Geoff Schwartz Is Smarter Than You - Bargaining Power, Hypothetical Trades & Free Agents Not Named Tom Brady

Episode Date: March 10, 2020

Free agency looms: (3:27) CBA disagreements: (14:18) Offseason trades: (30:52) 'Move the Line' Betting Segment: (41:25) - Baker Mayfield gets a statue - Brady's tweets - Tua's health - Rams' logo Marshal Yanda: (53:40) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Jeff, I've seen that guy sob after losses. During games, I've seen him sob. Who knew he was so tortured? And they just kept losing, and he kept eating at them and eating at them. And he just, he couldn't take any more disappointment. Oh, my God. The Jets killed Carl. From The Athletic, I'm Jeff Schwartz.

Players voiced their concerns on a critical CBA vote this weekend. Frequency is right around the corner. And Larry David and Gabe Goodwin have a lot in common. It's Tuesday, March 10th, and this is Jeff Schwartz is Smarter Than You. Welcome in. Hope you guys had a great week. Hope everyone's washing their hands thoroughly, staying safe out there. Gabe, before we get going, I want to let everyone know there might be some humming noise in the background.

I'm at my house right now. We're recording this on Tuesday, obviously. There's work being done at the house. Got a pool going in. And there's just bobcats and excavators going below my window right now. It should be a slight hum maybe, but if we just talk enough or we're loud enough,

maybe no one will hear us yeah no one will hear that i should say i noticed i noticed the uh the pictures of the pool or the hole where the pool will be and it's a pretty pretty pretty big pool there jeff uh it's getting smaller as they start putting in like the rebar and they're gonna they're gonna put the concrete in they're gonna shoot it maybe thursday so what it's getting a little bit smaller um but yeah it's it's it started out pretty large um we're excited we thought about this for a while now we we agreed to basically do this in january and now we're starting yesterday we almost started building the pool in the middle of recession but i think we're i think we'll be okay we're excited for this my kids are pumped we're at the age age now where five and three, there'll be four and six this summer.

They'll be able to use the pool every day. Yeah, it is strange timing, but pools are not impulse buys. So I assume you set the money aside and plan for this for a while. It just means that you'll have to invite me and Zuri down for a little pool party sometime next summer. You guys are welcome.

We can record a podcast from the tanning ledge in the pool. Okay. Yeah, that sounds like. I mean, listen, remember, Jeff, we live in Los Angeles, so that's not as big of a deal. Maybe promise us some pulled pork barbecue or something special. No, you don't want pulled pork. I'll get you something else. All right.

All right. You're in charge. Are you a pulled pork fan? No, that's not my thing. Yeah, I am a big pulled pork fan. Why wouldn't I? It's like the worst of the barbecue, very essential barbecue. But you live in North Carolina. How do you have you have this steak yeah i don't like it i don't like north carolina barbecue oh boy oh we've been over this well on twitter many times i'm

kansas city barbecue number one yeah i like probably probably texas you know second okay i mean st louis and kansas city are close they're just different styles of like flavor on the on the meat um and then north carolina i'm not vinegar i don't like vinegar based barbecue sauce which is more eastern north carolina anyways um i don't like pulled pork and so that kind of knows that wipes them out yes so it sounds like you're a beef based guy you like a dry rub i love a beef rib yeah well i mean you know who doesn't that's that's where you don't it's hard to get them like a big crown beef prime rib from jack stack if you want to if they want to sponsor this podcast send me some ribs i'm all for it yeah listen he's got

a pool to pay for and uh the more sponsorships we can find the better well we will we will fight through the uh bobcat sounds in the background. They're not too distracting. Let me start with something that just let me try to get through this, okay? Because I can see you jumping in and yelling at me before I just let me get through it. Okay? We've spent a lot of time this offseason talking about your boy, Tom Brady. All right?

And I know that you're probably tired of it. You feel like, you know, in all this take making, we've lost sight of some of the more important lesser named guys out there that are also entering free agency. And I know you're eager to talk about those guys, but just hold on. OK, because Tom Brady is the biggest story maybe ever in free agency this offseason. The reason that so many shows and so many people are firing off takes about him is because he's the most interesting person in the league. And what he does and what money he gets and where he ends up dictate everything for everyone else. So this is your show. You can dismiss Tom Brady all you want and tell me about like Russell Okung or some whoever interior lineman that you want to talk about. But Tomady is the first domino in this free agency conversation now we know it's been pushed a few days uh you know to when we're going to find some

of this stuff out because the cba will get to that but tom brady is the straw that stirs the drink much as i hate saying it he does and and when we talked about the subject for the show i said look we've talked so much about tom brady there's so much over my my position on tom brady is very clear i think it goes back to New England. And he is a domino. If he goes somewhere else, then everyone's frame of see changes. If he goes to New England, obviously, I mean, people assume that around the league, then their frame of see plans change.

Obviously, look at the Tennessee Titans, for example. They might get Tom Brady, might get Ryan Tannehill. Two different options, two different players, two different ways to build your roster. Look at the Chargers, who are setting themselves up, and they've done a good job of putting together pieces via training for offensive linemen, Trey Turner, who's better than their left tackle. They can draft a left tackle at seven now. They can bring Tom Brady, and they have a good defense.

They have good weapons around them. They're saving for Tom Brady as well. Obviously, their fortunes change on what they do in the draft. If they don't get Tom Brady, then they have to probably draft a quarterback. So a lot of teams, what they do depends on where Tom Brady goes. But I do not think Tom Brady leaves. And so I'm just kind of over it right now. I think Tom Brady is playing everybody.

He's using this opportunity to continue to build his profile more than just being Super Bowl winning quarterback. He now announced that he has a production company that is going to be maybe one of his next ventures after retirement. And I think he's playing all of us. I think he loves the attention. He knows that this is about him. And Gabe, attention in free agency is different than attention winning a Super Bowl, right?

Like a Super Bowl, you talk about the whole team. You talk about Bill Belichick. You talk about Robert Kraft. You talk about the Patriots allure. You talk about do your job, right? Yes, of course. You talk about Tom Brady. But then Julian Edelman won the MVP of their last Super Bowl.

Right now, we're just talking about Tom Brady. I think he absolutely loves this. Yeah, it goes a little bit against what the mystique has been built up about Tom Brady, because what you said, like for the longest time, we've been told that he's like a team first guy. You know, he's an important piece, but he's just a piece of the puzzle over there in New England. Like it's not about him. And we're starting to see this offseason glimmers of, yeah, no, it is about him, at least in this stage in his career. It's about him. And he does love this spotlight so let's just say then that we can we can put him aside and agree that he's super important

to the whole process but who are some of the other players maybe that you know we're we're trying to be a smarter show than average yeah who are some of the players that are being overlooked by those morning shows that are obsessed with brady and look i understand why we're talking about brady i understand we're talking about dac prescott who supposedly will have a deal maybe soon but then there are other fridges this year that uh could really change the fortunes of teams I understand why we're talking about Brady. I understand why we're talking about Dak Prescott, who supposedly will have a deal maybe soon. But then there are other fridges this year that could really change the fortunes of teams. And look, you have to look at the important positions,

the ones that are most valued in the NFL. So Byron Jones, who's a defensive back for Dallas Cowboys, outstanding defensive back. He's young. The Cowboys, ridiculously, paid a running back before they paid Byron Jones or Amara Cooper or Dak Prescott. So Byron Jones is probably going to walk. He will be a huge addition to any team that's just looking to add a cover corner to their defense.

That seems like every team would want that. Right. He's going to make a lot of money this year. Good for him. Cowboys are idiots for letting him walk, but they're going to let him walk. Look at edge rushers, right? Shaq Barrett has the greatest year of his career last year. I feel like Tampa, though, might still slap that franchise tag on him at some point.

I know the deadline is coming up soon for having to do that because he might – the thing about a guy like that who just came on strong right now is that you don't know if you can count a production moving forward. Is it a one-hit wonder? Is it a guy that just finally found the right situation for him? What if he goes somewhere else? Can he have the production? So I think the Bucs will end up franchise tagging him eventually.

So he might be off the market. Clowney with Seattle, again, pass rusher. You can't have enough pass rushers on your team. And having him anywhere will be an addition. We saw what he did against San Francisco this year. He dominated that one game that was in San Francisco. He had like 11 tackles, multiple hits and hurries. Unbelievable.

To me, that is a huge, would be a huge addition to anyone's team. And then there's other guys, obviously, there's offensive linemen. I think there's tight ends. Tyler Eifert, if he can stay healthy, could be important. Hunter Henry for the Chargers, if he's allowed to eventually leave. Obviously, again, a lot of these guys could get the franchise tag because that's still an option. I think people are waiting to see how the CBA plays out

before they decide to franchise tag. Everything's been moved back now. The tag was supposed to be applied. The deadline, I think, was supposed to be earlier last week. Now it's like Saturday. So some of these guys will be tagged. But I think those guys right there, high-value positions, they can have impacts right away.

All right. Let me just clean that up a little bit. I think, I think the vote has been on the CBA is due for this Thursday. There's already been some changes to that. I think it's now it's this Thursday. I think it's not. It was due for Saturday.

Sorry. Let's let, let's clear this up a little bit. So the, the CBA vote was meant to be Thursday. Now it's moved. We believe to Saturday. Yes.

And in doing that, Was meant to be Thursday. Now it's moved, we believe, to Saturday. Yes. And in doing that, they have decided that the franchise tag deadline will now be Monday in order for, like you said, for the CBA to get resolved before anyone has to do the franchise tag, which then, of course, trickles into a whole bunch of other things. All boring stuff. None of it makes us much smarter about who's playing on the field. Now let's circle back because I said I would move away from Tom Bradyady for a second except i have to just play you one piece of sound again the take makers are out there they want to talk about tom brady

not byron jones um good as byron might be this is from an nfl legend okay this is a guy whose football acumen cannot be questioned i want to to play this for you. I want your reaction on the back end. Tom Brady's going to be 43 years old. I've heard today that eight teams are interested in him. If that's true, their six GMs don't know what they're doing. Because the only team that should be interested in Brady would be teams that are like one player away from going to the Super Bowl. Trying to win it next year before so many of their players go to free agency. And to me, you got two teams, maybe you got the 49ers, I've heard.

I don't know. There's no way they're going to pay both Garoppolo and Brady over $30 million. Well, maybe they'll take Brady and Trey Garoppolo back to New England. That would be interesting. Okay. Thought thoughts on that? Well, what he said was fairly accurate, right? I mean, Tom Brady, I think himself, is not going to go anywhere that you can't win anyways, right? So it kind of eliminates some of these teams. If you look at the teams, let's say outside of New England, right?

Because obviously we talked enough about New England. Which places make sense for him to go the niners obviously do but jimmy grappolo is there so you're gonna have to have some sort of sign and trade where they sign tom brady probably and then you know new england excuse me signs tom brady they trade tom brady and jimmy grappolo yeah and that would destroy the internet that would be unbelievable it'd be it'd be like belich, a master plan to get rid of Brady, bring back his guy. That's a possibility. I think on a scale of possibility, that's low.

But Tom Brady would be excellent to have to scale. With that offensive line, that run game, the weapons there, the head coach, it's the only other coach I think that Tom Brady would respect right away as Kyle Shanahan because Bill Belichick respects Kyle Shanahan the defense as well as outstanding there that makes sense just from a fit again I don't know if it makes sense in actual terms of a deal happening and then the Titans I think make second sense or number one depending on how you look at with actual options and for agency they have a coach that Brady knows, who's friends with. They play kind of above their skis last year.

Good offensive line. You may or may not bring back Derrick Henry, but the weapons are there on offense, right? You have Brown. You have tight ends as well. You have weapons on offense to help you defensively. Got to get a little faster in certain positions, but you have a good core of guys in Tennessee.

And then I think third might be the Chargers. I know it's odd to think about them this way, and they're the 12th favorite team in Los Angeles. That's why I don't think he goes there, by the way. But you have an improved offensive line with a trade. You could draft someone, an impact player early in the draft, specifically probably left tackle. You have Keenan Allen and you have Williams.

You bring back Hunter Henry. You have Eckler. You have the pass rushers on defense. You derwin james you speed at linebacker that actually makes sense but the problem is you're in pat mahomes division i don't know tom brady wants to be in a division he can't control like he probably can do in tennessee or san francisco is not as easy but it's not it's not the AFC East if he goes out West. Yeah, interesting. So what I'm hearing is you're with OJ. That was OJ, interesting.

So you and OJ are aligned. We're OJ. Dude, I don't follow him on Twitter. I think it's just creepy to people to do. It's very creepy, but that was his take. I thought maybe the golf ball in the background would have been a little bit of a hint for you. That was his take. I thought maybe the golf ball in the background would have been a little bit of a hint for you. That was his take. I thought that's actually more reasoned out than most of the crazy things that he says on Twitter.

And I really did want to throw it at you because we've joked about, well, why not just send – Tom has always wanted to play in San Francisco, or supposedly he has because he's a Bay Area guy. And we know Jimmy G and Bill Belichick were meant to be together. You know, the incentives might align here. I know it would take a lot of doing and a lot of paperwork and who would send what with each player. It's complicated, but I think OJ might have been onto something with that one. All right, let's move it along.

The CBA now take a big gulp of coffee, everyone, for this. This always gets confusing. Jeff's going to keep it very simple. I'll fill in some facts as i need to jeff why don't you just rip on what you think the latest news is and i'll give some facts okay so the latest news is this there's a today's tuesday obviously there's an nflpa vote today for president okay the outgoing president eric winston's out today It's just his time is up. There's a vote. Now, there's two factions for the vote. There's one side that's kind of anti-doing this deal. They voted no on the proposal. And then there's a couple candidates, one we don't know, but another one who voted yes. So obviously, I think we can tell where the players are headed with this vote based off of who they elect as president today. Because of this

time to elect a president, also players have requested more time to review a 455-page CBA. The time has been pushed back to Saturday now to finally vote or really to tally all the votes. There's over a thousand votes reportedly already in. players want to change the vote and the nflpa said no there's just a lot of periphery stuff happening around this cba right the nfl owners have done a great job of using their media arm which i don't blame them to to kind of wield influence um via social media on the process influence players and there And there's just, there's a lot of moving parts here, Gabe. So let me drill into one part of that, that I wanted to tee you up on, because I think this is where fans like me who are, you know, paying attention to a lot of other

stuff in the news right now, maybe missing some stuff. So help us understand it. Um, this part of it, we're now hearing that some of the players, and there are, you know, a couple thousand players out there, some of the players, upon further consideration, now don't like this idea of a 17-game season with the more benefits and more money, right? Now some of them are saying, wait, wait, hold on, we want to rethink our vote. And meanwhile, more star players are entrenched as being opposed to the 17 game idea, right? So what I'm starting to see is we kind of have two factions and you hinted at it, two factions within the players. There's the guys we've all heard of, the guys who come up on all the shows who are star players, they make Pro Bowls, they have huge contracts. And then there's the majority of players who just

round out rosters and work hard. And a lot of us haven't heard of many of them. They don't seem to be aligned. And the owners seem to be intentionally driving a wedge and throwing things like, maybe we'll do an 18 game season if you guys don't sign this deal. Maybe we'll wait another year and do that like it seems like the owners are sort of intentionally dividing star players from everyday players and i want to remember everyday players are very wealthy people they are not like us they do not have jobs like the rest of us they get paid plenty yeah let's just put that out there but why don't you see a little bit of a concern here when star players like aaron rogers are being separated from maybe the guys who block for Aaron Rodgers? Isn't that weird? Well, I don't see – let me put it this way. I think when this is all done, there's no hard feelings with the players.

I think once this is done, everyone will just go back and go back to normal, right? But the way this is set up is – and this is – I'll go back a little bit. The problem that I see developing – and I'll answer your question when I get done with this. The problem that I see developing is that we have players that aren't part of the process through the last 10 years, right? They go to their PA meetings every year. They collect their Madden check. We get our royalty check at the PA meetings. They don't pay attention.

They don't engage their reps. And then when it comes to now, so for nine and a half years, they barely paid attention. Comes to now, they go on Twitter. They make videos. They read bullet points. They have their attorneys present whatever that was yesterday on Twitter. And they all voice their concerns, which is fine. You're allowed to have concerns.

I'm not saying you shouldn't. They voice their concerns, which is fine. You're allowed to have concerns. I'm not saying you shouldn't. They voice their concerns on social media. And social media is not our friend right now. We get nothing done bickering on social media over the CBA. Fine. You want to say why you're voting yes and no, I guess go ahead and do it. I'd rather you don't. But there's avenues to go ahead and voice your concerns.

There's an NFL PA meeting happening in Florida right now. Plenty of players are there. But there's players that are not there. And there's players that are not there that have been the loudest on social media about not wanting to do this deal. Show up and be part of the process. And that's what's dividing us right now is we have players that we have an executive committee and NFLPA reps who have worked hard at this job. I'm not, I don't think the CBA is perfect, but I appreciate the work that the committee

has done. And I appreciate the time they put in. And they have a tough job to try to get all the players on their team to pay attention to this stuff. And when they don't pay attention, which they don't, and now they come to this point of the year or of the 10-year CBA when it's time to re-up, they pay attention to bullet points on Twitter, to what their buddies say on Twitter, to what players yell on Twitter. And most of those players, by the way, are older players on Twitter. And yes, the CBA does not benefit them.

So owners know that if they put into the CBA, which they've done, we want to help out younger players. And by the way, this is something that the NFLPA leadership has wanted. They want to make sure younger players have more money, have more job security. And this is something that the NFLPA leadership has wanted. They want to make sure younger players have more money, have more job security. And this is something that, by the way, the NFLPA has told players this, but players don't pay attention. So when it comes up this time of year, they don't know what's been talked about for 11 months because they don't pay attention in the meetings. And so that becomes a problem here.

And look, if you disagree with the way this is going, which Russell Okun does, who now has actually declined the nomination for president, Richard Sherman is not against this deal, is against this deal as well. There's players that are against it. You just do it behind closed doors. And you talk like players. You call, you text, you do it at meetings. Doing it in public just shows the owners were not unified. And they're able to drive a wedge into us by going and saying, you know, the report, hey, AT game schedule, if you don't agree to the CBA, which may or may not be true, I don't know, but players read it and they freak out. And that's the problem is we too much time on social media, Gabe, where we should be

behind closed doors, airing out our concerns, trying to be as unified as possible. I do not, I am not of the expectation that 1,700 players, 1,800 players with all 1,800 opinions are going to be unified. I don't believe we, it's hard to believe that, right? Everyone has their own little agendas. Some careers are short, some careers are longer, different guys, but if you are engaged in the process through the last 10 years, even the last year, you at least know what's happening. You at least know what the NFL PA is asking for. You know what you want, you know, what the NFL owners are asking for and you go behind closed doors and yell at each other and figure it out. Not on social media. It's not helping us to, to air our grievances on this platform.

Wow. Well, everything you just said could apply to, uh, many things. I understand. Yes. The biggest topic in America right now, but we're not the show for that. Correct. Uh, okay. Well then let me, let me ask you a couple of follow-up questions and we'll move on to something that involves players playing, which I think is, is fun for people to hear. Um, you know, we're talking about this wedge between players. I think we may be skipping over why it is that we think there is this wedge. So to clarify, ESPN reports that apparently a few owners no longer even want this deal, that they think if this deal tanks, there's still another year before a deadline,

that they could get a more advantageous deal for owners which would include an 18th game we have speculated on this show that that is just owners being owners leaking the thing they want out in the world to apply some pressure to try to scare that mass of players into we better take this deal now because it's going to be a worse deal in the future so maybe just explain those those points of leverage and the mindset of a player who might think, uh-oh, this is about as good as we're going to do. We didn't get everything, but this is better than what we've got. Let's sign it at risk of having a worse deal a year from now.

Well, the owners know that. That's part of the thinking. And quite honestly, the idea that we might not get a better deal would kind of cross my mind as well. I think there's plenty of parts of this deal that are really good, and they're definitely better than 2011. Now, I disagree with the revenue split, and I think that players worry about things that aren't related to money. Like the owners, all they care about is money. That's what they want. They want to make the most money out of this deal, And we worry about if there's marijuana testing or less practices. Guys, worry about the money,

right? And worry about the revenue split that's happening right now, which is at 48%, possibly up to 48.5%, which I don't think is enough to add an extra game, but that's here nor there. And NFL owners have done a good job of throwing these things out in the media. Look, they didn't vote unanimously for the CBA. There's plenty of owners. I've gotten word that, that don't like the CBA. They think they're giving up way too much. And actually probably, I don't know how, you know, I think Jeremy Fowler is probably reporting

semi-accurate news. I know that it's been refuted by some people on social media. I think he's probably pretty accurate on what he's saying, that their owners, it could just be three, four, two that think, look, I hope this doesn't pass because we're going to go back to the players and we're going to give a worse deal for 18 games and they're going to take it or they're not going to play in 2021. And that's another thing too that I failed to mention earlier is, look, our leverage is sitting out, okay? But it's just, it's so hard to imagine NFL players ever doing that. We don't have guaranteed deals right now

to the point of what you said earlier about, you know, the 60, 70% of players getting a pay raise. A lot of guys can't afford to sit out an entire season in their prime playing careers. I know, Gabe, this is going to sound, I don't know how it's going to sound, but I know that if you are on a rookie contract, and let's say you were me, you're a seventh-round draft pick. It's 2008 now, okay? I was going to make – I mean, I could add it up, but like my rookie deal was probably worth somewhere in the range of –

if you add it up for the years, it was probably going to be like, I'm trying to do a quick math now, like a million two, let's say. A million two, a million three, right? And obviously, the salaries have risen now. So let's say it's $2 million for an entire four-year rookie deal for a seven-year draft pick. It sounds like a lot of money.

And it surely is a lot of money. It's life-changing money. But if you only have three years to earn basically a million dollars after taxes, that money goes pretty fast. And so it's hard for players to just say, you know what, I'm going to skip one of my earning years of life in the NFL to sit out when I can make an extra $100,000 now. Does that make sense? Yeah, of course it does. And you also don't get to choose where you live. And if you get drafted into certain parts of this country, a million dollars goes a lot further than other parts of this country. If you have kids or not

kids, if you're supporting a family or a neighborhood that goes, I mean, there's a lot there. So, right. But I mean, a million dollars, I mean, look, 3% goes to your agent. Well, it's a little less now sometimes, but you're right. Then you buy your mom a house. You don't even have to be a jackass. We're not talking about people who go and waste their money just right for two million dollars pre-tax over four years when a lot of people are counting on you losing out on any year of that earning capability is foolish business period it correct nobody needs to talk about what they make in their job. Right. And this is what NFL owners know. And again, I'm more of a realist when it comes to players.

I understand why the NFL owners feel this way, and they probably have a right to feel that way. When I was in 2010, 2011, I should say, when I was going through this, I was prepared for a lockout. I had money saved up. And mind you, I'd been in practice squad my first year and I had only two years of active salary money. But I was living modestly, right?

I had a modest house. I had to spend a lot of money. No pool back then. No pool back then. Oh, geez. Yeah. By the way, the first day we had like another cost that was like, you know, just something that wasn't included.

Just the first day. That's how construction works, Jeff. I know. Guess what? They're going to find some soft spot down there at some point. That's going to cost you another bunch of money. Well, that was the problem.

They found, way back in the day, someone dumped boulders and tree stumps at the very back of the backyard. They buried them. They pulled them out of this big hole. Now they're just stuck. We have to pay to get them removed. 20,000 pound stones stuck in our backyard. I guess's a boulder it's not really a stone um so yeah the money nfl owners know that this is a problem that players

will occur that's why they won't sit out you know like now like i said could i have sat out probably i mean again i didn't have a lot of expenses didn't have kids modest house wasn't you know i didn't have money to really spend on a car yet or anything crazy. But a lot of players can't. A lot of players, unfortunately, to your point, they either waste their money or, to your point even better, they have to support people. And they don't have the money to just withstand a year of not making anything. So NFL owners know this. It's not unfair to discuss this on the player side either.

Yeah. Well, I just think it's important now for those of us as fans to take a deep breath and look at the whole landscape of players and realize that when we're getting agitated, when we're hearing things like a holdout, or when we're hearing that we aren't going to get what we think we deserve as fans, we do have to remember that there's a big difference between the guys we've heard of the guys who you know i like to talk about on this show and all those other guys and jeff just spelled it out well for you they all make more money than you listening at home but it's a it's it's totally different scales and we have to understand those different points of view that's all correct and this is why

i think it does pass in the end though is because there's enough players that um that will make you know significant more money that it will pass i just want to one last point before we move on i know we're a lot of cba talk one thing that i think is again i think that the players don't quite frame their their arguments at times accurately. People are saying, well, it's an extra $1,000 for players, for younger players, which I get. That's true. But again, we should be less focused, in my opinion,

on details like that and just more focused on the overall revenue split, right? Because again, moving up 1% to add an extra game, in my opinion, is not worth it. And even if we paid veterans more money or rookies more money, it's still just 1% more no matter how you break it up. And we talk about these things

like the overall pie doesn't matter when that should be our number one focus. The NFL owners, I promise you, are focused on the number, the revenue number of that pie. And we're not as focused on that as we should be, in my opinion. And that is my biggest,

I think, gripe with this whole process is we as players, maybe we are, we just don't talk about it enough, but there doesn't need to be enough focus on that overall number because that's where we get our benefits. That's where we get our salary from is that overall number.

So that overall number was 49 or 50. I don't care how the money is split up. That's more money for everybody. And so that's why I think that we just – we don't quite look at it in the way that I would like to see us do it. Again, I think that our guys have a tough job and I commend the job that PA reps have tried to do. Yeah. job and I commend the job that PA reps have tried to do. Yeah. And just for everyone's clarity, what Jeff's talking about is if the NFL brings in billions of dollars through TV deals, through, you know, merchandise sales, all the licensing agreement, everything that the NFL puts its

shield on or its team's logos on, they're making some money on that. And then that money gets chopped basically into roundly two pieces one piece for the owners to split and one piece for the players to split and right now the players what jeff is saying is should be fighting for that half to be a little bit bigger then worry about how it's allocated not to worry and spend all their time tweeting about each individual line item on the budget and not getting more of the overall percentage. Yes, that's a good way to put it. Because that's what I think we should be fighting for all times. All right.

Well, now let's get back to some players. And I'm going to turn into I'm from the northeast. I grew up in New York area. So I grew up with a radio station called The Fan. It's kind of world famous for one thing, which is trades, dude. That's what you talk about. You just call in first time, long time, and then you throw a trade out there. Back in the day, you know, every off season, the Yankees should have traded for Barry Bonds and Ken Griffey Jr. There was a way to make it work. I think Larry David and

Jerry Seinfeld immortalized this with George Costanza. But I want to bring it to football. I think that football is missing an opportunity to do more with trades or at least speculate more with trades. I'm going to lead the charge. Our boy, Sheil Kapadia, who writes at The Athletic, does a really good job. I love Sheil, he's great. Yeah, he does a great job covering the league. He put together this dream piece, all 32 teams, one player that they might be considering trading, and then a little bit of analysis with his friends around the athletic people who know what's going on at each team.

I'm not going to read every single one of them. I encourage other people to go check it out, see who he thinks your team might be shopping. I'm just going to throw the ones that caught my eye at you. All right. Odell Beckham Jr. People think it's got to be a first rounder for Odell. I'll throw where I think he could go what about baltimore what about obj to baltimore for a first rounder they need um

a bigger wide receiver bigger why bigger like a like i mean like a big like a actual like like an anquan bolden kind of guy yeah okay so you think a a speedy dude who can do all these amazingly athletic things is nice but that's actually it doesn't fit that offense i don't think even though all we hear about is their speed all the time you're saying at the receiver position they need just a big target who can go over the middle yes okay so not obj but let's put a pin in that we might want to come back to somebody else i think odell could be traded i just don't know if that's the right place. Do you have,

if you care to follow me on this journey, do you have a place where you'd think it's more likely he ends up? I, I personally, as a Tom Brady stand, I would love if he went to New England. Oh my God. So in this scenario,

Brady stays, he doesn't go the OJ route and head out to San Francisco. He stays in New England and then he gets OBJ added to the team. Yeah. Or Stefan Diggs. Oh God. Okay. So would that mean if that happened, would we then not have to hear about all the complaints

about his lack of weapons? Could we just have one season in his whole damn life where we didn't hear that? Yeah. But I also think in practically speaking, I mean, I think the Niners would be open to go in and getting odell um you know i mean maybe even even the packers maybe swing the fences for odell and try to get him into it with aaron rogers for the teams that could just right now you know the thing about trades and oj so eloquently talked about this and within the free agency and tom brady is you know if you're training forell, you're kind of doing it to win now, right?

Like you're not doing it for the future. And so you look at teams around the NFL that could just use that one extra piece. You know, the Packers have, you know, a pass rush. They have a secondary. They got to get faster at linebacker. They have a quarterback. They have an offensive line. They have a running back.

They have one wide receiver. They need another one. And so you look at teams like that that are kind of one or two pieces away from making a deep run to Super Bowl, that comes to mind. many other people think it doesn't seem like coaches or quarterbacks really have a lot of influence over him but if he went to green bay and was playing for aaron rogers i guess the belief would be that aaron rogers could kind of reel him in that whatever his you know distraction distracting qualities are they would lessen if he was playing with a guy like aaron rogers is that the belief uh yeah i think when he's happy, he's a good sport. All right.

As most wide receivers are. You mentioned Diggs. Our buddy producer Matt is hoping that he'll get traded to D.C. What do we think about Stephon Diggs? A straight-up Trent Williams for Stephon Diggs trade. I think this gets done. I think he leaves. I don't know if it goes to the Redskins.

But again, the Patriots, the Packers, the Niners, teams that maybe Seattle. So the rich get richer kind of situation. Maybe Seattle. I mean, teams that need wide receivers badly, I think, are going to take a look at Stephon Diggs or Odell. Okay. So those are the top two receivers out there who could get traded for. Just the way the contracts work out, they both look like trade targets, not people you wait around for in free agency. You mentioned Trent Williams.

I have seen him linked to my Jets. I think your boy Florio reported that. Oh, Florio. Maybe that makes you think the opposite. I don't know. Yeah, you know him with all his great sourcing. Uh-huh. So Trent Williams to the Jets.

Listen, the Jets obviously need a lot of things, but they've been good when they've had lines in my lifetime. They've been terrible when they haven't. Isn't that every team? Yeah, probably. I mean, listen, you're the one who's supposed to make us smarter on this show, not me. Trent Williams to the Jets. Make any sense?

Could they pull that off? Yeah, I'm not sure a Jets fan will ever make us smarter on football, right? So that makes sense. I mean, they could. I think that the Jets, the Browns, Trent can still play. I think that the Jets, the Browns, Trent can still play. I would look, honestly, I know it's not a trade piece, but a veteran guy like Jason Peters, who's leaving the Eagles, can still play.

I know he's 38 years old, but he is an outstanding leader. And I think with Trent Williams, you worry about his knee. His knee is old and there's concerns about the health of that knee, I think Peters might be a better option. Not via trade, obviously, but if you're going to go the trade route, Trent Williams would be a home run. You know, in the middle of that, just while you were talking about Trent Williams' knee, something happened with your voice.

You sounded exactly like Chris Berman. Really? Yeah, it was beautiful. Oh, thank you. I don't know if you got like a little something stuck in your throat and it took you down a register or two, but you just went, Trent Williams knee. And it just sounded so good. Man, I don't even know what you said.

I just heard that and I was like, we're talking football now. Fantastic. Yeah. A couple more quick ones and then we're going to end on a big one. Andy Dalton. I assume because you're convinced Tom Brady's staying, that Andy Dalton to New England is just a stupid thing people are tweeting about. Is there any reason to believe the Red Rifle is going to end up anywhere

other than on the bench in Cincy? The Red Rifle. I think the team might take a look at him as far as a veteran guy. Here's the thing about Dalton. This is important about most NFL players. This is why they last in the league a long time. He's consistent, right? He might not be the best,

but he's consistent. You know what you're getting from Andy Dalton each and every week. You know what type of player he is, what type of leader he is. I think someone will look who needs kind of a veteran. Maybe the Chargers miss out on Tom Brady and they know they have to draft Justin Herbert. They trade for Dalton for a year or two to let him mentor a guy like

Herbert or a Jordan Love. That, to me, feels like the role that Dalton will have moving forward. What about the Bears? I've seen reports of that. I think the Bears are going to stick with Trubisky one more year. Okay. Are we at a point in Andy Dalton's career where he becomes another McCown? He's just a good guy.

He's better than McCown. And I'm going to write about this for SB Nation this week, maybe even next week too. It might come out next week, is that more than ever now, teams are just moving on from quarterbacks. It used to be, when we grew up watching football, you just kind of had your quarterback and you just

stuck with him because you were stubborn about it. You draft him. He was your guy. You're going to win or lose with your guy. You invest all this capital in him and now it feels like teams are like, you know what? We can't win with this dude. He's gone cares let's bring someone else in and i think that could be a reason why dalton doesn't really have a starting job anymore as people know you know probably not good enough to ever win a super bowl we're out we'll go draft ourselves

jordan love or easton and we'll find a young guy that might you know that has the potential to be really great versus a guy we know in and Dalton. Yeah, I think you're right. All right, last one. I saved it because it's the most exciting. Christian McCaffrey. Could Christian McCaffrey get traded if they are in tear-it-down mode? The Matt Rule era has begun in Carolina. You're close to it.

Could McCaffrey get moved for like a billion pieces? And first tackle that, and then I want to bring up something that's out there that you can find on the internet that's going to blow your mind. But go ahead. Can you tell us batting average in spring training? No, come on. Don't do that. Sorry, giggling in the background.

No, I think McCaffrey is the one untouchable in Carolina. I don't think he's going anywhere. So even if they decide we're screwed, we need to rebuild this thing. They lock him in and then rebuild around him. Because he's i don't think so even if they decide we're screwed we need to rebuild this thing they lock him in and then rebuild around because he's cheap he's cheap right now for now but he he has a holdout option in the future yeah just for now you let him you keep him and you use him and then eventually get rid of him okay i'm gonna throw two other ideas at you then one has been tweeted about uh fellow named oh gosh who was it? Ian something at Bleacher. Yeah.

Ian Kenyon says, basically short version, what about the Chiefs? What about Christian McCaffrey going to the Chiefs? The Chiefs have never valued that position. I would think that that's a firm no. I mean, obviously fun to think about, but no. I mean, could any defense, could you put 13 guys on the field and stop them if they had McCaffrey? No. But again, what are you giving up for that?

Like, I don't that any read has never valued that position. I do not expect him to value it now. Okay. I mean, he's made a lot out of that position, even if he hasn't valued the guys at that position. So you're saying he can make it out of whichever Williams is getting the rock next year. They'll just turn him into a thousand. Yes. All right.

And then last one. This comes up a lot and always with Brady as the answer. But what about the L.A. Chargers? Why not bring Christian McCaffrey back west and build? I get that you rather build a team around a quarterback, but this guy's, you know, more exciting than almost any quarterback in the league. What about answer the fans with that?

In general, I'll tell you this game. You should never sign a running back to second contract or draft a running back in the first round. And you should definitely not trade for a running back. So I would know none of this zero don't trade for him. Okay. so the team that just paid austin eckler austin eckler and i know that you're gonna go to sofi stadium to

watch austin eckler i sure will i'll go to sofi stadium in my brand new la rams or is it chargers hat i'm not sure which who it looks the same who knows what who knows what's uh what's happening with uh with that logo well let's move let's move the line and get right into it so days until the rams change their logo again if you haven't seen on twitter the rams put out a logo that looks like a perfect la chargers logo it's it basically is the chargers logo but it's the rams logo It's the most confusing thing in LA. It's supposed to be a Rams horn, but it looks like a wave. And it looks like a C. Their logo was really good, I thought.

Like the Rams horn? Yeah. Great, great logo. I would, this is bad. This is bad. I just, I, the neon hat they showed was their draft hat. Now their other logo is obviously out there too as well.

Guys, just start over. Start over again. Listen. How does this stuff pass, like, quality control? I have no idea. I don't want to dump on whichever hardworking people figured out how to make a logo over there. They might even be friends of ours. We don't know.

But the issue is not how good the design looks. The issue is stepping back from it and going, wait a second. We play in a town with two football teams, and looks like the other team that's that's the issue i mean like the mets and yankees i guess to a non-discerning eye kind of have similar looking logos but they're completely different colors you wouldn't mix up the interlocking n and y of those two logos so you know it just seemed like a brain fart we'll give them a pass though let's see if they get if they go ahead and trade for christian mccaffrey all is forgotten um all right here's another one weeks until baker mayfield statue in oklahoma gets vandalized on campus i'm going to

give you 15.5 over under oh be vandalized before then um i don't understand i really don't get this i get that they give statues to Heisman winners. Yeah. But why so soon for Baker Mayfield? Because he's awesome and he's a recruiting tool. Why are you so resistant to this? I texted this to our little group thread and everyone's making jokes about Baker. Oh, maybe he's the third best quarterback of the last three they've had. Maybe they should give all three guys a thing. Yeah, fine.

Go ahead. Go ahead and give the number one pick in the draft in Kyler Murray. His statue, too. I'm all for it. Are you a participation trophy guy? Well, I mean, if you look at me, you'd think I would be. But no, I'm not a participation trophy guy. I'm a pragmatist.

And I think that Baker Mayfield is the best recruiting tool at Oklahoma since, I don't know, go back to whenever the last superstar player was at Oklahoma, Adrian Peterson, probably. Like, who else are you going to tell every young guy about? Why does Adrian Peterson have a statue? Get him a statue. I would have assumed there already were five Adrian Peterson statues around campus. If there aren't, build that first. Then build a Baker Mayfield statue.

I mean, there's three Jeff Schwartz statues in Oregon, so I understand why. I mean, for recruiting. Just you running with your hair flowing behind you? Yes. I have one of me carrying the football against USC. Yeah. Third leading wrestler in 2007, by the way, as I beat your Trojans. And there's another one of me with my hair flowing at the combine.

There's another one of me just in my stance. That's very nice. Are you being serious here? These are things that exist. I can go see them. I can take a picture next to a statue of Jeff Schwartz. What do you think, Gabe? I'm thinking no, but-

No, of course not. I don't know. Uncle Phil has endless money up there. There's barely even a mention of me in the whole facility. For all I know, Phil Knight buys every player who ever went there three statues, and they just sprinkled around. I don't know.

Okay. Speaking about Phil Knight, I'm going to share just one story. We've got time for this. I talked about my run. If you guys go to my Twitter or go to my Instagram, you'll see that. And go to YouTube, actually, you can find this. It's USC in 2007. Dennis Dixon went the wrong way on a play.

And he pitched me the ball instead of the running back. He thought I was the running back. I got three yards. I got tackled. So I was the running back. I got three yards. I got tackled. So I was the third leading rusher. If you go to the box score, 2007, Oregon, USC. You go to the box score, Jeff Schwartz, G. Schwartz. One carry, three yards rushing.

So we beat USC for the first time in forever. It's finally our conference, right? And I'm coming up the tunnel after the game to go to the locker room to celebrate. Someone jumps on my back and says to me, you're the third leading rusher today. I turn around, it was Phil Knight. Hey. Hey, hey-o. That's nice.

Yeah. To get a pair of Jordans or anything out of that? We didn't have cool shoes. We didn't have Jordans. We had like Harachis and some Air Force Ones, I think. Okay. That's pretty cool. Yeah. Oh, phil's paying attention that's nice that's uh was there any other game where you showed up in a box score with rushing yards i mean fifth leading rusher

something like that no i mean i felt i had a kick return for 16 yards once yeah i know you're obsessed with that that's that's always the happiest i ever see you is when a lineman gets involved in special teams and starts running with the ball that's that's peak jeff i get pretty fired up when i see a pancake though no that okay fair fair anything pancake related usually like i see you on like rex chapman twitter anytime he he shows a video of somebody getting smushed you're usually not far behind retweeting it with some sort of pancake joke how about how about rex making a living doing that it's fantastic if he's making a living we don't know that for a fact all right let's let's keep moving the line uh number of tweets tom brady sends antonio brown in the next three months over under 0.5 he just

had one all it was was a heart emoji on top of ab seemingly trying to kiss ass and get his way back into new england when he tweeted anger and ego kicked my ass for about six months i forgot about hard work and grace has success took a shot yet i don't know i don't know what he's talking about he was kissing ass to new england tom brady loved it will we see it again oh yeah it seems to be a coordinate effort with tom and ab to get get back together in new england what is that about why not just go get obj i have i'm i have no i actually i don't know why this is a thing like they were together like one week i don't understand he didn't live in their house maybe they're buddies now this would be for like the honest

pairing of individuals in f1 history okay i have for over a year now been very cautious about how I speak about Antonio Brown because before anyone even raised any issues, I was saying, guys, he's unwell. I don't know what it is. I don't know if this is mental health. I don't know if this is drugs. Something's off with this guy. It's not funny. That's been my stance for the whole time.

Nothing has changed. It's gotten worse. Whatever was going on with him the whole time. Nothing has changed. It's gotten worse. Whatever was going on with him is still going on. Why would Tom Brady want that? I mean, not to be unfair to AB. I don't mean to talk about it. He's a human. But, like, why would Tom Brady want to take responsibility for that at this stage in his career?

I mean, he's very talented, and he feels he needs some help. I don't know, dude. You could talk the front office. You just mentioned Stephon Diggs and Odell Beckham Jr. Yeah, but those guys are not as cheap and take a draft pick. I don't think Tom Brady cares about New England draft picks. No, Antonio Brown obviously is not even reinstated, I think. I mean, he's still on commission.

And he's been away from football for a year. Last time we saw him, he couldn't walk. He burnt his own feet off. That's still on conditions. And he's been away from football for a year. Last time we saw him, he couldn't walk. He burnt his own feet off. That's wild, man. Yeah. So let's lay off the Antonio Brown talk until we're positive this guy's well. You brought up on this podcast. I'm just saying, let's be sure he's well before we talk about him as a football player.

And I don't think we're going to know that for a while. All right. Months until Tua's game ready. One and a half months. Over, under. Months until regular season months or months until now? Now.

From now, I don't know. When do you want to start? How soon before this guy can play football? I think still a while. I think that a team that drafts him will go very slow. I think there's a good chance he ends up on PUP to start the year.

Physically unable to perform. He does not count against the roster. Still gets paid. It feels like that's probably the route a team will go just to make sure he's completely healthy. Remember, he's also had two ankle surgeries. He's had a lot of work done. Yeah. Oh, he's been beat up, man.

That's why Nick Saban does not do his players any favors. When he needs to beat you up, he will beat you up. That's too bad. You're there for him. You're not there for your future. I mean, people don't seem to realize that, but Tua is going to come out damaged goods. I hope he's healthy by the time he gets to the draft.

I hope he finds his way to a good team. He could be a really fun player in the NFL. But, man, yeah, he's got some miles on those tires. All right, last one. Zuri threw this in here. I'm going to read this on the fly, not knowing what I'm about to read. L.A-based NFL teams gave roots for this season 1.5, and this is pegged to the fact that one of the more recent

Carbure Enthusiasms basically summed up my entire life. I am a Jets fan, as has come up many times, so has Larry David. One of his friends in the show is so upset as a Jets fan that he actually kills himself because he's so desperate and sad from watching the Jets his whole life. And I have to say it was it was relatable content. I knew obviously joking about a joking show, but I knew this man's pain. Being a Jets fan is awful. And I've thought about bailing many many times so will this be the year that i officially pick a different team um we didn't we'd actually say what this is it's almost more fun to talk about what was what larry david actually said he said he said uh his

his partner left a suicide note that says i can't take this anymore david immediately interprets that to be referencing the jets the jets killed carets killed Carl, he realizes, and a little bit of the Knicks. The Jets killed Carl is the most apt comment you will hear. Listen, the Jets, man, could they ever turn it around, Jeff? Seriously. Larry said it. It's not since 1969. I mean, if Sam Donald turns out to be great, yes.

What do you mean if? He's not. He's not great. We know he's not. It's not since 1969. If Sam Donald turns out to be great, yes. What do you mean if? He's not. He's not great. We know he's not. He's a quarterback. He's fine, but he's not great. Then you're probably not going to win. I wonder why it is that Jets fans, we are more prone to getting worked up about it.

It seems other towns- Because you want to win. Yeah, but other cities want to win and they just get over it. It's because the Giants are there. That's probably it. We see win and they just get over it. It's because the Giants are there. That's probably it. We see success. We're so near it. We know what it looks like.

And also, your owner seems to love the tabloids and just always drama with your team. Yeah. The Giants have tried. They've had a lot more lately, but they generally have been a lot more conservative as far as how the media is used to cover them. Yeah, they're more traditional. You know, you're onto something here. It's the nearness to success. We see exactly what the model for success is.

We just never quite seem to get it right. And what makes it worse is so many of us are also Mets fans, which have the exact same problem, but probably times 100 in the mets yankees sort of dynamic um speaking about the mets i looked up our guy oh don't do this uh 154 in spring training two for 13 so things are going well what what about i know the first shot uh was a dinger six strikeouts six strikeouts what was that second hit uh single base knock um so reference i'm looking at uh pete alonso yeah only 243 not ideal no home runs okay bust t-bone more pop than pete alonso heard it here first the guy jay mcneil's doing well who's jay mcneil i don't know but he's not

a heisman winner from florida jeff jeff mc. Nice. All right. Jeff. His nickname is Flying Squirrel. You got to start rooting for him. What just happened? How did we get to some guy named Jeff McNeil, the Flying Squirrel from Larry David? He's your new favorite Mets player, though. We just determined that on the podcast. I'll decide who my favorite Mets player is. But back to the question that was asked.

LA-based teams that you root for this season, over under one point. Do you root for an LA team besides, well you root for USC's, that's one. I ram it every now and then. So over? Yeah. Are you going to go to the new stadium this year? I would love to, yeah. I need a hookup. I need

you and Uncle Phil to come down and then I'll meet you over at the stadium. We'll get a little Texas barbecue. I'm sure they'll have a barbecue option at the stadium. It'll be great. Oh, the traffic getting to Englewood is going to be. Oh, come on. I'll give you a ride.

Don't worry about it. In the Mini Cooper? Are we going to rent it back again? Come on, buddy. Got rid of the Mini Cooper long ago. Got a third row car now. Too many babies for a Mini Cooper. Too many babies.

Outstanding. All right, guys. I appreciate you tuning in. Real quickly, I want to give an appreciation to Marshall Yanda, former Baltimore Raven now who's retiring. Eight-time Pro Bowler. One of the only three guards in NFL history to make the Pro Bowl at least eight times and win a Super Bowl.

Larry Allen, Alan Fanica. Alan Fanica should hopefully be in the Hall of Fame soon. Marshall Yanda is the epitome of an offensive lineman. He's from Iowa. He's just a physical SOB. He's a tough guy. Just got after people. There's a clip Robert Mays, and maybe I'll retweet it so you guys can see it,

put out where he blocks three guys in one play. I love watching him play. I'm going to miss watching him play now, but congratulations on your retirement. I think it's worth shouting you out considering that I'm an offensive lineman and I love watching guys like Marshall Yanda play. I want to give human is due. And with that, we'll catch up with you guys next week. Gabe, can I announce, am I allowed to announce what's happening on Thursdays or not yet?

I think it's better to just keep teasing this. Okay, we'll keep teasing it, because I actually have not, we haven't signed anything yet. I think paper needs to have dry ink on it. Trust me, we're working on everybody. But Thursday, I promise you, it's going to be fantastic. So we'll be back next Tuesday and hopefully next week. Fingers crossed. We'll have our Thursday episode up and running.

I think you guys will really, really enjoy a little bit of a change that we're doing. And Thursday will also, I assume, be free too. So we'll be able to have more access to a lot of you guys. Thank you guys for tuning in. Rate, review, subscribe on iTunes. Obviously, if you're listening to us on The Athletic Pod, we appreciate that membership as well. Have a great week, everyone. Talk to you guys next Tuesday.