I'm curious, what's your perspective on how, how, how far Notre Dame has come in terms of closing the gap with others in terms of the elite players that they have on the roster in this roster that Marcus Freeman's put together?

I, I mean its incredible.

I mean, and to be honest with you, the, I think the, the, um, impressive part with Marcus Freeman and this Notre Dame team is they don't really do it from the portal that much.

They get some supplementary pieces, but when you look at of all of their elite pieces, they're all homegrown, right? C.J.

Carr, and Leonard Moore, and the backs that they had last year, and Philly Amusa, and the linebackers we talked about.

I think that's the most impressive part.

There's very few programs that are still doing that, right? And those are a lot of the elite programs in the country.

So based on not seeing C.J. Carr in the big games yet, where did he fall in that mock draft? Where would you put him?

Is this the kind of thing that happens every year? Has it been a particularly bad year for it? What do you make of Jackson Dart and Caleb Williams and these guys dropping like flies?

Yeah, I mean, it feels like we have this conversation at some point every year, right? Like we would love to have a conversation where it's like, wow, 30 out of the 232 starting quarterbacks finished healthy, right? But at the end of the day, I mean, there's some years where it's only half the guys that started week one that play all 17 games, right? And I think, you know, that backup quarterback position, even if it's a time where you can get through, you know, three games and win two out of three or like, you know, like what Seattle's done, basically being 2-0 with Drew Locke, right? Right.

Like that's so huge for your team the rest of the year with Sam Darnold getting healthy and coming back this week and how you can set yourself up the rest of the way.

But yeah, I mean, look, people forget sometimes because of the stars of the show.

And we think they're impervious that quarterbacks are as likely to get hurt as anybody else on the field.

Right.

So you just have to be able to protect them.

Who's having, in your opinion, Dalton, the most exciting start to the season? And who has been the most disappointing as far as teams go?

In terms of the inability to get that pressure from the base four, Is that just a personnel issue? And what are you seeing from Patricia on film as he's kind of cycling all these guys through? Are there any players that jump out to you to say, boy, that guy, he needs to maybe see a little bit more time? What can they do to kind of create a little bit more pressure?

I mean, that's really the thing is eventually they're going to need somebody who can win one-on-one up front.

Matt Patricia can scheme.

He can scheme all live long day, and he's really good at it, right? When he decides to blitz and send the simulated pressures and things like that and the rotation in his defense.

I mean, he's an NFL defensive mind, right? So he can get as creative as he wants.

But when you look at a lot of the top teams in the country, Ohio State, I think, kind of lacks a little bit when it comes to having a superstar pass rusher, right? Is Kenyatta Jackson...

going to take that next step? Is it going to be one of the transfers from Alabama? Could it be, you know, a younger guy like Akari Wilder who's shown some real promise and maybe just needs to play a little bit more, right? Is it a group that they're going to have to figure it out as a unit? Is it going to be one superstar? Because right now, you know, they've got a lot of talent.

How do you evaluate teams that play nobody?

Is there a young man to you that hasn't really received any first round buzz that can play his way into that conversation?

I wow.

Cause it feels like this time of year, the, the summer scouts are all over everybody.

It feels like we get 16 first round quarterbacks taken every year.

The one I keep coming back to that just has so, and he's not playing in a small name school by any means.

The one I keep coming back to that has so, so much physical talent.

I think he's as physically talented as anyone in the country.

that maybe a lot of Americans are not thinking about right

pulpit if you will uh because we all know as ed orgeron you say like hey we can now have those uh those donors come in or those uh those key players of uh financiers if you will through the front door rather than the back door like we used we know the sec was using those those rural car dealerships to pay six figure sums to those dns we know it so Knowing all of that and the situation, it feels like it's a better situation in some regards.

Yeah, I mean, again, parity to me and competitive equality, that really should be something that is embraced, right? I think there's too many people that are just like, well, the old days of watching the same five teams and seeing which one goes undefeated, that's pure college football.

And I go, okay, I don't see why there's five or six teams that need to have such a big competitive advantage every year.

There's nothing wrong – with a little parody, right? You're seeing the same thing in, like, the NBA, right, where you're talking about, what is it, eight different teams have won the title eight years in a row.

So, you know, I have no issue with it.

I like that more teams get involved.

And eventually, you know what, my mentality is, the teams that are title contenders and the teams that are going to win it at the end of the year, they generally end up being the best team anyway, whether you make them play a couple extra games in a playoff or however you want.

Does that make sense? Give me your thoughts on this.

pulpit if you will uh because we all know as ed orgeron you say like hey we can now have those uh those donors come in or those uh those key players of uh financiers if you will through the front door rather than the back door like we used we know the sec was using those those rural car dealerships to pay six figure sums to those dns we know it so Knowing all of that and the situation, it feels like it's a better situation in some regards.

Yeah, I mean, again, parity to me and competitive equality, that really should be something that is embraced, right? I think there's too many people that are just like, well, the old days of watching the same five teams and seeing which one goes undefeated, that's pure college football.

And I go, okay, I don't see why there's five or six teams that need to have such a big competitive advantage every year.

There's nothing wrong.

with a little parody, right? You're seeing the same thing in, like, the NBA, right, where you're talking about, what is it, eight different teams have won the title eight years in a row.

So, you know, I have no issue with it.

I like that more teams get involved.

Does that make sense? Give me your thoughts on this.

Which quarterback through the transfer portal is going to, to have a bigger impact for his team? Sam Levitt at LSU or Josh Hoover with Indiana?

Oh, wow.

Man, oh man.

Um, I'm gonna say Sam Levitt.

I, I, and Hoover, I love Hoover.

All Hoover has to really go to Indiana and do is be himself and just play within the offense.

Mendoza did a great job of that.

So for those teams who may be looking at a top five pick, I'm thinking potentially the Dolphins or the Arizona Cardinals, who do you think would be the teams to watch and, uh, maybe a future quarterback for them?

Which quarterback through the transfer portal is going to, to have a bigger impact for his team, Sam Levitt at LSU or Josh Hoover with Indiana?

Oh, wow.

Man, oh man.

Um, I'm gonna say Sam Levitt.

I, I, and Hoover, I love Hoover.

All Hoover has to really go to Indiana and do is be himself and just play within the offense.

Mendoza did a great job of that.

So for those teams who may be looking at a top five pick, I'm thinking potentially the Dolphins or the Arizona Cardinals, who do you think would be the teams to watch and, uh, maybe a future quarterback for them?

If you're a NFL talent evaluator out there, and you're really trying to put him under the microscope for '26, what are you circling saying, "Hey, I gotta see him get better at that"?

Just the ability to get to his second and third read, and then to handle pressure a little bit better.

I think a lotta things that are gonna come with reps, honestly.

He had a kind of a weird true freshman year where he played a handful of games at UCLA, then he sat on the bench behind Dillon Gabriel.

And this past year, I thought, again, the two Indiana games were the only games he didn't play all that well.

And it's just they throw so many different NFL style looks at you, right? So I think for him, it's just gonna be about repetition.

When you get a team that's taking the, you know, taking the top or they're keeping the lid on the defense, I should say, you know, can you adjust underneath and manufacture? And I think he even showed that in the playoff game against Texas Tech, where it's like that game was a grind.

Where does Sam rank to you amongst like some of the top signal callers that Lane has got the opportunity to work with? And do you think he's gonna be big time coming up here in '26?

'Cause I have heard, and from my understanding, which is very limited, but my understanding is it's a pretty loaded crop at quarterback and beyond, isn't it?

Yeah, it is.

I mean, and the big thing with this class is it's loaded at all of the, you know, the sexy positions, right? It's a little bit different than this last class we had where it was, you know, linebackers and safeties and, you know, offensive guards and things like that.

This draft class is quarterbacks and receivers and pass rushers and corners.

Like, all...

When scouts talk about premium positions, you've got premium talent at those spots.

There's a ton of quarterbacks with potential.

Is there any one in particular that you see that, uh, has your attention or something else perhaps?

What about Hurts? Uh, boy, he might be the most difficult quarterback in the NFL when it comes to answering the question of is he good or isn't he good? Uh, [laughs] where are we with Jalen Hurts?

This is a hard one.

Jalen Hurts, uh, other, I would say other than those 2024 guys, Jalen Hurts is the hardest guy to rank on this whole list.

Because when you look at the overall body of work, I think I had him on my list at number nine or 10.

When you look at the overall body of work, there is such a high floor for what he gives you.

You know, and basically last year, I mean, he threw six interceptions last year.

Four of them were in one game.

Bottom line, what do you think that Maryland has in Washington?

How much do you factor in supporting cast when you're thinking about, man, Jamar Chase and T. Higgins or Andy Reid and Tyreek Hill and Travis Kelsey compared to what Josh Allen has had the last four or five years?

I think it matters a lot.

I mean, you talk about, look, great players need to be great regardless of what's around them, but there are limits to that, right? We saw it with Patrick Mahomes this past year where they had a bottom three, if not the worst run game in football, and they're always in the shotgun and there's no schematic diversity.

it gets a lot harder, even for these guys, right? It gets a lot harder.

Even the standard of what your defense puts out on the other side.

I mean, that's obviously been a problem for Josh Allen in the postseason is that just that he has to do so much.

He has to put up 34, 38 points in these playoff games sometimes to overcome the defense, right? So as always, it's a team game and that's going to affect a quarterback, but the ability for some of those guys like Allen with his supporting cast and receiving court times like Joe Burrow, with his offensive line at times, him going to a Super Bowl back in 2021 with the offensive line that he had, there's maybe only two or three other quarterbacks in the league even capable of that, right? Lamar Jackson's never really had the elite wide receivers that say Cincinnati or even Travis, you know, like Tyreek Hill and Travis Kelsey, like you mentioned in Kansas City.

What are your thoughts on this upcoming class, and we've been talking about Josh and Pat and Lamar and Matt and Joe, are we going to know any of these guys by their first name?

what do you think of the Lions draft let's start with certainly give me the overall uh grade I guess and what you thought but certainly it starts and stops with with the trenches and Blake Miller in round one and certainly Derek Moore in round two

I think I could give it somewhere between probably a B and a B plus.

I think it's so often that you look at certain teams, that's a Kyle Shanahan draft class, or that's a Dan Campbell type of draft class.

I think the theme in this draft class for the Lions was once again, physicality.

You talk about players that they want to come in here and go, hey, we don't want to question your toughness or your effort.

We might question technique a little bit, and we can coach that out of you, but we want A plus on every single snap.

I think they've got a lot of guys like that man Blake Miller's got a ton of experience and he's going to slot right in right away at right tackle he's ready to play right now maybe his ceiling isn't quite as high as a couple other guys at that position in this class but I think he's going to be a solid consistent starter for eight to ten years you look at Derek Moore kind of the same way right doesn't have the most length in the world but he brings it every single snap he's been one of the most productive pass rushers there at Michigan in college football for the last two years and certainly Detroit knows their Michigan pass rushers that's for sure they've got a good one there already and then Some other guys that I really like, Keith Abney, I think is one of the biggest steals in this draft.

How do you compare those two guys, and do you understand, do you kind of agree that maybe Miller was the choice because this team is ready to win now?

Thank you.

Yeah, no, I mean, look, it wasn't, you know, for as much as happened.

And obviously there was the day when a whole boatload of us were posting and it was our last day and all of that.

Was it relatively sudden? Sure.

But I mean, sometimes that's just the business of it, right? I mean, a company, you know, or at least about 80% of it gets sold and that's just kind of how it goes when the new company doesn't necessarily have the need for consumer and content and that sort of thing.

So it wasn't, you know, I told a bunch of our guys this at the time and it still rings true is that it wasn't out of any sort of failure on our part or anything that we didn't do right or anything like that.

that you know even even in just the you know because i and the fun part for me is you know it's i was on both sides of the company at different times i started out on the data side and grading games and doing all that for four years and then moved over to the content side so i had a really good idea of what both sides of that looked like and you know pff grades are still going to exist they still have the website going and all that and i'll just tell you you know, just so many great people that I got to work with on both sides.

Are there any other tight ends that you'd like to mention just as having, I mean, I think, you know, for the purposes of taking young tight ends in a dynasty draft, probably we'd just be looking for the most, even though the floor stinks, we'd be looking for ceiling.

Talent

... talented.

I mean, I, I think even with Caleb Downs in this class, you could argue he's the best single high safety, and he's just diversified his game over the last two years.

And then I, I ...

There might not be a bigger fan of D'Angelo Pons than me, dude.

I, I mean, I, I've, I've said it to a few people this, in the past week.

If he was Mansor Delane or Jermod McCoy's size, I think he'd be CB1.

Yeah

So, um, between those two, either one that you think might make sense for the Seahawks.

Um, I mean, I, I'll be honest with you, I like Mesidor a lot better.

Um, I, I'm not as big a fan of Kedrick Fawk as his tools might suggest.

The run defense, you are correct, and I think the ability...

And look, he's got an ability to allow you to get fluid in fronts, right? When you talk about he can play over on the inside shoulder of an offensive tackle and really set your run defense if McDonald wants to go to a five-man front.

I, I just don't believe in Faulk as a lock first-round pick necessarily, because the profile as a pass rusher is very much like, say, a Mykel Williams and Shemar Stewart, who both went top 20 last year, and I'll be honest, I wasn't huge fans of, right? If you're gonna take a guy in the top 20 to 25, I've gotta have some pass rush ability.

And out of the 75 pressures that he's had over the last two years, half of them were charted by PFF as either clean up or unblocked pressure.

For people that don't know, you know, getting into PFF and then the, the exit, um, just curious your, your kind of path through all that and what your experience was like.

Yeah.

And if you think about, you know, just the different directions that most of them could go, there's, there's different options, especially on the defensive side of the ball in this draft.

So I think it really starts here with the Jets.

You know, I know there's...

I know Arvale Reese, everybody's kind of locking into this number two pick.

But I do think it's, it's fascinating, um, to, to watch Reese, and I did one final watch on him this past week.

And I, I think, look, I, I have Sonny Stiles as LB 1 and Reese as LB 2, right? And then if you're talking about the Jets really looking into an edge player, yes, there's a ton of potential, but I don't have him right this minute as high as I do Ruben Bain or David Bailey.

Right.

Yeah, and that's really the key, right? I mean, what can you extrapolate from what you know about Jim Leonard, The players that are left on the roster from the 4-3 defensive scheme they ran and the guys that they're signing in free agency, what can you extrapolate from that? Is it only about positionless football back there?

A little bit.

I mean, there's certain guys throughout the entire defense who are still going to be the mainstays, right? Greg Rousseau, Ed Oliver, Terrell Bernard, obviously Christian Benford on the outside.

But what I think you're going to get is just more exotic looks, especially off the edges when it comes to blitzing and then just different stunts inside that you're talking about, right? Again, the versatility is big.

Anybody who can blitz, you're available immediately.

at all times because he runs a very aggressive style of defense.

He didn't call the plays in Denver, but I would bet he also had a very heavy hand in influencing those blitz packages in the way that they use their defensive backs.

Why don't you give us a thumbnail sketch on those guys and why you could see them as a fit for Buffalo's defensive scheme?

Where do you start? If you're sitting there as Brian Gutekunst right now, where are you starting?

I think in the first—well, actually, they don't have a first-round pick.

So I would say I think the offensive line, it starts with free agency, right? And then you determine your other needs in the draft from there.

The offensive line, I'd be tempted to think about some free agent options, right? Obviously, Sean Ryan's a free agent.

Rasheed Walker's a free agent.

Now, supposedly, they're going to move Jordan Morgan to left tackle.

But like we mentioned, there's some interesting news out of San Francisco that if they can't figure things out with Trent Williams, who is still, I would argue, a top 3-5 tackle in football— Maybe you start to think about that, and you get maybe it's an expensive two-year contract, but the Packers with the Parsons contract and with Jordan Love getting paid, kind of in that win-now scenario.

But the NFC North, if they can figure things out quarterback-wise in Minnesota, across the board, it's four really good football teams.

Were you surprised that the Packers did not use Matthew Golden as much as maybe they should have?

Um, a little bit.

I, I think that offense, that Green Bay offense is so much better when they have somebody who's a legitimate vertical threat, right? And, and I don't even necessarily think that means, oh, Matthew Golden shoulda had twelve hundred yards and won Rookie of the Year and all of this.

But their offense has always operated better when they have somebody who can threaten safeties downfield.

Now, when they got really hot this year, it's 'cause Christian, uh, Christian Watson was healthy, and he was doing that, right? So maybe you have two of those vertical threats now that are really gonna work their way into, um, being that guy, being that home run threat that can constantly push safeties off the ball.

But I, I'm a little surprised, especially as we got later in the season and Watson started getting banged up again, that Golden wasn't that guy.

I think he's somebody who can be...

Give me your thoughts on the Bears and where they stand.

Do you think he's just that good of a left tackle? Or are they just kind of hoping and praying at this point?

I mean, I've always thought he could be a starting caliber left tackle in the league, maybe not an all pro, maybe not a Trent Williams or something like that.

But he certainly has the athleticism and the foot quickness to be able to do so to work in space like that.

He's just more of a finesse type of player.

He's never at whichever position.

He's never going to be the most powerful run blocker on your offensive line.

That's not how it works with him in the arm length.

Were you surprised that the Packers did not use Matthew Golden as much as maybe they should have?

Who do you think is most likely to exceed expectations in year one and kind of do better in year one than maybe people are thinking?

I think the two guys that jump out to me if they have the right offseason are – John Harbaugh with the Giants right because they get they just got to get healthy they have enough talent right I think they played below their talent level this season and they just need to you know keep developing Jackson Dart get Malik neighbors healthy add a number two wide receiver possibly in this draft and then honestly that defense just has to play up to their talent level they're not missing a whole lot of pieces on defense they just got to play better and The other one that I find very interesting just with the way that, you know, they have a ton of cap space.

They have the fourth overall pick Tennessee, man.

They have a lot.

They're going into this offseason kind of in the same position that New England did last year where you've got the quarterback, right? You got a ton of cap space to add veteran pieces.

You've got a premium draft pick fourth overall.

And I do like that Robert Sala brought in Brian Dable as a more experienced offensive coordinator.

When it comes to the Pittsburgh Steelers, how do you think they handle quarterback? And what do you think about their organizational alignment? Because I think that's the biggest issue.

Where are we now when it comes to teams' willingness for the big trade-up for a quarterback? Are teams as willing as ever, or is there now caution of the failed trades?

I mean, if you're going to do it, you better be sure of it, right? And I do wonder, you know, there was talk – to me, there should have been a conversation, you know, more so last year about maybe what the Colts could have done in that draft, but instead they opted for a Daniel Jones.

And look, there's times where if you build your team properly like that team has done, then you can take a veteran guy and you can go in and succeed, right? You can really get a feel for what your football team looks like.

I don't think teams are – if what's the best way I can put this, I think if you're going to do it, you better be sure.

And you better have a plan because if, if one of those trade-ups fails and you, because there's a heavier price to pay when you're trying to get a quarterback to, if one of those trade-ups fails, you're going to have a major problem for the next four to five years with your franchise, right? Because you're committed to this guy and you're trying to figure out, okay, what does the rest of our team look like? And if that quarterback fails and you gave up so much to get them, you mortgaged your future, right? It's a serious problem.

That's the best way I could put it.

If you do it, you better be 1,000% sure that that's your guy and you have a clear-cut plan for how you want to use him.

But at this moment in time, who does Dalton Wasserman like the best out of those quarterbacks?