PMS 2.0 1298 - LIVE from the NFL Combine, Michael Lombardi & Brandon Beane

Speaker 1 Hello beautiful people and welcome to Lucas Oil Stadium here in beautiful Indianapolis, Indiana, the forever home of the combine. This program starts now.

Speaker 1 Combine!

Speaker 1 As magical as is that particular jib shot from Scott, that was different than any he had done before.

Speaker 1 The Louisiana man can sense that there might be some gay to nuggets on the way as this is our last day here at the Combine, but it will obviously continue through the weekend.

Speaker 1 Today, it is the tight ends and the secondary working out on the field while others are bench pressing and meeting behind the scenes with teams and medical and you name it.

Speaker 1 It has been an absolute blast to be down here all week long. Now, we've been hearing a lot of things, as I assume a lot of you have.
We'll certainly chat about that.

Speaker 1 We have Michael Lombardi, the general manager of UNC, that'll be joining us at some point in the first hour. In the second hour, we have Brandon Bean joining us.

Speaker 1 Now, there might be some surprise guests, and there might be some stopbys, and there might be some magical things that happen during during the show from what we are being told. Now it's not just me.

Speaker 1 Obviously I'm here with a great group of lads and once again Ty Schmidt has missed

Speaker 1 the program. Damn.
No text from him today. We hope he is okay.
If you could send your love to Ty we would be wildly grateful. But the toxic table is here.

Speaker 1 It just looks a little different at Boston Connor and Mad Mel Kuiper. Mad Mel today, tight ends allegedly a deep class.
Secondary, people gonna run fast.

Speaker 1 What are you looking forward to today here in beautiful Indianapolis, Indiana? Yeah, I think, you know, you mentioned how deep this year's tight end class is. Pat, I think you're exactly right.

Speaker 1 Obviously, the top two guys, you know, Tyler Ward, Colson Loveland, I don't think they're going to do much today. So we're going to really test the depth today.

Speaker 1 You know, a couple other guys, a couple of prospects who, you know, if you go by raw athletic score, RAS, which everyone's talking about, that's the RAS score.

Speaker 1 We're going to see which of these guys maybe makes a name for themselves and really pushes themselves up big boards as maybe the number three, number four, number five tight end.

Speaker 1 Con man, I don't like hearing new names say they're not working out at the combine. Yeah, I don't love that at all.
I mean, Shador Sanders wasn't going to throw up, but came to meet and do medical.

Speaker 1 He announced that before the combine and said, hey, listen, I got a lot of years of tape that you can watch. I'll be throwing in my pro day, which is a normal thing.
This does happen.

Speaker 1 His workout partner, Cam Ward, also has come out and said he will not be throwing here. Tyler Warren, not playing.

Speaker 1 Loveland hurt. I believe Arroyo, tight end out of Miami, also not working out.
So you're seeing some people, big names, high-end guys, not work out. Pretty status quo.

Speaker 1 Don't need that to become the norm with everybody, though, Con Man. Yeah, it's terrible.
I feel like those guys, at least they were, you know, consistently great all year, but it does open the door.

Speaker 1 You know, Will Howard, let's see what you got. You can be the star here.
And, you know, we hung around and watched the D-line linebackers yesterday. I'm not sure if that's the right mic.

Speaker 1 Exhilarating, very fun to sit around and watch that. For a little bit, they didn't actually have the times in the stadium.

Speaker 1 That was a huge miss, so we had to watch the TV copy as well, which was great because Richardson. But the time is always like projected time.
It's not the actual time.

Speaker 1 So I think they, because in the stadium, all the teams are getting their own time. Yeah, yeah, yeah, which is nice.

Speaker 1 But for the people in here, you know, it's tough to even know the relative, hey, it could be four seconds, could be eight. You know, who really knows how to clock those things?

Speaker 1 But now, you know, it'll be nice to see some of the other guys step up a little bit. And I know there's a tight end out of Bowling Green, Fanning, is his name? Fanny.

Speaker 1 Fanning, who's an absolute stud, shattered a bunch of records this year.

Speaker 1 So maybe a little less known guys, unlike the Cam Wards and Shadores and Tyler Warrens and Lovelands, maybe make a little name for themselves here today, which would be nice.

Speaker 1 Yeah, put on a little bit of a show here in Indianapolis. You can certainly steal it and maybe bump up your draft stock a little bit.

Speaker 1 And that's what the magical thing about Indianapolis is, is you got a lot of conversations happening behind the scenes. You got a lot of workouts.

Speaker 1 You got a lot of face-to-face time with these coaches. And, you know, Jim Harbaugh said the other day on our program.
to start this entire week of us down here at Combine.

Speaker 1 He said, oh, these guys say they like to compete. Well, here's an opportunity.
Come compete. Some of these guys can really do it.
Will Howard? Okay.

Speaker 1 My source says are telling me that last night, 11 p.m. at night,

Speaker 1 some people from Indianapolis were walking around downtown

Speaker 1 and they look into a hotel parking lot. It's a little chilly last night here in Indianapolis.
And there's one guy taking drop backs and throwing a football over a parking thing to the other side.

Speaker 1 And there's somebody coaching or catching it.

Speaker 1 They get a little bit closer. You say, well, that's a tall, big son of a bitch throwing the ball there.
Sure. Is this somebody trying to just be like, hey,

Speaker 1 Uncle Rico this thing. Combine week, all the NFL people here, I'm going to do this.
Got a little bit closer. It was Will Howard.
Wow.

Speaker 1 It was Will Howard, who I don't know if he flew in or got here earlier, whatever the case was, but he had a throwing schedule that had to happen. Did it 11 p.m.
last night in a hotel parking lot.

Speaker 1 Not for the cameras. There was no cameras around.
The person walked by and said it was just him and one other person who was catching the ball for him. Did not know who it was.

Speaker 1 Will Howard is ready to come out here and make a big impression, I believe. I have not talked to Will.
I've not talked to Will's people. I don't know them that well.

Speaker 1 A lot of people are asking like, hey, Pat, has Will Howard got you guys on the payroll? No. We just so happen to be at all of these games where he played his best ball and he's a big son of a bitch.

Speaker 1 And whenever you talk about being big, whenever you talk about having Moxie, when you talk about being likable, and whenever you talk about being able to put a ball on a dot, it's like, is that not what we're looking for in the quarterback?

Speaker 1 And then allegedly, I was at Cafe Patichou this morning, obviously in Indianapolis Staple. Great.
There's a lot of people there. And some people were dropping some information.

Speaker 1 Had a great breakfast with Rich Eisen. Shout out to Rich Eisen for paying for breakfast.
Shout out. Getting a chance to kind of see people and chat with people.
There's people that are like

Speaker 1 10 of Ohio State guys were kind of asked if you could bring one player with you. to the next level to a team, who would it be? And I think eight or nine of them said Will Howard.

Speaker 1 So when you talk about a guy being loved by the boys, especially with how that season went, losing to Michigan, losing to Oregon, a lot of money, a lot of names, a lot of egos, a lot of hype going in, that could have kind of spun in on of itself.

Speaker 1 Got to give credit to Ryan Day, obviously, for keeping the boys rolling. Got to give credit to Chip Kelly for being able to keep the boys rolling, who I saw yesterday.
He looks fantastic.

Speaker 1 I'm going to go back to college, win a national championship though. I'm going to come up to the NFL and try to do the same damn thing.

Speaker 1 As an offense coordinator this time, not a head coach in the NFL, has a lot more off of his plate, and he's able to just focus on football, which would be good.

Speaker 1 But Will Howard had touchdown celebration dances with every guy on the Ohio State Buckeyes. He was the guy that they looked to to rally and he was the guy that got it done.
He's a national champion.

Speaker 1 He's a stud, and he seems like a perfect guy to lead your program. Will he come out here with Cam, with Shador not throw? Yep.
Jackson Dart will be thrown. Uh-huh.
Want the old miss.

Speaker 1 Well,

Speaker 1 easy. Easy.
Can't a little bit. You can say that.

Speaker 1 Are we even allowed to say old miss? Are we even allowed to say the school name? You can't even mention the state of Mississippi. Oh, is this America? Yeah, Yeah, it is.

Speaker 1 There's a lot of people, you know, saying a lot of it. We didn't start it.
Okay. It happened to be the number one trend in the world for about two days.
We allude to it, say no names.

Speaker 1 I got people saying, I'm a terrible.

Speaker 1 I didn't, what do we report in the news? That's all.

Speaker 1 I've already done this dance. I've already done this dance with somebody from Mississippi before.
Okay, so

Speaker 1 I'm ready. If you would like, all the people that are coming after me, we're ready.
We are A-O-K in that world. But Jackson Dart out of a university in the South, I guess, not even a lot of red.

Speaker 1 Oh, we even allowed to say that whole thing. But he could potentially make a massive jump in this entire thing.
I love the opportunity for these guys whenever other people choose not to perform.

Speaker 1 And I think we're going to see that. Now, today, tight end, secondary.
Tone, what happened yesterday that is notable, and what's going to happen today that we need to talk about?

Speaker 2 Yeah, we'll start yesterday, and we'll start with the D-line. Shamar Stewart was basically the talk of the town last night during the workouts.
He waited at 6'5, 267 when

Speaker 2 he was at the senior bowl. He was 6'5, 281.
So he lost about 14 pounds to do what he did yesterday. Obviously, you're looking right there.
He ran a 4'59 at that height and weight, which is absurd.

Speaker 2 He also jumped a 40-inch vertical and a 10-11 broad. He basically had the same exact numbers as Miles Garrett in the combine.
Obviously, Miles, you know, was a top pick and had 32.5 sacks in college.

Speaker 2 Shamar only had four and a half sacks in college, so the production wasn't there. as an athlete he was an absolute freak yesterday.

Speaker 1 Yeah, and he lost some weight from the senior bowl until until now.

Speaker 1 He was listed at 6'6, 290 in the guide. So was he originally that? Then he gets down to 281.
Now he's at 267. It's like, what will we end up being?

Speaker 1 If he gets down to 260, 255, is he only going to get faster? Runs a 4.59 at almost 270 pounds. Yes.
What an absolute specimen.

Speaker 1 And I believe everything he did was in like the 99th percentile or 98th percentile. And, you know, I don't think a lot of people knew Shamar Stewart's name maybe before yesterday.

Speaker 1 And then yesterday, everybody's like, hey, this guy's going to do a day. This guy's going to have a day.
And he did.

Speaker 1 So he shows up in a big moment, has the body type in the making to be a great NFL player. Good for Shamar Stewart making himself some real money yesterday.
Great.

Speaker 2 Also on the DND line group, Landon Jackson out of Arkansas. He is 6'6, 270.
He jumped 40 and a half in his vertical, and he ran a 4-6-8, which is ridiculous.

Speaker 2 He had six and a half sacks each of the last two seasons. seasons.
He's a late round first, early second guy who probably helped his stock a ton yesterday. He also redeemed himself in the bag drill.

Speaker 2 In high school, he had a tape come out that wasn't great in the bag drill. Yesterday, just an absolute monster, just a different human being.

Speaker 1 Yeah, definitely. And I think he was obviously going crazy around the internet because of that high school bag drill.
And people are like, you remember this guy?

Speaker 1 And it was like, no, I actually didn't.

Speaker 1 And then once I saw the video, I was like, oh, yeah, I remember the guy walking up, stopping, smacking a bag, and then jogging four yards, smacking another bag, and rolling.

Speaker 1 He had a hell of a day for the Woo Pig Sue Bunge. Yeah, hell of a day.

Speaker 2 And then we go to the linebacker position. A A guy we talked about yesterday who was going to show out and did show out.
Jihad Campbell, the linebacker from Alabama.

Speaker 2 He weighed in 6'3, 235, ran a 4-5, and then was just like super smooth in the linebacker drills. So he secured himself at first-round spot yesterday.

Speaker 2 And like watching his tape, he sees ball, he goes against ball. So he definitely helped himself yesterday.

Speaker 2 And then the last one was James Pierce Jr., who when you were going through Abdul Carter's stats yesterday, you were talking about Abdul Carter.

Speaker 2 And then the second name that you mentioned the entire time was James Pierce Jr., the edge out of Tennessee.

Speaker 2 He had 17 sacks the last two seasons.

Speaker 1 He ran a 4-4-7 yesterday at 6'5-245.

Speaker 2 So I think he solidified himself as the number two edge to probably come off the.

Speaker 1 Somehow everybody's getting faster, bigger, and stronger. And it's an honor to watch all the hard work that has gone in behind the scenes to get to this point.

Speaker 1 Remember, we're just watching these dudes do these things. The amount of hours and early wake-up calls and strict diet and everything that has gotten to this point, absolutely bananas.

Speaker 1 Congrats to James Pierce Jr. Let's go back to Jihad Campbell because I was watching all the workouts last night.
I I think they went till about 10.05, 10.15 last night. Late night last night.

Speaker 1 And I was watching the entire thing.

Speaker 1 He's lanky. Yeah.
He is a long, lanky fellow. Incredibly smooth.
A lot of the workouts they had them doing, uncomfortable and awkward.

Speaker 1 We're talking about full sprints one direction, then telling you to stop, turn around, having to sprint back, and then catch the ball being thrown directly at you, maybe at your body or at your face.

Speaker 1 Tough things to do. He was clean throughout the entirety.
There was a guy from Georgia.

Speaker 3 Yeah, Shmail Mundan.

Speaker 1 What's his name? Shmail Mundan, I believe.

Speaker 1 Shmael Munden? Shmail? I believe that's how you pronounce his first name. I could be completely wrong.
I'm not 100% sure if that is what his name is.

Speaker 2 S-M-A-E-L Munden.

Speaker 1 Sr.

Speaker 1 Yeah. Small Munden.
Whatever it is. He's a linebacker.
Can we put the tweet up that I put out there?

Speaker 1 Yeah, here's the, is that the work? Yeah, here it is. Shmael Mundan Jr., linebacker from Georgia.
I didn't know we didn't, I thought we didn't have the video. We must have found it.

Speaker 1 We found it very late. Okay, so we find the video.
So he's running one of these drills right here, and I'm watching this last night, and this guy is moving.

Speaker 1 You talk about 50-plus tackles each of the last three seasons. These are the exercises.
Full sprint that way, stop, turn.

Speaker 1 Now a strike is being thrown at you, and that hits him right in the face, and he just jogs it right off. And to be honest, I don't know how that doesn't happen more to these guys.

Speaker 1 How often are you sprinting directly at a quarterback and he's throwing a strike right at your face? So that thing, you're running full speed one direction, because that's how you're being judged.

Speaker 1 Are you going to be able to go full speed, stop, turn, go full speed back? And then that thing's running right at your face. Looks like an easy catch.
A lot of guys made a catch.

Speaker 1 A lot of guys dropped it. He got hit right in the face, bonked right in the nose or the eye, I thought, potentially.
They said no, and he ended up getting back in there. But it was a lot of activity.

Speaker 1 It went very long last night, and the energy was insane on the field. We saw some guys benching this morning.
A lot of juice. Wow.
Looked like there was some movement.

Speaker 1 Feels like there's some special situations popping up here.

Speaker 2 Yeah, it is. And then today we move on to the D-backs and the tight ends, like you said.

Speaker 2 And a guy that I think is going to do kind of what Shamar Stewart did yesterday is, and while everybody is Nick Eamon Warrior, who's who's a safety from South Carolina he's 6'3 ⁇ 225 and he expects to run like low 4'3s and he is just an absolute monster on tape he's like remember when Taylor Mays came out and wowed everybody at his height weight and then ran like in the 4-3s they're expecting Nick Eamon Warrior to do that today Malachi Starks who's the safety from Georgia who is personally when you look at the safeties he is by far the best at playing the ball in this draft He's going to run in the 4-3s most likely today.

Speaker 2 People are going to be very, very impressed by that. And then you move to the tight ends.
We talked about the tight ends that aren't doing anything today.

Speaker 2 And Connor referenced Harold Fannin out of Bullying Green, a Mac guy. So we're going to see him today.

Speaker 2 He set the record for most yards and most catches in a tight end in one season in football and college football history. So we'll look at him today.

Speaker 2 And then the other one is kind of a forgotten guy on that Oregon offense, Terrence Ferguson. Tight end, he said he's going to run very well today.
He's 6'5 ⁇ , 260.

Speaker 2 So if he moves well today, he's also going to move up.

Speaker 1 Okay, so Terrence Ferguson, obviously, that Oregon offense is what it is. You know, with the way they move the ball and everything like that.
He was a monster.

Speaker 1 But they got a lot of guys over there on that Oregon team that are monsters. Excited to see him show up.
And then in the secondary, there's a guy that's going to run a four or two.

Speaker 2 Yeah, Maxwell Harrison. He's out of Kentucky.
He's the guy that DJ said yesterday. He was one of his three guys that he said could push the Xavier Worthy record.

Speaker 2 And then we talked to some sources about Maxwell Harrison, who said he's definitely going to run.

Speaker 2 They expect him to be the fastest 40 of the draft.

Speaker 1 Okay, well, he's not the only one who thinks that. I saw a couple people say they're going to run the fastest.
Yeah, both out of Texas.

Speaker 2 Isaiah Bond thinks that he's going to run the fastest of all time.

Speaker 1 Wide receiver. I think we have the video right, Foxy?

Speaker 1 I'm going to break the record tomorrow, for sure.

Speaker 2 I anticipate running

Speaker 1 4-2-0 or possibly I'm Philly Graham might run a 4-1. Okay, okay, so he feels like that's how he's going to go, Mr.
Bond. Shout out to him saying that.
And he wasn't the only one.

Speaker 2 Yeah, Jaden Blue out of Texas, running back out of Texas. He said the same exact thing.

Speaker 2 So those Texas boys, which, you know, they ran with Xavier last year, so they might have an idea of their speed against him. So they think they're going to compete with him this year.

Speaker 1 Yeah, and obviously Sark is a track factory, I guess, down there. Makes you wonder, you know, with everything else going on, is that just going to continue?

Speaker 1 Is Texas going to continue to have that speed? And if they do, what is Arch Manning going to do with it? Uh-oh.

Speaker 1 Quentin Yorks playing through an injury last year is kind of what the narrative has become here at Combine. So a lot of people are impressed with his toughness.

Speaker 1 We'll see how he throws and does everything here at the Combine. Excited to watch that.

Speaker 1 The combo around the Combine, though, has not been about the prospects.

Speaker 1 It has not been about what's going on in the field now granted. If Bond runs a 419 it'll certainly

Speaker 1 case that'll become the convo. The convo here is is a deal going to get done with Matthew Stafford?

Speaker 1 Because remember this beautiful city of Indianapolis, Indiana, which is the greatest host of any event that you would like to have.

Speaker 1 Literally, any event you'd like to have, Indianapolis would like to host it and we'll do it better than anybody else. We're built for hosting.
We love hosting.

Speaker 1 And the reason is because we've got a lot of restaurants that are within walking distance to everything. We got a lot of servers.

Speaker 1 The service industry here in Indianapolis very much understands what the deal is. They'll keep restaurants open.
They'll keep bars open. They'll give back rooms.
They'll give privacy.

Speaker 1 They'll let people have their combos. And it's become an NFL spring break to get deals done or test out the waters for if there's any other conversations to be had.
The big one happening here?

Speaker 1 Matthew Stafford. He's the first domino, they say, in the quarterback.
Not just for the older potential free agent quarterbacks.

Speaker 1 Not that Matthew Stafford's a free agent, but he's been allowed to snoop around, so you might as well consider him that. Aaron Rodgers hasn't officially been released, but he's like a free agent.

Speaker 1 Sam Darnold, the entire Russell Wilson, Justin Fields, you know, Kirk Cousins, potentially. We'll see what happens with him.
But the domino that needs to fall first, allegedly, is Matthew Stafford.

Speaker 1 He is looking to get paid from what everybody has been saying. And once he gets decided, now the draft class quarterbacks get viewed a little bit differently.

Speaker 1 Now the other veteran quarterbacks get viewed a little bit differently. But what the hell is going to happen with Matthew Stafford? Well, I think it's been reported.

Speaker 1 And if it hasn't been reported, I guess we,

Speaker 1 no, I don't think we're breaking any of those. I think everything that we're about to say has been reported.
It is difficult, though.

Speaker 1 Without a doubt, because there's a lot of conversations happening with a lot of people that know a lot of shit here at the combine. So what's going into this year? Like,

Speaker 1 the amount of times I'm saying, am I allowed to say that? Has that been, am I allowed? What is the, you know, I feel like I'm an insider almost at this point.

Speaker 2 That's what Malik was doing yesterday.

Speaker 1 I feel like we all do, like, because we're just shaking hands with people in passing, and they're just dropping information. It's like.
I didn't know that. Is that a...

Speaker 1 You're going to say off the record.

Speaker 1 Yeah, but we're trying not to catch anybody up and we're not in the insider game.

Speaker 1 But I think what has been reported is this morning, as we speak, either moments ago or still currently, Matthew Stafford in the Los Angeles Rams meeting.

Speaker 1 Now, there are other teams that are very, very, very interested from what is being reported and what source says have been telling us. The Raiders, allegedly very, very interested.

Speaker 1 Allegedly, there is an offer that is very much in play for Matthew Stafford to potentially, you know, go to the Raiders if he doesn't get something figured out with the Los Angeles Rams, or he only has $4 million guaranteed coming up into next season, which is basically a nothing contract for any player, let alone a starting quarterback, let alone a guy who's going to end up in the Hall of Fame who wants to play ball still.

Speaker 1 So whenever you think about Matthew Stafford, you think about, okay, he's having a confoo with the Rams today. If that ends up going very well, does he go back to the Los Angeles Rams?

Speaker 1 Okay, if he goes back to the Los Angeles Rams, now everybody that was looking at Matthew Stafford to potentially be their quarterback is still in the market. Raiders, Giants, Steelers.

Speaker 1 How about the Browns? They're going to go young, but what are they going to do?

Speaker 1 So once Matthew gets figured out, which we are being told and I think is being reported, is going to get figured out today. Today we will know what is going on with Matthew.

Speaker 1 Does that mean during our show? Does that mean later tonight? Who knows? But what's happening with Matthew allegedly cooking as we speak over there in Los Angeles? Well, you mentioned it.

Speaker 1 I mean, this kind of, everything hinges on this. We really can't move any other chess pieces until this gets done.
And it kind of sounds like, I mean,

Speaker 1 if nothing gets done with the Rams, something is in place with the Raiders.

Speaker 1 Now, granted, you know, there's still pieces that need to be moved around, but you wonder, you know, if he does go to the Raiders, is that one of those things where, hey, he's going to bring Cooper Cup with him?

Speaker 1 And he maybe brings a couple other guys with him because we already know the Rams are going to move on from Cooper Cup. Now, obviously, I think the Rams give him the best chance to win in the interim.

Speaker 1 But who's to say? I mean, the Raiders haven't had a quarterback in years. That's kind of what, I mean, this is a new Raiders.
Rich Gannon. That's what I'm saying.

Speaker 1 I mean, that was the last guy worth a shit

Speaker 1 at quarterback. Well, speaking of Derek Carr, Ledger, going to be the Saints quarterback going forward.
Exactly. Great player, great player.

Speaker 1 He was great, but obviously he didn't have the type of success.

Speaker 1 So it does kind of feel like Matthew Stafford, he might be one of those guys where if he goes to the Raiders, you know, who's to say that he doesn't turn them around right away?

Speaker 1 Obviously, we know the Rams want him back. It's all about the money at this point, but we'll see what happens.

Speaker 1 You know, you get a couple suitors out there kind of tickling your taint, and maybe you don't decide, you know, I want to go somewhere else. Yeah, there is a chance that that happens, Connor.

Speaker 1 Oh, yeah, it's very plausible. And it also sets the draft.

Speaker 1 Like when you're looking at those top four picks, you know, the team, two of the teams you just mentioned, the Browns and the Giants, they're both in the top three, and those are kind of the quarterback-needy teams still.

Speaker 1 And, you know, with the Raiders, you would think, sure, they could go get Stafford and they can get cut.

Speaker 1 But I wouldn't rule out them even drafting the quarterback after that because Brady is probably one of the loudest guys of hey sitting behind someone and learning and being able to see that obviously him and Bluetso Rogers you know and there's been guys who haven't done that and have had a ton of success Jaden Daniels but it feels like that is kind of the most

Speaker 1 for sure way to get your rookie quarterback to become great immediately and then you know that that would set up some of the other teams as well and the Browns you would assume no matter what at two are going to take a quarterback just because that number two pick has just been the, you know, definitely going to be a guy.

Speaker 1 If you have the number two pick and you take a quarterback, let the number one team do their thing. Go ahead.
You guys decide. Hands off.

Speaker 1 Number two, whatever quarterback you take, history tells us in the last two years, they are going to be unbelievable immediately.

Speaker 1 But really, Stafford is going to make so many massive decisions for other teams based on where he goes and with this upcoming draft.

Speaker 1 And the Las Vegas Raiders, you know, obviously they're looking at a quarterback, need a quarterback. Talked to Chip Kelly yesterday.
Chip Kelly said,

Speaker 1 literally right out here, I said, you guys need a quarterback, right? He goes, every team needs a quarterback. And I'm like, okay, Chip.
That's not true. Okay, no.
But he's saying...

Speaker 1 Technically, yes, every team needs to be a good player. He needs a quarterback.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 1 He was literally like just being like,

Speaker 1 yeah, I need a quarterback to play football, you know? And he said, you want to play quarterback for us? I'm like, Chip Kelly offense? Hold on, sure.

Speaker 1 Are you going to be calling that, you know, that entirety?

Speaker 1 I think the fascinating situation with the Raiders, and you brought it up there, all the OG quarterbacks are like, we're rushing these guys in here. We're rushing these guys in here.

Speaker 1 We're giving these guys no chance at all. Now Tom Brady, who everybody at the Combine has basically said very active.
Tom Brady has been very active in being the owner of the Raiders.

Speaker 1 Tom Brady has been very active in like, hey, not only my investment, but also if I'm associated with this place, I would like it to do well. I would like it to go well.

Speaker 1 Now, he just so happened to be skiing in Montana at the same exact time Matthew Stafford was skiing in Montana.

Speaker 1 They're both incredibly wealthy, got the same houses, or got houses in the same community out there in Montana, and they just so happened to be there. And, you know, that is

Speaker 1 kind of what's being reported by one particular party of the Starbucks scuffle.

Speaker 1 And on the other side of the Starbucks stare down is saying, you think they just so happen to be in the same town in Montana at the same exact time in this timeframe where one is wondering what the future looks like and the other is needing that exact person.

Speaker 1 That's what Schultz is saying.

Speaker 1 NFL network's saying they just so happen hey happenstance this happens with rich people all the time and schultz goes i know i've grown up in the rich world but there is always so that has been an argument but i think what hasn't been said is that they didn't meet when he was out there that they didn't go skiing together whenever they were out there and that kind of falls in line with everything we're hearing about tom brady as the owner whenever the head coach interview was happening with pete carroll you know who's running the interview tom brady whenever every other interview was happening around the building you know who's running the interview tom brady general manager think Tom Brady.

Speaker 1 Now, I would assume Tom Brady is very much involved in who's going to be our quarterback.

Speaker 1 And I think that is why whenever PFT and Florio reports, like, hey, there's common ground in Vegas, it's like, yeah, because Tom Brady's quarterback understands quarterback situation, understands

Speaker 1 exactly where Matthew Stafford is whenever he went down to Tampa. And he can also tell Matthew, who's looking for a massive paycheck, allegedly is what being said.
Now, there is...

Speaker 1 nine figures on in an offer sheet somewhere allegedly for Matthew Stafford in this entire thing at this stage. Congratulations to him on that.

Speaker 1 But Tom took like 25 mil guaranteed to go down there to Tampa to build up a team and win. It's like, what is he saying versus what other teams are saying? What does Matthew Stafford want?

Speaker 1 How's the meeting go this morning with the Rams? I mean, there's just so much to kind of go into it all. And all eyes are on the Jojo Bulldog, Matthew Stafford, draft class 2009.

Speaker 1 Ooh, you know something about. Yeah.
You mentioned it. He got picked 221 picks ahead of me.
You knew that, man, Mel. Well, without a doubt.

Speaker 1 But, you know, and a lot of people said, hey, maybe you should have, you know, been a second, third-round guy, you know, and they just didn't give you the opportunity. Didn't look enough tape.

Speaker 1 You know, maybe didn't get eyes on you. I didn't get invited the combine.
Bang the bam. I think you invited the combine.
Thanks, Mad Mel. Not my decision.
No, that's not what I heard.

Speaker 1 How many combines have you done? Every single one of them.

Speaker 1 It's not my decision. I'm not inviting guys.

Speaker 1 I'm not. Oh, so you don't have any say? Well, you know, do I have say? Do I not have say? I mean, that kind of, you know, that's something we don't need to really discuss right now.

Speaker 1 You mentioned the money situation, though, with Stafford.

Speaker 1 You don't want to phrase it like all he cares about is money, obviously. He's a quarterback in the NFL.

Speaker 1 He has a hard fan career.

Speaker 1 Exactly. But you talk about those situations.

Speaker 1 Let's look at the tax situation in Vegas, a little bit different than the tax situation in LA.

Speaker 1 A little bit different than what they're reporting about, you know, the New York Giants saying, hey, 90 to 100 mil guaranteed right when you come here.

Speaker 1 Your dollar's going a little bit farther in Las Vegas than it's going to any of those other places.

Speaker 1 So if money is one of the kind of end-all-be-alls of this whole situation, one of the caveats, if you will, then who's to say the Raiders aren't, you know, in terms of being able to compete with the Rams, they're right there.

Speaker 1 So let's just play this out real quick. Matthew Stafford goes to the Raiders.
That means we assume Aaron's going to be in conversation with the Rams. You would assume that is how that is going to go.

Speaker 1 Darnold, probably too. And then Darnold probably with the Rams, with anybody at that point.
And then now these other teams are at the top. They need a quarterback.

Speaker 1 They have to start saying, okay, do we dive deeper into the rookie quarterbacks now? Is that maybe what Shador and and camera hearing too like hey teams are kind of waiting to see what

Speaker 1 for sure is happening with the veterans quarterbacks before that and are they like well if we throw now and we have a great day of course it matters but the only thing we can do is hurt ourselves maybe going into this conversation i don't love it i understand it business wise but if you go out here and light it up maybe whenever one of these teams that is going to inevitably end up without a vet goes yeah i want that guy over that guy now browns we assume going to take quarterback we assume they're going to take quarterback because they have to because it it has to be a rookie quarterback, has to be cheap.

Speaker 1 They can't afford anybody else because they don't have it. So whoever goes there, everybody's saying Cam Ward.
Everybody's saying that's going to be Cam Ward. He's the number one quarterback.

Speaker 1 So now you look at the Giants. You look, obviously, at the Titans.
You look at the Raiders. You look at a lot of these teams in EQBs.
Who falls in where? I think there's a chance that more rookies.

Speaker 1 kind of get drafted early than we had been talking about all the way up until this point. Well, and that's why the movement will be so interesting.

Speaker 1 Like, obviously, the Patriots, the Jags at, you know, four and five, five, neither of those teams are taking a quarterback. The Patriots have Drake May.

Speaker 1 The Jags paid a lot of money to their quarterbacks, so they're not doing anything. I mean, Titans, Browns, Giants, Raiders, Jets.
Yeah, all of them. All of them need a quarterback.
Top seven.

Speaker 1 And nine saying that they're sticking with Derek, but... They need a quarterback, too.
Do you get a rookie quarterback in there? I mean, that's a lot. They met with Cam Ward.

Speaker 1 They met with Cam Ward, and they don't have that much money. Obviously, they're in Capel for who knows how long.
So who says they wouldn't trade up to New England at four?

Speaker 1 Because I think it was maybe it was Field or DJ yesterday talking about how at five, you know, the Jets are in love with somebody. There's only Cam or Shador left.

Speaker 1 Who says they don't hop the Raiders and go to five and take a quarterback?

Speaker 1 And then I don't even want to speak just for our city, but I mean, the Indianapolis Colts at 14, they said it's open competition. A quarterback could be.

Speaker 1 Would they want a young guy or they maybe want something else? I mean, like, there's a lot of teams as you start to look at it.

Speaker 1 And as we start to hear conversations, now granted, the people we're hearing hearing from are people that would like these younger guys.

Speaker 1 You know, they would like these younger guys as a good opportunity, but they're like, hey, we're hearing a lot more interest than what is being reported.

Speaker 1 As teams continue to look at their situation and the situation around it, it's like.

Speaker 1 Yeah, maybe we take a shot on a guy because a quarterback can be very cheap and that can help your entire salary cap if you can hit on a rookie guy.

Speaker 2 But also, so I was listening to your podcast yesterday, Mel. Sure.

Speaker 2 And you made a good point about, you know, the Giants at number three, like Dayball and Joe Shane, like how many,

Speaker 2 if they don't win this year, like they're already on the hot seat, are they going to do it with a rookie quarterback at three if they don't get Matt Stafford?

Speaker 1 I looked into this, and maybe it was somebody that was around Dayball and Shane. Not them exactly, but somebody from that area.
Maybe the P.R. Burrs.
Sure. Okay.
Maybe the P.R. Burrs.
Could be.

Speaker 1 Comes over. and says, like, hey, our building thinks that you've been very fair with everything.
Just want to let you know that. Like, with the way we talked about the hard knocks and everything,

Speaker 1 they don't hold it again. Like, hey, you guys have been very fair.
And I was like, that was very kind. Then Then dropped in a little reminder.

Speaker 1 Daybox won like five Super Bowls. He was coach of the year.
National champion. Like, hey, yeah, I know it's with Bill, but he's just saying, like, he's been around a lot.

Speaker 1 Nick, in Nick Saban and Bill Belichick are like Daybox guys. They're like, let's not, like, don't forget that, please, in your conversation.

Speaker 1 With everything we have going on, like, please don't forget that Davell has had. massive success, which is why Mara is very much like, okay, you've seen it, you've done it.

Speaker 1 We've been behind the eight ball in a couple situations. Let's see what you do.

Speaker 1 But them getting a young quarterback, you would think would be able to help out the rest of the roster, or maybe them going with the vet, like they're saying with Matthew Stafford.

Speaker 2 And if they get a vet and then they

Speaker 2 pair neighbors with, you know, one of the best athletes of all time in Travis Hunter to come out and whether he's playing wideout or D-Back, like they immediately become a better team than Shadur.

Speaker 2 And Connor kind of mentioned it, like if they do get Stafford, the Raiders still, they have been mocked Shadure at eight or whatever, seven or eight, whatever it is, in every single mock because, you know, the relationship with Tom and the native quarterback.

Speaker 2 So, like, yeah, what happens with Stafford, to be kind of put a, not a bone on everything, but like,

Speaker 1 what happens with Stafford is hugely today for everything.

Speaker 1 So, last night I was watching the Kanban. I thought the NFL Network did a great job with the Kanban.
Congratulations to them.

Speaker 1 Legit. I think they've done a good job with figuring out how to film it and do it.
Rich and Daniel

Speaker 1 Jeremiah are like the perfect tone for it. It's long.
I mean, you're watching golf. You're watching golf in there.
Vrabes did look sweet.

Speaker 1 He always does. He's a big son of a bitch, too.
You notice that? He's just a big son of a bitch.

Speaker 1 If you're a player out there and you want to coach for someone that's been there, done that, we're talking about Travis Hunter. How many Super Bowl catches? How many touchdowns did Mike Vrabel have?

Speaker 1 A few. Not just one.
A few. What did they say about the Patriots with Travis Hunter?

Speaker 1 That the meeting

Speaker 1 between Vrabel and Travis, they did have a little jovial little ha ha

Speaker 1 conversation before Travis left, talking about like, hey, you're not the first guy to do this.

Speaker 1 Yeah, but also in the evaluation of Travis Hunter, the New England Patriots, have we heard anything about how the Patriots said they consider, and this is just being reported, this isn't from.

Speaker 1 This is not from Vrabel to us. This is from other people's reports.
No, this is just from reporting.

Speaker 1 It's not from Elliott Wolfe either, but they consider Travis Hunter the number one corner and the number one wide receiver. Now, that could be coming from Travis Hunter's agent who heard that from.

Speaker 1 I mean, there's just so much shit that gets kind of thrown around out here.

Speaker 1 So it's like football is by Will Howard at 11 o'clock at night in a parking lot.

Speaker 1 We were told that by somebody not associated with the NFL. Somebody lives in Indianapolis.
We live here. So we know a lot of people around town.

Speaker 1 And they're like, hey, saw a guy, huge guy, just throwing a football in a parking lot at 11 o'clock at night. We're like, look at Uncle Rico down here.
And we said, yeah, yeah, yeah, fuck it.

Speaker 1 We're going to go see who that is. It was Will Howard.
It was Will Howard. And then just like a quick, what the hell is going on to the other guy who they did not know?

Speaker 1 And he's like, ah, I have schedule. He has like a schedule.
There was a, you know, so he got to do this. It's like, this guy might be the guy

Speaker 1 this guy might be the guy and there's no kid this person well couldn't reiterate enough the

Speaker 1 the guy that told us this source i don't want to give i almost just said name there no

Speaker 1 i almost did too early

Speaker 1 that that's the whole that'd be the biggest day of this dude's life you don't know the guy

Speaker 1 yeah huh a guy in the nfl no no it's an indie guy it's an indie guy that that saw this who literally was just downtown and saw it and it's like the thought that there was no cameras around like wasn't trying trying it was just like i gotta get this in somewhere it was like back parking lot like hidden away almost as if trying not to just trying to get shit done it's like that's a hilarious aspect of it all who are football guys who are guys that you want to bring into your culture you know it's like if you listen to crystal ball down in miami cam ward definitely a guy you want to bring in he said he flipped that entire place on its head was an incredible leader shador has it in like everywhere shador's gone team has followed and gotten better incredible toughness obviously able to do the entirety.

Speaker 1 Jackson Dart's beloved, we believe, down there in the school in the south. School of the South.
School.

Speaker 1 School of the South.

Speaker 1 Sweet. Potato pie.
Annual. Yeah.

Speaker 1 We should probably put a line through that. Yeah, I don't even know if we're allowed to have that on the graphic underneath Jackson Dart.

Speaker 1 You know, you don't say names, and people still, I mean, there's playing Kiffens team. There's been a lot of things.

Speaker 1 Brother, it's the number one trend in the world. What are you going to do?

Speaker 1 What do we, I mean, we are topical, but like, what are we?

Speaker 1 And I think if you listen to the entirety, there's some empathy there, Tia. Oh, yeah.
Yeah, and the whole situation, which we certainly have. But with that being said, made a football point.
Not

Speaker 1 ready. Just want to let everybody know.
Ready. No names.
Alluded to a very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very viral

Speaker 1 news story. Keep thoughts.

Speaker 1 Tied it in.

Speaker 1 Use the ledger a couple times. A lot lot of times.
Because we learned our lesson. Because we've danced this dance before.
Yeah, it's not our fancy. With a Mississippi person.

Speaker 1 We've done this entire thing before. So, I mean, we hate that this situation happened, but it did.
And it's like, we didn't create that. No.
It's like, we just, we. We report to news.
Nonetheless,

Speaker 1 he's beloved by his team. You watch the Jackson Darter is beloved by his team down there in Ole Miss.

Speaker 1 It's like all these guys seem like guys you want to get in your building too, which would be great for an organization.

Speaker 1 And I'm excited to see if this draft class has a lot more winners than it does losers because there's next to no hype.

Speaker 1 But the reason that there is no hype is maybe because these guys are just boring team guys. Maybe, you know, maybe these guys are just boring team guys in this entirety.

Speaker 2 I think a lot of it has to do with, you know, the quarterback class last year was just so good, too.

Speaker 2 And they don't think those guys, like just by watching tape or whatever, are those guys yet. So it's like, hey, it's a down year, so they don't have the hype or whatever.

Speaker 2 But, you know, when we were talking about the Raiders, you know, they do have a new OC, and you talk about Will Howard.

Speaker 2 Like, could that be, it doesn't feel like he's going to go number eight over there, but could it be a second round?

Speaker 1 Thank you for the Raiders.

Speaker 2 Yeah, I mean, you have no idea.

Speaker 1 I legitimately. I mean, Box from what I'm hearing.

Speaker 2 Box at this time last year was not a first round.

Speaker 1 Bingo. Then he puts on a show.
Neither was Penix. Penix wasn't either.
Yeah, Sean Payton meets with him, and Sean's like, I love this guy.

Speaker 1 You start looking at the tape through your offensive eyes with the guy.

Speaker 2 Even JJ last year, and he was the guy. He wasn't doing it in a parking lot.
He was doing it in the convention center hallways or whatever, and he actually got filmed, you know.

Speaker 1 Everything gets filmed, by the way. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
So, I mean. That did not with Will though last night, once again, because they

Speaker 1 that's crazy to me that that's happening. But to your point, go ahead, Powell.

Speaker 2 No, I was just saying, like, because of last year's class and how they performed in their first year, I think that's why the hype isn't there.

Speaker 2 But who says that that can't happen with all the guys this year, too?

Speaker 1 It's also inevitable that as we sit right now, this game of quarterback musical chairs, someone's going to get left out. And someone is going to panic on draft nine.

Speaker 1 I know this class, you know, even on my big board, don't have a whole bunch of these quarterbacks going. Yeah, yeah, exactly.
We'll see what they do on the field.

Speaker 1 But there's going to be one of these teams who's putting all their chips in either the Matt Stafford or the Aaron Rodgers basket, and that doesn't work out for them.

Speaker 1 So they might be inclined to, you know, trade back up in the first round or do something like that. And who's to say that we don't see four guys, four quarterbacks get drafted in the first round?

Speaker 1 Well, that's what's crazy. Like, we're talking about if Stafford's here, they're all over the place.

Speaker 1 If he stays in L.A., right, okay, so now all of a sudden none of those top 10 teams that were looking at Stafford, they're not getting him.

Speaker 1 Let's say because of the Aaron Rodgers situation, who knows if teams want to do that? Because at least with Stafford, you know, you got four or five years.

Speaker 1 You know, he's still playing at a playoff level, Rodgers, although we think he's great. It didn't go well for the Jets.
And then looking at Darnold, what if he stays in Minnesota?

Speaker 1 It's like there's so many, the musical changes. Last two games with Sam Darnold.

Speaker 1 They were tough. And that might have hurt.
Isn't that crazy? Might have hurt him. It's $75 million.

Speaker 1 Yeah, and it wouldn't really make sense for him to sign a massive deal in Minnesota because, you know, KOC is KOC. You know, say what you want about J.J.
McCarthy. If J.J.

Speaker 1 McCarthy isn't great, KOC is going to make him great, okay, no matter what. That's why you have Justin Jefferson and TJ Hawkinson and Aaron Addison and maybe Aaron Jones comes back.

Speaker 1 Like that situation seems set up for any quarterback. So it might only be Sam Darnold.
And then all of a sudden, it's like, okay, well, the Giants and Browns, they're not probably going to move.

Speaker 1 They're probably going to stay pat. So do the Raiders then go get Darno? Do the Raiders then try and move up to one? Because that's another thing with the Titans.
Like, we're talking about the Titans.

Speaker 1 Like, well, they're probably not going to take a quarterback. What the hell are we talking about? Okay, we all watched the Titans last year.
They still need a quarterback. And this is a new GM.

Speaker 1 And we've seen it with new GMs. You've talked about it all the time.
Like, those guys want the stamp on their own team. And sure, like, they have, you know, this is.

Speaker 1 I think the Titans are praying to God that somebody really wants one. Yeah, it's just for sure.
Joe, because they probably want it. You're talking about a new team.
Exactly.

Speaker 1 And maybe they take, you know, Abdul Carter, who is, you know, generational, as we say, even though he's got a foot injury.

Speaker 1 No, no, one team said, or we don't know how many teams, maybe two teams said, but there's 32 teams that are testing that foot out.

Speaker 1 And he woke up the next day, and I would assume another team's medical said,

Speaker 1 we assume this has been this way for a while.

Speaker 2 Well, and only the Titans GM or whatever was the guy that said, he didn't even say him. He just said, a lot of people hate that generational world.

Speaker 1 Hate it. Hate it.
Yeah, but you never know. Yeah, correct.
Somebody could be, is Adam Vinentary generational? Yep. You could say that? I would say, right?

Speaker 1 You think whenever he was coming out of South Dakota State, go big, go blue, go Jacks? Anybody was saying this guy's going to be generational? No.

Speaker 1 I don't think so. You know, you have no idea.
That's the thing about the draft that we have to remember. We need to remember this.

Speaker 1 And we talk about this on draft night a lot because we have six hours to do it.

Speaker 1 It's like a lot of these guys are going to suck. Can't wait.
Okay. A lot of these guys are going to suck.
And a lot of people that we think are going to suck turn out to be

Speaker 1 pretty good. And a lot of people we have no opinion about come out of nowhere and are great.
I mean, that is just the history of the NFL. That is the reality of every single draft class.

Speaker 1 And that is also the reality of this time of year when people really win somebody over. You win over one team, you're in a good spot, okay, in the draft.
You win over two teams, much better spot.

Speaker 1 Now, granted, you win over three. This is just like business.
Anytime you have more people interested in your products, you're going to have a run-up offer.

Speaker 1 You're going to be able to do that whole thing. But all it takes is one.
Atlanta Falcons with Pennix. They were the ones.
They said, we love this guy. We just paid a guy.
We don't care.

Speaker 1 This is somebody that we think is generational.

Speaker 1 When maybe if you didn't watch Michael Pennix in college at Washington or at Indiana, you didn't think that going into the draft because he wasn't chatted about as much as Caleb and Jaden and Drake May.

Speaker 1 You get it in that entire thing. All you need is one team.
Sean Payton loving Bo Nicks. All you need is one team.
And whenever you hear somebody say during draft night, well, that was a reach.

Speaker 1 No, that was one team that liked somebody a lot more than everybody else. And we'll assume that they have a vision for a said person and to have them make or make them successful.

Speaker 1 Oh, and some of those guys, I feel like we talk about a bunch their entire career, like they, we almost get bored with them.

Speaker 1 Like Brock Bowers, when he was a freshman at Georgia, it was like, oh, this guy,

Speaker 1 this guy is generational. He's going to go.
And then he doesn't even go in the top 10. You know, it's like, guys, obviously you go back, you redraft.
He's a top three pick.

Speaker 1 He was one of the best players in the NFL. I think he was all-pro this year.
Was he? Was he one of the first

Speaker 1 people? He set the record. He set the record, yeah.
Like he set the all-time record for rookies. And it's situations like that, like with Tyler Warren, you think about.

Speaker 1 It's like, hey, this guy was so good at football, but he's not going to do the combine. He's going to do his pro day, and he's doing meetings and stuff.
But who says he doesn't drop?

Speaker 1 And then in October, it's like, how is Tyler Warren not a top five pick? Why wasn't he talked about as one of the best dudes?

Speaker 1 And then, you know, you mentioned, too, some of these guys that are going to suck.

Speaker 1 They'll end up like Makai Bechton, where they'll be talked about and ridiculed for so long, and then they'll go to a situation like Philly and be, you know, a future all-time guard, one of the highest-paid guys.

Speaker 1 Could end up like that. The guys that end up sucking and just not finding the right home or just actually sucking at football, we don't talk about them ever.
No.

Speaker 1 But Mackay finding a new home, I mean, it's happening with Sam. It's happening with a lot of these guys.
But other positions, it very much happens as well. I mean, our guy Debut.

Speaker 1 Our guy Debuck gets drafted third round, second round, second round, New England. Top of the second round.

Speaker 1 Yeah, top of the second round, first, late, you know, whenever his pick is traded on draft night, they go, it's basically like an end of first, you know, like if you were about to do this conversation.

Speaker 1 Goes to New England, okay, goes to Carolina, okay, comes to Indianapolis, perfect setup, and he's at the perfect time of his career.

Speaker 1 So there are some people that maybe need to find their spot and go off. It's like, but there's going to be guys that we don't expect to be Hall of Famers, Hall of Famers out here.
Oh, yeah.

Speaker 1 And you talk about Tyler Warren, it's like, wasn't he there? He was their

Speaker 1 offense. Yes, yeah.

Speaker 1 They're going to have wide receivers. I wonder why or what the convo is going to be about him, especially with the importance of a tight end in an offense.
Yes.

Speaker 1 I mean, if you look at how important that position has become to the sport of football, it feels like the tight end should get a lot of shine. Which today, big day for that.

Speaker 1 Okay, speaking of things that would no longer shine, the chains. Oh, no.
Yeah,

Speaker 1 chain gang is back up officially and

Speaker 1 dead.

Speaker 1 Good.

Speaker 1 Mad Mel, we're about to have a moment of silence for the chain gang. Man, fuck it.
Chain gang sucks.

Speaker 1 Now, listen, if we're watching leatherheads, you know, if guys have leather helmets on or we're going back to the 1960s, sure.

Speaker 1 The only thing that we heard about the chain gang in the last couple years was when one of these guys who is overweight and probably shouldn't have been on the field, you know, not in good shape, would have like a horrific leg break.

Speaker 1 That was the only time we were talking about the chain gang.

Speaker 1 Or, you know, if it was,

Speaker 1 here we go. Yeah, that's, I mean, what the hell, this is a billion dollar, multi-billion dollar league, and we're getting a chain link fence and bringing it out.
Like, what the hell are we doing?

Speaker 1 Don't we have the technology where we can finally move past this? Well, the strength of the chain is obviously the strength of each individual link.

Speaker 1 And every once in a while, when one link starts dosing with another link, it causes an absolute logistical nightmare on unknotting the chain.

Speaker 1 Now, I do believe it has lost a lot of its luster since this man retired, Gene Sterator, Jenser Paisani, saying, hey, listen, that tip of the ball is passed. That's a first down.
I'm sorry about it.

Speaker 1 And the grin of walking away from this, he thought to himself, I'm a genius. Nobody else has done this.
Everybody's wondering defense, offense. I don't know.
I don't know. Jingle.
I know.

Speaker 1 I know. Hey, Jack, you're going to be coaching in Europe, pal.
A little bit of a dust up here. First time.
Jason Garrett goes, hey, how about it? How about it?

Speaker 1 Now, the issue with it all is, and that's a tush-push play there that is also being discussed, obviously, at

Speaker 1 the entirety, but a little bit deeper into this tush-push play is

Speaker 1 the spotting of the ball. Okay, how are they going to spot the ball? Well, they said that they're going to use some sensor now.
Okay, so Chang Yang's out. They're going to use some sensor.

Speaker 1 This was pitched last year.

Speaker 1 Hawkeye Technology. I assume this was pitched a decade ago.

Speaker 1 But last year, it was actually put onto the field of play. And the only reason why we know this is because I've been an avid, hey, this can't be in 2024 how this goes.

Speaker 1 We can't be just judging things off of us.

Speaker 1 We can send a FaceTime. You can send a thing up to a satellite and then it can just send over somewhere and we can just see people in 8K somehow.
Okay, I have no idea how that.

Speaker 1 We can create, AI can think anything and we can't figure out where the hell the ball is without bringing this thing out. I respect and appreciate it as a backup.
If we if we need

Speaker 1 if there's a malfunction in something, but there has to be some sort of technology that is able to actually document not only first downs, touchdowns, you talk about everything.

Speaker 1 Punts even, it helps out. Like where'd the ball go out of bounds? I mean, there's just like so many things.
Field goals, if it's up over top of the post, where's that?

Speaker 1 I mean, so many things that if we could figure out that technology, what you would assume you could.

Speaker 1 And then the people from tennis, Hawkeye, came in and said, we got you. We already got to figure it out.
We need cameras down the lines. We need a camera moving out.
And then we'll be able to do it.

Speaker 1 We are celebrating these people. Okay, we had McEnroe on.
McEnroe from the tennis community said, oh, Hawkeye technology now, that adds in a whole nother element. And we said, what's that?

Speaker 1 And he said, well, tennis players say that with their eyes, best in the world, these tennis players, they look down with their eyes and they clearly see that the ball is out of bounds.

Speaker 1 So they challenge it, which is why Hawkeye happens. And then Hawkeye goes,

Speaker 1 and then boom, it hits the end of the thing. And the tennis player is like, That's not real.
Like, I literally just saw it.

Speaker 1 Now, granted, hear the motion, maybe a little bit of blur, maybe sweat drips in the eyes, maybe you miss it. Whatever the case is, maybe Hawkeye is right.

Speaker 1 But this adds in a whole other element of rigged conversations that are on its way that we didn't know was happening in tennis with the Hawkeye technology.

Speaker 1 But there are tennis players that are like, oh,

Speaker 1 the league is working against me right now. The league wants this person to win.
Like there's people that think Hawkeye works against them.

Speaker 1 So whenever Hawkeye gets the NFL, we're excited, but we are precautiously. Sure.

Speaker 1 Then it debuted, and it was crap. Okay, absolute crap.
It was a preseason game. Detroit Lions throw.
Whoa, what a ball. What a catch.
Gorgeous. Keep the clock rolling here.
Second quarter, obviously.

Speaker 1 Kennedy makes a great catch. They show a replay.
From the beginning of the play, now we're 35 seconds in this, obviously, 45 seconds into this thing.

Speaker 1 Everybody, now, I assume commentary is chit-chatting about it, but they haven't shown it on there. They're trying to figure out where the hell the ball was.
Okay, was it a first down?

Speaker 1 Was it not a first down? We got this new Hawkeye technology. The central will be able to tell us.

Speaker 1 Dan Campbell, because Hawkeye, where are we, because on tennis, we turn up, look at the screen, and say, oh,

Speaker 1 it's immediate. And we could have got, you know, people with 14 different eyes and chain gang out on the field to the other side.
Maybe they have run a gasser.

Speaker 1 we're still waiting it's three minutes and 16 seconds later 319 all on air first of all and then boom it's short it's like okay

Speaker 1 i guess that's good three minutes and 30 seconds

Speaker 1 so that is longer than the chain gang so if we're going to bring in this technology all we hope is that it's more efficient because the bitching about reviews and the bitching about everything else all revolves around the game stopping and other stuff happening.

Speaker 1 So as long as this can be efficient and accurate, we're all in. And I think everybody will be all in, but they can't have that roll out week one with this whole entire situation.

Speaker 1 Con man, and they know that. They have to know that because they scrapped it quickly after that.
Yes. They scrapped it very quickly after that.

Speaker 1 And that's why it does feel as though they've had to have some sort of progression between that dog shit and then where they are now because they wouldn't just throw the chain gang out without knowing like, hey, the product we have now, it's going to be quick.

Speaker 1 It's going to be much better. You're going to be able to tell it within a little 10-second period.
But hopefully, that the chain gang is done forever.

Speaker 1 I still think we should line up old guys so they can get obliterated by people on the field. Their knees and stuff.

Speaker 1 And I still think we should have a job for the older folks with the league

Speaker 1 and the entire thing. Because some of those guys, 80, 90 years old, they ain't got nothing.
Literally, they're just coming to the chains.

Speaker 1 They're going home, and they're trying to get back to doing the chains. And the change served its purpose in the NFL and in football as a whole.
And we appreciate them.

Speaker 1 But just like everything, robots are coming this man seems like a robot has an answer for everything oh yeah

Speaker 1 business strategy inspiration advice football the general manager for the north carolina tarhero is michael lombardi yeah

Speaker 1 look at those shoes they're shimmering they're shimmering i love that i love bad melt that's awesome Felix Mutual Lombo.

Speaker 1 Appreciate it. Thank you.
Wow, you did see the plum suit that was attacked by Tyrese Hall.

Speaker 3 I loved it. Who attacked it?

Speaker 1 Tyrese Halliburton. It's It's his birthday today.

Speaker 1 Oh, actually, his birthday is tomorrow.

Speaker 1 It's a leap day. I appreciate you clapping for him because he does deserve it.
He's a leap day

Speaker 1 baby. So it's only four years ago.
You get cheated out of that. Weirdo.
So happy birthday, Tyrese.

Speaker 1 There you go.

Speaker 1 That guy doesn't have as many birthdays as everybody else. Kind of a bummer.
But happy birthday.

Speaker 1 Happy birthday to the new North Carolina Tar Heels. You have a brand new general manager, head coach, operation in the football department.
How are you doing?

Speaker 3 We're great. We're doing good.
You know, we're just, we've been in a dead period, so we had a chance to get the players in, work out, do all that stuff. So it's been great.

Speaker 3 Yeah, we set up our recruiting for 2006, which is everybody's ahead of it. And it's been great.

Speaker 3 You got to watch a lot of high school tape, seen some really cool high school stadiums, seen some bad high school stadiums.

Speaker 1 You know,

Speaker 3 I mean, Texas, I got to tell you, Texas high school follows.

Speaker 1 Follow.

Speaker 3 Oh, man, those stadiums are incredible.

Speaker 3 You know, we need a little bit more of those in some other cities, but it's been great.

Speaker 1 I think the game will continue to do that in other places. And there's a lot of great high school states, obviously Pennsylvania, Ohio, Florida, Texas, California, Georgia, Louisiana.

Speaker 1 I think it has some great South Carolina. And I'm sure there's other states that I am missing.
Montana's got some, guys.

Speaker 1 Montana's got some guys.

Speaker 3 We watched a kid from Idaho the other day. It was great.
Yeah.

Speaker 1 So you loving it? You loving the process?

Speaker 3 I absolutely love it. It's great.
You know, everybody says, well, how you dealing with it? It's like, it's different than pro football in the sense that, you know, you have to work three boards.

Speaker 3 You got 07, you got 28, you got 26. You're dealing with that, the portal.
But it's a lot of fun, and you know, it's the same thing.

Speaker 3 I mean, when I worked as a GM, you know, everybody wanted more money. Everybody lied.
It's the same two things that happened. Everybody wants more money, and everybody lies.

Speaker 1 Okay.

Speaker 1 Let's talk about that process of you being an NFL general manager.

Speaker 1 You're back at the combine. I know you just landed.
Thank you for making time. Oh, I love it.
Will you be able to stick around with us after the break, too? Sure. Okay, sweet.

Speaker 1 So you'll be able to talk to us next hour. We'll get a little bit more Lombardi Convo.
But you come to the combine. Is it

Speaker 1 glory days for you thinking about the NFL stuff, or what are you here doing right now specifically?

Speaker 3 Well, there's so many people here, there's so many contacts that, you know, from my time in the league that you want to reconnect with because they're going to have players too,

Speaker 3 in terms of whether what happens with the portal. So you want to be able to, really, it's about maintaining the relationships you've had with these agents that I haven't had since I was doing media.

Speaker 3 So I want to reconnect with them, and everybody's here at this place at one time.

Speaker 3 I had a bunch of fundraisers to go to this week for our North Carolina folk, and so I couldn't get here until today, but

Speaker 3 that's the best thing. This is the best meeting place for everybody.
I mean, there's more action happening at the hotels when I worked in the league than there was actually on the field.

Speaker 1 Okay, so let's talk about that a little bit more.

Speaker 1 Matt Rule said that the general manager for his team, the Nebraska, when he was with us yesterday, he said, I'm here, and he is currently meeting with the agents and stuff.

Speaker 1 And it's the same agents for NFL guys that there is for high school guys?

Speaker 3 Yeah, pretty much. You know, and it's the same,

Speaker 3 it's very reminiscent of the time. They may have a guy that wants to enter the portal.
Who knows?

Speaker 3 Everybody's talking hypothetical situations, but you have to have a relationship with the agent to understand when you're talking to them on the telephone what you're dealing with.

Speaker 3 And a lot of these guys I have from my time in the league, but there's a lot of new agents that you don't know, and you need to kind of maintain that relationship and see if you can, because you got to get a sense of it.

Speaker 3 It's easier to

Speaker 3 have a conversation with somebody after you've met them.

Speaker 1 We need you to get introduced to Money Team Ed. Yeah, Money Team Ed.
He's Aaron's guy. He was the guy on Joe Shane Hardknocks phone call that was on the other side.
Ed, it says on the captions. Okay.

Speaker 1 That is he. Young lad, strapping lad.
Good beard. He's good beard.
Good dude. Does good business?

Speaker 1 Does good business.

Speaker 3 I could tell in that call, Ed wasn't going to give Joe a shot at another thing. I could tell in that call.

Speaker 1 You can hear by the tone. Yeah, me too.

Speaker 3 He has also heard it too.

Speaker 1 You know.

Speaker 1 Okay, so let's talk about the hard knocks offseason. It is tweeted by Ari Mirov, I do believe, at MySports Update.
He is a grinder.

Speaker 1 Ari Mirov is an absolute grinder whenever it comes to aggregating and finding news. Per sports report, Bill Belichick and UNC will be featured this offseason for the Hard Knocks offseason season.

Speaker 1 Okay, so we loved what the Giants allowed us to see. Okay, I think all of us did.
We all chatted about it.

Speaker 1 There was a lot of things learned because it was our first time ever watching that entire process. And there was a lot of things said.
You guys have it this year? Is that accurate?

Speaker 1 You guys got a great relationship with NFL Films. It would make sense too with how College Bowl is becoming Pro Bowl at this exact time.

Speaker 3 I think there's a lot of conversations going on right now about that.

Speaker 3 I think we've had a lot of offers from people all over to have us come in and look at our program and kind of do the behind the scenes things.

Speaker 3 I don't think anything's yet been official or signed to it to make it happen.

Speaker 1 Don't let Saquon go. Who would it be? Would it be? Yeah, don't do that.
Would it be you? Would you be you negotiating that or who's making that decision?

Speaker 3 No, that would be the university.

Speaker 3 And we got to make sure, you know, when you're dealing with the university and the brand that we have at North Carolina, which is incredible, you got to make sure that everything's done right, all the T's are crossed.

Speaker 3 And obviously, Bill has been talking to different people. They contacted all of us here, and Bill's been sorting it out.

Speaker 1 So you're saying there's definitely a conversation happening.

Speaker 1 And you guys at NFL Films know each other very, very, very well. I mean, that's very well documented.

Speaker 3 And it's a tremendous place. Agreed.
And so they do an incredible job, but I don't think it's official to be where it's at the point where we could say we're going to do it.

Speaker 3 If we do do it, the idea of doing it is to let people examine what we're doing and see people take a look at the 33rd team in the NFL on how we're building this program and what we're trying to accomplish.

Speaker 3 And I think it'll give an accurate portrayal.

Speaker 3 I've often said if you're going to do hard knocks, you got to let people know you know what you're doing because people are going to look at you and people are going to judge you and what you know, and you've got to really be able to teach a class.

Speaker 1 It's a good idea, though. Recruits watching.

Speaker 1 You've got to teach a class.

Speaker 1 Parents watching too. All of that.

Speaker 3 Yeah, we got, like, Mel has to teach a class on how to scout. We got to teach a class on how this all happens.
And so

Speaker 3 that would be the intent and let people know, look,

Speaker 3 there's not many times that you can have the greatest coach of all time take you into a meeting.

Speaker 1 Yeah, I agree.

Speaker 1 And if we were able to get access to your entire thing where you were building a personnel department, scouting department, Bill's doing his thing, you guys are going to high schools, recruiting, how does that go?

Speaker 1 Those conversations, we'd all be very intrigued by it. But I also think the college football, like either transfer portal guys or high school guys or parents, would obviously watch that.

Speaker 1 Like when you come on here, and you know, you're an incredible good businessman. But when you come on here and you talk, I think whenever people, the more they hear you, the more they're like.

Speaker 1 I want to go there. I met some UNC kids that were

Speaker 1 carryovers from maybe the last roster or whatever. And they were at a Monday Night Raw, I think, in Charlotte.
I think they were up there in Charlotte. They came in the Monday Night Raw.

Speaker 1 And I talked to them, and I said, hey, you're going to be dealing with Michael Lombardi. Now, Bill Belichick, obviously, the greatest of all time, but you're going to be with Michael Lombardi.

Speaker 1 Utilize him as a resource, okay? Like, use him as a resource. He's a person that I use as a resource.
He has a wealth of information on so many things.

Speaker 1 So when you're talking about becoming a man and leaving college and being a better person, like your experiences are all like a weapon as well, I think personally, for the right people that are looking for that type of stuff.

Speaker 3 I appreciate that, but that's our job is to take these kids from being, everybody thinks college football is amateur. It's no longer amateur.
They're all getting paid some form of compensation.

Speaker 3 And the key is to teach people how to become no longer an amateur, to become a pro. You know, that's the key.

Speaker 3 When you wake up in the NFL in your first year as a rookie, you have to learn how to be a pro. And if you don't know how to do that, you get caught behind.
Yeah, I think so.

Speaker 1 And I think that's why you guys have such a head start. Like when Bill came on and we talked to him about going back to North Carolina, and we're like, you're going to hate that, aren't you?

Speaker 1 And he's like, we've done all this before.

Speaker 1 It's NFL. You guys are treating it like an NFL operation.
So it'd be a great hard knocks. Whoever gets it and whoever does it, we can't wait to watch.

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Speaker 6 Come on!

Speaker 1 It is a magical time for the NFL, for our city of Indianapolis, and for stories to blossom or end

Speaker 1 in the NFL and in the football world as a whole. I'm not here alone.
No, no, we got a great group of dudes live from the balcony, the lobby, the concourse here at Lucas Oil Stadium.

Speaker 1 Absolutely magnificent setup all week. We can't thank everybody enough for for being a part of this.

Speaker 1 From Craig and Isaac, from the CIB of Indianapolis, the City Improvement Board, who are the people that work directly with the NFL. Shout out to McCarthy, Carly, Jeff.

Speaker 1 You know, had some obstacles that were certainly threatened. You know, there was a lot of that from all parties, made some magic happen, and then the entire crew that set everything up.

Speaker 1 And I know we've been shouting out Scott and everything like that, but whenever you talk about everybody that went into making this happen, we can't thank you all enough.

Speaker 1 I think it's been a magical few days. It's been fun to be able to catch up with all old teammates and friends and old coaches and meet new people that obviously I've been a fan of.

Speaker 1 Wink Martindale was in here yesterday because he was watching his boys. And then I got the chance to meet D-line coach

Speaker 1 Esposito and the entire crew there. It was like nice to meet you guys.
Nice to meet you guys. People I'd heard of, but hadn't got a chance to really meet in person.
I've done it here.

Speaker 1 So I'm very thankful that we've been here for the past three days. And it's been a beautiful kickoff to the offseason.
The toxic table looks a little different today.

Speaker 1 Okay, and please send your T's and P's to Ty Schmidt, who has missed two days in a row. I wonder if the Iowa guy has forgotten a work ethic.
It's at Boston Conner and it's Mad Mel Kuiper.

Speaker 1 Mad Mel, I know you have high, high praise for Michael Lombardi joining us, the general manager of the UNC Tar Heel Football Team.

Speaker 1 Without a doubt, one of the few guys who, you know, has always shown me a great deal of respect. I obviously respect him.
He is my GM.

Speaker 1 I feel like he kind of got blackballed, you know, towards the end of his career in the NFL. This guy's the goat, okay?

Speaker 1 So if you're in an NFL building and you have any ill will or malice towards this guy, you can kiss my ass as well. So that's kind of how I feel about my family.
Oh, yeah, without a doubt.

Speaker 1 Okay, I went to the bathroom and came back. Magmel, thank you for that kind of layout of it all.
And I would like to echo that sentiment.

Speaker 1 You know, I didn't know that that was potentially needed to be said, but we do say that. Hey, Lombo, we love you, buddy.
Oh, yeah.

Speaker 1 I appreciate it.

Speaker 3 I love you guys too. I really appreciate everything you've done for me.
It's been a blessing, really.

Speaker 1 Now, you help us out. Let me tell you, Lombo, about how we we truly feel about you.
Okay?

Speaker 1 Doing a daily show. Yeah.
Three hours. Sometimes we go four.
Sometimes we go two and a half. Sometimes we go five.
Okay. So it's like, whenever you do that, lucky to do it, thankful to do it.
Okay.

Speaker 1 But there's some days where,

Speaker 1 man,

Speaker 1 we should not be taking anybody's time with this. Like nobody should spend their time with us today.

Speaker 1 So we try our best to like show respect for people who show their attention to us or enjoy their day alongside of us. We try our best.

Speaker 1 And there's some days where it's just like there's not, this is crap. Like we cannot, this is not good.

Speaker 1 And everybody's first thought is, Lombo, and what you have done for our program, and you don't even know this, I assume, on days where there is real anxiety for me, maybe 15 minutes.

Speaker 1 Not a lot of news.

Speaker 1 Like 15 minutes before the show starts. And in my head and body, having real anxiety, like today's the day where people realize that they need to stop watching this program.

Speaker 1 We send a text or a call to you, and you have never said no to us.

Speaker 1 And anytime you come on, anything we ask you about, could be business, could be quotes from the past, could be about war strategy, could be about football, could be about anything, you have like a phenomenal, and you're an hour eater.

Speaker 1 That is. Exhaust.
Hey, we got an hour eater in Lombardo. Biggest compliment you could pay to someone.
From us.

Speaker 1 From us. So that is how we feel about this.
That's very nice. We absolutely love this.

Speaker 1 I appreciate that.

Speaker 3 That's very nice of you. And I appreciate being on this show because it really helped my career.
It

Speaker 3 sold books, which I really appreciate. You know, you know how that goes when you're in the book business.
But it's been tremendous. I mean, I love doing this.
I really do.

Speaker 3 I know Chuck wanted to go back, but I know there's part of Chuck that still likes this and still likes doing this.

Speaker 1 Yeah, Chuck's not going to be able to stop by, I don't think, in his new position.

Speaker 1 No one over there.

Speaker 3 You enter the cone of silence when you go in there. Yes, I understand that.

Speaker 1 Well, one half of the hammer.

Speaker 1 Cowboys Tone Diggs is here. And obviously, Lombo knows everything about the Combine.
What do people need to know about what happened yesterday at the Combine and what's happening today at the Combine?

Speaker 2 Yeah, yesterday there was a few guys, a handful of guys who really stood out. Shamar Stewart being the first one, being 6'5 ⁇ , 270, jumped 40 inches, broad 10-11, ran the 4'6.
Basically, the...

Speaker 2 The same numbers as Miles Garrett when he came out. Actually, there's only four guys in the history of the Combine who weighed more than 260 and jumped 40 inches.

Speaker 2 It was Mario Williams, Miles Garrett, Shamar Stewart yesterday, and also Landon Jackson yesterday, who also is above 260 and did the 40-inch vert yesterday.

Speaker 2 But I wanted to ask Lombeau question after that, off of that. So Shamar Stewart has all those numbers, has the 10 RAS grade, the RAS grade or whatever.

Speaker 1 RAS, RASP, RAS.

Speaker 2 But he only had four and a half sacks in his college career. How do you, like, as a GM, do you go back? Do you obviously have to go back and be like, all right, why did that happen?

Speaker 2 Or how do you evaluate someone who is just an athletic freak but didn't necessarily have the production he should have had to match that?

Speaker 1 He's a great player, but just not.

Speaker 3 That's the hardest thing to do, is because you have to take some of these positions that everybody thinks are all athletic positions and break them down into instinctive positions, right?

Speaker 3 To rush the passer is an instinctive position. You can't run past the guy.
You've got to know when to transfer speed to power. You've got to be able to understand how to set up the tackle.

Speaker 3 You've got to play smart.

Speaker 3 I was on the phone with

Speaker 3 a legendary NFL coach, and he was talking to me.

Speaker 1 He almost said the name there. He did.

Speaker 3 And he was talking to me about. Tuna.

Speaker 1 He was. He he was

Speaker 3 i would i don't i didn't want to name drop but i was on the phone with parcels it was just the greatest

Speaker 3 the greatest phone call you can get is when you see bill parcels calls you it's the greatest so because you're going to learn something you're going to learn something and and for me it just makes it makes me so happy so he was talking to me about jumbo elliott and how he became a left tackle and they drafted him everybody said was a right tackle so he went to lawrence taylor and said hey lawrence you know i'm going to put jumbo over at left tackle.

Speaker 3 You tell me if this guy can play. First day goes by, Lawrence doesn't say a word.
Second day goes by, Lawrence grabs him and says, he's the real deal. He's tough.
He's got a nasty disposition.

Speaker 3 He's got great balance, all those things. And he's smart, and you can't beat him twice.
Key word, you can't beat him twice. He knows how to set up his rush.
He knows how to handle somebody.

Speaker 3 And there's instinctive positions in football. The reason I tell that story is because there's instinctive.

Speaker 3 And so when you see these guys with great athletes or great ten times, you want to say, oh, we can make them into something. But there's an element of instincts that go into this, right?

Speaker 3 It's like, don't tell me about a receiver that can run fast and hasn't had any production. Yeah.

Speaker 3 They've got to come together, right? You can make all the excuses in the world. Well, he didn't get the ball.
He didn't. No.
Receivers, look at A.J.

Speaker 1 Brown, didn't run great.

Speaker 3 Look at Debo Samuel, didn't run great, right? But they're great players.

Speaker 1 Okay, so on that note about running great, there is seemingly, and we got the secondary here today, there is certain positions that if they run a certain time, though, it's over, right?

Speaker 1 Like corner's one of them. You can't be a 4-6 corner, 4-5 corner.

Speaker 3 Well, it depends on your arm length.

Speaker 3 If you're a 4-4-5 corner, you're a 4-5 corner, and you've got arm length, that arm length is going to make up for that little bit of difference of lack of speed you have.

Speaker 3 How good are you at the line of scrimmage? Are you a second-20 guy or are you a first-20 guy? Can you burst for the first 20? Are you losing speed as you're running?

Speaker 3 And I think more than any position, corner's instinctive. You've got to be able to jump off of one foot at a corner.

Speaker 3 You've got to be in balance to jump to make the play on the ball in the air and you've got to have the sense to redirect we've seen a lot of corners that run four five five that play a long time in the current in their in the nfl because they're instinctive they understand they can read the route they know when to break and anticipate things so yeah i think to me you just can't you don't think like you don't think there's like a disqualifier in the 40 for corner position even in the modern day there somebody said they're going to run bond of texas said he might run a 4-1-9.

Speaker 3 I've never seen that before in my life.

Speaker 1 Yeah, man.

Speaker 3 I've never seen it before, but maybe he can do it with the training and all that. But I do think the ball in the air, okay, you've got to play the ball in the air.

Speaker 3 No matter how fast you are, you've got to be in balance when the ball's in the air. It's like watching the NBA players.
If they can't shoot off of one foot, they can't play.

Speaker 3 If they can't rebound off of one leg, they can't play. And so it's a little bit like defensive backs.
You've got to see their balance.

Speaker 1 Tone, tell me about the tar.

Speaker 1 Tell us about the tight ends that are performing today and the tight ends in this particular draft class, because I think this is a good question for Lombo, Mad Mel, about the importance of that position in like we saw what Brock Bowers did last year.

Speaker 1 Why aren't any of these being chatted about? Is it because Abdul and Travis are so different?

Speaker 2 Yeah, so they're talking about the tight end class being one of the deepest tight end class in a long, long time.

Speaker 2 Obviously Tyler Warren, Colson Loveland out of Penn State in Michigan, they're not going to do anything today. Arroyo out of them.

Speaker 3 Because you can't live and shotgun on fourth and inches and try to hand the ball off, right?

Speaker 1 I agree. I agree.

Speaker 3 And your team has no toughness if you can't run the football. And you got to have tight ends that...
Tight ends to me have always been the knight in the chessboard. They do so many different things.

Speaker 3 You need them. And so like for when you build like...

Speaker 1 Who's the queen?

Speaker 3 Yeah, well, the queen's the quarterback, right?

Speaker 1 Well, who's the king?

Speaker 3 Well, the coach. The king doesn't move.

Speaker 1 The coach and GM exactly. Exactly.

Speaker 1 Because they're the last one to fall. Yeah, it's probably the coach and the GM, yeah.

Speaker 1 Checkers.

Speaker 3 I've been doing an exercise. So we have our board of our 26th class of all of them.
And then who are the top 30 players on your board? We have 225 names on our board. Who are the top 30 offense?

Speaker 3 Who are the top 30 defense? And it forces you to say, how do you want to build this team? How do you want to build North Carolina's team? If we could get these 30 players, this would be great.

Speaker 3 And it's a good tight end. There's a lot of good tight ends in America, as there are, because the tight end position is evolving.
They're not all playing basketball now.

Speaker 3 And so it gives you so much versatility because the object of football is to substitute without substituting. That drives people crazy.

Speaker 3 So when you can have a tight end like Gronk who can go out and catch a ball at receiver and then you have another tight end who can line up on the line, I mean Tony Gonzalez was really good, but when he had Jason Dunn as the blocker with Tony Gonzalez as the move guy, they became a dynamic offense in Kansas City with Trent Green.

Speaker 3 And so you need those kind of guys and the tight ends give you that versatility which makes you so much better. You know, Brock Bowers is great.

Speaker 3 Now if the Raiders had another blocking tight end to go with them, now how do you match up to that?

Speaker 3 So now they're really in 12, but they're really in 11 because Bowers becomes a nightmare problem for the slot receiver.

Speaker 1 So you need to be in nickel, but you're in 12.

Speaker 3 But you're in 12, but they can block and they can run strong side and they can run weak side.

Speaker 3 See, everybody says they line up one of these receivers that can't block and play them as the third receiver. Well, they can't block anybody.

Speaker 3 The defense knows to not run the ball weak side, so they know they're going to only run the ball one way.

Speaker 2 Well, they took Mayer the year before that, so I assume Chip is going to do something like that.

Speaker 3 He's got a great advantage. They work perfectly together.
And when you have that combination, like the Steelers have Friar Muth, right? He's one of the few on-the-line wise that can threaten the seam.

Speaker 3 So now if they had another motion guy to go along with the way Arthur Smith calls

Speaker 3 offenses and the way they run, assuming they get a quarterback and all those things, they've got, you know, now you've got an offense that can substitute without substitute.

Speaker 1 You mentioned some goats there. Tony Gonzalez, obviously, Thursday night football, we see him now.
He has highlights galore and changed the game from the tight end position.

Speaker 1 Congrats to him on everything in its entirety. Then he mentioned, obviously, Travis Kelsey.
You didn't mention Travis, but we'll talk about Travis Kelsey.

Speaker 1 To your point about blocking, Travis Kelsey felt obligated to get better at blocking as he got older because he thought he could be an asset to the offense in a different fashion.

Speaker 1 There was a couple big-time touchdowns that Patrick Mahomes scored where Travis Kelsey is lead blocking and like actually up in there. I feel like he thinks that's a big deal.

Speaker 1 You mentioned Gronk, though. Can you talk about how Gronk was just like, he was a tackle and he also was a wide receiver.

Speaker 1 Watching him, he was, I mean, he didn't get to play as long, obviously, with injuries, but whenever you're that big, strong, athletic, and great at football, I assume injuries are going to follow you.

Speaker 1 Like, that is going to, that's how your career is going to go. And I think he probably knew that, especially going in or whatever.
And maybe he didn't, maybe he thought he could defy it.

Speaker 1 But just like law of averages with the amount of hits he took with how big he was and how he played football was like, this isn't going to be a 15-20, but it is going to be a great, like, and he was.

Speaker 1 He was special, man.

Speaker 3 He really was. He tilts the field in his favor.

Speaker 3 You guys are probably too young to remember Mark Brevarro. Brevarro had a short career because of a knee injury.
Brevaro was one of the most talented players I've ever seen.

Speaker 3 He could dominate the end of the line. He could block Lawrence Taylor, rare, and then he could go down the seam and catch the ball.
I mean, he was remarkable.

Speaker 3 And Gronk is a lot like Bavaro was, because he could play at the end of the line, but he could also run receiver routes. Now, Gronk wasn't.

Speaker 3 You had Dallas.

Speaker 1 Dallas, another guy.

Speaker 1 But Dallas Claire. I love everything about Dallas Clark.

Speaker 1 I thought I do.

Speaker 1 His toughness, his juice, his competitive smear, everything else.

Speaker 3 His quickness was so good, right?

Speaker 1 Where Gronken.

Speaker 3 Gronk was more of of an over-route, out-cut guy. It was a long, it was deeper routes for Gronk.
And not that he couldn't catch shorter routes, but Clark was really good at winning third-down routes.

Speaker 3 Gronk was good at winning down-the-field routes, and it was hard to cover. Because, again, to quote the great Bill Parcels, even when he was covered, he was open.

Speaker 1 Yeah, and speaking of that man,

Speaker 1 Cheese, Cheese, bring it in.

Speaker 1 Ring of Honor member.

Speaker 1 Oh, there he is. There he is.
Wow.

Speaker 1 Yeah.

Speaker 1 Dallas Clark. That looks great.
Yeah, he's in a ring of honor. Congratulations, Doc.
Levy Doc.

Speaker 1 Is it quarterback suite? The slow zoom out. Yeah, that's quarterback suite.

Speaker 1 And Dallas obviously earned that with his years of great football, both at Iowa, where he was a linebacker, I believe, for a bit. And then we are right behind that particular camera right there.

Speaker 1 But the tight end position is a beautiful one. If you have a great one, and Peyton Manning, obviously, with Dallas, did magical things.

Speaker 1 But you had Marcus Pollard, too, who could play on the the line why Pollard was before me so I never got a chance to watch him work but you're 100% right the tight end position is beautiful but you had Kobe Fleener and then what's the name of it Dwayne Allen yeah Dwayne Allen Dwayne Allen was a tackle right he but he won another Super Bowl with us in New England you know I mean because he could line up and play on the line dude when I say great Dwayne Allen was I enjoyed Dwayne Allen were they the same were they the same draft last year third and fourth round I think or one out of Clemson one out of Stanford Kobe drafted before Dwayne and then Dwayne got there and he was just like a grown man he put his mitts on.

Speaker 1 It was just like,

Speaker 1 and that's it. Did you ever get any locker room fights? I was going to say, didn't him and Pat Anger have a little tussle in the locker room? I don't know what you're talking about.

Speaker 1 Butt Naked Brawl, I thought that might have happened once or twice. Pat Anger put an arm bar on.
You know,

Speaker 1 that's going to happen. That is.
Wasn't an arm.

Speaker 1 No, it might have been DA. It was somebody.

Speaker 1 Dwayne's awesome. Kobe Flinger, though, was very much like a go-getter.
I'm excited to see what these guys do. Tyler Warren was the Penn State offense as a whole.
Connor has a question for you, Lambo.

Speaker 1 So one of the things Tone said, the depth of some of the positions in the draft, tight end, D-tackle, there's a few others. Does that hurt some of the

Speaker 1 middle to top guys that are maybe, not like a Mason Graham who everyone has in the top five, but some of those guys that might be a little higher in the D-tackle draft, but because there is so much depth, that teams might wait to take them just because they're not nervous.

Speaker 1 And then Schefter said this on Wednesday. What does it mean? And I forget, Pat asked someone this yesterday as well.

Speaker 1 But what does it mean when the 10th pick is very similar to the 35th pick when you're evaluating guys?

Speaker 3 Well, so you grade every player, and every player gets assigned a grade.

Speaker 3 And what Adam is saying there is there's only 10 players who are elite, and everybody else is, for lack of a better term, in a cluster of players.

Speaker 3 And the reason you trade down in a draft isn't because you just want to trade down,

Speaker 3 you have this impulse is because you're trading to a cluster you don't know who you're going to get but you're trading to a cluster of grades that are all the same so if you sit there and you don't get one of those 10 and you want to pick a defensive tackle and say you're picking 11th and I'm making this up and somebody offers you a chance to go to 23 and you still have five tackles to move down and they're all the same grade then you make that trade and so it's really just about the grades reflective of the board.

Speaker 3 We get so Mel does this all the time, which is very annoying, by the way. I want to say this.

Speaker 1 I'm sure he's going to have a question for you, everybody.

Speaker 3 It's very annoying when all we talk about is this guy's a first rounder, this guy's a first rounder, this guy's more of a third rounder.

Speaker 3 That's really meaningless because the verbiage has to be attached to the player. What is the player going to do? And so what Adam's saying,

Speaker 3 there's only 10 guys that some teams think are immediate starters. The rest are potential starters.

Speaker 3 So when you put it in that category, you know, Mel will get mad because you take a potential starter at 11 and you should have taken him at 28, but they're still solid potential starters.

Speaker 1 You have anything to say for yourself? Yeah, I mean, sometimes, you know, these teams are going to be, they're going to reach. You know, I'm going to have something to say about it.

Speaker 1 And that's why after the draft, you know, hey, listen, you may think you had a great draft in my eyes. You know, I'm going to slap a C-minus on you.

Speaker 1 Because I got to see.

Speaker 1 I got to see the proof in the pudding. Lumbo, I did want to ask you about something, though, something that kind of drives me nuts.

Speaker 1 And it's been happening more so so in years past. Guys kind of just opting out to do the on-the-field stuff.

Speaker 1 And we had Dick Casario on the other day and he basically said, listen, you can't put too much stock in the on-the-field stuff anyway.

Speaker 1 It's not like a guy's going to go out there and he's going to be a fifth rounder. He's going to go through the drills and then boom, he's a second rounder.
He's a first rounder.

Speaker 1 But do you think this is a trend that we're going to see more so in the next couple of years where this is basically going to turn into interviews and medical.

Speaker 1 And we're going to have more of these guys say, hey, listen, my tape's out there. You can watch what I did in college.
I'm not going going to do the on-the-field stuff.

Speaker 1 And as a GM, how much does that affect kind of your evaluation of a player?

Speaker 3 Well, you know, it's still a game of football, so you still have to watch them play, and I think that's the most important aspect. I mean, we,

Speaker 3 in college recruiting, we don't have the combine. So we have to use basketball.
We have to use track and field.

Speaker 3 We have to use other sports to kind of use as a reference to check their athleticism and to truly test how fast they are. Because it's hard to see based on the level of comp if they're really fast.

Speaker 3 But, I mean, this trend has been going on for a long time, guys opting out, out, and we get it. And the agents do a good job of coming, you come to the campus, you work the guy out.

Speaker 3 I've often said to me, and this would have to be collectively bargained, is if you don't work out at the combine, then you have to come back to Indy, and then you have to take another drug test to make sure that everything's clear because what you don't want to see is any, the guy doesn't work out at the combine, he doesn't test positive for form.

Speaker 3 enhancement drugs. He goes home for five weeks, he gets that going, and you can't test him again until June.
And now, all of a sudden, you've been duped.

Speaker 1 And I'm sure. I didn't even think about that.

Speaker 3 If you're Mel, if you're Mel, Mel's biggest mistakes and my biggest mistakes have been when guys have gotten drafted when the word steroids probably was the reason why they got drafted.

Speaker 1 I don't know if nowadays it's as much, but there's certainly science that people have. We had an era.
I mean, I. Tony Bandrich.

Speaker 3 I got sent to the library by Coach Walsh to do a report on steroids because we had no idea what steroids were.

Speaker 1 What year is this about?

Speaker 3 1985. There was a defensive tackle from Boston College.
I won't mention his name. Sure, we can figure it out.

Speaker 1 1985, defensive tackle. Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 1 See, now that's a lot more.

Speaker 3 The people suspected for like, you know, that he may be enhanced.

Speaker 1 Sure.

Speaker 3 But we didn't even know what that word was. We didn't even understand it.
You know, we had no idea. So I had to go, I literally wrote a book report on,

Speaker 3 and I can still remember writing it, all the drugs. I mean, it was probably the biggest book report.
I was just out of college.

Speaker 3 I didn't do anything like that in college my whole career, so I was pretty proud of it. But, you know, you get duped on it.
You get duped on it. You just, you don't know.

Speaker 1 What was that

Speaker 1 documentary,

Speaker 1 Icarus? Icarus. Have you ever seen Icarus?

Speaker 3 Yeah, I have. I've watched that.

Speaker 1 That Russian doctor, scientist, piss guy was.

Speaker 3 I'll give you another one. There's a school.
There's a school, and I'm not going to mention the school's name,

Speaker 3 that was reproducing NFL players for a very small school at a high rate, right?

Speaker 3 And you as an executive in the league and all of a sudden this small school in a big state is producing a lot of guys, you're saying, wait a minute, something's going on in a gym there somewhere, right?

Speaker 3 I mean, that's what you get paid to do.

Speaker 1 That's hilarious, right?

Speaker 1 You started doing descriptors in a very small school, started producing, in a small school in a big state, starts producing.

Speaker 1 I thought, I didn't know how many more you were going to get into there until I just guessed what school that was.

Speaker 1 We don't hear any of that really much anymore. The performance enhancing stuff that we hear about usually is Adderall always, because the NFL never says what it is, though.

Speaker 1 So players are always the ones that have to self-admit. That's why the guys who say like, I got horny go weed at the gas station and I think it was tampered.
I didn't know that.

Speaker 1 So I'm out for four weeks. There's guys that give like, used to at least give those types of excuses.
Then there's people that have tainted supplements. I took a supplement, but it wasn't on the

Speaker 1 bottle, which is real. Somehow, supplements do not can just omit some things because they're not, I don't think they're FDA regulated.

Speaker 1 So it's just like, and the NFL's policy is you know what you're putting in your body. It's like sometimes, sometimes you don't.
So that excuse has one that has garnered some attention over the years.

Speaker 1 But nowadays, we don't really hear about it much, right?

Speaker 1 I don't think we hear about it much anymore.

Speaker 3 No, and I think a lot of guys know that there's the European element. You can go to Europe and some of these drugs that are not FDA approved.

Speaker 1 So you're saying, yeah, wait a minute, it's still happening.

Speaker 3 Well, I think, look, look,

Speaker 3 what's at stake, and I don't think, I'm not accusing anybody of wrongdoing, what's at stake is a lot of money. I mean, this cap is at, what, $275 million? $280.

Speaker 1 That's $80.

Speaker 3 It's a huge, there's a huge investment you have to make in your body.

Speaker 3 And, you know, you've got to do that.

Speaker 1 Ladies and gentlemen, we have some breaking news. Out of Los Angeles, California.

Speaker 1 Matthew Stafford, who met with the Rams this morning and was potentially going to field offers from other squads because he only has $4 million guaranteed left on his contract next year.

Speaker 1 Allegedly was asking for a good amount of money.

Speaker 1 He's staying with the Los Angeles Rams. Wow.
It was a good meeting this morning. McVay and Matthew Stafford, we assume, Lesnead as well, met with Matthew this morning in their facility.

Speaker 1 Who knows what was discussed? Who knows what the deal will be at this exact moment. But what appears to be a statement of yup from the Los Angeles Rams is Matthew Stafford staying in L.A.

Speaker 2 Rap is reporting that he ends up taking less than he would have gotten elsewhere to stay with the Rams.

Speaker 1 Okay, so we thought that was certainly going to be something that happens. Hometown discount's a real thing, especially at this stage of life.
His family has their friend group.

Speaker 1 He already has everything kind of sorted. His resume is already in place.
So to pick up

Speaker 1 root and head elsewhere was going to cost some money. I assume the Rams knew that, which might be why they offered him a low deal to begin with.

Speaker 1 They offer him a low deal and say, all right, if you want to go see somewhere else, and then they find out what the market is, and then they're able to make what is considered a fair deal to keep them living.

Speaker 1 Is that how you view it?

Speaker 3 Yeah, I think what they did was they said, look, we don't agree. Why don't you go see what your market is and come back to us?

Speaker 3 And literally, because we're not in free agency, he had to come back to them. Yeah.
Right? And so this wasn't the Joe Shane where Joe

Speaker 3 really was in free agency. So then he comes back, and now all of a sudden, do you move? Do I take 10 million less to stay here?

Speaker 3 And I have to move, and by the time you add everything up, and I think from the Rams point of view is it gave them time to say okay where do we get our next quarterback from is it Stetson Bennett is it somebody else you know where do we go from here and I think look they got the ball in the what the 13 yard line they were the only game that against the Eagles yeah the only tough playoff game let's be clear the only tough playoff game again the Eagles had was that game and if they don't blow two protections

Speaker 3 You know, where they don't block Jalen Carter for some reason and some why, you know, he's throwing the ball in the end zone.

Speaker 1 And that guy special that he just threw to to you there, Puka, and obviously Cooper is going to be gone, but Sean McVay, we assume in his offense, is going to be able to move the rock.

Speaker 1 You know the offense too already, which is another added thing about the money going elsewhere.

Speaker 1 New offense, new system, new home, new life, new everything, new question marks, probably new gripes about things that are happening in that building. That's a lot of new, new, new, new, new.

Speaker 1 So in his eyes, he thought it was going to have to be very, very expensive. And I think he thinks he should get paid because of how he's been playing football.
And absolutely, go ahead and do that.

Speaker 1 So I'll be excited to hear.

Speaker 3 And he stayed healthy, which is key, right? I mean, this has been the key for Matthews to stay healthy.

Speaker 1 Durable.

Speaker 3 Right, durable. I mean, nobody throws the ball better than he does.
He still can throw the hell out of the ball, and the teams that were interested in him need a quarterback.

Speaker 1 Okay, so now that's the domino that falls. The Los Angeles Rams are sticking with Matthew Stafford.
Matthew Stafford is off the board. Now we got the Raiders, the Giants, the Steelers.

Speaker 1 We got, put the draft board up.

Speaker 1 We got the number one overall team with the Titans, who is their quarterback going to be.

Speaker 1 You got the number three overall pick with the Giants. Who's their quarterback going to be? You got the number two overall pick with the Browns.
They're going to draft a young quarterback.

Speaker 1 Could draft a young quarterback. Titans could draft a young quarterback.
It would make sense. Giants would draft a young quarterback.
It would make sense. Patriots locked in.
Jags locked in.

Speaker 1 Raiders could draft a young quarterback. Jets could draft young quarterbacks.
So now is everybody's. And you go all the way through there.

Speaker 1 The Saints, Derek Carr, last year,

Speaker 1 could if they were to. They allegedly allegedly met with Cam Ward.
Niners good, Cowboys good, Dolphins good, Colts could draft young quarterback.

Speaker 1 I mean there is a lot of teams that could draft a quarterback now that Matthew Stafford is staying with the Rams.

Speaker 1 If he would have wanted any of those teams, obviously that changes the math a little bit, but a lot of teams need quarterback. How do you view that? That's the piece of the money.

Speaker 3 I'm thinking about Sam Darnold. I'm pretty happy.
Okay. Yeah.
You know, I think Sam Darnold's marketability just went up a little bit more, even though I'm sure he has a lot of teams after him.

Speaker 3 Because

Speaker 3 who else are the giants? Who else are you going to call? Who else is out there that you feel like can at least you can watch a tape and say, this guy did a hell of a job?

Speaker 3 You know, you can say, well, his jet tape wasn't good, but that was a lifetime ago, right?

Speaker 1 And speaking of jet tape, not good, Aaron Rodgers, we don't know what he's going to be doing. Is he retiring? Is he coming back and playing? Our source

Speaker 1 have told us that he's out of the country, you know, and we'll be on, I believe, the program next week. So I assume we'll learn a little bit more there.

Speaker 1 But he's potentially in the market as well, currently. Kirk Cousins, potentially in the market yet again.
You know, there is a chance that he is going to be out there.

Speaker 1 So, a lot of these veteran quarterbacks.

Speaker 3 Kirk Cousins will be interested because he's going to get paid by the Falcons. So, he's a little bit like the Russell Wilson situation.

Speaker 3 So, he's going to be an economic value for a team that thinks he still has something left in him.

Speaker 1 All right, Lombo, we're going to slide you a little bit to your right. Okay.

Speaker 1 Joining us now, ladies and gentlemen,

Speaker 1 is a man who is a friend of the program, a sand-bagging golfer,

Speaker 1 An absolute gentleman, a lad of the lads. Ladies and gentlemen, general manager of the Buffalo Beals, Brandon Bean.

Speaker 1 Brando.

Speaker 1 You know Lombo Bean?

Speaker 1 I don't know if we've ever met. I'm not sure.

Speaker 1 Congrats on Bolton.

Speaker 1 How are you doing? Good to see you. Good to see you.

Speaker 1 How are you?

Speaker 2 Mr. Bean, how are we?

Speaker 1 Good to see you.

Speaker 3 Good work, Bruce. Where are you guys going?

Speaker 1 Really good work. You'll be right here.
Really good work all week, Bruce.

Speaker 1 Cross it up, Bruce.

Speaker 1 Had a baby, Bruce. Oh, that was from the truck.
Had a baby. Good work.
Had a baby truck. Had a baby truck.
Way to go, Bruce.

Speaker 3 Way to pitch it now.

Speaker 1 Oh, no. Can we get this over here? The more you can do, right? Yeah, well, I brought it over there for him.
Make me look good. I know it's tough.
No, no, no, it isn't.

Speaker 1 You're a handsome lad, young-looking lad. Not as young as that Jaguars, GM.
Did you see Jimmy?

Speaker 1 Jimmy Coldstones, yeah, he's 22.

Speaker 1 Jimmy Gladstone, Tommy Gladstone. Yeah, yeah, exactly.
Listen, he could be a guy. We have no idea.
So let's lead into that. The general manager world is interesting.

Speaker 1 Obviously, you've been a part of it, and now you are in the middle of it at the very highest level with the Buffalo Beals. And you have officially drafted and developed NFL MVP.
Okay, congratulations.

Speaker 1 Congrats to him. How much of this combine, this event, is attributed to whether or not you're a good general manager? Is this like the ultimate test for a general manager in your eyes?

Speaker 1 And how do you view this kind of event in looking at next season? I think it's just a small piece. I mean, the number one thing here is truly the medical.
You know, that's why this all all started.

Speaker 1 But for me, the most important thing are the interviews that we get to do at night. Just it's the first chance to kind of get to know the guys behind the helmet and who they are, how they tick.

Speaker 1 We've obviously done a lot of background. You know, we'll be calling Mike a lot to ask him about his guys real soon.
They're good, right, Mike, aren't they? All the guys.

Speaker 1 But that's part of it. You're trying to dot the I's, cross the T's.
And then from here, obviously the guys that are working out, you're kind of getting that first basis of 40s, jumps, all that stuff.

Speaker 1 And then we're lining out our pro days, private workouts, and then the 30 visits. So it's just, it's one piece.
The medical thing is obviously huge.

Speaker 1 You hear these stories of whether this guy's going to have to have a surgery or, you know, whatever, which can affect their draft status. Yeah, and the medical is interesting.

Speaker 1 Do all of them have to do medical, or is it something that is... Is medical like the only...

Speaker 1 It feels like nobody skips out on the medical, right? Or am I wrong on that? In general, I think there's been one or two, but in general, they at least do that,

Speaker 1 which is important. If you're going to come here and not do the medical, then probably shouldn't show up.

Speaker 1 Well, and if you're going to pay somebody millions of dollars, you should at least know that what you're paying for is operable. So let's talk about that.

Speaker 1 Abdul Carter, who's some people are saying, generational talent, he on like a Friday, or I don't forget today, maybe Tuesday, maybe it was Monday, whatever the case.

Speaker 1 This guy's going to need surgery on his right foot or his foot, gonna need a bolt in there, eight weeks, or he can power through and showcase he's tough enough.

Speaker 1 But it came across like medical has flagged him. Then the next day it was like, actually, he's good to go.
Is that as much as like one team flagging another team not? Or how does that normally go?

Speaker 1 Do you all get individual reads on people and scores on people when it comes to the medical? How does that work from behind the scenes?

Speaker 1 Yeah, so there's a conglomerate of the best docs, physicians across our country, all here. And so it may be one physician from a team.
It may not be the Buffalo Bills.

Speaker 1 It may be another one that flags it. These guys all look at it, they talk about it, and they make recommendations to the player, you know, himself.
Then the agent may get involved.

Speaker 1 The agent may have connections to a certain physician, send them out. There's going to be second, on a guy like that, especially you're talking about a guy that's going to be

Speaker 1 potentially drafted at the top. There's going to be a lot of opinions on it.
So I personally don't have anything from our physician yet on it, but it's something

Speaker 1 in the coming weeks. Yeah, I mean.
With Abdul, I'm just saying in general, this happens.

Speaker 1 You guys straighten up to one?

Speaker 1 No, no, no, no, no, no.

Speaker 1 No,

Speaker 1 No, I was saying maybe it's really medically bad and he should probably fall to 30. Oh, yeah, you're saying.

Speaker 1 Yeah, because there is a little bit of that gamesmanship. I'm not saying you guys would do it.

Speaker 3 No, we'd never.

Speaker 1 But at this point, there is gamesmanship with players and stuff, right? I mean, that happens. We saw that with C.J.
Stroud, remember?

Speaker 1 There was a leaked one portion of a test that is just like one of like 10 scores. Found a negative one, leaked it.
This guy's a dipshit.

Speaker 1 And then it turns out, obviously, he's not. He goes on to do what he did in his rookie year, but there seems like there is stories that kind of get out there.

Speaker 1 How do you kind of dodge, duck, dip, dive, and dodge through that? And do you all just understand that it's happening?

Speaker 1 You understand it's happening, but you've got to make sure you have the people that you trust to make those decisions. And if it's medical, you're counting on your physicians, and they understand

Speaker 1 how important it is, especially when you're talking about drafting a guy as high as Abdul Carter in this case.

Speaker 1 You know, there's some guys that we may have a third-round grade on, and our doc may say, hey, I think this is a one-contract player. Like he's got bad knee arthritis.

Speaker 1 I think he can make it three or four years. We may say, well, we're not going to take him in the third, but if he fell to the fifth or the sixth, what's the odds of a fifth, sixth rounder?

Speaker 1 Two contracts. To make it to the second contract.
So at some point, take a swing. And there's been many stories of guys that have...
failed their physical and they've played into multiple contracts.

Speaker 1 So at some point it's worth the risk. Yeah, I can imagine.
I appreciate the gathering of the information and you also telling us all this information. Now let's talk about your team right now.

Speaker 1 Young NFL MVP, bro. I know that's not the ultimate goal.

Speaker 1 But as a GM, as an evaluator, as a scouter, you pick this guy.

Speaker 1 We saw what he was his rookie year, but you're betting on not only the player, but the human and the competitor and everything that Josh Allen is.

Speaker 1 And then from one year to the next, we watch him just become the prototype of what people are looking for.

Speaker 1 That would be a cool moment for you whenever Josh won the MVP, legitimately, because you felt like a believer, I assume. Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 1 I mean, it's obviously he had a non-traditional journey, junior college,

Speaker 1 emailing all these coaches to get a scholarship, gets one offer at Wyoming. And then we know all the people that were questioning, you know, could he play quarterback at the NFL? And, you know,

Speaker 1 he drafted where he's drafted. He was criticized.
We were criticized for doing it.

Speaker 1 But he never wavered. You know, he took to criticism.
And, you know, he's always had that chip.

Speaker 1 And just doing our research, this young man, you know, he had his chip, you know, way before people were giving him reasons to have a chip.

Speaker 1 And he's got a chip now is as excited as he was and honored to to win the MVP he knows and we know the ultimate goal is to bring a championship to Buffalo and so that didn't remove any chip winning the MVP yeah he works his ass off you know I think it's pretty obvious that he works his tail off because development from one year to the next is obviously spectacular and special lamba you got any questions for being well I mean I think to me that his ability to be accurate Josh, everybody questioned whether that could happen.

Speaker 3 I mean, having work for Coach Walsh, that was like, could he ever do that? Because his arm and all that talent was amazing.

Speaker 3 And credit him and your organization for believing that he could do it, because that's usually something that doesn't happen. But my question to you would be:

Speaker 3 you know, you're like a lot of teams that have been so close that kind of have to break through the threshold.

Speaker 3 You know, when you watched the Super Bowl, what was your reaction to what do we have to do to break through the threshold?

Speaker 1 Yeah, I mean, ultimately, I don't think you want to overreact. Naturally, that game played out the way it did.

Speaker 1 Philly, you know, scored early and got a defensive touchdown and really allowed that Philly pass rush to pin their ears back. If that stays

Speaker 1 a one-score game longer, maybe they're able to stay in it. But Philly, you go back to how did Tampa Bay beat them during the COVID year? It was the same thing.
Their D-line

Speaker 1 got after them. And so

Speaker 1 Sean and I both believe in building up front and whether it's the O-line and the D-line. Obviously you got to have a quarterback.
So that's probably where

Speaker 1 we could always look to improve. And we've tried.
And listen, I've got to do a better job there as well of making sure that I give us the weapons that we need. Trenches is easy to go, Pat.

Speaker 1 Lumbo, yes, pick where he picks and stay good.

Speaker 3 It's just that the system's rigged against them.

Speaker 3 And when you have good players, your system's rigged, you've got to have cap problems.

Speaker 1 Mal, Belichick had a terrible drafting record, remember? That's what I was excited. And you're picking at like 30, and right now they're saying...

Speaker 1 Right now they're saying 10 to 35 is all basically the same. It's just hard.

Speaker 3 You're not going to find an elite three technique at 31.

Speaker 1 I mean,

Speaker 1 4-2 probably not going to exist.

Speaker 1 4-3 probably not going to exist.

Speaker 3 It's such a hard thing to do, especially when you're trying to get the off. I mean, Howie's sitting there, and he got a defensive three technique just dropped in his lap, right?

Speaker 3 I mean, you know, it just

Speaker 3 didn't miss it. You had that, right, Mel?

Speaker 1 Without a doubt. You know, I say, hey, best player on my board, you know, you'd be an idiot not to take him.
And somehow, you know, the Eagles slide up and get him.

Speaker 1 Brandon, I did want to ask you a question, though. Now, listen, this happened last year, and I wonder if your philosophy has changed at all.

Speaker 1 Obviously, you guys trade with the Chiefs, you know, and they end up getting Xavier Worthy.

Speaker 1 Talambo's point, he was one of those guys. 4-2.
4-2 guy at that time, yeah. 4-2 was there.

Speaker 1 He scored in the ANC title game. He did.
Now, and everyone, obviously, Connor is a Patriots fan, as you know.

Speaker 1 I just thought I'd mention it. Exactly.
I thought I mentioned that.

Speaker 1 You know, fans and people on Twitter are going to take pot shots at you and shit on you and say, hey, what are we doing? We can't beat the Chiefs.

Speaker 1 And we're trading with them and letting them get another guy. They got another guy who maybe we could have used.

Speaker 1 Do you take any stock into that?

Speaker 1 I mean, are you thinking at all on draft night, hey, we can't, you know, these guys are calling, we can't trade with them because they're a team that we're going to see down the road in the playoffs.

Speaker 1 Does last year, does that put a sour taste in your mouth at all? Or is that something where it's like, hey, guess what, guy on Twitter, go fuck yourself.

Speaker 1 I'm the GM of this team, and I know what I need to do to kind of put us in a position to win a Super Bowl.

Speaker 1 Yeah, I mean, to me, you always, your first thing is, what is the best decision for the Buffalo Bills? And you can't worry.

Speaker 1 you don't have their draft board they're not calling you and you understand anytime you trade you trade out of a pick that they could take you know the highest player in your board the second like how far do you want to go back and so we just felt like you know we moved back and then we moved back again but we acquired a third-round pick out of that and we did not have one so we got a defensive tackle in Dwayne Carter that played a lot of meaningful snaps people look at it as Keon, they want to make a battle between Keon and Xavier.

Speaker 1 And what I would say is it's okay if both players turn out to be good players in the NFL. And one player can fit one team better.
The other one can fit their system better.

Speaker 1 We're one year in. I don't think you can ever decide whether a player is going to the Hall of Fame after one season or that he stinks.
And

Speaker 1 all the glory to Xavier Worthy. He did a nice job year one.
We like Keon Coleman as well, and we're excited to get him where we did. And time will tell if I'm an idiot or not.

Speaker 1 There's other reasons I'm an idiot, but time will be. Because he's sandbagged on a golf course.
Is that why? Do you think that's a reason?

Speaker 1 Well, I I was going to say, he kind of stuck it up their ass with Shakir anyway, so it's like, hey, guess what? This guy's pretty good. Congrats on the new deal.

Speaker 1 Okay, all right. So obviously, over the last couple seasons, we've seen him come into, oh, who is this guy? To, oh, this is a guy.
And obviously, you think the same thing you paid him.

Speaker 1 Congrats on getting a deal done. Yeah, no, excited to get Khalil.

Speaker 1 He's one of those guys that has become more of a household name year three, but found him in the fifth round out of Boise a couple of seasons ago.

Speaker 1 And late in his rookie year, Josh and him really started forming a rapport. And then he actually actually led us his rookie year in receiving in the postseason that year.

Speaker 1 And then we come into year two for him. We still had Gabe.
We had Steph. And, you know, I thought we had a real good trio with those guys.
But we had a lot of confidence. And Gabe got paid.

Speaker 1 We were, you know, we were happy for Gabe. You don't want to lose him.
And we made the decision we did with Steph.

Speaker 1 But a lot of that was the confidence that we had in Khalil and the guys that we were going to bring on board. And he did not.

Speaker 1 do anything but give us more confidence and we're excited to you know to be able to extend him through 29. fifth rounder to signing that big deal congratulations Khalil Shakir.

Speaker 1 Legit, that's a big deal. Tying it back to the combine, great hosting.
Thank you.

Speaker 1 What did he show? You said fifth round you got him. What did he show here or in the process that made you think that he could become a guy? Yeah, I think he's one of those guys.
He's a sneaky speed.

Speaker 1 We saw him at Boise. He could play inside, could play outside, really smart.
He was at the senior bowl. I thought he stood out down there the week I was down there in practice.

Speaker 1 I don't remember what he did in the game, but in practice, you could feel he's just one of those guys. He was always open.
And at Boise,

Speaker 1 when the ball was in his cylinder, his frame, he came down with it. He's reliable, he's consistent.

Speaker 1 And so I think just what you saw on film, plus every step of the way, senior bowl combine, and then when you interview the young man, he's just, he's got a quiet confidence.

Speaker 1 He's not going to boast and tell you how good he is. He's just going to, you know, he's a lunch pale.
He fits Buffalo, you know, you know, perfectly. Yeah, you have a great culture up there, too.

Speaker 1 Keep building. You transition now into your new roster, which you're going to have to do, especially whenever you have an NFL MVP and a very good amount of players.

Speaker 1 You're going to have to figure out your next team, your next team. Obviously, you watched New England have to do that for a long time, 20 years.

Speaker 1 They had like four or five different teams there that were able to have success. The Chiefs are doing the same exact thing.
You guys are going to have to do that.

Speaker 1 Now, back to the original New England Patriots fan, Boston Connor, has a question for you.

Speaker 1 Yeah, yeah, and we'll see if you can do that. Not many can.
The Chiefs even can't, so you know, no pressure. Don't worry about it.
Don't hold that standard that high because it's unsurmountable.

Speaker 1 But to the point of, you know, rebuilding the roster, salary cap now, $279.2 million, million, obviously massive number, highest of all time.

Speaker 1 Is it a relief having that number kind of set in stone now and you can kind of make your projections of who you guys can sign, who you can bring in, what contracts you kind of need to change?

Speaker 1 Or is that already something you've been working on?

Speaker 1 And also, knowing that you're paying Josh a bunch of money, does it help a lot now that we are all the way at damn near $280 million at the cap?

Speaker 1 Yeah, I mean, it's, listen, in my seat, you always want it to go up as much as it can because you know. You squeeze a few more more in it.

Speaker 1 You're looking under all these cushions for a couple of dimes and nickels.

Speaker 1 But yes, we always try to error, you know, at the end of the season when we're looking at the guys we want to extend or guys we're going to have to move on from.

Speaker 1 We're kind of erring on, you know, we were in the kind of low 270s as what we were figuring out what we're going to have to be at. So then last week we got the range of 277 to 281 and 5, I think.

Speaker 1 And so to get this number, it really helps.

Speaker 1 We're obviously studying that. We extended Shakir.
So, you know, now's when you're having those conversations of guys on your roster that you want to extend.

Speaker 1 Can you create space by extending a guy, restructuring his deal, or potentially moving on? You know, last year we had, you know, as Pat was talking about, we had a year of transition.

Speaker 1 Everybody we knew. Yeah.

Speaker 1 I still remember you, FaceTime. I mean, what are we doing? You just cut every player that I've ever known with Buffalo Bill.

Speaker 1 I mean, what are we doing? It's not funny either.

Speaker 1 I was still hurting over doing that. I know, I know, I know.
I didn't even think about you being a human. I didn't even think about you being a human.
I'm just like, this guy up here has got no soul.

Speaker 1 Hey, what are we doing? And you're like, yeah, I know. This is a tough day right now.

Speaker 1 My wife's already yelling at me about it.

Speaker 1 But it's not easy. That's part of the business.
And if you're going to be successful, you're going to have to continue to do it.

Speaker 1 Excited to watch you take advantage of the lower end of those salaries of the 279.2, which is the rookies coming out of the draft. Tone has a question for you.

Speaker 2 Yeah, Mr. Beaton, a question and kind of

Speaker 2 a tidbit for you, because last year we were at the owner's meeting and we said, hey, it's a deep wide receiver class. You should take a wide receiver.
And then you did.

Speaker 1 Remember that? Remember that? Keep bringing all the abundance.

Speaker 2 This year, tight end, you're good there. Running back, you're probably good there.

Speaker 2 Great pick out of Kentucky last year.

Speaker 1 Dude, he was much faster, I think, than I thought. And he was able to take it.
Yeah, very good. Yeah, he was

Speaker 3 the whole way, though. You knew it.

Speaker 1 I thought it was a first round, so great value getting where he got it. And then D-tackle, Mill.
D-tackle this year. Mad Mel.
Mad Mel, excuse me.

Speaker 2 So I'm just saying, probably

Speaker 2 with your pick, 30, was it 30? Probably D-Tackle this year. So when you're looking yesterday, last night, you could probably go home today.
I think you probably saw your guy last night, and who is it?

Speaker 1 I don't know yet. We'll see.

Speaker 1 Tell me who's there, and I'll tell you.

Speaker 1 Who are the tackles?

Speaker 2 What's his name out of Oregon's?

Speaker 1 Oh, Harmon. Derek Harmon.
Okay, so you know him better than us. Thanks, why don't you tell me? Well, I would hope I know him better than you.
Well, let's go.

Speaker 1 That's why you're on the street. I know we got Mad Mel, so I respectfully stayed.

Speaker 1 I respectfully state.

Speaker 2 National champion, Ohio State, two tackles that are probably in that range.

Speaker 1 Michigan, Mayford. Michael Collins, probably.

Speaker 2 Yeah, Kenneth Grant's in that area. So, you know, just a couple.

Speaker 1 Just get them all down to me, and I'll pick the best one. What do you think of this draft class thus far, though? The depth of it, to his point, is in a couple different positions, allegedly.

Speaker 1 At your position, normally going to be taking need, not necessarily best available, like 30, whatever.

Speaker 1 Best and. Yeah, yeah.
You want it to marry. Yeah, yeah, obviously.

Speaker 1 You want it to be the best yep if that position of need has a crop top end can't do it okay we got to go somewhere else but if the position of need has a good top end we're going to hit that especially back half or at least last third of first round right that's kind of my yeah i mean to me you can you can the best thing you can do if if you really want to hit a need and you don't feel the values there trade back a little bit and try and pick up a pick and then hit that player where you got value you just got to make sure you don't trade back too far and if you got two guys there that you would love either one of them, but you don't like them at pick 30, maybe you like them at pick 40 to 50.

Speaker 1 If you think they'll be there, trade back, pick up a, you know, like last year we picked up a third round, you know, with the move to get Keon. So there's, you know, there's a little analysis.

Speaker 1 You got to kind of evaluate your board. You're a mover and shaker.
Oh, yeah. You are a mover and shaker.

Speaker 1 They got 10 picks this year. Oh, shit.
Oh, shit. What the hell? Hey, that's.
Wow. Hey, 10 picks is a lot.
We need it, but we need them.

Speaker 1 You talked about the cap, paying Josh Allen, the guys we have, we extend Shakir. You know, you have to, you know, as Michael tell you, you have to hit on these draft picks.

Speaker 1 We have to continue to find these

Speaker 1 lower-cost guys. If we don't hit those, it's not a sustainable product to continue winning.
Lombo, what do you think is his focus of building his culture from watching his team? And then, Mr.

Speaker 1 Bean, I would like to hear your response to his analysis of the team. Y'all stop calling me Mr.
Bean. Y'all make me feel like I'm 100 years old.
No, Mr. Bean.
Mr. Character.
It's a character.

Speaker 1 It's an English character.

Speaker 1 Yeah, yeah, yeah. And you need to know who that is, and we respect you now.
Rowan Atkinson, great actor.

Speaker 3 You know, Pat, I think it's exactly the way the NFL needs to work. It's two guys that have the shared philosophy, and they work together.

Speaker 3 You know, he just mentioned that they believe in the offensive and defensive line. Sean was with Andy in Philadelphia, so he was influenced there.

Speaker 3 And I think that if you're going to win in this league, you've got to have two people doing the job because Sean can't scout all the players and he can't coach the team.

Speaker 3 So you have to have two people that can do the job, but they share the same philosophy.

Speaker 3 I think what happens in the league a lot is we think this collection of five or six people can make it when really it comes down to two people, and then those two people educating the organization on the shared philosophy.

Speaker 3 I think where they deserve a ton of credit is the transition from being an 11 team to being more of a Buffalo team, weather-wise, when they got into 12.

Speaker 1 Oh, yeah, because remember, your team wasn't built for Buffalo. Wasn't that the conversation a few years back?

Speaker 3 You know, you heard that, I think.

Speaker 1 No, it was, it was, and it was right. Listen, I I did not have a physical enough run game when the weather, you know, and we adjusted to that and knew that

Speaker 1 we could throw it with anybody, but can we run it when the weather dictates that?

Speaker 3 Well, I think they've done a great job of it. I think you've done a great job of that.
Joe Brady took over

Speaker 3 a handle on that. And as the league now is transitioning into this,

Speaker 3 remember, it wasn't popular to run the ball. Now all of a sudden Philly's made it, Philly had, what, 11 games where they ran the ball more than they threw it?

Speaker 1 Yeah, I think they had 200 more rush attempts than pass attempts.

Speaker 3 Yeah, and so we're seeing it.

Speaker 3 And so I think, and they have a fifth running back on their team. I mean, who could stop him in the goal line? Who could stop him in the red zone, right? So it's a problem.

Speaker 3 And I think to me, that's the hard part. It's just defensively, it's hard to sit there in 30 and think you're going to get defensive linemen.
You have to kind of get a couple breaks.

Speaker 3 I think the best in 15, we had a really good, we didn't win the Super Bowl, we lost to Denver, but we had a really good defensive front, but we kind of piss-pieced it together, get Hakeem Hicks for nothing.

Speaker 3 Alan Branch was on the street. We got him from Buffalo, actually.
Kind of got his life back in order.

Speaker 3 It was a little bit of a,

Speaker 3 that line was good. We had Chandler Jones with a first-round pick, but it's hard to get that when you're picking in the 30s.
I'm not making excuses, but it's just, you got to get lucky on some things.

Speaker 1 How do you feel about what Lombardi did? He just poured a massive amount of praise on it, and then he kind of took a shot at what you did have at one point, and then he came back into the praising.

Speaker 1 This is a sandwich technique.

Speaker 1 I wasn't there, though, if he's talking about Alan Branch. No, no, no, he's talking about the not built for Buffalo.
Oh, yeah, yeah. He was spot on, though.

Speaker 1 Yeah, and you have to, every single year you have to self-assess everything you guys have, right? And that's a whole process? Yeah, you got to, I mean, why did you come up short?

Speaker 1 Were you just turning the ball over?

Speaker 1 Could you not run the ball effectively? Could you not stop the run? Could you not get to the pass? So you got to look at how you're going to beat.

Speaker 1 I mean, we all know the AFC is a gauntlet to get through, and it's not changing anytime soon. So

Speaker 1 we always start with our division. You got to, you know, if you don't, that's your easiest ticket in, and you're getting at least one home game.
So we start with the Dolphins, Jets, and Patriots.

Speaker 1 But after that, you know, these same teams, you know, starting with what Kansas City's done, you got to give them a lot of credit to beat whatever seven or eight straight AFC championship games.

Speaker 1 That's remarkable. Okay, and he mentioned you and McDermott rowing in the same direction.
And a lot of places that kind of starts to splinter.

Speaker 1 You know, I want the credit, or I don't want the blame, or I got good players, I have bad players, there's a lot of opportunity. There isn't, I mean, those happen.

Speaker 1 That's whenever a bad friend franchise and bad culture happens. You and McDermott, obviously, I got a chance to see him yesterday.
He's cool looking, man, isn't he? Tough son of a bitch.

Speaker 1 He's a tough son of a bitch. But it feels like you two rowing in the same direction.
What is it about him that makes you like him so much?

Speaker 1 And what is your thoughts on him at this stage of being a head coach as opposed to maybe a few years back? Yeah, I mean, Sean and I worked together in Carolina.

Speaker 1 Yeah, I knew who he was, you know, coming up behind Jim Johnson, you know, the late D coordinator that was for Andy and Philly. And so

Speaker 1 he, you know, Andy moved on, made a decision. You know, Ron Rivera comes in, and Sean and I were together for, I think, six seasons in Carolina.

Speaker 1 made a Super Bowl against Denver, same year you were talking about.

Speaker 1 And so, you know, Sean gets there, and then I get there, and we both kind of, you know, when you're working together, even though you're not in the seat he's in or I'm in, you're having conversations with people.

Speaker 1 And so there were many times Sean and I had conversations about building a team. And just like I was telling Mike, building it up front, things like that.

Speaker 1 So I think you start with, do you believe, is your philosophy the same? Like if your philosophy for winning is different, it's probably going to be hard to get on the same page.

Speaker 1 And then, you know, Sean's a good person. We believe in treating people well, building, you know, it's team and it's not about me.
It's about we. What can we do? What's my role?

Speaker 1 And so I think that's how you get a shared vision and an alliance. How hungry are you guys, man?

Speaker 1 So hungry. You got to be up there.
I mean, just so good. So, I mean, just ha.

Speaker 1 Ha. And Bill's Mafia is ready to explode.
I mean, that was a first down, too, by the way. Yes.
Thank you. Thank you.
It was. Horseshit.
But now we got to get it. Yeah, we are very fascinated.

Speaker 1 There's a sensor in the ball now.

Speaker 1 That's the rule truth. Now there's a sensor in the ball.
So everything's going to be right now going forward. I'm glad we could be the test dummy.

Speaker 1 Again.

Speaker 1 Again. Again.
Change the rules.

Speaker 1 All right, we're wrapping up here on ESPN. You guys have a fantastic weekend.
Obviously, the NFL Combine will be taking place here in Lucas Oh Stadium in Indianapolis, Indiana, forever, I hope.

Speaker 1 And I assume. And Rich Eisen and Daniel Jeremiah will be the host of that.
They are great at what they do. Athletes will be doing spectacular things on this turf.

Speaker 1 Can't wait to talk about it all on Monday. Elimination Chamber.
Also tomorrow night, live from Toronto, Canada. The Four Nations champs.
From everybody in the truck, great work this week, boys.

Speaker 1 Great work this week.

Speaker 1 To everybody that set this whole thing up, great work this week. To the boys, thank you so, so much.
To Ty Schmidt, we miss you. To Mad Mel, thanks for stopping by.

Speaker 1 Brandon Bean, Michael Lombardi, and us will continue on YouTube, ESPN Plus, Disney Plus, and TikTok Live. You are the greatest people on earth for allowing us to do this for a living.

Speaker 1 Be a friend, tell a friend something nice. It might change their life.
Goodbye.

Speaker 1 Okay, now we're still live. You watch that.
That shit was right in your face, Bean. That was.

Speaker 3 He did that without a monitor.

Speaker 1 That's what I was saying. I was looking.
He did that.

Speaker 3 That's what you call a pro. That's what you call a pro.

Speaker 1 What do you mean without a monitor? There's a monitor up there. There's a

Speaker 3 teleprompter.

Speaker 1 It wasn't telling you what to say. Oh, brother.

Speaker 1 Brother, you're right.

Speaker 1 Can you imagine this show with a teleprompter?

Speaker 1 It'd be much, I mean, my reading comprehension is not that good. So I don't know if I Ty would be able to do it.
He's like a speed reader. Connor reads a lot.
I don't know. Connor reads a lot.

Speaker 1 Tone and I, same school system. We do.
Did we tweet a text?

Speaker 2 Was that over break or whatever? I had missed something in one of your tweets, and you said, hey, oh, it was the Super Bowl. It was the Super Bowl contest with the score of whatever.

Speaker 2 And I said, reading comprehension.

Speaker 1 Yeah, you're supposed to put, he put the score down, the exact score, 27, 13. Didn't put who was winning, though.
And he's like a representative of the program now. We're giving away whatever.

Speaker 1 So it's like, hey, you needed to at least.

Speaker 1 People got to know. People need to know how to enter an actual submission.
I was like,

Speaker 1 and it did come out of nowhere, and I don't give like a group text, like, hey, this is how this is going to go. So it's on me.
But yeah, we don't read that good.

Speaker 1 Before we let you go, and we can thank you enough for joining us. Oh, yeah.
How's the golf game? You know, because golf season is. Yeah, it's beautiful in Buffalo right now.
Yeah, what do you do?

Speaker 1 Do you TGL it?

Speaker 1 I got a simulator. How is the game?

Speaker 1 It's all right. You doing any business while you're Sim?

Speaker 1 I have. Okay, so speakerphone.
Yeah. Listen to this draft.

Speaker 1 I won't do that.

Speaker 1 I stop and have the conversation.

Speaker 1 I'm not swinging and doing it. No, I'm on.
But I got the phone in there ready to roll. How often are you talking?

Speaker 1 Because I think it was a couple years back you told us, like, if you even see a tweet from Pro Football Talks, Mike Florio, who is obviously, you know,

Speaker 1 yeah.

Speaker 1 You know, Florio.

Speaker 1 As the name was coming out of my mouth, I thought, oh, okay, great.

Speaker 1 This is great. But anyways, hey, he had a great breakdown of that Starbucks stare down.

Speaker 1 Have you guys solved that crime yet? Rap sheet came over here. Rap sheet came over here.

Speaker 1 He had two black eyes, dude. No, he didn't.
No,

Speaker 1 that is not the case.

Speaker 1 We don't know if they're going to shake hands before they get out of here. They're not going to shake hands.
No. But rap.

Speaker 3 It's almost like Mel and Bill Tobin, the late great Bill Tobin.

Speaker 1 I mean, that was a remember. Rest in peace, Bill.
I was going to say, where's Bill Tobin at? Okay. Rest in peace, Bill.

Speaker 1 Bill was a wonderful guy.

Speaker 3 Bill was a wonderful guy.

Speaker 1 Bill is. Rest in peace, Bill.

Speaker 1 Yes, please. That was disgusting.
We love Bill Tobin. I didn't bring it.

Speaker 1 We scratched that from the record. Yeah, we'd like to...

Speaker 1 Shake his hand and squash it if he's a guy. Yeah, absolutely.

Speaker 1 But I think what Rap wanted

Speaker 1 me to know, and I said, you should say this. You're an insider.
He goes, it's not for me to say. He says

Speaker 1 he did not call NFL security. That's big news.
That's big news. I think that is kind of breaking news from a news breaker there.
He's saying, I did not call NFL security.

Speaker 1 Was I asked about the incident? Because a lot of people saw it by

Speaker 1 superiors in

Speaker 1 definitely. So he's saying he's not the one that was like, mommy, you know, like that is.
Sure. Yeah, because Jordan was like, dad, you know, and then everybody said rap was like, mom, you know.

Speaker 1 So that rap,

Speaker 1 rap would like to let everybody know that he was not the one that called NFL security. That is what our source says

Speaker 1 are telling us. So you just gave your source away? Yeah, it's Ian.
Ian, Rap. He told me right over here.
Yeah. That's a great source breaker.
Thank you. Thank Thank you.

Speaker 1 You should have heard it the other day. I got a text from source six that said, I'm playing next year.
So that was a tough giveaway as well. But let's talk about it.

Speaker 1 You would read something, hear something pops up somewhere. It's like, ooh, maybe there is a little, where there's smoke, there's fire.
Maybe there is a little issue.

Speaker 1 You'll check in with the GM on the player.

Speaker 1 And it doesn't necessarily mean I want to trade. It doesn't necessarily mean I want to make a deal.
You're just trying to gather information. Does that happen still?

Speaker 1 And how rapid is that happening right now, especially at this combine here? I think it's always always happening because the league never stops.

Speaker 1 I mean, there's guys that you're hearing in June, you know, for whatever reason, a team drafted a player and now they realize, man, they want to get that player on the field.

Speaker 1 They've got a contract that they could move on from. So I don't feel like it really stops until you get to like late June between there and camp.
It kind of dies down.

Speaker 1 And, you know, we got our staff, you know, they're on top of it more than me. They're keeping me up to date, you know, with my scouts.

Speaker 1 They're on Twitter and all that way more than I, or X, whatever it's called, way more than I am.

Speaker 1 Yeah, but I try to track it as well as I can, but we've got a good group of people, and we'll put on text chain, hey, I heard it from an agent, I heard it on Pro Football Talk, I heard it on, you know, X, whatever it is.

Speaker 1 And so then it may not just be me, it may be one of them may reach out to one of their contacts on a club and say, hey, Reading, is this true?

Speaker 1 Just so you know whether you want to spend any time on it or not, do I want to go watch the player and evaluate him, or I don't need to waste my time. And normally truth is told there.

Speaker 1 I would say most of the time it is. Now, not all the time.
Sometimes the team may say at this point they're thinking about it, but they haven't kind of, you know,

Speaker 1 they're not saying yes, but they're not saying no. Okay, you could also send one of your capos out, it sounds like, and say, hey,

Speaker 1 do we have any operation going on here? And respond back, go, yeah, yeah, sure, sure, sure, sure. Go ahead and waste your time on all that stuff.
And then when it comes back, nah, we got nothing.

Speaker 1 How about when a player says, I'm not willing to negotiate, feels like, now, granted, be who you can afford to be.

Speaker 1 The Miles Garrett-Cleveland Garrett, Browns situation, for instance, which could, I mean, O-line, D-line, Howie, this is

Speaker 1 Miles Garrett allegedly not willing to negotiate with Cleveland Browns, okay? Has asked for his trade very loudly, obviously. Wants the world to know, not just capos, finding out.

Speaker 1 I'm sure if you've heard about it. Not yet.

Speaker 1 Have you heard? No, I haven't heard that. Okay.
Well, there you go. Okay, so Miles Garrett is not happy.
Thanks, guys.

Speaker 1 In his message, actually, he utilized Andrew Berry's words in a bar that was like, get me out of here, like a direct shot, seemingly in the thing.

Speaker 1 Miles Garrett, top five player in whatever you want to have conversation, obviously defensive player of the year. He said, I just want to win, man.

Speaker 1 I would like to be in the big games. So he wants to go to a place that's great, which obviously would suit you in the entirety.

Speaker 1 But when you hear something like that, does it scare you that the player feels like that with the team? Like, how do you go about reading one of those situations?

Speaker 1 And I'm not saying exactly Miles, but this has happened with star players in the past, obviously. Yeah, I mean, listen,

Speaker 1 when there was rumors about Steph wanting out before, you know, before we actually moved on, even a year prior, things like that.

Speaker 1 So sometimes there's some truth to it, sometimes there's no truth to it. I think you start with

Speaker 1 the player himself and or his representatives, and you just have truthful conversations about where both sides are at.

Speaker 1 And sometimes you may have to agree to disagree

Speaker 1 on that circumstance. And so you got to, in this role, you have to do what's best for your club.
And

Speaker 1 is it time to break it off now?

Speaker 1 Is it, you know what, we're going to do it for another year like we did Steph and break it off later?

Speaker 1 So I think that situation, I don't, you know, I couldn't tell you what the facts are other than some of the stuff you're doing. He's had a cop of good down in Cleveland.
Good down around the lake.

Speaker 1 Lombardi, as we wrap up this hour, we appreciate you hanging out.

Speaker 1 Any parting words for Mr. Bean here?

Speaker 3 No, I mean, look, he's got more money than he thought he was going to have. He's got great, opportunity.
We've got 10 draft picks. I mean, you know, last year's last year.

Speaker 3 Everybody's 0-0, so started all over again.

Speaker 1 Yeah, good luck, Mr. Bean.
We appreciate you, Brandon, for joining us. And congrats on all the success thus far.
How old are you? 48.

Speaker 1 Oh, you look so young. Yeah, spruce.

Speaker 1 You look younger than that.

Speaker 1 I'm not as young as Gladstone. Well, that's what I was going to say.
Gladstone, let's look at him in four years.

Speaker 1 President? I didn't have, when I did my press conference, I didn't have gray hair when I was 40. Do you guys have a group text, gentlemen? You'd have to reach out out to Glass, though.
Yeah, we do.

Speaker 1 I have not connected with him yet, but yeah, we'll make sure to do that. Because that's like a business, like, that's natural.
You have to have Tim.

Speaker 2 You actually only use a Snapchat. You have to do a Snapchat.

Speaker 1 Hey, Pim Squeak. Yeah, you guys got to give him a swirly in the bathroom here and kind of duck to him.
Hi. Welcome to the show, brother.

Speaker 1 Lombo, thanks for hanging out. Thanks, guys.

Speaker 3 I appreciate being here.

Speaker 1 Good luck. Thank you so much.
Thank you. We're about to get up and leave.
We're going to throw to a break, Lombo. We're going to throw to a break, Lombo.
You forgot how to do it. You too, Mr.
Beach.

Speaker 2 He's only been gone a month. He forgot how TV is.

Speaker 1 Yeah, Scott doesn't do TV anymore. He's a general manager.
Hey, there's gonna be a lot of players coming out of UNC. Let's go.
Let's go.

Speaker 1 I'm in for that.

Speaker 3 Chapel Hill's a nice place to visit.

Speaker 1 I'll be down there.

Speaker 1 I'm a North Carolina-born guy. Oh, yeah.
Plus, yeah, great golf course. Duke guy, though.
Great golf course. I'm not a Duke guy.

Speaker 1 Don't start that. Did you just cheers me, man? That's going to hurt.
That's going to hurt. Don't start that.
Hey,

Speaker 1 you saw in Bill's contract that was publicly because it was a state-down contract. He's a member down at that country club.
Remember, he's got the country club? Yeah,

Speaker 1 he's got a couple cars. Which country club? What is it down there?

Speaker 3 It's called Chapel Hill Country Club. It's beautiful.
It's right there. It's right next to the campus.
Then they have one on campus.

Speaker 3 I mean, it's North Carolina is, you know, they've got so many great. Last night we were at Quail Hollow, which is going to host the PGA there.
Good track.

Speaker 1 Great track. You see what he's doing right now?

Speaker 1 And it's on my simulator. Oh, how do you play it? Do you play it pretty well? I've played it, yeah.

Speaker 2 Remember, he, they, PGA last time, it was up in Buffalo or New York or whatever, and he lied about it.

Speaker 1 Yeah, he lied about your scoring. I did not.
It is 78. Yeah, you said you're not going to be able to do that.
Yeah, I'm normally in the 90s or whatever. I played my ass off to do that.

Speaker 1 Shout out to 75. Yeah.

Speaker 1 So you're saying we should be proud. You're saying like, hey.
No, I got lucky. I had the round of my life on the biggest stage here.
Yeah, I got lucky.

Speaker 1 And then there was a little bit of shh on the scorecard, wasn't there? Oh, Stan Orlovsky. Oh, yeah.

Speaker 1 Here we go.

Speaker 1 All right. Let's get to the round.
He's not even here to defend himself.

Speaker 1 He doesn't have to be here to defend himself. Wait a minute.
Wait a minute.

Speaker 1 Hey, here. Rap sheet, will you come over here, please? Oh, shit.
Rap sheet. Hey, Ian, he's breaking news on you that he already gave you up as the source, though.
Hey. What? I didn't give you up.

Speaker 1 I said my source

Speaker 1 said that I did not call NFL security.

Speaker 1 Yeah, that in my source was talking about your situation. That's all I said.

Speaker 1 I mean, I think you have good source

Speaker 1 ciz in this situation.

Speaker 1 How would I do that? Okay. I would number.

Speaker 1 My boss. I mean, me, but

Speaker 1 Logic Delta.

Speaker 1 Get the comms down here. Hey, the makeup's good, though, to cover up the shiner.
Yeah.

Speaker 1 Not long, but messed up. Hey, how's the week going for you, Rep?

Speaker 2 It's been a week. What's Stafford getting paid?

Speaker 7 Probably similar to last year.

Speaker 1 Last year he got 40. Should be about similar to that.
It's not done yet, but it's what I get. I heard he took less.
You reported that. What does that mean? How much less?

Speaker 7 So my understanding is like Giants and Raiders, you know, he was allowed to,

Speaker 1 Deja was allowed to talk to him.

Speaker 7 Would have been more higher 40s, maybe up to 50. And it wasn't going to be that for the Rams.
But if you're Stafford, it's like you can win there.

Speaker 1 It's home, actually home.

Speaker 7 So I think it made sense.

Speaker 1 All right, we appreciate you, Rapture. Great work this week.

Speaker 1 All right, we'll see this. Oh, he has no makeup.
That was a shot of you, Sam.

Speaker 1 That's how I look. Yeah, I woke up like this.
Being. Okay, I had some coffee from.

Speaker 1 Oh.

Speaker 1 Duncan Dunn. Oh, my God.

Speaker 1 All right.

Speaker 1 We appreciate you.

Speaker 2 He's trying to crash the stocks right now.

Speaker 1 Buddy, he's once he like realized, like, wait a second, nah. Yeah, I don't drink Starbucks anymore.
He's really been, he's really been going.

Speaker 1 I hope they shake hands, obviously, because the combine's a great place. We get a chance to chat with great friends like you two.
Thank you for stopping by.

Speaker 4 I am so excited for this spa day.

Speaker 1 Candles lit.

Speaker 4 Music on.

Speaker 1 Hot tub warm and ready.

Speaker 4 And then my chronic hives come back. Again, in the middle of my spa day.
What a wet blanket. Looks like another spell of itchy red skin.

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Learn more at treatmyhives.com.

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Speaker 8 Rules and restrictions apply.

Speaker 8 Come on, boy!

Speaker 1 Hey, that was good work there, Scott. Wow.
That was good work there, Scott. You should be proud of your work.
Unreal. Louisiana, Scott on the trip.
Obviously, yeah, he did.

Speaker 1 He was seeing the field a little bit differently today than he did yesterday. Last night he was dreaming like Queen's Gambit.

Speaker 1 He saw a couple different moves around the race cars and showcasing the Super Bowl champions on the wall. This Louisiana bayou boy has absolutely crushed for us.
And

Speaker 1 not just me, but the talks of table at Boston Connor and Mad Mel Kuiper and one half of the hammer. Done.
Cowboy's tongue digs. And all the boys in the truck wanted to make sure that he felt at home.

Speaker 1 So we actually ordered Scott, we got you some Gaita bots, some Gaider nuggets. A little bit of Gaider Nuggets.
Yes, Gator nuggets.

Speaker 1 And I don't know if we have a camera on it or not, but Bruce, Bruce has, go ahead, Bruce. Go ahead and hand him over to the guy.

Speaker 1 Scott, tell us what type. We think it's Gaita and...

Speaker 1 Some of that Indie Yay nuggets. Just want to let you know, yeah, we killed that Gaita right down the road here.
So I hope you enjoy it. We appreciate your work.

Speaker 1 You have been fantastic for us, brother, okay? Cheers to you, Scott. Who's making Gaita in Indiana? Yeah, to be clear, I'm not 100% sure.

Speaker 1 I thought of the idea yesterday, and me and Zeke chatted about it, and

Speaker 1 Zeke said, I can get Gator Buy to you by 2:30. And I said, Zeke, you know what? You go ahead and run with it.
I don't know where he got it. I don't know how he got it, but I'm appreciative of you.

Speaker 1 That's by you fresh. And he's buy you fresh.
I bet that gator doesn't taste like Governor Jeff Leandre's Gator. Well, Governor Jeff Leandre has the best Gaita.
Yes, he's still waiting on it.

Speaker 1 Yeah, when's that arrive? I think we're going to have to go to him potentially, but thank you, Scott. You've made our show better.
We appreciate it. And you saved your best for last there.

Speaker 1 I mean, you saved your best for last, which is obviously a thrill. We have a couple,

Speaker 1 you know, programming notes here.

Speaker 1 Big news.

Speaker 1 Fresh out of a meeting with Matthew Stafford that resulted in Matthew Stafford remaining with the Los Angeles Rams. Sean McVay, head coach of the Rams, will join us on Monday at 12.15.
Hell yeah.

Speaker 1 Sean McVay will be joining us. Shout out to Artemis, the PR guy over there, piecing this together.
Very nice to to Artis, I'm sorry, not Artemis. Jeez.

Speaker 1 Both names cool. Yeah, Artemis would be, that's a superhero name, which is what he did to make this happen.
But Artis for making this take place.

Speaker 1 And Sean McVay, we can't wait to chat with you, you know? Oh, yeah, coach. Thank you for the honor of joining us on Monday.
I can't wait for that conversation. First time? I think so, yeah.

Speaker 1 This will be our first time talking to him. We've learned a lot about him from afar, though.
We've obviously watched all his mic'd ups. We've seen him.
He was on the microphone for the Super Bowl.

Speaker 1 Crushed it. Absolutely crushed it.

Speaker 1 That's why whenever you hear amazon's offering him 20 million a year or 30 million a year to call games it's like oh this could potentially be the next voice of football if he wanted to madden uh john that is had a very early start as a head coach for the raiders wins a bunch retires at a very young age goes into tv becomes the john madden not that he wasn't an incredible coach he was he won a lot but it was in a short time period he goes to tv takes over feels like sean mcve potentially on the same track if he wanted but every year he turns it down and he says, I'm a football guy.

Speaker 1 I'm a football guy. Gruden, same exact thing.
Congrats on getting your name back up. Hell yeah.
In the ring of honor.

Speaker 1 In Tampa. But with that being said, Sean McVay on Monday is a big deal.
How'd they get the deal done, Matt Mill? How'd they get the deal done? How'd they get Matt to stay out there?

Speaker 1 Well, I think, you know, you look at it, and it's kind of one of those things where at Matthew Stafford's age, obviously, money is a big part of it, but he's made a lot of money.

Speaker 1 I mean, we all have talked about this. Pat, you've moved a couple times in, you know, the last couple years.
Moving is is the worst fucking thing ever. It sucks.

Speaker 1 He doesn't want to move his family. He's got kids.
He doesn't want to move them from one place to another. And he's at the end of his career.
He wants to be in a place where he can win a Super Bowl.

Speaker 1 We talked about it. The Rams were right there.
They pushed the Eagles to the brink. No one else in the playoffs did.
If they win that game, they're playing at home in the NFC Championship.

Speaker 1 And who knows? They might be Super Bowl champions. You could make that argument.
Sure, going to Vegas, they got a new everything, you know, Sin City, that'd be great.

Speaker 1 Are the Las Vegas Raiders going to win a Super Bowl next year? Probably not.

Speaker 1 Are you going to go play for the New York Giants? Are they going to win a Super Bowl next year? No.

Speaker 1 You know, if you go to the Giants, you're hoping, hey, maybe we'll win five games this year. I don't think that's...
Matthew Stafford's done that, okay?

Speaker 1 He played with the Lions, but they fucking sucked. He doesn't want to do that again.
He's in a pretty good spot in

Speaker 1 L.A., so I think it all kind of made sense. Hey, I'll go out there, I'll let people kind of smooch my nutsack and they get a little bit of that, didn't they? Exactly.

Speaker 1 They did that a little bit, but I think that's everybody likes that every once in a while. everybody likes that.
At the end of the day, I'm going to stay in LA with my family.

Speaker 1 My wife's a superstar here as well with her podcast. My kids are comfortable in school, and I'm going to go hunt another Super Bowl, Sean McVay.

Speaker 1 How about him saying it was nice to feel wanted, though?

Speaker 1 Because the Rams trade from Detroit took place allegedly in a resort down in Mexico over like a weekend extended stay.

Speaker 1 So it didn't get necessarily to hear from the entire league on if they would, how much they would pay a Matthew Stafford at this age. Allegedly, there were 90 to to $100 million offers out there.

Speaker 1 I don't know how many of that is ever going to get solidified or firmed up in the public knowledge, but allegedly the Giants were offering nine figures at this stage to get Matthew Stafford in there into the Dayball offense.

Speaker 1 Now, with the Matthew Stafford quarterback domino falling, and by falling, I mean staying put at home. Now all the other veteran quarterbacks are in conversation, including Aaron Rodgers.

Speaker 1 Adam Schefter has tweeted that now that Matthew Stafford will stay with the Los Angeles Rams, the New York Giants are investigating all veteran quarterback options,

Speaker 1 including Aaron Rodgers, per sources. So he doesn't just have a source.

Speaker 1 He has sources. Numerous people talking about that.
He's at the combine, a lot of people at the combine. It's like, yeah, we will certainly investigate whether or not he can keep the same house.

Speaker 1 He doesn't have to move. He actually already has this house in New Jersey.
And he can come play for the New York Football Giants.

Speaker 1 It'll be a different experience over here than it was for the New York Jets. And I assume he's not the only one.

Speaker 1 They're also going to be peeking at Sam Darnold and others as the veteran quarterback market is now a little bit more wide open with Stafford State.

Speaker 2 There's also some buzz about Russ Wilson going to the New York Giants. And I think that's, you know, it's not too far-fetched because if you guys remember,

Speaker 2 I remember because I'm a Steelers fan. He left the New York Giants facility and flew to the Pittsburgh Steelers facility last year.
And then he never left the facility and became a Pittsburgh Steeler.

Speaker 2 So they had interest. They had a lot of interest in Russ last year.
The New York Giants did.

Speaker 2 So it wouldn't be far-fetched to think that they would be potentially interested in him again this year if it's not Eric.

Speaker 1 What are your thoughts? I think the only difference between the Jets and the Giants is the colors. So I don't know if Rodgers wants to do that.
Yeah, but

Speaker 1 I'm sure. Yeah, fantastic colors.
One of the best schemes out there when it comes to colors. But I think that would probably sting for Rodgers.

Speaker 1 I think no matter what, all the teams that were maybe possibly drafting the quarterback, depending on, you know, Stafford, are still going to now be in the quarterback quarterback market.

Speaker 1 You know, if we're looking at Cleveland and we're looking at the Giants, when it comes to the draft, Cleveland, the Giants, the Raiders, you know, and pending Sam Darnold's, you know, if Rodgers or Cousins or Russell goes to any of those three teams, I think those three teams all still are thinking like, hey, we still need a long-term option, especially when it comes to Aaron.

Speaker 1 Aaron's, you know, going to be 42 if he's not already. That's not a thing.
If he wants to play, I think that's something that does get forgotten. Yeah.
Aaron Rodgers could certainly decide to retire.

Speaker 1 And that is not something.

Speaker 1 It's Aaron Rodgers football. Yeah.
I know.

Speaker 1 Before the darkness, he's sick. 90, 80% or something like that.
He's like 90-10, 80%, 20%. Yeah, so it's not as if that is something that he has never thought about.

Speaker 1 He was going to do it with the Packers before that situation played out, how it played out.

Speaker 1 Yeah, and honestly, you know, us reading the Aaron Rodgers situation, just as people that have been very lucky to talk to him weekly throughout the last five seasons, and there's been a lot that has happened, and then obviously getting a chance to learn about the human, the football, everything about him.

Speaker 1 I don't, just like the text I got from my source says about the tight end, Travis Kelsey in Kansas City, it's like his last sentence was, I can't go out like that, you know?

Speaker 1 And I know there's a lot of people that chase the dragon at the end of their careers, but like...

Speaker 1 There's no way Aaron lets that be the final taste in his mouth about NFL. In my eyes, I don't think, you know?

Speaker 1 Because the end of that season, he starts spinning it, you know, and obviously he's back from an Achilles. He starts moving.
That team starts playing much better.

Speaker 1 That team starts playing what everybody thought they were going to play like. No, obviously, way too little, way too late.
We're not saying that's not the case.

Speaker 1 But like those last couple games, it's just like when you go golfing. You know, it's just like when you go golfing.
You're done with golf.

Speaker 1 And then whole 17, whole 18, somehow you hit one and it's like a flop shot like Phil Mickelson. And it goes in and it's like, yeah,

Speaker 1 I shot 102 today but we'll play tomorrow if I do that one every single I'm not saying he's a 102 golfer I'm just saying at the end whenever you still you you I believe want to prove to everybody yeah I still got it I know I still got it and I think there's a very in my eyes and this is not from him I have not asked him we will talk to him next week we certainly will I mean that is certainly a question that'll be on the but like From a judgment standpoint, it's like, I think he's going to,

Speaker 1 I think he's playing football again. I think there is,

Speaker 1 personally, he has not said that. I think AJ would assume that he's gonna continue to play football because he is.
But at the end of the season, you think AJ thinks he's out?

Speaker 1 No, no, I don't think that. No, no, no.

Speaker 1 I think you're right.

Speaker 1 I legitimately think that is the case.

Speaker 1 But there is a chance he retires, though, and like literally just disappears into a jungle somewhere or into a house, or maybe he opens a book club or a bookstore.

Speaker 1 I mean, there's like so many different options with Aaron Rodgers.

Speaker 1 I believe that they're all being kind of dove into at this point, and who would blame him this deep into his career, a Hall of Fame career already? Yeah, no, I mean, I think he still wants to play.

Speaker 1 He doesn't want to go out like that for his sake. I hope he has more options than going to the fucking Giants.
I do not want to see him. I was going to think of it.
Where's he going to go and win?

Speaker 1 Who has openings in? Minnesota.

Speaker 1 Yes,

Speaker 1 if they don't want JJ. And we'll see.

Speaker 1 If they want JJ. Yes,

Speaker 2 if they don't want to start JJ's

Speaker 2 quarterback career this year.

Speaker 1 I mean, obviously, you want to win a Super Bowl, but I also think there's a difference between going somewhere and winning nine games and getting in the playoffs, and then we'll see, as opposed to the Giants just have so many holes.

Speaker 1 And it doesn't matter how, I don't think Rogers at 32 in the peak of his powers with this current roster that the Giants have. I don't think he's taking him to the Super Bowl.

Speaker 1 So does he want to do the same song and dance in New York with the media?

Speaker 1 I just, for his sake, loving the guy, I do not want to, I'd rather see him go play for the Raiders because he's closer to home. and who knows, you know, they win nine games.

Speaker 1 That'd be unbelievable. Oh, Aaron in Vegas.
Imagine that desert house he would have out there. That'd be so sick.
He's for all my Henderson's beautiful.

Speaker 2 That feels like Sam's going to be a Raider. But then I'm thinking, like, could Aaron go to Tennessee, like, would Tennessee make sense?

Speaker 1 He has raw land out there.

Speaker 1 A lot of people have raw land in Nashville, Tennessee.

Speaker 1 We have learned strictly because of the reports of Aaron Rodgers having raw land in Nashville, Tennessee, which he certainly does, we assume, unless the real estate portfolio has changed in a matter of a couple years.

Speaker 1 I think the coach matters in that situation, though, too, because that's why the McVay thing made sense, because it's like he'll go with a guy he respects.

Speaker 2 I don't know if he wants to stop.

Speaker 1 He's a stumbling. And I'm not saying anything about Callahan.

Speaker 1 I think, see, like, the Steelers at this point, it's like, if there's anywhere he goes, I hope he's a Steeler because you go to Tennessee, not only are they going to fucking suck.

Speaker 1 Come in fear for my life on the

Speaker 1 long arm of the law. So you know what the Pittsburgh Steelers are putting down?

Speaker 1 That'd be awesome. Because he respects Tomlin.
But Tennessee, you don't like as much. I just don't think they're going to be any good.
I mean, that division stinks. You know better than anybody.

Speaker 1 You know, that division absolutely stinks. Well,

Speaker 1 see, South. Yeah, terrible.
Big go, it's awful. But, you know, it's just...

Speaker 1 Does he want to go somewhere where he's got a second-year head coach where it's kind of the same thing? This guy is trying to get his philosophy in there.

Speaker 1 He's trying to get the team to row in his direction. And you've got a guy who's been playing quarterback for 20-plus years to come in and say like, hey, pal, zip it.

Speaker 1 We're going to do what I want to do, okay? Like, yeah, your playbook's awesome. We're running my fucking offense.
And that's like the whole bad taste thing.

Speaker 1 It's like he's going to, if he has a bad taste in his mouth right now, okay, he wants to come back and he wants to play and he wants to win.

Speaker 1 Tennessee, Giants, I mean, Raiders have that, they got a lot of like good hype, but I don't think we're putting the Raiders above Denver. Tennessee West.

Speaker 1 Yeah, Denver Chargers or the Chiefs, obviously. So it's like the situation, the Steelers would be cool and the Vikings would be cool.

Speaker 1 those are like basically the only two legitimate options it feels like where those other places yes they need quarterbacks but is like Aaron Rodgers gonna go there and like could you imagine the Giants if it starts the same way the Jets did and then they fire Dayball and he's going through a situation

Speaker 1 again

Speaker 1 that'd be a nightmare um how much money is Aaron guaranteed next year do we know oh not sure

Speaker 1 So like everybody's talking about Stafford's looking to make money. Stafford's looking to get paid while also being respected here.

Speaker 1 We go outright release 49 million of dead cap next season for the Jets 25 and a half million 14 million

Speaker 1 Okay, this is depending upon whenever they make the decision to move on which they've already publicly said that they would all parties have and the GM of the Jets said we didn't give him an ultimatum We didn't tell him he can't be on the Pat McVeigh show and Aaron was like I'm gonna be on the Pat McVeigh

Speaker 1 And he said well we're getting we're getting a different quarterback then and Aaron said fine and walked out of there That was like being talked about. Go ahead and doubt.
Reported.

Speaker 1 I was so uncomfortable. I was like, come on.
This guy's career, a fucking billion-dollar industry. Leave my fucking name on.
Please. I'm in Puerto Rico.
Jesus Christ. Please, I'm sorry.

Speaker 1 Yeah, and then he had to come out and address it at the combine. There was no ultimatum made about anything with him to come back.
They have a vision of what they want their team to look like.

Speaker 1 They will take the dead cap hit and continue to build that. Aaron Glenn and Mooji got hired over there to do that with the Jets.
We assumed that that was going to be the case.

Speaker 1 I think Aaron was hoping for an opportunity to make it right with Jets fans and the Jets organization and bring along a young quarterback, but I don't think that was

Speaker 1 ever really reality. Just in my eyes,

Speaker 1 I don't even know if it was just those two or how many different coaches or GMs would go in there, and it would not be the case. Now,

Speaker 1 Vrabe says there's

Speaker 1 opportunity and compensation up there in New England. That's right.

Speaker 1 With the Jets being in rebuilt, the Buffalo Beals being at the top, how long before the New England Patriots are back, you know, dancing under the confetti, you think in your eyes?

Speaker 1 Under the Super Bowl confetti. Which is the confetti.

Speaker 1 How do you describe the confetti as a Patriot fan? Only Super Bowl. You only are popping confetti for Super Bowl.
So if we're talking confetti, I don't know. Let's see.

Speaker 1 Because the whole thing with, and I love Drake May. I am confident he is a Hall of Famer.

Speaker 1 Without a doubt. But if we prove it.

Speaker 1 If we prove... Sounds like you don't believe him.
If Drake May May proved anything this year, he can be all worlds. But if you don't have an offensive line, it really doesn't matter.

Speaker 1 I mean, it happened with Mahomes in the Super Bowl. Guy got killed.
So when we're talking about Confetti, I mean,

Speaker 1 you got to fill some holes. You got to be able to use that compensation to bring in the right guys.

Speaker 1 Now, with Vrabel at the helm, when it comes to competing for division titles, and that's kind of what he said yesterday with Rich Eisen and

Speaker 1 what's his name?

Speaker 1 DJ, Daniel Jeremiah. He said, first and foremost, we've got to win the division.

Speaker 1 And when it comes to winning the division, I don't think we're that far away, especially with Drake and the money we got in comparison to some of the other guys.

Speaker 1 I saw you looking over there.

Speaker 1 I thought it was Gladstone. I thought it was Gladstone.
I thought it was Gladstone. I thought it was Gladstone.

Speaker 1 The boys from Duvant are walking by. Good luck.
Good luck in the AAC South.

Speaker 1 Huh?

Speaker 1 Good luck. I'm not worried about you.

Speaker 1 Not worried worried about this place. You need to watch it.
Okay, the Jags certainly have had the Colts number for a long time.

Speaker 1 Yeah, but I've talked to a lot of people around here. A lot of them wearing Colts logos.

Speaker 1 Let's just say...

Speaker 1 All right.

Speaker 1 Okay.

Speaker 1 Big pile of shit. No, that is not true.
They're just a year out from being the Titans. I actually got a chance to shake Chris Ballard's hand over there earlier.
That was a good moment for me.

Speaker 1 I assume for him as well. Is he suiting up this year?

Speaker 1 He looked like he was a bad guy. His beard looks awesome, right? Beard looks looks good.
He cut his hair obviously.

Speaker 1 He said, I'm not cutting it until we win the Super Bowl and then he realized I'm an adult. You know, like I gotta.
Oh, is that what he really? He looked like Jesus Christ in a couple of years.

Speaker 2 I thought he realized he's not with his Super Bowl.

Speaker 1 Yeah, no, last year, yeah, he wasn't able to do it last year.

Speaker 1 Competition, you never know a quarterback position. Quarterback comes along, either Anthony Richardson learns how to be a pro and plays football well, and then we're off and running sweet.

Speaker 1 Shows up day to day, does everything required to be a professional quarterback, an NFL quarterback.

Speaker 1 Also, doesn't tap out when he's tired, but you won't be tired if you do everything you're supposed to do day to day.

Speaker 1 I think the tapping out whenever you're tired is a bigger indicator than of anything else. You know, it's a big indicator, I think, personally, of a lot of things.
Culture, one of them.

Speaker 1 He should not think it's okay to do that. He should want to be able to be out there with the boys no matter what happens.
So

Speaker 1 you change the culture a little bit here in Indy. You get a couple guys in here, get a couple guys out of here, get the quarterback position right.
You get the lot house rocking.

Speaker 1 Huh? Yeah, it's like 15 things. That's fine.
You know, it's not as if that could be. That's what this season's all about.
Yeah. That's what this season's all about.
Everybody's 0-0. We just heard it.

Speaker 1 Bingo. That's what Lombardi said.
That's the thing about the Patriots, man. Better yesterday.
Or better today than we were yesterday. Yeah, 1% better.
And tomorrow, what?

Speaker 1 We're going to be 10 times better than we were today. Yesterday, I think.
Yeah, because you realize that.

Speaker 1 Tomorrow is today. I'm seeing a lot of people that just...

Speaker 1 A lot of doppelgangers.

Speaker 1 I can't see with all the lights. Oh, it's impossible.
Lights are very bright. Everybody looks like somebody.

Speaker 1 But everybody's like staring at us and can see us very well you know so i always wonder like if we got heat with somebody they're walking by and we're literally looking in their direction going hey how you doing and in their head they're like

Speaker 1 they called me a big dumb dipshit yeah just about two two weeks ago whatever i mean that that's why uh who do we have on yesterday that matt rule that's why i love matt rule so much because when he was in carolina i can specifically remember calling him an absolute doofus and

Speaker 1 he hasn't he probably knows he probably probably doesn't care because he knows it didn't go well.

Speaker 1 Well, I think what a lot of these coaches understand is there's a lot more than we would ever realize if we're not in the building and want something isn't working.

Speaker 1 You know, so they certainly can build up some spite and anger towards people.

Speaker 1 But I think Coach Rule potentially listened to that and then he listened to a couple more clips and he was like, you know what, those guys,

Speaker 1 those are my type of guys.

Speaker 3 Come from a good place.

Speaker 1 And Frank Reich helped him.

Speaker 1 Well, and I heard some stuff about that.

Speaker 1 You're heard a lot. Carolina Panthers are in a good spot from what I've heard.
Okay. Right? They don't need a quarterback.
Got a quarterback. Tony the quarterback.
Morgan, the GM,

Speaker 1 dog. I believe he's going to be on the program at some point in the next few weeks, I would assume.

Speaker 1 Some coaches that I've known through my football journey are down there coaching. Got a chance to catch up with them, chit-chat with them.

Speaker 1 The things they're saying about the way the organization is running right now versus maybe what they had heard about the organization from years past just being like

Speaker 1 Things are real,

Speaker 1 things are feeling on the up and up. Yeah, things are feeling very good over there.

Speaker 1 And it all goes back to Tepper donating his stadium. That's yeah.
Right? For that concert, yeah. It didn't hurt.
Donate, and then Bryce coming back. He gets benched.
Then he comes back.

Speaker 1 He watches Andy Dalton go bananas.

Speaker 1 And then he goes, okay, takes a breath for a bit. Doesn't have a team, literally, a whole program, an organization on his back.

Speaker 1 Gets to watch a pro be a pro, how he goes about doing his things, and also how much he maybe trusts or understands this or looks this, and then gets dropped back in. It's like, good, we feel good.

Speaker 1 Then Canalis, his offense is kind of understood by people. Morgan going to get their culture people in there.
Hubbard. Hubbard started to go bananas towards the end of the year.
Chuba.

Speaker 1 Got an extension. Canadian man.
Canadian.

Speaker 1 Chuba. And then

Speaker 1 you look at the top. You look at the top.
Yeah, I think Chuba's Canadian. I think.

Speaker 1 Damn right. Never mind that.
Is that right? Yes, sir. That was our Canadian Gumpy.
I'll be in Canadia tomorrow.

Speaker 2 Maybe we should kick him out of the league then.

Speaker 1 Doug? Chuba? Yeah. Well, let's not get too crazy about any Canadians because we got Kid Canada's little brother coming, you know.

Speaker 1 We may have talked about him. He's good for play.
Rourke, his medical's not great, I don't think. What of his thumb? Thumb and a knee, too.
Played with, yeah.

Speaker 1 Played with a basically a torn ACL all year, so he's tough, but a little bit older, you know, knee's all fucked up. Canadian.
Canadian, that doesn't help.

Speaker 1 No, it helps.

Speaker 1 Probably a winner.

Speaker 2 He'll probably be the number one pick in the CFL draft.

Speaker 1 I heard from some. Which is a great league.
Fun league. They have fun games, like the way they go about doing that.
It's like a cool. That's Zaney.
It is. It is a little zany.

Speaker 1 It's a zany version of football, which we appreciate. Whole country, zany.

Speaker 1 Take it easy, Tony. Tony, you sound a little negative.
Yeah, let's talk about your tweet, Ton. What did he say? I said, fuck Canada.
What? How'd that go for you? Why'd you do that? In what way?

Speaker 1 He muted it. He didn't see any of it.

Speaker 1 He's got no repercussions.

Speaker 1 Got a lot of Canadians yelling at air.

Speaker 2 They tend to forget. We can send about, I don't know, 50 guys up there and take over the whole country.

Speaker 1 Okay, all right. We knew that's what you were alluding to, and I don't love that at all.

Speaker 1 I would like to say that it does feel like the Canadian hockey team beating the United States of America and the Four Nations in Boston was like a we're staying a country.

Speaker 1 And that has just gotten real quiet, hasn't it? Since that game, there has been no chatter of Canada really becoming the 51st state. Like, literally, the hockey team.

Speaker 1 They kept it.

Speaker 1 So, congrats to the Canadians, I would like to say. They may have lost Wayne Gretzky, though.
True. He is taking it on the shins, and he may be

Speaker 1 harboring Wayne in the States. What happened?

Speaker 1 Let's just say he

Speaker 1 looked up to J.

Speaker 1 Yeah, but Wayne's American now. Yeah, his leader, his leader's initials are D, T, and J.
Okay.

Speaker 1 They ain't JT.

Speaker 1 And that's coming out of Wade's mouth.

Speaker 1 I think it's DJT, is what you're saying. Whatever.

Speaker 1 It's not just JT.

Speaker 1 I don't know if he's a junior. I don't know how it works to be the junior.
DJ TJ. Yeah, yeah.
Well, there is one of those, I think. Exactly.
So you never know. I'm bad with initials and stuff, but

Speaker 1 he ain't looking at the guy. I didn't know Wayno did that.
Uh-huh.

Speaker 1 And then also when he walked onto the ice, people weren't happy with him because he basically said, Let's go, boys, let's go, boys, taller to the Americans and didn't really look towards the Canadian broken.

Speaker 1 Well, that's where the mat was. You see, that is exactly nine.
But you don't have to say anything, and then when you're taking that turn, you can say, like, here we fucking gold boys to the Canadians.

Speaker 1 And instead, he didn't. He just watched.
Is that true, Gumpy? That's not true at all. No, no, no.
That's actually what happened. 100% true.
Yeah, that's what happened. I'm not making that up at all.

Speaker 1 I mean, he's friends with everybody in hockey. He's the greatest hockey player of all time.

Speaker 1 You guys lost Wayner as a Canadian? Is that real? Well, they turned on him.

Speaker 3 Not at all. Canada turned on him?

Speaker 1 After that, they did, yes.

Speaker 1 We can't just be labeling everybody Canadian. You know, there is some differences in countries here.

Speaker 1 Okay, so

Speaker 1 I think what you were trying to say.

Speaker 1 He was saying that not everybody from Canada represents all Canadians, I think, right? Is that what you're saying, Gumpy?

Speaker 1 Okay, I'll help you out here. Ship painter, okay, this guy, grinder, tough guy from Canada.
Yeah. Great addition to our particular program.
Maybe Canada's greatest export. Well, maple syrup.

Speaker 1 Hockey's awesome.

Speaker 2 That's fine. We got our own.

Speaker 1 I mean, their leader does represent Canada, though, and we know what he is. No, but I heard, yeah, I guess you're right.
I didn't even think about that.

Speaker 1 But then that goes the other way for us. Absolutely.
No doubt about it.

Speaker 1 We just got to make sure we think, hey, listen, we all got more in common than we think.

Speaker 1 Shake their hands.

Speaker 1 Scare shake their hands. Oh, it's all sticky from salt.
No, thanks. Yeah.
Yeah, but it tastes good. It does.

Speaker 1 We add a little bit more sugar to you guys' maple syrup and made it good. I was going to say it's no pearl milling.
I know that.

Speaker 1 We took a little bit more sauce and put it to hockey, you know. Waiting to see what we do with curling.
I thought we really had it there.

Speaker 1 When curling Maddie Hamilton took the gold medal from the boys. That was the only time people gave us.
I mean, people don't give a shit about it anymore. We won.

Speaker 1 They're kind of just like, all right, you guys can have it. Oh, you think we just sent him back? Pretty much.
Yeah. All the curling rocks?

Speaker 1 Retired to sport. They created lacrosse, too, right? Yes, they did.
Love that sport, Gumpy. Canada has a lot of great things.
Let's never forget it, right, Gumps?

Speaker 1 Exactly. Like a hockey team that was more healthy than the American team for the Four Nations Final.
We were pretty banged up, too. We lost some of our top defensemen as well.
Let's not forget.

Speaker 1 Oh, okay. Well, it must be nice to still have Mick Jesus on the ice whenever we don't got our Jesus's.
Yeah. So I mean,

Speaker 1 people a lot of people do say Charlie McIvoy was the heart and soul of that team. Actually when you look at the

Speaker 1 first Canada USA game he put McDavid in a fucking blender. Absolutely buried him.
Actually Brady Kachuck came off the ice. He's mic'd up.
He said I'm following you into fucking battle today, Charles.

Speaker 1 See, I think the Canadians would say you dropped into our accent while doing the conversation about America. That's a hockey accent.
That's not a Canadian accent.

Speaker 1 We got to take it all like the Canadians, Craig, great diction, right?

Speaker 1 Great words. Bucket, let, like...
What are you doing, man? That's what I'm saying. I'm thinking we like...
I think we're okay with Canada. I think we're okay with Canada.

Speaker 1 Are you doing this, Kiss tomorrow? Yep. I'm going.

Speaker 1 Bobby Roode's Canadian.

Speaker 1 Bobby Rood is Canadian. So there's something.
It's Gilbert? So is Pete,

Speaker 1 who founded the Canadian Destroyer.

Speaker 2 I believe Chelsea Greene is Canadian?

Speaker 1 United States champion for you.

Speaker 2 Yeah, so she's going to make a choice.

Speaker 1 Pat, you're not wrong. We are fine with Canada.
Canada is not fine with us, though. Yeah, they booed our national anthem.
I heard that. Oh, yeah.

Speaker 2 I forgot what started this whole thing.

Speaker 1 It was that. Keanu Reeves.
That's the only one I'll go with. Everyone else.

Speaker 1 Thanks. Bieber's going.
What's going on? We can't talk. No, we can't.
Gosling's Canadian.

Speaker 2 What? He's got stuff going on. Or no.
I was thinking of the other Ryan. He's got stuff going on.

Speaker 1 A lot of stuff going on with the other. Who is Canadian? He's also Canadian? Yeah, right.

Speaker 1 Canada's good.

Speaker 1 Where do they come to act?

Speaker 1 I think everybody kind of makes movies up in Canada now. They do Toronto.

Speaker 1 Toronto. No, I know.
No, actually. That's not real.

Speaker 1 Goodwill Hunting was a lot of that was filmed in Toronto.

Speaker 1 I don't believe that for a second. It is, yeah.
Nope. That's not true.
Hate to say that. Fun fact, I do remember.
That's not true. What's your problem? That's Mad Mel.
That's Mad Mel.

Speaker 1 Ty's not here. Ty, Ty with a little color, trying to add a little context.
That's completely wrong. That is not true.
That's a great movie. That's a great Boston movie.
That's not true.

Speaker 1 What you just said is that. Filming took place between April and June 1997, although the story is set in Boston, and many of the scenes were shot in the location of the Greater Boston area.

Speaker 1 Many of the interior ships were found in the future. Interior films, yeah, interior.
Okay.

Speaker 1 Yeah, so rooms. It's not like they were using the landscape because it stinks.

Speaker 1 What the hell? No, they want it a little bit nicer, they say. That's what they were saying.
Google Hunter. That's not what they were saying.
Sorry, sorry, the greatest.

Speaker 2 Well, MIT weren't allowed to film in MIT because shit actually happens.

Speaker 1 Yeah, bingo. They can't use Harvard because shit, we're actually trying to solve shit.
Yeah, I'm sure. Yeah, they are.

Speaker 2 I just found out they have universities in Canada.

Speaker 1 Yeah, they do. They say University of Waterloo, I believe, is up there.
Waterloo? Yeah.

Speaker 1 University of Waterloo is a good one.

Speaker 1 So

Speaker 1 how's your schooling work up there in Canada? So you guys do the same as us, 12 grades? Exactly, yeah. How come you guys didn't join us in 1770?

Speaker 1 Why didn't you guys just go? 12th year? Because they're still loyal to the Queen.

Speaker 1 To the Queen? King, though.

Speaker 3 So they actually fought us in 1812.

Speaker 1 That's the War of

Speaker 1 1812? Yeah, they sided with England and tried to invade.

Speaker 2 I actually looked looked it up because I was going to tweet it. They don't still pay taxes to the Queen.

Speaker 1 You hear yourself what you've been saying? Yeah, but you got to remember what Canada did for me personally.

Speaker 1 What, going up there? Yeah. I think they walk it.
Is it true they weren't in country? I had a great time up there. They weren't in the country until like 1975 or something.

Speaker 1 You had a great time down here, too. See? I have had a great time down here.
Yeah. But what I'm saying is, let's go shake the grounds.
You guys can.

Speaker 2 I'm staying right here. I'm with you, brother.

Speaker 1 Well, we saw that.

Speaker 2 Red, white, and blue.

Speaker 2 Not just red and white.

Speaker 1 And it's not for you.

Speaker 1 It's been a great week here. We can't thank you enough for joining us.
We're going to get out of here. I will be on NFL Network, I think.

Speaker 1 Yeah, who knows? After Wednesday. We'll see.
That was a wild scene. Hey.

Speaker 1 And show about 245. Come on, Don.
Come on, Don. Be at the end of the tail end of the kicking, field goal kicking session.
It'll be electrifying. Then we get right into the punters.

Speaker 1 You're there, microphone on the field. Just like every other position group, you know, has like ex-players on the field.
You're hosting it, get down there, wasn't even broadcasting.

Speaker 1 Nobody was filming that. There wasn't a single camera on when I walked down there.
That seems like a miscommunication. That's gonna happen.
That's life. But today, in this place, communication is key.

Speaker 1 What do you learn about a prospect that makes you think to yourself, you know, I want that person to be in our building?

Speaker 1 What do you learn about a player that makes you think, you know, that guy can fit in on our football field? What about an undersized, a little too fat, maybe a little bit too slow guy?

Speaker 1 What characteristics does he have deep down in his soul and his plums that make me believe that whenever he gets an NFL jersey on and an opportunity to be in the NFL and live his dreams, he is going to give his all to that.

Speaker 1 He's not going to fuck it up. That's what this is all about.

Speaker 1 And then when you watch these athletes run on the field, what you're seeing is humans do things that they would have never even comprehended 20 years ago, 30 years ago.

Speaker 1 We might see somebody run a 419 this weekend.

Speaker 1 40.

Speaker 1 That's 120 feet, okay?

Speaker 1 419 from a stop, not allowed to be moving at all. They're saying a fly 40, this is from a dead stop.
This is like cheetah-type shit. This is like

Speaker 1 this is the fastest car you could get from zero to finish line. This is unbelievable what humans are capable of.
And it's all on display this weekend. All the teams are looking to get better.

Speaker 1 All the players are looking to get drafted. And we're just trying to have a fantastic weekend, watching it all, enjoying it all, and seeing who the hell is going to win Elimination Chamber.

Speaker 1 We can't thank everybody enough for allowing us to be a part of your day-to-day.

Speaker 1 We can't thank everybody enough for rejoining us this week after a two-week hiatus. I mean, what an absolute...

Speaker 1 That was the longest time. It feels so long.
being away.

Speaker 1 That was maybe a month it felt like that we weren't doing this. And every time there's like a natural fear, like once we stop, nobody's going to come back.

Speaker 1 They're going to watch other shows once again and say, yeah, we're going to do this. They're going to say, you know, my life was better without that dumbass show part of my life.

Speaker 1 That is always the fear. That is always the anxiety.
So those of you that have rejoined us, we can't thank you enough. For those that are brand new, yeah, this is how it goes.

Speaker 1 All of it.

Speaker 1 Gonna get sued.

Speaker 1 This is gonna happen.

Speaker 1 I mean,

Speaker 1 this is the experience. And we are incredibly grateful for it all.
Just like I'm I'm grateful for all the boys. Boys up here, great work this week.
Thank you, great work, Reb. Good work.

Speaker 1 To the crew, great work, boys. Great work.
And girls. Great work, crew.
Great work to the crew.

Speaker 1 Thank you all so much. From the lighting and micing to the camering, to the rigging and building, to Oled.

Speaker 1 From Avon with the LED board. Got it.
To Zito and Tim McAfee doing the moving of this whole thing.

Speaker 1 To Fasso being on an email chain since December and making sure all the I's are dotted and T's are crossed. We appreciate you, Fosso.
To Brusso having to do a little moving. Baby, Bruce.

Speaker 1 You're the best, Brownie. Into the truck.
Great work, boys. Good work, Bill, Truck.

Speaker 1 Great work, Truck. Just saw Grigson walk by.
He appears to be...

Speaker 1 Yeah, he's 275. He's back.
Oh, he's that big guy. Yeah,

Speaker 1 he's the orangutan-looking fellow. Holy fuck.

Speaker 1 He's jacked. Hey, he looks...
He's a big guy. Big boy.
It's like an Andrew Whitworth, kind of. I didn't thought that was.
It was nice catching up with him last year at this event.

Speaker 1 Chit-chatting, hearing some things from his side, allowing him to hear things from my side. And then, boom, bang, we move on.

Speaker 1 A lot of mingling, a lot of talking, and we're so lucky that we've been here. We'll see you on Monday.
It's going to be a good one. Matthew Safford staying with the Rams.

Speaker 1 What happens with all the quarterbacks? How about all these draft prospects? Who pops this weekend? Who drops this weekend?

Speaker 1 What are the storylines coming out of Indianapolis from the insiders other than they just try to fight each other at Starbucks?

Speaker 1 We shall see. We'll be on it all.
All right, boys. Be a friend, tell a friend something tonight.
Oh, oh, oh.

Speaker 1 Big Night Out

Speaker 1 is coming soon to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

Speaker 1 This is a show that I believe is unprecedented. I would say so, yeah.
For sure.

Speaker 1 Mad Mel, what would your descriptor be of Big Night Out after what you know of it, what you've heard of it, and everything like that?

Speaker 1 I would say, I mean, unprecedented is a good word. It's a show that basically has everything you could want in a show if you're going to show up to some sort of event.
Everything you could think of.

Speaker 1 It will be involved. Big laughs, big sing-alongs, big giveaways,

Speaker 1 big night out. Coming soon to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
This one is fascinating for me because

Speaker 1 I've wanted to do the show

Speaker 1 for years, I'd say. Yeah, years.

Speaker 1 Literally, I've been wanting to do a show like this for years. I think it'd be good for people, you know, to just kind of

Speaker 1 watch a spectacle take place. And to do that, it takes a lot of prep, takes a lot of planning, takes a lot of cash flow.

Speaker 1 And I think we're at a point where

Speaker 1 it's going to be awesome. And the people that are going to be a part of it, there's massive surprises.
I don't even know how to

Speaker 1 describe the surprises. The giveaway, I mean, you're talking,

Speaker 1 I think we're going to make somebody a millionaire that night, you know? So like, there is,

Speaker 1 I'm trying to make, yeah, it's going to be a big night out and we can't wait to get to Pittsburgh. With that being said, be a friend, tell a friend something nice.
It might change their life.

Speaker 1 We're going to sing together, okay? Team on me.

Speaker 1 Team on three.

Speaker 1 One, two, three, team. Goodbye.

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