Geoff Schwartz Is Smarter Than You - Fixing the Combine, Dan Snyder (Still) Needs to Go, and Daaaaa Bears

Episode Date: March 1, 2023

This week on Geoff Schwartz is Smarter Than You, Geoff and Gabe are debating the purpose of the combine and coming up with ways it could be improved, as well as adding bank fraud to the long list of charges against Dan Snyder and considering the Bears' options if they decide to trade the number one overall pick.And on Moving the Line, could the Lakers make the play-in? Will the pitch clock save baseball? And is Gabe too mean to Hank? The guy who writes these descriptions sure thinks so. Be sure to rate, comment, and follow the pod for a new episode each week during the offseason.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 1st. Yeah, come on. Power through it, Jeff. It's the off season. You can fumble your words. It's Wednesday, March 1st. I'm Jeff Schwartz alongside. Good one.

This is Jeff Schwartz of Smarty and Power on the Varsity Podcast Network. Oh, man. I swear if we, any show I ever did, if we had like a paid thing to do that you could watch us talk behind the scenes, either radio or podcast, we'd make a lot of money. We'd also get fired. Welcome to the podcast, everyone. Combine this week. Quarterback's getting cut. The draft's coming up.

So much to talk about. And Gabe's favorite player, by the way, is also a comedian now, supposedly. So we'll talk about all of that. NFL never sleeps. So much to get into. Gabe, by the way, is also a comedian now, supposedly. So we'll talk about all of that. NFL never sleeps so much to get it to. Gabe, how are you, buddy? I'm great. Thank you, Jeff. I do miss football.

So even though I think, yeah, I think hipster football fans want to crap all over the combine. I say bring it on, baby. I'm ready. Are you not doing XFL? You're not XFL-ing? I'm buying the AJ McCarron storyline. I'm ready. Are you not doing XFL? You're not XFLing? I'm buying the AJ McCarron storyline. I'm not opposed. I like The Rock mixing it up and tweeting about football.

I'm kind of into it. I haven't watched much yet. I have gotten into not March Madness quite yet, but the madness of college basketball this past weekend. I'm now into college basketball. It was a good weekend for buzzer beaters. Dude, it's like the sport. I actually asked a friend this. He to michigan he loves michigan i said is it that we just weren't

paying attention to this sport until now or were there like six incredible buzzer beaters this weekend it seemed like an outrageous weekend in college basketball no it was just it was an outrageous weekend in college basketball it's like they know this is the time now's our chance now's our chance. Now's our chance, and things start getting – teams are vying for opportunities in the postseason, and they're just desperation. They're just trying to find ways to win these games. Their feet are – the legs are underneath them

as they head to the home stretch of the season. It was just a good weekend for college basketball. And this new crop of Lakers, Jeff, we'll get to that. You're a Lakers fan. Yeah, but now LeBron's hurt. So now the new crop doesn't even matter anymore. No, hurt doesn't mean anything in the NBA. Ask Charles Barkley about that.

We'll get into all of it. Let's talk combine. Okay. Okay, because this is every year we forget what the heck it is. And then we remember all of a sudden and we're experts right like we don't know who any of these dudes are past the first 10 names and then we're an expert in every single one of them and what they look like in their underpants so jeff i don't have a specific take that i need to throw at you other than to say

you morons who poo-poo the combine are missing the point. It's fun. The coverage has gotten better. And every now and then, a great player emerges and we learn something, right? Yes. The combine is first and foremost an opportunity for NFL teams to medical check these players, right? That's why it was created.

All the players go to Indianapolis. It's one centralized location for all the NFL teams to do their physical backgrounds and actual physical, you know, checks on the players, medical evaluations. If players need x-rays, MRIs, blood work, EKGs, all those things, it's all done in one place. They can all do it at the same time. That's why it was originally done. It's why it's done in Indianapolis, not done in Los Angeles, not done in New York.

It's kind of in the middle of the country-ish. And that's why it's there, right? There's five or six rooms. Every player goes in those rooms. There's five teams in each room player goes in those rooms there's five teams in each room and they just evaluate you they poke and prod and check your knees and your wrists and your shoulders and your groin and your feet and your ankles and everything your stomach everything you expect in a physical on steroids they have your medical background they have your

folder with all your medical information from in college. They're checking everything out. I remember I had hurt my MCL. So the inside ligament of your knee, my freshman year in college, I didn't sit at any time and it was noted in my, you know, in my medical information. And they like kind of twisted my knee and were like, oh, your MCL, like, did you hurt it? I was like, yeah, four years ago. Like they just, they feel these things.

I had to get an MRI on my back because i had a back surgery in college and that's what this is for the workouts what we see is a small part of the entire process and i look at the combine gabe as an opportunity for nfl teams to check boxes for players. Okay? So if there's 100 data points, 100 boxes to check before you draft a player, 75 of them are the film. Let's just say 75. Maybe more.

Maybe some teams have 85 are the film. And let's say some teams have 60. But I think more of them will look at the film, right? And then you have what happened to the combine, right? You have the medical, right? That's, let's say, that's five boxes to check, right? Then you have the on-field workouts. Then you have, that's two boxes to check. Then you have the interviews. That's another box to check. It's just box checking, right? And let me explain what that means for me and what I think it means for NFL teams. So let's say that, Gabe, let's say that you're in a prospect

and on film, when they watch you play at USC, your new favorite college, you look fast on film and you look quick on film. And then you get to the combine and you run fast and you run quick. Check. Check the box. That shows on film. Let's check that box for Gabe. Or let's say you run quick. Check. Check the box. That shows on film. Let's check that box for Gabe. Or let's say you're Jeff Schwartz.

You are slow on film and you run slow at the combine. Check that box. Jeff Schwartz is slow on film, slow at the combine. Check that box. What the combine is about for the physical part of it

is what happens when Gabe, who runs fast on the field, on game film, plays fast on the game film, but runs a slow 40 time and has a slow three cone. Scouts can't check that box now. You got to go back and look. Why does Gabe play faster on the field than he does when he's testing? Or vice versa, right? Like, why does Jeff Schwartz look slow on the field but run really fast at the combine? And that is where a lot of, you know,

a lot of the, why to me, the on-field things matter. It's box checking. Okay, Jeff Schwartz, you know, and the show the, why to me, the on-field things matter. It's box checking. Okay. Jeff Schwartz, you know, and I was talking today about, I'll use Noah Sewell as a linebacker from Oregon. I was talking with a buddy today about Noah Sewell, linebacker from Oregon. Five-star kid. Didn't play that great this year.

Was kind of up and down. You know, for me, like when you watch him play, it's like, I question his lateral movement skills at times as a linebacker. I think he can run in a straight line pretty well but can he move laterally pretty well so that's a question of mine I have about one specific player what so I want to see how we test in those drills at the combine if he tests really well then I have to go back and figure out, okay, why did that not show on film? If he tests poorly in those drills at the combine, I'm like, okay, that's there. How do I coach him out of that?

Or how do I draft him if I want him and put him in a scheme or have him in my defense where I feel that he'll be most successful? Or just don't draft him because I don't think he fits what I want to do in defense. So that's the important part of the physical part of the combine. It's just to double check the film. And of course, there are going to be guys that stand out. There's going to be guys that work out warriors and things like that, that wow the coaches and they're going to have to go back and look at the film. And there are obviously certain benchmarks that you can hit as a player that more often than not at your position have led to success over the long run so i'm gonna give you an example i'm gonna pull it up right here i'll just it's kind of important here let's

see um because for like offensive linemen if you run a 40 time i'm going to pull this up right here okay this is again this is a small sample size but it's worth kind of since 2010 28 offensive linemen have recorded a 4.47 short shuttle or better the combine 24 of the 28 were drafted. Those 24 players started 84 of their NFL games. So like there are certain, and this happens with all positions, but there's like, there's certain drills where if you do hit a benchmark

of like, okay, that has meant in the past that that player has the physical gifts, the unique gifts to play that position really well for a long period of time and part of that is if you're that quick and athletic and agile you're able to avoid injuries a little bit better because your body moves a certain way and guys hit you you're able to kind of so there's that's kind of the whole physical process in my opinion

of what of why the combine is important okay that's a hell of an explanation, and even though I've talked to you for two or three combines now, I don't think I heard each part of that. Let me pull a few things out of that. Is it possible? So you're saying basically it confirms hunches. You know, we have a lot of tape of the kid from Oregon. We kind of know what we think he does well and doesn't.

Then he does some tests and we go, yeah, okay. He's about what we thought. That's reassuring. Now we know, now we know the third round grade we gave him is about right. We're not going to reach for him if he's there.

We'll take him. OK, yes, great. What about the guys who come from smaller schools where the tape was maybe not as evident and certain positions where you can get lost in a system? There aren't as many opportunities to see what a guy can do. This is where you're smarter than me. But I'm thinking about defensive backs, guys who like,

maybe they only have two or three plays. They can make a game, but they make all of them. If they show up at the combine and do a few things, right. Do we then go back and look at more tape? Well, yes.

And this is, again, this is kind of like back to the, like the, the box check and stuff, right? Like if they, if they run really well,

then you have to go back and look about, okay, well, why didn't they make more plays on film? Is it because of the system they were in? Were they at the lower level? For some corners, because you mentioned corners, some corners they don't just – Sauce Gardner, it's insanity last year, no one threw him the ball. No one threw the ball to his side of the field.

There's a player in Oregon, Christian Gonzalez, who I think started a little bit slower, but he's going to run a 4-3. His sister is an Olympic sprinter. She was featured on Hard Knocks, by the way, because she's married to the Lions' backup quarterback.

They featured him watching her at the Olympics in Tokyo a couple years ago. I think their parents are sprinters, too. He's going to run really, really well. He probably runs faster than he plays at times. So you have to go back and figure out kind of like maybe why that is. And that's, you know, for small school guys, to your point, like if you haven't seen, you know, small school guys,

I think are a little bit different because the film is not going to be the same, right? Because you're not playing the same competition. I've always felt for smaller school guys, Gabe, when you watch their film, they have to dominate. Right. Like there's a player out of North Dakota State, Cody, I believe his last name is Munch.

Munch, Munch. He's off at the tackle. He's redhead, long hair. Oh, yeah. He was a big old meme. Missing a tooth. He was like he manhandles defensive linemen. Like, you have to be excellent.

Like, you have to be dominant if you're going to be a lower level kid who's going to be drafted. Even if you're drafting the sixth round, you have to dominate your competition. And then you have to go to combine and just meet those physical benchmarks. know if you're a cornerback in a smaller school you gotta you know you gotta run that that four four five boom check mark so that's again the film is the most important thing but then you also this is why it's they're never absolutes right orlando brown um i guess i'll give you a you a guy to follow on social media. His name is Kent Lee Platt.

It's at Math Bomb on social media. He puts together a relative athletic score, RAS, R-A-S. He puts together this. I think it's his proprietary numbers based off of everyone's combine workout. He gives them a score. It's fantastic to follow because these scores typically align with like the best players in the NFL have these high athletic scores.

What a shock, right? But he lists them all. He has a database. It's really fun to look at. It's like a legit, like if you look at, just go check it out. It's fun during combine season.

But there are guys with like low rascals like orlando brown was had a terrible combine good nfl player my brother had a terrible combine good nfl player it's not so it's not a b.o. end all right but again those are the outliers like being a good athlete testing well jumping well jumps are partners as well jumping measures explosive this guy so if you jump high vertical you jump far broad jump that measures your hips testing well, jumping well, jumps are part of this as well. Jumping measures explosiveness, guys. If you jump high, vertical, you jump far, broad jump, that measures your hips. It measures how you explode off the ball.

Those are important kind of ways to measure explosiveness. But if you go follow these scores, you can see like a lot of the guys that typically test well end up being good NFL players. Okay, so then let's talk about the other topic that always comes up then. guys that typically test well and to be good NFL players. Okay. So then let's talk about the, the other topic that always comes up then not just the guys who are going to confirm some hunches or maybe be outliers who,

who we go, wait a sec, we got to go back and watch more tape and maybe improve their stock. There's always now a tradition of big name guys from big name schools who've been told for a year or two already. They're definite first rounders don't want to compete at the combine. Yeah. It's not because they're afraid of getting injured,

right? It's because all they can do potentially is hurt their stock. Absolutely. But isn't that a bit like pleading the fifth, like the common person goes, well then what are you hiding? Aren't you guilty of something? I mean,

that, that certainly is a way you can look at it. Jalen Carter, for example, is not participating in the combine. The Georgia defense to tackle. Bryce Young's not throwing at the combine. Jalen Carter, the only thing he can do in the combine is hurt himself, Gabe. That's the only thing he can do. He'll go.

He'll do all the interviews. He'll talk to the media. He'll do his physical, I'll talk to the media he'll do his his um physical i mean his uh his medical uh checks and whatnot but he won't run in the combine most guys have better pro days than combines because the combine you know you're up at five in the morning you're going to bed at 10 11 at night you're busy all day And the point of that is they want you to work out by the end of the time you're there in a more of a, you know,

stressful environment on your body, right? You haven't slept as well. You know, maybe you're, they used to weigh you in the day before you worked out and then they weigh you in the day you work out. So if you're trying to cut weight like I was or gain a bunch of weight to weigh in, now, are you going to do that the day you work out?

So like, it just, it adds stressors to the environment weight to weigh in. Now, are you going to do that the day you work out? So like it just, it adds stressors to the environment to work out in. They want you to work out in a stressful environment. More mental stress, obviously, than physical stress, but a little bit of physical stress. At the pro day, you don't have any of that, right? You're in your own bed. You're at your own campus.

It's when you want to do it, the time you want to do it at. And so guys opt for that route because again, Jalen Carter can do it. He can get away with it. Gabe, Jalen Carter never has to work out. He will be the number one defensive tackle taken. Doesn't even do anything. Bryce Young probably doesn't have to throw at all to be the number one quarterback taken in this draft. Now, his height and weight will be super important because we've seen, again, he'll be the smallest quarterback draft in the first round in forever. But he doesn't have to throw to be the first quarterback taken.

Some guys have that luxury. Yeah, fair enough. I want to go over some suggestions for maybe new things to evaluate at the Combine. Hank and I drew up a few ideas. I'd like you to take these seriously because we certainly did. All right. What about making the players wear pads when they run the 40? That would be more realistic.

I'd be down for that. But then I don't think they would want to train in the pads for eight weeks, though. I know. But, you know, put on pads. What does it matter how well you run without pads? I'm with you. There's plenty of guys, wide receivers especially, who just can't move the way that we need them to. Agreed.

Agreed. All right. Good. So that's one for one. Good suggestion by Gabe and Hank. Number two. agreed all right good so that's one for one good suggestion by gabe and hank number two um one regular person does every drill before the players just so that we can see how much better they are at stuff this is probably this is probably your best your best one you're you're

gonna have really you think so yeah this is fantastic what if i told you that was hank's suggestion would you still feel that way people have suggested before i'm sure he cribbed it from someone else okay oh so roger sherman came up with this idea probably yeah okay it's been floating on the internet for years now i'm sure i'm sure he went to to chat gpt and and asked him what to do here all right um chat gp hank came up with that one all right next one speed round of game management situations to see how well players know what to do in any given complicated NFL situation. So should the running back slide at the one or score a touchdown right now? Go waste of time.

Why wouldn't like the Cowboys want to have a few more guys who knew the rules? That's not important. So till you play a game, you can teach that in the game. I don't know. I think I'd much rather have dan orlovsky in the sixth round than some guy who doesn't know the rules that's a that's not important to know at the combine i disagree but fine i didn't play in the nfl you didn't you're smarter

than me uh okay there should be a quote talent portion like in beauty pageants where prospects can do whatever they want to highlight skills to scout and this could be anything because maybe it makes for the better hard knocks episodes or better marketing capability like maybe you're good at dancing after touchdowns i don't know um are you airing this part of the are you airing this part to yeah i think i think we would i'd be in for that talent show for sure all right great we great. We're doing better now, Hank. Every tight end who used to play basketball has entered into a one-on-one basketball tournament. Announcers are only allowed to mention that someone played basketball in future broadcasts

if they win that one-on-one tournament, proving they are, in fact, good at it. Oh, my God. It's incredible. Can I tell you, I was down in dallas for big boys club season three is is on uh well you're gonna like the next one then on the is on the way um and after the kids are done training they play this basketball game the three-point shooting

contest the facility has a full-size basketball corkers the mavericks g league team trains there as well and i told them i would beat them in this three-point shooting contest game and they like told me oh you're not gonna win you're not gonna win you're gonna win and i beat him and it was a big ego boost for me to beat these like 21 year olds in a three-point shooting contest when i haven't shot three pointers in many many moons well you know i play pickup ball in your old high school and I've been looking around. You play at Pally? Yeah. I've been looking around for the banners, the retired numbers for Jeff Schwartz in the

basketball court. I haven't seen them. We were when I was playing high school basketball, we played Westchester and Westchester was number one in the country and we weren't winning anything. So, OK, you play pickup at Pally, huh? Well, we played Westchester, and Westchester was number one in the country, and we weren't winning anything. Okay. You played pick-up at Pally, huh? Well, let's not put that out there because it's kind of like a nice little secret we've got going. Skip over this.

I'm going to have to do that when I come back to town with you. You're in the run. I've got a hookup for you. Okay. Next one. Every O-lineman has to grill a burger on his own smoker and then talk through his process the way all you big fat guys like to do yes absolutely okay great uh let's put more on tv not less show me everything big long reality show yes okay we're really on a roll now yeah tackling drill you have to run full

speed at a tackling dummy but only hit it where it lights up green at the last second well that's how the nfl works now everything's a penalty unless you nail it yeah but you can you're just gonna that doesn't really help anything okay you so far by the way the ones that you have quickly poo-pooed have been mine next one temptation drill all right you're told to go wait in a waiting room this remember the scene in men in black where we'll see yeah yeah yeah okay think about that here you sit in this room and you're being told oh the gm of some team wants to come meet with you and sitting in the room is a an xbox and the playbook for the team that's thinking about meeting you next and they watch to see which you pick up and interact with for the

10 minutes i love this it's not a that a good one? I love it. I saw it so much. Totally in. If the quarterback reaches for that Xbox, get him the hell out of here. Yeah. Kyler Murray would reach for the Xbox. He would have been a fifth rounder.

He would totally out. Oh, I love that one. That was definitely yours. That one was indeed mine, yes. And then Hank, put one more in here in an attempt to get us to get fired. Why is he obsessed? Okay. Why?

Okay. I, my wife, I had to go today. I'm gonna explain what happened. I had to go today. Very carefully, please. I will. I had to go today to, I had to go pick up something from Publix and bring it to my wife's office for work. And in doing so, when I got to her office, I left her a note.

I drew something on a piece of paper to leave for her at work. And in doing so, when I got to her office, I left her a note and I drew something on a piece of paper to leave for her at work. I took a video of it and said to you guys I thought it was pretty funny. Like, ha ha ha, look what I drew my wife

on a piece of paper. You guys can guess what it is. Hank is obsessed by the image I drew and how he thinks I drew it incorrectly and has not stopped talking about this

for the last five hours. I don't know why, Gabe. Like, I thought I was the most immature one in this group. I think can knock it over, the image and how I drew it. I thought I drew a standard, quick object. I had like three seconds to draw this before someone walked in her office. I didn't think much of it.

My wife laughed at it. She liked the joke. Did you look at the object and think I drew it incorrectly? I think there's a few comedic ways to draw this particular object i think you checked the box to go back to your term uh i don't know why hank wanted to get anatomical or why he thought you know putting this in a rundown for you to just continue publicly talking about was a good idea what i am concerned about for you jeff is this particular drawing that you gave to your wife.

I thought you meant you left it in your home office. You left this in her actual office? Yeah. She's like a real professional. Yeah, yeah. In her office office, yeah. Okay. Well, I hope you didn't get her.

No, no, no. But I left it. You saw what I did. It was like folded, like shut. Oh, yeah. It had nothing on the front of it. Like it was folded, like by her yeah by her desk like no one saw it okay well if uh we can't afford to put meredith on the jeff schwartz is smarter

than you payroll so let's please not get her fired all right why would she be fired for that i i don't know man these days you can't draw stuff like that jeff can't do it what i what what i draw you don't know what i drew all right forget it uh okay um i don't really know how to talk about this topic because i refuse to engage with most of these stories i see the headlines and i go yeah i know this guy sucks there's more evidence to come he still sucks and i never learn enough about how bad a a guy Dan Snyder really is and how many of the other owners seem to want him out. That's the overall headline is Dan Snyder. It would be great for the whole league if he was gone, but he's holding on for dear life despite a million accusations and new pending lawsuits, etc., etc. Jeff, is there something you can make us smarter about other than just this guy's the worst?

So the new not even allegation, I mean, it's in what the grand jury testimony, right? We'll get to grand jurors look into, I should say. But three minority owners who are all billionaires, by the way, of the commanders have said that uh dan snyder committed bank fraud in securing a 35 excuse me a 55 million dollar loan without board approval and the nfl made it go away and a federal grand jury is now looking into this um i don't know why they just don't get rid of this guy like i i just it does not make sense to me. I know that he keeps claiming that he has, like, things over the NFL and over the owners. I think he already uses Jerry Jones one with that picture that came out with Jerry Jones

in Little Rock, right? It was in Little Rock where he grew up. I think he used that one already. I mean, what could he release that's worse than anything the NFL has already had out about them at any time ever? Get rid of Daniel Snyder. He won't sell to Jeff Bezos because of what he worked for the Washington Post. He owns the Washington Post. They write mean things about him.

Like, just of all the things John Orand, who covers sports business for the Sports Business Journal, listed like allegations against Dana Snyder, financial misconduct, bank fraud, misuse of team's funds, abuse of corporate bylaws, self-dealing, disregard of contractual and fiduciary duties and sexual misconduct. Like, why is he still the owner? Donald Sterling, the Clippers owner, said one thing in private, Gabe, like, and they got him out of there in a week. They're like, goodbye. You're out of here, buddy. Like, see you later. And no one liked him either. Right. Like, goodbye. Gone. And you can argue that that in that instance, like it was a private conversation that was recorded and leaked. This is like this is out

there. Like all this stuff is out there. Like they've had to pay fines there's grand jury investigations there's out like i i i don't know why he's still there and the thing about it they're not any good i can understand if you're like well you know they've won super bowls they're good for the league washington commanders fans hank matt they hate the guy they can't wait for new ownership like you Like, you're not even, you're not even, you're not even, like, pleasing or, like, like, like trying to make the fans of the Commanders happy by keeping the owner. I can understand if it was, like, Lamar Hunt or, I mean, Clark Hunt, the Chiefs owner, not Lamar, his dad. Clark Hunt, who, and the Chiefs are winning all the time.

You're like, ah, I don't really want to, because he, while she doesn't win ever, get him up out of there. I don't care what to because while she doesn't win ever, get him up out of there. I don't care what you have to do. Get Snyder out of owning the commanders and get him out of your league. It's not that it's not that difficult. Yeah. The crazy thing is he's trying to use his awful history as leverage. You know, like he's basically one of the new stories.

There's like five new stories. But one of the new stories is that he wants legal protection or indemnification if he agrees to sell the team. Basically, he's like extorting the league to say, yeah, yeah, yeah, if we get rid of you, we won't let you get sued, essentially. Which I don't even know legally how the hell that's even possible. Well, it means that they would cover his cost if he gets sued, essentially. But I guess we have to imagine, though, since it seems so obvious that he should be out, that it's not necessarily that he has some file with dirty stuff about every owner and he's threatened to put it out there if they if they gang up on him.

Isn't it possible that what the owners don't want is this precedent being set, which is that if we look into his history this much if we explore his business dealings and his personal life this much they could be next and could it be that they don't want that jimmy haslam what defrauded people of like a billion dollars he's still the nfl owner like like? Since when has that been a thing? Yeah, they could go into other people's businesses, but again, they're just looking at the commanders. I mean, if you haven't committed a crime as the owner of your team,

then what do they have to look into? Right? No, to me me gabe the answer is no like if you haven't committed a crime then what are you worried about now maybe all these families are criming maybe all these teams are criming behind the scenes well i don't know i'm not accusing anyone of committing a crime as the owner of the nfl team but most owners of nfl teams have very complicated histories and business dealings and most of them the the football team is not their primary income i mean i shouldn't say well absolutely but again but but look again haslam of course still an nfl owner after his

flying j stuff right um so people have you know, an owner survived kind of his company, his other, you know, his other main business, you know, a scandal with that, right? Survived that. But again, the people are looking at specifically his ownership of his NFL team. We're not, to my knowledge, they're not looking at his other companies, right? His other dealings and other, I don't even know what he owns otherwise, by the way. So. Wasn't he the Six Flags owner for the longest and then some media stuff well it doesn't matter you're right the point is the the six flags the amusement park i don't even know that i i'm now i'm just i'm just talking okay let's let's focus on what you're saying but so so like okay so let's say but so again like if if you get rid of him and your premise is like, well, they don't want to do it because they're worried about, you know, that.

Well, I hope that no one else is doing crimes like he is. I mean, like this is legit bank fraud. Like he could go, I mean, you know, he's not going to go to jail. I think we probably know that. I think other people go to jail in this situation. that i think other people go to jail in this situation but um i i don't i maybe i just don't want to believe that other owners are committing crimes like he is and that's the reason why they're not getting him out of there well how much because because play people asked coach rivera about this and obviously the enemy was the big offseason hire so we're thinking about

their coaching uh staff and you know they've just moved on from the quarterback we're not talking about him they've got some things that could go right on the field does any of this bleed into the team they put on the field this fall do you think it matters let's just say he's a bad guy and it'd be better if he was gone but i i just think it's just a kind of a a non-stop just distraction, right? Like the players getting asked about the owner, the coach being asked about the owner. That's it.

I mean, that probably doesn't change much. But also, I guess you could overpay for agents, but how many for agents are looking at wanting to come to the commanders, right? I wouldn't think very many. Probably not many, right? But I think if Jeff Bezos were on the team, a bunch of players would want to come to the commanders. Yeah.

Well, that's a whole other conversation. Let's talk about the draft because those guys aren't free agents. They want to go wherever someone will take them and pay them a bunch of money. So the Bears are at number one. Yeah. And everyone believes they're keeping Justin Fields and trading back. So we get to do this over and over and over again until the end of April. But do you think that's the right move?

Yeah. So here's what I would do if I were the Bears. I think you owe it to yourself to see Justin Fields for one more season. So what you do is you trade back and you'll get picks for this year and next year. Okay. trade back and you'll get picks for this year and next year. Okay. And if you end up after the season and thinking to yourself,

well, you know, Justin Fields is not the guy. We give him a chance this year. We've upgraded the offensive line. We've upgraded the weapons. He's just not the guy. Then next year, when you have an extra first round pick, because you've traded this year's first round pick, and you have your own first-round pick, you use those to go up to one or two

and get yourself Caleb Williams or Drake May. If one of those two guys, obviously, is available in the top two, if someone who doesn't need a quarterback is drafted in that situation. Because I don't think that Bryce Young is good enough to give up on Justin Fields yet. And I think you owe it to yourself to give yourself – Justin Fields, I think, can play. I think he's a good football player.

But give him another year to develop as a passer. Get yourself some more weapons around him and kind of have this team, this core of a team that's ready to win. It feels isn't ready yet next season with a new quarterback. That's how I would play this. If, if are the bears, it feels like they're going that direction.

Yeah. I think I agree. Who do you think is the hungriest to go get their pick though? Um, like who's willing to pay? I mean, it's gotta be Houston or Indianapolis. I think Jim Ursa is going to tell them to like, you that i think the cults are going to try to move up quickest

it stands to reason that it would be the cults because the cults have been relevant franchise winning franchise for you know five eight ten year stretches twice in our lifetime both times when they went and got the quarterback, you know, that that's the model they know they don't, they aren't worth a shit if they're, you know, going to the backup or playing in free agency, they've been great when they had Peyton Manning and Andrew Luck and that's it. So it makes sense that they would go after it,

that the fans would understand that rationale. The Jets, obviously the lot of conversation about Aaronaron rogers now that he's emerged from darkness and derrick carr is gonna you know eat up the whole offseason making us talk about him are we positive since it's so obvious the coach moved on are we positive the team hasn't moved on from the quarterback and they may not go get a guy who they like and just say whatever we're moving on i made a mistake i don't think you can afford to take another shot with a rookie quarterback right now like get yourself a known commodity and get derrick carr and not you just can't but how do you ever get the pick for

the the caleb williams or derrick you know may like how do you get to the point where you have your quarterback if you keep bringing in the guy who's going to keep you at nine and eight. But here, here's the problem though, Gabe, is this is the hardest part, but a lot of this is that if you're Robert Saul, the Jets head coach, you have to win this year. You're fired. Like you're not looking at Joe Douglas too. Probably like, you're not looking at this as like, how do we get to 2024? You look at this, how do we win this year to save my job?

That's the hard part about a lot of these discussions with what teams are going to do, because they're scrambling to win now, as Hank just put in our chat, to keep the paychecks coming in, right? Like, that's why. Keep your job. That's kind of where you're at. I can make the case for a couple of teams.

Like I can make the case for the Colts even at four with a new head coach to say, Hey, look, let's draft the best player possible at four is not a quarterback. And let's stink one more year and get Caleb Williams or Drake May. Like that's a viable plan for a first year head coach. It's not a viable plan for Robert Sala, who's trying to keep his job.

Yeah. That sucks. I mean, obviously. When you miss on a quarterback in the draft, like they did, it sets you back five to seven years. It just does. Because then you're doing this, right? You're scrambling for years and years and years because what what has to happen is you have to basically either hit a home run with like a

Aaron Rodgers or you have to get a new coach before you draft someone else like they're not gonna let Robert Sala draft a second quarterback in the top 10. He won't be the coach if that happens. Yeah. Hmm. Okay. Well, luckily I'm not a Jets fan. I'm a Chargers fan, and the future is bright there. Let's take a quick break.

We'll come back. We'll move the line. We've got a few more questions for you. Let's do it. All right, Jeff, we're back. It's time to move the line a little over-under game. Here goes. Jordan Poyer says he wants to play in a state that doesn't take, quote, half his money.

Guess he doesn't like the fact that New York State, where he plays in Buffalo, has high taxes. So I'm going to take this seriously. What percent of free agents factor taxes into their decisions on where to sign over under 75 percent um this is poyer's 10th season i want to say he's a veteran i think players at his age it's near it's over 75 i think players looking at their second contracts their first their first big contract it doesn't play a factor at all. You just take the most money possible. I mean, look, obviously, you know, New York taxes, what, nine? When I was in Jersey, it was 9.7%. Florida's zero.

You know, New York, I think, is close to 9.7%. California is 13%. You know, but if you're getting, you know, $10 million more to play in California than anywhere else, you're taking that money, right, Gabe? But when you get older and the money sort of becomes the same, we're getting two equal deals and looking at now you're 11 and 10 and 12 and 9 and 13 and you're like, now I'm kind of looking for fit and for, you know, where my family wants to live

and the weather and the money and the taxes. Then you start looking at places like Poyer's talking about that he also mentioned cold and the taxes. Then you start looking. I think at his age, it's more than 75% of players that are looking at other things besides just the cold hard cash. It's more than 75% of players that are looking at other things besides just the cold hard cash. Okay, so then why aren't the Miami Dolphins better at building a roster?

Because there's a hard cap. You can't pay everybody. I understand, but you can basically tell a guy, hey, look, we're going to give you 10% less than that other team, but your take home is the same. Play for us. Live in Miami. Okay, but see, players don't look at it like that. Agents do? No, they don't.

Well, here's an interesting question. Now we're way in the weeds. Maybe you don't know. If I'm the agent for a player, I get paid a commission. It's a negotiation between me and the player, right? So there's kind of standards, but a few percentage points on the contract. I'm an agent. I can register my business, presumably wherever I want.

It doesn't matter how my guy gets taxed. I pay my own income tax. So if I'm an agent do i don't don't i just care about the gross amount which sort of proves the opposite of what i was saying but but you want to yeah i mean you want to be able to brag that your client got the most money yeah i know so that's what i'm saying what do you you as the agent aren't incentivized to care if jeff is keeping some x percent in Jersey versus even more somewhere else. You get paid on the overall amount.

Right. Exactly. Huh? Yes. All right. Well, the point is, with veterans, you're saying it is a factor. So we shouldn't just say, like, he's ring chasing. Sometimes he might be like long term retirement planning.

Absolutely. I think with him specifically, yes. All right. Fair enough. Over under 10 percent chance the quarterback who shall not be named starts a game next season in the NFL. No. I mean, look, can he start a game as a backup quarterback

for someone who got injured? I actually don't care. I'm sorry. I don't know why. He'll never be a starter. He'll never be a starter in the NFL. Okay, great. Somebody was tweeting that the rock should text

him right now come play why would he why would he want that oh the xfo want that who the hell knows uh over under 10 chance the browns considered the fact that they were raising the price tag for their division rivals on lamar and burrow when they signed to sean and that was what they knew they were doing they were playing chess while all of us were playing checkers yeah i'm sure there are 54 million dollar cap it this year is a lot of chess there good job browns who knows what the cap it will be for those other teams uh no because no the nfl has basically said we're just not paying anyone that deal anymore so congrats browns you pledged yourselves but burl burl's not getting that deal herbert's not getting that deal

lamar is not getting that contract from the ravens or not giving him 230 million dollars guaranteed had deshaun come back played well and somehow you know there was some magic bean for him winning over the fan base and and calming down all the detractors i don't know how he possibly could have done that but if he if it had been a success, do you think that that money still exists for those guys? No. You think no matter what it was about? It's the one time we've seen NFL history

where basically the NFL was like, yeah, we're ignoring this contract and we're not paying you what the next person, what the previous person got. You know, like we're not giving you 1% more than the last person got. know like we're not you know we're not giving you a you know one percent more than the than than the you know the last person got we're just ignoring that contract and going off the previous contract it's crazy they're just ignoring it all right fair enough let's switch gears quickly you're an la fan over under 15 chance the lakers make the play-in

without lebron i mean they're game back right now, right? I think I saw. Everybody makes the playoffs now. 20 of 30 teams, right? They're game back at the moment. LeBron's out a while, right? It's always confusing whether his injuries are serious. They are half a game back.

I think they make the play. The Pelicans are going to bounce out because of Zion's injury. The Jazz don't want to win, but they're too far out of the lottery now. I'll say they'll in as the 10 seed. 9 or 10 seed. They barely get in. LeBron, who's expected to be out two to three weeks, is healthy just in the nick of time.

Yes. And they get in, and then they are pretty terrifying as the last couple of weeks showed us with this slightly revamped roster oh yeah look are you telling me like let's say they win their the the play-in kind of bracket and end up being the eighth seed yeah tell me they're they're denver would be terrified to play los angeles in that first round uh it would be the seven seed, wouldn't it? Don't you become the seven? No, you become the eight. You become the seven and eight so you get determined by the playing games.

Yeah, right. Exactly. Okay. So you're saying if they get in as the 10, they can become the eight and then play. Correct. Yeah, Denver. Yeah, I wouldn't. I don't think that anyone.

I don't know if the one seed would even be favored in that situation. They would have to be, I think. But the Nuggets just haven't... Game one, maybe. I don't know. The Nuggets just haven't performed in the postseason. No, I'm not going to stop. Hank's putting in the chat, dude, stop.

He probably thinks he's protecting me from myself. Like, I don't know what I'm talking about because I don't pay attention to regular season NBA. Because I'm a lot like most NBA players. I don't pay attention to the regular season in the NBA. Hank's team is... Ooh, Hank's team might be in the wizards the boulets they're they're hanging in yeah all right who cares uh here we go over under 35 chance snow in la is this is hanks wording is cosmic karma for usc and ucla joining the big 10 shut up hank you idiot what under oh one one whole half day of snow. Congratulations, Los Angeles.

It's not even, by the way, for all you people who are listening to this show outside of actual LA, there's LA County and then there's the city of LA. Everything you've ever seen, like when they show the shots of LA at a Laker game or coming back from break at a Rams game. Everything you're looking at is in the city of LA or Santa Monica or Malibu. It's all right there along the coast. It's not snowing here.

It's up in the mountains. There's a lot of elevation in this county. It did hail in West LA. My mom sent me videos of it hailing. Hail is not snow. I know. It's snow in like inland empire and east very far east yes again look to the east of this city it looks like denver out of the city there's giant mountains with snow on them i know i know okay i just i don't have to tell me like

peep my dad text me you guys okay with all the snow it's like dad what it's not snowing there's no snow where you live no if it snows in venice beach california guys we're all screwed it doesn't matter it basically is the day after tomorrow if it snows there or you're dead it's over by then yeah that's the end yeah yeah all right uh pitch clock love it we've had a weekend worth of looking at the pitch clock over under 15 chance this blows up in the face of Rob Manford and he loses his job, but I don't think so. No, no. Guys, look, here's the thing, guys.

Do we really – let's be smart fans for a second. Let's try to be smart for a second, guys. Do you really think they're going to call a playoff game with the pitch clock rule? No, it's spring training. They're learning this together. They're figuring this out together. It's a spring training game.

It ends in a tie at six to six. Like they're going to figure they're figuring this out together. By the time the postseason comes around, you'll get your Yankees Red Sox four and a half hour game baseball fans. Don't you worry. Okay. But I'm for this game. Like, just like, let's pick it up a little bit, okay?

We don't need all the crotch adjusting and the gloves strapping up in and out. Like, I'm a baseball guy. I grew up playing baseball. I watch a ton of baseball. Like, I get the rhythm of it. But like, it's okay. Let's speed up a little.

Look, I got young kids that want to watch baseball too. They're bored to tears. But I think, I think though, the no shifts and the bigger bases will lead to more runs and more hits and more movement, more steals. That will hold our kids' attention, I think, more than the game playing a little faster anyways. So those changes, I think, might think, might change baseball a lot more than the pitch clock in the end.

So I'm with you. I think you're right. It will be more exciting. And obviously, come playoffs, they're going to want to milk it. So they're going to adjust it. But here's a very inside baseball, pun intended, term intended,

question for you. Don't you think base stealing is going to be way up oh absolutely yeah the bases are bigger it's a shorter distance to steal now it's a shorter distance you can't throw over and frankly pitchers like mental and well you could throw over only twice in the back right yeah yeah twice well okay but once you've thrown over twice i know you're not coming back to the base can you you can step off though right and not throw over you just can't even look over there you're not coming back to the base. But you can step off though, right? And not throw over. You just can't even look over there.

I guess we're going to need a little bit of clarity on the very nuanced way in which can you step off after you've thrown over twice? And if you step off, like how does the clock work? Because it seems to me you've shown your hand. If you throw over twice and to hold a base runner on and now you got to deal to the plate he knows he's getting that extra lead oh yeah he's gonna have a huge lead and even with the pitch out he might get there with a bigger base because now again it's not 60 feet anymore which it really wasn't anyway because the base led into that but or 90 feet but now it's gonna

be even shorter because the bases are bigger right and the pitcher you can tell like it's pretty fast and a lot of pitchers are pretty damn quirky like they got these weird rituals they like to do if you're fumbling around doing your ritual and thinking i gotta deal this thing man i gotta get this thing to the plate yeah you're not thinking about a runner at first no and they know that um people also think they estimate that uh pitch speed will go down this season as pitchers have to pitch faster oh because they'll be a little bit more gassed yeah but it's going to be great for guys who who know how to work quick people were instantly saying Max Scherzer has an advantage here I'm thinking

of Greg Maddox back in the day oh yeah for sure he would catch the ball and frame it up and go man like these relievers that take you know take 85 seconds between pitches are going to want you know the middle the middle guys some of the you know the setup guys closure pitches are going to want the middle guys, some of the setup guys closer. They're going to have the toughest time, I think. Yeah, and if your whole thing is that you throw 100 with some movement, and now, like, go ahead. Try to throw 100 miles an hour three times in 30 seconds. It ain't going to happen.

Your arm's going to fall off. Yeah. So, look, again, I am all for trying to improve the game for your for your product you know for your like entertainment product because i again i watch a ton of baseball i watch the giants are good i watch parts of 100 games like i i watch a lot of baseball um so if this makes the game better more more action again it's not even the pitch clock again the the no shift is a big deal guys like the no shift shift is going to allow a lot more base hits. Maybe we get back to actually trying to hit the ball to the ground,

like in between fielders, and not just try to jack home runs all the time because the shift will change a bunch of that, right? I'm for it. I'm for changing the rules to add some more hitting back in the game. All right, last one. Back to football. Over under 99% chance,

Hank would be a better NFL quarterback than Mac Jones because he has proven the ability to perform while getting yelled at and diminished by us. I just don't see you guys yelling at Hank that much. I think I could see... We've yelled at him like three times in this recording. I could see Matt being the more. Is Matt the yeller out of the two of you guys?

Are you the one? No. You are? I'm definitely the. Oh, yeah. If there's a jerk around here, I want that crown. Oh, you want the crown? Oh, yeah.

Oh, you're like if we were like if you guys are in a group meeting or you're like you're the guy that like is like they're like afterwards like, dang, Gabe really laid it on us. Well, I do preface it by saying things like i don't mean to be condescending right now or like i'm sorry for being a jerk but and then it comes yeah but we need to like be better at jobs yeah yeah with some yeah exactly that's how i say it that's fair i'm just saying uh you know mac jones it seems like he can't take criticism hank is able to take criticism pretty well. I feel like. Yeah,

I think so. I think that's his greatest asset is that for all the criticism he deserves, he's actually quite good at taking. I mean, it's certainly not producing podcasts, so not a specialty. No, but I definitely think that had been able to take criticism as, as,

as a specialty of his. Yeah. On the fly. And, and apparently just so people know what we're getting at here, there's a report that Patriots coaches were instructed not to be too hard on mac jones because they didn't want him to be too critical on himself i have no idea what that means um but i guess he sucked because he was getting yelled at i mean i would have thought that they would have known

that that's the kind of guy he was before they put him on belichick's team yeah i don't i don't know what to believe about these stories all right yeah do you no i don't i don't care because i don't care about mac jones i don't think he's good i don't care about him i hope i hope he loses every game he ever plays for the patriots patriots this patriots hater i love hater, I love it. Yeah. I think we're done, Jeff. I think we did it. I think we're done too. I'm taking my first vacation with no work this week.

Like, literally, I'm not doing any podcast, any radio, no writing, no interviews. I cannot wait. Oh, it's going to be glorious.

I'm looking forward to it. But we'll be back next week, though, with more podcasts and we'll have some combine review. Maybe we'll review the best combine performance. But we'll be back next week, though, with more podcasts. And we'll have some Combine review. Maybe we'll review the best Combine performance. We'll talk about them next week.

And NFL Frames starts very soon as well. The franchise tag's been applied. Some roster cuts have happened during the show. We'll talk about all those next week. Have a great week, everyone. Take care. Enjoy the Combine. Talk to you guys.

Bye. Talk to you guys.