Rapid Fire: Billy Schrauth As Breakout Candidate, Jeremiyah Love Expectations, Justin Jefferson

Jesse are you ready for Rapid Fire let's do this all right let's go fill in the blank it's blank that when Marcus Freeman was asked about who might be a breakout player this season Billy shra was the first player he mentioned um it is what's the word I I didn't want to say excited um it is to me it's affirming because there has been a lot of talks amongst kind of the offense line of how this thing is going to piece together you know are these young players ultimately going to be ready is jagas saww going to be ready is Ashton Craig Gonna Be Ready is Billy stra Gonna Be Ready um you know what are we GNA get out of these young guys and so when you can come out like we know that jaasa is gonna be a good player I think that's the one of the ones that we were like okay we ultimately know what we're going to get but when margus strean could come out and say that Billy stra is going to be someone that is going to be a breakout player and he's amongst the offensive line to me that's kind of affirming of well at least we know we can Will have good protection in the pass game and they should be pretty solid and run black run blocking in order to execute the Run game so I really felt again affirmed by that response yeah I mean to me you know I almost like when when I heard him say Billy shra it was a little bit like hasn't shra already broken out to some extent with the way he played down the stretch of of last season coming in against you know Clemson and and you know but then again he has only played in a handful of games and you know look I think that we kind of expected last season to be Billy shr's breakout year but the fact that now he is putting this on shra it reaffirms like you were talking about what we think about that interior line specifically that there are two spots there are two guard spots and there are three able-bodied and and more than ready guys to take those three spots and Billy SCH Roco Spindler and and Pat cougan are those three guys so I mean you've got three guys for two spots and you would expect Camp to be really tough but I think that that that interior especially when you hear Marcus Freeman specify Billy schout that interior offensive line can be one of the TRU the true strengths of this team you know there's still some questions that have to be answered in terms of the tackles but and he talked a little bit about that about you know like that that right tackle job he he talked a little bit about Tosh Baker and emill Wagner battling for that right Tackle Spot during training camp and stuff like that so I mean that is still a question mark but I think that that interior line is going to be really good and really dominant and so to hear him talk about Billy shth like that I think kind of kind of uh kind of backs that up that notion that like you were talking about so Freeman also says Jeremiah Love is going to have a big year so to you what does a big year for Jeremiah Love look like um a big year for Jeremiah Love would consist of a thousand yards on the ground and then I would say probably about 400 yards receiving so so really close to about 1,500 allpurpose yards or more I think is the type of production that you would see out of Jeremiah Love and I don't know I don't necessarily think you know yeah the touchdowns are great but I believe that I don't know if the touchdowns is his role I think his role is advancing the ball down the field and getting a lot of those explosion plays and then kind of allowing maybe someone else to kind of finish off the touchdowns you know what I mean like I don't I don't anticipate a lot of touchdown numbers I just I anticipate a ter a ton of production in terms of just cranking out yards um and a lot of yards after catch a lot of yards after contact and using his explosiveness yeah I think for me it starts with the explosive plays that's kind of where you ended it like for me it starts with probably like 15 to 20ish you know plays of 20 plus yards this season and I'm saying 20 plus because we're we're combining rushing and receiving in there and what an explosive play looks like as a run is a little bit different than a than a you know receiving or pass play obviously but I think if if if he's bursting downfield in big chunks of 20 plus yards at least 15 times I think that that's a pretty good start and then you know I'm thinking like in the 20 to 30 reception range and F you know I think you said 400 yards I think I'm in the like like the 4 to 500 yard range I don't know that he's going to break a thousand rushing especially because we expect him to be such a big receiving Target but if he's in like the seven to 800 yard range so I think Brent had you know like 1500 total yards I'd be pretty happy if Jeremiah Love is somewhere in the 14 to 1600 yards you know total yard range with all those explosive plays through in I think that that would be a big season for me for Jeremiah love because again you're also going to have a guy like jadarian price is going to be able to make a lot of uh chunk plays and and just a lot of big you know Big Time yardage of his own this season fill in the blank it's blank that Freeman could not come up with a defensive breakout player candidate um that's exciting to me because um I think a lot of people would say or might be you know fear kind of fearful of that response to me that indicates that the entire defense is just kind of like ready and strong and I think that they have multiple kind of guys who are not necessarily ready to break out but kind of ultimately ready to to to show you you know who they are and and why they're going to be a starter this year so again to me that that that is a very exciting response from Marcus re because again it shows that there's not just one player that's really good on this defense or has a potential to be really good I think that this the defense is more so and especially so on defense it's and how Nan plays defense it's more so about the unit right playing defense where even if you're not making the tackle you're doing your job to ensure that the play is funneled to where it's supposed to go so that's that's kind of how I look at it I just think that he expects Notre Dame to be defense to be really solid as a unit and not just you know one kind of Standalone breakout player well and I kind of looked at it I can see what you're saying I kind of looked at it a little bit differently because I mean basically you've got four veterans across the defensive line with RJ Obin Howard cross Riley Mills and then batell although I guess batella would probably still qualify as a breakout candidate right like even though he's been around for a little bit but you've got those veterans you've got Kaiser at linebacker you've got Watts at safety you've got Morrison obviously if and when he's ready to go so that's already seven of 11 guys on the defense right there you got Rod herd coming in from Northwestern you got Jordan Clark from Arizona State you know so like both of those guys have been there really like there aren't a ton of options really when you think about it like you've got Drake Bowen you've got Adon Schuler you've got Jaden Mickey you've got Christian Gray Jaden Osberry and they all played pretty well in flashes like if I was going to make my pick right now I'd probably go with what big dad energy there said and just go with Christian Gray as my breakout candidate but maybe you're right maybe it's because like there are so many guys that he wasn't ready to single one out because you do have so many young young guys potentially ready to step up and and maybe be that guy this year so that's exciting too so the Chicago Bears are doing the training camp edition of HBO's hard knocks this summer the Giants are doing the first offseason Hard Knocks beginning in about a month the inseason Hard Knocks is going to follow an entire Division and not just one team this year so given you have two teams I'm going to assume the NFC North has spoken for the NFC East East is spoken for you know like they're probably not going to follow an one of those entire divisions later in the season on top of those teams in the off season so what division do you think they're gonna end up going with once they get the in season so I would I would immediately throw away the NFC South the Buccaneers Saints Falcons and Panthers that doesn't do anything for me especially in season 49ers Rams Seahawks Cardinals again like yeah there's there's a little bit there but nothing really interesting um to me to me the the the two kind of finalists are the AFC North and I just like the Ravens Browns Steelers and Bengals because of how how competitive that division is and I really feel like those teams like those are true rivalries in football to me L are those teams really exceptionally care for each other but I'd have to go with the AFC West because you have the two-time defending Super Bowl champs how do they handle you know the two-p after that you have the Raiders who are transitioning I mean their their entire organization has been transitioning over the last three or four years but they have the new head coach right who took over Midway through last season how is that progressing how is that you know moving along um and then you start looking at the Broncos year two for Shawn Payton he's got B Knicks I kind of want to see you know how that that whole thing pans out between Payton and Bo Knicks and if B Knicks can be you know a really good NFL quarterback and of course last but not least the Chargers right the brand new head coaching staff a team with a ton of talent and so you introduce really good coaching with really good talent how far can their season take them so I just think there's a lot of different kind of storylines that you could follow in that division on top of some really good football teams as well so that's that's where I would end up those are the two divisions that I would be looking at as well I mean starting with the north you've got Joe burrow the NFC or the AFC North obviously you've got Joe burrow coming back and Lamar Jackson two the best quarterbacks in the NFL like I I wonder because they've always had this rule if you've got a first year head coach you don't have to do Hard Knocks I I don't know how that would apply to doing an entire Division and the fact that you know like Harbaugh you know is a first year head coach and if that would impact it doing it in season those kind of things I'm not exactly sure what that would look like but I mean look for all the reasons that you outline there I think either one of those divisions would make the most sense because there are so many different storylines but I mean between the Chiefs already winning two Super Bowls you've got the best player in the game in Patrick Mahomes and of course you also have the X Factor that is out there the you know the NFL already said they put together their schedule the Chief Schedule specifically with uh you know giving T Swift the best chance to be at those games and I would be shocked if hardnox didn't do everything that they can to try to have her Incorporated in some of that as well I mean more eyeballs that's exactly right more wanted or not they're going to force it down your throat at this point speaking of hard knock fill in the blank it's blank that Netflix is expected to announce a similar behind the-scenes SEC football series that's going to air this season as well um it's arrogant it's cliche you know the SEC is basically like hey how can we squeeze more out of and someone else's idea right like it's the SEC you know it's it's they always think that they're the best and everyone cares about what they're doing and that they play the best brand of football so why wouldn't everyone want to watch right and so while it's a cool idea at what point do do some of these things become repetitive right like am I likely to tune in sure but I don't think I'm gonna I am more likely to religiously turn into hard tune into to hard KN than I am you know basically a hard KN SEC style right like I I find more um I find it more and this is kind of why I like the Manning cast so much I like talking about professional football it's there's a reason why they're professionals I like seeing behind the scenes of professionals because they're the best of the best right and so while it would still be kind of cool to to see some of this inside the SEC stuff it just doesn't do it for me quite like hard kniv does are you babysitting or like what's no it's just playtime with the squeaker toys I oh it's the dog squeaker toy that's what it it almost sounded like a baby cry in the background or something or just cuckooing back there I didn't know what was going on yeah you know I I tend to agree you know like how much interest there's there's going to be and this is going to be one of these kind of like you know what the the n Season Hard Knocks where they're following a whole division it sounds like they're going to kind of Jump Around the SEC and you know do a lot of you know multiple teams and stuff like that I don't know how interesting like outside of like three or four schools I really don't care about the rest of right you care about Alabama it's you know there's some curiosity with Texas and Oklahoma going into the conference this year so maybe that helps a little bit you have a little bit more high-profile Lan kein you know he's always interesting it just feels like if you picked one of those teams it would be pretty interesting but but bouncing around I just I don't I don't know I don't know how much I'm going to be interested in that well it's like how much can you really learn probably from one you know what I mean one episode with that team right like all you're going to basically learn is you know maybe like behind the scenes of like Joe Milton and and what his preparation is at quarterback and you know the transition of Nick Sabin leaving and having a new head coach but it's like outside of Georgia Alabama Old Miss it's like again those are the really the only yeah Florida right like the there's really only so far you can go maybe Missouri because you can see how drinkwitz does you know after managing last year's success can he is he able to sustain it but again you're not going to get that much information if they're bouncing around between all these different schools you're just going to get a little tidbit of information and it's like oh well I probably would have liked if you focused in on one school and not giving me random tidbits about 10 different schools but you're probably going to feel that way about that in season you know Hard Knocks thing unless they go an hour and a half every week you know like what happens is and this remember the NFL actually did the the Chargers and the Rams together a couple of years ago and you really didn't get to what you were saying you didn't get to spend enough time with the personalities that you act actually liked and they're bouncing back and forth and ESPN I don't know if you saw any of that I can't remember what they called it but it was the thing where they did Caitlyn Clark Camila cardoso and the player from UCLA whose name that I already forgot but they followed the three of them throughout last season and they put together it was like a three or four-part docu series you know behind the scenes type deal that they aired right after the season was over and what happens it's like you do that and you're bouncing around and ultimately it's like well you know Caitlyn Clark is still the most interesting of all these stories like you still want to you want to spend more time with whoever the main story is you know the most interesting person and I think especially if you're talking about an entire Football Conference like the SEC I just think that I just think that that's I don't I don't I don't I doubt how compelling that can actually be whereas like Notre Dame you're gonna be with Notre Dame all season in their peacock series whatever it happens to be Brent says how many new teams are joining the SEC it is just Oklahoma and Texas this year DK says Alabama joining the SEC this year as well fill in the blank it's blank that Vikings wide receiver Justin Jefferson became the highest paid non-quarterback in NFL history today when he signed a four-year contract that guarantees him 110 million bucks um it is scary and it's scary for selfish reasons because it's going to lead me down the cowboy Road it's going to it's going to take you right there it's going to take you to the Cowboys are gonna have to break the bank to pay CD right well not only that but at the end of this season they got three big names on on their radar that they have to maybe pay maybe cut ties with cidd lamb is one Michael Parson's is two and Dak Prescott is three and so when you're talking about to me the no ERS is you got to find a way for CD lamb and Micah Parsons to come back right but that's going to involve a lot of money now that the market has been officially set by Justin Jefferson and whether you want to acknowledge it or not Justin Jefferson and CD lamb have pretty much identical stats at the wide receiver position in terms of receiving yards receiving touchdowns maybe a Le few less games played for a season right for a season is that what we're talking about we're try for their their entire career okay as as NFL wide receivers these guys have you know CD lamb has more touchdowns CD lamb has more receptions only thing Justin Jefferson has on him is like six 700 more yards right so I guess what I'm saying at is what I'm getting at is a lot of people just want to talk about Jamar Chase and Justin Jefferson CD lamb is very much in that mix and he's gonna have to be paid like he's in that mix so I'm just I I'm scared for how good old Jerry is going to break the Bank between a I just like how you didn't beat around the bush you just went straight to it and you're like this isn't about Justin Jefferson this is about what everyone accuses you you know no like good for him good for him but how this affects me is really he's just set the market all you can say is that he set the market and so if you have a an elite wide receiver on the team that you cheer for and his contract year is coming up this impacts it because even if he's not as good as Justin Jefferson you can still basically run the numbers and compute what you think you should get based off the Justin Jefferson contract right and so again if CD lamb is producing just as as much as Justin Jefferson he's gonna be asking for a pretty similar contract every time every time doesn't matter position every time somebody gets a record contract it sets the market and the next guys in line want it that's that's just what it is salary cap era and this you know this goes back to something that I like I don't think that the quarterback should be part of the salary cap like I I think that that needs to be its own structure in the NFL because you pay the quarterback and then you know can you pay the rest of the team there's there's just there's there's only so much you can do you know like look at look at the Chiefs you know they have gone the other way they obviously paid the quarterback and you know people you know they want to cry about the lack of receivers I mean theyve they've just won two freaking Super Bowls without Tyreek Hill you know like what they didn't have to pay the wide receiver so I I think I think you can make it if you actually have a a good draft strategy and you know what you want to do they've also obviously built from the defensive side as well but I don't know I think you're absolutely right but in terms of Justin Jefferson is you know like he's a cheat code is what he is he's great I I wonder if he's actually going to bring them the value of that contract with a rookie quarterback now so that was the the thing that really intrigued me I guess if you want to put everything else to the side is you're really going I I think you're setting yourself up for lofty expectations when you don't have answers necessarily at who's getting the ball to Justin Jefferson I know you took McCarthy and that's who you want to be the quarterback but he still has to get the ball to him and I just I don't know how much I trust McCarthy's downfield explosive pass too and like that's Justin Jefferson's game and so it's like I really don't and and you know there was rumors about shopping him around maybe letting him sign elsewhere because of the money that he would demand you're ultimately kind of doubling down on everything that you've done in terms of resigning Jefferson and believing that McCarthy is GNA at least be the you know the guy to get him the ball and keep him satisfied and look we've all seen it before you know the the the receiver becomes the tail that starts wagging the dog at some point when you've got a veteran receiver like that who's making more than any receiver now in NFL history and a rookie quarterback things don't go right right away that could get pretty ugly pretty fast there in Minnesota so the mayor of London wants to bring major events like WrestleMania and the Super Bowl to his City buy or sell the super bow across the pond uh that's a huge sell for me the Super Bowl belongs in the country in which football was originated in and that is going to be my my you know my pride essentially right like I don't think you could take the World Series and be like ah let's just go off and play in a random country unfortunately all the NFL um cares about is if it makes more money right and so they're able to prove that for some reason a Super Bowl you know overseas is able to produce more money than a Super Bowl in the United States well they'll immediately do it and they won't think twice about it do I think that's what the fans deserve at the end of the day no but again it's not what about what the fans deserve it's about what's GNA make the most money yep differing opinions some Say by some say sell Andrew says London is a great City highly recommend it nicer are cleaner and cooler than New York City I mean like for my practical purposes what difference does it make because I'm always going to watch it on TV I'm not going to be at the game because you know the tickets to the Super Bowl cost a gajillion bucks unless someone's actually gonna throw me a couple of tickets and I don't see that happening anytime soon so what difference does it make exactly where it's played but the other side of that is the Super Bowls tend to be given to cities who are investing in the NFL by building new stadiums that's one of the rewards of building your new stadium is you get the Super Bowl what has London done other than have the Jacksonville Jaguars come over there and play a you know a couple of games a game or two every year you know what what has London actually invested in the NFL so I definitely sell it from that standpoint you should be rewarding you know the paying customers of your product which ha you know happen to again reside in and around the markets that you have across the United States so I would not want to see it I would not want it to be over there for that reason but again like when it comes right down to it I'm just going to watch on TV no matter what so what difference does it really make one way or the other to me all right well that's going to do it for tonight we got a a lot in today's show we got a lot coming up on tomorrow's show as well we're going to start the show with our old buddy RJ Atia who covers USC football will get his take on that whole noted aame USC Series going forward and a lot more on USC football kind of what they look like coming out of the spring we'll do that and he'll actually be on live tomorrow as well I know some people complain about the pre-recorded guest so RJ will be on live at five on Tuesday show Ryan Roberts will be in after that as well he'll have some live recruiting stuff that we'll be talking about and then Essie will be live sliding in for Rapid Fire to wrap things up on tomorrow's show so we've got a lot going yep Vince out there slacking once again chasing around camps or something I I think I think you might be like commencement or something tonight does that sound right I don't know I don't either can't keep track of him all right I appreciate you being here tonight hit that like button before you leave and we will talk to you tomorrow on IB Nation Sports Talk