The Ringer NFL Show - 33 Preseason Questions — Steelers B’s Buzz, Gronks at Every Position, and Green Bay’s Bargain (Ep. 127)

Episode Date: August 18, 2017

The Ringer’s Robert Mays and Kevin Clark continue their 33 Preseason Questions leading up to opening day, including why Big Ben could be in for his biggest season (3:30), and how a healthy Honey Badger will have the Cards flying high (7:25). Then, the guys fantasize about a trade that could make the Jaguars a playoff contender (11:30), having a beer with Blake Bortles (20:50), and which player could play the most positions in an NFL game (23:50). Finally, Robert and Kevin discuss how the Falcons and Packers stole some key pieces for their playoff chases (35:20). Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

It's the ringer NFL show brought to you by DirecTV. Robert Mason, Kevin Clark, here with you. And we've got some great news, NFL fans. Direct TV has expanded NFL Sunday ticket this season. Yes. So if you live in an apartment or you're an enrolled college student, now you can get NFL Sunday ticket without a satellite. Kevin, that's me.

That's the life that I live. I can't get a satellite. We're millennials. We can't get anything. This is very important to me. I live in an apartment building where I can only get one terrible version of cable. I need my Sunday ticket so I don't have to watch the bears constantly. Yeah, you would be stuck.

with Mike Glennon for like at least 10 games. Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. I would be, I would get the pleasure of watching Mitch Trubisky for at least half the season. I, if there was no direct TV Sunday ticket, would be stuck with the Rams and the Chargers. An Aaron Donaldless Rams team and a Chargers team that will be half hurt by week four. Sammy Watkins just flailing his hands to indicate he's open. I feel so bad for Sammy Watkins. Where do you think Sammy Watkins is feeling right now? I mean, how do you think he's feeling? He doesn't have to live in Buffalo anymore, but he does have to play with Jared Gough. Well, actually his fortunes are on the upswing because he just found out he doesn't need a satellite dish to watch Sunday ticket.

You know what else? He doesn't need a satellite dish for watching the Red Zone channel. Wow. Which is our favorite thing because it's only the good-Som-Walkins will never be on the Red Zone channel again. But the good teams will be. There will be no jets, no Rams. You don't have to worry about that. It's all touchdowns all the time.

And that's why the Red Zone Channel is important. I don't know where I would be without the Red Zone Channel. You'd be watching a lot of Bears football. Yeah, which is probably what I'm going to do anyway. To see if you're eligible for any of this stuff, go online to NFL Sunday Ticket. TV and use promo code Ringer at checkout to say 15%. Welcome to the Ringer NFL show, part of the Ringer Podcast Network. I'm Robert Mays and sitting across from me at a wooden table in Los Angeles.

It's Kevin Clark. Kevin, how you doing, bud? I'm okay. 5,500 miles in a car just ended 16 teams. I don't know where I am. I think I'm in Los Angeles. I did 11, not as many miles in the car, but my body hurts. I'm very sleepy.

You don't have a driver's license. No, I do have a driver's license. No, I do have a driver's license. Okay. Yeah, I have a driver's license. I just don't like to drive. Okay. So I did a lot of flying trains.

When I didn't have to drive, I didn't drive. Got it. Okay. I drove everywhere. I don't have a car. As of three days ago, I am now a person who's taking a nap at a rest stop. See, that's a move I do all the time when I'm driving. I get very sleepy.

I had five hours to go in the drive. I couldn't keep my eyes open. I just took a 20 minute cat nap. I've never done that. I like that's not to even considered. And your health and your well-being means a lot to me. so I'm glad you did that and didn't keep driving. I'm just tired driving.

I have to live with the shame for the rest of my life of being a person who sleeps at a rest stop. I just love sleep. I don't understand why you're so worried about that. I don't know. It's just, it wasn't a move I ever anticipated making. As always, we are sponsored by DirecTV and their awesome NFL Sunday ticket package.

Not sure where we would be without it. This year, DirecTV is offering NFL Sunday ticket to people who cannot get a satellite dish like us. So please go check that out. Preseason week two is underway. We're going to do some more of our 33 questions. Questions 13 of 33 so far. Today we'll be answering four more.

As always, we're brought to you guys on Tuesdays and Fridays until the start of the season. We're going to be running through these questions until we go. Taking some bonus questions sometimes, taking some questions from Twitter. I assume the bonus questions are going to be fewer and further between now. After everyone heard Reino Hanlon's spot on this podcast, it was a little too dark for most listeners. Probably should have come with a warning. It led to me calling Christian Hakenberg, the warrior of NFL quarterbacks. It was a great moment.

Today we have four big questions for you guys to kick around, and we were going to get to those right now. Kevin, we're going to start with this one. Which injured or suspended player from last year are you most excited to see back at full strength? And we can think about this a different way, too. This is kind of who is the real comeback player of the year? Not somebody who, you know, broke a pinky and missed three games and now is somehow eligible for the award. It's like how Chad Pennington just won the award every year for like 10 years. It was just every year.

He was never actually coming back. from anything. He was just coming back from being Chad Pennington every year? I'm surprised I didn't name the award after him. The Chad Pennington come back play every year. I actually need to make sure they didn't, they didn't rename it after him. So there's a lot of ways to look at this because there's a lot of candidates. If Cam Newton has a great year, maybe we

talk about him, just... Yeah, right, he's like, that'd be a comeback season. That'd be a comeback season. Carson Palmer, a comeback season, those sort of guys. But as far as actually coming back from something, that they put them out the entire year last year. I mean, I think it's got to be

Martavis Bryant. Martavis Bryant. So a really good one. It was one of the best young receivers in the NFL in 2015. He is as good a piece of that offense as you can get. I mean, to have a third option like that with the Steelers, we have Levyon Bell who Adam Schaefter reported

will return to camp at some point, which is, I guess, hopeful. You have Antonio Brown and then you have Martavis Bryant behind him. That's a huge, huge upgrade when you consider how thin they were with offensive weapons aside from those two guys last year in Pittsburgh. And so I think he's going to have a massive season as long as he's been, essentially

he can practice again. He's going to be reinstated fully by week one. And then, you know, if he stays in the field 16 games and that offense is healthy the entire time, and that's the number one offense, you know, this side of the Patriots. I agree. And I think they could be the number one offense in the league. I think that sort of firepower. I really do.

And the way I think about deep ball guys like that, and you saw it, especially against the Patriots in the playoffs and even other times last season. That kind of guy unlocks an offense. Like what DeShon Jackson can maybe do for Tampa Bay this year. Having that player that can threaten everything else opens up the entire offense for everyone else.

In 2014, he had a 94-yard reception. 2015 had an 88-yard reception. That's Martavis Bryant. Yeah. And the thing is, those aren't necessarily deep balls. He can take a screen however long he wants. The guy is just absurdly talented. He's not just a speed guy.

He's weirdly flexible for a guy that, you know, height, weight, speed, and he's tall, he's fast, but he's shifting in a way, most guys build like that aren't. I'm excited to watch him play football again. Yep. No, I mean, Todd Haley is one of the best offensive coordinators in the NFL, and there are a few guys that rather see with that many weapons than Todd Haley. I mean, just the run-pass options they use, the flexibility.

I mean, they even use their tight end, Jesse James, a lot of creative ways, and so you start spreading it out. I forgot that Jesse James was a person. He's there. He's there. Latterias Green was supposed to be the tight-in there last year. I mean, that was a thing. Yeah, and he, you know, he was nicked up in training camp and just never got on the same page with anybody there.

And so for me, that offense, you know, again, I've talked about this a million times, but it bears repeating. Last year, the final four quarterbacks left in the NFL during the championship games were the four best quarterbacks of throwing to five receivers when they ran a route. When you can effectively run five patterns on one play, defenses cannot stop that. And if you have five weapons, I mean, that's just. Well, when you three of those guys are Martavis, Brian, Levyon Bell, and Antonio Brown, you're doing pretty well. When you don't have Kobe Hamilton doing it. Is that his name? Yeah, that is it. That is his name. Sammy Coates, Kobe Hamilton, the forgotten men. I just remember it was Hamilton because of like the hour where everyone was making Hamilton jokes.

I was not a part of this. I somehow missed it. Very lucky. I appreciate it. Maybe you didn't get the references, which it makes you even luckier. What's Hamilton? Exactly. So my guy, again, I'm excited to watch Martavis Brian play football. I think I tweeted this maybe a month ago. Tyrone Matthew said something about him feeling better. Tyrone Matthew makes football fun. The league is better when Tyron Matthew is 100% and playing well. I was at Cards Camp this week and he just looked good.

I mean, he looks like the Tyron Matthew that we came to know and love a couple years ago. Coming off that ACL tear last year, sometimes that's a year-long injury. Not everybody can come off right away, be back to 100%, be comfortable. Not everyone's Adrian Peterson missing like a week of practice. Not everyone is Adrian Peterson as Wolverine in the 2012 season. So for me, Matthew coming back really being the most important player on that defense in a lot of ways. I think that that is definitely in the cards. I didn't mean to do that on purpose.

I feel like that defense needs to be great for the Cardinals to be a potential playoff team. It has been very good in recent years. He's the guy that's going to do that for me. The other one I'll throw out there because I'm contractually obligated to is JJ Watson play last year. I very much enjoy the style. of JJ Watt. I cannot wait to see him back on a football field. I hope he's right. We've talked about that before. There's really no way to know with a big guy and a back injury, but if he is close to 100%, that is going to be an enjoyable part of my Sunday. We've talked a lot about that.

And I am less optimistic just because, again, big guy back injury. Not hearing it. It takes a while. We already debated that. I just want to bring attention to the fact that J.J. Watt did not know that his brother, T.J. had a breakout performance until he was in a meeting and got a text from Kendrick Lamar. Did you see this news item? No. Yeah. He was in,

he didn't, the person to update him on this was Kendrick Lamar like texted him and said, your brother's pretty good at football. And that's how he found out. T.J. Watt tries so hard. Real overachiever that T.J. Watt.

I hate this. Robert is referencing something that's going around right now that is going to be my number one pet peeve in 2017, maybe of the decade. The Watt brothers are two of the best athletes in the entire world. The Watt brothers measurement wise are two of the most, impressive athletes you can possibly get. I mean,

there are pretty much objective measurements of explosion that you can find from the combine, and those are two of the best athletes you can get. I mean, T.J. Watt really, I mean, he's not JJ, but he was still... He's pretty damn close. He's pretty damn close as far as the measurements go. And yet, of course, T.J. Watt looks pretty good

in this first preseason game. And everybody on Twitter is like, overachieve? Whoa, this guy. overachieving. We've done this before. I'm sitting here looking at his mock draftable page, 95%tile broad jump, 82nd percent vertical jump. The guy who is third on the comparisons list at 71.8% is Kaleel Mack. Also a try hard, big overachiever that Kaleel Mack. This is ridiculous. If you call over, I've never said this in my life, if you say that T.J. Watt was overachieving

on Twitter, just delete your account right afterwards because it's among the worst takes you can have. Before we move on, I want to remind you that if it's NFL football and it happened, NFL game passes got it. Every throw, every catch, every two-minute drill, every fourth and inches, I can replay the game from every angle with NFL game pass. You want to rewatch Mike Lennon passes. No, I have no interest in doing that, but I do love the game pass. I mean, I've spent a frightening amount of time on game pass in my life. I honestly don't know what I would do without it. And better yet, they've got you covered for this year's action as well.

all of the live out-of-market preseason games, full-game replays, and even condensed games with all the action packed into 45 minutes. 45 minutes in my client. He's not going to be on the field that much, man. I mean, there's going to be a lot of the Bears defense out there for watching those contend versions. Like I said before, if it's NFL football and it happened, NFL game passes got it. Best of all, you can kick off the 2017 NFL season with the free NFL game pass trial. Sign up now at NFL.com slash the ringer.

That's NFL.com slash the ringer. All right, let's move on. Question number 15 or second of this show. What trades would you like to see happen before this season starts? And this is kind of on the heels of the Sammy Watkins deal coming over from Buffalo. Philly made a trade for Ronald Darby. Clearly the bills are... What are the bills doing?

What do you think the bills are doing? They're building a culture. I was just in Buffalo or Rochester. Is that what they told you? They were building a culture? Yeah, they liked me so much. I'm now playing tight end for them. They traded...

No, they were just going to trade you for like a fourth-in-pick tomorrow. They traded Marcel Darius to the ringer. Darius is two in the podcast. on Friday. I'm playing tight end for them. No, I think that there's, there's a couple of things. I think it was an incredibly heated practice when I was there. A lot of coaches screaming at players, oddly. It was a very interesting time for everybody. Yeah. No, so I think that there's a lot of personalities in a locker room and I think that they know, you hear a million stories about coaches having to go into locker rooms and establishing dominance. You know, the famous example is John Harbaugh,

going into a locker room with Ed Reed and Ray Lewis. And someone once told me he was basically in their faces every single day because he had to establish dominance and sort of credibility. And the only way to do that was to take those guys on. And I think that when you start building a culture, you want to get rid of the guys who don't quote unquote buy in. And then you need to start coaching the guys who you think you can coach him up. And I'm not saying that Simon Watkins wasn't buying in or anything,

but I'm saying here's a guy in the last year of his deal. And so you get in a situation where he's going to be, extremely expensive to bring back. He is an incredible receiver, but I think they're just building for the future. I think they are really, I know it sounds like a joke, but I think McDermott and Brendan Bean are trying to build a culture.

And that starts with a bit of a rebuild. For me, it's not as much about building a culture. I understand that that's a goal. It's more about understanding that you need to hit the reset button on your roster. I mean, they need to go a certain direction. They did not pick up his option in May. I mean, he was not a part of the long-term plans.

Well, I mean, that's fair, but to recoup an asset for him, they're trying to kind of restock that war chest because I feel like more teams are doing this, right? I mean, we saw what the Browns did a couple years ago. This isn't to that extent, obviously. But understanding that you're just on a treadmill of mediocrity the way that the bills were and saying, all right, let's go get some picks. Let's try to restock what we have. I get that. Do I think that Sammy Watkins is an immense talent and a guy worth having on your team? Yes. Do I understand some? some of the hesitations about why they didn't want to give him a long-term deal? Yes, he's hurt all the time. And understanding that you only have so much money, that you only have so many ways to make big investments in big swings, that's what this was.

They didn't think he was worth one of those. And if they weren't going to give it to him, why not get a second round pick, try to get another start or everything else? I understand what they're doing. I don't really have a problem with them trading away all their good players because how good were the bills going to be. I mean, yeah, you know, the one thing I'll say is that there are not six playoff caliber teams in the AFC. And I think if you actually went forth this year, you could pull a Miami Dolphins of 2016.

See, I think every team in the AFC South is better than the bills. I agree with that, but you're going to get two easy wins over the Jets. And, you know, I think that I actually don't think the Colts are better than the bills. The bills are three weeks ago. If luck is there, I think the Colts are better than the bills. Yeah, but luck isn't there. I know. And Ryan Kelly's out for the start of the season.

I understand that. And maybe the Colts are a tier lower. The fact that those three teams are, you can list them off. I went to Colts practice last week and Scott Tolzeon was at the podium giving a press conference. That's great. You can, oh, I covered the 07 Dolphins that went one in 15 when I was in college. And I was an intern, whatever. But I remember a reporter making a joke about how you can tell about the quality of a team by who is at the podium.

And I remember backup running back, Jesse, Chapman once was giving a press conference. And I said this team, this was like week two. I was like, this can't be good. All right, let's swing back around to what we're actually trying to answer. And that's, in light of the Sammy Watkins trade, what trades do you want to see before the season? You can think about this one or two ways.

Is this a guy you want to see saved from his current situation? I remember thinking last year, I would love to see Joe Staley traded to a contender, knowing how bad the Niners were going to be. Joe Thomas is the perennial. Let's trade him to somewhere better. Their offense line's too good now. I know. No, I wouldn't say that.

I think the Browns are going to be okay this shit. Yes, the Browns with Deshaun Kaiser. It's exciting times in Cleveland. If I was a Browns fan, I would not be very upset. I think I'd be feeling okay right now. I saw them practice the other day. So you're out? Quarterback play could use a little.

You think every team is terrible, though? I think the Patriots are okay. That's it, though. Every other team is garbage. Yeah, that's correct. Players save from a bad situation is one way to think about this. The other is kind of what happened with the Eagles and Ronald Darby. the trade we just discussed, the secondary one,

the Eagles needed cornerback help desperately. I mean, that is the position where they really were lacking. It could bring that whole defense together, having someone in there that can play. Darby can. So thinking those two versions of trades, what is the one you would like to see before the season starts? So, again, we're looking at it two ways.

One player, save from situation, one team that gets the missing piece. Yes. I sort of think it's the same. answer for both. Oh, wow. Look at you. I'm a problem solver. Just seeing the matrix. This is a math problem. Alex Smith to the Jacksonville Jaguars. Wow. That is a swing. I am impressed. I like that one a lot. There's a zero percent chance that

would ever happen at this stage of the calendar. No, of course it would. This is a hypothetical situation. Which is like a quarterback getting traded for no reason in August is never going to happen. San Bratford got traded because Teddy Bridgewater exploded. You know, that's why those things happen. I like it, though. I mean, the Jags have a problem. They have a Blake Bortle's problem. And a quarterback that's even semi-competent like Alex Smith is,

who knows what they could be with him. So there's a couple things. Number one, Jalen Ramsey apparently recently liked a social media post in which Blake Bortles got replaced. We were talking about this before the show. We weren't sure if it was real. But even the chance of it being real, the perspective,

possibility that Jalen Ramsey actually did this is all you need to know. It checks out is all I'm saying. It checks out. My favorite, not my favorite moment, but a great moment on the internet last week. And we'll get to him in a second, though, was Alan Robinson saying, what did he say? Keep the ball in bounds? Keep the ball in bounds, bro. Yeah.

I mean, he was very upset. It's really, when you like say a line wrong or something, I scream at you like that, but they're able to edit it out when all fans. Yeah, of course. Yeah, yeah. There's no reporters in here. Well, actually, there are. It's us.

We're the reporters. It's off the record. So listen, I just, that team, you've got a lot of pieces on offense. And as we've seen from the Allen Robinson thing and on defense, you got Jaylon Ramsey liking everything here. I mean, they want to win, man. They are extreme. Some of those guys are really good. Alan Robinson is really good.

Alan Herns is a good player. Leonard Fournett is out here saying the SEC is better than the NFL. I'd be like, this is a team that actually has some dominant. personalities and they don't need Blake Bordels throwing the ball out of bounce. That defense is a chance to be really good. I just want to clear up one thing. I don't think Alex Smith is very good. I just think that. I'm glad you made that clear. I appreciate that. I went this long. I don't want anyone to think that Alex Smith is some great quarterback. Of course. That's

something you should put out there. Yeah, but I just think that he would, first of all, I think the situation with Mahomes. You know, Mike Lombardi talks about all the time. I mean, you don't trade up for a guy like that unless you think he's going to play. They love him. They already moved him up to second. Tyler Bray has been top of. on the depth chart. Tyler Bray. Tyler Bray is from toppled. You could have given me 20 guesses

and I would not have guessed that Tyler Bray was the Chiefs backup backup quarterback a week ago. I mean, you just said running back. I don't know. Maybe he's there now. Yeah. I just think it solves,

listen, it's obviously not going to happen. But if I were to come up with something that works for all sides, it would be like a fourth round pick for Alex Smith. What is the Jaguars record if Alex Smith is their quarterback? Nine and seven. You think nine and seven. I was going to say right around that.

I think they win more than eight games, but I don't double digits. I'm going to tell you something. Nine and seven, that gets you in the playoff hunting, the crappy, crappy AFC where there's one good team. God, the AFCs. There are two good teams in the AFC. Come on now. Yeah, no, the Alex Smith, Jaguars and the Patriots.

So let's stay on the Jaguars and the Blake Borough's bashing here for a little bit. Let's stay on the Jaguars. So the one I would like to see, as far as a guy being saved from a situation, is one Alan Robinson, who we were discussing. And it is also filling a need elsewhere. The Cardinals need a second receiver. They have Larry Fitzgerald. Right now they're working with.

Geron Brown, a nicked up, John Brown. They could really use somebody on the outside. Alan Robinson in that offense? Oh, my God. Someone to Sammy Watkins, Alan Robinson's entering the final year of his contract. He was a second round pick, which it's only four years. They're in talks to give him a contract extension,

which they should. Because he's very good. But Alan Robinson is somebody that deserves better. I still think he is a phenomenal receiver, and there's just no way to know it playing with Bortals down there. it must be so bad to both Bortals. Who's the quarterback you'd least want to play with? It's Blake Bortals. Is it Blake Bortals?

Blake Bortle seems like a good dude. Does that matter to you? Is that the number one factor? Mark Sanchez seems like a great guy too. There's plenty of quarterbacks. I don't know. I'd rather hang out with Bortals than Jared Gough, I think. So this is what it's come to. It's the guy you'd rather have a beer with. They're all not going to help me win. So you might as well have a beer with the guy. That's fair. I mean, we probably have to go to other things.

It's one of my buddies who works for an NBA team. He's one of his favorite things about bad players. Like, I'm sure he's good at other things. I'm sure Blake Portals is good at other things. All of these guys are talented in many different things. They're all special in their own way. So outside of Robinson, that'd be my number one. I can just see him in the uniform and in that offense.

It looks fun to me as I'm imagining it. They'd have to give up a lot for him. Probably first round pick, right? Yeah. I mean, something along those lines. Sammy Watkins went for a second round pick. Yeah, I don't know. I'd rather have Alan Robinson than Sammy Watkins.

On the Jaguars, I'd rather just fix the problem and get a quarterback with a pulse there who can throw the ball and bounce. Blake has a pulse. You just discuss how much you want to have a beer with him. That's true. That's an off the field trait. Off the field pulse. See, we're two different pulses we're talking about here. The other one I was kind of kicking around was

pairing a terrible team with a team that has a pretty glaring need. The Cowboys have no defensive linemen. The Jets have many, and the Jets are very bad. Ooh. Shelton Richardson is the guy who has not gotten paid in New York. If you're Jerry, why don't just, you Hey, what do you think in there?

Who's the Jets GM? Mike McCagnan? Yeah. Keep that in. Keep that in. That's the ultimate commentary on the Jets. If you're Jerry, you know, give Mike McCagney a call, you know? How's a third round pick for Sheldon Richardson's sound?

Jerry will get around about that next week when he figures out who the Jets GM is. Or that the Jets are a franchise. Yeah. He hasn't spoken to Woodin Johnson in years. What's that now? What he's in England now? His brother's running a team. No longer involved. It doesn't matter.

Does W. Does it really matter? Who cares? That's probably what he said when he was going to have control of the team. He was like, does anybody want this damn team? Coming up, we're going to tackle the very interesting question of who could play the most positions in an NFL game. We're also going to talk about some bargain-free agents we may be talking about later in this season. We'll be asking how the hell did this team pull this deal off?

But first, take a quick break for our sponsor. 20 years is a long time. And for over 20 years, DirecTV has been. exclusive home to NFL Sunday ticket, which is the only way to get every game live every Sunday. Now there's more good news, NFL fans. Direct TV has expanded the service. If you live in an apartment like me or an enrolled college student, now you can get NFL Sunday ticket without a satellite. To see if you are eligible, go online to NFL Sundayticket.tv and stream every NFL Sunday ticket game this season to follow your favorite team no matter where you live.

Use promo code ringer at checkout to save 15%. Again, that's Sunday Ticket.com. dot TV promo code ringer. Robert, earlier this week, I was in Cleveland, Ohio. I can't keep tracking you anymore. City of champions. Did not sleep at a rest stop in Cleveland. That was outside Rochester. I did that.

That's not a big difference to me. That's the same area of the world. Yeah. We realized a debate of whether Pittsburgh was a Midwestern city. It is not a Midwestern city. What is your understanding of the Midwest? If you're in the Big Ten, but you're not Rogers. You coastal elites and your lack of understanding for geography.

If you were in the Big Ten before 2010, you're at Midwest to me. There's a similar argument with Arkansas in the south. Arkansas, that's a tough one. That's, that's right on the line. We're in the SEC, so that's my thing. So is Missouri? Missouri is in the South?

Missouri's in this, they're in this dumbass cable rights fee thing. That same as Rutgers in the Big Ten and Maryland. How dare you, sir? The SEC East two years in a row. No, I know, but they're not actually the South. No, Missouri's not in the South. Missouri's in Midwestern City. Yeah, but they're in the Southeastern Conference.

So Pittsburgh is not. You understand what Mid means, right? It's a state of mind. The Midwest? Yeah. Okay. All right. So I was in Cleveland and I went up to, I sat down with Jabill Peppers.

And I was doing a story that was, if it went, if it broke wrong, was going to be an extremely boring story about positional flexibility. And it broke in the way Gibral Peppers wanted it to break. Yeah. Made it an insanely interesting story, which is I said, hey, Gibral, teams must have loved your positional flexibility. And he said, no, they definitely did not. That's not surprising to me.

And then he went on a. five minute sort of rant is okay I'm not going to say rant because it was extremely measured about five minutes about five minutes uninterrupted

from Gibral Pepper is about how NFL teams treated him and I thought it was fascinating yeah it's interesting because we sit here and we talk about the positionless NFL you mentioned the honey badger in the last segment

and Danny Kelly wrote a great thing about that last week by the way just kind of renaming the positions everything else changing you should go check that out on the ring absolutely absolutely Danny Kelly's done terrific work this year and last year. He's been fine.

He's been okay. Yeah, he's been okay. So, again, we sit here at the ringer.com. We talk about, oh, the linebackers who can play safety and vice versa. Offensive line, you know, some of these positions are so flexible now. You know, you see what the Patriots have done the last five years. I mean, the Patriots, essentially, if you're not Tom Brady, you need to be able to fill three or four. I'm out on that with the offensive line, by the way.

Rotating offensive line is not a game I want to play. Who else is out on it? Bill Belichack, actually. Yeah, because he has good players now. So he keeps them in the game. But Bill Belichick did okay with the rotation. Yeah, that's not a plan that you should abide by. That that's something that you should look at the Patriots doing it and say,

they can get away with that because they're the Patriots. We ain't doing that. It's kind of like taping signals. Yeah, sort of like that. Yeah, yeah. So anyway, I think it was fascinating because Peppers was sort of pushing back on this idea that the NFL was flexible and that future is here. And so it got me thinking because Peppers played 11 different positions,

a snap at a little of different positions at Michigan. He was a linebacker mostly on defense, right? His last year. Yeah. But he played safety essentially the first year and a half of his college career. He played corner. He came in as like a big time corner. I remember going to the opening.

He was the number three corner back in the country. I remember going to the opening in Portland. Yeah. The Nike campus back that, yeah, it was 2013. And he was the guy. Yeah, he was the guy. He was the guy. He was the guy.

Number one, excuse me, number one corner in the country, number three overall player at corner. Then he becomes a safety. Then he becomes a linebacker. Don Brown, the Michigan defensive coordinator, basically put him everywhere. It was a Swiss Army knife. And so he got to the NFL,

the NFL draft process, and they all said, you did not do one thing well enough. And he became pretty perturbed, actually. He was very upset about this and essentially said, I could do everything at a high level. If you think I can't,

he said, I didn't have the privilege of playing one position so you didn't see it. But there were certain critiques of his game that really upset him. You know, he thought, The NFL team said he overran too many plays. He said that was part of his system to force everything inside. I mean, he clearly, NFL scouts will not be receiving a Christmas card from Gibral Peppers.

Here's the thing about the Browns, though. They don't give a shit. Nope. I mean, that is why I kind of like this, a lot of the decisions that they've made, is that they see a guy who can move the way he's built, just kind of some of the instincts that he has. That's enough for them. Yep. They like athletic players. We've talked about that.

Okay. So back to the question. The actual question at hand. Is Pittsburgh at Midwestern City? No, I'm kidding. It is. Which NFL player? Which NFL player could play the most positions in an NFL game?

I love this. Robert Mays. I love this. Robert Mays start us off. Let's stick with Cleveland. There's one answer to this question for me. It's Miles Garrett. That's incorrect.

How is that true? Incorrect. Okay. Lay out for me why Miles Garrett is incorrect and then I will come back around to you. My guy can probably get away with a snap at like 19 positions. and my guy is Rob Grunkowski. I totally disagree with you. Rob Gankowski can play fewer defensive positions than Miles Gareth.

Miles Garrett can play any position on defense. Do you think Miles Garrett can play cornerback? Yes, much better than Rob Garnkowski. I don't think Robkowski could play cornerback. I think he'd get away with snaps at strong safety. Grunkowski. I disagree with you. Okay.

I don't think he's flexible enough. Okay. That's the thing. He's 6-6-260. You can put him in every defensive line position, every offensive line position. He can play wide receiver because he's done it. You can play tight end. I have no idea if you can get away at quarterback.

Quarterback is the tough one, right? Quarterback is the tough one. There's really no way. I mean, there's certain guys who are, you know, who are, I mean, Gibral Peppers could play quarterback. Honey Badger could play quarterback. And, you know, running back, Gibral Peppers is done. And again, Taron Matthew as well.

I don't know if the, I think Gruncalsky could certainly play some sort of weird Hback back there. I mean, he could play six foot six. So that would be complicating. But I think that you could basically, he's athletic enough to where you could get away. at an NFL level with him taking a snap at 18 or 19 positions. I still think Garrett could play more. Okay. I just think that he has the flexibility to play corner, play.

You can't play corner well, but I think that you could put him out there against some NFL wide receivers and he can hold his own. I honestly do. I think he's that fast, that quick, everything else. Yeah, I just had a hard time thinking that anyone in the NFL, including Grunk, including Miles Garrett, including another one of your guys,

could play defensive line and cornerback. I think he'd be the closest one. I mean, Miles Garrett is the best athlete probably on a defense right now, right? Wouldn't you say for the... At his size. I mean, you could probably argue the Von Miller's right there,

but Miles Garrett has 20 pounds on Von Miller. Yeah, I would... I could say on defense, yes, I would say that. I mean, obviously, you start getting into bigger guys and JJ Watt comes to mind just because... He's just too big, though. He's too big to play any of those things.

conversely, I just mentioned Peppers and Honeybadger and those guys. Those guys could never play the line. That's why I throw Garrett out there. He's 6-4-270. He is built like an offensive lineman. Grong's 260 now. But I just don't think Grunk is athletic enough.

I think Grunk is slower than Miles Garrett. That's true. So I just think that Miles Garrett has the twitchiness to be able to play those secondary positions in a way Grunk could not. It's fun. So I'm looking at Miles Garrett's my attractive page right now, and you can compare players,

not just the guys at their position, but to everybody. So the 10th comparison on the mock draftable, the last one, 77.5% of the profile for Miles Garrett, it's David Joku. Look at that. Which is very interesting. So you're thinking, like, could he play wide receiver? Yeah, he's built and moves like a guy that they're going to use a tight end in one receiver. I have a hard time thinking that anyone who's fast on defense can't play wide receiver.

Mike Rable had 10 touchdowns in his car. career. We're going to get to a guy later in this episode, Don Tari Poe, who's playing offense for the Atlanta Falcons at this point. And so why receiver and tight end are not something that concerns me at all? Miles Garrett has 28 pounds on David Joku, and they ran the same 40. The dude is not of this world. And he looks good so far, but this isn't about that. This is about how many different things can he do? Who else was in that conversation for you? Who else did you have to kind of cross off your list before you got to Gron? We mentioned what?

Again, the size. We mentioned Honey Badger, the size thing. I mean, any of those freak tight ends are just, could do it. I think freak tight ends and freak pass rushers, but of a certain build, right? Like, again, Vaughn's a little small. A little lighter.

The 250-pound guys are tough, but guys like clowny. You know, guys like, you know, maybe not now, but a couple years ago is bigger than you think. Justin. Oh, I was going to say Julius Peppers. Oh, my God.

That's the actual answer. Not now. No, no, no, no. 10 years ago? Oh my God. I would love it. Julius Peppers playing cornerback. That would be the greatest thing that's ever happened to me.

Julius Peppers could have been Durel Revis. That was a joke. No, I mean, like, he could probably play every position, right? Is Julius Peppers the best athlete you've ever seen on a football field at his peak? That's a good question. Of my lifetime, I would say when you take into account overall, overall size, the answer is probably yes. Because he weighs 300 pounds.

He was 295. I would say that the most impressive athlete I've seen when taking size out of the equation is Randy Moss. That's the other one I was going to throw out, but he's not as big, you know? No, and I don't know how many positions Moss could have played. It could have played three probably. Yes.

Probably played quarterback too. And, you know, like Troy Brown in that 2007 Patriots thing said everybody was so scared of Moss, they just gave him two extra steps so he could have just I think in terms of just pure physical talent and the way that he looked compared to everyone else on the field, he's the most physically dominant player I've ever watched. But Peppers is just completely different. I mean, Peppers, I mean, played basketball in college.

You've been around. I mean, you were in Green Bay last year. You know, you've been around Julius Peppers many times in your life. As of I. He, even in an NFL locker room, he looks like a a CGI character. It doesn't make sense

that he's as big as he is. And that's hard to do in those kind of rooms. But he can't. You walk by Julius Pepper is just like, that's not a thing. Like there's no way

that human should exist and to move like he does. You still hear stories now. The guy's 37 years old. I accidentally just Google Julius Thomas and he's not on my list. No.

Best athletes. Thomas doesn't quite back. Back to athletes who've ever played the NFL. Before we move on, I wanted to tell you about the Ringer's Game of Thrones after show Talk the Thrones. All season long, Andy Greenwald, Mother of Dragons, Mallory Rubin, Chris Ryan, and our very own maister, Jason Concepcion, have been coming to you live after the East Coast airings of Game of Thrones season seven, and will continue with the two remaining episodes. Talk the Thrones and streams exclusively on Twitter and Periscope right after each Game of Thrones episode ends. And it can be found on the ringer's Twitter handle at Ringer.

They'll be reacting at the same time as you, contextualizing the event. and explaining everything that just unfolded. Again, the show is called Talk to Thrones, and you can stream it live after the East Coast airings of Game of Thrones Season 7 on our Twitter and Periscope at Ringer. Now back to the show. All right, buddy, let's get to our last one of the day. I kind of stumbled upon this one when I was at Chargers Camp earlier this week,

I was watching Casey Hayward and I was thinking, God, I can't believe they got Casey Hayward for the price they got him last year. Five million bucks or so per season is one of the better corners in the league. Even when it happened, it seemed like that's a good contract. So with Casey Heard in mind, I want to wrap this one up by asking you, which free agent from this off season do you think will be the biggest bargain? In December, which guy will be like, how the hell did they do that? The model has always been post-CBA, what the Seahawks were able to do,

get Michael Bennett off the scrap heap, get Cliff Averill off the scrap heap. In two days. In two days. I'll never forget that. I was driving down, I was driving past USC coming from the gym. for whatever reason I just remember where I was when I found out Michael Bennett signed with the Seahawks.

That is ridiculous. I cannot believe that. Some people remember where they were when Kennedy got shot. To me it's Michael Bennett. Michael Bennett is the most important person in my life. I do love Michael Bennett. So the point is

getting these guys on really cost-controlled contrast winning a Super Bowl quite literally. When I think about a guy who fits that bill, one-year deal, 8 million, Don Terry Poe. It's a good one. Don Terry Poe. was one of the best athletes in the NFL two or three years ago.

Andy Reid got a little big. Andy Reid got a little too much Casey barbecue. He's talked about that. I love Casey barbecue, man. I don't blame the guy. I can eat my weight at Gates and Arthur Bryansson. I've seen you eat crab. I haven't seen me eat barbecue.

Just the burn ends at Gates. I can eat literally. I don't know how much I weigh now. Maybe not quite. I'm a little heftier than I've been in months past. But it's close. Okay. I'm glad we got that update.

Thank you. Of course, I got you. I mean, it's training camp. You just got to get a weight update. Yeah, absolutely. So, Don Tari Poe, I remember Andy Reid telling me once that Mac Brown had told him that his... I thought this was going to be more barbecue talk. And I was getting really excited about Andy Reed's thoughts.

So Andy Reid told me that Mac Brown told him that Don Tari Poe was so athletic that his body was kissed by the sun, which I thought was an... Mac Brown is the best. Yeah. And Andy Reid's the best. Everyone involved in that story is the best. They're all tied for the best. So he's an Uber athlete. What's surprising to me...

He was an Uber athlete. Could he be again? This is the question. So he gave a couple of interviews this week. Number one, he said he has not been this skinny since freshman year of college. Wow. Which is not a situation for Robert Mays. No, it's not the situation for me.

You look great, though, buddy. I just want to let you know that. I know. That's a joke. I appreciate it. I didn't know. I looked great. I've been sleeping at rest stops.

So, Don, Pose been playing offense in some packages. Matt Ryan. Like Miles Garrett? Yeah, he's actually my number one guy. He's my number one. He can play 22 positions. No, he can play.

It's funny they're trying to not. We have seen him throw the ball, though. We have not seen Miles Garrett. That's the thing. He could slot in that one. He's played offense before. What was that? They had a vaguely offensive package for him.

It was called like Pig Wright or something like that. Yeah, that sounds right. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So Don't Tartari Post playing offense. Matt Ryan says he's got a hell of an arm. I just think I could see a little bit of a resurgence here. And the $8 million, here's the difference between your guy and Don Tari Poe for me, is that Donteri Poe is playing a position where the top guys might make $17 or $18 million.

I mean, and to get someone for less than half of that is a huge, huge team building block. I agree with that. So you alluded to the person I'm going to choose. To me, it's Martellas Bennett. And if you look at the contract, it's three years, 21, $7 million puts him, you know, I think eight or eighth or ninth, an average salary among tight ends. He's only making $3.85 this year, though, and only 6.3 of that is guaranteed. That's a steal.

I feel like we forgot how good Martellus Bennett is because the way he was used last year in England and the fact that he was nicked up, he's a really, really good player. And with Rogers in that offense, I have a feeling that we're just going to be sitting there in November. going to have, he's going to be averaging, you know, six catches a game for, you know, however many yards. And we're going to, literally how we kind of got into this question. How did they do this? I just feel like he's going to be one of those guys this year.

Don Tori Poe was the 15th highest paid defensive tackle in the NFL. But Don't Terry Poe wasn't good last year. I understand that. I think it can be good, but he was not good last year. I think they can whip him into shape. You got Dan Quinn has the clock that every hand points to the word now. I know. He loves being in the moment.

Me and I talked about that recently. I talked to him about mindfulness. Go check it out on the ringer.com. I got a story right in a couple weeks about the Falcons where he's all in. Above the media room, when you enter the media room in flowery branch Georgia, there's a huge sign that says everything we do matters. And I wondered if that was actually for the media or the players. No human has ever been more all in all the time than Dan Quinn.

On everything. Everything. Dan, this is not an act. This is just who Dan Quinn is. He is all turned up. I mean, I like Dan Quinn. Quinn, but that, he is always 11th. He's the coach of my, this is not an action team.

Marcus Marriota's the quarterback. That's a great team. Yeah. Let's not do that. Let's do that later. Let's instead just write stories about all of these people. Yeah, that sounds great. That totally works for me. For the ringer.com.

Anybody else that you want to throw out there? Anybody else that came to mind when considering this answer? For the bargains? Yeah, I mean, the problem, I looked at Martellus Bennett too. Again, the problem is that I just think that, that $7 million for a tight end is a little bit upper echelon. I mean, it's not the world's biggest deal, and you're not overpaying them.

But, I mean, there's a lot of guys. I mean, there were some objectively awful for agent deals. I mean, I think A.J. Bowie is a solid player, but he's not worth what. That's a big contract. I mean, that's a big contract. I mean, has, you know, Callias Campbell paying him that money. I mean, that's a lot. I mean, again, I just think that there's-

Jack's got to spend, man. They got it to burn. I know they do. I mean, as far as, a bargain. Alshan Jeffrey for $9 million in a one-year deal with a lot of flexibility. I'm going a similar way. I'm in. About Terrell prior for six. I'm in. Yes. Yes. I'm in. He's a guy we talked about a lot. Kurt Daryl Patterson got 8.5 over two years for some reason. Why did that happen? He's very fast.

He can't play football. Al Davis's ghost lives on. No, he can't play football. I'll say he was not a steal with $3.5 million, even though there's a lot of puff pieces about him. Adrian Peterson. Yeah, I don't get it. Do you see what Alvin Kumar looks like? Why does not, Why don't just give the carriers to Alvin Kamara? Does he look good? He looks fine. Oh, okay. He ran fast.

I don't know. I didn't know that he looked good. He had a nice run in the first preseason game. I got a lot of heat from like analytics people for saying I loved Alvin Kamar during the draft. I didn't know. I didn't know he looked good. Now I have to talk. I have to talk shit now.

I think I was a second round pick. Yeah, no. Apparently, the big thing is that if you don't have a lot, if you're sort of buried in the depth chart for a long time, uh, your college, you don't, you don't have a good chance of exceeding. I ignored all of that. I'm all in on Alvin Kumar can do. You can jump very far. Why do you think I love to? This isn't hard to understand. It's really not hard to trace. Hey, you know, if Phil Dawson makes all his kicks, the $3 million a year, they're going to pay them for not losing like seven games. The Cardinals pay them for not missing game winning kicks every game. It was really fun situation at Cardinals camp.

I was sitting there thinking, who is that old kicker? And I just didn't know. I had to look at a roster. Could not identify it. Now that like Morty Anderson can't come back because he's in the Hall of Fame, it's always so awesome. Is John Carney still around? Is that still a person? No, I don't. I don't think so. So there's just one old kicker now.

I mean, Finitari is not young. But you would know, yeah. But you would also know who Adam Vinatari is. Vinetary looks way better than I do. He's like 45 years old. I saw him the other day. He's just looking great. Really jacked Adam Venetary is something you do not really consider when you think about him.

Big dude for a kicker. Hey, I'm giving my not a value award. to Eddie Lacey at $4.2 million. There's a lot of candidates for that. If we do that, we're going to have another half hour of show. I just saw a quote from him tweeted out through the day that was like, wait is a tough thing. I don't know what's going on there, but I have a pretty good idea.

I also understand that problem. Unfortunately, I am not an NFL running back. I bet. I think that's it. Great. 17 questions we've hit so far. We'll be back Tuesday with another batch as we count on our 33 questions for the NFL preseason.

As always, thank you for listening to the Ringer NFL show presented by DirecTV. We'll be back with you guys soon. Every throw, every catch, every fourth and inches. Whatever your favorite game of all time is, NFL Game Pass has got it. Better yet, they've got you covered for this year's action, too. That includes live out-of-market games, full game replays, and condensed games with all the action packed into 45 minutes. If it's NFL football and it happened, NFL Game Pass has got it. So, kick off the 2017 season with a free NFL game pass trial.

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