Colin Cowherd Podcast - Jake Paul Beatdown, Mike Silver on Russ/Pete Power Struggle, Rodgers Dark Horse, Lamar + Carr Landing Spots

after a week hiatus, Colin Coward Podcast is back. Mike Silver will stop by in ten minutes and he's got all sorts of things to talk about. As we've discussed many times, these young general managers the National Football League are wheelers and dealers, and you're going to see March be a bevy of trades, stars, quarterbacks, up and comers. As sending players can't wait for it. So a couple of things. I want to start by talking about the

pay per view event. Jake Paul, the polarizing semi boxer, certainly working hard at being one, was going to finally fight a real fighter. Tommy Fury now Tyson Fury, is a two time heavyweight champ from Great Britain. Tommy Fury is more a model who can box a little. And so let me give you a story of years and years and years ago. They opened up a casino in Vegas called the Paris Right, and it was a replica

of the Eiffel Tower. And so I had a friend who's like, hey, let's let's go to I saw it as we flew in, but he said, let's let's go so you can see this replica of the Eiffel Tower. And they've got a good restaurant inside. And I was like, all right, fine, and we went and I saw it, and I was impressed, you know, by the effort. But once you saw the replica of the Eiffel Tower, there was really no reason to see the replica of the

Eiffel Tower for a second time, okay. And that's sort of how I feel with Jake Paul is that I thought the story was really fun. And as he was knocking out football players and washed up UFC guys or MMA guys, that was fun. I wanted to see him fight a real fighter, and I did, and it wasn't a great real fighter. It was Tommy Fury, who i'd seen two pieces of videotape of him fighting earlier, and he was mostly awful, and he completely controlled the fight.

He was more refined, mind, more polished. He actually had a jab. It was highly effective. He was confident. He really controlled the fight. I had two rounds going to Jake Paul, and one of them the final round because he briefly knocked down Tommy Fury for about half a second. Nobody ever really got hurt in the fight. But Tommy Fury's not athletic enough or dynamic enough to be a great fighter. His brother, right, is the two time champ.

Tommy's just a pedestrian athlete, good looking kid, you know, great body, but doesn't have the power or the athleticism to be a great fighter. But he controlled the fight. And you know, there's a lot of really talented people out there and there they have a two handicap. They're not close to playing on the tour. They can go out their buddies shoot one under part two under part they're not close to being on the tour. Jake Paul is a big, strong, tough, hard worker, made a name

for himself. I do think it is interesting when he fights recently retired football players or washed up mixed martial art guys. That's fun. Can he You know, we watched an NFL player for years. A tough guy retires, goes and fights Jake Paul. That's interesting to me, but watching him face boxers, it's like going to the Paris casino. All right, I saw it. It's kind of fake and I'm done with it, and so totally supported Jake Paul.

Thought he would win the fight, and instead the real boxer who'd fought real fighters, was more refined, really kind of did whatever he wanted to. He landed significantly more punches than Jake Paul did. Jake Paul. Remember the baseball player Adam Dunn. If Adam Dunn was a boxer, he would be Jake Paul would not hit for average, swing for the fence, isn't occasionally land That's sort of Jake paul. Combinations were not great. There's no real jab of note.

Kind of outclassed, but I love the effort. If he keeps fighting, that's fine, but you know, I'm done buying his fights. Unless he fights a really really popular, all pro level NFL guy that retires, that would be interesting maybe second thought. So you know, so much of the NBA now is three point shooting. And I watched as I was flying home from Florida, I watched the Mavericks jump out to a huge, huge lead on the Lakers, mostly because the Lakers couldn't hit threes and the Mavericks

did in the first half. Twenty seven point lead for Dallas. Lakers came back to when Jared Vanderbilt was excellent. But I did say when the Lakers went out and got Jared Vanderbilt and D'Angelo Russell and Malik Beasley, I said, this is going to be a team that's going to get into the play in tournament in the end and probably make the playoffs bottom wrong, you know, Western Conference playoffs.

And I still believe that. But in this game, with this comeback, the most notable story was Lebron James got hurt again and after the game there's video of him limping off. I think Rob Polinka and the Lakers deserve a lot of credit for assembling very quickly a better shooting team with more versatility on defense, more size and length.

They deserve a ton of credit. And it's a great example of how one player can ruin chemistry just getting rid of the toxicity with Russell Westbrook, the ball moves much better. I think they move much better on the defensive end. They're longer, Westbrook no longer plays defense, won't

set a pick, can't shoot, blah blah blah. We've gone on and on, but just getting him off the floor, and the team plays a better brand, a more watchable brand of basketball, especially Layton quarters late on the shot clock, late in the game. They played pretty well. Sometimes Westbrook just got in the way, as athletic as he is. But I think when I watched the Lakers for all the positives, when Lebron hobbles out of the arena, it is the reality they're going to have to move Anthony Davis.

And I know he's still on his best nights. He's really good. He had the most crucial shot in that Laker comeback, went over Dallas. But you know, even on the Great Nights, twenty seven point deficit, come from behind, w on the road, even on the Great Nights, Lebron and this is just what he's become limping out of the arena. So two things can be true. Rob Polinka, the GM deserves a ton of credit for creating a viable,

fun to watch basketball team. And they're still going to have to make a move as soon as the season ends. You cross your fingers that Anthony Davis remains physically viable because he's a top six seven player in the league when he's healthy. But there's limitations here. What's the old Einstein The definition of insanity as you keep doing something over and over again and it fails lebron limping. This is what they are at this point in the franchise.

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lowest price guaranteed. Well, as I was talking in the preamble Former Players GMS Younger GMS, it used to be that baseball was really the sport that had fairly profound off seasons hot Stove, and then over time the NBA kind of moved into that territory. Now it's just the NFL. These young gms have no problem turning over a third of their roster. I love it. I think we're gonna have a wildly active March and I can't wait for it. It's also now you know star quarterbacks are willing to move,

you know, Russell Wilson, Matt Stafford, Tom Brady. With that, we bring in the volumes, Mike Silver. So I want to address Even the week I was off, there were three or four stories. So Russell Wilson has denied it, but you and I had talked about it at some length on an earlier podcast that John Schneider, Russell Wilson, and Pete Carroll. It's a total power struggle. By the way, Pete Carroll and John Snyder had a little bit of

one right. As I was told for years, Pete could sometimes cherry pick on the draft and kind of use some influence and it would frustrate the scouts for the Seahawks. I was told that two times by two different people that had worked with Seattle. They loved Pete. So Snyder wanted a little more control and more money. He almost went to the Lions. Remember, but when the story came out, I wasn't surprised by it. I also wasn't surprised that Russell Wilson immediately denied it. What was your take on

the story? You know, it had gotten really, really bad and they kind of patched it together for that last season, which by the way, ended with Russell coming back playing well and beating an Arizona team that at the time needed to win to try to win the division and on the road, so it ended kind of nicely. But yeah, there was a power struggle, and you know, John and Pete look for two people who didn't know each other and were matched together, they've had the model relationship. So

there's been some push and pull. You know, maybe the front office wanted young players to play more, you know, kind of your typical coach versus personnel philosophical divide. But they were very much aligned on we think this is run its course with Russell, and Russell, in fairness, had tried to get out the previous year. I mean it was dressed up as hey, we're not asking for a trade, but we're gonna publicly list four teams. Yeah, I mean, so Russell kind of acted out and tried to get out.

They patched it together, he got injured, It didn't go great. It was time for something to happen. And you have a relatively new owner, Jody Allen, she's been around, Yeah, hadn't been the owner for most of that time. And so did Russell technically go to them and say it's me or them? Or was it couched more as this can't go on the way, and so maybe that gives

there's some defensibility there. But what I would say to all of it, though, is that it'd be one thing if we were hearing about this now and Russell had gone on and had a really good year with the Broncos and Seattle had kind of struggled to find its way. But the entire season, as seasons go, was a complete rough random on who was writing, who was raw policed. In the short term, Russell looked nothing like the guy we'd see it for ten years that Geno Smith was

a pro bowler. You know, it's kind of like year one of Brady Belichick. Like I think it means Brady was the winner because he went to the Buccaneers won the Super Bowl and the Patriots, you know, struggled, So you know, obviously it's it's never that simple. But you know, Russell, I think, is emotionally intelligent enough to understand what's writing

on his and Sean Payton's potential partnership. That's his way back, and so maybe a lot of the convictions he had before have changed to Yes, Sean, that's a great idea, And Sean Payton has that credibility, and I think Russell Wilson has those feelings about him in the first place. And for the record, another story leaked this weekend late that the you know upstairs office, second floor office for Russell Wilson was a distraction, was uncomfortable. And here's what

I worry about with Russell Wilson. Seattle stuff leaked. Now Denver stuff is leaking. You know, I say this all the time. The story isn't just the story, it's why am I hearing about the story? Who's leaking it? There are a lot of people that have find some level of joy in releasing stories that make Russell Wilson look bad. Yeah, and but first of all, I'm pro leak, so you know, when well, I just want to get that out there,

and leak is kind of a misunderstood word. And I won't reveal all the secrets of the trade, but you know, a lot that we normally would have reported between twenty twenty and twenty twenty one did not get reported at the time because of COVID and lack of backs. Right, you know, people like we were still you know, texting and calling and all that, but it's not the same as when you're around each other. So I think we're going to keep hearing about things from that period as

time goes on. But yeah, I mean, clearly Denver was a problem, and it's a ridiculous, in my opinion, over simplification to say, well, it was Nathaniel Hackett as a first time head coach and he mismanaged it, and now

it'll all be okay. Sure you want Sean Payton as your head coach over someone who's never done it, for sure, But I don't, you know, if anything, I think Hackett, who had put up you know, who had come from a situation that was weird and trending weirder with Aaron and the Packers, but obviously worked really, really well, partly because of Nathaniel Hackett, and both Batt Laflora and Aaron Rodgers would tell you that I think that kind of

informed his thinking, which is all right, Now, Russell's the guy. I'm gonna tether myself to him and be all in with him. Um and yeah, you know, you and I talked about the office and some things like that earlier, you know, during the season. Um, you know, a six person team cruising around with him. I mean, I just kind of want a hardbo at the job so I could envision the you know, who's this, Oh hey coach,

that's my personal performance coach. Uh, he's in charge. But making you know here, you know, that would have been that would have been fun. But um, you know, effectively, Sean Bate's gonna do the same thing, which is, hey, buddy, you know you're a quarterback, you're my guy. We're gonna be partners, but you're gonna be at your locker and not in an office that's bigger than your head coaches.

It's just it's just a weird look. Yeah, well, speaking of something that is a little bit of a weird look, you know, the Darkness retreat, which again, however, people get right mentally, I'm for I don't care. I want to smoke a joint hold on I'm having I'm having a little darkness retreat. Oh, I see, I'm very clever there. There you go. Um, whatever it takes, you know, whatever whatever it takes. Um. I do think there's enough credible

reporting now. Um. I thought when when Aaron Rodgers said I'm gonna do this retreat and it'll get me closer to my answer, I thought, time out. You gotta have an answer after the retreat. You can't. It's like, honey, I'm gonna go with some really cute girls to Vegas and that'll get me closer to if I want to continue our marriage. Like, that's not the answer. You gotta get right, although if unless charitably, maybe like it's darkness

retreat Iowa, Baska. Maybe that's the double head. Yeah. I And by the way, like I agree with you whatever gets you through the day. And I totally respect Aaron's process on it. It's easy to make fun of he offered the information, so people are gonna, you know, have

some fun with it. But yeah, I just I know that the packers, you know, organizational attitude has changed from two years of okay, we gotta find a way to make it work with everything, like, under any circumstances to listen, man, if you want to go back to be an all in and you're into this, we can do something cool here.

But anything short of that, you know whatever. So that makes me thick they're gonna get to a place where Aaron says, hey, you know, I want to go here, and then whether they'll send him where he wants as another question. But you know they believed that, you know, well, I mean just look at the optics. We saw Patrick Mahomes throwing with his new receivers, all these quarterbacks getting

together with people. Aaron blew off the off season, which is his right, but you know, didn't organize throwing sessions, and then kind of seemed to act a little disdainfully toward the rookies. They clicked late, made a run, fell just short, and I think the packers believed that they paid him all the buddy, which was good, he'd earned it, but then he took the money. It was kind of like, Okay, you're trading DeVante getting these new guys in. I'm gonna

just you know, dial it back a little bit. And it's a position where you kind of gotta be on. So he's so talented, and he'll probably find a way to get an edge and a chip and on his shoulder and come back for someone and be fierce. I'm trying to figure out a way that that up in Green Bay. It feels less likely. Yeah, I think somebody I trust inside that organization. I ran into in the Super Bowl at the Super Bowl and I had made a comment to this person inside the Packers organization. This

is somebody that wears the uniform about Aaron. And there was a little bit of an eye roll by this person who said, yeah, we're all kind of we're all kind of waiting for Aaron to make up his mind. And it wasn't said with anger or disdain, but it was, yeah, what you're seeing is what we're seeing. And you know, and we know this colin in all sports, right, like when you are performing at a tread sendent level as Aaron did the previous TWI yes, there's a whole lot.

But instead of I roll like it's like that's our quirky guy, you know, like you put up with a lot. But this decade, it starts to slip, especially when effort is perceived to be part of it all, then that's what you know, and the and the Russell Wilson thinks a great example. Then it all starts coming out like, oh, do you realize what we gotta put up with? I

mean Tom Brady. You know, it's a testament to Tom Brady that you didn't hear that stuff this year, despite the fact that he was clearly going through some stuff. As he said, he was gone for a big chunk of trading cab. He was allegedly gonna miss Wednesdays. I don't think that actually really happened much, but you know, there was all this separation between what tom Brady normally would have been doing and what Tom Brady was doing. He played well, He didn't play transcended, but he played

very well. But what a testament to him that we didn't hear much about. Oh my got tom Brady. They let him do anything. And obviously he has a lot of capital in the bank. But that's I think what we're getting with Airon now. I think there would have been moments of eye rolling in twenty and twenty one, but he was just so good that in that building

they were like, hey man, yeah, that's our guy. Yeah, well one of the things that seems fairly obvious is you'd want to send them to the AFC, which has already been reported, and you'd want to send him to the Raiders because of that division. Right. The Raiders are a fascinating team. So if you let go of Derek Carr, I don't think you can back into the season with

Jarrett Stidham. You're going to take a big swing. It's it's like when you were when when the Broncos were losing Tebow, they went with Peyton Manning, right, he wanted to quiet the crowd down and Derek carrs say whatever you want. Pretty popular guy, right, pretty capable quarterback. So I you know the Jarrett Stidham reports, you know, he to me he's a backup or a really really like twenty eighth best quarterback in the league. Guy, What do

I know? But I do think the Aaron Rodgers, I could see the Raiders saying we'll give you first one of our fifths, a first in that division. That feels right for Aaron Rodgers. But I also look at Robert Saul and the Jets and I think, Mike, they're really behind the eight ball here. They got real issues and they hired Hackett as the oppite So what what give me a Raiders Jets Aaron Rodgers? Where do you land on that stuff? And by the way, let's throw the

Titans in there. Yeah, I think that's a fair thought. Um yeah, So I think with the Raiders, if it if they make a move for Aaron Rodgers, that's ownership driven. I think if it was just Dave Ziegler and Josh McDaniels, based on what I know, they might poke around Aaron. But they're not thinking, hey man, that's the answer to our dreams. At this point, they probably fixed who in the one game I saw him live did look like the eighth best quarterback like he was dealing and then

he came down to Earth the next day. But they're they're probably thinking Stidham and then go get a young guy. They you know, they have a pretty high pick in this draft do something like that, which I don't know if that's a sustainable solution if you're Josh and a battle, but I think that would be the team building, you know, preference from the front office. But then you know, Mark Davis was the guy wanted Russell Wilson. Mark Davis wants a star he wants someone to put in that new

stadium and give them a new identity. And so I could see Mark Davis saying, you know what, let's do that, and you know, the owners always got that kind of sway. I don't know that it's going to cost as much as a one And simply because they're under you know, because of the contract, if they decide, hey, we're moving on, are gonna you know, we're part of ways, they have a great deal of incentive to get out from under that cap hit and Aaron knows that, and so that

can be used against them. And so hey, I don't know how much it's really going to take to get him and be more important this whole Oh well they're not going to send him to a team in the NFC. I don't know that. I mean, Aaron's got leveraged in that he can say, fine, I'm coming back, even though we don't want to be with each other. He can also say go ahead and cut me because you're you know, your cap situation with this you know deal as it currently stands is not good. And he can also you know,

force you know, figure out with the new team. Well, they're can we change the contract of a more team friendly. So I think Aaron's a part of this. So I don't know for sure that he's gonna not go where he wants. It's possible that the Packers will have their way,

but it's possible he'll have leverage. And you know, with all of that said, the Jets make a lot of sense to me because you know, if you're Joe Douglass and Robert Sala at this point with a with an impatient owner, with an owner who essentially made you change offensive coordinators, and you hire the guy who has the relationship with Aaron, you you had a credible draft, You've got a lot of pieces around you, but you're in

a very tough division. I think a lot there's a lot of reason where you'd say, yeah, let's do anything again Aaron Rodgers and put him with this team in this town. So I'll throw a wild card in. So going back, pivoting back to my replaced Tebow with Peyton Manning and you know John Elway, I was told this during the entire Tebow Denver run that Elway just did not buy into it at oh all. Yeah, he thought

very true. He thought it was a joke, but he knew there's a strong Christian community in Denver, and you know they'd be chanting Tebow. So John went out and said, we gotta we gotta bring in a headline band. And the undercard is overwhelmed, right, I mean call it. I'll tell you this. The second the Peyton Manning news broke, I texted Stubbe, who was pretty high up in that organization, and the reply text instant reply was bye bye Tim. It was not yeah, we got Peyton. It was like,

we solved this problem. Even if Peyton never plays it down for us. We don't have Tebow anymore. So you're you're absolutely right. So let me go back to a wild card for Aaron. AFC San Francisco's cap situation wouldn't allow Aaron, but the AFS version of that is Miami. And because Tua has a following and because he's been you know, kind of bounced around between the Deshaun Watson rumors and Ryan Fitzpatrick, you bring in Aaron, and Aaron looks at that and goes, I kind of left tackle Gasecki.

Two receivers, no state tax, single guy down with the water, and you bring in some and no dolphin fan complains about replacing Tuah. In fact, Tua Yeah probably doesn't go. You know, I don't know if it's possible, but they don't have a lot of dude. That's what I just keep thinking. San Francisco light is Miami. Yeah, I don't, And by the way, I don't. I don't believe the forty NAIs couldn't do it. Cap Wise, it would change the way they have to approach the next couple of years.

Cap Wise, you're still gonna pay Bosa, but you would lose some of those guys you could. You could do it, though. I think the problem is if you do it, but you think you kind of caught lightning in a bottle with party for the future you're hoping obviously the arm is okay, you don't know when. That's why Brady always made more sense to San Francisco to me, because it's

the perfect thing. We don't know what party's going to be in twenty three, but we'll just do a year of Brady and then we can go back to our model with quarterback on a rookie deal and build around him.

I think if you're the Niners, you asked Brady again, I think you let the dust settle, you know, for a while, it just makes too much sense now, especially party with the surgery being pushed back, which a is kind of sign like this whole he's going to be back at six months is not you know, written stone be its. It does push the timeline, you know already very very close best case scenario, and they won't know until they get in whether they have to do you know,

a complete Tommy John surgery. We're parsing terms, but the kind of surgery that would probably knock about for most or all of the year, or this one where they

think it'll be six months. And of course you never know if it's going to be what it was before, but you hope so so I think they call Brady again and if not, then I you know, you think about Aaron, but I think you're looking more like a Are you thinking about a Jacoby Prisette or an Andy Dalton or a Matt Ryan or someone as a hedge with Lance as you try to get him to a point where he can be you're looking to get more

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and the Jets makes some sense. Um, you know, it's got to be somebody who will step up and pay that money. So I think you put him in the same pool as probably the next guy you're going to ask me. So how about Dave, David Tepper, Frank Reich, Bad Division. Yeah, I'm thinking Jimmy goes there. So I would say Carolina for Derek Card It's a great call, but I'm gonna save it for Jimmy. How about Houston. You've got the car full circle situation there. Just throw it,

you know, let's throw it out there, all right. If you think Garoppolo is in Carolina, let me throw out the most enigmatic bizarre situation. Lamar Jackson, who's won seventy four percent of his games in a division now where Kenny Pickett looks semi viable, won seven of his last nine games that he played in substantial snaps. Burrows second third best quarterback in the league. Deshaun Watson should be at least you know, he's talented. Where's Lamar Jackson gonna

end up? Weird man? Yeah and yeah, I immediately start thinking about Miami and Lamar, you know, hometown and the two kind of elephant of the room with the concussions, and you know what Mike McDaniel, who's a genius, especially in the running game, but you know, really great at you know, coming up with game plans and call it plays. What could you do with Lamar? And they've already done in Baltimore. Greg Roman has done some great things with them.

But um, you know, I wonder about things like that. You know, probably he'll get tagged probably he'll be gone for part of the off season program and then he'll just come sign the tag and play a year, is my guests, But um, you know that could go a lot of different ways. Let's say Miami, all right, so lamar Miami. You sound like you have car going to the Jets. Um, my guests, No, no, I have I

have Rogers. Okay, Roger for the Jets. Derek Carrware. We said Houston, but now I'm starting to rethink this, But don't you think Houston's got to step up and do something to signal to their fan base after all this crap, the Easter b and the end of the Watson era and firing two coaches, three coaches in a row, two after one year, and Davis Webb is going to be the excuse me, Davis Webb now the quarterbacks coach of

the Broncos. Very happy for Davis Mills is going to be the guy, which is kind of like, really, I feel like, if you're the Texans, you better do something now. Maybe it's just Rice Young and away way we go, right, but I don't know. I feel like I also think the Titans are in this conversation somehow, and I've tried to wrap my head around Derek Carron, Mike Vrabel a great fit. Maybe not, but I think teams like the

Titans are poking around there too. As much as I love the NFL, I scaled back on covering the combine about four years ago. I just didn't think. I've always said that the NFL, I talk about sixty five, I don't watch the Pro Bowl, and increasingly I think the combines a little bit of a time waster. I don't

think it has the influence. So when Matt Lafleur announces we're just not taking our coaches to it, and you're getting some pushback where you know, people are saying it's a little bit of an uncomfortable meat market, I think we've overvalued the combine. I really do. I honestly, if I have four years of game tape, the idea, yeah, you're going to come in finally tuned, you're basically what you're basically doing. It's it's like an SAT you're just

studying for a singular test. It doesn't mean you're brilliant. Some people are just really good test takers. Yeah, and it's it's not a very good place for the player who already is being told where he has to play. I mean, I you know, I'm very like, you know, I'm the son of union side labor lawyers, so forgive me, Like I think this notion that they they'll do anything.

You know. My favorite combined story is when Dion tells the story where some team the Giants wanted him to take like this you know, three hour personality test that they give, and he looked at them and he said, where do you guys pick? And they were like ten, and he goes, I'll be gone by that. It just walked out. You know, very two players have the ability

to trade it that way. But I never went to the combat when I was at Sports Illustrated all those years because I it did seem like a meat market, gross weird thing to me. I just and I agree, it's outside them portant. So then I finally started going when I went to Yahoo and Oh seven and I realized, oh, it's spring break for coaches and talent evaluators, so the access is incredible. So I kind of, you know, I marginalized the combining part of it, and you could see

that on TV if you want. But like I'm there to you know, be in the same bars and restaurants, hotels with all the people I cover and people I want to meet, and we're new acquaintances with and you know, that's why I go. But I can understand how coaches would at some point think we're not necessarily getting great work done. It's great the gms are meet with agents, meet with each other, laying the foundation for trades and moves, and obviously talent evaluators like to talk to these guys

and all that. I do think you need a reward, the coaches and the scouts and as such, because we live in this world where it's so serious all the time. And even the Super Bowl, you know, it's not like Andy Reid, there was some great outlet for him that night. He got to celebrate. You know, I was there at the Chief's victory party. But like, I feel like we need a week where we could all just you know,

like pass each other on the street. When McVeigh, who kind of was the pioneer of this newest movement, when McVeigh decided, you know, I don't want to go to combine. I've got new coaches. I'd rather but work. And then last year, after he won the Super Bowl, and the

Combine was back. They decided not to go, and I remember saying to Sean, I'd go, dude, isn't the whole point of winning the Super Bowl getting to like strut around Indy first seven days that have everyone come up to you and be like, hey, guys, you know that's awesome. I mean, I don't know, the to me has a lot of value that transcends the stupid reason for existence. And I also would say this because I've been on all sides as a media member before and after I

worked in NFL network. You have zero access at the Combine. They let fans, you know, go sit in you're watching TV. It's insane. Now, when I was an NFL network for eight years, I had full access and I could go to everybody's suite and see coaches at gms. It was awesome. But now that I no longer have that and back to the way it was, I wouldn't like, I guess you could go do group interviews with some of these guys.

It was interesting when it was like Matt Titano, you know, or certain polarizing people, but for the most part, like it's a TV show, so just you know, I don't think I think it fuels the overall I ridiculous lee high emphasis on the draft that's transformative when it really often isn't transformative. And you know, you've got a fifty percent hit rate essentially in the first round even and yet we operate in this realm where a you know,

the thirteenth overall pick is so sacred. And that's why I've enjoyed seeing teams like the Rams just go, you know what, screw that, We're gonna go get a guy. And you mentioned there's a new wave of gms and they're trading and they're getting after it, and that's all good. And the draft can be transformative if you draft Peyton Manning.

But you know, one pick later, the Chargers took Ryan Leaf and by the way, I love Ryan saw it the super Bowl, incredible story, doing great, But that was transformative at the time too, and not the transformation the Chargers were looking for, right, Mike Silver at the volume and this is in about what is it March fifteenth

is when it really ramps up. So we got about two and a half weeks and it really really ramps up now just because March fifteenth, you can, I guess officially start talking, but our teams for the next two weeks talking. Yeah, of course, it's weird. Like there used to just be like, okay, ready to set go go, and then it would be like, hey, i made my decision at twelve oh one, I've considered all my options carefully. I've had my agent call that team and we hammered

out a deal. So like that's felt weird. So then they're like, okay, five five five, it's ready to set go. But for forty eight hours before that, we're gonna do legal tampering where you can talk but you can't technically agree. Well, we know what that means. People are agree and so I mean whatever, of course people are going to talk. And the combine's a convenient place for you know, if a GM's meeting with an agent at the combine and the agent's got a couple of players on that GMS team, like, oh,

what were you meeting about? Oh, we were just meeting to talk about, you know, the two clients that agent has on our team, even though you could be talking about prospective other people that the agent represents. So it's you know, none of it bugs me that much. I mean, I think I just don't even believe in tampering, like, go ahead and tamper. Look at the NSA by the way, like that's that's real tampering about and to the player's benefit.

But you know, go ahead and tamper, Like if you can convince Aaron Rodd, if you know, you could convince George Kittle. He hasn't want to play for Kyle Shanahan anymore. He wants to demand a trade to the Titans and be part of Mike Rabel's team. If you can pull that off and get that to happen and actually get them traded to your team, cool, go ahead, Like tampering is weird, Like they're not possessions, They're just dude who

play for you for money. Yeah, so I believe, like go ahead, just you know, like we live in this weird world where like you can't tamper, havn't forbid, it's bad form. If you sign a guy off someone else's practice squad, the GM might get mad at like whatever. Band. Just everyone's trying to win the Super Bowl. Like if you could get someone to sign with you or by giving them more money, there's a salary cat I say, just turn it loose and then have a day when

the transactions started. I didn't ask you this, but it is something I've thought about. So as justin fields, it's hard to lose ten games in a row in the NFL. I mean, Houston took the Chiefs to overtime, okay, and they're in a complete utter rebuilt. So when the Bears lose ten straight, of which I think, justin fields played in eight and two years in, not a ton of improvement.

And this GM and this coach didn't draft him, and there have been flashes of brilliance, but two years in he's completing not enough throws, not a ton of growth. And John Middlcoff said something as a former scout the other day on the volume, and he said, if you have Bryce Young graded higher than him, we'll reset the clock, then go draft Bryce Young. It's like Kyler and Josh Rosen. Yeah. So I covered the opener. By the way, at Soldier Field, the Bears beat the Nighters. So that made a lot

of sense, you know, down the road. You know, I just think we have to be careful, like we know what you think. But I guess I need to do a little reporting, hopefully in Indy about what the Bears think because um, we think we thought in mid November that quarterback class sucked, but Justin Fields is the shining star of it. And then Trevor Lawrence elevated, you know from that point on, and now we would say, Okay, Trevor Lawrence is the guy in that class. You know,

we haven't seen Lance Essentially, Za Wilson's a bust. Yeah, you know Mac Jones, Mak Wilson's a bus. Mac Jones is Okay, Davis Mills, you know, maybe we'll see Kyle Trask Um Kellen Mon's already on new team. You know, it's it's um. So I would be curious to see what the Bears think because I think the kids like insanely talented, and when there's the same talent, I'm always on the side of figuring out Man the Bills, Josh Allen said, And you know what, they got Brian Dave

Ball and they figured it out. Steve Young was I mean, I covered Steve Young back in eighty nine, two and forty nine or fans were up in arms and he can't read defense is all he does is run around, And I was like, figure it out. You know that Mike Shanahan game him and he was throwing six touchdowns at the Super Bowl, and uh, he's a first ballot Hall of Famer. So I feel like my view is, see if you can make that killer. And you know, Bryce Young's kind of a smaller guy. It's not like

it's like Peyton Manning's sitting there. You know, it's ah, you know, Kyler's smaller guy has obviously proven to be better than Josh Rosen. But I agree with that philosophically. I just don't know what the Bears really think of Justin Fields and those quarterbacks in the draft, but it's but it's a fair way to think. Yeah, I think works in Justin Field's favor. He's a big, strong athlete.

Bryce is smaller, and historically Northern teams that play outside Flacco, Big Ben, even Jay Cutler's arm, you want a strong arm quarterback Stafford to throw that ball cuts through a Chicago Green Bay winter and r and Bryce Young's a California kid, one hundred eighty eight pounds. He doesn't look like you'd want. You want your Bear quarterback to throw

like Cutler or look like McMahon or Justin Fields. Seriously, Yeah, and and look I one of my favorite moments of the season is that clip where Mike McDaniel says, stop it. You know what, Justin Fields says, run for another long game right by his sideline and he's just gonna stop it. Like it's still moralizing. And you know, he's a he's an insanely good runner, you know, Like there's a lot

of good running quarterbacks. Josh Allen's really good. Lamar is amazing, but this guy's, you know, got a different gear and he's a good thrower and he's intelligent. He has some bad habits in college. He's lost a lot of games. They didn't have a lot around him. But if you if you're smart and you have a good arm, and you're that talented at one thing, I would love to see that. I'm trying to make it work. Yeah, I'm still kind of a sixty forty. It's gonna work. I

do think they need to chase Claypool and Mooney. I think they need another receiver, and I think they'll double down on their interior old line a little bit. But yeah, I mean, he's what you worry about is that. And Cam Newton had some of this, Zach Wilson had some of this, and so did Sam Darnold, where their YouTube quarterbacks you see these unbelod lievable glimpses of brilliance and then it's like Sam Darnold passer ratings eighty one, right, like like and and well, well, Cam, well Cam was

different than that. Yeah, Cam beaten down. He was stamp right, you know, went to the super Bowl. But he was If you watched a Carolina game, a four game stretch, you got variations of Cam. You got bad mechanics, moody, you know, missing McCaffrey in the flat by eight yards.

Cam was like young Ben. You know, Ben was kind of like that, I'll just extend to play and I'm big and strong and guys will bounce off me and you know, I'll find a way and uh yeah, and and honestly, Josh Allen started out, Yes, it was they weren't very good, and he was like, I'm big and strong, you know. By the way, Josh Allen still got another level to get through. I mean he's he's a great player.

I think Borrow and Patrick Gard Oh no, Josh. Josh has some YouTube qualities where if you put his six best plays of the game up, it's the most amazing stuff you've ever seen. But you watch entire Bills games, he makes them really especially in like the red zone. He makes bad decisions a lot. And part of that, in fairness, is they've put a lot on him. Obviously, getting Diggs was a game changer, but you know they have not had that. You know, they haven't had anyone

as good as Joe Mixon. You know they haven't had you know, they haven't had the speed right of Tyreek kill style. So you know it's never perfect. But I would like to see a you know a little bit more potency in that Bill's running game. You can't have everything. I also would have loved to see the Bills down the stretch with a healthy von Miller because they got him for a reason, and then you know, when you didn't have him, that was a big Mike Silver, my man,

great talk in NFL. Going to be a busy next six weeks. It starts in about two weeks NFL free agency mid March. Good good seeing you, Thanks and we'll have we'll get some movers and shakers on open Mic on the volume for your watching, viewing and listening and joy. Thanks man the volume. Make sure to check out the dram On Green Show. I brought Draymond Green into the vall because one of the more entertaining voices in sports, unique perspective understands behind the rope. Also chops up with

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