NFL Daily with Gregg Rosenthal - 2021 Stocks We're Buying and Selling

Episode Date: March 8, 2021

A room filled with some heroes - Dan Hanzus, Marc Sessler, Gregg Rosenthal and special gues Matt "Money" Smith bring you all of the latest happenings around the NFL including the Denver Broncos placing a franchise tag on safety Justin Simmons (11:44), Philadelphia Eagles tight end Zach Ertz and Detroit Lions quarterback Chase Daniel being placed on the trade market (24:41) and safety Micah Hyde agreeing to a two year contract extension with the Buffalo Bills (28:13). Then, the hosts dive into the NFL Stock Market, and discuss what they're buying and selling heading into the 2021 NFL Season (32:38) including Matt "Money" Smith's comparison of college football to the GameStop stock market surge (1:12:06). Around the NFL is part of the NFL Podcasts network.Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comNFL Daily YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/nflpodcastsSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an I-Heart podcast. Hey, everybody. Daniel Jeremiah here. And I'm Bucky Brooks. On Move the 6th, we take you inside the game from breaking down college prospects and NFL rookies to evaluating team building philosophies, coaching trends, and how front offices construct winning rosters. We study the tape, talk to decision makers, and give you a perspective you won't find anywhere else.

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Listen to the NFL Fantasy Football podcast on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Toyota, the official automotive partner of the NFL. Visit Toyota.com slash NFL now to learn more. The Around the NFL podcast. Looking for a flawed woman. Welcome to another edition of the Around the NFL podcast. My name is Dan Hansis. I come to you.

A virtual room. Still a virtual room. And I'm already filled with some heroes. Mark Sessler. Greg Rosenthal. Gentlemen, here we go. The calendar is starting to spin forward. No combine out of this week.

ProDays ramping up. And free agency next week, the draft after that, it's all happening. I'm waiting to see if it happens because it doesn't feel like it yet. I do feel like the NFL has been a little bit on pause waiting to find out what's up with the salary cap stuff. There's franchise tag might get delayed. Like, is there a chance free agency gets delayed? I don't even think that's off the table. It's a little, it still is very COVID affected, I feel like, right now.

I'm not sure what's going on. I mean, I just, the chance to sit down in my own home this time and watch one pro day after the next is it's the stuff of adult dreams. and just to cycle back on the on the money tag to open the show you can't find a flawed women of they don't they don't women don't have flaws that's true that's i've always felt that and um and especially don't look at me that way like you know that's that's a fact that i just unfurled hmm we will not get gregg to chime in on that on that topic hey speaking of money i want to introduce um a special guest sitting in on today's episode, yes, he is a renaissance man, is what he is. He is an NFL network star. In fact, he co-helms the power ranking show on NFL network, but he's also one half of the

shock jock team, Petros and Money, on 570. And he's also, of course, the voice of the Los Angeles Chargers. Yes, you know who we're talking about. Also the voice of God, they're on the NFL podcast. Matt Money Smith. Welcome back. Oh, it is great to be here, gentlemen. Thank you for inviting me. What an honor to occupy one of these four squares with a sweet, tasty lick on that, and some colorful chords from what I envision being like a nice, maybe Ibanez. You know, and those strings being tickled by Steve By or Eric Johnson. Just a guitar aficionado. I love it. I love it. That's for happening. And it's still going.

I do, it must be tough for you, though, money. You have all these, like, jobs where you've got to be super professional, and it's still going. Still going. Still going. Stevie Vy's in the corner. A good fade out. My brother was a big Stevie Vye guy, big guitar guy.

How could you not be? Back in the 80s. But, like, you've got all these serious jobs money where you've got to be, like, the host and keep things moving. And then, as Dan mentioned, you've got, like, the shock jock roll, where you just are mixing it up and calling guys losers and, you know, trying to get as much negative attention as you can. It's a weird dichotomy. I would, you know what? I'm a pushback on that immediately, Greg, because I like to think that that would lend me to believe that you've never really listened

to the Petros and Money Show. There is certainly negativity, but I think the negativity is more self-deprecating in nature, and then it is all-encompassing. All-encompassing. It's, we go after everyone, everything, and then as we throw that boomerang, it comes right back and hits us upside the head tenfold because we realize our great failings through the course of our 40 plus years on Earth. No, I say that because I appreciate it. Well, I appreciate it. As opposed to like, you know, my home state like Boston, the sports radio there, it's a nice, it's a nicer flavor here. We do like, by the way, we do often like to play clips from Felger and Maz. It is fascinating. But there are clips that you wouldn't think any radio show would want to play.

Like we have, because we used to be a national show for, I don't know, like four or five years. And now, you know, with the advent of apps, people can listen to us anywhere or any place that we're bummed to see us go away or maybe moved out. You know, they're California expats. And they will tip us off to, hey, check out this clip from Felger and Mads. And it's like them fighting with their interns. It's one of them, like, basically claiming, like, I'll fight anybody. I will fight all of you and I'll beat your ass, that kind of stuff. It's still the 1990s there.

Yes, it really is. It's like, wait, people are still doing radio this way and then they take calls and they argue with callers for like 20 minutes. This is really weird. As someone who does listen to the show quite frequently, I think that the term shock jock is misapplied. So I'm with you, money. I think that if anything, there's an openness between you guys, you're constantly taking jabs at each other. And don't sleep on the sports knowledge, the sports talk. It'll sneak in there.

And we appreciate that. Cess, by the way, is the embodiment of what we want the Petros and Money Show listener to be. And I would imagine you guys want the around the NFL podcast to be, and that is father-son bonding. I think that is something that we can all relate to when it comes to sports radio or podcast. There is something pretty damn cool about this particular topic that, for whatever reason, no matter what the lines of communication are between father and son, awkward, totally fine. And sports seems to be the one path where dad and lad can really get along and chew it up and enjoy the same sort of production. That's well said.

I absolutely agree with that. And money, like I said, voice of the Chargers. But a man that's very plugged in to the entire national football league and also has a high level of draft knowledge. I mean, the man is going to be a huge asset to today's show because we're going to have some fun. Oh, but did I mention The man is also You know, he dabbles in the stock market He's like one of those guys

He's like, oh yeah, I dabble And it pays for his house by the ocean Here in California We are going to do some buy, sell Stock stuff I called stock stuff That's an industry term Yeah, stock stuff works

Yeah, on the 2021 NFL offseason Looking ahead whether it's free agency The draft, really anything within the world of the NFL as we spin forward toward the 2021 season. So we're going to have some fun there. But before we do that, let's get going with some news. And Hollywood's calling for the movie, right, singing, hey, babe, let's keep in touch. Hey, baby, let's keep in touch.

I mean, money is a music guy. I'm already singing. I want you to reach me. And I'm like, oh, great. Now I got freaking run around in my head. And Cessler, you know, Cessler on the weekends. And we just had a three-day weekend, and it was nice. You know, you're going to get tax dispatches throughout the weekend on a variety of subjects.

There was a blues traveler wormhole that Cessler went down. And I didn't know if you had any Blues Traveler story money to share with the Sessler in the audience. Blues Traveler was a big, big fight at K-Rock when I was in the music department. Our program director, Kevin Weatherly, just never got into kind of the roots rock that had taken hold in the early to mid-90s, hated Dave Matthews band, hated Blues Traveler, hated Toad, hated widespread panic. And so it was like one of my first moments of pushing back at the big boss. At the time, I was just a college kid, and I was trying to get him to play, oh, God, what was the name of song? I lied, I told her, I loved. But anyway, it was from the first blues travel record.

And he's like, this isn't K rock. Bro, this isn't K rock. This doesn't sound right. This would never sound right here. I remember just saying, well, okay, maybe it doesn't sound right in your BMW, but in the fraternity house where we're throwing parties, this is a song that really gets everybody excited. So either we can go with your method of deciding what is working with the kids

or my method of what's working with the kids. We never played butt anyway. And I lost that battle. Yes, I lost that battle. But we did end up playing. Runaround was the first Blues Traveler song. We ended up playing. I wanted to play Hook.

We didn't play that. We ended up playing Runaround now. What a song. Cessler. First concert I ever went to, Blues Traveler, somewhere in Connecticut, maybe Stanford, have very hazy memories of the night, not only because it was 20-something years ago,

but because of what else occurred on that night. Exactly. A big pop-or-right. All right. let's get into the news and let's start we find we have our Greg by the way is looking on with great disgust like when are we going to talk about yola tango that's just my face by voices i mean mercury rev i'm not i'm outnumbered here but it's like history proved the guy with the BMW right i think ultimately that's oh no no no no no no uh that record with that record with

hook and run around ended up selling three million copies and was a huge alt rock hit I think they actually still, so this is the way radio for those, like, look, people that think you can call up a radio station and ask them to play something, that's not how it works. Every single song is scheduled at every single minute, and there's a specified flow, there's a formula, there's research, there's all this crap we put into it, that truly makes no sense. But when you can actually deem something a success, and I promise I will end with this, and you guys can take back your podcast, my great apologies. No, we love it. When something is deemed a success is when it goes into. the category called power recurrent, which means its current status. You have basically played through the current status of the song is kind of expired. It's gotten old, but it's so good and was deemed such a success that it will appear once to twice a day every single day in this power recurrent category. And Run Around was one of those songs that ended up becoming a K-Rock power recurrent. So often you'd find Travis hits would get into that power recurrent

category as well. Yes. Why does it always rain on me exactly? Right. And you should know money before we dive into the news that in this era of pandemic, virtual togetherness, Greg has a resting disgusted face. So it's tilted down. But no, like, well, that's the thing. If you hadn't brought me in, then the show moves along nicely. Right. But then you have. And I have to just be honest that it's like, well, I still don't like that song. Didn't like it then. Don't, you Don't need to hear it now. But you don't want to hear that. Yeah, as a regular listener of the Around the NFL podcast,

I feel like Greg gets away with far too many zings, and then people be quiet because they just want to move on. And they're like, whatever, I'm not going to fight every Greg Zing because this podcast will be six hours long if we push back on every single one. Do we really have to do news or talk? I just want to do this for the next. I just wanted to establish that Greg Zings will be met with another level, even though now I'm like, if people are watching the video component,

I'm so small compared to Greg, which is funny, right? It's kind of, I believe that qualifies his irony because I look so tiny compared to him in this virtual world. Little camera magic. Greg paid a man $30,000 to give him maximum size in his box. All right, I'm done. I'm now a follower. My apologies around the NFL network listeners.

No apologies. We love having money here. And we have our first franchise tag. It is Justin Simmons, the safety. It was going to make a cool 13.7 million this year because it's the second straight year. He's playing on the franchise tag. We'll see. Maybe the Broncos and Simmons reach a long-term deal by July.

But this is a man, Greg, who has always done the job in the secondary in Denver. And now they keep him in house. Most likely, it'll be a tag in trade. You never know. But it looks like they're moving forward with Justin Simmons. Yeah, he would have been. the best safety on the board in free agency. The big news here is what you said about it being the first one, though.

Like, that's the weirdness. We're taping this on Monday. The deadline was supposed to be Tuesday. I was guessing somewhere in the neighborhood of 10 franchise tags. And, you know, the rap reports of the world are reporting they might push back this deadline. No one still knows what the cap is. It's all a bit of a mess. Like, that's the most interesting part of this is all these other guys that were kind of

waiting to see whether they're going to hit free agency or not. a lot of guys who we expect will get tagged like a Chris Godwin or Dak and Shackbearer. None of it's happening yet. That's what I mean. Like, it doesn't, people is like, watch out for the bloodbath of veterans. It's like, I don't know.

I don't see it yet. It's not happening yet. I think the term was massacre, but I hear what you're saying. Massacre. It's like the same amount of people are going to get caught as usual, by the way. That's my predict. Like guys who the teams didn't want.

I don't think it would be a tag and trade because doing a little research, last week on this for a written piece that has exploded, by the way. And it's just, it's doing very well. Which piece is that? It's a free agent fits. And I actually suggested that the Broncos don't get too, you know, cute, that they just stay right at home and sign Simmons. And then five minutes after I published it, he got franchise tagged. And I just was strolling around my house thinking, I've nailed this. But I, George Patton, their new GM, if you want to call him that inside the Emerald Patton. Wait, why wouldn't you call him that? Well, because I, I, I

tend to agree with Dan to some degree that Elway's presence sort of hovers their like an unforgotten like Ben Kenobi figure. He's in control. I'm buying the Ian theory, which is like, which sounds to be more like John Elway doesn't want to do any work anymore and he really tried to quit

and they like almost didn't let him. I think he's at the auto dealers and on the golf course. I don't think he's getting involved anymore. No, you may be right. Or wrong. You know, by the way, I love that Mark. I love that you threw in that your article's doing huge numbers because honestly who's going to double check going forward

every time I reference an article on nfl.com be like oh by the way and this was I'm really humbled by it just monster metrics on well it's it's become its own thing it's become sort of a sensation and you just ride the you ride it um all right I think the kids call that going viral I believe your uh your article is gone viral making its way through the chat snap world it's got a couple stories on a gram uh you know people are way into this thing And, you know, you mentioned that it's a little bit weird what's going on right now, Greg, with the lack of players being tagged and the talk of a massacre in terms of cutdowns of veterans. It is very strange what's going on around league.

When you look closer, like per over the cap, when you talk about it, there's been a lot of talk about the salary cap moving down, which it will be. if you look at this year, the average, according to over the cap, cap space per team with free agency a week away, is at $13 million. Last year, it was $43 million. So this is, we are in a different weird COVID-related space, even if it feels like things aren't quite as grim from a COVID-19 stance from last March to this March.

In the NFL, it is still turning everything upside down. And speaking of massacres, there have been some cuts. Kyle Van Nuoy, who the Dolphins spent money, big money on to bring from the Patriots last offseason. He was released after one ineffective year in Miami. Richie Incognito, he gets released. That could be by the Raiders, could be the end of the line for the 37-year-old guard, who's had an interesting career, but we'll see what happens. Alex Smith, as we know, the quarterback.

and comeback player of the year. He was officially let go by Washington. Jared Cook, the tight end of the Saints. And we might be outside the window now, boys, where people talk up Jared Cook this time of year in Free Agency. Maybe that ship has sailed, but we'll see Golden Tate and the Giants

end their business together after two years. And Gabe Jackson also let go. Any of those names, money, jump out to you as guys that could be a value pickup and free agency? Well, you know, I think, you know, before we get to value, picks. I think it's just interesting that the Raiders, which, you know, having seen them twice a year, calling Charger games, you know, kind of the foundation of that offense was that offensive line.

It was just mammoth, you know, and you guys can all attest to this. When you have access to being able to get on the field, it's just a different level when you're that close to individuals. And when you would walk, you know, on the field during Raider games, and you would see Incognito and Hudson and Jackson and Trent Brown. And Colton Miller, you were like, my God, these guys look like they are 30% bigger than any defensive line that they face. So the idea that three-fifths of them are going to be gone, Trent Brown's gone, no one's going to trade for that contract. He's going to be gone, though. So I think when you lose, you know, incognito, you know, Jackson and Brown, I don't know what that means for that offense, which I felt like, look, and this could be my charger bias coming out,

but I just felt like it was celebrated far more than it really deserved. You know, when it needed to win games, it wasn't able to win games. It, like, put up a lot of yards. And they just weren't able to score touchdowns when they got into the red zone when they needed to win a game and had the ball at the end of a game. They would seemingly never win. So I don't know if they're trying to adjust what they're doing. But I do know, you know, that's a team. And I think this just kind of building on that, I think, I do think there could be a massacre coming. I really do.

Because I think teams that aren't cash rich, and this will speak to our stock conversation later, you know, when you're in times of trouble, you want to find, you know, companies that are cash rich that can weather the storm. I think the Raiders were a team that were expecting to have a packed house, season tickets, licenses, parking, and they didn't have it. Because they certainly spent like it last summer, right? I mean, with the linebackers and they're handing all the extensions and spending cash, and then all of a sudden, they have none of that income. So I think that's teams like that, I think you're going to start to see cuts, more cuts coming because they're not able to pay the bills

and they're not able to convert those roster bonuses to signing bonuses because they have to scratch out a $15 million. check the day they do it. And they're just not able to do that. So I think we're going to start to see more of that here in the next couple days. One quick little item off of that, when you look it over the cap, I think one of the big numbers is all these teams hugging that line, how many players they have under contract. And one team that stands out to me, and I'll keep it quick, but like the Atlanta Falcons are in the red and have like 39 players under contract. Most of these other teams are in the 50s or 60s. Like how do you solve that problem? You don't even have enough

players to field a team and you're in the red. Have fun. Have a fun time with that Atlanta Falcons. Right. I still don't want to like see the players. When people say like, okay, this is a unique year, all these guys are going to get cut. Start showing me the players that teams wanted to keep that they cut. Like, give me the example. Now one happened today, the one you didn't mention, Dan, Carlos Dunlop. He played really well for the Seahawks at the end of last year. He's a good pass rusher. He's 32, but he played great in 2019. He kind of did the closest thing the NFL has to James Hardin and kind of just didn't seem to try too much and got his way out of Cincinnati. He was going to make $14 million and the Seahawks are in cap and there's no way

he could make that in free agency. He'll probably make $7, $8 million. So they cut him. But that's the first one. All these other guys, the Raiders don't want those guys. But you're right, that's a sea change. They were the highest paid offensive line in the league money. And Trent Brown, who you mentioned, they're trying to trade him. He's a good right tackle when he's healthy. But they're trading three fists or cutting three fists of that offensive line and they're going to be a lot different all those other guys though they didn't want van noi was it was a bit of a surprise to me but for 15 million dollars a year i guess they just weren't with it i think the thing sorry dan i think the thing with van noi too like to me for those and look i i

i don't pick sides on the player empowerment owners should you honor the contract should you not those things are so individual i don't know the nuances of them so i never try to pretend like i do and pick sides but i think for all of those that are pushing on well you know deshaun just signed that contract six months ago. It's BS that he's he's not honoring it. Well, Kyle Van Noy just signed a four-year deal. I mean, to uproot his family from New England, move them all the way down to Miami. You would not assume that one year in, you're going to get booted after signing that four-year deal. And he was okay. He was okay. Exactly. So it's like, to me, it's like, hey, if you want to push back there, then push back here on the other side as well, which is why I never push either way. I just sit in the

middle and watch. That's a nice way to play it. And yeah, Van Noid, maybe that would qualify, Greg, is a guy that is affected by what's going on with the salary cap because it wasn't just that he was ineffective last year he was beat up and injured so you wonder if if things were different if they had a little bit more wiggle room to play with they would give him another shot I was surprised by it but that to me just because they have some cap space and they want to get aggressive I think the Raiders maybe want to get aggressive that just tells me they don't think he's very good like if they thought if they thought he was as good as he was when he signed that contract, he'd still be there.

Flora's getting a bit of reputation, you know, as like, he'll, he'll change gears pretty quick. Yeah. Not, I don't think that's a bad thing, but he's, he's switched out his coordinators each year. He's switched out his players, his quarterbacks. Like, he doesn't mess around when he's sours on you. I like that they have co-offensive coordinators.

You could kind of sneaky blame the other guy behind the scenes and things go poorly. That's a, uh, the Flores thing's a, right? It's a double-edged sword, right? Because I think one of the. things that any business is tough to kind of deal with and embrace is the art of quitting and how important it is to quit and move on when something's not working. Now, the flip side of that is, hey, maybe Brian Flores is the problem. And you're busy cutting everybody else and blaming everybody else and pointing the finger when ultimately maybe it goes all

the way to the top. I mean, that's the tricky part. I'm giving him the leeway. I'm giving him the leeway. Yeah, I would too. I would too. He turned around the Titanic to quote Solomon Wilcott's on the Bengals. He's two for two. By the way, offensive coordinator is a big gig to get, obviously. It's one of those chairs. Coveted chairs, because in many times it could be a springboard

to the biggest chair, a head coach. Do you really want to be a co-offensive coordinator? I feel like that's a tough spot. And it could lead to some backbiting and just some internal turmoil and like, I deserve credit for this. No, it's your fault. All right. Well, it very much depends on the two personalities of the co-people

in chair, and we don't, that's a mystery to us, I think. Well, just speaking, you know, because it doesn't happen in the NFL a lot, just here in LA, speaking to the draft, you know, USC, which has been a rudderless ship and an abject failure under Clay Hilton the last few years, they had always employed a passing game coordinator, a run game coordinator. We had a red zone coordinator, like the word was when it was at its worst, was T. Martin was basically calling the plays until they got to the 20, and then Clay Hilton would take over calling the plays. I mean, it is just, there's no way to run a football team. And you wonder why, you know, they are no longer mentioned with the other blue buds in,

in Alabama, Georgia, and Notre Dame and Clemson. And SC barely gets a sniff of that anymore because it's just been such a disaster. And that speaks to, you know, making sure, okay, it's fine to move on and it's fine to cut bait suit. But let's just make sure it's not a quirk in the personality that it's not necessarily production related, but you better be able to get along with this guy in order to stick around. I mean, look, that's what happened to Pete Carroll at SC. You know, he, I should say this, allegedly was not happy with all the praise that Norm Chow was getting and all the credit that Norm Chow was getting for having basically saved Carson Palmer, this, this Hercules of an individual, you know, that when you saw him up

closer, like, my gosh, if I wanted to build a quarterback, this is what it would look like. And he just was kind of a middling player through the majority of his career at SC. Chow comes in. The guy wins the Heisman. They start that run. And the next thing you know, Norm Chow's out of a job

after winning a national championship. And he's like, what just happened? Right. In other news, so you have guys being shopped and reports out there. Zach Ertz, that's one name. That's one name out there.

He's the tight end for the Eagles. A big time player. I mean, he caught a game-winning touchdown pass in the Super Bowl a few years back. He's coming off a bad year where he's all banged up and couldn't really move. And also, and this seems to be getting overlooked in people talking about the end of Zach Ertz, a terrible quarterback situation for most of the year. He is reportedly on the market right now. Also on the market, this one was a little bit surprising because you wouldn't think this is a

player would have a robust trade market. But Adam Schefter reports that the Lions have had trade discussions with other teams regarding backup Chase Daniel, who's one of those dudes. that's a great locker room guy, great locker room guy. And sometimes that keeps you in business. And a couple linemen out there also floated as being shopped, Andrew Norwell, the Jaguars Guard, and Kevin Zitler, the New York Giants Guard. So some interesting names there. And a preview of maybe who's getting caught later this week.

That is some, you know, Zitler and Norwell, you know, were guys who, you know, in hindsight, probably ranked way too high on, you know, Chris Wesleyan and I's top 101 when they were free agents. I mean, those guys got huge money. Well, Zaitler got traded, but he was a big time free agent. Norwell, same. It's like, and there's always those, it's always guard. I don't know why guard is the position.

Tackles it, too. It's like, hey, you can plug this guy in for the next, like, 10 years. It's like, this is as safe as it gets. Well, not really. Like, a guard's only going to save your team so much. Get a good offensive line coach. Like, you know, get a good scheme. That matters more.

Like, your guard's only going to save. save these guys so much. So we can say that the Browns won the O'Dell Beckham trade, if Zitler is getting kicked to the corner this soon after the transaction. Well, we'll see if O'Dell Beckham is, we'll see if O'Dell Beckham is kicked to the curve. I think they did, it did fine for both of them. We'll see. All right.

You mentioned coordinator, Greg. I think this is, uh, and I know you guys, more Norm Chow talk. That's enough. No, you guys always, uh, no, I miss Norm Chow. I know we're mad at a little run with Vince Young. That was fun. I know Petrus loves those USC hype videos. He loves them.

Very into that. Nobody gets better recruits and puts together better hype videos and then doesn't develop the talent than SC. No, this is a tip of the cap to one of your favorite folks. I thought this was a perfect way to describe it. Move the sticks, Daniel Jeremiah, when all the talk about how much are we paying these head coaches now and are we really going to pay Urban Meyer $8 million a year?

Are you kidding me? It's like, yeah, that's Andrew Norwell's contract. So would you rather have Andrew Norwell or would you rather have Urban Meyer coaching your team? Because the same guy that's scratching out the check is going to be asked to write that check. It's just a perfect way to illustrate. Yeah, pay the head coach. Whatever the heck he wants, pay him. Pay the offensive line coach.

Like, yeah. Right. Like that's what Zach Ertz is due to make. That's why I'm not really buying. There's multiple, like when they say multiple teams are interested, to me, that's probably like giving up a pick swap for the sixth. to the seventh round or something. I'd be shocked. What does he make?

Ertz looked done, done to me. He was $8 million. I know he's been banged up, but that's part of it. He reminded me of Owen Daniels a little bit, like, towards the end of his career with some of those routes. Sometimes for tight ends, it just, it comes quick. I mean, he was going through some physical stuff. We'll never even know about those.

For sure. For sure. For sure. Yeah. In other news, Mika Hyde and the bills agree on a two-year contract extension worth 19.25 million. So he was due to become a free agent after the 2021 season to make sure they keep him in-house. And finally, and this was very disturbing news to me, because I'm just not ready for it to be over yet. But John Clayton of ESPN reports that Ryan Fitzpatrick, quote, looks like he's going to retire.

How about that? That surprised me. I thought that this was someone with a great desire to start a year ago. and I think he could quickly get work somewhere else as the greatest bridge guy around. I mean, he could still make some more money. So retirement would surprise me. I don't typically buy that stuff until it happens. And I could see him getting pulled out of retirement if the right team fell into chaos down the line.

He's sneaky ancient. He's turning 39 later this year. But Greg, and I think you had him in your top 40, free agents. He's been playing some of his best football. So I don't know if it's a situation where he's ready to move on to the next stage of his life or like Mark is alluding to here that it's part of a ploy to put it out there.

Come get me, but I don't want to be somebody's backup forever. I mean, a ploy is strong, but that's possible. Or it's just like where there's no news right now and John Clayton who has a radio show in Seattle, like someone pulls that off of him talking on his radio show. That's not like, I don't know if it was like a hardcore, you know, report. It's just, this is the life of. of an aggregator right now.

John Clayton, Greg Rosenthal. But he just threw it out. He didn't like, he didn't say this is happening. Also, by the way, that kind of gets to what I'm talking about. What teams are putting out feelers for these quarterbacks right now? I don't think any because they're waiting to see what happens. They don't even know. Like if Fitzpatrick is disappointed by the lack of tampering going on, it's like, I don't

think anyone's doing it with that level of quarterback yet. They're just waiting and seeing what's going on with this cap and all that. I wonder if there's a tipping point for Fitzpatrick, though, in terms of money you know because he did i believe didn't he played last year without his family right they stayed and he was in miami so that's what i mean so he wasn't with the family the covid thing so he couldn't go to see them or else he had to sit out for 14 days you know my understanding it was a pretty tough year for him off the field so i wonder if you know reduced cap like you said he's not getting any feelers like you know what i'm not playing for a million bucks you know or one point whatever

he's like if someone wants to come give me five six million bucks okay i'll do it and then that brings you to the cap like who's really given that guy when the cap's going to shrink by 20 million bucks, five or six million bucks, to be a bridge or a great backup. You know what I mean? And how annoyed is that wife after like a seven months of an NFL season with seven children and the dad figure has not been home for even three minutes? That's tension in a barrel for you. But if I'm Fitz or Andy Dalton or Teddy Bridgewater or James Winston or whomever,

I'm rushing to that meeting with the Denver Broncos because if you want to look for a job where you have a path to play playing time, even if it doesn't mean a week one starter, hell yeah, get up there and beat out Drew Locke and all of a sudden you might be set up with a nice gig. That's the dangerous, like that's the for General Patton, right? That's the dangerous signing because you can't have someone

that's, you know, too commanding of the locker room or Drewlock never has a chance, no matter how cool he looks, milden lyrics on the sideline. for a game so cool uh and but you also want someone that could legitimately beat him out right because you're not entirely convinced that he's the guy that is a like who would you who would you think is the best fit for that that kind of fills both of those lanes if you're still crossing your fingers that drew lock could be the guy of that group fits isn't a bad one but i would be i would go with um someone that's just like better at playing football than drew lock that seems

like what i'd be looking for that's what i'd be looking for there's a lot of those guys it seems like. There was a report that came out over the weekend from a player saying like Drew Locke is doing all the small things behind the scenes that will make him a winner. When I hear that, the player's done. Trope alert.

Do we have our first trope alert of the offseason? Drew Locke doing things behind the scenes to improve. Okay, okay. All right, that's what's happening in the news. All right, as promised. Money, you dabble. You dabble in the old stock market, don't you? Um, sure. I think that's one way to, that's one way to put it. Yeah, I've, uh, I, I enjoy the world of finance probably more than any other, uh, any other, the world of sports, the world of music. Finance is kind of my bag. I really do enjoy it. So it's more than dabbling. Dabbling's not serious enough. Um, well, I entrust, you know, I trust what's really important to those that truly know what they're doing, but because I have a, um, a hell of a, a well, I have a misguided, um, sense of

grandeur. So I believe I too can beat the market. And I have a couple of my own accounts that I operate and have with some success and some great success and some great failures, like most who get into the world of finance would say. But yeah, like some of my favorite podcasts are finance-based podcast economics. So whatever. There you go. So this show's not helping you out. The show's helping me tremendously. I want to party with you, Cowboy. That's right. Hey, we put on econ talk with Russ Roberts. Let me tell you. Booth starts flowing and we get excited. And if you could, money, and help the uninitiated. I have a deep and nuanced knowledge of the whole GameStop situation. But where do you come down on this? Well, part of me,

it really enjoys it. Because, you know, for those that don't, kind of haven't followed it, the idea is a bunch of dudes got together. And well, and by dudes, I mean people, men, women, whomever are on Reddit and decided, hey, we're going to increase the, I mean, look, that's what happens, right? People buy a stock, the value of the stock goes up because there's more money invested from the public. It's a public traded company. So the more money that comes in, the more it's worth. You know, so they decided, you know what, let's do GameStop because all of these hedge funds have shorted the game stock, the game stock. Now, what does that mean? It means that they have basically placed a bet that the price of the stock will be considerably lower in the future than it currently is. Now, if the stock price goes higher, higher, higher, higher, higher, those short, calls come due and you have to pay your bill. Like, hey, remember you said you had these shorts here? Well, yeah, that's not happening. So you're going to have to pay us. And in the case of these hedge funds, it's billions of dollars that the rising price of this stock has led to these calls. So margin call, you know, short calls. So I find it entertaining, but it also doesn't do a whole lot for

confidence in the market for the late person. Like, wait a minute, what am I doing? So I can put my money in this company and it's not really worth that much, but somehow it becomes worth all, you know, it makes it a bit confusing as to how it works. And I think it's a quick reminder that essentially the stock market is a form of gambling. You know, you are placing bets on future outcomes. That's what you're doing when you buy a stock. What is the future of this, this stock certificate or this stock that I have purchased? That is what's going to determine whether or not I win or I lose this bet. Right. But unlike gambling, it's like gambling, at least you know who won or lost in stocks like you don't necessarily even you could be totally like it could be all just

fraudulent that they you know companies that weren't aren't worth much their stocks go well and company you know it's like it blows your mind I'm with you yeah are you taking notes on this it's uh it's some of it is out of whack and doesn't make sense but the performance is like look at I don't I don't even know if we can do this individually right because I'm not a licensed financial advisor um but like you look at something like Tesla right it doesn't make sense, but the future projections are so promising for Tesla, even though they have not been able to, you know, the price to earnings ratio is so out of whack and makes no sense from a classic market perspective, which I think the S&P is typically

somewhere between 13 and 15. And when you're trading at 150 times your earnings, you're like this, you can't sustain this, but then you kind of look at the company and you're like, well, yeah, everybody that has one loves it, they buy more. If they can deliver more, if they could just ramp up manufacturing. in distribution, my God, everybody would want a Tesla. Now that, you know, so it does make sense in that way, right, down that avenue. So I don't want to get too deep down this.

Well, let me, I'm going to challenge you. I've done it again. I did it with music. No, I've done it with this. This is when I realized that I am just a child. I have no idea what you're talking about. I can tell it that you're, that you know what you're talking about, but I don't know anything about our world.

I'm going to challenge you. I can just talk about free agents. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. It's far more interesting than football. money, I'm going to offer you a challenge by the end of this episode, I would like you to cook up

some type of NFL-related stock scenario that mirrors the game stop scandal, okay? Just let that percolate in the back of your mind and we're going to come around to it whenever you're ready. But let's get it going. Hey, let's ring the opening bell Stephen Manny, filling in again

for Ricky Hollywood. And let's do some buying and selling of NFL stocks money. Why don't you going, actually. Well, I think this is going to be an easy way. This is what we would call a blue chip, right? A blue chip stock. You know what you're getting. There's not a whole lot of sizzle, but you feel pretty darn good. And it's probably expensive because it's an established company that is going to keep selling their product and you're not too worried about it going

bankrupt or seeing earnings reports that are dramatically lower than what we're projected. But it's Trent Williams. Like to me, we talk about the Raiders cutting three-fifths of their offensive line. The charges were probably going to lose four-fifths of their offensive line. And, you know, Bobby Massey, I think, just got, got booted from Chicago today. To me, Trent Williams, that's the guy. Like that, it all starts. You see it. Look at the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, right? I mean, it all starts with the offensive line. If you can get that group right, I just feel like your prospects of winning NFL games because there is so, this is terrible to say, right, but there's just so little elite talent, it seems like. I don't

know why it's become the tie. It seems like it's almost tougher than quarterback to figure out offensive tackles. And I think we know he's good. He is damn good. And when we were seeing him do those box jumps before he showed up in San Francisco after the trade last year, we were like, my God, in what world is that trade not worth it? And that's why you might even be able to make the case if the Texans weren't so bad that the tonsil trade was worth it to have a 25-year-old at that position that you can maybe lock up long term. So that would be my number one buy of any free agent out there, especially in terms of how many different teams could use him. Right, so many.

I do wonder if the Jaguars are just going to throw stupid money at a lot of these guys, and Trent Williams would make sense, although he might be the rare guy that's made enough money and will make enough money on this contract, no matter who he plays for, that he actually considers, do I really want to play with Urban Meyer? I was just, you know, with Washington. You know, like he might actually consider, well, the Colts are offering less guaranteed money but it's still a massive contract or picking a situation you're right he is going to make more i think than any player available and i think it'll be by a lot i don't think there will be a close like

if we if we're doing those sandwiches i'm taking trent williams and you guys can have the field i usually want the field and you have him number two overall on your top 101 free agents gregg i'll i'll throw one out there great how about this money and you i got a volatile stock stock okay volatile okay and for those that aren't in the know like me and money are that's the type of stock that can move up and down wildly to provide great profit opportunities but also it comes with greater risk and which brings me to a name that came up earlier odell backham junior i want to see what's happening here with odell obviously he's currently rehabbing uh the acel tear that ended his second season with the Browns prematurely. And we all know what happened after that, that Baker was

very up and down with Odell there, and a lot was made of it, whether it's fair or unfair. And I'm curious, Mark, your thoughts on that, that Baker played a more comfortable, successful brand of football once Odell exited the lineup when he wasn't, quote, unquote, trying to force it to O'Dell. These are the narratives that came into being after O'Dell exited the lineup. And I I'm wondering now, you step back and you're in the Brown's front office and having these conversations. Okay, he has three years left on his contract. No guaranteed money left on the deal. The Browns can get rid of $15.75 million by trading or releasing Beckham, freeing up some very valuable salary cap space,

especially at a time when you now have proof that your offense can function without this high profile, volatile stock. not a volatile man. He gets a lot of grief, but he's fine, a little bit left of center, maybe as a personality, but not a bad dude by any stretch. So I think it makes sense

that the Browns would potentially move Beckham, even if they're saying otherwise right now Kevin Stafant's guy, can't wait to have him back, blah, blah, blah. And I wonder what they could fetch in a trade because the Giants deal was a blockbuster. I wonder, I have two options,

more like a big picture. Odell, what if the Browns sent Odell in a third round pick. Could they get a first round pick for Odell Beckham in 2021? I think he's about 28 years old. Would you get Odell for a high second round pick in a trade? Would you do that if you were the Browns? And then I'll have a more focused one here. What if Odell goes to, let's say, the big splash desperate Chicago Bears for Alan Robinson straight up in a sign and trade situation, tag and trade Alan Robinson? All thoughts. I just, I find

somewhat. I would be a little bit surprised if Odell's on the Browns in September. Thoughts. I would I think there's something too that you also have Jarvis Landry commanding 15 million plus. So those two players are eating up $30 million this season. And it is an sort of impossible question to answer, I think, to say are they better without him? I do think this. I think that Baker Mayfield, the whole the whole

Baker-Mayfield experience. He thrives when he is the alpha. And I think that there is, if you want to talk chemistry, that no one's going to say they're a better team without the talent of Odell Beckham on the field. But in terms of like Baker and Odell Beckham really getting into sync, I would say that Baker Mayfield looked 10 times more comfortable throwing the ball to Richard Higgins, who really didn't exist in 2019, but had great chemistry with Baker in 2018. And so I would dismiss the idea that they're better without Odell, but I could see them moving on because I don't think that what he's done in Cleveland

has hiked his value. It's been lowered, if anything. So when do you sell to get as much value as you could? I don't think it's two years from now. I think it would be now. I love that Robinson idea. That would be fun. Odell is one of those guys where it's not crazy

to just throw out crazy trades because his contract now is such plus in terms of being able to trade him. His contract's great. I mean, as you mentioned, no guaranteeing money. He's making under $15 million a year in cash. He hasn't been healthy enough to want to ask for more money. So that's actually, like, very attractive, I would think, to another team, especially

a team like the Bears or some, you know, teams who's trying to, like, get out of their own situation, but you're going to have to, like, make sure O'Dell is happy to come to you. I would buy some O'Dell stock right now. I feel like it's at a low. And I would guess he'd be back in Cleveland. But it's not a crazy one to throw out there. All right. Greg, you're up next.

All right. I'm not trying to like kiss up or anything here. But I'm going to throw out just like, how about a stock in the NFL, in the logo? What do we call it? The shield. That's what we call it. The stock for the shield, right? right now. I think it's a good time to buy. They just, all these other sport leagues

are going to get stuck with two seasons getting, getting hit by COVID hard. I'm not saying that the 2021 NFL season isn't going to get affected by COVID. Who knows? But I don't think it's going to get hit as hard as this second season of the NBA and NHL, for instance, in other sports. After all of this that just happened, they're selling all these TV deals for like double the amount. Like it like it proved it proved a little you know, not COVID proof, but the ratings and everything are just like on an astronomical level. It's like you're getting you're getting the same amount of people to watch this like Oprah Winfrey blockbuster with Markle as like Bengals Jaguars on a Thursday night football.

And, you know, it's like, it's just kind of amazing to me. They're giving out the bonuses. That's a good sign we found out the NFL. It's like it does feel like they weathered the storm and this TV deal is just going to like bring in all this money. And this cap situation is a little bit of an issue this year. But it's all going to just like skyrocket back up. It just struck me this week kind of watching, you know, the other leagues and how they've got

their own issues. That the NFL, if they're coming out of this with doubling their TV deals, it was like, what did it really hurt them? Score one for the underdog. Yeah. I mean, it's built. Like, you hate to say it, right? But, I mean, it's built for the pandemic.

I mean, it's one game a week. It's 16 games for a season. It's, you know, it's not 82 of the NHL of the NBA. It's not 162. It's not, you know, you can perhaps mitigate disaster when you have that, you know, that limited number of contests that you have to complete. Because, I mean, I think we all probably felt, right? when it got sideways on the Ravens and we're watching games on Wednesdays

and the Steelers are pissed that they got to play this game. Wait a minute. Why are we being punished because of this? It felt like it was, you know, for those that like the skateboard, you're on that hill and all of a sudden the wobble has showed up and you're like, oh, no, am I going to be able to ride this out to the flat or am I going to get some serious road rash? Like that was there.

That existed this season and they were able. And look, and I think that, Greg, speaks to one of the reasons why they're going to get these giant TV deals is they showed, oh, you want a game on Wednesday afternoon at 3 p.m. Pacific? Yeah, there's just 12 million people that watch that. I mean, that's just kind of how it's the number one entertainment, not sport, number one entertainment product in America. And it's not, and like, it won't surprise me if Thursday night becomes Amazon and streamable. It won't surprise me if they come out Friday night football or Wednesday, well, they won't do Friday for the kids. She wouldn't do that to high schools.

It's a TV product. It's not a live product. No, exactly right. Exactly right. I mean, it's, you know, there's something about being at the ballpark with, you know, with your friends, you know, and just kicking back and throwing a few back or with the family and they're eating the hot dogs and all that compared to, you know, watching it on TV. It is much as, same with, you know, anybody that's ever been to an NHL game, they say, dude, that sport is amazing in person. And they will not watch a single second of it on TV. Yet they will gladly go to an NHL game in the arena because it's a blast.

So, yeah, you're right. I mean, it feels like, speaking of stock, it feels like we are at the, not just the 52-week high, but the all-time high. And when stocks get to that, like, when you look at an Amazon stock and you're like, wait a minute, I got to drop $2,400 to buy one share of Amazon stock. That's what we're talking about. Yeah. And do you know anyone who's going to stop using Amazon in the near future or in the foreseeing?

future. So go ahead and buy the $2,400 stock because it's probably going to be $3,200 a share before you know it. And I think that's the NFL of which you speak. That's what the guy who bought all the Blockbuster stock said in 2003. Well, that was a death move. He nailed that. O3 was a little late there for Blockbuster. By the way, you brought up the Markle, Prince Harry Oprah interview, Greg. Quite dismissively, too, by the way. No, no. I mean, I'm saying that's like as big a Blockbuster as there is and I'm just saying like that does like a Thursday night football rating like I my wife has Oprah in the John Clayton category just to yeah public enemy and a nuisance um no the um my wife is a certified anglophile she loves all that stuff and she she said to me before the the show aired yesterday

she's like oh yeah this this interview that's going on which I had no idea what it was and I fell asleep watching it with her but she was like oh yeah this is going to do like super bowl numbers and I was like what no it's not there's no way it's going to do monster number And then the next morning, you know how it is. We're all married and you have these little battles and you just want to win the battle. So the next morning I wake up and I'm like, okay, I know I'm right. I just want to see how right I am. That's going to be a big W over coffee.

Markle, Prince Harry, Oprah, huge number. 17 million people watched it. That's a huge number, obviously. Super Bowl 55 and ratings that were down 15% for whatever reason, 96 million people watch that game. That's how you double your contracts. during a pandemic. A little W there. How did you, were you, so you scored the big W,

were you cantankerous or were you a gentleman in your victory? Total jerk about it, but that's, you know, but I know she's usually going to beat me in most things. And I'm usually the one that's wrong. So when you do get a chance to get the W, you run with it. Okay, let's move on here. up next, Mark Sessler. I like to, if I were to operate in the stock world, when you feel just a vibration that

something's on the rise, that there's something out there, a property, a new idea, an inventor, an inventive individual, I buy my stock in that. And I am getting in early on the Brandon Staley experience in Los Angeles. When they hired him, and first of all, this was the, guy that I think he triggered a lot of glowing think pieces last season. And having read a couple, I thought, all right, here we go with the Rams again. And they're all their little shiny little boys, perfect little coaches. But the more I read about Brandon Staley, I became kind of like very intrigued. And then when he went to the Chargers, and I am not bringing this up simply because

the voice of the Chargers is on the show with us. The voice. It feels like that would be a good place to do it. But when he, you know, all these coaches, and I think it was a tough year. Wait, there we go. Money's putting on his charger's helmet as contractually obligated when the charges come up on NFL network programming. Go ahead, Mark, please. Continue. No, no, no. Well, I would just say that, you know, I think it was a tough year to be a new hire because your interviews aren't done in big rooms with hundreds of people and lace and confetti and all this stuff. You're stuck on Zoom. Like the Eagles coaching staff came out looking real clunky. And that's a talking point.

And I went down, I was like, I'm going to watch Brandon Silley. I think I texted you guys. Like, I watched every sort of intro thing he did one day. And I was blown away by, and I mean this in the nicest way. He's like an intense nerd in the most perfect way a football coach could be. I think he is the kind of coach that we're going to be talking about in glowing terms a year from now. And I think it's the right kind of dude for the Chargers at this point. And so I'm buying.

I'm buying with all the cats. I have. I'm putting it in to this stock right now. Bullish on Staley. We know money's buying. I've been, you know, because of unfortunately that, you know, the world we're living in, I haven't had a chance to kind of get with him as much as I would have liked to. But the limited interactions I've had, he's, he's impressive. I mean, it's can you coach? I don't know, but just in terms of interacting his ideas, the way he answers questions, I'm really impressed by the staff. In particular, I did not know this special teams coach.

Darius Swinton, I, like, you know, I've been on all the Zoom calls and stuff. That dude is impressive. Like, he was talking about, you know, what they had crafted in Arizona, clock management team, situational football in the final five minutes team. And he was part of that. You know, you think about that video that went viral of Larry Fitzgerald, you know, he was the get ball guy to set it down. He's like, oh, yeah, that was stuff that, you know, that we work on every practice

that we're responsible for. So I like the staff. I like bringing in Lombardi and then also bringing in someone from the Kyle Shanahan tree. And when you talk to him about how he staffed up, you know, it was an interesting answer, which is, well, yeah, we want to have as many possibilities so we can take from this pot, from this pot, and then, you know, we got to get with Justin and figure out what works with him before we know what kind of offense we're going to run. So I figured, you know, here's a guy that's worked with Breeze for this long.

That's part of it. Here's someone that's worked with Kyle. I was in, you know, with Sean McVeigh. And so I just kind of like the way he's built the staff, a, you know, just sort of the presentation of I'm a listener, I'm an aggregator, and it's not all about me. It's about finding. And then on top of all that, all you do is just hear what Jalen Ramsey had to say. I don't know if you saw the Derwin James quote. It was pretty damn funny, though. He said, you know, when we were at Florida State, Jaylin was like, man, I don't like Jimbo. And I'm like, I'm all right with Jimbo. He's pretty cool. He goes, and then, you know, I got Gus as my defensive coordinator. and Jalen calls me. He's like, man, that Gus Bradley, he doesn't know what he's doing. And I was like, I kind of like Gus Bradley goes. Then I get a call from Jalen. He's like, hey, man, this Brandon Staley guy, just the best coach I ever had. So I think that, you know, just to have someone that certainly seems like he could be an adversary,

or not an adversary, but a little, you know, have issues with coaching to hear him sing the praises, along with Von Miller and Khalil Mack and just like all those guys, I think speaks well for the future of Brandon Staley. I'm a little worried about Joe Lombardi. I mean, I love Justin Herbert, and you hire a guy who was, you know, had a pretty uninspiring track record and not a lot of people were beating down his door to get, and that's the franchise and it's defensive coach. That's my worry, because I just want to see Justin Herbert be like the best quarterback of the NFL, because I love watching that much. I mean, you know, there's that relationship there with Staley and Lombardi, where Lombardi coached him. I think at Mercyhurst is where he was when, or I don't know if it was Dayton or I think it was at Mercyhurst that they were together.

I get the sense, though, Greg, that Staley's going to have his hands in a lot. Like, he's going to be the conductor. And, you know, he's got his, here's your brass, here's your woodwinds, here's your percussion. But I'm running this thing. This is my orchestra. That's kind of the vibe. And he does it. And that's what's great about him, right?

He does it without saying it, but also intimating it. You know, and I think that's a very tough dance to do in the NFL because people don't like me. I did this. this was my creation, you know. So it's, but when it is, you know. And if you're a Rams fan that's bummed out that you've lost this guy, well, also you can look at it as when Sean McVeigh hired him, everybody was like, who's this guy?

What's he going to do? What kind of, he's going to be better than Wade Phillips? Well, he certainly seemed to be an upgrade for the Rams. So it seems like McVeigh knows what he's doing in terms of talent acquisition. All right, let's go. Before we say goodbye, let's go around the horn one more time with a little bit of a speed round. Who started? I don't remember. Money. I think you did.

Money started and then money. Give me another one and then we're going to put a cap on it with your amazing game stop comparison unless you wanted to share it now, but it's coming. Just know that it's coming. Oh yeah, that's right. What was my game stop comparison again? I had to compare something to what the game stock is.

Yeah. Some artificial artificially inflated. Artificially inflated. Okay. You know what? So here's what I'll do. We bought. Now I'm going to sell. I would sell wide receivers. You're talking about O'Dell Beckham at 15 million. Alan Robinson's going to make 18 million. I mean, it just seems like, and I think all of that is a product of, you know, what, maybe as recent as three to four, maybe five years ago, we just didn't see wide receivers come into the league and catch on right away. It took them a year or two to kind of get comfortable. I feel like we're past that. I feel like you're drafting guys in the first or even the second round, right? And everybody does.

does this with Tara McLaurin and A.J. Brown, like, D.K. Metcalf, like, it just feels like if I'm limited, if I'm hamstrung, and I got to worry about a cap going down, 20 million bucks, I don't know if I want to spend, you know, 12, 15 million bucks on Marvin Jones or 20 million bucks on Alan Robinson. And so, like, that to me scary. I would much rather pour those resources into offensive line or defensive pass rushers, you know, or secondary. You know, I like that, to me, that just seems like a better place to park your money. than wide receiver right now. I like it.

That's a good call. Yeah, I mean, along those same lines, why pay top dollar, like you're saying? Maybe you can get a guy like Nelson Aguilar at a cheaper rate, and you look what he did when he's actually played in the right position with the Raiders. If the Raiders don't keep him, I would love him if you can get him at a good value. But for me, I wanted to focus on a stayaway, and it's another Raider from 20, 20, Marcus Marriota. I'm seeing his name floated a lot.

It's a lot. It's been out there. Like he's going to be traded here, there, and maybe the bears. He makes sense for the bears who really are looking for something fresh and potentially exciting at quarterback. And I'm thinking about it. I remember, Mark, you and I did that Thursday night game against the dolphins in week 15 and, you know, singing his praises.

What an excellent performance that was. And the Raiders gagged away the game. Otherwise, that would have been a huge story of Marriota saving their season and all that. And I think you can get caught up with one game and then not see the bigger picture and perhaps make a mistake. Like, let's say the bears will use them again as an example, trading for him and be like, okay, this guy, we're going to take a shot on Marcus Mariotta again. When we had years of evidence in Tennessee that he couldn't play the guitar. So that would be my one guy to be very wary of. Because if he didn't have that one game in December, you wouldn't be hearing all this stuff

about him right now. Yeah, I couldn't be more with you on that. And I chuckle at these explosive reports that all these teams are inquiring about him. If that was ever the case, it's like, who? For all these, like, who's like heat-seeking Chase Daniel right now? I mean, a lot of this feels like percolating whispers and nonsense. I could imagine coaches, though, still.

there's certain coaches out there that would look at Marriota and always be fascinated with his skill set. And so when it was, when you saw what you saw in that one game, it's like, hmm, maybe we can get him for a little bit less and add him to an offense. But again, maybe that's your Denver move where, like, he's not spicy enough to totally blow away lock, but he could be an attractive, you know, part B or option.

His skill set and his draft pedigree. It's a number two overall pick me. I'm staying away from both those quarterbacks in the 2015 draft. as much as Greg loves James Winston, another guy. But I would say the difference between the Chase Daniel situation, whereas that might be hot air and a team just trying to drum up a market or an agent or whatever. Whereas I really do think that in our league,

there are going to be front offices and coaches that was a primetime spotlight game that are like, oh, I'm going to, I'm going to, this guy. I can fix him. I can make him a 16 game starter. Like, I think that happens in football, as silly as it may be, because it's really short. Well, you win coach of the year if you do that. I mean, it's a great narrative and story, and that's how coordinators become head coaches half the time. There's too many of these guys available, which is why I'm selling stock on my top 101, the quarterback rankings.

I ranked them all too high. I thought you meant the whole thing. I was like, wow. Just the quarterbacks. All those guys at the top, Cam, James. You could throw Mario in there even though he's not on the 101 in Fitzpatrick and Dalton and even, and even tie rod, keep going on it. It's like there's too many of them, actually.

So the market isn't there, and that's on me. So I'm selling me. And that's connected to Teddy Bridgewater. Like, man, his stock is at a low right now. I might even buy because, like, man, no one really wants it. Like, he has seen his stock plummet since about mid-November. He finished the season poorly, and his team doesn't want him. He's got this contract.

No one really wants him. I'm staying away from Patrick Peterson. There's a future Hall of Fame around on things going. I'm just going to go a bunch of rapid fire. And then finally, I'm buying Jalen Hertz. I like where he is right now. I like the news that his owner kind of wants to build around him. I feel like people aren't really feeling Jalen Hertz that much.

He was a little up and down. But I think he's going to be put in a nice little situation. I'll buy some Jalen Hertz stock. Okay. Hey, by the way, you've been speaking of quarterbacks, girl. You've been suspiciously quiet on another free agent quarterback, Gino Smith, who's coming off a 94.2. pass-a-rating this season. I think he threw three passes. But, like, you know, it's important

that you've always been a big fan of his, and maybe it's time to either make some type of statement about Gino Smith where we are right now. Well, I think he's established where he is. He's a winner. And if you want your team to make the playoffs, you bring him in. The Chargers did it. If you want someone to counsel a great quarterback like Philip Rivers or Russell Wilson, you bring in Gino, to fit in in the locker room, to know his role, to call the coin flip correctly, and to bring a winning atmosphere. So that's where he is. He's not a starter right now, but he's kind of like, you want a winner, you want to bring

him in, and you want another set of eyes for a great quarterback. That's where Gino is. I mean, all those things you said are absolutely on point, inaccurate, and true about Gino Smith, but I find it odd, an odd pairing that you're the height man for a flat earth, or you don't seem to be the kind of person that would be into flat earth. Everyone's, you know, it could be differences. We want a diversity of opinions. And if he gets one more contract, he's officially outlasted Rex Ryan's head coaching career, Gino Smith.

Only Greg would track something like that. Actually, Cess, I think the thing is, is that Greg, you know, Greg's a football man, okay? And football men, they don't care. Hey, you want to be a flat earther off the field, that's fine. But you come in at this building and you sit in my quarterback room and you're going to help my guy get better. every day, day in, day out, then you know what? By all guys, I'll sign me up for that. Flat Earth, round Earth, whatever.

How many moons are orbiting Earth? I don't care. I'm a football guy and Gino's a football guy too. Sign them up. That's right. Not to dwell on it before we move on because I want to hear Mark's final thoughts. But all this talk about the Seahawks and Russell Wilson and all the drama and Mike Duggar on the show and like, oh, what are the Seahawks going to do if they trade Russell

Wilson. Well, how come nobody's saying, well, look in their own backyard? How about that, Greg? People just missing the boat on that? He is an unrestricted free agent, so they would have to compete for him. But yeah, that would be a tough spot, Gino Smith, taking over the Russell Wilson the Seahawks. That team without Russell Wilson, I'm not sure how good they would be. Think about all the coin flip. Not very good. That's where I would suggest to. That's where I would suggest to. All right, before we get to Money's GameStop comparison, which I really pumped up about, Mark Sessler. I'll try to buy you some time here, money.

Yeah. So, you know, here's one thing. I am buying into a concept that things have changed because of corona and some things. We've mentioned this. The off seasons might look a little bit different. They already do. I think that I'm buying the concept that the combine has peaked, that the combine essentially will never be the way it was ever again.

Now, I mean, I'm not saying that it's never going to occur, but even in the last. show occurrence now, by the way. I don't know if anyone's tracking this at home. This is this week and Mark Sessler's wishful thinking. It's like it's one more commentary about what could be eliminated from the cover. That is that is such a great call because when we would hang out at Shula's late night, nobody had a bigger ass-eaten grin on his face when he would walk through that door than Sessler. That is a great call. Look, I love the combine and the celebratory nature of that part I like. But, you know, We're a week removed from Daniel Jeremiah, someone that I personally trust the opinion of, saying

that things like the 40-yard dash are absurd. You have devices and tracking software on players that show you how fast they move in-game during game tape, that the whole idea of standing around and watching this guy run a 40-yard dash in a sterile environment with no one around them in a silent field doesn't track the way that it used to. And I'm not. look at some things they do are incredibly valuable. And I think the meetings and the getting to know players, all that stuff. But I do think that the combine, as we know it, has peaked. I'm buying that stock. But you know what? I'm an inexperienced trader. Well, I'm buying into that concept. So what would I be doing that? By the way, money, you're, you reminded me now. That is the

happiest I've ever seen a person. And I remember it was me, you and, uh, Sheck sitting at the table Chula's. And I can't give too many details to protect everyone involved, but we actually saw Mark skipping toward us. It was hilarious. It was hilarious. Like 2 a.m. Maybe like it was like 1.30, 2 in the morning. And it was like, I won't, I'll, I'll leave those involved nameless to protect the innocent, but I'll never, it reminded me, uh, because remember he came in and then he was like, I'm going back out. He was like, I'm going out. Like we're like, wait, where are you going? And it reminded me when I worked with the Lakers, we were in a playoff series. The Lakers were in a playoff series.

And we were in Phoenix. Money average 13 and 10 in that series. Exactly. No, I was just a physical presence. But, you know, a couple rebounds, set a lot of picks. And we were leaving, you know, we had been out late. And I was out with the training. The guys that I hung out with, like, you know, the strength and, you know, those guys, that particular group.

So we're out late. We're coming back. I'm not exaggerating when I say it's like three in the morning, maybe four. And as we're walking in, one of the starters from that team is just strutting out like it's like it's four in the afternoon. Just reeks of like cool water cologne or something. And we're like, hey, man. He's like, hey. I'm like, you're going on?

It's like, yep. And I was like, put it all on Phoenix tonight. And that's what Sessler reminded me of. We were just kind of winding down, sitting at that table, like, oh, where were you? And what were you doing? Let's have a call. Let's have one more pot before we go to bed.

And then he's like, all right, guys, I'm out of here. Have a good one, suckers. Well, celebrate, enjoy life, is what I say. Absolutely. Oh, it was the highlight of my combine that year. All right. Money? Now, I did put you in a tough spot here.

If you didn't come up with one, maybe. down the line you could here's all i would say this this is like maybe the closest i can i can put it historically speaking right um the like russell wilson i think fits into this mold because you had all of the historic institutions you know the franchises the general managers the team president saying no no no no this guy this guy cannot you can't have a five foot 10 quarterback. It won't work in the NFL. And then you would have, like when I remember at the combine, it's one of my more vivid combine memories was sitting with Russell Wilson. You know, Bucky and I used to be on the field. We would interview everyone. When they weren't working out,

they would just walk over and chat with us because we were on the field. We were the only people on the field, really, outside of the people running the drills. And like, both of us could not, we were like, who was that guy? That's the most impressive player we've ever been around in the history of the combine. And every single scout that we talked to was like, dude, that That guy killed his interview. His tape is great. If only he wasn't 5 foot 10. And like all of those scouts were trying to tell these franchises and these general managers,

forget about the hike. Just forget about it. Trust us. We know, we know, we know, we know. Meanwhile, you know, they were essentially, pardon the pun, shorting the Russell Wilson stock because of how short he was. And they all blew it. You know, they all blew the best quarterback to come out of that draft that had RG3 and Andrew Luck because they weren't willing to overlook the height.

So I hope that works. I don't know if that makes sense. I don't think so. No? I don't know. I thought it was delightful. Well, because GameStop is, well, I don't know. Is GameStop?

So you think the future of GameStop is that like a Holocaust type company? No, I just mean in that, I mean in that moment, in that particular moment that they all, you know, that all those, you could argue that all those teams lost money that did not bet on Russell Wilson because they. They, you know, and all of the people that supposedly didn't know what they were doing. One just came to me and it's going the opposite direction. And this is sort of under the assumption that eventually GameStop, you know, doesn't ever figure out how to become a 21st century company. And that's Tim Tebow. Just a bunch of like people that were like overly like everyone convinced themselves that Tim Tebow could play professional football like everyone did. Like everyone did.

And this is why it's like, it's revisionist history, all the draft analysts on our network, on every network. Like no one was like, yeah, I'd put an undrafted grade on him. Or like, you know, like everyone was convinced even when the Broncos took him there that it was like a lot of people thought it was like, that's a good move. Like, okay, the guys that were down on them was like a second round pick. And it was like this insane art of Johnny Mansell was a little bit like that too in hindsight. But it's like an artificial inflation. of something that's not really worth anything. So here's the only reason why that one doesn't work

is because, sorry Greg, but it's because essentially people are people like the institutions bet on GameStop to fail. That's what they did. They placed bets that said this is going to fail. And then these group, they're called Reddit Raiders, decided to pool all of their money and say, oh, oh, you have shorts on here? Well, well, guess what? We're going to raise the value of this stock.

You're going to get short squeezed and it's going to cost you somewhere in the neighborhood of five or six billion dollars. Here, I think, is a good one. College football, college football offenses, and all the people that were like, that'll never work. Don't draft quarterbacks that are dual threat. Don't you bring your spread offense to the NFL. This is the NFL. This will never work. And then what did you get? All of these young, bright, Wundercins, Sean McVeigh, Cliff Kingsbury, that are like, oh, yeah, Lincoln, hey, can I come visit you, Lincoln Riley in the summer to see how the Oklahoma spread works? And now, Every head coach goes there every summer.

That's what happened. They finally had to get their comeuppance. They were humiliated for their unwillingness to evolve and their stagnant offenses. And now look at what the NFL looks like. We did it. I think that works. We got there. We made it.

Hey, ring the closing bell, man. We did it. It took me an hour and 12 minutes. All right. Money, you've said it all. It is always a pleasure to have. A pleasure to have you on our show. I won't be invited back anytime soon.

I talk too much. And I always tell myself at the end of it. I'm like, God, would you just shut up and listen? No, my apologies. Don't say that to yourself. I enjoyed myself immensely. In my intro of you, when I called you a shock jock, completely ingest. And the fact that Greg took that and ran with it, really, I apologize.

Have you ever heard of irony? Like, the point of you saying that is, of course, he's, not a shock jack you know what is it what is it going to take seven more years of doing this podcast yeah i guess so i think you're so you're so subtle greg's greg's irony is so subtle you know his facetiousness is so subtle it's hard to read i mistake it for snark tell me the joke all right good stuff money thank you so much it love it guys and and uh obviously locally you petros and money but where's the where can people see you on the network right now are you going to be part of this draft covered and you know what i'm doing the uh i'm doing the sce pro day so i think that is

uh the 24th i'll be doing it with dj and i think we got a shot at being out there so very excited about that so that uh that would be the next time anything i want to hear you bury them i want to hear you bury them like you did on this podcast that's uh that's not going to happen there greg when we get on campus we celebrate that well you know what the thing is like i'll always celebrate the kids you know i mean my goodness you know i'm going to celebrate the heck out of amon ross Brown, who went to, you know, where both my daughters go to high school, modern day, won a couple championships there, and celebrate Elijah Veritucker and all those players.

That's for certain. I mean, you know, that's one thing we can agree on is you always celebrate the kids. Absolutely. I meant Kelly Helton. It'd be funny if you just like you just did. Yeah, I know. All right, so make sure keep an eye out for money and thank you everybody for listening. We'll be back on Thursday.

We have one more show this week and then our network show returns on Friday. So make sure to set your DVR. If you still have a DVR, Set the bastard. All right, that's it. This is Dan Hansa signing off for Matt Money Smith, The Quiet Storm, the old boss, and Stephen Manny behind the virtual glass. Yes, we'll see you Thursday.

Until then. Ooh. He'd the call. Hey everybody, Daniel Jeremiah here. And I'm Bucky Brooks. On Move to Six, we take you inside the game from breaking down college prospects and NFL rookies to evaluating team building philosophies, coaching trends, and how front offices construct winning rosters. We study the tape, talk to decision makers, and give you a perspective you won't find anywhere else.

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