The Ringer NFL Show - The Patriots Ship Brandin Cooks to L.A. and RG3 Finds a New Home With the Ravens | GM Street (Ep. 251)

Episode Date: April 4, 2018

The Ringer’s Michael Lombardi and Tate Frazier discuss the Patriots trading Brandin Cooks to the Rams (07:15) and Lamar Jackson as the wild card among quarterbacks in the draft (20:30). Then they discuss the return of RG3 as a backup for the Ravens (34:20). You can find the official Ringer merch store here: http://bit.ly/ringershop Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

On today's episode of GM Street, we will discuss the past decision to ship Brandon Cooks off to Los Angeles, RG3 and his new home with the Ravens, and all the big stories going on in football. As always, we are brought to you by the Ringer podcast Network, where you can listen to the Ringer's official golf podcast Shackhouse. It has several episodes this week from the Masters, live from Augusta with Bill Simmons. And be sure to check out the Ringer.com where you can read my other podcast partner, Mark Titus's article in Villanova's win over Michigan and the national title game. Sorry, Blue. And now, let's get on with GM Street. Welcome to GM Street part of the

Ringer Podcast Network. It is Wednesday. It is April. It is April 4th. And I am joined by the great Michael Lombardi. Lombardi. How are you doing? Tate Frazier, I'm honored to be here with you. I'm disappointed. Titus gets a t-suit next to you. I get a Charlotte Hornets T-shirt. Like, you know, it's like stuff that's not fair. Sometimes you have to dress to impress, and I don't do that very often. You did. But I'm happy that I got to wear a tuxedo. I was a nice. I was a little worried when I saw a picture on Twitter, I thought Titus was wearing white socks with that tux, but then you corrected me, so I feel a lot better about it. It was Larry Bird was on the socks, so that's why a lot of people thought he had white socks on, because Larry Bird, you know, the Great White Hope himself

on his socks, but, you know, Titus was very proud of those Larry Bird socks. Yeah, and you, and neither of you were able to secure a tie from the great Jim Nance? No, we tried our best. We tried our darnest. Jim Nance, we were talking about this last night. Jim Nance has had such a great week, you know, this is, this is this time of the year, this is Nance time. This is when he's all over the national title game in the final four. These are these are his many oh my moments and then he has the masters coming up. But the tie presentation didn't get the love of deserved, right? I don't think

it did. No, it really didn't. I mean, I was disappointed in. I would have liked the scene the whole thing. I missed it. I don't know if it was that on or I went to Homeland or I went to a show that too quickly. I don't know. Maybe I started watching billions. I just gave up on it. Well, the problem is Philadelphia basketball is too good right now because Phil Booth, another guy that deserves some mic time, was trying to give

a shout out and it kind of ruined the presentation for Nancy to give his tie. So he's only sports is just really good right now. You got the Eagles and got their trophy and Villanova's got their trophy out on the main line. And you saw what Barclay said. Barclay said that it's time for the 76ers to win the NBA title. It is time. I mean, it's good. Eleven straight? Are you proud? I'm, I'm optimistically excited. I really am. Without Embed the other day. Without Sarge last night? Without Sarge last night. I mean, Foltz was actually back playing. I never thought he would come back this year. So,

yeah, I'm encouraged. I think Simmons is great, though. I really do. I think Simmons is great. I think he's unbelievable. We've been trying to find the next LeBron James for a long time, and he may be the one that has the physique to be that finally. Yeah, I mean, he's so long, he gets to the rim. I mean, once he develops even just a 15-foot shot, I mean, it's really, he's kind of like Inspector Gadget with those arms. He's kind of got, it's a unique game. I mean, I'm happy. It's awesome. It'll make, it'll make playoff basketball around here now fun for me because I, you know, in the past, you never had that opportunity. So I just wish they would get those white uniforms or that Philly thing. I'm not a big fan of those.

It's always something, yeah. You have two backup point guards right now. You have Marco Fultz and T.J. McConnell. That's a joy. Yeah, no, it is good. Those are great backups. They really are. I mean, Fultz has surprised me how well he's played.

He really has. He surprised me how well he's played. I've been encouraged by him. I know. It's good for the number one pick to prove everybody wrong, and that's always fun. But let's talk about... Let's talk a master's. Quickly, you want to talk about the master?

I really want to do it, because this is the greatest week of all time. I mean, there's nothing. I'm not a golfer. My two sons play golf. They love golf. But I've never been to the Masters because it's always been around draft preparation time. And, you know, I've never really experienced it from on the grounds. But from afar, I think it's just like it's the greatest tournament of all to watch it.

Tiger back this year. I mean, you know, Freddie will probably shoot Thursday and Friday being right in it. We're going to have so many Freddie couples, you know, Thursday Friday moments at those show. And they got the great James Nance giving us the coverage. And I think it's awesome. I think this is really, I hope Mickelson, Pletka. the level he was been playing before, and some of those young guys keep playing. And Tiger out there, I mean, who could ask, CBS is happy.

They are very happy. There's been so many storylines going into it because all the best players are playing well right now. I mean, there's been leaked reports. You know, Phil Mickelson, I think, had five straight birdies from 13 going in the other day in his practice round. Tiger Woods is, you know, now become a 10-to-one, odds favorite to win the Masters, which is crazy. If you told someone in 2015, they would never believe that. Dustin Johnson's number one player in the world. And he's never one of green jacket. and he's never one of a green jacket

and people have sort of forgotten about him. And you would think he would dominate that course being long. Of course. What Nance always told me about the course was it's more wide open than it appears on television. So, but you know, you would think Johnson would do it. But look, it'll be a fun time. It's great. You can watch it.

I'm excited for it. Dustin Johnson, a Myrtle Beach, South Carolina native. He is a great golfer. I'm pulling for him. Then Roy McElroy is trying to win his first green jacket, Jordan's Pith. There's so many storylines in golf. It's going to be fun. Jim Nance, I'm just, you told me a story about Jim Nance having the, the,

the seventh hole at Pebble Beach in his backyard in Carmel, California. Jim was, Jim's been a very close friend of mine for a long time when we were together at CBS, and he graciously, he had a home, he has a home out at Pebble Beach, which is his home is the greatest place. It's the Madison Square Garden of Golf. Yeah, and he's always wanted to live there, and he has a beautiful home with his wife and his two young children, and behind his home, he has the seventh tea.

If you watch the commercial with Phil Mickelson and Bones up on a tea, and Peyton Manning comes out in his bathrobe, you know, with a cup of coffee. That's Jim's house. And he's replicated the seventh hole at the pebble in his backyard. It's the part three that's 90 yards downhill. That's where he got married on that hole. So he replicated in his backyard with an elevated tea.

He's got all the balls there, clubs. And you can just sit up. My two sons went out there. You said there were tidalist golf balls there. Tidalist. Fake balls, but they're rubber balls, right? Don't want to break any windows. You want to break any windows.

And you've got the master's music playing in the background. I mean, there's really nothing like it. It's a day unlike any other, truly is. Yes. Oh, my. When you spend the day with James Nance at his, and this will be, I still contend he needs to write a book about this week in sports from the Thursday before the final four until he presents the green jacket. There's nothing better. There's nothing better.

And we know this week, you know, college basketball is taking your attention. The masters will take your attention. But Bill Belichick and the New England Patriots, talk about that segue right there. They're trying to get your attention too because they're making big moves. I think this whole off season has gotten everybody's attention. I think I've never seen a time where people have been with. willing to trade more than they are now. I think there's been more stuff going on behind the scenes.

I mean, look, I was talking to Gil Brandt when I was driving over here today, and I asked Gil, who's a resident historian of all the trades, he goes back a long, long way in the league. And I said, have you ever seen a player in two consecutive years? And I haven't researched this, so maybe somebody who's listening could tell me if I'm wrong. But a player's been traded for a one in two consecutive years. Brandon Cooks gets traded for the 31st, 32nd pick last year. The Patriots give it up along with some other things.

And then this year he gets traded for the 23rd pick. He's gone, you know, he didn't have a bad year, but there's something that I've never seen that before. Like usually when you give up a one for a player and the player has a decent year, you say to yourself, okay, fine, we're going to go all the way in with this. But I think there's a lot here that doesn't meet the eye. Because you would think that his value would decrease if the team that just traded a first for him wants to trade him again, but he goes for the 23rd pick this time around. The Rams make the trade. They get the vertical threat. We remember they lost Sammy Watkins, who they wanted to keep to be that

guy. He goes to the Chiefs. Everybody said, that's all over Twitter. The Rams get the vertical threat. That's perfect. Because, you know, do you know how many throws golf attempted last year over 20 yards? Not too many. 149. He did over 10 yards. Okay, 144 I mean, all his throws are under 10, and he was 69 for 149, had 1744 yards. Now, he threw six touchdown, only one interceptions. So, like, for all the talk about having a vertical receiver in the Rams offense, I mean, they didn't really, their offense is screens, play action, throw the ball under 10 yards,

bubbles, and Todd Gurley run the football. Now, can Brandon Cooks give them that out of dimension on the outside, that Watkins couldn't give them? For $8.5 million, they better hope so. I think this. I think these trades are a little bit like, there's this, this is way before your time. So there's this guy name. I love when you preface things like that.

Yeah, well, I mean, this is like, it's like I feel like I feel old, you know, when I start talking about this stuff. But there's, there's this guy during the War War II. Okay, Deiore, I think I'd say the name. He was a, he was a, pretend that he was a Holocaust victim and a survivor. Okay. and he pretended that he was, had three original Picasso drawings. That the world had never seen before. That the world had never seen before.

But that was what he was able to salvage from his personal belongings. And he sold them for a king's ransom to this museum who basically looked at him and said they are authentic. Well, long story short, this guy was so good of an artist that he could duplicate Picasso. And he was able to take Picasso's drawings. And he duplicated him on paper. that he could basically fraud the art museums. And this is what's happening in the NFL. There's a lot of fraudulent things that people think are real.

And it starts with wide receivers in the NFL. It's a huge problem. People thinks Cook is a number one receiver. People think that, you know, other players are number one. They're not. There's about three number one receivers in the NFL. Des Bryant is not a number one receiver. I'm just going to break that news to you right now.

He's not. He may get paid like one, but he's not a number one receiver. can't do the things he have to do. And so what happens when we evaluate receivers, okay, Brandon Cook says 60-some catches, he's got seven touchdowns, average 16, but when he has to get open and the scheme doesn't get him open, when he has to prove that he's the original artist, it's hard for him. And so that's why he's gotten traded by Sean Peyton, who's a pretty good evaluator of wide receivers, and Belichick, who's a pretty astute evaluator of all positions. So for me, I think the Rams take something on. I think the Patriotians,

are extremely happy to get a first round pick for a guy that they probably felt like was just a little bit better than what they had. And let's talk about why they wanted that first round picks. So now the Patriots have two first round picks, right? And now that has led to the story that the New England Patriots are trying to package together a deal to make a trade, a formal trade pitch to the New York Giants to get OBJ,

O'Dell Beckham Jr. Does anybody pay attention? A man we call Ferris on this program. Does anybody ever pay attention? Like, what in your mind would ever lead you to believe that Ferris Bueller would be walking through the, like, first of all, first of all, let's just talk about O'Dell. O'Dell, everybody focuses on what is O'Dell? What can the Giants get for O'Dell? That's all anybody focuses on, right?

That's all they want to talk about. They leave out a huge portion of the conversation. What is O'Dell, what is it going to cost you for O'Dell for five more years? See, people never think about that because it's not their money, right? So this is why I call this the fraudulent case. This is like this artist back in World War II. Because you think this is real, you think you're getting a real number one receiver and you're paying them. So the Patriots, let's go back for a second.

The Patriots said to themselves, Brandon Cooks is a good player. He's a 64 type player on our grading system. All right, he's not an 80, but he wants to get paid like an 80. So I'll find a 62 receiver. Maybe it's Kenny Britt, who has. had a good year in the NFL a few times. Maybe it's Philip Dorset, who's a 61 or six. But that margin that I'm paying for those guys, say I'm paying $2 million for those,

whereas I've got to pay $8.5 million for cooks, that's fraud. Okay, so this guy's paintings that were sold as originals, they look like Picasso's. However, they really weren't, but they look like them. So they're fraudulent. This is the same thing that's going on. Cooks is fraudulent at that number. That's my point. So now, Odell Beckham. I'm going to pay Odell Beckham. I'm going to trade two number ones.

That's according to everybody says, Adam Schaefter says he's worth, they're asking for two number one. That's what's been leaked. That's his value. All right. That means I'm trading two players, Tate Fraser. I'm trading two players. That are supposed to come in and be starters, two starters. For five years at very minimum dollars, okay?

Very minimum dollars. Okay. The fifth year option, I have the right to exercise it if I want. It goes up. But for five years, I have an economically friendly contract. Two starters economically friendly. Okay? Now, I take on Odell.

I have to pay him somewhere north of Sammy Watkins's 16, but I hear he wants close to 20 a year. He wants to get paid like a quarterback. That's what we've – Because we've all annoyed him. I mean, everybody says pay the man. It's not their money, but they say pay the man. So now you've got to – so I'm giving up two friendly contracts. And I have to negotiate on the other side of this.

and I have to pay Ferris $20 million a year for I've got to pay him $100 million. So, I mean, do the math. It doesn't work. Like it doesn't work. I'm giving up, just run the accounting numbers.

I mean, Millie, my wife would be able to do this in a minute. There's no way we're doing that. She would like not know any of the players. Like, there's no way we're doing it. This doesn't make any sense financially. It's the truth. Like, why would I give up two number ones that I'm going to have friendly to get a

number one to get a receiver that may play five years that doesn't shift the balance of the game. Like this, we're not talking about getting Superman. We're talking about getting receivers. And that's the point here. That's what I don't understand. O'Dell Beckham's never, I would find it very hard

to believe that O'Dell Beckham would ever be able to fit. First of all, to pay O'Dell Beckham more than you pay Rob Grunkowski. Are you kidding me? Or Tom Brady. Or Tom Brady. Yeah. And here's I think the underlying factor is Belichick is telling the NFL that

most of these receivers are fraudulent. A.J. Green's the number one receiver. Julio Jones is the number one receiver. Right. Okay. There's about three of them. Everybody else is somewhere between that 65 and 62 range, the good ones. Okay. So if I have one that I can get cheaper, like, why doesn't it

make sense for people to say, you know what? I can get a receiver in the third round. Rom Wolf made a living on this. Antonio Freebies drafting guys in the third, fourth, fifth round. Jordy Nelson in the top of the second, Ted Thompson picked him. Like, why would I pay top dollar for a wide receiver? When has this ever worked? Kishon, John

went for two number ones to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. That failed miserably. Alvin Harper went from Dallas to Tampa Bay. When does this make sense? When does somebody say, why would I build a team around a receiver? So all that to be said, the Rams now have invested in a receiver like Brandon Cooks, and they expect him to be that guy. They almost made the trade for OBJ.

I mean, is this something that's going to come back and bite the Rams? Well, the Rams said, you know, look, they wanted Brandon Cooks. So the Rams, they trade a two for Sammy Watkins, right? Yep. Okay, so they lose. They lose that on that. They lose that. And now they lose their one.

So this is basically the Rams have said, we are going to give up. We feel like we can sign any player and we don't care about the economic value. But with the bigger message about the Rams to me is this. The bigger message is this. The Rams are in Los Angeles. And they know it's 19 and 20. They know 18, 19, 19, and 20. They got to put fannies in the seats and they got to sell luxury suites.

And there's a lot of things that are going into what the Rams plan are. They're on a short-term basis. to win and to entice and build momentum in Los Angeles. As they build the stadium in Englewood and try to grow the fan base within that way. Exactly. So these moves, just from a sheer football maneuver, like to me, do I think it was smart to give up a first round pick for guys in the last year of his contract. Okay, yeah, you can franchise them. But two prominent head coaches, two Super Bowl winning head coaches have traded this guy.

There's something wrong here. Like, you don't have to be Sherlock Holmes to sit there and say, oh, wait a minute, there's something I'm missing. What am I missing, right? Like, I know the guy had 60 catches. I know he had seven touchdowns, but when he played against Xavier Howard in the second and last game of the season,

he couldn't get open, you know? And so there are some difficulties. He isn't like you're taking him and saying, wow, we got them. The Saints, meanwhile, who had him, went to the, should have gone to the conference championship game. And may have the best receiver in the NFC South besides Julio Jones was Michael Thomas.

Right, exactly. So they're saying, look, we get rid of him. We were fine without them. We won more games without them. So the Rams are doing this. I think, too, Tate Frazier, I think the modus for the Rams is all about... Star Power? Star Power.

We get Sue. We get these big-name guys to come in, and people are going to come and watch the L.A. Rams because they want to see the stars in Los Angeles. Right. And, you know, to make money, you've got to spend money, that old saying. And I think that the owner of the Rams, Stan Crocky, is finally spending money because he wasn't ever spending money before. Now, $14 million for Sue.

He's got Sue on a one-year contract. He's got Brandon Cooks on a one-year contract. Now, Cooks and Goff have the same agent. So maybe they feel like they can massage him to get it so they can get them to a longer term. But I think the fundamental question to ask is not that can you get cooks to a long-term deal. Is he worth the numbers of a long-term deal? That's the question you've got to ask as an executive. Yeah.

Or is he Tavon-A-Von-O? Is he Tavon Austin? Now, he's probably, he's better than Tavon. But, I mean, you've already done this where you invested in a receiver like this before. Right. Now you're committed. The agent knows you give up a first-round pick for his guy. So they have a little bit of a bargaining chip.

So now, is he worth $14 million a year? Does he shift the balance of power from 40? Or would you be better off draft than a guy in the second round who you can grow? How much difference is it? Like, weigh it. See, Belichick never falls in love with the guy. The Rams now have to fall in love with Brandon Cooks because they've invested so much in him. And then what happens if, you know, Cup and Robert Woods are still there one and two guys next year?

And Cook ends up being the number three guy. We're going to have to pay our number three receiver $14 million down the road. To me, they've got to have to get girly under contract. Because their team for all the talk and all the things about Goff, who was the worst quarterback in the playoffs last year, and Sean McVe is saying, hey, look, that's on me. I didn't do a good job in preparing for the Falcons. But the Falcons made them play left-handed,

and the Rams didn't have an answer for it. And the teams that can take away Gurley and the running game and put the burden on Goff to make a lot of plays, look, when you only throw the ball 149 times over 10 yards, that tells you something right there, right? So, look, Sean McVeigh does a wonderful job. I think this is another lesson. back in the 1960s when right down the street, Paramount Pictures was going bankrupt.

Okay, I think the guy's name was Robert Blundon, owned Paramount Pictures. He was desperate. So he hired a guy by name of Robert Evans. Have you ever heard of Robert Evans before? Like Bob Evans? Like Bob Evans? Not the... There's a great documentary on HBO about him.

And so he was like never equipped to really run a studio. He was like an auxiliary guy, but he had an idea. He knew he couldn't afford to pay for the great action. So he decided to pay for books. And so he's... Get the great stories. And then the stories will make the actors. Okay?

That's the NFL right now. The NFL is there's some great, great players, but there's a lot of just the coaches can make the actors. The coaches can make the players. Josh McDaniels got Brandon Cook's open quite a bit. Sean Peyton gets guys open quite a bit. Same thing with Sean McVeigh here in Los Angeles. McVeigh gets cup open quite a bit.

He gets golf better than what he was. I mean, there's no, there's coaching element that goes into it. And that, to me, is as a fan or as an executive, you have to decide, was it the coach that made this guy great or was this guy just great? And I think fans missed that point tremendously because they really don't know the inner workings. And that's where things can look fraudulent that takes us back to the guy that was making Picasso pictures is because it looks real, but it really isn't real. If he goes somewhere else without that same ability to scheme him open,

then it's not. Go back to Brandon Marshall's 23 catches against the Colts, set the record. If you break that tape down, how many did he get open on his own and how many did the scheme get him open? You know, we talk about a lot of time. You know, guys go Dick Fidel when a guy catches an out against the air. Oh, my God, it's the greatest catch of all time. Oh, baby.

The guy was, the scheme gave him that catch. So stop. Do you really think, if you're a Patriot fan, do you think Cooks is better than Edelman? Probably not. He's twice as much money? Yeah, exactly. And that's the problem.

And I want to talk about the Patriots and what's real now because they have these two first-round picks. They have the 23rd pick. And now the speculation seems to be that the Patriots want to get a quarterback. And that's a larger conversation about there are now, you know, we're saying out loud like maybe nine teams. Well, I mean, we counted it up before we went on air. I mean, what do we have?

14 teams. We had 12 teams that if they turned a card in for a quarterback, 12 teams. We would not be shots. Buffalo Jets, Patriots, Browns, Giants, Pittsburgh, Denver, the Chargers, Miami, the Saints, Baltimore, and the Cardinals. Oh, yeah, Arizona. The Arizona Cardinals. So there's 12.

We kept Cincinnati and we kept Jacksonville as they liked their guys, even though we know perhaps like them. So there's 12 guys, 12 teams that turned a card in for a quarterback. So when the Patriots just said with their two number ones and their two number two number twos is we're going to be a threat in the first round. and we know Buffalo is going to be a threat in the first round. I think the guy who benefited most from this of all is Lamar Jackson. And you think Lamar Jackson, a guy that's been in Bobby Petrino system, a guy that has an offense, has to run an offense. I mean, a lot of people, there seems to be a perception of him that he ran the spread option,

whatever you want to say. But I mean, the guy was a pocket passer under Petrino, you know, had to run a scheme under Petrino. We know Petrino can be, you know, for lack of a better term, sort of an asshole with these sort of thing. Not sort of. You can scratch, sort of. and that's you know like the system he was under is a tough system so belichick i mean he fits into the well i think this i think the one thing i know about lamar jackson and i've watched all these

quarterbacks and lamar jackson has the most upside of any of them there's no doubt i mean he's not a wide receiver he can he's got a cannon for an arm he got a and i could show you 15 throws that are just unbelievable i could show you five that look bad just like dechon watson but this guy's unique in that sense but what what has to happen with lamar he's going to reds wherever he goes he should redshirt If he goes to one of these 12 teams, he should redshirt. If he gets the Cardinals draft them, redshirt them. Yeah, have Bradford out there.

Have Bradford out there. Because part of the red shirt is you have to figure out what offense you are going to run. Let's hypothetically say the Patriots pick Lamar Jackson. Let's just say they do that. So Lamar Jackson would be the third quarterback on their team. Behind Hoyer. Behind Hoyer. He would have a package of plays that he could run, dress on Sunday, maybe two-point plays, maybe some things.

but it would give them a year to develop an offense because one thing I can tell you with a thousand percent certainty, Lamar Jackson's not running Tom Brady's offense. Oh, and by the way, neither is Josh Rosen, neither is Sam Darnold, neither is Josh Allen, Baker Mayfield. None of them are running Tom Brady's offense. So whatever the Patriots do, a quarterback,

they're going to have to modify and adjust their offense. And this year time, as they draft a guy, will allow them that modification. That's what I think. And so Lamar red shirts and then you build an offense around him, to me, that's the right formula. Say Buffalo dress, Lamar Jackson. To me, you're going to have to figure out how you can utilize his skill set with your offense and then have players around that fit his skill set.

That's really important. So once you get Lamar Jackson, you're going to need to get big receivers who have a wide range. Same thing with the Sean Watson. You want guys that can catch the ball with a wide radius. So now you're building your team. Again, quarterbacks are like baseball stadiums. Once you understand who they are, you build your team around the stadium. The Cardinals, they run, they are on AshterTurf.

Same thing. Once you get Lamar Jackson, that's how you got to build your team. And I think that's really what's going to happen. I think that's why Lamar's name isn't popular amongst all these draft Nix, but I can tell you from people that I talk throughout the league, it's a hot commodity right now. And does that affect Tom Brady in any way? No. So Brady, he came out that Brady wasn't against the patch trading cooks.

Can I stop you there? And then you know, he has no say on that anyway. No, no, like there's no, first of all, the Patriots are going to do what's in the best interest of their team. They're not like calling Tom on the phone. Hey, Tom, what do you think if we trade Brandon Cooks? Like they just didn't wake up on Tuesday morning and say, let's trade Brandon today. Okay. Like what they did after the offseason was they broke down Brandon Cook and they graded them.

They watched every single play. They wrote him up. They understood what his strengths, what his weaknesses were. And they matched a dollar amount to what he could do. Okay. and I'm sure Josh McDaniels doesn't want to lose Brandon Cooks. I'm sure Tom Brady doesn't want to lose a good player, but for the value and what they got,

they couldn't afford to do it, so they move on. But they didn't call, hey, Tom, do you think it would be okay if we trade, you know, you think it's okay if we trade Brandon Cooks today? Oh, yeah, go ahead. I have no problem with that. Come on, give me a break. But does Brady handle them using their 23rd pick, say, on Lamar Jackson? Does he handled that well?

Because right now he's in a win-now mentality. Brady has nothing to say about it. Brady's about Brady getting himself ready for the season. And whoever they draft isn't going to beat Tom Brady out. Brady's not worried about it. It's like, you know, now when you get, we talked about the masters to start to show, you know, the water in front of 11, they're all worried about that water. You know, Brady ain't worried about any water in front of him. He's just going to hit the ball through the fairway.

And he's going to make it. He's going to play his year. And if he plays another year, great. If he doesn't, they got a quarterback there that's ready to play. I just think it's really up. I think that whole notion when we talk to Brady about it is ridiculous. The Patriots are systematic in what they do. They wrote up every single player after the season.

They graded every single player. And then that money has to match what they do. You'd think if Belichick was running the Cowboys that Des Bryant be making $12 million a year? Do you really think that? There's no chance. There's no chance. There's no chance.

But some teams just do it. You think Jason Whitten would still be – I mean, look, I love Jason Whitten. There couldn't be a better football. It's a hallfamer. It's great. I mean, but it's on the downside. You know, you have to –

that's the only way you get better in the office. season, you evaluate the players, you grade the players, you put them up on a board, you say, okay, we're deficient in this area, we need a better player here, a better player there, and you go out and you set your team needs, whereas basically in New England they'll do, in order to win, you got to have, you must have this, you need this, and you want that. There's three categories. So you need a returner, so maybe you, that gets Porte L. Patterson. You must have a left tackle.

They need a left, they must have a left tackle. Who's it going to be? So you break your team needs down in three categories, must have and won. And a guy they do want is Grankowski, apparently. They obviously graded him in the all season. There were some rumors and some reports that maybe there would be some trade discussions, but they came out on the Patriots that they have had no trade discussions about Gronk. Look, I think Gronks are hard to officiate, Tate Frazier.

I think he's really hard to officiate. And he's even harder to pay, okay? He's under the category of tight end. He's really not a tight end. I think tight ends in the league have really taken a hard. hard role because the reality of them is like Travis Kelsian since in Kansas City. Or like we remember when Jimmy Graham was having his great years early on, you know, they're not tight ends. They're big inside slot receivers. They're matchup guys and they're mismatch

guys and they create problems for most guys. And so, Gronk is hard to pay. Like, is Gronk worth 14 million a year? Yeah, he is. But because he's a tight end, that label doesn't go up that high. And so that's the problem. Is Gronk worth, I mean, Gronk and who would you rather have Gronk or Brandon Cooks? Gronk, of course. Of course you would, right? So the reality of it is, is you got to move money around. Do I think they could trade Gronk?

I think anything's possible. Gronk's got durability issues. He's talking about maybe not playing much longer, all those things. He always wants a new contract because Gronk, like he's hard to officiate, he's hard to pay. He's a game changer. He really is one-of-a-kind player. And I don't know what you pay him. You could pay him $14 million a year, and I don't know if that's enough.

He's worth more than Sammy Watkins in my mind. And I'm sure he thinks the same thing too. But how do you pay him more than Sammy Watkins when he's a tight end and Sammy Watkins is a receiver? See, there's that fine line there that kind of what they did with offensive line is they said offensive linemen are offensive linemen. So tackles or tackles, they're not left tackles and right tackles. So they lumped it.

Whereas receivers, there should be like almost tight ends are receivers. And those guys should get more money. Yep, absolutely. We're going to take a quick break and we're going to come back and hit some other topics around the NFL. Quick break to get a reminder that the ringer has new merchandise with a shiny new storefront that you can check out right now. Hats, hoodies, an exclusive Che Serrano,

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We touched on this earlier. We're talking about Lamar Jackson and the potential for him to go to the New England Patriots at the 23rd pick in the first round. We talked about all these teams that need quarterbacks, and there are a lot of quarterbacks that are available. I mean, you talk about the first three picks could all be quarterbacks at this point. They could be. I mean, look, there was a report the other day that Josh Allen's really well-liked by Cleveland. I could see that. I've heard they like Sam Darnold.

I've also heard that at the Giants, if Sam Donald makes it to them, at two, they'll pick them, which makes sense to me. That was confirmed to me today by someone that knows the Giants really well. And then you've got the Jets who are basically sitting there saying, we'll take whoever's left, whether it's Josh Rosen. I don't think the Jets take Baker Mayfield, because I don't believe that you can grade Baker Mayfield that high.

The thing I think it's really important to understand for it, is I talk about this all the time. level of comp matters in evaluating college football. It really matters a lot. And I don't know if I am in my son coaches in the Big 12. So I say this with Matthew with all due respect to him. But the defense of the Big 12 isn't very good. So like if you're going to do Baker Mayfield and you're a Baker Mayfield fan,

and I like some things about Baker Mayfield, like if you watch the Baller tape or you watch Oklahoma State tape or you watch Texas Tech tape, you're really wasting your time because they don't really play good enough defense. I think those teams would admit their defense is very good. The tape you've got to sink your teeth into would be the Ohio State tape where he played well. But understand that that was the opening game. And Ohio State had no, you know, in college, when you open up a game against an opponent that's a big-time opponent, you have no scouting with them. So you don't know what they run, what plays they run.

And if you watch that tape, there are a lot of trick plays, a lot of different things that they got Ohio State on. Really, the tape you have to study with Baker Mayfield is the Georgia tape. That's the game he's going to play every Sunday in the NFL. And if you're happy with how we played in that game, which I wasn't, then you can go move forward with them. But can you pick them in the top three? No chance. I think it also opens the door up. So if the Browns don't take a quarterback first overall, then, you know, Darno does fall into the lap.

I think the two teams now, I think if you're the Browns, and I think if you're a team with the quarterback, the Patriots trade yesterday has now made the first round very tense and very unsure because nobody will know who the Patriots. it's like. And we're not saying they like Lamar Jackson. We're just saying if they're like it opens the door to that. It opens the door. And I think Lamar Jackson's the wild card. It may be a knee-jerk reaction. Gil Brand invited him to the draft up in Dallas.

You know, so he's not going to be sitting in the green room very long. So we know Buffalo wants the quarterback. We know all these teams so there's intrigue. And I think that now at the top of the draft, because the Jets are sitting there locked in at three, you can't really get, unless you get to one or two,

you're going to have these guys are going to come off the board fairly fist you know and could Mason Rudolph go in the first round it wouldn't shock me do I think he's a first round no but could he

it wouldn't shock me it's another big 12 guy the Browns are hosting Darnal today they're hosting Rosen tomorrow on Thursday and then they have Lamar Jackson scheduled to come in next week so the Browns are looking at all these guys they obviously have the first pick and the fourth pick

depending on what they want to do maybe they take Chubb one and then they wait and see what happens with you know maybe Darnel goes to the Jets can decide between Alan and Rosen who they want there and then they get their quarterback at four. I mean, there's so many different iterations with the quarterbacks now at the top.

So all the fans know, so every team in the league tries to find out, you're only allowed to bring 30 players into your facility. And the ones, like say if you're in New England, the Boston College kids don't count as you're bringing them in because they're within your radius. So you're only allowed to visit 30 kids on your campus. And every team in the league keeps track of those 30 and have kept track of those 30.

Like I can go through all my notebooks. And I could tell you, if Green Bay, brings a player when Ted Thompson was there. If they bring a player in, they're interested in them. They'll probably draft them. Okay. Meanwhile, there's some teams, if they bring a player in, they probably just bringing a player in. They may not draft them. They may draft them.

So you're trying to find out. What you do with these 30 visits is you try to find names of players that are coming on visits that perhaps you don't have on your draft board. You could do, you know, Green Bay brings in two or three of these guys. Hey, we don't have this guy up here. We better do some work on them. So you're looking at that. And you're looking at who they

are. You try to keep your list as secret as possible, but the agents let it all out. Cleveland can't wait to tell you what they're going to do. I mean, it's just, you know, they just can't wait. I think New England will have, you have a hard time. There's no smokescreens in Cleveland. They're not trying to, you know. They feel like that they feel like they need to endear the crowd to it. But, you know, Dallas, you know, who they bring in, who they like, what do you need them more physical? Now, there'll be a recheck physical probably this week, this Thursday, I think there's the recheck. So people go back for more. So you don't have to bring those guys in. But if you really want to spend some time with

a player, you bring them in, you spend time, you get to know them, you've moved around your facility. It ain't recruiting. It ain't recruiting. Now, some teams in the league do it as recruiting. We'll take you out to dinner. You know, where I was in Cleveland and where I was in New England, it ain't recruiting. They're going to come in. They're going to give them a playbook. We're going to teach them what we're going to do. We'll learn what they can do.

And it's going to be a full day of work and see if they can hold on to it. And it's not just quarterbacks that are coming in that are going to be rookies that are being talked about this all season. We just got a guy that everyone remembers RG3, Robert Griffin the 3rd. He's back. He's back. He gets a one-year deal with the Ravens to be the backup quarterback for them. Interesting move by the Ravens. All right.

So you got Greg Roman there, right? Greg Roman who made Colin Kaepernick the most effective he'd ever been in his career. But Roman is really good at being able to utilize the motion, the movement of a quarterback. And we'll see if RG3 can get back to the time when he was with Shanahan in his first year. Or if people have caught on to him. One thing we know, he went to Cleveland. Again, Hugh, enlightened him with anointing him. with anointed him as the number one.

Huey headline. He said he was the number one and tried to run the West Coast offense around him. He's not a West Coast offense quarterback. Neither is Flacco. No. But the coordinator in Baltimore is a West Coast coordinator. So to me, it's confusing.

I think it's a great opportunity for RG3. He's got a chance because Baltimore, we have them down as a team that could turn a quarterback card in and it wouldn't surprise us. Yeah, what happens if they decide they want to go after a Lamar Jackson and they bring him in and RG3, two, was him and Joe Flacco's like a lame duck and he's on his way out, you know. And they pick up a ton of cap room and they move on with their quarterback.

It makes a lot of sense to me. I mean, you know, because like I said earlier in this podcast, you have to design an offense around Lamar Jackson. It isn't, you know, you're going to have to design an offense around every one of these quarterbacks. They're baseball stadiums and you have to figure that out. And the team that does it the best, again, scouting inside out, not outside in, that's the team that's going to be the most effective.

And you talk about scouting yourself and grading yourself and evaluating your team. Jerry Jones came out and he said there was no big gap between the Cowboys and the Philadelphia Eagles, the Eagles who just won the Super Bowl, as we know, and they're gearing up for next season and trying to run it back. The Cowboys are still paying Des Bryant $12 million. They still have the Witton situation. That Prescott seems to be focusing on next season. They're taking the burden for this. Their skill level isn't very good.

I mean, they're signing some guys. They sign Alan Huron. They're trying to make their skill level. If Elliott's not in the game, look, their offensive line is good. They sign Cameron Fleming to be the right tackle. do they know that New England helped on Cam and Fleming almost every single time? If Cam Fleming is on an island over there at right tackle, they're going to have to, they'll learn quickly that that's going to not be an easy thing to do.

They're going to have to help Cam Fleming. Again, it's about the scheme. If they leave Cam Fleming like they left that poor kid in the Atlanta game and Claiborne got six sacks, it could get ugly then too. So I think Dallas has to be more honest with themselves. It wasn't just because they had a bad year. Their scheme, they couldn't get open, they had some tough times, and then defensively, do they have enough pass rushers?

Do they have enough guys that can get to the quarterback? Do they have enough got weight of pressure? And what happens if Sean Lee gets hurt again? Jalen Smith isn't the same guy, Sean Lee. And they lose Sean Lee, their whole team breaks down. It would be like us losing you here at the ringer. I mean, the whole thing would fall apart. I don't know about that, but I do like Sean Lee a lot.

When he plays, the Cowboys look like a real defensive team. So, yeah, I don't agree with Jerry. I think you are what you were last year, and I think you have to take a different approach. It seems like he's still buying into what the team was the year before. He kept the clapper. I mean, look, you know, he's got the clapper there. And so he's...

I'm excited for the clapper this season. I think it's going to be honest storylines. Yeah, of course. He's a smart man. He's a smart guy. The Cardinals, they get there running back back. David Johnson, fully cleared for team activities. A man that was in the MVP conversation was an offensive threat.

Obviously, had struggles last year. But, I mean, this is good for the Cardinals, right? They can lean back in on the running game. Yeah, I think the Cardinals are going to be an interesting team to see where they go. We got Bradford and Johnson. Bradford. They got Glennon. They're sort of doing the same thing where we pull in a guy,

like a Carson Palmer or Sam Bradford, a guy that's a season vet and try to get him to run our offense. Yeah, and see where they go with this whole thing and see what it all plays out and how their offensive line can hold up. And, you know, DJ Humphreys, can he come back and play at left tackle? I think it's going to be an interesting team. They're the fourth team in that West right now. I mean, there's no doubt. I mean, look, it's an arms race. Seattle, can they come back with it?

But, you know, when you look at the quarterback situation, they're the fourth best team, just by quarterback alone. Yep. With the Rams, the Seahawks, and now the 49ers with Jimmy G. It's a lot going on in the NFC West. Let's talk about the Panthers, too. So Roger Goodell at the owner's meeting said there's been unprecedented interest in purchasing the Carolina Panthers. Ben Navarro, another potential bidder came and visited and is trying to put in a bit as well. We have the Tepper situation, guys and minority owner with the Steelers.

There's been so much talk and there's so much floating around this Panthers team and the ownership and everything getting turned over. It's kind of, it'll be interesting to see how long it goes. I think all these NFL teams are attractive. I think the salary cap and the TV revenue and all those things make it a very economically friendly team. And they're going to just keep going up in value. And I think that whoever pays for it will have a huge debt service. And I think sometimes that's good because that forces you to think outside the box. When you've got bills like Jerry, when Jerry first came to – when Jerry first came to Dallas in – I think it was 89 was his first year there.

and he bought the team. He leveraged himself to the kills. He could not heat the building. I was in Cleveland, and we were getting ready to play Buffalo in a playoff game. So we had no indoor facility in Cleveland at the time. So we went down to Dallas to practice outside on their fields. And we used their building. And Jerry literally closed down half a Valley Ranch because he couldn't afford to heat it.

But Jerry was smart. So Jerry went to Apex, and he got Apex to give them a million dollars for 10 years. and that took care of Jimmy Johnson's contract. And he started hustling like Jerry Jones does. Because he had a huge debt service and he needed to pay it off. And now look what he has. Jerry World. Jerry World.

Now I think that's what will happen. I think when you pay this much for a team, you have to think outside the box. And it's harder for guys like Mike Brown who's owned this team and doesn't have a debt service. So he's not that hungry or anxious to make much more money. And why should he do it? Because he's already making enough money. I think this will be fascinating to see how it plays out. Yeah, absolutely. And all I can ask is for Steph Curry to be involved in the bid. Just let him help out. We need it. Someone in Charlotte.

Any final thoughts before we get out of here? Do you have a master's pick you want to put out there to the world? You know, I don't. I have to ask Matthew, my son, or Mickey, they usually give me the ones to do it. I don't know. I root for Phil. I like watch. I just like watch. I just like watch a good thing. You know, I don't really have a favorite golfer that I just say. I think we just need one Tiger Woods moment on Sunday. I'm not saying he needs to win the thing. But I, I'm not saying he needs to win the thing. I think we need him. We need to cut to 13 and Tiger has an eagle putt and everyone's on the edge of their seats. And he may make a little run here. And he just birdied 12 and I think everyone needs that. Yeah, I think it'll be fun to watch.

I think Roy McRoy will be fun to watch. I'll see where his game is right now. Speath. Speeth is really incredible. And, you know, so I think it'll just be fun to watch. I'm taking Dustin Johnson. That's just a homer pick. Lock it in.

That's a home. That's because Tanya brought up Coastal Carolina. That's why you're talking about. Coastal Carolina is quite the place. If you've never been there, if you've never been to Myrtle Beach, go check it out. It is the Las Vegas of the East Coast. As they call it. Myrtle Beach, is it really? Can you gamble?

Vana White's from there. Is she really? Yeah, I think you can gamble it. It's just not legally, but you can do some things. I figured out. Go on a boat, like, you know, I think you go 30 miles out and you can gamble. That's the move in Myrtle Beach. There you go. All right, Tate Frazier. This has been another edition of GM Street Part of the Ringer Podcast Network. Thank you, Michael, Mbardi.

Thank you, Tate.