Speaker 1: Be Around with the NFL podcast Free Agency, What's free
Speaker 1: about It? Welcome to another edition of the Around the
Speaker 1: NFL Podcast. My name is Dan heads As I come
Speaker 1: to you from a virtual room filled with some heroes,
Speaker 1: Greg Rostal, Mark Sessler. Look at us, fancy new Mike's
Speaker 1: trying to get it all figured out. We don't know
Speaker 1: if anyone could hear us right now, but you know,
Speaker 1: tech problems galore. We're working it out. We trust Ricky.
Speaker 1: Do we trust Ricky? I don't know. It's it's definitely
Speaker 1: not on Ricky, you know shee. We we have this
Speaker 1: whole setup. I like it. It looks like Mark is
Speaker 1: coming to us from another planet, which I appreciate. Well,
Speaker 1: you know, I've had a lot of UM issues in
Speaker 1: the home studio, and so I this weekend, among other things,
Speaker 1: I just blew up the home studio and I've reorganized
Speaker 1: the desk and you know all the stuff behind you
Speaker 1: that is sort of essentially just fake like that's still
Speaker 1: to come. I've I'm prepping that later. I didn't have
Speaker 1: time to dress. It was that it was one of
Speaker 1: those interesting Mark Sessler text weekends, and they happen occasionally.
Speaker 1: UM and we love him for it. It's what makes
Speaker 1: Mark a fascinating guy that sometimes when you're not in
Speaker 1: direct contact with him, your way to communicate is he
Speaker 1: just starts firing these texts, and sometimes he's coming from
Speaker 1: a different place. Uh, like my parents are in town,
Speaker 1: for instance, and you know when your parents are in town,
Speaker 1: you're kind of in a different headspace, You're in a
Speaker 1: kind of a bubble. And then Mark has got sending
Speaker 1: all these technology based things about the camera quality, the
Speaker 1: mic quality is showing screen grabs and like dispatches with
Speaker 1: his wife about it, and I'm just like, I love
Speaker 1: this guy, but I can't really plug in. I'll have
Speaker 1: to see him on hold on one minute here because
Speaker 1: number one, um, that shows that I'm a true professional.
Speaker 1: I'm always thinking about our craft. But number two, I
Speaker 1: tend to like any time I've been texting Dan during
Speaker 1: this parental visit bubble that he's in, I always end
Speaker 1: the text with in parentheses. Don't worry about this now,
Speaker 1: Ken discussed later like, I'm not asking for an immediate
Speaker 1: response now, Greg, I don't know why what took you
Speaker 1: four hours to respond to the text. You can you
Speaker 1: do have definitely make me feel guilty because while your
Speaker 1: texts indicate all you've thought about since our TV show
Speaker 1: ended Friday was the aftermath of that the second we
Speaker 1: stopped recording, and that was the last time I had
Speaker 1: thought about it, and I was planning to never think
Speaker 1: about it ever again. And I was fine with that.
Speaker 1: I do. I even did tell Simone. I said, Dan
Speaker 1: will care um about this to some degree, and we're
Speaker 1: gonna get a response to Danna said, it is a
Speaker 1: complete wild card if Greig gives even the smallest s
Speaker 1: about this for specific issues. Yeah, you know, if you
Speaker 1: gotta you gotta know your lane. And if if you're
Speaker 1: you know, I can't things I can't control. I I
Speaker 1: don't want to get involved with all. Right, So we
Speaker 1: have a lot to get to a lot Friday right
Speaker 1: when we're taping the network show. In fact, they got
Speaker 1: super complicated. We're supposed to start taping a ten am Pacific,
Speaker 1: a ten o four Adam Schef, the Ops, the news
Speaker 1: of a huge trade the Miami Dolphins sending the number
Speaker 1: three overall pick to the forty Niners for the twelve pick.
Speaker 1: The Niners also giving up multiple first round picks is
Speaker 1: well to move up to that spot, and then the
Speaker 1: Dolphins then traded UH the number twelve picks of the
Speaker 1: Philadelphia Eagles. UM. Just a lot of things moving around.
Speaker 1: The Dolphins finished the Friday moves with the number six
Speaker 1: pick in this year's draft. We have to break down
Speaker 1: all of this, UM, But to start, why don't we
Speaker 1: focus on the forty Niners side of it? Because it's fascinating.
Speaker 1: We're gonna get to all the news, but we want
Speaker 1: to talk to Niners into this, and to do that,
Speaker 1: we want to connect with somebody who knows the team
Speaker 1: as well as anyone. It's Tim Kawakami of the Athletic
Speaker 1: and he just wrote a banger on Jimmy g and
Speaker 1: here he is, Timkwakami of the Athletic. Welcome to the
Speaker 1: Around the NFL podcast him. It's great to be on,
Speaker 1: great to be good to be talking to you guys
Speaker 1: and Tim and you have to check it out on
Speaker 1: the on the Athletic a post that went up, UH
Speaker 1: column that one this weekend. Ten thoughts about Jimmy Garoppolo's
Speaker 1: relationship with the forty Niners and why he's still QB
Speaker 1: one UH and interesting how this all shakes out because
Speaker 1: the initial thought when it happens and we're just talking
Speaker 1: about we were doing our TV show on Friday, trying
Speaker 1: to process it in real time, and it felt like
Speaker 1: when you first got the news, Oh, that's Curtains for
Speaker 1: Jimmy g Where is he gonna be in? Probably not
Speaker 1: San Francisco. That's not the way you see it. And
Speaker 1: and Tim, can you just let the audience know a
Speaker 1: little bit about this dynamic, this relationship between Lynch, Shanahan
Speaker 1: and Garoppolo dating back to his arrival a few years back. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean they've been a pretty straight up with him
Speaker 1: the whole time. I mean he came in with him
Speaker 1: actually wanting Kirk Cousins. So you have to understand that
Speaker 1: they've never really i mean, they praise him obviously had
Speaker 1: a great season twenty Nineen gets with the Super Bowl,
Speaker 1: did not have a great game and the super Bowl,
Speaker 1: but they've never, you know, said you're absolutely ideal, You're
Speaker 1: the perfect guy. After they get to the super Bowl,
Speaker 1: they take a little bit Tom Brady, They take a
Speaker 1: clue it's Tom Brady and Garoppolo understands it. I don't.
Speaker 1: I'm sure he doesn't love it. But if anybody understands
Speaker 1: the poll of top Brady it's Jimmy Garoppolo. Uh and
Speaker 1: I've been told that he understanding listened when the Patriots
Speaker 1: drafted Jimmy Garoppoloe is right behind Tom Brady and Garoppolo
Speaker 1: was the young guy then. And the other important thing
Speaker 1: right now is for I honestly think they have a
Speaker 1: roster they can win the Super Bowl. They really do.
Speaker 1: This is you have to understand. It isn't like, oh
Speaker 1: my God, we gotta get a quarterback or else we're done.
Speaker 1: They think with Jimmy Garopolo quarterback who has won a
Speaker 1: lot of games for them, and by the way, they've
Speaker 1: lost a lot of games when he hasn't been a quarterback,
Speaker 1: they can get back to it. But they love their roster.
Speaker 1: They're they're confident group. John Lynch and Kyle Shanahan believed
Speaker 1: they had the best team in twenty nineteen. They just
Speaker 1: couldn't make the plays in the end the Super Bowl
Speaker 1: the Chiefs end up winning. This is a group that
Speaker 1: isn't going to plan to throw away a season with
Speaker 1: a rookie quarterback. Now, the grouper Quardyck might turn out
Speaker 1: to be the best guy. There's competition, but they're not
Speaker 1: gonna say, hey, Nick bos A coming from your A C.
Speaker 1: L Hey, Trent Williams come back when as a as
Speaker 1: a free agent, George Kittle, you know what might not
Speaker 1: work out great in because well, Ricky but done the
Speaker 1: next They're not thinking like that. They're thinking what's the
Speaker 1: best option to win now? And they made this gigantic
Speaker 1: we obviously hmongus move to get their quarterback for after that,
Speaker 1: and if that quarterback beat out Jimmy Garoppolo at any point,
Speaker 1: they're better for it. In their opinion, competition pushing, and
Speaker 1: nobody has to love it. Creative tension, right, I mean,
Speaker 1: we've all heard about it. Garoppolo understands that. I mean,
Speaker 1: you know I was told verily at the time. I
Speaker 1: was told very clearly over the weekend trapped in Jimmy
Speaker 1: Garoppolo was Bill Belichick saying, we got our guy to
Speaker 1: replace you, Tom. We do. Let's see you prove that
Speaker 1: you are the guy. And I guess so anyone is
Speaker 1: your book? Anyone? Another one? Anyone? Another one? And I said,
Speaker 1: if this happens with for Enners, whatever their quarterback is,
Speaker 1: they'll they'll be really really happy with that. Whatever the
Speaker 1: tension is, they'll deal with it. And Garoppolo is a
Speaker 1: no stress guy. You've seen his interviews. He's not a
Speaker 1: guy who gets amped up, gets over worried. As a lawyer.
Speaker 1: In the locker room, they'll lay it out and maybe
Speaker 1: he'll get beat out, maybe he'll get hurt again, but
Speaker 1: they're gonna play it out with a young quarterback and
Speaker 1: Jimmy Garoppolo. I thought that I was waiting the store
Speaker 1: in the season, like, this is what you're gonna do?
Speaker 1: Do you need competition in there? I thought it's gonna
Speaker 1: be a second help pick. I didn't your entire future
Speaker 1: draft choices for this, but I did think they were
Speaker 1: gonna get a guy if Jimmy can't make it through
Speaker 1: the season, or or if Garoppolo wasn't that good and
Speaker 1: the rookie Pizza Mount. I just it's a two timeline
Speaker 1: plan that not a lot of Jeames do. I always
Speaker 1: thought this is what the four now we're gonna plan
Speaker 1: to do. Anyway, it makes sense to me. I think
Speaker 1: they looked at where they were in the draft and
Speaker 1: they thought, we're we don't plan to ever be up
Speaker 1: this high again. And I think they made the mistake
Speaker 1: in seventeen of thinking we need to set the groundwork. Uh.
Speaker 1: And we're gonna get cute in draft Solomon Thomas and
Speaker 1: pass on Deshaun Watson and Patrick Moms and they didn't
Speaker 1: want to make that mistake again. I do wonder if
Speaker 1: Jimmy G, you know, if could be traded in training
Speaker 1: camp too. These aren't decisions necessarily you have to make
Speaker 1: right now. If whoever they draft number three is legit
Speaker 1: in August, couldn't you know, couldn't you see Jimmy G
Speaker 1: going out the door in August? No question, But you
Speaker 1: gotta wait until you see this guy in shoulder pads
Speaker 1: and run around their practice field and running their offense. Uh.
Speaker 1: And obviously there's the bubble of Max Jones, Max Jones
Speaker 1: and Max Jones. Hey, if Kyl Shanton thinks Mac Jones
Speaker 1: is Kirk Cousins and anyway, always Kirk Cousins was always mentioned,
Speaker 1: by the way, when you talk quarterbacks with Kyle she
Speaker 1: in hand. I learned that early on. If you just
Speaker 1: keep saying Kirk Cousins with it was Kyle Shannon, you're
Speaker 1: never wrong. But uh, if if Matt Jones is the
Speaker 1: guy and he beats out Garoppolo, then you cut Jimmy
Speaker 1: Garoppolo or you trade him, and that's twenty five million
Speaker 1: dollars and other people are worried about, which the Four
Speaker 1: Nighters are not worried about Jimmy Garopplos, but five million
Speaker 1: dollars they are not. They They've told me this consistently.
Speaker 1: We've we've budgeted, we've figured it out. It's a cost
Speaker 1: of having a good quarterback in the NFL. That's what
Speaker 1: piece of what the thirteenth highest paid quarterback in the league,
Speaker 1: this is what it costs. Uh And I think that
Speaker 1: they're they're prepared for that, and they're also prepared for
Speaker 1: Jimmy to play great, like if he goes out there
Speaker 1: and he kicks ass, and the players his teammates loved
Speaker 1: the guy. And I've always said to part of the
Speaker 1: reasons why long Roam loos this guy so much, unlike
Speaker 1: maybe another quarterback who was kind of off stratified off
Speaker 1: with the head coach buddy Buddy, is that he's always
Speaker 1: getting Kyle's always yelling at him. Kyle's always likes that
Speaker 1: you could have done this better. Kyle was very clear
Speaker 1: that he wasn't great in the Super Bowl. Accurately was
Speaker 1: was not you know, Kyle's annalys is after it, but
Speaker 1: he's not been protected, he's not been coddled. You know,
Speaker 1: you don't have that Jared Goff thing where I think
Speaker 1: he thought he was coddling Golf to get him to
Speaker 1: a spot. And then just forget about I've done too much,
Speaker 1: was Shanahan and Garppolo. It's just been you're in my quarterback,
Speaker 1: I like you, you can do better, and I'm gonna
Speaker 1: tell you that you can do better, and you know,
Speaker 1: you get the Super Bowl clurchin and three, I'm still
Speaker 1: gonna look at Tom Brady. I'm still gonna look at
Speaker 1: whoever they were looking at Deshaun Watson. There's no question
Speaker 1: about it. This officin's been all talk about what that
Speaker 1: might have led them, how that might have led to
Speaker 1: this decision. But it's different, I think. And you have
Speaker 1: a straight up relationship with the quarterback, which was not
Speaker 1: very often maybe in the NFL, where he's treated like
Speaker 1: a center or a tighten or receiver, and it's different
Speaker 1: as a quarterback making the most money. But he really
Speaker 1: just treated like that. And again that's why his teammates
Speaker 1: like him so much. He's they can rip them and
Speaker 1: joke with him. And he's not on his other level
Speaker 1: where oh no, no, no, no, no, it's Jimmy. That's
Speaker 1: not in that situation in the Foregs locker room at all.
Speaker 1: And I don't think they would have loved it if
Speaker 1: they foreign attors just give the job to a you know,
Speaker 1: twenty one year old quarterback in April. Uh, if you
Speaker 1: see it, If the guy is fantastic, if he's Russell Wilson,
Speaker 1: like you know Wilson was as a rookie, that's fine.
Speaker 1: You earned that on on the field, they're not gonna
Speaker 1: be in love. Would just say he can you know, Jimmy,
Speaker 1: do you want a lot of games? But we're a
Speaker 1: little tired of you. So this guy whoever the tree
Speaker 1: Lance Matt Jones, he's the starter period, Trent Williams, I
Speaker 1: don't care. That's what you're blocking for. I do not
Speaker 1: think that would have played very well in the Foreh's
Speaker 1: locker room. I guess it leaves me Um with some
Speaker 1: questions about the Jimmy g experience in his persona then,
Speaker 1: because I get that the you know, the Belichick using
Speaker 1: a second round pick to somewhat light of fire perhaps
Speaker 1: under Tom Brady, who already is Um the ultra competitor
Speaker 1: um in sports today. So, I mean, I don't know
Speaker 1: what fire needed to be lit, but but it did.
Speaker 1: It did help. But with Jimmy G, the idea that
Speaker 1: we're kind of going to be telling him, yes, you
Speaker 1: have a nice relationship with the coach, with the GM,
Speaker 1: we're all sort of on the level here, but we're
Speaker 1: essentially bringing something they have given up, the future. It's
Speaker 1: not a second round pick. It's a ton of draft
Speaker 1: picks to very clearly get someone to replace Jimmy G.
Speaker 1: And and then it just seems to me that the
Speaker 1: most pro NFL quarterbacks would be like forget that, I'm
Speaker 1: I want this is my job, or I want to
Speaker 1: go start somewhere else where. I'm seen as the future
Speaker 1: versus He's essentially been reduced to the level of bridge
Speaker 1: quarterback and I and that wasn't the narrative for him.
Speaker 1: So do you really think that Jimmy G is so
Speaker 1: affable and Sonny that he would allow this just do
Speaker 1: go on without any complaint or reservations. Yeah, I don't
Speaker 1: think I picked the words out a bowl, per Sonny.
Speaker 1: I think it would be Okay, let's compete five, let's
Speaker 1: compete and you know what, he's not making million dollars
Speaker 1: anywhere else. Even if he's traded the Patriots, I don't
Speaker 1: think they're paying him when they'll they'll they'll reschedule his contract.
Speaker 1: So that's probably It's not a bad life if you're
Speaker 1: competing with somebody and you're starting for this great roster.
Speaker 1: Is what everybody's opinion is here, and the pain the
Speaker 1: pace is pretty good too. So I just don't know
Speaker 1: that he's I've heard this again. This is in in
Speaker 1: his camp or people around in his mind. This is
Speaker 1: him being drafted behind Brady. And it wasn't to light
Speaker 1: a fire under Brady. I've heard this. It was to
Speaker 1: replace Brady, not right away, but it was Brady was
Speaker 1: thirty seven. I think at the time, had not had
Speaker 1: his best seasons. The Patriots had won a super Bowl
Speaker 1: in nine seasons. I think Brady thinks that that Jimmy
Speaker 1: was was drafted to replace him, not right away, but
Speaker 1: in two years, and Brady just played fantastic, played his
Speaker 1: ass off, so he pushed it away. Jimmy's not Brady, obviously,
Speaker 1: he's not that guy. It's not three number ones. That's
Speaker 1: not the same situation. I understand that, but in his
Speaker 1: minds like if I play so well that they can't
Speaker 1: put the rookie ahead of me, good And if if
Speaker 1: I play so well that they all of a sudden
Speaker 1: that they can trade me for something that's good too.
Speaker 1: You don't back away from this challenge, and maybe in
Speaker 1: training camp there's other decisions to be made. Let's see
Speaker 1: what this guy is like, Well, what if the rookie
Speaker 1: holds out? What if the rookie gets hurt? What if
Speaker 1: we've seen these things happen over and over again. Drew
Speaker 1: Breese Joe Montana, I mean Drew Brees had a very
Speaker 1: similar circumstance. Joe Montana in San Francisco had was essentially
Speaker 1: benched for Steve Young and then had to come back
Speaker 1: and compete when they gave up a ton of pics.
Speaker 1: It's not unprecedented. Yeah, again, it's if the salary is
Speaker 1: is workable in the foreigners have always which is what
Speaker 1: I've been writing since December. The foreigners don't think the
Speaker 1: salary is a problem. Uh Garoppolo wants to compete. He
Speaker 1: wants to win a Super Bowl with these guys, And
Speaker 1: if you're a competitor, you would super Bowl with these guys,
Speaker 1: you get the trophy and then you go go to hell. Guys,
Speaker 1: you didn't think I was good enough for this. This
Speaker 1: is what's sort of the general thought process. Maybe he's wrong,
Speaker 1: he could be wrong, but he's not getting twenty five
Speaker 1: million dollars anywhere else, by the way, And that's the
Speaker 1: practical thing. And if he plays really well, the markets
Speaker 1: only better, and he's you know, as I wrote, and
Speaker 1: then Florida has made him a twenty five million dollar underdog.
Speaker 1: That's not a terrible position to be in. Just shut up,
Speaker 1: go play, you think you're really good. Stay healthy, which
Speaker 1: is which is by far the biggest factor. He has
Speaker 1: not been healthy this twenty three games in the the last
Speaker 1: three seasons, hasn't really been the same quarterback, even though
Speaker 1: he was good in he's he's lost some ability since
Speaker 1: at a c L twenty eighteen. So all these things
Speaker 1: are part of the factory. But he goes in there
Speaker 1: and plays great, and the offense works well and the
Speaker 1: defense is as good as it was in twenty nineteen.
Speaker 1: I see this from that, like, hey, you know what,
Speaker 1: this isn't where I'm in a terrible situation. If your garoppolo,
Speaker 1: if they've been straight with him. If they've been lying
Speaker 1: to him and say, will never do this, We'll never
Speaker 1: bring in somebody else through the perfect quarterback. I think
Speaker 1: it's a different mentality. I think it's screw you, get
Speaker 1: me out of here. I've written about this a lot,
Speaker 1: so I could say this confidently. They've never told him
Speaker 1: stuff like that. They've never said, you're unquestionably the guy. Well,
Speaker 1: Kirk Cousins has been somebody Kyle Shanahan has thought about
Speaker 1: constantly since he's been here. Even they almost didn't do
Speaker 1: the trade for Jimmy because they were going to sign
Speaker 1: Kirk Cousins in the next offseason. They didn't draft to
Speaker 1: Shawn Watson or Mahomes are really even evaluate and they
Speaker 1: might have evaluated my Home's a little bit of Watson
Speaker 1: are both a little bit, not a lot, because they
Speaker 1: were gonna sign Kirk Cousins. That's always been that relationship.
Speaker 1: I like you, Jimmy, but I always liked this other
Speaker 1: guy better. So that almost helps them in this context
Speaker 1: because they have again they have not overplayed it with Garoppolo.
Speaker 1: It's not this passive, addressive you're the greatest, You're the greatest. Okay, now,
Speaker 1: you stink it's been this Yeah, I mean this is
Speaker 1: it's just been this back and forth dialogue between you know,
Speaker 1: a demandy coach and the quarterbacks who a lot of
Speaker 1: games and then he's also been hurt and he's also
Speaker 1: thought played well sometimes because of the context there, you know,
Speaker 1: they're gonna try to look to get somebody better, and
Speaker 1: they decided now they really are gonna get somebody better,
Speaker 1: not necessarily this season. It makes me think, you know,
Speaker 1: not to play fantasy sports here, but if Shanahan is
Speaker 1: so in love with Kirk Cousins, dude, some of these
Speaker 1: draft assets, why don't you go try to get Kirk
Speaker 1: Cousins uh capital for almost could get a gun for
Speaker 1: almost nothing, by the way, Yeah, I just that's what
Speaker 1: That's what makes me think. Again, the Matt Jones stuff
Speaker 1: is now overpowering. I'm not debating that that Shannon probably
Speaker 1: really likes him. He went likes him at three. With
Speaker 1: the three first round picks, you want the extra with
Speaker 1: that if you you want, you know, you want the
Speaker 1: Russell Wilson, you want you know, the Josh Allen. Those
Speaker 1: guys beat the forty niners, so I can't see I
Speaker 1: guess I can't get We know Kay coaches cant stubborn.
Speaker 1: We know that sometimes they aren't thinking the big picture.
Speaker 1: But they're bidding with everyone else for this. Right, you
Speaker 1: pay three first rowd picks because you're bidding for the value.
Speaker 1: Why are you bidding for the value? Who isn't the
Speaker 1: great value? You're doing this to move into that fields.
Speaker 1: Wilson possibly trade lance thing. In my opinion, again, Kyle
Speaker 1: might be so in love with mac Jones it doesn't matter.
Speaker 1: And if he is, I think it's a ridiculous, horrendous
Speaker 1: misvaluing of this situation. San Francisco will go absolutely crazy
Speaker 1: if they've done all this to get mac Jones. I mean,
Speaker 1: your job is gonna what do they know? Though you
Speaker 1: know that doesn't matter, that's not going to stop them
Speaker 1: from reacting. I mean that would be one of the
Speaker 1: bigger draft stories around. If they do this to get
Speaker 1: mac Jones, people are gonna go nuts. Incredible. I was
Speaker 1: actually thinking ahead, but if this is the greatest fake
Speaker 1: of all time. But if this is an inception level
Speaker 1: where he's doing this, they're gonna trade back to fourteen
Speaker 1: and take Matt Jones and fourteen and every go, oh
Speaker 1: my god, mates, fourteen. It is the greatest mottle all time.
Speaker 1: I don't know. I don't see the logic. And even
Speaker 1: if Kyle was head over heels for mac Jones, even
Speaker 1: if he was, somebody there has to put the brakes
Speaker 1: on it. Somebody there is. I said, you know what,
Speaker 1: we don't have to do anything. We can sit a
Speaker 1: twelve and then if we're worried someone else is gonna
Speaker 1: go all for and then re erect. We don't have
Speaker 1: to do it in March. That's the part that like,
Speaker 1: I wonder if there was somebody there. I assume there was.
Speaker 1: Barack Marazze is a great, you know value guy. Um
Speaker 1: but and we know coaches and Kyle shanahana's shot caller there.
Speaker 1: There's no there's not anybody else. It's Kyle Shanahan. So
Speaker 1: if he was just that's it. I want this guy.
Speaker 1: I'm worried. Like the only thing I could think is
Speaker 1: and you know, he was worried to Patriots might move
Speaker 1: up uh and go get him. Maybe that's what he
Speaker 1: was about, just built all check, giving up three number
Speaker 1: one for Matt Jones. Maybe he was giving up to
Speaker 1: and that's why he had to go three. Though I
Speaker 1: I don't know who knows. I I just I don't
Speaker 1: put much anyone's evaluation though of Mac Jones, because it's
Speaker 1: usually a bunch of people like us that it's not
Speaker 1: really their jobs, and we're basing it on other consensus opinions.
Speaker 1: And and if Shanahan loves him, and that's the one
Speaker 1: pro day that he goes to and Chris, you know,
Speaker 1: Chris Sims, who's his buddy, loves him, and it's like,
Speaker 1: then he's not gonna feel like any prices too much.
Speaker 1: It definitely raises the stakes of this entire draft process, though,
Speaker 1: because you could not trade up to number three. I
Speaker 1: guess you could be confident Mac Jones would be there,
Speaker 1: but you could not trade up to number three and
Speaker 1: know exactly what you're getting. You have to love two quarterbacks,
Speaker 1: you know, you have to love two guys. You have
Speaker 1: to absolutely be willing to change your entire franchise for
Speaker 1: two or three different guys. And you know why Now
Speaker 1: that's I mean, we're gonna talk to Shanahan a little bit.
Speaker 1: That's gonna be a key question. I don't know if
Speaker 1: he's gonna answer, But why now, why? Why did you
Speaker 1: have to do it? Now? Look if you if he
Speaker 1: goes of the mac Jones thought process that he was
Speaker 1: afraid the Patriots are gonna move up for him, gonna
Speaker 1: traded too. But with the Jets trade with the Patriots
Speaker 1: to uh, I'm sorry, or four, It could trade with four,
Speaker 1: you know, without there could be spots for the Patriots
Speaker 1: to move in ahead as well. But I just don't
Speaker 1: see you go through the process for somebody. Again, it's
Speaker 1: just draft experts. You're right, but you look at the
Speaker 1: talent level. Justin fields, Zack Wilson versus Mack john just
Speaker 1: in the way the end of modern NFL's plane, the
Speaker 1: way Josh Allen plays, the way Kylin Murray plays. Again, guys,
Speaker 1: are this is not like a you know, just some
Speaker 1: experimental thought. They've beat the forty Niners, they've beat them
Speaker 1: at Patrick Mahomes slightly different. But you know, I think
Speaker 1: you need to get into that if you're gonna give
Speaker 1: up three, I mean I would have thought so anyway
Speaker 1: that you gotta get into that world of talent. You
Speaker 1: can't just try to get many Kirk cousins. But when
Speaker 1: you give up the picks that they gave up, you
Speaker 1: can't just do it to get another guy, and I
Speaker 1: think matje I would think differently. I mean, I don't
Speaker 1: like to, you know, I just don't I've seen that.
Speaker 1: You know, we've all seen a ton of Alabama games.
Speaker 1: You can throw the ball, you can be accurate. I
Speaker 1: think he's got slow feet and in the NFL, you
Speaker 1: got slow feed people coming after you. Now the Brady
Speaker 1: survives of a Brady. You know, he can move around.
Speaker 1: There's some agility within the pocket. I just don't know that.
Speaker 1: If you're just you're I just believe this is a
Speaker 1: time to change some of the things that he wants
Speaker 1: to do. I believe there's time to adapt some of
Speaker 1: the things he wants to do with the outsized athletic talent.
Speaker 1: And if you're a great coach, you should be able
Speaker 1: to adjust an outsize athletic talent who can read the field,
Speaker 1: who can make the passes. And I think this is
Speaker 1: the year to do it. And again I could see
Speaker 1: them thinking, well, at twelve, like you said, we're never
Speaker 1: gonna we don't think we're gonna be in this high
Speaker 1: for a long time. This is a great quarterback draft.
Speaker 1: We like three of them. Let's go, let's go to
Speaker 1: three and we'll be fine, and if we need to
Speaker 1: make a maneuver within we're already at three, it's gonna
Speaker 1: not gonna cost a ton more. But I would still
Speaker 1: think they're gonna stay at three. I get all that logic.
Speaker 1: I don't get it from Mac Jones. I really tell
Speaker 1: a kid for Mac Jones, because I think you could
Speaker 1: have you know what at highest were're gonna go to seven? Eight? Um,
Speaker 1: Matt Jones, again, you're bidding against people who are trying
Speaker 1: to get Trey Lance Za, Zack Wilson or or Justin Fields.
Speaker 1: So why are you paying that price for somebody who
Speaker 1: isn't going to get that any In my opinion, again,
Speaker 1: we might all be wrong. Maybe Matt Jones is the
Speaker 1: guy that everybody's raised. Maybe the Jaguars are now sweating
Speaker 1: over Trevor Lawrence or Mac Jones. I don't know, but
Speaker 1: I don't don't feel like that to me, and and
Speaker 1: it certainly doesn't illustrated by the games they played, and
Speaker 1: I think that we all watched. Tim. Thank you so
Speaker 1: much for the insight, and make sure you follow everything
Speaker 1: Tim writes on the Niners, because this guy is plugged
Speaker 1: us as you could tell. Thank you, buddy, and good luck,
Speaker 1: appreciate him. There he goes Tim Kawakami. Really interesting. And
Speaker 1: you know one thing that I thought too about this,
Speaker 1: because it is interesting now the way things shake out.
Speaker 1: It started out being this draft is about Trevor Lawrence.
Speaker 1: Trevor Lawrence, Trevor Lawrence, and it still is. He's gonna
Speaker 1: be the number one overall pick. The Zach Wilson thing
Speaker 1: has built up now where he's seen as a kind
Speaker 1: of an elite prospect to a lot of people. Now,
Speaker 1: So now you got one too, to give up as
Speaker 1: much as San Francisco has to get to three and
Speaker 1: maybe get the third best guy off the board when
Speaker 1: there is a drop off in a lot of people's eyes.
Speaker 1: That's interesting. But it also, like one thing I thought
Speaker 1: when this went down, it gave them flexibility with the
Speaker 1: big name that people don't know how to talk about
Speaker 1: right now, Deshaun Watson. Uh. And every day you wake up,
Speaker 1: you check your phone when you wake up, and there's
Speaker 1: more lawsuits filed against this guy. And now there's a
Speaker 1: report um from espn UM reportedly about um Watson reaching
Speaker 1: out trying to settle with some and they're leading Instagram
Speaker 1: posts and we we obviously don't know the whole story here,
Speaker 1: but you just wonder if that third overall pick they
Speaker 1: have options there, whether we want to go through the
Speaker 1: draft or leverage that to go get Deshaun Watson, one
Speaker 1: of the top five quarterbacks in the league. Or is
Speaker 1: Deshaun Watson totally out of play right now? Is that
Speaker 1: where he's at in his career and what a stunning
Speaker 1: turn of events that has been over the last two weeks,
Speaker 1: right or if all this Deshaun Watson news lit a
Speaker 1: fire under the forty niners even more to go get
Speaker 1: this pick and get this rookie that they were thinking about.
Speaker 1: Kyle Sanan went to Mac Jones pro day. Apparently he
Speaker 1: never goes to people's pro days, like quarterbacks par days
Speaker 1: in person. It's the only one I guess he went to.
Speaker 1: Whether they're trying, I don't know why they would telegraph things.
Speaker 1: I don't know why they would put things out through
Speaker 1: the media that they love Mac Jones. Unless they did,
Speaker 1: there's no way we're gonna know. Who knows. Maybe it
Speaker 1: is all for justin fields like we're gonna have to
Speaker 1: wait until April, I think too to get those answers.
Speaker 1: But people that seem to know. Kyle Shenna invest think
Speaker 1: it probably is for for Mac Jones and that, and
Speaker 1: people around the league think it is and that, and
Speaker 1: the it would add up and the way Tim mentioned like,
Speaker 1: isn't there anyone in the building that would say hold up?
Speaker 1: It's like, no, it's Kyle Shanahan's team that's made it.
Speaker 1: That's been clear throughout. John Lynch is there to execute
Speaker 1: Kyle Shanahan's vision, very much like Bill Bell checks GMS
Speaker 1: are there to execute his vision. It is not the
Speaker 1: John Lynch show. It's the Kyle Shanahan show, especially at quarterback.
Speaker 1: And three first round pick sounds like a lot. Well,
Speaker 1: first of all, the first one is the twelfth pick,
Speaker 1: so you're moving up. It's really, you know, two extra
Speaker 1: first round picks. I just think of that first draft
Speaker 1: to keep mentioning it though, because the forty Niners never
Speaker 1: got any greed for it. They had two first round
Speaker 1: picks that year too, by the way, to start their
Speaker 1: franchise off. They took Solomon Thomas and Ruben Foster. So
Speaker 1: that's what two first round picks can sometimes do for you.
Speaker 1: This is Kyle Shanahan laying a stake that this is
Speaker 1: my future. I plan a B for the with the
Speaker 1: forty Niners for as long as possible, and this is
Speaker 1: gonna be my quarter back. I got to assume it's
Speaker 1: for a very specific guy, and it's it's got to
Speaker 1: it's probably a rookie. And maybe the Watson news, to
Speaker 1: your point, Dan clarified it for him that that this
Speaker 1: was gonna get too massy. You don't do this unless
Speaker 1: you are crystal clear on certain that you're going to
Speaker 1: get a quarterback you're in love with. And we know
Speaker 1: it's not Trevor Lawrence and it's not Zack Wilson, so
Speaker 1: there is someone sitting out there and maybe it is
Speaker 1: Mac Jones. I still think that, you know, the Deshaun
Speaker 1: Watson thing, to me is completely off the table. I
Speaker 1: just don't know how any of this gets sorted out
Speaker 1: before the draft. And no matter how much you like
Speaker 1: the player, quarterback is about availability, and we don't even
Speaker 1: know how this thing shakes out when he'll play next
Speaker 1: I mean, there's a there's a potential chance that if
Speaker 1: a suspension comes down at some point that you don't
Speaker 1: even have Deshaun Watson next season. So I don't know
Speaker 1: how between now and the draft, these picks would have
Speaker 1: been used as leverage to spice up that kind of
Speaker 1: a deal, I mean a month ago, yes, and then
Speaker 1: they'd be sitting there thinking, now we have to go
Speaker 1: get someone. In my opinion, this looks like they fell
Speaker 1: in love with someone at quarterback. Maybe it's Mac Jones,
Speaker 1: maybe it's Lance. We don't know, and they're well, they're
Speaker 1: really comfortable based on our talk with Tim too, having
Speaker 1: having Jimmy g as part of the plan for next
Speaker 1: season to ease that quarterback incorrectly, Well, I do wonder
Speaker 1: too if they you know that that that to move
Speaker 1: out of three, the Dolphins are getting good offer like
Speaker 1: that they that that it was the Eagles potentially, who
Speaker 1: Ian Rapaport mentioned had been moved, you know, somewhat interested
Speaker 1: in moving up, but maybe it was only for Zach Wilson.
Speaker 1: And then as Tim mentioned, maybe it's the Patriots who
Speaker 1: who wanted to move up for Jones and they and
Speaker 1: they felt the pressure that they needed to box someone out.
Speaker 1: Like now, the timing of the trades and I know
Speaker 1: we're gonna get to the Dolphins Eagles trade indicates that
Speaker 1: to me, you know that they that there were other
Speaker 1: offers that the fact that the Dolphins had another trade
Speaker 1: ready to go five seconds later makes me think that
Speaker 1: there was a lot of conversation about this number three
Speaker 1: pick and backup plans, and the Dolphins basically had this
Speaker 1: whole plan mapped out before they even made the trade
Speaker 1: with the forty Niners, right, And you mentioned the Dolphins,
Speaker 1: So the forty Niners. We've talked about that. The Dolphins
Speaker 1: started this thing with the Niners by sending that number
Speaker 1: three overall pick in exchange for the number twelve, a
Speaker 1: first and third round pick in two, and a first
Speaker 1: round pick in twe then Miami turned around and sent
Speaker 1: the number twelve, pick, number one, twenty three, and their
Speaker 1: two thousand, twenty two first round pick to the Eagles
Speaker 1: in exchange for the number six and number one and
Speaker 1: fifty six picks in this year's draft. Um I would
Speaker 1: think that this this for the Dolphins makes sense if
Speaker 1: you're gonna give to a real good look here as
Speaker 1: your potential future, and you now put yourself in position
Speaker 1: in addition to accruing more draft assets here, Greg, you
Speaker 1: also now have a chance to bring in a real
Speaker 1: stud playmaker on offense, and we've talked about that. Uh,
Speaker 1: you know. Uh, they went and they got Will Fuller,
Speaker 1: and that felt like a nice start. But the way
Speaker 1: this draft is starting up, where the first three picks
Speaker 1: might be quarterbacks, um, it feels like to be in
Speaker 1: that number six spot is a really good place to
Speaker 1: be to get a big time playmaker exactly I mean,
Speaker 1: and this is a great top of this draft for playmakers.
Speaker 1: I don't think they're gonna be in the left tackle market,
Speaker 1: and so that means they get to take Kyle Pitts
Speaker 1: the tight end, or Jamaar Chase, or if you want
Speaker 1: to take Davante Smith, whoever, it's gonna be. Whoever they like,
Speaker 1: They should have their choice of a few of those
Speaker 1: top guys. And it makes me more excited about the Dolphins.
Speaker 1: I want to see the two a year two with
Speaker 1: talent around him, and that defense so well coached. I
Speaker 1: think they've done some weird things in terms of their
Speaker 1: moves and they've gotten off of players quickly on defense.
Speaker 1: But like that, that sounds exciting and I want to
Speaker 1: see the two a year to leap and now he's
Speaker 1: getting a good chance for it. I think if you're
Speaker 1: a Dolphins fan, you know it's been This is a
Speaker 1: team that's sneaky, had a really rough thirty years. UM.
Speaker 1: You now, with Chris Career, I think have one of
Speaker 1: the best general managers in the game. He's been involved
Speaker 1: with over six years and eight separate deals for first
Speaker 1: round picks. Um. He was a forward thinking um GM
Speaker 1: before a lot of the league is caught up, and
Speaker 1: I think you're looking at a team that is you know,
Speaker 1: I wondered if maybe they were still there were still
Speaker 1: a chance back in the Deshaun Watson UM pre Deshaun
Speaker 1: Watson version of this whole thing, where maybe that would
Speaker 1: have been a destination or a move. But yeah, you're
Speaker 1: right at this point, it's go add the best playmaker
Speaker 1: you can around him, and you've got a coach and
Speaker 1: general manager that have a real vision and they were
Speaker 1: able to pull it off. And Chris Greer never gets fleeced.
Speaker 1: He ef. You look at every single deal that they've
Speaker 1: pulled off, I think they've always gotten great value. You
Speaker 1: could argue Manca Fitzpatrick should have not been traded, um,
Speaker 1: but still you've got a first round pick. I mean
Speaker 1: you action grades from Mark. Mark's got the whole grade. Um,
Speaker 1: He's got a lot of you know, he wrote the
Speaker 1: Grades article last week. Grades are his new corner, Chris
Speaker 1: Greer getting a lot of holidays? Was there was Did
Speaker 1: you take the grades pop from someone else? Did you
Speaker 1: wrestle them away or was it sitting there? Anyone at
Speaker 1: dot com could have had it, and you took it
Speaker 1: well to dispel your theory that it's sort of a
Speaker 1: career launcher, I actually wrote the piece last year too,
Speaker 1: and it had zero traction um And in fact, it
Speaker 1: has so little traction that we carved out an entire
Speaker 1: network segment discussing the grades I had given the Raiders,
Speaker 1: and that was the first thing that got wiped out
Speaker 1: during our show. All this trade news came in. They said,
Speaker 1: we've got to get rid of content, and they said,
Speaker 1: well that makes for easy ridden's so what's Mark's most
Speaker 1: recent work? Take that out of the mix. Hey, I
Speaker 1: wanna not to get two sidetracked here, but um panthers
Speaker 1: a loser right now there. They They're in a little
Speaker 1: bit of a tough spot here because well, it all
Speaker 1: felt I I don't want to say it was it
Speaker 1: was a done deal because it wasn't. But there was
Speaker 1: momentum building toward them and Deshaun Watson and Mark I
Speaker 1: think you nailed You nailed it on the head. No
Speaker 1: one is doing a trade right now until it's gets
Speaker 1: sorted out. There's just too much at stake on both
Speaker 1: sides to do a deal involving a guy who's having
Speaker 1: these legal issues that could become criminal. Um, it could
Speaker 1: become a criminal issue right now, it's civil, especially because
Speaker 1: the Texans don't want to. I still think that team,
Speaker 1: like the Panthers, their patriots might be like, this is
Speaker 1: a ten year decision, will do whatever, But the Texans
Speaker 1: don't want to anyway, So that acts and not to
Speaker 1: be flip here, but if Deshaun Watson has a tenure
Speaker 1: prison sentence or something, you don't do a trade. I mean,
Speaker 1: it's just everything seems to be on pause. Um I'm
Speaker 1: working under that. Maybe I'm totally wrong, Maybe he's it's
Speaker 1: actively going on behind the scenes right now. But if
Speaker 1: Deshaun Watson is off the table, now you have the Jaguars, Jets,
Speaker 1: and Niners locked one, two, three at the top of
Speaker 1: the draft, unlikely to move. Maybe maybe the Jets move
Speaker 1: out of number two, but it doesn't seem that way,
Speaker 1: not when you have the brain trust. UM at Zack
Speaker 1: Wilson's Pro day and all the buzz around him right now,
Speaker 1: does this end? Um, Greg Rosenthal with Teddy Bridgewater getting
Speaker 1: another shot in Carolina just because they feel like they
Speaker 1: got boxed in here, just the thought, just the thought
Speaker 1: exercise maybe competing, you know with Lance or Fields. That
Speaker 1: the thing is though, if mac Jones has taken third,
Speaker 1: I mean you gotta do the math. Then there's five
Speaker 1: of these quarterbacks and they go one to three and
Speaker 1: the Panthers are still at seven. So I don't know
Speaker 1: how much they are gonna like Trey Lance or Justin
Speaker 1: Fields if they fell, but there's there's still too many quarterbacks.
Speaker 1: And the Patriots certainly are looking for one and the paint,
Speaker 1: but they're much lower in the draft, and the Panthers
Speaker 1: are still in a decent spot at seven where they
Speaker 1: might go get it and they are the ultimate team.
Speaker 1: And I would throw the Patriots in, but I can't
Speaker 1: see it happening that the Panthers are the ultimate team.
Speaker 1: That might you know, be willing to wait this out
Speaker 1: with Watson because like Jimmy g they've got a quarterback
Speaker 1: that and even it's more complicated to get off Teddy
Speaker 1: Bridgewaters contract. He's do all these this guaranteed money anyway,
Speaker 1: so he's kind of there, just backup plan that's gonna
Speaker 1: be there, and they could wait it out until November,
Speaker 1: you know, they could wait it out and as long
Speaker 1: as they wanted to. And if Watson really was their
Speaker 1: number one choice all along, which is what it sounded like,
Speaker 1: then maybe they are the team that gets that done
Speaker 1: in a long time. Yeah. But to Dan's question, though,
Speaker 1: are they drifting towards the loser category of the winners
Speaker 1: and losers here? I would say they are because they
Speaker 1: also went after Matthew Stafford. All right, they clearly were
Speaker 1: the team most interested in Watson, and that thing's in
Speaker 1: a holding pattern. You're right. That can happen down the road,
Speaker 1: and the Falcons, I think, will draft a quarterback to
Speaker 1: I think we're gonna get four straight quarterbacks off the board.
Speaker 1: And then you're looking at the Panthers saying, are we
Speaker 1: cool enough drafting our fifth or six choice at the
Speaker 1: position they were at number eight? They just weren't high enough.
Speaker 1: It's the problem when you you don't basically stink enough
Speaker 1: the season before, and you're sitting in a place where
Speaker 1: people can hop Scotch. You. I thought the Patriots were
Speaker 1: gonna hop gotch Carolina and move up to get to
Speaker 1: this place to get this quarterback. They haven't. So there's
Speaker 1: two teams still looking for one um and they're not
Speaker 1: enough quarterbacks to go around. No matter how good of
Speaker 1: a class it is, you already know that half of
Speaker 1: them are going to fail. They're not going to live
Speaker 1: up to their pedigree. In fact, if half live up
Speaker 1: to it, that will be a surprise. It's just not
Speaker 1: how it works. Everyone's perfect today, they'll all be mega
Speaker 1: flops half of them two years from now. Well, you
Speaker 1: could look at it one other way to that, which
Speaker 1: is the Panthers saying sweet, the forty niners are out
Speaker 1: on the Deshaun Watson market and they're taking mac Jones. Right,
Speaker 1: that's someone we don't they could they could. I mean
Speaker 1: that is the other way to look at it. And
Speaker 1: you're right. If they show exhibit patients here, wait out
Speaker 1: this legal issue and then come hard, uh, there might
Speaker 1: be a smaller market. It could work out. You're right,
Speaker 1: there's two ways to look at it. But I imagine
Speaker 1: there's a level of impatience that could be building there
Speaker 1: not looking after what they've done with Teddy. It is
Speaker 1: tough to for I think everyone to stomach going into
Speaker 1: Week one with Teddy as you're starting quarterback. That would
Speaker 1: be tough. And then, um, you know, we could maybe
Speaker 1: get into the Eagles uh more in depth later in
Speaker 1: the week. But do you have any thoughts boys on
Speaker 1: what the Eagles have done here? They they are at
Speaker 1: the number six spot, which would have given them that
Speaker 1: money access to a big time playmaker. They moved back
Speaker 1: to twelve. Uh and that Dolphins trade they pick up
Speaker 1: an extra first round pick, which is good and I
Speaker 1: think this is good news for Jalen Hurts. But at
Speaker 1: the same time, if I'm an Eagles fan who's kind
Speaker 1: of on guard right now mark about everything the organization
Speaker 1: is doing. Am I a little annoyed I traded out
Speaker 1: of a money spot to pick up a big time playmaker?
Speaker 1: I mean, the Eagles fans are going to be annoyed
Speaker 1: no matter what anyone does, so that's the baseline. But
Speaker 1: I would say this, I think that if you're a
Speaker 1: little bit more of a philosophical fan, you could look
Speaker 1: at what Jeffrey Lori's mantra has been since the season ended,
Speaker 1: that this is not a win now roster at the
Speaker 1: moment that there is a setting the table. I'm not
Speaker 1: saying it's a six year plan, but they have twenty
Speaker 1: picks over the next two drafts. They have two first
Speaker 1: rounders next year, and that could turn into three based
Speaker 1: on what Carson Wentz does with the Colts. That's how
Speaker 1: you other, like other teams, set an environment where you
Speaker 1: can make a major trade up next season or even
Speaker 1: maybe be in position depending on where they finished to
Speaker 1: get a quarterback next year, but at the same time
Speaker 1: not totally blowing up the world for Jalen Hurts this
Speaker 1: year that you give him a full clean chance to
Speaker 1: show maybe he's the guy. So I don't hate what
Speaker 1: they've done. They've got they basically kind of need to
Speaker 1: reconstruct everything coming out of a team, a roster, a
Speaker 1: cap situation that just burnt out, and they've done it
Speaker 1: quicker than some teams do. It does make you wonder though,
Speaker 1: with the timing when they saw the forty nine ers
Speaker 1: moved to three and then they get out so quickly.
Speaker 1: I don't know, Well, we'll never know. Ian sent out
Speaker 1: that that tweet about Zack Wilson and then an hour
Speaker 1: later sent another tweet that was like, well, maybe they
Speaker 1: didn't really like Zach Wilson's I'm not I'm not sure
Speaker 1: what's going on the report. Just for clarity, the Fields
Speaker 1: reportedly attempted to trade up to number three beforehand, but
Speaker 1: they were only gonna do it for Zack Wilson, So
Speaker 1: like if Wilson fell, they were they were prepping the pump. Yeah,
Speaker 1: either way, it's a little too much Joe Flacco in
Speaker 1: my life if I'm an Eagles fan, Like we're gonna
Speaker 1: just be hearing about him, and he wants to be competing,
Speaker 1: And yes, it's Jalen Hurts his job, but it's like
Speaker 1: Joe Flacco is gonna be there and wanting to get
Speaker 1: in the field. And if anyone inside that organization is
Speaker 1: secretly viewing Joe Flacco as the starter over getting a
Speaker 1: full look at Jalen Hurts, then you've lost me. No,
Speaker 1: I don't think that would be the case. And he's
Speaker 1: only getting paid three and a half a million dollars
Speaker 1: To be fair, he got Joe Flacco can say whatever
Speaker 1: he wants until that Johnny Uniteds movie comes out that
Speaker 1: he was so called ticketed for as an on field
Speaker 1: version of Johnny uniteds, I don't believe anything he said this,
Speaker 1: So up to eight million dollars as the we have
Speaker 1: to get rid of up too in the contracts any
Speaker 1: But that's why I'll the Eagles fans were all fired
Speaker 1: up and annoyed about the Flacco signing because initially it
Speaker 1: was reported like up to a thousand million dollars for
Speaker 1: Joe Facco, and it's like now he's getting three and
Speaker 1: a half million. It's like very much a backup, like
Speaker 1: hardcore backups out and remember like not only do you
Speaker 1: get a backup quarterback, you get a statue and you
Speaker 1: put him out there and you have and you get
Speaker 1: that too, So it's almost like a two for one
Speaker 1: factor that in as well. Um, all right, let's um
Speaker 1: hit the rest of the news. Let's get out of
Speaker 1: this trade chocolate. What's going on in the league in
Speaker 1: our league? That day, we came through the board with Jim,
Speaker 1: but right there was White Nicky too. I said, I
Speaker 1: gotta get something for yo. Hey, I'm gonna tell you
Speaker 1: what it felt good. God, I don't know what it
Speaker 1: was from how recent it was. He's wearing a mask
Speaker 1: sitting around a fire, so it must have been in
Speaker 1: the past year. But I don't know if you guys
Speaker 1: saw Randy Moss telling a long story about the background
Speaker 1: on why he as Chris collins Worth famously put it,
Speaker 1: shot the moon at the lambeau Field crowd um telling
Speaker 1: the whole back store, very very feel you gotta love
Speaker 1: it would feel good to when's the last time you
Speaker 1: moon someone? Or I am assuming everyone here has moons
Speaker 1: someone at some point. I'm not saying recently, but as
Speaker 1: a child. I mean I'd have to go back to
Speaker 1: probably middle school or something. Yeah, you gotta go back
Speaker 1: a couple of decades, at least three, maybe three decades.
Speaker 1: I do it once a week just to sort of
Speaker 1: feel alive, shake things up a little. Yet in front
Speaker 1: of the elementary school, it's you know, it's a shaky move,
Speaker 1: but you know it's like Greg lives across from a
Speaker 1: supermarket too, that that's you know, the supermarket crowd gets Yeah.
Speaker 1: And of course that was who always be linked that
Speaker 1: game and that that game winning touchdown catch and then
Speaker 1: the call from Joe Buck famously, that is a disgusting
Speaker 1: you know, Joe is still digging out from that all
Speaker 1: these years later. It's almost like he's been on a
Speaker 1: decade long um apology tour trying to prove that he's
Speaker 1: now a cool dad. He's like, now that wasn't me.
Speaker 1: I'm actually cool, I'm funny, and I'm chill. But that's
Speaker 1: a tough that's a toughie. Mark. That's a tough one
Speaker 1: to because you once you burn that into the minds
Speaker 1: of football fans. Uh, it's a tough one to get out.
Speaker 1: And I always think that he takes way too much
Speaker 1: heat um and especially you know in the world of Twitter.
Speaker 1: But he miscalculated that one because he came across a
Speaker 1: sort of a a little bit of a snooty schoolmarm
Speaker 1: type person trying to tell us how we should live
Speaker 1: our lives. And it's like, I think it's kind of
Speaker 1: cool that a player mooned like the opposing craft and
Speaker 1: it would have been one thing if you were seeing
Speaker 1: like an actual mooning situation, but it was just, you know,
Speaker 1: it was just pretend. And yeah, I think Buck's been
Speaker 1: digging out of that and been digging out of treating
Speaker 1: the helmet catch like it was a guy to putting
Speaker 1: on the fifteenth green at like you know, the Masters
Speaker 1: or something acting like that. It was it was terrible.
Speaker 1: That was helmet catch second most exciting playing Super Bowl history.
Speaker 1: Let's you know, put in rare belongs. Those were yes,
Speaker 1: those were still sticking with that one. Huh. Um. You know,
Speaker 1: I I think he's a great It made the moment
Speaker 1: so much more famous too. I think if he had
Speaker 1: just had a normal call, it would not have lived
Speaker 1: on Like, who was the Seahawks player that play acted
Speaker 1: um taking a large dump on the field during the
Speaker 1: Super Bowl and that he got off totally without it.
Speaker 1: It's just hard to to tell a lot of people
Speaker 1: that you're a cool dad when that was how you
Speaker 1: reacted in the moment. So it's almost your truest self.
Speaker 1: But you know, Joe hanging there, buddy, It's all gonna
Speaker 1: work out for you in the end. I think it
Speaker 1: has in fact, all right. Uh, Sammy Watkins, he's off
Speaker 1: the board. He's two only seven. Sammy Watkins is still
Speaker 1: really yes. I mean I think he's turning twenty eight.
Speaker 1: Maybe he's been twenty seven for fourteen years now. It's
Speaker 1: incredible anyway. Uh, he has signed with the Baltimore Ravens.
Speaker 1: The Ravens finally get somebody to play wide receiver for them.
Speaker 1: One year, five million dollar contract. Uh, and he will
Speaker 1: be paired with Hollywood Brown. I guess is there one
Speaker 1: two punch there? You imagine Baltimore could investigate adding more weapons. Greg,
Speaker 1: let me ask you this. Do you find it? What
Speaker 1: does it tell you about what the league or wide
Speaker 1: receivers or what the players think about Lamar Jackson? That
Speaker 1: it was so hard to get a guy in here
Speaker 1: before Watkins finally comes one for five. Yeah, that they
Speaker 1: weren't expecting a lot of passing yards when you know,
Speaker 1: it came down to it. Now, I think the I
Speaker 1: think the Ravens could have ended the narrative very easily
Speaker 1: by just offering significantly more money. He in each of
Speaker 1: these cases, you're mentioning it was juju, it was t y. Ultimately,
Speaker 1: they were choosing between very similar contracts and they went
Speaker 1: with a place that they thought, you know, because according
Speaker 1: to she said, with Hilton it was significant. Yeah. But
Speaker 1: here's the thing, it was like, you know, in that case,
Speaker 1: it's like two years spread out. So you're also these
Speaker 1: things are are shaped by agents who have a narrative
Speaker 1: that they want to say. The player in this case
Speaker 1: might want to have got back to free agency rather
Speaker 1: than taking more guaranteed money in less per year. Anyway,
Speaker 1: I think it gets exaggerated a little bit. But Sammy
Speaker 1: Watkins hasn't done much in a long time. He hasn't
Speaker 1: done much really since he was um, you know with
Speaker 1: the same coach that's that's in Baltimore that squeezed some
Speaker 1: yards out of him, uh when he was back in Buffalo.
Speaker 1: He hasn't top seven under yards since. So he's played
Speaker 1: well in the playoffs. He's very similar to Hollywood Brown.
Speaker 1: That worries me. He's also similar in Hollywood Brown that
Speaker 1: he's performed as best in the playoffs. Hollywood Brown has
Speaker 1: been great in the playoffs. Sammy Watkins been great in
Speaker 1: the playoffs. Neither one of them have really shown up
Speaker 1: and been consistent in the regular season. I think this
Speaker 1: was also about the people involved. You mentioned Greg Roman
Speaker 1: was his coordinator when he had his only thousand yards season.
Speaker 1: Keith Williams, who is Baltimore's pass game coordinator, is his
Speaker 1: personal receiver's coach, so there's relationships. Maybe that trump some
Speaker 1: of the suspicion. Also, there wasn't much of a market
Speaker 1: for Sammy Watkins obviously, but I don't think you it
Speaker 1: is you know, great players go to terrible teams in
Speaker 1: free agency because of money, uh and Baltimore did offer more,
Speaker 1: and there is something going on. I think in terms
Speaker 1: of the way these players talk to each other that
Speaker 1: the Baltimore landing spot pass game wise for a wide
Speaker 1: receiver is a bit of a dead zone. And I mean,
Speaker 1: and there's a reason for that. I don't think it's
Speaker 1: Lamar Jackson. I think it's the way the offense is
Speaker 1: put together. And you've got two years in a row
Speaker 1: to look at that and say, is that where I
Speaker 1: want to go on a shorter contract to show what
Speaker 1: I can do there? They're a better landing spot. Although
Speaker 1: Juju passed on the Chiefs to be fair too at
Speaker 1: similar more money. I don't want to say it has
Speaker 1: nothing to do with Lamar Jackson nothing. It's just not
Speaker 1: there's gonna be four hundred to four hundred and fifty
Speaker 1: targets UH to whoever is catching the ball. So I
Speaker 1: don't know. It just made me think for a guy
Speaker 1: it's a reigning m v P. Usually guys race to
Speaker 1: go there. Is it all because they throw less? Or
Speaker 1: is it or is it really not that big a story?
Speaker 1: Is that what Gregg saying it was a financial thing
Speaker 1: more than anything. This might be my own blind spot,
Speaker 1: but almost every time, you know, we hear that a
Speaker 1: player turned down more money elsewhere, I don't believe it.
Speaker 1: And almost always it's proven, like in the latter to
Speaker 1: be a little bit exaggerated. You know, got you all
Speaker 1: right in other news. And by the way, Sammy Watkins
Speaker 1: first round pick by the Buffalo Bills in nineteen seventy six,
Speaker 1: so you know you're gonna pair him with O J.
Speaker 1: It was gonna be great. Yes, an unbelievable move by
Speaker 1: Doug Walley. All right, Uh, let's see. Carlos Dunlap resigns
Speaker 1: with the Seahawks two year, sixteen point six million dollars.
Speaker 1: He was cut loose by Seattle about two and a
Speaker 1: half weeks ago, three weeks ago. But now he's back,
Speaker 1: and that's good mark because Dunlop fills a need for them.
Speaker 1: And before he uh, I think he had a foot
Speaker 1: issue that slowed him down or a lower body issue,
Speaker 1: I believe, but he he was instant defense and pass
Speaker 1: rush for them. If he comes back and he's that guy,
Speaker 1: he will be a big help for them. I mean,
Speaker 1: their pass rush down the stretch became much better and
Speaker 1: one of the better ones in the league, and they
Speaker 1: really became more of a defensive oriented team, you know,
Speaker 1: as they guess they got to the playoffs into January,
Speaker 1: and I think he was a big part of that. Um.
Speaker 1: The game that stands out to me is that Cardinals
Speaker 1: game that we watched in your garage, Dan with mass Son.
Speaker 1: Just to be of course apart, you know he maybe
Speaker 1: even more it was he created chaos at the end
Speaker 1: of that game that uh you know, I know Kyler
Speaker 1: Murray was a little banged up. That changed that and
Speaker 1: really helped Seattle season not turn into a disaster. And
Speaker 1: I think he really wanted to be in Seattle. UM.
Speaker 1: Knowing him a little bit personally from that trip that
Speaker 1: I mentioned a thousand times, I think he's someone that
Speaker 1: Pete Carrolls can say is like one of the most
Speaker 1: high quality, high character dudes who works out NonStop, like
Speaker 1: he's just you're gonna get your money's worth. Now, I said,
Speaker 1: who on that trip was not a high character dude?
Speaker 1: Give us one, because we know we know behind the
Speaker 1: scenes stories, so I know you have to be careful here.
Speaker 1: But an example of someone or maybe their behavior. I
Speaker 1: would point, I would say that my character could always
Speaker 1: have been a little bit better, Like can I can
Speaker 1: I answer that? I mean, it's not as fun, but
Speaker 1: you can't. Okay, Well, I'm not gonna out anyone. I don't.
Speaker 1: I Also when they would get up to certain things,
Speaker 1: that's when I would be taken off the invite list.
Speaker 1: I wasn't part of that because you had to roll
Speaker 1: in with like Gucci bags and like eight grands in
Speaker 1: your pocket, and I was on Roger Good. I had
Speaker 1: to put a boats in general, right, if they're volunteering to,
Speaker 1: you know, help out um, you know they armed forces
Speaker 1: and take a week out of their life for nothing,
Speaker 1: they're probably in general, that's a self selecting good group
Speaker 1: of guys. It is, It's not. It wasn't ragamuffin type
Speaker 1: snow is there. I don't know. My mind keeps drifting here.
Speaker 1: But now I'm thinking about Seattle and Seahawks fans are
Speaker 1: happy that we're talking about their team. They don't want
Speaker 1: to hear anything about Russell Wilson in a trade. It's
Speaker 1: not realistic. Blah blah blah. Could the Seahawks if they
Speaker 1: really are open to a potential deal on some level
Speaker 1: prey on David Tepper's aggressiveness and the Panthers and I'm
Speaker 1: talking herschel Walker type trade. Is that something that could
Speaker 1: happen where you give up everything you have because Teppers
Speaker 1: and he feels cornered and he goes nuts. I don't know.
Speaker 1: I'd listen. I think, yeah, they're listening. That's all you
Speaker 1: could say. I mean, I don't know what would be
Speaker 1: too much to get Wilson if if you're the Panthers,
Speaker 1: give him first three seconds, uh, you know, your best
Speaker 1: defensive player. I don't know, maybe Christian McCaffrey. I don't know, Like,
Speaker 1: like what would what would it do? What would it take?
Speaker 1: I would say, just just give Pete Carroll a running
Speaker 1: back and you'd probably he would green light the thing.
Speaker 1: I have found it fun to watch, you know, Russell
Speaker 1: Wilson now on Twitter, just like over the top, excited
Speaker 1: about all these sudden He's like yeah, dunlopping back and
Speaker 1: now he's like the super Seahawks cheer. Later it's like, okay, okay, um,
Speaker 1: how about this Mark and we'll move on. I don't
Speaker 1: want to hang on this, but you are, I was
Speaker 1: gonna say, Schneider but no, you're Pete Carroll and I'm
Speaker 1: gonna offer you three first three seconds and Christian McCaffrey
Speaker 1: for Russell Wilson. Yes, I would say yes, Greg, I
Speaker 1: wouldn't bother. I mean, at this point, I guess no,
Speaker 1: Russell Wilson is basically untradeable. But what if behind the
Speaker 1: scenes the relationship really is just looking at it from above,
Speaker 1: where I would get rid of Pete Carroll and Schneider?
Speaker 1: I don't. I don't understand why we would want Why
Speaker 1: would you would want to start over looking for quarterbacks
Speaker 1: and be totally mediocre? But then you're leaning, You're leaning
Speaker 1: on a strange ownership group to make that decision. And
Speaker 1: if you make the move now there is no get
Speaker 1: rid of Pete Carroll to save Russell Wilson. They have
Speaker 1: to be approved by ownership. But no, I try to
Speaker 1: go win the Super Bowl with Russell Wilson this year
Speaker 1: because life is short, and I think they would have,
Speaker 1: you know, some chance to do that. Um. In other
Speaker 1: Seahawks related news, drawn read the defensive tackle signs with
Speaker 1: the Chiefs a contract that features five million and guarantees.
Speaker 1: Seattle try to move Read uh, who's in a contract?
Speaker 1: Distude with the team. It couldn't make it happen. Uh
Speaker 1: So now he is with Kansas City. He was a
Speaker 1: sixteen game starter at six and a half sacks last season,
Speaker 1: and Greg, he's readers removed from a ten and a
Speaker 1: half sax season. You like this move for Kansas City? Yeah?
Speaker 1: I like it for Kansas City. You give someone next
Speaker 1: to Chris Jones that will help him out. They've been
Speaker 1: thin there. It's a weird sequence. So he's one year
Speaker 1: removed from signing a two year, twenty three million dollar
Speaker 1: contract with the Seahawks, and he played like Dunlop played
Speaker 1: well down the stretch last year, and they're eating dead
Speaker 1: money to get rid of them. They they took a
Speaker 1: risk by cutting Dunlop and hoping to get him back
Speaker 1: at a lower salary. They were essentially hoping to do
Speaker 1: the same with Jarren Reid, and he might have. I
Speaker 1: don't know if he took less money to go to
Speaker 1: Kansas City, but he was not happy with how that
Speaker 1: was handled and he ended up he ended up leaving,
Speaker 1: but Seattle was very much hoping to bring back jarn Reid,
Speaker 1: and just this whole offseason is weird. They really prioritized
Speaker 1: Chris Carson. They really prioritized trading for Gabe Jackson, a
Speaker 1: guard who's gonna make ten million dollars, you know, a
Speaker 1: lot more than Jarren Reid. Where you're paying to get
Speaker 1: rid of Jarren Reid. Gabe Jackson was a guy that
Speaker 1: the Raiders were trying to get rid of for two years.
Speaker 1: Is that going to solve their offensive line issue? And
Speaker 1: I do I do wonder about the overall like picture
Speaker 1: here and what what is the plan in Seattle? I'm
Speaker 1: not sure because they haven't been particularly good at what
Speaker 1: Pete Carroll wants to be good at for a little while,
Speaker 1: which is running in defense. Yeah. The way thing I'd
Speaker 1: add is this is a team with three draft picks,
Speaker 1: and I get that this is maybe not the draft
Speaker 1: to load up on picks, but there aren't a lot
Speaker 1: of avenues um for them to address any holes they have.
Speaker 1: And the Jamal Adams trade, which I ripped the Jets
Speaker 1: for initially because what I thought was that the Jets
Speaker 1: kept giving away players that were good um and they
Speaker 1: could weren't develuable. But but a year later that was
Speaker 1: a win at all costs move for Seattle. They did
Speaker 1: not win at all costs. There's no reason to think
Speaker 1: they're a better team right now, and there are not
Speaker 1: a lot of resources to back themselves out of the
Speaker 1: corner of the d So it is a strange time
Speaker 1: in Seattle. UM. Finally, in the news, Leonard four nets
Speaker 1: back with the defending Super Bowl chan Appians. He signs
Speaker 1: a deal, he's sticking around, and that is that's it.
Speaker 1: All their starters. UM, I believe we're gonna be back.
Speaker 1: First team ever to do that, that one that is,
Speaker 1: and not just that, not just all twenty two starters.
Speaker 1: You also have the GM, the head coach, the d C,
Speaker 1: the o C. That almost never happens. You usually lose
Speaker 1: one of these architects, especially the coordinators after a Super
Speaker 1: Bowl wind. Have all your major pieces of the coaching
Speaker 1: staff back and all of your starters, that is remarkable.
Speaker 1: This is kind of an unprecedented experiment here by the Bucks.
Speaker 1: I can't say I blame them. I think it's gonna
Speaker 1: be very interesting to see how it plays out. I'm
Speaker 1: like less excited about them running it back, but I
Speaker 1: do like having like as I was like getting ready
Speaker 1: to root the mind because they were they were the
Speaker 1: most exciting thing about the season. I thought from minute
Speaker 1: one to the very end, you know, because they were
Speaker 1: so different, they were this new character and now they
Speaker 1: are the favorites. It's it's really interesting how quickly that
Speaker 1: that turn. But you're right, there's no reason to think
Speaker 1: they're gonna be like be bad. They that roster is awesome,
Speaker 1: Like I think they'll be to be better. I think
Speaker 1: like that there. I mean, if anything, like they always well,
Speaker 1: all I'd say is better over the course of the season,
Speaker 1: they didn't win their division. Um, the version of them
Speaker 1: that won the Super Bowl, I thought really bloomed late
Speaker 1: in the year. So I'm just saying you, in theory,
Speaker 1: you get that from wire to wire. Now, I don't
Speaker 1: need to be super excited about Leonard for Nette. The
Speaker 1: same way would be about some other people they brought back. Um,
Speaker 1: I really thought, um, this would be a team that
Speaker 1: might have gotten James White to add one more Patriots
Speaker 1: piece that Brady knew so well, because I don't think
Speaker 1: that that part of what they had on their offense
Speaker 1: last year was maximized in terms of like a pass
Speaker 1: catching guy like White that can do so much. And
Speaker 1: now I I wouldn't rule them out from drafting or
Speaker 1: running back, maybe not high, but as well they also have, uh,
Speaker 1: who's the other guy to have from last year? The
Speaker 1: draft pick Sean Vaughan and like they you know, he
Speaker 1: didn't play much, but I apparently the coach is still like,
Speaker 1: did you say that? No, I didn't mention earning for
Speaker 1: over first round pick tight end. He was, by the way,
Speaker 1: o J how just I When I read that yesterday,
Speaker 1: I was like, oh, yeah, he was an absolute can't
Speaker 1: miss tight end prospect. Those feel dicey, those can't miss
Speaker 1: tight ends in the first round. Keep that in mind.
Speaker 1: Good player, good player, good But it was supposed to
Speaker 1: be like a game plan record. Maybe yeah, maybe I
Speaker 1: don't even get the truce. Arians loves him. That money
Speaker 1: are the bullies, though. I do like that they're coming back,
Speaker 1: Like I like that they made this narrative so easy
Speaker 1: that we're bringing everyone back. They are completely loaded. They're
Speaker 1: gonna be They're gonna have the most nationally tell what
Speaker 1: televised games like it's on. I like it. I like that.
Speaker 1: And they did win eight straight to end the season.
Speaker 1: I mean what you know, Yes, they started a little
Speaker 1: slow and they lost a lot of they awesome close games.
Speaker 1: Too good teams other than the other than New Orleans
Speaker 1: who kind of beat them down, but they want eight
Speaker 1: straight and they beat down the Chiefs. I mean, it
Speaker 1: was about as good as it gets down the stretch.
Speaker 1: If they ever ran it back in one another title,
Speaker 1: first of all, you'd have to do it again. Everybody,
Speaker 1: I don't care, I don't care what their numbers are,
Speaker 1: what their stats were, where they are in life, would
Speaker 1: have it now, right. And you know, also, I think
Speaker 1: Tom Brady becomes the greatest free agent signing of all
Speaker 1: time to add that to his list. If somehow they
Speaker 1: get back to the super Bowl again, he's already right
Speaker 1: up near the top. He's gonna take that. He's gonna
Speaker 1: take that from Breeze to win. So in a much shorter,
Speaker 1: you know, more digestible time, it's better Greg two for
Speaker 1: two or one for twenty. I don't know. Just just
Speaker 1: let Drew Brees have this. It's like, now you're defending well,
Speaker 1: just I don't know what else. Uh, A year from now,
Speaker 1: you have Tom Brady next time around. It is not
Speaker 1: to drop the Lombardi Trophy out of like a low
Speaker 1: flying private plane, and you're gonna have Gronk catch that
Speaker 1: or break Brady is gonna retire and then immediately jump
Speaker 1: on to The Today Show with Hoda Kadby and actually
Speaker 1: Breeze will get squeezed out of that role to actually
Speaker 1: that he'll be doing Notre Dame with Tarko. He's just
Speaker 1: he just hates Drew Brees and wants to ruin his life.
Speaker 1: That's that would be Jenna Bush getting canned in a
Speaker 1: big spot right there. I could definitely also see him
Speaker 1: winning three Super Bowls with the Bucks and the Jets
Speaker 1: give him a seven hundred million dollar contract and he
Speaker 1: gets old. Um, Hey, that's what's happening in the news.
Speaker 1: Before we say goodbye, I want to check in with
Speaker 1: one of our One are the great men of NFL Media.
Speaker 1: He is the vice president of International title uh. He's
Speaker 1: also known uh in the podcast world as Handsome Hank,
Speaker 1: and that is no lie. He is Henry Hotson. What's up?
Speaker 1: But welcome back to the A T N Podcast. Hello? Friends,
Speaker 1: how are we doing? You good? Thank you? How are
Speaker 1: you guys? Doesn't that title actually mean that you're the
Speaker 1: vice president of the rest of the world outside of
Speaker 1: where we live. International is literally everything beyond America. I
Speaker 1: like that Dan says that whenever he leaves one word off,
Speaker 1: which I mean I like to it's international marketing, so
Speaker 1: it's less impressive than just market Really, what what Dan
Speaker 1: says when he says it out loud is the diamond
Speaker 1: chudge of everything other than the US. But that's not
Speaker 1: actually true. Last time that I came by because Henry,
Speaker 1: you know, he's such a soldier for this company, like
Speaker 1: amongst other things, when you are vice president of international,
Speaker 1: your your work hours and not like normal people. So
Speaker 1: I came by his house when I was doing my moving,
Speaker 1: and and the Hotchins were nice enough to watch the
Speaker 1: boys for a couple of hours. Hitting everybody up on that.
Speaker 1: By the way, Greg, they're coming over in about an hour.
Speaker 1: A knock on the door, Henry's wonderful wife answers, and
Speaker 1: there's Henry in the middle of a meeting, speaking fluent Chinese,
Speaker 1: probably launching some impressive impressive that's what was happening exactly. Yes, No,
Speaker 1: that the was the I was a stranger. I wouldn't
Speaker 1: necessarily wish them on anything. See how he didn't correct
Speaker 1: me when I said, and he was gonna let that
Speaker 1: one sit out there, right, Henry, you texted me last week.
Speaker 1: You were upset with me and I and you know what,
Speaker 1: it was a bad joy by me. For for years,
Speaker 1: for years, we've been tracking the international um NFL's International
Speaker 1: Pathway program away to get athletes football players from around
Speaker 1: the world, funnel them and give them the opportunity to
Speaker 1: play in our league. And uh, you know, we bet
Speaker 1: on a horse. His name was Maria's bow ringer Um.
Speaker 1: He was drafted by Hell. I don't know anymore than
Speaker 1: Vikings Mike Mayock. If what would make Mayok called up
Speaker 1: exactly give this guy and zim I listened and he
Speaker 1: and he did it and were on the train from
Speaker 1: day one. No one's been the biggest supporter of Mares
Speaker 1: than actually there was in the war room. You actually
Speaker 1: saw Henry sneak into the room and slip a couple
Speaker 1: of hundreds into Zimmer's pockets, said, grab this guy, I
Speaker 1: needed for my international pop. He's a wide receiver, but
Speaker 1: he will become a tight end in a few years,
Speaker 1: very versatile. He's now been in the Cincinnati Bengals organization
Speaker 1: for a couple of years. It just hasn't taken hold.
Speaker 1: And that's a bum. So keeping up with Bo Ringer
Speaker 1: where it's still it's on the back burner right now.
Speaker 1: It's not because I think we actually we ended that
Speaker 1: when he got caught by you invited me on to
Speaker 1: talk about marks the end of his career with the Bengels.
Speaker 1: He is now and if we can do an update,
Speaker 1: he is now that with the team that brought him
Speaker 1: to the NFL Schwabish Hole Unicorns. Whoa, there's the music,
Speaker 1: everything else. So that is the update. He's gone full
Speaker 1: up back to the Unicorns in Germany. Here were all right,
Speaker 1: so lucky. Let's let's uh, let's gets though. The reason
Speaker 1: why Henry was upset with me is because there is
Speaker 1: one player who is the true sie story of the
Speaker 1: Pathway program. Uh, the only man who has now graduated
Speaker 1: to a fifty three man roster. It's f a Obata
Speaker 1: yet five and a half sacks last year for the Panthers.
Speaker 1: The Panthers, so I don't know what's going on in
Speaker 1: that organization right now, but they say we're not going
Speaker 1: to bring him back. He lands with the Buffalo Bills,
Speaker 1: same team that has Christian Wade, another member of the
Speaker 1: Pathway Program, on their practice squad. So Henry I wanted
Speaker 1: to give you the floor here. I know about about
Speaker 1: as somebody that you are proud of because he's a
Speaker 1: he's a countryman and he was born in Nigeria, but
Speaker 1: he ended up in London as a youth, a very
Speaker 1: tough childhood, a lot of challenges that he overcame. So
Speaker 1: since it didn't really click with bow Ringer, and in
Speaker 1: fact you thought sometimes it was mocking of the program,
Speaker 1: which it never was, I wanted to give you the
Speaker 1: platform here to celebrate a true champion of the Pathway program.
Speaker 1: F a Obada, Well, first of all, I would say
Speaker 1: you did it very well for me that then when
Speaker 1: I texted you last week, if I could have had anything,
Speaker 1: it was exactly what you just said. So congratulations you
Speaker 1: you really nailed it. But I would say that it
Speaker 1: is it is a pretty amazing story fas Um. Story
Speaker 1: of of as you said was he was. He left Nigeria,
Speaker 1: was human traffic to the UK, lived on the streets
Speaker 1: of London and then got this opportunity to to do well,
Speaker 1: discovered football, played I think seven games for the London Warriors,
Speaker 1: and then went from that, you know, discovering football and
Speaker 1: playing at an amateur level in the UK. To um
Speaker 1: joining the Dallas Cowboys and playing a training camp there
Speaker 1: and not kind of not totally being able to hook
Speaker 1: into that and eventually the International Player path Way program
Speaker 1: was the thing that gave him his opportunity played to
Speaker 1: the Panthers, was I mean, I don't I'm sure you
Speaker 1: guys watched the uh, what's the show called? The show?
Speaker 1: Will on that thing show exactly where he was one
Speaker 1: of the focal points of that Panthers season a couple
Speaker 1: of years ago. You guys were at the game in
Speaker 1: London where he played for the first time in hunted
Speaker 1: fans from the UK, which was which was a pretty
Speaker 1: cool experience, and he I think he really became a
Speaker 1: big fan favorite in Carolina, and so I think a
Speaker 1: lot of fans were sad to see him leave after
Speaker 1: his best season last year. He got five and a
Speaker 1: half sacks and he got collected some pretty good scalps.
Speaker 1: Tom Brady, I think, was one of the guys you
Speaker 1: got Aaron Rodgers, Drew Brees. So if you want if
Speaker 1: you're gonna sack people, those the type of people I
Speaker 1: suppose you want to be sacking. Um. So now he's
Speaker 1: headed off to Buffalo UM and from what I understand
Speaker 1: on good authority. There were a few other teams that
Speaker 1: were in the mix to sign him as well, so
Speaker 1: I think he got a good deal there too, to
Speaker 1: got to Buffalo and get on a team that may
Speaker 1: unfortunately for two of us on this call, with with
Speaker 1: other allegiances to an FC East teams maybe on track
Speaker 1: for a Super Bowl. Yeah, a nice place to sign
Speaker 1: as a defensive lineman. They get right production, they need
Speaker 1: help there. They rotate guys. He had twenty nine pressures
Speaker 1: last year and in under five snaps, so he was
Speaker 1: very uh productive. He's carving out, he's carbon out of
Speaker 1: we are What is your personal relationship though, like does
Speaker 1: does he thank you? Or how did that story? F
Speaker 1: A was part of the program when Moritz was there,
Speaker 1: and so I was with f A M Morits when
Speaker 1: they were drafted in Chicago. We spent the day together.
Speaker 1: And then and then yeah, I know I know A
Speaker 1: pretty well and he's a He's a fantastic guy, a
Speaker 1: guy who you know has really gone through a lot
Speaker 1: in his life but is super positive and gives back
Speaker 1: so much. Two fans in the UK, both the fans
Speaker 1: and then also like the NFL Academy which you may
Speaker 1: have heard about, which is sort of designed to get
Speaker 1: kids a little bit earlier and get them starting to
Speaker 1: play football and hopefully get them into the college system
Speaker 1: in the US. F A has really supported that in
Speaker 1: a massive way, um and and help grow that. And
Speaker 1: he wants to know to help create the pipeline of
Speaker 1: future f A A bartis to the US to be
Speaker 1: playing in the NFL, you know, Hank, Like, one thing
Speaker 1: I noticed when I was in Europe that we there
Speaker 1: were a lot of high school programs a football high
Speaker 1: school programs. Since so they are starting to get kids,
Speaker 1: um introduced to the sports so much earlier than in
Speaker 1: years past. Do you think like in twenty forty uh,
Speaker 1: if things continue a pace with sports and society, that
Speaker 1: the NFL could look a little bit more like the
Speaker 1: NBA or Major League Baseball, where you know, twenty we're
Speaker 1: talking about you're finding the most physically dominant people. They're
Speaker 1: not all in America, by the way. I know, we
Speaker 1: like to think that. I mean, could you get to
Speaker 1: a point where of the NFL is foreign from outside
Speaker 1: the country. I think is a high number for for
Speaker 1: twenty years from now. But what I would say is
Speaker 1: that you're exactly right, Mark, Like, the way for the
Speaker 1: sport to grow is to do that is to encourage
Speaker 1: kids to be playing, and then, um, you have to
Speaker 1: get kids in an early age. I think the play
Speaker 1: Pokery program has been incredible and then the one one
Speaker 1: mistake you made. There have been a couple of other
Speaker 1: guys that have made it, including Jakob Johnson, Greg's favorite
Speaker 1: fullback in the NFL. Scott resigned as well. Exactly, But um,
Speaker 1: it's it's really hard to get guys at twenty, you know,
Speaker 1: that kind of age, and they've never played football before,
Speaker 1: they've had very limited exposure to football, and then get
Speaker 1: them they have to be like athletic freaks, which a
Speaker 1: is one of them. To to make it to the
Speaker 1: NFL is obviously much easier if they're playing, you know,
Speaker 1: starting at the same age that a kid in the
Speaker 1: US would start and learning the sport and developing their
Speaker 1: body and all those kind of things. So, um, I
Speaker 1: think the earlier you can get them, and the longer
Speaker 1: you have that momentum going, then yeah, eventually maybe not,
Speaker 1: but more players being able to contribute in more ways.
Speaker 1: Do you see it in college football right now? I
Speaker 1: think there's a really high profile TCUs quarterback is a
Speaker 1: German guy. You know. I think those are the things
Speaker 1: that moves it along, as well as getting guys that
Speaker 1: score touchdowns as fun as sacks are, or being good
Speaker 1: on the offensive line. Give me the name of that
Speaker 1: German guy. I gotta work on a new drop. Whenever
Speaker 1: you get the chance mention one of the things may
Speaker 1: go ahead. Everything that we've talked about here, like the
Speaker 1: Player Pathway program, international games in London, all those things.
Speaker 1: I just want to shout out a guy who's leaving
Speaker 1: the NFL this week named Alistair Kirkwood, who's the m
Speaker 1: D of the NFL UK Office and has been for
Speaker 1: twenty something years. He was my boss when I first
Speaker 1: started at the NFL. Just an amazing man who put
Speaker 1: into place the player the player Pathway program. He put
Speaker 1: into place the fact that games are played in London,
Speaker 1: you know where. It was like completely insane when I
Speaker 1: was working there in two thousand and three that there
Speaker 1: would be regular season games played in the UK and
Speaker 1: now there are four a year. Um. He's the one
Speaker 1: who put the NFL Academy in place. Alista has done
Speaker 1: so much to grow the sport internationally. He essentially. In fact,
Speaker 1: I was on a call this morning with FA on
Speaker 1: there where f A said I couldn't have done. You know,
Speaker 1: I'm not where I am without Alista's support. I'm actually
Speaker 1: not where I am without ask to support. I had
Speaker 1: dinner last week with a friend of mine who has
Speaker 1: now become defensive line coach for the Dallas Cowboys, who
Speaker 1: was the same guy that discovered f A, who was
Speaker 1: coaching in London. He wouldn't be where he is without Alista.
Speaker 1: So there is a guy who who's done a ton
Speaker 1: to change and to grow the spool in the UK
Speaker 1: and kind of put the blueprint in for then how
Speaker 1: you do that in other countries as well. So I
Speaker 1: want to hail Alistair Kirkwood and wonderful friends. Man, he's
Speaker 1: got you know you guys coming coming to London as well.
Speaker 1: I don't think we we get to London for our
Speaker 1: two trips without our He definitely supported you guys. Best
Speaker 1: of luck and Henry will do whatever it takes to
Speaker 1: get to the top of that chain. So we're seeing
Speaker 1: right now on me horribly all right, Henry, good stuff
Speaker 1: and we know see the Hank. We know that we
Speaker 1: have a huge following overseas, so it's good to have
Speaker 1: Hank on the speed dial. All right, We'll be back
Speaker 1: on Thursday with another brand new episode of Around the
Speaker 1: NFL Podcasts. We got closer to the drafting ramp it up.
Speaker 1: We might do a another one of our five times
Speaker 1: a week um uh um runs when we get to
Speaker 1: draft week. But until then, we'll be on this schedule
Speaker 1: of the TV show on Friday. Check that out three
Speaker 1: o'clock eastern noon Pacific NFL Network. Mark you on one well,
Speaker 1: one little note. Are co worker Patrick Crawley and his
Speaker 1: wife Natalie had a son, cole over over the weekend,
Speaker 1: so we we have a we have a British Patrick
Speaker 1: Crawley and an American Patrick Crawley. I mean they're not
Speaker 1: the same person, but the American one nor the American
Speaker 1: one had a child. That's great. Well he Natalie, but
Speaker 1: once Henry, he was under you, Henry as a you
Speaker 1: were his mentor sometimes I mean not. I mean he
Speaker 1: he really made me look good. So congratulations Patrick, and
Speaker 1: I hope cole Um makes someone look good in the future.
Speaker 1: Good stuff. Signing off our handsome Hank, the Old Boss,
Speaker 1: the Quiet Storm and Ricky Hollywood behind the virtual glass
Speaker 1: until Thursday. Who's the coal