Speaker 1: What's going on.
Speaker 2: This is Zia Franklin, linebacker the Annapolis Colts, and this
Speaker 2: is the NFL Report.
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, went over to the NFL Report. I'm Steve
Speaker 3: Weisch with my co pilot James Palmer. I'm not actually
Speaker 3: with my toe pilot. I'm in our LA studios James Palmer.
Speaker 3: He is in Indianapolis, resided Franklin the Colts play because
Speaker 3: he's there at the combine.
Speaker 4: It's that time of your JP.
Speaker 3: And on our show, we have got Andy Reid, the
Speaker 3: Chiefs head coach. We've got Brett Viach, the Chiefs general manager.
Speaker 3: We have got the information from Ryan Poles, the Bears
Speaker 3: general manager. And we're gonna be talking to Less Sneed,
Speaker 3: the Rams general manager. And Tom pelisera or NFL network insider.
Speaker 3: He's got some more for us too. Is a loaded show, JP.
Speaker 3: But since you are in Knaptown, tell us what's going
Speaker 3: down there.
Speaker 5: Well, Steve, let's start at the top, right, and that's
Speaker 5: starting at the top of this draft. Number one overall
Speaker 5: pick belongs to as you mentioned him, Ryan Poles, the
Speaker 5: general manager of the Chicago Bears. He's having several meetings
Speaker 5: I'm told with people obviously about Justin Fields obvious about
Speaker 5: people interested to trade up for that number one pick.
Speaker 5: To my understanding, Steve, some of those conversations are happening
Speaker 5: in the private suite that Ryan Poles has here that
Speaker 5: also includes a golf simulator.
Speaker 1: If he gets bored.
Speaker 4: I don't know.
Speaker 1: If he's like Tom Cruise and a few good men.
Speaker 5: He thinks better with his bat, but he's got a
Speaker 5: golf club there to swing well. He goes through some
Speaker 5: of these conversations and the biggest pick of the draft.
Speaker 5: So we had our very own friend of the show,
Speaker 5: Stacey DALs, have an exclusive conversation with Ryan Poles about
Speaker 5: that number one pick and about his current quarterback, Justin Fields.
Speaker 1: Roll of tape, Elsie.
Speaker 6: The one thing that's important for us is just continue
Speaker 6: to communicate and be transparent with Justin, and we'll continue
Speaker 6: to do that with him and his team, but we
Speaker 6: have to be open minded about everything. What you do
Speaker 6: appreciate about Justin is his leadership, his mindset that he's
Speaker 6: had over the last two years. Things have not been easy,
Speaker 6: but his stability, his confidence in himself, his leadership has
Speaker 6: continued to grow as we've gone along, and that makes
Speaker 6: all of these decisions so complicated because I care about
Speaker 6: the guy a lot too, so I mentioned it before.
Speaker 6: You know, no one likes to live in gray, right.
Speaker 6: You want to know where am I going? Am I
Speaker 6: staying here? All of those things. So we'll continue to communicate.
Speaker 6: But he has done a great job, just getting better
Speaker 6: every single year we've been together.
Speaker 7: Yeah, he had a career season really in terms of
Speaker 7: his numbers. What trade talks have come up around his name?
Speaker 4: Yeah? Nothing right now.
Speaker 6: I know some people have kind of touch base with
Speaker 6: different parts of my team, just kind of testing the water,
Speaker 6: seeing what's going on, but no serious conversations have happened
Speaker 6: right now. The question really is like can you pass
Speaker 6: on like the right quarterback?
Speaker 1: Right, so.
Speaker 6: That person's got to fit exactly what we need to
Speaker 6: be successful for a long period of time. And then
Speaker 6: when you talk about the contract, like that's what makes
Speaker 6: this so dynamic. It's the short term, but there's also
Speaker 6: a long term setup as well when it comes to
Speaker 6: a contract, you know, for a veteran quarterback or for
Speaker 6: a rookie contract. So again, all of those things are
Speaker 6: going to be put together and we'll make the best decisions.
Speaker 7: Just kind of lastly, what would it take if you
Speaker 7: were to trade a Justin Fields.
Speaker 8: I mean a lot of people love him.
Speaker 7: What would it take in terms of capital getting back
Speaker 7: for a player of his caliber.
Speaker 6: Yeah, we're still working through that.
Speaker 1: It's hard to say right now.
Speaker 6: I think at the end of the day, it's you know,
Speaker 6: if we go down that route and we continue to listen,
Speaker 6: we'll see what the teams are out there kind of
Speaker 6: talking about what makes sense for everyone, But it's hard
Speaker 6: to really put something on it right now.
Speaker 7: We appreciate you stopping. That's Ryan Poles, GM of the Bears.
Speaker 8: Thanks so much.
Speaker 3: Oh and do we appreciate our great teammate Stacy Deals
Speaker 3: with a great interview right there. I thought Ryan Poles
Speaker 3: is very transparent. So here's some things. It feels me
Speaker 3: exactly what's going on. Justin Fields is out of there.
Speaker 3: Not once Ryan Poles say Justin Fields is our guy.
Speaker 3: Like we heard Todd Bowles, the Buccaneers coach, come out
Speaker 3: and say Baker Mayfield priority never said that, Oh, what's
Speaker 3: the compensation going to be? Well, we don't know right now.
Speaker 3: Well that follows him saying no, one's really kind of
Speaker 3: gone in there. They got to figure out what a
Speaker 3: team is going to be willing to take. From that
Speaker 3: conversation right there, Justin Fields is going to be on
Speaker 3: the move, and it looks like Caleb Williams is going
Speaker 3: to be the first overall pick JP. But again, the
Speaker 3: interesting part about that also is heard Ryan Poles say
Speaker 3: nobody likes to live in the gray. We know Justin
Speaker 3: Fields has said on the podcast with ross Aint bron
Speaker 3: Equemius Emnemious ross Aint Brown that he wants to know
Speaker 3: as soon as possible. We won't know until a team
Speaker 3: comes to the table with some deal, so there could
Speaker 3: be some gray going on. But Justin Fields, again based
Speaker 3: on that conversation, tells me he's out of there and
Speaker 3: Caleb Williams is going to be the Chicago Bears quarterback
Speaker 3: in twenty twenty four.
Speaker 5: Well, Steve, you mentioned Caleb Williams. Ryan Poles has talked
Speaker 5: about him plenty at this combine, and I think the
Speaker 5: interesting part about it is that he was there for
Speaker 5: that draft process of Patrick Mahomes in Kansas City, who
Speaker 5: is the guy that Let's just be clear, nobody is
Speaker 5: Patrick Mahomes on this planet. But there are a lot
Speaker 5: of traits that Caleb Williams possesses that make people think
Speaker 5: of Patrick Mahomes. He had a great line here and
Speaker 5: it was specifically said to Stacy in another part of
Speaker 5: that interview that one of his scouts, Jeff King, says
Speaker 5: quarterbacks are either artists or surgeons, Steve, and he meant,
Speaker 5: there's a lot of comparisons in terms of the arm talent,
Speaker 5: the different arm angles that Caleb william uses that reminds
Speaker 5: him of Patrick Mahomes. But what the biggest part of
Speaker 5: their draft process of Mahomes was when they had a chance.
Speaker 1: To meet with him for the first time.
Speaker 5: It was r at the combine and spend a lot
Speaker 5: of time with him and fall in love with him
Speaker 5: as a person and a player, And that was a
Speaker 5: big part of drafting Patrick Mahomes and knowing his personal makeup.
Speaker 5: They know what they do on the field, Steve, but
Speaker 5: also you have to know what makes up the player himself.
Speaker 5: And Ryan Pulls starting to do that with Caleb Williams
Speaker 5: right now, real.
Speaker 3: Looks stuff, JP, some stuff coming down the line. Well,
Speaker 3: another team that looks like they're getting ready to bounce
Speaker 3: their veteran quarterback and to possibly draft another one is
Speaker 3: the Denver Broncos and JP there at the combine, head
Speaker 3: coach Sean Payton and GM George Peyton had some very
Speaker 3: interesting things to say about Russell Wilson and their future quarterback.
Speaker 9: We're we want to see the entire landscape. We had
Speaker 9: to get through our draft meetings, you know, we had
Speaker 9: to get through our free agent meetings and evaluate with
Speaker 9: what we have, and so we just want to get
Speaker 9: through the process. Sean needs to see all these quarterbacks.
Speaker 9: The coaches need to see all these quarterbacks until we
Speaker 9: make an informed decision.
Speaker 10: I think Tuesday, Wednesday, we'll be in meetings with ownership,
Speaker 10: and so I expect I expect that we're going to
Speaker 10: know fairly quickly. I said it's a Super Bowl, but
Speaker 10: I think more specifically, I think, you know, somewhere in
Speaker 10: the neighborhood next week where we're going to there's a
Speaker 10: couple factors here. You know, obviously the cap projections came out,
Speaker 10: We're further down the road with the draft class, obviously
Speaker 10: the pro free agents. So I would I would anticipate
Speaker 10: it being, you know, within the next two weeks. I
Speaker 10: saw this like humorous meme the other day where there's
Speaker 10: a Bronco fan with a shirt on and there was
Speaker 10: like eight quarterbacks names across through it, you know, and
Speaker 10: he's drinking the quarterback kool aid, and you know, our
Speaker 10: job is to make sure that this next one, you know,
Speaker 10: doesn't have a line through it.
Speaker 5: Well, that's pretty clear there, Steve though, hoping the next
Speaker 5: one doesn't have a line through it. He's literally saying
Speaker 5: the next one and the two weeks is in reference
Speaker 5: to Russell Wilson and his future. But if you listen
Speaker 5: to the second part of the clip, you would say
Speaker 5: that in the next two weeks they will be parting
Speaker 5: ways with Russell Wilson, where right now there is no
Speaker 5: trade talk by any stretch. No team has reached out,
Speaker 5: to my understanding, to the Denver Broncos regarding h for
Speaker 5: Russell Wilson, as they probably still believe that release is happening.
Speaker 5: The biggest thing that Sean Payton said repeatedly, and he
Speaker 5: has said this to me privately as well, is multitasking,
Speaker 5: the ability to do a variety of things at the
Speaker 5: same time playing the quarterback position, whether that's how quickly
Speaker 5: you deliver the verbiage, how quickly you can go through
Speaker 5: your progressions, how you are able to communicate and work
Speaker 5: within this offense. Doing a variety of things, whether that's
Speaker 5: with motions or other aspects of handling an entire offense
Speaker 5: is very very high priority for Sean Payton in this process.
Speaker 5: He believes quarterbacks like Tua Ton Devoloa can do that.
Speaker 5: Patrick Mahomes can do that. Obviously, Drew Brees, who he
Speaker 5: had for a long time, can do that. He doesn't
Speaker 5: think of Russell Wilson, to my understanding, in that same vein.
Speaker 5: So he's obviously looking for those traits and who the
Speaker 5: next quarterback is going to be.
Speaker 8: Yeah, I mean, and that's the question.
Speaker 3: As much as we're wondering where Russell Wilson's going to
Speaker 3: end up, will be a bridge quarterback, will he be
Speaker 3: a backup quarterback, will he get a shot to start?
Speaker 3: What's going to happen in Denver because right now we
Speaker 3: are in the Hacksta Lynch, brock us Weiler category of
Speaker 3: maybe options out there they.
Speaker 8: Don't want to go back to.
Speaker 3: As Sean Payton said, the names that are crossed out,
Speaker 3: it's gonna be very intriguing to see if Denver makes
Speaker 3: a move to get up in the draft, they wait
Speaker 3: for one of these quarterbacks to possibly fall to them.
Speaker 4: Or if they do.
Speaker 8: Something you trade or free agency.
Speaker 3: Also ound to the Sean Payton Rock with Arara Saint
Speaker 3: Germain the soccer club.
Speaker 8: As his hoodie said.
Speaker 3: For those of you listening only on the podcast, will
Speaker 3: Jap coming up. We're talking about a team with a
Speaker 3: quarterback stability. That's the Canvas City Chiefs and Andy Reid.
Speaker 3: Big Red's gonna give us some insight on the surgeon
Speaker 3: or is it an artist? Next on the NFL Report,
Speaker 3: the NFL Combine presented by Noble, where a dream that
Speaker 3: starts small can get big and a name that's unknown
Speaker 3: can become the future.
Speaker 4: Next is here the.
Speaker 8: Twenty twenty four NFL Combine.
Speaker 3: Tomorrow starts with d linman and linebackers, followed by dvs
Speaker 3: and tight ends on Friday, then the big one on Saturday.
Speaker 8: That's the quarterbacks, wide receivers and running backs.
Speaker 3: And we finished it up Sunday with the offensive lineman
Speaker 3: live on NFL Network and streaming on NFL Plus.
Speaker 5: Well, Steve, you know who's gonna like to take a
Speaker 5: look at those offensive linemen.
Speaker 1: It's Big Red.
Speaker 5: It's the head coach of the back to back Super
Speaker 5: Bowl champions Kansas City Chiefs. That's Andy Reid and also
Speaker 5: general manager Brett Veach. Both of those guys the architects
Speaker 5: of this, as we may call it, Steve, a dynasty
Speaker 5: that's getting put together in Kansas City. I had a
Speaker 5: chance to talk to both of them here in Indianapolis
Speaker 5: with some exclusive conversations, Brett Veach and I breaking down
Speaker 5: a lot of the behind the scenes things that could
Speaker 5: happen with free agents coming up in other contracts he
Speaker 5: has to deal with. But first, how about Andy Reid
Speaker 5: and I having a conversation Steve about Patrick Mahomes and
Speaker 5: what he grew with this season, A monster mind, monster
Speaker 5: year for his career potentially, But also why is Andy
Speaker 5: here in Indianapolis?
Speaker 1: Roll the tape, Elsie, Andy.
Speaker 5: The first thing that jumps out of me is how
Speaker 5: long you've been doing this and there's coaches that are
Speaker 5: opting not to come here. What do you gain out
Speaker 5: of your experience here in Indianapolis that helps your club.
Speaker 11: It's the first time that you have a chance to
Speaker 11: kind of meet the guys sitting from talk to them,
Speaker 11: see how they handle you and how they handle your coaches.
Speaker 11: I don't really care about the workout stuff as much
Speaker 11: as I care about that. We have that all on tape,
Speaker 11: but be right there with the kids, sitting six feet
Speaker 11: away from them, and it'll talk to him and kind
Speaker 11: of quiz them through things. I think is a good introduction,
Speaker 11: at least to the player.
Speaker 5: With that said, the continuity that you guys have been
Speaker 5: able to continue with, What advantage does that give you
Speaker 5: when you're going through this process, Andy, because you can
Speaker 5: I guess you're all looking for the same thing or
Speaker 5: know what you're looking for.
Speaker 11: Yeah, well Brett listen, Brett has all that up, you know,
Speaker 11: and he does a heck of a job with it.
Speaker 11: His communication with us, you know, the coaches is great.
Speaker 11: There are no walls with his scouts or no walls,
Speaker 11: and that becomes so important in the continuity part of it,
Speaker 11: consistency and we know, we all know you're not gonna
Speaker 11: be very good if you don't have good players, you know,
Speaker 11: and so it vests everybody together to find the best
Speaker 11: guy for your team and hopefully cuts down on that
Speaker 11: error margin. And that becomes you know, that becomes important
Speaker 11: for us.
Speaker 1: You mentioned your best players, your quarterback.
Speaker 5: I had a conversation with your offensive coordinator and Matt
Speaker 5: nagu told.
Speaker 1: Me a couple days for the Super Bowl.
Speaker 5: This season is going to be great for Patrick's career
Speaker 5: in terms of I'm not sure what he meant. I'm
Speaker 5: curious what your opinion is in terms of what this
Speaker 5: past year did for Patrick and maybe in the long run.
Speaker 11: Well, the offense wasn't doing too well. We've always been
Speaker 11: the number one offense and all of a sudden we're not.
Speaker 11: So you got the outside scrutiny, but you're also trying
Speaker 11: to fix it and grow it. In our case, we
Speaker 11: have way too many drops, way too many penalties, new
Speaker 11: guys and on the offensive line, new guys opposite Kelse
Speaker 11: and without experience. So as Rashi grew, our offense kind
Speaker 11: of grew and we were able to get the ball
Speaker 11: out quicker, we were able to keep things more inside
Speaker 11: the numbers. Kelse became better because he had somebody opposite
Speaker 11: working with him where they couldn't just always double him,
Speaker 11: and Rashie built himself a nice foundation that he can
Speaker 11: take his crong. In the meantime, you have this MVP
Speaker 11: quarterback that had patience with it and was.
Speaker 4: Willing to teach.
Speaker 11: So I think that's probably what Matt meant was he
Speaker 11: took a positive road moving forward, where other guys were
Speaker 11: getting frustrated, He's kept a positive, positive attitude and people
Speaker 11: followed him.
Speaker 1: So last one, I know you're not going to talk numbers.
Speaker 5: I'm not going to talk your contract, Andy, but there
Speaker 5: is you know, word out there that you're going to
Speaker 5: be signing an extension most likely soon. How excited are
Speaker 5: you to be just kind of probably locked in and
Speaker 5: years to come.
Speaker 1: We all were worried pre Super Bowl.
Speaker 11: Yeah, that all take place I here quickly, I'm sure.
Speaker 11: But I mean Clark, there's no no better person to
Speaker 11: work for than Clark Hunt. I mean I felt that
Speaker 11: way with Jeff Flurry. I feel that way with Clark Hunt.
Speaker 11: And I've been fortunate Green Bay Packers. They don't have
Speaker 11: an owner, but I was fortunate to be there. So
Speaker 11: I'm not getting any younger.
Speaker 1: And so.
Speaker 11: You know, I appreciate Kansas City. I mean, I love it.
Speaker 11: We love it there, and I love the organization. I
Speaker 11: get to work with three great guys or two great guys,
Speaker 11: and I work were more than that.
Speaker 4: But I mean I've got.
Speaker 11: Mark, I've got Clark Hunt, Mark Donovan, and Bret Veitch,
Speaker 11: which is the three I'd already mentioned Clark, So that
Speaker 11: was the two. But those guys, I mean I work
Speaker 11: work with them every day and and I've got the
Speaker 11: opportunity to do do things that that Clark gives us,
Speaker 11: the opportunity, all three of us to do things to
Speaker 11: help us win. And that's all, you know, that's all
Speaker 11: you can look for.
Speaker 5: So when you say you're not getting any younger, but
Speaker 5: you're still doing it an unbelievable level.
Speaker 12: Thank you, Mane.
Speaker 4: I appreciate James. Thanks you.
Speaker 1: Yeah, brought back to back Super Bowls. So I have
Speaker 1: to start with this.
Speaker 5: You're I guess a seasoned veteran at a shorter processing
Speaker 5: time to start evaluating things for the combine. Is there
Speaker 5: a method to this now that you know you have
Speaker 5: a little bit less time?
Speaker 13: No, those are those are good problems to have, and
Speaker 13: it's always you know, difficult asking at caught up to
Speaker 13: spe But I think you know, the method I have
Speaker 13: is to rely on the great and elseaff I have
Speaker 13: and there are always one step ahead the game, whether
Speaker 13: that be freegency or the draft. So you know, once
Speaker 13: you get back from Vegas, I mean you're right in
Speaker 13: those draft meetings and you know it's hard to catch
Speaker 13: a breath. But fortunately I have those guys, and you
Speaker 13: know they have me well cut up to speed and
Speaker 13: prep for all this.
Speaker 5: Everybody obviously wants to know what you're going to do
Speaker 5: with Chris Jones and saw how well he played. Again,
Speaker 5: you guys went through this process last year. I'm curious,
Speaker 5: as you're talking to his reps now, does that make
Speaker 5: things harder or easier that you guys didn't get something
Speaker 5: done but you did kind of start the conversation a
Speaker 5: year ago.
Speaker 12: I think to a.
Speaker 4: Certain extent that makes it easier.
Speaker 13: You know, we have a great deal of respect for
Speaker 13: his agents, and we have obviously we have a great
Speaker 13: deal of respect for Chris, and I think our goal
Speaker 13: and and intentions were to get something done last year.
Speaker 13: We weren't able to get it done. We hit a
Speaker 13: little rough patch there, you know, the week of that
Speaker 13: Detroit game. But I'll tell you give him and his
Speaker 13: crew a ton of credit because we met right after
Speaker 13: that game and had a great conversation and we talked
Speaker 13: about some of the things and how this may all
Speaker 13: play out. And so here we are, and I think
Speaker 13: to your point, we have that kind of backlog of
Speaker 13: dialogue that that we've shared and you know, listen, we're cautiously,
Speaker 13: cautiously optimistic, and he's a great player, and you know,
Speaker 13: these things are never easy, but we're gonna certainly put
Speaker 13: our best, our best foot forward and try to get
Speaker 13: something done.
Speaker 5: So where do things kind of stand. I'm curious with
Speaker 5: him and LJ. With I mean, you could possibly use
Speaker 5: the tag. I'm assuming you're you're thinking that's an option,
Speaker 5: But have you started those conversations And yeah.
Speaker 13: We've had some initial phone conversations. But you know, actually
Speaker 13: I think we have LJ and and Chris back to
Speaker 13: back days there. I think later on today and then tomorrow,
Speaker 13: I think we will you know, by the time we
Speaker 13: get through the end of the workday Wednesday, we'll have
Speaker 13: met with both of you know, their team members, and
Speaker 13: you know, we'll start that process. We do have a tag.
Speaker 13: I mean, the title be hard for Chris, but we
Speaker 13: do have a tag at our disposal there for for
Speaker 13: you know, potentially one of those players. But you know,
Speaker 13: we're gonna work through it. And as I said back
Speaker 13: in Las Vegas during Super Bowl Week, our goal and
Speaker 13: our plan is to you know, do what we can
Speaker 13: to you know, retain both players, and if we could
Speaker 13: do that great, but we also know how this league
Speaker 13: works and nothing's for sure, nothing is guaranteed, so we'll
Speaker 13: have continuency plans and backup plans if we can't.
Speaker 5: There two other guys I'm curious about, and this is
Speaker 5: a problem you're creating when you draft Well, then you
Speaker 5: got to pay those guys their second deal when you
Speaker 5: draft Well in the same drafts a Tray Smith and
Speaker 5: Freed Humphrey, those guys are coming around the corner. Where
Speaker 5: do things stand with both of those guys, because obviously
Speaker 5: you want to keep that interior intact.
Speaker 13: Yeah, those are all great problems to have, and a
Speaker 13: lot of good players. I think you know, we'll have
Speaker 13: a chance to meet with their crew this week as well.
Speaker 13: I think it'll be a little bit of a different timeframe.
Speaker 13: I think what we'll do is we'll attack free agency
Speaker 13: and the guys that are up and the guys that
Speaker 13: we need answers on right away.
Speaker 1: We'll knock this out.
Speaker 13: We'll put that plan into place, we'll get through the draft,
Speaker 13: and once we get through the draft and see how
Speaker 13: our roster looks after freegency and the draft and undrafted freegency,
Speaker 13: then we'll have a time to catch up, breath and
Speaker 13: then get with them and start fresh. And know a
Speaker 13: lot of it depends too on you know what these
Speaker 13: deals look like for the guys that we bring in
Speaker 13: this year, and you know what the cash flows in
Speaker 13: the contract looks like, and you know what that means
Speaker 13: for some of those young guys and how we can
Speaker 13: best fit them into our plans. But as you mentioned,
Speaker 13: we love all those guys and you know we'll work
Speaker 13: very hard to get as many of those player zone
Speaker 13: as we can.
Speaker 1: You mentioned the cash flow.
Speaker 5: I'm curious now that we're several years into Pat's deal,
Speaker 5: has that been an advantage or having the it's it's
Speaker 5: so unique, you know what I mean that does that
Speaker 5: Has that been able to be an advantage for you
Speaker 5: as you build the rest of your roster because that
Speaker 5: length of that contract.
Speaker 13: Yeah, I mean, we'll always we'll have two things. We'll
Speaker 13: you know, we'll have length and then we'll have just
Speaker 13: you know, that great relationship and that you know, that
Speaker 13: trust that we're always gonna look out for one another.
Speaker 13: And you know that's how we've handled that contract from
Speaker 13: from the beginning. And you know, last year we had
Speaker 13: a chance in a window there to adjust it for him,
Speaker 13: and we did. And you know, I'm sure we'll have
Speaker 13: great dialogue moving forward, you know, so that we can
Speaker 13: all work together to you know, put the best product
Speaker 13: out there possible.
Speaker 1: All right, go after that three people.
Speaker 4: Awesome, let's do it. Yeah. Thanks, great job of that, JP.
Speaker 3: I mean, I'm glad you snagged those guys.
Speaker 8: Look.
Speaker 3: The one thing and listening to Andy Reid talk about
Speaker 3: Patrick Mahomes, I.
Speaker 8: Mean, what's the light that comes on over your head?
Speaker 3: JP, that's Tom Brady. That is how people describe.
Speaker 4: Yeah, there you go, That's how people describe Tom Brady. Right.
Speaker 8: For years, all you heard was Tom Brady would talk
Speaker 8: to the last guy on the practice squad, to.
Speaker 3: The star receiver or running back after practice, before practice,
Speaker 3: to make sure they were all on the same page,
Speaker 3: to make sure if this guy got.
Speaker 8: Hurt, you know, you could slide in like that, JP.
Speaker 3: Well done again, great stuff by Andy Reid right there.
Speaker 3: And one thing is I sent it to you that
Speaker 3: I love that Brett Viach said is kind of the
Speaker 3: TikTok and how they prioritize free agency, potential, trades, franchise tags,
Speaker 3: things like that.
Speaker 1: You heard him in that interview Steve kind of hint.
Speaker 5: Right, we're putting variety of scenarios in place regarding Lagarius Sneed.
Speaker 1: We can tag him, we'd like him to be here
Speaker 1: long term.
Speaker 5: With Chris Jones, that's not a tag option, but we'd
Speaker 5: like him to be here long term. But he men
Speaker 5: mentioned in there right. There's a variety of scenarios we're
Speaker 5: putting in place. One of those involves letting Lagarious Need
Speaker 5: go and see if he could seek a trade because
Speaker 5: there are other people that he needs to sign down
Speaker 5: the road II Creed Humphrey or Trey Smith. But keep
Speaker 5: your eye, Steve on them looking at veteran wide receivers
Speaker 5: right now as well as receivers in this draft. They
Speaker 5: are not going to go into the twenty twenty four
Speaker 5: season too of wide receivers in that room right now.
Speaker 5: I don't know, would he swing at Mike Evans. We'll
Speaker 5: see if they swing at Mike Evans, we'll fig that out.
Speaker 5: But I know, I know exactly, I know Brettfeach is
Speaker 5: going to make those calls, Steve, and he might make
Speaker 5: a call to I don't know another general manager that
Speaker 5: knows a lot about receivers. That's less Snead he's going
Speaker 5: to join the show and he found a diamond in
Speaker 5: the rough and Puka Nakua, one of Steve's favorite players
Speaker 5: in the NFL this past year. We're going to talk
Speaker 5: about why Less's approach was maybe a little bit different,
Speaker 5: but why it works for him and Sean McVeigh. The
Speaker 5: Rams general manager, Less sneed joins the NFL Report.
Speaker 14: Next.
Speaker 3: You're listening to the NFL Report podcast, but you can
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Speaker 15: The first pick in the twenty sixteen NFL Draft, the
Speaker 15: Los Angeles Rams select Jared Goff, quarterback California.
Speaker 3: All right, welcome back to the NFL Report, James Palmer.
Speaker 3: We are now joined by Rams gener manager Less Snead.
Speaker 3: Unless I didn't play that video because of the pick
Speaker 3: of Jared Golf. We played that video because of the year.
Speaker 3: Eight drafts ago was the last time you used a
Speaker 3: first round draft pick. How does it feel to finally
Speaker 3: have one at your oh.
Speaker 1: Use this year?
Speaker 4: Yeah?
Speaker 14: You know what you mentioned before we got on this thing,
Speaker 14: let's have some fun. So I do think this is
Speaker 14: going to be a fun draft. We're gonna have to
Speaker 14: work on Thursday night. And then as I played that,
Speaker 14: we couldn't Nope, but I couldn't help. But just visualize,
Speaker 14: you know, hunting the ball to Detroit and Jared kind
Speaker 14: of finishing the game on a few completed passes. So
Speaker 14: give Jared Golf credit, you know what I mean? You
Speaker 14: know how it goes in the cool narrative, right that
Speaker 14: we draft Jared, we trade Jared, and he he wins
Speaker 14: a playoff game in Detroit for the first time in
Speaker 14: a million years against his old team. So isn't that
Speaker 14: a cool narrative right there, Radia, Unless you're.
Speaker 5: A ram I got asked, right, So as you want
Speaker 5: to prove your team less, I have to ask you.
Speaker 5: You have this first round pick, are you going to
Speaker 5: keep that first round pick?
Speaker 14: I just did a press conference with our local media
Speaker 14: and they asked me the same question. So here's what
Speaker 14: I'll say. It's it's a really really valuable piece of
Speaker 14: real estate to have. Whether we pick it nineteen, I'm
Speaker 14: not sure. There's so many variables that go into whether
Speaker 14: we pick at nineteen, right, do we do we move up?
Speaker 14: Do we move back? And I remember one year we
Speaker 14: actually we actually in that stretch that drought I think
Speaker 14: I think you mentioned eight years whatever it was, we
Speaker 14: actually we we had the thirty first pick in the
Speaker 14: draft at one time during that stretch the year after
Speaker 14: we finished with the silver metal metal instead of the
Speaker 14: gold against the New England Patriots and that Super Bowl.
Speaker 14: But we did trade back into the second round to
Speaker 14: continue to shriek. So it'd be interesting, right do we
Speaker 14: just say, you know what, let's continue to shriek for
Speaker 14: Streak's sake and oh boy a couple of times the
Speaker 14: second round.
Speaker 8: Yeah, that'll go over well less. I'm the Rams fans,
Speaker 8: I really love that.
Speaker 3: But look, with the rate of success you guys have had,
Speaker 3: you know, I want to rephrase, I want to get
Speaker 3: to this because every year we talk about teams trading
Speaker 3: up to get into that top part of the draft,
Speaker 3: like you did back in twenty sixteen when you gave
Speaker 3: up all that freight to move. I think it was
Speaker 3: from eleven to one. I'm not quite sure, but I
Speaker 3: think it was in that ballpark with Tennessee.
Speaker 14: What might have been even further back than that.
Speaker 3: It really what does it take, like when you're sitting
Speaker 3: sitting in that seat like right now, like some teams
Speaker 3: may be trying to get up into the top three.
Speaker 4: This year to get one of these quarterbacks.
Speaker 8: What type of ingenuity does it take to make a
Speaker 8: move like that?
Speaker 14: Well, I think the I think we were talking about
Speaker 14: Thomas de Metrop before we came on the air. I
Speaker 14: was in Atlanta when Thomas as GM made to move
Speaker 14: from from way back to get Julio Jones right there.
Speaker 14: There was an element of learning some lessons there. Going
Speaker 14: back to the Jared pick, what's very interesting is to
Speaker 14: add contact to that whole deal we had played. We
Speaker 14: had spent a lot of years playing really good defense,
Speaker 14: uh in Saint Louis, and then subsequently probably uh maybe
Speaker 14: not LA. Then we're moving LA within, so let's just
Speaker 14: call it Saint Louis. What we had struggled with is
Speaker 14: continuity at QB. And when I walked in when I
Speaker 14: was fortunate enough to get the GM job in Saint Louis,
Speaker 14: Sam Bradford was a QB. He he had gone through
Speaker 14: two unfortunate aco injuries. So now we get to that draft.
Speaker 14: What's very interesting is, and this is.
Speaker 16: The the it's sometimes I say it's easy to identify.
Speaker 16: It's easier maybe to identify and that's even hard to write.
Speaker 16: To identify a college QB who's going to come in
Speaker 16: and let's call it be your franchise QB.
Speaker 14: The hard thing to do is to acquire that player. Right.
Speaker 14: So in that year, though, I do know with the Titans,
Speaker 14: the year before they had done Mariota, Tampa Bay had
Speaker 14: done Winston. So the Titans were sitting at a spot
Speaker 14: where you knew they weren't going to draft the QB
Speaker 14: for the most part, and so recognizing that early and
Speaker 14: going you know what, Wow, this could be an opportunity
Speaker 14: to actually acquire QB. So we had identified QB's let's
Speaker 14: call it Jared Carson. There was a few others in
Speaker 14: the draft, and then at that point in time, you're like, wow,
Speaker 14: maybe we could actually acquire the QB. And then at
Speaker 14: the combine Indy, where y'all are at now is probably
Speaker 14: the first time John Robinson and I had the conversation
Speaker 14: on us moving up and the Titans moving back.
Speaker 5: Unless you you you mentioned in Indy you had that conversation.
Speaker 1: You're not in Indie right now. You haven't come.
Speaker 5: What have you learned over the years about the process
Speaker 5: that works for you guys with the rams and not
Speaker 5: coming to the combine?
Speaker 14: You know what I mean, Steve, I would say this,
Speaker 14: we value the combine. We probably have a less traditional
Speaker 14: footprint on the ground at the combine. I can tell
Speaker 14: you this our our I mean Jake Timmy who kind
Speaker 14: of runs our analytics, like who's an analysis. They're chomping
Speaker 14: at the bit to get some of the right some
Speaker 14: of the numbers that are going to come out of Indie.
Speaker 14: I know we'll with technology today. I know after after
Speaker 14: the position groups work out on Thursday, we will get
Speaker 14: a video of those players into our system and by
Speaker 14: Friday afternoon, I'll have a write up from our scouts
Speaker 14: right on how they thought they did. And let's call
Speaker 14: it the non football drills. So what's interesting what we
Speaker 14: felt like for efficiency of time is especially as we
Speaker 14: get the coaches involved and we try to come up
Speaker 14: with a collaborative plan on the draft of who fits,
Speaker 14: who gives us an edge, and things like that. The
Speaker 14: things that with the coaches getting involved so late, with
Speaker 14: us losing coaches a lot of times right after the
Speaker 14: season based on success, that's what trying to get in
Speaker 14: that continuity. Here's what we don't have enough time. What
Speaker 14: we want to do more is watch more football film, right,
Speaker 14: and we will be able to use all the data
Speaker 14: that comes from the combine. Right, We'll chop it up,
Speaker 14: we'll analyze it, and we'll add it to our process.
Speaker 14: We'll add it to our decision make and tree all
Speaker 14: those things. So I would just say this, it's just
Speaker 14: a little less traditional footprint there. But Jeff Foster, nfs,
Speaker 14: they do a great job. We just feel like it's
Speaker 14: probably more efficient for Sean and I coaching staff to
Speaker 14: be here versus Indy.
Speaker 3: Well, let's so you see the drills, right, you see
Speaker 3: the testing and the drills, But what about the in
Speaker 3: person because a lot of folks, you know, Andy Reid
Speaker 3: even said this is the first time he may get
Speaker 3: to look at these guys in the eye and kind
Speaker 3: of get a read on them, but also let them
Speaker 3: get a read on you.
Speaker 8: Do you miss any of that or do you just
Speaker 8: say we'll pick.
Speaker 3: That up later when we bring them into our building
Speaker 3: on the personal invite.
Speaker 14: What we try to do is is is uh. The
Speaker 14: answer would be, we don't think we miss We may
Speaker 14: miss out on it. Let's call it this week, right,
Speaker 14: but it is in terms of eighteen minutes. We've done
Speaker 14: a lot of research. Again, our paradigms different. We feel like, okay,
Speaker 14: maybe maybe we instead of being there just to get
Speaker 14: eighteen minutes with forty eight players, it's better served to
Speaker 14: be here doing some other things. And then we value
Speaker 14: in tangibles right immenseally. We firmly believe right a player
Speaker 14: is gifted with some physical let's call it traits to
Speaker 14: be able to possibly play football, possibly give the Rams
Speaker 14: or any team an NFL at edge. But I always
Speaker 14: go to the part of that calculus form that is
Speaker 14: very important is the intangibles that player has, and you
Speaker 14: blend all that up and using talent plus in tangibles
Speaker 14: will probably equal right, the edge that player can give
Speaker 14: to us. We value it well, we just think it's
Speaker 14: better for us than to let's call it sit down
Speaker 14: with that player somewhere else, somewhere where we have more
Speaker 14: than just eighteen minutes, and somewhere also where the player
Speaker 14: is not focused. Let's just say this, a player could
Speaker 14: have ten interviews in one night. That's pretty exhausting. We're
Speaker 14: able to maybe go visit that on you know, technically
Speaker 14: rules are really you go visit that player on his setting,
Speaker 14: sit down with him for maybe definitely more than eighteen minutes.
Speaker 14: Usually it's up to you know, somewhere between three and
Speaker 14: four hours, and you know, get to know that person
Speaker 14: there and also also see I'm talking a lot. But
Speaker 14: what it also allows us to do is is really
Speaker 14: digest the vetting we've done so that we know when
Speaker 14: we do go sit down, and there's there's specific things
Speaker 14: we're trying to figure out. And guess what. Some players, man,
Speaker 14: they're a plus I call them marry your daughter type guys.
Speaker 14: And at that point we may not even meet them.
Speaker 14: And there's a strategy there. If we don't meet them,
Speaker 14: then hey, uh, you and Jesse can't say, oh I
Speaker 14: heard the Ramses player, right, you know, those of us
Speaker 14: on this side, I get it, y'all got it. You're
Speaker 14: in the content content business is cool. Interesting, those of
Speaker 14: us on this side might like to fly a little
Speaker 14: bit stealthier than that, you know what I mean, throw
Speaker 14: a curve balls, which I can tell you this is
Speaker 14: getting really hard to throw curveballs. You know. Uh, in
Speaker 14: this day and time based on the cool thing, right,
Speaker 14: how pop that NFL is, how many people cover you'
Speaker 14: are really good at what you do? So uh, you
Speaker 14: know there's also a little bit of that into it too.
Speaker 12: That's great.
Speaker 5: Well, I's I want to ask you, I've never, like
Speaker 5: you said, I've never sat in your seat when you
Speaker 5: have players that you've hit on late in the draft
Speaker 5: that you've been you know, whether it's Puka Nakup or
Speaker 5: it's Cooper Kopp or guys, what is the process or
Speaker 5: the waiting like when you like them but but you
Speaker 5: don't really know how much you want to reach for them,
Speaker 5: but you don't want somebody else to snag somebody you
Speaker 5: really like these picks that are not near the top
Speaker 5: of the draft that there's so many different variables that
Speaker 5: can happen. But you have guys probably in those rounds
Speaker 5: you absolutely love and when you grab them it probably
Speaker 5: means the world.
Speaker 14: I think if they're having a year like Pookah. I'm like, holy,
Speaker 14: how we receive Why did we wait then to pick him?
Speaker 14: So that's the first thing that crosses your mind with that.
Speaker 14: But it is interesting to y'all are in Indie and
Speaker 14: there is there is a really good correlation right of
Speaker 14: how you test in Indie and where you get drafted. Now,
Speaker 14: sometimes that correlation doesn't necessarily mean it's going to be
Speaker 14: how good a football player you are. So there are
Speaker 14: times right where you could go and you know, there's
Speaker 14: a receiver who maybe doesn't run a forty as fast
Speaker 14: or things like that, maybe played in the Mountain West thing,
Speaker 14: you know, and not a power five, and you can
Speaker 14: use that strategy to uh, let's call figure out where
Speaker 14: that player may fall in the draft. But in Puka's case,
Speaker 14: we probably should have drafted him early.
Speaker 3: Well less, Hey, we're gonna let you go. But one thing,
Speaker 3: you know, I want to give you credit for. You know,
Speaker 3: I think everybody should. You guys have nailed it with
Speaker 3: some mid round, late round picks. That's your coaching staff,
Speaker 3: as revolving as it is, development, the consistent development you
Speaker 3: guys have players is something I think where the rams
Speaker 3: have to rate among the top of the league. Well,
Speaker 3: what your coaching staff does with some of the players
Speaker 3: that you guys get, regardless of where you for sure them, Well.
Speaker 14: It's very You're right. We got to work together symbiotically.
Speaker 14: They got to have a vision for player, for that player,
Speaker 14: how that player gives us an edge. They've got to
Speaker 14: be really good at developing them. And also, Steven jet
Speaker 14: the one thing I say that's under rate. You got
Speaker 14: to have the courage to play them, the courage to
Speaker 14: trust a young player, the courage to go rely on
Speaker 14: them because we all know you keep score on Sundays
Speaker 14: and and and you can't you just you have that.
Speaker 14: You just don't want to roll anyone out there because
Speaker 14: you're getting a report card every week.
Speaker 4: All right, less, thank you so much. Man. We know
Speaker 4: your business. Time of year.
Speaker 3: You got a first round draft pick, you got to
Speaker 3: go study some guys for let's see.
Speaker 8: If you guys have let's well use it.
Speaker 4: We don't know, that's right.
Speaker 14: I'm will tail.
Speaker 5: Coming up on the NFL report, Tom Pelisarro joins us
Speaker 5: Steve to talk about Baker Mayfield.
Speaker 1: Where will he land?
Speaker 5: Will he be in a Tampa Bay Buccaneers uniform. Talk
Speaker 5: to Todd Bowles. We'll find out next with Tom p
Speaker 5: That's a wrap.
Speaker 3: For the lead block presented by Team Obile for Business.
Speaker 3: A sport as fast as football deserves America's fastest five
Speaker 3: G network, businesses go further with Mobile for Business.
Speaker 5: Welcome back to the NFL Report, James Palmer, Steve Weisch
Speaker 5: with you. I'm no longer alone in Indianapolis, Steve. I
Speaker 5: have NFL Network insider Tom Pellasaro his.
Speaker 1: Show on The Insiders. I thought I did a pretty
Speaker 1: good job.
Speaker 12: We walked like ten feet this way. Now we got
Speaker 12: to try to top.
Speaker 1: And now we're going to try to top it.
Speaker 5: Tom's going to top what I did on his show
Speaker 5: with some information starting at the quarterback position. A lot
Speaker 5: of them will throw here on the field behind us
Speaker 5: in the next couple of days. How about one that
Speaker 5: won't be and maybe the number one free agent possibly
Speaker 5: available in Kirk Cousins.
Speaker 17: Kirk Cousins is throwing on a tennis court somewhere right now.
Speaker 17: Everything that I've been told is that, if anything, he
Speaker 17: has ahead of schedule in his recovery from that ruptured
Speaker 17: achilles tendon, he is already throwing.
Speaker 12: He's hitting at the top of his drop, He's able
Speaker 12: to pivot.
Speaker 17: He want to do a lot of things that you
Speaker 17: would hope to see, which your team that is now
Speaker 17: committing to I don't know, thirty five, forty forty five,
Speaker 17: maybe one million dollars per year to Kirk Cousins. Just
Speaker 17: the fact that he appears to not have had any setbacks.
Speaker 17: Everything sees to behead in the right direction. For a
Speaker 17: guy who's gonna be thirty six before next season, that
Speaker 17: is absolutely significant. I do believe, and I said this
Speaker 17: on Certable Sunday, I've repeated it since, that Kirk Cousins
Speaker 17: is going to have a strong market. The spike coming
Speaker 17: off the injury, and at his age, there just aren't
Speaker 17: a lot of what NFL gms and coaches considered to
Speaker 17: be true starting caliber quarterbacks available in free agency.
Speaker 12: Here you heard Kevin O'Connell, the Vikings head coach.
Speaker 17: The most places do fa Menza talk about Kirk they
Speaker 17: want him back, and O'Connell said, I believe the Kirk
Speaker 17: wants to be back, and so we're going to work
Speaker 17: to make that be the outcome here.
Speaker 12: But again, there is.
Speaker 17: A certain price point at which it's just going to
Speaker 17: be too rich for the Vikings. Exactly where that is
Speaker 17: is probably still the subject to some discussion throughout the
Speaker 17: course of this process. But I will also tell you
Speaker 17: Minnesota evaluated all options to add another veteran to that room,
Speaker 17: a more economical one in the event that Kirk lands elsewhere,
Speaker 17: which we can all go down the list of teams
Speaker 17: here between Atlanta, maybe a return to.
Speaker 12: Washington, Denver.
Speaker 17: There's plenty of places that could be in that veteran
Speaker 17: quarterback market.
Speaker 5: We know that Sean Payne can move money around, so
Speaker 5: I don't think dead money in the situation with Russell
Speaker 5: Wilson would stop him from going after somebody like Kirk
Speaker 5: Cousins will take a.
Speaker 1: Look at that point for million dollar cap exactly.
Speaker 5: And you can also look at that division, maybe the
Speaker 5: Raiders Devanta Adams has talked about. Yeah, I'd like to
Speaker 5: catch the balls from Kirk Cousins. There's definitely quarterback needy
Speaker 5: teams out there, and we just mentioned two teams in
Speaker 5: the AFC West.
Speaker 1: Let's stay in that division.
Speaker 5: Mark was out as Scantling released by the team and
Speaker 5: Lugarious sneid tag situation but possibly trade situation. You mentioned
Speaker 5: the cap number, but there's a lot of other numbers
Speaker 5: that Brett Veach is juggling. We can kind of touch
Speaker 5: on maybe a variety of them.
Speaker 17: Tom Well, I think we learned a lot about Brett
Speaker 17: Veach and his philosophies on team building by what happened
Speaker 17: with Tyreek Hill a couple of years ago, because there
Speaker 17: are plenty of gms who would have felt like they
Speaker 17: were painting into the corner you're talking about that point
Speaker 17: your second best player probably can argue Travis Kelcey, Chris Jones,
Speaker 17: but like Tyreek's a really dynamic player, we're going to
Speaker 17: trade the top weapon of our MVP quarterback and replace
Speaker 17: him with a combination of Juju, Smith, Schuster and mvs
Speaker 17: and maybe drafted somebody. He did it in part because
Speaker 17: the way the Breadfeats looks at these things is, well,
Speaker 17: I saved all this cap space now that I can
Speaker 17: use to go get other players, and I got picks
Speaker 17: on top of it to replenish the young working. So
Speaker 17: exactly so, whether it's Chris Jones, the lugerious sneed, I
Speaker 17: think that that's not to say it's going to go
Speaker 17: that same direction.
Speaker 12: But you're not just talking about oh man, how are
Speaker 12: you going to replace him. You can't replace the Chris Jones.
Speaker 12: You really can't replace the lagerious sneed.
Speaker 17: But if you move on from them and you're able
Speaker 17: to add in the case of Sneed picks through the
Speaker 17: process or in either case a lot of cash and cap,
Speaker 17: they're going to evaluate everything. When you win a couple
Speaker 17: of Super Bowls after trading away a top twenty player
Speaker 17: in the NFL, if anything, you are emboldened to go
Speaker 17: against the grain to make.
Speaker 12: Those difficult decisions.
Speaker 17: Say, you know what, we got so much confidence in
Speaker 17: the way that we draft, We'll go and find the
Speaker 17: defensive tackle equivalent Freshie Rice and keep this thing moving forward.
Speaker 14: Interesting.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean that's a real that's really interesting points.
Speaker 3: But you know, you see the Chiefs, though, they're a
Speaker 3: defensive team, and to have a situation where you have
Speaker 3: two anchors of that defense possibly in play is leaving.
Speaker 3: I don't see both of them leaving, but I mean
Speaker 3: that's an interesting situation. So Tom, while we're on defense,
Speaker 3: the art of tackling has come up with the NFL
Speaker 3: Competition Committee.
Speaker 4: We know later in March at the league.
Speaker 3: Meetings there could be more discussion about getting the hip
Speaker 3: drop tackle out of play. But before we discuss what
Speaker 3: the owners possibly could be talking about, let's listen to
Speaker 3: Zaire Franklin, a linebacker of the Colt NFL second leading tackler,
Speaker 3: actually talk about the hip drop tackle.
Speaker 2: It's tough. You know, I won't lie to you and
Speaker 2: say that. You know, they're making almost impossible for us.
Speaker 2: Sometimes it feel like they don't want us to tackle
Speaker 2: these guys. Sometimes, I mean, they're a banning us. I
Speaker 2: never even heard of a hip hop hip drop tackling,
Speaker 2: so they told me what it was. You know, I've
Speaker 2: never gone into a tackle and thought to myself, you know,
Speaker 2: I think I'm gonna use this technique in this moment.
Speaker 2: I just, you know, see z Flowers and know that
Speaker 2: he runs a four to three and understand that I
Speaker 2: got to get him down. You know, That's kind of
Speaker 2: how it goes. But you know, I think, you know,
Speaker 2: for you know myself, I think it's just obviously seeing
Speaker 2: what you hit is the biggest thing. I think when
Speaker 2: you tackle with your eyes up and your head up,
Speaker 2: I think that's kind of the biggest emphasis. I know
Speaker 2: the league is trying to protect guys both from being
Speaker 2: tackled and the tackler from them head on collisions. Obviously
Speaker 2: you don't want to go for a guys head or
Speaker 2: neck area, but you know, the speed of the game
Speaker 2: is what it is, and sometimes you know, physical players happen.
Speaker 2: I'm a firm believer that football is a physical sport.
Speaker 2: You're meant to the physical side of the game is
Speaker 2: meant to be in it, and I think to take
Speaker 2: that away is taking away the fabric.
Speaker 1: But what makes the game great.
Speaker 8: Yeah, that was Frankly back in November, and so Tom.
Speaker 4: Of course they want to.
Speaker 3: Get this hip drop tackle out because players have gotten hurt,
Speaker 3: with the ravest Titan, Mark Andrews being the big example,
Speaker 3: breaking his leg on a hip drop tackle.
Speaker 8: What could the discussion reconvene.
Speaker 4: I know I'm struggling here.
Speaker 3: What do you think the discussion would be in March
Speaker 3: when these owners are convene.
Speaker 17: If we called it a hip hop tackle, I think
Speaker 17: people would be in faithful.
Speaker 12: Absolutely.
Speaker 17: So there were a lot of discussions, as you mentioned, Steve,
Speaker 17: here at the NFL combine, where it's always interesting because
Speaker 17: this is a pretty big meeting. It's not just the
Speaker 17: NFL Competition Committee that's in there discussing the rules you
Speaker 17: have doctors, you have scientists, you have people involved in
Speaker 17: various levels of the medical community. You have a college
Speaker 17: person who's in the room as well, because there's a
Speaker 17: liaison with the person in the NFL, like a sophomore
Speaker 17: someone representing the nc double A, assuming that the NCAA
Speaker 17: still exists by the time this rule goes into the place,
Speaker 17: that's going to be trying to kind of bridge some
Speaker 17: of those gaps in terms of Okay, well, here's what
Speaker 17: we're seeing at our level, because they always try to
Speaker 17: have the college and NFL rules for the most part
Speaker 17: kind of sync up.
Speaker 12: And so there's a multi layered conversation here.
Speaker 17: But one thing that we know is when owners want
Speaker 17: something and when the commissioner wants something, usually that's going
Speaker 17: to happen. And there is a strong feeling among the
Speaker 17: stakeholders here the one way or another, whether you think
Speaker 17: you can enforce it or not, whether you think that
Speaker 17: you're making impossible to tackle people. You see the types
Speaker 17: of injuries that you had on some of these plays.
Speaker 17: Not all you know somewhere you know guys end up
Speaker 17: escaping it. But there's you know, plays like the one
Speaker 17: that hurt Mark Andrews and that's a that's an ugly
Speaker 17: type of play. They say, you'll know it when you
Speaker 17: see it, And I think that there are certain tackles
Speaker 17: like the one on Mark Andrews where you go, gosh,
Speaker 17: you don't want to see that. But there's the same
Speaker 17: game Lamar Jackson got hit by the same player at.
Speaker 12: The sideline Logan Wilson, I believe it was.
Speaker 17: It's a similar type of tackle, but it's not with
Speaker 17: as much force and Lamar ends up which just kind of,
Speaker 17: you know, turned his ankle a little bit, but he
Speaker 17: was okay.
Speaker 12: So are you gonna call it there? Are you only
Speaker 12: going to call the Mark and Andrew stell one.
Speaker 17: You don't want to start having it be like an
Speaker 17: old what was the video game of Nintendo Blades the
Speaker 17: Steel where the guy the guy who lost the Remember
Speaker 17: they have the fighting and then the guy, the guy
Speaker 17: who lost the fight was the only one who went
Speaker 17: to the penalty box. You don't want to have it
Speaker 17: be okay, well because the guy got injured. Now it's
Speaker 17: a violation. You need to be able to enforce it
Speaker 17: consistently across everything, and we already know NFL officials are
Speaker 17: so inundated with so many new rules and so many
Speaker 17: different things they're scrutinized. You're adding one more thing to
Speaker 17: their plate. But again, the challenge in this is writing
Speaker 17: the rule where it can be clearly enforced. But the
Speaker 17: NFL and the owners have made pretty clear the directored
Speaker 17: is right the rule. We don't want to see it.
Speaker 17: It would be a surprise nothing done. It would be
Speaker 17: a surprise if they don't find a way to outlaw.
Speaker 8: The Hey hey, Tom, real quick follow you, real quick follow.
Speaker 3: You talked about the people in the room, scientists, college
Speaker 3: students whatever, NCAA people whatever.
Speaker 8: Are there any football players in that room?
Speaker 3: Are there any defensive players in that room who could
Speaker 3: explain their part of things.
Speaker 17: There are consultations all the time Steve too, with players,
Speaker 17: former players, position coaches. There are surveys that are done
Speaker 17: with all the position coaches regarding different techniques that they're
Speaker 17: seeing and if there's any injury data and trying to
Speaker 17: mesh that up to so they stay on top of
Speaker 17: the trends within the league. Which also brings us to
Speaker 17: the kickoff conversation, because that's been a huge part of
Speaker 17: this as well. Again, they don't necessarily have a clear pathway,
Speaker 17: right now in terms of like, what is that going
Speaker 17: to look like, what's the new kickoff play? What the
Speaker 17: XFL was doing where they set up Basically, I think
Speaker 17: it's one at the twenty five and one at the thirty.
Speaker 17: That's where the offensive defense on the return team knows.
Speaker 17: They saw that their rate of concussion went down, yet
Speaker 17: they saw it a high percentage of kickoffs return as
Speaker 17: opposed the NFL last season had a very low rate.
Speaker 17: Every special teams coach going back a decade when they
Speaker 17: started looking at this, would say, they're just they're going
Speaker 17: to ruin the play.
Speaker 12: It has to say, and you have to keep the
Speaker 12: foot in the game. Rdy Nell's also said the same thing.
Speaker 12: We wanted to be in the game.
Speaker 17: Well, last year you went so far the other direction
Speaker 17: with the fair catch thing that there were virtually no returns.
Speaker 17: They don't want to have a non competitive play in
Speaker 17: the game. That's why we now have thirty eight yard
Speaker 17: extra point attempts instead of what it used to be
Speaker 17: the chip shot.
Speaker 12: From right shots right, I can hit that.
Speaker 17: You can't necessarily hit it as high ray from ways back,
Speaker 17: and that's jobs every this was a non competitive play.
Speaker 1: I've made a kick.
Speaker 12: You have to go back a little way.
Speaker 17: I don't think I want to do it again here.
Speaker 1: That was our teams high school kicker. No big deal.
Speaker 5: But listen, you're right because that essence, you could almost
Speaker 5: evaluate players differently at this combine Steve. If that play
Speaker 5: is not in the games a return, specials will be
Speaker 5: looked at differently and where they land in the draft.
Speaker 12: That's definitely been part of it.
Speaker 17: If your primary values on kick returns you don't have
Speaker 17: it now, you know, maybe it's a little bit different.
Speaker 17: You continue to have this de emphasis on special teams
Speaker 17: in general, but we.
Speaker 12: Still see special teams is a massive part of the game.
Speaker 17: When one of the players that the Super Bowl turns
Speaker 17: on is just a weird bouncing kick and then turns
Speaker 17: into something anything in the in the NC Championship game.
Speaker 17: It's a lot of things that happen within the course
Speaker 17: of football. What you don't want to have as a
Speaker 17: play that people tune out for exactly think about that?
Speaker 12: What is it ultimately about? What is every decision about?
Speaker 17: Yes, health and safety is a big part all the
Speaker 17: conversation from the players union side, because they're in on
Speaker 17: these meetings too.
Speaker 12: It's a huge part the conversation.
Speaker 17: What you don't want to have though, is oh, I've
Speaker 17: got five minutes to walk away from this game right now,
Speaker 17: aroom around, not sticking around for the Yeah, you don't
Speaker 17: want to have any restroom plays that that is a
Speaker 17: key part of everything that they're trying to do as well.
Speaker 5: We got to ask him about Baker Mayfield. We got
Speaker 5: to ask him about Baker Mayfield. He's probably on a
Speaker 5: lot of people's list. We mentioned Kirk Cousins, the next
Speaker 5: free agent quarterback down where do things stand with Baker?
Speaker 17: Well, that's gonna be one of the mysteries where that
Speaker 17: number lands as well. It's certainly going to be well
Speaker 17: noise for five million dollar base that he got last season.
Speaker 17: It really comes down to is there another team that's
Speaker 17: going to become heavily involved and we'll start having more answers.
Speaker 17: Is the market shakes out? You're beginning with some of
Speaker 17: the meetings that happened at this time. And of course
Speaker 17: teams right now are only allowed to beat with agents
Speaker 17: for their own free agents.
Speaker 12: Could some other people trying to find out some information?
Speaker 17: I suppose that might happen occasionally, you know, Todd Bowles yesterday,
Speaker 17: I talked to him off camera when he was waiting
Speaker 17: to talk with Peter Schrager, and I know he's optimistic
Speaker 17: about the directions going with Baker. Quite frankly, from Baker's perspective,
Speaker 17: you've been on the Browns, the Panthers, the Rams and
Speaker 17: the Bucks in the past two years. Maybe just settle
Speaker 17: someplace for a year. They hired somebody that he worked
Speaker 17: with in Liam Cohen, but the Falcons also hired Zach Robinson,
Speaker 17: and they hired Rahe Morris, and those guys are with
Speaker 17: Baker with the Rams. If there's one dark horse that
Speaker 17: might emerge for Baker Mayfield, I would think Atlanta is it.
Speaker 17: But Atlanta's gotten a lot of different options, including holding
Speaker 17: the number eight overall pick. Where Terry Fanteau told me
Speaker 17: yesterday when I asked him, is trading up a possibility
Speaker 17: because he brought it up and he said absolutely, that's
Speaker 17: so it was traded down.
Speaker 12: Yeah.
Speaker 3: Hey, you know, Terry shoots a straight He doesn't leave
Speaker 3: any ambi ambiguity when he's when he's giving you an
Speaker 3: answer at all. Hey, Tom p grazed up brother, You
Speaker 3: and James. We want to get bathroom plays into the
Speaker 3: vernacular now.
Speaker 4: Bathroom break plays.
Speaker 12: In the NFL Restrooms Room Classroom.
Speaker 1: Restrooms is a classy show.
Speaker 4: There we Go, Restroom.
Speaker 1: I appreciate you if you will.
Speaker 4: There we Go.
Speaker 3: When we come back on the NFL Report, some guys
Speaker 3: are showing up, but they're not participating. What other guys
Speaker 3: are going to be doing the full drills here at
Speaker 3: the NFL combine. What is the benefit of being an indie.
Speaker 4: We're going to talk.
Speaker 8: About that next on the NFL Report.
Speaker 3: You're listening to the NFL Report podcast, but you can
Speaker 3: watch me, Steve Weiitch and my co host James Palmer
Speaker 3: on the NFL Report at seven fifteen Eastern time on
Speaker 3: Mondays and Thursdays on the NFL app and free streaming
Speaker 3: platforms on the NFL channel on Roku two b Peacock,
Speaker 3: Pluto TV, and other.
Speaker 4: Free streaming apps.
Speaker 5: Welcome back to the NFL Report, James Palmer, Steve Whitch
Speaker 5: with you as he closed this thing out.
Speaker 1: Steve, how fascinating was this show?
Speaker 5: Hearing the approach from less sneed so different than the
Speaker 5: approach from Andy Reid and how they value certain.
Speaker 1: Aspects of this combine.
Speaker 5: It makes you think how certain prospects also can benefit.
Speaker 1: From being here throwing. Remember CJ.
Speaker 5: Stroud and Anthony Richardson, all those coaches behind them on
Speaker 5: this field behind me had a chain to see them
Speaker 5: up close the ball out of their hand. Both of
Speaker 5: their stocks went up in a lot of teams minds
Speaker 5: when they had a chance to stand there evaluate them
Speaker 5: right up there, up close and personal. But there's other
Speaker 5: guys that have their own particular situations that are a
Speaker 5: little bit different where maybe not performing is the best
Speaker 5: case scenario for them.
Speaker 3: Yeah, like Marvin Harrison Junior, the Ohio state wide receiver.
Speaker 8: He didn't even show up.
Speaker 3: He's like going to class and doing everything like that.
Speaker 3: But most people will say that's not gonna affect.
Speaker 1: You leave the campus at Ohio State, Steve.
Speaker 4: There you go. I mean, I know you were on
Speaker 4: the seven year plan there.
Speaker 3: JP, But I mean, look, he's somebody you know. The
Speaker 3: character is there, right, The character is there. The bloodlines
Speaker 3: are there from his father. So again, it doesn't always
Speaker 3: help or hurt people to be there or not be there.
Speaker 3: I don't know if this is going to be a trend, JP,
Speaker 3: but Marvin Harrison's case and maybe some others, it is
Speaker 3: not going to hurt them.
Speaker 8: Well, great show. Jp make sure for those of you.
Speaker 3: Listening on the podcast to watch us on Mondays and
Speaker 3: Thursdays on ROKN TB on All Again This is All
Speaker 3: a podcast number seven pm Eastertime, Mondays and Wednesdays.
Speaker 8: Jp enjoined the Oceanaire. Make sure to get.
Speaker 4: The Hall of it and we are
Speaker 12: Done.