Hugh Millen on Russell Wilson, Michael Penix + Combine Standouts

Hugh Millen joins Dave Softy Mahler and Dick Fain to talk about the Denver Broncos cutting ties with Russell Wilson, Michael Penix’s week at the NFL Combine, who helped themselves during the combine, Rome Odunze, Caleb Williams, and offensive lineman.

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Joining us right now in the radioshow. He spent the entire weekend pouring
over combine tape because that's what hedoes, baby, better than anybody.
Our friend, Huey Millen, howare you, man? I'm gobsmackedd what
I just heard on kg R acouple of minutes ago. Expand, what
do you mean that Caitlin Cart couldplay in the NBA in the nineteen sixties?
WHOA wow? You want to takethis one? Didn't didn't Oscar Robertson

(00:24):
and wol Frasier and Jerry West anda lot of other guys play in the
sixties. Yeah, they did.You named the top three players in the
NBA, though, I mean,I think you think she could make a
team in the NBA. Let me, I'll ask you this, is she
the best shooter right now in collegebasketball? Men or women? Yeah?
Yeah, I mean, okay,so the best shooter. Think she could

(00:45):
get her shot? You think shecould get her too off against with the
five to ten guards they had inthe NBA and she's six two with lank
Yes, I do. The menevolution doesn't work that fast. The men
of the nineteen sixties were much wickher, much stronger. They would be
up in her like, like they'dbe shadowing her like she never ever thought

(01:07):
of being shadowed, so no,she most of the time she wouldn't get
her shot off. I think,I think it's run two or three screens
and they'd have to get through those. Hey, Hugh, so you you
texted me and said one or twosegments, I need three now? After
that, I got a whole hourwith us. Let's before we get to
the combine and reaction. The Huskyplayers obviously put a great show on connectively,

(01:30):
I thought, but how about thenews of the day man, your
thoughts? The Russell Wilson era isover after two seasons in Denver. How
about that? Well, I justcan't believe, you know, he's played
himself out of the Hall of Fame. Uh. And the irony is that
Sean Payton was the guy, aswe know that that Russell wanted to replace
in Seattle. So here the wholereason Seawan Peyton was the guy that went

(01:53):
to Denver and he had other optionsand Denver wanted him is because of the
magic that Sean Payton had created withanother short credit quarterback and Drew Brees,
and the idea that that that's theguy that Russell Wilson would want, and
after one year, Sean Payton thechosen one is just punting on the whole

(02:17):
thing with an eighty five million dollarcost. I think it's absolutely remarkable.
I mean, it just underscores thedifference between Drew Brees and his ability to
run Sean Payton's offense and Russell Wilson'sinability to do so in such a way
that was so so drastic, sodrastically inferior to Breeze's capacities to quarterback that

(02:44):
offense. That here we are.That's what really gets me. Paint the
picture of the alternate universe with RussellWilson never getting traded. What did the
Seahawks seasons look like the past twoyears and what does their future look like?
Well, of course, such abig part of his game was playing
off script, right, and he'sgetting slower and now he had the eighth

(03:07):
best passer rating last year, buthe had the twenty first best QBR.
He was number one by a milein terms of the gap of all of
all quarterbacks. Right, So there'ssomething about that QBR, that about his
inability to play on third down inthe clutch, avoids sacks, all the

(03:29):
things that are in the QBR thatare not in the passer rating. So
I don't know. I think alot of it had to do which is
shaking confidence. There's no question aboutthat. Maybe he's a different guy in
his own house down there in Lumenfield, but I would have to think that
a lot of these same things,just the inability to execute the simple stuff

(03:51):
to take take. You know,so much of the offense is hey,
the sun comes up, the rooster, Crozy eat breakfast. You see this
coverage on this play, the ballgoes here, and he just wasn't executing
that. He became a diva.I think I just know too much from
what's happened inside the building and written. I just not a fan at all,

(04:14):
and he's somebody else's problem. Althoughit is interesting, and I'm not
rooting for him. I don't likehim, but it is interesting him playing
on minimum salary. Think of there'ssome there's some figure where Russell Wilson on
a on a minimum salary and theability to sign better players around him that

(04:36):
he can you know, he canbeat anybody if somebody else is getting paid
the other quarterback is getting paid highenough. I just think about the first
half guys of the twenty twenty season, when they were really cooking, and
he starts off in seven games twentysix touchdown, six picks, passer rating
of one hundred and twenty one seventytwo percent passer rating. To think four

(04:59):
years later that he he would beright here and this would be his legacy
in this town is a shocking fall, no question. But hey, Hugh,
the combine over the weekend lots ofgood stuff if you're a Husky fan
man. Let's start with the top, with the number nine, Michael Pennix.
What did you make of the waythat he showed off? Well,
I thought he just looked fantastic.Uh. You know, his balance,

(05:19):
his set, his drop, thequick release, he's got the big hands.
Uh. And that creates the spin. The spin is and it doesn't
just look pretty and cut through thewind. We know from wind tunnel tests
that that balls that spin faster haveless aerodynamic drags, so they have more
velocity. And so some of thateffortlessness, Uh, the velocity is created

(05:41):
after it leaves his hand. Uh. And and and so we see that.
But but even like his anticipation,I'll give you an example, Uh,
and I could give twenty. Sothey were running what's called Mike would
call a Mike Homgan would call acircus route. It's also called a stem
seven round. So let's let's sayRoma Dunesey. Now he never threw to
Rome, but Rome ran the samedrill at the same time. So the

(06:04):
receiver lines up on the left,he takes four steps diagonal in towards the
middle of the field and up thefield. Then he goes four steps up
to the next cone vertical, andthen he breaks to the out on a
on a corner route, a flatcorner route. Now, some of the
guys were running four plus six stepsbecause they don't have the long stride a

(06:27):
duneesa and some of the bigger guyswere running four plus four. So he's
got to he's got to handle that. But I slowed it down and when
you see his hands breaking there,he had a beautiful circus route again seam
seven where he threw it. Imean, you couldn't have thrown it any
better. His hands broke when thereceiver had not even got to his seventh

(06:48):
step. For this is a guyhe doesn't even know, and other guy
other quarterbacks were their hands were breaking, meaning they were just waiting on the
ball. And by the way,I could go on and on about how
how cockamany that those drills were.They had For example, on the route
that I'm describing, they had himon a five step drop when the every

(07:12):
playbook in the history of time thatwould be a seven step drop. So
he's back there, but he throwswith the anticipation that nobody else is thrown
with, and he has that accuracy. You know, there's post corner,
the post corners. The first groupof the day, they were going five
steps up the field and then threeto the post and then back out.
Then the second group was going fivesteps up the field and then five steps

(07:33):
to the post, which nobody teaches. Let me repeat, nobody teaches.
That the receiver gets buried way toofar inside, loses leverage, uh,
you know, can't get back aroundto the outside. So it's a terrible
technique. So these guys have toadopt on the fly and so home home.
Michael's got it, you know,just find a way to try and

(07:55):
create completions out of it. That'swhy guys don't throw at the combine.
So Mike had a couple of ofincompletions, but man, the ball look
beautiful. Comment out of his hand. I want to get kind of a
first hand look. I know you'regoing to study all these first round guys
at all positions for the Maler Millonmock drafts. You'll be able to much
better answer this question, you know, a month from now than you can

(08:15):
right now. But just just yourvibe, sixteenth pick, does that sound
about value for Michael Pennix? Isit a steal at sixteen for Michael Penix?
Or is it a little too highin your opinion for Michael penkck Well,
this is the twenty sixth draft,Dave, we've been doing the mock
draft. Can you remember a quarterbackthought to go in the first round that
had four season injuries? No?So that's just that's a variable, Dick,

(08:39):
that we haven't tried to insert intothe equation, right, And how
much of that's going to hurt him? Now? The other part the detraction.
Now, I don't like this argumentbecause I'm a Penix fan. I
want the Seahawks to take him.I think he's a beautiful quarterback in everything
that's important, but he you know, he played behind the Joe Moore line.

(09:01):
There's questions about what happens when hehas guys in his face. He
threw to three guys that were invitedto the combine, the best wide receiver
corps and and uh. And thenwhen he's off off script and he's playing
out of the out of the pocket, there's some some metrics is that say
he's the worst of the quarterbacks inthe entire draft when he has to playoff

(09:22):
script. I I need to stopyou right there, Hugh, please,
because you saw every snap of hisHusky career. Do you see that?
No? I don't either. No. No, I think that that he
has an ability. I like howhe hangs in the pocket and he knows
that he can get you know,he he demands himself to get to his

(09:43):
third and fourth receiver. Yeah.And I just thought his ability to have
that pocket discipline was great. Imean, unless he can run like Lamar
Jackson, I think you're better servedjust hang you know, uh, you
know, hanging in there. Andby the way, he showed his running
ability against Texas that was far betterthan the average courl Well, I would
say he'd be above the media.Let me strike that. I don't think

(10:05):
far better, but I think he'dbe slightly above the median as an athlete,
even with the two acls that he'sdealing with. Yeah, well there's
a lot of good stuff for you. I mean, Roger Rosengarten was the
fastest offensive lineman of the group.Eddie Olfochio had a vertical leap that beat
the next guy by two inches,for God's sakes over the weekend. So

(10:26):
who else? Really? Kind ofif there was one guy that you thought
really helped his stock in Indy,who was it a husky or husky or
anybody? Well about one of each, a husky and then a wild card.
Well, I think Lad McConkey,a receiver from Georgia. He had
identical numbers, I mean literally identicalnumbers to Garrett Wilson, who was the

(10:52):
Jets offensive rookie of the year.The height, the vertical, the forty,
I mean beautiful looking routes and andbut a twitzy guy. You know,
this isn't like Cooper Cup Steve Largent, Oh, you know the white
guy who's challenged athletically. No,this this guy has a bounce to his
step. I thought he had incredibleroute running from what I saw. So

(11:13):
I think Lad McConkey would be aguy. As for the let's stick on
the receivers. I mean, Romecame on your show, guys and he
said he wants to break four fourand reportedly at Washington he's running four to
three four. Didn't do that thisweek out. So if you take,
if you take last year, inthe last couple of years, what I
did. He ran a four fourfive, So I filtered for receivers that
run a four to four to threeto four four seven dos. That makes

(11:37):
sense. So I got right.So I'm two hundreds of a second on
either side. So that's basically hisspeed. There were four guys in that
forty Times last year who had athousand yards receiving Stefan Diggs, George Pickens,
Justin Jefferson, and Calvin Redley.Again, those are guys that have
essentially what Rome had in the fortytime, right around four four five.

(12:00):
But here's the comparisons. Rome isthree inches taller, twenty one pounds heavier,
and jumps four inches taller than StefanDiggs. He is the same height
as George Pickens, but twelve poundsheavier and six inches higher than Pickens.
On his vertical for Justin Jefferson,he's an inch and a half taller than
Justin Jefferson. Excuse me, twoinches taller, inch and a half higher

(12:24):
on the vert and seventeen pounds heavierthan Justin Jefferson. And lastly, Calvin
Ridley two inches taller, twenty twopounds heavier, and eight inches higher on
his vert. So the athleticism thathe showed at six three and to twelve
really the comp he had the identicalheight as Larry Fitzgerald six two and seven

(12:45):
eighths identical. Larry Fitzgerald had afour to four eight Romo Dunsey had a
four to four to five. NowFitzgerald had two twenty five, but Rome
had an eighth of an inch longerarm. So the comparison, if you
just look at the numbers, maybeminus the ten pounds. Larry Fitzgerald is
the type of guy. So hehe runs plenty fast enough, he has

(13:05):
plenty of athleticism, and I justthink he's destined for start him. I'll
be blown away if he's not alead NFL receiver. We got twenty seven
more days in this month, andI think you just dropped the Hugh Mill
in stat of the month. Soit's gonna be what's this, It's gonna
be just those comparisons you just youran there. That is fantastic. I

(13:26):
thought it was okay. As forwait, guys, here's a comparison.
Deebo Samuel is two hundred and fifteen. Again, Rome two twelve, but
Deebos six foot. You know,he's like a running back. He ran
a four to four eight. Soso Rome is much taller and faster than
Deebo Samuel at just about the sameweight. Hugh Caleb Williams. A lot

(13:48):
of negative press surrounding Caleb Williams.Is it much ado about nothing or is
this a problem that he didn't participate? Well, I think that there's some
questions. Everybody says, Okay,he's gonna be star, but how many
times have we seen you know,That's that's what people have said. You
know, we need to go downthe whole list of quarterback bus he's likely
to be a star. You know, he's six foot and a half,

(14:11):
he's he's remarkable off script, oneof the most instinctive. You know,
he's got strong legs and what haveyou. So that there's a lot to
love about the player. But he'sthe first guy in history to say no,
I'm not doing the medicals. Nobody'sever done that. And I played
with John Elway, the son ofa coach who just time and time again,
he just he fell in line andhe was the dutiful soldier. You

(14:35):
know, hey, you know coach. It's a hierarchy. It's like like
the military chain of command, andso he in essence, you don't want
to use a mulligan on the divaon on your medicals because like, let's
say he goes to Chicago and somebodyfrom the Chicago Tribune wants to write a
call um and rip him some inNovember because he's not playing well, and

(14:56):
they and they want to say,hey, he's not coachable, he thinks
he's a and all this. Well, one of the things they're going to
include in that column is that thisguy's the first guy in history who's been
healthy. I'll give him credit.Got thick build tell me that we talked
about it on Friday. I don'tthink he's ever missed a uh A player,
a snap or at least a start. And yet he's the first guy

(15:18):
to say, no, I'm notgoing to give you medicals. It just
sounds like I'm special, right,everybody else has done it, but I'm
special. I don't want to doit. He sat out the bowl game,
but that was more just for draftprotection. That was not injury for
you. I see, that's totallydifferent. I know. I mean,
I'm I'm conflicted by this guy becauseyou know, Dick and I were down
there for the UWUSC game and wewere both blown away by the way he

(15:41):
played. I mean, he's unbelievableplayer. Yeah. I was there too,
yeah yeah, And then I guesshim on the sideline. I don't
know if he's a great leader.And that would bother me if I got
the number one pick in the draft. Yeah, I mean, it just
it's it's a diva move. Youknow. It's saying I'm gonna do it
because I can, and yet tellme that you there's a lot of president

(16:02):
I mean, uh, I thinkthe guy that shocked me the most was
when Christian McCaffrey said I'm not playingthe ball. But there's been a lot
of players that have done that andwe've just kind of accepted it, right,
And maybe maybe Caleb Williams will bethe the groundbreaker and and that's a
bad analogy on my part because ChristianMcCaffey has been a great pro right,
but uh it to not do themedicals. I mean, sitting out of

(16:25):
a bowl game is one thing,like there's a legit chance you're gonna get
hurt in the bowl game, Butjust saying I don't want to be hassled
to do the medicals the day.You know, you think Andrew luck wasn't
didn't know he's gonna be the numberone. You think that Trevor Lawrence didn't
know he's going to be the numberone. I mean, this combine has
been around a long time. Youthink John Alway didn't know he's gonna be
the number one. There's a lotof guys, Peyton Manning, there's a

(16:47):
lot of guys who knew they weregonna be the number one pick. And
guess what, they all gave theirmedicals at the combine and and he's the
first to not do it. Hugh, can you learn anything from offensive lineman
at a combine? Or do youreally need to look at film? Because
there's a couple of dogs that thatdid great. I mean Fatana did great,
rosen Hoosen did great. But Imean, what do you what do
you know, well, you can'tassess their power. I don't. I

(17:08):
don't think. Well, you know, they're striking a bag and you can
kind of say, well, okay, does that look like a hard punch.
But but I think you can whenyou see him back to back to
back to back and you see howthey move, you can you can relative
judge them relatively right, like,Okay, you know they're not gonna work
move like receivers and dbs. Weknow that, But how do they move

(17:30):
compare compared to their fellow lineman andguys about their size. And there's some
guys in Fatano just you know,at one point, I think it was
Daniel Jeremiah said, my god,this guy runs like a running back because
he's that athletic and so and andyou see that because you're watching it in

(17:51):
this controlled environment where you're standing rightbehind him, and you just watched you
know, uh, Larry Mow andCurly go and then now you know,
and so it's fresh in your mind. It's it's comparable. And so yeah,
there's a reason why. And Iknow some of the coaches have backed
off and they don't go, butthere's a reason why they they've been doing
this combine for so many decades,and why you know most of the personnel

(18:14):
people still show up and need toget their eyes on that stuff even though
they're running around in their underwear.Hey, one more on the combine real
quick. Devin coulprint a four fourseven. What does that do for him?
You think, well, I thinkhe's I don't know if that pops
him into the second day, Iwould doubt it, but it definitely improves

(18:36):
his stock. And if there wasan assumption that he'd be a four to
six guy and he breaks four orfive, that forty time is still I
don't care what you said, that'sforty time is still the number one athletic
tests that they do in Indianapolis.It has the best even with offensive linemen
because you say, well, youlinemen are never gonna run forty yards.
But the correlation of guys like WalterJones, the great Ones, and Trent

(19:00):
Williams when he had a great fortyand they look smooth doing it in the
forty, there's a correlation like,Wow, if he's that fast in a
forty and looks that smooth, right, he's gonna have the athleticism to handle
edge guys so yeah, I thinkthe forty is the mother of all test
and remain. So I just wonderwhat guy guys with a guy like colp
and we're gonna break here, butif he's gonna be a diamond in the

(19:22):
rough and a real fine for somebody, because let's face it, in this
offense, he was never gonna befeatured ever with the receivers that play for
Ryan Grubb and Michael Pennix. SoI don't know, he's got good hands.
He was always reliable SPA. Yeah, no doubt, Jack as well
and Jackson the show tomorrow with threetwenty eight. By the way, all
right, great stuff, Hughy.We'll talk sooner, manum, okay,

(19:44):
all right, we'll talk more aboutCaitlin Clark and the NBA In nineteen sixty.
On Friday Show five twenty two,Mike Benton, the trade deadline is
nearing for the cracket. How differentwill this team look on Saturday versus what
it looks like tonight against Calgary.That's a five forty five right here.
On ninety three three k J R. F M.