The Athletic Football Show: A show about the NFL - Football GM: trades, re-signings and receivers

Episode Date: April 6, 2024

As NFL free agency continues, Mike and Randy discuss the most recent news surrounding free agency. The guys start the conversation off with WR Stefon Diggs trade to the Houston Texans. Then we take a look at the top three wide receivers in the upcoming draft. And lasting we end our discussion with the GM notebook.  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

is the athletic football show's football GM podcast. Welcome everybody to the football GM podcast, Mike Sando here, along with the GM, Randy Mueller. Randy, we're only a couple of weeks away from the draft. We've got free agency still percolating. I had a big free agency review that published on Wednesday. And shoot, we could barely get the thing published and we got another major move with Stefan Diggs being traded. So it never ends, does it? Yeah, you're right. Everything we say is fluid on here and by the time this runs, it may change for sure. By the way, if our listeners haven't looked up your column from last week, it's outstanding. And I think I told you that there is a ton of great information in there on every team in free agency. And I think fans around the NFL are

doing themselves a disservice if they don't dial into it. So that's a good job by you. I appreciate it. It's a fun thing to do. And for me, like to wrap my head around things, you know, like for you, there's no substitute for watching the film, right? That's sort of of a gritty work that you have to do and it's tedious, but by the time you do it, you have the understanding that you need. And there's really no other way for you to get that, right? No, that's research for me. It's all research. Yeah. So, yeah. For me, what I do in free agency is I take all of the free agents, all of the moves, and I put them into a file, and I put all of the salaries in there, and I've got the players ages and a couple of other things.

and then I start kind of creating some summaries and tables off of that, just to get a big picture perspective of, okay, who spent the most, who lost the most, who's getting older players, who's getting younger players. And that kind of helps me, you know, just understand what's gone on, you know, and then start having conversations with people in the league and kind of piece it all together, get some different perspectives. By the end of it, it ends up kind of, you know, there's a tedious component to it, by the end of it, you're sort of rewarded by having a better feel, right?

The process of that is kind of, you know, there's no substitute for the work. I totally agree with you, and I think it's valuable from a standpoint for a GM. I would assume, and I would do this, most GMs have a part of their team to give them the same type of information, because I think it's valuable for a team building as well. Just sometimes to get a trend, to get perspective, to know from a bird's eye, view what's going on around the league. We're at the end of our show today. I'm going to get into the specifics about a particular restricted free agent move that

happened over the last week, but it involves conversations in buildings, much like your column would, in my opinion, to help us work through some of the nuts and bolts of how teams are run. So I think it's really important. And I'll be shocked if guys around the league don't find your column valuable as well for that reason because they don't spend a lot of time outside sourcing information outside their own world. And really, you're doing it for them. So I think it's awesome. And then the other component of that is by now, they're all on the draft anyway. So, you know, the free agency stuff is

kind of in the rearview mirror. And it happened so fast, you don't have time to digest everything that happened around the league. And it's kind of like, oh, wait, where are we in this thing? You know, you get a little bit of a bigger picture. You don't have time to do all the, you know, how much time it took took you to write it. I'm coming out with a similar piece next week on free agency for 2025 already. And I found myself at the end of that saying, gosh, if I was a GM and could really afford the time to research this and look ahead, which nobody has when you're running a team, that information would be valuable for me as a GM. So I think our listeners and our readers are getting information that I think is valuable to team builders around the league as well.

Well, I hope so. And we've got a bunch of it here on the show today. it's funny, Randy. We're going to get into the Stefan Diggs thing first. We also are going to take a little bit of a look at the top three receivers in the draft. And we promise next week and the week after we're going to get to Randy's, you know, more detailed rankings on the players in the draft. We're going to run out of time if we're not careful. But we've had so much on our plate with some of these other projects that I said to Randy,

we're not forcing this thing, right? We can give them a little tease on these receivers. But next week, I think, and the week after, maybe we'll split it up into offense and defense and really go through and get your rankings. Get you on the record. We've got to have it on the record here going in, and then we can have fun with it as the draft unfolds and have a reference point for everybody. But let's first get into this Stefan Diggs trade that really no one predicted it was going to happen right now,

but I think it makes, you knew that it wasn't going to last forever. So what do you make of it just big picture before I interject my whatever's? Well, I think it is the latter piece of what we all knew was probably going to have to happen at some point. And I went back and looked at my notes on the bills that I had written down in February. And what I said was, and I think we talked about it on the podcast, the question Brandon Bean had to ask was, are we good enough to go further? Because everybody wants to close the window on them and say they've missed an opportunity. But my more pointed really indecision was, is this team good enough? constructed. I didn't think it was. So I think this goes with kind of what we've seen already happening

in Buffalo, and it's been the exodus of a lot of key veteran players, whether it's defensive backs, linebackers, all kinds of roster moves to one get under the cap. They were 55 million over the cap before this new year league started. So you knew that would be changed. But they've had a lot of exodus. A few additions, but more value-related. therefore for me the digs deal was kind of the combination of all those exits and i think their choice was and they knew this digs hasn't been happy he has not been himself it started a year ago and we don't know all the reasons he may have valid reasons for this or valid for that i just know as a gm i couldn't put really take it anymore i had to do something to write the ship and i'm

not blaming digs solely for any of the issues they've had but when you put put the film on and look at kind of what they were as a team, they had to make change. And so from my sake standpoint, maybe I'm surprised that it happened right now, but for me, I'm not shocked that they're kind of retooling this whole team. Now, it's kind of concerned. If you look at Dick's production over the second half of last year, which kind of coincided with the coordinator change too. Something was going on there because he just wasn't in the mix as much, but I agree the broader context of the team. These are some of the players that they've had who have signed elsewhere this off-season. Gabe Davis, Leonard Floyd, Turedavius White, Mitch Morse, Dodson, the linebacker,

Dane Jackson, Tim Settle, Jordan Poyer, Nyheim Hines. I mean, there's four or five other guys in there, too, Puna Fords, these guys. There's a bunch of guys who are still out there that were on their team, the Micahides and Jordan Phillips and some other players that people have heard of with Tavius Murray. I will say that they did do quite a bit of re-signings this year, Dionne Dawkins, you know, I think they re-signed one of their corners, defensive tackle, defensive end. So they were a little bit heavy in the resigns, but you're right. I think the timing was right for this move to happen, in light of everything else, the decisions they made about where they're at. I think it's kind of a fascinating thing, too, because they still may be

really good. We'll see. People are going to write them off a little bit, but they got the quarterback. I agree with that. So I don't really buy the window closed or window open deal because he is there for sure. But I'll say this about Diggs. When you look at the film, it's evident to me that he's not what he was when he signed a new deal two years ago. So you're looking, and you mentioned the drop off. I even did put some numbers to the film that I watched to just say, what's going on here? Stefan Diggs had 32 explosive plays, and that's 15 yards or more last year. For me, the explosive plays that he had were either schemed or when the quarterback scrambled. So they weren't explosive plays in anything that he really did other than he did find open areas to land in. And he has

really good instincts and awareness that him and Josh Allen were on the same page a lot of times. But just for a comparison for our listeners, Justin Jefferson, who I think probably is the best receiver in the league. He had 30 explosive plays, which is only two less, and he played 49% of the snaps in Minnesota on offense last year. So the explosive plays were not there for digs, and even to take it a step further, after week nine, he only had six of those 32 explosive plays. So it just went away. I mean, he was not involved in making any big plays the last half of the season. So like you said, maybe some of that's coordinator related. But I saw a guy when I watched tape, Mike, and I'm not trying to beat up on Stefan Diggs, but who really struggled to beat press.

He really struggled to put his foot in the ground and separate when man-for-man coverage was evident. I just saw a guy physically that had kind of become more of a possession zone target that really, like I said, has great spatial awareness and can catch the ball good still. But I didn't see a guy who played 4-4-5 that came out of college, what, seven or eight years ago. I didn't see that. I saw a guy that his play speed was more like 4, 4, 5, especially in the back half of last year. So there was some things for me that I looked at that said, wait a second, plus you factor in that

contract and what they were going to pay him. Something had to give. Yeah, absolutely. So Buffalo saves $18.5 million in cash on this deal. The cap consequences for, you know, he was counting $28 million already. It goes to $31, so not a huge change there. There's been a lot of focus on, oh, my gosh, $31 million of dead money. but they're already looking at it being dead money because they don't think that Stefan Diggs has a future with their team.

So it's not like there's a new $31 million charge on their cap. It goes from 28 to 31. They get out of it. They don't have to pay the $18.5 million cash. And they don't have to make any sort of, they're not going to have then a salary cap footprint for him in 2025, which they would have if they stayed the course. And it probably would have been, I think, an untenable situation because let's just say they are a little more up and down this year. they struggle a little bit, you know, with a new group that's maybe a little diminished from a talent standpoint, continuity standpoint. I don't know that Stefan Diggs is somebody at this stage of his career or any stage who's going to ride that out, kind of be the good soldier.

It was probably in that context, too, a great time to do this. But let's flip it around now. You saw all that stuff on tape. I've got to think that the Texans have access to film as well, right? and that they're not going to hopefully they're not going to make a move on a guy just on without doing that. Now, we say that. We don't think that the Broncos did enough film work on Russell Wilson. They sort of wanted to get Russell Wilson from a put yourself in the GM chair of the Houston Texans making this move.

You're watching that film too. What the heck? What's your e-vow here? Why would you do this? Well, I agree, but I think that they made another move as part of the trade that makes it kind of come together for me. As we know, as I think Adam Schaefter reported, that they scrubbed the last three years of his contract in making the trade. Diggs had three more years left, and they tore them up. And I can't remember really ever seeing that.

If I have, it's been very few and far between. And it made me think, why would I do that if I'm the Texans? Well, when you watch the tape, it was evident to me that they have no desire to pay him 20 million a year based on what he has done the last year in Buffalo. So they said, we're giving up nothing. Let's consider this a one-year rental. And let's take him on a one-year deal. And yeah, we'll sell it as you can get another bite of the apple in free agency a year from now. But to do that, he's got to be at his best this year. So on a one-year, prove-it deal, pillow deal, call it whatever you want, I think he's, he's,

has a lot of motivation to be really good both on the field and off the field for the Texans this year. So that's to me why they did it. The other thing is he's not going to have to go to the Texans and be the guy. They have Nico Collins. They have, in my opinion, even maybe a more important part of it is Tank Dell, the receiver, who can fly and open it up so that those other guys can do their work, especially where Diggs is physically now underneath. So I think he becomes part of a three or four-headed monster at receiver and doesn't have to carry the load. I think those are important for our listeners to at least factor in when you see all the moves that were made and the tentacles that come out of this deal.

But he, make no mistake, sees himself as the guy, Randy. And so I've been in the locker room after games when I was a beat reporter. I've seen the receivers after a tough loss go with the first thing they do, go look at the game book and see what their stats were for the game because that's how they're oriented. That's where their bread's buttered. That's where their money is, comes from even after a tough loss. They want to know sometimes what was my stats. Stefan Diggs is going there.

He's not saying, well, I don't really have the juice anymore. These other guys are going to open it up for me. He's going to be looking after week three and saying, wait, I'm third on the team in receptions. What's going on here? They're going to be asking them about it. His brother's going to be tweeting about it. All that stuff that made Buffalo not be that excited about it. I'm just amazed at the machinations that have been done and are willing to be done to accommodate this player.

you could make the case that when the bills redid his deal in 2022, they're just trying to keep him happy. These other receivers were signing more. That was a maintenance deal. That wasn't the bills going, oh, yes, let's lock in to, let's pay more for what we've got. That was, shoot, this could go south if we don't do this. And so now we're like acquiring him and going, well, you know what? We've got to make him a free agent after one year just to get the best out of him.

Is Stefan Diggs worth that for your team? and do you care about, what are you taking into account as a team builder? This isn't fantasy football, Randy, where we just plug in his 107 catches and say we're 107 catches better. We've got a locker room. We've got chemistry. We've got a young quarterback. Where does that all come in?

And do you think that there's risk here that the Texans are taking? Is it worth whatever Stefan Diggs is when he hasn't put up good film for a year? Yeah, there's definitely risk. I do agree with what you're saying with regard to that because this will be the third team he has come to in a short really career. He's going to be 31 this year. So obviously the Vikings gave him up for a first round pick, but there was a reason they traded him as well. And so this will be his third chance at that. And maybe they know some things about why he acted maybe like he did, why the issues had come up in Buffalo. And maybe they think those won't be the problem or a problem when he

gets to Houston. So but I agree with you. I think a lot of times, especially in that receiver room, there are a lot of me buttons being pushed. And that's always an issue. I think DeMarco, the coach will be really on top of communicating with him, maybe at a different level than Sean McDermott was, which I think is helpful. I think he will view himself as a leader to help a young quarterback, not as a complimentary player to Josh Allen. So I think the dynamics are a little bit different in Houston, but I think you're right. It comes with a little bit of risk. I think I do like the fact that it is a one-year deal and he has to prove it because there are, as we know, and you're going to get into at some point here, I think in the podcast today, a bunch of really good receivers

that are fixing to reset the whole receiver market. I don't think he's anywhere near those receivers from an ability standpoint and a production standpoint right now. The other thing that really kind of reflects really what he's become. 10.6 average per catch, Mike, that's not a lot in NFL numbers these days. And that's what he had last year. So you mentioned in reference the 100 catches, a little over 10 yards a reception.

He's going to have to prove he can do some things to spread things out, or he's going to have to embrace that role and be kind of the second fiddle to Nico Collins, who I think is a budding star, and Tank Dell, who like I said, said is a, a player that defenses have to defend differently and take advantage of those other guy's skill set. We'll see what he's made of for sure. Yeah, absolutely. So for their accounting standpoint, they're basically got him on a one-year deal now for $22 million. An interesting

component of this, we'll see what you think of this, is how you value a second round pick, okay? So a second round pick could be a good player, could be a bad player. But on average, a second round pick gives you a lot of value relative to what the player's value would be on the market, right? Because there's a rookie wage scale. So you get that guy for a relative real cheap, okay? And so one of the guys I enjoy reading his newsletter, Kevin Cole, used to work for PFF, and he's kind of a data analyst guy. He comes to things from a little bit different angles sometimes. but he was pointing out that a second round pick carries about $20 million in surplus value,

meaning because you can lock in that player, picked that high to such a low rate, over the course of the deal, you would come out about that much ahead on average. It doesn't mean you would if you pick a bad player, but if you pick a, you know, on average. So if you combine their paying them 22 and a half, you throw in 20 million surplus value, which I don't know if you buy that, but shoot, we're committing $40 million to this receiver, which, by the way, is about what he got on the value of his extension. with Buffalo the way he got out of it. He got all this extra money in 2022, and then on top of it, and then he gets to become a free agent again with this money being guaranteed from Houston. He's

coming out way ahead. What do you think about that, the value of a second round pick? Now, that said, Houston has two-toes this year. They don't have a one. They traded the Arizona. They do have two-toes. Do you look at that as not a big deal? And, hey, we're trying to make a push with this young quarterback, who cares what a surplus value of a second? Or do you factor that in, too? I think you definitely have to factor it in as part of the equation. I think that sometimes those kind of analysis for me are done in an independent silo. And as a team builder, I may think our team is positioned to do this this year based on how we finished.

Therefore, it's kind of like taking advantage of a momentum swing or that maybe Nick Casario thinks they're a pretty good team right now. and that a veteran skill set kind of over outweighs an analysis like you just gave. So I think that has to factor in as well. I know this. My experience has been when I was a gym in New Orleans, my second year, I overvalued our team as thinking we had won a playoff game. We had advanced into the second round. I thought we were pretty good in year two. As it turned out, I made a move or two based on the fact that I thought it might put us over the over the hump.

it was they were bad moves to make we shouldn't have done it and i overvalued our position and i'm not saying nick casero is even considering this but all i'm saying is it happens where gms sometimes will value a veteran player who can plug and play right now as opposed to a second round pick that yeah financially might make more sense but his ability level might take two or three years to get to where digs is it's like sometimes in you know if you're playing uh blackjack or you're an investor right you have certain rules that you follow. And look, I'm not going to, I know what the principles are I adhere to. But in that moment when you feel like you're hot or you feel like you have an instinct, right?

Sometimes you want to go away from the 30,000 foot analysis, right? Or you're playing a round of golf. You know you shouldn't try to carry the water on this shot. But you're like, you know what? I'm feeling it. You go for it. And sometimes you're right. Sometimes it is the moment.

And you are going to hit that shot. But sometimes you're sculled into the water too. and you go, yep, I really shouldn't have, I shouldn't have gone away from my course management, if you will. Yeah, no doubt. I think momentum factors in. I think we are all our prisoners of the moment. I think all of that factors.

It's the biggest issue I have with analytics on a Sunday afternoon is that they don't really factor in momentum. They don't factor in what's going on in the game. And they take your gut feel away in a lot of instances. And maybe this is a gut feel by Nick Sassario. But I would say this. If you go back to the earliest stages of Bill Welsh, putting in his offense, right? Bill Walsh was one of the first guys coming out of Paul Brown

to script the first 20 plays of a game. And what Bill said was, I have a much clearer head on Thursday in my office to script these plays. Then on Sunday, when I got guys in the headset yelling at me and somebody looked at me sideways on the sideline and I'm pissed off because the halfback fumbled on the previous one and our special teams coach didn't have this ready or whatever, he goes, I'd much rather have the script done on Thursday when my head's clear. So I think there's something to that too, even in an analytic sense of when to make decisions, to take it out of your hands a little bit when you're in the moment, right? There's a balance. No doubt. You have to take emotions out of it. I equate it to preparing for a draft where you'll

have a script of what you think everything's going to happen and unfold. But the factor that everybody forgets is that you have to have the flexibility to pivot. And you have to be able take advantage sometimes of emotion and kind of where you're at. And I don't know what went into this, but I think it's a great discussion. And I'm sure they had a lot of this internally in Houston and in Buffalo. But it's some of the discussions like this, Mike, that I miss most about being outside an NFL building. Absolutely. So let's stay in the division here real quickly with the bills and talk just briefly about the dolphins because, you know, I talked about the bills. They've resigned a bunch of their own guys, and now they lost a bunch too.

But they re-signed some of their core guys. And when I look at Miami, Randy, in that division, they're very different from Buffalo, because Buffalo's already paid their quarterback. Miami has still had to a Tung of Aloha on a relatively cheap deal. Yet, some of their homegrown guys that I would think you'd want to be resigning, Christian Wilkins, Robert Hunt, you know, Andrew Van Ginkle, some of these guys there are gone. They lost guys that you might be looking to resign. I know you've said before, hey, you don't really, we said it a minute ago, believe in the window opening closing thing.

But I kind of, this is one of the concepts that we talked about in the Freedency Review that I did, maybe the word window is not right, but they're in a tough, are they in kind of a tough spot here? Do you think that their best chance to really strike was maybe last season? And then it's going to get a little bit harder now as you're losing some of these players. and they haven't even brought on the quarterback contract. Well, I think they're definitely factoring in the fact that they're going to because I think we all realize that two is probably going to get a deal north of $45 million a year and their best opportunity to build a team around him may have passed. It doesn't mean that they can't put a winner around him still.

They're just going to be, I'll tell you what happens with these quarterbacks to get paid is they still have to be cognizant of having enough playmakers and paying the top end guys, but it's the depth that suffers when you pay these quarterbacks that kind of money. You'll still find a way to have Tyree Kill. You'll still find a way to have A-Chain, some of these other guys around that give you the speed element that makes you what you are. But it's your depth that will erode. And it's positions like Guard, like Robert Hunt walking out the door and going to Carolina. It's positions that aren't priority one that you can't pay.

You're just going to have to pay guys on a per, you know, positional. priority basis and there'll be some guys, whether it's safeties or guards or inside linebackers, that you're just not going to be able to pay. So I think that's what the factor is. It's depth and it's certain positions that you can't pay. You can still win with a quarterback making 50 million. It's just you've got to hit on these other positions and get by with less at these less, I want to say, I don't want to make these positions seem like they're inconsequential because they're very important. Less premium. Plus premium. Yeah, less premium and you're not going to be able to pay money to fill those spots.

Yeah. So I think it'll be a really fascinating test of these two teams and to see, hey, does Buffaloes come out in top in that division with Josh Allen just being such a dynamic quarterback? And they figured out, like Brandon Bean said, season doesn't start tomorrow. They got time to do a few things. There's some players out there. You liked OBJ's film or whatever. If they were to sign OBJ, shoot, you probably like what he did better than Diggs last year, right? I actually would.

I think, and I bristled sometimes. I hear the commentators on TV. Everybody wants to kill OBJ. All I would say is please watch the film first. It's such a lazy take to say OBJ was disappointing last year. I hate that he had 30-some catches, but his opportunities were limited, not by his skill set, but what that offense did and the other options that they had. So yes, if a team like them could sign OBJ, I think they would probably be better off if the numbers

came in to be reasonable. Last year, we talked about the OBJ signing. as being a message to the locker room of the Ravens. Not that he was as great as he was back in the day, but his name still has cachet, right? When you sign him like Baltimore did, it was signaling to Lamar Jackson that, hey, we're helping you, man. We're getting some players here.

We're going in a certain direction that everyone's going to like. And I think this year for the Ravens, that guy was Derek Henry. There's just a few guys at each position who have the ability to send that signal to your locker room. So I think like that type of a player to Buffalo could go a long way, don't you think? They've taken their lumps. They've had their subtractions and now digs.

And it would be easy even if you didn't like digs or even if you thought his time had passed there. If you were a player in that locker room, hey, we're getting OBJ. That type of a signal could be worth more than whatever the money is you give them, right? Great point. Totally agree. I think teams are in different points with their attitude, with their point of view and with their team build. Like I said, from a front office standpoint, but they're always. also viewed differently from the locker room eyes as well. And those eyes are really important to

GMs. So you're right. A reputation type guy, a guy who does take up a little bit of the oxygen, but also bring some swag and some confidence is worth more to a team like that now than he probably was worth two days ago. So I agree with you. I think those kind of guys can go a long ways, especially in the dark, dreary days of the offseason to motivate people to do things like that. And here's an example of it. I saw a video last week in Kansas City of those guys working out and it looked like their own place, right? Pat Mahomes had his own setup and they had a bunch of receivers there throwing. Hollywood Brown was in there.

And I'm not a giant Hollywood Brown guy, but I know this. Hollywood Brown can run and he can liven up a room with shorts and T-shirts. And during that workout tape, I saw a guy burglary. than off the ball, running really good routes, and being as impressive as hell. And I could see everybody's pep in their step pick up a little bit. And so, yes, these messages can be sent in the offseason just as much as they can be sent during the season. So I agree with you. So I think a player like that would be valuable.

If I was Brandon Bean, like just being a competitor right now, right? If you're in this job, whether you're the GM, what are you a player, you're a coach, you're super competitive. And you can say that you block out the narratives, but you feel what people are. are saying about you, right? And how you're portrayed. So I would be, I would love to see if they could get somebody who's going to have some big numbers next year. And just compare those numbers to what Diggs is doing after about week six, week eight, week 10. Look, they may not be, get close to it. Diggs may be off the charts. But I'd be looking at this like, okay, let's see what we can do, right? Let's see what we can do because there were some negatives

with this and that production over the second half of the season wasn't there. Can we actually upgrade? the position. That would be my challenge. Upgrade, not on perception, because everyone thinks Diggs, oh my gosh, 107 catches. Upgrade on what we're actually we're going to get from him, you know? I think, and to take it one step further, there's been some criticism and shade thrown Josh Allen's way with regard to his relationship with Diggs and kind of how that has gone south. I think Josh Allen is going to go out of his way to whoever serves in that role next year to make sure their numbers get to where, hey, I told you so, we can do this. And so I think I'm just piggyback

in your point. Yes, I agree with you. Amazing. That's a great discussion. We almost went a half an hour on that. While we're talking about wide receivers, it's a perfect segue from Diggs into the top three wide receivers in this draft. People know who they are. Randy's not coming out of left field with some guy you've never heard of as one of the top three receivers in this draft. Randy, there are three guys that everyone's talking about. And it feels like the sort of draft media complex anointed Ohio State's Marvin Harrison Jr. is the top guy a long time ago,

over Malik neighbors of LSU, over Roma Denzy of Washington. But you told me at the Combine that maybe just maybe neighbors might be your guy. And I think I was at the, maybe at the Combine and League meetings, I heard some other similar type of whispers that suggest maybe there's,

you know, there could be different guys for different teams or different, you know, skill sets or whatever. Right. Let's just get your big picture view. How good are these three and how different are they? And how would you stack the three? Well, I think they're all really different. I do think they're going to be different on 32 boards. I don't think there's really a right or wrong. And I'm surely not going to tell people what to think about them. I'm just going to give people maybe some of my preferences. But I'll start by saying this. The criteria is what matter. Every team has a little bit different criteria as to one, what they're looking for, and two, what they want to add to that room and that group of skill sets that they already have. But I'll say

this over history and my history in the league, I think two things are for sure. If you can't get away from coverage, and I mean put your foot in the ground and separate and get open on your own, it's going to be somewhat problematic at some point in your career that you're schemed open all the time. And I don't think that's a good thing. I want guys that can go beyond the scheme. So there are a couple guys in this group that do that better than others. The other thing is I think that and not quite as important to me, but still in that top two or three parts of the criteria is you have to be able to catch when you're covered. Because guess what, Mike, they cover you in the NFL. You're not going to be running into wide open spaces. You're not going to be making wide open catches somewhat like a lot of these college kids are. at a lower level. So I think those two things are the top two things that I want to evaluate when I look at these players. And for me, when I consider those, I came out with a different order. And to answer your question earlier, neighbors didn't turn out to be my first guy. Rome O'Doosie did because for my money, and I'll just give a quick big picture scheme,

for my money, Oduzzi is a little bit about Marvin Harrison is and a lot of what neighbors is. So I had less doubts about him than all three guys. Yes, for me. Now, I don't, I'm not saying he's going to be picked first. In fact, he most likely won't because we hear the narratives that are out there. But I'm talking about character, you know, yes, I'm talking about size. I'm talking about speed. I'm talking about the ability to get away from defenders and still catch when you're covered. And I'll just make some comparisons. He is not as explosive as neighbors. But I think a doozy and neighbors are both more explosive than Harrison. Now Harrison is bigger. He catches, I think, slightly better. He catches when he's covered quite a bit better than both these guys.

But as we know, Harrison did not run. He did not work out. He's done absolutely nothing to further his cause other than to say, go look at the film. I get it. And I said a couple weeks ago on the podcast that that's okay. I'm for that. You can do whatever you want. But the risk he's taking is that these other guys have done that. And the risk he's also taking is that everybody in the NFL buildings view Harrison's game like he and the people representing him do. And my point is I don't really see it quite like all the other guys do. So I'm looking for a couple different criteria.

And I see Oduzzi and I see neighbors as guys that can get away from coverage better, don't have to be schemed, can make plays completely on their own, that Harrison can't because let me just say this. I think all three of these guys might be in the top six players in this year's draft from a talent standpoint. So they're all good. So we're we're you know nitpicking somewhat here but every NFL team has to put them in an order. They don't go put them all horizontally next to each other and pick one. Okay. Every NFL team has had this discussion and there is a one, a two and a three. And that's the way they're listed in every draft room. So those are just some of my thoughts. I don't know if that spawns any more questions from you, but,

and let me say this about Harrison. I am not against Harrison at all. I do understand it, but if I had one slight doubt, it is I want to see him separate from people. I want to see him get away and change gears when a man, when a corner is running across with him, man, a step for step. I want to see him be able to accelerate and get away from that. I see that more often in the other two guys. That's all I'm saying. So let's just say we were, we were working for a team and you were, either GM or whatever role you were in. And then I was just kind of having the conversation with that. So, okay, what I want to make sure is I'm not sensing a little, you know, resentment over the fact that this Harrison seems a little entitled to you're saying, I'm not working out on your terms.

I'm going to do it on my terms. Do you have to be careful about not letting that kind of being annoyed with that, knock him down a notch? in your mind that I know you said, hey, you're kind of implied you're not really doing that, but is that a human nature sort of thing to do to be like, all right, you're not, we're not going to put up with this. Does that factor negatively for you? Well, I think it's a factor for some. I would go out of my way to not make it a factor because I think your scouts will all tell you that there is zero question about this guy's character, about his work ethic, about him as a human being. So I don't really have any animosity toward him not doing what he's doing.

doing. I think I said this on an earlier podcast. I have more problem with him not addressing the media and doing it like everybody else did in Indianapolis and blowing off that session than I do with him not running. There is risk and you have to be accountable for the decisions you make. And if I watch the film and have a slight question about his explosive nature, and again, I think he's really good. So I'm not ding. Yeah, you take him on your team. I mean, we'll draft him. Yes, 100%. If you guys weren't there, you're drafting him fourth overall, maybe, you know. Yes, and not a problem.

But the one slight doubt I have, he didn't do anything to help remove that doubt. Now, maybe 31 teams other than you and I's team don't have that doubt. That's fine. No problem. Let's just come back and talk in four or five years and see where we're at. We had a similar discussion, and I'm going way back in 1995 when these three receivers came out. West Brooks from Colorado, JJ Stokes from UCLA and Joey Galloway from Ohio State. Dennis and I, Dennis Erickson and I were running the Seahawks at the time.

And I'll just give you this. We purposely evaluated these guys independently. I say, coach, I don't want to hear anything you say about these three guys. You do your analysis and evaluation. All do mine completely independent. And we came back a week later and discussed it and talked about it. And we were exactly on the same page. For those three players, we had Joey Gallagher.

way rated the highest because he made defenses aware that one, he's lightning fast and two, he could get away from coverage and he could also be a punt returner that we thought was special. So we arrived at the same conclusion. I don't know what we'd have done if we didn't. We'd have probably taken another position, a positional player. And that might be the case for these receivers if I were running a team. If we don't have consensus, we might pick a different lane. But here's why it's, I think, easy to obtain consensus.

We all know exactly the criteria. We're all looking for the same thing. So I think if you have a job description that specifically spells out what you're looking for, it's easier for the people on your staff to all get on the same page. I hope that makes sense. It does. I was just looking at up. I remember that draft.

I was not yet covering the NFL then, but I was covering college. Oh, man, you're making me feel really old. Well, it's a long time. It's 30 years ago, Randy. I mean, what do you want? But I mean, I was. I was of age. I mean, I was functioning member of society.

Could you even have a beer yet? I could. I could. In 1995, I was working. I was a part-time as a writer, but I was also an editor at that time. And the Raiders moved back to Sacramento at that time. I bought a season ticket because I grew up there. I moved to Oakland.

Sorry, the Aids were moving to Sacramento, but moved to Oakland. I bought a season ticket. I was really into it. But I remember thinking at the time, J.J. Stokes was kind of of the shiny item out of UCLA. It's funny, I pulled up the 95 draft. Joey Galloway has more than double the career receptions, yardage, and touchdowns of,

or he has more than double the combined total of Westbrook and Stokes. So you made the right choice. Joey played forever. And he also, it's kind of amazing that I got married. He could have easily cost me my marriage, Randy, because of that big holdout situation when I was dating my first. future wife. I spent more time talking to his agent and covering that the whole mess than I did,

you know, taking my wife out to dinner. But Joey had an amazing career. At that time, too, Joey eventually, he got traded for like two number ones later. That was after you left the team, right? You left the C. Well, Mike Holborn traded him and he was in the holdout. My last year with the Ciox was 1999. And I believe that's the year he was holding out and went through all that. Yeah. Yeah. Interesting. Good stuff. All right. So that's just a little thumbnail on these receivers and why my ranking. And again, these guys are finally grouped altogether. So I just like a little different flavor maybe than some.

And I'm not saying I'm right. I just think that would be my preference right now. The other thing is, if you know much about Romo Dozy and maybe we're guilty of this, some geographical bias because we both live in Seattle and we know the background even more, there's no more impressive kid than this. So I have zero doubts about him. But it sure sounds like all three of these guys are great character guys, all high work ethic guys. I think they're all three going to be really good pros.

I get a little nervous when people start saying throwing around, this guy's a generational talent. And it seems like they've been saying Marvin Harrison Jr. is a generational talent since last October. The quarterbacking at Ohio State took him out of that category for me. Because this guy only had 69 catches. And although he had an 18-yard average per catch, they couldn't make the plays that these other two places made. And maybe that factors in sometimes as well. I think this, the system that these kids are in in college matter because you get different platforms to evaluate as opposed to another one at another school. So my takeaway on this receiver thing, then, of these three guys is that I don't know what order they're going to go in.

And it really is going to come down to who. I'm not trying to predict the order, though. No, no, you're not predicting the order they're going to go. You're telling your order. But I don't know. I think there's enough in there here. And it's funny, too, because like I said, I think the public perception was that it was going to be Marvin Harrison early. And then that's sort of shifted to wait a minute.

Some people are talking about this guy. And it really reminds me a lot of what's happened at the quarterback position where it was sort of assumed early on, hey, it's going to be Caleb Williams and Drake May. And I remember you mentioned, shoot, it might have been December or, or, you mentioned. January, I don't know. You were saying Caleb Williams and then, you know, LSU, Jaden Daniels, and don't be surprised if J.J.

McCarthy comes up to top five, and you weren't as high on Drake May, which we'll get into. And now it sort of feels like the outside, you know, draft coverage folks are realizing that too.

Maybe as they hear it from the teams or it's just sort of crystallizing, maybe Drake May is not going to be as high and maybe maybe there's not a full guarantee that Harrison be the top guy. I don't think there's any concerns on them, but at least we're open to the fact that it could be any of those three receivers being the first one off the board. I think you're right. And I think the comparisons are 100% right on. I think to give some credit to most of the time it's the media guys who evaluate that have to come out with these early takes. And they need to be because of their bosses

and the environment, they need to be first, not necessarily right. So, they're asked to do certain things that I'm not sure there's enough tools on the table that you're hard no. So yeah, you'll never have an NFL guy come out and say that because, one, they don't want to tip their hand, but two, they don't have to. They don't have to make an early stand. I usually use the media's narrative early in a season to then put my own stamp on it, but they usually have the right names. They just might not be in the order that they end up being for even those media guys come April. Yeah, it's amazing, though, how a lot of that sort of does crystallize and you see these changes before the drafts where the media kind of catches up to how they get a little bit closer to how it's going to be by the time the draft starts.

So always kind of a fascinating process. I wanted to hit here, Randy, too, on another move that happened since our last podcast, which has a little tentacle to it with the Eagles resigning these offensive linemen. But the Jets acquiring a son reddick from the Eagles. kind of an interesting turn of events where, you know, when the Eagles signed Bryce Huff from the Jets, I was at the league meetings or I was talking to somebody there about it, and they sort of mentioned, I don't know, this probably signals that, you know, they're not going to keep Hassan Reddick in Philadelphia. And I was kind of thinking more like down the road. I wasn't thinking there'd be a trade right away, but they end up trading him.

So big picture, Bryce Huff, Randy, was undrafted in 2020, turn it. himself into a solid situational contributor for the Jets, had 10 sacks last season, his 8 to 25 season. Huff becomes a free agent. The Eagles sign them away from the Jets, 17 million a year. So now, the Jets have lost a good young passhresser. What do they do? Well, they're up against the wall this year. They send a 2006 third round pick that can upgrade to a two to the Eagles for Reddick. So there's a little bit of a trading of places here. Reddick, the better pedigree, 13th overall pick in the 17 draft from Arizona. 29 years old, though, four years older, a little bit well-traveled.

The Jets will be his fourth team. But 59 and a half sacks over the last four years, pretty good. How do we like this move for both teams that happened kind of late? Well, I'll just start from the Jets angle. It's on brand. I mean, we all know that it's all in on a one-year deal for everybody in that building. would I have traded Huff for Reddick in normal circumstances? Probably not.

I'm more apt to go with the Eagles got the best of this deal because they get a younger version of Reddick in Bryce Huff and they sign him for whatever you said, three or four years, $17 million. I think that stands to be a better move from a team builder standpoint. The Jets aren't in that team building mode. They're in all or nothing. they're building everything to save jobs this year.

I get it. It is a big what if, but Reddick being on a one-year deal who would be a free agent a year from now is going to have to play good. I think there's value in getting guys on one-year deals because they have to play. I think for me, these veteran guys like what the Jets have done when you bring them in, especially on short term,

there is a period of adjustment that is sometimes longer than teams realize. for a player to change teams. And the Jets have done a lot of this up front, especially. They've, the theory of plug-in-play works for fans. It doesn't necessarily work in making us better. And so that's an issue for me. I think they have got to, at some point, and I know they're in year six of this build,

because it's Joe Douglas's sixth year, at some point they've got to build something for the future. They haven't done that. They've missed on some picks. And hey, this is a way to supplement losing Huff, in my opinion. It's funny, Randy. What I picked up there, I hear this, you hear this from a lot of people in the league, they look and go, how do you get six freaking years to do this thing?

It's really amazing. GMs get fired at two years, you know, three years with better records. It's crazy how it works sometimes. But the way it's just sort of strung out with this Aaron Rogers acquisition has really prolonged it and really led them down a path of doing unsound things that probably I would do too if I was in their situation now. You're just sort of, it's kind of like being pot committed or kind of, you know, just sort of being stuck. So we'll see if it all comes together this year, if it's even sustainable.

I mean, even if Rogers has a good year, what do you do after that, right? You're not going to run it back with Tyron Smith and some of these guys they've picked up. But while we're talking about Jets Eagles trade, let's hit the Eagles as well. They re-signed two of their offensive linemen recently. we saw left tackle Jordan Malada. Incredible success story, Randy, as a rugby player, turned a starting offensive lineman left tackle, franchise left tackle. Earlier in the offseason, right before Friedency,

they re-signed guard Landon Dickerson to what was then billed is, I think, the richest deal for a guard at that time. Now, Malata's never been to a Pro Bowl, Randy. Dickerson's been to two, but my football GM podcast sources tell me maybe you think it should be the other way around. I'll be honest. can understand why both of these guys were signed, why Howie Roseman, who we know and we have respect for and think he's really good, signed these guys. You're paying a guard 20 million a year.

You're paying a tackle, 22 million a year, whatever it is. I think the pros to them minimizing change are just that. Just kind of what we talked about. It's the cons of what the jets are doing by starting two or three different offensive linemen and the learning curve being somewhat risky. In this case, they're taking all that out of the equation in Philly. They're keeping the lineup like it is. They're not adjusting on the fly. They're in place now. They have cap numbers in place that they can plan for at left guard and left tackle now for at least the next two or three years. Regardless of these guys, I don't know if they'll ever see the end of their deals, but I understand it. If it makes sense, I think two things football-wise come to my attention. One is,

Landon Dickerson is not a fit for everybody, nor was he a fit coming out of Alabama. This is the kid that you talked about Jordan's character and his long history and the story behind it. Dickerson has a similar, intangible plus, great leader, injured as a senior, vocal beyond end, really a good guy you want on your team. But in my opinion, a guy that doesn't fit everybody's offense. And so I think it really in these two cases, They have signed these guys to minimize change. And I think they're both good players. I don't think either one is a great player.

And I don't know that they didn't overpay for both of them, especially Dickerson at Guard to go with what you were saying earlier. I don't see him as being a great player. I don't see him as being a great fit for other teams. And here's why. He's limited athletically. He really struggles to bend and recover. But he is a huge man who can knock people back.

Malata is a nifty, big man. who from a football background standpoint is still learning. I think he's still a work in progress. He has some footwork issues that still have to be ironed out. So I think those are the reasons he hasn't made a Pro Bowl because he's not really complete yet. So those two guys do one thing really good. And that is they lean on people, Mike, and they knock them back. So that power downhill running game that the Eagles have kind of focused on the last couple years does fit them.

Enter Kellynne Moore, enter a more finesse oriented offense. That's the fascinating part to me, is can Kellynne Moore make these two guys who now are making between each, but two of them, 45 million a year? Is that really what we want to do? And is that the lane we're picking in an offense now run by Kellyn that if it was a downhill power running game, it would be the first time I've ever seen Kellyn Moore run a downhill between the tackles run games. So I just don't know. It's fascinating.

Yeah, the way the staff has come together there and that whole component of it is super fascinating and could easily blow up. It blew up last year. So we'll see if that happens again. But I do want to zoom out on the, you know, we talked about the Stefan Diggs move being made in the context of where the bills are at, right? They're making moves at this time. God, Randy, you just took a big, nice phone. Sorry, man. My Tins are still empty here.

I'm so freaking thirsty right now. Anyway, you can't see the video, folks, if you're watching this, Randy's just took a huge I'm drinking a little coffee myself, so I'm a coffee guy. Cooleet, you're drinking the Culead? You're drinking the Culead? No, I'm not drinking the Culey. I know that. But let's zoom out here.

If you're the Eagles, you've lost Jason Kelsey, Fletcher Cox. This was another point that was brought up in my free agency piece. You've lost some real glue guys, some character guys, tough guys. these are the guys down the middle of your team that are, they set the Eagle standard for 10 years. And you've lost these guys. You've had a lot of change on this team. And now, like you said, you've had coaching changes too. And I think Nick Siriani's been compromised a bit here this last year.

He's on the ropes a little bit. So if you're, if you're Hallie Roseman in that team, you can't control that Kelsey chose to retire or the end of the line came for Fletcher Cox. and some of those changes, but you can control, hey, let's just not have everything fall apart here, right? So these are a couple of guys, like you mentioned, that are valuable to the Eagles. What Malata represents for them is super significant, right? As somebody who's a homegrown success story of development, and like he said, Dickerson, leadership, that stuff matters. They couldn't just lose everything, right?

Maybe if those two other guys were five years younger and they were resigning, maybe we'd see one of these guys not be resigned, you know, in terms of Dickerson. But in the context of where there as a team, maybe these. Yeah, I agree with that. I think the minimizing change are all the factors that you brought up is a good thing, especially for the offensive line. All I'm saying is we've got to be a little careful in that we've got to make sure the scheme fits the players that we're paying $45 million to. And that's where I have a little bit of concern right now. And there are certain things that Landon Dickerson can't do athletically. One is protect in a drop-back passing scheme. That is hard for him. So that's why that play action pass. That's why that run game is so

important. So he can, you know, not be affected by having to go laterally and his agility compromised when it comes to moving over a gap or two. And both these guys, one because his footwork isn't clean yet, the other one because athletically he's challenged, they've got to fit with what we're doing on offense. That's all I'm saying. But I totally agree with your reasoning for keeping them. I just, it's going to come. Something's, something's going to somebody's going to have to be in a different role. The offense, the player, the play caller, I don't know. What could go wrong in Philly this season?

I don't know. There's a lot of interesting moving parts, and it's going to be really fun to watch, I think, just especially without Kelsey and the offensive line being different, leadership being a little different, the pressure on the coach, it's Philly. I'm sure the media won't get involved either. They're going to be an interesting season. Hey, no, it'll be smooth sailing the whole way. Absolutely.

Love it. did you ever say no comment randy when you were gm did you say that a lot or uh i i think i was probably known for yeah i think i was probably known more for saying something that really was saying nothing instead of just saying no comment so you know you can do that too there's an art form to that too that's a great art too because because if you say no comment it invites suspicion sometimes too uh if you say no comment where i'm going with this is people might have seen this as people might have seen this the other day where an NFL arbitrator awarded the former front office guy from the, from the Cardinals Terry McDonough, three million bucks because the Cardinals didn't say no comment.

It's just kind of a fascinating thing to me where, so Terry McDonough, you might remember, accused the Cardinals of firing him because in his view, he had blown the whistle on this burner phone scheme that had allowed, that he alleged the owner of the team, Michael Bidwell, had hatched allowing the team brass to communicate with their GM at the time, Steve Kime, who was suspended. And the team said, no, actually, Bidwell, when he found out about the burner phone thing, he's the one who ended it. Things got totally sideways.

McDonough had this kind of a tack dog pit bull attorney who said mean things about Michael Bidwell. And this was where the no comment discipline was really tested because the Cardinals, for some reason hired their own pit bull attorney guy and he put out this statement just ripping uh uh mcdonna this was last year and it had the section that said that's why it pains us to be forced into a position of exposing the details of terry's character and let me just tell you i'm not going to go through it all because i don't want a defamation suit but they just ripped the ripped them to shreds in a way like you'd never see a team or employer do so all this goes before an

arbitrator. The arbitrator dismisses McDonough's principal claims about, you know, whether he was fired for the wrong reasons, but they give him $3 million because the PR statement from the Cardinals was so over the line. Just wondered from you, Randy, you know, as a team, you're not going to normally have an employee situation, get this public, this sideways. But there's a strategy too internally, right? And a give and take, maybe in this case, I'd like, could envision the owner of the team being really ticked off about these allegations that McDonough made. And so he goes and gets this statement put out there that really probably felt good but looked bad. You've been in the middle of any of these types of things where maybe the PR guy wants to do this

and the, you know, the owner wants to do that. And in the end, you know, you have to come to an agreement of how you're going to handle something that's really sensitive. No, I have not. Not to this level for sure. I think anytime you act on emotions, you take the risk of probably doing something stupid. Obviously, this statement that they came up with cost them in the end, $3 million. So as long as bidwell is okay with paying $3 million to feel good, to use your term, I guess that's part of it.

But it's truly a mess. I feel for all the combatants, I don't think it's good to have anything, this type of laundry out in the public. It's interesting, though, it made me think about the NFL has an arbitration process. something every employee agrees to when they sign a contract in the league. You can argue if that arbitrator is fair or not or whether he's truly an independent, he or she is an independent source. Who knows? I had one come up one time when I left the Saints about my insurance and the package that went with it because they owed me some time on a contract and if my insurance were to be paid as well. And so I had a little case like that, but it didn't. It was one call.

that the to a legal office official who was the acting arbitrator and we solved it. So nothing to this extent. I mean, we all know, right? The definition of arbitration is to settle a dispute. So it usually comes down to someplace in the middle and both sides having to give a little bit. And I guess that's what happened here. The arbitrator threw out McDonough's case against the Cardinals. But on the way out the door, he said, we'll give you $3 million for the bullshit statement

that the Cardinals put out. So again, arbitration somewhere in the middle. Yeah, yeah. Reminds me of being in a draft room having to arbitrate between two scouts or a coach and a scout. And I always say this. Guess what? The truth is in the middle somewhere. It doesn't mean you're right and I'm wrong or vice versa. Let's find some common ground here. And that's what these guys were trying to do. It just got too public for my liking for sure. Absolutely. Well, hey, we've had a big, robust show here with tons of discussion. I think you've got an item in the GM notebook here. Let's hit that before we wrap it up

and then we can get to work or you can get to work finishing up your draft rankings for next week. What do you got in the notebook? Well, there was just one thing that came up since our last show and it was a restricted free agent signing. And I believe it's the first one of the year and maybe the only one that will get. I hadn't seen any others. And in this case, these restricted free agents can change teams just so our listeners know. But sometimes there's compensation involved if a team elects not to match an offer that another team has put on a player, just some dynamics that I thought might be interesting for our listeners. The case I'm talking about is a tight-in Brock Wright, tied-in with the Lions, he's a backup tight-end, that the 49ers signed and deemed that he was

worth three years, $12 million, $6 million guaranteed. And all that the Lions had at stake was a right of first refusal. They weren't going to get any more compensation from the 49ers at all, but they had seven days to decide if they were going to match this. And just to give our listeners an idea about Brock Wright, who I had never heard of before this was signed, 6-5, 250, three years in the league, had 14 receptions last year, three first-down receptions, one drop, courtesy of PFF. They used him, in my opinion, the film I watched kind of sparingly. But the fact that I felt a need to go do a little research on it told me that this is,

As a GM, this is exactly what I did for years, and I think what some guys do now. And what I would do if this happened, even if I wasn't one of the participating teams, the team losing or signing, I would go to my pro scouting guy and call him in. And just to give the insight to our listeners a little bit, I would say this, what's your value and evaluation of Brock Wright? I'd want to know the pros and cons about him as a player. I would say then what does he do for the 49ers, the team that signed him? I would want answers to that. And then I would say, what does he do, you know, in Detroit? And what is the decision then after he signed the offer sheet by the 49ers, the decision came back to the Lions as, what do they do?

And I would have done this on day one of this process, just trying to get some answers, trying to get some ideas, trying to get some research. what do you think they do? And then again, I'd put our guy on the spot and sit by saying, what do you think is going to happen? And to get his views, these are the kind of things that it probably took me two hours to research this and study it. But it's something your pro scouting director should be able to come up with in 10 minutes. So that's why you have a staff. That's why you have other people involved in these. I might bring the whole pro scouting department in to discuss this. But in 10 minutes, I can then get up the speed and know what's going on. In the end, I was surprised that the Lions match the offer. He's going back to Detroit. They all of a sudden

agreed in that, hey, three years, four million a year for a backup tied end is valuable. I was a little surprised by that because I didn't think they used him to the point where they could value him at four million a year. So Brock Wright, great. Good for him. I got your answer. What position did Dan Campbell play in NFL? What role did Dan Campbell play? Block and tight end. what type of player was he when he played? So that's the thing that I thought of is if Brock Wright was a, you know, a third linebacker or whatever, you know, a backup linebacker or your fourth defensive end or something. I wonder if this touched a little bit of more of a nerve directly with the head coach and decision maker.

Maybe he loves the way Brock Wright, you know, carries himself. Maybe he values a tight end. A blocking tight end more than someone who wasn't a blocking tight end, right? Couldn't you see that? Well, I would say this in regard to that, maybe. Maybe, again, emotions factor in. But when I watch the tape, I don't know that Brock Wright is a blocking tight end. Yeah, I don't know much about a meter.

He was a guy that stood up for me at the point of attack. He was very ordinary area at the point of attack. He stayed on his feet some, but I would not consider him anybody that knocked anybody back. He was kind of a move guy, kind of an hback. Kind of, I guess when the 49ers signed him, I think, I was thinking, does this mean we're going to replace U-Chek, use-check? Because he kind of served the same role for me that the 49ers use with use-check. I said, who's the backup in San Francisco?

Because maybe he's going to back up use-chick. But $4 million a year for a role similar to what we already have a guy that does, is use-check going to retire? I don't know. So there are some questions. That's what I love about this is what are the implications, because it didn't happen, but, but you've showed your hand, right? The Fordender showed their hand of what they wanted to do. Yes.

And so that's what you're talking about, bringing in the pro director, bring people in. Hey, what are they, what are they thinking here? What's their role? What does this say about what they're going to do in the future? Because they showed they wanted to do this. They put it out there that they wanted to do this. And, yeah, I think it's interesting. Didn't know much about Brock.

right either until this. So there we go. All right. That was my one item in the GM notebook, Mike. That's probably bored everybody to tears. No, I liked it. A little intrigue there over a backup tight end that we hadn't heard of very much before. But fun stuff. Well, I think that's it. You got anything else? No, I think we're good. And I look forward to getting into a little draft talk the next couple weeks. I promise you. I can't wait. I'll get a little more in depth in our discussions. We're locking you in. We're locking you in. for some draft stuff the next couple weeks. Thanks, everybody, for coming along.

You can find Randy and me on The Athletic. You can find us on X. I'm at Sando NFL. He's at Randy Mueller underscore. Have a great weekend. Enjoy some men's and women's final four basketball. I know I'll be watching. Randy's going to be watching.

Our producer, Janika, is going to be watching. And a lot more people are going to be watching, especially on the women's side than have in the past. Really fun stuff. We'll talk to everybody next week. This was the Athletic Football Show's Football. GM podcast.