Geoff Schwartz Is Smarter Than You - Biggest Offseason Questions

Episode Date: March 30, 2021

Geoff is joined by Gabe Goodwin to react to the Dolphins trade, the 49ers future at QB, the scariest team in the NFC, the Buccaneers chances of winning again and much more. 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.

it's tuesday march 30th the dolphins are mixing up the draft board left and right trevor lawrence won't be attending the draft they'll officially be an extra game next season we have so much to talk about jeff schwartz gabe goodwin this is jeff schwartz is smarter than you gabe how you doing buddy i'm doing really good jeff it's nice to be on with you i've been dumber and dumber the last few weeks because i haven't had this weekly opportunity to get smarter with you but here i am about to raise my IQ. You're back. I saw you a couple weeks ago.

We had dinner together. It was a lot of fun. And, you know, California is just, you guys are just chugging along. You're a little different than everyone else right now, but I enjoyed it anyways. I think what you mean is that we are still under strict guidelines. And most people you encounter in Los Angeles are very careful about those guidelines still. And that is a shock to people from other parts of the country.

It is, it is. And we are in the middle of North Carolina. I'm actually at the beach right now in South Carolina. I have the most amazing setup ever. I have a table from outside, a nightstand and a chair from downstairs all in the bedroom right now. But I couldn't pass up an opportunity

to talk about the NFL because no matter what time of year it is, the NFL is on fire. And last week, the end of the week, a lot of news broke with trades and craziness. And I'm just going to talk about it with you. Well, I am even dumber than usual. I have been a little more. My takes are only as smart as the dumbest people on Twitter this week. So this is really perfect for the show because the whole plan is for you to make me a little smarter with the things I've read and not understood. Let me start with what you're alluding to, which is some trade. So Miami is terrifying right now and not just the city where that is the opposite of California when it comes to rules down in South Beach. The Dolphins are rebuilding for a decade

of dominance at just the right time. They basically turned the third pick into a six and then first rounders for the next two years. They've already got a whole bunch of picks. They've already got money. They decided on two over fits. They got the coach. The Pats look like they're, you know, declining the bills. We aren't so sure about. And the Jets suck. So the Dolphins are ready to take over the AFC East. It's already done. The draft doesn't even matter.

That's a very layman's version of what happened. But what really happened was San Francisco moved from 12 up to 3 to presumably draft a quarterback. And we'll get into what they're doing in a second. The Dolphins got San Francisco's, obviously their 2021 first, their 2022 and 2023 first round draft picks. And they ended up getting a third round draft pick next year as well from the 49ers.

But what's even more remarkable about this is, do you remember they had Laramie Tunsil, the left tackle for now Houston Texans. And remember he dropped in the draft because that that gas mask the bong he had yeah attached to his face so dolphin ended up drafting him at 13 and through maneuvering right they ended up turning him into four first round draft picks two seconds and a third it's incredible what they did with laramie now they traded back up from 12 to 6 for the eagles they swapped spots and they gave up a first round pick to do so now

there's some debate on whether or not it's worth moving up six more spots and giving a first rounder back to the eagles uh to do so a lot of people would say no it's better to keep the first rounder for that but you know i think that it's tough generally speaking and the research has shown that you get the same quality player at six and or at 12 that teams overvalue how good players can be because they want to draft them obviously but I think if you're able if you're the Dolphins you're able to get a Jamar Chase you get one of three guys really okay you get Jamar Chase you're gonna get Kyle Pitts or Panay S penesu the offensive tackle at oregon because the way it's going to look now one quarterback trevor lawrence who's not attending the draft good for him who cares and whatever it's in cleveland too sorry cleveland

it'd be fun i think though but still not going to cleveland number two is the jets and we'll talk about them in a second what they're gonna do but most most they're drafting zach wilson probably three now the 49ers are gonna draft a quarterback there's no way they trade up for in a second what they're going to do. But most, most, they're drafting Zach Wilson probably. Three, now the 49ers, are going to draft a quarterback. There's no way they trade up for anyone else. Four is the Falcons, and they have plenty of options,

including drafting quarterback as well. Five is the Bengals. They'll take kind of whoever the best player is on their board. And then six is the Dolphins, and they're going to help out Tua. It's a clear sign that they're going to continue to roll with Tua, at least for one more year

and maybe two more years. They're going to give him more parts around him, right? They need more wide receivers for him. They drafted some offensive linemen last year, but adding Panay Sewell will definitely not hurt them, but they can get Jamar Chase at six or Kyle Pitts, man. Those are wins for the Dolphins. So even though they move back up,

lost a first-round pick in doing so, I don't know, Gabe. I feel like sometimes we have to see how it goes before we say whether or not it was stupid to do so. Well, okay. So I don't know. If you know that the first three are taking quarterback and you think that four might, six and 12 do make a big difference, though. Because they either want to give Tua his, his weapon of the future or the guy who's going to keep him clean in the future.

Right. That that's kind of the summary of what you're telling us. And so six does make sense, but three didn't, they didn't need what was available at three. They do need what's available at six. And by 12, it's too late.

Now you're drafting like some safety or something you don't need. Well, so yes. So, you know, if you're not gonna draft a quarterback at three which they clearly weren't you move back to 12 you got two first round picks essentially for that right we got three got the niners first round pick this year and then two more the

following seasons plus a third round pick so the idea and the research has shown that if you stay at 12 you're most likely going to get the same quality player you get at six even though right now we might not think that game for example they might draft jamar chase but then at 15 someone drafts um jaylen waddle let's say it's probably too low for him but or or or or the eagles at 12 draft draft waddle and waddle ends up being better than jamar chase then that first round draft pick you gave up as a waste. And that's what the research kind of shows. Now, again, in the moment, if you're the Dolphins,

it's hard to think about that, right? Because you want to get the best player you think is possible to help your team. And maybe Jamar Chase is a Hall of Famer, or Panay Su or Kyle Pitts. So I get why they did that. That's why I think, and it's worth bringing up, that the data shows one thing. And I get it.

I'm not refuting it. I agree with what they've said the research has shown that but in certain instances I think it's okay for teams to be more aggressive and this might be a spot to do so again it might not pan out on the end but they get Panay Sewell who I think will be a hall of fame caliber left tackle it's totally worth trading up and giving up one more first round pick well you already have i believe they have two first next year as well it's not like they're losing their own first round pick to move back up right i mean you've said this many times i think most smart people in football know like you can build a very good team when you're still paying your quarterback a rookie contract if you're also paying you know your two best linemen and a couple weapons rookie contracts, you can spend your money in free agency, right? And so the Dolphins could go from borderline playoff team, like they got in but weren't quite ready, to serious contender before

that contract with Tua even runs out, assuming he turns into the player they think he will. So isn't this, all those first round picks in the first few years really do make a difference it's very rare for a team to have that many firsts and know what they're doing and already be good right and you know it isn't yes but they have to hit on two though none of this matters if they don't hit on two okay but i think but i think the important part to note is that they are building around to uh because the way to win most recently if you're not Tom Brady is have a quarterback on a rookie contract and you're able to then pay everyone else on your team and so now so that's what they're building so Tua has to be the guy though and they only have a two

three-year window to make this happen and so they're trying to get all the talent they can now to make sure this happens in the time frame that has worked recently for younger quarterbacks, right? Russell Wilson, even a Carson Wentz. I know Nick Foles won that year, but you look at what they did under a rookie contract, Pat Mahomes as well. You know, we're seeing, you know, the ramifications of Pat Mahomes making a lot of money. Now the cap obviously went down.

That doesn't help, but you know, we're seeing that. It's just, it's hard to keep a team together when a quarterback's making so much money. Yeah. Well, we see in their division alone, the two teams, it works with Josh Allen. The bills look like one of the serious contenders in the AFC. It doesn't work with Sam Darnold. The jets look like the worst team in football. I mean, it just, it's as simple as that. And so they're hoping to, as more like Allen, let me ask you this,

cause there's a couple of dominoes that come from this and you led with the Niners. So I'm going to go back to the Niners. There's a lot of speculation out there now that they're going to they're going to use three on people think Mac Jones from Alabama or some other quarterback, but that Jimmy G is done. And then that leads to Jimmy G going back to New England and yada, yada, yada. So unpack a little of that for me. So, yeah. So with this trade, it feels like the Niners are moving off Jimmy Garoppolo. And they are. This year, probably, if they can get out of it, maybe they can't.

And so that affects who they draft. But let's talk about Jimmy G for a second. I've said this from the moment it happened, Gabe, is he missed two throws in the Super Bowl that changed his fate in San Francisco. He had Kittle open. I believe they were still winning at the Francisco. He had Kittle open. I think, I believe they were still winning at the point. It was 20 to 17. He had Kittle open, third and sixth play drawn up perfectly. Shanahan called a perfect play. Kittle was open and he threw to Sanders

and they punted. Chiefs come down, score touchdown, go up 24-20. Third down, Emmanuel Sanders splits the safety and the corner. I'm sitting right there. I'm literally looking. I'm at the 20-yard line as Emmanuel Sanders runs right by me. I'm like, oh, shit. They're going to score a touchdown and win this game. He misses him.

So Conor Shanahan calls two perfect plays. Jimmy Garoppolo has opportunity in the Super Bowl to make these two throws. And look, the top eight quarterbacks in the NFL all make those throws, right? Brady, Mahomes, Rodgers, Breeze, Wilson, Deshaun Watson, Matt Ryan, they all make those throws. Jimmy G didn't. Add on the fact that he played three games in 2018 and three games in 2020. So nine out of 32 games, he's out of there for all the money he makes. Now, I don't know if they're going to trade him now. I think the best case scenario for everyone involved is like day two of the draft

right so day one we see kind of where things go the Patriots don't get the guy they want Jimmy G becomes a Patriot right that feels kind of like the the rhythm and flow of how that might go but now the question becomes who are the Niners drafting with a third pick and I gotta say Gabe I'm floored by this Mac Jones talk at Alabama I I don't know where this started, but I don't see this. People are using the example of Matt Ryan with Kyle Shanahan. Remember, if you don't recall, 2016, Matt Ryan won the MVP, won the Super Bowl, Kyle Shanahan was his OC. Well, he didn't choose Matt Ryan.

Matt Ryan was there. Why would he choose Matt Ryan now? I don't know. People say, well, Mike Shanahan, his dad, drafted Cousins, Kirk Cousins. Yeah, in the fourth round. All right. They drafted RG3 that year. And you could say, well, Dan Snyder forced him to do so. Fair enough, I guess. But this is the third pick overall. It's not Kirk Cousins in the fourth round. So to me, you look at a guy like Mac Jones, who Alabama quarterbacks have not been successful in the NFL in a long time. And, you know, Tua might

break that. But some of the issues that Tua had last year are directly related to Alabama, which is everyone's wide-f open, and your offensive line is really good. And you get to the NFL, and none of that's true. And people say, well, Joe Burrow and Trevor Lawrence, watch their games, guys. They're more athletic than Mac Jones. They have better arms than Mac Jones.

And they weren't always able to throw with a solid foundation. Joe Burrow was running for his life a lot of times in in in LSU's offense so to me the Niners are going to trade up give up three first round picks for Mac Jones for the least mobile of the five quarterbacks available and let's assume obviously that Lawrence has gone and Zach Wilson's gone at two I want to talk about Zach Wilson with you in a second as a Jets fan. Three, obviously, they can choose. Jones, Trey Lance, or Justin Fields. And I don't know why Justin Fields is getting crapped on in this draft. I don't really get it. He's been really good at Ohio State. I feel like Fields or Lance would be perfect for what Shanahan wants to do. And remember, Shanahan's offense is very quarterback friendly if he gets an athletic

quarterback who can make the throws that he wants in his offense can read the defense can hit the you know hit the play action passes man the offense is going to take off and mac jones doesn't feel like that guy to me yeah well i can't talk you into mac jones i you know i watched the national championship game and thought kind of what you're getting at, which is like, I mean, sure, he's throwing the ball near the guys who are wide open or he's throwing it to guys who are then breaking free and accumulating like 200 plus yards. But this doesn't look to me like the quarterback is making this offense work. It seems like a line and a bunch of receivers. and a bunch of receivers. I wonder if maybe this is an example of where sort of the college football,

you know, industrial complex and all the PR that comes with being a Nick Saban type comes into play, right? So if, and Mack is obviously a good player. I mean, nobody's saying he's not a good player, so he's probably a first round pick. But is maybe there's something behind the scenes with the Saban camps leaking stuff, pumping stuff, whispering in the ears of certain GMs and scouts. Like, could this be the smart hype of a really great program trying to get their guy to be a big pick? It's interesting.

I don't think it's coming from Saban because why does he care? I mean, he's going to go. Mac Jones will be drafted in the top 15 from somewhere. I mean, I kind of think like, I mean, the idea maybe is that maybe he wants him to go to the Patriots and all this hype and the Patriots trade up with the Jets to get him at two. I mean, maybe, but that's my thing is if the Niners are leaking this out, if it's a smoke screen, who's a smoke screen for?

Is it for someone to trade up to two but the Jets feel pretty content to take a quarterback otherwise they probably would have made a deal with the Niners to move out of two right so like what what is the end game of leaking out Mac Jones it's pretty interesting to see there's like some of Shanahan's guys are saying Mac Jones some are saying like Trey Lance or Justin Fields. Look, Daniel Jeremiah, Dan Orlovsky, Mike Tenenbaum, they're all in the Mac Jones train. Today's Rosenfeld's not.

I mean, there's other guys that study the game that are very much against Mac Jones fitting this offense. So, man, I just, I don't get it. I don't get why you would trade up for Mac Jones. If they do, it's a lot of capital to give up for someone who is, you know, the least athletic of the five guys at the top. And this is, you know, it's an athlete's league now at that position. You've got to be able to move. Yeah.

Yeah, and you mentioned, obviously, you know, the only way this really works is if they unload Jimmy G maybe day two or later in the offseason, people think New England. Bill Belichick's smarter than whoever is making these decisions in the 31 other places so he's not going to get taken you know he's going to wait until the price is as low as possible for jimmy g and you know if he even wants him at all and so i i just i don't know i'm with you i don't quite know what the niners are up to but lynch has built a good team. Shanahan seems like a good

coach. They're just a quarterback away from being one of the top teams in the NFC again. Yeah. Oh, I agree that they're that, and that's the point. Why they do this, right? A, I'll go back to the Dolphins are doing, right? You build around a rookie quarterback. You're paying Trent Williams all this money. You have to pay Bosa pretty soon. You pay Armstead. All those guys you're paying money to, great, quarterback but two is that Kyle Shanahan knows he can coach and the one year he's had a healthy quarterback they made the Super Bowl he needs a healthy quarterback yeah yeah and like you said they're about to have the highest paid guy at a few different positions within the next couple years so let me ask you this and I don't want to listen

I don't want to get into all the complicated, ugly, confusing parts of the reporting about Deshaun Watson. I just want to talk about the football part, and I realize maybe that isn't fair. But is there any chance that he's still on the trading block and that anyone wants him? Like, where are we with him, football only? I think he's probably off the trading block right now. I mean, there's now night i think 19 lawsuits i saw one today which is recorded on monday every day it's an alert and there's i saw another one and this one like was one of the first i'd seen that kind of had really good not kind of

had really good evidence but the first i seen they had i mean it seemed like so i i i don't know man um the nfl hasn't really gotten involved yet, which is a big part of what's going to happen with his career, right? You know, the NFL will decide what to do, suspend him. Now, obviously, the NFL does not need law enforcement to tell them what to do, right? And I've often disagreed with how the NFL punishes players, but they're going to go ahead and do what they do.

Whether or not this becomes a criminal investigation, whether or not he settles, to trial whatever it is they're going to step in at some point and either put him on the commission exemplar suspend him so any team trading for him you know if you're a team trying to win now you might not get it for half a season or a full season and like i said earlier i have not I have not read every single case that's been filed. I've read some of them. And it's sleazeball stuff, man, like plain and simple. And so I'll let it play out before I give a determination on the entire story.

I think that's fair to everyone involved. But it's not looking good for him and not looking good for any team that wants to trade for him. And so what I'm hearing is he is not going to be a domino on draft day or in some of these draft trade talks. We were we were thinking of him and the fact that he was unhappy as a football player in Houston and might be forcing a trade. We were thinking of that as having a major impact on teams like the Niners when it came to the draft. And now

we're saying maybe he ends up somewhere someday, but it won't really change who drafts who this year. That's kind of what I'm hearing. Yeah, I don't think so. I mean, you look at, I mean, the Jets, I guess, if you're the Jets, I mean, you just, you can't give up all those assets for a quarterback who might be criminally charged with sexual assault. Like you just can't do it.

I mean, there's no way. Now, I saw some reports say that he's, you know, there may be some negotiations happening to settle these cases. Okay, when that's done, maybe, and if that gets done fairly quickly, which I don't think so, then maybe the Jets feel more comfortable trading

for Deshaun Watson. But the price has gone way down. It's not going to be what it was. So, you know, Houston seems reluctant to trade him anyways. And now they're going to get far less for him than they would have gotten. And again, it's very clear. The NFL is going to punish him at some point.

And it's just a matter of when that is. And again, it does not have to be consistent with what law enforcement is determining as well. So all things up in the air, I don't think he's tradable right now. Yeah. All right. Well, we'll leave that one there until we know more. You mentioned the Jets a couple times here. A few weeks ago, I would have been thrilled to hear Deshaun might be coming to Jersey to play with my Jets. Now, I guess I'm not so sure. But good news, Twitter has solved it. Zach Wilson from BYU ran left and threw right to a wide open guy on an empty field in shorts. And all of a sudden, half of the Internet was convinced he's the greatest quarterback to ever live.

But then the nerd, nerd NFL Twitter like you and Louis Riddick and a whole bunch of other people came in and rained all over the parade and said, that throw is meaningless. In fact, here's tape of Sam Darnold basically doing the exact same thing in a real game against 11 defenders. So shut up with your Zach Wilson talk. I don't know what to make of any of it. All I will say is that two things can be true. Pro days can mean nothing, and Sam Darnold can stink. Both those two things can be true at once. So make sense of this for me.

Look, pro days are, the hype around them is so silly. And I get it. Look, we're in a content business, right? So anytime we present it with content, we're going to cover it. And this year without a combine too, right? So, you know, the pro days are even more, you know, even more powerful. And they're being televised. Most of the years, we don't get these televised.

They're not, but because of no combine and needing content, we're going to televise pro days. So pro day for quarterback is scripted, right? It's scripted. So every throw he's making in that session has already been practiced,

has already been done, and it's in order. So to me, like that's not the first time he made that throw. He did that, probably did that throw 17 times preparing for pro day

and from people i've heard from said don't look at the wow stuff that his his entirety of his pro day was not as impressive as the wow throw made it seem like and that kind of feels like his film sometimes too gabe that his highlight throws are really good but there's still a lot that's like uh left to be desired and it's funny people will cite Trevor Lawrence not playing as well against you know Alabama as a reason why he won't be good in the NFL he doesn't play well against better competition do you see Zach Wilson against Coastal Carolina like like what are we what are we talking about guys Zach Wilson's offensive line was fantastic at BYU Brady Christensen their left tackle, BYU probably,

friend's first-round pick, Chiefs. If you're looking for left tackles, he might be one of your guys that you sneak up on the top of the first round, I should say. His offense, he had a ton of time, wasn't under pressure very often. I don't know, man. I feel like we've decided Zach Wilson is next. Pat Mahomes, Aaron Rodgers, Brett Favre. I saw someone compare him to he he looks like

steph curry shooting a three out there and i'm like what are we doing why are we doing this i think people just honestly are it's been trevor lawrence at number one for like longer than ever right he was number one a year ago you know like so people are just inventing things to talk about it two and three and four which is why that Mac Jones story comes up which is why people are excited about him flipping a ball across the move by the way even if you take that video seriously of his pro day throw the receiver had to like slow down and wait for this poorly lobbed ball over the middle like it wasn't a thing so I think people are just excited to talk about him going number two to have a quarterback, quarterback, one, two, maybe even one, two, three.

Let me ask you this. You've actually put in the work talking to guys who are getting drafted, specifically guys playing the line. Yeah. I am a Jets fan who would love for there to be like five Makai Beckton's in front of any quarterback on earth. Does it make any sense to go after your boy Panay Sewell and put him somewhere else on the offensive line

other than left tackle? Yeah, you can put him at right tackle. I just wouldn't play him at guard. I think that guard is out of position for him and you're wasting his talents at guard. People have said, well, put him at guard. That just feels like a waste. You're taking an elite-level tackle

who obviously can be a multiple-time all-pro at left tackle, the most important position on the offensive line, and putting him at guard just feels silly. Right tackle, in this NFL, that's not a wrong thing to do, right? I mean, even we see most of the elite pass rushers now have migrated over to that side because it's in shotgun so in when the quarterback used to be under center and dropping back he couldn't see the left he couldn't see the you know the the dn over the left tackle the right dn that was a premium

position right well now in shotgun he can see both sides and so because the ball's thrown so quickly the quickest way actually to to attack the quarterback is from his throwing side because you can get to the ball. You can hit the ball out of his hand faster than a guy coming around can. And so that's why I think teams are putting those elite defensive ends over on that side. Plus, we've seen some teams adjust, you know, Eagles, Cowboys, Saints, you know, the Browns this year to putting to putting you know benefit into paying

that right tackle um so yeah if you brought draft Panay Sewell at two it just seems unlikely I know that there was reports that the Niners didn't even bother to call the Jets to move up to two but I kind of feel like they did that because they know they're drafting a quarterback already otherwise why would the Jets stay at two I would would just move out. Well, unless they want to get a lineman. I mean... I mean, it's possible, yeah. To me, I mean, listen, I don't know anything about offensive line play other than what you tell me and what I kind of figure out watching games.

And from everything I've heard, this guy Sewell's like the guy. This is the dude. He's awesome. Yeah, so we got the dude last year we could get the dude again the only time the jets have ever been good is when they had two or three dudes up front specifically on the left side i'm thinking about the bricashaw and mangled and you know and they had fanica and veterans coming in there and like actually had a line they had shit quarterbacks but they still look like a pretty good team well i i get it um but i just don't

know how much they believe in darn well i mean you the the tough part with sam is the contract right so this is his fourth year next year is a fifth year option so you can play him for one year and be like he's not our guy and get rid of him and then what do you do next year though you're kind of in a weird spot there's no one comes to my mind right now who is a top it's not a great quarterback class for next year so you're kind of stuck like what do you do so that's why i think that you either have to just say hey man we're all in on darnold we're gonna give him extension and we're gonna you know we're gonna take penesul or you go with zach wilson yeah i don't okay i'm disappointed to hear that you think it's wil or Darnold stays.

I was going to ask you, do you think there's a market of any kind for Sam Darnold? If maybe somebody thinks they have the QB guru on their coaching staff who can fix him the way that Gase and others couldn't. Is there any chance that he ends up somewhere in a better situation and somebody gives him a shot at starting this year? I've heard or I guess I didn't hear. saw peter king i think i think it was peter king tweet out you know like a third round pick is what he's hearing for darnell which is better than nothing but does that i'm asking if he ends up somewhere as the starter i i think a lot of this i think him and jimmy grappolo will be draft nightish trades like let's say let's say a team i mean let's say the patriots miss out on a quarterback and they're like darn like i think there's there's teams that that might miss out on guys that you know darnold's the next best option that would be such

a patriots thing to do god i'm like I'm rubbing my face and then he and then he'll be good obviously though right then when Sam Darnold goes to New England and they they go 12 and 4 next year and he's and I'm losing to Sam Darnold and more Patriots hell in my life god okay all right well so Zach Wilson pro day we're gonna say who cares whatever he might be good he might not be but we don't have to read anything into that or crap all over him because sam darnold made the similar throw once it neither is meaningful is what you're telling me correct all right let's uh let's move to some very good news every team in the league should be happy about this or at least every fan base in the league should be happy about this we are just days or hours away from officially having 17 games in

the regular season. Moving forward, this is all tied in with the renegotiation of rights deals for the league with all their network partners. But everyone expects the 17-game season will be locked in this week. I'm happy. I think everyone who plays fantasy is happy. Everyone who gambles is happy. Everyone who goes to stadiums this fall will be happy.

However, some players are not happy. Alvin Kamara tweeted, shit dumb as hell. Others said similar. I would have guessed that this would be welcome news for guys receiving an extra game check and having an easier offseason. We'll get to it. But apparently I'm wrong. Apparently some players think this sucks.

Why? Well, I mean, it's not ideal to play more. You know, your body's obviously at risk of getting injured. But guess what, guys? You voted for it. You voted for the new CBA. This was part of the new CBA. You wanted more money.

You want to play more games. Now, not everyone voted for it. I get it. It was a very close vote. But this was going to happen. And I hope it's worth it. I hope the tradeoff of whatever more money you got in this new CBA is worth playing the extra game.

It's worth playing. Guess what, Gabe? In a couple years, they have 18 games. They're going to 18 games at some point. They're not going to keep 17 games, an uneven schedule. So I hope it was worth it. Look, every game you play is another opportunity to get hurt. Every game you play is another opportunity to play poorly i mean

you know it's there's more negatives than positives uh you're not gonna have a lot of teams that are out of it that you know just they're probably have to play one more game that they don't want to play like it's just not it's not ideal situation and um as a fan i love it as a player a player, man, it's brutal. And they haven't even said they're going to add an extra bye week, which I don't think they are. So you have an extra game with no more extra bye week. It's going to be really tough on the body.

All right. But so explain this from, you know, you're a player. You're a player who's battled injuries, who's played through injuries, who I don't think you were ever reckless but you've talked to me about other players who are a little bit reckless with their health we just lived through a season where guys you know played through covid and all the risks that came with that we've for years we've been hearing about guys you know resistant to concussion protocols we know guys play through injuries and gut it out so i don't i guess i don't understand if that's

the mindset of professional football players, why all of a sudden is adding one more game that they love scary? I don't get it. Well, again, I think the idea of having to play the extra game and just the wear and tear on your body, again, it's one extra game

that you could get hurt playing. That's what it is, basically, right? One more opportunity to get hurt. One more opportunity for things to go poorly. And I don't know if they're seeing extra money. Like, if you make a million dollars, you're still making a million dollars over 17 games. I don't think they're giving you a one-seventeenth increase of your salary.

But, okay, so then talk to me about the parts, because this was negotiated. So what are the parts that players got back that maybe fans like me don't fully see in terms of off-season changes other asks of athletes supposedly we got like a half percentage or percentage point more of the split we went from like 47 to 48 because of this, or 47 and a half to 48 because of this. I mean, what, that's a half percentage point of 17 billion, some crazy number like that. I mean, like, it's not nothing, but I don't know if it's enough. And we always trade off off-season workouts.

It's just something I've never understood, Gabe. So back now, this is two CBAs ago, when I came in the NFL, we used to report March 15th for the offseason program. We'd already be there if this was the way it used to be. I still have no problem with that. Whatever. New CBA comes around, we report March 15th. Whatever. Dude, it's four hours a day for the first five weeks,

the next three weeks are like six hours a day and it's four or three days a week. To me, trading off-season program for a single cent given back to the owners is fucking nuts, excuse my language. Like to say, hey, we'll trade you for less off-season program to get this. Owners would gladly take more money for the players to not have off-season program. Why do they care about it?

They care if teams show up on week one to make them money. I don't get it, Gabe. Injury rates in the NFL have not gone down. Career length has not gone up. As we practice less and less, you think that there would be the correlation of guys playing longer, injury rates going down. None of that is true. So to trade the offseason for less money is so silly to me, but players seem insistent on doing that. Yeah. And just to back up a step, when you were describing the 47 and a half to 48, 48 and a half, you're talking about the split between owners and players in terms of the overall revenue that the league can make. And that's largely based on their TV deals,

which we already know got done. So getting a half a percentage point of billions of dollars gross is important i mean that raises the cap for all kinds of players to make more money but the question becomes like i'm trying to like what's what's half a percentage point of 10 billion i can't even i'm too stupid nick's the smartest one here i think um god help us if that's true uh it's it's millions and it so what i guess that leads me to this question I have, which is who should care more about this? High paid players, superstars that guys like Nick and I have heard of or lower paid players, guys who are playing contract to contract, who don't make, you know, multiple millions per year. Who who wins and loses in a 17th game from that perspective?

Who wins and loses in a 17th game from that perspective? I'm not sure that any specific group of player wins or loses. I think that they're – I think the off-season program is where people win and lose. Like veterans win with less offseason, right? Young players lose with less offseason. Young players need, and we've heard coaches say like, we need our young players in. We need to help them grow, get them in the weight room,

get them on the playbook, get them on the board, get them to practice. Older players don't care. They don't know what they're doing. They don't need the offseason program. So it's more about that. Like 17 games doesn't matter for younger, older players. it's the offseason program where the big disparity is all right so it made the rich get richer in theory if you shorten what the offseason program looks like you make it easier for veteran guys to fill up roster spots and keep starting jobs

yes all right fair enough so then let's talk about what this means for fans and what we get to watch. So week 17, it seems like is going to be sort of like high powered AFC NFC matchup games. There's you know, people are reporting types of matchups we could see. I saw Packers Chiefs was one, you know, fun matchups that presumably pit stars against stars and also would impact the playoffs, you'd think. Do you think that will make a more competitive regular season end to end what's the thought so i think the formula is basically so the way it works now right you have your six division games home and away and then you play one division in your conference so let's say you're the chiefs you play the six division opponents i mean the three division ones twice so six times then you play the AFC South then you play the NFC North

and then you play the corresponding finish of last season in the standings with the other two divisions in your conference so the AFC East and AFC North you choose to play one right so what would they play baltimore and uh and uh the bills okay so now i think the formula is the 17th game is the same corresponding finish but in a second division and the other conference so that's why you get packers chiefs so you're gonna get good matchups like you're gonna get matchups you wouldn't get every year um of course it'll matter to the playoffs but it's gonna be weird seeing like so if you go 10 and 6 it's a great season right but 10 and 7 is kind of like doesn't feel as good right like going 8 and 9 feels way worse than 8 and 8 uh it's gonna be weird how we view that like 14 and 2 is great 14 and 3 i don't know It doesn't sound as good.

It's just going to skew the way we look at things. Yeah, it's funny. I didn't even think of it. It's going to skew the way we look at some big round numbers for stats too. Yeah, well, that's going to be – You know, 100 receptions is not going to be quite the same if you have an extra game to put six or eight on a total. I mean, 2,000 yards rushing is still always going to be insane, but it's starting

to get closer to it but if you do it but if you do it in 17 games it's not gonna be the same thing right right yeah yeah well all right i mean obviously the networks had a lot to do with this 17 the extra game and the games being what can be billed as like super bowl right you know matchups um and that just gives you a lot more games you can promote throughout the year and better selections in prime time so i think it's going to be fun for all of us there's one other wrinkle i you've you know a bit about this so maybe you'll have a reaction i can't tell if anyone's going to spend time talking about this buried in the deal i think is also that every team will have to play at least one international game as the home team every eight years.

This is not new for teams like the Jags and Dolphins, but it would be new for other teams. So do you make anything of that? I mean, they just want to probably make it fair, right? To not force the same teams to do so. The way I look at 17 games from a fan perspective, by the way is is really just for us it's another week to dig out of a gambling hole at the end of the season yeah like it's one more week to just be like oh god like last year we were you know we were three under 500 hey in a week 17 and we ended up um you know getting uh getting uh back to 500 and you know it's uh another week to talk about

football another week to to obsess about it i mean it mean, the season's long enough if you cover it like I do, where I cover it on the NFL and on the college side. It's a long season. And this extra week to be long now. This might push the – I think this year, too, Super Bowl's like President's Day weekend. Great. So I think in the end it's not going to dilute the product.

People are worried about that. Obviously injuries will be a big problem if quarterbacks start start dropping but i think everyone will adapt fine in the end yeah i i think you're right every other league should probably shorten its season having more nfl games is a good thing and by the way the super bowl is coming to la next year i can't wait so uh we are thinking about you know maybe we rent the house out for a different week now it looks like the super bowl will be pushed back by a week. That's not a fish in the net. Are you going to rent the house? That's smart.

Maybe. Maybe Jeff Schwartz wants to come stay in the house. I have a free residence at Parents House in Santa Monica. And I will be using that free residence. I love traveling and staying with people that have washers and dryers. It makes my life so much easier. I don't pack.

I don't ever check a bag. Like I went to this trip to Dallas and LA. I brought a carry-on. I just did laundry like four times. It's great. I love it. Yeah. The only downside though for guys like you is this is a lot more time spent in the car,

driving in unfamiliar places and unfamiliar rides. You drive a very big truck back home i'm guessing when you land at lax you got to pick up like a malibu or something my parents you know everyone's working at home now so i just grabbed my dad's car and he has a luxury stand just able to to bounce on to use that so because when i met you for dinner there was a lot of kvetching about the parking situation yeah because there was no parking down there i went and parked at the beach i figured it out though that was a quick thing the problem is i turned right by the river and i couldn't get like back the other direction so i

made it had a left and looped around and boom and then i found the beach i just was unaware i did i don't really venture outside of my little bubble when i go back home and that bubble is like just basically west la and it was a a little bit too hip for me down there. I wouldn't know what I was doing. I mean, okay. I met just for the audience's perspective here. Anyone who's listening to this right now and wondering what he's talking about. I met Jeff for tacos at like a chain taco place at the Venice pier.

It's not like some out of the way place. It's like three miles from his house. Oh yeah. And he's complaining about taking a left when he should have turned right and ending up parking at the beach. It's it's, it's, it's from my parents' house.

It's one, two, three, four turns. That's all. It's just, it's, it's out,

out the driveway, go on ocean park for half a second, sent it out of Washington. It's right there. It was, but yet, yet you ended up stuck at a beach. right there there it was but yet yet you ended up stuck at a beach so but it was uh i just yeah it was it was fun um all right let's continue on

well the over under for um how many tacos you were going to eat that night i would have set at uh five and a half everyone gets so upset with me that i don't eat a lot when i when they see me i i just like i eat a lot throughout the day so i with me that I don't eat a lot when they see me. I just like, I eat a lot throughout the day. So I eat like many. If you call me after a workout, like after a cheat meal, then I'm all in. I was, not to put this chain restaurant on blast, but when you order shrimp fajitas and they show up two minutes afterwards, the shrimp has already been cooked. And guys, can we like pretend that we at least made them fresh?

Yeah, they were not pretending, but let's just be clear. You ordered shrimp fajitas and asked them to add steak to the shrimp fajitas. There was shrimp and steak in your fajitas. Yeah, but it still doesn't change the fact it showed up two minutes after we ordered it. That part was, I'll admit, that was a little strange. But just in case you're talking about how you don't eat as much as expected, you had an order of fajitas with like a side of meat in it. That's different.

Yes, correct. Okay. All right. So I would have had the over-under on how many you had eaten right. Let's play our over-under game. It's called moving the line. We'll take a quick break. We'll come back.

We'll do that in a second. This episode is brought to you by HP. Whenever you do your best thinking, the HP Spectre X360 is ready when inspiration strikes. With power saved for battery life and focus mode to multitask, you can do your best thinking whenever and wherever it happens. You can't always schedule when and where you might have a brilliant thought, whether it's in the morning or before bed, when you're at your computer or away from it. Thinking can happen anywhere and anytime. The HP Spectre x360 2-in-1 convertible PC with Windows 10 saves battery life whenever an idea hits you. HP Spectre x360, a more thoughtful laptop.

HP Spectre X360, a more thoughtful laptop. All right, we're back. It's time to move the line. These are all fake bets today, Jeff. These are not things we can actually find in a book. But one name barely came up in the earlier conversation about quarterbacks getting drafted. Just in passing was Justin Fields. So I want to know, over under draft spot three and a half. Where does Justin Fields land?

Okay, these draft props are so I never get him right. So under. So if I want to go like four. Is he a top three pick? I would draft him third. I don't. It just feels like no one drafted him third. I would say he's not a top third pick.

So this guy went from obvious second pick a few weeks ago to now barely in a conversation for top three. And nothing's changed. In fact, he actually had a pretty good game in the national championship from my memory. There's nothing gone wrong in his life. I don't know why he's sliding. I agree.

All right. Well, I don't know if I want the jets to take him i've already mentioned sewell is who i'd prefer but i can't understand why people like wilson lance harbor whoever else more than him um all right let me ask you this does fitz magic remake the football team i want to know over under 10 and a half wins for was next year. I gotta say, man, I know Matt is a huge Washington football team fan, but this screams to me like we're gonna get bad Ryan Fitzpatrick.

I don't think so. He's just, he's, he's, and the thing about it too is like, Ron Rivera is not an aggressive coach. I mean, he is, he has become Riverboat Ron, but the offensive identity typically is not an aggressive coach. I mean, he is, he has become Riverboat Ron, but the offensive identity typically is not very aggressive. And so I'm curious to see this mix of Ryan Fitzpatrick. The NFC East is still a dumpster fire,

but I'll go over for fun. I think they're gonna have a lot of weapons, have a lot of fun. Like it's, if there's a 10 win team in that division, it's Washington. Yeah, see the way I look at it is Fitz isn't going to lose them any games they didn't already lose, and he might win them a few of those games they lost just being Fitz,

which gets you to, I mean, that gets you to 11 wins pretty fast in that shit division. So, I mean, obviously, he doesn't even think he's the quarterback of the future there. He's like 38, 39. It's not a one-year deal. It's a one-year deal. But I mean, they scare me.

If I'm an NFC team, they scare me more than almost anyone now. That means you cannot stop playing hard until the absolute last second of the game. I will say, though, that there has not been a repeat winner in that division since 2004. No division champ has repeated since oh huh that's a good stat i didn't know that it's like my favorite to use it that like the preseason gambling stuff okay well i mean i didn't know that there was a winner last year i thought it was just three losers and a default team but essentially but someone someone technically was the winner of that division if you look in the record books all right fair enough well one team i i think everyone is higher on

even than before but should be scared of a team like washington now would be the bucks so i'm just going to go with media consensus here and say over under 99 chance they repeat it seems like a given according to all our colleagues they're supposed they're supposed to be in theory better this next year right because a year two and i just want them to win just because i like seeing your face after tom brady oh come on continues to win games over and over again it's oh and it isn't even complicated for you any longer because you have no family tie left in kansas city so you don't really even care if they beat the Chiefs. Yeah, that's what they may. So you're just trolling. That's all you've got left.

Yeah, basically. I mean, look, they're the best team on paper in the NFL right now. Who knows? That doesn't obviously mean they're going to win the Super Bowl. Injuries play a factor in it. Possibly the Packers kind of get over the hurdle in the NFC. The Niners, if they end up getting the quarterback that they want, he excels as a rookie. But yeah, I mean, they're the favorite in the NFC. In the AFC, look, Buffalo, Cleveland, I just, the Chiefs are going to win 12 games with Mahomes,

and the AFC goes through Arrowhead again. And one of those teams has to go in Arrowhead and beat them. Yeah. Well, I like what you said. If they draft a left tackle late, you know, some guy slips who's an NFL ready left tackle, slips, and then they, you know, make some smart moves or sign someone or move some guys around and suddenly have the line back to full strength. Like, I don't know why you don't pick them. The reason I asked about the Bucs, by the way i read today because um everyone in the nfl is turning into an nba player and they're all taking cuts and every you know front office is finagling these super teams they could have 22 returning starters they've re-signed and restructured and basically figured out a cap so that they get tom brady and a team of all-stars yes at every single position just like

last year it's wild to me that the NFL is becoming this rigged it's crazy man they're doing it they're they're um they're doing a good job with the cap making it work yeah making it work asking guys to just play for less than they're worth is not really making it work but fine Tom Brady has that power let's talk about the conference near and dear to our hearts, especially yours. Now, I want to say this will probably be heard after Oregon State has played in the Elite Eight, but I want to know over under Pac-12 teams you see in the Final Four,

let's set it at one and a half. I would like to address Dave Damoshek very quickly. I don't know if he listens to the podcast, but he has called me out on his own podcast with Cousin Sal and he has said that

you're not allowed to root for your conference ever, which seems very silly to me. Of course you should root for your conference. Don't root for your rival. You're a USC fan. You should never root for UCLA.

Oregon's rival is Washington, okay? Oregon State is like the stepsister to us. I don't care if the Beavers win. People are like, well, recruiting. Name me the last time someone chose Oregon State over Oregon. All right? Sorry. All right?

Sorry, Beavers. I hope the Beavers win. It's great for me. I work on Pac-12 radio. When I get off this podcast, guess what? I'm doing a two-hour show, and it's probably our most listened-to show we're ever going to have because we have three teams in the Elite Eight.

We're recording this Monday afternoon. So, of course I'm rooting for all these teams. Now, I don't really like USC in general, and they beat Oregon. They smashed Oregon. They played really well against Oregon. They kicked their ass. But they're playing good basketball, and every team that continues to go on the Pac-12 is great for our conference.

We make more money, more notoriety. The team I think has the best chances is Oregon State. And hear me out. It's fucking nuts. It's nuts, okay? I cussed again. I'm sorry. Oregon State was not going to be in the tournament.

They beat UCLA in the Pac-12 tournament in their first game. UCLA missed two foul shots at the end of regulation. Game went to overtime. Oregon State wins. They then blow out Oregon. They beat Oregon by 11. Then they beat Colorado. They beat three straight tournament teams to win the Pac-12 conference.

Then they blow out Tennessee. They blow out Oklahoma State. And they pretty much control Loyola Chicago for the second half of that game. They have not done this by chance. They're playing really good basketball. Now, they might lose tonight, and this is moot, but they're playing good basketball.

They're playing well, and they're playing Houston, who's kind of, I don't know, just like, I don't know. I don't think they can't beat Houston. So, God, and like they're not like, they don't have any great NBA players. They're just like, they're playing good, wholesome basketball. They're tough. They play great defense. Their three-point defense

is outstanding. It's been great the last month of the season. UCLA against Michigan. I keep saying the Bruins are going to lose, and they just don't lose. It's tough. They're a tough matchup for the Bruins. And I'll tell you what, USC plays Gonzaga. That's the late game Tuesday night.

And USC's three-point shooting the last seven games, I think, is out of this world, over 40%, near 50%. They're getting career nights from different people. Every night, Isaiah Mobley, Evan's brother, two nights ago, career night is Isaiah white kid who averaged a seven points had like 25

against Oregon. He had 23 is all year had four against Oregon. They just keep getting career nights. They can be Gonzaga. Like there's no doubt about it. If they're playing, if they're, if everyone's shooting well,

I mean, obviously if, if they don't shoot very well, Mobley can't carry the team by themselves so i think organ state actually has the best chance to win than usc than ucla but i'd love to see as many as possible i'm going to score you as an over one and a half i'm saying you think at least two of those teams make it to i hope so yeah i mean i think this year has been weird. And I think because of the wonkiness of, you know, what COVID did to the whole season. Yeah. And a few, like, classic programs not being in the tournament.

It just, the rankings seem like they've never mattered less. Yeah, I mean, I think specifically for the Pac-12, this is what happened. The Pac-12 was the last conference to start practicing. They weren't even allowed in gyms, right? I mean, some teams like Stanford, they weren't even allowed on their campus during the season. They were playing in Santa Clara. I mean, they were playing in San Jose.

And so everyone just kind of started slow. And they were 0 for 6, I think, against AP top 25 teams in the tiny bit of non-conference they played. And so they just started really slow, and they've just slowly kind of gone their – and it's fair to note that last season, 2019, 2020, they were playing really good basketball before everything got shut down. They had six tournament teams.

Oregon had Peyton Pritchard. They just won the Pac-12 Conference. Peyton Pritchard's playing well in the Celtics right now. UCLA was the hottest team in the country. They were coming on strong in the last season. USC wasn't half bad last year as well. So they were playing good basketball last year. They had a chance to do some damage in the tournament, but obviously got canceled. So I'm excited, man. It's the best we've had in a long time. I hope it carries over to football. All right. Well, parody, I guess, is the keyword

in college basketball right now. The NBA, things are a little different. Just in the last few days, what I was complaining about with the NFL has happened times like a million in the NBA. So basically, we're down to two teams, okay? It's the Lakers and the Nets. And so all I want to know, which super team is going to win? So Lakers beat the Nets in over under six and a half games. What do you think, Jeff?

Just assuming AD and LeBron are healthy, correct? Yeah, or they'll just sign other all-stars to fill their spots. Andre Drummond is there. After Drummond's signed, that's it. There's no one left because Aldridge went to the Nets. Aldridge goes to the Nets. I'm running with LeBron in seven. LeBron in seven over the Team Durant.

It's basically the All-Star game run back, but with some older guys. Yes. Team LeBron beats Team Durant in seven games. That's your prediction. Yes. I don't have any reason to go against that. I'm just going to continue to be grumpy about this. I think it's ridiculous that it's not just ring chasing.

It's like the superstars are like, oh, man, I could use a guy who was previously an all-star to give me eight minutes a night. Oh, yeah. It seemed kind of silly when it was Dwight Howard. But now when we're bringing in Drummond and all these guys would be the better players on some teams. And they're coming in to be role players? I know. It's just weird. It's crazy.

It's nuts. All right, buddy. Did we get smarter i did get smart we got some nba talk some college basketball talking there you were fired up about college basketball i love it man it's the best time the pack 12 has had in quite a few years all right man this has been jeff schwartz is smarter than you i'm jeff schwartz gabe goodwin please rate review subscribe if you made it this long, you like the podcast, leave a review. I know I don't listen to our podcasts unless I like them, so review, please. Pass it along. Really appreciate it. We'll be back later in the week with a guest.

Take care, everyone.