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00:00Always good to hook up with TD. Thomas Dimitrov, the legendary general manager from the NFL and the Falcons, and he now runs Sumer Sports.
00:09And he's in New York City getting ready for the NFL draft tonight.
00:15And Sumer has put out quite an extensive glance at all of these players and their stats and their ratings and everything else.
00:24It's just fantastic.
00:25I've actually been going through your 25 rookie draft guide.
00:30I think it's fantastic.
00:32I want to first start with, so we were just talking about the fact, good to see you, TD, as always.
00:38I remember, you know, let's just first say you and I went out and partied in Manhattan right there at SiriusXM.
00:45I think we went to City Lobster U and Dougie Fresh, Big Daddy and I.
00:51And we were eating lobsters and going across the street to do the show at Howard Stern.
00:56So it's good to see you back in that building.
00:57But let me ask you first.
00:59We were talking about these quarterbacks and the number was two and a half for the first round, whether there would be two or three quarterbacks drafted in this first round.
01:10We know Ward is going one, and the word is, is that Dart is obviously going to get drafted in that first round.
01:18So it comes down to, will the Steelers, like, we've been hearing for days that they're taking him at 21.
01:24And do you believe that?
01:27And also, do you have a problem, like, as a GM, who's someone I respect, I said earlier on the show, I'm sick of listening to blowhards and know-it-alls and sports talk guys and TV guys and overpaid guys that think they know stuff and that don't know Shaq.
01:45Give me advice about football players.
01:47I want to hear it from you.
01:48How in God's name are they going to draft a kid, nine, that has no arm in the first round of the NFL, the National Football League?
01:56You're kidding me, right?
01:57That they're going to draft some kid with no arm in that ninth pick and give him hundreds of millions of dollars?
02:04I'm going to have a stroke over here.
02:07No, I can't imagine it happening.
02:10But you started talking about Pittsburgh, and you started talking about Pittsburgh picking.
02:14You're talking about Shadur there, right?
02:16You're not talking about Dart there, are you?
02:18I'm talking about Dart earlier.
02:20There's talk of him going to the Saints, and then there's talk of this kid Sanders, and he doesn't have an arm either.
02:27It's all amazing to see that this draft, this quarterback draft, as we talked at the Super Bowl a little bit about it, it drops way off.
02:35Who is the second, or who is the third, quite honestly?
02:37I do believe Shadur is the second, Scotty.
02:40I really do.
02:41Wherever that is, there's a quarterback tax out there, and I know that bothers all of us, right?
02:46How far do you go up?
02:47I just feel like people are going to be trying to move into the back end of that first round a little bit, even with the uncertainties of this quarterback group.
02:55I just feel like in my bones that that's what's going to happen.
02:58But the Pittsburgh situation, if there's one coach out there that I think can really embrace Shadur Sanders and Coe, I believe it's your team.
03:08I know you don't want to hear that.
03:10I mean, so you think Tomlin is the guy to bring this kid back down to earth because there's been all this negativity about him and his cockiness and his showboating and all this other stuff, and that he's not a good quarterback.
03:26In the last few days, this kid has taken a beating.
03:28Do you think that's fair?
03:31I mean, look, he has positives and he has his challenges like every quarterback does, right?
03:37When you're talking about a guy, remember this.
03:40When we drafted Julio Jones, this is way back, getting retro on you here.
03:44But when we drafted Julio Jones, one of the deciding factors was when Nick Saban told me, Thomas, he is unaffected.
03:51There is a positive side to Shadur Sanders where he is unaffected.
03:55He's not like run roughshy by the pomp and circumstance of everything, which I think is a positive, along with the fact that he has good accuracy, Scotty.
04:05You know, he's not the most mobile guy.
04:06Of course, there are things they're going to have to work on.
04:08They've got to put the right people around him to help him thrive.
04:11I'm a big believer, and I've told you this before.
04:14I like playing a quarterback out the gate.
04:16And I know they acquired, and I understand, you know, what they acquired there, and they have a free agent there to be working with for the time being when they get a young quarterback to grow there.
04:27But I just, I think you need to play a quarterback early.
04:30You need to surround him with the right people and grow with the darn guy.
04:33So did you, like the stress of this night, of this round, of the entirety of the weekend,
04:43And when you're the GM of a franchise, and it's on your head, and your opinions and knowledge and advice and choices, and everyone in that room, there's a, you know, the franchise has several people involved in it.
05:01You got your, you know, your brass, your front office, your power brokers, your scouts.
05:06What was the stress like on your side?
05:10It's, you know, these kids wait around to get selected, and they know that every time someone gets picked before them, they lose money, but they're still all going to be rich.
05:19What was it like on your side, the stress of it?
05:22Oh, the stress is unbelievable.
05:24The stress is not only unbelievable to pick the right player.
05:27It's to make sure that the pick is going through.
05:30I got a call minutes before we drafted Matt Ryan, basically saying to me, by a close agent friend of mine, another agent, not Dougie Fresh, who said, there's a lot of rumors that, that Ozzie Newsom is moving up with the Baltimore Ravens.
05:44He's going to take Matt Ryan.
05:45I'm a neophyte general manager.
05:47Mike Smith comes in, Scott, and he's like, Thomas, hold your water.
05:51Took a deep breath.
05:52We didn't move up to the first pick to Miami.
05:54We stayed there, and we were able to get the guy.
05:56So there's a lot of information flying around and stress is flying around on it all.
06:01You just don't know all of the leading up into these picks because you go, you sit down, and you're talking to your owner a lot about the scenarios of what you want to do, and you want to come across if you've got a firm grasp and understanding of everything, and you really don't.
06:17You're kind of being wagged by – it's a wild ride is what it is.
06:22It's a wild ride.
06:23Do you think that – you look fantastic as always, thick head of hair.
06:29Do you think that if you were still a GM in the NFL that you would be bald by now after all of the people attack you and blame you for every decision that's made that they don't like?
06:41Like, so when you get a player that isn't a dead hit and they blame you for everything, when you're the GM, you get blamed for the weather, do you think you'd be bald by now?
06:53Because you look fantastic for a guy that used to be under that kind of stress.
06:57Well, look, all that – it's so funny you say that.
07:00I don't know if I'd be bald.
07:01I might be.
07:02My hair would be grayer than it is, and it's already obviously very, very gray.
07:05Look, I love the job.
07:07I miss the hell out of building football teams.
07:09You know that.
07:10We talked about it.
07:11It's such an exciting thing to put your world together and put together a great football team.
07:17I miss the heck out of that for sure.
07:19So there are so many guys that I want to get your opinion of now that are going to be flying tonight high when they get selected.
07:29And, you know, I always like to, frankly, go in the trenches.
07:33I think that there's so much that's built in the NFL, you know, on the lines on both sides of the ball.
07:41What do you think of some of these guys?
07:43Like, let's start with Kelvin Banks.
07:45I mean, that guy is a monster.
07:47And he's 6'5", 315, only going to get stronger and bigger.
07:53Can you imagine, 21 years old, the size of this kid out of Texas?
07:57I love these guys on the lines, as I've mentioned.
08:00And what do you think of him to start?
08:03Obviously, a top-notch size guy, top-notch athlete guy from a very good program.
08:08We know that.
08:09I mean, as you know, Sark was with us at Atlanta back in the day.
08:12So I have a really good feel for the kind of players that he's bringing up and doing, you know, along the way.
08:16And what he does with them to get them ready.
08:19That guy's going to be a difference maker.
08:20He's going to be a pillar player along the offensive line for whoever does jump up.
08:25Who do you think that's going to be?
08:26I'm not necessarily sure.
08:28I don't know the line on it right now.
08:29Is it out there?
08:31I don't.
08:32There's so many lines.
08:33I'm losing weight.
08:34I can't keep track of them.
08:36How about the kid out of Ohio State?
08:38He had knee surgery, but he's a monster.
08:41This Josh Simmons kid.
08:43He's another one at the same kind of size, 6'5", 3'17".
08:48I got 30 seconds.
08:49We got another segment coming up.
08:50What do you think of that kid?
08:51Anyone at Ohio State, to me, is ready for the NFL.
08:54Yeah, he's ready for the NFL.
08:56And the versatility, again, on all these old linemen, remember, if you have versatility
09:00to you to be able to play and to be able to move to different positions, i.e.
09:04tackle the guard, that is a big play on this guy.
09:07Another big man, as you know, obviously, who's going to be a difference maker.