You can find it at PFF dot com. Our good friend and his weekly
hit here with us. It's Max Chadwick from Pro Football Focus. Max.
Welcome back, brother, thanks for having me on. Guys, you bet
man, have you recovered from the US Open? I know you're a big
golf guy. Let's just get your perspective as a football guy first, who
loves golf? Man. Wow, Yeah, it was an incredible weekend of
golf honestly. Obviously, Rory choking it away at the end was pretty brutal
to watch, and Bryson getting it again was pretty cool to see. But
yeah, it was. It was a tough watch at the end. Honestly,
I felt really awful for Rory. Honestly I did too. I mean,
you know, as a golfer, you know that last butt is I
mean, that's no cupcake. It's downhill three feet left the right. Just
bad scene there for Rory and you know he's got four majors. But the
time is ticket on that, Okay. Turning our attention to the NFL here,
Max Chadwick covers that league as well as college football for PFF, so
we continue to see things that are evolving here in the NFL and we now
learned over the past couple of days here that T. Higgins has in fact
signed his franchise tag no long term deal yet when you look at that team
long term, is there a way they can lock up both Chase and Higgins?
Is there way they should do that? Or is it pretty inevitable that
this is a one year bet on himself deal and see what he can do
in the open market T Higgins. Yeah, it seems there certainly is a
way for it to happen. But I think for if they were to sign
T. Higgins and Jamar Chase, and obviously they already signed Joe Burrow as
well, that means they probably have to sacrifice a lot else on their roster,
and I don't know if they're willing to do that, honestly. So
I imagine this it might be the last year that we get at P Higgins
in Cincinnati, and I think there's probably a good chance and he hits the
open market and signs a big contract with someone else after the season. The
scote but continues in San Francisco about Brandon Ayuk. There's been some conversations and
some rumors flowed around, including comments he's made himself about you know, his
relationship with Jaden Daniels, that situation seemed to be fluid. But from what
you're hearing and just your own perspective, you feel like Mike get traded this
offseason. If not, do you think he's going to stay long term in
San Francisco. Uh, that's a good question as well. You know,
I don't know if it's gonna happen this offseason. I do know obviously a
lot of teams would be interested in his services. I think the big point
is right now that San Francisco wants to bring him back, they just aren't
at the price that he wants right now. So I think that's the really
interesting dilemma that they're in right now. And yeah, obviously the number of
teams that are interested in him, including the Commanders who obviously have his former
college quarterback and Jayden Daniels there. So yeah, I think, yeah,
it'd be really interesting to see what happens within this Austin. Like I said,
that's another guy like Tiggans that a lot of NFL teams would be lining
up to pay him top dollar after How could he have been San Francisco?
I think the obvious question for me would have been, Hey, you think
Brandon AUT's gonna come to the Steelers, But I'm gonna steer away from that.
I want to talk specifically Mike Tomlin right now, obviously getting a three
year contract extension. And this is a man that has never had a losing
season, so that I mean, but there is a large kind of vocal
I don't know, minority, maybe a majority of Steelers fans that we do
not like Mike Tomlin. They're tired of this never having a losing season.
Hell if you will, And for you in your perspective this season, what
does that mean for Mike Tomlin? Does this kind of approve it? Like,
Okay, we need to get into the playoffs now because people are obviously
upset that we haven't won a playoff game in I don't know, like seven
years. What are your thoughts on Mike Tomland getting that extension and what does
it mean for this team? I guess as success for this season? Yeah,
I think honestly, the Stewers fans that won Mike Colin fired. I
mean, the grass is always greener, right, and I think he's a
really good head coach in this league. And the problem with the Steelers over
last number of years. Honestly, he's been at the quarterback position, with
Ben Roethlisberger obviously not looking like a show of himself at the end of his
career, Kenny Pickett not working out at all for Pittsburgh, and now you
have Russell Wilson and Justin Fields. I think they're hoping that that's going to
be at least a lot better. And you know, Grandon and the Steers
have done a great job in the draft as well building up that team,
So I think there's a chance that could be better. But until he gets
that quarterback position figured out. I think Mike tom was a really damn good
head coach and I think firing him would be a massive mistake, honestly,
And that's you know, I think firing him just basically tells your fan base,
Hey, we want to be a terrible team for a little bit so
we can get a top quarterback, which that's another way to go about your
franchise. But I just I don't agree as firing a head coach as I
think one of the better head coaches that we have in the NFL right now.
So they have to figure out quarterback and I think they're really trying to
do that now with Russell Wilson and Justin Fields, and if they do and
Mike Tomins a great coach and they have the pieces defensively, I think,
yeah, they could be competing for a playoff spot and maybe even playoff wins
in the future. But it is a brutal AFC conference right now for sure.
Speaking to the grass being green, or let me remind young Trey Falco
at thirty years old to your lifetime Steelers fan, then in his lifetime he
has had as many head coach as coach his team is the Panthers have had
Actually it's half as many ass had in the past four years. So yeah,
grass, where's the grass? We're trying to find the damn Gretz down
here. We'll touch on the Panthers in a minute. Max Chadwick is our
guest here from PFF dot Com. We'll give him a chance to promote all
he's doing right now. He also college covers the college game as well,
so might get his take on Clemson in a minute. Who brought in some
guys to this NFL class. I want to ask you about these receivers,
not necessarily the guys that went early in the first round. I'm looking at
maybe from twenty three down, like Brian Thomas Junior, of course, Xavier
Worthy, Ricky Piersoh, Xavier leg Guette, and you've got some guys in
the second round that I really like. Are there a couple that you're looking
at from that maybe twenty to fifty rangs that could have a breakout type of
season that we're not expecting. Uh? Yeah. I think Brian Thomas Junior
is probably in for a big season this upcoming year at Jacksonville. Think he
fits in really well with Trevor Lawrence who loves to push a ball down the
field, and Brian Thomas, He's a vertical receivers. I think that's gonna
be really good in there. Obviously, Zavey, you're worthy to be relied
on a lot, Ricky Piersoll the forty nine Ers. If brand now You
does get traded, Ricky Pierson's immediately gonna be one of their top weapons,
so that he could have a big year. And then obviously key on Coleman
off the Bills as well. It's gonna be relying on his maybe the number
one receiver immediately as a second round rookie. So that's another guy that I
think will be relied on a lot for them this year in Buffalo. And
I think I got like Ady Mitchell, who's taken later in the second round
from the Colts, he I would have taken him in the first round,
So I love that value there. I'm excited to see what he can do
in Indianapolis. But you know, there's a few of the other receivers that
are not you know, the big names like Harrison and Neighbors and Adusee.
There's still a really good receiver cross after them. And then are some of
the guys that think could make immediate impacts in the NFL. Between JJ McCarthy
for the course, the Vikings and then bo Nix with the Sean Payton's Broncos.
Do you have a read or a feeling or sense of which one may
be starting first or will they both start week one? Do you think I'm
sorry, we said Jajon Rarthen, who else Bonnix, McCarthy and Knicks drafted
their ten Would you get the sense that they'll both be starting week one?
Or maybe Sam donald and and Stidham gets some of the one reps for the
first few weeks. Any scuttle butt on that. Yeah, I think Sam
Donald it ay. Kevin O'Connell already announced Sam Donold is the starting quarterback heading
into training camp, So I think it's more likely than not that we see
San Donald to start Week one for the Minnesota Vikings, and potentially even more
than that. And I think Denver, I think it's a better chance.
At Denver, Bonex is immediate starter, but I wouldn't be surprised if Jared
Stidham, Zach Wilson, maybe one of them take over that job and let
bone Necks sit on the bench for a little bit before you know, throwing
him into the fire really in Denver, but I think it's a much better
chance. But Bonnick is the week one starter for Denver than there is for
Jason McCarthy be the league one starter for Minnesota. Max Chadwick. We have
talked before about Bryce Young, and obviously there's a lot of conversation in Carolina
about that, the goal being to get him up to where he needs to
be as the franchise quarterback. That can be a very abstract way of looking
at it in my view, and I want to get your perspective on what
is important for Bryce when you watched him last year. Obviously, the surroundings
were not ideal. There were some bad habits that creep back in define success
for me, if you will, for Bryce Young year two, but also
for this entire team, because it takes twenty two guys to make it happen.
Yeah, I think, honestly, more than wins and losses for Carolina,
I think the one thing Panta finan should be hoping for the most is
just going into twenty twenty five with the idea of, Okay, we have
our franchise quarterback in Bryce. Because I'm still up in the air right now,
I think he's done a much better job of building around him this Auste
and I still think there's a lot of work to do it. Who gonna
be wrong, but I think he's done a really good job of at least
adding some pieces like Deontay Johnson, drafting Xavier Loguette, obviously hiring Dave Canalis
I really like as the head coach. So they've done at least a better
job of surrounding Bryce Young with a better environment. So yeah, I think
I'm not if I'm a Pantos fan, I'm not even concerned with wins and
losses. They're obviously going to still be one of the worst teams in the
league probably, But I think the most important thing is just allowing Bryce Young
to show what he's got and hopefully you end up at the end of the
year thinking, Okay, we have our franchise quarterback and we can move on
to the rest of this roster that still needs a lot of work. So
that's I think the most important thing. And I think Bryce Young it's a
really big year two for him now and showing and improving, because if he
doesn't improve, then all of a sudden, if you're a PANTOFS fan,
you start to have questions about whether or not he can be the franchise guy.
You know, two straight years of not playing very well and what is
now a better environment than at least last year. And on the college side,
we know you cover college extensively for PFF dot com. The Clemson Tigers,
a team that I cover half covered since twenty twenty were their pregame show
and other things I'm doing down there for those guys, you know, last
year was disappointing, the year before, every hell, they're not in the
playoffs, it's disappointing. Let's just face it, but the fact that Kate
Klubnick showed some moxie there in that bowl game, had some good moments,
had some not so good moments, And do you see him bouncing back this
year and fulfilling some of those initial expectations And your thought on their defense if
you will, because you know, as you know, there are some guys
like Peter Woods and others up on that front four that are just going to
be really hard to manage if you're an offensive line. Yeah, I think
the best thing at Clemson is by far their defense. I think they have
one of the best defenses we have in college football right now, and I
think that's what's keeping them as a top fifteen team now. The questions are
obviously along the offense and mainly in their passing game with Kate Clubnick and what
has been an underwhelming group of receivers for clan that's kind of a few years
honestly, and remaining the same right now because frankly, there's not hitting a
transportal at all to alleviate that. But yeah, there's a huge question marks
from me around Kate Clubnick. I still you know, he was a five
star quarterback coming out of high school. But he hasn't really shown that he's
lived up to that yet through two years so far. So it's a big,
big year three for him, and I think he is going to be
the biggest X factor for how far Clemson could go. And Garrett Riley and
his partnership, you know, that was really hyped up last year didn't really
come to fruition. That's gonna be a huge thing in your three. And
you're three for Club Nickdown, you're two for Garrett Riley. So yeah,
that's a that's a big part of it. If Clebston's offense can catch up
to the defense a little bit, I think it could absolutely be the favorite
in the agency and be one of the top teams in college football. Honestly,
I think the defense would be that good. All right, are you
counting down the days for Ya's release of the College Football Game? Be honest,
You've got you've got something on your phone like alerts every day. Right,
We're exciting, We're stoked about this game. Thanks. Honestly, I
just bought an EA College Fable twenty five poster. It's actually with the pop
tart, the pop tar and the cover of it's the pop Tart Bowls.
Yeah, that PFF graphic and we actually someone actually turned the PFF graphic we
had into a poster and I bought it. I'm gonna had it up pretty
soon, So that should answer your question. That's how excited I am for
this game coming up. We'll get each other's gamer tags here. How young
kids? How you doing it? Like interactively on this show because we're in
the same boat as you, buddy, Next Chadwick, PFF dot com promote
stuff. Man, what's going on this summer leading up as we're less than
eighty days away from the NFL season. Yeah, I appreciate that. So
obviously I cover collgootball for PFF. So right now we actually are publishing full
team previews for all seventy Power four teams, power five teams, whatever you
want to say, yes, and also ten Group of five teams as well,
So full team previews are going up on PFF dot com really soon,
honestly. And then the PFF College Football Show that I host as well.
You can find a YouTube anyway you can podcast. We're putting out a number
of videos every week covering college football, previewing the twenty twenty four season.
And full team previews for every team in COLLG football. We'll be going up
on the YouTube channel as well, and anyway your your podcast, so check
out all this stuff at PFF dot com and article form and then in video
and audio for we can check out the PF College Football Show as well.
My show prep will be done when I have that guide that you're talking about
from a college football show that I do in the fall. Thanks for all
you do, man. We can't wait to talk to you again, and
we'll keep promoting to find work you do out there at PFF bud. I
really appreciate that, guys. Thank you