Speaker 1: Be Around the NFL podcast has never played in the NFL.
Speaker 1: Welcome to another edition of the Around the NFL Podcast.
Speaker 1: My name is Dan and coming to you from a
Speaker 1: stadium that is filled with heroes. Mark Sessler, Chris Westling,
Speaker 1: and Greg Rosenhal. What is up, boys? Hey dam hey,
Speaker 1: we got prop prop comp the Gallagher of NFL podcasters.
Speaker 1: I just wanted to be comfortable. Mark, you have shown
Speaker 1: up to today's show at Lucas Oil Stadium in the
Speaker 1: heart of downtown Indianapolis in a full bathroom covering your clothes.
Speaker 1: Take us through the thought process. The thing I love
Speaker 1: about Indianapolis and the reason it was my favorite Super
Speaker 1: Bowl city potentially it's up there is the underground tunnel
Speaker 1: system or in above ground that allows you to you know,
Speaker 1: float from one massive indoor complex to the next without
Speaker 1: facing Mother Nature on any level. And uh so I
Speaker 1: was wearing this in the hotel a little bit of
Speaker 1: you know, self care time, and decided why change? But
Speaker 1: then you took it off because you would have been
Speaker 1: ashamed to walk in front of strangers for the entire
Speaker 1: walk here and then put it back on here. So
Speaker 1: you know, Greg is as he has wanted to do
Speaker 1: utterly destroying what he would call a bit. I'd say
Speaker 1: it's a very organic process. Here here is the test
Speaker 1: now not well, not the test that would that's too strong.
Speaker 1: I can see some chest hair or something that would
Speaker 1: be nice. I asked if you could take the T
Speaker 1: shirt on it and we get some of that chest decks.
Speaker 1: I know you got it. I've seen it and it's impressive.
Speaker 1: Got some nice lettuce on the packs. I mean it
Speaker 1: would and it would probably end the show, or at
Speaker 1: least my but element of the show. If you really
Speaker 1: do want to take that next step into kind of
Speaker 1: the realm of Cosmo Cramer, where you're kind of like
Speaker 1: the eccentric middle aged guy you walk back to the
Speaker 1: hotel with the romance not saying not not saying you
Speaker 1: should or it's we want you to just like that
Speaker 1: would be. How about if you are going to I'm
Speaker 1: not walking alone, if we're walking as a group and
Speaker 1: I'm wearing it, I will do that and I'm not
Speaker 1: going to and not eight conversations about it with people.
Speaker 1: We just it is. It is what it is. I'd
Speaker 1: say you're already seen as the eccentric middle age group.
Speaker 1: You don't need as we go by a bunch of
Speaker 1: it was like, hey, do you guys go everywhere together?
Speaker 1: It's like entourage. I would like the idea of the
Speaker 1: four of us walking and then and then there's Peter
Speaker 1: Schreegor in the lobby. How quickly would Greg peel off
Speaker 1: to get away from this? I like, I like, I
Speaker 1: like the contrast. I hope like we sa. I'm not
Speaker 1: going to mention who, but you know, we see a
Speaker 1: head coach walking through the hallway like we did earlier,
Speaker 1: very masculine guy who literally takes his dip out of
Speaker 1: his mouth with that bair hand and throw that was
Speaker 1: in the trash. And then you know, Mark walks by
Speaker 1: with his little lab coat. Well contrast, and speaking of
Speaker 1: Peter Schreegor, we have an update on the show a
Speaker 1: little bit later. Yes, when you're ready for it. Let's
Speaker 1: save that. Let's not forget an update Don Sreyer. Of course,
Speaker 1: Mark ranked Pete quite low, to be honest with you,
Speaker 1: in his NFL Media Powder rankings. Not many people getting
Speaker 1: away with and Pete, well, you know, good morning football.
Speaker 1: You know we're guys together, so basically part of that.
Speaker 1: So um, we're here at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis, Rainy,
Speaker 1: Indianapolis for the NFL Scouting Combine. As you know, if
Speaker 1: you're a longtime listener to the show, if you don't know,
Speaker 1: if you're a newer listener and welcome. UH. They send
Speaker 1: us primarily to check out what's going on the state
Speaker 1: of the NFL because it is a gold mine from
Speaker 1: that perspective, because almost every coach UH and almost every
Speaker 1: GM speaks to the assembled media. In past years, it
Speaker 1: was split somewhat evenly over two days. This year, there's
Speaker 1: a bunch of schedule changes here at the Combine. It's
Speaker 1: getting crazy because they're moving a lot of the actual
Speaker 1: underwear Olympics into prime time, maybe all the to wear Olympics.
Speaker 1: I'm not I haven't tracted that closely. And they're moving
Speaker 1: different things around, toying with UH, I guess the changes
Speaker 1: to the structure, seeing what will maybe the future of
Speaker 1: this event holds. And UH, So we got everybody just
Speaker 1: about uh we have everybody this week today, Tuesday, and
Speaker 1: then there's one there's what three guys speaking tomorrow had
Speaker 1: a guy or two. UM, so we are going to
Speaker 1: today's show go through all of these conversations, UH, these
Speaker 1: press conferences with these coaches and gms and just give
Speaker 1: you an update on what's going on around the NFL.
Speaker 1: I think like teams spoke today, so your team should
Speaker 1: be mentioned on this show except for Patriots fans. I
Speaker 1: think you guys have been covered, and I just I
Speaker 1: just want to point out. I don't want to dwell
Speaker 1: on it, Greg, but can we please drop the where
Speaker 1: holier than now? We're different? We're better act? When you're
Speaker 1: not anymore? Why are the Patriots? Wh are the Patriots
Speaker 1: not part of this event? Are they not speaking to
Speaker 1: the press. I think there's another team or too, but
Speaker 1: I couldn't figure out who it is because I only
Speaker 1: care about ten years in a row because Belichick spelled
Speaker 1: a few years ago. But there's no rule making you apparent.
Speaker 1: But at what point do the Patriots drop this act
Speaker 1: and realize they're just another team again? It's over? Like
Speaker 1: the dynasty would say, put get back in line. I
Speaker 1: want your coach and your GM or whomever speaking at
Speaker 1: this podiums. You presuppose they see themselves in some The
Speaker 1: next time a team makes nine super Bowls in like
Speaker 1: eighteen years, then then that team. But why write your
Speaker 1: own rules? Why can't you do what the rest of
Speaker 1: the league's doing when it comes to this event. It's
Speaker 1: the worst Cowboys. I didn't see anybody from the Cowboys today.
Speaker 1: They got Mike McCarthy tomorrow, though they jumping in. So
Speaker 1: as we've done through the years, at tradition, we do
Speaker 1: a draft, uh to see who wants to track witch
Speaker 1: pressors and this year just a little bit of a twist,
Speaker 1: um I. I worked with the fellas to assign each
Speaker 1: of you to be embedded with one team. And what
Speaker 1: is embedded mean to the bathroom It means it's not
Speaker 1: just getting you know, oh, this guy is gonna get
Speaker 1: the franchise tag. It's not just oh, this guy said
Speaker 1: he wants him to be his quarterback for a long time.
Speaker 1: I want to know what cologne the coach is wearing.
Speaker 1: I want to know who he's talking to. I want
Speaker 1: to know his vibe, if he felt like he was
Speaker 1: good spirits, if it seemed like he had a late
Speaker 1: night the night before, if it looked like a guy
Speaker 1: that was gearing up for a wild night indie tonight.
Speaker 1: I want that. I want to see what other journals
Speaker 1: this person is talking to. I want to know how
Speaker 1: he's dressed, I want to know everything about this UH teams,
Speaker 1: the team leaders. That's what embedded is all about. And
Speaker 1: during the draft process, Mark, you embedded yourself with the Browns,
Speaker 1: West you embedded yourself with the Bucks, and Greg, you
Speaker 1: embedded yourself with the Giants in a surprise move, I
Speaker 1: embedded myself, of course, with the New York Football Jets.
Speaker 1: So let's get into it. Let's go through some takeaways
Speaker 1: from the big day. Greg, what do you think was
Speaker 1: the biggest story out of Combine today. I think it
Speaker 1: was Matt Rule saying that he's unbelievably excited to work
Speaker 1: with Cam Newton. I think Ian Rappaport started day kind
Speaker 1: of telegraphing that this was coming, that they expected to
Speaker 1: keep Cam Newton moving forward. There was some intimation by
Speaker 1: Ian on his tweets that it had to do with
Speaker 1: the fact that Cam wouldn't be healthy enough um to
Speaker 1: be traded necessarily in time, maybe even hinting around that, Hey,
Speaker 1: I think all these teams are are checking out what's
Speaker 1: out there in terms of interest from other teams, just
Speaker 1: reading between the lines, and maybe that markets not developing
Speaker 1: for Cam at least not at this point. You know,
Speaker 1: in this pre free agency period, and that Rule was
Speaker 1: pretty adamant, saying this guy, when he's healthy, is one
Speaker 1: of the best of the best in the league, that
Speaker 1: he wants to work with him, that he expects him
Speaker 1: to be his starter, And to me, that's pretty big news.
Speaker 1: I don't think, you know, I wouldn't like bet my
Speaker 1: entire fortune on that he's their week one starter right now,
Speaker 1: but it looks it looks pretty likely, which we did
Speaker 1: not know a week ago. It's quite the conundrum because
Speaker 1: if you're Matt Rule and the Panthers, and we kept
Speaker 1: hearing that they weren't quite sold on Cam Newton, and
Speaker 1: that's probably because they don't know who he is at
Speaker 1: this stage of his career coming off a serious arm injury.
Speaker 1: But at the same time, any interesting party would not
Speaker 1: know who he is, so his trade value plummets, right.
Speaker 1: And also, since we've last heard from Matt Rule, the
Speaker 1: coaches have watched all of Cam Newton's film you know,
Speaker 1: he hasn't played that much over the last two years,
Speaker 1: and Rule mentioned that, but you know they've watched the
Speaker 1: old tapes too, And maybe it's the front office or ownership,
Speaker 1: which a certain ideas, but now they look at the
Speaker 1: reality of what's out there in free agency, what they
Speaker 1: can or can't get in the trade, and you do
Speaker 1: just get the feeling that that market for Cam isn't
Speaker 1: gonna happen in the timeline that they would need it
Speaker 1: to happen, because he's not going to be healthy fast enough.
Speaker 1: So why wouldn't they give him? Give him a shot?
Speaker 1: And I love thinking about him in that offense, and
Speaker 1: he talked about Joe Brady, his offensive coordinator, which a
Speaker 1: lot of people excited to see what he brings to
Speaker 1: the table. And I think there's more deep shots in
Speaker 1: that offense, uh, which Cam is. You know, he's a
Speaker 1: little up and down, he's streaky with But if you're
Speaker 1: Matt Rule, why you're not going to find a better
Speaker 1: option than Cam Newton. I don't think. I think they
Speaker 1: still be open for looking at other quarterbacks, but it
Speaker 1: sounds like he's gonna be there. I agree with that
Speaker 1: such if you're a new coach too. And I think
Speaker 1: that Cam Newton is a winner here because I like
Speaker 1: the way this whole ownership into coaching and overall organizational
Speaker 1: shift is happening. But do you want to start with
Speaker 1: an unknown X factor at quarterback? Or anything they had
Speaker 1: last year. It just there's also more chips to fall,
Speaker 1: Like draft could change, but what a lot of these
Speaker 1: teams do at quarterback, and Cam Newton could still wind
Speaker 1: up somewhere. You can almost imagine them drafting someone with
Speaker 1: Cam Newton like a first round quarterback, and Cam Newton's
Speaker 1: there to try to beat him, to try to hold
Speaker 1: off his job. And I've said this a couple of
Speaker 1: weeks ago, and I still feel that way today. And
Speaker 1: that's why when I saw what happened in the news
Speaker 1: today with this kind of pro Cam future in Caroline,
Speaker 1: I was like, Okay, this makes some sense to me,
Speaker 1: because again, remember this guy is the greatest player in
Speaker 1: franchise history, and in my opinion, and this is an
Speaker 1: m v P, he's had major injury issues. But do
Speaker 1: you want to dive into the unknown, the murky unknown
Speaker 1: of looking for a quarterback, or do you want to
Speaker 1: maybe see if this guy that is thirty years old
Speaker 1: still can still play the guitar? As Leslie Nielsen once said,
Speaker 1: do you want to see if he can if he
Speaker 1: can bounce back and be that guy? And I don't.
Speaker 1: I don't hate that idea either of what Greg said
Speaker 1: taking a quarterback higher in this draft, and then if
Speaker 1: you have Newton, uh for one more year maybe and
Speaker 1: if he bounces back and he's great, you have a
Speaker 1: decision to make or maybe a really great trade piece.
Speaker 1: And if it doesn't work out, well, you know, and
Speaker 1: you gave this great panther, this former m v P,
Speaker 1: this guy that took you to the super Bowl, one chant,
Speaker 1: one more chance. He's got his career on track. So
Speaker 1: I kind of think this. I see see this as
Speaker 1: a positive development if this is indeed the direction this
Speaker 1: is heading now where he comes back to Charlotte. Yeah,
Speaker 1: we're we're just we're kind of reading between the lines
Speaker 1: today and we do have Matt rule uh you know
Speaker 1: talking about Cam Newton, and the difference is there's some
Speaker 1: teams and we'll get into him that are clearly not
Speaker 1: showing their cards or they're showing that they're ambivalent. And
Speaker 1: I think it's the way that they address the Cam
Speaker 1: with as much enthusiasm Cam story with as much enthusiasm
Speaker 1: as hum as possible, which kind of tells you a lot.
Speaker 1: I'm unbelievably excited to get to get a chance to
Speaker 1: work with Cam. Um. I've enjoyed getting to, you know,
Speaker 1: sit down in the cafeteria when he comes by, sitting
Speaker 1: down to my office. I think he's doing a great job.
Speaker 1: And for me, you know, the way he balances being
Speaker 1: a great father, the way he bounces being a great
Speaker 1: you know, quarterback, and the way you know, the things
Speaker 1: he's done in the community are are really really important.
Speaker 1: So I want to make sure I say that. And
Speaker 1: so I'm excited to get him healthy obviously. Um, you
Speaker 1: know that's the number one goal for us. Um, he's
Speaker 1: doing a great job of doing his part. We have
Speaker 1: to make sure that we're doing our part as we uh,
Speaker 1: as we try to get him healthy for the season.
Speaker 1: Little Matt rule. Everybody good to hear his voice. Uh.
Speaker 1: In other quarterback news, we're just gonna bounce around. Be
Speaker 1: good to bounce around. Well, we'll go in our little
Speaker 1: in beds. We'll we'll do it all. Okay and jump
Speaker 1: in if this was a presser that you covered, But
Speaker 1: I'm gonna throw some news out there. UM. I thought
Speaker 1: it was interesting that Mike Mayock was positive about Derek Carr,
Speaker 1: but maybe not overflowing. He had this to say, mayok,
Speaker 1: we're not looking actively to move him at all. We
Speaker 1: know what we have and we appreciate it. Uh. He
Speaker 1: went to say that defensively, the team's not very good
Speaker 1: at all, which is very and maybe that is the
Speaker 1: focus of this offseason for Oakland. But he pointed out
Speaker 1: that Car above completion percentage, that he did good things.
Speaker 1: But you still don't get the sense that they're they're
Speaker 1: in love west with the quarterback position. Because I've was
Speaker 1: embedded today with another team in need of a quarterback,
Speaker 1: I've learned to see all of this through the prism
Speaker 1: of you're the pressure is on to buy the ring.
Speaker 1: You're dating a girl for a while, the pressure is
Speaker 1: on to buy the ring. And I don't think the
Speaker 1: Raiders want to buy the ring. I think they see
Speaker 1: other candidates out there that might make a better marriage.
Speaker 1: But they're not willing to kick him to the curb yet.
Speaker 1: They're just waiting to see if something better comes along.
Speaker 1: Someone responded on Twitter to me, the Raiders are married
Speaker 1: but ready to cheat. You know, It's like I thought, Maya.
Speaker 1: You know, he did kind of the best combine thing
Speaker 1: you could do in his situation, which he actually came
Speaker 1: out very strong about Car Like you know, he played
Speaker 1: at a very high level that we have a quarterback
Speaker 1: who can He said he played at a high level.
Speaker 1: He he and he kept but he kept repeating, like
Speaker 1: he can, he can run our offense at a high level.
Speaker 1: But then he was like quarterbacks like any other position,
Speaker 1: And if you had a ten top ten quarterback, you're
Speaker 1: not saying quarterbacks like any other position that you're trying
Speaker 1: to upgrade. No, And I think Mayock it's it's a
Speaker 1: positive for his credibility because he can can. You can't
Speaker 1: come out today and give us a whole line about
Speaker 1: Derek Carr. That's it's people just simply don't believe because
Speaker 1: a year ago the Raiders came out very strong on
Speaker 1: the Derek Carr front at this comment. I think they
Speaker 1: were definite last year that they wanted to see him
Speaker 1: for a year. I think they were. But then I
Speaker 1: think that there were back back channel conversations and whispers
Speaker 1: that Grewden also had, you know, two months later, fascinations
Speaker 1: with various players in the draft. And I think this
Speaker 1: time around, you're looking at the most compelling free agent
Speaker 1: class maybe of our lifetime at quarterback, and a draft
Speaker 1: littered with a couple of intriguing quarterbacks as well, and
Speaker 1: a coach and John Cruden who always has a wandering
Speaker 1: eye for what else might be out there at the position.
Speaker 1: And Mayok said how pocket He thought pocket awareness was
Speaker 1: maybe the most important trade of quarterback could have and
Speaker 1: that you either have it or you don't. And I
Speaker 1: was very tempted to just ask you, do you think
Speaker 1: Derek Carr has good pocket awareness? Because I would say
Speaker 1: that's his biggest weakness. And so I was reading a
Speaker 1: little bit between tween the lines of what he was saying. Mayox,
Speaker 1: I think he's the best guy at this event. He
Speaker 1: was great last year. He obviously with his background working
Speaker 1: for NFL Network as long as he did. He's a
Speaker 1: very well spoken guy, guy who never gets boxed into
Speaker 1: a corner when he's asked a question because he's essentially
Speaker 1: been doing this for years and years and years. Used
Speaker 1: he used to just to for people that might not
Speaker 1: remember or no. Mike Magick was a big enough deal
Speaker 1: at the Combine when he worked as a draft analyst
Speaker 1: that he had his own press conference, like he had
Speaker 1: a press conference just to hit all the questions people had.
Speaker 1: He did a bunch of conference calls, but then he
Speaker 1: would actually be at a podium I remember covering them.
Speaker 1: Uh yeah, people, I don't know. People want to hear
Speaker 1: so he is. He is always gonna to me. I
Speaker 1: find him very interesting compared to so many of these
Speaker 1: other gms and coaches where you find yourself kind of
Speaker 1: drifting a little bit because it just becomes, uh, there's
Speaker 1: so much robotic coach GM talk sometimes or they're just
Speaker 1: so making a clear effort not to say anything that
Speaker 1: makes headlines. It was funny. Um Gettleman, Dave Gettlman the
Speaker 1: Giants GM said today at one point that once he
Speaker 1: had learned that there are no I'm trying to think
Speaker 1: what he said. There are no way throw there are
Speaker 1: no throwaways, and he was referring to the throwaway answers.
Speaker 1: He was referring specifically to when he said, like the
Speaker 1: computer guys line about the analytics department, and everybody took
Speaker 1: that and run with it. That he was an old
Speaker 1: man that was out of touch, and he said he's
Speaker 1: now he's learned through working with the New York media
Speaker 1: to watch everything he says. But a lot of these
Speaker 1: guys you could tell out. They're like one of my
Speaker 1: biggest goals of this week, besides obviously eyeing different draft
Speaker 1: prospects is not to become the story of the day.
Speaker 1: And I think for the most part, if these guys
Speaker 1: were looking not to say much, they accomplished as a group.
Speaker 1: Gms and coaches compared to decades ago or even five, six,
Speaker 1: seven years ago, have become experts and extremely practiced at
Speaker 1: getting up there and giving you nothing. It's it's a
Speaker 1: bit of a stunner if a major news item drops
Speaker 1: at all. That's why you get embedded, so you can
Speaker 1: read their minds. Right with the Well with the Bucks,
Speaker 1: the Bucks are a little different. You're you're embedded team, alright,
Speaker 1: you were embedded with the Bucks. And again, what has
Speaker 1: embedded me? And embedded means Wes covered this head coach
Speaker 1: Bruce Arians and the GM Jason like like no one
Speaker 1: else in the building. And this is what he took
Speaker 1: away from Well. I saw the look in their eyes
Speaker 1: when they were asked about buying the ring for Jamis Winston.
Speaker 1: There's a lot of pressure on him right now to
Speaker 1: buy that ring and get engaged. And Arians and Jason
Speaker 1: Light both basically said this person is attractive, bright future.
Speaker 1: There's a lot of clay to work with here. You
Speaker 1: can see the potential, but timing is everything. And the
Speaker 1: whole time we were dating Jamis, there was this other
Speaker 1: girl that we have a connection with. There might be
Speaker 1: two or three girls we had connections with. We've known
Speaker 1: them a long time. We like it and if there's
Speaker 1: any possibility we're gonna be available at the same time,
Speaker 1: I need to I need to scratch that itch before
Speaker 1: I take the plunge on Jamis Winston, before I buy
Speaker 1: the ring, before we get married. This is what's going
Speaker 1: on with the Bucks. They need to scratch the itch.
Speaker 1: If the timing works out where one of the people
Speaker 1: that they've had a connection with all along is available,
Speaker 1: they don't want to They don't want to get married
Speaker 1: to Jamis with There's an interesting bee line running through
Speaker 1: all of West's commentary today. If you were to isolate
Speaker 1: these comments, well, I was trying to apply to my
Speaker 1: own experience, and we can just oppose, juxtapose how Chris
Speaker 1: Bout in the Colts feel about Jacoby Precent compared to
Speaker 1: how the Bucks feel about Jamis Winston. But the Bucks,
Speaker 1: it's tricky because they have to kind of make a
Speaker 1: decision on Jamis before free agency because of the franchise tag,
Speaker 1: because if you were going to keep Jamis, it's most
Speaker 1: likely maybe it's a transition tag where you let him
Speaker 1: get out there, and that kind of kicks the can
Speaker 1: a little bit. They're confident that they're gonna know what's
Speaker 1: out there. Bruce Arians said, by next week, I think
Speaker 1: I'm gonna have a good idea of who's available. Right now,
Speaker 1: I don't have a good idea, but I love that
Speaker 1: he's willing to just say it. I mean, he essentially said,
Speaker 1: in so many words, there's a couple, you know, there's
Speaker 1: one or two guys that you know, if we could
Speaker 1: get that, if we get him, then maybe we would
Speaker 1: move on from Jamis Winston. And they straight up asked
Speaker 1: them on serious and he said Tom Brady and Philip Rivers.
Speaker 1: He said, Tom Brady, which is you know, he in theory,
Speaker 1: if anyone wanted to get you know, get him in trouble,
Speaker 1: they could, but no one's gonna mind. I don't think
Speaker 1: like ultimately he doesn't really care. Well, wasn't the chore
Speaker 1: pulling Jason Light to this point? Because for years on end,
Speaker 1: when we've had questions about Jamis Winston for Ages and
Speaker 1: Jason Light, who drafted him, seemed to never want to
Speaker 1: confront those questions. Well, somebody asked Jason Light exactly that
Speaker 1: while you and Bruce Arians are up here saying we
Speaker 1: want to see what's behind door number two, door number three,
Speaker 1: door number four, what does Jamis and his agent think
Speaker 1: about you saying all this? And he basically said, we're
Speaker 1: not saying we don't want Jamis, we want him, We
Speaker 1: just want to see what else is out there. And he,
Speaker 1: you know, he said, I have a great relationship with
Speaker 1: his agent. We talk all the time. They've made it
Speaker 1: clear they want to see what their options are before
Speaker 1: before they commit to Jamis Winston. All right, and let
Speaker 1: me just read one quote here from Bruce Arians. Can
Speaker 1: we win with Jamis? Hell? Yeah, but you have to
Speaker 1: see if there is a better option. We may we
Speaker 1: may have some audio. It's a lot of discussion between
Speaker 1: tagging likes of Shack Barrier Jamis Winston. Are you are
Speaker 1: you preparing to let Jamie's test free agency. We haven't
Speaker 1: made that decision yet. Yeah, it's still it's still up
Speaker 1: in the air. Decision When when I know who else
Speaker 1: is available there you go, so clearly they are in
Speaker 1: the middle of the process. All right, let's stick on
Speaker 1: this topic. And uh West, there's another quarterback that a
Speaker 1: lot of people want to know what his job security
Speaker 1: is with his current team. With his current team, well,
Speaker 1: Jacoby percent And there's all these rumors about Philip Rivers,
Speaker 1: which Chris Ballard, the Colts GM will not discuss. He
Speaker 1: will not even say Philip Rivers name. Uh Ballard made
Speaker 1: a clear look, when you go seven and nine and
Speaker 1: half of the season, you didn't play well. We're still
Speaker 1: in evaluation mode. We gave him a two year contract,
Speaker 1: so we thought it would take two years to evaluate him. Um,
Speaker 1: we we just don't know yet. And he's buying time.
Speaker 1: To me if we're gonna extend this analogy about buying
Speaker 1: the ring, Here's what's going on with Jacoby Brissette and
Speaker 1: Chris Ballard and the Colt. You're already married. It's it's
Speaker 1: too late to get out of it. But this is
Speaker 1: all good. I'm trying it together. This is all gonna
Speaker 1: pay off. It's all gonna make sense. They've been dating
Speaker 1: for a while. Jacoby, We're setting the Colts. It's serious.
Speaker 1: Their families are intertwined at this point. They like each other.
Speaker 1: They've been to holiday parties where their families know each other.
Speaker 1: It's hard to disentangle at this point. The Colts wish
Speaker 1: Jacoby Prisette, well, they like they like him as a person,
Speaker 1: but they're not in love, and you can't force being
Speaker 1: in love, so they're gonna try to find someone else
Speaker 1: to marry. That's what's going on. I you know, one
Speaker 1: thing I took away because I did not a lot
Speaker 1: of sizzle in the relationship. You know you're getting You're
Speaker 1: You're in your pajamas, eating pizza and bed at eight
Speaker 1: thirty pm. They're too young for that, more like roommates
Speaker 1: than lovers. I feel like we've done this exact analogy
Speaker 1: on past shows. But it's fine, it makes sense. Um
Speaker 1: I I will counter that west with listening to Ballard.
Speaker 1: He said also, and sometimes you could take this with
Speaker 1: a grain of salt, but said this thing has taken
Speaker 1: a life of its own, referring to the media speculation
Speaker 1: that they are kind of done with Jacoby Brissette and
Speaker 1: they're going to replace him with a new starting quarterback.
Speaker 1: Do you think there's any scenario where they're gonna do
Speaker 1: kind of like with the Panthers. Uh, you know, we're
Speaker 1: looking at and there they might stick with Jake Briskett
Speaker 1: for another year, or do we all are we all
Speaker 1: in agreement or you guys all believe that this this
Speaker 1: is a team that is absolutely ready to move on
Speaker 1: with a new QB one. Well, you only heard part
Speaker 1: of the conversation. He he spoke about Jacoby about six
Speaker 1: different times, and the part you heard was I don't
Speaker 1: want to hurt Jacoby's feelings because I really like him
Speaker 1: a lot as a person. That's the part you heard.
Speaker 1: But you didn't hear the part where he said we're
Speaker 1: going to create competition there. You know, he didn't have
Speaker 1: a good second half of the year. Part of the
Speaker 1: record was on him. Look, I know a lot of
Speaker 1: guys are injured, but you can never point to injured
Speaker 1: whate receivers. I think if they if Jacoby Bricette starts
Speaker 1: week week one, it's because they swung and missed so
Speaker 1: many times at trying to find his replacement and couldn't
Speaker 1: find He has a lot of guaranteed money. I do
Speaker 1: think there's a chance that he's their Week one starter.
Speaker 1: The biggest thing is Philip Rivers is possibly a guy
Speaker 1: that they're gonna have competition for. They don't know they
Speaker 1: don't know that ends. Even if in Chris Ballad's heart,
Speaker 1: as he's up there on the podium, his number one
Speaker 1: option is to get Philip Rivers, he doesn't know at
Speaker 1: this point. I don't think whether that's going to happen
Speaker 1: or not, so you have to be ready. I think
Speaker 1: there might be a chance he knows because just because
Speaker 1: of his relationship with Nick Sirianni and Frank Wright, that
Speaker 1: that Philip Rivers is actually really close with Nick sirian Right.
Speaker 1: But if if Philip Rivers is You're right, it's it's possible.
Speaker 1: But you hear Arians throw a name out, and if
Speaker 1: Philip Rivers agent is out there trying to get the
Speaker 1: best deal possible, it's still very early in the Living
Speaker 1: in flor I do the cult have to evaluate not
Speaker 1: the Philip Rivers experience overall, but the Philip Rivers struggling
Speaker 1: last year as an actual upgrade over Jacoby Brissette. I
Speaker 1: like Philip Rivers better, but you're talking these are the
Speaker 1: Philip Rivers. Frank Wright likes the player a lot. The
Speaker 1: whole organization really loves Jacoby Brissette the person as well,
Speaker 1: So I don't think that they're rushing into anything kind
Speaker 1: of you're banking on that late period Brett Farve type
Speaker 1: scenario where he kind of was a turnover, turnover machine
Speaker 1: in that one year with the Jets. He went to
Speaker 1: the Vikings and he was thirty eight thirty nine, but
Speaker 1: was completely revitalized. Maybe the change of scenery. I like
Speaker 1: the idea of Philip Rivers playing eight games in a
Speaker 1: dome at least, and playing with an offensively gifted coach
Speaker 1: like Frank Right. It all makes so much sense, and
Speaker 1: I think that's why everyone is like pointing to that
Speaker 1: as the most logical. It's still it's still a stop
Speaker 1: gap because the next year of of Brett Farve, he
Speaker 1: fell off a steep cliff into total Darkness's good. If
Speaker 1: I just disagree with you, I think the Colts believe,
Speaker 1: if Philip Rivers wants to go there, he's he's their guy.
Speaker 1: That's what That's what I'm getting there. I'm just saying
Speaker 1: Jacoby Brissett at that point becomes the backup. I don't
Speaker 1: think it becomes. Hey, do we think Rivers is better
Speaker 1: than Brissett? I think if Rivers wants to go there,
Speaker 1: he's there. In Brisett has guaranteed money this year so
Speaker 1: you could keep him as a as a highly paid
Speaker 1: back up. One thing I thought was interesting from Ballard
Speaker 1: is in the past he said, we don't want to
Speaker 1: be that first day of free agency, make a splash
Speaker 1: move type of team. We need to have our team
Speaker 1: kind of ready until we're you know, prepared and built
Speaker 1: up before we're that type of team. And this year
Speaker 1: he says, we're ready, like we've built our infrastructure. We're
Speaker 1: ready to go get it. So he I think, is
Speaker 1: wanting to spend all that cap space that he has,
Speaker 1: and I think could be a team that would be
Speaker 1: interested in some of the high highest profile free agents
Speaker 1: like a Maori Cooper or Jadivan Class. I already made
Speaker 1: this prediction, though, there you go. I said they're gonna
Speaker 1: win the off season, so I don't know, I feel
Speaker 1: like you're trying to reframe it and then you're gonna
Speaker 1: try to take the Laurie when they have a big
Speaker 1: free agency. That's how it feels to me. Greg high stakes.
Speaker 1: To say the least, I had forgotten. I had forgotten that,
Speaker 1: uh that moment in our podcast history, that shining moment um.
Speaker 1: Uh West, Yes, there's another Uh, there's another quarterback. Out
Speaker 1: there gentlemen that everyone's like, I know, there there. They
Speaker 1: said they're behind him, but are they really behind him?
Speaker 1: Mitch Trobinsky and the Chicago Bears who talked to who
Speaker 1: Well maybe you talked to him, maybe you didn't. Who
Speaker 1: was Matt? Yeah, and there was you know, this came
Speaker 1: right around the time that there was word from Ryan
Speaker 1: Pace the Bears GM that their decision on Ryan Trabinsky's
Speaker 1: fifth year option would come in May. They don't, they
Speaker 1: don't today know. And the vibe I got was I
Speaker 1: feel like Matt Nigy has been in to play off
Speaker 1: the Wesleyan um you know thread here in a bit
Speaker 1: of an arranged marriage with Mitt Robinski and and not
Speaker 1: able to really fight it is the tradition he's stuck
Speaker 1: in where you can't really if you're in an arranged marriage,
Speaker 1: probably there are a lot of issues, but you can't
Speaker 1: really complain to the family or anyone else because this
Speaker 1: is steeped and deep, you know, cultural and religious ties
Speaker 1: when you have an arranged marriage and they and they
Speaker 1: and they, well I'm just saying that's how it works
Speaker 1: in some cultures. But Trabinsky, to me is someone that
Speaker 1: they have aggressively talked around as the problem. Mattegi today
Speaker 1: talked about bringing in John d. Filippo and Bill Laser
Speaker 1: and all these other guys to re imagine the offense
Speaker 1: and calling the offense. And you know, we're in multiple
Speaker 1: years into the Mattennigi adventure. Here an offense it needs
Speaker 1: to figure out what its identity is that it completely
Speaker 1: lost its identity last year. And he talked more about
Speaker 1: the running game. I thought, then the air game with Trabinsky,
Speaker 1: where I mean, come on, we know what the issue
Speaker 1: was there and how it all suffered, suffered and struggled
Speaker 1: because of Mr Rubinsky. He did get real about the
Speaker 1: fact that Rabinsky's responsibility is to come in in a
Speaker 1: couple of months and know this offense better than any
Speaker 1: of the coaches, which was not the case in the past,
Speaker 1: which is an indictment I think of. You know, he's
Speaker 1: a young player, and they keep making excuses for how
Speaker 1: young he is in all this business, but he is
Speaker 1: not performing. Where you're looking at other guys like Patrick
Speaker 1: Mahomes and Deshaun Watson who are taking off into the skies,
Speaker 1: so more accountability. But I heard nothing to suggest that
Speaker 1: they're about to move on from him. We belie, we
Speaker 1: believe in Mitch. This was pace. Mitch knows he needs
Speaker 1: to be better. We need to be better around him,
Speaker 1: and that's our goal. They're all now. You also mentioned
Speaker 1: a shift in their offensive philosophy and also that they
Speaker 1: he didn't even here's the thing that is on my
Speaker 1: radar a little bit. And I still believe some of
Speaker 1: this is all posturing. And I still would be stunned
Speaker 1: if they don't have um a capable backup. UM. I
Speaker 1: think I think they've indicated as much. But they're not
Speaker 1: going to chase Daniel Route. They want someone that can
Speaker 1: compete a little bit. He said that. He said that
Speaker 1: they want competition at all all positions, but the GM
Speaker 1: he stopped short of revealing whether Chicago and sends to
Speaker 1: add another quarterback be a free agency or the draft.
Speaker 1: How about just say it. How about they literally don't
Speaker 1: have any other quarterbacks on the rosters, so they have to.
Speaker 1: There was this one and I give I think Matt
Speaker 1: Nigy his thing and when we sat down with him
Speaker 1: at the owners meetings last year, he's a positive energy guy.
Speaker 1: He's not He's not someone that has any desire to
Speaker 1: call people out but the fact that he basically talked
Speaker 1: down the Trabinsky drama byd saying that you know, we
Speaker 1: live in this world of instant gratification where you want
Speaker 1: players to grow up, and well, yes you do, because
Speaker 1: we're seeing that happen all over the league. And how
Speaker 1: many years, how many jobs will be lost if you
Speaker 1: have another hideous campaign with Mr Robinsky and all these
Speaker 1: flowery coach speak there there there is there was very
Speaker 1: little accountability about the fact that the player is not
Speaker 1: advancing at the speed other NFL quarterbacks are advancing today.
Speaker 1: All right, Mark, do you ever hear about being Shanghai
Speaker 1: trapdoor in in the in the floor in Portland's in
Speaker 1: the bar right around the turn of the centry opens up,
Speaker 1: you get sent on a ship to Shanghai and you're
Speaker 1: never her problematic. It sounds like a Wesley Night from
Speaker 1: about three or four years ago. This is what had
Speaker 1: happened to every single coach whose and GM who says
Speaker 1: we want to create competition at every position for every question,
Speaker 1: get rid of West. I meant to ask us a
Speaker 1: few minutes ago. But during your you know, time around
Speaker 1: Chris ballor did you notice anything that you know surpriser
Speaker 1: seemed a little, i don't know, unusual. Whatever it was
Speaker 1: about him that you and Greg both saw a couple
Speaker 1: of years ago and could not put your thumb on it.
Speaker 1: Ravens g M Eric to Costa has the exact same thing.
Speaker 1: They are two peas in a pod. Greg is not
Speaker 1: happy to be connected to this. At this point, Greg
Speaker 1: was originally on board. You absolutely were a driver of
Speaker 1: that narrative. Greg was standing next to me, and you
Speaker 1: both agree, there's something a little bit different here. Something
Speaker 1: something's up embedded Cessler or maybe Cessler embedded Cleveland Browns. Uh.
Speaker 1: They did not strike me Andrew Berry the GM and
Speaker 1: followed by new coach Kevin Stefanski as people that stayed
Speaker 1: out late last night or are planning to stay out
Speaker 1: late tonight. They have the vibe of like minded, brainy
Speaker 1: acts um who are very well programmed to say very
Speaker 1: very little. Uh. I think some of these teams that
Speaker 1: need good pr or need to introduce new people for
Speaker 1: the eighteenth time in nineteen years, roll out GM and
Speaker 1: coach back to back, and that's what Cleveland did. A
Speaker 1: few things I learned was that I got the sense
Speaker 1: that Kevin Stefanski is very open to keeping Kareem Hunt,
Speaker 1: along with Nick Chubb calling it more than Marrier, where
Speaker 1: I think there was some you know with cream Hunts
Speaker 1: off the field stuff in the past. In this offseason,
Speaker 1: maybe they don't see him as someone that's part of
Speaker 1: the team. They've already he's already in his tenure to
Speaker 1: deal with the cream Hunt situation. Sound like he's very
Speaker 1: open to it. Um David the Joko another guy, because
Speaker 1: I think if you look at Kevin Stefanski's offense last
Speaker 1: year in Minnesota, two tight end sets were prominent and
Speaker 1: used at times by the Vikings successfully, and I think
Speaker 1: that they want to keep him around. But there was
Speaker 1: whispers before Stefanski hit the scene that Najoko could be
Speaker 1: on the trade block along with Joe Schobert, who they've
Speaker 1: seen that they're going to talk to. But what about
Speaker 1: what about Odell Beckham? Because Barry said, you know, I
Speaker 1: come from the you know, Howie Roseman's family. I'm a
Speaker 1: wheeler and deer by nature. I will listen to any
Speaker 1: phone calls. I was a little surprised he didn't shut
Speaker 1: down talk that Odell would be traded in quotes part
Speaker 1: of our future and said that a number of times.
Speaker 1: So but I but I think at this point they
Speaker 1: succeeded in really nailing down nothing. Their answers were uh mechanical, clipped,
Speaker 1: uh practiced, I thought, And they both struck Mark swearing
Speaker 1: a bathrobe right now, he's talking very seriously and clinically
Speaker 1: about his favorite team, the Browns in a bathrobe just
Speaker 1: another reminder. Well, I mean it's you know, yeah, and
Speaker 1: the the I I got deeper into these two pressers
Speaker 1: thinking there aren't a lot of huge takeaways here. One
Speaker 1: thing that I did sense that was very different, obviously
Speaker 1: from Freddy Kitchens and previous incarnations, was this sense that
Speaker 1: when the players hit in April that it is going
Speaker 1: to be all business that they they had come They
Speaker 1: said they had basically spent these weeks and months coming
Speaker 1: up with specific projects and um very specific must reach
Speaker 1: goals for all key players. Where I think that that
Speaker 1: was the reason the shift happened this offseason, that those
Speaker 1: goals and that level of sort of sober approach to
Speaker 1: all football was utterly missing under Freddie Kitchens and company,
Speaker 1: and that is entirely gone. So if you want to vibe,
Speaker 1: I got a vibe of football. First, we're not here
Speaker 1: to win the press conference. They didn't. They're both very eloquent,
Speaker 1: and I thought they did a nice job, but it
Speaker 1: wasn't like, yeah, oh wow, these personalities, I must go
Speaker 1: spend time with them. I think that they were holding
Speaker 1: back on their personality. I was embedded in a in
Speaker 1: a walk and talk with Chris Wesseling and Mark on
Speaker 1: the way over here, and the more secrets are you
Speaker 1: gonna what are you going to share? What's not gonna
Speaker 1: too fast and loose with embedded branding? Okay, specific I'm
Speaker 1: just saying. I'm just saying there was some concern or
Speaker 1: at least notice that Stefanski was more slight of frame
Speaker 1: than you expect. Think an observation with well he you
Speaker 1: see him on the sideline and then I think, you
Speaker 1: know his whole persona he comes across. We heard from
Speaker 1: Mina Kimes that her husband these guys played high school football,
Speaker 1: like I expected a bigger dude, maybe five hundred and sixty,
Speaker 1: I don't know, not not a big man looking man,
Speaker 1: by the way, good looking man. Any other embedded takeaways
Speaker 1: before I don't I don't want to steal from what
Speaker 1: maybe hotter information from the other embedded camps. Right, What
Speaker 1: did you think was the biggest story. I think he
Speaker 1: meant the Browns, I'm saying. I think that's I've dumped
Speaker 1: the notebook on a Brown on back to back Browns.
Speaker 1: That did not tell me as much as I wanted
Speaker 1: to know. Let's get in bedded with the New York Giants.
Speaker 1: I mean, when you get inbedded with one team, you
Speaker 1: want to get in bed with the other and uh,
Speaker 1: the Giants today, I just want to get in bed.
Speaker 1: Joe Judge would not be a fun um coach. I
Speaker 1: think cover from the initial um, how many handshakes did
Speaker 1: he give out today? No handshakes today? Famously gave handshakes
Speaker 1: out to everyone that is introducted. There was there was
Speaker 1: a lot going on without him saying anything. One started
Speaker 1: the press conference incredibly early that he was he was
Speaker 1: the first one of the day and and he started
Speaker 1: eight or nine minutes earlier. Something like that. They Tom
Speaker 1: Coughlin time, um trying to be cool still to have
Speaker 1: it out for the Giants. I like, I want the
Speaker 1: I want this post um, you know, this post Eli
Speaker 1: Giants to be interesting, and they might be, but it's
Speaker 1: an interesting situation right now in February, because he literally
Speaker 1: said he's not going to speak about any player, not
Speaker 1: on any player on other teams, on his own team,
Speaker 1: he won't say his quarterbacks name. He would not say
Speaker 1: his quarterbacks. So the whole thirty minutes. But one my
Speaker 1: one of my takeaways from this embedded um you know
Speaker 1: exercise was that Joe Judge is wearing the pants in
Speaker 1: the relationship because Dave Gettleman, who loves to fly off
Speaker 1: the hand and who loves to say a lot of
Speaker 1: things and he said some funny things today, ultimately was
Speaker 1: going with Judge rules. So everyone, for some reason in
Speaker 1: the Giants press corps kept like asking the question, is
Speaker 1: Daniel Jones you're starting quarterback? Well, of course he's there
Speaker 1: starting quarterback. Stop it. But because Joe Judge wouldn't say
Speaker 1: Daniel Jones name and was doing stupid, so stupid, and
Speaker 1: it was doing the whole thing where it's like we
Speaker 1: gotta have competition at every position that for whatever reason,
Speaker 1: half the Giants press corps got all excited about that
Speaker 1: and was like, oh, do we have a quarterback controversy,
Speaker 1: which is obviously they're not drafting another quarterback with who
Speaker 1: get real, and Dave Gtelman even started getting annoyed at
Speaker 1: this these questions, but you could tell he had been
Speaker 1: almost trained by the Joe Judge philosophy and that so
Speaker 1: he wouldn't go there. And he just started, you know,
Speaker 1: personally naming uh the media guys by name, saying that's
Speaker 1: a bad job, you know, saying these questions are a
Speaker 1: bad job. But he wouldn't answer the questions. He did
Speaker 1: ask the question, well, who who was our starter in
Speaker 1: the last game of the season, you know, Daniel, Well,
Speaker 1: they're also one of the teams that came out absolutely
Speaker 1: set on fire at last last year's Combine with Too
Speaker 1: Hideous press conference, And as Dan mentioned, he was, you know,
Speaker 1: upset about the whole analytics thing. But it's funny, you know,
Speaker 1: he's trying to pretend like like just owned that he
Speaker 1: when he speaks about analytics, he still says, he's like, oh, yeah,
Speaker 1: we're we're doing the analytics. I mean, that's not really
Speaker 1: like you know what he's don't I don't talk about it.
Speaker 1: He's like, you know, we're we're doing it. We don't.
Speaker 1: We don't talk about it a lot, but we're doing it.
Speaker 1: We got that covered. He also says he's like, I've
Speaker 1: done studies on this. I don't have to answer every
Speaker 1: question at the coin, which is a funny answer. I
Speaker 1: like that. The thing that would annoy me, though, if
Speaker 1: I'm a giant sand more than anything, was him repeatedly
Speaker 1: going defense wins defense. Run down to that drove me.
Speaker 1: Not defense wins championship, defense wins championships, and offense, you know,
Speaker 1: offense it's there, and he immediately mentions the Super Bowl
Speaker 1: stat where when the number one defense plays the number
Speaker 1: one offense, the number one defense wins. Well, that's a
Speaker 1: that's a stupid stat it's a it's not that's that
Speaker 1: that tells you no longer relevant much about anything. It's
Speaker 1: it's a tiny sample size, and it's just I'm not
Speaker 1: saying defense doesn't matter. Of course it matters. By the way,
Speaker 1: Dave Gentelman has been there for a few years. Their
Speaker 1: defense is terrible, so he he has to bear the
Speaker 1: weight of that. And he's mentioned he's trying to put
Speaker 1: it on the previous gms that look, we don't have
Speaker 1: these giants veterans that have been there a long time
Speaker 1: that are true New York giants, And okay that that's fine,
Speaker 1: but you haven't really brought too many and you've had
Speaker 1: a couple of decent draft picks, but you've moved a
Speaker 1: bunch of veterans off. It's one of the most talent
Speaker 1: power teams in the league. Embedded take us deeper, now,
Speaker 1: Greg I was one thing. Another thing that I was surprised,
Speaker 1: but Judge was not commanding the microphone and maybe he's
Speaker 1: just not experienced with the combine. But Thomas de mit
Speaker 1: Draft was right next to him. He showed up on time.
Speaker 1: I mean he started, he was eleven. He's gonna start
Speaker 1: a looking Joe Judge when he's speaking stayed again because
Speaker 1: eight guys spoke at the same time at that opening,
Speaker 1: and it was only two or three two or three early.
Speaker 1: Well also, but okay, de meet Draft's voice. You couldn't
Speaker 1: hear Joe Judge because the meat Drops voice was so
Speaker 1: booming and he was next door. This was a problem.
Speaker 1: This was a problem with several people because it's too
Speaker 1: crowded now and they have too many guys going at
Speaker 1: the same time. It's hard to get close enough to
Speaker 1: ask the questions, and it's hard to hear one guy
Speaker 1: when the other guy shouting him down from I think
Speaker 1: the Giants Press Corps has the same um level of
Speaker 1: let's see how this goes that the Jets Press Court
Speaker 1: did a year ago. One Joe Judge hired the same
Speaker 1: staff that he was going to hire at Mississippi State.
Speaker 1: Whether that's good or bad, whatever, it's a it's a
Speaker 1: unique staff that they're looking at. And then I do
Speaker 1: like the one thing it gave away that I appreciate
Speaker 1: was all the coaches are living in the same The
Speaker 1: Giants coaches are living in the same apartment complex right
Speaker 1: near the facility, so they're all just like living together
Speaker 1: and everything is together. It kind of reminds me of
Speaker 1: that Mike Pettons a couple of teams do that, But
Speaker 1: I think that's because that speaks to organization and flux.
Speaker 1: You're not all buying homes scattered all over come on throughout.
Speaker 1: This would be a good reality show here, like the
Speaker 1: you know what are they doing at nine nine pm
Speaker 1: at night in the old Do you think Judge works
Speaker 1: with with today's type of players speak speaking to the
Speaker 1: way you are about him, and then you've got gentleman
Speaker 1: who have never heard a GM disdain offense the way
Speaker 1: that he does. It just seems like an odd fit
Speaker 1: with the today's millennials. He won't even say his roommates,
Speaker 1: last coaches names until they prove himself to him. I
Speaker 1: don't know about that thing. Come on, what something with
Speaker 1: these some of these guys, it's just ridiculous. First round
Speaker 1: pick last year, who thrived at points last season, the
Speaker 1: franchise legend quarterback just retired. You know what, we don't
Speaker 1: have to get cut here and not bring up Daniel
Speaker 1: Jones everybody, don't you These guys strategize before they come
Speaker 1: into these combined pressers, which one of the infrequent times
Speaker 1: you speak all offseason. What an odd tactical? Well, he
Speaker 1: he said, you know, and he really spent most of
Speaker 1: his press conference explaining this policy, and like that so bad.
Speaker 1: The explanation was essentially, I want these players to know
Speaker 1: that there's no preference in the I'll have a clean
Speaker 1: slate and so that when they get you know that
Speaker 1: I'm not making any opinion on them until But the
Speaker 1: way you said it, like that's fine, but to hammer
Speaker 1: at home relentlessly stop me. Have you heard this before?
Speaker 1: Belichick disciple goes to a new city and immediately has
Speaker 1: an identity crisis because he thinks he's Bill Belichick, yet
Speaker 1: he hasn't earned the stripes yet like Belichick as opposed
Speaker 1: to like let's say Mike Rabel, who you know, played
Speaker 1: under Belichick and he has a certain confidence, uh swagger.
Speaker 1: You would even say he doesn't care what he says
Speaker 1: up there. He's given reporters the business people are asking
Speaker 1: about Tom Brady. I couldn't believe it. He was talking
Speaker 1: about Tom Brady a ton. He wasn't worried about that
Speaker 1: at all. We've talked about it, and everyone's talked about
Speaker 1: it for years. Andy Reid has such a successful coaching
Speaker 1: tree that he's known as the godfather the Bill Belichick
Speaker 1: coaching tree. It's like when you take I don't know
Speaker 1: if anyone's ever had to move a tree or a
Speaker 1: hearty plant and try to put it elsewhere on the
Speaker 1: property and you hope that the roots take, but it
Speaker 1: just ends with a really brittle but odd man. That's
Speaker 1: what it feels like with this Belichick coaching change. He's
Speaker 1: the only guy. Brian Flores did a nice job. He's
Speaker 1: gotta get a little credit. He's gotta get just like
Speaker 1: a spind your credit for like the greatest college football
Speaker 1: coach of the last thirty years. I mean that Nick Saban,
Speaker 1: well not if you're only talking about the NFL. I'm
Speaker 1: just saying that that that counts for something. Let's stick
Speaker 1: anything else in your in bed. I think that's it
Speaker 1: for the inbedding. Okay, just embedded, all right, we'll stick
Speaker 1: with the New York teams. Adam Gay said absolutely absolutely nothing,
Speaker 1: uh of interest I found. I think he was how
Speaker 1: was the body language though in the overall president you
Speaker 1: know how he is. He's got the hat pulled down low,
Speaker 1: he's wearing he kind of was dressed like a dad
Speaker 1: going golfing. He was wearing all Nike gear, but no
Speaker 1: Jets branded gear up. I saw a lot of double
Speaker 1: zippers today, like another coat over it with the doubles,
Speaker 1: and I think they're getting their swags, some of them
Speaker 1: getting their free swag and starting to pile on um.
Speaker 1: But he basically kind of kept things close to the vest.
Speaker 1: He he Someone asked about Sam Darnald and you know
Speaker 1: the issues with the health last year, and Gay said,
Speaker 1: we'll be nice. We are past the mono thing. Got
Speaker 1: that thing checked off health wise. Saw Sam Donald. He
Speaker 1: looked healthy to me. We oh, we have to touch
Speaker 1: on that um. But right now we're in my in
Speaker 1: bed and then we're gonna get to your airport adventure
Speaker 1: the lead um. Then right after as Gaye left, he
Speaker 1: did have some dip in his back pockets jeans, so
Speaker 1: maybe this is not healthy. He was not the coach
Speaker 1: that we saw. He was not that coach. But now
Speaker 1: we have one guy that's scooping and slamming into the
Speaker 1: garbage can and then gaze clear. Now it could have
Speaker 1: been Bubble Team. You know that that candy You could
Speaker 1: have been that too. I don't know. I think you'll
Speaker 1: see this as a they haven't. I don't know it was.
Speaker 1: It wasn't ninety two. I don't know if it still is.
Speaker 1: Joe Douglas follows him immediately and the GM. Actually, you
Speaker 1: could get some real information on Joe Douglas. He looks
Speaker 1: like a country star. I know nothing of country music,
Speaker 1: but there are these hardy, beefy guys with beards that
Speaker 1: are very successful in the country music scene. Like, we
Speaker 1: don't have to work on his name. He don't have
Speaker 1: to be like Blake Doug. Yeah, he needs to work
Speaker 1: on that. But like I think, like Eric Church, have
Speaker 1: you seen have you ever heard or seen Eric Church
Speaker 1: or Chris Stapleton or these guys, he kind of looks
Speaker 1: like that type of vibe. Uh and uh. In terms
Speaker 1: of news elements, this Jamal Adams thing is something can
Speaker 1: continue to watch. He said, the plan is for Jamal
Speaker 1: to be a jet for life and they are in
Speaker 1: preliminary uh talks. When he said that, I got a
Speaker 1: nice little snapshot. This is a little in bed heat
Speaker 1: right here, how and the beats are different, and it's
Speaker 1: so interesting to beat at this event and see the
Speaker 1: difference level in competition on the beat. So if you
Speaker 1: are at the Cincinnati Bengals podium, as I was for
Speaker 1: Zach Taylor today and I'll get to that a little
Speaker 1: bit later, pretty laid back, pretty laid back podium, and
Speaker 1: the crowd around it is fairly sparse. At one point
Speaker 1: Dan and I were about of the crowd and I left.
Speaker 1: But just the Jets beat is very competitive. It has
Speaker 1: some guys that people know there's been some homicides inside
Speaker 1: that things have happened on that jet beat. We have
Speaker 1: our good buddy Connor or who, by the way, terrible
Speaker 1: news that I got during the middle of these press
Speaker 1: conferences at texts from Connor Or, who came down with
Speaker 1: the flu was going to be on this show, didn't
Speaker 1: even get on the plane. I changed to a darier're
Speaker 1: gonna have Connor, and now we will not have Connor,
Speaker 1: and we will not have him at st Elmo, which
Speaker 1: is just crushing. That is, he's a big st almost boost.
Speaker 1: He's a glue guy too. He's a huge glue guy.
Speaker 1: And to lose Connor, I I feel like Greg's sentiment
Speaker 1: where he tries to like put down the gathering without
Speaker 1: Connor there to counterbalance. It happened. I'm worried that we're
Speaker 1: gonna lose the ship here. It happened one time that
Speaker 1: I was just like, it's a good it's a great experience,
Speaker 1: but like, we don't have to pretend that the sneak
Speaker 1: is is fantastic, to which I said, it's not about
Speaker 1: the meat. It's about the meat. It's about the meat.
Speaker 1: That's fair. I'm sorry. We got the Jets, the Jets,
Speaker 1: the Jets. Connor Or used to work the Jets beat
Speaker 1: and he told me some crazy stories. When Joe Douglas
Speaker 1: says the plan is for Jamal to be a jet
Speaker 1: for life, I saw two Jets beat scribes. Uh, that's
Speaker 1: the real thing. Uh. The Connor Hughes of The Athletic
Speaker 1: and Miniche Meta of the Daily News get into you know,
Speaker 1: they're standard standing about six inches away from each other
Speaker 1: in a race to get the tweet up. First the
Speaker 1: phone comes out of the back pocket, bang, and then
Speaker 1: you're typing, typing, typing send. And I'd love to check
Speaker 1: and I will not, but imagine I believe. I believe
Speaker 1: Connor Hughes beat Miniche by mere seconds and that had
Speaker 1: to hurt concerned for the Hughes family if that's true.
Speaker 1: The rough offseason continues um and less. Note on the
Speaker 1: Jets positive comments about Levyan Bell from all parties. They're
Speaker 1: trying to, you know, kill that story or the report
Speaker 1: he having. I think they're they feel like we're stuck
Speaker 1: with them for another year. Then they're hopefully Adam Gates
Speaker 1: is taking the smart tact of no longer trying to
Speaker 1: create headlines about the guy, just trying to get the
Speaker 1: most out of him. The Jets. It's very clear what
Speaker 1: we're gonna see from the Jets, uh this this offseason,
Speaker 1: and they they have a I believe they could be
Speaker 1: in the running for quote unquote winning the offseason as well,
Speaker 1: because their their needs are kind of high profile. They
Speaker 1: need wide receivers. Uh, they need an edge rusher, they
Speaker 1: need cornerback help, they need line help. But so those
Speaker 1: four spots that they need, I think wide receiver, especially
Speaker 1: somewhere where they're gonna either go huge in the draft
Speaker 1: or make a big free agency or trade move. And
Speaker 1: Robbie Anderson the one guy there that people would have
Speaker 1: an interest in that's a free agent. He was asked
Speaker 1: directly as Robby Anderson a number one. Joe Douglas has
Speaker 1: asked I view him as a dynamic wide receiver who
Speaker 1: could take the roof off a lot of and a
Speaker 1: lot of teams are looking for that. He won't call
Speaker 1: him the number one because he's not. I think Robbie's gone.
Speaker 1: I think they are gonna completely reboot the weapons around
Speaker 1: Donald with Christopher Herndon a tight end and leave Bell
Speaker 1: in the backfield and an entirely new offensive line. And um,
Speaker 1: it's gonna be expensive, but they have the money and
Speaker 1: they have the draft resources with some trades imation. I
Speaker 1: wonder if they might be one of these teams that
Speaker 1: would look at Hayden Hurst on the Ravens because there's
Speaker 1: whispers that they love they love Herndon, so I think
Speaker 1: they're And you saw Sam Donald in the at the airport.
Speaker 1: I'm not done with my in bed, but then we're
Speaker 1: gonna do. Joe Douglas doesn't have a wedding ring on,
Speaker 1: so ladies, he's available. And that's it. Now let's get
Speaker 1: to it. Oh, last question, very common, last last comment.
Speaker 1: The last question Adam Gaze gets and Joe Douglas filed
Speaker 1: him directly at the same podium, was Hey, your boss,
Speaker 1: Joe Douglas. UH said that there needs to be better
Speaker 1: communication top to bottom UH in the organization. And Joe
Speaker 1: Douglas stopped and listened to Adam Gaze's answer, And I
Speaker 1: felt that Adam Gaze probably had Joe Douglas in his
Speaker 1: sightline when he was answering the question that publicly, UH
Speaker 1: put his head coach on the spot to be a
Speaker 1: little smarter and better in communication. That's some of the
Speaker 1: fun stuff that happens. Who is bosses? Who? Though? That
Speaker 1: is Joe Douglas Adams. That's true. It's very messy. All right,
Speaker 1: you met Sam Donald, my boy at l a X.
Speaker 1: Take us through it. This was one time, and it
Speaker 1: was very surreal. I went up to this um it
Speaker 1: delta at l A X has two terminals. One is new,
Speaker 1: brand new, international, beautiful. The other one is small and dumpy,
Speaker 1: and that's where I was. So I was totally shocked
Speaker 1: to see Sam Donald wheel like so much institutional knowledge
Speaker 1: of the delta structure at l A n Oh. I mean,
Speaker 1: it's don't get me started on that airport. But Sam
Speaker 1: Donald rolled in with um what seemed to be a
Speaker 1: manager agent handler type individual and they had purchased food
Speaker 1: somewhere else and they were sitting in this counter. Uh,
Speaker 1: and it was just me and the two of them,
Speaker 1: and you know, a couple of gabronees came up right
Speaker 1: away and wanted to shake hands with Sam Donald and
Speaker 1: he was he hadn't eaten yet. So I thought, that's
Speaker 1: you broke code. That you broke code there. You gotta
Speaker 1: let him eat his meal. Coronavirus stuff too, like do
Speaker 1: we need all this stuff? And but Darnald here was
Speaker 1: my takeaway. Could not have been any nicer people. Well,
Speaker 1: now what I did was I acted completely disinterested, as
Speaker 1: if I had no idea that he was. I made
Speaker 1: no eye contact and all I looked at was I
Speaker 1: waited until they were both completely done with their food,
Speaker 1: paid their check and they were about to get up
Speaker 1: and leave, and I walked over and just basically explained
Speaker 1: I'm from this you know podcast, blah blah blah NFL network,
Speaker 1: and like, you know, before their eyes are glazing you over.
Speaker 1: I had like ten seconds here, I jumped in, I
Speaker 1: really wanted you to be there in place of me,
Speaker 1: and saying that because it was a weird thing. Uh
Speaker 1: it had it happened to you, it would have been
Speaker 1: like a life changing moment. I think that was loud.
Speaker 1: That was okay, Dan. Anyways, I I I was like,
Speaker 1: I have to get this photo, and I think I
Speaker 1: was texting you guys being like should I try to
Speaker 1: get this photo? And no one's responding something. I'm just
Speaker 1: gonna either do this and two things are gonna happen.
Speaker 1: Either one, he's gonna say yes and I'm gonna love
Speaker 1: him from now until the end of time, or he's
Speaker 1: gonna blow me off and I'll never forget it the
Speaker 1: rest of my life. And he happily took a photo
Speaker 1: with me, which I basically and it did not Yeah,
Speaker 1: I'm not gonna be completely sold on anyone because of this,
Speaker 1: but I might be a little bit. And he kind
Speaker 1: of blowed me over as one of the nicer NFL
Speaker 1: players I've ever encountered. So he seems like a nice guy.
Speaker 1: He's a California USC star obviously, so a lot of
Speaker 1: people that airport probably were going up to him. Uh
Speaker 1: during that time. That's it's must be weird like you
Speaker 1: in London, Mark, like you just had to reduce my
Speaker 1: voyages over there. Um, all right, we let's go a
Speaker 1: little speed round where we've all done our embeddeds now right, Um,
Speaker 1: all right, little speed round other takeaways from the day,
Speaker 1: and then just there so everybody knows we have a
Speaker 1: lot more coming up from Indianapolis. Um, in fact, we
Speaker 1: have I don't know, I already have regrets about this,
Speaker 1: but Move the Sticks is on our show tomorrow. We're
Speaker 1: gonna speak with him, uh, and we're gonna try to
Speaker 1: get some other guests in the mix for tomorrow show.
Speaker 1: Maybe get Connie Fox in here and get our final
Speaker 1: entries to the Connie Fox Fox Song Challenge before making
Speaker 1: a announcement next week on the Winner, and um, we'll
Speaker 1: do some more um combine talk kind of looking ahead
Speaker 1: it from it from a draft perspective that's coming up tomorrow.
Speaker 1: Uh from indian Also a reminder to everyone that the
Speaker 1: top one on one free agents piece by the Scientist
Speaker 1: is live, and we'll be doing a mini show uh
Speaker 1: hitting that and kind of digging into the list, and
Speaker 1: you'll get that a little later in the week. So
Speaker 1: we've got a lot of content, uh, emanating out of
Speaker 1: beautiful Indianapolis. All right, takeaways? How about that John always
Speaker 1: the only guy on the scheduled press conference list with
Speaker 1: the star next to his name where it says tentative
Speaker 1: that it could be moved to a different time. And
Speaker 1: then throughout the morning there was just occasional updates of Okay,
Speaker 1: John always gonna be here at this time, and then
Speaker 1: it was like, okay, John always gonna be at this
Speaker 1: podium at twelve twenty, and then it was like, actually, no,
Speaker 1: John always not gonna be here. Now he's gonna move
Speaker 1: his podium over here. This preferential treatment is for John,
Speaker 1: saying no one else, no one else gets that treatment,
Speaker 1: even in a in a sea of very famous figures,
Speaker 1: he gets sort of this this special diva treatment that
Speaker 1: no one else can I point out, and he did
Speaker 1: eventually speaking West and I. It's a nice little moment.
Speaker 1: West and I both grew up, you know, his die
Speaker 1: hard NFL fans and if you are of a certain age,
Speaker 1: always a legendary figure. He's an icon. As much as
Speaker 1: fun as I have with him as a management figure
Speaker 1: on this podcast, he's one of those guys. He's one
Speaker 1: of those dudes that's just like an icon. And uh,
Speaker 1: you know, he always seemed a little refreshed. This year
Speaker 1: he had a different kind of look to him than
Speaker 1: in past years at this event. Normally his voice is
Speaker 1: like a croak, as if he had been in the
Speaker 1: bar for like seventeen hours a night before, and who
Speaker 1: knows if he has, But this time he did look fresh,
Speaker 1: and you sort of called him John Wayne. This is
Speaker 1: a man. What a life. This guy's lad beginning with
Speaker 1: being like one of the best quarterback prospects in the
Speaker 1: history of the game, his dad being his coach, orchestrating
Speaker 1: the trade away from the Colts, ending up in Denver,
Speaker 1: dragging some bad teams to the Super Bowl, then actually
Speaker 1: winning some super Bowls, then winning Super Bowl is a GM.
Speaker 1: This guy has done everything. He's like like he really
Speaker 1: am I really gonna sweat brock oswild or it's like,
Speaker 1: give me a break. He's not gonna worry about his
Speaker 1: little bad decisions here there he he uh. He made
Speaker 1: sure to say that Drew Lock though, is their guy
Speaker 1: about as you know, aggressively as he could that that
Speaker 1: it feels different being here knowing that they have their quarterback,
Speaker 1: which is like, wow, I'll give you a couple of
Speaker 1: little things. I know that I had one because I was,
Speaker 1: I had Fongio, I sat on a suppressor. Since so
Speaker 1: we're here. When when they talked about Lock is our guy,
Speaker 1: and Faggio was on board with that as well. Um,
Speaker 1: when they said about who's gonna be behind him, he
Speaker 1: mentioned Rip and Alan and and Alan is Brandon Allen
Speaker 1: Rip is Brett Rippon or yeah Rippen right sat Mark
Speaker 1: Rippin y yep uh. Joe Flacco didn't even get mentioned.
Speaker 1: So that tells you everything you need to know. Not
Speaker 1: not that anybody thought that Flacco was in the Broncos plans,
Speaker 1: but even to the point where Fongio Fogio when he's
Speaker 1: just like stream of consciousness, he's not even on the radar,
Speaker 1: So just expect that to quickly come off the bot.
Speaker 1: I think they've seen the light. I the one thing
Speaker 1: I take away about the combine is that and this
Speaker 1: is I include myself number one at the top of
Speaker 1: the list. It is late February. Um, people have been
Speaker 1: through hell covering football for the last four or five months.
Speaker 1: I mean a first class version of help. But they
Speaker 1: no one could look any worse, every journal and everyone involved.
Speaker 1: It looks absolutely as bad as to look all year long. Pasty.
Speaker 1: I mean, some of the smells coming off of some
Speaker 1: of these people this morning were unbelievable. And there was
Speaker 1: the one guy every combine, the one guy who's working
Speaker 1: on I think piece and roved from individual to individual
Speaker 1: with the hot question about why aren't there as many
Speaker 1: left handed quarterbacks as right handed quarterbacks? And I mean,
Speaker 1: I'm sure it'll be a wonderful piece, but just having
Speaker 1: to this guy got into my hemisphere like fourteen times.
Speaker 1: And you have fifteen minutes, the assembled media has fifteen
Speaker 1: minutes with these coaches and gms. And when this when
Speaker 1: the Jabronies get on their feature piece, especially when it
Speaker 1: happens when it's the two more of for coach and
Speaker 1: then this JABRONI rolls in and asked two questions about
Speaker 1: left handed quarterbacks, and it's like, oh, so now we
Speaker 1: don't get multiple questions that we could have been addressing
Speaker 1: important things about the team for that guy's piece. I
Speaker 1: think sixteen answers for lefty quarterbacks was enough. You don't
Speaker 1: It's like they're all boring quotes or history. It's a
Speaker 1: selfish social faux pap because there's a general rule the
Speaker 1: questions being asked or for the whole group, we can
Speaker 1: all get answers out of him. But this guy's coming
Speaker 1: along with something that nobody else is getting answers out
Speaker 1: of accept him. I I also just like the deep
Speaker 1: wide receiver class guy every every every coach get, every
Speaker 1: coach gets. It is a pretty deep, wet hyper pun.
Speaker 1: I was surprised at at Mike Rabels presser, no one
Speaker 1: asked about Tannehill or Brady for a solid five, six,
Speaker 1: seven minutes, And maybe it was because they all know
Speaker 1: Rabel enough that when he went to the side, which
Speaker 1: I followed with and he did talk about Brady a little,
Speaker 1: he was golden and he's like he's getting after people
Speaker 1: when he doesn't like the question, but in a fun way.
Speaker 1: But letting you know who the alpha is. Like, like,
Speaker 1: so one kind of mentioned a question about their offense
Speaker 1: needing to improve and like where where they needed improve,
Speaker 1: and he was like, well, I don't know. He's like,
Speaker 1: you seem to know a lot about what our team needs.
Speaker 1: And the other guy was just like Hama, Hama. He's like,
Speaker 1: he's like, well, we were we had seven yards for
Speaker 1: play that was second in the league. I guess that
Speaker 1: seemed pretty good to me. But if if Rabel was
Speaker 1: trying to make anyone I think that they were bringing
Speaker 1: back Tannehill or that he was closing the door, it's
Speaker 1: like it really felt like he was making it clear
Speaker 1: that their options are open and maybe Brady would be
Speaker 1: someone they were would be interested. They asked about his
Speaker 1: relationship and he's like, my relationships undefeated, like this guy
Speaker 1: can't beat me, and saying that, you know, they go
Speaker 1: back and forth. They practiced together, and he extolled all
Speaker 1: the positives of Brady uh in terms of preparing for him,
Speaker 1: and was very, very noncommittal despite Ryan Tannehill's excellent second
Speaker 1: half of the season. Maybe that's negotiating or maybe not.
Speaker 1: I think we have to remember that all these guys
Speaker 1: worked for thirty two owners who you know, outside of
Speaker 1: anyone with any quarterback question, that owner would love to
Speaker 1: have Tom Brady on the team, no matter what stage
Speaker 1: of his career he's in. UM. Some quick takeaways Zach Taylor,
Speaker 1: As I said, I sat in on that press or.
Speaker 1: I didn't ask. I don't tend to ask a ton
Speaker 1: of questions because I get self conscious about stepping on
Speaker 1: the beat writer's toes. But when it's as quiet as
Speaker 1: the Cincinnati area was, UM, I had to jump in
Speaker 1: and asked about A. J. Green. I asked him. I
Speaker 1: asked Zach Taylor, how confident he is that A. J.
Speaker 1: Green is a banngle in week one? He said, very
Speaker 1: confident and uh and it And then I asked the
Speaker 1: follow up question and he, you know, said a lot
Speaker 1: of you know, positives about Green and there was a
Speaker 1: there's a report out there that Green might be unhappy
Speaker 1: and he might want out. So I don't know if
Speaker 1: this is a situation where it's like, you know, put
Speaker 1: it in pen, but I did. It does make sense
Speaker 1: why Zach Zach Taylor, who didn't get to enjoy any
Speaker 1: of the spoils of having A. J. Green in his
Speaker 1: first year as a coach is gonna want that guy
Speaker 1: in the building. And he spoke, um, you know, in
Speaker 1: a in a way that made me think that he
Speaker 1: will be there. Uh. Dave Caldwell GM of the Jaguars,
Speaker 1: they were asked about Gardner means you, you you and Nick Foles,
Speaker 1: and I just thought it was interesting that, Um, he
Speaker 1: did point. He did make a point to say he
Speaker 1: likes an off schedule QB, which was a buzzword. I
Speaker 1: heard a couple of times buzz phrase which it would
Speaker 1: be Gardener meanshu and off schedule means a guy that
Speaker 1: can make plays when the pocket gets muddy. That is
Speaker 1: not Nick Foles nearly as much as it is Gardner
Speaker 1: means you. But they were two guys and they will compete.
Speaker 1: It sounded like, but who knows. He made it sound
Speaker 1: to me that they are very excited about Minshew and
Speaker 1: how he could fit with Jake Gruden. He kept. He
Speaker 1: pointed out that Minshew had better stats than Kyler Murray
Speaker 1: and Daniel Jones in his opinion, um that he had
Speaker 1: the best rookie stats of of any quarterback, that that
Speaker 1: the wind like winds are the most important quarterback stat
Speaker 1: and Gardner Minshew, oh don't tell half of Twitter that, right, um,
Speaker 1: but just the support and love in his eyes that
Speaker 1: he thought that that was a quarterback that they could
Speaker 1: build around. He used those words and then he threw
Speaker 1: in a couple of things that you know, obligatory about Folds.
Speaker 1: But he certainly sounded like they wanna they want to
Speaker 1: move forward with with Minshew, and they weren't sure if
Speaker 1: they would bring clay As Gambell back depending on some
Speaker 1: other moves. I love the Chiefs came out very strong
Speaker 1: on wanting to do whatever it takes to keep Chris
Speaker 1: Jones and also when asked about Sammy Watkins, Andy Reid
Speaker 1: said that Sammy's in a good place, a great place,
Speaker 1: and basically said he didn't really understand what um walking,
Speaker 1: what what the retirement hubbub was about the comments he
Speaker 1: made making it sound like we're good with him. James
Speaker 1: Palmer indicated on our network today that in les Watkins
Speaker 1: is going to take a pay cut, then he's probably
Speaker 1: not gonna then he's not going to be a member
Speaker 1: of that To that point, said that they hope to
Speaker 1: quote bridge at gap with Sammy Watkins, so that means
Speaker 1: take a haircut. Industry car Lance uh, lose some of
Speaker 1: that money that that he has coming his way. I
Speaker 1: think with Zach Taylor, when you hear that a j
Speaker 1: Green quote, you immediately think, okay, well, they're definitely tagging
Speaker 1: him like they do telegraph some tags. Matthew jude On
Speaker 1: I think is getting tagged based on what the Costa said.
Speaker 1: Chris Jones is getting tagged. Justin Simmons mentioned Justin Simmons.
Speaker 1: John Elway just flat out said they're gonna tag him
Speaker 1: if they can't get a deal. And then Hunter Henry
Speaker 1: was the other one where Tom Tilesko didn't say it
Speaker 1: but basically said that that's when I and Corey Littleton
Speaker 1: in in Los Angeles. I don't think that would be
Speaker 1: a huge shock the numbers so high, uh for them
Speaker 1: to tag him, but they bade it clear kind of
Speaker 1: he's their priority, maybe over Dante Fowler and Michael Brocker's
Speaker 1: and that they're gonna bring back Andrew Worth to Speaking
Speaker 1: of Talsco, let me ask you guys a question. Who
Speaker 1: is Kyle Smith. He's that guy he's with Washington Football
Speaker 1: Franchise in as President of player Personnel role. He's basically
Speaker 1: their Duke Tobin who does the same thing for the Bengals.
Speaker 1: Yet they won't call him a GM. But Kyle Smith
Speaker 1: is working handing glove with Ron Rivera now and they're
Speaker 1: running the show. Kyle Smith is running the draft. But
Speaker 1: he here's an interesting fact. Not only is he the
Speaker 1: son of a GM, A J. Smith long time, I
Speaker 1: think tang years a GM in the NFL. UM went
Speaker 1: to the same high school in Buffalo as Tom Talasco
Speaker 1: Chargers GM, David Caldwell Jaguars GM, Chris Pullian, NFL executive
Speaker 1: and son of Bill Pollian UH and Brian Dable, offensive
Speaker 1: coordinator of the Bills. They all went to St. Francis
Speaker 1: High School. UH. And he did talk about Dwayne Haskins
Speaker 1: more effusive praise than I would have expected. Said, I'm
Speaker 1: really excited about Dwayne. Everyone saw how he ascended in
Speaker 1: the second half of last year. I didn't expect the
Speaker 1: word as sending about Dwayne Haskins. The whole building is
Speaker 1: excited about him. He's got the right stuff. We think
Speaker 1: he's got a bright future. They love Dwayne hask The
Speaker 1: most difficult clock, you know, the term clock recognized or whatever.
Speaker 1: See Kyle Smith was there. Duke Tobin, Erica Costa. These
Speaker 1: all guys you just mentioned David Caldwell. That was my
Speaker 1: most difficult to clock list when I saw them. Either
Speaker 1: I didn't know who they were or it took me
Speaker 1: a minute to piece it together based on what they
Speaker 1: were saying. And they all they you all just mentioned
Speaker 1: those guys. They're all a bunch of generic bros. Well
Speaker 1: Da Costa did not go to this school to LESCo
Speaker 1: and and David Caldwell. But yeah, Kyle Smith, I had
Speaker 1: never seen him before. I didn't know what he looked like,
Speaker 1: but he's a confident guy. Obviously knows football really well. Uh.
Speaker 1: Smith kind of uh you know, built one of the
Speaker 1: most talented rosters of the last twenty years and then
Speaker 1: blew it up. Part of the controversial because of his
Speaker 1: ego got out of control and like they were fighting
Speaker 1: for credit with Marty Schottenheimer. I'm gonna blow through like
Speaker 1: one note things because we tried to hit almost every team,
Speaker 1: if not every team. Uh Doug, did we say Doug
Speaker 1: Peterson wants Jason Peters back. Uh? Peterson also said there's
Speaker 1: quote no issue between Alston, Jeffrey and Carson when we
Speaker 1: also said they're ready to spend after after a few
Speaker 1: years keeping what they had that this begins a three
Speaker 1: year period of building up spending interesting Steve Kim the
Speaker 1: Cardinals GM on David Johnson. David's a guy that because
Speaker 1: of his work ethic, because of his ability to create
Speaker 1: mismatches in the passing game, He's a guy that we
Speaker 1: still value. So it sounds like they want to bring
Speaker 1: it back. Or maybe it's just the financial reality that
Speaker 1: they're stuck with him. We'll see. He's also kind, He's dropped,
Speaker 1: He's dropped a significant amount of LBSS and he showed
Speaker 1: up um in kind of tight jeans. They were what
Speaker 1: do they call those ankle cut jeans and uh like
Speaker 1: a cool Henley. This is Steve kinbam lbs is is
Speaker 1: one of the worst shortenings for town. In the bottom,
Speaker 1: it's like three more and to top off the outfit.
Speaker 1: The outfit he was wearing Louis Baton slip on shoes,
Speaker 1: Louis Baton. Did you expect the combine? His version of
Speaker 1: you knowing? I think the difference there would be come
Speaker 1: has always dressed fairly well. I don't think I have
Speaker 1: always his wardrobe. Packers coach Matt Lafleur never a doubt
Speaker 1: about keeping Mike Petton after that disastrous NFC title game. Uh,
Speaker 1: Bob Quinn to Matthew Stafford, We're not trading you, period.
Speaker 1: Matt Patricia interested. I was checking out, Patricia, Um, the
Speaker 1: pencil is tucked behind the ear even at this event. Uh.
Speaker 1: And then I was thinking about the pencil. It's a
Speaker 1: yellow pencil, like a standard nineteen fifties classroom pencil. He
Speaker 1: has to bring those, He has to pack those. It's
Speaker 1: his brand. What happens if he forgets them? Does he
Speaker 1: have to send an intern to like a write aid
Speaker 1: in Indianapolis? I mean, you put him in your back back.
Speaker 1: How hard is that? But the fact that he has
Speaker 1: to pack the pencils for it's almost like a costume
Speaker 1: he's wearing at all forced. It feels it feels like
Speaker 1: a don't you pack pack pens wherever you go? Maybe not? Well,
Speaker 1: I don't. It's not a part of my fashion. John
Speaker 1: Lynch on Jimmy Garoppolo. He has not come close to
Speaker 1: hitting his ceiling. Did I tell you that? I think
Speaker 1: that Adam Gates had dip in his back pocket, but
Speaker 1: it could have been bubble tape. I got that and
Speaker 1: my one one kind of a vague takeaway um or
Speaker 1: general takeaway from listening to all the coaches that I mentioned,
Speaker 1: what a joke that the Patriots aren't involved with this
Speaker 1: event over, you're not better than everyone else. I mean
Speaker 1: they're here. Get back in the press conference room. This
Speaker 1: league has officially leap frogged our league. Now. I don't
Speaker 1: know if you could say that in the broadcast booth.
Speaker 1: And we're gonna I'll be tracking this closely come September.
Speaker 1: But amongst the league personnel, this league is now the
Speaker 1: preferred nomaclacher over. I think even even with Aikman and
Speaker 1: a few others, towards the end of the year, they
Speaker 1: started to move off that. And that feels like producers
Speaker 1: with engagement on Twitter realizing like this is starting to
Speaker 1: become spiraling out of control and becoming cornery, corny, and
Speaker 1: telling them a production meetings, stop saying our league, and
Speaker 1: they shifted over to this league, which you mentioned. La
Speaker 1: Fleur ran into him uh in the elevator and then
Speaker 1: on the way to our floor in our hotel. He remembered, uh,
Speaker 1: he remembered his podcast appearance. I suggested that, you know,
Speaker 1: maybe that's what kicked off. It was good luck kicked
Speaker 1: off a good season. Did you bring up the or
Speaker 1: he just without no, I did not only that, I
Speaker 1: was like, I didn't even know he was in the
Speaker 1: elevator and I was doing the bad thing where I
Speaker 1: just had my head down and was on my phone
Speaker 1: and he uh and he um, you said hello to me,
Speaker 1: and it was it was great. And he's going now
Speaker 1: with You know, we've had different conversations about whether he
Speaker 1: looks young, looks he's now doing a permise stubble thing. Um,
Speaker 1: I think I think it's working. I've got some lightning
Speaker 1: round things. The Bucks are higher on O. J. Howard
Speaker 1: this year than they were last year when they weren't
Speaker 1: sure how he's gonna fit Bruce Arians. They love him
Speaker 1: as a blocker, think he's getting better as a receiver
Speaker 1: and knows the offense better. The Colts are high on
Speaker 1: Paris Campbell, have big expectations for him. I know that
Speaker 1: all the guys were injured at the end of last year.
Speaker 1: They love him and Carrie willis a safety. Chris Ballard
Speaker 1: mentioned him in the same sense as Quentin Nelson and
Speaker 1: Darius Leonard, a guy who stepped in Day one and
Speaker 1: was an NFL starter, and we think he's going to
Speaker 1: be that guy for a long time. They love him.
Speaker 1: I got a couple of quick ones Sean McVeigh didn't.
Speaker 1: He is awesome at this. We've seen this in person
Speaker 1: where without ever having met anyone who's asking the question,
Speaker 1: he knows everyone's full name and he and he is
Speaker 1: a skilled orator. But he talked up Darryl Henderson at
Speaker 1: running back and Tyler Higbee and I just feel like
Speaker 1: this Rams team because you know, McVeigh is ditching the
Speaker 1: combine and going back and working with his newly formed
Speaker 1: coaching staff, that they are, they understand it's some degree
Speaker 1: that they're in a bit of transition with elements of
Speaker 1: their offense. And he seemed very upbeat about the whole thing.
Speaker 1: And from the Falcons side, one note, John bones Fossil
Speaker 1: was on the same flight as McVeigh and less Need
Speaker 1: and the old user awkword awkward. I don't know if
Speaker 1: it was awkward, but I don't know. I would imagine
Speaker 1: we're still friends to some degree. Falcons letting Austin Hooper
Speaker 1: hit the market that well, that was that was announced
Speaker 1: that he said. He said, Hooper and Deveandre Campbell will
Speaker 1: hit the free agent, he will have suitors and didn't
Speaker 1: demetro of for I don't know who it was. Quinn
Speaker 1: say that McKinley, technically the option wasn't being picked up,
Speaker 1: and then apparently they backtracked on that one. So it's like,
Speaker 1: I don't know, I almost said something news were they
Speaker 1: must backtrack. So we'll say, hey, that's good Hunter Henry
Speaker 1: getting the franchise. That his great news for Austin who yeah,
Speaker 1: if they if that does happen, And we were kind
Speaker 1: of connecting the dots, he said that, you know, to
Speaker 1: LESCo the Chargers GM, saying that was a strong option
Speaker 1: for for Henry. Yeah, someone's gonna pay Austin Hooper a
Speaker 1: straordinary amount of money. Did I mention that Joe Douglas
Speaker 1: um thinks that Brian Winter's their guard really showed a
Speaker 1: lot of fight, uh, dealing with a very painful shoulder
Speaker 1: injury that he played through all season that made it
Speaker 1: through the filter. That's he's the only jet on the
Speaker 1: contract on that line, and what a warrior he was
Speaker 1: in twenty nineteen. Did I mention that no, okay, now
Speaker 1: I have anything else? All right, Mark's wearing a bathrobe
Speaker 1: now here comes the real test. Does he walk back
Speaker 1: to the hotel? All right, well, we'll have to update
Speaker 1: the listeners on Wednesday, show what happened? You have to
Speaker 1: walk with me, though I'm not walking like a loan
Speaker 1: like a loane nut would wait, why wouldn't we walk?
Speaker 1: Because I could see you society, Oh this isn't going
Speaker 1: well and like peeling off and suddenly oh, I'll be
Speaker 1: filming it. Okay, al right, West, you will be filming
Speaker 1: it for the A T N podcast on Instagram. Ricky,
Speaker 1: great work on the production. Thank you, thank you. There's
Speaker 1: that one Mark drop that injured us all perfectly me too,
Speaker 1: really really in a big spot. But we'll be all right.
Speaker 1: All right, Like I said, we're back tomorrow with a
Speaker 1: great show. Guests combine talk Andy and tonight's saying, almost
Speaker 1: steak dinner. Mark's going to get a big old t bone.
Speaker 1: He's breaking his diet, and he's saying, I'm embracing the
Speaker 1: world of flesh once again. Now, I I think the
Speaker 1: more clean prediction is I'll drop like a hundred and
Speaker 1: twenty dollars for a Caesar salad or something. You know.
Speaker 1: By the way, we were talking about this, Mark literally
Speaker 1: hasn't eaten all day, and now he's gonna just the
Speaker 1: idea that Mark is getting seated on the bill when
Speaker 1: you are making up the bill in other ways, I'll
Speaker 1: just put it that way you're making up. I mean,
Speaker 1: you know I have just them based on history. You
Speaker 1: find ways to get that tapped to rise. I mentioned
Speaker 1: Rodgers Rodes has a pretty em for us. So that's
Speaker 1: taking a big chunk, if not most of it out. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I didn't say sixty because someone's getting like, you know,
Speaker 1: pork butt with like extra shards of bone in it
Speaker 1: or something. Please excuse me. Do you have the pork
Speaker 1: button with extra shards of bone out of season and
Speaker 1: your pork but shards of bone? You're not cooking it
Speaker 1: right fresh out? All right, let's go. Dan Hands is
Speaker 1: signing off for doctor Quiet Storm. Do look like a
Speaker 1: doctor to the mailman? The old boss Rickey Hollywood from
Speaker 1: Lucas Oil Stadium, we say until tomorrow didn't attached to
Speaker 1: a round