NFL Daily with Gregg Rosenthal - Jordan Love Sits and Bad Ideas for the 2024 Season

Episode Date: July 23, 2024

Gregg Rosenthal is joined by Colleen Wolfe and Steve Wyche to tell you what they think are bad ideas headed into training camp. The show is started off with news from around the NFL, including Jordan Love wanting a new contract before he steps on the field (XXX), John Harbaugh's passionate endorsement for Lamar Jackson (8:50), and more! After the break, the crew tells you what they think are bad ideas, like the Bears going into the season without a veteran QB (21:50), FOX giving Tom Brady top analyst duties out of the gate (25:08), the Cowboys delaying big-time decisions (33:19), and the Patriots starting anyone other than Drake Maye (38:19). Note: time codes approximate. NFL Daily YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/nflpodcastsSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an I-Heart podcast. Welcome to NFL Daily, where we're fully cleared for training camp. We're off and running. I'm beyond lucky today to be joined by Steve Weish and Colleen Wolf before they venture around the country for inside training camp. camp. They're in the Chris Wesleying podcast studio. That's right. We were just comparing schedules. We're getting ready. Are you, do you have your polos set? I've got my polos.

I'm very glad we got. We also found out that I'm actually going to be like filling in for she's got other stuff to do. I couldn't physically get to Detroit without a private jet. There were no flights that could get me there from where I was coming from. Meanwhile, Wyshe's in six cities in six days. I'm down, though. Like, I love, I love Detroit. Like, I love the city of Detroit. And I like going to the facility. So it's going to be my first time there in a couple of years.

Oh, no way. I'm looking forward to, you know, Dan Campbell and the whole gang, Aaron Glenn and the group. Well, we might try to get you from the road as if you're not busy enough. Or Wich. I was actually told to bring my special podcast, Mike, just in case. So that will be back. Let's go. This is going to be the first time Steve Weish has joined NFL Daily and will make it to the end of the show.

we hope. He's doing another show later, but there's a few hours in between. So we'll see if it's a wolf blitzer situation where you're on social having a wolf spritzer and then an hour later, like announcing major news. Would not be the first time. Would not be the first time.

But before we do that, let's do some news. News. You asked for a lightning bolt. It's good. I like that. I like that. You got it. Cool.

That's an improvement. Let's start with the Green Bay Packers, which gave us a little something to talk about. On Monday morning, Jordan Love, who's in the building, was revealed that he will not be practicing. Brian Gutakuntz,

the general manager of the Packers, seemed pretty cool with it, and this is him talking about the situation. So, yeah, so I think it was Saturday night. You know, they kind of informed us and until we get something done that he would not practice again. So unless something,

gets done here before, you know, practice starts here pretty soon. He will not be practicing. Yeah, I think so. But again, you never know. I mean, we're working really hard to get that done. I think it's really important for us. I'm optimistic. These are big deals. It takes time. They're not as, you know, easy as some people may think. I take optimism from this. It is not much of a story. I don't think if Jordan Love is in the building and they're talking about it that openly and he's even saying, optimistic that it's going to happen soon. He'll be on the field before too long.

You don't hear team executives or coaches talk about, yeah, he's not going to practice until we get the deal done. You typically hear that from the player or the player's agent saying, hey, you know, we're just going to sit this, basically sit this one out until we get it completed. So it's clear their open lines of communication that they've got a good relationship right there. And, you know, look, they just got Kenny Clark.

Yeah. They're not going to get that done unless they have the parameters in place for the quarterback contract. so this isn't going to be anything that's going to drag out for several more days. I guess the hope would be that they get it done by the end of the week. I would imagine that would happen. But Goudicund sort of volunteered that he was confident that the deal would get done before training camp. He just threw that out there.

So he kind of just volunteered that timeline on his own. But once the Kenny Clark deal got done, it's like this is the next step in the deals. And of course, like Jordan Love, he was at practice. no one expected him to practice if he didn't have the deal done. He was smiling. He walked out with Matt LaFleur. And the real concern for me is that he was wearing sweatpants in Green Bay in July. And that real field temperature was like 83 degrees.

So that feels like that's my worst nightmare. That's the Mike McDaniel thing, though. He wears the hoodie in Miami at like 97 degrees. I know you want to sweat. You want to get the toxins out. But like I don't know. McDangings wear the dry fit hoodie. Like, you know, I wear that inside of training camp.

So I don't get scorched. Right. But I've seen some people like with the Houston Texans where it's just oppressive. Oh my God. Like put on hoodies under their gear when they're practicing. Like some guys just love doing that. I look at this situation with him showing up and think he must know. I wouldn't surprise me if he gets as much money as like any quarterback in the entire NFL. We've talked about how the contracts are all sort of the same, which is crazy because you could be Patrick Mahomes or Joe Burrow or Josh Allen or you could be Jordan.

Love who just had like a seven, eight game hot streak and you basically get the same contract. But he's not there and smiling unless he knows that's coming. And to be clear, real trading camp hasn't even started for them. It's like rookies and quarterback. So that kind of gave another soft deadline for them to get the deal done. And he's expected to participate in the meetings too. So it's like he's not going to go out there and risk getting hurt without having guarantees. It's a holden.

You mentioned Kenny Clark getting a big contract. He signed a three-year extension worth $64 million. He's getting something like $29 million in 2024 pay. And the most interesting thing about what's happening with love and what's happening with Clark to me is like, this is what good organizations do when they have cap space is great. We built up all this cap space. There's too much cap space out there.

Teams waste their cap space. They do it because they know these sort of contracts are coming up. And then they can just front load it, put all that cash as much as possible into 2024 because they have the room for it and open up more room for next year and be in the same situation. The Packers are kind of the ultimate draft and developed team. Even though Brian Gutakunz looked a lot older in that clip suddenly than when he took that job, I think that was dealing with Aaron Rogers. I think he's got to feel good that like this is what they do.

They draft and develop. I think Devante Adams, we have an argument with your point there about them paying people when they do have cap space available. However, we're talking about Jordan Love and Kenny Clark. Look, Kenny Clark, I mean, this guy's one of the best defensive linemen in the NFL. Defensive tackles are getting paid nowadays. And, you know, you just talk about the massaging of the cap. If you've got the cash, and we just saw it from the Packers, public disclosures, they've got the cash.

You go ahead and spend it. Then you finesse the cap over that. But they've got the cash to spend. Go ahead and get it out of the way because they're not paying that many other players right now. But like you said, this is why the Packers. continue to keep themselves competitive because they know exactly what they're doing and how to manage their cash and their cap,

but most importantly, their people. And Kenny Clark is managing the Packers well because the fact that he's at this point now signed multiple big deals with them. You don't see that so often. I mean, he's signed three total contracts with them, two massive deals with them. He's completely worth every single penny.

He's so reliable. He's always available. He keys the deal. defense. He's only 28 years old. Like, I just think that it was so smart of him to bet on himself, watch the market for defensive linemen go up

and up and then not lock himself into anything long term. And now he has his second huge deal. It's great for him. They have an interesting defense to watch because I feel like they've underachieved for years compared to the talent that they've had. And they bring in this guy Jeff Halfley from B.C.

He's really thought of as a innovative schematic guy. And sometimes we saw with Brian Flores in the division last year, like sometimes a great defensive scheme can lift you up quicker. A Kyle Shanahan guy too. Yeah. And they're also saving money because their receivers are so ridiculously cheap.

They now have four receivers. They don't have to pay for at least another year, maybe another two years, that their total contracts are adding up to, what, one 15th of Justin Jefferson's contract for like one year? year and that's for four guys like team like wide receiver such a premium position it's almost like having a rookie quarterback contract having a rookie receiver contract especially when you got four of them well said you know plus the running backs are basically on one year deals as well so next year they'll

be able to free up caps base there and continue to rotate at what they consider premium positions on what they want to pay he said well said so i'm just well said well done he said something nice to me that's good that's great good job gregg that's important i really need the positive affirmation right now. All right, moving on to our next story, talking quarterbacks. John Harbaugh really caught my attention on Sunday at Ravens Training Camp. And I wanted to dive into it more with you guys here. This was the first full team session that the Ravens had. They're actually practicing. Their veterans are out there. The Chiefs are out there. We know the Hall of Fame game teams. I know you'll be there. You guys will be there. Both be in Kent, Ohio. Okay. So Chicago

White and Wolf. Dinner, Lucius, baby. A. One of the best steakhouses in the country. We've got four teams fully practicing as we record. Every other team will be arriving to camp on Tuesday this week and practicing by Wednesday. So we're off and running. But it was almost like John Harbaugh had an answer, a speech ready for the first time someone brought up Lamar this year.

It was like a stump speech. It was three minutes long. It'd be kind of crazy to play the whole thing. But let's listen to my favorite. 30 seconds of John Harbaugh's vision for Lamar. We're building another offense for it in 23 and 24 going forward, right? The next iteration of our offense around Lamar Jackson. Because in my opinion, the vision for Lamar Jackson, and it's a vision, it's something

you see it like it's already happened. You can see it like it's already been done. The victory has already been won when you pour into a vision. And the vision that we have together is that Lamar Jackson is going to become, and be known and be recognized as the greatest quarterback ever to play in the history of the National Football League. He gets my vote. Wow.

John does or Lamar? Both. Both do at this point. He's a great campaign manager. I just love that he came out swinging. So you knew that he was just like waiting and waiting and workshopping. And I mean, all of that just came straight from the heart. But he was just like ready to go as soon as anyone asked him about Lamarmer.

And I do love, too, that Ryan Mink, who is the Ravens editorial director, he tweeted out a statistical comparison between Lamar and Tom Brady in their first six years in the league. And Lamar outperformed Brady in completion percentage, passing yards per attempt, passing touchdowns, which I thought was interesting because obviously Brady has more passing yards in those six years than Lamar had right now. But only two more interceptions than Brady had. throne and every single rushing category, obviously. So it's like the Super Bowl rings are the thing that Lamar and the Ravens really need to put this over the top for everyone, I think, to finally get behind Lamar in that category. That's a big thumb on the scale, though, when you've got three super bowl rings.

And the fact that those were the worst six years of Tom Brady's career, to be fair. Like Lamar's one is two MVP. What's that mean, he won three Super Bowls. But yeah, maybe Lamar gets better and has that second, third, fourth phase that Tom Brady. add. Yeah, and not taking anything away from what Lamar has done. First off, this reminded me, you know, John Harbaugh, I've just finished watching Supercell on Netflix where there's a little futuristic

time travel where they come back, a little butterfly effect. This guy in his Supercell, you can't stop talking about Supercell. It's really good, man. It's a bunch of English Jamaicans. But you know, I've heard John Harbaugh, believe it or not say this before. This is not new. I was in a production meeting where the Ravens,

I believe they were playing the Browns a couple years ago. And just in our room... You were doing sideline. I was doing sidelines and John was so passionate this was when Lamar had not it was the year before he signed his big deal and he was

it means everything to me to make sure that Lamar is a champion that a guy who came up like him who speaks like him who looks like him and who plays like him becomes a great great quarterback in this league and wins championships because what that would do

for so many other people to Harbaugh was like, this is why we love him. It was such a personal connection where I was like, hey, you know, you talk about the personal and business when it comes to him getting a new deal. Like this is personal for John Harbaugh. This is going to get done at some point because of all the players on his team.

He is firmly and emotionally invested in Lamar. It reminded me listening to that clip in the whole three minutes. And I would suggest go listen to it on Ravens.com. It was fun. It was a buildup because it was him talking about how personally he takes the criticism that's out there of Lamar. I don't think there's a ton of criticism right now,

but he definitely had his worst game of the year in the AFC championship. I'm the biggest Lamar Jackson fan there is other than Patrick Claibon. And it is what it is. He had a bad game. He wouldn't deny that. But yeah, that speech kind of reminded me a Jim Harbaugh, because he loves his quarterbacks more than anything. And it was like a two and a half minute rise to that point where he is like,

it was already written that he's going to be like the greatest quarterback of all time. It's like, okay, I mean, he is playing at the same time of Patrick Mahomes, but I get it. He is your guy. And the thing that really struck me is this is year two of our second phase with Lamar. And we've built the whole idea of everything we do is to build the best offense possible around Lamar. And I think you saw a different Lamar Jackson last year. He's not as great a runner as he used to be. He's like 10% worse than when he was just the greatest runner of all time.

at the quarterback position, but he's much better, I think, thrown over to the middle of the field going through his reads. He's always been great playing from the pocket, but I think this offense

accentuates those strengths that were already there and it makes them even better. And now he's taking on Aikman for the letter eight, or for the number eight, so it's just like. Yocho.

Yeah. Chad's next. Remember, though, he's got three new offensive linemen they've got incorporated into this offense. Uh-huh. You know,

interior guys. You got a guard, you have a guard, guard, and right tackle. So that's going to be interesting to see how they start the season.

But I mean, again, the Ravens are such great talent developers all up on their offensive defensive line. This is nothing new to them. We also got to get him some chicken noodle soup, some Motrin because he missed another day of training camp with illness, which

has just often happened to him throughout his career. Just I don't know, his immune system. There's a lot of things going around though right now. There is a lot. And yeah, to be fair, he had been knocked out a couple times from practicing from playing because of that. Marlon Humphrey,

By the way, I just read some reports that he's out there practicing, looking great, and a healthy Marlon Humphi really helps them. And Eddie Jackson was signed. Former Bear got a big support from his former teammate, Roquan Smith. So just something to watch there. I like the Eddie Jackson signing because, yeah, he was with Roquin in Chicago, and he played with Marlon Humphrey at Alabama, too. I guess Derek Henry, too.

So there's some nice little connections already. That was the first one of these, Eric DeCosta, and Ozzie Newsom used to do it, like late signings. These guys are like, wait, how did they get them? And then you look up and it's the divisional round and Eddie Jackson's playing 45 snaps for them. And you're like, oh, that guy was available until late July. It's such an Ozzy Newsom move.

I mean, first of stuff, he loves his Alabama players. He's an Alabama alum, Alabama Hall of Famer. But, you know, you look at what the Ravens have done too when they go out and get Marcus Williams from the Saints. Like they love these veteran safeties now. Now they got to add him to Kyle Hamilton, who I think is going to be in the running for the defensive player of the year. And the way that they build their team up the middle of the defense,

you know, from Pierce to Roquant's. Smith, you know, with these safeties, their new defensive coordinator, or I'm blanking on his first name. Zach Gore. Zach Gore, right? He's a former inside linebacker, former inside

linebacker coach, so building it through the middle is going to be important to him. All right, we're going to roll through these last three items quickly, starting with Kevin O'Connell, who just is really all about J.J. McCarthy. Yet, he said, Sam Darnold is going to take

the majority of the first team reps, and he is going to be very careful with his rookie quarterback. I don't know if it's the former quarterback in me, but I will not allow any factors outside of what's best for JJ and what's best to help the Minnesota Vikings win in regards to the answer to that question. That's just how I feel about it. Shortest answer ever by Kevin O'Connell. It's never been seen before.

This is unprecedented times. Bottle it. You're saying he's a great guest to have because you don't have to ask too many questions. Well, he's a great conversationalist. Like, you can, he's a talker. So he will really, if you ask him one question, he will give you a beefy answer to it. And that wasn't a surprise that he's saying that,

that he's not going to change the plan. The plan at most is going to be to give him first team reps, J.J. McCarthy half, you know, a week in, 10 days in, if he looks good, it's not going to be right away. So for now, it's going to be Darnold. And we will see. Joe Burrow was fully cleared for contact.

His coach, Zach Taylor announced on Monday, which is great news. He just has not had a fully healthy training camp virtually ever. They were really excited about that last year, and then it didn't happen. And he's a guy who I think needs the reps, and he relies on rhythm and timing. They said they might play them a little bit in the preseason.

We'll see. And Amarius Mims, their first round pick signed, which means every rookie deal is done. No holdouts for the rookies. And lastly, Cam Acres, former Ram, signed with the Texans. Joe Mixon's been a little banged up. Right. Well, I'm a little lower, I think, than consensus on the whole Joe Mixen.

Really? Idea. Like, is Joe Mixon better than Devin Singletary at this stage of his group? I'm a big Joe mixing. I always have been, but he's not the same guy that he used to. I don't know. I mean, I just know that the Bengals were trying to, you know, rotate him to kind of let him make it to the season last year, but he's a monster, man.

He's going to be very good in that offense. I just saw CJ Stroud and him trying, or CJ Stroud and Cam Acres coming up with a new handshake. So that is something that I will be watching in training camp. Yes. can't make us trying to make that team you feel for him just hasn't been the same guy since injuries took him out but he was very grateful for another chance i'm excited uh to wrap this up with the news because it means we're getting to our segment like we're all about good ideas generally like

we're three of the smartest football minds out there i would say thank you gregg trio and uh but we're instead today gonna come up with some bad ideas for the 2024 season just things that you should not do, we'll do that after the break. It's very Indiana Jones. It's very Indiana Jones. Like that's what it's giving a bit. A gigantic boulder. It's coming after us. I like it. It's a new one. Go heavy on the We're going to talk about some bad ideas, folks. A lot of good ideas being thrown out on this podcast. A lot of good ideas as we're getting into training camp.

It's hope season. We're going to do some bad ideas. Just things that we don't want to see going into 2024. Let's start with Connie and see if she understood the exercise. Listen, of course I did. Glass half empty is like my default. So you know what? Hopefully this segment here,

isn't one of the bad idea. Oh, no. But that's fine. Because we did have two options. We were going to go one way and Connie was like, you know, said one way. I basically picked both and then was like, no, let's do this one. She blasted a torpedo in one of them. Yes.

Okay, so I do have some other bad ideas real quick before I get into my two NFL ones, just like more of a PSA. Oh, that's good. Don't go to the beach without sunscreen. I have been using so much aloe. I am taking anti-inflammatories. My back is so burnt right now that it is a problem. don't file for a tax extension.

It's going to haunt you the whole summer. Don't let your college roommate come to town full stop, but definitely don't let them order pizza or drinks. Don't buy anything on the internet after midnight. Don't order one or every dessert on the menu. Don't go to a plant nursery without a plan. Don't get the hollanda sauce ever. And above all else,

just don't forget the sunscreen. Please. That's strong. I thought you're going to put, don't forget to do your ninjio. Your computer updates. I'm finally up to date. with my NINGO compliance training.

Yes. That is our in-house work program where we learn not to comprise our security. About fishing and identity theft, all of it. I got the email that said they were shutting me off. They're shutting my computer off unless I do it. I got it done. Those are great except for the plant nursery plant.

You can't have a plan. You've got to go and just see what's there. I understand that you're a plant lady. Then I leave with way too many things and nowhere to put them. It's like going to the farmer's market. You got to see what's fresh. That's fair. Okay.

So I, as far as actual bad ideas for the NFL season, I really don't love the fact that Chicago doesn't have a veteran quarterback on the roster at all. And I'm not saying to win a competition or anything like that, talent-wise, but just someone in-house with the experience to be in that room. I mean, like, a la Josh McCown, except he's an assistant with the Viking division, but someone... Andy Dalton's the perfect example. Exactly. And when he was there with Nick Foles and Justin Fields, it sounded like there were some friction a little bit.

So a different regime in the front office, but I don't know if maybe past history with a rookie quarterback and veterans in there was something that the Bears thought about going into this. but it just feels so curious because you have Bayesian as the backup, who was the undrafted free agent last year. He performed well enough to be a backup. And then Brett Ripian is the only true veteran quarterback in there. His only start with the Rams last year was so disastrous that he was cut two days later. And then you have an undrafted rookie Austin Reed in there.

So like entering the season, the most seasoned quarterback on the roster has started four NFL games. And you have Caleb Williams. who will be under so much pressure both physically and figuratively because the offensive line has a lot of unknowns and the past catchers are all new

aside from DJ Moore. So there's just a lot in flux for a rookie to have to figure out and just be thrown into the fire with no seasoned person in that room to, I kind of roll my eyes when we talk about mentors in the quarterback rooms.

But in this situation, it would be nice if someone was in there that wasn't an actual threat, but that was there almost as like an assistant assistant there. Yeah, I mean, look, it's the, it's the Chase Daniel. It's a Jacoby Preset.

It's guys like that. It helps because there will be situations that these guys will experience on and off the field where a veteran voice can get them. And work habits and just knowing what it's like to go through an NFL season. I think that's a great one.

That was a bad idea by them. I mean, like, a guy like Tyler, Huntley, he was out there. He's the fourth quarterback with the Brown. That Browns, that would have been, which is interesting, by the way, that they have so many quarterbacks. Just saying.

Where's Ryan Tadahill right now? Ryan Tannel is unsigned, which is interesting. Now, he might be the type of guy. I don't know that maybe he wouldn't be as willing right now, like he wanted to play. He wants to play. Maybe he told teams that. And then I would understand in that case why they wouldn't sign him specifically. But Case Keenham was out there.

been a nice one. He would be a great one. He's done in most of his career. He's going to be in Houston. And you never know if someone could get cut loose in camp. Like, I don't know who would be like a Nick Mullins type. But yeah, that is a missing piece. And as much as I like the bears and the things they have around him, like if there's no offensive line, or at least there's a question on the offensive line, I don't know if the defense is going to be as good as people think. It's a great situation around Caleb Williams, but that is one bad idea. I'm going to, I'm going throw out a bad idea. And that's making Tom Brady the number one Fox broadcaster, putting him on the number one team right away. And the response will be like, well, you can't pay them all that

money. Well, like, why not? You can do whatever you want with your money. You can't pay them all that money and make them number two. The number two games are great. Maybe more people will watch the number two games and there won't be as much pressure. I just think it's so ironic and it seems so just like a flip of where Tom Brady is in terms of his life that he hasn't considered how similar this is to his situation with Drew Bledso coming into the NFL.

Because back then, I remember, Tom Curran was first. I mean, he almost made his career off this. First on the whole idea of like, this Brady kid's better than Bledso. You know, they shouldn't give the job. And he would call Drew Bledsoe the hood ornament because they would just put Drew Bledso's contract that they gave

him kind of under weird just like trying to make the franchise look better. at a time when it wasn't. It was a $100 million contract and put that to distract everyone from the bad car that was behind it. And that was his $100 million contract. And Drew Bledso at that point wasn't really earning his spot in the way that you would think. And here's Tom Brady as a player who comes up and earns it. That was Greg Olson. Like Greg Olson earned that spot. And everyone's going to be listening to the number two games and they're going to realize Greg Olson's better than Tom Brady. And maybe I'll be wrong in Tom Brady's star power and he'll be great and he

won't be bad at anything, and it'll quiet it down. And that's fine if I'm proven wrong. But I really doubt day one, he's going to be better. And he could have still been on big time games. The number two games, everyone watches the number two crew too. It's just at like 1 p.m. instead of 4 p.m. It would have been fine. But if he's bad or if he's just average, it puts him in a spot where it's like, you didn't really earn this. And as you get better, people aren't going to have as much pay. So you're calling him Drew Brees? That's a bad idea. You're put him in the Drew Brees category potentially. I mean, Drew Brees was Drew Brees set up to succeed there too.

Like, he was in a tough spot. Maybe if he had just been like the number four or five Fox crew, he could have worked his way into it. He's trying to get back into it. I'm nervous about this. I'm nervous for Tom Brady. And I can't believe I'm nervous for Tom Brady. But it's just all, that position is all about how comfortable you are and how confident

you are. Of course, he's confident. But I just don't know how comfortable he's going to be in that role. And I'm excited to listen, but I also just don't want to be cringing. But he's going to be calling games. See, and there's a difference. He's not going to be the studio analyst like his former head coach, Bill Belichick will be. Right.

So Belichick's going to have some runway. He's going to have some things to plan for, and he's going to be fantastic. Belichick is going to be great. I'm so excited. But, you know, Tom's going to be in games. Like, we saw Tony Romo come in with a ton of rehearsals with Jim Nance, the ultimate play-by-play guy, you know, where they practiced, where you could see the feel and the energy that Romo brought. That's going to be the comp for Tom Brady.

Can you be the next Tony Romo? you're fresh out of the game. You know the opposing players. You know the opposing tendencies of the D.C.'s. Are you going to give that to us? And if he doesn't, then it's going to be on somebody at Fox to get him there. They are not going to allow him to fail.

They are not, and plus he's not going to allow himself to feel. This is a dude who has drafted as late as he is, who's got that chip on his shoulder, no matter what it is. I know, but Joe Montana had a chip on his shoulder, and he was one of the greatest ever, and he was so bad in the booth.

You know, same thing with Joe Nameth. It's different. They weren't getting ripped on Twitter. It's a different skill set, is what I'm saying. And I hope I'm wrong. I hope he gets into the nitty gritty and isn't just vanilla. Maybe he'll be great. But he's not going to be better than Greg Olson off the bat.

I'm just saying he could have been number two for a year and then let Greg Olson go take Chris Collinsworth's job or something. Wouldn't surprise me if that happens someday. I noticed that Madden is using Torrico and Olson as a crew. And I was like, hmm, maybe that's like a. They recorded those. They started. recording those about 18 months ago. Right. I'm just saying, no. I'm just saying like,

oh, that could be a crew. I would see that happening. That'd be a great crew. But it just respect the game. Respect the announcing game and kind of earn your spot. That's all I'm saying. That's not on him, bro. It's not on him. That's a bad idea. Okay, we'll see. Okay, here's my bad idea. Since we're entering training camp, one of the big rule changes is what, the hip drop tackle.

Don't over, it's a bad idea to over penalize it in the preseason. We tend to see when there's rule changes in the preseason, oh, offensive we can challenge offensive pass interference. Let's go crazy with that. We've got this change. Let's go crazy with that.

Don't go crazy with this one because this is such a subjective play. It does not happen every game. If all of a sudden you start calling two or three is a game, defenders are going to be like, okay, what are we going to do? My solution is,

send a video to the team and the individual player saying this will be called. Or else call a penalty in the game, but don't find them like they will be doing in regular season. Give them the solution. before all of a sudden we've got

all the Tom Brady's of the world in the preseason trying to explain this to the public like what the hell is this. Because so many players don't even know what a hip drop. So nuanced. Tackle is. Right. This is a, this is the finest of line. I mean, I feel like I kind of know it, but could I really know

the difference? I don't know. You have to swing. I obviously couldn't call it. Swing behind the guy and turn him before you fall on him. Which is a kind of a spinoff of the allegation. or tackle they told guys to start doing after they try to take the head

out of the game with a head-to-head contact. So that's what I'm just saying. It's a bad idea to go nuts and preseason like we've done with some of these other potential rule changes to over-penalize and be overly punitive without giving more of a solution to the player and the team

before we get to the regular season. Whenever I hear a point of emphasis, I want to run. I just want to run and scream. I can't do it. Don't do it. Don't make it a point of emphasis. And yeah, and this is, what, just a flat new rule. And hopefully it's like that lowering the head rule, which everyone was all worked up about for a month,

four or five years ago. Just how, you know, want to put the skirts on them. It's like, let's not play football. It's like, how many times has that rule come up in a meaningful way since? It gets called about 20 times a year. Hopefully, what it's done, and I think this will happen more than anything with the hip drop tackle, is it's just taught differently from now on

and so naturally it kind of leaves the game but maybe it's something that you know they you mentioned maybe they use fines versus right I think once you get to the regular season the guy they may not call it on the spot again it's such a difficult play for the to officiate but they may hit a guy with a $15,000 clip you know he gets that FedEx folder on Thursday

because he did it I mean that's what they've done with a lot of these other penalties too like they'll find guys because guys don't like to lose that change. So you have to change the behavior. But again, this is such a rare call. You don't see the hip drop call that often. But when you do, it's usually a smaller player taking down a bigger guy like Mark

Andrews and him being out for the season. So again, I understand wanting to reduce the injuries, but let's not be overly punitive or ask the officials to do something so radically. As you said, a point of emphasis. I can't. Even when you say it, I can't. It's to where we're like, again, you're trying to explain it and everything else. too muddled. I like that we all go

in different directions of who can be making these bad ideas. It could be teams, players. It could be Fox in my case. And in your case, you're just putting your sights on the NFL league office. It's just going to be, look, it's going to be a point of emphasis. Yeah. We're going to be talking with that FedEx.

We're going to be talking about this. We come to the regular season, to the preseason. That's going to be something. That's going to be a point. Here's what we don't need. Is that being like a major talking point? Yeah, it's on the coaches to coach it differently. It's on the coaches to coach it differently. we're going to take a quick break.

We're going to get one more from each of us and we're going to wrap the show up. It's beautiful. It's Tuesday. Training camp has started. Bad ideas, Connie. You've had a few. I wish I thought of some of the

Bad ideas in my own life I mean, that was a 22nd. So many. I could, we could fill multiple hours with bad ideas. But I have a couple

for the Cowboys here. There's a few. Only a couple? There's a few bad ideas that are surrounding that team. They should have paid DAC. They obviously still need to pay CD Lamb. I really don't know about the running back by committee.

Micah. Remember? Micah. Micah and Mike Zimmer. I'm excited to see those two together, but my bad idea is the fact that they really don't have a clear-cut center on the offensive line. And that is a massive problem.

With Tyler Beaudish now in Washington, I mean, this is a true competition in training camp. And this is such a crucial position, especially for that offense. You think about late snaps, high snaps, anything like that. And they've had a lot of problems starting up front in recent years after it was just like exalted as this like unbelievable offensive line for so many years.

And then it just became such a lazy talking point for everyone. And then there was a time where it just ended up switching. So Mike Salari is a veteran assistant coach who's coming in. They're hoping that he can sort of galvanize this group. But the options right now, they signed Brock Hoffman from San Francisco. They have a third round rookie in Cooper Beebe, and then Chuma Adoga is another option. A good job. But I think, I don't know, I just kind of like, I'm still learning in straining camp for me too.

But this is an area that could really like torpedo the team at some point if they don't find a good option there and if these guys don't gel. Little known fact about Mike Salari. He's been in the NFL so long that he was on Tom Landry's. staff in Dallas. Wow. What? Wow. Hold on.

And Landry hasn't coached since 1989. Yeah. He spent two years, the final two seasons of Tom Landry, he was on that staff. So a lot of fresh ideas. No, I'm just kidding. Because he's, he's been around so long because he's not a good job. Dante Scarnacki is not the youngest. Right.

Some of these coaches are around that long. Right. That's ageism. It is. And I just love that. And I know Connie was doing some homework over the weekend. She put it up on her stories. all the all the prep she's doing for ITC that like I hate stuff you avoid you avoid the the

back or any situation like Zeke and you go straight to center that's great show off I love it it's true though it's of all the lists of issues that the cowboys have and there are many right now it almost feels like we're overdoing it this this one could really hurt them yeah on and is not being talked about at all that's it well done real bad idea yeah I hit her with a well done he got a couple well done deep in the weeds on things now I I would have add the CD DAC thing as my first bad idea. And then I just didn't go with it first. And now I'm regretting that because I was like,

I don't want to be ESPN and just start off the segment. You can't even, that's not even a fair comp now. But the ESPN, I'll drop another one. But I just think giving the contract to CD and not to DAC, which I think is how this thing is going to go if I had to guess that they're going to go into this.

I think CD Lamb's going to get paid. He's going to hold out or hold in. But they're going to make sure it happened. And Dak's going to go into this year without a it's just, it's just bad. It's bad. It's all bad. It's bad idea.

Bad vibes. It's a bad idea. It's a question that's going to be asked too much. And I think it's just going to be given Dak ideas of where he wants to play next. It's bad. And with a coach that's very much on the hot seat, like, it's bad. Just pay them both. Either pay them both or pay neither.

I was actually thinking, too, like who is under more pressure? And I hate that question, but it's an honest question here, Dak or Mike McCarthy. They're so tied together. Oh, it's Dak. This is salary alone. Yeah. The salary alone publicly, he can't.

I hear you, but like, Dak is going to be a good quarterback. The situation around him will see how it is or not, but he has control of it. To me, pressure is like, Mike McCarthy only has so much control and he's having to deal with all this other stuff. At least Dak has the ball in his hands.

At least he, maybe he has more pressure, but he has more control over like what's going to happen. Mike McCarthy, like, I don't know if Mike McCarthy, what he can do to fix this. Dak has, could have center issues. He could have running back issues. I get it. But like,

Dak's going to be in the league next year, making a lot of money no matter where he is. For the Raiders. Oh, I didn't say that, did I? Oh, my God. All right, you go next, Steve. Okay, bad idea.

Yeah. For the New England Patriots to start anyone at quarterback other than Drake May. Okay. Now, hear me out. Their schedule is as ugly of a schedule

as I could imagine. I mean, look, they open at Cincy, Seattle, New York Jets, the Niners, Miami, Houston, Jacksonville, the Jets. Those are brutal defenses. So people can say, well, why would you want to expose him to that? If it's Jacoby Brissette, the one-loss situation

is probably going to be similar than it would be for Drake May. So let him go out there and face Luanarumo. Let him go out there and face Mike McDonald and some of those guys so he can learn. The Patriots are probably not going to win five games or more anyway. So do you want him to take those L's watching Jacoby Percette get pummeled? And here's the other thing.

I don't know if he's necessarily going to get pummeled. Their defense, the Patriots defense is going to be really freaking good. Right? They've got players on that side of the ball. They're going to hold some of these teams down. I would still get Drake May in there against this brutal schedule. I mean, you look at all 17. It is rough, but the one loss result is going to be the same.

So you go out there and you coach him up, you let him take his lumps, you let him learn, because to me, experience is the best teacher. These guys aren't so fragile that if they're going to be good, that they can't handle some struggles as a rookie. Like, if that's going to be the thing that stops them, they weren't going to be great anyways. And Drake May is just so talented. You can't tell me he's not going to make,

three to four just wow plays. He's used to having a team around him that isn't as good as his opponents. Like whenever Drake May played a Georgia Tech or even a Virginia where his teammates were about the same as the other team,

he destroyed them because he's absolutely incredible. He's one of the best quarterback prospects I think of the last decade. I think it's a little crazy. He went behind Jaden Daniels, but I get it. Jaden Daniels was coming off

such a good year. The trick is Jacobi Berset is, the best of all these bridge quarterbacks. And so the temptation will be like, maybe we'd have a better chance to win with Jacoby Percette.

I don't know if that's true. I'm just worried about their skill position players around Drake May. Like, who, the past catchers, this is, I know that the past catchers weren't great last year, but I mean,

this feels like one of the most, I don't, I want to say this nicely. And it's difficult to say nicely, but I just wish that there was more talent at the skill position players. Yes. Um,

than there is. They got good running back. Garamandra Stevenson, but, you know, you could have him turn and hand the ball off. But look, their defense is going to be good enough for them to play conservative football. This is what we always hear about all the time with rookie players. Now, he does he does not have Keenan Allen. He does not have DJ more, you know, like Caleb. He does not have the option.

And I don't know if he has it in him to play conservatively. It's just. Well, then let it rip. He's very, very Josh Allen light. Let it rip. Let him go. And he might have some of the lumps that Josh Allen had. And look, it didn't slow Josh Allen down.

he got better. Look, you look at that schedule. That is a brutal run against some teams of good defenses and teams that can put points on the board.

Let him go out there and experience it. Let them feel it. Let them learn. Okay, more bad ideas. Kicking, like giving up completely

on the new kickoff rule and just kicking it to the 30, I mean, kicking it out of the end zone every time and letting the other team take the ball at the 30. It's like, that's a whack move.

That's just like, hey, like, I'm going to take the ball and go home. We're not even going to try. Like, we're playing a, sport and we're just going to say,

we're not good enough to figure this out. Like, that's not who you want running your team. Here's your white flag. That's a bad idea. I'm just going to roll through a couple rapid fire. Sticking with Deshawn Watson, no matter what happens this year, if it goes really bad. Why did you bury that? That's a good one, Rosie.

Well, because I was a little negative on the Brown's defense, just like, can they repeat it? I just mean, I think they're at the year of the contract that if it's really going poorly, I think this is the year that you pull the ripcord. And I don't know.

You look at their roster and it's loaded. They brought in Jamis. They brought in, like, why do they have so many quarterback? DTR? They brought in Tyler Hunt. And now they're going to play them all. I'm just saying they have options.

If it was going real poor, Kevin Stefansky has some long-term security now with that new contract that. Take a look at James. They should have assigned Joe Flacko. That's what you wanted to say. I know. It's a disaster. I think he wanted to go back there, too.

I remember talking to him at, uh, honors, NFL honors, Super Bowl. week. And he seemed like he really wanted to go back. They love him. It was lit up. Yeah.

Don't draft Breece Hall number two overall in fantasy. Fantasy. There you go. Let's not trust that. And don't listen to Mike Florio about like hard knocks teams. Like, oh,

we're showing too much information and it's getting out there and it's bad for everything. It's like, relax. It's football. It's fine. It's not that big a deal. Teams have editorial control as to what it's showing

and what's not true. Yeah. They have the final say. It's like give us some good shows. Like no one, like if some information. gets out that hurts some people's feelings or you learn like ooh someone did a good job

or a bad job that's fine let them deal with that is the very point of the show exactly and it's already happened yeah it's in the past I think this was a good idea this segment it was it was not a bad idea good job thank you but you just you just empty the clip

yeah I just decided I had a bunch let's get them out there for the people let's wrap up with just a little after dinner men like you know just something nice to leave the show with. I don't know if you guys have seen this clip yet of Patrick Mahomes

throwing one of the best passes I've ever seen him throw. It just happened to come and training camp practice. Of course, you can see this on our YouTube. Sprinting right, not even stopping his feet.

Xavier worthy separating 55, 60 yards down the field at the end. I mean, that is preposterous. You know, that's just like when DJ went nuts when Zach Wilson threw that at his approach. that's the throw reminding me of.

That's the throw. I mean, the fan reaction, that's a million Daniel Jeremiah's here going nuts that, you know. The difference is there's a little bit of defense here, I guess not really. No. And there's Xavier Worthy separating and tracking that ball at the end. That's, that's different because they did not have a guy like that last year on the Chiefs. It is so much fun to watch those types of plays at training camp because training camp is just so much like, oh, they're stretching again.

Like, or that guy's on a bike. now. But when that happens, it's actually fun and it pops and it's like, okay, this is why we're here. And the best part about it is Mahomes just said, if I throw an interception, so what? It's training camp. I have been in too many practices where I've almost seen quarterbacks

get there, you know what's kicked. Because on a play like that, they'll just like check it down. And the receivers run his tail off. It's the end of practice. He's already run like 745 yard routes. He's done. And obviously, you check it down underneath. That's just Patrick taking care of his right there. I just think

I'm excited that these plays are back. It's all happening. Once again, we're practicing football. And that play is a good example of what I say. It's like every week in the NFL, there's a play that was better than any play in like the entire decade of the 1970s or 80s. Like that throw, if that throw happened in the game like 50 years ago,

can you imagine seeing that? That is a preposterous throw. I'm not, I'm not, you know, this happens at every sport, Steve. I'm not, and not, no disrespect to the old football. players, it's like the same thing in the NBA or tennis or whatever you want. They're just better now. Kids these days. Yeah, I saw Roger Sawback do that to Drew Pierce. Okay. And I'm a Vikings fan. Okay. So I'm still crushed. I mean, anytime you talk about big play, the original Hill and Mary, still like digs at me. Well, I was very excited to get you

guys before you head out on the roads. But yeah, check. Check out Steve and Colleen on NFL Network. Yeah. I'll try to get you on the podcast from the road. Yeah. I bring in my mic. When you're back, Colleen. Our next show, very excited about this. We got Stacey Dale. She's already at Trady. That's a good idea. That's a good idea.

She's talking fairs. Nick Shook will also help me cover the news on that show, but I'm excited to talk about Stacey, the most athletic NFL Network. I love her. Until then. See you next time. podcast.