Geoff Schwartz Is Smarter Than You - Brady Leaves New England, O’Brien Trades Hopkins & Dak Gets Tagged

Episode Date: March 17, 2020

In what is surely the busiest week since Super Bowl 54 in Miami, Geoff & Gabe are back to take you through a whirlwind of transaction news, including: Tom Brady's long-awaited departure, Dallas' exclusive tag on Dak Prescott, DeAndre Hopkins' fit in Arizona and and much, much more. Plus, will the Dolphins make the playoffs? Tom Brady: (3:07) Dak Prescott: (23:50) DeAndre Hopkins: (31:24) NFL Draft ideas: (41:46) 'Move the Line' Betting Segment: (49:53) 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.

from the athletic i'm jeff schwartz tom brady is finally leaving bill o'brien makes more terrible trades free to see is here so much news tuesday march 17th this is jeff schwartz this morning thank you guys for taking a little break in the world today listening to us make sure to wash your hands, stay healthy, but I'm glad we have some NFL to talk about NFL for agency going full steam. And it hasn't even started yet game.

It hasn't officially started. You cannot sign till tomorrow on Wednesday, but right now full steam head this morning, Tom Brady announced via Instagram that he is not coming back to new England. The Patriots that acknowledge that he is not coming back to new England. The Patriots then acknowledge that he is not coming back to New England. He met with Robert Kraft last night. He has moved on.

Robert Kraft wished him well. Bill Belichick wished him well. And what I have said now for months is not coming true, which is that Tom Brady is staying in New England. It's not happening. So the question obviously becomes, where does he go? We'll talk about that. Cam Noon is out in Carolina.

There's some contentiousness between him and the Panthers as well. Teddy Bridgewater is in in Carolina. Dak Prescott, franchise tag. So, so much to get to. It's an incredible time to be an NFL fan. But, Gabe, we've got to start, obviously, with Tom Brady. Not go New England. Not staying there.

There's many reasons, in my opinion, he's not staying there. One is the money cannot be worked out. Even though Robert Kraft said they would pay whatever, I don't think the years and the dollar amounts were what Tom Brady wanted. I think he wants a two- or three-year deal. I think Belichick all along has wanted one-year deals. And then I think more importantly than that

is that he felt the team, especially offensively, was not being built in a manner that helps him win. I mean, they haven't done anything still. They still haven't done anything on offense. They have not replaced Gronk. They didn't get a tight end in frames so far. They haven't signed a wide receiver. Who knows what they're going to draft.

And Tom just said, look, I'm out. I'm ready to move on. I'm ready to go somewhere that will give me some weapons so I don't have to do everything. And I think to the bitter end, he wanted to stay. And the reason why I think that, and obviously there's rumors now about where he's going and will he sign tomorrow, I think until the end, he wanted to stay

because he has not officially signed with someone yet. If he wanted to leave right away and make it sting, he would have acknowledged yesterday when the tampering period opened up that, hey, I'm going here. This is where I'm going. Screw you, Patriots. I'm out.

I feel like he held on to the very end of maybe I'll get the money I want. Maybe Bill Belichick will agree to go get someone. I think with Stephon Diggs being traded to the Bills yesterday, that was kind of out as far as who he's trading for. A.J. Green got franchise tagged. You're not going there. There's not a lot of great wide receiver options. The cap in New England is kind of a mess right now.

You signed Devin McCourty, franchise tag,e thuny you have no money right now even though they did get a credit for aaron hernandez's contract today like three million dollars in the middle of nowhere kind of odd thing to point out but it happened today as well so uh gabe you're a jets fan you've been waiting for this day for your entire life, at least the last 20 years. Tom Brady's gone. How do you feel? Well, I have to acknowledge reality when I see it. Captain Clutch came up big. We needed some good news today, and boy, did we wake up to some good news. Anyone south of New Haven, Connecticut, is feeling a little better today than they were yesterday.

I'm not making light of the real-life situation going on, but man, for a few minutes while I was scrolling Twitter and I saw Tom Brady in New England is no longer, that put a smile on my face. So very relieved to know that he will be out of the division. I do want to bounce some names of possible destinations off you, and you alluded to our friend Colin Cowherd, who has been all over this story, obviously.

He's maybe the only person more obsessed with Tom Brady's whereabouts than you and I. He went on today, this morning, Tuesday morning, and basically teased that he knows Tom Brady has made up his mind. And according to Colin, and I just should say, I have worked with Colin for a long time. Whatever you might think of Colin's takes, he's got good contacts. He's not loose with information. He tries to get things right okay forget his opinions if he's trying to report something he's talked to someone who really knows and Colin is saying as I understand it that he believes Tom Brady has decided he wants to go to wait for it Tampa okay Tampa so I just gave that whole preface about Colin is not usually wrong about this kind of

stuff. Colin wouldn't put it out there if he didn't feel he was right. But Tampa, I don't know, man. What? And number two, Colin is tight with the Chargers. And so for him to do this probably means that he got on good authority. This is what's happening. I've been told that it's probably Tampa. I'm not bold enough to go out like Colin Coward on Twitter and say that it's Tampa. I don't have enough sources to back that up right now, but I've been told that most likely Tampa as well. And Adam Schefter tweet out. So as other people have as well, that Bucks GM Jason Light acknowledged there's interest in Frazier quarterback Tom Brady. They spoke Monday.

There's been no conversation. So this is all in Tom Brady's court. So let's start with Tampa and the other options. Let's start with Tampa first. All right. We'll talk about weapons. Tampa has weapons, right? Mike Evans, Chris Godwin, OJ Howard. They have an offensive line that still needs a piece or two, but they have a really

solid center in Ryan Jensen. They have a couple good guards, fellow Jew, Alia Marpet. They have really good. Yeah. Yeah, not many of us. He's a Division III player too. They have good pieces on offense, all right? Defensively, much better than we expected last year. Very good at defense, good pass rush.

They're very well coached, right? Bruce Aarons is the coach. He runs a very tight ship. They don't make a lot of mistakes. They're efficient. And I think Tom Brady would work well with a coach like Bruce Aarons. Bruce Aarons has been a coach who has been a quarterback whisperer. He's worked with Ben Roethlisberger and young Andrew Locke and Payne Manning and Carson Palmer and Carson Palmer's best years in Arizona. He has shown the ability to coach up quarterbacks, right, which I think Tom Brady would be obviously very kind. By the way, Tampa Bay last year, just to give you guys some stats, I pulled it up just to make sure, fifth, fifth in the NFL last year in DVOA,

which is efficiency number by football outsiders, fifth in the NFL in defense last year. So New England was obviously one. Tampa was fifth. So they're better than we think they are. The one question I have, really two of them, but they're kind of together, is Bruce Arian's offense is a vertical offense, right? So they like to stretch the field deep, right?

They have Mike Evans run deep. Godwin run deep. O.J. Howard run deep. They like to run deep, deep patterns. Now, they have underneath stuff, of course, off the deep stuff, but Tom Brady has never been a guy who's going to air the ball deep except the one year he had Randy Moss, and that was 13 years ago, right? He's now 43 years old.

He's not a guy that's going to throw the ball deep. So with that is, and kind of the second point is, will Bruce Arians change his offense for Tom Brady? It's easier said than done. A lot of times coaches say, hey, we're going to change our offense for Tom Brady? It's easier said than done. A lot of times coaches say, hey, we're going to change our offense for so-and-so, and they start to do it but don't really do it. I talked to Dan Orlovsky about this this morning.

He's quarterback, obviously, at ESPN. I trust the opinion on quarterback. He said, look, there's been times Gary Kubiak changed for Peyton Manning. There are times I think that Bruce Arians changed a little bit for Peyton Manning. Everyone just ran Peyton Manning's offense wherever he went. He had that much sway. I don't know if Tom Brady's going to be that emphatic on changing offenses, but will Bruce Arians be flexible enough to kind of maybe get away from all the deep passing, allow Tom Brady to throw the ball quickly when you pass the ball a deep game? You often

expose your quarterback to more hits. It takes longer throw the ball off it's a lot maybe can't hold up and so there's a lot of reasons why tampa bay actually makes sense if you want to add on the the no state tax so more more income more earning tom bray at this point in his career in my opinion shouldn't be looking for a spot based off of the income he's going to make. Right. Yeah, I don't think that matters. He's made enough money. If they want to offer him $30 million a year, great. But again, it's not that valuable, in my opinion, to this discussion. So Tampa's a place where, again, I think he would trust the coaching staff

because B.A. has done it for a long period of time and has been a winner a lot of places. He'll trust the coaching staff. He has a defense. He has weapons on offense. But again, I don't know how much Tom Brady will – it matters to him the scheme fit of Tampa Bay. Right.

So that's something I wanted to ask you about. Now, first of all, half joking, how will Julian Edelman squeeze into Tom's carry-on baggage to get himself down to Tampa Bay as well? Because he's obviously nothing without Tom. There's a good video going around about like from, what's that movie with the robbers in Boston?

The Town? Yeah, The Town. There's that scene at the very end when Ben Affleck's trying to leave and they made that to be Brady. Yeah. It's really funny. Okay. It's not not at the end when jem is he's saying to jem he wants to leave and then he pistol whips him yeah it means near the end before the last job it's a long movie so i it's

like 30 minutes till the end okay sorry okay i just re-watched it recently so anyway either way you're saying uh what I'm asking is how is Julian Edelman going to get himself to Tampa? Maybe he will, maybe he won't. But you were about to talk about the system, and I want to get into the X and Os a little bit. So we obviously do have to talk about a few other teams where he might sign because right now, again, I trust Colin,

but this is just one guy saying where he heard Tom Brady might go. This is not a fact yet. I have someone in tampa that has told me for a couple days he's going to tampa and again i'm not like a news breaker and if i do actually have a story i just give it to someone else because i just that's generous it's a mitzvah it's not but it's not like i don't want to be the guy that people turn to that was like was like oh what's your story now i don't break stories, right? So you need typically, you know, Schefter, Glazer, all these guys,

they need two or three sources. I normally just have one. I don't feel comfortable breaking stories like that. But I've been told now for a couple of days that he might have been in Tampa at a time to talk to some of these coaches secretly and whatnot. And I've been told that, so Tampa makes sense for Colin to say that.

Okay, so probably not coincidentally, I bet you might be talking to some of the same people because it is a pretty small world in this sports media business. And, you know, I'm guessing you guys have a few of the same numbers in your phone. We won't try to guess who you're both talking to. Here's what I want to know. Why would Tom Brady, who we assume wants to stick it to Bill Belichick as nicely as some PR person wrote that Instagram post for him. He obviously wants to stick it to the Patriots now. He would have loved to have finished his career there. He would have loved to have won another ring there and shared credit there, but they made it impossible for him. I'm speaking from what I assume to be his

perspective. So now he wants to go somewhere else and prove that he, not Belichick, but he was the special sauce. Okay? So why would he go to Tampa? Convince me that there's something other than they have some nice weapons, other than their defense is a little better than I realized. Convince me there's something systematically or something about the way they line up in the division or some weird dark history here. Tell me why Tampa would make sense beyond the obvious reasons you've already stated. Because I'm struggling to see how he gets to send an FU to Bill Belichick playing in the NFC South

with a team that it would take a lot to bring to the Super Bowl. Well, I guess that... Okay, so let's just stay with the angle real quick and then I'll get back to Tampa. Because I think you have to kind of process of elimination of which teams can kind of screw New England, right? So, okay, he's not staying with the angle real quick, and then I'll get back to Tampa. Because I think you have to kind of process of elimination, which teams can kind of screw New England, right?

So, okay, he's not staying in the AFC East, right? He's not going to the Jets. He's not going to the Bills, obviously. He's not – maybe the Dolphins, but the Dolphins aren't really – they're not close enough to win the Jets. That would have made more sense to me, though, honestly. Yeah, but – okay, there's two things to this. Is that does Tom Brady want to screw Bill Belichick, or does he just want to win somewhere else?

And that's screwing Bill Belichick. It's like, I won, right? I won without you. He doesn't have to do it by just beating New England. And the one team to do that is San Diego. Los Angeles, the Chargers, they play New England this year, but they're in Pat Mahomes' division. They don't think he wants to play in the AFC West.

So sticking it to Bill Belichick will be winning the Super Bowl. And I think that if you look at the easier division to do that and the easier confidence, let's say, is in the NFC. The AFC, the Chiefs and Ravens right now are loaded, right? The Ravens have done a great job again. They got Calais Campbell. They traded for someone else, I believe. They obviously traded their tight end away, but they got someone else.

They got draft. I mean, they're loading up right now, right? And the Chiefs are going to be good if Pat Mahomes can just walk, okay? So it's a tougher path. The NFC each year seems to be more wide open than ever. The Eagles are going to be good this year. They're going to be healthy. The Cowboys, who knows what's happening there.

The Packers, Aaron Rodgers getting older. The AFC West is a juggernaut, right? Who knows what happens out west now with DeAndre Hopkins in Arizona, right? So I feel like Tampa Bay, you have a chance. You're in warm weather and Jeff Darlington laid out the reasons

why he kind of goes somewhere. Warm weather, a coach that's been flexible in the past, and he has. Again, we'll see now as coaches get older, they become more stubborn. We'll see if BA is more flexible. Close proximity to New York. You can fly pretty quickly to New York. And the weather.

And so those things are the reason that Tampa does make it less of a winning roster. There are players to win with on Tampa Bay. So basically he's going to Florida for the same reason my parents did. Yes. Just I can get back to New York pretty quick. It's cheaper. I save a lot on taxes and the weather's nice. All right. Great. Yes. I'm glad to know that. He's 43. Yes. Fair enough. That's basically like 83 in real life. In football years, that is more like 83. In Tom Brady years, though, he's like reverse aging so he's probably about 12 we're gonna be stuck with this guy in tampa for another 19 seasons just

watch all right let me just obligatory mention of a few more teams because these are all teams that were probably holding out hope for the possibility that he would call their name tomorrow uh where are we i i assume we're just ruling out the raiders because of mariotta going there they don't need three capable quarterbacks. Even if Tom Brady's better than the other two, they're not going to sign Brady, right? Well, here's the, when we go through these teams,

something to remember is that I think a lot of teams did not actually think this was possible, that Tom Brady was actually leaving. So when you look at, let's say the Raiders, who you mentioned Marcus Martin, no deals final right now. You can't sign anyone until tomorrow. And actually, let's say, the Raiders, who you mentioned, Marcus Martin, no deals final right now. You can't sign anyone until tomorrow. And actually, this is something logistically speaking with what's happening in our country right now and around the world is you have to get a physical wherever you go on your new team.

And sometimes they're simple. Sometimes they're more comprehensive depending on how injured a player has been. That has to be done before players sign. So a lot of these contracts will be contingent upon a physical. And it's pretty bad business if you were to say, hey, I'm signing you Marcus Mariota, and he's healthy, which he is, and then you back out three months from now because you fight someone else, right, or you draft someone else.

That would be pretty messed up. But that's part of this as well is that the Raiders could just say, hey, we're out of Mariota, Tom Brady come here. But the Raiders, in my opinion, are it's they would have traded Carr ready they would have moved off from him you're not you're not having Carr and Tom Brady okay so we're gonna we're gonna say more or less they're gone uh Chris Sims of all people speaking of former players who don't mind breaking news he claims that the Niners wanted Brady but they couldn't make it work and then ultimately the Niners sort of backed away from that idea.

And so that one we're ruling out. The Titans we can pretty obviously rule out because they did re-sign Tannehill to a long-term deal. So those three are pretty easy no's, even though they had been rumored. The Bears are a fun one to speculate, but obviously Tampa makes more sense than Chicago if he has an A-B choice, right? Can we save time on the Bears? The Bears would be a good—they're good at defense, but weather kind of cancels out the Bears, right? That's what I'm saying. You just made a pretty good case that Tampa has nice weapons on offense, a better-than-I-think defense,

and all the other nice things about living in Florida. That seems like a better idea than going to the Bears at 43. The Chargers were always thought to be one or two, depending on who you talk to. We can't rule them out yet, but obviously now they're in play for Cam Newton and maybe some other guys who are floating around out there. So if it's not Tampa, are the Chargers the next most likely option?

I think so. I mean, let's talk about it from a talent perspective, right? So they're in kind of the same boat that Tampa Bay is. They have Keenan Allen and Mike Williams. They have Hunter Henry. They have Austin Eckler. Let's talk about it from a talent perspective, right? So they're in kind of the same boat that Tampa Bay is. They have Keenan Allen and Mike Williams. They have Hunter Henry. They have Austin Eckler. They have now Trey Turner at right guard. I know it's not sexy, but they traded for Trey Turner.

They have the sixth pick in the draft. They have an opportunity to draft an offensive tackle, left tackle, which they desperately need, and a tackle-heavy draft. That's a great time to need an offensive tackle in the top 12 picks. They still need to work on their right tackle, but there's a couple-heavy draft. That's a great time to need an offensive tackle in the top 12 picks. They still need to work on their right tackle, but there's a couple of veterans still available. And on defense, they have a formidable pass rush. They're a little slow at linebacker,

but they're back in. Derwin James is a rising star. Great weather in Los Angeles, of course, but my thing with the Chargers has always been this. The coaching staff is not as good as Bruce Arians, and also, no one cares about the Chargers. No one. It doesn't.

And so, I mean, literally in LA, I did the math one day. The Chargers are like the 11th most important, if you include USC, like sports franchise in Los Angeles, right? Like Lakers, Dodgers, Kings, Angels, Trojans, LAFC, Galaxy. Like, it doesn't even, Rams. Wow. I mean, you hadans, LAFC, Galaxy. Like, it doesn't eat Rams. Wow. I mean, you had me for a little while there. Wait, are you telling me that there's...

Zuri's eyes also began to roll. He's the Angeleno in the bunch. Are you telling me that there's more Charger fans in LA than there are, like, MLS fans? Okay, I mean, it's a close call. Your point is made by simply saying it's not a slam dunk that the NFL team is more popular than the second most popular soccer team in town. Like, I think that that establishes what you're trying to say. We can agree. They're at the tier of MLS. I never thought I would say LAFC ever in my entire life.

You're right. Okay, so fine. So he's not going to go play for a team that matters that little. life you're right so okay so fine so he's not going to go play for a team that matters that little and la is a big place with a lot going on unlike the provincial little town that he just played in for 19 seasons where no one within 400 miles is thinking about anything other than the patriots all year long that or the red socks you can guess my bias um okay so then last couple teams before we move on cults i would would say, sort of the same thing here. Why go to the Colts if you could go to the Bucs?

You've just made a better case for the Bucs than the Colts. They've got a nice defense. They've got some offense. But really, are they going to? The Colts is, look, the Colts, I'll tell you a couple things that are an advantage. One is that you play a division, you should win if you go there, right? Do you trust Bill O'Brien? No.

Jacksonville's not any good. Tennessee, I don't trust Tannehill next season. Then you have a really good offensive line. You have some weapons. T.Y. Hilton, Eric Ebrod probably have to get better at those. And then you have a great coaching staff in Frank Wright. You have a young, aggressive general manager. You have pieces like you've built up your team well enough.

I think the Colts are, if you want to try to win now, that actually would be a good option, but there's two things that I think are, might keep him out of there. One,

people brought this up, is Deflategate originated from Indianapolis. They're the team that told on him. Again, different general manager coaching staff.

I don't know how much that matters for Tom Brady. And two, it's the Colts. Does he want to go to Indianapolis? No. We can save time here. And he's petty. He wouldn't go someplace that narked on him.

We can rule out the Colts. Also, I don't know. Would he want to go to where Peyton Manning made a name for himself? Probably not, right? Nope. No way. That is the house that Peyton built.

And he'd be benching his buddy, Jacoby Brissett. Not that he cares, but that's another factor. There's no reason he would go to the Colts. He'd be staying in the AFC. You know, whatever. And we'll get to this. Much as Bill O'Brien is trying to tank his own team, that's a difficult division also.

There's just no way. The only last team that I want to mention, because this this idea started on this podcast no matter what big name people have have absorbed this idea and popularized it and made it their own i want the listeners of this show to remember that it was right here that we talked about for the very first time what if tom brady went to the cowboys now we were even crazier we were talking maybe tom brady and and his assistant coach uh would go over there and become a new duo in dallas but now dallas uh franchise tag

dac which we need to spend some time on we will is there any possibility of some sort of a trade with dac and make room for tom like is that is that the Hail Mary of all Hail Marys? Can we just put that idea to bed even though we launched it in the first place? I mean, look, there's a world where Tom Brady ends up in Dallas and that becomes, you know, the Cowboys rescinding the tag for Dak and signing Tom Brady. And you have Tom Brady with the best offensive line he's ever played with,

with Zeke Elliott, with Amari Cooper, with Blake Jarwin. No, the defense has been depleted a little bit with Byron Jones leaving, but it's not the worst idea in the world to go to Dallas. No, it wouldn't be the worst idea. And you play inside. Now, the weather's nice there, but inside, basically, for eight-year games. Then you have to go to Washington, Philly, and New York, which are cold-weather games late in the season.

But you have an owner that you know you can trust to at least put money into the team and try to sign the best players possible. It's not going to happen. Cowboys fans are so upset. By the way, we have nailed the Cowboys. We have nailed them from the beginning, at least I have. I know you've been involved with this as well.

Maybe not the idea of them, Brady and McDaniels, but the idea that the Cowboys only like Dak at one certain price, right? One certain price, and they have not budged on that because they're not all in on him. I cannot explain this enough to Cowboys fans. The Eagles, the Rams, the Seahawks, the last three teams to give the quarterbacks giant deals, they all did it right away, right?

As soon as it was time, they worked it out. Whether they compromised on years, on money, whatever it was, the Cowboys have not budged from $33 million a year. I think it's over five years. Dak wants over four years. Obviously, you want to hit free agency as soon as possible. Again, they haven't budged. If they love Dak, if they loved him, they would sign him to a long-term contract. They'd pay him whatever the heck he wanted and say, look, you're our guy. Go ahead and make your money. But a couple of things that I'm telling you that I think are really telling and people think I'm crazy for saying this. Number one, and we talked about this on the show, Mike McCarthy not calling Dak Prescott when he got the job. You have to believe

that in the interview between him and Jerry Jones and Steven Jones, they talked about the plan for Dak Prescott. Like, how could they not do that over an entire, you stayed in his house for a night. You only had talked about Dak one time. And so for him not to call Dak makes me think that Dak is not in their future plans at the price that Dak wants to be paid at. And the Cowboys have kind of gone at this backwards, right?

They signed a running back and a box linebacker first. They finally got a Mark Cooper under. It just seems like they haven't been beating the desk for Dak Prescott. No. And, and there's no other explanation for it. I know Cowboys fans hate it. I keep telling you all about this. Who cares what Cowboys fans hate?

No, I know. I'm just saying that it, it just, it's, this is coming down to a cousin. It's coming down to a, this is going to be another cousin situation in Washington. We're just tag tag gone. OK, so so let's you took us right here to Dak. We're skipping over something that is until Tom Brady put out his post this morning was probably the craziest offseason football story I've read in a long time, at least from like a personnel movement standpoint, which is Bill O'Brien's decimation of his own team. We'll get to that. We will get to that.

But you brought us to Dak. So let's do this. I want to just fill in some details for people. So it was an exclusive franchise tag, which means unlike a non-exclusive, like basically no one can out offer him. So he's in Dallas unless Dallas doesn't want him there. Or, and this is what i want to throw at you or if he is as unhappy as we suspect could he hold out walk me through the

psychology of a player like dac saying thanks for trying guys but it was long-term deal or nothing i ain't showing up now we know the league year is a little bit up in up in the air the the nfl is insisting that they're going to start the season on time. They've moved OTAs. But could he hold out? And what would that mean to him and the team? Is that the right idea to consider? Well, of course he can hold out. But you mentioned that with the current climate we're in right now,

there might not be sports until July. I mean, there might not be an offseason. And that actually makes his leverage probably worse. Probably. Because it's not talked about all offseason, right? Dak Prescott, to me, has not seemed like the player that would hold out. Again, I'm not saying that he should or shouldn't, but he has not seemed like the guy that would do this. If I were him, if I was agent, I'd tell him to hold out as long as possible because he should not play.

He's good enough to not play on the franchise tag. But you have, you know, if you're Dak, you've got to wait. Am I going to sit out a year? Probably not. Do you hope that training camp goes so poorly for whoever my backup is? They begged me to come back before week one. Sure, but you run the risk of losing an earning year in the NFL by sitting out. Look, it didn't pay for Le'Veon Bell.

He's never making that money back. And I don't think it's going to pay for Dak Prescott. I think in the end he comes back, but you make your displeasure known by missing the two weeks of camp. But look, the last part of this, for me at least, is that with a new coach, you probably don't want to miss training camp, especially if you have no offseason. So the weird thing is, you know, your point is for Dak,

you want to make your point, but also come back and play very well. If you miss two weeks of training camp after having no offseason program, you're not going to know the playbook well enough in two weeks to play the game. You'll know enough to get by, but you're not going to know the ins and outs. You won't know the adjustments as well as you should. And so you have to weigh that with this as well, is that, hey, Dak, it's probably not good to miss all training camp or some of it with a new coach that you haven't seen or opened his playbook one time.

Okay. Well, just for the record, a couple months ago, he made it clear that he didn't think that they were going to have to go this route with the franchise tag. He was quoted saying, we'll get to that when we get to that. My brain says it gets done without the tag. So that was a while back that Dak said that. So he's obviously a bit taken by surprise now.

And you're mentioning the coach, and try to bring us into the X and O's for a second here, Jeff. Okay, so they didn't talk, and you thought that might be a troublesome sign. But in reality, how much isccarthy really going to change about what dac prescott does when he steps into a huddle or walks up to the line like how much new stuff does a veteran guy like dac prescott need to learn i mean i think you're just hoping that you speed up his processing which i don't think is much of an issue but you just hope that you build the offense around routes and concepts he's really good at, and he's able to make the adjustments necessary to put your team and your offense in the right place.

And that's, I think, the hope that the Cowboys had in hiring McCarthy to work with him. But so help me out because dummies like me think about this through the lens of like a fantasy football draft. And we think like, oh, man, Mike McCarthy going to Dallas, he's going to bring the Aaron Rodgers system system that's going to mean a lot of passing that's going to be good for my fantasy yards and blah blah blah but are you telling me that it's more a good coach will actually adapt to what the quarterback is capable of or good yes they should right okay so it's less dac adapting

to mike and more mike adapting to Dak. Am I hearing you right? Yeah, they said that they're going to keep the old terminology. Mike McCarthy is going to change his terminology for Dak. That was reported when he signed. They're going to keep Kellen Moore's terminology. Instead of having everyone change their terminology for Mike, Mike is just going to change his terminology. Okay.

Well, I mean, we've talked a lot about Dak Prescott all season and all off season. I suspect we will, and we'll learn more in the next few days. For what it's worth, it seems like most people who know something are telling Dak like, hey man, don't get bullied here. Don't give in, you know, don't get discouraged, but also fight for what's yours. Like they took care of their other guys. They should take care of you. Hold on, not necessarily hold out,

but hold on, like be a good dude and make sure they pay you. Is that the advice ultimately that you would give is just sort of be firm, but be a good guy. Don't burn bridges. Yes. I mean, I think because especially if you do want to come back, right?

Like, you don't want to go out and slander your team. And look, Dak hasn't done that. Dak has actually been a pretty good trooper. Even when there was the kneeling thing that happened a couple years ago, Dak was kind of more team-friendly than other players were to their team, right? So he has been, and this is why I find it so odd, too, that they're almost not rewarding him for just being a great leader and being a guy that they can

trust to kind of be a cowboy and be the quarterback that Jerry Jones wants and talk about the team in a certain way and kind of be that face of the franchise. He's done everything from that aspect that Jerry, I think, would ever want, right, from a fourth-round draft pick who was kind of thrust in the spotlight

when Romo got hurt. So it does not strike me as him personally the type to go out and blast the team. Now, his agent might do it. They might leave something to Ed Warder, and he might do it. But I don't think Dak himself will go out and talk about it okay well i mean i hope he gets what he deserves i don't know if he will in dallas from everything that we've seen and i think he should just remember one thing and this goes for all athletes this

is not dac prescott specific he is obviously proven to be a very capable above average maybe even great nfl quarterback but you just said it he got his opportunity in sort of a fluky way this was not like he wasn't drafted to be the surefire next starting quarterback of the dallas cowboys he kind of found his way into the role and then never lost it and i would just be very careful if i were him in thinking that that can't also happen to you you know tony romo wasn't a sure thing dak prescott wasn't a sure thing whoever else is on the roster now or could soon be isn't a sure thing but they might take that job if you screw around a little too much so this this is not about you know throwing shade at dak like i say get the money you can get just Just be mindful.

Be mindful. That does happen in this league. Right. And maybe because he was the guy that took someone's job, he's more mindful of that. Yeah. It's always part of it. But again, I think most guys think their job is never going to be taken. I know. I know.

And you got to have that kind of cockiness to survive in this league. But it's something to think about. All let's move along to because this one might take up more time that you know going into this morning this felt like the biggest story of the week so i'm just gonna throw this at you the texans inexplicably have traded new copkins and a fourth round pick this year to the cardinals for david johnson the running back and a second round pick this year there's a couple other lesser picks involved here they don't even matter the point is arguably the best receiver in the league certainly one of the most consistent for the last several years who is still in his prime and still under contract is going to Arizona while a beat up not on my fantasy team running back with productivity issues is coming to Texas.

Okay. I don't understand this deal on any level. This seems dumb in every way for the Texans. We said this going into the season when they made some deals that made no sense. They traded away one of their best defensive players in Jadavian Clowney. Now they're trading away without question their best offensive weapon for Deshaun Watson. What the hell could possibly be the argument for this? Everyone on Twitter is asking the same question. Please, Jeff, fill us in. OK, it's a bad trade in general, my opinion.

It's even worse when Stefan Diggs nets a first round. Yes, it's even worse when Odell Beckckham netted a first round draft but i wrote it down uh yesterday i did a periscope i'm probably gonna do some more periscopes as as uh we have less and less radio i'm doing right now um odell got a first a second and a starting safety so a position more valuable than a running back it this is the problem game when you have an oh you have a general manager who's also a coach, really more of a coach who's also a general manager, right? It doesn't work.

One person has done it, and that's Bill Belichick. And maybe it's just because Tom Brady was so good, right? We'll find out obviously now moving forward as they seem to have no plan who they're going to sign a quarterback. Is that, look, Bill O'Brien is a coach, right? So he's installing game plans. He's studying film. He's evaluating his own players.

He's taking notes on future things he wants to do. All this stuff, and then, oops, all of a sudden, hey, can you also be the GM, too, and worry about contracts and trade compensation and how much a guy should be paid and the value here and what this guy's making in the market? You can't do both. You don't have time in the day to do both jobs well, right?

Of course. And so he's trying to do both jobs well, and he sucks at probably both jobs. If you look at even the playoff output, he's terrible in the first half of playoff games. He's been shut out, I think, in like four of his last five first halves of playoff games. It's a terrible thing. So, look, he doesn't like the way DeAndre Hopkins practices. Grow up, Bill, okay? Grow up.

It's a wide receiver, bro. He shows up on Sundays. That's all that matters. He shows up and he has a great connection with your quarterback. They played in college together, right? And so the idea that it – I don't know what the hell he's doing. David Johnson. And then by the way, the Texas signed Randall Cobb.

So they're paying Randall Cobb and David Johnson more combined than they would pay, you know, DeAndre Hopkins, who's better than probably both of them combined. I just don't understand what Bill O'Brien is doing. I wish I could rationalize it for you. I mean, it feels like he's being a baby about this and just not being able to deal with the emotions of a wide receiver who is very talented. But look, wide receivers tend to be a little diva-ish.

And you have to take emotion out of the job if you are a general manager. Coaches tend to be very emotional, right? Because that's their job. They have to show emotion. They have to teach with emotion. They get so up and down because every play or every other play or every series, right? Because that's their job. They have to show emotion. They have to teach with emotion. They get so up and down because every play or every other play

or every series, right? It's an emotional game, emotional practice. A lot of them are former players, so they're very high ego and high testosterone and just emotional, right? And general managers

have got to be unemotional. And that's what Bill Belichick has done great. Look, you want to knock Bill Belichick for letting Tom Brady go, fine. But how many other coaches, or excuse me, how many other front office people would make that decision? Brady can still play, guys.

He can still play. Take a guy that's won six Super Bowls for you, maybe the best quarterback of all time, and say, you know what? Eh, we're going to let you go, buddy. Yeah. No one else would have done that, right? Of course not. We saw today that Drew Brees resigned New Orleans.

I don't think Drew Brees should have left, but look, I think Bill Belichick would have told Drew to get lost too. So you have to take emotion out of it, and there's too much emotion when you're the head coach to also be the general manager. Okay, well said, and I will just go and ask it this way. Do we think Bill O'Brien, who worked for Bill Belichick for a little period of time there, right? That's kind of how he became minted and got this this big job

do we think that this is him essentially trying to prove that he can also do what belichick does what belichick is uniquely capable of doing and isn't this proving just like when you go to karaoke and somebody tries to sing journey like no, there's one dude on earth who can sing those songs correctly. Don't try that. That will not work. You will look stupid no matter how much you drink. Bill O'Brien is just proving there's only one Bill Belichick. And probably that's a good thing.

The world cannot handle more people wired like Bill Belichick. It's not good for humanity. It's good for winning football, but no one else can do it. So why is he trying to emulate something that is one of a kind? check it's not good for humanity it's good for winning football but no one else can do it so why is he trying to emulate something that is one of a kind why not just learn how to adapt and be more of a human like how do you not get a lot from every report ever deandre hopkins is like one of the nicest most humble kindest hardest working guys in the league what could you possibly find wrong with this guy so much so that you push him

out of town after doing the same thing to your best defensive player sorry jj watt your other best defensive player um sorry this pisses me off because i he tried he tried to clowny and hopkins did not get one first round pick back nothing and keeps on telling people he's a genius look at what happens they go to the playoff every single year they play that first stupid saturday game on espn that nobody watches i don't remember whether they win or lose it won't be the first game sorry it'll be one of however many damn games there are they'll be playing them on tuesday moving into the weekend it doesn't matter they're never going to get past the first round if they keep removing weapons and by the way i'm guessing this means he he gets along well with deshaun watson because he didn't

trade him away for nothing well how's deshaun gonna feel about losing the best weapon he could have ever asked for a guy he has a real relationship with how's he gonna feel about this did somebody give him a call shoot him a text like what what the hell are they doing? Yeah. Deshaun Watson's going to have obviously big problems with this. And I do wonder if he just refuses to sign an extension. Now they might franchise them obviously at some point, but, and maybe, maybe, you know, maybe Bill Biden's not sold on Deshaun Watson. Oh my God. Who could he be?

What is he sold on uh something that's um also i want to mention here i mentioned this this morning on an interview i did um you know someone asked me i'm sure that people have thought about this why doesn't the owner get involved here right like why does the owner get involved all right a lot of owners in the nfl have other businesses right the nfl is like is like a pet of theirs, right? They kind of just like checking on it, you know, once a day or something, right? They're not there every single day. And they hire general managers, front office personnel, to deal with the day-to-day.

And that includes trades. And that includes being a part of those decisions. And unless it's a quarterback, you know, Deshaun Watson or someone else, most owners stay away from personal decisions. Now, there's obviously some that are, you know, part of it. We just talked about one in the last topic with Dak Prescott. Yeah. John Mara is, you know, the Giants owner. The Giants are his, that's his job.

He's there every day. He's at practice every day. So he has more of a say, I think, in what happens in personnel. But he's also there every day, right? So the idea that the owner should have stopped this, look, the owner might not really care. He might not be, he might not, you know, he might, you know,

I don't know his other jobs, but the Texans might be like his third job and he just checks in once a day or once a week or whenever and he lets Bill O'Brien handle everything else. I mean, okay. I guess that's a way to run an organization. I just... Well, there's some organizations that aren't running very well no they aren't i mean honestly at this point i would not be surprised

if the plan that we here announced is jj wad is going to play wide receiver one for us he's he can run the y and the z he was he was traded for a high-end washing machine pretty soon it's so nuts and the other side of this that i haven't heard a lot of people talk about yet maybe because they're still just trying to make sense of all this and by the way go on twitter no one from current players in the league to our friends in the media not one person has said anything positive about this deal cam hayward who we love we know the guy a little bit he plays in pittsburgh said man we need to start drug testing some of these gms and coaches questionable moves i agree with cam we do we should probably wonder what the hell these guys

are on but no one thinks this is a good deal so let's look at it from the other side that the team that seemingly did very well which is the cardinals oh great right so a lot of people want to believe the cardinals are about to break through that division maybe i don't know is now the right time to to sort of see things turn over seattle's getting a little worse la didn't look the same like is now the chance i don't know you get the niners in there they're gonna have to improve their offensive line a little bit but you have tyler murray with christian kirk with larry fish joe and deandre hopkins in a pass heavy offense not gonna get not gonna get much better than that. Yeah. So, yeah.

So if nothing else, fantasy points galore. They'll probably still go seven and nine because that division is tough, but there's gonna be a lot of passing in that offense. Oh, yeah. This is a big upgrade for them. Huge. Okay.

All right. Well, I mean, I have to imagine that the colt or excuse me the texans just went from afc contender we saw some nice things out of them last year they got a little unlucky maybe it could have come together for them to yeah we don't need to talk about them that's not even they probably don't even win the division anymore is is how i think most people will look at it let's see what happens with the cardinals uh i like what they're starting to build there all right um boy we have not been able to get to everything we meant to get to so this one will do quickly uh sort of sad news for nfl fans is that the draft won't proceed as planned now there will be an nfl draft as of now the nfl said they're

going to keep to the schedule but the big exciting event event in Las Vegas at the Bellagio guys, we're going to get brought on a boat out to the stage to be drafted. It was going to be a whole spectacle that is off. That will not happen. It's now up to the networks and the league to figure out how are they going to broadcast this event and still make it feel special. As we can tell from today's episode and everything going on on Twitter, this is truthfully cliche as it may sound a nice break for people from all this kind of tiring news.

And I was glad you mentioned it because I was a little worried a couple days ago that the NFL going forward with this would be bad optics. I got to say, it's quite the opposite. I feel like this has been a big break for a lot of us not having to worry about what else is happening around the world right now i mean you know i'm in charlotte right now we're we're closing restaurants and bars today you're los angeles you're basically shut down like it it it's been a pleasant break and i hope it goes for a couple more days yeah no it is fun to see every other tweet in your timeline be about some trade

or some somebody guessing about some star player moving That is a nice break from trying to become scientists, um, and, and being scared, frankly. Uh, all right. So let me throw this at you. Some ideas for how to handle the draft. I, I used to be a producer at ESPN and Fox. So, I mean, I've been in these types of conversations at the places that have to broadcast this stuff. I want to pitch you a few concepts for ways they could do the draft this year. And I want your, uh uh ways to make those ideas smarter that's what this shows okay so what about doing something like what they do with the national championship with the mega cast right so what if there was the main screen is just going to have to be you know whoever they can get to have cameras in their homes and talking about football so

presume you're going to still see some of your A-listers from ESPN or NFL network. But what if surrounding that was all of, all of the people like us commenting in social, any breaking news that people have embraced that, you know, if somebody in the league has some news about a future pick, share it.

Don't, you know, don't try to, don't worry like the NBA used to worry that Woj was going to scoop all the picks. Just lean into it, put it all in a lower third, a little graphic so we can see what all the people are saying yeah um have multiple channels so one of the channels is guys like you guys who can really

get into the x's and o's of how is a guy going to fit into the scheme what can he bring to the offense or defense based on his skill set you know really thoughtful telestration based stuff have another room that's just more people like me dipsticks making jokes having fun you know really thoughtful telestration based stuff have another room that's just more people like me dipsticks making jokes having fun you know like guessing about future stuff making funny memes and references and really just make it a big fun social for lack of a better term event what do you think of that idea well i think that's fantastic now how would that how would the pics be announced okay so i think you still announced just sort of go back a decade frankly at espn like there's still a host you know so pick some person wingo or somebody is gonna still read off picks into a camera and we're gonna hopefully have cameras at the homes of a

number of the guys who would otherwise have been in the green room so we're gonna see some reaction from them we won't get that moment where they hold the jersey up. But, you know, they can do some nice stuff with graphics. But the show would be more about all of us participating from home. Right, right. So I guess the other question is like who – so the team calls in the pick to the NFL office? There would have to be a pretty coordinated, I would think, some version of a slack channel that's a little bit more secure yes where one official uh voice from each war room uh draft room is sending it to both the league and the networks broadcasting at the same time there's no leaks from there graphics get built there's however much time they need between the pick being entered and the pick

being announced is still the same and then we see it all visually uh the way we always would we just don't get that moment with the guy on stage um yeah i think that would be awesome obviously in this scenario i have a job on draft night so yeah you'd be busy i'd be very i'd be very glad to have a job a job on draft night i think that's a great idea to have multiple different ways to kind of get your to get your draft on um i also think that you could try to lean into social media for this event and but the thing with that though is we know that you know a lot of the country's not on social media so that's right do you want to be announcing all your picks via social media that that i don't know if that's no no no no so so so the way the megacast has no i understand that but i'm saying like i'm saying like the team itself would be like,

number one, we've picked Joe Burrow. They would just tweet it. They wouldn't even call it in. They'd just tweet it out. No, I don't think that's the right way to do it. I think you'd still have to funnel it through an official outlet. Well, you would tell the NFL, but it would be announced via Twitter. Nah, because then I think that would get sloppy,

and then some teams would do it better than others, and people would be out of order, and everyone's working from home, so some guy's Wi-Fi is slow, and all of a sudden we don't know who the Vikings are picking. They've had problems in the past. I don't think that's the answer.

I think there's a central hub for the official information and announcement, but we see the reaction in real time just the way they do in the Megacast. I mean, I did it i ran the the truck for the first espn2 broadcast of the megacast where it was uh jamis first mariotta if memory serves and um we had all kinds of stuff scrolling lower third lebron james was talking about uh was it was it jamison no it must have been Auburn. Am I getting mixed up here?

I think it was Auburn. Anyway, we had LeBron tweeting in, you know, seconds after he's tweeting in reaction to touchdowns. They're on the screen and the talents see it on the screen and they're reacting to it. I think it was Mike and Jamel and Van Pelt, a whole bunch of people were in there. We had Tebow and Manziel coming through,

so, you know, I was happy. I think they could do something similar. So let me add to that idea. You get the cameras at the houses of all of the first round guys so it's not just the the the green room guys you might have to skype if you're not allowed to travel either yeah random facetime yeah well we you know you know firsthand working with guys like us and we're just who we are espn has the power to get some pretty high quality video coming out of all these guys homes um some will be better than others but high quality video coming out of all these guys' homes.

Some will be better than others. But this way we get to hear from these guys in real time. The green room, they never really seem to get much out of those guys until they've been picked. Everyone's so nervous. So let's like, you know, these guys will just be told, hey, listen, we're going to be talking to you all the way through. Imagine in the moment that, who's the top guy? Jerry Judy, for instance, top receiver picked. Yeah. Imagine the moment Jerry Judy gets picked. Where do you think he might go? Where does he land in the mock drafts?

Probably first. It's a heavy draft for like quarterbacks, tackles, and defensive end, defensive players early on. I don't think he's probably going to be in the 10 to 15 range. Yeah, so who do you think takes him though? Oh, who? How about we just go with with tampa gets another weapon oh okay so imagine the moment that jerry judy is drafted

tom brady is welcoming into the team and they're having a conversation that we witness as new new player meets his new quarterback and it's tom brady that's not but imagine he's talking to mike evans hey man here's how it's going to work. Can't wait to meet you. And we're just observing. How fun would that be? Oh, it'd be cool. I agree that this needs to be a unique way to do this and maybe that changes the way

that this stuff is covered from moving forward. I think there will be some innovations that come out of this that will go back to having a big event and having everyone in person, handshakes and all that. That'll be fun one day. Can I just say it's really interesting that we we've known each other now for what two

years two now three years and we were on a different show and we not we you guys develop technology to like get a live show on with everyone not in the same place and it's funny that now not funny i guess it's ironic that now everyone's doing the same thing because everyone's out of the office yeah well and like the stuff that you guys did, it's just, yeah, it's pretty crazy. Being able to make shows from home is going to become a thing for the next several weeks. And, you know, hopefully a few of us will be able to figure it out. All right, let's move the line really, really quickly.

These are mostly silly ones. I want to know, number of times Josh Allen overthrows Stefan Diggs next season, 29.5. Oh, more. More. Yeah, more. All right, guys. Aaron Schatz, who runs Football Outsiders, or he did, 29.5. Oh, more. More. Yeah, more. All right, guys. Aaron Schatz, who runs Football Outsiders, or he did, he developed it.

We had this discussion going for a long time now, me and him. We've looked at the numbers, and if you are not above replacement as far as a quarterback, like just your advanced stats, right? You know, we talk a lot about this in baseball, right? Or wins above replacement. If you're below replacement for your first two seasons as a starting quarterback, there's only one quarterback in the last 20 years who became a good quarterback in the NFL. That was Alex Smith, who was bad his first two seasons, became good.

So the idea that Josh Allen is somehow going to be an all-world quarterback is just not going to happen. It's not going to happen. He's not going to be much better with Stephon Diggs. Your accuracy doesn't get better at 24 years old. It's not going to happen. He's not going to be much better with Stephon Diggs. Your accuracy doesn't get better at 24 years old. He's not a good quarterback. So I'm going to go with over. He's going to overthrow him all the time, just like he's been doing. What difference does it make that Stephon Diggs is there now?

I mean, none in terms of Josh's accuracy, but maybe Stephon's a little bit better of a receiver, more seasoned receiver than some of the guys they got you know suddenly Cole Beasley is in the role that he should be in which is you know a really really effective slot guy who finds space you know in in short yardage but not the one I mean if Stefan Diggs is your one and Cole is your two and you got a couple of these other speedsters John Brown Brown and company, running around, maybe Josh gets a little more accurate when guys get a little more open.

Right? I mean, I hear you. The last thing I want to say is that I'm tired of hearing about quarterbacks running the football. I don't care. All right? I don't care. If you defend your quarterback, we're saying, well, he runs the ball. Well, your quarterback sucks. I don't want to hear it.

The when's the last time gave a quarterback who, who ran the football was a Superbowl champion. Never. Okay. Russell Wilson. He's a great freaking pocket passer. Pat Mahomes. Yeah. He's mobile. We're not, but guess what? Third and 15, he threw the ball. He won the game for them, okay? Like, the idea that you can say, like, oh, well, Josh Allen runs the football. I don't care. I don't care. How about he throws the ball from the freaking pocket when the guy is open

and hits him for a big gain? How about he does that more often? Because that is how you win a Super Bowl. The goal is not to be a playoff team. The goal is to win the Super Bowl. It drives me crazy, dude, that people are so in love with running the football from the quarterback position.

It doesn't lead to Super Bowls. Okay. Well, when your boy Lamar did not win a Super Bowl, that helped your argument quite a bit. But man, you were sweating. You were sweating right until the moment they lost that that this whole notion might be blown up last season you were you were and it could definitely

obviously that take could hurt hard next year the Ravens are really good so it's possible to get the Super Bowl yeah all right uh we touched on this briefly so real quick uh Teddy Bridgewater is in Carolina now. So Teddy wins over under. Drew Brees wins back in New Orleans. Oh, this year it's going to be Brees. Okay, so you think Brees comes out ahead in that division? The Panthers aren't very good right now, no. Okay, so what's the point of signing Teddy? I think the Panthers looked at the draft class

and thought maybe either Herbert wasn't getting to them, they didn't like Herbert, they didn't like jordan love and decided to sign bridgewater okay but wasn't the kid kyle allen like oh he's somewhere in that he's terrible yeah josh allen bad uh worse worse okay all right um and now in an homage to zuri um who was sleeping through all this conversation of sexy names and topics like Tom Brady and Dak Prescott, big sexy trades involving, you know, playoff teams. These things are things that don't interest Zuri. So when Zuri helps put this show together, he likes to make sure we balance things out and everyone gets their voice heard. So I'm going to ask this question on Zuri's behalf.

Playoff games for the Miami Dolphins next season. Over under.5. Are you still awake, Jeff? When you heard me say Dolphins, did you start to nod off? Who's their quarterback, Zuri? Zuri doesn't know who their quarterback is. Nobody knows. Thank you. Under, then.

Under. They will not make the playoffs. No, they're not making the playoffs. Let's give Zuri the benefit of the doubt. Maybe he's saying, since Tom Brady's not in the division any longer, maybe that opens things up a little bit. That does. Obviously, well, you won last year in New England, but it obviously takes away just almost two guaranteed losses every year.

Yeah, I would, no. No playoffs next year for them. Maybe the year after. Well, now, this is just maybe more insight than people are looking for. But if you've listened this long into the show, I think you can handle 30 more seconds of behind the scenes. So we have a little rundown here. It's a Google document and Zuri is very helpful in including some stats and

research and help us write some scripts. Yeah. It's, it's very, very helpful document, but if you have it open while you're doing the show, you can actually see Zuri updated in real time. So I would like to read you a few of the things

Zuri thinks are critical to mention about the Miami Dolphins in real time. They signed Byron Jones. That was a big deal. You talked about him last week. All right, so they got some great cornerbacks. Now they're with the Dolphins. They did make the playoffs back in 2016, remember.

It has nothing to do with that. Okay, fine. They finished last season on a three and two stretch including knocking off the patriots and costing them their chance at a buy um look at these notes what if they get jamis winston that could that could change the calculus a little bit uh you know i also love that he put look look at these. Yes. One of his notes was, look at these notes. So still, after all those compelling arguments, Zuri jotted down in real time,

you're still not moved to think that the Dolphins and Brian Forrest. I'm sorry, Zuri. I am not. Okay. Fair enough. Well, I'll end on this because this will tie Zuri, me, everyone in together. Who does win the AFC East now that tom brady thankfully is finally gone the patriots oh my god what yes jeff screw you this show is meant to be a nice diversion from

reality for people and you ended on the most sour note possible yes the pats are winning the vision again we're gonna get andy dalton the red rocket is going to come in there and win 10-11 games with that defense. And the Jets are going to have to not be as good. I think the Bills will take a regression back. The Jets want to have a chance to win the division. How upset are you going to be if Sam Darnold wins the division? Because you do not like him. He's not going to win the division.

I'm confident he will. I would bet on the Patriots with quarterback TBD over the Jets with Darnold right now. Really, I would. The Jets have no line. You of all people should be saying the Jets have no linemen. They signed one guy. They have no linemen. They're not going to win the division next year.

Jeff, you made me smarter today. We went on some tangents that were a lot of fun. I enjoyed this hour of BS-ing about football and getting away from what we'll surely be reading and listening to all the rest of the day. I just want to say on one semi-serious note before you sign off, we are very lucky that we have someone like Jeff giving us really smart, thoughtful insight

into something as silly as football. Find your version of Jeff in the news so that you feel safe, so that the people around you understand the latest on what's going on it's important to get it from someone you trust who you know is doing their research Jeff is that for football find that person when it comes to all this scary news we have right now

that's my only ask of our listeners don't listen to just random guys who tweet about sports go find some real experts on this stuff and be safe. Yes. Also, wash your hands.

My hands have been washed so much that they're like red. We have a, we have a bottle of lotion next to the sink because my hands are red. My nurse wife has been on me from the beginning to wash her hands. Wash your hands, stay safe, everyone. And I hope this gave you a break from a little bit of reality and toxic football.

Hopefully Tom Brady just makes this last forever. We can talk about this next week as well. Have a great week. Stay safe. Stay inside. Keep your distance. Please rate, review the podcast at Jeff Schwartz as well on Twitter.

Let me know how you like the show. Take care, everyone. Talk to you guys next week.