Speaker 1: The Eagles are still on top of the world, but
Speaker 1: for this week they're in Indianapolis. So what does Howie
Speaker 1: Roseman have up his sleeve? As Philly begins a title defense,
Speaker 1: we'll ask him. Howie joins the show tonight, so does
Speaker 1: Chiefs coach Andy Reid, who is on the end of
Speaker 1: a not so super finished for the Chiefs. Big Reds
Speaker 1: already turned the page to twenty twenty five. What's that
Speaker 1: gonna look like, Judy Battista will ask him. I Meanwhile,
Speaker 1: Kirk Cousins remains a Falcon and the team says that's
Speaker 1: not gonna change anytime soon. But can Captain Kirk really
Speaker 1: coexist as a backup to Michael Pennix. Let's give Raheem
Speaker 1: Morris on the show too. We got nothing but time.
Speaker 1: Welcome Inside with the Insiders, a special two hour edition
Speaker 1: tonight here in Indianapolis at the twenty twenty five NFL
Speaker 1: Scouting Combine, alongside Judy Batista, Mike Garafolo, and Ian Rappable.
Speaker 1: I am Tom Pelsaro right down there in two days,
Speaker 1: forty eight hours. For now, Web's gonna do that too.
Speaker 1: You're a little bit greasy. You're gonna have players out
Speaker 1: there doing drills. That's, of course what all the coaches
Speaker 1: and general managers and scouts came to see. But first,
Speaker 1: we heard from many of those coaches and gms on
Speaker 1: the podiums today addressing some of the biggest topics in
Speaker 1: this offseason. Let's start out with Duke Tobin, the de
Speaker 1: facto GM of the Cincinnati Bengals. We've had some rather
Speaker 1: straightforward comments regarding Jamar Chase. Of course, the Bengals made
Speaker 1: a push to re sign Chase back in last offseason,
Speaker 1: all the way into training camp, weren't able to get
Speaker 1: the deal done.
Speaker 2: This time we're on.
Speaker 1: Tobin said he's gonna end up being the number one
Speaker 1: paid non quarterback in the league. We're there, let's get
Speaker 1: it done, the highest paid non quarterback in the league,
Speaker 1: with me topping justin Jefferson's thirty five million dollars per
Speaker 1: year average.
Speaker 2: We'll see if they can get there.
Speaker 1: Travis Kelcey, meanwhile, has had the future a subject of
Speaker 1: conversation since Ian reported the night before the Super Bowl
Speaker 1: then it could potentially be his final game. Hearing Brett
Speaker 1: Vechtill address it today, it certainly sounds like they anticipate
Speaker 1: Kelsey coming back, Vez said they left it as Kelsey
Speaker 1: is fired up to return. You'll hear from Brett Veach
Speaker 1: as well. He sat down with me earlier today. As
Speaker 1: for Miles Garrett, he's also going nowhere, much to his
Speaker 1: own chagrin, at least at this point. Andrew Barry, pressed
Speaker 1: repeatedly during his media session today, said that the team
Speaker 1: stance really has not changed. They have no plans and
Speaker 1: no interest in trading one of the NFL's.
Speaker 2: Superstar pass rushers.
Speaker 1: We were all in a hall at the Indianapolis Convention
Speaker 1: Center today ian for hours on end in time. There
Speaker 1: were five different GM slash head coaches talking to the media.
Speaker 2: What's the most interesting thing you heard?
Speaker 3: For me, it is the Travis Kelcey situation.
Speaker 4: Obviously, the multi time Super Bowl participants have leaned on
Speaker 4: notish Patrick Mahomes, but his relationship with Travis Kelcey. One
Speaker 4: of the best tight ends in the NFL, still one
Speaker 4: of the best tight ends, maybe the best tight end ever.
Speaker 4: His future has been a subject of discussion. My understanding,
Speaker 4: you mentioned it before the Super Bowl. He was very
Speaker 4: much up in the air. He later confirmed that on
Speaker 4: his own podcast, and now Bret Beach saying they anticipate
Speaker 4: Travis Kelsey being back. My understanding is that is the plan.
Speaker 4: Travis Kelcey does, in fact plan to be back. His
Speaker 4: contract for seventeen a little more than seventeen million dollars
Speaker 4: should stand in place Kelsey. As Veach actually mentioned and
Speaker 4: your interview, Tom was dealing with some illness during Super
Speaker 4: Bowl week. Maybe that contributed to his performance during the
Speaker 4: Super Bowl. But the main thing is he wants to play.
Speaker 4: He's ready to play. They believe he has a lot left.
Speaker 4: So it is a reboot for the Kansas City Chiefs
Speaker 4: as far as the skill position goes, and Kelsey and
Speaker 4: Mahomes well.
Speaker 5: The most interesting thing I heard was from Zach Taylor.
Speaker 5: The Bengals head coach. Duke Tobin was on the podium
Speaker 5: saying they are prepared to make Jamar Chase the highest
Speaker 5: paid non quarterback in the league. Zach Taylor said, they're
Speaker 5: going to bring all of their stars back. His expectation,
Speaker 5: that was his word. It is his expectation that all
Speaker 5: of them will be back. Chase says the highest paid
Speaker 5: non quarterback t Higgins who could be a free agent,
Speaker 5: Trey Hendrickson. All of them, he said, will be back.
Speaker 5: I said, is that realistic? And he says, well, it's
Speaker 5: certainly a possibility. I said, well, is that what you
Speaker 5: think is going to happen, and he said, that's my expectation.
Speaker 5: That would certainly be quite an off season for the
Speaker 5: Bengals if they managed to have everybody back. Also, interestingly,
Speaker 5: he said they are looking at the entire structure of
Speaker 5: their off season program. The focus is they know they
Speaker 5: have to get out to a faster start than they
Speaker 5: have in previous seasons. He said, they're looking at everything,
Speaker 5: how they work in the off season, how they work
Speaker 5: in training camp to try to generate early wins.
Speaker 6: Meanwhile, in a nightly segment, we are calling touch talk
Speaker 6: the animation.
Speaker 1: Yeah, roll the animation control room. You've never heard we
Speaker 1: have the animation. We don't have the animation.
Speaker 3: I thought we were going to have an animation for Pushtomer.
Speaker 3: You're such a liar the bush.
Speaker 6: Nick Sirianni, Eagles head coach, asked about it, and you know,
Speaker 6: he was preparing his answer and that word one, two, three, four,
Speaker 6: the fifth word they're insulted.
Speaker 1: Kept coming up.
Speaker 6: That he feels a little bit insulted that it's called
Speaker 6: an automatic play, and he says, it's not an automatic
Speaker 6: play because of the strategy or the formation or anything.
Speaker 6: It's an automatic play in a lot of ways because
Speaker 6: we're really good at it, and we work hard at it,
Speaker 6: and our guys are talented at it, and this is
Speaker 6: something that we like to use to our advantage. So
Speaker 6: the insulted part I think was also he didn't flat
Speaker 6: out say it, but also toward the idea that this
Speaker 6: was going to be raised to be potentially banned because.
Speaker 1: It's an effective play.
Speaker 6: I know we had the debate last night a little
Speaker 6: bit of maybe some concerns about potential health issues on
Speaker 6: that play, but he's saying, we run the play more
Speaker 6: than anybody.
Speaker 7: I can't think of an injury that we've ever.
Speaker 1: Had on that play.
Speaker 6: So Nick Sirianni really coming with the counter punch today.
Speaker 6: This has been touch push touch talk presented by do
Speaker 6: we sell it?
Speaker 2: We're gonna I can think of a few candidates.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you can advertise an NFL network, I would say,
Speaker 1: also was interested listening to some of the other coaches
Speaker 1: who were asked today about the Packers proposal to ban
Speaker 1: the tush push. Raheem Morris in particular said, I thought
Speaker 1: it should have been banned three years ago. He was
Speaker 1: smiling and laughing, but he was saying, it doesn't look
Speaker 1: like any other play in the game. Credit to the
Speaker 1: Eagles for running it so effectively, but I will absolutely
Speaker 1: be one of those voting against that. To a defensive
Speaker 1: coordinator was saying, it's an issue just because of the
Speaker 1: way that the play begins. You need to create some
Speaker 1: type of time elements so the push doesn't happen immediately.
Speaker 1: Maybe that's a consideration. Say it has to be at
Speaker 1: least the yard downfield.
Speaker 6: John Harball, not a member of the competition committee now,
Speaker 6: but I believe he was before, said he's totally fine
Speaker 6: with it. So again, you're gonna have to get twenty
Speaker 6: four votes for it. If you're getting split votes.
Speaker 5: Justice coaches are not the ones who vote for rules
Speaker 5: shape all owners, and that sometimes is a problem.
Speaker 1: Maybe the most interesting thing I heard was one of
Speaker 1: the last podium sessions today, Colts general manager Chris Ballor,
Speaker 1: just about an hour ago, said they intend to not
Speaker 1: only add a quarterback to the room, but when asked
Speaker 1: what type of competition it'll be, he said it'll be open.
Speaker 1: Joe Flacco, of course, at one point took over as
Speaker 1: the starter. That was benched again in favor of Anthony
Speaker 1: rich when they brought in Flaco on a one year
Speaker 1: deal that was really to be a true backup. We're
Speaker 1: talking about having an open competition. You have to wonder
Speaker 1: who potentially could those quarterbacks be. There's a bunch of
Speaker 1: veterans who have uncertain features. You've got guys like Russell
Speaker 1: Wilson and Justin Fields who are going to be free
Speaker 1: agency seven, Sam Darnold Gardner Minshew was there once before.
Speaker 1: He's got guaranteed money left on his contract with the Raiders,
Speaker 1: and today John Spytech said they have to evaluate everybody,
Speaker 1: including Minshew, that potentially could be another name that enters
Speaker 1: into the marketplace. Could they also draft one, Probably not
Speaker 1: just yet. It was not that long ago, a couple
Speaker 1: of years ago, that they used the number three overall
Speaker 1: pick on Anthony Richardson. But you can be assured there
Speaker 1: will be some quarterbacks in the conversation to go really,
Speaker 1: really high. Bucky Brooks has his latest mock draft at
Speaker 1: NFL dot Com. He's got two in the top three.
Speaker 1: Cam Ward going to the Browns at number two, Shador
Speaker 1: Sanders going to the Giants at number three, But all
Speaker 1: that presumes that the Titans are going to pass on
Speaker 1: a quarterback at number one? Is this for Ian had
Speaker 1: Mike Borganci might ask that question, All.
Speaker 4: Right, let's get right into it. You guys hold the
Speaker 4: number one overall pick. I think everyone here is asking
Speaker 4: about it. What kind of conversations have you had centered
Speaker 4: around the number one pick?
Speaker 3: And where do you guys stand as far as are
Speaker 3: you going to make it or not?
Speaker 8: You know, you know, I think we're still early in
Speaker 8: the process right now. We've evaluated all the tape. There's
Speaker 8: more tape that we have to kind of get through.
Speaker 8: But this is like a very important time for us.
Speaker 8: This is a touch point for us where we get
Speaker 8: to really meet these players for the first time and
Speaker 8: sit down and talk with them. So I don't think
Speaker 8: we're anywhere near making a decision if we're going to
Speaker 8: stay put and make the pick or trade out. But yeah,
Speaker 8: it's early on in the process right now for that
Speaker 8: for that decision.
Speaker 4: You know, there have been times in the past when
Speaker 4: you leave the combine and deals have happened. I believe
Speaker 4: the Bears Panthers deal happened a couple of days after
Speaker 4: like a week maybe after the and it sounds like
Speaker 4: not putting more gim out, but it sounds like this
Speaker 4: might take a little more time for you guys. I
Speaker 4: mean obviously given new staff, new people to to kind
Speaker 4: of get solidified as far as what do you want
Speaker 4: to do.
Speaker 8: And I think so because that's a that's a great
Speaker 8: point you made.
Speaker 9: It's it's a it's a.
Speaker 8: New staff for me getting to learn the staff. So
Speaker 8: I think we're going to need this entire process really
Speaker 8: to get through to make the best decision for the team.
Speaker 8: Like I said, there's a lot of more information gathering
Speaker 8: that we have to do here with the next month
Speaker 8: and a half.
Speaker 4: Do you have a sense of this draft class in general?
Speaker 4: You know, they all have strength and weaknesses, they have
Speaker 4: positions better on that, do you have a sense early
Speaker 4: on what this draft class is going to look like?
Speaker 3: Because whether you're picking one or I don't even I
Speaker 3: don't know anywhere else, like you're gonna get some get
Speaker 3: a chance. It's some pretty good players.
Speaker 8: It's a good class. And we just went through phase one.
Speaker 8: We call it up setting the board. We went through
Speaker 8: the whole meetings with the with the college scouts and
Speaker 8: The one thing that stands out once you look at
Speaker 8: the board is there's a lot of depthy defensive line,
Speaker 8: you know, edge rushers, running backs, you know, I think
Speaker 8: some good tight ends in the draft. So those are
Speaker 8: the kind of the groups that stand out just visually
Speaker 8: looking at the board after we said it too.
Speaker 4: So you are in a unique situation. Obviously, you start
Speaker 4: your new job. Your old team was playing in the
Speaker 4: Super Bowl. Yeah lost unfortunately. Yeah, can you take me
Speaker 4: through what the last month was like for you?
Speaker 3: You take a job, so exciting, coolest thing ever your
Speaker 3: team's playing in the super Bowl, but also they love,
Speaker 3: like what has this been like for you?
Speaker 8: You know, it's so much different when the coaches finish
Speaker 8: out the season then take a new job. So if
Speaker 8: you get a new gym, you kind of get thrown
Speaker 8: right in the middle of it because it's an important
Speaker 8: time of the season. So it's been tough to explain
Speaker 8: to people. But you know, for instance, I was in
Speaker 8: Dallas at the East West and my hotel room watching
Speaker 8: a playoff game there. I'm in Nashville in my hotel
Speaker 8: room watching it with my family, the Super Bowl. So
Speaker 8: it's it's definitely been it's been strange.
Speaker 4: Well, let's focus on your new team for a second.
Speaker 4: You know, you guys, obviously the record is what it is.
Speaker 4: You're picking number one for a reason. It sounds like
Speaker 4: a simple question. But where can this team get better?
Speaker 8: You know, as we looked at the at the roster,
Speaker 8: there's a lot of places we can get better, you know,
Speaker 8: particularly in the trenches. You know, I think we want
Speaker 8: to try to build O line D line. So we're
Speaker 8: going to attack this thing, whether it's through free andcy
Speaker 8: the draft here, but I think it all starts up
Speaker 8: up front for us.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 4: Yeah, And I mean having a draft class that seems
Speaker 4: to have that sort of talent level is probably a
Speaker 4: good thing.
Speaker 9: Which is a good thing.
Speaker 4: Yeah, And then you know, on the quarterback, obviously Will
Speaker 4: comes back, had some moments last year, had some not
Speaker 4: good moments last year. I think it's fair to say
Speaker 4: you guys are in the quarterback market on some level.
Speaker 4: Where does that stand as far as your acquisition for
Speaker 4: whoever may or may not end up being your starting
Speaker 4: quarterback for next year?
Speaker 8: Yeah, you know, I've I've had conversations with Will. I
Speaker 8: did Will come out of Kentucky. You know, he's got
Speaker 8: a lot of talent. So we have one quarterback on
Speaker 8: the roster right now, so eventually we're gonna have to
Speaker 8: add through free and see all the draft. And I
Speaker 8: think it's going to be competition, whether it's.
Speaker 9: Through frame to see ow the draft.
Speaker 8: But but I when I sat down with Will, I
Speaker 8: talked to him, I said, listen, we gon gave you
Speaker 8: every opportunity to compete with wherever we bring in here.
Speaker 3: Interesting, right, Thank you, man, really appreciate you.
Speaker 1: Now, a lot of quarterback questions up there at the
Speaker 1: top of the NFL Draft, including that one at number three.
Speaker 1: The Giants saw a lot of this. This tape could
Speaker 1: go on for a while based upon the quarterback play
Speaker 1: over the last couple of years. Joe Shane, though, has
Speaker 1: a plan to fix it. He was asked today exactly
Speaker 1: how he's gonna put that room together.
Speaker 10: Yeah, and where we are, Tommy Devido is our only
Speaker 10: quarterback on the roster, so you may evaluate both of those.
Speaker 10: Those both both maybe options. So you know, again, we
Speaker 10: don't know what's going to happen in the draft. We
Speaker 10: don't know who's going to be there. You know, when
Speaker 10: we get around these kids, they may or may not
Speaker 10: be a fit for us. So you know, we're gonna
Speaker 10: have to dress the position somewhere. And even if you
Speaker 10: get a young quarterback, you'd like to have a vet,
Speaker 10: you know, in the room with them to show them
Speaker 10: the ropes and how to be a pro. So you know,
Speaker 10: we're looking at all different avenues. It's hey, is this
Speaker 10: guy gonna be really good for a young quarterback? Or
Speaker 10: is this guy at starter, you know? Or can we
Speaker 10: get a guy in the draft, or if we do,
Speaker 10: should we have a guy that's more of a you know,
Speaker 10: a guy that can develop and show a guy how
Speaker 10: to be a pro. So you know we're gonna look
Speaker 10: at you know, vets, We're gonna look at the draft,
Speaker 10: We're gonna look at trade candidates. You know, we're gonna
Speaker 10: look at under every rock to you know, find the
Speaker 10: best prospect for us going in the twenty five season.
Speaker 1: You're playing the Tommy DeVito game at home. You waited
Speaker 1: thirteen minutes, but now drink Judy, what did you make
Speaker 1: of what Joe Shane is.
Speaker 5: Well, they literally said it, We're going to look under
Speaker 5: every rock. I mean he ruled nothing out. First of all,
Speaker 5: it's clear they're looking not just for one quarterback, but
Speaker 5: more than one quarterback. Even if they draft a guy,
Speaker 5: they want a veteran guy in there to help.
Speaker 11: If it's a rookie quarterback.
Speaker 5: They are open to free agency, they're open to trades,
Speaker 5: they're open to He brought it up moving up in
Speaker 5: the draft or moving down in the draft. There is
Speaker 5: nothing he ruled out here. He certainly didn't clarify anything.
Speaker 5: He of course, when he was asked specifically a out
Speaker 5: Matthew Stafford, he's, well, that's really a question for the Rams,
Speaker 5: even though you know the Rams have said, you know,
Speaker 5: Matthew Staffords sort of you knew he was going to
Speaker 5: do that. But basically they are looking everywhere for a quarterback.
Speaker 5: He acknowledged they've made some decisions in the past that
Speaker 5: did not really pan out.
Speaker 6: Yeah, the only thing he ruled in was Tommy DeVito drink.
Speaker 6: What do you drink for the Tommy DeVito drinking game?
Speaker 11: And it's gotten right exactly.
Speaker 12: Yeah.
Speaker 6: Look, the comment from Joe Shane about we want a
Speaker 6: guy who's gonna be able to show a young guy
Speaker 6: the ropes. Some of these quarterbacks that are available might
Speaker 6: not like that necessarily, but some of them are. I mean,
Speaker 6: even Aaron Rodgers talked about him being open to the
Speaker 6: idea of mentoring a quarterback at this point in his career.
Speaker 6: So that's going to have to be a fact of life,
Speaker 6: whether it's Matthew Stafford or Aaron Rodgers. The fact that
Speaker 6: they could still draft somebody with that third overall pick
Speaker 6: that you're coming in and basically mentoring while also holding
Speaker 6: onto the job for as long.
Speaker 1: As you possibly can.
Speaker 6: As for Stafford, yeah, I mean, the Giants are certainly
Speaker 6: in the mix for him, but the Rams won him back.
Speaker 6: The Las Vegas Raiders are in it. We talked about
Speaker 6: that as a possibility. So there's a couple of things
Speaker 6: that need to fall here, and they're not necessarily in
Speaker 6: control of their own destiny on some of these.
Speaker 4: Well, right, I mean, if we can't really talk about
Speaker 4: the Giants quarterback situation without mentioning the Matthew Stafford situation
Speaker 4: and whether or not the Rams decide to move them
Speaker 4: at all, whether they decide to move them to the
Speaker 4: Raiders or the Giants, whether Stafford can do a deal
Speaker 4: with either of the teams before the Rams then end
Speaker 4: up doing a deal to find the right compensation. It's
Speaker 4: extremely complicated, and really it does seem this is probably
Speaker 4: the first quarterback domino that's going to fall before all
Speaker 4: the other things. But Joe Shane also said, as you
Speaker 4: guys mentioned the possibility they move all the way up
Speaker 4: to number one, And if the Giants want to be
Speaker 4: in control of everything regarding their quarterback situation, if they
Speaker 4: believe there is a quarterback presumable we can ward who'd
Speaker 4: be worthy of the number one pick, then that is
Speaker 4: what they need to do to have certainty. That is
Speaker 4: the only way they could say, we know for sure
Speaker 4: what quarterback we are getting to trade up to one.
Speaker 4: We've seen it in the past, We've seen the Panthers do,
Speaker 4: We've seen some other teams do it. We are a
Speaker 4: long way from there, and as Borganzi told me, they
Speaker 4: still need to figure out a lot before they even
Speaker 4: though would they trade that pick.
Speaker 3: But if the Giants want control, that's their control.
Speaker 1: There is so much more to come this week here
Speaker 1: in Indianapolis, the site of the NFL Scouting Combine, that's
Speaker 1: where the drills are going to begin on Thursday. It's
Speaker 1: the NFL Combine presented by Microsoft Copilot, where a dream
Speaker 1: that starts small can get big, and a name that's
Speaker 1: unknown can become the future. Next is here. The twenty
Speaker 1: twenty five NFL Combine starts in two days Thursday to Sunday.
Speaker 1: Right here on NFL Network and streaming on NFL Plus.
Speaker 3: Welcome back to the Insiders.
Speaker 4: I'm Ian Rappaport here with Eagles general manager Howie Roseman.
Speaker 4: Or wait, super Bowl winning general manager Howie Roseman.
Speaker 3: Sorry, I gotta add the extra title thank.
Speaker 4: You when we last saw you, besides doing the podiumself
Speaker 4: over here, you are standing in front of millions of
Speaker 4: people bleeding and declaring how you bleed for the city
Speaker 4: of Philadelphia.
Speaker 3: There's been a lot of great Philly moments.
Speaker 4: Looking back on that, What was that a surreal experience?
Speaker 13: Like, Yeah, I don't think that when I woke up
Speaker 13: in the morning and thought that I was going on
Speaker 13: the parade, bleeding from my head was part of was
Speaker 13: the dance on the dance card at all. So I
Speaker 13: really wasn't expecting it. But obviously we got unbelievably passionate fans.
Speaker 13: I know that there's no malicious intent, you know. Unfortunately
Speaker 13: for me, at a moment, I decided to go to
Speaker 13: the other side of the bus, closer to the fans,
Speaker 13: and I think that that was an invitation to toss
Speaker 13: me a beer. And the only good thing about the
Speaker 13: video coming out, which I don't want to watch again
Speaker 13: because I maybe concussed if I just watched it five times,
Speaker 13: but I think the only good thing was someone actually
Speaker 13: asked me if, like I try to catch it and
Speaker 13: I dropped it. They were like questioning my hands, and
Speaker 13: it was like, you know, I wasn't even thinking that.
Speaker 13: So you know, the rest of the parade, I spent
Speaker 13: people trying to toss me more beers pointing to my forehead.
Speaker 7: They still threw me beers.
Speaker 13: Those I caught.
Speaker 3: Those I caught, all right. I like that. Plus you
Speaker 3: look like you've held up pretty nicely.
Speaker 13: Yeah, yeah, I knew I had to get right for
Speaker 13: this moment, and you know, I still got a little mark.
Speaker 8: But we're doing all right, We're right.
Speaker 4: Well, let's talk about this moment, not this interview, but
Speaker 4: where we're at right now.
Speaker 3: Free agency a couple weeks away. You got some big ones, someone.
Speaker 4: Who maybe if you asked me a year ago, would
Speaker 4: like Zach Bond be one of your big free agents.
Speaker 4: I would say not necessarily. That was one of the
Speaker 4: best signings in all football. Obviously you got Josh Wett,
Speaker 4: your own, Makai Becton. Take me through some of your
Speaker 4: free agents, Williams. How you handle what's going to happen
Speaker 4: the next couple of weeks.
Speaker 13: Yeah, it's a quick turnaround from obviously being really excited
Speaker 13: about how we ended the season and extremely appreciative to
Speaker 13: our players and coaches to now getting right down to business.
Speaker 13: And in some ways that's probably better. So you can't
Speaker 13: have too much time to kind of think about it.
Speaker 13: You just kind of have to go into action. And
Speaker 13: those guys have earned this opportunity in free agency, you know,
Speaker 13: obviously our goal would be to keep as many of
Speaker 13: them as we can. As we look at our roster,
Speaker 13: we got a lot of guys who've earned their contracts,
Speaker 13: and so we'll just have to see how it goes
Speaker 13: in the next couple of weeks here. But all the
Speaker 13: guys you mentioned really good players, really good people who
Speaker 13: are huge parts of our football team.
Speaker 4: So obviously we went through the celebration you guys had,
Speaker 4: you were through it.
Speaker 3: Now how quickly does the page turn?
Speaker 7: Really quickly?
Speaker 13: I think from our perspective, we understand that people have
Speaker 13: been in this process with their coaches, with their front
Speaker 13: office for a longer periods of time. And so although
Speaker 13: we had all fall and the winter to go through
Speaker 13: the free agents and the draft, so the evaluation process
Speaker 13: was ongoing throughout the season, you know, having those conversations
Speaker 13: and sharing kind of the vision of the off season
Speaker 13: and getting some feedback of it. That's the thing that
Speaker 13: probably has to happen real quicker.
Speaker 4: So last thing, you guys have thrived over the last
Speaker 4: many years, building through the offensive line and defensive line, right,
Speaker 4: even if it's not premium pick, sometimes it is, But
Speaker 4: even if it's not, that's really been your most talented groups.
Speaker 4: As this has gotten more discussion naturally, is that annoying
Speaker 4: and frustrating that other people may be onto what you guys.
Speaker 3: Generally do well.
Speaker 13: I think at the end of the day, the most
Speaker 13: important thing is what we do, you know, for our
Speaker 13: football team and the decisions we make, you know, I
Speaker 13: think the hardest thing throughout the off season is that
Speaker 13: good players are going to sign to teams that, quite frankly,
Speaker 13: I'd rather them not sign with. Good players are gonna
Speaker 13: get drafted by teams that, quite frankly I'd rather than
Speaker 13: not get drafted with and so we got to focus
Speaker 13: on how we can improve our football team, how we
Speaker 13: can improve our roster. And I think that that's challenging
Speaker 13: as it is without having to worry about what everyone.
Speaker 14: Else is doing.
Speaker 3: How we appreciate you. Congrats again.
Speaker 8: Thanks he.
Speaker 3: Battle scars for Howie Rosmen. There it is right there.
Speaker 4: You could see in my interview with him, he look
Speaker 4: totally fine.
Speaker 3: There it is right there.
Speaker 4: Scars from the war that was the Eagles parade came
Speaker 4: right up to the podium and said, I bleed for
Speaker 4: this city. Iconic moment for the city of Philadelphia. Maybe
Speaker 4: not quite like winning the Super Bowl, but certainly up
Speaker 4: there is something that would be replayed for years to
Speaker 4: come as well.
Speaker 3: This right here, man, Jalen hurt says, really age, I'm
Speaker 3: just kidding.
Speaker 4: He looks exactly the same, literally exactly the same. If
Speaker 4: he went out there right now and took part in
Speaker 4: the NFL scouting combine.
Speaker 3: I would think he was a twenty one year old Hurts.
Speaker 12: Of course I thought he was.
Speaker 3: Thirty at the time. Anyway, this is where we are.
Speaker 4: Jalen Hurts has come a long way in the football field,
Speaker 4: but maybe not a long way in his headshot.
Speaker 3: Let's talk about the Kansas City Chiefs. Though once out
Speaker 3: of the Super Bowl we covered here's the other side.
Speaker 4: That's Patrick Mahomes dropping one in the bucket during these
Speaker 4: Super Bowl Let's talk to his coach, Andy Reid to
Speaker 4: find out a little more and their plans to be
Speaker 4: back next season.
Speaker 15: Coming up on The Insiders, New Today into The Insiders,
Speaker 15: Khalil Shakir, the Bills wide receiver fresh off a seventy
Speaker 15: six catch for touchdown season, agrees to terms.
Speaker 6: On a new four year, sixty point two million dollar extension,
Speaker 6: gets thirty two million guaranteed. This according to Ian and
Speaker 6: Tom So, the Bills get Shakir under contract for another
Speaker 6: five years total.
Speaker 1: There good deal for Buffalo and.
Speaker 6: Good deal for the Chiefs that Travis Kelcey is returning
Speaker 6: in twenty twenty five. This, according to Brett Veach Today
Speaker 6: in speaking to the media the Bill's general managers was
Speaker 6: sort of anti climactic, like we thought this was going
Speaker 6: to drag on for a while, and then in the
Speaker 6: end Kelsey decides he is coming back for a thirteenth
Speaker 6: NFL season, And before his first NFL season, this is
Speaker 6: how he looked as the Chiefs posted a then versus
Speaker 6: Now Handsome Fella Back then Handsome Fella Now. He had
Speaker 6: the flowing locks for the Super Bowl as well, growing
Speaker 6: that hair back out, almost looking like his combine flow
Speaker 6: from years ago. Here is Travis Kelsey's head coach, Andy Reid,
Speaker 6: with our head coach, Judy Batista.
Speaker 11: Andy, thanks for being with us.
Speaker 5: You've had about two weeks to reflect on the Super Bowl.
Speaker 5: When you look back, what are your takeaways?
Speaker 16: Yeah, it was a bad day to have bad day,
Speaker 16: for sure, So there are a bunch of things we
Speaker 16: can learn from it without going publicly with it. I
Speaker 16: think it's important that you write him down and then
Speaker 16: step away, get away and relax here little bit when
Speaker 16: you're thinking a little clearer. It's so emotional and it's
Speaker 16: so final that you can forget about the other nineteen
Speaker 16: games before that, or eighteen whatever it was before that.
Speaker 16: So you've got to take it all in, and you
Speaker 16: got to take the whole year in and then come
Speaker 16: up with what you need to work on for the
Speaker 16: offsias As a coach, obviously start with yourself, and then
Speaker 16: as players you've got to do the same thing. So
Speaker 16: and the one positive with the guys came out and
Speaker 16: they I listened to what they said after the game,
Speaker 16: and they were all going, I could have done this better,
Speaker 16: I could have done that better. Well, if you're willing
Speaker 16: to take upon that accountability, I think good. You know,
Speaker 16: change can happen and positive things can happen.
Speaker 5: I know, on the podium before you told the reporters
Speaker 5: that you had told Travis to take some time, get away,
Speaker 5: clear his head a little bit. Your GM made it
Speaker 5: sound like you're expecting good news from him. Brett indicated
Speaker 5: that he's fired up, he expects him to be back.
Speaker 16: Is yeah understanding, Yeah, no, I think we'll all work out.
Speaker 16: But I'm big on that. I'm big on stepping away.
Speaker 16: I mean, Trav's positive, so everything's there's no negative to it,
Speaker 16: but step back and.
Speaker 12: Get yourself away from it.
Speaker 16: And I told all the players that, I told all
Speaker 16: the coaches that you just think clearer and we obviously
Speaker 16: hope he's coming back. He's been positive in that direction.
Speaker 12: So but you know, we'll cross all that here next
Speaker 12: week or so.
Speaker 5: So all right, as we turn the page, when you
Speaker 5: when you look at the team, when you look at
Speaker 5: what happened in the super Bowl, and maybe in some
Speaker 5: of the other games. What do you think your priorities
Speaker 5: are going into the roster buildings.
Speaker 16: Yeah, so I think Brett does a nice job with
Speaker 16: going through every position and kind of look at the
Speaker 16: strengths and the weakness of each spot, and then he's
Speaker 16: got to project that on like a three year advanced projection. So,
Speaker 16: and what they're doing with the cap and we're not
Speaker 16: one of those teams that kicks at kazillion dollars forward
Speaker 16: and does all of that. I mean, we're we're gonna
Speaker 16: draft well, and we're gonna be smart in free agency.
Speaker 16: And and so we're right in the middle, kind of
Speaker 16: the middle of that process. And and Brett further than
Speaker 16: I am. Uh, that's his that's his baby right there.
Speaker 16: So but he's he's looking at all that. I've got
Speaker 16: full confidence that he takes care of all that, you know,
Speaker 16: but as much as he possibly can.
Speaker 5: What's your expectation, Tray Smith will be a free agents
Speaker 5: are coming up?
Speaker 11: What's your expectation.
Speaker 16: We've got a handful of these guys that are pretty
Speaker 16: good football players that are going to be free agents.
Speaker 16: You're probably not gonna be able to bring them all back.
Speaker 16: Tray's one we would love to get back obviously, just
Speaker 16: because of what he is and what he kind of
Speaker 16: stands for and a great human being. First of all,
Speaker 16: I'm a phenomenal human and a tough one to boot.
Speaker 16: So anyways, he's right in the middle of it. He's
Speaker 16: working on all that stuff.
Speaker 5: You're an offensive line guy, is that your primary focus
Speaker 5: this off season?
Speaker 11: Getting that offensive line right?
Speaker 16: I'm always going to look at the offensive line and
Speaker 16: defensive line first and then go from there.
Speaker 12: That's where I normally start just over the years.
Speaker 5: Yeah, does this feel like maybe a more momentous off
Speaker 5: season for you? Maybe because you're coming off a loss
Speaker 5: at disappointing Laws, You've had so many wins in recent years,
Speaker 5: but again because you have a handful of pretty big
Speaker 5: free agents, does this feel like a critical off season
Speaker 5: for you to sort of go into the next phase
Speaker 5: For the Chiefs, I'm.
Speaker 12: Tell you, they all seem critical.
Speaker 16: There's so much parody in this league right now that
Speaker 16: you have got to stay on your A game and
Speaker 16: if you don't, you're going to get your tail kicked.
Speaker 16: So you get to here and you're going, oh my goodness,
Speaker 16: this thing, or even three days after the Super Bowl,
Speaker 16: you're hitting the Petz Enemy a thing of free agents
Speaker 16: to look at, and then going through our free agents
Speaker 16: and looking at the spots that are potentially open on
Speaker 16: your team. It slaps you right in the face every year.
Speaker 16: I mean it's crazy. So and you know you better
Speaker 16: be able to fill the majority of those or you're
Speaker 16: gonna have a tough time. So in some way or another,
Speaker 16: they all can't be the highest paid guys in the
Speaker 16: national football You have to able to.
Speaker 12: Balance that out.
Speaker 11: It's one of those things.
Speaker 5: Maybe getting another playmaker for Patrick, whether even if you
Speaker 5: get Travis back, do you think you need to add
Speaker 5: firepower to the offense.
Speaker 16: Yeah, one thing brought He's very aware of this and
Speaker 16: he talks about it. You have a player Patrick, They're
Speaker 16: all this way, but you have arguably the best player
Speaker 16: in the league or at that position for just this
Speaker 16: period of time, and so you always want to try
Speaker 16: to feed them the best you can you can possibly
Speaker 16: get for them and give him the tools that he needs.
Speaker 12: To also be successful.
Speaker 16: So Brett does that, and there is no better year
Speaker 16: to look at it than this year by all the
Speaker 16: movement that he that he had with injuries and having
Speaker 16: to put guys bring guys in and hop comes in
Speaker 16: and jumps in and is productive for us. So I
Speaker 16: thought Brett did a did a nice job with all
Speaker 16: that Hollywood, you know, likewise, So yeah, that's all right.
Speaker 5: So you were just sort of referencing Patrick's window, right,
Speaker 5: That's what we call it, his window? Are you with
Speaker 5: Patrick as his head coach for as long as his
Speaker 5: window is open?
Speaker 4: Oh?
Speaker 12: I don't. He might play at least forty. That put
Speaker 12: me on a cane, So.
Speaker 11: We would take that.
Speaker 5: That's fine.
Speaker 16: Now we'll see, we'll see how all that goes here. Yeah,
Speaker 16: I don't know. I mean, I like doing what I'm doing,
Speaker 16: and I like it right now, so I'm happy.
Speaker 11: Yeah, great, Andy, Thanks.
Speaker 12: You, betch I appreciate you.
Speaker 17: Thank you.
Speaker 12: Thanks.
Speaker 1: Top prospects in the twenty twenty five NFL Draft are
Speaker 1: descending upon Indianapolis. That is the site of the twenty
Speaker 1: twenty five scouting Combine. It all starts Thursday, live exclusive
Speaker 1: coverage on NFL Network and NFL Plus. For more on
Speaker 1: the combine, let's welcome in Sam Schwartzstein Prime Video and
Speaker 1: Thursday Football is Analytics Expert to help us break this down.
Speaker 1: With a little bit of help from next Gen Stats. Okay, Sam,
Speaker 1: there's a lot of different ways you can break down players,
Speaker 1: but we're still doing a lot of the traditional testing.
Speaker 1: It's the forty, it's the three cone. What can that
Speaker 1: stuff tell us about these guys?
Speaker 18: Look the traditional stats, we have them for years and
Speaker 18: so being able to look back at those stats that
Speaker 18: combine dates back all the way to nineteen eighty two,
Speaker 18: it's been in Indianapolis since nineteen eighty seven, we can
Speaker 18: utilize that data to then track those players to identify
Speaker 18: what are their performance is going to be outside Now,
Speaker 18: even for offensive linemen, you might say, when is an
Speaker 18: offensive lineman ever going to run forty yards? We can
Speaker 18: actually look back at the data and identify that the
Speaker 18: forty is one of the best indicators for success for
Speaker 18: an offensive tackle. It doesn't just measure speed how fast
Speaker 18: are getting there, it's their flexibility as well as their
Speaker 18: ability to stay healthy through that process and be able
Speaker 18: to finish the forty like I didn't do it the
Speaker 18: Pro Day ten years ago. So you know, that's a
Speaker 18: clear indicator that a player is going to be good
Speaker 18: for offensive lineman and using all this rich data, we
Speaker 18: can use Athletic Scores, Next Gen Stats has an athletic
Speaker 18: score that's a blended metric that looks at how good
Speaker 18: a player has been on a hole for their position,
Speaker 18: and Next Gen sets has it all the way through
Speaker 18: two thousand and three.
Speaker 1: And we've had more of the next Gen sets over
Speaker 1: these past couple of combines here, So what good is it?
Speaker 18: Look, when you use tracking data, you can go a
Speaker 18: little bit deeper and we can get what we call
Speaker 18: game speed from that. So you're going to hear a
Speaker 18: broadcasters over the year saying he might have had the
Speaker 18: best forty, but he had great game speed. And using
Speaker 18: a drill like the Gauntlet where a wide receiver is
Speaker 18: starting online and they're then going to run across the
Speaker 18: field and be able to catch a ball. Throughout that process,
Speaker 18: you can actually see what game speed will be. And
Speaker 18: this is a clear indicator of a guy like Puka
Speaker 18: Nakula who did not have the best forty, but actually
Speaker 18: the fastest time through the gauntlet, and not just when
Speaker 18: you wash him in the gauntlet. You're seeing that he's
Speaker 18: not making mistakes, he's able to stay on the line
Speaker 18: of scrimmage. And using the next ten Stats tracking data,
Speaker 18: we saw reached over twenty miles per hour.
Speaker 17: So then when you're.
Speaker 18: Looking at the next season, you have Keyon Coleman. He
Speaker 18: was another player. He was more of a basketball player
Speaker 18: at in Michigan State, then transfering to Florida State, had
Speaker 18: a good season, but when you look at his gauntlet drill,
Speaker 18: he performed better there than the gauntlet. That helps people realize, hey,
Speaker 18: he's not just the player that might have a slower forty.
Speaker 18: But being able to utilize the tracking data to reflect
Speaker 18: game speed will take us one step.
Speaker 17: Further than what the traditional combined drills will do.
Speaker 1: So what else can tracking data help? Let's tell about
Speaker 1: these guys.
Speaker 18: Look, it's fun because this is greenfield, you know, and
Speaker 18: that means that there's so many different things that you
Speaker 18: can do by looking at the different drills that players
Speaker 18: are doing and be able to then start tracking more
Speaker 18: and more things. Look when the next Gen Stats team
Speaker 18: I talked to Keigan Abdoll earlier today, they had a
Speaker 18: hunch that the Gauntlet would be a great drial to measure,
Speaker 18: but it wasn't a guarantee that it was going to
Speaker 18: be a great thing.
Speaker 2: And we're doing that.
Speaker 18: With more and more drills this season this combine. Looking
Speaker 18: at ways players can stand out in the Pacific drills,
Speaker 18: not just nutritional drills that we have over time. I
Speaker 18: didn't really looking forward to what we do with defensive lineman.
Speaker 18: How whether we're able to track from running the hoop.
Speaker 18: There's other things that that tracking you that can let
Speaker 18: us go even deeper with numbers as well as at
Speaker 18: the end of day, you gotta watch the film and
Speaker 18: make sure the players can play, but the numbers will
Speaker 18: take us deeper.
Speaker 1: I'm guessing based on the fact that you're sitting next
Speaker 1: to me and not, you know, playing for when these
Speaker 1: seam of the prote didn't go great.
Speaker 18: It wasn't the best day for me, But I think
Speaker 18: I'm doing okay. But uh, you know, a lot of
Speaker 18: other players had great prote's but I'll let them have that.
Speaker 12: Shy.
Speaker 1: We love what you do, Sam, Thank you very much.
Speaker 11: This is a little bit strange. For the second year
Speaker 11: in a row.
Speaker 5: The fate of Kirk Cousins is one of the big
Speaker 5: questions at the scouting Combine. Last year, at this time
Speaker 5: he was slated to be one of the biggest prizes
Speaker 5: in free agency. Didn't really pan out the way the
Speaker 5: Atlanta Falcons or Kirk Cousins had hoped he lost the
Speaker 5: starting job in the middle of the season, and now
Speaker 5: general manager Terry front No is out here telling us
Speaker 5: that the team is comfortable keeping Cousins as the backup quarterback.
Speaker 5: Our Camp Wolf sat down with head coach Raheem Marris
Speaker 5: to get his thoughts on Cousins and much much more.
Speaker 3: Rahem, thanks for joining us today.
Speaker 19: Obviously, coming off your first year, what do you think
Speaker 19: the biggest thing you learn coaching the Falcons was last year?
Speaker 20: You know, you learn stuff every single day, and it's
Speaker 20: hard to say the biggest, but ultimately you want to
Speaker 20: find ways to be able to finish. And we had
Speaker 20: a great start, but obviously we ended up disappointed and
Speaker 20: you got to be able to find out how to
Speaker 20: maintain that throughout the season. And you about to find
Speaker 20: out how to maintain that fight and that urgency and
Speaker 20: that consistent effort in order to get us to where
Speaker 20: we want to go.
Speaker 17: And we didn't do that last year, and it was
Speaker 17: this pointing for us. It's just pointing for our fans.
Speaker 20: But like we look forward to moving forward, we look
Speaker 20: forward to going to get those things accomplished and get
Speaker 20: those things done for us.
Speaker 19: You mentioned moving forward. A big part of that is
Speaker 19: your quarterback. Michael Penick showed a lot of poise last
Speaker 19: few games. Maybe what is one thing you hope to
Speaker 19: see him grow f in twenty twenty five as we
Speaker 19: see him on the field, you.
Speaker 20: Know, and it's really just winning, you know for him.
Speaker 20: You know, he showed all the poise, He showed the maturity.
Speaker 20: He showed it as a backup, he showed it as
Speaker 20: a starter. He showed the ability to go out there
Speaker 20: and remain poised throughout the situation, no matter what it was.
Speaker 20: He played in the playoff like environment. We played that
Speaker 20: Commander game there late in the season. Now it was
Speaker 20: about going out there and finding ways to win and
Speaker 20: find ways to show his team that they can lead
Speaker 20: him to wins and which we all believe in it. It
Speaker 20: really excites us as an organization, It excites us as
Speaker 20: a city.
Speaker 17: It excites us.
Speaker 20: Just across the board, and we look forward to him
Speaker 20: leading us into what we want to get done.
Speaker 19: I can see your smile as you talk about that assitement.
Speaker 19: Is there something that you know about him or you
Speaker 19: learned about him that maybe the rest of us are
Speaker 19: going to learn.
Speaker 20: It's hard not to smile when you talk about Michael
Speaker 20: and the maturity, the growth, the development, the ability to
Speaker 20: touch every part of the field, his athleticism, which was
Speaker 20: some of the things that we learned about him, some
Speaker 20: of the things that really grew on us when we
Speaker 20: washingon scramblefod touchdowns, do some of those different things, which
Speaker 20: was different from college us up. He keeps the whole
Speaker 20: city engaged. He keeps us engaged as coaches and moving
Speaker 20: forward is really what you surround them, what you surround
Speaker 20: them with, what you do with them. And we got
Speaker 20: to get better on defense around them. We got to
Speaker 20: get better on offense around him. And he'll get better
Speaker 20: as he matures and he grows and develops to the
Speaker 20: guy that think it can be.
Speaker 19: I know you and Terry talked earlier about Kirk Cousins
Speaker 19: and him being your backup quarterback. How do you navigate
Speaker 19: that as a coach? You know a guy who was
Speaker 19: accomplished a lot, but he's in a little bit of
Speaker 19: an awkward period, so to speak.
Speaker 20: There's no doubt about it. And those awkward periods are
Speaker 20: always created in the National Football League, whether you're talking
Speaker 20: about quarterback position or you're talking about the d line position.
Speaker 20: Those things always created the competition at this level is
Speaker 20: very high, and we're in a comfortable spot where we're
Speaker 20: at without decision making, and we got to move forward
Speaker 20: and find out what we're going to do next year.
Speaker 20: And really we just got finish talk about when we
Speaker 20: talk about Michael Pennocks and moving forward, how you're going
Speaker 20: to do those things. We know who our starting quarterback is.
Speaker 20: We didn't wish we didn't do at this time last year.
Speaker 20: We know exactly where we're going. We know that why
Speaker 20: receivers were throwing to whether you're talking about Drake London
Speaker 20: or Mooney or Ray Ray McCloud or Kyle Pitts or
Speaker 20: b John Robinson. We know some of these things that
Speaker 20: we got known commodities and we got to building those things.
Speaker 17: We gotta build those things moving forward.
Speaker 19: Say Kirk is still there when you coach and OTAs
Speaker 19: in April, how do you handle that?
Speaker 17: You know, I feel great about the human. I know
Speaker 17: who the human is.
Speaker 20: I've been around them before in DC, I've been around
Speaker 20: him here at Atlanta. He had himself in such a
Speaker 20: great way. We're gonna move forward to how we got
Speaker 20: to get it done. But we're always gonna do what's
Speaker 20: best for the Atlanta focus. Obviously, we're here for the combine.
Speaker 20: The draft's a big part of it.
Speaker 19: You got fifteenth overall, pitch sure, a lot of defensive players,
Speaker 19: a lot of defensive tackles, ede rushers. What stands out
Speaker 19: to you when you look at this crop and maybe
Speaker 19: what can help you when you come around to April.
Speaker 20: You know, we're very young into the process. Right now,
Speaker 20: we're talking about the evaluation of them all, and we've
Speaker 20: all heard about the highly anticipated defensive draft, So I
Speaker 20: can't wait to dive deep into it with the guys,
Speaker 20: with Tarry and those guys who a lot of who
Speaker 20: are far ahead of us right.
Speaker 17: Now, we're talking about the coach staff.
Speaker 20: But when we get these guys right now, obviously we're
Speaker 20: gonna have to go find rush.
Speaker 17: There's no secret. We talked about it. Last year. We
Speaker 17: had to go find a quarterback.
Speaker 20: This year, we got to go find ways to add
Speaker 20: to our rush pass rush.
Speaker 19: There's plenty of pass rushers in this gray. I've heard
Speaker 19: obviously the NFC South, that's your first title. Tampa's been
Speaker 19: that team for a while. What you know, obviously we
Speaker 19: talked about six and three for you guys at one period.
Speaker 19: What does it take for you guys to get over
Speaker 19: the top and take Tampa down?
Speaker 17: You know, we got to go beat Baker. Man, let's
Speaker 17: not get ourselves right.
Speaker 20: But you just can't add it just to Tampa right
Speaker 20: this this division is growing every single day. These things
Speaker 20: switch around so fast in the NFL. You know, I
Speaker 20: remember there was a time we're the best division. I
Speaker 20: remember times there were the worst division. And who knows
Speaker 20: going to happen in the next year. So like, you
Speaker 20: got to find ways to get better first at home
Speaker 20: and then you gotta find ways to beat that division
Speaker 20: in order to get you in the playoffs and get
Speaker 20: you to the spot you want to be in.
Speaker 19: Absolutely appreciate you, Raheem for the time always looking good
Speaker 19: and can't wait to see Thanksgab this year.
Speaker 17: Speaking of looking good, man, you look good.
Speaker 2: Appreciate that man.
Speaker 5: The NFL Combine presented by Microsoft co Pilot, where a
Speaker 5: dream that starts small can get big and a name
Speaker 5: that's unknown can become the future next is here. The
Speaker 5: twenty twenty five NFL Combine this Thursday thru Sunday on
Speaker 5: NFL Network and streaming on NFL Plus. And when we
Speaker 5: return on the Insiders, we're going to talk to Steelers
Speaker 5: general manager Omar Khan about their quarterback situation. Could it
Speaker 5: still involve that guy, Russell Wilson.
Speaker 1: Pay no attention to the man behind the steel curtain? Actually,
Speaker 1: please do, because Omar Khan was kind enough to sit
Speaker 1: down today with Judy talking about these guys, Russell Wilson,
Speaker 1: justin fields and the future at quarterback in Pittsburgh. Miles
Speaker 1: Garrett is still in that division. He's still a Brown
Speaker 1: and to hear GM Andrew Berry tell it, that's not
Speaker 1: gonna change. But exactly how committed is Cleveland to getting
Speaker 1: its superstar back in the fold after a trade request.
Speaker 1: Mike g sits down with ab to break that down,
Speaker 1: and Cale Williams has a new coach in Chicago, Caleb
Speaker 1: Now it sounds like he's not leaving Ben Johnson alone.
Speaker 1: A great chat with the new Bears head coach awaits
Speaker 1: this hour as well. That's why they gave.
Speaker 2: Us sixty extra minutes.
Speaker 1: Welcome inside with the Insiders at the Combine. It is
Speaker 1: a two hour special tonight here inside Lucas Oil Stadium
Speaker 1: where in just a couple of days some of the
Speaker 1: top prospects in the twenty twenty five NFL Draft will
Speaker 1: be right down there on the field behind us, showing
Speaker 1: us what they can do. Alongside Judy Batista, Mike Garafalo,
Speaker 1: Ian rappaport I am Tom Pelicero. We got Chiefs GM
Speaker 1: Brett Veach on the show in this hour as well.
Speaker 2: We also have Bengals coach Zach.
Speaker 1: Taylor, who had some interesting things to say during his
Speaker 1: conversation at the podium with reporters as well as with
Speaker 1: Judy in parts, saying the expectation, in Taylor's words, is
Speaker 1: that they're going to have t Higgins and Trey Hendrickson
Speaker 1: back in the fold for twenty twenty five. T Higgins
Speaker 1: of course set up to become a free agent, but
Speaker 1: the Bengals have been committed to get a long term
Speaker 1: deal done. If they can't, it is likely and now
Speaker 1: expected that they're going to place the franchise tag on Higgins.
Speaker 1: As for Trey, Henderson wants a new contract dissension that
Speaker 1: puts him among the highest paid defensive players right now,
Speaker 1: He's still on the books for twenty twenty five, and
Speaker 1: certainly in Taylor's mind, that's not going to take place.
Speaker 1: Anywhere other than in Cincinnati. Anthony Richardson may have some
Speaker 1: changes on the horizon. GM Chris Ballard speaking for the
Speaker 1: reporters a short time ago and said they are going
Speaker 1: to add a veteran to that quarterback room, and when
Speaker 1: asked about the competition, Ballard said it'll be open. Anthony Richardson,
Speaker 1: of course, the fourth overall pick just a couple of
Speaker 1: years ago. Bench last season put back into the job
Speaker 1: they had Joe Flacco. He started for a bit, But
Speaker 1: based upon Ballard's words, seems like perhaps they're trying to
Speaker 1: bring in a little bit stronger competition this time around.
Speaker 1: I meanwhile, the Chiefs, it sounds like they're not going
Speaker 1: to need a new tight end. And how would they
Speaker 1: replace Travis Kelcey anyway, Brett Veach said earlier today when
Speaker 1: he left it with Travis Kelsey, Kelsey was fired up
Speaker 1: about coming back in twenty twenty five. Also told me
Speaker 1: that Kelsey was battling a more severe illness than anybody
Speaker 1: realized heading into the Super Bowl.
Speaker 2: Stick around a lot more from Brett Veach later on
Speaker 2: in this show.
Speaker 1: We are here at the scouting combine, Bucky Brooks released
Speaker 1: his mock draft two point zero ahead of the combine.
Speaker 1: He's got Abduel Carter up there going number one. Carter
Speaker 1: dealing with a shoulderage. You're gonna be cleared for Pro Day,
Speaker 1: not going to participate here. Cam Ward, Shadu or Sanders
Speaker 1: are up there in the top three as well, which
Speaker 1: would mean no quarterbacks sitting on the board for the
Speaker 1: Jets at number seven, they of course have a QB need.
Speaker 1: After announcing the week after the Super Bowl they are
Speaker 1: partying ways with forty one year old Aaron Rodgers moving
Speaker 1: on in a different direction. Darren Mougie today said there
Speaker 1: was no ultimatum to Aaron Rodgers. They simply decided it
Speaker 1: was time for a change. Here's what the new head coach,
Speaker 1: Aaron Glenn had to say.
Speaker 21: We're looking for smart, tough, aggressive and resilient players.
Speaker 17: All right.
Speaker 21: We're gonna do everything we can to find those guys.
Speaker 21: And listen, you can find them in all different spots,
Speaker 21: small schools, big time schools, trades where we can find them.
Speaker 21: We're gonna try to bring them on this team. We're
Speaker 21: gonna bring in competition at every position. It's not just
Speaker 21: the quarterback position that can be d tackled. dB linebacker,
Speaker 21: doesn't matter the nature of this game is competing, and
Speaker 21: we're gonna do that at every position. Listen, I understand
Speaker 21: the reaction of the players, but I will say this,
Speaker 21: Every decision that men moves you make is to win
Speaker 21: and to win now. So I understand it. But again, listen,
Speaker 21: that's not gonna be the last decision I make.
Speaker 9: Right.
Speaker 21: That's gonna upset some people, and that's okay, right, but
Speaker 21: as men, we talk about it, we make sure we
Speaker 21: keep it in the house that we're gonna continue to do.
Speaker 1: Notable that he says every move is to win and
Speaker 1: win now, which means in turn, that means Aaron Rodgers
Speaker 1: was not the guy to win or win now. So
Speaker 1: what direction does this go in New York? Mic Well?
Speaker 6: Rod Taylor's on the roster right now and a candidate
Speaker 6: to be a starter for the Jets this season. Wouldn't
Speaker 6: be the last time, or this should be the first
Speaker 6: time that he was a bridge quarterback.
Speaker 1: For a team.
Speaker 3: Uh, at least a third time.
Speaker 6: Count them up, bean, while I'm talking, because you're probably
Speaker 6: right about that. Yeah, I mean Buffalo, he.
Speaker 1: Will legit clean.
Speaker 3: Yeah the fourth time.
Speaker 9: There you go.
Speaker 6: So, Tyrod Taylor Bridge a possibility, uh, and the draft
Speaker 6: as well. I mean they're there are a possibility to
Speaker 6: move up in the draft or even depending on how
Speaker 6: the top of the draft falls, could have a quarterback
Speaker 6: at that spot for them, uh there to potentially take there. So,
Speaker 6: you know, is every decision to win now, I mean,
Speaker 6: I think Darren Mougie came in and he pitched the
Speaker 6: Jets on a plan, a long term plan for how
Speaker 6: to build this thing up the right way. So I
Speaker 6: don't know, you know, and and quinnin Williams might be
Speaker 6: upset about this. He put out that tweet and then
Speaker 6: deleted it about I guess it's another rebuild year for me.
Speaker 6: You can rebuild quickly. There's enough talent on this roster
Speaker 6: that you can rebuild quickly. The question is what they're
Speaker 6: going to do at the quarterback position. They're not tipping
Speaker 6: their hands certainly on that, but at least they have
Speaker 6: tire Rod in house.
Speaker 17: Well.
Speaker 5: First of all, there was a strong new sheriff in
Speaker 5: town vibe from Aaron Glenn that he made it clear
Speaker 5: he had spoken to quinnin Williams about that we're going
Speaker 5: to keep that in house, and also saying like people
Speaker 5: are going to disagree with me, and that's fine. That
Speaker 5: was a very strong Bill Parcells vibe, by the way,
Speaker 5: like you can disagree with me, I'm the head coach.
Speaker 5: He also made the point that he does not want
Speaker 5: the entire team to be about the quarterback, right, and
Speaker 5: he is conscious of the fact that we're all quarterback
Speaker 5: obsessed in the NFL, but he wants this to be
Speaker 5: a more complete team. And that was certainly saying they
Speaker 5: did not want to discuss Aaron Rodgers in detail. They
Speaker 5: certainly want to put that behind him, But that was
Speaker 5: his way of saying, he's not going to see have
Speaker 5: a team that is constructed for the quarterback and by
Speaker 5: the quarterback, which is certainly what the Jets had for
Speaker 5: the last two seasons. Very much turning the page on
Speaker 5: the Aaron Rodgers era and the era of the Jets
Speaker 5: that was built just to Aaron Rodgers.
Speaker 4: Liking well, and this to me kind of brings me
Speaker 4: back to where Aaron Glenn came from in Detroit. I mean,
Speaker 4: obviously you know the Allion's quarterback. It's Jared Goffer. Reclamation
Speaker 4: project went from being someone who is just kind of
Speaker 4: cast aside by the Rams to being their franchise guy.
Speaker 4: But that's not how the team was built. It was
Speaker 4: been on the offensive line, it has been on the
Speaker 4: defensive line. It was built with impact players, regardless of
Speaker 4: kind of where they came from, and regardless off people thought,
Speaker 4: I don't know, should we take a running back in
Speaker 4: the top fifteen, or an off the ball linebacker in
Speaker 4: the first round, or a right tackle really early in
Speaker 4: the top of all these different places that talented players
Speaker 4: came from.
Speaker 3: This is how you built.
Speaker 4: And I think in Detroit we learned and you know,
Speaker 4: we've learned this in other places. But obviously Aaron Glenn
Speaker 4: saw it up close. This is not about just the quarterback.
Speaker 4: You can build around him, drop a quarterback in and
Speaker 4: see them have success. A clear sort of message that yes,
Speaker 4: we are going to be discussing the quarterbacks, but that
Speaker 4: is not all they are going to be discussing. That said,
Speaker 4: they picked number seven, they could take QB three anyway
Speaker 4: and end up with their franchise guy.
Speaker 3: All right, go ahead.
Speaker 1: So the Jets need the quarterback of both now and
Speaker 1: the future. The Vikings kind of have the opposite issue,
Speaker 1: where they've got a twenty seven year old Pro Bowl
Speaker 1: quarterback in Sam Donald coming off of the best season
Speaker 1: of his career on a one year contract, and they
Speaker 1: got twenty two year old JJ McCarthy who they took
Speaker 1: in the top ten of the draft just a year ago.
Speaker 1: Sam Donald at this point would become a free agent
Speaker 1: if they don't use the franchise tag, which remains a possibility.
Speaker 1: Kevin O'Connell addressed those possibilities today.
Speaker 22: Sam's year was so fun to be a part of,
Speaker 22: just thinking back to this time last year and then
Speaker 22: onward through the offseason, acquiring Sam and getting him to
Speaker 22: trust in us to help him on that next step
Speaker 22: in his quarterback journey, and what a step it was.
Speaker 9: So proud of the year he had.
Speaker 22: JJ's doing really well from a standpoint of where he's
Speaker 22: progressed do in his rehab and in a phase now
Speaker 22: where he's got his site set on that offseason program,
Speaker 22: start dating and getting off to a great start there.
Speaker 22: And then I can't speak enough about Daniel Jones and
Speaker 22: the short time we did have him. I thought it
Speaker 22: was incredibly impactful for Daniel, but also for us to
Speaker 22: get to know him and allow him to kind of
Speaker 22: learn a little bit about our offense, how we train
Speaker 22: and coach the quarterback position, and he showed some real
Speaker 22: positive early results from that. So feel incredibly fortunate to
Speaker 22: be discussing those kind of names, you know, with Brett
Speaker 22: Ripping and Nick Mullens also in our quarterback room, and
Speaker 22: you know, we're evaluating the short term and long term
Speaker 22: aspect of it. It's still early in the off season process,
Speaker 22: but ultimately excited about you know what lies ahead in
Speaker 22: twenty twenty five.
Speaker 1: I don't think Kevin O'Connell was sending a message to
Speaker 1: Sam Darnold anyway there, but I think it's notable Judy
Speaker 1: that he brings up Daniel Jones' name. In other words,
Speaker 1: there's a lot of different scenarios here. I would anticipate
Speaker 1: their go have a veteran quarterback on the roster. In
Speaker 1: some regard, what they're focused on is making sure they
Speaker 1: got the resources, the cat money to build a championship
Speaker 1: caliber roster around whoever's at the quarterback position. At some
Speaker 1: point the numbers go so high on Sam Donald, maybe
Speaker 1: you're better off with a more economical option in Daniel Jones,
Speaker 1: But they do have the tag at their disposal.
Speaker 2: What do you make it?
Speaker 1: Where the Vikings did.
Speaker 5: Yeah, they're certainly not willing to tip their hands this early.
Speaker 5: Like they talked a lot about like it's really early
Speaker 5: in the process. It's so really it's like, well, not really,
Speaker 5: if you're gonna use the tag, you got to do
Speaker 5: that in the next two weeks or so, like, not
Speaker 5: really that early, But they seem to be working through things.
Speaker 5: They also bait the point I can't remember if I
Speaker 5: can't remember who said it, but like they don't want
Speaker 5: to overweigh what happened in the last two games of.
Speaker 11: The regular season.
Speaker 5: They also don't want to underweigh it, right, I mean
Speaker 5: they have to, Like, if you're looking at the whole season,
Speaker 5: how much do you put into what happened in those
Speaker 5: last two games, which was obviously a tremendous disappointment given
Speaker 5: how the rest of the season went for Sam Donald?
Speaker 3: Is that the real Sam Donald?
Speaker 11: Is that not the real Sam Donald?
Speaker 1: What would that be?
Speaker 5: And is that somebody they are comfortable going forward with
Speaker 5: still a lot of moving pieces here.
Speaker 6: The more we start to dig into the quarterback landscape
Speaker 6: right now, the more I'm getting the vibe of the
Speaker 6: teams that have a quarterback are looking around at the
Speaker 6: teams that don't have a quarterback, and how desperate they
Speaker 6: might be, and how few options there are out there
Speaker 6: that they go, why would we let a good one
Speaker 6: out right?
Speaker 1: And why we've got one here?
Speaker 6: And yes, JJ McCarthy is certainly in their long term plans.
Speaker 6: But we've got a good quarterback who performed last year
Speaker 6: in Sam Donald. We're not just gonna let him walk
Speaker 6: out the door like there's gonna be an effort here
Speaker 6: to resign him or again, Tom as you mentioned, we
Speaker 6: may have to use the tag that buys us more
Speaker 6: time to continue negotiating with him or whatever can come
Speaker 6: off of that. But whether it's Sam Donald or you know,
Speaker 6: Derek Carr with the Saints or Gino Smith with the Seahawks,
Speaker 6: these are are the top five quarterbacks that you're going
Speaker 6: to be set for the next ten.
Speaker 2: To fifteen years with.
Speaker 6: No but they're good quarterbacks and a lot of teams
Speaker 6: would like to have a good quarterback right now, at
Speaker 6: least for the short term.
Speaker 3: Well, the Vikings believe they have two, right.
Speaker 4: I mean, if you look at the landscape of quarterbacks
Speaker 4: and you just mentioned I think you mentioned all the names.
Speaker 4: We certainly mentioned all the names in this segment. It
Speaker 4: seems to me, based on my conversations that in this offseason,
Speaker 4: of the quarterbacks available, Sam Donald.
Speaker 3: Seems to be the best, right.
Speaker 4: I mean, you could sort of argue Matthew Stafford, who's
Speaker 4: a little older, but Donald seems to be the dude.
Speaker 3: The Vikings have him, so if they want to have
Speaker 3: him be their starter, they can do that. That's not
Speaker 3: that hard.
Speaker 4: They could tag them, or they could reach a new
Speaker 4: deal based around the tag.
Speaker 3: If they want to have.
Speaker 4: JJ McCarthy be their starter, they're in an unbelievable position
Speaker 4: of just being able to hold on to the guy
Speaker 4: and say you want to get.
Speaker 3: Him, come get him.
Speaker 4: And we haven't seen this a lot, but for the
Speaker 4: Vikings it's like, you know, we'll talk about, oh, this
Speaker 4: they had a good free agent and he goes to
Speaker 4: somewhere else and he signs a lot of money, they
Speaker 4: get a compic you know, a third rounder in.
Speaker 3: A couple of years. This is like that, but accelerated.
Speaker 4: It's like COMPIC plus plus amazing amazing situations.
Speaker 3: For the Vikings.
Speaker 4: If they're comfortable enough with JJ McCarthy to be their guy,
Speaker 4: they can just auction off Sam John.
Speaker 3: And go come pay for him.
Speaker 1: You mentioned the fact that you've got one guy in
Speaker 1: Sam Darnold in terms of the free agent quarterbacks where
Speaker 1: we would anticipate gets paid. The Steelers have two guys
Speaker 1: who are going to be in that free agent class,
Speaker 1: Russell Wilson or Dustin Fields. If they can't get a
Speaker 1: deal done with either of them, I would anticipate. I
Speaker 1: said this on Super Bowl Sunday, if the Steelers resigned
Speaker 1: Wilson or Justin Fields, it's probably a short term deal again,
Speaker 1: and it's probably while they continue to search for their
Speaker 1: future quarterback again. But certainly these are guys who are
Speaker 1: going to have opportunities this year. Well Mark con discussed
Speaker 1: that when he sat down with Judy a little bit ago.
Speaker 5: Omar, let's start with the big question looming over this offseason.
Speaker 5: Where do you stand on a quarterback decision for the team?
Speaker 23: Judy, thanks for having me on. You know, it's the
Speaker 23: question on a lot. I've gotten that question a lot
Speaker 23: this week so far. Obviously, I'll say this. You know,
Speaker 23: we went into last year understanding that all three of
Speaker 23: our quarterbacks were going into last year of their deals,
Speaker 23: you know, and here we are this year. It was
Speaker 23: a good experience with all three of those guys. You know,
Speaker 23: we'd like to you know, in an ideal world, we'd
Speaker 23: like to have a combination of the three guys back
Speaker 23: on our roster. But as we stand right now, you know,
Speaker 23: no one's signed, so all options are on the table.
Speaker 23: Had conversations with Russ's group and Justin's group, and uh
Speaker 23: even positive you know, I truly believe both of them
Speaker 23: would like to to be here, and you know, the
Speaker 23: conversations continue and we'll see where it goes.
Speaker 11: What's your timeline for when you'd like to have that settled?
Speaker 23: You know, it's always you know, always, you know, when
Speaker 23: you go through this, you always say sooner than later.
Speaker 23: But the reality is, you know they you know, when
Speaker 23: we do sign a quarterback or acquire a quarterback, uh,
Speaker 23: that's going to have an impact on all the other positions.
Speaker 23: So the sooner we have that decision better.
Speaker 5: It's looking outside the organization for a quarterback free agency trade.
Speaker 11: Is that a possibility preferably?
Speaker 23: We you know, we have the two guys that we
Speaker 23: had between Russ and Justin. You know, that's our first preference,
Speaker 23: But the reality is we don't have a guy under contract.
Speaker 23: So until that happens, you know, all options have to
Speaker 23: be on the table for us.
Speaker 5: With the way the season ended last year, with the
Speaker 5: losing streak, the offense obviously stalled. They are towards the
Speaker 5: end when you look at the off season, what do
Speaker 5: you think you need to do to get the team
Speaker 5: back on track.
Speaker 23: No, we we were ten and three at one point,
Speaker 23: and you know, things didn't go well after that. We
Speaker 23: lost five straight games, and that's unacceptable. We know that,
Speaker 23: we own it. We recognize that. You know, we we
Speaker 23: have to look ourselves in the mirror, all of us,
Speaker 23: top to bottom, and see how how we can not
Speaker 23: make the same mistakes we made last year and and
Speaker 23: just building some of the good things that we have.
Speaker 9: And we're in the process of doing that. You know,
Speaker 9: we we we.
Speaker 23: Look at how we do things every year, and we're
Speaker 23: doing that right now.
Speaker 5: It's one of those things, maybe acquiring a few more
Speaker 5: playmakers for the offense.
Speaker 23: You know, you can always you can't have enough playmakers.
Speaker 23: So I think that's you know, you guys watched us
Speaker 23: last year. We obviously need more playmakers.
Speaker 11: George ends you want him their long term.
Speaker 23: I had George and I had a really solid exit
Speaker 23: meeting after the season, and he he knows our expectations
Speaker 23: for him, and you know he has expectations for himself.
Speaker 23: I believe George has a desire to be great and
Speaker 23: desire to be great as a Steeler.
Speaker 9: Uh.
Speaker 23: And you know, we we we we're excited about the
Speaker 23: future and we'll see where all that goes.
Speaker 5: We're just going to go down the offense. We're just
Speaker 5: going to go every position group offensive line. It sounds
Speaker 5: like there's going to be a few position changes on
Speaker 5: the offensive line. How do you feel about the state
Speaker 5: of your offensive line right now?
Speaker 23: So we we've obviously invested a lot of draft capital
Speaker 23: on the offensive line the last couple of years, Judy,
Speaker 23: and you know, we we feel good about it. You know,
Speaker 23: a couple of guys are free agents, and you know
Speaker 23: there's some guys that may have to move positions and
Speaker 23: adjust to where they played. But you know, excited to
Speaker 23: have Broderick and you know some of the young guys
Speaker 23: Broderick and we drafted Spencer Anderson the same draft.
Speaker 9: And you know last year.
Speaker 23: Troy Fatan who got hurt, we were expecting big things
Speaker 23: that it was unfortunately he got hurt. But he's on
Speaker 23: the on the right path helping us in twenty twenty five.
Speaker 23: And Mason McCormick. We took him in the fourth round
Speaker 23: and can't say enough about Mason. He worked really hard,
Speaker 23: got better every week and you know, so we feel
Speaker 23: good about the offensive line.
Speaker 5: Nanjie Harris, what's his future with the Steelers?
Speaker 23: You know, we now have tons of respect for Nauge
Speaker 23: and what he's done. You know, he's four straight thousand
Speaker 23: yard seasons and that's hard of doing this league.
Speaker 9: And you know, all options are on the table.
Speaker 23: You know, we're not closing the door in anything, but
Speaker 23: understand he's a free agent and we'll see where it goes.
Speaker 11: That's a big picture.
Speaker 5: It's been a while since the Steelers have made a
Speaker 5: deep push in the playoffs. Been a while since there's
Speaker 5: been a Super Bowl appearance for a team that has
Speaker 5: been turned awful lot of Super Bowls. What do you
Speaker 5: have to do to get over that hump?
Speaker 9: Well, we have to be self aware. It's disappointing.
Speaker 23: As I mentioned earlier, you know, we have to look
Speaker 23: every one of us has to look at ourselves in
Speaker 23: the mirror and revisit everything that we do and how
Speaker 23: we do it. And it's it's an organizational thing. And
Speaker 23: but you know, I'm confident that we were reviewing our
Speaker 23: processes and how we do things and and that we
Speaker 23: can turn this around and get to where we want
Speaker 23: to be in twenty twenty five.
Speaker 5: What convinces you that Mike Tomlin is the guy to
Speaker 5: do that? Still after all of these years.
Speaker 23: You know, Mike t and I have been together now
Speaker 23: for eighteen years. You know, I've been in this capacity
Speaker 23: going to my third draft, and you know, I just
Speaker 23: see the passion and.
Speaker 9: That he has and he's great to work with.
Speaker 23: And you know, I just I just I love him
Speaker 23: as a person and a football coach, and I'm excited
Speaker 23: with the future holds for us.
Speaker 5: And I'll ask you one question about the coming season.
Speaker 5: You're going to play in Dublin. I know how special
Speaker 5: that is to the Steelers organization.
Speaker 11: And the Rooney family. Yeah, yeah, how actually looking forward
Speaker 11: to that.
Speaker 23: You know, Judy, as you know, I had Urt Rooney
Speaker 23: and Dane have done a great job of getting this
Speaker 23: game for us in Dublin. And as you know, I
Speaker 23: had a very close relationship with Ambassador Dan Rooney, and
Speaker 23: I had the opportunity and the honor to be in
Speaker 23: Ireland twice while he was ambassador over to visit them.
Speaker 23: And I got to tell I can't wait. It's gonna
Speaker 23: be an awesome experience. The people, the countryside, the culture.
Speaker 23: It's just it's gonna be awesome, and I can't wait.
Speaker 9: I hope, I hope you make that trip over.
Speaker 23: I hope you get on the when you leave the set,
Speaker 23: Judy has to be there also, not playing a game than.
Speaker 12: You go?
Speaker 1: What chime is any right? There?
Speaker 15: Uh?
Speaker 1: The Steelers posting some of their great forty yard dashes
Speaker 1: through the years. You got Joey Porter Junior there at
Speaker 1: the bottom right, Ian, can you name anyone else in
Speaker 1: this photo?
Speaker 17: No? How about bottom left? Come on?
Speaker 1: Bottom left?
Speaker 3: Is your terrible photo of them?
Speaker 17: Left?
Speaker 3: Their faces are all weird. They got no numbers, They
Speaker 3: got no names.
Speaker 1: Ideal either age. Look at the look at the numbers.
Speaker 1: The numbers tell you where they are in the alphabet.
Speaker 4: I'm much better when you put a name under it
Speaker 4: so I could just read it.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's that should be. We don't have room for
Speaker 1: it on the screen. We don't have him for my fault.
Speaker 6: But have been up and down first season for Kayleb
Speaker 6: Williams with the Chicago Bears. But the potential is there,
Speaker 6: the promise is there. And Ryan Poles, the man who's
Speaker 6: selected Caleb, says that new head coach Ben Johnson, who
Speaker 6: was certainly highly sought after the last couple of years
Speaker 6: and decided to take his coaching talents to Chicago, will
Speaker 6: help take Caleb and the.
Speaker 1: Team to the next level.
Speaker 6: Here is our Tom Pelasero with Ben Johnson earlier today.
Speaker 1: Been about a month on the job. Now, is your
Speaker 1: brain settled? Have you come out of the whirlwind?
Speaker 5: Just?
Speaker 14: I don't think it's going to settle this year, and
Speaker 14: that's perfectly fine with me. It's everything I knew I
Speaker 14: was getting myself into, and I've loved every.
Speaker 2: Step of the way so far.
Speaker 1: How do you navigate that, I shure you walk in
Speaker 1: the building, there's a million things you want to do
Speaker 1: from like what's on the walls obviously, your scheme and
Speaker 1: your culture.
Speaker 14: Where do you start? How do you kind of compartmentally?
Speaker 14: You start by surrounding yourself with the right people. And
Speaker 14: that's what I feel like I've done from a coaching
Speaker 14: staff perspective. Getting Dennis Allen as a defensive coordinator was
Speaker 14: huge for me because I do want to call plays
Speaker 14: on offense, and I know that I need a strong
Speaker 14: presence there on the other side of the ball that
Speaker 14: has history of producing good defenses.
Speaker 2: And that's what I was able to get.
Speaker 14: And then I've got a great chief of staff here
Speaker 14: with me too, that's helping navigate some of the pitfalls
Speaker 14: that could come on a first time head coach as well.
Speaker 14: So it's things like that that have really added up
Speaker 14: and made this as seamless as transition as it could be.
Speaker 1: I know, under the rules, you can't coach Caleb Williams
Speaker 1: as yet, but I know you've talked to him. He
Speaker 1: was at your introductory press commerce. What's that relationship like
Speaker 1: in the very.
Speaker 2: Very early show man, I tell you what, He's hungry.
Speaker 2: He's hungry.
Speaker 14: I'm trying to watch the Super Bowl with my family.
Speaker 14: I made it back to Detroit just for a weekend,
Speaker 14: and I'm watching and my phone just keeps buzzing and
Speaker 14: it's Caleb time and time again.
Speaker 2: You know what's going on here? What do we think? Oh,
Speaker 2: that was a cool play?
Speaker 14: Things like that, And so I just know this is
Speaker 14: a hungry individual that he's ready to get this career
Speaker 14: started of his because he's got a chance to be
Speaker 14: pretty darn special.
Speaker 1: Tell me about the parts around him again. I know
Speaker 1: you dug into the tape before you interviewed with the Bears,
Speaker 1: but just now that you're getting to watch it more
Speaker 1: and you're thinking about how you're going to utilize these guys,
Speaker 1: when does it begin?
Speaker 14: Sides Kalb Yeah, I think offensively. Listen, the best thing
Speaker 14: for Caleb will be to have a strong running game,
Speaker 14: and so we do want to have more consistent O
Speaker 14: line play going forward.
Speaker 2: Feels really good about Swifty.
Speaker 14: Have a history with Swifty from Detroit, and I know
Speaker 14: he had a good year this past year in Chicago,
Speaker 14: so I look forward to that continuing on. And then
Speaker 14: the two wideouts are phenomenal players. I'm talking Dj Moore
Speaker 14: and Rome. I think those two guys have just scratched
Speaker 14: the surface.
Speaker 2: Of what they're capable of doing.
Speaker 14: And then Cole Comet isn't someone to snuff your eyes
Speaker 14: at either, because I mean he's he had a down year,
Speaker 14: but the catch percentage that I think around eighty percent,
Speaker 14: So he is a security blanket for Caleb.
Speaker 1: So you're in a new market, obviously, in Chicago, you're
Speaker 1: with an enemy club. Within the division now from where
Speaker 1: you've been in recent years in Detroit. I did enjoy
Speaker 1: that you took a small shot at the team that
Speaker 1: the Bears fans hate more than any others with the
Speaker 1: Packers here. That's a tough division, though, That's a bunch
Speaker 1: of really good players, could quarterbacks, good coaches. How do
Speaker 1: you begin that climb up the mountain knowing that much
Speaker 1: like it did in Detroit, it might take some time.
Speaker 14: Yeah, it might say it takes some time. But our
Speaker 14: goal right now is to win and win right away.
Speaker 14: This is not a in our mind's going to take
Speaker 14: three years to get this thing going. We want to
Speaker 14: build around Caleb and we're going to find the right
Speaker 14: mix of players to come in and help supplement that.
Speaker 14: And listen, we know it's going to be a challenge.
Speaker 14: Just this divisions to challenge every division in football. That's
Speaker 14: the way the National Football League's created is complete parody.
Speaker 14: Things go in cycles, and so I get fired up
Speaker 14: thinking about the competition that's already in this division.
Speaker 2: I love sparring.
Speaker 14: With Brian Flores a couple of times a year, you know,
Speaker 14: I love the thought of going standing on the other
Speaker 14: sideline of Dan Campbell and yeah, there's a little friendly
Speaker 14: banter there between myself and coach Laflora, But I have
Speaker 14: a ton of respect for all those guys and I
Speaker 14: really look forward to the challenge ahead.
Speaker 1: So when you just think about that city too, how
Speaker 1: hungry they are for this Bears team to be good.
Speaker 1: And this is one of the storied franchises in the
Speaker 1: NFL you're part of. How are they treating you in
Speaker 1: that city?
Speaker 2: Have you?
Speaker 1: Have you kind of gotten a feel for Chicago?
Speaker 14: Not yet, I haven't been outside of the building very much,
Speaker 14: but a little bit that I have going through the
Speaker 14: airport or something like that. Yeah, it's been open arms
Speaker 14: and I think everyone's gotten excitement and a buzz about
Speaker 14: them right now. And so hopefully, hopefully at some point,
Speaker 14: once things settled down to have a little spring break
Speaker 14: or something like that, I can actually experience the city
Speaker 14: a little bit.
Speaker 1: The last thing for you, we met years ago, and
Speaker 1: after you got the job, I went to text you
Speaker 1: and you're still in my phone as Ben Johnson Lions
Speaker 1: Quality Control. Yeah that's only six years ago, by the way,
Speaker 1: that's right. How is that guy who was doing the
Speaker 1: grunt work of drawing the plays and having that role.
Speaker 1: How does that inform Ben Johnson, head coach of the
Speaker 1: Chicago Bears.
Speaker 14: Well, yeah, listen, you go from Miami where you climbing,
Speaker 14: and then all of a sudden you hit bottom again.
Speaker 14: You got to start all over again. It's resilience. It's
Speaker 14: everything you talk to the players about. It's resilience, is
Speaker 14: fighting through fit. You're all right, you hit bottom, you
Speaker 14: won't dust yourself off, and you keep going again. And
Speaker 14: and I've always thought, you put your head down, you
Speaker 14: work hard, good things will eventually come. And unfortunately that's
Speaker 14: what happened. And and you think the people that helped
Speaker 14: you along the way. Dan Campbell was did a phenomenal
Speaker 14: job helping me. And I certainly wouldn't be here right
Speaker 14: now if I didn't, if you didn't give me the opportunity.
Speaker 1: Ranted Dan earlier today, probably getting like a seventh espresso
Speaker 1: of the day. Yes, right, have you have you had?
Speaker 1: Have you talked to him a little bit yet?
Speaker 2: Yeah? Yeah, we talked a little bit.
Speaker 1: Now you're on opposite side. How does that go?
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's different, it's good, it's good.
Speaker 1: I'm hat before you, man, Thanks time for the time,
Speaker 1: Thank you.
Speaker 6: Thank you, Ben Johnson Lyons Quality Control and Tom Pellisero
Speaker 6: USA today.
Speaker 1: That's how I have you in my phone.
Speaker 6: Tom coming up, Miles Garrett once at trade. Andrew Berry
Speaker 6: is not flinching. They want him back in Cleveland. We
Speaker 6: talked to Barry. That's coming up next on the.
Speaker 1: Insiders, Deshaun Watson's cylinder contract with the Browns for another
Speaker 1: two years and ninety two million fully guaranteed. Brown's likely
Speaker 1: going to get some relief from that in the form
Speaker 1: of the insurance policy on Watson's contract, with his status
Speaker 1: for the twenty twenty five season very much up in
Speaker 1: the air after a second tear of his achilles tendon.
Speaker 1: One way or another, they are going to need a quarterback,
Speaker 1: but will they get one with the number two overall pick.
Speaker 1: Check out some of the mock drafts that are up
Speaker 1: right now at NFL dot Com. Daniel Jeremiah and Bucky
Speaker 1: Brooks both have the Browns going cam Ward out of
Speaker 1: Miami at number two overall. Lance zerlines Cynthia Freeland go
Speaker 1: and ab Duel Carter the edge player Well. Chad Ryder
Speaker 1: checks in with some love for Travis Hunter. All names
Speaker 1: you quite possibly here come off the board in the
Speaker 1: top five Who's Andrew Berry gonna take? He told Mike Garafalo.
Speaker 6: Here at Browns general manager Andrew Berry, and uh, I'm
Speaker 6: not gonna do it.
Speaker 1: I'm not because it was done enough.
Speaker 6: You just did your podium up there and it was
Speaker 6: done enough and you were asked repeatedly. So I'll say
Speaker 6: that you said your stance on Miles Garrett has not
Speaker 6: changed and you're not going to trade them, And it
Speaker 6: doesn't matter how many teams called, because you're not going
Speaker 6: to trade them. But I will ask around it, and
Speaker 6: I will say to you, like how long can.
Speaker 1: This go on?
Speaker 6: Like you know where he stands now, we know where
Speaker 6: you stand. There's an off season to go through here, Like,
Speaker 6: how long can you go through before? Hey, look, we've
Speaker 6: got to come together and figure out a resolution here.
Speaker 24: Yeah, you know, Mike, I got mentioned at the at
Speaker 24: the podium. You know, we have a lot of appreciation
Speaker 24: for Miles. I've known Miles since he was twenty one
Speaker 24: years old coming out of Texas A and m He's
Speaker 24: been a big part of our organization. We think he's
Speaker 24: the best defensive player in football, and you know, he's
Speaker 24: an individual that, like you know, we have no interest
Speaker 24: in no interest in moving. I think we're all frustrated
Speaker 24: after coming out of last year with just three wins,
Speaker 24: and you know that's something that we have to work
Speaker 24: to improve. But you know, imagining Miles is not a
Speaker 24: member of the round is not something that not a
Speaker 24: world that we want.
Speaker 13: To live in.
Speaker 6: He's made it clear, and it's not a financial thing.
Speaker 2: It's a competitive thing.
Speaker 6: And yes, last year obviously the record was not when
Speaker 6: you had money the year before. You wear a playoff
Speaker 6: team and you still have talent across this roster.
Speaker 2: How do you sell him on that?
Speaker 7: How do you sell other.
Speaker 1: People say, hey, look, this is a competitive team.
Speaker 6: We believe we are in a position to compete in
Speaker 6: twenty twenty five.
Speaker 24: Yeah, Mike, I'd say, like, you know, our job and
Speaker 24: our focus is on, you know, making the decisions and
Speaker 24: doing the right things to get.
Speaker 9: Back to being a lot more competitive than we were
Speaker 9: last year.
Speaker 24: You know, at the end of the day, you know,
Speaker 24: having a focus on you know, on selling, you know,
Speaker 24: that's not the that's not the primary job.
Speaker 9: The focus is on doing.
Speaker 6: You have the quarterback position right now that after the
Speaker 6: Deshaun Watson re injury, which you said it was a
Speaker 6: freak thing for how it occurred with him.
Speaker 24: Yeah, so, I mean really it's it was over the
Speaker 24: course of his his normal rehab, turned his foot ankle,
Speaker 24: that type of thing. Unfortunate, reinjured, you know, reinjured it.
Speaker 2: It's unfortunate.
Speaker 24: But you know he's he's he's back on you know,
Speaker 24: back on the rehab course, and hopefully we can get
Speaker 24: help him, get him as healthy as get him healthy
Speaker 24: as soon as possible.
Speaker 6: And how do you look at that timeline and how
Speaker 6: does it affect your off season knowing that you're probably
Speaker 6: gonna have to address the position at least for the
Speaker 6: start of the season.
Speaker 24: Yeah, so, uh, the timeline is still to be determined.
Speaker 24: You know, I think, uh, it's it's easy to say
Speaker 24: that he's going to he's going to miss significant time
Speaker 24: in twenty twenty five, and you know that's something that
Speaker 24: we're gonna have to have to deal with and and
Speaker 24: and we will as we get to the next couple
Speaker 24: of months.
Speaker 6: And you look at this, because there are veteran options available,
Speaker 6: do you look at it like, hey, we can get
Speaker 6: a guy who's a one year fix or maybe more
Speaker 6: of a long term solution. You're also holding that number
Speaker 6: two overall pick in the draft. Could there be a
Speaker 6: long term solution to coincide with him over the last
Speaker 6: couple of years of his contract here.
Speaker 24: Yeah, I think we're gonna attack the quarterback position with
Speaker 24: with an open mind and and and really you know,
Speaker 24: wide open eyes. We are positioned uniquely in the draft
Speaker 24: with having the the second overall pick, and you know,
Speaker 24: certainly we will explore the veteran market, but it's going
Speaker 24: to be a primary focus this offseason. You know, it's
Speaker 24: the most important position in sports.
Speaker 2: You made a change the offensive coordinator position.
Speaker 6: Kevin Stefanski has also gone a little bit back and
Speaker 6: forth when it comes to the play calling. But how
Speaker 6: confident are you in your head coach and his ability
Speaker 6: to get this offense moving in the right.
Speaker 3: Direction in twenty Fah.
Speaker 24: You know, Kevin's excellent, you know he I think he's
Speaker 24: one of I think he's one of thirteen coaches since
Speaker 24: they they made the Coach of the Year award to
Speaker 24: win it multiple times. And I think he you want, like,
Speaker 24: I think, the second fastest in the in the word's history.
Speaker 24: So we have a lot of faith in Kevin. We
Speaker 24: think he's a very bright offensive mind. He's a good leader.
Speaker 24: We have all the confidence of the world and how
Speaker 24: we know.
Speaker 6: What you think of Nick Chubb and what he has
Speaker 6: meant to you in the organization over the course of
Speaker 6: their career.
Speaker 1: How confident are.
Speaker 6: You that there is a solution that can keep him
Speaker 6: in Cleveland and twenty twenty five.
Speaker 24: Yeah, you know, Mike, So first of all, we have
Speaker 24: a tremendous amount of gratitude an appreciation for all Nick
Speaker 24: that has done for our organization. Really what he's meant
Speaker 24: for us, you know, in our fan base. You know,
Speaker 24: anytime a you know, player's contract expires, there always is
Speaker 24: a level of uncertainty, and that's something that you know,
Speaker 24: we have to you know, accept and appreciate. You know,
Speaker 24: we'll work through that situation over the next couple of weeks.
Speaker 24: But you know, it won't change our affinity for Nick,
Speaker 24: you know, or the fact that he'll, you know, regardless
Speaker 24: of what uniform he is wearing, whether it's ours to
Speaker 24: someone else's, he'll be a lifetime rown.
Speaker 6: Going back to Kevin Stefanski here, not just from an
Speaker 6: offensive standpoint, but from a culture center and a guy
Speaker 6: that can run the entire building here, how much do
Speaker 6: you believe in him? From that aspect and the fact
Speaker 6: that guys will continue to follow him.
Speaker 24: Yeah, Kevin's an outstanding leader, and I think for him
Speaker 24: being able to keep the team together when you know,
Speaker 24: we didn't perform as well as we should have last year,
Speaker 24: that's no easy feed.
Speaker 2: And I think keV.
Speaker 24: I think guys appreciate Kevin's authenticity, they appreciate his honesty,
Speaker 24: and they appreciate his competence.
Speaker 9: And so we know we have a really great leader.
Speaker 24: We know we have a great football mind, and you know,
Speaker 24: we know he can lead us to where we want
Speaker 24: to go.
Speaker 6: A busy offseason for Browns general manager Andrew Berry, so
Speaker 6: I'm going to stop cutting into your off season here.
Speaker 6: Go get out there, go see the guys here, and
Speaker 6: go do what you gotta do.
Speaker 2: I appreciate you money, thanks for stopping by.
Speaker 9: Thank you.
Speaker 2: Well.
Speaker 5: This was news today, and it was good news today
Speaker 5: for the Kansas City Chiefs. A very strong statement from
Speaker 5: Brett Veach, the general manager, that Traffis Kelsey is fired
Speaker 5: up to return in twenty twenty five.
Speaker 11: That should pretty.
Speaker 5: Much end our vigil to see if Traffs was going
Speaker 5: to retire, so they don't need to worry about replacing
Speaker 5: the irreplaceable tight end at least this off season. Bretteach
Speaker 5: sat down with our Tom Pellisaro to talk about Kelsey
Speaker 5: and more.
Speaker 1: Brett's back at another tombine here. What do you like
Speaker 1: about coming to Indianapolis for this event?
Speaker 7: Well, it's a fresh start for everyone.
Speaker 25: So we didn't have the ending to our season that
Speaker 25: we hope for, so this is a chance to kind
Speaker 25: of put that all behind us and look forward to
Speaker 25: twenty twenty five on both the pro side and the
Speaker 25: college side.
Speaker 7: So excited to be here. And obviously they do a
Speaker 7: great job.
Speaker 25: NFS and the people here, I mean every year I
Speaker 25: feel like they do better and better and better, and
Speaker 25: so it's always exciting to come here and have good
Speaker 25: dialogue with the agents of our players and then get
Speaker 25: to meet the new prospects coming up.
Speaker 1: It was only sixteen days ago in New Orleans too.
Speaker 1: You were used to, of course, these quick turnarounds here,
Speaker 1: but as you kind of got away from the emotion
Speaker 1: of it a little bit, like what is your thought
Speaker 1: process about your getting that game, your team and kind
Speaker 1: of how it ended.
Speaker 25: Well, sure, it takes a few days to flush out
Speaker 25: of your system, so I mean, look, it was a
Speaker 25: great season we had when we were fifteen and one,
Speaker 25: you know, not counting that last game when the Stars
Speaker 25: didn't play. But yeah, lined up and beat most of
Speaker 25: the team on our schedule and had a chance to
Speaker 25: beat a really good use In team and then an
Speaker 25: excellent Buffalo team, and just picked a bad day to
Speaker 25: have a bad day. But like anything in life, I mean,
Speaker 25: you learn more from the losses than the wins, and
Speaker 25: so we'll take that as a learning experience and use
Speaker 25: that as motivation to get better and tack the offseason.
Speaker 1: The last time that you lost a playoff game was
Speaker 1: three years ago. About a month later you traded Tyreek Hill.
Speaker 1: You used all that cap resources and the extra picks
Speaker 1: to rebuild your defense. How bold, if it all? Should
Speaker 1: we anticipate Brettfeach being in this offseason?
Speaker 25: I mean, listen, we'll explore every option there is any
Speaker 25: chance we have to make our team and our roster
Speaker 25: better for both the short term and the long term.
Speaker 25: I mean, we'll certainly explore that. But every year has
Speaker 25: its unique challenges and this will be no different.
Speaker 1: From hearing you up at the podium. It seems like
Speaker 1: we're going to get good news on Travis Kelsey. Can
Speaker 1: we turn off the Twitter alerts? Can we put it
Speaker 1: the band? Is he definitely playing in twenty twenty five?
Speaker 7: I think so.
Speaker 25: I mean there's been a lot of a lot of
Speaker 25: the you know, timeline and deadlines, and you know that's
Speaker 25: something that we as an organization haven't discussed and we
Speaker 25: anticipate Travis being back and if something changes, I'm sure
Speaker 25: NFL Network will be the first to break it, right,
Speaker 25: but we hope.
Speaker 1: So, yeah, you can help with that if you want.
Speaker 25: No, I think you know, we're excited to have Travors
Speaker 25: back and that's how we're operating this offseason and kind
Speaker 25: of go from there.
Speaker 1: What version of Travis do you feel like you're getting
Speaker 1: at this stage of his career.
Speaker 25: Well, I mean, listen, I mean he's accomplished everything that
Speaker 25: there is in this game, and he has that unique
Speaker 25: ability to not just make those around him better, but
Speaker 25: you know, find that extra something when you get late
Speaker 25: into the season and into the when we get on
Speaker 25: the postseason.
Speaker 7: Obviously, everyone remembers last.
Speaker 25: Year, that big postseason he had, and you know this year,
Speaker 25: I mean, we're never going to make excuses and talk
Speaker 25: about it, but I mean he was battling with pretty
Speaker 25: big illness there for the Super Bowl.
Speaker 7: But listen, the way the Eagles played, it wouldn't have
Speaker 7: made a difference.
Speaker 25: But I think that Travis is, uh, you know, excited
Speaker 25: to come back, and you know, he finds a way
Speaker 25: to stay in shape and produce at at a level
Speaker 25: only he can.
Speaker 7: So that is such an intangible to have in.
Speaker 25: The locker room with the guys, and obviously the relationship
Speaker 25: he has with Pats. You need to so he makes
Speaker 25: us better when he's in our locker room, on the field,
Speaker 25: and again, excited to get him back.
Speaker 1: You got a ton of tackle in this offseason. You
Speaker 1: got a bunch of wide receivers for Fridgs, you got
Speaker 1: a bunch of free agents in general, Nick Bolton, Tray Smith.
Speaker 1: You anticipate using a franchise tag anywhere and additionally, then
Speaker 1: how do you navigate having that many of your guys up.
Speaker 25: Yeah, that's that's the another unique challenge of this offseason.
Speaker 25: You know, we'll see, you know, in regards to the
Speaker 25: franchise tag, I do think though that anytime you draft
Speaker 25: players as you mentioned Trey, like Trey and Bolton, I mean,
Speaker 25: those are guys who want to keep in the mix
Speaker 25: for the long term. And the good thing is they
Speaker 25: are represented by the same agency, so that will be
Speaker 25: a productive meeting here in the next few days. But
Speaker 25: I think all bets are on the table, and you know,
Speaker 25: we'll do what's best for the organization. But needless to say,
Speaker 25: I think both those guys would be a priority for us.
Speaker 1: Thanks for the time, man, Yeah, you.
Speaker 2: Bet it's new.
Speaker 6: Today Bengals de facto general manager Duke Tobin talking to
Speaker 6: the media and says we're going to make Jamal A.
Speaker 6: Chase the highest paid non quarterback in the league, to
Speaker 6: which Chase and his representatives are surely saying, well, yeah,
Speaker 6: we were going to do that last year. Now you
Speaker 6: got to do that by a wide margin, because it
Speaker 6: could be a game of leap frog this offseason with
Speaker 6: guys like I don't know, Miles Garrett, Max Crosby, Micah Parsons,
Speaker 6: those guys in for new deal, So could wind up
Speaker 6: being a game of leap frog. It's a little complicated,
Speaker 6: and it's one of many things the Bengals need to
Speaker 6: figure out this offseason. Our Judy Batiza with Zach Taylor
Speaker 6: to talk about many of those things.
Speaker 5: That's thanks for being here. When you look back on
Speaker 5: last season, what were your takeaways from us?
Speaker 26: Disappointed? You know, we didn't start fast enough. Finished there
Speaker 26: really well, but it was too little, too late. And
Speaker 26: so we've got to do a better job next season
Speaker 26: of starting fast, putting ourselves in a position to be
Speaker 26: in the driver's seat as we go. And obviously our
Speaker 26: goal is to win the division. Is the best path
Speaker 26: forward to the super Bowl, and that's our plan for
Speaker 26: twenty twenty five.
Speaker 5: All Right, how do you start faster? Because that's been
Speaker 5: a topic for a few years. How do you you
Speaker 5: get going?
Speaker 26: There's something we're looking at, revising our whole off season plan,
Speaker 26: our training camp plan. I know our guys will buy
Speaker 26: into that, and so there's a lot of things you
Speaker 26: can factor into it that we're still working through. But
Speaker 26: we got to start want to not to start the season,
Speaker 26: you know, put our best forward, build confidence that way,
Speaker 26: and that way when we're playing good down the stretch,
Speaker 26: you know, we're playing for significant things down the road.
Speaker 5: How much will it help that Joe will have a
Speaker 5: full off season of good health and working How much
Speaker 5: will that help to get things moving?
Speaker 26: That's huge, you know, just for him to feel comfortable
Speaker 26: I know last season going into training camp there were
Speaker 26: still things he's working through in the early part of
Speaker 26: the season. So for him to be one hundred percent
Speaker 26: healthy going into the off season will be a big
Speaker 26: step for us.
Speaker 17: He's the leader of our team.
Speaker 26: He's playing at extremely high level last year, and we
Speaker 26: look forward to starting the season that way with him
Speaker 26: this year.
Speaker 11: All right, let's go to you.
Speaker 5: Guys have a lot of roster issues this offseason, so
Speaker 5: let's just go right down the list. Jamar Chase, what
Speaker 5: are your hopes for contract for him and for having
Speaker 5: him early and fully in the off season.
Speaker 26: He's worried they have a new deal, and so we're
Speaker 26: certainly working towards that and optimistic that we'll get that done.
Speaker 26: But he's done everything he can put himself in a
Speaker 26: position to earn that, and we want to reward him
Speaker 26: with that.
Speaker 5: Timing wise, do you want that done earlier rather than
Speaker 5: later so that there's no chance of him not being there.
Speaker 17: We'll just keep working through it.
Speaker 26: You know, that's one of those off season business deals
Speaker 26: that you just got to work through with the player
Speaker 26: of the agent and our front office and got full
Speaker 26: faith that we're heading in the right direction.
Speaker 17: There, and we'll get one done.
Speaker 11: All right.
Speaker 5: T Higgins could become a free agent, could be franchised tagged.
Speaker 5: What's your expectation, what's your hope there.
Speaker 26: He's a great player, He's a big reason why we've
Speaker 26: had the success we've had. We want Tea back and
Speaker 26: we'll continue to work through that.
Speaker 5: Right, Trey Hendrickson, Let's look to the other side of
Speaker 5: the ball, same thing. What's your expectation with him?
Speaker 26: We're certainly a better team with Trey on it, you know,
Speaker 26: and so again working through that with him. I know,
Speaker 26: we've had a lot of conversations. He's one of my
Speaker 26: favorite players to deal with. You know, We've had a
Speaker 26: lot of these conversations over the years, and so again,
Speaker 26: we're a better team with Trey on it.
Speaker 17: We're working through that.
Speaker 5: Realistic though, Is it realistic to think that you can
Speaker 5: keep all of it intact?
Speaker 26: That's certainly a possibility. That's your expectation, that's my expectation. Yeah,
Speaker 26: everybody will be better. We're better with all three of
Speaker 26: those guys on our team. And so again that's part
Speaker 26: of the business part as we work through it. It's
Speaker 26: never perfect, but got a lot of confidence in our
Speaker 26: people that are on the task and working with those
Speaker 26: players and their agents to get things done. And that's
Speaker 26: certainly the direction we want ahead.
Speaker 5: Joe has been outspoken, certainly about since December about his
Speaker 5: desire to keep the guys intact to see them get paid.
Speaker 11: How has that been received by.
Speaker 5: You and other people in the building that Joe has
Speaker 5: sort of stepped forward in that way.
Speaker 26: We want a team that's led by our starting quarterback
Speaker 26: supporting his teammates in the locker room and so that
Speaker 26: they can see that he's always going to have their
Speaker 26: back on the field off the field, and so I
Speaker 26: can't think of a better way for him to express
Speaker 26: himself that these guys are good players. I want to
Speaker 26: continue to play with them. Way better than the opposite
Speaker 26: of that, you know. And so again we have great
Speaker 26: dialogue with Joe. We're always on the same page talking
Speaker 26: with him, and you know, he gets on a set
Speaker 26: and the first question's going to be asked is that.
Speaker 26: And so he does a great job representing his teammates
Speaker 26: and fighting for those guys and they put on all
Speaker 26: hard work and he wants to see them rewarded. And
Speaker 26: so I like that from our starting quarterback and we'll
Speaker 26: continue to work through with all those guys.
Speaker 5: All right, you made a change at defensive coordinator. What
Speaker 5: should we expect changes in what the defense is going
Speaker 5: to look like this year?
Speaker 26: Well, that was a tough one because Lo's a close
Speaker 26: friend of mine and gets credit for a lot of
Speaker 26: the great things we've done. And now Al's in charge,
Speaker 26: you know, And now you know his last NFL game
Speaker 26: was a super Bowl, his last college game is a
Speaker 26: national championship. He's a tremendous leader. He's had success at
Speaker 26: every different title and stage in his life, and so
Speaker 26: really excited to get Al back in the building. He's
Speaker 26: done a great job leading our coaches as we implement
Speaker 26: the scheme and make all of our hires, and I
Speaker 26: think the players are going to be excited to be
Speaker 26: around him as well.
Speaker 5: You have watched other AFC teams go to the Super
Speaker 5: Bowl since you went there, You've watched other AFC quarterbacks
Speaker 5: rise up. How does that make you feel when you're
Speaker 5: watching other AFC teams get.
Speaker 26: We've watched one, you know, and so you know we
Speaker 26: want to supplant them, certainly.
Speaker 3: That's that's our goal.
Speaker 26: Our goal is to win the division, put ourselves in
Speaker 26: the best chance to move forward and be in the
Speaker 26: Super Bowl like the Chiefs have done now for for
Speaker 26: several years in a row, and so envious of the
Speaker 26: position they were in this year. Absolutely, we want to
Speaker 26: do a better job of starting the season fast to
Speaker 26: put ourselves a position to win the division and get
Speaker 26: the seating and give ourselves the best chance.
Speaker 17: To go win it all.
Speaker 11: Thank you, Thank you very much.
Speaker 17: Jud appreciate it.
Speaker 6: A lot of questions on the Bengals offseason there from
Speaker 6: Judy and for the Bengals to answer, But Zach Taylor
Speaker 6: very pleased that he's got that guy, Joe Burrow as
Speaker 6: his franchise quarterback.
Speaker 1: Against all odds.
Speaker 6: What are we talking about that has to do with
Speaker 6: the combine a couple of years back. We'll talk about
Speaker 6: it when we.
Speaker 1: Come back Oniasiders. Not even five years since Joe Burrow
Speaker 1: came here to Indianapolis for the NFL scouting Combine where
Speaker 1: his hands measured in a little bit under the line
Speaker 1: for what you want them to be. He then this
Speaker 1: epic tweet considering retirement after I was informed the football
Speaker 1: will be slipping out of my tiny hands. Please keep
Speaker 1: me in your thoughts. This was early minutes after the
Speaker 1: hand size measurement came out. Bengals, responding yesterday said who
Speaker 1: knew tiny hands could hold so much power? A phrase
Speaker 1: that Ian is used on many indicasion.
Speaker 2: Isn't that right?
Speaker 3: Uh, it's not right. Look at those mini hands, did
Speaker 3: they yesday?
Speaker 17: I write?
Speaker 3: Yes? Are you sure? Maybe his hands are really that small.
Speaker 4: So one thing we learned about Joe Burrow in that tweet,
Speaker 4: besides the fact that he's very good at social media, he.
Speaker 3: Does not care. He says what he thinks.
Speaker 4: He's pretty dry and funny and when he speaks we
Speaker 4: all listen. As I think we've learned during this.
Speaker 3: News cycle, I want to see more of it. I
Speaker 3: want to see more of that, more hands, so to see.
Speaker 6: More personality from Joe Burrow, more of that stuff. I
Speaker 6: mean he does it with the with the Harry did
Speaker 6: at this past training camp.
Speaker 2: Give me, give me some more of that.
Speaker 3: That's funny, funny Joe.
Speaker 5: Yeah, he also wears great clothes like he shows us
Speaker 5: plenty of personality.
Speaker 3: I think it depends, Okay, he doesn't.
Speaker 1: Joe Burrow. By the way, Jamar Chamber double checked fashion
Speaker 1: nine inches was the official hand measurement. Usually you want
Speaker 1: nine in a quarter or a little bit more. We've
Speaker 1: seen you know, the Cooper Rushes the world are check
Speaker 1: in like eight and three quarter. Then watch YouTube video
Speaker 1: how to roll out there.
Speaker 3: Who was the quarterback who increased his hand size.
Speaker 6: Kenny Pickett when Kenny Kenny had some some small hands too.
Speaker 1: Probably still does or something.
Speaker 2: Joe Burrow.
Speaker 1: Hand size doesn't matter. Hold up yours he and we'll
Speaker 1: see tomorrow. High five Ian, Yes,