boston, to me, who I didn't believe was a speed merchant, has certainly given them some of that playmaking dimension. Like that touchdown that I talked about was 46 yards against the Jags. He came back late, had a 55-yarder against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. They are beginning to kind of set him up and put him in a spot where he can have a lot of success.

And then we're talking about Casey Concepcion and what he does. as a jitterbug, as a playmaker, a guy that can do his damage in the slot and also in the run game. They have two really good young receivers. And to take guys, I won't say back-to-back, but in the first and the second round and have both of them appear to hit, man, great job by Andrew Berry and his staff.

Yeah, and they were good. You know, you always preach having a basketball team, and that's in a wide receiver room. A lot of different types of guys, different sizes, different elements they bring. This is a great example, Denzel Boston. is big, likes to stretch the field vertically, can win the ball in the air, good with, once the ball's in the air, he's very good as a ball winner.

Casey Concepcion's the other way. Casey Concepcion wants to get the ball in his hands as quickly as possible and do his damage. He's also a punt returner, so do his damage with yards after catch. I feel like he is a phenomenal separator as a route runner. He's got great burst and quickness out of his cuts. And so what you have is a more targeted player in Casey Concepcion, who has 28 targets, 17 catches. But he's only averaging 8.5 yards a catch. And I think that's the thing I want to see happen more often is more of those catches. He's got 17 catches, only six are for first downs and touchdowns. On the flip side of that, 13 catches for Boston, 10 have gone for first downs or touchdowns. So very different types of wide receivers. But

we see when he has the ball in his hands that Concepcion's dangerous. So these two guys are going to be fantastic complimentary wide receivers. They do very different things. And no matter who the quarterback is in the future at Cleveland, you know, it appears as though from an offensive standpoint, they've got some going back to Quinn Sean Judkins last year. I mean, they've got some things to work with over there at the skill position.

I mean, they do. And there's continue to get it better. And they have a, like a bushel basket full of picks next year where they can continue to enhance what they're doing. But yeah, they, they've done a really, really good job. You know, us has done a really good job. How about Kenyon Sadiq to tie it in for the New York Jets? He had a 100-yard day a couple weeks ago. He's shown the ability to be kind of dangerous.

What do you think about him coming out, and how do you like the fit and what he's shown thus far with the Jets?

I liked him a lot. I thought Kenyon Sadiq was a high volume target, a guy who was going to be, you know, a player who is a big wide receiver in the, in the slot, but that you could move because he'll block enough. He'll give enough effort that you could move him around and, and, and be believable from a personnel grouping standpoint. So I still believe that's who he is. Field stretcher can beat teams, can beat coverage on crossing routes on the deep crossers that, He's going to be a tough cover man-to-man in what I call cross-country routes, the longer routes that cross the hash and cross the numbers. He's going to be tough to stick man-to-man.

You have to give some consideration about how we're going to guard him. Now, you know, against Detroit, seven catches for 105 yards. Last game, four targets, no catches. So it looks like he's a one-game wonder, 21 yards, 17 yards, 105-0, right? But when you watch him on tape, you see him getting open. You see the opportunities. And they've got injuries at tight end, Buck. So what's happening is he's having to bite off a little bit more of the tight end responsibilities than he maybe would have if they were able to go to a true 12 personnel with with Mason Taylor out there. So I don't just look at the stats in every game and say, this is how he played. For Kenyon Sadiq, you have to look at what he's being asked to do and then what kind

of impact he has in terms of how defenses have to cover him. Because you have to pay attention. Because You know, Frank Wright can really mismatch you if you put a slow linebacker on Kenyon Sadiq. That's going to be a real problem. And Geno Smith is a veteran. He knows how to get to those matchups.

Yeah, they are getting to those matchups. And, you know, the tight end position, Frank Wright has talked about this. He talked about, in essence, when you have a dominant tight end, it's almost like having LeBron James on your team where you can put him on one side of the floor and go ISO and create opportunities for other guys.

And Kenyon Sadiq, we saw early in the year, they went these five tight end sets with Kenyon Sadiq. kind of moving around as the chess piece, and they're having success doing it. Even though it's not reflected in their record, this offense is much better, and Kenyon Sadiq is a big part of the reason why they're doing it. But I got to say this because I'm a homer on this.

Nate Borkature almost sent the internet in a tizzy when he was selected in the second round by the Jacksonville Jaguars. And there was a lot of consternation about it.

Almost, almost sentiment a tizzy. It was a full tizzy buck.

A full tizzy. But, you know, what's funny about this, and this is why it's so great that eventually you get to see the guys play and you get to understand the role and the plan. And, look, he's playing a ton for the Jaguars. And their 12 personnel says he has been the traditional wide tight end, which has allowed Brett and Strange to be the move-around guy, the quasi-slot receiver. And they've had a lot of success. And his blocking ability has really helped this team run the football effectively. And so with Berkutcher and Emmanuel Pregnant, two of their picks within the first three rounds, they were able to become a much more physical front line. And a lot of it is because, look, they got power

players at a point of attack. And Berkutcher has been a big contributor to that.

Yeah, he's been a huge contributor. And he, you know, that's what he does. He is a tough guy. He doesn't back down from a battle against bigger, stronger players. He gives great effort. He's got a lot of grit and strain. He's got pretty good technique. I didn't have any doubt that he would fit in as an NFL blocker.

You know, where you take those type of wide tight ends, maybe that's up for debate. But we've seen around the NFL, everyone's going heavier 12 and 13 personnel. So if you wanted to get the guy that you need to run the offense that you want, we saw that that position was a premium this year. in the second round, um, the Jaguars are three and one. They look, they look good.

They look like the best team. I mean, they're clearly the best team in the AFC South at this point. What, uh, what have you noticed? You're, you see those games, you see every single game. I'm just curious what that's looked like on two fronts, one wide receiver. We didn't talk about, but I'm just going to shout out, not a lot of catches, but two touchdowns, Josh Cameron, who plays the game almost like a running back. Um, he's got that kind of build. He wore, I think number 34 in college and he just extremely physical at the catch point.

He's had two touchdowns. Nate's done a really good job of blocking. Um, what have you seen from that offense this year with the addition of those two guys and how do they look with, uh, with Trevor Lawrence?

I would say this, man. I would say the thing about Josh Cameron is he quickly earned the trust of Trevor Lawrence because he is a terrific ball catcher in traffic. Look, I had questions and reservations about the route running ability, but what I can tell you is, man, there's not a tougher guy on the team than Cameron. His ability to go line up and play wide receiver, to return the ball, to make contributions on special teams, he does everything.

But his size over the middle of the field is a huge addition. And Early, he had two touchdowns. He caught a dart against the Cleveland Browns in traffic and then came back a couple weeks later against the Patriots and put the ball in the paint again. He just has a nice feel. And for someone who's not, I would say, refined or polished, he's just a playmaker. And I think they've done a really good job of finding ways to keep him involved. And he started to eat into Brian Thomas Jr. 's playing time, which is a credit to him. You don't see six-round picks get on the field and nudge out first-rounders for some of their playing time?

You know, um, route running, that's something I learned probably the third, about the third year I did this is you got to stop putting so much on route running on tape because that can be taught as long as the guy can bend a little bit. If, if it just looks sloppy, like there's no attention to detail, that kind of stuff can be taught. Don't beat guys up on routes. If they are tremendous, uh, competitors, if they have great size and physicality and ability to win contested catches, or they're very good in terms of creating yards after contact and yards after the catch. Route running matters, but it's also one of those things that can be coachable to an extent and toughness and contested catch winning and

things like that. That's not really coachable. That's if you've got that, you know, that, that, that meme with the dogs inside the x-ray inside your chest, Josh cameras got those dogs. I mean, he, he is a dog and I'll, I'll sacrifice some route running for a guy that I know when the ball goes up, he's going to turn it 55, 45, 60, 40, 70, 30 in his favor.

And that's what he, that's one of the things he does. He did it really well at the senior bowl, really flashed at the senior bowl doing that. So I'm sure that's one of the reasons why the Jaguars had him in the back pocket on draft day.

Yeah, no, it's, it's, It's been interesting to see how these guys are developing. And you talk about dog. When we come back from break, we can talk about these dogs on defense because, man, these young dudes are making it happen right away. All right, LZ, we're back. And we're going to flip over and talk about the rookie defenders that have caught your eye. And when we talk about dogs, we've got to start in the pits. We've got to talk about the trenches. Look, Akeem Messidor, David Bailey.

There were some of the guys that were taking Reuben Bain. Where do we want to go when we talk about some of these young guys that are showing up and showing out?

Well, I think we have to start. The elephant in the room is going to be Reuben Bain. Hasn't gotten off to that electric start like a lot of people wanted. And I do feel like this is going to be a learning experience for him all year. Length does matter at offensive tackle. Every time people tell you it don't, every draft season, somebody's going to tell you it doesn't matter.

It doesn't matter for the offensive tackle. Tell it to Spencer Fano when somebody gets on his edge and He's having a hard time redirected. It doesn't matter for pass rushers. Tell it to Reuben Bain when he's rushing wide and he's not the first guy in with his hands. Like it does matter. So learning how to counter that, it doesn't mean it's over. You just have to learn to counter that with better hand play and learning some tricks of the trade. And I think that's the one thing that Reuben is missing is I'd like to see him play tighter, maybe more rushing from a reduced roll, Bucky.

Let him get in there against some speed deficient guards. and try to cut him loose and get his confidence up. David Bailey does not seem to lack any confidence. He's hit the quarterback three times. He's got two sacks. When I turn the tape on, it's not all the time. I mean, he still has to develop a rush plan.

But you can see, if he gets the jump on you, it's a major, major problem for tackles because he can really finish if he gets the first step advantage.

Yeah, first step quickness is everything. We talk about cat-like quickness, being able to get off. being able to play on edges, and when you're a speed rusher that has that ability, man, it can be problematic. I think so much of what we're seeing from these young guys, you come in the league with a signature move already fully developed. Like if you have a fastball and a proven fastball, a heater that you can win with, that buys you enough time to develop the off-speed pitch or the other things that you want to use to complement that. I think that's the bigger thing that I'm looking at and learning from.

We talked about Root & Vein. And there were concerns about the length and those things. But I'll be honest, man, I was swayed by the way that he played in the college football playoff. And I just thought that that would potentially carry over. But the more that we look at it, you talk about that length or lack thereof.

It is a significant factor. So whatever your blue traits are, they have to be able to overcome whatever deficiencies you have or you have a tough time being the same player that we saw in college at the pro level.

He's going to be different with playing time. He's going to understand what do I need to do. He'll go to school on because every offensive tackle knows what his arm length is, and they all are probably being coached up. Hey, you need to throw your hands. We made you throw the hands early because we need to make sure that we get first hands on this guy because he's too strong if he gets into us first. Ruben's going to find a way to counter that, whether it's faints or whether it's, you know, just a two hand swipe or a club move to knock the hands off and make an inside move. He'll figure it out. It's going to take a little time, but he'll eventually get there. I don't worry that much about him. I think Akeem Mesidor,

you're going to start to see more production from him over the second half of the season. He's been OK so far in a in a rotational role with the Chargers. One and a half sacks has three quarterback hits. For me, Bucky, I don't want to spend a lot of time on D-line because these linebackers have been so productive so quickly.

You've got Jacob Rodriguez, who is a Green Dot linebacker already in Miami. He's got 46 tackles, which is the second most in the NFL. Anthony Hill, who was my guy in the draft, 42 tackles so far. Now a lot of them are assisted tackles, but that's okay. We'll take it. And then Josiah Trotter. Has 30 tackles as well.

Come out of Missouri. He's a player who's still learning as he goes. Still needs some more experience. And those guys I wanted to mention early because we're going to probably spend just as much time talking Sonny Stiles and Arville Reese since they were the first two linebackers drafted. But I do want to mention... None of us thought Jacob Rodriguez would bust. Nobody thought Jacob Rodriguez would bust.

Not with that kind of production, not with those kind of instincts. And then he checked the box athleticism-wise. And even when you don't check that box, a lot of those guys still end up being very productive players. So what he's doing is not a surprise to me at all. I'm really not surprised by Anthony Hill as well. And I think Josiah Trotter, There were moments that he didn't take on blocks the way he should. And then there were other matchups where he was blowing blocks up. It was kind of picking and choosing who he wanted to go to battle against. But in the pros, there's going to be a greater accountability in the locker room, I feel like, with coaches and your teammates. And so I think what you're seeing right now is Josiah Trotter, he's

got that accelerator pushed and we're going to see a very good player come into the second round, the 46 pick. A lot of these guys for second round picks, Trotter, Hill, Rodriguez, all second round picks. They're all going to be longtime starters.

Yeah. Longtime starters. And what I'll say, I learned from those guys like Trotter and Hill in particular, man, trust the tape. Like when you see flashes of the impact flashes of the disruption, you got to do. And I had a longtime scout tell me when I was a young evaluator, like, Hey man, grade the flashes because they can do it once, they can do it again. Your job is to see if you can see a string of consistent flashes that you can build upon, or do you have a coaching staff that believes they can get him to play at those flash points consistently? I'll say this about Jacob Rodriguez. That is one where, hey man, when we're looking at the tape, we all had this sense that, man, I don't know if he's going to

be fast or whatever, just because you're worried about the narrative. But when you watched him play, Man, you talk about an outstanding seaball, get ball defender who is always around the action. I think if anything, trust your instincts and trust the instincts that you see from a player who consistently makes plays. He exceeded our expectations as an athlete at the combine. And you take a blue chip athlete with great instincts and intangibles. Well, they're going to be exactly what you thought they would be as a player.

He's been nothing short of sensational player. Since he's joined the Miami Dolphins, he's a playmaker and will continue to be a playmaker. And when the talent improves around him, we're going to talk about him being a Pro Bowl caliber player.

Yeah, Carson Schwessinger had the same profile. Only it was one year of production, but it was massive production. There were stories about him dominating as a scout team player. And for whatever reason, Chip Kelly, you know, didn't elevate him or the team didn't elevate him. So he came out and won defensive rookie of the year. Jacob Rodriguez is on that same kind of path right now. from a production standpoint. We will see, though, because Arvel Reese may have something to say about that. 33 tackles and an interception. I wrote him up as a linebacker initially, and then I noticed everyone had him as an edge, so I threw some edge write-up stuff in my draft profile.

I figured I'd let the team figure out what they wanted to do. My editor put Reese as an edge in the draft tracker, in the NFL.com draft tracker. You can Go take a look at that if you want to see my write-up on all these draft picks. For me, I thought Reese, like, I kind of liked him at edge. I like him at linebacker because you can rush with him whenever you want. You want to throw him on the edge, let him rush on third down, let him go do it. But I just love the speed and aggressiveness and physicality. The instincts were below average. His recognition needs work. When you have a complete predator like Arvell Reese just to, long-limbed, physical, aggressive, fast player. He's going to overcome mistakes with some of those athletic abilities and

some of that desire. And that's what we're seeing on the field. He's not perfect. He makes mistakes, but man, can you see him go sideline to sideline? I don't know if you saw that third down tackle he had this last week where he got isolated on a running back and Only if you've watched a lot of ball and you see how tough it is for linebackers isolated out there on running backs, do you understand how good that was with that open field tackle he had?

Yeah, no, you know, it's funny, Lance. I made the comparison, and you know how we do sometimes on TV, put a little sauce on it, right? And so I talked about Sonny Styles being a mashup of Fred Warner and Kyle Hamilton, given his skills. And I'll say, like, I'm not saying we should give him a gold jacket yet.

But he does exhibit some of those qualities already for the commanders, the way they're utilizing him, the way he's making plays and running around. The linebacker position is definitely undergoing a change where we're seeing these dynamic and explosive athletes with hybrid abilities show up. And sometimes that hybrid ability is off-ball linebacker and edge rusher. Other times it's off-ball linebacker and second level pass cover guy that can make things happen. Sonny Stiles falls into that latter category, but man, he has been really, really good at impacting the game.

Yeah, Trotter, Stiles, Reese, Hill, and Rodriguez, very good five. In terms of corners, it's been okay. Mansour Delane had an injury after the first game, but I've been impressed with him so far, but he's had a couple games where he's had some learning experiences, three passes, defense, and an interception so far in the first four games, so He's off to a good start. You have Keontae Scott.

I haven't seen a lot of him, to be honest with you, Bucky. He's more of a, you know, the way I wrote him up was play near the line of scrimmage, big nickel, zone scheme type of guy where you just want him playing forward all the time. But this next guy, he's the other corner. I'm going to tell you what, watching him on tape, I liked him a lot. And then his size was just okay. He didn't test great. but Heskine masses was, was it really competitive player with great instincts when the ball went up, he had a great feel for playing the football. When you see that in college and then you go back to their high school and go look at some of the numbers and it says a ton of interceptions, guys who get interceptions in high school, guys who get interceptions

every year in pro, they're going to be guys who get, I mean, in college, they're going to be the same guys who get interceptions on the pros. That's just the, that's just the point. And, um, He's got three interceptions, which is tied for the most in the NFL, six passes defense. Hezekiah Masses has been a good corner so far as a rookie fifth-round pick. That's kind of a steal, if we're being honest.

Yeah, it is a steal. And his ability to make plays on the ball is something that you have to– look, man, you have to attribute to his ability to always do it, high school, college, and those things. And I just am a believer. And part of this is having watched it during my college experience when I was leaving North Carolina, Dre Bly– was coming into Carolina. And in two years, he had 20 interceptions at a collegiate level. He had 13 as a freshman. What did he do as the pros?

He went on to have like 30, 40 plus interceptions as a pro player because he understood how to go get the ball. And I think that's one of the things when we look at on tape, guys who get their hands on the ball continue to get their hands on the ball. And the pros, it's about putting them in the right system and situation to have success. He has certainly showed up and he's shown out just like this other guy that we've seen at safety. Emmanuel McNeil Warren. EMW, as we like to talk about. The stats say one thing, but when you watch the Browns play, man, this dude is all over the field.

Yeah. Another of Andrew Barry's draft picks from this year. This is going to go down as a really, really, potentially, maybe organizational changing draft. I mean, it's really going to depend on how the quarterback turns out down the road. But second round pick, Big, long, fast, aggressive, has the ability to make plays on all three levels if needed.

I think thrives in level one and level two. They love to play him downhill and let him come hit stuff. I mean, that's what he does. But just having him out there is is is he's capable of shrinking the field a little bit because you recognize his size and his range and i think he has an impact on the game in that regard i i like emmanuel mcneil warren like you said even if the stats don't look great watching the browns which i have done this year believe it or not we all watch the browns now um He's played well, and so has Dylan Thienemann. Dylan Thienemann was almost a must draft by the Chicago Bears.

They were so desperate at that position, and he's not disappointed this year. Three passes defense, had a big interception in one of the games, and has done a good job considering they're so decimated at the safety spot. They let some go via free agency. They lost the starting safety to injury before the season started. So Thieneman's done a nice job of coming in and playing like a veteran for a team that has been, you know, a team that has been highly, highly competitive the whole year, a team that's on the move. I mean, I like the Bears a lot this year. Once they're fully healthy, I like them. But even when they're not fully healthy, they're showing that they can be a big factor.

Yeah, showing they can be a huge factor. They're making plays. They're doing everything that they love to do under Dennis Allen, which is attack the ball, get the ball and make it happen for their offense. And Thineman was someone that was easy to fall in love with. When you went back and looked at the tape at Purdue, he was a leading tackler and a leading interceptor. He goes to Oregon, expands his game. He can play anywhere in that triangle.

I mean, he can play in the slide. He can play in the middle. He can play in the box. He can do all those things. Just a really good player. And I know for so long we had him mocked or we were expecting him to go to Minnesota. He lands with the rival, but the impact has been exactly as we forecast it when we were talking about him leading into the draft.

Caleb Downs the last guy we'll look at Caleb Downs picked up a win over my Houston Texans he's got 22 tackles in the sack so far I think he's still I've seen him I guess three times this year didn't watch him just exclusively but in games I've watched I feel like Dallas is trying to Christian Parker's trying to figure out how to use them they want to expand who he is and what he does and Caleb is having to get used to doing some different things because in that star position at Ohio State, I mean, he just, he knew what he was doing. He just had an impact near the line of scrimmage at all times.

It's a little more varied for him right now, but doesn't look too big for him. Caleb Downs is, you know, he's still playing good football. I just think the productivity will start to come a little bit more as Christian Parker and Downs get comfortable with each other.

Yeah, I mean, I think there are huge expectations. And one of the things that you worry about when you have someone who can play so many different roles is is making sure you put him in the first primary role that he can start in. Before we get to the auxiliary stuff, what is the thing that he can be a superstar in right away? And as Christian Parker finds that out, you'll see Caleb Downs make an even greater impact on this defense as a guy that can be the traffic cop in the middle of their secondary.

I know they have Joey Porter Jr. coming over. That's going to help them because that gives them a lockdown corner on one side. And then being able to find a way to utilize all the things that Caleb Downs brings to the field. whether that's in coverage, whether that's Blitzen, whether that's him being a center fielder or a robber over the middle of the field at intermediate range, finding out what you can do with him to put him in the mix to allow him to make plays, that's a top priority for Christian Parker. It's also a top priority for the Cowboys who are hoping their first-round pick can be an impact player right away.

Yeah. Well, it's been– I think all in all, it's been an average– Average production. We don't have any quarterbacks doing anything this year up to this point. It's been average production, but I think the takeaway for me is that Dallas has benefited from their young rookie safety. The Browns are sitting here 3-1, and we hit five of their players in last year's draft. Five of their players in last year's draft are having big impacts already. And then, you know, the Raiders, who are a real surprise team, Hezekiah Masses and Mike Washington, they have done their parts at different times during the year. One is a second running back. One is a cornerback. But these rookies are doing a nice job of fitting in and blending in

very quickly for teams who have early on, we're only four games in, Buck. but they're already exceeding expectations, and they look much better than last year, thanks in large part to some of these rookies.

Yeah, the rookies are having to play right away, and we're seeing that the best teams are able to develop those guys quickly. They put them in a system that allows them to quickly understand what is being asked of them, and they allow them to play to their strengths. And as we go along, because we're only a quarter of the way into the season, we'll have more conversations about these rookies and how they're performing And whether they're going to be the linchpin or the trigger for their respective teams to make a deep or extended postseason run. LZ, this is always fun, man. Whenever we get a chance to chop it up, talk about evaluations, go back and look at our old reports and talk about these rookies

can't get enough of it. Just like you guys can't get enough of the 40s and free agent podcast. Make sure you check us out next week. Me and LZ have an episode of 40s and free agents. Until next time.

40s and Free Agents: Rookie Progress Report and the Jacob Rodriguez Fan Club

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