The NFL Draft Story Lines That Do and Don't Matter

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Welcome to the Ringer NFL show.

I'm your host, Shiel Kapati.

Today we're zooming out.

We focused in on a bunch of prospects and mock drafts

and team needs and all that stuff in the previous episode.

Today we're zooming out.

What are the big picture storylines in this draft?

And are they interesting?

Is this a good draft?

Does this draft lack juice?

We're going to talk about all that.

Get into Fernando Mendoza as the number one overall pick.

And of course, the perfect guess for a show like this

is our friend at the Ringer, Billy Gill,

because you know it's going to go in a number

of different directions from Mendoza

to whether you should draft a running back early,

to his draft content, got in out of control.

We're going to get into all of that.

Let's take a break.

We come back with Billy Gill.

All right, we are back here on the Ringer NFL show.

With our friend, Billy Gill, Billy,

I think you once called yourself the Every Man.

And so that's the theme of today's show.

What is the Every Man interested in with the 2026 NFL?

Do we've done all the deep dives in the prospect?

But like, does this draft have juice?

What are the storylines we should be talking about?

The Every Man is talking about.

So I think that's the theme of today's show, but we'll say,

OK, well, thank you for having me back.

I've missed you, Sheila.

It's been a little while, you know?

Listen, you are a, I, I, to keep track of your whereabouts,

really without social media, without Instagram Reels,

I would have no idea.

But you pop up, I'm like, oh, there he is on Ringer Tailgate.

Oh, there he is with Bill.

He's talking some baseball here.

There he is on this other thing.

And then you've got this whole other thing where when you're not

doing podcasts, you're doing all this other stuff.

So I'm thrilled to have you back,

even though you're on the road for sack lows.

Yeah.

I've shown that you're going to be attending.

You got your little knapsack in your lights and your camera

and you look great.

Thank you.

I appreciate that.

If it's hard for you to keep track, it's hard for me to keep track

too.

I told you in confidence earlier today,

and I told Chris earlier today, when I agreed to do this last week,

I was so excited.

And I was like, oh, wait, no, I'm not going to be in town.

I need to figure out how I'm going to make this happen.

Because the last thing I was going to do was going to be back

out of an appearance on this show.

It's not going to happen.

It's, I thought, I thought, you know, we had this nice thing going.

We were on it a couple of times a week.

And then the season ends.

And it's like, boom, get out of here, Bill.

I was like, whoa, we're doing deep dives.

We're having all this fun.

I'm not involved.

I don't know why you don't want me for the deep dives.

How did your deep dives go?

If we did deep dives, they went well.

But I'm just trying to share.

I don't want to be, you know, too, like, just like, oh, he belongs to me.

Get out of here.

Zach Lowell and Joel Anderson and Bill Smith get out of here.

He's mine.

I claimed him during the season.

So I didn't want to do that.

Give you a little space.

But now you're back.

And I'm ready to talk draft, Billy.

So you get us started here.

I know we both got some topics here.

I have some stuff I want to get your thoughts on.

You have some stuff you wanted to throw out there.

Give me a draft storyline.

You're actually interested in an angle.

You're actually interested in to get us started.

OK.

I think there's a lot of things I like to talk about drafts.

We can get into later on draft prep.

How do you do it?

What do you do?

Where do you watch?

Who are you with?

All of that.

That's now we're going to start.

Because we're going to be focused a little bit on the draft.

Then we can kind of get away from it

and have those conversations as they come up naturally.

So big storyline of the draft.

This number one pick for Nando Mendoza.

Sheel came out last week and he said, you know what?

I'm not going to be attending this draft.

I'm going to be staying home.

I'm going to be with my family.

I'm going to kind of try to have that moment with them

make it more of a private situation.

It's something that I feel like was a lot more common back

in the day.

And then recently, we haven't really seen it all that much.

There's been a handful of guys here

and there that have opted to not go to the live draft.

But he is the assumed number one pick.

There's no indications that he won't be the number one pick.

This is going to be a coronation for him, right?

This might be a core memory in his life.

This is what he's worked his entire life for

is to be the number one pick of the draft,

potentially when the high has been trophy.

And he's opting to stay home for this.

And I found it kind of curious.

I don't know how you experienced it,

but there's different theories being floated out there.

Maybe, you know, he's kind of like more,

he's not your typical guy that's super flash.

He's going to be out there in the moment.

He seems somewhat more subdued, a little nerdy, if you will.

I was reading the comments sections,

which is never a good place to be as the comments sections.

But they were theorizing, hey, you know what?

As the season was going on last year,

you started seeing his parents in the stands,

his family in the stands.

And one of the main focuses was his mother's battle with MS.

Maybe it's a situation where the travel

and all of that will be difficult on her and the family.

And maybe they're trying to keep it from being,

you know, one of those situations

where a Tom and all the type is going.

And it's like, let's do, how do we fill four hours?

Let's do stories on his mom and her battle and all of that.

So people are theorizing maybe that's something

that they're trying to avoid is kind of making that a thing

where anyone's uncomfortable in the family.

Just, you know, for him, I wish, obviously, it's his choice.

For him, I wish he'd be there just so he'd have that moment

and remember that moment forever

because that's what he's worked so hard for.

But he's chosen not to do that.

I'm fine with it.

The more I think about it, yeah, I mean,

what's the big T.R.

So you're going to get in a suit.

You're going to go from Miami to Pittsburgh.

You know, you're going to hang out there.

They're going to call your name.

Now you got to tap up everybody on your walk up.

You got to pretend like you like Roger Gidell.

You know, he might mess up your name

like you did with Marcus Mariotta back in the day.

God forbid the commissioner tries to learn the pronunciations

of maybe like the top five picks in the draft

because that would be asking way too much.

So you get up there and it's a lot of, like you said,

it might just not fit his personality.

I'm sure he has a nice home there in, you know,

the South Florida area where he can, all right,

I get to choose who's here, you know, it's like,

all right, these are my people.

These are the people who have been with me.

We have our spread.

They probably have a go-to place.

They're ordering the food from and we get to just hang out.

I'm still going to remember this moment.

I'm sure someone's going to be everybody has an uncle

who likes to take the photos, right?

It's, you know, you had the one uncle who's like,

it's not just the camera, the iPhone.

It's like, oh, no, man, he got the real one

with the lens and they're, you know, they're taking photos.

So I'm sure he'll have that.

And I say if you don't want to be there, don't be there.

I think it's perfectly fine.

I don't think as, you know, from our perspective,

as viewers, consumers, I don't think one way or another,

it'll really impact our viewing of the draft.

Oh, no, I mean, it does, listen, it's not in my business.

It does affect me.

Nothing impacts me.

Very little impacts me.

Yeah, I'll be there.

I'll watch whatever.

But, you know, I kind of wish for him you would have it

because also, and this is probably like something

that maybe we don't want to discuss or go into 2D for you.

Right.

But, what if he ends up being a little bit of a bust, you know?

And this is like, then the career high

is being the number one pick, or is it a situation

where you protect yourself from the potential busts of it all?

Where it's like, well, I don't want to be a Jermarkis Russell

where I'm there and I'm there on the stage holding the Jersey

and then forever for the rest of time.

They show him holding the number one Jersey on the stage,

being the number one overall pick, the career doesn't pan out.

And then you have that because let's be real.

You're not going to go back and show, you know,

a video of him in his living room with the dog

and all the family around when it's like, oh, for an Amanda

and Dosa didn't, you know, pan out for him the way that we thought

Dan Orlovsky was right.

He never played in any big games.

It isn't a thing that, you know, we should have,

we should have done Thai Simpson was really the man all along.

And they're not going to go back to show video of him

in his living room.

So maybe he's hedging here and he's protecting himself

from a potential embarrassing situation down the road.

I just realized he gets to use his own bathroom

the entire time.

I mean, for nothing else, you know, that's going to be good for him.

Now you did a lute to earlier.

You said he's kind of nerdy.

And I've actually wanted to get your take on this for a while,

the Fernando Mendoza personality because you, you know,

you're on Ringer tailgate, you're locked into college football.

I basically, you know, I throw on games on Saturday,

but I'm not locked in until then the playoffs.

I start watching a little more closely.

So like those on field interviews and the playoffs are after the big 10.

That was when I got my first exposure to like, oh, this guy's a little bit

different than everyone else.

And so I feel like there's this idea of this guy's going to go to Vegas

and spend the next four or five years there.

And I also think there's this question of,

because whenever a guy has a little different personality, like,

I've seen Russell Wilson comms.

I'm an outsider, but I feel like watching men doze at its more,

but he feels authentic to me.

Like this, this is actually who he is.

He's not putting up a facade because he thinks this is what I'm supposed to be.

Like it's like, this is who he actually is.

And I think that's a big difference because I think when you're in authentic

and people feel like you're trying to be someone you're not,

that's when it becomes an issue with your teammates or with fans or with media or whoever.

He feels more authentic.

So I actually am fine with him being nerdy, corny, whatever.

If that's who he actually is.

So are you with me on that or am I wrong?

And that it's like, no, she'll, you actually should, you know, let it make fun of this guy a little bit more.

I like that.

I like that's the direction that you went in with the Russell Wilson comm.

Because Russell Wilson, God bless him, does not come off as authentic at all on a lot of these situations.

It feels a bit of a put on.

You wonder if behind the scenes like, Oh, maybe it's not just like G gosh,

Golly, all of this stuff.

Like there's a different side.

There's the danger bus that's out there, you know, that he keeps away from us when he's being mistreated.

So Fernando seems like he's just Fernando.

And this is who he is.

He was probably like in the robotics club in high school growing up.

And he has like this whole side to him, you know,

I was thinking when I was looking at this.

So let's say he goes to the Raiders like we all assume he's going to go to the Raiders, right?

The Raiders probably have the safest quarterback room that you could have in the NFL for people being in Vegas.

You have Kurt Cousins who's there who's probably not going to be out or taking in Las Vegas very much at night.

You have Fernando Mendoza who it seems like, especially early on,

is not going to be out partaking in Las Vegas.

He's going to be there in the film room.

You have Aiden O'Connell who's been there a couple of years.

And I don't know, he may have like a 30 dark side to him,

but like he looks like a state trooper with his mustache.

So I feel like this is the safest possible room there.

And Kirk has kind of hinted at like, yeah, I'm just kind of here to,

I mean, without saying it, he's just there to continue to cash checks for going to be honest, right?

Like Kurt Cousins is a time career.

No one has been better at finding ways to cash checks and get paid than Kurt Cousins.

No one's getting bigger deals for, you know,

comparatively, they're skill level than Kurt Cousins.

And I think he's fine with like, you know what?

I'm going to keep signing these big number one starter checks.

I'll probably be a backup here.

I know the future isn't long for me here in Las Vegas as it is.

And I wonder, I guess age is playing a factor against him, right?

But I wonder when Kirk says, you know what?

I'm going to, I'm going to settle into like the backup, like clipboard quarterback.

And I'm going to like ride this out for another like four more years,

just collecting an extra couple million dollars a year to not get hit and never go on the field.

Kirk Cousins, by the way, maybe not the greatest player of all time,

maybe not a Hall of Famer, maybe a Hall of Famer, maybe not a Hall of Famer.

No.

In terms of the business of football, first ballot Hall of Famer, Kirk Cousins.

Yeah, no, he's done a nice job and I think you're right.

I also think like we picture Vegas, we, you know, have you been to Vegas, Billy?

I went to Vegas.

When was it three years ago for the Super Bowl?

But I stayed off of the street, the strip.

I was at the circus.

So I was over by old Vegas and free months, street, all that.

You're like a Vegas hipster.

I like that.

Well, it was where, you know, my job was signed my hotel.

So I was like, that's honestly, while I was there, I was like,

I wish you were staying at the strip because like that I want to go.

Look, I'm not very different from Fernando Mendoza.

I'm not going out there partaking in the vices of Sin City when I'm in Las Vegas.

You know, I was there.

I was like, you know what?

I want to go, I want to go to the Venetian.

I want to see like the canoe inside the hotel.

I want to go see the fountains out.

Plotting.

Oh, yeah.

Yeah.

I want to see these like typical things or six feet of Royce going on.

Like I want to see that Vegas.

Didn't see any of that Vegas.

Yeah.

The other thing is, you know, the reason I asked you is because I feel like we assume

that you go to Vegas for two or three days, you might have a certain

experience.

There are people living in Vegas who are not just like engaging, I would think, in debauchery

24-7.

Yeah.

So I think I think Mendoza is going to be okay where he can find people who might not

want to go out drinking, gambling, whatever else is happening.

Like he's going to be okay.

There are people who live there like they, you know, have like raising kids there.

It's not like everybody in Vegas is there and they're just at a poker table every night.

You know, so relax with that.

Stereotyping.

I think about Fernando Mendoza, she'll before we go off from him.

He's been down in Miami and he has been spotted around town.

He's already made it known.

I'm going to spend draft night here in Miami.

I guess he's done, you know, being up in Indiana and he's made his move back down here

and he's kind of been a man about town.

He has been spotted at some, you know, some locations that you have maybe some situations

where you're wondering.

There are other issues.

One place that he was already spotted at and I saw some paparazzi video of him that people

were taking cell phone videos when him unaware that they were taking videos of him kind of

a private moment, but, you know, sure enough someone's there with a cell phone taking

video.

He was at church.

So Fernando Mendoza is very back and he's going to Sunday church and he's been spotted

at church.

We all have different places.

So yeah, he's been there celebrating Easter with his family or whatever.

His video came out of that.

Then recently he was at a Miami heap game.

They gave him a jersey with his number on the back, his name on the back.

It ended up being maybe he wasn't just at the game.

His little brother who was, who I guess is in like middle school or something wants to

be a broadcast when he grows up.

So they had him there doing some stuff on the jumbo trunks who is supporting his brother.

So this Fernando Mendoza, he's making it hard to find the character issues.

You know what I mean?

You see and you're like, oh, I don't know.

Maybe this is a little bit of a risk here at the number one pick.

We have, you know, we know his talent.

Maybe we have certain questions about his abilities, but let's look for the off the field

stuff.

No one's found it yet.

No one's found the off the field stuff.

And usually that would have happened by now.

You know, we are what?

10 days away from the first round.

It hasn't happened yet.

Usually you get the anonymous scout saying, you know, X, Y, Z about every single player.

That has not happened yet with Mendoza.

I like him.

I'm rooting for him.

I, I, I feel like he seems like a nice guy.

I think he's authentic.

He seems like he works hard.

I hope he has a good time.

And the other thing, he's only, you're at the team you play for like five months out

of the season, you know, like then you go back and forth in the spring.

I get that, but it's not like you have to live there.

He can still go to his church there in Miami.

He can still go to heat games.

He's going to be okay.

So thumbs up.

Would you like to potentially bring him down and be the person to reveal to him?

I may have a character issue in him that we can reveal if you would like, but if you

don't want to, we don't have to.

Yeah.

Well, I like how you said, would I like to be that, it sounds like you're going to be

that person.

Well, but you are based, you know, in Miami, you have the college football connection.

So I feel like you probably are going to be in charge of this.

So you need to make a judgment call here.

I, of course, as someone who loves content would say, yes, here's the thing.

Okay.

When you turn on Netflix and you go to watch this show on Netflix, the face that appears

is your face.

So if this gets out and it's impacting his drafts, I trust you.

And then it comes out and it says the ringer NFL show and you know, the Mendoza family

is frantically looking to see this clip.

The first face they're going to see is yours and mine will be, well, the one that's delivering

the dirt, mine will probably be the forgot and one in the equation.

So I'm just, I'm letting, I may have some character issue things that we can reveal here,

but it may stick to you.

So I'm giving you, I'm giving you the out.

I'm comfortable with it.

I trust you.

Give it to me.

We're here to report the truth.

So we, we may, we may belong to similar circles, if you will.

Right.

We're both down here in Miami.

I don't know him.

He doesn't know me.

But you know, even big towns or small towns and you have, you know, mutual acquaintances

and the like and, uh, Fernando Mendoza went to the scene.

Same school that I went to.

Didn't really, I didn't know Christopher Columbus high school, not that school.

Oh, not that school.

Okay.

So here's the thing.

The school that I went to was a six through 12.

So you started in like middle school.

It's all boys school six through 12.

You start out there six, seven eight and then you do the high school 9, 10, 11, 12.

Bologna Jesuit is what it's called.

Okay.

So, the school that I went to was a, went to Bologna Jesuit.

Then Fernando Mendoza went to Christopher Columbus.

Now Christopher Columbus is by, by some known as the more athletically accomplished school,

let's say where maybe the other school is the more academically accomplished school.

You know, so for whatever reason and I haven't done a ton, I should have done more investigating.

What I've been told is maybe the switch was made from one to the other because of

potential playing time situation where in retrospect, you look back and you're like,

you had the number one pick in the NFL track in the high school trophy winner.

What was the coach thinking?

It's not getting this kind of playing time.

Who on earth was he behind that he didn't get playing time?

And maybe that's why the switch was made.

So that's the rumblings that I've heard is maybe that that's what happened.

But he went from one school to another and here's, here's another interesting fact about that.

Bologna Jesuit and Christopher Columbus are rivals.

So, she'll, this guy went and it's potentially a situation where when the going got tough

Fernando got going and he didn't stick around and go through the adversity and not only did he do that,

possibly even betrayed, betrayed his school by going and playing for a rival.

Now, I'm not saying that this should have him slide from the first pick to, you know,

the 15th pick or have a Larry M. Tundzel situation where it's like, whoa, major character issues,

but his permanent record is not unblemished as far as I'm concerned.

And there's lots of questions here as to what exactly went on there and why he felt that it was

right to leave one all-boy school and go to the rival all-boy school.

So something maybe some people should look into, you know, is he a foxhole guy?

Maybe not.

Maybe not.

Maybe not.

Perseverance, you know, things to a microwave society, you know, things don't go your way.

That's 60 say you're going to the next thing all of a sudden.

So I like that.

Maybe we've been pronouncing his name wrong the whole time.

Maybe it's not Fernando Mendoza is Fernando Midoza.

Wow.

Fernando Midoza.

Now, I just before we go to break, just want to make sure, Billy, because I did think you

made a valid point about the coach there, you know, you're not playing all due respect to

whether the coaches.

Sure he's doing.

I'm sure he's doing great.

Fantastic.

But when you're, yeah, I would think when you have the potentially the first round pick

in the NFL draft and that I hope whoever he was sitting behind,

was worthy, but I'm also a little concerned about you.

Now we all know you are, you had a very prolific athletic career as a pole vault or both

at the high school in the collegiate level.

Did you feel that you faced any of that when you were there where they were like, sorry,

you're not, you're not participating in this meet yet.

You got to earn your stripes.

Maybe it was a culture thing at your school, more so than a one off thing with Mendoza.

I didn't face those situations.

Okay.

But also, you know, as a pole vault, it's kind of like no one really is

paying attention to you anyways.

So it was fine, but I will say this in defense of the coach who, you know, maybe, maybe

overlooked Fernando Mendoza.

A great, a great number of coaches overlooked Fernando Mendoza.

I mean, he went and he played in Cal.

He didn't really get many offers out of high school.

Yeah.

I think it was.

Yeah.

Yeah.

He then goes over.

And if I'm going to be honest and this is another point of contention for me, you know,

I had someone look into the two four sevenths of the world and see like where the offers

were made and all that.

And then we, we had that wonderful story of, oh, he didn't really get any offers that

were made to him and he had to go to Cal and he had to walk on and this and that.

And I won't be hold when you, when you do a little bit of digging there, you find out

there was a school that did offer him.

And that school was FIU, which was my school, which he also spurned.

So it seems as though, you know, this is a nice guy, but he seems to be taking, I don't

know if he's doing it intentionally or unintentionally taking these little jabs at me saying, hey,

Billy, the life that you live, not good enough for me, I'm going to go this way.

I'm going to go that way.

I'm going to zig where you zag this.

So this guy, I'm keeping an eye on this Mendoza guy because here's the thing.

He went out there.

He went to Cal and then again, Fernando, me, Dosa said, you know what, Cal, thanks for

the memories.

I'm not going to go to Indiana and I'm going to head over there.

And in terms of like coaches overlooking his talent, if we remember, his father was

a teammate of who, Mario, Chris, so ball, right.

He then ended up playing in the national championship and sure, Mario, Chris, so ball went

out there and he threw a lot of money at Carson back because that was the diamond and the

rough that he thought he was going to get.

But you know, for him, it does what I like to come home to Miami and play for Mario,

Chris, so ball, his father's teammate.

And that didn't happen because then again, another coach overlooked him.

So, you know, this for an amendment does it might not be all that we think that he is,

you know, he's a complicated fellow here.

He's not just this guy that goes to church on Easter and you know, goes to, I don't

know if you saw the videos in Indiana, he would go like these, uh, he's like Christmas

festival, like craft festivals were like students were like taking his like, oh my god,

Fernando, man, Dosa's here.

And it's just like all like 80 year old women who have their like gingerbread houses and

stuff like he's just going around there.

So he has this nice guy thing, but I think there's a bad boy in him somewhere, you know.

So we, so we've uncovered that, you know, you are older than him.

We've uncovered that substantially.

All you go to a school and then he chose to go to another school.

I don't know.

I don't know that he was keeping an eye on me.

I just say, listen, just saying as an athletic great of the school and a man of media as

you have named me, it's possible that, you know, he was somewhat familiar with me and

he saw the choices that I had made and he said, you know what?

I can be better than Billy and that's what I'm saying.

I take offense to this somewhat.

You should, as you should, because then he gets offered from your school and he says,

not good enough for me.

So I think what we've uncovered is there's a little rivalry brewing between our very own

Billy Gill and Fernando Mendoza.

They might be in the same circles there in the Miami area, but if you are a Miami listener,

you're probably going to have to choose a side pretty soon, maybe between now and the

first round of the NFL draft.

All right, let's take a break.

What a deep wow.

Fernando Midoza, he says, I like that, you know.

All right, let's take a break.

We'll come back, we'll get to some more storylines that might or are you looking for support

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Or might not interest, Billy Gil.

All right, we're back here on the Ring or NFL show.

I do want to get to some of your other questions and storylines, Billy, but I was thinking about

whether this draft has a lot of juice.

Okay.

I went to the big board and there's a lot of big boards out there.

You guys have covered this on Ring or Tailgate.

We've got Danny Kelly's big board on the Ring or Todd McShay's big board on the Ring

or now Joel Anderson comes out with his own big board and now it's just being about

choosing sides.

Mendoza or Billy Gil, now I sit the Ring or which big board are we actually going by?

What's the official big board?

That's something we can get to as well.

But I was going through and I was like, all right, let me see.

What are the big storylines here?

I can ask Billy Gil about and I went through and I instead, you know, titled this portion

of the pod, storylines that the average fan probably doesn't find interesting with the

end of the draft.

Because I was like, these are things, you know, when I'm in my football bubble, it's like,

oh, you know, and then I was like, I actually don't know if the every man fan would care

about any of these.

So I'm going to give these to you and you tell me, I'll just run through all of them.

And then at the end, you tell me, are any of these actually interesting?

Or do you agree with me that this draft might lack some juice here?

Okay.

You ready?

I'm excited.

I'm going to write this down.

I got my pen here.

Well, there's going to be a lot.

You're probably going to be able to.

I'm going to forget is a thing if I'm going to be honest, my memory is not where it used

to be.

Okay.

Are here some storylines.

Does it make sense to spend a high pick on a running pack?

That's one storyline.

Of course, Jeremiah Love, Notre Dame, some people say he's the best player in the draft,

many nerds like me say you can't spend a five top five pick on a running back.

What are we doing here?

That's one is our Vell Reese from Ohio State, more of a past Russia.

We're an off ball linebacker.

Oh, I mean, I don't know.

Does that have juice?

We'll say does it make sense to spend a top five pick on a safety or a linebacker?

So you got sunny styles.

You got Caleb down.

There was all these guys are awesome.

College football fans agree.

NFL fans agree.

And then it's like, well, I don't know.

Do you actually spend a top pick on one of those positions?

You got that.

How scared off should teams be with Jordan Tyson's medical history?

I don't even know if Billy's aware of this.

Jordan Tyson, great wide receiver, but it's like he doesn't play it a lot.

He gets injured on.

No, he had a lot other things.

Maybe he had mono.

I don't know.

He had other things as well.

Kissing disease.

Okay.

Yeah.

College.

Yeah.

Listen, we were all young once.

All right.

Would you take your mod McCoy early, even though we didn't play football last year?

This is the corner back.

He got injured at the end of 2024.

Didn't participate in 2025.

And now people are saying maybe he'll be a top 20 fix.

All right.

A couple more here for you.

Wow.

Seven offensive tackles could go in the first round.

Is that moving the needle?

Is that getting the downloads and the page views and the social media engagement?

Billy will tell us in a second.

And then the last one, you alluded to this one earlier.

Ty Simpson.

I mean, Billy, I went through the whole thing.

And I'm like, these are actually the most interesting things in the first round.

These don't have a lot of juice.

Billy's not going to find any of these interesting.

Am I right?

Am I wrong?

Is there something in any of those storylines that you say you're wrong, Shia?

That actually is interesting.

Well, okay.

So if we're going in order, I guess you don't have to do all of it.

Okay.

Good.

We want to all of them.

No.

So just anything in there.

Yeah.

The high pick on the running back, right?

The running back position is interesting.

Because at one point, the running back was very valuable.

And then we went through all the years where the running back was very replaceable.

And then the last two seasons or so, you had a very strong running back free agent class

like two seasons ago.

And then slowly we've been seeing more money thrown towards the running backs in free agency.

But do you spend a high pick where you guarantee the money to the running back early on?

Or then do you kind of try to get one at value so you don't need to be overpaying the

running back?

Running back has been going up and down in terms of relevance and importance to a team.

And I feel like we're training back up, right?

And you could take a running back high if you feel like it's the right pick.

How do you feel about the team that just goes after best available?

And then they're like, well, figure it out after.

There's no such thing.

This is what you, I'm like to say this time of year.

And it's never true.

It's like, if you have Patrick Mahomes and you're best available as a quarterback, you're

not taking the quarterback.

If you have a great left tackle and right tackle and you're best available as a tackle,

you're not taking the tackle.

So GM's like to lie all the time about that.

I feel like I've been pretty consistent with the running backs.

It's like, I love Jeremiah Love.

Looks great.

Hope he has a wonderful career.

If I were a GM, there's no chance I'm taking him early in the draft.

So I think some of the things you said, maybe we can get to a point where there's this

idea, Billy, that the offensive line in the scheme, that kind of sets the floor of whether

your run game's going to be good or not.

But then if you have the dynamic running back and you have those other things in place,

now all of a sudden, it can elevate it to even a more explosive running game.

So honestly, I feel like we've all said what we need to say about the running back stuff.

You know, I don't know that anyone's changing anyone's mind at this point.

No one's certainly changing my mind.

I don't need to change anyone else's mind.

So if that's one of the most interesting things about this draft, it's almost like it

was like last year when it was like, man, the biggest story in the NFL is Daniel Jones.

Like does this season suck?

Yeah.

One of those.

Are we possibly, and I don't, I don't mean to offend anyone here.

I don't want to upset you or any of the listeners, you okay?

Are we getting to a point where we may have pre-draft fatigue where we are, oh, you're

recovering the draft a little bit.

Raise your hand.

Here's something that I have seen this year where I was like, come on, which is we talked

about all the big boards, the Godfather of the draft, the Godfather of the big board,

Mel Kuiper Jr.

I've already started seeing this year already the stories of our people finally seeing

what Mel Kuiper saw before everyone else or something along those lines is like Mel

knew what this draft was going to be before anyone else knew what it could be.

And it's kind of like, this is, I think, the third or fourth year in a row where we're

putting out this exact same story.

Well, Mel Kuiper is the guy who essentially invented the draft and draft coverage and no

one believes in it as a TV product and a media product quite like Mel Kuiper did.

And it's like, I got it.

But we still have two weeks to the draft and we did this last year and we did this

a year before.

I love Mel.

It seems like a great guy.

We've had him on different shows that I've been on over the years very nice.

He goes out there and he has his months that he just goes out on his boats there in Maryland

and he loves it, right?

But kind of a quirky guy too with his, you know, his pumpkin pie or whatever it is that

he eats.

Right.

But also we're two weeks away from the draft.

Why are we putting out this story again?

We keep doing this every single year.

Wait, what's the story?

I don't know what you're talking about just that the draft is a big thing and Mel Kuiper

knew it was going to be a big thing.

It's basically like the story.

I didn't even know what you were talking about.

Yeah, I'll send it to you.

Every year we have it come out.

For someone writes a profile on Mel Kuiper Jr.

And it's basically, he saw what the draft could become before anyone else did and he put

his focus on the draft and made it a year long thing before anyone else.

And I feel like maybe, maybe we've gone a little bit too far because we still have two

weeks of the draft and to your point, there's not the huge storylines out there yet.

I mean, we have kind of like some breaking news that have come out this week with Ruben

Bain that that might impact his draft stock.

Right.

And there's more news to come on that front.

But you know, it's still a situation where we don't have all the information.

So I had a speculating on how that's going to impact his draft is somewhat reckless at

this point with the information that we have.

But over the next two weeks, stuff is going to be coming out on different guys that may

push them down the slide.

Maybe now we look more at tape or someone falls in love with this one or this person.

You know, their agent is whispering sweet nothings into this GM's ears and then all of a sudden

they go to our rocket ship and they're flying up people's drafts.

Here's the thing about the mock drafts.

There's a 1.0, there's a 2.0 and they go up to like 7, 8, 9.0.

And we know the 1.0 and the 2.0.

Sometimes if we're going to like reveal the secrets of the audience, those are put out

there knowing we got to get to a 7.0.

So like my 1.0, my 1.0 is going to be moving up and down.

My 2.0 is going to be moving around because we got to get to draft a 7.0.

And if this is the same all the way through, no one's kind of coming in and checking on

what our 1.0's and our 2.0's are doing.

Where's your mock draft, by the way, Sheila?

Why don't you have a mock draft?

We did a combo mock draft on the Ring of NFL show.

So if you're yelling at your phone or your Apple CarPlayer whatever, saying you have a

crit, I just listen to you do four hours on a mock draft and now you're saying draft content

has gotten out of control or whatever it is.

I understand, but I actually do tend to agree with you.

And I was trying to think about this earlier today, as we prepared for the show that there's

so much out there now.

You mentioned Kuiper was ahead of the curve that no, there's a huge interest in the draft.

You got to televised, you got to do all these different things with it.

He was right about that.

To your point, all right, we get that by now, perhaps.

But it's a little overwhelming because there's so much out there and I do feel like there's

sort of an echo chamber with a lot of it, whether you're mentioning big boards or mock

drafts.

And I think by main issue and why I get annoyed every time around this year is that how

confident everyone is.

Everyone has total amnesia about how bad they were at it the previous year.

And I don't mean like they're specifically bad at it, just that it's hard.

Like it's very difficult to project this guy's going to be.

But then we get to this point in the year and you pull up all these mock drafts, all

these big boards and the biggest difference will be like, oh, someone has someone at four

and someone has someone at nine.

How does everyone agree on the top 20 prospects in the draft?

That seems like it shouldn't be the case.

So I was wondering this Billy, we always, we like to give advice to the young content

creators out there.

I feel like there needs to be more of an accountability with this.

Maybe a relegation out there.

Now listen, I'm open to anyone doing it.

Because like I get stuff wrong all the time, but I feel like at least then I can come

on here and be like, oh my god, I thought Sam Darnold was going to stink.

I thought the siaksa and then I have to account for everyone's yelling at me.

I think that's good.

But I feel like with the draft that doesn't happen because you have all your takes one

year and then you might be totally wrong on a bunch of them and then you get to the next

year and then we all just assume you're the expert.

So is there a way for a young content creator out there and they don't even have to be

young?

I would say anyone with free time who knows that I put together a spreadsheet.

Let's track everyone and say, all right.

Okay, we have a five year tracker.

This person said this, you know, whatever and they nailed it with that.

I feel like every draft analyst should have to have like three takes that nobody else

has.

There are more takes like you were mentioned or last year earlier, at least you know what?

Go out on it.

You got to go out on limb with three of them and then we'll track them for five or ten

years and we'll see if anyone actually knows what they're talking about.

Your thoughts.

Okay.

Here's my question to you in terms of tracking.

Why was I yelling?

I shouldn't be that fired up about that.

Listen, it's draft time.

I get it.

He is like very energized.

Here's a thing about accountability and draft tracking and I wonder where you fall on

this situation because to your point, a lot of people are just faking it.

If we're going to be perfectly honest with you, you know, the make shades of the world,

the kipers of the world, they're out there and this is their thing all year long and they're

grinding tape and they're doing all the stuff that they do and they're in their basements

and they're, you know, neglecting their families or whatever it is that they do to spend

all of this time watching all of this stuff, right?

But for the most part, everyone else is like, I watched last college season.

This is what makes sense to me.

You know, like, they're not deep diving.

They're not following these kids from like, you know, second grade, talking to their elementary

school teachers, seeing how they were in PE class.

None of that stuff, right?

And I'll share with you.

She'll, last year I was tasked at my previous job with hosting.

The last two years, I was tasked with hosting a draft watch along.

So while the draft is going on, I was there somewhat hosting the situation and kind of

setting up here's the stories who we think might be picked by this team, that team and

you're kind of, you do the research and it was just for the first round.

So you go to the first round to your point, you look up like the 35 guys that it's going

to be, right?

Because you have everyone like you mentioned, as the same like 30 guys, just slightly, one

has them at six, one has them at eight, one has a four, one has a seven, right?

But for the most part, it's like the same 32 guys.

And then at the tail end, you'll have like four guys that are different.

So you can get away with a first round like draft situation where you only really look

into like 36 people, maybe 40, if you're feeling crazy, right?

But I'm not going to go and I'm not going to grind tape.

So what do I do?

I go out there and for a month, I just start going, I listen to every episode of Todd

McShay and I go and I take my notes on Todd McShay's notes and I go out there and I hear

Kipa and I take my notes on what Kipa said and I go out there to Dane Brugler and I see

that he's releasing the beast.

Brugler, yeah.

Brugler, yeah, it doesn't matter.

Listen, the important thing about that is just that his research is called the beast.

And if you're connected, you can get the beast, not as a PDF in print and it's like 600

pages long, right?

So I go through the beast and I'm taking notes in the margins and I'm highlighting and I'm

doing this, I'm doing that.

I'm making sure I know these 40 guys at the beginning of the draft so that when we get

through the first round, I at least faked it enough so that you think like, wow, Billy,

really knows guard playing.

It's like, no, I know like four guards and I know it based on my own like combination

of research that other people did.

For going to be honest, that's what most people are doing here, right?

They're going out there and they're seeing what's going on and they're kind of making

there informed opinions based on what's happening.

But no one's really doing the deep dives except like four people out there, right?

I was going to say 10.

Yeah, I was like, how many of you like, I feel like if we just needed 10, we've got Danny

Kelly and Dei, doing the ranger draft, God, you mentioned, Mick Shea, you mean, I feel

like we should I should I just need I don't know, I don't want to just need everybody

to agree.

There are people I like, you know, Dan Brugler does a fantastic job.

My friends.

He cares about the bees.

He's awesome.

He's on the beast.

My friend, Frank Delphi from all city, he does a great job and we need Tyson at the Super

Boy.

He does a week.

So we could I could probably give you and I probably left someone out.

I apologize.

One of my friends, but I don't know who it was, but I'm sure I left someone out.

I was your friends do a great job.

You all do a great job.

But you I feel like we need 10, we need like 10 people.

Yeah.

And then everyone else like I'm good.

You know, let's just these 10 people are really going to get into it and they're going

to watch them and they're going to research and they're going to look at historical

precedent and they know what they're talking about.

Let's go with what those 10 say.

And you know, but see, but then I don't want to discourage people from doing it.

If you love it, you should do it.

Just me as a content consumer, me as a consumer.

I only need like the 10 is what I'm saying.

I'm discouraging anyone from doing these things until you and I are out of the game.

You know what I mean?

I like that.

We're only these young people coming up and the river snappers coming up and you know,

coming and taking our job to you.

Stay out of the game.

We got the 10 that are covering it already and those are the mama birds and they are feeding

us baby birds, the information that we need to know.

And then we are consuming the information and we are getting the nutrition and then we

are putting our own little spin on it and putting it out to the masses.

Do I then go look at like Dan or Lovsky or Danny Kelly's list and say, you know what,

they have this person.

They're one of them has them at four, one of them has a six.

You know what I'm going to do?

I'm going to put them right smack dab in the middle at five.

That's what I'm going to do.

Well, this is the next thing I wanted to ask you about.

I'm glad you brought this up.

So what you're doing and I may or may not do this too, I may or may not have a spreadsheet

here to my side.

Have you heard of the idea of the consensus board, Billy?

Are you familiar with this or not?

I like this idea.

I think it's a piece together based on context.

You can piece it together.

Yeah.

Okay.

So I believe Arifa Saan, I think he was the first person to put this together online

where he said, I'm going to take every freaking big board out there.

I don't care.

It's like this 300 and I'm going to make an average.

And so we're going to come up with a composite ranking of whatever the top 150 players.

So if one guy had someone at four, another one had one at 11, you know, you're putting

that all together.

And then they kind of looked at this for a while and it was like, is this sort of outperforming

actual some NFL teams, Billy, where they're pouring all these over.

These resources, scouting and research and analytics and coaches get involved in GMs.

And you know, sometimes this doesn't happen as often anymore.

But remember, like back in the day, remember that when remember when the Patriots took

Cole Strange, remember that one, that guard.

And then they asked like McVeigh, you know, McVeigh afterwards might have had a couple

of drinks or whatever, his press conference, he's like, they took Cole Strange in the first

we loved him, but we were going to take him in like the third.

So those outlier picks were all of a sudden you're just so shocked on day one.

That oh my gosh, there's this crazy pick here.

Those don't happen as often.

And teams are incorporating these consensus boards.

So they might have their own.

All right, here's our rankings of these players based on our scouts, Jim.

But then we're also going to use this consensus board just to get kind of capture all the information

out there.

What do you think of that idea?

I think it's been a great sort of innovation in the draft space.

I saw not just consensus boards, but I saw articles being written, Shield, and I don't

want to alarm your panic at all.

I saw articles being written about how teams are incorporating AI in their draft plans

now and how they're going.

And like, let's say this guy decided he's not going to run the 40 well.

We have plenty of tape and we can use AI to measure certain things and we can get a more

accurate number of what is 40 time might actually be.

So influencers out there, content creators out there, just know it's not just us who

are rooting against you and your future endeavors.

It's also the NFL teams out there already saying, you know, we don't even need your thoughts.

We're going to go to AI.

The last generation of thoughts that we need are shields and billies and Nate Tyson, Danny

Kelly's.

Their thoughts were fine with everyone after that.

Forget about it.

We're going to AI.

We're going to the robots.

We don't need you anymore.

How do you, can I just, let me ask you a question.

Let me take a break.

We'll take a break.

We come back.

You asked me a question and then I had another question for you on this same topic as someone

who knows nothing about AI.

I had an AI related question for you.

We'll do that when we come back.

All right.

We're back on the ringer NFL show.

All right.

What was your question for me?

I mean, what a tease we kept everyone listening through that.

So when we're talking about grading people and how they did on the draft predictions, how

much, I guess, how exact is their hit need to be?

So I asked that meaning, let's say they hit the player at a number, but that player was

taken by another team because the team traded that pick.

Or let's say you have like, I don't know, the Colts taking a wide receiver at 11 or whatever

number the Colts were picking at, right?

And the Colts trade down to 16 and they take the person that you thought, but it's five

picks later than you predicted.

Do you count that as a hit or not a hit?

So I think there's two ways, two things we're looking at.

One is, are you somebody who's out here saying, I'm grinding the film or whatever, I can evaluate

talent.

You know, I can just look at someone and the kind of the, you know, the cutter there.

Gibb said, did I use that right?

I think so.

Okay.

I can look at the guy and tell their player, whatever, whatever method you're using, you're

saying, I have my own rankings.

And this is how good I think every player is going to be.

So you can do it that way and then you can compare from five years down the road where

they write on better than the league average, worse than the league average or whatever.

But then the thing you're talking about, I think, is the projections of where guys are

going to go, which is more of a, I think like, do you know the league?

Do you have connections in the league?

Is there a GM telling you, no, I know all the media loves that guy, but we have X, Y,

and Z concerns about him and he's not going to go.

So I think you have to look at it both ways to determine who we're going to relegate

and take away their ability to create content.

We have to be cautious and make sure we know what we're actually grading them on.

But when you mentioned the AI thing, again, I know nothing about AI, but I was thinking

like, if you looked at certain cliches you used on players in draft reports, like high

floor low ceiling, do you remember who they said that about a few years ago?

I read a lot.

Who's a high floor low ceiling?

Jackson Smith and Jigbaugh, who is now like the highest paid wider seeker in the NFL.

So you had that, then you have plug and play, which I swear if you're a guard, then we

just plug and play guard.

It's not that hard.

You just got to get, got to get there in the middle and push guys around.

Anyone can do that.

If you can do that in college, you're fine.

So you have all those, I wonder if teams took draft reports and we're like, which players

did we say this about over the last 20 years and how many of those were accurate, how

many of those were good players?

What is the profile of a guy we said was plug and play?

They could probably learn some things.

I feel like doing that.

It's got to be a way to do that, right?

I think so.

I saw commercial.

I don't remember what it was for.

I think it must have been a technology company or something, right?

And they were basically like showing how teams were, it seemed like a mock NFL draft situation,

right, where they had them and they had all their notes on their certain players and

like, who is it that we're going to take or whatever?

And they were like touting the use of technology in AI or whatever.

And it seemed like it was just like an Excel spreadsheet that they were using.

We're like, we need a guy with a great motor and a this and a that and whatever.

And it basically was like taking out like the people that didn't have like the high motor

classification on them, whatever.

And like, this is your pick.

And it's like, I feel like this is just like, and this isn't AI.

This is just like a key word search on your notes on like a spreadsheet, right?

It might work.

Yeah, I guess it's hard.

The point is it's very hard.

Like you were saying like the baseline, it's about what?

40% of the picks in the first round will actually be qualities, just quality starters,

not like all pros or hall of famers.

You know, at this time of year, it's just like, this guy's going to be, I'm so sure this

guy's going to be incredible.

This guy's going to be incredible.

And then I do find it interesting the scout stuff, Billy.

So I'm going to read you this thing I read in the beast here.

Oh, the beast.

A scout said this because I want to get your take on if someone said this about you,

who, you know, one of your loved ones, how would you feel?

You're sort of this scout say, and I'm not going to tell you the player to the scout say

his practice habits have matured.

And that quote, he is learning to love the process and quote, when you hear that, are

it, is that a positive, a negative, a neutral like what's your reaction to that?

Do you want me to read it?

I'll read it one more time.

I don't say his practice habits have matured and that quote, he is learning to love the

process and quote, it's a, it's a very backhanded compliment.

It seems like it seems like it's like, you know, school's not for everyone.

It's like, wait, wait, what does that mean?

Hold on a second.

I don't like that.

It's like, this person has potential.

They were there was a disaster years ago.

But now it's like sides, maybe this person can be competent.

Whether shoes, yeah, like if you tell them to get somewhere like they might be late,

but they will eventually get there.

So that was about David Bailey, who is potentially going to be a top five pick.

So even when it feels like they're not ripping the player out honestly, I read something

like that and then I'm like, man, I actually don't think that sounds great that he's now

learning to love the process here.

How do you feel about the beast and the PDF version?

I'm assuming you're going to the PDF version of the beast, right?

No, I used to, but now I just go on the athletic and you don't.

I, I, this is the first year.

I just, I'm reading it as it is online.

I feel like it's beautiful actually.

They didn't make a job.

Yeah.

So like a lot of these things that are put out as PDFs instead of like a hard cop, because

I guess it's like, why are we going to waste all of this time and effort printing out all

of this stuff?

The only thing I print is coaching soccer the lineup because I don't want to be looking

at my phone the whole time.

Wait, are you, are you ahead coach for

soccer this year for the first time?

Why and how did that go?

We're struggling, but you know, one of us last weekend, but we're going to bounce back,

you know, what age group is this?

It's just an intermural.

It's 11 to 14.

Yeah.

Okay.

Oh, well, it's very relaxed.

That's a wide range.

No practice.

Yeah, it's got like no practice.

No, it's like if you don't want to, if you're not really into soccer, it's like if you

don't love travel and all that, but you kind of just want to play a pick up game once

a week, that's what it is.

So it's very low stakes here.

Can I tell you something and don't take this the wrong way?

Okay.

It sounds like the players that come out of this team are going to get the David Bailey

assessment a couple years down the road.

Like, I started to understand the practice and the process, but they didn't really get

it at the beginning.

They might say that about the coach for quite honestly.

All right, Billy, any other storylines with this year, we went all over the place, but

I'm glad we got to talk about the draft content machine.

If our friends at the press box are listening and you want to use some of those clips, you

know, because I do feel like there were some media analysis in that they had milk

hyper junior on recently, great interview there.

They're allowed to use that.

But are there any other draft storylines you wanted to hit on before we say goodbye?

I feel like we're going to get to them, right?

I think that it's not time to judge whether or not this is a good draft based on the stories

that are out here, what 10 days away, week and a half away.

As it gets closer, I feel like they're going to present themselves.

I'm kind of wondering your thoughts overall on the draft.

Now there were like what?

I feel like 10 years now removed, I think, from having the draft in different cities out

of New York, radacity, musical, whatever.

It became like this touring road show.

This year makes it stop at Pittsburgh, which has, I think, the 21st pick in the draft.

Mike McCarthy is their head coach now, and we still don't know what's going on with

their quarterback and Aaron Rogers.

So, while it should be like a festive celebration, doesn't seem like Pittsburgh is all that

invested in this draft and hosting.

I guess people will come from cities all around to celebrate their teams.

But how do you feel about like draft day, the live draft process?

And what is your draft day and draft experience like?

Are you like a party guy?

Are you taking notes?

Are you checking off your boards and your projections?

Billy I host the Ringer NFL show.

So these are work days for me during the draft.

Now before that, when I was a fan, I wasn't like the biggest draft guy where I'm like,

I'm going to sit here the entire time.

Remember, it used to be on Saturday and Sunday.

You might be too young for that.

Do you remember that?

I don't know if you remember that or people I've told you about that.

No, I remember that it was a weekend thing.

And I remember that there was like the parents of like friends of mine and stuff like that

would all get together and watch all the days of the drafts.

And they really wanted to see who the dolphins were going to take.

Okay.

Like a two day affair where everyone would get just the parents would get together and like

get the like get the brats out of here.

We don't have time to watch our children.

We need to lock you on the draft today.

They took it seriously.

They did take it too.

That's why I'm wondering you as a man of football, how you do this.

No, yeah.

I didn't do that back in the day when I was a fan now.

Yeah.

Now as I've been working in it over the years.

Now if you cover a team, you go to the team facility.

It's usually pretty relaxed.

They sometimes Billy don't tell anyone.

They'll open up the cafeteria for you for the media.

Like the only time it's kind of fun to do that.

And then you watch the draft and then the GM or the scouts come out afterwards.

They get the player on the line.

You know, and you all gather around a phone and you call him.

So that way I always enjoyed covering the draft.

Like you said, it used to be Saturday and Sunday.

And I wanted to ask you this actually because we're talking now about NFL games.

And are they going to be on Thursday?

And are they going to experiment with Tuesday?

I'm actually shocked, Billy, that they have not done this with the draft yet.

And I've pitched this before.

But like there's all this lead up to it.

And we just talked about it.

Plus, it's in minuses.

It might be for you.

It might not be for you.

But the actual draft is only three days.

And is that the best way to actually do it?

Like what if they started the draft every year on April 1st?

Oh.

And they said, we're going to do one pick a night.

On televised.

Get your bids out.

Everybody who wants a piece of the NFL.

We're going to televised it.

One pick every single day.

And so a player gets picked.

We all analyze it.

We start thinking about who's going to get picked second.

And the second pick it.

And the next day, so it's the whole month of April is the NFL draft.

And they just kind of want to say, own the month of April.

We still have baseball starting and get the masters last week.

March madness.

Yeah, but it's a little bit.

It's yeah, in April the end of it.

But it's just sort of like the NFL saying, let's spread this out a little bit more.

You know, they can sell it like we wanted to give every prospect their own day.

You know, they work really hard for this.

We don't want it to be rushed.

So you do that kind of thing.

So you could do that or you could do just a week.

And you say every round is a day.

So maybe it starts on Monday, Monday or maybe it's Sunday, whatever.

It's the first round to the next day, it's the second round.

And you do around a day rather than squeeze everything in to three days here.

It's only a matter of time, right?

I might be a grandpa or something by the time it actually happens.

But that is going to happen eventually, I feel like.

So I was going to ask, so if it's the April plan is the April, just the first round and

then like you have a lightning two through seven rounds or then how do you stagger that?

No.

Okay.

Every.

Okay.

Okay.

Now I say what you're saying.

Okay.

Because then yeah, the rounds two through seven, how would you know, I had it.

What if those are all like, what if those are like, okay.

So April, like, what is it?

I guess you do 32 days.

So it carries over into May.

Three days one pick and then like May 3rd or whatever it is when you would reach round

two.

It's rounds two through seven all on one day.

It's lightning.

The rest of the draft.

That sounds great.

I love it.

Okay.

Then all you're like you said, all your friends, your friends, parents, they all get together.

This is the day.

Block this off this day because we're the real draft people and we're going to do every

pick in one day.

Yeah.

Two through seven started early.

Like they use it.

You start at like 11 a.m.

Start at 11 a.m. and get going there.

You can also.

You can also.

You can also probably skip like, I don't need to watch day 22 of the draft, you know, like

I don't need to know who the 22nd pick is.

Yeah.

Find out.

Not a position that we're interested in.

Like, not that important.

I could skip around.

So it won't be that exhausting because you can kind of like check in and check out as

it kind of suits you there.

Yeah.

Okay.

So you're in on it.

It sounds fun.

I'm not saying that I was thinking.

Let's say we stick to everything being exactly as it is, right?

Okay.

But to your point, the NFL is always kind of about, you know, good or bad.

How do we, how do we make an extra buck here or there, right?

Of course.

What if we get into a situation where we have the NFL draft selling the picks to networks?

So you're not watching it all on ESPN or you're not watching it all on NFL network.

You're watching picks one through three on peacock this year and picks four through seven

or on, you know, CBS and then eight and nine are on Apple TV and go to Netflix for pick

11 and 12.

You really confuse everybody because it's hard enough to figure out where the games are

now, but you have a draft where you're like, we're going to maximum make money off of

this and confuse everyone.

So they don't know where they're going to watch these picks.

Wait, that's, but you're keeping the draft how it is now.

Yeah.

Just changing switch.

No, no, no, no, no, no, no, everybody involved like, oh my God, what are we going to do?

Oh, look, here's K Adams talking about this.

And here's, you know, boomer, a science and talking about that.

No, look, Shannon sharps back.

And he's like, you know what I mean?

And just we're jumping all over the place getting people unless Netflix wants that Billy,

I don't want that.

I think, right?

That's how we feel about it, I think.

Sure.

Yeah, whatever Netflix wants, Netflix, yes.

Okay.

Yeah, that's how I would feel it.

And with my plan, you could actually do that because you're selling a night, you know,

okay.

All right.

Yeah.

So now you, for the, I don't want to have to change the, once I start, I don't want to

flip the channel.

But if I have to, if I have to go somewhere else the next day, then maybe I'm willing to

do that.

So the NFL could sell 30 to think about that.

32 different one hour packages in the month of April.

I mean, just think of how much money they could just, you know, be, I don't even know,

like, in the sweat off their foreheads with $100 bills, if they can't do that now.

So there you go.

All right, Billy.

I think I got to all my stuff.

Do we miss anything?

Anything you wanted to get off your chest here as we are 10 days before the NFL draft,

or are you good?

You're ready to go.

You're locked in.

I feel like 10 days out.

We're good for now.

We're good.

We're patiently waiting.

We're, we're not like shutting it down.

We're not too excited.

We're patiently waiting to see what news come.

We're not going to create the news.

I mean, we did go out there.

You were, you were, I was going to say you were bearing Fernando and Dosa earlier and

it's kind of a shame.

You seem like such a nice guy, great family and you're just out there kind of spreading

all of these, these things about him, which is unfortunate, but someone's got to do it,

I guess, and you did that earlier today.

But aside from that, we're kind of just kind of taking the news as it comes and figuring

it out as we get closer.

Yeah.

I think everybody's excited about their own teams.

Who's my team going to pick?

Like you said, but in terms of the zooming out here, I wonder what storylines will emerge

between now and that first pick and his first, I do like the live drafts.

It was a way to get, basically get owners to stop complaining because you know, they're

like, you're not getting a Super Bowl, but we will give you this and the cities were

like, all right, fine.

I guess we'll settle for that.

It looks cool on TV.

It's a great football city.

It'll, it'll look cool.

Good for them.

We'll watch it.

It's, it's better than having the same venue every week, I believe.

All right, there you go.

That was our episode with the great Billy Gill, who will be on seven other,

podcasts potentially by the time you listened to this one, but we're glad he carved out some

time for his old buddies here at the Ringer NFL show.

Thank you to Billy.

Thanks to Christopher Sutton for producing Stefano Sanchez on video editing and additional

production supervision by Connor Nevens in our Juno Ramgo Palam Shilka body.

We'll talk to you next time on the Ringer NFL show.

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