Green Light with Chris Long - Brian Baldinger! 2024 NFL Offseason, Ravens Restock, Chiefs SB Defense & Eagles Secondary

Episode Date: May 14, 2024

BALDY! Brian Baldinger joins Chris to talk NFL. We cover the biggest offseason news, some recent roster moves and signings with Jared Goff and Antoine Winfield getting big deals, the Eagles outlook post-Jason Kelce and Kansas City's chances of a Super Bowl Trifecta! (00:00) - Intro: Baldy's Breakdowns and Watching Film During the NFL Season (7:47) - Ravens Restock the Shelves but Which Players Lost This Offseason Will Baltimore Miss the Most? (10:35) - Can the Chiefs 3-Peat? (17:43) - Philadelphia Eagles' Offseason Upgrades, Draft Picks and Missing Jason Kelce (26:06) - NFL Edge Rushers: Haason Reddick, Maxx Crosby and the Best DLine in the NFL (39:09) - Health of Joe Burrow and Deshaun Watson (45:30) - Why Can't the Texans Make a Run in 2024? (49:53) - Titans Have Quietly Improved Dramatically (52:55) - NFL News: Jared Goff and Antoine Winfield Jr Deals (1:02:56) - Best NFL Facilities Want your Green Light Merch so you can look exactly like Chris and the fellas? Hit the website below and get kitted! https://stores.kotisdesign.com/yotehouse/products Have some interesting takes, some codebreaks or just want to talk to the Green Light Crew? We want to hear from you. Call into the Green Light Hotline and give us your hottest takes, your biggest gripes and general thoughts. Day and night, this hotline is open. Green Light Hotline: ‪[phone]‬ Send any Talent Search submissions to: [e-mail] Include any video of your talents, takes and bits as well as a little bit about yourself. Love hearing from the Green Light fans. Also, check out our paddling partners at Appomattox River Company to get your canoes, kayaks and paddleboards so you're set to hit the river this summer. https://paddleva.com/ Green Light Spotify Music: https://open.spotify.com/user/951jyryv2nu6l4iqz9p81him9?si=17c560d10ff04a9b Spotify Layup Line: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/1olmCMKGMEyWwOKaT1Aah3?si=675d445ddb824c42 Green Light Tube YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCgxWFAA-wuB7osdiAJyLOcw Green Light with Chris Long: Subscribe and enjoy weekly content including podcasts, documentaries, live chats, celebrity interviews and more including hot news items, trending discussions from the NFL, MLB, NHL, NBA, NCAA are just a small part of what we will be sharing with you. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Eagles, no Kelsey, you kind of touched on it. What are the specific ways that a center leaving is a compounding negative for an offensive line if he's playing at a high level like Jason? I mean, every adjustment that has probably ever been made since 2011 or 12 on the sideline during a game when they got to be made in real time, he's been a part of it. During a week, I'm sure there's a good chunk of every Thursday where him and Jalen Hertz and the quarterbacks are sitting down. of going through the Blitz reel and the looks and what's coming. So all that is imperative. And then I think the thing that everybody's going to miss is you could put Dexter Lawrence on top of them. And he's putting him on his back in the run game.

Like his strength is still his strength. Welcome to the Greenlight podcast. Thank you for tuning in today, a little special Tuesday drop. We've got Brian Baldinger from NFL. network and the internet's baldy breakdowns. He gives some of the best NFL breakdown info out there. Brian and Chris ripped through some of these offseason moves. They talk about some of the best fits from the NFL draft. What teams have set up for a good shot at a title? Can the Chiefs make it a three-peat? What does Max Crosby need to do to have a bigger impact? Does Josh Allen have

enough weapons? How about the Eagles? They've done a lot to their secondary, both in the draft and free agency. Plenty of NFL news to hit. Brian also tells us a great story of meeting Chris in St. Louis Chris was doing a Sam Pit workout and Brian tried to jump in there with him. A great conversation. We'll let you enjoy it. And then we will be back on Friday. A whole crew in studio, Jay. Make sure you tune in for that one.

We'll see you. All right. So some days you don't have a guest. Monday, I did not have a guest. I told our guests today. I went outside and I said, I'll worry about it tomorrow. And I got home and guilty is charged. I texted Brian Baldinger and I said,

Hey, man, I need a favor. Can you come on in the morning? There's nobody I'd want to talk to more about what the hell's going on in the NFL right now, that Brian Balding, or one of my favorite media personalities. Never been on Greenlight before. So welcome to the show, Baldwin. Hey, what's up, man? Thanks, Chris.

Good to be with you, man. I watch your stuff all the time. The guest looks like everything is going good for you. So, you know, we're all part of the same fraternity. You know, Chris, we're different generations apart. But we're all part of the same fraternity, you know, so we all are always trying to help each other out whenever we can. That's right, man. I pass you in the hallway at NFL films a good bit.

You know, watch your tape grinding, man. That's what we could all aspire to, man. Like, you know, I think what's so cool about you, you probably hear this all the time, but I never have to worry about if you actually saw it. Yeah. Honestly, Chris, I, like I get paranoid if I go on any kind of a show, whether it's, you know, a podcast with you or whatever,

and somebody throws something out at me, and I haven't seen it. I might have heard about it. but I didn't see it. And I was like, I'm not going to be in that position. I'm not going to comment. They've wanted me to do so many different shows of Monday morning, Chris. And I'm like, over the years at Fox, NFL Network, whatever, I go, I'll do the show. I don't care about, you know, sleep.

That's all right. I go, I got to see it before we talk about it. So if I can't see it, I'm not going to comment. And so that was, I was always paranoid about that. What's your, like, what's your Sunday to like Tuesday look like? because for me, I mean, it's by the skin of my teeth, trying to see everything. You know what I mean? And there's different degrees of seeing things, right?

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. How do you tear it so that you can actually get through the tape? I call it the bubble. I'm in the bubble, man. Yeah. Everybody knows whether it's my girlfriend, family, friend, whatever. They just know. They know where I'm at.

They can try to contact me if it's important, but chances are you're probably not going to get a response. Yeah. So I do games every Sunday, Chris. I love doing games on the field, kind of get that vibe, you know, that all players get that you like. So I'm at a game every Sunday. If I'm on the West Coast, Seattle, San Francisco, Los Angeles, literally I will stay in the stadium. Usually they don't kick me out. I'll stay in the stadium.

I'll start watching the 1 o'clock games out there on the West Coast. I'll try to get four or five games in. I'll catch the red eye back and I'll come straight here and I'll just grind. If I'm on the East Coast and I can get back here Sunday night, I'll start watching Sunday night. otherwise, you know, if I get home from, I don't know, Pittsburgh at midnight, I'll just, I'll be here at five. I'll just work till 10 at night, just go straight through. I'll watch as much as I can and I'll try to catch up on Tuesday.

And usually by Tuesday night, I know what you said is right. There's varying degrees of kind of watching it. I feel like I got a pretty good grip by Tuesday night and certainly by Wednesday. Like I've kind of reviewed everything that I really want to look at. It's a lot like an NFL season as a player. Yeah. You're just trying to get your head above water. And then by Thursday and Friday, it's starting to clear up a little bit.

I don't even have a beer by Thursday or Friday. Yeah. Exactly. Exactly. What's your, you don't need much sleep, do you, Baldi, in the in season? You know, I mean, as I get older, I kind of respect sleep a little bit more than I once did. But, I mean, I can definitely function really good on five or six hours. Yeah.

I mean, there's no doubt about that. Was there a team last year with all that tape crunch that you really enjoyed watching? You know, maybe they weren't the best team, but you enjoyed watching them, a unit, a side of the ball. And then vice versa, was there a group that you were like, man, they need a lot of work. This is tough. Yeah. Well, you could put Max Crosby on any day. I'll watch all.

Oh, yeah. I watch every play. So that's not a group. That's just an individual that just plays. Kind of plays like a group. It plays like a whole group. I mean, so, you know, and then he gets pissed off if I don't watch every play, too. So, you know, I feel like I'm kind of helping him.

He's always asking, you know, he's just, all he wants to do is get better. But, you know, when you look at groups, kind of depends because, you know, like the Eagles were really good, the first 10, 11 weeks of season. And they were rolling. And, you know, our good friend, Lane Johnson, you know, he was checking in. And then, you know, then they just fell off a cliff. So that's that, you know. And then, like, the Pittsburgh Steelers' offense lines started coming together, and they were really fun to watch the second half of the season.

But I would say, honestly, I loved watching the Ravens defense all year, Chris. They play that match-up zone. You know how they kind of do it. It looks easy. I know it's not. But, you know, they don't break assignments. They didn't have big plays. Roquan is a machine.

Like, they were just, you know, it's fun to see Genevian get off, you know, to see, you know, some of the guys really step up to see a guy. like Matabike just, you know, come out of nowhere and have the season he had. So they were a group that I said, okay, they're going to give a lot of people problems all year long, the way they were playing. No question. You mentioned the Pittsburgh offensive line the second half of the season. And just the commitment a little bit more to the run game. We will get to the Steelers, but I guess we'll start with the Ravens and the AFC just because we're here.

Who do you think they're going to miss the most as a free agent? And if I broke it down on the defensive side of the ball, because you got Queen, you got Stone, you got Clowny who all departed, and they were maybe unexpectedly a little bit in the eyes of some people around the country, like huge parts of that defense last year. Who do you think they're going to miss the most?

Well, the Ravens are a little bit like Walmart, Chris. I mean, they just restocked shelves. So even like you say, okay, they lost three offense line, three starters, and three good players. Morgan Moses. They lost Eitler. They lost Simpson. But like they had drafted Andrew Voorhees at a USC. He would have been a second, third round pick, but he tore his ACL. So he just mended all year. Like, he'll go and play for Simpson. You know, I mean, they drafted Rose Garden, you know, in the second round. He'll be the right

tackle. Like, so I think Patrick Queen is a good player. He was a much better player as soon as Roquan got there. Yes. You know, he's not a guy that's going to make all the checks and do all the things that Roquan does. But that's okay. Some guys just want to play fast. Yeah. So Pittsburgh got themselves a good player. That's probably the biggest. I think Genevian, though, he's an interesting guy because he hasn't, he doesn't really have a signature move. He's not a guy that's going to beat you. But he plays the game really hard. Yeah. He just plays hard. And you know, you don't know how it's going to show up or when it's going to show up. But, you know, when you get to the ball, good things happen, right?

So I think you're just going to miss just his, and he was healthy last year. Healthy. And that was a big part of it. But that guy's tenacity and effort play to play, I think it's going to get missed. I think Clowney would be my answer. Just because he's one guy, I don't know Mike could manufacture pass rush, but that's one guy who could get it for you. You know, like I know he's not thought of as this elite pass rusher because of part of it

being where he was drafted, but the guy has had a very productive career rush in the passer. And that's not even the best thing he does. I think the best thing he does is reset the line of scrimmage and disrupt. Yeah. And when you play a lot of these sideline to sideline teams in the NFL now, I mean, that's what kills it. And I think Clownie is a huge part of that defense. And now we'll see if he takes a year off before he gets another one year a deal. You know what I mean? He's kind of an up and down thing. I think he's like, in the Jackie Slater camp, honestly, Chris. Like for every trainee camp he misses,

it'll add two more years to his career. Matt Slater never missed any camp, dude. No, but he's not playing right tackle, though. No, exactly. It's a little bit different. Yeah, a little different. It's a little bit different. Talking about the elites of the AFC, I think the Chiefs, man, you know,

not just the Rishi Rice thing, which some of it has done to do with football, but it's troubling. You know, I think losing Willie Gay and losing Ligerius Sneed worries me as much about this team as anything that they're dealing with because of the speed that Willie gives them at the second level of defense that they don't have anymore. I love Bolton, but he can't run like Willie. And then with Sneed, it's, I mean, yeah, you got McDalfy and you got some other guys,

but I thought he had as good a year as anybody outside last year. So how did they replace these guys? And do you worry about like off a championship? And yeah, they've done this before. but these things kind of pile up the off-the-field issues and some of the departures. I would worry about it more, Chris, if Andy Reid wasn't the coach. Right. He just has a way to reset year to year.

And even when they were struggling last year and they were struggling, like nobody panics, nobody's thrown in the towel. Spags is just masterful and using his chest pieces. But LJ will get missed. I mean, you go, I mean, I know you watch it, but that guy, will punk any receiver in this league. I don't care if it's Tyreek, you name it. Like, he's going to challenge him.

Now, like any corner that's going to go out there and play that style, you're going to get beat. It's going to happen. But, you know, it's the old amnesia thing. Like, he just, he plays the game the right way. He's physical. He came out of, you know, small school Louisiana, fourth round pick. But that guy earned that contract that he got.

And so, well, sometimes you go, okay, well, you know, they drafted, you know, Trent to become the number one corner. That's fine. But when you don't have that guy opposite you that's taken on the number one and all of a sudden you're in that position, that's a different pressure that Trent hadn't had yet. Now, he might answer it. I don't know. Joshua Williams and the guys they have there, I don't know.

But, you know, at some point, the defections, I think, will catch up to them. I just don't know that's going to happen right now. Yeah, no, I think they're going to be right. back where they were last year i mean i think they're going to be playing the a fc championship game that's what i've come to expect that's what it was funny baldy like last year everybody was jumping off to titanic and uh i just hunkered down and and and bet the chiefs all all all playoffs and it was it was wonderful i had some walking around money because these guys figure it out there's something to play off football there's every bi week is not is not equal every you know three day period that a coach has to prep

is not equal because everybody doesn't have andy read well yeah it's Travis Kelsium, the home. You sent me a couple questions that you're going to fire at me. One of them was, you know, give me an offense line you love watching. But I've watched the Kansas City Chiefs. If you can watch, you know, you go inside, you watch Tune and Creed and Trey Smith. The Interior. Cleveland's got a good interior three.

Kansas, like those guys, I mean, I know Tune got hurt at the end of the last year. And Alighetti came in and played great. And that's a credit. Yes. Andy Hacked the offense. And heck. Yeah. But like, it's funny.

Like I go to this thing every summer in Frisco, this O.L Masterminds with Duke Maniweather. Yeah. And like, Creed's been going since the sophomore year at Oklahoma. And Trey, like they literally, they went to Super Bowl last year. And there they are on July 9th. They could be at a lake.

They could be fishing. They could be doing a lot of things. July 9th last year. They're at O.L. Masterminds and they're talking to Willie Roof. And they're talking, you know, to Steve Hutchinson. And they're just, and they're always right next to each other. And they're taking notes and they're asking good questions.

And when they're asked questions, they humbly reply. And they don't never miss a play. And if you ask Mahomes, like, what do you love watching about your team? He'll say, like, well, when Tray Smith throws out howl it's of right-hand of people, I love watching them deck people. He goes, that gets me awful. Like, they just are, they're just a bitch inside, man. They cut you up.

No question. Those guys are grown mad inside. And that's the one thing Kyle talked about, you know, a lot coming from there was obviously his relationship with Andy Heck, but also just how strong they were in the interior. And then watching them last year, I don't think enough people picked up on this. We blame the wide receivers, the wide receivers, the wide receivers. I get it. But the tackles, you know, when Patrick, who creates a tough job for a tackle with his set point, you know, like his set point is like, hey, take a guess. But that's the, that's the good thing about having Patrick Mahom.

You're not going to tell him to sit at seven yards. Hey, go back there and create, but you need tackles who can do their jobs efficiently and intelligently. And I didn't think last year, especially with the pre-snap penalties and that sort of thing, it put them in in tough spots where they were pressed to figure it out. If they had had more fractions of the time outside to work things out, I think they would have been better in the passing game. So I really look at tackle as a position this year that's got to be better. Well, you know, to your point, like if you watch Juan Taylor at Jacksonville,

He was a good player. Oh, yeah. A really good player. And Jacksonville just said, you know, we can't meet the price that he's going to get free agency. That happens. But, you know, he never had any of these issues in Jacksonville. Quarterback, you know, whether, Gardner, Mitchell, whoever it was. I mean, they were pocket quarterbacks.

Yes. Trevor was beating you from the pocket. He went to Kansas City and all of a sudden, Juan Taylor doesn't look like a great player because of Patrick's movement when he steps up, how he steps out. Why, if he leaves the pocket. It's tough. It's tough with Donovan Smith. Stuff with those guys.

You know, they drafted a kid out of BYU this year. I think it's going to be a pretty good player. But they all have to learn how to play with them. Interior, though, that helps when Mahomes wants to move because they got a flat interior. They're not getting a great deal of pressure up the middle. No question. There's a lot of those false start penalties. I wonder if part of that is because people are saying, hey, I'm running the hump.

He's going to be back there at nine. You're getting a lot of speed looks. And, you know, you could see the opener with Hutchinson and some of those. those guys, he was, he was, he was early. And, you know, a lot of people have been talking about Lane Johnson being early. Prove it. Well, you know, I don't want to give any way, Lane secrets away. No, neither do I. But, you know, I won't do that. But, you know, it does have a lot to do with the center, Chris. You know, Kelsey's been there every step of the way. Yes. So you start building a trust with the center and what he's doing with the ball, how he's

squeezing it, his head movement. Like, you start timing his thing. And look, I mean, I can slow it down. You can slow it down. We can see Lane's foot moving. You can look at the rules and say, okay, if you're in two-point stance, you can do this. But at some point, like Lane will tell you, you can't win the 100-meter dash if you don't get off to a fast start. Like, he's not going to get off to a slow start. It's just not going to happen.

No. And it's really impossible for any back-judge, not back-judge, any umpire or referee to call that. You just can't see the ball and him and all the things. you got to see in real time you can't see it no people have been getting off early for eons the differences lane is so good and athletic yeah every millisecond that he's off early he gains a lot more ground backwards than the other guys and so you notice it yeah you know like he's just that i mean it's the most fast twitch tackle in the history of this game no i hey i'm going to say a great defensive end like yourself has like that's that's who his comp is in his whole business man

he's incredible. Is there anybody from, not to get off on a lane sidebar, but is there anybody from your era that he reminds you of? Athletically? I play with a guy that in Dallas, Pat Donovan, who was a defense alignment at Stanford, super intelligent guy. And, you know, like, you know, I told Lane the other, not long ago, I go, because I hear all these people kind of pushing him out the door. Oh, draft to tackle and then when Lane gets done, I'm like, why would he go? He's playing. at a great level. He's healthy for the most part. Yeah. But his style of play also, you know, he's not getting beat up. You know, he's a dancer in the past game. He's not, he's getting off his block. You know, when it's time to release,

he's really, so he's not beating himself up every Sunday. He's got a good awareness about him when there's a pile. He's not getting rolled up. And I play with the guy like Pat Donner was just like that. You know, he wasn't, he didn't have Lane's athletic ability. He was a good athlete. Yeah. But he just, he danced out there. I don't care who he was. because Lawrence Taylor, you name it. Like, he just stayed in front of him, stayed between the quarterback and his pass rusher, and he was enough in the run game

where he wasn't getting knocked off the ball, and he was getting stalemates at the point. And when you have a guy like Dorset, you know, he can make you look pretty good. So I would say just from an athletic standpoint and just a consistency standpoint, remind me of Pat Donovan. He went to, I don't know, four or five straight pro bowls in a row at one point.

That's awesome. I have shown laying some of that tape. Let's talk about the Eagles real quick. We're just bouncing around here. The Eagles, no Kelsey, you kind of touched on it. You know, what are the specific ways that a center leaving is a compounding negative for an offensive line if he's playing at a high level like Jason? Well, I mean, every adjustment that has probably ever been made since 2011 or 12 on the sideline during a game when they got to be made in real time, he's been a part of it. Whether it's like, how the hell are we going to get to the mic?

Like we got to, you know, we got to fold this. We got to do, we got to get, you know, if we don't get to the mic, you know, Luke Keekley, whatever, he's going to make every tackle. Yes. So, you know, he's been a part of every adjustment during the game. You can see him talking to Stoutland all the time. During a week, I'm sure there's a good chunk of every Thursday where him and Jalen Hertz and the quarterbacks are sitting down and going through the

blitz reel and the looks and what's coming. So all that is imperative. And then I think. The thing that everybody's going to miss is you could put Dexter Lawrence on top of him. And he's putting him on his back in the run game. Yeah. Like his strength is still his strength. Like his lower body strength, like I know he can't walk on Mondays and I know it's rough and all that.

But like his lower body strength is still as good as anybody at that position in this league. Yeah, no, I mean, he played at such a high level last year. I mean, there's few guys that I can remember leaving the game. Yeah. Playing at such a high level. I think we'd appreciate it more if it were more of a measurable position with statistics or that sort of thing or like a wow position. But he was as close.

I mean, he made center sexy. You know what I mean? Yeah. Like he really did make center cool. And there's some other guys that made it cool for a while at different points. I think Alex Mack made it look cool. If you if you watch tape, I remember Alex Mack being just a stud. There had been some great centers, but Jason Kelsey made it look cool.

And it didn't hurt that he was a celebrity at the end of his career. Okay, so they got no Kelsey. The question I have on defense is going to be, does Quinyon or Dijin play opposite Slay? And how do you see Dijin fitting in in Fangio scheme? Well, you're going to have to start three corners. I don't know that any of them could go inside right now. Right. So, you know, do they have a slot corner?

Like I hear people say Cooper should play safety, and I'm like, why? Why do you play safety? He didn't play safety at Iowa. Like, what did you not like? on his tape at Iowa that says he can't play corner. Maybe the paying job, Bill. It might be the pay job. That's all it is.

I mean, when you say generational talent, that's once in a generation. And guilty of charge, I saw him. I was like, could he play safety? I'm like, well, fuck, give this kid a chance. It's all it is. It's all it is. Right now. Now we got to see.

You know, because you have the Twitch that you need to have at that position. We'll see. You know, he's going to go up against AJ and Devonte in practice every day. We're going to find out where he's at. Yeah. When you're doing those one-on-ones, pretty well. Yeah, we'll know. We'll know if he could do it.

You know, but you know, Vic, like, he's, he's going to put guys in positions to succeed. He's not going to hang him out. He's not going to put him in press man if he's not good at press man. Right. Like, he's going to make whatever adjustments. He's going to give you a too high shell, you know, and maybe Cooper could be Justin Simmons in that too high shell. And then, you know, kind of come down and be the robber and, you know, and be that extra, you know, guy in the box, all that stuff. I mean, he's going to have a plan for him.

You know, the thing that's interesting to me is, you know, they could have had any corner they wanted at 22, right, Chris? So they went Quignon, which is fine. The kid's tape is ridiculous. But they go to Tarion as well. And there's just something about me that says, well, Nick Saban was coaching Terry and Arnold at Alabama, like every day, you know. He heard from a master.

Yeah. And I just, and he had a phenomenal season. Like, you know, really before the season, And Kool-Aid was getting all the attention. And Taryn was sort of like the number two. And then the season he had was ridiculous. And you just go, will there be any regrets not taking Taryn? I mean, it'll be one of those battles.

We'll see. Two, three years, we'll know. But, you know, look, I think Quinnon probably gets the nod right now, starting opposite sleigh. Maybe it's Georgia loyalty for Howie Roseman. Well, I mean, shown that in the past. I don't know. But speaking of Tarian,

Detroit, right? Detroit, yeah. And they ended up with Drake Shrop. Yeah. So. The only two teams, Chris, there are two teams in this last draft that first two picks, first and second round, were both corners. Well, that tells you everything. You know, I love Brad Holmes saying,

hey, that building was on fire last year, the secondary. And that's the reason, in my opinion, they don't end up where they end up. Because I can't blame the playoff collapse on golf. I, you know, I just think they had keep the points down more.

You can only win shootouts for so long. So having that secondary. If you want one of those guys that can really play on the edge, the way you have to in this business, you've got to spend your first round pick. You got to, I mean, every once in a while, you're going to find a guy in a fifth round. Okay. But like, for the most part, the elite guys are first round picks. Yeah.

So do you, like, do you, if you're attacking a draft, and we can get back to Detroit in a second, but like do you believe you should attack rush or coverage first? Because even as a rusher, I think you, if I could have an elite corner, I feel like you can do anything. Well, I would say, like, so if you just took the Jets right now, okay? Like, I'm high on the Jets right now. But, you know, I feel like they haven't yet married the coverage. The rush and the coverage.

Because they're always playing from behind. Yes. So now you go, okay, I'll take exactly what you're saying, Chris, but now give me an offense that can score points. Give me an offense that's going to throw more than 11 touchdown passes next year. Over 17 games. Because you're not winning games if you're not scoring points. I don't care what your defense is doing.

So, but to me, like, it's great to have sauce out there. But give me, I don't know, give me Quinn and give me Germain and Hassan coming off the edge. Those guys, they should come away with more takeaways to what they've had. Well, I think what makes them better next year is I've never thought they've had. that ace edge rusher i think they've had good edge rushers i love huff and now i'm gonna love them in philly uh guys got a huge menu uh i don't think he's ever really like lost a rush i think huff's in it every rush which is what i like so much about it but a home run hitter right um a guy that can hit for power and average i think husson reddick's going to be that guy for them hopefully i think he's going to be

very motivated and you can only win so much inside you got to have some of those outside guys be difference makers. And I think this is going to make Jermaine even better. It's going to make all the guys that you've been waiting on to take that. I don't even know what was going on with Will McDonald last year. But like these are guys that are going to benefit from having Hassan Reddick in the room because he's going to create. Well, what's interesting right now, Chris, I mean, I know you went through it in St. Louis. You know, when you got, you know, Robert and you had AD and you had your group.

But now it seems like these teams, San Francisco, the Jets, the Eagles, like, their resources are going to their defensive line. Yes. Like, because we now know, especially your time in Philadelphia, when you win a Super Bowl and you take Brady down, like, you've got to be 18. You know, you've got to be, you can't, like San Francisco had eight guys last year, but they weren't 18. So when the guys did go off the field, they didn't have a good second strength coming out. They didn't have a good second wave. And so I feel like that's where this league is right now.

And you've got to get yourself to eight deep. And you've got to be able to rotate without fear. You know, I mean, it's great Max can play 98% of the place, but he'll be better if he could play 90. So I just talked to my dad about this like a month or two ago because we both love Max and I know you love Max. And early in my career, I mean, I can remember playing 85 plays a game. We went down in Jacksonville.

I played 86 plays down. there you know playing 70 probably on average a game and when jeff fisher came in Jeff brought guys like william hayes and who william hayes could start a lot of places uh he was part of that defensive line with us where he had quenny you know uh fairly all these guys a d up front like we were deep kendall langford and fish the very first game i'm out there playing the detroit lines trying to go my customary 80 plays it's and they had to they had to pull me aside and say, hey, this guy's here to play too. You know, and also it's going to make you better to not have to do everything.

And I wish I knew that earlier because I think in my career, the bottom fell out a little bit physically playing my first eight years in St. Louis, not to mention the injuries, but the snap counts, the amount of four minute, the double teams. And I look at Max and I just would say, I hope somebody can say, hey, Max, 60 a game will get it done for you. Like, or. Well, I saw him, I saw him during a Super Bowl, Chris.

He had already had his knee surgery and he already had his thumb surgery. Like, it's just a matter, like the compounding of those injuries, they don't just go away. They get worse. It just gets worse. I don't care who you are. When you're young, you feel like, oh, I can, I can just play through this shit. Yeah. Yeah.

Well, we, that changes pretty quickly. And so then you got to go. okay, I know how he practices. Everybody tells me how he practices. And that's great. Like, there's a place for that. There's also a place for, give me 65 great snaps on Sunday. And I'll get to the quarterback two times and I'll get the ball out once.

And we'll stop one fourth down when we have to. And sometimes you just learn, like, you know, I play with Reggie White and I play with Bruce Smith for a little bit. Like, those guys just, the thing. And Max, because he plays every. snap. He never gets to feel this, Chris. But the great ones like Aaron Donald, like, they know when to take the game over. And Reggie didn't play every play. He was out there a lot, but he didn't play every play. And Bruce didn't, but they knew when to take the game over. And that's when you go, okay, this is down, distant situation. All right, I got to be, I got to give them the very best on this

snap, on this third and seven, and get off the field. Like, Von Miller knew that. Like, I feel like the great ones eventually learn it, but I don't know if they know it. Well, how early they know it. It's hard when you're somebody like Max, because you take pride in trying to take it over every play. Yeah.

There is no 110%. There's only 100%. Because if there's 110%, that implies you weren't giving that the other eight out of 10 plays. And that's a tough thing to sell to a guy, right? To say, Hey, you're not taking a couple plays off,

but you're setting some things up. Yep. You know, some plays you're going through the motion. that was something I never could understand myself. You know, I remember playing, there was a guy, Jeremy Bridges or something, was the right tackle, you remember him? I had gotten done playing him in a game and I was young

and he was like, hey, let me give you a little advice, man. Like, he's like, you're doing a good job. He's like, save your best rushes, you know? Yeah. And I was like, fuck you mean. You don't want, I don't, I'm trying to win soon as I get out there. And he's like, it's a dance. when I play like Dwight Freeney or XYZ,

I know he's got that thing in the back pocket. And I think, you know, for Max and any young linemen, it's like learning to do that without sacrificing your effort. That can be a tough dance. But I don't even know how we got to Max, but you and I can talk about Max all day. I just hope he stays healthy. And that's what me and my dad were talking about was like,

this guy's a warrior. But I think what we were talking about was rotating defensive lines. and I guess that would leave me to my next question. Who's got the best defensive line in the league right now, top to bottom, in your opinion? I think the Jets are going to be pretty good, Chris. I really do. I think Jermaine's on a good trajectory.

I think Hassan's a big upgrade. I love Bryce Huff. He's got an amazing takeoff. I remember I nicknamed him last year, the Bugatti, because that's what he looked like coming off to edge. He made everybody better, but he never played more than 50% of the snaps. He's been a rotation.

player coming on third downs, all right? But Hassan can play. He knows how to play. And he is motivated for a new contract. And, you know, and so I think with Quinnon, I think, like, he's a difference maker. And then, you know, they picked up, you know, whether Javon, you know, not heart grade, but Javon Kinlaw. Kenlaw, yeah. Yeah, I want to see what Mullen McDonald looks like in year two because none of these guys

ever figured out their refers to. No. Yeah. But he does have rare movement. Like I think they're going to be eight deep. And I think they're going to play with the lead. And something that they never did last year. But I want to see those guys in the fourth quarter,

MetLife Stadium, you know, playing Josh Allen on a Sunday afternoon with the lead in the fourth quarter. And if those guys, you know, just take that game to the next level, whether it's sacks, you know, pressures, takeaways. Like I want to see them, you know, create. I think they have a chance of. create a lot of habit. Oh, they are boom or busts in a big way. When you think about some of the injury, here, one of the things in Joe, Joe's my guy, Joe Douglas, my guy, and I understand, hey, you got to take shots at this thing. And maybe there weren't a lot of other shots to take, but I just know that, like,

there were some injury history kind of players that they added. So there's a lot of boom or bust here, you know, whether it's the wide receiver from, from L.A. or it's the tackle from Dallas. It's like, It's just you these guys have been hurt before, but I love the fact that they're burning the ships because that's what you got to do in this business. I mean, you know, like this, Robert, Joe might not be there a couple years longer if they don't hit it. So and I also think I like the Fashanu kid they got from Penn State. So if this works out, you've got a you've got a guy that's going to be there a while. So I think they had a good off season. It just comes down to hell.

I think the Buffalo thing's a little bit exaggerated. I think when you got a guy like Josh Allen, that's why you have a guy like Josh Allen, you deal with the fucking ebbs and flows, and you replace pieces. You basically replace digs on the fly in the second half of last season. You're running the offense through the tight ends.

Samuel's got a history with Brady. You know, you draft a kid from Florida State. He could be a stud. I still like Shakir. They, like, I'm talking myself into it, but the reason I'm talking to myself into it, Baldi, is I think Josh is that good. He is.

And look, he just doesn't have the hardware. But, I mean, the guy is a freak. The guy's an absolute freak. I mean, he's as big as you, Chris. He runs like a... Bigger. Body, I met him. He was fucking bigger.

I was like, nice to meet you, man. I mean, and the guy's got, the guy just knows how to lead. Yeah. Like, he's going to be, he knows, he just knows. Yeah. So he just doesn't want it yet. And some guys, it takes a while. But look, they have a culture of winning.

Yeah. You know, when they change the offense and if I're, look, McDermott had to make a tough decision last year. He had to fire a trusted, you know, a trusted, you know, coordinator. And it was the right move. And they went, they started running the ball, and James Cook is a hell of a back. And they played to their strengths, and they went on a chair. Now, defensively, I still worry about him a little bit, Chris,

because they've been trying to build up on the defensive front. And they just have not gotten to the point where they can win playoff games because they're just giving up too many points. And they're not affecting whether it's Joe Burrell or Mahomes. I mean, they've shut him down the last three years in a row. And whether it's Rousseau or, you know, pick a guy. Like they haven't figured out how to. And Von Miller was there and it didn't work out.

The Von thing really, I mean, there was a lot of eggs in that basket. And had he played like he played and stayed healthy like he was in L.A., you're saying, hey, we're getting the same thing here. L.A. was bummed. You know, less needs on fire, right? Like, Les wanted to keep him. So it's not like Buffalo was the only person in the room that wanted to add Vaughn. It just didn't work out.

The health has been up and down. But hey, you know who they still have, Baldi, who might be one of my favorite players in the league? I said this when my son says, oh, I want to play linebacker in the NFL. I'm putting him in a dark room and throwing up some Matt Milano on the projector. As soon as he went down, the defense went down. Oh, for sure. As soon as he went down. That guy is, like, he's just a missile.

Yeah. He's just a missile in every phase. of the game. And he's two steps ahead of where the play is going. He's an amazing player to watch. As soon as he got hurt. I mean, they were playing guys off the street, you know, in the playoff game. So, you know, he's a difference maker. But look at how much better they were able to stabilize and say Philly, who really struggled to play those guys off the street. I would argue that Buffalo and I don't like doing the shoulda, not even the kick. Diggs catch that football. There's a few things that happened in that game. And to the point of Josh not having the hardware.

I think you and I both know it's like it's like being born the same time as Michael Jordan it's just going to be a motherfucker to get there if you're in the AFC and I'm not going to hold it against him but I do I do add it into the context of how I evaluate Josh I think Josh is that good and if he is that good he'll be able to deal with Samuel and some of these I remember I remember I remember I was doing the Buffalo Philly game Thanksgiving weekend this year yeah and it was just it was just one of those monsoons in South Philly I remember link you know so I'm walking in the field before the game, just kind of, I see digs catch the balls down the end zone. So I'm just going to make my way down.

So I'm walking past the Buffalo sideline. And Josh is just standing there like in a raincoat. He goes, hey, Baldi, you're not going to say hello. So I go over and start talking to Josh. So, you know, literally it's just a mud puddle. That's all it is. So I go, hey, Josh, you know, this might not be a great day to throw the ball, man. He might have to run it every down.

He goes, fine with me. I don't care. Like, he honestly does not care. Like, let's give us a, like they took an overtime that day. They lost in overtime. But honestly, he's just one of those guys that it's not the only, the only statistic, I know it's cliche, the only statistic to him is just winning. And whatever he's got to do to win, if he's got to truck you to get to the end zone,

he's going to do it. Like, whatever it takes. And to this point, like, you might have to change his style, but I don't think he wants to change his style. Like, if he plays 10 years instead of 15, I don't think he cares. He's going to leave it all in the field. And I don't know, that guy. I've never seen him get up slow.

Never. I've never seen them hobbled, limping anything, ever. It's just one of those rare people I think is built a little different, like, physiologically, like maybe there's a little concrete, a little quick crete in his bones, man. I don't know, like an Adrian Peterson type thing. So talking about the AFC, man, one of the things, can you explain to me the Bengals, the Mims pick? Not that I'm saying it's not going to work or that I'm not excited about the kid, but where does he factor this year?

Right? I don't know. I mean, you got Zeus on one side. You just got Trent Brown on the other side. So he already got the biggest monsters to ever play right left tackle ever. And Zeus, look, I love Zeus. I mean, I knew his dad. I knew Zeus since he was 15.

I love him. But he's not a very good player. Like, you know, he struggles with speed. He struggled. But, you know, to his credit, he plays every single snap. He never takes a game off ever. He doesn't take a practice off. He starts the fights.

He finishes the fights. You need that bulldog on your team. But I don't know where you're going to play in marriage. You're going to play a guy 6-8, you know, 360 at guard. I mean, where's he going to play? Or is it just, okay, we're just going to kind of build this thing. And when his time is right, you know, we'll plug him in. I don't know.

He played very little at Georgia. He's a ball at just where the whole league is going to right now, that kind of size and movement. I mean, he's got the longest arms I've ever seen, Chris. Yeah. You know, so, like, that's an advantage if he knows how to use them. I guess they're just saying Joe Burrow is our Josh Allen. He's our Mahomes, which he is. Yep.

And if we keep them up for 17 games, we're going to be in the playoffs. And then, you know, everything else, you know, it's new season once we get there. And that for me is the biggest one, Baldy, because when he got hurt last year, I don't know if you saw this, but we were looking back. And I think he got hurt on a bull rush. It was a bull rush against Texans. I thought it was Baltimore, maybe in my house. Well, that's when he came out of the game. Oh, right.

But if you go back the week before and you check out that Texans game and he goes to release the ball and he does one of those helmet or, you know, like. So, and he's down holding his thumb. But the point is the one thing that Burrow can deal with is he can deal with speed. He can deal with mobility inside the pocket. I think he's as good as anybody at navigating with his eyes up. but what he can't deal with is the pocket in his lap and that's the one thing you know you think about big beefy cats like this guy mims i'm looking at him in the combine body there's a picture

him standing at the podium with his back turned to me i could i could feel what that back feels like without even patting that motherfucker on the back that is an NFL body that's a dude that's a people mover and he's not going to get moved you hope and so i think adding the beef to that offensive line to give Joe a shot, right? Because he's still getting hurt. Well, I mean, I'm honestly, I remember being in training camp last year. And I was talking to Jamar Chase. And Joe Burroughs' dad was there. Jamar's dad was there. It was like a family Saturday scrimmage, whatever we were doing. And, you know, at that time, Joe had the bad calf. And I remember Jamar saying to us, he goes, hey, I hope he's not ready. I hope he doesn't

play week one. And all he was saying was, I don't want him on this field until he's 100% healthy. He never was healthy. Yeah. Like it was painful to watch Joe try to like, I mean, he couldn't play action pass. He couldn't do anything. I mean, he could still throw the football, but he couldn't move. He couldn't elude people. It was just painful to watch. They looked bad at the beginning of the season. And I wondered if they had lost it because I didn't realize how much of a thing that calf was until maybe a month in. And you're almost like relieved it was the calf because they looked bad. I mean, like, it looked like they had lost their way. Okay, so we talk about the Browns,

another team in Ohio here with Deshaun Watson, is it physical or is it mental? Because he got hit more than the guy we were just talking about when we were in Houston. People didn't add that up. I think when you add it up, it's pretty eye-opening. Well, what's eye-opening is, like, I remember being in Indianapolis last year in Cleveland, King. And, you know, the question all week was Deshaun going to go. And, you know, coach comes out and says he's cleared, he's good to go. And then, you know, he comes out of the, you know, he's awful. And then he comes out of the game in the second quarter. And we don't even know what the injury is if there is an injury.

And, you know, he doesn't go back in. And then, you know, maybe the week later, like they're in Baltimore and he's hobbled pretty good. And they find a way to beat the Ravens in Baltimore. And then he just kind of fell off the map, you know, and all these other quarterbacks. So you just don't know if it's an accumulation of injuries right now. If the off-the-field things just got to them and just crushed them like it can a lot of people, not just athletes, but people, when it's just an avalanche of people against it and allegations, all this stuff, you just don't know how much that affected them. Yeah, you're playing quarterback. And you're playing quarterback where you've got to have more confidence than anybody else in the old building every day.

Yeah. You know, and so you just wonder, like, how many guys can be wired to handle. all of it. And I don't know if Deshaun is. I think we're going to find out because now we're two off-season's removed and presumably goes into this off-season healthy with a pretty good team around, at least a very good defense. So we're going to find out a whole lot. You know, can he play with Lamar and Joe, the guys in that division? Yeah, I just, I think it's physical. And I think I think when you look at how much he was sacked in Houston, it just eventually catches up. And do I think he's mentally fried? Probably. I mean, look, they sent Flacco away.

Flacco's a godsend of a backup quarterback right now. Did you see how good he was last year, right? Everybody saw that. So why send him away? You know? Because he's a threat? Because he's a threat. Now, if Deshaun was. I think Joe's 39. I'm at it. I think you guys might have come at the same age. When I saw Joe, last year at the inside the NFL set. I was like, man, what you up to, man? He was trying out for inside the NFL or whatever. He's like, I'm just doing an audition,

but I'd probably go back and play at some point this year. I was like, no shit. Turns out, I was cheering like hell for that dude down the stretch. It was a fun run to watch. But they ran into a buzzsaw in the Texans, and my question for you, Baldi, this year is why not? Yeah, why not? Why not?

Because, you know, if you go out and you get DeNeil Hunter and you get DeNico Archer, and you get Foley Fottacasi. Like all you're doing is D'emico's going, okay, this worked in San Francisco. This is what we're going to do. We're going to have the best damn defensive line

because we're going to score points. We've got the offensive rookie to year. We got Will A over there. We got Dineal now. We got Dineco inside all over. Like, they got pass rush specialists. And Dineal's coming off his best season ever. He's back in Texas.

He's from Katie, Houston. Like, he wanted to go back home. He could have taken more money. Like, he wants to be there. And he's healthy. Like, they're loaded up. Now, I guess, you know, I'm not the biggest fan of diva wide receivers. I don't know that anybody is.

I do like Stefan Diggs. Me too. I like Diggs. I like, I mean, he's been always very good to me. He's not soft. Huh? He's not soft. No, he's not soft.

You can be a lowercase Diva and be a tough little motherfucker and I love you. Yeah, right. But like, was Buffalo really, you know, are they better without Stefan Diggs? They just give them away and paying the money to go. But regardless, like, he's there with CJ. So I don't know how that's going to disrupt things with Nico and Tank and the guys that they had. But, you know, you get Joe mixing, you know, you got tonsil over there. I mean, they got.

Why not? And that coach can coach. Yes. Like, I like this, Chris. I don't know how you are. Like, I don't need my head coach to be an emotional. mess. But I need my coach to be plugged in. And when somebody commits a stupid penalty, it gets fixed on the sideline right away. Like when they need a pat on the back,

because, you know, he just went three, three and outs, give him the pat on the back. Whatever. But like, he just looks so plugged in to me. Like, why can't you go win with DeMico right now? I think, I think they improved in so many areas. And I thought at the end of last year, had they matched up better with the Ravens. I think there's no team that they don't scare in the AFC, right? And now you, Gernard, who had a great year, who shouldn't be overlooked, they upgraded, okay? They upgraded at tackle because I think Autry is great. I think Rankins is awesome, but Autry is really versatile.

You upgrade at running back. Mixing is 27. He's coming off a thousand-yard season. I love Singletary. Yeah. But this mixing guy, I mean, you're getting him in the prime of his career. And then you had, we didn't even talk about Aziz Al-Shayir. Yeah, Aziz is unreal. I remember who Zemiko knows.

Yeah, well, of course. But I remember when Aziz was in San Francisco, before Dre Greenlaw really took off with Fred. I remember asking Fred one day, like, is this, are these blitzers? calls that Al Shire is responding to or is it just the way he sees it? He goes, Paul, yeah. We don't have any blitz calls. Like, that guy just sees it and he attacks it. It looks like a run blitz.

He just plays the game so fast. Yeah. Like, he's a fun guy to watch in his study. So they got better. They got better everywhere in that quarterback. I don't like getting out over my skis, but he's got that Brady in him. Okay. I'm just going to say, I'm not saying he's

going to win seven. but I'm saying he's got that killer instinct in him. You see him on that podcast set talking to Michael Parsons? He doesn't give a fuck. Well, he's got every answer. He doesn't give a fuck. He's so sharp on that whole thing. Like, Michael was trying to fire him.

He was trying to, like, you know, fill up the, you know, the sixth shooter. Yeah. He gets answered every single one in, like, I go, I need that guy in my huddle. I need that guy to fix things in my huddle, like, the way that he responded to Mike. That guy doesn't play around, and you said it with Damiko. I think when you got a young players coach like that who knows what he's doing, who doesn't have an ego, and then Nick Hissario's done a great job, you know, when you leave New England, they're like, well, it couldn't have been you, but he did a great job, and he's doing a great job in Houston as well.

So they got a great thing going. I'm excited about the Titans. My one question about the Titans would be, because I'm a buyer on Calvin Ridley. I think people act like they forgot how fucking excited we were about him last year coming to Atlanta. It was like, oh, he's going to set the line. league on fire. Well, one year catching the ball from Desmond Ritter and company in that offense. And all of a sudden, we have written him off his year in Jacksonville was like they had three guys that played the same position. And my biggest question about Calvin Ridley is he's a slot guy.

When he was in Jacksonville, I thought they had too many guys that did the same thing. You get up to Tennessee. Boyd just gets signed. And Callahan's like, Boyd's a slot receiver. So who's going to play slot? And if I'm a big buyer on Calvin Ridley, am I going to be disappointed? I don't think so. I think, you know, there'll be 11 personnel team, you know, the way Cincinnati was. I think Ridley and DeAndre will play outside and Tyler will play inside. It'll be much like what they saw in Cincinnati, you know, the way that they played, you know, Jamar and Dee and T. Higgins.

So I think it's going to be very similar like that. I just think the biggest upgrade in that whole organization that was getting Bill Callahan. Like I understand, I understand Cleveland to a degree saying, okay, Bill, go coach with your son. Like, you're at the end. Enjoy the moment. I don't know if I'd let him out of my bill. That guy is as good as anybody that's ever done it in this whole business. Everywhere he goes, the offense line gets better.

And that was the weakness of the whole team last year was the offensive line. And now you had some pieces right there. So I feel like they've got a chance. They've got a chance right now. And I like Will Levis. I did too. I saw him last year on a Monday night. It did a game for Westwood and they beat the dolphins.

And they were down and out. And it was, and Will Levis, like, he made one play after another. And he was getting battered pretty good that day on a kind of a porous offense line. But like, that kid just hung in there. That was one of the best games of the year, baldy. Huh? That was one of the best games of the year. It was a great game.

It was incredible. I bet the Titans, that was part of it. But Monday night, that was an incredible game. Incredible game. It was an unbelievable coming. Nobody saw it coming. I think they were down 15 points in the fourth quarter, and they came back and won the game. But Levis was, I mean, they wouldn't have done it without him.

And, you know, DeAndre made some plays. No, but I think it, Pollard and all the things that they've added. Like, Jeffrey Simmons was hurt all year, but I think you have his problem. of much respect as anybody for Jeffrey Simmons, what he does. And so look, they're going to miss some guys. De Nico is a really good player. But, you know, they'll put that front, a pretty good front together now, Landry and whatnot.

So I don't know, like I'm not, I'm not down. I think that division is going to be a fun division to watch. Really fun. Really fun. Who knows what happens. All right. So a couple quick ones on what happened over the last couple of days. We had Winfield.

We had golf. Big deals. I'll start with Winfield. Is he the guy, if you need somebody making an open field tackle in the alley or something, and you're like, I got to get the best ball carried down. I'm going to have some guy screaming from the deep third, like, who's the guy? Is it Winfield? Well, it's interesting because, you know, obviously his dad was a great, great player,

a great tackle. Yes. And so is his son. But that guy fills up a stat sheet like nobody else. Like, when they say he's the highest paid defense back in history, okay. I mean, I'm no, you know, look, there's Ed Reed and there's everybody else. Yeah. But honestly, in today's game, there's nobody that fills up a stat sheet like Antoine has.

And, you know, they're rebuilding this defense on the fly, Collagia Cancy, some of the guys they brought in. You know, they got Levanti, but, you know, they've just got, you know, they're still playing really good defense. And if your defense is, I mean, this isn't a revelation, Chris, but like, if you make, mistakes on the back end or you don't tackle well in the back end, you're giving up a lot of touchdowns. And that guy saves a lot of touchdowns. And I remember seeing him in training camp one year and he was on the Jugs machine. And I mean, this is, you know, Tampa Heat and, you know, Brady's on the field. It's three hours. It's, you know, Todd Bowles still puts his team through the pace. Unlike a lot of these teams. And so, and there's Winfield for 30 minutes on a jug machine.

I'm like, how many, like how many interceptions you want this year? He goes, I ain't going to be happy unless I get eight. Like, he's got numbers in his head that he wants to go to and get to. And I think he'll probably still get to that number at some point. And we didn't even mention Davis, who was a big part of that secondary, ended up in Detroit. So Detroit's bolstered even more. But I think, you know, you got to, hey, Tampa, nobody told them they were dead last year.

You know, and nobody told them they were dead going into this off season. They don't care if nobody's paying attention. They've still got some of the studs they have on defense. and I think, you know, Baker gave them something to be excited about. So I'll be looking forward to watching them. The Jared Gough thing, is there a bigger good for him off season you can remember in football as of late? Because, I mean, the Matt Stafford thing had to be terrifying for a guy. I don't care how competitive you are.

It's like, man, the guy coming to play me in my home stadium is probably the guy that they miss the most in this city and the guy that my old coach left me for and won him a Super Bowl. Like, that could have been the most painful thing. And he found a way and then this big deal. Yeah. No, it's, it'd be impossible not to be a fan of Jared Gao. Yeah. On any level.

You know, you lose, you leave Los Angeles. You've been to a Super Bowl. You got a hot coach. You got, you know, Hall of Fame players. Like, you're in a good spot. And you get shipped to Detroit. Like it's like You know it's like

There was a point when you went to Detroit Like you weren't even in the league Nobody even knew you were even And he goes there And he's part of this whole revival With Dan Campbell and you know Front Office and all the things that they're doing Which is tremendous

And they're on the map But he's just a rock Yeah The kid's just a mental He's just a rock First of all he plays every game He doesn't get hurt He knows how to play the game

Um Amon Ross St. Brown's a great player He just got paid But he's a product of the quarterback, too. A product of Ben Johnson's system. Like, it's just a great feel. Like, we need Detroit to be a player in this business. Like, we need them on Thanksgiving.

We need them in the playoffs. We need Dan Campbell and his style of coaching. Like, I feel like we got to the point where we just had all these coaches sort of acted and sounded the same. And then you get Dan Campbell and you get hardball. And you get these guys that are just emotional. like behemous. Like they're in that locker room and there's nobody else they want to be in the locker

with, but the 53 guys with them. And all they're going to do is support their guys. And we just need emotional guys like that in this business that guys rally around. Coaching is not just the science. It's an art. And the art kind of can get lost in the shelf when everybody's too focused on the science. You know, the analytics, the exes and nose on this boy wonder. You know, like those guys are great and they build up a lot of the league and they've done

great for the league, you know, a lot of these young gun, offensive coordinators, but I love a football guy. I love a, I love hearing Jim Harbaugh at whatever age he is saying at 4.30 in the morning, he opens his eyes and says, today is not just a day. It's two day. I'm like, I'm like, I don't know if I ever woke up that like that my life, but that's what coaches are for, man. And so I think I tell my girlfriend in the morning, Chris, I go, look, I'm attacking today with unbridled enthusiasm. You'll see what it means. Like nothing ever knows. on demand. I think golf's great for the game. I think the lines are great from a game. I was thinking this, Baldy, watching the draft and seeing those guys and haven't played in a place. It's not quite as

maybe depressed from a football standpoint. I mean, St. Louis, we had the greatest show on turf right before we all got there, but it was bad. And I just think about what they've gone through and then to have four guys standing up on stage to open the draft that not only they're up there, they're Detroit Lions, but you don't even need Kairons under them. Like, you know who these guys are, the whole league knows who these guys are. It's really cool. It's like cool to be a Lions fan, cool to be, and it's cool to be Jared Goff,

and he's good enough for Detroit, and that's just great for him. So what's taking so long with the Cowboys, then, as an aside, with Dak? You think it's going to happen or no? I guess it's just, at some, what point, Chris, at what point do you hit the ceiling with how much a quarterback earned? Like, you know, we played the arms race last year. It was J-Lam and it was Lamar.

It was Joe. They all got paid and everybody made a dollar more than the other guy. And, you know, we're approaching $60 million. And we're talking about a guy that, you know, he's got a playoff win. And so, but, you know, they've made this mistake before when they extended Zeke and they didn't extend DAC and they put the running back before the quarterback. And I feel like when you make that mistake early, it kind of catches up. to you. Like this thing shouldn't be at this stage. Like he's your quarterback. You shouldn't be going into a final year. It should have been done. And usually you just get ahead of it. Like it happened

with Kirk Cousins in Washington pretty soon. Like everybody's just trying to pay to catch up just to keep them. Instead of just, okay, this is the market value. This is what it is. And not having to reset the market with your guy. Yeah. And that's kind of where they're at right now. But, you know, they're bigger and you know like i'm friends with mike and mike is like look don't worry about me like my my day will come i don't i don't need that now yeah you can do this next year like take care of our guys keep our guys whatever that is whether it's stack or whatever like don't worry about me like he's he's been out front and outspoken about it but i you know i some teams like philadelphia i'm not

here to blow smoke in philly but they're never in cap hell ever. Like nobody even knew Jalen Hurts was ever getting a deal until the deal was done. Like they just do things different. And I feel like Dallas doesn't, I feel like they're a step behind this whole gap business, Chris. It feels like they make a lot of emotional decisions. And I will say this with with Dak, and this is kind of tongue in cheek. But as pissed off as he got about the Trey Lance thing, I would have just signed Russell Wilson

and got him to wave as no trade clause. because I think the elephant in the room is if they could have traded him off that playoff performance they might have done that if somebody was willing to start over and give DAC a new landing spot and send you some capital you know the contract you still got to pay a lot of it and all that but like I just feel like what's done is done and we're in this weird twilight where it's like he might be a dead man walking I don't know what's I don't know what I don't know who they're going to be this year I mean I don't either there's a chance they're not a good football team this year. But I know

they're not built they're not built for any kind of a playoff run. Nothing like we saw we can see Green Bay and you can say they're ready. Yep. Like they're here and you can look at Detroit and go they're here. And we know San Francisco is going to be

there. And so you know and we know the Rams with that staff and the way they rebuilt the offense line. They're going to be players. You can't you can't look at Dallas right now and say they're ready. This is the year they're going to go on a deep playoff run. You just see too many holes. They don't want up with Cleveland, right, Chris? Like, there's

Miles Garrett out there, you know, maybe trying to go back to back with defensive player of the year. And I don't know who's going to play left tackle. You know, for Dallas right now. There's Dak. And you go, man, this thing could get off to a bad start. You know, I'm just thinking, like, Miles is going to be ready to go. Like, he's coming out of the blocks hot. You know, what's a good number for Miles in the first game of the season? Three and a half. And then Mike is going to be. You're going to be on that, Chris. Mike, I mean, take you at three and a half.

Okay, three and a half. You might take, you got the over. But I'm telling you, at some point, Michael Parsons is going to be an eagle. I'm just telling you this is what's going to happen. You know that's coming. Yeah, it's coming. He wants to be at every sixer game.

He does. That's what I'm saying. He wants to drive to Harrisburg and see his mom. That's what I'm saying. Yes. And he's like, he's tired of the Eagles, you know, signing every damn free agent out there. Exactly.

Like, he's seen the way it's supposed to be. All right, last one for you, because we got training camp eventually coming up. Baldy is on the boots on the ground as much as anybody. So I got to ask you, facilities in the NFL. We've heard about the NFLPA. They have absolutely dumped on some facilities. We want to be positive here.

What are the best three to five facilities in the NFL? They just have it nailed. You go there. You're like, wow, I'd love to play here. Well, it's hard to argue with what the Ravens have. I mean, you know, I don't care whether it's, you know, the locker room, the fields, you know, just the cafeteria handling a crowd, you know, a big, you know, afternoon practice, parking. I'm hard to argue against it.

They really? They're like number one, huh? Does that either? They're right up there. I mean, I'm just going to do it in my head. How Seattle? Seattle looks amazing. Seattle's amazing because, you know, you're right out there on the lake.

And they got the eagle up there. And, you know, if you just want to have tranquility in your life, you can just look out at Lake Washington and it provides it. You know, it's just, you know. No pictures of the LOB though anymore. Yeah. I don't know. Like, the Jets have a good facility.

I'm up there a lot. You know, they take care of everybody. Miami looked nice. I saw some. Miami is a good spot. Miami at the First Baptist Health Center. Okay. He's got to deal with, you know,

You've got to bring your sponge underwear. You're going to change it three times during practice. You're just going to sweat right through everything out there. Hey, you can get some Rita's water, I said at Novacare. So in the end of practice. Look, I tell, like anybody that has a weight issue in Philadelphia, it's on them. Because, like, you want to eat, you can eat as healthy as you want to eat in that place. They got every.

You want cheese steaks, they got them. You want to eat, like, lean fats. Like, they got, I mean, honestly, it's it's about as catered as good as it can get that's so good and last one do you remember you remember the the earth city facility oh yeah i remember this chris i don't know if you remember this but your rookie year what you was 08 right yeah so uh i think that year the nfl network sent me on this tour of these like offseason minicamps whatever was going o t a's yeah so each place i went like I would work out like I went San Francisco Frank Gore so I go to St. Louis and you're there and so you had this thing I don't know if you remember this and if my memory is bad correct me

Chris but used to run in the sand pit at the city yeah so I don't know how I got this but I got a Jones fracture in my foot so like I'm hobble right but you're running in the sand pits I'm like I'm not going to fucking let Chris long down like his dad think I'm probably a wuss you know I'm like so I'm out there running in the sand pit with you, Chris, and my foot is on fire. I'm like, and you know, they got a camera out there and I'm gutting it out and I'm like, man, I ain't get it.

I ain't changed the direction like Chris Long's changed the direction, man. That's a short show. Hey, I was a demon in that sand pit. I wish the, I wish you could do nine on seven in the sand pit, man. There was something about that sand pit. But I remember Earth City and just the heat in that place

because there was no air. We're in a bowl. No wind. You're in a bowl. Smelled like trash. You couldn't even get a sandwich in that place. No, you couldn't get a sandwich. They didn't have a chef. When I went to Philly, I walked in the cafeteria, guys got a fucking, he's got the thing.

And I'm like, I'm like, who are you? He's like, I'm the fucking chef, dude. I'm like, we don't have, who are they have chefs? Yeah. They brought us Mexican food, Italian food, and, uh, some other, you know, MSG loaded, you know, option. There are three options to eat at our facility.

The field caught on fire as we were running in to play the Steelers. The pyrotechnics, it delayed the game. The field caught on fire. So we're talking about good facilities. I wouldn't know anything. They didn't even have a press box, Chris. So when you announced a game in that Edward Jones Dome, you were literally not protected by anybody.

Now, the fans didn't give it. You know, they were just there. They were just there. They were all going on, you know. So like, but we're in the open air. They forgot to build the press boxes. Yeah, well, a little oversight. Yeah.

Nobody deal. The stadium was only built in like 2000. Brian Baudinger, appreciate the time, man. Hope you come on again and can't wait, man. It's almost that time. Yeah, it'll be here before we know it. I wish we could stop the clock, go back to like middle of March right now, but we're too far gone.

I hear that, bro. I hear that. Appreciate you coming on, dude. Yeah, you got it, buddy. Anytime, man.