Geoff Schwartz Is Smarter Than You - Inside the Combine, Kyler Murray’s Contract Demands, and the Chiefs Navigating the Cap

Episode Date: March 2, 2022

Geoff and Gabe start NFL Combine week by diving into the questions swirling around this year’s festivities, like why are so many prospects skipping the workouts? Should athletes be paid for participating? And why do teams ask so many silly questions during the interviews? Plus, Geoff reads between the lines on Kyler Murray’s (very long) statement to bring you his thoughts on how the Cardinals should handle the future of their franchise QB, and Gabe asks Geoff to break down the Chiefs’ shopping list to retool their roster this offseason.Remember to rate and follow the podcast if you enjoyed, and leave a comment or tweet @geoffschwartz with whatever sports you’re looking forward to gambling on during the NFL offseason… we need some action!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 2nd i'm jeff schwartz alongside gabe goodwin this is jeff schwartz smart you're powered by the varsity podcast network it is combine week we'll talk a lot about the nfl combine we'll talk a lot about quarterback drama and the continued use of social media to make points it's just such so baby. Talk a little bit about some roster, some Carson Wentz news, and more around all of sports. Gabe, how are you? You ran, I think, what's called a full marathon. You stopped doing the minis. You did the full marathon.

Okay. Okay. You know, you had to do this. Couldn't just be a nice guy, a good buddy, and just congratulate me on a hell of an accomplishment in my life i'm a 40 year old man who ran a three hour and 17 minute marathon and your backhanded compliment is congrats on doing a full one how does someone urinate during a three hour marathon you don't yeah you don't you don't do that you just get so dehydrated from running you don don't even have to worry about it? I got a number two done seconds before the race started. Huge benefit.

I'm sure you as a professional athlete know how important it is to clean the system out right before you go to battle. And then I drank a ton of water and electrolytes all throughout the race and never had to do one. What do you pack with you and then at your stations for yourself in a marathon i'm happy to answer that but i want to quickly turn it into a football question because it occurred to me i don't know enough about how players sort of nourish themselves during games so for me running i had a water pack on my back and then i had electrolyte mix in a in a water bottle and then all the way, every mile or two, someone's holding out a cup of water or a cup of Gatorade. And also, you have those little goo packs, which are basically just like energy in a little tube. So I had electrolyte mix every couple of miles for all 26.

And I had the goo packs like three or four times throughout 26 miles. So you don't have a custom. They just hand you whatever goo pack that's the marathon. I mean, I carry a bit of my own and then they have extra and I use some of theirs. But so when you're playing professional football or any level of football beyond tag, how much of that type of stuff is involved?

Like obviously we know you can't use certain substances, but can you use that kind of stuff? So before a game, obviously you're hydrating. You can get an IV as well to make sure you're hydrated. When I played for the Panthers, we had a September home game. You bet your butt you're going to get an IV before the game, right? Yeah. And then, you know, there's energy drinks.

Sometimes, you know, the simple ones, guys have their own powders. There used to be more energy drink consumption used back in the day i think people are more worried now about the way that affects the heart and there's less of that being used in locker rooms um as far as nourishment man there's food at halftime and it's like rice crispy treats and some fruit and some sandwiches every now and then i didn't eat much of any of it maybe rice crispy treat maybe um for a little bit of carbs and sugar they're the goo packs like you mentioned i think there's goo packs i i actually like to play hungry so i would eat four hours before the game like usual for pre-game meal and then i would not eat again i like to feel hungry while i was playing

um and then as far as you know we know the water and gator on the sideline some guys have their own concoctions but not much eating dude the one the one place you can eat is if you're not playing and you're an older player the equipment staff typically has food at halftime so like hot dogs or sandwiches so when i got hurt against the washington football team i was just sitting in the equipment room the rest of the game because it was the only TV. I just was eating a hot dog while everyone was out there playing. But that's it. Like, yeah, there's not much nourishment throughout the game.

I think guys would rather play a little hungry. I get when you're running for three hours, the need for some nourishment along the way. You know, it's continuous. Our wheelies get to stop and drink and rest, but you're going the whole time. Did you, at what point did you say bye to your wife? Like the gun started and you guys ran separate ways or was there a men's and women's division?

No, so she ran a half marathon and she started at a different start line. So I said goodbye to her well before it started. How long would you have run with her? If you started at the same time, how long would you have run with her before you're like, I got to go make my time? 20 seconds. Oh, okay. Oh, you'd be gone. You'd be like peace i'm out yeah yeah what the hell yeah no no shot i would slow down for her i'm just i'm just curious i don't know i don't know i mean my wife did very well uh she is not a robot jeff she is a real human being i know i saw yeah she did well um But no, we run at different speeds. So I would not have stuck around her. How long would it take me to train for a marathon? I don't know, because I

don't know how your your knees and very you've had a lot of injured parts in your day. Yeah, I'd be bad. It's pretty hard to put up with the pain of all of that. Nothing like playing in the NFL, I wouldn't think but you take a real pounding on your knees, your hips, your ankles. These are all areas that have given you trouble in the past. Yeah, I've had three ankle surgeries and two hip surgeries. I have often said that whenever you hear about someone living to like they're 100, what do they say? I drink vodka every day and smoke three packs of cigarettes. It's never like I was a marathon runner. vodka every day and smoke three packs of cigarettes it's never like i was a marathon runner i ran ultras because your feet and ankles and body get destroyed running as much as you do

but i mean obviously you feel great when you do it but are you in pain like today it's a couple days now yeah i couldn't uh i couldn't sit down uh for the morning ritual not not that there was anything wrong with the digestion my quads would not allow me to squat to have some morning time on the toilet it's been difficult you don't go to the cryo chamber I'm sure there's like a

where you live there has to be the fancy boutique recovery centers you like to try to give the audience the impression that I'm some LA hipster and I'm just living like an LA king. I don't have any of that stuff. I got water at my house

and I'll try to stretch. I got one of those Theraguns. I got one of those. It's too painful to use still. We'll get to it soon. Enough of Gabe's marathon rehab. I am happy for you. That was awesome. You ran a full marathon, three hours. That's impressive, man.

I'm not sure I could walk a marathon in 24 hours. Well, thank you. I appreciate that. It was fun. I'll do it again one day, but not for a long, long time. Let's talk about the guys who have to prepare for even more challenging physical stuff, at least more consequential physical stuff for their futures. Nobody made me do this.

The NFL combine is when a lot of guys that want to make the NFL have to show up and perform at their highest level, except a whole bunch of them are just deciding the new trend is like, ah, this isn't really worth it. Ah, I'm not really that into it. Like there's just been more conversation than I can ever remember about the,

the combine doesn't matter. Or if it matters, guys should be getting paid to be there. I saw that take a lot of wild takes out there about the combine all of a sudden unpack it for us. How much does it matter really truly this week? Yeah. So there's a lot more noise about the combine. Remember we talked about this a few weeks ago, the agents were threatening to boycott essentially their players from the combine because the NFL bubbled the combine. The NFL gave up on that, and now they're doing it like they have in previous years. Where to begin, man?

I thought the combine, there's three parts of the combine. There's the interview portion of the combine. So there's a big, I'm not sure they're doing this this year because of COVID, but in the past, there was a giant pen, like there's this giant ballroom, okay? They herd you into the ballroom whenever there's free time, and there's 30 tables with all the teams, and you sit there and you interview every team.

Like they pull you, like, come here, Schwartz, come here, Schwartz, and you talk to the scout, offensive line coach, all the tables are there. Then there's individual interviews where you go in front of the team, a team, any team, in a private hotel room. It could be the general manager, the coaching staff, the front office staff, whatever it is. They're 15 minutes long. I believe you can only have up to 15 of those. And you actually should know whether or not you're going to be a high draft pick based off that. I'll give you an example.

should know whether or not you're going to be a high draft pick based off that. I'll give you an example. I had one, one meeting, one private meeting. That was it. Should have told me a lot of teams did not think I was going high. My brother had 12. He was a high second round draft pick. Like that kind of tells you whether or not teams are, and you don't think, I don't think you know that going into it.

But all those interviews, look, it's some of the, it's basic, right? It's do you love football It's do you love football? Why do you love football? Tell me about your best games, your worst games. Tell me about your fears, your goals in the NFL. I mean, stuff that you probably get in regular interviews. And, of course, in the private interviews, there's talk about your film and what they see in your film.

Explain this, explain that. We're drawing a play. Do you remember the play? Scheme, this and that. And they question you. We've heard some of the kind of unsavory questions people have been asked. I think they're stopping those type of questions. The Combine has kind of revamped itself the last couple of years.

For listeners' sake, though, but just for a second in case people are not aware. There have been some GMs or some personnel who've asked really personal invasive questions about family members and gross stuff. like you know des bryant's mom was a famous question that was asked about right and and but you know i'll tell you what though that had nothing to do with des bryant but there are family questions that i think are worth asking if you're going to spend a first round draft pick on a player i think you want to know their family background not to the point of is your mom a stripper that has nothing to do with it but some of the questions I feel like on social media, people hammer them. But it's like, okay, if I'm drafting a guy in number 10, okay, some family questions are probably okay to be asked. Nonetheless, that's the interview part of this.

There is drug testing and the simple stuff. You fail a drug test this week, you're a dummy because you know when the test is coming. You're an idiot. And then there's the medical exams. So the combine originally was put in place for medical reasons. So it's one centralized place where all the teams are at, where they can look your body over. And I'm not sure it's the same setup now as when I went.

I think it's fairly similar. Six teams in five rooms go to all five rooms, and they look you up and down of your chart they feel and move and and move in every part of your body and they determine hey does he need x-ray mri and they send you next room same thing does he want do you want to see x-rays or mris you have this long list at the end of the day of the mris you need and the x-rays you need and that's why indy is so great because the hospital is nearby and they also bring in portable MRI machines. And you go off and get MRI of your back,

MRI of your knee, your ankle, x-ray of this and that. And that's a whole day. It's a long day process. And then there's obviously the physical part of it where you're doing the on the field drills. And that now has moved to the nighttime. A couple of changes on the physical side of it.

One is they're doing bench press the same day as they're running. You should not be that way. And secondly, they're taking the measurements of the players, height, weight, arm length, hand size. And you do all this, by the way, while you're in tights. So scouts can see your body structure. Are you built good? Are you built like a freaking wax on a candle, right?

Are you fat? Are you thin? Are you thick-hipped? All that stuff, right? I know it can be aggressive. I see your face. But all that goes into the scouting of each player. And that's the same day as you run.

It's important because a guy like me, I cut weight for my weigh-in. So I tried to lose as many pounds i cut weight for my weigh-in so i tried to lose as many pounds as i could before my weigh-in and then i had two more days to get my my weight back to run right well now it's on the same day so if you're trying to lose or gain weight just to show you've lost or gained weight but you don't actually want to run at that number or work out that number you're kind of screwed because now i if i try to lose nine pounds, I lost nine pounds like two weeks or a week to weigh in a certain weight. If I do that now, I don't really want to run while I'm starving myself for three days, right, to make weight.

I would have guessed it was the opposite. Wouldn't you want to be lighter for the run? I don't think I follow. Well, it depends on what you're – so I was naturally about 340. I weighed 331 at the combine um but that was you don't want to work out when you haven't eaten very much for two or three days you want to work out at peak like being 336 and fully fueled and with energy in my opinion is much better than 331 being you know peeing a bunch you can only water eating protein beef jerky

like those you know like that that just doesn't feel like it's the best way to run. So the way I look at the combine, now that you know the three parts of the combine, is it really can only hurt you. And this is why I think a lot of teams, a lot of players and agents have stopped going to the combine. There's already a preconceived notion of what you are based off your film,

and there's background information done about you, right? These scouts are calling schools. They've been to your school. They're talking to coaches. And so if your film is really good, you can only hurt yourself by having bad interviews, by being a jerk, and by running and testing poorly, right? If your film is good. If your film is bad, you're probably not the combine, right? If your film is good. If your film is bad, you're probably not at the combine, right?

If your film is that bad. But there's a general sense of, and if you run faster, maybe it helps you move up one round, right? But like for me, I was an intellectual player, right? I was a bright player. They got that array from my offensive line coach in college.

Like nothing I would have shown in those interviews was gonna change their opinion on me. I ran slow. It hurt me. I ran very slow. Now, that matched with my film. So that's not a big surprise. But it can only really hurt you.

It doesn't really benefit you. And that's why we're seeing more agents and players decide not to go. And now, this is being televised in primetime, this used to happen. You would wake up in the morning of the final day, Gabe. You wake up, eat breakfast, go work out. Now it's wake up, eat breakfast, do your bench press, get your measurements, and then work out at night

on primetime television. And people are talking about, hey, we got to pay these players. And they're in between, right? They're in between being in college, being in the NFL. So they they're not in a union which you don't have in college anyways but you're not in in in the nflpa so you really have no one fighting for your right to obviously not be in a bubble as we saw this year but also get paid for this event it's on national television they're bringing in revenue again you're not in college you're not getting nil deals you're not in the nfl so you're not getting paid for this and there's a lot of people calling now for the, um, for players

to get paid for participating in the combine. Yeah. So obviously the reason why some people think these guys should be paid is because obviously the league is packaging this up and making it into an event on television that they're making money off of. So if somebody is making money, why shouldn't the stars of the show be making money? That's the logic. Hard to argue with that logic. That said, I guess it also is the best opportunity we have ever known for these guys to shine and improve their status better than any interview. And if they become a star in front of the eyes of the fans, it's likely to influence GMs, right? If some guy impresses the

hell out of all of us and everyone on Twitter is talking about them, it makes it a little easier for a GM to say, we're giving that guy a bunch of money and making him part of our franchise. I mean, it does matter. Fans are part of this. Right, but you would, sure, but you would also, back when this wasn't televised on private television, the same stuff was already out there. Oh, Jeff Schwartz ran fast. He worked out well. That news was out there whether or not it was on national television, right?

So that's why I think it's so much different now. And to kind of counter the players a little bit here is that if the top 15 picks set out, we'd still watch the NFL Combine. Yeah. Like, we're thirsty for NFL content. So I'm not sure that, you know, a boycott of the drills, you're not getting paid, will be much of a hit toward the ratings. But we're seeing, you know, a decent amount of players not going to run. But we're seeing a decent amount of players not going to run.

Pro Day, Mike McCartney, who was one of my agents when I played at Priority Sports, tweeted a couple of days ago. He goes, you know, for every competition that we have in the NFL, whether it's practice or the NFL or the games, players are properly hydrated. They've slept. They've eaten properly. And they're ready to go. For the Combine, it's the opposite. It's no sleep, poor nutrition because the food's not great and up long and busy all day and then all of a sudden

you work out like it's not even you don't even work out and maybe that's the point maybe the point is you're not supposed to work out in optimal conditions in indianapolis because that shows you yeah if you run a 4-3 in indy then you're're probably going to run a 4.25 at home, right? Like you always do better pro days. So maybe that's the point. The point is that it actually is not about testing at your best. It's testing somewhere in the middle, somewhere that makes you a little stressed. How do you test when you're stressed?

Maybe it should be the new slogan of the combine. Well, but I think that's obviously important. And the job is to perform under stress and in less than optimal conditions i mean how many times do you remember in all your years playing football it being perfect it being like i feel perfectly healthy the weather's great i'm not the right position everything's just the way it should never it never is right so seeing how guys respond it's good which by the way i'm glad they've gotten rid of some of these sort of obnoxious, invasive questions. But also the ability to ask a kid a question that's meant to throw him off within certain parameters makes sense to me.

Like it's the same way every one of us went to a job interview and got asked how many marbles are in that jar. It's like they don't give a shit how many marbles are in the jar. They want to see you reason it out. They want to see your reaction to, oh, that's an interesting an interesting question well let me think about that for a sec here's how i come up with an answer so when you find out i'm going to read one apparently mike freeman tweeted this uh one player was asked during combine interviews if he was afraid of clowns like who the hell knows or cares the answer to that question, but that's meant to see, can this guy handle some weird heat? He's going to be in front of media every day

for the rest of the time he works for us. Is he going to have a smile on his face or not? I think you're exactly right. And people don't seem to get that on social media, but it's a stress test. And that's why I think you can only really fail. You can pass it, but most people pass it, right? So you can only really fail. You can, you can pass it, but most people pass it, right? So you can only really fail it. Um, and that's why I think that there's more of a call for players

to get paid and, or just not go to the combine and wait for your pro day. Yeah. And so good for them. They have the option. They can decide to skip and still see their, you know, their stock rise high. Um, one guy who already made it uh who everyone thinks is a great player but his agent maybe thinks is even better than the rest of us do uh kyler murray right so he's been through the process he proved any doubters wrong and now after a few good seasons and steadily improving with the cardinals uh his agent put out a statement i don't know what the hell that was a long paragraph or set of paragraphs basically saying pay my guy more money or he doesn't want

to be here is this the new trend just like quarterbacks basically saying to their teams i'm holding you hostage pay me before you even have to or i'm out of here so you know it's my job to to follow the stuff right um that? That statement put out was about seven paragraphs too long. Way too long. Just, it's interesting. He is a really good agent. He's a respected agent. Yeah.

Who has a lot of big clients. But that was a very juvenile press release. It was like, hey, look at my good stats. And I've made the team better. And, okay okay no playoff wins great like yes you've struggled down the stretch now the last two seasons you've been hurt down the stretch the last two seasons um we we know you want to get paid they know you want to get paid but what does this have to like are you trying to get paid or you're trying to win

public support which one are you trying to do because if are you trying to get paid or are you trying to win public support? Which one are you trying to do? Because if you're trying to get paid, you do that quietly behind the scenes. If you're trying to win public support, this is what you do. But everyone mocked you because it was a seven-paragraph essay that didn't really say anything we don't know. Oh, yeah, you made the Pro Bowl twice. Mac Jones was a Pro Bowler this season. Congratulations on that, right? And to me, I was thinking about this today.

So the NFC obviously is kind of a weak conference right now when it comes to quarterbacks. So I was thinking to myself, like, where does Kyler Murray rank in the NFL, just in the NFL in general? Because I think you would go AFC, right? You would put the five AFC quarterbacks ahead of him, right? Mahomes, Allen, Herbert, Burrow, Lamar Jackson. Those five are ahead of Kyler Murray, right?bert burrow lamar jackson those five are ahead

of you still have mahomes in the top five i'm hearing people say i i might i might drop him i might drop him even even lower now but i mean those are you feel comfortable with those five guys sure or or you know the the the the top of the top now that doesn't obviously include a deshaun watson who would be in that category in my opinion if he gets back on the field at any time on the NFC side you have to have Aaron Rodgers right Aaron Rodgers is better than Kyler Murray um is Matt Stafford better than Kyler Murray I think a lot of people would say no I'm I'm a little biased towards the yes but let's say that's a close call okay close call uh that's really bad in the NFC I mean Dak Prescott Icott, I think, is better than Kyler Murray. But I mean, Dak Prescott has to help.

That's the category of guys that Kyler fits into. Yeah. So, like, to me, he's not an elite quarterback. He's a good quarterback. Yeah, very good. Above average quarterback, but not an elite quarterback. And if the Cardinals pay him like $45 million a year, they're out of their freaking minds, dude.

Yeah. Like, he's not that type of guy. And I mean, the chutzpah is strong to put out that statement. But again, are you trying to impress the Cardinals or try to get fans on your side? It feels like it's a fan on my side type of statement. And I don't like that. We don't see Mahomes doing that. We don't josh allen do that we don't see herbert doing that um we don't see a lot of young court doug prescott didn't do this we don't see like a lot of young

quarterbacks who want new deals lamar jackson doesn't even have a deal yet now is that because he didn't put out a statement like this or or he doesn't have an agent. That might be more the reason why. But I just thought it was very immature to put this statement out when you will get paid. The Cardinals are in a tough spot. We talk about this all the time. The Cardinals, if they don't sign Kyler Murray back into a deal he wants, they're in no man's land, right?

That's a spot you want to be in. But I don't think he's done enough yet to earn the right to put out that statement. Yeah. And I guess the agent's motivation here, whatever Kyler might be thinking is like, the goal is always to get your client a huge long-term deal and just move on and be done with it. You get your commission, your client is taken care of for a few years. That might be slightly different than the way that kyler himself is looking at it right like i'm imagining that kyler is more concerned with where can i win i'm gonna be rich either way where can i win which organization has given me the

pieces i need i would argue the cardinals did a lot to give him pieces both on defense and offense to help him win. What I was confused about, Jeff, is in that statement, it seemed like they were saying, we both want Kyler to be the franchise quarterback and to be taken care of for years and years to come, sooner than you even owe him this money. And we want to make sure that you're committed to winning and building around him. Well, I have a question, because I don't know a lot about salary caps, but I know that it's hard to make sure that you're committed to winning and building around him. Well, I have a question because I don't know a lot about salary caps,

but I know that it's hard to make them work. If you give Kyler all the money, how do you pay the other guys? Well, look, they went out and got DeAndre Hopkins, right? So they, JJ Watt, like they've obviously tried to improve the roster. They have improved it at a certain place. Got AJ Green, right? They went in, they fired Steveve uh steve wilkes right to get your coach to get the guy that coached for you specifically for you they've done a lot to

make sure the roster is good enough to try to win you haven't played well down the stretch the last two years right you know you and cliff kingsbury have to figure out how to play better down the stretch if you were if you were start an NFL team right now, not start an NFL team, but let's go through, would the Patriots take Kyler Murray or Mac Jones, you think? Well, I think they would prefer Kyler Murray, but they're weird, so who knows? The Ravens and Bengals would take their own quarterbacks.

I think the Browns would take Kyler Murray, right? So would the Steelers. Yes. The Texans is a tough call because if Deshaun Watson's there, they'd keep him. The Colts would rather take Murray, right, So are the Steelers. Yes. The Texans are a tough call because if Deshaun Watson said they'd keep him, the Colts would rather take Murray, right, you think? Oh, yeah. Jacksonville would probably keep Lawrence, right?

Yeah, I think they would. Tennessee, what are they doing? They would want Kyler. Broncos, yes. Chiefs, no. Chargers, no. Raiders. Carr played well last year.

Yeah, I think it'd be pretty silly. If you gave most people the choice to have Kyler Murray at 24 or Derek Carr at whatever age he is, I think people are going Kyler Murray. Okay. Cowboys, I think they'd keep Dak. Giants, Eagles, Commanders would all take Murray, right? Oh, yeah.

What about the Bears? They get Fields a couple more years probably, right? Yeah, but I mean, Kyler Murray is Justin Fields' ceiling, it would seem. Yeah. So I think you'd rather have Kyler Murray. Lions and Vikings would do it. Packers wouldn't. Right.

The NFC South, they would all probably take him. And the NFC West, obviously, Seahawks probably no. Niners, yes. Rams, I would probably say no. Well, I mean, actually, let me quibble with that just because it's kind of fun. The Seahawks and Russ are going to be a topic we talk about a lot this offseason if you're pete carroll and you can just put feelings and relationships aside and just go i'm trading russ for kyler wouldn't you take that this is just the younger version of russ

wouldn't that be perfect uh i think i think just r Wilson's a much better thrower of the football than Murray at times. And he stays very healthy. Yeah. Murray hasn't been. That's true. That is true. So let me bring up this stat or piece of information. Hank did a good job of reminding us this.

Last five quarterbacks to be extended after their third season. So before they technically needed to be, but the team was committed to them. That was their franchise guy. Carson Wentz technically needed to be, but the team was committed to them. They wanted, that was their franchise guy. Carson Wentz. All right. Jared Goff. Deshaun Watson. Pat Mahomes.

Josh Allen. A couple of those obviously were the right choice. A couple others, maybe not so much. Like, does that inform the decision the Cardinals are thinking about? I mean, the idea is this, right? Is that if he's your guy, you sign him now because you get him

a cheaper price than you would even next year. But if there's some hesitation about him, then you'll let him play one more year. And then you have to actually probably overpay for him

next year. But if you're not sold on giving him $150 million guaranteed, then you'll wait one more year. Yeah. That's a dilemma, Gabe, right? It's wait, pay him more. But we we've seen recently whether it's baker mayfield

brown's worked out not paying him right lamar jackson probably gonna hurt the ravens for not paying lamar jackson uh or so now of course he's his own agent he's his own agent i should say or i think his mom might help him out with that. So maybe they're holding out for a certain reason. So it does, I think it goes both ways where, you know, Mahomes deal, dude, is looking to steal in a couple of years. Same with Josh Allen. Yeah. They got it done early.

That's the benefit of doing it early. Yeah. If you're the team, I should say. All right. Let me shift gears a little bit to talk about a team we spent a lot of time on here. They have a different set of issues with keeping their guys right now. So they did lock up Pat Mahomes but now uh the honey badger tyron matthew tweeted and then deleted uh the following and i i'm gonna need some help interpreting this he said i only

have one free agency wish put the mic in my helmet let me call the defense it's up top with me year 10 and people interpret that to mean like the chiefs aren't going to do that for him. He's saying, get me. I want to go somewhere else, which would indicate the decline of this Chiefs defense that suddenly became good last year. Follow the dominoes here. Is this the end of a dynasty? No, I mean, the dynasty never started. So it's not really the end of a dynasty.

Okay, fair enough. No, I mean, the dynasty never started, so it's not really the end of a dynasty. Okay, fair enough. Teron Matthew is a very heavy Twitter user, and sometimes I don't really know what he's saying. My best interpretation of this is that he wants to be the one calling the plays. I don't think he necessarily wants to leave Kansas City because of it.

If the Chiefs were to give him the most money, he'd stay in Kansas City and one-call plays and have one of the younger players do it. But that seems like a very minuscule thing to be held up on, right? Oh, oh, they're going to pay me. I'm going to go somewhere that pays me half because I get to call the plays? That seems like a rather silly thing to be held up on. Yeah, Chiefs did some interesting things.

The left tackle, Orlando Brown, Honey Badger. They've got to find a way to get rid of Frank Clark, improve their pass rush. They have a lot of things to work on this offseason, even though as good as they were last year, and they're the favorite again to go back to Super Bowl, they need to do some house cleaning, man. Honey Badger's been a great player for them. If you think he's got two or three years left,

I think it's worth signing him. You could draft a safety in the draft where you are. That's a good year for a cornerback, but we saw the Chiefs defense really take off once he became on the roster once he just leadership and his style of play and his vocalness and whatnot has really helped this team out and um i think she's seriously consider keeping him can i just follow up on a nitpick here of like i like when you take me inside a little bit more. So giving him the mic and letting him call the defense, how common is that for a safety?

And why is that important to him if we want to jump inside his mind? Well, it doesn't happen so much on safeties because they're in the back end of the defense, right? Now you all see all kind of come together and huddle, but Eric Weddle had the dot for the Super Bowl, which is an incredible story, by the way. Maybe he, geez, he played through a torn pec injury.

No, I think it's just a sign of respect, right, that you're the guy calling the plays. Obviously, the quarterback calls the plays on offense, and one player on defense, most often it's the three-down linebacker, right, who's ever in the linebacker spot. And, of course, if that linebacker gets hurt, other players have a green dot helmet.

So the honey betcher probably has a helmet that has the microphone system in there, the speaker in there. He doesn't wear it when the other player has it on the field, right? So I think it's a sign of respect, Gabe. That's what I think it is, a sign of respect that he's the guy calling the plays. Okay, but more money is also a pretty good sign of respect, right? So if they just pay him what he thinks he's worth and then say, yeah, you know, this linebacker over here is going to keep calling the plays, Tyron, just make some –

Correct. Hit people when they come near you, he'll be good. The thing about the NFL, it's very simple sometimes, right? We talk about how complicated it can be, but a lot of times it comes down to money, right? Money. Money. Just if you pay someone a certain amount of money, they're more likely to do something than not.

Yeah, and I'm guessing here, I don't want to try to age him out of the game, but he's probably got one more good contract left. I don't see him having multiple contracts. You're right, yeah. And that's why the Chiefs can make the argument of just getting younger at that position and say, hey, we're moving on.

We're getting younger. All right, well then let's talk about one other Chiefs related decision this offseason yeah you were mr they need a wide receiver too going into the season you never seem to give up on that idea uh mike williams who turned out to be a very good receiver this year at least for long stretches of the year uh with justin herbert he could be available he might cost more than they should spend but what do you think about the idea of taking the Chargers weapon and putting him on the Chiefs offense?

I love it because he's the type of guy they need. They need a big-bodied wide receiver that can go get them the ball in certain situations. It's interesting. They struck out three times last year on wide receivers. I was actually surprised to see that. So I think Mike would be a fantastic addition to the Chiefs. I think that in the draft, you go get pass rusher, secondary players,

and you hit free agency for the wide receivers. And Mike Williams would be a good spot to go. Again, a bigger wide receiver, catch some fades, makes life a little easier on Pat Mahomes on third down when they're doubling Tyrico, Travis Kelsey. Just throw it to the big wide receiver, catch some fades, makes life a little easier. And Pat Mahomes on third down. And they're doubling Tyrico, Travis Kelsey. Just throw it to the big wide receiver. One last Chiefs thing, by the way. Eric Bien-Ami is back.

And I actually didn't think he would be back. And Matt Nagy, by the way, came back as quarterback coach. So that kind of got everyone back together again. Look, the Chiefs were in an awkward spot, right? Because they'd won four straight, I mean, they played four straight NFC Championship games. And it just would seem odd

to get rid of your offensive coordinator. And again, it's Andy Reid's offense, but Eric B. and me plays his coach on the team. He deserves credit for what they've done. It would be odd to get rid of him after four years. So EB's back and naggy's back to coach the quarterbacks they have a good staff again it's up to you know getting mahomes more in the rhythm to start the season yeah well i wonder if the weird articles that

surfaced in the last couple weeks and all the chatter on twitter about what was really going on behind the scenes in kansas city i wonder if any of that will linger into next season. And if as soon as anything goes wrong, if people will pounce on the, uh-oh, EB isn't the guy. I feel like that narrative's coming back. Well, what I've gathered from the Chiefs, and obviously from watching the Chiefs for so many years now, when the offense is good, everyone says,

it's Eric Bannaby's offense. When it's bad, they say it's Andy Reid's offense. That's what seems to be the conversation, right? When the offense is bad, it's Eric Benhamy's offense. When it's bad, they say it's Andy Reid's offense. That's what seems to be the conversation, right? When the offense is bad, it's never like, well, Eric Benhamy has to fix it. It's Andy Reid has to fix the offense. Andy Reid got figured out. Andy Reid and Pat Mahomes.

It just feels like that's the way this situation has always been covered. In the end, guys, it's Andy Reid's offense. But again, EB's a coach on offense. It's been the first time he's changed. He deserves credit for that. No doubt about it. And it would have been weird if he would have had to leave.

Yeah. All right. Well, they're still your AFC favorite? Yeah. Them and Buffalo. I think those teams probably meet in the AFC championship game if everyone stays healthy. All right. Let's take a quick break. Come back. Move the line. Our over-under game. We've got a

few other stories to hit uh including we'll go away from football for a minute because it's the offseason why not so let's take a quick break we'll be right back jeff we're back it's time to move the line um you never prepare for this segment i usually put a lot of thought into this this week i have to confess i didn't put a lot of thought into it which means the first topic is something i absolutely would never have agreed to this is on the banned list i do not want to ask this question i hate that it's in the rundown but here goes over under five percent chance he who shall not be named carson wentz plays another snap for the team that shall not be named the colts. I hate this topic. Feel free to ignore it. Let me find the old tweet here

from Combine today. So a lot of press conferences happen at Combine. Colts General Manager Chris Ballard on Carson Wentz's future with Indy. I don't have the direct answer for you. We're working through it. Ultimately, we'll do what's best for the Colts. Ugh.

Ugh. Jeez. I mean, I for the Colts. Oh, geez. I mean, I get the idea of evaluating everyone, and that's what you're supposed to say. But you trade it up. You trade it for this guy. He's your guy. Now, Jim Irsay, the Colts owner, feels very much out on Carson Wentz. That might drive a lot of this, right, Gabe?

So I would say that under, under 5%. I think he moves on and they move forward. Yeah, okay, great. Can we move on? I don't want to. Yes, we can, yes. I'm so, so completely and totally over that guy and that team. They're just completely middling.

They are 100% the team right on the edge of the playoffs, guaranteed. I don't know whether they're going to just get in or just be out. Who cares? I don't want to talk about them. All right. This year's quarterback class, they're more fun to talk about. Are they? Yeah, not as many big names, but it's quarterbacks and they're drafting. So that's fun to talk about. I do want to ask, though, over under four and a half games, Mitch Trubisky starts next season because the quarterback class of free agents is also kind of appealing.

This is a very odd thing, right? There has been a lot of NFL media beating the drum very hard for Mr. Trubisky and his rehabilitation. He went to Buffalo. He's better now. Got away from Matt Nagy. But I think what's driving it is what you just said. There's no NFL quarterbacks. The free agency class is like nothing this year.

And if teams want to move on from their quarterback, Trubisky's like the best free agent option. Yikes. I think over. I think he goes somewhere and he plays next year. I think someone convinces themselves. This is what happens with first-round draft picks. High first-round draft picks.

We talk about this a lot, right? He goes somewhere, somewhere new. Teams convince themselves, I can fix him. I can do it. If we bring them into our place i'll fix them it it doesn't work like ever doing that i would say over i think he goes somewhere i don't know where and ends up playing uh the over four and a half games so five games at least yeah he it seems destined to be linked to a guy like Matt Rule, who is like, I realize nobody else could make this guy who sucks good, but I'll figure it out.

I'm like, no, you won't, man. Mitch Trubisky just maybe isn't that guy, or if he is. Sam Donald's your boy, USC and the Jets. Don't call him my boy. Speaking about Matt Rule and the Panthers, I'm going to the first soccer game for Charlotte I've seen at home this weekend. Brand new team. Nice.

My wife is like, we're bringing the kids. It's at 730. It's late. Whatever. And she's like, do they have Vuvuzelas? I'm like, hon, that was like 17 years ago. They don't do such a thing at games now. She ordered two Vuvuzelas.

Nice job. I'm like, love love you can't bring them into this into the stadium so she's like yeah they're gonna the kids are gonna blow them throughout the house and i was like that's a that's a bad choice why why why do we mean more noise in our house now that's idiotic i i like the idea of being the two people with vuvuzelas at the soccer game. Having a vuvuzela in your house is the worst idea I've ever heard. Oh, my God.

That's worse than chickens, which you already also tried. She said the other day, too. She's like, I miss our chickens. I don't miss cleaning up their dead bodies. And by the way, the owl's out there. Every night we go out there, the owl's like, hoo-hoo, he's out there. He's going to murk them again. The owl is still the main culprit? I thought you thought it was a hawk.

You're back to an owl now? No, it was an owl and a hawk and a raccoon. A raccoon got four of them. A hawk got one and then an owl got another one and then we don't know what got another one.

We ended up having one of eight, and we gave that one away. We're like, that's enough. And the raccoon thing, like the raccoon pried open the, like ripped open the thing and jumped in there. And the other one's just like, we had him out roaming around the backyard,

and the hawk just showed up. So bad news. Yeah, don't get more chickens. Don't allow the Vuvuzelas in your house. Both those ideas are bad. Okay, over under 13.5 teams make the playoffs in baseball this season. We're talking about expanding the baseball playoffs. Well, there ain't going to be no baseball right now.

So they had set this arbitrary deadline of yesterday, actually, for if there's no CBA between owners and players, we're pushing back the season. They move that back to today. Today, as we record this, is Tuesday, March 1st. That appears to not happen. MLB has offered their final, best and final offer. The reports are the union told them to go F themselves,

and they weren't actually very close. The media, you know, there's obviously pro-ownership writers. They get their news from the writer's side, excuse me, from the ownership side. And they put out yesterday that they were close. In fact, the players are all coming on Twitter today and saying, no, we actually weren't close at all. So it looks like baseball will be delayed.

They can't get out of their own way, Gabe. It'd be perfect timing for baseball, right? We have football slowed down. We have a little March march madness coming up soon and baseball starts you know end of march beginning of april but it looks like it's going to be delayed and i look i i'm i want to watch baseball obviously but i hope the players get what they want to so we'll see we'll see what happens i would say uh under the players have said they're not going to agree to expanded playoffs in a shortened season. In a shortened season, right.

Obviously, 162 games is more than we all need now that we can watch out-of-market games. I don't think this ever gets talked about, really. Having a game on almost every day when all you could watch was your hometown team makes some sense to me for sports fans in the summer but if you really love baseball and your team only plays five days a week instead of six you can find other baseball games to watch like i don't think we need to play 162 regular season games if you're going to add postseason games great but we don't need 162 plus however many in the postseason that feels like too much baseball to me uh yeah i mean i need 162 plus however many in the postseason. That feels like too much baseball to me. Yeah, I mean, I think 162 plus a normal postseason is fine.

I mean, like I just, I watch it, I like it all. But yeah, I mean, less games would be fine too, in my opinion. I mean, they're not, the star players don't play 162 anymore. There's no Cal Ripkins out there. Those days are over. Well, most play more than you think in baseball. Basketball is the one where there's more of the load management.

But yeah, if it was 154 games, 142 games, whatever it is. That would be plenty. That's plenty, yeah. They could start the season at the same time and end it at the same time. They just have a few more off days. Are you a Dodger fan now?

No, what? No, get out of here. It's hard enough to track your fandom. No, I'm not going to Are you a Dodger fan now? No, what? No, get out of here. It's hard to attract your fandom. No, I'm not going to ever be a Dodgers fan. There's a few teams that are off limits. I'm a Mets fan who can't root for the Dodgers. I'm trying to make the kids... Why can't you root for the Dodgers?

Because, F them, man. They've ruined a few seasons for us. So wait, if I could grow up in Los Angeles and be a Giants fan, you can grow your kids up to be Mets fans. I don't want them to be Mets fans. Why would I sign them up for that?

No, I'm going to try to make them be Angels fans. Why would you do that? They win less than the Mets. I mean, first of all, it's easier to get to the park. I don't want to have to drive up to Echo Park.

I'm going to drive down to Anaheim. Easier to get tickets. Otani is exciting. Like, you know, that's manageable. I don't want to have to go spend a gazillion dollars

to sit in four hoursillion dollars to sit in four hours of traffic to sit in a burning hot stadium in echo park no thanks not to mention root for a team that has ruined a few seasons in my life and signed chase utley you you need to take him to to shay get him a city field get him excited for happy to take him to city field one day uh city feels very nice great park they can be honorary Mets fans as well. But my son has a Mets t-shirt, but he's not going to be a Dodgers fan. Good.

I like your son even more now. Yeah, yeah. All right, quick one here for you. Jeff, over under 110% chance you already bought New Balance cleats. You were fawning over them on Twitter. Oh, man. Those are some good-looking cleats, man.

Oh, they are so dorky. I had New Balance cleats for the combine. God. I wonder if they make them in my size. Let's see. They used to. I joked with our crew that when you were, like, raving over these cleats, which are, like, the most dad-shoe cleats I've ever seen in my life.

Jeff, you are, like, one of the actors in those progressive ads where they're like, how do you avoid turning into your parents? And then it's just these guys saying things like our 70-year-old dads would say. You're one of those guys, Jeff. Yeah. Do you have a problem with that? I don't really see the issue in that. No, I mean, I guess I respect it.

Let's see. I'm just, I am what I am. Oh my God, they have these new Kawhi basketball shoes on here. They have a unisex lifestyle shoe. That's a bold shoe. I would not wear that one. No cleats, unfortunately. My size on their website.

It's unfortunate. I don't think they make a lot of things in your size. Oh, they have a ton of shoes. They have very good looking shoes in my size. Oh, my God. They have these green ones. Oh, they have a ton of shoes. They have very good looking shoes in my size. Oh my God. They have these green. Ooh. Look at these green ones.

Oh my God. Wait, they have only 16. Dang it. What is your, you're aware of 17? 18. 18.

Oh man. This is, that would have been cool. I would have bought those. I would have bought those like on the spot. We're, we're now listening to you like search Amazon for shoes. No, I'm on New Balance's website.

I'm a frequent purchaser of their... I've seen your shoe closet. It is full of New Balance. It was more to make fun that my wife had all those Chanel shoes than it was to make fun of my New Balance shoes. She had these four pairs of Chanel shoes. I took out four pairs of New Balance shoes and made a video

and did it for the Graham clout. Yeah, you put some Graham out there. All right, let me just wrap up with this one. Jeff, please tell me one to ten how much you relate to this tweet. So a reporter spoke to Drake Jackson for a story ahead of the combine. The former USC edge rusher is up to almost 270 pounds and looking huge quote that's what i was trying to do at sc jackson said i couldn't gain a pound to save my life got here then got humongous do you relate to this tweet uh i relate to the tweet because i gain a lot of

weight very easily i understand i understand that pain i, he's in a great eating place, right? Like all the food by campus in Los Angeles. You want to put on weight? LA is a good city to do that. It's like New York, you walk too much. Have you ever noticed in New York City, there's no fat people walking around anywhere because you have to walk everywhere in New York City. That's right. In LA, you drive everywhere, right?

You sit in your car. You eat terribly. Don't work out as much. I mean, not you, obviously, who runs marathons, but the rest of the schmoes in LA that don't run marathons. You can get away with not moving much in LA. That is the irony of it. That said, you got to go to the beach here and you don't have to do that in New York. So the good looking people are extra good looking out here. Well, that's, yes. And you walk the beach because you live in that posh la lifestyle

and there we've come full circle back to my posh la lifestyle well jeff we are back in the swing of things finally a little cool off after the super bowl but we're going to heat up when we get a little closer to the tourney which is coming soon try to give people some smart picks make some money on watching the tourney and then we're in draft mode so we're gonna have some fun we're gonna try some new games out in the off season we got fun fun shows planned yes um we we will try maybe we'll try the the girlfriend idea we'll see if our wives would that's gonna be a it'd be a heavy lift but there might be episode with wives on at some point i don't know hammer and hank behind the scenes people if you're listening to this point you know who hank is he uh he's got a big idea he's got a

big idea he's selling us on i think we're gonna try it we're gonna try it but i have to tell my wife i do a podcast and i have to remind my wife i still do that podcast with you because she would also be surprised to hear that yeah and then matt's wife i think knows that he does a podcast she might be aware but she doesn't they haven't had kids yet so she is still like actually in love with him and spends time with him as opposed to our wives who are like, get out of my face. I'm sick of you. I have to travel for some upcoming work stuff. And they're getting into like the Soman's parent corner, right?

Every time I talk about my family on this podcast, I think it's about that, ripping off his bit. And I said to her yesterday, I said, it's going to be a lot of travel this spring. Do you care? She's like, no, whatever. Bye. Just, like, come back when you're ready to come back.

Just doesn't care at all. It's going to be our eight-year anniversary next week. So chuck and rug along. All right, guys. We will be back next week. As usual, powered by the Varsity Podcast Network, as Gabe mentioned, with March Madness hitting it bright. This week, we have a lot of women's college basketball tournaments

for the conferences. Next week, we have the men's. Week after that, obviously, we'll be full into March Madness. So we'll give you guys some picks, our thoughts on that. And then draft, right? We have draft props on the gambling side, and we prepare you for the draft at the end of April. And then, boom, man, we are like,

you know there's a line out already for the Hall of Fame game. Raiders, Jaguars. Raiders traded by three. 34 and a half is the total for that. So football will be here before we know it, guys. Have a great week. Please rate, review, subscribe. Really appreciate that.

At Jeff Schwartz as well on Twitter. Talk to you guys in a week. We'll see you next week.