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Guaranteed Human.

Welcome to 40s and Free Agents.

I am Greg Rosenthal with the best draft analyst in the business.

But who am I talking about?

Daniel Jeremiah, of course.

But for the first time on 40s and free agents, this season, we're introducing a guest, Ali Connolly. You might know him from NFL Daily and his read-optional substack. DJ, give a welcome to another draft analyst. You don't have to be the only one. First of all, I thought for sure you're just going to go straight in that direction. That would have been, it was all set up on a T for you. But no, I'm stoked to have Ali on here. It's fun to get a chance to chat about these guys and to talk about some way that, talk to someone personally that I haven't had a chance to visit with on this subject because a lot of times you get hung up on the same debates and the same conversations when you're talking to the same people. So excited to have you, man. Thanks for coming.

Delighted to be here. I like that Greg did not have the guts just say. He knew in his soul,

I can't say that with any sincerity or clarity. I can not write, DJ.

You are my two favorites, though. And that was why for this episode, we're getting closer and closer to the actual draft.

I thought it'd just be fun for me personally.

This is very selfish.

Just throw some jump balls in the air and listen to two of the smartest guys in the business

kind of bat around a few names.

And one thing we haven't done weirdly, DJ on this show is talk about quarterbacks even a little.

So I just thought that would be a fun place to start because I haven't really heard you talk in depth.

Obviously, you have Fernando Mendoza number one.

But I'd like to hear you two guys talk about him a little bit about what you think like he does well.

And if there is a concern like

where are that concerned? Yeah, sure. I mean, there's, look, there's no perfect players ever and

in this draft as well. So I have Mendoza is my top guy. I have him as a top quarterback. I have him

as a top player. The things that you like, some of them are the obvious things. I mean, he's right now, he's about 240 pounds. He's 6'5. He's a big, big, strong dude. He's durable. He's tough. He's smart. All the stuff you get off the field in terms of the focus, the work ethic, all that stuff is excellent. Then on the field, I thought, you know, when you watch him, he's a, he's more of a drive thrower than a layer thrower. Like there's different styles of how you throw a football. Like, if you think about Herbert, how Herbert throws, Herbert's a power thrower more than a layer thrower. Whereas like Matthew Stafford, maybe one of the few guys who can, you know, live in all worlds and do all that stuff equally

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