The Ringer NFL Show - 'GM Street' — Second-Year Starting QBs and the Worst of the Worst With Mike Lombardi (Ep. 108)

Episode Date: May 16, 2017

The Ringer's Mike Lombardi and Tate Frazier huddle up to discuss the upcoming season for Christian Hackenberg and the New York Jets (04:00), Carson Wentz and the Eagles (09:30), and if Dak Prescott can improve on his incredible rookie season (13:30). Then they examine the worst of the worst in the NFL, including the San Francisco 49ers (21:00) and the Cleveland Browns (23:30). Lastly, they weigh in on Eddie Lacy's contract incentives (31:00), if Colin Kaepernick fits with the Seattle Seahawks (33:00) and Ben Roethlisberger's return to the Pittsburgh Steelers (34:00). Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hey, it's Bill Simmons. Very excited to announce the newest podcast to the Ringer Podcast Network family. It's against all odds with Cousin Sal. So this pot is gambling, gambling, gambling, and more gambling. Yes, I have a gambling problem. I want to share it with you. I want to make it your problem. And it's not just football. NHL playoffs, NBA playoffs, baseball, horse racing, there's boxing.

U.S.S. SummerSlam. Oh, all the wrestling when we hit July. We have a hot dog eating contest for Nathan's. And some surprise celebrity guests. Yeah. All right. It's against all odds with Cousin Sal.

Subscribe to it wherever you listen to your podcast. And we're thinking about once a week, right? Yeah, let's do it. From the GM Street, I'm Tate Frazier and sitting across from me. Mr. Mike Lombardi, it's a big day in the world of basketball. We're going to talk a lot about football today, obviously, because this is GM Street. And we do talk about football. But we talked a lot about the 76th.

It's a big night for the lottery. How are you feeling, Lombardi? A little nervous? You know, I am always nervous. I mean, look, when you root for a franchise that traded away Brad Dardy for Roy Henson and you root for a franchise that picks Sean Bradley at the top of the draft.

You have obviously some limitations in terms of who you are and you've got a lot of demons in your closet. Yeah, even Evan Turner in 2010. Even Evan Turner. Everybody was so happy he got him, I don't think he can dunk. So, you know, I approach this with a lot of apprehension because as I've said to many of these Henkee

fanatics, it's about the pick. It's like, can the pick turn into a good player? Yes. And so I'm a little apprehensive. I mean, I still have bad dreams of Kenny Payne and some of these players that we picked. This is amazing. This is really dark. This is dark early in the podcast talking about some of the dark times. When you're a 76er fan, it's dark. I mean, you can't escape it. You really can. I mean, there's been very few times where, you know, they've had three, I remember they'd

picked Leon Wood, the referee in the first round from Cal State Fullerton down the road here. You know, this has been a painful existence. I mean, we passed up Brad Dardy and traded for Roy Henson. I'm a big Brad Dardy fan, as you know, of course. I know. I mean, so to answer your question. I'm very, and I'm also a conspiracy theorist. Of course. So you do believe tonight that the Los Angeles Lakers are guaranteed. There's no chance that the NBA is going to say, oh, the Lakers, you pay a price for being stupid. No, no, no, they need the Lakers to be good. The Lakers will have the first pick. So I'm prepared for that. What I'm hopeful for is, you know, a good pick. I'm hoping for

DeAndre Fox. I'm hoping for, you know, Monk. I'm hoping for somebody like that. I'm not hoping to be greedy in getting two. I don't think that's realistic. Well, it may happen. We hope it happens just for the sake of you for maybe writer days ahead. Yeah, like last night. You know what bothered me last night, Tate, is so often, and I wrote this column about the Jets, and we'll get into that in a second. But like last night, there's been so time, no time where when you're a 76er fan, I feel the anguish of fans, right? Yes. So like last night, game seven, like, where's my team? Yeah. Like, you know, like you really feel like I want to root, like when the Sixers were good and they played Toronto and Larry Brown was the coach

and there was game seven. My son and I, Matthew, we sat there and watched the game. We were so excited, you know, and I think Vince, what's his face? Vince Carter. Vince Carter misses that long shot. Yes. In and out. Could have won the game.

He went back to graduate. People still don't, they still give them crap about that. But anyway, that was such a great series. Like, there was such a fun time to be able to turn on the TV. I miss that. Like, I really miss that. And I'm disappointed. And I feel like Henkees taking that away from me.

Well, what I'm hearing right now is Larry Bray's. Brown's in Philadelphia, is coaching high school basketball. Larry Brown, bring him back to the Sixers and let's run this thing back. You know, it's funny. I watch all these NBA games and I think, if Larry Brown was coaching the other team, they probably would be better than they are. Of course. And just think, tonight, if the ping pong swung differently in 2010, you could have had John Wall on your team, and you maybe would have been playing the Celtics to go to the Eastern Conference. Yeah, but that doesn't work. Doesn't happen. All right, let's talk football. Of course. We got some big picture things today. We're going to talk about the Jets. We're going to

talk about second year quarterbacks coming into their own this year. Going to do some fun odds. Who's the worst of the worst? We're going to talk about Dan Quinn's quotes on the Super Bowl and then just get into some fun stories, some big picture stuff that's going on in the league. First up, second year quarterbacks, a guy that basically got redshirted last year for the New York Jets, had a big freshman year at Penn State.

People remember that's pretty much his biggest claim to fame. Christian Hakenberg. He said he's ready for year two. He said he's ready to play. We'll get more reps this year. Josh McCown has said probably to be the starter for the team going in, but he's 37. He probably won't last 16 games.

We're going to see Hakenberg. What do you expect in year two? You know, Hakenberg feels good about where he is. And I think the Jets have a sense that they feel good about where he is. Now, in full disclosure, you know, my son works for the Jets. So obviously, I'm a jet fan. Yes. I'm rooting for the Jets this year.

It's the first year in my life. I'm a Broadway Joe fan, so I'm here for it. The first time in my life, I've rooted for the Jets. But I think, look, the Jets went into this draft saying, you have to be able to take the players that are in the draft, compare them to the players on your team. So is Hakenberg better than? than Deshawn Watson.

Is Hakenberg better than Patrick Mahomes? And when you break down Hakenberg, and you talk to people, and it's hard to find on the tape, date. Everybody thinks this kid's got real tourability. Like my son Matthew, who was watching that game with Vince Carter with, he was at Louisville, and Louisville got a transfer quarterback from Penn State. This kid, all he could do was talk about the greatness of Christian Hakenberg. Love them, thought he was the most athletic player, yada, yada, y'a.

and then you watched his 2015 season, and it just wasn't there. I mean, you know, he played, you know, he threw just seven yards an attempt. He had 16 touchdowns. The tape never backed up the praise. Yes. And I think now that he has a really good quarterback coach in Jeremy Bates, now, Jeremy Bates has been around a long time. He's coached in Tampa Bay with John Gruden. He went to Denver with Mike Shanahan.

He's been in and out of the league. He knows the thing about quarterbacks. He easily could have been pushing Jay Cutler to go to the Jets. Coach Jay Cutler has a great relationship with Cutler. but they truly believe in Hakenberg, and I think that's going to be the key thing for the Jets, is can Hakenberg take the next step, and does he have the ability to take his ability and play with it?

And I think that's really going to be what we'll see, and I think the Jets should get out of the way and let him prove it to him. And the confidence factor, I mean, it seems like he was sort of down on himself at Penn State there at the end, the tail end of his career there before he went to the draft. He gets picked in the second round, so that really didn't hurt him. That gives him a little bit of a boost. And now he's saying he has a different level of confidence.

That's a quote this year. What is it that gives someone like that that has had no real reps in the NFL that was the four-string quarterback last year? So he's obviously not getting live reps in practice. Well, I think the confidence that you know, it's like the jungle's never dangerous if you know the trails. So he kind of knows the trails a little bit now. When you've come in as a rookie, you don't really know the trails. So you're walking around and you just don't know what to expect. So now he's had this off-season where he can really get accustomed to the defenses in the NFL,

and he can watch. I mean, look, the Jets were so bad last year in the red zone on third down. If he just watches that tape and learns third down red zone offense, they're going to be better. So, you know, they were one of the worst teams in the league in that area. And so I think that when this kid gets his confidence, he gets his confidence from knowing. Parcells always talks about players that play slow because they don't know. You know that great quote he has, we're too dumb to be any good. Well, that relates to players not knowing what to do.

Yes. And they can't play fast. When guys know what to do, they can play fast. And I think Hakenberg's saying, I can play faster. And the Jets, I think, have a chance to see if he can do it. And to me, they ought to, and I think they did the smart thing. They decided to not draft a quarterback. Yes.

Okay. Which shows like a faith and confidence in what they have in the building already. It's already boost your confidence. Right. Like you have a brand new car, right? You paid a lot of money for it. It's sitting in the driveway, and now people want you to go buy another new car. Yes.

You better figure out what you got with this car before you take the other car out, right? Yes. And I think that's really where the Jets were. And is what I have picked Deshawn Watson? I like Deshawn Watson more than Hakenberg, but the problem was the Hakenberg pick just can't stand on an island. You've got to figure out what you have before you can get rid of them. This is another basketball thing.

Donnie Walsh, the general manager back in the day with the Indianapolis Pacers, he traded away a young player that he really didn't know who the player was, and he felt like I can't trade that guy because I didn't know who he was from that moment forward. I think the Jets need to know what they have in Hakenberg. Now, the thing that cracks me up is all these people that think they know Hakenberg have never watched a jet practice. Yeah. It's the same thing with Garoppolo.

Okay, like Garapolo, I know Garoppolo because I watch them practice every day. So I know how good Garoppolo is. The people that say, oh, he's just bluffing, they haven't ever watched the practice. It's the same thing with Hackenberg. Unless you really have watched the practice, you don't know. Yep, that makes sense. And the second year quarterbacks, a lot of guys that are big-name guys in their second years when they really blew up. I mean, there's Doug Williams in 79, John El-O in 1984, Dan Marino in 1984,

Drew Bledsoe, in 1994, McNab, even Kaepernick in 2012. We've seen guys, even Sanchez in 2010, guys in their second year really come into their own. When you see Hakenberg, obviously he hasn't had the reps yet, but if he does come into his own in year two and really blows up, I mean, that's nothing but promising with their future for Jet fans. Yeah, I mean, look, they did the right thing, their redshirted, and they didn't go out there and get them. Everybody wants to put him under fire.

He wasn't ready to be under fire. And he's got enough talent that he should be able to exist on his talent. He's not going to go out there and not be talented. He's going to be out there and have to play fast. I think that they owe it to look at the player. And then, like most quarterbacks, they've got to build their team around what he can do. And they've got to build their team around,

minimize him what he can do. And I think that with John Morton, the offense coordinator and Jeremy Bates, the quarterback coach, I think they'll know what they have. If they play the young guy, they're going to have to know. And they're going to have to rely on their defense to be really good. And a punt with that situation isn't a bad play. And when we're talking about other second year quarterbacks, guys coming into their own, another name that comes up, Carson Wince.

Last year, hot start came out. Everyone was on top of the guy. They were like, this looks like the future. There's a lot of people who call him the Winswagon. He kind of, you know, tethered off a little bit to the end of the season. but a really hot start. And now coming into year two, he's got a lot more receivers, a lot more weapons on the outside.

Do you see Carson Wins really taking that big step? Maybe like a Ben Rathesburg like he did in his second year. I think this is going to be the challenge for when you look at Wence. Wence's ability to throw the ball over 10 yards was really bad last year. I think when you watch Wince and you see him play, it was so disappointing that his accuracy over 10 yards just dropped tremendously. And this offense that they're running in Philadelphia is really the Kansas City offense. it's Alex Smith's offense that they're bitching about Alex Smith not being able to throw the ball down the field.

Well, if Wence can't throw it down the field, it's not going to get better. And he's got to improve his accuracy because if he doesn't, it just really becomes, I mean, last year he averaged 6.6.2 per yards per attempt. And that's got to change. I mean, that can't happen. He's got to throw it down the field. They've got to be able to highlight it. And they're going to need to sign a running back. I mean, I know the Eagles drafted a running back, and I know they feel like they have a lot of committee backs.

Yes. But they're going to need somebody back there. Ryan Matthews probably won't stay. healthy. And when they have a big back behind him, that could really help. I think Wenz has got to prove that he can expand the field, that, you know, he's a little bit like a guy who's got to improve a three-point shot, right? So he's got to prove that he can throw it up the field, and he's got to prove that he can be accurate down the field. If not, people are going to squeeze on him. And last year, what you saw was once people saw what they did offensively,

they squeezed them down. Now, Peterson, to me, has to have the answer for that. I don't know if he does. I mean, the guy threw a 62 percent completion. You know how many bubble screens he threw? It's ridiculous. I mean, he's, he's ridiculous. I mean, he's his percentage of completion should be way higher than 62% because he's always throwing the ball behind the line or within 10 yards. The reason it's not that good, it's not 65 or 66%, is because he's inaccurate down the field. That's what he's got to get better on,

and I think that's what he has to work on. And look, Bill Walsh said this all the time. In the first year, we teach the players the system. The second year, we develop the skills within the system. That's where Wince is right now. You've got to develop the skills within the system. Can he do it? I don't know. I think the reality is going to, when we watch the tape,

Is he accurate? You're going to know a lot about Carson Wentz 16 games from now. Is he the franchise quarterback? Did the Browns make the mistake? Did they give up a great player? My inclination say, I think he'll be good. I don't know how great he's going to be. And that is, he's probably the hottest name to second year quarterback.

Oh, God. I live in Ocean City, New Jersey, in the summertime. I mean, it's like the Wentz wagon goes down Hasbury Avenue. I mean, it's ridiculous. You know how many eagle flags I have to look at every day when I walk the dogs? It's unbelievable. Between Villanova flags and Eagle flags and Penn State flags, I mean, it's ridiculous. You know who's really sad about all this?

Donovan McNabb. All we ever wanted was some love, and Carson Wentz got all the love he ever wanted. It's funny. It's a great point to bring up. Donovan McNabb, who I've taken some shots at in my column about being lazy and not working real hard. But McNabb's the perfect example of what Andy Reid did for him.

Donovan McNabb was not a dropback passer. Donovan McNabb was a play action, turn his back to his defense, separate the defense. Hide the ball. And then he either throw it here or there. Okay? They gave him two options.

He tailored the offense around McNap. Andy Reid does a magnificent... Forget about his game management. That's a whole other podcast. Clock management is not... Disaster. But he manages the quarterback better than anybody. And that's where I think Peterson's challenge is going to be. I think if Peters, if Wence doesn't make a giant step forward, okay? If he doesn't really show Jeff Lurie that he can be the guy, I wouldn't be surprised if they made a coaching change in Philadelphia. Because they're going to need to go all in on Wence. They went all in on them. And I'm not sure Peterson is the quarterback guru. Like, A, he never call plays in Kansas City, B, what quarterback has he developed in Can't?

Andy re-coachers is a quarterback in Kansas City or Brad Childress. So to me, I think this is more, Wince's second year is really about Peterson's second year as well. And a great thing to watch is the Cleveland Brown is getting all those draft picks that they gave up for Winson, just seeing that battle back and forth, who's really going to win that trade is still playing out right now. A guy that probably is the hottest name, second year quarterback, that a lot of people love down in Dallas, Dak Prescott, he seems to be set and ready for the season.

he says he's trying to be more of a leader in the locker room with those guys. Tony Romo no longer there. No one to fall back on. He's really just the guy there and they've really put in and made it known that he is the future for the Dallas Cowboys. What do you see for Prescott? Do you see him probably more in the pocket this season? Or do you think it would just be sort of more of the same from last year? I think he's got to do the same thing he did last year.

He's got to take the giant steps. And he only throws four interceptions last year, which is remarkable for a young player. I mean, he averages eight yards per attempt. So he averages 1.8 per yard more than Wince does. and I don't think you could say with real honesty, I know Des Bryant's a better receiver than anybody. It was on the Eagles last year, but he doesn't have

more weapons than the Eagles had. This kid can throw the ball down the field more accurately than Winskin. I think that's been proven. And I think what he has to do is keep playing within himself. He's the guy that, you know, if he hits the 300-foot driver, don't try to all of a sudden think you're going to hit a 340.

Yeah. Like, don't overswing. And I think that's where his ego's got to take a step back and say, you know what, I'm going to to do what I can do, and I'm going to play within myself, and the other guys have got a rally. Will they be as good as they were last year? Maybe they won't be as good as record-wise, but will they be more playoff ready next year? I think that's the challenge. I think Jason Garrett, another coach on the hot seat, I think Jason Garrett has to challenge

his team to forget about what the one-loss record is. It's going to be hard to duplicate that. They've got to be better come playoff time than they were last year. And that's one of those things where he's saying all the right things. Dex Prescott is getting a lot of, you know, positive publicity. all throughout the summer. Ezekiel Elliott's probably on the opposite side of that. But Dax's on top of it.

It seems like he's the right guy in the right place. It seems like it should be, should handle well. And I think the question for the Cowboys are going to be, look, they lost a lot of guys on defense. I mean, we bitched about their defense all year. They lost a lot of their defensive players signed and free agent deals somewhere else. So they got to regroup their defense. I think one thing every coach has to do, and Belichick does this better than anybody,

is every year's a new year. So you've got to rebuild your team. And I think we're going to find out about Jason Garrett here is, can he rebuild the team? Can he come back and say, Last year's team was an aberration. Yes. This team is a new team. We have to do things differently.

We have got to modify and change because one thing that's happened is Dallas is a target on everybody. They're going to play a first place schedule. So they're going to play a harder schedule. It's going to be more difficult for them. Dallas, Vegas only set them as an over under at nine and a half. After going 14 and 2 last year. That's a shocker, right? I mean, so that's telling you the schedule's harder.

All right, Lombardi. Let's circle back. We were just talking about those over undersers. let's just focus back in on this team that is right now Vegas has them at five wins and that is the New York Jax gangrene themselves. They play the AFC West, the NFC South, the Browns, the Jags. It looks like they have an opportunity to win more than five games, but they're at the bottom in.

We're going to talk about some of the worst teams down to the overrunners that Vegas put out there. But with the Jets, do you see them getting over five wins? It seems like it's possible. Yeah, David Harris said yesterday at his golf tournament, he said he thinks they're going to surprise some people and be better. Look, they can be better. I mean, they're definitely going to be better. And I wrote this column, and I think it's going to come out later in the week.

I think the worst thing that happened to the Jets were the 10 wins two years ago. Yes. And what was fascinating about writing the column was that every time the Jets make a coaching change, whether it's Rich Cotite to Bill Parcells, whether it's Al Gro to Herm Edwards, whether it's Herm Edwards to Eric Mangini. Now, Eric Mangini to Rex Ryan, it didn't happen. But then it happened from Rex Ryan to Todd Bowles. The team improves one year.

I mean, it's fascinating to see. Like, they fire the coach. Mangini's four and Mangini inherits a four and 12 team and goes 10 and six and makes the playoffs and his label Manginis yes and he's labeled Manginas yes and has dinner with Tony Sprano yes so I mean that's pretty good right

at the Vesuvio yes at Vesuvio no less moving up in the world yeah way I'm so jealous so anyway but what happened what that tells you as an outsider looking in it says look the Jets are really impatient about what they're doing okay like if they would have just waited one more year with Mangini maybe he would have been Ryan came in and was nine and seven the next year

But maybe he could have had that team going. A lot of the players that he picked were on those teams that did well. And I think that the Jets have to really take a longer lens view about where they are and where they're headed. And their defensive line, this is being critical. Their defensive line should dominate. I mean, they're really too good on defense. If they can get the best year out of Sheldon Richardson, they could be really an effective team. They should be better than five wins just on their defense alone.

And we should say that Rex Ryan, in those years, those drafts, when they had like those 13, 14 range picks, I mean, when they were drafting like Quentin Copels, Mo Wilkerson, Sheldon Richardson. Those guys were all hitting. Those guys are all monsters on the inside. Yeah, and that gave them a really good defense. And I think last year now, they've gotten rid of nine of the 13 guys that are over 30 years old. So they've started the youth movement. And just by starting that youth movement, they're going to be better.

And they're not going to try to hide Revis anymore, pretending that he can't cover man to man. They'll probably be more of his own team this year and protect their corners. Last year, you know, they have Revis to paint them all this money. They want to put them out there and people are going after them. And then last year they couldn't force any turnovers. I mean, they were like 28th in the league, 25th in the league in – no, 28th in the league in turnovers. So when you look at their team last year, they couldn't convert in the red zone. Okay, they kicked 24 field goals inside of 40 yards.

Ridiculous, right? That means they're not converting third downs in the red zone. And then their defense in the red zone was horrendous. Okay, they ranked 25th in the league in red zone defense. You were converting 45 percent. So they can't score touchdowns, and they're giving up touchdowns, right? So that's a problem. And then they can't create turnoff.

They only had 14 turnovers by the defense. Six of them were fumbles. What does that tell you? Their defense is slow. I think fans have to really understand this. When you look at your defense, see force fumbles. Force fumbles tell you how fast your defense is because that means your defense is tracking the ball.

They're running as fast. It's the Albert Einstein theory. You know, velocity equals mass, right, square, whatever that it was. I'm learning a lot today. Yeah. It's an Einstein. Anyway, but so when Sheldon Richardson's flying down the field and he tackles a receiver from behind, that third.

340 pounds hits that receiver. The ball typically comes out, right? That means you have speed on defense. That's kind of where it comes from. And when you can force a lot of fumbles, that's where it comes from. The Jets couldn't force any fumbles because they were too damn slow. Yep. And a guy that didn't get picked up his option for his fifth year, Calvin Pryor safety, that was a former first one pick. Yeah, that's the same thing. And they made too many mental mistakes. I mean, they make way too many mental mistakes in their safety position. And look, if you've got to go play the Patriots and beat the Patriots, you've got to be able to handle it. Look, the Jets are the only team in the East that has been to the playoffs, six.

times since Tom Brady left Michigan. They won one division in 02. All the five other times, they're a wild card. The next closest are Miami with four, okay? And the bills are still waiting to get to the playoffs since Brady got there. So we're talking about the Brady effect here a little bit and how it affects your team and how it affects your thinking. And I think the Jets have to stop trying to beat Brady and build their own organization.

A great example is that in 2009, 2010. Once they beat the Patriots in 2010, when they get the revenge after the big blowout game, they're behind 24 to nothing to Pittsburgh and they got to make a rally and Big Ben makes two great plays on, I was at that game, he makes two plays on bootlegs on third down to keep the ball. Unbelievable. And they won't go down. It wouldn't, yeah, it was amazing. So I think sometimes, and Woody's going to be the, Woody Johnson, the owner is going

to be the ambassador to Great Britain. So he just needs to kind of, and this is what the columns about. It's about more about trying for the Jets not to repeat the same mistakes they made in the past. And it's not all sad for the Jets. There are some good things. There are teams that have worse over under ratings from Vegas. Believe it or not. Believe it or not, one of those teams is the San Francisco 49ers,

who we've talked about quite a bit on this program, actually. Pissed them off, too. Yeah, we've made them mad a little bit. I'm talking about Navarra Bowman, but four and a half wins is where they're at with the 49ers. Do you see Kyle Shanahan in his first year being able to get these guys over the hump? Yeah, I think, look, anytime an offensive coach takes over a team and coaches the quarterbacks, I think for me, if I were a gambler and I'm not, I have nothing to do with gambling, I would think they're going to be better than four wins, just because you have a chance to do it.

I mean, Belichick took over the 1990 Browns. We were three and 13. We gave up over 400 points. We won six games that year. You can do it just because that first year, you will have everybody's attention. And that first year, you can get rid of all the bad players. So four and a half wins for the 49ers, I don't think that's going to be that hard of a challenge. I think they should be able to do that because if you can manage the game offensively,

which is what they do. And one thing you're going to know about a Kyle Shanahan coach team, and I'm not saying this because they got mad about the Navarra Bowen thing. I have great respect for Kyle. is they're going to run the football. They're going to reduce the game. They're going to be able to run the ball. And by doing that, I think they'll be able to win that. I think to put them in the same category as the Cleveland Browns, for me, I don't think it's fair.

And that's another team we're talking about. And before we move on to Cleveland Browns, I will say the regression in the NFC West, you're seeing it there. I mean, from the Cardinals, they'll probably maybe take a step back with Carson Palmer just aging. Russell Wilson had three injuries last year. You know, we're worrying about durability there. And then, obviously, the Rams are also in their division. so that's not bad.

Yeah, well, I mean, look, the Rams. I don't see how the Rams improve. I really don't. I don't see it. I thought their draft was below average, and I'm not a Jared Gough fan. So it's going to be prove it to me with the Rams, and we'll see how that works.

But I think the Niners can win four and a half. I think they're the sleeper. I think if teams are playing the West this year, any team that has the West on the schedule, the NFC West, I think you could look at them as being a playoff, it might have a playoff caliber. That's how you have to really look at this thing,

take, is look at the teams that play the bad divisions. Yes. Like the year the Jets won 10 games, they played the South. They couldn't beat Houston, but they beat all those other South teams. So it's like strength of schedule or when you do it, that's to me is when you look at this and say, wait a minute, the Niners could do that. Well, another team four and a half that we were just mentioned in the Cleveland Browns.

Cody Kessler is probably going to be their starting quarterback to start the season. I don't know if I go to the game if Cody was playing. I think I would probably detour and watch it at a sports bar. Is there any hope for them to win more than four and a half? Well, obviously more than four, maybe five, maybe six. I think that, look, they're a young team. I mean, Miles Garrett needs to shut up and just start playing. Yes.

Right? And, you know, this whole talk about Kaiser could conventionally compete for the starting job. Look, I've read it, this is another pet peeve of mine. I've read it. Terbisky had a great camp, right? Mahomes had a great camp, right? We've heard all these young quarterbacks had a great camp. Davis Webb's great camp, right?

Everyone's going to have a great camp. Somebody called me yesterday and said, you know, Davis Webb had a great camp. Okay, let's stop. Let's stop right now, Tate. Okay. First of all, it's a rookie camp, all right? So basically it's one coverage and it's about seven plays. It's a seven-on-seven game.

It's not a great camp. A great camp is if you go in the first pre-season game and play really well. Or a great camp is when you play in a pre-season scrimmage and you play really well. A rookie camp, you can't have a great camp. Basically, you can put your jockstrap on and just go out there and throw the ball. And all these kids can do that. Everyone, Holmes, Webb, all these guys are going to have good camps. Kaiser, they're all going to have good camps.

Volume kills good camps. When you start to have to run the whole playbook, man, you're in trouble. I don't see it. Quick tangent on the rookie camp idea. So the guys in the PAC 12, they're on the quarter system. So a guy like Christian McCaffrey cannot participate in the rookie camp because school was not officially out. Where do you stand on that rule? It seems a little outdated.

It's so bad. It hurts all those kids, especially guys that get picked four, five, and six because they're not able to participate. So they've got to do stuff on their own, which makes it very difficult. And they, again, typically they're smart kids. So they fall behind in the playbook. Some do, some don't. Okay? And when you fall behind in a playbook, one thing about training camp, it's a mathematical problem.

So every day they're putting new stuff in. And if you have to, if you're a national anthem player, you know what a national anthem player is? Stand there and put your hand on your heart. No, no. National anthem is a new day. You've got to play the national anthem every day, right? And he doesn't remember what he learned yesterday. Okay?

So every day is a new day. So like what he learned yesterday, forget about it. You got to teach him again. Those guys don't make it, right? The national anthem players never make it. They got to learn it, retain it, and be able to build a new. on it. And that's where those guys that miss all that time really get affected. And to explain this rule just a little bit, if you're in the, if your school is still in session, if you still

have exams, so if you go to a Stanford or a Berkeley or Northwestern, even if you've graduated. You still have an exam. The school still has exams being held. You have to miss working camp because they were trying to incentivize kids basically not to just drop out of school if they knew that they were going to the NFL. And add this nugget too. Head coaches get a bonus by how many kids graduate. Yes. So it helps the head coach make a little bit more money. Now, the only caveat or the only loophole in this rule is if you graduated in December, if McAfri would have graduated in December, then he could come out and play because he's already done school.

But since he'd had to graduate in the amount of time, he's an underclassman, then he can't. So that's why. And the rule really benefits the head coaches because it gives them a little bit more juice in their contract. And we should say, Christian McCaffrey did have a great rookie camp. No, everybody had a great rookie camp. You know, it's like this, state, two things. I don't know.

you know, every time I called a player, okay, every time I would call a player when I was in Cleveland, Oakland, it didn't matter. The player just got done working out. Yep. It's remarkable. It's amazing. What timing you had?

I mean, every time I call it, I just got done working out. It's fascinating how it happened. It could have been 11 o'clock in that. I just got done working out. That's unbelievable. It's unbelievable. Beautiful time. Sort of a sad third segment for people in the greater city of Atlanta in the south who

really wanted the NFC South to get a Super Bowl champion. The Panthers obviously did not do that the year before. The Falcons choked away to the Patriots and Dan Quinn comes out and says Kyle Shanahan took most of the blame. Which should never have happened. Yeah, for the Super Bowl loss, obviously. And now Dan Quinn comes out. He said, I could have made it easier on them with some design changes.

Could have changed some of the scenarios in the game. Obviously, the guys were gas playing 90 plus plays on the night. What are your thoughts on Dan Quinn now coming out saying all this stuff? I mean, is it a way to sort of just like air out? the situation. I'll give you a perfect example. Last year, North Carolina, if you remember this, Villanova, Christianians hit a shot on them. Roy Williams never calls us a press conference at the end of the season. Last year, he calls it into the season because Isaiah Hicks kept saying to the people that was his fault that Christianians hit the shot over him. Roy Williams comes out and says,

no, it's not his fault. He actually had a great defensive possession. We're wiping that behind us and we're moving on to the next year. Basically just to clear the air with everyone that we're down. Yeah, don't let a hangover the team. So is this something that Dan Quinn's basically just trying to put it out there, air out the grievances, and get going in the next season. Yeah, I think you've got to move on. I think you definitely have to move on. And I think really, if Dan Quinn,

when he's honest with himself, it's not Kyle Shanahan's fault. I think this is really where we misconstrue the golfensive coordinator's role in a team. Kyle Shanahan has a, he has two jobs to do. His job is to get first down, and his job is to score points. Yep.

And until somebody tells him that that's not his job anymore, then that's what he's going to keep doing. Yep. Like, it's not his job to manage the game. It's not his job to know what the other teams score, how many points they are. It's not his job to know how much time's on the clock. He needs to be told, it's called leadership.

He needs to be told, hey, Kyle, we've got nine minutes to go. You know what? The Patriots are no longer our opponent. The clock's our opponent. So we're going to milk the clock. I don't care if we pun it every single. We'll pun on second down. I don't give a shit.

Okay. The Patriots are not our opponent. And I think that's where Quinn has to come out. And I think he's got to try to address it and then never talk about it again. And then prove to the team, this is going to be critical. Okay. And here's where their season's going to be in balance. when they have a lead in the fourth quarter,

can they keep it? And if the damn breaks and they lose it, then everybody's going to sit around and say, damn, you're still like the Super Bowl. I mean, look, Seattle still hasn't gotten over the Super Bowl play Malcolm Butler play. Yeah, absolutely. I mean, Richard Sherman's still talking about it.

Which is a great, just a question that I have on this whole situation in general. So you're Dan Quinn, you're a defensive coordinator, you're used to being in the Shanahan situation. So your only job in that game is, I'm trying to get stops, I'm trying to make sure we keep our defense off the field, stay rested, don't wear out, all that sort of stuff.

Keep containment. And then you're used to being that single one-track mind. And now you're having to be the Pete Carroll role where you're chime in and saying, hey, keep this on your mind. When you're on a one-track mind and you're thinking about this and you're not used to managing people, does that come in just to being a rookie head coach? I think it definitely does. I think what it showed there was Dan Quinn was in charge of the assistance.

He wasn't the head coach. Okay, he was in charge. He was organizing them, told him what time to come to, now what he's doing, now is becoming a head coach. This is a great step for Dan Quinn to take. That's how I read it. I thought it was great. He went in there. He's looked at it.

He's probably looked at it from every single angle. And he said to himself, you know what? This is the best thing to do. And I think that's where he's going to be able to. And then he's going to have to come up because there's always those bumps in the road. When they lose a lead in the fourth quarter, they play a much harder schedule this year. When they lose the lead in the fourth quarter and they lose the game, he's got to be able to talk moving forward and not have those memories of the Super Bowl creep back into him. And I think that's the challenge.

That's what he has to prepare for next. And the NFC South, I mean, I think it's a very under-er. division and it seems to flip every single year. You can be in first and just like the Panthers and then you can go right to the bottom of the division and then it could flip back the next year. I think it's going to be really good. I think if you're playing the South this year,

it's not going to be a walk in the park. I think if you're playing the AFC South, it will be. I think if you're playing the West NFC, it's probably going to be a little easier. And I think if you're playing the AFC West, I think you got tough sledding ahead of you. Yep, that makes sense. Well, Lombardi, let's wrap this up.

Our favorite segment of the week. Word on the street. We've got some big stories out there, some fun stuff going on. First up, he had. has an amazing nickname coined by Bill Simmons himself. Fat Eddie, Eddie Lacey, back in the news. He's trying to slim back down.

It comes out that he earns 55,000 bonus for weighing it at 253 pounds this week with the Seahawks. So basically he has incentives in his contract that are up to $385,000. They're trying to get him back to his weight when he came in the league, 230 pounds when he came out of Alabama. He's got to be less than 250 pounds on August 1st and just keeps going all year and he's got to play at less than $2.45 during the season. So here's what that, here's what happens. Okay, so you agree to a contract with the agent and said, look, we need weight clauses in the deal. The agent said, well, you know, we got to stagger. I want to stagger the weight clauses.

So you go through that negotiation. And so really what you're doing is by staggering the weight clauses, you're making sure he doesn't just lose 10 pounds in a day or take a bunch of diuretics and just crap it out or, you know, sit not eat for a week. Okay. So by having this staggering, okay, now I'm sure Eddie, fat Eddie came in there and was probably 260 and sauna. We'll call them Chubbyetti now. Chubbyetti. Okay. But if you're really a good head coach,

you know what you do on, you know what you do on two days before way in day? Yeah. Shut off the sonas. Turn them off. Yeah. Don't let him use them. No way. Belichick would turn those bad boys off. Nobody's allowed to go in them. I love that. You got to figure it out yourself. Okay. So you turn them off. And now, okay, so now you get a sense. Because really what happens when a guy does that, he's prone to hamstring pools. He's going to hurt his body. He's going to get

hurt somewhere else by doing that. And I've seen guys lose a lot of weight and then to get pools, which is hard. So the way this contract set up is it's set up so that it's a little bit of the Nutra System program. He's going to lose a little bit, a little bit, a little bit, and get rewarded. The reward was always going to be this giant chunk of money. They just split it up so that it'll benefit the player. Yeah, I just imagine Eddie Lacey, like in Silver Lines playbook wearing the trash bag running around the city. That'll be great. So if anyone sees Eddie Lacey, just cheer him on. Another story out of Seattle, actually. How ironic. Colin Kaepernick and RG3 are options to back up Russell Wilson in Seattle, according to Pete Carroll, who was talking to a radio station in

Seattle. Does that make sense? Does that fit? Obviously, we saw a lot of Seahawks, Doug Baldwin, Michael Bennett, Cliff Averill, Jeremy Lane, Richard Sherman even come out and say they supported Kaepernick last year with his whole protest in the National Anthem. Does he fit there? Obviously, Trayvon Boykin was the backup last year for Russell Wilson out of TCU. He had some problems his offseason and got pulled over a couple times, so he may not be there. Do one of those guys really fit? I think I think Kaepernick would fit. I mean, he knows the offense. I mean, they run a variation of that in San Francisco. They ran some of the West Coast with Jim Harbaugh when he was there.

So he kind of wouldn't know it. The problem isn't whether he would go there. The problem is would he assume the role of his a backup? And would he take a really a marginal deal? Seattle's not going to pay him. Remember, this guy walked away from a huge contract. So his appetite to work has got to be more than just what my contract is. That I think is the biggest sticking point.

Both these guys have been high-paid players. Are they willing to come in and work for the minimum? I don't think so. Yep. And the final story of the week, Big Ben, Ben Malthusberg. sort of stays under the radar a lot during the offseason or at least tries to. It came out this week, according to Willie Cologne, that he seriously considered retirement. 35 years old, obviously a two-time Super Bowl champion.

A guy like Big Ben, if you lose him in Pittsburgh, that changes the whole, what everything looks like up there in the AFC in that division. I think that's why you probably saw the Joshua Dobbs pick. I mean, I know it wasn't early. I mean, there was still was talk, and I heard it through the league that Patrick Mahomes was a guy they were considering. And I think if you're Kevin Colbert, you know that Ben, and his numbers have really started to slide down, a little bit, which is a concern. And Ben's taking a lot of hits in his career.

And his durability is starting to take effect. And I think that you have to prepare for that. And the best way to prepare for losing a quarterback is when you have one. So I think what they try to do with Dobbs, and I think Dobbs probably had a great rookie camp, too, by the way. I think you have to get him ready to go because I think the end of Ben is really near. I think last year when he talked about it, it was sincere. And I would be surprised if he has one more injury where he's going to miss four or five games like he did last year,

I know he missed a couple. I think that's probably going to. he's going to say, hey, look, I want to play with my kids. I don't feel like getting hurt. And I will say, if that does open up, if Ben has a year where he has an injury and has to go out, I mean, there are some veteran quarterbacks that are quite an opportunity in Pittsburgh when you have guys like Antonio Brown, Levyon-Bel and all that talent there. I mean, there's the perfect place for Kaepernick, really. I mean, really, there's a perfect place for him because it's kind of, they play their best when it's really like a loose play or a fast break offense. Yep. And that's when Kaepernick's really at his best.

All right. Lombardi, one last thing. The 76ers tonight. Who do you want? Who do you want? I want Fox from Kentucky. All right. De Aaron Fox. The Aaron Fox. That's who I really want. And if I don't, I want Josh Jackson or De Aaron Fox. Those are my two. I worry about Monk because, like, I thought your guy from North Carolina really hurt Monk with his length.

I know Monk hit that great shot at the end, but I worry about a big guy against Monk. I know he's got the huge wingspan and all that. But to me, I like Fox and I like Jackson. Those are my two guys. I just send the lottery right now on Tingathon.com. Josh Jackson, number three pick to the 76ers. I'll take it. We're calling it now.

I'll take that. I'll go to the bank with that. It's so much better. than Al Henry. It's so much better than Sean Bradley. It's so much better than Roy Henson. Thank you. Yes, of course. Well, this has been another edition of GM Street. Thank you, Lombardi. You're welcome. And we'll be back next week to talk a little bit more about the NFL.