First Draft - Podcast Rankings and reviews

I love Mel, the Godfather of the draft. He’s an icon within the NFL draft culture. Still at the top of his game and worth listening for him alone. Field is the consummate pro, super detail oriented, allows Mel to be the star and fills in around him perfectly as a good host should. I think he has an eye for talent too in his own right. But the reason for the 4 instead of 5 stars is what made this podcast and ESPNs draft coverage in general great was the debate format between Mel and Todd McShay. I am personally really disappointed to see Todd go. Not only was he incredibly insightful but he and Mel had great debate chemistry. It’s kind of like when you favorite band loses a key member and while they are still good, it’s just not quite the same. So still worth a listen, but we are SERIOUSLY missing Todd!

I don’t care who else is on the show , listening to Mel talk about prospects with his enthusiasm is just great. The amount of detail and descriptions are incredible

Enough of the Yates bashing. I’ve been surprised how fantastic he’s been as both host and analyst. You can tell the guy has legitimately done his homework and is passionate about the subject matter.

It is so great to hear Jordan and Matt talk about college athletes, especially QBs. They are very knowledgeable and bring a fresh perspective. I love listening to them.

However, it is embarrassing that in 2023 for ESPN the hosts audio is so bad, I thought something was wrong with my headphones. Come on ESPN

The information you can and will get from this podcast is great… if you can get past the substandard audio that a sports mogul like ESPN puts out. You would think that a multi Billion dollar company would have state of the art recording equipment and be able to have their podcasts produced cleanly. I understand not every guest can be in a perfect situation but sometimes it sounds like Field Yates is using Apple headphones to record… I love the guests and the information that they share but I just think a better product should be put out by ESPN

I really enjoy Mel and Todd’s commentary and Field’s hosting, but the sound quality and production on this podcast makes it really difficult to listen to. Someone is always coughing in the background, the volume levels are way off between speakers and a lot of other sound issues (on a recent episode Mel sounds like he is calling into the show from the International Space Station). I am guessing this is because they want to air the show live when recording, but they really need to figure how to make this podcast something people can actually listen to because it is amazing insights and information with some great personalities.