Rich Eisen & No no no don't do that!

00:00:00
Speaker 1: Be around the NFL podcast experts in handing from the Chris west Link podcast studio. It's around the NFL. I'm Dan Hansas, and I'm in a room filled with some heroes, Greg Grows, Ntal, Mark sel or whatever. To my right. To my right is the face of NFL Network, the first voice you ever heard and the last one you'll ever hear. That's just that's a spoiler. Door listen. Oh my god, rich eyes, and welcome to the Chris Westling Podcast. Are you? It's an honor to be here in this chair, in this studio. This is very cool having me is that? Do you play that song? For it? One person? Most people get kind of like this sexy song build up, but that was more of it was real. How are you? I'm I can't believe this place. This is pretty cool man. Well you know I've seen it. I've seen it now that I'm actually sitting in there. Also the benefit of sitting for those that are watching on YouTube. If you look at the screen, you look you look like a normal sized human, and Gregg looks like a newborn child just coming from the very much life and the a t N manger. So here's here's a little backstore for people that don't know that Rich Eyes and many first at the network and the media group, but also the first podcast. Yes, trust me, this facility like this one did not exist. No, we said that back at the old studio, I mean the convertence called it Studio sixty six. Uh that you you really got that studio built. We would not have gotten around the NFL cranking as much as we did because I think it took Rich Eyes and to get that way. I can tell you the story how it got started, and it's amazing now that there's a studio, um and many podcasts that are created around here. It was born out of uh me seeing the proliferation of podcasts and sports podcasts and the success of it, and UM, you know, total access being a certain sixty minute construct in which there was some possibility for a celebrity interview and we would have uh folks come and pick games, a celebrity game picking contest. But there was just five minute conversation and out there was no really opportunity to have long form conversations, which is one which is what I wanted to do. So I went into the office of then NFL network. It was inn a media group yet NFL Network UM chief Steve Bornstein, who has been my long term rabbi. I told him he's smart enough to have hired me twice once at the ESPN and was here there you go, and I went in. I told him my idea of of a podcast and I wanted to do it. His answer is how much is going to cost? And I'm like nothing. He goes goad. That's what it was. How it started, go ahead. That was that's similar. That's similar to our origin story here where we pitched our news boss of like, can we just do it, uh around our actual job, and he said yes, as long as one person stays on the desk at all times. So one person would be down in the news room while the others would be in the story. It's a great set up. You know, it's about optics. You know, it's optics about two or three sets because of you guys are a terrific listen and a great watch and a terrific podcast. Thank you. So in success you start you know, hopefully doing what you want to do and um so and and it's just pretty cool. Like again, I do walk by here and I see Chris's name on the wall, and I can't imagine what it must feel like for you guys to come to work here every day and say that you're coming from the Chris Westling podcast studio. It must be pretty sweet. It's it's it's special to us and it being able to that's the first thing we say every episode, and it's like, it's he stays with us, and uh, you know your podcast you eventually kind of spun into the rich Eyes and show for people can get that um which we appeared on. I know the ratings for that particular episode. You guys, You guys are difficult to book. Honestly, you guys, you're you're always here, You're always doing something. But now seeing you hear that reminds me of when me and Chris did a spot there and I remember Kisa came to take pictures and it is a great memory because you guys sent a car for him and then that it was really cool. He thought that that was really cool. He sent a car for him. We had the the have the dressing room in the back, and she has lots of great pictures from that day. It just felt like he felt like, wow, this this is crazy. You know. We started with me and him started knowing each other back at Road to World and here I am taking a car and we're on TV. Had we hadn't done much stuff like that before, and he was he always had this feeling of like, can you believe how lucky we are and just kind of tickled over what had happened with his career. So just yeah, bringing that back up, that was a great man. I think the first couple of times I split you guys up into twos, right, right, that's what it was. I think they came the day before after and yeah, Greg and I don't get along, so that was it was good. I got the heads up. It's similar to a story I can tell, Uh spent myself into. I'm sorry, I'm a control freak man. I'm difficult with the a's. I'm better at the queues. But um so um. One of the first Pro Bowls we ever covered on NFL Network. So let me get this right. It was after the second Super Bowl we ever covered the Eagles and the Jacksonville Jacksonville Eagles and the Patriots, last time we've seen an actual repeat winner in the NFL, as a matter of fact, So we went from Jacksonville Florida to the Pro Bowl. So we stopped all we took a flight from Jacksonville to Atlanta, in Atlanta to Denver and then Denver all the way over to Hawaii. And I'll never forget schefter like and he doesn't drink he he wore these like almost famous type shades on the plane and we were giving all sorts of crab and and and it was just great going all the way over there. We get there and it's for the second year that we've done this. Uh we We we stayed at the Pro Bowl Hotel where all the players were staying, and we set up um a main set at the end of the practice field where the Alani Hotel. If you want to take your kids to a Disney hotel, I guess over and in Hawaii currently is this place doesn't This whole thing doesn't exist anymore. So we had our main set at the end of the practice field where the a f C and the NFC would switch off practicing depending on the hour. And then we would have a set by the pool where all the guys hung out, and then a set on the beach. And the set on the beach was like underneath this like Tiki and I had a long lounge chair and another lounge chair set up for the guest, and we would sit there literally in like a prone state, and I would interview them. So this time though, we had two long chairs set up for the just freshly uh losing Philadelphia Eagles, who were sending everyone over. This again back in the day where the Pro Bowl would have after and it would be after and it would take a couple of days and then get there. So it was gonna be for uh Teo and Donovan McNabb who appeared together. And um we didn't know that in the interim of us flying from Atlanta to Denver to Hawaii that TiO had let it be known on a radio show that Donovan McNabb vomited huddle when everything was going down for the Super Bowl, and thus um um had no idea that this was sparking. And then all of a sudden, t O said to our producers, He's not coming if Donovan is going to be there. Donovan coming if he O is going to be there, And that was the first credication we had that some trouble was in the Andy Reid paradise. And then of course the sit ups in the well we keep extended. I'm Andy Reid, and I don't know who's t O, and I'm TEO the Hall of Famer. I think that's why, that's why it's a difficult relationship. You can see. Alright, let's let's just all right. I'm gonna down that long road. You know you're a life for two thousand three. I believe it was the first time you started this network, the first voice anyone, and now coming up for the seventeenth time, seventeen riches run Rich run a forty yard dash in your suit, of course, benefiting the relationship between saying Jude Children's Research Hospital, NFL play sixty seventeen years. I have two questions, okay, one any significant injuries in the first sixteen years. Yes, I blew out my hamstring one year running it for a third time. I remember that happening, and I remember saying, that's it. I guess we can't air it. Mayock said, you have to air it. You have to do it, like this is part of what you do, Like you can't just not do it because you blew your hamstring. And he convinced me that, okay, we'll show it and we'll do it, and then when we aired it, he started making merciless fun of saying that there was a sniper in the dome and took me out because I went straight down. But it's a memorable on now now you got it as a story. He was right, he was he was, but he was right like because I think part of the popularity of this is that I am now a fifty two year old who is running um in a suit. It looks absurd um. The simul cams make it even more funny. Like the simulcas I love that everything new life. It brought a slapstick aspect to it, had brought sort of an intergenerational aspect to it um. And without the simul cams, I think the run probably would have run, if you will it's course, but the simulcams at the Combine gave it kind of new life. And here we are, nearly two decades later, raised you've raised millions of dollars for St. Jude. My Part two or B of this is typically at the Combine. Now we're doing in the draft. You live in Los Angeles, you have all the training facilities here, You're getting out of the winter and being in Indianapolis, eating those steaks and the late nights. I imagine even though you are older now, you have a chance to run a better time because you're in a healthier place physically and mentally. Yes or no, Well, just like everything in the NFL media world, you're overthinking it. Um, it's just a natural, I guess, evolution of this thing. In a way. It was born out of boredom, like everything in the television business in OH five, especially in Indianapolis. Oh gosh. It was in the old r C. A Dome and we were doing NFL Total Access that night. The wee being me and Terrell Davis and UM, and we were just done pre recording all the interviews of all the coaches who were never going to stick around till eight o'clock at night to do their interviews live. So we would, you know, when they were done with their combine day, they'd come up to our set position UM, which was in a suite in the old R C. A Dome, and we would record the interviews and then we would wait around to do Total Access live. So Terrell Davis and I are just sitting there and I remember we're just sitting there and I looked down at the field and so the forty yard dash line, and it just popped in my head as we were getting like an hour and a half away to being on the air, I said, how fast do you think I can run the forty? And this is the conversation you're having. You could hear the buzz of the lights. There was nobody in the building and everyone was on break because we were now and a half to air. And he just laughed at me, and I'm like, no, really, how fast you think I can run the forty? And he said, Rich, you can't run any You're not gonna run a forty and I can. I curse on this and I said, you watch me go do it. I literally said that to Terrell Davis, and um, we laughed. He thought I was joking. I went straight down on the field and ran it in my suit tie and lace up dress shoes and ran it in six point seven seven seconds. And I had no idea anyone was recording it because everyone was on break. But I had no idea that, um, somebody was in the truck hit record and somebody was recording it on the field and shot it. Had no idea it was being shot. And later on that night, at the end of the live Total Access they showed me running and they clocked me at six seven seven ha ha, isn't that funny. Next day, when we're interviewing people, three different people requested to see it because they've seen it on Total Access the night before. Mike Homegren, Joe Gibbs, and Matt Gibbs. Matt Millon, who was the GM at the time of the of you know, prior to the million man March in Detroit and so um probably look running back. They asked to see it, and Joe Gibbs told a story of a guy that used to come out of the stands at one point, you know, and suit and tie at an old like training camp that I guess Paul Brown used to run, I mean, some crazyest story and found it funny. Every all of them found it funny, and so we aired it over and over again that first combine next year, I show up and there's Mike Hombren standing there at the forty R dash line as I've walked into our ci A Dome, the r c A Dome, because that's where the the doors that were evolving doors in the old r ciatum, which is kind of like the carrier dome held up by air would walk through and he was standing right there. He goes, you're gonna run the forty yard dashing and I'm like, no, I don't think so, and he goes, why not. You gotta beat your time and I'm like okay, and he goes, just don't hurt yourself. So I did it again and again and showed it again, and then I did it again, and I did it again, and I did it again and just as just I just to keep it going. And then the simulcams kept it with a new life. It kind of gave a much more viral aspect to it. And then the charitable component was added. And now I'm here in l A because the combine was canceled, as you know, and and then last year it was like, okay, where where there was no the combine down one was canceled. So how am I going to do it? And I just didn't want to give up, and neither did anybody at St. Jude, and neither did anybody here at NFL Network, And so nobody wanted to give up. And they're like, well, what can we do? And we called up so far and said we want to come. And then Tracy Proman from the Legends community said, I'll get involved in Anybody who knows her knows when she gets involved, things happen. And UM. Then Mark Lori, who was the now the owner of the Timberwolves who two years before it, reached out to me saying, uh, he had no idea what I was doing, but he was just looking for a charity to hook up with, you know, uh, wanting to expand his philanthropy. UM. And he was the chair of the e commerce at Walmart at the time, and he found my run on YouTube, all of these viral videos of running and he's just like, who is this guy running in his student and what for? And he learned more about it and reached out to me and he's like, I want to run against a UM. I want to come to Indianapolis and I want to run against somebody, you know, famous in the NFL, and we'll raise money for charity. I'll help raise money for your charity. We reached out to Jerry Rice and Jerry Rice said yes, And I told Mark Lorie, you don't want a piece of this guy. Um. And they ran the combine, just the two of them, and it created a buzz and raised money. So now we expanded it to have more legends come last and he brought more people who wanted to be into the philanthropy, and so we we ran it eight legends and eight entrepreneurs at the at the stadium last year across the street, and then um so this year we're doing it again. Um so far is not available, believe it or not, because they're changing finally, the turf from the Super Bowl. They kept the turf of the Super Bowl down on the ground all the way to April seven. I guess, I don't know. They're actually giving their taking the turf up. They're taking the turf up and they're chopping it up and I guess selling off pieces of it. I don't know, but they're re putting the turf down there. So we couldn't do it there this year, so we're doing it at the Rose Bowl. I feel like one moral of the story for the listener and children out there and everyone is don't listen to Terrell Davis on any topic, because he could have prevented all this from happening had you taken Yes, I would agree that the moral to take away that Terrell Davis is a NASA and the a rod. You know, they say he's an owner of the Timberwills, He's not the real owner. Mark Laurie is and and and you guys did takeaways from this up But that's the answer and my takeaways. You're running on natural grass. We are. That's I feel like that's a problem. I don't know. I'll let you know the turf that they were talking about at the combine this year, the turf and Indie that splash turf and the guys are man. But to be honest with you, credentialing multiple people to come to the combine is truly the hardest thing I've ever done in my entire life. We've been down that ro so if we if we can do it out here and and and and you know, so we're we're doing it this weekend. Once had security escort Connor or out of the building when he was a guest on our podcast that which one of us would you be, you know, the most terrified not terrified up in the word intimidated to race against? Who do you think would produce the top score? Um, I'm I'm I'm just thinking I'll set this out. I feel like the little guys have the best chancing. I think Greg Rosenthal has I think a little bit of Austin Eckler in him, you know, like he's got like he's he'd like to think he does. He could be, you know he's. Mark likes to bring up his sixth grade cornerback snaps that he took. But I'm still out there running. I don't know. Um So, yeah, I would, I would, I would go there, But trust me, I'm definitely the slowest guy. What are you gonna learn? Mark? Whenever you set up these which one of us is it going to be? When it's not you, it always hurts you. Why do you do it to yourself? What is the psychology behind that? Well, that's an entire podcast episode. I'll tell you what it is. Because I have a similar thing with you about nicknames. I've been trying to give Matt Ryan the same nickname for ten years. It's and at some point I'm just feeling the answer that's going to come back one day, the answer I'm looking for you press on. I mean, Maddie Ice was a great one right off the bat. It's not it sucks, but why why? Because it's a nick name for a twelve year old, but people remember year behind their parents back. Maddie Ice. Natural ice is being sense in context and people remember, look at the guy who showed up Indianpolis. That's a CEO quarterback. You're gonna kick me. I'm sorry for anyone that does. It sucks too. It's the natural. Okay, No, you're not to even give it. Okay, it's it's right, it's all right, it's not okay, it's not great. But the first playing this career bombed. I think Michael has he ever given you feedback out of He thinks it's terrible. And the problem is too, is that after he rejected it, I started shopping it around. The first person I went to a Stafford having no idea that he and Matt Ryan are tight, so that was a non starter. And then I went to Then I went to um My Homes and I tried the patrol with him. That was off of the awful Monday Night experience where where where? Okay, we're still with it, you know when uh um who was doing the Monday Night at the time. No, yes, why am I playing? I talked to Testator, remember Testators calling him that. I'm like, we can't have it. It's not. We're not going to force that. So I try to force the patrol on him. No good, he rejected that. That's when I went back to Matt Ryan. And as you know, the Letterman style of humor is to do something over over and over. Uma, Oprah Wait Rich. So but here's the thing with the nicknames. A good move for you. I feel like unsolicited advices you had inconvenient truth for Frank Gore. I did just stand on that you don't need to think of another nickname. Walked right out. No, I can't stop. He's just acknowledged. Um, all right, your time is valuable. Rich, We don't uh that valuable? Well, how about this, We're gonna start the news. I love to get your thoughts on d books. I know you talked about it on the Rich Eyes and Show this week, and I thought you had some interesting takes on both my Jets and another Jets. I should say, let's do it and another team that you think he fits with, Let's hit the news. Ricky Hollywood, with the third second pick in the twin nineteen NFL Draft, the Santaces and forty nine is select Deebo Samuel Once a time Debo is a second round pick. I never had this production value doing a podcast ever. Man, there's people behind a glass. Look at that. Look at this team just cutting. They're cutting cameras. I'm not evenstack there back in the day. What a team? Um so Deebo Samuel. This is where we are in the modern NFL. The stars that are stars with teams out of nowhere. You wake up one morning, they don't want to be there anymore. Samuel has requested a trade from the forty Niners. Rapture reported Wednesday. The request was submitted more than a week ago, not a surprise. The team was aware of Samuel's feelings about his standing with the franchise. The Niners have been Rich trying to reach out get something done financially. Is well and enters the final year of his rookie contract, but he's been shutting them down. He wants a fresh start. As we understand, we heard through various reports that the Niners have no intention of trading Samuel, and yet Rich, as someone that's been around this league for a long time now, that doesn't seem to matter as much anymore. It's crazy. It's crazy. The the the NFL non playing season as we call it around these parts. This year, um has been perfectly summed up. We keep popping the tweet up on the screen on on on My show, A forward tweet from Stefon Diggs on the twenty three of March, when Tyree Hill was first reported was wanted out of Kansas City and it looked like they were about to oblige him. Stefon Diggs tweeted out, the hell going on? That's what the hell going on? And and we keep on going back to that tweet over and over again because the hell is still going on. You know, it's just crazy what's happening. And it's borne out of many different things. Started with Brady switching teams in a whole bunch of quarterbacks thinking well, the way I've done it forever doesn't have to be the way I have to keep doing it. Stafford took that route to the Super Bowl and a championship. Then you start seeing other quarterbacks trying to get out. Now you're seeing wide receivers getting paid like quarterbacks, and certain wide receivers are getting paid like quarterbacks when they don't have the leverage to get out and get paid back. You know, I remember one of the first stories in the history of NFL network was when Javon Walker wanted to get paid by the packers and there was a big stink because far's like, I think he should be here when he was holding out, It's just like hay Brett, you know, like stick to your business. And it was a solid it was huge. It was huge. Davante Adam said, a franchise tag hanging over him, and he still got out and he still got paid the most money we've ever seen a receiver get paid. So yes, the landscape has totally changed. And now the wide receiver landscape is fascinating in the fact that now guys who are on the back end of their first contract in the second round three guys d K, A, J and Debot wanting to get paid, like Tyreek Hill just got paid and like Davante Adams just got paid. And we'll see if owners will do that in the same way We'll see if owners will pay quarterbacks like the Browns are paying Shawn Wats to pay him. I mean if fully guaranteed, maybe not fully That's what I'm saying, Like, that's what is That's what Michael Bidwell's on the clock with right now he's the first one up with the quarterback saying I want to get paid, and the answers like, of course, we'll pay you. But am I going to cut a two d million dollar check in escrow? Like I don't. I don't know. So these are all things working out. The debo thing in particular, there's three things that play here. One the Niners can handle, one the Niners cannot handle, and one that needs some massaging to handle. The one that the Niners cannot handle is if he wants to play somewhere other than California. I mean, that's where the Niners can say, well, we're the San Francisco forty Niners. What are we gonna do. We can't fix where we play football, right. The one that the Niners can absolutely handle if it's money. If it's money, they can pay him. The question is is what if it is the situation of him saying I don't want to be a running back at the position. You know, are fantastic research staff here at the network sent out a whole bunch of statistics on this subject matter just yesterday. One that jumped at the screen with me is that the first thirty three games of his career, he had something like forty rushes. Okay, in the last eleven games, he had eighty rushing attempts, I mean, and only thirty receptions. It's totally flipped over the last eleven weeks. And we played a sound bite on My show today based on debot on My show on November two days after he led the Niners in rushing against the Jaguars, and he said that, um, he loved contact and have a problem with contact. And I asked him point blank. And it's one of those things when you watch an interview back and you're thinking, you forget what you asked him, and you're thinking, yourself, please ask him a good question, Please ask him the question I did get to him. I said, do you prefer to run it or catch it and run it? What do you prefer? And he said, I prefer catching and running it, and um, And so we played that whole SoundBite of him saying that he's got a great relationship with Kyle Shannon and and it ended with him saying, I want to catch it and run it. So the question is what happened between then and now the forty Niners contract offers what happened if that contract offer was great off the jump. I doubt any of this has happened. If you pay him like the number one receiver in the league or one of them, then I don't think he's complaining. I totally. I think I totally agree with you there, because that's what I just to bring my Again, another long winded answer full circle, is that the Niners can fix this, address this problem by paying him the money where he doesn't matter. It doesn't matter what time zone he's in or how many running rushing attempts that he's getting, diminishing his ability to maybe get a third contract in his career, which I'm sure somebody is explaining to him how this all works out. And the time when I spoke to him when he said that he didn't mind the contact, great relationship with his coach and I prefer catching and running over running, was that the two days after that eleven game stretch had just begun, so he had not been used significantly at the running back position yet in the manner in his previous thirty three since after I hung up the phone from him. So that's my take. I think you're totally right, Greg. I think this is business, and I think that's what it's all about, and maybe the differences can be then reconciled, but it's also different business. And that's what I found really interesting about this whole offseason, and I think this is the latest part of it. It's like forty fans and Titans fans will talk about a j Brown later with Justin Graver, the grave digger back there, like they're all up in arms, like, oh, this is no story because they're not going anywhere. But these receivers kind of like the quarterbacks are throwing away the unwritten rules. The unwritten rules was like, yeah, you will get paid maybe going into your fourth year if you don't have a fifth year option, but it's after the draft, and like that's when we're gonna talk and don't make life uncomfortable for us now. But if you're Deebo Samuels, like why not because I can just go kind of ferret out some contract offer, you know, behind closed doors from a team like the Jets. So I know for damn sure that my value is seventy million dollars guaranteed seven million dollars a year. And by putting this out there in April before the forty niners are even ready. I think they're caught flat foot in here. It's like, why not do that? That's gonna make me the most amount of money? Did you just change the T and a T N to tampering? I mean sort of be the Jets are, but well a team is doing that. It used to be. If you're if you're Deebo Samuel, tough cookies, you weren't. You weren't a first round pick. So you don't get that extra year, you don't get the same contract. You gotta wait out this fourth year. Maybe they give you an extension, maybe they just hit you with the tag. Maybe they hit you the tag again. Now, Mark, things have changed where if the wide receiver has enough leverage, if he's a big enough start, he dictates the terms. And now the Niners have to react off that. Do we want to do we want to give him all this money and with Jimmy g still tying up our salary cap? Or do we look at look how we got Deebo Samuel. He was a second round pick. This is a good wide receiver draft. We have these teams that are desperate to add somebody like Deebo. Do we strike It's I'm sure it's whip last for the Niners who just get out of season where he was a stud of studs. But at the same time you can get reeled in by the idea of starting fresh without it. Well, it's like the Ronald Reagan trickle down effect, because you were right. It started with the quarterback scene. Tom Brady wield power and then then wheeld fame and glory off of it, and Matthew Staffords thinking I can do that. If you're Deebo Samuel and you don't react and do the social media thing and scrub the account and wield your public power and become part of the news cycle, and you have other teams interested in your services, and you're starting to lobby with the idea of trading and before the draft. This is a perfectly time maneuver by Deebo Samuel. You look dumb if you're as valuable as he is and you sit quiet and don't get that money now, because like the old days, was the contract was the contract Now it's like if you're on fire. By the end of year three, you started, you start a war. People have been getting those contracts for a while. I think, to be clear, I think a Deebo Samuel was gonna get offered a nice contract this offseason. It just would have happened in June and July and it would have like slowly crept up from sixteen to nineteen million. He's just like, no, I'm gonna see if another team wants to give up to first everything to go against somewhere else. So you don't want to live on the West coast, pay California tax I mean, that could be part of it. Sounds like guts to bring it all together about wanting to get paid after year three and not go into year four. Is that's what Kyler Murray wants to do. Because all you gotta do is just take a look at Baker Mayfield, who went into year four coming off of the first playoff victory for the brown since beating the Steelers and almost taking care of the Kansas City Chiefs. That's how he entered year four, an exit year four on a podcast couch next to a dog looking for a belly scratch. That's all you need to know. That's Kyler Murray is like, you know what, he may love animals, but he does not want to be sitting on a podcast couch next to a dog that was, you know, looking for a scratch. Isn't what Baker Mayfield's doing right now? Isn't the difference? Though? Because we can see what Deebo's doing, we're like, well, he's totally valuable and worth the money. When Kyler Murray has done what he's done, I mean, there's certainly a talented player there, But in general Kyler Murray and what he's created, I look at and say, no, that contract. You're not gonna get that massive contract right now. And the Cardinals aren't rushing to pay him either. I don't know how. Look, man, he is incredibly talented. He is definitely playing above five and a half million. Someone would give it to him, though, It's like David Tepper would give it. It's Deshaun Watson's contract today. I think. So you think someone's going to give Kyler Murray Deshaun Watson's contract, Like, there has to be more of a tiered element here because it can't just be Kyler. He becomes the hut. I mean, that's a whole other conversation, Greg. Somebody would totally that's quite a role of the dice. Watson for all his off the field issues. I think it showed more as a player than Kyler. Sure, but once you get to the point where it's like, hey, you're a difference making quarterback, I think they would be handing out that. Especially there's there's some sort of issue there between Kyler and the team that is different than all these situations him and they're not. They don't seem Kyler knows them too. I thought it was interesting this week a couple of his teammates are ex teammates now, Patrick Peterson and Chase Edmonds both indicated like Kyler really wants to win and hasn't been too happy with how they they were handling things, And did you imagine it all said and done that the Seahawks go into the season with Drew Lock, Geno Smith and whoever they might get a week from now in Las Vegas, Nevada, and then the Arizona Cardinals could potentially go into the season with Kyler Murray livid and not showing up and creating a problem and showing up in center field for the Oakland A's or something like something crazy like that, because you can't say that that's not possible in this hell going on. Well, and that the at the very same time, the San Francisco forty Niners could potentially go into this season with Trey Lance at quarterback, without Deebo Samuel and the offense and our neighbors across the street are like red our back feed up on the desk, cackling with their cigars, staring at the gleam of their Pacific Coast sunlight off of the Lombardi Trophy that they just won. With Stafford resigned and Allan Robinson brought in and Bobby Wagner behind Aaron Donald who did not retire, with their coach who did not leave them, with Jalen Ramsey still there and everybody ready to go once again, they are just Mark nightmare. He was worried before we moved in next to him that we would somehow become like house boys for the Rams, that we'd be like the Rams team or worst nightmares have come true. They won the Super Bowl in their own hometown and now they're just gonna be cruising. I mean, I I also experienced, you know, the less sneed to me. He's probably just walking around topless with like a big glass of wine NonStop because he's wanting if all those things happen. He's just essentially changed the NFC went on top of it that in this copycat league, a bunch of teams like maybe say the Cleveland Browns and everybody else says we're going to do the f all them pis situation, and they're not as good they're and their roster isn't as already set up for that to work, and you're gonna attempt it and you are gonna, you know, screw it all up. So what what they want to do? Like the their first copycat thing that everybody had from the Rams is everybody wants their own Sean McVeigh. And now everybody wants to do what less Sneed is doing, and nobody's going to either be as good at it or be as set up to do it, and somebody might that all m pics and it's just like, actually you needed all that. Yeah, It's like we spent half a decade calling ourselves like analytical geniuses and you're going to take that approach, then we just throw it into the blender and start over and copy what the Rams are doing. Rich Eyes, and you've said it all. You could watch Rich on NFL Network obviously draft the Yes trastfer Rich unbelievable. Also on Peacock TV, The Rich Eyes and Show Monday to Friday, twelve to three pm Eastern. Also on Serious XM that's channel five. And uh, don't bring up Mayak too much next to Jeremiah, it's just like he's feeling and talk with each other. Yeah, they talk a lot. But also Jeremiah, don't don't ruin them. Is the wholesome assassin. People think that like he wouldn't be able to handle Mayac. Maybe step around, but he wholesome assassin. Yeah, okay, he'll cut you. It might be my fantasy team name Rich. Thank you very much anytime. You got it. All right, there goes Rich. We're gonna take a break and we'll be right back with some more news. All right, welcome back. By the way, Steve come general manager of the Cardinals, told reporters today there was quote zero chance Kyler Murray gets traded. We're here in a lot of that. You know, a J. Brown, for instance, the Titans wide receiver. We heard um general manager John Robinson shoot down trade rumors. He said, I do not foresee us trading a J. Brown, which is a little different than zero percent chance. But let's say and then you have the head head coach Mike Rabel say when A. J. Brown hits the trade block, I will not be head coach of the Titans. And yet Mark, and yet there's still percolation around Brown and you, and you see it on his Twitter feed where all the saga around him and his future uh is leading to certain tweets, tweets like they switch up on you quick? Who is you? Him? But who's they? He is annoyed at a lot of people. I think because decoded for us, Mark I he he had a previous tweet about I am a diva and a bad teammate. All of a sudden, l o, l okay, do what you have to do then, and so so will I. I I don't think it's the Titans necessarily. I don't because they seem as committed as anyone here to pay him. So who is it? Then? I think it's just perception of them people attacking him, I really do. I don't think it could be living in his mentions, which is always not a great idea. I'm just saying, like when Mike Rabel came out as strong as he he's the centerpiece of their offense of all these discontented individuals and half of them have just gotten paid. I mean, you know, if you're I just think he's The Titans are gonna stick with him. He is a He's one of these guys that has a reason to be annoyed with his output. First, where he is If you look at the over the cap wide receiver salaries, he sits right below Dwayne Eskridge Terrace Marshall Jr. In two two at Well that's just yeah, because he's the next year after. But it's like he's on his roki. This constant situation is deepo though, right, and these have been happy a long time. It's not like a new thing that players get contracts early. If anything was happening so much they changed the rules. Rob Gronkowski and Aaron Hernandez got long term contracts after two years of their career, which ended up being uh one of the most player friendly contracts in history and one of the most horrific contracts in history. And they changed the rules partly because the Patriots are resigning guys so quickly, so that stuff happens. But like it's a story grave Digger who is part of this Titans fan mafia which is now starting to take maybe somebody in a like Titans. Titans fans are so insistent that this isn't a story. They're like, oh no, it's the media, it's a story. This is ridiculous, it's not a story. Is not being traded, like how dare you do this? And it's like you're gonna be talking about looking at it too, and then and then there's no chance, there's no chance, like how dare they? The Titans said they're not gonna trade? How dare they? And it's like, okay, so let's talk about who's making a story. Who's making a story? A J. Brown is making it a story. He's the story like it's his agent, it's his agent who starts it. But it's it's from them, so it really it bothers me that then, like fans is like, oh how could they? How could they say this? There's nothing the story? And then A J. Brown sends out tweets. He sends out these tweets. He's the one putting it out there. He's the one that wants the money. It is a story because it's a story because people talk about it, and that makes a story because it's a story, like it didn't come out of nowhere. Who made a story his agent did as a strategy Wilson did. The Seahawks fans hated the media and they blamed everyone until the moment that Russell Wilson was traded. And you know want to know why, It's because because he wanted to be the whole time. And maybe A J. Brown wants to or not, but either way, he wants to get paid. And they're the ones who started said blame everyone else about it. But you talked about his tweet and there is an interesting thing here because A J. Brown removed the word Tennessee from his Titans bios, so we'll have to freak that. And he had a tweet up a year ago. I think this was about like playing with DK Metcalf or something, and it said, no, I'm not a package deal L O L. I'm trying to be a Titan for life. He deleted that tweet the other day. But here's the difference. I don't think it was a story two weeks ago when it was like the Jets are sniffing around A J. Brown, Yes it was. That doesn't come from nowhere, It comes from his agent starting to put that stuff. I think it really became a story when the Titans voluntary workout started and A J. Brown was reportedly not there because he wants a new contract. But he wanted the new contract weeks ago. These stories don't come out of nowhere. They're they're putting it into the media year. That's what I'm telling you, coming out of nowhere. I think this is about speeding up the process of getting paid, not late summer, not in the middle of next season, but now for two years from now. I don't think he's like like dying to get out of Tennessee. He just wants Tennessee to pay him absolutely. But they've already come out and said they want to do that, and I think that's going to happen. I think Russini had a report that they are working on an extension already. John Robinson talked about it, Rays talked about it. So like, in my estimation, A J. Brown will sign a contract extension with the Titans. It's just a matter of when. And the thing that Titans fans keep getting pissed about is the trade aspect of it. Like PF accounts tweeting like imagine this forty Niners offensive. A J. Brown and Deebo Samuel are traded for each other, which is like one of the dumbest things I've ever heard in my life. But um, yeah, don't you think that's possible. My bigger thing, he wants play in California. You know, it's like these things don't happen organically, and I think there was this feeling that somehow the media is jinning this up and creating like, yes, now you know he wants a new contract. He wanted that weeks ago, and he's in his agent is talking to reporters who start putting these things out there because people talk and that's and that's where it comes from. And he probably doesn't care if he leaves Tennessee if they're not going to pay him the number that he wants. I think they will to ultimately, So I don't think it's like a huge deal, but it's like everyone getting so mad at But one thing I see it differently than the Russell Wilson saga, who I do think Russell Wilson's relationship with the organization came to an end A J. Brown and the Titans. I don't get that vibe at all. They want him, he wants money. He wants and he wants. And it used to be even as recently as a couple of years ago, if you were a superstar that came out of the outside the first round, that you had to eat a little poop and wait your turn to get paid. Now the game's changing a little bit, guys this year. The only difference is that this is coming up before the draft and they're trying to use their leverage that way to maybe inspire other teams to offer picks. But a third year receiver like a J. Brown and Deebo, Samuel uh and Terry McLaurin, we're asking for more money, getting more money and holding out going into their fourth year for the last two decades like that, that that's pretty normal. It's more that they're just kind of taking control of this process so early, well, with April essentially doing it now a instead of July instead of July. Why are we talking about because because they're trying to see if the draft can bump that number up or create something like they're seeing if the draft is kind of a deadline leverage point that maybe will help them out. All right, I think now slightly nonsense. I understand where you're coming from. Makes sense if this all ends with A J. Brown getting an extension fourteen days earlier, they're gonna be super annoyed that we're talking about it. So passionate, probably like he's probably gonna hold out through all the summer activities, and then training camp is gonna get here, and it's like day one of training camp, where's a J. Brown? And then day two a J. Brown science huge extension. With saying that story roughly seven and twelve times, I'm really rooting for a deebo versus a J. Brown or around trade though, just so he can replay that. I feel like, because they never know the Titans go down a certain path um of dysfunction, we could get Graver to just lose it on the podcast because he's so passionate. So I'm rooting for chaos. That's what I'm rooting for. Sure, there is something. They don't have a ton of cap space. They're not maybe the most cash rich team in the league in terms of guaranteed money want to put all you know, there's something. They'll come over to my side. They also cut Julio Jones with a post June one designation, which means they get nine point five million dollars in cap space back but not until June, so they can't. I mean, I feel good about where this has had it, Deebo. I feel a little differently the a j We'll see, all right, Ben McAdoo, he's a rock star. You remember that Jay Glazer report. Matt Rule's job depends up hiring a rock star offensive coordinator. That became Ben McAdoo, who was something of over look. He kind of looks feel like, well, let's get one step at the time here. Let's start with Ben McAdoo offensive coordinator the Panthers QB needy Panthers. It seems uh too many, um, most, if not all. Ben McDow is up there on the podium talking about Sam Donald and he has a little slip up. We're gonna play you at the beginning and then a little later in the press, Sam's our starting quarterback. Yes, you know, one of the things I've been working on is being better talking to you people, So you know, announcing the starting quarterback here, I just put my foot in the mouth. So that wasn't something I should have said. I don't actually don't think it matters that much because technically is the starting quarterback he's the incumbent. He was the starter last year. UH and Hammer p J. Walker. You could like, if you want to read into it, go ahead and read into it that that meant that means they're not drafting a quarterback next week. I don't. I'm not looking it down that way. I'm more plugged in on I think Ben finally found a look that works from him with the lettuce right up top, the part down the middle. He likes it long. There's nothing wrong with liking it long and uh. I think he's found a look that much better than the fluff look like the Bieber two through many phases that were unacceptable, but and the and the slick back look the greaser looked that wasn't for him. But I think he's found something right now with the uh, the center part. I don't buy the idea that he's a rock star. I mean, I also think that if you go through the next season's voyage with Sam Donald as you're plugged in starter, you're probably not going to be working anywhere a year from now if you're an offensive coordinator. So if they if that is their plan, which it is not at all, they've got to come up with something else. Um, it's utter. It's like nothing other than doom, no matter how nice his hair looks and how shiny his hair look. I assumed it meant nothing, like you Dan that it was like a random slip, like of course he's just started. But him actually apologizing for it in such a way made me wonder maybe that maybe there was something to it, because like, why would he be apologizing if it meant nothing. Maybe they are are entering this month at least with the possibility that Sam Donald might be their starter, because I guess how could they not. You know, they don't know if they get if they get a rookie, is he gonna be a bomb or not? You don't really know until you see it. And uh, they don't know if they're gonna have Baker Mayfield or not. At this point, do you think um Rich is kind of hit on it? And I gotta vibe maybe the fact that so far is ripping up or pulling up there artificial turf and he has to do the run Rich run at the Rose Bowl. I wonder if he was like behind the scenes, really mad about that because he had the turf at an Indy that was great. He wants to run a sub six. I wonder it's for a good cause, but it doesn't mean that he may not have other feelings about how the process is played out. It could be agitated. I'm gonna go over there today and just see, like, like, do you think we could just get in because if they're getting rid of that turf, yeah, that would be great. Like Ellis, my daughter is a huge dramas fans a little turf souvenir. I don't know, maybe just go in there and steal some turf out of that. Get in there. It's right. I think security there. I don't think you're getting into into the facility. Finally, in the news, this is UM. We had Josh Norris from the Fantasy Underdog Realm on our show sixteen out of thirty two Underdog Fantasy. You did struggle with that a few times because I think the website was like Underdog Network. But I think it's just Underdog Underdog Fantasy that you know where to find Josh Norris. After you go sixteen for thirty two, you'll find Josh Norris. Anyway. Bud Light a partner here with the NFL, and the draft is off offering fifteen million if you can correctly predict all thirty two round selections ahead of this year's NFL Draft, which is ludicrous quite frankly. So I thought what we could do to kind of raise our profile a little bit, and knowing that no one would ever be able to do that because Josh basically topped the best you could do is about is half that. I don't think you could do much better than half. Ricky, I want you to send this out to all major media outlets. Actually, can I get the trumpets? Give me the eyes and trumpets. The Around the NFL podcast will give you one and fifteen million dollars if you go thirty two for thirty two. Just send your draft selections to the A T N Podcast at gmail dot com. I mean we have it in escrow, so this is in Well, we'll even throw in an NFL podcast, uh hoodie. I think there's a couple in a box upstairs. And we used to have with back in the lasid era. We had a lot of glossies eight by tens that we would sign for and then Ricky took over and I think she burned all of them. If we could track down one of the old lesson eight by tens, will sign that as well with the maybe she took them with hers. We also said once a two thousand and six and this was long after two thousand and six, A two thousand and six Tennessee Titans media guide. Do you remember the puzzle Vince Young, Pacman Jones. So we all signed that puzzle to send to the winner of the Colleen theme song puzzle. And then the you know listener could put the puzzle together and it would be all our signatures, and I put it in a box to send a fed X. And then the pandemic happened, and so it was two years and now I don't know where that puzzle is. It's like a whole. It's like could be in cover, could be gone. Oh you never actually sent it out. No, we got locked at home for it. So don't hold your breath about the hundred and fifteen if you hit thirty two of thirty two. But just no. But light ain't got nothing on us. That's what's happening in the news. We got to talk some more draft. The draft is one week from today's the first round. Can you believe that we're gonna be annoying now? Are you? That was previous me wait about something. We're gonna be at the draft for the first time since I believe the old New York days. Well, Dan and I went to the Johnny Man's Eld. Yeah, you guys went in Cleveland and West and I were back in the studio. That was Uh no, it was in New York Radio City. You you departed after sitting in those small Radio City seats with a back injury, neck injury that I had for about two years. Uh, pending litigation perhaps with Mattison Square Garden and Radio City Music Hall. Yes, no, go ahead, no, but yeah, we're gonna be at the draft in Vegas. We're gonna have a show Draft night backstage, as I understand at where's the draft Allegiance Stadium or in the surrounding territories. No, that theagio. It's it's topless, it's close. It's at some right there they're coming through, but it's not like inside the Bellagio or any thing. Yeah, it looks for this. So we're gonna be there on Thursday night for the first round. Well, maybe even talk to some first round picks. Uh Mark was hoping we get some offensive lineman, some d tackles, some run stuffers. So yeah, yeah, so that's exciting. And before that, let's have a conversation. You know, when you look at the draft and the strategies where teams are expected to go, the speculation, it's now reached a fever pitch, as it always does by this time of the NFL calendar. And yet sometimes that feeling that people have is a bad feeling for a team. So this segment it's called no no, no, no no no no no no no, no, no no, don't do that. That's mine. Everyone's gonna do one, including Greg Our online reading. Yeah, you know, I think performative Chi introduced the idea. Yeah, I think that's good. Uh, show a little improv and that's behind the glass too. I want to get something. I gotta get Christie Stapleton, get her on the mic for that, uh for for mine. But so let's go around, and this is kind of one last last chance at advice for teams that might be leaning a certain way, in a way that would end and doom. Markt is going I have seen all the mock drafts um and the vast majority tell us that Dan Campbell and the Detroit Lions are going to go defense and let's just keep u you know, adding big thick men to the both lines on the ball. And I'm telling us, well, I mean they would be at various times not on the field. I want the Lions, who are They're halfway there? Police stop there, halfway there being a super interesting team. Half they got it. I thought that they were the most fascinating sucky team I've seen in years. A season to go. Here's what I'm saying to the Detroit Lions. Do not pass on the idea of just rolling the dice and drafting Malik Willis. Just do it. I don't care about Jared Goff. I don't care about drafting some sort of edge rush. Say your thing is that that, Yes, don't pass this is your idea. No, no, no, no, no, do not do that. On passing on Malik Willis the old double negatives. Well, this is this is connected to yours conversation defensive tackle Erica tampose to give me um a line read you're going to tee it up. You want me to just do it? Okay, No, no, no, don't do that. I say drafting Malik Willis. That was my first one. So we are on opposite ends of the eye, don't draft because we have so much we have so much institutional knowledge potentially uh that this is not a quarterback class and that that reeks to me of a team with a need reaching at number two when I if i'm the lines, my move would be to try to get the hell out of the number two pick if you could trade back, and if not, your roster is not halfway there. Maybe they're halfway to being interesting, but they are half. They are less than half. They were like a tenth of the way they're to being a Super Bowl contender. Just go get the best player on the board. Jared Goff is a perfectly respectable bridge quarterback. You're not contending this year anyway, so why not stick with Goff who's under contract anyway, add more players to the draft, and then next year perhaps you go get that quarterback either through the draft or free agency, a guy that you really love. Now, maybe they love Malik Wilson. Maybe that is that is part of this conversation. Then sure, if you really are in love, but be careful to talk yourself into it because you need a quarterback. They don't like him and they're not going to do that. But the idea that we all know that Malik Willis is just gonna flat line or be a glass off everything that we've heard about his college career and everything in draft with upside though the ceiling. Sure. I don't like a team in year three of a regime next offseason they still don't know who their quarterback is, right, It's like that's that bridge is getting long. If you have goff and nothing else this year, I just would say, you meet in the middle. I don't think there's much of a chance. We we never know going into it just about anything. But I just don't get you don't get the censor's much of a chance Malik Willis could go number two. What about what you could imagine is them getting Aidan Hutchinson, the local guy at number two, because Trayvon Walker goes number one, beautiful, And then you use all these picks you got. They have thirty two and thirty four, they've got sixty six, they have ninety seven, which is compensatory two using some of those picks to move up at the very least the head of Pittsburgh who's at money, and you get Malik Willis in the middle of the first round. And I foresee I see that as a very that do it, that marries our ideas, but that that also presumes that you can get him in the middle of the first round. I think that's risky. I mean, you've got the Carolina You're sitting there. Other teams could trade up. He's obviously not going number one unless the Jaggers trade out of pick. Their phone is not ringing according to rap sheet. So yes, that's the only scenario where you definitely get your guy. But I would just my feeling would be in that building. They need to really love him otherwise, which we don't know. Otherwise, go get their defense needs plenty of help. Go build up the defense. Go get an edge rusher, which are invaluable in our league, even if that's not a home run either. I get that. But you take a quarterback number two, that's a two to three year investment. Um, you better be sure, right, And I think that's why it doesn't make sense at too. But I think it's a better spot than people think because I think the coaching staff is good. I think the offensive line is quite good. Uh So there are things to like about the Lions, especially if if you're not put into that position you want to play we have jump jumping out of this real quick spinning back to the Kyler Murray situation. Some developing news here. Kyler Murray tweet in response to Patrick Peterson comments, which were you know they Patrick Peterson, former Cardinals mainstay, said this week he doesn't see Kyler's long term home Arizona. Kyler tweets, I want to win super Bowls with the Cardinals. Comma a zs home. Okay, Okay, that's pretty strong, stepping off the ledge. That's pretty strong. I kind of don't care what he says at all at this point, but all right, pretty strong. That wasn't that he didn't have to send that out. That was that's an olive branch to the Cardinal. Essentially, everything that players have done on social media this offseason did not have to be sent out. What you could say about social media? And jem I absolutely do what six Twitter. Who knew that such a brave guy was gonna step forward during this podcast that Mark would just eight social media. I think it's bad for society. I don't need that my Space comment. Al right, back to the back to the conversation at hand. Uh, the no, no, no, you know you can't it's it is hard to get space to be the brave one on this show. So I like that. Oh the slings and arrows, Greg, you're up. Um, you mentioned Johnny Manzel earlier. That was good. You mentioned Johnny Manzel earlier. Um, And there's a quarterback in this draft that reminds me just a little bit of Johnny Manz at least at least in terms of like some of the strengths and weaknesses. And it also reminds me a little bit of, uh, the current Brown's quarterback who's not really the Browns quarterback, Baker Mayfield. And it's a player who's being mocked a lot to the Carolina Panthers at number six overall. Uh quite old prospect by the name of Kenny Pickett, And just imagining the Panthers drafting Kenny Pickett in that spot just makes me think, like, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, you can't do that. But uh, Kenny Pickett seems like he's a little bit of the worst of all worlds in terms of a guy you would take that early. Carolina is definitely a worst of all worlds. I think for a player arriving number one, your coach could be on the way out, similar to Justin Field's uh last year arriving to Chicago and kind of wasting a year with the coaching staff that's about to leave number two a terrible, terrible offensive line, and that that's that's the most important part of the equation, that they haven't really fixed this offseason and they could help fix with the number six overall pick or you move back and you get some picks. Pick it is talked up as accurate and any he seems to be and like Johnny Manzel could could throw it pretty accurately when when he saw it, and Baker Mayfield can throw it accurately when he saw it, But pick it to me doesn't seem like he has like the pocket feel and he holds onto the ball forever. His time to throw, according to PFF, is over three seconds, like one of the highest in college football over the last three years in a row. Like that's just part of who he is. So he's like always trying to make a play. And that reminds me of Baker, and it reminds me of Johnny Manzel. These guys who maybe don't progress in terms of like great quarterback skills, in terms of going one to two to three quickly that it takes forever and you go just try to make a play outside of the pocket. That's sort of who Kenny pick It is. And that worked when you're like a twenty three year old fifty fifth year senior who didn't really do much until your fifth year. But I think could be really troubling at the NFL level unless you have a lot of support around you, and Carolina does not offer a lot of support. Here's my question then, because al right, that all makes sense for the Panthers, it's there overshooting with that quarterback in that spot. Are we suddenly okay with the idea of Pittsburgh taking the player you just described fourteen spots later? Does it really matter? Why should anyone cling to Kenny Pickett as their quarterback of the future. Different people like different things, and in some like our guy Daniel Jeremiah, who knows a lot more about this process, thinks he's the best quarterback in this draft. And but then but then so then then if that's the case, let's say he is. Let's say Daniel je Jeremiah's right, w if you're the Panthers, why wouldn't you get's like I guess it just seems like we're talking about a player who has value suddenly an hour and a half later in the draft process. Because we're fourteen picks down. It wouldn't make sense for the Steelers to take them either for for what it's worth, and it's very little like I think Malik Willis makes a lot more sense to them, and maybe even Desmond Ritter. But Pickett seems like a guy who's gonna try to find out that his athleticism that worked in college isn't gonna be as special. And it's kind of like all these quarterbacks. It's a it's a boring topic at this point, but like everyone's trying to convince themselves into any of these guys, so probably none of them makes sense. I think Steelers are in a slightly different spot where you take a guy at twenty uh and whoever it is, maybe you're not forced to play them right away that you'll just eat Trabisky for a year and you're not that worried and I trust them to develop in a way that that other It's like, but none of these guys would be going that high a year ago. I think it's pretty clear Malik Willis At least I think people see that there's like a chance. You can see it. You see those Josh Allen throws, you see one of the best to the side of the other guys. Doesn't seem like it's there. If you're upside, is Baker Mayfield? Just go get Baker Mayfield? Like he's gonna be way better right now than than a Kenny Picket. Is I just I'm feeling cynical because like the pre draft quarterback talk is like correct about twelve percent of the time. It seems like so it's like, who really what? These guys can't really play more developing news in a big picture more more of these guys are gonna fail than the right even in Baker's class, that was the case one of the first classes. Kyler Murray is now replied to a rap sheet tweet. Rap Sheet tweeted, could Cardinals QB Kyler Murray be traded? G M Steve Kim during his pre draft press conference, Zero chance. As we talked about earlier, Kyler's reply, the one hundred emoji, the one red and two underlines, this is exciting to go. He's very definitely got a deal done today then, right, But he's I get I just feel like he's a little clumsy, and I think he's trying to, you know, backpedal little and remake the image of what he knows something and is like feeling confident. Now, yeah, well, to Mark's point, then just and do the deal. Like they don't know anything. They're just like trying to quiet up all down, quiet at all down, like pr yse which is great. Maybe they maybe they've made some progress in terms of a contract. Man. The sex is going, so well, let's just keep rolling straight through. No breaks now, no, no, don't do that, all right, Ricky, we'll take a break. We'll be right back, all right. So you may recall uh Bilize and girls early in the draft process, when everybody was hot hot, hot hot on Kyle Hamilton's Yes, he's a safety, which is not a premier position whatever that means, but he might be the best player in this draft. And then I think it was his pro day or combine he ran a non impressive forty both and now you're seeing like Josh Norris's mock, he's eighteen to the Eagles. And to that, I'll say, Randy Chavez, no, no, no, no, no, don't do that No, there's a little panic in the voice there. I like that. That's to all the gm s that are saying we'll pass on this guy, let him fall deep into the first round. What is This is what I do, and I am the furthest thing from a college expert, but I will say this. You know from years and years and years of following the sport that the guys who know they're the Bucky brooks Is of the world. As an example, it's like you can get all hot and bothered about the combine and Pro days and all this, but the best way to find out if a guy can play is watch the tape. And this guy, uh, Kyle Hamilton and Notre Dame was a baller. And yet this happens every year when the guy runs up Port forty and he starts tumbling down the board. Now these are mock draft boards. We'll see if NFL teams were turned off the way mock drafters who are plugged in and asking questions have surmised this. But if Kyle Hamilton's ends up being an All Pro Star at safety, teams are gonna be kicking themselves because he didn't unfast in March. Maybe it was never that high in the first place because he's a safety, and teams when it comes down to it, just like taking either receivers or big, big guys, you know, And that's what the whole mocks like rising falling. It's become almost cliche now that it's it's less rising falling and more just like the pros, the coaches enter the process, the gms, we actually get a feel of what they are actually thinking. And maybe Kyle Hamilton' was never there, but I'm with you, it's like overthinking in a draft where it seems like there's no sure fire home runs. Why not take the guy that has the best chance to be in all pro that like a double Who cares? If it's positional value like that? That part doesn't make a lot of sense to me. It's there aren't a lot of players that started out in most mocks, you know, unanimously top five and viewed as sort of a rock solid like hit, and then they tumbled the way they did, and it's it's it says a lot about the position. But I think maybe a team will surprise us and go a little earlier with him. All right, anybody else got one? I got too many? Uh? I guess just since we should do it. I feel like we haven't had like almost the cliche conversation um the show. I know, just but it's big. It's the number one overall draft pick, and like sometimes the conventional wisdom take I think is right, and I think when it's Trent Balky making the decision for Jacksonville, it's like, Hey, Jaguars, how about don't take the guy number one overall who has less production than any like top five pass rusher in the history of the NFL, Like, how about let's not do that. No no, no, no, no no no no, no no, don't do it. Do you trust them to send the condescension? It's just like, let's let's not say, oh is the Georgia scheme and he's good at run defense. It's like and and all that's true. I'm sure like it makes sense that some physical Travon Walker. Yeah, I'm sure all that. All that makes sense, that he's got these tools that are crazy. He's a physical, like a total freak, and that probably means he's gonna be a halfway decent pro um. But at no point has he ever been a great pass rusher. Let's not take him number one over who's someone else who's taking who's the equivalent? Who is there an NFL equivalent in recent years that similarly didn't Hunter but he got taken in the third round, or or like Justin Herbert maybe wasn't off the map. A totally different vibe. But people in terms of what the kind of player I think Trayvon Walker can and maybe will be would be more like Clowney who did go one overall. But Clowney was an incredibly productive college player. Like he's more strong, Like he's gonna be stronger and more athletic than he is like a pure pass rusher. But I don't know. I just don't decisions. He's the opposite. What made Clowney such an exciting prospect was, of course the famous hit on the running back in the backfield, Like he was, he was this guy that's seen people are talking about, like LT because he had excelled so much in college player of the area. Traylon Walker for the Jets, for instance, he could fall to them at four and I could see them getting sucked in and taking him, And I just don't know how I would feel. For this very reason. It it spooks me a little bit for a guy not to be a college star to expect him to be a professor. I'd almost trust the jets a little more, if only because Robert Sala's defense makes sense to me. They're a defensive scheme that takes big, strong guys that are maybe a little unrefined and tries to simplify and just says go and that's and that's what he could be really good at. I think just sort of like a bowling ball that messes a lot of things up. Maybe you don't get a lot of sacks and that, and they could coach them up. I just sort of don't trust the Jaguars to take the like boom er Bus guy because everything they've done as a franchise for the last decade has been bust like. And that that that matters to me. Aidan Hutchinson, you know a lot of people mocking him still to the Jaguars, Malik Willis, maybe the Lions. Yeah, maybe Trayvon Walker is up on the Jets. That's why everyone saying this first round there's not slam dunks in it. There's gonna be risk. That's why people are trying to get out of the first round. Teams are trying to get out. I mean the first ten picks, I should say in the first round. People are trying to deal out of that zone because his way too much risk involved with these picks. People get fired from missing on top ten picks badly. And this draft especially feels like Mark one, where you can get canned by taking the next Vernon Gholston for instance, I've got one for you, all right, Mark's all business today. I like the edged right now. Ever since I said brave, which wasn't like, I'm totally cherry at this point. It's just a silly, silly joke. There's a team that obviously is like a player awave they or maybe a player or two away from Super Bowl glory, and they should see themselves that way. Even though their general manager today said it's not super Bowl or bust nonsense, Yes it is. Everyone in Buffalo knows that it's Super Bowl or Bust. The piece I think they're missing is having Josh Allen have to be the centerpiece of the Russian attack. I know you have Devin Singletary. They tried to get j J. D. Mckissic that went south. He would have been a great situational player. For them. There is a player out there who is viewed as the unquestionable high volume runner who can score from anywhere on the field. He's a two time first team All American. He has the college production we're talking about in every possible way. And what I don't want the Bills in this spot to do is to try to get too cute and outsmart all the mock drafters who have essentially mocked this player running back Breeese Hall from Iowa State to Buffalo. For them to say, if everyone says we're gonna do this, we're not going to do it. Hit it, Sean Kelly, No, no, no, don't do that. Okay, let's try it a little differently, give me a second, just me, give me a second. Take. I like that, but let's just give it, give me a different flavor. No no, no, no, no, do not do that. Let's pretend you're very angry. No no, no, do not do that. All right, that's the vibe. So that was believable. That that was very much like Sean has has used those exact words in that same time to his mom when he told her to clean up his I was gonna say his college girlfriend when she was like, I don't think long distance is gonna work. This is not experience. I love you and you always like give me one more Sean. I'll love you and nothing is going to ever change that. Like you've you'll always have a special place in my heart. But I just think this is the time where we need to go our separate ways. No no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no no, you cannot do that. Well, let's not improvise, thank you. You gotta get a little flavor. So, but back so Mark yours, yours are bending my brain a little bit. So no, no, no, no, do not not not do that. It's yes, I would say that if if you want it not spun in a different way, or if you do it's do not listen to the mock draft. Do not do not ignore the mock drafters. Do not try to be mock drafters. Essentially, do what everyone thinks you're gonna do the worst. The worst thing about this is that I vaguely came up with the second. Yes it was, it was a winner. I'm just coming at it from a dial about this with Josh. This very situation right Breece Hall and the bills. It makes plenty of sense. This also comes from me suggesting that we've talked about that they, like if Christian McCaffrey were ever truly on the market, that the Bills doing that deal and getting that done would turn their offense into something psychotic. I think brees Haw and Kenny Walker seemed like guys if they were in a draft fifteen years ago, they potentially would be top ten picks, and they're like totally ignored. So that part of it I like. But then I also look at the Bills and I think, why did the Bills not win the Super Buss. It's because Sean McDermott's defense stunk and it's sort of got ignored. Had a good season, but they got lit up for five yards. They don't have a second outside cornerback right now. They have trade Avious White and really nothing now. So I'm almost certain they're going to take a cornerback in the first two rounds. I guess, you know, maybe they'll take a running back first and a quarterback second, or vice versus it man, they need help in the secondary. They did it on offensive. You guys did it, and you always you never want to risk getting stale and just resting on your Laurels on one side of the ball. But I feel like the offense is gonna put up points. They're gonna score thirty. It's the defense. If they could add a couple more difference makers there, So hold on here that I'm going off with their actual actions. They thought they had Jad McKissick, who is a better player than I think most No, I think it makes sense, but that's like a third down back. I feel like you could get You could get Dalvin Cook's brotherhood, James Cook, who who looks awesome. I feel like people are under like overthinking him just because he didn't have crazy proaction. He looks exactly like Dalvin Cook. Just draft him earlier. Well, Azzi Conseco made it looked a lot like it. But he runs and catches the ball beautifully like and it'll be available maybe in the second round. Is all I mean more. I just address the position. But if they think he's special like the defense, yes, but how about add strength to strength? You know what? And we also trust them as team builders. Greg, I don't agree with it, but Greg had um their brain trust. Sean McDermott um and Company is number one in your GM Power rankings. That's right, you hurt. You got an earful from a certain high ranking figure within the RAMS. I mean that's for you to throw out there, but yeah, I think it just shows how important the GM rankings are. I mean they send shockwaves throughout the industry. Um Kevin Colbert was was very high. I'm going to wrap up with just one more quick one. And he was on our show. And the high ranking owner, by the way was stand Crunky, high ranking official and tight Um Kevin Colbert wants to leave the Steelers in great shape. We talked about that scenario earlier. Or maybe the Lions can can trade up ahead of Pittsburgh to go get Malik Willis and and I just think Kevin Colbert, if if you're thinking Malik Willis, and it really feels like Mike Tomlin would like that idea. And for my own enjoyment, who doesn't want to watch uh Trabisky for seventeen weeks and likes the idea of a future Steelers team with one of the best running quarterbacks in the NFL, which Malik Willis will be day one like Jalen Hurts, but more like somewhere between Jalen Hurts and Cam Newton as a runner and just crazy arm strength. Don't don't wait for wait, don't wait for Malik Willis, Like, don't do it. I think you're probably gonna have to move up, whether it's to like twelve or something. It's not the Steeler way. They've never done it. They always just sit there. He famously sat there and waited for Ben to come to him. But I don't know if waiting for Malik Willis to come to you is gonna work. And when I when I think about this, this is what I think about, justin no, no, no, don't do that, Like pretty good, all right, we got Molik wills fever if he does all those things. If he does all those things, then like two years from now or people are going to be annoyed that Detroit didn't take him, just saying that that's a fair point. Like I just think, of course, but but that's a thing. Like five minutes later week, Maleek Willis Is is someone someone that Steelers should trade up for and break their organisms. That's like, like, if you're the Detroit Lions, you've been You've been the most dull, observational team in the league for years and years, and you're gonna roll out Jared Goff again and then roll into years. You just said they were really entertaining last year. Well, okay, so I think they were spicy for a team that has the second overall pick. I think even arrived product. Right, even his biggest fans, Malikilis probably recognize what is it? Maybe like a forty percent chance that he becomes a hit. But that's kind of true. I guess what you're saying, Mark of any for you said at first round unless snea do we love thought Jared Goff would be So I again, like the human element to this is um toxic, right. I think that draft is a good reminder I think there it was very typical of how first round quarterbacks go. Two were total hits, Josh Allen and Lamar Jackson who both fell too far. Uh. One was Baker, who I think's in the middle, like he's a starting quarterback. You're not in love that he was your number one overall pick, but he wasn't a bad pick. He's a quarterback and to look like bus and that's like how it goes. But maybe Malik Willis is sort of like if he was in that draft. It's funny to think about Lamar now, like, if Lamar Jackson was in this draft, his profile coming out of college, you'd be the number one overall pick, and he went thirty second. It's it's a little mind bending to think how how it's changed, how the league's changed. Um, all right, that's our last show of the week. We have are the season finale of The Around the NFL broadcast uh tomorrow Friday on NFL Network if you miss it. According to Peter Schreeger, there they are that like three am on Monday morning, So just check your local listings, find it, watch it if you can. We really would appreciate it. And then next week we're all in for Draft week. We will give you I think we're going to give you five shows. And people who are wondering, is the Mark Sessler mock Draft coming back? Damn right, it is. It's an event. We don't skip events. It's a tadpole of the show and it will be treated as such. Mark. Yeah, and I I promise as always to put at least forty two minutes into the research and the good. Yes, and I think we did have a discussion about not doing it, which I was surprised I had it I stood on the table and was saying, we gotta do this mock draft, and it was kind of thrown out there are we gonna do that or not? And I was like, we got we gotta do. I think it got blown out a little bit too much last year. We're going to find the right balance. And just know that Malik Willis will he be the number two pick in Mark's mock draft after all that I'd like to think you will be. But Mark is also an unpredictable guy. He might not well, he's a businessman and he wants to beat Josh Norris. I know that. Oh yeah, I'm beat Daniel Jeremiah a few years ago, I believe. And if you you know what, if you put my leak Willis to the Lions at to just say you did go because I think in in final, in the final analysis that was not totally accurate. But I listen. I if they draft him at fifteen, though, I think you get credit for him team player match, it's close enough. And even if it's not, one more update from Kyler Murray help so he's on some sort of you know, LSD product. At this point, Kyler Murray, I will only play for the Cardinals and I will pay them. Wow. That no, that that's there's no where updates. It would be love wouldn't be awesome though, Like if he did a tweet and he just did that tongue cheek uh, that would blow up the internet. I think we haven't gotten any sense of humor detection off him yet, but maybe we just did not know him now. In according to like a J. Green conversation with the media this week, it felt like him and Kyler Murray had barely ever spoken. He said it in the nicest way possible, but that's what it felt like, all right, all right, last last one. Here's Christy. There she is behind the glass. Christie Stapleton um Mark is getting ready to make Malik Willis look she's running away ran She said, I'm not doing this, And that's It's like that dream you have in high school where like you're giving a speech to the class and you realize you're in your underwear. That's the way she just reacts. She sprinted out of here. I think she's trying to sneak all right. Then, well she had her chance. It could have been a star and she and she's like this this life in front of the microphone. He's up for everybody. It's only for the real heroes, the brave ones. It's one way to put it. Um, wh are you going with that? I don't. I don't thank you for listening. Until draft week, Stan had the signing off for Rich eyes in the face. Thanks for joining us, Rich, the old Boss, Quiet Storm, Ricky Hollywood, and the whole gang behind the glass. Christie I had to sam disappointed until Tuesday. Heed the call, m hm S