The Ryen Russillo Podcast - Albert Breer on the NFL CBA and the Rams, Plus Challenging Pass Interference | Dual Threat With Ryen Russillo

Episode Date: June 6, 2019

Russillo is joined by SI's Albert Breer to discuss rumors surrounding the NFL collective bargaining agreement coming in 2020, whether or not the Rams should extend Jared Goff this year, the Todd Gurley contract, how Andy Dalton will fare under a new head coach, and more (2:53). Then, Ryen talks about the NFL rule change on pass interference (34:40). Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Welcome in to the ringers dual threat. I'm your host Ryan Russillo. I wish we had started taping this just moments before. We may have edited it out, but I would have argued to keep it in because they're doing a rewatchables. The re-business plan all together the re-readables the rewatchables the re-lovables i forget i think there was some other one that we were going to come up with kyle that didn't make any sense anyway they're doing dead poet society it's sean it's chris ryan it's bill and they just started screaming like poet stuff from dead poet society i was never the biggest robin williams fan so and i admit like a lot of people are like, you're nuts. So what's wrong with you?

That's okay. It's fine. We all have a history there. That's all. Yeah. Wrong side of history or, uh, but that movie, he was great in it. He was great. Like the great thing about Robin Williams, he was actually incredible as an actor in

so many different things. He was incredible in that one. He's great in Good Will Hunting. I mean, he's, he's great in a bunch of different movies. Um, Insomnia, he's awesome. But the standup didn't do it for me as much. But that's not why you're listening to the podcast. But anyway, those guys were screaming in the background different lines from the movies

and it couldn't have been, it was pretty nerdy, but it was also really funny and I wish we had taped it because I was going to argue to leave it in. I would have left it in. I would have just said, Kyle, I'm sorry, we're leaving it in.

So that's what I have to bring today. I have a couple other things. We have Bert Breer, the MMQB. He has some great nuggets about future contracts. Also something that I'm going to spend a little bit more time on here in the month of June doing this football podcast, the upcoming work stoppage rumors, stuff that's going on that I do want to get to because I just look, that stuff's really, really important. And I think the way this pod plays out in the month of June with the NBA finals and my draft stuff going on,

I'd like to do some bigger issue stuff. So we have Bert on that. We have the Ram stuff with Goff. I want to ask him about the Andy Dalton offense with Zach Taylor. So there's a bunch of little things that I think it'd be fun to talk with him about at that point.

And I also have a comp with rule changes having to do something. I guess I put it this way. Why rule changes can be a lot like global warming but before we do that i'm serious looking for the perfect father's day gift golf digest schools provides high quality personalized golf instruction with a library of more than 350 video lessons you can even send videos of your swing to be analyzed by their pros wait a minute do you know how sick that is? Half of you guys have been analyzing your swings. You've been doing it for free. Why not pay somebody to do it?

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Okay, joining us to talk some football here, a bunch of different stuff. I want to talk quarterbacks. I want to talk contracts. I want to talk about potential work stoppage stuff from the MMQB. Bert Brewer, we've had him on before. You can read the stuff as well up on SI.com. Let's start with the most recent piece you had up on the MMQB, and thater, we've had him on before. You can read the stuff as well up on SI.com. Let's start with the most recent piece you had up on the MMQB, and that was the Jared Goff. I don't want to say dilemma because at the beginning of the career,

it looked terrible. McVay comes in. You're like, man, this is pretty nice. They go on that run last year. It was great. And then it felt like the whole offense and maybe Goff not being allowed to do enough on his own exposed them a little bit. And they have a big decision to make with his contract.

Before we get to the Goff contract, you spent some time out there. Let's just kind of talk about what you think, and I hate saying talk about, but just with the people that you've talked with, whether it's Goff or the staff, like what they think about who he really can be in this league. Well, I think a big piece of this, and this is the question on him coming out, is whether or not he can be a full-field quarterback, a guy who can go through progressions and take advantage of what a defense gives him. And I think over the last year, one of the things that Sean McVay has done an excellent job with

is making things simple on him, get him playing fast. And Sean went back and he looked at the tape the tape of golf from talent and said, okay, he plays really well off play action. We got to keep them moving and he to simplify the offense that got the most out of golf. The thing is that the Superbowl, the Patriots threw some different stuff at him and they were able to kind of get his mind racing a little bit where, okay, your first read is gone.

And we're also going to take the advantage of McVay being in your ear until a 15 second cutoff away from you, because we're going to give you one look and then throw something else at you. And so what they were forcing golf to do was start to think post-snap and have to think post-snap. And, um, you know, I think that that had an effect on golf. It obviously had an effect on how McVay was running the offense because they've been running the offense a certain way for the last two years.

And so I think that sort of brings you to naturally where the next step's going to be for him, which is sort of where the next step was always going to be for him. And I got to tell you, Ryan, it's really, really hard to predict whether or not quarterbacks are able to take that step. You know, this could be where he hits a major roadblock in his career, or this could be a point of big growth. And I think we'll see some of that this year because the Patriots have really forced them to confront this this offseason. Yeah, that's a really scary thing to say, like, hey, we made it to the Super Bowl, but it was so bad.

And it reminds me of certain college quarterbacks or different college systems. And Baylor's the one that we always come back to where it's like, that's a really scary thing to say. Like, hey, we made it to the Super Bowl, but it was so bad. And it's kind of, it reminds me of certain college quarterbacks or different college systems. And Baylor's the one that we always come back to where it's like, that's the one where it's the hardest to actually figure out what anybody's actually doing, meaning how that would translate to the NFL. And it feels like not that Goff is a Baylor quarterback, but clearly McVay is able to control the offense in a way where it's not as instinctual for him as it is other guys.

But they still have, what, another year of control, a fifth-year option, and then you start talking about, do we want to do this ahead of time? Because I remember Russell Wilson, when he did his first big extension, they did it early. Other guys don't get it as early. So what are the Rams looking for this year? Is this still sort of a test year for them to decide whether or not he's going to get that $70 million guaranteed and an average annual salary north of $25 million? Yeah, I think their cap situation sort of locks them in a little bit,

where it'd just be difficult for them to do something where Goff is going to get the sort of raise he's going to be in line to get. And my guess is that they probably will wait until 2020. I think they'll explore it, but I think in the end they'll probably wind up waiting. You know, where this gets really scary for them, Ryan, is what could happen over the next year. And that's Carson Wentz could get extended. And Carson Wentz got the same agent as Derek Goff. And come next offseason, Patrick Mahomes could get extended. And so, you know, what you're looking at right now is maybe a quarterback who might be willing to take maybe a little bit less

because you'd be paying him two years early versus if you make him incur 16 games of injury risk, he goes through all of that, he has another good year. And then maybe, you know, you haggle a little bit early in the offseason, boom, Mahomes gets his contract in Kansas City, and the financial landscape has changed completely. And so I think, you know, if you feel really good about Goff, there is a big benefit to taking care of him now.

You know, we've seen the way the market has moved since Kirk Cousins did his deal, you know, about 17 months ago. The market's gone up from $28 million to $35 million a year. And there are some big ones coming down the pike over the course of the next 12 months or so. And so, like I said, there's definitely a benefit to doing a deal with Goff right now. And there's merit in waiting, too. There's just a lot of risk involved with that based on who else might get paid. No, those are all really good points, too, because I think it keeps getting back to the answer, though,

that how this contract goes kind of gives us our answer of how the organization staff feel about golf. If a deal isn't done and eventually some of the numbers will get leaked out, like, hey, golf wasn't asking to reset the market here. It always makes sense. If you're not 100% sure, especially at this position, and we've seen some contracts structured this way, where you're like, man, they don't really believe in this guy. Bortles had kind of an extension like that.

Going way back to McNabb when he started moving around, you're like, wait a minute, what's this contract? We're like, oh, that means they're going to move on immediately. I'm not saying that would happen with Goff, this young, in his second one, but if they don't extend him and we hear that the numbers aren't insane numbers that were being floated, I think that's your answer on just who they think he is as a quarterback, despite

this really nice run they've been on for two years. Yeah, and I just would not... I mean, look, certain teams have handled the idea of having a quarterback on a rookie contract different ways. And, you know, the Rams have absolutely been the outlier on one end of that. They've absolutely been the aggressor, you know, and it's not just, you know, blocking out guys like Aaron Donald, Todd Gurley. It's also going out and getting Brandon Cook and sending in an unadomitant to last year.

and getting Brandon Cook and sending on a Dominican Sioux last year. They've been very, very aggressive in using the window that they have with Goff on that rookie contract. And that's put them in a little bit of a spot here where they don't have an abundance and overabundance of cap space. So do you want to get creative and make something work now with that benefit out there, knowing that you don't have a ton of cap space right now, or do you want to wait a year when you might have a little bit more flexibility, but the price goes through the roof? Okay, so I'm glad you brought up Gurley, because I remember when the Gurley deal was done, and it was done last year.

Okay, and this is somebody that they still had, and talk about doing it early. He played 15, 16, 17. They still had the fourth year. They had an option. And then before the 18 season starts, they give him this contract where it's $57 million over the four, $45 million guaranteed. And I was looking through it this morning. And it's like, look, it's kind of in that mid to north 40s where they're absolutely going to owe him. And I'm not saying this now because he's hurt and the knee issue seems to still be an issue. I said it when the deal was done, like, why would you do this a year ahead of time? And every Rams thing that I read that was pro Rams was, well, they want to be able

to save the franchise tag perhaps on someone later two years from now. Well, they wanted to get ahead of it. Well, they didn't want to have the running back market set. They have other guys coming up. None of those are good answers. None of those. And I remember one guy in the league going, do you realize how ridiculous this is? Not just for anybody, but to do it for a running back. And now I wonder if Gurley has arguably the worst contract in the NFL. I don't know if it's the worst contract in the NFL. I can understand both sides of this. NFL, you know, I can understand both sides of this. Okay. On one side, I would tell you the reason to do a running back early, if you have a running

back that you feel great about. And remember when they did this deal, he was coming off of winning off as the player of the year, right? Yeah. The reason to do it early and after three years is because then you have flexibility in year seven, year eight. Like, so if you feel like inevitably you're going to have to do it, it might make sense to keep your star player happy and say,

if we do this in a year, then that's going to be an extra guaranteed year on the other end. And so then we're going to be stuck with this later on. And so if you look at Gurley's contract, really, this is a three-year deal, right? Like for the most part, like probably, and if you look at Gurley's contract, really, this is a three-year deal, right? Like, for the most part, like, he's probably, and if you look at these things, usually you can get out of it after three years. Well, for Gurley, that's year four, year five, year six. So the way the Rams looked at it was we want to take care of him, and, you know, then if we need to get rid of him, we're going to have flexibility

starting, you know, really in his seventh year. And maybe if you really want to get rid of him, you could do something in year six. The flip side of it is what you said, which is, you know, you really do get a running back prime on his rookie contract. And that's what's so unique about that position. And I'll just tell you, you know, a conversation I had with Stephen Jones when they drafted Ezekiel Elliott with the fourth overall pick, a lot of people were criticizing them for taking a running back that high.

You know, Stephen's point to me was we get his prime with his rookie contract. And so, you know, maybe in six or seven years, he's not a star player anymore, but we know what we're paying for now. It's played out that way, right? He's won two rushing titles in his first three years in the league,

and so they're getting one of the two or three best running backs in football on a discount. I think on one end, you look at, say, if you want to reward him, you give yourself flexibility a little earlier if you do a deal with him earlier. On the other end, if you want to be cutthroat about it flexibility a little earlier if you do a deal with him earlier. On the other end, if you want to be cutthroat about it,

you can't say it doesn't make any sense to extend a running back early because really you're going to have his prime while he's still in that contract. Yeah, I just think it's not even – I said it when he was – like, I love him as a player, okay? And I said it last year when you go, wait a minute, why would you need to do this a year ahead of time?

I know the overall number value and all that stuff and the chances he really comes back. I mean, it seems a little absurd to say, hey, is it the worst contract? I think it's the worst planning, though, of a contract

of what you still had options-wise and that position. And when people say, oh, the stigma of running back is being proven true by this Gorlicka, it was being proven true when he was healthy.

Like, honestly, that's how I felt about that. All right. Well, I mean, we can't completely let the Rams off the hook either, because this is a guy who did have injury history coming into the league, you know? And so I do think that that adds a little something to it too,

is that even though he'd been okay, his first three years in the league from an injury standpoint, like everyone in the NFL knew that there was a knee issue coming out of Georgia, and it was something that might come up again. Yeah, right. All right. A couple other things I want to get to here. You brought up a thought with General McCoy having more time to visit teams of whether or not there should be an NFL waiting period for free agency.

So instead of, hey, free agency opens up, let's do this. It made me chuckle a little bit only because they've had that in the NBA. They used to have it where it was a two-week non-signing period where you supposedly weren't signing contracts and you would go around. And then they shaved it back. They shaved it back. Now it's July 1st to July 6th. I'm wondering if that's an example of something the NFL doesn't have,

but if you had it, then everybody would complain and just say, well, all anybody's doing is tampering and verbally agreeing to things anyway. Yeah. I just think the NFL is different because the players don't have leverage. You know, and I,

I, I understand the NBA, like there's a salary cap, the NBA too. You know, but the players just don't have the, most of the players don't have the power in the NFL to go and visit different places

because there's a finite amount of salary cap space. And really, if you want to take a cold look at it, the difference from one player to the next isn't as big. And so teams are more willing to move on to the next guy if player X won't sign. So what happens with the effect that that has is that once everybody hits the market, everyone gets picked up right away because guys are very, very anxious to sign because they're afraid what money's out there for them is going to go away very, very quickly.

So, you know, I just, like, I've always looked at these, you know, I try to look at it through the eyes of the player. And these are major life decisions for these guys. And a lot of times it's going to be the last contract they do, the last big contract they do as players. And so, you know, if there's any way to slow that down a little bit, I think it could wind up benefiting everybody. Teams could make better decisions on how they're putting together their rosters.

And the players could have the chance to go out and take a look at, okay, I want to go to this city. I want to go to that city. I want to see where I live. I want to meet with the coaches. I just think giving players the opportunity to do that, I think it would be good. And I think if you do have a window,

and maybe it's even during the combine, right? Maybe during the combine, you just allow players to show up in Indy and meet with different teams. Anything you do to kind of allow players to gather more information, and we know tampering happens, but to gather more information, do it above board, and then make actual thought-out decisions when the time comes, I'd be all for something like that. You know, there'd be rule breaking still, but I think if you put some of that stuff, you know, within the rules,

I think you'd probably have a better system for the players. Let's talk a little bit about the notes that are leaking out about the CBA. And we know it's up after 2020. Yep. There is a piece that you had had and I've seen some other, it's almost like leaked emails where the players association is essentially

telling their reps where they're saying you need to find a way to put away half of your money, including all the signing bonus. Now, I don't know if this is just the doomsday planning. I don't know how many players even listen to this stuff, but it feels, and maybe it's easy a year and a half out to go,

man, this feels much more ominous than 2011 when there actually was a work stoppage. But are you hearing that this one's going to be nastier than what we went through eight years ago? I don't think anybody knows yet. I mean, my understanding, they've had two meetings. They were in Minneapolis, Southern New York in April and May. And my understanding was at that point they were just going through identification

of issues right so they're trying to figure out what's going to be a problem and what isn't going to be a problem they haven't even gone about trying to solve the problem yet so everything's been amicable and friendly but that hasn't really been tested yet either you know like if you're not arguing over stuff and you're just kind of going through where your vantage point is on this and this and this, there's no reason to fight. And so it's been amicable. I think it's good that they're meeting. It's good that they're going to meet again this month. All of that's good.

I just think that until we get to the point where they're actually talking about money, stadium credits, and broadcast deals, and how the, the owners would work to push some optimism out there. And the players felt like the reason the owners were doing that was to put pressure on them to get a deal done. And so when you saw that New York Times story last week that, you know, basically painted a really rosy picture of where things are, the players took that as, well, they're pressuring us again to get a deal done. Boom, the email comes out, save your money, be ready for a work stoppage. And so I think we're seeing some of the same back and forth that we saw in 2010 and 2011. I think it's way too early to tell what the tone of the talk is going to be until they really get to the meat of the potatoes of everything.

And I think that the issue of players saving money is the same that it's always been. You know, the rank and file player in the NFL, it only plays two or three years, maybe makes five, $600,000 a year. And so it's very, very hard to tell that player, you know, sit out, give up paychecks, do all this for the greater good. It's really difficult to get the rank and file football player to do that. checks, do all this for the greater good.

It's really difficult to get the rank and file football player to do that. So, the union now is doing everything they can to try and get that message across to the players that are in the league right now. Some of them won't even be in the league when we get to 2021. Do you think the players fight in the last agreement

to have basically less work time, right? Like, we don't want to work as many hours. It's basically one of the concessions. And the owners look at it as like, you're going to give up money just to have less pad work? Like, done. You know?

All right, fine. That seems stupid. And I can understand why the owners do it. Like, wait a minute, we get more money back and you just don't want to work out as much? Are the players actually hurting themselves in having limited reps, limited time at a practice field, knowing that so many coaches are looking at this going, this is just a different league now. It's a younger league technique. And I never know, like, is it a really smart, insightful thing to hear all these coaches complain about it or the coaches complain about it no matter what, not having as much time with

these guys as they want. And then they've even heard, you know, guys in the NFL saying, and it starts in college because there's less time with them in college than ever before. So we're getting the least, I guess they would say there's never been a time now where the league is, is it has a, has a constituency of players. That's guys who just suck at technique. Yeah. I do think that there are a lot of coaches that feel like there's like fundamental issues with the way NFL, the NFL is right now, that that could be fixed with more time. And, you know, the coaches have organized.

You know, John Harbaugh, Ron Rivera, Marvin Lewis was part of it when he was still in the NFL. There's a group of coaches that have addressed this with the management council, and they're pushing for more time. And their whole point is, well, if a guy wants to get better, like, why are there rules preventing him from going into work getting better the flip side of that of course is you know is this sort of is the coach's fault in the first place you know because what's been voluntary in the past hasn't really been voluntary you know it's like wink wink voluntary and so when they're

pressuring players and players have their jobs on whether or not they show up to voluntary stuff that's the reason why you have to make you have to put these constraints on how much time guys So when they're pressuring players and players have their jobs in line, whether or not they show up to voluntary stuff, that's the reason why you have to put these constraints on how much time guys can spend in the building. I would tell you, I do think that there are a lot of players that would like to be able to work out at their facilities more and would like to be able to put more time into their craft. And there's a hidden thing here, too, Ryan. There's costs for players. And getting trainers and having personal coaches and all that time, they're not allowed to be in the building.

And so a lot of these guys are investing a lot of money in getting coaching outside of the framework of their team. So they're spending money doing that. And now they're getting two different kinds of coach, you know? And so that's where you feel like the Tom House, the Adam Dato's out in Orange County, you know, working with these quarterbacks and they're trying to work with the coaches to try to make sure they're on the same page as far as what's being taught. And so that part of it sort of turned into a match where money's coming out of players' pockets. And now these coaches are having to find a way to organize all these personal

guys who are teaching them X, Y, and Z. And so there's a lot there that I think goes into the quality of play. And that, quite frankly, is stuff that I don't think the owners care much about because, like you said, it's off the top. You know, I think in 2011 when that happened, their response was, well, you said, it's off the top. I think in 2011 when that happened, their response was, well, you mean we get to turn the lights off

for another five weeks? Where do I sign up for that? And so finding a way to strike that balance where players who want to get better can actually go into work and get better like the rest of us can. I think everybody wants that. Finding a way to do it where it's not like

quote-unquote voluntary, that's sort of always been the problem. Three more quarterback questions. Andy Dalton said all the right things. New head coach Zach Taylor was at the Rams staff there as another hot McVay family tree guy, coaching tree guy. They're all saying the right things.

You know, eventually quarterbacks in my opinion they they tell you who they are after a while and sometimes we keep fighting this like i swear to god there are certain quarterbacks i think jay color was one of them you're like hey it's kind of been this for eight or nine years i think this is who he is we should stop pretending that some other new system or coordinator all these different things dalton's okay he's not great his numbers would be better like his numbers if you take his numbers now and you compare him to other guys like hey he's pretty good. You're like, yeah, that's also the way the game is played a little bit now.

I'm not necessarily anti- Andy, but how much of a fit is he for Taylor and what they want to do with the Bengals? I think the strength of Taylor's system is what you saw with Matt Ryan and Kyle Shanahan in Atlanta, what you saw with Derek Goff in Los Angeles, what you saw at least in a short

burst with Jimmy Garoppolo and Kyle Shanahan in San Francisco, that system morphs to whoever the quarterback is. And so I solidly believe that Zach Taylor and Brian Callahan and Alex Santel, the infrastructure there, they're going to be able to get whatever Andy Dalton's got. Like, they'll find a way to get it out of him. The flip side of that, the question really is whether that's going to be enough for the franchise. And they did give us some signs over the course of the last three, four months

that they are seriously looking at at least giving him some competition. They kicked the tires on Dwayne Haskins. They kicked the tires on Kyler Murray. You saw him at Will Greer's pro day. They were all over the place looking at quarterbacks pre-draft. And they wound up taking a guy in Ryan Finley, who was actually the fourth quarterback on their board. And so, you know, on one end of it, I think you look at it,

this should be very good for Andy Dalton. But the same way Carson Wentz got that infrastructure with three quarterback guys in the staff, Peterson, Reich, and DiFilippo, Dalton's now got that with Taylor Callahan and Van Pelt. And the system should morph to what he does. The other side of it, of course, is that, you know, and I think Andy knows this, in 2019, his job and his future in Cincinnati is absolutely on the line. All right. That makes sense.

And I mean, and it should at this point. All right. Will Greer. Is he going to be a pro bowler this year or next year? I'll tell you what, like, you know, a lot of these things are like, like a lot of times these offseason injuries will create opportunities for young players and camden being on the shelf has absolutely created opportunity for will greer um i can tell you there are people in that building who thought he was the

second best quarterback in the draft and like really they viewed him in a different way than i think some other teams did. And so, you know, I think Will Greer's got a shot to really develop there. And Cam being on the shelf has given him an opportunity to impress people in the building. I think his natural leadership, and you've been around college football enough to know a ton about him, his natural leadership has bled through all over the place. He's got good natural stroke. And, you know, I think he's got a chance to be a starting quarterback in the NFL. Now, how good a starting quarterback, I don't know.

But, you know, after, you know, his first two months in the building, I think there's a pretty strong feeling there that, you know, there's a guy here who at the very least can develop into an asset for the franchise behind Cam Newton over the next few years. And so I'm not calling them a pro bowler yet, but I do know they like a lot of what they've seen so far. Okay, it's an opportunity. It's something you don't expect. And that's what I love and kind of hate about the quarterbacks. Because sometimes I think, I wonder how many players are out there that could have been awesome

had they just had a different set of circumstances drafted in the right place. I still feel like if you're great, you're going to be great. And maybe we're too coddling about this thing where we think like, oh, you know, this quarterback, he had a bad run of it his first year, not a great coach, not a great fit. So he's going to be a disaster. Marginal guys, maybe.

But Baker's actually a really incredible version of this because if Baker stayed at Texas Tech or maybe stayed there enough to play there and then doesn't transfer, doesn't hook up with Lincoln Riley, Baker's probably at best like a mid-round pick because he's a mid-round pick and there's no money invested or draft pick equity invested in him. Maybe he's a third stringer. He's not getting any reps. And like a guy like Baker, maybe Baker is going to be that special and be so good that no matter what the situation, he would find a way

to prove himself again. Because I do believe that's the case with the truly elite guys. But it's pretty amazing to think of all the different turns that could have gone along in the Baker Mayfield story where he's actually not, I don't want to say the most, he's maybe the most talked about quarterback right now.

He's certainly the most hyped. But having said all those things, is it even, is it just a jerk thing to say like, hey, is he kind of overrated in a weird way? Because I feel like all I hear about is Baker stuff now all the time. And I imagine it's not so much overrated, underrated.

It's just that, hey, he's brought a pulse to a city, a football city, first and foremost in Cleveland. That hasn't had it in decades. So just back the fuck off. You know, like there's part of me that's like as soon as I'm thinking, wait a minute, are we over hyping this whole thing? And then I kind of get back to the Cole Cleveland thing, and I sort of tell myself to shut up. Yeah, you know, I'll give you another one. What if the NCAA doesn't grant him the extra year of eligibility?

You know, like, even something like that could have affected his stuff. You know, and so, you know, and I do think that this position, it's so interesting because I think, like, quarterbacks are, at the same time, the most important position in sports and also as reliant on their circumstances, maybe any position on a football field. And so, you know, I think, you know, look, Baker's in a great position to succeed. Um, and like, he's got a ton of natural ability. He's not tall. He's not 6'5". He's not 240 pounds. But I've had coaches tell me that coming out of college,

he was the most accurate quarterback they've ever evaluated. And clearly the pocket movement, the energy he has in his body, there's a lot of natural ability there. Because he was a walk-on, I don't think he always gets credit for. A ton of power in his arm, too. And he seems to have great circumstances now. I'm going to be interested to see how Freddie Kitchens balances everything. You know, you've got two guys, Beckham and Landry, who wanted the ball in the pass.

They're making a bet that those two guys are going to balance each other off because they work so well together at lsu uh you know you've got uh you've got a right job a promising young tight end and david joku you've got a couple good young running backs and kareem hunt and nick chubb um some questions on the offensive line but they've got a lot going for him there it's going to be interesting to see how baker handles expectations being where they are because not only is there all that there's also the last couple of years the year two jump that we've seen quarterbacks take I think sets the bar very very high for Baker you saw what Carson went to 2017 he may have been the MVP of the league before he got hurt and then we certainly saw it last year with

Patrick Mahomes and so there's a very high bar there for young quarterbacks who show promise in year one or at least show promise internally in year one and then explode in year two. It's weird, Ryan. Even if his improvement is moderate, is that a disappointment? I think that's going to be an interesting question

to ask. And if he's going to answer questions about that sort of thing in the middle of the season, how is he going to handle it? There's just sort of a lot going on there. I think he's going to be a really good player, but of all these factors, the level of expectation is sky high, no question about it.

I still feel like the Mahomes jump, I don't think that one counts, year one to year two, really. I still feel like this was, I know it wasn't technically his lucky year, but in a weird way, I can't imagine he even duplicates what he just did. So they'll be like, hey, like this was, I know it wasn't technically his lucky year, but like in a weird way, I can't imagine he even duplicates what he just did. So there'll be like, Hey,

wait a minute. If people figured out my homes, no, he was just insane. And I don't know statistically if it's possible of pulling off the same season. So I, you know,

to me, it won't be that my home's got worse or regressed. Everybody figured them out. I just go, you know, sometimes there's just stat lines that you go, well, that's not repeatable,

but. So you look at myomes and he loses Tyree Kill, they lose their starting center, Mitch Morris, there's going to be more on Sammy Watkins, no Chris Connolly. I know he was out for part of last year, but he was part of the puzzle at the beginning of the year. So there are a lot of moving parts. And in particular, if Hill's not there, like, he's

going to be a little more responsible for lifting people up around him than he was last year. All good points. Good personnel points there from Albert Breer, the MMQB. We can follow you on Twitter. Where? At Albert Breer.

Hey man, thanks a lot. I know it's late back in the East, so I really appreciate the time. We'll talk soon. All right. No, thanks for having me,

Ryan. Anytime you need me, let me know. Okay. This should be a disaster. Apologies to our good friends at Belvedere ahead of time. May have to have one after this read. I have this rant coming up.

We're working on it a little bit. Maybe I shouldn't say I've been working on it too much because if it's not any good, you'd be like, you put that much time into that crap. So here's the deal. I don't have a full pronunciation guide on this. We've looked up some of the stuff, so let's just go for it.

Part of a 600-year Polish vodka-making tradition, Belvedere vodka is all natural and made with 100% non GMO Polska rye and pristine water. You know, the Belvedere is champion Polska rye vodka and superior natural ingredients since its inception and continues their mission with its new Belvedere single estate rye series. That sounds incredible.

These award-winning vodkas Smagory forest and lake bartezek are two distinct tasting vodkas born from unique territory and expert craftsmanship smagori forest is crafted from rye cultivated on a single estate deep in the vast woodlands of western poland western poland's where the woods are if you didn't know that before you listened to this podcast, if you're just out and about having a Belvedere, ask somebody, would you say the greatest woodlands, at least in the EU, are in Western Poland? And they would say yes.

Almost without question. Anyway, Smagory Forest, the vast woodlands of western Poland, where long summers in a pristine environment help develop a bold, robust, and savory vodka. And then Lake Bartezek is crafted from rye cultivated on the shores of a glacial lake in northern Poland's Lake District, where, look, if you're a woods guy, you're a lake guy, Poland, Belvedere, we got you covered. Where, look, the long snowy winters help create a fresh, crisp, and delicate vodka.

That reminds me of a time when I was in Poland, backpacking. And a lot of people will tell you Poland's not the number one spot to go to. Let me tell you, that may not be accurate. Like if you're thinking Italy this year, Spain, France, southern coast of France, I'm thinking about doing the southern coast of France. I was supposed to do it a few years ago.

Didn't happen. And I re-ranked it. I had like a rise solo vacation list. And I go, I can't decide between the woodlands or the lake. So hit us up. Let us know. All right. So if I do get over there, I can't decide between the woodlands or the lake. So hit us up. Let us know. Alright, so if I do get over there, I will taste the difference

and enjoy Belvedere's new single estate ride vodka's on the rocks or in a delicious cocktail today. Belvedere is a quality choice. Drink your responsibly as to. Okay, you ever have, and I'll let Kyle chime in here if he wants. Do you ever have an idea where you go, oh man, I'd love to do that.

And then 10 seconds later you go, no, I wouldn't. Why would I want to do that? The other day I was trying to figure out, because I get some free time in August, I'm trying to figure out what I want to do, right? And I've had some really adventurous thoughts of what I could possibly pull off. And then I've gone, well, wait a minute, Why don't you just stay stateside and maybe travel? Why don't you try some different areas that you haven't tried before?

So I'm not ever so sure what I want to do. And then all of a sudden, Australia popped in my head. I go, maybe that's the time to do it. But then I don't think August is going to be the time to do it based on all the research I've done. So the Rams announced not that long ago, or maybe they did a while ago. I don't know when they announced that.

I'm not locked into LA Rams stuff scheduling-wise. But like, hey, they're playing a preseason game in Hawaii. I go, you know, I really do like Hawaii. It's a really easy flight. Maybe I do that. But like, wait a minute, why would I fly to go see a preseason game that I wouldn't drive 20 minutes up the street to go see?

So that's out. And I've done that. I've done that a few times where I've gone. I had a friend that was great when I had him. Where I go, Hey, they're moving the NFL draft around. You're like,

you know, it'd be fun as maybe go to Nashville. Nashville's a fun town. I had a lot of friends there. And he just said, you really want to go stand in a crowd with all these people at the draft. Like you would really want to do that. You think so?

Like, Hey, we drafted a wide receiver. Yeah. Oh, we drafted a linebacker that I didn't hear of as much. It was supposed to go four slots later in the first round. Boo.

Like the reaction to the draft stuff is fun. The draft thing is blown up. The touring draft party, it's good. But basically the whole point of this whole thing is, I think a lot of times maybe I'm impulsive in a way, but I can shut down my impulses where I'll go, wait a minute, that's a terrible idea. Why would I even say I want to do that?

Yes, I'm a little hoarse. Six flights in just a very short amount of days. I was in Connecticut for like 19 hours. So not 100% sure what's going on. I am starting to think the people flying around with the masks, the surgical masks on. They're into something. I think they may be the winners.

I'm serious, serious man i am i'm another a couple bad flights away from going full mask oh wow yeah probably not like a colorful mask or just a plain blue plain white mask that they wear yeah i would probably just go brad pitt in the big short seeds are going to be the new currency. I'm talking these frankincense. I look at them and I go, I bet you they're not inhaling anything. When I flew to Italy once, I inhaled a virus. It was like I snorted it. No, it was unbelievable.

I took a deep breath. I felt something go up my nose. I was immediately runny nose, watery eyes, and was sick in Europe for two straight days. Luckily, it was only two days, but that's how it started the trip. So when I look at these guys, because I always feel like the person wearing the surgical mask is sort of offensive to me. Like, I feel like that person's...

You're dirty. Yeah, like, you're bumming me out. Like, you're so clean. Like, what's so great about you? I don't know, man. I'm starting to rethink the whole thing. Okay. So that actually segues pretty poorly into this thing that I've wanted to talk about

and how pass interference is a lot like global warming. Now, we will not really do anything until it's mandatory and in some cases too late. And maybe that surgical mask thing does make sense. Because if I keep getting someone under the weather on flights, I'm going to have to step up and I wouldn't have done it as a preventative thing. I'd say, okay, now I have no choice, but to change the way I'm going about it. Cause this year has been nuts with the flying thing, but pass interference. Why are we changing it now? Well, we're changing it because we had a play in the NFC title game of the Rams and saints,

which was so egregious that finally, like, something like that has to happen for people to go, okay, let's make some change. Now, I don't want pass interference to be challenged. I don't want it to be reviewed. Maybe they find a way to streamline this thing. I'm sick of watching reviews in all sports. I think they're mostly a waste of time

because even when you think it's in the name of getting something right, people still get it wrong after the replay. I've done this rant a million times and more people actually seem to be coming towards my side of me like, you know what? You're right. I just wanted them to get this thing correct and they still don't get it correct with replay. So I'm really worried about past interference. But the only reason we came to this point is because something big happened.

Now, I'm not making this political because I've researched both sides of the global warming, climate change debate. Let's just put it this way. The anti-argument, there's a bunch of different ones. Some are horrible. Some that I could at least sympathize with in saying that if you were ever to look at the history of time and take a sliver of data this thin and then equate it to all these different things, like it's a little overboard in the coverage in this doomsday scenario stuff okay that's that's something i will at least listen to i may not agree but i tend to think that there's just some raw science here that temperature um water levels some of the carbon stuff and then you're like one of the anti-global warming things is that we're just coming out of an ice age that's exciting because

then you want to start like looking at newfoundland and start doing some prospecting for land, you know, BC, upper BC, Nome, Nome's pretty much, I think, I think it's tough to get a condo there now, especially in the summer months, but you understand the points, right? So I'm trying to, like anything, I try to have a little bit more of an open mind because it's incredible how many times throughout history people have been wrong about stuff but there was an article recently out of melbourne so maybe that's why i started thinking about australia where basically they're proposing the theory that people were going to be done by 2050 now that's either a bummer or a huge relief to some of you because if you're young and you got 30 years fucking ira, who cares? Right? And a doctor.

Yeah. Like, why am I getting health insurance for long-term stuff if I'm going to be dead and melting around 2050, maybe the fall? I would say if you're a big property guy, you know, I own a few units. Might want to start getting out of those 2030, because I think

2040 is going to be the real rush. We're going to see, guys, like if you're in the mortgage business and life is going to stop working at 2050 you're going to want to pivot you're going to pivot to body removal um maybe your own dump some kind of incinerator maybe you're just going to be a corn guy but think about it real people real professors i'm not telling trying to say like oh we really have 30 years but people most people even if you believe every doomsday scenario you're not going to do anything most of society will not do anything until your lawn just catches on fire and your car is like molten lava because we're in a massive, like unprecedented, crazy science, weird heat wave, right?

Because that's just how we are. We don't, we don't do anything until something absolutely hits us in the face, whether it's the financial crisis pre 2008 or an actual baseball at a game you could go to today. When you think about the financial crisis, it's like, hey, should we keep giving out mortgages to people that can't afford these houses and in some cases can't even read the paperwork? Nah, don't worry about it. And I have some pessimistic views on the economy that are not directly related to climate. I look around and I'm lucky enough to live in a town that is expensive because I just decided I'm doing this. And I don't know if I'm lucky enough to live in a town that is expensive because I just decided I'm doing this.

And I don't know if I'm gonna be able to live there forever. But when I look around, like sometimes you go, how could there be this many people that can afford this many houses that cost this much money? And this is one of many neighborhoods in LA, nevermind the neighborhoods all over the United States. You're like, how can so many people afford houses

that are two and $3 million more? Is it that they can't afford them or that we're all fucked? Okay. Because when I look at some of the financial numbers of what was going on in real estate before the crisis, there's some weird areas that are way beyond that. And it's not just inflation. And I know there's some financial people listening right now saying, you don't know what you're talking about. You know what? There's a good chance you're not retired and loaded. So you may not know what you're talking about either. Thanks for downloading the podcast.

So whenever I think of any change, anything, we as a species do an awful job deciding to do something different until we have no other choice. Whether or not all this doomsday stuff with the economy, or excuse me, the economy, forget that, with just the climate, whether or not all this doomsday stuff with the economy,

or excuse me, the economy, forget that, with just the climate, whether or not any of this stuff is really true, the magnitude of this piece that I'd read and come out, it's not going to scare anybody. Nobody's going to care about it until it's in their front yard. And it's the same thing with any rule change in the NFL. The Saints proposed something because they got screwed.

Andy Reid proposes a change to overtime. Why? Because he lost in a playoff game because they didn't get the ball back. And it's so funny that the NFL and the rule changes are basically, it's not a carbon copy, it's not mirror image, but is along the same lines of all of our ways of processing things. And that we, I don't even think this is just the United States, but we don't do anything until we have to. I have to end the podcast today. You have to subscribe, rate, review, and I'm going to go tape a pod with Simmons. This will probably be out after, which is a weird time machine thing there. Dual Threat will be coming out after,

but I'll be back with Bill Simmons for the NBA Finals. So thanks as always, guys. I always appreciate it. you