NFL Daily with Gregg Rosenthal - Combine Day 1: Kyler Murray... Drama?

Episode Date: March 1, 2022

A convention center filled with some heroes- Dan Hanzus, Marc Sessler and Gregg Rosenthal bring you all of the important news nuggets after the first day of the NFL Scouting Combine pressers in Indianapolis. The heroes get to sit down with Steelers GM Kevin Colbert and Bills GM Brandon Beane. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comNFL Daily YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/nflpodcastsSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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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 would be called Umdi NFL Erum in Germany. Ooh, topical. From the Indianapolis Convention.

Center. It's around the NFL. I'm Dan Hansis. On a riser filled with some heroes, Greg Rosenthal, Mark Sessler. Yes, boys, here we are in the beautiful Midwest for another year. Mike McCarthy said it well. It rarely does, but in this case he did on the riser calling the combine the starting line of his year. And in a lot of ways, it's the same for us. He also said he can't say enough of what Indianapolis has meant to the NFL over the years. Because who knows, we don't know if this combine is going to be the last one here for a little while. We've been coming here since 2012 as a group on some level.

You know, good, good times. Good to see Mike McCarthy taking some trenchant company man pointers from Greg. So that Greg alone doesn't have to do all that. Yeah, if this is the last year in Indianapolis, that would be sad. I am a creature of comfort. I like to do the same thing over and over again. That's why I spearheaded yet another trip to St. Elmo Steakhouse tomorrow. I'm all about, like, just having traditions.

But I guess after, what, 20-some-odd years, it seems like it's going in another direction. And I will miss Indy if it exits the mix. That's good to get to know you a little bit better. You painted out some of your characterizations. Well, it's famously why you never want to leave the country. that's it's sort of in that same ballpark other things are involved there too that's a false characterization

you used to say that what you used to say well what do I need to see the rest of the world that was a big thing that was you putting words in my mouth and I resent you for it I'm looking I am heading out of the country for my 10 year anniversary you are red white and blue centric

though I wouldn't think that's yeah I know that's something not a lot of people like to say but I am a fan of being an American how about freedom how about that How about, you know, look around the world. I'm not swatting down freedom as a concept. It's fine.

I think it's okay to go visit other places. It's not disloyal. It's not like, it's not like you're cheating on a wife or anything. At no point that I say it was disloyal to leave this country. Well, you implied that somehow not wanting. Can we start the show? No, we definitely cannot. Yes, here we are in the center of all the action.

We're in a new spot this year. We've been at the Lucas Oil Stadium in a suite. for the past few years, but this year we're in the convention center around where all the press conferences are going down. Very cool to be kind of in the center of it all. And by the way, speaking about Mike McCarthy, and we're going to get to all the coaches and GM's news that came out of today. We have a great guess, including Bill's general manager, Brandon Bean. We have Steelers' GM Kevin Colbert on the eve of his retirement. But there was a great moment when it's hard to get, you know, real nugs, real news to come out of these press conferences.

So when Mike McCarthy offhandedly says, yeah, Dak, you know, Dak Prescott, a little clean up on his shoulder. He's like, well, Hamina, how'm going to? And actually, so you could tell, as I'm in the scrum, you see people back, oh, Dak Prescott had surgery. And then I hear it behind me, and I turn around, and there's Greg. with an audible from the Mike McCarthy DAC revelation and that is the combine.

I mean, it takes a lot for Mike McCarthy to get the and that's the highest thing you can get as a person in the NFL. How about the secondhand anxiety of being in those scrums when someone's trying to get a question in? There was a guy next to me

during, who was it, Joe Shane, I think, the Giants' GMs. and be like, Joe, Joe, Joe, how about that? Joe, Joe, and then the PR guy eventually goes, two more, two more for Joe. And you see, like, the temperature rising in that poor individual's face. And when he doesn't get it off inevitably, not only have you failed in your core job as a journal to get that question out, everyone knows you failed. Oh, it's, it's performative.

Yeah, it's, I mean, we've all been there where you try to shout and get that earliest word in where you get the eye contact of. the person up on the podium, and when it doesn't happen, you're deflowered, you're emasculated. I got out of the game officially this year. I retired from it, just a spectator. But I know, Greg, you want to be involved still in that capacity. It's more just like when you get through like seven questions where Mike McCarthy's trying to run out the clock by like answering philosophy

of we don't want turnovers and penalties. It's like, could we hear about Amari Cooper that you're not going to keep your best wide receiver potentially instead of just wasting all this time. Tough stitch, though. You weren't able to get that question off. Didn't get it in. Didn't get it in. Sorry to hear that.

It does take reps. The true, the beat people that have been doing it forever, they have that ability to either be in the right spot, to say it a certain way. Anyway, that is the combine. There's all sorts of little subplots, and it does feel like the city, and especially just like the football cognizante. Everyone's so happy to see each other because there has. been a two-year break. It does feel like things are loosening up in the mask department

and in general people are going up to each other and hugging each other. There's a lot of excitement. Loosing up is a conservative way to describe where the mask situation is here in Indianapolis. I haven't seen a mask. Well, that's an overstatement. They are out, but for the most part, people are enjoying themselves and it's an exciting time. Anyway, so let's get to it. Before we get to our interviews today, and we got another show coming up on Wednesday and another show on Friday, the Greg Rosenthal Free Agent 101 unveiled on the round of the NFL podcast. Mark, have we decided whether we want to have a rival 101 countdown this year? I think that bit probably played itself out in the past.

I mean, it would be, are we, would you and I like to get together tonight and instead of going out to dinner and doing the fun stuff, sit down, brass tass. and come up with the list. Absolutely not. I find the one way to do is go position by position first. That way you have it. That's what I play to do. So maybe start with your interior offensive lineman guard centers.

You know, you might, you got to get at least 10 to 15 per position to be safe. Try to pull me in. Change my mind. From where we are right now, I have zero interest in doing that on my own. Gotten a lot of heat actually from my Ben Jones versus Bradley Bowesman ranking. So yeah, that could be something. Mark and I have traded some texts about that. So, yes, maybe it is something we can't seem to agree on a lot of stuff because we're so dug in on our points.

Exactly. It's one of those situations. All right. Let us start by hitting the news. It is a business. And you have to be able to separate the business and the personal side of it, which I think is important. All right. Let us start with, you know, this is a first day of the combine where there wasn't like a runaway winner.

or what's the big story of day one from Indy. But let's continue to track this Kyler Murray situation because a lot has kind of transpired around Super Bowl week, and we haven't really had a chance to talk about it when there's a sources coming out and saying that Kyler Murray is not a very good teammate, that he points fingers, the report that he refused to go back into the playoff loss of the Rams after it had become a blowout.

Kyler then releases a statement. saying anybody that's ever play with me knows that I'm a baller and I'm a great teammate and I'm a great player. Then the latest now to the stories, Kyler Murray's agent comes out and releases what reminded me of the Jerry McGuire mission statement. A long, rambling novel, all in caps, which seems totally unnecessary.

Well, if it was much better written, that was by like a great Hollywood screenwriter and delivered beautifully, this thing was like, you could have taken half of that out and it would have been fine. It was not well written. It's a bad job, I think. A hideous Russian novel of sorts, overly long and getting crushed on Twitter

the minute it was released. But how about we ease up on the caps, too? Yeah, do we need the caps? I don't, again, test group this with someone. You, like, did two bold, like, you know, bullets at the beginning of what really matters, and then you did another couple, like, 100 words after that.

It was very, I don't know. Honestly, if I was a player and my agent sent that out, your job is to communicate effectively a message. That was like a playoff game for Eric Burkhardt, the agent, and he had Kyler Murray's performance in a playoff game. So perhaps it's fitting. In the statement, he said that Murray is committed to remaining with the Cardinals long term, and he desperately wants to win a Super Bowl,

even if he wasn't desperate to get back into that playoff game, which leads to the Super Bowl. And then today we had Steve Kime, the general manager, who said despite the consternation about Kyler's contract status, he is entering his fourth season, which makes him eligible for an extension, and you have this strange statement. There is no concerns about a potential holdout of the star quarterback. Do you buy that, Greg Rosenthal? No. I mean, I thought that was a nothing burger of a statement. I don't buy anything that the Cardinals are saying about Kyler Murray or just publicly.

First of all, Steve Kimes is a good GM. They've been willfully misleading a lot of times over the years when it comes to quarterbacks, when it comes to a lot of things publicly at the Combine. How would he not be worried about a holdout? That statement to me was, if you don't give me a contract, I will be holding out. And he's only after three years of his deal, not that many quarterbacks have got. in the three years. Certainly not many have held out to start the off season.

They don't know that. He said he's been talking to Kyler Murray. But I think that statement was very clear, like, if I don't get what I want, I'm going to be trouble. I'm willing to see where it goes, but it's like we're in a world where Lamar Jackson isn't out there verbally complaining about the fact that he doesn't have a massive extension. He's at the fifth year, the final year of his rookie duty.

Kylea Murray could not have ended this past campaign in a more troubling fashion. the whole season the whole team the whole offense fell off a cliff and i mean i if i'm kind like i'm with you gregg like it is a holdout is a concern a trade demand is a concern and kailer murray is the centerpiece of their team but this seems to me like one of the more awkward fringe of madness campaigns by a player in a while it's just the wrong time to be talking about a contract extension you know i think it's i think it's different than say baker last year where who said nothing though said nothing and there was a should we we extend them? Should we not extend him? They didn't extend him. That turned out to be a smart

decision. Kyler would make sense at the card. Even though I thought he faded down the stretch, obviously and did not play well in the playoffs. We've seen much enough body of work to say, yes, of course you want to do a long-term deal. But there seems to be some damage here between team and player. And I just, I hold out hope as someone who, you know, I want some chaos and drama in this particular off season. If he is that domino, it changes everything. There's so many things, so many teams that we're going to have Kevin Colbert of the Steelers on later. There are so many teams that would sell out, I think, to get into business with Kyler Murray, even if there are some disparaging reports about him as a teammate.

I think this is just starting. I think this is going to be the A story in April. Give it to me. I can't imagine that the Cardinals are going to be interested whatsoever in Tradium. Feed me. I just think there's going to be a lot of drama. Going back to that report you mentioned, Dan. It was on ESPN from Chris Mortensen,

and then Mike Garifolo and our air had it, too, late in Super Bowl week, about that he was immature, not a great leader. Finger pointer. Finger pointer. You know, talked about his focus. There was, like, video game addiction stuff being thrown out there. I missed that.

Whoa. And he is on. Somebody's got it out for Kyler Murray. It's like. that's coming from somewhere that's coming from the team that is such a self-interested finger-pointing not good leadership quotes or things to be putting out there and to me those are the types of things that you put out there if there's a power struggle between the coaching staff or personnel and the player and ownership is in the middle and bidwell

has kind of come out publicly and said like kiler's my guy and i think i think it's messy and I think that Kime knows it's messy and that it could be a problem for his job. I think you're missing something else, not you. I mean, the Cardinals in the middle of this soup is that strong head coach figure who unquestionably leads the team

and you're wondering, is it the coach, is it the quarterback? Because I think that you've got issues with Cliff Kingsbury. I mean, we've seen it two years in a row the way this team fades. I don't like where this is going at all. He said he talked to Kyler and everything's fine.

They share an agent. Well, I know, but if you don't believe anything else, do you believe that? No, no, I don't believe that. at all. They share an agent too. That's very strange. Cliff Kingsbury and Kyler Murray share an agent. It's all very strange. At the risk of parsing the owner's words, he did say he loves Kyler Murray in a statement last week, but he also said he knows he's going to get

better, which I think there's just some simmering tension, obviously within that organization. And yes, if Kyler were to hit the nuclear red button there and turn this into I need out of here, there is going to be. be a bidding war for his service if the cardinals ever played ball like that statement was close enough especially coming after a couple days of oh actually we do want kiler we like them and then they released that statement to me that was just like the first little serve this little actions speak much louder than words in this volatile business that was this the whole uh eric berkart

burckhardt well i don't know i mean did he write sit down and write pen the whole thing himself someone penned it and it was it was left you wanting from a reading angle burkhart he's you know He's the point man on it. In other news. I mean, how can you represent Cliff Kingsbury and Kyler? It doesn't. That will be changing soon, potentially. The Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

Obviously, another big story in the NFL is Tom Brady's, quote, unquote, retirement and everything. Speaking of some, like, simmering tension underneath the surface, I continue to sense even Bruce Ariens doing all his media today that he's kind of, he's kind of all set with the Tom Brady thing at this point. like he would love obviously that tom brady still be his quarterback because that would make his job easier but also i don't know if bruce is all about this drama now post quote unquote retirement jason light the general manager of the bucks said today on the riser that yeah they plan to leave the light on for the legendary goat if he does come back i think with a with a tom brady you never i personally never want to completely close the door now i don't have any information that suggests that he is going to come back.

I mean, I'm very good friends with him. We talk. We don't, we haven't talked about that. I don't want to apply any pressure in that regard right now. And then Bruce Ariens, right, I'm staring right where it happened, because I watched it. He was with a gaggle of local reporters, just how, this is how it works, everybody. They do the riser combo with the big scrummer reporters, then the beat guys get the coach or the GM privately to ask some more questions. And there was more digging about Tom Brady.

And Aryan said like, oh, yeah, when I talk to Tom, he slammed the door on me. So to Bruce Arion is saying there is no chance that Tom Brady's coming back at least this year. And then he was asked, why do you think this is a story? He said, well, you know, a lot of these guys like Tom Brady and not just Tom, but other big time players. They like their name out there. They do. And he was asked, you know, if Tom Brady wanted to come back and continue his career with another team outside of Tampa Bay, would Arians accommodate that? and he just said, nope, bad business.

And then it was like, what would it take to wrestle Tom Brady away from Tampa Bay? Five number ones. I mean, this is why Ariens is a breath of fresh air in the middle. No. Well, I don't think he does not like that report about that, you know, they might not be getting along as well at the end of that. The most telling thing I believe that he said today was that he did not think veteran quarterbacks are going to be traded.

he offered that up a couple times I agree with Jason Light kind of indicated that too that's like you can talk all you want about getting these big names and maybe they're just soft playing it but it's easier said than done he did mention how he's known to Sean Watson

a long time and he's very surprised he's in that situation and then if ever something would happen on that front it would have to get clearance from the top of the organization so he seemed to leave that door open but I think the bucks are one of those teams that have checked around in the last month.

And it's like, yeah, Russell Wilson and Aaron Rogers, no one's calling about them. Literally, Brian Gutikun said no one called about Aaron Rogers either. Like, no one has even picked up the phone about it. Everyone kind of assumes Russell Wilson and Aaron Rogers are staying put. He also said that James Winston, that would not be the best thing to bring him back. Like, I think that he is basically telling us what's happening behind the scenes. We can project and wishcast all these massive, tumultuous course. quarterback moves from A to B to C, and we'll probably get one, tops.

Maybe Kyla Murray is all we get in the end. I would sign up for that. But even that, to me, I think ultimately, will probably settle itself out in some fashion. All right. We'll see. All right, Mark. Jimmy G. Yeah, we get the Jimmy G.

That's a low octane to me. We'll get the Jimmy G in the second. Speaking of the Bucks, Pro Bowl left guard, Allie Marpet is retiring. Stunner. He announced it on Instagram, just 28 years old, finished. his first Pro Bowl season in 2021, one of the top guards in the league, certainly one of the best players on the buck. So in addition to Tom Brady being gone and all the other questions around that team,

Marpet exits the picture, leaving a huge gaping hole on offensive line. A source told ESPN that Marpet made the decision due to concerns for his overall health. Good for him. Hope he made his money and also the subject of multiple. Connor Orr features over the years. One at NFL.com was early on the Marpet train. And I know he wrote one about at Sports Illustrated too. They're in trouble.

Like he was their best guard. Alex Kappa is one of the better guards in free agency, who's also the buck starting guard. And their center, Ryan Jensen, is also a free agent. So they were known for their offensive line. All three of those guys are up for grabs. One is retired, two free agents. You've got a ton of free agents.

throughout the roster Chris Godwin Indomacan Siu Jordan Whitehead Pierre Paul it just like goes on and on their best cornerback Carlton Davis it's just they have a lot going on

your quarterback might be Blaine Gabbard so even if all those things weren't happening you'll still be in a world it'll be Kyle Trask over Blaine Gabbard I think I actually think Kyle Trask has a better chance to start and then people think he has a better chance to start than maybe Mason

Rudeau. Ariens has a Blaine Gabbard fascination and he has had these fascinations throughout his career. Trop alert. He's also not on the roster right now. They don't seem that interested in Kyle Trask. But Bruce Ariens, just 20 feet away, Mark, with Andrew Siciliana. He said, what's door number one, door number two this year?

Andrew heard you. He's on set trying to be professional. I'm not buying a word of it. And he said door number one is Kyle Trask and door number two would be a trade. So he, for whatever reason, left out free agency. But he said door number one is Kyle Trask, Door number two trade. Interesting.

All right, you mentioned it. Jimmy G. ESPN's Adam Schafter reports that Jimmy G is going to undergo shoulder surgery. That's a tough one to say. Shoulder surgery. Just a tough. You did it well right then.

Yeah, but even then it was just a little bit shaky. He circled back around. Surgery on his shoulder. But according to ESPN is still likely to be traded this month. Now, here's the thing because Jimmy G is another one of these guys. There's so many guys that are like in the middle. the pack with quarter what's up great i'm sorry i've just seen this great quote for we were just talking brus aryans on tom brady he's been talking a lot and i feel like i just got to read it

word for word give it to unbelievable ride this is bruce aryans unbelievable ride these last two years i got to say tom got all the credit a lot of other guys had a hand in the pile it wasn't all just Tom Brady. See, this is exact what I'm talking about. He loved the two years, but he is not really about this post-mortem that's going to carry on throughout this week and all through the draft until they find someone else. But, like, Jimmy G is like a quarterback, like you could say, oh, what about Jimmy G to the Bucs?

I don't think the Bucs were a Super Bowl caliber team before Tom Brady. I don't think they're after Tom Brady going to be Super Bowl caliber. So what do you do with that roster? I feel like maybe you think about tearing it down and start building up again. and he got the ring. Anyway, but Jimmy G has surgery. That's his throwing shoulder too. So obviously they believe he'll be ready for the start of next season,

but his rehab could take him into the summer. But ESPN still believes a trade is coming with Trey Lance waiting in the wings. That comes a week after that report that the 49ers might be willing to hang on to Jimmy G for a variety of reasons. Well, and that felt like messaging from another place. I think they want to move them. and you could maybe look at potentially the Steelers. You could look at potentially a team like Washington

that is heat seeking a veteran quarterback or someone out there, if not in the draft. We'll see. All right. He's had significant interest, though. I believe that, but I don't think it's going to be a high price. I mean, how is Jimmy G.

Coming off a shoulder surgery with this contract. Yeah, and I have a list. Well, notziated. You know, quite a lot. How is he getting more than a shoulder surgery? like a fourth round pick for $23 million coming up, a soldier shirt. Oh, I'm just staying out of this. You got a beep that.

Say it three in a row, Mark. Shoulder surgery, shoulder surgery, shoulder surgery. You got it. There's a little hesitation, but I understand. They only got a, I didn't sense any hesitation. Patriots only got a second round pick for him when he had all the talent in the world and no injuries and all the upside. So there's no way. I think it's fair to say there may be a number of people calling, though, because there is a dearth of available.

We'll give you a late pick, and you give us your Jimmy G. All right, everybody, hold that thought. We're going to take a break and be right back. What's up, everybody? Daniel Jeremiah here. And I'm Bucky Brooks. On Move the Sticks, we take you inside the game from scouting reports and player development to team building philosophies, coaching trends, and how front offices construct winning

rosters. Every week, we study the tape, talk to decision makers, and share the insights you won't find anywhere else. It's the kind of conversation that connects the dots. from college football prospects to the NFL stars of tomorrow. We break down the draft, analyze matchups, and evaluate how teams put it all together on game day. Plus, we dig in the coaching strategies,

roster construction, and the trends that shape the league year after year. Whether you're a die-hard fan or just love understanding the game on a deeper level, we give you the full picture. If you want insight that goes beyond the box score, this podcast is for you. Don't miss it.

Listen to the Move the Six podcast on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey, this is Matt Jones. I'm Drew Franklin. And this is NFL Cover Zero. We're just here to try to give you an NFL perspective a little bit different. Did you see the Colts Pretzel? That was my other big takeaway from that game.

What was that? Oh, my. We think NFL coverage should be informative and entertaining. And twice a week, that is exactly what you're going to get. Listen to NFL Cover Zero with Matt. Jones and Drew Franklin on the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. Toyota, the official automotive partner of the NFL, visit Toyota.com slash NFL now to learn more. I'm Marcus Grant.

And I'm Michael Florio, and together we host the NFL Fantasy Football Podcast. Ready to dominate your fantasy league this season? Then you need the NFL Fantasy Football Podcast, your ultimate source for players, news, draft tips, and winning strategies. Whether you're a rookie manager or a fantasy vet, we've got the insight to help you crush your opponents. 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. And other quarterback uncertainty news. Well, there's no uncertainty about the cults getting. out from their current quarterback, Carson Wentz. That's happening. It's been reported. We had Zach Kiefer on last week. Everybody's reporting it that the Colts are moving on.

Chris Ballard, the general manager, had Wentz in his office today for a one hour face-to-face meeting, but that was pleasant. And he said of the meeting, we'll be interesting to see how he goes from this, and I think he will. So it's now he's coming out and saying this is over, this relationship. but Ballard made sure to tell reporters today that he is not going to panic in this situation. They will find someone that they feel comfortable with

and he believes in himself. It's not in my nature. You know, I'm usually pretty objective and sitting back and not making, like just not making a panic move. And we won't. Like, we will not just make a panic move to make a panic move.

Y'all can kick me in the face a hundred times. And I promise you. I am who I am. I mean, like, And I have a lot of confidence in myself. I don't know if y'all have gotten that across, but I do. And I have a lot of confidence in the people around me, in Frank, in our coaching staff. My face.

I mean, kicking him in the face a thousand, a hundred times? That would do some damage. That's not going to help the cults. It's five years now, Greg, that we watched Ballard on the podium right here in this room for the first time. And thought to ourselves, this is an interesting dude. He is an interesting guy. He's a lover of Broadway plays, I've heard. Another layer.

He's multifaceted. And he's put a good roster together. He's in an unwinnable situation answering questions about Carson Wentz right now. Tough sit for the Colts right now. We were listening to Frank Reich, Mark and I, and he was just saying, you know, trying not to answer it. And he just, hey, whoever's there, whatever hand that you're dealt with, you just try to do the best job with it. And I'm thinking, like, well, you can deal yourself the Carson Wentz hand. Like, that's a choice.

You guys actually gave him a two-year contract, and it's financially very difficult to get rid of him. So, like, it's not just like, oh, we'll see what hand I'm dealt. Well, you can deal yourself the quarterback. That was the plan. The poker analogy there is, yeah, they pushed their chips to the center of the table on Carson Wentz. They gave up draft assets. They took on that contract and took on a guy that seemed to have some scars on him, and it turned out it didn't work out.

So now they are, yes, in that crunch of so many other teams where the roster seems ready to win now, but without that quarterback, you're kind of stuck in purgatory. I wouldn't call what they did last offseason hubris because I think that there was genuine faith that the pairing of Frank Link and Carson Wentz. I did not. I think that half the people that cover football did not and half did it.

There was this offseason debate about, oh, is suddenly Carson Wentz in this great situation and a great fit? And look at his season was not. terrible. He had some serious meltdown moments, but seven interceptions all year. It wasn't like a turnover prone nightmare. You could put together an amazing sizzle reel of our podcast through the season where we alternate killing him and saying, wow, they nailed this. Like there is a lot of that. Let's say they, let's say you flipped out. That's on you tonight. Can you get on that Carson Wentz, good or not sizzle reel? Starting in like August, take it through January. Just combed

through every show. Maybe set it at maybe one and a half speeds. Make sure you don't miss anything. Well, I was actually just on what Greg just said about. And yeah, I'll get on that right away. Justin, Randy, you guys hear that? Yes, I'm on it. Yeah. I was looking at my tweets from the last time we were here two years ago,

and there's a photo of me, and I, like, did a face mask in my hotel room. Well, you guys all went to dinner because I had to edit the show, and I was, like, stuck in my hotel room. And you guys had, like, the greatest dinner, and I couldn't go. You were sifting through tweets from two years ago for photos of yourself. No, no. I was sifting through tweets because I remember I used to do that bit with Everyone, because they're always wearing their colors, like they're all, they're dressed from head to toe and bills and, like, you know, Cardinals.

And he used to ask them, like, hey, who are you here with? And I was trying to find those videos, but they were too long ago. It's a good bit. It's like a check-like bit. You've got to just bring it back every. Retweet it and bring it to the top of it. Every year. Talking about all these quarterback possible changes are.

Ron Rivera spoke just as we were talking. That's how, you know, a real journal is right behind us. On top of this. And I just think his answer to the question of. of could you pay too much in a quarterback trade or how much is too much? And he just said, does anybody care what they paid

for Matthew Stafford last year? No. Flags fly forever, bro. They were one of the teams that were trying to get Matthew Stafford. And I just think more than any team out there if I had to choose a team that would give up four first round picks

for someone, Kyler Murray, or whatever it is, and veterans. Chase Young we've heard could even be available. Like, Washington is the team. and he was asked also if big-name quarterbacks might be traded. He said that's what we're trying to find out. I just feel like they are the team that would be the most aggressive. I just don't see the trade partner.

There's no, there's very little heat that anyone's allowing them to pick up the phone and be plied into a trade. Yes, we'll give you Aaron Rogers. Washington fans don't want to hear it, but Russell Wilson thought he doesn't want to. I like it. Well, Russell Wilson shot down the idea of it today. I like, we got a little cranky Sessler right now. I like when there's a little curmudgeon angle.

No, because you know what? Because it's a lot, actually, there is some news, but there's a lot of non-news. It's our job to dig through the fluff. Right. But I find a lot of it. I find a lot of it to be fluff. Well, yeah, we're also- Tapping.

You've spent hours on this rundown. No, I'm okay. No, this is the search for the nugs. Right. Weeding out the fluff. We've got the interviews coming. It's, we've been here, you know, four, five. We're doing at the end of the day here on this riser, so I think you'd get a little

crankier, so it's been a while since he's a, I was, you know, in the Atlanta airport and offered $1,000 to not fly here today, but flew here to do this. I'm enjoying myself. Now, yes, my job. I'm enjoying myself. You are not enjoying yourself. What about the NFL, you know, they bought that ticket.

So, you know, the $1,000. Right. No, because I, no, because I would be the person who would be enduring an extra day in a hotel that the airline paid for before flying here. a day late. Rod's really paid for the ticket, though. I think you should split it with him. I know, look, he makes a lot of money, but he would be happy to get a $500 check.

There is a lot of ethical gray area in the NFL. I would be allowed to contribute some of that myself. In other quarterback purgatory news, General George Payton of the Denver Broncos. He knows they're another team. This is kind of an annoying event for the Broncos, because everyone is saying the same thing. Guys, get a quarterback.

Jesus, fine, do it. And so that's what all the questioning is all about. So here's what Peyton had to say, making it very clear that, yes, the Broncos will come out of this offseason with someone new and shiny under the tree. We just want the best guy. We don't care if it's free agency. We don't care if it's a draft. We don't care if it's a trade.

You know, we're just going to exhaust all options to try to get the best guy for the Broncos. But more importantly, and everybody knows it, they are looking for better play at the position, and hopefully they find it whether it's a draft. free agency or a trade. But more importantly here, Greg, and I think this will cheer you up, Mark. Seeing Nathaniel Hackett on a riser. There is, here's breaking news. You want to get through the fluff and get the nug? Mark Sessler has a new man crush and head coach. And it's Nathaniel Hackett. Take us through watching that man. A fascinating human being who doesn't necessarily speak the way that most coaches, we've come to know, speak. He has.

At some point in his life, he had to make a decision whether to be, I think it was a neuroscientist and go to med school, become a coach or become a hip-hop dancer operating in various hip-hop environments. That feels like a joke, the last one. It's like, nobody fact-checked this. You know, our friend Connor Orr was here. I was standing next to Connor while we were listening. Conorra rolled up to me, he said, this is our new guy. And I was like, bingo, yes, it is. He was a hip-hop dance instructor at UCLA, apparently.

Absolutely. And Connor did. Does he strike you as a guy? I don't know if that's a career path, though. You better be... Connor did a long form on him and dug into all this and actually said that it was a couple months ago. He flew out and spent just days walking around with Nathaniel Hackett,

who is truly an interesting speaker, the way he presents himself. We need more of those in the NFL, and he's one of them. I hesitate to say this, Marcus. I know you like it when it's your guy, but I was watching, I felt the same thing, too. Like, I found myself falling for Nathaniel. I cannot have anything to myself. Well, you got Matt Rule.

Yeah, you still got Rule. We're actually two years to the day of when you first really fell for Matt Rule. I got the full backstory of it. I don't think I had known that. Just, you know, he was a fan of your work. And that was really what did it. That is a false backstory. That's entirely false.

A compliment was paid at a darkened corner of the tavern. It does not take much to win myself over. Oh, yeah. You're welcome to ride this with me. I just want to ask if it's okay. Normally you take the opposing stance, yes. Let's slow our role on this guy.

I like this enthusiasm for me. Because I slowed my role also on Brennan Staley because that was your crush last year. And I feel like pretty okay about that right now. He wins the press conference. Hackett's a good. Hackett gives good presser. I found it a little tingle for Hackett as well.

All right. I like that. Tingles good. All right. In other news. I mean hip-hop dancer. Don't you? Just because he doesn't look the part.

I just, I like, Greg, that's not where I'm going somewhere strange with that. No, where I'm going is he was going to be a neuroscientist or follow in his father's footsteps as like one of the most famous offensive coaches, West Coast offense originators, Paul Haggett, or hip hop dancer. I failed to believe that that was ever a realistic choice between the other two. You know, Greg, you're too cynical. You're just, it's very much a possibility. that he has an artistic dance side to him. It's a good bio nugget at the very least. Finally, oh, Giants General Manager Joe Shane

on Saquan Barclay and the idea of a trade, we're open to anything. Clock that, track that. Like that. And finally. Find a trade partner. Finally in the news. See, I think if he was in the right spot,

as long as his body is still willing. I'm just being annoying today. I keep thinking you're calling them partner. Like, find a trade, comma, partner. I'm trying to find something that will light mark up with operations. It's been tough. Finally in the news, it's time for news and notes presented by Upwork, where you can build the team that will build your business.

Learn more at Upwork.com. Oh, yes, you know this is near and dear to us. The international series for 2022 was announced, and we go into Germany, baby. Deutschland, baby. Now, are we going to Germany? Now, are we going? I don't know. We're going to talk to Vice President of International Henry Hodgton.

Heavy campaign, too. We would love to go. But five NFL teams will play 2022 international games in three countries, highlighted by the Packers' first international trip and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers playing the first ever regular season game in Germany. The league announced this on Monday. The Cardinals will play the NFL's first game in Mexico since 2019, while the Packers will be joined by the Jags and Saints and playing games in the year.

UK are adopted homeland. The Bucks will debut in Germany. How about this? Greg, I know you have roots in the Deutschland. I know this must really hit hard. I do want to go. I do want to go. My dad was born in Germany.

My brother is bizarrely a citizen, even though he's barely ever been there. But because you could get that with, what's the word for it? Dual citizenship or? No. I'm struggling. paternal something.

Yeah, born to, was he born there? Reparations. Okay, reparations, okay, well, that is the word. Reparations. And you didn't want anything to do with that. It was like a multi-year process for what payoff. I probably wasn't going to live there, but I want to go visit and watch this game, and I know the Deutsche Land listeners out there, they'll hook us up and support the send ATN to Germany.

Wait, let me play the role you want me to play. But I only like America. I don't want to go there. I wish you could see what Dan is doing with his body right now. that Dan's like, and then Mark's like, hey, I was in Germany with Rob Ryan. I connected with him on a deep bravo. And I'll drop another little nugget on you.

Back in the day when, you know, Cessler is a German last name. It means chairmaker. And Wesleyan is German. And we and I, he and I both looked up the origins of Cessler, which was Cesselberg and Wesselberg, I believe, which were about 18 miles away from each other. Back in the day, that means thousands of years ago,

ancient West and ancient me, probably walked 18 miles and drank beer. together in a German beer hall for days in a row. Definitely the second part. Probably related. Some of that's got to be accurate. I thought I was part German for the first like 20 years of my life. And then I found out that I was Austrian, which is close, right?

It's very close. Stone's throw. I mean, not a maybe you're on the border or a stone's throw. My brother did a lot of research into it. And they were there for 200 years. It was like they had their roots in Germany. It's time to get back. Why do you invalidate his citizenship then?

I don't invalidate it. It just seems random. It seems random. Maybe he should be here before you take down the Saturday. It seems random. Wait, can I throw out just a couple of quick. All right. Before that, Greg, that was news and notes.

Presented by Upwork the world's work, marketplace, learn more at Upwork.com. Close this out, Greg, before we get. All right, I'll try to be fast about it. Stephen Jones was not committed to Mari Cooper being on the Cowboys this year. I think that's the number one actual star slash superstar that could actually be traded or cut. I think there would be a great trade market for him, but them throwing that out there publicly is something. And I thought

it was interesting, your boy, Andrew Barry, not surprisingly vague about Jarvis Landry's future, Mark, but also said it's too early to say whether I'll add competition for Baker Mayfield, which to me strikes me as they're going to have a, like, soft competition. I think they've always been very open to

A, like if the world were a little different, maybe go get the Russell Wilson out there, which sounds like probably not happening, but competition, yes, I think that they also look at the landscape and say, Baker Mayfield, healthy, the rest of it, we're going to roll with it. They should go get Amari Cooper. I just, you know, putting that together.

They got all the cap space. They got all the need. And they had the worst wide receiver room in the league right now. That makes sense. Did you have a Ron Rivera thing you wanted to mention? We got that in. Got it in there, a grave digger. A few minutes ago.

I think his mind is on other things. I think his mind is on the woman that is not in his bed, as usually is the case. Now that they live together in premarital bliss. Gravedigger, not Ron Rivera, we're discussing here. Right. And also, we shouldn't be discussing any of this because it is, yeah, it has been barred from conversation. And it should be noted that the summer of 2021, the Superstar Club, very bold decision to take Amari Cooper out of the Superstar Club. And now he might be out of Dallas's plans going forward. Connect the dots, if you must. Pression.

All right. I think we got everything. That's what's happening in the news. Let's take a break and then get to the. The general manager of the Pittsburgh Steelers, Kevin Cohn. What's up, everybody? Daniel Jeremiah here. And I'm Bucky Brooks. On Move the Sticks, we take you inside the game from scouting reports and player development

to team building philosophies, coaching trends, and how front offices construct winning rosters. Every week, we study the tape, talk to decision makers, and share the insights you won't find anywhere else. It's the kind of conversation that connects the dots, from college football prospects to the NFL stars of tomorrow. We break down the draft, analyze matchups, and evaluate how teams put it all together on game day. Plus, we dig in the coaching strategies, roster construction, and the trends that shape the league year after year. Whether you're a diehard fan or just love understanding the game on a deeper level, we give you the full picture. If you want insight that goes beyond the box score, this podcast is for you.

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All right, we're very fortunate to be joined now by a man that, let's be honest, a towering figure in terms of building one of the top teams in the AFC, the same. for two decades. Kevin Colbert joins the Around the NFL podcast, general manager of the Steelers, at least for a couple more months. How are you, Kevin? Doing great, guys.

How about yourselves? Doing well. Yeah, we were talking how it's like feeling a little back to normal here at the Combine. Like, were you just looking to check off like one more box on your career checklist by joining the Around the NFL podcast before you go? Absolutely.

Absolutely. It had to be that to check off Liz. the bucket list, whatever it is. But as you mentioned, it's great to be back in Indianapolis and at the Combine in almost normal conditions. It's great for our game to take this big part of the process to take that step again. And that's exciting to be back here

and hopefully moving toward more normalcy. So Ben Ralthusberger retires after the conclusion of the 2021 season And a day later, it's announced that you will be stepping down and retiring with the Steelers as well. I thought it was kind of interesting, Big Ben, obviously, 2004 first round pick. And then you got to enjoy what I guess every GM longs for is like not having to worry about the quarterback position. So this last draft you have here is different, isn't it? Because obviously all the talk or a lot of the talk around Pittsburgh is, what do we do now post Big Ben? Yeah, and it's not ignored by us.

You know, the one year there was three Hall of Fame quarterbacks available. You know, fortunately, we were eligible to get. Thank you for putting Philip Rivers in, by the way. That means a lot to me personally. It does. It does. I appreciate it. Yeah, no, I mean, in our opinion, that's an easy three Hall of Famers.

And that was the one losing season we had, and there was fortunate. There was three available. We were able to get one. Ben was with us for 18 years. He obviously helped us be successful. So as we move forward, how can we do that again? I think what we can't do is try to misidentify potential replacements and say they're franchise quarterbacks.

Nobody knows if you're a franchise quarterback until you get in and prove it. So we'll try to make the best decisions at that position. And if they turn into franchise quarterbacks, it's more on them and not the people who selected them. I do feel like we've heard Mike Tomlin. And towards the end of the season, talk about the concept of a mobile quarterback. He seemed attracted to that. You've talked about Mason Rudolph stepping in, potentially as the week one starter, seeing how the cards fall.

I mean, I think with just, you know, certain Steelers fans are bumping a little bit on the idea of Mason Rudolph being more than maybe a bridge quarterback. Would you maybe look at the draft or someone like Kenny Pickett and say, we might make a bold move that people aren't expecting at this point to go get the guy that we really fall in love with? Whenever we identify any position, there's an ideal mold that we all look for, a 6-5 tackle with 35-inch arms and so on and so forth. Quarterback mobile, sure, if that's a big part of them. But all of them have a different characteristic that is their strength.

And this group is no different. So we won't lock ourselves in. Sure, you may have an ideal picture of what that quarterback might be, but you can't lock the door on any given one because you don't know who will be available to. you. It's a little different in free agency if you can allocate those cap dollars. Same thing with, as you mentioned, maybe trading up in a draft. What we try to always do is not only say, well, it's a first and third round pick, or if it's a third and a sixth, well, that third and six might be Emmanuel Sanders and Antonio Brown. We don't know. We try to put actual names

from the projected class into those discussions and try to say this group might be the best and just try to make each individual decision. Yeah, history says you probably aren't trading. It hasn't happened a lot under you as the GM. You did make that trade for Minkupitz Patrick. I heard you on the podium say there are starting quarterbacks in this draft, though, that you're confident in that whether they'll be around, you know, when you pick or not. We'll see.

Do you feel any heat? Because, you know, your rival in Baltimore, Ozzie Newsom, on his way out, his last draft, he did get a quarterback. He wasn't even his first pick in that draft. They took Caden Hurst and then Lamar Jackson. you feel any heat from Ozzie that you've got to match them by finding the quarterback of the future on your way out. We're very well aware of the quarterbacks in the AFC North. You know, Coach Tomlin always talks about we have three Heisman winning quarterbacks to compete against in the AFC North.

But again, we can't just say this has to be a franchise guy. We just pick who we are or pick who they are and hope that they turn into that. but we won't lock ourselves in. I mean, those guys are great quarterbacks, and they're young. And that's the unfortunate part that's great for those organizations, but now we have to continue to compete. And we're excited to see what Mason can do on a 16-games format if he's the guy. Dwayne Haskins, Dwayne can come in and compete,

and maybe he's that guy, but they have to prove themselves over 16 games. All right, so, all right, I'm going to be real with you, Kevin, because, and you're retiring anyway, so you don't care, right? You can say whatever you want at this point. When we talked about it on our podcast, because with the reports that came out that you had said that, you know, right where we stand here, Mason Rudolph makes sense as a quarterback. I'm paraphrasing. You have no plans to sell out to replace Ben Rutherberg. But in terms of the Mason Rudolph question again, like sometimes we call it a trope alert.

When you hear a front office official say, oh, yeah, where we are right now, we're perfectly happy with Mason Rudolph. That's the trope alert. But then what we translate that is we are doing to try hard to upgrade up that position and get somebody new in there. So, like, I feel almost certain personally there will be a new quarterback of the Steelers. That's what's going to happen, right? Well, again, if we started today, Mason's our starter, and we're comfortable with Mason being our starter. Again, I reference five, four, and one over his first nine starts. If you look back over the quarterbacks in history and look at their first eight, nine, ten games,

that record compares pretty favorably. Ben was the one outlier because he, you know, when Tommy Maddox got hurt and he was forced into the lineup, he goes 15 and 1. So that was unusual. Most of the starting quarterbacks early in their careers, they don't have winning records. And that's something that over time, again, Mason will have to prove it. Does that mean we're not going to look at options? No.

And he knows that. We've talked about that on his exit interviews. He understands that he's going to not be given anything. And there could be competition, either from within or from outside. Right. I think there's quietly a lot of free agent quarterbacks that are pretty solid, that have started a lot of games that could be competition. Like, you don't need to start the season right now.

You don't need to settle these questions. There's free agency. And then there's a draft. Sometimes you pick up guys right before the season like Joe Hayden. Our friend here, Mark, is a Browns fan. And one of the things that, like, done so much damage to this bad. Yeah. You know, thank you for the past 20 years. We have been next to him in the newsroom during, you know, Sundays, and it's tough. It's tough on us. It's tough on

Mark. But his biggest fear, I feel like more than anything, as a Brown's friend, is when a player leaves and then is a success elsewhere. And so when you signed Joe Hayden, and he turned into one of the best free agent signings in Steelers history, I mean, that was sort of hitting the bullseye right there for Brown's fan pain. Like, do you feel that about it? that Kevin and that that can happen as you reference and we we always have to be open you know our personnel department has to know we know what the what the unrestricted free agent class is as of today a lot of those players will sign prior to the start of free agency a lot of them will be franchised or transition so that will change and then when people sign or people draft they may be cutting players and it's our job to make sure that we're ready to add a player like a Joe Hayden if he's available. So I really don't know everybody that will be available, and it's our job to keep up with it.

Speaking of Ohio, is it annoying that the Bengals are good again? Ah, hey, good. Give them their do. They put together a very, you know, Duke Toe and put together a very good team, a Super Bowl participant. I know they would have obviously loved to have won it, but to get where they are, everybody's looking up for the

AFC so good for them it's our challenge to try to get back up there with them it's a little annoying though how does the okay so how does the transfer of power work with this like is there like remember like let's use

well I'll use for some reason Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush when you had the eight years then the vice president gets elected there's a smooth process you could mention Ozzie Newsom Eric DeCosta how does it work when there's a general manager that's overseeing the draft process free agency and then steps away how do you ensure

this continuity for the next guy who takes over whoever that is yeah that's something that honestly we discussed myself art runy and coach tomlin uh i would be involved but i may not be with that team that we put together and i think there's a a great trust that we're all going to make the right decisions collectively and that's what we've done throughout our history and we will we will do that for this and hopefully we put that team together and it'll be a team we can all look at and be proud of this is this is your last you know free agent period your last combine your last draft yeah i noticed you have more salary cap space than i can ever remember the steelers having do you just want to like go out wild just like spend a lot of money scarface steelers aren't

really known for doing that but just like throw your money on the table and like get wild i mean it is it's an unusual um and again we don't know an exact amount but we know we're confident we'll have more room than we've ever had in I don't know how many years and we'll try to make those best decisions not only with unrestricted free agents or maybe our own people that we want to keep so we'll try to put that all together it is unusual it's it's it's the it was to be expected coming out of last year we had a big free agent class of pretty significant players and we knew we were going to be up against that cap and then when the cap went down because of the pandemic. We were up against it even tougher. So this year, um, it could be tempting,

but we'll try to make the best, most sound decisions. Before we say goodbye, is this a real retirement? Well, we've left the door. We've left it open. Uh, and I, again, I don't want to be whoever the next person is. If I can help and not hinder, great. Uh, but we're going to leave it open. Um, and art will make that final decision. And again, he's open, coach is open. I'm but again we want to be fair to not only that person but to the organization if it makes sense to help great if it's it's best if i'm not here to help great too because we'll make that decision collectively for them would you jump over to cleveland's front office and a sort of lateral type of use a lot of information there that'd be good other people are tracking tom brady

willie or won't he i'm kevin colbert kevin thank you so much and congratulations on a great career thank you i enjoy your days all right there you go goes, Kevin Colbert, you know, you try to, I thought there might be a sliver of opportunity as he headed into retirement, although it sounds like a Bruce Ariens leaves the Steelers retirement, the way he was talking there? Well, he's also heavily involved in hiring the successor who may or may not be from the Steelers, so that's an interesting. Like, is he actually going fishing? I don't know, the way he said that. Didn't sound like it. If I was an NFL decision maker like himself, I would try to work for the Roonies. who's better than to work for the Roonies? He's been there for 20-something years. Tomlin's been there for 15 years.

Get that consultant money. Right, you hang around afterward. It's just like a family. You just, you get like a high six-figure salary to do, literally nothing. It's a family only you get paid to be in the family. Right. That's what we all show. He's earned it.

He's ranked very high on my GM rankings, which is coming out, I believe, in a couple weeks. Year after year, one year, I remember he was number one overall. I mean, he was, like we said, maybe it was a little strong in the intro, calling him a towering figure of the millennium. But I will say he's very successful. The Steelers have been for 20 straight years, basically, more or less. So that's deserving that he's high in the ranks. But Greg, your ability not to tell him that felt like a missed opportunity to show

that you are someone that gets it. It's going to haunt me. If you were to tell him. It does bother me when you think of the things. And it was one of the things I was one of the things. to say but you see how the conversation's flowing you only have time for so much but it maybe it would have made him feel awkward like hey i like i think you're a great guy in my little list and i put you number one do you like me uh i don't know he had a very warm smile sitting next to him right here

we made him laugh a lot i didn't um didn't change his answers i do wish he wasn't a liar that he didn't because they i tell you what they are going he's no plans to sell out i look at this roster. T.J. Watt, reigning defense player of the year, make it Fitzpatrick, Cam Hayward, a running back on a rookie deal, good wide receiver core.

This is, to me, a win-now roster that doesn't need to go into QB purgatory. You have a window. Why not give up the farm and try to get that Matthew Stafford-type guy? But it's the same issue that the cults have. It's like you can want to find a better quarterback. The Free Agent's club.

Colts don't even have a first-round pick. That makes it much. much harder for them. The Steelers are down at 20th. I mean, in theory, wouldn't it be poetic if they took Kenny Pickett out of Pitt to become their starter? But they have to love that guy enough to do that. He's not going to be at number 20. I mean, of course, Mason Rudolph's their starter right now, but that's, of course, he's going to face competition. I think that goes without saying it might be a veteran and a rookie. And what does sellout mean? There's about 10 free agent quarterbacks that have started a decent amount of games in the NFL, and one of those

guys is going to be on the Steelers. Now, it could be like, an upside of a Winston or a downside of someone way below that, like Tyrod. But one of those guys is going to be on the Steelers, and you might not have to sell out for anyone. That's depressing, though. I get it, but what are the other options? They're not, hey, here's Russell Wilson. This is what's selling out is.

Yes, Tyler. Our next two first round picks and Minkett Fitzpatrick are three first round picks. Go get, find a way to get Kyler or Russell Wilson. Hell, Kirk Cousins, not going to cost that much, but bring in someone that's actually a solution and not in this, there is a very, this underbelly of quarterbacks where there's just so many okay to maybe good guys. Like, if that's who they get, that's not going to get them over the top in the AFC.

I start to think, though, we're coming out of this week, finding out that Aaron Rogers is going nowhere, Russell Wilson's going nowhere, Tom Brady's not coming back, the bucks aren't trading for someone to come and be Tom Brady 2.0, that there'll be lack of movement, not all these stunning trades we discussed. Aren't you just to know it all? You just never know, Mark.

The NFL, they're going to draft someone. I would, I would, I'm putting a sandwich on it right now. The Steelers are drafting a quarterback to, you know, to make, because that's a bit of a cop-out. I'll say in the first three rounds. I mean, that's safe. I feel like that's almost too safe. I'll say too, they're drafting a quarterback.

I mean, they will draft one. It's just whether it works out or not. When he's mentioning Dwayne Haskins, I think like our friend Damashek and others would be concerned about that. He says they're starting quarterbacks in this class. Of course there are. Like a lot of these classes were. where they look great, they end up being terrible. And a lot of classes, like, you know,

where it's supposed to look bad, you end up finding some quarterbacks. I guess my take on it is that there's perhaps, with this organization where they are now, there should be more urgency than taking a swing on a quarterback and not a great quarterback class, as we're being told over and over again. Have you heard about how small pickets hands are?

We're going to get Lance Zerline on the show tomorrow to help us out. You know, we're babes in the woods. We're learning about the draft class. and Lance is kind of like he always helps us out, gets our feet wet as we start to figure out who potentially could be a quarterback that would make sense for the Pittsburgh Steelers. Getting our feet wet, I like that. Get traded.

Mark tried to get his feet wet on the flight here. He thought he had downloaded the whole scouting combine research packet, 500 pages. He was going to read every single page, and then when he got on the plane, he said he realized it didn't work out. I had failed to download it to my iPhone. We need to make you feel better that you actually would have only read the first 12 pages and then got bored. That would be rich.

I wouldn't go above six or seven. All right. We're not done yet. We have another excellent guest coming up, another general manager of an AFC superpower. Hell, you could argue a general manager of the best team in football. Joe Douglas. You could do it. You can do it.

After this break. What's up, everybody? Daniel Jeremiah here. And I'm Bucky Brooks. On Move the Sticks, we take you inside the game from scouting reports and player development to team building philosophies, coaching trends, and how front offices construct winning rosters. Every week, we study the tape, talk to decision makers, and share the insights you won't find anywhere else.

It's the kind of conversation that connects the dots, from college football prospects to the NFL stars of tomorrow. We break down the draft, analyze matchups, and evaluate how teams put it all together on game day. Plus, we dig in the coaching strategies. roster construction, and the trends that shape the league year after year. Whether you're a diehard fan or just love understanding the game on a deeper level, we give you the full picture. If you want insight that goes beyond the box score, this podcast is for you.

Don't miss it. Listen to the Move the Six podcast on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey, this is Matt Jones. I'm Drew Franklin. And this is NFL Cover Zero. We're just here to try to give you an NFL perspective a little bit different. Did you see the Colts Pretzel?

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I'm Marcus Grant. And I'm Michael Florio, and together we host the NFL fantasy football podcast. Ready to dominate your fantasy league this season? Then you need the NFL fantasy football podcast, your ultimate source for player news, draft tips, and winning strategies. Whether you're a rookie manager or a fantasy vet. We've got the insight to help you crush your opponents. 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. All right, here we go. Brandon Bean, general manager of the bills. This is a good one. This is a good. We're very happy to have Brandon on.

This is a team, Brandon, that has their stuff together. I feel like the bills are a model that other teams now seek to follow, which if you If you're, you know, 25 years old, 30 years old, and you grew up with the bills not being a functioning unit, that's all gone. The GM and the coach come together in 2017. They draft and develop a quarterback. They smartly build through free agency and the draft, and now you have a superpower that just needs to take one more step. So congratulations. There's no question.

I appreciate it. It doesn't feel like congratulations until we can hold that trophy up. That's true. We got work to do. Are you over, you know, the thing? I'm not. I was just talking to some of the other guys. I still haven't watched the film.

I mean, I've watched a few of the end plays, just seeing where guys were aligned and kind of walking through that and what the calls were on, you know, whether there's, you know, special teams or defense. But, you know, you have to give Kansas City credit. They made some really nice plays as well. And, you know, we played well. We just didn't finish it.

And we got to – it's hard because you don't get a start up here. And that's what I've told the guys last year when we made it to the AFC championship game, everybody's back to zero and zero. And it's an important offseason for us. Don't you just want to watch Josh Allen, though? Just, like, watch those two games? Like, he was awesome, Brendan, that game. Tremendous.

We watched it again. Yeah. Yeah. You know what? I wish I could enjoy it. Like, I could watch the game before, you know, how well he played against him. And listen, it's, Josh is great a quarterback. He's a great human, great leader, and he fits Buffalo so well.

And it was, we were very fortunate to be able to trade up and get a guy like him where we got him. And, you know, I think Josh is going to continue to work and to ascend. He's not lost that chip on his shoulder that he's always had. You know, we all know he's been doubted through various steps. I mean, Reedley, junior college. I'm pointing at Greg right now. I mean, I was so wrong about it. Our friend Chris Wesleyan, who's not here, believed in him from the get-go.

Like, did you think he could be that good? Because you're saying he's going to ascend. I don't know if it's possible. He was out of his body for those two games. I can't remember a quarterback playing as well for two. two playoff games in a row, as Josh Allen did right then. When you took them, did you think it could be like that level from him? You know, you don't want to sit here and say this is exactly what I see.

You're projecting, but I'll say this, his smarts, his processing, we knew the physical talents. If you just watched his film, if you broke down his games and truly said, all right, what would, you know, what would Aaron Rogers have done on this play while he's at Wyoming? like what would like there's nothing there or you know what he just got out of yeah he threw the ball away he's oh for one on this play but he just avoided an eight yard sack to throw the ball away or he hit the receiver and literally you know one there was a play i remember they're playing iowa and he's back he dodges a couple guys like you saw him in the kansas city game steps up on the run it's like a 45 yard post pattern the guy's wide open it bounces off his chest well he gets no for one zero for one there if you truly watched everything he's he did instead of just stats. I think a lot of people got lost in the stat world. And so, you know, I apologize. I mean, I apologize to Josh, you know, formally, but now I'm going to apologize to you.

That's big of you, Greg. I'm sure it means a lot to brand it in the whole team. You know what? That's what makes this business. Somebody asked me over there earlier when I was doing the media thing was, you know, what's the, you know, the position that, you know, in any year, that gets talked about or discussed the most. Like, is it offensive line?

I'm like, no, it's quarterback. Like it's, and I'm not talking about in the media, I'm talking about I can go back to that year. If you'd have had five different teams, they probably would have taken five different quarterbacks. You know what I mean? It's just everybody's got the guy they want, the type they want,

and we just felt that Josh, obviously we play in the elements. He's very smart. We just felt he was chip on his shoulder. We know Western New York. Everyone up there has a chip on their shoulder. Everything just meshed. and he's been a great fit for us.

I mean, one thing that he had from, you know, day one was Brian Debel. You had that consistency, and we're in the era and the age of the discontented quarterback, Kyler Murray's going off. Everyone's upset about left or right. I mean, this situation is so good with him. But losing Brian Daibel, what do you lose in terms of the in-game play calling it? He just did a great job adjusting and tailoring, you know, inside games to Josh's talents. Ken Dorsey's there.

Tell us a little bit about Ken Dorsey. transition if you think that it can be as smooth as Bill's fans would hope. Yeah, I mean, it's a really good question. You know, you always hate to lose good talent, but, you know, you're happy for Brian and his opportunity in New York. The one thing is Dorsey, so Davey was here for four years. Dorsey's been here for three, and this was a new system for Ken. This was not the same system we ran in Carolina with Cam Newton and, you know, Mike

Shula. And so, but Dorsey has taken on, learned this system. he'll have his own, you know, little nuances that he does. But he and Josh, you know, he was in the room coaching Josh. They formed a great relationship. And Josh just raves about Ken even a year ago. Dorsey was, I mean, Daibel was believed to, you know, have a chance a year ago. And Josh was already lobbying.

You know, I really think Ken can do this. And again, Sean and I have been around, you know, Dorsey since 2011 back in Carolina. He's a hard worker. He played the position. Obviously, he had success, you know, major success at the college level. So, you know, until he actually calls plays, it's like me, until you sit in the GM seat, you have to prove yourself, and there will be some bumps along the way. But Josh, it starts with Josh believing in Ken and Ken believing in Josh, and I think from there, you know, we're confident that it'll work. It's crazy going back to the incredible efficiency and the outrageous level of offensive play in the postseason for the bills.

Like, as a GM, as a team builder, along with Sean, how tempting. is it to say offense is set for the most part let's put our focus elsewhere but that's really not how it works ultimately right no i mean you you want to keep your fastball and and uh we know this team is built around josh allen and so we want to we want to protect him okay first and foremost and then we want to give him weapons but yeah we we also want to get the other teams you know quarterback's down. Mahomes, Joe Burrow, you know, all those guys that we're going to face, you know, the guys in our division, you know, we've got three teams that are trying to build around some young guys now as well and I'm sure they've got their eye on us. So we got our work

cut out for us to try. You know, we got a lot of free agents that, you know, we'll see which ones we can get back and then we're going to have to make the right moves. Not only, you know, with the guys here, you know, in the draft, but finding some pieces to fill, you know, some of the spots that we lose. You mentioned the other, you know, teams in the division. I told my son last night, I was like, oh, we're going to interview the Bill's general manager tomorrow. Like, what should I ask him? He's seven years old.

And he was like, oh, tell him I don't like him. So I just want to know, like, that if you take pride, he's a Patriots fan, that you now take pride that, like, he thinks of the bills. He's young enough. The bills are the big, bad bullies of the division. Like, what kind of feeling that gives you as a Bill's GM? Well, I love it. It's better than him feeling empathetic for me.

Man, I feel bad. Those guys don't know what they're doing. or anything like that. So, no, it's, you have to give New England a lot of credit. They were the team that in my interview, I felt like we talked about a lot. You know, how do you, how do you take them down? And, you know, what was wrong here in Buffalo? And it was really, you know, the AFC East.

And, you know, the jets were constantly turning over. The dolphins were constantly turned over and the bills. And, you know, I think every team was doing Bill Belichick and Tom Brady a favor. And we've got to stop that. And we've got to have a chance to build it the right way. And we've got to find a quarter. back and fortunately you know we landed josh when we had john mcderman on our show a number of owners meetings ago before all this happened before the bills became what they are um we were just

impressed kind of i think with his personality and the way that he just he to me i seemed like a new age type of coach and you're a new age type of gm i know he was um a wrestler too i mentioned to him that i when i was in middle school i lost to a girl in wrestling in uh seventh grade i think it was a bit humiliating comes up a lot well let's say you and you and you and you and and Sean McDermott were in like a sort of a clash, a physical clash. Who's winning that? I mean, you're both very fit men. Sean's, he's more fit than me.

He eats better than me. You know, we're both super competitive. What I would know to do is, like, he's going to beat me in a wrestling all day long. I would know where to hide some weapons illegally to take him down. You're like the brass knuckles guy, like Dino Bravo or something? Yeah, I'm pulling something out of my shoe. Sorry, every interview we ever do, Mark ends up asking about men grappling. Just I don't know what it is.

One last question I have is you said on the riser that the bills, correct me if I'm wrong, are going to submit a rule proposal to change overtime. I don't know why the bills would want to do that. I can't piece that together. From the wilderness. But could you share, you probably can't share what the proposal is, but could you tell us how does the process work behind the scenes for a team building out a proposal that you then submit? Yeah, I mean, we definitely talk to some of our peers around the league, coaches, GMs. And listen, I talked to another GM at the Senior Bowl, and he said, I think there's going to be about 30 to 32 different proposals.

Everybody wants it to change. And ultimately, I think something will change to where both teams do get the ball. You know, our proposal, you know, I feel strongly that we should consider, you know, a time limit. Yes. And play it out, you know, other leagues, you get five minutes on the clock or, you know, Major League Baseball, you know, the way team gets to bat, then the home team gets to bat again. If you're still tied, you do it again.

So I just don't, I don't feel like at that, and I'm talking about postseason. I don't feel like in the postseason, you know, you've played 17 games. It's a long season that we should end on some flute thing or a coin toss. You know, we want to see Josh Allen or Pat Mahomes or. Hell yeah. Aaron Rogers.

Whoever's out there. We want to see. Breach, Brandon Bean. Preach. So our proposal is going to be play a, you know, a certain time limit. you know in postseason i like that because that's football like football is with a time limit you go try to outscore him in a certain amount of time of before you go do you think jerry hughes has a good chance to be in back i kind of can't imagine jerry hughes playing anywhere else

and just like where you kind of look at your your pass rush right now with mario addison also a free agent yeah i talked to jerry and mario this past week called them both major respect for those guys and just we're going to stay in touch through the process and they are too i think both of them are kind of like, oh, let's see what free agency is. Let's get our value, and they're both great players. They both will continue to play. I feel sure for one, two, three more years, and they both can play. So, you know, we'd love to definitely work something out,

but we'll just kind of see how it goes. I still got some moves to make to get our cap in order before then. So kind of first things first. All right, Brandon Bean, thank you for joining us. And just lasting $1 to $7 trillion. How annoying was it when the Chiefs at halftime of the AFC title game disappeared and were replaced by other guys in uniforms that had never played football before. You know, I didn't, I couldn't watch the game.

I hear that. I didn't know until it was over. Oh, okay, don't watch it because it's even more frustrating to know what happened. All right, Brandon Bean, best of luck, uh, 20, 22 and beyond. Thanks, guys. Appreciate you. Thanks, Brandon. Yeah.

All right, there we goes. Brandon Bean seems like a good dude, you know, easy to root for the bills to get over that hump. And I totally get it. I totally get it. Not being able to watch that game, not be able to, revisit the loss because

you go through all this process from the combine to the draft through summer camp to the season and then you do everything right it seems and you still can't find a way to close it out and everybody knows it's fleeting these opportunities so the frustration you understand

that. Why watch on repeat like the worst 45 minutes of your entire life basically professionally but a coach just don't have the choice the GM The GM can decide he doesn't want to watch it. Coaches have to suffer through that recent horror film. Yeah, like I feel like there could have been five or six different teams that won the title

if they redid the playoffs 10 times. But the bills to me were the team that, remember that series of the missing rings on NFL and that way? I was like about the bills. Right. I will go to my grave believing that that team was winning the Super Bowl. That Josh Allen was playing that they should have won the Super Bowl. Their defense didn't do it. And you got to get back.

It's so tough. The only thing is like, and I mentioned at the end of that kind of, conversation like the chiefs were every bit they're equal at the end of that game and stole the game away from Buffalo and then that same version of the offense went through two quarters against Cincinnati dominant and then disappeared you can just never can't predict this stuff I guess is what I'm saying Mark did you notice you got hit with the that's a really good question I know you that was good yeah I live for that stuff I tend to think that maybe is not a good question when they're saying that sometimes whoa take me through that process just like it's sort of a psychological trick he was trying to play on me potentially and he and it's like it was his way of being like okay dumb ass i'm going to answer it's like i've already probably like i this you just threw me a little softball right down the middle and i'm just going to hit right so he's called opposite day i'm saying it's possible when there yeah when they're at the podium i don't immediately default to say wow i did a great it's kind of like a nice pat on the head like hey i'm happy to answer this one yeah thanks for

this is softball yeah right you gave me you gave me a little yeah as he was leaving the first thing he said was that was easy so maybe that's not the first thing you want to hear as true capital J. Journows, but let's be real. That's fair, because he could have said, like, man, you guys were tough but fair. Like, that's what we're looking for. Right.

Going like, that was easy, peasy. Are we? Is that what we're looking for? Do any of these guys take us seriously? Does it seem like they're taking us seriously? I think they probably take Greg seriously. Why would they, they don't know? Because we always get that answer from professionals. Oh, Greg, I respect Greg.

Pete Trigger says one thing. I feel confident in that Brandon Bean does not know who the three of us are or what the difference is. Mark, that whippersnapper in the middle was a real sharpie. Now, Colbert, I... Mark, what is it psychologically with you that you want to get that answer so you could, like, have that hanging over you in a way? Well, I want to know the truth.

All right. Let's stick a pin in it because there's so much to get to this week. We'll have another show tomorrow. More guests, coaches, general managers, all the latest. news from the risers here anything wild that goes on on the night that the uh what do they call that the nightlife it's called nightlife and some do you mean when you go out do things with other people yes at nightlife yeah nailed it uh and just so everybody knows because i know you've been wondering uh there will be no flashpoint focus this week where it's on a brief hiatus

but we'll return next week full power but i was thinking and i don't know if you heard gregg or Maybe you'd tune me out, but it did hit me when I was mansplaining what Flashpoint meant to Ricky because she had suggested Mack Jones as a Flashpoint focus, which was just terrible suggestion. Just not getting the exercise. And while I was mansplaining what Flashpoint was, I said, well, maybe it should just be Flashpoint, Colan, Baker Mayfield. I like that. Get the focus out of there. Get figures out of there.

We continue to trim. Ricky, sorry. It's got to drive by there, but I just had to set up. Yeah, she doesn't have a microphone. That's an apology from me to you, right here. You know what? St. Elmo is on me. And by me, I mean the Roger Goodell sanctioned food.

The per diem. Well, it has been a little distracted. I'm not saying like our podcast is that popular or whatever, but I did feel a difference this time in Indianapolis of like everyone stopping me in the hallways and on the street asking like, who's next on Flashpoint Focus? Oh, we guys work dropping that name? It was a lot. In some ways, you would say it's faulty to launch a series

and immediately go into a hiatus. This bothers Dan more than me for sure. In this case, I think it just builds the momentum toward what happens next week. So everybody just know that it will return. It's triggered intense suspense. I think you nails that, no. Flashpoint, Colan, Baker, Mayfield.

Flashpoint. Ricky, do you have the, can you, the dictionary definition of flashpoint? I mean, she's ready to stab you in the face right now. I know, but I apologize. Well, she doesn't have a mic. It's not how it works all that. That's fine.

She still doesn't have a mic. It's not her fault. Wait? It's over, Ricky. I'm sorry. She's going to kill me. All right. Just forget it.

Oh, no. Anyway, all right. There you go. Day one from the Combine. Good stuff. Thank you to everybody for listening. Like we said, we'll be back tomorrow. Have another special show on Friday.

So a lot more content coming. way until then. Dan Hansa signing off for Quiet Storm, the old boss, the wonderful Ricky Hollywood. Sincere apologies. No, you can keep trying. Grave-digger. Behind the scenes. Until tomorrow, heed the call. Hey, Hey, everybody, Daniel Jeremiah here. And I'm Bucky Brooks. On Move the Six, we take you inside the game.

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. It's everything you need to understand the why behind what happens on Sunday. Don't miss it. Listen to the Move the Sticks podcast on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

I'm Marcus Grant And I'm Michael Florio And together we host the NFL fantasy football podcast Ready to dominate your fantasy league this season Then you need the NFL fantasy football podcast Your ultimate source for player news, draft tips, and winning strategies Whether you're a rookie manager or a fantasy vet We've got the insight to help you crush your opponents

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. This is an IHeart podcast.