March 31, 2025 • 43 mins
Gregg Rosenthal is joined by Nick Shook to react to the news coming out of the NFL owners meetings. The guys start with trade talk surrounding Tyreek Hill (03:00) followed by rumors surrounding the Cleveland Browns (09:15) and Kirk Cousins, John Harbaugh getting a contract extension (15:50), Aaron Glenn throwing his support behind Justin Fields (22:00), Brandon Aiyuk's status with the 49ers (25:41), Geno Smith's future with the Raiders (29:18), Aaron Rodgers and the Steelers (35:50) and more!
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:04):
Welcome to NFL Daily, where we don't need any freaking
fancy hotels, great swag bags at the owners meetings, We're
having fun, We have each other. I'm in my garage,
I'm talking to Nick Shook on NFL Daily here. Yes,
during annual league meeting week and you've done the league meeting, Shook,
(00:27):
what was your time at a.
Speaker 2 (00:30):
League meeting like it was in Phoenix. It was at
a quite a resort and it was a fantastic don't
think I got a swag bag though, but definitely a
higher air of luxury, and you know, you're around some
real decision makers, some real power players in the NFL.
Speaker 1 (00:45):
There's always a little bit of awkwardness that we work
for the NFL and you're when you're covering the NFL
and you're like staying at the same hotels or you know,
seeing them around.
Speaker 3 (00:56):
But it's no more awkward than at this.
Speaker 1 (00:58):
Owner's meetings, where you just feel like, why why am
I at this hotel with the billionaires because there's a
ton of other reporters there, but they don't let them
stay in the hotel. They have to stay like somewhere
nearby and then drive in every day. But no, we
are not there, but the rest of the league is.
And this is going to be a tight news show, Nick,
We're gonna kind of clear the decks of a lot
(01:20):
that's happened over the weekend. Just a lot of little
drips and drabs. But if you want to stay on
top of the NFL a lot of stuff. I think
you want to know. The sixteen AFC coaches all spoke
to the media for anywhere between thirty and fifty minutes
on Monday morning, So we'll go over a lot of
what they said, and then we'll get you on your way,
because I feel like a lot's coming on Tuesday with
(01:42):
all the rules changes, the NFC coaches are happening. We'll
actually get Jordan rod Rieg of The Athletic and also
NFL Daily, who's there. She's going to come on the
show along with me and Patrick and Colleen and so
Eric always laughs at me, shook When I say it's
going to be just like a tight show. I think
we can do it.
Speaker 2 (02:00):
I mean we've been known to be keep it tight
sometimes and go a little bit longer sometimes.
Speaker 1 (02:04):
I don't think we need a vamp. Today will be fine, Okay. Also,
Nick looks great. He's wearing his NFL Pro shirt. You
can't really totally see it, but he also his background
looks great, so good job moving in. Congratulations to you
and your friends. It looks fantastic.
Speaker 2 (02:18):
I got to give a shout out number one to
Bill Smith or slide me the shirt you know, always
down to promote NFL Pro. Check it out. It's a
very useful two tool. And then number two to the haters,
to everybody who might hate, including you, Greg on my
half apparent background last week in the middle of moving,
I've now put the hard set in. We're back to normal, baby,
(02:38):
and it looks fantastic.
Speaker 1 (02:39):
Least, you know, sometimes constructive criticism, it's just motivation. So
I think the YouTube commenters if they were getting on you,
I don't know, but it looks great. It doesn't always
look great when you're looking at these coaches by the
way at the breakfast, because they're just surrounded by guys
and girls are just like over the top of them,
(03:00):
but they're sitting there supposedly supposed to be eating breakfast,
but no one really usually does that. And then there
are some coaches who are on the hot seat and
it feels like they are on the hot seat, and
then there's just a weird vibe at a time of
year that shouldn't have weird vibes. That was the vibe
I got from Mike McDaniel today. He answered a lot
of questions about Tyreek Hill, including one about, you know,
(03:23):
whether Tyreek Hill was going to still be on this
roster after some social media we'll talk about.
Speaker 3 (03:29):
After listening to McDaniel.
Speaker 4 (03:30):
I can certainly say with certainty that at this certain moment,
you know.
Speaker 2 (03:36):
I think that that's uh.
Speaker 4 (03:38):
There a lot of things can happen in the National
Football League. So you throw absolutes out there, and then
I'm one, hey, you said this, I mean, but yeah,
we are fully planning to move forward as a better
version of our of our relationship with Tyreek and the
(04:03):
Miami Dolphins. So I have no reason to think otherwise.
Speaker 1 (04:07):
Like a lot of McDaniel's quotes, it's a fun journey
to get there. The part that struck me other than
him repeating the word certainly five times at the beginning,
was that they want to move forward with a better
version of their relationship with Tyreek Hill. So like that
right there is saying like, well, the version of our
relationship last year what wasn't the best, then we're hoping
(04:28):
to move forward with this better version of it.
Speaker 2 (04:30):
Now. Yeah, it's been a weird you know, talk about
Mike McDaniel answers, which are can be weird journeys in themselves.
It's been a weird journey for the Dolphins in Tyreek
over the last year because it wasn't too long ago
that he was the focal point of the most explosive
offense in the NFL and he was the center of fun.
He was catching touchdown passes, doing backflips and grabbing a
phone on the sideline and doing a selfie video that
went viral. And then the next year he was not
(04:52):
really like a parent in the offense at times. He
didn't get the targets and the looks that he had.
He had that incident where he was handcuffed before game,
like it just seemed like he was never healthy. There
was just a lot of things that went off track
for them, outside of losing to a tongue of a
little early in the season. So if there ever were
a time to have a bounce back year, it is
now for the Dolphins, and I think it starts with
a guy that makes a lot of money is a
(05:13):
focal point of your offense. And Tyreek Hill, is that
going to happen? Is that guaranteed? I don't know. I'm
not going to bank on it. I don't really trust
them at this point, but at least they're working toward it.
Speaker 3 (05:21):
We'll see if they are.
Speaker 1 (05:23):
Even the way he got to the answer like, look,
a lot of things could happen in the NFL. It's
not totally up to Mike McDaniel either. But the reason
it's popped up more in recent weeks is or over
the weekend, Tyreek Hill had a tweet in response to
over the Cap actually was asked the question is just
(05:44):
some part of some Twitter mailbag of like, hey, who
do you think is like a possible big name that
could get traded over the weekend?
Speaker 3 (05:50):
Who's to be the most likely?
Speaker 1 (05:52):
And he wrote out tyreek Hill, and I think he's
just spitballing based on contracts, based on everything we've seen.
And tyreek Hill, you know, quote tweets that with with
a peace side and lets everyone interpret that how they wish.
And McDaniel's getting grilled by it about it, and he's saying, well,
Tyreek's an entertainer and it's just like, I don't know, man.
Speaker 2 (06:11):
He has been known to throw out the deuces when
he scores touchdowns.
Speaker 1 (06:14):
Sure, but he's just like, yeah, don't take what he
says seriously on social media. But I am and I
think that deal could happen, by the way. He also
was asked Mike McDaniel about Kalais Campbell and Tron Armstead.
Armstead is their left tackle still on their roster, but
they're not sure about his status whether he's going to
(06:34):
keep playing football or not, and McDaniel said they're hoping
to get a conclusion to that soon. And then Kalais Campbell,
he mentioned, is in a great position where they would
love to have him back, but that Kalais Campbell is
at the point of his career he might have options
after playing so well. So Kalaius Campbell I think is
kind of figuring out where he wants to go, but
Miami would like to get him back.
Speaker 2 (06:55):
He could take this the straight hand approach too, just
skip training camp entirely and sign somewhere.
Speaker 3 (07:00):
Yes, I think that would be a good move.
Speaker 1 (07:02):
I think Aaron would Aaron Rodgers do that, but just
with the mini camp and OTAs.
Speaker 3 (07:06):
We'll talk about that in a little bit.
Speaker 1 (07:08):
The Bills, they signed Kristin Benford over the weekend four years,
seventy six million dollars. It's really been a focus of
their offseason, signing guys two long term deals that were
already on the roster. James Cook, however, according to the GM,
Brandon Bean will not be getting a new contract anytime soon,
(07:30):
but they do lock up Christin Benford. A nice development
story for a guy that was taken on the third
day of the draft.
Speaker 2 (07:36):
Yeah, this speaks to their philosophy and when you know,
Sean McDermott kind of retained or regained control of the defense.
They were shifting back toward the defense last year. And
it doesn't answer a screaming need that we had talked
about for them, but it kind of does because we
talked about depth in the secondary. He was already on
the roster, but they lock him down and at least
get that taken care of before addressing other areas. So
it makes a lot of sense. And then I think
(07:57):
you said it when we talked about it last week,
which is the James Cook felt like a guy that
they were going to extend, So not a surprise there.
But then again, if he has a great year, does
the price go up? You know, it's kind of a
precarious position when it comes to planning out your offense
unless you just view running back as an interchangeable position.
Speaker 1 (08:13):
You could also use the franchise tag on him, which
isn't too crazy at running back.
Speaker 3 (08:17):
So that's always out there. I not to pat ourselves at.
Speaker 1 (08:20):
The back, but I go back to our off season
previews for these teams, and part of the exercise was
looking at guys that could sign long term, and we said, wow,
it's crazy how the Bills, like so many of their
good players are up for free agency. If you made
a list of the best free agents in twenty twenty six,
a lot of them are Bills and we went through it,
so we said it maybe makes sense for them to
start signing these guys early. Since then, they have signed
(08:43):
Greg Russo, Khalil Shakir, Terrell Bernard, and Kristin Benford for
long term contracts. So if you're wondering, not to mention,
you opened up cap space by somehow paying Josh Allen
even more money, So good job on that too. So
if you're wondering how team like the Eagles, And I've
heard this like, how do all these good players like
(09:04):
fit under the cap? It doesn't make any sense. This
is how like teams like the Bills planning a year ahead.
So so good on the Bills, even though they weren't
crazy in free agency. They made a couple of nice pickups,
but their best pickups were what they did in house.
Let's talk about your Browns. It's Brown season, which means
draft season. They have a high pick. They came out
(09:24):
and said, weirdly, let's just start with this part of
the equation that it's unlikely that they will trade up
for Kim Ward. That's what Andrew Berry said, and then
Stefanski said it as well.
Speaker 3 (09:34):
Andrew Berry, their GM.
Speaker 1 (09:37):
You just don't normally hear team say it's unlikely we're
going to make that trade up.
Speaker 3 (09:42):
Why why do you think they did that?
Speaker 2 (09:43):
Nick? Well, first off, there's no precedent for a team
going from two to one in the history of the
NFL in the common draft era, So that's probably the
first point. You could just say, well, it's never been
done before, and so we're not likely to do that.
I also think that if you admitted that you were
likely to are you we at least interested in it,
give up a little bit of leverage, and ultimately, and
(10:03):
most importantly, I just think they're not gonna do it.
I think they're gonna let the draft come to them.
Even at number two. Maybe you see them trade down
if they don't want a quarterback or if they go
with a dual carter. All the options are on the table.
I've been saying this for weeks, and I think it's
gonna be more and more true as we get close
to the draft. It will be one of the more
unpredictable drafts we've seen over the last decade. And it
starts at number two with what the Browns can do
because frankly, even though we know they need a quarterback,
(10:25):
we really have no idea in which direction they're gonna proceed.
Speaker 3 (10:28):
I hear you, and it's true.
Speaker 1 (10:30):
All options are available, and they could just be saying
that to say something.
Speaker 3 (10:35):
But it's just weird that they said that.
Speaker 1 (10:37):
Usually they say all options are on the table, but
they were kind of saying this option is not on
the table. My read of that was aire they wouldn't
say that unless it was true. I don't think they
would go that hard actually even though I know it's
lion season. And then b they're they're almost saying, don't
use us as as potential bait, like if they hear
(10:58):
it like the Titans, like we're sending in a signal
like we're not moving up, so don't try to use
us to make it sound like they're moving up. Who knows,
or maybe they're trying to tell teams out there. The
draft starts at two, like you did come to us,
don't come to Tennessee.
Speaker 2 (11:13):
And this follows Tennessee kind of putting it out there
slyly last week, which is like, hey, you know, we're
not set on what we're going to do. Like they
didn't explicitly say it, but they were like, we take calls.
Speaker 3 (11:23):
If you wanted to trade up, you want to give
us King's ransom.
Speaker 1 (11:25):
Okay, Now that's part one of the Browns equation. Part
two is that Kirk Cousins was taking pictures at a
Cleveland area Chipotle tohook. I thought of having you do
the show from that Chipotle, but we don't have a sponsorship.
I don't know if you're really a Chipotle guy. You
take care of your body somehow, I doubt it Yeah.
Speaker 2 (11:46):
Actually, here's the thing. If you're taking care of your
body and looking for something pretty clean, you can go
to Chipotle and get a meal of solid meal that
that'll fit into your macros. I go to Chipotle all
the time. When I found out about this, I first
wanted to know which Chipotle because I frequent a few
of them in the Cleveland area. And number two, how
was I not there? Because I'm there all of the time.
So missed opportunity for me. But interesting, for sure, it.
Speaker 1 (12:07):
Would have been amazing it really, I mean, he was
probably meeting with the Browns. There was a report that
he wants to be traded after the draft. That's been
consistent for a couple of months. It was presented as
new this last week, but actually our insiders had that.
Garatfolo said that back before free agency. I got to
think that when Miles Garrett was saying he had an
(12:30):
idea of what they were doing at quarterback, I gotta.
Speaker 3 (12:32):
Think it's Kirk Cousins.
Speaker 1 (12:33):
K he was meeting with the Browns and he just
wants to get past the draft and make sure that
they don't take a quarterback, and then he's going to
be a Cleveland Brown so I'm not buying you Stefanski,
when you're talking about Schadur and what a great impression
he's making and they are going to work him out
by the way.
Speaker 2 (12:50):
Yeah, And when Miles nodded with that interview with Andrews
Siciliano and looked pretty confident he knew it was going
to be quarterback. Immediately in my head, I was like,
it's Kirk Cousins and the picture sets off. You know,
everybody texts me.
Speaker 3 (13:02):
What do you know? What's going on?
Speaker 2 (13:03):
I'm just like, I'm telling you guys, just wait. Wait
for April, late April. I think that's when something potentially happens.
It just I can't fathom a scenario in which they
go into the season with Kenny Pickett and a rookie
quarterback and those are their only options. It just makes
too much sense, and I think something does get done eventually.
Speaker 3 (13:19):
The part of their.
Speaker 1 (13:21):
Public statements I didn't buy this week was Kevin Stefanski's
total belief in Kenny Pickett. He was bringing up unprompted,
though he did bring him up up prompted, like we
love us some Kenny Pickett, And to me, that's maneuvering
to see if teams will come up and potentially trade
with them, who knows, I don't know.
Speaker 3 (13:41):
You better not do that.
Speaker 1 (13:42):
And if you're bringing in Kirk Cousins, obviously it's not necessary,
but they also know they could in theory they could
have competition for Kirk Cousins.
Speaker 3 (13:49):
I really doubt it.
Speaker 1 (13:50):
I think he is going to be the Cleveland Browns
starting quarterback, and it just makes sense by the way
Jimmy has them. Their owner spoke on Monday and to
the Cleveland brown reporters.
Speaker 3 (14:05):
I just thought this was interesting. He said.
Speaker 1 (14:06):
The organization was still recovering from quote a swing and
a miss on Watson. Deshaun Watson, hold me and Dee,
his wife, who also co owner accountable. He's calling Deshaun
Watson a swinging a miss, recognizing the obvious, but also
a different change in tone from the owner of the
(14:27):
Cleveland Browns, almost putting him in a past tense like
Deshaun Watson is somewhere on Monday and reading that the
owner of the Browns just called him a swing and
a miss, and.
Speaker 2 (14:37):
Not just a swing and a miss, but a big
swing and a miss. Finally, for the first time, the
organization admits, yeah, we screwed up. We blew that one,
and it's in the past. I mean, two achilles injuries.
I can't imagine he'd be healthy enough to play for
any substantial portion of this season, And why would you
want him to play with given what you've gotten from
him in the last couple of years anyway, injuries aside.
When he was healthy, he only looked good for a
(14:58):
half in Baltimore two seasons ago that carried everybody's belief
this season.
Speaker 1 (15:01):
That half is like the most fo overrated half I
can think of because even that it was like a
bunch of schemed up like screens and it's.
Speaker 3 (15:11):
Like, not one nice for a touchdown like that?
Speaker 5 (15:14):
Was it?
Speaker 2 (15:14):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (15:14):
It was like.
Speaker 1 (15:16):
It's interesting though that those injuries, him tearing the achilles
to begin with, and then he had a recurrent uh
setback sometime during this offseason or during the end of
last season.
Speaker 3 (15:32):
It's almost taken the Browns off the hook.
Speaker 1 (15:35):
But it's also funny because I don't think you're supposed
to be saying this stuff publicly. They almost have to
pretend like it's a good faith effort for him to
return because there's insurance money involved and they're.
Speaker 3 (15:47):
Not going to cut him any times soon. Just just
a total mess.
Speaker 1 (15:49):
Let's flip to the organization that used to be in
Cleveland and unfortunately for Browns fans, has been run very
well since moving to Baltimore. John Harbaugh signed a three
year contented extension to remain the Ravens head coach, which
is like, it's not even big news, but it just
feels like, Wow, this guy is now sixty two years old,
(16:11):
like the sneaky oldest coach in the league. He has
been there so long, I believe the second longest ten
yurre head coach behind Mike Tomlin. And he's signed up
for another three years. And before that they had Billick.
Speaker 2 (16:21):
They've had some largely a lot of continuity at the
head coaching position since they've been in Baltimore. And what
better way to ring in your thirtieth season in Baltimore,
which they're wearing a commemorative patch for this year. They
announced that today than by giving the guy who is
the patron Saint of special teams coordinator to head coach
roll 'ro out in the NFL a three year extension.
(16:42):
They are I think they've overtaken the Steelers as a
model of continuity because unlike the Steelers, they've been able
to figure out quarterback and make the right moves to
stay competitive on a year by year basis and not
just get into the playoffs. That's what keeps that rivalry strong.
Speaker 1 (16:57):
Right, I was gonna say, unlike the Steelers, they win playoffs. Now,
it's not nearly enough in the Lamar era to satisfy everyone,
but going into those playoffs, the reason people are disappointed
is because they're legitimate championship contenders and the Steelers just
haven't been. And the Ravens, you know, they do have
(17:17):
two Super Bowls since moving to Baltimore. It's now been
what thirteen years since the Flaco season, so it's been
a little time there. Due John Harbaugh, though at different
points in his tenure in Baltimore, has been on just
like the slightest of hot seats. There was one year
before they drafted Lamar where he absolutely was, and then
(17:38):
even a couple of years ago at this very league meeting,
there was a report that Lamar Jackson had asked for
a trade and at that point it just everything in
Baltimore felt a little up in the air. And what
have they done since then? Remember they were coming off
a ten and seven season there, which was coming off
an eight and nine season, so it wasn't the same vibe.
(17:58):
Since then, they've won thirteen games twelve games, had the
best offense in the league, and now Harbas says they're
actually already talking internally about giving Lamar another extension, which
makes me think they must be kind of far along
on that.
Speaker 3 (18:10):
Why is he saying that publicly?
Speaker 1 (18:11):
But maybe they saw the Josh Allen thing and they
were just going to give Lamar a raise.
Speaker 2 (18:16):
Yeah, that's the new precedent for how to extend a
quarterback early and follow the Howie Roseman approach of team building.
And also it avoids the drama that we dealt with
for like two years regarding Lamar's contract situation. So that'd
be a load off of my shoulders, as somebody who's
monitoring news constantly. Sure extend Lamar. He's obviously got two
MVPs to his name. He probably should have won one
(18:37):
last year, although Allen won it and deservedly, So why
not extend him? He is the face of your franchise.
Speaker 1 (18:43):
Well, I guess the answer would be he has a
long time left on his contract. I guess three more years.
Speaker 2 (18:49):
It's not do you think he's overcome the whole like,
oh he gets hit too much and worried about his longevity,
Because I think he has and I don't think that's
a concert anymore.
Speaker 1 (18:56):
Yes, he has made He's made that transition where where
this offense under Todd Monkin just fits him so better
and seems so much better of a long term fit.
And he was in better shape last year in terms
of having lost weight and just move faster. But I
think now you see, even if he's not giving you
the rushing value that he used to long term, that
(19:20):
his passing value is so off the charts and so
improving in a stable offense that it's going to be fine.
And by the way, part of the stability is that
he has Mark Andrews. And John Harrabaud did have some
news saying Mark Andrews will remain.
Speaker 3 (19:35):
With the Ravens. That is expected.
Speaker 1 (19:37):
He signed a contract that had a bonus in it
that came due recently, and yeah, the plan is to
keep Mark Andrews. So, just in case you were curious,
you mentioned the Titans, they haven't said anything too interesting.
They just said at the league meetings, look, if you
find a franchise quarterback, you take him. So evidence I
(19:59):
don't know four thousand and eighty that they're probably taking
cam Ward here.
Speaker 2 (20:03):
Yeah, I would imagine there's been enough hemming in hauling
about is it abdual card or do they trade out?
But I feel like the momentum has built toward cam
Woard really since Indianapolis, and it just makes the most sense.
This is a franchise that gave a swing at Will Levis.
They suffered for it, especially last year. If you're going
to get on the right track with a new head
coach who encountered all the difficulties that come with not
(20:23):
having stability at the quarterback position last year, you get
him the quarterback. You get him the guy that he wants,
that this front office wants, and then you let them
work from there, because then the clock starts. It starts
taking when you draft that quarterback. Prior to this is,
you know, kind of a mulligan. You didn't have. This
wasn't your guy, this wasn't your team. You needed time
to put your stamp on the franchise. This is the
first step toward doing that.
Speaker 3 (20:42):
All right.
Speaker 1 (20:43):
The Indianapolis Colts in the same division Shane Steichen says
that they will split reps at quarterback throughout the entire
course of the offseason. Your reaction, Shuk says, it all
but for the listening audience, what is it?
Speaker 2 (21:00):
It's just we have come so far from where we
were last year. You know, we got a month of
Anthony Richardson as a rookie. We saw all the potential
in the world. We saw some misfires, but we just thought, well,
you know, an off season of work, he's healthy, they'll
be able to put together. That's not what we got
last year. And now they've taken a pretty aggressive approach
to this, I think, and the fact that they're now,
(21:20):
you know, considering not starting him at all if the
competition wins out. And it's just such a crazy change
from where we were at this time of year ago
for a guy that you spent a top five pick
on so quickly. But that illustrates the lack of patience
in this league when it comes to the quarterback position.
If you don't produce, they're going to find somebody else.
Speaker 1 (21:38):
And they just keep being so transparent in what they mean.
A light of fire over Richardson. We want him to
be better on a daily basis. We need him, he said,
specifically to get his completion percentage up. But I just
think if the idea is to develop Anthony Richardson, having
him split reps as early as the OTAs in mini
(21:58):
camp is such a bad idea. So I think by
making that decision, you are prioritizing developing Daniel Jones, and
you're giving Daniel Jones.
Speaker 3 (22:06):
A leg up. We will see. Let's talk about the Jets.
Speaker 1 (22:10):
Aaron Glenn is always awesome whenever he talks behind the mic,
and I like the way that he's been talking about
his new quarterback justin fields.
Speaker 3 (22:18):
Listen.
Speaker 5 (22:18):
Obviously, we want to utilize his legs right, but we
also want him to play quarterback this offseason. We're going
to allow him doing oas to go out there and
running offense, and we're going to make sure we surround
him with the right type of people he's going to
make him successful.
Speaker 1 (22:35):
Yeah, he went on to say, I'm not saying they
didn't let him play quarterback in other places. That's not
my issue. But if you go back to look at
his Ohio State tape, you can see him processing that
I think he's underrated that we want him to play quarterback,
and we want to give him the tools to do
so in an offense we think is really gonna work
for him. I think they do have a vision for
(22:55):
him as an Ohio State guy.
Speaker 3 (22:57):
Schuck, do you agree? Oh, this speaks so near and
dear to.
Speaker 2 (23:02):
My heart as somebody, as one of the last few
remaining people in the fields camp, I am so glad
to hear a franchise throw all their full weight and
support behind a guy who has a ton of talent
and I feel has never been in the right situation
to show that off now. In Chicago, he didn't have
the offensive line. In Pittsburgh, the offense was kind of
simplified to maximize what he was able to do. He
wasn't supposed to be the starter of there. He ended
(23:23):
up being the starter because Russ was injured. This is
the first time in which he's going to go into
a job where it's clear that he is the priority
and that they are going to build around him and
they are going to try to support him. And Oh,
by the way, he has one of his favorite receivers
from college on his team in Garrett Wilson, and I
think there's no better situation for him. To walk into
than a team coached by Aaron Glenn, a guy who's
done it, who's played, who understands what it's like to
(23:44):
be out there in the heat of battle and knows
how challenging it is, and wants to give this guy
the best opportunity to prove who he can be. He's
got the talent that we just don't like. Where would
he be in this draft right now if we knew
nothing about his pro career, in just his college career,
where would he be in this class? He'd be the
first quarterback off the board. I think, yeah, it'd be
him in Ward one and two very closely, So why
not give him that run when he's on an affordable deal?
(24:05):
I like it.
Speaker 1 (24:07):
Yeah, I think it'd be him and Ward. I really
like Ward, So that's coloring my view. But I liked
Fields a lot coming out as prospects. You're right, I
think more teams would have had Field. What that quote
says to me, and some of the ways he talked
about the offense at Ohio State specifically and the processing
and everything else is just they gave Tanner Engstrom, the
(24:30):
offensive coordinator, the job to run this new offense, and
when they brought in Justin Fields. I think they targeted
him and they really believed if we build this specific
offense and we'll have to see what it looks like
around him, we can make this work. And so I
think that's really encouraging for all those like Nick Chuck
that still has stock in Justin Fields. By the way,
(24:54):
they did mention Elijah Arrah Tucker will remain at guard
their GM Darren Mugie said that first time he's spoken
in a while, and that means they need a right tackle.
But Vera Tuka has been very good at guard. People
wondered maybe he'd move out to Wrighte Techo. They also
signed Josh Reynolds over the weekend and gave him two
and a half million dollars guaranteed, which means he's making
the team. He was with Glenn and Detroit. They said
(25:15):
they really value him for his blocking, but that's gonna
be their their fourth or fifth receiver, So just something
to be aware of.
Speaker 3 (25:22):
All Right, I thought we'd go fast. We haven't gone
fast enough.
Speaker 1 (25:24):
We do indeed need to take one quick break and
we're going to come back on the other side. We're
gonna talk Gino, We're gonna talk Stefan Diggs. We're gonna
talk Rogers. Of course we're gonna talk here.
Speaker 3 (25:34):
Rodgers back on NFL Daily. Oh, Eric's like, oh yeah,
you said you were going to do it tight thirty minutes.
Had that work out for you?
Speaker 2 (25:49):
Whatever, it's my fault. It's my fault. Now.
Speaker 1 (25:52):
We just we just like talking to each other. Nick,
we like talking ball. It's been too well, we don't.
We don't get this.
Speaker 2 (25:57):
You know, we're across the country from each other. Excuse
us for having a good time hanging out virtually right.
Speaker 1 (26:03):
Adam Schefter had a report that Brandon Ayuk is likely
locked into San Francisco for next season because of a
you know, bonus that's coming up in his contract. And
the thing that struck me was that he said, I,
you could be ready by mid season, and I thought, oh,
(26:24):
by mid season.
Speaker 3 (26:25):
That doesn't sound great.
Speaker 1 (26:27):
And it's just funny that he's even thrown he keeps
throwing this one out there. Oh he's likely locked in.
It was almost like a last ditch effort. I've really
felt the forty nine ers have been totally open to
listening on Bran and Nyuk. I can't think of any
other circumstance like it where a trade was reportedly worked out.
It was to the Pittsburgh Steelers at the last second.
(26:48):
Ayuk kind of changed his mind. In the forty nine Ers,
h and Kyle Shanan reportedly like ran upstairs and helped
like keep him in San Francisco, and then it co well,
and then he got hurt and then he's immediately back
on the trade block. Supposedly, John Lynch explained it shook
by saying, well, some of the teams and I'm thinking
about the Patriots when that's again some of the teams
(27:09):
that were kind of in on him last year, they
were just circling around and so we'll always listen.
Speaker 3 (27:13):
But it's fine.
Speaker 1 (27:14):
It's like if it was any other player that you
gave a huge long term deal to a year ago,
wouldn't you you just shut that conversation down, wouldn't you.
Speaker 2 (27:22):
Yeah, I mean, sharks are in the water. Number one.
You always got to be paying attention to the fins
and where they're at. Be aware of your surroundings. But
this is a rare example of a franchise that typically
does not get played by contract situations. They usually handle
these really well. Getting played by this the drama that
was this whole contract situation because the leverage point that
he had going into last season, it made sense where
(27:44):
you could see him asking for more money, but it
felt a little outlandish at the time. They were not
keen on giving him that money right away. That's why
it was dragged out for so long. And then they
finally acquiesced and it almost felt like they were just
kind of their arms were twisted into doing this. And
then he gets hurt, which just complicates matter further. But
they're also at a crossroads right now where guys have left.
(28:04):
They're in a bit of a transition period because of
all the injuries they dealt with last year, and who
are they as a franchise right now? What do we
expect from them that they probably think, well, we put
this much money into them already, Let's at least see
what we can get out of him before we decide
that this was a bad decision or not.
Speaker 1 (28:18):
His contract's untradeable unless they wanted to take up on
a bunch of money. It just doesn't make end for
what it doesn't make sense. The thing that makes me
think about is what I did way back when these
two guys took the job together. It's just going to
be interesting to see how they work when the coach
has the juice. Kyle Shannon is the most important part
of the organization, and there's been times over the years
(28:41):
where you've since they were not on the same page
in certain things, which is healthy, like for too smart
football people to disagree on things, whether it was the
Mac Jones trade, lance draft, whether it was this situation
where you do get the feeling that John Lynch was
probably disappointed that in the end, I didn't just get
traded to the Steelers, whereas Kyle Sanahan, who had developed him,
(29:04):
wanted to keep him. And so this is what can happen.
But John Lynch, I don't think he's going anywhere as
far as I can tell. And they've had a ton
of success together. So for the most part, it's been
very productive. John Spytech and Pete Carroll are hoping to
have a similarly productive partnership. Let's listen to Carol talk
about Gino Smith my guy, and hit what he's going
(29:28):
to bring to the Raiders.
Speaker 6 (29:29):
Taking Gino is an immediate to fix for us. It's
going to last us. We're going to get a number
of years from Gino at his very best. He's as
healthy and ready to go. She's as tuned in as
he's ever been. But that doesn't mean that we don't
see you guys. There's some guys coming out that it
was tremendous potential and we'll just take a look at
at each spot and the opportunity that's presented and the
(29:49):
guys with the choices that we had, but we're not
excluding taking any position. A.
Speaker 1 (29:54):
Yeah, that's not surprising to me that he would say that.
It wouldn't be shocking to me if, yeah, they took
a third round quarterback maybe like a Will Howard, like,
it's not that crazy. He was with Chip Kelly and
Ohio State. You're making a face or fourth round wherever
he falls to. I'm just making the connection of the
coaching staff. I'm just saying that level of young quarterback.
(30:15):
But is interesting, he said, you know, they're expecting to
have him multiple years. It's also addressing Gino doesn't have
a contract still. John Spytech, their GM, though, said that
one is coming fairly soon. It's interesting, Nick, both Gino
Smith and Matthew Stafford, the two biggest quarterback decisions of
the off season, actually don't have contracts still, they're just
like they just trust their bosses and they worked it
(30:38):
out and they're they're fine for now.
Speaker 3 (30:40):
I guess I don't know.
Speaker 2 (30:41):
Yeah, Stafford and Lestina McVeigh bridge the gap and they
just you know, trust that it's going to get worked
out and it will. Gino, on the other hand, didn't
really have as much of us say, but he's with
the new team and is just going to let the
chips fall where they made. But the bigger question I
have who's healthier and readier to go for multiple years
of success, Gino Smith or Pete Carroll Because Pete looks
like like he had that year off really refreshed him. Man,
(31:02):
they're ready to go.
Speaker 1 (31:03):
He does, and I think he'll be happy actually to
have less to say.
Speaker 3 (31:07):
When it comes to the front office. This time around.
Speaker 1 (31:10):
He was really running that Seahawks organization and sometimes in
life it's sometimes good to have less responsibility. Could he
could just go in and coach and trust the front
office and obviously he's contributing to that a lot. He
actually mentioned, by the way, though maybe he would answer
it Gino, because he said Gino is not like a
(31:30):
normal player his age. He didn't take any hits all
those years, and that's why he's more athletic now and
he's faster now than he's ever been in his career,
which is true. I do believe Gino looks faster now.
I think he's probably taken that part of his game
even more seriously. But he also hasn't really played that
much football overall over the years. All right, let's move
(31:50):
on to the Patriots. I just wanted to mention they
cut Juwan Bentley, who's been a captain for them for
a long time, an inside linebacker, a move that makes
some sense when you think about that. They brought it
and Robert Splaine. They also brought in another former rabtor,
Jack Gibbons, by the way, and they want to get
faster there at linebacker. And then the details came out
(32:10):
of the Stefan Diggs contract. So remember it was supposedly
three for sixty nine initially, and we just didn't really
trust that. And it said twenty six million guaranteed initially,
and I was like, okay, it's probably one for twenty
six It's actually one for eighteen million, with a bunch
of per game roster bonuses that could get it up
to like twenty two, and then some other incentives of
(32:31):
making a Pro Bowl, which is very unlikely. So it's
really more like a one for eighteen million dollar deal,
and it's very much a year by year deal that
goes up slightly and they have no financial pain if
they want to move on after this year, or if
he wanted to move on for whatever reason.
Speaker 2 (32:48):
Yeah, this is a contract built on a player's past.
The roster bonuses tell me everything, because like, if it
goes really badly, then they're going to save themselves some
money if they just partways mid season a la Odell
Beckham junior with the Browns. And it's also health wise
coming back from the ACL. We don't know where you
are right now. You say you're ahead of schedule, but
we don't really fully know if you're still going to
be that guy. So they protect themselves. It's a smart
(33:08):
contract built out by them, and then it looks good
on face value for the agent who negotiated, so everybody wins,
and I guess it's lower risk than the average deal,
but then again we don't win.
Speaker 3 (33:18):
Shook.
Speaker 1 (33:18):
I'm sick of having news reports, sports news reports. I'm
used to it in general with news reports, but news
reports that you have to be like, well, we'll actually
have to find out the real story.
Speaker 2 (33:28):
This is the ecosystem which we live. We live in
this world. We are now to these types of things.
Speaker 3 (33:34):
We can these people.
Speaker 1 (33:37):
I want to push back and I want to talk
about this with Ian Rappaport or some insider on the
show because it's ridiculous.
Speaker 3 (33:44):
But yeah, it's like a one for twenty. It was
actually as a good deal for Diggs.
Speaker 1 (33:48):
I think it's a fair deal for him, and it's
a good deal for the Patriots because it's not it's
not my money. Who cares if they have way too
much cap space as they've been saying all off season long,
and if it works out, then they'll have them under
contract for a couple of years. They also expect Christian Barmore,
who had those blood clot issues that made him miss
most of the last season, but then he played, but
then they popped up again, so I was wondering about
(34:09):
his future. They said he will be in the building
and he's cleared for OTAs I believe, so that's a
great sign for them. Sean McDermott is the public enemy
number one right now in Philadelphia, I just wanted to
mention this quickly. You don't even need to comment that
he is leading the brigade to try to abolish the
Push Push. I don't want to talk about it because
we're going to find out the answer whether it is
(34:29):
abolished or not on Tuesday, So this is going to
be old quickly. But I just happened to look, I've
been I went through every coach and was just searching
on Google and on Twitter especially, like you know where
what people were saying and anything. Sean McDermott is just
seventy five Joe bananas from Philadelphia burying this guy saying
(34:51):
take away his residency from being born in Pennsylvania. They
don't claim Sean McDermott anymore. He also worked for the
Eagles back in the day. They Sean McDermott.
Speaker 2 (35:01):
Chrissy Cheese Steaks all upset because Sean McDermott wants to
outlaw the Touchhbush. What's funny as them and the Eagles
with only two teams that ran it at like a
really high rate, and it still goes back to the
AFC Championship game in which they ran it off the left,
which they always did and got stuffed, you know, controversially,
did they not get it? You know, it's just funny
that they are now the proponent behind outlawing it.
Speaker 1 (35:21):
Well, and a lot of the Eagles fans pointed out,
yet you use it a ton and one of the reporters,
they're asked, well, if you're so worried about health and safety,
because what's what McDermott says is what's driving him, even
though there's no stats about it being bad for your health,
would you commit to not using it.
Speaker 3 (35:40):
In the future, and he wouldn't commit to it.
Speaker 2 (35:43):
Yeah, of course, because if it works, it works.
Speaker 1 (35:45):
That's a great question. Whoever did it? I don't know
who did it. On the Aaron Rodgers front, it's taken
this long to get to him in the show. I
consider that growth deserving. He threw a DK metcalf over
the weekend and man, that's another sign that this thing
is is probably happening. And Mike Tomlin, you know, was
(36:06):
asked about Aaron Rodgers and didn't totally reveal anything, but
I do think he revealed some things and how he
talked about it, let's listen to him and thought a
lot about it.
Speaker 3 (36:16):
There is no drop dead date specifically in my mind though.
Speaker 1 (36:20):
Okay, also, yeah, he said therein and then they followed
up a little bit and he said, well, training camp,
that would probably be the line of demarcation where you're
really feeling like you're losing recipes as it were, you know,
along the way. So maybe maybe they're like, hey, don't
worry about it. You don't have to you don't have
(36:40):
to like show up for ots.
Speaker 2 (36:42):
It makes me think about his first year with the
Jets though, and he didn't show up for OTA's and
mini camp and stuff like that because and it was
like everybody was worried about that, and because there was
a calf issue at the time and everything else. That
leads to the Achilles. You're with a new team, you'd
think you'd want to get, you know, there during the install,
no matter how old you are.
Speaker 1 (37:00):
So you could have been at the Chipotle with Kirk Cousins.
In theory, I could have been at the UCLA field,
although it's probably yeah, not accessible security. Might maybe I
could have seen DK Metcalf and Aaron Rodgers over there UCLA. Yeah,
shout out to the to the Lady Bruins here Final
(37:21):
four first ever ever and yeah, like one of my
favorite tennis players, Osak Naomi Osaka is always playing tennis
over there. Like UCLA, that's just the place to see
some big time athletes.
Speaker 2 (37:34):
It's premier athletes out of Westwood.
Speaker 1 (37:36):
Poor Tomlin, by the way, Eric, let us know our producer,
if you're watching on YouTube, just how just sweaty Tomlin
looked and just it's not a comfortable situation, like everyone
is around him, and in general, these breakfasts are a
tough spot. We saw Mark Coboli, who works for Pat
(37:59):
McAfee show now, looking like he was falling asleep, like
these are early morning breakfasts, and some of these coaches
shook look like they weren't quite ready for that seven
am wake up call. And I got to say, having
been there a lot, Tomlin is high on that list
of guys that maybe aren't totally ready for you.
Speaker 2 (38:16):
It's a rough setting to walk into. I am notoriously
a blear eyed individual early in the morning. If you
ever run to me at the Combine, you've probably seen
that before, so I understand. It's also tightly packed, and
he's got studio lighting on him. Those lights get hot
and a bit in a room packed with a lot
of body heat that early in the morning, you could
be disorienting. You can make you a look out of sorts.
So I understand.
Speaker 1 (38:36):
It's humid there in Florida. I know they're inside and everything,
but it travels.
Speaker 2 (38:40):
That was the setting in which I first discovered that
Freddy Kitchens would wear the quarters at with nothing on underneath.
I was like, oh, did you forget a shirt?
Speaker 1 (38:49):
That was the setting where after the coaches interviews happened,
I was not so subtly threatened by another NFL figure
who not like what I had been saying on the.
Speaker 3 (39:01):
Around the NFL. Was it in a Starbucks?
Speaker 1 (39:04):
I'm no, it was right there in that in that
breakfast room or whatever. As as I was like wrapping
up uncomfortable, but you know, early I got out of it.
Speaker 3 (39:15):
Let's let's kind of close the circle. On Rogers.
Speaker 1 (39:17):
I thought it was interesting to hear Kevin O'Connell first
really talk up you know, his guy JJ McCarthy on
Kevin Clark's podcast, and so that was interesting to hear.
And then he was asked about the Aaron Rodgers talk
and he said, multiple things can be true, we could
believe in Essentially, I'm paraphrasing him here, But essentially, we
can believe in JJ McCarthy and we can look at
(39:38):
the unique opportunity that is Aaron Rodgers, a four time
MVP winner who we have a relationship with, being interested
in talking to us. Kevin O'Connell pointed that out, that
he wanted to talk to us and at least considering
that and having conversations about it. And my big takeaway
from all that was, I think Kevin O'Connell's hanging out
with Jordan Rodrigue too much now because he's doing the
(40:01):
multiple things can be true line and that's her line.
So yeah, I feel I feel like it's contagious and
he got it from.
Speaker 3 (40:06):
Her that And I think, what is another one?
Speaker 2 (40:07):
Hat hot, where like you look better when you're wearing
a hat like Cliff Kingsbury's sunglasses hot for example. Uh,
it's in the whole array of it. Yeah, But also
that's his phrase that who knows that's that's a Jordan phrase?
Is hat hot? Like you look better in a hat?
And I'm a subscriber to the idea that some people
look better in sunglasses than not. But it also speaks
to the fact that he even framed it as Rogers
(40:28):
was interested in us, not necessarily the other way. And
it does speak highly about where we are as a
franchise right now. Pat myself on the back a little bit. Yeah,
that's a pretty good job.
Speaker 1 (40:38):
I don't know if that that's it's a good point
that he did point that out. And I thought you
were saying that O'Connell is hat hot.
Speaker 2 (40:46):
No, he's just a good looking guy.
Speaker 3 (40:49):
Actually, he would be a candidate to be hat hot, I.
Speaker 2 (40:51):
Hate, especially if his hair is thinning.
Speaker 1 (40:55):
Which is I would say the number one characteristic and
hat hot would be your hair.
Speaker 2 (41:00):
The hairs strug. Honestly, you could probably call me hat
hot now that I think about it.
Speaker 3 (41:04):
No, because you look good.
Speaker 1 (41:06):
Shaved bald, that's all I've seen, but you look great
in it. The fitting is the bigger issue. And you know,
I lie awake and fear of it happening. You know,
it happened to almost everyone. It happens to almost everyone.
I'm okay so far. Their owner is Ziggie Wolfbaile the Wolf,
by the way, said they're working on an extension for
Questa of Dofamensa. So just something to keep an eye on.
(41:27):
Interesting though, that Kevin O'Connell got his ODOFAMENSA did not.
But if it's going to happen, it's going to happen.
Just a couple very quick items, and we are going
to say goodbye. Brad Holmes, the Lions GM, who will
see his coach speak tomorrow at the NFC Coaches Breakfast,
said they are heading in the direction expected to pick
up a fifth year option for Jamison Williams, so a
(41:48):
nice career development for him after a few disappointing years.
It's only fifteen point five million. It's funny we're so
far removed from this CBA being sign that the salaries
have spiked so much. One year fifteen point five million,
that's barely more than like two two at well money.
So of course you're given that to Jamison Williams. So
they're gonna probably add one year to his contract. And
(42:08):
then two people we used to cover quite extensively on
around the NFL, Frank Reich and Andrew Luck, they're joining
forces again. It's Frank Reich is going to be the
interim head coach at Stanford where Andrew Luck is the GM.
He's going to be the interim coach for one season,
which is weird. But they're in a weird situation because
(42:29):
they had to fire their coach at this point in
the off season because of some allegations from students there,
the female students at Stanford. So it's just a tough
situation for the college to be in, and that's what
they decided to do.
Speaker 2 (42:45):
Yeah, it was kind of a shock that I saw
Andrew Luck listed as the general manager of Stanford and
I was like, WHOA, when did that happen? Number one,
and I thought, he's still doing his book club And
number two, how do you recruit when you have a
coach there for a year? Hey, come here, but you're
not going to play for me. We will find a
guy that you will like to play for. You're just
not going to meet him yet because we don't know
who he is yet.
Speaker 3 (43:05):
See.
Speaker 1 (43:05):
I was all over the Luck announcement. It was right
in the middle of the season. I believe it was
a little after Thanksgiving but before Christmas, somewhere in that area.
Speaker 3 (43:14):
Because I just love me some Andrew Luck.
Speaker 1 (43:15):
I'm always tracking what he's up to, and it was
good to see him trying to find some fulfillment in life.
All Right, that's it. For today's show, Eric was right
once again. He's undefeated. Le's play the music. My fault, No,
it's nobody's fault. It's definitely my fault.
Speaker 2 (43:29):
Background back and just go long.
Speaker 1 (43:32):
If it's anyone's fault, it's always my fault. So that shook.
That was today's show. Colleen Patrick and Jordan Rodrigue all
part of our next show. We're going to be finding
out what are the new rules of twenty twenty five
and yeah, when we're honking too long in the garage,
you know football is back.
Welcome to NFL Daily, where we don't need any freaking
fancy hotels, great swag bags at the owners meetings, We're
having fun, We have each other. I'm in my garage,
I'm talking to Nick Shook on NFL Daily here. Yes,
during annual league meeting week and you've done the league meeting, Shook,
(00:27):
what was your time at a.
Speaker 2 (00:30):
League meeting like it was in Phoenix. It was at
a quite a resort and it was a fantastic don't
think I got a swag bag though, but definitely a
higher air of luxury, and you know, you're around some
real decision makers, some real power players in the NFL.
Speaker 1 (00:45):
There's always a little bit of awkwardness that we work
for the NFL and you're when you're covering the NFL
and you're like staying at the same hotels or you know,
seeing them around.
Speaker 3 (00:56):
But it's no more awkward than at this.
Speaker 1 (00:58):
Owner's meetings, where you just feel like, why why am
I at this hotel with the billionaires because there's a
ton of other reporters there, but they don't let them
stay in the hotel. They have to stay like somewhere
nearby and then drive in every day. But no, we
are not there, but the rest of the league is.
And this is going to be a tight news show, Nick,
We're gonna kind of clear the decks of a lot
(01:20):
that's happened over the weekend. Just a lot of little
drips and drabs. But if you want to stay on
top of the NFL a lot of stuff. I think
you want to know. The sixteen AFC coaches all spoke
to the media for anywhere between thirty and fifty minutes
on Monday morning, So we'll go over a lot of
what they said, and then we'll get you on your way,
because I feel like a lot's coming on Tuesday with
(01:42):
all the rules changes, the NFC coaches are happening. We'll
actually get Jordan rod Rieg of The Athletic and also
NFL Daily, who's there. She's going to come on the
show along with me and Patrick and Colleen and so
Eric always laughs at me, shook When I say it's
going to be just like a tight show. I think
we can do it.
Speaker 2 (02:00):
I mean we've been known to be keep it tight
sometimes and go a little bit longer sometimes.
Speaker 1 (02:04):
I don't think we need a vamp. Today will be fine, Okay. Also,
Nick looks great. He's wearing his NFL Pro shirt. You
can't really totally see it, but he also his background
looks great, so good job moving in. Congratulations to you
and your friends. It looks fantastic.
Speaker 2 (02:18):
I got to give a shout out number one to
Bill Smith or slide me the shirt you know, always
down to promote NFL Pro. Check it out. It's a
very useful two tool. And then number two to the haters,
to everybody who might hate, including you, Greg on my
half apparent background last week in the middle of moving,
I've now put the hard set in. We're back to normal, baby,
(02:38):
and it looks fantastic.
Speaker 1 (02:39):
Least, you know, sometimes constructive criticism, it's just motivation. So
I think the YouTube commenters if they were getting on you,
I don't know, but it looks great. It doesn't always
look great when you're looking at these coaches by the
way at the breakfast, because they're just surrounded by guys
and girls are just like over the top of them,
(03:00):
but they're sitting there supposedly supposed to be eating breakfast,
but no one really usually does that. And then there
are some coaches who are on the hot seat and
it feels like they are on the hot seat, and
then there's just a weird vibe at a time of
year that shouldn't have weird vibes. That was the vibe
I got from Mike McDaniel today. He answered a lot
of questions about Tyreek Hill, including one about, you know,
(03:23):
whether Tyreek Hill was going to still be on this
roster after some social media we'll talk about.
Speaker 3 (03:29):
After listening to McDaniel.
Speaker 4 (03:30):
I can certainly say with certainty that at this certain moment,
you know.
Speaker 2 (03:36):
I think that that's uh.
Speaker 4 (03:38):
There a lot of things can happen in the National
Football League. So you throw absolutes out there, and then
I'm one, hey, you said this, I mean, but yeah,
we are fully planning to move forward as a better
version of our of our relationship with Tyreek and the
(04:03):
Miami Dolphins. So I have no reason to think otherwise.
Speaker 1 (04:07):
Like a lot of McDaniel's quotes, it's a fun journey
to get there. The part that struck me other than
him repeating the word certainly five times at the beginning,
was that they want to move forward with a better
version of their relationship with Tyreek Hill. So like that
right there is saying like, well, the version of our
relationship last year what wasn't the best, then we're hoping
(04:28):
to move forward with this better version of it.
Speaker 2 (04:30):
Now. Yeah, it's been a weird you know, talk about
Mike McDaniel answers, which are can be weird journeys in themselves.
It's been a weird journey for the Dolphins in Tyreek
over the last year because it wasn't too long ago
that he was the focal point of the most explosive
offense in the NFL and he was the center of fun.
He was catching touchdown passes, doing backflips and grabbing a
phone on the sideline and doing a selfie video that
went viral. And then the next year he was not
(04:52):
really like a parent in the offense at times. He
didn't get the targets and the looks that he had.
He had that incident where he was handcuffed before game,
like it just seemed like he was never healthy. There
was just a lot of things that went off track
for them, outside of losing to a tongue of a
little early in the season. So if there ever were
a time to have a bounce back year, it is
now for the Dolphins, and I think it starts with
a guy that makes a lot of money is a
(05:13):
focal point of your offense. And Tyreek Hill, is that
going to happen? Is that guaranteed? I don't know. I'm
not going to bank on it. I don't really trust
them at this point, but at least they're working toward it.
Speaker 3 (05:21):
We'll see if they are.
Speaker 1 (05:23):
Even the way he got to the answer like, look,
a lot of things could happen in the NFL. It's
not totally up to Mike McDaniel either. But the reason
it's popped up more in recent weeks is or over
the weekend, Tyreek Hill had a tweet in response to
over the Cap actually was asked the question is just
(05:44):
some part of some Twitter mailbag of like, hey, who
do you think is like a possible big name that
could get traded over the weekend?
Speaker 3 (05:50):
Who's to be the most likely?
Speaker 1 (05:52):
And he wrote out tyreek Hill, and I think he's
just spitballing based on contracts, based on everything we've seen.
And tyreek Hill, you know, quote tweets that with with
a peace side and lets everyone interpret that how they wish.
And McDaniel's getting grilled by it about it, and he's saying, well,
Tyreek's an entertainer and it's just like, I don't know, man.
Speaker 2 (06:11):
He has been known to throw out the deuces when
he scores touchdowns.
Speaker 1 (06:14):
Sure, but he's just like, yeah, don't take what he
says seriously on social media. But I am and I
think that deal could happen, by the way. He also
was asked Mike McDaniel about Kalais Campbell and Tron Armstead.
Armstead is their left tackle still on their roster, but
they're not sure about his status whether he's going to
(06:34):
keep playing football or not, and McDaniel said they're hoping
to get a conclusion to that soon. And then Kalais Campbell,
he mentioned, is in a great position where they would
love to have him back, but that Kalais Campbell is
at the point of his career he might have options
after playing so well. So Kalaius Campbell I think is
kind of figuring out where he wants to go, but
Miami would like to get him back.
Speaker 2 (06:55):
He could take this the straight hand approach too, just
skip training camp entirely and sign somewhere.
Speaker 3 (07:00):
Yes, I think that would be a good move.
Speaker 1 (07:02):
I think Aaron would Aaron Rodgers do that, but just
with the mini camp and OTAs.
Speaker 3 (07:06):
We'll talk about that in a little bit.
Speaker 1 (07:08):
The Bills, they signed Kristin Benford over the weekend four years,
seventy six million dollars. It's really been a focus of
their offseason, signing guys two long term deals that were
already on the roster. James Cook, however, according to the GM,
Brandon Bean will not be getting a new contract anytime soon,
(07:30):
but they do lock up Christin Benford. A nice development
story for a guy that was taken on the third
day of the draft.
Speaker 2 (07:36):
Yeah, this speaks to their philosophy and when you know,
Sean McDermott kind of retained or regained control of the defense.
They were shifting back toward the defense last year. And
it doesn't answer a screaming need that we had talked
about for them, but it kind of does because we
talked about depth in the secondary. He was already on
the roster, but they lock him down and at least
get that taken care of before addressing other areas. So
it makes a lot of sense. And then I think
(07:57):
you said it when we talked about it last week,
which is the James Cook felt like a guy that
they were going to extend, So not a surprise there.
But then again, if he has a great year, does
the price go up? You know, it's kind of a
precarious position when it comes to planning out your offense
unless you just view running back as an interchangeable position.
Speaker 1 (08:13):
You could also use the franchise tag on him, which
isn't too crazy at running back.
Speaker 3 (08:17):
So that's always out there. I not to pat ourselves at.
Speaker 1 (08:20):
The back, but I go back to our off season
previews for these teams, and part of the exercise was
looking at guys that could sign long term, and we said, wow,
it's crazy how the Bills, like so many of their
good players are up for free agency. If you made
a list of the best free agents in twenty twenty six,
a lot of them are Bills and we went through it,
so we said it maybe makes sense for them to
start signing these guys early. Since then, they have signed
(08:43):
Greg Russo, Khalil Shakir, Terrell Bernard, and Kristin Benford for
long term contracts. So if you're wondering, not to mention,
you opened up cap space by somehow paying Josh Allen
even more money, So good job on that too. So
if you're wondering how team like the Eagles, And I've
heard this like, how do all these good players like
(09:04):
fit under the cap? It doesn't make any sense. This
is how like teams like the Bills planning a year ahead.
So so good on the Bills, even though they weren't
crazy in free agency. They made a couple of nice pickups,
but their best pickups were what they did in house.
Let's talk about your Browns. It's Brown season, which means
draft season. They have a high pick. They came out
(09:24):
and said, weirdly, let's just start with this part of
the equation that it's unlikely that they will trade up
for Kim Ward. That's what Andrew Berry said, and then
Stefanski said it as well.
Speaker 3 (09:34):
Andrew Berry, their GM.
Speaker 1 (09:37):
You just don't normally hear team say it's unlikely we're
going to make that trade up.
Speaker 3 (09:42):
Why why do you think they did that?
Speaker 2 (09:43):
Nick? Well, first off, there's no precedent for a team
going from two to one in the history of the
NFL in the common draft era, So that's probably the
first point. You could just say, well, it's never been
done before, and so we're not likely to do that.
I also think that if you admitted that you were
likely to are you we at least interested in it,
give up a little bit of leverage, and ultimately, and
(10:03):
most importantly, I just think they're not gonna do it.
I think they're gonna let the draft come to them.
Even at number two. Maybe you see them trade down
if they don't want a quarterback or if they go
with a dual carter. All the options are on the table.
I've been saying this for weeks, and I think it's
gonna be more and more true as we get close
to the draft. It will be one of the more
unpredictable drafts we've seen over the last decade. And it
starts at number two with what the Browns can do
because frankly, even though we know they need a quarterback,
(10:25):
we really have no idea in which direction they're gonna proceed.
Speaker 3 (10:28):
I hear you, and it's true.
Speaker 1 (10:30):
All options are available, and they could just be saying
that to say something.
Speaker 3 (10:35):
But it's just weird that they said that.
Speaker 1 (10:37):
Usually they say all options are on the table, but
they were kind of saying this option is not on
the table. My read of that was aire they wouldn't
say that unless it was true. I don't think they
would go that hard actually even though I know it's
lion season. And then b they're they're almost saying, don't
use us as as potential bait, like if they hear
(10:58):
it like the Titans, like we're sending in a signal
like we're not moving up, so don't try to use
us to make it sound like they're moving up. Who knows,
or maybe they're trying to tell teams out there. The
draft starts at two, like you did come to us,
don't come to Tennessee.
Speaker 2 (11:13):
And this follows Tennessee kind of putting it out there
slyly last week, which is like, hey, you know, we're
not set on what we're going to do. Like they
didn't explicitly say it, but they were like, we take calls.
Speaker 3 (11:23):
If you wanted to trade up, you want to give
us King's ransom.
Speaker 1 (11:25):
Okay, Now that's part one of the Browns equation. Part
two is that Kirk Cousins was taking pictures at a
Cleveland area Chipotle tohook. I thought of having you do
the show from that Chipotle, but we don't have a sponsorship.
I don't know if you're really a Chipotle guy. You
take care of your body somehow, I doubt it Yeah.
Speaker 2 (11:46):
Actually, here's the thing. If you're taking care of your
body and looking for something pretty clean, you can go
to Chipotle and get a meal of solid meal that
that'll fit into your macros. I go to Chipotle all
the time. When I found out about this, I first
wanted to know which Chipotle because I frequent a few
of them in the Cleveland area. And number two, how
was I not there? Because I'm there all of the time.
So missed opportunity for me. But interesting, for sure, it.
Speaker 1 (12:07):
Would have been amazing it really, I mean, he was
probably meeting with the Browns. There was a report that
he wants to be traded after the draft. That's been
consistent for a couple of months. It was presented as
new this last week, but actually our insiders had that.
Garatfolo said that back before free agency. I got to
think that when Miles Garrett was saying he had an
(12:30):
idea of what they were doing at quarterback, I gotta.
Speaker 3 (12:32):
Think it's Kirk Cousins.
Speaker 1 (12:33):
K he was meeting with the Browns and he just
wants to get past the draft and make sure that
they don't take a quarterback, and then he's going to
be a Cleveland Brown so I'm not buying you Stefanski,
when you're talking about Schadur and what a great impression
he's making and they are going to work him out
by the way.
Speaker 2 (12:50):
Yeah, And when Miles nodded with that interview with Andrews
Siciliano and looked pretty confident he knew it was going
to be quarterback. Immediately in my head, I was like,
it's Kirk Cousins and the picture sets off. You know,
everybody texts me.
Speaker 3 (13:02):
What do you know? What's going on?
Speaker 2 (13:03):
I'm just like, I'm telling you guys, just wait. Wait
for April, late April. I think that's when something potentially happens.
It just I can't fathom a scenario in which they
go into the season with Kenny Pickett and a rookie
quarterback and those are their only options. It just makes
too much sense, and I think something does get done eventually.
Speaker 3 (13:19):
The part of their.
Speaker 1 (13:21):
Public statements I didn't buy this week was Kevin Stefanski's
total belief in Kenny Pickett. He was bringing up unprompted,
though he did bring him up up prompted, like we
love us some Kenny Pickett, And to me, that's maneuvering
to see if teams will come up and potentially trade
with them, who knows, I don't know.
Speaker 3 (13:41):
You better not do that.
Speaker 1 (13:42):
And if you're bringing in Kirk Cousins, obviously it's not necessary,
but they also know they could in theory they could
have competition for Kirk Cousins.
Speaker 3 (13:49):
I really doubt it.
Speaker 1 (13:50):
I think he is going to be the Cleveland Browns
starting quarterback, and it just makes sense by the way
Jimmy has them. Their owner spoke on Monday and to
the Cleveland brown reporters.
Speaker 3 (14:05):
I just thought this was interesting. He said.
Speaker 1 (14:06):
The organization was still recovering from quote a swing and
a miss on Watson. Deshaun Watson, hold me and Dee,
his wife, who also co owner accountable. He's calling Deshaun
Watson a swinging a miss, recognizing the obvious, but also
a different change in tone from the owner of the
(14:27):
Cleveland Browns, almost putting him in a past tense like
Deshaun Watson is somewhere on Monday and reading that the
owner of the Browns just called him a swing and
a miss, and.
Speaker 2 (14:37):
Not just a swing and a miss, but a big
swing and a miss. Finally, for the first time, the
organization admits, yeah, we screwed up. We blew that one,
and it's in the past. I mean, two achilles injuries.
I can't imagine he'd be healthy enough to play for
any substantial portion of this season, And why would you
want him to play with given what you've gotten from
him in the last couple of years anyway, injuries aside.
When he was healthy, he only looked good for a
(14:58):
half in Baltimore two seasons ago that carried everybody's belief
this season.
Speaker 1 (15:01):
That half is like the most fo overrated half I
can think of because even that it was like a
bunch of schemed up like screens and it's.
Speaker 3 (15:11):
Like, not one nice for a touchdown like that?
Speaker 5 (15:14):
Was it?
Speaker 2 (15:14):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (15:14):
It was like.
Speaker 1 (15:16):
It's interesting though that those injuries, him tearing the achilles
to begin with, and then he had a recurrent uh
setback sometime during this offseason or during the end of
last season.
Speaker 3 (15:32):
It's almost taken the Browns off the hook.
Speaker 1 (15:35):
But it's also funny because I don't think you're supposed
to be saying this stuff publicly. They almost have to
pretend like it's a good faith effort for him to
return because there's insurance money involved and they're.
Speaker 3 (15:47):
Not going to cut him any times soon. Just just
a total mess.
Speaker 1 (15:49):
Let's flip to the organization that used to be in
Cleveland and unfortunately for Browns fans, has been run very
well since moving to Baltimore. John Harbaugh signed a three
year contented extension to remain the Ravens head coach, which
is like, it's not even big news, but it just
feels like, Wow, this guy is now sixty two years old,
(16:11):
like the sneaky oldest coach in the league. He has
been there so long, I believe the second longest ten
yurre head coach behind Mike Tomlin. And he's signed up
for another three years. And before that they had Billick.
Speaker 2 (16:21):
They've had some largely a lot of continuity at the
head coaching position since they've been in Baltimore. And what
better way to ring in your thirtieth season in Baltimore,
which they're wearing a commemorative patch for this year. They
announced that today than by giving the guy who is
the patron Saint of special teams coordinator to head coach
roll 'ro out in the NFL a three year extension.
(16:42):
They are I think they've overtaken the Steelers as a
model of continuity because unlike the Steelers, they've been able
to figure out quarterback and make the right moves to
stay competitive on a year by year basis and not
just get into the playoffs. That's what keeps that rivalry strong.
Speaker 1 (16:57):
Right, I was gonna say, unlike the Steelers, they win playoffs. Now,
it's not nearly enough in the Lamar era to satisfy everyone,
but going into those playoffs, the reason people are disappointed
is because they're legitimate championship contenders and the Steelers just
haven't been. And the Ravens, you know, they do have
(17:17):
two Super Bowls since moving to Baltimore. It's now been
what thirteen years since the Flaco season, so it's been
a little time there. Due John Harbaugh, though at different
points in his tenure in Baltimore, has been on just
like the slightest of hot seats. There was one year
before they drafted Lamar where he absolutely was, and then
(17:38):
even a couple of years ago at this very league meeting,
there was a report that Lamar Jackson had asked for
a trade and at that point it just everything in
Baltimore felt a little up in the air. And what
have they done since then? Remember they were coming off
a ten and seven season there, which was coming off
an eight and nine season, so it wasn't the same vibe.
(17:58):
Since then, they've won thirteen games twelve games, had the
best offense in the league, and now Harbas says they're
actually already talking internally about giving Lamar another extension, which
makes me think they must be kind of far along
on that.
Speaker 3 (18:10):
Why is he saying that publicly?
Speaker 1 (18:11):
But maybe they saw the Josh Allen thing and they
were just going to give Lamar a raise.
Speaker 2 (18:16):
Yeah, that's the new precedent for how to extend a
quarterback early and follow the Howie Roseman approach of team building.
And also it avoids the drama that we dealt with
for like two years regarding Lamar's contract situation. So that'd
be a load off of my shoulders, as somebody who's
monitoring news constantly. Sure extend Lamar. He's obviously got two
MVPs to his name. He probably should have won one
(18:37):
last year, although Allen won it and deservedly, So why
not extend him? He is the face of your franchise.
Speaker 1 (18:43):
Well, I guess the answer would be he has a
long time left on his contract. I guess three more years.
Speaker 2 (18:49):
It's not do you think he's overcome the whole like,
oh he gets hit too much and worried about his longevity,
Because I think he has and I don't think that's
a concert anymore.
Speaker 1 (18:56):
Yes, he has made He's made that transition where where
this offense under Todd Monkin just fits him so better
and seems so much better of a long term fit.
And he was in better shape last year in terms
of having lost weight and just move faster. But I
think now you see, even if he's not giving you
the rushing value that he used to long term, that
(19:20):
his passing value is so off the charts and so
improving in a stable offense that it's going to be fine.
And by the way, part of the stability is that
he has Mark Andrews. And John Harrabaud did have some
news saying Mark Andrews will remain.
Speaker 3 (19:35):
With the Ravens. That is expected.
Speaker 1 (19:37):
He signed a contract that had a bonus in it
that came due recently, and yeah, the plan is to
keep Mark Andrews. So, just in case you were curious,
you mentioned the Titans, they haven't said anything too interesting.
They just said at the league meetings, look, if you
find a franchise quarterback, you take him. So evidence I
(19:59):
don't know four thousand and eighty that they're probably taking
cam Ward here.
Speaker 2 (20:03):
Yeah, I would imagine there's been enough hemming in hauling
about is it abdual card or do they trade out?
But I feel like the momentum has built toward cam
Woard really since Indianapolis, and it just makes the most sense.
This is a franchise that gave a swing at Will Levis.
They suffered for it, especially last year. If you're going
to get on the right track with a new head
coach who encountered all the difficulties that come with not
(20:23):
having stability at the quarterback position last year, you get
him the quarterback. You get him the guy that he wants,
that this front office wants, and then you let them
work from there, because then the clock starts. It starts
taking when you draft that quarterback. Prior to this is,
you know, kind of a mulligan. You didn't have. This
wasn't your guy, this wasn't your team. You needed time
to put your stamp on the franchise. This is the
first step toward doing that.
Speaker 3 (20:42):
All right.
Speaker 1 (20:43):
The Indianapolis Colts in the same division Shane Steichen says
that they will split reps at quarterback throughout the entire
course of the offseason. Your reaction, Shuk says, it all
but for the listening audience, what is it?
Speaker 2 (21:00):
It's just we have come so far from where we
were last year. You know, we got a month of
Anthony Richardson as a rookie. We saw all the potential
in the world. We saw some misfires, but we just thought, well,
you know, an off season of work, he's healthy, they'll
be able to put together. That's not what we got
last year. And now they've taken a pretty aggressive approach
to this, I think, and the fact that they're now,
(21:20):
you know, considering not starting him at all if the
competition wins out. And it's just such a crazy change
from where we were at this time of year ago
for a guy that you spent a top five pick
on so quickly. But that illustrates the lack of patience
in this league when it comes to the quarterback position.
If you don't produce, they're going to find somebody else.
Speaker 1 (21:38):
And they just keep being so transparent in what they mean.
A light of fire over Richardson. We want him to
be better on a daily basis. We need him, he said,
specifically to get his completion percentage up. But I just
think if the idea is to develop Anthony Richardson, having
him split reps as early as the OTAs in mini
(21:58):
camp is such a bad idea. So I think by
making that decision, you are prioritizing developing Daniel Jones, and
you're giving Daniel Jones.
Speaker 3 (22:06):
A leg up. We will see. Let's talk about the Jets.
Speaker 1 (22:10):
Aaron Glenn is always awesome whenever he talks behind the mic,
and I like the way that he's been talking about
his new quarterback justin fields.
Speaker 3 (22:18):
Listen.
Speaker 5 (22:18):
Obviously, we want to utilize his legs right, but we
also want him to play quarterback this offseason. We're going
to allow him doing oas to go out there and
running offense, and we're going to make sure we surround
him with the right type of people he's going to
make him successful.
Speaker 1 (22:35):
Yeah, he went on to say, I'm not saying they
didn't let him play quarterback in other places. That's not
my issue. But if you go back to look at
his Ohio State tape, you can see him processing that
I think he's underrated that we want him to play quarterback,
and we want to give him the tools to do
so in an offense we think is really gonna work
for him. I think they do have a vision for
(22:55):
him as an Ohio State guy.
Speaker 3 (22:57):
Schuck, do you agree? Oh, this speaks so near and
dear to.
Speaker 2 (23:02):
My heart as somebody, as one of the last few
remaining people in the fields camp, I am so glad
to hear a franchise throw all their full weight and
support behind a guy who has a ton of talent
and I feel has never been in the right situation
to show that off now. In Chicago, he didn't have
the offensive line. In Pittsburgh, the offense was kind of
simplified to maximize what he was able to do. He
wasn't supposed to be the starter of there. He ended
(23:23):
up being the starter because Russ was injured. This is
the first time in which he's going to go into
a job where it's clear that he is the priority
and that they are going to build around him and
they are going to try to support him. And Oh,
by the way, he has one of his favorite receivers
from college on his team in Garrett Wilson, and I
think there's no better situation for him. To walk into
than a team coached by Aaron Glenn, a guy who's
done it, who's played, who understands what it's like to
(23:44):
be out there in the heat of battle and knows
how challenging it is, and wants to give this guy
the best opportunity to prove who he can be. He's
got the talent that we just don't like. Where would
he be in this draft right now if we knew
nothing about his pro career, in just his college career,
where would he be in this class? He'd be the
first quarterback off the board. I think, yeah, it'd be
him in Ward one and two very closely, So why
not give him that run when he's on an affordable deal?
(24:05):
I like it.
Speaker 1 (24:07):
Yeah, I think it'd be him and Ward. I really
like Ward, So that's coloring my view. But I liked
Fields a lot coming out as prospects. You're right, I
think more teams would have had Field. What that quote
says to me, and some of the ways he talked
about the offense at Ohio State specifically and the processing
and everything else is just they gave Tanner Engstrom, the
(24:30):
offensive coordinator, the job to run this new offense, and
when they brought in Justin Fields. I think they targeted
him and they really believed if we build this specific
offense and we'll have to see what it looks like
around him, we can make this work. And so I
think that's really encouraging for all those like Nick Chuck
that still has stock in Justin Fields. By the way,
(24:54):
they did mention Elijah Arrah Tucker will remain at guard
their GM Darren Mugie said that first time he's spoken
in a while, and that means they need a right tackle.
But Vera Tuka has been very good at guard. People
wondered maybe he'd move out to Wrighte Techo. They also
signed Josh Reynolds over the weekend and gave him two
and a half million dollars guaranteed, which means he's making
the team. He was with Glenn and Detroit. They said
(25:15):
they really value him for his blocking, but that's gonna
be their their fourth or fifth receiver, So just something
to be aware of.
Speaker 3 (25:22):
All Right, I thought we'd go fast. We haven't gone
fast enough.
Speaker 1 (25:24):
We do indeed need to take one quick break and
we're going to come back on the other side. We're
gonna talk Gino, We're gonna talk Stefan Diggs. We're gonna
talk Rogers. Of course we're gonna talk here.
Speaker 3 (25:34):
Rodgers back on NFL Daily. Oh, Eric's like, oh yeah,
you said you were going to do it tight thirty minutes.
Had that work out for you?
Speaker 2 (25:49):
Whatever, it's my fault. It's my fault. Now.
Speaker 1 (25:52):
We just we just like talking to each other. Nick,
we like talking ball. It's been too well, we don't.
We don't get this.
Speaker 2 (25:57):
You know, we're across the country from each other. Excuse
us for having a good time hanging out virtually right.
Speaker 1 (26:03):
Adam Schefter had a report that Brandon Ayuk is likely
locked into San Francisco for next season because of a
you know, bonus that's coming up in his contract. And
the thing that struck me was that he said, I,
you could be ready by mid season, and I thought, oh,
(26:24):
by mid season.
Speaker 3 (26:25):
That doesn't sound great.
Speaker 1 (26:27):
And it's just funny that he's even thrown he keeps
throwing this one out there. Oh he's likely locked in.
It was almost like a last ditch effort. I've really
felt the forty nine ers have been totally open to
listening on Bran and Nyuk. I can't think of any
other circumstance like it where a trade was reportedly worked out.
It was to the Pittsburgh Steelers at the last second.
(26:48):
Ayuk kind of changed his mind. In the forty nine Ers,
h and Kyle Shanan reportedly like ran upstairs and helped
like keep him in San Francisco, and then it co well,
and then he got hurt and then he's immediately back
on the trade block. Supposedly, John Lynch explained it shook
by saying, well, some of the teams and I'm thinking
about the Patriots when that's again some of the teams
(27:09):
that were kind of in on him last year, they
were just circling around and so we'll always listen.
Speaker 3 (27:13):
But it's fine.
Speaker 1 (27:14):
It's like if it was any other player that you
gave a huge long term deal to a year ago,
wouldn't you you just shut that conversation down, wouldn't you.
Speaker 2 (27:22):
Yeah, I mean, sharks are in the water. Number one.
You always got to be paying attention to the fins
and where they're at. Be aware of your surroundings. But
this is a rare example of a franchise that typically
does not get played by contract situations. They usually handle
these really well. Getting played by this the drama that
was this whole contract situation because the leverage point that
he had going into last season, it made sense where
(27:44):
you could see him asking for more money, but it
felt a little outlandish at the time. They were not
keen on giving him that money right away. That's why
it was dragged out for so long. And then they
finally acquiesced and it almost felt like they were just
kind of their arms were twisted into doing this. And
then he gets hurt, which just complicates matter further. But
they're also at a crossroads right now where guys have left.
(28:04):
They're in a bit of a transition period because of
all the injuries they dealt with last year, and who
are they as a franchise right now? What do we
expect from them that they probably think, well, we put
this much money into them already, Let's at least see
what we can get out of him before we decide
that this was a bad decision or not.
Speaker 1 (28:18):
His contract's untradeable unless they wanted to take up on
a bunch of money. It just doesn't make end for
what it doesn't make sense. The thing that makes me
think about is what I did way back when these
two guys took the job together. It's just going to
be interesting to see how they work when the coach
has the juice. Kyle Shannon is the most important part
of the organization, and there's been times over the years
(28:41):
where you've since they were not on the same page
in certain things, which is healthy, like for too smart
football people to disagree on things, whether it was the
Mac Jones trade, lance draft, whether it was this situation
where you do get the feeling that John Lynch was
probably disappointed that in the end, I didn't just get
traded to the Steelers, whereas Kyle Sanahan, who had developed him,
(29:04):
wanted to keep him. And so this is what can happen.
But John Lynch, I don't think he's going anywhere as
far as I can tell. And they've had a ton
of success together. So for the most part, it's been
very productive. John Spytech and Pete Carroll are hoping to
have a similarly productive partnership. Let's listen to Carol talk
about Gino Smith my guy, and hit what he's going
(29:28):
to bring to the Raiders.
Speaker 6 (29:29):
Taking Gino is an immediate to fix for us. It's
going to last us. We're going to get a number
of years from Gino at his very best. He's as
healthy and ready to go. She's as tuned in as
he's ever been. But that doesn't mean that we don't
see you guys. There's some guys coming out that it
was tremendous potential and we'll just take a look at
at each spot and the opportunity that's presented and the
(29:49):
guys with the choices that we had, but we're not
excluding taking any position. A.
Speaker 1 (29:54):
Yeah, that's not surprising to me that he would say that.
It wouldn't be shocking to me if, yeah, they took
a third round quarterback maybe like a Will Howard, like,
it's not that crazy. He was with Chip Kelly and
Ohio State. You're making a face or fourth round wherever
he falls to. I'm just making the connection of the
coaching staff. I'm just saying that level of young quarterback.
(30:15):
But is interesting, he said, you know, they're expecting to
have him multiple years. It's also addressing Gino doesn't have
a contract still. John Spytech, their GM, though, said that
one is coming fairly soon. It's interesting, Nick, both Gino
Smith and Matthew Stafford, the two biggest quarterback decisions of
the off season, actually don't have contracts still, they're just
like they just trust their bosses and they worked it
(30:38):
out and they're they're fine for now.
Speaker 3 (30:40):
I guess I don't know.
Speaker 2 (30:41):
Yeah, Stafford and Lestina McVeigh bridge the gap and they
just you know, trust that it's going to get worked
out and it will. Gino, on the other hand, didn't
really have as much of us say, but he's with
the new team and is just going to let the
chips fall where they made. But the bigger question I
have who's healthier and readier to go for multiple years
of success, Gino Smith or Pete Carroll Because Pete looks
like like he had that year off really refreshed him. Man,
(31:02):
they're ready to go.
Speaker 1 (31:03):
He does, and I think he'll be happy actually to
have less to say.
Speaker 3 (31:07):
When it comes to the front office. This time around.
Speaker 1 (31:10):
He was really running that Seahawks organization and sometimes in
life it's sometimes good to have less responsibility. Could he
could just go in and coach and trust the front
office and obviously he's contributing to that a lot. He
actually mentioned, by the way, though maybe he would answer
it Gino, because he said Gino is not like a
(31:30):
normal player his age. He didn't take any hits all
those years, and that's why he's more athletic now and
he's faster now than he's ever been in his career,
which is true. I do believe Gino looks faster now.
I think he's probably taken that part of his game
even more seriously. But he also hasn't really played that
much football overall over the years. All right, let's move
(31:50):
on to the Patriots. I just wanted to mention they
cut Juwan Bentley, who's been a captain for them for
a long time, an inside linebacker, a move that makes
some sense when you think about that. They brought it
and Robert Splaine. They also brought in another former rabtor,
Jack Gibbons, by the way, and they want to get
faster there at linebacker. And then the details came out
(32:10):
of the Stefan Diggs contract. So remember it was supposedly
three for sixty nine initially, and we just didn't really
trust that. And it said twenty six million guaranteed initially,
and I was like, okay, it's probably one for twenty
six It's actually one for eighteen million, with a bunch
of per game roster bonuses that could get it up
to like twenty two, and then some other incentives of
(32:31):
making a Pro Bowl, which is very unlikely. So it's
really more like a one for eighteen million dollar deal,
and it's very much a year by year deal that
goes up slightly and they have no financial pain if
they want to move on after this year, or if
he wanted to move on for whatever reason.
Speaker 2 (32:48):
Yeah, this is a contract built on a player's past.
The roster bonuses tell me everything, because like, if it
goes really badly, then they're going to save themselves some
money if they just partways mid season a la Odell
Beckham junior with the Browns. And it's also health wise
coming back from the ACL. We don't know where you
are right now. You say you're ahead of schedule, but
we don't really fully know if you're still going to
be that guy. So they protect themselves. It's a smart
(33:08):
contract built out by them, and then it looks good
on face value for the agent who negotiated, so everybody wins,
and I guess it's lower risk than the average deal,
but then again we don't win.
Speaker 3 (33:18):
Shook.
Speaker 1 (33:18):
I'm sick of having news reports, sports news reports. I'm
used to it in general with news reports, but news
reports that you have to be like, well, we'll actually
have to find out the real story.
Speaker 2 (33:28):
This is the ecosystem which we live. We live in
this world. We are now to these types of things.
Speaker 3 (33:34):
We can these people.
Speaker 1 (33:37):
I want to push back and I want to talk
about this with Ian Rappaport or some insider on the
show because it's ridiculous.
Speaker 3 (33:44):
But yeah, it's like a one for twenty. It was
actually as a good deal for Diggs.
Speaker 1 (33:48):
I think it's a fair deal for him, and it's
a good deal for the Patriots because it's not it's
not my money. Who cares if they have way too
much cap space as they've been saying all off season long,
and if it works out, then they'll have them under
contract for a couple of years. They also expect Christian Barmore,
who had those blood clot issues that made him miss
most of the last season, but then he played, but
then they popped up again, so I was wondering about
(34:09):
his future. They said he will be in the building
and he's cleared for OTAs I believe, so that's a
great sign for them. Sean McDermott is the public enemy
number one right now in Philadelphia, I just wanted to
mention this quickly. You don't even need to comment that
he is leading the brigade to try to abolish the
Push Push. I don't want to talk about it because
we're going to find out the answer whether it is
(34:29):
abolished or not on Tuesday, So this is going to
be old quickly. But I just happened to look, I've
been I went through every coach and was just searching
on Google and on Twitter especially, like you know where
what people were saying and anything. Sean McDermott is just
seventy five Joe bananas from Philadelphia burying this guy saying
(34:51):
take away his residency from being born in Pennsylvania. They
don't claim Sean McDermott anymore. He also worked for the
Eagles back in the day. They Sean McDermott.
Speaker 2 (35:01):
Chrissy Cheese Steaks all upset because Sean McDermott wants to
outlaw the Touchhbush. What's funny as them and the Eagles
with only two teams that ran it at like a
really high rate, and it still goes back to the
AFC Championship game in which they ran it off the left,
which they always did and got stuffed, you know, controversially,
did they not get it? You know, it's just funny
that they are now the proponent behind outlawing it.
Speaker 1 (35:21):
Well, and a lot of the Eagles fans pointed out,
yet you use it a ton and one of the reporters,
they're asked, well, if you're so worried about health and safety,
because what's what McDermott says is what's driving him, even
though there's no stats about it being bad for your health,
would you commit to not using it.
Speaker 3 (35:40):
In the future, and he wouldn't commit to it.
Speaker 2 (35:43):
Yeah, of course, because if it works, it works.
Speaker 1 (35:45):
That's a great question. Whoever did it? I don't know
who did it. On the Aaron Rodgers front, it's taken
this long to get to him in the show. I
consider that growth deserving. He threw a DK metcalf over
the weekend and man, that's another sign that this thing
is is probably happening. And Mike Tomlin, you know, was
(36:06):
asked about Aaron Rodgers and didn't totally reveal anything, but
I do think he revealed some things and how he
talked about it, let's listen to him and thought a
lot about it.
Speaker 3 (36:16):
There is no drop dead date specifically in my mind though.
Speaker 1 (36:20):
Okay, also, yeah, he said therein and then they followed
up a little bit and he said, well, training camp,
that would probably be the line of demarcation where you're
really feeling like you're losing recipes as it were, you know,
along the way. So maybe maybe they're like, hey, don't
worry about it. You don't have to you don't have
(36:40):
to like show up for ots.
Speaker 2 (36:42):
It makes me think about his first year with the
Jets though, and he didn't show up for OTA's and
mini camp and stuff like that because and it was
like everybody was worried about that, and because there was
a calf issue at the time and everything else. That
leads to the Achilles. You're with a new team, you'd
think you'd want to get, you know, there during the install,
no matter how old you are.
Speaker 1 (37:00):
So you could have been at the Chipotle with Kirk Cousins.
In theory, I could have been at the UCLA field,
although it's probably yeah, not accessible security. Might maybe I
could have seen DK Metcalf and Aaron Rodgers over there UCLA. Yeah,
shout out to the to the Lady Bruins here Final
(37:21):
four first ever ever and yeah, like one of my
favorite tennis players, Osak Naomi Osaka is always playing tennis
over there. Like UCLA, that's just the place to see
some big time athletes.
Speaker 2 (37:34):
It's premier athletes out of Westwood.
Speaker 1 (37:36):
Poor Tomlin, by the way, Eric, let us know our producer,
if you're watching on YouTube, just how just sweaty Tomlin
looked and just it's not a comfortable situation, like everyone
is around him, and in general, these breakfasts are a
tough spot. We saw Mark Coboli, who works for Pat
(37:59):
McAfee show now, looking like he was falling asleep, like
these are early morning breakfasts, and some of these coaches
shook look like they weren't quite ready for that seven
am wake up call. And I got to say, having
been there a lot, Tomlin is high on that list
of guys that maybe aren't totally ready for you.
Speaker 2 (38:16):
It's a rough setting to walk into. I am notoriously
a blear eyed individual early in the morning. If you
ever run to me at the Combine, you've probably seen
that before, so I understand. It's also tightly packed, and
he's got studio lighting on him. Those lights get hot
and a bit in a room packed with a lot
of body heat that early in the morning, you could
be disorienting. You can make you a look out of sorts.
So I understand.
Speaker 1 (38:36):
It's humid there in Florida. I know they're inside and everything,
but it travels.
Speaker 2 (38:40):
That was the setting in which I first discovered that
Freddy Kitchens would wear the quarters at with nothing on underneath.
I was like, oh, did you forget a shirt?
Speaker 1 (38:49):
That was the setting where after the coaches interviews happened,
I was not so subtly threatened by another NFL figure
who not like what I had been saying on the.
Speaker 3 (39:01):
Around the NFL. Was it in a Starbucks?
Speaker 1 (39:04):
I'm no, it was right there in that in that
breakfast room or whatever. As as I was like wrapping
up uncomfortable, but you know, early I got out of it.
Speaker 3 (39:15):
Let's let's kind of close the circle. On Rogers.
Speaker 1 (39:17):
I thought it was interesting to hear Kevin O'Connell first
really talk up you know, his guy JJ McCarthy on
Kevin Clark's podcast, and so that was interesting to hear.
And then he was asked about the Aaron Rodgers talk
and he said, multiple things can be true, we could
believe in Essentially, I'm paraphrasing him here, But essentially, we
can believe in JJ McCarthy and we can look at
(39:38):
the unique opportunity that is Aaron Rodgers, a four time
MVP winner who we have a relationship with, being interested
in talking to us. Kevin O'Connell pointed that out, that
he wanted to talk to us and at least considering
that and having conversations about it. And my big takeaway
from all that was, I think Kevin O'Connell's hanging out
with Jordan Rodrigue too much now because he's doing the
(40:01):
multiple things can be true line and that's her line.
So yeah, I feel I feel like it's contagious and
he got it from.
Speaker 3 (40:06):
Her that And I think, what is another one?
Speaker 2 (40:07):
Hat hot, where like you look better when you're wearing
a hat like Cliff Kingsbury's sunglasses hot for example. Uh,
it's in the whole array of it. Yeah, But also
that's his phrase that who knows that's that's a Jordan phrase?
Is hat hot? Like you look better in a hat?
And I'm a subscriber to the idea that some people
look better in sunglasses than not. But it also speaks
to the fact that he even framed it as Rogers
(40:28):
was interested in us, not necessarily the other way. And
it does speak highly about where we are as a
franchise right now. Pat myself on the back a little bit. Yeah,
that's a pretty good job.
Speaker 1 (40:38):
I don't know if that that's it's a good point
that he did point that out. And I thought you
were saying that O'Connell is hat hot.
Speaker 2 (40:46):
No, he's just a good looking guy.
Speaker 3 (40:49):
Actually, he would be a candidate to be hat hot, I.
Speaker 2 (40:51):
Hate, especially if his hair is thinning.
Speaker 1 (40:55):
Which is I would say the number one characteristic and
hat hot would be your hair.
Speaker 2 (41:00):
The hairs strug. Honestly, you could probably call me hat
hot now that I think about it.
Speaker 3 (41:04):
No, because you look good.
Speaker 1 (41:06):
Shaved bald, that's all I've seen, but you look great
in it. The fitting is the bigger issue. And you know,
I lie awake and fear of it happening. You know,
it happened to almost everyone. It happens to almost everyone.
I'm okay so far. Their owner is Ziggie Wolfbaile the Wolf,
by the way, said they're working on an extension for
Questa of Dofamensa. So just something to keep an eye on.
(41:27):
Interesting though, that Kevin O'Connell got his ODOFAMENSA did not.
But if it's going to happen, it's going to happen.
Just a couple very quick items, and we are going
to say goodbye. Brad Holmes, the Lions GM, who will
see his coach speak tomorrow at the NFC Coaches Breakfast,
said they are heading in the direction expected to pick
up a fifth year option for Jamison Williams, so a
(41:48):
nice career development for him after a few disappointing years.
It's only fifteen point five million. It's funny we're so
far removed from this CBA being sign that the salaries
have spiked so much. One year fifteen point five million,
that's barely more than like two two at well money.
So of course you're given that to Jamison Williams. So
they're gonna probably add one year to his contract. And
(42:08):
then two people we used to cover quite extensively on
around the NFL, Frank Reich and Andrew Luck, they're joining
forces again. It's Frank Reich is going to be the
interim head coach at Stanford where Andrew Luck is the GM.
He's going to be the interim coach for one season,
which is weird. But they're in a weird situation because
(42:29):
they had to fire their coach at this point in
the off season because of some allegations from students there,
the female students at Stanford. So it's just a tough
situation for the college to be in, and that's what
they decided to do.
Speaker 2 (42:45):
Yeah, it was kind of a shock that I saw
Andrew Luck listed as the general manager of Stanford and
I was like, WHOA, when did that happen? Number one,
and I thought, he's still doing his book club And
number two, how do you recruit when you have a
coach there for a year? Hey, come here, but you're
not going to play for me. We will find a
guy that you will like to play for. You're just
not going to meet him yet because we don't know
who he is yet.
Speaker 3 (43:05):
See.
Speaker 1 (43:05):
I was all over the Luck announcement. It was right
in the middle of the season. I believe it was
a little after Thanksgiving but before Christmas, somewhere in that area.
Speaker 3 (43:14):
Because I just love me some Andrew Luck.
Speaker 1 (43:15):
I'm always tracking what he's up to, and it was
good to see him trying to find some fulfillment in life.
All Right, that's it. For today's show, Eric was right
once again. He's undefeated. Le's play the music. My fault, No,
it's nobody's fault. It's definitely my fault.
Speaker 2 (43:29):
Background back and just go long.
Speaker 1 (43:32):
If it's anyone's fault, it's always my fault. So that shook.
That was today's show. Colleen Patrick and Jordan Rodrigue all
part of our next show. We're going to be finding
out what are the new rules of twenty twenty five
and yeah, when we're honking too long in the garage,
you know football is back.
Host
Gregg Rosenthal
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