NFL Daily with Gregg Rosenthal - 25 More NFL Combine Nuggets, Bills GM Brandon Beane and Steelers GM Omar Khan Join the Show!

Episode Date: February 25, 2026

Gregg Rosenthal and Jourdan Rodrigue are in Indianapolis for the 2026 NFL Scouting Combine and react to news from the Colts around Alec Pierce and Anthony Richardson, the Bears giving Tremaine Edmunds permission to seek a trade, the possible QB battle between Deshaun Watson and Shedeur Sanders for the Browns, Brandon Aubrey wanting to get paid by the Cowboys, the Bengals and Trey Hendrickson being at another impasse, a fiery press conference from Broncos HC Sean Payton, and more! Plus, Buffalo Bills GM Brandon Beane and Pittsburgh Steelers GM Omar Kahn join the show!   NFL Daily YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/nflpodcastsSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an I-Heart podcast. Guaranteed Human. I'm Daniel Jeremiah. And I am Greg Rosenthal. I know that, Greg. We're teaming up on 40s and free agents, the podcast that owns the NFL offseason. This is where teams are built.

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really wins. Open your free IHeart radio app. Search 40s and free agents and listen now. Welcome to NFL Daily where we're about ready to get out of Dodge, at least some of us. I'm Greg Rosenthal here in the Indianapolis Convention Center. I have a flight in about three hours, plenty of time for us to honk as much as we want, Jordan Rodriguez. Not anxious at all about that, Greg. No, you have a meeting to get to? You know, who can say if you'll get to it in time? Big show today. More news coming up. We had a handful more of coaches and GMs at the podium here in Indianapolis.

We had more news come out on Tuesday evening that I wanted to kind of get into this show. Some more updates. And we heard from some listeners. Shout out to Nick Costas, by the way, who is a great show on Westwood One. Who says he loves the little Nuggets episode. So we have a lot more little nuggets, but we also have some big-time interviews coming up on this show. A couple of GMs will wrap the show. We talked to Brandon Bean of the Buffalo Bills and Omar Khan of the Pittsburgh Steelers.

But before that, we're going to fly through the news. And I wouldn't say it's a lot of screaming headlines, but the Colts are a team that I'm going to start with. We'll call this Colts Corner because there was about five things that came out of their media availabilities. number one to me would be Chris Ballard's confidence that Daniel Jones and Alec Pierce aren't going anywhere one way or another. Yeah, and, you know, that's a smart thing. That's a smart decision. You obviously don't want other teams to pay your good players that you've committed to. The injury has always thrown a wrench into this. I think in our thinking on the outside of this, too, but clearly the Colts are committed to the point where they're talking about the deals themselves

and how they could potentially get done and also the tools that Chris Ballard said could be used to get those deals down. He said he doesn't want to use the franchise tag, but they could in the end if they had to. But the way that he spoke about it, the confidence, just gave the impression that both deals are potentially further along

than we would have any idea with about before he spoke. So more in this space soon. They tried to shoot down the Michael Pittman idea. We'll find out. Some other nuggets, though, there. Charvarius Ward is expected to return to the team. He had talked openly about retirement, and they expect DeForest Buckner backed by training camp from his injury, which means, A, he's not getting cut. I didn't think he was retiring. He's still playing at a high level,

but I didn't know about the status of those two veterans. So I thought maybe that was a way they could free up some cap space, but those are two big-time players, big-time names that will be back. Yeah, and when you talk about freeing up cap space, that's what makes to me the extension for both Daniel Jones and Alec Pierce more likely than unlikely because you can do that with extensions in the short term much better than a franchise tag or any sort of these quote-unquote tools that Chris Ballard doesn't like to use rarely, rarely uses them.

And they talk, they treat their beat really well, Chris Ballard and Shane Stuyken do. They talked for like a couple of hours off podium with the beat writers. It's too long. And well, I just think it informs, it's interesting because in those types of things, sessions, you don't get a lot of things you can put out there as news or you don't get things

that you can say definitively, but you can write around them or subtly insert them into your prose, essentially, or your paragraphs. And the fact that all of these writers that I follow on that beat, it's great beat, they continue to mention the tag, means that that probably has come up as a real possibility if something can't get done. I only say this to say, it's very clear how adamant they are about keeping their core inclusive to de Forrest Buckner coming back and being ready to play for them. And maybe Pittman, who they might extend. I thought like that's another opportunity to lower his cap number. There's a possibility he gets a year or two added to his deal. So there's a lot going on. Anthony Richardson, not part of their core, but they did say he's cleared to play football

again, which was just a little item. So he could be potentially traded. And then Shane Stuyken really talked up a man by the name of Jalen Travis, who did play a little bit last year after. their Brandon Smith got hurt. Braden Smith is one of my top 50 free agents, one of the better tackles on the market. Stuyken made it sound like they have an in-house replacement. The way that they've developed and drafted, their offensive linemen has been really good over the last few years. So it sounds like they're going to let Braden Smith hit the market if you're looking for a right tackle. Again, these are guys kind of in the middle of the market. But we had Ryan Poles on yesterday. I like that. Him talking about potentially trading, got a little bit of

pop in Chicago. Here comes one of the trades. Tremaine Edmonds, who's been with that team for a while. If you remember, Ryan Poles, they invested the team did a lot of money in Tremade Edmonds and Rochuan Smith back in the day. Obviously, Rokane Smith's gone. They are allowing Edmonds to seek a trade. If not, I would imagine he's going to get cut.

They could save $15 million against the cap if they do trade him. I think he's a good enough player that there's a chance they actually do find. a trade form. I don't think it would be like for a big, a big cost draft pick wise, but maybe you get like a pick swap or a third day three pick. Yeah. And not going to lie, I think this is kind of a classy way to handle this because you can save such a significant amount of money just with a pure cut, but you sort of make yourself as a front office look very good and amenable to players. If you say, actually we'll work with you or you have the freedom with your agent to work on something that you feel is better for you versus signing cold somewhere. So, you, you

It's kind of like a win-win if you're the Bears. Yeah, it also means that Tremaine Edmonds would be making that contract. And if his agent, there's a lot that goes into these decisions, all determine that the best he's going to do is maybe that level of salary or he can get a new contract to tack on years more guaranteed money than could make it happen. But if he doesn't want to play ball, he'll probably get caught. And if you look at the linebacker market available, he'll be somewhere in my top 101. I got to think about it.

probably below Quay Walker, for instance, so out of the top 50, but somewhere between 50 and 100. Mike Rebel just got off the podium, and like Jordan Rodriguez was wearing a jean shirt. You've been noticing Bo Wolf who's been on the ground reporting on the situation. It's been the year of the shacket here at the Combine. I think it's been coming for a while. It worries me, frankly. It's too much shacket. And I think it's time to pivot and maybe it's to gene outerwear is the new thing.

I mean, Rabel was sort of trendsetting. He's one of the few coaches who wasn't in team gear, you know. I think it's funny because it is day three when a lot of most people have been here. And you're noticing that it's a lot of quarter zips back in action, which was the standard at the combine. So my theory is that they only owned like one or two shackets and wore them to make a great first impression. at the at the combine but it is certainly surging my group chat is commenting on this as well very astute observation well yeah well these are trends and traits that you need to be scouting at the combine well there was a guy who wore the exact same 80 dollar zara sale price shackit as me yesterday

here and it made you miserable and um he's been killed he's um he's in a dumpster somewhere in Indianapolis. Oh, my God. You know what we never hit on the show? Zach Kerr is the new defensive coordinator for the Patriots. How about that? Mike Rayble talked about that. Power to Zach Kerr, who...

We did a great job in kind of a sudden change situation. And obviously they're dealing with their defensive coordinator who had the health issues and they were also supportive of him and his fight against cancer. And he's going to stay with the team, Terrell Williams, with an undisclosed role still. Yes, it seems like more of a senior consulting role. I think that's great because he's recovering from a very serious illness. So you're not going to throw him right back into such a high-pressure play calling job because that person does call plays on variable staff.

Zach did a great job. He called a great defense last year. Ali threw out. They thought that once the Browns didn't get their first few guys that they wanted, that would have been an interesting guy to give a call. I don't know if he's ready for the big chair. But you can't if you promote him to defensive coordinator, which also is smart for we're able to do.

Absolutely, in terms of a coordinator job. But maybe he could have been up there on the podium like Todd Munkin was today. You mentioned not wearing team gear. He was wearing like a powder blue. I think it was a UNC sweatshirt. I'm not going to lie. It's a little disarming when someone doesn't wear the team colors. One thing, someone's with the Brown's got to talk to him.

You can't be wearing powder blue in your first big press conference. I'm not going to lie. And I, we could, you know, we need to fact check this. Obviously, Greg, this is really important that we do. It looked like one of those like fishing shirts that like. Either way, it was a hoodie. It was a powder blue hoodie. You can't be a brownish boy wearing a powder blue hoodie.

Southern guys wear like salt life or whatever the hell it's called. Like, you know, this SPF. You know, the lights are so bright on Todd Munkin right now. I watched him because he's been so loose with the media. He just says stuff and he's got that gravelly voice that sounds like, I think he's been smoking cigarettes. I was like, like, if you were looking for an old coach, like, for a Friday night lights reboot, like he would be perfect as like kind of like the former coach who gives the coach advice or something.

Back when football was real football. He's just that dude. So I was like a little disappointed. He didn't have any like big screaming headlines out of his press conference. But he said he would give the benefit of the doubt to Deshawn Watson. in a potential quarterback competition, which, like, we know. We know you've been giving me the benefit of the doubt that John Watson for a long time. Among others in the organization.

Well, no, the whole, yeah, the whole organization. He's just inheriting this. And Andrew Barry said on the podium that they expect it to be an open competition. And Shudor Sanders and Deshawn Watson would be part of that competition. We'll see if that's ever going to happen. I thought it was interesting that Andrew Barry also said Quinchan Jenkins would be ready for training camp. So that's an optimistic timeline. I have found a lot of times off season, especially this time of year,

guys that are said to be ready for training game, very often aren't, because who's really paying attention five months later. And they also mentioned the really sad news that it's unlikely that Jeremiah Ousu Coromoa, the linebacker, will play in 26. That's not a surprise there has been reporting locally that he may never play again at the NFL level, which is heartbreaking. He was a guy who signed a big contract, was one of the very best linebackers in the league. and we're so used to in this, like, medical marvel world that we live in,

that, like, injuries don't end your career, and it sounds like injuries will end his career. Yeah, that's, that's, because he, you know, he was really a joyful player to watch, too, and clearly had so much heart and passion for what he did, and it's just, it's a really tough thing. Hopefully he's good care around him and good people around him that he can lean on to support him because it's a really, really tough thing for a player to go through. I am really curious to what are they going to do. They have so many holes, including that linebacker where they don't have Devin Bush coming back. Obviously, J.O.K. is not coming back.

And you need to fill an offensive line. You need weapons for these possible quarterbacks. They just have so much on their plate. We do too. Brandon Aubrey, he wants $10 million per year, according to Cowboys Beat Rider. Calvin Watkins, the Cowboys, according to ESPN, are willing to make him the highest paid kicker in the league at around $7.5 million a year. I did like the take that this was a new low for the Cowboys negotiating through the media for a kicker contract.

Can you just do something quietly? This was David Hellman, right? Yes. Our friend at the athletic football show, like he was with the team for so long as one of their in-house people. And they used to let their in-house people be like pretty open about what they thought about what was happening with the team. Even more so now. I mean, it's three, what, three million reportedly? Two and a half million, reportedly.

Difference. For a man that gives you pop, like one of the few people that gives you pop and eyes on the brand, quote, unquote, during special teams plays. I mean, what's two and a half million? Well, you never want to be the team that, like, totally resets the market. But I always find these things funny because agents are paid a lot of money and a lot more goes into it. Jerry Jones does not care about resetting the market. I promise you. Okay, that's fair, especially when the market is relatively low.

It's for kickers. swing tackles that amount of money. Prediction. The kicker wants 10. The Cowboys are offering seven and a half. I bet it ends up around nine. Like, they have to pay the people all this money for that to happen. And Ian Rappaport is just an attention seeking monster.

You didn't get enough screen time this week, Ian? Who's always been walking in the background of our shot. You watched Mike McDonald talk. I met with my friend Matt McDonald's. Patriots fan who spent a lot of money to come watch his team get drilled in the Super Bowl a couple weeks ago, met him the night before the Super Bowl. We met Mike McDonald in person on the field right afterwards. What were your impressions about a man who almost hasn't been given a chance to come down from that cloud? He's exactly the same. No. Yeah. He's disappointing. He's exactly

the same. He is just very calm. Doesn't take the bait on any questions coming up about big free agency questions that they have. They got a lot of defensive backs who are potential free agents. Obviously, Kenneth Walker is one of the star players on that roster who we're not sure what's going to happen with him yet either. Didn't take the bait uncomfortable in the long silences that follow a question he's not going to answer and just like seemed real comfortable up there. I mean, it just really, him being up there and having these silences and gaps and just non-answers, sometimes I can come off as really uncomfortable. Yeah.

Truly. But he was just like floating up there. He just, you know, here we are. I was surprised the crowd around him wasn't bigger. He noted that you said too, right? Well, no, no. He said that one of his coaches got a ton of texts congratulating him when his new coaches got hired. And they compared like congratulations texts from when Mike McDonald himself got hired.

And this new coach had so much more. And he goes, I guess I wasn't as popular. Well, it's weird. Seattle's a relatively small media market. We watched him on his side session talking to his local reporters. And it was a small group. And yeah, he was going up at the same time as Todd Monkin and Mike Rable. And you don't think of Cleveland has a big market,

but they actually do have a huge media group there. And you got the Super Bowl winner with way less people. Like, let's up their profile. They're going to be in the kickoff game. They're the defending champs. Come on. Mike Borganzi was speaking at the same. time as well.

Can you imagine me in that lineup and then? Then there's Borgonzi. No, he was fine. I mean, he said something about Jeremiah. I love that I found interesting. We haven't talked a lot about the prospects yet, but you know, talking about potentially taking a running back that high. He said, look, I think if you're a true three down back difference-making guy on every down like a Jemir Gibbs,

I don't think they regret taking him that high. And so it's going to be a question we talk about a lot in the coming months of of where does Jeremiah Love go because he immediately is going to become one of the favorites to get over 2,000 yards next season and Tennessee would be intriguing. I don't think Tony Pollard's going to be on this team next year. I would really like that fit, Greg.

I, you know, I love Tasha Spears, but I don't think that's going to prevent them from taking running back in the top 10. So that would be an interesting pick. Let's talk about some of the stuff that happened when Tuesday evening before we, logged off. Duke Tobin, who is essentially the GM for the Bengals and Zach Taylor spoke. And he said Duke Tobin that nothing was off the table when it comes to possibly tagging

Trey Hensikstern and trading him. Not really a Bengals move. I would be surprised if that happened, but that would be intriguing if they tried to pull that off. Yeah. A team that will never use the tag is still never going to use the tag. Just in, you can look at the number of times. it's happened and the trends of these teams. There are certain teams who just, like, one of their core values is not using the tag. That doesn't mean this is not going to happen. I think the Bengals is interesting watching those guys kind of walk around and interact with people. And when we're here in the mix with everything, you can hear some of the side conversations.

And I lurk a lot, as you know. And so it is interesting. There's a little spice there of, like, they're getting a lot of questions. I think they're very aware of some of the heat, despite the fact that they believe they've done everything they can to keep their players, especially their quarterback, happy. And so it is interesting. I wouldn't be surprised if they start zinging where they're, maybe they are thought to be zagging, which might make the tag be on the table.

And Duke Tobin also pointed out they have spent in free agency, which is true. And it's not usually at the very top of the market. And if you read between the lines of what he said and Paul Dana, your colleague, got the athletic pointed this out. Yeah, maybe you don't expect these top of the market deals, but they could be a little more aggressive this offseason getting contracts done. I know they're patient there in Cincinnati, but they can't be patient past this year if they have another losing season,

so it's go time for Zach Taylor and Duke Tobin. John Lynch, I watched on the podium. He mentioned how much work the Rules Committee is, that he didn't realize it was going to be such a hard job, that he's been in meetings for three straight days, and frankly, he didn't expect it. He said, a few things. Brandon Ayyuk, waiting to see.

see if any interest pops up this week before they potentially cut him. Obviously, he's not dealing from a position of strength, but you never know. He's holding out. So Brandon Ayyuk, that's why he's not on the free agents list right now. He kind of backed up what they've been saying all year, that they would need a really significant offer to trade Mac Jones because they really like him on their team. I read that as like... Friend of the show, Mac Jones. Yeah, I read that as like a two, we'd think about it, a three. No. Questia dofa Menta is rejoining the 49ers. He was once part of that front office. But the takeaway that I'll throw to you here is that Lynch left the podium saying he feels confident about getting

the Trent Williams deal done, despite the report that was out there that he could be entering free agency if they can't come to a compromise. I think it's an interesting way to handle that too. We were talking in our previous show about where that might have come from and what that might have, like what kind of signal that would have been trying to send at that point. I think it is interesting that he was like downright chipper seeming talking about it. This is their move. It is. They did it with the Jimmy Garapolo stuff back in the day.

They've done it with different guys that were holding out like Bosa. You're right. They always present super outward confidence. I think that's a good way to do it actually because unless it's pissing off the players, it's just like it just shuts everyone down and quietes the situation, even if he's not confident on the inside. Well, yeah, fake it till you make it. Yes.

That's the age-old rule. Andy Dalton, he's never had to fake it when it comes to his hair. It's just been getting better as he gets older. It's getting taller. And he's had a weird career. He's been a backup the last couple years. The Panthers are reportedly getting calls about Andy Dalton. Now, they publicly also said earlier this off-season,

off season they maybe want to get younger. So that strikes me as maybe they're throwing the fishing line out just to see if anyone wants to give up a pick for Andy Dalton. Do you think anyone would? I don't know. Like maybe a late one. It has to be a team looking for a bridge quarterback. Like you're not just going to trade for a backup, right?

Like it has or unless it's a bridge quarterback or there's an injury that is more significant or the timeline has changed on an injury. Like it's absolutely. if you're a team in a bridge situation. And even then, I don't think that that's... Dude's 38. He's looked okay when he's played lately. No, this is like a couple of weeks bridge kind of a thing. He's getting cut is my takeaway.

When you're hearing these getting calls right before free agency, that indicates to me. And Tramane Edamins is more of an open one, and I think he could actually get traded. They're just fishing, and we'll probably see Andy Dalton reach free agency. Jesse Minter spoke to the media. And one thing we missed, we did talk about it a little bit, was that Namdeh Mwadabike is in great spirits,

that he's spoken to him, he's been in the facility. I just wanted to mention that, and that the decision whether to retire or not is, quote, up to him. He has a big cap figure. He's one of the better defensive tackles in the league. So just more on this situation coming up in the next two weeks on NFL daily, because either they're going to have one of the better at defensive tackles in the league, or they're going to have to cut him, or he's going to retire.

So we'll find out. Let's listen to some sound. I just found this funny from Sean Payton. We mentioned glancingly a few weeks ago about how Bo Nix called his own press conference because he wasn't happy about how Sean Peyton talked about his injury. Is there trouble in Denver? I'm not going to get into the injury. What I meant predisposed is there was a slight that was he's not,

and there weren't multiple. So I have a problem. and Mike, I apologize. I have a problem when someone's quoting me to him on a conference call and they're inaccurate and they're one of our locals that shouldn't be. All right. Next question. I just love, this happened multiple times in this press conference.

Sean Payton not only like ignored someone who was speaking directly to him, he talked over him, ignored him, and said, no, you talk instead. And he was punishing the local beat writer that he thinks. things got him in trouble with his quarterback. He was firing on all cylinders in this presser. And you know what? And Sean Payton knows this. This is becoming appointment television,

these press conferences, whether it's Bo Nix or Sean Payton or some combination of the two, certainly with Sean Payton in regards to anything, Bo Nix. It's becoming appointment television. He has always been somebody who's enjoyed doing these types of things

or kind of playing these games and whatnot with the media or through the media. Oh, he has faith. favorites. He puts people in the penalty box for like months at a time. But at his, at his, you know, 10 year and age at this point and his comfort level, you know, where he's at, he's just doing it right in front of everybody more and gives no F's about it. It was embarrassing, maybe. I was a tough situation I thought for the reporter. And I know Broncos fans will just be like, ah, you're making something out of nothing here. It was misreported.

I went back and checked the tape. I don't know that anyone did Sean Payton any dirty here. I actually think Sean Payton is so annoyed because there's actually something here. Okay, Ian. Here's Ian. Do you actually think that Boenicks, remember how Bo Nix made his own press conference because he didn't like how Sean Payton handled his injury publicly? Is there some there there?

You know, a little Bo Nix, Sean Payton friction. And then it came out a little bit on Tuesday, too, Sean Payton's really mad at the reporter he thinks got him in trouble with Bo Nix. I mean, I don't think there's friction, but I think it was a further emphasis that both of the very important people in the Broncos organization would like to control their own message. Aren't they so similar to you? They feel like such similar guys to me. It's a good answer. Come talking to my mic, so you don't have to lean over.

Yeah. So how it works, it's the closer you are to the mic, yeah, they can hear you. I thought it was okay. This is like, I'm like Freddie Mercury with the holding the mic stand. Do a spin. Um, no, I, I thought it was, I thought it was fine. I didn't think there's any friction, because friction is more like, we're not in the same page, we can't coexist in like a football sense.

This was more like, hey, stop talking about my injury. Hey, I'm the head coach. I can do whatever. It's like, but also like, Bo Nix is, is going to be one of the faces of the Broncos. Mm-hmm. And Sean Payton is currently the face of the Broncos. That would be interesting to track as far as, like, how it goes and who has the, that's all I'm saying.

I like what you said about these are two men that are used to controlling the narrative. And I just think there's a healthy amount of, like, creative difference sometimes between them. Also, Sean Payton called a pretty crazy play call that got Bo Nix hurt right before. That's more common. I don't think Bo Nix is bad about that. No, you can't predict injuries, though. That's more common. That tension.

Thank you, Ian. Thank you, Ian. That's Ian Rappaport, everybody. That's more tension. there's more tension like that in more buildings than people would think. For sure. Because it's all about like who is the face, who wants to be the face of something.

And sometimes it is a clear, infrastructural system that makes sure that everything, all roads lead back to the coach. And we're seeing a lot of it with the, like, the tree guys, for example. And if the quarterback has too big of a person. Yeah, as Patrick would say, the tree. But if the quarterback, and the quarterback sort of, there's an understanding there, right?

And it's interesting because I love this, because this is two guys in Bo Nix and Sean Payton, in my opinion, who are so similar, so similar. And so, of course, when, you know, two like minds are going to be in competitive situations, high pressure situations, like, there's going to be some tension. Right. And you mentioned there's more of that in every building. And it's like, yeah, there's more of that in every workplace.

in any place where there is power to be had. It is happening. I know, Greg, that you are the brand. So don't ever worry about that with me. It's the year of the co-host. All right, let's fire through so you can get to your meeting here. Brian Gutikunz was very confident when he spoke to the media. And look, I'm not above admitting mistakes here.

If some of these little tidbits slipped through yesterday, I want to like get them on the show today. So I miss this. But he was very confident. and essentially said Rishon Gary is going to be back on his team. And he was a guy that I speculated could be cut because they could really open up a lot of money. So Rishon Gary back with the Packers. Taylor Decker of the Lions who openly considered retirement. I thought he was leaning that way.

He is going to be coming back. He announced that on Instagram. And so that solves their left tackle problem for now. And they might invest in that position for the future. We'll see. It's a long way from now to training. camp and then going through training camp. I have covered teams where and been a training camp, like the day, different camps that the day of the players like, I don't really actually want to do

this. I'm not putting words in anyone's mouth, but we'll see. There's a long way from here till now. Well, he's letting them know and they've been together so long to count on him for this season. But you're right. They do change sometimes. The lines we mentioned are going to play overseas. We got more overseas news. It's just been coming out day by day. On Wednesday, there's going to be two Jags games this year in London and one commander's home game. So those are the three home teams in London this year. And the Jaguars, you know, they played back-to-back games in London. I don't think they were the home team in both. So they, because they're building that new stadium and they're reducing capacity, they actually might play three games in London next year, which is crazy while

they're getting that new stadium up and running. But they'll have two in London this year, one at Tottenham and why am I forgetting the other ones at Wembley and the commander says one at a hot Tottenham and now the Jaguars have a little fuel because they misspelled Liam Cohen's name

in the press release for this C-H-O I mean C-O-H-E-N is how they spelled it. It is not spelled that way. It is without the H. I feel like if you have the H in there, you're more likely to be Jewish. Either way you could be but Liam is not. I

checked. Well, you know what's going to happen now. This is Chipwatch. It starts now. You can't even spell our coach of the year candidate's name right? You know what? He has a point on this one. All right. Let's take a break. Let's come back. And on the other side of the break, you are going to hear from two playoff general managers. They each led their teams to the playoffs last year. Neither one of them ended the season how they wanted. The bills obviously had that magical. Jaguars game, but then it got ugly. We'll hear from Brandon Bean right after the break, and then after that we will hear from Omar Khan,

the GM of the Steelers. We will wrap up the show on the other side of that. I'm Dylan Playfair. And I'm Tyler Smith. We're putting loneliness in the penalty box by talking to some of our favorite athletes about the importance of friendship. This is bromance.

Bromance is brought to you by Charmed Diamond Centers, proudly Canadian-owned and operator. Charm has been part of your love stories and bromances for over 50 years. And you can find Bromance on the IHeart Radio Network or wherever you get your podcast. I'm Daniel Jeremiah. And I'm Greg Rosenthal.

And this is 40s and free agents. The games may be over, but the NFL never stopped. This is my favorite part of the calendar. Yeah, mine too, Greg. Free agency, the Combine, the NFL draft, Pro Days, trades. This is where teams reshape their future. This is where Daniel Jeremiah makes his money.

On 40s and free agents, we break down every move that actually matters. From my draft evaluations, mock drafts, and team fits, to my top 101 free agents and how real rosters are built, cap space, contracts, and all the tough decisions included. You got quarterbacks on the move. We got teams rebuilding.

It's hope season. Yeah, absolutely. It's hope season. We'll tell you what's real, what's noise, and what it means for your favorite team. Smart analysis, real conversations every week. I don't know about the smart, but definitely analysis. Listen to 40s and free agents on the IHeart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

All right. We are here with Brandon Bean, the general manager of the Buffalo Bills. It feels like speed dating right now. So we don't have you for too long. Although I know you know our co-hosts here, Jordan Redmond, well, from your days in Carolina. Carolina days. Yes, you just can't get rid of me. Like a bad barnacle.

Here I am again. We are so thrilled to have you. You're good barnacle. Oh, good. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Going on my business card. Good barnacle. I love that.

I love that. I look at your offseason. I just did a top 101 free agents list. I'm sure you have yet to see it. But we got a couple, we got a lot of Buffalo Bills on it, but especially your offensive linemen near the top, Connemar Gov and David Everett. And I am wondering, you've had such great continuity at that position

and you have a change in terms of your offensive line coach. How does that affect your maybe ability to keep those two guys and thinking about all the teams that are here this week that are probably excited to see some really experience, quality veterans maybe become available. Yeah, I mean, that's the part of the business you don't love, Greg. It's you want to keep them all. And those guys, I was telling our radio guys, you know, a little bit ago,

we got both of those players in free agency three years ago in kind of different. You know, we signed Connor as a guard, knowing we may move him to center when Mitch Morse, when it was time to part ways with him. And Dave was actually, he came over as a late signing as kind of a sixth O lineman. And we kind of had our mind with his agent like, hey, in a year, I think a spot will open, just hang tight. And so those two guys, the last couple years, as Connor at Center and Hemnagard have done an excellent job for us and on and off the field. And, you know, the business is the business.

They've earned the right to go to free agency and see what their market is. You hate to lose guys like that. And we're not giving up, but we also know we have a cap. And when you pay Josh Allen, once you pay them, it sometimes can limit, you know, how many guys you can retain. Well, I am curious about that, too, because you have a new head coach, another maybe short-term Carolina guy, but you, you know, you or yourself being a former Carolina guy. It's like, I think when people think about bringing in an offensive-minded head coach, there's, like, a total shift in thought process and everything. But I think people have to remember, like, you've been building it holistically the entire time. When you think about what Joe Brady wants to do and where he wants to sort of make an impact early

and maybe lift the floor of what this offense can be, especially with Josh in his prime years, do you think about or like revisit some of your team building strategy? Do you think about, okay, we've been investing here for so long and now maybe we want to invest in different spots? Or do you sort of have a like five-year plan all the time that you sort of stick to and adhere to? Well, you're trying to, five is hard because contracts and, you know, injuries can happen, and it's hard to keep continuity. I mean, we have basically top 7 or 8 O linemen for two straight years, which is hard to do. And we were fortunate that it worked out.

But, you know, the more things change, the more they stay the same, I guess. I think the way I look at it is the game is always up front. And I believe after you have a quarterback, you've got to be stout both sides. that part doesn't change, but the game does evolve. I mean, if you remember some of the earlier iterations of our Buffalo Bills teams, we were in 10 personnel and 11, you know, we had Diggs, Emmanuel Sanders, Cole Beasley, John Brown, Gabe Davis, like we were throwing it up and down the field. But there were also some games where the weather, we're in Buffalo,

where the weather mattered, and we need to be able to establish that line of scrimmage. And so we need to run the ball more and not try to throw it 40, 45 times. And we went and found a James Cook and made sure, you know, some of these moves at the O-line, you know, paned out. And when you have that, you try to be as two-dimensional as possible. You don't want to be one-dimensional. But you saw this year, go back to the NFC championship game, Rams and Seahawks, a lot of, I was just talking about 10-11. That was a lot of 13 personnel. And we did more of that this year as well.

So you're always, as what happened is, as it was more spread, people found these more athletic defensive players to match up. And so now you're like, all right, if they're going to go light and that, we're going to try and pound them a little bit. We're going to put a fullback in the game. We're going to put, you know, three tight ends. And so as defense is starting to get big, guess what we'll start to do? We'll start to spread them out a little bit.

So you're just constantly trying to stay ahead of the curve. Yeah. And you just resigned one of our favorites on the show, Alec Anderson, who can help bring in that the sixth offensive lineman. I know you've got to get going, but a big change on the defensive side, too, obviously, with Sean McDermott moving on and maybe a little bit of a different system.

Are you just looking for different types of players there on defense this off season? Yeah, I mean, I think at the end of the day, we're looking for good players. And, you know, Jim Leonard came in, and one of the attractive things that Jim was talking about, you know, a defense that's multiple in looks

and five down front and three-four, but there will still be some four-three looks. like just trying to basically trying to mess with that quarterback and as Joe Brady even said, mess with the coordinator. He goes, I know what looks as the coordinator give me a little bit of like, oh, man, I got to get them out of this play type of thing. So I think ultimately it's making sure that we have good football players. And Jim came in and talked to all.

I had our scouts in a couple weeks ago, you know, for about 10 days going through a lot of these draft prospects. And so I said, Jim, just come in and let's talk about, you know, what is an ideal Sam backer look in your in your system? What is the ideal nickel back? Like what is your nose tackle? What does your front look like? And we talked about those,

but he at the end of the, he really comforted all the personnel guys by saying, guys, it's my job and our coaches job to, you give us good players. You know, we're not going to square peg, round hold this thing. We'll get them on the field. And if our best look is a four down three,

we'll do that too. And so that's refreshing to hear. So been a lot of continuity. in Buffalo, since this man came aboard General Manager, Brandon Bean. Appreciate your time. Yeah, thanks, guys. Thanks, Brandon. Really excited to be joined for the first time by Omar Khan, the general manager of the Pittsburgh Steelers.

A man who I know is cooler than most GMs because he's from GM, from New Orleans, and a graduate of Tulane University like myself. You left right before I got there in the good days started with Sean King. Oh, nice. When were you there? I was there 97 to 01. Oh, wow. Yeah, let me just tell you the school spirit from this one was in an all-time high this year.

I love it. I love it. It is exciting to see the Green Wave, you know, rising. How about what they've done with that program the last few years? It's been tremendous, absolutely tremendous there. It has been amazing to see a little disarming. I did a little announcing, actually, when they went undefeated back in the day. So I wish we had the playoffs back in the day. I think Sean King could have gone far.

So that, yeah, he gave us some. great quarterback play. How about that for a transition? You know, I watched a little bit of you at the podium, and I saw you talk about Will Howard that you guys, you know, you're looking for your forever franchise quarterback and said he could be that guy, but would having him there prevent you from maybe looking hard and maybe drafted a quarterback in this draft? You know, it's early to tell. You know, right now, Will's getting to know our coaches. Our coaches are getting no Will, but we think very highly of Will. We liked him coming out last year and watch his progression last year.

Unfortunately, we didn't get to see him play. So it's sort of a redshirt year for him. But I really like where he's at and what we know about him. It's kind of a weird thing in my head, so stick with me here. But when I remember Will Howard and him coming out and how much it meant for him to be a Pittsburgh Steeler, and then fast forward to Mike McCarthy's press conference talking about how much it meant to him to be a Pittsburgh Steeler, They kind of match to me. Like, they feel like very similar vibes, very similar people,

and the passion is very clear about where they are. Oh, absolutely. You know, when we go through the process with the scouts, I always talk to them about identifying guys that are Pittsburgh Steelers, people that are Pittsburgh Steelers, you know? And what does that mean? I mean, it's just hard to say, hey, these are the 20 characteristics of being a Pittsburgh Steeler.

When you're around it, you just know. And I can tell you, we feel that way about, Will Howard and Mike McCart, certainly Mike McCarthy. And it's, you know, it's just how much he loves Pittsburgh. Like it's, I mean, we all love Pittsburgh. He loves Pittsburgh. I mean, there is just, when you bring up Pittsburgh, there's just, the conversations are, they're pretty cool.

You said also that you spoke with Aaron Rogers a week ago. You know, the fact that you guys are so open to bringing him back, that tells me you thought there was like a baseline of performance from him that you guys were happy with or felt good about last year? Yeah, you know, I think we signed him last year. You know, I think we all maybe expected it just to be a one-year thing, you know. But the experience was awesome. I mean, it really was.

Aaron was great to have a round. He was a great teammate. You know, we had some great conversations. And I mentioned earlier, like the one thing about Aaron, people don't talk enough about it is how tough he is. Like, he is a tough football. player. He's a great leader. You know, and you don't know where this is going to go with him. But, you know, we've had some good conversations and he knows how we feel. And so we'll see. You guys competed, especially down the stretch of the season. Like nobody, there's no quit in that

team. And the offense, you could start to see in flashes some of the vision. And I kind of wonder, like, regardless of who the quarterback is, and especially with Mike coming in and knowing the way that he aligns just on that side of the ball. How do you raise the floor of what this offense can be, especially knowing how healthy your cap situation is right now and also how much you have invested currently on the defensive side? Yeah, that's a good question. So the exciting part is, you know, Mike's got an offensive background

and just listening to some of the stuff they want to do some of the things they're going to do offensively and this design help the quarterback position. that's really exciting to see. Now, from my standpoint, obviously, you know, we didn't win a football. We didn't win a playoff game last year. That's not good enough. We have to be better. And some of that is, you know, we have to evaluate room by room, position by position, who's

on the roster. And it's my job to get better players that are going to help us and more players that are going to help us. And that's where we're at. It starts right here. Do you take kind of the, obviously you take a big picture of you as a GM, but just looking at literally just how the money was allotted last year. It was, you know, the most expensive defense in the league.

If you look at this year, at least right now, the defense and the offense in terms of the difference in the money spent is even a little more. Is that something you want to, like, think about big picture to correct and make it more even? Yeah, I want to necessarily say it needs correct. Some of that's a function of where the roster was. You know, we, you know, I don't think we go into saying, hey, we're going to spend X percentage on defense. It's just a function of where players are, where players are develop, and who you're extending, you know, who comes available. So it's really just a fluid process.

But I can tell you, it's not something where we say, hey, we're going to spend X percent of our money on defense or vice versa. Is receiver a position, you know, you just have three, like, on the roster right now that you think free agency would be something you look for there? Well, certainly, you know, you go into the season five or six. Some teams go. with more. And so obviously not just the receiver position, but other positions we're going to be looking at to improve. Well, it's a fun week, Combine Week. I know you're very, very accustomed to it by now. We appreciate it because we, you know, I know you've liked to be behind the scenes and all of that. We appreciate you kind of showing your voice, showing your face, your personality,

a little bit more. Omar Khan, the GM of the Pittsburgh Steelers. Thanks for being on with us. Thanks for having me. Appreciate it. Thanks, Omar. Roll wave. Yeah, let's go. Hey, here's a test, Jordan. We taped that on Tuesday. What do you remember most from those two interviews? Yes, the thing that stuck out to me the most about Omar Khan was him truly buying into this concept or this theory that Mike McCarthy and Will Howard are extremely alike individuals and are very expressive in an open and how much they are similar. and the fact that Omar was gushing about Will Howard, whether it was on the podium or saying positive things with us as well. And notably also said really wants to make sure that the floor of this offense is lifted beyond what it was.

Obviously last year with Aaron Rogers, that quarterback. That's us saying that he didn't overtly come out and say that. But he did agree that the floor needs to be lifted. And then on Brandon Bean, they've been saying it for a couple years. Now they might actually do it with Joe Brady, his head coach, as loan. up and get heavy personnel, make your tight ends a lot, a lot bigger part of what you do in heavier personnel versus staying small. And then I think that also gets Brandon Bean sort of sliding sideways out of the receiver conversation. So it's a win-win if you're

Brandon Bean. And yet they will be signing receiver, at least a receiver because they need some. I do think it was interesting to think about, though, the sea change on defense. Jim Leonard is going to be their defensive coordinator. And they're just going to be. be looking for entirely different types of players. So they were one of the teams. I'm really curious how they're going to attack this offseason. And I did want to, you know, while we're talking bills, mentioned Joe Brady had his first podium session here at, you know, the combine. And I did find this one quote telling of what his tenure is going to be like. This is year one. It's not year 10, right? And I think that that's, look,

there's been a foundation that's been set here. And it might be a little different in a sense of, we understand what expectations and everything that comes with it, right? But, But this isn't just, hey, you know, Joe Brady's in and everything's just as business as usual, right? And so it's important that everybody in the organization knows it because if we continue to speak about how things used to be, then we'll never continue to go forward. And so I have so much respect for the past, but it's year one in organization right now. I like how they are really positioning. Like, hey, we know Brandon Beans here. We know Josh Allen's here.

It all kind of looks the same. But like, no, this is the Joe Brady era. It's going to be a little more coach run, maybe. Then the last one, and more importantly, like, we are starting over and it's going to be completely different. I've been impressed with what I've heard from Joe Brady. Yeah, I mean, I've covered Joe Brady for a long time, starting back when he's a GA at Penn State, right? You've got to get him on the show next time. I know. I would love to have him on the show.

It would be great to have him because the way he thinks about football is really cool. And he's kind of in that cross section between he came up in like a real old school, but yet still progressive for its time, coaching trees under Peyton for a while. and then sort of started molding his own things was the fall guy in Carolina as well at one point. And it's interesting, but he does think about the organization and the infrastructure of an organization in a similar way to a lot of these young offensive coaches that are trending and all of these things. So I'm going to be really interested to see how this works out, kind of blending the traditionalist with the new. That's, I think, the line that he wants to walk. I'd love to hear him talk about it on the show.

Brady is part of the Sean Payton tree. And you said the tree is obviously the Shanahan McVeigh tree. But this Sean Payton tree is kind of sneaking up here. Yeah. Dan Campbell, Ben Johnson, Joe Brady. Declan Doyle, I think you can throw in there because he was an assistant way back, I think, for Denver. He's a Ben Johnson disciple, too. It's happening.

Yeah. The Sean Payton tree. Let's get Jordan out of here. I'm getting out of here too. I am going to catch a flight in just a couple hours, but we are not done for the week. We have boots on the ground here in Indianapolis through the weekend. His name is Nick Shook.

They're gigantic boots. Also gigantic arms and triceps and just everything. And he's also going to be participating in the combine bench press drills. No, he will not be doing that. But he will be in the stadium. He gets access that not a lot of the reporters get to have access. So we're going to be tapping into that and getting his recap of the Combine winners and the losers. We also have a few more interviews coming up on the show where we have a big Panthers corner,

Dan Morgan and their head coach, Dave Canales. And also the absolute best line from Greg Rosenthal that nobody noticed in real time. Okay. You're going to have to find out what that is. That's coming up on Thursday show, which will also, yeah, have our first, you know, results from the Combine and we're excited to start really diving into these prospects. Until then, let's get to Jordan to her media on time. I got to go catch a flight. We'll see you. I'm Daniel Jeremiah.

And I am Greg Rosenthal. I know that, Greg. We're teaming up on 40s and free agents, the podcast that owns the NFL off season. This is where teams are built. Free agency, Combine, Pro Days, trades. Every move matters. From my draft boards and mock drafts to my vaunted top 101 free agents and how rosters come together.

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