Albert Breer on Fernando Mendoza’s Potential, Other Combine News

All right.

Welcome to the Brew Report for February 25th.

We are in Indianapolis, finally.

Took some doing to get here, um, but we made it via Cincinnati, via an Uber from Cincinnati to Indianapolis with my buddy, Jonathan Jones from CBS.

Made it here about 7 o'clock last night.

Pumped to bring you guys coverage of the combine all week long, and I figured the right place to start here with this Breer report was to give you an overview of the draft class, the strengths, the weaknesses.

But the first thing I want to touch is the quarterback situation and how it could impact a lot of discussions here that don't involve the draft class.

Now, if you look at the makeup of, of this year's draft class, um, at the quarterback position, you will see one guy who is seen as a premier prospect, and that does not mean that Fernando Mendoza, the Heisman Trophy winner who won a national title, did the impossible.

At Indiana, it doesn't mean that he would be the #1 pick in any draft.

In fact, talking to most people, he probably would have fallen beneath the top 32 years ago, if he had been in that draft class.

But he's a Matt Ryan, Jared Goff type of prospect where you look at him and physically, he's not Josh Allen, he's not Patrick Mahomes, but he checks a lot of boxes.

So, the assumption coming here, and I think leaving here, and I think going into late April, is going to be that he is the first overall pick.

I would be stunned if he wasn't the first overall pick.

I'd be surprised if it wasn't to the Raiders.

I don't know if they're fully there yet, but I, I, I anticipate that they will take him first overall rather than trade the pick.

And then you've got teams further down in the draft order, the Browns, the Jets, the Cardinals that have a quarterback need.

And there really isn't another franchise quarterback there.

And the interesting dynamic on this is what could be available in the veteran market, and then what could be available in 2027.

And so you look out on the veteran market.

Will the 49ers trade Mac Jones?

They say no, that would be an affordable contract, an ideal bridge for somebody.

Malik Willis, are you, are you comfortable paying him 25 to $30 million a year?

Then you look at a couple of the guys that could be the reclamation projects.

Kyler Murray, what does Arizona do?

Do they try to buy a draft pick and pay down his salary to facilitate a trade?

Do they cut him?

Same deal with Tua, their financials are a little different cause Tua has got $54 million fully guaranteed this year, almost nothing next year .

Kyler just split.

He's got about 36.

This year, 18 next year, so that one's a little bit more complicated.

Bottom line is, teams that don't have an answer at quarterback right now and don't have the first overall pick like the Raiders do, are probably gonna have to look outside the draft class.

That doesn't mean guys like Ty Simpson from Alabama or Garrett Nusmeyer from LSU don't have a chance to develop.

I just don't think very many teams view those guys as the long-term answer at the position, as a franchise player at the position.

And again, there's one player that I think has that sort of, that, that, that, that , that, that sort of tag next to him for the teams, and that's Fernando Mendoza.

So then you turn the page to 2027.

And I'm gonna take you guys through the list of names here because it is pretty incredible.

When I talked to Todd McShay the other day about this and asked him what his next year look like.

Um, he talked about the idea of if you're the Raiders , do you trade off and do you take an offensive lineman?

Do you take a, a receiver up there and punt to next year?

Sounds like a crazy idea.

I don't think they'll do it.

I think Fernando Mendoza is plenty good enough to go first overall, but then you start to look at the names and Todd.

rattled these names off.

Arch Manning, Dante Moore, Brandon Soursby, uh, Lenora Sellers, Trinidad Chambliss, Darian Mensa, Julian Say, CJ Carr, Sam Levitt, Niko Yamalava, John Matt, that's 11 names, and that doesn't mean they're gonna be 11 first-round quarterbacks next year, but that's 11 guys who have a shot.

And so, you know, I think that that brings an interesting dynamic into this year's class as well, especially when you consider some of the other premier prospects that are going to be in next year's class.

And the really interesting thing is it's not just the quarterbacks.

They, there are prototypes all over the place and this will help lead into our second point about this year's class.

But you got Jeremiah Smith, the cyborg of a receiver from Ohio State who reminds a lot of people of Julio Jones.

You've got two of these creative player edge rushers and Colin Simmons at Texas and Dylan Stewart at South Carolina.

You've got Leonard Moore, the super-sized corner at Notre Dame.

You go down the list and next year's class looks loaded.

And so, teams that need quarterbacks or teams that don't like where they're at in the draft order, what, what's gonna be available to them, then I think that's gonna lead to some teams moving assets into next year's class.

Now, does that mean That this is a bad draft.

It does not, and this will bring me to my second point.

You do not have the prototype Calvin Johnson at receiver, but you've got a lot of depth at that position.

You got Carnell Tate, you've got Jordan Tyson.

You've got Makay Lemmon, you can go down the list at receiver.

Do you have a Jadeveon Clowney, a Julius Peppers?

Again, one of those creative player edge rushers.

You do not, but you have the two Miami edge rushers, Akeem Messador and, and Ruben Bain.

You've got the two guys at the top of the board, David Bailey from Texas Tech and Arvel Reese, who's more of a Micah Parsons type of hybrid.

So in this year's draft class, what you're gonna be looking at the premium positions.

A guy is is guys who might lack a little something that you would normally see from a guy who's gonna go that high.

So are you're comfortable drafting a guy in the top 10 at one of those positions, or do you look at a guy in a non-premium position, like a Jeremiah Love, the running back from Notre Dame, who I think is gonna be the number 1 player in the draft for some people.

A Caleb Downs, the safety at Ohio State, who I think is the safest player in this class, projects the easiest to the NFL.

And so , I think that dynamic is going to be at work over the course.

Of the next couple of months is if you're at the top of the draft, do you look at it and say, we're gonna do the chalk thing, we're gonna take the premium position in the top 10, or do you do what Detroit has done , you know, over the, over the course of Brad Holmes's tenure where they aren't afraid to go a little outside the premium positions and go and draft Jamir Gibbs or Jack Campbell in the 1st round.

An interesting dynamic there at the top of the draft when it comes to that.

Finally, my third point, we are here in Indianapolis, so a lot of this is about the workouts.

And I will say this, I talked to one team on Tuesday morning that had their formal interviews on Monday night, and they said 8 of the 10 guys that they talked to told them that they were not working out in Indianapolis.

And so everything that I say here is with the caveat if they work out, but I'll give you a few guys who I think are gonna be sort of your freaks of this year's combine.

I'll start with the obvious ones.

Arvel Reese from Ohio State.

Again, one of these guys who's just freakish in just about every way possible.

He isn't a traditional edge rusher cause he didn't play there full time.

Some people view him that way .

If he works out, he's gonna blow it up.

Jeremiah Love, if he works out, he's gonna blow it up.

The one that I think people are talking less about that they really need to be paying attention to though is Kenyon Siddiq.

There's a tight end out of Oregon.

I like I look at him as you, you have to have a plan for him, but there are gonna be some comparisons made to Brock Bowers there.

I think he looks a little bit like Shannon Sharpe in the way that he's built.

He might wind up running the 4 3s, he could jump 40 inches.

Those are numbers that would be great for even a small receiver.

So that's something that you certainly want to look at.

And then the receivers that I think have a chance to really make waves, one would be, and you probably haven't heard this name, Brennan Thompson from Mississippi State.

He's a little receiver, he could run in the 4-twos, maybe he has a chance to set some records.

Zachariah Branch, who played at USC early in his career at Georgia, uh, last year, he's another one, could be in the 4-3s.

Kansas's Emmanuel.

Anderson Jr.

he's another one.

So, you are gonna have a few receivers that are gonna run 4 3s, 4 2s, maybe there's a chance for a record to be broken there.

And then just as far as the big guys, I think there is one name to me that really could make a leap, and I'm gonna give you a couple after that, but the one name to me that really could make a leap is this Caleb Lommu from Utah.

He is the other tackle at Utah.

Spencer Fanos.

Expected to be a first, uh, a, a, a, a top of the 1st-round pick, somewhere in the top 10.

He and Francis uh Malioa from Miami, probably the first two tackles off the board.

Both those guys are right tackles.

Well, why is Spencer Fono a right tackle?

Because this Caleb Lomu from, from, from Utah is, again, is one of these guys that looks like he was built in a lab to play the position.

Now, he's raw and he's not there yet.

But he's somebody that could really help boost his stock because teams are looking at him and saying he's got everything that you want in a left tackle.

I think now, his ability to confirm all of that with the athletic testing will have teams saying, OK, I feel comfortable taking him maybe in the top 20 rather than the top 40 because I see somebody that I could develop into a real top left tackle.

So Caleb Loma would be one name to watch.

Two other tackles that I have my eye on just because I think these two guys really have a chance to make a move.

Uh, one is Monroe Freling, who's made a move over the course of the last 5 or 6 months and really getting an NFL team's radar as a tackle.

He's from Georgia.

And then the other is Caden Proctor from Alabama, who was the bluest of blue chip recruits, started as a true freshman for Nick Saban at Alabama, has not quite lived up to his potential, but he's somebody who you would think would blow out the athletic text and.

He's 360 pounds, at least that's where he was listed.

So his ability to really put on a show here could push him into the first round, whether you see him as a left tackle.

Tackle, a right tackle, a guard, all that's gonna be up for debate, but it'll be an important few days for him here.

Appreciate you guys coming out.

Again, we're still on the front end of our draft coverage, so we'll take any feedback as far as what you guys wanna see us do over the course of the next couple of months.

One of my favorite times of the year.

I love breaking this stuff down.

I love learning about it.

You can leave your comments down below.

All that feedback here on the YouTube page or you can get to me on my social media.

At Albert Breer on Twitter, at Albert Aubrey on Facebook, at Albert_Breer on Instagram.

Appreciate you guys coming out.

We'll be back tomorrow with a draft mailbag.