Geoff Schwartz Is Smarter Than You - Deshaun Watson and Other QB Moves, Plus Remembering Urban Meyer

Episode Date: March 23, 2022

Geoff and Gabe are back to break down all the takes on Deshaun Watson's trade to the Browns, plus their thoughts on all the quarterbacks around the league who are on a new roster or still waiting to be dealt. Plus, was Urban Meyer really as bad as we remember? Geoff and Gabe take some time to process Coach Meyer's disastrous tenure with the Jaguars.On Moving the Line, Gabe brings back his "LA team to the Super Bowl" take, Geoff explains why Mahomes' $500 million contract is a bargain, and Mecole Hardman needs another pep talk.Make sure to rate the episode if you enjoy, and leave a comment with any questions for Geoff. As always, you can tweet @geoffschwartz with your own takes on anything discussed here, and follow for a new episode every week.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

it's wednesday march 23rd i'm jeff schwartz alongside gabe goodwin this is jeff schwartz is smart you powered by the varsity podcast network we're here to talk about quarterbacks all-time quarterback movement in the national football league deshaun watson matt ryan the quarterback not to be named possibly baker mayfield jimmy garoppolo they're all being moved in also one of our favorite topics our favorite humans in the national football league for a very short time urban meyer came out in an article about Urban Meyer. We'll talk about him and everything else to do with football. Gabe, how are you doing, buddy?

I'm doing fine. I thought I was going to enjoy a whole weekend of watching the tournament. And then instead, the NFL decided we got some stuff. Sorry, everybody. Sorry, St. Peter's. We got to talk about some other stuff. Time to talk about Deshaun. Does anyone know where Jersey City is yet?

Does anyone have any idea? Jersey City? People know where Jersey City is. People did not know St. Peter's is from Jersey City. I still don't think people know where Jersey City is. I was there for a couple of years. I still don't even know where Jersey City is. Bro, you played for the Giants.

I know where it is. Come on, you're ruining the joke. I know where Jersey City is. But nonetheless, yes for the Giants. I know where it is. Come on, you're ruining the joke. I know where Jersey City is. But nonetheless, yes, the Peacocks are in the Sweet 16. It's been some fun basketball so far. Feels like it's really up in the air, right? We've had a lot of upsets so far. But the favorites are still there

with Gonzaga and Arizona. But let's get back to football, Gabe. Where do you want to start? Well, I think we have to start with Deshaun Watson. And that's because the point of this show, since we conceived of it and what you've done best on this show, I think, Jeff, is sort of helping casual fans differentiate between the just the hot takes and crazy things that people tend to say, even even the people we like. But they get thrown out there without a lot of knowledge of how the game really works. And then you come in here and correct the record. And I see a lot of that sort of starting to happen with Deshaun Watson, right? So we heard the news

over the weekend. He was traded to the Browns and then signed for this record setting deal, $230 million guaranteed with this very, very Deshaun friendly year one of the contract, basically a million dollars for year one, which pretty much means even if he's suspended, he won't lose much money. All of it felt a lot of, a lot of icky emotions for a lot of fans, but then the take started flying Jeff. And I think we need to break them all apart and you need to tell us what's

really going on here, especially around that contract. Well, I think the takes have been actually pretty good. Yeah. We're going to show. Yes. Deshaun out he told the browns no and then according to the reports there was a good article i think today or yesterday on the athletic explaining this he liked the browns as far as you know the personnel and the meeting they had but you know cold weather it kind of didn't match what he wanted as far as lifestyle of where to live. He told them no, all right?

They kept talking, general manager Andrew Barry and his agent kept talking. And eventually they're like, we're going to give you this amount of money, which ended up being $230 million guaranteed, the highest contract guaranteed money, NFL history by $80 million. It's not even close. We're going to guarantee it all to you. And then he changed his mind, right? Money talks in the end.

The other suitors, I think Atlanta was number one. I think that felt very, I felt like he was going to Atlanta. New Orleans was probably number two, right? There was a hometown appeal of Atlanta. Carolina was pretty much out immediately, it felt like. And the Texans said no to the Colts, which makes sense because they're in the same division. So look, we'll talk about this kind of football and then maybe the rest of it. Football-wise, not maybe, we will talk about the rest of it.

Football-wise, it is an upgrade over Baker Mayfield. No doubt about it. And, you know, he did not play last season. And the last time he played in 2020, he wasn't as good as he was in 2019. But again, he played on a poor football team in the Texans. He's had a year off now. He's better than Baker Mayfield. Even a healthy Baker Mayfield is not Deshaun Watson.

And this puts the Browns in a spot to compete to win the AFC North, obviously, with Baltimore and with Cincinnati and whatever skeleton of Pittsburgh is a quarterback. And then, obviously, in the rest of the AFC, because the AFC now has Pat Mahomes, Justin Herbert, Russell Wilson, Derek Carr. That's only one division, right? The North has Burrow, Lamar Jackson, Deshaun Watson. Now we have Matt Ryan and Indy. We have Ryan Tannehill, of course, as well.

We have Josh Allen. We have Zach Wilson and Trevor Lawrence. Who knows what they will be in year two. There's a lot of quarterbacks in national football. Mac Jones went to the playoffs last year. They seem to all be in the AFC conference. So it makes the Browns competitive. And they have a very good roster.

Good offensive line. Good defense. Young superstars. They're going to probably get a wide receiver in the draft, I would imagine. Or maybe pick someone else up because they got rid of Jarvis Landry. But they brought in Amari Cooper. They have the pieces there. Football-wise, Gabe, upgrade.

But it's yucky. It's gross, right? Because here's the guy guys listen this is the important part okay so there was there's 22 civil lawsuits out against deshaun watson all right they tried to indict him they went in front of a grand jury the grand jury did not return indictments that doesn't make someone innocent or not guilty there's not enough evidence they determine to charge to john watson with a crime that's all it is okay and innocent before proven guilty is a term we use

in a in a court not playing for the browns or playing the nfl right or our jobs okay you don't that that reasonable doubt thing that we use for criminal proceedings is not in play here, right? That's not the standard with which a lot of us get jobs, keep jobs, get paid for jobs in any walk of life because that's not a courtroom, right? So the rest of the NFL can say, you know what? We have these 22 civil lawsuits. We're going to see how they play out. We're not going to give you $230 million guaranteed.

Right? They're allowed to do that. And a lot of people agree with the Browns should have done that. Said, okay, if we want to trade it for him, sure. We're not going to give you all this guaranteed money. And then on top of that, and again, I'm not saying that he's guilty, innocent, any of that, right? Or he's not.

I'm just telling you, this is the way you can operate right there's a court of law and there's also what the nfl is responsible for right and and the way we can look at these cases outside of a courtroom not only that but the browns gave him a contract that sets up very well for his suspension so when you are suspended if you miss games you don't get paid for those games. The Browns set up his contract, give him a big signing bonus, get paid right away, and then he gets a million dollar base salary. Most contracts, by the way, are structured

with minimal cap charges early in the contract, and then they grow throughout the deal. This felt very specific to make sure that if he gets suspended, which I think everyone believes he will be, that he gets the least amount of money taken from his paycheck over the suspension. And the Browns claim they vetted Deshaun Watson. They talked to him for 30 minutes. That's what the reporting has said.

Did not talk to the accuser's attorneys. Talked to his attorneys, which I get. Look, you're doing some background on his side. I don't know. It doesn't feel that thorough, right, Gabe? And again, it's not a courtroom, right? The Browns don't have to, I don't even know how to phrase this here. There's no like, innocent until proven guilty is not a thing

the Browns have to do. It's not the standard they have to meet to sign someone, right? It's not a courtroom. So people keep saying that. He basically, he didn't play football for a year, got paid whatever he got paid in Houston, and then still is in the same spot he was 14 months ago and got $230 million guaranteed.

He can play football. He can play football. He can play football. But the NFL continually makes it a point to be the crime and punishment league, right? To punish players for off-the-field issues that they've run into, to support women at least on their face. They have the breast cancer awareness, all that. But, like, I don't know, man. It just really it really gave,

what got me was a contract structure. Right. It just, it was admitting like, yeah, he's going to be suspended for this. We know it, but we're going to sign him anyways. And we're not going to basically make him pay financially for it. That part got me.

If they would have just signed, if they would have traded for him and been like, yeah, we're going to play this out or give him a $230 million deal, but it's actually only going to be guaranteed for two years, right? Guaranteed the first two years. Okay, fine. But it is like deliberately done because they know he's going to be suspended for this. Yeah, that part of it did feel worse. And

I think we can all agree that the only reason Cleveland is in play for Deshaun Watson is because they were willing to structure it that way, is because that worked for their teams or their morality. I don't know what factors were at play. That worked for them, which is why one of the teams we thought we could rule out suddenly became back in play. In other words, and I'm more or less paraphrasing our buddy Andrew Hawkins here, you can't separate the non-football from the football in that sense. He's only available to you as a franchise quarterback because you're

willing to compromise on that point. So I guess I have a couple of questions that are more football focused than the other stuff we might get to. I thought that being away from the game for over a season, let's say he's suspended for the first several games of this year. I was led to believe in other recent controversial topics in the NFL that being away for that long meant you might lose a step or you might not be good anymore or it was bad for your ability to perform. Why is everyone so positive this guy steps back onto a field after missing a season and a half or more and is just good again? Well, he's very talented.

I mean, that's part of it, right? He's got a lot of physical gifts, dude. And he's played a lot of good football over the years. There's no question that he can figure his way back into their offense and be good within a couple weeks after he hits the field. Yeah. And, by the way, he's in a very quarterback-friendly offense, right? This is that Shanahan offense that is able to get a lot of –

we've seen now the back-to-back MVP winners. We've seen Jimmy Garoppolo, Baker Mayfield, Jared Goff all play really well in this offense. Matt Ryan, his MVP season was in this offense. And it's a very quarterback-friendly offense. Even if it takes him – I mean, the Browns are telling you he's being suspended for 8 to 10, 12 games, right?

I mean, like, I think the Browns are telling you he's being suspended for 8 to 10, 12 games, right? I mean, like, I don't know. Unless, look, if the civil lawsuits go away between now and then, for whatever reason, they settle, they get dropped, whatever it is, okay, maybe there's no punishment. But he's going to be punished, I believe, by the NFL, who's conducting their own investigation, I think. This year, you know, again, they signed Jacoby Brissett to be the backup. I'd imagine that's

again to play right that's the and and then i would expect 2023 is the year and look the browns look here's the thing gabe the browns are hoping everyone forgets about this right he gets suspended comes back yeah they're i've seen browns fans they're done with the browns they're moving on it's absolutely gonna happen and then, man, it's been suspended. Cases are dropped. They're over, been settled. And everyone just moves on. I just think they just expect in a couple years that this is not a story anymore.

We'll just get through this year. And on the backside of that, we have a much better quarterback situation. Yeah, but it's a long wait. And they gave up three first rounders for him. On the backside of that, we have a much better quarterback situation. Yeah, but it's a long wait. And they gave up three first rounders for him. And obviously are letting a recent one overall walk in Baker. So, I don't know. I mean, there's so much to discuss on the non-football part of this story that I feel like most people have been reluctant to talk about.

Anytime you give up three first round picks and give up the biggest guaranteed money contract in the position's history, and you don't get to play the guy, and he hasn't played in over a year, like there is some football to unpack there. I just haven't heard anyone doing it yet. No, well, because rightfully so, the allegations are extensive right and yeah part of the discussion um again there's that distinction as i mentioned between like what the court of law and kind of the court of i don't want to say public opinion because that's not that shouldn't drive the browns decision they should come to that their own way um but uh but yeah think, again, 2019, he was really good, right? That was the year they blew that lead in Kansas City

in the wildcard game or in the divisional round. 2020 wasn't as good, but the Texans were a dumpster fire. Obviously, he sat out last year. His best is much better than Megan Mayfield's best. And you're right, Gabe. It might take some time to get up to speed. But we've seen quarterbacks miss a year for injury, and they're fine afterwards.

He wasn't injured. He was still working out. He was training. He was getting ready to play. So I think he will hit the ground running. I think he'll be fine eventually. Maybe not this year again because he will be suspended at some point. I'm curious how the NFL does this because the NFL nfl you know i'm curious what they do for suspension because if there's no criminal

proceedings going forward how do they determine that there was enough to suspend him it's i don't know that's complicated and they've really boxed themselves in because and this will be one of those takes that i mentioned earlier like all i keep seeing is people pointing out that the big suspension news the off season was calvin ridley and people are already getting upset about whatever the length of a suspension for deshaun watson is when you compare it to calvin ridley's it's going to feel even weirder the guy's going to miss a full season for allegedly gambling $1,500 when he wasn't even with the team on a ludicrous set of bets. And so people are like, that's a full season,

but fill in the blank is all Deshaun Watson gets. We already know that take is coming. It's coming. Do you think that's reasonable? I mean, it's coming. It's, you know, there's the Colin Kaepernick take, too, which I agree with, right? I mean, the guy was blackballed for taking a knee. He could have obviously been, I've argued this many times.

Was he a starting quarterback? Yeah. Was he an excellent one at the time? No, but we've seen quarterbacks continue to play for years that weren't any good. And then Deshaun Watson gets to play it. You know, what's the saying, right? Your talent outweighs your problems, so your problems outweigh your talent, right? And that's the way the NFL has looked at a lot of these.

I think I mentioned this last week or I don't know, but it's somewhere else. But look, however disgusting this is what I'm about to say, the NFL views gambling on their sport as a bigger integrity issue than what Deshaun Watson is accused of doing. Right? I don't know how else to argue it. Yeah. What other argument is there?

Because you're exactly right. I mean, they gave Ray Rice a two-game suspension, and they had seen the video. Yep. And I can also argue the NFL. I mean, I've made this argument before, that the NFL, the punishment should be up to the teams, not the league, in my opinion.

Like the league, is it their job to suspend players for off the field quote-unquote issues? I don't know. I feel like that's the team's job to do. They're employees of the team. I don't know. No other like that's the team's job to do. They're employees of the team. I don't know. No other profession is like this, right? If you did something, I mean, you're your own boss,

but if you were working at a big company, they would probably not even know about it unless you got arrested. But it's just the NFL punishments, I've kind of just been against the way they handle it. But you're right. If Ridley gets a year and Deshaun Watson gets eight games, they're telling you how they feel. And it's not right. But they've set the precedent now for giving players a year for gambling and only six games for domestic violence. Yeah. Let me ask you a difficult question. And I would be

totally understanding if you said, I don't know, man, I can't guess on that. But here's something I've been thinking about, because obviously I we have colleagues and friends who've had really strong reactions to this news. They're upset. And I fully get it. And, you know, it's pretty gross stuff he's accused of doing with his real pattern here. doing with there's a real pattern here this isn't one or two people 20 plus people accusing him of stuff that you know i guess isn't criminal or hard to prove as criminal but sure is creepy that said i my sense being around some nfl players in my life and just watching sort of the way that NFL teams ultimately embrace guys who can help them win. Do you think that guys on the Browns will have any trouble playing with this guy, being friends with this guy, working with this guy, like the stuff that's bothering so many

people in the media? Will it bother any player on the Browns? Try it again. Yeah, it will bother players in the Browns. The question or not is whether they, how it affects the relationship on the field, right? Because, you know, we're not friends with everyone in the locker room.

Like, you could be, you could just go to work with Deshaun Watson. Just like there's people you go to work with that I'm sure you don't like. I mean, we have to work with Hank.

Yeah, that's true. And you have to deal with working with Hank. And look, I think there's going to be players, think there's going to be players, and there's going to be players, by the way, that are like, hell yeah, you didn't do anything wrong. You know, yeah, come, you know,

and embrace Deshaun Watson. It's going to be both ends of the spectrum. God, if I was in this spot, man, I don't know. Jeez. I mean, look, I have a job to do, right? I have to go play. I have to play well for me, for my family, for my team, for my contract. I have to hope Deshaun Watson plays well also.

Yeah. I mean, I don't know. I wouldn't be friends with him. I wouldn't invite him over to the house. Luckily, I never had to deal with it. I mean, it was a player, Josh Brown, with the Giants, who I didn't know was happening at the time. It wasn't public until after I left.

But I kind of feel like gross that I had gone out with him and his wife on dates and stuff, and we got a Rangers game together with a big group date. And it's like, looking back on that, it's like, oh, geez. I wouldn't have done that, obviously, if I had known. Yeah, I don't – yeah, I mean, players are not going to like it again. Some will, some will be like,

Hey man, great. You know, great. Then you beat, you beat the system and you're off and they're all making it up. And then the guys like me though, just like,

I got a job to do. I'm gonna do my job. Hope he does his job. Probably not going to be great friends. We work colleagues just to get through the day and, and do our job. And that's about it. I've never been, see, I've never had that with a quarterback i'm trying to think like quarterbacks i've been with i know that's like you just like rare like you for quarterback and offensive line

i mean you have to have a relationship it's hard to not do that and there was a a clip floating around this week of the Michigan defensive end who hurt his Achilles at pro day. I don't know if you saw it floating around. It's going to come up later in the show, but go ahead. And, you know, there was like a callousness, right? Like he got hurt and everyone was just like, whatever, and move on to the next drill.

That's the way injuries are treated in the NFL. Like guys get hurt, just move it along. Because everyone gets hurt. And you get so desensitized to it. And the NFL has a lot of great, a lot of great humans. But there's a couple bad apples. It's a couple, guys.

It's not a lot. We overestimate how many there are. But I think, like, you compartmentalize the injury thing. You just kind of, you know, compartmentalize, I can't even say that word thing. You just kind of, you know, compartmentalize. I can't even say that word right.

You know, like, yeah, he might be a terrible human. But again, we're all on a job to do. You know, I've never had that come with a quarterback. Again, I've never had that happen with a teammate. I've had teammates I don't like before. But that didn't mean to do anything illegal. Yeah. Well, okay. So there's two

examples. I, they're not fair to anyone. I'm not comparing that the accusations or the crimes or the let's get out of that. I'm not moralizing here. Two comparisons. I can think of, of very good players accused of some pretty awful stuff who come back and lead teams, Ben Roethlisberger and Michael Vick. It stands to reason that there were people in the locker room who did not want to play with those guys, at least initially. Yeah. They were uncomfortable.

But both of them, as I recall, eventually won people over and had success again in the league. Yeah. Mike Vick went to prison though. Yeah. league yeah um mike vick went to prison though like yeah i like i could i could understand coming back to the locker room and i'd be like yeah you served your time man serve your time like that you you got caught you went to prison you serve as far as we're we're good right like you're clean you've done your time you know the ben thing again i think there's a large majority of players

that'll say that the girls are making it up which is gross and disgusting and ugly and and and i hate to say that but i'm sure they're players i mean we see the internet right come on like we see how people talk about this and they're gonna say that you know that ben was innocent or ben not guilty whatever term you want to use it just didn't happen happen. And same way with Deshaun Watson. They're all making it up. But yeah, you're right. Ben came back. Vic came back.

I don't know how the locker room was like when they first came back, but I would imagine that that's the attitude a lot of players, or they just compartmentalized and said, hey, I'm just going to ignore this part of him while I'm at work. And we're just going to work. Well, that's helpful insight into how a player would react. Let's talk for one more beat here about fans because you're a fan. I'm a fan.

I'm going to throw an idea at you and I'm half joking here, but not really. I think it's time for our society, for people to start to normalize sports divorce. And what I mean by that is like, it's, you don't owe this team anything any longer when they stop making you happy as a fan, you get to just walk away. All right.

Like we, that's it. If, if you think if you're a Browns fan and you think this is unconscionable and you're upset and angry, you have that right. Just pick another team. It doesn't matter if your grandfather was a fan of this team. You don't have to be doing this. And I can tell you this from personal experience as a former Jets fan, not, I didn't bail on them because of something like what's going on in cleveland i bailed on them

because they just suck it was never fun to watch them they ruined every sunday of mine for like a decade so i'm just not a fan anymore and i feel better for it like don't you think that we should just get that through our heads now in society you don't you aren't committed to these people for life it's not till death do you part I've seen plenty of Browns fans do that. They're longtime Browns fans. Some of them are like, this is like I've been wanting to get out, and this is the opportunity. So, yeah, I mean, it does feel like, you know, maybe it's more –

it would be more normalized moving forward to do that. But, you know, people have spent their entire lives rooting for teams. It's hard just to give it up. And I would imagine there's going to be Browns fans that will no longer support the team. I've seen that. I've read articles about that.

I've heard people talk about that. But for everyone who is, you know, dropping their season tickets, someone's ready to take the tickets for them, right? Maybe, which is why the team doesn't have to worry about this. But I'll tell you what, though. If this doesn't work for the Browns, it sets them back a long time, man. It does. Especially if, again, the criminal proceedings are over.

It's hard to say he's going to be charged with a crime now. I don't think you can try to indict him a second time. But if details come out via the civil cases, they go to trial, I don't know what else would come out. You took that risk, and they know the risk they took, but it's going to look even worse if they can't if they if if if it gets if more information comes i mean it's already bad now if it's if more comes out and he doesn't win yeah well we don't know when he's gonna win and also by the way uh the browns everyone has complimented you especially that the way that they've built

their roster in the last couple years yeah. Yeah, it's a roster. But these windows are tight. You know, like you only get a couple of years with all those pieces lining up. If they don't have Deshaun Watson helping them to the playoffs this season, let's say he misses too much of the year to help make a run this year. Then it's next year. But you also lost a bunch of first round picks. You're going to deal with some injuries and some other free agency issues and just life.

Stuff gets in the way. What's to say that 2024, the Browns are still going to be in any kind of position to win even with Deshaun Watson at his absolute apex? Even if he's the best version of himself, how do we know the Browns are still going to be any good? I mean, no, there's never a guarantee, but Deshaun Watson gives him a very chance to make a main field does, which is the most important part about this. All right.

Well, let's use Baker, who we barely talked about, as a segue. He's going to come up in a minute. Let me just give you the news. The quarterback who we will not name on this show is being replaced by Matt Ryan on the team that I hate talking about in Indianapolis. These guys go from an irrelevant 9-10, maybe 11-win team to an irrelevant 9-10, 11-win team with Matt Ryan instead of the other guy. Or do you see it differently? Because you were hot on the Colts at one point. I can't get into them. Yeah, I think Matt Ryan obviously went to Atlanta because Atlanta was trying to get Deshaun Watson, and Matt Ryan was like, yeah, I don't want to be here anymore,

which is fine. And I think they realized it was time to have a breakup, and now he's with the Colts. And the Colts at some point have to get a young quarterback, but they keep going. You have Phillip Rivers, and then we try to get Carson Wentz, and now they're back to Matt Ryan. I think Matt Ryan can still play.

This reminds me of what Phillip Rivers is for them, right? Like you're getting 10-11 wins. You know, you win the division. Maybe, maybe not. Go to playoffs. But think about, again, you're going to get a combination of six of these quarterbacks in the playoffs, right? six of these quarterbacks in the playoffs, right?

Mahomes, Wilson, Herbert, Carr, Allen, Jackson, Burrow. You're getting six of those seven in, and then you're getting Matt Ryan in, okay? Right? So seven of those eight are getting in probably this year. All right. Maybe Matt Jones, nine. Seven of those nine are getting in, okay? Matt Ryan's like the eighth best of those seven or eight or nine.

So you're not winning anything more than that. The Colts still have to find themselves a long-term solution at quarterback. I'm happy for Matt Ryan. I like Matt Ryan. He did a lot for Atlanta. I think he's an upgrade over Carson Wentz. He's steady, reliable. He can throw the ball deep. Again, he's not going to lose you the Jacksonville game.

You're not going to lose that game with Matt Ryan at quarterback. But it's like Phillip Rivers. You're going to get 10, 11 wins. You win a playoff game or two. I mean, they could have beaten the Bills in that playoff game. That's about it. You're not going to Kansas City and beating the Chiefs. You're not beating Buffalo and Buffalo in the playoffs.

But it gives them hope, right? Because hope is all the NFL, the minimum. That's what the NFL offers a lot of fan bases, is hope. It gives the Colts hope. Get in the playoffs, right? You just got to get in and anything can happen. But again, the Colts have got to find themselves a long-term solution for that position.

Yeah, okay. Well, then thus ends the Colts part of this conversation because we know I don't like it. The dominoes are the interesting part, right? So Matt Ryan was presumed to be on the move. People thought maybe San Francisco, uh, because of the Shanahan connection, like there were other possibilities. Now Atlanta has a vacancy. So you have to wonder, is Jimmy G going to Atlanta? Is Baker, there he is. Is Baker going to Atlanta? By the time people hear this, we might have even more clarity on some of this.

So talk me through some of the dominoes, teams that still need quarterbacks, quarterbacks that still need homes. Where do you think this shakes out? So the Falcons signed Marcus Mariota. They gave him a deal that feels like it's a starting quarterback deal. Okay. I don't mind that, by the way. So you mentioned two guys. So the Niners kind of just lost out on the quarterback shuffle.

Yeah. Jimmy Garoppolo was thought to be a Falcon possibly, right? A Saint. Tampa Bay possibly if Brady didn't come back. The Colts when they tried the quarterback not to be named. Who just had a burgundy jacket like ready to go. And they just kind of like got left behind. And I think Jimmy Garoppolo stays in San Francisco and plays for them this season.

I thought the Niners were in play for Matt Ryan too, which Niner fans did not like. But I thought Koshy and I would take him in a heartbeat. As far as Baker, he kind of stuck, man. Like, I understand that he's a first-round pick, first pick overall, and there is some talent there when he's healthy. But right now, who is he an upgrade over in the long term?

So you have this crop of quarterbacks on the rookie contracts, right? And you have these veteran quarterbacks on the second deal. Right now in the NFL, who are you? Now, I think he's an upgrade over Wentz possibly, but Washington's not trading Baker Mayfield for Carson Wentz now. I'll give you two Baker homes that you can evaluate. Okay. Seattle. You like that one? Yeah. They don't have a quarterback right now. I'll give you two Baker homes that you can evaluate. Okay. Seattle.

You like that one? Yeah. They don't have a quarterback right now. But if you're Seattle, why? Would you just want to suck for a year and get yourself C.J. Stroud next year? Maybe. Well, I don't want C.J. Stroud. But I could take Baker. Is there a possibility

to sign... Or Bryce Young. Bryce Young would probably be the first. Sure. So let's go ahead and give Baker a one-year deal. And if we win 12 games. I think he's getting like $18 million this year. He has to restructure. Well, I mean, then he may just be shit out of luck.

I mean, honestly, it might just be the musical chairs. The music stopped and he doesn't have one. But the Browns have to get rid of him. They cannot carry his salary this year, and they're not going to cut him. So he's got to go somewhere, and that's the question. It's like, where is that somewhere? Seattle feels like it probably, that

is one of those somewheres. But if you're Seattle and you know that the Browns are completely stuck, and you give them a bunch of nothing, I mean, what did they give for matt ryan a third rounder or something take whatever the take whatever someone gives him for baker right get the salary off your team your books now he's a seattle's problem but they get a year to try him out and see if he can match yeah if he is good because he could be good we don't know that

he isn't good if he's good you re-sign him if he isn't good. If he's good, you re-sign him. If he isn't, he goes the way of Marcus Mariota, and he's a first-rounder who just kind of wanders the earth. Who's the other team you had? Carolina, right in your backyard. Yeah, they just don't want him, though. They've kind of made that clear. All right.

I've heard a rumor. I've heard a rumor from someone we both like. Good theory here. Can't try to explain it to you, but I know he's thinking it. What about the Giants? Busy up that quarterback room. Again, you have to get him to restructure his deal. But I think the issue with the Giants is that you gotta let daniel jones play one

year and see how he is right like he has to be your starter this year and if you bring in baker there's always gonna be uh you know basically can we play you know should we go play baker right like you have to give daniel jones this one year with brian dable to see what he's got so do you think baker ends up in i'm going to put two guys in a category here that is he like the Jameis, Teddy Bridgewater kind of guy for this year of like, everyone knows he's better than a bench guy. He's not good enough to be a top tier quarterback, but in the right situation, he probably can win you a few games.

So maybe, maybe you just wait it out and maybe he ends up actually baker land somewhere after some injury and ends up having a pretty nice year on a good team if he's lucky yeah i think i mean i think ideally for him that's what would happen right like someone would someone would get hurt and he would just call the browns and he would end up you know he'd go somewhere and start this year That's what I feel like would be the best situation for him. I don't know if the Browns are willing to wait that long until someone gets hurt and get ready to, you know, to go somewhere else. But it does feel like the best kind of situation for him, right?

Kind of like, you know, when Sam Bradford got traded to the Vikings, right? Like, I know you weren't starting on the Eagles, but, you know but you get traded to the Vikings, boom, you're starting right away. I just don't know where that's going to be. And then again, I mean, look, he's – I don't think teams are off of him because his attitude. I mean, I think there's a little bit of that where it's like, do you want to deal with this guy as far as his sensitivity, right? I mean, Matt Ryan didn't put out a notes app letter

when they were going after Deshaun Watson, Baker Mayfield. And Baker Mayfield was told, and they might go after him by his agent, or they told his agent. So I think he was good enough to tell him what to trade from. I just don't think people think he's that good right now. Yeah. Well, I have to ask this

because I can't go this whole show without getting angry about Tom Brady. No one is fully convinced they know what that guy's going to do in the short term or the long term. Is there any scenario you can imagine where Tom Brady actually is the starting quarterback of some team not named Tampa after a few more of these moves happen. Is there any possibility Tom Brady still ends up in San Fran or? Oh, no, no, no, no. You don't think so? No, there's no chance Tampa becomes a job. No, no, no. He got no.

He brought all those guys back with him. Leonard Fournette signed today. No, no. Yeah, he's never misled anyone or lied. He's never done something that was good for him and bad for other people so that there's no way he's not going anywhere that would have happened already okay um all right let's let's uh move off a very serious topic and a semi-serious topic to totally idiotic funny topic um funny for us least. I assume you read this athletic article about Coach Urban Meyer

in Jacksonville? What a treat. What a treat. It confirmed everything we thought of Urban Meyer. Yeah, so the summary version is Urban Meyer is even more of a jerk than you thought when you thought he was a big jerk.

But now there's hilarious quotes attributed to coach coming out including one uh who's this 99 guy on the rams i'm hearing he might be a problem for us that's uh that's coach speaking of aaron donald the best player on earth um lots of stuff in this article that makes urban meyer seem like it was an even crazier decision to bring him to the nfl and let him stay in in Jacksonville as long as he did. Any other learns from this other than just holy crap? Hilarity.

The learn to me is this was the biggest or the easiest way to tell the difference between a college coach and NFL coach, right? Because a college coach, you're a CEO of a program, right? You're an overseer of the program. You're not doing scouting reports. I mean, I take that back. You can be a hands-on coach, right? Or you're the CEO of the program, right? Urban very clearly, at the end of his time at Ohio State,

was the CEO of the program. He's not doing scouting reports. He's not doing things that require the NFL. The NFL, most NFL coaches are freaking coaching, man. They're coaching, they're scouting, they're evaluating. They're not recruiting. They're not trying to sell themselves to people. They're just trying to win the game each week.

And Urban, I think, thought this would be college. I just show up. I'm the CEO. They're like, dude, you got to do some, you got to work a little bit. Like, you're the coach. And I just, I think he thought because he was a good college coach. He's a Hall of Fame college coach, man. We might not like the guy.

Let's call him the Hall of Fame. I think he thought it was just going to be easy. That this is i was good in college i'm good i can coach i know how to do it but it's different you need a different other coach different different way of coaching different responsibilities different you're dealing with different people different with adults who don't who don't need to be treated like they're 18 years old, that have families, that are grown men, that want some respect from their leader, from their coach. Urban thought that these guys were 18-year-olds who he could boss around and be gruff with and make rude comments.

No, not happening in the NFL locker room. It just seemed like even more of a disaster. I think it – yeah, there were, I mean, they got like a chart to like speak on the record. They got players to speak on the record about this. I believe all of what was in the article, man. Let me ask you this. If another coach, it's open season on Urban Meyer.

Let's just call it what it is. And he brought this on himself. So now guys feel very comfortable crapping all over him because they're sure he's not coming back to the NFL. They all feel safe being on the record, telling these stories. Nobody cares about him. Remember, he's always been this way.

And for the longest, nobody wanted to tell these kinds of stories. And still people in the college game still haven't told some of these types of stories about his time at, you know, Ohio state and Florida. So do you think that other NFL coaches, if they were fired in an embarrassing way and flamed out the way that he has, would we hear all these types of stories come out about other guys or is he truly one of a kind? Have you ever heard this type of crap before? I mean, remember when Doug Peterson was let go of Philly,

there was articles about him, but it was not really about like personal attack. This felt very personal, right? Like I'm out to smear Urban Meyer. Yeah. We don't see that, I think, very often with NFL coaches. There's obviously like, you know, behind the scenes of like, okay, this coach did this bad and that.

But this is like a very personal article. But I'm asking, do you think that this behavior is truly one of a kind or are there like – are there other coaches who are walking around making like snotty comments to their players and being mean to people and kicking people? There certainly are coaches doing that. But normally it's not the head coach who's doing it. And normally, not normally, but, you know, typically you can't get a little respect from the players first before you start talking like that. Phillip Urban came in there and just immediately started talking

like he was the best NFL coach ever, which NFL players, you know, look at everything, right? Show us. Show us a little. Show, you can do it. Just, just show me respect between, you know, between us again. We're also adults, man. Like I'm 30 with a kid. You can't talk to me like that.

Yep. I've only had one interaction with the guy. And, uh, my walk away was, you can't talk to me that way. So he talked to me that way. Oh, really? He talked to you that way? Yeah, I won't get into it here. I'll tell you later. I know, but I'm saying, wow, okay.

Yeah, I know. Zero part of this surprised me because I was like, what the hell? Like, that's how that guy wants to talk to me? That's weird. Let me bring up, though, he tried some crazy stuff. He had one interesting idea that I want to see if maybe we could institute here. As we know, he gave Tim Tebow a tryout. He brought him in there to try to turn him into a tight end.

Apparently, he had weekly Tebow Tuesdays, and every player was asked to wear an 85 jersey in honor of Tim Tebow. Hank is baiting you. Yeah, it's all true. It's all true. This is a PFT tweet. PFT tweeted out. It was incredible.

PFT said that he did Tebow Tuesday, and then he said in the thing, the last straw was Urban tried to acquire players to sign mandatory competitive chastity pledges where the players swore to abstain from all sexual activity between December and May to avoid possible missed games due to the impending birth of a child? Yep. PFT is funny, man.

He is very witty. I'm not nearly as witty. Good for him. Well, he fooled a lot of people with that one. All right, let's take a quick break. We'll come back. We'll move the line and uh we'll do a few more things to talk about around the league jeff we're back time to move the line a little over under game we like to play to hit a few more headlines i'm going to phrase these in the form of an over under bet

but just talk about the names i say uh my rams added alan robinson my chargers added khalil mac and jc jackson over under 75 chance an la team is making the super bowl again so now you're now you're a rams fan all of a sudden yeah i live in la we covered this i divorced the jets i'm out there dating right now. I'm going out with anyone who wants to swipe right. I will say, though, that you have gone less hard into embracing Los Angeles sports teams as your boy Colin has, who just tweeted today, by the way. Lincoln Raleigh's first practice today, goosebumps.

He knows I'm on speed dial if he needs me. I mean, that is hard. That's harder than you go for the Chargers and Rams. Colin has been going hard for SC football for a lot longer than I have been going hard for the Chargers. I wish. I'm sure his Washington Husky fandom is wearing off. I just laugh every time I see that.

So it's fun. Because I hope Oregon and USC will have a little banter with me and Colin one day. Rams probably aren't making the Super Bowl next year, even though the NFC, I mean, geez. Stafford's like the third best quarterback in the NFC. Maybe second best. And Chargers, I got to see the Chargers not be the Chargers for a little bit. Like, they're still the Chargers, Gabe. Like, come on, I got to see a little bit different.

They'll both make the playoffs. Super Bowl, I would say no. It seems to me the Chargers have done a very good job in offseason moves. Get a right tackle in the draft, set. Yeah, they got a hell of a pick last year at the left side. If they go right side, they've improved their defense considerably in those two big names I mentioned. The Allen Robinson thing, does that matter?

He was great a few years ago, and then he just didn't seem to want to be in Chicago. Could he make a big difference for the Rams? Heck yeah, he can. He's a really good player. It's a great signing for them. They should be the favorite. I don't quite understand why people are out on the Rams.

There's a quarterback and a team in the south of Florida that I think they have something to say about that. They beat him. I know. No, the Rams. Look, Whitworth is gone, obviously. Bloom was there to play left tackle. He played well last year.

We'll see how he does. I just think it's really hard to repeat, man. I mean, no one's repeated since what? The 03-04 Patriots? Hard to do. Yeah, it's not easy to do. All right, listen. Last offseason, Patrick Mahomes' $500 million deal seemed insanely high.

And then now, with some of the deals that we've seen come along, including Matt Stafford and obviously the Deshaun deal, which has other wrinkles to it, suddenly Patrick Mahomes is not actually feeling as overpaid as he felt a year or two ago. So I'm curious, like how many seasons before we're describing Patrick Mahomes as a bargain or underpaid? I'll say over under three and a half seasons. Oh, it's coming up because, you know, Burrow's going to get more than him, right? Lamar Jackson will get more than him. Herbert will get more than him.

Yeah, it's going to happen like soon, like in a year. Not a year, so you're going under three and a half. Well, Herbert and Burrow are going to get paid next offseason after the third years. Lamar's going to get paid soon, I would imagine. And they're all going to make more than – Rodgers made more already. Watson has more already.

Those three are going to have more. It's going to happen. Kyler Murray's going to get paid, I would imagine, at some point. Yeah. Damn. Well, I mean, then I guess good on Pat for getting that much money. And then, yeah, it might not feel like as much when all those guys, none of those guys were as good as him.

So we'll have to see. No, but that's good for them. They can get it. Yeah. All right. The Bengals, you mentioned Burrow. The thing he needed was some line help. So they got Lyle Collins and improved their line so far this offseason.

Yeah. So over under 40 and a half sacks next season for Joe Burrow. I would say under. You got Lyle, and you got Ted Karras, and Alex Kappa. Lyle's a big deal. Lyle was cut by the Cowboys, and then what I'm most excited about Lyle being there is he's a protector, man. Like, he will go after other defensive players who touch Burrow.

Like, he's a good offensive lineman to have on your team. And I think that this is a home run signing for the Bengals. The Bengals, though, look, I know there's some excitement about them. But they have a first-place schedule now, which they did not have last year. They have a very easy pass defense schedule. They're going to be good, but I just think we've got to hold off on the repeat back to Super Bowl thing with the Bengals. But their offensive line is much improved under 40.5 sacks.

Under 40.5 because they were at 51 last year, and then it was like every other play in the postseason. Yeah, it was a lot, obviously, in the Super Bowl. I think they'll be under that. Yeah, their offensive line, they did a good job addressing their issues um this offseason really good job yeah um okay so you mentioned this guy earlier i'm sorry in advance for mispronouncing this young man's name david ojabo um uh was injured at his pro day at michigan it was it was really ugly uh and what was uglier was just the total lack of empathy. No

scout, no coach, no adult standing around evaluating this guy's skill seemed to even flinch when he went down in a heap of pain. And it felt really gross. And a lot of people on Twitter instantly shared a similar sentiment. Jeff, you know, I kind of obviously had the same reaction, but then I start to think, wait, I have access to this guy who can make me a little smarter. Maybe there's an explanation here. Maybe there's a protocol. Maybe there's a reason all these guys didn't jump up and try to help. Yeah, because it's not their job.

It's the trainer's job to go over to see him. Okay, so I'm not saying you're going to be cool. And there are pictures of them going over after the trainers start doing their job. Okay, so do you think it wasn't quite as bad as our first reaction to one short video? Look, definitely it felt callous, right? Like no one rushed over to him. And I mentioned earlier, like injuries are part of the sport. You get desensitized to injuries.

No one knew. It could have been an ankle, a toe, a blown Achilles, which it was, a foot, a knee. These scouts are not good enough. That's not their job. It's not even good. That's not their job to diagnose what his injury is. It's the trainer's job. And again, there are pictures later of everyone crowding around him once the trainers get out there.

And would I have loved to see scouts run over and say, hey, hey, hey. Yes, of course I would would do they care about him of course they don't want him to get hurt but in the NFL we say move the drill guy gets hurt they just turn the field around go the other direction

leave him on the ground this is what the sport is you might not like it I don't like it I wish it was more you know more personal but that's and again they don't go they didn't go out there because that's not their job that's the trainer's job you know athletic trainer's job what is the scout gonna do out there hey oh athletic trainer

he's hurt come over here like you know they're not gonna do anything in that moment yeah i i can't i can't argue with anything you just said, and I think it's silly to react too harshly to anything you see on Twitter, but it did come at a weird time, right? I think people were consuming that clip at a similar time that they were consuming this Deshaun Watson news, and it just feels like the fans and many of the players are not really thought of uh as humans and for better and for worse totally see that yeah it just left people with an icky feeling um here's a human who has responded uh directly to you before so the chiefs signed juju smith schuster to be their whatever second third fourth receiving option, who knows. And then your boy, Nicole Hardman, was left off a graphic about all the weapons that Pat Mahomes has now and sort of tweeted it, quote tweeted it.

It's okay, I understand. Sort of a joke about being left off. So I guess, do you need to tweet about him to get him like a little bit of a pep talk? I am. Remember I'm his motivational, his motivational speaker, right? He ended up needing to post about me,

um, a comment I made about, about, about, I need to call him up, man. And when you get back and we need to get our sessions going again. Um,

yeah, I mean, look, whatever. He's not going to get respect till he leaves the chiefs. Put it like that. Well, I would think on another team where Terry Kale is not an option,

most teams would be thrilled to have a guy like Nicole Hardman. Yeah. I would think. Maybe it is time for him to go. And when he's not, and again, when he leaves the Chiefs, then he will find out about whether or not teams respect him by the contract he gets. Yeah.

Okay. Well, so over under one hour until you give him a shout and try to hype him up. We need to have a therapy session. We're going to do a Zoom. That's what everyone does now. We're going to get on Zoom and we're going to talk it out. Give him a pump-up speech and he'll be ready to play this season. Otherwise, I just don't know if he can play this year.

You're laying on the sarcasm. Pretty thick. Jeff, uh, I want to ask you about you. Now, uh, you shared a picture on Twitter of your golf pants being split in the butt.

Yeah. I want to know over under 12 and a half holes before the tear happened and over under five and a half holes, you walked with a torn ass so it wasn't on the golf course i was filming uh this this show i'm excited i'll tell you guys about it sure i can't say anything about it yet um i was filming this show i was wearing these golf shorts and i sat down about like into like hour seven of being on my feet for that day and there was a little tear like a little bit of a crotch tear.

And I was like, oh boy, this is not good. And these are, they fit fine. It was like I was fat. I don't know why they tore. And then I got back to the hotel room. I kind of like was tired, like plopped down the couch, like boom. It just went like the whole thing just ripped. Top of the ass all the way underneath split in half um

you know i gotta buy some more i might go online right now and find some um and uh that was it man uh that's the end of my shorts i was not playing golf though okay well how far would you walk on a course with shorts torn in half if uh if you were faced with a situation like that the rest of the the time you just play with your ass hanging out of your pants yeah why not i have one tight i'm wearing stuff underneath okay i don't know no i mean i probably would it just depends how i was playing if i wasn't't playing well, I think I'm done. I think I'd just pack it in right there. Oh, no. No, I would have just kept – I mean, it depends.

Yeah, I guess it depends on what you're playing. But no, I was – oh, here they are right here. I found some pants in my size. I'm going to go buy me some more golf shorts. Yeah, no, I have no shame, man. I don't care. Don't bother me. You shared a picture also recently of the golf course you were playing at. Yeah.

It looked pretty barren. Not a lot of trees. No, it's wide open. It's a public course. I call it my home course. It's the one I play the most. It's cheap, big old fairways. Yeah, it has the Bermuda that hasn't kind of bloomed yet.

The Bermuda didn't look so good. It looked like you could use some rainfall. No, the Bermuda's fine. No, we have enough rain. The greens and tee boxes were overseen. They were green. But the Bermuda wasn't. So you have to play with like, you have to play with bright colored balls

because you can't see the ball. A white ball, you can't see the Bermuda. So I had like pink balls and bright have bright orange balls to play with at this time of year. I'm going Friday. I'll let you know how it goes. Okay. Well, we're all standing by. Jeff, here's a goal for you. Before we get back into football mode, I would like to play nine holes with you, maybe 12 max. I don't like to do more than 12. You want to go to, what's that spot in Century City? to uh um what's that spot in uh century city no let's do rancho sure we could go to rancho or we could go to penmar um oh i could do penmar yeah let's let's get to one of the little public

dog tracks here in la when you're out here next and uh we'll figure out the right handicap i think i think i'm probably giving you some strokes i don't care about that well yeah i want to have a fair bet my handicap is like 40 i broke it 100 like twice yeah so i'm gonna have probably giving you some strokes. I don't care about that. Well, I want to have a fair bet. My handicap is like 40. I broke it 100 like twice. Yeah, so I'm going to have to give you some strokes, but then we can bet, which is something you love to do. So that'll be a way to play golf.

It's been a rough tournament so far. I'm hoping to turn around. My wagers are at Jeff Schwartz on Twitter. Some of these people that cover gambling, man, just bad on Twitter. It, the... Some of these people that cover gambling, man. Just... They're bad on Twitter. It is what it is. All right.

Sorry, a little tiny riff at the end of that. Please rate, review, subscribe at Powered by the Varsity Podcast Network. I know it was a heavy episode. Hopefully next week, not as heavy. We count down to the draft. Hopefully some more free agency stuff as well. We'll start kind of building out what these teams are going to look like for 2022 and we'll talk

to you guys next week have a great weekend everyone take care