Geoff Schwartz Is Smarter Than You - Welcoming Aaron Rodgers to New York, and What We Learned From Free Agency

Episode Date: March 16, 2023

Geoff helps Gabe cope with Aaron Rodger's commitment to the New York Jets. Also, Geoff breaks down the Chiefs' free agency moves, talks through new faces in the NFC East, and together the boys take stock of the league's RBs.Be sure to rate, comment, and follow the pod for a new episode each week during the offseason.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

it's wednesday march 15th i'm jeff schwartz alongside gabe goodwin this jeff schwartz is smart on you powered by the varsity podcast network oh buddy oh baby aaron rogers has just finished his long interview with pat mcafee he might still be going but breaking news on the aaron rogers front he has decided on which football team he's playing for guess what everyone it is gabe's favorite football team so we're gonna talk to gabe about where aaron rogers is going nfl for agency technically starts in about an hour and a half from recording right now, but all the big names have been signed. There's been some movement in the markets, and some teams have gotten some players.

Other teams have gotten more players. Some teams have lost players. So much to get into. Gabe, as a lifelong New York Jets fan, you have the best quarterback you've ever had. Aaron Rodgers intends to be a New York Jet. He went on Pat McAfee and he said on Friday, after multiple contradictions of how he got to Friday's decision, he is a New York Jet, but the Packers won't trade him yet. But he's a Jet. He wants to be a Jet.

Yeah, he's not a Jet. He wants to be a Jet. By the time some people click play, I suppose perhaps he could be announced as a jet but the deal's still being worked out according to aaron big day for trey wingo our buddy because trey had this a few days ago this is validation for trey's reporting well done trey but uh yeah the key quote i think from aaron is when i came out of the darkness something changed here's my question jeff i've told you i like this darkness idea this this what is in darkness and solitude as a dad sounds very delightful i'm starting to question whether it works though because if you are going in there seeking clarity and what you come out with is i should play for the jets i don't think that

dark shit worked or maybe he wants to that should give you a better darkness and stay with the jets as well okay look there's this is like so many different parts of the story first of all i want to let everyone know aaron rogers is not offended at all the packers don't want him he made sure to say that 15 times which obviously he's very offended they don't want him anymore and also guys you know he he hates the media but pays attention what every one thing the media says about him by the way like completely obsessed with the media like it's in very funny the Schefter comment hilarious love it be transparent share all that stuff fine but dude is obsessed with how we me you not us

too obviously but the media cover Aaron Rodgers. Absolutely obsessed by it. I love how he plays it. He's not. That was a big part of the interview today. It's great. Okay. Moving on to the actual kind of decision-making. He said he goes on darkness retreat. He had sort of made up his mind to retire. He comes out of darkness retreat. He mentioned it was probably a day too long for him he comes out he goes to his phone and he looks at his phone and he realized the Packers had basically come out and said we don't want you anymore okay up until that point he was under the assumption that they were letting him make his own decision and his own timeline and when he came up with that decision they were

going to honor whatever he wanted retire play for them play for them, or go to the Jets. And the Packers obviously, I think, thought he would do it in a timely manner. He said he would. He said, I would do this in a timely manner. And when he went in his darkness retreat, it was about the combine, where kind of these rumors and fringes

started picking up. And the Packers basically said like, yeah, we're moving on from Aaron Rodgers. And at that point, Aaron Rodgers, sounds like he spiked return to football. He was not going to come back to football. And the Packers basically said like, no, no, no, we don't want you anymore. And Rodgers decided that he wants to come back and play football.

He's upset that the Packers, he's not offended though. He said it many times, not offended the Packers don't want him anymore. And he went through the timeline, the process of how they drafted Jordan Love and no one in the front office that drafted him is still there and all this like soliloquies about the Packers and all that. He's not offended and he's not offended. I'm not offended.

The Packers don't want him anymore. And look, players, I love players that play for spite, man. Like you gotta have something to play for. He's playing for spite. He is absolutely 100 playing to spite the packers spite the nfl world spite the nfl media whatever it is to me it sounds like he came out of that that retreat ready to retire as a green bay packer realized they don't want him anymore and said screw you guys i'm gonna play football next season i'm gonna play football

for the new york jets as hank correctly brings up tom brady won a spite super bowl so we're on a break from him stop it hank and i i heard mentioned by the way i was listening to podcasts today of maybe tom to the niners eventually at some point this offseason um we won't go there right now so but focus on one narcissist at a time jeff this interview was so great it was awesome because like a guy that like i don't want attention like just 400 000 people good for mcafee man got 400 000 people watching i watched like i'm i was driving the car with youtube on my bluetooth audio like listening to this interview like great for mcafee but oh my God, this is going to be a complete dumpster fire in New York.

You know it. I know it. Everyone listening knows it. He mentioned this list that he has demands of the players he wants in New York. And Rodgers says in the interview, I never gave him a list. Well, how'd they know to get the exact guys that you want? Like, you might not have given them a list,

but after the 12-hour meeting you had there it was very clear what you wanted them to do and for agency like they're going after the guys that you like what like come on man like we're not that stupid Aaron like come on man so oh man it's gonna be a dumpster fire it is maybe you'll make the playoffs I don't know Gabe you probably will you'll break your 12 year the longest playoff drought in pro sports if the kings which should be the playoffs this year in the nba they break their drought the jets will be next it's a big year for drought breaking mariners in the playoffs kings in the playoffs maybe jets in the playoffs but we know how this ends right this is not going to end well no it's not going to end well there's a lot of things to

go back to and everything you just said. But of course it won't end well. They go from being roughly 8-9 to roughly 9-8. They'll probably limp their way into the postseason, lose, and then have to do this all over again. They're not going to get the guy who teaches the young players around them how to play football the right way. around them how to play football the right way. They're not going to get the guy who helps their seemingly very good coach get to the next level and secure his job and stay in town for a long time. He's not going to help with that. He's not going to help them with cap space. He's not going to help them with draft picks. He's not going to help them in any way except win one and a half

more games than they would win with the alternative. That's it. So also back to your point about hypocrisy forget about any of harren's hypocrisy on his takes about life who cares how about this one ross jackson great tweet gotta share it aaron rogers they don't give me the weapons i need in green bay also aaron rogers get me the exact same weapons i had in green Bay. Like, dude, what is it? Like, Randall Cobb and Alan Lazard are must-haves. You got Garrett Wilson. You can go get anyone right now. Why the same guys?

The Lazard thing, he's a good football player. And like, I'm okay with them signing him. Like, that makes sense. But now it seems like, you know, specifically was signed very much. Nate Hackett, look, very clearly was brought in for Aaron Rodgers. I mean, he talks about the interview with McAfee again, how much he respects Nate Hackett and how much he loves Nate Hackett, how much he's done for his career.

So that move feels very much like we brought him in for Aaron Rodgers. They've done everything for Aaron Rodgers, right? They're talking about bringing in Mercedes Lewis andandall cobb and all these guys so again like you know it's it's the smugness of the idea that like that you know he said well he made the comment i didn't hand them a list of what i wanted buddy you talked there for 12 hours of course you said i'd like to have some of my guys on the team like come on do we the jet like this this idea that all these reports probably from the jet side are coming are just all made up about what you wanted okay come on man they're not all made up you you spoke to them about what you wanted and it got out from the jet side maybe

not from your side but came out from the jet Well, let me ask you about that, because maybe it did. But the way I understand negotiations and leverage, it doesn't really behoove the Jets to have this out there in the public eye as a done deal, because that means now they have to come up with as much as possible to make the Packers actually go through with this. The Packers know that. So doesn't the price tag go up? Don't the Jets have to give up more now that this is very clearly a quote unquote done deal? It's interesting here. I see a tweet from Albert Bear that says his bonus can be exercised between now and September

1st. So he basically has all the time to trade him. Like it doesn't go in the cap until they exercise it essentially. I thought about the leverage part of this, right? So he basically came on the show and said look i'm not going to be a packer i want to be a jet trade me like do right by me i'm your best player in franchise history i won you a super bowl i'm now a four-time mvp you thought you were going to draft my replacement you have but a few years after you thought it would be but trade me like do do the right thing and trade me he also mentioned how he tried to you know he's trying to work through the

nflpa to find a better way for players to be released and all this other stuff i mean great okay i'd love for that to be a thing that was done better but it's not right now and so i thought about the leverage right it's like if you're the packers right now do you dig in and say well screw aaron rogers yeah like screw this guy coming on publicly forcing my hand screw him i'm not i'm not i'm not giving in at all to what the jets want if you're the jets are you like well oh dang like he said he's only coming to us now yeah do we have to give up more it does feel like both sides should just come to the conclusion of like let's just get a fair deal and move along so i think both sides would just come to the conclusion of like, let's just get a fair deal and move along. So I think both sides would like to begin the process of becoming different

teams. Like if you're the Packers, look, first round pick, not a first round pick. I don't know what they actually want for Aaron Rodgers. The reports vary from, I saw today,

they want two first round picks. They want no first round picks. Something in the middle of those, I think they would accept. And the Jets at this point, I think want Aaron Rodgers to be in the building, to be a Jet. To me, I could see both sides to the point of you're saying, the Packers digging in, screw you, we're not doing what you want, Aaron Rodgers. The Jets saying,

we lost our leverage a little bit. Can we make this happen? Can we not? For both sides, it works to find a middle ground game because the J the jets have no other options there's no other quarterback there's there's no one else to get jimmy g's gone right derrick carr's gone the draft options you have zach wilson you're probably not going to find a draft option guy at the moment because again your team's sort of built to win now aaron rogers has said he wants to be a jet so to me it's like we got to make it work like let's find a way to together packers jets let's come to the table if they want two first round picks we'll give you one first round pick find a way to get this done with and move it along yeah well if i'm the jets i'm leaking

to whoever all these you know all these guys who get scoops i'm leaking to them actually aaron's thinking about retiring because that's the only way the Packers say all right crap just give let's get whatever we can get off well the problem is the problem is he said he's not though yeah I know that but I'm not anymore so what it's impossible to keep track of what he says or what anyone else says about him it changes every day his timeline his timeline on this thing was so funny like Like, he just kept, he kept changing his timeline, his decision-making process of what he was going to do. But at this point, he said he's coming back. Like, you can't really change, you can't pretend he's going to retire.

The only way he retires is if, is if obviously the Packers just don't trade him, I guess, which they don't have to do. Which, I mean, you have to basically eat his salary this season. He's going to be traded. It's just a matter of when they trade him. Now, two weeks from now, he's the thing, Gabe, for both of the rosters, for team building, for off-season program, for camaraderie,

like, the Packers just need to move on. It is Jordan Love's team. It's been very clear now for the last month that they have made that point, that it's now Jordan Love's team. This Rogers thing very clear now for the last month that they have made that point that it's now Jordan Love's team. This Rodgers thing, you got to make it go away. Just trade him and let the Jets deal with the madness. If you're the Jets, again, you've got to deal with free agency. You got to deal with the draft, with blowing your roster up around Rodgers.

Just get the trade done. Now, do I think that like today it gets done because of this not particularly but i think that both sides gotta realize like we gotta get this figured out so we can both move on with our lives essentially yeah but okay so this guy is famously for the last few seasons at least figured out ways to not have to be a full participant in various team activities, camps, etc. Yeah. What makes anyone think? He's just watched Tom Brady, his buddy, just avoid doing the work in preseason. Now, nobody questions Tom Brady's work ethic.

Tom Brady comes to us as a program. I don't want to talk about Brady. Tom Brady puts in the work to get himself ready for football. Tom Brady doing everything the way the team would ask him to do, we know in the last couple of seasons was not the case. Will Aaron Rodgers show up the joyful Aaron Rodgers of the middle of his prime, one of the guys coaching up the young guys, being in every practice, like making learning how to be a jet? Or is he going to sort of do it from memory? Maybe I have my facts off a little but more of the far away or like yeah i'm doing you a favor like i'll show up and be a jet

but like make this easy on me i don't think he will be a guy that shows up like off-season workouts for the whole nine or ten weeks he won't right and so and so doesn't the basically the youngest roster in the league with a pretty young coach kind of need more than that out of their quarterback? Well, this is what I think the discussion when Woody Johnson aired to the pharmaceutical company Johnson & Johnson, who very famously is a big pharmaceutical company, and Aaron Rodgers despises pharmaceuticals and big pharma. It's very curious.

Not just pharmaceuticals, specifically Johnson & Johnson. Johnson was how the whole thing started. It's too priceless. Pablo Torre with an amazing tweet on that. Yeah. I think they did ask him to about the vaccine. If they took it together on the airplane or something. I didn't listen to that part of the interview.

God, it's great. It's just the irony of all this stuff. I even forget what you're asking me. I was laughing about this stupid Pablo Torre joke. I'm asking, I'm trying to make it about football now. So let's say Aaron Rodgers shows up to some extent some extent yeah how does he mesh with this young team it's interesting because if you talk to every packers player who's not the two that bash him the most the former two former players that bash him the most in the media right jennings and james jones typically are the

two right that kind of go after him a little bit in the media right am i right i'm right on those are the two typically the kind of most negative i after him a little bit in the media. Am I right on? I'm right on. Those are the two typically that kind of are most negative. I would say Jennings is just honest about it. I don't know. Okay. Most honest. How about that? Fair.

Most honest. Okay. Sure. Most honest about him. And maybe Jones is not. It must be Greg Jennings. Everyone else seems to really like playing for Aaron Rodgers. Like, not a lot of bad things to say about him.

But the reports continue to stack up that he does not get along with younger wide receivers now he's near 40 years old game so i understand that there's going to be a little bit of a difference in maybe cultural style cultural fit if you're 40 which you are are you hanging out with 22 year old hank on the weekends no not often right like and then rogers doesn't have kids you have you have a life like rogers doesn't have kids to deal with so i just think that they're not going to hang out very often so what do you do in the facility right can you can you build that bond the facility and it seems like he hasn't done that to the extent that maybe other players at his position that are older quarterbacks have done now maybe that's why they brought in alan

mazard and that's why they might bring in randall cobb and mercedes lewis but he's going to have to make that camaraderie happen very quickly because again the jets are going to want to win now and the year after presumably and do it quickly and make it happen the afc is just he goes from being like second best team in the nfc even with some roster deficiencies behind the eagles and eagles are losing i mean who's the best team in the nfc right now cowboys no i mean honestly we're going to get to some of the player moves that have happened but the eagles have gotten worse it might actually be the cowboys best roster of nfc we'll get in a second. But to the AFC East now, you have the Bills, obviously. You have the Patriots, which, again, Belichick can still coach.

They need some wide receivers and tight ends. But they were almost a playoff team again last season. And the Dolphins, who got Jalen Ramsey, who a healthy Tua. They were really good last year. If he comes back healthy this season, there's no guarantee the Jets gonna be a division winner so they gotta do everything possible to get aaron as quickly as kind of into the culture building team building but it's harder i really do think the age difference is a it's a big thing like you're with a lot of younger football players on that jets team and you're

40 years old it's common you're not gonna have a to have a lot of, a lot of probably in common, Gabe. You know, he's into different things off the field than a 22 or 23 year old, 24 year old might be as well. So there's not much common ground there. And you're gonna have to figure out a way to make this work as quickly as possible. Is the offense that they're going to run just going to be the Aaron Rodgers offense?

It's not like they have to undo anything. There was no offense last year. Same thing they've been doing. It's a matter of if Rodgers is going to run the offense like it's called or do his own thing. You're going to hear a rare compliment of Tom Brady right now from me, which is that the major difference between these two guys, who both of whom are totally obsessed with themselves and will do and say anything to build up their own legend. say anything to build up their own legend. The one difference that I will give Tom Brady credit for is that he really does seem to convince the guys he's one of the guys. He has consistently, guy after guy, won over his receiving core, his linemen. Because of the Patriot way, you very rarely hear anyone say a bad word about him. Aaron Rodgers has never had

that reputation, fair or otherwise. That's why I don't get how this is going to work. I don't see how this ends up. And it's hilarious that this is just like Favre, almost the exact same point in their careers. The beats of the story are identical. How does this not end up just like it did with Favre for the Jets? Yeah, it's not going to be great. I think it's just a different kind of pressure cooker playing in that market than it is playing in Green Bay. Again, you're in a tougher division. I mean, think about who you have to get through possibly to even get to Super Bowl. You have to get through the Chiefs, the Bengals, the Bills. There's going to be Jacksonville, who's getting better. There's going to be some team in the afc that pops up this year out of nowhere that we see each year like you know the ravens get lamar

back boom the ravens become a team to contend with it just feels like it's a tough place to win there's a lot of expectations now put on him and is it a new place new environment a lot of scrutiny his direction we'll see it's gonna be great drama man it's gonna be fun to watch i'll tell you that yeah also dude like this is a reality i think some of the like reputation that new york has is based on like old school media but here's one reality those guys don't give a shit they'll crush like they're not intimidated by you like you don't get to dominate a post-game press room and like basically bully everyone into not asking you the tough stuff they take pleasure in being jerks to you in New York.

The one difference that I felt right away in New York was, so we have open locker room, right, where the reporters are just coming in and interview us. There are just a lot of freaking reporters to cover the Giants. A ton. I remember the first time I got to Kansas City's locker room. Kansas City was coming off a 2-14 season. You had like seven guys in there.

The first time you opened the Giants locker room, 55 people come in. It's just a different, it's a different crew. It's a different mentality. And now with Aaron Rodgers, you're going to have 75 people

and media members at every practice. And your point about like, they don't care. Green Bay's media is not trying to hurt your feelings. New York media will try to hurt your feelings.

I'm trying not to generalize because I am a New Yorker. And I think people who listen to the show probably know that. So I'm not this is not like a knock on Green Bay. It's not a cheap shot. But most of the guys who cover the Green Bay Packers, many of them have covered the Green Bay Packers, my whole adult life. It's the same faces. They have long term relationships with Rogers, whether they're good or bad. I'm not saying they don't do their best to cover him fairly, but he knows every single one of them. He has a language with them.

The people who cover you in New York, most of the time, are not trying to have a family who lives in the area. That's a big, big career opportunity that they're going to take to the next stop. So they're in there to get you. They're in there to win in New York so they can get even bigger jobs somewhere else. And it's a constant rotation of people. And to your point, like Diana Rossini, I don't know why he's taking cheap shots at her.

She's going to be more senior and more experienced than most of the people you run into. Like there's a ton of dudes in that room. You're totally right. He's going to be like, who the hell are you? He's going to have a hundred people show up to his locker on that first Wednesday of week one when they open the locker room up. Actually, he'll be on the podium Wednesday, like Thursday. Whenever he's in the locker room the first day in the locker room, he's going to have a hundred people show up to his locker.

And the last time the Jets invited one of these circuses, it was with my guy, Tim Tebow. Yeah. You know what the difference is? Tim Tebow likes the media. Tim Tebow's polite. Tim Tebow doesn Yeah. You know what the difference is? Tim Tebow likes the media. Tim Tebow's polite. Tim Tebow doesn't mind the questions. You know, like... I didn't think we'd get a Tim Tebow reference today.

That was not... Well, I got you Brady and Tebow. Brady, Tebow, Favre, Rogers. We kind of hit the... It's basically like kind of the only guys I know. So speaking of which, let's talk free agency and a few names that mean a heck of a lot to you and some other people who follow the league these are not necessarily names that change my mind about

team but i want to hear about the chiefs the moves they've made um i know it i know it's going to make the defending champs better in some ways but they also lost a huge name in frank clark so what do you think about the chiefs so far yeah so they signed the pass rusher from the 49ers uh young kid who um kind of was the rotational d tackle last year that should be more of a starting guy this year for the for the chiefs it's 25 years old it's a great deal for charles like it's the deal for both kind of paths like charles is young kind of proved himself as maybe a more playing time 70 playtime guy rushed the passer and a couple years he cashed it but the real deal was for joan taylor who um signed a deal for four years 80 million dollars he was the jacksonville jaguars right tackle the

reports are he's going to play left tackle for kansas city all right so all right if you listen to this podcast for many years you've heard me talk about switching sides in the nfl and for the most part i'm anti-switching sides. Now, there are guys that can do it. And my personal experience is I was bad at it. Good on the right side, bad on the left side. Certain guys can do it. The Chiefs essentially did it with Orlando Brown.

He was a right tackle for the Ravens. Their left tackle got hurt. He played a little bit of left tackle, not a lot. Chiefs traded for him, put him a left tackle, boom. Here's the deal. If this was basically 29 other teams, like if it was anyone outside the Eagles, Chiefs, and maybe the Browns who have a good offensive line coach, I would not trust this move whatsoever.

I'd be like, bad move, don't like it, not at all. But with the Chiefs and Andy Hector, offensive line coach, and Andy Reid, who's a former offensive lineman, I trust him, Gabe. I trust him. It, and Andy Reid, who's a former offensive lineman, I trust him, Gabe. I trust him. It's different. Jawan Taylor's a great pass protector.

Put him to the left side. You hope you get that pass. Orlando Brown did struggle a little bit in pass protection last season. You put him over a left tackle, get him a whole spring, get him a whole training camp. And I trust that. Again, if it was the Jets, we talked about the Jets. No, don't like it.

If it was any other team outside of the Eagles and the Browns are like Bill Callahan. And maybe throw a few other teams in there. But like, I'm like, no. Kansas City, I trust to do this. So we'll see what happens. Orlando Brown obviously walks the big left tackle. You know, it kind of stinks. Like, I love guys getting paid during this time period. It's great.

Guys making life-changing money. You can also, by the way, you can do two things at once. You can enjoy guys getting paid, but also question teams for giving guys deals. I don't understand why you can't hold the two thoughts at the same time. Like the Broncos gave a lot of guys money and you're like, eh, like the right tackle, Mike McGlinchey.

You're like, ooh, you gave him a lot. You made him the second highest paid right tackle ever. Eh, little much. I don't think he's that good. And you have Orlando Brown, who's seemingly not a chair for him. The music has stopped, Gabe, and you look around the NFL and you say, like, oh, where is Orlando Brown going at the left tackle money he wants around the NFL? And this is why he's an inexperienced agent.

He went kind of no agent a couple of years ago. He got an inexperienced agent. There's so many stories of guys who kind of like, you're like, I wish just had some better help around them, right? And I know there's other stories of guys, Richard Sherman, Roquan Smith, guys doing deals without agents. But typically those guys richard sherman was like his third deal right like it wasn't i think you just like sometimes you need that that help around you and i feel like that kind of hurt him here i think it's hurting lamar jackson a little bit

on the other side we saw matt ryan his agent got him an extra 12 million dollars negotiated into into 2023 the colts cut him $12 million for free. He just got that in his contract last season. There's little things agents can do that I think make sense. I think Brown kind of got squeezed out. I kind of feel bad for him as the Chiefs let him go. He kind of doesn't have a landing point as we're recording this. One thing to note throughout free agency too,

if you see some of these deals as we kind of go through a couple of the ones that are important, draft slot matters a lot to free agency and i wish it didn't you look at mike mcglinchey 10th pick overall look at andre dillard eagles drafted him in the first round left out of washington state he's been eagles four years he started nine games nine games signed a three-year deal with the Titans. Draft slot. Andrew Wiley, who just went from the Chiefs to the Commanders, signed a three-year deal for $24 million.

Undrafted free agent. Wiley and McGlinchey are basically, to me, in the same tier of offensive linemen. If Wiley was a first-round pick, he would have got the McGlinchey deal. But he's an undrafted free agent, and he got the undrafted free agent deal. I commented about this. Andrew Whitworth even said when he was negotiating his third contract in Cincinnati, they told him they were looking at deals

for non-first-round picks because he was a second-round pick. He goes, what does that matter? Like, it's in my seventh season. Like, it just sticks with you, and it's the only thing that frustrates me about this time of year. I'm not jealous of players getting more money than I ever did. People ask me all the time. I'm like, good.

Good for these players. Get paid. Get broke off. I have a great life. Everyone wants more money, of course. But I'm totally set. I'm good for life. I'm not jealous of these guys.

But I just, ooh, I'm like, ugh. If I was a third-round pick, it would have been better for agency. So if you notice some of these deals like you say oh my god how they get so much money look where they're drafted a lot of it is where you're drafted yeah fair enough uh so you mentioned wiley a couple other names i want to throw at you and then maybe just step back and explain how some of these teams this time of year i feel like this is the time of year where we all pretend and understand stuff better than we do uh which is by the way like watching the news and having takes on politics like we all pretend we understand stuff all of a sudden like i'm suddenly an expert

in how banks you know what i'll tell you what though i watch like one funny tiktok video on svb and i got it like i just needed one funny tiktok you nailed it yeah yeah we should put you in charge i'm i'm in f fdic is that what it is fdic yeah yeah there you go that's it that's it yeah so so free agency and cap space and all that stuff works the same so before we go on that i just a couple names that step out to me that matter to me maybe because fantasy and other stuff but like stefan gilmore it wasn't that long ago i was told he was the best cornerback in the league i guess he he's not that anymore, but he's going to the Cowboys. That seems relevant, no?

Well, it does. I mean, the Cowboys need another corner. There's only been a couple of moves made that feel like have made, you know, can make a real difference. I feel like Stephon Gilmore is one of those guys, if you can play like he used to play. Like, that's a, to me, that's a, not a free agent move, it's a trade. Like, a big move for the Cowboys to put him in there jalen ramsey going from the rams to dolphins like that

feels like a move where you're like okay that makes that team in my opinion a little bit better like it puts him in it does it yeah i think i'd like to push back on the jalen ramsey love of the last few i think i think he can still play in the spots, that guy fails every time. He is a, like most corners, he's going to have big misses and big wins. I mean, that's what corners do, right? Like he's going to have both of those, right? Like that's part of playing that position, I feel like. Okay. I've seen a lot more misses than wins.

I mean, maybe because they don't throw his way because he's locked the guy up so often. So that's the other one about Gilmore though. So what does this mean for Diggs and the whole myth of diggs and the debate about diggs whether he plays the position the right way they're just going to put them on opposite sides and that's that you technically have three three good corners you need a nickel guy like yeah i love this move for the cowboys like stefano can still play and you add yourself another piece especially in that division look at what philly can do on offense well the giants are trying to do an offense well washington's got some wide receivers i mean just look at the rest of the league like most competent teams have two or three wide receivers that are really good those corners

are helpful and so i i love them and i think you can never have enough pass rushers corners offensive linemen obviously quarterback like you never know those guys so i like that that's like a like impactful trade it changes my very slightly my my super bowl kind of like window for them my how i feel about them heading into this season all right hank wrote down rashad penny i'm gonna save us time here i don't care the eagles have rashad penny they're they're gonna have three running backs they're gonna make it a nightmare for fantasy owners who cares eagles got worse man the defense got raided yeah Slay is gone Rashad Penny doesn't make up the difference the Niners are pretty interesting the Niners are I can't

recall a team Gabe that is so good outside of quarterback like they just need a mid quarterback like they don't even need someone that's great Sam Darnald i mean i don't think it's sam donald but like he's not but like they they just they have this great team but just don't have a quarterback it's wild to me yeah premium player left tackle running back fullback tight in wide receiver pass rusher safety linebacker corner like how many teams nfl can say that have a premium player at almost every position i just mentioned every position in the nfl i think corner of the niners maybe don't have one at the moment but like okay eight out of nine positions like robbie gould can kick really well has missed a playoff field goal ever i think but they don't have a quarterback and like that's the

crazy part to me like they're everything set up for. That's why our boy Thomas Brady is going to be a Niner. It's important, I think. Okay, stop. Last move that I noticed in sort of this season, trades, free agency, et cetera, big name move, and Darren Waller, who just a couple years ago looked like an unstoppable force as a tight end, but really more of a wide receiver.

He goes over to the Gi who you know when you have a average at best quarterback who's a little bit mobile having a a safety blanket tight end who can just run and find space seems like a great fit right it feels like a great fit waller just can't stay healthy i mean he's got to be able to play it was kind of funny that people were like uh he you know he just got married and asked to be traded immediately after getting married like oh i mean he started you know 11 games two years ago and six this past season like he's got to stay healthy as long as he can stay healthy he can be good but he's got to stay in the field him and his wife by the way power the power of a power sports couple like they're gonna their kids are gonna be just like sign up for scholarships immediately immediate scholarships those nil deals ready for the wall um all right here's a question so this

is the big picture and then we'll zero in to a couple players that might line up so the bills apparently have have done some things to restructure some big contracts to find some cap space presumably to go get some big missing piece on either side of the ball. We don't know exactly who that piece is. But can you just make us a little smarter here, Jeff? What the hell are people talking about when they're like, oh, they've restructured and they found cap space, like try to explain this in terms we understand. There's two restructures. The one that most people do is they take they take your base salary. So let's say your base salary is $10 million this year, you know, $10 million cap it. And they and they take that money and they say you know what we're going to do instead of giving you 10 million over the course of this season which basically means from week 1 to week

18 we get paid each week in the nfl some teams pay every two weeks but it's week 1 to week 18 that's our paid structure um that we're gonna take that down to $1 million, give you $9 million now in a signing bonus, and then spread out that signing bonus at $9 million over the lifetime of your contract. And that lowers your cap number, right? So if your cap number is $10 million, let's say you have three years left on your deal, we'll lower that in this year

and we'll tack it on to the next two years of your deal. And then teams keep doing that, doing that, backloadloading deals eventually the bill comes due at some point theoretically it does the saints obviously feel like it never does um but at some point so that that's most of these restructures they give you the money now and you add that you tack that on and that that doesn't affect your contract at all doesn't affect the player at all it just affects the team and the cash flow and the way they're able to um essentially you know manage the cap the other restructure which happens sometimes happened to me the team calls and goes hey we're gonna cut you unless you take less money essentially um after my first year in new york that happened to me my restructure wasn't that bad um they basically took i was due let's use rough numbers, $4 million.

And they said, we'll give you half, and you can earn the other half in basically roster bonuses. So if you play each week, we'll give you your money back. And we were like, oh, all right. I guess, I mean, we had no choice. That's the fairest way ever. Because some users say you're taking less money, or you're getting cut. So so i played 11 games that year so i just missed out on a

little bit of money not playing the rest of the season so i made a decent amount of the four million dollars i'm not poor i'm fine with the decision it was that or get cut most researchers are not that friendly most of them are like you're taking less money or we're cutting you those happen before free agency typically and that's when you see guys get cut like darius slade got cut by the eagles and imagine they're like hey you want to take less money and he's like nope and they're like okay cool we'll see you later when you see reports of guys trying to get traded from like the side of almost the team side not the austin eckler thing where that's just he wants to be traded for like the side of almost the team side,

not the Austin Eckler thing where that's just, he wants to be traded for some reason. I don't know. It's the team says to him, the player, Hey, you can take less money or we're going to cut you or you can be traded. And oftentimes there's no trade partner and they just cut you.

So that's what happened with Darius Slay. Not with Austin Eckler. I think it's Eckler just wanting out of Los Angeles for some reason. let's talk about that so I'm gonna I'm gonna guess because I brought up the bills and the space that they're trying to create and I know how their offense works and I see what Austin Eckler can do for an offense with that's constantly in motion as a quarterback who's all over the place where you don't know who the heck to guard. Austin Eckler and Buffalo, just from a dum-dum like me, seems terrifying to the league.

Austin Eckler also, and Jamal Williams too, these are both guys who want to get paid the right way. Every fantasy player knows they're going in the first round. For some reason, they seem a bit undervalued by real teams. I don't know why the chargers wouldn't do everything they possibly could to keep the guy who's been their best weapon the last couple of years with a quarterback who looks like he could break out to be a top five guy with hell i think you just said yourself first off by the way juju smith

schuster signed with the patriots as we're talking um so leaving the chiefs going to the patriots making it hard for me to like you, Juju. A couple of things here about the Eckler situation. He was obviously a big part of what the Chargers have done for so many years, right? If you look at his numbers, I'll pull it up right now. He had 200 rushing attempts last year, 204 rushing attempts, 107 receiving attempts.

He only had 107 receiving receptions for 722. I think it was something where he was like one of the only players in the last 10 years to have that many receptions but under 1,000 yards receiving. That was one offense. Now you have Kellen Moore coming in. And the idea of maybe, you know what, maybe Kellen Moore is not going to use me quite the same way.

We saw in Dallas, to running back system right like we'll just rotate those guys through we don't have to play austin eckler we can play anyone in that in that offense also there might be some you know some idea of like hey this is my last year under my contract with with the chargers i want an extension they won't give it to me okay well let me find somewhere else that'll trade for me and I want an extension. They won't give it to me. Okay, well, let me find somewhere else that'll trade for me and give me an extension. I think all those factors can sort of be at play here that I'm in a new offense. It might not use me as much.

I want a new deal and the Chargers won't give it to me. I want to find a better offense that fits me so I can get paid more next season. Yeah, this again will go back to my consistent take every draft and every offseason I don't think NFL front offices use their brains the right way sometimes Austin Eckler has all the he can point to his resume he's got all the stats he's been on the the field. He's made the plays. He's an exceptional dude. No one has ever questioned his work ethic. He's never created a single distraction. He's exactly what you want on your franchise.

I don't understand how that isn't valued more than it is. I just don't. And I'll never understand it. And by the way, Jamal Williams seems to be headed in that same path. Yeah. Seems like an unbelievably good dude who puts up great numbers, who teammates seem to love. Like, I don't get it. I don't know why that isn't worth more versus not trying to say Zeke Elliott's some evil

person, but there are some question marks there. It's not as obvious with Zeke. I just think the Chargers look at it and just say, like, how important is he in our offense? And it becomes a money situation. Like, yeah, he might, all things you said are very true, but he might not fit what we want to do. We just don't want to pay someone that much money. Yeah, I personally would like to just take a few positions,

key positions, and go, I got the right guy there. I don't have to worry about that. That guy's going to show up to work. That guy's going to perform. I don't need to worry about that position. And again, I understand Austin Eckler's position of like, hey, we try to get a new deal done. I would imagine they tried to get a new deal done.

He's an unrestricted free agent next year. And I'm sure they tried to get a deal done. They said no, and he's moving on. He's trying to find a place to... I don't know who's going to give him that at the moment. I don't know who's trading for him and then giving him an extension. So... All right, let's hit a couple quarterbacks um please don't waste any time talking about

jimmy g to the raiders who cares about the raiders right they're not relevant anything means nothing okay baker to the bucks is a little bit more sexy that's a little bit more interesting but the bucks don't matter no it's nice for baker but yeah but it's a one-year deal for eight million dollars the bucks are still very still very much in the camp of like, we can draft a quarterback. They don't have the cap space for it, but they could, like Lamar Jackson, that'd be a perfect spot for him as well, I think.

The Raiders, by the way, also not out of a quarterback at seven either. Yeah, well, it doesn't, I don't know exactly where the Bucs are picking. I would guess. Well, they're in the playoffs, so it has to be like no worse than what, 18? No lower than 18? Or no higher are picking, I would guess. Well, they're in the playoffs, so it has to be no worse than what? 18?

No lower than 18? Or no higher than 18, I should say? But they're the last. They're right in the middle because they're the worst playoff team record-wise. Right? Or does it go off the seed? They'll be 18, 19, 20. Somewhere around there, sure.

All right. Anthony Richardson? We have to trade up for him, though. He ain't going to be there. You think? You think he's not going to slide down there? I think Richardson's going between one and four. He might even go up to one.

Get the... Really? Yeah. You think Carolina made that move to consider him? I don't think Carolina moved up for Bryce Young. Whoa. Why? Whoa.

Whoa. Whoa. Why aren't we talking about this? C.J. Stroud or Richardson. I don't think they moved up for Bryce Young. I just don't think you give up those assets for a slight quarterback I think Bryce Young's the most ready quarterback now but I don't think you and I don't think the Panthers have chosen who they want by the way either right now Gabe you think they gave up all

that to not even know who they want yeah I don't know if they're sold on one particular guy if it's early March still when they made the trade but i don't think it's for bryce young i don't i think it's for stroud or richard like here's as soon as this came out the reports were like stroud or richardson for them i don't think it's bryce young okay then that deal is even more drunk than i thought i wow i mean i don't i don't believe that any of these quarterbacks are going to be particularly great nfl quarterbacks i think they're all somewhere like dac ceiling to a floor kind of guys. They'll be pretty good.

The problem is you have to be better than this collection of Mahomes, Burrow, Allen, Herbert, Lawrence. It just doesn't feel like they're in this draft. Next draft, Williams, Drake, May, the North Carolina kid. Next draft, it feels like you have those guys this draft doesn't feel that way all right here's one that brings me great joy uh because it's sort of buzzing around on the internet i'm not sure too many shows have picked up on this one and sort of the the mainstream shows that we tend to watch where the real take makers come from it seems like the most obvious thing in the world is happening. And players are revolting against all these phony Belichick wannabes like McDaniels and

what's the ding dong with this pencil in his ear? Patricia. Yeah. Players are pretty much openly saying, F that guy. I don't want to be around him. Maybe not exactly in those terms, but read between the lines. That's very clearly what's going on with a few big moves this offseason why do these guys keep being assholes well because they grew up in that system that's what that's what you know right it's what you think works and it's why

it almost never works because you have to be your own person andy reed always says i love this about andy reed he says all the time that's, I believe, he said he wants the players to show their personalities. And I think if you're a coach, you got to be yourself, right? You got to be true to yourself. But all these guys grew up under Belichick, and they see what works for Belichick, and they want to be that guy because that works for everyone else. But it doesn't work.

Belichick can do those things because he's Bill Belichick. He's won so many times. He was a successful defensive coordinator. He was building the Browns up before they folded as a franchise. He's won New England. Like, he can get away with those things. Joshua McDaniels can't.

And by the way, it does seem like McDaniels is not as bad as Matt Patricia in that sense. He's mean to everyone, not just specific players. Now the whole wedding thing and leaking out the wedding stuff seemed kind of not great for McDaniels. There's a story about him leaking out the news of Waller

and Kelsey Plum getting married. It's not why Waller was traded. I mean, he was getting going on anyways. Just a fun story to kind of tag along with Waller getting traded. But yeah, these guys seem like they're tough to be around. And when you don't win, it makes it worse. When you win, you put up with it. And Belichick and Sissons don't win at the same rate either.

And so when they don't win at the same rate, then putting up with being an asshole makes it much more difficult. Yeah, I think also, look, all of our generalizations about the various generational tags that we give people, you know, Gen X and boomers and millennials, well, all this stuff. Every player coming into his prime in the NFL now has been raised differently than all the guys who won Bill Belichick ranks. Yes.

And people don't like to be talked to that way any longer. Anyone who works in any profession knows you can't talk to people the to that way any longer anyone who works in any profession knows you can't talk to people the way that your boss used to talk to you that's just not how it works we do talk to Hank that way though well you know even Hank we soften it up for a little bit Hank thinks we're hard on him this is nothing like the way it was for me or you I don't are we old enough to even say things like that like this i'm old enough jeff i got a few years yeah i'm positive that i dealt with crap that it would never be allowed to i mean i had two days in football it's not a little different a little different now but so like andy reed seems to have adjusted oh he totally has yes pete carroll seems to have adjusted some of these guys are just

as old as belichick and they've yeah bel Yeah, Belichick is not great at that. That's probably what's going to hold him back from winning a championship and some of the roster decisions since the time Brady left. He's not adapted as well to the personality of the younger players, which is funny because Juju and Bill Belichick

getting along don't seem like it's going to happen. Is it going to be one of his videos, do you think? Absolutely not. Who the hell knows? I mean, now it's one more social media platform Bill's going to happen it's going to be one of his videos do you think absolutely not who the hell knows i mean now it's one more social media platform bill's gonna have to pretend he doesn't know anything about with tiktok talk so he said he's gonna petition for it to be to be banned in a state okay he's not on it uh well i i will root for juju personally but i will not root for him in that jersey i just won't do it.

Let's take a quick break. We'll come back. We'll do some very fast over-unders. We've been going heavy because of Aaron Rodgers, but he's the first topic when we move the line next. All right, Jeff, we're back. It's time to move the line. I want to know, over-under, is this a top five sickest burn by a media member? I want to know over under, is this a top five sickest burn by a media member?

Adam Schefter, just a little while ago, screen grabbed the text he got from Aaron Rodgers, which says, lose my number. Good try, though. And Schefter's post is confirming Aaron Rodgers' report. Very good. Very good. And then Rodgers then like threatened to like expose what Schefter sent him on McAfee's show. And McAfee was like, no, no, no, buddy, buddy. He just did this like as a joke, like confirming what you said. You don't have to release like what he sent you.

But the best was the reply and said, you're like family to him, which was from Pete Blackburn. Good for Schefter. Good for Schefter. Yeah, Schefter's making sure like he's having some fun with his Blackburn getting in on the fun uh Rodgers is gonna just get this non-stop I mean the memes will be endless uh I enjoy all of them I'm here for all of them we've already covered the football part of that uh let's move to a little bit more serious story and and you know it's hard to keep up with the TikTok of every minute of. But Jalen Carter has been in some very tricky conversations this offseason, some of his own making.

So he's he's part of or implicated in a fatal car crash. I think we don't know exactly what happened and what the outcome of that will be. But it's obviously a question that's coming up as people think about drafting him. And now apparently he's reportedly out of shape at george's pro day um we were saying like one two or three for this guy and it kind of nothing could go wrong that that's kind of what we talked about a couple weeks ago is is he even a top 10 guy now over under that math where's a little heavier nine pounds heavier i don't think he's overweight or out of shape. He's just heavier, which happens a lot from the combine. Reportedly couldn't finish his position.

Okay, that's not good. You know, this coupled with, and this is the one thing that's really tough. So setting aside the unfortunate tragedy that happened with him, the fatal car crash, Todd McShay came out in early January and said there are character concerns with jalen carter and nothing to do with the federal car crash by the way and i heard some of the whispers

about jalen carter some things i don't like how we say character issues to encompass everything possible that could happen off the field yeah because when i think characters i think domestic violence right i think like criminal issues i think you know scamming i this is his character issues are none of those things now okay i'm setting aside that this is reported before the fatal car crash obviously right it's some work ethic issues which again show up in the weight gain that we just saw the last couple of weeks so we got to be better as nfl draft analysts when we say character issues like the issues with him weren't quote characters now the fatal car crash now we can talk about that right maybe there's some other things opening up here but that's not what tom mâché was talking

about i think it shows a little bit in his weight gain so what Maché was talking about by the way and so I do wonder if that drops him further down now I would say he's drafted in the top 10 still he's immensely talented and again Colin Coward always says this and he's exactly right it's one of his better takes that like it's a backwards hat thing right we're like my quarterback I want him his hat forward a defensive tackle i don't care right like even the tackle you kind of like character stuff you're kind of like oh can you rush the passer yes or no you can okay go rush the passer quarterback i i gotta have a little bit different and so i think he still goes on top because he's that good

of a player unless more comes out of the car crash you know, we don't know if there's more to come from that. Yeah, I think part of what you're saying is a really important thing to underline, which is you got to be very precise with your words. Character issues isn't specific enough. And if you're not willing to actually come out and report what you heard, then just keep it to yourself. But there I should tell the audience because I don't think people realize this. I've worked in the media for a long time. You're a part of it for a few years now. These guys all know more than they say. Oh, yeah. People think the job is to just go out there and fire off takes and say whatever you feel like. I promise you, even with the guys who you maybe some of you listeners cannot stand. These guys try very hard not to say everything that they know i i know so much

stuff i do not tell anybody because i just it's not my job my job is not to break stories my job is not to now i might spread some me and my buddies might talk about stories that i'm are authorized to talk about certain things but like yeah there's so much the jalen carter stuff that tom mcshay was referring to was in a group text of mine two months before he said it a more extreme example of this would be the way that the coverage of john morant has evolved there's stuff that people had rumored about oh i don't follow the nba that closely but i just got suspended for eight games while we were talking so that stuff was already known like there have been rumors about him that people didn't feel responsible bringing oh okay until until more specific things came to

light and then suddenly it's like well that's probably why some of those people felt that way about him because they've known that all along but they weren't they weren't going to put it on the air because they couldn't confirm it i and i'm not i'm being just as vague as i'm saying other people tend to be but you get what i'm saying i want to know who who laid the money like that's a lot of money to lay like specifically out like to cover the entire room a lot of work it's too much work in my opinion a lot of work uh all right speaking of the nba though because you are a lakers fan oh um we're getting we're getting closer to the right to the postseason. Okay, so how many playoff series do the Lakers win this season?

Over, under 0.5. We're going to say that if they win the play-in series, that counts as one. Oh, no, no, no. How about we don't even do that? They're bypassing the play-in? You think they're... They're going to win the play-in and they're going to beat the Nuggets in round one, if they get put in Nuggets.

So it's a tricky situation that would land them the one or the eight right they'd have to no no they have to well they have to lose the first play and get they have to be the seven or eight and lose the first playing game and then win the second one and then win the second one that's how you get the eight and then they would have so that's a weird set of circumstances don't you think it's more likely they just win their way in but also too like they're gonna beat they're gonna beat the kings in the playoffs like if they're the seventh seed you have to think so 60 right like yeah so i think they're definitely winning a playoff series if lebron is back healthy okay well just one i mean you're not giving them another one a lot depends on kevin durant's health

and the warriors kind of. Oh, stop, stop, stop with Kevin Durant. I'm done with Kevin Durant. And the Warriors overall health. The Warriors scare me a lot more. They should scare you more. But the Warriors overall health. They're starting to play good basketball too.

They just have an atrocious road record. It's like it'd be the worst as Nick Wright, I'm sure, brings up. He's the one who's made this point often. Like they have the worst road record to ever win a championship yeah they would except you know what only one team in the western conference has a winning record on the road as of a couple days ago i know that one team do you know who it is the lakers the sacramento kings the one team that's trying so over under over under 2.5 games most teams care to win during the regular season. Oh, under.

Like just care enough to try. Under, exactly. That's the problem with this silly sport. Back to a real sport and a guy who covers it, but a guy who has silly takes very famously. Dan Orlovsky, your good buddy. A guy whose football analysis might be the best in the business. A guy whose food analysis sucks,

and now he's expanding his crappy takes into a new category which is domesticity so jeff um i'm gonna ask it to you it's from a tweet from dan over under six and a half days before your wife meredith makes you change your towels all right so dan said that he goes 30 showers without washing his towel. 30 showers. So that's, he said, then he clarified that's two a day. He takes two, so 15 days between washing towels. That's roughly two weeks. My wife washes our towels so often, Gabe.

We legit have 15 towels and four bath mats. I might pull a new towel down, use it, and then three minutes later, my wife is taking all the towels and bath mats and throwing pull a new towel down use it and then three minutes later my wife is taking all the towels and bath mats and throwing them in the washing machine it's like it's sometimes i'm like hun i just it's a brand new towel i just took that out she goes i don't care it's out of here um so it's it's gone immediately if a towel lasts more than three days in this house it's it's a shock okay so i so I'm similar to you. Not quite as fast.

Well, that's my wife. I would wash the towels once a week if it was up to me. Once a week seems very normal, and for most people, that's one or two showers a day. Correct. And, you know, the towel should stay relatively clean if you're using it after you've showered. So I'd say once a week is pretty standard for a grown-up. Once every two weeks seems crazy to me, especially if you are living in a home with a wife and children.

And Dan, you know, earns a nice paycheck. I'm sure, you know, he's got the means to have somebody help him clean his house or whatever. Like, that's a wild assertion. 30 uses before a wash. It's a lot, yeah. It's a lot. All right, I'm glad we got to the bottom of that. FX is releasing a limited series called the sterling affairs about the scandal that ended donald sterling's time with the clippers uh over under 35 chance you watch this uh probably yeah i'll probably it's

crazy to me how the nba owners just like got them about to paint very they got them up there quickly like gone fast i mean they should have i mean the clippers were an embarrassment i was at the to me how the nba owners just like got them about to paint very they got them up there quickly like gone fast i mean they should have i mean the clippers were an embarrassment i was at the hornets game this past weekend with my son and my dad and um i was talking about going to the uh sports arena as kids to watch the clippers play i mean it was legit like 12 dollars to sit in the fourth row to watch the clippers play anybody it's a sports we we went to i remember talking about we were talking about the jazz one time we saw the jazz play because a a fan turned to us and said hey sonny there's four white guys on the court for

the jazz you'll never see this again in nba history we were like it was like 1997 there's like stockton hornacek uh who was the center would have been like uh oyster tag oh and like someone else um and it was like 12 to sit four rows behind the clippers bench um in the middle of the bad part of los angeles they weren't competitive at all i mean he had to tell the team so i'll watch a series fx though i't really have... Do you stream FX? I don't have an app for that. I'm not going to watch it, like, on TV. Probably not. Well, I usually watch my FX shows on Hulu.

I have Hulu. There you go. That's the answer, my friend. Let's speed through a couple more and get the heck out of here. So, we talked about Zeke earlier. It looks like he's out in Dallas. They're franchise tagging Pollard. So Kara, who works here, often referred to as the boss of the whole company.

Oh. She has a bold prediction that Hank is referencing here. She and Hank believe that Bijan Robinson is a Cowboys draft pick at 26. Over under 50% chance Hank's least favorite team drafts his favorite player. I would say no. The Cowboys are smart enough now to not do that. The Cowboys are smart enough to blank that sentence sucks. That's not a true statement.

I think they're not going to do that. No. Under. You think they're smart enough not to draft a running back in the first round? I think so, yeah. As they let go of their first round. I think they've learned their lesson with Tony Pollard being as good as he is in the fourth round whoever he was okay well that's good for hank and sam by the way sam working behind the scenes a texas guy as well

we got a lot of texans helping out who's this random nfl team like hank has the random nfl team the commanders we're gonna find out what sam's favorite team is well it's not random hank grew up in the dc area sam a cowboys and sam's a cowboy this is gonna this is gonna be great content this coming season when sam's behind the wheel finally we get hank the hell out of here sam's gonna be giving us cowboys takes and uh firing away in the chat i can't wait the cowboys might be the nfc favorite right now that must make you that make you terrified if you're a cowboys fan. Jeff, we told you last offseason, and we're going to tell you again. You're going to keep – just don't touch the Cowboys.

By the way, we don't even need to do more Rodgers. We covered it plenty. Can I just get one gambling take out of you? Yes. Hammer. Hammer the Jets under. I'm going to do Jets no playoffs, all those stuff. All of them, right?

On a gambling note, are you excited for March Madness? I'm going to do Jets, no playoffs, all those stuff. All of them, right? More on a gambling note, are you excited for March Madness? I'm very excited. I have three out of my four Final Four teams are Pac-12 teams. What do you think? The Pac-12 is the best team against the spread in the last 10 years in the tournament, by the way. Boom. The worst is like the Mountain West, who stinks.

But one of them is USC, which is just not going to happen because they're not going to beat Michigan State. They're not going to beat a lot of the teams I have them beating, but I did it anyway. But Arizona and UCLA have reasonable paths. Yeah, well, UCLA, the West region is brutal. The West region has five of the top 11 Ken Palm teams. And UCLA, if they just were healthy, man,

if Clark were obviously out for the season, Bono probably comes back. Bruins, Arizona is just not they only play seven guys that to me is not deep enough to win a tournament and you need you need elite point guard play in my opinion to win the tournament and so UCLA has everything you need point guard play kind of a

veteran toughness grit defense and then they can they can make shots like they are a team that doesn't rely on a three point shot if they need to do a set offense, we need a two-point basket, we need a score in this play, they can do that in this possession. That's what they do. It's just that they're just so beat up right now.

So I'm looking forward to watching, though. I mean, March Madness, man, you know, I think I'm like you, man. We spend so much time on football that we kind of get late to college basketball. And every March, it just, it does its job. It has compelling basketball. Every March. It doesn't matter. Every single March.

And I will say to the football fans, I have one beef with this year's bracket. Oh, what is it? You don't get to be a one seed in basketball if you're a perennial one seed in football. I'm looking at you, Alabama. It doesn't make sense it's not fair remember when florida was the best at both yeah 2007 yeah it's not fair like just let us have something else who'd you pick to win i i picked ucla it's gonna be tough i picked ucla just to give my kids something to you know be fired up about you have a ucla arizona championship game

or ucla usc uh well no i didn't have usc because i would have picked usc to win you have a ucla arizona championship game or you still usc uh well no i didn't have usc because i would have picked usc to win it all over ucla uh i can't i guess i must have arizona ucla yeah okay i don't know my bracket's ridiculous i did it basically for my kids uh all right everyone thank you for listening oh what a show remember guys and roger's not offended and he very much hates the media. He loves the media. All right, everybody. We'll talk to you guys next week.

We'll have more to talk about, as usual. The NFL never sleeps. Have a great week. Please rate, review, and subscribe. We'll talk to you guys in a week. Take care, everybody. We'll see you next time.