The Ryen Russillo Podcast - Latest Draft Buzz With Todd McShay. Plus, Wizards GM Tommy Sheppard and First-Round QB Busts.

Episode Date: April 26, 2021

Russillo shares his thoughts (and research) on first-round QB draft picks (1:50) before talking with ESPN’s Todd McShay about the latest buzz around the upcoming NFL draft (22:00). Then Ryen talks with Washington Wizards GM Tommy Sheppard about fighting though adversity this season, Bradley Beal, Russell Westbrook, John Wall, and more (43:00). Finally Ryen answers some listener-submitted Life Advice questions (1:04:00). Host: Ryen Russillo Guests: Todd McShay and Tommy Sheppard Producer: Kyle Crichton Producer: Steve Ceruti Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

new england i also was told i just mentioned them i was told that more teams have gotten calls about them moving back than they have about new england moving up which tells me obviously that that they're not you know they're not in love with any of these five quarterbacks or they're just not willing to give up what what it takes to go get one of these five quarterbacks in this year's class. Okay, so that would go in the opposite direction of maybe some stuff that was out there a couple weeks ago. The Pats were finally going to do something here that would be against Belichick. I mean, that was out there, right, for a little while? Every time I think I know what Bill's going to do, and every time I get information on New England, it tends to be the opposite.

Today's pod is loaded. Todd McShay with the latest draft rumors and why quarterbacks don't work out in my open first round busts. And where's Bradley Beal going? Well, ask the Wizards GM, Tommy Shepard. I want to start talking about the draft. The draft is this week.

Quarterbacks are the topic. They're always the topic. Unless you don't take one. And then you talk yourself into some D linemen you've never really seen play, but you're like, God, I love them. You see those highlight packages. You see what he did against NC State in that game Kuyper was talking about. All right. So back to the quarterback thing. I've been on this now for a few years. I've done a version of this topic a few years ago. And I just think it's really, really important when looking at the history of first round quarterbacks. So I've updated it all. I've done all the work. It's

what I've been doing all weekend. So that's where we're going to go because I'm going to start with this. I'm going to share this with you. I'm going to be honest. I've never been less confident in projecting star quarterbacks. I'm serious. And I think I watch as much college football as anybody. I've been lucky enough last decade plus to be in person watching the biggest quarterbacks in college football, the biggest stars, all the Heisman winners. I've seen them all from the sidelines. I've even stood in the end zone for a few of those games. I'm not saying I'm a scout. I'm never going to pretend I can figure this stuff out, not knowing what coverages are, because I know I don't know that stuff. But for those of us that watch a lot of college football

and talk about it for a living as part of the job, I'm 45 and I've never, ever been less confident in going, yeah, that guy's going to be a stud. I'm serious. I should be getting better at it and I think I'm getting worse or my confidence is just more shook because no one else is good at it.

Now, there's a few guys over the years I would say, hey, that guy's not going to be good or that doesn't seem like it's going to work. And I'll admit, I think I'm still pretty good on some of that stuff, but let's run through it. Here's the updated research. I went over 20 drafts starting in 1998, the Manning Leaf draft, 20 years through, through 2017, there have been 55 quarterbacks selected in the first round, 55 of them. I have, as we like to do here on the Rosillo podcast,

we like to make it very scientific. The latest data, the analytics, you can't even get them for free. I'm kidding. I have three categories. Busts, good, and meh. And that's an old Rosillo show joke back in the day. Cerruti and I used to kick that one around because

meh just sort of explains everything perfectly in three letters. What do you think of that restaurant? Meh, you know, it's not a boss, but it's not great. So I'm going to give you the 27 boss. I'm going to have Suri keep track of these as well, because I want to see if there's any pushback whatsoever, because I was nice about it. Because when I do this for you, I don't do it to sell you my point with, with a couple of good points and a few additional exaggerations because the data is good enough. All right, 27 of 55 are busts. So me making my point by saying, oh, it's actually 30, the point is already made.

Nobody's good at doing this. That number should be higher, and it isn't, and maybe we just need to accept it. Here are the busts going from 2017 all the way back to 1998. Mitch Trubisky, Paxton Lynch, Marcus Mariota, Blake Bortles, Johnny Manziel, E.J. Manuel, RG3, Brandon Whedon, Jake Locker, Blaine Gabbert, Christian Ponder, Tim Tebow, Josh Freeman, Jamarcus Russell, who had the best pro day ever, Brady Quinn, Matt Leiner. I know that hurts to say out loud. Jason Campbell, J.P. Lossman. J.P. Lossman, just a little side note on J.P. I know that hurts to say out loud. Jason Campbell, JP Lossman. JP Lossman, just a little side note

on JP Lossman because this is a surprise. He had five seasons with Buffalo. That's the other thing I kept track of too, the bust. A lot of these guys had longer starts to their career with the team that picked them because it was like, I don't really want to get rid of this guy even though we know it's not really working out. All right, I'm going to keep going here. Rex Grossman. Rex Grossman played

way less. He started way less. It's just the fact that they made that Super Bowl that they think of this Rex Grossman era. He was there. He didn't play that much. David Carr, Kyle Bowler, Patrick Ramsey, Tim Couch, Joey Harrington, Achilles Smith, Cade McNown, and Ryan Leaf.

So there you go, 27 busts. The meh category, Chad Pennington. He had that little playoff deal there with Miami. He had a lot of injuries. Vince Young, I think you could probably put in the bust category, but that doesn't seem entirely fair. I know they had a winning record. He has more interceptions and touchdowns. Mark Sanchez, two AFC title games. Dis games, disappointing, not what you'd hope for taking a guy that high. Didn't work out anywhere else after the fact. I'm not going to put Sam Bradford down as a bust. Teddy Bridgewater is not a bust, but I don't know that he's good.

Jameis Winston's not a bust. And Byron Leftwich could have put him in there, but you know what? He got hurt like twice, lost the job to David Garrard. All right, so that's the group, and then the rest of them are good, and I don't want to make guys like Rodgers and say an Alex Smith be in different categories here because it's just like, hey, did that first round pick work out?

Was he good? Yes, he was good, and I'm sure Cerruti was wondering if I put Alex Smith in man, but I'm not. I'm not going to, even though I don't think necessarily he's a stud. So those are the names of the busts. That's how I broke it down.

If you look at 2018, we're heading in the same direction here. Josh Allen's good. Lamar's good. Baker's kind of, we'll see. We've got two busts, potentially. Rosen definitely. Darnold potentially, although Darnold has a ton of supporters. And then in 2019, I think Kyler's good. We're probably not 100% sure what we have

yet. Daniel Jones leaning towards being replaced. And Dwayne Haskins already a bust after, what, a 2019 selection in the first round. So the other thing that I hear a lot is like, okay, well, how many of the guys that were bust ended up being good somewhere else? So that would mean that your bust status would be revoked. How many Ryan Tannehills do we have? We actually don't have any. Jay Cutler was still good in Denver, but he got traded. Alex Smith, again, had played at San Francisco, got hurt, came back, he got benched for Kaepernick. But it wasn't like he was terrible with San Francisco, then was awesome in Kansas City. Yes, he was better in Kansas City. And Tannehill, if you looked at the overall numbers, you could look back at Miami and maybe talk

yourself into it, kind of the way you could look at Mitch Trubisky's numbers and be like, wait a minute, was he really that bad? Look at some of those numbers. You're like, yeah, if you watched every week, it probably wasn't all that great. That's why Miami moved on from Tannehill. But this idea that there's this long line of quarterbacks like Tannehill that move on, I mean, the crazy thing is we're talking almost two decades here over 50 picks, and there just aren't many guys that flame out and then end up being good somewhere else. Vick was better later on, but that was a completely different set of circumstances. So would you say then that teams shouldn't take quarterbacks in the first round?

I went through the starters of all 32 teams. Here's a number for you. 14 of the 16 AFC starters are first round picks. All right? 14 of 16 are first round guys. 22 of 32 teams right now are projected to be starting a week one first rounder. And that number could probably go even a little bit higher depending on how this draft breaks out. So it's not like, hey, you guys are taking guys in the first rounder and that number could probably go even a little bit higher depending on how this draft breaks out so it's not like hey you guys are taking guys in the first round you should

stop doing it there's a solution because that doesn't make any sense either is it getting better well no it isn't it isn't now we could have a two-year run where there's eight first rounders taken and six work out to be really good and then all of a sudden people be like hey what's different what's different as I argue all the time, just because something's happening, doesn't mean it's anything. I'm not going to be convinced it would have to happen for like five or six years, maybe 10 years before I'd say like, Hey, you know what the league figure this out. They've gotten a little bit better. We have more analytics. Has that helped? No, we have more access to information. I'd imagine that hasn't helped.

I would like to think that there's more intimate knowledge of who the player is and who that personality is. But at the same time, even though we have quarterback coaches that have specialized in this industry that would maybe make these guys cleaner prospects, that guy's not going to tell you anything because he doesn't want to ruin his business by dumping on his own clients. And it's the same thing for the head coach at a big-time college program where how honest can that coach really be about his own player? Now, yes, there are circumstances where there's probably a front office guy in the NFL or the head coach who has a great relationship

20-plus years with the head coach. Think a guy like Belichick and Saban. I doubt Saban's lying to Belichick about guys, but I'd say for a lot of college head coaches or even staff members, you can't just be out there dogging your own guys, knowing that that could come back and bite you with recruiting later on. I hear stories about this stuff all the time. Like, oh, well, this guy said this about this guy to the draft and he found out, then he told other guys and on and on and on. And that's why they've hated them each other the last 10 years. All right. Here are two different quotes on Trevor Lawrence, by the way,

from that athletic piece that's really good. Bunch of different front office people from the NFL talking about Trevor Lawrence. This is the same guy, all right? And Trevor Lawrence, going into this, we thought was the cleanest, but now we've had a longer time to kind of go over all this stuff, so now people are doubting him a little bit more. The first scout says, quote,

rare arm talent. He's humble, faith-based guy. He'll handle anything being the franchise quarterback. There are a lot of people who say he's the best quarterback to come out since Andrew Luck. Here's another scout. So a different guy, quote, I take Joe Burrow over Trevor Lawrence. He's a better player, more of a playmaker. The ACC stinks. Everything is so easy for him, meaning Lawrence again. This was for three years. Now when he played LSU, Ohio State this year, Miami, Virginia Tech, there were times he had a speed up and he looked average.

By the way, I don't know what Miami game this guy was watching. At least this year, Lawrence had four touchdowns, was clean as hell, completed 71% of his passes. Anyway, so back to the quote. He goes, he had a speed up. He looked average. When he put him against other elite competition, he's not stepped up. When Deshaun Watson was there and he played Alabama two years in a row, that guy was by far the best player in the field, the superstar. I never saw that with Trevor Lawrence. On design

things, he can run, but if he has to quickly get out of trouble, he doesn't do it that well. If he threw for 300 yards in a game, 250 of it would be just the quick design of the offense. Their coordinator, Tony Elliott, is amazing. That's a very significant quote. It's pretty, I don't know, it makes you like, man, wait a minute, is this guy right? And I'm not going to hold the Miami thing against him because as I went through my bust list, and some of you that will be listening to this will say, well, you know, good segment, but that one guy, you know, David Carr wasn't a bust. He was this, this, and that. That's like telling, you know, I'm not comparing this segment to The Wire, but you'd be talking to David Simon being

like, love the show, but why was Stringer Bell always more concerned with a bug in the Xerox office than the strip club? That doesn't make a ton of sense. So is there anything that we can count on here? Well, I think we can count on things that we know that don't matter, right? Here's what we do know. Somebody looks at stats in college football. Forget it. It doesn't mean anything. Passing efficiency, career rating leaders, those guys are all like in the last five years. Let's go look at an older stat. Past completion percentage career leaders in college football.

Colt Brennan, Colt McCoy, back-to-back Colts. Kellen Moore, Graham Harrell, Brandon Whedon, Case Keenum, Chase Holbrook. I mean, do I need to keep going here? What's the other one? I always love this. When a guy who won in college ends up being a good NFL quarterback, people say, you know, he won in college. He won in college. Why don't you just do that? Here's why we don't do that. Top five winners in college football at the quarterback position. Kellen Moore, Colt McCoy,

although, you know, Colt. Andy Dalton, David Green, and then Peyton Manning's fifth. You know, what's funny about Peyton Manning is that back when he was coming out and there was a real Manning-Leaf debate for some of our younger listeners. That was like a real thing that was happening. And the knock on Peyton Manning, yeah, can't win the big one. Can't win the big one. Although that was true for a little while there in his pro career. But we know none of that matters. What about height? It's still preferable, but not mandatory. Not the way it used to be. It's not all pocket passing. We don't want that, but we'd still like to see a guy be able to pass out of the pocket because we're not ruling out the dual threat QBs like we used to always. So that adds another

element, I think, of confusion to this whole thing. But again, the running component is a nice element, but can't be the foundation. As I've said now for years, as I try to get better at this, knowing that I'm getting worse, I just wish there was a way to understand, hey, when we're down two scores, what kind of decisions are you going to make? Are you always going to take three when we're in field goal range? Are you always going to throw it behind the sticks on third and eight? And we can track all of this stuff, but I don't know that we really know. One of the best examples of a quarterback telling us that a quarterback was out there not playing the position of quarterback was the Trubisky Bears Saints playoff game this year,

where Troy Aikman's doing the game and they're down a couple scores. Mitch is back to deep and he's just not making the throws. There's now another level of throw that you need to make. There are decisions you need to start increasing your risk as a quarterback. And it just feels like no one has ever figured out the best way to project those kinds of decisions.

And it was unbelievably revealing because Troy's just in the booth going, yep, this guy's, he's not saying it word for word, but he's basically telling us, yeah, this guy's just, he doesn't see it. He doesn't understand it, and he doesn't see it. He doesn't understand the difference between the throws at this point of the game and the throws when all the players are scripted and the score is 0-0 or 7-0. So I'm at the point where I'm starting to accept this as an unsolvable problem. I'm sure some of you think you have it figured out. The guys that do it for a living don't seem

to have it figured out. I'm up for listening to anyone that can fix this or at the very least make it better than likely a 50% bust rate. So does you have any problems with any of the busts? No, I think they're all fair. I mean, you could argue here and there on one guy or another one, but I don't know. I kind of look back and I think about what is the thing in the NFL that most successful quarterbacks are good at, right?

It's throwing from the pocket, right? Like all the other stuff is great, but if you can't make consistently great throws down the field from the pocket, you're not going to be successful no matter what. Now, there are a couple outliers here or there, but I also think that even the last 10 years, the stereotype of what a quarterback should be has totally changed, and we're still not better at figuring out whether or not those guys are good or not. Because back in the day, you all we want a tall guy with a huge arm and now you've got you know russell wilson successfully you've got kyler murray going first overall a couple years ago those are guys that wouldn't even sniffed what being drafted maybe 10 20 years ago so i even though the process has sort of changed we still don't even understand what makes a great quarterback

that's an incredible point out of you that's why i like having you around um we've we actually have seen the league like get rid of some of the bs that they use these preconceived notions about the position and i mean unless you know five years from now all of a sudden we just have a better supply of first rounders but like you know you still want to be able to throw from the pocket, but it's not like everybody's supposed to be six, five and look like there's going to be on a cover of a magazine. Like I'm with you, like Kyler Murray.

I don't know if he's a first round pick 10 years ago. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. Way. I would say, I don't know. Way.

I mean, Russell Wilson, you know, he, I mean, Russell Wilson, well, it's not like he went for everybody.

No, but I mean, but even looking at a guy like Josh Allen, right? I, that guy to me, and it's nothing against him., I mean, Russell Wilson, it's not like he went to everybody. No, but I mean, but even looking at a guy like Josh Allen, right. I, that guy to me, and it's nothing against him. And I love watching him.

He's probably one of my favorite players to watch in league right now. I would have bet a lot of money that he would not have worked out period. Right. Cause you know, big arm, not super accurate coming out of Wyoming, going to Buffalo. Like everything had bus written all over him.

And he's like a top three MVP guy last year. Like I can't explain that. It doesn't make sense. No. And that's the other thing. It wasn't like he, like everything had bust written all over him and he's like a top three mvp guy last year like i can't explain that it doesn't make sense no and that's the other thing it wasn't like he he came from wyoming and then was awesome right away either so that part of his improvement is even more improbable but when i went through this you know the other thing too that i've noticed and i'll say this a lot with younger quarterbacks There are a lot of guys that were busts in the beginning. They'll have a moment and you'll think, Oh wait,

it's kind of like that triple a pitcher who comes up and gets a bunch of guys out for four starts. And then everybody gets the book on him. And then he's, he's back in triple a. And I think that happens with some of these first round guys where they'll have a little bit of success. Like RG three,

there might be some people be like hey he wasn't a bust i think he was offensive rookie of the year right you're like yeah but i i try not to ever go like straight up this guy stinks because he got hurt all the time but i think there was more to the rg3 demise uh than just injuries with him i really do like i don't i think he got figured out a little bit and then of course he himself was part of his own problem because he came in after a terrific first year with Shanahan telling Shanahan all the things that he didn't want to do. I mean, that's, that's documented. It's been talked about forever. So like I said, uh, I remember when I was really young, first in the business, probably 27, 28, although that at the time didn't feel super young, but you get the point. And I run into Bob Ryan at the garden and I'd had him on

the show in Boston there a few times. So this is before I'd even at ESPN. And I said something to him like, Hey, what do you think about this? He was like, I don't know. And I'm like, what do you mean you don't know? And I'm going, well, this is what's going to happen because this and this, this, and this is why all the, and he was like, yeah, maybe. And he just sort of shrugged. And I'm thinking like, where's the Bob Ryan that I've been reading? Like where, how could he not have a definitive? And it's not like Bob Ryan doesn't at times have completely definitive opinions on sports.

But it was something I didn't quite realize until I got older where I went, oh, he just flat out didn't know because he's been around for decades going, yeah. So like if I were 27, I'd be doing this podcast going, Trevor Lawrence is awesome. Zach Williamson sucks. And Justin Fields is awesome. And Trey Lance, like, no, thank you. And, you know, Mac Jones, you're going to be kidding me. instead i'm like maybe because that's what the data shows us one last question on this um you talked about there aren't a lot of tannahills i think a lot of people think that there are a lot of tannahills right guys that just all of a sudden go somewhere else and they're like oh he figured it out and that makes me think because a lot of these guys will say that oh like wherever a quarterback gets drafted is all about circumstance right it's the coaching staff and who how many you know how many playmakers

he has around what the offensive line is like but if that was the case wouldn't more guys you know wouldn't the david cars wouldn't there be more tannahills that go to another place later in their career and have success like those guys almost it almost never happens they either become backups or they're out of the league in like a couple of years so to me i kind of fall back on i don't know is it circumstance or is it like you just kind of know either the guy figures it out in the first couple of years or he doesn't? My thing with that has always been like I'm willing to believe circumstance is certainly part of the story here. But are you telling me Pat Mahomes at some point wasn't going to figure it out? Like he was just going to be bad if he got drafted by another team

like that seems impossible to me. And I do think the great ones, if you're going to be great, you're going to be going to be great no matter what. I mean, Andrew Luck had no help, no offensive line, no weapons. The defense wasn't that good. And they immediately were competitive and going to Denver when a playoff game, as much as people, I don't know, there's always a group that wants to bang on Andrew Luck all the time. And that was like the last guy where I go,

I I'm absolutely convinced that this guy's going to be great. We're going to ask Todd McShay about this coming up. And again, like we said, Tommy Shepard, GM of the Wizards. Good friend Todd McShay joins us talking draft this week. Okay. So Todd, I opened with something that I've been on now for a few years. And it's just that if you run through it, it's a 50% bust rate, if not a little bit higher on first rounders. And you would think with advancements and, and, and how we think we're evaluating these guys, why isn't it getting any better at this position? It's brutally hard. It really is because, you know, part of it is, is mis-evaluation and not, you totally figuring out who the who the person is and and what they what they want to be and how determined they are to be successful in the league

but more of it and this it sounds like an excuse but more of it is just the situation you know we see so many first rounders go early you know early early in picks. So if you're going number one overall, you're going to a team that earned number one overall, right? By winning one, two, three, four games. And that tends to be where these top quarterbacks go. And so they're not going to organizations that have the infrastructure. You know, Patrick Mahomes is a great example, but Patrick Mahomes coming out and you can talk to any scout off, off the record. If they want to be honest, his mechanics were so poor. I did the chiefs pre preseason game for a couple of years. He told me flat out. I didn't even know

how to identify the Mike linebacker, meaning the middle linebacker. And that's something you learn in high school typically. But he got in a situation where he was able to sit for a year, was behind Alex Smith, who was actually a good enough human being to help him develop, even though he knew that Mahomes was going to push him out and Alex was going to have to move on. And he had a great coaching staff. Now, you flip the switch on what Sam Darnold went to. Who's the best receiver that Sam Darnold ever had?

And that's why I'm so excited to see Sam in Carolina where there are more weapons. He's got Christian McCaffrey behind him. He's got Christian McCaffrey behind him. He's got a better defense. So, so much of it is where they land in the situation they're in and the continuity of the coaching staff as well. You just posted something to ESPN.com. I know you've been talking all, you know, lead up with all the different NFL sources on this one. So where does the story start? I imagine it's with San Francisco after Lawrence and Wilson go one and two. Yeah.

Yeah. And I, it's, it's funny because I, I probably talk more in the weekend before the draft to GMs and head coaches and scouts than, than I do for the previous four months. But, um, but yeah, I mean, Lawrence is a lock at number one. Zach Wilson is a lock at number two. What I'm told is that the personnel department at San Francisco picking at number three actually favors not everyone,

but there are more people in the personnel department that like Trey Lance, the North Dakota State quarterback, but Kyle Shanahan, the head coach, wants Mac Jones. So that's going to be kind of the first major intrigue, in my opinion. And listen, you've got Jimmy Garoppolo there. It would make a lot of sense to bring in a Trey Lance who only started at 17 games at the FCS level, but has all the talent in the world. He just, he needs some mechanical work to improve his footwork

to which ultimately will improve his accuracy and ball placement. But other than that, he's built like a tight end. He's big, he's physical, he's tough, he's competitive. He's highly intelligent. He processed as quickly, played in the pro-style system. So that's going to be really interesting to see. I talked to one person in the league that knows people inside the personnel department that said that there's a chance that Kyle will take our evaluation or our opinion and go with Trey Lance. And I've talked to other people in the league that said that, you know, why in the world would you, with an offensive-minded coach

and a guy who's developed quarterbacks throughout his career, go against what the head coach wants? So they moved up to three. They did their due diligence. They knew they liked all three of these guys and they knew that Trevor Lawrence and Zach Wilson would be off the board. But that'll be interesting to see who kind of, it's not a war, but who wins that tug of war, if you will. Okay. Then Atlanta, I've heard fields, um, you know, Ryan is still in play as far as a guy that

could still start a couple of years if they want to do that with the way they work the contract. I feel like he's talked about at times like he's 40. It's not the case. And then you have an ownership situation where they could say, you know, we just need to pull the trigger on one of these quarterbacks. So how do you see that playing out? Yeah, this one's interesting because all the information I'm getting from people I really trust is that if Atlanta stays at four, Kyle Pitts, the Florida tight end, will be the pick. And that makes sense. I mean, you've got a coach coming in who thinks he can continue to get success out of Matt Ryan for two or three more years.

out of Matt Ryan for two or three more years. They, you know, they obviously, if they unload Matt Ryan, they lose so much money in terms of the cap. It's a huge cap hit. So you bring in Pitts, you put him with Julio Jones, who, yes, is aging, but still can be successful. And Calvin Ridley as well at the wide receiver position. And Matt Ryan has been durable. You know, for a pocket passer, he's been durable.

If you just go back and look at his starts per season. So if they stay at four, I think it's Pitts. If they move back, I've heard it could be an offensive tackle like Rashawn Slater from Northwestern. It could be Elijah Baratuck, who's a tackle at USC, who's going to probably kick inside the guard. But there's also some people in the building, I'm told, that like the quarterbacks and the ownership part of it has not yet been determined. Because the owner obviously wants to make sure that they have long-term success. And this is a great opportunity, and you don't ever expect to be

picking it for again if you're an owner. So that will be another interesting one. But ultimately, based off of my intel, I think Kyle Pitts from Florida, the tight end, will be the pick at number four. What's the best piece of intel that you can share with us that you're like, well, if that happens, that'll be the headline carolina at eight i've been told now by two different general managers who are all they're doing is calling they're calling everyone they're calling me they're calling kuiper they're calling daniel jeremiah they're calling you know every scout that's ever worked for them they're just trying to get intel to figure out where guys are going to go so that they can figure out if they need to move up, move back, who they can deal with and all sorts of things. But the most interesting thing that I heard over the weekend was that Carolina, even after making the trade for Sam Darnold, still really likes Justin Fields from Ohio State.

And Sam Darnold only costs $5 million a year. And it's only a two-year contract. So see what happens with Sam. Develop Justin Fields and don't force him onto the field too early and see what happens from there. And if Sam plays really well, you have a good situation on your hands. You can trade Sam or you can trade Justin. But that one to me, I just assumed it was going to be offensive line,

cornerback, maybe wide receiver for Carolina. But what I'm being told is that the owner is a big part in kind of pushing the personnel department into maybe taking a quarterback after already trading for Sam. Back to kind of the initial part here as we've gone through all these quarterbacks, is there an evaluator that you trust more than anyone on quarterbacks where if there's a voice that you've talked to over the years, you go, well, if this guy feels this way about this quarterback,

then I almost want to defer to him um there there are there are three different guys that i that i really trust that i we kind of bounce ideas and thoughts off of and and it's a really good cross check for me i always do it after them the first thing I do in the scouting process, when the season's the college season's done is I watch all the top quarterbacks. Cause I know that's who I'm going to be talking about the most. Right. And then, and then I, and then I make calls to the three guys that I trust. And, and sometimes they, you know, take a look at this and maybe you're missing out on that and and we go back and forth and so it's helpful i can't mention their names obviously because then i'd be getting in trouble with a with

them and then b with all the other people that so they're teams okay so they're teams okay what's that i just wanted to make sure so that that that means that they're from teams it's it's not like some guru yeah exactly, exactly. Exactly. Yep. All right. I didn't quite get the answer. Although Jordan Palmer, I trust a lot. I do.

He obviously has a vested interest in his clients, but his information is really good. And he always has such a unique perspective on things. John Beck this year, and I've never spoken to John Beck and I'm going to have to get to know him, but John Beck, he's working as one of these quarterback gurus with, I want to say Trey Lance and Justin Fields. So he's,

he's kind of rising up the ranks as well. Is there a player that you keep hearing about that you're like, I can't believe this guy's going this high? Ooh. We could do positive first where there's a player. Yeah, yeah, yeah. No, no, it's all right. First of all, I'm just going to give you,

I'm just going to unload some buzz for you. That's what I want. Even though, yeah, there, here we go. Dallas is picking a 10. Everyone thinks that they want to move up for Kyle Pitts and maybe they do, but I don't know that they're going to be able to. I mean, that's a massive move to go up to number four to go get it. And I listen, I think Kyle Pitts could be a hall of fame tight end. He has the highest grade I've ever given to a tight end in 20 years.

But it's going to cost quarterback kind of compensation to go up and get that guy. So you're talking like two or maybe two first rounders and a third or something like that to get a tight end, which is a tough pill to swallow. third or something like that to get a tight end, which is a tough pill to swallow. But I'm told that Dallas, if they stay at 10, Patrick Sertan, the cornerback from Alabama, is a lock. The Giants, I'm told, are looking at the wide receivers. They're hoping that Jamar Chase from LSU and the two Alabama receivers, Devontae Smith and Jalen Waddell, one of those guys, fall to them.

If that's not the case, then it could be Quiddy Paye, the defensive end from Michigan, or they'd like to move back and get Christian Derrissaw, the offensive tackle from Virginia Tech. Philly was interesting because I heard kind of both sides from different people that I talked to. They could be looking to trade down, hoping that a quarterback needy team wants to move up. But then I also heard from somebody else that Howie Roseman, the GM, likes Justin Fields and could surprise by taking him if he's available at 12. But that just tells, like, I'm not an idiot. That just tells me that they're sending out bad information.

Yeah, well, we're going to take Justin Fields we're we're in the market and they're trying to get a team like New England at 15 um Washington at 19 Chicago at 20 one of those teams to try to move up if Fields does start to slide a little bit New England I also was told I just mentioned, I was told that more teams have gotten calls about them moving back than they have about New England moving up, which tells me, obviously, that they're not in love with any of these five quarterbacks or they're just not willing to give up what it takes to go get one of these five quarterbacks in this year's class. five quarterbacks in this year's class. Okay, so that would go in the opposite direction of maybe some stuff that was out there a couple weeks ago. The Pats were finally going to do something here

that would be against Belichick. I mean, that was out there, right, for a little while. Every time I think I know what Bill's going to do, and every time I get information on New England, it tends to be the opposite. And the other thing I'll say, the last bit of buzz for you,

Travis Etienne is the hottest running back in this class right now in terms of where his draft stock is going to be. I'm told that Buffalo at 30 is talking to teams ahead of the Jets at 23 and Jacksonville at 25, you know,. Team going ahead of Pittsburgh as well, trying to get in position to get ETN that they think he's the best back and they want to pair him up, obviously, with Josh Allen and create that backfield. Does it look like Elijah Moore is going to the first round,

the smaller receiver from Ole Miss? Yes. You know what? That's one of the other things that I have written down here. He is, I can't say consensus because I haven't talked to all 32 teams, but the teams that I've spoken to, he's the consensus number four receiver behind Jamar Chase, Jalen Waddell, and Devon J. Smith.

What else should I ask you about then? Because it sounds like you already kind of know where, like what else do I need to get out there? Cincinnati's going to be really interesting at number five. I've heard two sides of it, and I don't know what to believe, but I heard that Jamar Chase, the LSU receiver, who set a single-season record for receiving yards and receiving touchdowns in 2019 when he was paired up with Joe Burrow,

could be the pick there. But I've also heard some people say that they think Panay Sewell, the left tackle from Oregon, is going to be the pick. So it kind of goes back and forth. But I heard Sewell for a long time. And then this weekend, I talked to a couple people who really believed that Chase could be the pick to make Joe Burrow happy. That's a good segue into the Tua and Devontae Smith's reunion here.

Because I always have this kind of soft spot for Devontae because I remember just watching him in person going, I know all the other guys are the studs, but why is he always open? Why does he catch every ball? Why is every route like so clean? Because I think you could get on rugs and, and while a little on the route part of it, I think Judy was kind of the standout as a little bit older as, as the route runner out of the group. But then as you look at what Devante does and you go, okay, no, no, no, no, this is the pro. But then I feel like he's the classic example.

First of all, if he goes to Tua, it's like, okay, so is Miami doing this because they love the evaluation? I mean, they have to like it somewhat enough to pull a pick that high, to use number six on him, which seems to be higher than where he's projected. But how much of it is, hey, we got to do whatever we can, so let's bring in a guy that Tua is really comfortable with. Because if Devante's terrific, anyone that doubts him, you're going to go,

oh man, you know, why would I just, why would I lie to myself? Yeah, he ran a little slow, but look at all the work. And if he doesn't work out, we're going to go, he was slow, he was small.

Who are you kidding? Like whatever result we have with Devante Smith's career, one side is going to feel really stupid for not seeing the obvious signs. I will, I mean, I would pound the table for him, but I would pound the table for Kyle Pitts first, then Jamar Chase second, and then Devante, and then Devante third. Yeah, right, right.

And then Waddle fourth. I mean, it's such a unique group, but Jalen Hurts had the best line that I, that I've heard talking about Devante Smith, calling him a smooth criminal. That's exactly what he is. He's just, he's so silky smooth. He knows how to get in and out of his breaks. Um, he's, he's tough. He's physical.

And the two other things that really stand out. First of all, Steve Sarkeesian once told me, because I asked him about Devon, I'm like, what makes him so special? What do you know that we don't know just from watching tape? He's like, Todd, I'm telling you, it's like having a second quarterback on the field. He comes off the field after a series, and he tells me, you know, they're showing a cover two look and then they switch

to quarters they're they're using inside leverage so let's work the outside i mean he just knows little things like he's a 10-year nfl veteran and the other thing is i i've been doing what sideline analysts i think they call me for the last nine years. I've never had more fun. What's that? I said to your face. It was a joke. It didn't work out. Yeah, gotcha.

I've never had more fun with any team in any position group than I have standing six feet behind the wide receivers for Alabama the last two years. I mean, two years ago, obviously, it was Ruggs and Judy and Waddle and Smith. And then this past year, it was Waddle, Smith, and Mechie and a couple other guys. But the quarterbacks sit in a certain spot. The offensive linemen take up that front bench.

Other players bring chairs over, and they sit around. And then the coordinator comes in, or the offensive line coach comes in and they all talk when the defense is on the field. The receivers sit in this back row and they yell at each other the entire time that the defense is on the field. Just, you know, what are you doing? Get in and out of that break or work him over here. I got this guy.

I'm going to have the day today. And they're just always chirping at one another. It kind of speaks to how competitive those guys are. And there's a reason why this is the first time in NFL draft history that you've had two years with two wide receivers going in the first round. It's never happened at any other point going back to the 60s. And now it's going to happen in back-to-back years coming from alabama these four guys are just special competitors that's what i loved about feldman's stuff on davante where you know i know guys can get talked up and the legend of this guy

the legend of that guy but it was always so specific with him where when feldman talked to opposing coaching staffs after they'd played and said, that guy knew everything we were doing. He would just go out. He'd be like, okay, got it. And then he would go back and report. And the way they would talk about him, I just have not heard many college players talked about like him.

And I hope it works out because I just saw too much. It wasn't just a system. It wasn't, look, everybody's putting up huge numbers and all that kind of stuff. But I just hope for a smaller, slower guy, like I would hate in a couple of years, be like, ah, he was small. He was slow. That's why. Cause everybody raves about him. Hey, Todd, enjoy the week. I know you're going to run. I appreciate it as always, man. You do great work and look forward to the weekend. All right. All right, brother. Always good to catch up with you, man.

Tommy Shepard, the general manager of the wizards, joined us. The Red Hot Wizards, eight in a row, the first eight-game win streak since 2001. So let's examine your season because it has been rough for a lot of organizations. You guys were, what, 3-12? You didn't play for like two weeks. It's just been a grind of a season. So when you look at it that way, give me a sense of what this is like on your side especially in those early days when you were really struggling trying to figure out what this year was going to be uh you know first and foremost we're just grateful we were playing

at all this season but i think the the common thought amongst the nba was that we were going to start in february maybe january at the earliest And all of a sudden you get the good news, but still the news that, Hey, we're starting in, in December. And at that, that really fast forward to everything. And one thing you can't cut corners on is, you know, Ryan is guys is training. You know, a lot of guys left that we were in the bubble. I know the Lakers, they only had six weeks to prepare for training camp. We just had a lot of guys in different,

different shapes and sizes and different conditions. And we made a trade in December. You know, there was a lot of things that kind of came together for us right before the season. We had some guys that weren't in shape. We had some guys that were injured. And then, you know, lo and behold, COVID kicks our butt for a good three weeks, like you said. So our season really feels like three seasons. We kind of had that preseason

where we were trying to get everybody together. We started out like crap. We didn't really play very well. And then COVID hit us. And then everything since then has just been scrambling. But the whole league's gone through it. We're just grateful to be working, man. What are the conversations like as you're getting through it?

And, you know, you've got Scotty in place. You brought over Russell. Gets to some of the Beal stuff here a little bit. You're trying to even figure out who your roster is. But what are those conversations like on the staff side, front office side, of just trying to figure out who you are as a team? Well, you hit it right on the head. We knew who we were.

We thought we were going to be as a team. We thought we had some young guys with some good veterans and good veteran leadership with Bradley and Russell had ish Smith in house. We brought in Robin Lopez. We thought, OK, here's some guys that can back up at every position. We had some pretty solid guys. And then life happens. You know, 10 games into the season, we lose Thomas Bryant for the year. The next three games, we lost seven players due to COVID. We shut down. So the staff conversation is always about you got one half of the group that's always worried about what's going to happen next. And then there's for us, Scotty and myself, it's like, guys,

this is where we're at. Let's keep plowing forward. If we let go of the rope, the players let go of the rope. You can't have that. We've got to be able to all be pulling the same way together. And I think Scotty's leadership was huge during that. I think we all kind of came together because of it. You know, it's funny.

You get really thick in war and prison and in NBA seasons when there's COVID, I think. So this win streak, you know, I think at times you'd be like, all right, I wish we were better defensively. I wish we knew what the rotation was. And then the Denny, you know, injuries, awful because, you know, you felt like he was at least contributing in a part of what you're doing. It's great when you can have a rookie that you trust in the rotation. What has been different from where you sit about this team?

Well, I think Bradley Beal continues to take his game to another level now. He's right there, him and Curry leading the league in scoring. But he's scoring pretty efficiently. He's getting to the free throw line a heck of a lot more. The addition of Russell Westbrook, you know, you bring in a guy who leads the league in assists and top 10 in rebounds and top 25 in scoring. That really helped take some of the load off of Bradley.

We asked a lot of Bradley the last two years. We had so many injuries, and he had to drag this team around, and now we got some people to help him out. I think the one thing that we definitely need to continue to try to do is keep our head down and just keep our mouths shut, go rebound, go defend, and keep trying to get as many wins as we can. I'm going to try my best to ask a bunch of Beal questions here, and we'll see how good of a job I can do. What is the story with him as far as his future with the organization?

what he means to this team, what he means to this community is immeasurable. His ability to galvanize the team, his ability to lead by example, the way he shows up every day and puts in his work, you know, that's what you want as your leader. And I think all the players line up behind him. And then you add Russell, who is easily the hardest working guy I've ever been around to show biz. He's amazing. And he brings it every single day. He and Bradley together, you know that you're going to feel pretty, pretty bad if you disappoint them. And I think those are the best teams, Ryan, when you have that peer pressure,

when when the players hold each other accountable and hold each other to a very high standard. You know, coaches, that's their job. But really, it's the players, that peer pressure that gets the best out of people. Bradley's been fantastic as a leader as a scorer certainly and I think his game has just developed you know he had to develop his handle now all of a sudden he's a playmaker uh he's an underrated defender and he can rebound with the best of them you know he gets out in the open floor he makes a lot of great things happen how different is the Westbrook Beal dynamic than the Wall Beal dynamic when John was healthy? I don't really compare them, but I guess I would say that when John and Bradley were rolling, we were pretty fun to watch.

I think they played off each other very well. I do think the difference here now with Bradley and Russell is that they're both much more – they're more mature in their games, more secure with who they are. You know, it's obvious that, you know, Bradley's the – he's kind of the tip of the spear for us. And Russell came in on day one and said, my job is to make Bradley Beal the very best player I can. And now all of a sudden Bradley's leading the league in scoring or he's 1A, 1B.

And I think Russell took that so much on his shoulders to make sure that Bradley's going to be the best player he can be. So I think they really pull in the same direction. They complement each other very well. You know, John was dynamic, one of the best players ever to play for the Wizards. You know, Russell's unbelievable, one of the best players ever to play in the NBA. We've traded Beal for about two years. Those of us that have talked about this league for a living for a long time, we've had him on the move all sorts of places.

Let me just throw you kind of what I had heard, is that maybe the rest of us on the outside are not as in tune to what Bradley Beal's wishes are, and that he's far more comfortable with the organization than those of us that talk about the league all the time. So can you give us any insight onto his maybe future commitment that he wasn't really asking you for a trade, that he was okay with how things were going this year and that they'd revisit this and you together would revisit it in the future? Is that, is that a fair assessment? Yeah. And I was laughing when you said that,

because everybody for two years, you know, the best advice that you get is don't listen to any advice because everybody's telling you, Oh, you could get Bradley, get all these things for Bradley and do all that. And I said, yeah, but you know, you could go 10 years and not find another Bradley bill in the draft. You could go 10 years without ever developing another player like him. And he's such a special player, but but more importantly he's such an unbelievable person you know when you take players together and you put them on a roster and a lot of the stuff looks good on paper but man you know ryan that game's played on wood and bradley's a special guy he

holds holds very very uh a great deal of respect around the league from players maybe some guys get more shine than him for whatever reason, but I think it equates to winning. We got to go out and win, and that's our job. And, you know, in two years I've been the GM, we changed our entire roster. Bradley's actually the only player left that played against Boston in the playoffs.

You know, our second longest tenured player is Thomas Bryant. He's in his third season with us. So, you know, we've changed the roster up 100%, and most of it with him in mind of how we can best get the best out of his game and complement him with players around him. But the one thing I guess I could say, you know, I've been with Bradley since day one. He was the second youngest player in the draft when we drafted him,

drafted him on his birthday, as a matter of fact. And we've always kind of just told each other, hey, straight line conversation. If you didn't hear it from me, it didn't happen. You got something on your mind, come to me. And we've always been very direct with each other. When I got the job, the first thing we did was fly to Chicago the first day we could to meet with him and his agent, Mark Bartlstein. And we put, I think it was like 16 different contracts in front of him

for an extension proposal. And he said, Bradley, pick whichever one of these you want, but we want you to be here for life, a wizard for life, and finish your career here. And he picked one that was very wise and gave himself an extension that gives him an opportunity after next season to get another raise if he wants that, or we can try to extend him this summer but he made an investment in us that first day and he said yeah I'm I'm in I'm

gonna do this and that was a big sign to me that he wanted to be here and everything you know I'm not gonna ask him every day are you happy do you want to be here and he's not gonna ask me every day you know how am I doing we just we roll with each other we know each other very well and he's not going to ask me every day, you know, how am I doing? We just, we roll with each other. We know each other very well. There's no BS between us. We've been together since day one. So it sounds like maybe the rest of us need to have more of an open mind about a long-term future of Beal and the Wizards. Is that the right way to put it?

Because just the sound of this and as you're talking about it, it's like, no, it doesn't mean that it's happening this summer, that your expectation is that he could still be in a wizard's uniform for a long time that's my expectation that's my hope you know and i think everything for us is a let's let's not take one day for granted i don't take anything for granted in this business and i think a little paranoia is always a good thing you want to make sure you make your team better and better every time you can if it's a trade deadline if it's draft if it's free agency whatever you can do to make your team better and you got to show your players constantly that we're we demand a lot we expect a lot you

know last year we kind of took a step back very open transparent today we're gonna this year's about player development we just we took a bunch chances on guys, took a bunch of swings, brought in a lot of guys from other teams and whatever it takes. And you've got to start somewhere. And then you start to sift through, and now you start to build on that. Maybe you can't – I know you can't share too much, but how aggressive were other teams before the deadline? Just being like, hey, Tommy, what's going on? What's going on with Beal?

I can't imagine how much action there was just inquiring on Bradley Beal. Well, you know the old saying, no one calls from Vegas just to say hello, right? So I look down, I see my phone, I say, man, I haven't heard from you in months. When are you calling me? We all know.

I say, save your breath. We're good here. So you do know, though, what the market would be for him based on just the amount of interest, correct? I would say that they're, yeah, I mean, based on the calls that you get and stuff. But that only strengthens my resolve, that that's why we want Bradley here,

to have a player that has so much value around the league. It tells you that you can build around this guy. And it doesn't take basketball. It's a lot easier to rebuild than it is a football or hockey or baseball you know there's there's far less players and you just have to really manage manage your books right you get the right guys on board and have a whole lot of luck in terms of injuries and stuff and i just i keep going back to it i can't say enough bradley maybe make the hall of fame one day but he's still a better person and those are the kind of guys i can't say enough. Bradley may make the Hall of Fame one day, but he's still a better person. And those are the kind of guys, I can't say it enough,

when you have a franchise and the highs and lows that you go through in a year. You know, I look at what he's doing on the floor, and that's amazing. I look at the leadership he showed on Juneteenth. He assembled a group and marched through D.C. to raise issues about social justice. That, in a nutshell, he, Natasha Cloud, organized with John Thompson, Sasha Brown, a lot of our leaders that came together right behind Bradley Beal. This is what he wanted to do. They organized, they did that. That's an amazing leader. You know, he wasn't worried about Instagram. He wasn't worried about what his, you know,

Q rating is or anything. He just saw a need to go out and express and raise awareness, and that's what he did. So that's as important to me, Ryan, as anything he does on the floor, especially in the nation's capital, man. We got a spotlight on this. Yeah, no doubt, no doubt. And he's been a great representative for the team because I think other guys that can be unhappy,

I think that was always kind of the story that a lot of us missed. I was like, wait, for all the other guys that want out, they get to a point where they get real vocal about it. And I go, this hasn't happened with him at all. And then, you know, I talked to a couple different people who were like, you know, he's actually pretty content, at least as far as right now, you know, like he's not saying, Hey, get me out of here before the deadline, which is the playbook for, for a lot of others I don't take it for granted, Ryan. Seriously, we got to win, and we know it. Yeah.

When you bring in somebody like Russell Westbrook, I think it's – I would say he's – I've never seen a player try as hard as many possessions his entire career. Like no one – there's never been anybody i've ever seen care about every position i'm not saying it always works out but there has to be kind of an understanding as a teammate i would imagine when you're playing with russell westbrook what's what's the best kind of team around a westbrook what's the best personality to have around somebody like that that is so combative, but I mean in a good way. He's combative from a competitive standpoint, but you've

got to be ready. You've got to sign up for that and understand what you're getting into as a teammate because you could probably, versus other personalities, not handle it as well. I would say first and foremost, your ass better be ready to play every day. You better be ready to go and be serious in practice. Have a great time off the court russell's a very funny guy he loves to have

a good time but with basketball he does he takes it very serious and he's not going to get any refunds at the finish line he's gotten everything out of his body he sacrifices his body every night you know and when what's frustrating to me ryan for years you know i'd always try to say hello to him or dap him up. We have a lot of people in common. You know, I've been around the league 28 years, know most of the players in some way, shape, or form. And Russell, absolutely.

He had a barrier. He wouldn't let anybody in. So when we traded for him, it was hard for me because usually you got a little bit of a runway with guys because they know me from here or there. You know, we have people in common with him. It was like starting from day one. But we clicked pretty quickly that i know with russell with our kind of players to answer your question get shooters out there get high basketball iq guys and get

guys are going to play their asses off and that's who he wants to be with that's who bradley wants to be with those are the easiest guys to coach so you weed the garden you get guys on and off and you try to keep collecting players and hopefully uh you'll see in a year or two you'll start to see the the rewards for having those kind of guys around and i think that's it's paying off for us already this year and you know we found center by committee which is an old throwback i know you're an old basketball guy you appreciate seeing robin's meat hook he throws out there every night there's a couple things we do a little unorthodox but whatever it takes to get a win was the wall westbrook deal the only deal that could happen for those players like when you were figuring out what you were

going to do with john was the only deal the westbrook deal no no we could have done other deals but i think the the to me i take John Wall's career very seriously. He was a fantastic player here, and I was really looking forward to having him here. But, Ryan, every GM got a list. They keep it somewhere in their chest or somewhere in their wallet, but there's a list of players. If they're ever available, you go get them. Russell was always one of those players for our franchise.

And it kind of came to that situation as we were getting ready for the season that, you know, you knew there was stuff going on in Houston and your job as a GM is to always know what's going on around the league and what the value is and what, what's going on with every player. And we had a couple of conversations early. It wasn't for us. I said, get out and then get a phone call later and you know it's it's kind of like when you something's I there's something at one price and you say well we'll never do that but then it gets to another area and you say I wouldn't do that and that's what happened and deal came together in about an hour and a half you know after struggling for over a month or so

I wasn't looking to move John just you, you know, you get calls. Everybody beginning of the season and then off season, you're always looking, you're going to make calls on players. And someone made a call to me and that was the right deal for us. I defend John because I think at his peak with you guys, it's easily forgotten how special he was in about, I don't know. I mean, look, I know he's really good, but he had a peak year or so there where he was like flirting with being a top 10 player in a league. I would not say like an overall stature, the way we do top 10 stuff. But as far as like

that one year, I go, man, that guy really had it going. And you know, the injuries keep happening. So you think you have this future backcourt because you feel like, hey, this is where the league is built right now. Look at these two guys we have in place. One can't stay healthy. The uncertainty would be you make the Westbrook deal. You start off, you can't play for two weeks, as we said at the top. So the reason I put it all together in summary here is what does it mean to you now to be alive, to have a little playoff taste for a franchise? And I know no one's ever going to feel bad for anybody because you're all competing. But for you in this job, you know, you're there with earning a long time as well. But to have this taste again, and it's not like it's been a decade for some of these other franchises,

but to have this taste of like these games matter, knowing how much of a struggle it was at the beginning of the year. What's that feel like for you? Oh, it's very gratifying, but we haven't done anything yet. We still got a long way to go. And to back up what you said, I defend John, too. You know, he's one of my favorite players I've ever been around, one of my favorite people. You know, my nine-year-old just now started to talk to me again since we made that trade.

And, you know, those things, but that's what, you know, it's show business, not show friends. John was family to me, you know, and that's a very difficult trade, but we do it with the idea of what you just said. Where we want to go, you know, it's going to take different pieces or whatnot. And to get to this point right here, we got a long way to go,

but you just having meaningful games late into the season is going to help guys like Rui. It would have helped any of you if he hadn't stayed healthy, but our whole roster. But certainly the guy that you remember with John Wall was also Bradley Beal. Playoff Bradley Beal is a whole different animal. And you go back and look at those series that he went through with Atlanta,

with Chicago, Indiana, you know, Bradley could flat out go with Boston. And that's where I really, every day, I'm trying to make sure we get his career to the playoffs and keep him going. And then obviously Russell's got a very storied career in the playoffs. And then we got a lot of young guys who've never, you know, they've only watched the playoffs. So that's a dream. It's a distant goal right now. We just got, we got San Antonio tonight. That's all we're concerned about. Tommy, happy for the success of the team here recently. And I really appreciate your time. So thanks again. Hey man, big fan, Ryan. I appreciate you and wish you more

success as always. And I'll tell you, that is an outstanding place you got there. You know, I was doing it in the basement. I'm going to have to move back down there. It was a little more modest down in the basement, so I might start hiding out a little again. Outstanding. I'm down in the – we homeschool our kids, and I'm in the old classroom. Now, today, it's nice weather.

They're outside, so I get to go in the basement and be here and be by myself in one of the worst decorated rooms in our house. And I'm going to be like, Ryan, that's a sharp joint you got. I saw the chalkboard back there. I was like, what is he in Scott? They have a couple of beers and just start drawing up like some inbound stuff. What are they doing over there?

That's where they start talking about. They want to fire the teacher and burn the schoolhouse down that's where they start hey tommy i appreciate it thanks again thanks man take care you want details bye i drive a ferrari 355 cabriolet what's up i have a ridiculous house in the south fork i have every toy you can possibly imagine and best of all kids i am liquid so now you know what's possible let me tell you what's required this we gotta you guys have been unbelievable on these life advice emails i thought we were gonna maybe get to the shallow end here and i think everybody's passion for the segment and the numbers don't lie like it's incredible um that you know i didn't do like hey i'm gonna do this thing and now all of a sudden the podcast could be that much more successful but it's

exactly what's happened here all right so life advice rr at gmail.com six foot 85 kilograms australia that plays in i recently interviewed for a radio job at one of the larger radio stations in my city looking for more diverse voices in their radio presenters. A great cause. He says that. I did incredibly well in the interview, despite it being a group interview, which I always find weird. I've never done that.

Well, I haven't had an interview for a job in quite a while. But are guys doing that now? Group interviews? Anyone? I doubt either of you guys have ever done that, correct? No. Yeah. Yeah, me neither.

I don't know. Seems awkward. Seems awkward. All right. So our guy checks in, keeps going. I feel like I really sold them on me as a person and what I could bring to the station. The only issue is right at the end of the interview, another interviewee said that he was so pro new diverse voices that he hoped me or the guy sitting next to me would get the job. The guy

next to me was an African immigrant in Australia, which is a unique underrepresented voice. Yes. Although I don't know the Australian markets as well as any of the US markets. Our emailer continues, but I am just know the Australian markets as well as any of the US markets our emailer continues but I am just a white Australian dude so a guy in the group interview turned to the white Australian guy was like I hope you get it man and then it dawned on me

everyone in the group including the interviewers thinks I'm Asian or half Asian or Eurasian I get it I have very Eurasian half Asian features and have consistently been mistaken for it all my life. I was so taken aback in the moment though, that I didn't correct anyone. I just want to make it clear that I've never said once I was Asian. I've never pretended to be Asian in any way. And if someone asked me if I was Asian, I would obviously say no.

So our guy is giving us all the things that he wants to make sure he's in the clear on. Then he continues, but I really want this job. If they want to assume that and hire me, am I an asshole? I don't want to race bait or be disrespectful or dishonest in any way, but I haven't lied at all so far. In fact, all I've done is be myself, but I still feel bad that I may be taking a spot away from a more diverse and underrepresented person. I guess my question is, should I tell them my cultural background and make everything clear, Anglo-Saxon, Australian, or am I way over

thinking this? And if I get the job, it's based on my merit. And one person's assumption doesn't speak for everyone, nor does it mean that I'm pretending to be something I'm not. I just want to do the right thing. All right. Do you think there's any chance that does it mean that I'm pretending to be something I'm not. I just want to do the right thing. All right. Do you think there's any chance that on this podcast, I'm like, yeah, dude, go for it. Just get the gig.

I'm certainly not going to do that. And your dilemma is at least showing us some version of concern. You have anxiety about like, is this really how I want to get the job? Here's what I think you do. This is where you step up

and show that you're the man is go to somebody and say, hey, I want to just clear something up here. Something happened in that group interview and it was sort of awkward for me. So that's why I didn't correct it. But I'm just, you know, I'm Anglo-Saxon Australian. So I would hope I could still be in play here, but I wouldn't want to get it based on something like that.

And then, you know, like, that's not why I want to get a job, and it's because it's not true. And I don't even know, maybe I'm assuming everybody in the room thought I was. Because if you do that, that might be the most impressive thing you could do. I think that's the right play here, right? So now you don't have the guilt about it. And you have an opportunity to tell me a real straight shooter. Yeah, I think you're right. I mean, I was always told like what I was trying to get.

Bullshit. Kyle, bullshit. I would say there's no way. Let me be very clear with you. I would say nothing in this situation. You know, you say you know how to do Microsoft Word and PowerPoint. Maybe you throw Excel in there,

even though you never did it. And then you say nothing about it. But I'm saying like, my mom would always say when I had to go get jobs, she was always so annoying about it. She's like, did you go back? You have to go back and bother them, Kyle.

And like, I would go back. And then I'd be like, hey, I'm like here to see if you still want to give me that job at Models or something something but that's like a good reason for him to go back and say something even though like what is it the squeaky wheel gets fixed or something like it's another reason for you to like come back and talk to them and maybe they'll give you the job just because of recency bias like they talk you have a reason to pop back up in their purview. Yeah.

I like to say, what was the interview process at Models? Hey, I got time. Also, I played football, so I can help get those kids their cups and cleats. I was a manager of the sporting goods. I tell people I was the youngest manager ever at department manager at Models. I don't know if that's true, but I was 19, so I figured it was close enough to be the youngest manager.

There's probably always somebody else, but okay, I don't think we need to dwell on that one anymore. I had an unbelievable one here, and then the guy followed up, which Kyle sent along saying this guy must have made he was like please don't read this actually some of you guys have no idea that when you make the emails you know i edit them for you all right i edit them on the fly where i'll

leave out some of the details but when you'll say like hey this is where i went to school and this is where my wife went to school and this is the city that to school, and this is where my wife went to school, and this is the city that I live in. But this is the dilemma that we have, and it's this one other person. I mean, you know, we're worldwide here. As you can see, Australia. Okay, this one's good because I just got back from Tulum. Lovely little retreat. I could see Saruti doing well there. He would come back with some kind of hair that you only see on

instagram but all right our guy checks in man braid man braid i actually i was supposed to go on with chris long and do a tulum do's and don'ts and then i bought a michael scott beaded braid that i was tucking into the hat and i was going to do the podcast with them and then i realized okay you've been hanging around with with this bead thing in your house, and now it's weird. And Chris forgot, so we never did it. And then the moment passed. I wasn't excited about doing the joke anymore

because I thought it was going to be a great breakout video. And then he forgot. All right, here we go. Just going to jump into it. Planned a quick Tulum trip with my good college buddy to celebrate his new job. He's currently in Texas, and I'm in Southern California. Actually, this is a good one.

I hope people figure out who this is. Also, note that I go to Mexico fairly regularly. He was scheduled to be in Guadalajara the following week. So I made a quick flight adjustment to meet him in Tulum the weekend before. A few weeks prior to the trip, he added in a few additional friends of his place back in Texas. All right. So he's bringing in Texas buddies. You're meeting your buddy. So there's some, he's your core guy. He's bringing along some other guys you don't know. Some I've met briefly, others I don't know at all. The group is comprised of some big money guys and some others

on the lower end. I fall somewhere in the middle. The first night Friday, generally great considering that now I was somewhat the outsider of the group. All the vibes worked out pretty well together. Now, as you may know, Tulum can get a bit pricey. Friday night after most of the group called it a night, three of us went to an after-hour spot that was $150 just to get in. They were a bit apprehensive, so I said I'd just cover it and specifically mention not to worry about paying me back. Man, our man stepped up for a $450 cover charge for three dudes and he doesn't know a couple of the guys or maybe he knew one. I don't know. Now, Saturday daytime, we all make plans to have a chill beach day. Since there are eight of us in total, we left in two cars of four. The first car got there. One of the dudes I didn't know had paid $2,500 for a table at the beach club without any input from the second car.

The beach club was great. Dude started ordering bottles like rock stars. I paid $2,500 for a table at the beach club without any input from the second car. The beach club was great. Dude started ordering bottles like rock stars. I'm pretty banged up for the night before, so I took it pretty easy on the daytime drinks. As I'm more of a late night guy anyways. Captain late night over here. Here you. Out on another $1,600 for the extra bottles. Big money guy pays the bill.

So what are we talking? $2,500 for the table. $1,600 for over four grand. Big money guy pays the bill, says nothing of it. Later in the night, he also needed cash due to an ATM being down, and I gave him what I had, which he then would be right back. Okay, cool. Now it's Sunday.

Everyone's headed to the airport separately for different flight times. You get a group text requesting $450 each for the bottle service. Side note, he came with his wife, so I think his wife may have gotten his ear. No one replies to the group text. I figure as the outside, the group guy, I can somewhat lay in the weeds. Brilliant move. I was in the exact same thing. I'm like, wait, I'm a non-core guy. One of you guys can respond to this request first on the text thread. I'm going to just lay back here and figure out how this is gonna work really like your instincts um so he says i'll wait it out until there's a group consensus next day he sends this quote

i better get paid or i'm gonna fuck up every person on this text it's not i'm going it's i'm a you don't believe me i'll be there tonight. Wait, again. What a fucking loser. I'm going to get paid or I'm going to fuck up every person on this text. You don't believe me. I'll be there tonight. Now, at this point, I don't want to pay this guy in principle. Do I just wait this out to see what the other guys do or do I pay him to cleanse my conscious of this even though I had no input into the bottles decision? No, don't pay them. And I pay everybody. Don't pay them. Don't send that kind of text to everybody and guys you don't really know. Now you're probably right. Great instincts out of this guy. Great email,

start to finish. His wife probably was like, how much did you spend? And nobody's doing accounting when the bottles are flowing right yeah order another one dude let's order two of them you know and it could all get a little gray and the problem is if you're like captain order everything for everybody you can't also be captain invoice you know pick a captain i don't i don't think you can, you can do those things. Now, if, if you knew the guy and you know that it's the wife that's behind it, which is probably exactly what it is when she saw how much he spent or what he said he spent that she's like, you're going to add. And then if you knew him, you'd be like, Hey, and he could have handled a different

way. You know, Hey, look, is there any way you can kick in? Then it's $450. You have this amazing day, but $450 is the end of the world for you, apparently, which is great. It's certainly not over $4,000, but there's a way to handle it and a way not to handle it. If he doesn't know you well enough, maybe it was just a joke, but it doesn't sound like it was a joke. If he's serious, he's like, Hey, I'm going to beat you up and come to your house. If you don't pay him, I would be so happy to not pay somebody like that, that I would, I would look forward to future conflict with him. I would, again, I would just be like, good. I can't wait to like argue with you about this. Although again, it's kind of a waste

of everybody's time. And as I say this out loud, maybe there's better ways to spend your time, but yeah, I wouldn't, I wouldn't be in a hurry to pay this guy at all. Cause it's just, you know, you didn't have a problem going ahead, ordering up everything. You didn't ask anybody else. I think when you decide to take the lead on something like this, especially if you're a guy with a lot of money, you have to understand that you're floating people a little bit in this decision. All right. If you didn't talk about it with anybody else, you have to take some financial responsibility on this kind of move. You can't just live it up and then tell everybody 24 hours later, oh, by the way, that actually was going to be split eight ways.

That's not cool. Agreed. I generally go to bars that don't give you the option to buy a bottle so that you never get in that murky situation anyway where the worst thing that can happen is like oh yeah I thought you were covering his last four beers because you covered that first one it's like oh all right the guy owes me uh 40 bucks and I'm not gonna get it that's fine so I just never am in that situation so that's all I have to say this goes back to last week though and talking about

like the bachelor party stuff and going out on these trips with people that you know and why it's always dangerous to to like be involved in these like trips and multi-night deals and splitting the bill with random people because that's that's the kind of stuff that happens like with your with your boys there's really no i mean you guys probably have been out before you know what the deal is you know how everybody's supposed to check you know if somebody gets out of control you can probably you know bring them in a little bit but this guy balling out and wilding out and then asking for the you know how everybody's supposed to check you know if somebody gets out of control you can probably you know bring them in a little bit but this guy balling out and wilding out and then asking for the you know to split it up eight ways a day later that's how you

avoid that situation is keep it keep the core tight it's not the same thing but it reminds me once of like there was this one guy that trashed a hotel room that we were with and then we were laughing but you know we're really really young and we were laughing, but you know, we're really, really young and we're laughing and we're like, what are you doing in your room? But you're kind of like laughing at the guy doing it. And then he was like, Hey, can anybody help me on that security deposit? We're like, no, we didn't help you. You're the one that did it. So ordering for everybody is great, but I know who this guy is without knowing him. I know the routine.

I know all of it. And then you didn't realize you had signed up for some sort of payment plan. The last bottle I think I bought was a few years ago and I got invited to a thing and then the person was like, hey, it's my birthday.

You throw him for a bottle. And then I feel like, did I get invited to this to be then the person was like, Hey, it's my birthday. He's throwing for a bottle. And then I feel like, did I get invited to this to be one of the bottle buyer guys? I left. That's an awesome feeling to wash over you. Yeah. I was like, wait a second.

I think, I think I'm, I think I was here because it was like, Oh, Rosilla will throw down for one. Like, yeah, hit him up.

And it was like one of those deals where I wasn't even, you know, I don't really go out that much anyway. So I just was like, what? You're lucky I'm even here, dude. Yeah, get out of the house. And then I'm like, within 15 minutes, I'm getting this shakedown. Like, hey, come on. I was like, and honestly, it wasn't that big of a deal. I think he had a friend and whatever.

But then after I saw it all go down, I was like, yeah, whatever. But you know what I didn't do? Venmo requests 20 fucking people the next day for it. So, all right. There you go. This is an unbelievable week. Great start on Monday. We got Carson Palmer on Wednesday.

And then the rest of the draft stories. Draft stories, Saruti. Is Jeff Saturday? Did that one run already? No, no. That's this week, right? It'll be Jeff Saturday. It will be Matt Leiner, which is a really good one.

Leiner's the best one. I love Matt Leiner. Mike Vick's in there. It's a good one. Okay. And then Friday, we're doing draft recap with Kevin Clark. And then we'll probably figure out some other stuff, too. Because I don't want to be too light on the NBA.

But at this point, if you're still listening to the podcast, you're going to listen on Wednesday no matter what I do. If you're still listening to this after an hour 30. Thank you, everyone. As always, subscribe, rate, and review. Talk to you Wednesday. Thank you. you