Rueben Bain Jr. falling at all<\/a>?\u00a0<\/p>\nA: I think he could slide just based on the arm length, but if you\u2019re running a 3-4 defense, he\u2019s not a fit for you. Dallas at 12 doesn\u2019t make sense for him. He\u2019s more power than he is speed. I do think he goes in the top 15, it\u2019s kind of hard to know exactly where that is.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Q: Of these three receivers, how do you have them rated: Omar Cooper Jr., Denzel Boston and KC Concepcion?\u00a0<\/p>\n
A: I have it Cooper, Boston, Concepcion.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Q: Why do you prefer Cooper?\u00a0<\/p>\n
A: I love route runners who can get open on their own, like uncover themselves, basically. He does that so well, and then he\u2019s tough over the middle, doesn\u2019t drop passes, he creates missed tackles, he has great body control. I think that\u2019s where the NFL\u2019s at right now with receivers. We went through the phase with the Mike Evansea, super-sized guys, we went through the phase with the Tyreek Hills, and now we\u2019re at a point where it\u2019s like guys who are just great route runners who catch the ball \u2014 JSN [Jaxon Smith-Njigba], Amon-Ra St. Brown, Puka [Nacua]. \u2026 Cooper\u2019s in that same type of category as those guys.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Q: Speaking of JSN, were you surprised the Jets drafted Will McDonald instead of him?\u00a0<\/p>\n
A: I was very surprised, yes. He was my top receiver that year. I had a really, really high grade on him, I want to say like top five player overall.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Q: Boston and Concepcion?\u00a0<\/p>\n
A: Boston is an above-the rim wide receiver. Fantastic size, he\u2019s probably the best red zone target in this entire class. He reminds me a lot of Cortland Sutton with that ability. He\u2019s never gonna be super twitchy as a route runner, but he\u2019s gonna win with size and what he can do over the top. \u2026 I think in Concepcion you\u2019re getting that sudden, explosive ability, drops are an issue, he\u2019s a great punt returner.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Q: What do you think of Eagles exec Howie Roseman?\u00a0<\/p>\n
A: I think Howie\u2019s the best general manager in football. From a draft perspective, from a free agency, salary cap, all the things that make up that job, I think Howie\u2019s the best.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Q: Seahawks GM John Schneider?\u00a0<\/p>\n
A: John would be right up there, too. Their ability to reinvent on the fly has been so impressive \u2014 to go from Legion of Boom with Marshawn Lynch to where they are now. They\u2019ve nailed draft picks. They know who they are, I think, as well as any team in the league, and do a really, really good job of identifying players.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Q: Darren Mougey?\u00a0<\/p>\n
A: It\u2019s tough to watch a GM come in and trade away their two best players. It takes some courage to do that, so we\u2019ll see if it works out. He\u2019s got all the capital in the world. You gotta prove yourself now, right? We\u2019ll see what type of drafter he is, I think that\u2019s important.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Jets general manager Darren Mougey. Bill Kostroun\/New York Post<\/p>\n
Q: What is your most memorable draft night?\u00a0<\/p>\n
A: For me, it\u2019s Kansas City [2023]. That was my first assignment on the desk for ESPN, and to have it happen an hour from home, my entire family got to come up and come to the draft and watch me work.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Q: Any memorable draft nights as a kid growing up?\u00a0<\/p>\n
A: I remember being late to my senior prom because the draft was that day. So this was 2001, right? Having to tell your date like, \u201cHey, we can\u2019t go to dinner yet, I gotta see who gets picked here.\u201d Her dad thought it was hilarious. \u201cI gotta see where LaDainian Tomlinson goes after the Falcons traded up to take Michael Vick.\u201d Her mom is doing her hair, we\u2019re standing in the living room. I was very torn, I wanted to skip it. But my parents wouldn\u2019t let me.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Q: What is the player evaluation you\u2019re most proud of?\u00a0<\/p>\n
A: I was wrong on my ranking of Patrick Mahomes, but my scouting report of him I\u2019m very proud of because it was dead on. It was, \u201cThis guy could be Aaron Rodgers, he could change the NFL,\u201d if X, Y, Z.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Q: One worst evaluation?\u00a0<\/p>\n
A: Trent Richardson [2012], without a doubt. I was convinced he was like the next Walter Payton.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Q: What did you think when Saquon Barkley was drafted second overall by the Giants?\u00a0<\/p>\n
A: I loved it. I was a big Saquon fan, and still am, obviously. I liked that for the Giants at the time. It\u2019s fun to remember the NFL was even a little bit different in 2018 than it is now. I thought Barkley was ***** the ***** best running back prospect I\u2019d ever seen. He was a unicorn, I think is what I used to say. And I thought he could have been the No. 1 pick that year.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Q: Your thoughts on drafting a running back in the top five, vis-\u00e0-vis Jeremiyah Love?\u00a0<\/p>\n
A: I\u2019m OK with it. I think the team has to be ready for it, right? I would never advocate for drafting a running back when you don\u2019t have your quarterback because what\u2019s the point, right? I think we saw that last year with Ashton Jeanty. So with Jeremiyah Love, whether it\u2019s the Titans or the Giants, those teams that have a young quarterback in place, they have some assets on the offensive line, I think it makes more sense for them than some of the other teams that we\u2019ve seen try to build around a running back instead of understanding that their job is to supplement the offense, basically.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Q: Your thoughts on the Jets drafting No. 2 Zach Wilson in 2021?\u00a0<\/p>\n
A: I was at his Pro Day. It was one of my first assignments for ESPN. I was enamored by him because of the highlight-reel stuff, but I was very cautious, I thought he was more of like a Kyler Murray kind of guy. So I had him ranked pretty highly \u2019cause I knew he was gonna go pretty highly, but I think at that time also we were all looking for those off-platform guys, everybody was looking for Mahomes, everyone was looking for Kyler Murray as to playmakers, and he fit that to a tee. I had it Trevor Lawrence, then Justin Fields, then him.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Q: Evan Neal, who went No. 7 to the giants in 2022?\u00a0<\/p>\n
A: I liked him as well. The concerns were there about him, maybe kind of lacking some of that competitive toughness, but I thought his run blocking skills were elite. He was a lock to be a top-10 pick, so if it hadn\u2019t been the Giants, it would have been someone else.\u00a0<\/p>\n
New York Giants offensive tackle Evan Neal (73) looks on during training camp at the Quest Diagnostics center, Tuesday, July 29, 2025, in East Rutherford, New Jersey. Corey Sipkin for the NY POST<\/p>\n
Q: Deonte Banks, 24th to Giants in 2023?\u00a0<\/p>\n
A: I thought he would be quite a bit better than he is.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Q: Mekhi Becton, 11th to Jets in 2020.?\u00a0<\/p>\n
A: I was not a Mekhi Becton fan. Yes, he was massive and he had really, really good athleticism, but I don\u2019t remember being super high on him.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Q: Kadarius Toney, 29th to the Giants in 2021?\u00a0<\/p>\n
A: I liked Kadarius, but I\u2019m very skeptical of gadget guys. You almost have to go back in time and remember what the league was looking for at that point in time, it\u2019s like everyone wanted Tyreek Hill. It\u2019s a copycat league, right? So everyone\u2019s looking at Toney and saying, \u201cOK, this could be Deebo Samuel, this could be Tyreek Hill.\u201d You learn lessons from players like that, that sometimes just draft receivers who can get open and catch the ball. Like, don\u2019t overthink it. These offensive weapons guys, generally it\u2019s much harder for them to find a role and carve out something bigger.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Q: Jaxson Dart at No. 25 to the Giants and Shedeur Sanders sliding to the Browns in the fifth round in 2025?\u00a0<\/p>\n
A: I had Dart as a second-round pick, I had Shedeur as a second-round pick, so I had them graded really closely together. I watched Dart play his best game ever, it was against Arkansas. I remember writing that night in my notebook, it was like, \u201cIf he can do this consistently, he\u2019s gonna be great.\u201d Coming out of Lane Kiffin\u2019s offense, I think guys struggle to acclimate, he played a lot better than I expected. He\u2019s gotta learn to take care of himself a little bit better. With Shedeur, I was low on him compared to the guys I work with, but no one would tell you they thought he was gonna go as late as he did. He\u2019s a really good football player when the light\u2019s on. He\u2019s never gonna impress you in a practice session. He\u2019s not very big, he\u2019s not super strong arm, he\u2019s not super fast, he\u2019s just a playmaker. I genuinely hope he gets the opportunity to show that in Cleveland. I think also I\u2019m rooting for [Mel] Kiper to have the moment of \u201cI told you so\u201d when it comes to him (chuckle). You want to see your friend be right.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Q: Do you play fantasy football?\u00a0<\/p>\n
A: Oh, yeah \u2014 not well. I do, though. And my friends love the fact that they beat me \u2019cause they\u2019re like, \u201cAren\u2019t you supposed to be good at this?\u201d (Laugh)\u00a0<\/p>\n
Q: What do you recall about the 2011 Joplin, Mo., tornado?\u00a0<\/p>\n
A: I live in Joplin now, at the time I lived a little bit north of Joplin. I was about seven blocks away from the north edge of the tornado. I was actually going on vacation the next day, so I was down here doing some shopping. And went into a department store, and my oldest brother called me and was like, \u201cHey, there\u2019s a tornado headed for downtown, you need to get out of there.\u201d And I was like, \u201cBen, it\u2019s like 85 degrees and sunny, I have no idea what you\u2019re talking about.\u201d So we go to this department store and they come over the speakers, the tornado sirens are going off, \u201cWe have to lock you guys in the back room, in a bathroom.\u201d So they did that and we waited it out. It was really scary because you could hear it, it just sounds like that rumble of like a train, but amplified. It felt like it took 30 minutes for it to pass, and walked out of the department store and drove a little bit south, and came over the top of the hill and everything was gone. And so, the people I was with, we drove to a Walmart, and it had been almost flattened, and people were walking out of the Walmart into the parking lot bleeding. \u2026 It\u2019s like what you see on TV, right? It\u2019s people are stunned, they\u2019re just in this daze and they\u2019re walking out. So given my training as an EMT, we started helping people and driving people from that area to \u2026 they had set up like a Red Cross staging area at the mall. And then that entire night volunteering at the college here that the Red Cross set up. Unfortunately, then going on vacation the next day driving to the airport and just seeing miles worth of power trucks, like linemen driving into Joplin to restore power. It was one of the most, I think, humbling moments to see how many people were rallying to this area.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Q: Did you know people that lost their lives?\u00a0<\/p>\n
A: I did not. A lot of the people that lost their lives were at a nursing home, and then at a hospital. I think everyone from Joplin has that story of like, \u201cWhere were you when it happened?\u201d But I guess fortunately, I didn\u2019t have a personal connection that lost their life.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Q: How did your love of football begin?\u00a0<\/p>\n
A: I remember being at a playoff Royals game with my older brother, and Peter King was there with us, and Peter asked him the same thing \u2014 he was like, \u201cHow long has he been like this?\u201d he asked my older brother. He was like, \u201cAs long as I can remember.\u201d I don\u2019t remember a time in my life when I wasn\u2019t obsessed with football or obsessed with the draft. I can remember riding to church on Sunday mornings trying to memorize the backs of football cards when I\u2019m like 6 years old. I was in the third grade writing mock drafts pen and paper because I wanted to be Mel Kiper Jr. when I grew up.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Q: Who was your boyhood idol?\u00a0<\/p>\n
A: Other than Kiper, Jerry Rice. My first plan was to play in the NFL, and then I realized that I was probably gonna top out at about 5-[foot]-11, and I was struggling to play for a 1A football team in Missouri.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Q: Tell me about New Era Scouting.\u00a0<\/p>\n
A: I was working overnight at a hospital, it\u2019s basically like a triage nurse. I went to school to be an EMT out of high school. 9\/11 happened, I was like, \u201cOh my gosh, I want to do something to help people.\u201d I was working overnight at a hospital, and I had a lot of free time. I was obsessed with football, obviously. I had some good connections through some message boards and forums at that time, and it was like, \u201cYou know, I\u2019m just gonna start my own draft website.\u201d We also sold scouting services to teams. No pro team ever was interested but the Arena Football League teams, the Canadian Football League teams were actually interested because they needed help finding those guys that weren\u2019t quite good enough for the NFL but were still players we were watching. It got like a cult following, and then it allowed me to go to Bleacher Report and say, \u201cHey, I have this website I\u2019ve been running for a couple of years, I understand how to run the business side of it, I know how to run the content side of it, I\u2019m very, very self-motivated, I just need an audience, basically.\u201d And Bleacher Report at the time had an audience but needed good content, and so it was like a perfect marriage.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Q: 9\/11 had quite an impact on you.\u00a0<\/p>\n
A: I wanted to join the military in high school but my parents talked me out of it. My dad is a veteran, and so they talked me out of it. My parents once a week would go to a homeless shelter and volunteer, and they would make my brothers and I go and really like telling us how important it is to give back and to serve and to help people. I was going to school [Missouri Southern State] for journalism at the time, and I was like, \u201cNo, I don\u2019t want to do this anymore. I don\u2019t want to write about what\u2019s happening, I want to be involved in what\u2019s happening.\u201d I took a detour but you still end up right back where you eventually thought you were gonna be or where you wanted to be.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Q: The Joplin Crusaders.\u00a0<\/p>\n
A: Man, that was the glory days. So that\u2019s the Central Football League in semipro football, and I think I coached there for three years and we won three league championships, so it was a lot of fun for me. I coached the secondary and I was the recruiting coordinator. I needed an education in football. I was 23 years old, some guys were right out of college, some guys were in their 30s. \u2026 I learned a lot about scouting because my job was to go recruit players \u2019cause we were basically the same age, so understanding what the coaches wanted and then being able to watch the film and say, \u201cHere\u2019s the defense we run, I gotta find an outside linebacker that can do the things that my coach wants,\u201d and then I gotta watch college film to see if there\u2019s any of these guys that just graduated from Missouri Southern or Pitt State or JUCO tape to see if there\u2019s any of these guys that fit what we\u2019re doing and then try to get in touch with them and recruit them to come play for us for like $100 a week, basically (laugh). It was a grind but it was a really, really good introduction to some of the things that I still do now.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Q: Describe your children, Hayley and Emmitt.\u00a0<\/p>\n
A: I had my daughter when I was 17, so she\u2019s an adult now. She works as a therapist. Super smart, accomplished, successful, driven, everything that a dad could hope that their daughter becomes. I think she\u2019s more of an adult most of the time than I am. \u2026 Emmitt\u2019s 12. He\u2019s a ball of energy but also like the most curious person ever. I have no idea what he\u2019s gonna be someday, but he will be great at it whatever it is, he has the best personality, he\u2019s everyone\u2019s best friend, he\u2019s, like, full of charisma, but also he\u2019s like a little old man at the same time, that\u2019s kind of funny.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Q: Three dinner guests?\u00a0<\/p>\n
A: Bill Belichick, President Obama, Bill Murray.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Q: Favorite movie?\u00a0<\/p>\n
A: \u201cShawshank Redemption.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Q: Favorite entertainer?\u00a0<\/p>\n
A: Jason Isbell.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Q: Favorite meal?\u00a0<\/p>\n
A: Steak and potatoes.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Q: Your best Kiper story?\u00a0<\/p>\n
A: My first day at ESPN, I hit the ground running and did like 12 hours of TV that day, and I finally get on TV and I\u2019m gonna go have a beer and decompress, and my phone starts ringing, and it\u2019s a Maryland phone number that I didn\u2019t have, so I answer it, and it\u2019s that iconic voice, and we\u2019d never spoken before, and just to have him like cold-call me and be like, \u201cHey, I watched you all day, welcome to the team, you did such a great job,\u201d and we talked for like 45 minutes. To who Mel is as a person, I don\u2019t think a lot of people know because they just see the TV version of Mel. That energy and that excitement and that happiness, that\u2019s who he is all the time.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Q: Jordan Reid?\u00a0<\/p>\n
A: Jordan\u2019s one of my favorite people. Like at the Senior Bowl, we share a rental car, we stay at the same hotel. Jordan is so incredibly intelligent. If I ever have a question about football, Jordan\u2019s the person I ask. The way that he sees the game, his background as a quarterback, it\u2019s like he\u2019s always thinking about football, and about what works and what doesn\u2019t work.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Q: Field Yates?\u00a0<\/p>\n
A: Field is the nicest person in the world. When my son met Field, he was like, \u201cIs he that happy all the time?\u201d Salt of the earth, like great guy. He\u2019s so versatile. He can do everything. He hosts \u201cDraft Daily\u201d and then flips around and works as the analyst on \u201cNFL Live.\u201d To have that range as a talent is so incredible.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Q: Daniel Jeremiah?\u00a0<\/p>\n
A: He\u2019s similarly like the nicest person ever. He\u2019s so humble, and easy to talk to. I think Daniel is like the standard right now as draft coverage has evolved to what our job is now, I think he\u2019s the standard for how well the job is done.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Daniel Jeremiah of NFL Network speaks to the media during the 2026 NFL Scouting Combine at Lucas Oil Stadium on February 25, 2026 in Indianapolis, Getty Images<\/p>\n
Q: What drives you?\u00a0<\/p>\n
A: I\u2019m 16 years in professionally, and so I think there\u2019s that competitiveness is always something that drives you to live up to the job that I have, to be good enough for ESPN. You want to have respect for the job and make sure you\u2019re doing the work, right? It\u2019s also, like, I love doing the job, I love watching football, I love looking at team needs, I love breaking down the salary cap to see what\u2019s hidden in there, that curiosity of how things think they\u2019re gonna fix themselves versus how I think they should fix themselves is something that I\u2019m always incredibly passionate about.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Q: Biggest obstacle you had to overcome?\u00a0<\/p>\n
A: I think it was that I don\u2019t have a big background as a player. I work alongside people that played in the NFL or played at least at the college level, or worked for an NFL team. Just at ESPN, there\u2019s Field Yates, who played some small-college football and then interned with the Chiefs. And then Jordan Reid, who played college football. And then even when [Todd] McShay was here, he played college football. Daniel Jeremiah played college football, worked in the NFL, and so, I\u2019m definitely an outlier in that regard. I kind of come into this through a different path. I think trying to build that credibility of like, \u201cSure, I didn\u2019t play college football, I didn\u2019t work in the NFL, but I spent those years learning in a different way.\u201d But I think that allows me to have a different perspective than some of my colleagues and a different set of skills as well.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ESPN NFL draft analyst Matt Miller takes a timeout for some pre-draft Q&A with Post columnist Steve Serby.\u00a0…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":869357,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2067],"tags":[12,7,519,1917,56,255,2321,2469,6,15,15729,46040,9,203],"class_list":{"0":"post-869356","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york-giants","8":"tag-espn","9":"tag-football","10":"tag-giants","11":"tag-new-york","12":"tag-new-york-giants","13":"tag-new-york-jets","14":"tag-newyork","15":"tag-newyorkgiants","16":"tag-nfl","17":"tag-nfl-draft","18":"tag-nfl-draft-2026","19":"tag-serbys-qa","20":"tag-sports","21":"tag-sports-media"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116427266710051039","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/869356","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=869356"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/869356\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/869357"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=869356"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=869356"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=869356"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}