NFL Daily with Gregg Rosenthal - Latest trade buzz, Panthers coach Dave Canales, Bucs GM Jason Licht and Bears GM Ryan Poles

Episode Date: February 27, 2025

Gregg Rosenthal and Jourdan Rodrigue of The Athletic are LIVE from Indianapolis for the NFL Scouting Combine to get you caught on buzz from around the NFL, including a quarterback battle brewing for Anthony Richardson and the Colts (01:50), Bobby Wagner's status with the Commanders (12:44), Kevin Stefanski's opinion's on this year's quarterback class (15:00) and more! After the break, Buccaneers General Manager Jason Licht (17:01), Panthers Head Coach Dave Canales (27:21), and Bears General Manager Ryan Poles (37:59) join the show. NFL Daily YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/nflpodcastsSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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

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. Welcome to NFL Daily, where we're proud to just be a couple of women of the NFL scouting combine. I'm Greg Rosenthal. here with Jordan Rod Rieg from the Indianapolis Convention Center. And yes, we were both attendees at the women of the NFL happy hour last night. Thank you for inviting me, Jordan.

You are so welcome, Greg. I was so happy to see you there, along with a couple of other very supportive men in our industry, and a crap load of women. And it was so cool. I first attended that event seven years ago when it started. My good friend, Courtney Cronin, was the one who started it. It had a lot of support from the less than 10 women. who were actually here at the Combine at that time.

Wow. Like seven people were at the first one in 2019. There was probably 300 people there last night. It was a party. Some of our favorites here at NFL Network, Jane Slater, Stacey Dales. And yeah, Courtney Corden does awesome work at ESPN. So that was fun.

We brought Adam from the Block Party podcast. He's got to do a little work for us for the Combine next week as well. We are setting the table today, Jordan, for our, interviews. These will be the last ones you hear that we taped. I'm really excited for you guys to hear the interviews we did with Jason Light. It was spicy. I'm excited for listeners to hear that one specifically. Gave me a little grief. The Bucks General Manager, one of the best in the game. Dave Canales, the head coach of the Carolina Panthers talking about their team building process, what they need to do on defense. Little Bryce Young, of course, and then Ryan pulls the Bears

general manager. Now Wednesday here at the Combine, much quieter from a a general manager and coaching perspectives. So we're going to hit you with just like a little bit of news, some from the insiders, some from the podium. And then we'll get to the interviews and we will get out of here. And we're going to start Jordan. More veteran trade news. Yesterday it was Jonathan Allen.

Today it's Harold Landry, Ian Rappaport. Our insider says the Titans longtime pass rusher, who has a lot of sacks over the last few years. They've allowed him to seek a trade. usually that's code for we're going to cut you if you can't find a trade mildly surprising but Titans fans will tell you

he maybe hasn't been quite as good as the sack numbers show a little up and down as a player. Yeah, former second round pick too and if they cut him it would save them about 10 and a half million a little bit more against the cap but yeah that's one of those moves where you could tell new regime is in town

in the front office in Tennessee going to kind of clean out a little bit of what's left there and try to recoup some assets. I appreciate. The listeners should really appreciate. Jordan's playing hurt tonight. Okay, I am so glad, by the way, that we got our interviews done before my voice went out. I don't know what happened after I saw you leaving St. Elmo's.

But Jordan looked like she was on a spaceship to having a good time. Let's be clear. Professional, you know. Let's be clear. This is the start of the Combine Week. where you just trade in secrets all week. Yes, a lot of information. Saw little insiders, you know, saw some insiders on the circuit.

Things just happened there. I walked into Nate Tice right as we were leaving, and now he's going to join the show, actually, on Thursday. Just because I happen to walk past him, and he'll break down some draft stuff. It's really great to see everyone in one spot, and that includes the GMs, as I was talking about. Yeah, the Harold Landry, I think it's going to happen.

He has a lot of production, but he might end up being on my top 101 free agents if they can't. find a trade firm. I thought it was interesting. Chris Ballard said very plainly Anthony Richardson will be facing an open competition at quarterback coming up this season. What do you think that means for the type of quarterback that they will bring in? Because there's not really a guy to compete with him that's currently on the roster. Joe Flacco is a free agent. I know. And we've talked about this on previous shows. There are a slew of like quote unquote bridge quarterbacks who could also maybe serve as possible number two or competitive

quarterbacks to put a little juice in that room. This seems like one of those things we see every year from coaches who are maybe not satisfied with the level of play so far to this point of their quarterback where they try to put a little fire under them. They try to make sure that they feel like they're being challenged a little bit in training camp, in OTAs. So I think some of these quarterbacks, you know, it's not going to be Gardner-Minshu. we know this. Jacoby Brissette, you know, Mack Jones. It's not a great situation for them to be in

to say that they're going to bring in a competition this way. But I could also see them looking in the draft, middle to later rounds. There's some really solid number twos that might be available. I'm going to throw a name out there. Derek Carr would make sense. Derek Carr would make sense. To me, on the Colts.

I don't know if they'd give up anything for him, but I think he would be a guy that fits about the level of the right. competition because I I the way he said it I think he was meaning Anthony's got to play well this is going to be good for Anthony to have to compete and that they should they will have someone at the level of a Brissette or a Derrickar which will not necessarily be a total home run to beat out so we will see how that goes interesting they are not just putting all their chips in the Anthony Richardson basket this year Darren Mugi talked the Jets general manager and he mentioned

Devante Adams, something we didn't talk about on Tuesday's show, and he gave the dreaded Devante is on the team, quote unquote, right now. Oh, death sentence. Yeah, he's done, I guess. It really is. Yeah. Can you get a draft pick, do you think, for Devante Adams in the year 2025 with quite a large contract? The contract, I think, is going to be a sticking point for a lot of teams, but I think he can obviously, I mean, Defante Adams, I think he can still contribute at a high level or medium high level anywhere he goes. I think this is

a little bit interesting because it kind of is tied to Aaron Rogers' potential market or lack thereof, whichever way that shakes out, because that's one of those situations where I think Aaron Rogers is the one who gets maybe a pick

swapped or something, because if he really wants Devante Adams, which there's some reporting as of the morning we're recording this, that he would want to bring him with him wherever he does go, if he does go somewhere. And if it is a team that is willing to give up any capital, then that would be the case. It's almost a two-person deal.

It's so strange to me because, like, are they at the point, is Rogers especially at the point of his career, that he can dictate any of this? So I don't think that he is personally, and I don't think he should be or should feel that way. Yeah. But I think the right team, like, and when I say the right team, I'd say that the team easily manipulated would probably be able to, he would probably be able to do that with them. To me, Devondi Adams has more value. I think he would be able to get a higher salary. He is due $35 million this year.

I have a hard time imagining a team giving him all that. Florio, my old boss, Mike Florio, not the, we were next to him all week. Yes, not the fantasy guy from the NFL who's a real Mike Florio too, the other Mike Florio. out that Rogers might have expressed some interest to the Giants that he might be interested in the Giants? Could they just go across town? Either

way, don't expect Avanti Adams to be on that team. Well, while we're doing it, let's do our daily, let's limit it to like 90 seconds on Matthew Stafford. We can't go too long on Stafford every single day. Our national nightmare continues. You know, I like it. I just, it's going to be a daily update. Number one, Sean McVeigh

had some very interesting quotes and comments on the Fitz and Witt podcast. New podcast, Ryan Fitzpatrick, Andrew Whitworth. I recommend people just listen to the whole segment because Sean McVeigh can speak better and longer. Like it's hard to

find a little clip to cut out here. But I think it was nuanced and I didn't leave that conversation feeling any different other than, of course, they would be happy to have Matthew Stafford back at their price and people should just check that out. The news of the day to me was more from

the Las Vegas review journal who said Tom Brady has reached out specifically to Matthew Stafford's representatives, like his agent. Yeah, Jimmy Sexton. Yeah. Who is allowed, who as we reported, and I reported earlier this week over at the athletic, like was given permission by the Rams to have these types of communications with teams. I do think it's really interesting because we've been saying forever, Greg, that it's potentially

the Raiders who would be interested. because they want to be aggressive. John Spitech. You've been saying it for weeks. Let's keep the receipts. People trying to do some breaking news. Forget it. She's been breaking this for weeks.

And, you know, the Giants. And that's obviously, that's been kind of the fun sub-element of what this combine has been is the poor Giants beat reporters. I mean, but it's exciting. But, like, man, they are just running all over the place, like, frazzled, just trying to make sure that they're on top of this situation. and if they do finally get a quarterback, like, love that for them. If so, my friend Charlotte Carroll, was at her with send yesterday on this.

That's when you saw us. I kind of like, I kind of actually think Rogers makes more sense with the Giants than any other team I've heard suggested. So maybe he's a backup plan to Stafford. It kind of feels like the equivalent of the U-Up text. Like he sent them expressed interest, expressed potential interest. He just sent him a little Joe Shane, send him a little U-Up text, you know. Yeah. So we'll see if by the end of our time in Indianapolis,

all the reporters will be out of here by the end of the weekend. There could be some movement on this front. We will see. So I have watched some of the coaches that have been up at the podium today. One of them, Mike McDonald's. He was over at the NFL Network. Very unassuming, you know, coach walking in. I was walking right behind him, didn't realize it was him.

You know, as coaches go, closer to my size than most. I was going to say, was there another. like miscalculation. I mean, you were blown away by how tall Ben Johnson was. Yes, I would say I was surprised that Mike McDonald's more of just like an average, yeah, on the smaller side type of coach, like that about him, was asked if Gino, you know, he anticipates him being the starter. He says, I do.

John Schneider, their GM, was a little more aggressive saying he will be our starter yesterday. Just in case you were curious, it was, you know, watching Pete Carroll at the podium, I was like, man, a Pete Carroll Gino reunion, that's one quarterback match. that would make a little bit of sense. But I don't get the sense that Seattle's looking to do that. It's more if someone came in hot.

I just don't think that's going to happen. Yeah, if someone came in real hot, they'd probably at least have to listen to it, right? But yeah, we talked about the, just off to the side of the set, we talked about the potential of how cool would it be if Pete Carroll and Gino with the Raiders? Like, I just, it would be cool.

But the fact that they were so emphatic, that Mike was so emphatic about talking about Gino that way, It's not only keeping him, but also you have to go part and parcel with the contract that he is due, the extension that he's probably due coming up as well. Yeah, we'll see if they test Gino Smith in terms of like, we just like to stay on this contract, play out your contract and see if he really is going to become an issue. He might not. He might be like, actually, I just am going to show up to work and be a little annoyed.

I'm on a contract year, but try to play my ass off. One thing I think listeners will appreciate is later in the show, you'll hear from Dave Canales. He and Greg had a little bit of a geek out moment over their love for Gino Smith. It was endearing to watch. It was cute. I also enjoyed hearing, not that I wanted Jason Peters to retire, all-time great tackle. I think he'll have a real legitimate chance to make the Hall of Fame. He'll certainly be discussed seriously and have a real shot.

Finish his career with the Seahawks, people might have forgot. And he is joining the Seac's front office, which I always think it's really cool. And a player retires and immediately joins a front office. Like, that's a thinking man's player. And anyone that's ever played with Jason Peters cannot speak more highly of him. So just happy trails to Jason Peters came into the league as a tight end for about a year and a half. And they switched positions. What a great career he has had.

Congratulations to him. A former Seac was mentioned by Dan Quinn. Yes. Who spoke longer today than any coach I've seen. not only at the podium, but then had a backdrop for like a 30-minute side session with a ton of reporters. The Washington commanders are back. Like there's so many media. And man, he talked about Bobby Wagner in such a way that I think they're really going to try to get him back on the team.

I mean, and he played well. You know, he played well for them. They're not asking him, we talked about this, Greg. They're not asking him to go outside of himself the way that maybe some teams, or even late in his Seahawks tenure, certainly the Rams, were asking him to do to be that sideline to sideline guy anymore. No, they would like him to go downhill, into gaps, and stop the run. And to be a captain, a team leader, and a real pal to Jaden Daniels. And listening to Quinn, more than anything, I think they look up to him. He looks up to him.

He almost sees him as the Dan Quinn of players. And man, there is something about how intelligently Dan Quinn frames every question that he's asked that you really understand why an entire building would follow that, too. Truly a great hire. They had the report cards. We don't have time to get into all the NFLPA report cards. I might have a future day because some of the report card grades are funny. But Dan Quinn got an A-plus one of the coaches to do so.

Not a surprise. I was talking to someone from the commanders yesterday. And I said, I was kind of sort of one-off joke. I was like, hey, welcome to Joy. Yes. And he just lit up. and he was like, oh my gosh, it feels so much better. The fans agree.

Patriots fans not feeling a lot of joy lately. Watch Elliot Wolf speak today. A couple little nuggets there. You know, mentioned Christian Barmore's career in the NFL. It is quite up in the air because of the blood clots that he has a great desire to play again. But they don't know that he's doing everything that he can to play again. But that's a little up in the air, which is obviously concerning for one of their very best players. I also appreciated it as honesty.

He thought this draft is, you know, not too deep at the top, not great, but great in the middle, which, you know, not exactly what you want to hear when you have the fourth pick of the draft, but love the honesty there. That's how people describe me. Stop. And then finally, Stefansky, Kevin Stefansky, you know, just admire how that man lines up his beard daily. He, he... There's got to be like a protractor situation happening there.

It just the neckline, the beard line, it's all awesome. And I really liked hearing him talking at, length about the differences in the 15-minute speed dating sessions that he's had with Shudor Sanders, Cam Ward, Jalen Milrow, and really pointing out the differences between them, being very complimentary. He's not giving away who he likes, but especially with Cam Ward, he really thought the recall was really impressive, going back, being able to talk about all the different plays at all the different spots that he had. Shadurr-Sanders, more about the person, more about the leader, more about how he was raised and how he commands a room. And they're obviously,

looking hard at quarterback in Cleveland. This is going to turn into the most annoying time of year that we have every single year where little rumors and whispers and unfair things are spread about the quarterbacks, especially at the top of this draft class. I have heard nothing but great things about how Shooter Sanders has killed his interviews.

Like I've heard nothing but awesome things about teams coming away just so impressed by how beyond his years he has seen. This is why I'm glad, like, you passed the ball, the Jordan in the corner. I said, Greg, I'm 33. I said, Greg, you go to bed, Greg. I'm 33. I will stay up and hear the gossip. I admit, I'm not really in the drinking mode anymore.

I mean, nor am I, but I'll stay up. I was a plate last night. I did it. We did it. We did these interviews, excited about them. We're going to take a quick break. We're going to come back. On the other side of the break, you will hear our conversations, like I said,

with Buck's General Manager Jason Light, Panthers coach, Dave Canales, and Bears GM, Ryan Poles, and then we'll say goodbye on the other side right after this break. 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 IHeart 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. 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 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.

I'm Marcus Grant. 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. automotive partner of the NFL. Visit Toyota.com slash NFL now to learn more. All right, we are here with Jason Light, general manager of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

And yeah, we're chatting before we even start. Jason, you said you don't have any gotchas like you had for our friend Connor or back in the day when he didn't predict your record to be good enough. Poor Connor in that spot. Back in the day, it was only a year ago. That hasn't gone away yet. I've aged quite a bit. No, we give the bucks a lot of pop. Just last week, we were previewing your offseason.

I said, quietly, one of the best run organizations in the NFL. Your draft record has been outstanding over the last few years. Now you're at the point, though, where you have to decide to prioritize which of these draft picks, which of the homegrown guys that you are able to keep. Do you have anything for us? Let's say on Chris Godwin, who I know you extended that negotiating. period with and your confidence and trying to talk to him. Yeah, Chris Means a world to this team and to all of us.

I mean, there's no, I mean, he's going to be on the Mount Rushmore of Bucks when it's all said and done. So, you know, we hope it works out. You know, he's had a major injury. So we needed to extend that to give us some more flexibility, some more options with with that. So hopefully it all works out. Yeah, a couple of the guys that came up too, I was thinking something you guys have

a good job, is getting contracts done early. So you have some guys like Luke Getakie, Zion McCullum, K.D. And who have all been really good contributors. Like, how do you kind of look at that process balancing this time of year? You're evaluating players. You're evaluating free agents, then also thinking about the future with guys like that. Well, it definitely goes into the planning. Mike Greenberg, Jackie Davidson, do a great job for me with that, the cash, I mean the cap and all that stuff.

So that definitely goes into planning because we don't want to lose those guys. And we'd love to have those guys, all of those guys in our future, whether we do them, you know, in the coming months or whether it's, you know, later on, we're, it's definitely something that we will broach. What I have loved about the way you guys have operated over the last several years is that you've had a lot of different types of teams, a lot of different personalities, big personalities. You love a big personality at quarterback, as it turns out. And I just, I'm fascinated by how you can move so agile. when you're looking at what your roster is and quickly, because there is a time where I think everybody thought, you know,

to take on that significant amount of dead money, it's over for a few years. But you guys pivoted so quickly into the next thing, into the next phase. It wasn't a rebuild per se, but it was just like a next iteration. And I guess how do you look at your roster from that sort of telescopic lens?

That, so we, getting Baker was key there. Getting a quarterback at the time for what we got, him for what he was willing to take he wasn't about the dollars then he was about the opportunity and he saw us as an awesome opportunity he had the foresight to know that we had a good young team a good and some good veterans to win with and then we benefited by having that it didn't we didn't take a big hit there and we while we were eating over 80 million dollars in dead cap that year but it forced my staff and our coaches to go out and rely on rookies and to draft the right ones

and to sign these undrafted rookie free agents that made contributions and to sign some affordable free agents I don't say cheap but affordable and you know I think I made a mistake last year saying we're going to go to the dollar store to find players but we had to find cheap cheap ones are you know we got you got we got but they all made a lot of them we hit on a lot of them for their roles. And, you know, it showed us that we have a great foundation of some young players right now. So that we're going to keep rolling with and we're going to try to keep drafting well. And I think we're hit a sweet spot where we're competing every year.

And that's coaching, though, because when you do have those players and you identify it and you guys, you basically say, okay, like, we're pushing you into the world. We've drafted you and here you go. Like we're handing you off to the coaching staff. That has not been without turnover either. But every year, it seems like a lot of these young guys are really getting coached up. So how do you go about that identification process of coaching talent? What do you look for in your teachers?

Well, Todd does a great job. The last two years, we've, you know, obviously had a lot of turnover at offensive coordinator. And he's let me be a part of that. Let's me advise him and all those things. But he makes the call, but he's hired two really good ones, Dave Canales, and then Liam Cohen. And then now Josh Grisard, and I think Grizz is going to do an outstanding job. I think he's going to follow suit with those guys. And I think in some ways, you know, we can pick up where we left off and maybe have some fresh

ideas, too. Yes or no. Baker and Gris is the name of the TV show that you guys should be producing about those two specifically. I know, and you have to somehow incorporate. I was looking up when we hired Josh last year. He's from a town called Lizard Lick. Oh, wow. So you got to put that there. Is that from like one of the Dakotas or something? Oh, it's in North Carolina. Okay. Yeah. I can't even actually wrap my head around. What a cool hoodie, like Lizard Lick High. Yeah. Yeah. And then you should do a sports jersey. Get his name on the back too. I mean, there you go. I mean, that's it. That's a mind twister. I haven't thought a lot about how that offense is going to be different.

You're a good person to ask. What do you think that he brings, maybe that the previous coordinators didn't? That's particular to him. You know, that's still going to evolve. It's going to depend on if we've made any additions through the draft, who we have, accentuate the strengths of, you know, Rashad and Bucky and Sean Tucker. I think we're going to kind of pick up where we left off and then just like every year evolve a little bit differently

and do some new things and some new twists. When you lose in the playoffs like that, a game that could have gone either way, do you take any specific lessons from that game that you'll use to implement this off-season? Yeah, you see where we were lacking, and I'm not blind, where we needed some help, particularly on one side of the ball.

And you try to do your best to upgrade there and get some more depth. It's not as easy as what some people think. The answer isn't always just throwing a lot of cash and buying expensive free agents. What? No way. We've found that there's other ways you can do it. Now, sometimes there's an opportunity for a big splash. But yeah, it did. And, you know, after the season, it takes me a while.

unless you win the whole thing just to get over the... And you have. You have won the whole thing. You know. Doesn't drive you a little crazy with football because I live in like this all... One thing I said about this year's bucks is

if you re-ran that playoff tournament, let's say 20 times, 10 times even. I actually think there's at least one or two of those times. Maybe more, you would argue, where Baker Mayfield is up on that podium with like a Super Bowl MVP and that the margins are... One or two, huh? Right, are so close.

Keep that receipt. Okay. We gave them one. I mean, I said, you know, one or two out of ten, that's already good. You know what, Greg, I knew it was going to be you. Somehow I knew it was going to be you. I'm saying there's probably like six or seven teams that I thought could have won a super. You're one of them.

Appreciate it. But I'm not giving them all equal chances, to be fair, to be honest. Like, I don't know. Is that like the beauty of the sports to you or does that drive you crazy? A little both. I mean, it's, it feels good to know that, you know, you feel and you're trying to think, objectively that, you know, we can win the division and get in. We have as good a shot as anybody to get to the big dance in the NFC.

So just, but we have to keep up. We have to keep adding. We kind of can't just sit on our hands. You know, the defense always plays hard under Todd. We know that. We see it. It explodes off the tape as well. But obviously short-handed in some elements there.

What kind of defense do you want to be? What do you want this identity of this group to be past the effort that they put in? Well, we want to be aggressive. We want to be fast, we want to be physical, and we want to be, I mean, all things Todd would say, and we want to be a good tackling team. And, you know, Todd's always, you know, every few years, does completely, does a makeover and changes a lot of the things that he does defensively to keep it fresh. And I know he's been in the lab lately doing some things to make things a little bit differently this year.

But it all depends on the personnel that you have. So we have to help as much as we can there. So we had your former co-worker, John Spitech, on the show. How does it feel that you now got a tree, like a Jason-like GM tree out there in the wild? He's a great one to put out there. He's been ready for a while and for a long time. And he and I go way back to 2005 when he was an intern with the dolphins. And I remember we were going to promote him to a scouting assistant.

after two years of being an intern, and I took him out golfing, and my boss at the time, Tom Heckert said, yeah, offer him the scouting assistant job, and I did, and he teed off, and he turned around and looked at me. He goes, you know what? I'm better than that.

I think I want a little bit better title. And I was like, what? And we ended up giving it to him. That rule. That's one of those moments, probably it's, I almost imagine like bigger Mayfield's got a little bit of that. You're almost like... See, that's what I'm saying.

You guys like big personalities over there. You're a little taking aback. You're almost like, for a half a second, maybe, who is this guy? But also, that's badass. I like that guy. Later on, I asked him, what were you going to do? What was your backup money? Because I didn't have one.

How was the shot? He hit a, he hit a golf. Oh, he's a good golfer. Okay. All right. I was going to say, because if you shanked it and then you said that, it wouldn't have the same effect. I mean, it's not like he, it was a walk off, you know. How's your game?

How's your golf? It's getting a little bit better, but I'm still. It's getting better. On the golf course, Jason Light, but has been killing it in terms of the draft looking forward to all the moves the bucks are making this off season thanks for joining the show appreciate it guys for the bulletin board material oh come on that was i'm saying they could have won the title that's like that thank you so thanks jason we are here with dave canales the head coach of the carolina panthers uh welcome to the show dave you said as we're getting going

you actually like doing the media stuff that that's refreshing to hear yeah why is that i think it just kind of helps crystallize, perspective, goals, vision, all those things. Like, what do we really want to accomplish? And so when you get asked those questions, like, oh, that's a good one. You know, I didn't thought about that. Or I know exactly how to answer this one, you know. Yeah, you're big on manifesting, aren't you? So I almost feel like talking it, like basically having a written record or an audible record in this case would help with that manifestation. Absolutely. And there's accountability to it, too. I think, you know, primarily my commitment is to Panthers fans and to the Carolinas and to tell them this is what we're trying to build.

And if it doesn't look like that, that's when I get those comments and those things like, well, you said you were going to build this team off of this, this, and that. You know, it's like, yeah, I did say that. We're not doing that right now. Or, hey, did you see this? This is exactly what we're looking for. So we do a national show. And yeah, the Panthers fans, they know you well by now.

I feel like the Bucks fans got a chance to know you. But nationally, I feel like the Panthers relatively under the radar. So I was thinking, I've heard you have a lot of energy. You know, I've seen it. But I'm curious behind closed doors, what is a Dave Canales meeting like? Like, how are you running this team? How would you describe that behind the scenes? Just connecting.

I want to make sure that I'm connecting with the humans. Who are these guys? And what are they going through? I like to say this, you know, going into the offseason is they're different. You know, the names may be the same. in different positions. They have changed. They come off of different seasons. Some have gotten married. Some have had kids. Some have had deaths in the family. These are different people with different expectations and goals. I think it's really critical that we reconnect as a staff

with what that is and create a joint vision for what the next steps are for them. Because I believe that you can go a lot, go far place, go really, go where you can. Go to your potential when you're connected that way. You always hear too that if players talk about this, I think, especially a younger generation of coaches, talks about this, too, about if you understand a little bit more about someone else's why you are more likely to push harder for them, because you feel like I know a little bit more about that person's story. So now I don't want to let them down. Are you feeling that mutuality between yourself and your players entering your two now? Absolutely. And so it's us learning the players, and then it's the players hearing consistent messaging.

And that's where I have people that say, hey, remember. remember, go back to this, you know, and have people around me that remind me of the principles and the, and so that the narrative, so that the goal stays the same for everybody. You keep the receipts, but in a positive way. Yeah, and lucky you know. The receipts are, they're great. Yes, I, I am a huge, you know, Smith fan to thank you for the help. Yeah, to the point where we have a sub-series called quarterback island, where we put a

select number of quarterbacks on quarterback island. He is on the island. Oh, nice. But we call it Gino Island, because when Greg gets going on. Gino Smith. It's a lot. I always like Dave here, I always believed in him, even when he was back with the Jets. I was like, he absolutely could be a high quality start. It all happened. So thank you

for your contributions to him, obviously, and then Baker Mayfield. And then this year with Bryce Young, I feel like he was a theme of our show that we were talking about week to week. As far back as that first game he came back against the Broncos, where I thought on

tape he was making better decisions, even if it didn't show up on the box score, he's throwing it where he wants to, and good decisions all the way through the rest of the season. I guess from your vantage point, what was it that helped him improve throughout the course of the season so much? Yeah, just his toughness.

You said it. That Broncos game, we score a touchdown on the opening drive. It felt different. I have so much respect for Bryce, taking the challenges of the situation and just going right back to work. He just kept working.

working. And when he got his opportunity, he took it. And he was letting me know. He was letting the team know. I'm here. This is my team. Here we go. And it was just a weekly commitment to that, you know, and I'm so excited to just get back going. I know we still got a couple of months, you know, to really, you know, start reconnecting on the things that I was kind of teaching for the first time, but to be able to build off of those things. But to have, it just helps me visualize what we can become knowing Bryce is going to be our quarterback how do we build this thing out so that we can achieve our best it's it was a joyful thing watching him be so it was like he remembered who the F he is really no doubt and and that was a joyful thing to see and

we did not obviously get to see behind the scenes behind closed doors what those little turning points are because I don't think with anyone in life it's not one massive catalytic moment it's a series of small moments back to yourself right and so I wonder what you saw from him, how he came back to himself and the group around him, how they supported him in that. Yeah, I think you're right. I think it was, it was a mental discipline and toughness to remember who he is, to remember how he got here, who he's always been, and he's always had challenges, and he's always overcome. And that's the belief that he has in himself, first and foremost, you know, don't wait on me to make decisions for you. And he didn't. He got in there

and he took it. And that's the thing that I respect the most. And it was such a cool meeting to leave this season kind of like your exit interview type of thing and I can feel this mutual respect for each other of I respect you for how you responded to this challenge and I could feel his respect for me to like and as we've done it I'm going to shape this offense to have your signature on it to make the things that you do well come to life and I want your input I want you involved this is your team let's do this thing together so it's really empowering I think yeah did at the wide receiver position, you draft Xavier Legat, hi, you mentioned earlier on Tuesday that he's going to be overcoming foot surgery this off season. You found a good undrafted rookie in Jalen Coker.

Do you expect that group to be added to? And do you think Adam Thielen is going to be part of your future plans too? I certainly hope Adam is. Hopefully, you know, he had fun down the stretch as he came back to us and Bryce found a way to hit him down the field and short and intermediate. and I just was like, man, he's such a phenomenal player still, you know, and the impact that he has on Xavier and Jalen, you know, and guys like David Moore who are veteran ride receivers who know how to work, you know, and do that. But we're always going to try to challenge the roster.

We're always going to try to like make everyone's play step up. I don't think you can ever go into any offseason and just go, ah, now we're good here. You know, I would love to just mess things up a little bit by adding somebody really talented and see if these other players can find another level. Yeah. You know, and that's the beauty of competition. That's why I truly believe you challenge your roster by adding in free agency and the draft every year,

instead of just staying away from certain positions. And that's a process, obviously, you collaborate with Dan on. And I'm kind of wondering, you know, now that you guys have some momentum, some experience together, what is that like? What have you taken from each other? How do you identify talent together and maybe what has changed about each other? that you've taken from each other. Yeah, I think spending a year of just talking about our team

has really helped come to the combine this year, you know, with different eyes. I think that the more that he understands about my offense, defense, our schemes, and he says, okay, I know how to fit these players into our schemes, you know, and for us to continue to become aligned and to make those decisions with all of those things in mind,

the more our coaches, talk the more the scouts tell us how they're profiling these players you know the the the tighter we can get in our decisions you know and I think we'll see that the more time we spend together do you think it's safe to say you might have more needs on defense and is there anything you're looking for specifically defensively this off season I think it's just about stopping the run we got to stop the run you know that was it's no secret you know that was our our kryptonite you know and and philosophically that's something that we all believe in it starts there

and we address some things on the offensive line we'll address some things up front on the defense but it comes from different spots it's not just the front play it starts there but it's your inside backers it's your safety play do they show up physically and aggressive at the point of attack are we playing that high level of pursuit

of defense that I know we can and should play it's demanding those types of things you know and I really think that we can make an impact this year I have studied Egero ever in that defense defensive system for a long time. And I think it's under, under-discussed. Former Panthers B-rider here before your time. It was under-discussed that some of the technique that you have to play with up front, it's just not for everybody. It's not a fit for everybody. And it takes some time to match, like you said, to match the right players with that scheme. Getting a certain very, very, very good

defensive tackle healthy and back for you guys next year will probably help too. 100%. Being in Tampa for a year, playing against Derek Brown. You asked, yourself. Do you want to run at him or away from him? There's no right answer. You just have to you have to know that there's going to be an issue at this place. So you have to find creative ways to run either way. So that's a real challenge. So we just got better getting Derek Brown back and having him be out there, you know. But it's not just about his ability. It's about his character. It's about how he practices. The strain that he plays with, he's a, Energizer Bunny. He's sideline to sideline. As big as he is, he chases things down,

gets there in a bad mood, and you just can't move them. So that's a big piece of it, you know, but getting the whole unit to play together, you know, but certainly having that mentality back in that room is going to be helpful. Love hearing about that energy. This man, Dave Canales, the head coach of the Carolina Panthers, appreciate your energy that you actually like doing this with us. So thank you for joining us. Thanks for having me. All right. We are here with Ryan Poles, the general manager of the Chicago Bears, a popular man here in a crowded convention center in Indianapolis. I'm going through the cap space. I'm a dork. I like, you know, checking all the caps space. And I want to ask you a theoretical question to get going here. You have $79 million in cap space right now, according to over the cap. Do you think there is such a thing as too much caps space? No. No? No. You want as much flexibility as possible. but don't you want to be like sometimes i find there's almost more cap space sometimes than

great players to spend the cap space on so as a general manager kind of how do you balance that short and long term in terms of being able to spend that cap space yeah i think you know you can usually start off with a quarterback position and where you are there and build from there but um yeah having the flexibility to acquire players to bring on your roster but i think the other important piece that we don't really talk about that much is extending and paying the guys that are on your roster. And we should have some opportunities to do both of those things this year. So the flexibility has been great and I got to give a lot of credit to Matt Feinstein, who's just promoted to VP of Football Operations, our administration for setting us up well

and making sure that we're thoughtful in the way that we spend, how we do our contracts, both short-term and long-term. So it's helped us be in this position. keep growing. How do you guys talk as a staff about combinations? Because obviously you guys always like to add and develop in the draft and you have done that. You also always like to bring in key pieces one or two that really can supplement that young core as well. How do you talk about combinations? How do you, I guess how do you argue too about combinations? Yeah, we go around and around and different philosophies on how to build a roster. Obviously, you would love to always go through the draft and develop your own players.

But there's going to be opportunities that pop up where there's certain teams that have situations where they're kind of maxed out based on having a veteran quarterback on the roster that they have to make tough decisions and that brings up opportunities for us that have cap space to bring those players on. So you want to be strategic with it.

I think the big thing is making sure you know what type of player you're getting because you don't get to do the research that you do while you're at the combat. You can't sit down and talk to them. So there is some risk there. So previous relationships and also some research along the way to make sure you're bringing in the right type of guys that fit your culture.

I think that's so interesting because you also have a brand new perspective via Ben coming in, sort of a fresh set of eyes on not just you guys' processes, the collaborative efforts as well, but also just his relationships with players and his people that he knows. What has that been like onboarding him? But also I imagine he's looking at different parts of y'all's problems. process with a brand new set of eyes on it. Yeah, it's been really good.

Anytime you can add a different perspective and make those tweaks and changes to make your process even better, it's critical to growth and make sure that you, you know, you're keeping up with the times and you're also staying open mind and how you do things. One thing that we do what I'm proud of is any new staff member that comes in. We do a cohabitation report so that player goes through all of, let's just say all the players in for agency that they've touched and that could be over the last three, four, or five years, and they do a one or two liner to just give us some more information about the players that we could potentially bring in the building. Yeah, and some of the guys that are

on my top 101 free agents list. What a plug. You know, we're coached up by Ben Johnson last year, Kevin Zitler. So that sort of brings a question. I can almost hear the Bears fans in my life, like, you know, say, ask him about the offensive line. You haven't spent a lot in free agency. Not that you haven't brought in free agents in the past, but you've built a little more through the draft on the offensive line. You have, you know, three guys that were playing starting snaps last year that are in free agency. Do you think you'll push a little more in free agency with the offensive line this year? Yeah, I think there's a good opportunity for us to do that. You know, when you look at our interior, there's some space there where I think we can move the needle

and get our team to take the next step. Obviously, when you do that, you get added protection in the past game. But I think more importantly, running the ball efficiently, which creates balance. And we all know when you get to the backside of the season, December, January, February, the ability to run the ball is critical. So we'll be taking a hard look at that spot. I think an underrated and probably not spoken about as much element of finding those guys is the partnerships and the relationships that you have to, the players have to learn each other too with the center quarterback. Those guys have to learn each other just as much as you have to project what will be the right fit. So what kind of

of center does Caleb Williams need in his life right now? What qualities do you think are best partnered with him? Because that could be a, you know, 10-year relationship if it works. Yeah. No, it's important. I start with overall just intelligence. And that can come in different ways. You know, if you were to go through the draft process, that player has to have a great understanding of the game of defenses and be a high-end communicator to get everything lined up as much as possible. If you go the route of free agency, agency, that command up front is going to be critical. The more you can take off a young quarterback's plate at the line of scrimmage, the faster that they can play and make their

decisions, which is important. So we'll be looking at both of those things on both the draft and free agency. Yeah, you're a former lineman. I don't need to tell you that. It is hard to find. I know I saw him kind of light up a little bit when we were like, oh, oh, lion, here we go. It is hard. It is hard. Every year I make that list, it is hard to find offensive alignment in free agency just because they are that value. You have one. So I'm going to throw up just a couple of your free agent names at you. Tevin Jenkins is a guy who's played a lot for you.

And then Keenan Allen, kind of where are you at with maybe trying to retain those two guys this year? Yeah, so that's part of the combine process. We're going to spend time with their reps and clear that up with them in terms of direction. There's a lot of different factors. There's money. There's age.

There's durability, things like that. So we'll make sure we get with them and get a clear picture on how we're going to move forward. At the same time, you guys will be interviewing prospects. And again, it's kind of, I kind of love this when you have a new head coach because you learn a lot about each other in a tiny room very quickly, right? Yes, you do. And I know you went through the interview process and you know them pretty well already, but what have you learned about Ben? How does he interview players? What, what do you like about it? What might you say that we can't see that we don't know about? He's got a little extra

something than I expected when we had that rest. A little chip watch, a little chip watch on the shoulder, I think. Yeah, I talked about that. There was a weird narrative before that he didn't have a lot of juice and he was just kind of a smart guy that would sit in the corner that is not even close to being the truth. He's got a lot of energy. But what I like about just the interview process with the players or, you know, talking strategy on how to put a team together or even building a staff, he's very, very thoughtful and strategic on how he wants to do it. He values the team dynamics of the chemistry of how everything is going to work together. But in these interviews, I think, also coming from the offensive coordinator's position,

you know, we did some defensive guys yesterday. He took a step back and just let Dennis and our position coaches do their things. So we all can learn, you know, about the player and what he knows and what he doesn't know. And I liked that energy. I liked that he was calling people out by name. Oh, absolutely. Referring to certain coaching trees by dynamic and last name. I loved it.

We're so easy in the media. just give us a little red meat. After seeing him, I was like, he is not what I heard. It is absolutely great. And so kind of thinking about that, him as the Bears head coach, it's interesting because you've been there since 22, and he is a new head coach. And sometimes, and when there's a new head coach, you have a little bit of a timeline of, okay, we're going to give this guy a little time to contend and compete.

But you're in a very competitive division, statistically one of the best of all time. How do you see your timeline and his timeline meeting up? And are you guys ready to go win that division this year, to compete to go win it? Yeah, and he talked about that in the opener. We're going to get after it and really not afraid of that at all. And we believe we have the pieces to compete fast. And it's a beautiful thing because he's from in the division and he knows what it looks like. So we're excited to get started.

All right, Ryan Poles, general manager of the Chicago Bears just has one of the the most loyal, best fan bases in the entire world. You've got their hearts in your hand. Good luck to you this week. Thank you so much. Thank you. All right, that was a lot of fun. I love being back in the Combine mix.

First time I've been here in three years, and I hope we can do this again. And yeah, I loved Jason Light holding my feet to the fire and doing some quick math getting on me for like, you gave us a 5, 10% chance to win. I was like, yeah, that's fair. I mean, that's like you're one of a seven. six or seven teams that would have been that high.

It was everything. And listeners, I would encourage you to go check that one out specifically on YouTube because Greg's reaction when Jason Light caught him in like almost mid-sentence was just, it was everything. It was so good. It was awesome. This is my eighth combine. This is probably the most fun so far that I've had with you, Greg. It's been awesome. Yes. Thank you to all our friends at IHeart, who have helped us with the week. And obviously Eric Roberts and Chris Bobona back in Los Angeles. editing in it and making it look great. We will have one more show from

Indianapolis. It's me and Nate Ty starting to look ahead to some of the Combine Drills and yeah, we actually will have our first night of Combine Drills to start recapping. That's all going to start. So really excited for that

and I guess once we said football was back last episode, does that just mean it stays back? We can't go back. I guess it's back. We'll See you Friday. Hey, everybody. Daniel Jeremiah here.

And I'm Bucky Brooks. On Move to Six, we take you inside the game from breaking down college prospects and NFL rookies to evaluating team building philosophies, coaching trends, and how front offices construct winning rosters. We study the tape, talk to decision makers, and give you a perspective you won't find anywhere else. It's everything you need to understand the why behind what happens on Sunday. Don't miss it.

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