Looking Ahead to the 2022 NFL Season with Andrew Brandt

he's like a social media guy. Now he's got all this. I do kind of buy it, although that would be bad for the Mass Singer if that secret got out, be good for them. If he actually was on the show, I'm kind of buying that. All the loss a tough reason to miss camp. I liked it better when he was just paid leave, I'm going on vacation. I don't like it as much if he was like, oh, I took ten days off to go on the Masked Singer. Yeah, yeah, I know. But the whole thing is just shady. I

wish you would just say what it is. Because the team said it was pre planned that Tom Brady was gonna miss eleven days of practice. But I'm not buying the vacation story, which NFL player, Even if you are Tom Brady decides to take a vacation in August, you just you don't do that. But the craziest Tom Brady news that broke even after that, is when Dana White,

did you see this? I worked to put that deal together for Brady and Grown to come to the Raiders, and it was almost a done deal, and at the last minute, Gruden blew the deal up and said that he didn't want him, and he broke loose. It was crazy and and and Brady was already looking at houses and it wasn't being Jeff. The Gronk was coming. So last they just would have had Brady and Gronk the year that the Bucks won the Super Bowl, except Bruden blew the deal. All the whole thing is so shady.

But gron confirmed it, confirmed it. And what I want to know is that was one of the best kept secrets in all of the NFL, because you know, no one in the media reported that ever. I know, like the Raiders at one point, I think we're definitely listed as a team before he went to Tampa. So cheers. I guess to all the insiders at the Raiders and Brady's camp because I never got leaked to my knowledge. And then I love Dana White just exposing it all casually.

I watched that clip a hundred times. I couldn't believe, Like, that's the guy I think I want to go to dinner with because I feel like he'll tell you everything because he just doesn't care. Oh that's a great. Okay, Let's let's play this game. You can pick three people in pro sports. Let's say you can sit and have a drink with, go to dinner with. Dana White's one

of yours. Give me two others. Dana White for sure. Yeah, because like I said, I feel like Dana White will just tell you stuff because like the kids filter, I think he's in that like I don't really care territory, what you think if I break secrets another one? You know, I would have said Jeter up until the captain came out, And now I feel like I know too much. I'm gonna tee up, you know what. I I kind of want to maybe man tie tail because I want to

talk more about what we're seeing on Netflix. And then uh yeah, and then I mean selfishly my favorite boxer of all time. He's no longer here. I would have picked because we didn't say alive or dead. I would have picked the Turro Gaddy, one of my favorite fighters of all time, and I would have loved to have gotten some stories from him. Okay, I want to throw one another name in the ring. How about Antonio Brown. We talked a lot about him last week. But wouldn't

he be a good dinner date? I think so. You definitely would be entertained, you know, But I think I think Dana White is definitely on my is my number one right now, just because man, what a bomb he drop cash? Really crazy crazy. No, that was good. You mentioned the Man Tito doc. It is so good. I was texting you this weekend. You've got to watch it because I I was flabbergasted watching how it played out.

And I've got a couple issues with the doc, but I want to save that for our Unleashed segment that's coming up. But you know, we've got a really good guest this week. Are you excited for this one? Oh? Yeah, no, I'm ready. Well, it's because we're really start digging into the football. So I'm ready. Yeah, And this is the guy you want to talk to. It's Andrew Brandt. He's seen it all. He's the sports illustrated writer, former Green

Bay Packers, exact NFL business analyst. It's gonna be great to pick his brain leading up to the season, especially with stuff that have to do with salary cap and contracts and free agents still, and boy, we got a lot to get with him on that. But I'm just glad that you're sitting in your seat. I'm the one who was racing here after my baby's doctor appointment, but you were the one with the busier weekend. Tell me about the charity golf tournament. Tell me all about that.

Who do you see there? Yeah, I'm paying for it today because you know, weekend awake golfing. My wife's like these two kids, Now, what's your name on it? Ready waiting for you. You can't be hungover with kids. I've learned that. Oh yeah it was. It was in Detroit. It was the j R. L A, the Jalen Rose Leadership Academy. You know, he built the school literally, Like he's accomplished so much in his playing career, in his post playing career, and this is arguably one of his

greatest accomplishments. So I got invited through an old friend, fellow Nick fan, Ben Lyons and Olivia. I feel like I failed you. I feel like I failed you on something because you know, we're doing this show and like and you know you're you're a real journalist and I'm trying to keep up. I had a moment to do some journalism and I completely choked. They were introducing all the celebrities that were playing in the golf event. It was at Detroit Country Club, Beautiful Club, and it's like,

you know, Calvin Johnson, and there's Droit Bell. I don't know if you remember Joy Bell, one of the last fullbacks. I actually remember all these great like Detroit Midwestern legends in Houston. So we had some knicks love and they called me up and you go shake hands with Jalen Rose, and Jalen, being who he is and being super savvy, sees me smiles, which some He's like, hey, Scott Perry's here playing. We're about to introduce him next, and I

walked away. I'm like, oh, so they introduced Scott Perry. I've met him, like once or twice comes out saying little everyone. And I shook hands at Scott Perry and I'm looking. I'm like, this is my moment. I could ask him right now, what's going on for real with Donovan Mitchell? And I looked him in the eyes and I went, how you doing? Mr Perry? Get to see you? And I put my head down. I looked at my shoes and he kept it moving. I mean, he wasn't gonna tell me anything. Anyway. I could have asked a

hard question. We sent you out there. I mean, if you got per diem, I'd be really mad because then you'd be actually working. You can't get per diem from bet MGM, did you? No? I did not. Bet MGM was a prominent sponsor there, especially at the night before party. Was really cool at the top golf sweep. But yeah, I I journalistically, I failed you, and I feel bad. But yeah, I couldn't sneak in any question. I just I just didn't feel like it was appropriate, and I

got I got nervous. I choked. I'll tell you what you do in that situation. You kind of you you chuck me up and then you ask, but then you make it sound like, you know, you're not gonna do anything with this information, and then you get on the mic and that's when you say an unnamed source in the front office told me that's what you did, so you don't have to out him. You know. It was even so bad every time he like looked at his phone, I was kind of I was sidling up. I just

wanted to be like, who's who's texting you? Is that is that Danny Age? Is that Leon wrote? Who who just emailed you? What's going on? Is that Fournier? So failed you? But it was all in all great event. Came in third place on the golf. It's hard to imagine that Calvin Johnson was a wide receiver. It's insane. He's like one of the biggest human beings I've ever seen. I shook his hand and like I think my hand like went up to like his thinking it's like my

forearm just huge, dude. And yeah, I don't think anyone could have stopped him in the red zone. That would have been a good picture. Your hands side by side, that would have been a good picture. Yeah. Well, I'm going back up to Detroit next week for another golf tournament, which might cost me my marriage and Calvin Johnson is slated to play so maybe I'll do that picture next week and ask him to come on the show. I'd love to have him on the show. Oh that I

already did. I did so joistically, I failed you. But podcast sidekick wise, I definitely invited a lot of people on the podcast. There you go, There you go. Well, speaking of your New York fandom and Scott Perry and all that, but I always wonder this about people from New York. And first of all, as someone who grew up in the midwest, New York to me is just like I'm so confused with the Burroughs. I'm so confused

with all of the schools there. There's like a million I don't want to say lower tier schools, but you know what I mean, like Division two, Division three schools. But like your college football fandom probably doesn't run too deep. And we are coming up on week zero, the biggest game of course being Northwestern in Nebraska. They're playing in Ireland. I don't really understand that that could have been my unleashed but I want to still talk about man titeo.

But college football does it mean much to you? Do you care I do care. Ironically, I definitely care from a sports gambling perspective. I think it's it's probably even more enjoyable than maybe throwing a few bets than the NFL, because it truly is madness. But I'm speaking to all the New York City kids. It is tough when it comes to college sports. Even with basketball. St. John's was sort of okay when I was coming up, but in the nineties, Rutgers wasn't quite good yet. Syracuse like six

hours away. I feel like I'm closer to Ohio State than Syracuse. Distance was so yeah. I I I've always said my collegiate sports teams are up for grabs. I'm a free agent. I never took to the USC or u c l A when I was in l A sou And obviously my in laws are trying to get me to Ohio State. And maybe that's what I just

do because I live here now. But it's really hard to really care about college sports outside just being a sportsman because I have no loyalty zero and I didn't really go to a big time college or any college. Yeah you didn't go to any college. I did go to a community college for like a year, I was burned. I moved to l A when I was nineteen. I was done nineteen. Hey, okay, this actually lends itself exactly

to my Entourage question. You know, every week for those who are just tuning in, I am watching Entourage for the first time and loving it, absolutely loving it. And I think I'm watching with a little bit more interest because I have you to talk to every week and I can ask you all the behind the scenes stuff, which is a lot of fun. So my first question is, now that I'm getting deeper and more invested in the show, did you audition? Did you know these guys before the show?

I did not. I did not know any of them. I was twenty three years old. I was bouncing around from show to show. I met Kevin Dillon at one of the early I auditioned like twenty five times. I met him at one of the early auditions, and I was a fan of his from you know, Platoon and The Doors. Kevin Dillon has been acting since he was seventeen. Obviously,

his brother Matt Dillon tremendous actor. So no, I just it was the old process of the old way it was done, and it all leads up to this network test in front of HBO, and I kind of almost choked. It actually was Mark Wahlberg who snapped me out of it. I was I did my first run of auditions in front of the network and that wasn't very good. And he came out and motioned for me. I had never met Wahlberg at this point, and he whispered. He was like, I just want to let you know you're kind of

blowing it right now. And I'm like I am. He's like yeah, like you know that moment where everyone says, this is your time, this is your time. So it was. It was the greatest wake up call and and luckily I ended up getting the part. No, I didn't know any of those guys. That's a great story. Oh my god. Did you ever tell him how much that meant to you? Oh yeah, And he claims that He's like, I did I did that and like, you know, you don't act like you He's like no, He's like he just thought

I was really nervous. So he's saying he didn't want to see me lose out because I was just nervous. Oh god, Oh that's great. Okay, I have another question. When they're smoking weed on the show, are they actually smoking weed? I am the perfect person to answer this question because it was my character who was always smoking or rolling the weed, you know, whenever there's a scene not Sometimes it's written in that we're smoking. Sometimes it's not.

But all actors, even if you're not, even if you don't have a lot of lines, you ask for like business, meaning like give me an activity while I'm here, so I'm not just standing here waiting for these guys to talk. My move was always I'm gonna smoke a joint or light or roll a blunt or something. So no, you don't smoke real weed on the show because a lot of times those scenes are at like seven thirty in the morning and you have a whole fifteen hour day

ahead of view. There is this herbal tobacco which is not harmful, so they say, obviously it does not get you stone, but it looks green and it burns exactly like we does. So herbal tobacco. Okay, that that's good to know. So anytime you see that most of the time, I mean all of the time, most of the time on the record. Okay. Another question, why is your character named Turtle? I don't think that's been told yet as never explained, never explained. I used to always ask Doug

Allen in the early years. My question was always what's Turtle's real name? And he always said, well, we'll reveal it in season eight. I don't know yet, and probably thinking we never get to season eight. We did get the season eight, so his name, his real name, does come out. I want room before you never explained why Turtle, but I did forget to tell Levi on Bell a

story that's connected to Entourage and Adrian Peterson. Adrian Peterson, as you will see, did a cameo in Entourage playing himself, and I met him and I walked up and very very nice guy and shook his hand, and it is like a vice gript. It is the firmest handshake I've ever encountered in my life. We have crew members, big burly teamsters and and grips with these big meat hook for hands. He was breaking hands left and right, and they want to warn Levian Bell like he you know

obviously you know he's strong, he's got hand. I mean, it was the firmst handshake. It actually hurt. I had to like, I had to like bite down not to like whimper. So anyway bigger than Calvin Johnson's handshake, not bigger, strongernger, just just hurt. It just hurt. Oh my god. Okay. In my last question, you should see my notes here on my phone as I'm watching Entourage, and keep in mind I'm usually giving the baby a bottle and typing this out. Do they really smoke weed? Exhausting? Okay, So

that's my Entourage questions for the week. Next week, all of more for you because I've got my long flight to London and I'm gonna download a bunch of episodes. I'm excited. All right, Okay, let's get to our unleash because I've got to talk about this out. He said, you're what one episode in of the man Tito Doc. Yeah, I'm like ten, I'm ten minutes into the episode two of the Netflix Dock and what do you think so far? You know, it's funny. Obviously we all know the story.

I remember it very well. But it just shows you how much your perception and memory changes thirteen years later, or have it. Like I remember in the moment it was this guy's in on it, what a fraud? I remember that being the story and I'm not saying that's what I believed, but I did remember not having sympathy, not as much sympathy for him on that end of it. I didn't know his grandmother passing was obviously real and devastating, but watching that first episode, I just felt bad for

the guy. You know. Yeah, And so here's the thing. The dead Spin article that broke it, and here's what the doc kind of left out. They implied initially that Manti was in on it, and they kind of glazed over that in the documentary. There wasn't the best reporting. It was amazing reporting because they got the scoop when everyone else just accepted it. And as people in the media, it was a great check, a great lesson to be, like, just don't assume everything is fact. In fact, I've heard

one person say, I forget it's a famous quote. They say, ah, even question your mother. Assume your own mother will lie to you. And if you're a good reporter, and this everyone accepted. It was the storyline of the season. Of course, he was a Heisman finalist, went to the National Championship, all this, but Dead's been even had a quote in there that an unnamed source was sure that Manti was in on it and that just that's just you can't do that. You can't do it. And a lot of

people ran with that. And then you can tell so the times. You know, this was ten years ago on the Katie Kirk special and she asked are you gay? And you know, he's laughing like, no, no, I'm I'm not, you know, definitely not. And he's sitting there with his parents and it's so awkward and it's so dated because I don't think that question would be asked now. No, And I'm sorry I laughed at that statement that you made. The reason why I'm laughing is an unnamed source said

that they're eighty procedure. I'm just reminded of Paul Rutting an anchor man when he's like sixty of the time it works every time. Oh my gosh, that's such a misleading thing. Yeah, I definitely don't know if that question gets asked. Definitely in the second episode when they kind of pulled the hole where she pulled, you know, oh, like I'm still alive, when his girlfriend was saying, no, I'm still alive. I'm on the run. That's so I'm like, you gotta all right, what's going on here? You gotta

know now something's badly wrong. So yeah, I mean, it's just such a joke, and I think it's it's really sad, because, no doubt about it, Man, Tito is a victim in this. And anyone who thinks, oh, come on, you never met her, blah blah, keep in mind this kid. He's the oldest of seven kids from an island in a very tight knit Latter Day Saints community where everything was church and football. They were very poor. He couldn't fly to California go

meet this girl. Stanford because it's a private school. Never had to release the records that a student of that name even went there, because remember he said she was from Stanford, like all this stuff. I feel so badly from Antito in this, and I think his career was drastically affected, and I wish he could sue, honestly, but I don't think they could prove that his draft stock tumbled so much because of this. But you certainly could look at his performance in the National Championship Game and

you're gonna get this. I don't want to spoil too much, but just as you get to this part of the story is a lot happens right before this National Championship game, and it just so clearly affects him on the field, which then so clearly affected his draft. It's just it's horrible, And honestly, I think the documentary because they wanted to get the other side of the cat fisher Ranaya Tuyasa Sopo,

who was now a transgender woman. They wanted to get her take, and you know, I bet they promised kind of a would pro quo, We'll we'll tell your side of the story here and be fair. But just as I was watching it, I think they went a little easy on Rhania now Nya, because I just think it's criminal what this person did to Manteo and and his family, and he just fell so prey to this. And that's my take. I'm standing behind it. I felt so angry watching it, so I'm curious, as you keep going what

you think I just was. I do remember too, when he was thinking about coming out junior year and to go in the NFL draft. Watching the documentary now, I was like, oh, if you just went pro after your June, you know, his whole life would have been And you know he is married now with a kid, and he made a couple of stops in the NFL. I believe last year he didn't play anywhere. I think twenty I

think he was with the Chargers. But oh, it's just I was so sick watching this that, you know, regardless of Rhania now Naya's journey and you know, all of that is fantastic, and I'm so glad that Manti has forgiveness in his heart. It just so it makes me so mad that he was such a victim and so many people made fun of him, ridiculed him, and that he lost millions because of what this person did to him, and that he was too trusting and really just naive.

He's just a naive, unworldly kid, to be honest. And oh, it is such a good documentary. Though I was gripped. I'm finishing it tonight. Okay, all right, well that was a lot of fun. Let's go ahead and get to our interview. Let's bring in Andrew Brand. He's a former executive for the Green Bay Packers a professor of law rights for SI dot com. Andrew Brand, thanks so much for being here. Good to be with you, guys. Enjoyed our chat before we came on here, Yeah, we did. Yes, absolutely.

Before the pod. Yeah, I've got to tell you. For those who don't know, and Andrew was with the Green Bay Packers and my grandfather was there at the same time. I'm Bob Harlan, and you know booking guests. Andrew is way above my pay grade on this show. So I was really excited to see you coming on, and I told my grandfather you were coming on, and here's what

he had to say. He said, you are highly, highly intelligent, and you did so much good in regards to cap space, especially with the Green Bay Packers, so much so that he always wanted you to speak at the annual shareholders meeting. He thought it was great for the fans to hear what you had to say. And he always invited you to speak to the quarterly board members meetings because he wanted to make sure that everyone heard from your mouth all the hard work you were doing. But he just

had the best things to say about you. That's form that warns my heart, Olivia, because he's a he's a mentor of mine. He is someone that you come across so many people in your life and career they're really leave an effect, and he's certainly one. There's a saying out there. I think it's by Mark Twain. It's not what you say, it's how you make people feel. And Bob Harlan, the president of the Packers while I was there,

really made people feel well. He made people feel good about their interactions with him, but about the team, and that is an underrated skill that he was so good at. Bob Harlan just making people feel like that was a nice interaction. He represents the team well. He's a sweetheart of a guy. And his wife, Madelene. I mean, they were just wonderful ambassadors for the team and still are and they were so good to me and my family, Madeline to my wife, and it just really it's so

nice to hear that because I have similar feelings. So back at him. Oh man, that's a good story, you know, so true as well. I mentioned earlier you handled a lot of cap space and negotiations with players in front office, and you were kind of the go between for a

long time with the Packers. And I'm curious as you look at a team like the Browns, who obviously Deshaun Watson was just served his eleven game suspension five million bucks, and the Browns have some cap space, and as I'm looking at it, and Jacoby Brissette is a capable quarterback and you know, a well liked guy on the team, And do they look at what they're investing already at the quarterback position, knowing that they still have about forty

million they have to pay wattson this year, They're still paying for the Baker Mayfield trade. Could you see them potentially bringing in someone like Jimmy Garoppolo, who's worth a lot of money and getting paid a lot of money this year, but to take advantage of little cap space bring him in and have them be a placeholder for eleven games? Or is Jimmy g above that and probably wouldn't even be interested. I don't think that's going to happen.

There's so much unpack with what you asked, Olivia, because the Browns have become the story of the off season with what they've done. I guess I'll start here. They gave the biggest contract, the best contract player wise, in the history of the sport to a guy that's now suspended for eleven games and accused of this pattern behavior over seventeen months where he's seeking sex in lieu massage

that can resonate with people. I don't understand their cap management because they have and had the most cap space in the NFL, yet they continue to do contracts in a way that is pushing out cap. In other words, they do a big signing bonus which is peraded throughout the life of the contract, small salary, so they keep their their year one, year two cap numbers really low, and they backload cap into the future. But to me, if you've got all this cap space, why not use it?

Why not load it now so you can be flexible in the later term. And the I talked to someone high up in the organization and they sort of gave me this explanation, and I'll share this with people. They think the cap is gonna rise so much that the present value CAP is better now than it's going to later. It was a long detailed discussion because in my management of the cap for the packers, I tried to match

cash and cap as much as possible. So, in other words, if I was going to give someone twenty million in year one cash, I would try to get the cap numbers close to twenty million as possible. Because we had the cap he we created. That was hard work to do it, and the Browns are the opposite strategy. They're like, well, let's just keep loading up cap Like for what Now do I think it's for Jimmy Garoppolo. I don't. I

don't because two things. Number one, they signed Berset, and number two, this is not news that Deshaun Watson's going away. When they signed Deshaun Watson, there's no way in God's green Earth they thought he'd be playing week one. Come on, this has been out there for a year in reporting about what he's done. So I'm just saying, Jimmy Garoppolo has been on the market for six months. They're not just going to decide, oh, yeah, now we should get

Tommy Garoppolo. No, I just think they've gone with Brissette. They like Brissette, and there's no Garoppolo on the picture on the horizon for the Browns. On the Garoppolo question, Olivia, I think this is a really tough one because he's scheduled to make twenty four million dollars, and the chance of him making twenty four million is about the same as you or I making it from the It's just not going to happen. So the question becomes does he

take a financial haircut and stay. Does he take a financial haircut to go somewhere else or do they just release him and then he goes to zero and signs whatever he can as a third string quarterback somewhere. So I don't know why this guy has become unwanted the way he has. I understand there's an injury question with his shoulder, but this is one of the stories I just can't really figure out. Jimmy Garoppolo as a Packer fan. I knowbod he's done to us, Yet he has no market.

He has no market. If he had a market, he'd be long gone by now. You know you're talking about quarterbacks. We had a lot of quarterbacks jump into new situations this year. Russell Wilson, Matt Ryan, Carson, Wentz, Baker Mayfield we mentioned earlier. And you know Stafford did the same thing last year, won a Super Bowl. So of this kind of rotation of quarterbacks this year in the NFL, is there one that sticks out to you that maybe we could see another Super Bowl champions similar to Stafford

with the Rams. Well, I'm gonna show my bias and Olivia's bias here because I think the best quarterback situation is the fact Aaron Rodgers didn't leave the Packers, and I think they're gonna be really good despite losing Adams. But I think everyone's gonna point to Wilson because you know, this is a team that has already made defense and they're just bringing in that one aspect that they haven't had.

So we'll see what happens there. I think the real story the off season is another position, and that is wide receiver. I just mentioned Adams. This is the story to me because we see some positions continued to get devalued, and I'm looking at running back and I'm looking at tight end, and then we see the wide receiver position

having extraordinary jump in value. For business nerds like me, I find that fascinating because what's happened is teams like the Packers and Chiefs had said, you know what, we're just not going there, and Titans, we're just not going there. We're gonna take cap space and we're gonna take draft picks, and we're gonna go young and cheap at receiver. Yet you have teams like the Dolphins and the Raiders and the Eagles that are saying, we'll take that guy from you.

We'll pay them twenty five million year, which is way beyond what the market was. Market was like eighteen a year. We'll pay them twenty five million, and we're going to bank on our receiver eiver giving us extraordinary value only second to the quarterback. And we're going to find out, like here it is, two is going to tell us the value of receivers. We're gonna see what Brown brings the Eagles, Adams to the Raiders, Hill to the Dolphins versus the teams they left with draft, draft picks and

cap space. And I think we're gonna have a great evaluation. Do you pay that market for top receivers or do you go young and cheap and spend elsewhere. It'll be

interesting to see. Yeah, the Davante Adams signing set off trickle effect that the whole league had to play catch up, and similar bringing it back to Deshaun Watson a little bit, is that record deal of guaranteed money is now setting a precedent for someone else negotiating his own contract in that division, Lamar Jackson, and he's doing it with his mom and no agent. Have you ever been in that position dealing with a player directly and is that awkward

representing the team in that instance. Yes, I'm glad you asked that, because at the Packers, I'm an agent that came I switched sides, right, So according to agents, I went to the dark side and I went to the Packers. But there are players, you know, I mean, there are a lot of names, but like a Donald Driver, Mark Tusher, they would they would come to me and say, yeah, Andrew, you're cool. You know you're a former agent. Let's do it, you know, let's have it. And I'm like, yeah, this

will be fun, this will be cool. I'll tell you, Olivia, it was a bad experience. I had a lot of problems with it that I still to this day shake my head because negotiations are raw, you know, negotiations are personal. I'm telling a person who I'm friends with, they are not as valuable as they think they are. They don't mean as much to the team as the other players they're naming due to their teams. So players are very simple.

They're like, hey, Detroit or Alice or Denver or Philadelphia or Miami, they paid this guy X. I'm better than X. Pay me more than X. And I would say, you know, it's not that simple. And we're paying Brett twenty million and they're like, what do you mean And I'm like, well, he's one year from free agency. You're two years from They're like, they don't want to hear it. And I lost relationships. I lost friendships because they're always looking at me like, hey, why didn't he want to pay me?

You know? And then I got some deals and they were not great deals for the kid, for the players going forward, because the market would pass them by so long we did an answer your question is it's tough. It's tough on the Ravens. I know it's tough. I've been there, and you're dealing with human emotion. And my saying is when someone says it's not personal, it's business bus it's always personal. Now on Lamar specifically, you mentioned the Watson deal, I am just in sort of my world.

It's really important to see what impact the Watson deal has because there have been two deals since. Now you can say they're not the level of Watson or Jackson, but Derek Carr and Kyler Murray. Now, in both of those deals there's really good cash flow about a hundred million over three years. But there's no bells and whistles right, there's no full guarantees, there's no suspension forfeiture protection like in the Watson deal. So I'm really interested to see

if Lamar Jackson can get the full guarantee. We know he's gonna get a ton of money, but can you get the security that Watson got? Because if I'm Steve Baschatti, I'm gonna say, well, Murray didn't get it, Derek her didn't get it, and you know, Watson was an outlier because the Falcons want him in, the Saints want and if I'm Jackson and his mother, I'm like, that doesn't matter. This is the market. I have been better than Deshaun Watson.

I've been healthier than the Shaun Watson. I don't have the baggage of every you know what everyone's talking about about Deshaun Watson. So this one shaping up and we'll have you know, deadline spur action, will know in two weeks. You know something that's always puzzled me, and you're obviously the perfect person to ask this to. Uh the Rams.

We're talking about Stafford and their Super Bowl and it's just blue chip talent after blue chip talent almost to the point where you look at all these players and you say to yourself, even as a casual fan or a super fan, how on earth are they making the economics work along with all the draft picks that they're losing, Like, I really have a hard time even following out. You know, they get Allen Robinson, which is just just when you think they're done, they reload at wide receiver, which I

didn't think is possible. Is this just them being super aggressive, is going all in? Or is there really a rhythm to this that makes this possible? Yeah? A little cap one oh one for you, Jerry. I'm gonna ask, I'm gonna quiz you. Okay, ready. So Matthew Stafford got this deal, which is I'm shaking my head at this, this this restructure this offseason. He got a sixty million dollar bonus six oh sixty million, so his salary is only a million dollars. This is sort of what we talked about

with Watson. So here's the quiz. What is the cash that Stafford is getting this year? Is it one million dollars like on the books you mean? Or how much cash is it getting in two sixty one six? Do you one. Very good. Oh my god. Okay, now here's the second question. Five year deal, sixty million bonus, one million salary. What's the cap number? It's a million? How much is it one million? No? What's sixty divided by five? Go? You got me doing math? Oh my lord? Uh? Well

plus one million a year? You see to jump in on the plus one one. That's what I did, my big math. But I was so cash for Stafford is sixty one cap for Stafford is thirteen forty eight million. Cash over cap. Cash over cap is what people in the NFL talk about a lot. What's the cash over cap? So what is happening here is Stan Cronki is paying Stafford sixty one million dollars on a cap number of thirteen million. So there's a quick answer of how they

do it. They have a truly a billionaire owner that's able to use this cash over cap. I guess loophole in ways that some owners can't do it. And they're gonna pay the piper on Matthew Stafford's contract at some point. But while they're in this window of, as you say, acquiring all this top talent, they're using this Again, loophole is too strong a word. They're using this mechanism where they can load in these talented players with high bonus

low salary. Now again, if you're the Browns, I don't know why you're doing it because you got a ton of a ton of cap room. But this is how the Rams keep doing this year after year. And Alan Robinson actually is a friend, so we talked before we signed with the Rams, and they got him, you know, like I said, the market's going to five receiver. Got him for fifteen. So they are one of these teams able to get players for a little less. They got

it with Beckham last year too. Alan Roblin is one of my favorite wide receivers, and I'm not trying to hate on any of his previous quarterbacks. I just even in the fantasy football space, I used to always why can't look at the numbers he's putting up? Get just get him, get him a top quarterback. And I really do think he's a top three receiver anyway. I love Allen Robinson. Anything about Alan Jerry's that like you were

just asking me. He asked me that stuff too, And he's a real student of the business of sports, and that's how I got to know him, so you don't find any players that really are interested in this stuff. And you know one day he'll be an agent or will be a team executive. He's really great at that. So, Andrew, can you explain to people who don't understand the structure of the Packers is the one outlier in the NFL

with no owner. And as you talk about resources that the packers have, and of course, like I'm looking, I've got my stock hanging in my office right here. Of course, this piece of paper that means nothing, but that means a lot to fans, and just how ultimately that has come to be and how that helps revenue with the Green Bay Packers. It's funny you missed the stock and I bought some from my son's. But you know this, right, everyone you ask who's not a packer fan calls that

a worthless piece of paper. Right. You can't trade it, you can't sell it. Everyone who's a packer fan says, you know, that's my most valable procession. Like there's this wide range. But listen, we have what we're called in my day and your grandfather's day was the preservation Fund. I believe we called it. You know where we just we'd accumulate this profit and revenue and we just put in a fund to be used for paying players, putting

it back into the team. You know, we had no owner that's siphoning off money to use for US yacht, to use for other businesses, to use for his family's private jet, whatever it may be. Now, if you ask me, overall, I was happier without an owner. But there are things I missed. You know, when we went to owners meetings, they would sort of tap Bob and me on the head and like, yeah, good little Green Bay. You guys doing. You guys are great. You know you got bread, favor whatever.

You're the only non billionaires there. Yeah. I never felt like we were at the same kind of respect level that Jerry Jones or Robert Kraft or Jeffrey Lory. You know, it's just kind of this, oh, good old Green Bay. The other thing that, you know, you sometimes wonder with a billionaire owner if you could. You know, the league has a lot of politics, so sometimes you need something maybe little, and a billionaire owner would make a call and sort of get things done. And I do miss

some of that. But then I talked to colleagues around the league and they're say they're dealing with the negotiation that lasts for months. One day the owner gets impatient, walks in their office says, hey, get this deal done today, and then it's just terrible to try to negotiate a contract. So yes and no, there are a lot of advantages. But what you see going on in Green Bay now

is they've developed some land around their title town. They're using that preservation more fun to really expand real estate and to expand areas and entertainment district that they've never done before. And it's all good, you know, and you see the financials every year, it's extraordinary. The Packers are the representation of what the NFL owners are making. They've got these media deals yet to kick in. They've got a team friendly c b A with the players, and

of course the franchise values. So it's a great time to be working in the NFL right now. Sure, And if I can piggyback on that too with what your impression of the Rogers renegotiated contract is and how it is going to affect what the team has been able to do this offseason and what they're able to do moving forward, and just to make sure I get this all right, as people are listening to the original deal

was supposed to run through the three season. Packers and Rogers renegotiated so it would end it would be void after and let's see, fully guaranteed fifty nine and a half million next season forty nine and a half bish not guaranteed. So that doesn't leave much room to go get some shiny new toys for him. Huh m hmm. I have a different view of Aaron's contract, but I want to say this. First two years ago, when there was the noise about Aaron not coming back, I said,

no way in hell he's going anywhere. He's there, you know he Packers weren't doing anything. Man, Last year, I was right. Last year is completely wrong. I thought that it would be the end of Aaron in Green Bay, and of course he came back. I guess I'm gonna say I still believe, um this may be the swan song for Aaron, because you know, I was there for three years of Aaron as in Prentice, and we had him in the bullpen three years and then we brought

them out. I think that's probably what they're thinking for Jordan's love now. Aaron Science is three year deal, and as you said, Olivia, there's this weird part of it where it kicks in next year to fifty nine and a half million, But the fine print is that's an option, so the Packers have to exercise the option to kick in the fifty nine. So the way I look at it is a forty two million, one year deal in two and then we'll see about next year. I think

with Aaron Rodgers, listen, I'm a big fan. I know people think he's weird. I'm I got a lot of zen in my life, just like Aaron. You know, I've done Aguasca back in the day, so um. But I think it's for anyone to look at either the Packers going to Aaron or Aaron going back to the Packers as more than a year right now. I think that's hard to say. You know, the guy is year to year, I think, and I think the Packers have they're waiting quarterback.

Now it's gonna be three years, and what symmetry if it if it ends up being three years for Jordan as it was for Aaron, So let's revisit it later. But I'm looking at it a one year deal. Darry, have you done anyaguasca. I have not, but I'm also a big Aaron Rodgers fan, and uh yes, I will definitely try it. Yeah, I'm with it would be really sad if he does go, because that's his hard first of it's hard to see him in any other uniform. I don't know if he's retiring anytime, so I don't

know if there will be another um. Part of me like wishes it wouldn't be because I don't want to see that. But I also don't want him the player to go because I just end by watching him so much so I could see, like unless be so hard to keep emotions out. Like you said, the business and not personal thing is really sticking with me. That you said, there's got to be some negotiations from your past that you still think about. I imagine like or could have maybe off I would have just done this, or if

they would have just done that. There there if you don't have to say which, but there, I'm sure there are a few that stuck with you in your time, right well, those three years with both of the guys was I don't know. It was challenging, and I think I'm a better person from it because we draft Aaron and that whole story I've told before, but no one loked it. You know, everyone hated it, and Brett hated it, and the fans hated it, and the media hated it

and what are we doing? And they went through it again two years ago with love. But every week or month, I'm dealing with Brett's side, which is, hey, Andrew, you know what it's like coming in every week, every day and sitting with your replacement. That sucks. It's no light. And then I'm hearing from Aaron's camp, not him directly, but like, Andrew, are you ever gonna trade him? Like he's never gonna play there? Like what are you doing to him? Brett's never gonna retire, Like what are you doing?

Get rid of it? And and so I'm just trying to be polite and tactful and professional with both camps because we didn't know, you know, we didn't there's no plan, like, oh,

whatever it was, we're gonna play Aaron is. So it just got to a point where it became clear that Aaron was ready and Brett would stay in the off season down Mississippi those years and it was Aaron's team and We're like having guys like Greg Jennings and Donald Driver and Javon Walker come up to us and say, James Jones like, oh my god, like like this kid, Oh my god. And I'm like really like yeah, I mean Bret's great, but oh my god. Never seen an arm like this kid. And so it was clear we

were ready. And then Brett retired right, but then he wanted to unretired, and that was messy. And one thing about Aaron, even at a very young age, he had

an extraordinary ability to block out that noise. I mean, it was the number one story and sports not football, sports for a month and this kid's walking out to practice every day, and for a few of those practices, Brett's there, you know, Brett's back with his helmet and I'm like, oh my god, what we And you know, the thing is that what I tell young people all the time about who want to work in teams or cap or agents, I'm like, listen the numbers of the numbers.

What you're dealing with? His people? It's all people, right, Can you communicate? Can you deal with conflict? And when people when I talked to young people and they're telling me, well, I studied this cap and like screw that, Like, can you deal with conflict? Can you resolve conflict? And when you work for a team or you're an agent, you're dealing with a lot of conflict. People don't know what kind of things bubble up in a locker room of eighty players, and can you deal with that? I brought

in players for interventions. I brought in players that couldn't get along with coaches. I brought in coaches versus coaches. So these are the kind of things that you know when young people say they want to get into sports, I'm like, your people personally like study psychology. Yeah, it's it's a lot of that. Yeah, not not just eighty people, eighty millionaires sitting with their own entourages telling them they're

the best things and sliced bread. So, yeah, you got your work cut out for you, and you have so many great stories. We've got to get you back on here. Yeah, happy to do it. Happy to do it, guys. Well, thank you so much. You can follow him on Twitter at Andrew Brandt, check out his website Andrew dash brand dot com, and there you can get his Sunday seven newsletter. You're gonna want to see that and listen to his podcast called The Business of Sports. Andrew thanks so much

for being with us. Thanks Andrew, Thanks guys too soon. Ye all right, I'm very very excited about our next guests. Training camp consists of studying the lines and running Parlay's bet MGM gambling gurgle, Peter Andrew, welcome back, even though it's our first show to get the welcome back to Unleashed Buddy, It's great to be back. Sorry Live. I decided to wear my Niners gear. Little shade at you, that's all. I hate it. I like it. Also are

wearing jerseys to Lord knows, I got some. But before we get the football, Peters just went really really quick. Leon Edwards, how much did your phone blow up on Saturday night? It's crazy. So I was talking to someone about this the other day. It's not like another upset in the world where you know, painonon as Holly Home rounda Rousey, where it was a huge upset from the get go. This was after four rounds. I think usmon was minus four, completely dominating, and then all of a

suddenly on Edward's side of the head lights out. It was actually a bad result for us. So typically what you see is those big favorites losing are great results for the book. It was actually a bit of the opposite. So the parlays was great, but the singles, everybody was back in edwards. So we love to see it. We love to see Bettors come and take us for a little bit, but an amazing fight, and I think it's setting up a trilogy here, right, So look at the

number three coming soon. I'm sure I like it. Like Okay, we want to get to NFL futures specifically this week we want to focus on NFL awards for individuals, so it might be a good time to find some great odds on these before the regular season starts. You know, it's as we first look at m v P. I already saw at bet MGM the highest ticket and handle is Russell Wilson. What do you think he's the favorite here? Huh yeah. I think there's a little bit of bias

from our our friends in Colorado, one of our bigger states. Obviously, the movement there. I personally love justin Herbert, what that team has done. That offense is absolutely loaded. I think right now he's at plus a fifty. I think you look at Heckler, all of his wide receiver weapons, the team, the defense looks really good this year. I know that doesn't really affect him, but I think they are going to be a real force. I know you guys talked

about it last week a little bit. Uh. I think split in terms of what you like in the a f C West, But really really do think charges not only have Herbert come out m v P, but it actually come out of the a f C and then to the Super Bowl. I like that a plus eight fifty. Yeah, And when I said Wilson was a favorite, he's not the favorite at BEDMGF. He's plus fourteen hundred to an m v P. But fans certainly love him. Those in

Colorado certainly love him. Josh Allen at plus seven hundred, Why did you not say Allan just a little bit too chalky. You gotta put a little bit of value on top of it. And I think Herbert across lots of quarterback stats was top three and everything yards, touchdowns, I mean, really efficient year. The sophomore slump was no slump for him at all. So I think he comes out absolutely fire in year three. I think the team

around him is really good. I think, you know, it's a tough division and there's gonna be some really tough games to be played, but I think he's gonna come out looking really good, especially start of the year. Yeah, I'm looking at all that. I mean, I got you just look at not getting sucked into the Jonathan Taylor at plus six thousand is going to be my biggest issue because I just look at the him. It's gonna happen one of these days. It's going to be a

non quarterback. It's going to happen. In my lifetime. It's going to I don't think it's quite the year though. The only way it happens is if Jonathan Taylor does what he did last year and replicates that, and you know, then you have to have the conversation. But I mean, you know this. Every year it's m v P as a quarterback Award o P O Y is the wide receiver, running back or tight end award. But you're right, it's got to happen at some point. Why not the shirt?

All right? Pure I'm gonna jump real quick because I'm trying to let my fandom get involved here. It's the worst mistake you can make sometimes with sports betting. Coach of the Year and we talked Olivia and I talked a lot about my New York Giants last year. Brian Davil plus fourteen and he's tied for the favorite for Coach of the Year. What's your feelings on coach, Because if you could do that, then you gotta go Giants over wins. I'm just saying, but I'd rather hear from

you for what it's worth. I love Giants over wins. I think Sa Kuan has a really good bounce back, healthy year. Dabble amazing. I'm a Ranger fan. He was at every Ranger playoff game. Was unbelievable. But there's but you've got to make the playoffs to be a Coach of the Year. That's what it comes down to. You have to have a winning record. You've got to be a playoff team. I think people are gonna look at Dan Campbell and say, oh my god, hard knocks run through the wall for this guy. If they end up

going for and thirteen, it means nothing. And even you know, even dabble, if they go eight and nine, that's probably not going to cut it. But for me, it's two clear options. It's Kevin O'Connell on the Vikings. I think they have a really really good team. I know you guys talked about it last week. They're they're probably the team in the North that looks the most complete. They have a monster in Justin Jefferson. They are going to

have a good year. And then it's John Harbough. So you've got a team that's potentially going from last place last year, a ton of injuries, ton of problems, and they're the favorite now to win their division. You gotta think anybody who bounces from forth to first and ends up cleaning up the division, they gotta get a look for Coach of the year. I think you just actually gave us a parlay dabble coach of the year, say Kwan, comeback player of the year at plus what is the

plus six? And Giants over wins. That's the connective tissue. Well, those three things will happen just a big Giants part. Sorry up now. Mortal lock for me is I think Quana is at over nine in something yards right now. I would absolutely hammer that over. We'll talk more about that in a couple of weeks, but I really really like that. I mean, he is their offense might not be Daniel Jones, but he's gonna be you know, I

think he's gonna be back to his normal self. Hopefully he stays healthy looking at Defensive Player of the Year, Myles Garrett in Cleveland is tied with t. J. Watt for the favorite at plus seven hundred and Micah Parsons, though is the highest ticket, highest handle, biggest liability over

at bet MGM. But Miles Garrett intrigues me because they play the Panthers September and that is when he will face off against his former quarterback Baker Mayfield, who left Cleveland obviously not on the best of terms, and there have been a lot of people to come out of that locker room with sore feelings about Baker Mayfield, and Myles Garrett just said he would love to get a couple of sacks on Baker Mayfield September eleven against the Panthers,

kicking off the season in that kind of fashion and with this kind of urgency. Do you like how Miles garrett season could start and potentially play out as he goes up some pretty good qbs in his own division. Yeah, if given that exactly that you have to put a little bit of a flyer or not really a flyer

who's the favorite. But put something on him, because if he comes out in sacks and four times does something ridiculous, that number is going to dramatically change in Week two and he might not have that same level of effort for the rest of the season. But if he comes out firing, you gotta you gotta put something on on Myles Garrett. I'm going I'll go a Homer pick with a Niner, but also you said him earlier. I'll start with Michael Parsons. He's nine to one right now. He

plays every position. Last year, he literally played the back corner nickel, he played on the line, he played obviously as a linebacker. He does everything. He probably has the most opportunity to go and show off with forced fumbles, interceptions, sacks. I mean he's going to be all over the field. I think that's a very very logical pick. But my Homer pick Nick Bosa and how complete that defense is

this year, especially their front seven. He's actually gonna get a lot of one on ones, which is scary to think. And at fourteen and one, that's a great price for a guy who's probably gonna get another fifteen and a half plus sacks. It's always a wild card, especially for

a lot of these defensive players, always getting hurt. But Micah Parsons, you know he's going to be there on the field, he's gonna ball out, and and Bosa does it every year, obviously towards a cl the one year, but he has been nothing but productive in the other two seasons that he's played for the Niners. So I think it's a pretty pretty good price. I think it's a little bit of a miss price, but fourteen one hundred bucks when you're fourteen hundred bucks not too bad.

So you mentioned Homer Pick and you said you listened to the show last week, which we do appreciate. How Appaul were you by my rant of the Seattle Seahawks for your lottery ticket to win the NFC West, Being that you're wearing a George Kittle jersey right now? How appalled by you? Remember I said lottery ticket, did not say sure thing. So I was driving. This is one

of those things I'll never forget now. I was driving to the p G a tour of Superstore, almost crashed the car when I heard you say take them to win. I unsubscribed the podcast and I realized subscribed. But no, I I like where the thought is. I think you have to take a fly like that. Every year they always talked about there's always one team that goes from fourth to first and makes the playoffs. Why not Seattle probably drew Lock. Maybe that's why. Yeah, it's interesting. I

think you're right in a sense. First of all, they're over in in wins, spot on, They're gonna play a lot of crappy teams. They're probably gonna steal one from either the Rams of the Niners of the Cardinals. That's gonna put them right there at four or five wins, and then they're gonna squeak out one or two. But yeah, I think there's a better chance of me making the NFL that than Seattle won in their division. So I know the way out in the limb I told I

told Olivia is too. If the whatever the odds are, that this happens, everyone better run and hide from me because you guys will never hear the end of that call. So but luckily, I think you guys are safe. Okay, awards wise, because there's so many though anything we could just kind of narrow it down here. We went over the big ones. Is there anything else that sticks out

to you award wise? Do you want to maybe just tell the listeners to just put a pin in for now as the odds are kind of all over the place. Offensive Player of the Year maybe yeah, O p O y. There's one player that sticks out to me, justin Jefferson. I think he's going to have another monster year. I think he's still something like something crazy. Again, the that is very much a skilled player award outside of quarterback.

I think he has every opportunity to be probably best wide receiver in the NFL, certainly in the top three already. That one sticks out to me. And then one that's a little bit weird is Comeback Player of the Year. I think true. Additionally, that's another quarterback heavy award. But you have Trubisky who might not be starting by week five or six. It might be Kenny Pickett by that point. You have Baker who is probably he is week one

starter officially. Janis Jamis is another actually great example of Michael Thomas. But the point I was gonna make is you got Christian McCaffrey, Michael Thomas, J K. Dobbins, Chase Young who's not coming back for week one, but we'll be back sooner than later. Those are a lot of guys that are huge, huge impact players going to make a difference on their team. For me, it's kind of

chalk with McCaffrey. If he comes back healthy and you know what he can do, obviously catching the ball out of the backfield and russing for twenty five times, that's the no brainer. But those things can fluctuate so much based off performance and who gets reinjured and whatnot. Did they say when Chase Young has happened? Announced officially when he's back yet they didn't really. Yeah, I think they've just said he's pretty doubtful for week one. I'd say

they slowly getting back probably three or four. But that's why his d p O I so high, right because right now I think Ben m has a plus four thousand. That might be another So you able to do a little, very very small Seahawks NFC West Chase Young Defensive Player of the Year. It's a couple of little dollars. I'll just say. I like action, Peter, I like I like long odds. Hey, if you want mortal locks, well listen,

if you want lottery tickets, you go to Jerry. If you want mortal locks at the Ravens preseason going, we'll give you a little bit of both. Every week. We try to give you a little balance to make some money or shoot for the stars too. I love it. I love Yeah. Last time Ravens lost a preseason game, I believe Lamar Jackson was going to be a freshman at Louisville. So a lot of fun there with that. Yeah, and then I almost lost my preseason mind watching Toodeau

get that awful cheap shot for the job. So this is why I love preseason. It's fun. We all get hype, but that that that in the Zach Wilson and I'm no Jets fan, those two things just make me say, just start the season already, just started. Start the season. Get the third string guys in. That's a don't put any starters and not worth it. I got so scared,

so scared. Well, we're gonna have a lot of fun talking to you throughout the season, Pete, because we can build some parlays, we can have running bets between the three of us. There's a lot of options here. So thanks so much for joining us and looking forward to catching up once the season begins. Yeah, I'm gonna have some fun this year. Thanks guys. All right, We're gonna have a lot of fun with Peter this year, now that I know I control him so much about his niners. Yeah,

I told you you'd like him. I love him. That's three episodes down and we haven't even begun to really talk about basketball yet. This is gonna be so fun, trying to broke all my energy out evenly. It's gonna get intense, though. I'm excited. And this week I'm fine London and you told me you've got a good London story, but you're gonna save it for when I've got boots on the ground, So I'm excited to hear that next week. Yeah, quick tease. Uh almost didn't marry my wife because of

what happened in London. It's not as dramatic as it sounds. But yeah, we'll talk about that next week and a whole lot more. Three episodes in. I'm still here. I'm not going anywhere, Olivia, Thank you so much. And uh yeah, guys, subscribe, do all that good stuff. We'll be back next week. See Yeah,