December 20, 2021 • 28 mins
In the 44th episode of the NFL Inside Report podcast, Rhett Lewis is joined by insider Tom Pelissero for perspective on how the NFL is working to finish the season as the Omicron variant spreads and games get postponed; then Rhett and Tom look at the playoff picture; how marquee injuries have impacted the Green Bay Packers, Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Denver Broncos; and why Tyler Huntley is the perfect backup to Lamar Jackson.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:10):
I'm Red Lewis, and this is NFL Inside Report on
today's episode. Tom Pellicero joining us as COVID nineteen wreaking
havoc around the league. Three games from week fifteen postponed
from their original kickoff time and date, and now we'll
have Tuesday doubleheader here in the NFL in week fifteen.
And how does COVID affect the final three weeks and
(00:31):
perhaps the postseason? Plus Markee injuries to some key players
around the league, including the Tampa Bay Buccaneers the very latest.
As we start with Tom though on the COVID situation,
Let's go back to the league meeting you were just
at as the COVID situation was beginning to blow up
in the protocols were then updated at that meeting. What
(00:54):
can you tell us about how that all happened. Well,
let's start with the reason that they made the changes,
which is over a hundred fifty players tested positive for
COVID nineteen in a five day span. Two thirds of
them were completely asymptomatic and the rest had relatively mild symptoms,
which is indicative um and you know, makes the league
(01:16):
believe that most of these, if not all, are the
omicron variant, which is shown very early here to be
UH not as severe as other variants of the virus UH,
and therefore that personally to adopt a different strategy. They
really were running into a point where you had fully
(01:38):
vaccinated individuals who are completely asymptomatic, and we're testing positive
in large numbers. This is also something that's being graveled
with across the rest of the United States when you
have a weaker version of the virus. Ultimately somewhere down
the line, hopefully this is going to be something that
becomes just endemic UH, you know, within the country, and
(01:58):
not something that is being approach the way that it
is and you're not seeing the same type of data
that you're seeing on it right now. Also in healthcare,
the doctors and nurses who are asymptomatic vaccine are not
being tested regularly. Certainly people across the country who are
fully vaccinated and asymptomatic or not just getting regular COVID tests.
(02:19):
And so the NFL has been committed to play in
its entire schedule on time as it did a year
ago in without a vaccine at this time, and so
really they were faced with the reality that if they
continue to do this routine weekly testing, you were going
to continue to turn up very large numbers of COVID
cases because while it is a weaker variant, they believe
(02:43):
it also is more easily transmissible. More people are going
to get it, uh, you know. And then you fan
out to what's happening in the rest of the country.
If six percent of NFL players tested positive in a
five day span, you can fairly extrapolate that based upon
what medical people have told me to the rest of
the country. Usually it's a couple of weeks behind. But
(03:03):
if six percent of the entire country hasn't you talking
about millions of people who are walking around with COVID
and don't know that they have it. Uh, you know,
it just creates some interesting questions about what you do
at this particular phase of this. Certainly there's a lot
of COVID fatigue across the country as well as within
the league. When the NFL Players Association did calls with
players and they're on board of representatives over the past week,
(03:26):
the majority of players said, we're done with everything. We
don't want any COVID protocols anymore. And so, you know,
that sentiment, certainly for a union that had been pushing
for daily testing throughout kind of sculpted the environment of
this thing as they talked with the NFL, and what
they came up with was a scenario where if you
are a fully vaccine and you're asymptomatic, you are not
(03:48):
tested routinely. However, they still do spot testing, which I
would compare too. If you've got t S a pre
check at the airport, and every now and then you
get flagged for random screening, the beep goes off and
you get screen That's what they're doing. I q v O,
which is one of their partners, is randomly selecting position
group players on each team. So on any given day,
(04:08):
and it happened today on the first day of the
testing at fully asymptomatic, fully vaccinated individual could still test
positive and regardless of symptoms, regardless of vaccination status. To
be test positive, you're moved from the team environment. You
have to isolate. It is under another phase of these
protocols more likely that someone who is asymptomatic and fully
vaccinated can return faster. You can get back in under
(04:31):
ten days. But ask Baker Mayfield in case keenum, that's
not necessarily a guarantee. So it's a different type of
response that the NFL, the NFL p A have right now.
It's a different phase of the COVID nineteen pandemic, but
it is still here and beyond the medical questions, which
again is something the entire country is grappling with. It's
going to continue to create competitive issues and that's something
(04:53):
that's going to go all the way through the Super Bowl.
And so the return to play protocols for players the
changes there as you mentioned, it's still for an unvaccinated player,
you're still ten days away from the team. That's correct,
and but were there changes for the way in which
they were testing or reading the results of tests for
(05:13):
players that were vaccinated that tested positive that might allow
them back to the field sooner. There are several different
ways that fully vaccinated individuals can get back in under
ten days. The simplest way to think about this is
it's ten days for everyone unless right unvaccinated players, it's
(05:35):
automatically ten days vaccinated. It's also ten days unless you
can test out of the of the COVID protocols. Under
the previous iteration, testing out meant two negative PCR tests
twenty four hours apart. Now, you can have two Mason
tests on the same day, if those both come back,
then you can those both come back negative, then you
(05:57):
can return that same day. If you have and this
is getting really technical and granulate, but a cycle threshold
that is over thirty five then in the short version
of that, to put it in lay terms, and I
am certainly a layment on this, uh, even though I've
tried to fake it for two years now on TV.
What that basically means is you don't have enough virus
(06:18):
that it can replicate. You are not likely to get
anybody else sick. So have you personally recovered and are
you unlikely to make anyone else sick? If you check
both of those boxes, then you're gonna be able to
get back. And again, the NFL and the NFL p
A say that that's following where the science is at
right now in terms of bringing people back safely, but
it's no guarantee. And then again I point to the
(06:40):
situation right now with the Browns. They're gonna be down,
not just the quarterbacks, but some other players. There are
players on other teams who are not getting back even
though they are asymptomatic at this point Certainly there are
some people who have symptoms, but generally it's it's pretty
mild from what the NFL says in terms of it's
a scratchy throat or a running nose, it's it's cold symptoms,
sometimes flu like symptoms. Things that guys would play through.
(07:03):
And one of the interesting things on a conference call
that we had on Saturday afternoon with Dr Allen Sills
and some other medical experts was the Washington football team's
doctor who's also the president of the NFL Physician Society,
whose name at the moment is escaping me. But he said,
of the twenty three positive cases they had in Washington
last week, there were only two players that absent COVID.
(07:27):
Just remove code from the picture. You were just based
on symptoms. They're only two of those twenty three that
he would have held out of practice, that they were
too sick to practice. That gives you an idea kind
of where you're at right now. But again, the key
thing because I think that sometimes things are reduced and oversimplified,
and it's easy to do that because this is such
a complicated matter. But it's not that nobody's ever getting
(07:48):
tested again. If you're fully vaccinated and don't have symptoms. No,
there's a bunch of different ways you could they want
to do at home testing, there's enhanced symptom checks, if
your family member test positive, if you are a high
is close contact, all those things you're going to get tested.
And so whether you're sick so to speak or not,
whether you have symptoms or not, people are going to
(08:09):
be pulled off the field now. At the same time,
there's enough guys now who have had COVID that will
be on a testing holiday. Uh, they may have more
anybody's and they're less likely to get it. So you're
getting a smaller and smaller pool people who actually can
get COVID at this point. But if you haven't had it,
or if you've already had it once, Sean Payton's an
example of that. Jamie Gillen, the Browns punter. I mean,
(08:30):
people who have had COVID before are getting it a
second time. So it's frustrating for everybody, But it's just
things that that everybody's been navigating for a couple of
years and they're gonna have to continue to do so.
Dr Tony Castelero, Washington doctor, you were named for it.
There it is good work though, and you are much
more than on my tweet. I was trying to get
(08:51):
my focus. Uh yeah, but you you are bordering on
expertise here, Tom. You've done a fantastic job keeping all
of this straight. And look, I mean, the fact is
we've had three games that were postponed in this week.
Fifth Team, We're gonna be playing two games on Tuesday.
So what were the conversations, like, you know, based on
(09:12):
you know, what we were talking about back in July
that the NFL was not going to postpone games if
there was an outbreak amongst unvaccinated players. How did all
of the postponement talk go for these three games here
in this week is something we could see again here
moving forward. We had a lot of people focused on
um one thing that was pulled out of that memo.
Mainly it's the first thing I tweeted from the memo,
(09:33):
which is if you have an outbreak of unvaccinated individuals
that prevents a game from being played, h then a
team would have to forfeit. However, there's not been a
situation where that has come up. What it means to
not be able to play is nothing that has been
uh not a criteria that has been met at this point,
(09:55):
because you're talking about being so decimated on your roster,
not just missing your quarterback or a few good players
or and twenty plus players and some of these teams
have you're talking about being wiped out where you cannot play.
And also in that same membo, it said, if it's
an outbreak among vaccinated individuals, then the league would make
every attempt to move things around uh and to mitigate
(10:16):
any type of a financial impact on the team players.
For as much as there were some players who there
were rumblings didn't want to play if they had to
be down their team down twenty plus guys, is it's
safe not just COVID wise, but injury wise. If all
our good players are out around me and I had
a greater interest all that stuff. Well, if you don't
play the game, you don't get paid. And that's a
(10:37):
pretty important part of this. If a game is not played,
players on neither team get to play in the game.
So what the NFL really leaned on here and the
talks with the NFL Players Association was you had evidence
of uncontrolled spread within the facilities, the fact that you
were still having and the Rams. The Browns were actively
having multiple players continuing to be put on the list.
(11:00):
That's what happened last year with Tennessee. That's what happened
last year with Baltimore. When games were moved, it was
because you kept putting more and more guys on where
they had to keep pushing it back until they were
confident that they had a handle on the situation. So
you have that situation play out in Washington, in l
A and Cleveland. That's why those three games get bumped back.
Then you also have some situations this week where one
(11:20):
of the Eagles players landed on the COVID list, one
of the Sea or the Seahawks had six players go
on the list, and it sounds like they may have
at least one more that goes on the list today.
So those teams are sitting there going, well, if you
delayed it for them, now we've got COVID coming to us.
You know, is this competitively fair? And the fact that
the NFL did not shuffle the games next weekend and
(11:41):
potentially give teams more time to prepare, all those things
are taken into account. The one thing that the NFL
has tried to do throughout the past two years and listen,
nothing's perfect. Whatever the team is that doesn't have the
outbreak is always going to be the team that fields
a grieved The players are gonna sound often it's impossible
to blame them. Your inner rhythm of a week, your
pring to play, everybody's dealing with COVID, everybody's playing games
(12:03):
without certain guys, and all of a sudden, your game
is the one that gets moved. Now you've got a
short week on the back end of it. The NFL
that has tried to not reschedule, you know, to not
move around a whole lot of games, and you're at
the point of the season now where they can't do
what they did last year, where a bunch of teams
by weeks got moved around, which is one way that
they avoided some of those situations. Well, it's week fifteen
(12:26):
right now, all the buys are over. There's nowhere to
put these additional games. You don't want to start pushing
the Super Bowl back or pushing the playoffs back, and
so they move three games each by two days. They
have every intention of playing those games on time. The
real question, rett becomes and again because you have less testing,
but you don't have no testing. It is still possible
(12:48):
that you'll have a bunch of positive cases popping up
where nobody is symptomatic, because once one person tests positive,
you test the people who are high risk close contacts
around them, even if they're not symptomatic, they can now
test positive. What happens if this takes place again? Do
you push back week sixteen, weeks seventeen, Week eighteen, some
of the games within that as you get closer to
the postseason. They don't want to miss games. They have
(13:10):
no intention of missing games. The players have no intention
of missing games because they don't get paid. But how
we get to the finish line here? It's a different
set of circumstances, arguably a better set of circumstances because
you're dealing right now with a weaker variant, But it's
things that they're gonna have to get through, and I
guarantee of the league has contingency plans for however this
thing plays out and the next three weeks with COVID,
(13:34):
with the playoff picture being as it is, with one
team into the postseason in the entire league right now,
going into these final three games of Week fifteen is
absolutely insanity and it's only going to get wilder here
down the stretch, hopefully for the right reasons, and Tom
when we come back. One of the other issues is
there are still marquee injuries outside of illness and outside
(13:55):
of COVID nineteen that we're dealing with. We'll touch on
some of those right after this. We're back here an
(14:16):
NFL in side report with Tom Placero and Tom. You know,
we saw a couple of really scary, kind of anxious
moments in games this week. Started on Thursday with Donald
Parham and his concussion, and then on a Sunday in
Denver with the Broncos and Bengals game and Teddy Bridgewater
again on a hit that didn't you know, hit his
head hit the ground, it seemed like and you know,
(14:37):
had to be stretchered off. Spent the night in the hospital.
They have lifted Teddy Bridgewater to the car because teammates
have surrounded him. Bengals players have made their way over
as well. There is a protocol that needs to be
followed and followed to a t in these situations. What
are you hearing on Teddy Bridgewaters status and what is
(14:59):
avail ability will be like for the team moving forward. Well,
the good news read as the Teddy Bridgewater out of
the hospital. The Broncos say that he is doing well. Uh.
He will be in the concussion protocol, and VIC Fanjoel
said very unlikely that he's going to play this week
against the Raiders. I just spoke to him a few
minutes ago. He's been released. He's home, he's resting comfortably.
(15:21):
He sounded a lot better this morning that he did
last night. Last night he just sounded real tired. Uh.
This morning, you know, when I just spoke to him,
he sounded much better. It's a scary play because you
don't look at that and go, oh he got ear
hold here. He took a really hard shot. He goes
down to an odd angle, hits the side of his head. Uh,
(15:41):
and then obviously has his face mask removed and mobilized
taking off the field. Uh. Certainly, medical teams are very
well versed in how to handle those situations. Um, which
is a really good thing for NFL players. Your first
concern is with Teddy Bridgewater is one of the beloved
guys in every locker room that he's ever been a
part of, and he's been in a few out in
the NFL. But for the Denver Broncos, they're in a
(16:03):
playoff chase. They're still hanging in the a f C
playoff picture at seven and seven. I looks like it's
gonna be Drew Lock this week against the Raiders. So
at least now you'll have a week to put in
at a Drew Lock plan. His skill sets a little
bit different than Teddy Bridgewaters. He certainly can make things
happen vertically down the field. He's showed that through the
course of his career. It'll be interesting to see what
(16:23):
Pat Schirmer and company dropped him. Yeah, and and just
moving forward. You know, we talked about the sun moved
the sticks on Monday. It's just it. It seems crazy
that this Broncos offense has had such struggles this year
with the skill sets of the elite type of talents
that they have at wide receiver at tight end. Got
to figure out a way to make it work there
in Denver on the offensive side of the ball where
(16:45):
the defense is playing well. Meanwhile, for the Bucks, defense
played well, offense had their issues. And now maybe even
bigger than the second loss this season to the Saints
are the injuries that the Bucks are dealing with as
our call a uh in Ian rap report reporting a
now a torn a c L and m c L
for Chris Godwin. After there was some optimism early that
(17:09):
maybe this is something that Godwin could come back from.
What's your understanding of these injuries here for the Bucks? Well,
Bruce Arian said, it is a torn a c L
for Chris Godwin, which is brutal on multiple levels. You
feel bad for him because he was having such a
great year and the type of hit it was totally legal,
But uh, I think that's one of the things we
have to look in the offseason. We're so concerned about
(17:29):
hitting people in the head. That was getting a lot
of knee injuries now because of that type of tackle.
But it is legal, and uh it wasn't a bad
play at all. But yeah, you just feel bad for Chris.
He was having a really good year for Buccaneers team
that believes it should be a Super Bowl contender again. Also,
he was playing on the franchise tag and so he'll
(17:50):
be or roughly what is that three months out from
the injury to a half months out from surgery. By
the time for agency rolls around, we've seen guys coming
off a c L. S at that position get big
contracts in the past. Ellen Robinson had it UH several
years ago, so it's not a completely unique thing. I
would still think that Chris Godwin does very well in
free agency, but he's gonna be spending whether it's with
(18:12):
Tampa or a different team, he's gonna be spending a
good chunk of the offseason, really the entire offseason into
training camp, rehabbing from that injury, because you're looking at
usually eight nine months out, So his status for week
one will be something to monitor as we go through
the next offseason. Mike Evans tweaked his hamstring. He's had
soft tissue stuff hamstrings throughout his career, usually not a
(18:33):
long term thing for him, but hamstrings are tricky. You
just don't know. Is he gonna miss a week, two weeks,
whatever it is. Uh. You know Leonard four Nett with
his injury, that's another one to monitor here. He could
miss some time. Doesn't sound like Kim more Evans, so
his long term nothing that's going to imperil them for
the playoffs. Good news for the box. Antonio Brown coming
off his suspension and whatever thought there may have been
(18:55):
about Antonio Brown being back with the Box. Uh, probably
is over. When you see Chris Godwin and Mike Evans
get hurt in a game the Prescott pairman was missing
because he was on the COVID list. Antonio Brown walks
back through the door come Monday, depending on pairman status
as the top wide receiver on the Box roster. And
they've been really good when he's been in the lineup.
(19:15):
You remember last year he came off that eight game
suspension when he rejoined the Bucks. That was right about
the time they turned things around in terms of their offense,
made the run. He came huge in the playoffs, played
really well in the Super Bowl, was playing well prior
to the situation that played out with the first his ankle,
that bone bruise he had in his ankle, and then
the three game suspension for the vaccination card fiasco. Uh.
(19:38):
You know, presuming that the ankle is in good shape
at this point, which you would hope it would be.
It's been like three months since he suffered that injury.
He's gonna come back and be of a high volume
type of a player right out of the gate. You know.
Tom Brady's used to through the course of his career,
having different game plans based on personnel, based on the opponent. Um,
you know, but Giovanni Bernard is also another one of
(20:00):
their running backs. So it's really gonna be Ronald Jones
and Keyshawn von at running back here. It'll be at
least in the short term, Antonio Brown if he's healthy,
maybe we're shot Paraman if he's back from the COVID list,
maybe Mike Evans in a couple of weeks. But they're
gonna have a ton of missing parts, uh, you know,
moving parts as we go through the next few weeks
at a time that even though they haven't clinched, pretty
apparent the Bucks are gonna be in the postseason. But
(20:21):
at least until last night, were at they thought they
might have a shot at the number one seed. And
that's that's an uphill battle for them right now. Yeah,
now question. And the good news is they've given themselves
a little cushion here through these next three games to
try to clinch the division and then get into the playoffs.
Saints into the seventh seed at the moment, although that
could change night. Saints are into the seventh seed. The
(20:42):
Seahawks like a game back Vikings, depending what happens against
the Bear. I mean, it's it's such a wild year. Red.
You mentioned it earlier about how you know only one
team is clinched at this point. I think it's only
like three teams that are eliminated. But that's kind of
the genius when everybody was talking about this fourteen playoffs
spots water it down out the seventeenth game. Do you
need that? What this is done only by Thanksgiving? You
(21:04):
know who's in and who's out. It is Christmas week
and we don't know who is in and who is out,
and it really, you know whatever, whatever, you know, other
considerations went into it. If you're just trying to drive
the product, keep maximum fan base is engaged as late
as possible. I think this season is a pretty good
example that, yeah, this has worked. It's wild. Seven seeds
(21:27):
in each seven teams in each conference, an extra game,
by the way Week eighteen is gonna be, I mean
there might be I don't know, ten spots up for
grabs week eighteen. Who knows. Like that's how crazy this
year has been. And one of the crazy pieces the
Packers the only playoff team as of right now, they
have clinched the NFC North for the third straight year
under Matt Lafloor, and now you know we're headed back
(21:48):
to the postseason. But they've been missing key contributors all
year long, Tom, in a season where a lot of
teams have dealt with really markey injuries, how do you
feel like, I don't know, You've been around this team
a little bit here this season and Jairo Alexander David
baktr has yet to play a snap this year. Zdarius
Smith has been out since early in the season. I mean,
those are like huge contributors for this team. Yet they've
(22:11):
risen above for the most part, sitting at the one
seed in the NFC. Well, it's really a credit to
mattel of Flour and Nathaniel Hackett and Joe Barry and
that coaching staff. I mean, the number of things they've
had to deal with, because you know, it's not just
those guys, and those are three of the big names
they missed huge chunks this season. But Alton Jenkins, who
is an All Pro offensive lineman out for the season
with his torn a c L. Billy Turner, their right tackle,
(22:33):
is missing a decent chunk of time here. Robert Tunyan
they're tight end is out for the season. Uh, Rashaan
Gary missed time with his elbow. I'm just going off
the top of my head here. I mean, it's ry
Aaron Jones MSED missed the game there. Uh Aaron Rodgers
with the COVID issue that cost him a game and
now dealing with a fracture toe. I mean, it's it's
an unbelievable list that they've had to go through. Davanta
(22:55):
Adams missed the game because of COVID and so did
Alan Bazzard too. I mean, it's weekend and we cout,
especially going back to late October of the stuff that
they've been dealing with. Yeah, I'd be great if they
get those guys back. The questions are going to be
with David bak tr The last time that he really
started practicing a lot, that knee ballooned up on him.
He had to go have the doctors go in clean
it out to a scope. Uh. They're hopeful that he's
(23:17):
gonna make it back. They just got to see how
the knee responds. The same thing with Jaire Alexander with
his injury, which was significant. They wanted to probably take
this full three week practice window. See how he's able
to get back here, whether he's in, you know, in
a position where he can play. I think that those
guys back, in addition to the Sadarius Smith, makes them
that much better of a football team. But I think
(23:38):
we've also seen again the job the mattal of Flour
has done and what Aaron Rodgers is doing right now too.
I mean, look at his numbers since he came back
from his stint on the COVID list. Here's the snap
Rogers throws left side, Danby grab tuchdown, Marko l does scandling,
and for Aaron Rodgers this four hundred and forty second
(24:02):
career touchdown past tying Brett Fire for most in Green
Bay Packers annals. I think that he's set the bar
so high for so long that we don't, you know,
usually talk about how great he is. But I mean
you watch games like the one against Baltimore. I mean,
he's playing great right now. That offense seems to be
hitting its stride and we're once again get me talking
(24:24):
about Rogers and the MVP conversation as we come down
the stretcher. And then on the other side of that game,
the Ravens with Tyler Huntley get back into it late. Obviously,
the two point conversion. We can talk about that and
debate it all day long if you want. But you
can call me crazy, you know, right off the bat,
if you want here, Tom, But does the success of
Tyler Huntley in the framework of how the Ravens want
(24:46):
to run their offense change at all, perhaps even just
like the urgency of any contract negotiations that might happen
with Lamar Jackson here in the coming months, I would
say Rhett Lamar Jackson is one of the air talents
that we have seen come through the NFL. For whatever
flaws he has and whatever flaws he had coming out,
(25:08):
he has improved as a passer. He's obviously very dynamic
and unique in terms of things he does with the
football in his hands, making people missing space, extending plays,
throwing the ball down the field. Uh. You also have
seen Tyler Huntley, a guy who really didn't have a
lot of options after he went undrafted, and it was
their quarterbacks coach James urban I really advocated for Huntley
(25:32):
coming in similar type of a skill set. I mean,
if you switched the jerseys on him and just saw
the camera from very far away. They're kind of built
the same way. They move a little bit the same way.
Huntley and the gun takes the snap, look at end zone,
pumps one to the left, runs now to the left.
He's got room. He's got a touchdown. Tyler Huntley. He
(25:53):
took Femi's Q and he get it in the end
zone and the Ravens are hanging around but hung. He's
played beyond anybody's reasonable expectations, the short notice already made
in Chicago to get a win, the way that he
played against the Packers, making big throws and big moments.
Huntley takes the snap of the gun, flushed from the pocket,
scrambling to the right, fires in the back of the
(26:14):
ends off touchdown. Mark Andrews a leaping rub and the
Ravens are on the board. He can make people miss.
Maybe not quite like the former NFL m v P,
but but pretty good. I think inevitably, when you're looking
at your salary cap situation and long term team building,
you factor all those types of things in. You also
(26:35):
have to take into account when you're looking at somebody
doing it for a game or two versus doing it
over four years, like Lamar has, there are plenty of
backup quarterbacks who can do it for a short term.
Do you think you can project it out? And I'm
not saying Tyler Huntley can't. I mean he played it
at a really high level when he's gotten his opportunity
with not a lot of time on task with the
receivers and whatnot around him. So maybe he does get
(26:58):
even better, But can you sustain ain't it? The Ravens
hope they don't have to find out because they're hoping
Lamar Jackson's back next week from that ankle injury, But
certainly that that's something to keep in mind here. What
do you pay Lamar Jackson? Is I think a fascinating
conversation in general, just because you know, unlike guys who
make their money solely from the pocket, you always wonder
(27:18):
with quarterbacks whose mobility is a big part of their game,
can they sustain it as they get older? Has maybe
some injuries add up? Again, I don't think we're seeing
that with Lamar. He's missed time this year, but it's
mostly because he's gotten the flu and gotten sick and whatnot.
Now he's got the ankle missing some time, But do
you feel comfortable paying him top dollar three or four
or five years down the road for a guy who
(27:39):
you know, is his mobility and those things that make
him so unique going to be at that same level
somewhere far down the line here. Yeah, it's a it's
a legit question, but clearly, you know, Lamar has earned
whatever is coming to him, and it is just kind
of interesting to see how it will all play out here.
As the Ravens or one of the best at roster
composition in all of football, I'm pilla sero one of
(28:01):
the best to getting us caught up with all the
inside and news around the lead. Tom, thanks very much,
my friend. Yeah right, and that's gonna do it for
this episode of NFL Inside Report. Reminder to download, rate,
and review our show on Apple Podcasts or wherever you
(28:23):
get your ponds. We greatly appreciate it, and we'll be
back with you on Wednesday for another pre Christmas edition
of NFL Inside Report. Or producers Thomas Horne and Tim Peracha.
I'm your host, Fred Lewis. We'll catch you next time.
NFL Inside Report is the production of the NFL and
partnership with I Heart Radio. For more official podcasts from
(28:44):
the NFL, visit the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts,
or wherever you get your podcasts.
I'm Red Lewis, and this is NFL Inside Report on
today's episode. Tom Pellicero joining us as COVID nineteen wreaking
havoc around the league. Three games from week fifteen postponed
from their original kickoff time and date, and now we'll
have Tuesday doubleheader here in the NFL in week fifteen.
And how does COVID affect the final three weeks and
(00:31):
perhaps the postseason? Plus Markee injuries to some key players
around the league, including the Tampa Bay Buccaneers the very latest.
As we start with Tom though on the COVID situation,
Let's go back to the league meeting you were just
at as the COVID situation was beginning to blow up
in the protocols were then updated at that meeting. What
(00:54):
can you tell us about how that all happened. Well,
let's start with the reason that they made the changes,
which is over a hundred fifty players tested positive for
COVID nineteen in a five day span. Two thirds of
them were completely asymptomatic and the rest had relatively mild symptoms,
which is indicative um and you know, makes the league
(01:16):
believe that most of these, if not all, are the
omicron variant, which is shown very early here to be
UH not as severe as other variants of the virus UH,
and therefore that personally to adopt a different strategy. They
really were running into a point where you had fully
(01:38):
vaccinated individuals who are completely asymptomatic, and we're testing positive
in large numbers. This is also something that's being graveled
with across the rest of the United States when you
have a weaker version of the virus. Ultimately somewhere down
the line, hopefully this is going to be something that
becomes just endemic UH, you know, within the country, and
(01:58):
not something that is being approach the way that it
is and you're not seeing the same type of data
that you're seeing on it right now. Also in healthcare,
the doctors and nurses who are asymptomatic vaccine are not
being tested regularly. Certainly people across the country who are
fully vaccinated and asymptomatic or not just getting regular COVID tests.
(02:19):
And so the NFL has been committed to play in
its entire schedule on time as it did a year
ago in without a vaccine at this time, and so
really they were faced with the reality that if they
continue to do this routine weekly testing, you were going
to continue to turn up very large numbers of COVID
cases because while it is a weaker variant, they believe
(02:43):
it also is more easily transmissible. More people are going
to get it, uh, you know. And then you fan
out to what's happening in the rest of the country.
If six percent of NFL players tested positive in a
five day span, you can fairly extrapolate that based upon
what medical people have told me to the rest of
the country. Usually it's a couple of weeks behind. But
(03:03):
if six percent of the entire country hasn't you talking
about millions of people who are walking around with COVID
and don't know that they have it. Uh, you know,
it just creates some interesting questions about what you do
at this particular phase of this. Certainly there's a lot
of COVID fatigue across the country as well as within
the league. When the NFL Players Association did calls with
players and they're on board of representatives over the past week,
(03:26):
the majority of players said, we're done with everything. We
don't want any COVID protocols anymore. And so, you know,
that sentiment, certainly for a union that had been pushing
for daily testing throughout kind of sculpted the environment of
this thing as they talked with the NFL, and what
they came up with was a scenario where if you
are a fully vaccine and you're asymptomatic, you are not
(03:48):
tested routinely. However, they still do spot testing, which I
would compare too. If you've got t S a pre
check at the airport, and every now and then you
get flagged for random screening, the beep goes off and
you get screen That's what they're doing. I q v O,
which is one of their partners, is randomly selecting position
group players on each team. So on any given day,
(04:08):
and it happened today on the first day of the
testing at fully asymptomatic, fully vaccinated individual could still test
positive and regardless of symptoms, regardless of vaccination status. To
be test positive, you're moved from the team environment. You
have to isolate. It is under another phase of these
protocols more likely that someone who is asymptomatic and fully
vaccinated can return faster. You can get back in under
(04:31):
ten days. But ask Baker Mayfield in case keenum, that's
not necessarily a guarantee. So it's a different type of
response that the NFL, the NFL p A have right now.
It's a different phase of the COVID nineteen pandemic, but
it is still here and beyond the medical questions, which
again is something the entire country is grappling with. It's
going to continue to create competitive issues and that's something
(04:53):
that's going to go all the way through the Super Bowl.
And so the return to play protocols for players the
changes there as you mentioned, it's still for an unvaccinated player,
you're still ten days away from the team. That's correct,
and but were there changes for the way in which
they were testing or reading the results of tests for
(05:13):
players that were vaccinated that tested positive that might allow
them back to the field sooner. There are several different
ways that fully vaccinated individuals can get back in under
ten days. The simplest way to think about this is
it's ten days for everyone unless right unvaccinated players, it's
(05:35):
automatically ten days vaccinated. It's also ten days unless you
can test out of the of the COVID protocols. Under
the previous iteration, testing out meant two negative PCR tests
twenty four hours apart. Now, you can have two Mason
tests on the same day, if those both come back,
then you can those both come back negative, then you
(05:57):
can return that same day. If you have and this
is getting really technical and granulate, but a cycle threshold
that is over thirty five then in the short version
of that, to put it in lay terms, and I
am certainly a layment on this, uh, even though I've
tried to fake it for two years now on TV.
What that basically means is you don't have enough virus
(06:18):
that it can replicate. You are not likely to get
anybody else sick. So have you personally recovered and are
you unlikely to make anyone else sick? If you check
both of those boxes, then you're gonna be able to
get back. And again, the NFL and the NFL p
A say that that's following where the science is at
right now in terms of bringing people back safely, but
it's no guarantee. And then again I point to the
(06:40):
situation right now with the Browns. They're gonna be down,
not just the quarterbacks, but some other players. There are
players on other teams who are not getting back even
though they are asymptomatic at this point Certainly there are
some people who have symptoms, but generally it's it's pretty
mild from what the NFL says in terms of it's
a scratchy throat or a running nose, it's it's cold symptoms,
sometimes flu like symptoms. Things that guys would play through.
(07:03):
And one of the interesting things on a conference call
that we had on Saturday afternoon with Dr Allen Sills
and some other medical experts was the Washington football team's
doctor who's also the president of the NFL Physician Society,
whose name at the moment is escaping me. But he said,
of the twenty three positive cases they had in Washington
last week, there were only two players that absent COVID.
(07:27):
Just remove code from the picture. You were just based
on symptoms. They're only two of those twenty three that
he would have held out of practice, that they were
too sick to practice. That gives you an idea kind
of where you're at right now. But again, the key
thing because I think that sometimes things are reduced and oversimplified,
and it's easy to do that because this is such
a complicated matter. But it's not that nobody's ever getting
(07:48):
tested again. If you're fully vaccinated and don't have symptoms. No,
there's a bunch of different ways you could they want
to do at home testing, there's enhanced symptom checks, if
your family member test positive, if you are a high
is close contact, all those things you're going to get tested.
And so whether you're sick so to speak or not,
whether you have symptoms or not, people are going to
(08:09):
be pulled off the field now. At the same time,
there's enough guys now who have had COVID that will
be on a testing holiday. Uh, they may have more
anybody's and they're less likely to get it. So you're
getting a smaller and smaller pool people who actually can
get COVID at this point. But if you haven't had it,
or if you've already had it once, Sean Payton's an
example of that. Jamie Gillen, the Browns punter. I mean,
(08:30):
people who have had COVID before are getting it a
second time. So it's frustrating for everybody, But it's just
things that that everybody's been navigating for a couple of
years and they're gonna have to continue to do so.
Dr Tony Castelero, Washington doctor, you were named for it.
There it is good work though, and you are much
more than on my tweet. I was trying to get
(08:51):
my focus. Uh yeah, but you you are bordering on
expertise here, Tom. You've done a fantastic job keeping all
of this straight. And look, I mean, the fact is
we've had three games that were postponed in this week.
Fifth Team, We're gonna be playing two games on Tuesday.
So what were the conversations, like, you know, based on
(09:12):
you know, what we were talking about back in July
that the NFL was not going to postpone games if
there was an outbreak amongst unvaccinated players. How did all
of the postponement talk go for these three games here
in this week is something we could see again here
moving forward. We had a lot of people focused on
um one thing that was pulled out of that memo.
Mainly it's the first thing I tweeted from the memo,
(09:33):
which is if you have an outbreak of unvaccinated individuals
that prevents a game from being played, h then a
team would have to forfeit. However, there's not been a
situation where that has come up. What it means to
not be able to play is nothing that has been
uh not a criteria that has been met at this point,
(09:55):
because you're talking about being so decimated on your roster,
not just missing your quarterback or a few good players
or and twenty plus players and some of these teams
have you're talking about being wiped out where you cannot play.
And also in that same membo, it said, if it's
an outbreak among vaccinated individuals, then the league would make
every attempt to move things around uh and to mitigate
(10:16):
any type of a financial impact on the team players.
For as much as there were some players who there
were rumblings didn't want to play if they had to
be down their team down twenty plus guys, is it's
safe not just COVID wise, but injury wise. If all
our good players are out around me and I had
a greater interest all that stuff. Well, if you don't
play the game, you don't get paid. And that's a
(10:37):
pretty important part of this. If a game is not played,
players on neither team get to play in the game.
So what the NFL really leaned on here and the
talks with the NFL Players Association was you had evidence
of uncontrolled spread within the facilities, the fact that you
were still having and the Rams. The Browns were actively
having multiple players continuing to be put on the list.
(11:00):
That's what happened last year with Tennessee. That's what happened
last year with Baltimore. When games were moved, it was
because you kept putting more and more guys on where
they had to keep pushing it back until they were
confident that they had a handle on the situation. So
you have that situation play out in Washington, in l
A and Cleveland. That's why those three games get bumped back.
Then you also have some situations this week where one
(11:20):
of the Eagles players landed on the COVID list, one
of the Sea or the Seahawks had six players go
on the list, and it sounds like they may have
at least one more that goes on the list today.
So those teams are sitting there going, well, if you
delayed it for them, now we've got COVID coming to us.
You know, is this competitively fair? And the fact that
the NFL did not shuffle the games next weekend and
(11:41):
potentially give teams more time to prepare, all those things
are taken into account. The one thing that the NFL
has tried to do throughout the past two years and listen,
nothing's perfect. Whatever the team is that doesn't have the
outbreak is always going to be the team that fields
a grieved The players are gonna sound often it's impossible
to blame them. Your inner rhythm of a week, your
pring to play, everybody's dealing with COVID, everybody's playing games
(12:03):
without certain guys, and all of a sudden, your game
is the one that gets moved. Now you've got a
short week on the back end of it. The NFL
that has tried to not reschedule, you know, to not
move around a whole lot of games, and you're at
the point of the season now where they can't do
what they did last year, where a bunch of teams
by weeks got moved around, which is one way that
they avoided some of those situations. Well, it's week fifteen
(12:26):
right now, all the buys are over. There's nowhere to
put these additional games. You don't want to start pushing
the Super Bowl back or pushing the playoffs back, and
so they move three games each by two days. They
have every intention of playing those games on time. The
real question, rett becomes and again because you have less testing,
but you don't have no testing. It is still possible
(12:48):
that you'll have a bunch of positive cases popping up
where nobody is symptomatic, because once one person tests positive,
you test the people who are high risk close contacts
around them, even if they're not symptomatic, they can now
test positive. What happens if this takes place again? Do
you push back week sixteen, weeks seventeen, Week eighteen, some
of the games within that as you get closer to
the postseason. They don't want to miss games. They have
(13:10):
no intention of missing games. The players have no intention
of missing games because they don't get paid. But how
we get to the finish line here? It's a different
set of circumstances, arguably a better set of circumstances because
you're dealing right now with a weaker variant, But it's
things that they're gonna have to get through, and I
guarantee of the league has contingency plans for however this
thing plays out and the next three weeks with COVID,
(13:34):
with the playoff picture being as it is, with one
team into the postseason in the entire league right now,
going into these final three games of Week fifteen is
absolutely insanity and it's only going to get wilder here
down the stretch, hopefully for the right reasons, and Tom
when we come back. One of the other issues is
there are still marquee injuries outside of illness and outside
(13:55):
of COVID nineteen that we're dealing with. We'll touch on
some of those right after this. We're back here an
(14:16):
NFL in side report with Tom Placero and Tom. You know,
we saw a couple of really scary, kind of anxious
moments in games this week. Started on Thursday with Donald
Parham and his concussion, and then on a Sunday in
Denver with the Broncos and Bengals game and Teddy Bridgewater
again on a hit that didn't you know, hit his
head hit the ground, it seemed like and you know,
(14:37):
had to be stretchered off. Spent the night in the hospital.
They have lifted Teddy Bridgewater to the car because teammates
have surrounded him. Bengals players have made their way over
as well. There is a protocol that needs to be
followed and followed to a t in these situations. What
are you hearing on Teddy Bridgewaters status and what is
(14:59):
avail ability will be like for the team moving forward. Well,
the good news read as the Teddy Bridgewater out of
the hospital. The Broncos say that he is doing well. Uh.
He will be in the concussion protocol, and VIC Fanjoel
said very unlikely that he's going to play this week
against the Raiders. I just spoke to him a few
minutes ago. He's been released. He's home, he's resting comfortably.
(15:21):
He sounded a lot better this morning that he did
last night. Last night he just sounded real tired. Uh.
This morning, you know, when I just spoke to him,
he sounded much better. It's a scary play because you
don't look at that and go, oh he got ear
hold here. He took a really hard shot. He goes
down to an odd angle, hits the side of his head. Uh,
(15:41):
and then obviously has his face mask removed and mobilized
taking off the field. Uh. Certainly, medical teams are very
well versed in how to handle those situations. Um, which
is a really good thing for NFL players. Your first
concern is with Teddy Bridgewater is one of the beloved
guys in every locker room that he's ever been a
part of, and he's been in a few out in
the NFL. But for the Denver Broncos, they're in a
(16:03):
playoff chase. They're still hanging in the a f C
playoff picture at seven and seven. I looks like it's
gonna be Drew Lock this week against the Raiders. So
at least now you'll have a week to put in
at a Drew Lock plan. His skill sets a little
bit different than Teddy Bridgewaters. He certainly can make things
happen vertically down the field. He's showed that through the
course of his career. It'll be interesting to see what
(16:23):
Pat Schirmer and company dropped him. Yeah, and and just
moving forward. You know, we talked about the sun moved
the sticks on Monday. It's just it. It seems crazy
that this Broncos offense has had such struggles this year
with the skill sets of the elite type of talents
that they have at wide receiver at tight end. Got
to figure out a way to make it work there
in Denver on the offensive side of the ball where
(16:45):
the defense is playing well. Meanwhile, for the Bucks, defense
played well, offense had their issues. And now maybe even
bigger than the second loss this season to the Saints
are the injuries that the Bucks are dealing with as
our call a uh in Ian rap report reporting a
now a torn a c L and m c L
for Chris Godwin. After there was some optimism early that
(17:09):
maybe this is something that Godwin could come back from.
What's your understanding of these injuries here for the Bucks? Well,
Bruce Arian said, it is a torn a c L
for Chris Godwin, which is brutal on multiple levels. You
feel bad for him because he was having such a
great year and the type of hit it was totally legal,
But uh, I think that's one of the things we
have to look in the offseason. We're so concerned about
(17:29):
hitting people in the head. That was getting a lot
of knee injuries now because of that type of tackle.
But it is legal, and uh it wasn't a bad
play at all. But yeah, you just feel bad for Chris.
He was having a really good year for Buccaneers team
that believes it should be a Super Bowl contender again. Also,
he was playing on the franchise tag and so he'll
(17:50):
be or roughly what is that three months out from
the injury to a half months out from surgery. By
the time for agency rolls around, we've seen guys coming
off a c L. S at that position get big
contracts in the past. Ellen Robinson had it UH several
years ago, so it's not a completely unique thing. I
would still think that Chris Godwin does very well in
free agency, but he's gonna be spending whether it's with
(18:12):
Tampa or a different team, he's gonna be spending a
good chunk of the offseason, really the entire offseason into
training camp, rehabbing from that injury, because you're looking at
usually eight nine months out, So his status for week
one will be something to monitor as we go through
the next offseason. Mike Evans tweaked his hamstring. He's had
soft tissue stuff hamstrings throughout his career, usually not a
(18:33):
long term thing for him, but hamstrings are tricky. You
just don't know. Is he gonna miss a week, two weeks,
whatever it is. Uh. You know Leonard four Nett with
his injury, that's another one to monitor here. He could
miss some time. Doesn't sound like Kim more Evans, so
his long term nothing that's going to imperil them for
the playoffs. Good news for the box. Antonio Brown coming
off his suspension and whatever thought there may have been
(18:55):
about Antonio Brown being back with the Box. Uh, probably
is over. When you see Chris Godwin and Mike Evans
get hurt in a game the Prescott pairman was missing
because he was on the COVID list. Antonio Brown walks
back through the door come Monday, depending on pairman status
as the top wide receiver on the Box roster. And
they've been really good when he's been in the lineup.
(19:15):
You remember last year he came off that eight game
suspension when he rejoined the Bucks. That was right about
the time they turned things around in terms of their offense,
made the run. He came huge in the playoffs, played
really well in the Super Bowl, was playing well prior
to the situation that played out with the first his ankle,
that bone bruise he had in his ankle, and then
the three game suspension for the vaccination card fiasco. Uh.
(19:38):
You know, presuming that the ankle is in good shape
at this point, which you would hope it would be.
It's been like three months since he suffered that injury.
He's gonna come back and be of a high volume
type of a player right out of the gate. You know.
Tom Brady's used to through the course of his career,
having different game plans based on personnel, based on the opponent. Um,
you know, but Giovanni Bernard is also another one of
(20:00):
their running backs. So it's really gonna be Ronald Jones
and Keyshawn von at running back here. It'll be at
least in the short term, Antonio Brown if he's healthy,
maybe we're shot Paraman if he's back from the COVID list,
maybe Mike Evans in a couple of weeks. But they're
gonna have a ton of missing parts, uh, you know,
moving parts as we go through the next few weeks
at a time that even though they haven't clinched, pretty
apparent the Bucks are gonna be in the postseason. But
(20:21):
at least until last night, were at they thought they
might have a shot at the number one seed. And
that's that's an uphill battle for them right now. Yeah,
now question. And the good news is they've given themselves
a little cushion here through these next three games to
try to clinch the division and then get into the playoffs.
Saints into the seventh seed at the moment, although that
could change night. Saints are into the seventh seed. The
(20:42):
Seahawks like a game back Vikings, depending what happens against
the Bear. I mean, it's it's such a wild year. Red.
You mentioned it earlier about how you know only one
team is clinched at this point. I think it's only
like three teams that are eliminated. But that's kind of
the genius when everybody was talking about this fourteen playoffs
spots water it down out the seventeenth game. Do you
need that? What this is done only by Thanksgiving? You
(21:04):
know who's in and who's out. It is Christmas week
and we don't know who is in and who is out,
and it really, you know whatever, whatever, you know, other
considerations went into it. If you're just trying to drive
the product, keep maximum fan base is engaged as late
as possible. I think this season is a pretty good
example that, yeah, this has worked. It's wild. Seven seeds
(21:27):
in each seven teams in each conference, an extra game,
by the way Week eighteen is gonna be, I mean
there might be I don't know, ten spots up for
grabs week eighteen. Who knows. Like that's how crazy this
year has been. And one of the crazy pieces the
Packers the only playoff team as of right now, they
have clinched the NFC North for the third straight year
under Matt Lafloor, and now you know we're headed back
(21:48):
to the postseason. But they've been missing key contributors all
year long, Tom, in a season where a lot of
teams have dealt with really markey injuries, how do you
feel like, I don't know, You've been around this team
a little bit here this season and Jairo Alexander David
baktr has yet to play a snap this year. Zdarius
Smith has been out since early in the season. I mean,
those are like huge contributors for this team. Yet they've
(22:11):
risen above for the most part, sitting at the one
seed in the NFC. Well, it's really a credit to
mattel of Flour and Nathaniel Hackett and Joe Barry and
that coaching staff. I mean, the number of things they've
had to deal with, because you know, it's not just
those guys, and those are three of the big names
they missed huge chunks this season. But Alton Jenkins, who
is an All Pro offensive lineman out for the season
with his torn a c L. Billy Turner, their right tackle,
(22:33):
is missing a decent chunk of time here. Robert Tunyan
they're tight end is out for the season. Uh, Rashaan
Gary missed time with his elbow. I'm just going off
the top of my head here. I mean, it's ry
Aaron Jones MSED missed the game there. Uh Aaron Rodgers
with the COVID issue that cost him a game and
now dealing with a fracture toe. I mean, it's it's
an unbelievable list that they've had to go through. Davanta
(22:55):
Adams missed the game because of COVID and so did
Alan Bazzard too. I mean, it's weekend and we cout,
especially going back to late October of the stuff that
they've been dealing with. Yeah, I'd be great if they
get those guys back. The questions are going to be
with David bak tr The last time that he really
started practicing a lot, that knee ballooned up on him.
He had to go have the doctors go in clean
it out to a scope. Uh. They're hopeful that he's
(23:17):
gonna make it back. They just got to see how
the knee responds. The same thing with Jaire Alexander with
his injury, which was significant. They wanted to probably take
this full three week practice window. See how he's able
to get back here, whether he's in, you know, in
a position where he can play. I think that those
guys back, in addition to the Sadarius Smith, makes them
that much better of a football team. But I think
(23:38):
we've also seen again the job the mattal of Flour
has done and what Aaron Rodgers is doing right now too.
I mean, look at his numbers since he came back
from his stint on the COVID list. Here's the snap
Rogers throws left side, Danby grab tuchdown, Marko l does scandling,
and for Aaron Rodgers this four hundred and forty second
(24:02):
career touchdown past tying Brett Fire for most in Green
Bay Packers annals. I think that he's set the bar
so high for so long that we don't, you know,
usually talk about how great he is. But I mean
you watch games like the one against Baltimore. I mean,
he's playing great right now. That offense seems to be
hitting its stride and we're once again get me talking
(24:24):
about Rogers and the MVP conversation as we come down
the stretcher. And then on the other side of that game,
the Ravens with Tyler Huntley get back into it late. Obviously,
the two point conversion. We can talk about that and
debate it all day long if you want. But you
can call me crazy, you know, right off the bat,
if you want here, Tom, But does the success of
Tyler Huntley in the framework of how the Ravens want
(24:46):
to run their offense change at all, perhaps even just
like the urgency of any contract negotiations that might happen
with Lamar Jackson here in the coming months, I would
say Rhett Lamar Jackson is one of the air talents
that we have seen come through the NFL. For whatever
flaws he has and whatever flaws he had coming out,
(25:08):
he has improved as a passer. He's obviously very dynamic
and unique in terms of things he does with the
football in his hands, making people missing space, extending plays,
throwing the ball down the field. Uh. You also have
seen Tyler Huntley, a guy who really didn't have a
lot of options after he went undrafted, and it was
their quarterbacks coach James urban I really advocated for Huntley
(25:32):
coming in similar type of a skill set. I mean,
if you switched the jerseys on him and just saw
the camera from very far away. They're kind of built
the same way. They move a little bit the same way.
Huntley and the gun takes the snap, look at end zone,
pumps one to the left, runs now to the left.
He's got room. He's got a touchdown. Tyler Huntley. He
(25:53):
took Femi's Q and he get it in the end
zone and the Ravens are hanging around but hung. He's
played beyond anybody's reasonable expectations, the short notice already made
in Chicago to get a win, the way that he
played against the Packers, making big throws and big moments.
Huntley takes the snap of the gun, flushed from the pocket,
scrambling to the right, fires in the back of the
(26:14):
ends off touchdown. Mark Andrews a leaping rub and the
Ravens are on the board. He can make people miss.
Maybe not quite like the former NFL m v P,
but but pretty good. I think inevitably, when you're looking
at your salary cap situation and long term team building,
you factor all those types of things in. You also
(26:35):
have to take into account when you're looking at somebody
doing it for a game or two versus doing it
over four years, like Lamar has, there are plenty of
backup quarterbacks who can do it for a short term.
Do you think you can project it out? And I'm
not saying Tyler Huntley can't. I mean he played it
at a really high level when he's gotten his opportunity
with not a lot of time on task with the
receivers and whatnot around him. So maybe he does get
(26:58):
even better, But can you sustain ain't it? The Ravens
hope they don't have to find out because they're hoping
Lamar Jackson's back next week from that ankle injury, But
certainly that that's something to keep in mind here. What
do you pay Lamar Jackson? Is I think a fascinating
conversation in general, just because you know, unlike guys who
make their money solely from the pocket, you always wonder
(27:18):
with quarterbacks whose mobility is a big part of their game,
can they sustain it as they get older? Has maybe
some injuries add up? Again, I don't think we're seeing
that with Lamar. He's missed time this year, but it's
mostly because he's gotten the flu and gotten sick and whatnot.
Now he's got the ankle missing some time, But do
you feel comfortable paying him top dollar three or four
or five years down the road for a guy who
(27:39):
you know, is his mobility and those things that make
him so unique going to be at that same level
somewhere far down the line here. Yeah, it's a it's
a legit question, but clearly, you know, Lamar has earned
whatever is coming to him, and it is just kind
of interesting to see how it will all play out here.
As the Ravens or one of the best at roster
composition in all of football, I'm pilla sero one of
(28:01):
the best to getting us caught up with all the
inside and news around the lead. Tom, thanks very much,
my friend. Yeah right, and that's gonna do it for
this episode of NFL Inside Report. Reminder to download, rate,
and review our show on Apple Podcasts or wherever you
(28:23):
get your ponds. We greatly appreciate it, and we'll be
back with you on Wednesday for another pre Christmas edition
of NFL Inside Report. Or producers Thomas Horne and Tim Peracha.
I'm your host, Fred Lewis. We'll catch you next time.
NFL Inside Report is the production of the NFL and
partnership with I Heart Radio. For more official podcasts from
(28:44):
the NFL, visit the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts,
or wherever you get your podcasts.
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