Speaker 1: NFL Explained is a production of the NFL in partnership
Speaker 1: with I Heart Radio. All Right, a little known fact.
Speaker 1: I am actually I don't like being late, Like I
Speaker 1: got a thing about it, and yesterday I was disappointed
Speaker 1: and I was concerned about today's episode. I didn't know
Speaker 1: if you were going to be here. You were supposed
Speaker 1: to do total access with me and then plane issues
Speaker 1: traveling across country. I'm happy you're here with me today.
Speaker 1: I'm happy to be here, yams. Mama. We made it.
Speaker 1: I finally made it to work. Hey man, But you know,
Speaker 1: we had a bathroom issue on one of the planes.
Speaker 1: You gotta get the bathroom fixed, okay for four hour flights.
Speaker 1: So I'm glad it got fixed. Hold on, is that
Speaker 1: why they that's why? Yes, it was a bathroom issue.
Speaker 1: We can't go across the country without the bathroom working. Okay.
Speaker 1: That's that's another episode of NFL Explained. I gotta tell
Speaker 1: you we could combine this topic specifically about chartered flights
Speaker 1: that NFL teams take and bathroom issues that are there. Nonetheless,
Speaker 1: it is a brand new edition of the NFL Explained podcast. Mike, Yam,
Speaker 1: it's my guy, m Rob. Yes, there's a lot to
Speaker 1: get to and in fact, we actually have a timely episode.
Speaker 1: You know, a lot of times I always ask hey,
Speaker 1: like send us your questions, and of course continue to
Speaker 1: do that. I got a couple others last couple of days.
Speaker 1: We'll get to all that. But we decided because of
Speaker 1: news that doesn't happen all that often in real time,
Speaker 1: we would react to it accordingly here on the podcast.
Speaker 1: And if you don't know the news, this week, Week
Speaker 1: fourteen in the NFL season, the Titans actually fired their
Speaker 1: general manager, John Robinson, So we thought we'd take a
Speaker 1: look at the role of the GM, explain what they
Speaker 1: do the day to day kind of stuff and why
Speaker 1: it's really significant and why you don't see moves like
Speaker 1: this all that often. And by the way, just in
Speaker 1: case you're wondering, yeah, the Titans actually still in first
Speaker 1: place in the A it is, although maybe more of
Speaker 1: an indictment on some of the play by some of
Speaker 1: the teams in that division. But nonetheless, man, there's still
Speaker 1: a four seed in the postseason picture, and made this
Speaker 1: change their four seed. Um, you usually don't see a
Speaker 1: first place team in a DIVI vision father general manager,
Speaker 1: but at the end of the day. It leads me
Speaker 1: to think that maybe there was a little bit more
Speaker 1: to this decision, because again the general manager, he sets
Speaker 1: the vision for the entire organization, so to see this happen.
Speaker 1: Oh and then on a day after A. J. Brown,
Speaker 1: who was with that team, just went off eight receptions
Speaker 1: a hundred and twenty yards. I mean, could it be
Speaker 1: a coincidence? I don't know. Maybe I don't think so.
Speaker 1: I was just gonna I was gonna let that one
Speaker 1: said because I know what you told me before we
Speaker 1: started this show, and it was more on that line.
Speaker 1: You know. It's interesting because I came in yesterday to
Speaker 1: do the show and once again I was just a
Speaker 1: point you weren't here. But I'm kind of pulling the
Speaker 1: curtain back. You know. We got all these like insiders.
Speaker 1: We've got people that are like tapped in. We got
Speaker 1: former players like dudes who just know people, and no
Speaker 1: one really knows because they all said the same thing.
Speaker 1: There's probably something that we don't know about here because
Speaker 1: of the timing of all this stuff. I can't tell
Speaker 1: you how many people I interact with over the last
Speaker 1: couple of days that are sort of saying the same
Speaker 1: exact thing. So it just kind of fascinating here, It's
Speaker 1: all I'm saying, and the news trickles out. Of course,
Speaker 1: NFL dot Com and NFL Network will have everyone covered.
Speaker 1: But I think we should probably dive right into the
Speaker 1: role of a general manager and we should point out
Speaker 1: there are actually people who have the title of GM
Speaker 1: that are not necessarily in control sometimes of all the
Speaker 1: player personnel decision So it's a little bit funky. Sometimes
Speaker 1: not all people who have that GM title are actually
Speaker 1: considered just that. I know, it's weird, just rolling me
Speaker 1: on this one. Okay, Um Dukes Tobin by the way,
Speaker 1: the Bengals, he's got the title of Director of Player Personnel,
Speaker 1: Seahawks executive vice president, and GM John Schneider, just a
Speaker 1: couple of those examples. Sometimes GM is not the all
Speaker 1: encompassing thing. New England head coach Bill Belichick, by the way,
Speaker 1: the only head coach who maintains GM power even though
Speaker 1: he doesn't actually have the GM title. He's he's the GM,
Speaker 1: he's the boss, He's the big man in charge. How
Speaker 1: about that. Kansas City's Andy Reid comes to my Pete
Speaker 1: Carol in Seattle, Washington's Ron rivera head coaches who have
Speaker 1: significant power into some player personnel. And then there's one
Speaker 1: person that I can think of who is maybe the
Speaker 1: most unique character and I say that respectfully in the league,
Speaker 1: and it's an owner and Jerry Jones who not only
Speaker 1: owns a team, but he's calling the shots that stuff. Yes,
Speaker 1: I remember what was it all or nothing or something?
Speaker 1: I think the Dallas Cowboys one that reality show a
Speaker 1: little bit a couple of years ago. In this life,
Speaker 1: before every coach's meeting and staff meeting, Jerry Jones had
Speaker 1: to had to speak to everybody. Fascinating, fascinating. Look, kudos man,
Speaker 1: if you're the team owner like Jerry is, and you
Speaker 1: want to give yourself the GM title, and that's his side, Okay, cool,
Speaker 1: that's your money. Man. You can do what you want
Speaker 1: to do, and he does what he wants to do.
Speaker 1: He does. Okay. So for the sake of this entire episode,
Speaker 1: just to make it easy on understanding, we're just gonna
Speaker 1: refer to everyone as GM the rest of the way. Basically,
Speaker 1: they are the top employee team's personnel department and they
Speaker 1: got the final say on a lot of things, some
Speaker 1: of those topics signing free agents, making draft picks, standing
Speaker 1: current players, making trades, cutting the roster during training camp
Speaker 1: from ninety to fifty three players, picking practice squad players.
Speaker 1: You just sort of said, who like that, that's a
Speaker 1: big decision. I mean all of the general managers I've
Speaker 1: come in contact with that I played for, you have
Speaker 1: personal relationships with these guys, and so you know, cut
Speaker 1: days one of those days where the business gets in
Speaker 1: the way of some of those personal relationships. And I
Speaker 1: always encourage people to check out Hard Knocks because I
Speaker 1: think they do a great job on this. Over the years,
Speaker 1: these moments have happened where head coach, general manager on
Speaker 1: cut day, like it's it's excruciating. They gotta figure out, like, hey,
Speaker 1: this dude's not gonna be with this team anymore. And
Speaker 1: I'm always fascinated how some of these players handled that
Speaker 1: news and just take it way better than you would think. Well, Yeam's,
Speaker 1: first of all, this is a business. We're in the
Speaker 1: business of football. And see when we all fell in
Speaker 1: love with the game of football. I know a lot
Speaker 1: of the players and we fell in love with it
Speaker 1: was when it was a game to us. And sometimes
Speaker 1: the business of it gets in the way. But it
Speaker 1: at least, you know, we don't get a lot of
Speaker 1: Vante Davis is calling his grandmother right when he got cut.
Speaker 1: That was hilarious. I called Vernon his big brother, Vernon,
Speaker 1: what what the hell is talking about? I'm sorry, guys,
Speaker 1: I digress a little bit, but that was funny. No,
Speaker 1: there's there's a lot of well maybe not a lot
Speaker 1: of those moments, but those are memorable interactions when you
Speaker 1: see it unfold in real time. But besides some of
Speaker 1: the player cut downs in the draft and the whole thing,
Speaker 1: they also managed personnel departments, so you got dozens of
Speaker 1: employees dividing duties, hiring, scouting staff, analytical guys. You got
Speaker 1: your numbers people as well, and they also are in
Speaker 1: charge of sending that long term and short term plan
Speaker 1: the vision of the team. They also work a lot
Speaker 1: of times with the head coaches, but from a player's perspective,
Speaker 1: and that's the helmet that you wore and Rob, how
Speaker 1: much interaction was there when you were a player with
Speaker 1: the actual GM, Well, it's funny. I had a lot
Speaker 1: of interactions with our general managers throughout the years that
Speaker 1: I played, and I have to tell our listeners and
Speaker 1: our viewers, I was always a like a team captain
Speaker 1: or a leader on the team. So a general manager,
Speaker 1: as you said, as responsible for the roster makeup and
Speaker 1: getting free agents and drafting guys, and so whenever we
Speaker 1: were bringing a unique personality into the locker room or
Speaker 1: somebody that maybe people had questions about, oh yeah, the
Speaker 1: general manager always gave me a call. Scott mccloughen was
Speaker 1: my first general manager. Drafted me with the San Francisco
Speaker 1: forty niners, and I saw Scott every single day. Scott
Speaker 1: used to stand in the end zone like a coach,
Speaker 1: like he would sit back there. You would see him
Speaker 1: take his notes, you know, as a running back. When
Speaker 1: I would finish through my forty yards and finished through
Speaker 1: the cone, he would always be back there saying good
Speaker 1: job or great read or something like that. And what
Speaker 1: it did was from a players standpoint, it made you
Speaker 1: feel relevant. It made you feel part of the process.
Speaker 1: It made you feel like we were all a team.
Speaker 1: It didn't and yes's business, and you know eventually we're
Speaker 1: all gonna be told that we're cutting and we're gonna
Speaker 1: all be let go, But Scott made it so that
Speaker 1: it just didn't feel like it was a business. It
Speaker 1: felt like a family. And then, you know, I Key
Speaker 1: left with in two thousand and eight or two thousand nine,
Speaker 1: something like that, and then I had Trent Balky and
Speaker 1: then you know, Trent cut me. And it's funny because
Speaker 1: now Trump Balky he's the general manager of the Jacksonville Jaguars.
Speaker 1: And I was doing an interview down in Jacksonville not
Speaker 1: too long ago, and then I get a call from
Speaker 1: Trent like, what's up brother. You know, dude, you got
Speaker 1: any problems? You know what I'm saying. And I'm like, hey, man,
Speaker 1: I love you, man, it's all good. I just wanted
Speaker 1: to tell you about my experience. But you you know,
Speaker 1: you just have these unique conversations and things like and
Speaker 1: trents a good dude, and he got a great roster
Speaker 1: down there. And then John Snyder with the Seattle Seahawks,
Speaker 1: he you know, that was a little bit different because again,
Speaker 1: like when we had Matt Flynn, when we were bringing
Speaker 1: Matt Flynn into that locker room, he called me, hey, Mike, man,
Speaker 1: that's what I'm thinking about doing. We're bringing in Matt Flynn.
Speaker 1: You know, we are no longer have Matt Hassle back
Speaker 1: and things like that. What do you think about it.
Speaker 1: We're drafting this kid, Russell Wilson. I think you could
Speaker 1: be our starter. I know, we just paid Matt Flynn.
Speaker 1: What you think is gonna out in the locker room?
Speaker 1: Is gonna feel if we start Russell Wilson. Just things
Speaker 1: like that. And John had a presence every single day.
Speaker 1: He would be on the sidelines during practice. We would
Speaker 1: you know, squirt World on a mess with him a
Speaker 1: little bit was you know, he was like one of
Speaker 1: the guys. So all of the general managers I had
Speaker 1: had a real presence, and to me, that's what made
Speaker 1: the business side of things go a little bit easier.
Speaker 1: So it's interesting that you put it that way, because
Speaker 1: I would think it's the exact opposite. When you have
Speaker 1: a personal connection with someone and it becomes family slash
Speaker 1: friends and you gotta deliver news that really alters the
Speaker 1: trajectory of their life. I don't want to necessarily give
Speaker 1: that bad news versus hey, man, like this is a
Speaker 1: straight business. We don't have to be boys. Like you'll
Speaker 1: see me taking my notes, but we're not going to interact,
Speaker 1: so that if it does get to that point, you
Speaker 1: know what, it's just an easier separation. Do I sound
Speaker 1: like I don't like Kevin bad No, But but that's
Speaker 1: that that's human nature. I mean it is right, like
Speaker 1: you don't want to tell your friends the bad things.
Speaker 1: But see, I've always looked at life a little bit differently.
Speaker 1: And you know, Snyder and Scott mccluen, those guys are
Speaker 1: real friends to me, right. I still talk to those
Speaker 1: guys today. So I always respected the fact that they
Speaker 1: had that tough decision. I always knew, when you know,
Speaker 1: Roger Goodell said my name in two thousand and six,
Speaker 1: there was a stopwatch on my career, We're all gonna
Speaker 1: get cut. I knew that. I just always respected the
Speaker 1: fact that, like when I got cut from the San
Speaker 1: Francisco forty Niners, I was one of the last guys
Speaker 1: they called, and they made sure what many people in
Speaker 1: the locker room, you know what I'm saying, that it
Speaker 1: was a respecting because I was a captain. The same
Speaker 1: thing happened with the Seattle Seahawks. They made sure I
Speaker 1: was the last guy in the building. You know what
Speaker 1: I mean. They called me, you know, and it was
Speaker 1: done in a respectful way. In in the Seattle standpoint,
Speaker 1: they brought me back. So again, if you understand that
Speaker 1: there's a business to this whole thing, I think players
Speaker 1: understand how to handle it. And the football world is
Speaker 1: pretty small because when you might get cut, it's practice squad,
Speaker 1: it's you then get called up. Like, there's a lot
Speaker 1: of different moving parts. So generally speaking, I want to
Speaker 1: burn bridges, but not to say that you are it,
Speaker 1: just you're painting it in a different light. I know
Speaker 1: it made reference to some of those responsibilities that the
Speaker 1: gms have the majority, And just to kind of lay
Speaker 1: this out there, that jority of current NFL general managers
Speaker 1: twenty four out of thirty two in fact, actually come
Speaker 1: from a scouting background. That makes sense to me, right Like,
Speaker 1: I still think of all the things that I listed
Speaker 1: as their job. I always think about the draft, I
Speaker 1: always think about player personnel from a scouting standpoint. It
Speaker 1: makes sense to me. But to that point, they're the
Speaker 1: number one scout in the building, so to speak. They
Speaker 1: have to have a clear vision of what the team
Speaker 1: looks like and what a roster wants to look like,
Speaker 1: and that's a costant communication process with the head coach. Again,
Speaker 1: I think Bill Parcel said, what do you say you
Speaker 1: want me to be the chef and do the cooking,
Speaker 1: but you don't want me to go get the groceries.
Speaker 1: And that's one of those things where your general manager
Speaker 1: and your head coach you almost kind of gotta be
Speaker 1: thinking through the same prison so that your roster matches
Speaker 1: the scheme and the principles that you want to coach.
Speaker 1: So you've said the word business multiple times already a
Speaker 1: couple of minutes into this show. And I also think
Speaker 1: because of the business managing, the salary cap is also
Speaker 1: a huge factor as well. In fact, currently four of
Speaker 1: the thirty two gm M were salary cap managers, Howie
Speaker 1: Roseman and the Eagles, Makee. Loomis of the Saints, Martin
Speaker 1: Mayhew with the Commanders, and Omar Khn of the Steelers.
Speaker 1: By the way, Roseman, if he's the numbers guy, he's
Speaker 1: also a shrewd evaluator because some of the moves that
Speaker 1: he's made this offseason and during the year really impressive.
Speaker 1: Oh my goodness, he is in his bags with the kids,
Speaker 1: like to say, Yams, I mean how we wrote. I
Speaker 1: mean he probably has this quarterback in Jalen Hurst for
Speaker 1: the next twenty years. He still has draft capital. If
Speaker 1: he wants to go get a quarterback next year. He
Speaker 1: has one of the top receivers in all the football.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, and he has another number one receiver and
Speaker 1: DeVante Smith with all those assets on defense. I mean,
Speaker 1: Howie Roseman to me, if he's not Executive of the decade,
Speaker 1: I mean, he's definitely Executive of the year. I'm with
Speaker 1: you there. He's definitely on that shortlist. The four remaining
Speaker 1: gms didn't come from scouting or salary cap So you're like,
Speaker 1: all right, like, how did that happen? Well? Bill Belichick
Speaker 1: head coach the Patriots, he wins some games. You get right,
Speaker 1: that happens? Uh, Jerry Jones to the Cowboys, You're right?
Speaker 1: The checks got a billy at all about at that point.
Speaker 1: John Lynch ad himself pretty good career, fifteen year Hall
Speaker 1: of Fame NFL career as a safety. He's with did
Speaker 1: you hear how he became general manager? Liked he was
Speaker 1: on a podcast that I did before and he said, Yo,
Speaker 1: it was like I knew that for the Niners had
Speaker 1: an opening. I knew they loved Kyle Shanahan. So I
Speaker 1: hit Cole up, like, yo, let's do this man. This
Speaker 1: is what I want to do. This is how I
Speaker 1: think the team should be, he said. Kyle hit me
Speaker 1: back a couple of days later, like, man, you really
Speaker 1: want to do it, Let's do it. And that's how
Speaker 1: I became the general manager. And I think from a
Speaker 1: player's standpoint, again, I love the general managers that gave
Speaker 1: me opportunities in the National Football League. But to have
Speaker 1: a former player knowing that he's leading your organization, knowing
Speaker 1: that he knows exactly what you go through, that's powerful
Speaker 1: and it resonates in the locker room. And they put
Speaker 1: together pretty good team right right now. Man. The roster,
Speaker 1: I mean again, that's one of those things. And I
Speaker 1: know we're gonna talk about until axis, but that's one
Speaker 1: of those things where, yes, you know their quarterback situation
Speaker 1: right now with Jimmy Garoppolo going down, but it almost
Speaker 1: don't matter who quarterback years man, because scheme and roster
Speaker 1: they're pretty legit. You and David Carrs in Potico said
Speaker 1: the same thing. Actually on Anti I was like, damn
Speaker 1: all right, because he was like, Hey, we made this
Speaker 1: all this big thing about you know, Brock Purty and
Speaker 1: he's you know, Mr Irrelevant. The last pick in the
Speaker 1: draft if you don't know what Mr Relevant is and
Speaker 1: just all of a sudden he's got some success and
Speaker 1: and he's gonna have he's gonna have some opportunity to
Speaker 1: play some world time, big time folk. No, I'm with you.
Speaker 1: And one other GM by the way, who also didn't
Speaker 1: come from scouting, as well as Quasi Adopho men Saw,
Speaker 1: who actually started in analytics with the Niners and then
Speaker 1: became the VP of football Operations with the Browns, where
Speaker 1: he worked on roster strategy. So I guess the short
Speaker 1: way of describing this is there's a lot of different
Speaker 1: ways to get to that top. But I'll put you
Speaker 1: on the spot here. If you're Jerry Jones, right, and
Speaker 1: you got the billy so to speak, So you get
Speaker 1: to start an NFL team, you need a general manager, right,
Speaker 1: which angle are you going as the analytics is the
Speaker 1: numbers guy, the guy that's scout. You just loved up
Speaker 1: John Lynch, a former player. How do you assess it?
Speaker 1: What makes the most sense? Well? I know, for me, like,
Speaker 1: I don't think there's a one right answer here. I mean,
Speaker 1: we talked about Howie Roseman being a cap guy. He's
Speaker 1: had success in the National Football league, John Lynch, um
Speaker 1: Ozzie Knew something. He's also a guy that's a that
Speaker 1: took kind of like the former player pass. I would
Speaker 1: take the former player pass just simply because I look
Speaker 1: at the credibility that having a former player in that position,
Speaker 1: the effect that would have on that locker them, and
Speaker 1: I honestly think it makes the business side of things
Speaker 1: a little bit smoother and a little bit easier, just
Speaker 1: simply because if you're sitting at the negotiating table and
Speaker 1: you're with an Ozzy Knew somewhere with a John Lynch,
Speaker 1: and they understand exactly the sacrifice it took for you
Speaker 1: to get there. I just think it makes the business
Speaker 1: side of things smoother because, as you know, I mean,
Speaker 1: the business side of this thing can get personal. They
Speaker 1: can get emotional, and it can have people not being friends.
Speaker 1: I just think that a former player smooths that side
Speaker 1: of the business out a little bit. Is it harder
Speaker 1: for a former player, and it's not to say that
Speaker 1: they can't do it, but is it harder for them
Speaker 1: to think strategically long term? You played, you want to
Speaker 1: win it that game right then, right now? The reality
Speaker 1: is sometimes you gotta make decisions for the long term
Speaker 1: future and success of your franchise as a general manager,
Speaker 1: is it? Do you think harder from a player's perspective
Speaker 1: to be able to flip that off. I do think
Speaker 1: it's a little bit harder from a player perspective to
Speaker 1: flip that off because so much of our lives it's
Speaker 1: all about right now and what you're doing on the
Speaker 1: field right now and having that immediate success. But I
Speaker 1: think that's when you have to have the ability to
Speaker 1: delegate and lean on your staff and lean on the
Speaker 1: people that you have around you to kind of help
Speaker 1: you in that regard. Knowing truly who you are, knowing
Speaker 1: your strengths and weaknesses. I mean, hell that that's not
Speaker 1: just being good and being a general manager. That's good
Speaker 1: in life. Now, all right, still to come here on
Speaker 1: the NFL Explained podcast. I know we dropped John Robinson's name,
Speaker 1: the former Titans general manager. Will dive a little bit
Speaker 1: deeper into some things that have happened around that organization
Speaker 1: which might have led to the fact that he has
Speaker 1: been relieved of his duty. But we'll paint a broad
Speaker 1: picture too on some other general managers and some misses
Speaker 1: as well as some hits. We'll do that coming up
Speaker 1: next on the NFL Explained podcast. All right, I know
Speaker 1: I do it every single episode, but people keep responding
Speaker 1: with it, so I'm going to keep on doing it.
Speaker 1: Mail Bag episode. I don't know where you were going
Speaker 1: with that at first? Is everyone getting tired of me
Speaker 1: promoting this? It's it's all good. I'm getting looks behind
Speaker 1: the glass, good man. I'm in the group text. I
Speaker 1: see that group text at least once or twice a
Speaker 1: week when you see sending one of those inboxes. Yeah,
Speaker 1: keep sending them to yams. Yes. By the way, I
Speaker 1: sit behind the glass. That's such like an old school
Speaker 1: radio term. Our our complete production crew is in another room,
Speaker 1: separated by a glass. Because there's probably kids who don't
Speaker 1: even listen to talk radio. They don't even know what that.
Speaker 1: Kids don't know what talk radio is. That's really so
Speaker 1: that's why I have to explain some of this stuff,
Speaker 1: because all these kids are just listening to podcasts like ours,
Speaker 1: and the way we appreciate the youth of America listening
Speaker 1: and international listeners because I get international d M s
Speaker 1: and yes, you can check the box, I said d
Speaker 1: M again. Our crew sometimes keeps a tab on some
Speaker 1: things that I say repeatedly on the show. That happens
Speaker 1: to be one of them. But in all sincerity, we
Speaker 1: do appreciate the d ms that are I said it again,
Speaker 1: coming our way. If you have a question, don't know
Speaker 1: who to ask, trust me, we are compiling these questions.
Speaker 1: There's another mail bag episode right around the corner. But
Speaker 1: before the break, we were discussed saying a lot of
Speaker 1: the responsibilities the past, the backgrounds of general managers. At
Speaker 1: the top of the show, I made reference to Tennessee
Speaker 1: Titans and the fact that they relieved of their duties
Speaker 1: John Robinson, their general manager. So there's some ways that
Speaker 1: GM can't get fired. I don't know, to be honest
Speaker 1: with you, which boxes John happened to check here. I'm
Speaker 1: just gonna throw some of your way. Um, obvious one
Speaker 1: team didn't perform well teams in first place, So like
Speaker 1: that's that's not that's not one of those, but that
Speaker 1: is for some that's an issue. Um, some draft, bad
Speaker 1: draft picks, a free agent signings or lack of signings.
Speaker 1: Lack of signings, I would say that was a big one. Okay,
Speaker 1: Um A J. Brown will just double down on that.
Speaker 1: Owner doesn't agree with the GM short term, long term
Speaker 1: vision of the team. That could be something that could
Speaker 1: be if A J. Brown was a part of it
Speaker 1: or not a part of it, that could have been
Speaker 1: a part of it. GM and head coaches down on
Speaker 1: the same page and owner has to choose one. Give
Speaker 1: you an example, December, Raiders fired Reggie McKenzie, kept John Gruden,
Speaker 1: and then they brought in Mike Mayok as their new
Speaker 1: general manager. To be fair, for what it's worth, I
Speaker 1: did listen to a large percentage of the press conference
Speaker 1: down in Tennessee, and it doesn't sound like that was
Speaker 1: an issue. It sounded like coach GM relationship was. Rabel
Speaker 1: very very complimentary of Robinson. So I don't again, Mike
Speaker 1: Vrabel doesn't strike me as a person that would air
Speaker 1: out all the dirty laundry. I didn't expect, Mike. I
Speaker 1: didn't expect to get anything from Rabel's press conference. No,
Speaker 1: I'm with you on that one. Uh. The owner wants
Speaker 1: to clean how and new front office, new coaching staff.
Speaker 1: Clearly that's not Yeah, I don't think Rabel's going anywhere.
Speaker 1: Owners think the gym is the right person to run
Speaker 1: the team. Anymore possible, Yeah, possible I'll give you another
Speaker 1: example that Chief's firing their GM John Dorsey in June,
Speaker 1: reportedly due to quote concerns about his communication and management style. Dorsey,
Speaker 1: by the way, at forty twenty one record as a GM,
Speaker 1: so he was a winner. He must have MF a
Speaker 1: bunch of people in that building. Yep, that had to
Speaker 1: be it. Man, cool to you. I've not heard someone
Speaker 1: use the MF on this show. I'll take it. I'll
Speaker 1: take it, and do not let that out of this
Speaker 1: episode of the NFL podcast. You have you ever been
Speaker 1: on a team where the GMF. Yes, Scott mccluen um.
Speaker 1: He got fired in two thousand nine, and that's when
Speaker 1: Trent Bauky kind of took over. And look, I love Scott,
Speaker 1: but we were terrible, Like we didn't win any games.
Speaker 1: Like I was a player on the team and I'm like, dude,
Speaker 1: we're not that good right now. But I'm looking around
Speaker 1: and it's like we got Patrick Willis, He's like excellent,
Speaker 1: he's great. We got Cowboy Justin Smith, like, you know,
Speaker 1: we got these guys everywhere. And then what a year
Speaker 1: and a half later, they make one switch at the
Speaker 1: coaching position called har Ball comes in and you bring
Speaker 1: Kaepernick in the same roster now elevates themselves to a
Speaker 1: Super Bowl. Yeah, and sometimes it's about fit. We've talked
Speaker 1: about players on previous episodes and where they end up
Speaker 1: with certain teams. We were talking about this with quarterbacks.
Speaker 1: Sometimes you end up in the circumstances that are just
Speaker 1: perfect for you. And case in point and obvious one
Speaker 1: that I think I used even as an example in
Speaker 1: that episode to a right to struggle little bit all
Speaker 1: of a sudden, like Daniels comes in and guess what
Speaker 1: to is now having a great season. You touched a
Speaker 1: little bit on Robinson. You said, Hey, maybe it's the A. J.
Speaker 1: Brown situation. Maybe it's something else, but is there Look,
Speaker 1: we'll go through some of the hits and the misses here,
Speaker 1: but just generally speaking, in this situation, the timing of
Speaker 1: it is that maybe the most surprised. That's the most
Speaker 1: surprising for me because to me, like nothing changed the A. J.
Speaker 1: Brown that trade happened with on Draft Day, Like that
Speaker 1: is what it is. It's nothing you can really do
Speaker 1: about it. Now. You knew what that trade was all
Speaker 1: season and you're in first place. I think it was
Speaker 1: and I know we we live in an environment, living
Speaker 1: a world where you know, it's what have you done
Speaker 1: for me lately? I just think that game A J.
Speaker 1: Brown eight receptions, a hundred nineteen yards, two touchdowns. He
Speaker 1: talked trash the entire time, and I think it was that.
Speaker 1: I think it was the display of A J. Brown
Speaker 1: just saying, y'all could have had me. The dude didn't
Speaker 1: want to go anywhere. I know guys in that Tennessee
Speaker 1: locker room. I know guys in the Philadelphia Eaquals locker room.
Speaker 1: He didn't want to go anywhere. He wanted to stay there.
Speaker 1: Every guy who gets drafted to a team and the
Speaker 1: team starts to see some success, we won't go nowhere.
Speaker 1: We want to get paid by the team that drafted me.
Speaker 1: I like the store that I go to every single morning.
Speaker 1: Like that, you know what I mean? You like your routine.
Speaker 1: He didn't want to go anywhere. He was surprised, and
Speaker 1: I think, if I'm not mistaken, I think Mike Rabel
Speaker 1: said on draft day or something like that, as long
Speaker 1: as I'm the coach, A J. Brown a going to
Speaker 1: where something like that, and then the trade actually happens.
Speaker 1: And I just think it just got to a point
Speaker 1: on Sunday, whereas like the owner was like, I'm not
Speaker 1: taking it anymore. Can I throw something in your way?
Speaker 1: So I'm hearing you talk about this, and I'm automatically
Speaker 1: thinking about Brown and the replacement in a rookie and
Speaker 1: trailing Burke's I'm wondering if Robinson is getting judged not
Speaker 1: just on that pick. Obviously it's the totality of your work.
Speaker 1: But we've seen young wide receivers in year one year
Speaker 1: to really thrive where you start thinking to yourself, all right,
Speaker 1: maybe I'm just really good at this whole deal. I
Speaker 1: just go get another guy. Why am I gonna go
Speaker 1: and pay a j when I can get a rookie
Speaker 1: pay him a rookie deal and he's still gonna ball out.
Speaker 1: And you almost got sucked into the success of some
Speaker 1: of these other guys. I think Burks, I don't know
Speaker 1: off the top of my head. I think it's two touchdowns.
Speaker 1: He caught one the other week and then he recovered
Speaker 1: a fumble in the end zone first score. The reality
Speaker 1: is a pret action from trailing Burks isn't what Tennessee
Speaker 1: clearly hoped that they were getting. But how much do
Speaker 1: you think that's a factor in all I think. I
Speaker 1: think it's a huge factor. I think if tray Lion
Speaker 1: Burks had, you know, come out and had a Jamaar
Speaker 1: Chase type of a rookie season, John Robinson would still
Speaker 1: be the general when with Mike wait, all of those guys, man,
Speaker 1: I mean, we're getting to a point where of the
Speaker 1: wide receiver position, it is almost like the running back position. Right,
Speaker 1: if you're elite, you know what I mean, you can
Speaker 1: find one of those guys. I just think that the
Speaker 1: nature and how A J. Brown showed off. I mean,
Speaker 1: there was a great clip of Mike Rabel giving him
Speaker 1: a hug before the game. I don't know what was saying,
Speaker 1: but I can only imagine what was said. I think
Speaker 1: he said, man, I didn't want to let you go.
Speaker 1: You know, I love you. You know what I'm saying,
Speaker 1: And we're gonna handle this thing on Monday. That's what
Speaker 1: I think you said. So I think my breaker knew
Speaker 1: something on Sunday. You know what I'm saying. But again
Speaker 1: that's just my personal opinion. But A J. Brown, man,
Speaker 1: I just you had the money to pay him. It
Speaker 1: wasn't gonna break the bank. And you talk about the
Speaker 1: explosive plays missing from this offense. Maybe maybe they got
Speaker 1: the wrong quarterback. Maybe they could have paid say Brown,
Speaker 1: who found another quarterback, and maybe they've had more success.
Speaker 1: All right, Welcome back to the NFL Explained podcasts. Mike
Speaker 1: Yam and Rob with you. So look, we talked about
Speaker 1: some of the misses here and that being one of
Speaker 1: them on the Brown situation. There's a lot of really
Speaker 1: good that Robinson did when he was hired in to
Speaker 1: be these team's general manager. Here's a couple of these things.
Speaker 1: Promoted to executive vice president in seventeen. By the way,
Speaker 1: he was just given in February a contract extension that
Speaker 1: runs through seven, so there's still five years remaining on
Speaker 1: the deal. That's guns good a man for about a month,
Speaker 1: you know what, I man going to the came now
Speaker 1: there's something hanging out, man, do do some yoga. Since
Speaker 1: twenties sixteen, Titans record sixty three. I'll take that. The
Speaker 1: sixty point six percent win percentage ninth highest in the
Speaker 1: NFL four playoff experiences nine plus wins every season, one
Speaker 1: of two teams with a winning record every single season,
Speaker 1: along with Kansas City third best win percentage for teams
Speaker 1: with the winning percentage of at least fifty, only behind
Speaker 1: the Chiefs in New England. Last time I checked pretty
Speaker 1: good squads. Well, I gotta tell you, like the team
Speaker 1: actually looked in first place in that division. I know
Speaker 1: we keeps saying this, it's surprising, it is surprising, but yeah,
Speaker 1: I could challenge you. I could argue Andrew Luck helped
Speaker 1: the Titans out. Just the fact that he retired to me,
Speaker 1: and I said it on this podcast before, is set
Speaker 1: the Internat's colts back twenty years. I could argue the
Speaker 1: fact that Deshaun Watson and all the strife with the
Speaker 1: Houston Texas and that just being a you know, uh
Speaker 1: some some lack of leadership in that organization that helped
Speaker 1: that record. So again, I want to take anything away
Speaker 1: from John Robinson's tenure, because I think he did a
Speaker 1: great job, but there were some peripheral circumstances that helped
Speaker 1: that record. Okay, so I just loved up his record.
Speaker 1: I do think it's important to kind of paint the
Speaker 1: entire picture you just mentioned Ryan Tannehill. I think about
Speaker 1: Marcus Mariota. He had some time did not find the
Speaker 1: franchise quarterback to be fair. I think there's a lot
Speaker 1: of teams in the NFL that are looking for their
Speaker 1: franchise quarterback as well. Made the decision the trade A J. Brown.
Speaker 1: Notable draft misses here, uh first round offensive tackle and
Speaker 1: say Wilson played one snap in the NFL. I remember
Speaker 1: this one killed Farley, only started two games. A lot
Speaker 1: of injuries there. You can make an argument the roster
Speaker 1: is declined, like what's that window for this team? I
Speaker 1: would argue it's right now, and maybe that also is
Speaker 1: part of the reason why they wanted to go in
Speaker 1: that direction. One other fascinating wrinkle here, we actually saw
Speaker 1: some roster movement right after Robinson was released of his duties.
Speaker 1: Fullback Tory Carter played nine games this season, not with
Speaker 1: the team anymore. He was waived. They waved a slew
Speaker 1: of players. I guess it's my point here at surprised
Speaker 1: by that, Um, I'm not surprised. They were probably some
Speaker 1: guys that John stood on the table for and you know,
Speaker 1: he had some background with some history with and they
Speaker 1: were probably his guys. And I know you mentioned this,
Speaker 1: but I gotta go back the trade details of A. J.
Speaker 1: Brown again. What was that the trade details? So they
Speaker 1: dealt in the Philadelphia first round pick with one first round,
Speaker 1: one first rounder, and a third round. That's it. That's it,
Speaker 1: fair duds bawling, that's it. I mean to me, he's
Speaker 1: in the class of player like a Tyriquel. I'm not
Speaker 1: saying he's better or what, but he's in the class.
Speaker 1: And you look at what Tyreek Hill was traded for
Speaker 1: five draft pickers. Trade a first rounder, a second rounder,
Speaker 1: and a six I mean, get something more back for
Speaker 1: this kid, man, And then maybe you know, Rabel and
Speaker 1: the owner would have looked at him and said, Okay,
Speaker 1: at least, yeah, we gave up an explosive player. But man,
Speaker 1: look at what we got in return. We can work
Speaker 1: with this. I just don't think they got enough. I
Speaker 1: think it's criminal that they only got a first and
Speaker 1: the third. So I'm gonna play Devil's advocate here. And
Speaker 1: by the way, I actually agree with you the asking price.
Speaker 1: Maybe they could have gotten a little bit more, but
Speaker 1: I'm look sixty three catches for him, seventy catches in
Speaker 1: the year before that, fifty two catches in those three seasons.
Speaker 1: Two of them were one thousand yards seasons. If you
Speaker 1: go off of like recency bias, and it just it
Speaker 1: is what it is. When you're coming off of a
Speaker 1: year where you have eight hundred and sixty nine receiving
Speaker 1: yards and five touchdowns, not exactly Tyreek production. So maybe
Speaker 1: a shrewd move from Harry Roseman to go, hey, look
Speaker 1: at what this dude just did. I'm not giving you
Speaker 1: multiple first round picks. You're not getting Tyreek package for
Speaker 1: a guy that didn't hit a thousand yards last season.
Speaker 1: And and yeah, when you're doing negotiations, I would I
Speaker 1: can agree, I could, I could hear that. But then
Speaker 1: you hold on a J. Brown, you don't let him go.
Speaker 1: He's just that important of a player, man like to me,
Speaker 1: that has something to do with this, Okay, just something
Speaker 1: else to throw out there. Titans owner Amy Adams Strunk
Speaker 1: actually had this to say in a statement since becoming
Speaker 1: controlling owner, in my goal has been to raise the
Speaker 1: standard for what is expected in all facets of our organization.
Speaker 1: I believe we've made significant progress both on and off
Speaker 1: the field through investment in leadership, personnel, and new ideas.
Speaker 1: This progress includes the core of our business, the football
Speaker 1: team itself, which is regularly evaluated both on results, wins,
Speaker 1: and losses and team constructure slash roster building. I am
Speaker 1: proud of what we have accomplished in my eight seasons
Speaker 1: of ownership, but I believe there's more to be done
Speaker 1: in higher aspirations to be met. I want to thank
Speaker 1: John for his dedicated work to set this organization on
Speaker 1: an upward trajectory, and I wish him and his family
Speaker 1: the best. One other note here, NFL network insider Tom
Speaker 1: Pellicero put this out. He said, my understanding is Titan's
Speaker 1: brass wasn't happy with the direction of the roster assembled
Speaker 1: by John Robinson and decided to make a change despite
Speaker 1: leading the a f C South. There's some other things
Speaker 1: you can also speculate about. I'll let you kind of
Speaker 1: go and do that, but your reaction, because it seems
Speaker 1: like her statement is a touch benign in general, it is,
Speaker 1: and it just seems like they you know what they said,
Speaker 1: you know what, we want to go in a different direction.
Speaker 1: Let's go ahead and rip the band hit off right now.
Speaker 1: Let's said best said, and uh, let's just try to
Speaker 1: turn the page real quick and nothing to see here
Speaker 1: type of a deal, and let's just move on all right.
Speaker 1: Earlier in this podcast, you told me you've been a
Speaker 1: part of a team that made a change at the
Speaker 1: general manager spot. What does it do for this team?
Speaker 1: Do you think in the locker room? Oh? Man, um
Speaker 1: it what what it does for this team? I think
Speaker 1: it says we got a hell of a head coach,
Speaker 1: and Mike Treble, I do think that he'll take on
Speaker 1: a little bit more in roster construction and team building
Speaker 1: and things like that. I think he'll get more power
Speaker 1: in this particular situation. But also think that it sends
Speaker 1: the message to this locker room that is not enough.
Speaker 1: What we've done, what we've accomplished, is not enough. We're
Speaker 1: in the business of winning championships, super Bowls. Were not
Speaker 1: happy we're just getting the one conference championship. We're not
Speaker 1: happy we're just winning the division a few years in
Speaker 1: a row and losing to Kansas City or Buffalo in
Speaker 1: the playoffs. It's not good enough. And I think that
Speaker 1: message will be received clearly by the leaders in that
Speaker 1: locker room and they won't step up and play better
Speaker 1: for Yeah, and hopefully we see some more explosive plays
Speaker 1: from that team's offense as well, because they are You
Speaker 1: and I talked about this on the NFL Total Access Podcast.
Speaker 1: It's like this team is built for old school playoff
Speaker 1: football and maybe not new school. And what I mean
Speaker 1: by that for some of our newer listeners who who
Speaker 1: maybe are new to football, ground and pound, right, Derrick
Speaker 1: Henry just a monster. If I need to get up
Speaker 1: and down the field in less than a minute, and
Speaker 1: we got some teams that can do that offensively, I
Speaker 1: don't know if the Titans are one of those squads.
Speaker 1: I don't either. And again, even when you want to
Speaker 1: run the football like they do want to run the football,
Speaker 1: you still need half space in the offense. There has
Speaker 1: to be an explosive element right now, when a J well,
Speaker 1: when a J. Brown was on this team, safety will
Speaker 1: sit at about fourteen or fifteen yards, which that gives
Speaker 1: this offense fourteen and fifteen yards of space to run
Speaker 1: the football now safe just then about nine to ten yards.
Speaker 1: That's not a lot of space for Derrick Henry to
Speaker 1: do work. Now, you know, I know we've spent a
Speaker 1: lot of time talking about Robinson. I do want to
Speaker 1: highlight some gms. There's obviously a ton that are doing
Speaker 1: really just Yeoman's working are having success. Just to throw
Speaker 1: out some names, here Chiefs. Brett Beach actually a seven
Speaker 1: forty two win percentage, Bill Belichick six seventy six win percentage.
Speaker 1: We know what he's been able to accomplish in New
Speaker 1: England for a long period of time. Erica Costa six
Speaker 1: seven two win percentage with the Ravens Packers, gam Brian
Speaker 1: Gouna Coust. You know he's been making a lot of
Speaker 1: headlines with the arn Rodgers situation in this offseason. His
Speaker 1: team has obviously had a ton of success. The Bills,
Speaker 1: Brandon Bean and know all about what that team has
Speaker 1: been able to accomplish. Isn't it interesting though, Ravens, Packers,
Speaker 1: Bills is why don't you know all of them have
Speaker 1: pretty good quarterbacks. And again that's the key. Now if
Speaker 1: you're a general manager, or you're an up and coming
Speaker 1: general manager or a new general manager, the key is
Speaker 1: getting yourself And I was I mean this in a
Speaker 1: you know, in uh, I don't know, a different type
Speaker 1: of like getting married to that quarterback man. You find
Speaker 1: your guy in his job security. And by the way,
Speaker 1: m Rob, you and I actually have an episode coming
Speaker 1: up in a couple of weeks about the art of
Speaker 1: drafting a quarterbacks. So for as much as we're talking
Speaker 1: about GMS and draft capital and the success that they've had,
Speaker 1: getting a quarterback really really important. So that one's coming
Speaker 1: out in a couple of weeks. Just be on the
Speaker 1: lookout for that one, um. And look one other note
Speaker 1: here too, because we've done some Hall of Fame episodes
Speaker 1: as well. Just keep in mind you can be a
Speaker 1: general manager and still getting dried like that has happened here.
Speaker 1: Just to throw some names your way. One that I
Speaker 1: actually catch on radio fairly often. Bill Polian, who was
Speaker 1: with the Bills and Hampers and the Coals like that,
Speaker 1: dude's still out there. Like to me, of the list
Speaker 1: and I'll go through it here, he's one that stands out.
Speaker 1: He's like to go. I even think teams that are
Speaker 1: looking for general managers call him and just say, hey,
Speaker 1: can you talk to the guys that we're thinking about
Speaker 1: trying to get as a general manager. He's a great dude. Yeah.
Speaker 1: Some other names, Bobby Bethard who was with the Redskins
Speaker 1: and the Chargers, Jim Finks back in you know, the
Speaker 1: sixties and seventies and the eighties, the Vikings, the Bears,
Speaker 1: and the Saints. Textram from the Cowboys, Ron Wolf of
Speaker 1: the Packers, George Young of the Giants. So pretty good collection.
Speaker 1: That is a pretty good collection. That's the guy that
Speaker 1: the Packers still are using a lot of his draft
Speaker 1: principles right now. So it's pretty cool. Yeah, it's kind
Speaker 1: of crazy when you think about that type of success
Speaker 1: and the impact that you can have and it it
Speaker 1: carries over decades. Really really cool. I always appreciate you
Speaker 1: guys listening to this episode once again. The role of
Speaker 1: a GM. ME and m Rob did our best. We
Speaker 1: tried really hard. Hopefully we delivered for you could follow
Speaker 1: him on social media at Real Mike Rob, at Mike
Speaker 1: Underscore Yam, you can send me those d ms with
Speaker 1: any of your questions. The role of a GM explained