Did Michigan Alum Rich Just Go to Bat for an Ohio State Buckeye???

Rich, a Michigan alum on the record about his fandom, surprised himself on a recent edition of The Rich Eisen Show by lobbying on behalf of an Ohio State Buckeye, talking himself in real time through why Carnell Tate ought to be the first wide receiver off the board in this year's NFL Draft.

The spark was a shift in the pre-draft consensus. Tate had been the assumed top receiver for weeks, but in the days leading up to the show, Jordan Addison's name began climbing mock drafts, including Matt Miller's, who had Addison going fifth. Daniel Jeremiah, due up the following hour on the show, had Addison landing seventh in Washington. Rich admitted he had not watched much Addison film and had not seen Arizona State on the national stage since Cam Skattebo left, leaving him caping for a player from a rival school.

"I'm going to say something that sounds a little irrational," Rich said, before laying out his theory: "You don't want to think that Michigan got torched by the number two receiver in the draft, not the number one. They got torched by the number two receiver on Ohio State. That's Carnell Tate."

Rich framed his combine and draft role as a storyline guy rather than an all-22 evaluator, but he leaned on what he had seen with his own eyes. Tate's slower forty time at the combine had become a talking point, but Rich brushed it aside, noting that Terrell Davis ran a slow forty and ended up in the Hall of Fame. The reporting Rich was hearing had Tate possibly sliding all the way to the New York Jets at sixteen, a drop he found hard to square with the tape.

The conversation turned to Cleveland, picking second, and the long-running debate over whether the Browns should take a tackle or give an unsettled quarterback room a true number one target. Rich pushed back on the idea that Deshaun Watson is a settled answer. "The chances of him playing all 17 games, I think, are kind of low," he said, arguing the Browns should hand whoever plays as much help as possible. "Carnell Tate's sitting out there. Oof. You pass on him at your peril."

Rich closed with a note on Brandon Aiyuk, another Arizona State product, wondering whether the receiver gets traded for a day three pick before the weekend or whether the San Francisco 49ers eventually cut him and let another team scoop him up at the league minimum.