Rahimi, Harris & Grote Show - Mike Florio talks NFL's 'warped' compensatory draft pick reward system

Episode Date: February 6, 2026

Leila Rahimi and Mark Grote were joined by Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk to discuss the latest NFL storylines and to preview the Patriots-Seahawks matchup in the Super Bowl.

This hour is brought to you by Cars for Kids. Ladies and gentlemen, joining us now is a man who's got a massive brain. Mike Florio. He used to be a lawyer, then he decided to take his talents to the internet. NBC Sports. I'm sorry, I'm late. I was talking to Robert Kraft. That is at the time for an airing of grievances.

Pro football talk. I got a lot of problems with you, people. No, you're going to hear about it. On Chicago Sports Radio, 1043, The Score. Yeah, that's right. Our Mike Florio intro got a little different. Now that he's on 104 3, the score with us, the creator and editor-in-chief of Pro Football Talk. He is at Pro Football Talk on X. He joins us from the Super Bowl.

Mike is on the Circa Resort and Casino hotline, circa Las Vegas.com. Mike, thanks for joining us. I know we had to move your days because it's a busy time at the Super Bowl in San Francisco right now. Yeah, it's been crazy. We were actually live this week at noon Eastern every day just because I didn't want to start at 4 a.m. Pacific time. So it's been a crazy week, and now we've transitioned to full-blown Super Bowl pregame show preparation mode. Well, and we also have some breaking news to discuss because this was out via Adam Schaefter just about 10 minutes ago. The statement from the Browns on the resignation of defensive coordinator Jim Schwartz.

Yesterday, Jim Schwartz submitted his letter of resignation as defensive coordinator of the Cleveland Browns. We would like to thank Jim for his contributions to our organization over the last three seasons. Our search for a new defensive coordinator will begin immediately. What do you think? Well, I'm not surprised. It felt destined that Jim Schwartz wasn't going to be there after Todd Monkin got the head coaching job when Schwartz was one of the finalists. It was immediately reported that Schwartz was livid. and he was saying he's not coming back.

They went through an awkward tug-of-war for a few days, maybe a full week trying to figure out what was going to happen next. And the way it was reported by NFL Network, he's resigning with the expectation he won't coach in 2026. That suggests to me there was some sort of a negotiated compromise where maybe they'll pay him for this year and he won't go become a defensive coordinator with another team until next year. Because if you're under contract than he was for one more year,

you can't just quit and go coach another team. they held his rights, he didn't want to stay with the Browns. And I think Todd Munkin, when you got a guy that was that close to being the head coach, I don't think you want Munkin to be, or Munkin doesn't want Schwartz to be the defensive coordinator, because then that just undermines him. It makes it harder for him to have any authority in the locker room. The defense could line up behind Schwartz, the offense could line up behind Munkin, and you could have more dysfunction in Cleveland, which has kind of been the name of the game

for the past several years in Cleveland. So I'm not surprised by the outcome. I'm a little surprised. Schwartz isn't going to be able to coach anywhere else this year. The Raiders had emerged as a potential destination for Schwartz. I still think he's going to get paid by the Browns to not coach the team this year. And Lail and I were just talking about it before we came on. I mean, localizing it Bears-wise.

Al Harris, the Bear secondary coach, who did his job very well for the Bears this year, has gotten some attention with other potential gigs. Have you heard his name or how prominent is Al? Harris' name in NFL circles, and could he qualify to replace Jim Schwartz as the Cleveland Brown's defensive coordinator? Well, they're going to be looking now. We know how this is all driven. It's relationships.

It's familiarity. It's what is the head coach looking for? What kind of a system do they want to run? The way that Monk had explained it during his introductory press conference the other day, he's attracted to the players, not the scheme, and the players are going to dictate the scheme. Now, I think Schwartz had a lot to do with it. they finished number one overall in 2023,

and they were just one yard per game behind the Texans for the top defense in 2025. So they're just going to have to make a good decision here. And it all comes down to who Munkin is comfortable with, but they're starting their search now. The Raiders are going to need to have their defensive coordinator. My guess is Clint Kubiak, who's likely to become the new Raiders coach, already knows who he's targeting. And we'll just see.

But there aren't many seats left as the coaching carousel starts to grind to a halt. Yeah, that was my thought, was the time. on this is so late, you know, how much does that put Cleveland behind? But they also, you know, had that rash of people who didn't want to interview for the position. So the timing is what it is. I feel like this is just even, even more of an exclamation point on that. Most candidates for head coaching jobs go into their interview with a full list of the people that they would try to bring with them. It's impossible to guarantee that you're going to deliver them. So I'm assuming Munkin already knows who he wants.

if Schwartz wasn't going to stay. And it would have been, well, of course, the Browns are dysfunctional, but it would have been beyond dysfunctional for the Browns to just think, oh, we're just moving chess pieces around on a board here. All we have to do is make Monk in the head coach and Schwartz is under contract,

so he'll stay happily as defensive coordinator. It should have been obvious to them. He was going to be very upset, and this would be the likely outcome if they considered him seriously for the job and then didn't give it to him. Mike, as you know, and our listeners,

know that when Ian Cunningham took the job as the general manager in Atlanta, leaving the Bears in the Rooney Rule, the Bears did not receive two third-round picks because Matt Ryan is the president of football ops, which classifies Ryan as the primary football executive in Atlanta. But this thing has reopened itself because Matt Ryan himself says that Cunningham isn't, Ian Cunningham is in charge of the roster, free agency, and draft decisions. So does that not mean that the Bears are now, again, entitled to third round picks? And can the Bears appeal such ruling?

Well, let me take a step back and say that this entire conversation underscores how ridiculous these measures are that the NFL puts in place to try to obscure the fact that for decades, the NFL's high. practices have been far less than ideal when it comes to coaches and general managers, given the demographics of the league, given the available candidates. And it's always talk, and it's these little band-aid measures that they try to create the impression that they're trying to have a more diverse overall workforce among the 32 franchises. I had a good conversation with Demoores Smith yesterday, the former NFLPA executive director, because he said for years, there's no accountability. And until there's accountability, nothing's going to change. And he has a great idea for the various states out there in which NFL teams are headquartered,

their attorneys general could try to investigate and enforce the state equivalence to the civil rights law that the federal government surely isn't going to be inclined to enforce in a situation like this, and that could try to improve it. But my bigger problem is that there's even something like that in place where there's a – Because remember when they initially came up with this compensatory draft pick reward, it was going to go to the team that made the hire. And the candidates were like, wait a minute. That stigmatizes us.

It makes it look like we only got the job or the deciding factor was the team that hires us is going to get these draft picks. So they pivoted to a reward for grooming and developing and promoting minority candidates. So the whole thing is just a bad way for the NFL to try to fix the problem. And just a mere fact that I've gotten 50 emails. over the last week and a half from Bears fans who want the compensatory draft picks, it just shows you how it's all kind of gotten warped under the broader question of whether and when and if the NFL is ever going to modernize and improve and diversify its hiring practices.

Well, especially when they use it as a shield. You know, they use the Rooney Rule and they hide behind their diversity initiatives as a shield and then to not put them in practice. and for Bears fans to appropriately call this out. And I love that they've been asking me questions, Mark questions, you questions. That's the right thing to do because don't tell us in the number three largest market in the country

where we have these high expectations and we don't suffer fools. Don't try to tell us that that isn't a promotion for Ian Kenningham. He left? It's a promotion. The better question is, why is the NFL being stingy with something they're not even taking away from anybody else? Like reward the good behavior to the faith and the spirit of the law rather than the letter. Well, it does bump everyone else down by a spot, and these teams are very, very sensitive to that.

But you're right. If they're going to have these policies in place, they have to apply them, and any flaws in the application undermine the overall purpose of what they're trying to do. And I, you know, we do this every year. There are issues with the hiring numbers. And this year we have 10 head coaching jobs that were filled and there were no black coaches that were hired. The commissioner gets through the press conference where he answers the four questions. And then, you know, it's like Punc Satani Phil. It just disappears until next year when we do it all over again.

No doubt about it. Mike, any issues with any of the NFL awards from last night? and Stafford, MVP, Jackson, Smith and Jigba, offensive player. Mike Vrable ends up getting coach of the year. Of course, we around here, a lot of people were hoping for Ben Johnson, Miles Garrett, defensive player of the year on and on. Any thoughts on last night's awards? I don't think any of the outcomes were surprising.

The thing that interests me more than anything else, because I've been one of the voters for about three or four years now, and last year they didn't tell the voters they were going to release all of our ballots, and then they did, which I think created issues for people who may have lied to candidates about who they voted for. Like, yeah, I voted for you. And then out comes the ballot. Oops, no, I didn't.

Not that I've heard of at least one other person who was mad because they disclosed all the ballots because that person had indeed told someone else that they had voted for them when they didn't. This year they told us that they were going to release the ballots and they didn't. And because one of the voters made Justin Herbert, the first place MVP finalist, I'd love to be able to see all the numbers, and I'd love to be able to crunch them backward, and see whether or not that one decision swung the award from Drake May to Matthew Stafford. It could be that that one ballot determined the whole thing. Well, and Sam Munson of pro football focus has said it was him.

So Sam took the head. ballot because we've got 10 points for first, five points for second, or right. There's a formula for how many points you get, but it was just a five point difference at the end between Stafford and May. You look at that ballot, and it's possible that if you just flip a guy here or there, that's all the difference. And Drake May may have won the thing. And there's still a chance, even though a tie is very unlikely now because there's five people on each ballot and the points make it just much harder for two guys to end up with the exact same number. but it's possible it could have been May. It's possible it could have been Stafford and May in a tie.

Oh, and by the way, I miscredited Sam. He's formerly a pro football focus. But still, that is where a lot of us know him. At least he did the right thing and spoke out on social media and said why. Well, that's right. And it's funny, he disclosed his ballot, I think, under the impression that the AP was going to do it for him. If he had known the AP wasn't going to do it this year, because I'm informed that they aren't going to do it this year and I'm trying to find out why.

Maybe he wouldn't have raised his hand. Mike, I also want to talk to you about some of the impeding incentives or requirements that the NFL owners are going to have. I don't necessarily know that the reply of, we have no appetite for an 18th game on behalf of the Players Association was enough to quell what

you have said and I have said. The NFL owners keep trying to push the matter of the 18th game. And And in exchange, they've gotten all this other stuff in return. You know, the Thursday night football game that players said they were concerned about with recovery time. The international games that they want to have. The owners are getting more and more and more just for kicking the can down the road with this 18th game,

which they're going to end up getting. You know, what did you think of this latest episode of this discussion? I think the NFL is playing it very cool for now until there's a new executive director in place to the NFL Players Association that can happen as soon as March. And then at that point, I think the NFL will embark upon its effort to renegotiate the CBA to create an 18th regular season game and to expand the number of annual international games from 10 to 16. That's another thing that the NFL really wants to do. And here's what we need to understand. Come 2031 when the current CBA expires, the NFL will lock out the players until they cry uncle on 18 regular season games and 16 international games and whatever else the NFL wants.

because we learned in 2011 that when it comes down to it, the players are going to take the best offer because they don't want to miss game checks. They don't want to not play games. So for the players, the final question isn't going to be 18 games versus 17 games. It's going to be 18 games versus zero games. And what kind of a war chest are the players going to have in place? What kind of plans will they have in place to withstand a work stop

is when they've had so much turmoil over the past year? So the NFL has them right where they want them. and the NFL, I think, is playing it cool for now, and then at the appropriate time, they're going to make their move. And if that doesn't happen, 2031, the players are going to have to ask, do we want to play zero or do we want to play 18? Also, Mike, as we talk to Mike Floreo, the creator and editor-in-chief of pro football talk on Rahimi Harrison Grotie, you threw this out there.

And, man, if it didn't hit, awful announcing, just released the numbers of the viewership for the Pro Bowl games. and it was averaging 1.9 million viewers on Tuesday night on ESPN, which according to this might be the worst ever when it comes to the rating that they drew. It's time for it to go. And my next level conspiracy theory here is they moved it from Sunday to Tuesday night to justify killing it because it destroyed the ratings, embarrassingly low, and there is going to be a number below which the NFL says,

There's just no point in doing this. So I think we're getting closer and closer to the extinction of the pro bowl games, which means we won't have, and I guess I shouldn't complain because, you know, this results in page views and clicks and content for us. We won't have the drip, drip, drip of the Joe Flackos of the world becoming pro bowlers and the Justin Fields of the world declining an opportunity to become a pro bowler. Right. Mitch Trubisky was a pro bowler.

That's what people have in their pocket as an argument when they try to sell Mitch Trubisky. whiskey because he got in. Shador Sanders made the pro bowl. Oh, my goodness gracious. Name the teams and move on. I think that's where we're going to ultimately be, and we're in this transition period now where they're easing away from the old Pro Bowl game, and they're going to end up having a Pro Bowl, nothing, just name the teams and move on.

Pretty amazing, really, when you think about all the successes of the NFL and how we brag about the ratings, something has finally failed. But 1.9 million is still very, very. good. I mean, in this A and A, to have 1.9 million people tune in at the same time to watch the same thing is no small feat, but it is well beneath the standard

the NFL is created for itself. I wanted it to work too. I don't know if you guys, like, I wanted to enjoy it. I wanted to be like, okay, let's watch the best of the best football players play flag football. I was like, nah, even with the fun interviews they had, watching like the Sertane brother or father and son

on the sidelines, some cool stuff, it just didn't work. And Maybe you're right. I am thinking about subscribing to your conspiracy theory that they knew what they were doing and they're just ready to topple it. And one last point, too, to the extent they're going to force feed flag football upon us for the next couple of years up to the Olympics. Now, I think those do well in the Olympics because anything does well in the Olympics.

Sports that we ignore for three years and 50 weeks until it becomes the center of the sports universe as part of the Olympics, I don't know that we're ever going to respond to flag football in any setting other than the Olympics. But they're trying their damned us to use flag football as this next wave of internationalizing the game. Well, and they were trying to use it as a way to promote safe football play. Like that was part of it, too, I thought. We really saw an advent of flag football whenever concussions became more of a discussion

and that landmark lawsuit happened. Well, and some people see, and I think this is next, next, next, level conspiracy theory, but some people see that to the extent that they can grow flight football and make it something that people will consume and follow and enjoy, if for whatever reason they come up with a test that shows what your risk of long-term CTE is while you're still alive because they still can't diagnose CTE in a living patient. If there's ever a point where tackle football just is no longer sustainable, we just flip the switch to flag. And some people think that's part of why they're pushing for the growth of flag because it becomes

worst-case scenario alternative to tackle football if we ever get to that point. No, I'm with you, and I love a next, next, next-level conspiracy theory. I think if we've thought about it, they have two, and that's the point in my mind. And they thought of everything. They sit around thinking of things, although some of the things that they should be thinking about, they probably don't. Oh, absolutely. Mike Florio, we look forward to it, and we will enjoy the coverage all weekend on NBC coming up.

It's going to be a lot of fun. I think the pregame show starts in about 20 minutes, so I got to get going. Yeah, yeah, good to know. I hope the dance routine is all done. See you, Mike. See you. That's Mike Florio, joining us live from the site of big game. I love it when Dustin Rhodes says Big Game 60 or like Big Game, whatever.

I think that's hilarious. It's the Big Game. He's right, Super Bowl 60. So Mike Floreo had to move his time. We're going to get into that Ian Cunningham discussion a little bit more. By the way, that is at 125. But coming up next, our turn. Harris Carter Shovas addressed the media for about 20 minutes yesterday following a flurry of moves at the trade deadline.

What did we learn? What is the direction? We're going to examine next. Chicago's Sports Radio is now in crystal clear FM quality. Matt Spiegel here from the Spiegel and Holmes show afternoons 2 to 6. The score now sounds better than ever before. How does that sound, Parker? Sounds wonderful.

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