The Ringer NFL Show - ‘GM Street’ — Seahawks Setbacks, a New Raider, and Farewell to a Jet (Ep. 110)

Episode Date: June 6, 2017

The Ringer's Mike Lombardi and Tate Frazier discuss Pete Carroll's coaching principles (02:30), Russell Wilson's burden of responsibility (08:00), Tom Brady's concussion (16:30), Odell Beckham Jr.'s holding out (20:00), the salary cap issues for the L.A. Rams (21:45), Oakland Raider Marshawn Lynch (25:15), the Jets' release of David Harris (27:00), and Ron Rivera's comments regarding the NFL's rule against Christian McCaffrey (32:00). Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Before we start today's GM Street, I wanted to tell you about our newest Ringer podcast, Binge Mode. Benge Mode is a place where we dedicate ourselves to rewatching and giving you expert analysis on our favorite television shows. For the next six weeks, the Ringer's Mallory Rubin and Jason Concepcion will be diving deep into HBO's Game of Thrones. The first 10 episodes of Binge Mode are out now covering all of season one of Game of Thrones. Every Monday we'll be releasing a new batch of 10 episodes covering every single.

That's right. single game of throne season to date. And of course, you can subscribe to binge mode now on Apple Podcast, Spotify, SoundCloud, Stitcher, or wherever you get your podcast. Jason Concepcion says, do it. Welcome to GM Street. I'm Tate

Frazier. On the line. Mike Lombardi, Lombardi, how are you doing, man? I'm great, Tate. I'm great. We're getting close to the NBA draft, which is really all I'm counting about. I'm not as excited about the games, but I am about the draft. Thoughts on the games. Give me your quick thoughts on the game. The game, the game

so far are pretty chalk and what I would expect for the Warriors to do in the first two games, a little amped up. We'll find out tomorrow night. So if LeBron takes over and Tristan Thompson gets rebounds and it looks like the Cavs from last year and the Cavs have hope, but if they come out and they assert themselves early and the Warriors come back regardless and making a close game, then I think you're looking at five games. So I don't know. It'll be tough, but I don't see the Warriors letting up after last year. I think last year really motivated them not to get too cocky, but, you know, it's been fun, though. I think people are being too negative about it because it is still

LeBron James versus Kevin Durant and Steph Curry and the Warriors, they just play team basketball. So I'm a fan of that. Yeah. Coming losses and overcoming wins and how to handle winning and how to handle losses as we go into GM Street this week. It's the perfect segue. It is. It is. And this week, the team that we're going to be talking about is a team that is very similar in a certain sense to the Golden State Warriors, just how quickly they rose up and ascended to the top of the game. Obviously, Russell Wilson kind of came and became a star in a similar way that Stefan Curry did with the Warriors. And Russell Wilson and those guys, they win the

Super Bowl in 2014. The world seems to be at their fingertips. We all remember the Richard Sherman play on Michael Crabtree. And then obviously, you know, the Seahawks go in, get their Super Bowl. And then they come off the Super Bowl, get back there. And then we have the play, which you actually are writing a story about the Seahawks and how they reacted and responded to the play, which of course is the Malcolm Butler interception of the goal line. A lot of people still bring up that Marshawn Lynch is a guy that probably needs to get the ball. But the Seahawks relied on a guy, Russell Wilson, who they view as the number one guy in the clubhouse for them, like basically the Derek Jeter of the Seattle Seahawks. But you're saying now Pete Carroll's got his own principles

and he needs to get back to those principles. So can you just break that down a little bit? Like what is the state of the Seahawks right now in the Northwest? Well, I think when everybody thinks, well, it's really hard to overcome a, you know, it's hard to win two championships in a row because the mindset is, you know, it's tough to compete, it's tough to come back. But what's harder to do, and it's been proven through studies, and Michael Lewis's book The Undoing Project, talks about it through these two Israeli psychologists, Daniel Kahneman and Amos Tversky.

Tversky is no longer with us, but they did a report on basically what's hard to overcome, winning a championship or losing one. And what they found out was most people hate the thrill, hate the fact of losing is so reticent in their mind that they don't make good decisions moving forward, and that they become a little bit tempid in terms of how they approach things, instead of saying, hey, look, you know,

we lost, we're going to get this thing back, we're going to be open-minded. The losses become a little bit painful, and they far outweigh the risk of winning. And so what I think what's happened to Seattle a little bit here is that, okay, they lose, it's devastating. People still talk about Seth Wicker-Sham wrote a great column about it in ESPN.com about the internal fighting going on. And then our own Danny Kelly wrote about it as well, about how it's kind of been a tradition in Seattle. And I think what you see here with Pete Carroll is you see a guy who's built a really good organization, on these principles. And these principles, Tate, are time-and-tested.

I mean, this is what he did at USC. When he got fired from New England, he decided he was going to go back, and he was going to basically read the John Wooden book, and he was going to go back and do these things that he felt he needed to do, and one was be highly competitive. He wanted players to be great in practice. Everybody must value the football. We're going to win games in the fourth quarter.

We're going to speak with a great sense of confidence, and our language is always going to be proactive. And those areas is where when you break down Seattle and you see it, they faltered since the play. For example, when they come since the play, they no longer are a great running team. They've gone down almost, they've gone significantly down in a running game in terms of their ability to run the football and their ability to win games in the fourth quarter. They used to be last year they were, I think, 16th in the fourth quarter comeback. so they haven't been able to do that, partly because they've lost their identity.

Yep, yep. And when you look at the identity of that team, I mean, you could even think back to that 7 and 9 Matt Hasselback team when Marshall Lynch had that amazing run, you know, it all kind of, it started there. You know, you see a team that can really hold onto the football and dominate the running game. And now they're averaging less than 100 yards per team, you know, on the rushing side of the football now in 2016. So they've really faltered in that sense. and one of the things that you really focused on when you're talking about Pete Carroll is that he really emphasizes the ball

and forcing turnovers. And Seattle, I mean, in turnover differential and fourth quarter point differential, they've both just basically declined over the past three seasons since the play actually happened. So when you look at that and you put it all together, what does Pete Carroll have to preach to these guys

to get them back? Is it a focused thing where maybe they just, instead of focusing on those specific things, when you have a championship and that culture and things sort of expand and people want to change their roles and grow their roles do you lose your identity and now Pete Carroll's like hey guys we got lost

but now we have to get back to the basics and maybe flip this thing around I think this man I think what they try to do is they try to massage it in a different way and they put a lot of the burden on Russell Wilson and I think that really Tate is where this thing goes I think their inability to

win in the fourth quarter in the last two years their inability to protect the football like you talked about. They haven't been in the top five last year. They were outside of top five and turnover takeaway differential. So they've lost their identity in that area and they've put so much pressure on Russell Wilson

and it's pretty obvious by the amount of formations. They're in four receiver formations last year. They were in four receiver formations 228 times out of 546 passes. They were in three receivers 284 times. They're spread in the

field. They're putting the ball in Russell Wilson's hands. They're believing he's the guy. And all that else Seattle's not Russell Wilson's fault, but all that else Seattle is the fault of Seattle thinking Russell Wilson's a top 10 quarterback. I don't. I think he's outside the top 10. I think the quarterback that has to be managed effectively. And they did that the first couple seasons. They haven't recently. They've lost their run game, as you mentioned. They've gone down significantly almost 70 yards in two years and running the football. They can't pass protect as well. And Wilson is asked to make a lot of play. and he hasn't been able to do it.

And I think that's where this year, you're going to see Seattle go back to what Seattle has always done, which is the outside zone run game, which is play action passes, which is really limit the amount of times that Russell Wilson has to be standing behind the center and be in a dropback passing game. Because remember, he's 5-11. He can't see.

And so when you're in 10 personnel, four receivers, one back, or 11, three receivers won back, you're in shotgun. and you're in behind the center, so you can't see. And this is where I think Seattle has lost identity. And this is why I think as they come back in the season and they stop the bickering and they stop all that, which we can touch on a little bit,

is the reality is the focus is now going to be running an offense that is more suited to what Seattle has built their team on, which is that outside zone, which is winning the fourth quarter, which is play action passes and all that stuff. Yeah, we're going to get back to those personality types because, you know, as you've said, that is a very type A personality team.

Russell Wilson's not really that kind of guy. And I think the main thing that we saw with Seattle is, you know, Wilson goes from being this like, he's his own brand of quarterback in a sense. Like, you know, he's running the ball. I've seen him make some of the most magical plays. Like even you saying he's not a top 10 quarterback

just brings like bad memories of what Russell Wilson used to do at NC State back in the day. I mean, the guy was magical. And it was because, I mean, it was almost like, I mean, I used to say that he was a different.

Eric Geter of football. Because I mean, it just like he made whatever play had to be made. It never made sense how it happened. But it just somehow it happened. And I saw that when they won the Super Bowl. But I think the weird thing with Russell was they seemed to decide that he was the Drew Brees. He needed to get his Jimmy Graham there. He needed to sit in the pocket. He needed to be this traditional quarterback. And I think he even bought into it a little bit. But really, I mean, we've both seen this. Russell dominates football games when he gets outside of the pocket. And because he can run with the football and make a perfect pass. He can make a pinpoint pass on the run almost as well as Aaron Rogers can.

And it's because, I mean, he has that baseball background. He just slings the ball. But when he sits in the pocket, he almost like neutered like his main skills and what he's able to do. I think he and Cam Newton both got caught up with trying to be these, these, you know, traditional quarterbacks where they stay in the pocket. And that's probably not the best for the team. And it also hurts the running game for the Seahawks.

Because when Wilson's able to be some sort of a dual threat, And obviously he's never been one to get himself in a position to get hurt because he's just smarter than that. But if he's able to help electrify that run game, get those 15-yard gains, like where he can get out of bounds real quick, get the easy first down, I think that's when Russell Wilson's at his best. And it just seems like the past few, you know, couple of seasons, Pete Carroll and those guys have committed to trying to make him a different kind of quarterback. And I think that that also comes down to the fact that Russell Wilson's not going to speak up and be a type A guy. and you're talking about the Taipei personalities, when you have these big guys, like a Sherman, an Earl Thomas, a Cam Chancellor,

and all these guys, all these big voices in the locker room, like, what does that do to your team? Obviously, it can galvanize your team, but also can split your team apart. Is that what you're seeing in Seattle? Well, I think what Pete did is Pete built a team on highly competitive people. And whenever you have a group of highly competitive people, they want to win, they're going to speak their mind.

And for Pete, you know, I almost think Pete grew up in an Italian family because Pete loves the locker room to be on edge a little bit. He doesn't mind players yelling or screaming. He seems to handle it. He has a great way of handling the noise. He doesn't let it bother him. It doesn't affect him. And I think when Seattle reacts to everybody's column,

whether it's Seth Wicker-Sam or Danny Kelly, they act like it's normal because it really is. They're like an Italian family. They don't mind argue. They argue all the time. It's kind of normal for them. And so Pete does a good job of handling that because this is what he wants. Pete wants a type A personality. He wants a team that's always on edge.

And I think what's happened is because they've lost over 70 yards in the running game the last two years, they put more pressure on Wilson to be that guy. He's not Aaron Rogers. He's not Tom Brady. But he becomes those players, like you said, when he gets outside the pocket and he can make throws down the field. For me, Wilson is a systematic quarterback. You know, Joe Montana used to be criticized for being a West Coast system. quarterback, call it whatever you want. But Wilson really needs it. He needs to be on the move. He needs to be outside.

And then he becomes really a dangerous player. I think that's why there's so much resentment towards Wilson because I think the players in Seattle even realize that Wilson, standing alone, can't carry the team. But Wilson in the right system and the right scheme, wow, now they become a better team. And it's almost like a guy that, you know, when out Earl Thomas goes out December 4th last year

and then the Seahawks season really goes off the rails. the defense basically just it's a free for all. They're just giving up tons of touchdowns and they gave up 12 touchdowns the rest of the season. When you have like Earl Thomas should actually be like the Ray Lewis or the Ed Reed of the Seahawks team and the defense should be first. And it's almost like they got away from that identity of like we want to force toneovers. We want to be the Legion of Boom. We want to wreck people on defense and they let the offense take care of the football and score easy touchdowns and you know run the clock down and do the smart. Like they stopped playing smart football with Russell Wilson being at the helm.

and it's almost like they need to get back to that and let Earl Thomas in that defense set the tone for them. Yeah, I think that's what everybody thinks is the reason. I don't agree. I think Earl Thomas is a good player. I think he's a component to their defense, but he's not the guy that's making it happen. The defense's front is.

And where they've lost it, that's why we saw Malik McDowell get drafted in the second round by Seattle this year. That's why they drafted Jones in the third round. They need more depth than their defensive line. They need Michael Bennett. They need Cliff Aver. They need those guys.

Frank Clark to really step up. Because if you ask anybody in the Seattle building why they haven't been as good on defense, they'll say to you the depth with our defensive front has been a problem. Earl Thomas is a great player. He helps their defense. But the thing that makes Seattle's defense go, since Pete Carroll has been a defensive coordinator or has been involved, has always been the defensive line. And the depth of that defensive line, when they were humming good and Bennett could move around,

and they had a bunch of different players in the defensive front. Bruce Irvin. That were really effective. Yep. Yeah, they were really doing well. But last year they lost a lot of depth. And because of that depth, they lost effectiveness of some of the players and guys' play count had to go up. I'm not the studio mural Thomas theory.

I think Cam Chancer is the guy that makes their toughness. I think he's in the box. He's a B-Gap player, which is hard to do. But where I see Seattle has shifted this year is they draft. They spent a third and a second round pick on two defensive tackles that can rush the pass. that's what they need. They need inside pressure. And then that defense will turn around a little bit,

and then they can win the fourth quarter. But without it, they can't. And I think really they have everybody's attention. Now, I think one thing Seattle has done, Tate, is they realize that after losing the Malcolm Butler play, they had to get back to being who they are. And being who they are is, like you said, great defense, outside zone,

win the fourth quarter, and win games at home. I mean, they're nine and nine on the road in the last two. years. I mean, they haven't been dominating teams like they did before. And when they were starting out, when they were just building this, you know, they were 11 and 5 on the road. You know, they're 22, 13, and 1 since the play.

22, 13 and 1. And I think what's happened this offseason is Seattle's looked at themselves and said, Scott, time out, we need to fix it. And you can even look at the difference between when they went to the Super Bowl in 49, like how they came, you know, against Carolina, how they played against the Panthers and handled them. And then just the next year

for Super Bowl 50, what the Panthers did when they blew them out in Charlotte. It was like two different teams. It seemed like they'd almost got to the other side of whatever dynasty they had there in Seattle. So they really need to figure out what's going on there. And it all comes down to how to me it's a lesson for Atlanta this year. Everybody thinks Atlanta will be highly motivated to come back from the horrible

from the horrible letdown. And I think where Dan Quinn has to really do a good job is understanding that most people's mindset is when they lose, they have a fear of a feeling. that experience again, and you've got to change it. It isn't as much as we all think winning, you know, takes away our motivation, losing, enhances it. That's not what these guys are writing about. And I think it's true.

And if you read the undoing project, you can learn a lot about it. I think Quinn should do it. Well, that's a good book request for Dave Quinn. That's a summer book recommendation for Dan Quinn. Yeah, yeah. Summer book rec. Dan Quinn will hop on that. He's had a tough, tough time with the next team we're going to come up and talk about.

And that's Tom Brady and the New England Patriots that are reporting to camp today. Dan Quinn has had two bad experiences with them. First to play and then obviously last season, the collapse, we should call it, with the Atlanta Falcons. But Tom Brady reports to camp. Bill Belichick today. Did you see this? He's wearing the hood.

He looks like Emperor Palpatine from the Return of the Jedi. That's what Teddy Bruske was saying this morning on ESPN. So Bill Belichick's wearing a hoodie. And he's getting asked the first time about Tom Brady's concussion response, Giselle, that put that story out this year saying, that Brady's had to deal with some concussions in the past. When you see Bill Belichick back in form here looking like he wants to dismiss all this sort of talk, does it make you feel like you're at home a little bit?

It makes you feel like football is right around the corner when I see Bill Belichick with his hood up, covering his eyes and barely mumbling responses back to reporters. It's a beautiful thing. Yeah, in minicamps, it's always good. And I think this story is fascinating because Brady was never on the entry report. And people keep asking Bill for an answer. and like what answer is he going to give it? If Bray did have a concussion and went through the concussion protocol,

it would have been documented. And, you know, I think this is something that there's no real answer for because he wasn't on the injury report. He didn't come out of a game and the spotters miss it. I don't know. You know, I don't know. But he played and I couldn't see any downside in his play if he did, in fact, have something that Jasell was saying that he had.

So I think this is like Eat and Putty, you know, Bill's sitting there with his hoodie on and just making sure that he just sealed those questions left and right and doesn't answer. And we should say that the injury report of the New England Patriots is like, you know, government documents. There's no way anyone's going to get their hands on those. Unless the girl, what was the girl who just uncovered all those documents down there that got arrested today? Maybe she knows how that does. Yep.

That's it. That's it. Maybe that's the best case. I forgot her name. It was a weird name, too. It was like, you know, something. But anyway, maybe she might be able to. to uncover the mystery of the concussions.

But the fact is, you're not on the injury report and you don't report, the concussion protocol is outside the club. Once the guy goes for a concussion, the club has no control over when the player comes back. And as you saw with Michael Warren in Carolina this year, he still isn't back yet. He still hasn't been cleared. Whether he plays football or not this year, I don't know. Yeah, it really does come.

When people are looking for blame in this situation, it really does come down to they have spotters there. That's their job is to try to spot these things. things and hold people accountable. So that is who Bill Belichick is really leaning on there. He's not the one that has to answer those questions. But of course, people are going to ask him, and we get the beautiful moment of him being able to cover up his face with the new hood.

And we get to see Gronks spiking a bouquet from a wedding. And I think Gronks back. I think we all know Gromks back. And this is going to be part of the offseason that we talk about as Gronk's presence back on a team that didn't lose when he left. How much better are they going to be when he comes in? And that's a scary component. Yep.

The Emperor's New Hood featuring Rob Gonkowski. He's going to be starring in that film this season. It'll be good. Another big deal in a big market. Odell Beckham, Jr., he did not report to OTAs today with the New York Giants. He is holding out. This is the first time he's up for a contract. This is his fourth year in the league, the new CBA.

This is first year to really reevaluate his situation. He just got that huge deal with Nike, so he is fine as far as how much money he's racking in outside of the gridiron. But Odell's situation, is this remind you of Revis back in the day with the Jets the first time? Or is this a situation where O'Dell is basically going to be able to put his price out there and decide when he wants to come in and report with the Giants, and they basically have to give him whatever he asked for. Well, he's got a contract, so they picked up the option for his first season,

so he's going to have to play. He doesn't have to come to the OTAs. They're mandatory. They're not mandatory. And I think I saw, I think I did see O'D, Beckham right there on the baseline of the Warriors game. I thought I saw him there. You might want to check that. He was at the Warriors

game. He was. He was right there on the baseline. I don't know who he's pulling for, but I think he was pulling for LeBron. I'm not 100% I'm sure he was, but these guys that had great seasons. I'm sure there's going to be conversations about Beckham in terms of extending his contract. He's looked over the market.

He kind of knows those contracts, whether it's David Carr's contract or Beckham's contract. These contracts aren't as hard to do because the players have achieved so much. it puts them in a different category. But Beckham not being there for the Giants, he doesn't have to be there. You don't have to make them there. There's always the reason why.

And he's out in California working with Chris Carter. And as long as he's getting in shape, and I think ultimately that's the key for the Giants and give some of those other receivers some work because, let's face it, he's got timing issues that he's going to have to get completed when he gets the training camp. But to me, I never really worried about the guys that weren't there in the OTAs. I worried more about the guys that were there and making sure they're getting the reps.

Gotcha, gotcha. Another guy that's not at OTAs for the Los Angeles Rams, probably one of the best interior rushers in the NFL, and that's Aaron Donald. He is also not reporting the OTAs and is looking for a big contract from the Rams. You see the Rams reaching out and trying to make a deal with Donald before the season starts?

Well, I think they would have to, but the Rams, which is shocking, Kate, they're the least amount of cap room of any NFL team right now. I mean, it's really remarkable. And I think it's a whole commentary about how poorly run the Rams are. Because when you have a bad team and you're at the top list of paying players, and when you look at who they've paid and there's payroll,

I mean, you know, they've got so much money tied up into some players, and those players haven't been able to win for them. Yeah. And those decisions become easy for you to make. I mean, look, if you're not a good team and Tavon Austin's your second highest paid player making $14 million and Mark Barron's making $11 million, and Michael Brockers is making 11. I mean, they've got five guys making over $10 million a year in terms of a cap room.

Yeah. Or cap hit. Yep. And you're not winning any games. I mean, look, Aaron Donald's making one-eight this year. I would hold out, too, if I was Aaron Donald. They brought in Connor Barwin and making over $2 million this year. He's going to make free five.

They're going to have to get it done. The problem is how do they get it done? They're going to have to squeeze some cap room and try to get it in here. And they need to get Tremaine Johnson because he's eating up $16 million dollars with a cap room before they can get him. They need to either extend his deal or find a way to lower his cap number to where they can, you know, give them the $16 million, but extend it out over two years and then eat $8 million next year in terms of whatever they want to do. But to fit in a huge contract, like it's going to take Aaron Donald. They're going to need more than what they have in terms of based on a sports track right now,

based on the numbers. They're going to need to do it. They're going to need to reduce some guys' contracts. And the thing is, what I always found was, but the Patriots are in the top 10. in terms of cap room and the Rams are in the bottom? How is that possible? Yeah. That makes no sense. Patriots have, according to cap track, they have $20 million of cap room. The league average is $19 million.

Okay, the bottom teams are, right now the Rams have $1.7 and the Eagles have $222. The Rams are 32nd and they have 89 players, which is remarkable. And then the charges are 29th and the Ravens are 30th. Yeah. The one thing you don't want to be is bad and spending a lot of money. And that's the Rams. And you start looking at the guys that are making some big money for them, you know, even like a Greg Robinson who, you know, they bring in Andrew Whitworth

coming from the Bengals. And, you know, he has a veteran presence, but he's there to protect Jared Gough because Greg Robinson can't get the job done. And he's making, you know, $6 million. And you got Jared Cook making a bunch of money. And, you know, you keep going down and down the list. And it's like these guys are really stressed out. But I will say that, Robert Quinn, though, I think Robert Quinn can have a big year.

He's a good player. And the average age of the Rams team is 20. 24 million. Yeah. 24 years. Okay, so they only have guys 24 years old. So they're a young team. But so all these contracts are huge, you know, and they're going to have to go into somebody and try to redo them.

And the only way you can redo a contract is when you have a guy who's got a lot of paragraph 5 in his base, you know, like Roger Seafold has, has 4.7 million. You know, so you got to find a way to lower his number. Robert Quinn is 6,6, so you can try to lower him. But Michael Brockers, you can't lower his number. He's at 1-25. Yep. And the only way to get Cap Room is to attack that paragraph 5. And so it's going to be a difficult challenge.

And I think the Rams are a team that you just have to shake your head and say, how is this possible? Yep, yep. All right, Lombardi, another guy that actually did go to OTAs, which is an exciting thing for a lot of football fans out there. And that's Marshaun Lynch. He reports Jack Del Rio actually tweeted out a video of Marshall Lynch bursting through the hole for a big touchdown run on Twitter earlier this week.

Is that exciting? Obviously, that's exciting for the Oakland Radio. But does that mean that they're a true contender now? It looks like Marciaun's a back and form based on what Del Rio is putting out to the world. I mean, I thought he looked like he was in decent shape, and it looked like he had burst in acceleration. I think it's going to be a great piece for the Raiders that they've got to keep them healthy. Like I said, I think I would be more concerned about the last eight games with Marcia Lynch than I would be the first eight. But it was good to see him.

I think it was a great, great indication that Lynch is back. He likes it. He's an Oakland kid, so he's going to give it. I think the question for the Raiders is going to be how good they can be on defense. I think the Raiders have a lot of things going for them offensively. And, you know, when they add the tight end, Jared Cook in there to go along with some of the other young players they have. I think this is, you know, the Raiders have a good chance. But the key is going to be, are they going to be good enough?

If they keep getting those track meets on defense and they won a lot of close games last year, it's tough to duplicate that as you improve the schedule and improve the strength of schedule. So it's all what comes down really for the defense for the Raiders. that the defense for the Raiders can play well, I think they certainly can compete for the West and Lynch can close it out. And he'll be a factor come late November, December. It almost feels like it was always destined to end up this way

where Marshawn Lynch is with the Raiders. So it's cool to see. And obviously Del Rio putting that out to the world. He really is supporting him. And we'll see. That'll be big for Oakland or the future Las Vegas Raiders, unfortunately. But now let's move on to our favorite segment of the week. That's Word on the Street, all the sights and sounds around the NFL.

The first one is a big domino that fell today. The Jets are finally going to cut ties and release longtime linebacker, David Harris. David Harris is, you know, people remember like number 52 in the middle there for the Jets during those big runs of the AFC titles back in 2009 and 2010. He's going to be weird seeing that defense without David Harris. What does he mean to the Jets and what's his future look like? Well, I mean, the Jets try to get a reduction. He's making six-five.

He's not a three-down linebacker. He had two-tipped passes last year, balls defended. You know, he's a guy who's really losing his step and speed. He can't cover anymore. I know the name David Harris has jet fans, you know, panicking because he might not be on their team. But in reality, when you look at foot speed is a problem. And I truly believe this tape, when you're Mike linebacker slow, your defense is slow. And the Jets' Mike linebacker was slow.

And when you're playing so much no-huddle teams, teams that don't allow you to substitute. and they can lock your mic on the field because he's the player who's got the dot, who can call the signals, and he gets locked on the field. There's a lot of matchups you can take advantage of. And the speed of your underneath coverage, which allows you to force fumbles, allows you to create some turnovers, isn't there, and the Jets couldn't create any turnovers. The Jets had 13 guys last year on their team that were over 30 years old.

They've gotten rid of 10 of them with David Harris now. They have three guys remaining. And so I think what you're seeing is the Jets are basically having a youth movement. movement. They wanted to keep Harris because he's a valuable player in terms of their leadership. But what he can do and how he can play isn't to the level that most fans think. And I'm reading Twitter before we start this, and most jet fans are overreacting. David Harris might have been their leading tackler. He might have been their leader, but that was on a bad defense. And I think sometimes we forget. It's like Elvis Dumerville

sign in with the 49ers. Everybody said, well, the 49ers got their pass rush. Well, timeout. Time out. Tomaville might be able to rush a little bit. but they didn't get their pass rush. Like veteran guys, we tend to remember when they were, not how they're going to be. I think it's a little bit like David Harris. Yeah, it's like a Dwight Freeney in Arizona, something like that, you know? Yeah, although Dwight Freeney came to life in the Super Bowl.

I mean, that's Super Bowl performance. Nate Solder wakes up in the middle of the night wondering where that freeie came from, you know, because that was as good as I've seen Dwight Freeney play since Indianapolis. But that's true, Tate. I think that's what happens is you think the guy can do something, and he's kind of on his last look. Yep, yep. That's how it kind of goes with those guys.

A guy that is also over 30 that could be on the outside looking in is Derell Revis. And I just have to ask, I mean, this is tough for me to say, is this finally going to be the end of Revis Island? I mean, I feel like it's already over. It's already foreclosed, the island. You know, the sea level is rising. It's sort of just the waves are crashing, just getting worse and worse on Revis Island. Nobody wants to do that anymore. It's not like Cuba where they're cutting down service spirits no longer serving Cuba.

They're cutting down flights. I think there's no one going to get Rivas Island. I think it's worse than that. And I think there's no tourism there. Because the reality is when you watch them play, you can see a lack of speed. And so now you have to ask yourself, can he fit into our scheme? How do we want to utilize them? And when you have that foot speed issue, he's not really an inside corner.

He plays on the outside. And I think what the Jets try to do last year is cater to them to try to cover them up and hurts the defense. They try to cater to all the defense. I think when you look at the Jets team last year, the number one thing that stood out is they had really bad chemistry within their locker room. And all those guys that they have jettisoned out of there were partly responsible for that bad chemistry. Whether they're better or not this year, I don't know.

I think Revis Island is probably closed for good. Wow. That is sad to hear. That's tough for all the people that remember the good days of Gangregn Nation. Speaking of, the guy that actually made all that possible, Rex Ryan, back in 2009, 2010, this weekend, did you see this video of the Ryan brothers? I saw it. They were in Nashville.

They're just having fun. They're just having fun. They're getting a little scuffle at a bar in Nashville. Obviously, the Ryan brothers or the Bash brothers are just out there having a good time, drinking margaritos or whatever they're up to. But there's a great video online if you haven't checked that out. So everyone from that era of Jets,

you know, it was a beautiful time for Jets fans. And now looking back at it eight, nine years later, it's not so beautiful. But I feel like Rex is going to get a shot, you know, on TV. He's too entertaining not to keep around. so we're hoping we see more wrecks and now he's going to now he's going to parties and they're hanging up creditors games they're crashing weddings I mean he's

become the bill Murray of the NFL they should make like a wedding crashers too and it's with the Ryan brothers and like Vince Vaughn's like sort of their guide you know throughout the movie he's like sort of in the movie you know it's like tongue and cheek I'd watch that not a bad call Tate not a bad call yeah we could do that

next up another story Riverboat Ron we mentioned this earlier about Christian McCaffrey and the rule that's keeping him out of OTAs. Ron Rivera comes out officially in blast the NFL calling the rule unfair and saying that McCaffrey, he voluntarily did not enroll in

the spring semester for the sheer reason that he wanted to be able to get right into camp, but he's still having to wait out until June 14th and that's when Stanford's term is finally up. What do you think about Rivera calling out the NFL and do you think this will be the thing that actually makes this rule get handled

and get changed and will that actually happen or will this just be, you know, fall on deaf ears. I don't think it'll change because by the college coaches, they want that graduation. And, you know, if you graduate, you can be free to go. I think would you look at Connor McDermott from the Patriots? He's from UCLA. He's graduated. He's allowed to be there. If you're graduated, you can go.

But it's a little bit like this NBA rule that maybe Adam Silver, we had it on the ringer talking about how he's maybe done with one and done. And I think there's some things that have to change in basketball and there's something that have to change in football. It's really not fair to these kids that play at UCLA, Stanford, Oregon, those kind of places where they won't let you come in. You get behind. It's not the first round pick.

McCaffrey is going to be able to overcome it. It's those six, seventh, and eight, six, seventh, and free agent guys that become a problem. And I think that's really, you know, there's something they have to look into. But it's only going to have to come from the colleges. It's not going to come from Ron Rivera complaining about it. I mean, you know it when you draft them and you just got to live with it. Yeah. Kobe Fleener is out there just saying, please, someone.

Someone addressed this. This Pact 12 bias has to stop. Well, it's the rule. It's just how they're doing it. It's how they get the semesters. It's kind of the quarter system. We had it with Cam Fleming when I was at the Patriots. He's at Stanford.

You've got to try to find a way to get them the information and get them to be integrated into your team without having them actually be there. Yep. Another guy that's out there on the market that's bouncing around that went and visited the bills today. That's Jeremy Macklin. Macklin trying to find a new home. What do you see for Macklin? Do you think there's still value for him there?

Obviously, a speedy guy. Was great with the Eagles, had a good run with the Chiefs, and now he's trying to find a new home. He's starting to decline a little bit, maybe not quite the best outside receiver. But David Cully, the quarterback coach at Buffalo, coached him in Philadelphia. He coached him in Kansas City.

He's in Buffalo. I think unless Buffalo gets outbid by the Ravens or somebody substantially more money comes to the table, I see Macklin going to Buffalo. I think Macklin would really help Buffalo. I think the Chiefs felt, like he was declining. They wanted to get other guys on the field. They felt like he was a progress stopper for them. They felt like they needed to get the Marcus Robinson on the field.

They really like Chris Conley and obviously Tyree kills their main guys. So, you know, this is something that is the risk you have to take. And by letting him go, they helped themselves in terms of the chiefs did. They helped themselves in terms of cap relief and cash relief. They got to help the Marcus Robinson comes through and really performs well. I think Buffalo could really use a guy like Macklin. It would help. It would help with the veteran leadership. It would also give him a guy that understands what it takes to win in the locker room.

I think Buffalo would do really well with them. McDermott was with them in Philadelphia. There's a lot of commonality in Buffalo. I think it would be a smart move for Buffalo to get them. Even though it's going to be a short-term thing, I don't think Macklin's got four years left, but I think you can certainly help a team like Buffalo as they develop some of their young guys. It'll help Zay Jones. It'll help Corey Brown and help all those younger receivers that they have.

Yep, definitely. And that Kansas Chiefs offense will be a little different now because it used to be basically Travis Kelsey or Jeremy Macklin was who Alex Smith is going to throw the wall to her. Now it's Tyree Kill. It's like, watch out, fellas. Here comes the road run of beep beep. Yep, exactly.

That is speed. Speed is a big thing, of course, as we will continue to highlight throughout this podcast. Final thing, we're going to come full circle here. We're going to go back to the Seahawks. The Seattle Seahawks. There's a lot of rumors swirling that the Seahawks, were looking to sign Colin Kaepernick.

They bring him in, the only team to bring him in for a workout. They instead signed Austin Davis. Yeah, Austin Davis, who's kind of bounced around the league, smart kid, knows the system. Yes. You know, it's played in a West Coast style of system. You know, whether it's the contract, whether it's the issues, hard to say. But, you know, Kaepernick, for him, you know, he turned down a huge contract. I think a lot of it's the tape.

I know nobody wants to hear it. I keep saying it. I know there's some people that write that, you know, the commissioner should step in and give Kaepernick a job. I think people watch the tape. I don't think the tape's very good. And I think that's why you don't have a job. Yeah. As a starter. Yeah. And that's what the Seahawks

that was, their reasons behind not signing Kaepernick, they said that they thought Davis was a backup and they were looking for a backup and they viewed Kaepernick as starting potential. So that's why they did not want to offer him the contract because they don't need competition. They just need someone behind Wilson.

Yeah, Davis, I have, he was at Southern Miss, right? with Larry Fedora? Yeah. Yeah, I remember him. Yeah, Austin Davis. Well, good for him. You got a job.

That's tough for Boykin out of TCU. So that's a nice little like southern rivalry right there between like Mississippi and Texas between those two. Yeah, they just better hope Russell Wilson doesn't get hurt. Yeah, exactly. Now that they're going to move them in and out of the pocket like we talked about, hopefully he'll stay healthy, which I think really, you know, will help Seattle. I think Seattle's with all the noise as we close this podcast, all the noise,

I think Seattle loves the noise. I think they'll relish in, and I think they'll have a great year. Yep. So watch out for the Seahawks. They're trying to fly back to the top of the NFC. And that is it for this week of GM Street. We'll be back next week. We'll be talking more NFL offseason storylines,

and I'm sure we'll touch on the basketball a little bit if Lombardi lets me. We've got to get ready for the draft. Of course. Got to get ready for the draft. They're going to trade that pick. Your boy, Colangelo. He's going to trade that number three picks. If they do, I'm going to jump out of this building.

Stay tuned. No, GM Street. Let's hope Lombardi doesn't jump out. Don't get me started. We don't have enough time. I live through Roy. If they trade this pick, I'm jumping out of the building. All right. You heard it here first. Lombardi's letting you know, Colangelo. Don't blow it. Make the pick. Take Lonzo. I hope Lanzo's there, but I think the Lakers are going to take them it, too. I think they are too. I think it's all just a smokescreen.

But that's what I'm told by people in the league. So we'll hopefully see. I'll go for Fox. We'll go from there. All right. Deeran Fox. You heard it here. Mike Lombardi wants you with the Philadelphia 76ers. So we'll see. We'll be back next week. Thanks, Lombardy. All right, Kate.

Thank you.