Geoff Schwartz Is Smarter Than You - NFL Combine Concerns, Franchise Tags & Tom Brady's Mind Games

Episode Date: March 3, 2020

Geoff and Gabe are back to tell you what events really matter at the NFL combine, what exactly Julian Edelman and Tom Brady are doing and what getting franchise tagged means to the player himself. Plus, we've got a special insert from the guys at Pardon My Take. Cold Open: Former ASU punter Michael Turk’s 25 reps of 225 pounds — a record for a punter since the NFL began keeping official combine statistics in 2003. NFL Combine: (1:03) Brady & Edelman: (16:38) Franchise Tagging: (25:30) PMT: (35:01) 'Move the Line' Betting Segment: (42:50) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

from the athletic i'm jeff schwartz i'll tell you what events really matter at the nfl combine whether or not julie edelman and tom Tom Brady are playing mind games this offseason, and we'll tell you what getting the franchise tag really means to an NFL player. It's Tuesday, March 3rd, and this is Jeff Schwartz is Smarter Than You. Welcome back, everyone. I'm back from vacation. All y'all are back from a wonderful weekend. NFL Combine dominated our minds.

Tom Brady, Julie Edelman, all of that. Gabe Goodwin, welcome in. Glad to have you today. Thank you. I watched more video of you on your Mexican vacation than the NFL Combine. And we will get into that right away. There is a lot more to break down with you and Maya Rivera, wherever you were, than whatever the hell I was watching in Indy.

Here's the thing, man. The NFL Combine is nothing more than a good TV show. Okay, we are learning absolutely nothing watching these guys run around in their underpants. I refuse to believe that this is a real event that scouts actually take seriously. By the way, Joe Burrow and Chase Young, the top two picks, they agree. They sat this one out. Chase Young said, I don't want to waste time trying to be a

combine athlete you know what he's right all you can do is get hurt say something dumb or screw up an event that costs you a whole bunch of money in the draft any star should skip this event it's fun to watch but it's a complete and utter waste of time for scouting okay i think you made a good point there to the hell yeah rambling um the combine more often than not hurts players than makes makes uh them money right and here's why you're pretty much we'll start from the physical side first because that's what we see right i told you this before the medical and the interview part that are that we do not see as as viewers of the combine because now the combine's in prime time that matters the most okay so we do not see as viewers of the combine, because now the combine's in prime time, that matters the most, okay? So we'll start with the physical stuff.

Scouts already know with relative accuracy what you're going to run at the combine, right? What your physical limitations are, what your physical talents are. They pretty much know what you're going to do at the combine when you step up to run that 40 or when you do your three cone or when you do your position. So most of the time, the combine just confirms what scouts already knew. So if you're Chase Young, you're Joe Burrow, you're even Isaiah Simmons, who at 220 pounds ran a 4.39. He was a linebacker right out of Clemson.

Amazing. You don't really have to run. They know what you can do. It's for other guys that need to show that they can move at a certain weight, that they're able to do position drills at this weight or that weight, or there's questions about their lateral quickness, or there's questions about the speed. So what the combine does is it either reaffirms what scouts already know or it forces

scouts to go back and watch the film if the numbers that you put up don't match exactly what they see on film so if you're a guy for example who um there's a wide receiver out of colorado lavisca chanel now he has to get core core surgery after this so that affected his 40 time but he ran a much slower 40 time than he showed on the field, right? On the field, he's out of Colorado. I watched a bunch of his games. He is super fast. He runs by everybody, okay?

But his 40 time would indicate that he does not run by everybody at that position. So scouts have to go back. Now, of course, he was hurt, so I won't throw that in there. I'm just using this general idea as an example. But scouts don't have to go back and be like, why is his 40 number slower than his film? Like, what's the reason for that? And do we expect that to be a problem in the NFL? So that's what the physical part of the combine is for.

Again, you pretty much know what guys are going to do entering the day. You've watched them play for three years now. You know if they're fast. You know if they're quick. You know if they're big. You know if they're strong. So just it reaffirms what scouts or, you know. Now, I want to say one thing about guys not participating in the Combine.

A lot of the players are very competitive, right? And it's hard to tell them if you're an agent or you're an advisor to not run in the combine. A lot of guys want to break records. A lot of guys want to show out. And they're competitive. And they're going to do it, Gabe. They want to be part of the combine.

I agree with you, though. The top 15 guys, they don't have to work out. But you have a guy that's competitive, Okuda from Ohio State, right? He said that he wanted to break records, right? That has been his motivation during this whole thing, was that he wanted to break records of players at his position. And so he wanted to run the combine. He didn't have to run.

He still would have been in the top five pick if he didn't run at all, but he wanted to get in. So there are players that just personal pride, they want to work out the combine. Okay, that i mean whatever it takes to motivate yourself i'm just saying that even if you do very well here's something you hear a lot right okay guy from some random school surprises everyone runs a much faster 40 than anyone expected wow holy crap who's this guy and we all spend a couple hours and then after the joy of that has sort of made its way through twitter you get someone like you know deon sanders

or you know marshall fuck come on tv and go yeah but let me see him do it in pads on game day and then it invalidates anything we just watched and it's like just this want want comes down well are they right like is that a fair analysis? Again, and this is – I think they're not saying this with the eloquence that probably needs to be said. But in the end, the film matters the most, right? So if you have a guy that – again, to my point about Luviska Chenault is that like if you have a guy that runs really fast and you don't expect him to run as fast, you have to go back and watch the film, especially if it's a cornerback position or wide receiver or safety or something where you're, you're running right,

running back. And you say, well, why did this show up on film? Is he, is, is the player slow out? You know,

if he's a defensive back, right. Is he slow reading the coverage? So therefore he's late breaking on, you know, not coverage. He's slow to, to read routes.

And is he late breaking on a wide receiver? So he doesn't look as fast as he runs in the combine does he take poor angles pursuit angles that's why he's not as fast as he ran at the combine so to their point yes you have to go back and watch what the combine is a small is a small nugget of information along the entire process right you have the film the interviews the medicals are hugely important you have the combine you, right? You have the film, the interviews, the medicals are hugely important. You have the combine, you have pro day, you have senior bowl, you have background checks, you have all these different things that go into your combine folder,

or not combine folder, your prospect kind of folder for every single prospect. The combine, again, typically reaffirms what people already thought about you. It can help a couple guys. You saw Mekhi Becton, 36 364 pound lineman out of louisville run a 5-1 40 run a 1-8-4 uh 10 10 seconds split um yeah so look he was already gonna be probably a top 15 pick and probably put him in the top 15 now um so there's you know guys like that every now and then kind of move up maybe five or ten spots but more often

than not guys stay the same or they drop back. You really don't have guys that climb like full rounds or they really shouldn't. If they do, then you're probably going to miss on that guy. And there's a couple of guys' names floating around that seem to – most on the quarterback side, I think. But guys that are a full round higher now after they worked out, that's a recipe for a mistake and too high of a draft pick. Yeah, your eyes will deceive you.

So let me ask you this, though, before we switch gears, because I think this is kind of, at this point in the year, in the calendar, this is kind of all we have to talk about, right? This is the only action that they can run on the networks now. What about, you know, some of the lesser-known guys, the guys who are those mid-round picks? And I'll ask you, because you've shared some pictures of you running at the combine. You had great flow, by the way known guys, the guys who are those mid-round picks. And I'll ask you, because you've shared some pictures of you running at the combine. You had great flow,

by the way. Oh, it was great. Yeah, really, really nice. You know, you were not a top 15 pick. You're a hell of a player. People knew who you were coming out of college. You came from a big school. You had a great career, but you were not a top 15 pick. So what was it like for you? And is there something to gain for guys more in your range? You know, a lot of people have questions about my strength and that I didn't bench at the comment. I'll tell you a good story about that. So September of my senior year. Now, I'll go back.

I've never been a great bench presser. It's never been my thing. Even at the top when I was in the NFL and I'm stronger, kind of the grown man strength, right? Like I did 365 like once, okay? Like it never is my thing. I did 225, which is the standard combine test, like 27 times, I think. So I got my strength up to where it was acceptable at some point. So in college, September of my senior year, I had a wrist injury. So when you bench press, you typically lock your thumb kind of around the bar, right? It's kind of attaches the bar into your hands and then you

bench, okay? Or your thumb is maybe on the outside, but whatever, your thumb kind of helps you do that. Jeff, you don't have to explain bench pressing to me. I mean, I know this is an audio format, but one good look at me, everyone will understand. I do a lot of bench pressing. Yes. I know this is an audio format, but one good look at me, everyone will understand. I do a lot of bench pressing. Yes. So basically, my wrist was messed up. I couldn't lock my thumb on the bench.

I'm lifting 225. It fell out of my hands, called a suicide grip. It fell out of my hands, hit my chest while I was lifting the week we played Michigan. And basically, for lack of a better word, I basically fractured my sternum, okay? And I was so embarrassed that I didn't tell. I only told one trainer and I told them not to tell anyone. So no one knew. I played the entire season this way. They created like a plate for me to wear under my shoulder pads.

It was so bad at practice that week. I was crying at practice in pain. Like I just didn't. I was so embarrassed I didn't tell anyone. So I didn't bench. I managed to skirt my way out of benching the entire season. So I show up in Nashville for combine training. I get three

reps of 225 in January. And I eventually got to like 17 or 18 by the time we had to go for the combine. And I didn't bench at the combine. We told them I had like a pec injury. And that hurt me. So I was drafted seventh round. I talked to the Panthers player, scouting director a couple years after I drafted.

He said, yeah, you never benched. We thought you weren't very strong. That led us to drop you in the draft. So I think that for certain players, if there's question marks about them and you don't do the drill they want you to do, they're going to drop you down. Now, I ran an okay time, 5'3", 330 pounds, whatever. My 10 actually was really good at one, one, seven, eight. That's really, that's important for offensive linemen. Um, but like that hurt me that I, they had a specific question about me as a later round pick.

I did not answer their question and it hurt that I didn't do that. Okay. That's all fascinating stuff. And so you said at the beginning of this segment that the physical stuff that we see on TV is actually less important. So that was a lot of insight into the, how people make decisions and what it can impact to a mid round guy. So talk to us about a few of the conversations you have. We hear these quotes come out and some of them in past years have been really kind of jarring and weird. What, what kind of things people get asked. So us some examples of what you you're calling the more important stuff the conversations behind the scenes so you know you have um up to up to 15 um instances where you can have a private interview to combine so you go into a room for 15 minutes with the entire staff of said team, coach, GM, front office personnel, scouts, position coach, whatever it is.

You get up to 15 of those. Wait, sorry. Sorry to interrupt you. Each player gets 15 choices or each team gets 15 guys they get to talk to? Or it lasts 15 minutes. I'm sorry. I misunderstood what you said. Okay.

So each player gets up to 15 private interviews, and they last 15 minutes long. I do not know how the teams, how they dole out the interviews. I don't know if 30 teams put a request in for Chase Young, which 15 teams get them. I don't know. Or how does that work? I don't know. Well, but I mean, we don't need 30 teams to talk to Chase Young

because about four teams might even have a chance at him. Correct. But the reason why those interviews are put in place is because they want to stress you. So a lot of times they get you on the board, they draw plays, and there's a lot of guys that they have specific questions about, whether it's drug use, they failed a drug test, they have some sort of incident in the police record, something else. They find on a background check, They find something out about you. They typically are trying to press you to see how you handle the pressure of that environment.

I only had one. And that's actually a good indication, by the way, of whether or not you're viewed as a top prospect. My brother had 12 second round draft pick. I had one of his interviews. And my interview wasn't that bad. I was with Seattle, Mike Holmgren. They pulled up a clip against Washington State and said,

hey, why weren't you playing hard on this play? Like, they knew. I watched my entire film. I wasn't. I mean, they were right. It just wasn't as good as I needed it to be. So answer honestly. We saw this clip come out of Triadams this week.

It shouldn't have been leaked. I was kind of upset to see that it got leaked, but it did. triadams this week um it shouldn't have been leaked i was kind of upset to see they got leaked but it did um and you know they asked him what what he you know what he wants to change about himself and he answered he wants a bigger uh something on his body um so just just be honest if you can't have an answer be honest and that's what they're looking for honesty and be able to handle the pressure of those interviews that doesn't seem like the answer i would give that i knew would then get out i would have have said something else. Well, they're not supposed to get out. That was, um, I don't think I've seen a leaked interview ever, a private interview like that. Um, someone must've thought

it was pretty funny. Yeah. Well, it sounds like these interviews go a lot like a best man speeches. Like unless you're genuinely funny, don't try to be funny in this situation. Just be sincere, be succinct, say something smart and get the hell out of there because nobody's looking to watch people blush. And I will say, like, I prepped. It was in Dallas a couple weeks ago, and I prepped some of the kids for this process. I just told them, be authentic. Be yourself. Andy Reid says, he always tells his players, well, let your personality shine before every game.

He tells everyone that. So let your personality shine. So if you are, to your point, if you're not a jokester, then don't joke. If you're not a funny guy, don't be funny. Just be yourself. Answer questions honestly. But the most important thing is the medicals. Every team, they group the teams together. At least when I was through the process, there's six rooms, five teams in a room. They go over your entire medical history. They prod your body. They poke it. They move it in different directions.

They order a ton of MRIs. I had five MRIs. And then that's the biggest part of it. And this is why the Combine started. It was a centralized place where they can do physicals for everyone. And all of that is the team requesting it. Do you have the ability to say no thank you? Like what are your rights in that process?

I mean, I guess you could, but I don't think anybody's ever done that. Okay. So it would be like pleading the fifth. Like then people would sort of go like, oh, yeah, yeah. He wouldn't let us scan his elbow. There must be something wrong with his elbow. They found I injured my knee in college, my left knee. I didn't miss any time.

It's a freshman, I should say. True freshman. I injured my knee as a, my left knee. I didn't miss any time. It's a freshman, I should say. True freshman. I injured my knee as a true freshman. Played four years. Never bothered me since it happened. Missed no practice, missed no time. Barely got any treatment for it. And they found it in the, like, as someone was feeling up on my knee,

they found, like, oh, that's a little loose here. MRI, boom. That's how simple it is. Well, sounds like that guy who talked about wishing he had a bigger stuff down there he didn't even have to reveal that they were going to find it themselves that's the way the way it works sometimes with those x-rays is um they're uh very visible to see yeah my wife has made jokes about this she's in the nursing profession and she's made jokes about how um you can see everything on those x-rays.

Sure can. I remember a few years ago somebody wanting to prove transparency and show what happened to their injury actually accidentally revealed their junk. You recall this? This is findable on Twitter. Somebody – it was a big-name guy shared – like he had a hip injury or something. The hip is the easiest one to see. He shared the. And there it was just staring right back at us. Yeah. It's incredible.

Yeah. Um, all right. Speaking of, uh, transparency, I guess is the segue. Did you see this video of Tom Brady and Julian Edelman hanging out at a

basketball game? Oh yeah. The court side with Jimmy Fallon. Okay. It was at Syracuse too. It was like a, like a, why would they be in Syracuse? They're at a big college basketball game sitting next to Jimmy Fallon next to the court on ESPN and their FaceTime and Mike Vrabel in the middle of all of this. Okay. So just picture that if you haven't seen that video, go find it. There's millions of views of it on Twitter.

It's as ridiculous as it sounds. All of this is happening while Tom Brady is playing coy and acting like, you know, it's a big mystery where he's going to end up next year. And as if it couldn't get even stupider and weirder. And this guy couldn't be even more of an attention hound in the middle of this video shot by network cameras okay they're right up close on edelman and brady and edelman joking around looking right into the camera says he's coming back he's coming back and brady stares at him for a comedic beat and says no he's not now tom brady

is zero percent funny so there was no joke in this he was tom tom tom didn't i don't think tom said anything he said no he's not go watch the video i'm not some reddit guy this is right there for everyone to see whatever you say he mouths no he's not as in no i'm not coming back to new england and he said it right into the camera for everyone to see at this game in front of thousands all of this i'll shut up in a second but all of this is evidence of the fact that Tom Brady is treated differently than every other athlete on the planet. I don't need to do a what if here, but what if that had been LeBron James during one of his free agencies? What if LeBron James was sitting courtside at some game, yucking it up with a former teammate and mouthing that he's not coming back to Cleveland or Miami or wherever it was at the time. Can you imagine the head explosions the next day on all these morning shows? And yet with Tom Brady, we're all like, gee, I wonder where he will end up.

Huh? Well, where should he play? We take it seriously and we give him respect. I don't know why he's earned this respect. Why aren't we treating him the same way we would treat LeBron or any other star in the NFL if they did this? I mean, he's earned respect because he's Tom freaking Brady. He's won six Super Bowls. Shut up! And I know you hate, as a New England Patriots hater, and as someone who despises them and hates Tom Brady to their core, I understand why you'd be upset about this. Look, very simply, Tom Brady just wants Bill Belichick

to call him and say he loves him. It's that simple. That's all this is. All this is is he wants Bill Belichick to pick up the phone and be like, Tom, I want you in New England. That's all he wants. It's not going to happen. He wants the Patriots to give him some attention.

Look at, I keep going back, we've talked about this so much this offseason, is the best situation for him is in New England. Now, I think there's a big gap in the amount of years that Belichick would want to offer Tom Brady. I think Brady wants a three-year deal. I think Belichick wants to go year by year. But in the end, the best place for him is New England, right? He's obviously been there his whole career.

He knows the routine. He doesn't have to show up in the offseason. He knows Belichick. He trusts Belichick. He trusts Joshua Daniels, right? His family's there. All of it makes perfect sense of why he stayed, why he would stay, okay? He just wants New England to give him some love.

He wants, and it's a weird ask because Belichick, that's not his personality, right? He's not a guy that goes out of his way to show love to his players. But that's what he wants. He wants some love. And I'll tell you this. I've been through free agency. I've done it as a middle-tier offensive guard, okay? It's awesome.

It's awesome that everyone wants you. It's awesome that people are calling your agent. I had nine teams call my agent. It's actually the morning of my wedding, weirdly enough, but the morning of my wedding when free agency opened up, I had nine people call. You know how cool that is to have nine teams call and say, hey, we want Jeff Schwartz, right? And all these people writing articles about you,

like the best free agent card available is Jeff Schwartz, right? Tom Brady, he loves all that right now. He's soaking it in, but in the end, he loves all that right now he's soaking it in but in the end he just wants to go home but he wants them to want I deeply want him back okay I'm sorry where in his bruised small ego is there a hole that needs to be filled with adulation and respect we're not allowed to speak about this guy without pointing out his six rings and and his brilliant career what what does he want belichick he wants his belichick to acknowledge that okay that's never gonna happen right that guy has a whole but i do think that in the end

robert craft will will make it happen but i think in right now he's enjoying he knows, by the way, that he is the holdup. He's the one who's paralyzing Freightnessy right now. No one can do anything in Freightnessy because Tom Brady has not given his answer about where he's going to play. Well, okay. And so that's why, again, I'd like everyone out there who talks about sports for a living to just consider what your opinion was of LeBron James or other stars people don't like LeBron because they're they're they're silly and they hold weird grudges and because he he went on tv 10 years ago now to announce he was going to Miami and he by the way he donated like three million dollars during the cast he did a lot of good and he continues to do good and you know what he also has a big ego but he's not every time he does anything in public everyone has an

opinion on it even when bad things happen in his life people have opinions on i don't understand tom brady's hamming in front of a camera okay he's seeking this attention and the criticism doesn't follow i don't i don't understand it and okay so but but fine the bachelor is already compared this to the bachelor by the way we have the bachelor all of sports twitter whole other topic for another day why is sports twitter obsessed with the bachelor what the is going on i don't get it man it's like it's not even sports but it's football twitter like football twitter loves the bachelor bachelor i don't get it i think they're terrible to watch every time my wife watches it i just go grab my ipad and watch

something else um it's awful yeah i can't stand it it feels fake it is it's reality tv it doesn't it's just it's not i don't like it okay well we'll unpack why it is that all of our friends in the industry love the bachelor so much on another day. I don't think they have kids either, right? A lot of them are just like, they're kidless right now. So we could talk down to them for that. Right? I mean, how many of the people that follow The Bachelor religiously have kids, young kids?

I would have guessed, actually, that they're trapped in their house because of their young kids. That's the only reason I now have a lifestyle where I might have to watch them. But it's a Monday night, though. I mean, you're not really going out on monday nights of course i'm not so i'm just saying like i i might feel i might use up everything on netflix and hbo go in the next few weeks i mean i got a three week old like i need every kind of viewable content there is right now oh three week old i i'm good good for you yeah i'm over that life well thanks pal we're we're way off the rails can i come back to brady for a minute before we switch gears the the vrabel thing is real okay in the middle of this crazy scene i encourage people to go look

at it it's pretty obvious that edelman uh who where is wearing it was it a john wallace jersey is there he's from Syracuse. I'm pretty sure it was a John Wallace Syracuse jersey, which is the only part of this video I like. But they're FaceTiming Mike Vrabel, who, okay, they played with him. They're friends with him. Vrabel, remember, everyone, is the coach that knocked them out of the playoffs and the coach of the team that a lot of people are rumoring Tom Brady might end up in.

So is there anything to read into there? i think this is all a con dude they're all trying to get you to talk about this for for a week but what like edelman knows they know what they're doing come on they knew that if they they facetimed ray boy be on television someone would catch it which they did like it's just all big it's all a big joke to them haha it's not negotiations aren't done via facetime and a syracuse battle they're just messing with all you guys so this is just trolling this is it's super tuesday this is just politics yes twitter yes to football that's what you're telling me yes it is okay so i don't have to wonder then if andy dalton to new england is a real thing our buddy sheck is all over this one.

Is that real? I mean, I think if Tom Brady is not there, it could be real, yeah. But you just told me you're sure he's going back. Yeah, he's going back. So it's not real. Dalton to the Bears. You're not rethinking Brady to Las Vegas or L.A. or any of these things. Dalton to the Jets, your favorite team. God, okay.

I'd actually i'd actually be open to it but that's because i'm nuts and defeatist um okay let's move along there's one more topic i i squeezed the the fiery brady topic in between the two sort of meteor topics of the day uh and then we've got a surprise for people uh probably the biggest podcast on earth is calling jeff schwartz out we're gonna get to that momentarily i don't even know if jeff knows what i'm about to bring up but before that let, let's get into this. A team close to your heart, the Chiefs. They franchise tagged Chris Jones, their monster defensive lineman, star in the Super Bowl. Great player, right? Yeah. They guaranteed him top D lineman money for one

year as part of the franchise tag, but they did not give him a long-term deal, something the 25-year-old star would, of course, like. This is what Chris said. It's like a mix of emotions because you figure, you know, after four years, you do everything the right way within the team way, and you try to stay under the line, out of trouble, and be a good citizen for the team and for the city, and you expect to be rewarded. So, you know, when you hit it with a franchise tag, it can go different ways.

You can feel like they're not valuing you or they're not valuing what you bring to the table. Or you can look at it as giving them time to get their horses in a cage and get something together. Okay, so those are Chris's words. And listen, he's entitled. Obviously, I don't want to try to jump inside his head, but I got to say as a fan who doesn't fully understand this topic, this one seems off to me. He's getting top dollar at his position, maybe even a little more

because he's kind of really more a defensive tackle now and he might even get defensive end type money, which is a little bit more. He could ball out for another year and then sign that long-term deal and he probably knows this is helping the team deal with patrick mahomes's contract i think so why why why is he upset about this this feels like an okay outcome well the reason why players are upset about this is because they want long-term security right we have a short window to earn money in the nfl and every year that goes by that we don't have that quote-unquote second contract is one less year to earn kind of

that guaranteed life-changing right now chris jones in one year will make guaranteed life-changing money i mean i think the tag is upwards of what's probably close 20 million dollars right um i think i think he's gonna make 16 to16 million to $17 million for you. So look, obviously that's life-changing, right? Yes. We're not denying that. But players, just like I was talking about Tom Brady, right? We have egos, and we want to feel like the team is committed long-term to us.

And a franchise tag does not feel that way. It feels like, ah, we're going to pay you one year. We'll just kind of see how it goes. we're going to pay you one year. We'll just kind of see how it goes. And players want the security of knowing that they're set for life long beyond the one year. And they know that if they get hurt, the team is committed to them moving forward, and they want to know that the team believes in them.

And the franchise tag, to Chris's point, feels like the team is not quite sold on you. Chris is putting the work like he said. I think in this situation, though, they're doing it to make sure they have time to work on his new deal. There's different franchise tags. There's different levels of franchise tag. In Gawkway, the defensive end for the Jaguars said he's not coming back to Jacksonville. They're franchise tagging him because they like him as a player and they want to keep him. I don't think they're doing it to give him a long-term deal.

I think if he's tried that already, it hasn't happened. He wants out, right? Chris Jones still wants into Kansas City. So the franchise tag is used as leverage, first of all, against him, right? Hey, buddy, if you don't sign this deal, you're staying on the franchise tag. But also it gives him time to work out a deal, especially if there's a new CBA, a new cap. They pay Pat Mahomes, right?

There's many things they can do with the franchise tag to help the team right now, but also keep him in the fold. They can also trade Chris Jones at some point. They've done that before, right? We saw it. They traded for Frank Clark last year, I believe, who was on a franchise tag as well. And they traded away Dee Ford after franchise tagging him.

But Frank Clark came in. So the Chiefs are, this is a very familiar situation from both sides of the ball. So the players, though, just want security, Matt. We want to know the team believes in us, that they're going to pay us like they believe in us, and that he's in a position that does get injured, right? He gets his legs cut underneath him.

There's many opportunities for him to get hurt. And he knows that if he gets hurt and doesn't play as well this year, his market value theoretically goes down. It might not. He's a good enough player that even if he had a year where he was hurt half the year, I think the teams would pay him the following year. But he wants to know the team is committed to him. It doesn't feel that way.

Now, there's one other situation. We've talked about this many times. You know, Dak Prescott and getting a franchise tag with Dallas. That feels like both parties lose. The team and Dak Prescott both lose there. So there can be situations where a franchise tag benefits a team, where it benefits a player every now and then who really doesn't really deserve all that money for a single season,

but they do. Or kind of in the middle where I think Chris Jones is at, or then obviously where it benefits the team, like in Gawkway with Jacksonville, they really just benefits Jacksonville. He doesn't want to be there. Well, okay.

So I'm not, I'm not going to take the stance. I see a lot of people take on Twitter and be sort of pro owner and, you know, shut up and do your job. That's more money than I make in my gig. Like that's a stupid take, but I will say this.

If he got the long-term deal there's also a world where i could imagine a player like him i'm not even going to single out chris jones i don't know anything about the guy but a player like him a few years into a long-term deal might think he's outperforming that deal and might think he's locked into a deal that isn't fair and he wants an extension or a new deal and suddenly the argument comes like i'm not getting paid what i'm worth look at what i've done why am i stuck in this deal for the remainder of it and well which is it you know and i think we as fans kind of don't understand like do you want all the money and agree to a number and just keep the number or do you want to sort of play year to

year and see if you can keep raising your value. Well, I understand that. I understand that feeling, you know, feeling that, you know, that that's the case as a fan, right? That, you know, players are continuing asking for money. But, you know, with, you know, every year that the cap increases, it's going to increase a lot with a new TV deal, you know, at some point. I just think that, you know, players, we have a value in our head of what we want. And, you know, obviously we have a leverage to ask for it. I know that I think sometimes people might feel that they don't have the same leverage in their job.

And so maybe they're a little jealous that we have leverage that we have. But I think that's part of it, too, is that some guys are able to say, hey, look, I want to make more money. You should give me more money. And in the end, it works. Sometimes it doesn't. But that's part of the business. And this is something that I talk about all the time, Gabe, is that don't compare your business to our business.

Like, I don't compare my business to what your job is or to what Zuri's job is or anyone else's job, my wife's job, my parents' jobs. I don't compare that. Like, we're our own business. We have our own set of things, the way we do things. For a little bit of time, my dad used to kind of, I don't know what the right way to put this, but he'd always try to tell me to do things like they go on the business side. He's in the

business world. I'm like, dad, that's not the way this works. A locker room is not a boardroom. It's two different places. And so we shouldn't compare how we act as players for our contracts to what your job is or what your life is. They're not the same thing. Fair. That said, when I asked Zuri to do bench press before hiring him, he put it up 225, 27 times.

I mean, we've met before. That put it up 225, 27 times. I mean, we've met before. That does not surprise me. No, yeah. I mean, and he did it. He didn't try to duck out of that exercise. He ran a three-cone drill. He was great.

Listen, Chris Jones, I'll just end on this. He said, this is another quote from Chris, who said, we're like Golden State in their prime, baby. And that was in reference to, to like what is about to be possible in Kansas City. We've talked a lot about this. I agree with Chris. They are like Golden State in their prime. And the reason that they have a dynasty is because a few of their best players were getting paid a little less than maybe they could have had if they'd left the team. And I'm not I'm never going to tell a guy to take less. That's not me. That's not my role. But if he's saying he wants to be compared to Golden State, he has to acknowledge the full picture, which is that none of those guys made every single dollar that they could have. That's a sacrifice they chose to make.

Yeah, it's a little different because obviously you get more money in the NBA and your money is guaranteed. There's a big difference. If you told a player, okay, let me use kind of like round numbers so we can do this. Like let's say you told a player you get a five-year deal, okay, for $50 million, but we're only guaranteeing two years, which is typically kind of two or two and a half years. Three-year guaranteed deals are very rare outside of quarterback. Like a Dominican Sioux got one. It's very rare to have.

And by the third year, the Dolphins were like ready to get rid of quarterback. It's outside of quarterback. Like, Adonik and Sue got one. It's very rare to have. And by the third year, the Dolphins were, like, ready to get rid of him. Or you can get a four-year deal. Or let's say even a five-year deal for $40 million, but you get it all guaranteed. They'll take the $40 million deal every single time, fully guaranteed money. Yeah, bird in the hand. Right?

So, like, that's why NBA players can take less. And, of course, Steph has endorsements. Chris Jones is not getting endorsements. So there's many other things that go into that than just saying, well, the Warriors took less money. It's a different sport. It's hard to compare even within the sports how contests are structured. All right.

Fair enough. I got a bonus take for you, and it comes from the best take makers alive, Big Cat and PFT from Pardon My Take Jeff I don't know if this is a Twitter listener or an intern that they pay to listen to other podcasts or what happened but the fellas it seems have been listening to this show a couple weeks ago while we were on break they they brought up you my friend and they brought up a very specific thing about you that was a surprise to all of us on this show. And I'm going to play the take,

and we're going to talk about it on the other end. I need our audience to hear this for the first time. This is the guys from Pardon My Take. You know what I heard? Jeff Schwartz, huge EDM fan. Really? Massive, massive. Geoff?

Geoff Schwartz, when he's not defending his brother on Twitter. Or talking about technique of offensive lineman high school offensive lineman can you imagine while listening to dip like jeff schwartz at a diplo concert front row probably wearing like a wife beater uh the smallest oval sunglasses that you've ever seen in your life could you imagine jeff schwartz if he was in a uh if he was way too much geoff schwartz talk uh shout out jeff uh if he was in a mosh pit like an offensive lineman's technique in a mosh pit yeah just pancaking people left and right throwing people around just doing the whirlwind the the uh the windmill all right geoff what'd

they get right about this take what'd they get wrong about this well i'm i i heard this when it happened and i'm very glad that i'm just like i'm shocked that someone listens to the show that like got back to them about this. Like that was like, I was pumped to hear that. That was like awesome. That was people listen to the podcast, sharing the podcast.

Um, no, it would be very surprising. I don't tweet about it very often. Tom, every often I told you this before it comes from my wife. I have a video of her from super bowl that, uh,

we're, we're at the chain smokers concert and she's just getting after it she's dancing and raving around and i posted about 30 second clip i posted the video on twitter and she made me take it down because she didn't want her um her like people she works with her employees to see it even though there's nothing wrong with it um it's just like a little it's for my wife man and she my wife has been to Electric Daisy Carnival in Vegas. And so we listen to music at the house. The kids listen to it.

I get into it. I like it. I told you this before though. I only go to like an EDC or an Ultra if I can sit the whole time. I'm not standing for hours on end. I'm just not doing it. So I'm very specific with what i would do at one of these concerts so if you can if i'm down to go guys if you want to go big cat pft if we all want to go

to vegas or ultra miami which happens i think actually really soon a couple weeks um we vip get a couple tables get some chairs um a lot of water bottles and and I'm in. All right. Let's do it. So in honor of them, then, I want to know, we'll put the invite out, but I want a Mount Rushmore of sports podcast hosts you would want to go to an EDM show with. So give me four names. Oh, man. Yeah. Sports podcast, EDM.

Well. It should be one of the guys. I mean, if you're not picking Big Cat or PFT right out of the gate, that's an insult. Well, both of them would be. No, you got to pick one. You can't have both of them. Only one of them. Oh, only one of them. Well, I mean, you know, that's how Mount Rushmore's work as far as I understand it.

I feel like, you know, probably PFT would be more drunk and more belligerent at one of those things. Interesting. Okay. And you think that's a plus or a minus because you're the one who's sitting still at the yeah but i'm with i'm with my wife who's getting after it um i'm used to handling that um even though um oh man this is a tough one um i think he would have i think he'd have more fun at that event you think he throws himself into it more fun yeah i think big cat i would have great it would have better discussions about sports.

And I think PFT would fully immerse himself in the culture of a carnival. Okay, so now it's you and PFT. You've got two more tickets. I don't listen to a lot of podcasts. I don't go for the obvious names. You want Bill Simmons there with you? I mean, I don't think I would enjoy it. How about Mina?

Your friend Mina Kimes has a sports podcast. It's terrific. Yeah, I listen. Yeah, I listen to your buddy. Dave Damoshek. I mean, I would I would go with Dave because I like Dave. I'm just trying to have people of hosts that would actually enjoy this. I feel like Dave would would have enough material to make it like hard to talk funny.

Hard to get into like 1970s steelers trivia while diplo's bumping you know yeah but dave would make dave and like cousin sal would make great material out of it it would be like it'd be great to just joke about for years okay like but sal not you know not a party animal not a huge drinker or anything like that no so but is he does is dave drinking too like is dave into it i don't know that's his choice okay so i don't i don't think mina this is like a sport i feel like i'm i'm in a i'm an island here with sports podcasts that listen to edm music um can i take i think should i take producer matt that'd be amazing yes yes. You should bring our producer, Matt. Okay. I would for sure bring Matt in that because I think that would be incredible. Paula Duca.

Oh, God. Okay. I'm going to wrap here. I think it's – Pauly – it's got to be included in this. So I'll touch it. Pauly loved to dance. Pauly dances –

Oh, I'm aware. Everywhere. So we have PFT, D. Oh, I'm aware. Everywhere. So we have PFT, Damoshek, and Paula Duka. What happened to Matt? Matt's out? No, Matt. That's four. That's the four of us.

The four dudes. I don't need a lady in there. So I got to throw someone. I don't even know who else. It's got to be people that would enjoy it. Because my wife's going to be there too, I assume, in the Mount Rushmore. How many tickets do you think we can get, Jeff? I'm volunteering to stake this endeavor.

I will buy the tickets to wherever Diplo plays. Let's see what night he's playing at the Vegas EDC concert. All right, you Google when we can get to Diplo. Right now, I'm just going to put it out there that your boy PFT is invited. Damoshek's invited. Well, Big Cat's invited too i mean we gotta we we gotta i don't think so it sounded like you didn't really want you want to hang with him on a sunday it sounds like pft is the guy you want to party with that's what i heard i don't

know um yeah but again like i i'm i'm not going to just like i don't not really party i'm sitting in a chair listening to music like it's it's not's not like a – that's my wife's deal. My wife is getting after it like that. They brought up you in a mosh pit pancaking people. I would do that. I'd have fun doing that. Just hitting people. I haven't hit people in a while.

It could be a lot of fun. Are you feeling well enough to do that right now? You went to Mexico and you got a cold. I'm sniffling. You got Tiesto Saturday night. That's highlighting Saturday night. When is this? He dropped some good stuff.

He dropped some good stuff last time on the EDC. It is going to be on May 15th, 16th, 17th. In Vegas? Yeah, at the Vegas Motor Speedway. It's going to be 900 degrees. What are you talking about? No, you go at night. You helicopter in.

It's going to be four degrees. You helicopter in at night. And then you just like, you know, my wife, she wife she went it's awesome she had a ton of fun um so all right well whoever tweeted that got uh big cat and pft listening do it again let them know that uh jeff is jeff is going edc in may in vegas at night i'm i'm buying tickets i will get if laduka is going i'm going oh paulie's going all right so forget about rushmore we're looking at like double wide mount rushmore's eight or so dudes sweating in the desert plus jeff's wife that's who's going she has to go like i she'll she'll disown me if she doesn't get to go to this uh this free concert all right tell tell the fellas over there at PMT to reserve the night.

We will be there. Let's do Move the Line. I've got a few more football topics for you, and then we're going to talk Mexico. This show. By the way, I don't know what we're up to in time-wise. Hopefully, Zuri will just let it run. We'll do Move the Line quickly, though,

so that we don't have to chop this show down. I want to know, odds OBJ retires early to become a broadcaster over under 50 zero he's not i don't want him to be a broadcast do you know why i'm asking because it probably has a tony romo yeah so obj like all of us was kind of blown away by the news that tony romo was going to make 17 million dollars a year 17 million dollars a year to broadcast games for cbs this coming season and for i think a long-term deal i think he got that guaranteed money and obj tweeted i'm done playing football i just want to be an announcer now now he was kidding clearly but the sentiment is shared michael thomas other players basically said wait a second how much is he making to talk about the

game what what is this we're all in here fighting for a new cba and this guy's making 17 million a year and like i gotta say i understand the frustration are they crazy like should they be maybe hanging it up in a year or two earlier to get into broadcasting i mean robo is really good at it i think people don't like his style i mean look i mean i'm near 17 million dollars a year for this podcast i understand the plot you know what we're's dealing with, all that money. It's hard to hide that money. I think this is, on an actual serious note about why I think this happened,

there's going to be a giant arms race at these networks to get the NFL package when it comes up, right? Yeah. And a couple things about why this is important. Is the NFL going to go with CBS because they have Romo? Just exclusively because they have Romo? No, but it helps, right? It helps your sell the network when you have Romo aboard, right?

Because he's good at his job. People tune in, I think, to want to watch what he says and hear him break down a game. Helps with that. Secondly, it keeps him away from ESPN. ESPN made a strong push for him. ESPN wants a bigger NFL package. Really, Disney does.

Wants a bigger NFL package when the next go-around comes. If they had Romo on board and he was a Monday Night Football guy, maybe they get a Sunday Night Football package too. Or maybe they get a Thursday package. And so with Romo not being an ESPN, it's worth it for CBS to keep him away

from ESPN. I do think, I think people believe that the new NFL rights deal for their TV is going to go on the digital side. I kind of disagree a little bit. I think that, remember, we have a lot of older owners that are kind of you know big network tv guys right they grew up with network television and with cord cutting you still get to keep your network television right if you have the rabbit ears rabbit ears sales are going up like kids you know i don't say kids but people our age game right the cord cut still keep abc cbs nbc fox i think we're going to see it go from ESPN back to ABC. I think it's going to be on ABC, Fox, CBS, NBC moving forward.

A little bit of streaming stuff like Amazon does now on Thursday nights, but I think it's going to stay on those four networks mostly for this new deal. Maybe in a couple years it moves over to more Amazon or Google or Verizon or whoever else wants it, but i think right now it's going to stay on those four networks okay i sorry you took that to a place i wasn't prepared for i didn't know i was hosting a show with uh richard deitch so i i wanted to know whether you sorry i mean good lord man i just wanted to hear whether you thought the players who were upset to see a former player make more money than them they're risking their asses while they fight

for more i mean but it is what it is but like michael thomas said no way the announcer should make more than 90 of the players he then deleted the tweet i don't know why but i agree with him i mean listen tony romo, get it, man. You're one of the best in the game, and everything Jeff just said about, you know, cord cutting and blah, blah, blah, all that's probably true. But what the hell, man? How is it possible that a guy – I mean, shouldn't this make Tom Brady's decision easy? Just retire.

You could go make a hell of a lot more money just sitting around with Jim Nance. Well, it does make guys like Drew Brees and Manny Manny reconsider it. Oh, my God. Drew Brees could walk right into $18 million. Those guys have even more money than Romo made in his career. Like, they've made over $17 million. Romo didn't make this much money, right, in his career in one season. So they've made more than him multiple years now. They don't need to make $17 million.

Of course, they'd love to. But, like, They don't need to make 17 million. Of course they'd love to, but like they don't need to make 17 million. They can make 27 or 30 million playing in the NFL. I guess. Since they don't need it, I think I'd much rather take half that, still make a ton and just hang out next to Jim Nance rather than, you know,

get beat up and lose my, you know, whatever we don't need to get into it. It just, it feels like the number is a little too high for players to swallow, given the climate of this current CBA negotiation. I just, I thought it was puzzling. And I credit guys like Michael Thomas for speaking up and OBJ who was kidding, but made a real point.

So let's move along. I just mentioned a couple of them. I want to know veteran QBs who will be linked to the Raiders this off this offseason or really specifically this week because i feel like it's all we got to talk about 6.5 veteran qbs being linked to them i can give you your choices but which of them do you think are going to get genuine talk as the next raiders quarterback tom brady you say no uh john uh john gruden is uh spinning the media well right now isn't he i say tom brady linked to the raiders i mean dan olofsky already did did it this morning on espn okay so he's been linked that's one yeah you don't think there's any merit to it though no okay philip rivers what

about him good fit no no do we understand that they have a quarterback still right yeah okay he's i just want to make sure we understand that he's under contract for next year okay yeah i mean and i could argue he's better than any of these people, but that doesn't seem to be what people want to talk about in the first week of March. Mina was making that point that, you know, last season that Carr was better than all of these guys, maybe except actually statistically maybe worse than Tannehill, but that's not staying around.

Okay, so then you get to Tannehill. So for whatever reason, after that magical run. No, I'm out to Tannehill. So for whatever reason, after that magical run. No, I'm out of Tannehill. So that was just one hit wonder, kind of everything lined up right for him for a few games? Yes. All right. So you wouldn't be reinvesting in Tannehill. You don't think maybe Vrabel just figured something out with the guy?

No. Okay, wow. Teddy Bridgewater, you know, landed in a perfect situation, played his ass off for the middle stretch of the season, and went from backup guy everyone likes to guy who has to be a starter in this league so should he be the guy in vegas he will get paid by someone 30 million dollars a year but it won't be vegas okay i just keep car okay fair enough uh jamis winston he worth replacing car with um no not not only for that offense, and I think the turnovers would drive Gruden just crazy.

Okay, fair enough. I just keep Carr. And just throwing this on here, because it's one of the other names that people have mentioned, will we hear Marcus Mariota linked to the Raiders? Maybe as a backup. I don't see a lot of teams looking at Mariota as a starter. I'm going to write about this on SB Nation this week.

There's too many quarterbacks that are available, I think, for jobs right now, I'm going to write about this on SB Nation this week. There's too many quarterbacks that are available, I think, for jobs right now. And we're going to see a lot of guys maybe left over for teams to pick through after the draft. All right. What about Tebow? Anyone concerned Tebow? Dude, he's smashing dingers down in the minors.

Don't worry about Tim Tebow. Oh, yeah. Sure. Okay. Cool. Do you want to just ignore facts? He hits a home run the first at bat of like every league he's in and then just after that does nothing. Did the ball still fly over the fence in left center?

Congratulations. Well, I'm sorry. How many guys do you know that walk into professional baseball in their 30s and smash 400-foot opposite field home runs against professionals? Does that happen all the time? That wasn't a professional. He was a minor league pitcher. They don't pay those guys minor league people know

what they're what interns they they pay them they're professionals that's what they do for a living those guys don't make a lot of oh god all right last thing about you because i guess we haven't done enough about your weird social life uh i want to know time spent using tiktok for the rest of your life after your wife convinced you to make the most joyous tiktok i've ever seen i don't like tiktok but i love jeff schwartz on tiktok so how many more minutes are you going to use that app for so i have actually haven't posted it yet the one thing about tiktok that i don't like by the way is like whenever you click on it just videos just start playing so like if your volume is not off your phone gotta be careful public it just like pops up.

Head on a swivel. I have two followers on my account now. Awesome. I'm not one of them yet. So you're about to have three. I haven't put together the video yet. I have like eight videos of me taking pass sets around the hotel and resort.

I have one in the pool. I have one in the beach, on the water. I'm going to put them together and do like a kick set i don't know i'll figure it out but yeah merith merith was like i want to do this video with you i was like all right come on babe let's do it she did it in heels by the way and she nailed it she she was terrific you were fine she was great she was great she's i love her comment she said i'm way cuter than you yeah i wonder i wonder why yeah i i would imagine a lot of your fans were

like whoa jeff's wife but some of them had some weird comments or like her footwork's not good i'm like guys we that what we were really looking at again i've mentioned this to you before the internet likes people's feet it's weird they like to talk about feet man and woman it's just it's just one of those things so uh i i will say this i think you're already considering this but the you know the drop back challenge like this i remember my good friends of mine created a thing in high school this is now many many years ago where they would just draw charges on people who weren't expecting it so they would just they would just plant their feet in the middle of a hallway and draw the charge and then another guy would run up and blow the whistle and point the other direction that's a great tiktok idea it was it was really

fun at the time uh you could be the guy who in crowded places just gets into stance and then starts blocking people out of nowhere and just see how that goes that would be really funny that would actually require me to like be in public more often than i am um like i go to the grocery store very often like i'm going through TikTok right now, man. Here's what I think about TikTok. I was talking to my wife about this the other day. There's actually not a purpose for me to do it. I'm not going to get any job or monetary value from it.

I'm just going to have people like a video of mine. It just feels sort of useless from what I do for a living. Yeah. I mean, the implication there is that anything we do is useful which is debatable but if you've made it this far in this podcast then probably you're interested in some of what we've said so here's what i would suggest keep that tiktok account a little bit longer because it's going to come in handy if we go eight wide at the edm concert in may in Vegas with PFT and Paula Duca. And who else was coming?

Sheck and Cousin Sal. Who knows who's coming? Maybe Mina Kimes. Matt and Zuri are coming along. It's going to be a fun night. So keep your TikTok account going until then. We've got to see that night in action. Okay, I'll keep it going.

Are we in the Marathon Tuesday podcast? Are we done? Marathon Tuesday podcast. I got nothing left unless you want to circle back to franchise tagging. No, we're not doing that. We've covered it all today. Thank you guys for joining us. A little longer than usual on Tuesday.

We'll be back next Tuesday. We've got some things in the works for Thursdays. It will be announced soon enough. We will be back with two episodes a week. It will happen soon enough. But right now, one a week. Hoping to ramp that up very soon. We appreciate you guys listening, tuning in.

Thank you forever. Passed along my love of EDM to the rest of the world. Thank you guys for listening, of course. You can tweet me, leave a review, a comment, share. Fantastic. Have a great week, everyone. Talk to you guys next week