The Fumblerooski Podcast - Resisting the Temptation -Ep 341 The Fumblerooski Podcast

Episode Date: February 28, 2025

On this Friday episode of The Fumblerooski Podcast, the fellas talk about the agreement between the Rams and Matt Stafford, Trey Smith gets tagged by the Chiefs, and a little drama at the Combine. Chris Costich, Adam Wright, and CJ Medeiros talk all of this and more!

Welcome to the Pomeroski Podcast. Matt Stafford is staying in LA. All those rumors about him and Brady, throw them out the window. Stafford is staying in Hollywood. This is the Pomeroski Podcast. It may not have always showed it in the stat sheet, but you can see him making throws when he needs to make the throws. Back-to-back games where he has three touchdowns. Someone's got to get that six or seven spot. He's an elite wide receiver as a rookie. Truly a lose-lose scenario for both sides. This is the Paul Borowski Podcast by Power8018 Radio in Secret Weapon Consulting.

I'm Chris Kostic, biggest Drake May lover you'll ever see. JK, I am not Drake May lover 13 or whatever that account is. CJ Medeiros, Adam Wright. It's going to be a fun one here today. Happy Friday. Hope the weekend brings a lot of joy to you. But a lot of joy if you're a Rams fan. You get to keep Matthew Stafford for, I'm not really sure.

Do you guys know what the details were? I know that Penn has not hit paper and nothing's actually official, but per Adam Schefter, this is going to happen. Do you guys know for sure what the details were, though? I don't have it in front of me at the moment. I haven't seen it yet. Nothing has been made public about the specific contract restructures, but I don't – they said restructure.

So they're not – something tells me they're not adding money to his contract, that they're moving money in order to maybe give him more now, maybe some to move it to later. I don't know. But something tells me they came to an agreement where they are not giving him more money. I mean, so if we say that he gets most of his money on the front end right now for the next,

how many years are on his contract? I should have had some of this stuff up. I'm an idiot. But say they front end more of this money to earlier on in this contract. It could set up potentially maybe a trade down the road in the next couple of years for all we know. Maybe that's the case for the Rams. But it was interesting with this discourse, especially this week, because Brady and Stafford just so happened to be on

vacation together, coincidentally. Um, and the, and Stafford's agent did get the, okay. From the Rams to go talk with other teams. So a lot of people were like,

Oh, this is tampering yada, yada. When in reality ended up not being tamper the tampering because they got the okay um but brady did not get the job done in getting stafford to las vegas which would have been pretty interesting to see him and uh pete carroll go to work boy the way that whole thing was reported to yeah with with uh what's his name jordan schultz that whole that whole debacle and then ian rapaport saying well they both have a place

together they could have just run into each other yeah and he goes that literally is almost impossible yeah especially especially when you think of these famous athletes you don't just see them out like randomly in the bahamas or aruba they're probably in like some tucked away like location where they can just be left alone but do you know where it was it was montana do you know how big montana is it's like i know there's not a lot of people there, but it is a, it is a big, big state. It was in a ski resort for, for the rich. Brady does live in Montana.

And I'm not saying it couldn't happen. Like, I mean, I'm, I'm just saying like, if they're both there, you know, Stafford likes to ski.

So, but yeah, it was totally on purpose though. And on top of that, who knew that the Jordan Schultz, Ian Rappaport beef was something that we it's not you know something i'm just gonna go out and say it the ian rapaport jordan schultz beef is literally kendrick and drake beef for people who think mayonnaise is spicy let's be real

i saw this because i mean you guys were telling me about it and i'm just like oh okay like oh well it's who i don't ask men like i don't like the source you're okay i think there's two things that really make that whole situation hilarious we'll get back to stafford in a moment but or unless you had one more point about this as well well like i'll do can i give a little bit of the storytelling to how this whole thing happened? Yeah, yeah, yeah. So they're both in line at a Starbucks. And so Jordan Schultz walks up to Rappaport. He approached him. He says, we need to talk, like directly.

And then Rappaport straight up said, we don't need to talk. No, we don't. And then he goes, if you have anything to say to me, say it to my effing face. If this continues, we're going to have an effing problem. And then Rappaport asked Schultz to step back. He goes, if this happens again, we're going to have an effing problem again. And then he said, after that, now I'll step back. And then Rappaport turns around and he calls security.

Yeah. So on one hand, I don't think you need to call security. At a Starbucks. At a Starbucks. I don't think you need to call security on that. On another hand, do you really need to talk? How often, like, this was brought up on our local sports radio. How often when somebody says, we need to talk, do you actually need to talk?

Unless it's like a girlfriend or something or like a relative. How often is it like, these two people probably don't know each other very well i don't believe they do how often do you actually need to talk you could also spin it in a way that jordan schultz is all around jackass because but that's what i'm trying to say i mean because initial report of stafford and brady being at that ski resort technically is outing his fox co-worker yeah if you want to admit it that way i mean well schultz didn't i mean didn't schultz reported himself yeah he reported it himself and he i mean he is defending the report saying like no they did not just run into each other at a at a ski resort in

montana yeah like that's not that's obviously not just a coincidence it's hard to run into each other anywhere if you if you live in the same town as somebody it's hard to run into them if you're just out and about but yeah in the midst of one one quarter an owner of a quarterback needy team and a quarterback who's rumored to be looking around for a trade and they just happen to run into each other? Yeah, bullshit. I'm sorry. I'm with Schultz on that portion.

I'm just saying, if you say you need to talk with anybody, even if it's just a buddy. Chris, if I'm going up to you saying, hey, buddy, we need to talk. I'm if it's just a buddy chris if i'm going up to you saying hey buddy we need to talk you're saying no no we don't i i would assume you i would assume at that point we just take it outside and handle it that way i just just throw hands or something unless i know for a fact that i am in the wrong that's a different story but it's like if you barely know each other do you really need to talk how often do you like if it's if it's not a girlfriend or a relative you're not saying it you're not solving anything when you're going up to somebody saying hey we need to talk please shut the fuck up what is this all about like with all due respect look i get why i want to cover this but like

i don't get what the big deal is one's just being whiny and the other one's like erm security like when i saw this and i started reading this oh the ian rap for jordan schultz beef my mind immediately went to one of the greatest thinkers of our time p Peter Griffin and his mighty quote. Oh my God, who the hell cares? Like, that's the thing. It's like, oh my God,

Jordan, Jordan Schultz and Ian Rappaport don't like each other. Oh, okay. Like, cool. Like I just, I don't,

I don't, I don't understand why this is a big deal. It's like, oh, the sources. I'm like, okay. And you know what happened?

Do you know what all, you know what came of what came of this matt stafford is staying on the rams yeah yeah and like honestly that just makes it even funnier how about that comedic value and usually it usually when there's something like this happening it's the athlete on the media this was media on media crime so it was something that you don't really see very often so i think that's what just made it uh eyebrow raising and also something where like i think we're all thinking like this is a problem that it matters this much in that sense. Like Ian Rappaport in Jordan Schultz going back and forth. It's a story, but it's a story because it's so amusing how things just got blown out of

proportion over a story. Yeah. But let's get back to, let's get back to Stafford. So, all right, back to Staff let's get back to Stafford. So, all right, back to Stafford's contract right now. Uh,

so he signed in 22 or yeah, it's signed in 22. Cause that's when they had the, uh, uh, the ring. He's currently on this deal right now. 2027 is when he's going to be restrict unrestricted free agent.

So he's got two more years left on his deal, right? The original contract, four years, 160 mil, 60 mil signing bonus, 130 mil guaranteed, average annual salary of 40 million. So this next year had the potential opt out 125 mil, 49 mil in dead cap. So right now, the cap hit that the Rams would have is 53 million going into the 2026 season. So 26 mil is what he's going to be set to earn in 26, 23 mil in this next season. Going to be 39 when he becomes a free agent. Say you got a desperate team that's also going to be hunting for a ring and think, well, Stafford is, we could potentially get Stafford to cheap

if they end up front-loading this money to 2020 more into 2025 so they can trade them in 2026. That's kind of where I'm getting at with that yeah and taking a look at this at some of these contract deals uh details rather it seems like the light half of the deal is already passed yeah like 2022 13 13 mil. 2023, 20 mil. 46 mil. 49 mil.

53 million. Yeah. Now I'm starting to think this is more of a pay cut. That's the only way that this can... There's no way you can move any money around unless they are moving most of this money from this year to the next two years, which are already a ton of money to be paying one player already. Either way, it's not looking good.

And if you're looking at some of the other rumors, rather even news surrounding the Rams and that team, it's not good, particularly on their offensive line. We already know Cooper Cup is gone, most likely. They're shopping him around for cap purposes. But there's a very real chance their entire offensive line could be gone this year outside of their center like both their starting guards have now been granted permission to seek a trade

uh joe noteboom is a free agent the right tackle their left tackle alaric jack, free agent. If they're not careful, they could lose all four. And yes, it's a big win to keep your prize acquisition from years ago, Matthew Stafford. But who's protecting him? Who's protecting him? That's a real question. Because they still have, even if you keep all of these guys together, you still have some holes to fill if you're going to become a Super Bowl contender again.

So this is a big win for the Rams to keep this guy. I'm curious as to what the details are. But there are some things. We probably won't know the details probably until closer to, say, minicamp or closer to the draft maybe. Well, I see no reason for them to wait that long i mean when he signs or you know what when he officially agrees i feel like we'll know and i want to take a look at this deal from like a league-wide perspective

because here's the thing as you know stafford wanted 40 to 50 million a year and i may be in the minority and if the people on the internet say anything i am in the minority but i'm going to say it loud i don't think he's worth that he should not be getting that especially since maybe he's got at most two years left and as you know this is per the new York Post, which, you know, per their sports section, the New York Giants, you know, because, you know, New York, New York, obviously, they were sniffing around Stafford. The Raiders obviously were, you know, with a chance, wink, wink, nudge, nudge, meeting with Tom Brady in Montana. And both sides were apparently looking at two years, a hundred mil for him. And honestly, I think Stafford staying in Los Angeles is a blessing in disguise

for New York and Vegas. Because if you're New York and Vegas and look, if you're New York, look, okay, I'm going to say this plainly. I am fully aware that Joe Shane is on a really short leash and he's just trying to save his ass. I get that. That is not lost on me. And if you're Vegas, you know, your head of your minority owner, now real head of football operations, Tom Brady, he wants to make a splash. He wants to make a name for himself. I get that. Their situations are not lost on me. However, I am going to lean hard into a blessing in disguise because Stafford is a piece for a team that wants to go to the championship that's a quarterback away. Think of the Rams when they first got him. Great team, but they were a quarterback away.

There is no way in hell that you can convince me that the New York Giants or the Las Vegas Raiders are quarterback away. Trading for Stafford and then giving him said two-year $100 million deal really, I think, would have done more damage in the long run. Sure, you know, you might get some of those superficial wins, but you're not going to go anywhere with it. So, yeah, I would say that Stafford's decision to stay in Los Angeles saved the Raiders and Giants from themselves. I mean, at that point, you're basically asking Stafford, say Vegas and the Giants were to get Stafford. You're basically asking him to be a bridge quarterback for whoever you end up,

if you end up drafting a quarterback in this next draft, whether it be Shitter Sanders or Cam Ward. You're basically asking him to be a bridge quarterback for the new guy, essentially. And you could even say the same thing for Pete Carroll, so then you have double trouble. Pete Carroll, you could essentially call him a bridge coach for the Raiders for the next couple years,

and then whoever Carroll thinks could be heir to the throne, that's Raiders for the next couple years and then whoever Carol thinks could be heir to the throne that's going to be the next guy that's anything could happen at that point though yeah I so I think what what I got out of that is with the with the Giants being in on them it seems like it was remnants of that whole mini-generation of franchises trying to get franchise quarterbacks in the latter half of their careers to get a championship. Kind of like Tom Brady with the Buccaneers, Peyton Manning with the Broncos,

Brett Favre with the Vikings. They're trying to get that. And in that case, the Giants, if they ended up getting them, they would have used their first round pick on, let's say, Travis Hunter or traded back to go and get another tackle in order to protect them, to sort of build up for right now and then just figure it out later like the Buccaneers. That's kind of still around. Now, it's disappeared in recent years, but it's still kind of in the background. I think we saw that right there. The Raiders would have done the same thing. They have the sixth overall pick. They would have just

used it instead of using it on a quarterback or something or trading up. I don't think any of the teams getting Stafford were going to get Shador Sanders or Cam Ward. That's all I'll say. Yeah. When I mentioned Sanders and Ward, that was more so to potentially the Giants, never mind the Raiders. But yeah, it should be interesting to see how the Giants

and the Raiders play this out. A new report just came out saying the Giants are now going to potentially pursue Aaron Rodgers. So it kind of goes back to the last point, just have a bridge guy, get the next guy ready potentially. But I don't know. Anything else from you guys? No.

I think we covered this. Pretty well. We're going to take a quick break when we come back trey smith getting placed on the franchise tag by the chiefs it may not have always showed it in the stat sheet but you can see him making throws when he needs to make the throws back to back games where he has three touchdowns someone's gotta get that six or seven spot he's an elite wide receiver as a rookie Truly a lose-lose scenario for both sides. This is the Pumbler Whiskey Podcast, Power8018 Radio, Secret Weapon Consulting, Chris Kostich, CJ Medeiros, and Adam Wright. Chiefs, earlier this week, probably Wednesday or Thursday, one of the two, placed Trey Smith on the franchise tag.

This was kind of one of those guys that was up for it. Most people in the media kind of expected this. We kind of expected it. Still not a fan of the franchise tag, but not my choice. Thoughts from you fellas on this one. Like I said, obviously it doesn't come as a huge surprise at all. Well, my first thought on this was, I'm just thinking about the market as far as guards go.

It's already reasonably thin as far as just that position and with trey smith coming off the board now players like mccall uh patrick mccurry mckay beckton tevin jenkins they're going to be a lot more expensive regardless of what happens because now suddenly he is off the board. It's the position has become more scarce. Um, it's also going to depend on exactly what the chiefs pay him because whatever they give him, we'll set a market. Um, but either way, it's going to make the players who are left more expensive than they might've been before. Um, and that's kind of what I'm afraid of when it comes to guards,

because I don't, I'm not a big fan of paying guards through the teeth since the position as far as usually it's, it, it grows on trees. You find them in all different rounds of the draft. So when you think about a team like the Patriots or the bears potentially going after this guy, I just didn't

see that as, it didn't make much sense to me because again, you can find it somewhere else. The Chiefs are also going to have a very hard time actually paying this guy because in case you haven't noticed, they don't have a lot of money and they have other players they need to re-sign to. CJ? So from a market perspective, now you know, if you are a fan of a team that needs a line help, specifically guard, the market becomes thinner and that, it just, the market becomes thinner. That, of course, will drive prices up.

But the thing is, if you're one of the top dogs in terms of cap space, say the Commanders, the Raiders, the Patriots, all of whom have not over 90 mil with New England having over 120, then in a weird way this works in your favor because when prices go up the amount of people who can poach the top guard free agents from you decreases it's thinning the herd and uh and yeah and especially if you're a team like new england you can outbid anyone so sure you might have to pay a few bucks more but like the your amount of adversaries you have to compete with has decreased drastically that's simple that's that's the free

market in action for you but for Kansas City how do they afford this I'll tell you that they can't mathematically speaking it's not possible because they have around 7 mil. I want to say they're like just short of 8 mil in cap space. The offensive line franchise tag is 23.4 million. Can you maybe see if you have an education beyond first grade, how that math doesn't quite work? Or as the children on the interwebs say, the math is not mathing. Still a weird saying, but nothing we can do about it. I'm not a... Honestly, like I said,

I don't know how they can afford it. I mean, obviously you can restructure. And by the way, I can already hear all these snotty Chiefs fans from way out in Western Yore saying something like, actually, Mahomes can just restructure his deal. Mm-hmm. And once again, I've said before, and I'm going to say it again, how do you think restructures work? Like, do you just think it's a magic wand that

makes money go away? No, it pushes the money to the future. And by the way, when Mahomes signed his 10-year $500 million deal, it was already a backloaded contract. And guess what, kids? We're starting to enter the back half where all the money is. And if you keep pushing it all back, you're going to become the Kansas City Saints, which leads me to believe. And by the way, I want to address Mahomes already restructured his deal. So there's not a whole lot you can do now. And in the past, it might be different this year, but I see no reason to believe it will. Joe Tooney, Travis Kelsey, and Chris Jones, at least last season, I believe, or within the last two years, were asked about restructuring their deal or taking a pay cut, and all three refused. And as mentioned, like most of the Chiefs wide receiver room's free agents,

star linebacker Nick Bolden's a free agent. Starting safety, Justin Reed. Oh, you bet he's a free agent. Two of their starting linemen, Charles Amenahu and Tershawn Wharton. That's right, kids. They're also see them moving on from like a really good player. You know, because that's the only way this money is going to come from. If the rest of your team outside of Mahomes is refusing to take a pay cut or refusing to restructure, then, and you know, and after you apply this tag, you're going to be like around however much mill in the hole. I don't know, like around 15, just got by my head. Then someone's going to,

or they're going to have to cut someone or someone there. Someone's going to have to be moved on from. That's really what I'm trying to come down to. I don't know who it's going to be, but if I, what Adam, you look like you disagree. No, I'm just thinking that maybe that they're not trying to re-sign him that maybe they're just going to trade him yeah because he's right because he this that's what they did last year with Legereus and it was kind of a lot of the same

commentary following it it's oh they're gonna try and re-sign them they're gonna keep them everybody together and it's all a big smokescreen, and they end up trading him away. And that seems like, I mean, you can't just let a perfectly good guard go for nothing. So I kind of understand that. The question is who's going to trade for him? Because a top corner, that's one thing. Like LeJarrius Sneed, a top receiver like T. Higgins, that's another thing.

But Trey Smith, a guard. Again, like I said, these guys grow on trees. They come from everywhere. And I know that, like I said just a few minutes ago, this market is scarce on the free agent market. But you can still find them in drafts. You can find them in next year's free agency class. You can find it in next year's draft. They're all over the place. You can still find a guard some way, somehow.

My problem has just been, this is just my beef. It's just that teams have been paying too much for guards in free agency. That's a problem that I have. And I think Trey Smith is up for a massive deal for a guard, and he doesn't deserve it because he's a guard. And guards, again, grow on trees. Trey Smith, you're essentially trading for a guard, a position that's not hard to find, and then you're turning around and paying through the teeth for him?

That's a good point. The thing is, I feel like the real question is, it's not about who's going to trade for him. It's about if you're kansas city what can you actually get for him because let's take a step back to this time last year what will jerry snee go for like a third or a fourth right if you think you're going to get anything better for trey smith kc fans i'm here to tell you you're wrong and the thing is it's not just that he's a guard it's that he's on the tag meaning that the crumbs you got for legerius sneed will now it will now be even less than that because once again

guard and basically even though it's a tag and trade, it's a glorified salary dump. And if somehow you do extend it, then congratulations, you've created yourself financial ruin from which there's no escape. But I don't know. I just feel like I get you don't want to lose them for nothing. But if you are doing a tag and trade, I would say at best, best at absolute best you're getting a fourth yeah either way the chiefs are fucked um i think that's good long story short to wrap that segment up we're gonna take another quick break we'll be when we come back we're gonna get to a little bit of a freestyle little A little freestyle segment coming up next. It may not have always showed it in the stat sheet,

but you can see him making throws when he needs to make the throws. Back-to-back games where he has three touchdowns. Someone's got to get that six or seven spot. He's an elite wide receiver as a rookie. Truly a lose-lose scenario for both sides. Welcome back to the Fumble Rooski podcast. Chris Kostic, CJ Medeiros, Adam Wright. We're going to get into our final segment, which freestyle segment.

There's a lot of news going on. Just small, silly little news. Obviously, we covered the two bigger news stories in the football world. Of course, Stafford happening just today. Troy Smith just happening earlier this week. But there's also other little tidbits of football stories out there that we didn't want to give a full segment to. But we figured that they're enough to be granted

a good five minutes worth of conversation or so. So I'll start with you adam what what grinds your gears could grind your gears it could ungrind your gears could give you some flowers what's on your mind all right so there was a report that came out from mark davis um this morning and he he basically reported and some of it was regurgitated from mass live news however i think a lot of it is noteworthy and it was a mixed bag so are you talking about robbing laser no i don't care about that it's okay i there was a different portion of it but um there i'll give you some of the good and some of the bad, and I'll tell you the issue that I

have. Number one was the Patriots love Travis Hunter. I think that's a good thing. They're focusing on the trenches and free agency. If they go for a skill position player in the draft, then that levels things out. Number two, they view him as the best corner in the draft. Kind of bad. If you're drafting him to be a corner, bad. But they also view him as the best receiver in the draft. Good. They need a wide receiver one.

And according to recent reports, they are not going for a wide receiver one in free agency. Or they're going to look at trades, but nothing is really materialized. I believe they'll go for something in free agency, but I don't know if it'll be anything that is upper tier. After that, what I also found was the Patriots want two tackles and a guard in free agency. That is good. That's something that I've been preaching for months.

It's not just one tackle. Any report that I saw that said they're looking for that one tackle and that one guard. Who's playing right tackle, my dude? Who is playing right tackle? I like Mike Onwenu, but move him to right guard and sign another right tackle. That's a two for one deal. You need to do that. So I liked that they did that. Then I found the next part of the report, which said that their top targets in free agency are Ronnie Stanley and Patrick McCurry. Bad. Very bad. Ronnie Stanley is a very big name who has been consistently one of the best tackles in the league. The problem has been, and CJ brings up this point plenty of times,

I don't think he's brought it up on the show, but he's brought it off on camera. I'm going to say it now. When was the last time before 2024 that Ronnie Stanley has played a full season? That's more than 15 games. It never happened. It didn't happen at all. to turn 30, excuse me, he's on the wrong end of 30, and he has health issues. So any hope that this is all going to get better as far as his health goes, it's misplaced. Because if he was in his mid-20s and he had health issues, it's like, okay, he could turn it around. Maybe there's something in his conditioning that he needs to change. Maybe the last team didn't have a very good strength and conditioning staff. That happens.

They can turn it around. Ronnie Stanley's on the wrong side of 30. Very, very bad idea. The other guy being Patrick Makary. Are you kidding me? So you like Mike Onwenu, fine. He's serviceable at guard, at right tackle, fine. He's a good guard, fine. So you like Mike Onwenu so much that you got the Ravens version of him. Are you kidding me? Stupid, stupid, stupid. You don't need another guard to go play tackle. You need a tackle to play tackle and go get

yourself a guard. And this report, it failed to mention any of the guys who they wanted to be their right tackle. i hope that they're having patrick mccary play guard i hope so but this is one of the guys who i just like i mentioned the during the last segment just during the last segment i don't like how free agent how free agent guards are getting paid nowadays they're getting paid too much i think they should go and find a guy who has lower value like let's say a mckay beckton give him some money now that he's yeah he's not that valuable yet that pissed me off this morning that really pissed me off

but i rest my case nice i like it i like it no i agree it's better should try to go for better choices but sometimes you might have to settle I'm taking it I'm taking this Patriots off season the way I took the Red Sox off season I'm taking it one day at a time not getting ahead of myself not getting my hopes up thankfully the Sox did their job in a way but hoping the patients can do the same thing here cj you want to you have any uh thing you want to add to that or uh to this comment there is a topic in and of itself i just i know i keep saying that i just can't shake this awful feeling that they're going to sit on their hands again but i've said that many times probably also on the show but i just i don't know i just i don't want to say i'm numb but when i saw adam put in our chat saying oh my god ronnie stanley i'm like you know

you know at this point it's to be expected right just seems like every season like why why can't you it's like the meme of that woman screaming at her kid where she turns around the car and says why can't you be normal like every year like you just you get the great value version of the player you should get you just make mind-boggling trades you make some of the worst decisions in the draft like every off season like you just like i say you basically do either a what you shouldn't or b you do the great value version like the bargain bin version of what you should do i'm hoping i am praying to god that this is just a smokescreen because this happens all the time smokescreens are real but i don't know look i mean ronnie stanley's better than nothing but 2024

was the first time in his entire career where he's played a full season this inspires no confidence whatsoever in me i wanted alaric jackson that's the guy who i wanted and i i failed to mention this part of the report, but they said they don't want, and I quote, second-tier tackles like Aleric Jackson. If you know anything about football, you know that Aleric Jackson is on the upper tier in this free agency class as far as tackles go. He's the best tackle in this free agency class. He's the youngest guy. Just the whole thing about anything, everything about this morning pissed me off.

Actually, not everything. There were some things about Travis Hunter I really liked, but oh boy. CJ, we'll whip it right back to you. What is either grinding your gears or giving you some flowers? Or somewhere in the middle? The combine. gears are giving you some flowers or somewhere in the middle oh the combine every year we do this every year we just we talk about how much the combine's overrated and it is it's like hey kids

you want to watch the underwear olympics watch people run around on a field and do bench presses and it's like the amount of stock that's put into this like i get it i do but it's so stupid it's like you can see a guy who you know is good it's like oh my god i sure can't wait to watch his entire future be dictated by his 40 time it's just every year it gets hammered into our noggin about how much the 40 yard dash time does not mean jack diddly or squat and yet every time someone's a fast 40 they get on their knees and start bowing like oh my god truly this is the next go like really really like i just i'm sorry for example tennessee edge rusher james pierce ran like a 4540 or like or maybe sub that and look he's very good i think he's one of the top three edge

rushers in this class but come on this doesn't mean anything i mean for example like you know guys like dree archer john r, like we're so wary of this. And they also put a lot of stock into the bench press. It's a Stephen Paya or whatever his name was. I think it was drafted by like the Browns or the Cowboys because I know he played for both. I don't know where he started. Set like the all-time bench press record. And you know what he did?

He was all right. That was it. He was just all right. was it he was just all right and it's just i'm so sick of like i'm not going to say it's not important but the amount of stock that people put into the combine how many legends have we seen just put up a real stinker at the combine and then proceed to be good prime example and no i'm not going to do tom brady that's that's low-hanging fruit orlando brown jr was literally considered a first round pick put up a horrific combine fell to the fourth round and then became a star in the

league it's like and people are just saying erm erm the combine's a tool so they can juxtapose what they see without pads versus what they see on film bs if that's the case then why did john ross who was like a late second rounder fringe first depending on the draft would go top 10 if it's just a tool no no they didn't put way too much stock in it and don't get me started on the pro days in fact the pro day might be even more evil than the combine it made zach wilson a uh number two zach wilson the pro day merchant like if you have a really good pro day that is even more inflationary than the combine. Like you said, like Zach Wilson.

I never liked him, and I've been vindicated on this many, many a time. I liked him in college. Oh, I didn't. I knew it wouldn't translate. But then again, you didn't know me then. It doesn't mean you can't say that he's fun to watch in college. Eh, eh. But, yeah, fun to watch, but a lot of them are fun to watch.

I mean, look, Anthony Richardson was fun to watch, and now, look, man can't throw past five yards accurately. And, oh, my God, just the combine is just so ridiculous. I mean, that's really what it is. I know I've just gone on and on about that and the pro day too. It's like every year we say this, just calm down. Good God, please. I don't care. And by the way, now that it's the combine,

I'd like to say one last thing to you, the viewer. Yes, you specifically. I mentioned this before during the season, and now I get to say it. I would like to introduce you to, drumroll please, the C.J. Medeiros Combine Drinking

Game. If you're under the age of 21, I don't know, drink milk or something. Drink water. Yeah, I under the age of 21 uh i don't know drink milk or something so yeah i know adam calm down uh basically every time rich eisen mentions he's from michigan or somebody mentions that rich eisen went to michigan take a shot no seriously you will be dead in fact this game comes with the surgeon general's warning. Because every time, every time it's like, oh, he played against Michigan.

I'm Rich Eisen. I'm from Michigan. Or, oh, he's a former Michigan Wolverine. You know who else is? Me, Rich Eisen. Or it'll just be like, oh, and this guy, he's from like Kennesaw State or somewhere random. He's like, hey, Kennesaw state. That's cool.

Uh, uh, did you know Kennesaw state has an ad in it and Michigan ends in and urged me something like that. Every time, every time they say something, he has to mention it. So yeah, literally take a shot.

Every time it happens, you're welcome. America. It's a good way to wrap it up there. Adam, you want to respond to any of that combine talk we've done plenty of compound combine talk about how how stupid it is that it's become a dead horse so um yeah and we we kind of already went over it during on uh on tuesday but um on Tuesday.

There's a couple of things to watch as far as what's going to skyrocket players' value and what's going to tank it. It's going to get interesting because there's a lot of question mark prospects. This is a draft that is going to be extremely difficult. It's about as murky as it gets in recent memory as far as who's going to be drafted where. One thing I guess I'll say about it is like it's really only for –

the combine is really there for anyone that's getting drafted, that's projected to get drafted outside or inside the second round. It's really only there to help your draft stock if you're outside of the first or second round. If you're in the first or second round, you might as well just say fuck it because you're just going to... I feel like you have more of a possibility to fuck yourself out of millions of dollars

if you end up doing the combine or not doing the combine. So that's the one thing I'll say about that. That's literally something I said. I just want to say, Chris, I'm not saying you're plagiarizing. I'm just saying like one of the episodes where I'm talking about the combine where you weren't on. We were talking about all these players are skipping. And I said, well well if you're a top prospect and you go to the combine you literally have nothing to gain but everything to lose

best case scenario maybe you solidify yourself going top 10 worst case you you screw yourself out of it yeah and that's the other thing like you don't even really see the top five guys really go to the combine anyways like abdul carter's not going to the combine uh cam ward cam ward cam ward today he just said jenty um ashton denty but yeah so what uh what ails me this doesn't really ail me. This is more just entertainment. The NFL report cards got posted yesterday, and it's just fun to see which teams fall where in terms of how good the organization is, how good it is to play there, how much life is great or how much life sucks.

Arizona was ranked the worst organization in the nfl uh their worst grade was their weight room which was an f um food and owner were given d minuses and their treatment of family was a d plus um the best organization to play for is the miamiphins. A-plus on everything besides treatment of family, which was given an A. So they're doing something right besides putting together a winning football team. Vikings were second, pretty much the same thing as the Dolphins.

Pats were ranked the second worst organization. I only mention that because we're all Pats fans. They were given an F on travel and weight room which hate to see the weight room be given an f travel i saw a report that the travel was because uh it's been it's kind of an older private jet and there's still a cigarette, whatever you call it. Ashtrays? Ashtrays, yeah.

There were still ashtrays in the play, and players didn't like that. So that's why I was giving an F. The worst owner, worst rated owner. You guys want to guess who that is? Hmm. I would have to say Woody Johnson of the Jets that guy's a yeah he was given

the worst rated owner he lets his teenagers run it yeah probably why he's barely even an owner yeah Cincinnati was given an F for food and F minus for treatment of family.

Like F minus for treatment of families and saying the F doesn't surprise me because there was that report that came out last off season where the Bengals did not offer food on Tuesdays and Wednesdays, which I think I remember that. Yeah. Um, top rate coaches, dolphins,

Vikings, Falcons, uh, Detroit, Washington, um, and Kansas city, Kansas city,

by the way, 26th ranked organization on this, on the report card list. The, and Chris, this is why, uh, when we were talking about what to cover, I said, this shouldn't have gone on the report card list the and chris this is why uh when we were talking about what to cover i said this shouldn't have gone on its own segment because the chiefs

which are one of the organization 26 it's like by the way i kind of feel like miami being number one is actually an indictment on them yeah you know especially like how high their head coach is rated and you know it came out today right or not today like yesterday a few weeks ago how mcdaniel he's not an alpha he's not a leader he wants to be their friend he's basically like i said he's the ringmaster of a circus like that's kind of his thing he he wants to be the cool coach and honestly miami getting this high of a grade should actually like make them upset because he's getting because like you want the players to be the cool coach. And honestly, Miami getting this high of a grade should actually like make them upset because it's getting, cause like you want the players to be happy and stuff, but like, but there's just no leadership there.

It's basically a day spa where every so often you play football. So that's kind of where I was getting at. I, a lot of these grades I feel like are more of an indictment on certain narratives. And it's also just a fun thing to see how the players feel about certain things. Like for example, Woody Johnson being named the worst owner or the Patriots being given an F for their travel and their weight room and giving a D to Robert crafts or

giving a B plus the Gerard Mayo. It's just interesting to look at some of this stuff um any any grades you guys were curious about or or am i just the only one that gets that likes talking about this shit yeah i just really don't see how much it matters i mean even at the height of the patriots dynasty they were always in the bottom 10 and play report cards yeah the fact is winning is the best deodorant. And when the it's, it's, it may,

it's very telling that this is coming out for the Patriots while they suck. Yeah. Because back then it was, it was never really much of a headline that the Patriots were around this level. Now suddenly it's coming out. Do you think the planes were any better back when the Patriots were good? No, no, it's, out do you think the planes were any better back when the patriots were good no no it's it was the same thing and players wanted to be here because players wanted

to win yeah and i'm not i'm not justifying it but this just shows that it is a business they're trying to keep as much money on the field as possible you can talk all you want about how Robert Kraft may be a cheap G, rather a cheap owner. But none of you were saying this when they were winning. So that's, that's, that's all I'll say right there. Yeah.

Winning is the best deodorant. As soon as this team, they have Drake may, they have a lot of cap space. They're bound to spend on the trenches and to gain some stability on this team. As soon as this team is back to being relevant in the next year or so none of this is going to come out again no and then they'll just make another report card and talk about it but um yeah but there was one

other thing i was oh the other point i was going to make is it kind of goes to show which owners care enough to do up their facilities and make sure players have a somewhat enjoyable time outside of winning and making sure that their life doesn't suck. Like, imagine getting an F- for travel, or imagine you get graded an F minus for the treatment of your family. Like that's terrible.

I feel like that's terrible. Yeah, family treatment especially. Like that's actually really bad. Like there's a lot, like there's stuff here that's just like, why doesn't like if the owners would, they could. And like, that's obviously prevalent with Miami, Minnesota, Atlanta, shit, even Vegas, the Chargers. Some of these organizations that are in the top half

are a little bit surprising. But it goes to show, like, if the owners could, they would. Make it so that your team is enjoyable to play for. Never mind the winning. Make sure your players' lives are enjoyable. But that's just me. Anything else you guys want to throw out there? No, not really.

Nice. I don't know if I brought this one up before, but Debo Samuel reports on him being garnering interest from the Steelers, the Texans, the Commanders, and the Giants. I think it was. Did I bring that up already? I don't think. I don't think I did either.

But either way, it's... I mean, you know, Debo Samuel, his stock has plummeted, you know, with all the stuff that's come out about him this offseason, so I don't know how much it really matters. Yeah, for sure. We're at the point where the guy out about him this offseason. So I don't know how much it really matters. Yeah. We're at the point where the guy's probably going to get released. And I expect a few other players as well.

But Deebo is at the top of the list. There's really – he was kind of useless last year. Let the team in drama, if I recall correctly. Well, that'll do it for this Friday edition of the Fulmer Ruski podcast. Thank you for tuning in. New episode coming out on Tuesday at 730. Be sure to subscribe our YouTube channel. And we also have all our episodes available on Spotify,

Spreaker, Apple Podcasts, iHeartRadio, Google Podcasts, and so much more. Be sure to follow our Instagram, Fulmer Ruski underscore podcast keep up with the pod and the latest coverage on the NFL. Otherwise, CJ Medeiros, Adam Wright, myself, Chris Gostich, say so long. Have a great weekend. We'll see you Tuesday.