Speaker 1: Be Around the NFL Podcast always delivers the mail. Welcome
Speaker 1: to another edition of the Around the NFL Podcast. My
Speaker 1: name is Dan Hansis I come to you for me
Speaker 1: virtual We're filled with some heroes. Mark Sessler, Greg Rosenthal.
Speaker 1: You know guys, I uh, I saw this tweet Mark
Speaker 1: that you've sent late last night from your boy to
Speaker 1: Baker Mayfield. I'm gonna read it right here. Please, we're
Speaker 1: gonna break it down. And by the way, Baker's profile
Speaker 1: info reads headband and Justin Timberlake fan. Too bad, Ricky's
Speaker 1: not on today's show. Believe, let go and let God
Speaker 1: build different mm oh okay, here is uh the tweet
Speaker 1: almost M fill in the blanket there, Mark said his wife,
Speaker 1: Emily's his Yes, his wife Emily. Yeah. Were you at
Speaker 1: the wedding? No? No, I don't. They don't consider me
Speaker 1: someone that would go to their wedding at all, not
Speaker 1: even remotely. Almost M and I I have a wife
Speaker 1: named Emily. I have never once used M. Just to
Speaker 1: be clear there, just getting everything out there. I have
Speaker 1: a wife named Amica, and I do use them sometimes
Speaker 1: sometimes I wouldn't write it out, wouldn't write it out
Speaker 1: almost relatable. Yeah, and I just saw a UFO dropped
Speaker 1: straight out of the sky. On our way home from dinner.
Speaker 1: We stopped and looked at each other and asked if
Speaker 1: either of us saw it, very bright ball of light
Speaker 1: going straight down out of the sky toward Lake Travis.
Speaker 1: Anybody else witnessed this kind of a insane tweet from
Speaker 1: a franchise quarterback, but also different. And I know you
Speaker 1: like that, Mark, I. I loved it. I immediately realized
Speaker 1: to why he is the quarterback of my favorite team.
Speaker 1: And I think, you know, I think it takes a
Speaker 1: little bit of um bravado to put that tweet out there,
Speaker 1: because you're immediately going to get killed by nineties seven
Speaker 1: percent of people, right, So all right? Can can these
Speaker 1: aliens turn it down here a little bit? Yea, we
Speaker 1: get the tone. Um. Look I I I believe him
Speaker 1: because I think this stuff is happening. I told you
Speaker 1: when I when I came, you said tweet. Your tweet was,
Speaker 1: this is my quarterback forever. Now, well, you know we
Speaker 1: had just gotten together actually last night, the three of
Speaker 1: us and you guys ate some if I recalled jerk
Speaker 1: chicken and I had some uh curried vegetables, very nice meal.
Speaker 1: The three of us eating not at all. I don't
Speaker 1: that's not that's not who I am. That's not I
Speaker 1: I don't go down that road. And then I got
Speaker 1: home and I saw this tweet and I thought, the
Speaker 1: world is growing stranger by the minute, um, and it's
Speaker 1: no one is free of it. I could didn't be
Speaker 1: more excited that they had this spotting. And I believe you,
Speaker 1: Baker Mayfield and Emily Mayfield. You, I mean, I'm my
Speaker 1: wife is from Texas. A lot of connections here, Mark,
Speaker 1: and she grew up outside. Where was she last night?
Speaker 1: I'm starting to get I don't know. I was at
Speaker 1: to dinner with you. But she grew up in a
Speaker 1: small town outside of Waco, Texas and really in the
Speaker 1: shadow of Fort Hood, UM, the US military base where
Speaker 1: they do a lot of training and also UM experimenting
Speaker 1: with different equipment, some of it flying apparatus apparati or
Speaker 1: is it just apparatus? And sometimes it would you would
Speaker 1: see crazy stuff in the sky and sometimes and Emily
Speaker 1: grew up kind of almost on like a farm, UM,
Speaker 1: the US military would just touched down like in the
Speaker 1: middle of like a crop field. And uh, but my
Speaker 1: my feeling in this situation is that, uh, Texas, this
Speaker 1: is probably some type of military aircraft and not an
Speaker 1: actual alien spaceship. And I think it should be clear
Speaker 1: that UFO is an unidentified flying object. Baker is not
Speaker 1: saying it was aliens. He was just saying something weird
Speaker 1: was in the sky. Und can I ask you this question?
Speaker 1: I mean, this is that's That's just the great thing
Speaker 1: I think that they've come up with, is we blame
Speaker 1: now we just suggest it's military operations which are innately covert. UM.
Speaker 1: If you for me and I you know, I am
Speaker 1: anti at this point, after what our country has been through,
Speaker 1: I'm not digging into insane stuff, but I would say this, like,
Speaker 1: I am curious as to where our military got some
Speaker 1: of the incredible technology that is not used in common
Speaker 1: day UM practices. UM. There are interesting reports, and there
Speaker 1: are actually like ex military from the forties and fifties
Speaker 1: who are like, I'm nine, comm assassinate me if you'd wish.
Speaker 1: But I do have some things to share and I
Speaker 1: have secrets. So I think the umbrella of the military
Speaker 1: is one that allows us to quickly explain things away.
Speaker 1: But that's a talk for another time. I think they
Speaker 1: obviously saw something weird or ate something weird at the
Speaker 1: at dinner. Save it for the Heat and Light podcast,
Speaker 1: you know, definitely, I um, yeah, I think two things
Speaker 1: can be true. That there is some legitimate UM investigations
Speaker 1: and proof lately about you know, life um outside of
Speaker 1: this earth that that's worth investigating, And that this thing
Speaker 1: they saw in the sky is you know, probably easy,
Speaker 1: easily explainable that this one example, you know, just because
Speaker 1: you saw something. I see things in the sky all
Speaker 1: the time, you know, is there there's probably an explanation
Speaker 1: you know, right to that SENTI an alien life form,
Speaker 1: uh in this solar system beyond us? Well, what does
Speaker 1: sense you mean like like kind of like kind of
Speaker 1: beings in the solar system? Is I would say I
Speaker 1: think that there's not it's unknown, but there's not a
Speaker 1: lot to suggest that UM as proof. But I would
Speaker 1: say this, what would be more American and megalomaniac to
Speaker 1: think that we're the only people amongst the billions of
Speaker 1: clusters and planets and stars and undiscovered corners of a
Speaker 1: universe that we only know half of one billion percent about.
Speaker 1: I mean that we're the only Hey look at us,
Speaker 1: and we've figured it out by the way, let's I mean,
Speaker 1: we've figured it out here in America. We are often well,
Speaker 1: but also we're doing we're also doing awesome, Like we're
Speaker 1: doing a bang up job. This are gonna give me
Speaker 1: in great shape a long time. And everyone's happy. Is
Speaker 1: like Mars is like you've landed on our planet. He said, No,
Speaker 1: how was a little surprised there, he said, No, Basically,
Speaker 1: that's what I do think there is you know, our
Speaker 1: solar system. I think is is that's a that's a
Speaker 1: small little space. And what happened over in Roswell forty seven,
Speaker 1: that's a question for another day. All right, Sure, what
Speaker 1: happened in Waco, that's a question for another day. Lots
Speaker 1: of you suspect areas you're I'm with you. By the way,
Speaker 1: there's been at Baylor. That was a disaster. To remember that,
Speaker 1: you know, the bailor. That was an ugly time in
Speaker 1: Baylor's history. But it doesn't it's not the full picture
Speaker 1: of the university. All right now, I'm defending back. I
Speaker 1: forgot I forgot your connection to I just meant that
Speaker 1: part of the world's had a lot of crazy. No,
Speaker 1: there's probably some really nice like science students doing nice
Speaker 1: experiments there too, so it's there a lot of good happenings. UM.
Speaker 1: Today's show is a good one. We have Mike Tannenbaum,
Speaker 1: former NFL general manager, and now he is doing his
Speaker 1: thing on the media side of things. In fact, he
Speaker 1: just UM he launched UH website recently, the third Team,
Speaker 1: the thirty third Team, So make sure you check that out.
Speaker 1: He's gonna join us. We're gonna catch up with him
Speaker 1: and talk about what's going on in our league. UM,
Speaker 1: and we're gonna do some quarterback talk. It's a good show.
Speaker 1: But before we get into talking about some quarterbacks in
Speaker 1: limbo and and UM. An article I wrote on nfl
Speaker 1: dot com this this week, would you would you guys
Speaker 1: check out this Ravens overtime proposal? I find it wild. Yeah, so,
Speaker 1: UM this I'm reading off a p FT report UM
Speaker 1: per multiple sources with knowledge of the situation. The Ravens
Speaker 1: will be proposing a pair of overtime procedures premised on
Speaker 1: the concept of spot and choose one team. There's a
Speaker 1: still coin flip. The team that wins the coin flip
Speaker 1: has the option or has the opportunity to spot the ball.
Speaker 1: So they could say anywhere on the field UM, and
Speaker 1: then the other team that loses the coin to us
Speaker 1: gets the chance to say, Okay, we'll take the ball
Speaker 1: from that spot that you've set or will defend UH
Speaker 1: from that spot, and I guess it takes away the
Speaker 1: chance on some level and makes it a choice for
Speaker 1: the two teams, and it would eliminate UM the UH.
Speaker 1: It would become sudden death again, it would return revert
Speaker 1: to sudden death, but lessening the impact of the coin toss. Greg,
Speaker 1: what are your thoughts about this? I think it's fascinating.
Speaker 1: I'm all for UH innovative thinking. It makes me think
Speaker 1: there's not much chance of it actually passing because you know,
Speaker 1: they didn't do the fourth and fifteen idea that they've
Speaker 1: talked about UH instead of on site kicks. This to
Speaker 1: me is similar. I think you can also choose okay,
Speaker 1: I'll take the ball, and then if you win the
Speaker 1: coin toss, and then the other teams like, okay, you
Speaker 1: get it at the five or what you know, I'm
Speaker 1: not sure what the order is, UH. You know, the
Speaker 1: order is the team that wins the coin toss sets
Speaker 1: the one when you put the put them at their
Speaker 1: at their own one. Yard line every time. If that
Speaker 1: then you go. You then give the other team the
Speaker 1: choice of what the yardage that the winning coin toss
Speaker 1: team chose. So the fact that there's two proposals that
Speaker 1: are similar ish um in. The Patriots apparently support another
Speaker 1: version of this where you UH play it for seven
Speaker 1: and a half minutes no matter what, and the Ravens
Speaker 1: have one that it would be sudden death. UH strikes
Speaker 1: me that the chances they're already not aligned even the
Speaker 1: which way to do this, that it's gonna be tough
Speaker 1: to get a consensus. But I love it. I think
Speaker 1: it would give the analytics department something to do. I
Speaker 1: would not be trusted Andy Reid to just be making
Speaker 1: up his mind on the spot. I mean, you got
Speaker 1: these guys can't even you know, no one to take
Speaker 1: a time out at the end of the half. So
Speaker 1: you better like have your plan of what you're gonna
Speaker 1: do coming into the game. Uh if you hit the overtime,
Speaker 1: but it's fine, let's add some strategy. There's not that
Speaker 1: many overtimes anyway, so let's play around with him. I
Speaker 1: do I think John Harbor is very aggressive with his
Speaker 1: UH this time of year, with the Ravens always seem
Speaker 1: to come up with stuff like this. It um. The
Speaker 1: analytics community will go nuts and think about this when
Speaker 1: NFL twitter um discovers a team that hasn't really dipped
Speaker 1: into analytics and they're taking the ball at like their
Speaker 1: own at their own forty or something, and everyone's going
Speaker 1: absolutely nuts. There's gonna be a lot of weigh ins
Speaker 1: and a lot of opinions, and that is good and bad.
Speaker 1: But I think it's a spicy rule. I approve. What
Speaker 1: if you have the Rams defense from a year ago
Speaker 1: and you're playing a mediocre offense and you're like, we'll
Speaker 1: we'll say the thirty one. Let's not even make an
Speaker 1: even number thirty one. Uh, you guys can take the
Speaker 1: ball that you know, take the ball Bengals with Brandon Allen,
Speaker 1: you get it first because we think we're gonna stop you,
Speaker 1: and then all we gotta do is kick a field
Speaker 1: goal to win. I mean there is a lot of
Speaker 1: fund strategy that would come from Yeah, I mean you
Speaker 1: mentioned the forty mark. I think that's a no brainer.
Speaker 1: But then once you start to tick backwards and you
Speaker 1: get to around the thirty, if your offense isn't that good, Uh,
Speaker 1: you're gonna probably think twice about am I gonna be
Speaker 1: able to march the sixty yards or whatever to get
Speaker 1: into scoring range? According to that I don't know where
Speaker 1: this comes from, but according to the uh Florio post
Speaker 1: on p FT, and I'll use I'll quote it, it's
Speaker 1: believed that the break even point would be the thirteen
Speaker 1: yard line. For the fourteen or beyond, the team choosing
Speaker 1: offense or defense will be more likely to take the ball.
Speaker 1: For the twelve or closer, the team choosing offense or
Speaker 1: defense will be more likely to opt to defend. I mean,
Speaker 1: a lot of factors beyond that would make I don't
Speaker 1: know where he gets that, but uh, I guess it
Speaker 1: kind of I could see playing out that way, but
Speaker 1: I don't know the Belichick angle of it. Greg, So
Speaker 1: that's the other proposal. Does that mean that it would
Speaker 1: be a ten minute overtime and then Belichick saying there
Speaker 1: would be another seven and a half minutes. Now he's
Speaker 1: saying just make it. No, he's saying, there's uh regular
Speaker 1: seven and a half minute overtime period, so not even ten.
Speaker 1: You bump it down to and a half minutes. And
Speaker 1: whoever is leading at the end of that wins. You know,
Speaker 1: no sudden death component at all, no side in death.
Speaker 1: But in theory, if you know, it would give the
Speaker 1: second team a chance, perhaps, uh to to go back
Speaker 1: and score to match it. That would be that would
Speaker 1: be fun. I'm all for shorter over times either, I
Speaker 1: don't need a long one. Interesting alright, good stuff, all right,
Speaker 1: let's yeah, let's talk a little quarterbacks before we get
Speaker 1: Mr T on the phone here. Uh, Like I said,
Speaker 1: wrote a piece on NFL dot Com and I was
Speaker 1: looking through I did the same exercise last year, and
Speaker 1: I feel like it didn't always used to be this way,
Speaker 1: but things have been a little funky, uh in the
Speaker 1: last a couple of years in the NFL, where a
Speaker 1: really high number of quarterbacks are in a little bit
Speaker 1: of limbo this time of year. And I counted fifteen
Speaker 1: guys um right now, and I have is like like
Speaker 1: last year, the big domino is Tom Brady and everything
Speaker 1: was about Brady and wherever he landed. Then you started
Speaker 1: to figure out the rest of the pieces. This year,
Speaker 1: it's it kind of is DeShawn Watson. But because the
Speaker 1: way the Texans have handled this and they purposefully, uh,
Speaker 1: they're either you know, have their head in the stand
Speaker 1: and I'm not gonna trade this quarterback no matter what
Speaker 1: he's saying or the message he is sending, or they're
Speaker 1: just deciding to keep it murky and do it on
Speaker 1: their own timetable. It kind of puts all these teams
Speaker 1: in a really tough position about how long do you
Speaker 1: wait if it happens, if they if they're not gonna
Speaker 1: pull a trigger on a deal before the draft, you
Speaker 1: can't like be passing on quarterbacks in the draft on
Speaker 1: the hope that Deshaun Watson comes available. So it's kind
Speaker 1: of a strange situation. But he's just like the first guy.
Speaker 1: And I'll use it one example from this list, and
Speaker 1: I'd like to hear you guys quarterback that jumps out
Speaker 1: to you when you break down kind of where their
Speaker 1: paths can can ride. So Jimmy Garoppolo for the forty
Speaker 1: Niners as an example. I think the best case scenario
Speaker 1: for Jimmy g is that the forty Niners, they do
Speaker 1: their homework, they study all their options here. Uh, they
Speaker 1: kicked the tires Undershaun Watson. They look at the UM
Speaker 1: veterans out there, Uh, they check the draft class, and
Speaker 1: they say, you know what, we got this guy in
Speaker 1: our house. Let's give him one more try, and and
Speaker 1: then Kyle Shanahan says, all right, he's our guy. Lets
Speaker 1: the media know that there's no drama, and he gets
Speaker 1: he gets his shot. The worst case scenario, obviously, is
Speaker 1: they get a quarterback from an outside source and Garoppolo
Speaker 1: gets put in this situation where his career goes from
Speaker 1: this perfect landing spot with San Francisco with great coaching
Speaker 1: and great personnel and just get sent to who knows
Speaker 1: where and just barely trying to hang on to a
Speaker 1: starting job. In best case scenario and some type of
Speaker 1: camp battle um and then I think the most likely
Speaker 1: scenario is and this, And let me know if you agree.
Speaker 1: I do think he's their quarterback in despite all the
Speaker 1: smoke out there, I, if I had to guess, I
Speaker 1: don't see the same desperation with John Lynch and Kyle Shannon,
Speaker 1: at least outwardly that we saw with the Rams and
Speaker 1: Jared Goth and I think it points the most likely
Speaker 1: him getting a do or die fifth season in San Francisco.
Speaker 1: I agree with that because I think they know they're
Speaker 1: in a in a flexible position for for Deshaun Watson.
Speaker 1: They are in the best position, in my mind of
Speaker 1: any team in terms of being able to wait it out.
Speaker 1: They are not in the best position of having the
Speaker 1: draft assets like the Jets or or some other teams
Speaker 1: because Number one, Jimmy G. People think that Jimmy G contract,
Speaker 1: he's not making that much money. He's sort of at
Speaker 1: almost the minimum of what franchise quarterbacks are right now,
Speaker 1: which is like millions. You don't want to be paying
Speaker 1: Jimmy G. That he stinks, but there's no guarantees. The
Speaker 1: bigger thing is you can trade him, you can cut him,
Speaker 1: you can do anything with no cap hit whatsoever, anytime
Speaker 1: you want. You can do it in August, you can
Speaker 1: do it in May. So they are in a unique
Speaker 1: position to wait out. They also know there might be
Speaker 1: a market for Jimmy G. I think the Patriots would
Speaker 1: gladly take on that quarterback contract, depending on where they're
Speaker 1: at at that point in the off season. But I
Speaker 1: also think they look at what's around there and out there,
Speaker 1: and they don't see anyone better than Jimmy G. So
Speaker 1: they can just sort of hang tight. So I think
Speaker 1: you know they're like, I do you know I think
Speaker 1: that in general, like kid to buy the idea that
Speaker 1: yeah we have faith in him, Yeah we want to
Speaker 1: bring him back. Um, there's whispers that they are interested
Speaker 1: in Kirk Cousins. There was whispers last year about Tom Brady.
Speaker 1: It's like, I think their thing is this, like the
Speaker 1: Deshaun Watson thing is a real possibility if they had
Speaker 1: a chance, because I think it's like, you don't do
Speaker 1: this to Jimmy G. And you don't do it after
Speaker 1: everything you've said, unless you have a chance to get
Speaker 1: a franchise altering type quarter back that no fan of
Speaker 1: the forty Niners would disagree with that scenario. I mean,
Speaker 1: for me, the Jimmy G thing, the experience has been
Speaker 1: rocked a little bit by his durability. Like I just
Speaker 1: we've seen two seasons of Kyle Shanahan and San Francisco
Speaker 1: totally sideswiped by him being out of the lineup. And
Speaker 1: when he's been in the lineup, I don't think he's
Speaker 1: nearly as good as that five game introduction he had
Speaker 1: when we were all writing amazing think pieces because he
Speaker 1: looked like the next big thing. He's not been that
Speaker 1: guy ever since. Alright, throw out another name there. I
Speaker 1: don't even care if it's on my list, but I
Speaker 1: bet he is. They want they won some playoff games.
Speaker 1: Poor Jimmy j You know you bowl? Go ahead, Mark,
Speaker 1: how about how about your guys? Sam Donald? I think
Speaker 1: it's a very interesting case because you know, Sam Donald
Speaker 1: for someone that's essentially sort of struggled but shown great
Speaker 1: moments a little moments too that I think it kept
Speaker 1: the people that, um, we're fascinated with Sam Donald when
Speaker 1: he came out of usc um alive and in hope
Speaker 1: that he could restore his career, and you'd have to
Speaker 1: look at the Jets and say, yes, he was put
Speaker 1: in a terrible situation. So I'll start with the worst
Speaker 1: case scenario. I think that that is, Um, you know,
Speaker 1: they have the chance to get to Sean or they
Speaker 1: just go take Zach Wilson at number two and Donald's
Speaker 1: very brief, Um, but how did New York career comes
Speaker 1: to it? And he's shift maybe he shift to a
Speaker 1: team like the Bears and they don't have their act together.
Speaker 1: And then by he's hosting like inside USC on Channel
Speaker 1: ninety seven here in Los Angeles and he's out of
Speaker 1: the NFL. It's like you're just out, like maybe you
Speaker 1: run out of answers and there's too many. I was
Speaker 1: gonna say that, well, you know, it's it's ardly still
Speaker 1: in the league. I was like, does that does Barkley
Speaker 1: have that? I was like, no, Barkley is actually outlasting
Speaker 1: Sanchez quiet. It's kind of how many you can see
Speaker 1: quarterbacks wind up just on television. So I think that'd
Speaker 1: be the worst case because it would make me Sidner
Speaker 1: best case for me, and I think this is the
Speaker 1: thing I could see this in Dan. You kind of
Speaker 1: suggested this, and I don't know if they're wedded to
Speaker 1: the concept of this. It's a little risky if they
Speaker 1: pass up on someone who becomes great out of the draft.
Speaker 1: You keep Donald, You've got this amazing chance to build
Speaker 1: around them for the first time. And I also do
Speaker 1: think that with Mike Laflour coming in and running an
Speaker 1: offense that quarterbacks have thrived in, it's a current Kyle
Speaker 1: Shanahan type offense, you might get the version of Sam
Speaker 1: Donald that we've all waited for. I mean, it's just
Speaker 1: been someone who's been in a terribly unfair situation. That's
Speaker 1: your best case. What do I think will happen. I
Speaker 1: think they'll they'll just be too compelled to move on
Speaker 1: because almost like because there's too much, there's too many
Speaker 1: intriguing options in the hype on Zack Wilson and the
Speaker 1: chance for DeShawn Watson. It's just too juicy. And I
Speaker 1: think because you can get something back for Sam Donald
Speaker 1: and sell it as we're giving him a new opportunity
Speaker 1: to that the divorce feels imminent. But it makes me
Speaker 1: feel a little bit sad for old school Jets fans
Speaker 1: because I do think he can go on and succeed elsewhere.
Speaker 1: And if anything went wrong with what New York's behind
Speaker 1: number door number two scenario was, and Donald went somewhere
Speaker 1: else and let another team to the playoffs, oh boy,
Speaker 1: so I I mean that is somewhere good. That's the
Speaker 1: Jets worst case scenario. But you know what if and
Speaker 1: I think they're gonna take Zack Wilson, there's a lot
Speaker 1: of breadcrumbs out there. You look and move the sticks
Speaker 1: where he's mocking him, and you kind of connect some
Speaker 1: dots there. Um, if that guy can play, it doesn't
Speaker 1: really matter unless Sab Donald becomes Joe Montana. I think
Speaker 1: Jets sounds are gonna be okay with it, but you're right, um,
Speaker 1: that there is a worst case scenario. And then any
Speaker 1: team that's any fan that's a fan of a tortured
Speaker 1: fan base or a part of the tortured fan base
Speaker 1: always imagines the worst guest scenario that Donald becomes the
Speaker 1: real deal. But like, ultimately, I think what what Greg
Speaker 1: has been pounding the table about is like it's it's
Speaker 1: it checks out. It's like Donald did have three years.
Speaker 1: I know it was in a bad situation, but he
Speaker 1: had opportunities to to put more out there. And it's
Speaker 1: just it's ultimately, I think, especially for a new regime
Speaker 1: with solid there and Douglas having total control, it's a
Speaker 1: little bit too much of a leap of faith to
Speaker 1: believe in Donald still. And that's why I think they
Speaker 1: really should kind of reset things, um, if they truly
Speaker 1: do love Zach Wilson or or another quarterback. So it
Speaker 1: I mean, it's funny because the Bears are the worst
Speaker 1: case scenario for everyone. Sorry, Although the Patriots are are
Speaker 1: pretty close right now, you would think they'd figure out
Speaker 1: how to make it better around them, But last year
Speaker 1: it was a pretty pretty bad worst case scenario. I
Speaker 1: I kind of think though, that it's more likely he'll
Speaker 1: be there with Um a Zach Wilson type, which feels messy,
Speaker 1: but I think would be the right move unless you
Speaker 1: get uh significant return. I don't know who's given up
Speaker 1: a second round pick for Sam Donald. Are they gonna
Speaker 1: trade them for a third? Maybe maybe they would. I
Speaker 1: share everything you hear, Greg is that people like there
Speaker 1: are people that like Donald much more than you did
Speaker 1: it though, Okay, maybe it's the Bears. But I just
Speaker 1: don't know, Like where are the teams that are giving
Speaker 1: up high draft picks for quarterbacks? Like name it, name them?
Speaker 1: I don't know who like Denver? What about the Broncos
Speaker 1: and Bears? The pageants in Denver are kind of the
Speaker 1: three that stand out? And yeah, Denver maybe and maybe
Speaker 1: it's a third or maybe it's And you're right, Texans,
Speaker 1: I mean the forty nine would be a best case scenario.
Speaker 1: I feel like if they got you know, four Donald, um,
Speaker 1: where you you really do get a chance to to
Speaker 1: remake your career. I I if I was the Jets,
Speaker 1: I'd feel like I can't ever find a quarterback. I'd
Speaker 1: rather have two on my roster. Everyone's so worried about,
Speaker 1: you know, if you're really strong in your organization and
Speaker 1: what you're gonna do. Uh, let's see them both. Let's
Speaker 1: see them both. Oh, that would be terrible. We have
Speaker 1: two quarterbacks. Were like, oh, my gosh, that would be terrible. Like,
Speaker 1: if all you're getting back is a third round pick,
Speaker 1: be confident enough that you can handle the media and
Speaker 1: the clowns and the fans. And let's see what Darnald
Speaker 1: looks like with because we never know. Maybe this Wilson
Speaker 1: guys not gonna look as good as we think. Or
Speaker 1: let's see a playoffs. You are positing a scenario here
Speaker 1: that hasn't really been floated though, Greg, you're because we're
Speaker 1: not and nobody really knows, but we haven't been hearing. Oh,
Speaker 1: the Jets, the most they can get for Sam Donald
Speaker 1: is a third round pick. Like, if that's the case,
Speaker 1: it does become he's on the team. And we keep
Speaker 1: hearing from Jets reporters they're asking for a second and
Speaker 1: so the fact that they're starting at a second it
Speaker 1: indicates to me, maybe not that no one's offered it
Speaker 1: to him. I don't feel or it's the Sam Bradford thing,
Speaker 1: and you trade him in September when someone else's knee
Speaker 1: shatters and you get him at max value, which would
Speaker 1: be cunning after what will be that It will be
Speaker 1: messy to have them both there with the New York
Speaker 1: tabloids exploding and going nuts day after day. Well, he
Speaker 1: also could be a nice piece on draft day to
Speaker 1: make some moves there too. Hey, let's move up for
Speaker 1: another top pick, uh and use Donald to do that?
Speaker 1: That that could be possible. Yeah, I hate little Darnald.
Speaker 1: Come on right, relax, calm down, little little peek behind
Speaker 1: the curtain. I've Dan you know, we we've got Tannenbaum.
Speaker 1: I think he's waiting, like, have we totally finished this
Speaker 1: QB segment we have now coming up? It's the off season.
Speaker 1: It's like it's I know, this is the type of
Speaker 1: thing that stresses Dan out a little bit. We can visit.
Speaker 1: This is a cucumber here. We're good. Um, do we
Speaker 1: have Mike town about Steven Manny filling in for Tam posting?
Speaker 1: If we do, let's let's bring him on there. He
Speaker 1: is wow friendly. So I'm sorry I was a couple
Speaker 1: of minutes late. You know what Italian what a friendly
Speaker 1: cribble is for this podcast. What can I do? I
Speaker 1: know so Greg is from Wilbraham, Massachusetts. The whole of
Speaker 1: the original friendlies. I feel like, Mike, you've been out
Speaker 1: of the show before, and I remember that nugget from
Speaker 1: last time as well. Uh, Mike Tannebaum, you know him.
Speaker 1: He's ESPN's NFL Front Office Insider, which is a nice title.
Speaker 1: Good job by Mike there. And of course the former
Speaker 1: GM and the Jets uh e v p um with
Speaker 1: the Miami Dolphins. He has a new gig, the thirty
Speaker 1: third Team. Want to get to that a little bit later, Mike. Um.
Speaker 1: But you know, as a former GM, I just want
Speaker 1: to start, Mike and ask you about this, the Shawn
Speaker 1: Watson situation, because we've had a conversation on this podcast,
Speaker 1: UM about like, what is too much for Deshaun Watson?
Speaker 1: Is there a price that's too high for a guy
Speaker 1: like him? And as a former GM, do you think
Speaker 1: that they're front office a decision and makers that are
Speaker 1: kind of spooked by this whole thing because you could
Speaker 1: be in a position where you give up the farm
Speaker 1: to get this quarterback and then it might end up
Speaker 1: getting you fired. By the third year of Watson on
Speaker 1: the new team because you weren't able to stock the
Speaker 1: cupboard around him. A bit of a dicey situation for GM. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's a simple question, complicated answer. Great to be with you, guys,
Speaker 1: And the short answer is no, there's not too much UP.
Speaker 1: I've offered my daughter who by the way, it is
Speaker 1: totally not salary cap for upis so there's actually a
Speaker 1: little bit I was ran pasted another segment I offered
Speaker 1: like the chicag the Sears Tower, and in all serieses
Speaker 1: have one of the five best players whose high character
Speaker 1: leader under contract years old. He checks every box. You
Speaker 1: can give up five first round picks. When you study
Speaker 1: the history of our game and the best of the best,
Speaker 1: the ron Wolfs of the world. On average, it's about
Speaker 1: fifty eight or fifty nine percent successory on first rounders,
Speaker 1: and of course that depends if you're in the top
Speaker 1: five or the POTD five. But the other thing, guys,
Speaker 1: what we just learned from Tom Brady, what an unbelievable
Speaker 1: association he created. People walk to Tampa Bay to play
Speaker 1: with Tom. The same thing is gonna happen. And with
Speaker 1: the cap going down this year, guys, and so many
Speaker 1: good football players are gonna get sweet. Just because you
Speaker 1: don't have first round picks doesn't mean you won't be
Speaker 1: able to acquire good players. And players are gonna want
Speaker 1: to play with Deshaun Watson. So it's an unexpected opportunity.
Speaker 1: I spent a couple of decades of my life trying
Speaker 1: to find players like DeShawn Watson. If you could ever
Speaker 1: get one, like and I said this, and I mean it, guys,
Speaker 1: if Nickcessary were calling me, I would not get off
Speaker 1: the phone. It was like when I was closing out
Speaker 1: the Brett Farve trade at the Jets and I felt
Speaker 1: like there was finally a deal be had. We could
Speaker 1: get him over Tampa Bay. Like I was not laying
Speaker 1: those dudes off the phone, Like this is an opportunity
Speaker 1: that hardly ever comes around. And maybe, and I'm saying this,
Speaker 1: maybe maybe Jacksonville straight up for Trevor Lawrence would be
Speaker 1: the one situation I wouldn't do it for. But beyond
Speaker 1: that one, go get him and you could figure out
Speaker 1: everything else. But my question for you, I mean, if
Speaker 1: you are Nick Kissario and you waited so long to
Speaker 1: get this opportunity, I mean almost overly patient. He was
Speaker 1: in New England with offers and interests for years. You
Speaker 1: land in Houston and you've really been air dropped into
Speaker 1: a the as thorny a situation as I can think
Speaker 1: of GM having to deal with in so long the
Speaker 1: Jackie easter Be business that Kel McNair, that just seems
Speaker 1: to be a bit of a culture war going on
Speaker 1: inside the building. Yes, he could get a lot in return,
Speaker 1: but you'll always be the GM that came in. And
Speaker 1: soon after J. J. Watts out the door, Deshaun Watson's
Speaker 1: out the door. You're hoping the guy you get to
Speaker 1: replace him at quarterback would be uh, you know, the
Speaker 1: equal or better. But do you think he feels behind
Speaker 1: the scenes, like what the heck have I done here?
Speaker 1: Did I land in the middle of like an NFL
Speaker 1: war zone? So there's one guy that can fix this situation.
Speaker 1: It's cal McNair. And something obviously happened here, guys, because
Speaker 1: Deshaun Watson signed the contract after d dere Hapkins was traded,
Speaker 1: and that's really important to the context, is really important.
Speaker 1: So the most important person this franchise isn't Jackie uster Be,
Speaker 1: isn't David Culi, isn't Nickossaro, it's the shal Watson. That's
Speaker 1: why he's getting paid thirty nine million a year. So
Speaker 1: if I'm kil McNair, I am solving the problem. I
Speaker 1: am flying to wherever he wants me to fly to.
Speaker 1: I am taking my yellow pad out and I'm asking
Speaker 1: question after question of not what happened, but why it happened,
Speaker 1: and we're gonna stand shoulder shoulder and fix it. And
Speaker 1: if I'm kilm msnar, I'm taking Nick Cassaro with me.
Speaker 1: And if it means we'll be on from everybody else
Speaker 1: in the building, I don't care, because de Sean, You're
Speaker 1: going to be here. And what's interesting is for Nick,
Speaker 1: he's earned this opportunity. He's a hard worker, he's a
Speaker 1: good person, but he is in a tough position. I
Speaker 1: will say this, I just don't imagine there's a scenario
Speaker 1: white where they would trade him because there's some other
Speaker 1: tremendous intangibles, which is put yourself in Nikos Saro issues
Speaker 1: like what do you stand for? So you hit a
Speaker 1: bump of the road. The players upset. We know that,
Speaker 1: but when you sign a contract, it also means something
Speaker 1: like you just can't indiscriminately walk away from that. And
Speaker 1: if you're Nick and you let's say, get three ones
Speaker 1: and Quentin Williams or whatever, the challenge you're gonna have
Speaker 1: is there will be some other bump in the road
Speaker 1: at some point. When you have ninety players, ninety contracts,
Speaker 1: ninety agents, ninety egos, it never just goes smooth, right,
Speaker 1: And if you do that in the first couple of
Speaker 1: months of your administration, you have zero chance to build
Speaker 1: anything sustainable because everyone else is going to run the
Speaker 1: same play that Deshaun Watson did. So there is some real,
Speaker 1: big picture, compelling sort of dynamics here. And if I
Speaker 1: was Nick, what I would simply say, and I tried
Speaker 1: this with Rex Ryan Woody Johnson when we had a
Speaker 1: big hold out with Darrelle Revis is we have to
Speaker 1: stand shoulders shoulder. And if I'm Nick Assaria, I'm saying,
Speaker 1: as guys, no matter what, we aren't even talking about
Speaker 1: training him until February. And maybe the new legacy of
Speaker 1: the a f C South is this, we're great quarterbacks
Speaker 1: going to retire. Because if Shawn Watson rather retire here,
Speaker 1: we should honor him and celebrate that. But we can't
Speaker 1: trade him because we trade him, we stand for nothing.
Speaker 1: M M, well, that that's sort of how he's playing
Speaker 1: it right now. It seems like I mean that he's
Speaker 1: not picking up the phone. I am curious, like you know,
Speaker 1: as a GM. And by the way, I appreciated the
Speaker 1: fribol reference, you know, the friendlies reference. If your body
Speaker 1: was somewhat indifferent, I gotta tell you, Like now there,
Speaker 1: by the way, didn't you were any water? There was
Speaker 1: scooped right past it. I was ready. I was ready
Speaker 1: to talk. You know that was you You got out
Speaker 1: of a shift that friendly is your your hands were
Speaker 1: dirty at the end. I started as a dishwasher, work
Speaker 1: my way up. It's like like the Kanye song right there. Um,
Speaker 1: but you you're you're a forward GM, Like how do
Speaker 1: you use the media in this way? Because like that
Speaker 1: is like I'm curious as someone who went through it,
Speaker 1: like gms do use the media. Never talked about like
Speaker 1: how they use the media. But it's it's getting out
Speaker 1: there in a way that like Cassio is not picking
Speaker 1: up the phone. So to me, that feels like a
Speaker 1: message that they're sending like that that is the message
Speaker 1: they want out there publicly right now is like we're
Speaker 1: not even entertaining it right now. Yeah, there's probably a
Speaker 1: lot of different feelings going through Nick. Like I know
Speaker 1: in my situation, you know, publicly, I was like trying
Speaker 1: to be as smooth as I could, like, hey, you know,
Speaker 1: we have all the respect in the world for the
Speaker 1: player and say all the sort of like classic sound bites.
Speaker 1: But I had a massive pit in my stomach because
Speaker 1: I knew, like at the Jets that you know, we
Speaker 1: had a great team, and I didn't want to be
Speaker 1: the one guy to sent a song by not getting
Speaker 1: the deal done. And Nick, you know, you don't get
Speaker 1: these jobs without being uber competitive and wanting to win it.
Speaker 1: I'm sure, deep down you know, if you would just
Speaker 1: open up, nickis Sarah and terrorm in half like, I'm
Speaker 1: sure he's having a lot of sleepless nights and you could,
Speaker 1: you know, it's interesting. I'm not so sure he's leaking
Speaker 1: that to the media because right his audience really is
Speaker 1: cal McNair and David Culley like, and then from there
Speaker 1: it's obviously the locker room. I think the other interesting
Speaker 1: dynamic guys that again, there's so many layers to unpacked here,
Speaker 1: but think about like you're trying to build like David
Speaker 1: Cully sixty five years old. He probably gets an opportunity lifetime.
Speaker 1: How are you going to be able to attract a
Speaker 1: player to sign there until this is resulting? How you
Speaker 1: gonna convince Will Fuller like to come back to play
Speaker 1: for a J. Mccaren. So this really is and I've
Speaker 1: said this before, which is if they are going to
Speaker 1: trade them, they really need to do it a S
Speaker 1: A P. As other quarterbacks or other situations get solidified,
Speaker 1: it just makes their market smaller and smaller. So their
Speaker 1: worst case scenario is that they get to September October
Speaker 1: and this still isn't resolved. M Yeah, And I would
Speaker 1: think of one move that a J. Mccaren can do
Speaker 1: is to impress Will Fuller take the shirt off and
Speaker 1: show that wild tattoo situation all over all over his
Speaker 1: Torso just that's me just a bit balling. Um, Hey,
Speaker 1: your colleague, Your colleague Diana Rassini Mike texted or tweeted yesterday,
Speaker 1: just texted with an NFL head coach about the upcoming
Speaker 1: cuts and what he expects. Here's the quote. It's gonna
Speaker 1: be a massacre next week all around the league. Does
Speaker 1: this feel to you Mike or missed the t as
Speaker 1: Fransasa used to call you, Does this feel like a
Speaker 1: perfect storm type scenario for smart teams that have some
Speaker 1: salary cap wiggle room right now? Yeah, I think teams
Speaker 1: are gonna be reward for being paid. You know, it's
Speaker 1: interesting to look at the JJ wat deal and when
Speaker 1: you really think about it, I think J J. Walk
Speaker 1: had a great deal for him just from the standpoint
Speaker 1: when you think about his age, his injury history, and
Speaker 1: in ten days, if the four of us were having
Speaker 1: this conversation, we would be saying, like, I can't believe
Speaker 1: that player extra player wise out there. And I think
Speaker 1: it's a great point, which is there will be some
Speaker 1: really opportunistic signs. And I think if we look at
Speaker 1: the two Super Bowl teams, you're see players like the
Speaker 1: Daniel Sorenson's of the world, Sandy Watkins, and then with
Speaker 1: Tampa Bay after Godwin, Lavante, David and Shack Barrett. You
Speaker 1: know a lot of those players, I don't think they're
Speaker 1: gonna do like in Dominican sus a free agent. Obviously,
Speaker 1: Antonio Brown and Crown probably go back there at cheap prices.
Speaker 1: But I think a lot of good players will be
Speaker 1: available in the coming weeks. Mhm. I would love to
Speaker 1: ask you this because this is hot on my radar.
Speaker 1: You know, we learned a lot during a pandemic written
Speaker 1: off season last year that maybe we don't need everything
Speaker 1: that the NFL throws at us during the off season,
Speaker 1: the forty billion ot as. And for me, it's the
Speaker 1: preseason because you're a GM. Well, no, I would just
Speaker 1: say that you you wouldn't, You'd probably I would imagine
Speaker 1: come from the angle, like I know people think the
Speaker 1: preseason is unenjoyable, but here's why we need it. But
Speaker 1: do we need as much of it? And do you
Speaker 1: feel like the way that they came to um, you know,
Speaker 1: decisions and cuts last year for you, is is it
Speaker 1: something that you'd say less is more in this situation
Speaker 1: or do we go old school and bring it all back?
Speaker 1: The Snoopy Bowl, the Hall of Fame Game, the whole thing,
Speaker 1: the Snoopy Bowl. You got our asks kicked a lot
Speaker 1: of those Snoopy Bowls, like very competitive. I remember who
Speaker 1: Rex calling out Tom Coughlin like really, like do we
Speaker 1: have to put right now? It's August. It's like we
Speaker 1: got a lot. There's a lot of times for you
Speaker 1: to be aggrieved. There's a lot of times for you
Speaker 1: to be belligerent, like is it really with Tom Over
Speaker 1: like the third preseason game, like do we have to
Speaker 1: go there? We're taking Jerry Reese's hands and just shaking
Speaker 1: my head, you know, like come on, man, Like anyway, Um,
Speaker 1: I think as many things in life, it's gonna be
Speaker 1: probably somewhere in the middle. You know, when you speak
Speaker 1: to people around the league, there are efficiencies with Zoom
Speaker 1: and some offseason in terms of like installs, like conversation
Speaker 1: we're having here now. I think some of these are
Speaker 1: gonna be here to stay. So here's the big challenge though,
Speaker 1: which is and this goes back years ago with my
Speaker 1: ESPN colleague Jeff Saturday, which is when Jeff came out.
Speaker 1: He was a developmental offensive line him and he was
Speaker 1: a very prominent person in the Union, and some of
Speaker 1: the rules that they agreed to with having reductions massive
Speaker 1: reductions in the off season hurt players like Jeff Saturday
Speaker 1: from developing. And here's really the ultimate conundrum. J C.
Speaker 1: Trieder is financially set. He doesn't need the off season program,
Speaker 1: and they're gonna push for a we don't need it.
Speaker 1: Look at the great product on the field, but what
Speaker 1: about all the younger players that desperately need it? And
Speaker 1: and that's why this is not a one size fits
Speaker 1: all sport, because those younger players need it to make it.
Speaker 1: The veterans don't want to do it anymore because they
Speaker 1: really just work out on their own. And that's why
Speaker 1: I think you're gonna see something in the middle where
Speaker 1: maybe it's not nine weeks anymore, maybe it's five or
Speaker 1: six and maybe expandatory based on you know, years of
Speaker 1: service um And I think there's some compromises in there.
Speaker 1: And in terms of the preseason games, I think what
Speaker 1: we're just going to see is, you know that to
Speaker 1: a regular season game with obviously it sounds like we're
Speaker 1: on the precipice of a seventeen game regular season. I
Speaker 1: don't like the preseason the way we have it now
Speaker 1: because anytime you're in a situation where you're just trying
Speaker 1: to survive and not get hurt, not accomplishing anything. And
Speaker 1: so many teams are going to those joint practices, and
Speaker 1: all the coaches I've been with, they like those better
Speaker 1: because you can script competition where hey, let's have you know,
Speaker 1: good against good in the red zone or one on
Speaker 1: one or pass rush, and you can evaluate and good
Speaker 1: get good work. Without Again, there's always gonna be risk
Speaker 1: of injuries, but you could sort of like minimize that.
Speaker 1: So that's why I think we're gonna see tweaking into
Speaker 1: the system. But I don't think it's gonna be all
Speaker 1: one way or the other. How you feel about that, mark,
Speaker 1: Is that an answer that makes you feel better about
Speaker 1: the future. Now that's a reduction I think right down
Speaker 1: the middle, and some changes makes sense. And uh, you know,
Speaker 1: if Mike t is saying that's the case, then I'm
Speaker 1: gonna ride with that because that's how it works. Are
Speaker 1: you Are you proud or embarrassed um that you're the
Speaker 1: only general manager that's ever come up to us at
Speaker 1: the owners meeting and admitted you listen to our show
Speaker 1: that that's a burning I'm proud of me, Okay, you
Speaker 1: I mean, I can't be the only one, but you know,
Speaker 1: maybe I'm the only one that is. You know, I
Speaker 1: don't smartly dumb enough to admit it. So you guys
Speaker 1: heard I'm getting out Mike tell us about this thirty
Speaker 1: team venture. So I totally stumbled into something guys that
Speaker 1: I'm very excited about, very proud of. When I got
Speaker 1: the position at ESPN, it was very soon after leaving
Speaker 1: the Dolphins and big transition, and I got it was
Speaker 1: a real privilege to replace Bill Pollium so as Greg
Speaker 1: and his you know, knowing the western Massachusetts geography, drove
Speaker 1: from Bristol, Connecticut to you mass Amherst, where I've done
Speaker 1: a lot with the Sports Manager program. I hired some
Speaker 1: really smart rat students to help me create a database
Speaker 1: because I was doing the draft for ESPN Radio and
Speaker 1: it went so well that the program decided to have
Speaker 1: a bunch of students work for me and they got credit.
Speaker 1: And what I quickly realized was there's a number of
Speaker 1: head coaches and gms that are between opportunities that want
Speaker 1: to stay current. So I started this weekly zoom call
Speaker 1: and we're up to fifty people and it's incredible. Like
Speaker 1: two weeks ago, we had Wade Phillips breaking down Todd
Speaker 1: Bowles's game plan. Yesterday we had Eric Vanini talking about
Speaker 1: like the corners in the draft, we do game management,
Speaker 1: cap um, draft character versus ability, And really what I
Speaker 1: found is a lot of these coaches like Dan Quinn's
Speaker 1: great example, Dan was on and a couple of the
Speaker 1: grad students did a bunch of research projects for him
Speaker 1: that he wanted to work on, and we put out
Speaker 1: a free news letter Team dot com completely free. And
Speaker 1: I really what it energizes me about it is there's
Speaker 1: a lot of young men and women that want to
Speaker 1: get involved with football that are doing volunteer research projects.
Speaker 1: And then there's coaches that are you know Mark Trustman,
Speaker 1: who's coach, Steve Young and Joe Montana, you know, breaking
Speaker 1: down justin Herbert compared to to and through the magic
Speaker 1: of zoom. It's you know, it's working. It's been great.
Speaker 1: And I feel like for me, like I get better
Speaker 1: as a broadcaster and get just great information, and if
Speaker 1: I can help other young people get to where they
Speaker 1: want to go, then that's even better. I would tell
Speaker 1: you one quick thing that, like, when I was a
Speaker 1: senior in college and my dream was to work for
Speaker 1: the Cleveland Browns. This is back in that two like
Speaker 1: months before I graduated, they announced that they were moving
Speaker 1: to Baltimore and became like the arch enemies of the Browns.
Speaker 1: I thought, well, hey, that's bad, but be I was
Speaker 1: left with no career path, and my first job was
Speaker 1: UM at Columbia Library, putting metal strips into library books
Speaker 1: for like eight fifty an hour with my parents wondering
Speaker 1: what on earth have we done with this person? So
Speaker 1: I wish this existed back then. I would have been
Speaker 1: a hardcore member of the group. So that sounds great.
Speaker 1: Do you know that I worked for the Browns? Did
Speaker 1: I know? In your way? I mean I think Mark,
Speaker 1: you wanted your job. Well, I don't know, I don't
Speaker 1: know what the you know? The thirty third team guys
Speaker 1: feel like, I think you have to open up your
Speaker 1: mind to working for more than just one team. You
Speaker 1: can't just be like, I'm a Browns fan, I'm only
Speaker 1: working for the Browns. Screw you the other rest of
Speaker 1: the I was a child back then, Greg, I mean,
Speaker 1: it wasn't it wasn't, you know, not the full right exactly.
Speaker 1: I want you guys to do a little research project
Speaker 1: on GMS. This is I have a quick bone to pick.
Speaker 1: I know, we gotta let you go. But it's like
Speaker 1: of like GM is always evaluating free agents based on
Speaker 1: their college draft profiles. I feel like they do that
Speaker 1: all the time. It doesn't make any sense. You have
Speaker 1: four years of the NFL to to evaluate it on.
Speaker 1: But maybe someone's gonna be like, well, like that Sam
Speaker 1: Donald guy, we thought he was the third best player
Speaker 1: in the draft, so I'm gonna give up a good
Speaker 1: pick for him. Now, while you were wrong about that
Speaker 1: draft of value, it seems like that happens like a lot.
Speaker 1: Am I crazy that that happens a lot in the
Speaker 1: NFL that they do it off the draft like five
Speaker 1: years later? Yeah, No, that's totally fair, Greg, and I
Speaker 1: think that's one of the challenges of working the front
Speaker 1: office is to say, hey, like, that's the beginning of
Speaker 1: the conversation. And Mitch Drobiski was picked before Deshaun Watson.
Speaker 1: That hasn't turned out the way it should. That's not
Speaker 1: to say that's the end of Mitch Drobiski's career. I mean,
Speaker 1: that could be a great opportunity for him to go
Speaker 1: someplace else. But we can't ignore the four years of
Speaker 1: the tape that um he has. I think, and Dana
Speaker 1: Rolosky and I have had some knockdown dragouts about this.
Speaker 1: I think the Darnald conversation is so fascinating because you
Speaker 1: have to factor in are you going to exercise the
Speaker 1: fifth year option. And I don't see how a good
Speaker 1: conscience you can do that based on how much he's
Speaker 1: turned the ball over. And then when you compare that
Speaker 1: guys to Zach Wilson, like, I don't think it's a
Speaker 1: really hard decision at all, Like how can you invest
Speaker 1: at least another million dollars? And again, remember that option
Speaker 1: is now fully guaranteed in what would be two where
Speaker 1: you have a guy like Zack Wilson who even if
Speaker 1: you felt like it was like this, which I don't
Speaker 1: think it is. I think it's Wilson and then Donald.
Speaker 1: But let's say you're sitting here like it's a coin toss.
Speaker 1: How can you then say, like, well, now I want
Speaker 1: to go guarantee another twenty five million for Sam Donald?
Speaker 1: And that's why I think you really um when you
Speaker 1: talk about evaluating these guys. You got a factory and
Speaker 1: like where you think the economics are gonna end as well?
Speaker 1: It makes sense. That makes sense. Thirty third team dot
Speaker 1: Com The thirty third team dot Com. And before we
Speaker 1: say goodbye, Mike, I want to play. I want to
Speaker 1: play one clip. I'm a big Jets fan. My going
Speaker 1: going way back tortured fan and I want to play
Speaker 1: this clip and then I have a question to ask you, Okay,
Speaker 1: and that's a very serious question. I want your honest answer.
Speaker 1: Can you give me that? Uh? Boy? I think? All right,
Speaker 1: here's the play first, here's the play first, Stephen did it?
Speaker 1: Poor guy? And when he comes round and give him
Speaker 1: the big last week, the long game winner. All right,
Speaker 1: it's January two ten and af C Championship games. Steelers
Speaker 1: up twenty four nineteen over your Jets, you're the GM.
Speaker 1: There's it's third and six, two minutes to play, Ben
Speaker 1: to a b first down game over Now. As a
Speaker 1: Jets been, I've always thought, if the d can get
Speaker 1: off the field there, the Jets get it done. Did
Speaker 1: the Jets complete the comeback with Mark Sanchez? If they
Speaker 1: just get off the field and third and six, one
Speaker 1: hundred and fifty percent, there's no down in my mind,
Speaker 1: no doubt my mind. It was all going the wave.
Speaker 1: It was a momentum wave. Yeah, I'll take you more.
Speaker 1: You're killing me. Go back to the first third down
Speaker 1: that game. They call hands to the face on Cromarty
Speaker 1: fifty yards away from the freaking play had nothing to
Speaker 1: do with it, and we're off the field. It's a
Speaker 1: three and out and they scoring that drive. And at
Speaker 1: some point I'll get over it, like, look, I'm not
Speaker 1: well justed, you know, like Tony Corinthy is a great official.
Speaker 1: The guy is a cancer survivor. Like he's a great official.
Speaker 1: But that poor guy in the two thousand nine championship game,
Speaker 1: we're going out for the coin toss, they says, New
Speaker 1: York Giants Indianapolis polts, No, we're the New York halfain Jets, Tony,
Speaker 1: and then so uh uh uh st almos and and
Speaker 1: like very nice, congratulate, blah blah blah. And now every
Speaker 1: time I see Tony Cranny, all I think about is
Speaker 1: he called this the Giants, not the Jets. In the
Speaker 1: two thousand ninet game. Here's like a great official, cancer survivor,
Speaker 1: great dude, and he's and I can't get over it
Speaker 1: like that ever, And you know, I'm just like, you know,
Speaker 1: the Jets have not been back to the playoffs since
Speaker 1: you were the man in charge. And when they one
Speaker 1: day get over the hump, God willing, we'll all on
Speaker 1: some levels celebrate it. Um, thank you, Mike, well, not Greg,
Speaker 1: but thank you Mike for joining us, and good luck
Speaker 1: with everything uh this season, and uh yeah, we really
Speaker 1: enjoyed and the friendly stalk is always fun as well. Thanks,
Speaker 1: and it's okay for me admit that I continue to
Speaker 1: listen to you guys. Thank you well, well have you
Speaker 1: the show now? So yeah, have you out of the
Speaker 1: future And then like pull another painful scab right at
Speaker 1: the end of the end of the interview. At that
Speaker 1: time there he goes, all right, that's that's a good man.
Speaker 1: We like Mike Tnavan, he's certified friend of the show.
Speaker 1: And we played du Lane grad by the way, it
Speaker 1: didn't even get to that. We have all sorts of connections.
Speaker 1: We played the f it's it's just it's a possible,
Speaker 1: It's possible, great Tannenbaum. I like that UM played the
Speaker 1: clip the you know, the audio audience isn't here that
Speaker 1: I didn't see it, but we played the clip of
Speaker 1: that third and six and that was now hell eleven
Speaker 1: years ago, and Ben escapes right from Sean Ellis and
Speaker 1: the Jets pass rush. Uh, scrambles to his right and
Speaker 1: then hits a young Antonio Brown. Like as I watched
Speaker 1: that clip. First of all, Ben looks about pounds later
Speaker 1: and he's moves, he can move, and it did make
Speaker 1: me think on the day that we learned that the
Speaker 1: Steelers and and Big Ben came uh to agreement on
Speaker 1: a deal and he will be back in Pittsburgh officially. Um,
Speaker 1: that is a done deal. Um. But he's not that
Speaker 1: guy anymore. So the Steelers just need to have a
Speaker 1: backup plan and I hope they do and then listen. Uh.
Speaker 1: Smart organizations ultimately make smart decisions. And I do think
Speaker 1: bringing Big Big Ben back it had there's some logic
Speaker 1: to it, but only if you upgrade what's behind him
Speaker 1: and in front of him, the offensive line. It's true.
Speaker 1: I think Ben's mobility was always an underrated part of
Speaker 1: his game because it's not like he was like running
Speaker 1: for first downs. Uh. And of course he was known for,
Speaker 1: you know, being very tough to take down. But he also,
Speaker 1: like like a Brady, was very good at like the
Speaker 1: subtle sort of pocket movement and moving up, moving back,
Speaker 1: moving down and just keeping those plays going. And that
Speaker 1: ain't that's not happening anymore. I don't think that part
Speaker 1: is coming back from him. He was as frustrating a
Speaker 1: quarterback if you were the opposing team to deal with
Speaker 1: that that was around it in there were moment that
Speaker 1: I'm not saying I'm not comparing him to this player,
Speaker 1: but he had little Elway esque traits to him where
Speaker 1: you just thought on third and eighteen, this guy is
Speaker 1: about to be taken down. He's got three players on him. Bang,
Speaker 1: he's escaped. He completes the pastor hines ward super annoying.
Speaker 1: I will say this, like, I really do have respect
Speaker 1: for the player. I do. I do, I do. That's
Speaker 1: always a bad sign. When when Cassario started calling Deshaun
Speaker 1: Watson the player or cal mcnarrative, they were like, it's
Speaker 1: not a bad sign from me. I don't think. But
Speaker 1: here's the thing. I invite the Steelers um to roll
Speaker 1: out the same offense that we saw over the past
Speaker 1: two months of the season. Let's see if you can
Speaker 1: make that work next year. I mean, there's a he's
Speaker 1: not coming back to the Steelers team of a couple
Speaker 1: of years ago. That's just wait knocking on the door
Speaker 1: of the super Bowl. It's a very challenging final year scenario.
Speaker 1: We'll see. I'm with you. It's funny because you've been
Speaker 1: based on YouTube jokers. Just how I wouldn't say that,
Speaker 1: but they've got I want to see what they do
Speaker 1: in the offseason because they have a lot of work
Speaker 1: to do. But you take that offense, you subtract three
Speaker 1: starting offensive lineman, you substract juju Uh James Conner. Not
Speaker 1: that that's a huge lot. There's a lot going on.
Speaker 1: It's funny because you've been getting on me for being
Speaker 1: anti Bend and yet I really think of myself as like,
Speaker 1: I think he's one of the great I think he's
Speaker 1: under it, like for the first tenure until I don't
Speaker 1: think there's like nearly as big a gap, for instance,
Speaker 1: between him and Drew Brees in germs of just like
Speaker 1: who was a better player throughout their career. I give
Speaker 1: Breeze the edge, but I don't think it's huge like
Speaker 1: I think he was basically if you consider them in
Speaker 1: the same era, a solid like number three behind Brady
Speaker 1: and Breeze, and it is an easy Hall of Famer.
Speaker 1: I don't know what. It's not even left for him
Speaker 1: to prove. It's just like, I think this could be
Speaker 1: an unpleasant final chapter now. And he kept this stat's
Speaker 1: roight down for a while because of the way they
Speaker 1: ran their offense. But he was like so efficient. So yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean, I'm certainly not saying that he's gonna light
Speaker 1: it up next year. I think they need to just
Speaker 1: be smarter about you can't run out Dwayne Haskins and
Speaker 1: if if things go sideways with Ben or if he
Speaker 1: gets hurt, you know, you got to do better than
Speaker 1: Mason Rudolph Um speaking of you mentioned Drew Brees and
Speaker 1: just circling back before we say goodbye to our conversation
Speaker 1: before Mr T, I have Jameis Winston on my list
Speaker 1: of fifteen quarterbacks in a bit of limbo here, and
Speaker 1: you know, for that, I had best case scenario that
Speaker 1: because rap Sheet reported on Super Bowl Sunday that he
Speaker 1: was in the driver's seat, Winston was for the same
Speaker 1: starting job. Uh. The wide assumption was that Drew Brees
Speaker 1: was retiring, But then there was a report or the
Speaker 1: deo that came out last week with Breeze and his
Speaker 1: personal trainer and he's setting personal records in sled pushing
Speaker 1: and he still hasn't announced that he's retiring and listen,
Speaker 1: but by the time this podcast comes out, maybe he
Speaker 1: drops a press release. But like it's becoming increasingly I
Speaker 1: don't know possible that Breeze actually does return. I know
Speaker 1: that he did rework his contract in a way that
Speaker 1: makes it seem like retirement is still imminent, but he
Speaker 1: still has to come to that decision as an athlete
Speaker 1: that I'm done, and I just wonder if the organization
Speaker 1: gives him the path and is okay with it. If
Speaker 1: Drew Brees actually does retire, that's the case, that would
Speaker 1: be really bad news for you, Greg, because you have
Speaker 1: so much invested in Jamis Winston, and the worst case
Speaker 1: scenario for Winston is that Breeze doesn't retire and Winston
Speaker 1: either has to decide to play an understudy again and
Speaker 1: hope he gets an opportunity, or he hits the open
Speaker 1: market goes elsewhere, which would be add news for Jameis
Speaker 1: Winston because he's in a perfect spot to reboot his career.
Speaker 1: He kind of needs Drew Brees to kiss off right now,
Speaker 1: and the longer it goes that he doesn't, I'm sure
Speaker 1: it's a source of anxiety. Bro I could be shocked
Speaker 1: if Breeze comes back, based on the fact that he
Speaker 1: signed this contract that kind of reduced his cap figure
Speaker 1: and his his salary right now to make it easier.
Speaker 1: So you're right, he is stretching it out a little
Speaker 1: bit and just retire, Like, what's what's the delay then,
Speaker 1: and why is he working out so vigorously? You're probably
Speaker 1: you're probably right that there's there's some second thoughts or
Speaker 1: third thoughts. I mean, yeah, the worst case scenario for
Speaker 1: Jamis is probably Chicago or being a backup somewhere Chicago.
Speaker 1: A similar a similar scenario that's pretty bad is returning
Speaker 1: to New Orleans and oh he pulls the okay doke
Speaker 1: and there's Taysom Hill starting that quarterback for week one again,
Speaker 1: and like you just you just sit there behind him.
Speaker 1: I I would be intrigue to see him on the Patriots. Um,
Speaker 1: that would be intriguing. I think, who jameis Winston? But
Speaker 1: I but I recognized ridiculous. I recognized that for my
Speaker 1: overly ambitious rankings, which I now regret, I was like,
Speaker 1: I would just knock all those quarterbacks down ten of
Speaker 1: fifteen spots. Um, like Boston radio to that. Someone told
Speaker 1: me that they did like an hour on w e I,
Speaker 1: which I appreciate. All press is good pressed of just
Speaker 1: like making fun of how high high I had Cam
Speaker 1: Newton ranked. So that's really, I don't know if that's true. Interesting, Well,
Speaker 1: Stephen Manny filling in again for Erica tamp Posey. And
Speaker 1: by the way, Stephen Manny is our metrics Vengali here
Speaker 1: at NFL Media. He knows where the bodies are buried
Speaker 1: and it makes them very dangerous. So be on the
Speaker 1: right side of Stephen Manny, is all I'm saying. How
Speaker 1: you doing, Bunny, I'm doing all right. You know, I
Speaker 1: don't know about dangerous, but you know, every now and
Speaker 1: then I get to put together a power point with
Speaker 1: like smiley faces and frowny faces for the podcast, and
Speaker 1: that's about as dangerous as it gets. I could give
Speaker 1: you a frowny face. Well, you're dangerous for the shadowy
Speaker 1: League figures because you have to give them the report
Speaker 1: that's like, hey, this around the NFL podcast does numbers.
Speaker 1: They deserve some moolah like like, it's just in the
Speaker 1: numbers that that's that's what we're looking for from you, Stephen.
Speaker 1: I don't know if we want to let it get
Speaker 1: to your head too much, Greg, but the numbers. Numbers
Speaker 1: are the numbers, do okay. You know, it's a few
Speaker 1: shows out there and that aren't doing well. Who are
Speaker 1: they and can you share that information? And if you
Speaker 1: want to inflate if you want to, don't answer that, Steven.
Speaker 1: If you want to inflate uh, certain numbers for the
Speaker 1: purposes of getting us paid, we will maybe give you
Speaker 1: a little taste in the back of So maybe this
Speaker 1: is stuff we should be saying offline. But yes, you
Speaker 1: know what I'm talking about, baby, It's a bribe, all right. Um.
Speaker 1: Greg was mentioning that, uh, there was some incoming fire
Speaker 1: from people up there in New England. If you could
Speaker 1: ask Erica when she gets back to see if she
Speaker 1: could track down that radio slaughter house involving Greg Rosenthal,
Speaker 1: that would be awesome. I'm not too far away from there.
Speaker 1: We'll see what we can do. I'm in Rhode Island
Speaker 1: right now. Okay, yeah, we can over there. I know
Speaker 1: the feeling, Greg, by the way, because that happened to me, um,
Speaker 1: and I was actually in the hospital. But you know,
Speaker 1: at some point it tweeted that if Josh Gordon Um
Speaker 1: went to the Patriots that I would drink bleach. You know,
Speaker 1: I just tweeted it out on like a Friday night
Speaker 1: some time, and then a person sure looking back, that
Speaker 1: was a suspect move but um w e I pounced
Speaker 1: on that. I don't think they had an hour long
Speaker 1: roll out, but they got on with it. So somehow
Speaker 1: I think this got exaggerated through the Twitter sphere, but
Speaker 1: they banged on it a little bit. That's good. That's
Speaker 1: good anyway. So yeah, that that's Those are a few
Speaker 1: of the quarterbacks that you can read about their NFL
Speaker 1: dot com slash hand zeus if you want to check
Speaker 1: out the whole list, and um boys, anything else before
Speaker 1: we head on off into um the sunset for this episode. Mhmm.
Speaker 1: Anything to get off here. And I just want to
Speaker 1: say because I don't, I don't want, I don't want
Speaker 1: to get any tweets. Then it's not a believer. You know,
Speaker 1: he's a megalomaniac American or whatever that thing was. I
Speaker 1: do think there is life beyond where we are. I
Speaker 1: think it would be foolhardy to just assume that we
Speaker 1: are the only um the life form operating at the
Speaker 1: level we operate. Now, you could get into a situation
Speaker 1: because I've watched enough Twilight Zones and this is what
Speaker 1: you gotta watch out for that we're just assuming, is
Speaker 1: there anyone as smart as us. No, No, you gotta
Speaker 1: worry about the guys with the giant heads and the
Speaker 1: extra large brains that you actually changes the shape of
Speaker 1: their head though, the smarter beings that want to come
Speaker 1: and harvest this planet, that's what you gotta I'm totally
Speaker 1: a board, on on on board with that being a
Speaker 1: possibility as well. And I and when I used the
Speaker 1: word megalomaniac, I was not aiming at at you. I
Speaker 1: think that's that was aimed elsewhere. Just so that's clear. Well, no,
Speaker 1: I think I didn't want to be seen as fall
Speaker 1: under that um uh banner that you had hung up,
Speaker 1: you had hoisted up. Well you're not. I like that
Speaker 1: you have the connection between like big heads mean means
Speaker 1: they're smarter because the dinosaurs, well the dinosaurs had some
Speaker 1: big heads. They were idiots. Well did you ever watch
Speaker 1: a Twilight Zone episode? Well you you were born, But no,
Speaker 1: like when the brain is really big and certain science fiction,
Speaker 1: it actually it's like it almost is like a mushroom
Speaker 1: and it has to hold the brain that is so giant. Uh,
Speaker 1: And that's when you gotta watch out. And I just say,
Speaker 1: if you had like a massive brain and you could
Speaker 1: go anywhere would you come and hang out with like
Speaker 1: people in like Chicago or Texas or Florida. I think
Speaker 1: you'd have better places to go around the universe. I
Speaker 1: would just demand right now. Yeah, you know, well your harvest.
Speaker 1: It's about a harvest. You clear, you till the land here?
Speaker 1: If you catch my drift right, asked these cows that
Speaker 1: have had like their inside burned out with no evidence
Speaker 1: of how that happened, that are lying in fields, Hey,
Speaker 1: maybe a cow saw some thing that we should be
Speaker 1: aware of. But that's okay. We can dig into another time.
Speaker 1: When is the heat and light reducts happening? What's going
Speaker 1: on with that? I told you that that was a
Speaker 1: podcast you and Connor or did in what year eighteen
Speaker 1: maybe sixteen? But we were reached by someone that basically
Speaker 1: said cease. So we haven't got too hot exactly, And
Speaker 1: I can't I cannot, literally cannot say anything. I touched
Speaker 1: a third rail somewhere. Yeah, that's not untrue, not surprising.
Speaker 1: It was like easter be six years ago. Just that's
Speaker 1: why it's why Marks always had it out for him.
Speaker 1: That's a fair theory, but that's not I'm not naming names.
Speaker 1: And we we better wrap before it gets too you know. Yes,
Speaker 1: uh yeah. We will be back on Monday with another
Speaker 1: edition of the Around the NFL Podcast. Thank you to
Speaker 1: everyone who listens. Thank you to Stephen Manny for pinch
Speaker 1: hit and doing great work as he always does. That
Speaker 1: man knows where the bodies are buried. This is Dan
Speaker 1: Hansis signing off for the Quiet Storm and the Old Boss.
Speaker 1: Yes until Monday. He's the car