The Ringer NFL Show - GM and Coach Secrets From the NFL Combine

Episode Date: March 2, 2023

Welcome back to another episode of ‘The Ringer NFL Draft Show!’ This week, the guys briefly address the breaking news surrounding Georgia defensive tackle Jalen Carter and the warrant out for his arrest (2:24). Next, inspired by Key & Peele’s “Obama’s Anger Translator,” they make sense of this year’s NFL combine press conferences by translating the “coachspeak” from the head coaches and general managers taking part in the event (5:38). Later, they talk about the most interesting findings from a recent NFLPA poll that asked players to rank the 32 teams in various categories (43:55). Finally, they close with America’s favorite segment: Two Jargons, One Lie (46:06). Hosts: Danny Heifetz, Danny Kelly, Ben Solak, Craig Horlbeck Producers: Craig Horlbeck and Kai Grady Check out our 2023 Ringer NFL Draft Guide here! Email us! [e-mail] Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hey, it's Kevin O'Connor. I've got some big news for you. The mismatch is hosting its first ever live show in Los Angeles at the L.Rae Theater on March 6th. Me and Chris Vernon are going to be there. I'm fired up about it. At the L.R.R. There's been performers like Bob Dylan and Kendrick Lamar and Rage Against the Machine in Licky Lee.

I'm fired up. Get to be on that stage with my guy, Chris Vernon. We've been together since 2016 doing NBA podcasts. And now we're going to get to meet a lot of you who have listened. to our show for so many years. We'll do a Q&A at the end. We might have some special guests, but we're definitely going to be talking basketball.

It's going to be a lot of fun. I'm excited about it. Tickets are going fast, though, so be sure to head to the LRAE.com to get your tickets now. Doors are going to open at 7 p.m. And the show is going to be starting right at 8 o'clock. Let's go, baby. Welcome to the Ringer NFL Draft Show.

My name is Danny Hyfitz. I am joined by Danny Kelly and Ben Sullick, and we are in person in Indianapolis in an empty radio road. We're the only people here left. Everyone left. The Lions content team actually is grinding it out. Okay, please respect our Lions friendly Lions content team.

Just drinking venty coffees with four shots. Yeah, just the Dan Campbell Cuban. It circles down to every level of the organization. There's Cension Free Workout, just in that building. All right, we're coming to you here on the rear NFL draft show between now and the NFL draft in April, obviously. And today we're going to go over everything between, I mean, just what we've seen and heard in Indianapolis, saw. general everything we perceived all five senses. There's been like 45 head coaches and general managers that have spoken,

like press conferences this week. And we're going to translate what they mean, because they all kind of speak and coach speak. So we're going to do that like Key and Peel Obama anger translator bit, but like for the coaches. You know what other bit I was thinking of? You know when Dwight teaches Aaron Dothraki in the office, right? It's like, you know, like, like he just like points to something,

goes like, come on. And she says it back. They just point to a general manager quote and go like, made up BS. Like, Harry Potter Parcel tongue? Yeah,

right. Just start feeling it from my head. God. Okay. All right. Before that, though,

we actually have something extremely serious to discuss. So the big news of the combine. So Georgia defense to tackle Jalen Carter left the NFL combine this morning. The Athens Clark County Police Department

in Georgia has issued an arrest warrant for Jalen Carter. He's been charged with reckless driving and racing both of which are misdemeanors. Jalen Carter is widely considered a top five pick. And aside from the quarterback position, Jalen Carter is a consensus top two player in the draft this year. And this was shocking because he was scheduled to speak to the media at 10.30 this morning. And this story broke like an hour before he was scheduled to speak to the media.

Apparently Jalen Carter, we're recording this Wednesday night. Apparently Jalen Carter is getting, he was getting medical evaluations this morning. And when this news broke and now apparently he's going back, to Georgia, presumably to turn himself in. So in terms of the incident itself, this stems from a car accident in Georgia. It was on January 15th. It was about a week after Georgia won the national championship,

and the crash was in the range of around 2.30 in the morning, according to the police. And they didn't hit any other cars, but the Georgia staffer who was driving the car, Chandler LeCroy, she died, Georgia offensive lineman, Devin Willock, who was also in the car, he died. And two other people associated with the Georgia program,

who were also in the car, they were injured. So this is a horrific tragedy. It's an awful story. But now this story just has a wider scope because it seems according to the police that the car crashed while racing against Jalen Carter, who was driving a different car.

The police issued a statement that said the car LeCroix was driving was at one point going at about 104 miles an hour. LaCroix's blood alcohol concentration was over 0.19, which is more than twice the legal limit. And the two cars

were switching lanes, driving in the oncoming lane, and overtaking other cars. It's according to the police. And the Atlanta Journal Constitution, who's reporting basically prompted the warrant. The Atlanta Journal Constitution reported that Carter was present at the scene of the crash and that Carter gave a few different stories to the police about where he was. And the journal Constitution also reported that Carter was among a group of players and recruiting staffers who were at a strip club before the accident and that there was surveillance video of Carter's vehicle leaving the club at the same time as the car, LaCroix was driving.

So Jalyn Carter obviously did not come to the podium to speak to the media. He tweeted out a statement today in all caps that said, among other things that, quote, numerous media reports have also circulated this morning containing inaccurate information concerning the tragic events of January 15th, 2020. There's no question in my mind that when all the facts are known, I will be fully exonerated of any criminal wrongdoing, end quote. So there's a lot there. I think the important thing you remember is that this is a tragedy. there's a thousand questions here about, I mean, poor decisions. Like, what exactly was Jalen Carter doing that night?

Was he also drinking and driving? Why did he tell police different versions of the story? Like, why are we finding out about this right now? There's a lot of questions here. Honestly, it's just still a lot we don't know. We're not going to speculate about any of this stuff. We're also not going to talk about what this means for the draft. We're going to the draft.

That's not, this is not the time for that. So this is just something that we will monitor and obviously discuss over the next few months. So I have no good segue for that whatsoever. So we're just going to get into the very stupid and silly bit that we have discussed all the other news. Sounds like the NFL draft show. Here we go. Perfect. All right.

So give someone an example of someone hasn't seen this Key and Peel skit for the Obama angry translator. So it's just like it's the key and peel where it's like, Key is Obama like saying something and then Peel is standing behind him like saying what he really thinks. No, no, no. Peel is Obama. Oh, yeah, you're right. Come on. Yeah, that was right. Embarrassing. So Obama's like, we encourage nations around the globe to cease their uranium enrichment programs.

And then Key is like, hey, out, but Denison, 86 your shit. Before we do it for you. It's like, it's an, it's an awesome skit. Everybody who hasn't seen it should YouTube, Key and Peel, anger translator. It's good content. So we're doing that. Well, we've been joking about it all the week because it occurred to us while we were here for the draft that like, this is what, this is actually our job. It's like all the coaches get up and just have to give these very political statements.

some coach speak. And then we're like, yo, he's pissed. This is the week that makes me want to be a general manager. I don't want to be it when you have to like draft prospects, put your job on the line,

figure out free agents, deal with like player problems. I would just want to be up at a podium and have somebody ask me like, hey, so, you know, is this guy going to become the starting quarterback? And then I think of how many possible ways I can not answer that question

while saying words. How many words can I use? No, we're just here for competition. He's been our starting quarterback. We've thought a long time about our starting quarterback. We definitely need to have a starting quarterback. We're going to bring another

quarterbacks who might be the starting quarterback. Oh my God. Just just absolutely prevaricating. And I would have so much fun doing it in an antagonistic way. Is prevaricating a word? So we have been doing this for now 48 straight hours of listening

to the coach speak. There have been almost 48 people who have spoken. So there's been a lot going on. So there is a lot that's happened. And so we're just going to do the whole anger translation. There's a great one to start with. This is the best example, which was Bengals general manager Duke Tobin. Took a podium. Took a

Monday. And he was asked about the rumors that they might trade receiver T. Higgins. Bengals have the page March Ace. They have to pay Joe Burrow. They don't have a lot of money. They don't have a lot of cap. Or they have a lot of cap. But those guys are going to eat up a ton. Right. Maybe they might just trade T. Higgins, who's going to be a rising free agent, right? And Tobin responded, quote, I'm not in the business of making other teams better. I'm in the business of making the Cincinnati Bengals better. Trading T. Higgins is not in my mind. That's their problem. They want a receiver. Go find your own. Do Tobin. Do Tobin anger translator? Absolutely not.

T. Higgins will be a Cincinnati Bengal in 2023. Screw you. That is then contrasted to when Duke Tobin was asked about running back Joe Mixon who's on a sizable contract wasn't necessarily great

this past year relative to backup small GP Ryan. Had his own legal issues of his own of his own. And on Mixin, Tobin says, quote, I'm not going to predict

the off season because I don't have the answers. Literally the exact opposite. We might translate to, you know how I feel about T. Higgins? I do not feel the way about Joe Mings in the slightest. I think about all the confidence and belief I had about T. Higgins, not that right now.

The opposite of that. And so I think it's safe to say that while the Bengals are going to look into keeping Joe Mixon and, you know, maybe what the money looks like, who else do we sign whatever, if one of the two players, T. Higgins or Joe Mixon is not on the Bengals next year, it will be Joe Mixon. T. Higgins won't be on the Bengals. That was exactly how the Giants press conferences this week. So Brian Dable, the head coach didn't speak, but Joe Shane, their general manager, who's like a very corporate buttoned up, like, calculating guy the way he communicates.

It was like the same vibe as the T. Higgins thing. He's asked about, obviously, Daniel Jones and Sake Warner, both free agents. And, like, if they can't reach a contract extension, they can franchise tag, but they only can tag one of them. So the whole dynamic is if you can reach a deal with both, cool, or reach a deal with one, you can tag the other. But if you don't reach a deal with Sequin or Daniel Jones, they have to pick. And the other, they have to pick. And so Joe Shane was asked if Daniel Jones

would be the giant start in 2023 and he said, no doubt. And then Joe Shane was asked about Sequin Barclay's negotiations and he said Walter Peyton Man of the Year, I love that about him, but you also got to look at production, games played, production versus other comps around the league, you got to draw a line in the sand.

Like we're not going to go any further and if it goes past this number, then you shift to plan B. Translation. You think we're stupid? We're not picking a running back over our starting quarterback. Like, it's like the good fellow's like, do I look like a clown? Do you? Yeah.

The first thing that comes to my mind is like, you know how in police interrogations? Like, the fewer words you say, the more likely you are not lying, like you're telling the truth. It's exactly that. It's like he launches into this like diatribe about Walter Payton Man of the Year, like all this stuff. He's like, oh, he's definitely not. Once you start listing things, just like things, like nouns, like once you just start saying nouns, you're trying to say things to buy time to not say what your head wants you to say. Right.

Your head goes like, obviously not. Like, well, I can't say obviously not. Let me just say words about football until my head comes up with the right way to answer this question. Versus when you can actually say what's on your mind, you just say it. You're like, yeah, we're trying to, you know, come to extension with him. Bang, that's it. Oh, my God. Well, and then the flip, the other one that was great from Jeff Shane was then kind of realizing that,

you know, Sequin was going to go. He basically was like, look, the quote basically was like, ideally that doesn't happen. He's like, and you sign both Sequin and Daniel Jones. And he said, and Shane's like, if you have to franchise tag Daniel, I don't think that's what's best for the organization. And I don't think that's what's best for Daniel, especially with building around him. Yeah. Translation. Sign the deal, Daniel. Hey, look, if Seekwon leaves, that's on you, buddy.

That's on you, bud. That's on me. Don't look to me. The Giants are not getting rid of Sequon. Daniel Jones is getting rid of Saquan. It struck me during almost every one of these pressers that the GMs and coaches were talking to the players, not us. You know what I mean?

Talking to the agents, talking to the players, like, bro. Daniel Jones, if you want to stay here and you want to actually improve and you want to be better, without saying it, he's like, you need to take less money. Honestly, like, I thought Shane did a really, really good job of putting the ball in Jones's court. And like, if there is like an acrimonious departure, getting it such that a lot of the

the onus of that will be on Jones while also still being fair and just being like this is like, you know, where we're at is what we're dealing with. I thought he did like usually like corporate speak. He honestly did a pretty good job. Like I was impressed. Which like he knows what questions he's getting. Versus like some of these guys who come up and they start getting the weird questions they're not ready for.

I also the I really, because Giants fans are going to be devastating. Sequin leaves. And I do think that the heat at this point with the $45 million thing that Jones wanted, it would be on him. But you know, there's no Michael Shea. He's like, I'm the SNL.

He has this amazing bit where it's like, he's watching the news. And he's like, CNN is like, we owe China $11 trillion. And I'm like, we. I don't know China shit. China can't find me. He's like, we owe sprint $90. He was like, that's the giant Joe Shane. He's like, we didn't bring Seaguan back.

You didn't bring Seaguan back. Yeah, I like that. Let's talk about the Seahawks. The Seahawks had some interesting pressers because I'll to. Schneider and Pete. always show up with the clip loaded, man. Senator Fier the bomb. Pete, Pete does these really long rambling, but like also very insightful and, like, heartfelt.

Just. Pete, Pete has mastered the, if I give long answers, I only get seven questions. Exactly. Like, Brevity is not your friend here. Eat the clock, brother. Yeah, he's, he's the master of this. And actually, like, I fall for it every time because I'm like, oh, man, he's saying some really interesting stuff here.

But he's just saying nouns. Yeah. And then just saying down. Just ripping some nouns. And then on the other hand, you got Schneider who is like ripping movie quotes, just like riffing with the crowd, like talking about how people look tan and all this. Like he's like having real like, he's like a stand-up comedian, like working the crowd kind of deal. Schneider definitely thinks he could do stand-up comedy.

He 100% does. That's so on the nose. He probably wrote a script. Yeah, yeah, he's got it. But anyways, so there, to add context of the Seahawks to pressers this week where there was an athletic article from last week, a report that said Russell Wilson essentially went to this, uh, Seahawks ownership and tried to get John Snyder and Pete Carroll fired. Same.

Because he wanted to get Sean Payton in, blah, blah, blah, like long story short, they called his whatever, his attempt at a coup, yeah. Yeah, he called his coup. Basically traded him away and went with Pete and John. Russell Wilson's January 6th. So they were given, both of them were given the chance to kind of react to this athletic story and both without saying anything explicitly corroborated the story, essentially.

Carol said, I'm always going to hang with them. never going to leave them. This is ex-players. And generally, he says, I'm going to be there at the end. All the good stuff, all the bad stuff. It doesn't matter who the guy is. He went on, like again, like I said, he went on for like a whole paragraph saying exactly the same thing. And then Schneider essentially said this is water under the bridge. So without saying anything, they both confirmed that Russell Wilson tried to get them fired. But like you could see the glint in their eye.

You could see that like the shit eating grin on both of their faces are essentially like. Maybe we can get like the wire drop in here. where Omar, he's just come at the king, you best not miss. Like, both of them were essentially saying this. You come at the king, you best not miss. They were really enjoying themselves. Like, obviously, look at what happened this last year, like Russell Wilson's dunk. The Broncos gave them the fifth overall pick.

Dude, Geno's good. Like, put the context of this, these last few months, this last year of Russ plus the Seahawks brass in the context of like a romantic breakup. Imagine if you broke up with your ex. And then they went somewhere way better than you. but it turns out it was way worse than you, and they looked horrible without you. And then there's progressively more and more stories

about how bad they were to you in the relationship that you were trying to salvage. The whole time you just been on Instagram being like, I'm the best, on the best. And that guy that they're with now also, now owes you the fifth overall pick in the draft. Yes. The guy that they're way also,

I don't have George Payton, the Broncos general manager on here, but there's a good anger translator where, like, they kept asking George Payton like, hey, you know, you brought in this LSU Strength and Condition Coach that Sean knows from New Orleans, tell us about him.

And he'd be like, I haven't really met him. I don't really know him too well, but Sean really likes him and whatever. And then they were like, oh, Vance Joseph, like, new DC. Like, what excites you about him? He was like, well, you know, we've played Vance before, played against him. He's a great coach. I don't know him too well. Like, obviously Sean's worked with him previously in which the anger translation is,

I don't run this team anymore. George, brother. When you were running the team, you're already hacking and traded for Russell Wilson. That ain't on us, brother. That's not my fault. You're not running this team anymore. Yeah. I don't know China's shit.

Yeah, exactly. This is on you, Jesus. The John Schneider, like, the thing about that, he's asked, like, you know, basically, hey, what about that article where, like, he tried to get you fired? He's like, oh, water under the bridge, which is his way of saying,

yeah, he tried to get me fired, but he sucks now. How'd that end up for him, huh? Like, I would love to have actually heard, like, some, like, what he really was thinking at that moment. Somebody else asked him, actually, was Matthew Berry, asked him, if he had,

if he was surprised with how Wilson played last year. and Schneider did like this long nouns pause where he like looked up in the sky and like thought about it and then finally came back and he was like, yes. That's it.

And then he just like went to the next question. It's like when you, you ever have like a bite of like really good food and you like just savor it? He's just like, was I surprised? Oh my God. Water under the bridge is a great line because I only ever use the phrase

water under the bridge when I care tremendously about something. I'm definitely still really mad about this. When I don't care about something, I go, oh no, I don't care about it. Don't remember about it. When I say water under the bridge, I, it's so dialed in on what I'm talking about.

And that's absolutely the case with John Schneider. Oh, yeah. Okay, can I do my next one? Yes. Yes, okay, because I want to do Ron Carthin, who's the new general manager of the Tennessee Titans. I've got a two-for for him. Oh, I like this one already.

Serious and interesting. The other very fun. Carthin was asked about Ryan Tainhill's future with the team. Daniel is under contract, as Ron Cartham will later specify. But he's eminently movable in terms of like dead cap and maybe trade talk, whatever. And so Cartham went asked by the future for Tanhill said he's under contract.

I'm excited about moving forward with him. I know everybody wants to make a big deal of the quarterback position and whether he will or won't be here. But you guys just have to accept the fact that Ryan is under contract for us. Right now he is a titan and he will be a titan. We just have to accept it. Anger translation. I don't get to make a quarterback call yet.

Anger Translation, I just got here. They're not going to let me move Ryan right now. Even translation where he's like, you guys have to accept. Translation, I have to accept. Exactly. Anger translation, let me get the plane off the ground team. And that relates to our second one, which is he was asked about his philosophy for team building and gave a tremendous social media quote.

Oh, yeah. It's cute and sexy to play Golden State Warriors football in September and October when the weather is good. But the teams that play in January play tough defense and run the football. ball. And this came under a lot of fire because it's never great when you're trying to make a championship metaphor and the team you use as the contrapositive as like the example of what not to do has won many NBA championship recently. It's like the highest pass rate of the NFL. Yeah. Now he makes the weather point, right, which is what you're just like trying to say there. And like obviously, it's not like when the finals come, Golden State starts playing in the snow, right? Like that's kind of

the point trying to make. I get it. Yeah. But again, they've won a lot of championships. It's not great. anger translation of this, though, is, yeah, I'm working for the team coach by Mike Brable. Buddy, I just work here. The translation is like, listen, they interviewed a few general manager candidates. I got the job.

You want to know why? Because when Mike said, defense and run the football, I said, defense running the football. Ron's pressure was very like, fellas, I'm the general manager of the Titans.

Like, I got the job. I did what I wanted to do. It's going to take a little time for we move this thing. But everybody's like, oh my gosh, Ron Carthin, He has no, no, like, he doesn't have a modern understanding of football.

No, no, no, no. He's working with Mike Brable. You've got to present a united front on the Mike Brable theory. Yeah. The quarterback stuff is, it's so true about the audience of one. Yeah.

Which, like, the other one, dude, the Ravens were negotiating with Lamar Jackson. And that one's more than an audience one. They're probably trying to damage one, but it's also an audience one. And I, dude, Eric DeCosta and John Harbor both. It was like, Eric DeCosta is the GM of the Ravens.

And obviously so, like, the whole problem is, like, Lamar's in a contract year. And Lamar's representing himself. without an agent. And so one of the reasons an agent does this for you is like they're good. And the other reason is so you don't have to hear all the bad things they say about you. They're a barrier to the negative vibes that come with the contract negotiation. Yeah. And so Eric DeCossa was asked about this dynamic and negotiating with your quarterback without an agent. And Eric DeCosta said, I think when you deal with an agent, sometimes you're able to speak very freely, position yourself a certain way.

You have different arguments that you can use that maybe you wouldn't say to a player. So I think that's part of it. Translation, just hire an agent. LeBar, please be regular. Please be regular ones. Please, please, please, please. I'm sorry that I can't tell you to your face that you have an immune system of a five-year-old

and that you wanted to poop on a Monday night football. It's like, yeah, I got a little emotional. Sorry that we don't need to work on your gut health this off season, get the biome going better in there. Like, he gets sick more than literally more than my three-year-old son. The anger translation of, it's easier to tell Lamar's agent that he's not worth five years, 270 million guaranteed, than it is to tell Lamar that he's not worth five year, 27 million guaranteed?

Can you doing the five year guaranteed, like for 200, however million dollars? You have probably a PowerPoint of, hey, every quarterback of Lamar's height and weight, because he's so thin, has not really held up long term in the NFL. You can't show Lamar that PowerPoint. Be like, you frail little, you don't know what I mean? You can't tell him that. I'm actually curious, like, just talking about this and thinking, like, I've never been in a contract negotiation with NFL.

players versus the team? Like, how does that go? Like, does a, does a GM literally tell the agent, like, well, your player sucks at this, that, and the other thing? Or like, is that even part of the discussion? I'm actually curious about it. Based on precedence. Like, Joshin actually literally has implied, like, the Sequin, just for example, it's entirely about Nick Chub. Like, Nick Chubb, Simon the Browns, and it basically was more or less three years for $36,000, they guaranteed like half of it, a touch under half. And so that's, like, basically what Seekone's been offered. It's 12 million a year for three years, and you'll be on the team for definitely two.

And if you don't like it, guess what? We're going to tag you. And then they, but then when they, they probably just like squabble about guaranteed money and things like that. Yeah, he's like, well, I'm an all pro. And they're like, well, Nick Chub plays more than you. But you can reverse the arguments.

Right. The frailty thing and like those stuff that you bring up to an agent, like it's, it's all just like like negotiating power and leverage, right? Like right now you and I were to debate like where we should go to dinner. Right? Like fundamentally, it's like, okay, a place that's close that we want to eat at, whatever. But if you said to me,

remember the last time you picked the place to go to dinner, I got sick, right? Then, like, that doesn't mean I'm going to pick a place that makes you sick. It's not actually, but it does make it harder for me to be like, no, let's make my choice, right? It's just like it's like negotiating stuff. It's like, hey, like, we're really worried about Lamar's frailty. And he missed a lot of games lately. Yeah, exactly. It's not that like that makes the agent ask for less because like, oh, he's frail.

I'll ask for 95% instead of 100% of what I was going to. It's to say that like those cumulative moves make it harder for the agent. I demand this. Yeah. put them in enough awkward spots. Yeah, that makes sense. And I'm sure that they're using some, you know, arguments and excuses where like, look, we got to, like you were saying with Sagan and Daniel Jones, we got to build around you.

We got to have like more people. We got to use that money on the cap on receivers and on running backs and whatever, offensive linemen. And so, you know. Meanwhile, Lamar's agent and Daniel Jones agent alike can walk into those negotiating rooms with like just giant data viz of the wide receivers that have taken snaps for those respective teams. Right. Like big red arrows being like, who are these guys? people. Can you pull these guys out of

lineups? Do you the general manager who brought Isaiah Hodgson here? Do you know what he looks like? Do you know who these guys are? That's how it goes. Speaking of translations as well, the other funny one was the Packers and Aaron Rod. Like, so Brian Goudicunt, the GM for the Packers. A quote from an old Goody this

week. Aaron Rogers is a great player, but until we have those conversations, I think all options are on the table. We need to have those conversations. We need to have those conversations. is a bar. Just fucking talk to us, man.

Translation. We need to have those covers. Yo, can you come over and talk? This guy literally locked himself at the dark. This isn't even anger translation. It's tone translation. Words is still the same. We need to have those conversations.

Tone is, Eric. Call us, please. We need to figure out what to do with our team. The translation is, get a load of this fucking guy. Yeah. Also, by the way, he got to done with his darkness retreat.

He came out of it. He did a teaser for the podcast that was supposedly going to like announce what he was doing. And then in the podcast, he didn't announce what he's going to do. Run that back for me. Aaron Rogers is prolonging the period of time in which he's the center of attention. Aaron Rogers has misrepresented what he's going to say and do so as to continue to dominate the news cycle.

I'm confused. Anger translation, Ben's not surprised. I continue to just say that everything under Aaron Rogers does makes more sense. he's Jamie Lannister in the first scene he talks to his dad on Thrones Tywin Lannister looks at Jamie's like you care too much what people think of you and Jamie's like I don't care what anyone thinks to you

and Tywin's like yeah that's what you want people to think of you yep and it's like that's literally everything he does except for then he goes on McAfee every week and he does right goes in McAfee says inflammatory things and then says well I'm being canceled yeah you tried to you invited this chief we all know what you're doing you're not quick anyway so he's not going to play for the

Packers anymore, right? Is that the consensus? Here's the deal. It's like, it's up to him. Like he doesn't technically have no trade clause, but he doesn't want to get traded. He can't get traded. The problem is they have to trade one of them. Right. Or if they keep keeping both is actually like the worst option for them in a way. And we can get in all the contract stuff you want, but basically where this is at. See, if they trade him, it makes by far the most sense to me.

But weirdly, in theory, the best thing that they could do is Rogers plays one more year and then you give it to Jordan Love. The problem is that's actually the worst thing because basically it's like 70. million dollars of dead cap just to pay Jordan love 20 million dollars his first year as a starter to get 20 and then the worst things if he's bad that sucks if he's good now you have to pay him like 40 or 50 million a year on top of the seven million rogers it's a disaster there's no way they can bring rogers back and take themselves seriously like if i like just like if if if gudy ends up keeping rogers like i've no idea how you like look your coaching staff in the eye and your other players in the eye and go again we're really serious about winning right like it's just it you can't take this guy

seriously. It's a burned bridge. I'd be surprised he's a Packer again. For all the difference, the two, Daniel Jones, Sequin, Shane, like there's contract extensions out. It's clear that they're talking to those agents for Sequin and Daniel Jones a lot with the Giants. Packers are publicly like, hey, guy who's been in the dark for four days.

Give us a ring. Should we talk about the Panthers? First of all, news came out today that they're thinking of resigning Sam Darnold, which is just a joy. I'm totally fine with that. Yeah. I just want Sam Darnold another I'm sorry, are you referring to league leader and expected points per pass of

quarterbacks at least 100 attempts last season, Sam Donald? Are you talking about Sam Donald? Younger than like two of the players in this year's draft Sam Darnold? Yeah. Younger than Stetson Bennett? He's 24, 25, right? He's 25. Stetson Bennett won the college football championship.

He was 26. Anyway, that's a red herring because they're still going to draft a guy, right? Yeah. We think. And Carolina Panthers head coach Frank Reich was at the stadium or at the podium today. And give me the gist of what he said. Basically, like, he was asked like, oh, Dave Teper, owner of the team. He was like in on the meetings you had with all the quarterbacks.

That's cool. Like, why is it important to have David Teper in the room? What? Yeah. Who asked that? Don't let's not get into that. But someone asked that. And Frank Reich was like, so, you know, the reporter's like, why is important to have owner, David Teper in the room?

And Frank Reich was like, you know, he has a unique perspective. Sure. Sure, sure. The perspective here being, he signs my checks. He owns the fucking team. Yeah, like he's the one calling the shots. Like, we're sick of, like, fucking around the last couple years. Like, this is his show now.

Frank Craig is his job literally is just develop a quarterback, you son of a bitch. When this is an award-winning NFL draft podcast and they ask us about the one episode that we had Bill on for, and they're like, why was Bill in on that episode? Because he had his unique perspective. Because Bill asked me to be on the show, I can't tell him no. Yeah. That's a great. That's a, that's a class.

classic combine like, hey, what's Dave Teper bringing? You know money, man. Come on. That kills me. The other one that was like brutal. Dude, John Lynch is the gym of the 49ers. Someone asked him a legit question, but basically, you know, because obviously they ran out of quarterbacks in the championship game. And so now they're rightfully going to do this rule where they're like,

hey, what if teams had three quarterbacks in case the first two got hurt? So they were like, John, you know, how would you feel about that? Obviously, would have helped your team with, the whole losing thing. That was the question? No. That's a paraphrase. It's a translation of the question.

And John Lynch was like, yeah, it's a good idea. And quote, he's like, but it's very few and far between those incidents happen. And he had this looking, you know, when you stub your toe in a coffee table? That was literally the face he made. And the translation was him having to go back in his mind of the game.

It was like, man, on the fucking, I can't believe that bullshit happened to me. And that's my number one thing about the three quarterback rule. is like, if you want to implement it fine, are we going to argue that at best, the 65th best quarterback in the NFL

because you have all the 32 starters and all the 32 backups, at best, the 65th best quarterback makes a meaningful difference during the game? I actually will for two reasons. One, we live in a world where literally this season, Baker Mayfield landed in Los Angeles

to sign with the Rams on Tuesday night and won a Thursday football game. Okay. But the other ones, like, I guess the other thing is, we're not talking about Baker Mayfields. We're talking about Josh Johnson's. But why can,

The quarterback's not play. It's crazy to have a rule. It's like if baseball was like actually after the 10th inning, position players have to pitch. It's like, but we have a pitcher. He sucks. But like, can he play? Nope. He's here on the sideline.

He's like, Joe Flacco, Chet's having a hoodie. Can't put pads on. I guess it's like, it's weird that there's a rule that the quarterback on the sideline can't play. No, I agree with that. Like, activate the third guy. I just think like when all of the Niners players are walking around like, man, if the three quarterback rule was implemented, we would have been fine.

It's like, Chief. You would have been your third quarterback. It would have been your QB5 on the season. you would not have been okay. The Niners are obviously coping because they spent the entire two weeks between the game and the Super Bowl just being like,

Eagles suck. Big cope. Very tough for our boys. Speaking much, I have an Eagles one. I really enjoyed this. There's been so much attention on the Tush push.

The Eagles technique of quarterback sneaking. Is that work on it? Yeah, the Tush push. Yeah, that's out of context this while. I didn't know that was. It's Tush push and also it's the Kubee cheek. Yeah. So they get two guys behind the quarterback,

one on each cheek. And then they get a third guy down the midline and then when they snap the ball run the QB sneak instead of like the line trying to like really displace the defensive tackles

they just kind of like dive and rugby scrum it they just like make it a mess and then they have the dudes behind Jalen Hertz just shove Jalen Hertz into the pile and they almost invariably pick up the yard that they need

this is is analogous to a rugby scrum and there is frustration in the league that the Eagles are doing this and doing this well and that they think it's a play that shouldn't be outlaw D Blan Dibland you know had an elite quote

during Super Bowl week, where he was asked, like, hey, like, you know, the competition committee is going to meet about this play, like, what do you think? And Dean was like, well, it's not a skill-based play, and that's not really what we're about here in the league. We want to see skilled plays. You want to see, like, fancy plays. Shut up, Dean playing, you know? Let's stuff Dean in the locker.

Like, every time Dean sees, like, inside zone, he's like, oh, gosh, this is ruining the league. Like, oh, such a passing pill to take. But anyway, both... Shut up, Dean Plank, Dino. So, Howie Roseman and

Nick Zirani were both asked about this. Howie was asked about the competition committee meeting about the play and he said, quote, all I know is everything we're doing is legal and it works. Which just we can stop right there and just like Al Capone says. Right, exactly. We can stop right there and be like anger translator. I'm not a criminal, right?

He turned to the PR staff because he continued just because people do something that's really good. Doesn't mean you should be outlawed. He then looked at his PR guy and he was like, we're good. Right. He's not going to get pissed at that and they're like, yeah, yeah, you're fine. So Howie's a little bit like, you know, oh, I'm on the razor's edge, man. And then Nick Siriani said, I think some defensive coaches are bringing that up right there.

No, we'll play with whatever rules we have. There's obviously a very successful play for us, very successful play, but it was the only thing we're doing off it, yada, yada, yada. I don't get a vote. Don't ask me. I thought it was a lot of hardworking. It's all defending and defending it.

The anger translator is, kind of need the bleep button for my mom. You know the Megamine, no-b-b-meam. Right? You know, this Megamine's leaning forward. No, I don't. Oh, it's a great one. So it's basically like Megamine just like leaning way into the camera.

And the tone of it's like, oh, no, that sucks. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Howie and Nickerbizca is like, oh, no NFC championship game. No Super Bowl birth? Oh, I'm bad at QBCs. Oh, I'm so sorry. Oh, so sad. They're very taunting with it.

They're like, I'm sorry, we thought to shove the quarterback. Oh, so. It's too busy winning. Right. Oh, defensive coaches. Bad at QB sneaks? Oh, so sorry. Very sad.

And I appreciate it. They were, Seriani and Rosen were feeling themselves on their podium. They're very proud of themselves. I also love that it took like the most analytics oriented team in the entire NFL to like fund this department be like, all right, where's the hidden edge? And they're like, just shove them in the ass. This is like, push him. Belichick is the guy who's done this over the last two, like 20 years or whatever. Like he finds some loophole in the rule book and exploits it.

And then they change the rules. And these guys are like, hey, what the hell, man? Like we really had a creative idea here and we did it well. The tush push thing, the name and everything, what you were talking about, reminded me of this S&L skit with Kate McKinnon and Ryan Gosling where she, she's like, you know, this like, like, like, hick lady that had gotten abducted by aliens, but like is really forthcoming and loves talking about it. She's like smoking a sick and she's talking about how the aliens were trying to figure out what her butt was. So these guys don't have butts, regular butts. I don't think they've ever seen a crack before. So my theory is, right, they thought I had like broken into two pieces and they were trying to put Humpty Dumpty back together again. All right, next one here. This isn't necessarily like a huge story, but there's been a little bit of talk about how Sam Howell was sort of like named the starting quarterback.

I wanted to give like a huge story. Come on and beef it up for you. I appreciate that. I got you, man. Appreciate that. Yeah, I think the media and we're probably a part of that has maybe over exaggerated the idea that Sam Howell is going to be the starter for the commanders next year. There's like reports that the team was telling prospective OCs and coaches or whatever that he was. going to be the expected start.

And both Martin Mayhew and Ron Rivera walked that back today. Basically said, well, he's going to be, like, he's going to have an opportunity

to play. So basically, as Seleck would say, that's basically they're like, oh, we noticed that you are right about something and we're mad about it. Yeah.

They were basically like, I did not say he was starter. Don't tell the newspaper that I said he was a starter. But also, the best part is how, like, very clearly they're like,

all right, we have to use the word starter in the sentence. that already leaked. We already said, oh, he might be the starter. But we have to make it clear that he's not the starter. And so you have Ron, you have Martin Mayhew. Sam will have every opportunity to win that starting job. Rivera said on Tuesday, the while Howell's not been named starter, he'll have a great opportunity to be the guy to start the season. So they're like, all right, how can we convince them that we did say he was the starter, but we didn't mean he was the starter?

I know, opportunity to be the starter. Yeah, man. That's how training camp works. first of the Sam Howell thing is it's I feel like it's the equivalent quarterback equivalent of like you hook up with someone and then like you get breakfast and it was just like you met him on hinge it was like they were just going no it's like they were in your phone it wasn't

Sam Howl on your phone just Sam Hinge was their last name in your phone and then like you check it with your friend a week later and like they're dating now and you're like dude that was like a fifth round quarterback from Saturday? That's how I feel about the Bucks and Kyle Trask. They won a Super Bowl. And Bruce Ariens was like, heat check. Kyle Trask in the second round, baby.

And then suddenly you're going to like Texans and Davis Mills, dude, what? The Bruce, no, the Bruce Ariens box, they like, drafted Kyle Trask and then Bruce like left. He's like senior, whatever, but like not the head coach anymore. And Jason Light now has to be there and just be like, yeah, we love him. We have a lot of faith in Kyle Trask to be the starter. We love it. It's great. Also, haven't they been playing Gabbar over him like this whole time, too?

I have no idea. The whole thing with Washington did the same thing, too. They could have played him a lot earlier. He gave him one start. He threw like a nice deep ball on the sideline. And the entirety of the Washington commander's beat and fan base was like, hell yes. So anyways,

we're talking about Sam Howell and Kyle Trask at the Combine. Nothing has happened yet. Did I make that clear yet? Like literally nothing has happened. Except for all the GMs. That's what the top. The new. league year will start and the bucks will be in on

Jimmy Garoppelow and Washington will be in on Derek Carr and so on and so forth. This is the period for these quarterbacks. Speaking of other things that did happen though, so talking about the Washington press conference. So there was a report this week in ESPN from Don Vanada Jr. who just like three times a year, it's just like, look what these people are up to. Yeah, I love this. It's like Don, he's like the woge of like billionaire financial crimes.

Yeah. And so he just has this massive ESPN report about God, it's so hard to even explain concisely anymore what Dan Snyder is just generally being accused of doing. No, it's just like, bad. Shenanagan's fatigue with this team.

Like every, like, it's like once a week, we find out some crazy thing. Shenanagan's fatigue is a great band name, dude. And it's like shenanigans. And now,

shenanigans fatigue. What's the latest like dirtbag thing that he's done? Wait, hold on. Someone to write down shenan against fatigue. Yeah, we got a TM,

trademark that. Emails at ringer fantasy football at e-mail.com. If there are other things we say on this show, that would be a good band name. Ring or NFL draft, accidental band. names? Yeah, that's a good.

That's a good concept. I'm just going to read a sentence from this ESPN story. A source talking to Don Van Nuta Jr. Three billionaires, not a few whistleblowers, alleged to the NFL arbitrator that their partner, Dent's letter, had possibly committed bank fraud. This is jail time type of fraud, end quote. So it's a big deal. Right.

And it's just the whole thing. And again, like, part of this story, Dan Snyder charged the team $4.5 million to paint the logo on his plane. Like, you know what I mean? It's like you got to put the logo on something. It's like, you know, legally. He charged the team. This is like straight out of rest of development. Dude, yeah, yeah, actually. It's like when jazz is a...

A rock in a hard place. Like, solid as a rock. This just reminds me of everything that George Sr. would do. Do you think Dan has homes in certain places? I don't want to say that. That's possible. Slight treason or what is it? Light treason.

Might have committed light treason. That explains why FedEx. Field they've never renovated eggs. There's like money in the rafters, man. It's like the Bannisandis. It's funny. Just in the leaking press box roof in FedEx field. There's just hundreds.

There's just duffles in the drop ceiling. Did RG3 tours ACL because there's just like wads of cash that they just didn't turf. The field quality is so bad. Oh my God. Anyway, so I asked Ron Rivera about that. And dude, he was super mad, I think. Well, yeah. I asked him, what did you think of the report this morning?

He said, you'll have to be more specific. Which, one, could be interpreted as. there are so many reports about this team. Shenan fatigue. But then I said, you know, the Dan Snyder report from ESPN, to which Ron Rivera said, I've been in meetings all morning. I haven't seen it.

Which I think I could translate as I've seen it. Yeah. There's no greater line than I haven't seen it. Just like you wake up in the morning and you check your phone and you see like, why don't have 400 tests? Dan Snyder has and you immediately put your phone down, put a blindfold on, get a staph assistant to lead you places, cover your ears with earplugs.

And then you right, exactly. I'm like, that's why me, the head coach of the Washington commanders, has not yet seen this report. Dude, first of all, it's just the meme at this point for them of the, oh, shit, here we go again. But also, I will say, it is in theory possible that, I mean, Ron Rivera also has a structure where he didn't know they could be eliminated from the playoffs. So perhaps, you know what?

Ignorance is blessed, you guys. So, I mean, if he's maybe just living that philosophy, it would explain some things. You got to start doing that after bad games. And coach, what did you think of that fourth quarter collapse? I haven't seen it. Would you think you're getting eliminated for the playoffs? I was in meeting because I'm wording.

Oh, I didn't even mention. I got to ask Josh McDaniels. I asked him what he thinks of darkness retreats for the Raiders. Yeah, he just like laughed. But I actually thought like the reason I did that though was one of this is funny. But like you can't ask a player a coach about a player under contract with another team. Right. So it was like the actual only way you could ask about Rogers without him deflecting.

But also, by the way, speaking of John Schneider from before. I appreciate the fact that Schneider, when he's asked a question that, like, he's obviously not going to answer. He just says, like, yeah, I'm not going to tell you that, dude. Yeah. Eric DeCosta, talk about throwing nouns around. Eric DeCosta was asked a question about Lamar, and the asker framed it as, like, I know you don't like to comment on this. So let me ask you about that. Like, I don't know you're coming on contracts of civics.

Let me ask you about this process. And DeCosta spent the first 15 seconds being like, I really appreciate that you know I don't want to comment on that. I don't want to comment on that. And if anybody asks me about the bar congenres, I will not be saying that. And as I said previously, I won't be commenting on it. Just chucking nouns.

Hey, I don't comment on. What part of my shirt? I don't want to talk about that. Do you not understand? There's one more very important translation, which is not actually from the combine, but we're in Indianapolis, so it's the same thing.

It's the cult's owner, Jim Ursay talking, this is like a week ago, talking about the quarterbacks and trading up in general. And it was just Jim Ursay, who, I mean, if you don't Jim Ursay, I will just be kind and say the man isn't erratic. guy. I mean, this is the one we were talking about that there was... Unpredictable.

One person said that there was a... One of the reasons Josh McDaniels didn't take the cult's job was Jim Merce. was in Josh McDaniel's bathroom in his house for an hour. And Josh McDaniel's wife was like, we're not going to have to work for this man. Sorry. There's so many, like, whether it's plausible reasons he was in there that were not related to anything nefarious. It's all funny. Like, however it, however you do it, like, it's hilarious. He was in there for one hour.

So, but he was talking about a question. quarterbacks. And he was asked if they'd trade up and go get a quarterback. And Jim Mersay kind of laughed. And he's basically, the Alabama guy doesn't look bad. Yeah. My translation,

Alabama guy doesn't look back. Yeah. Somebody like take away his Twitter account. Alternative translation. Other 31 teams, if you try to figure out what I'm doing, I'm going to make it really difficult by being extremely transparent. Right.

Usually it's like, it's like right. Is he? Right. They're playing in shadow. Joe Mercy is being like, this is my board. All right,

this is how I have them ranked. Do you believe you? It's just like that uncle, it just says exactly what it's on his mind about in the contact. It's like, you know, pirates of the Caribbean

when he's like, why are you here? And he's like, well, I'm here to steal this ship. Raise the army of the dead. He's like, and they're like,

what? He's like, yeah. Somebody wouldn't believe the truth even if I told it to you. All right. There are our anger translators, shout out key and peel.

We also have to touch on. So the NFLPA released this Oh my God. Team report cards poll. This is amazing. DK. Can you take us through this? So yeah, the NFLPA over the last two years, I believe,

has polled 1,300 players on the state of like franchises, basically talking, asking him questions about the treatment of families, food, nutrition, weight room, strength coaches, training room, training staff, locker room, like all the quality of this and then the team travel. And, you know, as one would expect the Washington commanders, were dead last. Oh my God. And almost everything.

Chalk. Minus 500 of the book. Yeah, this is like the least surprising news of the week. But there was one runner was said at 31. It's literally like, what were the odds? It was like when Connor McGregor was facing Floyd Mayweather. That was like, that's the odds, basically. I don't know about that, but the Jags also had the funniest one, which was, they ranked 28th overall, which I don't know anything about that really.

but like the one kicker of it was according to players three to four weeks, almost a month of the season last year, there was a rat infestation in the locker room in the laundries, in the laundry hamperors. There were rats. I would pay millions. I would pay millions of dollars. Can they not get a cat to jack?

The whole thing. Seriously. I would pay anything to get video of Doug Peterson in the first team meeting after the rats and was like, guys, season's all about overcoming adversity. It was all about coming together as a group. It's all about forming a brotherhood. So, we got rats in a lot.

This is like some like new age, like, hokey, a way of, like, inspiring. Just like trying to make it a thing where, like, guys, like, you just have to overcome these things in the season. This sort of stuff happens. Yeah. Plains break down. There's weather. Vermin. You know how these things go.

Do you think they were there before Urban Meyer? No. Oh, shit. Well, it was a two-year thing. I think it, I think it happened. last season. That's a good tweet. Rats in the Jaguars locker room for the second year in a row. That's the tweet. That talks over to think. Oh my God. That's wild. Just get a cat. Oh my God. Two jargons and a lie?

Yeah. Yes. Okay. America's favorite segment. Two jargons and a lie. I have done the jargons and a lie for you to this week. You've not seen this. So for those who don't know, the NFL Combines in Indianapolis every year, hopefully it stays here forever. And Indianapolis is, we love it here because the convention center is massive. It's like, It must be five by five city blocks. This is a massive building. The entire downtown is like 20-minute walkable. It's hard to describe how big this building is. It is.

It's true. Well, it's so big that even in the NFL Combine, there are other conventions going on right now in this thing. It's one of my favorite things. There was a pig farmer's convention here a couple years ago. I found an hour, man. Tell me about it, fellas. Tell me about the hogs.

We were joking last year. I don't you think this is the biggest convention at the time. So we were joking last year that we wanted to cover one of the other conventions. So anyway, I have two dragons that lie. Other conventions going on in this building right now. Oh, yeah. You took a lap. You run some of them down?

Other conventions going on this week. So we've got two conventions happening in this Combine Convention Center in one lie. The IDDS, the dental networking seminar. Is IDDS supposed to stand for dental networking seminar? Because they suck at this. I guess they'd be international. Right. Yeah.

Okay. Yeah. The Indiana Safety and Health Conference and Expo. Okay. The International Franchise Association. Okay, I feel like I've definitely, I feel like I've definitely seen Indiana Safety and Health Conference and Expo. Which, you know, now that I'm saying it out loud, maybe I haven't. But I feel like I didn't.

I saw some like some fire like those high-res like vests and stuff. People are walking around, you know, like safety and health right there. There's a lot of like dentists ain't wearing that jaw. Yeah, yeah. Okay. International Franchise Association. That's not real. So I'm trying to figure out what that would do.

An association of franchises. That's ludicrous. That's absurd. So you're like, they help people run their franchises? No. It can't be done. At least the dentist.

You made that up. Though dental networking seminar is like two on the nose. That's got like so much jargon to it in terms of like actual like conference jargon that it's far too like. Can I throw a wrench at you guys? Yeah. These are all real things. One of them just got pulled from a different place. One of them just is happening vase.

Oh, I was thinking you made one of them up. Oh, wow. The dental. Where would the dentists rather go? Vegas or Indianapolis? I'm possible the Indiana safety seminar is real then because if that one's in Vegas, I'll be stunned. Okay, we got it down 50-50. I think international franchise association cannot possibly be real.

It is real. It is real. That's the one. It's in Las Vegas. That one's in real. But it's franchise restaurant owners. Like McDonald's and shit. Okay.

So then they just like hang out? That's in Vegas. Yeah, yeah. So are they like trying to be like, do you want to? by another franchise? I think they help each other run the McDonald's. Here's some tools in which you can run your franchise.

Okay. That's all we got. Thank you, Danny Kelly. Thank you, Ben Solac. Thank you to Kai for producing this episode. Thank you, Craig, for being here in spirit. Thank you, Austin for going, I don't even want to describe how above and beyond. Check Ben's Twitter to find out our camera set up. It's professional.

My God. Thank you to all of the coaches for the coach speak. Thank you for Jim Mersay, for just speaking. Thank you, Lord. Thank you, Backstreet Boys. Oh, man. I want it.

Yeah? Have you ever thought about the lyrics to that song? Is that Backstreet Boys or? Yeah, no, that's it. No, please. Thank goodness. First of all, have you ever thought about the lyrics to that song? They make no sense.

Tell me why he's. I never want to hear you say, I wanted that. What? What? It doesn't mean anything. Be more flexible, is the message. just just you know be open to new ideas well never is inherently an inflexible

term tell me why I never want they have been canceled or something like Backstreet yeah I think no they do this is the end that was like the best ending to movie

that personally for me was the best thing that's ever happened in my life was the ending to that movie what's the best thing that's ever happened to me it's true it's true I do remember the first time I saw that and I was like losing my shit

That song will always make me think of the Brooklyn Nine Nine Seen. Where Andy Sandberg, have you seen this, Danny? I actually not tell him. The usual suspects. Tell me why. Yeah, so Andy Sandberg is a police officer. He's with a woman who's looking at a lineup of five guys. And she's trying to identify who the criminal was.

And she can only remember him by him singing. She heard him singing. And so Andy Sandberg, and he, I want it that way. So Andy Samberg makes the first guy sing the first line of I want it that way. And then the second guy sings it. And by the end, Andy Sandberg is like swept up in the music and like has them all harmonizing. And then it cuts.

to the one being like number five. He's going to kill my brother. And then it just cold opens in the intro. It's so good. So yeah, shout to Brooklyn 99. Oh, my God. All right. All right.

Let's get out. We're going to go to the dental networking seminar. All right. Goodbye, everyone.