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Joining us now though, a guy
that we can't talk to enough. He's

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a rising star every single day.
The guy is going to be running the

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planet in about ten years, but
for right now he is one of the

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lead analyst at PFF dot Com.
Does way too much that I even squeeze

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into this intro. We'll ahead and
do that in a little bit. It's

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Trevor Sikham on the line. Trevor, how you'd been brother, Guys.

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I am doing fantastic and as always
appreciate you having me on the show.

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Man. I'm just appreciating the fact
that every time I turn on the TV

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or I put on Twitter, your
front page news. Trevor, you really

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are and your little old Clemson his
debo said, little old game on little

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old John and Trey. You hadn't
forgotten about us, man. Congrats all

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your success. Man. I love
talking about with you guys, So I

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appreciate the kind words. That has
been really cool, especially since taking the

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lead draft analyst gig at PFF.
But always got time to chat ball with

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you guys because I always really enjoy
it. Well, draft season never stops,

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man, I means you know,
I mean, you've been doing the

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work during the summer, and it'll
be here before you know it, where

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we'll be talking about, hey,
eight seven, six months out, who's

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gonna be in the running for these
quarterbacks? And you got another crop of

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quarterbacks that need to prove their metal
first. And I'm not just talking about

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the ones that were just drafted.
Let's go back two years now and look

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back at what happened. Bryce Young
number one overall. I think a lot

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of people thought that was the sensible
pick, but some disagreed. CJ.

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Stroud a lot of upside with those
mechanics being so clean, comes right in,

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has great success with Bobby slowecan company
of course, Tomiko Ryans, Anthony

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Richardson, interesting case study. And
then you got Will Levis and a host

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of others from that class that were
non quarterbacks. If we can just steal

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a minute of your time, what
did you make of their initial seasons?

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And is the table already set for
those first two guys? Do we know

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that Bryce will struggle? Do we
know Stroud won't have struggles? And what's

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up with anything Richardson's elbow or shoulder? I should say, what's going on

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there? Yeah? So look,
I mean you could you could talk a

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while about a lot of these guys, because I think there's a lot of

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things to go into it. Ultimately, you know, this is a massive

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year for Bryce, and it's you
know, sort of unfair to him because

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Carolina's situation was even worse than we
thought it was going to be, right.

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I mean, when Bryce gets out
there, very clearly he I don't

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think anybody would have told you in
his scouting report that he was going to

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be able to, you know,
PLoP down in the NFL and just win

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physically. For him, it was
always it was a mental thing, you

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know, when he had so much
success in Alabama, whether it was team

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success or individual success, he came
through his football IQ, right, it

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was it was between the years,
as they say, under the helmet,

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right, it was so he saw
the game and the pre snap and the

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post snap. It was how he
dealt with pressure. It was what he

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was when his back was against the
wall was so impressive. And in Carolina,

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he just it was so overwhelming,
like he had not had that time

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at the NFL level to be able
to develop that kind of anticipation, recognition

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and wisdom for the game, if
he will, And so it was hard

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to really find any sort of success
with him or the team last year.

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Now, I think they're going to
be a little bit better this year.

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But you know, again, like
I think a lot of people are excited

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about Dave Canalis as the offensive mine
now in the building, but let's face

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it, I mean Canas it's not
like he was lighting the world on fire

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to the first half of the season
last year. Yeah, Caampa's offense kind

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of caught fire towards the last five
six games of the year, but you

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don't know if that was just a
hot streak with the team or if it

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was really Canala's kind of figuring things
out and they end up giving him a

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head coaching gig, and that was
his first year as a play caller last

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year, so there is a there
is a big risk there as well.

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I know it's kind of tough because
you want to be optimistic about these teams,

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but it's it's just tough and bright
the situation to think, Okay,

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well, yeah, I think it's
going to look better next year, but

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how much better? I think the
team has gotten better, and I hope

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it looks better for him. I
think he's got a better supporting cast that

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I certainly hope he does. Drought
unbelievable, man. And I think that

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Houston Texans had one of the best
offseasons of any team in the league,

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just improving. You know, not
only their their their their passing weapons.

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You know, they've got you a
Mixon, now, they've got Stefan Diggs.

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You know you'll get Tank Dell back
and he'll be healthy. But also

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right, nobody talks about that,
But you're one of the first people we've

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had on this show at your level
to even bring up the fact that Houston

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they got better. They didn't stand
pat they added pieces. It's not just

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Diggs mix and I forgot all about
that. It's been so much going on.

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And you bring in Slowick back for
year two. That's huge to retain

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him, Yes, I mean completely, And like you go to the defensive

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side of the football too. I
mean I think they drafted well. They

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bring in Danielle Hunter, who I
think you know, I know, Jonathan

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Grinard had a really good year opposite
Will Anderson last year at the edge spot,

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but I'd take Danielle Hunter over Jonathan
Grinard. So I think they even

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upgraded there as well. So the
team just got way better this offseason.

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So I think that Stroud is going
to continue to evolve. You've seen so

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much confidence that he has had both
in the season last year and throughout the

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offseason this year. So it's been
a lot of fun to see. He's

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going to be great. For Richardson, it really just is all about staying

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healthy, right. I think I
liked what I saw last year from him,

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the connection that he had with Shane
Stike and the head coach there,

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who's also the offensive mine in Indianapolis. And you could see a lot of

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how Steike and already very well understood
what Richardson brought to the table, not

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only his strengths but also his weaknesses
and a rookie as well, So he

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was mitigating a lot of those weaknesses. He wasn't forcing Richardson to, you

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know, go through full field reads
or make all these calls to the line

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of scrimmage. You know, he
was leaning on the offensive line, that

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veteran offensive line to be able to
do that, and he was making a

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lot of half field reads for him. You know a lot of a lot

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of concepts like smash concepts or sale
concepts where you're just kind of putting one

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defender in conflict and you're saying,
hey, read the safety or read the

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corner. If he drops, you
throw it underneath it. If he stays

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shallow, you pop it over his
head. And so I think he already

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saw that last year and what they
were trying to design. And so a

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fully healthy yeer from Ansthey and Richardson
at least gives them the opportunity to evolve

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their game plan as Richardson gets better
and gets more acclimated to the pros.

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I'm also excited to see Will Levis
as well, right, I mean,

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Levice is some guy who I mean, he's got all the confidence in the

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world. Looked very fearless last year
when Tennessee was not a very good football

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team. And look, I don't
know how much better of a football team

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they're going to be this year.
But they went out and the you know,

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they added Calvin Ridley, and they've
got a good wide receiver room.

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They've got Tyler Boyder as well.
You know, I have Derrick Henry,

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but you substitute a guy who can
help out in the path and game,

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like Tony Pollard. You pair him
with Taja Spears, and so hopefully the

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offensive line is a little bit better
because Brian Callahan takes over as the head

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coach. But the big X factor
there is his dad, longtime NFL coach

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and offensive line guru, Bill Callahan, who was with the Cleveland Browns over

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the last four years to develop one
of the best offensive lines in the NFL.

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He comes over to now beyond his
son's coaching staff in Tennessee, so

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you're hoping the offensive line gets a
boost there. So don't forget about Will

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Levis E. There is a guy
who I'm also very excited about to see

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what year two is like for him. Again, this is why we love

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Trevor Sickham on this show because he's
always bringing up things that no other analyst

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is. I've been talking for weeks
to the point where Trey Falco here wants

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me to shut up about it about
Bill Callahan and the effect that could have

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on Tennessee positively and even maybe negatively
on Cleveland. Who will lose most notably

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No Callahan, who is the probably
other than Stoutlan, the best at what

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he does in this league. And
that's even the debate this year's quarterback class.

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Look, we've exhausted all the takes, so far on that if you

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had to kind of look into that
second wave there you're talking about. Of

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course, the Michael Pennock's decision.
We've talked about that. I'm looking at

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two guys in particular, JJ McCarthy
and bow Nick. Size those situations up

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and where you see them being in
the course of this season, whether they're

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in the lineup, starting on the
bench. What's you read on that.

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No, I think that both of
these guys, at the very least the

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second half of the season, both
of them are starting quarterbacks. You know,

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when I look at McCarthy, I
actually think that the Sam Donold's dining

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was one of the more underrated free
agency moves that we had this offseason because

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it allowed them to have flexibility to
go about the draft the way that they

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wanted to and also not have to
start whoever their rookie quarterback was going to

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be right away. We now know
that' JJ McCarthy And for McCarthy, I

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think that it's paramount. It's very
important because you don't want to throw a

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quarterback out there when they are not
confident in themselves enough to learn from failure,

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right And that's the way that I
answer all of these questions when somebody

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goes, well, how early is
too early to throw out a starting quarterback?

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When would you put a starting quarterback
out there? And to me the

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answer is always well, first and
foremost, I can't answer this question on

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the outside of the building. And
two, if I was inside the building,

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the way that I would answer it
that's different for everybody, is is

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your quarterback, your young quarterback confident
within themselves to where when they fail,

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which is inevitable, they do not
doubt their own abilities and instead are able

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to learn from those failures and get
back out there and try to not repeat

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what they have failed on. So
that is a big question mark to me.

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And with McCarthy, you know,
coming from a very run heavy system,

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from the hard bio system when he
was in Michigan, being one of

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the younger quarterbacks in the class,
it's a good thing that they don't have

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to throw him out there right away. I think that Donald will probably start.

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The way that I look at it, I target that week seven date

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for JJ McCarthy because I believe week
six is there bye week and then they

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are at home against the Detroit Lions
in week seven. So to me,

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five weeks of Sam Darnold's the starting
quarterback, but a month and a half

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into the season, that's when you
can then probably make the switch over to

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JJ McCarthy, depending on how the
team is doing. So I do think

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that he becomes a starter eventually.
Nicks I think could very well start even

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before then, right because next you
look at him one of the older quarterback

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prospects, a guy with a ton
of experience most starts in college football history,

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got a lot of wisdom to his
game already. You know, certainly

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he needs to acclimate the NFL speed, NFL defenses, his own NFL offense

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is who he is throwing to,
all of that, but you know,

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it's not like things should really rattle
him too much. It's going to take

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him a little bit to get comfortable. But I think Sean Payton's going to

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want to put that guy out there
sooner rather than later. Trevor, as

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John said earlier, Draft season never
really ends, and so I kind of

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want to look ahead because I saw
an article last week posted on PFF talking

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about your twenty twenty five NFL draft
offensive players to look out for, and

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interestingly enough, I saw for the
Pittsburgh Steelers, you have Carson Beck with

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Georgia. Now, I think it's
it's it's obviously no surprise that we have

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question marks at the quarterback position here
in Pittsburgh. Why Carson Beck? And

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how realistic do you see that going
into the twenty twenty five season. What

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does Pittsburgh like? I guess what
has to go right or wrong this season

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for Pittsburgh to land a player like
Carson Beck. Well, there's kind of

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a lot of factors there. Right. It's I'm not picking Beck necessarily because

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I look at Pittsburgh and say like, oh, great schem fit or anything.

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It's really just, hey, if
they have a quarterback, need you

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know Carson Beck, shod or Standers? Maybe you know Connor Wigman from Texas

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A and m maybe Quinn Ears.
Although I'm not as high on Yours or

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Standers as a lot of other people
are. You're just kind of looking at

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that quarterback situation and you say,
Okay, how hot If Pittsburgh is looking

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for a quarterback, right, because
what r Wilson's on a one year deal

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justin Fields on the last year of
his Jorgy contract. There is a reality

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where they try out both those guys
that don't work very well. I know

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it's sack relgious to say this at
this point, but maybe Pittsburgh finishes below

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five hundred with Mike Tomlin. Although
I feel like I would bet on the

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world to end before I would bet
on that half, right, But you

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know, it's just sort of a
where are they going to be picking if

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they need a quarterback? And who
are you selecting there? And I pick

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Carson Beck because a lot of people
have him as a potential QB one going

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into the season, but he's not
necessarily like Caleb Williams type of QB one

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where you go, Okay, well
you got to be picking number one overall

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or you don't have a chance.
I think we're going to go into this

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quarterback class and until one of these
guys really stands out, which I think

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these guys could be NFL starters,
but maybe not necessarily this consensus they're going

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to take over the franchise Tase to
players think he's a little bit more question

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marks. Although I was impressed with
Beck last year, certainly towards the end

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of the season how well he played, But to me, it's more of

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just how high is Pittsburgh going to
be selecting a quarterback, and if they're

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really going to be moving on from
Russ, I feel like that means that

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they're probably only going to win about
sixty seven games this season. And if

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that's the case, maybe you're within
Carson Beck range tacking somewhere around the top

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ten now going into this obviously this
season it's it's a quarterback competition between looks

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like Russell Wilson Justin Fields. Obviously
it seems to be Russell Wilson's job right

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now. Justin could come along and, you know, show up and maybe

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do something and be the guy that
we want him to be. Let's say,

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at the end of the year or
at the end of the season we're

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done. Both Russell and Justin have
kind of shown that they're pretty good kind

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of long term, I guess medium
term as you can. If you don't,

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you dare bring up Carolina into this
conversation, mister Fitterer is now with

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Washington. We're not doing that.
I'm going with this is who do you

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retain at the end of this season, between Russell Wilson and Justin Fields.

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Do you go with someone like a
veteran like Russell Wilson And obviously this all

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depends on how are they going to
play. We have no idea what they

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look like here in this ARTI Smith
system. But do you stick with a

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veteran like Russell Wilson that could potentially
mentor a young up and quartering up and

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coming quarterback that they may draft,
or do you go with someone younger like

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Justin Fields that can maybe play a
little bit longer and give that quarterback time

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to adjust to the NFL. Yeah, I mean, there's so many factors

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there at play there, and I
think the question that immediately comes to my

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mind is you got to understand probably
where you are as a team, right,

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because when I look at the Pittsburgh
Steelers, I think that you look

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at the defense side of the ball
and there's some veterans that are still kind

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of holding their end of things right. You know, TJ. Watt is

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there, Cam Hayward is there?
Those the pillar players, you know,

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Mega Fitzpatrick as well, like those
to me are sort of like the pillar

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veteran players that you have on the
defensive side of the ball. If you

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think you are still a team that
with those guys, you're in a winning

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window both in twenty twenty five and
probably twenty twenty six, you probably rather

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go with an experienced quarterback really like
Russell Wilson. But when I look at

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the Steelers, they're very close to
turning the page on a lot of those

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guys that they're going to be out
of the building. I'm not trying to

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say that they're like wash up or
anything like that, But you look at

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the rest of the roster, I
think it's probably the better way that I

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say that. Well, it's like
George Pickens, Roman Wilson. Now you

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look at the offensive line, it's
Zach Frazier, scrog Faltanu, It's Mason

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McCormick, it's Roger Jones, who
you drafted last year. You know,

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you got Jalen Warren as well.
You know, Nagie Harris is still a

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younger guy. You've got guys like
on the defensive side of things, keanum

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Benton, you got Joey Porter Junior. You just drafted some guys as well

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in the secondary and so like you've
got Alex Tyson at too, Peyton Wilson.

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So like you've just got such a
I think when people think about the

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Steelers, they think the roster is
more of a veteran led roster than it

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really is, and it's not.
There's much more younger rookie contract players on

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the team, And if you're sort
of trying to go with the youth movement,

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if it's all the same, you're
probably gonna go with Justin Fields because

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he kind of fits that mold a
little bit more and he's a little bit

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younger. You might get even more
contracts out of him, and he's just

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going to a much younger team.
But if you're trying to kind of like

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win for the short term, I'd
probably go with Russell Wilson. But there's

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so many factors and how these guys
played that would go into that, right.

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I was thinking about you earlier this
week, Trevor Sikima PFF dot com.

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Trevor, we've been friends for a
while and I know your roots are

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very much in Tampa Bay. Monte
Kiffin passed away, as you well know,

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eighty four years old, and many
was such a great gentleman of the

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game, but more so than that, he was a great teacher, great

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schematic mind. Of course, with
Tony Dungee Tampa to Defense, part of

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the creation of that was the brain
power of one Montey Kiffin and I just

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thought of you earlier, and I'm
glad we've got you here because I know

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that, you know, our teams
squared off a lot in that era,

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Montic Kiff and Derek Brooks along with
John Lynch, and then you had Smith

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the Lome, Stephen Davis, and
boy, those were some battles and nothing

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but respect. But your perspective on
certainly somebody I know you looked up to

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greatly Monti Kiffin. Yeah, just
a legend man. You know. I

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never had the opportunity to meet him
in person, but you know, just

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listening to a lot of people and
reading a lot of people talk about their

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accounts of getting to meet him,
whether it was Buff Stands that I know,

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or you know, coaches, you
know, but whatever, it just

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felt like he was he was a
godfather of the godfather to the game in

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so many ways, not only schematically
and kind of his brilliance of how he

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and Tony Dungee were able to put
together the Tampa two with that Tampa defense

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and all those Hall of famers that
were on that defense, but just also

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the kind of person that he was
and how generous he was with his time

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and his wisdom, and his knowledge, and you know, I think the

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not just the game of the world, I think lost a great person in

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the passing of money Kiffen, and
he's somebody who you know, I tweeted

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this out. His innovation and his
impact on defense is a big reason why

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I became such a big Bucks fan
when I was growing up, because it

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was so much fun to watch that
team and to really get behind a team

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that played such great defense. And
you know, defense can oftentimes be more

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of the team togetherness, part of
the two sides of the ball. You

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know, we're offense, you can
have a couple of people dominate and you

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know, you can have your stars
on there. But for defense, you

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know, it takes a whole unit. Six guys are working together. And

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you know, fortunately for Tampa they
were terrible for so long that they were

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able to draft a lot of really
good players. And you know, they

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had a lot of really great players
on the team. But when when when

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Monte Kiffin and Tony done, you
were there. So I just huge impact

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guys within the Tampa community, within
the Tampa organization, and their work really

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did inspire a generation of Bucks fans
in Tampa. Bay Well said Trevor Sikom

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at PFF dot com, who is
just doing a tremendous job on so many

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levels. I know you have a
lot of projects, but one of my

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favorites is the NFL Stock Exchange podcast
with Connor Rogers. And today, as

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we all are are most of us
at least and my son at home right

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now, is I'm going to be
speeding home to this playing the first peak

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at what is going to be many
many hours in front of the television with

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the A's twenty five game. You
guys put out a top one hundred players

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for this season's game. Talk about
that and promote what else you got going

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on here. Yeah, so you
know, we're right in the middle of

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summer scouting. This is for our
NFL Stockey Change show that we do on

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YouTube, and we just finished up
the offensive side of the ball, so

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we got all the way quarterbacks through
the offensive line, and we've gone through

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our summer scouting for the twenty twenty
five NFL Draft going into the season,

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and we kind of had this free
week here in between the week before we

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started the defensive side of the ball, and it was perfect timing with college

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football coming out in college football released
the game release their top one hundred ranked

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players, and so myself and my
coast Connor Rodgers, we went over those

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top one hundred rated players and we
talked about, you know, from our

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scouting eye, what we have watched
from a lot of the offensive players who

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we think is a little too high, a little too low, who we

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think are going to be the cheat
codes in the games that they're going to

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either make you pull your hair out
or make your friends lives miserable because you're

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beating the crap out of them with
spamming one play in one player. Soe

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No, it was a great conversation. It was a lot of the NFL

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stock exchange on YouTube. Can you
reveal the team you're going to lead to

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glory here? What is the team
of choice for Trevor Sikaman in this game?

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I was thinking about this and I
think I might pick Vanderbilt. Right.

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When you think about Vanderbilt, it's
like a true challenge. You know,

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you're facing SEC team every single week. You know it's a true uphill

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battle. Now you gotta face Texas
and Oklahoma. Well, like bringing Vanderbilt

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to glory would truly be just an
incredible you know, a display of coaching

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and program building, and you know, maybe stealing one recruit that you know

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it. Want to be a cheekos
and you had to you, I'm actually

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going to Nebraska to replace Matt Rule
tonight. It's going to be a three

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year process, not seven trade.
We got to seal the store with mister

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Rule. You're the best man.
Enjoy the game tonight and we'll catch up

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with you, all right. Yeah, I appreciate it. Guys anytime,