Devy Dojo - Devy Sleepers: 6 Prospects Ready to Elevate Their NFL Draft Stock
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41 min
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Jul 21, 2026
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Tue, July 21, 2026
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Episode Transcript
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0:23And we're back. And when you hear that music, you already know that it's time to enter the dojo.
0:28I'm your Devy Sensei and I'm here joined once again and as always with my good friend and co-host Chris the Card Man, AKA the Devy Shifu.
0:36Chris, look, it's been a minute since we did this.
0:38Like I just got back from vacation, had a great time in Vegas and I came back to more smoke and fires
0:44and it sounds like you're dealing with the same thing, man, between that and not being able to eat lettuce because we
0:50might get the, you know, the parasite and the fire.
0:52Be pooping our brains out all day. Look, I'm just, I'm happy to talk some football, man.
0:57Cause it's crazy out there. Chris. So how have you been, man?
1:00Very good. Yeah. We had some smoke from old Canada blowing down here the other day and some, some crazy storms rolling through today too.
1:07So weather's been a little bit outrageous lately, but you know, everybody's kind of dealing with something at this point.
1:12Fire's out West fire's coming from the North who knows what's going on, but yeah, thankfully I haven't had too much to deal with the, the lettuce situation.
1:19Cause I've been eating a ton of Greek food.
1:22It's a, I live right by a Greek church and it's the Greek festival this week.
1:26So I've just been eating gyros galore and spanakopita and all sorts of other Greek food.
1:30So I've been able to sufficiently ignore produce in the last couple of days, which has been nice, but yeah, we got
1:36a fun one for you guys today. We decided to dive into three players.
1:39We believe they can elevate their stock this year if they perform well.
1:43So we each picked three guys, one quarterback, one running back and one wide receiver.
1:47So we're just going to touch on those guys pretty quickly here.
1:50And there's some, some guys that I definitely think are worth highlighting.
1:53Some are much further down that names that maybe you haven't even heard of.
1:57And some are names you probably have heard of, but are still flying a little bit under the radar.
2:02So without further ado, I will kick it to you sensei to tell me who your quarterback is.
2:06Yeah, this is a, this is a guy I've been sneakily attacking it late in our Debbie startup mocks and even some
2:12new leagues that we've done as well. Even some C2C leagues, right?
2:15His name is Kenny Minchi transfer from Notre Dame to Kentucky.
2:18Like this is a guy that when you pop on the tape, there's not really much to look at Chris.
2:24And that's what makes him kind of a tough evaluation because he's only thrown 29 pass attempts this past season.
2:29And mixed in with some other little spots and starts there, but not really much to go off Chris.
2:34But the limited sample that we did get was pretty good, right?
2:37He showed good accuracy, some decent mobility. I want to say that he's like a big time threat to take off with
2:43his legs, but he's functionally mobile in the pocket, right?
2:45Escaping for the pressure, the little samples that we've seen.
2:48And look, Marcus Freeman, the head coach for Notre Dame raved about this guy.
2:52If you remember this time last season, there was a big time camp battle, positional battle, I should say there at Notre
2:58Dame between CJ Carr and the aforementioned Kenny Minchi.
3:00Now at various times, camp reports were that Kenny Minchi was actually leading the competition.
3:04Then it would be CJ Carr. You know, Marcus Freeman at one point, right before the season started, was like, it's still too close to call.
3:11And he actually called the decision to name CJ Carr, the starter, one of the hardest decisions that he's ever made.
3:16So that, Chris, always caught my attention. And I kept his name in the back of my head.
3:21And now, after the season, after CJ Carr actually had a pretty good season, Kenny Minchi entered the transfer portal.
3:26And he was actually briefly committed to Nebraska. And then within 24 hours, here comes Will Stein, the new head coach of Kentucky, Colin.
3:32And within that 24-hour period, he actually flipped from Nebraska and decided that he was going to, in fact, transfer to Kentucky.
3:38And he cited Will Stein being the reason. Because if you're not familiar with who Will Stein is, he just got hired as the head coach for Kentucky.
3:46And he was previously the offensive coordinator for the Oregon Ducks.
3:49His first year as offensive coordinator, he had Mr.
3:51Bo Nix, my Denver Broncos quarterback, who he turned into a first-round pick.
3:54Bo Nix had over 4,500 passing yards that season, set an NCAA record for a completion percentage.
3:59Like, that was his best season. And then, of course, what he was able to do with Dante Moore.
4:04Dante Moore had a hellacious freshman season at UCLA.
4:06You were very famously out on him after that.
4:09Like, people now, Chris, they think of Dante Moore and we think of, like, the refined prospect who's getting ready to enter the draft as a top prospect.
4:16But it wasn't that long ago. In fact, just last year, we had legitimate questions about how he would translate after sitting that season.
4:22And he directly gave the credit to Will Stein for that development, what he was able to do.
4:27So the fact that now Will Stein is there in Nebraska and he intentionally sought out this young man, Mr.
4:32Kenny Minchi, to be the first quarterback while he begins this rebuild.
4:35It's exciting for me, Chris. And don't forget, like, Kenny Minchi can possibly have two years with Will Stein.
4:40And that's what really gets me excited. So it's a lot of projection right now, Chris.
4:45But everything that we're hearing out of spring camp is, like, he's separated himself.
4:48He's undoubtedly the starter. And he looks really, really good.
4:51You know, I did just write an article on Substack about Mr.
4:54Kenny Minchi. And so be sure to check that out.
4:57It's for our premium subs. And with that, you're going to get access to our ADP, combined DEVY ADP, all of our
5:02rankings, which we will adjust monthly, all just for subscribing, becoming a paid subscriber to a Substack.
5:07So be sure to check that out. But in that article, Chris, I outlined how the offensive coordinator was like, look, we
5:13talked to people at Notre Dame on that staff.
5:15And they said, if Kenny Minchi had been our quarterback, we believe we still would have won 10 games.
5:20And the players were saying, because he's just good.
5:22Like, he legitimately pushed CJ Carr. And it was a legit quarterback competition.
5:26And it turns out that was a pretty good quarterback room, because they also had Steve Angeli in there for a brief moment in time.
5:32So that has me excited. Again, a lot of projection there.
5:35Spring camp, those games are nice. He's playing in the SEC.
5:38We've never seen him with a full year. So there are still question marks.
5:42But at his price, Chris, I was able to get him in like 12th, 13th rounds.
5:46He's starting to steam up a little bit. You could get him in the 10th round of a Debbie startup.
5:51But at that price, I'm all in for a guy that was a four-star recruit.
5:55Like, pretty heavily recruited for the most part. So, I mean, it has me pretty excited.
5:59But a lot of it has to do with Will Stein, because I just truly believe in what he's able to do with quarterbacks.
6:06Yeah, I'm certainly excited about the landing spot for him.
6:08You know, he took it well when he didn't get the starting role last year.
6:12And, you know, has now found a spot to make him the starter with a very good coach.
6:17And this is who Will Stein has, as you mentioned, handpicked to be his first starting quarterback as a head coach.
6:23So exciting stuff. We've seen what he's done with guys like Dylan Gabriel, obviously, Dante Moore, as you mentioned.
6:28They've had seemingly every year for the last few years, they've had Heisman candidates at quarterback in Oregon.
6:32And now, you know, Will Stein's going to get to get his hands all over your boy Kenny Minchie and see what he can do with him.
6:39My biggest knock with him would be I don't think he has like superior arm strength.
6:44I think he's a little bit of a weaker arm.
6:46But as you mentioned, he does have like some of that, I guess you'd call it like functional mobility.
6:51Not necessarily a huge rushing threat, but he's able to get involved in some bootlegs, some RPOs, some design plays like that.
6:57So he is a slight dual threat, which takes a little bit off that arm strength because he's going to have some
7:03options if he can't find open receivers. And he doesn't need to just take a shot downfield.
7:07He's going to be able to move around a little bit more, which is exciting.
7:11So we'll see what he does. But I think this is a great pick.
7:15And like you said, he's floating way down there on a lot of people's boards and the ADPs and everything right now.
7:21So he's borderline free, especially if you're doing a startup and you just want to load up on wide receivers early running
7:27backs, maybe grab one of those premium tight ends early.
7:29And then you're like, well, I don't really have a whole lot of quarterbacks.
7:33Might as well just take a shot on Minchie here in the later rounds.
7:37I don't see why not. It's it. It's all a projection at this point, right?
7:40There's only 10 or 15 guys that are getting drafted every year as quarterbacks, and there's not a lot of starting opportunities at the NFL.
7:47So why not take a guy like this with a good situation and a good pedigree and see what happens?
7:52Yeah, I'm pretty excited about this situation, Chris. Will Stein, as we've seen, he likes to have a young quarterback in waiting
7:58and develop while he has the starter. So I'm thinking, man, if we get Kenny Minchie for two years, they have the
8:04recruit in next year's 2027 recruiting cycle, Jake Naurott, who's already committed to Kentucky.
8:08So I already see the vision that the guys laid out, right?
8:11He's going to have Kenny Minchie there. He's going to have Jake Naurott there just developing, and it's going to be like just ready to roll, man.
8:18He's bringing that plan of development that he did at Oregon, and he's taking it to Kentucky now, which if you're a
8:24Wildcats fan, you've got to be excited because as I outlined in the article as well, Will Stein was a lifelong Kentucky fan.
8:30Like he said, there were other opportunities. There were other jobs out there.
8:33He didn't settle. He said that in his press conference, like this is not me settling for my first job.
8:38This is the job that I want. This is the team that I'm passionate about.
8:42And so, again, if you're a Kentucky fan, you've got to be excited, right?
8:46Absolutely, yeah. And it would be nice to see Kentucky make a little bit of noise in the always competitive SEC.
8:51So we'll see if Will Stein can be the guy that kind of boosts their overall stock a little bit.
8:57And speaking of schools that are more basketball first, I chose the next quarterback at Duke, Walker Egott.
9:01Or is it Egott? I think it might be Egott.
9:04Walker Egott, who is following up in Darian Mensah's shoes after Darian has escaped to go to Miami.
9:09And obviously, we saw last year what happened with Darian Mensah just being fantastic after transferring from Tulane.
9:14What I thought was really cool, too, was that a lot of his stats were roughly the same.
9:18Like a lot of his underlying metrics, analytics, all that.
9:21He performed pretty well, decent metrics at Tulane. And a lot of those kind of stayed the same at a higher level,
9:27which is great because that's something that you want.
9:29And he obviously has elevated himself to a high-level name, high-profile name, which is why he landed at Miami, which is another
9:35school that's known to really turn around these quarterbacks so he can step his game up even another level.
9:40But when we're looking at transferring in from these smaller schools, even if all you're doing is keeping those metrics that are
9:46already decent and keeping them at that level at a higher power for conference level, that's fantastic for me.
9:51And Walker Aggett last year was pretty exciting. Overall, if you're just looking at the base stats, not super fantastic.
9:56In two years as a starter there, he had 5,548 passing yards and only 30 touchdowns.
10:00And admittedly, with 19 interceptions, so not a great touchdown-interception ratio.
10:03But when you start to dive in a little bit more, amongst all returning quarterbacks for this season, he led the entire
10:09nation in pressure to sack rate with only 1.5.
10:11The guy rarely takes sacks. Second highest air yards per pass with 12.2, which is obviously fantastic.
10:16And third in the FBS in big-time throw rate at 7%.
10:19This guy is a gunslinger. So what I'm looking at is we have some exciting fantasy fun metrics that I feel like
10:24if Duke can turn him around a little bit, like they turned around Mensa last year, this is exciting stuff.
10:30He's obviously not a great running threat, but much like we just talked about with Minchi, he does have a little bit of that functional mobility.
10:36He likes to roll around a little bit in the pocket.
10:39He's got that true gunslinger mentality, as you can tell with those big-time throw rates and air yards per attempt metrics.
10:45He just wants to get the ball downfield, and he's going to find ways to make the play extend if he needs
10:51to and get people a shot downfield, which is exciting.
10:53The completion percentage, of course, is the thing that leaves a lot to be desired because he only had a 56.9 completion percentage at San Jose State.
11:00So the Duke coaching staff is going to have to find a way to kind of reel in some of that gunslinger
11:06mentality a little bit and say, hey, you don't always have to be the big guy.
11:10Not everything has to be a highlight play. We don't want those 19 interceptions from your two years as a starter showing up.
11:16We don't want those missed passes and poor opportunities to be what you're known for.
11:20We want to take all those good pieces of you and allow those to grow by being a more complete quarterback and
11:26throwing a little bit, you know, throw it away if you need to.
11:30Take the lower dump-off passes when they're there. And I feel like that they can do that after what we've seen with them with Mensa last year.
11:37You know, for example, he had a play that I watched where he kind of scrambled.
11:41They were in the red zone. He rolled out, ran right into a ref, which is a boneheaded move.
11:46And to make a boneheaded move even worse, he threw it into the end zone after running into the ref, and it was picked off.
11:52So it turned a potential scoring drive into nothing.
11:55But the antithesis of that, I saw a play where he rolled out and let this thing rip on the run 50
12:01air yards right down the pipe into his receiver's hands for a nice long touchdown.
12:04So you're getting some big play action, man, out of this guy.
12:08So if they can get their coaching staff to kind of hone him in a little bit and teach him, you can't
12:13do this in the ACC because you're going to get lit up.
12:17But if you can make the right plays and be a little bit smarter, and obviously they picked him to become the
12:22next guy after the whole Mensa debacle. So I'm certainly excited.
12:25There's pieces there to make this guy a legitimate passer at Duke and obviously some concerns.
12:29But this guy is borderline free at this point.
12:32You could get him super, super late. And Debbie, super, super late, even in C2C, where, you know, even if he doesn't
12:38develop into an NFL quarterback, you're at least going to get some production out of him on your college football side.
12:43So I'm excited about him as a guy who could potentially grow much like Mensa grew last year.
12:48Yeah, I don't, I can't say that I've watched too much of him.
12:51But for my CFF teams last year, I had Danny Scudero there.
12:54And Walker, you get was his quarterback, man. And you talk about a guy, he does have a live arm.
13:00Like he gets me excited, but he's that gunslinger, man.
13:02That typical, like, I'm just that arm arrogance to you.
13:05I'm going to try to fit it in there.
13:07I don't care that he's triple covered. Like, so that was great for, you know, redraft formats in college.
13:12But I just, I don't know, Chris, like I have my concerns.
13:15A six-year guy entering now into the ACC with that, like, just reckless nature.
13:19And he's had some serious injuries too. I think I shared the thing with you where you said he played an entire season with that torn ACL.
13:26And in fact, I think he's missing a lot of spring right now.
13:30Correct me if I'm wrong. I know that he's still recovering from that surgery.
13:33So a lot of questions still. But I do like the fit at Duke.
13:37I kind of just wish he had transferred earlier in his career.
13:40But I don't know if he's one that I feel too happy about in Debbie.
13:44But like you said, man, he's free. He's not essentially free.
13:47He's literally free in Debbie. I don't think in any of the mock drafts that we've done, I can look at our ADP again.
13:53But I don't think he's really been drafted. So I think in C2C, I know you snagged him in one of our
13:59startup drafts for C2C very late too. Believe in like the 38th round or something.
14:03In that range, hell yeah, I'm all in. But we'll see, man.
14:06And that's the point of this episode is these are guys that could rise.
14:10Guys that, you know, he's one that I don't think anybody's really talking about in Debbie.
14:14But do just have some concerns on that profile.
14:16But he's going to be fun to watch, man.
14:19We'll see. Duke was kind of backed into a corner, man.
14:22With Mensah leaving, you know, they tried to sue.
14:24And, you know, they had a settlement because Miami had all that money.
14:28And, you know, Darion Mensah is like the highest paid player in NIL right now in college football.
14:32Like Miami unloaded the bag for him. And I think Duke kind of was left a little bit in a corner.
14:38But, hey, it could all work out. So we'll see how that goes.
14:41But moving on to the running backs, Chris, I got a guy that I'm very, very excited to talk about.
14:46And that's Mr. Kiwan Brown from Louisville. And if you've heard the name Brown in Louisville, you probably heard Isaac Brown because he's damn good.
14:53Kiwan Brown is his running mate. And before I get into his time there at Louisville, he's a guy that, Chris, the
14:59more I was looking into his high school production and stuff.
15:02Like, you know, at the time when he was a freshman, I wasn't really looking at freshmen like that now.
15:07But like I am now. Ultra, ultra productive in high school.
15:10He had over, let me check my notes, 8,000 career rushing yards in high school.
15:14Over 98 or exactly 98 touchdowns. Super, super productive.
15:16800 rushing attempts in high school. The problem was, Chris, even though he lived in Atlanta in like this recruiting hot spot,
15:22he played at a 2A high school. And so scouts obviously were looking at those statistics and they're saying, well, you know,
15:28they're a little inflated due to the lower level competition.
15:30And I think because of that, he was under recruited.
15:33He was only a three star guy. He committed to Purdue to go play with Jeff Brom.
15:37And then when Jeff Brom took the head coaching job at Louisville, well, he followed suit, man.
15:42And he redshirted that freshman year. And then in 2024, here comes the freshman phenom, Isaac Brown, who immediately took over that running back room.
15:49And he just went off. That year, he won ACC.
15:51They call it rookie of the year, which always throws me off.
15:54But he won ACC rookie of the year, Isaac Brown did.
15:57And it looked like, you know, all of us obviously love Isaac Brown.
16:01But this season in 2025, Chris, later in the year, Isaac Brown went down with an injury.
16:05And then the keys were handed to Kiwan Brown.
16:07And he didn't look back. In that five games that he played to end the season, he rushed for 572 yards over
16:13eight yards per carry, which is just insane. Listen to these stats, Chris, in these five games.
16:1810 rushing attempts, 95 yards, one touchdown. 12 rushing attempts, 94 yards, two touchdowns.
16:2114 rushing attempts, 136 yards. 15 rushing attempts, 135 yards.
16:2415 attempts, 112 yards. So, again, 572 yards in those five games and three touchdowns.
16:28And on the season, he finished with 703. So, a good majority of his overall production came in that stretch when Isaac
16:34Brown wasn't there, was limited coming in. And then at the end of the year, Chris, you look at their splits.
16:39And Isaac Brown had 100 carries. And Kiwan Brown had 96.
16:42So, they were almost dead split even. And now, projecting and looking forward, I see a Louisville team that is going to
16:48be bringing out a first-year starting quarterback in Lincoln Keenholz.
16:51Somebody who I did consider to be on this episode because I think that he's another sneaky play.
16:55But with a first-year starter and you got these two Ferraris in your backfield, I think that they're going to lean on
17:01them and kind of ease him in, especially early in the season.
17:04So, the efficiency has already been there for both of these Browns.
17:07Now, it's like when I'm looking at Keewon Brown, I just need the volume, Chris, because I think that if he gets more volume, he's going to smash.
17:15You look at all these efficiency metrics. You know, you and I, we love looking at missed tackles.
17:20Forest, breakaway yard percentage, all that, right? Check this out, Chris.
17:22Isaac Brown was first in FBS in breakaway percentage with an insane 63%.
17:26And Keewon Brown was third in the FBS with 59%.
17:28Shows how close they were. Isaac Brown was first in elusive rating, which is above Ahmaud Hardy and Caleb Hawkins.
17:34And Keewon Brown was fifth. Isaac Brown ended up with eight yards per carry on the season on those 100 attempts.
17:39And Keewon had seven yards per carry on the 96.
17:42So, it just shows how efficient they were and as explosive as they both are.
17:46The thing, though, with Kiwan Brown, he's a little bit bigger than Isaac Brown.
17:50He weighs 215 pounds. So, he's not like a big-time bruiser, but he runs with some solid power, man.
17:54I think, obviously, the lateral agility of Isaac Brown is much better, but Kiwan Brown is really good, too, man.
18:00I still, and I said this today in the Discord and on Substack, Isaac Brown is still clearly the better back overall.
18:06But Keewon Brown, in my eyes, is right there, dude.
18:08And he's another guy that's just super cheap. When you look at these numbers, Chris, it's really astounding that nobody's really talking about this.
18:14In this Jeff Braum offense, man, you know, recruited by the guy.
18:18He's obviously a good fit in this. They run a lot of zone concepts.
18:21These wide outside zone stretch where, you know, you stretch, you press the line, you make your one cut, and then you go.
18:27And then, boom, they're killing defenses with their speed.
18:30He's just a perfect fit, man. And I think that he could be a really sneaky riser, especially for the 2027 draft class.
18:36You don't hear anybody talking about Keewon Brown. So, had to put his name out there now.
18:40And I'm going to be looking to take him, man.
18:43I had him ranked on my Debbie rankings as RB27 prior to looking more into it, man.
18:47I got to bump him up a little bit.
18:50Yeah, absolutely. It should be exciting down in Louisville.
18:52They might have a nice little two-headed monster just like Notre Dame had last year where they could really utilize both these guys.
18:58And they're both extremely explosive. As you mentioned, the breakaway percentage is very fun.
19:02And much like we just talked about with Minchie, Keenholz was in a camp battle last year with Julian Sane.
19:07And obviously, Sane ended up winning and having a really great year.
19:10But Keenholz is no slouch. So, that offense could be one of the most exciting to watch in football this year.
19:16And speaking of Notre Dame, my guy is Aeneas Williams, who was the third head of the three-headed monster.
19:21But they didn't even need to use the third head because the first two heads were just doing all the work.
19:26However, when he has gotten on the field, he's been extremely productive.
19:29Very limited touches last year. But he did average 9.1 yards per attempt and got five touchdowns on just 25 carries last
19:35year, which included 8.04 after contact per attempt and a 73.2% breakaway percentage.
19:39Now, he didn't hit the mark to be, you know, not enough touches to be qualified.
19:43But that's even higher than the guys that you just listed.
19:46That's exciting. 73% is ridiculous. He had a long of 54, which is obviously long.
19:50But it's not even like these numbers are, you know, in limited sample size.
19:53They're getting boosted up by an 80-yard run here or there or 70-yard run here or there.
19:58That's just really impressive overall metrics. He really wasn't used too much last year in the receiving game, but he was in 2024.
20:04He's got 20 receptions to his name in college for 212 yards, which averages to 10.6 yards per reception.
20:09And a fun little nugget that you found, actually, Sensei, was that he was an all-state wide receiver in high school as a sophomore.
20:15So he's clearly got some receiving ability. And I feel like they're going to use him a lot more in the receiving
20:21game this year as he's probably going to end up being their 1A.
20:24I anticipate that they'll be doing a lot like last year where they'll have a rotation a bit, especially because their running
20:30back roster is completely loaded with four-star talent. They have four other four-stars in that running back room, aside from him, who was a four-star himself.
20:37He was a four-star. He was the number four running back in his class coming out.
20:41But he remained loyal there to Notre Dame. You know, I love intangibles.
20:45He seems like a well-rounded guy, both on and off the field.
20:483.9 GPA. He said one of the reasons he wanted to stay there, even though he knew last year he was going
20:54to be not doing too much on the field, was because he loves the degree and he loves the team.
20:59He loves the program. So the loyalty that he has paid them will be rewarded this year.
21:03And they're going to be loyal to him by making him the 1A, I believe, in that backfield, which is why I'm
21:09surprised that he's not really being talked about very much in Debbie.
21:12A little bit more in college CFF and then C2C formats.
21:15But, I mean, Notre Dame obviously has produced a ton of running back talent recently in the NFL level, including Audrick Estime,
21:21who I believe was a fifth-round pick. That's your boys, right?
21:24So you would know better than I would. Fifth-round pick by the old Denver Broncos.
21:28And then Kyron Williams, who everybody knows I hate, but he's clearly been productive at the NFL level.
21:33So this is, and then last year, the first team to ever have the first two running backs from the same college football program.
21:39Just insane stuff. And they were both first-round picks.
21:41So I don't see any reason why Williams shouldn't be getting topped up a little bit more than he has been because
21:47in the small sample size we've seen from him in 2024 and 2025, he's shown he's explosive.
21:51He's shown he could do it all. He's got a 10.900-meter dash coming out of high school.
21:56So he's fast. He's going to be good in the receiving game this year.
22:00He's very well-rounded. I saw somebody, and I would never, I don't want to put any names out there, but somebody said
22:05he's very Christian McCaffrey-esque when he was coming out of high school as a recruit.
22:09That's, you can't put CMC's name on people without being damn sure that they're going to be good.
22:14But that gives you an idea of how well-rounded he is as an overall running back, and he's going to get a
22:20real shot to prove it here this year in South Bend.
22:23Yeah, he's someone that I was probably guilty of sleeping on, too.
22:26You talk about guys that are free. Nolan James, Kedron Young, Jonas Walton, JVN Osborne, all those other backs are being taken ahead of him.
22:32And it's like everybody just overlooks Aeneas Williams. I think it's because he's not really that sexy.
22:37Like, in the minimal touches that you see, I don't know that he has, like, the best vision.
22:42But, man, he's pretty compact. He runs with decent power.
22:44I don't know if he's got, like, super, super great long speed.
22:47But, man, he's quick through the hole. And you saw versus, I believe it was Navy when he had the 57-yard rushing
22:53touchdown, when they're already up by, like, 63 points.
22:56Something insane. Like, I did that when I was watching Kenny Menchie film.
22:59I was like, oh, look at this. There's Anais Williams.
23:02Look at him going off. It's exciting, Chris. I think that if Mike Denbrock of Notre Dame would stop being so damn
23:07conservative, let's open up the offense this year. If you really think C.J.
23:11Carr is the guy, you've got all these weapons in there, right?
23:14Quincy Porter, people love him, too. You've got Devin Fitzgerald.
23:17I think they even have Jermichael Finley's relative on that team, too.
23:20They've got some legacy guys on there. Let's open it up.
23:23You've got Anais Williams who can be a threat out of the backfield.
23:26Let's open it up, Chris. But it sounds like you're pretty confident that he's going to be the 1A there.
23:31What running back, I'm just curious, what running back do you predict will be the second there?
23:36Because that's a hot topic. I'm thinking Keidron. And, you know, Jonas Walton is the freshman incoming.
23:40I've been seeing him getting taken in Devis as well.
23:43Like, he's going to have to ride the pine, much like Neas Williams has been forced to do recently.
23:48Because they do have so many good running backs there.
23:51But Keidron, I feel like, complements him pretty well.
23:53I think they're going to be able to do a lot with the two of them as kind of the 1A, 1B.
23:59But they might just go to a 3 running back mold.
24:02And why not? Because they're having success with it.
24:04So when you hear that, it sounds bad for an NFL prospect, you know, to be not the first guy in the
24:10room or, you know, not the only guy in the room.
24:13But they've had so much success and they've proved that it doesn't really matter.
24:16And Jadarian Price is going to prove a lot of people this year as well, being the lead dog in Seattle.
24:22So I feel like whatever happens, there's a lot of these guys in South Bend that could be running backs to look out for in the future.
24:29And my pick is certainly Neas Williams. I'm excited for him this year.
24:32And before we move on to our wide receivers, just want to give a quick plug to the Player Profiler Draft Kit,
24:38which both the Sensei and I have written in, along with a whole lot of other talent, including our good friend Coach, Jeremiah Retzlaff.
24:44A lot of the guys that we are in circles with and chatting ball with all the time have written for this thing.
24:51And it's well produced. It came out looking fantastic.
24:53Yeah, we did a lot of work on this draft kit.
24:56And it's great every year. It's a good way as you're getting into fantasy draft season.
25:00If you're sick of thinking about Debbie and you just want to start thinking about NFL guys, go ahead.
25:05Check it out. But moving on into our wide receivers with the potential to rise this year, we have coming from the Sensei Winston Watkins, who's at LSU.
25:12He followed his head coach from Ole Miss. This is a guy our good friend Spencer from the Debbie Planet has been
25:18taking and driving that ADP up on blue chip, man.
25:21He's been taking him early and often. And I see you started to follow suit as well.
25:25Yeah, I did. And like you said, Spencer's been glazing him up all offseason, man.
25:29And, you know, he talked about him so much because I had to go watch the tape.
25:34I was like, let me see what the hype is.
25:36This guy only had 39 targets, 29 catches, like 373 yards and one touchdown.
25:40Like the way Spencer was talking about him early, I was like, man, I thought it would have been a little higher than that.
25:46But again, true freshmen that forced a role on a team that had a lot of upperclassmen, including Dazon Stribling, who was
25:52taken in the second round by the 49ers. So they had a lot of upperclassmen there in front of him.
25:57And in that crowded room, he still broke the year one zero thresholds that we look for.
26:02And when you turn on the tape, Chris, he really does stand out.
26:05He runs really good routes, like smaller guys like that.
26:08Like I think he was listed at 180 pounds, 5'10", primarily from the slot.
26:12That's like the archetype that I'm usually a little lower on than others.
26:15But man, he really flashed. And against Oklahoma, he had four catches over 100 yards.
26:19He had a pretty clutch reception that gave them the go-ahead score to win the game, like set them up right there to go ahead and win.
26:26You saw down the road, like him starting to get more involved, which I cannot stress this enough.
26:31Super impressive, especially considering the amount of other guys that they have in those rooms.
26:35And Len Kiffin likes to get the ball spread around.
26:37So he talked about Len Kiffin did that, like, hey, this young cat made it hard for me to take him off the field.
26:44And now, after that first year, we all know the story.
26:46Len Kiffin left Ole Miss and he went to LSU.
26:49And one of the players that he brought with him was Winston Watkins.
26:53And while we were all glazing up Jace Brown, probably rightfully so, you know, Jackson Harris on the other side.
26:58This guy right here, Winston Watkins, coming in with the familiarity in the system.
27:01All reports out of spring camp have been that he's a vocal leader.
27:05He knows the offense. He's helping them install. And Len Kiffin is like, hey, look, he's going to be a day one starter for us.
27:11Not at the X, not at the Z. He's going to be running out of the slot primarily.
27:16But I think that pairing with Sam Levitt, once he's healthy and once he can get in there going, I think that
27:22they're going to have a lot of fun because, again, runs really good routes, those in-breaking routes in the intermediate level of the field.
27:28He runs really good corners as well. But he's got enough speed and juice to kill you over the top.
27:34And we've seen that enough times. He's a lot faster than you would probably think out there.
27:38And I think he catches corners slipping because he sets him up with that, with his footwork.
27:42And he's able to just break off the top of his stem so violently, man, at times that I just love it.
27:48I saw shades of like Garrett Wilson and the very minimal that I was able to watch.
27:53I really only watched the Oklahoma game and a couple other highlights in prep for this episode.
27:57So do you want to get more into it?
28:00I mean, he only had 39 targets, so film review won't take me too long.
28:04But I really want to get into it, man.
28:06And, you know, our guy Spencer, we love him.
28:08He has a great eye for talent. He was pounding the table for this guy, like back in early April.
28:14And now to see where it is, looking at interviews with Winston Watkins, man, he's talked about like, I had to follow my guy.
28:20Like Lane Kiffin is the guy that believed in me and recruited me out of high school.
28:24And that means something to me. I believe in this offense.
28:27I like it. And when he was asked about like, if it's the exact same as Ole Miss, he said, you know, the concepts are very similar.
28:34The verbiage is a little different, but it is different in the sense that Lane Kiffin really likes to design the offense around the personnel that he has.
28:42So it has me excited with him just already knowing the offense, him being kind of Lane's guy.
28:46He might be that easy button target for Sam Levitt over the middle of the field and be able to burn you deep along with Jace Brown, too.
28:54I think that the skill sets for this wide receiver room are very interesting.
28:57And I really I'm really anxious to see how it goes, just because historically, I do know that Lane likes to get it spread around.
29:04But but Sam Levitt is a little bit of that like reckless gunslinger, man.
29:08And we've seen him with with Jordan Tyson when he develops a rapport with the receiver.
29:12He's not afraid to just, you know, hyper target that guy.
29:15So I'm really interested to see. Unfortunately, Sam Levitt hasn't been out there, but he's on Longstreet, who's kind of been up and down in spring.
29:22I mean, he's been hitting him and everybody's been talking like Winston Watkins has been the standout performer on offense in this camp.
29:28So super, super excited. I think that he's really primed to take that next jump.
29:32You look at his efficiency metrics, 2.04 yards per route run or 2.03 yards per route run, Chris, excuse me.
29:37But you know me, I like to look at the splits versus coverages versus man coverage, 2.48 yards per route run.
29:42That's an insane number versus zone coverage, 2.12. So when we talk about the efficiency metrics, obviously, we love those yards per
29:48route run 11.78, 14.3 yards per reception. So he wasn't getting that like low stuff deep down the field, intermediate level, man.
29:54He just crushed it. So super, super excited for him.
29:57Again, he's a guy that's been a little slept on, but I think unfortunately Spencer's been talking about him too much.
30:02And now me, we're probably going to see that ADP rise a little bit, but you know, those sharps were out there
30:08taking him early and now it's, it's looking like it'll really pay dividends for you this season.
30:12Yeah. And you talked about his, uh, his violent violence rate after he catches, he can break away a little bit from the defenders.
30:19That's what I like. And again, I haven't watched a ton of him yet.
30:22I should do a little bit more myself because my boy Spencer and I are usually pretty aligned whenever it comes to take sense.
30:29Spencer and I think very much alike in a lot of, a lot of ways.
30:33So I need to dive a little bit more in as well.
30:36But in what I have seen, I've watched some clips on Twitter as well from camp and for practice.
30:41It seems like he's got a very quick acceleration.
30:43We call burst more of like a running back trait, but he's got that burst, man.
30:47He gets the ball in his hands and he's gone.
30:50He can get his top speed really quickly. And that's what's most impressive about him.
30:54And I think that's what makes him a real threat.
30:57So it's funny that you say that. It's funny that you say that he looks like a running back because I found
31:02that he played running back in high school, like for a long time, he played running back.
31:07So it's funny that you mentioned that. That's funny.
31:09Yeah. So there you go. That's what you're seeing whenever you watch him make some catches.
31:13So he's certainly an exciting one. And as you mentioned, the ADP will continue to rise as we continue to do all
31:19this fun stuff on blue chip, which is our favorite app to draft Debbie C2C and college football fantasy.
31:24And then last but not least, I have stuck apparently with my theme of taking some basketball schools.
31:29I guess Notre Dame's really more of a football school, but North Carolina, good old Bill Belichick trying to revive the football program down there.
31:35I stuck with Jordan ship wide receiver out of North Carolina, who's kind of the de facto face of the franchise at this point.
31:42He's a, it seems to be the guy that's the biggest leader.
31:45Bill Belichick's hyping him up all the time. A guy who all the other players are kind of rallying around a leader in the locker room.
31:52He's been doing some interviews this week that have been funny.
31:55He had a quote that I had to, had to write down here just because it was hilarious.
31:59He said, you know, last year Bill Belichick, everybody just wanted to see him fail.
32:03Nobody wanted to support the program. And he's, he's ready to be, you know, prove everybody that he's still got it.
32:09And he said, I want Bill to know that I am quote behind him, 10 toes, a hundred percent, which I thought was pretty hilarious.
32:15But it's good that you have a guy like that in, in the locker room who supports the staff and supports the rest of the team.
32:22Cause he seems like he's got that mentality where he's just going to be a leader moving forward.
32:27You know, if he makes it to the NFL.
32:29And I think he's got a really strong chance.
32:32He's six, 290 primarily used as a slot for the tar heels.
32:35And that's exactly where he would project at the NFL level only 671 yards and six touchdowns last year and his first
32:41season with a lot of meaningful action. But he did really start to come alive later in the season, which was really what's exciting.
32:47If you go game by game, a lot of his higher receiving totals came later in the year and a lot of
32:53his touchdowns came later in the year as well.
32:55So he really started to come on a little bit more as the season progressed, which is why we can project him
33:01to be a little bit more impressive this year as well with another year of practice off season under his belt.
33:06What impresses me the most when I watch him is just, he's got a knack for the ball, dude.
33:11He routinely catches off target throws. He tracks the ball well from the slot and from the outside.
33:16I saw a nice play last year where Jordan Shipp, he ran a deep in breaker route that looked like it was
33:22maybe even a little bit under thrown, but he could read the field very well.
33:26And it showed a little bit of the trust that the quarterback has in him to just go find the ball.
33:31There was a lot of defenders right there that he was behind and he came back through the defenders and caught this under thrown ball.
33:38It made it look more like a deep curl than the in breaking route.
33:42It was actually supposed to be, which demonstrates a lot of his football IQ and demonstrates his ability to just go get the ball.
33:48We talk about that a lot. We talked about it last year with a lot of our wide receivers.
33:53The ability to come back to your quarterback and get the ball is the cerebral type of plays you have to make
33:59at the NFL level, especially if you're a slot receiver, because you're going to be in those positions in the middle of
34:05the field to be a little bit more open and be able to work back a little bit more effectively and get
34:10into those open spots in the coverage. So I like what I'm seeing out of him.
34:15I think his football IQ is off the charts.
34:17He does catch the ball well in traffic as well, because he's got those strong hands.
34:21He can catch balls that are thrown behind him.
34:24His contested catch percent is only 55, but that's really not terrible when you're talking about a slot guy.
34:29And he just shows that every ball that is in the air, he believes that ball is his.
34:33So if there's a guy with him trying to contest him at the catch point, it seems like he's going to fight
34:39through it, whether he catches the ball or not.
34:41He wants that ball, man. That is his ball.
34:44He's got that knack to just go after it.
34:46He sells his fakes pretty well. He's got that twitchiness that you want to see, especially out of a guy who's going
34:52to be more of a slot guy. I think he reads the field well as a runner as well, even though he's
34:58not going to be a real yak threat, especially at the NFL level.
35:01Whenever he does get a chance to make a little bit of a breakaway play, he seems to know where the defenders
35:07are going to be and runs the routes appropriately after receiving the ball and cuts corners and makes the plays a little
35:13bit longer than they need to be, which is fantastic.
35:15Maximizing every play after he makes the catch. So I'm excited about him, man, because he's got those intangibles.
35:20Everybody who is in North Carolina knows the name Jordan Shipp because of what he's been able to be as that kind
35:26of leader of the program right now. I think he's going to develop into a decent NFL slot receiver and a very reliable guy, especially on third downs.
35:33And when I was writing this up, I thought, you know who I remember who was great at running routes and being
35:39a vocal leader and third downs, my old pal, Jason Avant for the Eagles.
35:43For you younger bucks out there, you probably don't remember this guy, but he was reliable as hell on third downs.
35:48McNabb was always getting the ball to him on thirds.
35:51He was just a chain mover, man. And certainly not the most impressive if you look at his stats and fantasy and all that.
35:57But I think Jordan's got a higher ceiling than that.
36:00Just shades of Avant when I'm talking about Jordan Shipp.
36:03Yeah, his ball skills and his hands are what really stood out to me in the limited amount that I was able to see.
36:09It's just his environment, Chris. Like, I want him to transfer out of there.
36:13Like, he's way better than North Carolina, man. And whatever Bill Belichick has going on there, man.
36:17It's really sad to see Bill Belichick just kind of, you know, fade away like this at this program.
36:22Like, it seems like just his he's gotten such bad PR while he's been in there, man.
36:27But I think Gio Lopez was the quarterback last year.
36:29And I know that there was a game where Gio Lopez went a two hour in-game stretch between completions, meaning like it
36:35was two hours between his completion and the next completion that he had, which is just freaking ridiculous, man.
36:40I don't know how you're supposed to thrive in that environment.
36:43He seems like one of those loyal guys, like, you know, loyal to the soil.
36:47He he has no real plans to leave there.
36:49But he's he's another guy that I'm just, you know, praying to the football gods, please get this man out of there,
36:55transfer to a program that can use him effectively, because I think that you would see a spike in that production from his first year.
37:02Did he redshirt his first year? He did not.
37:04He did not. OK, so you really see that that transition and the escalation in his production there going into that second season.
37:10I know that he's seen as the leader, like you said, on that team.
37:14So it's like all those intangibles that you specifically always scout are right there.
37:17And you you don't have to squint too hard to be able to see it translate.
37:22I don't think I think that the modern NFL, you see these types, this this body type and this archetype have success in the NFL.
37:28And hell, just not that long ago, North Carolina put Josh Downs right into the NFL.
37:32So the pathway is there. I just don't know that it's the best if he wants to really make maximize his earnings
37:38there at the next level, if he can make it so.
37:41But I think it's a good call, Chris. I know we've seen him go later in the CFF drafts and C2C.
37:47I don't see a lot of people talking about him for Debbie.
37:50But again, I think that the skill set is there.
37:52So I don't know about you, Chris, but I was pretty happy with these six names.
37:57And I think that we could probably keep this going, man.
37:59There was a lot of names I think we could have talked about.
38:03Obviously, for those who are going to ask me later, we did not include tight ends because this is Debbie.
38:08And I didn't want to talk about the two worthy tight ends and Debbie right now.
38:12No, I think down the down the line. No tight ends, man.
38:15I know Chris loves to hammer the tight ends on his dynasty side.
38:19But over here on Debbie, man, it's just a little, little tough, man.
38:22But I do promise we will get into some tight ends and feature them probably in sub stack.
38:27But I'm not sure about the podcast. But Chris, look, we made it through under 40 minutes.
38:32And I do have to say before we get out of here, we need to give a quick shout out to the sponsor of this show, Blue Chip.
38:39We mentioned them a lot on this show. We've compiled, you know, Debbie startup ADP, combined Debbie startup ADP.
38:44We're going to get to work on the C2C stuff next.
38:47Get CFF going. We're running a lot of mocks constantly.
38:49But I mean, it's just been incredible, Chris. I don't know how many leagues I'm in at this point.
38:54I've joined way too many startups just in the excitement of having Blue Chip.
38:58But because you're able to have all your college assets and all your NFL assets in one place.
39:03And for those of us, us degenerates who've been playing for years, had to bounce between spreadsheets, different apps, to have it
39:09all in one centralized location is incredible. And look, now you're seeing Yahoo respond.
39:12You're starting to see fan tracks take their hands off their butts.
39:15You know, all it took was one man in Will Stein to throw his hat to the ring and really get going.
39:21And one man was able to do what these big corporations honestly refused to do.
39:25You can't tell me that they weren't able to do it before, because again, the aforementioned Will Stein was able to do it.
39:31So shout out to him. Proud to be partnered with him.
39:34Believe in the vision. And, you know, go support the guy that has his ear to the community and listened and did
39:40something that these big corporations really didn't care to do.
39:43So thank them. And thank you, the listener. We've been doing this a little over a year now.
39:47We finally got our paid content out there. And if you really want, if you like this content, all I ask is
39:53that, of course, you hit the like and subscribe button.
39:56But beyond that, go to our sub stack, the Debbie Dojo on sub stack.
39:59Become a paid subscriber. It's $8 a month. We'll hit you with a discount for long term subs, about $80 in a year.
40:05And you're going to get access to all of our rankings, the consensus rankings for those of us at the Debbie Dojo, individualized rankings, which are updated monthly.
40:13I talked about all the ADP. On top of that, we're doing scouting profiles.
40:16We're doing Debbie watch list, freshman watch list. I just highlighted a guy, Jihad Brown, a 2027 wide receiver, Louisville commit.
40:22And he's somebody that you need to be paying attention to.
40:25So if you're locked in with us on Notion, locked in with us on the sub stack as a paid subscriber, man,
40:31you're already well ahead of the game. So make sure that you support the Dojo boys.
40:35And until then, till next episode, please remember to trust your training.
