The Ringer NFL Show - Free Agency Roundup | GM Street (Ep. 245)

Episode Date: March 15, 2018

The Ringer’s Michael Lombardi and Tate Frazier break down the first day of NFL free agency and the whirlwind of personnel changes, including new destinations for Kirk Cousins, Case Keenum, Tyrod Taylor, DeShone Kizer, Haloti Ngata, Dion Lewis, Sammy Watkins, and many more. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Today's episode of GM Street is brought to you by the ringer.com. And all the ringer.com podcasts. And one of those podcasts is One Shining Podcasts, hosted by myself and Mark Titus. We are talking about everything, college basketball, everything NCAA tournament, maybe a little in IT. And we are also brought to you by Theringer.com, the website. And Mark Titus is a man that writes for that website. He wrote a big piece on Virginia this week. He's going to be doing instant reactions after the first couple of days of the tournament.

If I can convince him to, hopefully you will. and this has been all the plugs. And today on GM Street, we're going to talk about Kirk Cousins, all the new quarterbacks that have moved to new teams and also pouring one out from Mike Lombardi living his lifelong dream of meeting Al Pacino. Welcome to GM3, part of the Ringer Podcast Network. It is Wednesday. It is not Monday.

We are sorry, we are back. Today is the first official day of free agency in the NFL. But what have we learned? It's basically over, Mike Lombardi. The new league year started, Tate Fraser, and free agency begins. and we finally took those two days that people have their rights to negotiate. Legal tampering. Legal tampering, which was going on at the combine.

That was illegal tampering going on. Now they legal tampering, and guys were doing deals. I mean, typically people were waiting on Wednesday, but so essentially the market's been cleared out. But that's really not the big story today. The big story today is my man, Tate Fraser, is in a room with Bill Simmons and Al Pacino. And Barry Levinson. Barry Levinson was in F2?

Yes, they're also. The director of the turn-out. Like, I am humbly as sitting across from you. Like, really, you're in there with Michael Corleone? I mean, think about that now. Yeah, he probably remembers me as much as he remembers Fredo at the end of the movie. I think he did not even give me a bat an eye. He said hello when he walked in the room.

Hello. Yeah. Hello. Good to see you. Life is a game of inches, that kind of thing. But yeah, he was great. They were so funny. That podcast comes out in a couple of weeks.

People need to listen to that. Al Pacino, he's the man. That's cool as ever. He said he forgot everything from the 70s. He said he doesn't remember anything from the 70s, which I like. Do you remember anything from the 70s? Yeah, I do. I mean, that was my era.

I mean, disco. I mean, it's like the worst time in the world. Well, Al Pacino loved discos. My fat ass and disco never went together. I mean, you know, like, you know, those Jordash jeans, you know, like, I need, like Husky, you know, like, no to that. I understand. Like, Travolta jumping off the Verasano Bridge.

No, that was like, I was born in the wrong time. Like, I discussed, that was all horrible. But, I mean, I was so. proud of you at Tate Frazier, man. You're just like George Jefferson. You're moving on up here. I'm trying to. I'm trying to. That's really good. And you should say also that you saw Mr. Pacino, Michael Corleone, a man that you idolized and you yelled to him and you said, I'm excited for your new film. I'm looking forward to the movie. You know, he's doing that movie about Joe Paterno, which would be fascinating to see how they actually handle that movie.

And so, you know, look, he's a hero of mine. I mean, I, you know, I told you. I said this on the pockets. I ran into James Con. You know, I still think he's Santino. Oh, yeah. Actually, I wanted to name one of my kids, Santino, and of course, Millie nixed that in a hurry, but other than that, everything was going. You know, I got a chance. I don't know if my daughter will also go for that, but I really don't have, I don't have many votes. I can't carry any of the Southern primary at all.

Maybe if Al Pacino calls in and puts in a good word for that, maybe. But I was jacked. I mean, you know, I was jacked. Look, I was really proud of you. I really sitting up there. Like, I would have liked, had, like, you know how, you know, Jimmy Kimmel did the man show and he had the, and Sal and him would be talking to that little kid when he was walking around talking to girls all the time.

I wish I could have been like in your ear like ask him about this or ask him about that. I actually need that sometimes because sometimes I'm just overwhelmed by the fact that you know, Al Pacino's there, try to stay professional and try not to say anything. That's got to be your all time, right? Al Pacino in the room?

I mean, is it better than Charlene Thurzon? Where are you ranking this one? That's awesome. I would say Kurt Russell was probably still up there. Kurt Russell, really? And it was just because the way he behaved and the way he went about the whole thing. I mean, and Al Pacino was the same way.

They're just so laid back and cool. They don't have any people with them. You know, they just show up. up coming in. Barry Levinson's his friend. It's like two guys coming in. Did you ask Barry Levinson about Diner at all? I guess one of the great movies of all time. Yeah, we were asking him about, I mean, we pretty much were just like tell a story. You know, he's talking about Rain Man a lot, you know, talking about Tom Cruise and Dustin Hoffman in that movie and how you know, Dustin ended up winning the Oscar for that movie, but Tom Cruise carried the movie. Al Pacino

was excited to hear stories about Tom Cruise and Rain Man, you know, so you get those kind of conversations. Nice. It's great. Well, let's talk about football. Let's talk about the richest man in the NFL. People were cheering now that we got into football talk. Yeah, first day of free agency and talked about guys signing deals and finding new homes. Probably the biggest name, the one we've talked about, and the match, this is the match made in heaven, really. Kirk Cousins goes to the Minnesota Vikings. Yeah, Minnesota needs a quarterback.

Minnesota has three quarterbacks on their team. They don't sign any of the three. They take Kirk Cousins back. And look, this was always going to come down to Minnesota. I think the Jets were strong players in it. The Jets probably had a better deal on the table than Minnesota did in terms of total dollars. The guarantee, which everybody's kind of getting hung up on a little. little bit because he got the first two years of his contract guaranteed. Look, let's face it,

you're going to sign a franchise quarterback. The first three years of a rookie contract are mostly guaranteed. So, you know, we're in a new era of football and the caps up in the 100 high 170s. Getting this guaranteed is no big deal. You're not going to cut the guy. Like you didn't go through all this to cut him after a year or two. You got to make the full investment. But I think really what happened was once the combine happened, and I know this reliably, once Denver found out what this structure was going to be. Denver basically took their chips and went home. They couldn't deal with that. It was way too much guaranteed for Denver, and Denver went into the Case Keenom market. This one really came down to the two teams, and he picked the team that

I think will probably serve him best in the sense that the expectations are going to be great for him, playing in a dome with a good defensive team, with a defensive head coach, a pretty good situation for him. And you talk about expectations, we should say the Vegas odds on Super Bowl for next year. I think the Vikings were 12 to 1. Kirk Cousin signs were. the Vikings, they get down to eight to one. Right. Become more of a favorite, more expectations. Obviously, they were Kirk cousins.

You also mentioned Case Keenum. Case Keenum goes and signs a two-year deal for $36 million with the Broncos. It's sort of a lighter deal. Don't have to do with the guaranteed money with the keynote signs. Well, he got $25 million guaranteed. So they basically put a two-year investment. Remember now, Gary Kubiak is really involved with the Broncos now. And he was in Houston when they drafted Case Keenom or he was part of that.

So he was there. So he knows the kid. And develop a job, obviously. And so I think he feels like, hey, look, we can go somewhere. I really think the fact. The fascinating thing about those two signings, Minnesota's not going to draft a quarterback. We know that. The Jets, you know, they signed Teddy Bridgewater, pay them $5 million.

They re-sign Josh McCallum, pay them $10. I think the Jets are still in play for quarterback. The Browns are still in play for quarterback, even though they got Tyrault Taylor, which to me is really a fascinating thing. Tyra Taylor going to the Browns and everybody's, oh, he's better, he's a good replay. Tyra Taylor's never played in a dropback offense. Like, Tyra Taylor has always been in the Denver system of offense. When he was with the Ravens, he didn't play. Went to Buffalo.

They try to use a lot of that motion and get them out on the edge, the outside zone, the stretch play. It's going to be interesting to see how Tyra Taylor plays in Cleveland if he actually wins the starting job if they don't draft a guy. So that being said, I still think the quarterbacks in college are so much in play here because these teams, and Denver might be the only team that might go all in on Keenham and not pick a quarterback. And so we're talking about the Jets and the Browns, two teams that are trying to find their franchise guys, but they have these stopgap quarterbacks. We saw McCown last year with the Jets. He decides to come back. And now we have time. $10 million gets you back in a hurry.

And that's a good move for the Jets. Because here's why it's a good move for the Jets. McCowan doesn't need reps. Like you need a guy when you're going to have what people don't understand. It's a mathematical problem with quarterbacks. You can't give reps to every single player. Okay. You can only give certain amount of reps.

And McCowan doesn't need a lot of reps. He's played enough to where he can get by on a limited amount of reps. And actually less reps is better for him. Whereas Bridgewater is going to need a lot of reps. And if they draft the guy, he's going to need a lot of reps. So there's going to have to be a lot of management of numbers at the Jets camp. And you can't just have three guys that need all the reps. Then it becomes a real problem.

And they were in that situation last year when they had the Petty and Hakenberg and all these young guys. And they were trying to find them spots. You can't develop anybody. It's, you know, what happens is Tate Fraser is what Bill Parcell is called a progress stopper. Is when you have guys that need reps that aren't going anywhere, Bryce Petty, good kid, all that. But he wasn't going to go anywhere. Hackenberg, that's the thing. We didn't talk about the last podcast.

It's this comedy about this guy who's trying to claim that he fixed Hakenberg from the offseason? What's his name, George Whitfield? No, no, Whitfield. We haven't even heard from Whitfield. So he might be on America's most. He might be the real DB. I mean, Whitfield, we haven't heard from Whitfield in forever. He hasn't saved anybody in a while.

Where's that broom? Yeah, I mean, I don't know. But now there's another guy claiming at the combine that he fixed Hakenberg. So, like, how could you fix Hakenberg? He hasn't played a game since the end of the season? Like, where is he fixing him for Madden, 17? Maybe. That'd be nice.

I mean, it's some believe, and then, you know, it makes you crazy. People are actually right. People believe it. You know, Hakenberg got fixed. I think that people believe in Hakenberg so much because of that freshman year at Penn State. And he's never going to live back up to that hype for whatever it was. You know, it was almost like he became Johnny Football. You know, people remember some past time of how great hit Christian Ackhamberg was at this one time at Penn State,

and they still want him to come back to that. So everyone still buys back into the story, but I don't think it's going to work out. Yeah, I don't think. So anyway, like Hakenberg, okay, so you're the Jets. He's there. If the Jets give him any reps. they're going to be making they're taking he's a progress stopper and this is what you really have to get away from you can't have guys that get in the way of a guy's development you've given hackaburg

time to develop that's enough right it's time for him to go somewhere else to try to get he can't take reps away good reps quality reps away from players that you're trying to develop or else progress gets stopped well then let's talk about cleveland then so we get rid of Kaiser Kaiser so so he's now found a new home right with the packers which i think is the best thing for Kaiser so. I mean, look, I've talked to a lot of people in the league about him, and this kid was really, really conflicted. I mean, Hugh was killing this kid. You know, Hugh is the greatest, you know. He had a few press conferences where he basically blamed Kaiser for the loss. P.T. Barnum. He could sell anything, right? I mean, and so Kaiser's calling people up saying, hey, I need help.

The best thing that happened to Kaiser was getting traded out of Cleveland, go to go watch Aaron Rogers for a couple years, see how he plays, see how he works. learn the game and come back that way and see what happens. And I just want to talk about a stopgap quarterback and talking about taking reps from someone. So Tyrod comes in. We've obviously seen him with the bills. We've seen what he can do as a starting quarterback. But now he's in this new system.

So he's going to take reps, right? Right. So he's going to take reps away from whoever they... Well, they got to draft a guy. There's no way they're not... So if they take someone at the top of the draft or that's running back quarterback at the one in four spots. They take Maitfield. I mean, they're going to take a quarterback.

They have to. I mean, look, the one thing that the biggest fallacy of... of all time was, okay, remember, we talked about this on GM Street when Jimmy Haslam, Hugh Jackson, and A.J. McCarran had that summit down in Cincinnati, right? Well, now there's a new sheriff in town. His name's John Dorsey. And John Dorsey basically told Hugh Jackson, I'm not interested in signing AJ McCarran. Okay? I'm not. We're out. We're not doing that. So that's why McCarran's not in Cleveland right now. Because remember, they're going to give up a two and a three for him. And Sashi screwed up the trade, thankfully, for the Browns. So they're out of that.

They signed Tyrault. They got to pay them. I think whatever, I think it's $14 million or $16 million, something like for a salary. So that's where they got, they got to draft a guy. They got to put a guy in there to play, and you're not going to get the guy at the top of the second, so they're going to have to pick a guy in the first round. And you talk about the McCarran situation. We know Hugh was in love with him, has probably had a little bit to do with him, thinking he's a winner, you know, from his Alabama days and having a little bit of name

recognition in bringing him to Cleveland. But now there's rumors that McCarran may be the potential backup for Brady, right, in New England. Yeah, like, it makes sense, too. Look, McCarran can go there. You got Brian Hoyer there that knows the system. They're going to have to teach McCarron the system, Sabin and Belichick are friends. McCarran's got, you know, obviously he's got some things going for him.

And they need a quarterback to work with. And they're going to be picking out the bottom of the first round. Will they get a quarterback in this year's draft? I think really the reality for New England is, do they sign McCarran or is there somebody that they think is better in the draft? I think it would be a smart move to sign McCarrant. I'm not saying McCarran is going to be the starter. I'm not ready to go with Hugh Jackson on that one.

but to me it's a worthwhile investment that you at least can and you can at least fill that need you know where you know you still need one but at least you have a guy you're trying to develop and pretty soon you'll be able to tell and Hoyer's not going to take away reps from you no Hoyer's not going to take away reps and Brady's not going to take away reps you know Brady I mean how many times can Brady it's a great time you know it's like when we were in Cleveland with Belichick the first time and we went out to practice and and we were we were like it was 93 and we weren't any good and you know like one day it was like late in the season, and Belichick gave Todd Philcox, the kid from Syracuse, who was not a very

good player, but he ended up winning a couple games for us in a backup role until he hurt his thumb. He started giving him a bunch of reps, and after practice, I went over to Belichick, and I'm like, Bill, you know, geez, why Philcox? Is there something wrong with Kosar? He said, look, how many more Y options is he going to throw? Like, this kid needs to get some reps. Like, at some point, like, how many more throws is Brady really need to make during OTAs and mini-camp? Like, yeah, he's got to get ready for the season. At that point, he almost is wasting throws, you know? Yeah, exactly. Like, how much more does he really need, you know?

And so I think that's why they can get McCarron. They got a lot of reps to give out to him. And I think that would help him. And it would save him a draft pick if they did. Because really, there's no other cool. Who are you going to sign? You know, I mean, Chase Daniels, this is remarkable. Treyfrews has, I think he's throwing like four passes since 2013.

He said that he's been the backup for Drew Breeson. He's sponsored. This is the greatest thing about the NFL. This is what you learn about the NFL when you're in it. People, the fans don't realize this. If you get sponsored, okay, like, Kellyn Moore, Dallas was sponsored by Scott Lennonahan. No business being in the NFL, but he had sponsorship from Lennon, so he plays.

And then, like, when you look at Chase Daniels, he's sponsored by all those guys in Kansas City. So now, you know, he's made all this money, and if he has to play, he can't play. But he's got sponsorship. It's the greatest thing of all to get. What's the greatest ship to be on? Scholarship. Well, in the NFL, the greatest ship to be on a sponsorship. That's a good one.

That's a good line. I need to write that one down. You should. I mean, it's not as good as Al Pacino stuff, but I'm going to try to keep going here. You're doing a good job. Let's talk about Arizona. So they get Sam Bradford, another guy that was in Minnesota before. We talked about the Vikings leading into free agency, and we had these three quarterbacks, and there were so many different domino effects. If this happens, this means this will happen. We thought Bridgewater may stay, but now all three of those guys are gone. And Bradford gets probably, you know, I would say it's a pretty great deal, a one-year, $20 million contract. There's another one. We saw Cutler get one year, $10 million last year, and people thought that was wild.

but one year 20 million to go to Arizona for Bradford. I mean, he has a great agent. No, this is what I call. There should be like a section of free agency where it's called the Clay Davis section. You remember Clay Davis from the wire? You know, I'll take anybody's money. If they're giving it away? Right.

Well, Sam Bradford's in that Clay Davis column, okay? Sammy Watkins is in that. Sammy Watkins is the biggest joke of all time. Like Sammy Watkins at 16 million. If you're gronk and Sammy Watkins is making 16 million, you're like, wait a minute. Wait a minute. They're doubling me on every play. Sammy, I get $16 million. I don't give a shit if he plays tight-ed, and I play tight-end, he plays receiver.

That Clay Davis category, that's where that one is. Sam Braver's in that Clay Davis. He'd take anybody's money, and it's proven. And it's been a good job. I mean, he's done a great job with it. And Mike Lennon's in there, too. He'll take anybody's money. He's giving it away, right?

Yeah, well, they're living the dream. They are living a dream. I mean, you can't, if somebody wants to give it to you. And here's the thing, I think it's fascinating about Arizona. People say, well, you know, they're trying to fill their need. Yeah, here's the thing is there's a difference between fitting a need and filling a need. Like they're fitting a need. They have two names on their blackboard under their depth chart.

You know, when you're a general manager in the league, in your office is the depth chart of the team. And so whenever you sign a player, you put his tag up there. You really don't fill that need. If the guy's no good, you can't fill the need. Look, I don't think Bradford can fill the need. We know he's got bone on bone. We know he couldn't play all year from Minnesota, even though they wanted him to play. They played a great opening day.

That was the last time we saw him. Like, he got $20 million. Like, how desperate must you be to sign Sam Bratford? Well, you know deep down in your heart, he can't stay healthy. I don't know, but you have $20 million to spare. Imagine what Clay Davis would do with this group. He would have a great time. I mean, he took Stringer Bell's money.

He'll take all these people's money. I know. He needs to go down to Arizona because $20 million. We can do a lot with that. I want to talk about the Saints a little bit, too. So we got Drew Brees. There was an even talk at one time between us where maybe Drew Brees, you know, gets out of town in New Orleans and goes somewhere else and tries to chase the ring with the

defense. Maybe Minnesota was an option at one point. He decides to stay home, stay in New Orleans with Sean Payton and keep things going there. Obviously, this is a huge deal. It means that Breeze and Brady are sort of on the same track. It's a one-year deal. So look, here's what happens. Sometimes, you know, you get to a situation where you know a player doesn't want to move. And the player doesn't ever want you to think he wants to move. And when players tell you that all they want to do is stay at the team and this is the most important thing and you can't get a deal done, then it becomes a little bit of a PR thing. Like they're saying that for the public, but they're trying to get a deal.

And Tom Connan, who represents Drew Brees, he's got to be worried about where Kirk Cousin's deal is. So the Saints started getting frustrated because the Saints are like, look, we need an answer. We need a deal because if you don't want to take, they offered them $50 million for two. They weren't getting an answer. Like, we're going to give you $50 million for two. We'll guarantee the first year. The second year will be an option if you want to play.

Here it is. but we need to know because, you know, this is getting ridiculous here because if not, we'll sign Bridgewater or we'll sign some other quarterback. We need to move on. We'll draft Baker Mayfield, we'll do whatever it is. And I think that's what happened there. They finally had a push come to shove because it was getting really a little hairy. I think Monday night in New Orleans, before it finally got done, it was getting tentious down there

because they were concerned about will he ever actually do the deal? Is he just posturing? Because Connan's got a rep, too. He's got to see, I mean, just hypothetically say Kirk Cousins comes in at 32 million. And you take a two-year deal at 25. You look like a fool, right? You can't do that. So he's trying to figure out where it is.

And look, I think Breeze is good for them. It's a good fit for them. He comes back. They get what they want and they can still move on. But don't ever forget, Breeze, one of the reasons why they've been strong a little bit capitalized is Breeze has taken the money. I mean, Breeze is like Peyton Manning. There's no discount with Breeze.

I mean, Brady gives them a discount. That's why they're able to do what they do. they ain't no discount with Breeze. And how much, you know, conversation and communication is there between Sean and Drew Brees during those times where we're waiting on Asian. You know how to talk to the player. You know how to talk to a player. You know how to talk to the player?

Even the legal tampering period? Even the legal tamper. You know how to talk to the player? Like the player's not allowed to talk to them. Now, when you're recruiting a player for free agency, that's different. Oh, you can. Okay. That's where I got confused.

That's all coaches reaching out to guys. Yeah, that's when you can start doing it. But you're not allowed, like, you're not allowed to talk to your own player. Like, you can't call, like, Belichek can't call Brady on the phone and like, I mean, people tow that line? It just seems crazy to me to go from a relationship where you're 100% all in or you're talking all the time to, oh, wait a second, we can't talk to each other because negotiations are being in a head.

You know what's really even crazier? Here's what drives me crazy. Okay. Aaron Norvell, I'm jumping ahead a little bit. Aaron Norvell, the offensive guard from the Carolina, undrafted out of Ohio State. The Giants were huge on him, wanted to go out of them, right? Made a huge contract. Chris Hubbard, undrafted out of Alabama State or Alabama A&M, one of those.

Got a really good contract. What drives me crazy is the system is so screwed up in terms of player development, that offensive linemen, and because the rules are so bad that the union's really missing the boat here. If the union would allow teams to really basically have a farm system of offensive and defensive linemen like these. In-house. In-house where you could start in February and you could work with them and you could develop them. I mean, we did it with Orlando Brown. We did it with Wally Williams. We did it with Gene.

We did it with a bunch of guys in Cleveland. They've done it in New England over and over again. Where you can really spend time developing them. These guys can make astronomical amounts of money. But because the rules are so stringent upon, you can't take a guy into the indoor facility to work them out in February. You have to wait until the OTA days in April. It's killing the players. It's killing the team.

But it's killing the players in the pocketbook. Because guys are, they're always going to be guys misdrafted. Like Aaron Neuvel got all that money. Like nobody would have taken him in. He didn't get drafted after seven rounds. Chris Hubbard didn't get drafted. After it took time, right? Development.

Like to me, I've always said this. Like these teams with all this money, like the Redskins, which are to me completely misrun. But the Redskins, they got so much money. Like, you would think they would take $5 million and say, okay, we're going to set up a complete player development program and develop players. And yet they don't do it. And yet they end up spending for Norville and these other guys and they have no, and it doesn't bother them. Thanks, Dan Snyder. We're going to get a quick break, and we're going to come back and get into the smartest move of the week.

Hey, guys, I'm Mark Titus. And I'm Dave Frazier. We are the host of OneShining Podcast. It is March. Check your calendars. It's true. We're here to talk about all things college basketball. If you like FBI investigation, if you like teams that are on the bubble and think they belong in, even though they have like 16 losses, come check out one shining podcast.

If you like Buzz are Beaters, Buzz are being buzz watching basketball, those are all three things you can do and you can listen to us. We're going to talk about everything that happens in the NCAA tournament. It's going to be great. We're going to be here all month. Please subscribe to One Shining Podcast. Check all of our stuff out. Tate has done some very disgusting things for money in the past. And he is desperate for more to come.

For more subscribers so he doesn't have to return to his old life. So please, please, please subscribe to our pod. Check us out. We're having a lot of fun this March. You can get us wherever you find your podcast, Apple, Stitch, or SoundCloud. I'm a Google Play guy. Google Play doesn't get enough love when people do this. And Spotify.

People are on Spotify now. So go check it out. All right, we're back. This is the ZipRecruiter smartest move of the week. The Philadelphia Eagles, one of our favorite teams on this program. Yes. We talk so highly about them all the time. We went at the parade, Tate Fraser.

I know. We didn't get any invites. No one said anything to us. You watch the Philadelphia 76ers all the time. You support Philadelphia all costs. Last night I watched them last night. They got out tough last night. Indiana is like way tougher than they are.

Indiana wore the Hickory uniforms last night. I just like it was hard. I think it's a little unfair though. I will say this. When they wear the Hickory uniforms and they're on the road, I think you have to wear those at home. It's too much that they bring to the building and those uniforms. They just like they have the huesues spirit in.

They kicked their ass last night. Jimmy Chitwood's got the jump shot going. I mean, they kicked their ass. They were way too physical for them. Oladipo didn't even have a good night and they kicked their ass. But anyway, go on. This is not a basketball podcast. Yeah, this is a football podcast.

And the smartest move the week goes to the Philadelphia Eagles. And that is because they have made some big splashing moves. Michael Bennett comes to mind. They bring on the defensive end from the Seattle Seahawks to come in. They get Nigel Bratham back. They have Kendricks, obviously, coming back. They got the whole de- They get their core into place.

And then, you know, then they add Hologna, who's a really disruptive player, who they can rest and kind of feed into their system. I think, to me, what I've always believed in is you build strength upon strength. And this is an Al Davis thing. Al Davis hated the idea that if you had two 20-game winners in baseball pitchers and you lacked hitting, you would take a 20-game winner and pitcher and trade him for a hitter. He thought that was the dumbest thing of all time because your strength was pitching. And now you're weak in both areas. Yeah, Braves at the 90s. Right. Okay. So to me, what his answer was, build on strength. Strengthen the strength. And that's where the Eagles have done that. And that's what's fascinating to me. Like the Rams are taking the approach different. The Rams trade Robert Quinn to Miami. Ogletree. Ogletree. They get rid of some of their front seven guys and they're going to try to cover with Talib and Marcus Peters. And like who's going to, they're going to have to find a way to rush pastors, right? And so like to me, the Eagles lessened the blueprints right out there. The Eagles offensive, the defense, the defense. The defense. The defense.

line was why they won. Not their second. Their best players, Malcolm Jenkins, in the second day. They lost Patrick Robinson to the New Orleans Saints. He went back to the Saints again. But the reality of it here is you build on strength. And I think that's what the Eagles just did. They built on their strength. They got a nod.

Whether he can stay healthy or not, that remains to be seen. Whether Michael Bennett's got any juice left, you know, he's off sides about 18 times, once a game at least, probably. But he can play both, he can play either end. He can play either nickel tackle. Notta can play nickel tackle or he can play base tackle. he can play the run. And there's a lot more depth than the scene.

They lose Bo Allen, replace it with Nata. They'll lose Vinnie Curia. If he won't take a pay cut, they replace him with Bennett. So I think they've done a really good job so far at being a very difficult spot. Yep, sounds like the Philadelphia Eagles. The employer is pretty happy with their new employees. Yeah, absolutely. And that was the smartest move of the week.

And that's brought to you by ZipRecruiter, 80% of employees who post on ZipRecruiter finding out through the site in just one day. Try it free today at ZipRecruiter.com slash ringer NFL. that's ziprecruiter.com slash ringer NFL. ZipRecruiter, the smartest way to hire. All right, we're back. We're going to talk about Buffalo a little bit. I like Buffalo.

I like what they're doing. I've been liking what they've been doing for a while. You've been on Sean McDermott. You like what they've brought in a whole new core. They've tried to change the culture in the building. We know that's what McDermott's all about. They lose Tyrae Taylor. They're starting quarterback from last year.

They trade them for three. I mean, people are talking about what Cleveland. I mean, Cleveland gave up a third round pick for this guy. I mean, that's a lot to give up for the guy. Now, you know, I don't see it with Tyraud Taylor. I don't, I mean, look, they were a quarterback away from, they made the playoffs, but it wasn't because Ty Rob was so good. So I think Buffalo's now, they've got the ammunition. Like I said, I tweeted, they're like Frank Pantanjali.

I mean, they've got the muscle now. They can go take them out. They can move up into the draft. They can get the quarterback that they want. They don't really have a quarterback on the team. We know Nate Peterman, by the way. That's the way the Sixers were turning the ball over yesterday. Like, Nate Peterman.

Like, they don't have a quarterback on their team that can actually play. They're going to have to fix that. But for the most part, I think Buffalo is headed in the right direction. They signed Starletoia, a good defensive tackle. Kyle Williams comes back. They signed Trent Murphy, a defensive end who's going to get suspended for the first four games, but could rush to pass her and play in their scheme. I like Buffalo.

Let's go to another AFC East team because it seems like a little bit of tide is turning in that division. We know the Patriots have dominated it for so long, and they're losing some guys, as we know. We're putting Nate Solder going to the Giants is probably the biggest one. Yeah, you know, and I mean, I think, look, Nate Solders are really good player. But the Patriots have cap integrity. Like there's no way that Patriots are going to pay Nate Solder more than Tom Brady. They're just not going to do it. I mean, they have too much cash.

There's no way they're going to pay Danny Amidola more than Julian Edelman. They have too much cap integrity to the players that are already there. And I think the Patriots have been prepared for a long time knowing that they weren't going to sign Nate Soder back. When I was there, we tried. We couldn't come to an agreement. But for the most part, you know, you had to know this was going to come down the road. Is Nate Soter a good player? Yeah, he is a good player.

Is he a great player? if you watch the Super Bowl 51 and you watch Dwight Freeney kick his butt, you would say no. If you watch some other games, I thought he played well in the Super Bowl this year. But he has his moments where he's up and down, and I think he's very, he's an average left tackle. Does he help New York? Yeah, absolutely. Did they have to overpay for him? Yeah, I think they probably did.

And that offensive line in New York, we know with Eli has been pretty bad the past few seasons. So getting Soder there will probably help Eli out a little bit. It will help. I mean, to me, Soler's a better investment than Andrew Norvell because he's a guard, and where at least you get a left tackle. Now maybe you can move Eric Flowers over to right tackle. and give him a chance and see what he can do over there. But that offensive lines, you know, look, you've got to block the Eagles, right? So you've got to figure out, you're Dave Gettleman, you're sitting in your office,

you've got to block this front. I mean, that's a hard thing. Even though you gained a lot of yards against them, you still got to block that front consistently. And let's go down south to Miami. Oh, my favorite team. Your favorite team and your favorite player. The Tadabombs. Yes, they've been on the move.

The discussions for him to be on the move for, have been far between. We took so much crap, as they told us. Because Jarvis Land, you know how many people call me an idiot for suggesting? suggesting that they would, he's got to sign an extension. Everybody loves Jarvis Landry. There's no way. Like, at some point, like, you know. He's a slot receiver, and they're going to trade him.

I know, but what happens is people don't want to hear the truth. Like, that's an overpayment. You pay $16 million for a slot receiver, or averages under 10 yards a catch. I mean, come on, Tate Frazier. It's like, it's like paying Jay, I was going to say, it's like paying JJ Reddick $23 million for one year. But, I mean, it's a little bit like that, right?

I thought you were going to let me pound the table and say you can't handle the truth. I can't handle the truth. The Miami fans can't handle the truth. Look, I mean, they're trying to rebuild their whole locker. I mean, if it's not obvious, they're trying to rebuild their locker. I don't know what there is. Like, they're jettisoning guys out of their left and right. Well, they brought in one guy, Danny Amindola, a guy that's won a few Super Bowls.

Great kid. Yeah, great kid. And this is sort of like the West Welker treatment. You know, you go to another team in the AFCE East after you live the Patriots, sort of how they do things. Amindola, can he help? Can he come in and do something in there? The concern you have for Danny is, can he stay healthy. I mean, you know, he played 16 games last year, went inside, made a lot of catches for them.

He'll give them some leadership. Look, they redid Tannahill's deal, which is going to make it hard to cut the, but they bought cap room from Tannahill. It's going to be hard to cut Tadahill next year because it's going to be a cap hit. They're going to, they cut Sue, which is going to be funded into next year's deal. So this cap situation in Miami is a classic Mike Tannenbaum. It's going to be all over the place and it's going to have to be massaged. And you mentioned Sue.

So now we're in this situation where Indomican Sioux, you know, for all that has gone wrong with Indomican Sue, own the field. with some of the incidents that he's had. He's also been a dominating force when he decides to be in the interior of the defensive line for the Dolphins. Now he's gone. Now he's looking for a new home. Dallas is a team that's been thrown out there to help them in the interior.

I mean, I would think, you know, look, the Joneses are, you know, they've been known by quality, whether they'll be interested. You know, there's some people tell me they are. They're away. They're on vacation. Some of the Joneses are on vacation to the middle free agency. I think they're in the Bahamas with Jimmy Buffett singing songs. But for the most part, I think they'll, look, Sue is, everybody in the league knows Sue.

talented, right? And everybody in the league knows Sue's about the dollar. It's not about Sue's a true mercenary. He'll fight for the Army that's going to pay him the most. And if you can get him to go at a high speed, you know, you've got yourself one great player. There's no denying that. There's no deny. He requires double

teams. He plays hard. You know, does he love to win? Is winning the most important thing? I think it's his checkbook that matters the most and he's made a lot of money and he's been good at it. So I think Seattle could be a team interested in if they're willing to spend the money. I think the Jets could be a team.

They got a ton of cap room. Cleveland's got a ton of cap room. I think Sue's going to make out like a bandit being a free agent again. And what does that contract look like for Sue? Because before it was this guy is the best defensive lineman, the best interior defensive lineman in the entire NFL. He's going to get paid again. He's going to get paid again.

I mean, he's not going to take a, he's not going to take a discounted deal. You know, like I could see, you know, like, okay, take a discounted deal. You know, Jim Schwartz was with him in Detroit. Will he go to Philadelphia? I'm sure howie Rosen's sitting in his office. Like, how do I get. sue on this team. Heck, how do I figure that one out? You know, like that, like he could be a missing piece to a lot of teams. Not that he would, the Eagles won a Super Bowl, but I mean, you certainly

have to think about it. Well, could he go to New England? Well, he would screw up their salary caps. So would he go there? I don't know. Maybe they would try to do something like that. I doubt it, but, you know, you never know. But could they do one of those Auschon-Jeffrey deals where we do the one-year 27 million or the one-year 50 million of Sue, you know, whatever it is. I mean, could they do something like that. You know, you could do it. And if you can get, you can get them to bite on it. Yeah. I mean, I think if he likes the situation, if he he likes the city. I think if he's comfortable with the people around them, I think that's going to make a huge difference. I want to talk about one guy also. They got a big contract or a bigger

contract than people expected just based off name recognition. You saw him in the playoffs, Jerich McKinnon for the Minnesota Vikings. He was in a bidding war, and the 49ers really like him, and they ended up paying him $30 million. And now he's in the top 10 and running backs paid in the NFL now, which is, I think that was a little unexpected when he entered free agency. Yeah, because you remember when Dalvin Cook got hurt, everybody said, well, the Vikings are screwed. They got no running back. And then McKinnon, who kind of hadn't done a whole lot, went in there, and his numbers really haven't been to the level. And most people expect a Latavius to be a guy. Yeah, I really, I like Dionne Lewis, but the McKinnon. I think the 49ers did, you know, Kyle had

Dionne Lewis in Cleveland, cut them. So I think there's a kind of an issue there. And Dionne went to the Titans. Deons went to the Titans. And look, the Titans, thank God for the Patriots scouting, right? The Titans take loaded Ryan last year, Malcolm Butler. Yeah, they were just like, we'll just take all the Patriot defenders. But if you're Mike Rable, look, you need guys that understand the culture you're trying to develop. and it's a lot easier to bring guys in like that. That's seen it. But getting back to McKinnon. But getting back to McKinnon, I mean, look,

the guy who's to run him back for the 49ers going to run the outside zone. And he's going to be a loose play player. And he passes protects well. And I think with Jimmy Garapolo in there, it gives them a guy that can run those that runs. Plus he'll run inside. I think it's overpaid because the Jets really want. The Jets wanted him as well, but the Jets weren't going to overpay them, and he got overpaid. All it takes is two teams to compete for you. It's like Tremaine Johnson. I mean, he got it.

I'll tell you the other one that belongs to the Clay Davis category is Moncrief. I mean, Moncrief got $9 million to go to Jacksonville. Like, really? Like, really? He's worth $9 million a year. But, you know, he had a couple teams going after him and he got it. So God bless him. It's great.

And they got $65 million to Norville, who we mentioned earlier down to Jacksonville. They're paying everybody. Exactly. Yeah. Let's talk about some receiver contracts, too. Alan Robinson goes to the Bears. I like that signing. I mean, look, the Bears are going to have.

have to give up on Kevin White. I don't think he's any good. And I think they pretty much have kind of built a team that he's going to be excluded. But if Alan Robinson's healthy, I thought he was the best receiver. I think, I really do. I think the bears have added some nice pieces. Trey Burton's a guy who's really an F receiver. This is the hard position for scouts to get, is to understand what a true F is, what a true Y is and what an inside slot receiver. Okay, like Eric Ebron's a first round pick. Eric Ebron, at your school, North Carolina, never lined up a tight and he played receiver. Okay? So he's a slot receiver. he's no different than Marcus Colston.

He's no different than Anquine Bolden. That's the same position they all play. He doesn't have enough quickness to win in there. And so it becomes harder. When he lines up a tight end, that's the better matchup. But he can't block well enough. He can't really get into the route. Where Burton is truly an inside slot receiver.

So when Jordan Matthews got hurt a year ago, he goes in and plays, it gives them an inside slot receiver, i.e. Kelsey, that's kind of what they want to do. They want to duplicate the Kansas City offense, and I think that's what they did. In Burton, we know the Philly Special Special. made the pass. He's got some extra skills in case you need that. Eric Ebron, you mentioned him. He was released from the Dolph, or from the Alliance today. I mean, he'll get people go after him. Sure they will, but not an $8 million or what it was

going to be the number for him. And I think, look, you've got to know what you're getting. You're getting an inside slot receiver. You're getting a guy that has, he's not a tight end. Like, no, when he comes on the field, nobody's worried about you running an inside or running running the power play or running off tackle. Like, they're not worried about that. And that's where tight ends really. There's why tight end. there's F tight ends and there's big slot receivers. And you've got to put those in the right category. And that's what you have to utilize.

And you have to define it. Burton's a slot receiver. Ebron's a slot receiver. If you want a slot receiver, then you sign them. Absolutely. Let's talk about another guy. Sammy Watkins. We're not really sure what Sammy Watkins is at this point,

but he got a big deal from the Chiefs, three years, $48 million. Hey, look, the Rams were all over. The Rams were in. I mean, I know Sean McVeigh was calling all over. He was trying to keep him. I mean, look, they gave up a second round pick for the guy. They wanted to keep the guy.

But I think Kansas City put all the chips in the middle of the table. They want another outside receiver to go to see what he can do. Because Pat Mahomes, he throws a long ball better than anyone else. That's what we've heard. Never seen it. I know. It's so good. It's all perception.

I know. It's amazing. I saw it on ESPN. They talked about Patma Holmes is like he was Aaron Rogers. It's unbelievable. He hasn't won a game. It's like, hey, don't let the facts get in the way of the store. We know that.

I mean, we've been quoted as saying stuff on here. I mean, he sees all this stuff. He's like, they never talked about me. I threw real touchdowns. Yeah, try to block. How about that offensive line and give him them enough time to throw it down? Sammy Rockets to me is an intriguing player.

And a lot of it goes back to our boy, Ferris Bueller, O'Dell Beckham. He got picked in front of Beckham. So he's got this mystique attached to him. And it's like you go to Princeton, you have to be smart. You go to, you know, it's like since he's always been there, people think, well, he's just really. And when I watch him, I don't see him run very many routes.

He's not really good at the top of the route. He doesn't really, he didn't look like he was in great shape last year. It looks sluggish. 16 million. Like if I'm drunk, like I said earlier, if I'm Gronk, I know I don't play the same position, but I impact the game way more than he does. But what does this mean for Grank, right? It doesn't mean anything because we've labeled everybody by position. This is where Gronk's hard to officiate because he's so big, and he's hard to pay because he's different than everybody else. Because when he's on the

field, he's a playmaker in that 16 million, you know, that's, I mean, let's face it. If Sammy Watkins is worth $16 million, we think Grox's worth. 30. Exactly. Like more than a quarterback at this point. You know, I mean, Al Pacino would agree with that. Yeah, absolutely, yeah. Let's talk about OBJ.

Ferris Bueller, he's another receiver. So throw all that aside what Gronk would think. OBJ is actually a receiver. He wants to be one of the highest paid players in football. Evans got paid, right? Mike Evans got big contract. He sees 60. So, you know, Beckham's going to think he's going to get 20, 22, 22.

I mean, he's going to get quarterback money. Is that possible that can that work out, can get them and do that and get away with it? Well, I think the Giants have made it very clear that they are, they believe in Eli. They don't want to draft a quarterback. They think Eli's got three more years. They're rebuilding this team. They're reloading this team. It's not a rebuild.

That they think that they can structure this team around. And I think they'll pay Odell. For me, if they were really building the team the right way, I think it would be time to move, Odell. I mean, you trade them. Get a bunch of picks for him. And what is his value on the free market? I mean, if they put it out there, they want to trade OBJ, that does that devalue him to order? No, no, I don't think it does.

I mean, I think they, you know, look, he's certainly going to get more than a four and a seventh. I mean, Tanemim goes ahead and franchises Jarvis Landry. Like this is some brilliant move and trades them to, trades them to Cleveland. And really, at the end of the day, when it's all, when things are all summed up, he picked up a seventh round pick. He had to create 60. He had to create the cap room to do it. To me, Beckham's going to get, you know, a lot of picks. And the receivers are hard to judge.

If these receivers are making this kind of money, wouldn't you give up two, number ones for Beckham if you knew you were going to get them? Absolutely. I mean, sure you would. So why not ask for it? I mean, you could rebuild your whole team. And I don't care what anybody tells me. The teams win in the league around, you know, when you could draft receivers in the middle

of the rounds and do that. I mean, it's not like you've got to have this guy has to be the first pick in the draft. I mean, Alan Robinson was it? So, you know, you can find receivers if you know how to pick them. Absolutely. I want to talk about some guys that are signing his backups in certain places. We talked about the Saints earlier. Tom Savage is signing to be.

to be a backup for Drew Breeze in New Orleans. Savage, we've seen him a lot. You know, Rutgers guy. We know all about him. Pick guy as well. Is that good signing for the Saints? It's just good to have a backup option. If I'm Tom Savage to go to work on that offense,

I think it's got to be really good for him because he can watch Drew Breeze. He can kind of get away from knowing that he's going to be the starter and he can learn. I mean, Sean Peyton is one of the best offensive coaches in football, and he's one of the best quarterback coaches. Now, what I think you've got to be careful of is if they try to trade up to get Baker Mayfield. That's the, that's the interesting thing in this. whole draft. Buffalo coming up to get

Mayfield. Do they want Josh Rosen? Who do they want? They want Sam Darnold. You know, are the Jets going to pick Mayfield? Do they want Lamar J. Who do they want? I think all that's going to tie in. Because if you're Arizona, if you're Steve Kime, do you really think you've solved your quarterback situation with Bradford and Glennon? No.

You're going to have to draft one too, right? Of course, but the thing that I think is interesting about all these backups being these veteran guys like Simeon, the Vikings just traded for Trevor Simeon to bring him in. Are they taking reps from these young guys To me, Simeon's in the perfect role, right? Simion's perfect.

He's a backup quarterback. His body can't allow himself to be a starter. He's perfect. And it's a great trade for Minnesota because if Cousins misses two or three weeks, Simian will come in and play really well. Yeah, it's fine. We've seen him in short sense. He can do it.

But he can't do it if he takes a bunch of pounding. And I think that's a great trade for Minnesota. You know, Minnesota gets a backup quarterback. And, you know, look, you don't have to spend any money. It's a cheap contract, too. Don't ever forget that now. I mean, you know, so now they've got one of the highest-paid players and one of the lowest paid players.

They've got a seventh round pick and the top of the line. It really works out for your cap. Another person I want to ask you about, and we've sort of got in a way. We're talking about Sue earlier. I should have brought it up then. But Tyron Matthew now is out and about, he's trying to find a new home.

I mean, people have sort of undervalued his role. I mean, I know he's had a lot of injury issues. We remember all that. I don't think he's the same guy he once was. You know, and I think, you know, what he used to do so well, he used to attack the pocket. You know, he could play on three levels. So when you're evaluating secondary people,

you've got to evaluate him on all three levels. can he attack the pocket level one? Can he play in the box level two? Can he play in the deep third level three? And the Honey Badger could play in all three levels. And I think lately since he's had that injury, I haven't seen him play with the same burst and the same explosion. That's what concerns you.

Jordy Nelson's the same way. I mean, Jordy Nelson, from the injury, and people can say, well, Green Bay's offense last year was bad. Yeah, it was. The year before, with Rogers, he wasn't the same guy. You know, the other guy's not the same guy, but he's getting by with it because Jerry won't do anything about it's Des Bryant. Des Bryant doesn't separate from anybody.

Like he's paying him $16 million. Everybody's said, well, he's Dez Bryant. You know, he's great player. Well, now that's Sammy Watkins money, so, you know, I guess he's a bargain. I guess he's a bargain. You know, actually, I'd rather have Dez and Sammy, but I mean, I'm talking on both sides of my mouth now. Should be about 25 for Des, if we're going by the Sammy Watkins standard. Two guys, two veteran guys.

One guy has decided to step away from football, a name that we all know and we all have felt for. Probably one of the best players to have to have to, and had one of the worst careers as far as. 48 wins, Joe Thomas. Yeah, Joe Thomas. career, 48 wins. People have said that he may go down as one of the best and greatest offensive linemen of all time. You know, when I was there, he played well.

He was, you know, he was practiced. He played, you know, and I think probably, you know, it's probably the best move for him. He's still healthy. He goes out, you know. And, I mean, it's had to be a grind from 48 wins over his career. That's all he's had. I mean, that's tough on you. And now that's a huge hole for Cleveland.

Now I know Cleveland signed Hubbard, whether he plays left tack or not, they signed Dwight Stevenson from Kansas City who was by way of Denver Dorsey had him in Kansas City that's not going to be the answer we've seen how that's worked out in both towns so I think Cleveland still needs the left tackle I want to ask a little this is a little aside I see all these guys and I saw it with the Giants when they make the sign in Nate Soder we still talk about the left side the left tackle and about the blind side and I know we've talked about on the podcast before but I think it needs to be reiterated again on this podcast and I'll give you the stage for this but it's not the same that it used to be people were still talking in the turn

of the blind side being what it was when Lauren Taylor was coming around the corner. Well, that's because most people, most teams back in that day were right-handed. So the tight end went to the right side of the formation. And nobody really opened up the formation. So the tackles really weren't on edges. The tight end was always over with the tackle. And the left tackle was on an island, correct? So now people open up both formations.

People open up both sides. And so now left tackle and right tackle. And now what people are doing a better job of is evaluating your offensive line. So what Philly wants to do is Philly wants to put their best rusher against your worst line. And they want to rush five guys. Because when you rush five, somebody's blocking one-on-one. And if you have five really good rushers, five guys that can rush, somebody's going to break down on the offensive line.

They can't, I mean, they can't do it. So this right and left tackle thing is a little bit misleading because if your right tackle stinks, you know, and he can't handle it, you're going to put your best rusher over there. Like, why waste them over here? Move them over, get the matchup you want. It's basketball. Put the guy over them and make him go that way.

So, yeah, I think tackles are tackles. They're not right or left. Yeah, I just tried to say that because it's all over. Everyone's talking about it as if you've got to have your left tackle to be successful in the NFL. You can cheat it. You have to have a tackle. You've got to have a tackle. So now, you know, I'm sure what the Giants are saying to themselves is, okay, look, we'll put

Soder at left tackle. We don't have to really help them, although they will. They'll find that out now. They will have to help them a little bit against certain guys, especially guys at power that turns speed to power. Solder has trouble with those guys. The right tackle, they can help with chips and do all that stuff. But remember, they got tight ends that they want to get in the routes, so it's kind of hard to do that.

It's hard to balance that all the time. Ingram is not a blocking tight end. He wants to get into a route, so they've got to kind of coordinate all that, and we'll see how it works out. But no, you've got to have two tackle. You can't be tackle poor in the NFL. If you're tackle poor in the NFL, you're probably not going to win. That is very true. And also the second guy was bringing up when I brought up Joe Thomas, Julius Peppers.

A lot of people thought that he was going to step away and go, you know, and get ride the coattels out and go to Canton soon, just like Joe Thomas is doing. but he's decided to come back. He's opted back in with the Panthers. I love it. You know, the other guy, I hope, signs with somebody's Frank Gore. There's nobody I like watching more than Frank Gore. Frank Gore is a class guy, works hard, teammate, wants to win, and football's important to him. Just like Julius Peppers. I mean, I think that's a good move for him. And they take care of their bodies. And look, I think the example here is if you take care of your body and you're a young player, you got a chance to extend your career. You got a chance to have a second

earning power. Like Muhammad Wilkerson, okay, he signs this huge deal with the Jets. And then he basically doesn't do anything. And everybody now says, well, he's going to Green Bay and he'll turn his career around. I can't believe Green Bay got Mohammed. Did anybody watch Muhammad Wilkerson play last year? Like, he was horrible. Like, he was bad. Like, he took the money and ran.

I mean, he basically, he pulled Omar. He, like, left town. And now he's only signed with Green Bay because the guy that was responsible for drafting him at the Jets, Mike Patton, is the defense coordinator. And Petton's probably telling everybody how amazing he is. Because he saw him at the start of it. And Petton's telling everybody, I'll get them to play better. I'll get them to play better.

I'll get them to play better. And when you start doing that, it don't work. And as soon as Wilkerson left, that was pretty much the end of the Rex Ryan era of drafting guys where they drafted these D-Ns, every single way. Right. And they really didn't hit on them. I mean, look, you know, and we're still waiting for Shelter-Ritchinson to sign. I don't know if he signed while we're doing this podcast, but he's another guy who's going to be out there. And now Sue is in that same market.

See, if I was Shelter-Ritchison, I would have taken a deal before Sue signed. I would have kind of close that up because I want to go somewhere. there's a team like the Cowboys or something we're going to go in a situation. If somebody will take me, the Cowboys were interested in Richardson last year. They made offers for him. They didn't work out. But I think that's what I would have done. But obviously he didn't.

One last thing before we get out of here, we want to clear this up. There was a lot of, you know, Twitter. We were both on Twitter. And there was a big thing that came out about you talking about humanitarian work. We were talking about Josh Rosen. And the context of the conversation was Josh Rosen was trying to get ahead of stories saying that he didn't like football. And a lot of stuff coming out of the combine was, here's why Josh Rosen does love football.

So the whole context of the conversation was, you know, it was based on this. So, you know, he's trying to get ahead of a story. We're talking about the story. And then it gets pulled out that a direct quote using, you know, quotations was tweeted out by a guy Dave Ziron. And he says that you said he had to choose between humanitarian work and football as if he had these two choices in life. And, you know, there's two roads and there's a fork in the road. And he has to choose one or the other. it was not that serious that was not the context of the conversation luckily we quickly got on top of it

I transcribed the actual quote I sent it over he you know tweeted out a retraction for the whole thing but j j watt picked it up it gained a lot of steam people were comparing it to the shut up and dribble things first take did a whole thing and first take apologized to me for doing that I mean first take actually called and apologized because they knew they were wrong and I appreciate them for doing that because they took a a fake story and turned into a real one and it's funny because this is where we are with Homeland. You watch it Homeland this year? No, I'm not. But this is where Homeland is. It's really about information warfare. It's about fake news. It's about how this, how does change the perception of people based on what you'd put on Twitter. And instead of stopping and asking,

is that true? People are reacting to it because we're in this instant age of just react. And I think it's really wrong. And I mean, the guy apologized, but he even misquoted me in the apology, you know, and he calls himself a news journalist. Like he never reached out or tried to get behind it. To me, look, you can do whatever you want. Like, like, you know, like, like to end this podcast in a Godfather reference, like, like Vito told, it doesn't make any difference how a man makes a living. You have to, when he told Virgil Salazzo that, it doesn't make any difference how a man makes it live in. I don't care how he makes a living. But to me, you got to at least stand on it. I make mistakes. I own them. You make mistakes. You own

them. But to me, like, when you know and you can listen to the podcast and you misquote it, that to me is wrong. Or when you're another source that's out there and this has been put out there, you know, and I'm not pointing fingers, but if you're JJ Watt and this has been said, maybe listen to it, maybe make sure. Yeah, like, I don't even know if J.J. Watt retracted it. Like, he doesn't follow me. I don't follow him. So, like, I don't know if he does or not. To me, it's not the point. Like, I respect that guy. I respect what he's done. I expect what he did for the city. I respect everything about J.J. Watt. Like, for me, I was making a point about something that

completely different than that. And the whole idea was they were trying, they were trying to use this as to propagate and to have another larger conversation with you as the crux of it. But that's not what we're doing here. GM Street, we're a podcast. It's all about football. We're talking about evaluating football players. And the thing it drives me crazy is, is I was sharing with you what people were telling me about what their experience was.

You were not giving your real, you were not giving opinions. You were giving what you hear. And it was all in the context of how does Josh Rosen get over this made up thing that he doesn't love football? And then we move on from there. And that's what GM Street's about. That's what we are. We're going to continue doing this.

Wednesdays will be when we record now. College basketball, I'm sorry, Michael Lombardi. I'm not going to be around as much. I love it, Dave Frazier. I love it. One Shining Pod's doing great. I love that. I'm happy for you, and this is a great time of the year. I don't know why you're not in Vegas. I went to Vegas one year during March Madness.

It was the best time. Kyle's clapping. He wants us to go to Vegas. I mean, to me, that was one of the greatest times. My son Mick was graduating from college. All his buddies, Corey, and Doc Boy and John, all these guys, right? They were all there for, like, the weekend. It was unbelievable.

Yeah. And I was with Hank Greenberg, the ESPN guy. Yeah. Didn't have any of them right. We couldn't get one right. We were mushing the whole thing. We were mushing the whole thing. But it was great.

It was fun. Are you in any of these like survivor pools? I have no idea about college basketball. I have no idea. I have no idea. I'm like, where's Tom Crean going to get a job? That's the only thing I care about. Penn State.

There's been some rumors about that. I mean, Georgia, there was some talks. Pretty much every job that opens up, you know, Tom Crean is thrown into the mix. I really wanted it to be Yukon, but it seems like Yukon wants Dan Hurley. stories Connecticut wants dan he'd go there so yeah i hope tom gets one i think he you know and i hope it deserves one i hope it's not a remember when school you know what remember when schools are uh what he had at indiana yeah remember when remember when remember when we were great and this is why we're great you know we used legal pads back in the day so let's keep using legal pads you know that's a

remember when you can't have cross yeah there's a bunch of schools like that remember when remember when uh remember when this podcast was on mondays now it's on wednesday's there you're a great host this has been gm street part of the ringer podcast network and We will be back next Wednesday. Thank you.