They are around the NFL podcast Wishes You were Cooler? From the Chris Westling podcast studio. It's around the NFL. I am Dan Hansis.
I think you're pretty cool. Listener Mark Cecler Greg Rosenthal says.
I'd imagine there was a few people that heard that and felt that it was aimed at them appropriately.
Right, It couldn't be talking about us, though. The Jacket Bros are coming strong to Jack Brows cool.
Dad's Jack Bros. You guys are total Jack Bros. That's the way I look at it. That's a good nickname.
I don't want it, the clothing thing to become a like a day by day insurrection, because I just want to wear this sometimes just because I don't want to wear other stuff.
When Levi comes out, though, there's a different cess energy. We've talked about this. You got the when faded Denim Levi comes out, look Out rock and rolls in the building.
You've issued that they were morning for that.
I want to say before we get into everything, including a little fly on the Wall and NFL facilities here in the off season. Some news I declare vengeance and it's been a while on late week news, dumps in the off season. How dare you Arizona Cardinals on so many levels, release DeAndre Hopkins after we complete taping Thursday and just let us steal on our own mess Thursday afternoon all through Friday through.
A holiday weekend. Are you kidding me?
Vengeance declared you do it on Monday morning, nine am East Coast time.
Yeah, they're not understanding how media works. I know that personally. I'm with you on this. On the Vengeance streak, we found out as we you know, just after we wrapped our show on Thursday, and it's one of the situation where I was stuck in like a thicket of traffic and I thought, there's a world here. We're going to say this is such big news that you know, circle the wagons, go back, get back on screen Yard you were worried about that text, absolutely, just like this could bubble into more.
Work, like the guys that did the Roquan Smith emergency podcast.
This could be a situation.
Well, it's the off season, and I don't like stewing in my own juices, but sometimes it's it's good for the juices.
Stewing your own.
Juice somehow even grosser, but so just be mindful of that NFL transaction wire. We're all in this together ultimately, and we don't like getting scooped.
Oh, it's unrewarding.
I actually conducted multiple podcasts that I wasn't recording, but I just had to like get the juices out, get it out. You just talked DeAndre Hopkins by myself ring out the underpants in my garage that it's not worthy.
A little strange and lonely life. Greg.
Yes, so we are going to get into all that because that is timing aside, a very nice morsel of information and speculation to get into around suddenly a number one wide receiver? Is he kind of maybe suddenly hitting the market.
But first, yes, we're going to get to that and everything else in the news.
Shot up Murray out of the pocket seven seconds, six seconds, Murray's.
Hopkins, No the hell.
Mary from Kyler Murray and what a play by Murray, uh to DeAndre Hopkins to beat the Bills in happier times for Arizona. The Bills, by the way, we probably took notice of that as they formulate how to handle their wide receiver room in the next days and weeks. But yes, the Arizona Cardinals and DeAndre Hopkins are no more because the official release came down on Friday with a team announcement. His future had been in question since
the end of twenty twenty two. He had a nearly thirty one million dollar cap hit, the most among any wide receivers in the NFL, seventh highest overall, And the
Cardinals said, we're gonna eat it. We're gonna eat the pain, and you could greg, you could follow, and we're gonna talk about teams that make sense, but you could follow again the path of what Arizona's doing this year, which is we could try to figure out something to spread this out or make a deal that makes sense and allows us more financial flexibility, but we're not trying to really win this year, So we're gonna swallow the pain
move on. And for a guy and Hopkins who arrived with so much fanfare three seasons ago, and when the Cardinals pilfer the Texans and that trade once upon a time for him now to go out the door for nothing in return and narry a playoff win, it feels a little empty at the end.
Yeah, the entire Kyler Murray era, which DeAndre Hopkins was such a big part feels a little empty. That one playoff appearance we were at them getting blown out Murray Magic, which we just heard was kind of the highlight of this era, and them taking the pain now really surprised me because they have twenty one million dollars in dead cap money with DeAndre Hopkins's release, and if they had waited till June first, it is a rare time where they would have had to wait because they already used
their first two pre June first designations. You only get two that you can just use before it's actually June first. But they said, if this guy's got to keep going on podcasts and basically talking about like he wants to get out of here, what are we doing here?
He doesn't have.
Any our quarterback, right, maybe we'll just throw it out there at the end or the beginning of a holiday week. And the transaction isn't official even as we're taping this, which is just shy of four pm Eastern on Tuesday, it should be official.
Then it won't be official till the very end of the weekend.
So if some team wanted to step up and actually trade for him in between, they could, But I think they were confident that wasn't gonna happen. It doesn't seem like that is going to happen. Nobody wants DeAndre Hopkins at that price, and so they just like, you're right, make as strong a statement as they have so far that they're essentially not trying to win this year.
Yeah, it's a full on rebuild.
And I think that was clear prior to this move because DeAndre Hopkins hung out on that roster and it just didn't make a lot of sense. And yes, I think his own words hastened the process here. And it also tells me that, you know, we've seen this before. There wasn't intense There are teams interested, we know that, and we'll get into it, but there was not intense interest in taking on his salary. I mean, it's not that the Cardinals didn't try to trade him, but they
couldn't move. They couldn't make it happen. It doesn't look great for them, but I think teams knew that ultimately Arizona at some point would have to hit the ejector seat button and they'd have a chance to get DeAndre Hopkins in the open market.
And this is a learning lesson for all of us because it happens a lot in this league where a decorated veteran is on the trade block, and we do remember its doing an episode a couple months ago. We're like, all right, what would he fetch? Oh yeah, late first round pick maybe, And then things play out and you see the market isn't what you expect, and yeah, financially, there's a reason for that. There is a ped suspension. That's a reason for that. You talk to certain people
that follow the game closely. Even though somebody like JJ Watt comes out and says this guy still has the best hands in the league, there are some deeper under the hood numbers that reflect he's not as good in man to man anymore.
He doesn't maybe have the speed yet used to have.
So you factor all those things together and the trade value we expected to have isn't there.
That's it. Greg.
However, I think it is fair to give this Arizona regime some heat because there had to be a better way to play this if you were going forward without Hopkins, whether it was the trade deadline last year or figuring out something before this happened, and they just didn't do it. And I just think, once again, I think when you make the list of what organizations feel like it's a little loose at the steering wheel.
The Cardinals are that team to me right.
Well, Hopkins talking about how he wanted stable front office management at his next place got me thinking of, like, oh yeah, he went through the Bill O'Brien Jackie Easterby mess in Houston and then went to the Steve Kaime debacle in Arizona's Then you know, I guess he was working for Fox Sports. So people have seen Steve kay Steve Kaiine, but he disappeared for a little while in during that season. They they weren't run well. He was suspended,
so they couldn't really trade him during last season. And I think what's key is when he returned, he wasn't the same player. He averaged eleven point two yards per catch, that tied for the lowest in his career. He's not as explosive. I think he can still be a number two.
And I think the Cardinals this offseason, with their new GM Monte Austin, for probably did blow it in some way because, at least according to our insiders, trade talks were heating up previously and basically if they got any trade offer and they didn't execute that trade before the draft. They messed up because something would have been better than nothing. Maybe it was just a fourth round pick or something
like that. Maybe Hopkins's side made it seem like, we're not going to renegotiate unless we get released, and so there might be more to this story, and the Cardinals' hands were tied.
I do think that the new front office did a nice job in the draft, basically lining up for the future. But to your point, like, if it was clear that you're not going to get that first round pick or a second round pick for this player, why not hold out in a way to get literally anything you can? And there were teams interested. I mean, I think that his financials made them a tough trade for the team.
To be on the receiving end.
Those Chiefs have been the They're the two that are the reported, but.
The Bills and Chiefs, I think this probably got in the way. And I know that the cap means literally nothing anymore. It doesn't really matter financially on any level. But if you go to over the cap, they are the second and third least amount of money to have to spend right now. So I think, like what his contract would have demanded would have required a lot of dance around that and figuring that out.
Yes, and Burt Brier of Sports Illustrated wrote today that hopkins interest in Hopkins is quote very tepid from teams and that he may have to choose between quote taking the bag and chasing a ring. And also Bert wrote that the Odell Beckham signing by Baltimore, which raised a lot of eyebrows for how much Beckham got considering his recent injury history and having not played last year, that spooked other teams from wanting to be involved with Hopkins here,
so you know. An anonymous executive also wrote told Breer he can't run anymore, so there are teams that are aware of getting into business with a guy in the wrongs.
I think it's worth the gamble.
I think the Bills makes so much sense to give Hopkins some run here. He doesn't have to be the number one guy with Diggs there. As long as you keep Diggs happy. Mahomes obviously is going to make any wide receiver better and squeeze everything out of him. It makes a lot of sense for him on a lot of teams. With those two teams, I'd still be surprised if it's not one.
Apparently, what's happening a little bit in an arms race type scenario is that Buffalo wants him. There's interest in the Chiefs want him, but they definitely don't want the other team to get them. They're just mostly interested that the chief the Chiefs don't want the Bills getting him.
The Bills don't want the Chiefs getting him.
And the Chiefs of all's reporting that inside the building they view Kadarius Tony as a fairly legitimate number one if they don't get him.
I mean, Kadarius Tony's never been healthy, Kadarius Tony's never been productive. That is quite a projection any other roster by it's like a smoke screen a little bit. I love Tony, by the way, I've been talking of Tony since he got DRNK. I love him, but it's it's a little much. Any other roster that you looked at Valdas scantleing Kadarius Tony, Sky Moore and Rashi Rice as your top four, you would be killing them for Like,
why aren't you giving Patrick Mahomes more help? I know they have Kelsey, you have a great a very good offensive line. Maybe great and you have Andy Reid. I'm not personally worried, but they do have a major need, and I think the Bills have a need to. I mean he would fit in great as a number. Two complicating factors though, is that uh, I want to call him a vixen, but men can't be vixen. What do we call st st omni ominous? I mean it's the it's the agent who's not really an agent that the
NFL has been telling, don't dashing. I mean I want a more foreboding, a man biscuit, man biscuit. I mean he could look like me. Well, I mean maybe I am a man, a little man biscuit. I love a little snack on you.
What's better than a biscuit?
I h I don't know what's up with the Saint Omny thing.
Though he's so he doesn't have a real agent.
Teams, according to Pro Football Talk, are anxious or worried about emailing hopkins Is representatives.
There's an update Omne is involved. It's very strange.
Just before the show Always Hired with DeAndre Hopkins hired agent Calton cren show up Clutch Sports, Okay, Clutch with a K Clutch with a C for you for digging up that little nug sure timely. Well, we don't want to get banged again like we did last show.
Well what's up? Why do they who?
What?
I want to know what Saint Omne is doing behind the scenes, though.
Mark don't ask questions.
Because he's It's not like he's not getting it done. He got he helped get Rokewan Smith deal done. He helped get Laramie tunsel Uh one of the highest paid players in the NFL done. Says there's something that Saint Omne is doing that's really speaking to the people.
I mean, he's also given himself a great name.
In other news, also something I dropped Thursday after our show, the Athletics to Sean Reid reported that Jimmy Garoppolo, recently signed quarterback of the Raiders, underwent foot surgery after signing with the team. He's expected to miss Yes, this is the same Garoppolo who is always hurt, always when he's on the field. Put him in a good situation. He's
a performer. When he's hurt, he can't help you. And he's always hurt and he's out for Rotier's Reid reported that Jimmy G's recovery timeline is unknown that there's a sense of the team is confident he'll be ready to play for the start of the regular.
Season, but we don't know. They don't know.
And then your boy Greggy, your old boss Florio did some dingy digging, got his hands on that contract and reported and a good job by PFT here that Garoppolo can be released without penalty by the Raiders this summer because of that foot injury. So if it's a situation in the where it's not progressing, they can just bail entirely out of the Garoppolo situation. Feels like kind of a disaster potentially for the Raiders here.
Yeah, well that's so.
That's the thing they did business wise, which you just mentioned, was this addendum G inside the contract that created all this triple agility.
Yeah.
Sure, like so this is a disaster win waiting they Jared's didn't walked out the door, had a one great game and then one not so great game last year. Brian Hoyer is your backup quarterback. He's thirty seven years old, and you have a rookie eight and O'Connell is the only other quarterback on the roster right now, Arson Well, and so actually young Turner, Scott Turner is their pass
game coordinator. So that either says now, I'm gonna tell everyone definitely don't get Carson Wentz or I've at least worked with him, or.
You know there is a partial owner there.
Well, that's the other certain guy.
Tom Brady.
The rules of the NFL are that you can't be a partial owner and also be a player unless it's approved by the other thirty one owners and there's contractual.
Why would anybody in the AFC West exactly.
So I don't think that would fly if this thing is as official as they say. It's crazy though, because the day Jimmy g was signed, you know, they did the press conference. If you guys remember, it was delayed a day and then it was delayed the next day, and it was all because of this is DNMG. They he was in the building, he got there, and they failed him on the physical.
It's kind of it. That's going to be an award.
It must have been an awkward twenty four hours there, and they were like, Oh, it's no big deal, we're just crossing Tea's dot and eyes. Nothing to worry about. Whereas there was totally something to worry about. He should have gotten that surgery right after the season, but I guess he was trying to avoid it happening. Remember it was the same injury that why he missed all that time, and.
A surgery timeline was weird the first Yeah, they said, oh, he might be able to return for the NFC Title Game or the Super Bowl.
The advance been.
Playing the Super Bowl. I think that's what banged them. They thought, if we have a chance for him to play in the Super Bowl, he would But.
Now, so you were going to bench rock party on a heater for the guy with the bet, let's stick a pin in all that talks.
It's going to come up a little bit later.
Finally in the news John Gruden, Greg, do you remember John Gruden?
One of the central figures I would say, of this podcast for its first seven years as a broadcaster in a big spot, A lot of different opinions on Gruden as a broadcaster. We talked about it a lot, and then of course as the richest coach in NFL history at the time for.
The Raiders, Hard Knocks star as well. So yeah, his DNA is everywhere on this show. But he also kind of got himself run out of the league.
I like me bringing him up as if the audience has no idea who's done.
So you never know. People.
Probably Gruden got run out of the league during in the middle of his tenure as head coaches of the Raiders.
After he came out of retirement.
There are the Raiders again because of some emails that surfaced that had some you know, inappropriate language. We can say, yeah it was it was racist language. I don't remember exactly what it was. I'm not trying to pussy foot around.
It, but it was.
Whatever it was, it was enough to get him fired, like right before they played a game in the middle of the season. So Gruden has been laying low for a couple of years. No Corona commercials, you knowice that one away as well.
Yeah, but sponsorship usually follows when I'm.
Sure there was probably a board meeting for the Corona Beer Company.
I don't think a long one.
I think they did a vote. It was like seven to five, and they're like, all right, we got to get rid of them.
You're going.
Uh.
Kudos to the to the lady in the corner who was like, what do you guys think about replacing him with Snoop Dog and Andy Samberg.
They're like, actually, that'd be great.
I mean I love Snoop, but Snoop not a sterling record either. Like when you look at like his past, so it's true they like Dancing with the Devil a little.
Bit, that's accurate, But you put Samberg. I mean, I love Snoop. Where we're right across from his clothing store. He's actually got two clothing stores in the same mini mall in which I get Jamaican.
Have you once a week? Have you shopped there? I never shopped there.
Is it a clothing stores that sell those dolls? The it's clothing pop thing? Now, I've walked by it enough.
It's clothing, But there's pop figures in there, because I think that's what the line is for.
There's lines outside the building. Yeah.
Well when I I looked in, I just saw out they're figurines. They're like collectible figurines called pops figures.
Really, I mean I mostly saw we'll do some digging on.
You know, sneakers, some you know, shirts, sweatshirts, whatnot. I have not gone in, but I do appreciate they put the sound system with speakers outside outside the shop, and it gives that a hell of a career.
That's good vibe to the whole Mini mom.
Can I just sorry?
People are lining up for for dolls, for figures.
What kind of what does the they are? It's a brand is Funko. They're pop figures. My sons have some. They're they're like ten twenty dollars and they're specialty ones that are even more valuable. They're collectible items, okay, and they're kind of like think cabbage Patch kids and a new generation where people.
I always thought they keep them in the box and the whole thing.
Okay, Now I could be wrong, but there's like pictures and photos all right, let's.
Get back Well they look pretty cool anyway.
Gruden has come out of hiding, uh and the Saints are responsible for it. They bring in Grooted to help Derek Carr, his former quarterback during his Raiders run, and the offensive coaching staff under Dennis Allen. Nola reported this on Friday. So Carr and Gruden mark have a connection there, and I would imagine Gruden wants to be back in the mix in some way and this would be a first step toward that.
Yeah, I find it.
I mean, I get why it's happening from a football angle.
You know, it's been a while since we've seen John Gruden.
I find it interesting that a year ago the Saints offensive coordinator Pete Carmichael kind of shrugged off wanting to do larger duties, and now he's bringing in a consultant
to teach someone essentially his offense. It's not that the offense that Gruden teaches is not vastly different from what the Saints do, but I guess if it's anything you can do to make Derek Carr feel a little more comfortable, to surround him with, you know, a coach that he knows, I always I find it also interesting because I spent most of the car Raiders gruden tenure not really believing that Gruden was all in on Derek Carr.
True, I think it's just Dennis Allen doing a solid yeah for a guy who reportedly wants to get back into the league, and this is a little bit of a trial ball doing how much blowback do we get? I asked a little bit just I'm curious if the Saints would hire him. It doesn't sound like they're hiring him necessarily but it's just someone who Gruden, who clearly wants back in, and this is a friend of his giving him a solid I mean, Greg Williams got back
in the league pretty quickly, very different circumstances. Yeah, but it's just saying it's an old boys network where nothing would surprise me when it comes to in the NFL. Might the NFL might exert whatever power they have on not wanting John Gruden into the league. Though John Gruden versus Roger Goodell and the NFL was a bubbling legal battle. I think it might still be going on in the Nevada courts.
Yeah.
And just by way of a backstory, Gruden made the very like kind of boomer Dad mistake of just writing freely in an email, a company email connected to former Washington general manager Bruce Allen.
Uh.
And in the emails there's uses of misogynistic, racist, anti LGBTQ language, complaining about the league hiring women as referees, teams drafting gay players, players protesting the national anthem.
It was just like, bro, are you serious?
Like from like John Gruden at Raiders dot com to Bruce Allen at Washington dot com, Come on, guys, Washington dot com.
And they I believe they kind of they had a falling out, Bruce Allen and John Gruden because Allen got buried as part of all this.
Right, and that only came to it wasn't an investigation of Gruden, even which is I think Gruden led to some legal action. It was an investigation of Washington's team that uncovered Gruden's comments that then were leaked or got out there and away we go.
Anyway, that's what's happening in the news. Let's take a break and fly in the wall time. Oh god, how annoying flies? Annoying?
Yeah, they are all right, welcome back, good fly talk.
I'm struggling to get rid of some flies in the new uh the new house.
Such it's aunt season two where I live.
Once, you know, the the weather springtime hits, they start migrating in the house and you just can't get rid of.
What do you like jars of like open jams sitting around.
I got two young children. Well I'll do it, and not now a dog. But maybe the dog can help.
I don't.
I don't dogs train me to just lap up ants. Maybe you'll, you know, develop a taste for them.
Feels like anti dog behavior.
Yeah, probably fly on the wall.
So there are things that we know in our league that are reported or that teams and players or players and coaches in front office people will publicly state. And then there are the real conversations that are happening behind closed doors at the team facility. And this segment is our way of kind of giving you a little bit more information or speculation on what those conversations might be. Uh, and then we discuss. That's that's the segment.
That's how you I want to see you start this thing, and.
I would like to actually defer to you. I'm going to defer to you Greg to start.
I think it is.
It's quite sure of the tone and how we're totally doing this solthough we've done it in the.
Past, So just have some fun with it.
I am a fly on the wall. Those beady eyes don't swat at me. In Green Bay, right near Lambeaufield. Pretty special. How you know the practice facility right next to the field, right next to the stadium.
It's all one. It's just a small town.
It's good.
It's a really unique thing about the NFL. Well, I'm a fly in Wisconsin and I'm listening to what Matt Lafleur is talking about when it comes to Jordan Love in all of his young weapons. And I'm curious if this fly is really picking up on the anxiety in Matt Lafleur's voice.
I don't know.
I want to be a fly there to find out how confident he really is in this young quarterback, how confident he is in himself famously called the you know, the young bearded boy by Keith Hansis. This is when we find out if he's really a man as a coach. There's no Aaron Rodgers. There's a quarterback who's been as up and down when he's played in the preseason, in little regular season action as any quarterback possible. Tons of
great plays, tons of head scratching plays. But it's not Jordan Love surrounded by a team of veterans to help pick him up. It's surrounded by the youngest skill position talent, especially at receiver, in the entire league. They're going to be playing Christian Watson, Romeo Dobbs, who are second year players, Jaden Reid, a rookie, and then at tight end two more rookies, Luke Musgrave and Tucker Kraft and so they've been on the field now for just a couple of weeks.
We're just starting OTAs, and as a fly on the wall, I would just love to hear the real talk between Lafleur and his coaching staff of where he really thinks Jordan Love is right now and where he really thinks these wide receivers are right now, because I think you can find out a lot early and whether he's that confident and frankly just by the tone of his voice, because my fly is particularly smart, like how much self confidence he really is that he's going to show the
league that he's the guy who's been leading these thirteen win seasons.
Now, I like this, This is good fly work.
I would say that I think like you have a star potentially in Christian Watson and Dobbs showed a lot too, and I think if you're you're maybe walking around with a little bit more of a strut and a little more confidence because you ultimately won this battle with Aaron Rodgers. I mean it was like Aaron Rodgers sort of controlling the coaching staff as as he's want to do, and you know, all this offseason drama year after year, it's a it's I think if you're a fair minded Packers fan,
you'd say, we're resetting. We don't know what Jordan Love is. There isn't actually high expectations of Jordan Love at this point. We understand that he's got a young offense around him. It almost, if anything, buys Matt Lafleur time, where the narrative before was like, yeah, you can win in the regular season, but come every January you get axed and you're the coach that can't seem to win these playoff games. And now it's like, we know that your talented, you're
a good coach. You it's your job to show what you can do in a young quarterback. And I don't think there's an expectation has to happen starting in Week one.
Yeah, I don't know if I ever saw it as a Rogers v. Laflor like battle, where it's more like he outlasted Rogers. And then the circumstances of the Love drafting have now presented this situation and him as a first round pick, and I think what it Listen, he has a seven to twelve winning percentage as a head coach, and that's great, even factoring in a losing record last year, but I think myself, certainly Keith Hansas in the garage there in Culver City with their bearded boy three years ago.
But you know, even though the record's great and they won a couple, they won a couple of playoff games, you know, never got over the hump. But it's always been a little bit like, okay, But like, is Matt laff Like you can talk him up because of his record as a top coach, but what's he really about?
Like is this guy legit?
And that's why this year it's a great kind of subplot in the NFC, And I think I think it's gonna buy him two years because even if I think Jordan Love doesn't play well, or let's say he like it is terrible, let's say he has a really bad year, which is within the range of outcomes, I don't think that would get Lafleur canned. I would think he would get another chance next year, whether it was year two with Love as starter or or if they went a
different direction. But at the same time, I think certainly he could be strutting around with confidence, but also there's probably a little part of him that's like all right, and the spotlight's going to really on me now. For all the frustrations that Iron Rodgers became kind of bigger than the team, he took all of the kind of spotlight and for better or worse, the good and the
bad that came with that. And now it's going to be right on the head coach to find a way to make this young quarterback play at a high level.
Plus, it's the off season.
It's beard and body time for lafleur and hair, and he got an eyebrows. He got a lot of shots from Rogers compliments really, but a lot of mentions of how tight the eyebrows, the beard, all of it were. But the Love contract is partly why I want to be there and hear what they're really saying, because I was surprised it.
Did to me.
People say, oh, it was a good deal for the Packers, it was good business, blah blah. Like it did show to me a lack of total confidence in Jordan Love, which is fine. I guess it makes sense they're not totally confident in him. But I was a little surprised that they're not going into this new era with Jordan Love, uh, with two feet in It's kind of one one foot in and to your point, he could stink this year, like they can get out of it after this year.
So how confident is he really? And how confident with all these young players around him?
I find them finally intriguing because since nineteen ninety two, every coach has had Brett Farvar Aaron Rodgers's quarterback. And now we're like in totally unstarted.
What's this funny? This is a theme with Mark.
He's only intrigued by great teams once they.
Stink, right like the Rams.
Once the star's gone typically market, it's an opposite bandwagon move.
So I listened.
I was curious what the fly segment really was, so I actually was googling it.
Yes, and I say the same exactly and little similar ish. Yeah.
And first of all, we both found that there's some podcast called Fly.
On the Wall with Carvey and Spade that talk old SNL.
It was getting in the way of our Google search.
They found the first time we ever did this, and we were talking about McVeigh as maybe the next Waltz and uh, and Mark said, well, let's see when he has, you know, something happened to him like that is when I'll be interested.
And you were right. You're now more interested in the Rams now that they've struggled.
Yeah, I believe in the You know what I've said in the past, it will come true.
Go ahead, Mark, you got head to another facility.
I am.
I'm going to fly in a in an emptied out office in outside of Denver, Colorado. And it's the you know, the fly is thinking, you know, no one's here to swap me away. I'm also not sure as a fly that I actually can hear the way that humans do, which puts a bit of a log jab into the concept of the segment. But we're going to forgeh on there.
But into the.
Doorway you can hear actually.
Otherwise segment over it.
But into the doorway comes Bronco's head coach, Sean Payton, and he just comes into the middle of the room and he just starts giggling because this was Russell Wilson's little private office from a year ago, where he'd go up and unlike all the rest of the players on the roster, have his little meetings and phone calls and his special little time in his little corner office out he gone because now Sean Payton has basically made it very clear that these the Russell Wilson experience is going
to be rained in hardcore. No more private office, no more performance team getting special access to the building and you know, waving feathers at Russell Wilson's hair and flexing his muscles. He now has to prove that he actually
can play football in this new offense. And while there is a lot of belief that he'll be at least serviceable because it's Sean Payton's offense, I just think that where Nathaniel Hackett had no choice but to endure Russell Wilson's horrible bottom five play all season, that I want to know as a fly, I'm going to start to fly out of this little office when Sean Payton walks out of it, and I'm just going to track him quietly so that I don't draw too much attention or
get swatted, and listen to little conversations between him and general George Patten, Peyton the general manager, and just what in general the agreement is, because if Russell will.
Do we think that do you think they've spoken yet?
And I think they're on the same page about something because Peyton is lucky to have a job after I think we're eating those picks away.
I think Peyton is on this George Peyton is on the same page as John Payton in the same way like Tom on succession was on the same page as what's his name?
No, no, no, Matt's it. He's yes, sir.
Anything you watch, sir, I'm bendable, Sir. I will get the players that you need to get rid of.
I totally agree with that. I don't think Peyton is sitting in the power seat. He's lucky to be there at this point. It was a terrible miss Staton.
Well, they're both Peyton, so that's a problem for both of us.
I thought we decided for this show's purpose we were just going to call him General Patton. And it's even more important now that Peyton I think it's in the power seat.
Patten is lucky to be and but I think that there must be And I just want to say this
is to me quietly. I lauded the media a couple of weeks ago for not starting to dive into billions of think pieces about Russell Wilson, the rebuilt, you know, bounce back quarterback, and I just want to know what the actual verbal agreement is that if Russell Wilson comes out through all of camp and flatlines and then in lays see you know, multiple eggs in a row in the regular season, how quickly, how soon do we see Jared's Didham who they paid a lot of money to Halloween.
I think he gets about six weeks or so.
I think that's fair. I mean, I think it's like, you need to be you need to have been given power to move on from this?
Can I throw out? Can I throw out?
Because we're heading towards the new season and that was tremendously confusing at points and not not your fault.
It was because of the last names, right.
Can I call a measure to order and get a vote and has to be unanimous to pass that on the for the purposes of this program moving forward for the duration of the current general managers stay with the Broncos. Yeah, that we now call him Kevin Saunders.
Wait, what's wrong with General Patten or General George?
But I'll write that down.
Saying I'm just saying that way.
He has fun.
We will never confuse the Peyton Paton Peyton thing, right.
Yeah, And its like now he has a totally different name than the head coach, and it will what just happened now will never happen again if he's Kevin Saunders.
Kevin, And it's even worse when you have to write about both of them. We've had that before where it's a Smith and Smith and you have to put the first name back in over and over. And I stepped right into it.
All right, Kevin Saunders, it is from now on. And if you happen to have missed the May thirtieth episode of The Round the NFL Problem, it's going to be confusing. If you're friends with anyone that listens to the sho let them know. So everything's covered and it kind of reminds Kevin Saunders reminds me of Steve Sanders, who's you know, an all time on television character on Beverly Hills nine to two and now.
Right, and I mentioned Breandan Walts earlier, So yeah, everything's tied together, all right.
Maybe we tweet that change out all right?
Behind the glass?
Can you miss make note of that that the general manager of the Broncos on this show is Kevin Saunders.
I think, by the way, Russell Wilson has no excuses in a way like this offensive line looks pretty good. They're quite deep at wide receiver, and he's got this amazing coach. But if you look at what's worked under Sean Payton, what he prizes, it's like kind of the opposite of what Russell Wilson is. It's it's closer to a Teddy Bridgewater tape. I think that's why I like Teddy Bridgewater. Drew Brees is the Hall of Fame version of that. But it's like quick decision making out of
your hand, fast over the middle of the field. Literally all the things that are the opposite of what Russell Wilson did well even when he was one of the best quarterbacks the week.
Problematic.
Can we head back to the desert in Vegas?
Sure? Why not? You're a fly.
Because listen, just a fly.
I don't know nothing for nothing, I have no agenda because I only live for like thirty days.
Right, is that true?
That's it. It's about a month I got.
So when I tell you this, I'm not trying to further my own career or hurt someone in a way that will allow me to advance as a species. Or thirty days. It's about four weeks and I'm gone. So I was in this Raiders facility, and there was it was a dark room.
And I'm just gonna need your guys help with this. And I'm gonna.
Apologize to your producer Eric ahead of time because I think this will give him a little work in post production.
So apologies Eric from the fly Me.
So this man he was wearing kind of a hoodie, dark hair, about you know, forty something, maybe late forties. He was hunched over. This was I should let you know. This was about late last week, okay, and uh and this is just again I don't know, I don't know what any of this means. But here's a translation or here's a just a transcription of what this.
Figure was saying.
And then he fumbled for it was it's like a black rectangular device with like buttons on it or something I don't.
Know what, calculator, an iPad device of some sort or I don't know.
It's like something he could talk into cell phone phone a phone.
Yeah, you just don't need a cell phone.
Yeah, it was in his It was in the compartment. There's like a compartment in the.
If so intelligent about some aspects of human life.
And yet it's like he was wearing.
These and he took out the phone from the pants and then he's hitting the phone and the first three digits that I could see were six one seven. I don't know if that's as Boston area code, and it seemed to have gone straight to voicemail. And then this this guy left like a sobbing message. He was really emotional to some guy named Bill or William and he
mentioned something about regrets and again, I'm just to fly. Actually, Bill O'Brien, sucks, was said at one point, and then a bunch of pleases, and then he put down the phone and then sobbed again, really at an emotionally high register, alone in this room until like it seemed like a staffer came in and he very quickly kind of rubbed his eyes and kind of walked out of the room
with his head down. So I don't know like all the specifics, but someone was very upset about the state I would imagine of this business, whatever this business.
Is, I've been doing. I've been digging while you've been talking. And there's a couple candidates here, Okay, but I did look up the age of head coach Josh McDaniels, who likes to wear the hoodie like his former friend Bill Belichick the Boston area, and so he's forty seven, just turned forty seven during the off seas got to be him.
You could see why.
He'd be very frustrated with what we talked about in the New seventh with Jimmy g And yeah, I think it's pretty common to have the Patriots on speed doll. The last time that Josh McDaniels ventured out as a head coach, I was a one and done disaster scenario with the Rams. Actually as just as an OC last time he called plays outside of New England, and that
offense finished thirty second in points, thirty first overall. And here he is in a situation potentially on a Raiders team that I felt even weeks ago was a floating ship in the darkness with no quarterback. Potentially, he must and I have to get going.
I have to lay some eggs and year.
But he is entering his second year in Vegas. He's his career record is seventeen and twenty eight. So we just talked about seven to twelve for Lafleur. McDaniels is three to seventy eight as a coach and winning percentage and now you have to be thinking that he is very nervous about what's going on, like that he is now tied to a team that might not have a quarterback, and he's coming off eleven loss season, And is McDaniel's going to get out of this alive? And if Garoppolo
is not available? Like it feels like this is one of the grimmest situations the side of Arizona.
On paper, their offense is intriguing, total continuity on the offensive line, pretty good weapons for Garoppolo. Yeah, defense looks like a mess though, And then you look at this backup situation, it's it screams for someone else. And that's why I thought when you said it's a mid forties guy in the Raiders facility who wears a hoodie, I was thinking of a much taller, much more handsome man who also, you know, happens to have the most Super
Bowls in NFL history. I thought that was Tom Brady having regrets.
I'm not familiar with who that is, right, I know you're a fly.
But Tom Brady, reportedly a partial owner of the Raiders, potentially could have regrets about even doing that because this job could be sitting for him with his old buddy.
But what this Tom Brady guy, why would he want to get involved with this particular team at this stage of his life?
Well?
Why why was he shawing Bill Belichick crush?
That's where I lost me and I realized I was going the wrong way here. Well, he has a deep burning desire inside to overshadow Jimmy Garoppolo and try to war his happiness at every turn, and that alone would make him want to do that.
I mean, I've talked about that a couple times on the show Brady and mc daniels, but we don't actually think this is gonna happen right now now.
I don't because of the whole ownership thing. None of it makes sense if.
You're Tom Brady, though, what's attractive about coming back to play for a team that seems to be in total chaos?
And it's interesting with the parallel with Arizona.
If this Garoppolo thing really goes sideways, and as we learn more through the summer, if they are indeed kind of shipwrecked without a quarterback here, wouldn't it make all the sense in the world then to move Adams and they say, oh, you can't make it work with the money. But just like the Cardinals are saying, we don't care. Yeah, we'll take all the pain with you.
But no, because DeVonta Adams is great, right, but.
What do you I mean if you're if your season is basically cooked, if you don't have a quarterback. We all know that, and they obviously don't have the defense to save the day. That could lead to another pivot. I'm just saying it kind of opens the door for a lot of different avenues for this team to go. Hopefully, and listen, we don't want to overreact on May thirty if, like just because of one Jimmy Gripolo report out there, like he could be fine for week one, but it's
just a little bit ominous given his history. And if you're the head coach, you know you are in a very vulnerable position right now.
And let's just say in another world day, because I think one possible reality is that if they move on from Jimmy g initially, they could resign him at a different price. That seems weird, but let's say there's a scenario where Brian Hoyer slash aiden rookie man, is you're starting two pack come September, where what will DeVante Adams be saying by October he already talked about the fact that he wasn't totally on board with the idea that they went and got Jimmy G.
Maybe he knew about the foot stuff well, but either way, you're right. I mean the back seven on defense, like there's so much focus on the Actually, I think the offense is a chance if Jimmy G was healthy to be a top ten offense. I think that's their road map that they would see a top ten offense and better on defense. But the back seven on defense, their linebacker and their secondary, like it's a disaster.
And you're right.
It's funny because McDaniels held out so long and maybe you couldn't get it the right job or but he passed up a lot of jobs, and you was inty misus Colt's job, trying to time it, and a year and a half in, they don't look any better than when John Gruden was there. They probably look worse, and supposedly Hunter Renfro might get traded. There's still this buzz out there that the Saints are interesting. I don't I don't understand that.
All right, let's take a break and then we'll visit three more facilities. All right, welcome back.
I'm holding in my hand, by the way, a Funko Pop figurine delivered from one of our great maestros behind the glass, Christy Stapleton. It's an Aaron Judge Funko Pop figure. I guess taking off somebody's desk. Wait, let me get this right for you.
You know, you really got to check out this cameraman's getting put to work with. The YouTube feed is really pop it off today.
And this is this figure is uh uh, there we go. That's it Mark.
So if you were.
Curious, I've seen those so now I think they're very attractive. It's a very nice, very attractive. It's a nice hobbyist addition to the hobbyist collection.
What is your where you at as a collectible throughout your life?
Got post childhood?
Yeah? Like what was your Star Wars figurines? Things as a child?
Not as an adult?
You have them in the boxes and no I.
Play you know, I used to bury them in the yard and stuff, and that was part of the game, Like they have to go find their friend who's been buried on the ground.
So remember that one in the sand pit and then you boy, some water.
In there and it's freeze them and Ice.
I did have that Alice Burke starting lineup figure come with.
I had a lot of start my life for a while, but at this point I think wrestling figures.
I had the almost the entire WWF collection, along with.
A Steeler cage.
Oh yeah, you put King Kong Bundy Versu hul Kogan to mimic.
I believe WrestleMania too.
In fact, sitting on my desk in our newsroom is a Ken O'Brien and altoon a starting line of figurines from nineteen eighty nine.
I had lost.
I lost all that football helmets, every one of my football figures.
Sometime in nineteen eighty nine and never found him again.
So they're just catching passes and passing without any protection at all.
M my laptop, Greg, don't do that.
Why do you keep doing that lately?
Almost it's just sitting there. I'm making sure I don't like take whatever.
But I already told you before the.
Yeah, but that's also it's a violation a little bit of his space.
When you look, it's just strange. It's off putting.
It's just right there.
Would you want someone to do that too.
I mean, if it's just my notes for the show, I'd be fine.
Yeah, you don't know what's on there.
Yeah, what if I'm doing something else.
I was making sure that I didn't take, but I go ahead. I like to leave myself options of what I'm gonna do. I'm gonna leave the forty nine ers to the side. Actually, okay, I am curious what what they think about tree Lance And they're darnold in reality behind the scenes and at the risk of leaning too hard on the six one seven area code, my fly is flying up to Foxborough and.
Good we got We're all over this facility.
And it's looking you know.
It buzzes past the coaches, buzzes past Bill O Bright. Oh, like, what is mac Jones doing there in the men's bathroom. Let's just keep going. Let's go up to the ownership on the third floor. Robert Craft and his son Jonathan Kraft talking. There's no microphones in there, there's nothing only a fly could find out. And the Crafts are worried because they know Belichick has it bugged the whole building.
Oh literally has the building bug But they made a special ownership craft only bunker where they can get real, and this fly is peeping a conversation between these two men who believe they should get a little more credit for everything that's happened over the last twenty plus years, and believe that the last three years have been embarrassing. And they especially Robert, because let's be real, Robert is the logan Roy in this situation, and Jonathan is is Connor.
I don't know why.
I'm that's fine. I made him Connor. That was maybe a little That's tough. Robert's looking at his age, he's eighty one years old. He's running out of time.
Connor, who ran for president and got less than one percent of the vote, that guy successful campaign.
At least make let's make him shive. Let's make Jonathan shive some strengths and weaknesses.
He's looking at this Bill Belichick coaching record and saying like, okay, he's only a twenty plus away from breaking the all time record, but he doesn't care. He wants results now. And they're talking. I believe about a situation this year where this team needs to be showing progress on offense, needs to be competitive and have a winning record, or
that they want to be steadfast. I believe Robert Kraft is telling his son that before this season, in the off season, the quiet of the off season, the fly is picking up that he wants his son to not let him off the hook when things get hard in January and he has to look Bill Belichick in the eye, that he actually pulls the trigger and he goes in a new direction if this team does not make the playoffs, that he does the type of thing that Bill Belichick
was famous for when he Drew Bledsoe or traded Drew Bledsoe and cut lawyer Malloy back in the day, and shows that bloodlust, that ruthlessness unless they're a winning organization again this year, I mean, is.
There because we're I agree with it.
We've been talking about it like this feels like a pivotal year for Belichick in the marriage between Belichick and Craft, which is again, and it needs to be stated repeatedly, the most successful union of coach and head coach, coach and owner in addition to coach and quarterback. Ever the quarterback left, and ever since the quarterback left, the coach
hasn't been quite as successful. And now there's growing tensions between the coach and the owner as an indirect result result, and it's just like, I don't know, like this almost feels still a little bit of a rush to get Belichick out the door unless you have somebody lined up that you absolutely adore and feel like is the guy that could give you another like twenty years.
I think they do. Who Mayo. I don't know if that's gonna be right or wrong.
We're gonna fire Bill Belichick to take a chance at Girod Mayo.
I just think that's what they think.
Well, so they yeah, they put in incredible effort to keep Mayo.
Kraft has talked up Mayo.
Kraft I think had the most pointed comments that you know, subtext were anti Bill Belichick, comments about the way that Matt Patricia essentially was put into a terrible position last year, didn't do a good job, not not a good job by Matt Patricia. But Kraft really went out to defend Matt Patricia that he was an incredibly hard worker and
did what he could in a terrible situation. And I don't know, you'd have to dig pretty hard to find comments that reach that level of annoyance with his own head coach that said like Mayo aside or something like that. There's no one else in the building that fits the Bill right now, and I don't know how if you're going to move on from Bill Belichick, you better be right.
Right saying I don't think any of this is a good idea to me. Bill Belichick is still a top three defensive coach week to week. I mean, they were number one in DVOA with that unit last year. Somehow, I think they have a chance to be one of the best defensive league this year, which would make them very hard to fire, and they have a chance to surprise people. But I do think this is where craft
is at. And it's also not crazy if you had four straight years of mediocrity, there's not many coaches that survived that no matter.
But I guess my point is, and again John Mayo could be great.
But before you go fire literally Bill Belichick, how about we give Bill a true heir to Brady, an actual difference maker at quarterback, because I washed Cam Newton wasn't that guy. And Mac Jones has ability and has some potential, but there's a reason why nobody had him above the Dalton line when we did that exercise last week. So I don't think anybody sees Jones as a future star, Like, are you really gonna that's how this is gonna end?
Like maybe, but here's here's the one problem. Like Bill Belichick is also the general manager, and Bill Belichick made the decision to go get Mac Jones, and he's he's also made a pretty trench in year after your decision. I know they had that free agency splurge a couple off seasons ago, but it's typically been like a weapons
light attack. I mean, they're wide receivers for a really long time and just been kind of like you're looking at that group and thinking, eh, and it's like this year's group is sort of like, all right, I don't look at this if this is the year that Bill Belichick suddenly has to pull twelve thirteen wins out of his butt to get to the playoffs.
But like, if they go eight to nine this year and decides to pull the trigger and start over, you know who's gonna be thrilled about that? All the other teams, every everybody THEFC.
So like not to say that you shouldn't do it, but.
It is I think you shouldn't do it. It wouldn't be a celebration. It would be a celebration for these teams.
Do you think that Bill Belichick would turn right around al Pacino style and go get a job somewhere else?
Oh? Absolutely?
Like why not go back to like the Cleveland Browns where he started and say, I'm gonna accept to your No, he wants a good owner like I don't think he would buy buy into that ownership group. But like me, Belichick would be like, are you kidding me? I'm gonna go somewhere else. Not only gonna get the coaching record somewhere else, I'm gonna make sure that I spend the next half a decade sticking in.
I'll handpick my quarterback wherever, whenever it pops up that has a great young quarterback and a team a roster that has some juice, I'll go out of my own terms.
But it's Tom Brady part two.
He's thirty wins away.
By the way, Well what if he wins thirty games this year?
Oh no, that would be really impressive.
There is like a playoffs one.
This is why I'm annoyed by NFL, NFL coaching records and.
Stuff like that. Got to count the playoff gas.
Look, I'm just the fly in the room. I'm not agreen with what you know going on here. I'm just passing along the info.
Thank you for the info. Mark you got another one.
I am a fly related to some of the other flies that have you know, we were flies. There's a long family tree here and I I I exist for less than a month in southern California. But right here, smack dab in the middle of my twenty eight day lifespan, I find myself in Los Angeles, in the Los Angeles area. Yeah, I've attached myself to a human that is moving briskly down a hallway into a meeting room with a very
good looking head coach. I myself, the fly that I'm the person I'm attached to also has an incredible head of hair. I mean, isn't a handsome man also, so it's head coach GM duo is attractive. And they're sitting down and say, look it like, I'm not sure where exactly we are with this team. We are we've built a very very young roster and we've got some problems though, And I think, let's.
Just say it. I'm sorry. Is this the fly saying this or.
The fly is hearing things like this? And it's you know, there's some muffled conversation. There's some sort of like tapping on the table because there's some indecision here because the roster that they're talking about just looks a little weird. And I keep hearing the name like, look at we love Matthew Stafford, the person. We know that Aaron Donald is one of the greatest defensive players of all time.
Cooper Cup is wonderful too. But we have to take a real look in the mirror and say, who are we now for this season, for next season, and how quickly would we move one, two, or three of these players or other additional pieces if we really wanted to embrace the concept of a true startover. Right now, we've got a extremely young roster attached to an aging old quarterback coming off a disastrous injury situation. Who are we
and what are we in? The training camp starts in a month and then they go silent.
This would be the year to take on some dead money. They are doing it in a way that NFL teams have almost never done it in the history of the sport. I have seventy four million dollars in dead money, so they're just eating it. We talked about the Cardinals eating that Hopkins salary. The Rams been eating it. They got sixty from Alan Robinson, Jalen Ramsey, and Leonard Floyd combined. So I don't think they would mind the financial pain that it would cost to trade Donald or Stafford. Cup
would make just no sense to me. So I'm putting him to the side a little bit. But man, I think it'd be tough to get a buy in. I think it'd be tough to think like that right now. I don't think they want to think like that, and I don't think I think it'd be a little crazy to go into the season thinking like that. Maybe that's a week five conversation. Maybe it's a plan ahead.
Well, let me ask you a question, like from another angle, like if the Rams. First of all, I think they a year from now, we're going to see the Rams very differently. I think we'll see them in a positive light. But you have Stetson Bennett, who you know comes in with an interesting college career, and why why not get a look at Stetson Bennett sooner than in games that matter?
If you're a team that starts off one in three or something, and you go into next year's draft class, which could potentially be explosive at quarterback, And know that you do everything you can if you're less need, because he'll do anything to get what he wants to get the number one quarterback. With all the draft assets that could acquire by trading some of these guys.
Stafford specifically would not cost much to move and to me, would make the most sense of it if a team needed a quarterback.
I think they want to compete this year. I think the only way we see Bennett is if Stafford gets hurt, which is certainly possible. Yeah, And I just looked it up because I was curious because there was a big hull of bloo obviously about Sean McVay whether he's even going to return this year, and then he was on the fence, and then it actually really looked like it wasn't going to happen, and he given his coaching staff
permission to look for other jobs. And then all of a sudden it comes down that he is back, And I was like, well, is this just like a one year thing and this is going to be the way he is now? But looking back at his quotes at the time back in January, he had said that he made a discis for years to come.
So obviously you can change. Head coaches are fickle.
But I'm working under the idea that they're going to try to ring every last drop they can out of the Stafford Donald era here and see if they could do something similar maybe to what the Seahawks did this past year, where it's like they surprise some people, maybe win nine or ten games they're frisky, or maybe they get into the playoffs and all that, and then even if it doesn't work and Stafford goes down in week four or this or that happens, yeah, then you could
start spinning the wheels in a different direction and then McVeigh and Snead can truly reboot the operation next year. So I think they I think, and I think what we do. Sometimes you kind of want to have a more clear idea of what these teams are doing, But the Rams seem like a team. They're kind of in the middle and they're operating that way, and that doesn't mean it's the wrong.
Way to do it.
Sometimes it's like, oh, that's a half measure. They should be going all in or all out. But they kind of make sense to me to be doing what they're doing, and then they could pivot if they have to.
I mean, I don't think NFL rebuilds now if you're good or a season long, and that it projects as a potential one year rebuild.
One good draft can really change organizations. You know, like it? I like it?
Uh Okay, let me preface this by saying, I'm a fly still. We got that last time, not like the turn of the phrase, you know, unnoticed observer of a particular situation type of thing. I think you met my brother earlier.
Yeah, so rather dim insect he Uh well, that's on tour. Maybe not on the scale of a fly, but he.
Died of natural causes. He was twenty five days old. I'm quite literally a fly on the wall. And uh, you know, I'm gonna eat some poop. I'm gonna touch a bunch of things I should have spread some disease and and then I'll die again in a month. And I have no agenda, Greg, I know you why never do? Agents can't muzzle me, Greg, So I'll let you decode what was going on when I was buzzing around Brown's
camp this week. I went to Brown's. You know, I like certain things I have a particular taste for things fair, yeah, brown things. Anyway, there was this here's here's the situation. There was this this handsome guy kind of like a I think i'll call him like a mezzanine level George Clooney. Okay, there's another guy there that was calling himself the Tasty Berry.
I don't know, a silver haired, older gentleman, kind of prominent jaw, kind of like a Springsteenian jaw kept kept referencing his eighteen wheeler collection.
It was weird knowledge about like Springsteen and what a mezzanine that, believe even means for a fly.
And of course Alex van Pelt was also there.
Anyway, they were having an amazing time. In fact, Eric behind the glass, good to see you again. My brother is quite fond of you. I think I did get some audio of what was going on in this room with all these gentlemen.
You hear that, Yeah, sounds like a lot of fun.
They were having an amazing time.
Drinks were flowing, they were throwing like popcorn in each other's mouths playfully.
They did a couple of crank calls.
That guy, the Clooney guy, kept saying something about the jerky boys being underrated.
I didn't know any of that meant.
But this is all happening while they were watching some endless highlight cutup of Texans games. I'm guessing from like when my great great great great great great grandfather was alive. I'm thinking like twenty eighteen, twenty nineteen, some from twenty twenty.
I knew because there's nobody in the stands. Must have been the covid era.
Anyway, they were loving these highlights and seems pretty optimistic about their place in life. They had not a care in the world. And you tell me what this means. I'm just I'm just a fly. So what does it all mean?
I uh, I will thrust my own personal experience into a part of this.
Did I mention they were having sloppy steaks too?
No, they were taking the They're taking glasses of water, pouring it over these steaks, slopping them up and just eating up with the steaks too.
How did you resist not eating?
Oh? I went down there. I took a taste. Put it that way.
There is someone on the on the Brown's coaching staff who, on the first day he was hired, came on our network NFL Network and spoke with Andrew Sicilia and I had tweeted out that Kevin Stefanski, the coach newly hired coach side by side photos, did look like a relative or a brother or a cousin of George Clooney, and Cileano actually asked, you were that someone I tweeted that out, Yes, but someone like Andrew asked uh Stefanski about it, and he got very kind of agitated and slightly nervous. So
that was my introduction. I think that's who you're talking about, though, That's why.
You were connecting the dots, right the mezzanine mezzin, Well, he didn't like that people were calling him mezzanine level. Clooney, well, that's true. And who was a juicy berry. That's got to be the it's got to be the general manager. I think they're feeling themselves. I think they're they're feeling like they're a sleeping giant here. I think they're feeling
good about their off season moves. I think they believe the hype that happened around this organization for a couple off seasons before Baker Mayfield's injury and then play and then this Watson thing all took took a side there, and I think they're feeling themselves.
I think they're confident.
I think they quietly had one of the better off seasons around. Their holes were in the middle of their defense up front. They had some issues in the secondary. They've added pieces all over the place. The Elijah Moore trade. Don't hate that. And I think it all comes down to whether or not Watson can play again. That's fine to look at that the people that you observe for watching these highlights from three years ago.
But I could watch a lot of what's happening.
I don't know. Something in my chest was it?
The stake about twenty seven days old, So I don't have much time. I just want to say, like, wrap it up. I just want to wrap it up, say thanks for having me on the show.
Shout out to Alex van Pelt too. I thought he was a great, good, great addition.
I yeah, I think they believe that. And the small sample size we'll see it was bad last year, but I bet they feel like they are going to surprise them.
The only thing that Juicy Berry and Mezzanine Clooney be worried about is that, uh, that eighteen wheeler guy. Yeah, I mean he hasn't always been keeping his his UH employees around that long if things don't don't end up in the win column.
So I think they got to win. I think they're I think they're under pressure. I gotta win. But you might as well enjoy the off season. What was that? I mean they were really enjoying.
Yeah, let's bring that up. I got that on my UH off seas on my iPhone.
What a time.
So one of them is really.
What production. I love it.
I think I heard Van Pelton there.
Oh Van pelt Is he was He had just tie off and then tied it around his head like that guy at the weddings.
Lathered up Fredday kitchen style.
You know that guy at the weddings. Yeah, like take the off all right? Anything else?
Well, I was listening to our that first show I mentioned earlier, and uh, I don't know, I just was. I heard Wes on it and we were talking about the panthers. I tried to think about panthers angle today to talk about, but I was like, no, let's just play this on the show. Because it was talking about Spartanburg, West Virginia. And I always like to have a little bit of ATM history around the NFL history which he mentioned on the show.
Spartanburg has some historical significance to this podcast. That is the exit I pulled over when I called Greg to accept this job. I was driving from Cincinnati back to Tiving, stopped at the Spartanburg exit. Tell Greg was I was leaving?
Was there a shrine there? I like that dude just jumping in hearing his voice, awesome.
Yeah, I had checked in on another older episode of this segment and it was he was talking about he wanted to be a fly at the Giants facility to see the trow of it's a trout troth kool aid, and just to see what media members were drinking out of it. For Dave Gettleman, his arrow at the Giants, that's all. He wanted to be there, just to see. And we noticed that Bob Glauber was from Newsday now retired,
was just sitting in a chair watching it. But Chris just wanted to know which Giants media member would would be bending over for Gettleman.
Not the biggest fan of the New York media market. Chris or Gettleman, right, you like the hog Kali era. Yeah, I think there was some pro gettlement in there.
Nice, excellent, Uh, what's up. That's it. We'll be back on Thursday with a another show. Actually it's going to be a road show. It's our annual road show. We're gonna be by the beach by the Sea, we'll call it. We're gonna have hopefully some special guests that will be joining us and Greg. We maybe we'll touch on your done with a lot of hard work you've been doing over on the dot com.
Projected starter series is done. It's done and dusted.
We bet we love doing some like some takeaways from Greg's projected starters.
We'll hit that.
And it reads like a very juicy gossip column. Often it's it's a good well, it's a good read because it's it's not like a typical column or sports writing piece of work. It's just like little nuggets and things that interest you for each team, little.
Nugs and so that. So be ready for that, looking forward to that as the off season goes along. And uh, this is the Tuesday show. Here also happens to be our former producer, Justin Gravers. He's starting his first day at a new place and just want to uh, we want to take this time just to wish Justin the best of luck moving forward. And we missed having Justin around and he's such a great asset to the show, which he was still here, but he is there and
he's gonna kill it. So we just want to give Grave Digger a shout out on the route Mount Rushmore.
If you followed our socials, you saw we we had a chance to have dinner with Justin two just a few weeks ago and just couldn't thank him enough for the great job that he did in the in the couple of years that he was here one year running the show around the NFL really helped us a lot. And we love him as a as a friend, we love him as a producer too, So good luck over at Fox and uh, well we'll run into him down the line to it.
Yeah.
I thought he was so professional from the very start. I think when you cover football, we all learned this that the first year you kind of take over something, there's a lot of bier rhythms to the season and can catch you by surprise, and he was just rarely, if never caught by surprise. I thought he offered so much behind the scenes on air, he became a beloved figure. And I kind of look back to our trip to London, which is a time when we all get get closer
together as people. R I really got to know him more as a person in the has sort of always been a kindness and a gentleness to him.
And we'll miss him.
Yep. One of the true nice guys. And you're right. You have to to be in that chair.
You have to be able to roll with the punches and adjust and and learn on the fly and fly nailed it and Justin always did that and he'll continue to do that.
And we love you, Justin Graver.
How about one less grave digger drop if we got there.
The love your grave digger love you Bud.
All right, we'll be back on Thursday, like we said, road show. Until then, you know what.
You need to do. It's Chris Wesley. He was known to say he the call