The Ringer NFL Show - 'GM Street'—Andrew Luck's Surgery, Rebuilding Bortles, TD Celebrations, and the Cowboys (Ep. 98)

Episode Date: April 18, 2017

The Ringer's Mike Lombardi and Tate Frazier discuss Andrew Luck's surgery (01:00), Blake Bortles and the Jacksonville Jaguars (8:30), NFL refs and touchdown celebrations (17:30), Kawann Short's contract with the Carolina Panthers (20:30), Dak Prescott filling Tony Romo's shoes (24:00), and Malcolm Butler's future (27:00). Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The NBA playoffs are here, and we have you covered with the Ringer NBA show hosted by my guy, Chris Vernon. Tuesdays, Thursdays, Fridays, all through the postseason, you can hear the Ringer's NBA experts, media members, coaches, and players breaking down all of the action. Make sure you subscribe to the Ringer NBA show on Apple Podcast, SoundCloud, Stitcher, or wherever you get podcasts. The GM Street, I'm Tate Frazier, and I'm joined by a man in the world of Bill Belichick. He's smart, he's tough, he's dependable, he's Mike Lombardi. How are you? I'm good, and I come to work every day. I just got to do my job.

That's the most important thing, Tate. I've got to do my job. Bill Belichick came out and said, that's all he cares about. He said, everyone has superstars, but I'm just looking for guys that are smart, you know, in the trenches, working hard, and I'm sitting across from one today. We have quite a few topics that we're going to hit. First up, the quarterback of the team that started deflicate, your favorite team, The Indianapolis Colts, Andrew Luck comes out.

He has surgery in January. He says that he had an injury suffered in 2015 against the Titans. He's been dealing with that since. He's had a rough couple years, maybe, you know, 31 touchdowns, 13 interceptions last year. He's done all right. But Andrew Luck now says he's going to be 100% healthy. He's going to come back. He's going to be the guy that we all thought he would be when he was number one pick in 2012.

What do you say to Andrew Luck and this surgery and what's the future for him? I say thank you to Jim Ursay because Jim Ursay finally realized that the time was now that the Ryan Grigsson administration, that whatever Ryan Grigson was doing there at the Indianapolis Colts wasn't working. I mean, the idea to draft receivers, the idea to sign over 30 guys for defense, the idea that the way they built this football team was so bad that Jim Ursay being the smart guy in the room. Yep. I say that again. We've got to remember that. Now, not many people called Jim Mercer, the smart guy in the room. But he saw that this was not going in the right direction.

And I think it's very clear. And I've said this before on other podcasts, but when you play in a dome, the only way you can correctly evaluate your team is by what you do on the road. So your road record is truly what it is. Now, why isn't the home game not a factor? Because the crowd noise is so prevalent. You can't really, you can't determine if your defense is any good. It's hard to play in a dome. Teams can hear.

They can't get the snap count. the run game's not there. But when you go on the road, that's truly what you are. And Andrew Luck's 20 and 19 on the road. Okay? He's not been productive on the road because his team around them is not productive. And when you look at it and you break it down from the offensive line, which is atrocious, they have not played well up front.

They can't physically control any game. They've not been able to. And then you add the fact that they're trying to throw seven-step drop passes because the way Grigsman built this team with T. Ty Wylton, and then with the other receivers, they're trying to throw the ball up the field. Well, that ain't going to work. The quarterback's got to hold the ball. So this is why Andrew Lucks hurt. And I think now what you've seen with Chris Ballard, the new general manager coming in, I think what you're going to see is a change of philosophy. I think you're going to see this team try to rebuild in the trenches. I think they're going to try to throw more three and five-step drop passes to let the ball get out of Andrew Lucks' hands quicker and try to keep his health really as the most important factor of the franchise. because if he's not healthy, the Colts aren't going anywhere.

They need to rebuild the team. They've started to defensively, whether they signed your ball Sheard, and they just signed Jonathan Hankins from the Giants as a defensive lineman. So they're trying to rebuild it. I think clearly luck has to stop throwing the ball looking up at the dome, and he has to start throwing the ball standing up. And he's 27 years old. He's right now, there's no timetable set on his return.

There, obviously, like last year, I think he had the second best quarterback rating in the league, the highest QBR, 71.2 of his nine-year career so far. So things look to be going up despite the injury that he was dealing with. Do you look for, with Andrew Luck in general, do you look for him to be in that top class of a quarterback? We're looking for the guys to replace the Brady's, and obviously Manning's gone now, but the breezes of the world.

Do you see Luck being in that class or jumping into that echelon of quarterbacks? I think he poses the biggest threat to the Patriots if they get the right team around him because he can move, he can make plays with his feet, which he's got to stop doing a little bit as well. I mean, he has to take the Cam Newton approach. Now, he doesn't run the ball like Cam does, but he has to stop trying to take all the hits and stop holding the ball as long as he does.

I think it's really on the offensive staff, Rob Jizzinski, the offensive coordinator. They've got to find a way to get the ball out quicker. It's whether it's Frank Gore's going to be the running back. I'm sure they're going to draft a running back this year. But they have to develop an offense that's more suited to the ball coming out of his hand quicker than holding on to the ball

and thinking that they're going to get the ball down the field of Dorset or think they're going to get the ball down the field of T.Y. Hill. Those guys will make plays, but they have to control the game with their offensive line. And they have not been able to do that. They are probably one of the worst teams in the line up front, and they get pushed around. Kelly's going to help him as the center. I think he's certainly going to help him, but they need other guys to help him inside.

And when you talk about Chisinski, Chisinski was obviously there with Newton when they had a more run-heavy offense. Andrew Lux talked about how he's been playing through pain. I think he said he's played through pain every single year that he's been in the NFL so far. So look at all those factors. is it looks like it's a whole shift, a whole migration into how they play football and the offensive side. And then I think you have to add the fact that Pagano's sitting there,

he knows Grigsett, who he came in with is gone. So Ballard's going to look at over on the coaching staff, and he's going to have to make decisions based on how they do. And I think really, if you're Pagano, you just got to figure out a way to where you can control what you can control, which means you've got to be able to get their defense much better, which they were horrible last year on defense. They couldn't slow anybody down.

They played battleship football. They're guessing all the time what they're going to do on offense or defense. And I think Pagano's got to focus just on trying to get this team incrementally better because you're not going to be able to win the title right away. You've got to get the offensive and defensive line better. And they've got to stop trying to sign these old guys that aren't any good.

I mean, the Jets are going through the same problem that the Colts are going through. The Jets got rid of nine of the 30-year-old guys. Only two of them have re-signed contracts. They still have four guys left on the team, but they're trying to get young. The worst thing to be in football is old and bad. Yep. And that's what the Colts were on defense. and this is just a scenario that's been thrown out a lot, obviously,

but 2012 they get Pagano. Right. And then he has the cancer scare. Ariens comes over, Ariens leaves. Big picture looking back, I mean, to have Bruce Ariens with Andrew Luck would be something serious. I think that really affected him. I think when you look at Pep Hamilton, you know, that wasn't really Pagano's guy. That was Grickson's guy.

I think there's been a lot of influence within the organization that hasn't really been benefiting the entire team. People, you talk about do your job. You know, we kid about the Belichick quote. I think a lot of people in that organization weren't actually doing their job. Grixson was telling the coaches who he wanted to play in the game. That's not his job. His job is to find players to make them better. You know, Pagano's trying to do other things.

He's trying to help the offense and defense. I think they have to really get back to doing their own job. I think Ballard was a really good hire. But look, Ballard wouldn't be there if everything was Rosie. Yep. I mean, they've got to fix the talent level of this team. If you look at what they've done draft-wise defensively, it's been horrendous. They've had a hard time.

You can't find a lot of good young players on the Colts team. I mean, tell me one other than, okay, You've got Dorset's a great receiver down the field or T.Y. Hilton. Tell me a player that you really like. I mean, Jack Doyle, the tight end, they claimed him off the waiver wire from Tennessee. But, like, where is the youthful play of the guys? And I think Pagano, you know, they want to call Jackson to come back. The coaches like the older guys.

So there's got to be that change philosophically within the team. It's going to be interesting year for the Colts. And they're in the South. I mean, come on, Tate. Now, look, they're in the South. Yeah. I mean, they should dominate the South. Andrew Lux won 20 road games.

Ten of them have been in the South. Okay? So they should win the South. I mean, it's really, it's right there on a platter for him, and they're going to look back on this time, and that's why I gave Jim Ursay credit to start off with. They're wasting his best years. They're wasting his best years. Could you imagine if Belichick were coaching the Colts?

Yeah. I mean, I could. I think it would be a totally different scenario. I don't know if Robert Mathis would have hung out on as long as he did. No, none of those guys would have been there. None of those guys would. I mean, the team would have been completely different. The team would have changed completely differently.

And look, the Colts have been preoccupied with the Patriots. That's why they hired Pagano under the understanding that he could defend the Patriot offense. And would they have to stop doing in Indianapolis is becoming obsessed with the Patriots and get more obsessed with trying to get good players? Well, a team that is trying to find good players or take a current player and make him a good player, the Jacksonville Jaguars. Oh, my favorite subject, too. How many podcasts have we done?

Like six or seven? I haven't talked about my man yet. This makes me so happy. I'm so happy to bring him up for you. Doug Marone, the head coach of the Jacksonville. of Jaguars comes out. He says, we want to rebuild the foundation of Blake Bortals.

One of the best quarterbacks in Florida we've seen, Central Florida's pride, Blake Bordals. He has a fifth-year option for 2018 that's on the board. The Jags Wops to decide if they want to give him. Decide. Decide. There's no deciding. Stop, Tate.

18 million dollars for Blake Bordels. My wife can decide that that's not going to happen, okay? Everybody in America, even Blake Bortle's parents know that's not going to happen. Nobody's going to pay him 18 million. Who are you going to lose him to? Who's going to come in there and sign him? Who's going to give him 18 million? Why would you do that?

Like, why would you even think about it? Like, people write that. Like, that could possibly happen. There's not a chance at hell. I have a better chance at becoming the GM of the Clippers than that has happened. There's no way. But you actually could be the GM of the Clippers. We're not telling that out.

And I will say, what happens if Tom Coughlin gets a little sleepy one day and accidentally Blake Bordel sneaks in there and signs a sheet for him? He's got until May 3rd to get the sheet signed. 18 million for 2018, fifth year option. You don't believe in Bordels? Are you out on your man? He's won two road games in his entire career. I've lost two.

Just two. Okay, he beat the Baltimore Ravens. Quality win. And he beat Chicago last year on the road. I used to have the stat, and people would tweet it back to me about his first quarter production. He's been through enough coaches. Blake Bortles, and I think this is why Tom Coughlin's there.

Tom Coughlin has watched every single game Blake Bortles has played, and he studied the guy. He's seen the guy. He's watched him without any object, without any basic prejudice within going. Now, David Caldwell, the other former general manager who drafted him, always was looking through a rose-color glasses when he saw Blake Bortles. Coughlin don't have those glasses anymore. Okay, so Coughlin's evaluating the same tape I'm evaluating without any bias in it.

And he's saying the guy is good enough. The guy averages under 6-5 per attempt. I mean, he doesn't make any place down the field. He gets in a two-minute. It's a disaster. His accuracy down the field is horrendous. I mean, look, there's sometimes we're all better off just saying, you know what, we screwed that up. Yep.

You know, we really blew that. I think we can, you know, we have to admit we made a mistake. I mean, you know, look, people don't even realize what happens at times. You know, like, for example, you're too young to remember Watergate, okay? Watergate happened because Richard Nixon was too stupid to figure out how to work the tape machine in the office. So they had it. Okay. He couldn't realize it.

Same thing the same thing the Jackson will do. They can't realize. exactly what's happening to him. And I think that Blake Bordels is got to be a guy they've got to replace. I've been saying it all the time. And I think that this is the perfect draft to do it in. I'm not saying they should do it with the fourth pick overall,

but I think they're going to draft a quarterback. And the thing is he's regressing, right? So he had 35 touchdowns. No, he is who he is. See, everybody says he's regressing, but they've changed coaches. That doesn't work. They get another running back.

They try this, they try that. They're managing the guy. The guy's the third pick overall in the draft. Either he's good enough or he's not. not. Stop trying to make excuses for them. And that's the reality. You have to be objective. When you go to the game and you're driving in the stadium and you're getting ready to play Jacksonville with Blake Bortles, you're not worried. You're not worried at all. And some of those receivers, Alan Robinson, has been really good for him. Hearns. He's made plays. Those

guys have done some things. Now, I think the offensive line, they've done a bad job of helping that. I'm sure Coughlin will address that. But for the most part, I mean, they've tried to make this guy into a superstar. They can't. They fired coaches. He's a head coach is gone now, it ain't going to work. I think at some point they realize, I think Coughlin realizes it. I think Coughlin's going to let it play out. But that 18 million, that ain't never happening. Yep.

He's 24 years old. The Arizona Cardinals came out. The Arizona Cardinals that may not have a quarterback said that Blake Bortle's is not worth more than a mid-round pick. If that gives you the stance of where his value is in the league. Today, right now, I'm looking at it right now. Arizona Cardinals, Blake Bortle's not worth more than a mid-round pick to them. Oh, I think that they would be lucky to get a mid-round pick.

I mean, look, that's the problem. Sometimes, like I said, they're living in their own reality. They're not willing to change. I mean, Richard Nixon was a little. This is also a team that John Skelton started on it once in a time. John Skelton, my son played with him at Fordham. Seriously. I saw more John Skelton games than probably John Skelton.

But look, he can't change. He's not going to change. He can't figure it out. They keep hiring coaches, and the coach can't come in and fix it. It's ridiculous. I mean, at some point, you have to say to yourself as an executive, Look, where he's just not good enough, as much as it hurts me. I don't know what tape David Caldwell is watching to convince himself that this guy's going to turn the corner.

It ain't turning the corner. And it goes back to what Walsh said. Wall said very few people can evaluate him. Fewer can coach him. And the problem with Bordles is not many people want to coach him, and the evaluation isn't very good. I mean, did they draft a quarterback this year? I would. Coughlin's going to draft the quarterback.

He can't. He's watching the same tape I'm watching. He watches Bordles miss throws. He watches Bordles in accuracy within the strike zone. Remember, the quarterbacks have to be able to do this. They have to be able to throw the ball through a door. They have to be able to throw the ball to the door knob, and they have to throw the ball through the keyhole.

The guy that throws the ball to the keyhole usually wins. This guy can barely hit the door. So the problem is accuracy. The problem is decision-making. I mean, at some point, he became the third pick in the draft. How, I don't know. But if they called up the Patriots, they couldn't trade Garoppolo for him. Yeah.

They couldn't trade Derek Carr for him. So, I mean, like, they made a Bloom pick. I mean, we all do it. It happens in life. The problem is when you do it, you have to admit you did it. That is very true. Always admit your mistakes. That's the first step, right, to getting over something?

I would think it would be, yeah. Point it out. But Blake Bordell, they have the fourth pick. The Jaguars may take another Blake Bortles. I don't know. You know, like, if you see what they could do, like they also have the high second round pick. So maybe they take a guy that they think they could develop. Yeah.

You know. Like a Deshaun Kaiser, if he's still lingering around. You know, but based on the character, the whole picture of Deshaun Kaiser, I'm not sure. I think he's really slipping in the draft. I think the hottest guy right now, as we talk about the quarterbacks is Mahones from Texas Tech. I mean, he's hot. It seems like he may be the second guy off the board behind Trubisky. He might be.

He might be. And I think that he might be a guy that people are going to try to trade up to get. This draft is a draft that consists of fill your needs draft because it's, the value of the talent in this draft is so similar. Once Garrett comes off the board, there's no clear cut number two. Everybody's similar, so you try to fill the needs on your team, so you'll trade away a pick. Like Cleveland, for example, they have all those picks. They have so many young players on their team.

They have so many draft picks this year, not all those guys can make the team. So they should take one of those picks and move up. Could they pick Mahomes? I hear they like Mahomes. So maybe they'll trade 12 up to get them. You look at the Houston, Texas. They love Mahomes. Do they trade up to go get them?

And then we talked last week about the Kansas City Chiefs. So they trade up together. So Mahomes has got some people that really like them. There's a whole group of coaches that seem to really think he can be something special. And I think he's the guy that's people targeting. And then the Deshaun Watson, I think he's the wild card in this whole thing. Yeah, yeah. Bill O'Brien came out and basically said that Pat Mahomes is his guy, top target.

Why would he do that, though? Yeah, that was another. We talked about this last week on GM Street, talking about smoke screens and coming out and controlling the media perception of things. That might just be something to get him off a scent. He may have someone else that he's really liking, like, Deshaun Watson and just keep him off his sense. Well, he knows he's got to draft. They talked about the two things their GM said, Rick Smith said they're going to draft a quarterback, and they're going to draft a right tackle.

Those are the two things they need on their team, and I think they've got to do it fairly quickly. And I think if they're in a position to move up, they have to try to do it too. They have to do a really good job. The Texans have to do a really good job of figuring out where these quarterbacks are going to go and where they have to go and where they have to go. Because the most important thing, see, this is where Blake Bordel's conversation gets skewed and all this. It doesn't matter where they go. It matters how they play. Yep.

You know, we talked about this before the podcast started. Everybody talks about, and this is a whole subject for another podcast in the summer, this whole tanking issue with the 76ers and how it's so important, how brilliant on their part. But when you really go back and look at it, I'm watching all these NBA games, and Jimmy Butler's the 30th pick in the first round. He's the best player on the Bulls. Isaiah Thomas is the 30th pick in the second round for, who did he get picked by? For the Kings in Sacramento.

So he's the best player on the – there's two guys that weren't lottery. picks into the best players. And then there's a bunch of other guys around the league that you're sitting there looking at. You're saying, so this whole notion that you have to have the first pick, it's really matters how they play. It doesn't matter where they go. It matters how they play. And I think that's where

Houston has to do a really good job of figuring out where the quarterbacks are going to go, forgetting about where you draft them, and it matters how they play. And speaking of how they play and how games are officiated when they play, the NFL's officiating director, Dean Blandino, resigned on Friday. A lot of people apparently that wasn't that shocking of a revelation.

The referees associates and the executive director, Scott Green, comes out, says the refs also hate celebration penalties too. They want to clean the game up. The guys can get pretty creative out there, he says. The question is whether it's a foul or not a foul. So basically, a lot of people have pointed their blame at the officials for how celebration penalties have been called. The officials are now saying, hey, we don't really mind celebrations. It's coming from the league office. Right. Everything comes in the league office.

Yeah, and that's pretty much understood, but now the officials are finally standing up for themselves. What does this mean for the future of football? Are we going to be able to do backflips and celebrate? I would hope we could. Get your popcorn ready. I would hope we could. But I think the bigger issue here is the fact that Blandino quit when on the year when he was going to control all the replays. There's somebody in the league office, and I think that that's probably got a lot of people up in arms in the league.

I know I talked to a few coaches about it, head coaches about it, and they're concerned about it because one thing Blandino was always good at. You didn't agree with him, but he was willing to try to explain himself to you. That's where Mike Pereira was so good. You could disagree with him all you want. You could talk about it. You could debate what you're seeing. But he would answer your phone calls. He didn't take it personally about the debate.

And I think whomever gets that job, it's going to be a challenge to do that. And I think the bureaucratic notion of the league office presents a huge problem for people in that job. I think there's a lot of elements from people that don't know anything about football, putting pressure on the officials to do things like this officiating thing. And I think that's where the game's big. being lost. And I think Troy Vincent has to show he's got enough leadership because everything that I've seen from him hasn't demonstrated that he's been on top of his game either. And I'm not mad at him for Deflategate, but the deflategate rest right at his feet. I mean, that's just complete,

as Belichick said in the CNBC interview, ridiculous. I mean, that's what everybody thought it was, and it still is. So we spent all that time on that. And I think the reality here is they've got to get the right guy. And the right guy in that job is hard to find. I think that's the disappointing to lose Blandino because he was good at what he did. And Blanino, is the word on the street, as I say, before we actually get on the word on the street. Blandino is a guy that's looking for a TV gig, apparently. He'll get one because he could – The same Mike Pereira, right.

I mean, it's so hard, and Pereira does a great job, explain the rules to people and all these replays that we're going to go through now, and people want to know what the verdict's going to be. And so I think it's – you know, there's certainly there's an avenue for him, and he's very good on television. I watch his tapes every week that he presents to the teams because the NFL League Office sends out tapes every week, and he does a great job of presenting it,

explaining the rules to where the layman, which is most of the people in the NFL, can understand it. And I think that's important. And when you look now, I think the guy that assumes this job is going to be a tough job. Carl Johnson had the job. Carl Johnson knows the rules as well as anybody. But he was running the league. It was hard for him because he wasn't really adept at being able to be in front of a camera and handle all that stuff. Plus, he wasn't really comfortable with handling all the bureaucratic crap you got to deal with when you're in New York City and deal with the league office

and have people that know nothing about football trying to tell you something about football. That is a rough spot to be in. And now let's get into it. Word on the street. A bunch of quick storylines that we have out in the world of football. First up, Kowan Short, defensive tackle for the Carolina Panthers. Signs a contract extension yesterday with the Panthers. $80 million.

Nice. Should be $40 million guaranteed within the first two years. It's a very, not a back-heavy deal. Very upfront. What do you say about short signing this deal? It obviously shows that last year they were sort of. sort of waiting, they're putting their money back in this bank, and they're trying to invest in Kwan Short and the defensive line

over the back end with guys like Josh Norman, who they let walk last year. Yeah, I mean, Getterman knows it's all about the offensive and defensive line. He hasn't really fixed the offensive line yet, but he knows he needs to do that. Kwan Shorts, an interesting guy. Here's a guy out of Purdue was kind of a typical underachiever in college, didn't really play.

Had flashed talent, flash great talent, but never really gave it to you consistently. A little bit like Sheldon Richardson at the Jets, okay? Sheldon Richardson has great talent. I mean, Sheldon Richardson, if you just watched the trailer of him like a movie trailer, you think Shelton Richardson's the most dominating player in the league. Absolutely.

But then there's too many loess and there's too many problems off the field that have to deal with. That's why the Jets are having a hard time getting any value for Sheldon Richardson right now. But when you look at short, he was able to prove to people to dispel the rumor that he wasn't kind of an underachiever. And guys like that that go in the third round and do that,

they make money. And everybody's eyes are going to be on how he handles this new contract, but he's a really talented player. He can effectively run. What people don't understand most about defensive tackles in the league. It's not how they play the run.

You can find guys late rounds to play the run. It's guys that can play that can rush the passer inside. Short can do that. He's got really good quickness. He can rush the passer inside. Those are hard guys to find and that's why get them and paid him. I like short. I think they took the risk on him in the third round, underachiever. You know who does a

great job of that too? The Bengals. Carlos Dunlap was get killed. He came to the second round. Michael Johnson was getting killed at Georgia Tech. They do all that. Gino-Ackins is another guy who made a lot of my fourth round pick, said he was an under, and now we're seeing Minnesota do the same thing with Danielle Hunter out of LSU. Minnesota's finding guys that can do that. So look, when you're the defensive line coach in the NFL, basically you got a top hat and a whip. Those guys are hard to control. You've got to try to work them hard. You've got to be demanding of

them and you've got to get them to play. And I think that's the which shorts turned around. And now it's where it's been rewarded. I think it's a good signing for them. Now, he just got to prove it each week and see if they can get it going. And then you show that, I mean, that's where Sheldon Richardson really, if he saw this, instead of being a knucklehead and behaving the way he does with the stupidity and the statements he makes, he could make so much money because he could be one of the top defensive tackles in the league. He just doesn't care enough about football. He didn't care enough about it at Missouri. That's why people were reluctant to draft them. And then the Jets, they found the same thing out.

Yep. Well, another guy that's trying to sure up his future, wide receiver for the Buffalo Bills out of Clemson, Sammy Watkins. And the bills right now are hesitant. That's the word. They're hesitant to pick up Sammy Watkins' offer. He's shown flashes. He's a trailer player. Yeah.

You know, go to the movies. He's a great trailer player because his durability is a concern. His durability of Clemson was a concern. Yep. Everybody told you at Clemson, they were worried about his durability, and he's a talented player. And can he stay healthy? Ability and durability are the same thing.

You can have all the ability you want if you're not reliable and you're not on the field. You don't do anybody any good. I think if I'm Buffalo, before I commit my money to him, I want to prove it. You can always maybe franchise them afterwards, but to guarantee him this money based on what he's done for you so far, to me, it's a real reach. Yeah. Deck Prescott comes out. Of course, the Cowboys drama continues. Deck Prescott speaks to the media and says, Tony Romo left, quote-unquote, big shoes for me to fill here in Dallas.

Deck Prescott, he comes out, he says that. Do you think that he, in fact, does have big shoes to fill, or he's just saying that to be nice to Tony? No, I think he does. I think Tony was genuinely liked by everybody down there. Tony did a great job. They couldn't win around them, but I think there are big shoes to fill. I think Dax's next season, this is going to be the most critical season in Dax's life. The pressure is going to be on them.

The schedule's improved. Everybody's going to expect him. He's going to have to handle the diversity, the interception. All of a sudden, people are going to say, oh, no, he's reverting back. I think it's a huge year for him, and I think he's got to embrace it, and I think he's got to challenge himself to be even better than was last year and play within the system. And hopefully they can keep Elliott on the field and not have.

him go berserk, which we've talked about that before. Yep. And, you know, and the team around them can rally because I think Press this is a huge year for Prescott. Anything short of what he did last year is going to look like he's taking a step back. And final story, final word on the street, American Airlines drops charter flights for quite a few NFL teams, including the dolphins and the Steelers. I don't know how much this actually affects NFL teams being out of charter flights, but it seems like it's a bigger deal than people were making out to be. I just know that you know the inside scoop on this stuff. Is this a big deal having to figure out flights?

It's really hard for NFL teams in the last three or four years, especially with the airline industry, the way they don't want planes. Most teams like their plane to stay there with them so they don't have to wait for it after the game. And so airlines don't have enough planes in their circulation to leave a plane there alone and it costs them money to do it. And so, therefore, that's a problem. And then a lot of teams don't have these big planes that the airlines don't have these big planes that teams want to use. So that's another problem. And then it becomes too much of a lack of money-making. for the airlines to go take a team and put a plane there.

And it's really become a problem. It's a challenge. It's not as competitive as it once was where you've got three or four teams, airlines bidding for your services. Now, if you can just get an airline to do your stuff, it's really important, especially for those West Coast teams. They have all those long flights and they need the bigger planes. I mean, the Raiders use Hawaiian airline. They're fortunate to have a relationship with them.

But this is a bigger problem than it. It's a note in a column. But for all the operation directors in the NFL, this has been a huge problem for the last four years. Yeah, that makes sense. As soon as I sell that story, I just thought about having all that equipment, trying to figure out if they were going to fly commercial with all that equipment. Could you imagine them going through the commercial? When I was at the Raiders, we would always go, we wouldn't go commercial,

but we would always go through the airport to get on the plane. That was an adventure, just to go through the airport. Just to have all the people mobbing after you. Most of our team was over at the bar before we got on the plane, which really, after a win it was fun, but after a loss, it wasn't so good. They were still at the bar regardless. Yeah, we left a few behind, which isn't really a bad idea. I'm sure with Blake Bortle's his 2-20 record.

I'm sure sometimes they wanted to leave him behind, too. Just take a break. This is the one last thing that we have for this week. We're just going to call us the leftovers. This was a question in Bill Simmons mailbag that was passed along to GM Street. He wanted to get Michael Lombardi's thoughts on it. Basically, we're talking about Malcolm Butler in the Malcolm Butler situation with the Patriots. He can play this year for the $4 million that's on his contract or not play at all.

And then he's looking for $14 million, right? Correct me if I'm wrong here. And he says that he's worth $14 million per year, but the Patriots could offer him roughly $10 million per year and do something like a $3-year $30 million deal. And then if you factor in like $4, $14, $14, it sort of evens out basically is what the argument is. So why wouldn't the Patriots try to offer him a $10 million deal?

You still get a top tier corner. You have Gilmore on the other side. You have Butler and Gilmore. Is this a feasible option for the Patriots to sort of make everyone have? at least give him some sort of increase. What I think the readers is doing is logically is taking the same position the Patriots are taken. They're taking his tender this year and they're taking the franchise tag for the next two years, adding that sum of money together and saying, here's the

total dollar. Say it's $32 million for three. So we'll offer you $32 million for three. Now, most teams hate to use that logic of going through the franchise number because it's ridiculously high. Yes. Because it just keeps going up and up. So you try to find a common ground. But if you know If I know I can have your rights for the next three years for $32 million and there's nothing you can do about it except complain to the media, then you've got to come to the table willing to make a deal. You've got to find a way because I have all the leverage. And I think that's been the biggest problem with Malcolm Butler's situations. It's a little bit of a power play, basically.

Well, the power has been given to the Patriots, not by the Patriots being jerks or being assholes like the old system. When I first got in the league, it was what the owner wanted to pay. This is predicated by what the players have negotiated in the collective argument. agreement. The Patriots are just using the rules that have been collectively bargained. And so why would you go outside those rules? Why would you take them and go? Why wouldn't you use them to your full advantage? And I think there's a deal to be made that you have to make within there. And I think that's got to be the key. And I think if Malcolm's agent were smart and was willing to make a deal, he would see that. And you just can't say, I won $14 million, pay me $14 million, when there's

no reason the Patriots have to do that based on the collective bargaining agreement. So great question. The Patriots are just using the logic in it. They've tried to do a contract. They've offered them a contract. They've tried to negotiate. The numbers have been too high. I think the realization has to come into this is the maximum you can earn.

Why will we go over it? Yeah. Well, I think it'll get figured out. It seems like that's definitely what we're heading to at this point. Lombardi, we have nine more days until the NFL draft. Can't wait. Can't wait. Like a kid at Christmas.

Yeah, we'll be back. We're like a fat boy in a candy shop. We'll be back Thursday. we're going to talk about more draft stuff, more draft-lighted stuff. We'll be exactly a week away from the draft itself. We'll jump into a bunch of draft things. Lombardi will come in. I'll chime in.

An article in the ringer.com will be going up on that Thursday. So there will be a lot of football content on Thursday from Lombardi. We'll be back on GM Street. And thanks for listening. Thanks, Tate.