The Athletic Football Show: A show about the NFL - Football GM: Trey Lance trade, Jonathan Taylor, Hard Knocks, Bailey Zappe & more

Episode Date: August 31, 2023

Time for a GM's take on Jerry Jones' logic in acquiring Trey Lance, what's going on with Jonathan Taylor in Indianapolis, the Pats cutting Bailey Zappe, the latest shenanigans on HBO's Hard Knocks with the Jets and a bunch more notes from a busy NFL week.Sponsored by LinkedIn - Right now, you can try LinkedIn Sales Navigator and get a sixty-day free trial at linkedin.com/MAYS23 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This is the athletic football show's football GM podcast. Welcome everybody to the football GM podcast. Mike Sando here with Randy Mueller of the athletic. Mr. GM. You've been busy. A lot of cuts around the league. I mean, we're going to talk a little bit about that. It's a huge day in a league and a huge week in a league.

One thing I thought about, though, Randy, was like, if you were the GM of a team, you probably could have nailed your initial 53-man roster a month ago, right? I don't know about 50. but maybe 50 of the 53 for sure a while ago, you know. I mean, you know what's going on. You follow these. You track everybody. The problem is you can't wait until the last minute to really make this roster work.

Because as we're going to find out, and then most people know that the cap counting mechanisms include everybody all the time starting next week. And so you've had to have this 53 man exercise in place. internally for a long time. So, you know, we'll see. A lot of it's fluid still, as we sit here today. In fact, if you could see my desk, Mike, you'd laugh. I got papers everywhere. I got debt charts everywhere.

I've got two computers set up to watch tape. I mean, it's nuts. In a way, it's fun, but you take for granted. These NFL organizations have 15, 20 people operating a franchise nowadays that all have say in a final cut. And that doesn't even include the coaches. So there's a lot of people involved. As much as I want to say that you are extremely diligent as a member of the athletic staff,

let's not forget you're also a general manager of an XFL team. So you need to really be – these are the guys you need to be watching, right? A ton of them. Yeah, it's been a lot of fun for me the last couple weeks kind of honing in on who may or may not make it around the league. And we've talked about it here on the show a few of the players that have kind of unsurfaced in my hunt, not that they would ever make the XFL rosters, but it just gives you a really good idea of the talent level around the league for sure. Yeah, it does.

It really does. And Randy wrote a column this week, everybody, or a little piece. It was a little aside, a little vignette, about the time a player talked him out of cutting him. I thought it was great. And so we would assume this doesn't happen very often. It happened to me once in 35 years.

So that's why I kind of wrote about it one time. And again, I don't think the player had in mind the idea of having to talk himself off the ledge or talk us off the ledge. It just so happens that he made a lot of good points that I hadn't thought of. So we all think we're smart. We all think we get it. We all think everybody sees it from our vantage point. No, it's not like that at all. There's another side to every story, as we all know.

Yeah, so what happened? And what's sort of the process? Because you basically have to meet with everybody who gets released, right? they come into your office is who's in there? And how did this one sort of go? Well, this one was one where we were down on this particular player for multiple reasons. And to be honest with, he brought to the table a lot of reasoning that made us maybe be down on the wrong person or not down enough on the scheme or the system or the line of

communication that was being used by coaches to get to him and to direct him. So he brought a lot of valid information to the dialogue that, frankly, we hadn't thought about. So you think you vet these things. You think you talk about these things at nauseam. But there are times, I guess, when it's just surprising. Now, this doesn't have very often, obviously. But we did an about face, no doubt in my mind. And that just doesn't happen, especially in this day and age.

That's pretty cool. I mean, you do have to keep an open mind. And that shows that you were at least willing to, you know, admit that, hey, if we made a mistake, we want to know, right? We want to correct it. Yeah. It's not about me being right or the coach being right. It's about us as a team doing the right thing. Yeah. And so, and that player wasn't like cut the next week or anything.

He ended up doing okay, right? Yep. Yeah, a good player, actually. So it worked out that he was correct. And, hey, we, the pushback, normally you would, you would kind of poo-poo it. But it tells me that the pushback sometimes is valid. then we as decision makers need to listen up sometimes. I'm trying to think of all the times my, you know, my boys tried to plead there when they were in trouble, you know,

or plead that actually this. How many times did you say, you know, you can make a good point there, son? Yeah, how many times did you listen? That's right. Not very often, right? Not very often. See, now you're having regrets.

You're having regrets. I should have. I don't know. It doesn't happen often, but it does happen. That's for sure. Well, we have a ton of, of, of cuts and moves and trades that actually did happen this week in the NFL to discuss. And there's some interesting ones.

Let's start off with, you know, the Cowboys acquiring Traylance. And I don't know about you, but I was, you know, you get people calling from radio shows or whatever. Hey, you want to come on and talk about it. And they're breathless about, oh, my gosh, can you believe that they've done this to Dacquescascot in Dallas? They brought in Tray Lance. and I, Randy, I was like, wait a minute, Trey Lance had trouble threatening Sam Darnold. Doc Prescott's an almost 10-year starter in the league.

So there's several levels of this move, I think, if we get addressed, you know, kind of what it tells us about the 49ers. I think you have made an interesting comp in another form for Lance in the context of Mike McCarthy's history. The possibility that Jerry Jones, and we've heard a lot about this, maybe made the move without telling other people. of course there's ultimately whatever upside Lance might have.

But just take it away, Randy. What are you thinking on this and maybe hit some of those points if you got them? Well, I think you're right. I think there are many levels to this and probably a lot to unpack. And it's been done so around the dial the last couple days. But the things that kind of jumped out at me, I was not surprised that Jerry didn't converse with Mike ahead of time about this. I think Jerry was worried that for a couple things,

one that maybe Mike might push back on it. He didn't want that to enter into his mindset. But to be honest with you, the bigger thing for me was, I don't think Jerry thinks or did this with the idea that Trey Lance would put any pressure on Dack Prescott at all on the field. What I do think is in the back of his mind is it gives him an option to use as part of a negotiation going forward. We've heard about the Deck Prescott negotiations and they're infamous. They've seems like they've gone on for 10 years. And now there's talk of having to do something with Dex contract before next year because it's a giant cap number, as we know, and there's some issues there. Does this give him an option or a card to play in that negotiation?

Maybe. Even if he never plays it down for them, can he use that? He is in Jerry. Can he use it in this negotiation? I'm not saying that it's an ace in a hole by any means, but I think it is a number. option. I think there are a couple different ways to look at the Trey Lance thing. One is he busted out. It didn't work in San Francisco, but he also was undeveloped and did things differently than he'll be asked to do in Dallas. So there is still some developmental possibilities there. Now,

we've kind of said tongue in cheek that some of these guys who come into the league now are a year away from being a year away, and maybe that's the case. But this kid is talented. The correlation and the parallel that you brought up that I think Mike might see Mike McCarthy when he has time to analyze this. And maybe after some time of seeing him is we made a similar deal when we were both in New Orleans. Mike was our offensive coordinator with the Saints when I was the GM there. And we traded for a guy in his second year from the Green Bay Packers, Aaron Brooks, who came to us from Virginia as a tall, lanky, really athletic, strong-armed kid who had a lot of the same criteria that Trey Lance has. There's some similarities for me when I watch these two kids play.

And so Aaron Brooks ended up being a really good player for us and played only because Jeff Blake broke his leg in like week five, six, seven of our first year there. And Aaron Brooks came in and led us to the playoffs. Wouldn't it be something if Trey Lance does get an opportunity at some point here? you just never know. And my point is, I think Trey Lance has some skills that are obviously transferable to the NFL level. Now, maybe not as a complete quarterback, but in the right system, he can do some things that Mike McCarthy maybe can't do with that Prescott. So there's some parallels there in skill set, in development that I think Mike will see. And I'd love to chat with Mike after he had Trey Lance for a couple of months just to see if he sees the same thing I do. So as a GM, did you ever sign a quarterback for an offensive quarterback coaching head coach without telling them?

No. Could you imagine not telling Mike Holmgren that, hey, Mike, we just signed a quarterback. And actually, we're going to make a trade for one. And, you know, I just had to do it. I didn't have time to come talk to you about it. I know there's one guy who would come out of that room alive and it wouldn't be Jerry Jones. No. That's right.

But I also think that's really convenient because. I could see that they actually maybe did talk. But by doing it this way, it really insulates Mike, who's close to DAC, and he's on the headset. And he wants what's best for DAC. He does not want a disruption of this. And he doesn't want to do anything that seems to be undermining his guy. Because I believe that Mike Prescott or Mike McCarthy respects DAC, you know, and he thinks he can do really well. And so this lets them kind of do what you need to do for the team, which is always be looking,

get a guy with some talent when the opportunity arises. We can debate whether they bailed out the 49ers or should have held out for a lower pick. All that stuff's fine. But, you know, they got Dak Prescott for a fourth round pick, I believe. And now you add a guy who obviously has talent and you do it in a manner that, hey, it wasn't me. Mike McCarthy's hands are clean. I'm focused on the season. So I'm fine with it.

I hope that's really what happened was that they did inform Mike, which I think you would with a quarterback. because what if Mike was just like, look, I ain't coaching this. Or maybe they already knew from their evals a couple years ago that Mike liked them, you know? Yeah, I guarantee you they've had this discussion at some point. Maybe not in the last week or so, or the day of, but yes. Yeah. So I thought that was, that is a really interesting one. One final question on this, Randy, you know, it's easy to play armchair GM second guessing.

But the 49ers have taken a, you know, a lot of criticism over this whole deal, rightfully so. Could they have handled this whole demise of Tray Lance in a more strategic manner to possibly get more in return for him or no, with the tape that was there and the injury and the limited playing time, no one was really going to go more from this? My point would be like, could they have made this more about a wow, we are, he hit the lottery with Brock Purdy? That's the only reason we would ever move on from a prospect with as much talent as Tray Lance. but, you know, we're in with Brock. Could they have done that and gotten more or no, it's fantasy? I think they have tried to spend this many different ways. And yes, the Purdy thing makes it all possible

because they would be getting crucified still if they didn't have Brock Purdy to kind of save the day, right? Really, you can't get away from, and I've called it, and I've been on radio shows like you, Mike, this last week or so, I've called it reckless and arrogant what they did to move up to draft Tray Land. I just, we said it at the time. I remember you and I sitting here in these chairs talking about it. And I just said, I'm not going to say the wrong.

I just couldn't do it. I could not risk that kind of capital for a player with a body of work like that. And so I felt like they were almost arrogant by doing it. It had so many flaws to that process of you go up for a particular player. Did you really know who you wanted? The word on the street is that they moved up for Mack Jones and then got swayed. by Trey Lance, that's flawed in the systematic processes, obviously. So that's a problem as well. So they've tried to spin it. They tried to say, I mean, John Lynch said, hey, the Cowboys really wanted

him. They stepped up. Well, I don't know about stepping up for a fourth round pick. They've tried to change the narrative. They've tried to change the dialogue so that they are not being criticized so much. I think it goes down as maybe one, maybe the most colossal error of drafting that, that I've witnessed in my adult time in the NFL. I don't know about you. Yeah, just with so many ways that they stepped in it. You know, it's, look, you're going to pick a player who doesn't work out. Yeah, no doubt.

Yeah, all the time. That happens. But like, like, you know, people would say, hey, you know, Ryan Leaf was such a huge disappointment and all of that because of the way he handled himself. But going into that draft, the evaluation on Ryan Leaf as a football player was that he was certainly worth a top five pick. I mean, he was a very talented player. Two-thirds of the teams would have did the same thing.

Yeah, exactly. They just didn't work out. Right. Now, so I would say after. This one was out there. Yeah. It's funny, though, I went back and read through my notes because I, you know, talked to a lot of people in the league. And I didn't find a bunch of people ripping them at the time.

I mean, obviously, we were critical. But I think one of the reasons they weren't ripped at the time was because, hey, Kyle Shanahan must really see something. And there was a lot of faith in him. So that takes a hit here. You know, this is a big strike. You know, you get a certain number of strikes. This is a big strike that's going to change the 10.

of how the 49ers are talked about when things go wrong, I believe. I agree with that. They do a great job of controlling narrative and PR there to really protect their decision makers especially. Because let's face it, when they did this, John Lynch is not a proven GM. He was off the bus. He wasn't there a year or two. Kyle Shanahan had not been a head coach.

So they were learning. They were inexperienced at this. and so they've done a pretty good job of surviving this. Obviously, they've built a good team and have some skins on the wall that are positive as well. But in most places, this would cost people jobs already or would have. Oh, yeah, yeah. They've had three winning records the last four years. I think Lynch was probably got there in 17, so he'd been there a few years, but like you said, not a season to value.

But I'm just going to say this. I think you are still the leader in the clubhouse after this trade, getting the first round pick for Rick Meyer, I think getting a fourth for for Tray Lance does not move you off the leaderboard. I think that's a great example of really getting max value for somebody who admittedly had played at a higher level than Tray Lance has and had played well a little bit. But that to me is the ultimate way to get something great for something that is diminished. And in this case, they just took whatever they can get, which is a fourth round lifeline from the Cowboys. And now we'll see. I guess the perplexing part for me is at the end of the day,

would I rather have Trey Lance as my third or do I have a fourth round pick that I can hang my hat on? I don't know that the fourth round pick does much to move the meter. Do we really like the third quarterback there? It's Alan. Is that who it is? Oh, well, they, yes. Yeah. I mean, do we really like him that much more than Trey Lance to where we just want Trey Lance out of the building?

is really the fourth round pick doesn't do much for me. Well, yeah, you basically save a bunch of cash, though. Yeah, I understand that. So if you're saving millions of dollars, look, if you're telling the owner, hey, look, this guy is not in our plans. I'm sorry, it's not going to work here. If I'm the owner, I'm saying, why am I giving them $10 million? Let's get them out of here.

We'll use that money. Yeah, that's a good point. That's a good point. I think the cash should be the primary consideration there. I will tell you that I got a sarcastic tweet. I got a sarcastic text from a longtime coach after this trade that the Cowboys made. And it said, do you think that Tray Lance is better than Will Greer? So there's some opinions on as a player.

Let's be fair. Let's give him some time. I do think Mike McCarthy is an excellent quarterback coach. And I don't think that we have seen him in that role with Dallas yet because he had to, you know, he had Kellen Moore, the system was a little different. I think now he is hands-on, and I really do think that's a strength of his. So he probably is a much better developer of quarterbacks than who's doing that in San Francisco, in my opinion. I agree 100%.

I've worked with Mike. I've been with him. Mike used to put on a quarterback school in the offseason for all of our rostered quarterbacks, and it was awesome, Mike. I had never seen anybody work to the details that he did in the offseason. And that goes a long ways toward what you're saying of developing quarterbacks. And I don't think Mike gets enough credit for that. And you're right, he will be hands on now.

And I would say at some point it's even going to favor DAC. It's even going to help Dak because I think the things that he asks of these guys in the offseason is unlike any place I've ever been or been around. And I think it's only going to benefit these quarterbacks, whoever they are. Watch DAC's footwork and that type of stuff. this year. I think that's going to be really key to watch. I think the best thing for Tray Lance is to not get out there right now because Mike McCarthy's not going to have five, he's not going to have five minutes to coach, you know, to coach Tray Lance at this point. It's too late. So nothing can be evaluated on Tray Lance, in my opinion, fairly this year. He's going into a new system. It'd be

disaster if something happened to DAC for an e-val of him. Another quarter, yeah, go ahead. No, I say I totally agree. I think that's all good points. Yes. So we interrupt this this Cowboys podcast. We're going to shift gears and talk about the situation in Arizona. Colt McCoy cut, and this is a little headline here in our little outline. Cards cut Colt McCoy and people hilariously think this signals tanking. What do you think of that, Randy? Well, I liked your comment on it. You said something to the effect. Well, I got news for you. They were already in the hunt for the first pick, even with Colt McCoy being their quarterback. So I don't know what meter of this moved.

That's what I said. I said, wait a minute. Isn't going into the season with McCoy as a starting quarterback, all the evidence we need? I mean, I am kind of half joking. And with all due respect to Colt McCoy is forged a 10-year career in the NFL as a backup. It's just amazing to me how great Colt McCoy became overnight. So that we've got basically conventional wisdom saying, hey, cutting him and acquiring Joshua Dobbs, that signals some sort of a meaningful shift. I actually did put in the notes. I was quoting you, Randy. I've got news for you. I used it. I've got news for you. I used it. I've got news for you. I've got to be careful here. I'm using your... I steal from the GM notebook. Now I'm using your lines. I'm trying to sound like a GM. I couldn't evaluate anything. But Colt McCoy has not started more than four games in a year since 2011, not a viable

starter. Dobbs is younger, cheaper. And unlike McCoy, who's about to turn 37, he might actually have a future as a backup in Arizona. I'd rather look at him and see what we've got from him than pretend like, we're going to the season with Colt McCoy, and that's a meaningful move, right? I mean, these guys are either going to get the first pick through their own season with or or without Colt McCoy or through Houston's where they're going to be right up there.

Right. No, I agree with you. I have a lot of respect for Colt McCoy. We're kidding around when we say that, but Colt McCoy was not going to answer any of the questions for the Cardinals this year. He wasn't going to be an option going forward. Plus, the fact that they don't really want to run the offense that suits Colt McCoy's skill set either. I think you're going to see them run more of a Philadelphia type offense that Jalen Hertz ran,

where the quarterback run, the quarterback athleticism, the mobility of the quarterback is going to be much more of a factor. And maybe that's something that in time, Kyler Murray can also run. So the whole offense is going to change. That's the one thing that if you were going to criticize the Cardinals in prior years about having Colt be the backup, it's a total different skill set, total different offense than Kyler Murray could run when they were running Cliff Kingsbury's offense. So at least this gives them with Dobbs, a guy that can move around, he might be able to run the ball and some design QB runs.

That does make sense to me. I think Dobbs can do that. McCoy could not run this offense, so that made no sense. So, yeah, I'm curious. We'll just ask you a little bit about Dobbs. I remember I was working at ESPN at the time that he was drafted, and I went to the Gruden quarterback camp where he was there, and he was just blown away by how smart he is.

He's like seriously, you know, he's a, what's the word? Didn't he do an internship at NASA and something like that? Yeah, yeah, yeah. He's actually a rocket scientist, okay? The guy's actually a rocket scientist. Sorry, it takes a rocket scientist to get words out of my mouth right now. But he's an actual rocket scientist. As a player, I remember him getting into a game maybe last year for a little bit.

It actually did better than people thought he was going to do. in the end, I think didn't get it done. But did you like him at all coming out? Do you think he could be a spot starter? Or do you think he could ever be a starter or not really? I never saw him as a starter. And last year, to be a little more detailed, the Titans went and got him to replace Malik Willis,

who had struggled. And Dobbs played in some important games down the stretch for the Titans to try to get them in that playoffs. Yeah. And I think he showed a little bit there, his limitations. He just couldn't make some of those throws that you've got to have from a starting quarterback at the NFL level.

Now, it doesn't mean that he can't run the offense that the Cardinals are going to run. I agree with you. He can learn. He can execute. He can do a lot of things that come with the intangibles of being a quarterback, and I think he'll handle all that. He's been around. Joshua Dobbs was traded from Pittsburgh to somewhere and then ended up back in Pittsburgh.

was it Jacksonville? He's been four or five places now, and people have always had good things to say about him. So I don't know that he's going to be a starting quarterback there, but he gives him an option of running what they want to run in Arizona on offense. Yeah, because he was with the offensive coordinator there in Cleveland. So I'm thinking, you know, they just probably want, in fact, they wanted him in free agency.

That was the thing. They wanted the signing in free agency, and he chose Cleveland. Well, he went to Cleveland, and then Cleveland had their draft pick do well enough to get the number two job, Dorian. DTR from UCLA. Yeah, DTR from UCLA. So that then made him available. And then Arizona was like, well, shoot, do we want to pay Colt McCoy $3.5 million?

Or we want to pay this guy one and a half who knows our system and can execute it better than Colt McCoy can? That's the way I see. I bet you the staff there feels like they're upgrading. Yeah, no doubt. he's been around. I mean, this guy came out in 17 and as Kent, our producer pointed out, Steelers a couple times, Cleveland, Detroit, Tennessee,

Cleveland again, now Arizona. He's been in many places. Colt McCoy's been, but he's a little younger and a little more athletic. Look at Kent Garrison in there. I notice this in the chat. He's got this whole playing history there. Very, very, very impressive. Nice work, Kent.

All right, an actual surprise. We weren't surprised. We weren't predicting Colt McCoy be cut, but we can see why. that it happened. But an actual surprise, I think, was the Patriots releasing their number two quarterback. Randy Mueller approved Bailey Zappi. Now, I'm going to clarify that. Okay.

Clarify that. Veteran listeners to the show. No, Randy was high on Zappi entering the 2022 draft at a time when I can't remember anyone even mentioning them or talking about him. If I remember right, Randy, you had, I think Kenny Pickett as the only first round quarterback in the 22 draft. You were perfectly fine with Pittsburgh taking him early. And then I think Zappy was your next guy, someone you maybe would have taken as early as a second round despite his size.

Because if I remember, you thought his size didn't seem to inhibit him in the pocket. Is that all accurate? Yeah, I agree with that. I don't know about who else we had up there. But I did know that I liked Zappy and actually still liked him. I was awake last night trying to figure out why they would cut him. because this not only shook my theory on Zappi, which I think they still like him,

but I couldn't figure out how a team could risk having only one quarterback under contract. That's the one that bothered me as much as it. I thought, are they going to sign Colt McCoy or somebody? I don't understand. I mean, they can only have Brian Horrier back so many times, right? Is he still available? Can they re-sign him again?

I don't know. I mean, he's got the golden ticket with New England, but it just didn't make a lot of sense to me. Then today we read where he's going to resign on their practice squad, but they had competition, right? The word on the street was there were seven teams trying to sign Bailey Zappy to the practice squad. I'm surprised somebody just didn't claim him if they wanted him that bad. Exactly. That's what I'm saying. Somebody would have claimed him. But it's a very interesting, I mean, part of this, Randy, part of making these decisions is reading the rest of the league.

And I'm sure the Patriots had, you know, in their discussions, tried to calculate, what are the odds that someone would pick him up? And when you and I were talking a little bit before the podcast, you said, hey, it's really difficult to claim a quarterback off of waivers who doesn't know your system because under the rules of waivers, what is it? You have to keep him on your roster, right? Yeah, he has to be on your roster for three weeks, I believe.

So that's a pretty big commitment for a guy that doesn't really know anything and can't bring anything to the table for your group initially. I thought that maybe somebody who the Patriots played early in the season, or a division rival could mess with them a little bit by taking away their number one backup to Mac Jones. And frankly, even I watched the tape in preseason when this word came out yesterday that they were cutting him, I didn't see a lot of difference between him and Mac Jones in the preseason game still.

So I'm not sold that he doesn't end up still having some run in New England, but I was surprised that they went clear down to one quarterback before reacquiring him. I don't know if they reacquired anybody else or not. but and I was saying tongue in cheek with Brian Hoyer we know he's somewhere else so yeah yeah you know but Zappy so it's just interesting to me that they would that they would make that risk they would wind up getting him back I think it though it tells us the rest of the league maybe doesn't view him as a as a future starter do you think he will be a starter eventually or do you kind of see him as a good backup I think right now he's a good backup I don't think he's progressed

I mean, he started those three or four games last year in place of Mac Jones. But I know this. If Mac Jones doesn't take care of the football better than he has last year, that Zappi will be playing. So whether he's on the practice squad right now or not, they won't go into a game with one guy on the active roster. So someone's going to get elevated to dress. And Zappi was fumbling.

Yeah, well, that too. And he took some wrist and preseason this year as well. So, hey, I'm not ringing the bell for Bailey Zappi to be. the next Aaron Rogers at all. I'm just saying it was risky business to put out those kind of quarterbacks and only have one under contract. So the fact that Zappi had given them pretty good run, I think, last year, just kind of surprised me. That's all. And I think he'll be around there this year.

I don't think he's going anywhere. They seem to jump through the appropriate hoops to get him back on the practice squad. One of the biggest stories this summer that has been a total yawner for us that we've just struggled to really even come up with stuff that we thought was interesting, is it? But I think that's telling. It's worth talking about is the Colts not trading Jonathan Taylor. I think we never believed that Indy was ever serious about moving them. They were basically just saying, hey, yeah, you go ahead.

You go ahead and see what you can get out there because they knew no one's going to give up a bunch to have to pay him, even though he's a fine player. He's an excellent player. So this is just a big snoozer, isn't it, going into the season? Or something that's going to happen? I guess something still could happen. I guess the wild card for me, and we've talked about it, is the Colts owner Jim Mersey. Does he wake up one morning and say, I've had enough of this?

We're going to trade him in a discount and do something crazy. That's the wild card for me. I've never thought that the trading of him was really an option, and we talked about it. This was a part of the process where they could allow him to seek a trade and then be able to, at the end of the day, reeling back in to them. I think what has transpired now, though, with all of the give and take and accusations and this and that, whether it's his agent or him, there's a trust factor that's been broken now with regard to this relationship. And as a GM, the part that would bother me most isn't really the fact that he's trying to get a new contract or that his agent might be trying to manipulate the system. I want to know if this guy's healthy or not. And that really bothers me.

Some are saying he's healthy, he should be playing. I'd be interested to hear what the Colts medical people say. Should he be playing? Do they think he is healed adequately enough to be rolling out there? Because if he's withholding services, because of the injury, that's wrong. I just think that's dead wrong. And I'm not accusing him of it. I'm just saying that's out there.

I've heard this from agents talk, other agents in the business. So there is a narrative floating around that, you know, he probably had at one point a tight back. You know, and we always make fun of things like this. Does it happen? I don't know. Maybe some players withhold until they're right 100% to play. I don't know what's happening with this guy medically. I don't think he's getting traded.

I never thought he was getting traded. If I was a GM looking for a running back, I would have signed Dalvin Cook two weeks ago and gave up no compensation for him. And you got him for six or seven million a year. Who would pay this guy $12 million a year and give a first round pick on top of it? Nobody. Nobody's going to do that. But I think the Colts knew that.

Yeah, so Zach Kiefer, who used to cover the Colts for us and is now Wright's National Features, and it has a great one on Tom Moore, by the way, a longtime coach now with Tampa Bay. He has a quote today relayed from Chris Ballard about the situation, and Ballard being the GM of the Colts. Ballard said, this situation sucks.

It sucks for the Colts. It sucks for Jonathan Taylor. It sucks for the fans. It's where we're at. We're going to work through it. Relationships are reparable. So that last statement there, that's what you got to do. You've got to try to repair this thing and hopefully calmer heads prevail.

And what's so weird about it is, like, Jonathan Taylor has never been a problem. Ballard seems like a pretty easy guy to get along with. I mean, Ursa is the wild car, but it just, weird that this whole situation would even get to this given the people that are involved. Yeah, I don't know the agent and I don't know the history. Yeah, well, the agent part, yeah. Yeah, that has a lot to do with it. Trust me.

That's where the relationship could go sideways at any time. But again, I'm not critical of. I just don't know who they are and what their experience level is at dealing with this. Sometimes these things blow up and become issues because somebody's either inexperienced, or doesn't know the rules and really is asking for something that the majority of agents know they can't get. So they're trying to make a stand, trying to save the world, trying to do something bigger than their own client is deserving of or that anybody even can do based on the CBA and the rules.

I'm not saying that's the case here, but this kid went from an about face of being quoted as saying he was very happy, understood his contract. I'm going to stick with this until my time comes to now. of a sudden, I hate the Colts. I want no part of this. I want a new deal or I want out of here. That seems like quite an about face. Yep.

Hey, there were a bunch of kicker moves. Do you notice this? A bunch of kicker, some of these moves are kickers in Tennessee traded for Nick Folk, picked up another kicker. We've seen as, you know, the Saints, you know, changing theirs and Denver's in on it. Obviously, with Sean Peyton there picking up their guy. I'm just curious as a GM, you know, what do you do when you're struggling to find a kicker? we've talked a little bit about this before,

but I know, Randy, you have a clear process for evaluating quarterbacks, defensive ends, any position, you know what you're looking for, you know what your staff is looking for, you know how to blend those things together. Is it totally different with a kicker? Do you evaluate kickers?

Do you have a process for that? Or do we just look if they go through the posts and when they don't, we get a different guy? Oh, no. There's a process in place. There's four or five things that I've always looked at, but probably number one with a kicker. is the thickness of his skin and how can he come back from it and the exuding of that confidence

level. Hey, I've been around kickers that when we come out of the hotel in Buffalo on a cold, windy day, they start looking up at the wind. That's not the kicker that I want. He's already worried about the wind and we haven't even got on the bus yet. You know, we're worried about the weather and which way is the wind blowing and the kickoff in three and a half hours. So you don't want that. So you want tough-minded people. We had a kicker in Miami that our coach had experience with in Michigan, Jay Feeley, who there were kickers more talented than Jay. There were kickers that had a bigger leg than Jay, but he gave us the impression that every day he was going to give you everything he had and nothing was going to be too big for him. He made us confident

it. He made us sleep easy. We didn't have to worry about him. And we traded one that made us worry. So it's as much about comfort with the decision makers as it is anything else. And if you don't have a kicker, you do hit the panic button early because we've all been around those where even in practice, sometimes extra points become an adventure. I've been in that role too. And you do not want to be there when it is a struggle. When the players on your team start dropping their head at practice when kicks get missed, that's a bad state. That can affect the whole team. And unlike other positions, you can't just rotate in another guy or wait it out for a month, right? If you're missing, because it's snowballed. So it really is a position where you have to kind

change guys if it doesn't go well for a while, right? There's no waiting it out. No, and it's as much, like I said, about confidence, intangibles, just the impression and the feel you give the people around you as it is about having a strong. wrong leg. You don't necessarily have your kicker because you think he can make a 55 yarder. You have your kicker based on the fact that he's not going to miss a 42 yard. That's the number one criteria right there. And that's got to be consistent. Remember Mike Vanderjad? He went from like the cockiest kicker to couldn't make anything. It was one of the wildest kicker stories I remember. Was that the one that Peyton Manning said

our kickers all liquored up kicker? Was that him he was referring to? Yes. I think so we'll have the athletic attorneys vet that this goes on. Yeah. It made me laugh out loud when he said something like that, our liquor-up kicker. Peyton is hilarious. Hey, we did see a trade this week. Raiders trading Neil Farrell to the Chiefs for a six-round pick.

Division rivals, Randy, trading within the division. Andy Reid has a great history of doing this. I think I trust Randy, or Andy's evaluation of quarterbacks when he traded Donovan McNabb to Washington. Remembering was with Philly? How about that? Made huge ways. I'll never forget that.

But the Raiders and Chiefs, those guys usually trade punches, you know, not players. We've seen teams jump across Marcus Allen, Rich Gannon, Albert Lewis was a great corner and a great special teams player, too, who changed teams, Harvey Williams, if you go back. But I don't remember too many trades. I actually went back in the history of the organizations. And I went all the way back to before the Chiefs for the Chiefs, they were in Dallas.

and they got Len Dawson. They actually traded Cotton Davidson and their quarterback to the Raiders for the first pick in the draft, which became Hall of Famer Buck Buchanan for the Chiefs. So maybe that was it for Al Davis. He was done given any picks or trades to the Chiefs. But what do you think about Raiders Chiefs making a trade? You were in that to AFC West for years back when Seattle was there. Any thoughts?

I don't think rivalries are what they were. And you're right. I spent 27 years of my career in the AFC West. I think back in those days, rivalries were rivalries. We would mess with the other teams on purpose. Hey, I had the Raiders call me on draft morning to tell me,

do you know your phones are out in the whole building? Everybody's been trying to call you, and nobody can call you to get a trade request made. And they were just messing with me. Nothing was wrong with our phones. And they said the league doesn't have your numbers. They don't have your numbers so people can call you. Things like that, you know,

that doesn't happen anymore, right? I just don't think, I think people are very confident with the teams that they're running, and I don't think they really care who they trade with. They're going to make deals with the people who are going to give them the best in return. And I think that's what you saw in this case, a match of even though they're supposed to be hated division rivals.

I just don't think those rivalries are what they once were. Yeah, and you kind of think about it. You know, you think of Josh McDaniels and Dave Ziegler coming into the Raiders. They have long careers. They're not Raiders. They're not Raiders, but they're not Raiders. No, they're guys. And they might not even know.

about the rivalry that was 30 years ago. Yeah. You don't care that much. It's not that relevant to them. I do think I would hold off if I, for whatever reason we were moving a player, if I had a choice of where to move them and I thought the player could move the needle a little bit, but for whatever reason, you just didn't fit in our team, but he was going to fit better on the other team, then I certainly wouldn't do it.

In this case, Neil Farrell, you know, probably just fills a bit role for the chiefs and isn't going to be the reason why the Raiders lose to the chiefs. I agree. Not as big of a deal. Hey, we talked about Arizona a little bit earlier. Today, I saw news breaking on ESPN that former Cardinals coach Steve Wilkes, now defensive coordinator for the 49ers, testified to the league. If you remember, if you go back to the earlier in the summer, Terry McDonough, former Cardinals executive had made some pretty serious allegations about Mike Bedwell, the owner of the Cardinals, Steve Kime, the former GM, basically saying that those two, among other things, had directed him and

others in the organization to use, quote-unquote, burner phones that can't be traced to allow Steve Kime in 2008 when Kime was suspended for a DUI to go around the rules and still communicate with team brass and negotiate contracts and do all the things he wasn't supposed to do. McDonough had made this allegation. Now we have Steve Wilkes, who's a former head coach. of the Cardinals saying, yep, that's exactly what happened and gave more details that corroborated this story, that it kind of faded away. We hadn't heard much about the story.

I know what you think of it, of it, Randy. And if I remember, you weren't just absolutely beside yourself that they had maybe tried to use burner phones, but imagine maybe some in the league might hope there's some punishments, or what do you think? Maybe so. I think, I'll be honest with you. And I think, and I'm not saying this in a disrespectful way, I think the Cardinals had got to a point where they were kind of irrelevant and nobody really cared.

And so I don't think anybody has been beating the drum to come down with punishment on these guys for this act. In fact, like you mentioned, I thought it went away. I didn't know there was any dispute still being handled, whether it's in arbitration or in a legal court. But I guess there was some slander going back and forth. I know they came after McDoneer really hard once they let him go in Arizona. And so there's been some back and forth there. Steve Wilkes, I've known really in my entire adult life, signed him as a free agent out of App State. I don't even know what year it was, but he was 22 years old.

So salt of the earth, believe everything that he does say, he would not sell anything like this, especially in a court of law, if it wasn't true. So if it collaborates with McDonough story, probably what do they say? If it acts like a duck, it's probably a duck. And I think that's the case now. I don't know who gets penalized for what or who's trying to get to the bottom of this. Maybe it's the league in going to punish Michael Bidwell. I don't know. I think when employees get suspended, the league likes to think that that's the end of the story, right?

I don't know what Sean Payton, was Mickey, where the Saints when they were all suspended, they couldn't have any contact and nothing was found there. So they must have abided by the rules and the law of the suspension. So this was one of those cases where I guess Steve Kime or Bidwell or whoever orchestrated this just felt they were above the law. And the league has to come back to get some extract some flesh for not doing it the way they had hoped it would be done. You're absolutely right, though. If this was the Patriots, can you imagine people be up in arms? It's another sign of cheating, Belichick, all that type of stuff.

It would be a huge story. It's the Cardinals and people are like, oh, yeah, what was going on with that? Yeah. You know, but, you know, shoot, the Cardinals had to, in their hiring of their coach this year, had to give draft compensation to the Eagles over a dispute there. So, you know, you could, yeah, there's been a few things. There's been a few things with Arizona. Okay, we have, before we get to the GM notebook, which I don't think I borrowed from,

I'm just kind of looking at it now to see if there's anything I want to pull out of that. I volunteered one thing that we'll double back on, but. Okay. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, a couple. I got two more things. One is, have you kept up with hard knocks? Because I haven't as much. I have not kept up with hard knocks as much. Have you? I did not watch this week yet. No, I've seen some of the highlights. All you got to do is watch a couple of these ESPN shows. And that's all they want to talk about, the Jets anyway. So you get what you need to from there. But I had up until this week. I'll watch this week at some time. Well, the funny one was, you know, Aaron Rogers getting barely touched. But it was a little bit of a short. It was late by the Giants number 55 ward gave him a little bit of a shove, nothing too much.

But that led to Rogers basically getting in his face and saying, I don't even know who you are, right? And then right after that, Roger showed, did throw. It was a beautiful touchdown pass. You got to admit to Garrett Wilson. I mean, he really put it over there like Rogers is known to do. And then he, I think he went over and got, you know, basically gave him the, I don't know who you are again. Yeah. It was pretty good, but what do you think?

It was good. I thought it was a little bit fabricated. I didn't. Rogers comes to the sideline, and I did see this part. Rogers comes to the sideline, and he gives the play-by-play of what was said to his teammates on the sidelines. I mean, obviously he knows he's miced up. He knows he wants to get clear. He wants all this to be on the show.

You'd be as poo-poo this in a preseason game. It's not like he's going to be. He got barely touched, like you said. I mean, it wasn't like anybody came after him. So I thought it was something to do about nothing. And I thought his reaction was somewhat orchestrated. But it made for good TV. It was kind of funny.

His comeback was good, that's for sure. What did he determine? He determined this was a comeback that I gave him that you can't come back from. It's an uncomback with a line. He's like, he's an ultimate insult. Yeah. I mean, I don't know who you are. Yeah.

Yeah, you're right, though. the sideline recap of the whole thing so that it can be spliced together. Come on. That's how the whole thing has kind of felt to me. Everybody's felt it feels like everyone knows they're miced up. And so you don't, you know, it doesn't have that feel like they forgot that everyone's so aware now. Yeah. I don't remember the Hard Knocks is feeling this contrived as much maybe in the beginning. Maybe they were, but.

Well, I think it's gone to another level just because it's. New York too. I did enjoy it. Did you watch Sopranos? Were you a Sopranos guy? Oh, yeah. I loved him. Yeah. Did you see the opening to this, to this show? They did a little tribute to the Sopranos with Robert Sala driving to work. Like he's, he's the, and they're playing the theme song, and he's driving through the exits, you know. So I thought that was kind of cool, actually. I love Sopranos. I will go back and watch it. I love the Sopranos. Yeah, I've probably watched it a couple times. I really, one of my favorite soprano scenes, remember Junior, you know, Junior Soprano. When Junior Soprano is sitting in his living room and the news comes on of the testimony in court and they show the artist's likeness of him. And he just loses it.

He's like, he hated how he was being portrayed. And so then the next day in court, all he did was stare bullet holes through the poor court artist guy in there because he was like, you know, like he's going to, this guy. I thought that was just one of the funniest. That's one of my all-time funnies. It's as funny as Paul he was and all the guys were on there, Junior getting upset at the artist's rendition of him is one of my favorite all-time. He didn't like

the way he's portrayed. Yeah. Yeah, and like somebody might die because of that. You know, so, hey, before we get the GM notebook, and this is relating to the, I'm going to ask you a question next week. You can answer it now if you want to, but I'm going to ask you a question next week. I don't want to put you

on the spot, but just be of the vibes I've gotten from you on the Jets and the Packers. Who wins more games in 2023? The Jets are the Packers, I think, is an interesting question. Oh, boy. And you might want to look at the schedule.

Yeah, I don't want to put you on the spot, but I just sort of have felt, you know, some skepticism of the Jets, which is more in relation to everyone anointing them. I don't think you're saying they're going to be terrible, but you're just not, you're not all the way in on them. And you've been impressed with what the Packers are doing, which is one of the, I think, one of the GM notebook items. But, yeah, I'll be interested in.

I'm not going to take that under advisement. I do need to look at a schedule. I need to talk with my people. And I'm going to get back to you on that. Yeah, I like that one. Because I think most people would just say the Jets after the quarterback credits are. I wouldn't make that commitment as we sit here today without looking at it. I like that.

All right. GM Notebook, let's go. A couple things. And we mentioned it off the top. This is the week. next week is the is the cap counting calendar turns over to all during the off season as some of our listeners probably know you're only counting your top 51 salaries next week you'll count all your salaries including practice squad injured reserve any type of reserves those all those salaries count

so your team that has on the cap so your team might show eight million dollars available right now well that's going to change come next week and so that's why teams build in cushions, they build in extra money because they are counting really in their mind for the last couple months, like we mentioned earlier on the show. They're counting their real roster and they have money set aside for practice squad and they've got to have money set aside for future injuries just for, you know, insurance. So there's a lot of cap mechanisms that will change next week and teams will be viewed differently on paper. So I just thought I'd mention that and most people know that already. So there's nothing earth-shattering about that.

I kind of wanted to see that, though, with New England, the Bailey Zappy thing, one of the things I was curious about, what sort of salary did he negotiate on the practice squad? Because you can get more than the minimum. And then I would imagine he'll get game checks anyway, because you're going to have those guys on your roster. Well, you can pay guys on the practice squad. Yeah, you can pay those guys a regular roster, I mean, regular salaries if you want, right? There's no limit as to what you can pay him. Yeah, yeah, exactly. So it'll be interesting to see because he obviously, you know, played ball with them and stayed there if he probably could have just said, no, I'm not signing with you if you wanted to. So I would imagine

to be something in it for him and we'll see how that all works out. What's number two in the notebook? The other thing was, and we hit on the Jonathan Taylor deal, I got to thinking when I've heard so much about this and all of the details that his side has tried to control narrative on, I got the thinking, and I'm asking you a little bit, is he hurting the cause by his actions for getting running backs paid. I mean, I just might draft one in the seventh round like Kansas City did last year and then draft another one two years from now, you know? Is he hurting the cause with all of the hoopla and all of the drama that he's creating for running backs to get paid? I think they have hurt their own cause with some of the guys at the top taking pay cuts as it was. Now, does this

enter into that? I mean, do we really want a running back that's a prima don't know that wants to be paid that's coming off his worst year, 800 yards last year, and wanting to be paid like the cap rate? I don't know. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So, yeah, you've got a little fatigue of this whole thing. Let's just play some ball. You know, let's just play some ball here.

I don't think he's helping the case for running backs, but I also think that it's a case-by-case basis. And your team may have a guy who, you know, depending on the kind of style of play of your team or what you think he means in the locker room. I think you could justify on your own team paying a certain guy where another team wouldn't. And the case in point is Tennessee with Derek Henry. I don't think Derek Henry is for everybody.

He's a two-down back. But if you want to have a certain toughness about your team and you want to play a certain way, he's worth the top. He's been worth the top to them. I think of somebody like a Pete Carroll. If he wants to have that on his team, then he's going to pay Marsha.

Lynch, right, or whoever, if you really think they're a differentiator for you. So, you know, I think the question with Taylor is, how much is he hurting his chances with the Colts? Because the cult ultimately determined how much he gets paid, unfortunately for him because of the system. And they've got two franchise tags if they want them. Yep. And if I was the owner of the team and I was wanting to prove a point.

Because Jim Mersey is going to get a percent of the NFL revenue no matter what. He's a millionaire. He might be a billionaire. If he just wanted to sit on this guy for two years, he can. He can. And I don't know that he will. Who knows what Jim Mersey is going to do. But I think at a certain point, Jonathan Taylor has to play great football to get a big contract.

And all this stuff has to fade in the background. I don't know how it happens. Because unlike these other running, backs like Sequin Barclay, Josh Jacobs, those guys were already on the tag. So it was easier for their team to throw in a million or whatever they did, sweeten it. They're on the tag. This running back Jonathan Taylor is not on the tag. He's still on his contract. Right. So he's way early in this process. Well, he's a second round pick too. So he's a year short on his on his number on the length of his contract too. Yeah. And so all of these things. Yeah. I think he's.

I think he is damaging his chances of getting paid, but I also, in fairness to him, don't know what's happened behind the scenes. I think we've sort of implied, God, the agent must have really be orchestrating some of this, but who knows what Jim Orsay has said behind the scenes or whatever that could have made his feelings be justified to be upset.

I don't want to discount that possibility. But at a certain point, he's got to play great ball for them to get paid, and that's not happening on the PUP list. And he's not helping himself either by preparing for this season. reason either. I mean, do you think he's going to have a great year now after what he's done? Or what he is medically or not? I don't know. So, you know, some of those guys, I don't know. Adrian Peterson was so different from everybody else. I think he could just come in and do it.

You know, I don't know if Jonathan Taylor can do that. So we shall see. I don't know how good the Colts are going to be for one thing. And I don't know how much of a factor he can be. He might get beat up more than anything. So maybe that's part of his plan, too, to get paid now instead of ramming his head against the wall for 17 weeks. this year. I don't know. Well, it ain't working. I don't think anybody's going to panic and pay a running back if your team's struggling. I don't think that's going to happen. No one thinks that he's going to come in and make the team win if the team's terrible. So I agree. All right, number three. I have one more thing. Yeah, and you alluded to it. You know I'm fairly high on the Packers and the team

that Brian Gutikist has built there. I think him and his staff have done a really good job in not only enduring the Aaron Rogers exit drama, but really putting together what his team is now, and I think it's a little bit under the radar, and I think they like that. But I read the other day where, well, not the other day, it was just recently because teams have just been settled. They have the youngest roster in the league, which kind of shocked me. And when he was asked about it, he said that wasn't the plan. He said the plan was to be athletic and fast. And sometimes that goes with it. and that got my attention because that should be the plan of everybody's to increase team speed. And I think they have done that well.

I think he did a really good job. And then you find out later that, by the way, they made a call to the Colts on Jonathan Taylor too just to kick the tires. And this is a team that has two really good backs. But I thought that message that he delivered to everybody because he didn't back away from it, he said, hey, we're not doing our job if we're not checking on good players and their availability. I think that to the locker room builds credibility. I think those guys know the front office is doing everything they can. They're going to get good players no matter what, and they're not going to be deterred.

It reminded me of Paul Allen giving me with a word one day. He said, hey, Randy, get us in the middle of every deal. It doesn't mean we have to do it at the end of the day. Just get us in the middle of every deal in Seattle. And I love that approach. And I learned from it. And from that day on, I tried to get us in the middle of every deal. And I think that's what Brian did here is,

just kick the tires. Find out if you can get us in the deal. We don't have to make it, but I was impressed by that. So I got a big, I'm smiling here, Randy, because I think one of the criticisms, you know, that people sort of had of Green Bay is, hey, they're not helping Rogers enough. They need to be even more active in these deals, right? Do you remember them kicking the tires on Jonathan Taylor's in the last few years? Or do you think there's any kind of a change here? Or what's going on? Well, how about do you remember Rogers ever acting like he's acting in Green Bay the last two years? No, going to mini camps being all in, being very cordial for this. So both sides are feeling their oats a little bit.

It just tells me that the shelf life had expired and it was time. But you bring up a valid point. It has not been the Packers M.O. in the past to be in the middle of any free agent deals. That's kind of a carryover from years of years past where they just built around the draft. But I think we all know if you're going to build the best team now, you've not only got to hit on draft picks, you've got to be involved in deals. to acquire talent in every way you can. Another kind of interesting thing just talking about the Packers is I used to maintain

rosters myself for all the teams in the league and I always had average ages, 15 years ago, spent a good portion of my life on the phone with John Clayton, Reston. Yeah, I was going to say, I know somebody else who did that too. I think of John every time we get to this time of year.

I'm more than that, I think of him. But I was thinking when the cuts came down the other day, that was like John's, you know. He was always working on his database. wasn't, he's always working on his database. I always remember Green Bay with Ted Thompson, and always was one of the youngest teams in the league. And I'll have to look and see the last few years.

So Ted, you know, tragically passed away, very prematurely and was, you know, not in great health. I don't think towards the end of his run as the Packers' GM. And so as that period was happening, and then Brian Gutikins took over, who'd been there a long time, but, you know, wasn't as established,

obviously as a GM is Ted, I'd love to go back and look and see if the roster was getting older because they were kind of deferring to Aaron Rogers with Mercedes-Lewis and Randall Cobb. Because I think of who the old guys have been on that team. They're all Aaron Rogers guys. And I would love to know, like, would that have happened if Ted was still, you know, around as the established GM?

because Ted had his way of doing things. You worked out. You worked with Ted, right? Ted was in Seattle when you were. Ted replaced me when I- Ted replaced you. Okay, yeah, yeah. But I know him well and spent a lot of days on the road with him.

So I know he had his ways. You're right. He had his ways. So all this stuff's kind of interesting. But what I love about this conversation about the Packers, Randy, we'll see how well they do this here. But there's a freshness to it.

Yes. It's not the same old narratives. We're done with that. stuff too. Whether it was the right move, the wrong move, what are they going to be better, whether it loves, Jordan loves going to be good or bad. It feels good to talk about the Packers again and just sort of, you know, they're another team that's not all controlled by the same narrative, you know? Yep, I like it. I'm with you. I think the league is better when teams like that are really fresh, are fresh. And all of us push back against change to a point, but change came

and it happened and it's great for the Jets, it's great for the Packers. Who knows how it's all going to work out, but I think it was time. Yeah, absolutely. So I think it's time here. We've finished another show, and we want to tell everybody, too,

starting next week, we are going to be, we're still going to be in the athletic football show lineup, but we will record on Fridays starting next week, and the football GM will be found right where you find it now. But first thing on Saturday, I think it actually goes live like it almost like 1201 a.m. the next day. So on Saturdays, that will come up and we'll hit a new rhythm. We'll have more time during the week to kind of synthesize on things.

We'll probably have more topics we can hit, hopefully in our way. That's a little different from everybody else. So look forward to that. Randy, you can find him on Twitter at Randy Mueller underscore. You can find me there at Sando NFL. I guess it's not even Twitter anymore. I was going to say, Mike, don't make me the social media maven here. not Twitter anymore.

I know you. Yeah, it's X. I mean, I know I can count on you for the latest developments in social media. Big Instagram guy, big X guy, Twitter guy. You're XFL. You're the XFL. There you go. It's X.

It's X. All that. Absolutely. Well, hey, thanks everybody for coming along. We'll talk to you next week at a new time, the Athletic Football Show. This was the Athletic Football Show's Football GM podcast.