The Season with Peter Schrager: Emptying the Combine Notebook with Mike Garafolo

The Season with Peter Schrager is a production of the NFL in partnership with iHeartRadio. What's Up, Everybody, This is Peter Schrager, the host of the Season with Peter Schrager.

I have fresh off the Combine.

I wanted to wait this week to record our podcast till after the franchise tag deadline has arrived. It is a parent approximately four to five pm Eastern as I'm recording this, and we've got our franchise tags, so we're good to talk openly without having a foot in our mouth when we start talking about some of these contracts.

My guest joining shortly is gonna be Mike Garafalo.

My longtime colleague at Fox and now my longtime colleague at NFL Network, and my favorite people in the biz. We were both at Combine together. Lots of laughs, also lots of conversations. We're gonna recap all of that real quick. Some notes as I empty the notebook from Combine. Number one, Saquon Barkley becomes the highest paid running back in football today. The Eagles are smart, they take care of their guys.

Saquon earned every last dollar.

As that, we know, the Eagles are going to have to say farewell to several top talent. I would imagine guys like Milton Williams and Josh Sweat, and we saw them cut Darius Lay and James Bradbury. I'm curious if they can bring back Zach Bond. All those guys are in limbo. Let's take care of our own and let's remain with the core.

Saquon gets what he wants.

He had a beautiful post thinking the Eagles organization, and there's a Heylo effect to this if you're if you're an NFL player, you see that and you're like, oh wow, they took care of him. They sign him to a blow market deal, even though it was very it was very attractive combined to compared to what the Giants were offering, but they signed him to a blow market deal. He might have taken less money than what was offered by the by the I believe the Texans are the other team that.

We're in the on Saquon.

Either way, you take care of him now. So he gets his contract extension, He's not going anywhere. And as certain players will be leaving the room, Saquon isn't going anywhere.

Respect it.

I also respect the optics right before a free agency when players are going to be leaving and Eagles fans might be freaking out, don't worry.

We did what we had to do. We brought Saquon back.

I would think Lane Johnson might get a similar situation in the next couple of days. Keep an eye on that one lane cornerstone piece entering a part of his contract wherever negotiations does seem to matter and seems to make a lot of sense there, so keep an eye

That's my big swing here.

I think they offer him two years, let's say seventy million, thirty five million apiece. He makes great money. It's way bigger than what he was making. And it's with those two wide receivers. It's with O'Connell, and for the next year he competes with JJ McCarthy. Then you go into another year of Okay, is McCarthy truly the guy?

Is he ready to go? Or is it one of these guys's trade bait.

I don't think coming off the injury McCarthy had, coming back to setback he had at one point, I don't think I'm sold on JJ McCarthy.

Just taking this team.

As far as Sam Donald, I think there's still more to chew on that contract, and there's still more chew on that Donald bone. Now here's the fact of the matter is, if Sam Donald doesn't play two of the worst games of his NFL career in his final two games as a Minnesota Viking last year, there is a line a mile wide and a mile long lining up for his services. But he revealed enough works in those two games where I don't think the market is there.

So you fill him out, You fill him out how you want to fill him out. And is Russell Wilson going to a team maybe? Is Kirk Cousins going to a team?

Maybe?

But at the end of the day, there are still too many teams that need a quarterback and not enough quarterback talent that's available and free agency or via trade that I think when it's all said and done, and I don't know who the teams are going to be, who trade up or maneuver or whatever, but I think it's a really good chance that it goes cam Ward one Shador Sanders too, and don't be shocked if Jackson Dart or Tyler Shuck or one of these other guys

An Indian.

With no further ado.

It's my favorite person in our business, a true real friend and someone I worked with at Fox for many years and then of course now at NFL Network. In an alternate world, we have the number one podcast in the universe and we're just crushing it together.

Mike Garrafolo, Hello.

Parallel universe. Is that what it is? Yeah?

Ta alternate like, and there's still plenty of time for us to eventually just just run this universe. Eventually, it could be it's like, I feel like we're thumbling, Louise just in the car.

Just let's just hold hands and go.

All right.

So the Rappaport Schultz.

Thing, I'm not going to get into Jordan Schultzen who he is or Ian Rappaport and what he's all about. But they have their conflict, but to go behind behind the scenes as PFT commenter and Mike Florio write up these odes and these explanations, how I found out was a text chain of separate NFL people that you're included on and just hilarity insuing with jokes and memes.

You were there that day, What do you want to share?

So I'll cop to the picture that was my picture that I took. Now, I didn't leak the picture. Okay. If I did leak the.

Picture, TMZ would have had it and I would have had ten grand in my pocket, which is probably what I should have done.

Did TMC run the picture of Schultz hulking over.

Rappaport, I don't know, but they wrote a story on it, so you know, if they wrote a story on it, they think it's news.

And if they think it's news, they would have loved the visual. So way to go. Dummy could have made you know on this one.

But here's here's how I, like, I can cop to this and tell you that I took it, but I didn't leak it because I was actually sending that picture live right.

I was like, Hey, look.

Who's having a chat and it's like giggling, like these two are finally because we know that behind the scenes there has been enough little like pissing match on Twitter.

Yeah, yeah, there's there's there's always that. I'll link and get into the details of that. But it quickly I realized it was not as cordial as I thought it was. But by that point I had already sent the picture out to like five people, which one of them actually brought it back on a group chain.

It was like who leaked the picture? And I was like, why is that guy here?

I didn't send it to him, And the other person was like, oh, so now there's a whole different you knowin that it may have tested the photo off of Yeah, it's like it's like Doc Brown explaining the alternate nineteen eighty five and back to the future, where it just.

Breaks off this way. I stopped taking pictures once.

I realized it was a It was more adversarial than I thought. And uh, you know, at some point you want to let your friend, he's an adult, handle his business. But I was nearby. Should intervention be needed? And that should some protection be needed? So they finished their conversation and internet lore. Next, Oh here comes uh Brian McCarthy, NFL PR guy introducing.

Me to UH is Justin? Was his name Justin? He's with NFL Security. I said over there, all right, I'm real quick.

That happened to disclose the loop on it because the story has passed.

Yeah, it's funny because you know, we love we love this media on media, like when I see as as annoying when you're in the middle of it, and we've been in the middle of it with other reporters, like you hate it and it's everything, but like from Afar, when it doesn't involve you, it's kind of funny. It's just ridiculous. The fact that it happened in front of a Starbucks. And I said this on Bill Simmons podcast today, J W.

Marriott. Starbucks to me is the hell spot. It's like it's like Sodom and Gomorrah.

It is like the it is like first and first, like on Seinfeld or like really it's like times square, it is. And for that to go down there, there is probably one hundred people in the vicinity when that happened.

Oh there was a lot. Yeah.

I don't know how many solid or knew exactly who was having a conversation.

There were enough, I mean when he So we came out of a meeting.

It was the nfl OPS meeting and Ian had just planted himself there for an hour because that's the crossroads of everything. You get to see as many people and you get to check a bunch of boxes.

And I think Sean Payton sits there from Monday to Sunday, just sits there at a table. If you want to talk to Sean Payton, just just yeah, that's it. He's always just permanently sat there.

Yep, there you go. Okay, I didn't know that.

So we come out of the meeting and Ian's still there and he was talking to somebody that I had. I said, well, let me, I had the fire off. Here's what came out of the nfl OPS meeting. The overtime changes, the uh virtual the chin blinding, Yeah, exactly.

A chain game inside the fire. So let me just sit here and do that and then I'll you know.

So I'm waiting for Ian to finish this conversation and firing this stuff off, and I look up and here comes Jordan, and I said, okay, Jordan's going for who Ian was talking to. And I said, but I don't know if he sees I in there. No, he saw he went right for He went right for him. And then whoever they were talking to peeled off and it was just the two of them and everybody's kind of around. And it didn't hit me until ten minutes later that it happened in front of a Starbucks.

I actually looked at the picture and I was like, this happened in front of us with the little and I said, I gotta win a I better win a Pulitzer for this picture. I probably won't.

But the logos, I know that giant. What is that logo? It's a mermaid? Like what is the Starbucks logo? Logo? It's a one? Yeah, what is it?

I don't know.

There's I I've definitely looked it up and I've checked it before, and it just escaped my memory and was replaced by the uh, I don't know, the the the millions per year for each.

Position of the franchise tag.

Probably yeah, yeah, that's in your break series. What what is the Starbucks Hold on? Let me get this here, siri?

What do you say Starbucks? Oh, hey Siri, yeah, hold on, this is good.

This is good radio. I'm sure a lot of people are taint the wizing here I again, help me one.

It's like, hey, Siri, what is the Starbucks logo?

This is like Francesa when he counts, Sally goes in a one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, nine nine.

All right, what do you got Starbucks logo?

Oh, it's evolved it Wait now, it takes me to like a Starbucks like pr site.

This may not be worth it. Digi Insights.

The Starbucks logo, the famous Siren, which of course from Greek mythology, is a female who sings and lures you in Itit's seeductively at the center of the Starbucks cup, defines the brand. Today, the Starbucks logo is synonymous with more than tasty coffee. It's about the entire experience of getting one and drinking one. When someone walks by with that logo on a Starbucks cup, there are associations made around people's backgrounds and lifestyles. There's something mysterious and yet

Wow. Yeah, Wow.

The allure of caffeine is that siren is singing.

Discus could not resist the siren song.

Now, traditional traditional.

Seattle natives and longstanding Seattle residents and natives tell me that they don't drink Starbucks.

No, Well, the same apparently moved the SuperSonics to Oklahoma City, so I don't think they've built about that. They had Kevin Durant for a hot minute, then before we know it, that's that time.

So that was the rappaport.

And then I told Ian, I'm like, dude, there's a lot of ways you could play this, And I think Ian kind of played it right where he was like tongue in cheek fun about it, but also wasn't looking to have it. And then like the rest of like McAfee and eyes and they were just hammering it, and then it got kind of played out, and I was like, all right, the story's over. But there was a window in time where Ian could have leveraged that into a dunkin Donuts play. He could have leveraged that into a

Well, the next day he was.

Talking about duncan on on the Maxazine show, and.

Look what I'm getting, ironically.

Giving it away for free. I was like, that's unlike Ian. Why would he do that? Right?

I think there was a play.

Maybe he was laying the groundwork. You know, you give him a little bit and you hope for a lot more in return. That would be amazing if he gets on that deal and unveils it, let's say at the draft.

There's time to get that done before that. It would be amazing, a huge all right.

So I started off this thing in an monologue just talking about how I think there's a lot of teams that need quarterbacks and there might not be enough quarterbacks available, which means come the draft as much as we want to, you know, talk about Shador slipping out of the first and all of a sudden, like you know, what happens, They all get bumped up and we'll see where we

I know that the Vikings not tag. They were asking questions back at the Senior Ball. Was like, hey, the Vikings are asking you know, what do you hearing about Donald out there? They wanted to know if there was a team that was gonna.

And they never really truly wouldn't know. It would be more of a leap of faith.

But yeah, in their mind the number at forty to tag him was too high and he wasn't going to get there. And I think they're right. I mean, if Stafford had gone elsewhere and maybe that opens up the Rams, maybe that's a little bit different. But the fact that Stafford stayed put, now you're seeing some of these other guys potentially stay put and don't.

I don't know that Vegas is that.

High on on Sam Donald, which would be the other place that he could potentially go to. Then going back to New York if he goes to the Giants, I mean obviously not the Jets. I mean, my my fever dream was he would go to the Jets.

Would just be awesome. I would just love to just see it. But there's no way he was he was gonna go back.

And then in the end, the Vikings understand that Darnold knows what the best situation is for him. It's the one that every other quarterback wants right now, Addison Jefferson and Kevin O'Connell calling the shots like that.

So the question is, you know, how big of a cut do you take?

And I think we all in our minds were thinking, well, he's going to be in the forties.

I don't know that he's gonna get there.

No, certainly, yeah, right like thirty to forty.

So now you're to the point where it's like, all right, look, we understand and you understand that we want to be here.

How do we make this fair?

Right?

I mean I go back. There was a couple of years ago.

Nick Foles, after the Super Bowl with the Eagles, signed with the Jaguars for twenty two, which is a big number at the time. The time, it was huge, and they were really sort of bidding against themselves, right, there was nobody else out there.

But it's like, you can't sign a quarterback for at.

The time, I don't know, fifteen and then say oh, here's our new franchise quarterback.

Yeah, he had to make it respectable. Right, there's a great analogy.

I remember that whole situation.

It was like we had to pay him that because we wanted to show our faith in him and our confidence in him. And it was more almost like pr as well, you know.

Yeah, and you want him to be happy about it, and you want him to feel good about the new start that he's in.

Now, Donald would be an extension.

So look, he proved himself in a way last year, and now it's time for the double proof, right, Like, now it's time to prove that what happened at the.

End was an aberration.

Right now, I can't play consistently through the end of the season and maybe even raise my game at the right period at the right time, and then hope for better options.

Next year, because there's not there's not a lot of great options happening now. The Giants, Jets.

We'll get through it.

But like here's my yeah, all right, So those two games in a matter of eight days. I could argue it costs Sam Darnald more money than any player in the history of the NFL.

What was it before, you're my it was fifty before that and wound.

I thought, you know, you have Tennessee, you got Pittsburgh, and then it's like these teams are like, eh, I don't know, you know, Like, I'm sure there were teams, and I don't think there's a market right now besides and soda. But if it guess to a certain point numbers wise, maybe it perks up.

But like this is my other question, do you.

I can't help but think that this is a at least a window into they're not as high and over the moon over JJ McCarthy as everyone has been saying all season.

Yeah, I think there's an element of that.

I also believe that maybe he played at least for a period of time last year above their expectations.

Donald, that is right, and so.

You want to sort of run that back because if McCarthy doesn't beat him out, Right, if you bring him back and he doesn't beat him out, and if you're paying him thirty million, it's gonna be tough.

Like the tie is going to go to Sun Donald in that situation.

But if McCarthy doesn't beat him out, you want to make sure you have the best possible solution at the quarterback position. So it's a delicate balance, right, Like you're still sort of committed to McCarthy, and I know that Quacy Adolpha Mensa really was looking forward to let's get a good quarterback on a rook deal, which allows us

I also think you bring in Donald for whatever thirty thirty five. Let's say that you have JJ on the rookie deal. If they both play well, or they both are doing well in camp, you could still trade either one of them, Yeah, into one of these quarterback media teams. And Donald's contract is not so prohibitive where it would be like that's a crippling contract for a.

Team to take on.

Coincidentally, Donald could wind up being Sam Bradford who was traded to Minnesota when Teddy Bridgewater.

Labor Day. That was it.

Philly had Wentz, Philly had who else? It was Wentz.

I know exactly who else because I know why because they went from Wentz jumped over Chase Daniel, who had gotten a really good deal.

I had a million is the.

Backup, and you're it's like, wait a minute, you had Bradford for because they signed I think they signed Daniel first and then Bradford. I forget how it was, but it was like there's like forty seven million dollars invested in your.

Quarterback, which was a ton at that time.

And then so they jumped Daniel and I remember reporting that day that that Daniel was was pissed, right, yeah, and Chase I got a call from his agent or whatever, and Chase was pissed off, and I talked.

To me a lot. Do you remember was it Jeff Nally? Maybe?

And so guys.

So next time I'm down in the locker room, I said, hey, Chase, can we talk? And we go outside the locker and we talk. He's like, yeah, but you made it seem like you know, I said, were you pissed?

He goes, yeah, it was pissed, like, you know, I want to start, I want to be the guy.

And you know, I was like, well, that's all I said.

He goes, yeah, but like, you made it seem like I wasn't going to be supportive of Carson.

I said, I didn't say that. All I said was you were disappointed. You want to be the starter. You know, you're a competitive guy. You should be pissed. And we had it. We had a great conversation. And he's now in the media and he's doing a nice job.

Yeah, so fine, all right, So that's Vikings.

All right.

The listeners on this podcast are often Jets and Giants fans.

Let's start with Giants.

Because there's been a lot of suboarding, a lot of.

Stuff that's inaccurate that's been out there.

I think you and I are both fairly plugged in with that market and fairly plugged in with that team. I think there was a lot of truth to they were, you know, on the Stafford talk, there were parameters to trades being talked about with the Rams, and then once once Thursday hit and you know, the Rams kind of you know, ghosted everybody and they were like, all right, Friday morning, it's going to be Stafford talking with McVeigh. It was a done deal. And they already had been pivoting,

This year, let's team up and let's let's do this thing together.

He's one of the best options out there.

I mean, I know he was in a great season with the chance, but look around, it's not a great, and it's not gonna cost you a ton of money. He's gonna have to make a decision at this point because we talked about, you know, him being a possibility with the Rams, and you know, as somebody mentioned to me, he wants to go to San Francisco. I'm like, well,

Just they've got other options there.

And then it's like, well, at some point do I want to continue playing, And if I do, it might have to be with the Giants. He has said he's willing to mentor a young guy. He did that with Zach Wilsoner tried to do that with Zach did so he is open to doing that. It's not like he's some kind of selfish guy who's not going to help out. I don't know if he has any relationship with cam Ward, what he thinks of him or anything of that stuff.

Probably Also I also picked Rogers to.

The m v P and win the AC.

I was I was optimistic that he was gonna bounce better.

He was banged up also early in the foot. Yeah, so you know, I know, I know. It's it's an option there. I got to see if if Aaron's willing to make. That's the part I can't really put in the place right now, is if he's willing to go there and to play. And even if you do, you got to do something in this draft. I mean, you need your quarterback of the future. It sucks that you lost to the Colts, right, it sucks. It can't looks like win that game. Excuse me, it was a loss

The Lak Neighbors is going to the Hall of Fame after that game.

I mean, and I would say, because John Maer always wants to win, he's anti tanking, but I would say if John Mara had told Brian Dable and Joe Shane before that game that you guys are going to be safe no matter what, maybe a different outcomeing.

I guess, yeah, all right, so Rogers and then maybe schaudor at three if he's there, or you trade back and you get Jackson Dart or you yeah, or you wait for Tyler Shuck in the second round. Trinee wers, like I think they have to draft a quarterback, and if they can't get cam Ward, the pool is awfully shallow this year in the draft class.

I wonder then if they what they do at at three.

They have talked about how they've had good meetings and good interactions with Shadora Sanders coming out of the combine a lot of rumblings that he's no longer a top ten guy in the minds of evaluators and teams around the league. It only takes one team though, that does so I hate I hate to kind of like say, because if nine out of ten teams are telling you now forget it and going in the top ten, it was kind of like Jalen Carter with that sort we

I did tell you there were teams I told he's not on their board, and then they drafted him and the Eagles got them. And now everyone's like, well they really they should have taken the Carter. Well, trust me, the stuff coming out of Georgia was not good.

Yeah, so it's hard to paint this stuff with broad strokes here, but I just feel like, you know, at three, if they if they're at three and it goes cam Ward one, whether it's a Tennessee or somebody else, and then it's Abdul Carter and you're sitting there and you got Travis Hunter in front of you, who could be an impact player on two sides of the ball. It's hard to pass him up for a guy at that point that you know a lot of folks are thinking maybe he's not he's not worthy of that three pick.

So and there's a history though there's a lineage as an on this quarterback.

They had that with with Eli and like Jackson Dart was the number one high school recruit in the country, went to the USC Treasures of all this, he's won ten games the last two years.

It's not like he's some stiff or a bust like.

Jackson Dart can play.

Yeah, I think that there's members of that coaching staff that feel like he'd be a good.

Fit for what they want to do offensively. So uh so we'll see.

And then you know, if you add the if you add the veteran piece, which they're going to at some point, if you add the veteran piece, gives you a little bit of comfortability that at least, well, maybe we can win with this guy this year, because they've got to win.

They've got to win.

I mean when when when they retain both of these guys. I said, I know what happens next. John Marrack comes out and basically says that the way that I phrased it, and people were calling me, Yeah, there's there's no playoff mandate. Okay, Manda, but at the end of the last couple of weeks of this upcoming season, we better be talking more about playoff positioning than we are about draft positioning for the Giants, because if that's the case we know what's going to happen.

Am I crazy that I look at their roster and I don't think they're that far off though.

There's talent, right, there is talent.

Like I sound like, I sound like a loon, but I look at their front seven and I'm like, all right, between Lawrence and Burns and Thibodeaux, and then you get their offensive line if Andrew Thomas is healthy, and then you got Tracy and Neighbors, and like, there's talent.

It's there, just they don't quarterback.

Yeah, Neighbors and Tracy were the first rookie tandem since two thousand and six.

I want to say it.

Was Marquez Coulston. Maybe it was even earlier that I think it was two thousand and six. Reggie, Yes, right, it was six. Reggie Busch and Marcus Coulson the first. They go for one thousand total yards each, and I think if Tracy had gotten a thousand yards rushing, they would have been the first duo would ever do that. So they've got they've got guys that can play. They'll add some pieces in free agency. The question is how

Did they play so much because you got nothing else you needed to play?

These guys like newb Been played well, Phillips played well, like they were happy with those guys.

Johnson the tight end, Leo Johnson.

So I don't know, I always I mean, maybe I'm biased because I like him as a guy and I've known them for years, but like, you know, I saw someone posted like when Saquon got the new deal, like Joe Shane has to be rolling in his gray.

Like Joe Shane has to be you know, you just kicking the punching the air.

I'm like, Saquon wasn't having the season he had in Philly as a New York Giant, And I don't think if they had to do it over again, the Giants would still have Saquon on the roster.

Like I don't.

I don't think you have to keep on pounding the Giants over letting Saquon walk I was best for both sides.

Well, the question you got to ask is going back a year ago, the Daniel Jones here right, would they would they have tagged or would they have extended Saquon and tagged Daniel. Yes, And even even at the point where they tagged Saquon in March and then had a chance to do a deal in July and they weren't far apart, they were close, Like at that point, would you do that moment differently? Because after that then that was it. Once they got into that last season like it was never going to.

Happen, he was never coming back.

It was done.

Okay, Brown's real quick schefter comes out and says, the one thing I know is the Browns are drafting a quarterback, but it might not be that clean. I know that that's Adam just taking a shot in February. It doesn't really mean he's putting his name on it for March and April, but it did perk everyone's eyes up. I

The Browns are doing at two.

Everyone just assumes they're going to have a quarterback, but who's that quarterback going to be?

Well, they're doing a good job because I've talked to at least two three.

Agents in the last day who have all said like there, guys were, yeah, like we got a shot at the Browns and I'm like, okay, So I don't think it's all three of you. So they're doing a good job of getting and that's just the Veneran guys, not the rookies, right, which is good because they all sounded excited about it. So if you're Andrew Berry, you got to feel good about the fact that multiple guys feel good about you being there, and maybe that'll help Miles Garrett feel better.

Yeah.

I don't think Cousins happens anytime, nothing quickly.

I think that's through the draft, okay, because Cousins last year went and signed with the team and then that team drafted somebody.

Yep.

So unless it's like.

Pittsburg where's Pittsburghs pick that's late in the first round, twentieth twentieth maybe maybe Pittsburgh, But even then you're risking the chance that they could potentially take somebody there. So Kirk Cousins learned his lesson last year. I think he's gonna play hardball. He's got that no trade clause. Atlanta's saying they're going to sit on him, So they'll sit on him for a while and then through the draft then.

I think he's gonna make his decision.

I think at that point you'll see what's gonna happen with Cousins.

Someone told me if they were to cut Kirk Cousins, which they won't, he would have had one year for ninety million on the Atlanta Falcons.

Well there's offset, like he could get paid going forward and they could offset, you know. So look, he's got he's got leverage in this case. He knows what the deal says, he knows what the situation that that Atlanta's in. Anyway, I mentioned him for the Browns because if Cleveland wants to do that, they could potentially see what happens through the draft and then circle back on Cousins.

There's not enough.

You mentioned that there's not enough quarterbacks out all these seats capably. So I think if your cousins, you're comfortable waiting because at that point, now you've got a team that, oh we have three free agency trades, the draft, we.

Really didn't get what we needed. We want to explore this option at this point, all.

Right, we're gonna rap quickly, but I want to give you a couple more teams.

Jets, I have no idea. I mean I've heard justin Fields, yeah, but I think Steelers are good.

I think has his choice.

He's going to stick in Pittsburgh over going to the Jets and another rebuilding thing.

But who knows, we'll see.

I mean, money talks.

But if it's not justin Fields. They can't go back to Rogers, they can't go back to Darnold. They're too far back in the draft to get cam Ward. They have all these star players at different positions, but they have a giant, gaping hole at quarterback. Could they really roll out Tyrod Taylor as their quarterback next year?

I mean, you keep saying these names. At what point do you get to the level of Tyrod Taylor?

You go, okay, well, and.

There are other options.

I mean, you could draft the guy late, maybe he develops a while you're setting yourself up potentially to draft the guy next year as well.

So there are other options. I mean, have we mentioned Daniel Jones yet?

No name?

Russell Wilson and then a name that they're not great options. They're not a name that I keep getting told by teams that are like, well, you can always go to that next year. You're gonna laugh. But Jared Stidham's name keeps on coming up. Stidy like, well, you know, if you miss out on all of them, Stidham can at least hold the fort. And you're like, geez, are we really talking about I mean, I guess, like, but that's where we're at.

Yeah, yeah, I think Daniel Jones.

I've heard his name connected to the Indianapolis Cults a bunch, which would make sense for him, right, that's that's a spot for him, although they do from what I heard, Indy does want a guy potentially that could help Anthony Richards and you know, Daniel Jones, I gotta go in there and say, let me help this guy.

No, they are going to go into makes the company guy out.

So Indy's got to walk that fine line of we got to get somebody here who's gonna help. But we also if he's not the guy, if we eventually this year go you know what, we're out on Anthony Richardson. We need somebody that can win because again, just like the Giants, they're in a position where they have.

To win to make it come on their jobs.

In twenty six, I saw Chris Ballor doing media again this week. I'm like, this guy just keeps out, you.

Know, and it's like, you gotta hit on one of these quarterbacks after all these years, all right, gat Raiders, so many cooks in the kitchen from Afar.

I look at this thing and it's.

Like, you've got you've got Brady now involved, you got Chip who's got an opinion. You've got spytech who's going to try to be If you got Pete an opinion. Of course, Pete has history with both Russell Wilson and Gino Smith. If they want to do a trade, there you've got. I mean, Brady's got his thoughts on these quarters, like what do the Raiders do? And they've got the sixth overall pick again just out of the cam Ward window where you could just sit and wait and take on.

Yeah, they made their push for Stafford. I thought for a hot minute that they had a real shot to make it happen, and I think that that was an incredible disappointment when that didn't happen for them.

You mentioned that's funny Gino Smith.

At some point, Seattle's got to decide, like do we want to extend this guy?

They keep kicking the can on this guy. He's been there five years.

Is one year deal, one year deal, one year deal, one year deal.

If you're going to trade him, his value is not higher than it is right now. It's never gonna he's getting older, and so you know, I know that there's interest from Pete Carroll on that, but he's got to convince John Spytech, who's in charge as the general manager. So keep an eye on that one. That could be an interesting one. They've got a bunch of irons in

I believe he flew himself there. From what I was told is that is whatever that's But then we're laughing. Russ could be a quarterback for the New York Giants week one this season, you know the way it's working

And it's gonna be like the Donald.

Like people forget Donald signed a one year, ten million dollar contract with the Vikings, and a lot people are on the league rolling their eyes, being like ten million dollars for Donald, and.

It's like, yeah, one of these guys is gonna get a deal. Like is there a name that we're not thinking about in the quarterback room.

I'll mention once Kansas City once Wentz back apparently had a really good year and Andy Reid told him, we'd love to have you back, similar deal or whatever, but you deserve a shot to go be a starter. Again, it's not an une question starter it's not a franchise guy, but it's one of these situations like you're talking about.

And if anybody calls Andy Reid, I mean, maybe it's.

Not somebody in the division. If it's the Raiders who we're talking about. If anybody calls Andy Reid, he'll tell them that, and he will. You know, Andy's pretty good about helping his players, you know, get better opportunities if the better opportunity ends up being elsewhere. So yeah, keep an eye on Onz.

It wouldn't surprise me.

Jimmy Garoppolo, I think I think the Rams would like to have him back. Yeah, a similar situation to Wentz, like they'd like to have him back. Okay, but let's go see what what else is out there, because there's just not enough good capable quarterbacks that are gonna fill all these starting jobs potentially a these bridge jobs. So yeah, keep an eye on the two of those guys. If one of them starting week one wouldn't surprise.

Me, all right, And then ending this thing, cam Ward got great reviews all kind of Shador. It seems like it's kind of split and polarized. Is there a nugget you have on Shador that's worth sharing to this audience, because every fan base is going to try to talk themselves into Shador even though he's getting trashed by a lot of people in the media right now.

Yeah, but I when I talk to Jet fans, I mean not one hundred percent, but I hear one you know, Yeah, yeah, I hear I hear a lot of them go at that point, take a shot right at that point seven? Yeah, sure, yeah, like if they're if they're saying, well, if we're the Giants, we're up at three and we need a quarterback and we're desperate, like we can't do that. But it's a new regime, and if he last that long, we're good with taking a shout on him.

At that point, we'll see.

I don't know, I don't have enough of that feel. I know that there's you know, the whole interview thing.

Oh he came in and he acted. What did you expect? Like, you know what he's about, And I don't think he's a bad dude. No, he said in an interview.

With Jane Slater at the Shrine Bowl our Jane Slater, our friend Jane Slater. He's like, you know what people don't know about me is I'm I'm a pretty humble guy. And he had this huge chain on diamonds everywhere, and he goes, I'm a.

Pretty humble guy, as it flashed in the lights.

I do you know, I do think that there is a level of humility to him. You know, he's he's been around his dad and and and the family, and we know how Dion things and and and and Dion's thing is not just you know, acting that way. To act that way, It's about empowerment. It's always been about empowerment.

He's always been that way, and and and I respect it.

And I also would say this, say what you want about Shador and like whether he came off as arrogant or cocky or cockture, like you kind of need that as a quarterback. And also, he got the absolute crap kicked out of him for two years at Colorado, and that guy just got up and kept playing football.

And I think that goes a lot further.

It's not like he's been a diva quarterback with all pros at every position. Yes, Travis Hunter was there, but was playing behind a different offensive line than the one that Quinn Ewers and Will Howard have been playing behind.

Yeah, and some might say, though, that some of those shots were unnecessary. He should have got the ball quicker, which is going to be a part of his development in the NFL.

We saw from Caleb. Caleb tried to escape through the back of the pocket.

It's a lot harder to do ye in the NFC North than it is in the PAC twelve.

So I'll say this.

I know it was the combine.

So everyone's watching and Dion's the dad, but like, yeah, you know Rich Eisen's talking about oh and Chadure in this, and like who's your favorite, who's in Stacy Dale's there with him, and who's your favorite?

You know, who's Deon's favorite? Kid? Ranco and Dion's tweeting right at the show, and like that stuff's real.

Dion is he is up, He's a he's got a big voice, he's universally respected and whether or not it's insecurity or whatever. But like some teams might just look at all that and say, I'm trying to provide for my family. I'm a GM, I'm a coach.

I don't want that.

Yeah, that's really as negative as that sounds, and that sucks for the kid. But like that, there might be those who are scared of taken on not only you know, a player that we're not sure is going to be an All pro whatever, a quarterback, but also all that comes with it, whether that should be positive or negative.

Plus a head coach who goes, if we draft this guy, is Dean going to be looking over my shoulder as you know, Well, I'm gonna take because he already said like if your coaches in the NFL, I forget the exact quote, but I'm going to coach post on kids.

Yeah, exactly. Multiple, Well, a whole lot to Peter.

You're on the Insiders Show seven pm Eastern day.

You do awesome work. I really love you.

And also free agency next week is going to be probably world of wall for you.

What's the schedule.

Yeah, we're Monday to when we start on Sunday. We've got free agency frenzy Monday. I believe all day Tuesday, all day you're joining actual You better be joining us for this coverage we need.

They don't. They don't ask me.

I'm asking you, Peter. I'm gonna massage.

What can I offer?

I'll offer you a couple a couple of nuggets here and there that I get.

But you guys got it pretty good, you Tom.

And you got more than you let on, Peter. We all know that. We all know that.

Here's my here's my question though.

The Sunday show is just to Sun to set the table and then Monday they can actually legally tamper. But we usually know come that legally, like that's when we start firing off. The sources indicate they have intentions to sign.

Right, Yeah, you can reach a verbal agreement. They changed that.

The NFL kind of sort of did this and said, well, we're tampering.

So we're going to open up a legal window where you can talk.

And then all of a sudden, during that period they were having negotiations and finalizing deals. So the NFL said, well, we're just going to make that the point at which you can talk and finalized deals.

So what time is that? That's twelve eastern Monday, So so Wednesday moved up to Monday. It's yeah, I think it's twelve eastern on Monday. So basically now it's like, well, they tamper ahead of the tampering window, so it's like it just all it did was move it up a couple of days.

But I remember our coverage the first year when they did this, they were stunned by the number of deals. We weren't wall to wall. And then the next year it was like, well we got to be you know, on for twelve hours.

Well, i'll tell you what it was.

It was we didn't know how it's going to go down because I was a part of it. Monday and Tuesday, every deal is down, and then Wednesday, every deal is already done.

And it was like, welcome to Fridge.

And.

Yeah, yeah, so we adjusted our coverage here, So give.

Me your favorite free agent, like a guy that you know, you got this whole list of Fridge. I'm gonna give you my guy who I think is one of my favorite players in the NFL that I don't know what his market is, but I can't wait to see how it works out.

Who's yours?

Are we going under the radar? Are we got either one?

You could say whoever you want, Like, like, Milton Williams is fascinating to me, and I think he's gonna make a ton of money as a defensive tackle.

My favorite player on the Chiefs for multiple I think Nick Bolton being a free agent is fascinating.

You're watching that guy he's a scud missile. I think he's great, and.

I don't know, linebackers don't make the money that they used to make. But like, I just some curiously where he ends up because so many times these chiefs guys and it'd rather be Wally Gay or Lagarious need to end up on these crap teams and they just go vanish into the night. And it's like, well they got the money, and like we're happy for him, but like, where does Nick Bolton go? Because that guy I only I only picture him playing in huge games.

Yeah, it's I mean, it's not it's not a sexy club.

The draft and free agency is kind of bl Yeah, I'm here, but no, we're gonna we're gonna do it like Nick Westbrook. Akine is an interesting one right here touchdowns last year?

Like is that guy gonna hit big?

And uh, who's I'll give you my sleeper free agent?

Who's who's the Who's the guy?

Uh that I was being told is going to actually surprise people in the edge.

Let's you up over under on this?

You want to do it over under?

Well, because I'm like money wise, Yeah, okay, Well I don't know because the new salary cap, it's talk going to be bunched up. I'll never forget. I I forget what year was it. There was a guy and it was like we all were just like what, like what, Oh?

It was the Wide It was.

Sammy Watkins making what he got from the Chiefs that year is probably twenty seventeen, and it came out of nowhere and Sammy Watkins got this massive deal from the Chiefs.

So we were like, yeah, I guess that's it.

So so the one guy that I was somebody mentioned this to me, Doe o' dangbo from the Colts, that this guy's gonna make a ton of money.

And this is not this is not his agent telling you this.

No, No, that's what you know.

When it's the agent, it's like, all right, you take it with you take it with a grain of salt.

Here.

But I don't even know if a dio Doe, Let's okay, Dao dang bo.

If that dude makes a ton of money, I will tip my cap to the person that told me that. But Patrick Jones from the Vikings is the guy that I heard that.

Patrick Jones, not Daniel Patrick.

Patrick Jones from the Vikings, not Daniel Jones. Yeah, who makes more money? Patrick or Daniel Jones? Still finish?

Put a pull up?

Who makes more a free agency Daniel Jones or Patrick Jones.

Daniel Jones or Patrick Jones or Patrick Jones from the Vikings from what I heard is gonna have a lot of interest. Is a guy that can show they can do a bunch of different things, and that.

Guy could surprise people. So there you go. There's my there's my free agent.

All right, everybody tune into NFL Network and when Patrick Jones gets drafted, tweet me and Mike it's at Mike Garafalo on Twitter.

Yeah you know, I love it, Thanks for joining.

You got it the off season with Peter Schrager.

Appreciate you, dude. All right, So that's Mike Garatfollo.

I bring on Aaron wan Kaufman, my co host, who's about to be on vacation for a couple of weeks before we get to all the free agency frenzy and all that. Your reaction, give me one thought on on either a A Jordan Schultz, who is an NFL insider altercation with Ian Rappaport in front of a Starbucks.

Jordan's dad is the former CEO Starbucks.

You can't write the script any better or any of the quarterback stuff we heard. I know you've got a view of this stuff that's different than us who live and breathe it and are in all these conversations. You kind of look at it as voice of the fan, but also an educated fan.

What are your thoughts?

I'll I'll give you two. First, on the Schultz Rappaport thing. I loved your take that rap Port should have seen if he could have gotten a you know, go go to Caribou Coffee, get it, get an endorsement or something there.

I'm not I'm not an ambulance chaser, but pardon me. Thought take a punch and this thing is totally different. Like Instigator, This is a different story if you take a nice little sucker punch to the face and it's on camera.

I mean, come on.

I also wonder how many other times I don't know anything about Jordan Schultz, how many other people has he tried to intimidate at a Starbucks.

I honestly think Jordan's a nice pacifist Like this was very specific, and the backstory is Jordan had a report on Matthew Stafford and Tom Brady and Ian's tweet about that report was so dismissive that even I said who he called it like an erroneous internet rumor and clarified it. And then this was like, Hey, you're gonna talk smack, let's let's talk in person.

And this is the Stafford is visiting Brady's house in Montana.

Let me break let me break this down for us because I don't live in this one percent world, but a lot of these football players do. Here's the deal. There's something called the Yellowstone Club. It's a Melman property, It's Discovery Land, It's this whole thing, and this is where it is. Justin Bieber has one of these places, you know, I mean, Gretzky is one of these places.

When you're uber uber, uber, uber wealthy, you can.

Pay for a home and with the home comes all the amenities you could imagine.

It's basically, you live on one of the nicest golf courses in the world. You have a.

Comfort station, you have amazing kids activities like These properties are insane and they're all inclusive, and you buy one of the homes for a crazy amount of money and you just have a place to go where there's no paparazzi allowed, and there's something. So Tom Brady has one in Montana at the Yellowstone Club. Guess who else does Matthew Stafford. So they both were there at the same time and they talked, and that happens. You can have

Is he gat this from Brady?

So that was that, But yes, Caribou Coffee could be a really nice deal for Ian Rappaport if he wants to go down that road.

And then on the quarterbacks, I was not expecting that much discussing On, Carson wentz of all people, right, the idea that he could get another starting gig, that's that's amazing. To think of his transition we run. Yeah, to think of how he kind of lost in Philadelphia, I mean, that's not offensive. Everyone knows he lost the name Jalen Hurts. And to think that he could possibly get another gig that one surprised me. I was not expecting that name.

Went forth overall bro Yeah, and then but once you tap out of a game, I know it sounds so superficial and so manly, and like people see that. I don't think he's made the developments that necessarily and he's been injured a bunch, you know, he's got the shoulder injury and all this stuff.

So we'll see.

So it's just like just they brought in Flaco to compete with them, and they went back and forth and then we'll see if But if I'm Daniel Jones, then I know they already is a guy there.

I don't know if I'm signing with the Colts.

If I'm Daniel Jones, I think the Browns is more attractive, or if there's another team that's willing to let me compete for the starting job and I think I can win it, like that might be better off. So the Colts were the early team that was mentioned, but I don't think. Look, I don't know what the market is for Daniel Jones, but if there's another team, I think he'd be willing to talk to them too.

The teams that interested me.

The most Jets and Raiders, because they don't have a draft pick that's high enough to just like just say, okay, we'll just take one of the top two. They might both be gone, and they're so tortured at that position, and they've got new brass coming in so like, I don't know, I do like what I suggested, and we'll see if it could happen that like Chip Kelly, Tom Brady and Pete Carroll go to Seattle and they're like Gino Smith to the Raiders and let's compete.

I don't know, we'll see.

That's another one that I really I really like that Geno discussion.

But he's under contract, he's got a free so it's like, yeah, Rogers to the Giants. I still think it's very possible. I know people have put all this damp water on it. They're like, you know, he can't. I could see it. I could see Rogers to the Giants, and I could see that happening in both sides being like, let's f the world, let's go do this and let's prove people wrong.

Yeah, it'd be interesting to see him in that stadium. Oh wait, we just got a season that we just got that. Yes, it could could be fun. I mean, as much as I hate to admit it, he wasn't horrible last year. He wasn't He played some good games at the end, especially with DeVante Adams. I don't know if Adams is gonna go back to stay on the East coast or if he wants to go to the West coast. But it could be interesting with him on the Raiders, I mean sorry, with him on the Giants.

He just I think all the Giants fans are down on this, Like, there's not one Giants fan who wants the Jets. Like the Jets, it's got rid of Rogers. No Giants fan wants the Jets leftovers and like what they dismissed. But it's a different deal. It's a different deal, all right, Aaron, enjoy some time off. I'll probably be back on next week with some free agency stuff once that starts flying off. But the season with Peter Schrager continues to roll on. And hey guys, we're back. It's

Thanks for listening to everybody.

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