Speaker 1: The Around the NFL podcast, HET's your team more than
Speaker 1: any other. From the Chris Westling podcast studio, It's Around
Speaker 1: the NFL. Dan Hans is here. I got Ah Hero
Speaker 1: back from the Islands in the middle of the Pacific.
Speaker 1: Greg Rosenthal, that was quick enough. Welcome back. How was
Speaker 1: it was? Like our former president Barack Obama used to say,
Speaker 1: you know, I'm in I'm in oy in my mind. Still,
Speaker 1: I'm just gonna bringing that totally chill mental vibe to
Speaker 1: my podcasting and personal relations wow for the next year.
Speaker 1: I like this. I like this, Greg. We had people
Speaker 1: gregging for you while you were gone, don't worry. Yeah,
Speaker 1: we had a whole pan of Greg Lets holding down
Speaker 1: the fort. I don't think Greg Lets is really capture.
Speaker 1: That's too demeaning for the quality of guests that you
Speaker 1: guys have that Greg Let's hey, just be chill, okay,
Speaker 1: remember oh yeah, let's get thirty seconds. Let's see what
Speaker 1: happened while you were gone. I feel like you were
Speaker 1: gone a long time. You weren't, but it feels that
Speaker 1: way because you and I had overlapping vacations. Did you
Speaker 1: know the Browns traded for Deshaun Watson? I do know that. Um,
Speaker 1: I hope it works out well for them. I think
Speaker 1: he'll have a really fun year. Do you know we
Speaker 1: went to London a couple of times. Oh your wife
Speaker 1: moved out? That that has been my fear and I
Speaker 1: wake up in a in a cold sweat. I would
Speaker 1: not be a Hawaii in my mind if that happened. Yeah,
Speaker 1: very blessed. What a family, What a ride life has
Speaker 1: been for Greg Rosenthal. Mark Sessler not with us today,
Speaker 1: he'll be back next week. And today's show, good one,
Speaker 1: Good one. Um, it's time to get back into some
Speaker 1: draft talk. So we have one of the very best
Speaker 1: on the subject, Eric ed Holme. He works for US.
Speaker 1: He's also our lead draft writer. Did you know that
Speaker 1: our lead draft analyst? I didn't know that was dot com.
Speaker 1: I was rein Eric at home back when he was
Speaker 1: at PF Weekly, like in the mid oughts. So he's
Speaker 1: been in the game a minute. He was at Yahoo
Speaker 1: for a while, and yet now he's with US. I
Speaker 1: you know, I like that title because if Eric and
Speaker 1: you know, that's something that was either negotiated or at
Speaker 1: some point it was worked out. He asked for it,
Speaker 1: we'll ask him about it. That means Daniel Jeremiah is
Speaker 1: not the lead draft writer, so just think about that,
Speaker 1: which is nice. So right away bonus points for Ed
Speaker 1: Holme in a big spot. It's a good move by
Speaker 1: him because he's a writer. Um, he's now going to
Speaker 1: be a podcaster. Because there are two mediums Jeremiah hasn't
Speaker 1: tried out, hasn't touched. It's twenty twenty three. You gotta
Speaker 1: do more. You would think Jeremiah, someone that is respected
Speaker 1: in the industry, he would touch those areas. But totally
Speaker 1: you know, just virgin Ip just writing and podcasting. He's
Speaker 1: he's all just about television. That's dinosaur thinking old Hollywood Jeremiah.
Speaker 1: For those chord cutters, look out all right. Also, you
Speaker 1: have Greg Apiece coming out any minute, any minute, probably
Speaker 1: maybe even by the time this podcast is up. Ranking
Speaker 1: the general Managers. I always enjoy this exercise. In fact,
Speaker 1: I remember having I was disappointment that you kind of
Speaker 1: pushed this one through legislation and we didn't get to
Speaker 1: actually really talk about it last year. I was like, no,
Speaker 1: this is a good piece speaking of IP, I like
Speaker 1: this ranking the gms. This was either yea at some
Speaker 1: point it was either last year or the year before
Speaker 1: you got on me for not mentioning, and that's why
Speaker 1: I have mentioned it multiple times to you, even before
Speaker 1: I went on vacations. This thing is dropping. When I
Speaker 1: get back, we're gonna hit that as well. But first
Speaker 1: let's start by doing just a little bit of news.
Speaker 1: So very stupid but fun. This is the quietest time
Speaker 1: of uh the league year, accepting of course, like post draft,
Speaker 1: before training camps. Well except yeah, except post mini camps.
Speaker 1: I would say, like late mid June through mid July.
Speaker 1: It's a little uh yeah, I mean I yeah. Besides that,
Speaker 1: like it's a little under the radar because you think, oh,
Speaker 1: the draft is coming up. But yeah, it's been. It
Speaker 1: was quiet last week. It's been very quiet this week.
Speaker 1: But there was one big bit of news that just
Speaker 1: broke as we were about to record. Um. This was
Speaker 1: reported by our guy Ian Rappaport that Josh Harris's group
Speaker 1: Josh Harris, who I believe owns the Sixers in the NBA,
Speaker 1: He's a co owner of the Philadelphia seventy six ers,
Speaker 1: a group led by Josh Harris and that includes billionaire
Speaker 1: Mitchell Rails and former NBA star and legend Magic Johnson
Speaker 1: are nearing a deal to buy the Washington Commanders from
Speaker 1: Daniel Snyder for just under six billion dollars. Greggy, Nothing
Speaker 1: is final according to Ian, or has been sent to
Speaker 1: the League. The bid still needs to be submitted and
Speaker 1: improved and approved. But this is another major step and
Speaker 1: maybe finally the end of an era in Washington. Amazing
Speaker 1: news for Commandos fans, I mean amazing Anders in Washington, DC,
Speaker 1: and the Pentagon Commando somehow feels pejorative, so we'll give
Speaker 1: them the commander's respect now that they're changing ownership. And
Speaker 1: for Ian, who does work for the League as well
Speaker 1: as us, to be able to report this tells me
Speaker 1: that yes, nothing is final, but they would not be
Speaker 1: reporting this. And there's other reporting out there that it's
Speaker 1: essentially an agreement and principle unless it was on like
Speaker 1: the six inch line. There's been reporting that Jeff Bezos
Speaker 1: was was not really in the mix and that this
Speaker 1: bid was the best one. And I don't know if
Speaker 1: our producer Grave Digger kicked that U drop to start
Speaker 1: the show, um because of a long held opinion and
Speaker 1: thing I've said on this show, did you justin that
Speaker 1: was more about the GM rankings, where I thought listeners like,
Speaker 1: everyone's gonna be like, why is my GM ranked? I
Speaker 1: would have been surprising. Replace I didn't impressed. I didn't
Speaker 1: set that up. Well. The drop was that that we
Speaker 1: hate your team more than all the other teams, and
Speaker 1: and here and there. Over the ten years of this show,
Speaker 1: I have often said every fan base like thinks I
Speaker 1: hate their team more than the rest, and only one
Speaker 1: of them is right. It's Washington's fans. It's because of
Speaker 1: their old owner. It's been a disaster. Like no one
Speaker 1: has treated an NFL franchise with more mistakes, I mean more.
Speaker 1: I mean, look at the lack of care for their
Speaker 1: fans and the players and the coaches frankly over the
Speaker 1: last twenty years plus the Dan Snyder and so it's
Speaker 1: a great day. That's and listen, Washington football fans they
Speaker 1: know this better than anyone. But look at the last
Speaker 1: twenty years under Snyder. In the previous twenty years where
Speaker 1: they were a fixture, they were a beast in the
Speaker 1: NFC East. They won multiple Super Bowl titles. It was,
Speaker 1: you know, one of the more exciting, really like kind
Speaker 1: of franchises because of the fan base, which is to
Speaker 1: the credit of the fans in Washington. I know there
Speaker 1: have been times where the stadium hasn't been as packed,
Speaker 1: but who could blame them? I mean, even the facility
Speaker 1: is not up to par. And you have a situation
Speaker 1: now where it's going to feel like, as long as
Speaker 1: everything goes to plan here, if this report turns into
Speaker 1: a reality like a total rebirth for the organization and
Speaker 1: the fans and an excitement level that they haven't had
Speaker 1: in a long time. And I'm thinking about the the
Speaker 1: New York Mets in baseball that they went from an
Speaker 1: ownership that was really underwater and had gotten absolutely buried
Speaker 1: by the Bernie Madoff scandal, and we're not spending money.
Speaker 1: They sell to a billionaire who immediately who's the billionaires?
Speaker 1: Any many owner of the Mets, Cohen pumps in tons
Speaker 1: of money and resources into the organization, revitalizes things. Now
Speaker 1: football is not quite that easy. You can't just spend
Speaker 1: in the same way. That's what Dan Snyder tried to do.
Speaker 1: He just was terrible at it for many years. But
Speaker 1: just the idea of getting new ownership and if as
Speaker 1: long as there's people in charge that know what they're doing,
Speaker 1: there's still things we need to learn Greg about the
Speaker 1: new ownership. You can't just assume new ownership is going
Speaker 1: to be better, but it's probably going to be better.
Speaker 1: I mean, the seventy six Ers I think have been
Speaker 1: a well run franchise. Magic Johnson I think has rings
Speaker 1: in literally every sport other than the NFL. I think
Speaker 1: he mentioned that that was the four major US sports.
Speaker 1: That's a good sign. And and Snyder he tried to
Speaker 1: spend that was part of the reason why things didn't work.
Speaker 1: I mean, Albert Haynesworth, Dan Sanders, Donovan McNabb all that.
Speaker 1: But I think it does show that some of the
Speaker 1: things we've talked about in terms of workplace culture and
Speaker 1: harassment over the last number of years, just as a
Speaker 1: society like does, get people out of the paint eventually.
Speaker 1: I mean, he was suspended by the NFL for a
Speaker 1: toxic workplace in sexual harassment. That suspension was kind of
Speaker 1: vague when it was going to end. Tanya Snyder, his
Speaker 1: wife was still working as the active owner. But you
Speaker 1: can draw a pretty clear line between Hit that latest
Speaker 1: problem for Dan Snyder in him eventually agreeing to sell
Speaker 1: the team. Now it's it's America where he's not really
Speaker 1: getting punished. He just sold a thing for an NFL
Speaker 1: team for almost six billion dollars. Like nothing goes up
Speaker 1: in value like NFL teams. It's an incredible, incredible investment. Already,
Speaker 1: the Broncos sale from a year ago looks like a bargain.
Speaker 1: They were they were bought for like a million a
Speaker 1: billion and a half less And so it's not like
Speaker 1: he's getting pushed out the door. But I think based
Speaker 1: on everything we know about Snyder, this was the thing
Speaker 1: he wanted to do most in the world, and he
Speaker 1: would love to keep owning the team. And are completely
Speaker 1: embarrassing how everything this isn't gonna end with yeah, Daniel
Speaker 1: Snyder being destitute. But it is a billionaire boys club,
Speaker 1: and there's probably you could argue in America, there's no
Speaker 1: better toy to have for a billionaire in a way
Speaker 1: to flex your success. And if you if you love
Speaker 1: sports or even just love you know, finding success in
Speaker 1: very public venues in society owning a sports team like
Speaker 1: so that he loses that and and Jerry Richardson of
Speaker 1: the Carolina Panthers also had um a scandal that involved
Speaker 1: inappropriate conduct that led swiftly to him uh losing the Panthers.
Speaker 1: So yeah, maybe you are seeing progress in a way
Speaker 1: that twenty years ago would not have happened. In fact,
Speaker 1: I'm almost certain of it. Twenty years ago these things
Speaker 1: wouldn't have led to where they're leading now. Brought the
Speaker 1: team for seven hundred and fifty million, by the way,
Speaker 1: so that's a good it's good good ROI, And it's
Speaker 1: I don enough. You're into the whole lot return on
Speaker 1: UM and think about it that this group, if it
Speaker 1: goes through and they get six billion, it's like, oh
Speaker 1: my god, they paid six billion. When they sell in
Speaker 1: twenty years, it's going to be like thirty seven billion
Speaker 1: dollars you want inflation bro in value. No. No one
Speaker 1: was their hug, now you mean you're absolutely right now,
Speaker 1: no one. No one was more like anti media and
Speaker 1: was worse handling the media, and and Um also was
Speaker 1: very vindictive against like his former coaches and stuff like that.
Speaker 1: We don't need to go through all that stuff, but
Speaker 1: what I mean to say, and also had enemies in
Speaker 1: terms of politicians in Washington. The reason I bring all
Speaker 1: this up is I think that can all get better,
Speaker 1: like immediately, I don't know what it's going to mean
Speaker 1: for Ron Rivera. I think he'll have this year to
Speaker 1: kind of prove himself to the new ownership group. But
Speaker 1: in terms of their stadium deal, which has been an
Speaker 1: issue in part, I think because the politicians around Washington
Speaker 1: didn't want to do Dan Snyder any favors and it's
Speaker 1: just been in gridlock. Now maybe that can be opened
Speaker 1: up too, and these new owners can get a nice
Speaker 1: new stadium. How about congrats, congrat If you have a
Speaker 1: Commanders fan in your life, do you have any? Do
Speaker 1: I have? No? Okay, I've got a couple, and they're
Speaker 1: huge football fans and they've every I've never seen a
Speaker 1: fan base love their teams so much and yet hate
Speaker 1: their team because of the owner so much and just
Speaker 1: been waiting for this day. They never gave up loyalty
Speaker 1: of like wanting to love the team. They've just been
Speaker 1: waiting for this day. And so I know, at least
Speaker 1: my two friends that are both Commander's friends, like this
Speaker 1: is like Christmas. This is the best thing that's happened
Speaker 1: to them as sports fans for two decades. So I
Speaker 1: am happy for them. Yes, there is I now I'm
Speaker 1: thinking about it. In the early days of NFL media,
Speaker 1: we had a I wish Mark was here for this,
Speaker 1: but we had a colleague named Jason Feller, who sadly
Speaker 1: is no longer with us, and he was a diehard
Speaker 1: Washington fan. And there was a bar down the street
Speaker 1: from our old office called Jockser's Daily in Culver City
Speaker 1: that was a crazy Washington sports bar and they would
Speaker 1: have sirens going off in there when they would be touchdown.
Speaker 1: This is like twelve years ago now and just the
Speaker 1: place packed with burgundy and gold. It's a good fan
Speaker 1: base that deserves better, and hopefully they'll get it. In
Speaker 1: other news, speaking of fan bases that deserve better, the
Speaker 1: Jets are still trying to get Aaron Rodgers on their team.
Speaker 1: It's an ongoing process. It's um I wouldn't say as
Speaker 1: a Jets fan, I'm nervous about it. But at the
Speaker 1: same time, like the longer this goes on, the more
Speaker 1: it's just like, all right, come on, what's up? Is
Speaker 1: there an issue? I don't think so. I mean, Joe
Speaker 1: Douglas was on some at some fan event or something
Speaker 1: last week and he publicly saying, oh, yeah, he's gonna
Speaker 1: be on the team Aaron Rodgers. But then you see
Speaker 1: a report from Yahoo's Sports NFL guy Charles Robinson, who
Speaker 1: was on the Wild and Taosh podcast. I hope I
Speaker 1: got that right. Well that's Mark Tauscher and Jason Wilde,
Speaker 1: I believe not wild. I always thought it was will
Speaker 1: they double miss? Can you get on that one? Grave Digger,
Speaker 1: I'll look into another long time you know, a long
Speaker 1: time beat guy. He was in some ways the original
Speaker 1: McAfee because he had Aaron Rodgers doing a weekly spot
Speaker 1: on his radio show for years in Green Bay. So
Speaker 1: either Wild and Taosh or Wilde in Taoish Tasher Willdee
Speaker 1: I think ESPN Radio shared some insight into the trade
Speaker 1: talks on that program. He reported that the packers asking
Speaker 1: price for Rogers is a second round pick in twenty
Speaker 1: twenty three. Jets have two of those and a straight
Speaker 1: first round pick in twenty twenty four. Green Bay wants
Speaker 1: a first round pick next year. No questions asked. Now
Speaker 1: I have a question. And there's a little follow up
Speaker 1: to this involving Jets ownership, which always makes me a
Speaker 1: little bit nervous. But didn't Mark Murphy come out and
Speaker 1: say to the media a couple of weeks ago at
Speaker 1: the owner's meetings that They're not looking for a first
Speaker 1: round pick necessarily, that's what he said. Doesn't that clash
Speaker 1: with this report? Well, I think the word necessarily, and
Speaker 1: then maybe the difference between a twenty twenty four first
Speaker 1: round pick, maybe it's a conditional. It sounds like there's
Speaker 1: gonna be conditions on them sending a pick back if
Speaker 1: Rogers tires after a year. But it does clash a
Speaker 1: little bit. I'm trying to I'm trying to find where
Speaker 1: the gray area would be. Yeah, and then you have
Speaker 1: a because I want Joe Douglas, the GM of the Jets,
Speaker 1: and we'll get into him a little bit later on
Speaker 1: the show, to be the guy drive in the boat.
Speaker 1: But you always wonder where's Woody Johnson, the Jets owner
Speaker 1: and also Robins had said that the parties had the
Speaker 1: parameters of a deal in place initially, but after Rogers
Speaker 1: said the I'm ninety I was ninety percent retired thing
Speaker 1: on the Macavie show, Woody Johnson, here's I'm just this
Speaker 1: is a quote from a Yahoo right up of the interview.
Speaker 1: Got scared to spend high draft capital on him. That
Speaker 1: would explain why the Packers don't want to take less. Okay,
Speaker 1: so I don't know if that's true, but if it's true,
Speaker 1: that gives a little insight into this, and yes, that
Speaker 1: would that would inject a little bit of nerves to
Speaker 1: me as a Jets fan that Woody is the one
Speaker 1: holding this up over football matters. I think he needs
Speaker 1: to be deferring to his general men. Well, it's also
Speaker 1: fascinating to me that the McAfee appearance would have had
Speaker 1: a material difference on the negotiations. Doesn't surprise you, but
Speaker 1: it doesn't surprise me knowing the party's involved. Well, I
Speaker 1: mean it makes sense too when you hear that. I
Speaker 1: agree you need to have some conditions for if he's
Speaker 1: going to retire soon or maybe that would make you
Speaker 1: think a little differently than when you just sat down
Speaker 1: and face the face with him. No one's worried about this.
Speaker 1: It totally makes sense to me that the deal would
Speaker 1: happen during the draft, because that's that's when you get
Speaker 1: your absolute last case brass tacks offers, and it will
Speaker 1: probably be day two of the draft. You'll have to
Speaker 1: even wait, I think Dan through day one because that's
Speaker 1: when the picks for this year's draft, where the Packers
Speaker 1: would actually have to take it. You have to wait
Speaker 1: till Friday. It's fine, it's fine. I actually appreciate the
Speaker 1: lack of news that's been on this story. I think
Speaker 1: everyone's being adults here. It's like, this is just how
Speaker 1: it goes every you know, we cover the NFL every day,
Speaker 1: so things pop up. But it's fine, it'll have I
Speaker 1: was I was proud of the media cycle when one
Speaker 1: of the Boomer and Carton I think it is no
Speaker 1: Carton is now on a different show. Evan Roberts on
Speaker 1: WFAN floated something about the Niners like getting in on
Speaker 1: Aaron Rodgers, and everybody's like, no, go away, that's not it.
Speaker 1: That's not an actual story, and at this point it's
Speaker 1: not Let's see if they can iron things out. Finally
Speaker 1: in the news real quick. Here Devin White, linebacker of
Speaker 1: the Bucks. He has been on an All Pro team,
Speaker 1: second team, he's been a Pro Bowler, and now he
Speaker 1: wants out of Tampa Bay. Per Jeremy Fowler U of ESPN,
Speaker 1: he's frustrated with extension talk. So Greggy the Bucks, who
Speaker 1: some people thought we're gonna go in full teardown mode
Speaker 1: after Tom Brady walked away that a lot of their
Speaker 1: veteran corps is coming back. White was supposed to be
Speaker 1: among that group. This doesn't mean he's actually leaving, but
Speaker 1: he's expressing displeasure with the contractor pieces fed up. According
Speaker 1: to Yes fans Jenna Lane, I am too grad beggar,
Speaker 1: They're not they're not going to do anything. By all
Speaker 1: accounts that they have no interest in trade him. They
Speaker 1: have him under contract this year on a fifth year
Speaker 1: option for eleven point seven million. You know, pretty good
Speaker 1: for an off ball winebager. He's a very difficult guy
Speaker 1: to evaluate. He was the same guy that dev that
Speaker 1: Todd Bowles was kind of burying publicly during last year
Speaker 1: for freelancing a little bit. He's had the All Pro teams,
Speaker 1: But if if you trust the PF grading, he's a
Speaker 1: very boomer bust player who gives up a lot of
Speaker 1: big light. It makes a lot of big plays. But
Speaker 1: if they don't want to trade him, they're not going
Speaker 1: to trade him. And I don't think they're gonna trade him. Yes,
Speaker 1: he grades out poorly on PF despite the accolades. Have
Speaker 1: we got do we have any on the ESPN program?
Speaker 1: We're looking into it. Well, I'll get back to you. Yes,
Speaker 1: it's not as easy as I expect. I mean, I
Speaker 1: feel reasonably confident this is a man, right Jason wildee Um,
Speaker 1: I used to read quite a bit when I was
Speaker 1: doing those brick by brick posts on Rhoda World. We
Speaker 1: have confirmation it is wildy yeah about and I believe
Speaker 1: I've I've been on the program, but way back in
Speaker 1: the day. Yeah, way back in the day. All right,
Speaker 1: well you should definitely know then, Greg. It was like
Speaker 1: fifteen years is different show. I just blank that. Greg
Speaker 1: was just name checking like seventeen people and I just
Speaker 1: glazed over form a bit. There you know them. That's great,
Speaker 1: That's what I know. I'm back to glaze over and
Speaker 1: touch All right, here we go. That's what's happening in
Speaker 1: the news. Let's take a break and then talk to
Speaker 1: our new buddy, Eric Adholme. Welcome back, our guest joining
Speaker 1: us now. We established us at the top of the show,
Speaker 1: the lead NFL draft writer for NFL Media and it's
Speaker 1: properties uh. He is Eric Edholm. Gentlemen, what's going on?
Speaker 1: How are you? Eric? I'm doing well? Yeah. I mean
Speaker 1: usually at this this point of the draft season, I'm
Speaker 1: pulling out my hair and then losing sleep and all
Speaker 1: that I've I've I've I've been more dialed in this year,
Speaker 1: more more ready for draft, the draft season, I guess,
Speaker 1: or the draft to come up. Then I can remember
Speaker 1: in recent years, why is that? Why is that? I
Speaker 1: don't know? Is it this class? There's something about the
Speaker 1: class that makes you feel more at peace? Is it
Speaker 1: the lead Draft Analyst title that you somehow it's the title.
Speaker 1: Let's just get it out there. It really is. Before
Speaker 1: they put lead in there, I was just feeling a
Speaker 1: little off. What about I don't know about Jeremiah because
Speaker 1: you know, I call him the Wholesome Assassin because he
Speaker 1: presents himself as this good guy. But I wouldn't be
Speaker 1: surprised if there's a text in your phone or an email.
Speaker 1: They're a little bit like a back off type vibe
Speaker 1: from M I have. I have some threatening text that
Speaker 1: I'm just storing just in case I need to use
Speaker 1: as collateral for anything. But I have a few of
Speaker 1: my own. I grew up in Boston, you know, I
Speaker 1: got a little little salt in my veins. So well,
Speaker 1: I want to start here, Eric as we get in
Speaker 1: and look ahead. The draft is two weeks from tonight actually,
Speaker 1: and and I'm curious, what is the piece of let's
Speaker 1: start kind of like, in a broad sense, is what
Speaker 1: is the piece of draft board conventional wisdom that's kind
Speaker 1: of been driving your nuts during this process this year?
Speaker 1: I think it's good question. I think it's probably more
Speaker 1: apropos this year because we have a running back who,
Speaker 1: you know, regardless of position, if you just ask people
Speaker 1: who their their favorite talents are overall, you know, Bijean
Speaker 1: Robinson deserves to be I think pretty high on that list.
Speaker 1: But the whole question over where running backs should and
Speaker 1: shall never be drafted and all that stuff, and and
Speaker 1: and maybe it's an overreaction to a guy like sa
Speaker 1: Quon Barkley going second and still being a good player,
Speaker 1: and most of us recognizing that, okay, seconds pretty rich
Speaker 1: for that position. But there's a there's a there's a
Speaker 1: happy medium, I think, where players of that ilk can
Speaker 1: also be respected in and of themselves and deserve to
Speaker 1: go high in drafts or not, you know, high like
Speaker 1: top five. But I think bypassing him just because he's
Speaker 1: plays a certain position is a little bit shortsighted. So
Speaker 1: I don't know that that that debate I don't know
Speaker 1: where you guys fall exactly on that spectrum, but good
Speaker 1: players tend to help football teams out. That's just my
Speaker 1: bottom line. I hate to give Jeremiah pop, but I
Speaker 1: do agree with his theory that, especially if you're a
Speaker 1: team that feels like you're a piece away, you don't
Speaker 1: take a running back high if you're if you're a
Speaker 1: rebuilding team, but if you're a team that wants that
Speaker 1: final piece. I mean, as Robinson, is he like that? Dude?
Speaker 1: Is he at at Barkley's level coming out? Or I
Speaker 1: remember and Adrian Peterson came out years ago. Is this
Speaker 1: like one of those special type talents? I think so.
Speaker 1: I mean I think him in the first then I
Speaker 1: know I'm I'm all for it. I mean, he's in
Speaker 1: my top five again regardless of position, but I recognize
Speaker 1: he's not going in the in the top five. I
Speaker 1: don't think, right it would be a shock. Um, Chris
Speaker 1: Bower already has a running back. No, I'm kidding, but yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean it just right. I think you're right. I
Speaker 1: think if you are that team that feels like and yet,
Speaker 1: out of one corner of my mouth, I'll also argue
Speaker 1: I don't think the Eagles should draft him unless it's
Speaker 1: you know, lower than the tenth pick or something like that,
Speaker 1: because I think they can They can still do better
Speaker 1: with that pick and in certain ways as far as
Speaker 1: the immediate need, but because they have such a good
Speaker 1: in my opinion, running a run blocking group. You can
Speaker 1: put a Boston Scott in there. You can put a
Speaker 1: Kenneth Gainwell in there and do pretty well for yourself. Uh.
Speaker 1: You know, Miles Sanders is a good player, but he's
Speaker 1: not I don't think he's a true difference maker or
Speaker 1: anything like that. So they let him go and you
Speaker 1: can find another guy of similar quality in my opinion,
Speaker 1: So maybe for a team that doesn't quite have the
Speaker 1: stout offensive lineup front, but is in that situation. I
Speaker 1: know that limits are our list a little, but maybe
Speaker 1: that's the team you start pegging Robinson to. I don't
Speaker 1: think ten is too early. I mean, if he's a
Speaker 1: Hall of Fame type of player, and to me just
Speaker 1: watching him, my very amateur eyes feel like he's an
Speaker 1: even better prospect than say Quon coming out like in
Speaker 1: terms of his natural movement skills, I think he's just
Speaker 1: like a little bit smoother that he he could be
Speaker 1: up there with the greats, and then what are we
Speaker 1: talking about here? Of course that's worth drafting anywhere in
Speaker 1: the top ten. And I'm not saying that you would
Speaker 1: want to take him too overall, but if you felt
Speaker 1: like confident and and you just didn't like the people
Speaker 1: around you, just just for sake of argument, here's some
Speaker 1: number two overall picks in the last decade alone, not
Speaker 1: like not like I think John Robinson should go too,
Speaker 1: but you have him too, So that's just the number
Speaker 1: I was thinking of. Zach Wilson, a quon. That's why,
Speaker 1: that's why it's on my mind. Mitchell Trubisky, Marcus Mariota,
Speaker 1: Greg Robinson, Luke jokel. I mean, it's like, what are
Speaker 1: we talking about here? This whole like the process has
Speaker 1: to be a certain way because certain positions have to
Speaker 1: be taken first. The whole reason why running backs stopped
Speaker 1: getting taken first, other than the fact that it was
Speaker 1: like Ronnie Brown and Cadillac Williams and who else was
Speaker 1: in that draft, in the top five of that draft
Speaker 1: where it just got a little out of control, is
Speaker 1: that positional value, you know, matters, but it doesn't like
Speaker 1: you should have to have exceptions for every rule, and
Speaker 1: you can't be that hard and fast. If he's a
Speaker 1: great player, he deserves to go in the top fifteen,
Speaker 1: and I think he will. I think I think you
Speaker 1: might go as high as ten to the Eagles if
Speaker 1: he's Ladanian Tomlinson right? Right, what are we talking about?
Speaker 1: Why are we passing on him? Right? Just because he's
Speaker 1: a running back. I mean it's tricky with tight ends too,
Speaker 1: but yeah, I think running back has gotten got way
Speaker 1: more attention because of this this debate. So I was thinking,
Speaker 1: like what players make a marek Ed Holmes stay up
Speaker 1: at night? You know, like you're you're worried about the evaluation.
Speaker 1: You're worried about where he's gonna go. You're worried if
Speaker 1: you're right or wrong about this player, even despite all
Speaker 1: the work that you've put in, Like which player? What
Speaker 1: are some players are? Give me one to start that
Speaker 1: keeps you up at night? Two? And and this is
Speaker 1: I'm expecting a lot of hate mail from from Tennessee folks,
Speaker 1: But I have my reservations with Jalen Hyatt and to
Speaker 1: a lesser degree, head and Hooker because of the offense
Speaker 1: in which they are used. Right, I mean Josh Hypel.
Speaker 1: I'm not anti Josh Hypel, not anti Vall's been to
Speaker 1: a game there. It's a great place. You know, I
Speaker 1: love love Rocky Top right, but I think there's reasonable
Speaker 1: suspicion about that kind of offense and what those players
Speaker 1: are when they come into the league as far as
Speaker 1: their their mental preparedness and things like that, how it
Speaker 1: translates and everything else, you know. I mean, like I
Speaker 1: guess he gets credit for Sam Bradford at Oklahoma Andrew Jones.
Speaker 1: I mean, other than that, Drew Locke is the other
Speaker 1: top quarterback that he's developed. So you know, you can
Speaker 1: see it's a little bit of a pattern there, and
Speaker 1: the same thing with the receivers as well. I mean,
Speaker 1: I think Gabe Davis would probably be you know, he
Speaker 1: had a couple years with him UCF. But Jamon Moore,
Speaker 1: you know, Trey Nixon, Villis Jones last year. I mean,
Speaker 1: you know, it's not the most illustrious group of all
Speaker 1: time in terms of you know, early in to mid
Speaker 1: round picks translating to the NFL. Plus with Hooker, you've
Speaker 1: got the injury and the age. I mean, he's got
Speaker 1: an ACL He's twenty five years old, So as much
Speaker 1: as I like him, when I watch him, I think
Speaker 1: to myself, he's got a few strikes against them, and
Speaker 1: high at kind of a one trick pony. So he's
Speaker 1: a speed guy who reminds me way too much a
Speaker 1: Will Fuller to be comfortable with. So with both guys,
Speaker 1: I had to kind of water it down a little
Speaker 1: bit to where I'll take the scrutiny for having them
Speaker 1: lower than where they're probably going to be drafted, because
Speaker 1: I just I think there are enough pitfalls with each
Speaker 1: of them. And you know, on jail and Harder's a
Speaker 1: big one. Quentin Johnston from TCU, I get a little
Speaker 1: nervous about because of the drops. And you know, he
Speaker 1: could be Mike Williams or he could be Kevin White,
Speaker 1: you know. I mean that's that's kind of where I
Speaker 1: fallen on some of these guys. Man will Fuller, I
Speaker 1: forgot about will Fuller. Yeah, he just dropped out the
Speaker 1: radar um. Yeah. On the subject of the wide receivers,
Speaker 1: because another bit of conventional wisdom is like this is
Speaker 1: not the year to find a superstar wide receiver, right,
Speaker 1: and yet like nothing's money in the bank when it
Speaker 1: comes to drafting. But in the NFL in recent years,
Speaker 1: it feels like these wide receiver it's becoming safer and safer.
Speaker 1: Bets that is there somebody that could actually be a superstar,
Speaker 1: And again, buck conventional wisdom and be that dude. I
Speaker 1: know you have jsn In from Ohio State there in
Speaker 1: your top ten, so I guess he would be sensible.
Speaker 1: You think he could be a guy that's like a
Speaker 1: Pro Bowl year one talent year one. I don't know,
Speaker 1: But then again, I mean I think I when I
Speaker 1: saw him peak performance prior to last season, when he
Speaker 1: only you know, played like three games or whatever, you know,
Speaker 1: I would have said he's a better player than Garrett Wilson.
Speaker 1: I mean I would have just said, if you if
Speaker 1: I have to choose between the two of them and
Speaker 1: I only get one, I think I'm taking Jackson Smith
Speaker 1: and Jigba a little bit longer, maybe not quite as fast,
Speaker 1: but he's got elite short area quickness, even compared to
Speaker 1: a guy like Garrett Wilson, who's you know, thrives in
Speaker 1: that area as well. So you know, I've heard the
Speaker 1: slot only argument. I mean I don't. I don't see
Speaker 1: it just because he you know, isn't a Blazer. I
Speaker 1: think he can win on the outside. I mean he
Speaker 1: could be, you know, a beautiful Cooper Cup sort of guy.
Speaker 1: You know, that type of performer. Are we complaining about
Speaker 1: Cup speed? Now we're saying he's an elite route runner
Speaker 1: with great change of direction skills, outstanding hands. I think
Speaker 1: that's what he is. If there's a guy that I like,
Speaker 1: you know, not quite as much because of the size concerns,
Speaker 1: but I'm a bigger's a Flowers fan than other people
Speaker 1: might be. I mean, you know, at five eighty two
Speaker 1: with short arms, I get the concerns, right, but it's
Speaker 1: a big name. I'm ready. I'm not scared. I see
Speaker 1: some Antonio Brown in his game. I really really think
Speaker 1: he has some of that in him. And as you
Speaker 1: guys know, Brown didn't test grade, he didn't produce at
Speaker 1: an elite level in college. He just had this skill
Speaker 1: set that wasn't fully you know, developed and put it
Speaker 1: all together in Pittsburgh. Yeah, I think the receiver things
Speaker 1: strange in this draft that there's this idea, well, if
Speaker 1: you're looking for the top type of guys, this is
Speaker 1: not the draft for you. And yet I'm with you.
Speaker 1: Tom Smith and Jigba has incredible upside and ceiling if
Speaker 1: he Cooper Cup is the name that he reminds you of.
Speaker 1: And I look at Addison and I don't I don't
Speaker 1: see why he's in such a different tier of prospect
Speaker 1: than Olave and Garrett Wilson going out. You have him
Speaker 1: a little lower, you have him down it at twenty eight,
Speaker 1: but just in terms of everything but his size, and yes,
Speaker 1: he's like a hunt He's a slight guy, but his
Speaker 1: movement and you can just see those routes working at
Speaker 1: the pro level. And then Quentin Johnson, who I have
Speaker 1: less of a feel on, but he he's a huge
Speaker 1: guy in his ceiling at least is high. And I
Speaker 1: like Cedric Tillman from Tennessee too. So receivers have come
Speaker 1: into the league so so good lately. I don't see this.
Speaker 1: The top of this class is like miles different from
Speaker 1: a year ago. But that's why I don't get paid
Speaker 1: to be the draft analysts like big lead draft analysts.
Speaker 1: Eric at Home, Yeah, I mean that the lead park
Speaker 1: kind of kind of separates us a little bit. I
Speaker 1: guess what do you think of Schrager? Do you respect
Speaker 1: Schraeger in his draft right, because because he does other
Speaker 1: stuff throughout the year. But then he swoops in and
Speaker 1: he's a draft guy. You have to respect to those guys.
Speaker 1: I've only been here a little while. Guys, I don't
Speaker 1: want to start trashing everybody in the company. Yeah, Jeremiah
Speaker 1: is safe. Yeah, have me on next week and Schreeger um,
Speaker 1: you know on Good Morning Football of course. Uh, the
Speaker 1: peacemaker swoops in. He put out his if you know
Speaker 1: you know list. Okay, you know about that, uh, and
Speaker 1: you know take that as you as you will. But
Speaker 1: his his five if you know no list, Nolan Smith Edge, Georgia,
Speaker 1: uh Pit tackle, uh, Kalia Cancy h Tyreek, Stevenson corner
Speaker 1: at Miami, Christian Guy, Christian Gonzalez corner Oregon, and Emmanuel
Speaker 1: Forbes corner of Mississippi State. Stevenson is a guy at
Speaker 1: that list that really jumps out to you. Well, I
Speaker 1: have him, I don't know. I like him a lot,
Speaker 1: and I think he's being kind of undersold a little bit.
Speaker 1: You know, he's he plays zone offman, press man. I mean,
Speaker 1: you know, he's not perfect, but I think athletically and
Speaker 1: just mental toughness wise, he's gonna gonna fit in really well,
Speaker 1: just a little surprise. It's a deep corner class. I
Speaker 1: mean there's some good names. You mentioned Gonzalez on Peter's
Speaker 1: list there, he's gonna go hi, Devin Witherspoon ran well
Speaker 1: the other day, he's gonna go hi, Joey Porter Junior.
Speaker 1: We have the name value and the athlete, so it's
Speaker 1: a loaded position. In fact, Manuel Forbes also on that
Speaker 1: list too. Fascinating debate because he's a one hundred and
Speaker 1: sixty six pound you know, over six foot two. This
Speaker 1: is not just like a slot corner. I mean, this
Speaker 1: is a guy who line up outside six pick sixes
Speaker 1: in his career, fearless out there. I think if you
Speaker 1: like Sauce Gardner's tape, you're gonna like his stay too.
Speaker 1: You know, there's a little freelancing, but boy, he does
Speaker 1: the job for me. The question is you have toothpick
Speaker 1: ankles and that smaller frame. Are you gonna survive in
Speaker 1: the NFL. He's unprecedented. He's on my life. I tried
Speaker 1: to guess who would be on your make at home,
Speaker 1: stay up at night or maybe who would make me
Speaker 1: stay up at night less, and Forbes was at the
Speaker 1: top one hundred and sixty six pounds as like a cornerback.
Speaker 1: If you look at you know, how they have the
Speaker 1: you know percentage in terms of other prospects, and they
Speaker 1: show the three cone rights in the eighty seven percent
Speaker 1: out and you know, arm length, he's in the fiftieth
Speaker 1: percent down this and that for wait, he's in the
Speaker 1: one percent own, and that's only because they can't put
Speaker 1: zero mathematically. There's literally never been a cornerback that tall
Speaker 1: and that light. And yet when you watch him, if
Speaker 1: you if you ignored that, and you shouldn't because he
Speaker 1: probably will get overpowered in certain but you're gonna have
Speaker 1: to have some guys to cover these other lightweight wide receivers.
Speaker 1: So it kind of makes sense to me that the
Speaker 1: whole game is getting lighter and he would keep me
Speaker 1: up at night. But he seems like he's like an
Speaker 1: incredibly high ceiling guy. It's just everyone's going to be
Speaker 1: afraid that he's one hundred and sixty six pounds. That
Speaker 1: you boiled it down perfectly there. I mean, that's exactly
Speaker 1: kind of how you the production is off the charts good.
Speaker 1: It really is that that exciting. You know, he's a
Speaker 1: little on the older side, he'll be twenty three, I
Speaker 1: want to say, by the end of the season. So
Speaker 1: you know, there's there's a little bit of you know,
Speaker 1: limitation as far as how much more you know, upside
Speaker 1: and growth and development he has. But still, I mean,
Speaker 1: I I see a guy who's got rare instincts. I
Speaker 1: think he's a first round pick. Now I think, you know,
Speaker 1: I was sort of putt him in that early second
Speaker 1: round range, but I think he's going to go in
Speaker 1: the first I think Tyreek Stevenson should be a second
Speaker 1: round pick, but we'll see. I don't know exactly where
Speaker 1: he's gonna go. But Forbes is the one who I
Speaker 1: think is causing people to kind of have some serious debates.
Speaker 1: We had Cordell flot last year ago in the third round.
Speaker 1: He's abuse like six foot one seventy five. So statistically,
Speaker 1: I want to say, height and weight wise, that's the
Speaker 1: closest comp we've had in recent years. Otherwise you got
Speaker 1: to go back a long ways to find somebody with,
Speaker 1: you know, these Spinley dimensions like he has. All right,
Speaker 1: last thing I have for Yericum connor Or was on
Speaker 1: our program earlier this week and he had done some digging.
Speaker 1: Now he said, it's an exclusive that is dropping on
Speaker 1: SI dot com later this week. It's up, It's there,
Speaker 1: it's up. Okay, go check it out everyone. All Right,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna ask me. We're just gonna say, as the
Speaker 1: lead writer, if he knows like he uh, Connor, using
Speaker 1: ancestry dot com, had identified a draft prospect that actually
Speaker 1: had Norse god blood, which feels like a nice um
Speaker 1: attribute that you would put in as a bullet in
Speaker 1: the draft profile. Do you know who that might be?
Speaker 1: Trying to think of? There any like Scandinavians Cody Mock No,
Speaker 1: I mean, I mean that's too on the nose. I think, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: that would be like the obvious answer that makes it.
Speaker 1: Ah jeez. Tyler van Ness, he has got that kind
Speaker 1: of square jaw and like the you know, the the
Speaker 1: ice man from Top Gun haircut. Tyler S final answer,
Speaker 1: all right, it's all I got. All Right, what do
Speaker 1: you got? Justin? Should I spoil it? I feel like
Speaker 1: our listeners should do Connor a favoring. They're gonna go
Speaker 1: read it, they will trust me. It's Tyler Vaness, Lucas Vaness, Sorry,
Speaker 1: I'm Lucas Vanes. Yeah, yeah, that's all I got it
Speaker 1: is Holton Hollurs oh, a literal of Viking legend Ragnar Lothbrock.
Speaker 1: And that's not Minnesota Vikings legend Ragnar, real Vikings, that's
Speaker 1: the that's the Ragnar. It's the Vikings that have titles.
Speaker 1: It's the original Ragner. I mean those those Vikings had rings.
Speaker 1: This is you, you know where it's a tough world
Speaker 1: back then. You know, you don't want to judge by
Speaker 1: today's standards, but you know, not someone you want to
Speaker 1: bring home to your to your just keep him away
Speaker 1: from the yeah, the women and children in general. Anyway,
Speaker 1: we talk about NFL bloodlines, I mean I'd rather have
Speaker 1: the you know, the Norse god bloodlines. Myself, I don't know.
Speaker 1: I'd rather have Joey Porter probably true. Yes, anything else,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna give you just a very quick rapid fire.
Speaker 1: Give me like a yeah on the other players that
Speaker 1: I think would that would keep me up at night? Okay, okay,
Speaker 1: rapid fire here Brian Branch is he closer to Derwin
Speaker 1: James or is he closer to like the do it
Speaker 1: all thing that NFL teams fall in love with and
Speaker 1: then doesn't work out when you draft him really high
Speaker 1: closer to the ladder. The athletic testing, you know, put
Speaker 1: a limit on his appeal. But he's so smart, so
Speaker 1: I think it's more to the ladder, the do it
Speaker 1: all guy who's you know, jack of all trades and
Speaker 1: you're glad you have him, but he's not. I don't
Speaker 1: think he's special athletically. Will Where are you on the
Speaker 1: Will Levis discourse? I feel like now he's been pushed
Speaker 1: down so far and you know, incredible body by the
Speaker 1: media that now it's actually the backlash of the backlashes
Speaker 1: here and everyone's now like, actually Will Levis to settle
Speaker 1: it at home. Yeah, yeah, no, I'm on the I'm
Speaker 1: pro Levis to a degree. Right, He's got his warts
Speaker 1: and last year didn't do him any favors in a
Speaker 1: lot of ways. But man, you look what he did
Speaker 1: with Liam Cohen twenty twenty one, who they brought back
Speaker 1: a zoc. I mean, that's a that's a strange but
Speaker 1: but I think good move for Kentucky. They just didn't
Speaker 1: have any talent last year. He had two injuries he
Speaker 1: played through. You watch the twenty twenty one tape, there's
Speaker 1: a lot of appealing stuff. I also hear from a
Speaker 1: lot of Penn State fans who are like, no way
Speaker 1: that dude should be in the draft, you know, or
Speaker 1: in the in the first one hundred and fifty picks.
Speaker 1: I think there's a too much of that bias going
Speaker 1: on out there too. But I like the guy to
Speaker 1: a degree for sure. Okay, I do have one more
Speaker 1: than the Panthers regret it forever if they passed on CJ.
Speaker 1: Strout regret it forever. No, because Bryce Young could be special.
Speaker 1: I just man, he just has so how many the
Speaker 1: margin for air is small with that arm, that size
Speaker 1: and everything else. I just feel like he's he's gonna
Speaker 1: be great. But we play seventeen games every year. That's
Speaker 1: my biggest worry. We'll we'll get into all these questions.
Speaker 1: We still got We still got about a week and
Speaker 1: a half of draft build up to go. But I
Speaker 1: as we get closer, I can't I can't quite buy
Speaker 1: that Jalen Carter, who everyone sort of recognizes the best
Speaker 1: player in the draft, is gonna go anywhere but very
Speaker 1: close to the top. That's all we'll see. Mike require
Speaker 1: ownership approval. But I but I hear you don't they
Speaker 1: all don't They all at that point, I guess quarterbacks
Speaker 1: in like situation. Uh, Eric, You've said it all. Thank
Speaker 1: you very much. Continue to track everything Eric does on
Speaker 1: NFL dot com. And Buddy, Uh, we enjoyed having you.
Speaker 1: Thank you. And put Dale Murphy in the hall. And
Speaker 1: how about this, Don Mattingley and Dale Murphy going in
Speaker 1: the same class and you and I go to Cooper's
Speaker 1: down together. Absolutely you kidd may I'm down man. You
Speaker 1: let me know. All right, it's like, sorry, honey, I'm
Speaker 1: going with Dan hands this to uh Cooper. I'll just
Speaker 1: going with a fellow, like middle aged guy on a
Speaker 1: private trip to upstate New York. Don't worry that I
Speaker 1: don't know I'll be able to make it. Sorry, man,
Speaker 1: damn it. You see Greg, you wrote everything all right?
Speaker 1: Go ahead, Eric, Kevin, go take it easy. Um uh
Speaker 1: did good stuff like at home? I like at home.
Speaker 1: I also two things two takeaways, Um the Texans, who
Speaker 1: we made so much of it, and rightfully so, winning
Speaker 1: that stupid game at the end of the season that
Speaker 1: allowed the Bears to take number one pick. In some ways,
Speaker 1: like if they are indeed going to take a quarterback,
Speaker 1: which I think they will, they're kind of like chill.
Speaker 1: They're like, we don't have to freak out about this.
Speaker 1: If they're like caught in between on the quarterbacks, we'll
Speaker 1: take the other guy. And it's like, no stress on us. Well,
Speaker 1: we'll never know, we'll never know. I'm saying it's that's
Speaker 1: potentially be the opposite of like, right, we want to
Speaker 1: trade out, or we're not even gonna take a quarterback
Speaker 1: because we like Bryce Young so much more than Stroud.
Speaker 1: There there has been that that thought bubbling up, although
Speaker 1: it's hard to say it's just other personnel that like
Speaker 1: the Texans might take someone else number two, like Will
Speaker 1: Anderson or Jalen Carter and then trade back up to
Speaker 1: take like a Will Levis or Richardson or something who knows.
Speaker 1: And my other thought out of that conversation, Uh, were
Speaker 1: you attempting to retroactively cancel vikings there like the old ones? No?
Speaker 1: I was saying, you know, you can't judge them by
Speaker 1: today's standards and whatnot, right, um, But also like you
Speaker 1: you probably you know, wouldn't want to have cross passed
Speaker 1: with Ragnar loth Brock, that's all. No, probably not. You
Speaker 1: wouldn't want your daughter meeting Ragnar. No, no, no, no,
Speaker 1: certainly not. All right, let's take a break and do
Speaker 1: some GM talk. Keep him away from my girl. All right,
Speaker 1: we are back. Lets get into Greg. You have a
Speaker 1: article going up on NFL dot com ranking the gms.
Speaker 1: I like this because you know the gms. Everybody, Oh,
Speaker 1: let's rank coaches, let's rank teams, rank gms. It just
Speaker 1: feels more personal. It feels like I feel like the gms.
Speaker 1: Especially when it's going up on NFL dot com. I
Speaker 1: feel like the gms are checking this one out. Yeah.
Speaker 1: I've gotten some response over the years, and it's and
Speaker 1: everyone is trying to keep relationships with front offices and whatnotum,
Speaker 1: But luckily that's not a concern for me. I'm a
Speaker 1: jerk and don't really have relationships to them. So there
Speaker 1: you go. You can call it as you see it,
Speaker 1: because they have. Why does it feel more relationship? I
Speaker 1: think it's because they seem more like you could almost
Speaker 1: imagine being one of them. Whereas you know they they
Speaker 1: should have the tables turned on them. All they're doing
Speaker 1: is making up big boards of players and ranking them
Speaker 1: and talking about their butts and stuff. Let's turn the
Speaker 1: table out them. Did you ever think like we never know,
Speaker 1: you're still a relatively young man, Like, who knows what
Speaker 1: if you did want to at some point your career
Speaker 1: transitioned into getting a front office opportunity. I'm good, just
Speaker 1: I mean, listen, you were ready to walk and become
Speaker 1: Lamar Agents, Lamar Jackson's personal assistant. You you proposed that
Speaker 1: the drop of a dime. You're like, yes, I'll take
Speaker 1: the job. I mean that seemed more rewarding th the hours.
Speaker 1: You know, I've got a young family, we're really in
Speaker 1: our prime. I was thinking of that, you know, in Hawaii,
Speaker 1: like we got to appreciate these times. These kids, they're
Speaker 1: not too young, they're not too old. We're a nice unit.
Speaker 1: You got to appreciate that. Yeah, can I do that
Speaker 1: while um being a Jason Light's assistant for twenty three
Speaker 1: hours a day? I don't think so. All right, So
Speaker 1: you're you're just saying the Lamar Jackson gig would be
Speaker 1: very kind of low stakes and low effort necessary for
Speaker 1: a nice paycheck. Potentially, I don't know. Yeah, that could
Speaker 1: that could do it. He could be a tyrant. You know,
Speaker 1: I'm happy we have we have a podcast. We've built
Speaker 1: this into something We're not gonna build an NFL team
Speaker 1: as successful as this body. All right, I like I
Speaker 1: like that. I like that. Let's get to it. UM.
Speaker 1: I overall think you did strong to quite strong work
Speaker 1: on this UM I have. Unfortunately, I don't have too
Speaker 1: many uh quibbles, which is a testament to the effort.
Speaker 1: So let's go through it. Which did I mention? I
Speaker 1: thought was strong? Okay, too quite strong. I don't deal
Speaker 1: well with praise. I feel better when you here is
Speaker 1: the top ten. I'm not perfectly on board, but here
Speaker 1: we go. Howie Roseman won Bret Bret Beach to Duke
Speaker 1: Tobin of the Bengals through let me just in case
Speaker 1: there's some people that aren't as die hard in terms
Speaker 1: of knowing the personnel the front office. Bret Veach, chiefs
Speaker 1: general manager. Who what a ride? What a rocket ride?
Speaker 1: Greggy from being my by Greg Rosenthal himself a few
Speaker 1: years back to number two on the GM rankings. The
Speaker 1: Chiefs winning of Super Bowls many years back. Yes, two
Speaker 1: super Bowls and four years will do that. Duke Tobin
Speaker 1: of the Mangals three, Brandon Bean and Sean McDermott. Interesting
Speaker 1: you give him the co power title? How do you
Speaker 1: decide who gets that co slash? Well, the Bills got
Speaker 1: it at four. Lynch and Shanahan same deal. Five, but
Speaker 1: you have yeah, you have the GM first there good
Speaker 1: U six, less sneed Sean McVay slash again. Interesting, Brad
Speaker 1: Holmes h Dan Campbell, No slash, just Brad Holmes. Seven
Speaker 1: Detroit Lions. Goody, now, goody. I would think there would
Speaker 1: be a slash. Mark Murphy there, but no, he's not
Speaker 1: making the big person out. Okay, okay. Eight. John Schneider Seahawks.
Speaker 1: He probably should have a slash. They had a slash
Speaker 1: in previous years. Pete Carroll Yeah, yeah, good slash and
Speaker 1: Jarrah at ten again. I I liked the placement. Which
Speaker 1: one was the most difficult for you to place of
Speaker 1: this group, well, the Rams, because of how do you
Speaker 1: evaluate what's happened to them. I didn't want to punish
Speaker 1: them too much before seeing how this season's goes. I
Speaker 1: didn't want to pre punish, but you look at what's
Speaker 1: happened over the last year. I think the biggest problem
Speaker 1: was those contracts they gave out, which didn't give them
Speaker 1: a lot of flexibility immediately to Donald, Stafford and Cup
Speaker 1: and how many guarantees were in that. I also wanted
Speaker 1: to recognize it was a five year run of the
Speaker 1: most wins in the league other than Kansas City for
Speaker 1: the Rams. So it wasn't just this tiny little windows
Speaker 1: six year run before last year, and so I didn't
Speaker 1: want to kill them too hard, but it was tough.
Speaker 1: There was a big drop off after the top five.
Speaker 1: I also was, you know, wondering, is that is that
Speaker 1: too high for for Duke Tobin the Bengals. But I
Speaker 1: give them a little extra credit for as our friend
Speaker 1: Solomon Wilcots, not really a friend, but someone I respect,
Speaker 1: he said about Marvin Lewis raising the Titanic, And since
Speaker 1: I appreciate the hyperlank here, I appreciate I give Duke
Speaker 1: Tobin a little bit of extra credit for doing it
Speaker 1: in Cincinnati, maybe without as many resources. And if you
Speaker 1: look at his hit rate on the free agents that
Speaker 1: they brought in, like DJ Reader and A Woozy and
Speaker 1: Trey Hendrickson and then the draft, and I liked the
Speaker 1: Orlando Brown move. And they have a number that they
Speaker 1: go to and they stick with it. I think they've
Speaker 1: done a great job. Yeah this is where and trust me,
Speaker 1: as somebody does the power rankings. This is not a
Speaker 1: shot out against the exercise. Sometimes it's all a little
Speaker 1: bit silly because it's like Duke Tobin, Yeah, he's done
Speaker 1: a good job, but the fact they got Joe Burrow,
Speaker 1: who was a no brainer number one overall pick at QB,
Speaker 1: who changed the organization, so you don't really and they
Speaker 1: got the number one pick because they were dreadful the
Speaker 1: year before. It's Burrow who reset the organization more than
Speaker 1: Duke Tobin. But at the same time he did have
Speaker 1: to turn in the draft card. Well, he also made
Speaker 1: lots of those around him. He gets a little extra
Speaker 1: pop for doing it two different times. He had a
Speaker 1: very talented team under Andy Dalton. I said at the top,
Speaker 1: I'm ranking this mostly on what position they're in now,
Speaker 1: but you get some credit of what you've done overtime
Speaker 1: and just all the moves are smart sensive sense, like
Speaker 1: like Brent Veach, like he gets credit for drafting Mahomes,
Speaker 1: but he also gets credit for not being afraid to
Speaker 1: move on from big names like Orlando Brown, Matthew and
Speaker 1: Frank Clark. And the offensive line overhaul kind of it's
Speaker 1: gotten overlooked. Remember their offensive line stinks. Their offensive line stinks.
Speaker 1: He does that overall in twenty one, especially on the interior,
Speaker 1: it leads to a title the very next year. The
Speaker 1: other one I wasn't sure what to do with was
Speaker 1: John Schneider, who was like at an all time low
Speaker 1: a year ago right now, and maybe he should even
Speaker 1: be higher. I don't know if a GM's ever had
Speaker 1: a better month and a half than John Schneider. Trading
Speaker 1: Russell Wilson for all those draft picks at the exact
Speaker 1: perfect time into one of the best draft classes of
Speaker 1: the last five or six years. Two starting tackles Trek
Speaker 1: will and the runner up for Rookie of the Year
Speaker 1: Ken Walker, who could have been in the mix for
Speaker 1: Rookie of the Year. And then two other pretty good players,
Speaker 1: boy A Maffe and Kobe Bryant. That's six players in
Speaker 1: one draft. That reminds me of that Saints draft back
Speaker 1: in twenty seventeen or eighteen, which they lived off for years.
Speaker 1: I mean, the Jets in Joe Douglass and we can
Speaker 1: get to them, they drafted two rookies of the year,
Speaker 1: but I didn't even take the Seahawks draft maybe over them.
Speaker 1: They're they're close, They're well, I mean, yeah, they nailed
Speaker 1: the draft, and like you said, the Wilson trade was
Speaker 1: the move of the decade potentially. Just real quick before
Speaker 1: we go, I will actually take a quibble. I think
Speaker 1: Beach should be number one. Yeah, because and you didn't
Speaker 1: make note of it, and you're right up that they
Speaker 1: they won the Super Bowl last year and Mahomes Yeah,
Speaker 1: oh yeah, they have Mahomes. So how much credit? Well, yeah,
Speaker 1: he wasn't the no brainer number one pick. They went
Speaker 1: and they targeted Mahomes and got him win another Each
Speaker 1: was the key guy in that by each, So Beach
Speaker 1: will get forever credit for that. Like the idea Tyreek
Speaker 1: Hill is maybe the greatest playmaker at wide receiver of
Speaker 1: the last you know, ten twenty years, Like he is
Speaker 1: that level to trade him and kind of retool the
Speaker 1: roster and then also win the Super Bowl, I think,
Speaker 1: and you know, beating Hollie Roseman's Eagles to do it.
Speaker 1: I believe he should be number one for that reason.
Speaker 1: But I think Roseman deserves a top two spot for sure.
Speaker 1: No one brings in veterans like Roseman. I mean Hassan, Reddick, Bradberry, Gardner, Johnson.
Speaker 1: None of those guys were on the team a year ago,
Speaker 1: even Darius Slay a couple of years ago that trade.
Speaker 1: They do a nice job in the draft planning ahead.
Speaker 1: They have all these starters that are set up, Jordan
Speaker 1: Davis and Jurgens and the Kobe Dean that are going
Speaker 1: to fill in spots this year. There they're always good
Speaker 1: playing now and later. But yeah, there's a big gap
Speaker 1: between those two. You asked you I struggled the most.
Speaker 1: It was actually Brad Holmes. I wasn't sure how to
Speaker 1: hide put the Lions because he's done everything absolutely perfect.
Speaker 1: It's it's hard to make the Lions into such a fun, relevant,
Speaker 1: talented team in two years. So he's like Relding one
Speaker 1: to one. That said, if you go back and look
Speaker 1: at like Executives of the Year previously, like Sporting News
Speaker 1: hounds a award. Here's some winners over the last decade,
Speaker 1: Ryan Pace, go, Dave Gettlman with the Panthers, you go.
Speaker 1: Reggie McKenzie won the award once the Raiders, Ryan Grigson.
Speaker 1: So like the Mike mcagnet one. My point there is
Speaker 1: kind of like the easy part is getting from the
Speaker 1: two wins to the like eight wins and now you're
Speaker 1: frisky and then everyone gives you a lot of pop.
Speaker 1: Do you see? Do you see? So that's sort of
Speaker 1: where Brad Helms is that now, but uh yeah, because
Speaker 1: you need to kind of build off that initial making
Speaker 1: moves that are kind of makes sense. Goody's two high, Yes,
Speaker 1: two high. I think Goody and on some level, Um
Speaker 1: squandered the end of the Aaron Rodgers era. He's number eight, right, Yeah,
Speaker 1: you have him at eight here, Um because I do
Speaker 1: think that he kind of he didn't give Rogers the
Speaker 1: roster um in terms of play makers that he needed
Speaker 1: last year, and I just can't I can't look past that.
Speaker 1: I think he'd really ding him now. Watson was a hit,
Speaker 1: but you know he was a rookie who developed late
Speaker 1: in the year. You know, the move to move on
Speaker 1: from Adams to not be able to land Darren Waller.
Speaker 1: Although I don't know where Waller is at head wise,
Speaker 1: whether he would have made a difference with the Packers.
Speaker 1: I just think him for last year's disappointment to the
Speaker 1: point where maybe would take him out of the top ten,
Speaker 1: but not like a major free falls so I don't
Speaker 1: have a major. Always rated him higher and get pushed
Speaker 1: back on that, especially from Packers fans who don't like
Speaker 1: him as much as I seem too. His drafts have
Speaker 1: been good. They haven't spent any in free agency this year,
Speaker 1: but previously they're targeted free agents have been really good.
Speaker 1: I guess I I think it's the GM's job to
Speaker 1: just keep him in the mix, get him close every year.
Speaker 1: He did a good job at the Lafleur higher Like, yeah,
Speaker 1: I hear you, though, Jared ten I'm cool with Belichick.
Speaker 1: I see, I know it was difficult for you, and
Speaker 1: you feel like this is an This is enough of
Speaker 1: a punishment to drop him out of the top ten.
Speaker 1: I think you've had him at number one in the
Speaker 1: past and always high up in the rankings. But they're
Speaker 1: just such, they're amid, they're they're there mid. What why
Speaker 1: is he not lower than eleven at this point? Did
Speaker 1: you watch the game on Monday like he did? You
Speaker 1: watch the games the last three years? Now? What what
Speaker 1: keeps him uh knocking on the door of the top ten?
Speaker 1: Other than name value? Uh? You know their drafts haven't
Speaker 1: been bad the last two years. They've gotten three good starters.
Speaker 1: I would say out of both if you count Mac
Speaker 1: Jones as a good starter. We'll see something pretty good.
Speaker 1: Pick uh. They're spending. It's hard to know how to
Speaker 1: separate Belichick the coach from the front office, but they,
Speaker 1: like you know, their defense, they make a lot of
Speaker 1: production out of questionable players. So do you give that
Speaker 1: credit to Belichick the coach or do you give that
Speaker 1: credit to Belichick the guy who's bringing in these low
Speaker 1: cost players. They're very middle of the pack. Eleven feels
Speaker 1: middle of the pack, But I guess you could you
Speaker 1: could knock them below like to LESCo and Da Costa.
Speaker 1: This group is is all close to me. But it's
Speaker 1: not like they've been bad. They're just mediocre. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean I feel like, yeah, they've made the playoff
Speaker 1: once in the three post Brady years. The year they
Speaker 1: did make it, they got just that defense got absolutely
Speaker 1: bombed out by the Bills late in the season and
Speaker 1: then in the playoffs, and then you know, last year
Speaker 1: was kind of, let's face it, a disaster. But you know,
Speaker 1: do you the g that the head or the coaching
Speaker 1: staff decisions that he made. That's more bell Check the
Speaker 1: coach than the GM. So you got to kind of
Speaker 1: separate that. So now I was telling it, but I
Speaker 1: would maybe put him around thirteen or so, Okay, no
Speaker 1: big deal. You got Mickey Loomis. Let's see, is this fourteen,
Speaker 1: he's fourteen, he's fourteen. Let me just go through the
Speaker 1: next the rest of the ones that are eligible here,
Speaker 1: because you some guys aren't eligible until they have a
Speaker 1: couple of years under their belt. You got to LESCo
Speaker 1: at twelve of the Chargers, DA Costa, the Ravens at thirteen.
Speaker 1: That's kind of a tough one to judge right now.
Speaker 1: Loomis of the Saints at fourteen, Chris Greer the Dolphins
Speaker 1: at fifteen, Joe d of the Jets at sixteen. He
Speaker 1: was one of the toughest, tough They're thirteen and thirty
Speaker 1: seven in his first three seasons. It's not good. It's
Speaker 1: pretty good at all, just to look at that. But
Speaker 1: on paper they seem amazing. Other than his quarterback decision,
Speaker 1: which was a fiasco, right, maybe other teams would have
Speaker 1: made it. Supposedly the Eagles were trying to trade up
Speaker 1: for Zach Wilson's like, sometimes you just get lucky or unlucky.
Speaker 1: But this I couldn't give coming season will define I
Speaker 1: couldn't give him too much credit I thought that was
Speaker 1: I think that's fair. I think sixteen is totally fair.
Speaker 1: As I've said multiple times on this show, he has
Speaker 1: a been a two thirty five hitter with forty four
Speaker 1: home runs, like and if you could deal with the
Speaker 1: batting average being low but the hits being meaningful and important,
Speaker 1: then it works. But like I said, if if the
Speaker 1: Rogers deal doesn't turn into what Jets fans hope it
Speaker 1: will turn into, he's going to be gone, Like I
Speaker 1: think Douglas will be gone, and I think Salo will
Speaker 1: be gone. There's so much riding on this year because
Speaker 1: thirteen to thirty seven, he inherited rec yes and and
Speaker 1: really has built up this roster, as we've talked about
Speaker 1: pretty good. I was tempted to put him higher than that,
Speaker 1: but then you're getting with guys he's gone it before.
Speaker 1: Now if they go, if they go eleven and six
Speaker 1: or have a win a playoff game, I think he
Speaker 1: would deserve to be a top ten guy because he did.
Speaker 1: He showed that he built it into something tangible, and
Speaker 1: they're a playoff team again, but they're not there yet.
Speaker 1: They have to do it. So I think that's fair.
Speaker 1: You have Jason light of the Bucks at seventeen, Chris
Speaker 1: Ballard the Colts at eighteen interesting, Andrew Barry of the
Speaker 1: Browns at nineteen. This one I would I would have
Speaker 1: a little pushback on as well. Now I know that
Speaker 1: Deshaun Watson trade you're not a fan of. Nobody was
Speaker 1: really a fan of it, and the subsequent contract that
Speaker 1: Barry was involved with handing to Watson had turned the
Speaker 1: league upside down and mess things up for a lot
Speaker 1: of people. But Barry, I think, I think the I
Speaker 1: think the Browns have um although they had a down
Speaker 1: year last year. I think he continues to make overall
Speaker 1: strong moves and if the quarterback move hits, I think
Speaker 1: or a power player in the AFC. So I think
Speaker 1: maybe Barry, based on his track record of the last
Speaker 1: three or four years, should be higher. Look, he's been
Speaker 1: in the job officially for three years. The third year
Speaker 1: is when you're supposed to really make a move. In
Speaker 1: years two and three of his ten yere they were
Speaker 1: eight and nine and seven and ten. The one year
Speaker 1: that they had a lot of success when he was
Speaker 1: the GM was mostly with the players that were already there,
Speaker 1: so they've their record as mediocre. The Watson trade. If
Speaker 1: you take out all the off field stuff, has was
Speaker 1: a fiasco. Last year he was a disaster. I mean
Speaker 1: that that was You can keep saying like, Okay, we
Speaker 1: gotta wait till next year. It's like, okay, but you
Speaker 1: gave all that up. It's a fiasco because of the
Speaker 1: off the field stuff. But it was a fiasco because
Speaker 1: of the on the field stuff that he was so bad.
Speaker 1: He was one of the worst quarterbacks in the league.
Speaker 1: Struggled in like five starts, right, six starts, that's a
Speaker 1: third of the season. He was one of the worst
Speaker 1: quarterbacks in the league. And you gave up all that
Speaker 1: for him, and you went seven and ten. In your defense,
Speaker 1: I just think when you're connecting the other stuff when
Speaker 1: you say that, but he's year three in your defense,
Speaker 1: which he's responsible for, was terrible. Uh. You know, like
Speaker 1: year three is kind of the move year, and they
Speaker 1: were in a worse position in year three than they
Speaker 1: were in their first year. So that doesn't it doesn't
Speaker 1: reflect great. Yeah, but I agree when you look at
Speaker 1: the move to move to move, it looks a little
Speaker 1: bit better. I was deplorable the way it all played out,
Speaker 1: but that his year three is different than other year
Speaker 1: three is because the centerpiece of the organization, whether you
Speaker 1: like it or not, that they traded for was suspended
Speaker 1: for most of the season. So it made his year
Speaker 1: three kind of like almost hitting pause on it and
Speaker 1: be like my real year three quote unquote is when
Speaker 1: Watson is my week one starter, and I think, like
Speaker 1: with the guy a little bit above him, Joe Douglass,
Speaker 1: like yeah, Deshaun Watson has to play well and they
Speaker 1: need to be a team this year or that ownership,
Speaker 1: like in New year work is a little temperamental. That
Speaker 1: might everybody might be out of that building as well
Speaker 1: if Watson falls on his face this year. A lot
Speaker 1: of pressure, I agree, a lot of pressure. Terry Fatno
Speaker 1: from Atlanta at twenty kind of like what he's done.
Speaker 1: He didn't really have a choice to do much the
Speaker 1: first two years quarterback I don't love, but these are
Speaker 1: the guys just like it's kind of like, man, it's
Speaker 1: hard to have a hard take. Ronderver and Martin Mayhew
Speaker 1: of Washington at twenty one. Scott Fitterer Carolina rounds out
Speaker 1: the list. And these guys not Cassio and George Peyton
Speaker 1: are second to last and last. Oh Okay, I missed that.
Speaker 1: Nickossario twenty three, George Paytonto, I mean, just get buried
Speaker 1: for Russell Wilson. And now, like, when you do this
Speaker 1: list next year, it's gonna be George Peyton slash Sean.
Speaker 1: It might just be Sean Payton. I don't even know,
Speaker 1: but yeah, you gotta give George the credit. I don't
Speaker 1: know if George will be there next year. We'll see
Speaker 1: too early to rank t Trent Balki, Ran Carthon, Omar
Speaker 1: con Quessi, Adolpho Mensa, Monte Assa for it. Can I
Speaker 1: you didn't get to hear this? Uh? I love Jonathan
Speaker 1: Gannon's uh on Aussie like wondering what they're gonna do
Speaker 1: with the third pick. I just want to hear this again.
Speaker 1: I'm into this Jonathan Gannon era. Every day I ask Monnie.
Speaker 1: I'm like, Monie, what you're doing with that pick? What
Speaker 1: you're doing with that pick? He's like, you know what
Speaker 1: I'm doing with that pick? I don't know what you're
Speaker 1: doing with that pick? Where is that from? Said an
Speaker 1: NFL network? One's good? Yeah. At the owners meetings, that's funny.
Speaker 1: Ryan Poles, Joe Shane and David Zigler. Yeah, that's about
Speaker 1: the ranking more. You know, check out the analysis way
Speaker 1: too much, four thousand words too many, NFL dot com
Speaker 1: slash Rosenthal. Good work, Greggy, Uh okay, anything else. We've
Speaker 1: done it. I think we've done it. We're back to
Speaker 1: three shows a week next week, yes, and then the
Speaker 1: week after that is the Draft, which will the coverage
Speaker 1: will be. We're gonna tell again we're gonna do something
Speaker 1: little different with the draft this year. Um, we're gonna
Speaker 1: share details of that next week. We can't. We can't
Speaker 1: have the conversation without Mark. I don't even know the details.
Speaker 1: So I'm looking forward to. This is unbelievable. Greg's been out.
Speaker 1: He doesn't even know where it was, Greg. He was
Speaker 1: in Hawaii. It's the new Greg. This Greg was very
Speaker 1: similar to the old Greg. I gotta say not. That's
Speaker 1: not a takedown. That's just like felt verries after. Other
Speaker 1: than the first thirty four seconds when you were saying
Speaker 1: that there's gonna be a new Greg, this felt like
Speaker 1: the same Greg. Well maybe on air, you know you,
Speaker 1: I'm not going to change who I am, um, but
Speaker 1: hopefully in my Oh okay, so I treat people's right.
Speaker 1: Did you find like an ancient medallion or something in Hawaii.
Speaker 1: I feel like there's something about that trip that changed you. Yeah.
Speaker 1: I think it was cranking through Love Is Blind season
Speaker 1: four and just seeing what matters in life. You know,
Speaker 1: I hear you on that. All right, that's it, that
Speaker 1: is it will be in Taosh. Well the in Toush
Speaker 1: got it. That's my big takeaway from today's episode. Until
Speaker 1: next week. Read the Call