The Ringer NFL Show - Gruden's Raiders, QB Free Agents, and When Will Le'Veon Bell Return to Pittsburgh? | GM Street (Ep. 293)

Episode Date: September 4, 2018

The Ringer's Michael Lombardi and Tate Frazier sit down to discuss Oakland sending Khalil Mack to the Bears (02:00), the Steelers' running back situation (17:30), depth at the quarterback position around the league (23:15), and Philip Rivers and Antonio Gates running it back one more time in Los Angeles (37:00). Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Today's episode of GM Street is brought to you by Snickers. Just lost to that guy who auto-drafted screaming at the TV again because someone who can't hear you dropped an open pass just dropped your RB1 for a kicker. Thought your fantasy draft was a good first date idea? You were probably just blindsided by hunger. Luckily, Snickers is here to pick up your sorry butt off the turf and get you back in the game

and get back on your game with NFL hunger bars from Snickers. And we'd also like to tell you about NFL Sunday ticket from DirecTV. Good news NFL fans, Direct TV has experienced. band at the service. If you live in an area where DirecTV service is not available or you're a student actively enrolled in a college or university, you can now get NFL Sunday ticket without a satellite. Plus, there's an exclusive student discount. To see if you were eligible, go online to nfl sundayticket. TV and stream every NFL Sunday ticket game this season to follow your favorite team no matter where you live. Use promo code Ringer at checkout to save 15%. Packages are also available for football

fans living in areas where DirecTV service is not available. Again, the promo code is Ringer, I N-G-E-R to save 15% on DirecTV. All right, let's get into GM Street. Welcome to GM Street, part of the Linger Podcast Network. It is Tuesday. It is September 4th, and I am sitting across the great. Mr. Michael Lombardi, Lombardi, how you doing? I'm great, Tate Fraser.

First week of the NFL season, got to be exciting. A lot of things going on around the NFL. I mean, September is truly the best month of the year. It's like Christmas. Yes. But it's better than Christmas. Yes. Earthwind and fire would be very happy about the fact that we are now officially in September.

There's a lot of stuff going on. I feel like we've been previewing the NFL for quite some time, at least four or five weeks at this point. But now it is officially here. We have probably the biggest talking point of the preseason. And that is the Derr-Kar, Kalil Mack, the 2014 class that's over. They changed the culture in Oakland, and now Oakland is getting rid of Kalil Mack. They trade him to the Chicago Bears. Derrick Carr came out.

He was not very excited about that, but did say it was a business. But now we have the New Look Oakland Raiders. They are not the team of old. They are John Gruden's team. and now we have the new look bears who are now impacted by the fact that they have Floyd and Mack on the outside and they have real pass rushers to go against Aaron Rogers and cousins and even, you know, some other people around the NFL because now they have a real pass rush. But all in all, the Kalil-Mac trade, let's talk about just the bare bones of what went down there.

Well, I think this. I think the Raiders are faced with two situations. They keep franchis them. He wasn't coming for the franchise tag. Do they pay a player over 20 million per year? And I say this, giving Gruden the benefit of the doubt. out because I think I know Gruden pretty well, having worked with them in Philadelphia and spending a lot of time with them in Oakland, Gruden didn't want to pay a player over 20 million. And so I wrote a column and I talked about all those things about how it was more patriot-like. And people say, well, no, no, no, it's not patriot like.

The Patriots would never trade some young defensive lineman in his prime who could rush to pass it. Timeout, Tate Frasier, they did. Chandler Jones. Yeah, I've heard of him. He was 26 years old. He had 36 and a half sacks. Max got 40 at the same time. I mean, they're both four years.

They're very close. The last two seasons, Chandler Jones has 28 sacks and two years. He's been a dominant player for the Arizona Cardinals. So, yeah, this is what the Patriots do. They did it with Richard Seymour. They did it with Chandler Jones. The Patriots don't want to pay players in that astronomical range unless he plays quarterback. Understanding.

The Raiders are taking the same approach, I think. And I'm a little bit worried that what I believe to be true, Gruden doesn't have enough discipline to hold on to it. And we should say the Raiders as it stands right now under John Gruden. So they've had a complete roster overall. They have 31 players right now who are not on the 53-man roster last year. So that's where we're at. As far as what the Raiders were looked like, we joked about this and the offseason about John Gruden is going to make his mark.

He's going to make his stamp on what the Raiders will look like moving forward and he already is. Right. I mean, he walks in it, he gets the job and, you know, Mack's on the team. And the year that they went to the playoffs, they gave up over 400 points. And Mack was on the team. He had 10 and a half sacks. And I'm told reliably that Gruden was like, look, we need more than just one player to fix this defense. I think the key component here is the Raiders 2015 to 2017 drafts. They

did very little. They don't have very many players on that team. The team is really talent depleted. And so if they put all the money into car and put all the money into Mac, there's not a lot of money left for other players. And you got to draft well. Now that's going to be on Gruden. He's going to have to draft well. To me, the weird thing of this whole dynamic is Reggie McKenzie's the title of general manager. Well, John. Gruden got $100 million, Tate Frazier. He got a 10-year contract, got $100 million. He can do anything he wants to do. He fired two guys in the video department. He fired those two guys because he wanted to change the video department. Again, it's his privilege. He's got the $100 million. He's got all the power. But when you get rid of lifetime Raider employees and you can do that, you have control of everything. And I think that's what he does. And so, look, what drove me crazy this weekend and makes me worried about everything is when Gruden come out and said, I had no idea about the twos being thrown in the deal. Come on, John, really seriously, like, stand up and be a man about it. Like, this is what we did. This is why we did it. They get to the

best interest of the team. I'm changing the culture here because culture wins. And how much, does Reggie McKenzie come in and say, why are you saying that out publicly to the world? Or is there, what is the back channeling that's going on there? I don't know what the dynamic is in the building. I mean, they have, they've hired a scout, David Rosano, who works for the coaches and kind of sets up his own personnel department. And then the Raiders have their own personnel department over there. And I'm not sure. It's a little bit like maybe like the CIA and the FBI. Maybe they're not talking to one another. This is how bin Laden got away with so much crap. And so, you know, maybe that's what's going on. But for me, look, John has to, this is the bigger

issue here, Tay Fraser, is John has to stop being the offensive coordinator. John will have white mark all over his fingers. He'll draw all the cards, okay? He'll do all the practice scripts. John wants to be the offensive coordinator. But he gave up that right. He gave up that right when he he took the $100 million. He gave up that right when he took a 10-year contract. Now he's the king of all kings. He's over the whole organization. So part of his day has to be spent as general manager. Part of his day has to be spent as head coach. And some part of his day has to be spent as offensive coordinator. I don't begrudge him for that. But he just can't be drawing cards and sitting in his office in the darkness and filling out scripts and worried about the offense. He's got to

think globally at 35,000 feet. This is what worries me most about what the Raiders are doing. And what they're thinking about, obviously, is Derek Carr. Derek Carr is going to be this interface. We centerpiece of this offense. We know when he got that big deal. Obviously, Gabe Jackson got a five-year, $56 million extension as well. Defensive tackle, Jelly Ellis also got an extension. So once all those guys were getting paid, the writing on the wall was there.

And then Adam Schaefter reported that Gruden said that the Raiders offered to Mack that was made back in March, did not come close to his hundred. He got a six-year $141 million deal, $90 million guaranteed from the Bears. He said it didn't come close to that. Obviously, Aaron Donald gets paid. the market and then Mac gets his offer based on that. Right. I mean, they made it, they just weren't going to be able to afford them. Now, I think here's the key component to all this.

What do they do with Amari Cooper? Are they going to pay Amari Cooper in the Beckham deal? Are they going to pay Amari Cooper like Sammy Watkins at 16 million a year? Because if they do that, if they make that decision and they put all those cap resources into Amari Cooper, then why wouldn't you just go a little extra further and sign a better player in Mac, right? Like, why wouldn't you? To me, it doesn't make any sense.

So it's going to be interesting to see. That's what I'm worried about the discipline and control of what Gruden does. Look, I'll let him get away with, I hear people talking about, well, Max, a Hall of Fame player. They traded a Hall of Fame player. Look, I get all those things. Max's a really good player. Chandler Jones is a really good player, too. Nobody's given Belichick heat about trading Chandler Jones. Okay. I'm giving Gruden the benefit of the doubt here. But if he decides to change his philosophy, because this isn't a light item decision, you either have to have a core belief of how you want to run your team financially, or you

don't. So you can't do it. If a guy gets to so much money, even if you love the receiver, you got to find another receiver. And what drives me crazy and I always did about John, all these guys talk about their West Coast offense guys, right? They have like all my desk, the book of Bill Walsh. They all have the book of Bill, and we all should have the book of Bill. There's no one greater than Bill Walsh. However, that being said, Bill believed this. Bill believed you never fixed the wide receiver position on your team until it was. was the rest of the team was complete. He did not think he was never put in resources. He thought he could make receivers and manage it. A little bit like New England thinks, okay? But Gruden doesn't

think that way. Gruden wants old, he signs Brandon Lafell. He's going to hate Brandon Lafell in two weeks. Trust me, he'll drop two balls. He'll hate him. But the point is, he has to change his dynamic. And if he doesn't do that, then this is all going to just blown up in his face. And we know what John's like as a GM. We've seen him in Tampa. Bruce Allen had the title of GM. That's a crock of crap. John was running it. Bruce Allen's never walking into John Gruden's office. Say, John, this is what we're going to do. Just pay attention to this. No chance. So I think to me, when he was out of football, did he come up with a philosophy? I'm getting the benefit of the doubt here. I'm just not sold on it. We do know that he was watching game tape from the

60s, watching some George Blanda tape. So I'm sure he's got some things in his mind what he wants to do with these guys. He probably wishes George Blanda could play his 28th season in football. At this point, I will say Martavis Brian has another name to keep in. He gets cut. A guy that a lot of people were excited about coming to Oakland. We gave up a third round pick for the guy. Exactly. So now he's out. Lafell gets signed on Monday.

Now he's in. And you look at that receiving cord. And like you said, I mean, Cooper's our number one guy. I guess, you know, Lafell will see what works out. But he's in Brian Hertz. They try to trade Holton, the one receiver. They tried to trade. Trade Switzer, obviously, the Steelers.

They traded Switzer after they traded for Switzer. I mean, that was ended up, didn't really cost them a lot of things. They traded, you know, they traded, they've got the other receiver in the Holton and then the kid from West Alabama. so they've got a guys they try to trade all summer, but they couldn't get anything for them. So they're stuck with them. For me, it really comes down to Gruden's ability to how is he going to manage the team. Look, I think this, what this told us and what Gruden was telling people privately before he came to Oakland

was he didn't think Oakland's talent base was very good. One playoff game in the last five years, and they lost it. Carr got heard. You know, they put a lot of resources in the offensive line, especially inside what screws up your cap. And when you start paying guards, the amount of money they're paying guards in center, we'll time out. So this is really just a reflection of what Gruden believed before he got there. He didn't think this was a great team.

And he saw a team give up 400 points and go to the playoffs. He's going to change it. Let him have time to change it. Let him see what he does. And we should say, I mean, I talked about that 2014 draft. And we remember, you know, Matt goes early in the first round. And then the fourth pick of the second round is Derek Carr. When they came out, the Raiders had not had a winning season since 2002 since Grudon had been there before.

And then now they... No, that was Gruden's, that was our... One year without Groot. Yeah, that was Bill Callahan season. That's once he goes to the Buccaneers and ends up playing them in the end. But at the end of the day, you look at this team and what they are, they have changed the culture and the idea that they are trying to expect themselves to win 10 games as opposed to what they were doing before with Carr.

But they have to almost reset everything. And now it looks like they're playing more so for 2020 than they are playing for 2018. Right. I think they are doing that. But I think he's going to manage the team in a way to where he's going to run the ball. The quarterback's going to play better for him. I mean, I go through that whole dissertation about Gruden can't be the offense coordinator. But the one thing I do know about Gruden, he will make the quarterback play better.

There's no doubt about that. I wrote about it in the book. I mean, I talked about Gruden in the book, his style of leadership. He has this unique ability to tell he has no players. And then it's his coaching that makes the players better. It's his, I don't mean it in a vicious way towards John at all. It's just his way of motivating himself to get himself ready to come in at four in the morning, whatever time at 318, whatever the freaking time he comes in. you know, to do his job.

So they will be better on offense. And I think Paul Gunther's a really good defensive coach. I think they're better. They need to get better a defensive tackle. They like Arden Key. They feel like they had a good draft. So there's some positives. Like this isn't all doom and gloom that everybody wants to suspect this.

They just made a financial decision that happens in New England all the time. The problem is Belichick's won't super bowl is doing it. John's got to prove to people he can do it. He did win one Super Bowl. We remember in Tampa Bay going against his old team. And that was Dungy's team, right? So that was Dungey's team. He's got to prove to people that he can operate as the head coach and general manager of his own team.

And to do that, you just can't be writing scripts. You've got to be able to be global. You've got to be able to do the things that you can do. You've got to be De Niro. You've got to be the CEO. Right. So like, you know, well, you say, well, what's Pete Carroll do? Well, Pete Carroll's got John Schneider.

They're kind of joined at the hip. Right now, there's nobody joined at John's hip. He can play nice with Reggie. But we all know where this Reggie McKenzie era is going to go in Oakland. It's going to eventually come to an end very quickly. And once that happens, then John's going to have to make a decision on who's his personnel guy, who's he trust, and who will listen to, and who can help him become a better GM and become a better coach. To me, that's the challenge.

And let's look at the other side of this trade. And let's talk about where the bears are. And just far as the odds, I mean, and obviously this is not against all odds with Cousin Sal. We're not talking just gambling stuff. But just looking at the way that Khalil Mack affected the bears and their outlook in Vegas. So the Super Bowl odds moving 50 to 1 to 40 to 1. the NFC odds, so 21 to 18 to 1, NFC North 9 to 1 to 7 to 1,

and the wind total jumps from 6.5 at 1 point now it's up to 7 and a half. Just looking at the Bears, I mean, now you got Floyd, and now you got Mack, as I mentioned before, on the edge with those guys. You get Mitchell Dubiski, a guy that they seem to believe in, they think that they can throw them out there. Cohen and Howard in the backfield, I mean,

there are things, Brian White is now showing signs that he may be able to be to play. He scored a touchdown. Why not? Exactly. So look at that Bears' team. I mean, there's a chance that they can really make a run now with Mac on their team. Well, I think this. When you build a defense, you want to build a defense that you have enough guys in your front seven that can defeat single blocks when it comes time to pass rush. And Akeem Hicks can defeat a single block. Leonard Floyd perhaps can defeat one. Mac definitely can. So they've got guys that can do that. And that makes them much better. And then when you look at their schedule, Trey Frazier, I mean, they play the AFC East. And in the AFC East, it's unique in the sense when you really break them down, you know, you break down quarterbacks. Like, you know what, I'm going through week one's. I'm going through week one season, right?

And so when you break down like last year, Houston, this year, the Houston Texans, right? Okay? People, I don't know what their win total is, but here's the quarterbacks that the Houston Texans have to play. Tom Brady, Marriota, Manning, Luck, Prescott, Peterman, Bortles, Tannihill, Keenham, Alex Smith, Marietta, Mayfield, or Tyrault, Tahr-Taylor, Luck, Darnold, Wins, Bortles. I mean, there's not a lot of, you know, you're not playing the, the breezes. Vegas has them at eight and a half.

Right. So, I mean, you can see it. Whereas Chicago, look what they're doing. I mean, they've got week four, they might have James Winston, right? Okay. Or they might just have Ryan Fitzpatrick. They got Tannahill in week five. They come back, they got Brady.

Then they got a rookie Sam Donald. Then they got, whether it's Peterman or Josh Allen. In Buffalo against probably Peterman or Josh Allen. So their schedule isn't like they can't. But here's the issue why you have to be careful. They play Minnesota twice. They play Green Bay twice. Can they win one of those four games?

Can they win two of those four games? Because they're going to need to do that to get over seven and a half. They're going to need to do that. And I think it all comes down to one guy. It comes down to their quarterback. Is he going to be good enough? And you've got to look at the last four games that they have too. So we've got the Rams, the Packers, the 49ers, and the Vikings.

That's how they wrap up the season. So those last four games, we're really going to see what this Bear team is really about, especially if they... We're going to see what Trubiski is really about. Exactly. Maybe they, let's say they open the season, right? Week one, they take the Packers on, and the Packers aren't quite there, and the Bears get a nice upset.

People get a lot of excited. They're going to see them on the back end of the season and we're really going to see where this team is. I think for the Bears, most importantly than anything, to utilize their skill set on defense and Vic Fangio is a really good coach and a really good defense coordinator. To utilize their skill set,

they have to have this absolute dedication to play from in front. If they don't do that, if they don't win the first quarter, I mean, and I mean win the first quarter, last year the Saints, I think the Saints were second in the league with 117 first quarter points.

The problem was they gave up 80. I'm talking about winning the first quarter. I want to see him win the first quarter get the lead. And if they can do that, then Mack becomes a better player. The reason why the Raiders are 33 and 46 and Max five years there or during the five-year period, it's because the Raiders rarely could play from a lead. Mack couldn't be the player he needs to be to be most effective. And so the offense has to help Mack.

And I think the symmetry is really important. And if they can do that, but a lot of it rests with Trubisky. I mean, they have a lot more faith in Trubisky than I do. Well, at least the run game. They do have the run game. So they're able to do something where they can play the possession game as we talked about that 26 to 32 minute mark trying to find that gap to get your defense less, you know, not out there, 32 minutes in the 25 to 26 minute range. Maybe there's a chance they have a little bit of the Eagles where our pass rush can really carry us. And a depth of our defense, right? And so that's what we're not talking about. We're talking about one player. And I think there's John's point.

I need depth. Look, I think Mack's a great player. And I believe, you know, you have to have a philosophy when it comes to the salary cap. But they're playing all their odds on the Raiders ability to draft and sign players. And Gruden's putting all his faith in that. We'll see how it works. Let's talk about another star player in the league. A lot of people are almost shockingly under the radar at this point.

But Levyon Bell, he continues to no-show. He is not signed with the seal. There was a report that came out that he was going to report on Labor Day from within the organization at one point, Leveon came quickly right out of that. I think he even tweeted that that was not the case. That was not anything that he was going to do. We have Connor, James Connor, went to Pittsburgh, a guy that a lot of the fans like and he's shown some really good signs. But as of now, Leveon Bell is still sitting out. And there are some who believe that he will report on Wednesday, but still as it stands right now, Levyon Bell is not with a Pittsburgh.

Brook Steelers. Is there anything to take away from this? And if you're Mike Tomlin, I mean, are you just kind of going about things as if, you know, Leveon's just not here and we just kind of move forward? I think that he plays the role. Look, Levion's not here. He's going to come in this week. He's not going to miss one of his check. I mean, it's 117 of $14.5 million. I don't think you're going to miss one of those checks, right? But I think for the, for the Steelers, until he comes back and he's in shape, there's no sense putting him out on the field. I mean, we saw it last year when he went to Cleveland. They couldn't move the ball. And they struggled to be Cleveland, how to block a punt in Cleveland. They really weren't very good offensively.

They tried to get him in there. I think they got to take the approach that, look, this is part of doing business in the franchise era. He's going to come in. He's going to get his check. We're going to have to pay him his check. There's nothing we can do about it. But he doesn't do us really any good on the field. So we're going to take this cap hit. And I think that's the message that Bell wants to send to Pittsburgh is, look, if you're going to be like this and you don't want to give me an extension, then I'm not going to be able to play all 14 games, 16 games. You're going to have to pay me for 16, but I'm not playing 16. And so when he comes to the building, let's say he comes to the building on Wednesday,

I mean, are they going to work him out and give him a physical and just see where he's at? Or do they have any idea at where he stands? I mean, where is he working out? The money's guaranteed, the franchise, once he signs it, it becomes guaranteed. So they have no recourse. They have no recourse. Yeah, no matter what. I mean, he could be sitting around eating crispy cream donuts and doing whatever he wants to.

Most players sign it because they don't want that, they want that guarantee in their pocket. And I mean, Glavion's going to come in. He's got the guarantee. and now they're going to have to make a decision. If I'm Mike Tomlin, I'm taking the approach, really the law of three approach. Look, if he doesn't want to be here, put him in group three. I'm only going to worry about the guys in group one. And eventually, when Levion is going to determine that I'm not paying attention to them,

because this team needs to win as a team, not with one player, you know, we need them. But when they put them on the field too early, we saw it, hamstring pools, not the same guy. Again, I'm going to keep saying this until I'm blue in the face. But I think September is an extension of the preseason. And because of that, I'm going to let Bell try to get ready to play. And we have seen that, you know, Lavian has been able to, quote, unquote, get game ready in five days. There was a lot of stories written about that. So it's not to say that.

But he's not productive, though. Yeah, yeah. I mean, he's on the field, but he's not productive. I mean, look, I mean, this heat and humidity is going to be a factor. I mean, the greatest tennis player, and one of the greatest tennis players in the world, Roger Federer lost to an unrank guy last night in New York at 9 o'clock at night playing tennis. And he just said the heat, it just got me. I mean, that...

I was just in New York City. It is absolutely so humid and so hot, so I understand Federer. It's not your fault. Right. You know, it's not because, I mean, look, once you lose it in these games, once you lose that and you become like you have, you don't get it back. This isn't like, okay, I'm going to drink a Gatorade and recharge it. It kind of goes away.

The oxygen machine is not going to help you on the sideline. No, it's a problem. So you need depth in September. You need all your players in September. and Bell's going to go out there and after two or three, he's not going to be able to do it. I mean, Parcells used to make all his running backs carry the ball in preseason

because he wanted to see if he could give them the ball in a regular season game where they weren't going to absolutely just fall off the truck. I think that's important, and I think if they play Bell too early, it's only going to be a mistake. We'll see what happens with the Bell situation. We'll obviously keep an eye on that,

and obviously James Connor is a guy to keep an eye on if you are a Steelers fan, because like I said, James Connor has been a star, a star at Pittsburgh, and has been a star in preseason so far for those guys. Quick break to get a word from our sponsor, Direct TV. We want you to stream every NFL Sunday ticket live every Sunday. Even if we can't get DirecTV where we live,

because we want every play, even if we don't live in a house with the satellite, because a lot of us live in apartments or on a college campus. But we still want to stream NFL Sunday ticket to see if you were eligible. Go online to NFL Sundayticket.tv and stream every NFL Sunday ticket game this season to follow your favorite team, no matter where you live. Use promo code ringer at checkout to save 15%. Packages are also available for football fans living in areas where direct TV service is not available. Again, that's promo code ringer. R-I-N-G-E-R-A-checkout to save 15%.

And we're also brought to you by MyBooky. People always ask me for advice. Usually it's what team to bet on this week. It's official. It's week one. Put in your bets. I always tell people to bet with My Bookie. They've been in business for years, have great reviews online, and their mobile site is easy to use.

Not to mention they have in-game live betting and the most rewarding player-perts. in the business. Plus, for you fantasy guys out there, you can even bet the over under on how many fantasy points a player will score each game. So lay down some cash and win big today. You win, they pay. Join now in my book, you will match your deposit. Dollar for dollar. Use the promo code ringer NFL when creating your account to claim up to $1,000 in free play. That's M-Y-B-O-O-O-K-E. And don't forget to use the promo code ring your NFL when creating your account to claim the bonus. You play, you win, you get paid back to GM Street. talk about the quarterbacks. You mentioned depth and at the position and the Miami Dolphins are a team that really believe in the depth at the quarterback positions. They still have four quarterbacks on their roster. Like, what are they doing? Only Mike Tanenbaum knows. I mean, seriously, what is he doing? Like, he's got, you know what? He has four quarterbacks on his team, right? He doesn't have a backup. He has four, but he doesn't have a backup. He's got three third string type quarterbacks, and that counts to Heist, Brock Osweiler.

Absolutely. One of our favorites. So why would you? you carry three third string quarterbacks? Like I get like the Jets had Bridgewater, have McCowan, and had Darnold. They have at least, they have three starters, perhaps at least three second. Okay, I get that. I'm all for that. There's value in that quarterback. There's fine. But I mean, this Luke Falk, who can't throw the ball from me to you is a wobbly arm. I mean, look, great story, great kid, but he can't drive the ball. That pocket closes down. It's over. Okay, David Fells, same thing. And then, of course, you got the, you're carrying three players for what? I know. He wants to look at Falk for a week before they cut him or look at because he compares to falls or fails. I think it's fails. It's fails and then fails and falls. You know, I mean, it's going to fall apart no matter what it is, right? I mean, that to me it's one of the dumbest, why are you doing this? Do you think it's one of those things where he just wants to watch these other three guys just to make himself feel really good about Ryan Tannenbaum? Tana Hill. Tana Hill. Maybe that's, maybe that's why I love him so much. I think I'm rubbing off on you. I think my inability to say names correctly is rubbing off on you. I, and I apologize.

for that sincerely. Well, I just thought he maybe he is his child at this point, you know, his kids. I mean, look, I love the fact that they cut Karu, a guy, they gave up three picks four, they had to have him in a draft, and now he's on the practice squad. Like, if Karu's not good enough, the receiver, Karu's not good enough to be on the team, then maybe

you, wants you just admit the mistake and move on. I mean, so, look, the one thing about the Miami Dolphins, I don't get what they're doing. Their team, this is going to be an interesting week this week, right? They're playing Tennessee. Tennessee's the worst kind of team for them to play. They're a power team. Tennessee wants to run the ball. I don't think the Finns have a linebacker as big as Derek Henry.

Okay. Now, last year, Mariotta didn't play in that game. Last year, Henry only carried the ball four times in the game. So this could be a completely different game. But Miami, to me, is a team with no physicality, offensively or defensively. And it's going to remain to be seen. And now with three third string quarterbacks, you would think they could use, like, to me, when you have three third strings, you're better off doing exactly what Dallas did. with Alice is keeping three, but look, they don't want to get off of Connor rush. But okay, fine. So at least we'll keep him, and they kept Mike White the backup. But for me, I would go down to two quarterbacks because as John Madden so eloquently once said,

if you have a lot of something, you got nothing. Miami's got no second-string quarterback. And we're not just going to talk about the Miami Dolphins, their quarterback situation. There's a lot of big. I mean, there's a 30-30 on Mike Tanibon about how we draft skill players. I mean, it should be a 30-30. At least we have a bright side, right? We get 2009-2010 with the Jets, right?

We have a little bit of a bright side. That mangini. That was Manini. Well, let's talk about Davis Webb with the Giants. We were trying to figure out who was going to be the guy to take the spot for Eli Manning eventually when he rides off into the sunset. We're obviously still far from that point. Davis Webb gets cut.

He will now sign with the New York Jets practice squad, right? That's his new home. But just look at we're going to go through a bunch of these guys that have been like him. But first off, Davis Webb, he goes out with the Giants. I mean, what does that mean? I think people were really shocked by it. And I wasn't because I thought he plays slow. I think the problem with college football and spread, people say, well, he knows the spread game.

Well, first of all, the spread game is very simplistic in terms of the protections. The spread game is very easy. The windows are so big. Brett Farr have talked about this, and I think I've said this on the podcast before. Great quarterbacks, you know, an average quarterback can throw the ball through the door. A good quarterback can hit the doorknob and the great ones throw through the keyhole. Well, Webb, to me, watching them this summer was a door thrower. The windows had to be expansive.

He wasn't fitting the ball into anything, and he needed time. And the biggest concern watching him play, there was really not a lot of anticipation. Like, did he anticipate the route coming open and through the ball? He's not throwing people open. He's not throwing people open. The game was moving too fast for him. So, I mean, the Giants made no bones about it. I mean, they go with the Richmond quarterback as the spack up quarterback.

They go with Alex Tanny, trick shot Alex Tandy, who's been on a zillion teams. We signed him when I was in Cleveland in December when we lost players. He was on Dallas's practice squad at the time. I mean, he's an interesting kid. He's worked hard, does a bunch of trick shots and put him up on YouTube. But, I mean, he made their team. He beat Davis Webb out. That's scary.

That's scary. And so, look, the Giants, it all comes down on one thing. Can Eli do it? Because when the Giants, some of these teams, when the Giants are the Rams or the Cowboys, if they lose their starter, their season's over. And it is interesting because we thought that the Giants would make a play to try to find that number two guy. And a lot of people expected Davis Webb to be that number two guy. Obviously, that is not the case as it stands right now.

It still goes back to the Teddy Bridgewater situation. We both thought there might be a chance they could have made a play for him. What is the value for the Jets to have a guy like Davis Webb come in? Just to have a guy that was in, you know, across the town to come in from the NFC to be in your quarterback room? I don't know why Davis-Wib would sign with the Jets. He's never going to play. Sam Donald's going to be the starting quarterback there forever. Yeah.

I mean, where are you going to be? I mean, you've got no chance to compete. I mean, why wouldn't you sign with Miami? You might be Tana Hill out. You know, maybe Miami didn't want him. I'm just throwing that out. Why not sign with Buffalo? Maybe you could be Josh Allen out or maybe sign with Dallas.

You could be Connor Russia. I don't know. I mean, there was a lot of talk that teams were interested in trading for him, but he went with the Jets. And so maybe because he's got an apartment in Hoboken and it's an easy commute to Florham Park, I don't know. He doesn't have to move. I don't know his family situation, so I can't speak for that. But why would the Jets do it?

You know, maybe they get a young quarterback to be the backup. Kind of a little bit like Jacoby Brissette was the backup to Jimmy Garoppolo, and then it gives him some flexibility. I don't really understand. You get another California guy in the room with Darnold, maybe. That'll work out. And plus, New York City is a beautiful place. I just had a great time there. So I don't blame them for not one day. Look, I think it's awesome. But I think this, to me, the backup, the jets, the giants, their inability to, they claim six guys at the waiver wire, Tate Frazier. When you claim six guys, and I'm all for claiming guys, I think this, I think you've got to make

10 moves with your football team from the time you start training camp until the end of the year. You've got to make tens. Now, not all 10 are for the current team. These moves don't necessarily impact the team. Currently, they impact the next year's team. So you have to have two depth charts in your office. You've got to really pay close attention to what your offensive line look like the next year, because you want to be able to have at least a semblance of 10 offensive linemen that can go out and execute under contract. However, the Giants, you know, they claim six guys at the cut. They claim three corners. If Jacksonville doesn't line up the first play of the game in three, receivers and make the Giants go to nickel and see who their third corner is and how they're

going to treat this, then they're doing themselves a disservice. The Giants have to prove that they can cover people. I'm not sure they can. That counts Eli Apple. They have one legitimate cover guy the way I watch them on tape, and that's Janoris Jenkins. Can Eli Apple, is he going to have last year's season or is he going to have his rookie season? It remains to be seen. And that third corner is huge and you've got to be able to match up. I think that's hard for the Giants. And how much does that actually play out in the real time? You know, you talk about a team. Do they look at the waiver pickups of the giants of you are the Jaguars? And if you're, if you're Coughlin and you're Marone and you're down in Jacksonville and you're seeing these waiver pickups, do you really have that?

And you say, look, we need to try to attack this in our game plan. Do you change things because of that? No, absolutely. I mean, look, they're telling you what they think by their waiver claims. They think they don't have a corner. So you make a tape on all those guys. They claim the corner from Cleveland. They claim the corner from New Orleans.

So you go through, you watch those guys on tape. You study them and say, okay, how are they going to match up to us? And how would they play us in this situation? And then that's how you take, I mean, look, it's no different than basketball. Find the matchup you like and then stick with it. And then create a game plan around that matchup. They're telling you they don't have a third corner. I mean, BW. Webb's been on seven teams in a very short career.

You know, the other kid that they have, he's been on IR the year before. So they don't really have a guy that you say, oh, wait a minute. Whereas Tennessee, Tennessee's got Logan Ryan paid him huge money. They got Malcolm Butler paid him huge money. Oh, and they drafted the Dori Jackson, the first in the first round pick. So they got three corners that you know, they got three corners that are well paid and well compensated. So if you go to Nickel, they can pretty much match you.

This team can't. Yeah, we'll see what happens with that. Let's talk about another quarterback that he is out. He is cut as well from the Denver Broncos. I mean, one of the biggest, you know, first rowing quarterback bust, you know, not necessarily a bus already, but just as far as what everyone expected when he went to the Broncos, people thought Paxon Lynch would be their guy in Denver under John Elway.

He now gets let go. And looking around the league, I mean, the bills are a team that may have interest someone like Paxson Lynch, but what is his market? And obviously he's going to go through waivers and we'll see where he is. Yeah, I mean, he had to go through waivers because nobody wants to claim a guy who's got guaranteed contract. So he's through waivers. I mean, look, I think his personality has never really been endearing to any teammate.

He's got to prove that he can play faster. He's a little bit like that Davis Webb situation where he doesn't play quite fast enough. He's a seven-on-seven type quarterback. And look, look, Elway played the position as well as anybody's ever played in the history of the game. But he's having as much trouble evaluating it as anybody. else. He doesn't quite know what he wants from the position. He keeps looking for himself. There's not many John Elway's floating out there. Paxton Lynch wasn't one of them. A lot of people

were concerned about Paxton, Paxton Lynch, his ability to lead and handle things at Memphis. He was not endearing himself to some teams personality-wise. And I think that showed up in Denver. Even though Dallas tried to trade up to get him and there was a lot of interest in him, I don't think that was the case. I think to me, this kid's got all backup written over him. And he just wasn't tough enough to fight through the tough times in Denver. I mean, look, I'll say this again, Denver is so lucky that Brock Oswald didn't take that deal because not only would they have been in cap hell, they would still be in quarterback hell. At least now they're not in cap hell that badly.

And they have Case Keenom who's coming in basically to be what Case Keenum has been, which is a backup quarterback. Yeah, a manager. Yeah, a mercenary, honestly, for the time being, is a stop gap until you find your guy. Can he do it? I don't know. I mean, like, I'm not, like, I think Denver still needs a quarterback. I know they paid Case Keenham and I know Case is sealed.

Right. Now, Case is there. Gary Kubiak drafted him. Gary's in the organization. Gary sees himself in Case Keenum. That's what happens all the time with quarterbacks, especially guys evaluate quarterbacks. They want to see themselves. I mean, this was Gruden in Oakland. I mean, he wanted him, you know, he played at Dayton. He wanted guys to play like him. Now he's got Carr way different than him. But most of the time, these guys, they want players that play like them. Case Keenum, it's a lot. lot like Gary Kubiak. That's how he played. I don't know if it's going to work when you've got to play some really good teams. And let's talk about another guy. You mentioned the Cowboys tried to trade up for Paxon Lynch. They also tried to trade up for Connor Cook. Who is a disaster. Who ends up getting

cut out of the Raiders, we remember. And the Raiders traded all those picks to get Connor Cook with the Tennessee Titans. I mean, look, look, we all make mistakes. A lot of Cook was the Cousins 2.0. We all make mistakes in draft. Look, I'm not here to say, you know, this guy, look, we all make them. Okay. And look, the quicker you identify your mistakes, the better off you are. There's no doubt. Give Denver credit. They saw it.

It didn't work with Paxson Lynch move on. Even though they take Kevin Hogan. I mean, here's a guy Kevin Hogan, drafted in the fifth round by the Chiefs, gets cut, goes to Cleveland, gets cut, gets traded to Washington, then gets cut. I mean, you replaced your first round pick

with a guy who's a journeyman already after three years. You know, that's not a huge endorsement. Yeah, and it gets into the same vein as what we saw with the New York Giants in their Davis Webb situation. There's not that many new starting quarterbacks, Obviously, there's some things that will fluctuate and change over time. But we do have Nathan Peterman. He's probably the biggest one who has been announced as the starter.

You mentioned him earlier. And Peterman, you know, we always make the jokes about him having the loam game, you know, against L.A., where he threw the five picks. But Peterman, you know, can at least make the adjustments at the line and do some of the veteran savvy stuff that you need to have from your QB. So he's a new starting quarterback in the league. We also have Case Keenham. We just mentioned with the Broncos. But as far as that goes, those are probably the two biggest names that are new faces, new places, kind of working out this year.

Right. And then, of course, you got Sam Donald. Of course. And then we got the great Sam Donald. Who's going to start? He played in the preseason like a better. So it'll be interesting. And look, there couldn't be a better team to play for Sam Donald to open it up with

than Detroit. It's not going to be, you know, they know New England's defense really well. It's going to be New England style of defense in Detroit. They'll have a good handle on it. I'm sure he'll be well prepared to play in the game. And whether they have enough skill players on offense for the Jets remains to be seen, but at least it'll be a chance for him to be familiar with what he's faced against. And I will say I brought this up last week for all the Tom Savage fans.

I am very, very sorry, I'm very disappointed. Teddy Bridgewater now on the team. Tom Savage does get cut, does get waived. Hopefully there's a future for Tom out there. It's going to be hard for Tom. It's going to be hard. A lot of quarterbacks on the market, a lot of people to keep an eye on.

We're going to take a quick break, and we're going to come back and run through some of the veterans that have re-signed, some of the veterans that have been let go and also preview the Falcons and the Eagles that are coming up Thursday night. Quick break. One more break to talk about Snickers. You know that guy who whines about the rest before the game even starts. The guy whose game day ritual is wearing Giants themed underwear

and nothing else. I'm pretty sure that's Eli Manning or that friend who got a Super Bowl champs tattoo for the losing team. Yeah, that guy. Turns out he was just hungry. Get the Manis Snickers and get your game back on track with limited edition NFL Hunger Bar's.

I am really enjoying the fact that Snickers is sponsoring this podcast because I need all the energy I can get to keep up with all things happening in the NFL changing and changing and changing each and every day. Get a Snickers NFL Hunger Bar today and a store near you back to GM Street. And we are back. We got to talk about one of the best duos in the NFL as far as the quarterback tied-in relationship.

And that is, of course, the great Philip Rivers and Antonio Gates. Antonio Gates decides to come back and return to football for his, wow, I can't even believe this. His 16th season in football. And it looks like he is still uncertain for week one, but we'll practice Wednesday, tomorrow, September 5th. He will be back in a Charter's Uniform at practice with Philip Rivers by his side. Just in general, having Gates. come back to that locker room and having him on that offense. It means like having a coach on the field at this point.

I mean, they needed a Hunter Henry went down, so they needed somebody to come in there. I mean, I can't believe Gates has played this long in the career. I can still remember talking to Nick Sabin when he was talking about how this kid was at Kent State and how when he was the head coach at Kent State he was playing and

and so he knew about him. He was recruiting him. And so Nick knew all about this kid's career in high school and what a great player. he was, even though he ended up being a basketball player. So it's tremendous that he's played this long. But look, he's going to be a receiver. It's going to have to be, they know what he can do. They know his effectiveness. I think it's going to be more of a red zone situation. But I think

they really need this kind of player to help their locker room. The other player I think they really need is another guy that got cut, Dan Bailey. Like, how are the Chargers not signing Dan Bailey? They need a kicker. That's all we saw last year. Every single time we watched the charges, it seemed like they were lead. Philip Rivers was leading him down the field for a moment for the to get a kick to win the game. And of course, you know, we saw Young Way Koo, unfortunately, didn't quite work out for them. They've gone through all these iterations of kickers. But Dan Bailey is a proven, a proven top tier kicker in this league, even though, you know, he just got released by the Cowboys. Yeah, I mean, the Cowboys are worried about his back, right?

The Cowboys are worried that he's got an injury. He's on the downslide. He's 30 years old. He missed, I think he missed under five kicks this summer at training camp. He made the only kick they allowed him to kick. He's consistent. He's the player. You know, he works hard. He's one of the true Cowboys. This is an interesting move by the Cowboys to go with an unproven guy from Nebraska. Brett Mayer, I believe that's how you say his name, you know, to think that he's going to come in and do this, especially when you know you had Dan Bailey. That was like automatic points. And I'm not sure the Cowboys have enough explosive players. Now they tell me Tevon Austin's going to be the real deal. I'm going to wait and see that one. But, you know, they don't have enough

explosive players to think that they're going to generate touchdowns. They need those field goals. And if this kid doesn't have the reliability that Bailey's had in his career, and look, when you're worried about a guy getting hurt during the season and you're just predicting it, then I'm not sure that works out. Sometimes guys fully, especially a guy works as hard as Bailey does. And we have said this. We looked at that Cowboys team and we talked about how much of a transition it will be for those Cowboys in the building where you lose Witten, you lose Dez. Like all the, do you lose Dan Bailey now?

All these guys that have been around that organization for so long and have basically been, the pillars of the franchise are now out of the building. And now we're going to see what this team is and what it means for Dak and Zieg to be the leaders. Right. And we're going to see what it means to be Jason Garrett's going to have to rebuild a team. He's going to recreate a culture. He's going to have to do all these things that make the team successful and see what he can do it and see how he controls the team. You know, Dak's got, to me, DAC is, I don't ever think DAC's the problem. I always think DAC's the solution. So at least they have the quarterback. Lenehan's under a lot of pressure to make this offense go. I don't know if he's got enough skill to make it go when he starts to play the good teams who take him away, take away what he likes to do.

Elliot's a great player, but we all know that unless the running back has some help on the outside, it becomes even more, it becomes more difficult for him to impact. When we know, we can put nine guys in the box to stop you. Or yeah, we can stop him or, you know, he's going to be, he's got to be an impact in the passing game. But to me, you know, in their defense, we talk about this again. Their defense is good. I think their defense has a real chance. I think the Cowboys, if they manage the game correctly, have a chance to win some games. I really do. I think they got a better team. I worry about the field goal kicker. I worry about their game decisions, game management,

and I worry about their skill on offense. Those are my concerns. Absolutely. And I will say this, just about the Chargers, we just brought up losing a guy like Dan Bailey. You know, Antonio Gates has been a mentor. I know personally for Keenan Allen, have been a mentor for Gordon. Like a lot of those young guys that are stars in Los Angeles for the Chargers, they look up to Gates and they really have a great respect for Gates. And to get him back in the locker room, it does wonders for a team like that. And that's a great point, T. Fraser, because I think this, look, your locker room really feeds off of confidence. And this is my point about Caleb Sturgis. If you brought Dan Bailey into that locker room, everybody knows who Dan Bailey is in the league. They know he's automatic. There's an air of confidence in the room. There's an air of confidence. Right now, you're hoping that Caleb Sturgis makes the kick. And, you know, never confuse hope for a plan, right?

Never confuse hope for a plan. They're hoping he's going to do it. They're hoping he's going to come through. Whereas I truly believe, unless I'm missing it with Bailey's health, I believe Bailey would be a short-term solution for the chargers and give confidence to a locker room and confidence to the team that they really need. Because what happens to them is when you get in that fourth quarter, their confidence tends to wane a little bit

and can they win those close games? I don't know. To me it's a risky move by the charge. And they have a little bit of, they always looked a little bit shell-shocked and you almost feel bad for Philip Rivers because you always see him on the sideline as something is happening and it just seems like whatever could go wrong, we'll go wrong at a certain point.

And that's what the charters have been living in for quite some time, as we all know, because we've watched a lot of those games. Let's talk about Thursday night. So that is the first game of the NFL season. It is the Falcons versus the Eagles. A lot of people are very excited about this game. to see football return. We have the Matt Ryan situation, the $30 million man coming out and showing the

world what he can do in the pocket. We obviously have the whole Carson Win situation. We're still trying to figure that out. Most people, most all signs point to the fact that obviously Nick Foles will be the starting quarterback. The Super Bowl MVP will be out there. What's the number one thing we're looking for in this game on Thursday? You know, look, everybody says preseason is insignificant. Last year in the preseason, the Eagles, Carson wins average 10.5 yards per attempt, okay? he had a 125 quarterback rating. He threw three touchdown passes, you know, a guy this year that, to me, Cincinnati's a team that's fascinating because Andy Dalton, who in 2017 was a disaster in the 67 quarterback

rating, I think about a five yards per attempt through one through no touchdowns had an interception. This year, Andy Dalton has had Carson Wentz-like numbers, 10 and a half yards per attempt, a 130 quarterback rating, three touchdown passes. I mean, he's played really well. So we dismiss preseason so much that we ignore it. The Eagles, my point here is the Eagles in preseason have not looked like the Eagles. Their offensive line isn't playing at the same level that I played last year. I think that Doug Peterson realizes that he's ramped it up. You can just see his tone to the media hasn't been very cooperative this week. I mean, he knows they're not at the same place

they were this time last year. They need to get there in a hurry. And so I think that That's the challenge for Philadelphia. Carson Wentz, he's not ready to play. He's had too much to me to put on his plate. Stop asking the question. Let Foles play, and can Foles play better than he did than preseason? Can they game plan? Because that game, really, when you go back and rewatch that game tape,

the Eagles were fortunate because of the last four minutes of both halves. I mean, the Falcons have the ball at the end of the first half, first and 10 at midfield. And all they need to do is, you know, run the, the clock, get the, and what happens is they don't run the clock very well, they punt, they did the interception that comes off the head, and they give up three points at the end of the half. And then we all know, I don't understand, Tafraser, how people don't bring up the play calling at the end of the game for the Falcons. Like, I still don't understand how that's still not on people's

tongue. And a lot of people were pointing to the fact that they didn't have Shanahan, right? I mean, that was the, this is what he does with this team. And obviously, the jokes we made about, you know, well, 28 to 3, what was he doing then? But at the same time, Kyle Shanahan and Matt Ryan had this beautiful thing going. And then we saw last year what it was like when it didn't quite, you know, we had Sarkeesian in there making the calls. Right. And I think this, I think, look, Holodeinada is a good player. He's not, he's not the same player he once was. And they're going to miss Tim Jernigan early in the season with his lower back. That's going to be a problem. Now, maybe Michael Bennett can fill in a little bit. Michael Bennett doesn't have the same level that he

once did. He's still a good player. So it's going to be interesting to see the front of this team and that humidity in Philadelphia, which you saw about, Roger Federer talked about. I mean, it's going to be there a Thursday night, how much step they have in that defensive line. That's where they won. Their secondary is Malcolm Jenkins, and they got to get to the rush. They got to turn the ball over. Can the Eagles duplicate that this year? And can Matt Ryan get the ball to Calvin Ridley? Can he get the ball to the other receivers and move it? I think that's going to be the key to the game. The Eagles are not where they were last year. The Falcons weren't where they were last year either on offense. They haven't had the most productive preseason. So it's going to be interesting to see who's really been saving it and what

they have in store. I think the Falcons defense will play well this game. And I will, I will say, one thing I want to watch is Jai, who has been getting most of the reps in practice this week, he's expected to get the bulk of the carriers. We want to see what that line looks like with the Jai behind it. From the start of a season, obviously we had the midseason trade and it sort of went from there. But this will be the first time we see if the run game can really be the cornerstone of that offense. And look, Vaitai played left tackle. And, you know, Jason Peters hasn't played. Is he going to play? Is he well enough to play? Can he come back? Where is he? You know, it's one thing. Fans look at it and say, well, they'll get Peter's back or they'll get Jeffrey back.

But the player that they remember may not be the player that's coming back right away. It may be, it may happen down the road. It may happen a week from now. It may happen two weeks from now. But it may not be quite there. It needs game reps. I mean, all these guys need live situations to play better. That's why we all bitch about September games.

I mean, get ready for everybody to start bitching about the quality of play in September. Well, the reason of the quality of playing September stinks so bad is because nobody's played in August. That's why. And then we're going to get to the point where, you know, let's say the Falcons, you know, have a great game and beat the Eagles and it gets the redemption. And then people are going to be down on the Eagles. And as we know, the first five weeks are really building your team to see what you really are. And then once we get to week five, we'll really know what these teams are and we'll go from there. And then you can figure it out. Absolutely. Cool. Well, this has been another edition of GM Street, part of the Ringer podcast network. From now on for the rest of the season, we should say a little cleanup duty here. We will be doing Tuesdays. We will be doing Tuesdays. We will be doing previews for the games on Friday. Tuesday. We'll be wrapping up everything we saw from the week of before and just news and storylines around the league. Anything else, Lombardy, before we get out of here? I'm looking forward to the game. I'm looking forward to watching football on Thursday night.

I'm looking forward. I got a TED Talk in Santa Barbara. I'm jacked about. Love it. Yeah, it's going to be hard tape. I got to memorize it, Tate Frazier. You know me in memorization. I mean, you know.

It's going to be great. I need to Skype into that. Yeah, well, good luck. I don't know. I'm a little nervous about that one. No, don't get nervous. You'll be great. We're very excited for football to be back.

we're very excited for you to join us for another season of NFL football. We love doing this podcast. We love all the people that are listening to us, and we will be back on Friday. Thank you.