#NFLVideos: Drake Maye ‘pumped’ ahead of 2025 season, Rookie WR’s you need on your fantasy team | The Insiders

Drake Maye ‘pumped’ ahead of 2025 season, Rookie WR’s you need on your fantasy team | The Insiders

We appreciate it. And we
appreciate you guys for being
QB one has arrived in Tennessee. Even if the Titans aren’t ready
to anoint cam Ward as their
starter just yet. Hear what Brian Callahan had to say today
about the plan for Ward, as
teams across the league get set to kick off rookie Minicamps.
This was not a top heavy NFL
draft for wide receivers, but your fantasy draft might be
replete with rookies. Michael
Florio will tell you who to target and who you should
definitely avoid. Happy May day,
by the way. Drake May day. That is the Patriots quarterback
speaking about a new regime in
New England and a new left tackle who says he’ll fight and
die to protect his QB.
Hopefully, somebody has since told Will Campbell that blocking
will suffice. Welcome inside
with The Insiders alongside Judy Battista and Mike Garafolo. I am
Tom Pelissero. We are just 126
short days away from the NFL kickoff game. 13 days until we
see the entire NFL schedule
revealed on May 14th. And just one day, one day away, guys,
from seeing some of those top
rookies put on their new uniforms and practice for the
first time, not cam Ward. Their
minicamp at Tennessee is not until next week, but let’s not
get hung up on timelines. All
that matters now is Tennessee has a new face of the franchise.
Although Brian Callahan is
saying he is going to take this thing one step at a time. Yeah,
they’ll have plenty of
opportunities. How those reps get shaken out will sort of be
determined by how they perform
when given opportunities. That part of it’s been been thought
out. It’s we have a plan in
place. And what that looks like is going to ultimately be sort
of up to them, you know, and how
their performance goes when there’s time to perform. So feel
good about the process and the
plan in place. And there’s going to be plenty of reps for those
guys to compete and get better
and improve and be ready to play in September. So, you know,
starting off early on here is,
is, you know, baby steps to some degree. Those guys. Which guys
are you referring to. All the
quarterbacks. Yeah. They’re all going to have opportunities to
compete. And again there’s you
know there’s three quarterback jobs on most teams sometimes
four. And we’re going to let
them compete for all those. It’s always interesting to see how
coaches handle this because we
all know it’s a 99.999% chance that Cam Ward’s going to be the
QB in week one. Bryce Young two
years ago, Frank Reich came out in like June and said he’s the
guy. Caleb Williams I think it
was like the next day, Matt Eberflus just flat out said,
this guy is going to be the
quarterback, with Brian Callahan saying, we’re just going to
divide the reps. What do you
make of just kind of the overall approach of what that says about
how they intend to conduct this
program around cam Ward? Well, I appreciate the effort to create
competition among the entire
quarterback room. That’s a good thing. But let’s face it, in
parentheses has to be with the
priority being cam Ward. Be ready to start the season as the
starter. Yes. How they perform
in these practices will determine how the reps are
split, but the reps ultimately
have to go to cam Ward because he’s going to be the starting
quarterback. He is the number
one overall pick. This guy was texting guys who were getting
drafted after him. He was
texting the general manager. After he got drafted, he walked
into the building and started
introducing himself to staff members to people in the ticket
selling department. He’s the
franchise quarterback. He’s already behaving like the
franchise quarterback. Like what
you want a franchise quarterback to be. So ultimately, yes, it’s
great that the other guys are
going to compete for reps, but you already know what those guys
are. You already know what Will
Levis is. That’s why you took cam Ward. Ultimately, the reps
are going to have to be split at
the end in a way that gives them to cam Ward. Those reps will
start out next weekend at the
Titans rookie minicamp. We’ve got four teams kicking off the
rookie mini camps. Tomorrow you
will get a look at the Cowboys rookies led by Tyler Booker. The
Eagles rookies led by Jihaad
Campbell, the Packers rookies and Matthew Golden. And the
Seahawks, who had quite a class,
including a quarterback in Jalen Milroe, who is going to be one
of the great fascinations as we
go through this process. Speaking of the Eagles, they’re
still in celebratory mode, at
least in terms of them being atop the standings until we
start playing games again in
September. GM Howie Roseman, though, appearing on Mad Dog
Radio, saying, hey, it’s not
just about getting one title. This is a young team. I think we
have two players projected on
our defense that are over 25 years old. We’re extremely
young, our core guys, they’re
all in their 20s. And so, you know, this isn’t like we’re just
we’re just putting back the band
back together to make one last run. Like, we feel like we got
an opportunity here to continue
to build our core players and keep our core guys together. We
have a lot of picks next year
already, you know, expecting comp picks and we had made a
trade two trades already to get
other other picks from teams. So you know we’re looking at a
minimum of 12 picks next year,
which is huge for us to keep supplementing us. And the same
token like you know, I see the
attitude and the energy. We understand we understand that we
that 2025 is a new year. We
haven’t won a game yet. In 2025, we’re going to have to do our
best and work our hardest to
have the kind of season that we’re looking for, and nothing
in the past is going to
guarantee future success. Mike, we know this about Howie
Roseman. He is always pushing
the envelope and trying to get better every offseason. Yes,
they take care of their core
players, their veterans. But you look at the roster churn from
year to year here. Not
surprising at all to hear Howie reminding everybody, hey, we can
still go do this thing again.
But there’s a lot of work to be done. Howie Roseman understands
that you’re going to get you’re
going to keep your core guys together, and you’re going to
supplement the roster with guys
that are going to be hungry to get a piece of what you just
experienced. And you look at
their offseason acquisitions. Everybody’s got a little bit of
motivation for one reason or
another. Kenyon Green, who they traded with CJ Gardner Johnson
in that trade with with the
Texans. He comes over a guy that really hasn’t lived up to his
potential, but sees Mekhi
Becton, who was there for a year on a Super Bowl team and boom,
he hits it big. So he’s got the
potential to reset his value. AJ Dillon coming back from that
medical issue with his neck, you
know he’s going to be motivated and have that love for the game
now that he had it taken away
last year. Azeez Ojulari the outside linebacker as well as
Adoree Jackson a couple of
former giants. So you know that they’re going to want to stick
it to their team as well as, in
Ojulari’s case, get the chance to establish his value. Just
like Josh Uche, a guy that they
got for a bargain rate deal and could potentially get, you know,
five, six, seven sacks and set
up his value on the market. So, you know, you’ve got the guys
that we saw Jordan Mailata you
know he’s going to be hungry. He always is Lane Johnson Jalen
Hurts. These guys are going to
want to defend this. But you also have that pieces that Howie
Roseman understands. You also
have to add to prod this team even more. So that was the point
of the offseason a lot of these
acquisitions from the best team in the NFL last season to one of
the worst. The Patriots no
surprise, starting over in many different ways after a trying
2024 campaign. There’s new head
coach. There’s a new offensive coordinator. There is the same
quarterback, Drake Maye, who
under trying circumstances showed what he can do in the
NFL. Drake Maye, speaking today
about the initial work with Josh McDaniels and company. I’m
pumped. I think you know a lot
of new faces, a lot of guys, a lot of veterans that played at a
high level. I think, you know,
we kind of found answers a lot of different spots. Hopefully
can can plug and play. And I
think that’s what you know, the point of free agency is I think
get guys to come in here and
help us win, help us win now. And I think you add that in with
some young talent that we’ve had
in the past couple drafts, and I think hopefully we’re heading in
the right direction. Just
looking forward to starting to game plan. I know it’s far away,
but I think you kind of get the
itch now. Main takeaway from that right there, that should be
the only Patriots logo that we
see. That’s the perfect sweatshirt. Pat Patriot I don’t
want to see anything else. But
more importantly, Judy, what do you anticipate from this
Patriots team that has their
work cut out just to be competitive in the AFC East?
Well, one thing that Drake Maye
said today is when he was talking about Mike Vrabel. Is he
so comfortable being a head
coach. And then in talking about Josh McDaniels, he said, you
know it’s proven. His system is
proven to work. And I just thought that must be such a
refreshing change for Drake
Maye. He’s got to feel like he’s almost walked into an entirely
different franchise from the one
he was in last year, which, let’s face it, was a little bit
experimental. A first time head
coach, they clearly struggled at times. They felt aimless. The
roster was outmanned on many
occasions. This has been a sea change of an offseason for the
Patriots so far. It’s not just
Vrabel and McDaniels. The roster has been completely overhauled.
They spent free agency. They
went on a spending spree in free agency, mostly working on the
defense. The draft was largely
about putting pieces around Drake Maye to support him. They
got Stefon Diggs whenever he’s
going to be available to play. So for Drake Maye who was really
the only ray of sunshine in what
was a very bleak season in Foxborough last year, this just
has to feel like they have
thrown the windows open and there is fresh air coming in
because all of a sudden they’ve
got experienced, successful people around him and really
good players, a much improved
roster. He’s got to just feel like his career is going to
restart now. Speaking of bleak
seasons, Daniel Jones last year was benched. He was released. He
signed with the Vikings. Now
he’s on the Colts his third team in the past 5 or 6 months here,
getting in some work in the
early stages of the offseason program as an open competition
begins between Daniel Jones and
Anthony Richardson. Mike. They also drafted Riley Leonard out
of Notre Dame, and I believe it
was the sixth round. Three guys who were big physical athletes,
not consistently accurate, but
there’s a lot of different things you can do in the run
phase here. You spent a lot of
time around Daniel Jones. I find this competition absolutely
fascinating. How is this going
to play out? Yeah. Look you know Daniel Jones is going to show
up. He’s going to work. He’s
going to push Anthony Richardson. Any criticisms of
Daniel Jones? It’s not about his
dedication, about the work and everything he’s willing to put
in. We have heard that about
Richardson on the other end. So I find this a fascinating thing,
because that’s the way that
Daniel Jones can push. Anthony Richardson and Richardson had
some quotes via the team’s
website recently, and it was about learning basically to
battle adversity, to battle
through adversity, about how you respond when things are not
going well. And if you’re the
Colts, you got to love the sound of that because it’s not a
physical thing. With Anthony
Richardson, we saw a few instances over the last couple
of years where the physical
tools are out of this world. For this dude, it’s all about the
mental part of the game, the
understanding of the game. Remember, he hadn’t played much
before he came into the league,
the understanding of the game and how to what he said. Keep
battling when things are not
going well. This should allow for that because this is going
to be a little bit of a back and
forth. I believe, the entire offseason into the summer, and
the Colts want to see how
everybody here responds, namely Richardson. Three teams in a
short period of time for Daniel
Jones. Kenny Pickett knows a thing or two about that. From
Pittsburgh to Philly and now to
Cleveland, where, well, they’ve added a lot of quarterbacks
through the course of this
offseason, officially declining the fifth year option on Kenny
Pickett. No surprise when they
signed Joe Flacco and drafted two quarterbacks at this point.
To paraphrase Jim Mora option,
I’m just trying to get some reps a lot more to come here on the
insiders, including a look at
some of the rookie wide receivers across the NFL. Who’s
going to be worth taking in
fantasy. If you watch Ted McMillan’s highlights Tmac,
you’d probably say, I’ll buy in
on this guy. Michael Florio will be here with his breakdown, but
coming up after this, a guy
you’re probably not going to draft in fantasy unless he’s
standing near you. Then do
whatever he says. Desmond Watson, the 400 plus pound
athlete, is going to join the
show to talk about playing a little bit of offense. We’ll
explain right after this. It’s
the insiders. Yo. I can go supportive adult education
centers near you. If you thought
that Bucs defensive front was scary with Vida Veya leading the
charge, let us introduce you to
the rare guy who can make Vida look a little bit undersized.
Desmond Watson, rookie out of
Florida signing with the Buccaneers after last week’s
draft. Now Desmond from outside
with the insiders Tom Pelissero and Mike Garafolo. Desmond, take
me through this past week here.
You don’t hear your name called in the draft, but your agent’s
phone starts ringing. Tell me
what it was like finally getting that call. You’re a Tampa Bay
Buccaneers. It was great. It was
caused during like, the whole the whole draft, I think since
maybe like the second round back
and forth from who who it was that I was going to sign to, it
wasn’t really expected for me to
be a draft pick. Towards the end of the draft, two teams had like
negotiations, and it was going
to either be I signed with them or somebody used a draft pick on
me, but it ultimately ended up
being me going with the Bucs and I’m excited about it. You know,
I get to stay in my hometown and
things like that. It’s not a huge adjustment. It is a huge
adjustment, but it’s not a huge
transition, I would say. So I’m excited. What was it about the
Bucs and what did Todd Bowles, I
assume you had a conversation with him at some point? What did
Todd Bowles tell you about
joining the Buccaneers? I think I looked at it as like just
being able to get the most out
of my potential there. Obviously, you know, like y’all
said, they have a vet there that
I feel like I try to model my game after. And, you know, he
does it successfully. I feel
like that’s just a person I can look up to and learn a lot from.
So I think that was the best
option for me. So obviously the curiosity for a lot of people is
you’re the biggest guy who’s
ever played in the NFL. Listed at six five, 464 pounds, I know
you’ve been embarked on a little
bit of a journey in terms of your diet and things like that.
What are you weighing now and
what are you trying to attack when it comes to your physical
conditioning? Yeah, I weighed in
at 437. I think it was late last week. Basically, you know,
that’s that’s just the journey I
got to take, you know, to be successful. I think it’s good
for clicks and things like that
to be the biggest player ever and things like that. But at the
same time, I know to be
successful and to max out my potential. The coaches know and
me and my, my, my family and
stuff like that know that I have to drop weight in order to reach
that. So, you know, I just been
changing my habits and things like that, you know, to actually
get there. You’re six foot six,
two, I mean, so you got you got a tall frame as well, carrying
all that weight. What do you
want to get down to? Like what’s your ideal number to play in the
NFL and to be agile and to do
everything you need to do in the middle there? I’m not sure
specifically. I think I have a
long journey to go, even though, you know, I made good progress
so far. I think I have a long
journey to go, and just along that journey, I can see where I
would be best at, you know what
I mean? I think I moved pretty well for my size, and I might
not have to get down to as small
as the average d-tackle and things like that to be good, but
I think just along that journey,
I’ll be able to fill it out and see where, see where I work best
at. So we got all these fun
clips, you just swallowing dudes up at the line of scrimmage
making tackles. But my favorite
clip I found of you in recent days was your carry. It’s the
Gasparilla Bowl, fourth down
late in the game against Tulane. Just take me through that play.
What’s the call and what did you
accomplish there? Yeah it was it was a couple couple couple
situations where it was like,
all right let’s get ready. You’re going up next. Like we’ll
be on the goal line in that
game. And it was like like you said towards the end of the
game, it was like running out of
chances. So it was like, if we get we get short down, be ready
to go. And they called it Hawk
for my high school mascot at Armwood. It was just a great
moment. I think, you know, a lot
of people have been begging me to try to do it and things like
that, I didn’t. That’s never
really been my, my, my type, you know, to be the center of
attention, you know, as hard as
it is not to be the center of attention, I had to do it just
to just to, you know, scratch it
off the bucket list and things like that. Well, there’s another
part of that play, though,
Desmond. My favorite part of the play real quick, Mike, is the
fact that you’ve got two guys
coming around. It looks like they’re anticipating a push.
Push. Number seven and 86 are
coming around. What were they going to do on that play that
you couldn’t do yourself? I’m
not sure. I feel like I got hit as soon as I as soon as I
touched the ball. I feel like a
lot of people blocking for me wanted to watch me run the ball
just like everybody else in the
stands. But like I said, it worked out successful. We got
the first down and I was just
happy to do it. It was a great moment, especially being in my
hometown too. Now, now the other
time you had the ball in your hands that I saw there was a
there was a forced fumble,
fumble recovery against South Carolina. You’ve got the ball,
you’re breaking away and Spencer
Rattler takes you to the ground. How did that happen? Okay, I
feel like this is the perfect,
perfect time to really explain what happened on this play. I
got the ball. You know, I’m not
used to holding the ball and things like that. But at
Florida, Coach Napier teaches
situational experts. So I had the ball. And Spencer Rattler
doesn’t go to tackle me. He
punches the ball. As soon as he does that, the ball flips
sideways and in my head I’m
like, man, I’m going to drop the ball. So I just grab it and
fall. If you look at the
picture, I got the stiff arm he wasn’t getting me. If he didn’t
punch the ball, he wasn’t
getting me. But it was. It was a good play by him to punch the
ball out. And I feel like even
better for me to make sure I just secured the ball and go
down and give the offense the
ball. Okay. All right Desmond, we appreciate you being here
man. Best of luck. And if
there’s one thing let me just ask you this. If there’s one
thing we can expect to see from
you between now and the start of the season on the field, what is
it? Growth. I feel like that’s
that’s my biggest thing. I’ve been focusing on all aspects of
the game, whether it be pass
rush or getting better at a run, a run stopper. I know that’s
what I’m looked at, but being
better, I feel like looking at those guys that’s been in the
league for years. I feel like I
do a good job at taking things in and learning from the best,
so I feel like being around
those people really helped me and grow me in in every aspect
of the game. Congrats again man.
Let’s do this during the season. All right. Appreciate you being
here. Thank you. Good luck man.
Thank you. It is Desmond Watson Buccaneers rookie defensive
tackle. Could he be one of the
impact players in fantasy. Guess we draft the Bucs defense. Who
else are you going to need on
your roster? Michael Florio will be here with answers next on the
insiders. I used to struggle
with dandruff, but now I use improved iHeartRadio app. Get it
now! Welcome back to The
insiders. You know, it’s May 1st five one. And there’s the
Bengals five and one. Tee
Higgins and Ja’Marr Chase, two very big pieces of the Bengals
offseason. Welcome back in Steve
Wyche Bucky Brooks Brian Baldinger. We are going to talk
about the AFC North, the things
they’ve already done this offseason and what they still
have on their checklist. The
Bengals obviously getting Tee Higgins and Jamar Chase back
under contract. That was a big
step. They still have to resolve the Trey Hendrickson situation
that is still floating out
there. They did draft an edge rusher in the first round
though, so we will see what
happens now in the coming weeks as they head toward minicamp.
All right. Let’s turn to the
Cleveland Browns. Bucky who have one of the most interesting
quarterback rooms we’ve ever
seen assembled and are going to have one of the most fascinating
quarterback competitions we’ve
ever seen play out. What say you about what direction the Browns
are going to go in? Yeah. So
much intrigue about what the Cleveland Browns have done this
offseason. We can talk about
them securing Myles Garrett. But all of the eyes are on the
quarterback room. And who is
going to be the starting quarterback for the Browns this
fall. You signed Joe Flacco a
couple of weeks before the draft. You traded in, acquired
Kenny Pickett, and then on draft
weekend, you go and get Dylan Gabriel with your third round
pick and come back and pick up
Sudhir Sanders. The question is how do you get all of these
quarterbacks, the reps that they
need to sort out the competition? More than likely
you put Joe Flacco on the side,
tell them to chill out, try and figure out Kenny Pickett, Dylan
Gabriel, Shedeur Sanders, which
one can really be the QB one? In a perfect world, you would like
one of the young guys to emerge
as the long term answer. But if you haven’t gotten the answer
from one of these guys, you
secured two picks in next year’s draft. The draft that could
feature I can’t say his name,
but a certain nephew of two guys who could be in the Hall of Fame
with long term lineage of a
grandfather that’s also a manning. So maybe, just maybe,
the Cleveland Browns solve the
quarterback issue. If not this year, they solve it next year by
finding their solution in the
draft. Well, I think the Pittsburgh Steelers would really
like to resolve their
quarterback issues. Steve, that is obviously one of the big
storylines in the entire league,
but certainly for Pittsburgh. Hard to say much about their
offseason without knowing what’s
happening there. And Judy, you know, based off of your column,
you know, that’s exactly what
the deal is. You look at their roster, they added explosiveness
with DK Metcalf. They drafted
Caleb Johnson, the running back, the big running back out of Iowa
in the third round. They go out
and they get you know Robert Woods a veteran tough wide
receiver to help in the run
game. But then when their first round pick defensively and this
was a priority from talking to
people with them they get Derrick Harmon the defensive
tackle out of Oregon because
they really want to shore things up up front on the defense. But
what does it all mean if you
don’t know who your quarterback is? You can’t set the table, you
know, unless you know if Aaron
Rodgers is coming, if you’ve got to make a trade for Kirk Cousins
and I know Mike Tomlin said look
we’re going to give Aaron Rodgers all the time he needs.
You can’t do that. You cannot
set what your offense is going to look like and what your
players are you going to set up,
how their strengths are going to be able to excel if you don’t
know who the quarterback is? So
they’ve got to figure this out soon. And then once they do,
they can go out building to see
if they can have a winning record this year. All right,
Baldy, not surprisingly, there
are not many roster holes with the Ravens. There rarely are
with the Ravens. I think the one
question is what are they going to do? A kicker? They drafted
one. Of course. Justin Tucker is
still there. He struggled last season though. What direction do
you think the Ravens are going?
Well, Eric DeCosta the general manager is a wizard. I mean they
had six sixth round picks. One
of them was on that kicker Tyler Luck. Now look Justin Tucker
might regain his form, but he
did miss eight kicks of 40 yards or more last year. So Tyler Luke
was the best kicker in this
draft. So we’ll see what happens there. But look they picked up
you know they picked up DeAndre
Hopkins. They picked up nuk. So they add him to the wide
receiver corps. Maybe he gives
them some big time plays in a playoff game. Like they needed
it against Buffalo last year.
But they just reinforced this roster with 11 picks. It started
with Malachi. You know more of
the of the of Georgia here in the first round. Pick to go with
Kyle Hamilton I mean just a
great selection Malachi Starks excuse me but you know Starks
comes and joins Kyle Hamilton at
safety. They’re going to be so interchangeable with their
playmaking ability and the
ability to play different positions. Mike Green dropped in
the draft. They felt comfortable
taking him at 59 with his background that’s out there. But
you let him go join Chuck Smith
their pass rush specialist coach. You joined Justin Madden
and Kyle Van Noy and Odafe away.
They keep the pass rush strong. And look they drafted Emory
Jones who can play guard or
tackle. Maybe he competes for one of those guard positions or
maybe a tackle position. If he
doesn’t he’s going to give depth. We know this about the
Ravens. They lose offensive
linemen but they restock offensive linemen the way
Walmart stock shelves. And they
drafted three more offensive linemen in this draft. And so
that’s what they do. They just
reinforce what they have. And when the time comes they get
these guys ready to play. AFC
North. Always one of the toughest, most physically brutal
divisions in the game guys.
Thank you very much Tom. Speaking of physically brutal,
let’s bring in Michael F Florio
for a segment that exists solely for that WIP. Florio’s fantastic
first year receivers, which
incidentally, also my favorite Roald Dahl book. All right,
Florio, let’s talk about Travis
Hunter. We know that he can play both ways, but the Jaguars are
starting him out as a wide
receiver. From a fantasy perspective. What’s your level
of faith in Travis Hunter as a
rookie? Well, I don’t think I’ve ever been called physically
brutal in my life, so thank you
for that, Tom. I thought there was one elite wide receiver in
this class, and to me that’s
Travis Hunter, because when you watch him play, there’s nothing
he can’t do. Literally he can’t
do he can do it all on a football field. But as a
receiver, he can win after the
catch. He can win downfield contested catches, whatever it
is you need him to do. But what
I like, he’s not going to be asked to be the number one right
away here because they have
Brian Thomas Junior on the other side to take away defensive
attention. And now for fantasy.
There’s going to be concerns over usage. Are they going to
play him at DB? How much wide
receiver is he going to see. But the Jags have been vocal that he
is a wide receiver first. So
usage concerns aside the upside is top 20 at wide receiver. And
right now in early drafts he’s
going in like the sixth round range. So if you want him to use
a pretty early pick on him. All
right. How about T-mac or Tetairoa. Don’t call him Tet.
Mom doesn’t like that. Tetairoa
McMillan I’m old enough that T-mac to me will always be Tracy
McGrady. So Tetairoa McMillan, I
like you. I’m a big fan of your game because just like Travis
Hunter, he could do pretty much
everything on the football field. He could win downfield,
he could get contested catches
if you need him to. But what I think his calling card is, is
his run after the catch
abilities. And that’s going to be huge for the Panthers because
their wide receivers created the
seventh fewest yards after the catch last season. I think he is
a good fit stylistically, with
Bryce Young top target in Dave Connelly’s offense. Look, he’s
likely going to be volatile week
to week early on in fantasy, but you draft rookies for the
ceiling. The upside they’re kind
of like lottery tickets. And his upside is being a wide receiver
two with a lot of volume going
his way. And just like Travis Hunter he’s going in like the
sixth or seventh round in early
drafts. So if you want him, you got to pay up to get him. How
about some of these second round
wide receivers? Michael Florio I was fascinated. Trey Harris
going to the Chargers. What do
you make of that fit for him in that offense. Look what we want
for fantasy purposes is
opportunity. And Harris gets that here in Los Angeles. He’s
going to have to compete with
Quentin Johnston to be the number two. But I believe Harris
is a good fit here because he’s
a big bodied X receiver, which the Chargers were kind of
lacking on the offense last
season. And he could contribute in the red zone. I think he he
brings touchdown upside some
some big play capability there. But if you want him you don’t
have to take him as early as
those other guys. He’s going in like the ninth or 10th round
range right now, which is just
an upside gamble. You’re not drafting him for the floor or to
be in every weekly starter.
You’re hoping that he develops into that. But do not worry,
it’s still Ladd McConkey no
matter what. All right. And Luther Burden the third. I know
Wyche and Bucky and Baldy are
listening nearby. They were just on the air here. Those guys were
excited for the match between
Luther Burden and what Ben Johnson can do offensively. Yeah
and I agree with them. Look the
bears already had DJ Moore Roma dudes. They used their first on
Colston Loveland and they still
went out and made sure to get Luther Burden. And I expect him
to see a lot of usage out of the
slot, which is big for him, because last season, Caleb
Williams threw nearly a third of
his throws to slot receivers and like you said, he’s got Ben
Johnson now a huge play caller
upgrade. They revamped the O-line second year. Caleb, lots
of reasons to get excited for
this. Bears offense for fantasy football purposes. And burden is
a cheap way to get exposure to
it in the later rounds of redraft. I think he is a great
dynasty pick as well. And real
quick I just want to give a shout out to our guy Mack. I
always see him clanging and
banging in the gym. I just want to wish him best of luck and I’m
going to miss you, man. McEnroe.
Francis, our producer. His last show tonight, ten years at NFL
network. We’ll have a little bit
more on that later. For now, physically imposing Florio’s
fantasy football. First
something. Thanks, Michael. Appreciate it. Let’s get back to
talk about one of those wide
receivers Travis Hunter. Coming up. Bucky Brooks spends a lot of
time around the Jaguars. Let’s
see what Bucky thinks of the fit for Travis Hunter and the impact
he can make on that franchise.
That’s next on the insiders. You don’t always have to be the
biggest or the strongest. You
just need to love football. We community, and a world free from
sexual violence. Hey, Travis,
this is James Gladstone with the Jacksonville Jaguars. How you
doing? How you doing, Doug? You
know what. Go ahead and take a moment to soak this one in.
We’re trading up in the draft.
We’re moving from pick five to pick two. And we’re doing it
because you’re the one we’ve
been hunting up. Yes, sir. That’s the best decision. I love
it, Travis. Real quick, Coach
Cohen, just want to say what’s up, man? Hey, what an
unbelievable opportunity, bro.
We’re prepared for this. We’re excited for this, man. What a
great opportunity to do this
thing together, man. Let’s get it. Let’s get it, man. You know,
last week, a reporter in
Jacksonville asked Travis Hunter if Travis Hunter, the receiver,
were being covered by Travis
Hunter, the cornerback who would come down with the ball. And he
said, Travis Hunter, which is
obviously the correct answer. Welcome back to the insiders.
Welcome back to Bucky and Baldy.
Let’s talk about the Jacksonville Jaguars. Bucky you
know that franchise better than
anybody. You are around them an awful lot. How do you expect
them to deploy Travis Hunter I
think Travis Hunter comes in as a wide receiver, but also gets
plenty of time on the defensive
side of the ball. I can tell you that the Jaguars have certainly
planned out how they’re going to
utilize him to make sure they can maximize what they consider
to be a generational talent.
When you look at what he offers on offense, you have an
opportunity to put him on an
offense that features Dyami Brown on one side, Brian Thomas
Jr on the other side, Travis
Hunter floating somewhere in between to enhance what you
already have in an offense that
is pretty dynamic and potentially explosive with
Trevor Lawrence, the thing that
you want with Brian Thomas Jr and Travis Hunter, you want ball
catchers, guys that can expand
the strike zone, guys that can take it to the distance from
anywhere on the field. So the
game can be easier for Trevor Lawrence. And then on defense,
think about him being a
playmaker, someone that you put on the defensive side of the
ball and got to have it moments.
He is so good in so many different areas that you want to
maximize his opportunities to
make plays on both sides of the ball. I agree, Bucky, and I
think, you know, Jacksonville
made this move and made the trade because they had a real
plan. And the plan involves
starting on offense. I don’t know to what extent, but he’s
going to be out there for just
about every package. He’s shown that he can be a point scorer.
They need explosion in their
offense. They need to help Trevor Lawrence out and he can
contribute to that. But
defensively last year Bucky you know this. They had six
interceptions the whole year.
They just were not aggressive. They broke down far too often
last year in so many different
ways. He gives you the ability to take the ball away just
because of the way that he
plays, how aggressive he is, whether it’s in man coverage or
if it’s in zone coverage. His
understanding of route combination, where the ball is
going and the anticipation for
it is rare for a player coming into the college, into the NFL
game, from the college game. So
he’s going to be a playmaker for both sides of the ball. And it’s
something that Jacksonville
desperately needs on this roster right now. Bucky you mentioned
that the offense is potentially
explosive. Trevor Lawrence is going into his fifth season. He
hasn’t quite made the leap all
the way up to the level we expected him to reach so far. Of
course he was injured a bunch
last year. What are your expectations for Trevor this
season? Trevor should have an
opportunity to get back on track and be the player that everyone
envisioned he could become when
he was taken number one. Overall, Trevor is extremely
talented, but there’s been a lot
of uncertainty around him, a lot of instability around him,
whether it’s when Urban Meyer
was the coach and was quickly dismissed after a season, or
the, I would say the tumultuous
three year run that you had with Doug Pederson, where 2022
started well, but then you
couldn’t get that consistency in 2023 and 24. Here you have a
coaching staff and a front
office that kind of understands what Trevor Lawrence is, and
they really want to make the
game easy for him. Whether it’s putting Travis Hunter alongside
Brian Thomas Junior, where he’s
adding more speed and explosiveness in the backfield,
whether it’s really trying to
figure out how to put the best five in front of him on the
offensive line. Everything is
done with intention of helping Trevor Lawrence be that special
player now with Trevor Lawrence,
to show people that he is special and worthy of being a
$50 million man. Well, to that
point, Bucky, I mean, we’re ten months removed from them, making
him the franchise quarterback
and getting him into that that price range of being an elite
quarterback. But the facts are
he’s won two of his last 15 starts going back to 2023. He’s
been on a slide. Now. You can
you can look at the injuries. You can look at certainly the
instability that you just
described around him. But at some point the quarterback has
to elevate those around him. I
think Liam Cohen coming from the Rams doing what he did in Tampa
last year, I think he’s got a
nice touch to help the quarterback out. I think there’s
certain things that they’ve done
with the roster that can help him, but ultimately this is this
is on Trevor right now to
improve and play at a much higher level than what we’ve
seen him play at. And, you know,
this organization is looking at him carefully. They did not
draft him. I’m not saying
they’re trying to push him out the door. They got to make this
work. But at the same time, we
know how this goes. If this thing doesn’t start to improve
on Trevor’s behalf, like there
could be, you know, who knows? But agitating changes. But he’s
got to play better and play and
elevate those guys around him to play better right now. Certainly
that is why Liam Cohen is in
Jacksonville, to try to get the absolute best out of Trevor
Lawrence. Bucky Baldy, thank you
very much. When we return, we’re going to go from the AFC South
to the NFC South. Steve Wyche is
going to rejoin us to talk about the Carolina Panthers. That is
Ted McMillan getting his draft
call. There’s no such thing as you feel is valid. Abuse in any
form is never okay, and we’re
here for you 24 hours a day. What’s up man. This is Dan
Morgan with the Carolina
Panthers. Man. How are you doing dude? I’m great. And you doing
great, man. Better, better
talking to you, man. We’re going to we’re going to take you here
with the with the eighth pick,
man. How do you feel about that? Hey. I’m ready. Let’s do it. All
right, let’s do it, man. Let’s
get it. Let’s go slap it up. There we go. I’m going to pass
you off to our owner. He wants
to say a word to you. All right, all right. Cool. All right. Man.
Hey, T-mac. How you doing? I’m
good to you. Pretty good. We’re excited over here. You can hear
it. Hey, man, let’s get to it.
Oh, absolutely. Going to get to it. You know I think I think
we’re going to it’s like an
early Christmas present I think for a quarterback who you know
so he’s I think he’s going to be
real excited too anyways. Hey come on. Yeah. Come on now. Hey
that Kelly the Kelly going to be
something different. Kelly to Kelly Tetairoa McMillan.
McMillan the eighth overall pick
to the Panthers. That big body receiver that Dave Canales had
with Mike Evans down in Tampa.
Now hoping to recreate some of that magic Mike magic. We’ll
call it magic. Sure. With
McMillan. Steve McQueen is joining me right now to talk
about the Panthers draft and
McMillan and our guy Jimmy Horn Jr, who we had on the insiders.
He was a great guest. They grab
him later on in the draft as well. Yeah. Look first of all I
love seeing Dan Morgan make that
call. I actually covered Dan Morgan when he was killing it,
playing high school ball in
Broward County, Florida. So we go way back. So I actually spoke
with him today and I said, look,
how did you guys when you take in the draft and your off season
overall, how did you guys check
the boxes? He’s like, we pretty much checked them all. And it
started last year when they
tried to enhance the offensive line. So their goal this year
was to beef up their defensive
front. So in free agency they go out. And they signed Bobby Brown
and Tershawn Wharton and Patrick
Jones. And then in the second and third round they draft some
edge rushers, you know in what
they wanted to do. But you go let’s go to Tetairoa McMillan
though. And I said why him. Why
him at number eight. And they said after him for what their
draft board told him the
receivers dropped off. They wanted a big bodied receiver
with a huge catch radius. And
he’s the one who fit the bill. They scouted him for years. They
really like him. They think they
can help Bryce Young also. Their running back room is deep.
Remember they drafted Trevor
Etienne out of the University of Georgia. I said, why add him to
what you have in Chuba Hubbard
and you guys got Rico Dowdle. He said he gives us the receiving
threat and the inside run game.
But he also added that Jonathan Brooks, the running back, their
second round pick from last year
who tore tore his ACL. They’re still working through his status
for this season. They just don’t
know why you know if he’s going to play. So again that added to
them going with Etienne there
with that draft pick. Yeah it was a tough one for Jonathan
Brooks. But working his way back
into top shape, there are high hopes for him if he can stay
healthy. That Cali to Cali
combination or connection. Excuse me that you heard
McMillan talk about Bryce Young
throwing to him, throwing to Jimmy Horn Jr and these other
guys that they’ve got on the
roster right now. Those clips that we saw of McMillan not
exactly open on those. But he’s
open even when he’s covered because of what he what he can
do. So these additions how much
are they going to help Bryce Young? Well, I mean, look, we
know they had to add some
explosiveness on their offense. They had to add some
explosiveness at wide receiver,
which they got McMillan and at running back. But they got with
Etienne. So now Morgan was
telling me they’ve got some guys on the defensive front. So that
historically bad defense.
Remember last year they were like the worst ever in several
major categories can get better.
That means Bryce doesn’t have to play hero ball. They can control
it a little bit better. So he
said the talent that they put around him, you can see Bryce is
confidence is better. From what
he built on last year after being benched and how he got
better each week and some of the
some of the things that he hit there. So they feel really good
about his progress, Morgan said.
They don’t see any reason why things are going to slow down.
And he said one thing. He added
you can feel the culture changing in the building by the
attendance that they’re getting
at offseason workouts, so everybody’s there, he said. You
can see the players feel better
about things. The front office feels better about things, so
there’s a different vibe in the
building. And remember, this is a player, Dan Morgan, our GM,
and Dan Morgan, who played for
this organization and really knows what a winning culture has
been like because they won when
he was there. Starting to sense a little bit of that. Coming
back to Carolina. Exactly right.
Steve Weiss burning up the phone lines to get you the latest
information out of Carolina and
elsewhere. Dude, we appreciate you always. Speaking of Panthers
wide receivers, how about this
guy? Our guy Steve Smith senior had a chance to do something at
a Carolina Hurricanes game. What
was it? Tune in next to find out on the insiders app. You,
Thomas. I told him to use 11 as
the standard email font, but he Snacks at the El Camino.
Tarantino. Monday at. Welcome
back to the insiders. Tom Pelissero, Judy Battista, Mike
Garafolo. We are the faces of
the insiders, but there are a ton of people out in Los Angeles
who make this show go on a
nightly basis. One of the McEnroe Francis been at NFL
network for ten years. He has
been the primary producer of The Insiders for the past year.
Tonight is his final show. I’m
just checking the graphics to make sure he didn’t slip
something in on us here. We’ve
all got a little tribute that we want to do to Mac, but first
let’s hear from a few others.
Well, Mac, I’m supposed to be saying congratulations, you’re
moving on. Going to a great job.
Something that I know is great for you and your family. And I’m
sad it sucks for us. You helped
build this show. You’re amazing to work with. You are our rock
and I guess congrats! But man,
I’m upset. Mac, it’s been an incredible ride for you at the
NFL network. Man, I have watched
you grow to become a pillar of our newsroom, our programing and
production teams. You are going
to be sorely missed, but we’re also happy for you, man. Going
back to the DMV. Just make sure
to hit up Jerry Seafood and Bowie and make the Crab Bomb
part of your staple of life.
Good luck brother Mac, I just want to say, man, it’s been a
blast working with you over the
years. I know you’re heading home to the Charm City. Good
luck to you. Got your girl, you
got the Athletic. All that stuff’s waiting for you. I just
want to let you know I’ve had so
much fun working with you. I always feel like. Shouldn’t we
just have another show? Another
show and another show and another show? That’s what it’s
been. It’s been a blast. Brothe.
Mac. Attack! Just want to say that you’re going to be missed
tremendously. It’s been an honor
and a joy to work with you over the years. I know I’ve always
enjoyed hanging out with you
both at work, outside of work, and just want to wish you the
best in your next adventure. I
know you’re going to make them that much better, just like
you’ve made us so much better
over the years. Man, we love you. Can’t wait to stay in
touch. We’ll see you soon. Good
luck! I’m sure a bunch of people have already mentioned how much
they’re going to Miss Mac,
because he’s a great producer and an even better friend. But
I’ll tell you the best part
about Mac. The snacks that he has on his desk, the snacks that
I’ve eaten probably every day
for the past four years. Sorry, Mac, if you’re wondering how
they disappear so quickly, we’re
going to miss you so much. Congratulations! And if you ever
want to come back and visit, I
promise this time I’ll bring the snacks. Hey, Mac, I’m so excited
you’re getting an opportunity to
move back to Baltimore. I know how much that’s meant to you.
Selfishly, we’ll miss you.
You’re a huge part of this family. You will always be a
part of the NFL network. We love
you and good luck in Baltimore. Mac, what’s going on? My man?
You were in my ear for a couple
few years of great sports television. You’ll be in my
heart for the remainder of my
days. Man, I loved working with you. I love who you are as a
person, and I wish you all the
best out on the East Coast. Our loss there game, you know it’s a
big deal. Godspeed, brother. You
know it’s a big deal when you know it’s a big deal when Hansen
comes out. Mike. Yeah, well,
that only cost us $350 there at the end. But, Mac, we love you.
You’ve helped this show grow. We
don’t have much time left. I love you, see you. Buddy.
Congratulations, Mac. We’ll miss
you terribly. Mac. Now you’re just going to be some guy on a
podcast? I don’t know, man.
We’ll see how it works out for you. Handsome devil.
Welcome

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