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Chapter 1: What are Colin Cowherd's initial thoughts on the NFL Draft?
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Chapter 2: How are the Raiders positioning themselves for success after the draft?
There are teams, the Niners, I'll get to that later, that I think reach. They're trying to fit stuff into Kyle Shanahan's scheme, and they reach. Like Howie Roseman's, stay to your board. Never forget, the draft is just one element of personnel. There are trades. There are acquisitions. There are undrafted free agents.
I saw five or six undrafted free agents that are going to absolutely make the roster and be productive within a year or two. Go look at the UFA, the unrestricted free agent signings around the NFL. It's kind of fun. There's a lot of guys you watched in college. There are a couple of guys that you know will come in and play. So you can't get too caught up. Oh, you didn't fill every hole.
trade deadline, everything. There's cuts made during the preseason. I mean, Philadelphia, Howie Roseman made a trade during the draft. So that's why Howie is so busy, because he doesn't live and die with a draft. It's just the best GMs that have ever been in this sport have whiffed badly on first round picks. So here's Ben Johnson on his draft class.
They absolutely nailed it. We found guys that fit our DNA and what we want to be about. We're looking for high level competitors, guys that if you took football away from, they really don't know what to do with themselves. It's a huge part. They eat it. They sleep it. They breathe it. And I think we're able to identify those type of guys.
And when you have guys like that, they usually find a way to come out on top.
I look at the Bears and I think, yeah, I wish they got a rush in. But the games don't start until after Labor Day. They got the center for the future from Iowa. Centers from Iowa last a long time in the league. They got a blocking tight end, high IQ, 13 personnel add. A top safety, some think the top safety in the draft. They got a linebacker. That was an area of need.
They got a speed receiver slash return guy. Devin Hester, pretty popular in Chicago in his day, right? They went and got that version from LSU, the fastest guy arguably I think the Bears have ever had. So it's all these scheme fits, high character guys, didn't get hurt in college, they were productive, they scheme fit, and everybody's like freaking out. Yeah, I wish the Bears got a rush in.
But the Rams had to play perfectly last year in Ben Johnson's first year and Caleb's first year with Ben Johnson to beat the Bears. Had to play a perfect football game. No penalties, no turnovers, no drops in bad cold weather. For an L.A. team, that's rare. So I like what they did. Now, that doesn't mean I loved every draft. I don't understand the Niners, and I'll talk about that coming up next.
Monday after the draft, it's the Hurd. Be sure to catch live editions of The Herd weekdays at noon Eastern, 9 a.m. Pacific on Fox Sports Radio, FS1, and the iHeartRadio app.
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Chapter 3: What improvements can the Giants expect with John Harbaugh's leadership?
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Chapter 4: Why are the Chiefs expected to be Super Bowl contenders again?
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So, yeah, there are... I thought Miami's draft, they got some really good players, but a couple of reaches, very uneven. Didn't love the Jags draft. I don't get how John Lynch drafts. I know John. I covered John. He worked at Fox. I don't get their drafts. Warren Sharpe wrote an article this weekend.
No team in the league has reached on more players over the last four or five years, and a lot of them are just don't play in the league. They drafted a kicker in the third round, and it's just a bad pick. I didn't like this draft. Shocker. They drafted another wide receiver. Now, people will say this. Well, they win a lot.
Well, how'd they do against Seattle last year when they played them twice those last two times? 41-6, 13-3, could not move the ball. Why? Because Seattle doesn't miss on draft picks. Seattle has a much younger, athletic, deeper, less brittle roster. The Rams have drafted so well defensively. They match up now very well with San Francisco. So the Niners are so dependent.
so dependent on out scheming people to win, Kyle Shannon, and he can do that for over half the league. But good luck out scheming McVay twice a year or out scheming Mike McDonald of Seattle twice a year. You're not going to do it. Those are two of the top five coaches in the league. So you can still beat up a Nick Sirianni, who's not a good scheme coach. And Kyle's going to keep you competitive.
But the Niners are now so reliant on older, great players. Christian McCaffrey, George Kittle, Fred Warner, Bosa, Seattle. They moved off one of their best edge rushers. He's now in Cincinnati. They're good. Last year, Seattle lost a running back in the season. It didn't matter. They won the Super Bowl. The Rams, Puka Nakua, Devontae Adams, Ole Miss starts with injuries or age. Doesn't matter.
They got guys. What happens to the Niners is if they lose Trent Williams, they have a losing record. If McCaffrey can't play, losing record. So with the Niners, you just cross your fingers that nobody gets hurt in camp and everybody gets healthy about Thanksgiving. They're so dependent because they've missed on so many picks.
And Grant Cohn's a local reporter and he called out John Lynch, who I like, but once again, I can't follow their draft. They'll take guys 55, 60 spots. I mean, I watched Indiana a lot. The running back was fine. It was Fernando, their defensive front, and their wide receivers I really liked. So I don't know what to do with their drafts. I feel the same way every year.
And there's an argument that the best draft GM in the league is in their division, John Snyder, and the team that has literally draft defense better than any in the league over the last three years is in their division. It's the Rams and Les Snead and Sean McVay. So here was Lynch after with a reporter. Your draft board seems to deviate quite a bit from the consensus.
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Chapter 5: What were the standout draft strategies of the Browns and Jets?
Well, I will say that...
Jokic is struggling so much that Minnesota can still win a game without those two. I really think so. It'll be tougher, but Gobert has become so valuable in this series, and they have enough basket getters, so I think it's going to be interesting, but sometimes in this stuff, attrition, we see it in Super Bowls, we see it In the NBA playoffs, attrition is part of pro sports.
These are long series. The athletes have never, you know, the contact, the physicality, the regulated levels of violence. It's hard to get through seasons. That's what's always amazing about LeBron. He's always healthy. He never misses a playoff game.
Now, I do want to talk about something that happened at the end of the game four of Nuggets-Wolves. So Jokic got ticked off that Jaden McDaniels here laid up the ball. Now, watch Jokic. He comes screaming down the floor, sprinting at McDaniels, looking for beef, grabs him by the lapel, and he's like, what's going on? And they had beef. Now, listen, Colin, the NBA's weird.
There were no suspensions handed out, even though Aaron Gordon clearly left the bench, okay? Jokic in a regular season probably would have got a game for this. They did nothing. I wonder, is this Jokic just his frustration with the series and Gobert? And it just bubbled over and he's like, you know what? Maybe I'm trying to fire up my team because this was weird. They were getting blown out.
There's like two seconds left in the game.
I tend to think the NBA doesn't want to get in the way of stuff like guys leaving the bench. You know, it's like I always said this. Very rarely do you see law enforcement hand out a speeding ticket to
in draw in drive time between 4 and 6 30 they want the traffic flow they they're not going to hand now now at 1 in the morning they'll hand one out or or 1 30 in the afternoon but at 5 45 in la on the 405 they're not pulling you over for going nine miles an hour over the nba doesn't want to throw yokich out for a game and get in the way of this stuff these series are intense Emotions boil over.
I like when leagues are like, nobody threw a punch. It's like, take a deep breath.
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Chapter 6: How does Colin evaluate the Bears' draft choices?
I would have preferred they take a tackle. I thought it was a bit of a reach. I thought he was more of a top of the second round pick. But again, next year, let's say let's say 38 year old Matt Stafford gets dinged up, which, by the way, he has in L.A. multiple times. Right. So he gets dinged up. Well, now you have a better backup.
Well, and the other thing is, if he gets dinged up and misses three games, you'll be drafting quarterback next year. Well, and if you're as good as we think you're going to be, you're going to be drafting 32nd. So my take is they're not going to have, the Rams are not going to have the 13th pick again for a decade with McVay. And their take is, let's get the quarterback out of the way.
Stafford's taken every snap for two or maybe three years, but we don't have to worry. Garoppolo wanted to retire, Stetson Bennett. Let's just get it out of the headaches. camp. But wait a second. What about Stetson Bennett?
Because he's been in McVay's system for three years.
Not going to play. Not going to play. Well, I don't know.
McVay said the first thing. He's going to compete with Stetson Bennett.
No, no. I do. He's not going to play. It's over. Like, this is the backup. So, like, I am a believer. I remember when I was raising kids. Sometimes I would use the term, let's just take this off the table. I know it's expensive. Let's just take this headache off the table. The Rams backup quarterback is set for the next three years with Matt Stafford. They don't have to worry about it.
The whole league is looking for quarterbacks next year. It's off the table. So now, next year's draft, because they're going to start getting expensive on defense, next year's draft, they have to start drafting defense again because some of these good players they've hit on, their contracts are up. This draft was a... They didn't have any needs outside of right tackle.
Yeah, we'll see what happens. If Makai Lemon pops with the Eagles... And Puka gets hurt or has to go to rehab, or Devontae Adams is old and it gets hurt. We'll see how the wide receiver room looks, and we'll see if McVay starts pointing fingers. Hey, we could have used a receiver at 13. All right.
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Chapter 7: What does Colin think about the Rams' decision to draft a quarterback?
Can I ask you something? Sure. Because you're bullish on the Cowboys and Giants. You said they got a chance to make the playoffs. So who are you pulling out in the NFC? I think we can rule out you're not pulling out Seattle and you're not pulling out the Rams.
That's right.
So who's coming out? Are the Bears sliding?
No, I'm not pulling the Bears, the Rams, and the Seahawks out. But that means there's another four teams that are going to make it. And I think you have to consider the Cowboys and the Giants. I thought they had very, very good off seasons. Are the Eagles in trouble? Well, I think we know the Eagles are in trouble. They're such a completely coordinator-dependent franchise.
I mean, Shane Steichen leaves, disaster. Kellen Moore leaves, disaster. Offensive coordinators leave McVay all the time. Andy Reid all the time. Kyle Shanahan has zero factor. So when your head coach needs a coordinator, like D'Amico Ryans, he could lose seven defensive coordinators, has zero impact on their defense. Like the really, Mike McDonald,
Like, the really good coaches aren't coordinator-dependent for their success. They are in Philadelphia. So I thought the Eagles, for the record, I thought Philly did very well. But again, like Kansas City, I don't judge all their draft picks. They're very draft pick-specific teams. And I thought getting Makai Lemon was great for them. He'll be their number two. Devontae Smith, their one.
Saquon's their star. That's the driver of the bus. And then they've got Wicks can be a three. Nice tight ends. So again, I thought Philadelphia did great. But my take was, like Kansas City, they had very few. They had fewer needs than Kansas City did because their roster's deeper and better. So it's... All this stuff, like, for instance, a lot of the people that grade drafts love Cleveland.
So did I. I think Andrew Barry's excellent at drafting. But they have to overcome the Deshaun Watson contract because of an impulsive owner. And they have to overcome the Dylan Gabriel Shadur nonsense because of a... impulsive owner. You and I succeed to a large degree because of the ecosystem at Fox. We have solid management who stays out of the way.
So with all these draft picks, the first thing I look at is who's the chef? It doesn't matter. You could give me the best ingredients. You could get Bobby Flay licorice, black pepper, and a day-old bagel, and his stuff will taste better than my stuff. So I thought the Browns and the Jets did a great job, but I don't trust the process that are going to land the plane and land the picks.
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