The Ringer NFL Show - Reacting to the First Round of the NFL Draft and the Aaron Rodgers News

Episode Date: April 30, 2021

Danny Heifetz, Danny Kelly, and Kevin Clark start by reacting to the news of Aaron Rodgers potentially wanting out of Green Bay. Then they discuss the major story lines of the first round, including Justin Fields to the Bears, Mac Jones to the Patriots, and more. Hosts: Danny Heifetz, Danny Kelly and Kevin Clark Production Assistant: Isaiah Blakely Additional Production Supervision: Arjuna Ramgopal Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Bill Simmons hosts the most downloaded sports podcast of all time with a rotating crew of celebrities, athletes, media staples, and a slew of other friends and family members who always happen to be available. Check out the Bill Simmons podcast on Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. Welcome to the Ringer NFL show. I'm Danny Hyfitz here with Danny Kelly and Kevin Clark. Okay, draft just ended. Holy crap. Danny Kelly, can you remember? The first round just ended Hyfitz. Oh yeah, sorry. First round. You know what? Is 1230 Easter I'm tired. Okay, man,

there's gonna be a lot of those mistakes. Okay? I understand, Matt. I get that. You know, I'm going to Kevin first since you've just corrected me. I'm gonna go to Kevin instead.

Thank you, Danny. Kevin, is this like the most win-win draft you can remember? Like, I feel like 26 fan bases are happy. Can you remember so much common sense happening in a first round? Wow. That's an interesting question.

Well, I think that the Niners fans, there's less of a chance of an apocalypse. I would say that. I was worried, you know who I feel bad for? are the Niners fans, and this is not a small group of fans, who spent a month talking themselves into Mac Jones, just accepting the inevitable, and now they can kind of breathe the side of relief. They get Trey Lance, everything is fine.

But what I will say is, I agree with you. I think that most fans came away from this feeling good. And I think that's a testament to how many sensible picks there were. There weren't huge reaches. We were just talking about Peyton Turner being one perhaps. We'll get to that, I'm sure. But no, I think everybody comes away from this pretty, happy. Whether that's Bears fans of Justin Fields, whether that's Niners fans of

Trey Lance, obviously we knew what the top two was coming in. Maybe you're, you're upset if you're a Broncos fan. Maybe you're upset if you're a Panthers fan. But what I would say mostly is, I think it's a pretty high approval rating of this draft from, from fan bases. And we got a Tim Tebow workout. So what more can you ask for? That was the big Jaguars news of the day. DK, what do you think? Do you think, I mean, I feel that was my sense. Teams mostly just made good decisions. Yeah, so I've been accused in the past of being a lenient grader when it comes to first round grades. And it's something that I'm aware of. And it's okay. Well, not my experience. People on Twitter get very upset about this. If you, if you give people, it's a Twitter's for.

However, I will say for the first like 10 or 12 picks or whatever, it was like all guys in my first 10 or 12 rankings. So like, what am I supposed to give these teams Fs for like taking players I like? So, but yeah. And I think overall, you know, I think, there was logical choices and strong choices in these class. There's a few things I would definitely pick nits at. Like I was sort of distraught that the Broncos passed up on Justin Fields. I think that was like a move that they could end up regretting down the line or even like shortly. But I think, you know, overall, nothing too crazy.

I think the Jets trading up for a for Vera Tucker, they get a good player. But I mean, is that is that a like we've talked about this in the past. Like, why trade up for a non-quarterback? You're giving up a lot of, you know, foundational building, like, capital in order to get a player that they maybe could have gotten that late. And then, you know, the Vikings trade back and they get a good offensive tackle. So, I don't know. I think, like, there's a few things you could, like, you know, like quibble with, I guess. But, like, overall, it was a strong first round, I think.

Hey, Fitz, I don't want to derail this because we could go, we could do 45 minutes, I want to about to say. But I will say, I think Raiders fans are confused. I think Raiders fans are. I think John Gruden's confused. Mike Mayox, they're all confused. But I don't want to bury the lead here. Because as amazing as this first round was,

let's be real. The thing that dominated this freaking day was everything Aaron Rogers. This is absolutely, I mean, you know what? It's late. It's ringer NFL show after dark.

This was fucking bat shit. Okay, I'm sorry. This is insane. Kevin, what the hell do you make of this Aaron Rod? We have not talked about this shit. I don't know. What do you make of today

and all this Aaron Rogers trade news? It came out of nowhere. and it got it accelerated so quickly because it went from mid-afternoon, Sheffers says Aaron Rogers want to come back to the Packers. Almost every outlet gets some leak after that in the hours, minutes and hours after that, to the point that then Mark Schleirath, right before the draft starts, reports on the radio that a deal to the Broncos is as close as can be. I think that was the terminology.

Then there was some confirmations of that report. that maybe they're getting close. And then nothing. Like the Broncos made their pick. Everything was fine. Tom Silverstein does a great job covering the Packers. Basically said once the draft starts, that's it. Because they're not going to take future picks.

And what Silverstein said, and I agree with him, is if Rogers really wanted out and was demanding a trade publicly, probably should have done that in February. Probably should have done that when the Packers had time to make a deal. They have, if you listen to the reports, they've flown out to California to meet with Rogers. they've tried to offer him an extension, which he will not take. At this point, you know, I saw the Edward or quote, which I found interesting from an NFL GM who's not with the Packers, who said that he expects the Packers to, quote,

dig their feet in and make them play or be a game show host. And I kind of think that's how it plays out now. Now that the draft has started, they have a win now roster. I think they're just going to roll the dice and hope that Aaron Rogers shows up. D.K., do you think that this was Rogers actually wanting a trade, or do you think, as Kevin says, if you wanted to trade it, it would be a couple months.

Is this half to just embarrass the Packers? Just like he was kind of humiliated last year on draft day when they took Jordan Love? I don't know. That's a good question. The love, obviously, that factor with being in the first round of the draft. They traded up.

Obviously, that was a big, you know, pivot point for the Packers in terms of like, oh, God, what does this mean for the future of the franchise? But I'm very curious how long Schaefter and everyone else that reported on this has been sitting on this. You know what I mean? Because NFL reporters

have a habit of waiting for like big days like today where everyone's clued in, everyone's paying attention. You know, maybe he didn't sit on it for long, but, you know, this could, this has been something that's building. So I'm just curious like that timing and everything, you know, we heard in the hours before the draft like, oh, teams are making moves. Teams are making moves. But at the end of the day, like these, these guys are all getting ready for the draft.

Like the draft is here. We got to like prep for this draft. This is the most important thing right in front of us. And so, yeah, I think, like Kevin said, the timing was tough for teams to actually do anything because, you know, they had obviously this huge priority of nailing the first round and paying attention to that. So it is weird, you know, based on these reports by both Jay Glazer and Adam Schaefter, like, it's a serious thing. They clearly, he clearly wants out, or at least according to them. And it's more than just a contract thing.

So I don't think this story is over clearly, but, you know, it was a, you know, it was. It was one of those things where I, I question whether, like, the timing was, like, just because the draft was today and this was, like, something to talk about or what. Yeah. So the report, the report that got me, High Fitz, was the pro football talk one. So Jay Glaser comes out and says this goes beyond the contract stuff, which I certainly believe. But then pro football talk reports that they're told, Mike Florio is told, he, quote, doesn't like anyone in the front office for a, hold on. It gets better in the second part of the quote. He doesn't like anyone in the front office for a variety of reasons.

Not only is Brian Gutekun's structure in love. He might release fish at the office. You know, the front office there is structured differently because of an owner, Mark Murphy is obviously running the show there. They have shareholders. We should do a short squeeze like game. Now, that's my question. Does Aaron Rogers hate all of the shareholders individually, all the thousands of them? He just has a list of why he doesn't like them.

No, so I just, I think it's a, it seems a little bit personal right now. And maybe that that leak is just because he wants out and he wants to make sure that everyone knows it's, it's, you know, going to be acrimonious and all that. But this is, this is, this one from zero to 100 pretty quickly. So I want to walk through what happens next. Because here's the thing. He didn't get traded today. He's not getting traded this weekend because now it comes into what you say. Kevin dig their heels in.

But I want to read a couple quotes from that Schefter and Glazer reported. Schefter's original suite was, reigning MVP Aaron Rogers is so disgruntled with the Green Bay Packers that he has told some within the organization that he does not want to return to the team. League and team sources told ESPN. And then also

basically he's not coming back. Like he's not going to play. So Kevin, can we walk through what the hell actually happens next? Because I kind of want to go through these options. So like basically, the only way that there's actual leverage is holding out here.

So assuming he doesn't get traded before training camp, obviously it's the simplest resolution is there's June mini-camps, let's say skips that. He goes to training camp July 30th, whatever the date is. Can you walk us through the options here of like the reporting date and like the actual politics here of how this plays out? Well,

the actual kind of structure of it is it's a game of chicken. Like that's the technical term, right? Like this is a staring contest. because either he's going to show up or he's not. And it gets into a question that we've talked about a lot on this podcast, which is what would be fair value hypothetically for Aaron Rogers? If you called 31 other teams, and I put this on Twitter earlier today,

and it was interested to see the responses, but if you called 31 other teams and said, give me your starting quarterback and one first round pick, who says no? And I think it's the chiefs and the bills maybe, and then the chargers, I think, are, that's a meeting they have to have. And then I would, where would you put the Ravens there? Like the Ravens?

Wow. They have a meeting about it. They certainly have a meeting about it. That's the way, it's the collective way we weasel out of that discussion. But what happens now is we find out Aaron Rogers what his commitment is to this. And if you really isn't coming back, you know, listen, I'm surprised. surprised. I'm surprised at everything. Okay. I'm surprised at last April they took Jordan Love even though I predicted it before the draft. I'm surprised that, you know, I talked to Brian Goodenkinson,

October or something like that. And I said, hey, does this season that Aaron's having this MVP season? Because we knew it was going to be MVP season back then. Does this change anything with the timeline? And he was like, no, it changes nothing. We always, our goal is to just have quarterbacks on quarterbacks on quarterbacks, right? Like, their goal is to actually be what the Eagles said they were trying to be, which was a quarterback factory. Um, it's total Ron Wolf. It's total. I mean, there's a reason that that Brett Farf had so many amazing backups, right? They were always investing in the quarterback position and developing them. So that maybe a first round pick is too pricey, but we'll put that aside. Um, I would say beyond that, uh, and a lot of people on Twitter made this point where that's Greg

Rosenthal, um, again, Tom Silverstein made it, but, you know, they do have a pretty good roster. And the narrative that they haven't done anything to help Aaron Rogers is a little. little bit misguided. They do have an all pro left tackle, an all pro wide receiver. They hired a coach who ran an offense that Aaron Rogers wanted. They have a roster that could win the Super Bowl in theory. So I think it's not a bad situation if Aaron Rogers wants to run it back. It just comes down to something we don't know, which is does Aaron Rogers hate the Packers so much that he would rather retire than play there? To your point, Kevin, and talking about the narrative, they don't get him help. It's weird because in one hand, they have all pro left tackle and Bactiari. They have all pro

Devante Adams. On the other hand, D.K. Does last year's draft with the Packers where they take Jordan Love in the first round, you've got A.J. Dillon in the second. Not only were those guys not starters, they were in second string. They were, I mean, Jordan Love was inactive the entire season. It was the third string quarterback. Tim Boyle was second.

AJ Dillon's the third string quarter running back. Is that basically going to go down as like the worst draft any team's ever had? I mean, worst. Worst is maybe not the right word, but definitely like most antagonistic. Like, you know what I mean? And then after all this, like, you know, you could make the argument. Maybe he was doing this to be like, hey, take a freaking receiver in the first round.

They go and take a corner with their first round pick with Elijah Moore out there. You know, Terrace Marshall out there still. A couple of really good receivers, explosive receivers still on the board at their pick and they take a corner. So, you know, they obviously, what I wrote in my grade was like, this is clearly not like an olive branch, you know, pick where they're like, hey, we got to do. anything we can do to keep our guy and keep him happy and all that like that this is clearly they don't care or at least they their actions don't show that they didn't sign anybody you know any any big outside names and free agency in terms of the past catcher position um you know it's just bizarre to me like how they're treating this i will i will agree with kevin like they have a talented roster

but you know he's publicly lobbying for this he has been for like two years for like new more receivers more talent in the in the in the past catcher core and you know they just seem to be ignoring him so yeah I don't know how this is going to end up but it seems like he might be done there good and couldn't said that they only got one call and it was brief which seems to dovetail with the john lynch admission that they did call about the third pick for rogers and that they very quickly said no um so it sounds like the broncos and the panthers and some of these other teams just didn't even try and again it goes to our point that we're talking about which was if you drop this news three hours

for the draft, well, the Broncos are in the war room trying to figure out who they're in a draft with their top 10 pick. They can't say, they can't start doing thought experiments on what fair value would look like.

I mean, I'm surprised maybe the Panthers didn't get involved even with, I mean, here's my question, okay? If you have the opportunity to get Sam, if you have the opportunity to get Aaron Rogers on top of Sam Darnold, don't you do it?

Isn't the whole thing? What do you mean? One team called. How is that possible? I mean, that's what Goodn Kunt said. But no, no, but here's my question. If you're a team like the, the, the Panthers and you have a solution for 2021 right now, I guess, in theory, don't you just clear the decks? Because the whole thing with David Tepper is he's going to quote unquote move mountains to get a franchise quarterback.

Well, he doesn't have that right now. So there's your opportunity. And so the fact that I, listen, I've, I say this all the time, everybody gets mad at me. But like, you should be making these calls. Like you are, you're, I've said it for 20 players and I'll say for 20 more players. But if you're not calling about Aaron Rogers, I think you might be committing malpractice. You know, one exception. So Dave Gellman gets asked about it in the postgame post-draft press conference today.

And do you know what he said? No. They said, did you call about Aaron Rogers? And he said, quote, that's none of my business. I didn't call. Hi, Fitz is seething. I just don't know. I don't know why you wouldn't call.

is my question. I feel like I don't know as much about the NFL as I thought I did if that statement is true. It's easier to believe it's a lie. But the fact that if Good Kahn's actually got one call, I feel like I actually don't know anything about football. No, I think it's two separate things. Like we can sit here and say you should be calling and be the armchair quarterback. But on the other hand, I think that these guys were so laser focused on the draft that they had had the opportunity to do it. So I am of two minds here.

I agree with the sentiment that they should call. call, but I also agree with the sentiment that if it leaks five hours for the draft starts, you have your mind of the things. So there's a whole first round I want to get to. But before we do that, what happens next year? So, D.K., you're a Seahawks fan. You've had a lot of experience with holdouts and trade requests. Russell Wilson has like a fake trade demand list, whatever the hell he did early this season.

I mean, Cam Chancellor held out all time. Everyone on the Seahawks held that at some point. The thing with other positions is the date you actually have to show up is week one. and then you get fined and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. But, like, if the quarterback doesn't show up for training camp, the whole team is screwed. So is the actual date here? It's not week one.

Like, if Rogers doesn't show up for training camp, not only is you have to be willing to miss money, like is really July 30th or whenever training camp begins? Is that really the date for, like, the next deadline here for Rogers? It's a deadline. It's not the ultimate deadline. I think they could get through. And, you know, obviously,

some of the teams are still going to be doing, like, remote stuff and and all that while um you while everybody gets vaccinated and things like that but yeah i mean i think that's that is one date that they have to like kind of circle but ultimately yeah it's going to be much further closer to the to the season that's when you're like you'll see real action real real like quote like deadlines per action or whatever um i don't think it's just the start of training camp i don't think that will be a big enough trigger yeah i mean it comes down to whether Rogers is actually content to sit out and miss a lot of games and maybe pay back a portion of a signing bonus, which he seems stubborn enough to willing to do. And he can also do the Carson

Palmer and like fake retire until he gets trade. Like he has options. He's more than most people. I just want to make this quick. He also has the option to leave and become a game show host of even people were saying on Twitter, they didn't think it was going to be Jeopardy or whatever. But like, I'm sure like the Watt brothers hosted a game show last summer. Like I think Peyton Manning's hosting game show this summer. Like, I probably, you, Aaron Rogers can get work in Hollywood. I promise, I don't want to speak for anybody, but I promise you, I don't want to get in trouble with the, with, with, with upstairs.

We'd give him a ringer podcast. We would give Aaron Rogers a ringer podcast. We got ringer verse now. He loves that stuff. Aaron, right. Oh, my God. TV concierge with Aaron Rogers. Okay.

Let's get to the actual draft. NFC Norris sticking with this. The Bears traded up for Justin Fields. Yeah. Wow. Okay, so the actual trade was the Bears get number 11. The Giants, first trade to get back for Dave Gettleman ever, says the Giants got number 20 and a fifth rounder this year. They also got Bears 2020 to first next year and a fourth rounder next year.

D.K., what do you think? I mean, we'll get to the trade in a second. Justin Fields in Chicago, what does that do for you? Like, spiritually. I can't say I was excited. That was the landing spot for him. I think that was probably low on my list of places. is that he could go where I feel very confident he's going to have success in the NFL,

if I'm being honest. But yeah, so yeah, I guess like bottom line is I'm not very excited about the landing spot. I am excited that a team thought, you know, he was worth a future first to trade up for. You keep, you kept hearing stories where he's going to fall, he's going to fall. The NFL doesn't like this guy as much as, you know, draft Twitter and I like him. So that was kind of on my mind as the draft went on. He ended up being the fourth quarterback taken. So, you know, there was some validity to that.

But, you know, clearly the bears see this guy as a franchise changing, potential changing player. And they, you know, the bears give up a future first rounder. So this is what's interesting about that is like obviously with Pace and Nagy, they're sort of their backs are against the wall. So it's like, what's a future first if you're not going to be here in 2022? But at the same time, like this shows conviction. I like this move. I think it's a great move for them. I think it immediately raises their ceiling.

In 2021, it makes them a team that I think could challenge for the playoffs. I imagine he'll go in there and start right away. And he's got that he's got a good defense that he can use as a foundation. That's always a good thing for a young quarterback to have that. He's not going to be playing like having to play from behind big leads or sorry, big deficits every game. You know, that's where a lot of mistakes get made for rookie quarterback. So I think that's good.

He has a number one receiver in Allen Robinson. Yeah. You know, so there's some good things about this. Like obviously, Nagy doesn't have a good track record with quarterbacks there. And so that's like a worry to me, but, you know, it could be worse, I should, I would say. That's what I was going to ask when he say you weren't super jazzed about it.

Is it because there's some stylistic problem with Negi or is it just the psychic toll of playing for the bears? Bulls. Like, is it just a tough hang to just be there? Or is it like, are you worried that Nagy and him will gel? Yeah, no, I'm not worried about them jelling necessarily. Just like the track record there, obviously the Trubisky years have been tough with that offense. I would say, like, of the teams, I thought that were going to take a quarterback. So the 49ers, the Falcons, maybe the Panthers, the Broncos, the Patriots, the Saints, the Bears.

I would say the Bears were probably, like, lowest on that rung, that tier of teams I thought could take a quarterback in terms of, like, I'm excited that this guy is landing here. This is really good for him. Like the Broncos, they have all these playmakers. You know, they've got this young core. They have a good defense, all that stuff. So I was like much more excited about some of these other teams. But, you know, ultimately he does have that good defense to kind of give him that support.

To get a number one receiver. Their run game really clicked at the end of the season last year. So hopefully that will carry over. But I do think he can like change everything. You know, I think he's that level of a talent. So bottom line, I'm excited. to see what he does in Chicago. I'm shocked.

I got a poor one out for Robert Maze. I thought this was so much fun. Justin Fields is like the best quarterback the Bears have ever had maybe. I guess Jay Culper. Like this is unreal. This is so cool. This is like undoing the Mitchell Trubisky stuff

or not undoing it. You can have, but like at least learning for, this is fun. I think the Bears having a fun quarterback is cool. I'm shocked. I thought this was super exciting. I'm a little surprised.

Okay. Well, from like a success in year one point of view, do you think this is like an ideal spot for him? Are you just excited for the Bears? They don't have a great line. Is this a good landing spot? I mean, culturally, yeah, I think that the city of Chicago having a great quarterback is good for the NFL. Yes. I don't know if he's going to, like, I think it's good. Good for Alan Robinson.

Alan Robinson's probably doing tequila shots somewhere. What percentage is certain are you that he'll be a great quarterback? Me? That's a great question. D.H. just called him a great quarterback. I'm just. That's a good question. because I've completely changed my mind this offseason

and decided that landing spot is like 70% of it. So you're right that I don't have confidence in Nagy. So you're right. So actually, I'll throw it like, if he had gone to San Francisco, I would have said 85. Now that he's in Chicago, I'll call it 40. But he's undoubtedly going to be more exciting than anyone they've had since like when Kate Cutler was good.

I would like to see them invest in the line in the next two rounds, honestly. But otherwise, I won't be surprised if it's a really fun team. I'd be sort of surprised. Wow. Okay. We'll see. I don't know. Okay.

I think Justin Fields can be fun and the bears can be unfun as a whole. I mean, two things can be true. That's probably the correct take. Okay. So we are almost 25 minutes or issue to this podcast. We're contractually obligated to talk to about the Patriots before we hit the half hour mark. I think that's in writing. So the Patriots took Mack Jones.

D.K. After all that. After all that. after all that Mac Jones falls to the Pats at 15 there's a thousand ways into this

but I'm just curious I don't know like he was everyone jokingly I really have really seriously compared him to Tom Brady not from like the psych and winning thing but just his style to the pageants what do you think make of Mac Jones to New England

I think whoever started this whole thing that Mac Jones is going to go to the 49ers and be the third overall pick was like the best thing that could possibly happen to the Patriots because just brilliant because we've been completely gaslit into believing he's like this high level

quarterback he was never bad this whole thing has just been hilarious because he was never bad he was always to me sort of like a second half like back half of the first round type quarterback clearly in my mind he doesn't have the upside

of some of these other guys Tray Lance Justin Fields obviously Trevor Lawrence and Josh and Zach Wilson but I mean he was a, you know, very good, very successful quarterback for Alabama, put up ridiculous stats, elite ball distributor for that offense. I think that's exactly what, you know, in theory that Belichick is looking for, just like a guy who's going to go out there and run the offense, get the ball out,

quick processor, like, like, high fits, like you mentioned, he looks, he actually like looks like Tom Brady when he moves around in the pocket, like just physically. I'm not saying he's that. Is it because Tom Brady has the shirtless combine photo where he looks like a dweeb and then Mac Jones has that shirtless photo with the cigar who looks a little round. That's part of it. But his, like, just the way he moves. Also, I think, I heard this.

Like, he wears his socks the exact same way as Tom Brady. Like, he loves Tom Brady. And so, um, anyway, so this is, this is one of those situations. If we hadn't been talking about Mac Jones as the third overall pick for the last month and the 49ers had taken him at 15, I think people would be laughing. But now it's like, oh, this is a great value for them.

You know what I mean? So yeah, it's kind of funny that way. Kevin, over under six and a half Super Bowls for Mac Jones. Way under. I will say that I'm with Danny. When he started to slip, I started to feel bad for Mac Jones because he's not the one that put out that he's going to be the third pick, right? And then all of a sudden it becomes, oh, wow, he's sliding down. And there wasn't, you know, the Broncos weren't going to take, especially with fields on the board.

The Broncos are not going to take the leap. The Panthers weren't. So you kind of saw as soon as SF passed, you kind of saw, New England as the natural fit. I listened to an interview last month with Charlie Weiss, where he talked about how much he liked Mac Jones, and he made some interesting points. And listen,

this is not an endorsement of Mac Jones as a quarterback. I think he'll be fine. But Weiss was really high on him. First of all, he made the point that no one ding Joe Burrow for his superstar cast, and everybody did it for Mac Jones, which I thought was interesting. I think Joe Burrow obviously is much better.

But then he said that his mobility in the pocket is important, and then that having worked under Billiuchick what Belichick will do with any quarterback and this is a cliche with there's a cliche. What Belichick will do was, and this is a quote from Weiss, was take what you can do and do a whole lot of it. And he can hit guys accurately. He can find receivers. I mean, the problem is going to be the receivers just aren't good enough. He's going to have worse receivers than yet at Alabama. But I think that there's a case to be made that this is going to be fine.

I don't think this is a franchise changing pick or anything like that. But I think that they've raised their ceiling at the quarterback position. I think that he'll probably play over Cam Newton at some point this year. So I'm not too upset or anything like that thing. It's fine. I would have been, it would have been ridiculous if the Niners invested. three total first round picks into Mac Jones, but they didn't.

And now the whole shape of the trade, the whole shape of the first round changed. DK., do you think we get Mac Jones is just basically more like Brady, but it's the 01 to 06 Brady before he did the 50 touchdowns and became the current Brady? Because I feel like it was just a different error with Brady Manning. It was like it would be that version of Brady

and then maybe they'll have the team's success. Right. So like you're talking, he's more of a, in a game manager role, you rely on a very strong defense, all that. I think the difference will be in whether, you know, Mack Jones turns out to be an elite level quarterback is what he can do in crunch time. Obviously, Brady made his whole career just being this elite guy in the fourth quarter

and late in games on game winning drives, all that stuff, just ice cold. And, you know, I don't know. We'll see what happens with Mac Jones. I mean, he didn't face a lot of adversity playing for a juggernaut team like Alabama, you know, in terms of, you know, being the guy that has to, like, carry the offense and all that. So there's going to be a learning curve, I think, for him. He's another guy.

He's just like Trey Lance. He has 17 career starts, I believe, under his belt. You know, he hasn't thrown a ton of passes in his college career. So he's coming into the league pretty raw. They threw a lot of RPO's, like all this stuff. There's major concerns here. I think the accuracy, the processing, the decision making, all that stuff is very, very promising.

And, you know, I think what he did in that offense, especially after seeing you know, what, what Tua did this year, like basically, like, I think the, the fact that he, like, outplayed Tua, in a normal year, we'd be more excited. Not, he didn't outplay it, but he had, like, better stats than Tua. They won the national title. Like, in a normal year, had Tua maybe just sat this entire season with, you know, with his injury and not played relatively poorly, I bet we'd have a different opinion of Mac Jones right now. Like, we'd see him as this elite processor, this, this guy.

who can, you know, just distribute the ball, all this stuff, all the stuff that I said. I said it about Tua, you know, I think that we probably have a slightly different opinion on him, but like since Tua struggled this last year, and I think a lot of that was probably partly due at least to his injury and coming back from that. But, you know, I think that kind of, you know, it colored the narrative a little bit that way just because I think it sort of like made us rethink whether Alabama quarterbacks are that great. Yeah, it's interesting because I've done a lot of

research on the early part of Tom Brady's career. And I remember writing a couple years ago and looking through some of the old Boston Globe columns and gamers and stuff. And I remember Bob Ryan saying that Tom Brady paper cuts you to death. And it sounds crazy because, you know, 07 comes. They open it up. And he's, you know, throwing some of the prettiest deep balls we've ever seen in an NFL game. He's hitting Randy Moss, you know, down the sideline.

He's hitting West Welker over the middle of the field. But those early Tom Brady's, seasons, he was, that team was doing more with less. And a lot of that was the incredible defense. A lot of that, as you said, Danny was the clutch plays in the fourth quarter. So the Patriots can win with the quarterback who's not giving them a ton. And I, you know, Tom Brady's the greatest quarterback who's ever played the game. But he wasn't when he was 24 and 25. And the first year he was a starter. He had 18 touchdowns, 12 interceptions. He was pretty good. And so I don't think Mack Jones is going to go from paper cut you to death.

to the greatest quarterback for all time. What I can say is that Belichick, as is currently constructed, can win 11 games with a player like Mac Jones as long as everything breaks right. Yeah. I think that's a really good point. So while we're here, the other things, we thought Mac Jones was going to go to San Francisco.

Turns out that they went with Trey Lance. Deacon, what do you make of this? I feel like no one really knows who Trey Lance is. Everyone's kind of pretending. Yeah, I mean, there's, the reason being, part of the reason is he didn't play in 2020. I mean, we haven't seen him really since 2019. He did play one sort of exhibition game this season for the scouts and all that.

But he played, you know, at a lower level. He played, he hasn't played a year. In his college career, he's thrown like 318 passes, which is absurdly low number. And then if you go back even further into his high school career, he was in a run-heavy offense in high school too. So just overall, like from a just pure reps point of view, he is a very rare, rare prospect, rare quarterback, especially for a third overall, like, pick.

The lack of starts, lack of total starts on a quarterback's resume, is generally one of the biggest red flags for quarterback prospects going into the NFL. So I don't know, it's worrisome. I think the skill set that he brings, he's very athletic, he's very, you know, he's really in tune with like the, the type of offense that they're going to be running in San Francisco, like run heavy. He was part of a run heavy offense in college and high school.

He knows that. It's like natural to him. He's experienced like doing bootlegs, all that stuff. Everything that we've heard and the 49ers even came out and said this after the draft, I think that he's like the smartest quarterback in this class. Just like can go up and on the board, dissect a defense knows exactly what's happening with the defense.

It's extremely important for him to be able to hit the ground running in the NFL. And he's the type of guy who, you know, at North Dakota State, they prepped him basically. Like, this is what I heard in the pre-draft process. They, like, would go through every one of their days was like a normal practice in NFL. So he's like had that experience. He kind of like knows how it all goes and how it all works. So they obviously fell in love of the kid, you know. It's one of those things.

It's a cliche, but they fell in love the kid. And I think they think he's really smart. And he can pick up the. offense and he has the physical tools to do it. But you're absolutely right, though. Like at the end of the day, you know, we don't really know who he is because he's thrown so few passes and played in so few games. He didn't exactly like Mac Jones too.

Like he's he's played from behind rarely in his, in his college career. Like they were a juggernaut at that level. And he's like they never had to play from behind, hardly ever. So we're going to learn a lot of stuff about him as we go along, like what he's like in those crunch time situations when they have to play for. behind you know when when they're in a you know dire situation in the fourth quarter like we haven't really seen that so like yeah we don't know who he is but i think they they fell in love with the skill set and his his mind for football and i think that's what gave them the conviction

to move up so kevin you got me into formula one this year and one of the first things you told me about formula one no no no i'm going somewhere one the first thing you told me about formula one is like half the thing is just who's in the best car for all the talk we have probably more than half Yeah. More than half. All right, 80% whatever it is. For quarterbacks, is there a chance that for all the talk about Lawrence is generational and Fields is really good and Zach Wilson. Is the 49ers just the best car here and Trale Lynch just has to drive it? You're asking if Kyle Shanahan is Mercedes? Is that what you're asking? Is Kyle Shanahan Mercedes?

I just want to say I'm deep into Tom Brady's pro football reference page. The first time he had 100 rating or above, he was 30 years old. That's how much the game has changed. He was obviously amazing. They went 14 and 2, you know, when, when he was 26. But I'm just saying that was, his development was amazing and the game has changed. Okay. Back to your question.

So with Trey Lance, yes, and that's something that I've said, you know, the day of the trade, I said no matter what happens, this trade will look better than maybe it should have

because Kyle Shanahan's going to take whoever. I mean, it could have been Mac Jones. It could have been damn Kyle Trask, okay? And he's going to make those guys look better than they should. and I'm not saying Trey Lance is going to win a Super Bowl.

I'm not saying he's going to be an elite quarterback. I'm saying that Kyle Shanahan has made so many quarterbacks look good that Trey Lance, who I think has a lot of talent, a lot of skills, is going to look really,

really good in that offense. Because not only does a lot, do a lot of people look good in that offense, but he himself would look good on any offense. So I think you're combining Trey, Tray Lance's skills with the coaching staff that can elevate anybody,

and I like it. What else, What else I like? You know, Dimitrov came on our podcast a couple weeks ago, and he singled out, um, Shrey Lance is someone who could benefit from a Mahomesian Alex Smith type relationship. And he actually thought about Atlanta for that spot because back then we thought Mack Jones is going three. Um, but let's say Garoppolo really does stay.

And we've heard the, the Shanahan stuff about maybe he'll, maybe we'll be dead on Sunday or whatever. Um, and I, I assume that that means that they, right now, Shanehan came out. and basically said he'll be on the roster Sunday. There will be no trade. But I expect that at this point until training camp. And I expect them to at least start with two quarterbacks and maybe there's some mentoring going on. I don't know.

You know, I do think it's weird. You know, Alex Smith was at a different time in his career. It was a lot less, I guess you could say, sudden. He had a full year that they knew he was going to be starter. So it's a different situation. I guess they're going to have to feel out how. how much Grappolo wants to be the mentor. I mean, the Chief's thing, you know,

I remember going there in Mahomes' first year, and they basically said that Mike Kafka was Mahomes' personal coach, right, essentially, and that Alex Smith helped him with a ton of things, and that Andy and Matt Nagy basically handled Alex because he was the starter, right? And so if you're going to have that, if you're going to have the lances to back up, Grappalo's the starter thing, you better have a real plan. I'm sure they will because it's a great coaching staff.

Well, you better have, I mean, everything, every step, every throw, every practice rep was totally scripted perfectly because they knew they had to handle that situation with Alex Smith and Mahomes. And so if that happens this year, they better have a good plan for it because it can be interesting. And the other part of it, by the way, which I don't know how this would play out. When people saw Mahomes in practice, they were like, Oh, Mahomes should be the starter now. Like week three, they're looking at it and saying, oh, wow. And if that happens in this situation where it's not Alex, it's Jim and Garoppolo, does Kyle Shanahan, because of the investment, want to go there?

What happens then? I just think there's more questions and answers going into the season now. But, you know, Trey Lance is better pick the Mack Jones. So that's the, I think those are the quarterbacks that I think we're surprising. I think Lawrence and Wilson are kind of shock. So I honestly, I don't think it's that interesting. The most interesting non-quarterback thing that happened here, I think the Eagles getting Devante Smith and they're leaping ahead of the Giants to do that.

D.K., how, I mean, they kind of had to do this, right? Well, yeah, because there was so many rumors out there that the Giants love Devante Smith. We don't know for sure if that's, like, true. But obviously, the Eagles felt that it was at least real enough to like make this little move, jump up, to go over the Eagles, get their guy. Like we talked about DeVarthe Smith for the last month as like a big target for them. And so, you know, this wasn't a big surprise. I think it makes a ton of sense.

I think he's a perfect fit for that offense, what they want to do. He's like their number one. You can move Rager over. He can be like a natural number two. I never really thought Rager was like the number one type of playmaker. Like that would be the go-to guy, like the Devante Adams or whatever. So I think getting Devante Smith in there gives them that go-to guy. Good compliment to Rager.

a good compliment to Dallas Goddard in the middle of field. It really helps Hertz in year one, I think. I think that Smith is the type of receiver that can hit the ground running and play significant snaps as a rookie. And so I think everything just made a lot of sense. Eagles fans were going to riot. I think if they drop back too far, missed out on Devante Smith, missed out on Jalen Waddle. So I don't know if this was like a, was this a PR move to like move up two spots and grab them? Maybe, but they definitely, you know, were, I think, aggressive in a good way.

Look, here's what happened. The Eagles benched Jalen Hertz, played Nate Sutterfeld, got lost the game, got a better draft pick, went back, got an extra first rounder, and then still managed to get the Heisman Trophy winning wide receiver at the position their fans wanted. Kevin, do you think that teams are more willing to tank in week 17? Not the whole season. Do you think teams will be more willing to throw games in week 17 for better draft position after watching how the Eagles just, did this draft. I saw a tweet from, I think it was a Raiders writer who talked about how when we thought Rogers was going to be a Bronco there, when Mark Schlaherth had that, that

the Raiders won a game in Week 17 that would have, and obviously the Raiders don't want to spend the money and don't have the money, the capability to fit a player like Rogers. But, you know, draft position matters. In fact, that the Raiders won a Week 17 game, like, it comes back to bite you. And I think that part of the problem with Week 17, Danny, is like, It's embarrassing because so many of those guys in an unguaranteed contract league, they do not want to take plays off. They do not want to have any game film where it looks like they're lolly gagging. I know this sounds ridiculous, but like these dudes care and they do not care about, you know, next September. They don't know.

Most of them, unless you're a starting quarterback and in the Eagles case, not even then, you have no job security in this league. league. And so I think that you would have to do something like the Eagles deal with Nate Sudfeld, which I think the players find embarrassing. And we saw that with some of the comments after the game where was players saying, hey, we're, you know, we're, we're going to, we don't think about the future. You have to build a culture and all that stuff. And I think that that's, that's really important. So I think, you know, we've seen some more subtle tanks in the NBA. Obviously, we've seen some out and out tanks. But I also think that we might see more like, hey, let's just sit these guys or, you know, before the game.

Like, I don't think it's going to be so overt like it is in some other leagues. But I think that the thing that keeps NFL teams from tanking, tanking is that players just don't want to give up a rep, basically. I think you're right. I mean, the difference is you can play casual basketball. Like, you can't play football at anything less than full speed. And I think you're totally right. Like, these guys don't care. The thing in the NBA is you can just sign a bunch of guys from the G League and just throw them out in Crunchtime.

time. That's easy. And football, either everybody notices or you just can't do that with the Ross. I mean, guys get, I think they can learn from the NBA with like shutting guys down for the season when it's kind of iffy. Like, listen, I'm going to land a magic fan. I've seen some tanking basketball. If NFL teams need tips on how to tank, I can easily let them know. You know, if someone's got a sore wrist, oops, sorry, they're out a month. I've always said the magic were thought leaders. When Rob Hennigan, the GM got fired from the magic, he went to the thunder and his, title at the Thunder is Director of Insight and Foresight.

Wow. Maybe that's what John Gruden's new title will be for the Raiders. So speaking of the Raiders, great. Let's just, the Raiders are mind-blowing to me. D.K. So John Gruden, again, John Gruden goes to the Bucks,

gets traded from the Raiders to the Bucks like 18 years ago, wins the Super Bowl with the Bucks, with a rostering inherited, littered with Hall of Famers. Since then, since winning that with a team he inherited, he has 16 games under 500 with the bucks. It gets $100 million over 10 years to run the Raiders. And then since then, here are the Raiders draft picks since John Gruden has taken over this team. They have taken in the first round, they took Colt Miller from the Raiders.

Or sorry, Colt Miller from, I think UCLA. Cleland Farrell in the first round in 2019, Josh Jacobs and at box safety, Jonathan Abrams. them. And then they took Henry Ruggs and a receiver and Damon Arnett, cornerback last year. Now they take Alex Leatherwood. Do any of these picks make, what are the Raiders doing? They make sense only in the theory that they

only watch the college football playoff. Just Clemson. More than half of their picks are just Clemson or Alabama. More than half. It's bizarre because it feels like they don't pay attention to the, I don't know if this matters, but they don't pay attention to sort of like the consensus areas that all these players

are expected to go. I can't speak to what every team was going to do and what every team, where every team had Alex Leatherwood on their board. But when you have this track record of so many players being perceived as massive reaches,

it's, it makes me think it's the Raiders. It's not me. It's the Raiders, it's not like everyone else. You know what I mean? It's like the principal Skinner thing or whatever. It's like, oh, it's the children that are wrong. So it's like, I don't know, you know, I don't think this is a massive reach. I don't think it's a terrible move.

I think Alex Leatherwood is a good player. And, you know, he's a solid addition to their offensive line. They had a needed offensive line. But I think he's the type of a player where you say, hey, you guys should trade back and take him at the back hand of the back half of the first round because that was the overwhelming consensus of where he was going to go. And so, you know, I don't know. It's just, it's a, it's a pattern.

with this team. Almost all those picks that you mentioned were perceived as massive reaches. They don't seem to have a good grasp on positional value. And so, yeah, I mean, there's a lot of reasons to be concerned as kind of like the way that they're building this thing out. It reminds me a little bit of, there's another Simpson's line. I'm going to paraphrase it, where Homer was basically like explaining the concept of money to himself.

or he was just like, his brain was like, money can be exchanged for goods and services, right? And like, I don't know if it's positional value as much as it is. Like someone should just give them a PowerPoint on, on what they could get. You know, like, you guys could get more draft picks and get more Alice Leatherwoods, you know?

Yeah, yeah. And so when I see this, you know, listen, I'm a lot more comfortable. And I think we all should be. I'm a lot more comfortable criticizing teams when they don't know how to play the draft or they reach or they could have gotten a guy 30 slots later and they took him here or whatever. I'm a lot more comfortable with that than saying this player sucks, right? Like I just think that that stuff is a little more unknowable and there's so many scheme things that go into it.

And there's so many personality things that go into it and work ethic and all that stuff. And so it's easier for me to sit here and say, you know, a good example is the Giants taking Daniel Jones, right? And then they kind of made up that there were a bunch of teams behind them. They're going to take Daniel Jones. Diana Rusini comes out and says, no, that wasn't going to happen. happened the Giants reached, right? The Raiders seem to do this every single year. Every time.

Every pick. Every time. And it's just to me, why don't they become almost what kind of the 2000s, 2010s Patriots were where they're just trading back 15 spots all the time and collecting so many picks? And listen, John, Mike, if you want to pick all of these guys in the college football playoff, you can get more of those guys in the second round. If you take the first round pick and turn them into second and third round picks and there's more of those guys,

you can just go and just pop in the college football, playoff VCR and just point at all these guys, take them the third round. I just think that this, I don't want to come off as, as anything other than just disappointed that they seem to, in, you know, what year four of the Gruden era,

they just seem to not have a grasp on what the modern draft is all about. And I just wish, you know, they do have an analytics department. They do, Gruden is a little more savvy on, on some things and he lets on, but this is not one of them. You just hit the nail on the head.

They don't have a grasp on the modern draft. Guess what? What was the knock on Gruden and Mayak when this happened? It was, have they been out of the game too long? Guess what? Every single move suggests that they have. And you know what? Here's the thing.

Gruden was, again, $100 million for 10 years, basically an unprecedented contract for a coach. He runs the entire organization. There's seven years and maybe $70 million left. It's guaranteed. Mark Davis, first of all, the owner, Mark Davis, He doesn't have the cash to just fire Gruden, pay $10 million a year to not coach the Raiders.

He's locked in. This has Titanic vibes. Like, long sinking ship here. Like, I don't understand how they haven't been above $500 yet. I don't know if they see a way out because they seem to just be squandering all these picks. And they're paying $0.30 cents on the dollar for all these players. And the free agency is a disaster too.

They're paying premium prices to fix holes that he created. And none of the solutions are, working. They keep throwing players at cornerback. None of them are working. They signed Lamarcus Joyner. He ends up being the worst slot defender in the entire NFL last season. I don't understand how this continues if they don't win. If they don't have a winning

record this season, like, what do you do? With six years left on his deal, can a year? Can you do anything? Yeah. I have some good news. They can't go eight and eight again. There you go. Bonus. Maybe that's what they can tell the tanking players. Hey, you don't have to players your ass off in week 17, but the week 18, don't even

show up, but don't worry about it. They've gotten better every year. Four wins, seven wins, eight wins. That's called an upward trajectory, Danny Hyatt. You're right. I'm just being too negative Nancy here. Okay. Let's end on a good note, though,

because I think this was overall really fun, cool night. I think that there is a, there are more storylines entering this season than like, fun ones than I can ever remember, honestly. Sure. I want to end with this, like, really bizarre, cool pattern that is now from this draft,

which is Joe Burrow for the Bengals is now going to be throwing to Jamar Chase who they had like this record breaking season together now they get to play together in Cincinnati. The next pick is and that's a national championship team duo of Burrow and Waddle. The next of DuBurrow and Chase the next pick is Tua and Jalen Waddle

who also won a national championship together and then later the Jaguars at Travis ETN to go with Trevor Lawrence which is another national championship duo. The last like this is an understanding Unbelievable. DK. How, I mean, look, running back at quick, I don't care about the running back value thing.

This is just cool. Do Hertz and Devante, or not, yeah, Hertz and Devante Smith counters too also? Oh my God. I didn't even think about that. Four. That's insane. I didn't even think about that one. That's four reunions from like not all national championship teams.

I kind of love that. I kind of love that. Insane. Yeah. It's great, man. It's, uh, so like getting to individual picks. I love the chase pick. for for the Bengals I probably if I was them I would have gone Sewell just because I think like

human beings that move like him and that can block like him are just harder to find in the world generally speaking than then like a fast very good receiver there's just more more receivers this year or every year seems like so I don't know that was like my personal opinion however it's very hard for me to nitpick because chase is awesome he's like an extremely talented pass catcher he's going to raise the ceiling of that offense a lot I think and then putting him in an offense with T. Higgins, Tyler Boyd, and Joe Mixon is like, this is already one of the most exciting young,

like, skill position groups in the NFL, and that's exactly what you should do for a young quarterback. Like, take some pressure off of him. I know that they've got to figure out their offensive line stuff. But I think, you know, overall just, man, that's super exciting. The Waddle thing, I think, is interesting because now you got elite, elite speed in that offense. You got Will Fuller, you have Waddle, and then matching those two guys up with DeMonte Parker and Gisicki.

It's just a good mix, I think, of, like, talent and skill sets. And I think that's going to really help in year two. So really like those two. And then obviously the ETIN thing, I think, is interesting, you know, especially for a team coming off of a season which they got elite production from an undrafted free agent running back. Like, why would you spend a first round pick on a running back? but it's fun, you know, from like an actual watching football point of view. You know, he's an explosive guy.

They obviously have a ton of experience together, Lawrence and ETIN, so he could be like a natural outlet for him when pressure comes. And so overall, you know, those are all just really fun picks. I think it's going to be fun to watch these guys in league. I cannot wait. So, what, did you want to go, Kevin? You, I was wondering if you need medical attention. You were just so excited about the college teammates.

It's so cool, man. The only thing that's a downer is urban-wise. How about Kyle? How do you feel about Kyle Murray, just on the outside looking in, not getting C.D. Lamb last year. I mean, I mean, you know what? He probably can't see over the window is honestly how I do about that. Oh, wow. It's low-hanging fruit, but that's what he needs, right?

Okay. Done there. Oh, my goodness. Two short jokes right now. Right, yeah. Danny, how tall are you? Barely, basically the same is Kyle Murray. So, you know, it takes one to know one.

It's fine. I couldn't play quarterback either. So either I like I don't know why I don't know why that What does podcast develop into? Where did we get it?

I like Kyler Murray. He's played chess and they can kick my ass at chess. Anything else you guys want to talk about before we get out of here? It's just overwhelming the amount of stuff that just happened. I don't even know where to start. That was a lot. Okay.

I think that's all we got. Thank you so much, D.K., thank you to Kevin. Thank you to our producers, Isaiah Blakely and Arjuna Ramgapal. Thank you for listeners for the rear NFL show. We will have episodes.

Tomorrow is going to be Nora Kaelin and Roger are going to be on tomorrow night. Dek and I will be back on Saturday when the draft is over giving our awards on the whole weekend. And then Kevin and Nora are going to be here on Monday. And then every Monday in the month of May and June. I'm on Roussela tomorrow as well. And you're on Rusillo tomorrow. And then you can also catch Dekan on Ringer Fantasy Football Show one more episode after the draft. And then we'll be back later in June.

And then yeah. And then so we're going to go now. Kevin, you did an interview with Baker Mayfield this week. We're going to play that next. Anything you want to plug on that? Anything you want to tease? A good interview. Great interview.

He was really good. I had to be and doing it. I just said, hey, Baker, talk. And then he was like, great stuff. No, he was really, really good. I did not have to do a whole lot of work on the interview. He totally good sport, understood the show, had some real interesting insights on the draft, on the Browns,

on what he's looking forward to this year, and his UFO sighting, which is important, I think. There we go. All right. Everyone enjoy that. Thanks for stick around. We'll see you guys tomorrow. All right, Baker Mayfield, one of the best quarterbacks in football,

former first overall pick, delivered the Cleveland Browns to the promised land of the playoffs last year. Welcome to Solniews day. What's going on, man? I appreciate you having me. Not much, you know, just kind of hanging out, working out and living life. All right, so you're here on behalf of Body Armor. We're going to get to that. I want to start you off big picture.

It's draft week. I'm curious as someone who went through the whole process, and I was looking at all the reports leading up to your first overall selection, and there were about 500 different reports, oh, this guy's going here, this guy, Baker's going to slip here, whatever it was, you end up going first overall. When you're in it, when you're in the middle of it, Baker,

what's the one thing we don't know about going through that draft process when you're a top quarterback? Oh, I just think, you know, the details of these interviews and the process these teams go through, these background checks, and, you know, finding out stories

from when you're in middle school. And, yeah, I mean, like, just to kind of find out who you are as a real person, like your real character. Because like these, I mean, it's an interview process. So like you can say one thing. And if you don't mean it, teams will find out. Like they always have a way of finding the truth out.

So you'll get asked about everything during that process. But then when it comes down to it, I think mentally I was in a good place because I did everything I could during these interviews and workouts. But then leading up to the, you know, the week of the draft, there's nothing else I could do at that point. to improve my stock. Like, everything was already in place. It was out of my control. So I kind of just, you know, relaxed on that, tried to,

and enjoy being around family and friends. But it's a very scrutinizing process, that's for sure. When did you know you were going to Cleveland? I, you know, good thing you brought up, you know, all those articles, because the day of the draft, like the morning of, there was all those articles saying that I was going to Cleveland. But I hadn't heard anything from anyone in Cleveland. so I wasn't going to believe in it.

I didn't want to get my hopes up to then be disappointed. So I didn't know until I got the phone call from John Dorsey. Wow. Wow. Yeah, because I just remember that process and all the names that were connected at one. It was just crazy. If you were the commissioner of the NFL or just put in charge, could wave a wand and could change one thing about the draft process, what would it be, Baker?

Oh, I don't know. I feel like the anticipation, you know, after one pick and then leading up to the next, I feel like it's a pretty long process. Yeah. But I do realize that it's, I would make it shorter, but I don't think that would be a good thing because all these teams are having to, you know, evaluate these guys.

And if somebody comes off the board, then they have to go to a different plan. So I think it's a pretty special weekend, the fact that it's, you know, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and everybody just, you know, they're waiting for that name to be called. Yeah.

By the way, if you see some of the takes, and I'm sure you have, yeah, the process is too long, okay? Like the last two weeks, you start walking at TV. Okay, no, we need to shorten this process, whatever it is. Have you seen any of the top quarterbacks? Have any of them jumped out at you this year, Baker? I think it's an extremely talented group.

I think it's, you know, pretty similar to my class that was coming out. I think there's some really good guys. I think there's a lot of raw talent. Obviously, Trevor is very unique and very special. And I think that's one thing that he's known. He's been going number one overall for a long time now. And that's a unique thing in itself. So I just think it's fun to kind of see how, you know, the rest of it's going to play out.

I think there's going to be some trade-ups and some some hecticness, craziness that's going to go on. But that's what makes it fun. So you bring winning football to Cleveland over the past year. And not just you, but it's a great team, coaching staff, you know, front office, all that stuff. But obviously it wasn't a normal year because, you know, wasn't full fans in the stands. You couldn't see everybody on the street. But was there an interaction that stands out or a moment? moment for you where you understood the gravity of what it meant to get Cleveland winning football.

I mean, again, it's not the same. People can't grab you and hug you on the street or whatever. But I'm sure you had some interactions. What sticks out when you think about that? Yeah. I mean, it was a first I'd say that we had a really special group. And for us really not to be able to get together like in the locker room, we had to be all separate.

But I think that was to me, that's the, you know, the biggest regret that I'll have, even though that's out of my control. We had a great group, but I think, you know, between coming home after the Pittsburgh wild card game, clinching the playoffs at home versus Pittsburgh, they played like an old highlight tape and had, you know,

the Cleveland Rock song going on. And then even after we lost the Chiefs, we were all so angry as players and staff, like, you know, we wanted to win. Plain and simple, but when we got back home, there were a ton of fans waiting at the airport. And to me, that says a lot.

You know, they were so proud and happy to be along that journey with us. And even though we lost, they wanted to show their support. And I think I'd say that's probably the biggest moment. But that's why I keep telling people, you know, let's set a new standard and expectation around there that we want to create that winning culture. So the NFL has said they expect full stadiums in the fall. What's the number one thing you're looking forward to just when you get to see all of the Browns fans, get that full experience after experiencing what you experienced last year? the Browns fans are so unique in a sense that it's generational.

It's a ton of families that have passed on season tickets for years and years. And so I think for a lot of these fans that haven't been able to enjoy football in Cleveland for a long time, I'm excited to hear those stories and see them truly enjoy it and to have our stadium rock and when teams come to play us. So obviously last year, last off season, as you alluded to, completely abnormal, couldn't get together with for OTAs, mandatory mini-camp, all that stuff. Even the training camp was weird. This year it's going to be a lot of the same.

There will be a mandatory mini-camp, but it's just going to be a little bit stilted. As far as getting better at being a quarterback right now, what is the most important thing? What are you working on? And how do you adapt that for the fact that, okay, you're not going to be able to get 22 guys in the field or play seven-on-seven like you normally would

on a facility over the off-season? What stands out there, Big? For me, I found a great routine last off-season, you know, being, living at home in Texas and getting into a good workout routine, a good nutrition plan, hydration, finding those things out what works for me and continuing that. And so I was able to, you know, get a much bigger head start on it this off season. And then going into year two of this system with the same staff to clean up all those details and truly grasp our offense and, you know, learn how to completely control it,

all the little things, you know, iron those out on all these details because when we hit the ground running, like, we'll get the skill guys together and we'll throw and we'll do all that. But, you know, for me, mentally to have complete control of it, I think is the biggest thing this offseason for me. All right. This is important. So you've quoted Ron Swanson in a press conference for you've quoted Dwight's you work this stuff in. Is there a show that you have not worked into a press conference that you're trying to work in? It'd probably be my all-time favorite Seinfeld that I would, to work in maybe a Kramer reference. That would be good.

Okay. Okay. So that's our project for 2021 is working some signfield? Yeah. I think that might be it. Maybe a little Larry David quote, something like that. Oh, man. Larry David's a huge NFL fan.

He is. There might be something there. How do you decide when you work in a Ron Swanson, when you work in a Dwight True? How do you decide how to work that in? And is it just because you were watching something the day before? How does that even happen? No, it's not up to Mike.

control of what I'm supposed to say. That is the QB room. They, they vote on the quotes of the week and have to try and fit it in. Luckily, some of these questions set it up for a natural response. Well, somewhat natural response. It's all, Ron Swanson is always natural. Let's get that, let's make that clear. Ron Swanson can fit into anything. All right. I know you talked about this yesterday, but I do want to address it with as much detail as you can. Explain the UFO sighting. driving home from dinner, my wife, nighttime, the music going, it's dark outside, and just a perfect white, gold circle, like ball dropping straight down and going very quickly. And I've seen comments, I've seen shooting stars, and it wasn't that, it's way bigger, there was nothing trailing it.

It was just the circle itself coming down. And, you know, it had to turn the music down and kind of looked at her, like, did you just see that? Yeah, and we weren't going out looking for it. We weren't doing that. It just kind of happened. So some skeptics come out of the woodwork and say, okay, as you alluded to, it could be a shooting star, could be a drone, could be a weatherboy,

it was none of those things. No, I truly believe it was UFO. Okay. Last thing here, before we get into a couple of the standard stuff here, is the mustache ever coming back? We'll see. You know, it's, we'll see if I can control. control that power. You know, the power of a mustache is pretty severe. So not, not everybody

can harness it. I had one last summer and then Jeff Fisher came on this show and said it was a bad mustache. And I had to go. It had to go. When Fisher says that, I was about to say, I mean, that's like, when, yeah. Fish says that, yeah, you got to get rid of it at that point. I mean, that's like if you're a quarterback and you get ripped by like Tom Brady, right? Like, he's the, he's the master of the mustache and you just have to listen to him in those sort of situations. Tell us what you're doing with body armor. So body armor, you know, it's extremely fortunate and blessed to be, you know, a partner of theirs. And we just did something very special. The one more campaign, it's about getting one more rep in, doing the extra things, the little things to where, you know, you can raise that level of play, your training and everything.

And it's body armor itself, the product is unbelievable. I truly do believe in it. That's why this partnership started. and, you know, no added artificial sweeteners, none of that, no extra sugar. Like, it's so good for you. And for me, that's so important. But the mentality that, you know, started it was Kobe Bryant was a huge partner for body armor. And I was such a huge Kobe fan.

And, you know, that competitive spirit, all things kind of align for it. But this one more campaign just kind of sums all that up. And you think about all the names that were involved in this commercial that's coming out. It's pretty special. Lukie Betts, James Harden, Trey Young, Sabrina, Naomi. I mean, it's just Christian McCaffrey. It's a widespread group of athletes that have a huge impact on the world.

And I think that's so special that they did something and accomplished this to, you know, to show the importance of how to work hard, train hard, and fuel your body, right, and see what happens. Definitely. All right. Last two things. Number one, we do a thing called Club Kevin. It is just whoever is your favorite person in the world this week. Whoever crushed it, could be some TV that you watch,

could be a movie you just recently saw, whoever you think is winning the week. Ooh, this week. Fernando Tatis. Ooh. Okay. He's crushing it right now. I mean, five home runs and three games versus the Dodgers,

getting a little payback on Trevor Bauer. I think that rivalry with the Dodgers and Padres is pretty special. So I think it's exciting. what he's doing for baseball, bringing that fire and energy back to it. All right. Baker Mayfield, body armor. Thank you so much for joining Sloaneers Day. I appreciate it.

Thanks, ma'am.