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The Athletic Football Show: A show about the NFL

Draft fallout and James Cook's future lead the return of the TAFS mailbag

The Athletic Football Show: A show about the NFL

The Athletic

Sports, Nfl, Robert Mays, Nfl Draft, Football, Football,

4.63.3K Ratings

🗓️ 5 May 2025

⏱️ 87 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

The draft is over, which means Mailbag Mondays are back! Robert Mays and Derrik Klassen tackle questions about quarterbacks improving their accuracy, the most electric recent draft moments, James Cook's future in Buffalo and more on this episode of The Athletic Football Show.

Rundown

  • Which teams bet in the draft on their ability to develop players?
  • Are the Steelers the most unlikely team to win a SB in the next five years
  • How easy is it for a QB to improve accuracy?
  • Which past draft moments would you have wanted to cover live?
  • What will Titans do with Will Levis?
  • Is pass rush success with smaller pass rushers sustainable?
  • Was the Falcons draft really that bad?
  • Is Cam Ward the most valuable pick of the draft?
  • Are we seeing new positions being prioritized in the draft?
  • Making sense of late-round trades
  • What to make of Washington pivoting to win-now
  • Should the Bills work to retain James Cook right now?
  • How many quarterabcks would be elite with the Eagles? How many teams can Patrick Mahomes make elite?

Host: Robert Mays

Co-Host: Derrik Klassen

Executive Producer: Michael Beller

Producer: Michael Beller

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Follow Robert on Bluesky: @robertmays.bsky.social

Follow Derrik on Bluesky: @qbklass.bsky.social

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Follow Derrik on X: @QBKlass

Theme song: Haunted

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Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

Welcome to the athletic football show. I'm Robert Mays. Mailbag Mondays are back. We are post-draft,

0:08.7

so we are back to our regularly scheduled mailbags every single Monday. Another batch of great

0:12.9

questions. Just tons of fun stuff to chew on. A lot of Falcons fans feeling real anxious about the way

0:19.3

that their draft went. So we hit some of that. A couple of readers, listeners, had some questions about all defensive lines size and how that plays into the league right now.

0:28.3

Had a fun question at the end about whether more teams could be competitors or contenders with more quarterbacks would be contenders with the Eagles roster or more teams

0:38.6

would be contenders with Patrick Mahomes, which I think is a fun way to think about a strong

0:42.8

roster versus a strong quarterback, had some questions about draft trade value, a ton of really

0:47.7

good ones today. So let's get to that conversation with Derek Klesson right now.

0:58.2

Thank you. that conversation with Derek Klasson right now. It's another mailbag Monday here on the athletic football show. We are in our post-draft

1:03.4

part of the offseason. And we're back to our regularly scheduled programming. I said it

1:06.9

in the intro, but we're going to have shows Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, or Monday, Tuesday,

1:10.4

Wednesday, Thursday for the next few weeks. That is going to be our typical offseason cadence when none of us are on vacation, which we will be intermittently here over the next couple months. But you guys can be looking forward to four shows a week from us over the next several weeks. And that includes a week we mailbag every Monday. Here to help me with that, it is my co-host at the athletic football show, Derek Klausen.

1:11.0

Derek, how you doing, man? includes a week we mailbag every Monday. Here to help me with that, it is my co-host at the

1:28.7

athletic football show, Derek Lawson. Derek, how you doing, man? I am in like an all-time war

1:34.1

against my allergies right now. But other than that, I'm doing good. It's one of those things where

1:39.5

you would think your body gets used to being in the Central Valley, but then you leave the Central

1:43.5

Valley for a week and you come back and there's still like a recalibration period. So other than that, I'm doing fantastic. I did. When I went to Mexico City a couple weeks ago, the humidity was like 20%, which is just, it's not good for me. Like on my eyes, I looked like I had just been chained smoking joints for like six hours when we were trying to do the show. I had not been just letting everybody know.

1:44.5

I was just been chain smoking joints for like six hours. And when we were trying to do the show, I had not been just letting everybody know. I was just, I had extremely dry eyes. So I can sympathize with the changing climates and how it can really mess with you at this time of year. It'll really get you, man. It really will. Beller's not here today. Bear is taking a well-deserved vacation, so I am going to be the one

2:19.2

handling the questions. I've done this before. I think we're going to be okay. It's better when he does it, but I still think that we can hold it down without him. Let's get right to it. You know what, before we get right to it, I said this yesterday. I'm going to say it again. I said it on Twitter.

2:15.0

When I was digging through these yesterday,

2:17.2

there are so many we could just never get to.

2:19.3

And there are so many good ones we could just never get to.

...

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