Where the PFF numbers favor MSU football; Aidan Chiles, Kay'Ron Lynch-Adams, Jalen Thompson & more

Intro do you know who knows ball Pro Football Focus and do you know who we have on today's show it's Hunter stall one of the fine evaluators over our Pro Football Focus go through the important numbers for MSU football season let's you are locked on Spartans your daily podcast on the Michigan State Spartans part of the lockon podcast Network your team every day today's episode of lockdown spar brought to you by FanDuel make every moment more as playoffs wind down the sport stops sporting like we want them to but hey this summer FanDuel is hooking up all customers with a boost or bonus daily that's right there's something for everyone every day all summer laun just visit fanduel.com to get started Spartan friends Spartan family lockdown Spartans listeners thank you all so much for to kicking off your day and week with us here at lockdown Spartans your team in green and white five days a week please rate review subscribe comment below on YouTube reach out to us at lockon spars gmail.com and hter like it just kind of hit me like thanks for kicking off your week with us here as we are less than three weeks until kickoff can you feel the energy does it feel like it's almost here Hunter like I my engines are starting to get revved up right now let's go yep absolutely sure does you know it feel been very long offseason for some reason but yeah very excited to know for the new new era of football under coach Smith you know maybe it felt like a long Aidan Chiles off season I hate to start this on such a sour note like this is because this is going to be an upbeat joyous conversation but maybe it just felt long because like basketball wasn't the Robin Hood that we all thought it was going to be absolutely and then well you know after that we were able to enjoy a laon spring and summer months but here we are kickoff around the corner and Hunter let's just cut to the chase let's cut to the man of the hour here it's Aiden Charles this man has been the headliner of the offseason quarterback transfer from Oregon State in case anyone's been living under a rock this kid's the cat's pajamas according to a lot of people out there he's only played 90 some snaps though so I'm excited a lot of State fans are excited hunter in your expert evaluation like how much were you even able to gather in his 90 some snaps he played over in Coralis last year yeah sure thing so last season he only had actually 35 pass attempts from those snaps yeah at the true freshman and so overall we had him at a 65.8 passing grade on the year um so some background there about PFF passing grades or grades in general and that it's just a scale from Z to 100 obviously 100 being the highest zero being the lowest very similar to grades you see in school sure and a little bit below average at 68.5 last year now looking back more at his game film last year he played primarily in two games where he had more than just a few passes and those games were against UC Davis and then Stanford okay so the first game against UC Davis that I went back and watched he had uh 13 attempts for nine completions now watching back those game films his biggest issue so far is definitely just accuracy in his passing game he missed some very easy short passes some dump offs or check downs and he also missed some open guys downfield too but with that being said he also did hit some guys in stride and was on Target and so forth so very similar to what we saw in the spring game or Spring Showcase where it was you know some were on target some were just sailed over the head of receivers so overall just kind of inconsistent there at this point um he did show though his running ability in that game where he had a nice play where he was pressured pocket kind of collapsed and he was able to rush out of that pocket for about 20 yards down field and then the other game against Stanford that wanted to know as well was that same kind of thing there he had several misses on just miscommunications with his receivers okay on the same page with routes or routes route depth and so forth but he did those show a lot of good accuracy on roll out passes so last year on designed play action passes he actually went seven for seven for 93 yards and a touchdown so definitely seems to be a strength of his is getting out of the pocket where he can see the feeli better and um you know be more effective in that role so overall here my consensus on Charles is just that although he has a very high ceiling and can probably be a very you know special quarterback here at MSU I think he's not quite there yet I think he's time to develop and you know we shouldn't be too surprised as fans this this season if takes time to have some Growing Pains you know throw some picks make some bad plays sure you kind of SK through that process where he can be better maybe you know later this year next year what have you I a lot of what Jonathan Smith has been saying in just about maybe every press conference when Aiden Charles is brought up like yes he he builds him up like obviously he's not just saying like oh God this no one get too excited but he does end it with let's have some patience here like he still is a true sophomore just like you said 35 pass attempts he's gonna be 18 years old like he's even a young true sophomore so yeah we are excited my God if you've listened to just the show for five minutes in the off Seas you know how excited we are about him just his raw ability his legs his uh big arm that he has on him he's got the tools to be a good quarterback one day it just might take a little bit of time that's not to say it won't happen this year but yeah just you know brilliantly said Hunter obviously you're the guys watching the tape over there and crunching every single step these guys take and that's a good assessment right there now for this season to work Offensive Line out we've also said and people can disagree agree on this I think a lot of people are going to agree is that I I for one would like to see Aden child healthy the entire season I know it's asking a lot here but the guy in charge of that we're going to go with the presumed starting line right now Brandon Baldwin Luke Newman Tanner Miller Christian Phillips and Ashton leppo we're just gonna make an assumption that that's the starting five right there any numbers or anything that you see that either likes or doesn't like this offensive line how are you assessing this offensive line ahead of the Season yeah so I think overall here there's definitely some good and bad points regarding the old line going into the season so starting first with Brandon Baldwin kind of in that order you mentioned Brandon Baldwin had a really rough year last season at left tackle so he had a run block grade at 51.0 and we got him at a block sorry a pass pass block grade at 47.3 for the season so obviously very rough numbers there he actually regressed from 2022 we had better grades in both categories and he gave up about 29 pressures in three sacks got so now not what you want to see there but with some good news though is that next to him we have Luke Newman the transfer from Holy Cross he puted some great numbers last year really some Elite numbers in the both pass block and run block grade so his pass block grade was 92.4 and his run block grade was 91.0 and so overall he's the second best pass blot grade in all of the FCS only giving up five pressures in one sack all season so overall here great num numbers from Newman really what you want to see it's just a question of will it translate now from FCS to the power four level yeah and outside to inside too if he is bumping into guard like you know they've launched set at the coaching staff and everything like that but that's good to know though anything north than 90 I don't care if it's PFF or you know the exam grade that you got like we're we're working with that 90 is solid that plays man yeah definitely and then otherwise we have Tanner Miller coming in from Oregon State um so he played some Center and Right Guard over there and for him it's kind of interesting so he had a really low P pass block grade of just 57.7 last season okay had a good run block grade though of 80.0 so although he definitely is more of a run blocking lineman hopefully he can improve that pass block grade and become really a solid player for us you know next season and then to fill up the line here we have both Christian Phillips and Ashen leppo so with Phillips first of all he only played 33 snaps last season at Right Guard so very small sample size graded pretty poorly once again so 55.2 pass block 48 run block and then leppo kind of similar nine games 96 total snaps and had just a 54.8 run block grade and 63.8 pass block grade so once again some good and bad overall there hopefully this season though we can see some of the newcomers also add to that guys like St raml Gavin brochas or what have you because after them we really don't have you know much to our knowledge just yet so hopefully those guys can contribute and hopefully know with more experience leppo and Phillips can you know improve their their numbers going forward and take it for what it's worth but based on conversations I've had with people inside the program like Luke Newman has had a really strong showing so far in Fall camp and this is a guy that wasn't around in the spring uh you know he was a Roy I think that's just how the transfers work from I don't know I'm not going to claim to know it right off the top of my head what I do know is that he is shining so far in practice right now so yes there's a jump from FCS to the Big 10 of course but so far I mean we're what a little less than two weeks into it he seems to be shining right now in he Lancing so some positivity on top of those numbers right there still plenty more to come with Hunter stall of Pro Sponsor Football Focus but first eBay Motors is going to get you on the winning side of things on the road 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available to us customers and before hearing more PFF numbers from the one the only Hunter stall hey thank you very much for making locked on Spartans your first listen every single day now for your second listen no better place than locked on college football Spencer mlin he's going to get you ready for the season as well as well nil conference realignment the transfer portal the expanded playoffs and guys of course the Games the actual games that are less than two weeks away that's right week zero knocking on the door so go ahead head over to locked on college football after this part of the locked on podcast Network your team every day and just as KayRon LynchAdams keep it with the offense Hunter any skill position players that you are loving right now just go ahead and just rips him off for us yeah you bet so first I'll go with KRON Lynch Adams the running back transfer from un so he also had some really great numbers last year with PFF so we had him last year at a impressive 85.1 one run raade overall this season he had over 1,100 yards and 12 touchdowns on the year he also had 74 Miss tackles Force which was fourth best in the country among running backs okay and with that too we also had 800 yards after contact last season which was ninth best in the entire country and then on top of that too he also had 41 total 10 plus yard runs which was third best in the nation so overall great numbers from him at UMass once again we hope that I can transfer now from yeah um the I guess it was independent should be Mac level to now the power four level from ums sure you know we were looking at KRON Lynch Adams I think it was earlier last week and you know just going through his game logs he had a strong game against Auburn I think he topped over 100 yards in that game so a legitimate program but my favorite part of his game log last year 34 carries 234 yards against Army hearkening back to the 2012 Le'Veon battle days just feeding that man over there but that's nice like I I was excited about KRON Lynch Adams you know he seems like a really thunderous Runner I guess if I could put an adjective on that but man those numbers are not nice some missed tackles some breaking tackles yards after contact that's you're coming here with the goods man that's what I'm talking about there we go just keep it with the running back position though Nate Carter I'm a huge Nate Carter fan Nate Carter obviously I know that statistically it was not the year that he wanted last year he went like the last 10 games without finding the end zone not not not ideal if you're running back just to make note of that like am I Ron for believing that he's still a really good running back and last year was just kind of a cluster leap of everything else that happened or like give us your scoop on Nate Carter are are you a Believer are you a Believer Hunter yeah so I'm definitely believe so overall last year we had Nate Carter as the best returning player on the offense last side of the ball or sorry offens side of the ball last season sure uh now Al he only had four touchdowns he did finish the year with a above average he's in run grade of 78.2 okay and so with other numbers like yards after contest Miss tackles forced first downs gain those kind of things she's like middle of the pack of the of the Big 10 running backs okay overall though I think the biggest thing with Nate Carter is that he shows us those kind of glimpses of what he can be you know with a solid o line so you know he has a great change of Direction he makes guys miss he has a pretty good burst speed downfield so overall I think you know with an improved hopefully o line and more importantly you know with a new coaching staff a whole new system on offense we should be able to have see him have a strong season going forward this year gotcha and just with receivers or tight ends anyone really catch your eye or is all the shine really on KRON Lynch Adams as far as the PFF numbers go yeah so the other guy too is Jack velling so once again talk talk about him up and down this summer yeah um but obviously very exciting prospect a tight end coming in from Oregon State as well um so his receiving grade last year was a 77.2 which was the top receiving grade amongst tight ends in the Pack 12 and in seventh overall amongst power five teams last season um watching some of his game film too is that he's a great red Red Zone Target or Red Zone threat so I watched their game against Cal as well and he had three touchdowns all in the Red Zone in that game um and some of it was scheme some of it was just being of course a big red zone Target but also too he's not just like an inline tight end he can also spread out as well so last season he had over 200 snaps at either slot or split out as a wide receiver and there's also a play too where you know he broke down the scene had nice long touchdown pass right the middle of the field as a slot receiver so definitely some versatile um aspect to his game there and so overall very impressive what we see Jack bellan coming into this year so 200 plays either wide or in the slot is that did I get that right yep gotcha and that could kind of foreshadow what they could do with their brenon parat and they've also said as much you know during their media availability that during practice they've been bumping them out to slot or out wide so like that's just kind of just how they handle the tight ends over there in Corvalis that just screams tight end to development which like my God Hunter when's the last time you've seen that I it's been too long it's been like the roseb days man and I I'm kind of uh kind of a tight end guy so that would be nice uh let's switch sides of the ball here we're GNA go to the defense we've been LBs claring up and down about this a lot of people have been because well it just seems to me on paper that linebacker is going to be the strength of this defense maybe if not the whole team if you want to take it there but right or on do you think linebacker is the strength of this side of the ball at least so I do agree mainly because there's so much uncertainty around the D line in the secondary totally right yeah um so it definitely seems to be most solid or at least we know what to expect more so going into the season so obviously with linebacker we return Jordan Hall Cal Halliday and also they'll add impact transfers like Jordan Turner and Wayne Matthews Y and hopefully too we get a healthy Darius snow you know we'll see about that but yeah always always good when he's healthy so first with Jordan Turner he finished with good grade last year at Wisconsin of a 69.1 overall grade on defense and we of course think that he's going to be more of a middle linebacker role here solely at MSU and then obviously we also have Wayne Matthews who you talked about a bunch this summer yeah and so overall he graded very well last year so on defense he had an overall grade of 77.1 but more importantly he had a coverage grade of 78.3 so if you look at his stats though from last year he doesn't have many you know doesn't have any interceptions or many pass breakups but what that grade though really entails is more so just making plays and coverage and being the right spot at the right time so that includes like locking down receivers it includes you know stopping guys short of the first down sticks or tackling guys soon they do make a catch catch down the field he's rather making a play so great numbers from him and you know like you said before a million times it's good to finally have a pass coverage linebacker in the mix here fair to be somewhat and here we go Secondary again you know what's this phrase once bitten Twice Shy you know I feel like we've done this before with other position groups in the last few years getting excited even though they've shown you know some struggle in the past as we move to the secondary Hunter but here I am just like optimistic about it even though they've been amongst the worst unit for the last three years in the Big 10 running but like experienced guys with Talent like Malik Spencer Dylan Tatum who might be playing his true position here at safety edwood's a great transfer chance Rucker like I I I feel like secondary can be optimistic this year are you going to shoot that down immediately here or like are you gonna just enable me to believe like the sucker that I am right now like shoot me straight here what what do you got for us sure thing so I think the first thing this year is first of all having Ed Woods as a transfer and secondly just the depth so first with Ed Woods I mean that was obviously a surprising transfer because usually guys that are starters in P4 don't really go to another P4 absent of course like nil deals or considerations so that's a very pleasant surprise in the offseason to pick him up from Arizona State now last season he finished with a pretty solid 77.9 coverage grade and that was the fifth highest graded Corner in the Pack 12 he had one pick four pass breakups and only allowed 26 catches on 46 targets so about half of the targets last year gotcha so I'm confident in that aspect because we're getting actual solid starting cornerback that experience playing Power four football and then second to just the depth you know I think dep's been an issue in the past years with the secondary a lot of guys getting hurt and we're playing you know true freshman in that role so I mean how deep we are with safeties you have Dylan Tatum Le Spencer nikai Martinez Angelo gross for seemingly his 12th year here no kidding right you know Corners got Ed Woods chance Rucker um you know Chuck Brantley Legend Cavazos Kaleb Coley so I think here just with that depth and once again having a new system you know new coaching in place that the goal here should just be to have an average secondary right because I me we've been getting torched so bad the past three years on the back end of our defense that I think we having just just an average secondary that help us win more games and just have you know a whole turnaround for us going forward that was our whole thing last week when we touched on the secondary because the the topic was who's going to be the most improved unit and we talked about the depth we talked about The Talented uh transfer editions that they had we also said this is not going to be the no fly zone defense like we're not taking a time machine back a decade we don't need it to at least for this year yeah we're not going to get overly greedy this year okay we're going to have you know some Fair expectations here and that's just average oh we'll take good of course like let's not be silly about it but like I I just need to see something in the middle of the Big 10 I don't think that's too greedy I you know and yeah sure like that's kind of weak just to ask for average but God after the last three years I'll bargain for anything at this point uh it's it's been bad little FanDuel more to come with Hunter stall of Pro Football Focus but first fan dual sports book they are keeping it sunny every day this summer well I look they do it year round they're America's number one sports book for a reason you know how great they are during the football season the basketball season but even in the dead of Summer now that Olympics are also over the playoffs are long gone and guys like the the sports aren't sporting the way we want them too we all know this but FanDuel is getting us off the mat they are keeping us going whenever we want all we got to do is open up the app and dream up any bets anytime we are in the mood because this summer FanDuel is hooking up all customers that's right not just the new ones but all customers with a boost or bonus daily that's right there's something for everyone every day all summer long and if you already can't wait to get your money on a Michigan State football game bang week one right now our Spartans 11 and a half Point favorites over the Florida Atlantic owl so if you're feeling hot about that line mosy on over to fanduel.com and place that wager head over to fanduel.com and start making the most out of your summer it's FanDuel official partner of Major League Baseball and just like you said with the depth in Chance Rucker the true freshman playing like last year chance Rucker okay true freshman that's a guy that got a lot of spin like there is you know a good faction of this fan base myself included that was somewhat impressed with what you saw to him last year were were you one of those people too did you like what you saw at a chance Rucker as a true freshman I did overall yeah I mean you know he definitely had kind of some hit and miss plays right where he make a play in the ball or make a good tackle here and there but also then he kind of like you know let someone burn him or you know what have you um I'm pretty sure in the game game against Ohio State we had him on Marvin Harrison Jr which probably didn't help too much burnt into my memory that play right there no safety help on a guy who's gonna hear his name called within the first 30 minutes of draft night like yes great idea that's awesome guys thanks yeah but I think I think overall there aside from of course that game you know definitely a lot of potential for him I think he definitely be a special quarterback here you know coming at least at least maybe not next this com upcoming year next year going forward as he he develops oh my God that that that play I will never forget that play after I was done cackling for like five straight minutes uh in my lonesome I my my first thought after that was well what a great learning opportunity for him right now like this you can't pay for lessons like this how how blessed is he to get dunked on basically for two straight hours that night anyway how much drop off is there with Defensive Line the defensive line from one positive topic to another here uh like because look OB viously the departure Simeon Barrow Derek Haron they aided it or have tried to Aid it somewhat with Ben Roberts Jaylen Satchel dquan Dallas of course how much of a drop off did Michigan State see on that defensive line do you think yeah so I think on the interior D line we definitely will see some drop off this season with Derk Haron leaving Haron was the top graded Defender last season on msu's defense with PFF and Simeon barl was actually the fourth highest graded defender on our defense last season okay and their replacement the replacement that we have for this season I don't think we'll completely fill that void that that they left and so we have dcoin Dallas coming in from Georgia Tech he had just a 58.7 grade last season on defense and then Maverick Hans had a 65.8 overall defensive grade so not much there so overall there once again we hope that we see some newcomers and some young guys so maybe like at Alex Van summeran who's finally healthy can fill that fill that void and fill that gap or maybe get something to out of guys like Jaylen Satchel or Ben Roberts that you mentioned to once again help fill that role because obviously there are plenty of snaps there to be had and like rushing the quarterback Pass Rush that's a big topic of conversation wasn't necessarily all there last year for Michigan State and of course well you see that reflect on the secondary and their numbers too you obviously need pass rush there is is that like an okay spot right now going into this season you think or is there a lot to be desired as far as just you know rushing the passer goes you think yeah I mean as far as the other positions go like DN and Edge rushers I think we will be a little bit better there and more solid going into the season so with there we obviously bring back Chris Bogle first of all he had nine pressures last year and had a 68.1 overall grade on defense but more importantly though we have Jaylen Thompson coming back who actually has a true freshman last year was the second highest graded player on our entire defense wow okay yep and so with him too we also have Avery Dunn coming back he had the third highest grade last year on defense at 74.1 but we also add a new guy too uh quind Darius dunigan on Middle Tennessee yes so last year he had 23 total quarterback pressures and overall 73.5 Rush grade on defense so definitely help there with a rush defense and then otherwise too once again you have newcomers hopefully you know like a guy like Ken tally can help contribute and you know help out our Rush game which has also been slacking like you mentioned in the previous Seasons anything else that really stuck out to you when you were just pouring over the numbers going into this season that we didn't hit on yet that you want to bring up here too the old Spartan Nation yeah so kind of to end on a good note here talking special teams so hey now if all else fails we do have a good kicker and punter so uh last season Jonathan Kim was graded as the number 18 overall field goal kicker among the entire country and then Ryan Eckley as punter was actually the fifth highest rated punter in the entire country last season man man that's like probably I Punting I've been Ron a lot on this show let's not you know kid ourselves here but that that might be the most run I've been is oh okay well it's gonna be a big drop off just on face value from Bryce baringer to Ryan Eckley and this kid just banged the hell out of the ball throughout last season so that's not that that's gonna play here because I I mean I'm not really talking out of my butt when I say like they could have the best kicker punter duo in the conference if not one of the best in the country next year so in these coin flip games we've seen it a lot that okay you know what especially against Iowa for example we' even this all over and over again that game could very well be a race to 20 points coming up this season in those sort of games very well comes down to special teams executions how well are your punter and kicker doing that day and well we saw it in Iowa City last year unfold before our very eyes actually uh that'd be one of the reasons they lost but uh yeah like that's gonna be like an important aspect of the Season like all jokes aside like our kicker and punter might be the reason we smile on Saturdays here Hunter like great yeah definitely I mean as long as we can line up correctly you know and not have any false starts or anything then it'll be good I think but as long as you that they'll be all right do you guys PFF grade coordinators or coaches or you and could if not could you start because oh I know someone that could have gotten below zero last year Hunter not gonna name names or anything but put that put that in your boss's ear see if that's the thing that you guys want to do in the future here sure yeah I'm all for that sounds like a good good metric to to grade yeah or just like Record prediction time management you could grade the coaches on that and everything uh look before we get you out the door and enjoying the rest of your week first and foremost thank you very much for your time of course and all your knowledge your Insight but gotta ask the t's question that a talk head like myself could do record prediction we're less than three weeks out what do you got for us 10 and two are we going to the Orange Bowl let's let's hear from you Hunter I mean that'd be nice I mean I wouldn't be mad about that at all but it be okay it'd be okay absolutely yeah so I think I'm gonna go with seven and five this year okay and not as easy as 7 and5 saying that we're just going to lose to like those four games in the middle and then maybe somewhere else but I think it could be those funky years for us where maybe we you know lose like a Maryland or rut gers or at Boston College or something then also upset you know Iowa or Michigan or something like that I kind of see it being one of those kind of weird years if you will where you know we kind of win some games that we shouldn't and also lose some games that we should win you know going forward I could totally see it like you starting the year four and0 you know college game isn't East Lancing against Ohio State we're feeling ourselves and then well we lose two in a row beat Iowa okay keep close against Michigan and then inexplicably at the end of the season like lose to Purdue beat Illinois lose to Indiana but beat Ruckers just like some complete tosy Turvy end to the year but uh I I like to cut of your jib Hunter there we go because I got the same record prediction I'm at seven and five I've been solid on that ever since the spring which just like you said at the top seemingly feels like two years ago but uh h before we let you go anything you want to plug here on your end yeah so obviously gives a follow um on social media pffs everywhere on every platform and if you haven't sign up for PFF premium so with an account there you can get access to all the numbers I mentioned tonight you can see it for yourself sort it out and then otherwise I'm on Twitter too personally it's Hunter or42a kind of random PFF stuff too inv MSU so if you're interest in that kind of stuff give me a follow we absolutely are interested in that so yes guys Hunter 42 MSU on Twitter and folks we will be back later this week we will have Justin finin you may or may not know him if you're a State fan of course you know him what am I talking about but until then guys take care of yourselves love you all you know where to keep it tuned locked on Spartans your team in green and white five days a week all right go green