The Ringer NFL Show - Examining a Potential Rift Between Gronk and Belichick, and Khalil Mack Wants to Get Paid | GM Street (Ep. 253)

Episode Date: April 11, 2018

The Ringer’s Michael Lombardi and Tate Frazier discuss the alleged rift between Rob Gronkowski and Bill Belichick (04:30), the Giants' love for Saquon Barkley (08:15), and Khalil Mack looking for a big payday (21:50). Then they discuss Robert Kraft visiting Meek Mill in prison (29:05) and Aaron Rodgers’s meeting with the Dalai Lama (31:25). You can find the official Ringer merch store here: http://bit.ly/ringershop Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

On today's episode of GM Street, part of the Ringer Podcast Network, we will discuss the Gronk Belichick relationship, Barclay possibly going to the New York Giants, and the end of the color rush jerseys. But we also want to remind you that we are part of the Ringer podcast network where you can listen to an assortment of podcasts, including Shackhouse, which did several episodes last week from Augusta National. We saw Joe House. We saw Jeff Shackleford. We saw Bill Simmons. We saw producer Kyle roam around the grounds in Augusta, Georgia.

That was all good stuff. And also be sure to check out the ringer.com where you can read a slew of new articles about all the NBA stuff at the end of the season. And now let's get on with our show. GM Street coming up now. Welcome to GM3, part of the ringer podcast network. It is Wednesday. It is April 11th. And I am sitting across from Mr. Michael Lombardi.

Lombardi, how you doing? I'm great, Dave, Frasier. You know, did Joe House do a Waffle House? Did he like to review that since he was at Augusta? And that's like, you know, right there? Yeah, I think he did. I think they went to a late-night waffle house. Kyle got invited.

He said it was a great house. moment for him to go to Waffle House in Georgia. So that was good to see a guy from Poughkeepsie, New York, go down to Waffle House in the South, get some nice fried food. I like that on a Waffle House. Yeah, you should. I mean, it's not a diner, but it is a diner. It's better than Huddell House.

Huddle House is not where you want to go. Waffle House is a little bit classier. Yeah, I think that might not be a bad idea. I could do that. I don't know how long I could last, but I could do that. You could make it happen. You did all your southern trips back in the day to do all your recruiting stuff. I mean, I would hit, yeah, I would always hit a Waffle House.

It's like, you know, anytime I could hit a diner, like my ideal life would be, like, have a home somewhere that you could have like a house. And behind the house, I always wanted to have a diner as like an office because I always like diners. I would like to do that, even though, you know, that may not happen. But that's always a good thought. Maybe I'll write it in a screenplay or something like that. They go diners drive-ins and dives with Michael and Barty. You know, but they don't do that. Like, to me, like, I love that show to start out with.

But now, like, they go to places that I wouldn't call diners. You know, like, I don't understand it. Like, I'm a Jersey guy. There's got to be the right kind of diner, you know. Diners are expensive now. You can buy them online. They're expensive. Some old-fashioned diners are hard to buy.

Anyway, I don't know why we're talking about diners. Go ahead. Because we're talking about all the recruits in the South, and that's going to lead us to a draft prospectus that we're going to do in a couple weeks. Next week, we will be off. We will not be doing GM Street. And why are we not working next week, tape racing? I'm going to go on vacation.

I'm going to go to Italy. And well, you should. Yeah, and I'm going to enjoy that. Take a week off. Get my head right before we come back. And then we're going to do all of our draft breakdowns. We're going to do positional breakdowns. We're going to do a full.

Will we do a mock draft? We probably won't just because there's so many right now. Yeah, we'll figure it out. The first time I ever went to Italy, and I think this is great that you're going to go over there and experience the culture and the food and, of course, the wine and the people, the people mostly. And the pasta mainly. Oh, the pasta. Yeah.

You could stop on one of those roadside highways and the pasta is good in there. But the one year I went, Millie and I went over there, I was on the aisle of Capoe and which is a beautiful place. It's off of the mouth of mouthy coast. It smells like basil. I mean, and the lemons just are incredibly smell. And it's where the Italians and the Europeans, a lot of Germans go there to vacation in the summertime. So I was over there in like in June, like maybe mid-June. Prime season. Prime season. And I'm going up this gondola to go up there to see the top of the mountain. And somebody in this group says, I heard the 76ers traded Barclay. I had like a, I had like a nine-al-law fire.

Oh my God, I had a panic attack. So now, you know, there's no cell phones. There's no, I mean, there's no way to get. You need a newspaper or something like that. I needed a newspaper. I needed something. So I went into this hotel lobby in Capri. There was a pay phone in there.

I called Jimmy Sexton, who was a basketball agent too at the time. He's at CIA now. And I'm calling Sexton to find out what actually transpired in the, you know, so I was going crazy because you couldn't find it. And I was saying to Millie, I'm like, if I could get the NFL games here on Sunday and read the USA Today, which I don't even. read anymore. This would be the greatest place to live. It would have been. It would have been the greatest place to live. And now you're going to go experience it. You're going to come back with the

same kind of feeling. Yeah. You're going to probably say if I get NC2A basketball, some football, you know, if I can, you know, I'm sure there's a Tar Hill Nation over there. Yeah, there's an Italian Basketball League. I can go watch and cover and maybe I'll just do that from now. Maybe I'll just stay over there. I'll call in to GM Street. You know, we'll do like some, it's not a bad idea. Skype. I mean, I think Max Weinberg has his villa up for sale over there. Oh, really? Yeah, you might be able to buy that. Nice. I would like to do that. I would like to do that. I would like to do that. I would live there. There's no doubt. I would live there. I may stay there. We'll see what happens. But first,

let's talk about a bunch of football stories that are going on. Your two guys, we're talking about the New England Patriots right now. There's been a little bit of a rift that's been reported. There's always a rift. There's always a rift in New England, right? There's always something going on. Have you ever seen a team when five Super Bowls playing seven conference championship games and all of a sudden everybody's reporting how nobody's happy? That's how it goes. It's the disease of Moore, as they say, or as Bill Simmons likes to say. So we got Bill Belichick, we got Rob Grancowski.

Gronkowski, there's been some reports where he has felt, you know, quote unquote, persecuted last year within the program of the Patriots. Now he's apparently, there's been some shots taken about his regiment, buying into the TB12 method of training by Alex Guerrero. And all these reports keep coming out of camp. But as it stands right now, Rob Gronkowski is still on the Patriots and everything will be fine. And I think they've mentioned it. I don't think they're going to trade him. I mean, first of all, Gunkowski's impossible to do a contract for, right? So he makes whatever he, you know, 9, 10 million a year.

As we said, he's not a tight end. He's a playmaker. Playmakers. But last year when he came back and he was on the T. The TB12 program is a lot more stretching than it is. You know, Bill Parcell's thing was, you know, we're going to do power cleans, we're going to do bench press, we're going to do it. We're going to do deadlifts.

We're going to do these five exercises. And that's what makes a football player. And so a lot of teams do that. And Guerrero's program is, and when I was there, he was really good at rehabbing injuries of guys and he did a great job. In terms of training players, it may work for Brady. But if you go back and watch Gronk in the beginning of the season, when he was trying to get away from Eric Berry in the Kansas City game.

He had no power in his lower body. Now, I will say this. I think they had to change what he was doing. There's no doubt. He has to lift weights. He's got to have more explosion because he looked like he was on the downside. Well, people say, well, maybe it's because of his back. No, I think it was because he wasn't lifting.

But this whole report that Belichick chastised him in front of the team, you know, I've been around Bill long enough to know that if he has something to say to Tate Frazier, he's not going to do it in front of Michael Lombardi. he's going to call Tate Fraser in the room and then talk to him. He's not afraid of confrontation. He doesn't have to make his point. And I think to me, this is why I think the story gets blown out of proportion.

And do you think there's any truth coming out of the Grancowski camp? Because, I mean, there has been some separate reports in the Boston Globe, aside from the dietary stuff with the TB12 method. But there seems to be some sort of little frustration whether it may be monetary or maybe Grankowski wants more catches in the offense.

Something like that. There seems to be some leek stuff coming from his camp as well. Look, I think Grank is is truly one of the top five players in the league without a doubt. And so it's hard to always figure out, A, how to pay him. You've got to find ways to get on the ball. He has not been durable. Let's be real honest here. I mean, he has not been durable.

And last year, he was to a degree at the beginning part of the season. He missed that game with the suspension. But I think he's got to have an offseason where his lower body has the power in it. Look, when football players lose their lower body, we see it in basketball all the time. You watch a basketball game, a guy can't really explode anymore. You know, when a guy starts to double pump, He lost his legs, you know. He's giving the head things.

Or he gets out to the three point line and starts shooting threes. Yeah, exactly. You can see it in basketball easier. In football, you can't see it. But the guy loses lower body power, all of a sudden that's it. And then, you know, you start to drop passes you shouldn't catch. Now, Rob's not doing that. But he needs a good offseason.

That's how you avoid injuries. And I think this is why it's so important. And I just don't make any of the validity that Belichick's going to chastise somebody in front of other people. I mean, he is very clear about delivering his message to behind closed or the people he has to deliver to. And what he says in that room, he usually doesn't share very many people. So you don't foresee this lingering into the season that seems like that.

I think there's so much chaos around the Patriots right now. There are people just dump it on them. I think it's easy to do, but I don't think it's always valid. And I'm not sure that it's going to be something that, you know, it's going to continue. Because one thing when they get back to work, they go back to work. Let's talk about another team that has a superstar that they have to deal with

and figure out what his future is. And that's the New York Giants. They have OBJ. Oh, my God. Well, we're not going to talk about OBJ specifically, but we will say, Ferris is out and about. Did you send flowers this week? Oh, yeah.

And then you saw the Ray Lewis thing. There's this whole conversation. I did not see all that. I didn't understand all this now. So Ray Lewis had this whole conversation. We don't have to get into it, but basically it was, you know, said Obj did not have God in his life. And he had gotten away from his guidance.

OBJ, you know, was sort of like, I don't need, you know, I'm living my own life. And then, you know, of course, everyone picks sides and, you know, people were going back at Ray Lewis for some of his past, you know, incidents, to say the least. So anyways, OBJ right now, still trying to figure out his contract situation. The Giants are trying to figure out what they want to be as a team. They have the number two pick. There's been a lot of reports that they love Sequan Barkley. And he may be one of those guys they take in the top five.

Sequin said before he ran his 40. He wanted to run a 4-4 or better, and that would get him in the top five. He runs a 4-4-0 flat, and now he looks like a top-five guy. But besides Barkley, we have, you know, Bradley Chubb is now in the mix. They said they were extremely impressed with Bradley Chub. And then we had the whole Sam Darnold infatuation there. So the Giants have a big decision to make it that number two pick. You know, I think this.

I think Gettleman probably has to say to himself, last year, I blew it with McCaffrey. He's got to be honest. I mean, he's, and I hate to say this to you as a Carolina Panther fan, but, I mean, he has to realize that he misjudged that kid's ability to pass-protect. And what people don't understand in- and run between the tackles. And run between the tackles. But more than that, Tate Fraser, I think what you have to do when you're evaluating

running backs is the order of the evaluation of run-in-backs is completely different. and then what the fans order of evaluation of running back. Fans look at the runner, they look at the catcher, and then that's really about it, right? If you want to evaluate running backs that play well in the league, you have to start with blocking, pass protection, catching, then running. And I think that McCaffery, when you see him, he can't pass protect. He's going to end up being a slot receiver.

If he's in the backfield, people are going to keep attacking him. We talked about this all year. So Gettleman's sitting there. Does he want to use a second round pick on a running back for a five-year contract, or does he want to use it for a defensive lineman and go down the safe way and take that and take Chubb? Or does he take Sam Darnold if the Browns take Josh Allen? I think his decision comes down to Chub or Allen.

Chub or Donald. I think that's really what he has to come down to. I think he's got to let the running back go and feel like, look, I have so many holes to plug on this team that the last thing I need to do is to fight, I need a defensive lineman who can dominate the game. I put Olivier Vernon on one side and I put Bradley Chubb on the other side.

I got a pretty good defense now. And that's sort of the M.O. of Gettelman has always been. He's always sort of leaned on offensive or defensive lineman. You know, that's sort of... That's what shocked me, but look at his drafts in Carolina. It takes Benjamin in the first round. You know, he takes... I'm like, you think he's

in this George Young, you know, philosophy of how to draft, size speed. Now, Benjamin's a size speed guy. McCaffrey's not a size speed guy. You know, he's a little or guy. So, like, for me, you know... There was a lot of circumstantial pressure for him

to make that McCaffrey pick. There was a lot of people in city, I think that wanted to bring McCaffrey to Charlotte. But you start listening to the city, you're going to be, you know, now he's out. You're not going to be Lewin very well. I mean, let's face it. I mean, look, you got to, to me, the Giants could go, could pick an offensive lineman if they thought one was worthy of that pick. You know, they could pick a defensive lineman if they thought one was worthy of that pick. They got the giants have to get back through their roots. And I think to me, what I've noticed about the giants, the narrative that's come out of there lately has been more in terms of, we need a quarterback for

the future, and if Donald's there, we're going to pick them, and I think if they like them. The Giants do a lot of psychological testing. They have it within their own department. So they're going to really spend a lot of time on these kids with their own psychological analysis in terms of how they break down the player's mental side. Some teams use Bob Troutwein. We did in Cleveland. We also did in New England when I was there. We started with them in Cleveland, which we break down the players in certain areas. And Bob does a great job in that. Now, he's not always right, but he kind of gives you the inner side to the player, which you really have to have. And I think this is why quarterbacks are so mis-evaluated, because if you don't really understand

the depth of who you're dealing with, it's hard to, you can go watch the tape and think, I can fix that or I can fix that. But if you don't really understand a person, it's hard to fix it. And if you take the risk of taking a guy, like a Sam Darle number two, if you're the New York Giants, that makes a statement, and there's a ripple effect of that where we're moving on to a new, we're rebuilding, basically. We're going to have a guy, whether we have Eli next year or whatever it may mean or OBJ or whoever. If they bring that offense back, if you take Donald, it just sends a message.

But if you take Chubb, you're replacing Jason Pierre, Paul, a guy that's been there for a long time, and you get this pass rusher. And it sort of goes back. We said the Giants are still going to do it how they've been doing it, which is, you know, you can take that for what it is. But if they do draft a defensive lineman and a Lawrence Taylor, you know, take them that early in the draft, it sort of goes back to their MO as a franchise. Right.

It fits more what they're doing. It wouldn't fit for them to take a running back that high. I mean, because for them in their grading system, they would have to grade Barclay in a really high level. Chubb, I think, is easy to grade that. It's like when I watch people say, well, Baker Mayfield's going to go, I read some service that Baker Mayfield is the top player in the draft. Well, you know, they might

have on that, but most teams that have a grading system with the size speed charts aren't going to have that, so it's going to be completely different. I think the Giants would be smart again. I think if they liked Darnold and they thought they could get Darnold, they could take them. Do I think they would flip with Cleveland? To try to do that? No. I think they'll sit there and take the best

player. Cleveland, whether they take Allen or Darnold, I think, as you said, Or Barclay. I've seen some boards that have Barclay number one. Yeah, I mean, to me, Huey headline really throws this whole thing into the mess. Because he does love running backs. We know Huey loves everybody. I mean, like, can you imagine if you're- Look at his headlines. If you're a Matt, could you imagine John Dorsey's in a meeting with Huey headline going over the quarterbacks after Hughie wanted...

He's just tweeting out of who he likes. Well, hey, Huey, let's go through it. He's just traded Kevin Hogan away, right? He traded Kessler, who Huey headline said was one of the great quarterbacks of all the time, right? Cody Kessler. Cody Kessley traded him away, right? Huey headline won at AJ McCarran. Flordered with him in front of everybody. In front of God and everybody at the Bengal game.

And they didn't even make him an offer. They weren't even interested in him, right? There's a smokescreen. That's smart play about Huey. He's so great. He's so smart. Maybe that's why Paul Ryan resigned today. He couldn't get Huey to run his campaign.

Huh? He's waiting for him. He thinks there's any back. He's waiting for that callback. The Hazam family always has its back, of course. In every decision. So like if I'm going back to John Dorsey, you're sitting there with Huey headline.

You got Huey, you got Todd Halley, and you're trying to figure out what quarterback fix into this mix. I think it's a tough, tough thing. And then, you know, the Giants are going to sit there and just basically take whichever. Yeah, it's kind of nice. It sort of falls in their lap.

So if they take Chubb number one, then we have Sam Donald there. If they take Barclay number one, then we can choose. Do we want to get a quarterback? Do we want to take a defensive end? It's going to be one option of those three guys, most likely. So it's a good fit for the night.

To me, though, if the Browns like Alan or, if they like Alan or Donald or Rosen, if they like any one of those three, then they should take Chub at one and take whichever quarterbacks left at four. Because then you get Garrett and Chubb on both sides. Then you have a JJ watch, Dave and a cloudy situation. Which we talked about it on another podcast. To me, but they're never going to do it. They're going to take the quarterback and then they're going to take probably Barclay at four

because Huey probably will be beaten down the door. We have Huey headline and Huey in the news, so we have either one we can use. Hugh and the News. Yeah, no. I'm not a band? Yeah, exactly. That's what I'm saying. We can do both.

They used to play all the time. When I looked at the 49ers, seriously. Montana and Huey were best, they were best buddies. Him, Dwight Clark, they used to play. I think we need some more Montana stories. We'll call those up eventually. Let's talk about another quarterback that a lot of people used to love or maybe still do love.

RT3, a guy that was taken, obviously, number two overall. And now signs with Baltimore Ravens to be the backup for the great Joe Flacco. I think this is really, this is one of the most interesting moves in the offseason. I think this tells us a lot of what's going on internally inside the Ravens. I tweeted out a pitcher. I saw Ozzie was at a government. Augusta this week. A lot of people at Augusta.

Everybody's down there. I mean, I saw Ozzy on the screen. He was peeking over the top. And I'm like, and I'm like, was that? Matthew, my son and Mickey, my son. We were doing like a father's son chat on the master since we always watch it together, but we couldn't this year because we're all in different spots. So I'm like, was that Ozzie Newsome there?

And then Matt sends me the pitcher. Yeah, it was. And so like Ozzie's the, you know, sitting there, the great Eric DeCosta, who has tremendous PR campaign. Nobody has a better PR campaign than Eric Dacosta, trust me. And so anyway, so he's there making the pick. To me, RG3 is the perfect guy. If you're thinking about Lamar Jackson,

RG3 is the perfect guy to have as your backup quarterback. Not that I think he's going to be an influence on a Lamar, but what you want to be able to do is not have to change offenses from one guy to the other. And if you're Ozzy or you're the great Eric Dacosta, and you're thinking about this is the time to turn over the franchise. I think to me, you know, they're going to draft a quarterback.

Will it be Lamar Jackson? It could be. And at that point, why wouldn't you just get rid of flack and we'd eat the cap money? And start RG3? No, start Lamar Jackson. Start Lamar day one and then have, yeah. I mean, rebuild the team.

I mean, now you know that's not going to happen because I tweeted this about a month ago. Like basically what the Ravens did to John Harbauls, they took three billboards out and said, must make the playoffs or you're fire, right? So we know this going in. So that's not going to happen. So Flacco's got one more year. But I would think that they would position themselves at if Flacco either makes the run or they have a quarterback behind him. And that's why I thought the RG3 signing was really interesting because I think there's more to, there's another move that goes

into the layer of this move. I really think there's some moves that teams make that give away what they're thinking about, that they don't really give it away. Like, why would you sign RG3 now? And if you're thinking about drafted a quarterback, well, you're thinking about drafted a quarterback, so you want to make sure you have them. Because if you draft one, it's hard to go to RG3 and say, hey, come sign with us, right?

Because you just drafted a quarterback. I'm not going to play. But when you sign them before the draft, then he can't really say anything to you. Well, you know, you're here. You compete, right? So it's like the positioning of the signing I thought was interesting. And if you're Lamar, I mean, a lot of people I've seen,

like the Jaguars have been thrown out, you know, for Lamar Jackson. A lot of these teams are low, though, right? I mean, like the Patriots are 20. 23, they've had a private workout with Lamar Jackson. Okay, we know the Saints have had a private. Everybody's had a private. Like, Lamar Jackson's one of those guys that's laying below the line. Nobody thinks he's out there.

But the reality of it is, is everybody's interested in the guy. And there's a lot of people that have sort of misinterpreted and mis-evaluated the fact that Lamar Jackson has the ability to play in a pro-style system as soon as he does come in. He doesn't have to necessarily have an offense catered to him. That's why the RG-3 thing you were just mission. and it's like RG3 actually is the perfect backup for him because he is a pro-tall guy that has that athleticism to match. That's what he did the thing.

Now, Huey headline had him in Cleveland said he was going to make him a West Coast offense quarterback, which we turned out he couldn't do. That's another one Huey couldn't get right there either. So, you know, when you start thinking about it, you know, it's the perfect guy to have in there. They get him at a cheap contract. He can turn his career around.

I think it makes sense. I think what makes more sense is if the Ravens draft a quarterback. Now, I'm sure John Harbaugh is sitting there saying, like, this really doesn't make those three billboards they just posted, you know, outside of Baltimore. Especially if the Ravens fans are clamoring for him to play the rookie and you have to deal with that whole battle. Like, do I keep Flacco?

You know. So, like, but if they don't get one now, when are they going to get one? You know, then, you know, they got to do something with this contract. And so if you draft one, so maybe you draft one and you go to Flacco and say, look, we got to have some kind of reduction, you know, it's going to cost, if they post June 1, them, it'll cost them $12 million. I'll pick up $12.5 million of cap room or it costs them $12 million of. So, and eventually they get away from the contract.

And what's the trade value, though? What if they decided they want to put Flacco on the market, and they want to send him to Jacksonville, or they want to send him to Arizona or something. He would have trade value. I think to me, I think there's a lot more moves than just this, hey, we're picking. I think that teams are sitting there now because right now we're in two seasons. We're in lying season, which is most of these teams are lying to us about who they like

and everybody's taken. Well, they worked out this player, which means they're interested in them. No, they just worked them out. That doesn't necessarily mean that they've concluded that they like them. Everybody said, well, they went to work them out. Well, yeah, you go to work them out to find out information. They didn't tell you they liked them. They just went to work them out.

And we right ahead jump to the conclusion, oh, well, they must like them. Yeah, that's interesting stuff. It's a lot of lying going on. And the other part of this season is how to manage your team. So you're sitting there trying to figure out, okay, if we draft this guy, this makes this guy available, and maybe I have more assets. And you're trying to, it's really a draft management question, just like the question for the Browns are, if we take a quarterback at one,

who's the best player left for us at four? If we took a player at four, who's the best quarterback at four? You've got to play all those things out in your mind, and you've got to lay it out. Like people say, well, don't draft the running back in the top 10. Well, you've got to draft management situation you've got to look at and say, well, what back would be there from

35 to 40 that I could get if I don't get this guy? If it's like a Darius Geist or someone like that from LSU. You've got to play it as if you were playing a pool game, and you were going to make this shot into the, you know, say you're going to hit the eight, the nine ball into the corner pocket, but you got to bring the white ball back to where you want to hit the three. That's what teams are working on now.

If I get to hear, I do that. I mean, that's what the Patriots are working on. Hey, we're sitting here. We're three shots ahead of where we are right now. And that's the only, and that's, you prepare for that now, not when you're sitting there on the clock. Let's talk about a guy that's trying to prepare for his future and figure out his contract situation. That's Kalil Mack, obviously, you know, the face of the defense for the Oakland Raiders. He might be the youngest guy on the team by now.

The time Johnny Gruden's done with that team. Exactly. He's going to be the youth movement. He's looking for $65 million guaranteed in his contract. He's obviously saying that he is the face of the pass rushing system there with the Raiders. Well, Grim got 100 million guaranteed. So maybe Gruden can give them something, you know, maybe pass them over. Gruden got $100 million guaranteed. Look, you know, I mean, the key thing is they're hard to find. I mean, let's face it. You can't replace it. The one thing we've learned about the cap, there's not enough good players to pay. So they're going to have to pay the guy, and they've got, you know, they're going to have to figure out a way.

to maneuver their cap around, and they need to do things to help this. You know what I find fascinating about the Raiders is the Marquette King thing. You see the Bruce Irvin commentary going on about them, how Bruce Irvin's like. And apparently this came from a Pro Bowl situation where he took a picture with Akib Talib, and they were making fun of Michael Crabtree because he, like, grabbed his chain or something like that, and apparently that split the locker room there with the Raiders last year. That's apparently what the rumor is. That's why he's all upset at it.

But then they just cut, I mean, that's like one of the best punters in football, right? Am I missing something here? Well, now he's going down to the Broncos. He's in Denver. Yeah, yeah, yeah, which is the whole point because he was with Talib doing that, so they were upset. It was like an AFC West kind of rivalry thing. But Talib's not Denver anymore. No, of course.

Delebe is down the NFC. I mean, could you imagine this guy up in Maha? Yeah, he's got a lot of character. And apparently they were saying that who was a quarter, Cordero Patterson, went on the radio and said that he was a problem in the locker room last year because of the situation that he was a little bit of a diva, quote unquote. Well, it has to be, right? Because there's no way.

It's hard for the punter to be a diva. That's tough. If Johnny Hecker's over there acting like an asshole, he's probably going to get kicked up. But to me, that's why I thought the Irvin thing and I think the Khalil Mack thing, I think there's a lot more going on in that locker room that love you bro is going to have to handle. John, you know, he loves you. Did I ever told me that? Yeah, he loves everybody. He loves everybody.

Just like Huey. Just like Huey loves everybody too. It's so good. That's what you want. Someone that loves everyone. That's ELE, everybody love everybody. Love you, bro. Yep, love you, bro.

Yep. Love you bro. Let's talk about another situation going on. in the NFL with Thursday Night Football. It is the end of an era. Did you like the color rush? I enjoyed laughing at the idea that that would draw more attention to the NFL. But the color rush jerseys are going away.

Did you see anybody bike? Did you like walk down a street and see a color rush jersey because people saw it on television? I think that was more of a, you know, if I saw it, I thought that person worked for the NFL or was like one of those models, you know, that they take the pictures with in the jerseys and send out on promo cards and stuff. I just never understood. I never seen a normal person in color rush jersey. Like it was really kind of a fan.

like the color, the TV like was like, you know me, right? Yeah, like, you know me. Like, I like traditional uniforms. Like, I just, like, really? They were going to, you're a millennial, so you have to tell me. You have to give me the answer to this. They thought that we were so cheap that, you know, they try to take the Oregon model of, oh, these kids like flashy uniforms.

Let's give them some flash. And then they just, you know, through a whole, you know, line of painted, colored, weird uniforms in our face. It was very strange. Really bad. I don't think it really hit with the market. I think they, I hope they do get away with it. I mean, because, I mean, to me,

it really wasn't good on the television. It made the games seem like... Thursday night football is just tough. You know, after a Sunday getting all those guys out to play Thursday night football, we know it's tough. It's very tough. It's going to be hard. And then if you give them a new uniforms, that's supposed to motivate them.

But now Fox has the games, they're going to want really good... They paid a ton of money. They're going to want good games. So, you know, I don't know if you could... It's hard to do those Thursday night games. I mean, hopefully as they get going, they can do some of them with teams off a buy. So you play, you know, and then you have a Thursday. So that...

That's what they've tried to stagger that out, but it has a... quite worked out. It's hard to do for 32 teams. It's really hard to do, but I mean, I'm glad they're playing favorites. I'm glad they're getting rid of it. I'm glad they're getting rid of it. Have you studied all these quarterbacks yet? What do you mean? In the draft? Yeah. I mean, a little bit.

Who's your favorite? Not like you. I'm not watching tape in my free time. I wish I was. I want to be. Maybe one day. I need to get the tape. They need to send me the tape, Lomarty, and then I can do that. Well, you know, YouTube's always good. That's true. I mean, yeah, I watch the games. I don't have the practice tape of Mason Rudolph, but I do like Rudolph a lot.

Do you really? Yeah, but I know the big thing because we can't like Big 12 quarterbacks anymore. That's what makes me, it's fascinating. Baker Mayfield is on some people's the number one player in the country. And I just don't understand how you can take that and make it that because the Big 12 is a pillow fight. I mean, let's be real honest. Yeah, that's why my eyes have deceived me before, you know, I thought Whedon may come in at one point and at least do some proper things. Just because I like baseball.

I like baseball players that play quarterback. I just like arms. Like Rudolph, he's got a cannon. He's got an arm. You know, one thing I think about quarterbacks, there's an instinct that. have and it's an anticipary it's an anticipation of a throw that they have to make and they can't throw the ball when the guy is out of you're thrown to a spot right and a lot of these guys in this Oklahoma state this Oklahoma offense is there's really it's pretty easy they free access as

you like to say it's free access it's open so like I watch Rudolph and is it Randolph or Rudolph right Rudolph okay I watch Rudolph and when the game speeds up I don't the key speeds up and I think it's harder for him and I think he has a hard time doing it just like I think when Mayfield has to play against Georgia like I really think if you like Mayfield you got to sit down and watch that Georgia tape and really say watch Lorenzo Carter go against him because that's that's every single D& in the NFL that's right watch Smith watch all those watch the speed of the defense Rokot Smith's one of the best players in the draft yeah I think he's got to be a top tip pick we're going to talk about him a lot he's one of the best players in the draft I mean like

how he's not in the top five conversation I have no idea I love it it's good it's good for Those teams you have the 8-9 pick. Like, how is he going to be the 8th? Like, you can't find a draft where he's the 8th player. Like, you're going to take a running back over this guy? You're going to take Josh Allen over this guy? You know, yesterday I did a bunch of videos here for The Ringer, and they, like, the Josh Allen conversation is, like, hugely split.

Like, there's people violently against Josh Al. Now, I know he won Mr. Congeniality at the Combine, right? Everybody loves him. And he had that nice 40 time. He had, like, the third fastest 40. Everybody loves him. Of course, you know. But, like, we think we can fix accurate.

It's like a jump shot. It's like we think you can fix a jump shot. It is what it is. They are who they are. And I just think to me, like there's, you know, Josh Allen is going to have to prove that he can make plays when the game speeds up. And I know he went to the senior bowl and had a great senior bowl. But to me, that would scare me. He would scare me. Yeah. We're going to take a quick break to get a word from our friend JJ Reddick about his podcast. And we're going to come back and do some quick stories. This is JJ Reddick here to talk to you about the JJ Reddick. podcast, part of the Ringer Podcast Network. Currently, I play in the NBA for the Philadelphia 76ers, but you may know me from my previous teams, the LA Clippers, Milwaukee Bucks, and the Orlando Magic, or from my college days at Duke University. Being a professional basketball player, I have a great opportunity to talk to a lot of

interesting people, and the podcast is a place where I can share those conversations with you, the listener. On my show, I sit down with athletes, celebrities, and a variety of other special guests. If you haven't already, please subscribe to the JJ Reddick podcast on Apple Podcast, Stitcher, or wherever else you get your podcasts. And we're back. We're going to do Word on the Street, just stories that are floating around in the world.

First up, New England Patriots owner, Robert Kraft, we brought up earlier. He is on a campaign right now. He is trying to defend the rapper Meag Mill, which I first have to ask you. He went to visit him, right? Yeah, yeah. Like, I've never heard one of this guy's songs.

You never heard it? No, I was going to ask you what your favorite Meek Mill song is. I don't have one. I don't know. I'll put on my Spotify. I have no idea. I'll send you some songs. I figured out this year that Coach K, Mike Cheskeshesey, as you know, the Duke basketball coach, his favorite song is.

One of your personal favorites. Yeah, yeah. Meat Mill, Ready or Not is what he listens to before games, which is one of the funniest things. If I could ever picture something, you know, I can't picture Mike. No, not at all. Harry Jowell's told me that. Although I will say this, though, if you, you know, you're going over on this long flight from, or you fly, how are you going from here? I'm flying from here to Germany and then Germany.

Oh, okay. So that's a really long flight. Yeah, it's like 14 hours, something like that. You should download the Jay-Z David Letterman interview. Oh, yeah, yeah, from Netflix. You should definitely do that. I watched like five minutes of it. I didn't get through it.

No, it's outstanding. And you learn a lot. I mean, I think Jay-Z is one of the most fascinating people of all time. Sean Carter, the man, yeah. Yeah, I mean, I think he's incredibly interesting. I think he's kind of insightful. And so I think that, like, to me, it gives me a perspective of rap that was different than anything I really ever thought.

So, but how does Kraft get in this guy's world? So basically Robert Kraft said, He's an amazing young man. He learned about Meek Mill through some of the players. He said it's really bad. I know some of our players in the NFL have talked about this. I see it firsthand. It's just wrong.

And for those that don't know, Meek Mill, November 2017, he violated his probation for failing a drug test and traveling out of the region. He's, you know, in Philadelphia. So now he's got sent us two to four years in prison. So Robert Crafts is just speaking out. But it was more about the headline itself. I never thought I would see Robert Craft speaks out for meekmill.

It's good. It's bringing everyone together, you know, because that's a very polarizing topic. I think that's good. Yeah. It's good for Robert Kraft. But what did he do that, what was his crime that got him in prison and then he came out? It was a lot of like over time, like more violations on probation.

And the original crime was like a battery charge a long time ago. It's just a compounding effect. You know, once you get institutionalized, you continue to infiltrate through the system. So I think that's what Robert Kraft is standing up for. Wow. Good for Robert Kraft. That is good for another weird story or another interesting story as far as things you never thought you would in the NFL world.

Aaron Rogers gives the Dalai Lama some Packers swag. That's great. You think it'll wear it? I just, I don't even know. Those are the two strangest headlines I think I've ever seen. Was he with Dana Patrick over there?

Yeah, maybe. I don't know what he's doing, but apparently the Dalai Lama is now going to support the Packers. No Jordy Nelson, but they do have the Dalai Lama. Right. And they have the new rule where, you know, the Deskatch is now a catch,

so they can't take that game back, even though the rules have changed, right? Yeah, so I mean, maybe, maybe. They can go back. And Aaron Rogers's mind, he can say that. It's going to be interesting to year because I think the one thing about the Packers where they are in terms of what their offseason has been compared to where the Vikings are. The Vikings are the lead dog, right? So they got cousins and they've improved. They got Sheldon Richardson. It's going to be interesting to see how the Packers kind of catch that, knowing they have their best player back. And I will say this. I follow Stefan Diggs, you know, and all the social media stuff. And he was working out the other night. It was about 6 o'clock dusk and wherever they were. And it was Kirk Cousins throwing balls to Thieland and Diggs and all those receivers in Minnesota were all hanging out. with each other. I thought that was pretty interesting. Yeah, it's good camaraderie. This is a good sign if you're a Vikings fan. These guys are trying to run it back and do something in the NFC. Another story

that popped out, Richie Incognito says that he is going to retire from the NFL and from professional football due to stress. It's the first time I've seen this. Yeah, I mean, maybe he can go see Dr. Melfi or something. I mean, that's, I've never heard of it. Go see Dr. Drew get back in the TV world. There you is right down the street here. Absolutely. Dr. Phil, too. Hey, Dr. Phil. Yeah, Dr. Oz, whatever, doctor. I mean, like, I don't think Buffalo expected it. I thought they just redid us deal in terms of they guaranteed. And he had a good season last year, and a lot of people were excited about it. He's talking about going the Hall of Fame, you know, so that's kind of a surprise

move. He quit. Jonathan Martin got into trouble. Remember that Jonathan Martin and him were all in the same thing and that's kind of had to fall in the Miami. That was a very dark story with Jonathan Martin. Yeah. And so it's interesting that all this is coming.

But Buffalo, see, that's the other team I think that's going to be fascinating in the draft is Buffalo is really what their true intentions are and where they're going and how they're going to handle this because they've got AJ McCarrant and where are they going with the quarterback and what splash they want to make? I mean, they didn't collect all these assets to just sit back and watch and they know the Patriots are 23 so they know they got to make sure. And you as a general manager, you got to make sure you know and you're in constant contact with all the teams because all it takes is one team that you don't really deal with that they can slip ahead of you and you lose your guy. That's what I think makes this draft so fascinating.

It's because the quarterbacks are over-evaluated and some of these teams are Don't need quarterback. They're going to get like a Rokon Smith at 7 or 8, and they're going to be like, oh, my God, this is the greatest player we ever got. And then we're going to look back on this draft and say, wait, hold on, time out. They just got a really good player. Why? See, one of the things we don't do a good job of is evaluating the draft as an entirety.

Bill Walsh used to hate this statement. Scouts would always say, it's a bad draft, right? And Walsh would go crazy. We only need 12 players. Like, it doesn't have to be a bad draft. But to a degree in fairness to the scouts, there are some drafts that are really just not very good. Like there's just not a lot of good players. Now, we're over-evaluating the quarterbacks in this draft because as we talked about last

week, it's been a drought of quarterbacks. There's 12 teams need quarterback, and that doesn't count Jacksonville, doesn't count Cincinnati. So that's 12 teams plus two that really do. So there's such a desperate need for quarterback, so they're nationally going to be over-evaluated, and they're going to be over-valued. And I think that this draft has got some really good players in it, and it's going to move them down because of the quarterbacks and because of all the teams that need it. And if you're Chris Ballard and you, I know, I know Andrew

Lux hasn't thrown a ball yet. I get that. I want to talk about this press conference. Did you see the Andrew Luck press conference? Did you see his conversation? I mean, he was very, I mean, he's still do it. He quoted Shakespeare. Yeah, he's still doing the very, the situation where, you know, he's like, I'm not

going to say where I'm at. It's a private situation. I'm going to work on this on my own. I won't even tell you if I've thrown a football. Do you automatically go into the Andrew Luck impersonation since you've heard Bill Simmons do it. Oh, I can't do it. I wish I could. I just, I've watched this whole

press conference. I've never seen someone sidestep every single question. He's brilliant. He's amazing. This guy should be our president. He should. He's smart enough. He's reading Shakespeare, obviously.

And every single time they try to corner me just start laughing, which makes everyone in the room feel light, even though it was a serious question of like, have you thrown a football in a year and a half? And he's like, oh, what, you know? I don't have to question. They were very, they were very honest and open with the people they interviewed for their head coaching job about where luck was. And nobody seemed to think it was going to be that.

much of a hurdle. A hurdle. It's going to be a hurdle, but it wasn't going to be an instrumental holder. And the fact that he's not throwing yet, does that worry? I mean, look, nobody really knows where Peyton Manning was with his neck. I mean, I was told early in the process when he was down at Duke throwing. With Cutcliffe, yeah. He could really throw five yards. Yeah, yeah. That's what, yeah. There were people there that saw that and thought we were very concerned. So, like, I think we need to temper this what he said. And I'm sure he's probably not telling the whole truth, you know, as we talked about before, there's a bunch of levels of truth. He did have one little slip where he said that he was working on a regiment and he came

back too fast and that was a mistake. So now he wants to save himself so he doesn't rush back too quickly. So there could be something that happens between his last game in that January 2016 where he was rehabbing, kind of got a little, you know, to trigger happy, came back a little quickly and now he's really trying to wait until he's 100% ready. And I would say to fans all the time, like watch a team's actions. Don't watch what they say. And luck says this, but Indianapolis moved from three to six. If they were worried about luck's long-term success. They'd be talking to Darnold.

They'd bring those guys around. They'd have to show their hand. At some point, you've got to show your hand. At some point, as Al Davis used to say to me all the time, hey, kid, you've got to have to play in the game. And who's to say this wasn't a great decision with the Colts? I mean, we saw the Spurs do this before, where you just say, hey, we don't have our guy.

Let's just sit down and we'll get a nice draft pick. We're bringing an asset to our team, and now we're moving forward. Exactly. I mean, that's how they get Tim Duncan. I mean, let's race it. So, you know, so I think you've got to watch what their actions are, and their actions don't indicate they're panicking or worried about this. Like, they feel like he's going to come back. Even him in the press conference, I know he's talking about him sidestepping questions.

It wasn't like a concerned or an anxiety about him doing that. It was just for whatever reason, they're trying to contain this whole situation just to, I mean, I think it's honestly to keep people on the outside to have no idea what's going on, keep on their toes. I think that's what you want to do. I mean, unlike Huey headlines, you don't want to tell everybody what we're doing. Speaking of people telling everybody what they're doing, Jerry Jones and the Dallas Cowboys have put it out to the world that Des Bryant will come in for a meeting on Friday. They're trying to figure out his situation. There was another report earlier in the week that said Des Bryant is adding more tricks to his game. He's got this guy, this route expert.

I read this today in the Dallas Morning News or somewhere. That is the story. Like, who is this guy? Like, I want to be a route expert. He's the George Whitfield of route experts. Like, I want to be that. Me too. Don Henley's song expert.

I can sketch some route trees. Look, then I read the thing, well, he's bad at the top of the route. Just watch the tape. He's horrible at the top of the route. I've been talking about it for two years. And where's the clapper and all this? Isn't he supposed to be some quarterback guru? He's supposed to be some like.

And the thing I find interesting is Jerry has waited so long to do this to go in and have a contract that he's lost all the. So say Desda agrees to take a pay cut. Yep. Right? Well, the cap room that he's getting, maybe he's going to use it for DeMarcant Lawrence. I don't know, but he lost the time to do this meeting

was before free agency started so that you either you have leverage. Either you take this deal or I'm going to sign this player for that. Cameron Meredith or something like that. Okay, I'm going to sign this player for that but to do it now, Des has all the leverage.

And he knows that because he has to be their guy now. They didn't go sign anyone else. Yeah, like I don't understand it. Look, I know they were in the... Unless I think Hearns is that guy, I guess. I mean, I know they're in the Bahamas hanging out with Jimmy Buffett the Jones family and I wish to hell I was in the Bahamas hanging out with Jimmy Buffett too. You know, I mean, I'm the son of a son of a sailor. I mean, I wish I was. But I mean,

at some point you got to like, if you're going to be the GM of the team, be the GM of the team, right? And another bone I got to pick with Jerry Jones, who I have the utmost respect for. I think to me, this league wouldn't be anywhere where it is today. It's Jerry's the world. Right. Look, the guy who buys, like, Jerry Richardson's going to sell this team for $2.8 billion. they should thank Jerry Jones for that because all this escalation is because of his ability to market and sell. And the value of these franchises, which is the most fascinating thing that never gets talked about in terms of the cap and in terms of players wanting more money. If you bought, Jeffrey Lorry bought the Philadelphia Eagles for $225 million, and let's just say he could sell that team for $3 billion today, where Robert Kraft paid $164 and he could sell it for $3.5.

that equity, that value that he built up in that franchise, the players really have a lot to do with that. Belichick has a tremendous amount to do with that. I mean, Kraft could give him $100 million as a going away gift. And it still wouldn't affect the value of the – we don't talk about the value of these franchises, how the players have increased that. We just talk about how they want to attach their wages to the TV contract. And that discussion is a whole other thing. I mean, yeah, that's great. But what about some of the value of your franchise?

Like, if it wasn't for us, you wouldn't have this value. Yeah, it's not $3.5 billion if you don't have, you know. If you don't have all these players, right? And Jerry's added that value. But for Jerry not to put Jimmy Johnson in the ring of honor is ridiculous. Like, to me, that's what's so bad about the league. Like, we have these petty fights with people that like... Personal grudges end up affecting professional legacy.

Like Jimmy Johnson, A, belongs in the Hall of Fame. He belongs in a lot of other people that have gotten in there. Don't get me started on who's in there that don't belong. B, B, how is he not... in the Hall of, but not only is he not in the Hall of Fame, he's not in the Ring of Honor. Like, what more does Jimmy have to do? And some of these guys' careers have been made because of Jimmy. And I mean, look at his coaching tree.

His coaching tree, what he did, personnel-wise, his ability to utilize the draft, trading down. Hell, the whole draft chart, the value of the draft chart, Jimmy was the guy responsible for a lot of that, you know? It's like he understood the value, just like when you play chess, Take Frazier, the board has value of spaces of the board, each spot of the board. has values. And so, you know, that's how these grandmaster chess players understand they see like the Queen 4 spot has certain value. You know, it's the same thing of trading today.

And so I think that, you know, Jimmy made that. Jerry didn't do that. Like, how he's not in the Ring of Honor? It's sad. We'll put him on the, we'll put him on the GM Street Ring of Honor for sure. Absolutely. He's been great on television for the past, you know, 10 years too. Yeah, I mean, Jimmy, Jimmy's a football personality. Obviously the you. He loves football. He loves football. And I'm reading this book, Culture Code now. It's about how to establish cultures. And it just reinforces. Like what Jerry did by hiring Jimmy, he gave him a culture.

And I think what we're missing in the NFL is these owners want to try to hire coaches like Frank Wright's and offensive coordinator, right? They want to hire the specialist. And I think really so many of these teams desperately need cultures. And the one thing college coaches can give you is culture. They bring that all to you right there on a plight. You mentioned Dabo Sweeney is a guy that brings culture. Nick Saban brings culture. Yeah.

Well, Nick. Urban Meyer brings culture. They bring it all. They bring it more than another thing. And I think for Jerry... Jim Harbaal brings culture. For Jerry not to acknowledge that, to me, is, I think, wrong. Well, he thinks he brings the culture himself by being there.

He is the celebrity. He is Walt Disney to the Dallas Cowboys, as we know, which is always fun. Quickly before we get out of here, I want to congratulate you on your 76ers, possibly 16 straight games. Tonight. Tonight, it would be the first time in history of a team is. won 16 straight going into the playoffs. Because Milwaukee gives them trouble because the Greek Creek can guard Simmons.

And is this first game back in also Matthew Delvedova is back tonight for the buck? So this is going to be a great matchup. These are two teams that are up and coming, probably the two perennial powers in the east for years to come. It's going to see what Milwaukee does, especially if they, you know, they've had to change. Jason kid's not there. They change the owner. Jabari will be gone this summer. Yeah, he'll definitely be gone.

Yeah, typical. Anyway, so it'll be interesting to see how they match up. but the Sixers who they play. Like, they struggle with the Pacers. I think Janice is going to guard Ben. He does. He guards him all the time. And it makes it very effective.

But I think Ben Simmons, just for the record, is great. He's the rookie at the year. I think he's great. He's a lot. With no jump shot, I think he's great. Yeah, exactly. Just imagine we learns how to shoot. And I'm going to go back to Philly next week.

I got a wedding. I got Dominic baptism on Sunday. I got a wedding. I got Springsteen on Wednesday when I won't do on GM Street. This is a nice week of vacation for GM Street. We're going to miss all the listeners. I will be back with a full report on what Springsteen like on Broadway. Not that you would care.

I would care for the listeners' sake. I want them to know. I am very excited to go see Springsteen on Broadway. Probably the height, besides Dominic's baptism, which Millie is very excited, and I'm very excited for. You can tell us number one priority there. Maybe Jesus. Always. This has been another edition of GM Street, part of the Ringer podcast, No Work.

We will be back in two weeks.