OverDrive - Wyche on Parsons' contract issues, Hendrickson holding out and the Bills' stance in the AFC

Episode Date: July 22, 2025

NFL Network Chief National Reporter Steve Wyche joined OverDrive to discuss the headlines from the start of NFL training camp, Jerry Jones' overview on the Cowboys and Micah Parsons' conundrum, Trey Hendrickson holding out with the Bengals, Cincinnati missing out on pieces, the Bills' high expectations in the AFC and more.

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The station that champions Canadian music. Loud, proud, and all yours. No passports required. Just press play. Tap into Made in Canada now on iHeartRadio.ca or the free iHeartRadio app. Here's the NFL Network's Chief National Reporter, Steve Weitz, back on Overdrive. Steve, how do you respond to the kind of daily or every other day commentary from Jerry Jones

and the way he just runs the whole operation in Dallas? Well, I mean, look, it's nothing new. Yeah. Like any coach who comes in there knows that, Hey, Jerry's coming into the locker room post game and speaking, you know, this is his annual training camp opening news conference, you know, and for him to say the things that he did about Mike Parsons and Dak Prescott, like, yeah, you know, we've got to protect ourselves.

Hey, what we're not getting return on our investment if we're paying Dak Prescott all this money and he gets hurt and doesn't play. Well, injuries happen. That's part of it. You know, and Micah Parsons, well, if we give him this contract, who's to say he's going to play every game?

And trade him, right? If you're not willing to invest, and Jerry Jones has made a lot of money through investments, if you're not willing to invest in potential risk, but even greater reward, then what are you doing? I mean, that's my question. If you're taking that approach by saying, hey, we had a guy last year who is up for a contract,

he didn't play in half the games because he was hurt. Well, he doesn't have an extensive injury history, right? He's not one of these guys who's always hurt. And when he's on the field, he's an impactful player. But what's it going to be? And if you're going to worry about the con instead of the pro and trade the guy, you know, it's, it's, it's, it was a very odd comparison point to make. You may think it, but to say it out loud the way

he did was just really... I don't know. Reckless, man. Reckless. Reckless comments. Way he's run the team now. But that's the thing. He's the owner. There's no checks and balances. It's not like if a GM said that, then he had to go to Jerry Jones' office and Jones said, what the hell are you doing? Go back and figure that out. No one's doing that. Well, and here's the other thing. That Prescott might not be the highest paid quarterback if for not Jerry waiting for other

quarterbacks to set the market. Micah Parsons might not be the next guy to do a significant amount of money if for not Jerry Jones waiting for TJ Watt, Miles Garrett to reset the market. Look at the Philadelphia Eagles, look at the Kansas City Chiefs, look at some of these teams that have sustained success. They coach, they develop, and they get out ahead of the contract extensions before the market tops out and then you have to pay with the cherry on top extra. Do you find that over the years like Jerry has you know said certain things and maybe taken a hard stance and then when push came to shove it's like he kind of gave in or gave guys what they wanted and if so do you think players kind of know that like Jerry's going to

have a a certain persona in the media but really behind the scenes it's like yeah Jerry's going to work with us and he's going to be fair and eventually we'll kind of get where we need to go. If you were the agent for Micah Parsons, wouldn't you look at Ezekiel Elliott? Wouldn't you look at Dak Prescott? Wouldn't you look at Trayvon Diggs? Wouldn't you look at all these contracts

where that's the exact thing that happened and not think, okay, hey, let's just be quiet. Let's be the good professional. And at some point, Jerry's gonna pay us more than he's paying anybody else your position. I would track record says so Yeah, and I guess is that maybe why Parsons decided to report the camper you surprised at all that that he's actually there in Dallas Well, I I'm not gonna You know guess that I don't know. Maybe that goes into the thinking,

but maybe he's just one of these guys, like, hey, I'm under contract. I'm gonna be okay. I'm gonna be a good soldier. I'm not gonna give them any reason not to pay me. But at some point, you know, he can always step away. He can face the fines. You know, we'll see if he actually does a lot of the participation practice I know they said

he's gonna do some individual drills and some things like that but he refuses to do team drills and things like that it's it's not healthy but we've seen Zeke Elliott these guys hold out you know even into the regular season so I have a Smith to it remember I mean, this is a decade's thing, so. Steve, do you see a bounce back for the Cowboys this year, or do you think it's going to be more of the same from last year? Well, I mean, I think if Dak Prescott's healthy and plays, they should be better. I think,

you know, it's Brian Schottenheimer, people I've spoken with who've coached with him, who know him, think this is a good role for him, but he's going to do a pretty good job. Is it a good enough job to get him beyond the Eagles or the Commanders or the Lions or the Vikings or the Rams or the Buccaneers? And that remains to be seen. They still have some holes in certain spots of defense, but Matt Eberfluss is their defensive coordinator. So, you know, they've addressed some things. They're running back, but we'll see. Can CD Lamb and George Pickens coexist? I mean, there's some talent there. They were dressing talent on their offensive line. So they can put it all together. They could be a real competitor. There's some other teams

They've got to get through with Steve Weich so Trey Hendrickson led the league in sacks last year and I guess it it felt as if him and the Bengals were Possibly coming close to some sort of an agreement But sure enough it's day one of camp and Hendrickson's post in instagram stories of him down in Florida and he's like I'm not showing up until I get a new deal and you know they've had an interesting offseason in Cincinnati signing the right receivers give and chase that kind of money which was deserved in the end but their defense

was pretty awful last season and now if Hendrickson's not there how does this possibly work like if you're Joe Burrow and company if yourickson's not there how does this possibly work like if you're Joe Burrow and company if you're the Bengals how is this gonna end positively for for both parties? Well okay this is this is a two-sided coin because you can say Terry Henderson led the NFL in tackles last year and we still didn't make the playoffs or in sacks last year we still didn't make the playoffs so you know if he doesn't if he doesn't come up and put up big numbers, are we any worse for the wear? At the same time, trade him then, right? Get him out of there. If you're going to take that approach, trade

him. If you don't think he's a guy, he can put you over the top. It's what Al Davis used to do. Hey, we won eight games with you. We can win eight games without you. At the same time, Trey Henderson has consistently been good when he was with the Saints the saints before he got to the big ones. He put up big numbers. He's somebody who clearly is well liked by his teammates. And it also just sends with what's going on with their rookie on the other defensive end side with the contract, it just sends just a terrible vibe throughout the whole locker room because it lives up to some frugal history that people want to put on them, even though they showed that there's

certain players. So, um, I think getting a deal, but you know, we'll see what his, what his fiscal stamina is, how long he wants to hold out, how long he wants to do this because the Bengals are a team that is not afraid to get into a stare down. Think about Carson Palmer all those years ago where he's just like, you know what, you're not going to get me to, I'm just going to retire. And they're like, okay, we're not going to concede your rights.

And they ended up trading them to the Raiders. You're getting drafts. So it's just how they've operated. And you know, you can't say they're cheap because they did pay those guys on the offense I mean not just to Marchase but T Higgins. Because we're located in Toronto it feels like there's an obligatory Bills question that has to be asked. That question is do you think they did enough on the defensive side of the ball to see improvements defensively this year? Boy you, it's always a tough question because

when you look at why they're not getting into the Super Bowl, you don't necessarily look at them, you look at Kansas City. You know, it's one of these things that there are good, sound football team across the board to where even we ask, do they do enough they find the answers oh well actually they don't have any wide receivers didn't seem to bother them Khalil Shakir showed up those tight ends showed up James Cook showed up their

defense for all their holes you know it didn't really let them down that much at times it did but Josh Allen was good enough. So it's really hard to tell. You know, on paper you can say, you can probably say either way like, well, they're not as good as Kansas city or they're not as good as Baltimore. But so what? I mean, their, their offense is potentially good enough. It's just seems to come down to a play or two, um, in the game against the chiefs when it matters most. Not you know going

on a four-game losing streak or something like that because the defense was like in a certain moment the other team makes a play and they don't and that's that's been the reason why more than any gaping flaw in their roster construction or something like that. I also feel much more comfortable in projecting them winning their division and possibly running away with it than I their roster construction or something like that. I also feel much more comfortable in projecting them winning their division and possibly running away with it than I would the Ravens in the AFC North and possibly even the Chiefs in the West. And I know they've been at the top of that heap for years but

Chargers had a really good first year under Harbaugh, Denver's gotten better, look what they did last year. I don't know about Vegas but is that fair to say Steve that of the Ravens bills and cheese if you were putting money on one that you thought would definitely win their division with the bills be At the top of that list They better be yeah, they better be I mean, but you think the Jets are gonna come up and win the division Maybe they'll be better. But I mean you think the Dolphins with all the losses they've had, you know, it's just, it's just one of

these things where you look at their division like, yeah, I mean, New England is going to be better. I think they're going to be better. You know, you look at every other division AFC, you're like, okay, you know, even though Houston is on paper the favorites when the South Jacksonville could be problematic, Tennessee and Indian out with the AFC West, it's gonna be the toughest division in the NFL because the Raiders will be better to go along with Denver and the Chargers to compete against Kansas City. You know the North is always tough. So yeah the Bills, you know, the bills to me frankly, I mean it's a bad analogy because every week is tough, but this is a layup line division compared to what the other teams have to go through. So they should win it, they

should win their division convincingly. Absolutely. It's great to have camps back up and running the NFL. It's almost go time and we're almost at the Hall of Fame game and it's a beautiful thing. It's gonna come quick, man. We're gonna be in September before you know it. He is Steve Weich, NFL Network Chief National Reporter. Great catching up with you, Steve. Thank you for doing this. Thanks for having me, guys.

There he is, Steve Weich. Unmistakably Canadian. It's the music that raised you. The artists raising the bar. Hi, this is Brian Adams. Hey, my name is Brett Emmons. I'm from the Glorious Suns. Hi, I'm the Big Mouth.

I'm the Big Mouth. I'm the Big Mouth. I'm the Big Mouth. I'm the Big Mouth. I'm the Big Mouth.. The artists raising the bar. Hi, this is Bryan Adams. Hey, my name's Brett Emmons. I'm from the Glorious Suns. Hi, I'm Nellie Furtado. Made in Canada. The station that champions Canadian music. Loud, proud, and all yours. No passports required. Just press play.

Tap into Made in Canada now on iHeartRadio.ca or the free iHeart Radio app.