Brandon Jordan has a remarkable story. He couldn't find a coaching job so he started training players. Now he works with some of the NFL's best, and in January he was hired by Michigan State coach Mel Tucker. I went to East Lansing to write about it.
So weird how the Steelers offense cooks in the two-minute drill but looks blackout drunk the other 56 minutes. Just can't put my finger on the one variable that might be the culprit. 🇨🇦
Justin Herbert's been wholly underwhelming for most of this season. He's not a top-15 pick and he shouldn't be a 1st-rounder at this rate. If you're this inconsistent behind one of the best O-lines in college, how are you going to magically improve on an NFL team that went 4-12.
The Steelers traded up to No. 10 for LB Devin Bush back in 2019. They should absolutely consider trading up at least that high for a QB in April. They need to quit leaning into the mistakes -- just admit them and move on. Then get a legit OC (turns out, that's important too!).
I've been higher on Mac Jones than anybody & the pushback is always lack of athleticism, etc. He ran in the 4.7s, had a 32-inch vert, did everything Tua did at Bama...he just looks like a 40-year-old dad. If he had Tua's physique everybody's calling him a top-5 pick all day long.
My final 2020 NFL mock draft was just published and -- not joking, either -- I'm currently working on my first 2021 mock, which will go up on
@CBSSports
on Monday morning.
Going through Trubisky's throws vs. NE, and my god, it's hard to find a lot of guys open. This is a 3rd & 8 in the 3rd Q and Claypool and Johnson nearly collide in the middle of the field. *Maybe* you rip the post to Pickens up top? Ball ends up going to Warren (
#30
).
Had the Giants trading up from No. 6 to No. 1 with the Bears to get a QB on the
@NFLDraftCBS
mock draft pod and here's what
@FBallGameplan
wanted: 1.6, 2.39, 2025 1st and ... Saquon Barkley (we did some sign-and-trade hand-waving magic to make this work) for the No. 1 pick.
Just did a Top 10 Star Wars draft on
@CBSSportsHQ
for May the 4th and pretty sure it’s my proudest professional moment, despite all the pushback from
@TommyTranTV
and
@BrandonBaylorTV
. (Jar Jar’s a joke aimed at Jets fans who always hate their drafts. He’s obviously undraftable.)
If you’re looking to for a late-round sleeper that hasn’t gotten a lot of pre-draft buzz, here’s Kennesaw State RB Darnell Holland. 37-inch vertical and ran a 4.38 at his pro day.
Trevor Penning came to the Senior Bowl with something to prove. So I had to ask him on
@CBSSportsHQ
if the coaching staff told him to dial it back a tad because he wouldn't stop body-slamming people in the 1-on-1 and team drills.
My latest mock draft is live — and it’s a two-rounder. Steelers take a WR, Pats take two (!) and maybe land the best player in the draft at the bottom of the first round, and the Jags get their franchise QB with pick No. 38.
One of my favorite small-school draft sleepers: Kennesaw State RB Darnell Holland (
@yocrazylegs
). In 4 years he averaged 9.9 YPC, 17.3 YPR & he returns kicks too. He has 4.38 speed, a 37-inch vert and NFL teams are interested. I talked to him about it all.
My latest mock draft is a three-rounder and there’s a lot going on: Bills get Quinnen Williams, Pats get two TEs and a QB, Steelers get AB replacement in 2nd round, Cowboys get playmaking TE:
Finishing up draft grades and I already loved the Seahawks draft class before I remembered what Braden Fiske said about Christian Haynes back at the combine.
I’m not on TikTok because I’m old but my buddy just texted me this after his teenage son came across it. Had me dying. (Bringing folks together across the internet is what this job is all about, frankly.)
This is how Day 3 of the draft starts on the
@NFLDraft
pod: me trying to hipsterfy
@spielman_rick
’s coffee-drinking habits beyond drip coffee. In related news: he just chugged his first-ever espresso shot and is now enjoying hist first-ever Americano. Wild times, indeed.
Rayne Man:
Dak Prescott could finally find himself thrust into the MVP conversation, but here's proof the
#Cowboys
QB should've been there the entire time »
DETAILS ⬇️
How many consecutive pick-sixes did Josh Dobbs have to throw at practice for Kevin O’Connell to convince himself that Nick Mullens was a better option?
Tanzel's teammate, John Franklin-Myers, probably put it best when he called Brandon, "the Aaron Donald of D-line training." Anyway, I've wanted to write about Brandon's journey for a couple years, COVID happened, and I'm glad I finally got the chance last week. 📸
@sir_marks_alot
Man, this was so good — Tomlin was so much more at ease with BMac and Pat P. than what we see in his weekly press conferences. You get some insight into why he’s been so successful and why he’s such a great motivator. Can’t recommend this enough.
It's a long list of WR gems the Steelers have hit on:
Mike Wallace
Antonio Brown
Emmanuel Sanders
JuJu Smith-Schuster
Chase Claypool
@CoachTomlin
shared a secret behind the success
Full episode here
went to pick up pizzas for dinner and forgot my mask. rummaged through the car for five minutes until I found this floral bag and macgyver’d it into this masterpiece. based on all the side eye, can’t even imagine what the other folks waiting for their orders were thinking.
Just got this text from my 14-year-old talking about his buddies. Not gonna lie, part of me loves the idea of him getting stuffed in a locker because his old man is a target of NFL Draft TikTok mafia.
You know the actual draft is almost here when I put out my seven-round mock. Guessing everyone will love every pick so feel free to just RT it sight unseen. But for the skeptics in the crowd, here ya go (and scroll to the bottom for team-by-team picks):
CJ Stroud is impressive for a lot of reasons but he gets extra points for giving
@spielman_rick
the business when we spoke with him on
@CBSSportsHQ
. Plan on seeing "Let a young brother warm up!" t-shirts in the
@NFLDraftCBS
merch store.
Here it is, our seven-round mock draft. I'll tweet out some team-only picks throughout the day but the Chargers pass on Justin Herbert at No. 6 and select Isaiah Simmons (take that, Andy Reid and Patrick Mahomes) and wait till Day 3 to get a QB.
Justin Herbert checks a lot of boxes but he can be maddening. Jacob Eason outplayed him on Saturday and if I’m an NFL team in need of a QB, right now I’m not taking Herbert in the top 10.
Came downstairs this morning to find this scene. I would imagine this is my 8-year-old’s handiwork but I wouldn’t be surprised if the dog is already done with us three days into school closing.
David Ojabo, who was born in Nigeria and grew up in Scotland before coming to the States at 15, gave an incredibly insightful answer on
@CBSSportsHQ
about how important education is to the children of immigrants. Not surprisingly, he was an Academic All-American.
Jets DT Tanzel Smart (
@tj_bchillen
), who has known Brandon for years and was one of first clients, told me, “He was doing stuff for free with high school kids. He'll give you a shirt off his back. It was a blessing for me to meet him because he's helped me in a big way.”
Did something a little different with my NFL Draft rankings this year. Instead of giving out grades, I compared where players were actually drafted vs. where I had them graded on my pre-draft big board. It's Wins Over Wilson come to life.
My latest three-round mock just went up on
@CBSSports
(this one has trades!). Have the Dolphins, Bucs, Jags and Browns all trading up in Round 1 and the Pats trading up into Round 2:
Imagine facing Braden Fiske AND Marshawn Kneeland -- both were at Western Michigan together through the 2022 season. We asked Fiske at the combine about Marshawn and, not surprisingly, he's a huge fan.
A lot of buzz lately for
#WesternMichigan
edge Marshawn Kneeland, who has one of the busiest pre-draft itineraries you’ll see. He visited the
#Texans
,
#Vikings
,
#Buccaneers
,
#Panthers
and
#Colts
this week, part of a 16-team visit schedule for the late first-/early second-rounder.
So
@WillBrinson
just brought this up on the
@picksixpod
: if the Steelers win out and the Jags beat the Colts, what would stop the Chargers and Raiders from taking knees on SNF and then both making the playoffs?
Even if the Steelers win out, and the Jags win, they will still have to wait around to make sure the SNF game doesn’t end in a tie before officially clinching their playoff berth.
Because they lose head-to-head tiebreakers to both Vegas and the Chargers at 9-7-1.
I recorded a few videos when thinking of how to respond to Drew Brees, I don’t take any of it back-I meant what I said-I removed the 1st video because I knew it be more about the headlines. I want people to understand how those of us struggling with what’s going on feel
Don't imagine this will ruffle too many feathers but here's a peek at the top 10 for mock draft 4.0, which comes out Tuesday (and here's the segment about those picks, and prospects to keep an eye on in the CFB playoffs): )
Tweeted this a few minutes ago before seeing this pic of Mac Jones and now I'm more certain than ever that he's going to be a Hall of Famer: 'Mac Jones is probably going to end up as my No. 2 QB in terms of being NFL ready. I like him a lot.'
Went crazy in our post-combine mock draft -- Isaiah Simmons goes top-5, Love leapfrogs Herbert and Cowboys land a top wideout in the middle of the 1st round:
Mike Tomlin on punting on 4th-and-1: "We had some stops. Want to pin them down, provide short field for offense ... I just wanted to keep momentum going in terms of field positioning."
This mock draft might be moot in a few hours (or sooner) but for now, we have the Giants taking Kyler Murray and the Steelers drafting a big-play WR to replace Antonio Brown:
Went back and looked at my conversation before the 2019 NFL Draft with Travis Fulgham (
@TF13
) and his WR coach at ODU John Allen. This from Allen really stuck out in light of Fulgham going off in back-to-back weeks for the Eagles:
Perfect end to a perfect week at the Senior Bowl. At the hotel bar finishing up some work (read: drinking a beer) and my man grabbed the remote from behind the bar and switched it to the Andy Griffith Show. Not even mad.
We're coming down the mock-draft home stretch: here's my two-rounder (and next Monday it's the seven-rounder). Also later this week, my Top 150 players.
Brandon went six years between coaching jobs -- 'I sent out 1,000 emails and didn't hear anything' -- so he starting training high school and college players, put the videos up on Twitter and Instagram, and people starting noticing. That was in 2018.
A lot going on today: My first two-round mock draft is up on
@CBSSports
(63 picks, all A+ grades), and today at 2pm ET,
@spielman_rick
and I will be firing up the With the First Pick (
@NFLDraftCBS
) podcast (now twice weekly!) for our first mailbag episode.
This got lost in the mix of Sunday night's throttling of the Steelers, but shout out to Steve Belichick for honoring his dad with the same haircut Bill sported three decades ago.
My wife is currently having a zoom book-club party right now. That sounds like a nightmare ... until I realized this is what I do five nights a week with Brinson, Breech and Sean. So yeah.
If your favorite Friday night quarantine activity is to watch people talk about the NFL, then you're in luck!
@WillBrinson
,
@ryanwilsonCBS
,
@seanjwagner
and I will be coming to you live (and free) at 8 pm ET on
@CBSSportsHQ
. Link here --->
Brian Flores should threaten to punch the GM, punt a football into the stands, dare the Dolphins to fire him on Instagram and return to the Patriots' coaching staff six hours later.
HEY HEY HEY 🚨Starting Monday, I'll be hosting a
@CBSSports
NFL Draft podcast with
@spielman_rick
called With the First Pick!
For
@picksixpod
fans you can watch the show on the same YouTube channel, but make sure to download/follow the new podcast feed!