Football Function
2024 Mock Draft Mania
(upbeat music) What's going on everybody, guys and girls. Welcome back to another edition, a very special edition of the Football Function Podcast. Available on all your podcasting platforms, including on Patreon, if you prefer an ad-free listening experience, which you definitely are going to want, an ad-free listening experience for today's episode. I already mentioned it's a very special episode, probably going to be a pretty lengthy episode, but I'm just going to be completely upfront with you guys, right here at the very beginning. We have never done anything like this here on the Football Function to this point. And what we're doing today is we're having a little bit of mock draft mania. And what I mean by that is we're going to hear from a lot, a lot of different people on this episode, because I am going to go through picks one through 33, not just picks one through 32. Yes, we're going to get the first pick of the second round because it's our boy cousin Mike's Carolina Panthers who are on the clock pick 33 to start the second round. And they don't have a first round pick in this, you know, in this draft class. So this is a long draft cycle. There's a lot of players to watch, a lot of mock drafts, a lot of positions to talk about and CM really hasn't gotten a chance to talk about any of them and how they may fit with the Carolina Panthers. So we're going to give him an opportunity to add some talent to his favorite teams roster. So with all that being said guys, we have a lot of stuff to get into here, a lot of draft picks to be made. And with that being said, the pick is in for the Chicago Bears at one overall and CM is standing by to start off the 2024 mock draft mania. - With the first pick and the 2024 NFL draft, the Chicago Bears select USC quarterback Caleb Williams, first overall fight on. - A somewhat predictable pick there by CM, but just like in the wrestling world, predictable isn't a bad thing if it's the right decision. And I think that was clearly the right decision for the Chicago Bears. The pick should have always been Caleb Williams as soon as they were announced that they had the number one overall pick on Carolina and their record kind of fell through the floor. I mean, it sucks for the Panthers that they traded up for a quarterback like Bryce Young. And because of that, consequently they ended up earning the rights to the number one overall pick. And it wasn't strictly because of Bryce Young. So I don't want to just completely crap on the former number one overall pick, but I think that it's pretty evident, pretty obvious that this year's number one overall pick is head and shoulders better. And I know there are some people that aren't Caleb Williams supporters. They don't really think that he is going to be all that he's hyped up to be. Well, I mean, that's not his fault. He's not the one that's hyping himself up. That's the media. And just in this day and age in 2024, a quarterback like Caleb Williams, whenever you look at what he does outside of structure as a quarterback that does have a similar playing style to one of like Patrick Mahomes or Josh Allen, just in terms of someone who's able to keep his eyes down the field and make those crazy throws, insanely accurate throws from like an off-balance release. Like he's able to run to the sideline, throw sidearm. I've seen this guy make a lot of crazy throws. He started his career at the University of Oklahoma. I remember whenever he took his first snap. It was pretty clear in that moment that I wanted him to be the Falcons next quarterback. Like I wanted him to eventually get drafted and replace Matt Ryan. You know, you fast forward, however many years it's been. He has a chance to be the number one overall pick for a different NFC team. And it just so happens that he was the number one overall pick in this mock draft. And let's continue on here. We have Thomas Menares picking for the Washington commanders, his favorite team. And I'm curious what direction he is going to go with the number two overall pick. I think the Washington commanders select Drake May with the second overall pick due to the way the odds have been shifting as well as how Jayden Daniels has responded to questions and conversations about the Washington commanders. It's really a 50/50 coin flip on who you choose. You're not going to look like an idiot. Choose them to get some the wrong one that will be drafted. I think Jayden Daniels might have a faster career start. But in the end, I think Drake May ends up with a better overall career. I think his number-- I think his number's 10 at UNC. I don't know if he would get 10 with us. But I'm selecting him. I'm probably going to get in Drake May, Jersey if he beats the Cowboys. Not necessarily a shocker for me, Drake May going number two overall. I would personally make this exact same pick. It's no secret on this show that Drake May is one of my favorite players in this draft. I've pretty much had to defend him at times, which is pretty crazy because I'm not a North Carolina fan. I have no affiliation, no connection to Drake May. I just think that he's a terrific prospect. And he's gotten a lot of unnecessary criticism. I mean, some of it's necessary if you're pointing out some of his inconsistencies, how every game you're going to see him make probably one or two throws where you wonder, what the hell is that? Where you overthrow is a simple out route. We see quarterbacks like Matthew Stafford do this exact same thing. And I think that no one's really wondering if Matthew Stafford is a legitimate quarterback. Now, is Drake May going to reach that type of ceiling as a Matthew Stafford? That's to be determined, depending on where he gets drafted in this scenario, going to a team like Washington. I think it would be a terrific landing spot for him. I think they could continue to add in this draft and also after the draft to continue filling out their roster under this new regime with Dan Quinn coming in. And I understand that a lot of people are going to connect Jayden Daniels here and maybe want the LSU Tiger to come off the board. But I do believe that Drake May, in my personal opinion, is the correct pick here, just from what he brings from a prototypical standpoint. I am a fan of Jayden Daniels and a couple other quarterbacks in this class. I just look at it like this, where Drake May is right now as at 21 years old, losing his weapons from the University of North Carolina and obviously not having the best supporting cast. Or at least supporting cast such as a quarterback like Michael Pinnox with multiple wide receivers that are in this draft. Same thing with Jayden Daniels, with obviously Brian Thomas Jr. and Malik Neighbors. So there's clearly no lack of talent there on that LSU offense. And I just wonder what a Drake May, a 23-year-old Drake May, would look like as an LSU Tiger, throwing to Malik Neighbors and Brian Thomas Jr. So that's just kind of where I stand with Drake. I think that he's going to be a great addition to the Washington commanders if they end up pulling the trigger. We'll see if that ends up happening in real life. But man, it's a good way to shake up this draft and kind of get back to a little bit more of where people were thinking or what people were thinking. As the season ended, it wasn't really until the pre-draft process where Drake May kind of cooled down. And you saw the quarterback kind of rise up a little bit such as JJ McCarthy and many, many others. But obviously, we will cross that bridge whenever we actually get there. Up next, we have our very own Terry Menethild on the clock for the New England Patriots and the pick is in. Are we going to continue this run on quarterbacks? Is Terry going to give the New England Patriots their franchise quarterback? Or is he going to maybe do something a little bit more curve-ballish? Something that's right in his wheelhouse. We'll let him announce that pick right now. - Yo, yo, what's good, Funky? How the funk, are we? It's your favorite student of the game. Young Terrence, hope everything on your end is all good, full of positivity and happiness. Look, guys, the draft is merely days away, so you know we had to push out. If not, the last one, one of the last mock drafts here at the football function. This one's going to be a different one for you guys. We've got a lot of help from all over the globe. We've got a lot of guys that came in and then clutch to help us out pick their team's draft pick. And if you were one of those guys, man, I truly appreciate you guys. You guys are awesome, love each and every one of you guys. It's really awesome to see how many people you can truly count on and want to help out just out of the sure willingness of their heart, man. That's so awesome to see. And as far as we can grow this, look forward to adding more guys and gals, if you'd like, to our family here at the football function. And that is an open invitation, if you're hearing this, to come on the show and help us out. With our further future endeavors. But with that being said, I had the honors with the third overall pick in the NFL 2024 draft. And that is the New England Patriots pick. And I am going to select Marvin Harrison Jr. with that third overall pick, wide receiver out of Ohio State. I know a lot of people are going to be confused with the pick. A lot of people think quarterback is the way. But as I recall on the season that we had, we aren't a quarterback away from, you know, being contenders where we want to be. I think the weapons need to be added. And it starts here with this sure of Phi Hall of Famer and Marvin. I think we can pick up a quarterback later in the rounds. I think a couple will slip down through the cracks, maybe pin X, maybe Spencer Raller, who knows. I think we could find a gym later on in the draft. But right here at third overall pick, Marvin Harrison Jr. is our guy. I think he's the best player in the draft right now. And I can't wait to see him in the Patriots uniform. Guys, I'll see you later on in the draft. I think I'm up at the Seahawks pick. So I'll see you guys in. And Terry Minnefield does what Terry Minnefield does. And that is bring back a little bit of hot take Terry. He picks Marvin Harrison Jr. And this could end up happening. We'll see if the New England Patriots end up moving off of this pick. 'Cause that's one thing I did want to say really quickly is that we're not doing trades in this mock draft. So these people who are chiming in and making the picks for their respective teams, they're not going to be, you know, contacting each other and trying to move up or down this board or anything like that. So we're kind of just letting the draft play out as if all of these teams were staying put in their original spots. And obviously that's going to lead to some players falling who might not fall in real life because of a possible trade up. And that also might mean that something like this could happen where the Patriots don't feel like any of the other quarterbacks are worth that number three overall pick whenever you have a potential all pro caliber talent. Such as Marvin Harrison Jr. just sitting there waiting to be selected and the Patriots say, "Hey, we have not had a wide receiver like this." Since Randy Moss left the building. Now you could argue that there has been, you know, past catcher since then such as like Robner. Kowski, obviously Aaron Hernandez. Wes Welker was there. There's been a lot of talent come from the wide receiver and tied in position just as path catchers for the Patriots. But nobody has had that raw potential. Keep in mind all of those players that I just mentioned outside of Randy Moss was a day two pick. None of them were first rounders. And you're talking about a top three pick here. I think that Marvin Harrison Jr. would be an injection of lightning for that New England Patriots offense and it would give them an identity because that's the main thing right now. We don't really know what they're going to look like as an offense under this new staff. So we'll see kind of what direction they actually decided to go if they would pass on a quarterback. But if they did go this direction, I feel like it would give us a little bit more of an identity as to who this team really is. Pairing Marvin Harrison Jr. with the likes of Hunter Henry. They do need to address the quarterback position. I think that would be an early round two decision and they would have to throw a quarterback, maybe the sixth or seventh quarterback drafted. Into a quarterback competition where he would likely end up winning and becoming the starter. So that is a possible avenue that we could go down and it's fun to do that on this exercise here. Get these possibilities out of the way. So Marvin Harrison Jr. off the board at number three. And I'm actually picking for the Arizona Cardinals here. So I've mentioned that there are some teams that I don't have a contact for, that I don't necessarily have someone that is a representative and that was willing to come on the show. Now there are some teams that I do have a contact for and because obviously scheduling and making all this work, keep in mind, this is a very tough thing to do. Making it all work out, I wasn't able to get a Cardinals fan. I also was not able to get, just let me go ahead and list off the picks that I will be making myself. So I'm clearly picking here at number four at the Cardinals. And then I'm picking back-to-back 13 and 14 with the Raiders and Saints. I am announcing the Raiders pick. My dad actually made the selection. He's a diehard Raiders fan and he obviously didn't send an audio clip but he did make the selection. So it isn't necessarily what I would do in this situation, just being completely transparent with you guys but we'll keep the draft rolling once we get to that point. But you know, obviously I'll be making that selection and then I will be picking for the Saints at 14, the Indianapolis Colts at 15. So I will be making picks back-to-back-to-back and then I'm picking for the Cardinals as well for their second pick in the first round at 27 and then 30 and 31 for the Ravens and then the 49ers. So a nice little way to start it off here is with a twist. The Cardinals expected all this time but it would no doubt about it. Quarterback, quarterback, quarterback. There's no way in hell that any of these teams are going to take the player we want which is Marvin Harrison Jr. But like we've said when we're talking about wide receivers or just doing mock drafts, Malik Neighbors out of LSU is no consolation prize. So with the fourth pick in the 2024 NFL draft, the Arizona Cardinals select Malik Neighbors, wide receiver out of LSU. And obviously Roma Dunesay could have been picked here just being completely honest. I love Roma Dunesay. Just in terms of my favorite players in this draft regardless of position, he's top two. Like he's legitimately up there with Drake Mae as my two favorite players in this draft class. And the reason why I like Roma Dunesay so much is because he's such a polished wide receiver. He's a complete wide receiver. And I think that he would bring a lot of good stuff to a team as a wide receiver one. But when I'm looking at the Arizona Cardinals and what they need is explosiveness. They need someone to be like we mentioned with Marvin Harrison Jr. They need him to be an injection of lightning. They need him to bring life to this Cardinals team. We've already seen wide receivers leave. Now we're looking at guys like, I mean, Greg Dorch is out of tight in there. I mean, I don't really have Trey McBride. Dorch might actually play for somebody else. So that's on me. But Trey McBride, he killed the Falcons last year. But I think that they're gonna need a lot more than just, you know, a mid round tied in to really shred defenses going forward and getting a talent like Malik neighbors. Think about the guys that have come out of LSU in past years and you're talking about Jarvis Landry, Odell Beckham Jr. And then fast forward a few years later, we get Jamar Chase, Justin Jefferson. And now obviously Malik neighbors and Brian Thomas Jr. like me and Caleb Grant, we're talking it seems like these LSU wide receivers come in pairs. And it's no different this year. Malik neighbors is the next one. I really believe that he's gonna go to a team, hopefully a team with a good quarterback in this situation is going to a team with a really good quarterback. I do think that Kylo Murray's gonna have a good season now that he's got a healthy off season. And, you know, a new number one wide receiver coming in the door here as Malik neighbors. I think this is a pretty good spot for the Arizona Cardinals. And another team here at number five overall, they're in a little bit of a tough situation because they're probably going to be getting trade calls in real life. If this actually happened and it went quarterback, wide receiver, wide receiver, they would be getting all types of trade calls because obviously you got another talented wide receiver on the board in Roma Dunesay. You have a quarterback on the board, a team like Minnesota, Denver, Las Vegas, any of these teams could move up to try to jump other teams and, you know, just secure their quarterback and give the Chargers a little bit of an offer. But in this specific mock draft, I have a good friend of mine making his football function debut. We have A.J. Mendoza standing by a Los Angeles Chargers fan to introduce the newest member of the Los Angeles Chargers. - With the fifth pick in the 2024 NFL draft, the Los Angeles Chargers select Georgia's tight end Brock Bowers. I think this is a really smart pick for the Chargers since the loss of Gerald Everett, Keenan Allen, and Mike Williams. So now they'll have a young receiving core. So I feel a young tight end would make a lot of sense so they can grow together and get a connection going together. - Ooh, a little bit of a shocker there. Not necessarily for people who love Brock Bowers, but just in terms of what the Chargers are doing right now. Like just looking at their offense, right? They just lost two wide receivers and you have Roma Dunesay sitting there, just kind of on the board. So you think maybe they would take a swing on a phenomenal wide receiver and have a new wide receiver one, but this could just be an indicator that they do believe in Quentin Johnston, their first round pick from last year. And they wanna add a talent to a different position, but also maintain the one common goal, which is provide help for Justin Herbert. So what do they do? They take Brock Bowers, one of the most freakish tight ends that we've seen in the NFL for a very long time. I wouldn't be surprised if he ended up going this high just because his raw talent, just how good he is coming out of the gate. He's going to be a phenomenal security blanket for any quarterback, but I think the connection that he would build with Justin Herbert would just be, you know, one of those quarterback pass catcher tandems that we see grow and blossom for years to come. I know this is kind of hurting other people's plans. I know there were probably a few people who were waiting down the line that were hoping Brock Bowers would be available, but he just goes off the board here, Justin Herbert, just looking at what the Chargers have as a coaching staff now. Obviously, they want to run the football. That's what Jim Harbaugh does, but during his time in San Francisco, he had a tight end named Vernon Davis that was a very phenomenal playmaker. He ran corner routes and he was able to just find holes and defensive secondaries. And he made a career out of it. And he was, you know, obviously a long time member of the 49ers, I think he went to Washington as well. But during his heyday, he was a big time difference maker in that Jim Harbaugh/Greg Roman offense and Greg Roman, now being the offensive coordinator, could be pounding the table for a tight end like this, given that he just left Baltimore and he had Mark Andrews, whenever he was the offensive coordinator over there. So there is some logistic here to AJ making this pick. But now we're going to fast forward a little bit to the other side of the country, actually, because we have the New York Giants selection here. And we have Elvis Escobar, one of the hosts of Inter the Lab, a phenomenal sports podcast. You guys definitely got to go check that out. It's also on YouTube as well. Go hit them with a subscription. Maybe even, you know, give a like to some of the videos. Definitely tune in though, because it's a great show. And you'll be glad that you did. If you liked this show, you'll definitely love Inter the Lab. But we got Elvis Escobar making the pick here for the New York Giants. And I'm very curious to see what he does, given the players that are available and that have fallen to six overall. Elvis Escobar here from Enter the Lab podcast. Representing the New York Football Giants. And with that, the New York Giants with the six pick of the NFL Draft. Select Jaden Daniels, quarterback LSU Tigers. He should have went number two overall. So the fact that I'm getting him at number six, we need a quarterback because Daniels, Daniel Jones has not been working out. And he's been injury prone. We have, luckily for us, we signed him to a four year deal. We could opt out after a year two. And this is year two for him. Even if he pulled up a Pro Bowl type season, I see the Giants moving in a different direction. Six, four to 10 pounds. He ran for 1,100 yards for LSU last year and threw for 3,800. 40 touchdowns, 400 receptions. I'm glad Jaden Daniels dropped to us at number six without having to trade down. Elvis Escobar signing out, New York Giants. Now this might make some jaws drop on draft night if Jaden Daniels actually fell to the New York Giants because they would be in an interesting position where they would have to make a decision. It was no secret leaving the NFL Combine. Rich Eisen, who if you watch the NFL Combine, you know that he sits next to Daniel Jeremiah for the entire television broadcast, which is an extremely long time, which means that he's also next to Daniel Jeremiah for the times that they're off camera. And he tends to get a little bit of tips. You know, he tends to get some nuggets, if you will. And he likes to share those 'cause he has a podcast as well. And he said that the main thing that he took away from the NFL Combine was that the New York Giants were done with Daniel Jones. Brian Deball didn't draft this guy. It's not necessarily his quarterback project to fix. I think that they've done a lot by, you know, getting rid of one of his best weapons and say Juan Barkley, who knows behind the scenes if that was more of a Deball decision. And he was the one that was kind of pushing for that to transition an offense into more his identity. I can't really speak on that, but I do think that getting a more electrifying quarterback, a more exciting quarterback in New York to run this Brian Deball system, I think that it would give him an opportunity to kind of, you know, I guess just unravel his own guy, you know, reach a new height with a quarterback that he brought into the league. And he developed from day one and that he can kind of tie his self to, you know, because that's one thing that'll buy you a little bit of time as a coaching staff is investing in a young quarterback early in the draft. 'Cause you know, you're able to convince the owner that, hey, we do have a plan. We have a plan going forward, not just for this season, but for future years, we're gonna get this quarterback right. And in this case, it's the Heisman winner, Jayden Daniels. And obviously they would have to make some moves later on in the draft to try to bring him some more offensive firepower. But I think when you look at what the Giants have done in the defensive side of the ball, they've kind of set themselves up to truly go best player available on the offensive side of the ball, 'cause this is a very talented offensive draft. So I think they could go multiple different directions and obviously Jayden Daniels will be a phenomenal pick for them here because as Elvis mentioned, there is a contract out where the Giants can free up a lot of cap space if they move on from Daniel Jones and it wouldn't be hard to really rebuild this roster. But we do have another New York Giants fan, a very loyal listener of the show. DJ Kuzmo, you guys have heard this guy multiple times here at this point. And we wanted to give him an opportunity 'cause this is a very special episode. I wanted to get a lot of the contributors to get a chance to voice their opinion on this episode. And obviously DJ Kuzmo will have a chance to plug everything he has going on. I know he has a YouTube channel. Kuzmo's wrestling, you can follow him on Instagram at Kuzmo's wrestling and many other pages as well. I think at DJ Kuzmo as well on Instagram. But yeah, I'm gonna give DJ an opportunity to maybe say what he thinks the Giants would do on day two as well, just a little bit of an extra spice for you New York Giants fans out there. This is what DJ Kuzmo would do if the draft played out a certain way on day two. What's going on football function podcast world? This is DJ Kuzmo and I'm here as a guest apparent for the mock draft as we are gearing up for the NFL draft this coming Thursday into this weekend. And as a long time Giants, for instance, I guess you could say way, way back in the day since the late 90s. I wanna talk about my New York football Giants. They got a set of picks throughout this NFL draft this weekend from rounds one to six. You know, most likely in the first round it's gonna be number six, they're gonna be pickin' six which most likely might be a wide receiver in Marvin Harrison Jr. from Ohio State Buckeyes or it might be the quarterback from LSU, Jayden Daniels. Whatever the case may be, this should be a good pick up for the Giants. But I wanna focus on two draft picks in round two and in round three. Round two, pick 47, that's from the Seattle Seahawks via the trade that took place last season. And I'm gonna go with the offense. I'm gonna continue on this trend of offense as it seems like the Giants, they really need to get more depth on the offensive line. We saw what happened last season, a lot of depletion in the depth chart for the offensive line. So most specifically, I'm looking at the right tackle or the left guard as the specific slot that the Giants need to fill up in this draft. So I'm looking at guys that are out there, potential prospects that are out there that can make some noise to be part of this Giants offensive line during the training camp. I have none other than Jackson Power's Johnson straight out of Oregon who was a top center prospect. The Giants could kind of convert them into being a right tackle or left guard during the training camp. And none other than Zack Frazier, who also was a top center, a top center prospect coming from West Virginia, the Giants could also move him into that area of becoming a right tackle or left guard in the training camp and hopefully improve upon the depth of the offensive line for the New York Giants. So I got that as my second round that is pick 47, either the Giants go with none other than Jackson Power with Johnson from Oregon or they go with none other than Zack Frazier from West Virginia. Now I just wanna do one more pick and that is from round three, pick 70. Let's see where the remaining prospects in this draft end up. I'm looking now as I just covered the offense. Now I wanna cover the defense, most specifically the cornerback position. I'm really hoping, I'm just really hoping that the Giants could still get a top cornerback late in the draft, whether it's in the second round or in the third round. And I'm looking at a guy by the name of Kool-Aid McKenstree. Yeah, that's right, Kool-Aid McKenstree. His grandmother called him Kool-Aid because he just had a lovely smile and that smile kinda reminded her of the Kool-Aid man. But other than that, Mr. Kool-Aid McKenstree straight out of Alabama played three seasons with Alabama and he has totaled through 93 tackles, two sacks, two interceptions and 23 passes defended. He'll fit perfectly with the Giants in the quarterback depth chop because as you can see here, Deontay Banks, he's been going pretty steadily last season. Adore Jackson right now, most likely he may not resign with the Giants. And Aaron Robinson, I don't know what's going on with him. He's been with the Giants for a few years, just a lot of inconsistency on the depth chop for the cornerbacks. So it'll be a great opportunity for the New York Giants to draft none other than Kool-Aid McKenstree from Alabama in round three, pick 70. Hopefully he's still available by then. Yes, he does have a fractured right foot, but the projection is that by the time when it comes for training camp, that will be healed and he'll be ready to go to start off the season, hopefully coming in as maybe the backup or the backup to the backup in the cornerback depth chop. So with that being said, let me just recap what I just said. So for round two, pick 47, I'm thinking that the Giants are going to select a offensive line in terms of right tackle or left guard, whether it is none other than Jackson Power Johnson from Oregon or Zach Frazier from West Virginia. And then back on round three for pick 70, I say that the New York Giants will select, hopefully, a quarterback prospect in the likes of none other than Kool-Aid McKenstree. So with that being said, this is your guy DJ Kuzmo. Enjoy the rest of the mock draft, enjoy the NFL draft this coming weekend and shout out to Michael Ritter, shout out to my guys, all of you guys, the supporters of this football function. Thanks once again for having me on. This is your guy DJ Kuzmo and peace. - Shout out to our boy DJ Kuzmo. Obviously, as you guys can tell, he brings the juice wherever he goes. And we're very thankful to have him part of the football function family. Now, if the draft played out the way that he is hoping it does, especially with that third round pick, man, the Giants would hit this draft absolutely out of the park. Teams would have to really be convinced that foot injury from Kool-Aid McKenstree is pretty serious for him to fall. And we'll see if it happens in this draft. But I do think that that would be a, you know, a terrific haul for the New York Giants. Obviously, DJ is a die-hard Giants fan. And because all these other Giants fans, such as Elvis Escobar and many, many others, I hope for the best for them. They're in a tough division with obviously the likes of the Philadelphia Eagles, the Dallas Cowboys are one of the best teams in the entire NFL. And then you look at the Washington commanders and the fact that they just got their quarterback. So now these two rookie quarterbacks would be tied together in this scenario. Jaden Daniels and Drake May. So it would be something to watch if this is how it played out. But now we turn our attention to number seven overall, the host of the primetime edition of the football function podcast. Obviously you guys remember Goose. He was the guy who was hosting the primetime shows every week for us here on the football function podcast. We're hoping to get him back to do the exact same thing for the 2024 season. But for now we're going to let him make the selection for his Tennessee Titans here at seven overall in the 2024 NFL Draft. With the seventh pick in the 2024 NFL Draft, the Tennessee Titans select Joe Alt, Notre Dame, offensive tackle. The Titans have made great strides to improve their entirely different looking offense with the addition of Calvin Ridley, losing Derek Henry, and then Tony Pollard, this is going to be a team that is going to go from run heavy to pass heavy, and they are in desperate need of finding that key offensive tackle. So that is why I feel like he is the best selection for the Tennessee Titans on this specific pick. - I think the riding was on the wall when you look at some of the moves that Titans made. You have to like it if you're a Tennessee Titans fan, just given the inevitable that was going to happen, which is you lose Derek Henry. So what do you need to do? You need to get new players that bring a new style of football, and they did just that. Obviously you already have Trellum Birx and DeAndre Hopkins there in-house. So you go sign somebody like Calvin Ridley, and then you bring in Tony Pollard, who's just going to bring a different running style to what you already have. But not only that, they make a pretty big move for LaGeria Snead and get him signed long term. So they pretty much checked off two needs already, major needs, that is obviously depth as another thing. But in terms of needs, wide receiver, check with Calvin Ridley, corner back, check with LaGeria Snead, and you get that veteran experience. You don't have to develop these guys, so it really allows you to go BPA in this draft. Now you could go Roma Dunes A here, obviously, but you could very well just continue to round out your team because it doesn't matter how many weapons you have on offense. If your quarterback isn't protected, then you're pretty much not going to go anywhere. And they're going to do, in this scenario, thanks to Goose, the smart thing, which is draft the biggest left tackle pretty much in this class. I mean, he's standing here at six foot eight, massive mountain of a player, but he's extremely polished as well, former tight end. Him sliding in there is the left tackle, and then you have Peter Scronsky there. They brought in the Wood Cushion Mary, so they do have a really good offensive line now suddenly. Not only that, you have the best offensive line coach of all time. And then it fell history. You have Bill Callahan, the father of Brian Callahan, who's your new head coach, the former offensive coordinator of the Cincinnati Bengals. We saw him kind of be the benefit of drafting that wide receiver, and it worked out. But we've also seen Joe Burrow deal with some injuries, so they're doing the opposite of that. They're going to pick the left tackle in this situation, and they're going to try to keep their young quarterback upright and allow them to throw to those weapons. We'll see if it works out for him, but I do like Joe all as a player, and I think he's going to fit in perfect. As a member of the Tennessee Titans, now another pick is up here. The Atlanta Falcons, clearly, number eight. And I am not going to be the one that's picking for the Falcons in this mock draft. I know you might be surprised, but because it was such a special episode, I wanted to give the honor and the privilege to one of the most die-hard Falcons fans that I know. Brad Klein, he's a really good friend of mine. He's someone that's been to Atlanta as well. He's a dirty bird to his core. He's someone that I absolutely trust with this eighth overall pick. I know he knows ball, and I know that he knows the Falcons' needs just as good as anybody, so I know that he'll hit this completely out of the park. So I'm going to toss it to Brad here. The pick is in with the Atlanta Falcons. What's up, Funkeys? As most of you may know, the Falcons fans have been wanting the team to draft to add Russia for a long time. Well, here it is. With the eighth pick in the 2024 NFL draft, the Atlanta Falcons select Dallas Turner Edge, Alabama. I'm going in Dallas Turner here 'cause the Falcons just need an Ed Russia that's plain and simple. I watched a little bit of tape on him. He kind of reminded me a little bit of John Abraham. His player comps are Brian Burns, who just got paid. Dr. fans rise up. I think at this point, it's a safe bet that Dallas Turner could be the pick at eight overall. I'd be fine with him or Liatu, Liatu. I'd prefer a trade-back, just really in any scenario, just given the current landscape we're going to be penalized, and we're going to lose the draft pick, and apparently the Falcons are going to be punished pretty severely from what I've heard. They're going to lay the hammer down. They're going to make an example of the Atlanta Falcons and just remind you, hey, if you're going to tamper, don't tell the world that you tampered. You always got to try to hide it a little bit. So obviously, whenever you do something so stupid, you kind of deserve what you get. Hopefully they learn from this, but it is the most Falcons thing of all time that could happen. Obviously, if you listen to Grim Reaper, just a quick sidebar in the Falcons versus Saints rivalry, he mentioned how the Falcons have gotten in trouble for some pretty stupid things. I mean, franchise quarterback goes to prison after signing a $100 million contract for dog fighting, 28-3, we don't have to talk about that, obviously, but also we had a whole little debacle. Noise gate is what it was referred to as or whatever, whenever the Falcons were pumping in artificial crowd noise, but hey, that's neither here nor there. This isn't a crap on the Falcons moment, especially whenever we just had our buddy, Brad Klein, finally stop the bleeding that is a lack of a pass rush. The Falcons haven't led the league in SAC since 2004, so literally 20 years. And I don't even want to talk about leading the league. I just want to consistently get, you know, a healthy amount when we get 45 plus a year, and hopefully we can creep up in the 60s range. But, you know, that's just, that's wishful thinking. You've got to crawl before you walk, and Brad's trying to get those baby steps going by drafting a player like Dallas Turner, who has a phenomenal ceiling. He's a little bit raw, you're going to have to work with this guy, but you're drafting him for the trade, and you're hoping that he could eventually end up being your, as Brad just eluded, your Brian Burns, and, or your Josh Allen, you know, one of these pass trussers that weren't necessarily drafted top three, top four, but drafting them, you know, right in that six to 10 range, you could definitely find a, you know, a decent player, but we're going to toss it to another team. Obviously, the Bears already picked it one overall, but they have another pick, number nine overall, and we have another familiar voice, another former host of the, obviously, fantasy football function. He covered the XFL. Our buddy, Double J, is back to make a pick for his division rival, Chicago Bears, and I'm really interested to see what direction he goes here because the draft is, it's kind of falling in the Bears' favor, obviously, they can go multiple different ways here. They could go wide receiver, they could go edge rusher, they could make an offensive line pick, just to really, like other teams have done, try to round out their offense, kind of like Tennessee Titans, we talked about it. By drafting a tackle, they kind of rounded out their off season, how they've built their team. We could see the Bears do the same thing because, you know, obviously, Caleb Williams is landing in a great spot whenever you look at his weapons that are already there. Could they add another phenomenal weapon here? Roma Dunes is standing out like a sore thumb. We'll see what the Bears do, and how they decide to invest in this top 10 pick, or top nine pick, I should say. Double J is on the clock and the pick is in. With the ninth pick, the Chicago Bears select offensive tackle out of Alabama, J.C. Latham. He is rated as the first offensive tackle off the board according to NFL.com. It also comes in with a 6.71 breed per NFL.com. He is going to be a year one starter, probably more up to protecting Caleb Williams' blind side from the offensive tackle position. He could also have the potential to become a perennial, all pro perennial, all serve. You should see him at Pro Bowls. Just a solid pick, helpful in finding that offensive line. Protection is critical whenever you make an extremely smart investment, or a very valuable investment in somebody like Caleb Williams. I liked that Double J here didn't just completely ignore that. And yes, there's flashy weapons on the board. There's ways to improve your defense as well. But he said, first and foremost, I want to protect this quarterback. It doesn't matter how good our defense is. We've had good defenses, but we don't have a quarterback. Nothing matters. And the bar is so low for the Chicago Bears and the history of their franchise quarterbacks that Caleb Williams is probably going to break all of the records I'm not exaggerating his rookie year. Like obviously, he's not going to break the career passing record. But in terms of like the single season records, I think that he will have the best quarterback season of a Chicago Bear in the history of their franchise. And I don't think that's going out on a limb. I think they've only had a 3,000 yard passer, like a handful of times. I don't know. I don't want to speak out of pocket. But I do believe maybe they're the only team that hasn't had a 4,000 yard passer in the history of their franchise. I'm not sure. Maybe someone else should look that up, but Double J is trying to do what he can to get them on the track there. Since we're bringing familiar voices on, we're on a little bit of a run here. We're going to keep that going. Andy Lefan, former host of this show. He's been on the show several times. This is a time of year where we really like to bring Andy on because of his knowledge of the NFL draft and the fact that obviously he's our New York Jets guy. So we need to know what they're going to do. The board has fallen in a very specific way where I think he has a lot of choices that he can make. And obviously, there's probably some players that he hopes were still on the board that might be already gone. But I think whenever you look at the crop of players that are still available for him to choose from and add to this New York Jets team, I think he's going to be pretty happy and pretty excited to make this selection. So I'm going to toss it to Andy here, number 10 overall with the New York Jets. - What's going on, Funkeys? It's your boy Andy. I know it's been a long time since a lot of y'all have heard my voice and to all the new Funkeys. It is great to meet y'all. I hope that I can come back on the show more frequently now, but I was honored and selected to pick at number 10 here for the football function mock draft by Mr. Michael Ritter. Shout out to him. I appreciate him reaching out to me 'cause I know he knows that I love my Jets and he knows that I love this time of year. It's honestly the best time for all football fans. It's like that. A little glimmer of hope that the draft brings you and from personal experiences, and I know a lot of other people can relate to this. Sometimes a draft class can change the trajectory of your franchise. So with that being said, I am introducing the number 10 pick for my New York Jets, J-E-T-S, Jets, Jets, Jets, let's go. But with that being said, at number 10, I am selecting Rome, a Dunes A. I think his physical presence that he brings, the just the attitude that he has, the go get attitude that he got. He also just brings that 6'3", 215 frame that you can put on the outside opposite of Garrett Wilson. And when you have the running game that we do and the offensive line that we signed in the free agency, in my opinion, this is the pick that makes sense. You go and get a guy that can elevate your offense even more and just to help that defense out 'cause we already know the Jets got that defense down, dude. They're gonna shut it down on defense. And so with this pick, you have to take that electric playmaker on the offensive side. I'm also gonna say this, I get it. There's a lot of people out there that are gonna say, what about the offensive line? What about protecting Aaron Rodgers? And my whole thought process is, we still have some moves to make. We can still maybe end up with a second rounder, but at this point, why draft an offensive lineman just for him to sit when you can draft a playmaker that can be a plug and play guy, can go and get you 60, 70 catches maybe in over a thousand yards and who knows? Maybe six or seven touchdowns. So in my opinion, you have to take the playmaker here with Roma Dunezay, and that's who I'm gonna take. It's been a pleasure, guys. I cannot wait for this draft year. I cannot wait to go watch the draft. It's almost become this tradition for Mike and I, and now Terry, CM, KG, all of those guys. We've watched the draft for, man, I can't even tell you probably six or seven years now. Maybe even longer than that, I don't know. Time flies, but it's such a great feeling to be back on the show, even if it's in this small sample size. But anyways, guys, y'all enjoy this mock draft. I know Mike and Terry and CM and everybody, they're gonna kill it. So y'all enjoy and go Jets. - The New York Jets get one of my favorite players in this entire draft, Roma Dunezay, phenomenal pick from young Andy LaFawn. I think that this was just a home run. Roma Dunezay and Garrett Wilson, I mean, Zach Wilson could probably make that duo work, and I know that's saying a lot right there. But when you look at what the Jets have, obviously there's some age concerns and some injury concerns whenever you look at the two tackles that they signed. But I think that getting a phenomenal player like Roma Dunezay, I know that there are some tackles there that you can get some insurance on, maybe handle a situation next year whenever you part ways with one or both of those tackles. You have someone waiting in the wings that you can kind of just plug in and you don't need that to be a whole anymore. But I do believe this was a smart decision. You wanna maximize this Aaron Rodgers window. They would have liked for Brock Bowers to be there just to allocate a little bit of, you know, the target share somewhere else 'cause I don't think that they're thin at wide receiver bringing in Mike Williams. They still have Alan Lazard. And obviously we've mentioned Garrett Wilson, but I think that long term Wilson and O'Dunezay would be one of the more dangerous duos that we've seen in the NFL in a very long time. Now we're going to turn things overseas. We're going to go to Graham Riefer and he's going to make the selection for the Minnesota Vikings at 11 overall. Now who knows that they're actually going to be picking here in real life? I very much anticipate them making a move up to number three with the New England Patriots to select. Possibly Drake May if he falls. In this scenario, they would have had to move up for Jayden Daniels or JJ McCarthy who's a quarterback that we've seen tied to them a lot here lately. But I'm not going to blabber on anymore. I'm gonna toss it to Graham Riefer, host of Riefer's rivalries and let him make the selection for the Minnesota Vikings at 11 overall. The Vikings are on the clock and with the 11th beat of the first round, the Vikings chose to do JJ McCarthy. Now the reason for picking a JJ one, I didn't think he would still be available at 11, if I'm perfectly honest. There, I thought he would have went too far that left. I think that we would have had to trade up together. Two, we could potentially trade up a drag mayor. Although, I believe the amount of first round picks he will cost us, yes, he will be worth his while a guardboard would risk building the team in future years, be worth it. But if we get JJ in pick 11, the host is the best scenario around in the game of the 23rd pick, which we need. JJ's style, he looks like a bike in Clavak as far as I'm concerned, is the way he plays. It's very much like how the Vikings expect the Clavak's to play. What I do like about him is when he's in the pocket, instead of just standing until the pocket closes in on him, he will move out of the pocket to try and find the pass. And that's something that's been missing from the Vikings' Clavak's. He won't go on a big massive run, but he will go on the run to try and find the pass, and that's what we need. Double chair, not a big double chair, double chair squared, that's just gonna be much more than that. Paul Creason's gonna benefit from this guy as well. It's, yeah, I think he's the, he's the number one choice. And yeah, my run around pick goes to JJ Mcathley. The dream scenario for the Minnesota Vikings, because they are ultimately probably going to end up with JJ Mcathley one way or the other. If this were to shake out how I'm expecting it to, and a lot of other people as well that I've spoken to, I think that there's a good chance that it's going to cost the Vikings more than one first round pick to get JJ Mcathley. So in this situation, where they get him 11 overall, he falls right into their lap. The dream scenario, and I think that this is just probably going to be the pick on every single mock draft that doesn't include trades you could just pencil in, or I guess write it in black ink. JJ Mcathley did the Minnesota Vikings at 11 overall. Another quarterback needy team. Will the run start on quarterbacks here with JJ Mcathley? Or will we see these teams take a more BPA approach since all of the others, or should I say, most of the other quarterbacks, the top four are already off the board here. Are we going to see teams just say screw it? It's a need, we have to make this pick, or are we going to see teams really take a swing? And maybe try to go with a different approach. Come back in the second, trade up in the back end of the first round. We'll see what happens, but we are going to toss it to Dylan Chisholm, another debut. A first timer here on the football function podcast. A really good friend of mine though. I know that he's a diehard Broncos fan. He's been a Broncos fan pretty much his entire life. So I'm looking forward to hearing what he does with the 12th overall pick for the Denver Broncos, who just debuted some new uniforms. You gotta let him grow on you. I know there's a lot of quick reactions for, you know, teams whenever they get new uniforms, but I know there was a lot of people who didn't like the uniforms. A lot of Broncos fans, they didn't like the uniforms. And whenever you kind of just add that to the fact that the very next thing that their organization did was trade for Zach Wilson. Yeah, it wasn't a great day to be a Broncos fan. Hopefully all the fans in Denver still had a little bit left over from their 420 celebrations, maybe they can, you know, get their heads up in the clouds and forget that the Denver Broncos even exist. But right now the Denver Broncos exist and we are going to toss it to Dylan Chisholm to make the pick at 12 overall. But the 2020 for NFL draft underway, the Denver Broncos select at number 12, Bell Nick's, Oregon. I feel like Bell Nick's is a great fit for Denver. He's a big, strong, tough guy. Denver needs a great quarterback like him, mentally of Josh Allen type kind of guy. So yeah, go Broncos. Bell Nick's off the board, the fifth quarterback in the first 12 picks. I've seen some pretty good stats. My cousin Thomas, actually, who was just on the board for the Washington commanders who picked Drake May number two overall, he sent me a statistical sheet that pretty much showed all of the quarterbacks and their stats, but he didn't have who was next to him. You had to pretty much guess who had what stats. And the most impressive stat line was Bell Nick's. And if you watched this guy's tape, you could really fall in love with the type of quarterback that he is and obviously look at what he could do with Sean Payton in a Denver Broncos offense that already has a pretty good running back. Okay, wide receivers, obviously Corland Sutton's a hell of a player, but now they're going to have to really get some help for him. Otherwise, he's going to be seeing some double coverage. And who knows if he's going to be able to handle that, like a true wide receiver one and lead this, you know, this group of young wide receivers, but you have to get a quarterback. The Broncos do not have a second round pick, so they would not be able to come back and, you know, take a swing at this guy. They just had to reach. And it's another reason why don't anticipate them trading up. They don't have the draft ammo. And they have a massive historic dead cap with Russell Wilson, meaning they're going to need all the draft picks they can afford. They're going to need all the young talent they could have on the roster because they're going to probably be filling out a good chunk of their depth with UDFA's undrafted free agents. So they're going to have to have a lot of cheap players in order to make this thing work. And we'll see if they can get it done, but picking a new quarterback here with the upside and the potential that Bo Nix has, I think it's a pretty good pick here. You know, I know that there's going to be a lot of people thinking there's no way you pick him 12 overall. Look at all the talent that's still available, but you kind of have to just, you know, take it with a grain of salt and understand that the situation you're in, there is a quarterback tax. You have to overdraft, you have to overspend, you have to overcompensate whenever you're talking about a trade package to move up for a quarterback. They know that you're going up for a quarterback or quarterbacks on the board, so you have to pay that tax. And it is what it is. In this scenario, the Broncos didn't have to move up. They get their guy, he falls to him at 12, and hopefully he becomes the new face of their franchise. And that leads me here, 13 overall, with the Las Vegas Raiders. I'm going to be making this selection for my dad who let me know, I kind of sent him who went one through 12. And I just asked him, all right, who would you pick in this scenario? And he wanted Bo Nix. He was upset that Bo Nix got picked one pick before the Raiders were on the clock, but that didn't stop him from addressing that need, which is quarterback. Obviously, Aiden O'Connell's on the roster, they have Gardner Minshew there, but they want a quarterback with a little bit more upside. So with the 13th pick in the 2024 NFL draft, the Las Vegas Raiders select Michael Pinnix, quarterback Washington. And I am a Pinnix guy. I like him more than Bo Nix for what it's worth. And obviously, I like him more than JJ McCarthy for what it's worth. You can even make an argument for me with Jaden Daniels, just because I like this guy. He's got some injury concerns as well. He's had to have some season-ending injuries. He's 23 years old. So there are some questions behind him as to why you wouldn't make a massive move up for him, despite him having a phenomenal statistical year for the University of Washington that led them all the way to the National Championship. But we will see if he is able to thrive with the Raiders because they have Devontae Adams there. They have Michael Mayer as the tied in. Obviously, Hunter Rimmfro is a free agent. So the Raiders are in a situation where they need some offensive juice. They need to kind of keep it pushing. We'll see if this is actually a selection that would happen in real life. I think the Raiders may go a different way if it were me making that selection, but I'm not the one that was making the selection. I just announced it just like I'm going to have to announce the Saints pick at number 14 overall. And I'm not looking forward to this one either because I'm extremely high on this player. But with the 14th pick in the 2024 NFL draft, the New Orleans Saints select, Telise Fueanga, offensive tackle, Oregon State, one of the best run blockers in this entire class. One of them, just my favorite players. He's probably top five as well. Really love his game. I hate that he's going to the Saints because he could kick inside the guard and probably be a pro-bo player. Has all pro potential at that position for sure, but he has a little bit shorter arm. So that's why he is being labeled as a possible, you know, transition inside and move into guard. But I do believe that this is one of the best picks that the Saints could make in this draft because they have a massive hole in the offensive line. They have weapons right now, at least on paper. You know, you just drafted Chris O'Lave, you have Taysom Hill, he's probably never going to retire. Alvin Camara, I really don't know how much tread he has left on his tires. But, you know, I think that obviously this is just kind of a BPA meets value, meets team need. So you pull the trigger on a guy like, Tilese Fuonga, and I just think that's another great pick for the Saints. They usually do hit these picks out of the park most of the time. They've had their years where they had phenomenal drafts and they've had years where they draft players like Marcus Davenport and they trade up for him. So you kind of got to take the W's with the L's, but we're going to move on here. Number 15, another selection that I am making myself for the Indianapolis Colts. And with the 15 pick in the 2024 NFL draft, the Indianapolis Colts select Quinyon Mitchell, cornerback out of Toledo, one of my, again, favorite players in this draft because of his ability to just be an ultimate ball hawk. I know that, you know, the six interceptions that he has is very impressive. Four of them came in one game, but still, the 37 PBU's is really what you need to look at. It's almost like a quarter or an edge rusher, right? That has 13 sacks on the season. And you look at that and you think, well, some of those sacks were flooky. He got five of them in the same game. So really, if you look at it, he only had like eight or nine sacks for the rest of the season. And it might be a little bit suspect, but then you look at the pressure numbers and you realize, holy hell, this guy had all types of quarterback pressures. He only had 13 sacks, but he had well over 80 pressures. So he was just getting after the quarterback in other ways. He may not have been closing. It's hard to get a sack in the NFL, but if you're able to constantly bring pressure then it makes you a really consistent force on the pass rush. And I think that as a cornerback's perspective on that, a lot of PBU's means this is a guy that gets his hands on the ball. He's gonna get targeted because he's a rookie because he comes from a small school. So I could see that PBU number be pretty high his rookie year as well. And I just think that the Indianapolis Colts, when you look at what the Tennessee Titans did, bringing in Calvin Ridley, obviously the Texans are the Texans. They just got, you know, Stefan Diggs, they have CJ Stroud there. The Jaguars are probably gonna make a move for a wide receiver and they have Trevor Lawrence. They're often seems like it's probably only going to get better under another year with Doug Peterson. So you just kind of have to ask yourself, you know, do we want to go into this season without a top notch cornerback one? And I think the answer is no. And they add a really good playmaker in the back end of their defense. And I think that they are really going to be glad that they did just that now 16 overall. We have Terry Minifild making the selection for the Seattle Seahawks. Terry's on the road. So he's doing this, you know, in an inconvenient manner for himself. We appreciate him taking the time to contribute to this so that no, we didn't want to miss out on the whole mock draft mania episode. So Terry is up number 16 with the Seattle Seahawks. All right, you phone kids. I am back up here at pick 16 for the Seattle Seahawks. And in my opinion, addressing the offensive line should be the primary focus here in this year's draft under new head coach Mike McDonald. In my opinion, obviously here at the football function, we love us some offensive linemen. So I am picking Troy Fotano at pick 16 here at a Washington. These guys really don't have to look far for their guy. A stud off of the tackle who you could see be more dominant at the guard position, but he's going to be drafted to be that tackle. He's versatile. He can go down, like I said, to be draft or guard. And you know, it's going to be successful there as well. I think he's going to be tremendous for this team to make them completely balanced in the run in the past game. So Troy Fotano here at pick 16. All right guys, I'll see you back at 28, peace. Talk about not having to move at all, literally. Troy Fotano who plays his games, he talked about it. He's from Washington, doesn't have to look far. The Seahawks didn't have to look far to find this prospect. And he's one of the best offensive linemen in the draft. This is definitely a fall. A lot of people have him rated a lot higher than this. So the Seahawks getting this offensive lineman at this point in the first round, I think is a home run. He literally lives in Seattle. So yeah, this is just a home run pick here. And I think he's going to fit in well on that offensive line. Obviously Charles Cross, Abraham Lucas. They've already invested with some young talent. Now they get somebody that could kick inside and just be a dominant player. We could also just replace Abraham Lucas and be an offensive tackle just because you have such a talented prospect like this. You kind of, you know, get multiple decisions and you're able to be flexible in what you do as long as you get the best five out there. That's really all that matters. But let's move on 17 overall. We tried to get our buddy Dylan Gonzalez, our representative for the Jacksonville Jaguars, but scheduling wise, it was not able to work out. So we had to reach out to another AFC South member in terms of, you know, the fan bases, our good buddy Kevin Watson. Now this is someone that does not have a first round pick. The Texans just traded their number 23 overall pick to the Minnesota Vikings. And speaking of the Texans, they dropped some dope new uniforms. I gotta say, I love it. I've been pounding the table for the Houston Texans to get a new look and to finally change it up a little bit. And they finally done it. So, you know, you have to give credit where it's due. I do feel like they hit it out of the park. It's gonna be a nice look and it's gonna really fit this new era of Houston Texans football. So I really like to see that. But this isn't about the Texans. This is about the Jacksonville Jaguars up here at number 17. So I'm gonna toss it to Kevin and hopefully he does his buddy Dylan, a nice service here by drafting a good player for his favorite team, the Duval County Jacksonville Jaguars. Okay, and I'm up with the 17th pick, which is the Jacksonville Jaguars. Hope you're funky as you're doing good out there. I think I'm, Jax can go a couple of ways here, but I think with maybe the way that this board fell, there's really good players in there that I think would really benefit them. They really haven't had a player like that since Jalen Ramsey made up, in my opinion. So I'm gonna go ahead and snag Terriene Arnold, cornerback Alabama off of the board. I think with the Texans added some key pieces on offense, you know, they're gonna be there again, Tennessee kind of up in there, but they did add Calvin Ridley outside of the ball. I think they definitely need to get a lockdown stud at that position for the future. In the second cornerback comes off the board. It's a trend here, right? You saw one AFC South team pick a cornerback. Now you see another AFC South team pick a quarterback and none of them were the Houston Texans. So I think that all these teams are kind of loading up and preparing for what they know is coming in 2024. And that is the storm of CJ Stroud. And we'll see just how bad the weather gets. I know this is a terrible analogy, but great pick by Kevin for the Jacksonville Jaguars. Terriene Arnold, obviously going to be opposite side at Tyson Campbell. They have a pretty good front four, some good linebackers. I think this was a great pick and, you know, kind of rounds out their defense and, you know, they can maybe invest in offense in some other areas. They did sign Gabe Davis to kind of come in there and compliment what they have with Christian Kirk. And we'll see if Trevor Lawrence can show that he is a really good quarterback in this league because I think that a lot of people are starting to doubt him at this point. And I don't know if that's a smart decision. You know, I guess we'll kind of let that play out, but nonetheless, great pick by Kevin Watson, number 17 overall, and now we move over to number 18 overall, another familiar voice here on the show, Cameron Melinda is picking for his Cincinnati Bengals. And I'm just, you know, I'm going to toss it to him because I have no clue what he's going to do here. A lot of talented players have not been drafted yet. So he's got his pick of the litter from a lot of different areas where I think the Bengals could really use some help. We'll see what Cam does to improve. They're already really talented roster. What's going on, everybody? It's your boy Cam back again to make a pick for the Bengals in this beautiful mug draft. Hopefully you're all enjoying it. And if you're not, you're lying to yourself. Anyways, with the 18th pick, I believe the Bengals need and should go D-line so we can finally stop Derrick Henry and that Lamar Jackson duo that's going to terrorize the entire league except for us. You know why? Because we're going with Byron Murphy the second from Texas. We're going to pair him up with BJ Hill and Sheldon rankings and we're just going to dominate. So good fucking look trying to run against us this year. Well, when you lose somebody like DJ Reader, it is smart to replace him pretty quick and with a very talented prospect. They've invested into their defensive line over the past few years and they make another investment here. Byron Murphy the second, an absolute disruptor, going to make life hell for pretty much anybody that's trying to run up the middle on the Cincinnati Bengals. They're going to have just a phenomenal front four. When you look at Sheldon Rankins already having BJ Hill, like Cam mentioned, two good edge rushers too. Don't sleep on Trey Hendrickson and Sam Hubbard. So this is a team that could go a lot of different directions. I don't blame them for getting a talented player like Byron Murphy because I think that ultimately this is going to make them a hell of a lot stronger, especially whenever you talk about getting interior pressure like right in the face of quarterbacks. That's something that, you know, you can't step up in the pocket against that. You know, you kind of have to move. If they rush Patrick Mahomes up the middle and he has to go to the outside, how long do you expect the cheese tackles to be able to block Sam Hubbard and Trey Hendrickson? If they're singled up, which if they aren't, it's advantageous for the Cincinnati Bengals because that means that they're able to bring pressure from other ways, maybe allocate more bodies to the back end to make coverage a little bit more complicated. But nonetheless, this is a great pick for a lot of reasons and, you know, there's a lot of people that are kicking the air right now because I'm sure they were hoping that Byron Murphy would be available for their team. But let's go ahead and move it on a little bit here. From one host, former host, former contributor of the show to another CM back on the board here, number 19 overall with the Los Angeles Rams. So let's see what direction CM goes with all the players left on the board for the Rams to choose from. Since they're making a first round pick for the first time since 2016, they got to really make this one count. I trust CM to do right by the Rams fans there in Los Angeles and St. Louis. At pick 19, the Los Angeles Rams come in and they are going to select edge rusher from Florida state Jared verse. Go Florida state, go Seminoles, go Rams. The fall stops for the very talented Jared verse. You could have been the top 10 pick last year if he declared but he decided to go back to FSU had another great season and he's still a first round pick, very talented pass rusher. Obviously they could have gone other directions here because of the elephant in the room or should I say the elephant who's no longer in the room Aaron Donald retirement. But I think that nonetheless, you had to make this investment into the defensive line and try to find ways to make life hell for opposing offenses one way or the other. But now we're going to turn our attention to patron of the year Howard pool up to make the selection for the Pittsburgh Steelers here at number 20 overall. - The greatest teams in Pittsburgh Steelers history have been built in the trenches. Players like Mean Joe Green, Mike Webster, Franco Harris and Jerome Bettis the bus have thrived there. If this new generation of Pittsburgh Steelers want to succeed and hoist bomb party trophy, we need to continue to build at the line of attack. That is why with the 20th pick of the 2024 NFL draft, the Pittsburgh Steelers select future Hall of Famer, future Super Bowl champion Olu Ashanu tackle Penn State wins the terrible tales fire for the gate. Let's go. - So the Steelers walk away with the best pure past blocking tackle in this entire draft class. Doesn't have to go far either. Penn State, obviously this is a sweet pick for Howard pool because he's a Penn State fan. He's a Pittsburgh Steelers fan. So getting a player going from your favorite college to your favorite pro team and your local, I would go plum crazy too, if this happened to me and the Falcons were able to get a University of Georgia player, although this year, if we're getting any Georgia players, I won't lad in the Conkey, but that's not a first round guy. But years passed out of a very fine drafting, I don't know, Jalen Carter, then maybe name a couple others. I'm not pissed that we passed on it for Bijon, but I would be happy with a Georgia player as long as they were a blue chip type player. And I think Olu Fashanu is exactly that. I think you could work on this guy, make him more of a run blocker, 'cause you know they're gonna have to run blog in this scheme with Arthur Smith. They're gonna want to run the ball a lot. But I think nonetheless, having a past blocker, like Fashanu, it's gonna keep your quarterback safe and Russell Wilson, you have a franchise quarterback, which is what you hope. That's exactly what he is, right? So if that is the case, then I think you have to protect him and Olu Fashanu's gonna do just that. Phenomenal pick there, a great value pick, number 20 overall, they get the best past blocker. It doesn't matter who goes before them. Like if you were to tell any Steelers fan, yeah, you're gonna stay at 20, but you're gonna get Olu Fashanu. They would be doing backflips. So yeah, great pick by Howard Poole. Shout out to Plum Crazy BBQ, thriving as always. But let's move on to another pick here. We're gonna go to the AFC East, number 21 overall. The Miami Dolphins, and we're having somebody make their function debut again here. We just had Cameron Melendez make the 18th pick for the Cincinnati Bengals. Well, we have Cam's brother, Breck Melendez, making his debut. So we're excited to, you know, have another member of the Melendez family join the football function family. So let's see what Breck wants to do here. Number 21 overall with the Miami Dolphins. - With the 21st pick and the 2024 NFL draft, the Miami Dolphins select Jackson Powers Johnson, Interior Office of Lyman, Oregon. With the free agency loss of Robert Hunt and the injury to Connor Williams, Miami needs to fill the hole in the interior line. The Dolphins address the center position with a signing of the athletic guard center, Aaron Brewer, who can possibly be a mentor to JPJ and kicking over to guard, allowing the rookie to take over the center position and hopefully become another Mike Pouncy level center for the next 10 to 15 years in the Aquin orange. - Great breakdown and a great selection, by Breck there taking Jackson Powers Johnson, a nice anchor on their offensive line, which kind of similar to all these other offenses, doesn't matter all the weapons you have. If you can't keep your quarterback and specifically the Dolphins quarterback too, it's like a siloa. He needs somebody like this. JPJ does have position versatility, so he can be plugged in multiple places on the offensive line, but I think he's gonna fit right in. The Dolphins are just planting there at center, have a new anchor on their old line and go from there and continue to build. We're gonna continue on here in this show, picking for the number 22 overall Philadelphia Eagles, is none other than Joey Martinez, and I'm excited to see what he's going to do here, because I personally think that the board has fallen nicely for the Eagles here. - With the 22nd pick in the 2024 NFL draft, the Philadelphia Eagles select Adrian Cooper, linebacker, Texas A&M, Go Birds. - All right, I think that might've been the first pick that genuinely surprised me. I would've liked it a little bit of analysis on that just strictly because that's a shocker. Like I don't think the Adrian Cooper's a bad player by any means, a nice versatile linebacker can rush the passer, has a little bit of stand up in his game too. So I think that obviously the Eagles, they get a hell of a player there, but I just didn't expect it. Came out of left guard, you have to love that, 'cause we're gonna have those picks in the real draft. As you're watching, there's going to be some picks that happen, you didn't expect 'em to happen like that, and next thing you know, we are often rolling and dominoes start to fall, and next thing you know, players end up in places that you never would've guessed. But we are gonna take our draft here, back across the pond, I guess you should say. We're gonna toss it to Grim Reaper, number 23 overall, with the Minnesota Vikings making their second selection here in the first round of this draft. Yeah, the Vikings are on the clock, and with their 23rd round, big 2,000 for draft, which is Johnny Nielden. I think the reason for picking Johnny Nielden is we're gonna, you know, we've got holes all over. Depends on the offensive line, and in the ideal position, we need strength in top, and this dude is six foot three hundred and four pounds. He's a big 10 defensive player of the year, last year, he's got good hands. When he's fighting, he's got natural laboratories, co-opendent agility, and where, natural originally, the dude, and basically he's a unit, and that's what we did. You can look and notice that's all of the years, he's getting better and better every year. The amount of solid takedowns that he's getting, the compound, the amount of team takedowns, you know, it's getting better and better every year. The amount of sacks that he's getting is going on, but quite a bit every year. All I can say from this dude is that he will get better and better every year, and the fact as well, the discipline captain, last year, could be a future fighting team captain. So let's say 23rd, big, over the first round, for the Minnesota Vikings is Johnny Nielden. I'm a big Johnny Newton guy. Just gonna go ahead and get that out there right now. I think that this is, you know, he's in the same breath as Byron Murphy the second when you talk about just absolute disruption and ass kicker. And when you look at, you know what the Packers are bringing in with Josh Jacobs now, obviously you're gonna have a more physical approach to the Detroit Lions, or just in their blood, a more physical team that really likes to try to pound the rock. You have to be prepared, and you have to have the type of players to stop that type of thing, and you just lost someone like Daniel Hunter so your defensive line, by default, seems like it's gonna be a little bit weaker, you have to invest. And in this scenario, they don't trade away this 23 overall pick, and they stay put and take the phenomenal defensive tackle out of Illinois. So we're gonna toss it over, number 24 overall, to Isaiah Bassell, picking for America's team, the Dallas Cowboys, who weren't really active in free agency, so this is the real good opportunity for them to add an impact player. Are they going to do it? Is Isaiah going to do right by the massive fan base that is the Dallas Cowboys? We're gonna toss it to him and get the official pick here for the Dallas Cowboys. - With the 24th pick and the 2024 NFL draft, the Dallas Cowboys select the Marius Mims, tackle Georgia. Losing Tyrant Smith in free agency was a huge loss for the Cowboys, so I think having a young athletic stud like Mims would be huge. Yes, he's only played 800 career snaps, but he's six, seven, 340 pounds, and he's only 21 years old. He's got tremendous upside. The raw talent and power is there, and you can plug him into either tackle position. And Dallas is usually pretty damn good at developing offensive line talent, so draft an athletic stud like Mims at 24 to help solidify that offensive line for the next 10 plus years would be a safe pick. This is a perfect spot where need meets value. The Cowboys had multiple different areas they could have gone here on the offensive line, and they decided to take one of the more upside players. It kind of reminds me of a time back in 2011 when they took a massive young ass player by the name of Tyrant Smith from USC. I know that this isn't, you know, number 11 overall, whatever, they got Tyrant Smith. He ended up really over delivering, especially early in his career before he really got banged up. The Cowboys are trying to recreate history there. Get a Marius Mims, probably plug him in on the right side, get Tyrant Smith back at his original spot, left tackle. You could address the interior of your offensive line in other ways, you could really add talent there. The draft isn't just one round. So there is other ways that you can get players, maybe bring in some veterans that are still on the open market, but getting somebody with the upside like Mims, he could be a Dallas Cowboys legend. He's cut from the cloth, that is massive Dallas Cowboys offensive lineman. When you think about some of the guys that they've had over the course of their franchise's history, a Marius Mims will be the next one in this current situation. But from one NFC historic team to another, Vince Nash up to pick for the Green Bay Packers here, obviously one of the most die hard cheese heads that I know, literally the only one that I know that actually lives in Milwaukee, he's from Wisconsin, spent a lot of time here in Texas, obviously. But he's someone that knows ball, and I'm really looking forward to the selection that he makes for the Green Bay Packers, because the Packers for the longest time, they drafted a very specific way, and they didn't like to shy away from their, their team building approach. I feel like they do things a little bit different here, so I'm excited to see who Vince takes off the board with the 25th overall pick. - All right, so at 25, the Packers are taking Kool-Aid and Kinstry out of Alabama, far back. You know, good size, long, pretty long, good press man, corner on the outside. He's gonna fit Jeff Haffley's scheme very well. He compares favorably to Trent McDuffie or Devarm Witherspoon in terms of coverage. He's not the type where the other of them are. But once again, good length, fluid hits, started as a freshman for Nick Saban in college and played SEC competition for three years, so very well tested. For that reason, up to the floor is very low, or the floor is very high on me, excuse me. And you should be solid. It should work very well on the outside, allow Jair Alexander to play inside a little bit. Maybe do some more exotic things in this single high scheme with Xavier McKinney at safety. And Kool-Aid and Kinstry is off the board, another cornerback out of Alabama, another first round pick from Alabama. I think this is going to be a great pick for all the reasons Vince just mentioned. It seems like he would fit in very well with the Green Bay Packers. We've seen them dip in Alabama. The Alabama pull in the past, looking at guys like Ha-Ha Clinton Dicks, obviously Eddie Lacey, they've done this in the past. And now bringing in a guy like Kool-Aid and Kinstry, it does seem like he would be a household name for the Green Bay Packers there, as their cornerback two, and just making their secondary as a whole. A whole lot better. But we're gonna keep it in the NFC. Again, another pick here, Tampa Bay Buccaneers. And who else are we going to have draft for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers? The none other than our good friend, the pewter pirate, he's been on the show. It's been a long time. So I'm really excited that we finally get a chance to have him back on the show. I think that this does add to the quality of the episode that we're able to bring back a lot of familiar voices. A lot of voices that haven't really gotten a chance to come on the show. And none of them are more worthy than the pewter pirate, obviously. But given that this is an NFC South selection, I am curious who he's gonna take off the board. And is this going to be a player that for the next five to 10 years, I have to pretty much not look forward to dealing with twice a season. So without any further ado, pewter pirate here with a 26th overall pick. At 26th Tampa Bay Buccaneers select Edge, Laatu Latu from UCLA to replace Shaq Barrett and help bolster their edge rush. Another phenomenal pick here in this draft, Laatu Latu, great value. Getting him this far, probably the most polished pass rusher. As of right now, the one who's gonna give you the most, the fastest. You look at guys like Dallas Turner, Jared Verst, they might develop into people who have a higher ceiling possibly, but when you look at immediately out of the gate, who's the most pro ready pass rusher you're looking at Laatu Latu from UCLA. So this is someone that I'm definitely not looking forward to having to go up against twice a year if it actually shapes up like this. I would very much like him to go a little bit earlier to somebody else. But if this does end up being the case, then I think that they got a phenomenal player replacing Shaq Barrett. And this is a true, you know, a player that has double digit sack potential on a year in, year out basis. And that's really all you could ask for, may can be part of a rotation. Next thing you know, you're really cooking with gas for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and their defense is gonna be back to a dominant unit. Speaking of defenses and trying to be dominant, I'm up again here at number 27 overall with the Arizona Cardinals. And I'm in a little bit of an interesting spot because they have so many needs. Like no matter what, you could just throw a dart at a, you know, at a dart board and have nothing but like football positions written down and whichever one the dart hits, you could draft that player and it would probably be an upgrade on the Arizona Cardinals roster. But I wanna do something special for them. I wanna really give them a player that I'm, you know, pretty fond on. Or does that even make sense? I'm very fond of this player is what I'm trying to say. But with the 27th pick in the 2024 NFL draft, the Arizona Cardinals select Cooper DeGene, cornerback out of Iowa. Now they already have Buddha Baker on their team and he's a little bit of a Romer, a little bit of kind of a Swiss Army knife, if you will, where they're gonna get another one who just so happens to wear that number three, that Buddha Baker wears. So DeGene's gonna have to change his number if this was like, you know, the situation that actually panned out. But I am a massive fan of DeGene. If you watch him play, he looks like the best corner in the draft, like legitimately. You could have the discussion, is Cooper DeGene the best corner back in the draft? I think he's phenomenal. He could play multiple different positions. I would love him to be like a nickel corner or, you know, like a hybrid safety that's just used on a matchup basis, kind of let him roam around. Because, I mean, this is a guy that is a playmaker with a ball in his hands. He returns punts. Like you wouldn't do that if you weren't a phenomenal athlete, which he is, has a basketball career as well. Great player. Don't let his skin tone scare you away. This is someone that's going to be able to play cornerback at the next level, despite being a Caucasian. And we haven't seen a Caucasian cornerback since like Jason Sehorn. So it's been a while since Cooper DeGene has, or someone like Cooper DeGene has kind of emerged in this type of role and, you know, power to him. Because I think that, you know, obviously as a skill set that is like Christian McCaffrey when you look at like Christian McCaffrey being a running back and the type of runner he is, Cooper DeGene is the cornerback version of that. And I really think that he's going to have a phenomenal career and the Cardinals get a damn good player in Cooper DeGene. But now we got to turn it to another football function host, number 28 overall, Terry Minifild. He's up with the Buffalo Bills, and we all know he loves the Buffalo Bills. So I am curious to see who he's going to add to this roster. And, you know, given the fact that they weren't able to trade up, how was he going to make their team better than what they were last year? And it ultimately seems like damn. Did they hit their ceiling? Did they hit their peak? Terry's going to help them maybe have a little bit more optimism. Or I hope so anyways, but nonetheless, here is Terry Minifild, student of the game, making the selection at number 28 overall for the Buffalo Bills. - Okay, 28 belongs to the Buffalo Bills. And if you're an OG, you know, my hatred's toward this team. So I'm going to go through it. I'll save you guys as the, the measure of Jeremy Rant against this team. In this year's draft, the Buffalo Bills select AD Mitchell, Wider Seaver, out of Texas. Unfortunately, I feel like this young man fits this offense just like a glove. Mitchell brings his big play-threat ability, his explosive plays down the field. I think him and Josh Allen, they're going to top the charge this year. With his speed and his ability to just find the areas that are unguarded and to stretch the field, opening the opportunity for other players, like Dalton Concade and James Cook to eat underneath. I think it just, it's just going to go hand-in-hand. And these two are going to find a connection that Stefan and Josh Allen couldn't figure out. Yeah, this big sucks, it hurts, but I am looking forward to seeing AD be successful. I'm always rooting for Texas Kid to thrive in NFL. So even though it's in division, divisional rival, I hope nothing but success for this young man here at the Buffalo Bills. All right, guys, that's it for me. Take care of yourself, take care of each other. I'll holler at y'all later. Fuck the Bills. All right, peace. - Whoa, all right, that was a little uncalled. Four little shot at the Buffalo Bills. There, but hey, as you guys know, I have said my fair share of negative things about the Saints in the past, so I cannot criticize or judge young Terrence Minnifil for having some ill will towards a division rival. But AD Mitchell here, okay. I have kind of, it's kind of tough, you know, because I was really high on this guy's game whenever he's making plays, he is making plays. Whenever the lights are on, shining the brightest, this is someone that takes his game to the next level. Five college football playoff appearance games, five touchdowns in those college football playoff games. So, including one that was not that long ago against Washington. So this is somebody that, you know, obviously has some off-the-field questions we've kind of seen been brought to light. I think that might cause him to drop a little bit, but I do see a little bit of CD Lam whenever you look at him just releasing off the line of scrimmage, running some of those slant and routes. His just play style reminds me a little bit of CD, but I'm not really sure how safe I feel drafting this guy in the first round, just based off some of the things that I've transpired over the past few weeks that have come to light. But I am making the next three selections, or at least announcing the next three selections. So we'll probably go rapid fire until we close this bad boy out here. Number 29 overall, this was supposed to be Detroit Kyle. He actually made the selection, so I'll tell you who he picked. The audio clip was not able to be sent in because of scheduling dilemmas. I know Detroit Kyle is a very busy person. Detroit is actually hosting the draft right now, so it's probably very chaotic there in the, you know, Detroit Rock City area, so I'm not holding it against Detroit Kyle by any means. We'll get him back on the show. With that a doubt very, very soon, and we definitely appreciate him making the selection, and contributing that way. So with the 29th overall pick, in the 2024 NFL draft, the Detroit Lions select defensive end, chop Robinson, edge rusher out of Penn State. This is someone with a very quick get off, someone that does have a lot of upside as well. He's very, very fast. I like what he can do from like a beach udier spot perspective as a, you know, as an edge rusher, if he really gets the snapcat, snap count down, he's got like a Trent Cole type of get off where it's just like, he gets out wide, a really wide alignment, and he's able to really make that tackle start running, get out of his drop step very quick, and if you're not there, then chop Robinson can absolutely get to the quarterback. So I do like that pick. He does fit what they're doing there in Detroit, and that's two Penn State and any Lions going here in the first round, but that takes us to number 30 with the Baltimore Ravens, and with the 30th pick in the 2024 NFL draft, the Baltimore Ravens select Brian Thomas Jr. wide receiver LSU. This is the leader in the entire country of receiving touchdowns with 17 this year. He can just get past you for three speed at a pretty big frame. He's pretty much what the Ravens need, especially when they already have Zay Flowers. You already factor in Mark Andrews and Rashad Bateman's development. All of a sudden they have some really good pass catchers, and it's almost like a basketball team. They have all different types of players, different types of skill sets that can really mold together and give the Ravens that little boost that they need on the offensive side of the ball. Up next, 31 overall, the San Francisco 49ers, they're going to select Nate Wiggins, cornerback out of Clemson, very long, very lean, good off-man corner, very good in zone defense. I would like to see a little bit more in press, man. Use that extremely long frame that you have to really make life difficult for wide receivers. He's just really lean, 173 pounds. Think about it. There's skinny corners that are about 20 pounds heavier than this guy. So I want to see what he can do from a run-stopping perspective. Is he going to be willing to go up and make some tackles? Or is he just going to be a liability in that way where they can just run at this guy and tell him to go tackle? And pretty much just see if he's able to do that. We'll find out soon enough. And if he does get here, get this selection here, I think that San Francisco, picking this late in the first round, which is pretty much is what they do every single year. They're never able to get the top tier talent in a draft, but Wiggins is a pretty good player for picking 31 in a first round, but the only reason they're picking 31 is because they lost in the Super Bowl to the Kansas City Chiefs. And for the Kansas City Chiefs, we have Lane Miller here to make the final selection in the first round of this mock draft, mania mock draft here in the football function podcast. So Lane is up for the Kansas City Chiefs. - The 32nd pick of the 2024 NFL draft, the Kansas City Chiefs select Keon Coleman, wide receiver, Florida State. I think this is a great pick for the Chiefs in the first round, it's a major need for them. And considering the Rishi Rice News, it's definitely going to help them out in the long run. - Lane closes out the first round with another big body wide receiver, Keon Coleman out of Florida State, going to be Patrick Mahomes' new toy, and his fantasy stock just went up. That's what a lot of people say, who's the best wide receiver in this class, loaded wide receiver class, who is going to be the guy? That is the most successful career. Give me the one that ends up with Patrick Mahomes. And if this is the case, I think Keon Coleman's gonna be off to a pretty good start. It's gonna be a new version of the Chiefs offense I feel like next year. Just start gonna have to transition a little bit, but who knows, I think there's still gonna be like a physical running team with Isaiah Pacheco, but you wonder if Kelsey's gonna take a step back. Are they going to get a full season worth of Rishi Rice? I don't know what's gonna happen there, but nonetheless, you needed to take a wide receiver here even before the Rishi Rice stuff. So the fact that you do get one to compliment him if he doesn't go away, and you also brought in Hollywood Brown, I think yeah, the Chiefs are in a pretty good spot. So that closes out the first round, but like I mentioned earlier, we're going to allow CM to make a pick here at the top of the second round for his Carolina Panthers. So with that being said, here's the first pick in the second round, brought to you by none other than CM Monk. At pick number 33, first pick in the round two of the NFL draft 2024. The Carolina Panthers select Ladd MacConkey, slot receiver at a UGA. Go, dogs, go, keep pounding Carolina Panthers, baby. Great pick for the Carolina Panthers, they get a real weapon, a real versatile playmaker who can go over the middle, stretch the field, move the chains, do everything you need to do for a young quarterback. I think that's a great pick, because also you look at some of the receivers they already have, they just brought in Deontae Johnson, they already had him feeling, this could be a really good spot for MacConkey to be Bryce Young's go-to guy. And I'm silently, if the Falcons actually draft a Dallas Turner in the first round, I very much hope that we would pull the trigger on Ladd MacConkey in the second round. But in this scenario, he doesn't make it to 43, because he goes 33 to our division, rival Carolina Panthers, but that does do it for us here, guys. On this episode of the Football Function podcast, mock draft mania, as you can see, that's why it's called mania. We had 24 voices on this show. That's by far the most in football function history, just being completely honest, in terms of producing, editing, engineering, everything that goes on beyond the scenes and podcasting. This is the most complex thing I've ever done. It's the coolest thing I've ever done, and I'm certainly proud of it, and I'm very thankful for all of you who participated in this mock draft mania, because I know it was something that took a little bit of time out of your day to send in the audio clip, and then obviously just keep track of this draft and make sure that you put your team in the best spot to land a phenomenal playmaker. So this was a very important episode in the draft cycle. I think this kind of puts a bow on my pre-draft talk, on my pre-draft stuff. So with this, I will bid you guys a do, and I will let you guys know that, hey, the draft is here, it's time. I don't know what shenanigans you guys have going on for the draft, we're obviously going to have a get-together, it's what we do every single year. So I look forward to that, but outside of that, I'm just looking forward to, hopefully, the Falcons drafting a good player. I don't want to react one way or the other, whether I like it, whether I dislike it. I've learned the hard way, let it play out. Usually whenever I overreact to a draft pick, that player ends up being somebody as phenomenal as AJ Terrell. So we kind of just have to take the picks with a grain of salt, let these players play out, let their careers play out, I should say, these are humans. So we do need to let them develop and evolve properly, and we can all just hope that our team changes the trajectory of their future with this very draft class. Hope you guys all have a phenomenal rest of your week. Enjoy all three rounds of the 2024 NFL Drafts. We will be back after round one, obviously, to recap that bad boy. But thank you guys so much for tuning in, because it's obviously a very special time here at the Football Function Podcast, and it means the world that we're able to surpass 500 episodes and do it all with all of this community. That's the main thing. Everybody that had an audio clip, everybody that contributed to this episode, is a very cool person, likely a die-hard fan for whatever team that they cheer for. So I obviously, I wish the best for those guys, I appreciate their contributions, and helping me make this the most memorable episode to be at the Football Function Podcast. So thank you guys so much for our more time, walk passionately in the direction of your dreams, and I'll talk to you soon. (upbeat music) [BLANK_AUDIO]