What is going on, everyone. Welcome back to another episode of Beyond the tape and the

collab mock draft series keeps rolling on. And today we were joined by co-host of the PFF college football pod, one of the sharpest guys in the biz and one of the my favorite guys to get to talk to every time I bump into him. And a fellow Steelers fan, what more could I ask for? Max Chadwick. Max, welcome to the program, man. Great to have you back on.

Teesh, thanks for having me on, man.

It's always awesome seeing you down there in Mobile for the Senior Bowl every year. Love what you guys are doing with the channel right now. I've tuned in to as much as can I watch a Dalton one, even though I try to avoid hearing Dalton speak as much as I can because they're going to have to do it twice a week with them. but no man it, it's awesome being on with you. And I'm really excited to do a two-round mock.

I think again with you.

I think we did one last year, too.

And this year's draft, it feels way more wide open. So it should be pretty fun today. Yeah, we had you on for a two-rounder last year. And then we did a defensive line rankings in the summer. It's funny because we both like the edge group over the summer conversations,

but like the detackle class.

I remember both of us were kind of like, you know, Peter Woods is a guy, but we don't really love everything else. And I don't think it's like the world's greatest detackle class, especially after, you know, last year's group with Nolan Harmon and so on and so forth. But it's this group that like, you know, Peter Woods has kind of take a step back, but everyone else I'm kind of more interested in as top 50 guys versus where I was during the

summer. So it is kind of funny how we've come full circle on that. Yeah, absolutely. Has he been in the last time we talked. Yeah, absolutely. Like summer scouting is always so funny because you think you know everything going into it. And then, you know, Fernandoendoza explodes. which is the number one overall pick.

And Rval Rees comes out of nowhere.

He's the number two overall pick, potentially, too.

So it's always funny.

You know, the next year's class should be a little bit easier. There seems to be like, you know, generational or quote generational type of prospects at the top of next year's class. But, you know, this year's class, I kind of knew going into the off season how this year's class was going to look. I kept saying like, ah, 2026 is just so wide open. I have no idea. And it ended up being like that, honestly. So I don't know if I'll call it a weaker draft. I think there's some good depth in the class, but it certainly doesn't have the blue chip talent that we've had, that we've been spoiled by really by recent classes. And we should be spoiled by once again in 2027 yeah no I think this class I think you hit the nail on the head maybe you're not loving the idea if you're the cardinals and you got the number three pick and it's like I don't know what to do here but when you're in that 25 to 75 window there's a lot of guys that fit that range so it's like okay this is actually a year where like drafting based off positional need, you could probably get away with that. And then you get into another bucket just slightly lower of that like 75 to 125 to 125 bucket where all these guys, you're like pretty comfortable as late third, early fourth round guys. So I'm with you. The depth I think is going to be really the stalwart of this class is what we'll say. Certainly, not necessarily the quarterbacks post number one overall,

which, Bax, if you're ready, let's go ahead and jump right into it. I've decided to give you the odds, so I have a feeling where you're going to go with this number one overall pick. But let me hear your thoughts on Mendoza. I mean, you kind of even hit on it there, like just overall your kind of thoughts on him from summer to where we are now, like Clear Cloud,

I'm assuming he's the number one overall pick,

but what maybe it stands up the most for Mendoza as a fit with the Raiders? Yeah, I know, I'm not pulling a Darren Rolowski here. I'm not going to take Ty Simpson here at number one overall. I mean, I do like Ty Simpson a lot, but Mendoza, I think, is pretty clearly my KB1 in this class. I think he's a really, really talented player.

And honestly, credit to a lot of people who I remember,

I think Corey Kinney was one of the people who were really high on them preseason. And I think Nate Tice was very high on them too. And I'll be honest, like I watched this cal tape. And I was like, I mean, I see the tools are there. and I can see the potential for him to be a franchise quarterback down the line.

But, like, I didn't love the Cal tape that much.

So I was always kind of pumping the brakes on Mendoza. But credit to them, man, they nailed it, honestly. I mean, Mendoza had a dream year this year at Indiana. Of course, winning a Heisman first ever in school history, winning a national title, first ever in school history. He kind of reminds me, I think my conference, I heard that Matt Ryan one a lot. I like that. That's what I've been going with. Yeah, I like that one a lot. The other one I would go with is like,

a lot.

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