The Ringer NFL Show - Friday Focus: The Future for Foles, Cousins, and Eli | GM Street (Ep. 229)

Episode Date: January 26, 2018

The Ringer's Michael Lombardi and Tate Frazier sit down on Super Bowl bye week to discuss Nick Foles's future (09:30), what this week means to the players (12:00), the absence of Tim Jernigan at Eagles practice (13:30), why we should have known that Tom Brady was healthy enough to play well (16:30), the unpopularity of the Pro Bowl (25:15), what uniform we may see Kirk Cousins in (26:30), Dave Gettleman's not-so-surprising comments about Eli Manning (28:45), and Josh Allen in the Senior Bowl (32:45). Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Now that the college football season has ended, we've rebranded our Ringer University podcast feed to Through the Ringer. This is your go-to place for our weekly wrap-ups of Ringer podcast title This Week in Ringer Culture and This Week in Ringer Sports. It's also where you can hear some of our special projects, one-off stories, and the new shows we're working on behind the scenes. So if you want to hear all the best culture and sports podcast moments and some of our special projects, subscribe to Through the Ringer on Apple Podcast,

Stitcher, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcast. Now, GM Street. From the GM Street part of the Ringer Podcast Network, It is Friday. It is the Friday focus. First thing's first week, the last podcast we did together. You recommended movies to me. Which I certainly like, I told Millie, I was like, this is, this guy got a sense of movies. Like you could be, I mean, I'll tell Simmons the same thing. Like the New York Times could come after you as a movie critic. I mean, that was really well done. We went to go see on your recommendation, three, what was it? Was it? Three billboards outside of Ebbing, Missouri. I mean Missouri. Lovely town. I thought it was really awesome. You know, that North Carolina, it was like right outside of Asheville. Silva, North Carolina. Yeah, because one time when I was working for the Browns, Jimmy Haslam had this like retreat that he makes all his top-level employees go. So we flew down to and there was like some cabin up in the top of a mountain. But we went through Asheville. It was absolutely gorgeous. I was like, wow. Grandfather Mountain, that whole little area, western North Carolina. I thought my family's from originally.

Really? Yeah, my mom's side of the family. I felt like getting my fishing pole and like me and Andy go out there with little. It was. It was awesome. Mount Airy, North Carolina is what, that's based on the Annie Griffith show. That's the town that's based on. Oh, really?

Yes. Wow. I loved it. No, it was awesome. But three billboards was great. I thought Woody Harrelson was really good. I thought that woman that played the lead character. I thought she was great.

Francis McDormon, yeah. I'm glad you said that. I didn't know her name. See, I got you. Yeah, I have no idea who she was. But she was good. I thought it was good. Like, I hate going to movies where I think a kid's going to get killed, right?

I don't want to see a dog get injured at all. Right. If you're going to hurt a dog, I'm not going to the movie. If you're going to hurt a kid, I really don't want to go to a movie. You do not need to see hostiles then. That's a movie that starts out with some gruesome deaths to children. No, I'm not watching. I want to go see that. I was telling me that. It's a great movie. I mean, but that's the catalyst to everything else that comes from that. Rosamond Pike is the star of that movie. See, I can't do that. Like, I just can't do that. John Irving, the great writer. You know, I love John Irving. He's one of my favorite writers of all time. And I read, I read all his books. And Irving has this unique ability to write where it's like after about 25 pages with John Irving, I either make the decision I'm going all in because this is awesome or I'm done. Like Hotel New Hampshire, I couldn't quite get through the thing, right?

You know, you asked me about World According to Garp, I'm all in. You know, like I can get all those. And he always has something happening to a child in there because that's what he fears the most. And for some reason, I read his books, and I know there's going to be a death of a child because that's one of his fears. His other great thing that he does, he always writes the last sentence of the book first. Can you imagine that? He writes the last sentence first. That amazing to me that people's brains can work in that way.

Yeah. So, like, one of my all-time favorite books is Widow for One Year by John Irving. And, you know, and it's about this woman whose two children die. The husband and wife, they die. The two kids die in a car accident. and then they end up having another child that goes on from the... So, like, I have that fear. So I don't want...

I'll read about it, but I don't want to go see it. So that's why... And then if you hurt a dog or any animal, like, I'm not going. Yeah, definitely not. It's not that. I mean, not that anybody's paying attention to what I think about movies. Just so you know, I'm...

I'm glad that you're putting it out there to the world. We don't need any of that in any movie. And I'm glad that you liked it, though. I'm glad you wouldn't saw it. I'm glad I'm really struck a court to... I'm waiting for some other ones. Now, should I go see the... Should I go see the one with Daniel?

Daniel Day Lewis? I have not seen that movie. Phantom Thread. He was on the podcast. I like, I just can't believe that Paul Thomas Anderson, you know, he made movie nights. I thought you were still recording the podcast with Bill and Jalen. Is that still not going on? No, it went up. Two hours yesterday. We were going to go for 24. I was going to be a full day thing. I thought they were taking on Jerry Lewis. The best thing about that podcast is at the end, Bill said, I'm glad we left some things on the table. I would have left some things on the plate. We got some more stuff to talk about. I mean, I don't think Bella could make it two hour a wall. Like, I don't think She can make a two-hour walk, so I don't know if I'm going to be able to listen to you.

You can see me at the end of that podcast. I was nearly knocked out at the time. It was so good. It was a good time. I also want to talk about other than movies. We've got to talk about a little bit about the 76ers. We're just going to knock some things off the top and then we're going to get into football here. Markle Fultz, we've seen a lot of videos come out of him in his shooting stroke and the little hitch and his jump shot.

What it reminds me of is, I have to think it's the opposite of Barclay. So maybe Foltz is a really good golfer. Like he has just a pure golf swing. And then he has this hitch and his jump shot. and, you know, Barkley had the hitch in his golf swing and obviously a great jump shot. So maybe it's the opposite effect, but something's going on there with Foltz. I saw it. I think WIP put it up there

or some on Twitter. I saw it on Twitter. I saw the shot. And let me just say this. Like, he can keep shooting all he wants. If I owned the 76ers, if I was Josh Harris, I would get my private plane, I would put Foltz on it, and I would fly that plane to Vienna, over Vienna, Austria, and I would get a team of psychologist to try to figure out what the hell is going on with this kid.

Because it ain't going to shoot his way through it. He's going to have to psychologically get his way through it. He's got Steve Sachs syndrome. He's literally got Steve Sachs syndrome. And I have a few friends in the NBA coaches that I talk to on a regular basis because I truly am an NBA. You know, like I truly wish I wasn't in the NBA because I think the one thing about the NBA that I love more than anything that unlike football is they understand style and pace of how to play. You know, you'll hear a coach say, if we get this game in the 60s, we can't win or, you know, college guys. And everybody says the kids got the yips.

I mean, so like, I don't know if practicing's going to do it. What do you think? How can this happen to me, Tate Frazier? I think it's the curse of being the number one pick. I mean, we saw it with Anthony Bennett. I know that I've heard an interview with him. I think it was last year in 2017. And he said it was the worst thing that had ever happened to him going number one

because he had the talent to be a number one pick. That's obviously why he was drafted number one. But then once he had the moniker of you are the number one pick, the pressure of that and everyone watching you and trying to, you know, pick apart everything that you do really got in his head. And I think the same thing has happened into Fultz. The weird thing about Fultz is he was such a great shooter at Washington. But the whole time that I saw him shoot at Washington, it was open jump shots because they were down 18. You know, it was open threes because they were getting beat out. Now, I will say this about you. You have been very clear about how you felt about

Fultz. You have been very clear about that. You haven't changed. You predicted this one. You obviously should become the general manager of the 76ers because you knew when Calangelo didn't know. I mean, he didn't know, obviously. But I mean, I bought the ticket. I watched the games. And I'm like, now I'm like, you know what? This is ridiculous.

I can't watch it anymore. Like, it's unbelievable. But you should be excited about Simmons. Who? Oh, I love Simmons. Yes. You have a superstar. That's all you ever wanted from the process.

I know the whole process was we're going to build four superstars and everything. But really all you needed was one like transcendent plus. to really take you to the next level. And you got Ben Simmons. That's what really matters. The Embed, I can't play on back-to-backs. I know everyone loves Embed. He's an all-star now. He's a starter. Everyone's so excited. But I still don't like that he can't play back-to-backs. That gives me a headache. I don't think he's in very good shape if you really want to know the truth. If I was Brian Colangelo, and this is just me. I'm throwing it out there. And Kauai Leonard was not happy. And that's the word on the street. I would not be afraid to call them and say, hey, I have a guy,

Mark Hell Fultz. And Chip England, the shot doctor himself, Duke alum, great guy, works for the Spurs. He prides himself on fixing anyone's shots. He fixed this, Jonte Murray, he's now the starting point guard for the Spurs.

Obviously, he fixed Kauai. It's a bunch of guys there, Danny Green, a bunch of guys. If I'm him and I see Markle Fultz, that is the ultimate, other than Michael K. Gilchrist, that is the ultimate guy I want to fix.

You know, there's the biggest problems. Like if you're Einstein, you can't quite put it together, and it's the hardest problem to solve, I want to bring him to the Spurs. Give me Fultz, give me Embed, you have Kauai.

And the Spurs can, you know, take on the young guys and try to make a project out of it. That's what I would try to do. I don't think you could get, I don't think you could get two ham sandwiches for folks right now. Like, I think,

I mean, look, I'm a fat ass from living in Los Angeles. I saw that video and I, like, I want to send them to Vienna. Like, by the way,

it was fascinating. People actually on Twitter ask us to come over to Vienna to do the podcast. Like, I'm all in. Like, I want to go to Vienna. I'm going to go to Vienna.

I want to go to Vienna. But makes Vienna such a unique, city is it has all these cultures based in it. It's a little bit like in my book, I call it the Vienna problem about all these coaches who try to have all these systems in one. So it's Vienna's the same. The hodgepodge. Yeah, Vienna. Like, if you want to get great brandy from Armenia, you go to Vienna, if you want to great pastries. I mean, Vienna has all these cultures because of the Ottoman Empire. So, like, I want to go. Like, I definitely want to go. But, you know, and I would... So you just put it out there. We're coming to Vienna. We're going to do a GM Street live and there you go.

We got it. We got to figure out. We got an invitation to do one in Italy, which I think we should do, which I should live there, because I think it would be a better place. But anyway, go on. Absolutely. That's like a homecoming for you. Get back to your roots. And then the third thing before, this leads into football. Our final thing at the top here, a lot of people were coming after us about the Nick Foles' conversation we had. And that's on me.

I let you down with my setup there. The whole point of the Nick Foles, it was a scenario, if Nick Foles is sliding doors, if Nick Foles wins a Super Bowl. And he is a Super Bowl champion for the Philadelphia Eagles. We understand folks he is on a contract, but he is not on a contract worthy of a Super Bowl winning quarterback. That's the point, yeah. So then he is going to be in a situation where he's going to either go somewhere else, obviously. There's going to be trade situations or he's going to want to renegotiate his deal because he just won the Eagles a Super Bowl. And that was the whole point of the conversation.

Obviously, it came out that he was going to be a free agent. And we were talking about the Vikings. And they told me to brush up on our free agency, which is just great. People were sending a SPO track. We understand you can look up contracts. We do that all the time. I got that. I got that.

I love certain people. people, and I'm not going to mention any names, but I love certain people who think they're geniuses with an eraser. Okay? Like, like, like, I just want to go back on some of the things, some of these people that send me stuff have said and, and then go back with an array, you know, like, because they're all geniuses, you know, they all know what's going on. But that being said, look, we know falls, but the reality of the situation is, if Foles wins, like at some point, the Eagles are going to have to say to themselves, we know Wence is coming back. He's our guy. Nobody's ever saying he's not their guy. And I never said that. I'm a huge Wence fan. There's value in Foles.

Now, how much value in Foles? You've got a first round pick for Bradford. Foles wins a Super Bowl and comes back with a quarterback market that looks depressed out there. I think there's a lot of value in the guy. Absolutely. And that was the whole point. Nick Foles will have value if he wins a Super Bowl. There you go. Just like if Rex Grossman had won a Super Bowl, he would have a lot more value than he ended up having at the end. By the way, are you watching the Johnny Versace thing? I have not started watching it yet. came off on a different tan. But that made me think about that.

That's really good. You need to watch it. I need to watch it. Yeah, that is my recommendation. I wanted to give you that at the top. So I just kind of came into my head. I need to watch it. I was a big fan of the OJ situation as American Crime.

I like anthology series. I like when we can switch out the actors and switch out the stories. You're not tied to one thing. True Detectives. I like that. I like that too. Not the second season. That's a nice word.

I like that. I got to try to work that in. Anthology. There you go. I'll check that out for sure. Should we talk about some actual football stuff? Let's do it. Let's talk about it. We're going to stay in the NFCE, so we just mentioned the Eagles.

Let's first talk about, like, what is this week for both Super Bowl teams? Can we do that? This week is very similar to if the game was going to be played on Sunday. So most teams, not most teams, all teams are going to put their game plan in this week and practice it. So by the time they board that plane Monday morning from Philadelphia or from New England from Boston, Logan Airport, the game plan is 95% in, and it's been practiced. When they get there, they understand the distractions. They understand, you know, Tuesday's Media Day. Monday, they just get there.

Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, they'll practice Saturday, walk through game. But the game plans are in. So this week is really about understanding the opponent, the game plan, what tapes to watch, who to study, how to look at things, whether the Patriots, look, how they see Philadelphia and how Philadelphia sees the Patriots. So that's really what this week's all about. I want to talk about two guys that are missing, one on each side. two big name guys that everyone's looking out for.

First off with the Patriots, no Rob Grancowski at practice so far. Just from that situation, you talk about game planning, putting in game plan. Do you have to adjust if you're Bill Belichick or are you still planning and plotting a game plan with Grancowski involved? I think they're going to plan that Gronk's going to play. I think there's probably all indications are that Gronks are going to play and why risk it, right? You know, it is out of the Patriots hands.

It's in the concussion protocol. So they don't really have control of this. You know, it's not their team doctor that signs off. He's got to pass certain tests. He's got to go out and work out, come back, not to feel a headache, and do all that. But I would be really shocked if Gronk didn't play in the game. And the game plan is going to be set up for Gronk to play in. Yeah, that's no doubt.

And then on the Eagle side, on the defensive line, Timmy Jernigan, a Florida State guy, been a star all season defensive tackle. He has not been at Eagles practice, and they have not offered any update so far on what's going on with Jernigan. So if you don't have Jernigan and you don't have Kronkowski, those are two huge losses on the offensive side and the defensive side of the football. Well, I think the Jernigan one. I mean, I would assume he's, I don't know anything about it, but I would assume he would play. But just like pathetically say he doesn't play. Okay, so this is one of the things that before we break down the game next week that I would say to you is the Eagles defense has been remarkable this season in the sense that they've only played an average of about 26 minutes a game.

And so this game is really going to be about play count. This game is truly going to be about how many plays can the Patriots offense make the Philadelphia Eagles. defense defend. If this game gets into the 70s where the Patriots run 70, 75, 80 plays, okay, that's a lot of plays, then they're going to win. If they run 50, 53, 54, then the Eagles are going to win. It's just as simple as that. And the reason is, is because the Eagles, by not running a lot of plays, keeps that defensive line really fresh and all their money. I mean, one thing Watergate taught us is follow the money, right? Well, follow the money on the Eagles. It's all in their defensive line other than Malcolm Jenkins. So that's where, you know,

is. And when those guys get tired and they can't really play all the time, then that's when you can attack their secondary and attack their coverages. Because this game won't be about complexities within the defensive scheme of the Eagles. It'll be about the Eagles' defensive front being fresh and ready to rush. If they do that, that's why the Jernigan, which is what I thought the Eagles did a great job, Howie Roseman, the GM, Joe Douglas, the personnel guy. They did a great job of adding depth to the Eagles defensive line this year. Because last year, when you watched them as the season were on, the defensive line wilted. And once the Jim Schwartz style of defense doesn't have a dominant front, the secondary is insignificant.

And absolutely. And we saw that with Barnett coming in on a pass rush. I mean, the depth that they have, I mean, with the way they've drafted and the way they've brought guys in, it's on another level. Right. So if they lose one of those depth players who happens to be a top level player, I mean, look, you can go back and watch the Baltimore Raven 2014 playoff game. I don't think we blocked Timmy Jern. The only one guy on our team really could block. Jernigan. And that was Brian Stork, our center. And then he got hurt in that game. And then he missed the next week. He came back for the Super Bowl. But Stork really was the only guy that could block Jernigan in the game. I mean, whenever Jernigan was one-on-one on either one of our guards, Dan Conley, you know, Ryan went down. I mean, those guys were trying. They're working hard.

But it was hard for them to block them. But Stork could. This week, you know, a Jernigan. Mason's a really good player. Tunis has had ups and downs. It'll be. But when he's coming, man, he's good. And then next to Cox, what makes it so good. is when he plays next to Cox, the protection always slides to Cox. So the Jernigan's on an island. Because Cox is the number one guy there. If you don't slide the protection to Cox or you don't have a way to it, it's going to be a problem. It's going to be a problem no matter who you have, right? And so, and I will tell you this, Tate Frasier, without knowing anything the Patriots are going to do this week, they're not going to run that protection where the tight end comes back and blocks Dornford. I can promise you that. You can book that one. I don't think we're going to see Dwayne Allen running across the line trying to make a... Or Grom coming across there. I don't think that's going to happen. I don't think that's going to happen. But let's talk about the star of the show, and that is Mr. Tom Brady. He's been in practice. He's still wearing the two red gloves.

Obviously, everyone is enamored with the fact that he has these two red gloves on and people worried about the stitches in his hands. And he's already proven that that's probably not going to be a problem for the Super Bowl. But just Brady watching him in practice, I know you've watched the tape of him. Yeah, you know, I think that, you know, Tom watching, you know, just watched him in the game, you know, I think it's easy for him to, you know, miss a practice. It's the mental reps. I mean, this is not going to be a game where Tom's going to get challenged mentally.

He's going to know what they're in. It's going to be Tom's ability to maintain his eye level down the field. It's going to be Tom's ability to understand what he has to do effectively in the game. He can't turn the ball over. This is critical. He cannot turn the ball over. The Eagles have lost both games that they failed to win the turnover takeaway battle. Okay.

They lost to Kansas City. They were minus two. They lost to Seattle. They were minus two. they beat Atlanta, even though they were behind in the turnover takeaway. However, we don't want to go down that Steve Sarkesian Street again. So, you know, so he knows that he has to be precise with the football and make really good throws all the time. So it's not going to be his ability to read the coverage.

It's going to be his ability to execute and handle the game plan. And, you know, I've been sort of keeping up with the coverage leading into this. And injury is always a question for any game in football, obviously. And the injury report is a big thing. and Bill Belichick is a king of non-answers, basically. You know, just throwing out generalities of like he's okay or he may be all right. Well, you know, here's the thing. I think, you know, I said this on a podcast last week.

Like with Belichick, he's never going to give you the answers, right? So he does, like, do some deductive reasoning, right? So, like, last week he didn't bring. It's a very old principle to football, too. I think, you know, it's a lost art almost. If Brady wasn't going to play in the game, he would have signed another quarterback. If Brady was iffy to play in the game, he would have signed another quarterback. He didn't, which told you how he felt about the injury.

It wasn't open heart surgery. He thought he was going to play. So just follow the path. It's not that complicated. It really isn't that complicated. I just want to talk about some other things, some random storylines that are going on. Malcolm Jenkins is a guy that knows the Patriots a little bit. He picked up a pass in 15 against us.

We're coming into score. we got up 14 to nothing against Chip Kelly-led Eagle team, came down the field, and then they made it 14 to 7. He picked off a pat, and then they tied it up at the end. We had one of the biggest brain farts probably in the history of Patriot football was we mismanaged the end of the half, and they blocked a punt score to touch. I made it 14, 14. And then we were driving the ball to start the game at the second half,

and they come back, pick it off, and takes it back to the end zone. So everybody's aware of what Malcolm Jenkins can do in terms of his ability to blitz. This is a three-level player. This is really the modern-day safety. A converted corner. A converted corner that can play on three levels. And when I say three levels, meaning he can attack the pocket, that's level one. He can play in the box.

That's level two. And he can play high. That's level three-level safety, rare to find in the NFL today. Okay. That's why the Adams pick for the Jets, for me, wasn't exactly like, oh, I love this pick. Yeah, he's a really good player, except the fact that he's a really good player, except the fact that his impact, his physicality, can't really be felt in today's game. You're not allowed to hit anybody. You know, one hard hit and you're in trouble. You know, your head placement goes somewhere that's, you know, so the impact of the big safety.

I mean, we drafted Eric Turner, the second pick overall in the draft because he could control the middle of the field by his physical presence, right? You come in there, oh my God, I'm going to hit by this big guy, no way. That doesn't exist anymore. That's why the Adams pick for me was, I wondered about that. Whereas Jenkins is a modest. day the prototypical type of safety that you have to have in football, he can play on all three levels. And he can adjust to the, to the, if he can go out and he can adjust, he can cover a tight end, he can cover a slot receiver. And he did that really well when we played in 15. And it seems like the way that Malcolm Jenkins is talking before the Super Bowl, he's obviously amped up about the matchup with the Patriots, but it also seems that he is going to be the

guy that the Eagles and the secondary depend on to match up against a Grancowski, to match up against Danny Amindola, to match up against the Dionne Lewis if they spread him out wide. Whoever they determine to be the playmaker that they want to get involved for the Patriots, it seems like Jenkins is going to be the one to take it on himself to match it. You know, and look, Schwartz is smart. He understands what the Patriots try to do. And, you know, it's easier to play gronk to say you're going to play gronk than actually play grom. Yes.

You know, and there's a lot of ways that they can get gronk and make things happen. And look, I think Jenkins is a really good player, and it gives them a unique advantage. When you having a safety, when the Steelers were really good on defense, when Bill Cower was there, they had Carnell Lake. and Carnell Lake from UCLA was really a good player because Carnel Lake played strong safety and then when you put 11 personnel on the field, they didn't have to substitute. They stayed in their base defense and Carnal Lake became the slot corner. Hard. Now this is hard because you can't really run against their base.

They got you outnumbered in the front and you can't win the matchup with them as a slot receiver. Usually you can win that matchup because you get a slot receiver against a strong safety, stealing money, not that case. And that's really what Malcolm Jenkins does. That's why when you can get a. safety that can do that, it really creates a lot more versatility within your defense. And we're going to get into more of like specific matchups and everything that's Super Bowl, probably even maybe even, there are 400 prop bets. Did you see this? No, I want to go.

Yeah, that's all next week. We're going to hit everything. Yeah, I want to talk about that. We're going to knock out. What is mush going to bet? Like I got to, like whatever I would think, I would be just caution, I would be the mush of those prop bets. Whatever I think would happen, probably, I would bet the opposite. You know what mush is? No.

So there's a great movie because of The Bronx Tale. Oh, yeah, I heard the movie. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You've seen the movie? Yeah, well, you've heard about it. Because Simmons has to talk about it. Yeah, but it's one of those things where, like, your own cable and you see, like, the Bronx tells. Well, there's a character named Mush in it.

Whoever he bets, they bet the opposite. And so they're all at this racetrack, and they find out that they think they have this horse who's going to be a winner. And then they find out that Mush made the bet, and they just said they chipped up their tickets and left before the race was even over because they knew Mush met him. So that's right. It's a good movie. It's a good movie, too. Yeah, yeah. I need to watch that.

That's funny. Well, we'll run through all the props and do a bunch of stuff for the Super Bowl all next week, and that's a little tease in a preview. We talk about plays, too. Yeah, we'll talk about everything. We'll go through the whole game. What's the last play you've seen? The last play I've seen.

Broadway play. I went to go see Motown at Pantages. Yeah, yeah. Nice. Good play. I love Motown, love Detroit. I love that. Yeah, I like that.

It's a good time. You know, Barry Gordy, the whole story. I like that. I like that. I've seen beautiful. Carol King on Broadway. I saw Hamilton on Broadway. Yeah, no, I like it. See, I never saw Hamilton. That was a... Hamilton on Broadway. It was like, Millie and I went to go see Hamilton on Broadway, got great seats, and we're sitting there, and this thing starts, and, you know, I'm deaf in one

ear, so I can't hear out of one ear, and I only have 75% hearing in my other year, and they start doing the, they start doing the rap stuff, and I'm like, I look at her, and I'm like, I got no chance to know what the hell's going on here. And eventually it kind of got, I got into a rhythm of understanding it. I thought it was great. Yeah, I need to go check it out. Well, maybe not now. I don't know. It's sort of passed it by. Everyone gave it all the praise. I don't think it needs me to give it any praise. I've heard it's good.

You got to add it to your collection. You got to add it to your collection. Maybe one day. It's hard to get a ticket, Michael Lombardy. I'm not that. I'm not that. We'll get you a ticket tape phrase. That's not that.

And the biggest story, the biggest game besides the Super Bowl, obviously, the game that everyone's tuned into, Orlando, Florida. Everyone cares. Everyone's invested. Everybody loves Disney. Everyone's talking about it. Have you been to Disney? Of course.

I love Disney. See, I'm a Disney World. I'm an East Coast kid. I'm a East Coast guy. I've never been to Disneyland. I've never been to Disneyland either. You know. So I can't say anything bad about Disneyland, but I know that Disney World is great.

So I'm just going to leave it. Millie took my grandson, Dominic, down there to Disneyland with the family. But I was had to work with you that day, so I couldn't go. So I missed his first time. For the good of the podcast. You hear that listeners? He saw Mickey Mouse. It's one of the great pictures of all time.

It was like, you know, you just really appreciate the magic of Walt Disney when you realize that a little kid who's seven months old sees this, the in person. the facial express. It's like unbelievable. And it still works. It worked then. When I was a kid, it works now when I'm a grandfather. And it's unbelievable, too,

because you know, you had these moments with Disney movies when you're a kid and, you know, you feel like it's just for your childhood. But then when you get older, you realize that Disney owns everything. Yeah.

Everything that you see they own. So it's like, oh, well, Disney's going to be involved in my life forever. Yeah. I still some beauty and the beast song. So it's not big. It's going to be in your head forever.

See, it was genius. Way to go, Walt. Pro Bowl this Sunday. Orlando, once people get back from Disney World, exhibition game. Oh, it's so bad. There's a lot of stuff going on there, a lot of games. It's so bad. Yeah. Is there any way that we could get people to watch the Pro Bowl or tune into the Pro Bowl? I don't know, Tay Frazier. I just, to me, it's like, it's great. I mean, I've been to

probably because I've been spoiled. I've been to so many practices. I've seen so many, I've seen these guys up close and personal. So for me, it really doesn't have a whole lot of interest. Like, I've been, I've marveled that these guys doing the things that they do, whether it's catch the ball, run, you know, all that stuff. So, you know, I think it's a way for fans to, and I'm glad they've made it more interactive for fans and let them get close. It's almost turned into spring training. It really is. And I think that's a good thing. I think that's what it should be because it can't be, you know, it can't be a true game. It can't be, you know, we're going to really come after you and do this. It's got to be more of a, you know,

kind of a simulated type of game. The only person that ever took it seriously was Kirk Cousins. Remember when he made that like, he sprinted down and made that big tackle and everyone was like, my God, man, you're making $25 million a year. Don't hurt yourself. Please don't hurt yourself in an exhibition. I think Kurt Cousins goes. Give me your bet right here. What's that? Where do you think he goes? Who do you think he stays in Washington?

Do you think he signs with Denver, Jacksonville, Buffalo, the Jets? Give me your pick. I think I'm going to go with the Jets. Really? Yeah, which is probably a little bit surprising. Where did you come up with that one from? I don't know. I just had this weird feeling.

You said it quick, too. Yeah, I always saw Kirk Couss was going to be. You blink that one. I thought he was always going to end up on the Jets. But now that I say that, I probably just mush the whole situation, so he probably won't end up on the Jets. But yeah, I don't know. I don't think he's going to be in Washington.

We know how Jay Gruden... If he really feels about him? Yeah, we've read the tea leaves on that too many times, but John Gruden would trade Kirk Cousins for Derrick Carr? I don't know. All I know is that Derrick-Rour has said that John Gruden is going to get him to the Super Bowl level winning quarterback that he needs to be. All the sounds coming out of Oakland are just so perfect, aren't they?

Yeah. I mean, Del Rio's got to be reading these clips and going like, God damn it, God damn it. Well, they're a bunch of dogs and they're ready to attack it. Yeah, like they said. The whole time they've been like this. They realize. that the leader that wasn't making him attack.

Exactly. That's the, what about you? What about cousins? Do you see him in Washington or going somewhere else? My, you know, I think Denver.

My guess is Denver. That would be Denver. To me, it's like come to Denver, we got a good defense. You know, we know how to make this work. Is that top priority for Elway, though?

Yeah, I think it is. I think he thinks he's the number one guy to go after. I think Elways had to come to Jesus about these quarterbacks, right? So he's had, you know,

he's had the heist, he's had Paxton. Yeah. You know, I think he's had a, to Jesus, like, I can't win with this. Like, that's one thing when you embarrass, when you lose, like, the

Broncos have lost this year, it's humbling. It's humbling. You're like, well, wait a minute, I'm not very good. I got to get this right. Especially with the bravado and we talked about Campbell when he left and went inside with the Jaguars, all those Broncos players talking about, you know, guys don't... McKeachian. Jackson.

Yeah, yeah. When Jackson went, they were all saying that, you know, guys don't even want to win Super Bowl anymore. They just want to get paid. Right. And it turns out that, you know, Jaguars were one game away from going to Super Bowl. and they were nowhere to be found this year. So I think that defense probably has to swallow. Yeah, and I mean, they're going to go through a lot of changes.

And the only way you can really sustain change in the NFL is have consistency of quarterback, really. And I think that's what they'll do. Absolutely. I'm interested to see what happens down there with the Broncos. Let's talk about another quarterback that he's gotten the support of everyone in the organization. And that is Eli Manning. Do you ever watch Goomer Powell?

Yes. Remember when he says surprise, surprise, surprise? Like Dave Gettleman's comments today were not a surprise. Yes. And even Pat Shermer in his first presser. I mean, they turned the lights on and he said, I guess it's starting. You know, that was the start of his tenure with the Giants and they both are team Eli and it looks like Eli is going to be with the Giants. The sad thing about it is that McAdolte, you know, ended the streak for Eli. Yeah. And if he had just let it roll out. That's a Giants fault for hiring Macadone. Yeah. That's the price they paid for hiring McAddle.

I feel like Eli's got to be upset about that, especially knowing that he has the support of the new regime coming in. Look, I don't think, look, I can see Dave what, look, the two games, Eagles gave up. the most yards as we get ready to play the Super Bowl, we're against the New York Giants City of the Maddox. So you could easily make the case that Eli, you know, had enough in that game. But when you watch that game closely, and I have gone back and watched all the Eagle games again, Eli has a chance to win that game in the first game. Eagles are one-in-one.

The Giants, I think, are 0-2 at that time. And, you know, they have a chance. They're driving the ball down the field. Eli underthrows a deep route, which he always does. Dave mentioned he's got his arm still there. Look, everybody in the league plays for Eli to underthrow the ball. It's a fact, okay? You've got to play Eli for underthrows because the receiver's going to come back into

and it could be pass interference. So I hear Dave says he's got enough arm. Maybe he does. But on that throw, typical weather was perfect that day in Philadelphia. So they turn the ball over at the five. Then they come back down the field again. They got a chance to put the ball in the end zone. They can't fourth and one.

They run this ridiculous run play inside. And then it's 14 to nothing. then they come back again, they make all these plays, they get back in the game, they go up 21-14, they go up 24, 21, and they lose the game. You can watch that tape and say, yeah, he's there. But between that tape and then the next Philadelphia game, it's hard to say those things. And it seemed like that was the main tape they all pointed to. You know, it was like, that's the Eli that we know. Those two tapes, you could easily say that. The problem is, when you watch those two tapes, they did exactly what you can't do against Philadelphia. You can't turn the ball over.

Like Philadelphia, as we talked about, they're really good to turn the ball over. and they're really good at getting off the field on third down. They're really forced you to make mistakes. And when you do that, you're going to lose the game, and that's what happened. Now, the Giants played them well, but the Giants didn't make them play. They didn't make them play enough plays to tire out the defensive line. They got a lot of yards. They had 500 yards and 400.

The two most yards against them, the Eagles have given up 500 yards and 400 yards. All the yards, the Los Angeles Chargers got a lot of yards against them. But it ended up with 21 minutes, I think the Chargers got like 405 yards in 21 minutes, Tate Frazier. But at the end of the day, they turned the ball over. They couldn't win the game. Yep. The teams that won controlled the clock and controlled the pace of the game. So the story about Eli, for me, I just think to me that's what the Giants wanted to hear.

That's why Gettelman got the job. They're stuck in 1985 and they're going to stay there. Absolutely. And we should say Pat Schumer, who did such a great job with Case Keenham. He may be able to bring in a revamped office. I think he won. Look, he's going to run more than D-SLAN. All Macadou ran was D-SLAN, which is slant flat, okay? It's called D-SLant. He's going to run more. I watch that tape. I swear to God, I was nauseated by D-SLant. I mean, he ran it so many times. But they were successful. Eli made some really good throws. Becca made some great catches. I could say, you could point to those two games and say, wow, this is going to be it. But there's a lot of games and throws that he struggles to make. And I think that's what the Giants want. The Giants want Eli to have another year. Now, if they pass a quarterback and this quarterback, draft. And, you know, we have the Senior Bowl. Josh Allen's down there, Baker Mayfield. We know Darnold's coming out. If they pass a quarterback and take

Sequin Barkley, the second pick overall, and think they're going to get another year out of Eli, that could hurt the franchise more than actually help it. Yeah, it could be a play for now. Yeah. Yeah. Long-term effect. Exactly. And we talked about that you mentioned the senior ball. I was watching some drills yesterday randomly with Josh Allen and Baker Mayfield and all those guys down there. I mean, is there anything you see in those quarterbacks, anyone that stood out? I mean, Josh Allen's a tall kid. He's a big kid. know he's got a lot of skills. He brings a lot of skills with them to the table. And look, the game is not about the advantage the teams have that coach them is they get to spend time with the kids and how

serious they approach the game. For a quarterback, this is not a hard game. There's no blitzing allowed. So you know the coverage. It's either cover three or cover one. It's middle of the field closed. You can't play cover two. So it's pretty easy. The game and should be fairly good to get into a rhythm. But it's good to watch them and throw the ball in the one-on-one drills against press man coverage and have a sense of a progression and have a feel for the game. And you can see Mayfield does have that. One last thing, one random thing I did see this week, Russell Wilson at the Pro Bowl, who is working with Michael Thomas, you know, who I believe may be the best receiver in football. Your guy and my son Matthews guy. I've never seen anything like it. But those two were working out

together. And it was a scary combination. And the whole time I'm thinking to myself, my God, I hope the Seahawks don't do some sort of fleece trade with the Saints to get Michael Thomas to Seattle. I think the Saints are done with, I think the Saints are never going. I mean, the Saints know they got a good young team. And Breeze is saying all the right things. I mean, look, Breeze is saying all. I think Breeze knows that Sean Peyton loves Baker Mayfield. And like, Breeze doesn't want to go anyway.

It's like, typically Breeze is like, hey, I'm going to go the highest bidder. I want to play in New Orleans. I want to end my career. It shouldn't be a problem. My contract's going to get worked out. That'll be fat, you know, but I could see him draft in Baker Mayfield, too. Now they've got to trade up to do it probably, but I can see them doing it. That could be the biggest splash on draft day.

And we'll obviously. We don't monitor that all season. We're not going anywhere. Yeah, we've got so much time. This has been another edition in GM Street. part of the Ringer Podcast Network. Thank you, Mike. Thank you, Mike.