First Draft

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.

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

Headline says it all. Allowing Field to host and also use his actual scouting experience is a great move. Audio has improved vastly as well. Please keep this lineup. This is the one.

ESPN never should have parted ways with Todd McShay. He and Mel Kiper had such great chemistry together. The new guys they have, Miller and Reid (?), seem knowledgeable, but they lack the charisma of their predecessors. If you want some general info on prospects, this podcast is fine, but it’s not as entertaining as it was in prior years. I did listen to several episodes trying to give it a fair shake, but the Miller-Reid lineup just isn’t for me. Any show with Kiper is still worthwhile, but he’s not on most of these.

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