Mailbag Monday: How many true #1 pass rushers are there in the NFL?
The Athletic Football Show: A show about the NFL
The Athletic
4.6 • 3.3K Ratings
🗓️ 13 April 2026
⏱️ 58 minutes
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Summary
How big is too big, even for a dyed-in-the-wool sizeist like Derrik Klassen? How good are the Ravens at drafting, really? Which NFL jerseys must be protected at all costs, and which need to go now? That's just a smattering of the questions Robert Mays, Dave Helman and Derrik answer on this mailbag episode of The Athletic Football Show.
Host: Robert Mays
Co-Hosts: Derrik Klassen and Dave Helman
Executive Producer: Michael Beller
Senior Producer: Katy Duffy
Social Producer: Scott Krinch
Follow Robert on Bluesky: @robertmays.bsky.social
Follow Derrik on Bluesky: @qbklass.bsky.social
Follow Dave on Bluesky: @davehelman.bsky.social
Follow Robert on X: @RobertMays
Follow Derrik on X: @QBKlass
Follow Dave on X: @DaveHelman_
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Welcome to the Athletic Football Show. |
| 0:02.0 | I'm Robert Mays. |
| 0:02.7 | It's another mailbag Monday here on the Athletic Football Show, another really good crop of |
| 0:07.4 | questions. |
| 0:08.3 | We chatted about the Ravens draft reputation, chatted about when prospects can have very |
| 0:13.5 | little experience and you could feel okay about it. |
| 0:15.9 | We talked about how many true number one edge rushers that actually are in the NFL and a |
| 0:20.6 | whole host of other things |
| 0:22.7 | based on the excellent set of questions |
| 0:24.4 | that you guys sent in. |
| 0:25.5 | So let's get to all of that with me, |
| 0:27.3 | Derek Classen, Dave Hellman, |
| 0:28.8 | and our guy Michael Bell |
| 0:29.8 | are reading the athletic football show. |
| 0:46.0 | Another bunch of very good questions excited to dig into these. |
| 0:49.9 | Beller, let's waste no time. |
| 0:51.7 | Let's get to it. |
| 0:53.2 | You know, we said Thaddeus Wazzowitz was going to push us into a full episode, and we just decided, you know what, this is just an awesome question. Let's get to it. So Thaddeus, you're back, and you've got our first question on this mail bag, so let's get to it. We're going on two years now that I just can't believe what I'm hearing on the Ravens. Mays mentioned putting his thoughts together for this on a future pod, but here's what I don't get. |
| 1:16.1 | Eric Acosta started in 2019, so after Lamar, |
| 1:22.2 | what are his good moves or draft wins? What would you think about his moves in totality if it said Jags next to his name instead of Ravens? What is he done to build around Lamar, who is very clearly |
| 1:27.2 | the centerpiece of the franchise and offense? And if your main hits are on defense and they lead to a bad defense, are they actually hits? Very, uh, uh, thoughtful question there from Thaddeus. So Robert, why didn't you get us started here? A couple different thoughts here. We were going to do this as a full show. We decided not to do it for a couple of different reasons. The Ravens are the reason we wanted to do it as a full show. And so we felt this was just a little |
| 1:47.1 | bit easier and cleaner to answer it in this format. My answer is this. I think that if you look at |
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