The Ringer NFL Show - Five Biggest Questions of the NFL Offseason

Episode Date: May 10, 2021

Kevin and Nora are joined by The Ringer’s Kaelen Jones as they try to answer the biggest questions for the rest of the offseason (3:35), including where Aaron Rodgers will play next season (26:00), who could be the next big-name player traded (45:40), the impact of a 17-game season (54:00), and more. Hosts: Kevin Clark and Nora Princiotti Guest: Kaelen Jones Production Assistant: Isaiah Blakely Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

It's basketball season and we've got you covered. The Ringer NBA show breaks down the latest and greatest around the league five days a week. Check out the Ringer NBA show on Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. It is the Ringer NFL show, part of the Ringer podcast network. I'm Kevin Clark, joined today by an all-star cast, Nora Princiotti and Kailen Jones. Nora, what's going on? Not much, Kevin. Had a delightful Mother's Day weekend.

I saw my mom. We hung out. It was great. So I'm like, I've got all this great energy and I'm ready to go. Kalyn Jones moves into a new apartment in Los Angeles. He's frustrated because all of the gyms around him are boxing gyms. Kaelin, just join a boxing gym. I'll think about it.

I don't want to get punched in the face, though. I'm not a fan of that. You don't have to get punched. The point of joining a boxing gym is being able to say, hey, I was just at the boxing gym. Well, see, I want to be able to say I lifted a metal bar, you know? Like, as I explained on the last time, I was on rewritten. I'm a small dude.

I just want to be able to say I lifted a certain amount just to feel accomplished. Yeah, but with it, it, Kevin does have a point that if you do get into boxing, it comes with the benefit of equipment that you can like leave around your apartment. And then people comment on it when they visit you. And then you get a chance to bring up, well, I was just at my boxing gym. Oh, okay. Okay. It's kind of like how I have a Marysala Ali story. And I tell it all the time because it involves a boxing gym.

And I like to tell it because it places me in a boxing gym. right like that's that's the advantage to being a member of a boxing gym is when you have an anecdote you can see why I was in a boxing gym so that's just just some helpful advice so I was going to start here with DK Metcalf's 4A or re4A back into track but we had some late breaking news which is that Blaine Gabbard has resigned with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers super teams are killing the NFL it's unfair how good that it really is and you have to wonder when the NFL is going to step in Eric Fisher signs with the Colts for $9.4 million. Seems a little bit pricey for a guy where we're not sure what the health is, but it's one year should be fine and the Colts needed help there. What we're going to do, and I'm glad Kalen's here for this hopping on. It's been a minute since you been on our show, Kalen.

We've missed you. I miss you guys soon. Well, with both of us, but Galen and I did a show with Roger. With me, I know you guys have independently. I have missed Kalen. specific. I miss you, too, Kevin Clark. Thank you, Kaylin. Thank you. All right. All right. Enough of this.

We're probably going to have some pods about you, Nora, now, just for that. Caitlin and I are just going to do our own pods going forward for a couple of weeks. I'm sorry. I got territorial there. I just, I really loved potting with Kaylin and Roger, and I didn't want you to forget about it, Kevin. I would never forget about it, but I would also miss doing podcasts with Kaylon. I'm glad to see what we're going to do, because we're in a lull, what we're going to do, because we're in a lull, would we characterize it as a lull in the offseason right now? Absolutely.

I think it's a lull. Yeah. It's a lull. So because it's a lull, we're going to look at what the next two months have in store and what this offseason is going to look like and what the biggest questions are. What the storylines are going to be. And then we're going to answer them here. We're going to give you a little preview of the next few months of football because it's going to be the same storylines over and over and over again. And we're going to answer those questions.

And so if you wanted to, you can just opt out. You can just opt out of the next couple of months because we're going to give you these answers right now. We're going to start with the rookie quarterbacks because I think that when you look, you know, great way to change football is have a bunch of rookie quarterbacks come in. That's how people get fired. That's how people get hired. They get promoted. Franchises change because they hit on rookie quarterbacks. Franchises flounder because they miss on rookie quarterbacks.

First of all, the over under, there's a couple of sports books had this. The over under on rookie quarterback starting week one this season is 2.5. Kalyn Jones, is it over or under? I'm going to take the under because that would be Trevor Lawrence and Zach Wilson. Those are the only two that I could see like being day one immediately. As soon as we go into the season, those are the two that are starting for the respective teams. I don't know if Justin Fields, Mack Jones, Trey Lance, et cetera, are going to be able to either beat out their presume the income at starters or whether or not the coaches will want to push them too soon.

So that's why I'm taking the under. Norprinciata 2.5. I think Kalin's reasoning is right. But I actually kind of take the over because I can see pathways both for Justin Fields, just because with apologies to QB1, Andy Dalton, like I don't see that happening, at least in the long term. I think he could very well start week one. But I'm not, I wouldn't rule it out.

Fields winning that job. The other one, And this is tricky because he's super high variance to me. I can see this guy sitting the entire year, but I can also see him starting week one is Mack Jones. I don't think that you can roll it out that he's just going to be better able to execute the kind of passing offense that the Patriots have been telling us they want to do. And if he's getting reps in training camp and in the preseason and he's better at that,

then I can see them saying, you know what, this is, we've been telling people with our actions all along, this is the type of offense we want to be. And we did what we needed to do to get the best out of cam that we could for a year. It didn't go great. If Matt gives them more as a rhythm, timing within structure passer, I actually think I can see that happening really quickly. But it's also Belichick who makes everybody earn everything.

So I can also see it taking the whole year. But I guess if you put those two together, I'll take the over on the basis that if I go one for two with those guys, I still get it. Here's how I think the next couple months are going to develop. So number one, obviously, Trevor Lawrence and Zach Wilson will be rushed to the starting job. Okay. I think that the, have you seen the Jets quarterback depth chart? It's James Morgan and Mike White.

Yep. Yeah. Congratulations, Zach Wilson on winning the starting job. I did see a quote floating around that was like, he's going to have to earn this. Well, I don't know about that, about that one. Okay. Like, that's not the Belichick. You got to earn it.

Zach Wilson will start week one Trevor Lawrence obviously both of those guys earned it by being the top two picks in the draft. Okay. So I think it's over because I think one of the three that we're talking about, Mack Jones, Justin Field to Tray Lance gets there. And I don't necessarily know which one it is. Peter King on Monday morning said that he would set the over under on Garoppolo starts at 10 in San Francisco. He would take the over. Matt Nagy has come out and said there's a lot of similarities between Andy Dalton and Alex Smith. Obviously, Matt Nagy was in Kansas City for the, for the Alex Smith, the Mahomes transition

and said that if you kind of compare the personalities, compare the playing style, compare the way that that Andy Dalton processes things, that there's a lot of similarities with Alex Smith that maybe there could be a transition there. And then obviously with Mack Jones, the fact that Cam Newton is there, I don't necessarily think it precludes Mac Jones starting really early, but I also think that Mac Jones might be of those three, um, the lowest ceiling guy. Um, so I think that that complicates things. Um, I do think it's interesting, by the way, that Tray Lance has, when you look at the, the Vegas odds here, Tray Lance has gotten 35% of bets, a ticket percentage, uh, for offensive rookie of the year.

No one is even close to that. So Vegas and, and the betters love what Tray Lance is capable of. I think Lance is interesting because I saw Seth Galena say this PFF a couple weeks ago. I'm thinking about it a lot. It's not a scheme fit in San Francisco as much as a scheme expansion. And it's the type of thing Daniel Jeremiah has compared it to Steve McNair

a little bit. And I just, I feel like if you marry that with the fact that Chanahan said he's, quote, obsessed with what they can do in that offense, I think there's a situation where maybe if they see them obviously at a mandatory mini camp. They see them early in training camp and they say, wow, this really raises our ceiling. I think that might be the easiest way to get to a September start for Lance of those three. But I also think that barring a trade, I think Grappalo starts week

one. I'm with you just because of Jimmy. I mean, Jimmy, the main issue with Jimmy is the injury history, right? It's not that he's a horrible, horrible quarterback. I think sometimes it gets misconstrued. The thing with Lance, though, just to sort of play out what you're talking about here, is that the catch with him is the inexperience, right? So there is a huge incentive to give him reps. He's also known as an incredibly smart processor and a really fast learner. So that, additionally, they have all the incentive in the world to really wait the training camp preseason snaps in Tray Lance's favor. Jimmy doesn't need him. It's honestly, a risk with Jimmy, right? Because you're trying to keep him upright on two legs.

But if Trey Lance is getting all of that work, which I would, you know, Kyle Shanahan is certainly more than willing to be one of these younger coaches who doesn't feel like you have to do the reps and the preseason games in the way that they've always been done and it doesn't really matter in its preseason and who cares? Like I think he can use that to his advantage in this situation. but if Trey Lance is as build such a fast learner and starts showing what that ceiling is, then things start to get a little tempting. And I'm not saying it'll definitely work out that way, but just in terms of what you're talking about,

there's a really clear pathway to me in how he could just sort of wow them a lot sooner than you would sort of rationally expect just because the floor with Garoppolo, as long as he's healthy, is so high. Yeah, that's the other thing too. Like the rhetoric, I think, with Kyle Shanahan in that regard, really leans to that idea that, you know, he could go into Lance sooner than we expected because, again, like he mentioned his press conference whether, you know, it's just coach speaker not.

He said, we needed a starting quarterback. He felt that there were five different starting quarterback caliber prospects in the draft. And I would assume he wanted someone who was ready to immediately assume that role because, again, he expressed kind of frustration. with going back and forth with Garapolo, not knowing whether or not he would be healthy going into the season. So I was, I'm still hedging on the idea that Garapolo will be healthy

and will still provide that floor as Lance gets accommodated into the offense. I don't know what the offseason is going to look like as far as like preseason and training programs and whatnot. But assuming, you know, it'll be a normal case or even a little bit wound down, I think that I'd still lean Garoppel just for me. But like you guys are saying, You guys are making great points, and I wouldn't be shocked at all. Trey Lance is immediately thrown into fire, get the early reps and let them accommodate to the league sooner than later.

I'm so glad that we're talking about this because, so I was reading, Kevin Cole had a great piece on PFS. Yes, yes. I had the notes up. I have the notes up. It's a great piece. Okay, good. The race to cite that piece is on and Nora has won that race. And I have won it.

But Kevin, I'm glad that you have the notes up because this is one of those situations where, you know, he's using basically the threat. rest of the piece is that these rookie quarterbacks are entering pretty good situations. They will have pretty good supporting casts around them. And so the last draft with five first round quarterbacks was 2018. And only one in that group of five, Baker Mayfield, was going to a team that PFF assessed as having an above average support system of receivers and blockers. And this is where Kevin, you can jump in with some of your notes because what Kevin Cole was using to explain all this was a combination of receiving war and blocking war. And I am not smart enough to explain it all without bungling it. So I'm just going to say that everybody should either

listen to Kevin Clark's notes on this or just go read Kevin Cole's piece. But again, this group, all five of them are entering above average situations in terms of the receivers and the blockers that they have to throw to and to protect them. And what that means, hopefully, right, is that we get a clearer assessment of how good those picks are, how ready those players are, and how good those teams are going to be sooner. And it also may end up being sort of an incentive for some of the non-Trever Lawrence, non-Zack Wilson quarterbacks, the other three, to get playing time sooner. Because their teams, they have to figure this out because they're set up

relatively speaking better than some teams in analogous situations have been in the past to have their rookie quarterbacks, you know, at least be able to sort of show what they've got. Yes. So the Kevin Colpice basically makes the point that, and this is not, this first part is not exactly rocket science. The better supporting cast, the better the quarterback situation, the better the quarterback will be. And the point is made guys like Derek Carr or even Andy Dalton may not have survived a little bit of early hiccups earlier in their career if they weren't put in in a good situation where the talent around them could at least prop them up in some situations. And the point is made that someone like Sam Darnold coming in a situation with terrible

weapons and terrible offensive line, that working is a low probability event. The guys in sort of the quadrant there where they come in and in the first three years, they have a bad line and a bad receiving corps and they succeed. It's extremely rare. Matt Ryan is one of those people who was early on had success. Although, listen, as the point is made, Tony Gonzalez comes in and needs. year two and the building starts there and eventually, uh, you know, within three years, he was having a lot of success and was considered probably a top 10 quarterback pretty early in

his career. But in the first year, there was some struggles there according to PFF. But then that quadrant there with Arnold, it's your Brandon Whedon, Josh Rose and E.J. Manuel Blaine Gabbert, the aforementioned Blaine Gabbert, already two Blangabber references in this podcast. Um, but the point is made that, that the five guys who came into this class actually have better situations than most of those quarterbacks. even someone like Trevor Lawrence is coming in with the first overall pick to a really bad Jaguars team is actually set up a little bit better when you look at the actual talent on that team according to PFF.

The fact that Mac Jones, so Mac Jones actually has the best supporting cast according to these metrics when you look at Hunter Henry, Johnny Smith, Nelson Aguilor, Kendrick Bourne. Listen, some of those were maybe overpays infragency, but actually does sort of cobble together a nice little weapons cabinet if you're if you're Mac Jones and you're starting your. one. So I do think it's interesting that all, there's no real disaster zones for any of these quarterbacks. I would say with Justin Fields, he's the most intriguing guy for me. Yeah, totally great. You start to hear about the toughness and that keeps coming up in interviews and how much toughness there is. For a guy like Justin Fields for me, a lot of this is, okay, it's not just going in and saying, I'm a good quarterback. I'm going to be a good quarterback for the bears. This is like going into a haunted house and trying to get all the ghosts out, right? And everybody

keeps saying, well, guess what happened to the last? It's like you go in, oh, guess what happened the last guy who was in the haunted house, right? Oh, you don't want to know. Okay. And it's been 50 years of the haunted house. Okay. This has not been a good situation with the bears. And by the better get a lot of those ghosts out pretty quickly or the guys that brought you into the haunted house are probably not going to be there anymore. Well, the guy who runs the haunted house doesn't have a long contract. Okay. And the guy above that, who oversees the guy who runs the haunted house is also on thin ice. The ghosts are not happy. I'm not even sure what the ghosts are in the situation, but somebody's not happy. The ghost are not happy. So scheme wise, I feel like Negi can make this work,

but this is also, there's just another level of this. You know, you've seen, I've seen a couple people reference to fact that that Negi ran more kind of wide zone play action stuff than he did in the last couple of years. But this is not just a football event. As we said, this is a haunted house. I think that, again, Andy Dalton can work as a sort of mentor, but you need to get Justin Fields on the field at some point. Mike Sando this week said that there were some executives who were a little bit worried about the tackle situation after cutting Charles Leno and going with the rookie in that spot. Maybe that doesn't set them up for immediate success. But I actually just think that there's something there with the Bears. Dan Pompei wrote a really good piece, but there's a couple

weeks ago. And just the different things he could do, he had a scout comparing him to Donovan McNabb, who obviously Andy Reid had success with in Philadelphia, and that there's some skill set overlap there. But the other point that Pompei makes, which I thought was interesting, was it was a scout talking about Mahomes and how Fields isn't Mahomes, but Mahomes had a such a different skill set that you had to do things in the offense that were particular to him and you're going to have to do the same stuff with Fields because he has such a dynamic skill set. So I'm intrigued to see where Negi goes on this, but I also believe the fact that the toughness I keep hearing about with Justin Fields is going to matter at some point

because becoming the guy who breaks the curse is going to take some level of toughness. I think that the Mac Jones thing to me is fascinating. Nor you know the Patriots better than anybody. Mack Jones going through training camp, learning that offense, which I understand is still as complicated as there gets from an offensive system. When does Mack Jones start? And what does he do as a young player kind of learning everything, getting everything thrown at him in August, September, even October? Well, so this is where I'm saying that he's the guy that to me, there's the highest variance with when he could start. Because genuinely, and, you know, sorry to cop out of your question, but I can genuinely see him sitting the entire year.

Me too. And I can genuinely see him starting week one. And what it's going to depend on is, okay, so we talk about the Patriots offense and the playbook and all of that. The playbook is the size of war on peace. Right. They are never using all of it in any one given year. It is two, it has been formed over decades. And they actually, because of just sort of the brain drain that's gone on there, they're a little bit less equipped to be doing this all the time right now than they had been in the past, but usually what's happening is that people there who've worked together for a long time are very good at going back and forth and saying, oh, hey, you know, remember in 2006 when we did this against this team and it worked in this particular way? What if we do that, but we tweak it this way and

blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And all of that institutional knowledge has given them an edge dozens and dozens of times. And there will be some of that to a degree because that's just what they operate. But my general point here is that they're not. going to be beholden specifically to any one thing because it's how they've done, how they've run an offense recently. They will find the things that they think make the most sense for the personnel that they have. Now, that's challenging in some ways right now, right? Because Cam Newton and Mack Jones are very different quarterbacks. But what's going to happen is that they're going to zero in on what they want out of their passing game. And that's going to be

pretty similar for for what they're asking both of those two guys to rep during practices, whether that's OTAs, whether that's training camp, whether that's, you know, we're into September and October and November. I don't think that what's asked of those guys just as like in the normal passing game is going to be all that different. And that's the area where because as a pure passer, Cam Newton was not very good last season, if Mack Jones is better, I think that will be more important to them than what Cam can give them as a runner.

I think they would rather, and I think, you know, look, Mac Jones fell to them, but I think they're very happy to draft him. I think what they have told us is that they are happy to be a timing, rhythm, short passing, accuracy-based offense. And if they can be that and be a successful one with Mac Jones, they will embrace that and they will go for it. But if it's a difference of sort of, sort of, 10% one way or another, that could mean that just the added athleticism and ability to

test defenses differently in the run game that Cam Newton has, you could be pushed to that direction if Mack Jones is like 10% worse as a pure passer, right? But if that goes the other way, then I think they're just going to say, this is who we are, this is who we want to be, let's go. So that to me is the most genuine like competition. in some ways. Because I don't know that, for instance, like Lance and Garoppolo doesn't really have all that much to do with Garoppolo.

It's just about, like they will eventually, unless something very bad happens, turn things over to Tray Lance, they drafted him with the third pick. That is obviously what they're going to do. Jones is like a little bit more in that middle territory where it's like, all right, 15, super happy. But we'll see if he has to sit an entire year.

That's not a huge issue. and it just to me is going to depend on whether or not he can distinguish himself quickly as clearly a better option to run their passing offense as Cam Newton. But I think they will be operating in largely the same system as it pertains to that part of what they're doing. And then there will be plays for Cam in the run game

that Mac doesn't run. But largely what they will be asked to do will be similar. Carolyn Jones, let's get this topic over with this question. At the end of year one, at the end of year one, not beyond that,

when we're talking about how these five quarterbacks were drafted, what is the first thing we're going to talk about, who was overdrafted, who was underdraft, or whatever it is,

we're saying, man, blank, really messed up. What are we talking about in January? Oh, in terms of who messed up? I mean, I hate to say messed up, but I think Zach Wilson, again,

I know we're talking about how favorable these situations are. But, man, I mean, you're asking him to elevate the franchise, and I'm not sure of year one. It's going to look a little iffy. I think there's going to be a lot of growing pains for Zach Wilson in New York, as much as I believe in the brain trust there and even Zach Wilson's abilities. I think it's going to be a little bit of a growing process. Can I make a statement that's not important at all? Have you ever heard this podcast?

Great, thank you. I need, so there's a tendency when people talk about quarterbacks, athletes in general, in the New York City market, there's this idea that, oh, there's, there's all this pressure, it's a huge media market, you know, he's going to be, it's going to be so tough when he has to look at what is on the back page of the tabloids every day.

I'm sorry, but Zach Wilson does not read the New York Post. Like we need a different He was born in 2000 They all live in like Florham Park New Jersey. Yeah. It's not like they're they live in Times Square. I'm not saying that for like

Mike McCagnan, that wasn't a thing. But for Zach Wilson, it is not a thing. Zach Wilson is like on TikTok. He doesn't care what's on the best. I just, I need, we need a different example. I'm not saying that there's not a lot of added pressure to be in a huge media market. I'm not saying that living in the trium

state area is not overwhelming for some people. I'm not saying that some people just don't like it. But that specific stand-in as, you know, illustration of why it's difficult for some athletes to work in or near New York City is just not working anymore. And it needs to change. I don't think it's necessarily like Zach Wilson is going to care about what's on the tabloids or, you know, what the New York Post is saying and all that.

I'm trying to live with you. The Jets. Yeah. I just think from the abyss is harder. again pleasing the New York Post. Like, I completely agree. I completely agree. But when we're all in the same page.

It's all the New York Post. It's just not all the New York Post, guys. I would say there's two things. Number one is that the internet and all that stuff and kind of the decline of newspapers has led to where you can be a superstar in any market. And I also think you can be hounded from a media perspective in any market. Like I do think that there's some, when you're not on Zoom,

when it's in real life, there is some. energy that gets spent when you walk into a press conference and it's 35 people there on a normal day, as opposed to three in some markets. But I think over Zoom and I think some of that step will change. I just think the media will become

less and less of a, this is a loaded word, but distraction, right? Like, distraction doesn't mean anything. It's just, it's just a blanket statement for anything a coach or a player doesn't like. But I do think that playing for the Jets is, or the Giants for that matter, or the Yankees or the mess becomes less of a big deal when there's not 100 people at your locker and we're in

that era right now. Okay. Next question. The biggest one of the off season. The reason I didn't want to lead this podcast with it was because we're going to lead every podcast with it until it gets resolved. The question is, what's going to happen to Aaron Rogers this summer? Nora Preciati?

So if I had to, so first of all, I have no idea. like sorry no clue but if I had to guess we'll be back next week I should have just started there but I don't know I just think sometimes like humility is important in these situations if I had to guess I think that he will play for the Packers next year and then that will be his last year I don't I now feel pretty convinced that Aaron Rogers will not finish his quarterbacking career in Green Bay but I do think that they are in this place where they are kind of each other's best options at least for next season. And I ultimately, if I had, if I had to guess, I would choose that that wins out. Here's the timeline. So veteran minicamp June 15th to 17th. And that's the first

mandatory activity that he can be fined for missing. They can find about $100,000 for missing it. Then in training camp, it's 50 grand a day. Before you get into preseason games, at which point for each missed game, Aaron Rogers would be fined a game check, which, which is like $800,000. So this gets expensive for him fast. And because of the new CBA, the Packers are not allowed to look the other way. That's set.

I think we're going to have a lot of conversations that use those dates and times as sort of markers of when something might happen. And that's natural and that makes sense. You know, it's a cliche to say like deadlines do deals or whatever. But the thing. thing that this got me thinking about is if we look

at the league over the last year and some of the major storylines, okay, we've got this one, we have what's happened where the Eagles have kind of fallen apart. We have all these examples where you look at organizations that the Eagles kind of fell apart. Completely fell apart. I was being made.

To just a tire fire in like three years. I'm about to make a point about like sort of emotional intelligence. So I was trying to be gentle. This is a really like, okay, football teams do things wrong all the time. But there are a lot of really, really, really smart people working really, really, really hard to make these teams good. And it's just fascinating to me that if you look at a lot of these situations where good things have gone bad,

what seems to be missing is just like people skills or the decision to use those people skills. Because I would bet that if Aaron Rogers in the pack, can find a way to work it out, which is probably in both of their best interests, at least for the next year, it's not going to happen right at one of those juncture points because that's when the tension gets ratcheted up, right? Like for this to work, somebody's got to find a way to sort diffuse the situation and come together and use just a little bit of emotional intelligence to figure out, okay, how do we put this aside for your benefit and my benefit and the benefit of all these other people who are on the team and then we can work it out later?

But it's, it's, that's really, I don't know what's going to happen with Aaron Rogers. And I don't know what's going to happen with the National Football League. But my, my statement on the matter is that we could all use a little bit more emotional intelligence. So I, the first time I ever went to Sloan in 2011 or 2012, the guy named Mark Worcantine was there. Warkington was the gym of the Nuggets for a while. Then he was with the Knicks, I think, at this point when he said it. And someone said to him, what would be your advice on becoming a front office? person in the future. And he said, okay, everyone now comes through college, take statistics

classes. They all study scouting. A lot of them have a niche. You know, oh, how do I translate this, this stat into this, whatever? But he said, the most important advice I can impart on you is to take an acting class. Because that is what you're actually going to have to do is you're going to have to get in front of people and just emote and just like get people on your side. And just like, get people on your And the most important thing is to just do that. And I think about that all the time as it comes to front office where it's like,

you can be the smartest person in the world, but at some point you got to convince people. And that's when it becomes pure theater at some point, right? And it's, look, I'm not saying that everybody who works in football is the smartest person in the world. But these are high power jobs. They pay a lot of money. There's a lot of glory.

Like, the issue is not a lack of intellect or ability or critical thought. Yeah, it's a lack of theater. I just said it. They should all go to theater camp when they're 15. Oh my goodness. Or you could just be, you know, a decent human. And just... I think my wife went to theater camp one summer.

All right. Let's pour ourselves out of this taskbone. Which one? Not one that he would have heard of. I went to theater camp in Vermont. Wow. Tough one. All right.

Kailen Jones. Aaron Rogers. What happens? I wouldn't be surprised by any outcome for one. I think I needed, like, the... Lay that out. too because I mean like that Mina Kimes piece from 2017

every time I hear Aaron Roger the name that sticks would be like the one where she opens up with the lead where you know after the Super Bowl he won Super Bowl and he's just kind of like what now and then everything that's unfolded since you know the drama with his family and then you know his public relationships

and whatnot everything that you know Aaron Roger stands for at least I know not the place he motions on the dude but I mean everything he's represented publicly suggests that you know his stance says I'm going to be happy with Jeopardy this is what makes me happy if you were to get it. And I'm not going to play football again.

I wouldn't be surprised. I also wouldn't be surprised if he's the starting quarterback for the Packers week one. And so like Norrisen, I don't know what's going to happen. I just know I wouldn't be surprised either way. Maybe like a little shock if something happened, but either way. I don't know what the outcome is going to be. But I'd lean him end up being the starting quarterback for the Packers next season. I lean that way too.

I think that first of all, I'd hate to be the guy putting together the sketch. this week and not having any clarity in that situation because they have Packers Chiefs and Packers Niners, both of which I'm sure will be primetime Sunday night games, whatever. And if it's Jordan Love against Patrick Mahomes, that that is not a Sunday night game. I've not been waiting all day for Sunday night for Jordan Love. Okay. So as you said, Nora, the deadlines are pretty clear now post-CBA. So we understand what that looks like. I don't think Aaron Rogers are going to lose sleep but we're missing mandatory minicamp, but I do think we want to start getting $50,000 per day fines in July.

If both sides are dug in by then, I think we might see a little bit more clarity. Jason Wildy, who is as plugged in as anybody in Green Bay, had a piece about this whole situation this week, and he said that the problem is communication. And the problem is that Rogers feels like he should have been in the loop, obviously, when before they select Jordan Love, you know, the fact that Kirk Cousins was aware

that the Vikings might take Kell and Mond. And the Packers did not tell Aaron Rogers that they might take a first round quarterback early enough is really interesting to me. And obviously Aaron Rogers told that story on Kyle Brandt's record podcast. You can listen to it about how it, you know, it took him quite by surprise. He thought maybe there was going to be receiver,

someone like Justin Jefferson, which at that point was rumored that, you know, if the Packers trade up for a wide receiver would be Jordan Jefferson. Rogers was not consulted when the front office released Jordy Nelson. The phrasing is the Gutenkins decided it was time to move on and then Rogers was told. So I guess there wasn't a meeting about that.

Then obviously the Jake Kumero incident, which we've talked about at Nausea here. The Jake Kumero incident, famous. The Jake, the Jake Kumar incident. But then you listen to James Jones, who's very close with Aaron Rogers, who I believe broke the Aaron Rogers extension. Please don't reveal your sources,

James Jones, on who told you that Aaron Rogers signed an extension. I think that, you know, John Coon talked about it over the weekend, former fullback. And I do think that there's some window for this to be fixable. I think that they're going to have to pay them a gobs of money. I wonder if Rogers wants control.

I've heard this a handful of times, you know, once control of the timeline. He doesn't want to be pushed out the door. And you wonder if that means a longer guarantee, then even the Packers are comfortable with, but then that's the tax you have to pay if you pissed off your quarterback. When you piss off a superstar, you have to pay for that in some way.

And Aaron Rogers is not going to let them out of this easily. So I think it's interesting. I think Peter King called it the calm before the storm because it doesn't think anything is going to happen in the next couple of weeks. The Packers are dug in. Rogers is dug in. If I had to guess, I would guess that Aaron Rogers is playing for the Packers this year.

I would also guess just because of the way things are trending, I would guess he's the quarterback next year too in 2022 because I think Rogers is going to try to exert some control over the timeline and the situation. So that's sort of where I'm at with this. I think it's going to be fascinating. I think it's the kind of thing where it's just going to be kind of bombshells that come out of thin air as far as it's just going to be some random Thursday

and there's going to be some huge development that none of us saw coming, which by the way is kind of what, happened with this whole situation to begin with, which was we were floating around from January when they lost the NFU championship game until April. And then one afternoon chapter is like, I'm going to just completely break the news cycle. And then we saw what happened, right? And a lot of that, obviously, when you saw how many different reporters got so many different nuggets, all that stuff, a lot of that had to do with some coordination. But I also just kind of feel like this is just going to keep happening. There's going to be a day in a month where there's just totally new

developments. And every reporter has something, all that stuff. Aaron Rogers is one of the most media savvy quarterbacks in the history of football. He is so smart. He knows exactly how to play this, and that's how he will play it. And that's why this storyline is more fascinating than most, I think. Anything else for we move on? Yeah. So just the point that you just made about how good he is at doing this is really important here.

Because we've seen, okay, we've seen guys like Jamal Adams kind of go through these situations where part of what they're doing to try to change their situation, go to another team, get traded, get whatever they want, is how much. public pain can you inflict on the people who technically, by the letter of a contract that you signed, have leverage over you. And I can't think of someone who's better equipped to do that in Aaron Rogers, both because of his star power, but also just because he's really smart about this thing. Like, even something so simple as, okay, did you guys see him at the Kentucky Derby? I did. Didn't love the look. Didn't love the look. Yeah, it was an odd choice. A little dark.

Like I don't, you know, use a little color, which is very, very black. But he had the name tag that said turd-fergus. Third Fergus. Yes. Right? Yeah. It's brilliant. Like, that's actually kind of brilliant.

You're making this subtle reference in this event that's taking place three days after the bombshell from Schefter on draft night, which, by the way, and I'm not saying that, you know, I have any information to say that Aaron Rogers like orchestrated it this way. But they embarrass you on draft night one year. you embarrass them on draft night. Like, I'm just saying that's how it turned out. Right. Then three days later, he shows up in public and he's wearing this little subtle thing

that reminds everybody, hey, I have this other thing that I like. And it's clever. It keeps the news cycle going. Right. It kind of makes him, depending how you feel about Aaron Rogers, it's a little bit likable. It's a little bit like it can charm some people. And I just, look, for. From a football fan, someone who loves watching good football's perspective, I would rather they just work it out.

But from someone who loves drama, like Aaron Rogers trying to just sort of like inflict media pain on people, it is to an extent watching a master at work. I agree. So the church Ferguson thing is obviously a Celebrity Jeopardy Saturday Night Live, Norm McDonald reference. Yes. which unless you're, it's the kind of thing that is it wants a deep cut and not a deep cut at all, depending on if you owned like the Saturday Night Live 90s DVDs, as I certainly did.

Yeah, I just think there's a lot there. And I think that Rogers, Rogers understanding of the media is going to play into this. I think that a lot of times guys who are trying to force their way out or trying to win some sort of PR battle or are not as well equipped as Rogers are. And Rogers is. And I just,

I think this is going to be a fascinating kind of, I don't even know if you'd call it a Cold War. It's, it's, it's, have you guys seen Tenet? It's an ice cold war. Don't even know about it.

We didn't even know about this war until, until it happened, quite like Tenet. So anyway, that's it. It's going to be one of the most fascinating things to watch this summer. All right.

Next question. What is the biggest looming contract controversy? So the class of 2018 are coming up for extensions, and there's a lot of intrigue there. There's Baker Mayfield. There's Josh Allen. There's Lamar Jackson. There's other guys.

By the way, Aaron Rogers is not a free agent, but there's going to be a contract controversy there. Kalen Jones, we'll start with you when you think about the next wave of contracts. Where are you looking? I'm looking at Lamar Jackson. And it's not because so much that, the Ravens aren't going to commit to him. It's just so much that this sets a precedent because we haven't seen,

at least I can remember, where you've had a guy whose game is so predicated so much on his running ability. And, you know, we talk about quarterbacks and preserving them and how much, you know, we really over the past, like, past 15, 20 years, have kind of discouraged teams from looking at quarterbacks who put themselves in position to get hit because, again, like, they're, they're, their longevity is not going to be sustainable, presumably if they're getting hit. So I'm curious to see how much the Ravens are willing to invest in a player that they know,

who's built a little bit more thinly, is not, I mean, he's one of the best quarterbacks in the league, obviously a unanimous MVP player. But I'm just curious to see, like, what the Ravens end up doing in regards to giving him his money, because I've never seen a scrambling quarterback, a guy who, again, puts himself in his body in jeopardy so consistently, is going to be expected to get, you know, like Aaron Rogers money, pocket pastor money, we're in the top five guys money. So I'm very interested to see how that works out

and how the Ravens go about constructing the roster along with that too. Norprincey, I want to get your thoughts before I get into Lamar. I think I think Kaylin's right in the sense that those are all going to be sort of factors and pressures that end up influencing negotiations. At a certain point, though, I think that, Lamar is past the line where you really have a discussion in earnest about like, okay, quarterbacks are so expensive now. Like, how do we find the right sort of middle ground?

Like, he's a franchise quarterback and franchise quarterbacks get big extensions. And I think that is ultimately going to be the deciding thing here. So I think it's interesting because I was looking at the Spotrack market value tool, which I find interesting. And I went to Baker Mayfield. and maybe I just have 2017 brain, 2016 brain,

because I was thinking, okay, maybe Mayfield is a $25 million a year guy in a shorter deal because he hasn't, the last two years it hasn't been,

you know, franchise level guy, right? And Spochak has him at $35 million a year. And you start to think about it and you look at his comparables. Jared Goff,

33.5, two years ago, uh, Carson Wentz, 32. Just the price of doing business. It is just the price of doing business. And I asked Andrew Barry about this last season. And I said, hey, do you do you view this as a window where Baker's cheap and all that stuff? You could do other things. And he said, we just don't view that. Even though that's the narrative, we don't view that as an obstacle. And he just doesn't

feel like it's a big deal. I will say this about Andrew Barry. I've only talked, I don't know, 25 minutes total, whatever it was. The amount of overthinking he doesn't do is admirable. And what I mean by that is like you talk to certain GMs and I'll say, hey, what do you think about this? They're like, oh,

we've had 20 meetings about it and blah, blah, blah, blah. And part of that's admirable. Part of that's admirable being over-prey or whatever. When I talk to Andrew Barry about certain things, and the two examples are the Baker extension and the lack of information in the draft this year. Both times he was just like,

yeah, I mean, everyone's dealing with the same stuff. We'll figure it out. And I don't know. I don't mean that he wasn't blowing me off. I just really feel like, um, there's something where he is totally comfortable with any circumstances. And I feel like he's just a really good GM to the point that I think that whether or not they're paying Baker may feel $35 million a year or $5 million, whether or not you have every bit of information about a prospect in the world or none. Um, I think he's comfortable with any circumstances. And that's the vibe I get from Angie Barron. And that's why I think he's one of the best GMs at football. Now, as far as those quarterbacks go. So Spowtrak has Baker at 35, Lamar and Josh Allen

at 42. Gulp. And I, yes, that would be the natural inclination. So all of these guys were free agents in 2023. Okay. Obviously, the franchise tag can be extended three times. So that changed the value of things. But I think that you're going to see any, any, any, quarterback who's a quote unquote franchise quarterback is going to be worth around 40 million dollars now that's what's happening that's the result of the DAC prescott thing that's the result of the fact that the cap is going to rise and rise and rise uh everybody can see it comfortable with that DAC was four years 160 I think the next franchise quarterback is around there um you know listen Kirk cousins no one no one taught the world how good short quarter short contracts and the franchise tag could be more

than Kirk Cousins in his age of Mike McCarney. And you wonder if some of these quarterbacks might say, actually just give me two years and we'll figure it out. Or no tag or three years and no tag, whatever it is. You might see that from some of these guys. But I really do think Josh Allen, something like that, looking around 40. I don't know what Lamar's deal will end up looking like.

Again, Kailen, you made the point that the running quarterbacks are just value differently going forward. But if you're an MVP and you're still playing like it, I think right now you're looking at around $40 million. Just the way it is. We're not in the market for it, so we're fine. It's not my money. All right.

Nice question. And it's a big one. Any big player, other than Aaron Rogers, because we already answered the Aaron Rogers thing, be traded this summer, nor Prince Yon. Well, yeah. Yeah. So the big one is Julio Jones. Right? And Peter King had in his call him this morning that he thinks that 60-40,

Fulio gets traded by Labor Day. So that's one. And then, you know, let's, let's stay away from Deshaun because it's just not worth it. Then I think what you do is you look at teams that have guys at positions that they added to in the draft, right?

It's just one way to sort of identify some names. So the Falcons get Kyle Pitts. Does that mean that maybe Hayden Hurst is, is expendable for them. The Jets. They got a lot of receivers right now. James and Crowder is a nice, nice guy to have on your roster

if you're trying to get a young quarterback up to speed, but I don't know if you quite feel that way at $10 million. And when you're bringing in Elijah Moore, you're hoping for a bigger year from Mims, you've got Corey Davis. Maybe you start thinking, all right, if we get a good offer, if we can do a little bit better entering the last year of his deal

than we would do in the compensatory pick formula, then maybe that's worth doing. You know, I think you can look at the Saints roster and identify some guys that maybe if they can do better via trade than they would do in the comp pick formula if they lose guys because they can't afford to keep them, then that could make sense.

I don't know what Nick Foles' role is on the Bears roster anymore. So Adam Kaplan reported they tried to trade him and they can't. Tough scene for our guy, Nick Foles. that is tough. That is, that's not, it's not ideal. But, you know, and you know, I hate to see this happen. But training camp injury, like, whatever. The only thing worse than your team trying to trade you and not getting any interest,

is it being reported that no one wants you. Like that's, you hear back and it's like, oh, man, this sucks. I don't know, Kevin. I don't know what's worse than that. But yes. No, it's like, oh, man, this sucks. but then like everybody's writing about how just nobody wants you. Nobody wants you.

I think sometimes I always feel really bad for players when you hear that somebody found out about like some big life changing thing. Not necessarily a bad thing, but like a trade or whatever on Twitter. Yeah. It would be probably worse to just like be scrolling and see like, oh, I'm staying exactly where I am because they can't even find a bidder. Ah, good times on the old news feed. There's an all or nothing show about Tottenham Hotspur from last year where this guy who's a quite good player named Danny Rose once off the team and he's not really well. Broadway Danny Rose. Broadway Danny Rose.

So he wants off the team and he is, they're trying to find a bidder for him for either Pernamoover alone. And they were like, okay, well, you can go to Newcast. which is in north of England. And Danny Rose says to the guy who runs the team, he's like, well, did you ask, did you ask Milan if they would take me? And then it's a real heat check. And then the guy, and this is on camera

because it's like a reality show. It's like, I don't think that the Milan is an option right now. And they show him and his crestfallen. It would be the equivalent if, like, if there was a reporter and they were like, we don't want you anymore. And then you're just like, well, did you ask the Washington Post if they would hire me?

And they'd be like, well, I don't know about that. Anyway, Nick Foles is Danny Rose, is what I'm saying. All right, I'm with you on Julio. I too thought it was interesting. I keep hearing a second round pick from a lot of people is kind of where the bidding starts and we'll see what happens. I do think that the broader point I want to make about all of this stuff is that you know, Chris Greer said this, and he said it to me in the past, but, but he said it today

in NBC, where he was like, you know, it's a different age now with GMs and this is younger and things are, maybe it's the quote unquote money ball effect, which he says, he attributes a lot of it to, that there's just more aggressive general managers and that I kind of think with the exception of a handful of people, everyone's kind of available. We've seen that with the Rams where they're totally comfortable taking huge dead cap charges on guys. Teams are just okay taking big swings now. And so I don't think anymore we can look at the offseason or training camp or August or whatever and say, oh, only this person is on the trading block. I kind of think that you're going to see an expanding trading block because I just that that's just sort of the way there's just enough GMs who are okay.

taking the call on certain guys to where you might hear names that you wouldn't expect. I think that 99% of the top level of rosters are set right now. I don't think there's going to be another Julio Jones becoming available in the next couple of weeks. I'm just saying that I think that we all need to be prepared to kind of expand our minds on what's possible on the trading block, especially the season gets near because there's just a lot of GMs who are either their teams are in transition or they might blow it up, whatever it is, where we could see some interesting stuff. We're all on the training block

in this game called life. We sure are. We sure are. I feel like there's been a lot of life lessons in this podcast. I agree. All right. Last question.

Okay, so. Oh, guys. Okay, guys. I'm going to break news. So Tim Tebow was signing a one-year deal with the Jaguars. Yes. Yes. Yes.

Yes. Yes. As a starting quarterback, Trevor, Trevor Lawrence will sit for three years. I'm joking, by the way. He's going to be a tight end, right? Yes. It looks like that. Okay. Let's see.

This is hilarious. Let's see the news here. Deal will be official in the next week or so. He'll have a chance to make the team to reunite with his mentor and college head coach Urban Meyer. So I had heard some rumblings about this a couple of, well, after the initial report. And then basically Meyer sees Tebow, possibly best case scenario as a guy who can certainly kind of not necessarily implement his offensive system because certainly it's changed over the past decade.

But kind of establish, hey, here's what coach wants, kind of a vibes guy. I don't think that having Tim Tebow and training camp. I don't think having Tim Tebow in training camp is like the worst move in the history. football. I think it's fine. I think if they're trying to feed him the ball or something out of some weird loyalty, I don't think they're going to do that. But I'm saying if it somehow took away from the team, you could, you could hate this move. But I think this is okay. I think this is okay. I also think that Tim Tebow hitting the baseball after not being a baseball player in the minor leagues was a sneaky, uh, incredible accomplishment. Dorah, uh, I'm with you on that. I just think in general,

people don't understand how hard professional sports are. So yes, agree that that's a big deal. I do think that there's a possibility or even not a possibility. I would just like to thank Urban Meyer for inadvertently giving us the test case of whether or not we can do Tebow Mania 2.0 on the 10-year anniversary. It makes it easier. It makes it easier when we're doing the 10-year anniversary stories. Now get Tim Tebow. now that he'll be standing in a locker in Jacksonville.

Yeah. That's important. That's important. Basically, like, accidental fodder for media analysis, thanks to Tim Tebow and Urban Meyer, and I, for one, am here for it. Big for content and keeps the Jaguars in the news cycle because everyone forgets they went one in 15 last season.

I don't know what you're talking about. They have Tim Tebow now. They have Tim Tebow now. Everything is fine. All right. I'm sure we'll have more on that. I'm just coming down from this Tebow high. this is just unbelievable.

Let's get to the last question here. Will the structure of the 2021 season change anything about the season, nor Prince, yeah. Yeah, you know, I think it will. First of all, this is neither here nor there, but in Albert Breers' Calm this morning, somebody had done the math for him or he'd worked it out. Going from 256 total games to 272 means that the total possible combinations of ways

they could configure the schedule, instead of it being a number that has 20 zeros, it's now 40 zeros, which is just, just math blows my mind. I wanted everybody to know that. But look, I was thinking about Tom Brady, who was recently on Friday on an NFLPA call with all the players, kind of encouraging them to pressure their organizations into changing how the offseason works to reduce where. and tear on on players' bodies. I think notably what was interesting about that was that Brady was not really asking anybody to boycott, which the NFLPA has.

Now, Brady was sort of supporting their general cause without supporting the specific actions they were asking players to take, which I think illustrates kind of the difficulty that the PA's position is in because the idea of

actually boycotting those things is something that I think a lot of players are currently unwilling to do just because it costs them a lot of money. Even when you get down to things like just daily stipends for rookies are not not meaningful. But I was thinking about it. And look, we have two Super Bowl winning Tom Brady seasons within the last five years that came one after he had to take the, because of his suspension, took the first four games off. And then the most recent one came after this off season that was really,

seriously abridged. And that didn't mean that he wasn't working out all the time and doing things on his own time and getting guys together. But I do think that we're already experiencing this give and take between how much time should these guys really have to spend during the off season at the facilities? How much time in season should they have to spend at the facilities? What's our view on veteran rest days? Just generally, what is the optimal ratio of work to recovery that players should be putting in. And I think when you add a 17th game, inevitably, we're going to have another cycle of that.

And it's going to be something that teams and players are going to have to feel out. And it's eventually going to trickle down to things like, okay, does an 80% snap count incentive in a player's contract really makes sense in the same way that it might have two years ago? Like, I don't know. I genuinely don't fully feel like we're going to know

until the end of the year. what teams did in terms of, okay, do you try to spell your starters for five extra snaps per game? Or do you just say, hey, look, this is what we're doing now and we want the best guys on the field? I don't know. But what I do know is that we're already sort of towing a line between what football players are asked to put their bodies through. And that's without a 17th game. And now we have one. So yes, I think inevitably there will be some changes.

There will be some unintended consequences. but we're not really going to know until we're all the way through it. Yeah, that's really interesting. I thought about the long-term ramifications of that because, yeah, it does kickstart a whole other cycle of keeping the discussion of whether or not, you know, how you manage these players' bodies when they're literally car crash collisions on every single play.

That's been the discussion of 16 games. There is no extra bi-week. And like you mentioned, players are already, you know, having conversations about how to preserve themselves and whether or not this works or not, or this is ideal moving forward. So that's a great point, Nora. I just think like 16 to 17 doesn't sound like a lot in some ways,

but this is the first time the number of games has changed in like four decades. Like it's really not an insignificant thing. So first of all, Brady said on the call that no pitcher throws 95 miles per hour in December or January, which I think is probably a good point. Also, listen, the theory. about kind of what the NFLPA is doing here is that NBA teams don't get together on July 28th and just have a weekend.

It's in formal workouts, if anything. Same with baseball, even though pitchers and catcher support kind of early. I think it's an interesting fight for the future of everything. I will say, so Brady was on a watch podcast today. Like, not the watch, not the ringer's watch, but like an actual, like, wear it on your watch, a ho-dinky radio thing, or he was talking about his favorite watches of all time. But he was talking about the season last year,

and he said that he and the captains of the Bucks had gotten together recently. And they talked about how they didn't really know each other for most of the season. And I kind of feel like that, and we heard the story about how Bruce Ariens' wife hadn't even met Tom Brady until the podium at the Super Bowl.

I kind of think that there are stories all over the league like that, where they were getting to just sort of understand each other on the fly as the season went on. one of the reasons, you know, we were talking about it this time last year, it's one of the reasons we thought the bucks were going to get better the season went along. I didn't know they'd go from losing, you know, by four touchdowns of the Saints to to winning the Super Bowl. I didn't see that happening. But I did know that they were going to peak later in the season because of that. I don't know what this season looks like.

If there is, you know, if there's only, if there's no in-person stuff for much of the off-season, if there still is, and we don't know the answer to this limited training camp. There are so much kind of unknowns that I think there's a lot there. I also think, by the way, the Brandon Bean comments about vaccinated players, about the fact that he said he would cut an unvaccinated player if it's, you know, if it comes to that. Obviously, if it's a super duper star, it's a different conversation. But if it's a bottom of the roster guy, we kind of, we might know what that looks like.

I think that there are probably more questions and answers about the structure of this season and what this looks like. It's obviously going to be a smoother season this year, but I still think we're going to have, there's probably a lot of unintended consequences. I will say, by the way, on that watch podcast, I actually would listen to it if you're a football fan because Brady kind of opens up a little bit

in a way he doesn't normally. And they asked him, they said, do you ever have imposter syndrome? And like, you expect famous people to just be like, oh, yeah, I'm just so lucky to be where I am, and he was like, no, what you see is what you get, which is classic Brady. Brady's just like now I'm here.

It's been. Real quick. Like another consequence, I think, will be like, you know, you'll see more playoff teams. It's really fascinating because, like, you know, going in the final, like, two, three weeks of the NFL season, there'll be teams who, you know, they're hovering around 500. They're still in the playoff mix. I mean, since 2002, the 2018 Texans, this is like, I guess you can put a banner for them for this. They're the only team to go 0 and 3 and start a season 0 and 3 and then still reach the playoffs. That's like their only good thing they've done in the past 20 years or whatever.

And 1992 Chargers are the only team in NFL history that start Owen 4 make the playoffs. So I think like this extra game gives your favorite NFL team if they're hovering around 500, if they're not good. It gives them another week of, are we still in this? Do we actually have a chance of this? So I think it'll, in terms of parity, I think, I don't know what the math on it would be, but I assume there's going to be a slightly more parity going down to the wire. there's always hope always hope

always hope they traffic and hope the NFL traffic's in hope awesome guys anything else anything in your notes you want to you really want to talk about what's up with this horse it got canceled cancel culture

you heard him you heard about Bafford that's all I got I don't have anything wow the horse got canceled is the ultimate end of this show Bob Baffert his drug is his horse had drugs in it he said it was cancel culture

I just don't know. There's a horse that drugs in it. I just don't know. I don't know. I feel like the horse should have to have like a press conference. They should get the horse. And do you remember gronk the horse? I do.

This is a story for another time. But I once went to the Belmont with the Grancowski family and a horse named Gronk. And my favorite thing about that day, there were a lot of favorite things about that day. but one that will forever last in my memory is that all of Grank the Human's brothers would sometimes slip into calling the horse Rob, which was not its name, but I thought was really lovely. So that's what I'll leave you with.

Brank the horse, not canceled. My favorite Rob Gruncowski detail, the Gruncowski family detail, is that they don't have assigned beds. If you're familiar with this, They just sort of have beds throughout the house and that wherever they end up, wherever they crash is their bed for the night. That's their, they're going to Castle. Like an animal shelter.

A little bit, a little bit like it. A little bit like it. This has been the Ringer NFL show on the Ringer Podcast Network.