The Matt Thomas Show with Ross - Jason Wilde Negotiates A Hypothetical Watt To The Packers Trade With Matt

Episode Date: October 22, 2020

Jason Wilde Negotiates A Hypothetical Watt To The Packers Trade With Matt

is the Matt Thomas show. All right, time is 102, Sports Talk 790. Hour number two of the Matt Thomas show. We are happy to be joined by Jason Wildy. He is a ESPN Wisconsin radio host in the great city of Milwaukee. He is Athletics, Wisconsin's Packers guy, and he joins us here for 10 quality minutes, to talk about the game between the Packers and the Texans here on the show.

Jason, first of all, it's Matt and Ross. Thanks for joining us, and I just want you to know that, you know, we here in Houston get tired of hearing Houston. We have a problem. It's those cliché stuff. So I wanted you to know I wasn't going to play any Laverne and Shirley or any Alice Cooper, Algonquin stuff. I just wanted to be you and me to be a pure, happy days, none of that stuff. I just wanted us to be you and I talk in regular stuff. I just wanted you know that I appreciate the struggles that you probably go through on occasional basis.

Yeah, no, I was certainly not going to go to the Apollo 13. line on you guys. And I'm more concerned about delivering on the promised 10 quality minutes. I hope I can deliver. Well, your boss, Brad Lane says you're decent, so that's why I want to make sure that I figured I can at least get 10 minutes. I'm not looking for three hours. I'm looking for 10

single minutes from you. All right. Before we get to the game itself, I have not been the chairman of this, but I am someone that has brought this up, especially with the way that Texans have not performed well. I believe it is in the best interest that J.J. Watt gets traded before the deadline. I know that

the de facto general manager Deshaun Watson doesn't believe that to be the case. But I believe that in the Texas best interest in terms of drafts, getting some picks, relieving themselves of some cap space. And oh, by the way, JJ Watts has been pretty good for this franchise. And they're not going to win a Super Bowl this year. Probably not next year. Would the Packers have any interest in JJ, J.J. Watt? Well, I think everyone has interest if the price is right, right?

And the question would obviously be what the price tag would look like. I believe all of his guaranteed money in his contract has run out, right? He's got this year's, I think his base is $15 million. Next year, the base is $17 and change. Look, they could obviously use a player of his caliber. I know he's battled injuries the last couple of years. Frankly, there's two guys on the Texans roster that the Packers, if they don't want to bring them home, they should want to bring them home.

One is J.J. Watt, who obviously grew up here. The other one is Randall Cobb, who I think is the third leading receiver on the Texans right now. I mean, the Packers-wide receiver group, Rogers masked at the first four games. They were able to survive without Devante Adams for two of those games. I still think their depth is poor at that position. They don't have a true slot receiver, which is what Randall was for so much of his career here. So, hey, I'm on board, Matt. Let's bring them both back.

And what do you guys want for them? Let me see if I could talk to Goody and get a deal done for it. Well, we brought up a second and a fifth, and I would do it in a heartbeat. I don't know if Green Bay would, but I would. Will you throw in Cobb, too, or not? Do I need to give up another pick for that? No, you can have him, because, to be honest with you, Jason, we weren't thrilled when he signed here because he had had a very pedestrian season in Dallas,

and frankly was way overpaid for what he signed with here. And that was part of the conundrum that is the awful administration of Bill O'Brien and Jack Easterby. So if you want to take that contract, you're more than welcome to have it. I'm intrigued by that, though, that what you just said, because Brian Gutickens, the Packers' GM, was in the process of interviewing with the Texans when the Packers offered him the job. And then the Packers kind of baited and switched him. And initially he was going to have power over hiring and firing the head coach. Then they decided not to do that. He had to contemplate.

that decision, but he had already pulled out of the Texans running. So you do, you know, I love those stories, the what if stories. And I do wonder what the Texans roster looks like and corollary question, what the Packers roster looks like. Maybe some other GM doesn't draft Jordan Love. And maybe Aaron Rogers' future is secure in Green Bay or more so than it is these days if Goody's not the GM here. So we all kind of figured out that when Love was drafted it, that Aaron

was pissed and that maybe there was some going to be a friction-filled season. You get out to a fantastic start, and then the Packers lay the egg against the bucks last week. So where is the state of the team right this second as you cover them on a daily basis? Yeah, I think this is a really crucial week for them. And look, you guys, I would never presume to know the Texans as well as you guys do, but from afar, I don't think they're as bad as their record indicates. You guys can correct me if I'm wrong on that. But anything with the Sean Watson, a quarterback and what he's done in the last month or so, I was looking at his numbers in the last couple of weeks.

I mean, I don't think the Packers can have some sort of superiority complex and come in there and think they just roll their helmets on the energy stadium turf and win this game. Maybe I'm wrong about that. But I think that this is a team that needs to bounce back from an abysmal performance, frankly, on both sides of the ball. Rogers had the pick six, which he rarely throws three in his career. Then he throws another interception. But they were up 10 to nothing. They're down 14 to 10. And then the defense still gives up 24 points. They haven't been able to generate a pass right. They weren't able to do it against Tom Brady. So now you're facing a quarterback that is not 73 years old and has the ability to do all the things Watson does.

I think that's a, this is a huge challenge for a defense that we had Rex Ryan. on our show this morning. And he said, having worked with Mike Patton, that he doesn't recognize the defense they've been running. So that is a pretty big indictment of how ineffective the Packers' defense has been and how it's been covered for by a strong offense to start the year. Jason Wilde from ESPN Milwaukee with us here on the Matt Thomas show.

All right. So to tell you what I think of the Texans, and I've never been a huge fan of them since the get-go, they're one and five. I said yesterday when we looked at the schedule again, they're going to finish. I think they have a really good chance of finishing 7 and 9 because I think, again, they're scoring a bunch of points and the schedule softens up.

I don't think they're going to beat Green Bay this week. But my question to you is, is Green Bay, has they shown the signs of can they get into a 38, 35 type of football game and win it? Because we saw the Texans get into one of those last week against Tennessee. If they convert a two-point conversion, they win that type of game against Tennessee. They don't ultimately lose. So I'm curious if a slug fest is in, the game plan for Green Bay knowing that they may be down 10 with five minutes left to go and does Aaron have enough targets to put together a late fourth quarter comeback?

Yeah, I think it all depends on a couple of things. One is this scheme has been very effective. They have done a great job this year in year two of Matt Lafleur scheme of scheming guys open. And they need to because they don't have the talent across the board. The example I always use and, you know, maybe some of my Packers fan friends that I know are down there in Houston. Remember this. There's a cover of Sports Illustrated in 2011 when Rogers was

on his way to his first MVP, and he was surrounded by all these weapons. And if they did that now, they would have, it would be him and Devante Adams sitting at a table, because the rest of the guys just don't elevate to that level. But the scheme has gotten guys open.

It did not happen against Tampa Bay. That's why you saw Rogers holding the ball, you know, throwing interceptions. So I, they have been in throughout already. 3730 with New Orleans, 43, 34 with Minnesota. But their defense is certainly up to the task of making it a shootout. That I know.

Whether their offense can match it depends on how effective Rogers can be and whether Matt Lafleur comes in with a good game plan. He admitted last week that his game plan was not very good for Tampa and it showed. That's saying something quite honestly that a coach would come and admit something like that. Was that coach speaker, or do you think he generally meant, wow, we just were ill-prepared for how good that defense in Tampa Bay really is? Yeah, I will say this, and I've been doing this. This is my 25th season. I started when I was 10, of course.

Yes. But they, they, I have not had a coach who has been as specific about saying, I need to do a better job, right? We all know the cliche. We need to coach better. We need to play better. We need to execute better, blah, blah, blah. He was very specific. They have a player named Piler Irvin, who's their return guy.

He's also their motion guy. They've done more motion this year than I've ever seen them do in any of their previous iterations of an offense. And Irvin missed the game last week with a wrist injury. And the floor admitted after the game that not having him took them out of all the things they like to do with motion. And that he can't allow one player's absence to wreck his game plan. And he basically admitted to it. What's amazing is he had two games where he didn't have Devante Adams a three-time pro-ball wide receiver.

And he was able to alter his game plan effectively to make up for him, but not effectively to make up for the absence of a guy who didn't even join their roster until December of last year. That's astonishing. That is, that's crazy. Before I let you run, I do want to get one Mike McCarthy comment in because, obviously, you covered him for a long period of time. the world of sports, and clearly we've got some Dallas Cowboy fans up here, are wiggin out about the comments that were made about him not being prepared,

his staff not being prepared, ill-informed, not able to adjust. Were you shocked by those comments coming from some of those unnamed Dallas players? I don't know if I was shocked. I mean, there's a couple of things that prevented that. First of all, players get frustrated. Second of all, players don't want it to be the player's fault, right? I mean, if you say it's the coaches don't have you prepared, it takes a little bit of the heat off of you.

I do think that with an offseason where they didn't have any time on the grass, and it's a new staff with the new system, I know Kellan Moore has been there. It seems to me that their defense is the problem. They're scoring a bunch of points. They're getting a bunch yards. They haven't they didn't do it with all the turnovers the other night. But I can see how they would have concerns,

especially on the defensive side of the ball. I'm a little surprised if Mike McCarthy's offense was ill-prepared because, again, he's not even the play caller. And I'm a little confused as to what the dynamic is for them offensively and whether the criticism is of Mike Nolan and more if it's about the environment as a whole with McCarthy. Obviously, there wasn't a whole lot of specifics from those comments, but I wasn't completely shocked. Let me put it that way. Last question, and it's about the life that you live up there in Wisconsin. And when I lived in Minnesota, I was able to go to see two games at Lambo Field because it was a bucketless place. But they were both in September and the temperatures were in the 60s.

Just tell the audience the coldest game you ever were at in your life. I think I want to say it was a January playoff game. But heck, I don't know how many years you've been going to Green Bay and how many games you've been at Lambo. But give us the worst, coldest, miserable, snowy, windy experience you've ever did covering a Packers game. So the worst coldest game I've ever covered was not at Lambo. It was actually at Soldier Field. There's certainly been great snow games. TV loves snow, right?

Oh, for sure. There was a playoff game against Seattle that they played in the snowstorm. It was great. It was scenic. It was toward the end of Farve's career. It was in 07 before they lost in the NFC championship game. Those games are great. They're just so picturesque.

And there's certainly been cold games here. But there was a game in that same 07 season where Brett Farr and the Packers went down to Chicago, and they got it handed to them. And the wind was whipping off of Lake Michigan so badly. And this was, I'll tell you what, this was a crucial moment for the Packers to decide people don't talk about about that 0-708 time. But he looked like he wanted to be anywhere but there. And he had such a longstanding reputation for being great in the cold. He never lost when the temperature was below 32 degrees.

And that day, the wind show was minus 40. And he would be the last guy off the sideline, last guy taking his jacket off. They would go three and out, and then he'd be right back on the sideline, putting his jacket back on. He was miserable. It was a miserable walk from the parking lot. So I understand how he felt. But that was when it became very clear that he could no longer be greener. great in the cold. And it explains why he went to Minnesota and had such a great year playing

indoors. Yeah, for sure. No-9. They just totally changed the dynamics. Yeah, indoor does matter. Hey, it was nice visiting with you. Tell your boss, Brad, I said, hello. Jason, thank you very much for the time. And maybe we'll visit again when the Texans and Packers play in Super Bowl, I don't know, 67, 68, somewhere in that range. Any friend of Brad is someone that I question their judgment. I couldn't have said it better myself. Thank you, Jason. Really appreciate it.

All right, guys. Take everything. You got it. Jason Wilde, ESPN Milwaukee with us here at 116.