Albert Breer’s Mailbag: Three Underrated NFL Draft Prospects

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Underrated draft prospects
Kenneth Walker III
Dynamic kickoff
Dillon Thieneman
Browns’ tight ends
Jeremiyah Love
Travon Walker extension
Titans at No. 4
Raiders’ draft plan
Devon Witherspoon extension
Draft sweet spot
C.J. Stroud extension
Seattle
Draft intel process

It’s two weeks until draft day. You had questions, I have answers …

Underrated draft prospects

From Logan Franz (@LivingLikeLogan): Any draft prospects that teams seem really high on that fans haven't quite caught on to yet?

Logan, I’ll give you a few …

• Teams I’ve talked to really, really like Indiana receiver Omar Cooper Jr., who’s tough as nails, clean character-wise and has the versatility to play inside and outside. Best known for the otherworldly catch he made to beat Penn State, he might be better than any receiver in the draft after the catch, and I think some teams have him right there with the best wideouts in the entire class.

• More teams than I thought actually prefer Akheem Mesidor to fellow Miami edge Rueben Bain Jr., which both reflects what a good prospect Mesidor is and also illustrates how Bain’s lack of length affects his evaluation in the view of some (but not all) scouts. The problem is Mesidor just turned 25 and has an injury history. But he’s a really, really good player.

• Arizona State OT Max Iheanachor has helped himself through the process. He’s a heck of a story—an AAU hoops star and Nigerian immigrant who was convinced to give football a shot in junior college, based on his size and athleticism, before becoming a Sun Devil. There’s a ton of room for Iheanachor to grow, and he could become someone’s long-term left tackle, if they have the infrastructure to develop him the right way. Teams are most certainly intrigued.

So that’s three. And we’ll have more in the coming weeks.

Kenneth Walker III

From WagonDriver (@jirish24): Do you believe Kenneth Walker to the Chiefs will pay off, short or long term? I was hoping for a Big FA RB to make defenses more honest.

Wagon, I love it. It’s hard to say what this will look like long-term—which in this case would be the third year of the three-year deal he signed—but I’d feel good about it for the next two years, at the very least.

Kenneth Walker III is a good enough receiver to create easy completions for Patrick Mahomes in the passing game, and a tough enough runner to generate more second-and-6s and third-and-2s for the Chiefs, whose run game was highly inconsistent last year. All of that will open things up for a developing receiver group that could get reinforcements in the draft, and create an easier environment for the offensive line to exist in.

Give the Chiefs a healthy Walker, and I think you get an even better Mahomes, too.

I loved the signing.

Dynamic kickoff

From Metrowest100 (@siofanscom): What are your thoughts on changing kickoffs back to how they used to be? The new rule pretty much eliminates them entirely.

Metrowest, I see no chance that they’re going back to the conventional kickoff. The introduction of the dynamic kickoff wasn’t really meant just to make the kickoff entertaining again—it was to save it from extinction. With more and more rules centered on health and safety applied to them, kickoffs had become a festival of touchbacks to the point where an assumption grew that owners would soon do away with them altogether.

That’s where special teams coaches such as Denver’s Darren Rizzi, Tennessee’s John Fassel and Chicago’s Richard Hightower stepped in and tried to find solutions to save the play, and eventually landed on what’s become known as the dynamic kickoff. With some tweaks, that version of the kickoff has both been safer, and led to more returns, which was the intention.

So, no, I don’t think anyone is going back to the old way.

Dillon Thieneman

From Greg Creese (@AquaCoralRep): What's the top of Dillon Thieneman’s draft range in your opinion? I feel like he's kinda (rising) …

Greg, Thieneman is an interesting one. He’s a sound tackler, great traffic director and instinctive, whip-smart safety, and he answered a lot of questions by crushing the testing at the combine. The question left for him concerns how stiff he is as a mover and how that will affect him in man coverage, which will be more of a problem in some schemes than others.

But as it stands right now, I’d say he’ll probably go somewhere between picks No. 18 and 40.

Browns’ tight ends

From Ray M. McCarron (@MccarronRay): Do the Browns have legitimate interest in Kenyon Sadiq with Monken’s penchant for using two TEs that are playmakers?

Ray, I don’t want to completely rule it out, but I’d say that it might be tough to plan Kenyon Sadiq and Harold Fannin Jr. together. Both are under 6' 4", and at their best on the move, ideal to play the “F” tight end position rather than the traditional “Y” spot. If you have two “Y” tight ends, you can make that work. Doing it with two “F” tight ends is much more difficult, and would hurt you both in the run game and pass protection.

Now, that doesn’t mean Sadiq isn’t a willing blocker (he is) or couldn’t eventually evolve into a guy who could play in-line (he could). It’s just that if you’re taking a guy in the first round, you probably don’t want to have to make all these compromises.

I love Sadiq as a prospect, to be clear. But if you view Fannin as a big part of the Browns’ future, then it’s hard to see exactly where Sadiq fits into that vision.

Jeremiyah Love

From erickleinphd (@DrEricKlein): There was a report that the Jets had breakfast with Jeremiyah Love, and that the meeting went very well. Do you think that’s just a smoke screen, or could the Jets pull off a shocker and draft Love with the number 2 pick in the draft?

Doc Klein, I answered this in my video mailbag, and I’ll answer it here too—I’d be surprised if the Jets took Jeremiyah Love with the second pick. And that has nothing, zero, to do with what I think of him as a football player.

The first reason is just where the Jets are. After trading Sauce Gardner, Quinnen Williams and Jermaine Johnson, the Jets have just one of their seven first-round picks made between 2019 and ’22 (Garrett Wilson). And now, they have five first-round picks coming this year and next. So clearly, they plan to be young and build, and probably look at getting their quarterback next, not this year, which makes taking a back that high a funky fit.

Second, they just franchise tagged Breece Hall. It’s not like when they did that, they lacked evidence to the type of prospect Love is. And it just seems unlikely to me that if Love were a serious consideration, or the favorite to go No. 2 (and he is worthy of going that high), that the Jets would choose to tag Hall.

Travon Walker extension

From Ben Clemmons (@ben_clemmons): Thoughts on the Travon Walker extension and what Jacksonville’s D-line plan looks like?

Ben—this one’s in the video mailbag as well. My thoughts are that the Jaguars will continue to pour resources into their defensive front. James Gladstone and Liam Coen have Rams roots, and the Rams go over the top in investing in that area. In fact, if you look over the past three years, L.A. has spent five of its nine top-100 picks on guys for that defensive front (Byron Young and Kobie Turner in 2023, Jared Verse and Braden Fiske in ’24, Josaiah Stewart last year).

So even with big contracts now in the hands of Walker, Josh Hines-Allen and Arik Armstead, my assumption is Jacksonville will continue to put resources into their positions.

Titans at No. 4

From ARP Reez (@Reez_Delaghetto): Why are the Titans worried about drafting a RB at 4 when Cam Ward was the most sacked QB in the NFL?

ARP, because a running back, for the reasons we detailed in the Chiefs question above, can change the dynamic for your quarterback. Ask Jared Goff what Todd Gurley meant to him as a developing young player. Ask Dak Prescott the same about coming in with Zeke Elliott.

Out of the box, Love would be a really good outlet guy in the passing game for Ward, creating layups for the young quarterback. He’d also, presumably, put the offense in second-and-6 and third-and-2 more often—generating situations that open up the offense’s playbook and limit what a defense can do schematically to the quarterback. And in the process, both by piling unblocked yards in the run game, and helping the team get into more situations where pass rushers can’t just tee off, Love would naturally make the line better.

I think it makes a lot of sense.

Raiders’ draft plan

From AAron (@RaiderAAron34): Raiders and the Round 2–4 picks. Who you got them taking??

Aaron, I’d say best available player. Some needs are bigger than others, and certainly edge rusher seems like one area where they’d be less likely to sink picks, with Maxx Crosby and Malcolm Koonce now being joined by Kwity Paye. Ditto for tight end. But the reality is they just need as many good players as they can get.

That said, the receiver group is probably worth mining at the top of the second round (with someone like KC Concepcion), if the tackles (like Iheanachor) are all gone. And I do think addressing those two positions makes sense, in an effort to give Fernando Mendoza a few more guys to grow with.

Devon Witherspoon at a Super Bowl week press conference. — Devon Witherspoon could be looking at a big extension after a Super Bowl season. | Darren Yamashita-Imagn Images

Devon Witherspoon extension

From Curtis Allen (@curtis93969): What are you hearing on a potential Devon Witherspoon extension with the Seahawks?

Curtis, the easy thing would be to look at what Trent McDuffie got ($31 million APY), take it up a tick and be done with it. Maybe that’ll work. If it does, the Seahawks should do it.

But I think one thing that’s lingering out here on Witherspoon and New England’s Christian Gonzalez, who share an agent, is how the corner market is lagging behind other premium positions. Nonquarterbacks getting into the 40s on average per year aren’t outliers anymore. There are six of them, in fact: Packers OLB Micah Parsons, Lions DE Aidan Hutchinson, Steelers OLB T.J. Watt, Browns DE Myles Garrett, Bengals WR Ja’Marr Chase and Witherspoon’s own teammate and Offensive Player of the Year Jaxon Smith-Njigba.

So if you’re Witherspoon would you go to the Seahawks and say, “You gotta get me to 40?” Or at least demand that you get a lot closer? And if you’re the agent, do you tell Gonzalez to sit tight and see if Witherspoon, based on his value to the team, gets close to JSN’s windfall?

It’s an interesting idea. Pushing the market up that much might seem unlikely. But when Justin Jefferson got his four-year, $140 million deal, which averages $35 million per year, no receiver had even gotten to $30 million per. And nine months later, Chase blew the market up again, moving the top of it past $40 million per year. Which tells you that Witherspoon and Gonzalez wouldn’t be out of line asking for deals that move the market.

Draft sweet spot

From eyeglooo (@Eyeglooo): Is there a sweet spot in this draft for a team to 'trade up' to? I'm hoping the Jets can trade down from 16 and recoup a third-round pick at least.

I think movement starts between picks No. 10 and 20, as the top of the pass-rusher and tackle boards start to run dry. So, sure, the Jets might be able to move down if someone like Georgia OT Monroe Freeling or one of the Miami pass rushers are still there.

C.J. Stroud extension

From alise (@ajdavis22800): Does C.J. Stroud get a new extension after the season or do the Texans make him earn it an extra year by playing on the fifth-year option in 2027?

Alise, stay tuned on this. Will Anderson Jr. could get $50 million per year on a new deal, and it’ll be interesting to see how that might affect Stroud’s approach. It wouldn’t stun me if they just pick up his fifth-year option and let him play out the 2026 season.

Seattle

From HawkMania (@hawkmania4): You excited to do your offseason visits with the Seahawks this year?

Seattle in the summer is very, very underrated. I’m excited to get there, for sure.

Draft intel process

From Paul Andrew Esden Jr (@BoyGreen25): I’ve heard you on a few shows say when people ask you about the draft that you still have to make all your calls over the coming weeks to collect intel so you’re better informed. Can you take us through that process? I’d love to be a fly on the wall on how all that works & your process.

Paul, good question. Most of it is not someone telling you who they’re taking, but you learn how to pick up on things. I try to talk to multiple people with all 32 teams in the weeks leading up to the draft, and what you pick up from these teams is what other teams are thinking. If you hear something over and over again, then it gains validity. Sometimes, you can bring that up with the team that’s the subject of that rumor, and just get a feel based on their response. It’s a lot of work, but the information trade is fun to be a part of.

I’d also say for any aspiring young reporter, it’s based mostly on trust. You have to understand other people’s jobs, and what you’re working around, and that’s just having basic empathy. But the cool thing is if you’re any good at it, you’ll have plenty to offer the teams, and in a lot of cases, more than they can give you.

Honestly, the whole thing is one of my favorite parts of this job. I love this time of year.