Daniel Jeremiah On the 2026 NFL Draft QB Class + Can the Chargers Make a Super Bowl Run?

Daniel Jeremiah On the 2026 NFL Draft QB Class + Can the Chargers Make a Super Bowl Run?

This is football. I’m Kevin Clark, guys. Daniel Jeremiah is here. Awesome insight. One of our favorite guests ever. We have a yearly check-in episode. Draft talk. Some talk about the AFC West. What the Chiefs should do. A great Bob Sanders story you don’t want to miss. It’s all here. This is Football is presented by Manscaped. Upgrade your grooming routine with products built for modern men. Now available at Walmart. Ladies and gentlemen, Daniel Jeremiah. All right. Daniel Jeremiah is here. NFL Network, Move the Six podcast, one of our favorite people in football. What’s going on, buddy? >> I’m doing great, man. Just uh excited for a good weekend of NFL football. Doing these uh Charger games has been fun to like, you know, watch this uh this team kind of grow and evolve and like starting to just get kind of going on the on the draft stuff. So, it’s it’s all kind of happening. >> I was going to ask about the draft, but I want to start with the Chargers because obviously you’re with them every week. It felt like so they get they’re they’re an injury ward for the first two months of the season and I go, “Okay, well they’re not they’re they’re too injured to compete with the Chiefs. They’re too injured to compete with the Ravens. They’re not an AFC contender.” Then you look around the AFC and you go, “I don’t know. There’s some there’s some incomplete teams here. There might be an incomplete team winning a couple playoff games in January. They’re injured, but they’re good.” Uh where do you put the Chargers on the AFC peekboard right now? I would say to me it’s not the charger discussion, it’s a whole AFC discussion like you mentioned and I talk to these guys all the time from all these different teams and GMs and coaches and buddies and everybody in the AFC says the same thing which is just get in like just if we can just get in it’s so wide open like all of them feel like they have a legit shot and I’d put the Chargers you know in that group like they feel like they’ve got a shot and they’ve had to find solutions with the tackle situation and you know I feel like this this last couple weeks I think using Penning as the six offensive linemen >> committing. Look, they know they’ve got to kind of muck the game up a little bit. They’ve got to they’ve got to win an ugly brand of football. It’s not going to be aesthetically pleasing with Justin chucking it all over the place, but their defense is playing really well. They’re committing to the run even if the results haven’t been outstanding. They’re they’re keeping their defense fresh. They’re kind of controlling the time of possession. Like some of these things are just so like 90s, but that’s the way they’re doing it. they’re kind of muddying the game up and they’ve got a quarterback who can make those three or four plays you need to to go win a game. So, and in any other year where you got to go through all the, you know, the cyborg quarterbacks that aren’t, you know, those teams are not there right now. So, it’s it’s open. >> If you’re Brett Vch right now, >> how do you approach this off season? Because for me, and I say this on Sunday night, this injury is going to be the the BC A of the Chiefs is that they’re going to it’s going to be a little bit of a soft rebuild. We’ll see what happens with Kelsey. see happen with Chris Jo Chris Jones. Uh I mean they’re they’re what $50 million over the cap or something. Uh and you kind of feel like almost like with the Patriots where they had to in the middle of their their dynasty retool for a few years and the defense got a little bit worse and then they came back and they had Adelman and Grank and and Dant High Tower and Jamie Collins and all these guys. Um so if you’re ve you don’t know what’s going to happen with with Mahomes in 2026. What are you doing? >> I think it’s a new team. You know I I think you mentioned Chris Jones. I would even say McDuffy, I believe, got a contract situation coming up. Those would be even if it’s just for a year or two of Chris Jones, you’d be able to get a nice return because he’s such a a nice finishing piece for a defense. And McDuffy, if you wanted to go down that road, I would think you’d get an incredible hall. Um, >> but just trying to to get draft picks, retool. They need to uh they need to I’ve been saying it for a few years now. It’s it’s odd to say it with the way teams are built nowadays, but they need an impact running back. They need a big time back who can punish teams for playing this coverage, man. They just haven’t been able to do it. Part of it’s the offensive line. Like, they’ve made some investments there. I do think Simmons, if he’s fully healthy and engaged, can be a really good left tackle for them, >> but they don’t have a way to punish teams for for putting a shell over the top of them. >> Yep. Yep. I I completely agree with you. And I remember being on the phone with one of their guys two years ago when everybody was saying, “Oh, Mahomes has been figured out, blah, blah, blah.” And I I asked somebody there. I said, “Hey, what what’s the solution in the past give up?” and he said, “You’re asking the wrong question. Just run the ball. Just run the ball.” And what’s funny is, uh, we’ve been actually talking about this a lot over the past couple weeks. Cuz so about a month ago on the Manning cast, Pton Manning was talking about Gino Smith and he was talking about the checkdowns in the running game. And I don’t know if you saw it, but he kept saying >> he kept saying, “Don’t get bored. Don’t get bored. Don’t get bored.” And what he was saying was to Gino like, “Just take the easy answers. Defense is giving you six yards a pop. Go ahead.” And then Gino threw in a double coverage and threw an interception. And so uh and we had Chris Kanty on like the next week and he was telling a story about the time that he played Payton and uh the Giants were down to I think two defensive tackles. It was one of those, you know, someone gets hurt on a Friday that that nobody’s active. 46-man roster, two defensive tackles, Donald Brown at the middle every every snap. Donald Brown, Donald Brown, Donald Brown. At some point they’re thinking, “Oh, they’ll go to Marvin Harrison.” Nope. We’re going Donald Brown right to the two defensive tackles who were active. And you kind of just wish that the Chiefs had that in their arsenal where it’s just don’t just just just don’t get bored. Just go up the middle and just make defenses change how they operate. >> Well, it’s ironic because the Chargers defense has made a living off of winning that bet that you will get bored. Um I mean, I you saw it in the Eagles game the week before. Yep. Well, I I I equated as a Padre fan of watching the NLCS a few years ago with Josh her fully warmed up in the bullpen, Bryce Harper up to bat and they don’t bring him in and then Bryce Harper hits the home run. Like Saquon Barkley, you’re at like the 16 yardd line. Your closer is in the bullpen. Get him out of the bullpen and give him the ball and finish the game. And they didn’t. They got greedy, threw the ball, it’s intercepted, game’s over. And I think, you know, with the Chiefs, I I Andy, I think, will do it if they’re getting some bang for their buck. But I think what he’s sitting there saying is like, gosh, I mean, these should be fours and eights and twelves, and we’re getting ones, twos, and threes out of these runs. And I think that’s where the frustration comes from. >> I agree. Uh, staying around this area, Jim Harbaugh. >> Mhm. >> He’s an amazing coach. He wins wherever he goes. And I thought he kind of became underrated at Michigan when you consider the NFL interest he had and, you know, whatever happened with Minnesota or whatever. Um I I I like you know he came back and was wasn’t he like the winningest coach of all time when he came back in the league or winningest active coach the day he came back in the league. Explain having been close to it. Explain why Jim Harbaugh is a good coach. >> I think he does simple things really really well. I think they’ve got a good staff of teachers. He’s a great teacher. So, they emphasize some of the simple things and in other words, you you get better at tackling by spending time on it and devoting time to it. They’re a really good tackling team. They they do ex they practice hard during training camp, but then he’ll loosen up as you go through the season. So, he’s got a nice formula there. Um, offensively, he’s going to run the ball. And I think it’s, and he’s never said this, but just as someone who calls the games, it it just feels more like, hey, it’s it’s more about the attempts than what the result is. It’s like we’re just going to keep we have to keep on this and and that >> when you get late into the season as people get tired, that stuff becomes a major major factor. When you can when you can run the ball and you’re a physical team, you got a good defense, that stuff is going to be good this time of year. And his teams have always been able to do that. Whether or not it’s the you know, it’s a top three rushing team in the league, you know. No, but it’s right now they’re staying committed to it. And I would make a case if they had their two tackles, they’d probably be the number one seed in the in the conference with this with this style of play. So he’s And the other thing I would say the underrated aspect of being around him that you don’t know from the outside, if you go into like the uh you’re on the road and you go into the meeting, the meal room, >> you’ll see Jim Harbaugh sitting with like one player, >> maybe one employer, then the next day maybe two players and it’s not like a a walk by a pat on the back. How you doing, bud? Let me go get my food. will sit down and he’s engaged with players, you know, one-on-one. There was um just the other day, you know, you’re you’re on on a flight and you see JK Scott comes, puts his arm around him and they, you know, they were having a long conversation on the on the plane as the punter. He just has really really good one-on-one uh conversations and relationship with his guys. I’ve told this story last year, but I I’ll tell it quickly here is that uh when he was the Niners coach, Kenny, excuse me, Kenny Williams, the uh White Sox gym at the time, was staying at I guess lived at the owners meeting hotel >> in Phoenix and he saw what we were doing and we were all at the bar and Kenny Williams come up to me just out of randomly and they said, “Hey, are the NFL coaches here?” And I said, “Yeah, yeah, they are.” Uh Builtmore in Arizona. No secret where it is. Yeah. And uh I said, “Yeah, they are.” And he goes, “Well, do you know where I can find Jim Harbaugh?” >> And I said, “I don’t know, but you can find, you know, they’ll be around. You kind of see everybody. It’s not a big lobby. You’ll probably see him. Why do you ask?” And and by the way, I can go just go get somebody who would know. You’re the White Sox GM. >> And he said, uh, and I I didn’t know this. Uh, his son was Kyle Williams, who fumbled the punt return in the NFC Championship game against the Giants. >> Mhm. And he said that he had been meaning to reach out to Jim Harbaugh to thank him because when nobody else loved his son after that, Jim Harbaugh did. >> Wow. >> And that the the kindness he showed in the wake of that when everybody else was talking about we got to cut him. His career is over. He can never come back to SF. Whatever. That Jim Harbaugh stood by him. And that’s the story I’ll always think about with Jim Harbaugh. about relating to players like there may have been some guys in the locker room who wanted to say f you. Jim Harbaugh wouldn’t let that happen. So I think that’s what you’re that’s that to me has always been the story about how you connect with players is love them when nobody else will. So >> yeah, and I I that’s a great story and I was, you know, you get all these coaches miked up all the time and >> there was a coach was miked up not long ago that I had known or been around and when they were younger and felt like I kind of knew who they were and then I saw miked up and I was like I don’t even >> I don’t even recognize that guy. Like that’s a >> like he’s taken on a whole new persona. And then um um with Harbaugh I’m like if you like him or you hate him and I’m sure there’s you know people on both sides of that you know exactly who he is and he is not he does there’s nothing phony about it. It’s totally 100% who he is and the players I think >> you know they see through any ounce of of phony. He doesn’t have any of that. >> I completely agree. Um all right let’s talk about the draft. Obviously you’re not going to you know watch seven rounds worth of guys until after the season. Uh, but I’m sure you’ve seen some of the quarterbacks. Here’s the question. I don’t want we don’t want to do scouting reports yet. We got months for that. >> Here’s the question. >> So, I don’t know how you you rank him, but Jordan Reed was on the show last week. Fernando Mendoza is up there. Dante Moore is up there. Maybe Tai Simpson’s up there. We’ll see. The question is this. The Giants and the Titans both have two wins. Uh, the Raiders do as well. And we’ll see what happens with the quarterback situation there. But in this question, it’s about the Giants and the Titans. Is there a quarterback prospect good enough in this draft, Daniel, that is good enough for the Giants or the Titans to say, “We’re doing a Josh Rose and Kyler Murray.” >> No, not that I’ve not not where I am in the process right now. And I’ll get to all the late tape with Mendoza. and he would be the only one to me that would be in that discussion. But I’ve I’ve seen Cam Ward play live this year and you know I saw I was there for Jackson Dart’s first start with the Giants. Now Jackson Dart’s got to protect himself a little bit better and not make this concussion thing more, you know, more than it should be here. He’s got to do a better job there. But those guys talent-wise, I think they’re more talented. They’re more physically gifted than any of the quarterbacks uh that I’ve seen in this class. I like Mendoza. think he’s clearly the best one that I’ve seen so far as I’m I’ve gone through it, but I wouldn’t it wouldn’t be enough for me to that I was going to punt on either one of those guys. I’ I’d be hoping that there’s uh there’s a market for that pick. But, you know, I always feel like this time of year we always say they’re never going to be this is not a a year where you’re going to get that market. And then I I was asked about it the other day. I can’t remember where I was, but I said, you know, that what you can’t you can’t uh forget is that if you’re like the Raiders >> Yeah. and you’ve been watching such bad offensive football the whole time and then you you sit there and you get to the end and it’s like, “Yeah, I can’t watch this again. I can’t do this again.” Like, whatever we got to do, we just pay the price and let’s let’s go do it. And I’m just singling out one team and I’m sure there’s going to be others. >> But that’s what happens is we sit there and look at it as like this is historically this quarterback versus what we’ve seen all these other years or who are the top quarterbacks in the league and how does this player measure up? we’re not taking into account, you haven’t been forced to have your own eyeballs on this anemic offense for an entire season. You will do aggressive things so you don’t have to do that again. >> I I agree with you and you know this far better than me having been in these facilities, but >> I I’ve heard that, you know, one of the functional issues with not having a quarterback is that your owner normally has one question, which is what’s the plan of quarterback? And if the answer I if the answer is we’re going to sign somebody off the scrap. We’re going to sign Andy Dalton for for $6 million and hope for the best. Like that’s that’s not a good enough answer for an owner. So you’re always that’s why guys are always getting drafted. That’s why sometimes you’re doubling up the drafting. Like it’s just just human nature. You’re just trying to save your job. Um all right, let’s do some rapid fire. Uh, I talked I was talking to some GMs in in August and I was doing having a lot of success with just college practice stories from when they were scouts. And I’ll I’ll start here. >> Give me the best college practice story you have. Oh my gosh. Uh, best college practice story. Well, I mean the first one that comes to mind, which is not gonna everybody’s be like, is it some great player or some great feature? >> No, it doesn’t have to be. >> No, no, no. Why? My And the scouts that are listening to this will know who it is. I won’t say who it is, but there was a there was a team that had a female trainer. It was one of my first years in scouting at the time. >> So, she was in charge of the training staff and uh I met with her in the office, kind of went over the players. Then we get out to practice and I see her and it was a grass practice field. So, start there. But I look over, she’s got a full chew in and she’s just spitting. She’s got I mean she’s got like like I’m talking about like 1980s MLB baseball player Chaw like in it and it was just I remember thinking that’s just the weirdest thing that I’ve ever seen. I’ve never I just had neverh seen that before. That’s the first thing that came to my mind and I promise you any scout that listen knows exactly who this person is. She was a great source. She gave great information. >> That’s incredible. >> She’s on the badass board. Just a huge huge Oh yeah. And it was not this was not big league chew. This was this was the uh this was the real stuff there. But that’s one uh that comes immediately to mind. I’m trying to think of some other ones. Well >> you know who you know who ran great practices. Maybe my favorite practices of any of any program was the Patill Fresno State teams. >> Remember they they gave USC all they wanted. They I think they may beat like K State. They they were their logo was like any anyone any place anytime anywhere like that whole thing. And so you would get to these practices and you’d be going on a tour and every practice would kind of you ease into it as you would imagine like well we got kind of like our dynamic warm-up and everybody lose. We go to individual period. You’d get up there to Fresno State. This is like the Logan Mins uh years. >> Yeah. >> And it would be like the players would like walk out into the field and they’d like blow the whistle and it was like whoa, we’re like an inside run. like we these guys haven’t even touched their toes yet and they are smacking pads and and I remember just thinking like holy crud like this is this is I never seen anything like this and he’s like yeah there’s a reason why we’re you know one of the most physical teams in college football that people don’t like playing like this is what they got after it I was like holy moly >> that’s incredible you can tell so much about it from those college practices I heard a story preseason about Aaron Donald I don’t if you’ve ever heard the story but I guess pit coaches used to tell scouts to come an hour early to pit practice to see Aaron Donald warm up because that was the main event because you wanted to see Aaron because he was doing the same it was tough he was he was he was hitting he was doing all this stuff and it was like don’t we don’t even let Aaron Donald you know we can’t even let Aaron Donald team drills cuz he’ll ruin the the seven on seven period but what you can do is you can watch him warm up and just watch watch the intensity and I just think it’s it’s an amazing genre that’s not talked about enough is you guys get to go into all these college facilities and get to So much. >> So now you mentioned players now starting to jog some memories here. So I remember going to Cal and I think it was a Monday. So they weren’t they weren’t uh you know doing a full practice. They were just going to kind of just run get the get their legs loosened up a little bit after playing from the weekend. So you get there and they run in groups. So you get out there you know in the morning just oh just body type. We’re not going to get much out of it. We can body type the guys. So they’re like all right the uh the big guys go run. And then it was like okay then you get like the linebackers tight ends like the second group of guys. And then it’s a skill guys. So, it’s the wide receivers, DBs, running backs, >> and there’s a guy that’s twice the size of everybody out there who’s literally towards the front of the line. It’s Cam Jordan. >> And I was like, “Oh, he’s running with the white outs.” Like he’s out there running with the white outs in the as they’re running like they were run like full like 100 yard sprints like just kind of stretching it all out. But I’m like, “Okay, yeah, that’s a little different.” >> That’s incredible. That’s awesome. He He Cam, listen, man. He’s He can >> He can He’s been playing forever. People >> playing forever. People forget how like I used to go back and look at his testing numbers and stuff, but that he was a freak show. >> Unbelievable. Um, all right. We’ve been having success with this and I know last couple weeks and I haven’t done it with a former scout. So, it’s called overheards. It’s the funniest thing you’ve ever heard in a scouting room, in a whatever in in a draft room, scouting room, whatever. But it can be totally anonymous. And in fact, it probably should be in most these cases. You don’t want to say, “Hey, this scout said this about this player.” But can you take me in a scouting room uh and just the funniest thing line, scouting report line, whatever it is that sticks in your memory, Daniel? >> Um, oh man, we had a lot of uh we had we would always have a lot of fun and this was the group that we had in Baltimore at that time. So if you go back, this is >> um uh Joe Douglas is in there, former GM. You had Joe Ortiz, now the GM of the Chargers. Chad Alexander is the assistant GM of the Chargers. You had Milt Hendrickson who’s assistant GM right now with the Packers. Jeremiah Washburn who coaches outside linebackers, defensive ends for the Eagles. Um TJ McCrae who’s with the Jets who’s, you know, been an assistant GM. We had it was a loaded staff and but we would have we had so much fun writing reports and talking about players. And one of the things we would have a lot of fun with was if you had a a player who was related to someone else. So, in other words, if you had like Clay Matthews coming out after Casey had come out or uh you know, uh there was he was a bunch of different bunch of different guys and uh gosh, who was one of the other ones? Um >> we had so many of them, but it was always to make a brother reference. So, and if the player wasn’t as good as the other brother, it we would try and one one up each other. So, I said one year, uh this this player is more Aussie than Jose Conco uh was like the the the finishing line. Andy Widle, who’s the assistant GM of the of the Pittsburgh Steelers. I I remember one year he had famously said, “This guy’s more Randy Quaid than Dennis Quaid.” Um, we had so this gag would just keep going on and on and on about the lesser of of like two brothers when you were watching someone because there’s always scouts that will say like, “Hey, he’s got good jeans.” Yeah. And we were and it would just frustrate us. We’re like, “But this guy this guy can’t play. I don’t care who he’s related to. He can’t play.” So, we were always trying to find like brother uh you know, brother uh uh scenarios. >> That’s amazing. That’s amazing. All right, time for badasses. >> All right, we do something called Badasses. They go up on the badass wall right here. Uh that’s brought to you by Manscape. Step up your grooming game with precision tools that make you look sharp and feel confident. Available at Target. You know what? You’ve given us Ray Lewis in the past. Ray Ray’s right here from you earlier uh a couple years ago. most give me another badass that you’ve been around in football that we need to add to this board. Daniel Jeremiah. >> Okay. I’m looking to see um I mean does Bob Sanders have a spot on there? >> We we we got to get him up there. Tell us about him. So Bob Sanders, um I always give this advice to to players when they’re getting ready to go to an all-star game setting because at the Senior Bowl, um they they have a they’re not going to go to the ground when you’re playing like seven on seven or in team periods and they’ll say just tag guys off and maybe there’ll be some thud periods, but you’re never going to unload on anybody except we’re so figured the whole NFL is there. We’re all up in the stands. It’s cold. It might have been even like a little rainy or something and we’re watching practice and it’s just kind of one play after another and just everybody’s keeping an eye on their own individual positions and it was I can’t remember if it was seven on seven or team but they threw a ball over the middle of the field and it’s the to this day the loudest contact I’ve ever heard in my entire life where Bob Sanders just annihilates. He’s a receiver, a tight end. You could hear it echoing through the stadium in Mobile. And of course, he’s getting yelled at by the coaches on the field like, “You can’t do this.” Meanwhile, every scout has got their notebook out like talking about how explosive and dynamic he was. So, I always would tell prospects like, “Hey, I know they’re going to tell you you shouldn’t do this or it’s 75%.” No, no, you’re going 100% at all times. We are still talking about that every year. Bob Sanders, what he did in the Senior Bowl, you know, however many 15 years ago, whatever the heck it was. >> That is amazing. Bob Sanders illegal hit at the Senior Bowl getting scouts riled up. >> Yeah. And and he like on the stage he was just he was short but he had these like traps like he just he was a stud. We were I think I told you this on one of the previous episodes, but like we were trying to trade up for him in Baltimore that year >> and we were trying to trade with the Colts and the Colts said, “Well, there’s one guy that we want. If he’s there, we’re going to pick him. If not, we’ll trade the pick.” So they got on the clock and and you know Azie is like, “Will you guys will you guys do it? Is your guy there?” He said, “No, our guy’s there.” He said, “Well, who’s your guy?” He said, “Bob Sanders.” He goes, “Well, that was our guy, too.” We were this close to having Bob Sanders and Ed Reed playing next to each other at safety. >> Ed’s up there. Ed’s up there. All right, Daniel Jeremiah. Thank you, buddy. >> Thank you, bud.

Kevin Clark is joined by Daniel Jeremiah to take a look at whether the Chargers are legitimate contenders in the AFC and what makes Jim Harbaugh such a great coach. DJ lays out what the plan should be for the Chiefs this offseason as they look to rebound from their worst year in a decade. Plus, an incredible story from Daniel’s scouting days about Colts legend Bob Sanders.

0:00 – Daniel Jeremiah joins This Is Football!
00:51 – Are the Chargers a threat to win the AFC?
2:31 – How should the Chiefs approach the offseason?
6:08 – What makes Jim Harbaugh such a great coach?
10:35 – Looking at the top QBs in the 2026 NFL Draft
13:37 – Daniel’s most memorable moments when scouting college players
17:52 – Funniest thing Daniel ever heard while scouting
20:13 – The biggest bada** Daniel ever scouted – Colts Safety Bob Sanders

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