The Ringer NFL Show - ‘GM Street’ — Blue Chips: Defensive Position Rankings (Ep. 129)

Episode Date: August 24, 2017

The Ringer's Mike Lombardi and Tate Frazier continue Lombardi's blue-chip-player countdown with the defensive side of the ball, including defensive ends (02:00), defensive tackles (07:00), linebackers (15:30), cornerbacks (21:15), and safeties (24:30). Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Good news NFL fans. Direct TV has expanded NFL Sunday ticket this season. If you live in an apartment or are an enrolled college student, now you can get NFL Sunday ticket without a satellite. To see if you were eligible, go online right now to NFL sundayticket. TV and use promo code Ringer, R-I-N-G-E-R at checkout to save 15%. All right, time for GM Street. GM Street, part of the Winger Podcast Network. I am Tate Grazier, and is sitting across with me.

We're actually being filmed today, so we might be a little nervous. I guess to be you guys want to make fun of us. But Lombardi, how are you? I am great, Tate. I'm doing wonderful. How are you? 14, what, 15 days? We can kick this thing off.

I know. Raise the flag in New England. We were just talking about this. It just feels like football preseason started almost over a month ago. It's been this long drag in between. And finally, we're going to finally get to the moment where we're going to watch actual football. It'd be awesome. I'm looking forward to it.

Some real quarterbacks will actually play. But we covered that last week for people that didn't see. We did a blue chippers podcast, Mike Lombardi. Coint term, your blue chip, your red chips. We did all of the offense last week if you didn't get that. And this week we're going to move to the better fight. The side that wins championships, defense, and to start off, we're going to start with the quarterbacks of defense, and that's pass rushers. Right. Can you start with your list of past rushers that are your blue chippers

this season? Well, look, you know, what we did was that these guys are some of them are play outside lineback or some of them play defensive end. Basically, they're edge pressure guys that have to be able to go into the game and the protection's always going to slide to them that you have to be aware of. So my time. The Marcus Weirs of the world. Exactly, who's retired. So the first of the list is Marcus Ware's teammate, Von Miller. To me, no matter where he lines up, and I think what Denver does is a really good job now of matching him on the right or left tackle. I'm so tired, Tate, of hearing people say, well, you know, the left tackle has to block the blind side.

No, no, no, stop, okay? The right side is as important as the left side. Because you know what they do? They move them around. So like they put Bond Miller over, if you have a shitty right tackle, he's going to see Von Miller. Wait a second. Players can move around in football? They can move around.

I mean, it's not like that game when I was growing up, you know, those little games with the electric magnets, you know, they moved around, you couldn't keep them straight. Yeah. No, you can move guys around. So if you have a bad right tackle, he's going to see Von Miller a lot, okay? Because Vaughn can right, can rush in his right or left side. And it doesn't matter. And so Vaughn's my number one guy. Mack, same thing.

Calil Mack. Caliul Mac. He can move to the right or the left. He impacts the game. And thank God the Raiders have Mack. Because I watched them last week against the great Los Angeles Rams. than Jared Goff, your guy, Jared Goff. And the Raiders defense looked like crap.

And if it wasn't from Mac, I would be really worried if I was a Raider fan. So Mac, to me, is the other guy. That's number two. Three, I really like Joey Bosa. I think Joey Bosa has a chance to be a big-time player. I think Joey Bosa can play on the right or the left side. I think he's dynamic. And along with Melvin Ingram, who we'll talk about later,

I think it gives him a really good combination. And then, Clowny from Houston, to me, has really risen to the point. point where everybody has to worry about him. And that Houston front with Mercellus and Clowny, and then you have Watt in there, all of a sudden, you know, wait a minute, this is really a good group. And so you got to deal with that. And so what you see with Clowny is he's, even though the protection might slide to him, if you put Clowny and Watt on the same side, you know, somebody's going to be single block. And Clownie really can beat all those single blocks. So he would be my fourth. And then the fifth guy, I'm going to stretch it a little bit. I like

Olivier Vernon. I think Olivier Vernon of the Giants, you know, is really, he keeps disruptive. He creates pressure, even though he only plays on one side because they have Jason Pierre ball and the other. I think Olivier Vernon is one of the key elements to the defense. I think the dolphins made a huge mistake by not keeping the franchise tag on them. If they would have had Olivier Vernon and Andre Brands to go with Cameron Wake, they wouldn't have to draft Charles Harris in the first round this year. So those are the top five guys. I left out some really good players. I left out Melvin Ingram. Yep. Go ahead. Do you have anybody? No, I just have to jump in.

Just the fact that JJ Watt is not in the blue chip category. Well, because here's the thing. Fairness, okay. J.D.W.A.W. didn't play football last year. Yeah, yeah. No, I like it. I just, it's amazing. If you looked at that Houston, Texas team,

and you told guys going into last season before the whole Watt thing played out like it did, if you told him that Davian Clownie would be their premier pass rusher and J.J. Watt may not be. Right. It's just a crazy how much he flipped his whole narrative on his career last year. Right. Now, you've got to figure he's going to be a blue chip player in this year, and there's no doubt. but he didn't play last year, so he wasn't there, so we can't grade them.

But Clowny with Mercellis. Now, Marcellus could easily have been on this list. Brandon Graham should have been on the list. He's one of the top five rushers, you know, but it's hard to kind of take some guys off. Graham's at least a high red player. And then you've got Cam Jordan in New Orleans, so I thought because he plays on such a bad defense, you don't get to experience him as much, but I think he's really a good player. And then Michael Bennett at Seattle.

I think Michael Bennett's one of the best players. But Michael Bennett's good because Michael Bennett can beat any. one of your worst lineman. Yep. So if Michael Bennett is its third down and you're playing Seattle and you have a really bad guard, Michael Bennett might line up over that guard.

If you have a really bad tackle, he can line up over that tackle. And I think that's why he's so effective. So those are my top five edge rushers. I have one other guy. Robert Quinn. Is he a red chipper? He's more of a red chipper.

I think there's no doubt he's a red chipper. Getting off the end, I think he's still one of the fastest players. You know, you are Homer, aren't you? You really are. I mean, you love these Rams. I don't know why Jim Cunningham, doesn't have a ram helmet out here on the table since we're taping.

But I think Quinn's a really good player. And I think this scheme will really help Quinn because I think that Wade Phillips will utilize Quinn the same way he did Von Miller. Find the weak link in the right tackle. Like if you're playing Carol, if you're playing Arizona, twice you know, put them over on the right tackle, see if he can handle him. If you're playing Seattle, put them on their left tackle since they lost their starting left tackle, I think Quinn will be really productive in that role.

And is Von Miller basically the best offensive player on the Broncos? Yeah, he is. He's the one who can create more points. I mean, he is, you know, look, he's relentless. And then the other factor with Von Miller is he can rush effectively from the right or the left side. And this is a big Al Davis thing. So what I've always experienced in my career is defensive linemen that get in a right-handed stance. So that means the right-hands-down always gain a half a yard on a step.

Okay, Al Davis was obsessed with this. He wanted nobody in a left-handed stance because he felt like it cheated you out of half a step. And Von Miller can get that half a step out of a right or a left-handed stance. he proves out wrong, but when he's in a right-handed stance, he's really hard. He's impossible to block normally, but he's really hard to block when he's in a right-handed stance. Absolutely. Well, we all remember Von Miller in the Super Bowl a couple years ago. When you play defensive end, did you play in a right-handed or left-hand stance?

I was on the other side just taking the hit, so it wasn't as fun. Moving on to another position, another premier position on the defensive line. We're talking defensive tackles, and I would just say this. I've been watching Hard Knocks. You brought it up last week a little bit. Gerald McCoy, I always loved him all the way dating back to Oklahoma, coming into the league. He kind of just fell off from a storyline. Such an interesting guy. He has all this like, you know, superhero stuff.

He did this whole bit about how he thought he viewed himself as Batman. And he's got one of the quickest first steps. I mean, just watching the tape in Hard Knocks, how quick he gets off a snap every single time. I know he'll probably be on this list, maybe not a Blue Chipper, possibly a Red Chipper. But I just wanted to say, Jared McCoy. He's one of my favorite guys. I think he is. So, you know, I think Hard Knops can really make or break you as a coach. give me your general since I don't watch you. Give me your general opinion of the Tampa Bay Buck staff from watching it.

I think Duck Cutter has done a good job. I mean, at least some of those guys come across is either, you know, they're sort of separated from what's going on the team. But it seems like Cutter's in practice. I mean, he stopped the last episode or the second episode. He stopped practice and was like, we're slow today. You know, everyone, we all know we're professionals. We know it's hot, but we can't be this slow.

Everyone else is faster than us today. And we don't want to be last. And, you know, he runs it well. But I would say the main thing about this season is just seeing James. James goes to people working in the cafeteria and talks to everybody, makes a whole team, want to meet all the staff. And he's like, those people were here in 2003 when they won. They know what a winning team looks like.

They don't think we're winners, blah, blah, blah, blah. So it's good. But you sense a genuineness. You sense a genuineness out of Jamison. I mean, it isn't like out of Jamis. It's not like a contrived way. I think James is always going to do the, what does it mean to be a quarterback? I think he takes it.

It's like a holier position to be viewed as the quarterback. So he's trying to be that caricature. But I think he really takes it seriously. I think I think that's important. I think the one thing Hard Knocks can do is make or break you. I think when Herm Edwards did Hard Knocks, it showed him in a light that wasn't very favorable. And people in Kansas City saw it and said, wait a minute,

and you can lose your job. I think that when you don't do a good job and Hard Knocks are selling the program, you know, not to be Al Davis-centric here on this podcast, but when you're dealing with the media, as a head coach, you're talking to the fans, the owner, and the rest of the team. And Hard Knocks sends a huge message to your fan base. Like, are you really convinced this is the right coach? Could you imagine Hard Knocks with Jason Garrett?

You know, could you imagine? Like, I would like to see that because I would like to be sold that Jason's really a good coach. Like, I would like to observe them from the inside to see it. Yep. Like, I would like to be disproven wrong that I think he's not a great coach. So I think that what it does is it allows you to really get a good peek in the people that you're watching. And sometimes, guys will just avoid. it. You know, like they'll just stay the heck out of it and you can't really see it. And then that

becomes more difficult. I mean, it's got like Marvin Lewis. I mean, he's been so great on hard knocks from the way that he comes across, the way he manages all those personalities and players, even Hugh Jackson, who was his running backs coach when the last time that Bingles were on hard knocks, people saw Hugh Jackson run that unit. We're like, this guy could be a head coach and now he's with the Cleveland Browns. And I think guys know they're being watched so they're selling it. And I think you have to try to break down that whether it's genuine or not. I think that's the key. Are they playing for the cameras or this is who they really are. And I think if you can do that, it really is.

All right, so defensive tackles. Here we go. Let's get back to the point. Here we go. Back to Blue Chippers. All right. One of the things that defensive tackle, the people, when you watch tape on DTs, especially guys like you talked about McCoy, when the center slides to them in a pass

protection, if the center slides to the defensive tackle, and he's essentially being double team. If he can win that double team, he's a great player. If the center slides away from him and he doesn't beat that guard and one-on-one, he's not a great player. And I think all these guys that I'm going to talk about, if the center slides away from them, you're going to be, you're going to pay a way. a mistake. You're going to pay a price. So you have to set your protection to them. And that's a hard

thing to do. When you set your protection to a tackle and they start to move around, the quarterback has to redirect the protection. And he's got to see it. So my number one guy is holding out from your Los Angeles Rams, Aaron Donald. By the way, I like the Rams in uniforms. I really do. I like the blue and the white. I think it looks classic. I think it's great uniform. They definitely needed that change. I loved it. I think it's beautiful. But I think Aaron Donald is when you set the center away from him, I think it's a problem. Gino Atkins, to me, came back off the injury last year. I think he's a huge factor. He would be two.

I think McCoy's three. I think McCoy's really a good player. I think you don't want to ever set the tackle, set the center away from him. And I think Callais Campbell played last year in Arizona like he's a top five tackle. I think he did. Now he got a lot of money this year from Jacksonville.

Typically that means he won't play as well. But I thought he really was. And a surprised guy for me is Durel Casey. I think Jarrell Casey from Tennessee is a top five rush tackle because really ultimately that's what matters. Now you say, well, Lombardi, you know, you didn't put Damon Harrison on this list. Yeah, Damon Harrison's a really good player.

He's a blue chip rundown only player. Brandon Williams from Baltimore, blue chip rundown player. I would have Casey because he can impact the game on third down or impact the passing downs. I've got to stop saying down. Passing downs to me is why these guys are blue chip. Yeah. And is there any other guys, I mean, like even like a Kwan short or, I mean, there's just a whole class. I had short here too.

I think short would be the sixth player. I didn't have him in there. And when you look at it, like I think, I think, I think, I think, Jones, Chris Jones from Kansas City, the second round pick last year. I think he's got blue chip. I think he could be a red player. You know a name I didn't mention was the Domican Sue. Yep. And I think Sue is a red player still. He's close to being a blue. But I think Sue takes too many plays where he's not as dominant as he needs to be. Yeah. And that's sort of the knock on him.

A lot of people think that he either checks in all the way and takes up to that level or he's pretty much. And I think, look, how could you put Casey over Sue? I think if you really wanted to rush the pet, if Sue wanted to do it all the time, he would be better than Casey, but he doesn't do it all the time. That's why I picked Casey. Who knows? With Jay Culler behind him, it might motivate him to do it every single time. Yeah, absolutely. And now we're going to move to another group, the linebackers. Before we do that, we're going to take a quick break. Before we move on, I want to point out that for over 20 years. That's right, 20 years, DirecTV has been the exclusive home to NFL Sunday ticket,

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All right, Lombardi, we're back, and we're talking about the linebackers. You know, the middle linebackers are, you know, quintessential, as some people say, the quarterback of the defense. Who knew that there was a quarterback at every level? That's one of my favorite ad-libs in football is that everyone, you know, it's like a defensive line. He's a quarterback. He's a quarterback. Whatever. We're here with the linebackers. When you look at the blue chip linebacking group, who are the guys that you see as the next level guys,

the top five guys? Well, I think, you know, these are guys that line up off the ball in the bubble, whether they're Mike linebackers or the will linebackers. One of the things that I believe more than anything is if you're Mike linebacker slow, your defense is slow. So these guys have to be able to run, and they have to be able to play past defense. And the reason you don't play good in the red zone is if you're Mike linebacker isn't a good red zone.

The Mike has to be able to play very effectively in the red zone. So obviously, number one is Luke Keekley. Luke Keakley, hopefully he comes back from the concussions. He doesn't have another one. But to me, he can dominate. You don't block Lou Keekly. He's going to make every single tackle. Even if you get to him, he'll come off and make a play.

And he's really effective in the red zone. He's hard to throw the ball. That's why they're such typically, when he's playing well, they're a really good red zone team. Bobby Wagner would be my second guy up in Seattle. He sets the defense. It's the perfect compliment player for the Seattle defense. I think he's really good.

I thought Jordan Hicks at Philadelphia played really good last season. I think he's a guy that helped in Jim Schwartz's defense. I think he runs well. He makes a ton of tackles. Sean Lee at Dallas, I thought he was really good. I thought Sean Lee stayed healthy for the first time in his career. And we finally saw the Sean Lee.

We've been promised in Penn State. Right. Now they moved him away. They played them in a different style. But all these guys, whether they're wills or mics, when it's the most important down, which is the passing downs, they're on the field. Because if you can't cover, you can't be hidden. For example, if you're trying to, like with Sean Lee is away to the back side,

and he's got the back in one-on-one, he's got to be able to cover him. And if he can't do it, like Paul, Pulas, Posnowski, he really struggles in coverage anymore. He's a really good run player. He doesn't play. That's why he's not a blue-chip player. I think he's still a red, but he's not a blue. And then my last guy is Durel Freeman. I think he played really well for the Bears last season.

And I thought Levanti David at Tampa Bay belongs on the list. I think Levante David's a really good player. Absolutely. And there's a guy in Jacksonville, I think, is another guy as a Tevin Smith from Far to State. Kevin Smith's a good player. Tevin Smith is definitely a red player. I think Christian Kirksey at the Cleveland Browns is a red player. Jamie Collins can be a red player too.

Jamie Collins played the way he did in the first preseason game. He could be a blue chip player because he's exactly what you want at the position. He's athletic. He can run, but he didn't play to a blue or red level last year. But he could. I think Mason Foster at the Redskins can be the same way and same with C.J. Mosley.

Look, it's hard to find guys that can line up off the ball and impact the game without having to rush the passer. And I think when you get a guy like David who can do that, I think those are hard to find. And those are hard to find in the league. They're really difficult because there's not enough guys that can really rush. Not enough guys that can cover. Guys can rush, not really cover.

Speaking of the Rams, Alec Ogletree, is he a guy that would be on that list? I think Ogletree is just... Is he more of a pass rusher, I guess? No, he's still a coverage player. I think he's a red. I don't think he's in the top five. I think he would have a hard time being in the top 10, but I think he's close to being in the top 10. I would pick some of these other.

Like I like Christian Kirksey. I think he's really good. I like KJ right, too. Yeah, KJ's great. So I think KJ is a good player. I mean, there's a lot of guys. I think the top five I have, I think are really good. It's a weird thing.

I mean, the linebacker resistance used to be so prominent. You remember the big names, like a Ray Lewis, Bruske, all those guys. And now it seems like they're more accessories too. And then the pass rush. Right, because nobody runs the ball. Like nobody, even though the first game of the season, everybody's going to come out and say, well, whoever establishes the run is going to win and I'm going to go berserk. But it's all about who can play the past now.

And so what you're really seeing as a trend in pro football. And I think really a lot of this is because of what happened in Arizona, with them draft in Buchanan from Washington State, who was a free safety in college and they moved them in the box. You're seeing a lot of teams move safeties down into the box to try to teach them how to play Will linebacker so they get another coverage guy on the field

who could hold up in the run. Dewey McDonald, for example, at the Raiders, he was a free safety at Indiana, a really good special teams to play. They're trying to make them a will linebacker. A lot of teams are going to try to do that because they need a run player who could hold up, but they really need a pass defender who can cover.

And that's why you're seeing more safety. he's being converted down into linebackers. Somebody's got to cover Darren Sproles when he comes out of the backfield. And it's hard to do. You're going to have to bracket them. It's hard to do. It's hard to do one-on-one. And the one thing we know for sure is guys that can only play the run. They can't do it. They just can't. There's not enough. And you can't hide them. You can't hide those guys anymore.

It's one of the reasons I think why the Jets cut David Harris. He can't do that. I think David Harris will have a hard time doing it for New England based on the preseason tape. It's hard to do if you can't make plays in the passing game when you don't rush. It's hard to do it in coverage. And again, where does it affect you the most? It affects you the most in the red zone. But what happens when you have those middle linebackers that are smaller, those converted safeties that you do put in the box?

And then Laguerre Blunts, the guy that's coming downhill. I mean, I guess it comes down to, you know, kind of pick your poison, what you want to deal with. I'd rather take the, give them the eight-yard gain and live for another day than give them the 25-yard pass. Because one thing about establishing the run, it just means you're going to kick a field goal. At some point, when teams want to run the ball,

all I got to do is make one negative play. If I can create a negative play on you, I'll get you out. I'll get off the field because the running game is not going to create those big explosive plays. It's hard. And so I think they would rather, teams would rather live with a run game being stuffed down to throw a little bit than have the pass game because if a back comes out of the back and runs an option route and you don't cover him, he could turn that seven-yard pass into a 70-yard

touchdown. Or sometimes they're just running wheel routes. They're just like, I'm going deep off the jump. And then if you're playing man coverage and you've got to carry that guy, you know, and that's where you want to be a man-to-man team and you have linebackers that can't cover. And that's why we're seeing such a movement towards more tight ends, more backs out of the backfield. Because who controls the middle of the field is going to control a passing game. Absolutely.

And let's move to the secondary. Speaking of guys I'm going to have to deal with, a lot of people running passing routes. When we're looking at the cornerback position, I mean, obviously, dating back to Revis Island, it became a thing. Like, who's going to be the top corner in football? And then Patrick Patterson comes in. We had this whole way where everyone's trying to figure out the best corner is. And now it kind of seems like it's by committee in some places. and we're trying to figure out who the nickel guy is and all that sort of stuff.

But just looking at quarterbacks in general, when you look at those top five blue chip guys, who are they? Well, I think Talib at Denver still plays really well. I think he's still, I keep Talib. I think Denver has two really good players in Chris Harris and Akip Thelie. Both of them I have as blue players. I don't have Harris as the top guy, but I have him in the top five.

I think the next best guy is A.J. Bouillet, who signed with Jacksonville, played really well at Houston last year. It was really good at reading coverages, reading quarterback steps and breaking on the ball. and he could make plays on the ball. And look, every team so far I've mentioned three corners. I've mentioned Harris. I've mentioned Talib, and I mentioned Bouillet, right? What do they have in common?

They all have pass rushers. I mean, Denver's got Von Miller, and Houston has Clowny and Marcellus and now they get. So all these guys that can cover benefit from the fact that they don't have to cover for long. And I think some of the guys that get burned and don't make this list is because, like, a corner at New Orleans, doesn't have enough pass rush to really see if he's any good.

Not that New Orleans had great corners. But anyway, the fourth I think is Brett Grimes. I think Brett Grimes still plays good. He has a great instinct for the ball. He's great on hard knocks. Is he good? Yeah, yeah. They did a whole little feature on him the last episode.

He gave Grimes his time. He's like 33 years old. Yeah, and I mean, look, he's still, he's coming off a knee injury. I think a thing that's fascinating about Grimes. So if people don't realize, he went to a small, one of those small schools in Pennsylvania. Oh, Shippensburg. Shippensburg, right. So he went to Shippensburg.

He doesn't have any offers coming. coming out. Atlanta invites him to a tryout camp. Okay? This is in 2006. When Mike Smith's the head coach, they invite him to a camp. Yep. All right. Same thing with Malcolm Butler. With no intention of signing him, on Friday, he doesn't do much. On Saturday, he doesn't do much.

Sunday, the guy had gotten hurt that was playing in front of him. They put Grimes in. He has three picks. They signed him to a contract. Same thing happened to Malcolm Butler. It's hard to evaluate college corners. But Grimes has consistently been a really good player. And I think that when you watch him, you know, he shows.

that he can find the ball. He's got great instincts. People don't realize this. The corner position is so much instinctive. It's making the play on the ball when it's an error. And speaking of instinctive, the other corner I had is Norris Jenkins. I think he's really good.

He's a gunslinger in terms of he takes chances, but I don't know a great corner that never took chances. To be a great corner, you've got to take chances you make plays. I think Jenkins does. Does Gilmore make that list, Defund Gilmore? Is he a Red Chipper? No, I had it more as a Red Chipper. I think Patrick Peterson's a Red Chipper, too.

I think Casey Hayward at San Diego's a Red Chipper. I think Malcolm Butler can be a red chipper. I think when you look at Gilmore and you look, I think Butler, those two guys, their year for New England is all going to be dependent on, can New England find a pass rush? I think that's the question, as you look at New England in the preseason,

do they have enough pass rush to help their coverage? Because they have really good coverage. What about Mo Claiborne? Is he on that list? Remember when he said he was still a top five corner? I think Mo Claiborne is, I always thought Mo Claiborne was a better receiver than he was a corner, but I thought he played really well last year for Dallas,

and I think he's a really good coverage guy. I think he's got to prove it again. I think he was a red chip player last year. You hear that Mo Claiborne? We're pulling for you here on GM Street. Let's move on to another position of obviously a lot of people want to talk about this. Earl Thomas is probably the biggest name as far as fans will know and they think of safeties.

But when you look at that position in Blue Chippers, who are your guys there? I think the number one guy is Landon Collins. I think he's played really well for the Giants. I think the Giants, the defense is because Vernie and Olivier Vernon plays so well. Damon Harrison plays so well. And then you look at when you look at Janarsh Jenkins. And I think Landon Collins has played well. I think Cam Chancellor, to me, is the Quinn.

essential perfect player for their scheme. He can defend the B-Gap, which is hard to do in pro football as a safety. Not many safeties want to go in there and take on those big guys. And Cam Chancellor walk in there and just smack them in the mouth. I think Devin McCordy's a really good player. I have him as three. I think Eric Berry, another free safety. I've had him as four.

And then finally, I have Earl Thomas, got hurt last year, and then Eric Weddell. I think both those guys are blue-chip players. And I think what I've given you is I've given you one strong safety and four free safeties. Yeah. Because really the free safeties, their ability to range plays, make tackles in the open field, when a good team like the Patriots or Seattle or even Baltimore last year is when your safety can tackle as well as a free safety, the blue chip can, you don't have a lot

of long runs against you. That's the key. And I think the league's getting better at safety. Tony Jefferson, I was a red chip player last year. Richard Jones is a red chip. And I think Harrison Smith's a red chip player. So I think there's some guys that belong on the list to, but those are my top five. And when you just, we were talking about the conversion from a safety to a linebacker,

do you see that there could be a drop off in that position if those guys start getting pushed into the box? No, I think what you're going to start seeing is what the Giants did the other night has played Dominic Rogers Camardi, who's a red chip corner. Yep. They put him in this free safety. Safety. So you don't lose the matchup. I think what you're going to start seeing is there's going to be a tie where a team puts four corners back there.

Because offenses are taking advantage of the weak link in the coverage. And if they can find, like, really, when you break down, forget the Giants' offense. but when you break down the Packer game last year when they lost Carmardi and they lost their third corner and then the Packers could find that that weak link and it takes a man coverage team out of their man coverage all of a sudden now you have it now you gain an advantage and I think that's where the Giants lost the playoff game

so you need really and I think what Spagnola is trying to do by playing Carmati at some free safety and you see some other teams do it is to create the right matchup so that you don't get a bad situation, you don't get mismatched. I just want to say to all the, the corners out there that are very upset that they weren't on the blue chip list. Nomdi Asimwa, you know? I dreamt of Namdi.

He was a blue chipper back in the day. He got out of football. He found a beautiful wife, Ms. Carrie Washington. I saw her walking on the slot the other day. He became an actor. There's other things in life. Yeah, he's acting now. Carrie Washington gave him the bug.

Now he's acting. Now he's an award-winning movies. I'm so proud of it. I can't even remember the name of it. But it's a new movie that's coming out. I think it was at film festivals. I saw him some film festival. But see, Nombie's the perfect example of what people

have to understand about corners. I break corners down into two categories, a breakfast corner and a dinner corner. A breakfast corner is he wins early. Nondi was a breakfast corner. He could jam you at the line and you had no chance. There's five yards. He kicked your ass for five yards. And then there's the dinner corners, which they win late. Which is Revis. Which is A.J. Bowie. Read the route. Read the quarterback's drops and then break on the ball. Those are guys. And then whatever kind of scheme you have, you've got to fit those coverages to the scheme. So when Nondi went back to Philly. He's a dinner corner trying to play, he's a breakfast corner trying to play in a dinner scheme. Don't work. What would have happened? This is one of my favorite what-ifs ever in football.

If Asimwa went to that Jets team when they had Cromartie Revis and Osamwa and they went to the AFC title game in 2010, that would have been one of the most ridiculous secondary. They still would have Mark Sanchez a quarterback. They'd just riddle me this about, man. That's your answer. I mean, that's the reality of it is. I mean, look, that game was what? I think it was 21 to nothing at the half and the Jets came roaring back. And it took three, it took two huge Ben Rothesberger conversions on third down. Both of them he ran bootleg on it can beat the last. And both of him he threw three or four people off of them to make the play.

Well, he always did back then. Yeah, it's unbelievable. Now he can't do it as much. But so, you know, I think that Namdi went to the wrong scheme when he went to Philly. And I think that's part of a free agency. Like if Malcolm Butler leaves the Patriots next year, he better go somewhere will utilize his skill set as a corner. Because he's very, even though he's only 185 pounds, he's a really good breakfast corner. He can jam me at the line and cause you some problems. He's not as good play it off as

he is playing on. Absolutely. Anything else, Lombardi and the NFL were you going to talk about? This has been fun, the blue chips. No, I think that, you know, there's a lot of trade talk going on out there. I don't see there's, I don't think anything will happen this week because the rules change, Tate, where we're no longer going to have a 70 cut. So we used to cut after the third preseason game, and then we would cut 20 players that should be playing in the fourth preseason game because nobody plays in the fourth preseason. So now I think what teams are doing and talking to a bunch of teams this week is they're waiting to see

who stays healthy. And then next week before the last game of the preseason when they can still make trades and everybody's roster still at 70, get rid of some guys and then make some moves. So I think that's why we won't see as much. And I think the whole look, the news about Cleveland this week about they're not going to play Oswald or they're going to

play the Sean Kaiser and he's going to play the starter and then they're going to play the other three guys tells you that Cleveland's probably just going to eat the salary on Brock Oswald. And Osweiler was in good spirits. I saw his press conference. He was basically like, I haven't been told by Coach Jackson that it's been decided yet, even though all signs are pointing to probably Kaiser.

Yeah, I don't think people should really read much into it. Look, when the Browns took that deal, they took it as a salary dump. They had no intention. There was a lot of talk. They weren't even going to keep Osweiler on the team. So they took it as a salary dump. And I think that if you keep it in that perspective, eventually they're going to dump this salary. Nobody wants him at $16 million.

The Browns are going to pay all $16, which the Browns are going to know. problem because remember they got a second round pick out of it in 2018 absolutely well it's been fun blue chippers we had the offense done we had the defense we have next week take yeah what's that we're going to do blue chippers coaches oh my i want to start clapping right now for jason garrett oh well you got to be a blue chipper to get in the category you got to be in the category i mean unless cousin sal can convince us that he's a blue chipper it's going to be hard to make the list so next week we're going to break down the off they're going to break down the head coach offense defense coordinators, the offensive and defensive line

and the special teams coach. Those six coaches are going to classify all those. And that total is going to equal out what your power ranking is for coaches. I like it. And we're also going to do kickers too because kickers are basically coaches. Kickers and punters. Yep, perfect. Well, that's it for this week on GM Street. Thanks, Lombardi.

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