GM Power Rankings

to me as our mike's were cut? You defamed me as we were going about too about to enter the show, and I did not hear the did not defame you? But um, every once in a while when we are in the studio, Mark is a little impatient when we're doing too much chattering before because you're trying to get home or out of here. And I had a bit that I was saying what you were actually going to because you told us you were going home. She had to do chores. None of us believe you. So there's

something you're doing something after the show today. I had a bit, but I can't say it on air because it's my current life cannot be more dull. So I have no other plan to hatch. It is ten fifty seven and we were supposed to start the pot at ten a m. Yeah, so let's say that theory we're gonna start at ten forty. It is ten fifty. I mean, if you want to see this, Um, I know that Wes agrees with me. Light attitude from Mark. You can check out up to the minute on Friday, our hit

will likely be around the eleven. Drop what you're doing at your job and go run to a local tavern. Whereas on with no sound, I don't know. I do agree with you, but only because in the seven years of this podcast or six years, it has never once started on time. Well we would have had Yeah, you're right, there's a lot of complaining for delays that we're done to ensure the podcast was better today. That's what it's about. I am not complaining. I'm just pointing out a fact.

That's That's what I'm doing. Also simply operating in facts clock time. Um, alright. No one'll have its chores more than marks the chores. Um all right, today's show got give them? Um oh yeah, two weeks from the draft and mentioned this on the Twitter show, uh in passing during a segment we did, and you could check out our Twitter show. I think I have it pinned on the top of my Twitter profile. If you want to get it there, we do. You know, it's a good show.

You're on the Twitter show we do every Wednesday. But I said, how if you could throw one thing into the black hole? It is this period of the calendar which just seems excessive and unnecessary. I flushed it out a little bit, just if any shadowy League figures are listening. In fact, I'm gonna pound on some tables and go upstairs with this because I think this works, and let me know if you agree. So super Bowl first Sunday in February. Fine, Combine last week in February, first week

in March. Fine, mid March, Free agency, the new League. Yere fine. So far everything's okay. Now we get into trouble, all right, So the owners meetings at the end of March, that's fine. But what I want to do in there is build in a GM ice cream social that same weekend and these guys can really get in the room together, you know, have some desserts and work out different deals and have the conversations that you need ahead of the draft. Um during this time, all the pro days they have

to be done by March one. So let's let drag out the pro day process and after your ice cream social the next week, the first Thursday of april's the draft. Who says, no, just condense this stuff, open up the spring a little bit. Nobody that cares about quality of life would say no. I think that's an improvement. But I also think the suggestions in the past that they and I think a lot of people inside the league would agree with this, that you put the draft before

free agency is intriguing. That you do the combine and then you do the AFT right after that. Basically, you do the draft where free agency would be now, or maybe even a week before, and then you do free agency after that. It would be it would be a whole different way to build teams. But other other leagues do this. The w n b A had their draft like a day after the n c A tournament, and the NBA essentially does the same thing, where they do it immediately after the NBA season ends. They have the

draft the next week. It's great for us. It's like the NFL, which you know, it's overtly attempting to stretch the calendar out to the point where there's no there's no free months at all. But every every every coach of the commines like I haven't even had a second to look at tape, don't even ask me about quarterback X. So you're truncating and compacting their schedule. They may be the ones who don't like it. And that's easy to say.

As we continue to learn they all lie. They got time, they got they're watching even if I haven't had time to even look at the tape, They've been pouring through all this tape. It's all lies. What did DJ say, especially this two week period, it's all It's all a lie. And now I'm starting to learn about the bus this almost ten years in. Everything is lies at all times, and you gotta parse that. That's why I have Chris

Westling here. I remember when nany Reid stood up there and said over and over again, I am not trading Donovan McNab. Then like two days later traded Donovan. I mean, it's all lies, all right, Here we go today's show. Sorry children out here, we're really disabusing you of your optimism at a young age. If we're actually pretty big in the eight to ten um year old demographic, surprising to destroy that defend football for a second. I mean, the the number of lies is minuscule compared to let's

say the arena of politics. Okay, so you know, and they're mostly white lies. It's all relative. This running back. We're not letting go of and like that's fine. If you do, the world continues to operate. That's fair. Hey, general managers, Yes they lie. Um, sometimes it's lies of omissions. Sometimes it's just straight up lies. And I don't know if you factor in thereity to tell the truth, they're willingness to tell the truth and the general manager power rankings.

But we're gonna do it today. We're gonna we're gonna put the general managers of the NFL into different groups and break down who's cutting the mustard and who's the opposite of what cutting the mustard is. I wonder where that came from. Seems weird that you cut mustard, very strange. And of course we're gonna do some news. Let's start there, and yes, let's start, speaking of the Twitter show with some news that we broke in the NFL world. They're

called empty Uh, let's hit it, Ricky. I mean, if you're quitting bagels, you might as well, be quit in life. I can't. I can't disagree with you there, Gregan. You should take eat what you want in life, you know, maybe don't you know, just eat some nice portion control and then you can eat whatever you want, eat bad

food all the time. All right. Let me say, because you and I have two very different body types that some people, yeah, can eat what they want, and even if you do some portion control, it just doesn't work the same way. But I think to your point, don't have two bagels a week or a day. Have one. We're not talking about like a double cheeseburger with bacon on it. It's a's a bagel, it's bread, it's car but it fills you up, it's carbon. It's fine, like

you need that for your life. Bagels are the food that work at any time of the day in my opinion, except but you don't want to over chew your food. It's it's it's the thing I missed the most um about New York is the bagels. Because you can even find a good slice of pizza in l a. It's not easy, but you can find it. Bagels. I would like you to come to New York Bagels on Wilshire in two and just check in there a good shop

writing it down, wilsh hang on. I'll pop over there on a Sunday morning about seven fifty, don't you know, sort of in my pajamas and I'm back park in my home metabolism, just just going. I could I could drive there and be back with the with the bagels in like eleven minutes total. I think I accidentally dropped n fomb there. Ricky's that's only like, all right, let's get into the news. Um, we didn't break the news. Sorry,

I just want to be clear. Mike Garret Folo UM our friend NFL Networks own Mike Garretfolo and East Coast Guy UM. He was on our Around the NFL Twitter show on Wednesday. The subject of Josh Rosen and his future uh came up. Rosen, who did report too workouts voluntary workouts with the Cardinals, but seems to seem like his days are numbered in Arizona with Kyler Murray on the way, I asked Mike during the show if he buys into the reports out there that the Washington Redskins

are a likely or potential landing spot for Rosen. Here's what Mike said, no, No, that's not true. I heard that myself. Uh. They have done a little bit of homework here, or at least tried to figure out what the Cardinals price would be, but they're not actively chasing him.

And I don't know that they haven't a hard offer on the table because I know for a fact that they are still going through the motions with the guys in the draft currently, uh, and that they've had made no firm decision about are we going to draft a guy or are we going to go the Josh Rosen route or try to trade for somebody. I just I don't sense it. I really everything that I've been told. I asked I and Rappaport about this yesterday. We briefly touched about it on his podcast. He's here in the

same thing. So, UM, I don't really believe that it's a sizzling market for Josh Rosen. And Mike made a point to Greg that I thought it was a good one that there is talk, well, keep them both on the roster, and that does there's definitely logic to that, keep them both on the roster and then trade Rosen down the line. Is his value actually gonna get better once you bury him on the bench for a month

or a year or whatever it is. This probably is if you want to get the best value, it's probably in the next three months or so, I'd say, could be. You're he made the point that a team that suffers an injury isn't gonna be looking to a second year

quarterback to take over. They would rather kind of the other point, you know, a replacement level veteran, which that makes some sense, and it makes sense that the Redskins need to go through these rookie quarterbacks to evaluate Rosen versus them, because if they like a quarterback that they can take, let's say with their second they think they'll be able to take with their second round pick, and they like him better than Josh Rosen, and then that's

what you do, or even maybe their first round pick. If they liked him enough, they would suspend their due diligence and trade for him now. But they are not overwhelmed obviously by what Josh Rosen put on tape. I think the difference, too, is with the draftable quarterbacks, and Gruden has said, look at if we're taking someone at fifteen, he's not a project. He starts right away. He's like, there's a lot of veterans on this team that aren't

gonna use the year eight to work to win. They're gonna start right away and they have a chance to meet and get to know every one of these quarterbacks. And he talked about grilling them hard on third down situations, all sorts of whiteboard stuff Josh Rosen, because I don't think they did a ton of homework on Josh Rose And last year, after trading for Alex Smith, you're having to bring in a guy who is a polarizing figure.

We might like him, but there are a ton of gms and coaches in the NFL that are scared of the Josh Rosen experience based on various anecdotes and reports. And I don't know if that's a perfect fit for Jake Gruden. I we've never seen Jay Gruden try to develop a guy. I mean, the closest he's come to it is Colt McCoy, and Colt McCoy played out. He did, but he didn't draft him. I mean, that wasn't his choice.

That was Kyle Shanahan's guy. And yeah he did develop, but I guess I mean a guy where, hey, we're gonna choose a Redskins quarterback and hopefully he can, you know, be the future of the position. They've never They've never had that. Uh. Moving on, The Giants continue to move on in a post Odell Beckham world. UH. The Giants are in the process of finalizing a four year, forty

one million dollar extension with Sterling Shepherd. UH. Mike Garafolo reported the deal would make Shepherd the team's highest paid wide receiver. Of course, Golden Tate also joined the Giants in free agency, so that is the one to punch there at wide receiver. Shepherd West has never had a one thousand yards season, and yes, quarterback play and injuries have held him back, but this is to me, this is a good signing. It's a nice salary for the guy that hasn't done a lot. But I think there's

upside there with Sterling Shepherd. I mean, you could look at it like he basically got the Adam Humphreys deal slot receiver for the Titans, got four years forty million around there, and Sterling Shepherd to me, is a better receiver. He's sort of a high end number two, not quite number one, and I think the contract reflects that. I think he's I think he's underrated, or maybe not underrated, because I think people respect him, but his he's a

better player than his numbers indicate. I think this was a very uh good value for the Giants in terms of the money that they got, because I think if he was a free agent, you got to next year and he's probably gonna have a big season in terms of volume, he would cost a lot more. I mean, their third wide out right now is Corey Coleman. So it's not as if the need has been entirely washed over, right. You got to keep finding I And I saw some criticism.

I guess some people are down on Shepherd, like he's not even as good as as some other wide receivers have got similar money. I disagree. I think this is actually a good value, and I'm not worried about Golden Tat and him being duplicative. Yes, they're both better on the inside than outside, but you're not making your three

to four year plan around Golden Tate. And I think we all like Evan ingram To, and of course the running back is special, so there there there, There is talent in place on the offensive side of the ball. They just need to address the quarterback. But it was their last year too. It's just less this time around. UM. Moving on, following up on the Bleacher Report bombshell around, Aaron Rodgers and Mike McCarthy. Rogers spoke on the radio.

UM since the last time we did a podcast, but then he was, you know, at voluntary workouts with the packers, uh this week and uh. He elaborated on his comments and the initial UM response to the article, which he called, by the way, a smear attack. Here's what Aaron Rodgers said on Wednesday. Well, first of all, I stand behind everything I said, you know, and I just kind of want to refer to that as far as any other comments go UM I said on the show, and I

meant that it has been a great week. I've heard from you know, a hundred plus former teammates and coaches and current teammates and coaches, and that's fun, especially some of the guys you haven't heard from in a while. UM checking in and and UH encouraging. Yes. And let me just um throw out his comments or part of his comments from to ESPN Milwaukee radio station. The thing

is about this article, It's not a mystery. This was a smear attack by a writer looking to advance his career talking with mostly irrelevant, bitter players who all have an agenda rather they're advancing their own careers or just trying to stir old stuff up. Then what happens is the same tired media folks picking it up and talking about it. It's just emphasizing their opinion about me already. I think it's valid for him to push back on it, But I was most interested in the places that he

and then Mark Murphy the President pushed back. They were strongest about saying that the conversation between Murphy and Rogers where Murphy the President told him don't be the problem. They were so adamant that that didn't happen. Where to the point like, that's how when people are denying things that you kind of look like, how hard are they denying some of these things? The smear attack stuff that doesn't hold water for me. He's used this attack before.

That's not what's going on. I get that Greg Jennings and Jamichael Finley are basically enemies of Aaron Rodgers who are trying to bury him, and I think when you're reading that you have to take that into account. But they weren't the only two people talking in it. But when they talked about the Murphy Rogers conversation and they're so hard against it, they kind of convinced me, Okay, maybe that part of the equation did not happen that way, and that that was one of the more interesting parts

of the story. Nothing about like Tyler Dunn or what we know about him suggests the guy who's writing smear attacks and and it was too the research was too wide, and what he put it in the picture he paint and was too convincing. I do think, though, if you're in Rodgers, it is fair to be annoyed by what are repeated. If it's a minority, it is a repeat

incident of certain players bashing him over and over. And if you're him, it is encouraging to hear from a hundred plus people that say we know he There is no way to have one overall opinion of Aaron Rodgers that everyone must agree to. He's a guy that generates different reactions for differ reasons. And I don't have a problem with the starting quarterback rubbing a couple starters the

wrong way over the course of his career. I was sorry I missed this discussion the first time around, because it reminded me so much of reading The Jordan's Rules, the book by Sam Smith that came out in the early nineties with all the teammates talking about Jordan's and Jeremichael Finley playing the Horace Grant role where the personalities just clash. He said that Aaron Rodgers is like an addict, and I got to think, and what is he addicted to.

It's sort of the hyper competitive stubbornness and ego when you're invested so heavily that a lot of great athletes have. It's a byproduct of that competition addiction, and it's hard to put up with an aptitude when you're when you're so invested. I think actually Antonio Brown has some of this in him. Um. But I think, like Mark Murphy says, this is a positive for Aaron Rodgers, and that's why I see it as a positive because he's out to prove to everyone this year. He's not the problem in

Greenbad Well. And there's there's multiple pull ways to kind of look at all these issues. For instance, Mark Tauscher,

who's who did this interview. It's kind of his home base weekly radio spot that he's done with Jason Wildy forever Aaron Rodgers, So it's in It's kind of just interesting how you play the media these days that Okay, I'm gonna make my statements on my home base station and then refer the actual questions to report that from everyone else to those statements, which I think is fair to look at as not cowardly, but it's convenient, you know,

you're not really answering the questions that are out there. And Rogers has a long history of instilling fear in the reporters and maybe teammates around him that he'll he'll kind of strike back at you if you don't like the way that he's talking. And one more Rogers note, he revealed on that radio show UM that his leg injuries suffered in week one that UM opener UH Sunday

Night opener was more serious than perhaps was reported. UH. In addition to a sprain knee and mc l sprain, he had a tibial plateau fracture, which, if that sounds familiar, that is the same injury that ended J. J. Watts season back in two thousand seventeen, costing costing him the final three months. Now, some people then will say, well, he's making excuses because he didn't have the best year.

All right, your mileage may depend on this one. But if if it's true, and I don't imagine he's lying about the injury, it might give you a little more insight why Rogers did not have a Rodgers like season, because then he did some good things. If he was going to make excuses, he'd have done it during the season.

I played through that. Give him credit for it. I do want to say one last thing, because I did do think this whole thing is fascinated and this is in defense of Tyler done to The article was mostly about the toxic relationship between Mike McCarthy and Aaron Rodgers, and when you listened and read between the lines of what Rodgers said on this radio station, he was not nearly as adamant pushing back against that. He brought up

some little facts like why would I have resigned? And this and that, But I think the point was that they their relationship ultimately undermined the Packers. He did not pushed back against that, and that's the part of the story I still I believe, and I think held a

lot of weight. He pushed back too hard, just like Jordan did about the Jordan Rules, because it ultimately showed a flawed human being, which we all are, and people understand that about Aaron Rodgers and Michael Jordan's Meanwhile, on the throne of ease. The Patriots are in a post Grounk world and they made a move. Uh this week they signed Austin Safari and Jenkins to a one year that minimum contract. Rap Sheet reported. Of course, the last time you heard about a s J he was the

starting tight end of the Graybeards. So I bid him ado. Um. I view him as a player with still upside and he'll probably have roughly twelve yards on the Patriots this season. Uh, if that's how it works. Um. Yes, the Dwayne Allen released as well by the Patriots offseason, so they have a um wide open tight end room and a s J enters the pole position as their top guy. I

don't know if he'll stay there. I think if their goal was to find someone who reminded them of the November Gronk who Dan decided was washed up, they found the right guy. Well, not fairly because he's not a blocker at all, Like he's just he's a big huge tight end who is theoretically a blocker and can't really move well enough to be a huge threat. As a recent he's had some moments. I mean, he doesn't move well.

I'm not criticizing the rundown in any way, but I cringed when I saw they signed Safarian Jenkins as Gronk replacement. I was like, oh my gosh, I mean he's not a Gronk replace. Okay, then Matt Lacosse is the Gronka. I mean they don't have, but he's got to replace. He got fifty tho dollar signing bonus, so that usually means you're you're almost unlikely to make the team. They're gonna draft someone, I hope. And then I think Severian Jenkins might be a nice little upside guys as a

as a number two. And I heard I heard that little arrow Wes Gronk was mostly washed up last year. He put it together because he's an all time great and had together because he got healthy. He was washed up when he was playing through a high ankle. Spring is getting out at the right time. It's finished West finished what I saw in January. The guy could definitely still the six Super Bowl he'd are, you're a Patriots

fan again? Now? Oh, I I've always, I'm always. It's been shifting endlessly over the last I never said, I said, I said, one spell of chick has gone. So we're still We're still well into it. Um fair. Stephen Gustowski also resigned with the Patriots, uh, putting an end to the most boring saga of the offseason. Will the kickers? Will the Patriots retain their kicker? And they have good for them? I looked at their rafter and I thought, if Jason Garrett was the coach, how many wins would

you give the Patriots? Tom Brady is still a quarterback. Uh yeah, I'd put the over under an eight and a half. Uh. One last Patriot note. A Chiefs fan was cited for shining a laser pointer at Tom Rady in the a f C title game. He was a sixty four year old man. No, come on, grow up, Peter Pan, sixty four and you're at a football game shining a laser light into the eyes of I mean, it only makes sense that he's older, because that is that was a very popular like blassroom trick like in

the late eighties and early nineties. Remember people take it to the movie theater too, and it's like, bro, what are you getting out of this? It's not a it's amazing what he's what he was able to overcome in that game. He really, uh can I remember watching it up here at the end together. It was a beautiful moment. Finally, So you are a Patriots fan, that's good. I was. I am, I am. I said through the Belichick era, it's not like a drop it. We should have like,

uh something on the wall and we know pot. Yeah, I don't think. I don't think. Uh. Finally, in the news, Eagles signed wide receiver Charles Johnson to a one year deal. Um. He's the latest or just one of many uh A F players who have now found homes with NFL teams, which is a great thing because the way that league folded was a disgrace. I think we could all agree it wasn't necessarily the fault of all the people involved with that operation, but the way it fell apart, it

was just not fair to the players involved. So it's good to see some guys getting deals. Johnson, who was on the Orlando apollos Um, led the league in receiving He had sixdred and eighty seven yards and five tds on forty five catches in just eight games. So that guy was balling out, as the kids say. And now he'll get a chance um to stick around with the Eagles.

He's an interesting guy. There have been portions of his career where you thought, with his size and athletic ability, he's got like number one receiver potential and he's just always been injured or having run ins with coaching staffs. Are they just don't trust him? And the team seemed to move on from him pretty quick? Is this the same Charles Johnson? Yeah? I mean we've been on this guy's path for half a decade. Former seventh incredibly underwhelmed

by what he's produced more than third. Yeah, he was making the leap guy? Did we did we see that? Remember back in the day. More than thirty guys from the A A F have signed, including I think their sack leader g ron Elliott. But I found it in none from the Memphis team. So terrible job by Memphis developing talent. But I thought it was interesting that the Dolphins, who are you know, in this kind of rebuilding, they signed by far the most they have seven A f

players on their rock. I think the Steelers signed Sick, which is like, I think that's smart actual Dolphins. So their Dolphins did. They're trying a little different approach, dropping in the chand to talk a little signing in Miami like it. I love it, And they might be more of it. They might. We might be onto something that this is like if you can hit on one or one or two of these guys, or they might not be on anything a little safe or it's part of

the anic fish tank. Let's get a bunch of guys from a lower tier of professional football and pass them off as actual topic challenge and go three and thirteen also a possibility. That's what's happening in the news, all right. Controversial seg Because Greg, I feel like you've you've had to deal with some pushback in the past from general managers and teams over an article that you write every spring. Well this was last year was the first time, and yes it got quite a bit of pushback. Yeah, um,

both internally and externally. Fair to say, what would the internal problems be? Like, you know, Greg, you know, not a great job here. Could have done better with West. West feels that about most of the things they produced. But other than that, I think internally, like most articles produced internally are like met with like a quiet part basic. Yeah, I would say, I would say internally was met with indifference.

But the Bears were unhappy. Someone in the Chicago Tribune wrote a whole article where about ranking Ryan Paste too low and you know what, he would then won an Executive of the Year. So does that shake your confidence a little bit going into this year? Because it's not up on the site, you still have to write it. Um coming, I have a you know, I've been working on it, but it's not coming until next week. This is more you guys are gonna you know, we're all

gonna make around. This is a separate exercise. Greg's GM power ranks will come up down the line, but this will be our discussion about it. And uh, I think you know, the good way to break it down is, first of all, who are the new gms, Because even though they did they've had the free agency, they haven't had a draft yet, so they get the incomplete grades.

So we're gonna leave out who have four or five teams In this conversation, Chris career for the Dolphins would would be one, right, So people litally consider him a new GM, but fair enough, I do, because he didn't have the decision making power and they were pretty clear about about that. Before that, he was kind of just good aunt, pretty new. Um, I would put what we got to skin. It's kind of hard to judge because

he was in Capella. Anyone that's had really less than than that was hired before two thousand, I mean after the two thousand eighteen, Like the start of that off divided Marty Herney into two people, the pre gettleman in the post Gettlement. I like that. That's fair alright, So let's get into it. So factoring guys that have a little bit more of runway to shape the team. UM, let's break it down. Let's start. Let's start here. Actually,

let's start with with kind of the gold standard. Um, who are the g ms or team builders that even if they have a bad offseason, you don't, you're not shaking in their conference. They're just guys that are kind of above even this conversation of risers and fallers and all that. Who Belichick obviously has to be at the top of the I would put Howie Roseman in that group.

I would too, And I would put Kevin Colbert there and not everything he's done is perfect, but I think he has a twenty us a twenty year track to clarify Howie Roseman of the Eagles and Kevin Colbert of the Steelers, and uh, I think Colbert over time you have to kind of just trust how he's managed all the different ways of that roster. Uh. He does a really good job of kind of filling in holes that aren't even holes yet, and then they develop them and

then they have players ready to step in West. I just want to applaud you want to take a real quick uh break here to applaud the advances as a broadcaster there that you you said, I I throughout some names and most football fans are gonna know which teams they were. But as a broadcaster, you said, I'm going to make sure you know that Culbert is with the Steelers. You know? Do you know Roseman's with the Eagles. I think if we did not have a big listenership in

other countries, I wouldn't do that as much. But I always think of like are United Kingdom fans and our European fans in our Australia New Zealand and Mexican and all that. That's why I do it. A lot of them are new to the game. You imagine like NBC Night Nightly News stopping down for like two reporters to compliment each other how they handled the previous segment. Thank you for that compliment, Dan, That's better than Greg's unfair attack on what I would do with his article. I

was just to hear that I was joking. I was joking this GM ranking. Who really knows. It's just entirely subjective. All right, here we go, So Belichick, Roseman, Colbert. We don't want to put anybody else in that list. I wouldn't put him right there, but John Schneider and Thomas Detrose, two guys I thought too under that. Yeah, they're they're hovering where and you know what Schneider and and I'm gonna and I'm glad you guys are really helping me

do this exercise. You mean, Thomas de Mitroff of the Atlanta Falcons and John Schneider of the c L Seahawks. Thanks well done. I really think we should just stop and talk about the the hosting about that is really distribut the leadership Snyder had a really good year. I think Schneider and Carroll, you can't really separate them. Um, you could almost put Pete Carroll right there with Schneyder because you know that he's part of the personnel decisions.

The fact that they were able to rebuild on the fly and they never turned into a losing team, like there's this feeling I think that two thousand seventeen Seahawks like totally fell apart. They went nine and seven and then then and then they're back in the playoffs this year, so they they're right there. I think Schneider is going to be moving up ahead of Demitro. I would put less sneed in this group to personally, I'm with you, I agree. I don't know what what more he'd need

to do. They should be near the top. They showed great patience as an organization, and see they believed in even when the results weren't there. And now we're going on, um two straight years, two NFC West titles, and I think in general, one of the things you want in the front office is you want to be able to trust the guy's vision, and I think they absolutely do and I put him in that right bull. I think also like you don't have the trade tsunami uh become

anything more than just talk unless you have less. Sneed being one of the guys that led the charge there, I mean, I think changed the way that I think you're right, and it's a it's a good it's a good question for me to have to deal with writing the rankings. It's like, how much do you knock him for the Jeff Fisher era? And essentially is this a power ranking of where they are currently or is it

a total like last year. I think I looked at it because I've never done it before and thought, maybe it's a one off of their entire job, and you gotta you gotta knock him a little bit for the Jeff Fisher era. But maybe Ryan Pace and Sneed are an example of there's only so much you can do if the vision of your head coach and your head coach is holding the organization back. Because I think everyone who defended Ryan Pace to me a year ago saying

what could he do here? With John Fox, it really isn't fair if you kind of look at the personnel that he's actually put together. It's good they were right, you know, and he was able to change on the fly, just like Snead change on the fly together problem with body of work, like it certainly is a factor for your arms. He's been there since two thousand twelve and they were pretty mediocre, right, but less Snead should get points for evolving and changing the way the gms you

would want yours the riser, he's moving up. He's the riser. I just wonder how much of the credit should be going to McVeigh. Also fair by the way, Ryan Pace dead last on Greg's rankings last year. So let's get into some risers, because I'm sure Pace has to be yeah for you at last, Greg, But do you guess riser? I mean I guess on paper. But to me, Chris Ballard is clearly the biggest riser over the last what's

your favorite? That's fair. I didn't even rank him because and I would put John Dorsey right there with him. To me, those two guys are joining, they're ready to join the upper tier. I think that's absolutely fair. Ballard I left off that list because a year ago because he didn't you know, he had one year a body. You know, he hadn't even gotten to his second draft

at that point. If you think about he inherited. They can't protect Luck with that offensive line, they can't run the ball, they haven't hit a hundred yard rusher in five years. They have no back bone on defense. This is an undisciplined soft team with nothing in the trenches. And they are one a degrees opposite of that man.

On top of that hand, that Josh McDaniel situation, the way he handled that, the having to answer nebulous questions about Andrew Luck when your ownership is steering people in weird directions on that and just never any drama. Ballard might might vault very high on this list, and Dorsey, I think will be even higher. And the reason is Ballard gets a little bit of a boost, and it's not his fault because he's only been in the league

two years and those two years have been fantastic. So you look back at Colin Kaepernick's career or many players throughout NFL history, where through two or three years they were on a trajectory to be great. But I think general managers, over time, you gotta give the experience, and you know, doing a year after year after year as a bonus. And now I look back at the Chief's time in John Dorsey, and it's like you kind of gotta give John Dorsey maybe a little more credit than

I was a year ago. Uh, for what he did with him Give him credit from maneuvering up to draft Patrick Mahomes for the Chiefs before he left for the brown So like Ballard to me, isn't gonna get in that top five because he's only had two years. Even though those top those last two years have been as good as anyone. You can argue that Dorsey made the

two best front office moves. Dorsey, of course is now the Cleveland Browns general manager, and he used to be with the Kansas City Chiefs, all right, Ryan Pace of course, Chicago bar where's the same Khaki's pretty much every day, and a nice Chris Ballard of the Indianapolis Colts. But Dorsey in moving up and making the power play to get Mahomes and then the recent trade of Odell Beckham, probably the two best moves any general manager has made

in the last three years. He's a cowboy. Dorsey walked into a great situation. And I think that a lot of people about a year ago at this time, we're simply refused to believe that John Dorsey the experience of John Dorsey to the baseball hat, the sweatshirt like in

theory and anti analytics guy, which he's he's not. They still have Paul Or they still have Deep Podesta in their in their building working with them, and they are listening to his But point being, you look back at Sashy Brown's drafts, and Sashy Brown was awesome at setting the table for what came next, But his drafts and the football people in the billing that time produced very little outside of Miles Garrett, which any one of us

could have made the number one pick. Logically, John Dorsey has brought in way more talent in a short amount of draft. Was okay, it wasn't a Duke Johnson Aga it was. I would say it was a b It was a average draft in the second round, was kind of Johnson was raped. Let me lay a comparison on you here, Lyndon Baines Johnson, who historians feel is underrated compared to how the general public. Let me just jump

in former president of the United States. He he became president with John F. Kennedy, was assassinated in the ninety three, got elected again. And by the way, you're not getting Now can I finish my So the number one job of the chief executive is to pass legislation. Linda Maine Johnson had the Civil Rights Act, the Voting Rights Act, the Revenue Act, the War on Poverty. This is getting Your job is to get things done. John Dorsey gets

things done. He doesn't build huge portfolios of draft picks, and he doesn't really he got left all that cap space, but he converted all of it into blue chip town. That's your job, So Sashy in this case is JFK. Yes, Well, I have some issues with all of that. I don't like John Dorsey doesn't have like a ballooning the Vietnam War into an international crisis on his resume. But other than that, yes he did LBJ moved a lot of things along. Um where is Sashi these days? By the way,

that's a great question. I mean he maybe he slipped back into the law field. I don't know. Um alright, any other risers before we moved to the Fallers, any other risers going once, going twice? Hold on, I'm at least while John Robinson was pretty high, think yeah, he's

continuing to move up. And Tom Talsco I think quiet has done a really good job building up that roster, and they they've done it the right way where they've really done it through the draft and you can see the culmination of all the years that they've done on the roster. We um, we forgot to two guys that we should put in the new category. Mike Mayock of course, of course, and Eric the Costa of the Ravens taking over for Ozzie Knew after what was a twenty five

year internship. Yeah, that's it's an interesting situation because the Costa has been very big in that organization for a long time. And I and the longer this goes on, the more I realized Asie Knew some is still kind of he might not be the GM, but he's in the the Costa role. He was at the owners meeting, he's at every league function, he's there at their office. So he's absolutely working and they worked something out that you know, he's maybe not working as hard as he

used to. He's not in the top chair, but they're still like a partnership. They've just changed roles, which is a credit to them. All Right, who's falling? I think, yeah, yes, they've got him in I uh that's when where I struggle with body of work, when you have moved into what feels like painful team pr mouthpiece um amidst like a rash of beguideline moves that leaves your fan base

off the side of the road. And when I when I when I ranked him this high, I got some pushback from Carolina people that that Gettleman was getting too much credit. He was thirteen and that he ultimately inherited all the best players on the Panthers, which is which is accurate. You know they had the core of players there when Gettleman got there, and uh and definitely his

time with the Giants hasn't helped him. I got some more followers, So you're another one John Lynch, who to me it would be fair to rank him number thirty two right now. Yeah, I don't even think he got ranked last year. He will be at the bottom, near the bottom of the list. I think a like a classic follower on and off the field over the last year since you've done this is Cardinals GM Steve Kim. Yeah, he's the one that that struck me as what is he doing well right now as a big time follower?

And here's why because when you change coaches and everything completely falls apart. To me, that like that's the sign of a great GM is one that can win and do. I gave Demittrof a lot of credit for having two good eras too good with different coaches that I don't think of as like the best coach in the league. Kim's kind of the opposite. He lost his coach and he fell apart. I'm quite surprised still, and good for him.

He's a man with a family and all that, but that he retained his job after the free fall of last season and the way Josh Rosen played and internally they obviously did not love him on top of the d why which is bad. I'll throw it out. I gotta do it, love doing it. John l Way was he was on my list too. You had him ranked seventh last year, Greg, which I would have said was high last year. This year, I think he should definitely be in the twenties, perhaps because uh, I don't think

he's done much of anything positive in recent years. Obviously, he drafted Bradley Chub last year, but that was kind of a no brainer and they fell to him, So I don't give him a lot of credit for that. Uh, I was giving him credit for all those twelve win seasons in a in a champion. I get that he doesn't draft well. He hasn't been able to fix the quarterback, he hasn't been able to fix the alternative line. He

has demonstrated that he can absolutely wu free agents. He at the time he had been in charge of, you know that, probably the third most successful NFL franchise throughout the decade, and so I was giving him some credit for them. He was too high. Now he was way too well. How might he can't fall too far? I think he was second to last and he still might fall. So I think you're you're odd this update. I think

like I don't. I think that Dave Codwall Caldwell, and Jacksonville has He's been a part of drafts that brought a lot of talent to the Jaguars, So I don't think that he's lacks skills. But I am concerned about any of these gms that seemed to be in a place where they're in a power vacuum, where they've got all these people around them that have way more power than them. And what is Dave Caldwell's say at this point inside the organization, I got one for you guys.

We did risers, we did followers, and feel free to jump in with more followers or even risers. But I got the Dalton line. Okay, Dalton scale for new listeners is uh concept we came up with where Andy Dalton Well West completely came up with. It is the prime meridian of quarterbacks. He is right in the middle. If you if your quarterbacks worse than Andy Dalton, you need a franchise quarterback. And if your GM is worse than

this guy, you need a new GM. If he's better than him, you're probably in decent shape with in your front office. Jerry Jones m hm. I would actually had this one bolded and this is gonna be kind of inside football. But I think their VP of Personnel Will McClay. It might be their acting general manager. He gets a lot of credit from who follow that team as their personnel guy, and I think the Cowboys have actually built

a pretty good roster. I would not put him as the Dalton line h Dan, and I don't know who would have given credit to. Maybe it's Mr Will, you know, not familiar with his work, uh, or it's Stephen Jones is certainly very active. I actually think as a player procurement and drafts and everything, he's been better than average. For sure. They've had some shortcomings with Jerry Jones, Like what if Duke Tobin of the Bengals is the Daltons game?

Are you separating the Jerry Jones that also like annually turns the Cowboys into the biggest, biggest marketing sensation in sports. Yes, this is okay and so just from them, but I think that drafts are really good. But they are. I don't think they're Jerry Jones's drafts the way that they were in two thousand and five, to West's point, but it's Stephen Jones too, with like they talked about over the last half decade that they a lot of that has been handed off to others inside the Cowboys. He

is his title in general marriage. Wait, yes, we've got an announcement. Wow, I'm willing to maybe put Mr Will's name on the GM list, maybe a slash with because and then and then another another bigger one. I'm seeing Mickey Loomis is here a number eleven last year that he is gonna be He might be totally replaced, but he's gonna get a slash Jeff Ireland slash Sean Payton.

Maybe Loomis is just totally off the list. And that's because at this point I don't know, so I just I wanted to just play just for bookkeeping, um purposes and just as you put together your piece. So it's a bit of a slippery slope, a little bit of a Pandora's box. Once you start like divvying out who's making the decisions, you might have to do it for almost every team. No, I don't think there's that many. You're right, there's a few. But Loomis is a particularly

as as Mark loves to point out. You know, he's usually on some you know sales called for season tickets of the New Orleans Pelicans. I don't know how much figured how much. We then Jeff Ireland has to be a riser because his stock could not have been in Jeff Ireland and Sean Payton. You do get that. I think talking to people, you do get the sense Sean Payton has has more power than most or almost any

head coach. So I think Ireland and Payton are the ones really running that for for the purposes of both this conversation and your article when you start saying that Jeff Ireland is soaring up the GM power rankings when he is not in fact the GM. It's a little But what do you do with teams who just use the position? I go, I'm willing, how about Loomis? There is no official GM. I believe Loomis has a better title than that. He's like president and Consigliari and you know,

executive vice president and GM. How about Loomis slash Payton then? And Ireland's not even on there. I don't know. You're gonna have to do this with I think there's like eight. Start to make my head, there's like eight teams. You have to do this, with the Patriots being one nexcessario, but every team there are obviously top of the line guys for every organization, but it's a collaborative effort for every team. I guess it was the point I was making, right.

That's true because it does open it up because John Gruden would have to get on there with the Raiders. There's no way that has more power. Jeff Ireland is the wind beneath the wings of Mickey Loomis. Jeff, I can you use an article the Wind Beneath the Wings rankings. He's had a very Rick Spielman like comeback. So Rick Spielman's the GM of the Vikings who left Miami. I think he's on his third team. Uh left Miami in ridicule in the mid two thousands, I mean, Dolphins fans

chased them out of town. They they thought he was a joke, And he's had a great run in Minnesota. Jeff Ireland similarly run out of town in Miami as a joke and now is doing great with New Orleans. So that kind of makes you wonder, what's the real Well, it's just it's well, it's a lesson in scapegoating, because it's like you're either scapegoating the coach or the GM. It has to be. It can't be one of these wind Beneath the Wings guys that no one's heard of.

It's got to be someone who's been lashed in the press for going on months. Spelman has built a good roster for the last half decade. That's true for new listeners. Wind Beneath the Wings a very popular U nineteen eighties song sung by Bette Midler made famous in the movie Beaches, also starring Barbara Hershey, they upload some information into your central processing unit. That was good. There's a lot of info. Mama Mom was a big fan. That was about nine

or ten at my mom. I think that soundtrack as I recall, oh yeah, my mom over. Um, all right, mind too, you're very overtime. No, it's just like okay, who I mean, did you just roll your park? Actually Mark is already doing chores in his mind. He all right, good do can you find um Ricky to play out today's show? Um, we can't play the actual wind Beneath My Wings song, but a similar equivalent in our library I can try. All right, let's break down the schedule again.

Two weeks off from the draft, so next week you'll get another show on Monday and Thursday morning, because then we are on the road. We're heading south for the Chris Westling bachelor Party. I hope to have Connie on one of the shows next week, and we will do one of our favorite segments. Uh, you're the GM makes its return next week, so tune in for that UM and Twitter show Wednesday, UM thirty Pacific one thirty Eastern maybe five thirty in London. And then next the week

After that is Draft weekend. We're back three shows and a Twitter show, a lot of content, so good stuff. This is Dan handsOn signing off four Quiet Storm. Listen to that beautiful The mail Man, the old Boss Ricky Hollywood behind the glass until Monday m the sum I offer to the w