The Athletic Football Show: A show about the NFL - Football GM: Bills-Rams reaction, Lamar Jackson & Ravens fail to reach extension, Russell Wilson’s return to Seattle, Week 1 picks & more

Episode Date: September 9, 2022

The Football GM with Mike Sando and Randy Mueller is back! They discuss their takeaways from the NFL opener between the Rams and Bills before looking ahead to Russell Wilson’s return to Seattle. Plus, Lamar Jackson and the Ravens don’t reach an extension before the deadline, they share their thoughts on the QB’s long-term future. They wrap by talking about what excites them the most heading into Week 1 and their picks against the spread.  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This is the Athletic Football Show. Welcome, everybody, to the Football GM podcast, part of the Athletic Football Show. I am Mike Sandoz, senior writer for The Athletic. In my 25th year covering the NFL, and our co-host, the man who puts the GM in the football GM podcast is a three-time NFL GM. You might have heard of the chuckle there. Former NFL executive the year, Randy Mueller. Good morning, Randy. Good morning, Mike.

My input and three bucks will get you. Starbucks on any corner in Seattle. Trust me. It's... Well, it is every corner. I'm happy to be back. I'm ecstatic, actually. This is our third season as a go-around for the football GM.

And, hey, thanks to the people at the athletic, you know. I mean, there's a lot of ways people get their information. And the fact that somebody wants to hear us and get our opinions is always a plus. So I'm happy to be back. That's Randy's humility coming through again. Let me tell you. We're going to talk football here each week, recording on Fridays. And we're going to do it in a little different way because of Randy's.

background and mine to some extent too, which we'll expand on in a moment. But we're going to bring more of an insider perspective, talking about the dynamics of the league, how things work, why they work that way, in a manner that is second nature to Randy because he has spent 35 years doing this, but isn't second nature to, I think most of the way the league is discussed. So like Randy said, we are grateful to inhabit this space and be on this feed, the main feed for the athletic, football show rainy last year. I wasn't sure what to say when people asked us where they could find us because it was a little trickier. But now here we are. Yep, no doubt. And glad to be here too. I think it's always an anticipation for the last really six weeks getting through preseason and training

camp. And as we know, we've even had a game now. So it's kind of fun. Absolutely. And we got a ton to talk about today. We are going to talk about the game Thursday night a little bit. And our takeaways from the bills beating the Rams. We're going to talk about the, you know, kind of a spin-off of the Sean McVeigh, Les Sneed contract extensions. We're going to talk about this really kind of entertaining. Maybe you're tired of it, but I think it's entertaining. The Pete Carroll, Russell, Wilson,

gamesmanship that's going on in some of the dynamics there. We've got quarterback contract stuff going on with Lamar Jackson. We've got our week one storylines. We've got picks against the spread, which Randy's pretty darn good at, I might say. No pressure there.

But before we get in all of that, for those of you that are really new to the football gym podcast and may not know as much about Randy or me. We're very uncomfortable talking about ourselves. We don't do it much. But we will do a little bit of an introduction here. And I'm going to tell you one of the things that I love about Randy, who I've known 25 years, is regular guy through and through, small town guy, has that real humility to everything he does. He's always going to sell himself a little short in what he says, but his analysis really sets him apart.

To me, it's what you can't fake. You can't fake coming into the league as a ballboy and working your way up to be a three-time GM with Seattle, New Orleans, Miami, spending a decade behind the scenes and personnel with the Chargers, being an executive of the year, showing up in New Orleans where they had never won a playoff game and winning a playoff game in your first year.

So that's going to come through in his analysis. Listening to Randy, if you were with us last year, you're going to get the big picture stuff, and then you're going to get tidbits. He's going to tell you things like no one else is talking about. Like we're going to the draft last year, and he's like, yeah, my top tight end is Isaiah likely. And people are like, what? And then what are we here in training camp? God, this Isaiah likely guy looks great.

So that's the type of stuff you're going to get from Randy. He really knows this stuff. I'll go real brief on me. Like I said, 25th year covering the NFL. I covered before that colleges. I covered Washington States, Rose. team featuring Ryan Leaf. That was an adventure. I covered

the Seahawks for nine years in Tacoma. I replaced John Clayton, both of our good friend, rest and peace, John. I spent 12 years at ESPN after that, and here I am athletic in my fourth year. It is our third year, right, Randy, doing it is. Doing the football GMs.

So enough talking about us. Let's get into our topics today, Randy, and take a little bit of a deep breath. Buffalo Bill's 31, Los Angeles Rams 10. Yeah. I don't think we anticipated it being that much of a blah. What do you think?

The first thing that comes to my mind is, and I told you this when we talked on the phone earlier, I think it was like Buffalo came out and whacked him in the mouth, and the Rams had been sitting on the dock of the bay all summer and kind of just kind with their feet up, you know, and they got, they were trying to merge onto the Autobahn, and the cars were just whizzing by them. And that's what it felt like to me. The cars were whizzing by, and the Rams, whoa, wait a second. this is for real. And by the time they kind of shook off the blows, it could have been worse, right?

I mean, the Buffalo turns the ball over three times. We're looking at a 50 to 10 game, in my opinion. I just thought they completely overwhelmed the Rams, and that was surprising to me. Up front on both sides of the ball, it showed the physicality that Buffalo showed up with. The Rams couldn't match it. But if you remember, Mike, last year, before the Rams got on a roll, we had some questions about how physical and how tough they were up front and that they had a little finesse to them and and that kind of reared its head right away. So I was taken back by that. I was not expecting that from the Rams.

But Buffalo got after him right off the get-go. And it's not hard to figure out now why Vegas installed Buffalo as the favorites to win the Super Bowl and their quarterback as the favorite to win the MVP. Oh man, unbelievable. Josh Allen just looked. I commented after the game. Matt Stafford is pretty much physically what everyone's looked for in a quarterback over the years. He looked like a, he looked frail compared to Josh Allen on the field. So we didn't know for sure coming into the game. It's week one. These guys haven't played. You're not really sure what's going to happen. What how much do you read into a first game? I mean, does this tell you the what did you get out of the game that you think you can take for the whole year? Well, I think there are things to measure without a doubt. I think, again,

the physicality of what showed up. It was like the Rams were in a car wreck the first time, and Buffalo had been banging pads for weeks. That's kind of what I take from it. I think the key is, and this goes to what you're asking, is the messaging that these coaches and decision makers relayed to their team coming out of this. I would have loved to have been in the locker room to hear Sean McVeigh after the game. I would have loved to have heard that. And as a GM, I would always make sure that I could hear that because that messaging to your team on a night like that is crazy important, right, going forward. So again, I happen to be involved in a couple of these season opening Thursday night games as an executive. And one time, and I'll leave the names out of it and the coaches out of it, we had the lead and the ball with halfway through the third quarter and we ended up losing the game.

and there was frustration and our coach was ticked everybody was mad and he kind of went after our team afterwards and really challenged him and it took us a month to get them back it really did they didn't need to hear that they had tried they had given their heart out they didn't lose the game on purpose but when they got driven into the ground afterwards by our own people it was telling and it really cost us a half a season like i said so that's why i always say say the managing of the message after these games is really important. And it's just as important for the bills too. I'm sure the bills and their staff are going to limit the accolades, right, or try to. And that's normal. After you win a game, we got to grind back this week and start over again. But these messages

that these coaches send after games like this in the opener are probably more important than week six or seven messages, that's for sure. Yep. Now, what? One of the things that stood out to me, and again, it is just one game, but I had written a piece earlier this week on the athletic on Monday looking at, hey, what's kind of the best way to build up your team around your top quarterback? You know, everyone needs the good quarterback. But the thing that I, that stood out to me in the game last night was, you know, the Bill's defense and just how physical they were, how good they were. I was worried about their cornerback situation coming in, thought that could be a tough matchup. But when you can have the top quarterback with the top defense, I mean, that's how you,

that's how you go from being a winning team to being a championship team. And Buffalo really blew the championship opportunity last year. They were the, they were, they probably should have won the Super Bowl last year. 13 seconds of total ineptness by everybody cost them, no doubt. So I was a little worried going into this game about that type of thing, right? I felt like if they had another sort of fourth quarter meltdown of the coaches or something, that that could be a little bit of a seat of doubt for them. And it wasn't like that at all.

I thought for their first game with the new offensive coordinator, Ken Dorsey, which by the way, the third and one play. Okay, the third and one play where they faked the run and then even faked Allen running and then he flipped it to Gabe Davis. That's a play Ken Dorsey got from Carolina when he's with Pete, what's the tight end coach? Pete Honor? Yeah.

It's a great play that he dialed up at just the right time. So like that hurdle was cleared. The coaching was excellent on that. And just to get back to what's really interesting to me, Randy, and look, the Rams won the Super Bowl last year. They've had a good defense. But the idea of having the defensive culture with Sean McGovern.

Ermit and Leslie Frazier, to me, gives you the best chance over time to be good in that side of the ball. Now, you already have Josh Allen. I mean, so you put those two things together. Isn't that a, I'd be curious on your thoughts on that. Isn't that a prescription for the best of both worlds, isn't it? Oh, it definitely is. And I think you can't, I guess the hard part is you've got to find the right people to plug in. You've got to find your Josh Allen. I think the less of, but everyone needs that, you know, yeah. But there are some. that aren't looking for that. Just know that. You know what I'm saying? And this takes it. I'm sidetracked here a little bit. But watching Josh Allen last night should have been

case and point for all of the social media evaluators, everybody that's out there. That's what the criteria is for a quarterback. That's what we're looking for. So when you bring the 5-9 guy that, you know, runs around to me, I'm really not interested. That's what we're looking for right there. He can withstand anything that defense does. Do you think there's anything the defense is going to do now to Josh Allen that he can't handle? No. Right. That's that's the thing. And don't say, well, everybody could have picked Josh Allen because there was some that didn't. There were teams that I think he was the third or fourth quarterback picked that year. So there's lessons at all levels here when we take a game like that. And, you know, I agree with you, though, the criteria for

one individually and two, how to build your team, the blueprint is there with what Buffalo is done from a coaching standpoint and from what Brandon Bean has done in the front office. I think everybody's going to be looking for that magic. And the physical components of Josh Allen are in the extreme. There's not 10 Josh Allen's out there. But what you're saying is we want a guy to meet the criteria physically. That is important. And that's why you were talking about going into the draft last year

or even looking ahead of this next year, these guys who are undersized better be just unbelievably phenomenal in other areas, right? Right. Well, and it's the one reason that led me to Kenny Pickett being the one guy that was worthy of it. You're talking about 6.3, 220 pounds to start with. And I'll just say this about Josh Allen. And again, I don't want to belabor the point. We all know he's a good player. But I don't think people realize how big of a man this guy is. I remember going to a pro day at Wyoming would have been his junior year. And that was the first year the NFL allowed some of the juniors to be able to work out at a pro day, even though they weren't seniors. You could pick five. guys. And I remember the young scouts telling me before we weighed and measured people, they said, hey, have you seen this quarterback? Have you seen this quarterback? And I had not at the time. And I kind of poo-pooted. I said, yeah, I'm sure he's this or that. This kid walked in the room, Mike. And I turned around and looked and I said, whoa, there's John Elway. There's Peyton Manning. This guy filled up the room. He's all of 6'5. He's 240 pounds. This is a big man imposing his will. You saw what he did that little

defensive back last night with a stiff arm. I mean, that's crazy. But this is a big man. And he can endure all this. He can take all this. That's the ideal thing. And yeah, it's hard to find. But when you find a big guy like that, those are the guys that usually get pushed up in a draft because everybody's looking for that. Not so much the last few years with the differences of opinion of how you build out your team. I know, it's amazing to me that, you know, that Josh Allen wouldn't be the top pick or even Justin Herbert, you know, these guys who just look the part so much. Teams talk themselves out of what seems like the obvious in retrospect. And for you as an evaluator, maybe it was obvious ahead of time.

Well, I think sometimes those guys aren't in every draft either. So you have to create the next best thing. And that's what some teams and some people are willing to do as evaluators is push the next group up or push the next guy up. Right. For years, we would just say, we've got to wait until next year. That's all there is to it. We're not going to create here. But the position of quarterback has become so important that teams end up creating quarterbacks to try to reach, you know, and grab what Josh Allen and Justin Herbert, all these guys have. And that goes back to what we've talked about before. When you were in Miami, you took a lot of heat for taking Ted Ginn in the first round instead of whoever Brady Quinn or whoever the quarterback was because you weren't just going to force a quarterback. Right.

But the way it is in a lot of these buildings is like they have to talk themselves into, hey, this is our chance to get a guy, so we just take a guy. Right. Also spinning off of that game before that game last night, Randy, the Rams announced, or Thursday, the Rams announced contract extensions for Sean McVeigh and Les Need, which, you know, given the success they've had together, probably just seems like a natural extension. But really what's interesting to me about this is that Les Need has been. there a long time since 2012, back to St. Louis. They bring in McVeigh, and he becomes not just a good coach, but a star, right? I mean, coveted by TV, commercials, he's got his podcast. He's bigger than the Rams in some ways. He's a superstar coach now. And if you'd asked me a few years ago, what the natural end of this would be, I wouldn't have been sure. I don't think it's just a given that

He and Les Need would work well together or that they would remain, you know, renew their vows, so to speak, for the future. Randy, you've worked with a ton of coaches from Nick Saban to Dennis Erickson to Bill Parcells. What's your sort of perspective on that? Because, well, it seems like a given now. These things aren't givens. No, they're not given at all. And it really starts at the ownership level. in creating what they want from their coach, but also then being able to adapt.

When they hired Sean McVeigh, they didn't probably know at the time that he had such a magnanimous personality, that he was going to dominate the room, that he would dominate the really, the organizational structure. And so they've evolved and allowed that. And at the same time, less need is kind of acquiesced to it. So again, ego set aside, at least by less, I think to work in and around Sean, you have to have that humility. You have to have a little bit of it's not about me. In fact, you have to have a lot of it. And so I've lived it. I get it. So I give less credit for being

willing to work in the background and let Sean do his thing. I mean, you see it, well, you saw it for years in New Orleans with Mickey and Sean Payton. When I went to Miami with Nick Saban, I knew that I would be in the background for sure. I didn't have a problem with that. Hey, I had been in charge in Seattle and had been there 17, 16 years when Mike Holmring came. So these relationships evolve, but none of us are smarter than all of us. So what I like is, in fact, you lead it, they both signed extensions yesterday earlier in the day, that they are tied at the hip. They are tied together. They have done this now for several years and neither one of them is going anywhere. So I think that's a great thing, one for the game, because the continuity is proven to be a pretty good

tonic for for a nice drink going forward and the fact that it gives that franchise stability without a doubt and they're not scrambling they all know what they're looking for they all know the team build how that's going to go and what they are willing to do and are not so i think it's a great thing great stability not every organization would be willing to pay a coach and get out of the way trust me that they're not all like that not all not all NFL franchis are willing to pay a coach 10 or 12 million a year. Well, were you with the Chargers yet when they had Marty Schuttenheimer there? I wasn't.

I came after the fact. But I mean, that's another team right across town. A great example where I just don't know a guy like Sean McVeigh would fit with what their vision is for the coach. You know, they're more assistant kind of box him in, stay in your lane type instead of just letting him run with it. They let Marty run with it. And it worked where, gosh, Marty got fired.

They went 14 and 2 or something like that. And that was all personality based. It was maybe too big for the room with that organization. That's why I give the Rams credit. They're willing to make the room as big as the coach needs instead of building a box and fit in the coach in that little box. Okay. So this is a good segue into our next topic, Randy, because I think that John Schneider's done a nice job, obviously deferring to Pete Carroll in Seattle and shoot, Pete Carroll hired him. So that arrangement was set in the beginning.

and John's mostly in the background. Pete runs it. But another high-profile relationship there didn't go so well where Pete Carroll and the quarterback, Russell Wilson, won a ton of games together. Obviously, Seattle had a really great defense when they were going to championships and doing all of that as well. But in the end, it got sideways,

and Seattle ends up trading them. And then the NFL schedule makers, I love the schedule makers because, like, incredible this year, isn't it? Incredible. You can't make it up in week one. Yeah, yeah. I mean, they even anticipated they got it right that Baker Mayfield might be in Carolina.

I know. They didn't even know that when they made the schedule. So we got a bunch of them. And this one here out of the gates with Russell Wilson coming back to Seattle on Monday night is really kind of delicious. But I'm curious your perspective because Carol, Pete, was asked this week, hey, how should the Seattle fans react to Russell Wilson on Monday night? And Pete's reply, kind of cryptic, you're either competing or you're not. I'm leaving it to the 12s.

That's their fan base, the 12th man. I think they'll know exactly what to do. And meanwhile, Russell Wilson is almost pleading for cheers. I gave my heart and soul every day. I hope they'll be positive. My time in Seattle was special. So, Randy, you, if you're in the GM of the Seahawks, I mean, are we having a parade on Monday night? Do we have a special video board tribute?

What are you doing? I'm going to try to phrase my answer as respectful as I can, right? I'm not looking to disrespect anybody. Most of all, Russell, I'm not. There will be a time when we do have a parade or we raise the banner and he's going to be in the Hall of Fame. But it is surely not Monday night. And if I was instructing fans, and I guess Pete can't really say that about how to treat Russell when he's there, we all know the history behind how this happened.

So there's some behind-the-scenes antics that we all are accustomed. to knowing. I would probably suggest to those fans to greet him with silence. Because I don't think booing's going to matter. I don't think that he cares. I don't think cheering. I'm not going to cheer the opposition. I don't care what they say.

But I might just meet it with silence and be, who cares? I mean, this is a business as usual. We've got to win a game. So yeah, if I'm John Snyder or anybody with the Seahawks, I'll be honest. I don't really care about Russell Wilson at this point. He can make this into whatever he wants. We all know his propensity to make a big thing. out of this and maybe shine some spotlight on himself, not the time for us. We're not giving out any

coats and rings and honors and all that. I would be against any reaction, really. Yeah. And it's interesting to me because I think that Russell Wilson in Seattle did want it to be more about him. And Denver was absolutely willing to do that. And they've done that. And that's why it's a great fit for him. I think that's really the gap between these two is that Russell thought he had raised himself to a level to where, hey, I want it to be about me. I'm Peyton Manning. I'm Tom Brady, whatever. And Pete wasn't going to do that. He was going to make it be about the team and the Seahawks and not defer, whereas the Broncos have gone really leaned in to this idea that, hey, it is about Russell.

And we're talking, if you listen to Nathaniel Hackett, I look. love building this offense around Russell Wilson. So they're giving him really what he wanted. I don't think it's that complicated. But it's kind of been entertaining to me. I feel like in reading the reports out of Denver, like they haven't been paying attention to the whole thing that's been going on. They're like, wait a minute, they're not going to honor Russell there? Wait a minute. This seems odd. this almost feels like there's bad blood between the sides and I'm like, hello. Hello. There is bad blood between the sides.

Yeah. Yeah, I mean, we'd reported the athletic three years ago they were going to trade, tried to trade him to Cleveland. They've been looking. They've had one eye on another quarterback for a while as his salary went up over the course of this. And there was complete hostility in the end. We had written earlier this year that basically the agent for Russell Wilson had been reaching out privately to reporters covering the team and ripping Pete Carroll. And that Pete Carroll and the Seahawks were really mad about this type of thing.

And they felt like there was kind of a trickling out of leaks that were popping up driving a wedge between Wilson and the Orioles. organization. And guess what? It feels to me, Randy, like they're giving that right back now, doesn't it? Oh, yeah, 100%. I think it's definitely a game behind the curtain for sure. I think the Denver fans probably were caught up in all the bliss of getting Russell Wilson after they swung and missed on about four quarterbacks that they didn't really look behind the curtain to see, well, why would this guy be available? You know? And so, yeah, there's some fascinating tidbits behind it that you're right the athletic has reported for the last couple years on some we've talked about on this show but yeah it's going to be interesting that the monday night

game in seattle has all kinds of antennas that i think it's going to be fascinating to watch um none the least of joe buck and and uh troiakman making their debut on monday night football so absolutely yeah yeah and like i don't think you know seattle may not have the quarterback you know after getting rid of Wilson to win the game. I don't know if they can win the game. I don't think they do either, but that's beside the point. But I am very interested to see what they have up their sleeve defensively because I do think that they have some scheme changes.

Pete Carroll has handed over a little bit here to a couple of guys in Sean Desai and their defensive coordinator, Clint Hurd, who come from the Vic Fangio tree. And I think that there's no one, there's no team in a league that's going to know Russell Wilson and better. So I think it's a little bit of an unnerving matchup from a Denver standpoint that way, and the expectations are so high on the Broncos. But you're going into a place where it's going to be really wild. It's unpredictable in the first week. Russell hasn't played as great the last year and a half and may need some time to get acclimated in this offense. I think it's a tough, it's a tough spot. They're obviously favored by six and a half, but do you have any nervousness for

them for Denver? You know, not necessarily. I think they're prepared to win the game. They have a better team. Obviously, I'm saying this tongue in cheek, but I'm not drinking the Kool-Aid that Pete poured of, hey, we have two number one quarterbacks. That came out a couple weeks ago. It was almost insulting to hear that, but it is what it is. And I just don't know if Seattle has enough. They may withstand the initial onslaught, but I don't know if they have enough to hang with Denver. And I'm not one that has Denver being as talented as most. Like I haven't seen the primator receivers stand up to everybody says, oh, their receivers are great.

They just haven't had a quarterback. I haven't seen that. I don't think their receivers are great. They may turn out to be good players, but I haven't seen the production that everybody else is hoping for. So I'm not singing the praises of Denver being a playoff team, you know, and going to run the Chargers or Kansas City out of the mix. But I think they'll have enough to beat Seattle.

I just think Seattle is like, said undergoing a lot of change. Their offense still, to me, is a work in progress. I don't know how that's going to work out. Yeah, I found it interesting, and this wasn't part of our plan here, but did you see where Greg Olson tweeted out yesterday or maybe this morning since the Buffalo game that Russell Wilson had reached out to him about an offensive coordinator a year ago for recommendations and and Greg Olson the the commentator for Fox who was a tight end in Seattle for his last year or two told Russell he said hey you should talk to Ken Dorsey in Buffalo he would be outstanding and Russell ended up having input and they hired Shane

Waldron from the Rams and so this I've lost track of time but this came up earlier this morning or late last night after the game so I felt that was really interesting that Greg Olson of course after the fact is now seeing the praises of Ken Dorsey they're often of coordinator of the bills who put on a show last night and probably got a head coaching job on the first game of the year, you know, next year. That's, that's amazing. Yeah. And the interesting thing to me about Seattle was, you know, they brought in Shane Waldron, but they still sort of ran a Russell Wilson offense. Yeah, it was just a ram offense. Yeah. It's a hodgepodge. So I'm very interested to see in Denver if that, is that a reflection of just, hey, Seattle, the Russell Wilson's

criticisms kind of are true and Seattle doesn't have a coherent offensive plan because of Pete Carroll. or is the Denver offense going to look a lot like the Seattle offense because of Russell Wilson? Not that he, whether or not he's limiting the offense, he's framing the offense. Is it really going to be the same type of offense? But now the message is just going to be that it's Russell Wilson's show. I think there's a good chance that's the case. Well, it could be. Only the head coach came from Green Bay.

So they've been running the Aaron Rogers show. So I would think there'll be some compilation of that as well. It'll be interesting to see how it all works out. Yep, and of course, Randy Russell Wilson did get a new contract from the Broncos. It wasn't one of those that totally changed the way contracts are done in any of that. He gets a lot of money. But it provides a nice little segue into our next topic, which is quarterback contracts, specifically the situation in Baltimore with news coming down here Friday,

that there will be no long-term extension this year between Lamar Jackson and the Baltimore Ravens. The Ravens putting out a statement from their general manager, Eric Dacosta, quote, despite best efforts of on both sides, we were unable to reach a contract extension with Lamar Jackson. We greatly appreciate how he has handled this process and we're excited about our team with Lamar leading the way. We will continue to work towards a long-term contract after the season, but for now we're looking forward to a successful 2022 campaign. What say you, Mr. GM? What's your initial thought? This is breaking news as we record.

I'll be honest, Mike, I think the Ravens are happy. I think it's a good move for them. I actually think it's a good move from for Lamar to. Here's a deal. The Mar made $3 million last year. He's going to make $23 million this year. So he's getting a $20 million raise for just showing up. That's pretty good.

So the leverage for him to sign a deal before he played this year really doesn't factor in as much. Sure, he could get $150 million guaranteed. I get it. But he's going to have his opportunity for that. I think the deadline came and gone and they couldn't wait to get that announcement out there. He's going to make more this year than he made in the first. four years combined. So he's going to be paid this year.

The Ravens don't need to redo his contract to get cap relief. They have $5.7 million available to them already. So there's no motivation there. They have a franchise tag they could use next year if they don't get something done then. So this is not the end, like was said in the statement. But I just think a pause button and I think it's good. But I think both sides will end up re, you know, re-engaging at some point.

But I also know this. If I'm the Ravens, I'm probably not going to just sit on my hands for the next 10 months and put all the chips in in a deal like Lamar wants. I think this is again a reason to look for some options, not looking to replace Lamar Jackson. I'm just saying there it would be a good time to really pursue an option or two. Maybe it's next year in the draft or something because, then you don't have to make a $60 million a year average deal with Lamar Jackson. You know what I mean? So give yourself some options.

And a little bit of relief for them because they're not sure they want to do that probably? Is that the thing? Oh, I would think that. Yeah, definitely. Yeah. The other thing is that makes Lamar's deal so unique. And we've exhausted our discussion on this. Everybody has on every platform.

The style that he plays is unique to them and the Ravens. And you saw this year a poll came out. I don't think it was your quarterback thing, but Lamar wasn't even in the top 10 quarterbacks. And if you think through that, I think the reasoning is if you were a GM looking to start a team and you pick quarterbacks, you probably wouldn't pick Lamar's style to run with your team if you had other options. So that's all I'm saying. It works. He's a good player. He's really talented.

It's just not the preferred route that a GM who's building a team from scratch would go. And sometimes that's the criteria for these polls of. the best quarterbacks in the league. Well, so do you think there's any risk in Lamar not doing a deal for him? Or no, he's going to get a top deal from somebody at some point. What do you think? I don't think he would get as much from somebody else as he can get from the Ravens, just based on what I said, just because I don't think everybody's going to be willing to hire on that style.

Forget himself, but run that office. You just need one team, though, right? I mean, it's kind of like, or is there not one team out there that will give him the type of deal that he wants? Yeah, there will be one team. I agree. Who knows? I don't know. That's the market.

You're right. The market is determined by one team. Is it Carolina any year when their, you know, their owners got a ton of money and they need some excitement? And they, would they be the type of team that would do that or somebody? I don't see as much of a downside for. him also because, like you said, the $23 million in the bank gives him a great opportunity to bet on himself. We've seen quarterbacks, although he's different because he does rely on his legs. But shoot, Dak Prescott hurt his leg and got a huge deal on it. But I'm with you and that I

sense for a couple of reasons that the Ravens just aren't overly eager. They'd like to have Lamar, but they'd like to not have to pay him the ridiculous contract. I mean, if you remember when the a Sean Watson contract came down fully guaranteeing everything. That owner of the Ravens was ticked off. Yep. And his comment was this. It's like, damn, I wish they hadn't guaranteed the whole contract. I don't know that he should have been the first guy to get a fully guaranteed one.

To me, that's something that's groundbreaking. It'll make negotiations harder with others. But it doesn't necessarily mean we have to play that game, you know, we shall see. Well, they're not playing that game. Do you think with that, do you think, how do you think the Watson deal affected these negotiations, if at all? I think it affected them without a doubt because I think Lamar dug in and wanted the guarantees, and I don't think there's any way the Ravens are going to do that.

I think there's different components to every deal, but most of the time in these quarterback things, it's one guarantees, it's average per year, two, it's the length of the deal, and it's the payout in the first three years. You can't win every one of those. And that's why the awkwardness, the unorthodox negotiating without an agent might have led to part of the reasons why an agreement. wasn't made because this as we know Lamar was representing himself maybe he was dug in over the guarantees and like I say that club policy um the the setting the course for the Ravens they're going to

do what's right for them and if it risks uh not making a deal with Lamar this year to to continue down that road of not guaranteeing contracts fully that I think the Ravens are going to do that and probably rightly so I think that part of it's not a surprise most of the time as you know of the four things I just mentioned each side six two. You know, Lamar wants 50 million a year. Okay, he wants the highest payout over the first three years. Great. Then the Ravens are going to win, you know, the guarantee bank and the length of the deal. You know, so there's given to-turn those dials. You turn those dials. Yeah. Both sides have to set their dial on not winning every battle within the war. I think that Watson deal was really interesting because I think there's a natural pushback from the owners on this. I was talking to an agent about this, you know, And so that's why I was a little surprised off the top that Russell Wilson did the deal. He sort of took what he could get. It's a good deal, but it wasn't like a, wow, this is unbelievable.

He changed the way quarterbacks were paid. And when I reached out to an agent that I know really well, he said the league really pressured the new owners to not do fully guaranteed deal. Oh, yeah. The owners were pissed about Cleveland, which Bashati confirmed publicly and won't let it happen again. And if you go back to kind of like when the when the, when the. the Vikings did that deal with Kirk Cousins. You know, they took some blowback internally in the league for doing fully guaranteed. So there could be a little bit of a pushback from that, from the owners where they're like, hey, you know what?

That's enough's enough. And so it might actually be kind of a bad time for one of these quarterbacks to try to get an unusual deal. And so maybe Lamar, shoot, if Lamar, if they have a great season and advancing the playoffs or he breaks through in the playoffs, whatever, he could be in a much better position. He could put the Ravens in a position where maybe they do have to do something they don't want to do, which they did with Joe Flacco, by the way. They did not win because of Joe Flacco for all those years.

But when he had a great playoffs and carried him for four games and they won the Super Bowl, they were suddenly doing a deal that none of us would have said was the type of deal you should do with Joe Flacco, but they had to do it. So that'll be an interesting part of this year to see if Lamar Jackson can, force their hand because I think

I think he can have them in a difficult situation because let's say they have some reservations about style of play or this or that. They can't say that. Oh, they definitely can't. This is a deal where he does everything you ask in terms of how he plays and prepares. He's tough.

The locker room admires him. All of those things. He's great in the community. All of those things. there's no grounds for divorce in this relationship without you saying, you know what, we just don't think he's worth the money. That is an interesting situation for Baltimore to be in for me. And are you saying then that pursuing any options would send that message? I think it's a little bit of a delicate situation, we'll see.

I mean, what are they willing to say now, I think it gets easier now that he's in the last year. I think now that they don't have a deal, it clears the way easier to say, hey, look, we have all the love in the world for Lomar. But we do need to have some other options because we don't have a long-term deal. I think that becomes an easier thing to do. But Randy, how do you do that? What does that mean? You're not taking a quarterback in the first round. So what are you doing?

Are you signing a veteran you like? Are you drafting a guy in the third round and pretending like he's a good player? What's the move? I don't think you can pick the options ahead of time without knowing who fits those boxes. So I think you've got to really scout quarterbacks hard this year in the draft. You've got to look at free agency who's going to be a free agent quarterback. But I think you've got to explore all these options if you're them for sure. And maybe the exploration of filling the backup seat, so to speak,

gets Lamar to the negotiating table sooner. And it gives them reason to make a deal. Just the exploring of these other options, which they haven't done at all. Yeah. I mean, I think that that traditionally has maybe had that effect. I think we're in a different era with players. So you're subscribing to the Russell Wilson. theory of because John Schneider went to work out Pat Mahomes that he got all

hurt over that. I'm not saying it's right. That's how you should feel. I'm just saying I think it makes it interesting. I think I'm too old school, I guess. I get it. Yeah, I hear you. No, no.

You're not old school. What you're saying, I agree with what you're saying, that you should as an organization just handle your business and do what you want to do. but I do think nowadays it's much easier for things to get sideways. We got Lamar on Twitter joking around, liking tweets about him going to the dolphins. This is an era where things, I think, can get sideways a lot faster, a lot easier over perceptions and what the public is saying and what the media is saying. And it doesn't mean that you can't have a solid, honest relationship.

I hope that for the Ravens' sake, they have that. with him and that it can withstand whatever might come of this. But I think as we go along, the potential for it getting a little more delicate and dicey is there. And so, you know, that's all part of the consideration. Right. No, I agree. It'll be fascinating to follow.

But I think both sides probably need to go back to their corner, kind of reassess where they're at and come back with a fresher attitude next time around. We saw this with DAC. We saw him eventually get his deal in Dallas. and it took two or three years. But I guess the one thing with Lamar regarding his style is, you know, he had not missed time until last year. He missed five games last year.

And that's a pretty big chunk of time. So we'll see how his, it's one more year in the books, one more body of work that they can all attribute to his value. See if he misses time this year, you know, and nobody's wishing that. I'm just saying that's the style he plays is his risky at times, that's for sure, especially when you're going to cartwheel into the end zone after you score and do flips like he did and take unneeded hits, you know. Well, the thing about Jerry Jones, though, I think Jerry Jones is different.

I think he's just going to pay guys to prove that he was right in taking them, whether it was Romo, all these guys. He's going to pay him. Zeke. He's going to pay Ezekiel Elliott, and he's going to tell you how great Zeke is when Zeke hasn't been great for five years, right? So the Ravens aren't doing that. I agree. That's the interesting component of this.

They're a much more disciplined, personnel-based, evaluation-based, principle-based, organization. Processed or lead. No doubt. Led the league and comp picks, all of this, right? So they are a totally different thing than Dallas. And I think it makes it fascinating to see how it plays out and how far they're willing to go

before they make the type of move you're making where they have a plan B. Because they eventually did that with Flacco. But his performance really had to fall off too for that to happen. And for the most part, yes, it's falling up a little bit with Lamar Jackson. But we'll see what he does this year. All right, Randy. Storylines going into week one. What excites you.

We talked about the schedule makers making this interesting, but what's your sort of perspective on week one, things you like, how you approach it, what do you got? Just open slate. Well, I don't know. I think a couple things for me. And we've heard decision makers of clubs around the league talking about the progress players have made, whether it's, you know, Tua having a great offseason in Miami,

whether it's Kyle Shanahan saying how good Trey Lance has been, the whole Jimmy G. saga. Two quarterbacks in Seattle? Yeah, quarterbacks in Seattle. You know, we have two starters in Seattle. Here's what I'm looking forward to, not having to hear that and being able to watch with my own eyes and actually determine what I want to see myself. I don't have to go on what I'm hearing because I'm not around at all these camps.

I'm going to listen to people that have been around there for the most part. I mean, I went to two places this summer. So I know you have a little more information than I do. But I'm willing to take a chill pill and now I can watch. So I'm looking forward to seeing games in person and determining in my own mind what I'm seeing if it's true, false, whatever. So that's a big thing. The other thing for me is it's kind of how these teams adjust and how these teams deal with the ups and downs, the ebbs and flows. And we talked a little bit about that early off the top of how Buffalo is going to deal with it, how the Rams are going to deal with it.

Some of these teams now that have already had injuries, how are they going to deal with it? Should they have had a better plan? Should they have been able to foresee this happening? I like to see how teams respond to adversity, especially these first two or three weeks, because as we know, it's a long season. So I want to see what's going to shake out early with some of the roster designs and some of the personnel moves that we see made. So many times nowadays that these veterans get cut, you know, and they're not around week one because nobody wants to guarantee they're sour for the whole year. So there's a bunch of those games being played. played around the league as well. So I like to see how some of those things work their way out.

But there are some games now that I'm anxious to see. Like you said, the schedule makers, they couldn't have made this up some of the games we have to look forward to this weekend. Absolutely. Yeah. And I think we're going to talk about some of those in our picks. But to me, it's very, I mean, I, it's hard to even pick one. I mean, maybe 49ers Bears is just interesting because of all the narratives that have been around Jimmy Garoppolo and Trey Lance. but getting to see Lance and Fields on the same field together, two guys from the same draft class. Lance has, you know, Lance didn't play much last year, 71 pass attempts, but that's going to be hard not to read too much into one game probably. I mean, these guys, we had all kinds of opinions on these guys coming out, and really, we get to see now.

We don't have to hear anybody else's opinion. We get to watch it. Was Fields developed last year in the wake of the chaos in Chicago? and did he progress enough to get better this year, as opposed to Lance, like you said, who didn't play really at all last year. So different flakes, different sizes, different flavors, you know, we'll see how it works out when they're on the same field

in year two of their progression to learn a new trade, so to speak. Yep. I love Matt Ryan's debut, right? No pressure there. I know they're playing Houston probably an easy win, but all you can do is disappoint if you don't have a great performance. And that's been a, he's been seen as, you know, the big audition for them.

We've heard all offseason about, oh, two of this, two of that. The greatest offseason ever by a quarterback, according to Mike McDaniel. It's been unbelievable, you know. Unbelievable. So are you, am I sensing just a tiny wee bit of skepticism, Randy, on this? Or do you think that we're going to see? I understand that things have to be said. I get it.

But I think the hyperbole is, is, you know, if you've been around the game, sometimes as long as we have, you're a little cynical when you hear these kind of things. I need to see Tuo frankly get hit, get back in the huddle, get hit again, see how he operates from the pocket, see if he can make the throws that I think he needs to make. It has nothing to do with his preparation, his practice time, his work ethic, the intangibles. Those are all things you can work on all offseason for 12 hours a day. I get it. And he's probably been the star at doing that. Now comes playing football on Sundays.

That's what I want to see. I want to see how he plays football on Sundays. So they're playing the Patriots. We're going to talk about this game. But what's the difference to you between Mack Jones and Tua? I don't know if there's a whole lot to be honest with you. I think they both have physical limitations. I think the system that Mack was in last year benefited him.

They did things that he can do. Now he's got a new coordinator. I guess the system is going to stay a little bit of the same. I guess my point is, to answer your question, I think both of these guys have some physical, you know, the ceiling isn't quite as high for me. They may be super high for everybody else, but I think both these guys are going to have to overcome.

They're going to have to have a really good talent around them. And I think in this matchup, I think Miami's perimeter players and the things they've done with their roster are really, frankly, better than New England's and the roster they put around Mac. Yeah. Yeah, not only that, but just the whole weird coaching thing going on. I mean, for years, we've been conditioned, hey, don't even criticize Belichick because they're going to be 12 and 4 anyway.

I get it. I get it. And he's done amazing things, obviously, there. And he's a great coach. there's no doubt about it. Shoot, you could put him in the Hall of Fame right now. But a little bit of a weird offseason. That's one where the storylines, I mean, just don't add up to me with what he did with the staff.

Shoot, they've been down in Florida now. Since Tuesday. He took him down there Tuesday to practice, yeah. What do you make of that whole thing of Patricia, Joe Judge? I mean, that's just a, shoot, isn't Miami usually the team that's all over the map and we're wondering what the heck they're doing? I feel like it's almost New England going into this game. I think we've definitely given the benefit of the doubt because of who the head coach is, and rightly so.

I know this. If I was going to hire someone to run my offense, I'm probably not calling Matt Patricia or Joe Judge if they're on the street and bringing them into scheme and manufacture an offense for us. So I understand the system's probably the same and that they may be good coaches and good teachers. I get that to a certain level. But there is an area of expertise that Josh McDaniels had there the last 10 years. And I think that leaving is a brain drain on the offensive, you know, of offensive prowness. That is a brain drain that I don't think has been filled.

And not that those guys aren't smart. You know what I'm saying? But his offensive mind, Josh's, is out the door now. And I don't know that that's been replaced by the guys who are there now. Maybe I'll be wrong. I couldn't do that. I give Bill credit. He's sticking with his guys, but time will tell.

Well, the thing about Bill Belichick is he's going to have. his systems and there's just not that many people you can get to do it. They're not going to, they're not going to bring in some coordinator who doesn't have ties and is going to bring in and install his own system and his own way of doing things and have his own way of run past ratio and have the way he wants to do it. So Bill Belichick could have been limited by the fact that he really wants people that are in the family, so to speak. And there's not that many of them. Yeah, he's more apt to say the system is the answer rather than a coach or a player's individual skill set. That's really what we're saying.

Yeah. And I mean, maybe over time and over the season, they can make that work. It just seems like if I'm Mack Jones suddenly, I'm going from being about the best place you could be with Josh McDaniels and a stable organization and Bill Belichick knows what he's doing. To now I'm kind of looking around going, wait a minute, in this division, Buffalo is totally untruthers. track. They've got, they're doing everything kind of by the book in a nice way and they've got a superstar quarterback. Miami's all over the map. It may end up blowing up. But shoot, they've done a nice job of at least getting, getting, you know, they have a clear identity on offense that's going to take pressure off the quarterback through a run scheme and they have Tyreekill. So I feel like,

okay, they've at least tried to do something there. We'll get to the Jets later in the division. We're going to talk about them and some concerns there. But if I'm Matt Jones, I'm looking around and going, wow, you know, I'm not in the best situation, even in my division. Right. Yeah. I think everybody's saying Mac Jones is the second best quarterback in that division. I don't know. I'm going to get back to you on that one. I want to wait a little bit before I have to pick a box there. Yeah, absolutely. Okay, let's get into our picks against the spread because we really want to make people a lot of money here, just like last season. They've already tuned off if money's an issue. They've already turned the dial. No, Randy was money. You were money last season. So what we usually do

is we don't pick all the games. We're not going to be here all day. But as we wrap up the first edition of the season of the football GM podcast. We are going to get into some games and picks that we like. And I'll let you go first, Randy. We can alternate here. Who do you got first and what do you want to talk about? Well, we talked a little bit about these teams individually. You said we'd talk about the Jets.

Maybe here's the time to talk more about them. The Ravens are playing at the Jets. Obviously, the Lamar thing has found a way to have front and center headlines. Now that's going to be gone. I just think the Ravens are that much better than the Jets. their seven point favorites. I'm not sure what the Jets are got going yet. I really am not.

I'm not a giant flacco guy. We've seen some moves that they've made draft-wise. I wish building a team was as easy as making a draft day trade or adding a single draft pick here or there. I've seen some indecision out of the Jets, especially in some personnel ways. You know, they drafted Beckton a couple years ago. Now they rumor is they wanted to get rid of him.

Now he's out for the year. They drafted or they signed Corey Davis. us the high-priced receiver from Tennessee a year ago. Where it is now they've soured on him a little bit. I just need them to pick a lane, that's all. And I'm not sure they've done that in enough areas to where this team is much better. And this is Joe Douglas's fourth season entering in with the Jets. So I know the media gives him a pass and rightly so because he wasn't, you know, really given a chance that first year, but the Jets have to show me something this year on the field. And I just haven't seen enough to this point to say the additions they've made on paper have equaled a good team

on the field. So I think the Ravens are going to work them over, frankly. Yep. And then, you know, you mentioned Mackay Beckton being their franchise left tackle that they somehow soured on, you know, after, I think, a coaching change there. They signed Dwayne Brown, who'd been basically in semi-retirement. And now he's going to miss the opener and may miss a few weeks to start the year. Not exactly everything coming together here, Randy. No, there's still a lot of moving parts. I agree with you.

And that would be the one area where I would want my parts to not be moving is the offensive line. And I know you can't really, you know, forecast injuries, but you can forecast a plan that if you have them. And when we're signing 40-year-old guys off the street, that to me is really not a plan. That's kind of an emergency. Yeah, like Dallas is doing. That's kind of an emergency.

That's a last resort. that's throwing up the flag. So I don't know. I mean, time will tell if the Jets get it right. I know Joe signed a six-year contract when he got there. This is year four, and I'm still waiting to see a good team. So I like Robert Sala. I like the enthusiasm he brings. I've yet to see him make a difference on Sundays either. I think everybody's waiting to see Sundays before they say, hey, the Jets are going in the right direction. Yeah, absolutely. You know, it's as executive of the year in your profile because you showed up in New Orleans in the first year, they won a playoff game for the first time. That's unrealistic

to hold anyone to a standard of immediately being in the playoffs if you take over a really bad team. But we got to see some sign by the second year, don't you? Randy? I would hope so. At some point, yeah, I mean, definitely by year three. And like I said, it's it's been the same kind of revolving door of bring guys in, ship them out, bring guys in, ship them out, you know. Now the quarterback's heard. And I happen to like Zach Wilson. I think they did the right thing with him. But he's not going to develop. And maybe that's going to hold the team back the first month of the season. I don't know. It's just a lot of things up in the air still with the jets that I'm not sold on. So you've got Ravens and you're going to give the seven points and you're going to be fine because

it's Joe Flacco and a team that doesn't seem to really have to be on the track yet. I'm going to take the Raiders and take the three and a half points at the Chargers. I like the Chargers. I do think they're a really good team. But I think these division games that go back and forth can go either way can be close. We saw the Raiders had their number of a little bit last year. I like the addition of Josh McDaniels. I don't know about for a long-term head coaching part of it, but just out of the gates with coordinating the offense with Derek Carr, who, you know, has his imperfections, but I think he, I think Derek Carr is really smart. I think he's football smart. And I think McDaniels is football smart, very game plan around. You give him pieces like Devonte Adams.

Darren Waller, Hunter Renfro. I think that's a tough one out of the gates for the Chargers. And we'll see if they can muster kind of a Buffalo mentality, because Buffalo came into the game Thursday night with something to prove and showed it. And I think the Chargers have something to prove after missing the playoffs with that quarterback. That's hard to do. You've got to be really bad in the defense special teams component to miss the playoffs with Justin Herbert, which they were.

Do the Chargers get it right, Randy, right away? J.C. Jackson, who they signed, isn't even available right now. Maybe they get a Von Miller-type performance from Kalil Mack out of the gates. They may need it, and they may be able to do it against the Raiders' offensive line. I have real concerns there. Who are you picking in the game again, the Raiders? I'm taking the Raiders, and I'm taking the three and a half points. I got you.

And I kind of like, you know, I probably like the Chargers better than them this season, but that's where I'm going in week one for those reasons. Yeah, I don't dispute any of your reasoning. I think I like Josh McDaniels. I like where that team is. I think they will come in with an up, a sense of urgency and some confidence because, like you said, they beat the Chargers, the last game of the regular season last year. Here's my take on those AFC West teams.

I spent 27 years in the FC West. I don't know who's going to beat anybody from week to week. Like, I really don't. And that's why the only reason I stayed away from that game picking it for anybody, I just don't know. I mean, you can throw Kansas City, you can throw Denver in there. I say that. In my 17 years in Seattle, we were in the AFC West.

And then I had 10 with the Chargers. So I've just seen so many Sundays that I don't know. I mean, I could not make a living betting on the AFC West. I can tell you that. That's hard. Yeah. I feel like it's a little bit of a hard word to pick too.

So I'll take the team as getting three and a half. Yeah, I agree with that. That's just sort of my, look, if the Chargers win by 10, I ain't I can be surprised. But that's where I'm going on that. What's your second game? Well, my last two games that,

that I like, and we talked about the dolphins and Patriots. The Patriots are two and seven in their last nine trips to South Florida. It is a really hard place to play in September. Live there, live through it. It is hot. It is humid. You are spent about halfway through the second quarter. You want the game to end. It's just the way it is. There's no if-ans or butts. I think it's a giant advantage for Miami. I think Miami will be the better team here, no matter how many days Bill brought the Patriots early. So I'm taking the dolphins. They're getting three and a half point. on top of it, so I like that. And my third game was, I like the Eagles this year, Mike.

We haven't hit on the Eagles, but I like what Howard Roseman's done. I like their roster on paper. I think Jalen Hertz, if they can just get him to advance the passing game from the pocket a little bit, and I think Nick Siriani knows that. I think the weapons that they brought in there will make Jalen Hertz better. I'm bullish on the Eagles, and I think they just have too much talent. They're going into Detroit against the upstart Lions team that I'm sure will be high, emotionally. We all know Dan Campbell. We saw the hard knocks version of him. I think the Eagles are a better

team and I would give the three and a half there. So those are the three games that jumped out of me this week. Absolutely. I liked that Eagle game too. I took it off of there just thinking in the end, I thought, you know, is Philly one of those teams that's getting the huge off-season hype? I did a piece, you know, and kind of one of the worries for each team. And I think we have viewed, not you, but I mean, just the public has viewed the Eagles through a best case scenario situation with, that all these guys are just going to be amazing. You know, whether it's the big detackle they took early, whether it's, you know, some of the guys that have been there before,

you know, Fletcher Cox and Brandon Graham, and now they got the corner of Bradbury. I don't know if it's that easy, so we'll see. I do think they're the better team, but I think that that, we'll see what Detroit's kind of made of a little bit too. I think in that game. The other one I'll take the Steelers in six and a half, staying in another division matchup,

I'll take the six and a half points at Cincinnati. I like the Bengals. I think they're probably a little better than the Steelers, but six and a half is quite a bit. And I think if you play a good defense like the Steelers can, you know your opponent in the division. Maybe they can keep it close in a one game scenario. And that's, I'll take the six and a half.

I got the two teams on the road in the division, getting a total of 10 points, and we'll see how that goes. Sounds good. I like the Steelers this year. actually, and I've heard a lot of prognosticators not be very high on the Steelers. They're kind of one of my sleeper teams. So I would be with you on that pick.

I think whether it's Tribusky or at some point, Kenny Pickett, I think the Steelers are going to be a formidable team. And I think they're going to hang around longer than people think this year, based on Tomlin, based on just the stability of that whole organization. I'm a little worried about their offensive line, you know, and just the ability to kind of foster the run game. And, you know, it's not you haven't been going to be there the whole time. So what do you think? And then what would you, I'm curious on them. I know you liked Kenny Pickett coming out too. Would you be in a, would you have a timetable in mind going to the year or just sort of let

let's see how it goes with Mitch and then make the decision later when we kind of have to. Yeah, I would definitely let it play out. I would not be in a rush to get Kenny Pickett in there. The game is a fixing to change. It's going to get a lot faster. It's going to get a lot more complicated. It is not preseason. I also think that, and I've heard criticisms of their running game and the offense.

line. I think that will change as well when they start doing some things that they want to do. Nobody's running a scheme or game plan that they, you know, are going to use in regular season. So I think that will help the Steelers. But I would have no game plan on Kenny Pickett. I like what I've seen so far. But I think they've seen enough of Mitch and committed to him. So I'm not surprised he won the job. I think it's it's about what he did, not what he can't do. And he should be the quarterback right now. Absolutely. So those are our picks. Sando takes Raiders and three and a half. He takes Steelers and six and a half.

Mueller takes dolphins, uh, Eagles and Ravens. Yep. And we'll see how that turns out next week. I'm sure it'll be a resounding five and a oh. Thanks everybody for listening to this, uh,

first edition of the 2022 season. I'm Mike Sando. You can find me on Twitter at Sando NFL. He is Randy Mueller. You can find him, uh, on Twitter at Randy. Mueller underscore. That's correct, Randy, right?

That's correct. I haven't read that off since last season, but I don't have to type it in every time. And also, you can check out Randy at muellerfootball.com as well, and make sure you follow him and check him out there. So thanks, everybody, and Randy, we'll do it next week. Sounds good, Mike. This was the Athletic Football Show.