Speaker 1: Let's all start to what you want to presents. Off
the bench with Jacob Hester and T Bob Abert. Off
the bench with Jacob Hester and C Bob aber.
Speaker 2: I got to come off the bitch.
Speaker 1: Now here's Jacob Hester and T Bob aber.
Speaker 2: Yo and walkme in O TV one, O four five, ESPN,
Ben Rouge, Happy Monday morning, Jake, Alandra and Tata, No Bob.
You know when something happens over and over and over again,
sometimes you wonder is it real? And T Bob text
us yesterday so we were Look, we've been out. We've
both been out for a full week spring break with
the kiddos, and so went on a family get away
to the beach tea Bop, I believe went to see
The Grateful Dead again like his yearly Guys trip in
Las Vegas. He writes us, yesterday, I'm on the beach,
like actually on the beach. Was going to do the
show remotely today, he says, You're not gonna believe it,
but I have messed the flights up again. So I
don't know when he's getting back to Baton Rouge. It
is apparently not last night. Maybe he'll be back today,
but we do have laundry and tte here with us. Guys?
How was last week.
Speaker 3: All at that one? Because I was out two of
those days, so I'll.
Speaker 4: Speak when fine, it was a it was a.
Speaker 2: Well hey babe, head look fine.
Speaker 4: Well it was just like different people every day. But
we rolled with it.
Speaker 3: We made it happen for Hodgepodge, I don't know.
Speaker 2: What.
Speaker 3: I don't know.
Speaker 4: We made it happen.
Speaker 5: No, But when tea Bob's like, you're not gonna believe this,
I'm like, no, I absolutely believe this. I actually kind
of prepare myself ahead of time that you're going to
do this.
Speaker 2: So yeah, And he'd probably get mad if if I
asked him this if he was here. But how many
times has this been where he's been out for an
extended period of time and the day he's supposed to
come back, he's not back at least five every trip,
but it's at.
Speaker 4: At least five, I know free It was about this
time last year, let me a Victoria or at a
Sunday LSU baseball game. I am sitting there to Bob
text this, hey guys, actually coming back Monday and not today.
It was like Florida sundding it's Sunday afternoon to Bob,
like you can't, I rather thou better. Last week, like
when I was closing out the Thursday show, I was like,
I don't know what Jake's schedule looks like, because like
at the end of the week, you're going to be
at the draft, right.
Speaker 2: I mean I actually leave tomorrow afternoon.
Speaker 4: I know. I was like, I said, I don't know
Jake's schedule. I was like, for sure Bob is back there.
That was that was that's on you.
Speaker 2: That is a.
Speaker 3: I have to say. I still I feel like he knows.
Speaker 2: But then it's like, oh yeah, then it weighs on
him a little bit. Yeah.
Speaker 3: I think he just wants to stay an extra day
and he just tells me, which.
Speaker 2: Is fine, Yeah, give us, just tell us the extra day.
So let us know the extra day because it changes
our plans.
Speaker 5: Uh.
Speaker 2: So we drove back late last night, got back from
Panama City Beach, and we are here today, taite. I
appreciate you holding it down last week. I mean on it.
I'm not even joking about this part. I mean that
it was a lot a lot going on last week.
I mean tried to separate myself because I wasn't working
from like all the news cycle a little bit, but
it was so news heavy it was hard to escape.
Speaker 4: I got to do some things that, you know, like
some unfortunate with the some like I live reacted to
the leak course so new us, which hit me because
like that was one of my idols in the sports world,
Like for him calling to quit. Uh, you know, some
things I did not expect to go on last week,
but we we managed it. I thought, I thought we
handled it.
Speaker 2: One of the coolest moments that I've ever had on
a football field was me not playing. It was LSU
Texas at Texas Sorry Landra at twenty nineteen, and I
was there somehow, some way, I don't even remember how
it happened, but I had two sideline passes for the game,
like I had mine, and then somehow we got an
extra and Katie was traveling to the game, which she
always picksed like one game a year away game typically
and look as hard we got, you know, we got
five kids, even at the time we had four, but
she got away on that trip and we sat on
the sidelines together for the entire game, and it was
like me, Katie and Lee Corso like randomly sitting there
watching the game together. Uh, and it was just yeah,
core memory, cool memory. You're right, just an absolute legend.
I mean, everybody's got a story of Lee Corso putting
on like Mike the Tigers. Yeah head, you know somewhere
they they've seen it, either home or away games, shout
out Lee.
Speaker 5: But I think we can all agree it was. Yeah,
it was getting sad like.
Speaker 4: It was time a few years ago. I mean I remember,
I think I think I told this to uh maybe
me and moves that we're talking about it after the show,
and it was like, you know, last year there was
a game, like, of course I couldn't make it for
whatever reason. You know, it's like a hell thing. I
didn't realize he wasn't there, And it's like, you know,
it's one of those things where it's like I forgot
he wasn't on the set because he's only been there,
you know, ten to fifteen minutes at a time. But
if you're espn like, you got to let him go
when he wants to go, right, I mean, he's a legend.
You can't just you can't force him out. But at
the same time, like I appreciate that he's gonna be
ninety August seventh. Yeah, like it's time.
Speaker 5: Yeah, yeah, ninety Yeah, that's a shout out that's up there.
Speaker 2: Yees. Again, we all have memories of him, and you know,
most going to be home games here. As he picks LSU,
the crowd goes wild, puts on Mike Tiger's head, and so, yeah,
hell of a career for Lee Corso there's a lot
of players that are looking to start their career this week.
As I mentioned, I'm going to Green Bay tomorrow, I
think afternoon, like tbub now, I think I think we're
going tomorrow afternoon, get a chance to catch up with
every player that's going to be in attendance on Wednesday.
So we're going to start that pretty early. So that's
gonna be cool. Certainly going to send some of that
soundback Will Campbell, you know, any potential Saints draft d
gonna send that soundback. So looking forward to that. I'll
be there with EJ. And then Thursday Friday gonna be
doing live shows from Green Bay reacting to the first
and second round. And then for the first time ever
for the Draft, I'll be on NFL Radio and we're
doing the Grind we're doing third, fourth, fifth, sixth, and
seventh round. Oh oh yeah, all the way through. There's
no time on it. It's just you're going to go
until the final pick until mister irrelevant. I'm excited, slash
a little bit nervous because as y'all know that the
draft can drag on. Yeah, and when that left tackle
from South Dakota State gets picked, we got to be
ready to go with some kind of a little nugget
about that tackle from South Dakota State.
Speaker 4: It's harder, obviously, but like it's probably a little bit
more exciting. It's like the first round. Like you may
not know if a guy is gonna go like eight
or twelve, but you kind of got an idea of
like who's going to go in the first round. Like
I imagine four through seven is just a crap shoot.
Speaker 2: I mean, there's gonna be a lot of day so
and a lot of people give me a hard time,
But I have a draft binder. So I put together
a binder and it's typically got like one hundred and
fifty names in it. Because again, like I've never had
really go this deep into the bag. I've done rounds
one through three, never done the full draft, so it's
gonna have to expand we're talking probably like three hundred players.
So Gordy, I apologize. I'm using the Company Inc. Whenever
I print said bind her out. But I gotta be
ready to go.
Speaker 3: You gotta do.
Speaker 2: Yeah, Like I don't want to be there because I
think it's Jason Horowitz who's the voice of the Raiders,
me New Heisel, and then somebody else another NFL radio
typical host, and so I'm the college guy, like I
don't want them to throw to me in be like
uh guard from n C State. I got nothing and
gotta have something for everybody. Yeah, so I apologize in
advance for the ink that I'm going to use from
the Company Printer. There another thing, like we talked about
having a ton of news to get to last week
Taylor and having plenty to talk about LSU baseball getting
swept last week. How was the vibe? I can imagine
the vibes were high on Monday coming in the studio.
Speaker 4: So it wasn't But also, like you know as well
as I do, T Bomb can't do a normal live read, right,
So the funniest part a Landra's playing the recorded live read.
I just broke down about LSU baseball getting swept. She
plays the live read and T Bob go I think
it was dozekis T Bob Goes speaking of great baseball,
and it was just it was just the cherry on
top of a of a weekend. I mean, Jake, like
our first hour on Monday, we reacted to the Carr
and Lacy news. We reacted LSU baseball getting swept, and
we reacted to LSU softball getting swept. That was the
first that one on Monday. It was it was rough.
They both got swept on the same weekend. But the
mood improved as the week went on, for sure, But
it was a rough Monday.
Speaker 2: I know, I really did. Like I thought about you,
I was like, man, what what? What a bad time
to just leave Tate out there on an island. I
mean a lot of news, none of it was good
when it comes to LSU, and just a tough, tough
way to start last week. But but we'll step away
and when we get this thing started, when we come
back a little bit better news not you know, softball
had some ups and downs. They had some opportunities, for sure,
but they did get a victory on the road in
the SEC. Baseball does bounce back. We'll get to the
NFL Draft. We've got Ross Jackson set to join us
in about fifteen minutes from now. Stay locked in more
OTB coming your way off the bench, all right, go
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Speaker 1: Welcome back to the best morning sports show around sorta.
It's off the bench with Hester and t BOP.
Speaker 2: All right, welcome back in to OTB one oh four five, ESPN,
bet Uge and let's go ahead and get this thing started.
Speaker 1: It's time to get some work courtesy of Tiger Labor
and Staffing where they can help take care of screening, training,
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for you to call when it comes to temp Labor
in ban Rouge. They have the eye of the Tiger.
Tiger Labor dot com again is the website, all right?
Getting this thing started with a little LSU baseball. After
a rough weekend a couple of weeks ago there on
the planes where you get swept, as we talked about,
you come back in the midweek, you win on Tuesday
against McNeice, and then you win two of three against
Alabama Thursday and Friday. You get the Dubs on Thursday
it was eleven to six, on Friday four to three,
and then you lose the last game of the series
on Saturday seven to four. But go around the room,
how do we feel now? All right? So depending on
how you look at it, okay, because so you get swept,
you win two of three. You could also say you're
two and four in your last six SEC games. That
doesn't feel great, although you know, winning a series against
a ranked opponent still not going to be a bad thing.
Speaker 4: A lot of people were saying, oh, well, you had
to sweep this series. I disagree with that. I don't
think you had to sweep. You had to win the series.
Thing for me comes down to Saturday. I appreciated the
move of Jay not starting Chase Shores. He went with
connor Ware on that third game instead. Is that who
I would have went with? I don't know, but it
was time to make a change at Sunday. The problem is,
though we talked about it coming into the season, Oh
Lsu might have three legitimate starters, you no longer have
his starter on Sunday. I mean, you don't. Connor Ware
went two innings, he gave up an earned run. That's fine,
but you pull him after two put in Chase Shores
two and two thirds, four runs, three earned runs, five strikeouts,
two walks. Like, Chase Shores has a big problem right now.
Whether it's starting, he comes out of the pen. We'll
see if that was better. It wasn't. As a matter
of fact, it was probably a little bit worse. Now,
everybody outside of Shores was great. I mean, you went
six pitchers after Chase only give up two runs combined.
So like again, your bullpen was pretty good on the weekend.
Like even on the Thursday game, what's his name, Kate
Anderson gave up five runs and six innings. It was
your bullpen that kept you in that game. So the
last two weekends at SEC play, your bullpen's really been
really good. It's it's been the starting pitching on the weekend.
And I don't really think you have a Sunday starter
at this point. I know a lot of people have said, Okay,
what's that Cowen, and the opposite has been okay, well,
he's so valuable to you out of the pen, do
you want to start him on Sunday? But I mean
Sunday looks iffy right now.
Speaker 2: No, it certainly does, and we've talked about it. You know,
what do you do there? Because you've got a couple
of arms that have been dominant. But I think Jay
shows us with this move that he is not going
to move Evans r. Cowen into the starting rotation, at
least not anytime soon. That's why he rolls somebody else
out there on Sunday. And you saw, like Cason Evans
comes in. You talked about the Thursday game and he
comes in and gives you, you know, two innings. He
only gives up one hit, only walks one, strikes out too,
but he doesn't give up any runs, right, He gave
you that opportunity. Remember he came into the game when
you were down. And Jay goes to Hims not playing
any games. He holds the four down until you come in. Look,
Zach Cowen had to come in and get one batter out,
but he was able to pitch again in this series, Landra,
I know you've been pretty vocal about not putting Cowen
or Evans into the starting rotation as well. It looks
like Jay is again going to leave them right where
they're at because they've been so valuable, and we could
have a situation where on Sundays it turns into Johnny Houlstaff.
Speaker 5: Yeah, and I think that's a good decision to keep
your best arm out of the bullpen, and also with
Cason Evans as well. But you're right, it might be
Schmidt whenever he started versus McNeice. McNeese is a good team,
by the way, it's not like a flipant whatever, but
he had four strikeouts, held them to two runs. But
I mean, it is like you really would have to
do Johnny Holstaff sometimes probably, But again, your bullpen hasn't
really been too much of the issue. Your issue has
been leaving runners on base whenever your offense is what
keeps you in the game. Sometimes, like when we lost Saturday,
we left fourteen runners on base, and last weekend versus
Auburn that was also the issue, and we talked about it.
It started with Nichols, Like when you played Nichols, you
left twelve runners on base that game. But I didn't
really get to watch the games this weekend, so I
don't have too much of a take on it. But
whenever we played Auburn, like it was kind of deflating.
But it wasn't like I was worried about the team.
It was just an off weekend. Everybody has them. I
mean Tennessee got run rolled by Texas A and M
a couple of weeks ago, seventeen to zero. So I
mean we're still third in the SEC, tied with Tennessee
at twelve and six. With the records, I'm never like,
I'm not that worried about this team.
Speaker 3: That was.
Speaker 2: But yeah, I didn't get to watch watch LU up
in Rhode Island.
Speaker 3: Well I just didn't.
Speaker 5: I didn't want to have my phone out at dinner,
Like it felt a little disrespectful.
Speaker 2: But really, if there was ever a place where you
couldn't watch LSU baseball, Rhode Island feels like the one
you could not.
Speaker 5: No, and I went on this campus, so this is
super off topic, but there was. We went to the Breakers,
which is like one of those mansions that the Vanderbilts built,
like way back.
Speaker 3: In the day.
Speaker 5: And by the mansion there's a university. It's called Salve Regina.
It's like a Catholic university, and they had a baseball
game going on, okay, and I was like.
Speaker 3: Kind of peeking at it. But yeah, I don't know,
off topic, but yeah.
Speaker 2: No, I mean college baseball. You're just trying to I
hustle a little college baseball probably wasn't the same vibe.
Lsu Bam in the boxes.
Speaker 3: No, I know, and I'm so upset I got I
missed it. But even Saturday I missed because I was
flying back.
Speaker 2: I know. So I feel the same way because I'm
going to miss the big series coming up this weekend.
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, because I'm going to be in Green.
Speaker 2: Bay, Wisconsin. Yeah, I was definitely wanting to go check
some of those games out. Uh oh. Friday, though, Anthony
Sen continues to dominate. I know, he walks five guys,
got into some hairy situations, but he strikes out twelve,
only gives up one earned run. And then Zach Cowen
comes in. He pitches three innings, He gives up four hits,
two earned runs. But still what he gives you what
Case and Evans gives you. I look, trust me when
I say, like, I know there's a temptation to want
to start, certainly Zach Cowen because he's a veteran player.
Case Nevin's still freshman, which is just remarkable that he's
doing what he's doing in the spots that he's doing it.
But Zach Cowen does have starting experience. You've seen him. Hey,
you know last year in the regional that Elsie was in,
he was out there, so everybody knows he can do it.
But I just think he's so valuable right now. And
I was kind of the opposite a couple of weeks ago.
But I think when you talk with Jay Johnson, when
you see the ways formatting everything is like, we are
going to have to go get game one, game two,
and I know it is very thin margins, but that's
the way that they are attacking you right now, and
their hope wanting somebody to step up and take over
Game three Sundays whatever ends up being. You know, you
had like a slight hope maybe William Schmidt could be
that guy. Again. I know he's a freshman, but he's
so talented and he'll, like eventually he will be that guy,
just not ready for that right now. He only goes
two thirds of an inning on Game three, gives up
two runs, both earned, walk three, two wild pitches. Again,
incredibly talented player, going to be somebody that is on
the mount on the weekends. Without a doubt starting next year,
like he's gonna be there next year, but just doesn't
have the feel of being ready in those big spots
right now, which is okay, he's a true freshman.
Speaker 4: The fact that he didn't get the start told me
that he wasn't ready because this was the weekend to
start him, right Like if Tennessee and Texas A and
M back to back, you're not starting a freshman in
game three against Tennessee or A and M for their
first extended SEC action. That's not happening. So when he
rolled Connor where out there you know, I was, I
was one of the ones that was like, okay, you
extended Schmidt. He threw three and a third in the
midweek against McNeice. That's a good lineup, Like they hit
over three hundred as a team. He did a good
job there, Like maybe this is where you ease it man.
The fact that he didn't tells me that it's not
gonna be William Schmidt at least the next two weeks,
starting on that Sunday, because after that you got South Carolina.
It lightens up a little bit, like you're not starting
him against Tennessee Area. Now that's not happening.
Speaker 5: No, we kind of talked about this last week too,
where like for someone like Schmidt you kind of have
to start preparing him because once we get to the postseason,
you're gonna have to go deep in that, yeah, into
like and somebody like him's gonna have to start.
Speaker 2: I mean, Will Helms last year gave you the game
of his life, right, gave you hope there in Chapel Hill.
Speaker 4: Everybody says you need three, but like me and how
we're talking about it, like Paul Skeins did not pitch
in your Championshimpi Ships against Florida. You had to have
a fourth starter technically for that, Like Schmid's gonna have
to be ready. But it's just I don't know if
it now.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, And we got a lot of baseball to
get to. Chris Blair, the voice of the LSU Tigers,
will join us at eight point thirty to recap last
weekend against Alabama, look forward to Tennessee, to Texas, A
and M and kind of get into the nitty gritty
shout out though, and you're gonna hear about Ashton Larson,
like that's so tough that like, and we're gonna talk
about him. He's gonna weekend winners. I'm sure he might
come back up. He'll come up back up in our
conversation with Chris Blair, but shout out to him. I mean,
he was somebody last year that gave you a big spark.
He came in, he was batting right around three hundred.
Nobody had any expectation for him coming from the state
of Kansas, you know, as far as playing right away,
and he held it together for you for a long time.
This year hasn't gone his way. You've had other players
certainly get at bats when he hasn't. He hits one of,
you know, the biggest home runs that you've had this season.
It was great moment for him. I was hoping he
could do it again when he had the bases loaded.
I think it was in Game two that he had
the bases loaded, ends up striking out. But pretty cool
moment for him because again, he was somebody that I'm
going to assume coming into the season, thought he was
going to be a starter, going to be somebody that
you counted on and just hasn't been, that hasn't gotten
the at bats, and then he comes up with a
big home run and that is not easy to do
cold off the bench and Lshu's pinchaters all series long
were really I mean you had Jake Brown coming to
do it on the game. Gosh, I keep thinking Sunday
on Saturday, so big pinchators for LSU Larson was cool
to see him kind of have that moment. We'll see
if it can kind of jump start him here in
his sophomore year. All right, we will step away. When
we come back, it is NFL Draft week, and we'll
dive into all the latest there, what's going on with
Derek Carr, with our guy Ross Jackson, and we'll do
it right here on OTV. Off the Bench, right, good,
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Speaker 1: Welcome back to more sports talk. What's some other stuff
mixed in off the bench with Hester and.
Speaker 2: T Bomb All right, Welcome back in OTV one four
five ESPN Ben Roush here on this Monday morning. It
is NFL Draft Week. Nobody covers the Saints better than
our guy, Ross Jackson, who joins us now host of
Locked on. Saints of course, are right over on Louisiana
Sports dot Net. Go to the website and Chance has
always got like seven new stories up because he is
always working. Ross. What's going on, man, Always a pleasure.
Speaker 6: How are you doing great man? Thanks so much for
having me on.
Speaker 2: All right, So it is Draft week, one of my
favorite weeks of the year. Does it feel a little
bit different though for the New Orleans Saints because there's
so much talk of them selecting a quarterback? Because we
all know this stat in nineteen seventy one, the last
time the Saints actually drafted a quarterback in the first round.
I don't know. It does feel a little bit different
for me, does it for you? Ross?
Speaker 6: Yeah, a little bit. It feels different to me for
a different reason though, because I remember back in twenty
twenty two, everybody was like, the States can't leave without
a quarterback in the first round? Can you pick it?
Malik Willis, Desmond Riders pro ready, blah blah blah blah,
all of us everything. Sorry, I remember that conversations. Oh yeah,
but I think that this year. The reason why it
feels so different is that no one really knows what
this team is going to do, and it always feels
like we got a little bit of a beat on
what's going to happen. You know, Tali sa Booma was
so obvious, right, Brian Brizzy was so obvious, chrys Olavi,
Trevor Pinning so obvious, and now all of a sudden,
you get this new coaching staff in there, and there's
so many opportunities. As you know, well, when you get
a new coaching staff in for cracks in the foundation
and it feels like there's been no crack in the foundation.
It feels like there's so many different directions the team
is expected to go. That means that no one knows
where this team is going to go, and that's a
pretty good sign for the long term when it comes
to future drafts for this organization.
Speaker 2: I mean, Ross at this point, would you be surprised
if Sanders wasn't the pick at.
Speaker 6: Nine, No, not at all. I would be surprised if
he was. If I'm being on, i'd be We're more
surprised if he was a slush at nine. I don't.
I haven't really bought the idea that they were in
on him, And maybe that's them, maybe that's the team
selling it really well well. But everything from Dion Sanders
being what I would say is too vocal about the
connection between his son and the New Orleans Saints to
you know, Kellen Moore and Doug Nassmeyer not even making
a trip to go to the Colorado prode and instead
sending quarterback coach Scott Tolzen as well as wide receivers
coach Keith Williams. I feel, coming out of all those
things that will shepherd the wide receiver at Mandiville, Native
is more likely to become a New Orleans Saint that
you're a standard there.
Speaker 2: And also, I mean over the last couple of days,
I think we've all kind of seen that the Saints
are big fans of Jackson Dart as well. Now, if
the Saints were to select Jackson Dart, if that ended
up being the quarterback that they got in this draft,
when do you think that would happen?
Speaker 6: I like the idea of a late trade up for
the New Orlean Saints into the back half of the
first round. You know, I think about the twenty eighteen
Baltimore Ravens trade where they moved up from number fifty
they were in the fifties in the second round, they
moved up to number thirty two overall with the Philadelphia
Eagles who were picking number thirty two again this year,
to be able to get up there and get Lamar Jackson,
who Baltimore had originally passed on twice because they had
an original selection. They traded back from that selection, then
they took Hunter Henry, then they moved up to go
and get Lamar Jackson. I could see the Saints doing
something similar, trying to get up ahead of the Cleveland
Browns who have that number thirty three overall selection, that
second round selection, and so the Saints don't have to
do too much to be able to get up from
pick forty to pick thirty two if they want to
go up and get a guy like Jackson, guard after
Louisville quarterback Tyler Schuck in there as well, those guys
aren't super likely to make it to forty, and so
the idea of jumping up and making a quarterback selection
in the first round as a second first round selection
makes a lot more sense to me, and you get
the fifty year outshore of the player that one.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think I saw you, retweeted Schefter and talked
about the Saints already kind of exploring those options in
the second round. So if you go from four and
you go up to thirty two, what does that look
like as far as the draft capital that you would
probably have to give up.
Speaker 6: Yeah, if we use the Baltimore Ravens model from twenty eighteen,
you're looking at the number forty year overall selection, next
year's second round selection, and potentially some fourth round one
of the two fourth round picks one twelve or one
thirty one to help you move up, and you might
be able to get a pick an extra pickback in return.
For instance, win the Baltimore Ravens did this, they moved
up and not only got pick number thirty two overall,
but they got picked number one thirty two overall in
the fourth round as well. So it was the late
round pick swot from one twenty five to one thirty
two to get the Philadelphia Egals to move back twenty
spots in their first round pick to back to the
second round. And so I could see the Saints not
necessarily having to give up as much to be able
to make that make that lead, but being able to
fall back a little bit in the fourth round, maybe
going back from the fourth to the fifth round. In exchange,
you do a late round pick swap next year's second
round pick to exchange second round pick to get up
into that first round.
Speaker 2: Talking New Orleans, Saints with our guy Ross Jackson here
on OTB Ross. So I was out all of last week,
and you know, there's a lot of things that were
going on in the sports world, certainly here locally, and
so I kind of missed all of the Derek Carr drama,
Like what is the latest there with Derek Carr, his shoulder,
the injury, you know, just everything that was surrounding him
and his future with the Saints. Last week.
Speaker 6: Yeah, so there was an initial report around Derek Carr
having a shoulder injury that potentially threatened his potentially threatens
Phil does his twenty twenty five season availability. That shoulder
injury is expected to be a throwing shoulder injury, which
would then be connected to the same shoulder that he
injured back in twenty twenty three in that Green pay
Packers team where he had that ac joint. Never missed
any games during that, but missed sort of the second
half of games, and it had some games that Atlanta
Falcons game in particular, where you know, even he said
that he just couldn't get the ball where he needs
to go, things like that, and that injury was something
that had also kind of been sort of pre existing
shoulder stuff as well, and so the thinks have known
about this injury for some time, but with the league
is starting to question. And when I say the league,
I mean you know people within the NFL. What they're
starting to question is is this actually just more of
a leverage play for Derek Carr to get out of
New Orleans? Is all of this all these kind of
rumors and speculation and look a lot of evidence that
points to it too that Derek car is frustrated here
in New Orleans and once out and so if that's
the case, he could be using this as a sort
of leverage to say, hey, go ahead and plan for
your future at quarterback without me having to ask for
a trade. Then once you planned your future at quarterback,
you can move on for me. And so then that
ends up creating sort of this opportunity for New Orleans
use his debts made him at the post you in
one cut at any point after they kind of figure
out what their quarterback situation is going to be, or
they end up looking after June first to trade him somewhere,
which I think is going to be a little tough
with the twenty twenty six cap number, and it's tough
to say, hey, we want to trade the guy who
might not play in twenty twenty five, right, Like that's
a challenging thing to be able to pull off. But
if they were to end up moving on from him
post shooting one cut, certainly a way to do it.
Or you know, the shoulder injury is something that he
works on and then he's back in twenty twenty five.
Like literally anything can happen at this point, but there
is sort of an expectation that the Saint and car
will be headed towards a split at some point. We
just don't know if it's this saw season or next
off season.
Speaker 2: And Rossett, if you do, if you move on from
Derek Carr, and gosh it, it does feel like right
now that is going to be the move. But if
you do, and you select a quarterback in this draft,
and you select him in the first round or the
second round, and you're gonna have a quarterback room that
has a rookie, second year player in a third year player, Like,
if that's the case, would the Saints go into the
season with that being their quarterback room?
Speaker 6: Yeah, I would expect some adjustment there. I mean, they
also have Ben de Nugi on the roster, who's a
veteran and who's got experience with Kellen Moore from twenty
twenty and twenty twenty one back to the Dallas Cowboys.
But I wouldn't be surprised to see them go back
to the market for another veteran as well. Popular name,
and understandably so is Teddy Bridgewater. The Saints have shown,
you know, proclivity for their proclivity for reunions and guys
that they're familiar with has not waned at all, and
so they could potentially go that route. That would be
a good kind of you know, a good move for
the fans to who would get some excitement at having
you know, Teddy Bridgewater back and all that. And then
you know, they could go another kind of wily veteran
route of Carson Wentz. There was some of the early
connections with Aaron Rodgers too, but it seems that Aaron
Rodgers isn't close to the decision, so I don't think
that you can fully lean in on that. And then
the other route that you go too is wait and
see who becomes available, right, I mean, you know, teams
go through this draft, they draft quarterbacks, the quarterbacks they
have been their room all of a sudden become expendable
or potentially movable. And then so there's other conversations you
can get in on there, but I would certainly expect
you to Ben Denuci or another veteran to be on
that roster. And then the Saint's got to figure out
with that first year guy, second year, third year guy,
which ones they're keeping and which one they potentially look
to potentially move at some point if they decide to
want to go that route as well.
Speaker 2: And Ross, I know we're talking, you know a lot
of quarterback that's exciting again, and the Saints right now
looking for an upgrade at the position. But going into
this draft, what would you say is their biggest need?
Because you kind of look around and I know they've
got needs in a lot of different places. They've tried
to shore up the defensive front through free agency. The
offensive front certainly has a ton of assets thrown into
it with first round picks. You know your receivers, they're talented,
but health concerns, Like, what would you say is the
biggest they have to hit in this draft? Need?
Speaker 6: Yeah, it's interesting because there's a lot of it, like
you said, there's a lot of different directions that they
can go. I think defensive line is always worth investing in.
It's just the when you have kind of a changing scheme,
everything kind of starts at that front, So how do
you bolster that front? So they could always go that route,
whether it be on the interior or over on the edge.
But if you're going to go to a young quarterback,
I think it's that raise is sort of the importance
of pass catcher, offensive line, and running back. You know,
the Thinks gave up thirty seven sacks last season. That's
not a lot of sacks, and Derek Carr was only
sacked eight times over the course of the ten games
that he appeared in. The issue is that Spencer Ratler
was stacked twenty two times in his six starts, and
then Jake Hayter was sacked six times, especially having one start,
And so this is and that's no you know, shade
at those guys. That's just part of being a young
quarterback in the NFL. Things don't process the same way
as an eleven year veteran, right, So that's obvious that
that's going to be a thing, and so you want
to give those guys outlets. You want to make sure
that your offensive line has depth and has good starters
right at the top. You want to make sure that
your your quarterbacks got big body pass catchers that they
can rely on. You can do that early with a
wide receiver like Cetero and McMillan, or at tight end
out of Penn State like Tyler Warren. You can go late.
I think I said Mandeville native. I meant to say
Madisonville native. You know Will Shefferd coming out Yeah, yeah,
coming out of Colorado a little bit later. Like you
don't have to necessarily princes of the podium at nine
to address these but there are ways you can do that.
And then of course, any young quarterback benefits from having
a run game that they can rely on and guys
who can catch out of the backfield and check down situation.
So how do you add to that running back room
greater consistency next to Alvin Kamara, That's something they can
do in this draft too. So I highlight all those things.
It's tough to pick one. I think you always start
in the trenches right through offensive line or defensive line,
clearly kind of being the maybe the big step at nine.
But outside of that, there's still so much that they
can address. And because they have six selections right now
in the top one hundred and thirty one selections of
this draft, they're in a good position to be able
to kind of hit multiple spots there.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and as we all know, they love to move
up in a draft, in the likelihood of that with
those picks is highly likely. All right, last one, Ross,
You've heard a bunch of different names attached to the Saints,
be it at nine or or somewhere else in the
first round wherever they end up. Picking of the names
that you've kind of heard attached to the Saints, which
one would lead Are you scratching your head questioning everything
the most?
Speaker 6: Oh? I think I would have to probably go with Well,
I think that was Schamar Stewart out of Texas A
and m you know, I could almost I can under
I think MIKEL Williams, he's kind of lump in his
conversation as well, the edresser of Georgia, but a little
bit more production, a little bit less opportunity, all those
other things. And so I think that one wouldn't leave
me stretch my head as much. But a guy like
Technicatem's Shamar Stewart. He's got all the physical traits, all
the physical tools, but one and a half stacks in
each of the last three years, not a ton of production.
You know, has a lot of kind of raw trades
that need development. I just don't think that the Saints
are in position right now to go the developmental raw
you know, defensive player or really either side of the football.
But I just don't think they're in a position right
now to take that kind of selection. They were in
twenty eighteen. They're not in this needed they're in a
situation now to where unique way it's going to be
an immediate impact player. And so I think that as
Shamar Stewart ending up with like the Philadelphia Eagles is
a very different Shamar Stewart than a Shamar Stewart that
ends up with the New Orleans Saints. I think that's
a very different player, and I don't think the Saints
have the ability to bridge the gap right now while
him putting brand new systems, brand new coaching, and potentially
starting over with an entirely different quarterback.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's actually very well put. I agree with you
wholeheartedly on that last fact. As well. There is our guy,
Ross Jackson at Ross Jackson at NOLA is the handle
on social media Gama follow their host of Lockdown Saints
of course, Louisiansports dot Net, which Ross, I'm going to
assume you're going to have a couple of things going
up this week on the website covering this draft for
the Saints.
Speaker 6: Oh yeah, I'll have more than a few things, for sure,
I'm gonna do. Maybe I might do a mock draft
every day up to the NFL Draft. I'll certainly have
one coming out today. But with this team being so
kind of enigmatic in terms of what it is they're
going to do, we might need to take multiple stabs
at this thing and see what we.
Speaker 2: Get right at the end of it, Ross, we appreciate
your time, brother. We'll catch up again soon of course.
Speaker 6: Tommy, thanks much for having me on. Man, take care
say say we'll talk to you too.
Speaker 2: All right, there is our guy Ross Jackson again. Man,
he's doing great work over on louisiansports dot Net and
he's not lying. He will have multiple stories up he
said there he'll have a mock draft up on the website.
So again, Louisiansports dot net and check it out there.
All right, before we go to break, one reminds you
about our friends over at Goodwood Men's sexual Wellness. Your
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and again always online at your Goodwood dot com. All right,
we will step away. Wanna break down some of the
things we talked about there with Ross. A lot of
different options for the New Orleans Saints, not only in
the first round, but as he said, they've got some
draft capital to really move up. We know they love
to move. Are they going to move up in the
first round? Are they going to move up in the
second round? More likely they're going to move up in
that second round? But what do they have to give up?
How far up do they have to go. We'll answer
all those questions when we come back here on OTV.
Speaker 1: Off the Bench. Welcome to the seventh ranked morning sports
show in America, Off the Bench with Hester and t.
Speaker 2: Bob all Right, Welcome back in to Off the Bench
here on a Monday morning, NFL Draft Week, and Adam
Schefter had an article that came out early this morning,
five am Central Time, So latest and the greatest when
it comes to what potentially could happen with your New
Orleans Saints, And here's what he is hearing. He said,
there is a belief around the league that the Saints
are more interested in using a high pick on an
offense or defensive lineman because there are questions about multiple
starters along the offensive line. The belief is they want
to use one of the their draft choices on a quarterback,
just maybe not at number nine and maybe not Shadear Sanders.
As another personnel executive said, I don't think New Orleans
is taking Shoulder. I think they're hot and heavy on
Jackson Dart. It goes on to say, speaking of Jackson Dart,
there is a belief about whether the Saints would take
the old miss quarterback at number nine. Or if that
felt too high around the league. They have an equally
strong need on defense, and as we know, the Saints
love taking a defensive linemen there early in the draft.
And it goes on to say that Dart would fit
into their plans, but probably not at nine. And that's
where what we talked about with Ross second round number forty.
They're already kind of making those calls. They said, they've
already made some calls asked around about trading up in
round number two because they do have two thirds and
two fourth round pick. So it does sound like the
interest in Jackson Dart is real. It's not at nine.
That's not a surprise. How far would you have to
move up? At number twenty one? The Steelers are sitting there.
They also have a quarterback need. Jackson Dart has been
mocked to them almost everywhere that I've seen at one
point or another. So that's got to be the question,
where would you have to go. You're not going to
move back up that far into the first round. I
think it would cost too much. And I know, I
know we're dealing with Mickey Loomis, so who knows. We
know he loves to move up. But if the Steelers
don't take him, or if they go Tyler Shuck maybe
in the first round at twenty one. How far do
you have to move up? You probably do have to
get ahead of Cleveland, like Ross was just talking about.
But I don't know. I think Saints fans, if you
were able to get a Marquee offensive defensive lineman and
Jackson Dart, would that be a cescful draft?
Speaker 4: I mean to me, it would you fill multiple positions. Indeed,
there and Rosse broke it down, like second round pick
this year and next year one of your fourth round picks,
because you have two of them, Like, that's a small
price to pay. In my opinion, you're essentially giving up
a second rounder. I mean, it's kind of all you're
giving up. You already have another fourth round pick, and
you traded your second this year for a first. You're
essentially just giving up a second round pick next year.
I mean, I'm I'm okay with that. To your point,
I think you have to move to twenty to get
Jackson Dart. Denver Broncos are at twenty.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 4: Sean Baden and Mickey Loomis, whatever the relationship is there,
they have one. They know each other, would they be
willing to work something out. They're obviously not taking a quarterback.
They have their franchise quarterback. I think that's where you
need to go, because again, if the Saints don't take
Shador at nine, and I don't think they are, where's
he going to go. There's a chance that Shador Sanders
is still there at twenty, So I mean you might
still have your pick of the litter as far as
QBS go. Maybe that's the spot you go.
Speaker 2: I'm just gonna pretend, and I'm going to allow myself
to live in a fantasy world where Will Campbell goes
to the Saints at nine, even though he's going probably
number four overall to the Patriots. But let us just
believe here for a second. What if you got Will
Campbell at nine? And again, I'm not gonna be there,
but this is our show. We can do what we want.
He's at nine, and then you get Jackson Dart at
thirty two. I feel like a pretty good win for
the Saints.
Speaker 4: I don't like you could say, oh, we needed a
receiver on the outside. There's not gonna be many people
that are gonna be upset with that though.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and then what would you have to give up
to get Jackson Dart because those choices that you would
give up would be where I would like some receivers. Yeah,
here in this draft, but yeah, a Meccha Buka might
be available there. He's a first round talent. Still surprised
he's not getting mocked more in the first round. All right,
we will step away more. Ot be little weekend winners
when we come back here. One of four five ESPN
batter Rouge off the bench,