And board is a good right here. Our good friend Mark Scofield from sbnation
dot Com has made his way to the Ingleside line to give us the best
in the business in terms of rap perspectives. He's been out there covering,
among other things, the F one circuit and he makes a pit stop here,
Mark, how you doing your head spinning? My head is spinning,
my friend. And I do like your sort of race analogy there, although
I want to tweak it a little bit because I have a good lifelong friend.
We actually, you know, played baseball when we were like five.
I mean we've been left long friends who played baseball and ran Shock and Field
together. And he's one of those crazy people. He just ran I think
his twenty ninth Boston marathond Oh my goodness, wow, couple of days ago.
That's crazy. Well, my good friend Jason Burke likes to do He's
done this a couple of times, just what he calls the Double Boston and
so a couple of years ago, who was his most recent where he goes
out to the finish line around six am and runs back to the start.
He gets there around the time the race begins and then turns around goes back
to the actual finish line. That's what he caused a double Boston draft.
It's kind of like the double Boston because we're going to get to a finish
line on Saturday, but we're going to turn right around and start yelling about
Caleb Williams and Michael Pennocks Junior and Drake may come Monday morning. So we
are in a perpetual double Boston marathon when it comes to covering the draft.
Look, we're writing it down, We're putting it in the sound bank,
Double Boston. We'll forever live in game on lore. Here, I feel
like I've been stuck in a double Boston cycle here with the Panthers, back
and forth, back and forth, Darnel maybe Garoppolo. Now let's do this
Baker Mayfield thing. You and I've talked about this, and here they sit.
You know, a lot of smoke, a lot of talk, and
a lot of it's coming through Reddit. Apparently that here comes Will Levis charging
up the gates here in terms of the betting odds, Let's just continue to
say that for the sake of argument, it maybe breaks young here. I
think all signs tend to point in that direction for the sake of this exercise,
when you look at the Alabama quarterback coming into this particular offense, if
they do indeed pick him, what's the fit there? How do they work
together in terms of not just his size, we know the story there,
but his traits and what Frankreich does offensively well. I mean, I think
John, You've talked a lot about this. I saw you on social media
earlier. This we talking about, you know, the basic premise and starting
point from the Panthers and for their fans should be whoever they decide to pick
is going to be in a very good position to be successful. I do
a lot of sort of fantasy shows, and I get asked at the end
of bunch, Okay, well, who's going to end up being the QB
one fantasy wise out of this draft class? And I always say it's whoever
Carolina drafts because of the wealth of knowledge and the experience in quarterback development as
well as offensive philosophy and game Planet and things like that. But whoever they
had up drafted first overall, whether it's Price Young as we expect, or
the shock of all shocks, it's Will Levis and somebody on read it was
actually right, that quarterback is going to be in a position to be successful.
Now, what will that offense look like? I think, you know,
again the assumption here the exercises that it's Bressan. I think you'll see
a lot of quick game concepts. Again, the point guard analogy in comparison.
It's something that makes a lot of sense with him because he's a distributor,
but he's also a creator. And so though there'll be someone he might
sort of term free flowing aspects to this offt it's not going to be a
rigid five seven three step drop kind of offense. They're going to let him
create a little bit. There's going to be opportunities for him to create outside
of the pocket. They might get him on the move, they might roll
the pocket, you know, spread them out of times to get him to
the edges, to let him create, because that's sometimes where he's at his
best is create an explosive play down field. But I think you're going to
see an episis on quick game, spreading the ball out, getting the ball
out of his hand quickly after the snap, letting them be that creator distributor
that he showed throughout his career at Alabama. And showed that he could do
at an extremely high level. And so I would expect the offense to look,
you know, like that, to have a lot of spread elements to
it. Let him get the ball quickly, attack horizontally, attack to space,
get players to football, you know, to let them create after the
catch, and then take your shots downfield as well, because he's a tremendously
talented quarterback and he can make any throw. He can put the ball where
it needs to be, regardless of concept, coverage, leverage, And I
think, like I said, whoever the draft is going to be in a
position to be successful. But I think of brush on, the talent they
have in the building around the quarterback position will put him in a position to
be successful. Yeah, I go those sentiments on Bryce Young, who still
remains, in many eyes, the favorite to go to Carolina. But hey,
look it's two days away. We'll see what happens on thee Mark Skifield
ESPN dot Com is our guest here breaking down the draft. Let's talk well
Levis for a minute. The stock is rising here so to speak. Gods
go to number one Vegas today, and you know, maybe that holds up.
Maybe that's just the betting odds, and we see this every year.
But let's assume will Levis will be going pretty high in this draft. We
all agree on that. What are the traits? What do you like?
You work with Liam Cohen obviously up there in Kentucky. He's got experienced under
center, But give us an idea of what the concerns might be about his
game. We know the arm, talent, is it footwork? Is it
mechanics? He's had an interesting ride at Kentucky, a lot of injuries around
a lot of guys that were out, He had some injuries. What's your
assessment of will Evis and your projection for him? Yeah, it's interesting because
who is some quarterbacks, you know, particularly Bryce you on Stroud, you
might have a question, well, how are they going to handle life when
they don't have you know, was Stroud for example, when he's not thrown
to Garrett Wilson and Marvin Harrison Junior. What's life going to be like?
Right? You know? You almost wonder is it going to be tougher for
them adjusting to the perhaps different level of talent and perhaps that talent is a
step back when they get to an NFL roster. It's the flip side of
Levis. I mean, whenever the team that drafts them makes that decision,
you know, in that conference room on Thursday night, they're gonna look at
what he did last year. But he played with last year, and you've
seen some articles and reported about him in the past couple of days that,
oh, you know, he had one good receiver to throw to. The
offensive line wasn't great around him, you know, second offensive coordinator in two
years from Cohen to Scangarrello, and he was banged up, he was getting
his shoulder injections, he had the toe injury. Those are gonna be a
lot better for him in our system, in our environment, on our roster,
with our talent, and so it's one of those rare cases where you
can make the case that they will get better for him when he gets to
the NFL, and some stability will certainly help him. Now, for work
is an issue, you know, and you wonder if the toe injury had
a part to do with that. But there are times when the toes aren't
lined up, the hallway isn't set, as we like to say when we're
talking mechanics, and that's led to some misthrows, some poorly placed throws,
you know, but the armed talent is there, the offensive background is there.
He's what we like to call the guy that gets the quote pro style
offense tag right, doing the under center of play action, drop them back,
turning this back to the defense. The things we typically like to see
quarterback. He's doing at the next level. He's doing at the college level
more than some of the other guys in this class. So there's certainly a
foundation to build on. And I know we've talked about this before, John,
when Carolina was sitting at nine, and you know, all the things
I said about the offensive staff and the experience of wisdom they have were still
in place. I thought, Okay, well, if they end up with
quarterback four and it's Bill Levis, that could certainly work because of what they
can do and how they can develop and what the staff has done in the
past at different stops around the NFL. And so I still think it's a
very talented quarterback prospect. Yes, he's Q before, but I still expect
them on this Q before in my mind. But I still expect them to
call up the board in the top ten, top eleven. Two would surprise
me. One would certainly surprise me, right, But we've both lived enough
NFL drafts to realize that you can't. You know you're going to get surprised
along the way, whether it's a Levis or something else. Something else going
to happen, or something will happen on Thursday, and it's going to lead
us all a little surprise. That's why my money stays out of Vegas.
Dude, I gotta pay bills, and I have any time for that trauma.
As we talked about, Will Levis is shooting up the draft boards,
at least from Vegas' perspective, maybe projected number one that but we'll see what
happens. Mark Scofield, espionation dot Com. By the way, I saw
Yeall's mock draft there. You got him going to Tennessee Levis, and I
still think that's a really unique fit for him. And I look at Richardson,
Anthony Richardson from Florida, tell me if I'm wrong here, and I
think Chris Ballard from talking people around the league, you get the sense they
kind of lean Levis there. Maybe I don't have my fact straight, but
I look at Shane Stikeen, I look at Jonathan Taylor in the backfield and
what they could do with Anthony Richardson. Maybe not right off the bat in
week one, but give him sort of the Jalen Hurt's offensive treatment. There's
a blueprint there right to make that work. If not the Colts, maybe
where does he fit in and how does he progress in terms of hey day
one starter? Maybe he needs time? Do you ostimize the offense? Just
help our listeners understand the Anthony Richardson processor. Yeah, and John, you're
absolutely right. I'm one pcent with you. I look at what Shenstyken did
with jam And Hurts in Philadelphia, how he developed him over the past two
seasons from a quarterback that you know, this time last year they were acquiring
a future first round pick as a hedge on jam And Hurts. A year
later and he's the highest faid player in NFL history. I mean, that's
a record of that's a record of quarterback development that you would like to see
perhaps replicating Indianapolis. If you're a Colts fan and I look at Richardson,
and you know, I think it's almost a kind of one to one fit
because you know, the athletics is in the ability to use Richardson in the
run game, the ability to develop him as a passer. You know,
I think Indianapolis would be a fantastic destination for him, and I would be
surprised if he's available when the Cults are on the clock and they go in
a different direction. But again, I expect some surprises later on this week.
Now. As far as Richards in the prospect, I know there's this
I idea in some circles that he needs a year, two years, you
know, I don't know about that. I've put them back on it a
little bit because I think he just needs reps. I think it needs time.
Thank you. Yes, let's go. Let's get him out there,
my bullets, baby, no better time than the president. I'm with you,
Mark. And I don't know if it's a week one thing, but
I always like to use kind of the fall holidays as like lines of demarcation.
You know, I look at Halloween, I look at Thanks Give and
I look at New Year's right, I'd like to see him on the field
around Halloween. You know, it depending on the situation and how things are
going for the team that ultimately drafts him. You know, because you watch
him on film and I played that. You know, we go through this
process and play stick in our mind that we use on shows and radio shows
and things like that. But he had a smash concept, a flat seven
smash. You get the corner route and a route the flat again South Florida.
And they showed him too deep safeties middlefield open, priest. Now they
spent its middle, they show middlefield closed. They spend to middlefield open.
So cover one to cover two or cover three to cover two. Yeah,
right at the snap and he gets his eyes right to that curl flat defender
in the right flat moves him down to the flat route, and then on
the last step of his drap hits throws the corner route on time and rhythm,
perfect place. Yeah, it's like he does out. Yeah, he
does how to play the game. But that's the narrative. You got to
kill right. He can process, he could process. His eyes tend to
be right. It's sometimes other things are got to get caught up. And
when a quarterback's eyes tend to be right, that makes you think they don't
need time to learn from the sidelines, right, They need time on the
field to just go out and do it. And so you know, maybe
it's not weak one, but sooner rather than later. I want to see
him on the field as a rookie. The ceiling is so high with him,
and you put him in like I said with Taylor, you run some
zone read there. You could rush for two eighty a game and be that
sixty forty team at first, like they did with Jalen late in that twenty
twenty two seasons. Maybe it's just too obvious, but you know the owner
there has a heavy hand. Maybe he likes somebody else. You never know
what Jim say. It's a draft week frenzy here on a Tuesday and game
on quickly, Mark, we got about forty five seconds for this one.
CJ. Stroud. I don't want to talk S two testing because honestly,
I don't remember enough about it. I just don't want to get into it.
But in terms of the traits, in terms of how he projects,
give us maybe a forty five second elevator pitch for CJ. Strout as a
ball placement specialist, there are some throws there. He could not walk down
forty yards down field and handed to the receiver and put it in a better
spot than he actually did throwing it from the pocket. You know, you
look at you know the questions with Yon in the size perhaps Richardson can you
get them to where he needs to be? Levis can you fix what needs
to be fixed? You know, Stroud's the perhaps safe prospect of this four
and I saw a fantastic port recently. You know, when it comes to
the draft, some general managers, Yeah, you can take a swin if
you want, but sometimes you want that nice, easy, smooth sailing double.
Right. It gets you to second and you get into scoring position.
And maybe CJ. Stroud is to double in this class where you know,
maybe he doesn't have the explosive creativity like Gan or the upside of Richardson has,
but might not make you look foolish when you draft to get you put
the football where in last I checked John, that's a pretty big part of
the job. Yeah, that's that's what they say. You know, you
talk to guys like good buddy Greg co Sale. He always quotes Trademan.
If he can't put it where it needs to go, you got nothing.
And that's the name of the game. CJ's got that motion, it's so
smooth. But we'll see what happens here coming up in two days. Last
question, don't know if you heard Aaron Rodgers h you know he got traded?
Who hum? I was off the air yesterday, so I prerecorded the
show Mark and I get halfway the show, and of course I had to
be a dummy and say, yeah, you know, Rogers don't know if
this trade will happen. That's two minutes after the trade happens. So like
that's the perfect Johalist moment there. So in light of that it happens,
we knew it probably happened at some point. It's before the draft, which
is good for everybody involved here, including Jordan Love. And let's talk about
him specifically. We know Rodgers is, you know, one of the best
quarterbacks we've seen. He'll be fine there with New York. I'm more interested
in Jordan Loves projecting. We saw him play a little bit a couple of
years ago. Do you have a degree of confidence that he can, you
know, carry the torch and progress into a franchise guy or do they need
to bring in some competition. Well, I think the best vote of confidence
you can get, you know, you can discuss when it comes to Jordan
Love is, like you just said, this is one of the best quarterbacks
of all time and Aaron Rodgers, and it seemed like the Packers could not
wait to move on, could not wait to turn the page to Jordan Love.
And you know, Tyler Don Bob McGinn have done some incredible reporting over
the past couple of months about the excitement regarding Love in that building, and
you know, we've only seen glimpses of it, but the Packers have seen
him every day, you know, and they seem excited about what he offers.
There was a lot of excitement about Love. You know, early before
his final season in Utah, stayed up out Potentially you know, he'd be
in the quarterback in one of that class and of course in one of the
different direction. But you still see moments from him on film where the arm
is there, the velocity of the placement, the potential to create big spot
plays in the downfield passing game. Now, I think they're gonna have to
sort of bring them along a little bit slowly. And you know, part
of this Rogers trade is, you know, you get a real future draft
capital, perhaps as a hedge if things go self. But they were excited
to move to Love. They're excited to turn the page on Aaron Rodgers.
That tells me that they think they've got something with Jordan Loan. All right,
good bye you, Jordan Love Jersey spolks, book them, Let's go.
That's Mark Scofield nation dot com. What's on tap for you? You
got some draft stuff going on the F one series. Talk to us about
what you're working on in mad I'm doing a whole bunch of stuff over at
Spnation. But that's why we love that we do. We're gonna have all
sorts of draft stuff, you know, through Saturday night into Sunday morn.
We'll be doing best available as live grades, live draft Tracker best fits.
Don't be surprised if you say, why the Panthers drafted Bryce film piece for
me, come out, give me idea after that pick is turned in.
But then look, you know, I just talked to Lando Norris from McLaren
the F one drive. We've got one back this weekend Sprint series. Answered
by John. So I'm writing that up. We'll get that up. We
got a new F one hub over at SP Nation. You know, the
bosses have been excited about the coverage, and so you know, I basically
passed you know, football, Mark will pass the baton Saturday night to F
one mark as we get into the heart of the F one season here,
we've got you know, five races and six weeks coming up. We've got
Miami next weekend. Talked to Lando Norris about how excited he is for the
aust Las Vegas Grand Prix November. He was also talking about how much he
loves going down to Austin, which we get later the season as well,
and so it'll be a fun F one season. So we turned the draft
page to the F one page sometimes Sunday night