The Ringer NFL Show - 'GM Street’ — Where Do We Go From Here? (Ep. 163)

Episode Date: October 18, 2017

The Ringer's Michael Lombardi and Tate Frazier sit down to discuss whether Brett Hundley can solve the quarterback conundrum in Green Bay (03:00), Dirk Koetter in the hot seat (15:00), James Washington's draft stock (25:00), and a questionable move by the Raiders (29:45). Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hey, it's Bill Simmons. I want to tell you about the ringers gambling podcast. It is called Against All Odds with Cousin' Sal, and you're not going to believe of this, but it's hosted by Cousin Sal. The biggest degenerate gambler that I know. He's such a degenerate. He has three other degenerates that he calls the degenerate trifecta. And they break down every conceivable gambling thing you would ever want to gamble on. They even take it to Captain Morgan's Make Believe Casino, where Sal makes up props on all kinds of things, sports, pop culture, you name it. you are going to want to get your gamma advice from these guys.

Cousin Sal, he's been a staple on the BS podcast for the last 10 years. So good that we gave him his own podcast. Check it out against all odds with Cousin Sal. Subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. Welcome to GM Free Part of the Winger Podcast Network. I'm Tate Frazier. And at the start of the NBA season sitting across from me, we're not on TV today. We're not on video.

We're sitting in the nice pod studio. But Mr. Michael Lombardi, Lombardi, how you doing? I am great. Can you just tell me your favorite thing? Your favorite player that you're looking forward to on the Sixers this year? Please don't say Joel NB. I'm tired of hearing that. I'll tell you two Sixers stories, okay?

This is the story of my life with the 76ers. So when I was, I don't know, maybe 10 or 11, I loved the 76ers. I loved Toot. So one day I was outside playing, it was cold. Like we were playing football in the triangle, because in the town I grew up in there was a lot of grass. Everything was kind of covered. So me and my buddies were playing football.

I'm going home. I want to watch the Sixers. They were playing an afternoon game. And I'm sitting there. and I'm watching, and Al Skinner and Eric Money are playing for the 70s. This is when it was. Al Skinner, great boss and college coach for people that don't know. The coach, right, okay.

He was playing. And Eric Money put up like two fingers. He was the point guard at the time. He put up two fingers. And they ran a baseline screen for Al Skinner to shoot a left-handed jumper from the corner. And I thought to myself, I got to be the biggest idiot at the world. I just came home for my friends to watch Al Skinner shoot a jumper. Like, I got to get off this team.

But I can't get off the team. At 12, I knew I needed rehab. I still need rehab. My favorite six, I hope Ben Simmons is good. I'm worried about Fultz. I'm worried about Okafer. I hope we can trade him for something. But I can't go away.

It's just obsession. I don't understand it. Like I don't get it. Like I hate them, but I love him. My favorite Sixers story is that the kangaroo kid, Billy Cunningham, when he was the head coach, Michael Jordan's coming out in the draft, the 1984 draft. And Billy Cunningham told Michael Jordan. He was like, you're not going to go past three.

Because at the time, they were going to be the third pick in the draft. And it used to be just based on records. There's no lottery. There's no balls, no nothing. So Michael Jordan had convinced himself who's going to go to the Philadelphia of 76ers because the first two guys, you know, Elijah on's up there.

There'd been some rumors that the Trailblazers were going to take Bowie number two. And so basically it was all set up for Michael Jordan to go. The Sixers, they actually win some games late in the year, just typical Philadelphia. They're doing this to themselves. They drop back to the fifth pick. The Bulls get the third pick. They draft Michael Jordan.

And of course, the rest of history. We got Barkley, which I'm not going to complain. Yeah, I know. All right. Let's talk football tape. It's been tough. We're going to talk about football, and of course we're going to start with our Bill Walsh quote. If we're all thinking like, no one is thinking.

And a lot of people are thinking the Green Bay Packers should sign Colin Kaepernick or another quarterback out in the wild. But Mike McCarthy is not a fan of that idea. And he said that they have Brett Hundley, who he's put three years into and Joe Callahan, who he's put two years into. And his quarterback room is solid. Aaron Rogers is obviously not going to be there going to get surgery for his collarbone. But a lot of people are thinking that they should go after a big name guy. But you're saying maybe not. I think this is really the time where we find out one of my pet peeves with the clapper, Jason Garrett, and one of my pet peeves, a lot of coaches is when they lose the player, they don't change who they are.

Okay, like, we know this for a fact. I can tell you this as sure as the sun's going to shine in Los Angeles. The Packers will not be very effective with Brett Hunley running the Aaron Rogers' offense. It's just not going to happen. I mean, just let's put things in perspective. I mean, they've already allowed 23 sacks. They're 30th in the league in sacks allowed. They're 24th in the league with Aaron Rogers when the Blitz attacks them.

That's with Aaron Rogers, okay? And they're also like one of the worst run teams in the league. They only run the ball 34% of the time with Aaron Rogers. So for Mike, and I get with Mike saying, Mike did exactly what we talked about on Sunday. We said he was going to come in and say, I love my guys, right? We said that on Sunday. But he's got to change what he does offensively. He can't keep the same team without the great player.

Can he flip the script, though? So we're saying he's going to run the ball 34% of the time. Let's say we have Brett Hunley. That's what he was doing. 34% of the time he was run, 66% of the time he was passed with Aaron Rogers. He can't keep those numbers the same. Something bad is going to happen in that 66% with Brett Hunley. My question to you, though, if you're the Green Bay Packers, everyone wants them to bring in a guy.

Everyone's saying, well, you should go after a Tony Romo or you should make a Garoppolo push or whatever it is. Make a big trade, make a big splash to replace Rogers. but the thing is Aaron Rogers is your quarterback, so you don't have to do that. He's going to come back at some point, whether it's late in the playoffs or even next season. So why can't they just – I mean, this may not sound good at Packers fans. Why can't they just sit back, get a high draft pick, get someone to help that team and build that team? You mean like the Cowboys did when Tony Romo got hurt, and that's why they have Zeke Elliott. But look, Packers have some flaws defensively, too.

I mean, they're ranking defensively. They're not a great defensive team. They can play the run when they're in their base defense. they have a hard time playing against nickel runs. I get what you're saying. Like, I don't think, first of all, Romo's too smart. Like, he watched the Packers' offensive line block.

Like, he's got a bad back. He goes back. He'll have a really bad back if he goes to Green Bay. He's not going to get slammed to the ground in Lambo field. I mean, that's just not getting a set up for that. And Colin Kaepernick doesn't make any sense for him because Colin Kaepernick doesn't fit really what they do. Colin Kaepernick, if he fit any offense,

he would have fit the Kyle Shanahan fake, you know, outside zone, stretch, boot, all that kind of stuff, throw it down the field. But for me, you know, I think Mike has to change what he does. I think it starts with. There's a really good book. It's called Perfect Practice. It's about these three college professors talk about really what makes practice. So what you have to do to be really effective. It's a really good read. And one of the areas they talk about is how to set up practice so that you are doing the things that eventually going to be, you're going to have to do, whether it's a doctor operating on a patient and have to sew, you know, a cadaver. You know, it's really hard with tubes and everything to suture a wound.

Like, this is the problem I have with the NFL. And this is why I'm probably overly critical on coaches because I've watched Belichick do this for so long is Mike has to come up with a way to practice and put his team in position that's going to be completely different than what he did with Aaron Rogers. Like, he's not going to be the same team. He's not going to be able to get bailed out by Rogers scrambling to his left against the Cowboys and running for a first down. That's not what Brett Hunley is going to do. So to me, it now becomes on McCarthy to change the way his team plays. It's hard.

Now, you know, you're a basketball guy. This is why I love basketball so much because basketball coaches constantly talk about how to play the game. They talk about the style of the way the game has to go. They talk about what they have to do to be effective. And this is what we miss in pro football today. We don't have that. We don't have somebody who says, like Mike McCarthy is saying, well, I've got, we're going to run my offense.

No, no, your offense is not going to work without Air Rogers. You're going to have to change what you do. And this is what I'm always fascinated about seeing. And the coaches that can do that, to me, are the great coaches. And a lot of it's going to come down to tempo. And that's usually what it does come down to when it comes to a quarterback like Rogers, who can get that offense in motion. I mean, Hunley's not going to be that guy.

Right. So it's going to be on Montgomery and Jones and that backfield to really dictate the tempo in the way that they're going to play football. And he may have to change what he does. He may have to put an offensive tackle at tight end, get a bigger guy at the end of the line. He's going to have to change the way he plays to help Huntley. Hunley's not going to be able to run.

I mean, we've seen this into Houston Texans with Bill O'Brien. He has tried in all his power to make the Houston Texans into the Patriots offensively. It hasn't worked. He's even brought Brian Hoyer down there, Ryan Mout, even expatriate quarterbacks can't do what Brady does. It's the same thing with Garoppolo took over for Brady. People don't understand. They ran a lot of different things that Garapolo does well.

So what McCarthy has to do this week is take down. He's got three years in. This is why he doesn't want to make a change. He's got three years in to Hunley. He's got to put down what Hunley can really do effectively. He's got to make sure Hunley does those and build an offense around those. And hopefully in week two, it grows further. In week three, it gets bigger and bigger.

But if he can't take that big play sheet and think he's going to be able to run with Hunley as the same thing Roger State. And I will defend Brett Huntley a little bit. I think a lot of people are starting to throw him around as if he's a nobody. I mean, when the guy was at UCLA, he was a part of the Jim Moore resurgence to bring him back into relevance. So he's not just like random guy. I mean, they were they vested in him and thought that he was a quality backup.

And he had a good preseason. He played well in the preseason with what they do. Now, the game's moving slower. But for me, this is now going to be the Brett Hunley offense. This is what we have to do. And there's a lot at stake here because if you're the Packers and you get Hunley to the point where he looks really good, just a little bit like sometimes when Jacoby Brissette looks really good, you think, oh, man, the Colts could trade Berset for a lot.

Or how about Matt Flynn when he came in and threw those five touchdowns and they were able to trade him away? Exactly right. So you can get a lot for him. And I think this is really where you have to be able to be smart and prudent and do what he can do well. It's the old Scotty Williams theory. Do you remember Scotty Williams?

I do, yeah. Okay, this is another basketball theory of mine. All right. Scotty Williams, you know, plays for the Bulls. He plays 20 minutes for the Bulls, right? And he looks great, right? So naturally, what do my 76ers do? We need him.

We need him. We got to bring him in. Oh, we're going to sign him. We're going to pay him as much as we could possibly play him. But when he plays 38 minutes, he sucks. Okay? All right? He plays 20.

He's good. So what the Packers have to do is avoid the Scotty Williams problem is they got to play Hunley in that condensed version of a game 20 minutes and don't expose him for what he really is. They did it with Matt Flynn. You know, they did it with Mark Brunel when Homegram was there. He went down to Jackson. They got to, you know, that's what they need to do. I'm going to call that the Festus Azili.

That's for the modern people. What he did with the Warriors? He comes in. Everyone thinks he's going to be great. He goes to the Trailblazers. He just falls flat on his face. How many minutes did he play, though, at the Warriors? He played like 8 to 10?

Yeah. Like, you know, at most it would be 18, 19. Yeah, I mean, we signed Scotty Williams. Oh, you know, yeah, it was 8 and 6 with 20 minutes, so we're going to get 14 and 12. No, no. We got three and eight. We got three and two is what we got. You know, you can't magnet.

It's just so bad. I'm sorry, Scotty. He's the North Carolina guy, too. Yeah, he is. I know. That's why I hurt my heart. I'm sorry. I'm sorry, tape Frazier.

I apologize. If we're all thinking of like, no one is thinking, a lot of people are thinking the Atlanta Falcons or the Super Bowl team that we saw last year, but you're saying the Atlanta Falcons are not quite the same team. And I've been saying it all year, and I think the proofs in the pudding, I think when you just look at the numbers, like, for example, on first down, last year, the entire season, 19 games, Matt Ryan on first down through four interceptions the whole year. He already has three this year.

Well, you could say, well, Matt Ryan's not playing as well? No, I think Matt Ryan misses Kyle Shadahan tremendously. I think Matt Ryan is still a good player. I think Matt Ryan is not as effective because the formations aren't the same. They're attacking the defense is not the same way. That's Sarkesian, who's a good coach, and I'm not being overly critical of Sarkisian here, but the reality of it is is they can't operate the same way without them. And I think this is why Atlanta is struggling tremendously.

And let's talk about a guy that a lot of people thought would maybe be on the MVP radar after last year and how he played in the Super Bowl, and that's Julio Jones. And Dan Quinn even came out and said he was not happy with the lack of touches that he's getting right now. And Jones has 25 catches, 267 yards on the season, only 38 targets. And Dan Quinn wants more explosive plays from that offense. I mean, what do they do to – I mean, obviously you don't have Kyle Shanahan to draw and diagram all these plays. But that's pretty much the difference. It's just that they're not getting the explosive plays this season.

Yeah, they are. And this whole notion we've got to get a guy more involved. You know, to me, football is like chess, right? And this is one of my pet peeves in football. It tries to be crazy. Well, I go into the game and I have my call sheet and I want to try to get all five guys involved, right? Let me ask you something. Do you think Bobby Fisher, when he went, sat down in front of the chess board, he thought, you know, I got to get my pawn involved early.

I want to get my night going going. I got to make sure. He definitely didn't announce it to everyone. Well, but he also didn't do it. Like, it's a strategic thing, right? Like, oh, I got to get my night go. I'm going to get my bishop involved early. Make him happy.

See if you can get him going. No, no, no, no. You have to be able to, if they're going to take away who. They can take him away. That's what defenses do. You've got to do something else. I mean, look, when you look at Matt Ryan, he's down to almost 7.8 yards per attempt on first down.

Last year, he was over 10 yards. Like, you have to look at the problem and strategically solve the problem. Again, it goes back to perfect practice, right? The book. Like, figure out what teams are doing to you, why they're trying to take away Julio Jones and then come up with an answer on what you have to do. You just can't say, well, I'm going to get my night involved because, you know, We got to get this night going.

If we don't get the night going, we're in problems. When you look at that Falcons team, I mean, even starting with week one in that Bears game, it just didn't quite look right. And we've been sort of waiting for it to flounder down. And now we've got a loss to the bills at home. And obviously, it lost the dolphins at home. I mean, what does Quinn say to a locker room at that point? I mean, you have to address it at some level just to say, hey, guys, look, we're not where we want to be.

We're not where we were last year, obviously. We've got to flip the script and we've got to get these things in motion. I mean, even Julio Jones came out and said he's got to get himself going and try I think the best thing I got going for is they see that New England defense coming at him and they know they can attack them and he's going to be. But I think again, it comes back to how you set up the scheme. I mean, when you just look at the numbers, I mean, the numbers are staggering in terms of, you know, when you just look at second down or third down with Matt Ryan, I mean, his numbers last year he was 9, 4, 3 yards per attempt. This year he's down to he's down to 7, 9 8. They're still really good. That's still really good. But I think what we're seeing is it's really more of a return to what he was return to the mean. Return to the mean. Thank you. See, that's that North Carolina education.

I went to Hofstra. We didn't have the return to the mean when I was going there. And I also think, too, that when you look at the numbers this year compared to last year, you see Kyle Shanahan was a better adjustment coach than Steve Sarkees. I mean, last year, they averaged about eight yards per attempt in the first half. In the second half, they were over 10 yards. So what that's telling you, again, using the chess analogy, it's a really good adjustment. but when you're so worried about getting the pawn involved to make him happy,

you're not adjusting, you're trying to make people happy. That's a bad thing. Speaking of not making people happy, not for nothing, we are insulting of you a little bit this week. You insulted him a little out of order yourself. I didn't insult them. I didn't insult them a little bit. All right, Tay Frazier, not for nothing, but I'm going to have to talk to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, because, I mean, we got to insult them just a little bit because they are really.

I mean, two weeks in a row now, they go out, and they just have not. looked. They've got that hangover. I mean, they clearly do. And offensively, they look bad. They've got the Ryan Fitzpatrick thing going on there with a beard. And he's now the quarterback. They don't know if James Winston's going to throw. They can't get any pressure on the quarterback. They can't stop the run. They can't control the game. I mean, I think this team is exactly why young teams struggle when they have success. And when you have, so they obviously went all in. A lot of people watch Hard Knocks. We made fun of it being a Hard Knocks hard on with this team. Because when you just look at the individual talent that's on the team, when you look

at a Mike Evans, when you look at a Deshawn Jackson, when you look at a James Winston, and you put all those pieces together or Brink Grimes and Gerald McCoy, all these guys are individually talented. It just hasn't all come together. I mean, at some point, do you look at Dirk cutter and you say, how do we get these pieces to fit right? Or is it just, institutionally, just things aren't coming together this season for these guys. I think people are going to start looking at Dirk. I think Dirk's on the hot seat. I really do. I think Dirk is on the hot seat. There's a lot of trembling going on around the league that, you know, they are, you know,

the one thing that gets you fired in the NFL is potential. And they are a potential team. I mean, everybody sees them as they have a blue chip player at quarterback. They've got all this skill players. They're really good on defense. But I think the lesson here, more than anything, is you can't just duplicate last year's team. All right. Last year, they were one of the best teams on third down.

They got off the field on third down their defense. So they say themselves, well, we'll just keep doing what we were doing last year. No, people studied them. I mean, that's what the off-season's about. People study their defense. They found out they were able, what they were doing, and then they modified how they attacked it. And so they kind of rested on the laurels. And I don't see a team with the same appetite.

You know, first of all, when you pay for a lot of your star players, you know, you bring in Deshaun and you pay them and you have that, there's a sense of contentment going on. And if you don't have that drive in the locker room, if you don't have people pushing them, this is where I think sometimes having a defensive head coach really makes you a better team. because offensive coaches tend to be a little bit more, I don't want to say passive, but a little bit more we're going to get it worked out. Where defensive coaches, in my experience, are always like, we just got to keep hammering them. And I think they've lost their edge in terms of mental toughness.

I really do. I think this is really a problem for them. This week, you know, oh, they go up to Buffalo. I think this will be a true. I mean, Buffalo is a really good team, off a bye. Ryan Fitzpatrick Revenge game up in Buffalo. It goes up there. I bet you all the Buffalo players are hoping he plays.

He is playing. I think it's pretty much... Well, they said Winston wasn't going to start throwing the later in the week. But look, if he plays, I mean, you know he's one hit away from getting, you know, out of the game. And then they won't have a quarterback. And then they won't... So if Fitzpatrick gets at Ryan Griffin, their third string quarterback is hurt. Well, they're not to carry three in the game.

If Winston doesn't play... See, that's another problem is if you don't think Winston can make it through the game. If you think he's if he's if he's if he shouldn't play them. You should deactivate them and just go with two healthy quarterbacks. because now you're carrying it, because you're going to have to, if you go with Winston, you're going to have to carry three anyway. So it's either, to me, it's either the question isn't, can he play? The question is can he play, play well, and can he function?

That's that false duality. It isn't can he play or not. It's can he play and make it through the seat game. I think this is a tough spot. I just think to me, it's hard to turn it on. It's like when the substitute teacher takes over a classroom, you know, if she starts off the class kind of lacks, she can never get it back or he can never get it back, right? Yeah, everyone, people just start talking louder and louder.

Exactly. It's the same thing with coaches. If you don't, like, absolutely come in there and dictate and demand and be, like, Dirk Cotter should have been the biggest asshole known to mankind starting a season. Because the team thinks... Instead he was on camera and he was trying to make sure he looked good. And everybody happy. You know what happens when everybody happy?

No one's happy. Yep. You know, and he works for a company. I mean, the glazers have fired Greg Ciano after two years. They fired John Gruden, who took him to a Super Bowl. I mean, they're not going to be happy with this. And one thing you know about the coaching in the NFL, because the offset contracts and the coach's contracts, it's easy to fire a coach because he'll get paid. And so instead of paying him $4 million a year, you may have to pay him $3 million, but he's going to make something from some other team.

Yeah. And Mike Smith, their defensive coordinator, obviously, was with the Falcons and brought them back after the whole Mike, you know, Mike Vick situation. And he's dealt with some things as far as being a head coach or he could easily step in and be an interim. Yeah, I mean, that's right. And so I think a lot of this problem, this team has to kind of have a. sense of, like, to me, there's too much inconsistencies within their team, and if they don't change it, we're going to keep insulting them, Tate. Yep.

Next up, who you got? Who we insult them this time? You know, not for nothing, but we're going to have to do Joe Flackle again because John Harbaugh once again is out there. Now he's defending Marty Morning. Like, at some point, I hope at some point, John Harbaugh stands in front of his team and looks at Joe Flackle and says, Joe, you're killing me. You're killing me, Whitey.

You know, like this is, you're killing me with this. Like at some point, Joe, you're the reason why we're all going to lose our jobs here. And until he does that, he's not going to lose, he's going to lose the respect of the players. Like, okay, this book I'm writing about one of the chapters I'm writing about is about head coaches and about what it takes to be a great head coach. And there's four areas of leadership that goes into being a head coach. And one of them is called management of self. Being in the players believe you're, believe you're manage yourself.

you'll be honest with yourself. The other one is called management of trust, means the players trust you to be consistent. They don't really care. If you're an asshole, as long as you're an asshole all the time, like what was that cool? That's who you are.

That's who you are. Like, you know, what did Everson Griffin say about, he said it about Mike Zimmer? You know, it takes a while to get to know him, but he is a likable guy once you get to know. That's his way of saying he's an asshole, but he's a consistent asshole, right? Okay.

Well, that's the problem in Baltimore. John's making excuses for everybody. He's fired all these coordinators. And at some point, John's got to stand in front of the team and say, Joe Flacco, it ain't good enough. Like, it ain't good enough. Yeah. Or else, he loses credibility with his team.

4.4 yards per attempt and that loss to the Bears in overtime this weekend. Well, first of all, take Frasier. Two picks. He's got a quarterback, your boy, Mitchell Tribeschi, who's running eight plays, okay, at the most. Okay, okay, he's running about eight plays. No dropback passes whatsoever because he's not, he's not going to, they might call. Yeah, they're basically just rolling him out. They're rolling him out.

He's going to threaten the edge and they're going to run the ball. Like, okay, if there's ever a game that you can't lose at home, this is the game. Like, this is a dramatic loss for Baltimore. Like, they can't lose this game. And this was a team, the Ravens that we talked to at the beginning of the season. I think it may have even been when we did the GM Street Pod with Bill and them, how great the Ravens are at home. Right. They're dominated home usually.

They usually do. But since the Super Bowl, they've just been, I think they're like 20 and 14 or something. Well, they haven't played well since the Super Bowl. Flacco's played the absolute. I mean, nobody realized. I said this to somebody, do you realize Flackos won 15 interceptions on first down

in the last time? Like, do you realize how bad he is on first down? Like the first play of the Oakland game, people, he throws a deep pass, they catch it, everything's great. Like, this is one of the worst teams in the league and throws down the field.

And yet they pay Mike Wallace a huge amount of money. They draft Brett Perryman in the first round. We don't have to call John Walsh to find out where he is in America's Most Wanted. I mean, you know, like it's ridiculous. You can't find players. And then they sign Macklin, to help them. They've done everything in their power to help this quarterback. And at some point,

you have to stop and say, wait a minute, maybe it ain't just everybody else. Maybe it's him. And that's why we have to keep insulting Joe Flacco until they have true serum. Well, a guy that could have come up with true serum was probably Da Vinci. And that brings us to our sponsor, Da Vinci. Just like on GM Street in today's digital business world, the face-to-face meeting still matters. But you can skip the noisy coffee shops at expensive hotel conference rooms and simply book a Da Vinci meeting room. Da Vinci provides you instant access to over 5,000 incredibly affordable meeting rooms

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All right, Lombardi. We do this segment every week. It's basically us looking at the conference. college game and trying to figure out guys that will translate to the NFL. We're going to call it lottery watch. First up today, we've got to talk about wide receiver. There's definitely something in the water and still water. And yes, that is a joke.

James Washington, Oklahoma State. I mean, another wide receiver from OK State that looks like he's a legitimate. Oh, he's legitimate. I mean, he's legitimate. He's got strong hands. He catches the ball. I don't know how you don't double team on every single play. I mean, he's making Mason Rudolph look like he's a legitimate NFL prospect.

I'm not sure he is. He holds the ball too long. Yeah, it's a Brandon-Weeden treatment. Exactly. I saw Brandon Whedon last night on the sideline. He was at the Tennessee game. I thought you were going to say to real life. I was like, that's Brandon Wheaton. I was like, that's Brandon Whedon. He still has a job in the NFL. How old is Brandon Wheaton? About 87. Yeah, he's collecting Social Security and a paycheck at the same time. The AARP quarterback. Exactly. But look, the other thing I want to urge listeners to is all these, who's in the top 25 of the college draft now, just throw it away. Don't listen to it now. I remember reading one. T. T.J. Cummings, the left tackle at a pit was in the top 10 one year. Like, to me, it's the worst thing you can do because it forces you to think the guy's good when he's perhaps not very good.

You know, like, oh, you know, this guy's the best quarter. Josh Rosen's the best quarterback in the draft or this guy. The one thing I can tell you about this draft and what I've seen just working on a little bit, it doesn't look like it's a lot of depth to the draft. It doesn't look like there's a lot of, like because of all the underclassmen coming out, I don't think there's a great draft. And I can tell you this, I don't know if there's going to be as many good quarterbacks in this draft as there was in last year's draft. And remember, everybody said, oh, next year's draft, you got Josh Allen, you got Sam Donald, you got Josh Rosen, you got Lamar Jackson, you got all these quarterbacks.

Most of them are probably going to stay in because they're not having great seasons. Rosen will come out for sure. But I would temperate. But my man, James Washington, you can just, as Belichick would often say, just put them on the pro board, okay? Just put them on the pro board. The only guy in the draft that I really would want if I was a team is Derwin James from Florida State. And he's the underclassman. He's a great safety.

hits hard. I think he's just a smart football player he has feel. Yeah. No, those are great. But who knows how valuable that position is? Well, that's my point. Like, I don't know if you could over, like we drafted Eric Turner, the second pick overall in the draft in Cleveland, Belichick's first draft in 91. Wasn't a great draft. Russell Maryland was the first pick of the draft. It wasn't a great draft at all. And Eric Turner played at a time where you could actually hit somebody coming across the middle. And this is a big physical man who could run, had great range. God rest of his soul. But I don't know how impactful those safeties can be.

they can cover. Like, I think Malik Hooker was a good player last year, but I think the kid of Florida States are really good player. It's going to be interesting to see how those safety positions translate because they don't play it. You can't play them. If they hit anybody coming across the middle, it's bad. But Washington, the receiver, I don't care what offense he plays. And he looks like a little running back. He looks like a running back. Yeah, he's like six feet tall. I know, but he's strong of itself. And he's quick as hell. And he gets behind everybody. And he he reminds me of Steve Smith. He really does. And that's a good call there. That's a really good call. When I watch him, that's what he looks like.

But you can put him on the pro board. Yep, absolutely. And now we're going to move to word on the street. Rumblings and rumors all around the NFL. There's not a lot really going on as I look around the NFL landscape. I mean, obviously, there's a lot going on. Well, Teddy Bridgewater is coming back. Do you think that's a big thing, Teddy Bridger?

I mean, should Vikings fans be excited about that? No, they shouldn't. I think Teddy Bridgewater, first of all, Teddy Bridgewater's coming off. Teddy's coming off a really a hard, a tough injury. It was one of, if they were in the dome, and I will say this forever, if they were playing in that dome, if it wasn't getting fix that season and he wasn't outside in the frozen tundra. I don't think that injury is

near as, I mean, it just, it was terrible. It was terrible to watch. I just think you have to be really careful with this because mentally, it's one thing for the doctor to clear them, it's nothing to mentally to feel good. And then, you know, I mean, Sam Bradford's injury and Jay Glazer's reported this and Glazer's really wired in Minnesota, so he would know

they're saying that the Bradford injury is much more severe than what being led on to believe, which I find fascinating because if it was bad, You think he would go back to Dr. Andrews because he's the only one who could operate on anybody. You know that, don't she? He's only, he's only surgeon in the world. He's the only one in the world who could operate. I love that.

Got to go see Dr. Andrews. Meanwhile, you never see Dr. Andrews. He's never there, you know. He's on call somewhere else. I will say this about the whole Bradford not putting it out there. Sometimes it can be psychological advantage to your team and also to other teams to think that there's some ghost of some greater thing coming back, some great player. Like, even if Roders, we knew his collarbone was broken.

It goes back to the old school. I'm not releasing my injury report to you. If you think he could come back in week 12, maybe your team plays with some sort of extra accelerated. Right, right. You know, because they think that they're going to have this big moment where our guy comes back.

So that could be a thing with Bradford. But the end of the day, it's still Sam Bradford. I mean, he can't. Case Keatom's doing a good enough job at this point. Case Keatim's playing really good. Case kid, for me, Teddy Bridgewater coming back. I don't know if that's really feasible with the speed of the game.

I think you integrate him into the offense. You let him throw. but he's going to have a mental hurdle that he's going to have to overcome that's going to take some time. Plus, remember, when Bridgewater was, he wasn't throwing the ball down the field. I mean, Bridgetwooder was checking it down.

The average per attempt was really low. The other news, I think, is the Navarra. The fascinating thing is the Raider's sign of Navarra Bowman. Like, to me, like, that just, that's a desperation move by them. Because Bowman isn't the same player he ever was. And what the last thing the Raiders need is a slow linebacker.

Like, that's the last thing they need. They need, like, that's, And then the other thing that they don't need is somebody who doesn't know what they're doing. Okay? Bruce Irvin's doing enough of that for anyone. Right. They have enough guys who don't know what they're doing, right? It's like the Indianapolis Colts.

They got enough guys that have no idea. Did you see that last night? Did you watch the game? Yeah, of course. Like, it drove me crazy. Like, what's Pagano doing calling timeout on a challenge that he was never going to win in a million years? Do you think that was one of those things where you were just trying to pander to the fans at some point? Well, do you think Bobby Fisher panders to the fans in a chest back?

Oh, move your pawn to Queen 3. Okay? No, of course not. You're focused in the game, right? Like, this is what happens. Oh, no. You got, you know, like, if I throw this flag here, again, false duality, it's not A or B. If I throw this flag here, I lose the opportunity to get the ball back because with three timeouts, they can't, I get the ball back. Exactly. Guarantee to get the ball back. I'm going to guarantee, if I stop him, I'm guaranteed to get the ball back. And you're right there. It's on your sideline. You saw it. And Brissette would have argued for himself, I feel like. I mean, he got right back up and knew he would. He knew he had no. Way short. I mean, you know, I mean, in Canada, maybe you make the challenge because the Canadian feels a little wider. But in the NFL, like, no.

But anyway, but Bowman, like, I don't know how we got off that subject, but the Colts blow me away. I mean, the Colts have to be, like, at some point, the defense coordinator has to say, look, we have to just play two coverages because we can't learn all the adjustments. They give up free access touchments. Like I tweeted out, this is a, the Titans are just a field goal kick at offense. Yeah, they are. unless you blow a coverage,

unless you blow a coverage like they did. You know, and then all of a sudden people are like, well, they're not anymore. Yeah, well, that's because Monikino's blowing coverages left.

It's like his job. They've given up more plays over 20 yards than any team in the league. So my point is, is you can't, you know, like the Raiders don't need another guy that doesn't know what to do. They got enough of those guys.

Stop trying to mask your problems with more problems. Yeah, like, I mean, they're really lucky that Al wasn't there because, like, I would have, like,

there's no way I would have signed Navarra Bowman. There's not in the middle of the season. Do you know why? I do know why. He's not fast enough. A, he's not fast enough, but B, you know, and I'll tell you this, the Al's story the other day, is like he would repeatedly tell me all the time, you got to treat those guys like high school coaches. And I would say, what do you mean by that, Mr. Davis? He said, you've got to make them think they can't get somebody else to replace the players they have. Good point, right? Because if you're a coach and you know, and you're a high school coach, when you go out to practice, right, that's all we have.

This is your team. This is our team. We got to make this team. Unless someone transfers over in midseason, like Ronnie Sunshine, Baker, and Remember the Titan, that's all you got. So you're going to figure out a solution. Again, it goes back to this whole pretense of practice perfect, right? We're going to figure out a solution to how to make this team better, right?

But when you allow the coaches to be general managers, don't let them be GMs, right? And they want to sign Navarobo because it'll make them better. It's not going to make you any better. You know, it's not going to me. He's not going to know what to do for at least five weeks. and we got nine other guys that don't know what to do. It's like, what's he going to do? It's like if you treat him like high school coaches

and make them work, find a solution within the problem, you've got a better chance. Yeah, that's, well, it's nice for Navarra Bowman. He doesn't have to go very far. He made $3 million. Plus, here's the beautiful thing about Navarro Bowman. I mean, it's brilliant. He took his termination pay from the 49ers.

Okay? So he took that chunk of money, all the money that they owed him, right? And the Raiders gave him $3 million. Like, he's doing well. When I went back to the Raiders, all I could think about was how lucky those people are. They walk around the building. It's so great. Everything's wonderful.

If the man were back, they paid no, they paid nothing to be where they are. Like, we all have skins, like all of us that have been fired from there and been gone. I mean, I'm not jealous of those people that are winning there, but they have no idea what some of the people that went through to basically give them what they have. I think Tom Cable would probably be a little pissed off if you asked him about it. He should be. He should be. Tom Cable's a good coach. He should be. Great coach. Yeah, great eight and eight season. I remember that. Yeah, I mean, it worked all. They really did.

But, like, look, the other thing is, what I was in Cleveland, we had Joe Mars. Do you remember Joe, who Joe Morris was? No. He was a running back out of Syracuse. It was drafted in the... Oh, congrats to Syracuse, we should say, great win over Clemson. Great win over Clemson. I never saw that one coming. Yeah, that was fun. I don't know if Cousand Sal saw that one coming, but I never saw that. Mac Brown saw a lot of five stars. Did you see that? Did you see that? Did you listen to my man the other night? He wasn't doing great. Yeah, he wouldn't having fun.

Oh, Mac was struggling to find his five stars out there. He was struggling. He was struggling to tell me what was happening on the field, too. Well, do they just, he went in front. Oh, man, when they put Mac in a booth, I mean, they're not doing Mac any favors, putting him in a booth. Anyway, long story short. So Joe Mars was the second, Butch Wolofoke was the first pick in the draft for the Giants. They needed a running back.

So the Giants typically would always draft doubled the position because here's what happens. When you need a position, you grade higher for the position you need. Okay. So, you know, and then when it comes time in the second round after you drafted a running back, oh, our highest rated guy on the board's a runner back, we better take him. No, no, he's really not the highest rated guy on the board. You just overgraded the position. Nonetheless, the Giants drafted Morris in the second round.

He ended up being better than the first round back. He played really well. We signed him in Cleveland at the end of his career. He looked brilliant in August. I mean, he looked like, I remember saying to Belichick, man, this guy's really going to help us this year. By November, we were going to have to wheel him out to practice. He had nothing left in him. So the lesson learned there is if you sign a veteran, like he might look good in August,

but he's going to look like crap in November and December. You better be prepared for that, especially one that's declining rapidly. Bowman might, doesn't look good now in October. What do you think he's going to look like in December when they really need him? Probably not great. Not good. Probably not good. This has been another edition of GM Street on the Ringer podcast.

I'm done running. It's been a lot of fun. I mean, I've enjoyed this whole day of Ranting. I was going to say the only guy I could think of that seems to get better with age, James Harrison. Yeah, no, he does. I don't know how. That deer antler spray must be really working at this point, but it's been fun. Well done. And Brady, too.

And Brady, yeah. All right, everyone. We'll be back for the Saturday sit-down. Saturday sit-down. Yeah, pay attention to it. Now, last week we were on fire. We had a good one. Four for five, and if riders didn't go down, you might have been five for fun.

Yeah, you never know. It might have been. Yep, it'll be fun. Thanks for listening, and we'll be back then.