25 More NFL Combine Nuggets, Bills GM Brandon Beane and Steelers GM Omar Khan Join the Show!

00:00:04
Speaker 1: Welcome to NFL Daily, where we're about ready to get out of dodge, at least some of us. I'm Greg Rosenthal here in the Indianapolis Convention Center. I have a flight in about three hours, plenty of time for us to honk as much as we want.

00:00:19
Speaker 2: Jordan Rodrigue not anxious.

00:00:21
Speaker 3: At all about that.

00:00:21
Speaker 1: Greg, you have a meeting to get to you know who can say if you'll get to it in time. Big show today, more news coming up. We had a handful more of coaches and gms at the podium here in Indianapolis. We had more news come out on Tuesday evening that I wanted to kind of get into this show some more updates, and we heard from some listeners shout out to Nick Costas, by the way, who's a great show on Westwood One, who says he loves the Little Nuggets episode. So we have a lot more Little Nuggets. But we also have some big time interviews coming up on this show. A couple of gms will wrap the show. We talked to Brandon Bean of the Buffalo Bills and Omar Khan of the Pittsburgh Steelers. But before that, we're going to fly through the news and I wouldn't say it's a lot of screaming headlines, but the Colts are a team that I'm going to start with. We'll call this Colts Corner because there was about five things that came out of their media availabilities. Number one to me would be Chris Ballard's confidence that Daniel Jones and Alec Pierce aren't going anywhere one way or another.

00:01:31
Speaker 4: Yeah, and you know that's a smart thing. That's a smart decision. You obviously don't want other teams to pay your good players that you've committed to. The injury has always thrown a wrench into this, I think in our thinking on the outside of this too. But clearly the Colts are committed to the point where they're talking about the deals themselves and how they could potentially get done, and also the tools that Chris Ballard said could be used to get those deals.

00:01:56
Speaker 1: Yeah, he said he doesn't want to use the franchise tag, but they in the end if they had to. But the way that he spoke about it, the confidence, just gave the impression that both deals are potentially further along than we would have any idea with about before he spoke. So more in this space soon. They tried to shoot down the Michael Pittman idea. We'll find out some other nuggets though there. Charvarius Ward is expected to return to the team. He had talked openly about retirement, and they expect to Forrest Buckner back by training camp from his injury, which means a he's not getting cut.

00:02:35
Speaker 2: I didn't think he was retiring. He's still playing at a high level.

00:02:38
Speaker 1: But I didn't know about the status of those two veterans, so I thought maybe that was a way they.

00:02:42
Speaker 2: Could free up some cap space.

00:02:44
Speaker 1: But those are two big time players, big time names that we'll be back.

00:02:47
Speaker 5: Yeah.

00:02:47
Speaker 4: And when you talk about freeing up cap space, that's what makes to me the extensions for both Daniel Jones and Ale Pierce more likely than unlikely, because you can do that with extensions in the short term much better than a franchise or any sort of of these quote unquote tools that Chris Ballard doesn't like to use, rarely rarely uses them.

00:03:07
Speaker 3: And they talk.

00:03:08
Speaker 4: They treat their Beat really well, Chris Ballard and Shane Steiken do. They talked for like a couple of hours off podium with the Beat writers too, and well, I just think it informs It's interesting because in those types of sessions, you don't get a lot of things you can put out there as news, or you don't get things that you can say definitively, but you can write around them or subtly insert them into your pros essentially or your paragraphs. And the fact that all of these writers that I follow on that beat, it's great beat they continue to mention the tag means that that probably has come up as a real possibility if something can't get done. I only say this to say it's very clear how adamant they are about keeping their core inclusive to DeForrest Buckner coming back and being ready to play for them.

00:03:59
Speaker 2: And maybe Pittman, who they might extend.

00:04:01
Speaker 1: I thought, like, that's another opportunity to lower his cap number, the possibility he gets a year or two added to his deal. So there's a lot going on. Anthony Richardson not part of their core, but they did say he's cleared to play football again, which was just a little item so he could be potentially traded. And then Shane Stiken really talked up a man by the name of Jalen Travis who did play a little bit last year after Braden Smith got hurt. Braden Smith is one of my top fifty free agents, one of the better tackles on the market. Steiken made it sound like they have an in house replacement who's the way that they've developed and drafted Their offensive lineman has been really good over the last few years. So it sounds like they're going to let Braden Smith hit the market if you're looking for a right tackle. Again, these are guys kind of in the middle of the market. But we had Ryan Poles on yesterday. I like that him talking about potentially trading got a little bit of pop in Chicago. Here comes one of the trades, Tremaine Edmonds, who's been with that team for a while. If you remember Ryan Poles, they invested that. The team did a lot of money in trade Edmunds and Roquan Smith back in the day. Obviously Rokwon Smith's gone. They are allowing Edmunds to seek a trade. If not, I would imagine he's going to get cut. They could save fifteen million dollars against the cap if they do trade him. I think he's a good enough player that there's a chance they actually do find a trade form.

00:05:22
Speaker 2: I don't think it would be like for a.

00:05:23
Speaker 1: Big a big cost draft pick wise, but maybe you get like a pick swapp or a third day three pick.

00:05:28
Speaker 3: Yeah, and not gonna lie.

00:05:29
Speaker 4: I think this is kind of a classy way to handle this because you can save such a significant amount of money just with a pure cut. But you sort of make yourself as a front office look very good and amenable to players if you say, actually, we'll work with you, or you are have the freedom with your agent to work on something that you find is feel is better for you versus signing cold somewhere, So you know, it's kind of like a win win if you're the Bears.

00:05:53
Speaker 1: Yeah, it also means that Tremaine Edmunds would be making that contract, and if his agent and there's a lock that go into these decisions, I'll determine that the best he's gonna do is maybe that that level of salary, or he can get a new contract to tack on years more guaranteed money, then it could make it happen. But if he doesn't want to play ball, he'll probably get cut. In If you look at the linebacker market available, he'll be somewhere in my top one on one I got to think about it, probably below kway Walker, for instance, so out of the top fifty, but somewhere between fifty and one hundred. Mike Rabel just got off the podium and like Jordan Rodriegue, was wearing a jean shirt.

00:06:34
Speaker 2: You've been noticing.

00:06:35
Speaker 1: Bo Wolf, who's been on the ground reporting on the situation. It's been the year of the shacket here at the Combine. I think it's been coming for a while. It worries me, frankly, it's too much shacket and I think it's time to pivot, and maybe it's to gene outerwear is a new thing.

00:06:55
Speaker 4: I mean, Rabel was sort of trendsetting. He's one of the few coaches who wasn't in a in team get you know. I think it's funny because it is day three, when a lot of most people have been here, and you're noticing that we're it's a lot of quarter zips back in action, which was the standard at the combine. So my theory is that they only owned like one or two shackets and wore them to make a great first impression at the combine.

00:07:21
Speaker 3: But it is certainly surging.

00:07:22
Speaker 4: My group chat is commenting on this as well, very stute observation, go, well, for these are trends and traits that you need to be scouting at the combine.

00:07:30
Speaker 1: Well, there was a guy who wore the exact same eighty dollars Zara sale price shacket as me yesterday.

00:07:38
Speaker 3: Hear it made you miserable.

00:07:40
Speaker 2: And he's been killed.

00:07:42
Speaker 1: He's he's in a dumpster somewhere in Indianapolis.

00:07:49
Speaker 2: You know what we never hit on the show.

00:07:50
Speaker 1: Zach Kerr is the new defensive coordinator for the Patriots.

00:07:55
Speaker 2: How about that?

00:07:56
Speaker 1: Mike Rabel talked about that power does Zach Kerr, who.

00:08:00
Speaker 4: We did a great job and in kind of a sudden change situation, and obviously they're dealing with their defensive cordon who had the health issues and they were all so supportive of him in his fight against.

00:08:11
Speaker 1: The Cancas jam Trell Williams with an undisclosed role.

00:08:14
Speaker 4: Still, yes, it seems like more of a senior consulting role. I think that's great because he's recovering from a very serious illness, so you're not going to throw him right back into such a high pressure play calling job. Because that person does call plays on Rabel's staff. Zacher did a great job. He called a great defense last year.

00:08:35
Speaker 2: I Ali threw it out.

00:08:37
Speaker 1: They you know, thought that once the Browns didn't get their first few guys that they wanted like that would have been an interesting guy to give a call to. I don't know if he's ready for the big US.

00:08:46
Speaker 4: You can't if you promote him to defensive coordinator, which also is smart for We're able.

00:08:50
Speaker 1: To do absolutely in terms of a coordinator job. But maybe he could have been up there on the podium like Todd Monkin was today. You mentioned not wearing team gear. He was wearing like a powder blue I think it was a.

00:09:00
Speaker 2: Unc uh sweatshirt.

00:09:03
Speaker 3: I'm not gonna lie.

00:09:03
Speaker 1: It's a little disarming when someone doesn't wear the team colors. One thing someone's that with the Brown's got to talk to him. You can't be wearing powder blue in your first big press conference.

00:09:12
Speaker 3: I'm not gonna lie. And I we could.

00:09:14
Speaker 4: You know, we need to fact check this, obviously, Greg, this is really important that we do. It looked like one of those like fishing shirts that like.

00:09:22
Speaker 2: Either way, it was a hoodie. It was a powder blue hoodie.

00:09:24
Speaker 4: You can't be a Brown Southern Southern guys wear like Salt Life or whatever the hell it's called. Like, you know this SPF, you know, the lights are so bright on Todd Munkin right now.

00:09:35
Speaker 1: I watched him because he's been so loose with the media. He just says stuff and he's got that gravelly voice that sounds like I think he's been smoking cigarettes always. Like like if you were looking for an old coach, like for a Friday Night Lights.

00:09:50
Speaker 2: Reboot, like he he.

00:09:51
Speaker 1: Would be perfect as like kind of like the former coach who gives the coach advice or something.

00:09:55
Speaker 3: He's back when football was real.

00:09:58
Speaker 2: He's just that dude.

00:10:00
Speaker 1: So I was like a little disappointed he didn't have any like big screaming headlines out of his press conference, but he said he would give the benefit of the doubt to Deshaun Watson in a potential quarterback competition, which like, we know, we know you've been getting the benefit of the doubt that John Watson for a long time among others in the organization. Well, no, the whole yeah, the whole organization. He's just inheriting this. And Andrew Berry said on the podium that they expect it to be an open competition and Shoulder Sanders and Deshaun Watson would be part of that competition.

00:10:31
Speaker 2: We'll see if that's ever going to happen.

00:10:33
Speaker 1: I thought it was interesting that Andrew Berry also said quinch On Juggins would be ready for training camp, So that's an optimistic timeline. I have found a lot of times off season, especially this time of year, guys that are said to be ready for training game very often aren't because who's really paying attention five months later. And they also mentioned the really sad news that it's unlikely that Jeremiah usu Koramoa, the linebacker, will play in twenty twenty six.

00:11:01
Speaker 2: That's not a surprise.

00:11:02
Speaker 1: There has been reporting locally that he may never play again at the NFL level, which is heartbreaking. Heat he was a guy who signed a big contract, was one of the very best linebackers in the league. And we're so used to in this like like medical marvel world that we live in that like injuries don't end your career, and it sounds like injuries will end his career.

00:11:22
Speaker 4: Yeah, that's that's because he you know, he was really a joyful player to watch too, and clearly had so much heart and passion for what he did.

00:11:30
Speaker 3: And it's just it's a really tough thing.

00:11:32
Speaker 4: Hopefully he's good care around him and good people around him that he can lean on to support him, because it's a really, really tough thing for a player to go through.

00:11:40
Speaker 1: I am really curious to like, what are they going to do? They have so many holes, including out linebacker where they don't have Devin.

00:11:45
Speaker 2: Bush coming back.

00:11:46
Speaker 1: Obviously Joka is not coming back, and you need to fill an offensive line. You need weapons for these possible quarterbacks. They just have so much on their plate. We do too.

00:11:56
Speaker 2: Brandon Aubrey.

00:11:57
Speaker 1: He wants ten million dollars per year according to Cowboys beat writer Calvin Watkins. The Cowboys, according to Espana, are willing to make him the highest paid kicker in the league at around seven and a half million dollars a year. I did like the take that this was a new low for the Cowboys negotiating through the media for a kicker contract, Just like, can you just do something quietly?

00:12:19
Speaker 4: This was David Hellman, right, yes, our friend at the Athletic Football Show.

00:12:23
Speaker 3: Like he he was with.

00:12:25
Speaker 4: The team for so long as one of their in house people, and they used to let their in house people be like pretty open about what they thought about what was happening with the team even more so now, I mean it's three what three million reportedly two and a half million reportedly difference for a man that gives you pop the like one of the few people that gives you pop and eyes on the brand quote unquote during special teams plays.

00:12:51
Speaker 3: I mean, I I what's two and a half million?

00:12:53
Speaker 1: Well, you never want to be the team that like totally resets the market. But I always find these things funny because agents are paid a lot of money in a lot.

00:13:00
Speaker 4: Marry Jones does not care about resetting the market.

00:13:03
Speaker 3: I promise you.

00:13:04
Speaker 1: Okay, that's fair, especially when the market is relatively low. You're paid like Swing tackles that amount of money. Prediction. The kicker wants ten, the Cowboys are offering seven and a half.

00:13:16
Speaker 2: I bet it ends up around nine.

00:13:18
Speaker 1: Like they have to pay the people all this money for that to happen. And Ian Rappaport is just an attention seeking monster.

00:13:28
Speaker 3: You didn't get enough screen time this week?

00:13:29
Speaker 1: And who's always been walking in the background of our shot? You watched mac McDonald. I met Mike McDonald talk. I met with my friend Matt McDonald, Patriots fan who spent a lot of money to come watch his team get drilled in the Super Bowl a couple of weeks ago. Met him the night before the Super Bowl. We met Mike McDonald in person on the field right afterwards. What were your impressions about a man who almost hasn't been given a chance to come down from that cloud.

00:13:55
Speaker 4: He's exactly the same. No, Yeah, disappointing, He's exactly the same. He is just very calm, doesn't take the bait on any questions coming up about big free agency questions that they have. They got a lot of defensive backs who are potential free agents. Obviously, Kenneth Walker is one of the star players on that roster who we're not sure what's going to happen with him yet. Either didn't take the bait, comfortable in the long silences that follow a question he's not going to answer, and just like seemed really comfortable up there. I mean it's just really him being up there and having these silences and gaps and just non answers. Sometimes I can come off as really uncomfortable, yeah, truly, but he was just like floating up there. He just was like he just you know, here we are. I was surprised the crowd around him wasn't bigger.

00:14:43
Speaker 2: He noted that, you said too.

00:14:45
Speaker 4: Well, no, no, He said that one of his coaches got a ton of texts congratulating him when his new coaches got hired, and they compared like congratulations texts from when Mike McDonald himself got hired, and this this new coach had so much more.

00:15:01
Speaker 3: And he goes, I guess I wasn't as popular.

00:15:03
Speaker 2: Well, it's weird.

00:15:03
Speaker 1: Seattle's a relatively small media market. We watched him on his side session talking to his local reporters and it was a small group. And yeah, he was going up at the same time as Todd Monkin and Mike Rabel And you don't think of Cleveland as a big market, but they actually do have a huge media group there.

00:15:23
Speaker 2: And and then.

00:15:24
Speaker 1: You got the Super Bowl winner with way less people like, let's let's up their their profile. They're going to be in the kickoff game, They're the defending champs.

00:15:33
Speaker 2: Come on.

00:15:34
Speaker 1: Mike Borganzi was speaking at the same time as well, I don't.

00:15:39
Speaker 3: Mention me in that lineup.

00:15:42
Speaker 2: And then then there's Borganzhi. No, he was fine.

00:15:45
Speaker 1: I mean, he he said something about Jeremiah Love. That I found interesting. We haven't talked a lot about the prospects yet, but you know, talking about potentially taking a running back that high, he said, Look, I think if you're a true three down back, difference making guy on every down, like a Jami or Gibbs, I don't think they regret taking him that high. And so it's gonna be a question we talk about a lot in the coming months of where does Jeremiah Love go, because he immediately is going to become one of the favorites to like get over two thousand yards next season, and Tennessee would be intriguing.

00:16:14
Speaker 2: I don't think Tony Pollard is going to be on this team.

00:16:16
Speaker 3: I would really like that fit.

00:16:18
Speaker 1: Greg I you know, I love you know Tashay Spears, but I don't think that's going to prevent them from taking a running back in the in the top ten. So that would be an interesting pick. Let's talk about some of the stuff that happened when Tuesday evening before we logged off, Duke Tobin, who is essentially the GM for the Bengals, and Zach Taylor spoke and he said Duke Tobin that nothing was off the table when it comes to possibly tagging Trey Hensickson in trading him not really a Bengals move. I would be surprised if that happened, but that would be intriguing if they tried to pull that off.

00:16:56
Speaker 4: Yeah, a team that will never use the tag is still never going to use the tag, just in you can look at the number of times that's happened and the trends of these teams. There are certain teams who just like one of their core values is not using the tag. That doesn't mean that this is not going to happen. I think the Bengals is interesting watching those guys kind of walk around and interact with people, and when we're here in the mix with everything, you can hear some of the side conversations and I lurk a lot, as you know, and so it is interesting.

00:17:26
Speaker 3: There's a little spice there of like they're.

00:17:30
Speaker 4: Getting a lot of they're getting a lot of questions. I think they're very aware of some of the heat despite the fact that they believe they've done everything they can to keep their players, especially their quarterback happy, and so it is interesting. I wouldn't be surprised if they start zigging where they're maybe they are thought to be zagging, which might make the tag be on the table.

00:17:47
Speaker 1: And Duke Tobin also pointed out they have spent in free agency, which is which is true, and it's not usually at the very top of the market. And if you read between the lines of what he said, and Paul dane Er, your colleague got the Athletic, pointed this out. Yeah, maybe don't expect these top of the market deals, but they could be a little more aggressive this offseason getting contracts done. I know they're patient there in Cincinnati, but they can't be patient passed this year if they have another losing season. So it's go time for Zach Taylor and Duke Tobin. John Lynch I watched on the podium. He mentioned how much work the rules committee is that he didn't realize it was going to be such a hard job. That he's been in meetings for three straight days and frankly, he didn't expect it.

00:18:28
Speaker 2: He said a few things.

00:18:30
Speaker 1: Brandon Ayuk waiting to see if any interest pops up this week before they potentially cut him. Obviously he's not dealing from a position of strength, but you never know he's holding out. So Brandon Ayuk that's why he's not on the free agency list right now. He kind of backed up what they've been saying all year that they would need a really significant offer to trade mac Jones because they really like him on their team.

00:18:51
Speaker 2: I read that as long end of the show.

00:18:53
Speaker 3: Mac Joe, Yeah.

00:18:53
Speaker 1: I read that as like a two. We'd think about it a three. No Questia Dopha Mensa is rejoining the forty nine ers. He was once part of that front office. But the takeaway that I'll throw to you here is that Lynch left the podium saying he feels confident about getting the Trent Williams deal done, despite the report that was out there that he could be entering free agency if they can't come to a compromise.

00:19:18
Speaker 4: I think it's an interesting way to handle that too. We were talking in our previous show about where that might have come from and what that might have like, what kind of signal that would have been trying to send at that point. I think it is interesting that he was like downright chipper seeming talking about it.

00:19:34
Speaker 2: This is their move, It is Jimmy Garoppolo stuff. Back in the day.

00:19:38
Speaker 1: They've done it with different guys that were holding out like Bosa. They always present super outward confidence. I think that's a good way to do it actually, because unless it's pissing off the players, it's just like it just shuts everyone down and quiet's a situation.

00:19:53
Speaker 2: Even if he's not confident on the inside.

00:19:55
Speaker 3: Well, yeah, fake it till you make it, you know, that's the age old rule.

00:20:00
Speaker 1: Andy Dalton, he's never had to fake it. When it comes to his hair. It's just been getting better as he's getting taller. It's getting taller, and he's had a weird career. He's been a backup the last couple of years. The Panthers are reportedly getting calls about Andy Dalton now. They publicly also said earlier this off season offseason they maybe want to get younger. So that strikes me as maybe they're throwing the fishing line out just to see if anyone wants to give up a pick for Andy Dalton. Do you think anyone wouldn't?

00:20:35
Speaker 3: I don't know, Like maybe a late want.

00:20:38
Speaker 4: It has to be a team looking for a bridge quarterback, Like you're not just gonna trade for a backup right like or unless it's a bridge quarterback or there's an injury that is more significant or the timeline has changed on an injury, Like it's absolutely if you're a team in a bridge situation, and even then I don't think.

00:20:54
Speaker 1: That that's thirty eight. He's looked okay when he's played lately, but no, this.

00:20:58
Speaker 3: Is like a couple of weeks bridge.

00:21:00
Speaker 1: He's getting cut, is my takeaway. When you're hearing these getting calls right before free agency, that indicates to me and Tremaine Edmonds is more of an open one and I think he could actually get traded. That they're just they're just fishing and we'll probably see Andy Dalton reach free agency. Jesse Minter spoke to the media and one thing we missed we did talk about it a little bit was that nomde Maide Vike is in great spirits, that he's spoken to him, he's been in the facility. I just wanted to mention that and that the decision whether to retire or not is quote up to him. He has a big cap figure, he's one of the better defensive tackles in the league. So just more on this situation coming up in the in the next two weeks and on NFL daily, because either they're going to have one of the better at defensive tackles in the league, or they're gonna have to cut him like there, or he's going to retire. So we'll find out. Let's listen to some sound. I just found this funny from Sean Payton. We mentioned glancingly a few weeks ago about how bo Nicks called his own press conference because he wasn't happy about how Sean Peyton talked about his injury.

00:22:06
Speaker 2: Is their trouble in Denver?

00:22:08
Speaker 6: I'm not going to get into the injury. What I meant predisposed is there was a slight that was he's not and there weren't multiple. So I have a problem, and Mike I apologize. I have a problem when someone's quoting me to him on a conference call and they're inaccurate, and they're one of our locals. That shouldn't be all right, next question.

00:22:29
Speaker 1: I just love this happened multiple times in this press conference. Sean Payton not only like ignored someone who was speaking directly to him, he talked over him, ignored him and said, no, you talk instead. And I'm he was punishing the local beat writer that he thinks got him in trouble with his quarterback.

00:22:53
Speaker 4: He was as spired on and you know what, and Sean Payton knows this. This is becoming appointment television these press conferences, whether it's Bonix or Sean Payton or some combination of the two. Certainly with Sean Payton in regards to anything bon Nicks, it's becoming appointment television. He has always been somebody who's enjoyed doing these types of things or kind of playing these little these games and whatnot with the media or through the media.

00:23:18
Speaker 2: Oh, he has favorites.

00:23:19
Speaker 1: He puts people in the penalty box for like months at a time.

00:23:22
Speaker 4: At his you know, a ten year and age and at this point and his comfort level, you know, with where he's at, he's just doing it right in front of everybody more and gives no fs about it.

00:23:33
Speaker 2: It was embarrassing.

00:23:36
Speaker 1: Maybe I was a tough situation, I thought for the reporter, and I know broncos of fans will just be like, ah, you're making something out of nothing here. It was misreported. I went back and checked the tape. I don't know that anyone did Sean Payton any dirty here. I actually think John Payton is so annoyed because there's actually something here.

00:23:59
Speaker 2: Okay, Ian do you actually think that.

00:24:03
Speaker 1: Remember how bo Nicks made his own press conference because he didn't like how Sean Payton handled his injury publicly.

00:24:10
Speaker 2: Is there some there there? You know, a little a little bo Nicks Sean Payton friction.

00:24:15
Speaker 1: And then it came out a little bit on Tuesday too where Sean Payton's really mad at the reporter he thinks got got him in trouble with Bonicks.

00:24:21
Speaker 7: I mean, I don't think there's friction, but I think it was a further emphasis that both of the very important people in the Broncos organization would like to control their own messa.

00:24:30
Speaker 3: Aren't they similar to you?

00:24:31
Speaker 4: They feel like such similar guys to me.

00:24:34
Speaker 2: I'm talking so how it works closer you are to the mic, yet they can hear you.

00:24:39
Speaker 8: I thought it was okay.

00:24:41
Speaker 7: This is like I'm like Freddie Mercury with the holding the mic stand.

00:24:46
Speaker 2: No, I thought it was I thought it was fine.

00:24:48
Speaker 7: I didn't think there's any friction, because friction is more like we're not on the same page. We can't co exist in like a football sense. This was more like, hey, stop talking about my injury. Hey, I'm a head coach. I can do whatever. It's like but also like bon Nix's is going to be one of the faces of the Broncos and Sean Payton is currently the face of the Broncos. That would be interesting to track as far as like how it goes and who has the.

00:25:13
Speaker 2: That's all I'm saying. I like what you said about.

00:25:15
Speaker 1: These are two men that are used to controlling the narrative, and I just think there's a healthy amount of like creative difference sometimes do so. Sean Payton called a pretty crazy play call that got Bix heard right.

00:25:29
Speaker 3: That's more that's more common.

00:25:31
Speaker 2: I don't think b Nix is bad about that.

00:25:33
Speaker 8: You can't predict.

00:25:34
Speaker 4: Injuries though, that's more common that that tension.

00:25:37
Speaker 2: Thank you, thank you Ian.

00:25:39
Speaker 4: That's Ian Rappaport. Everybody that there's that's more tension. There's more tension like that in more buildings than people would think, because because it's all about like who is the face, who wants to be the face of something? And sometimes it is a clear infrastructural system that makes sure that everything all roads leap back to the coach. And we're seeing a lot of it with the like the tree guys, for example, and if the quarterback has two tree yeah, as Patrick would say, the tree.

00:26:11
Speaker 3: But if the.

00:26:12
Speaker 4: Quarterback and the quarterback sort of there's an understanding there, right. And it's interesting because I I love this because this is two guys and Bonix and Sean Payton in my opinion, who are so similar, so similar, and so of course when you know two like minds are gonna be in tensely competitive situations, like, there's gonna be.

00:26:33
Speaker 1: Some tension, right, And you mentioned there's more of that in in every building, and it's like, yeah, that there's more of that in every workplace, in any place where there is power to be.

00:26:45
Speaker 4: I know Greg that you are the brand, so don't don't ever worry about that with me.

00:26:51
Speaker 1: It's the year of the co hosts. All right, let's fire through so you can get to your meeting here. Brian Gouda Kuntz was very confident when he spoke to the media and look, I'm not above admitting mistakes here. If some of these little tidbits slipped through yesterday, I want to get them on the show today. So I missed this, but he was very confident and essentially said Rashaun Gary's going to be back on his team. And he was a guy that I speculated could be cut because they could really open up a lot of money. So Rashaun Gary back with the Packers. Taylor Decker of the Lions, who openly considered retirement, I thought he was leaning that way.

00:27:26
Speaker 2: He is going to be coming back.

00:27:27
Speaker 1: He announced that on Instagram, and so that solves their left tackle problem for now and they might invest in that position for the future.

00:27:37
Speaker 3: We'll see.

00:27:38
Speaker 4: It's a long way from now to training camp and then going through training camp. I have covered teams where and been a training camp like the day at different camps that the day of the players like, I don't really actually want to do this. I'm not fit words in anyone's mouth. But we'll see. There's a long way from here till now.

00:27:55
Speaker 1: Well, he's letting them know and they've been together so long to count on him for this season. But you're right, they do change sometimes. The Lions we mentioned are going to play overseas. We got more overseas news. It's just been coming out day by day. On Wednesday, there's gonna be two Jags games this year in London and one Commander's home games. So those are the three home teams in London this year. And now the Jaguars that you know, they played back to back games in London. I don't think they were the home team in both. So they because they're building that new stadium and they're reducing capacity, they actually might play three games in London next year, which is crazy while they're getting that new stadium up and running. But they'll have two in London this year, one at Tottenham and why am I forgetting the other ones at Wembley? And the commander says one at hot Tottenham. And now the Jaguars have a little fuel because they misspelled Liam Cohen's name in the press release for this. I mean co h e n is how they spelled it. It is not that way. It is without the age. I feel like if you have the H in there, you're more likely to be Jewish. Either way you could be, but Liam is not.

00:29:08
Speaker 2: I checked.

00:29:08
Speaker 4: Well, you know what's gonna happen now, this is chipwatch it starts now.

00:29:12
Speaker 1: You can't even spell our Coach of the Year candidate's name right in the NFL.

00:29:16
Speaker 2: You know what.

00:29:16
Speaker 3: He has a point on this one.

00:29:18
Speaker 1: All right, let's take a break, let's come back, and on the other side of the break, you are going to hear from two playoff general managers. They each led their teams to the playoffs last year. Neither one of them ended the season how they wanted the Bills. You obviously had that magical Jaguars game, but then it got ugly. We'll hear from Brandon Bean right after the break, and then after that we will hear from Omar Khan, the GM of the Steelers. We will wrap up the show on the other side of that. All right, we are here with Brandon Bean, the general manager of the Buffalo Bills. It feels like speed dating right now, so we don't have you for too long, although I know you know are our co.

00:30:08
Speaker 2: Host here, Joran Rodrigue. Well from your days in Carolina, A lot of days.

00:30:11
Speaker 4: Yes, you just can't get rid of me like a bad Barnacle. Here I am again, Hey, going on my business card.

00:30:19
Speaker 3: Good Barnacle. I love that. I love that.

00:30:22
Speaker 1: I look at your off season. I just did a top one oh one free agency list. I'm sure you have you know yet to see it, but we got a couple. We've got a lot of Buffalo Bills on it, but especially your your offensive lineman near the top. Conmra govern David Everards, and I am wondering you've had such great continuity at that position and you have a change, uh in terms of your offensive line coach, kind of how does that affect your maybe ability to keep those two guys and thinking about all the teams that are here this week that are probably excited to see some really experienced, quality veterans maybe become available.

00:30:53
Speaker 9: Yeah, I mean that's the part of the business.

00:30:55
Speaker 10: You don't love Greg, it's it's you want to keep them all and those guys, I was telling our radio guys, you know a little bit ago it We got both of those players in free agency three years ago in kind of different you know, we signed Connor as a guard and on we may move them to center when Mitch Morse when it was time to part ways with him, and Dave was actually became overs as a late signing as a kind of a sixth o lineman, and we kind of had our mind with his agent like, hey, in a year, I think a spot will open.

00:31:26
Speaker 9: Just just hang tight.

00:31:27
Speaker 10: And so those two guys the last couple of years, as Connor at center and him to guard, have done an excellent job for us and on and off the field, and you know, the business is the business. They've earned the right to go to free agency and see what their market is. You hate to lose guys like that, and we're not giving up, but we also know we have a cap and when you pay Josh Allen, once you pay him, it sometimes can limit you know how many guys.

00:31:52
Speaker 9: You can retain.

00:31:53
Speaker 4: Well, I'm curious about that too, because you have a new head coach, another maybe short term Carolina guy, but you you know you yourself being former Carolina guy. It's like I think when people think about bringing in an offensive minded head coach, there's like a total shift in thought process and everything. But I think people have to remember, like you've been building it holistically the entire time. When you think about like what Joe Brady wants to do and where he wants to sort of make an impact early and maybe lift the floor of what this offense can be, especially with Josh in his prime years, do you think about or like revisit some of your your team building strategy. Do you think about, Okay, this is we've been investing here for so long, and now maybe we want to invest in different spots or do you sort of have a like five year plan all the time that you sort of stick to it, and here too, well.

00:32:43
Speaker 10: You're trying to five is hard because contracts and you know, injuries can happen, and it's hard to keep continuity. Mean, we've we have basically top seven or eight zero linemen for two straight years, which is which is hard to do, and we were fortunate that it worked out.

00:32:57
Speaker 9: But you know, the more things changed, more of the state of the same.

00:33:02
Speaker 10: I guess I think the way I look at it is the game is always up front, and I believe after you have a quarterback, you got to be stout both sides. That part doesn't change, but the game does evolve. I mean, if you remember some of the earlier iterations of our Buffalo Bills teams, we were in ten personnel and eleven you know, we had digs Emmanuel Sanders, Cole Beasley, John Brown, Gabe Davis. Like we were throwing it up and down the field. But there were also some games where the weather we were in Buffalo where the weather matter and we need to be able to establish that line of scrimmage and so we need to run the ball more and not try to throw at forty forty five times and we you know, we went and found a James Cook and made sure, you know, some of these moves at the O line, you know, panned out. And when you have that, you try to be as two dimensional as possible. You don't want to be one dimensional. But you saw this year, go back to the NFC Championship game, Rams and Seahawks, a lot of I was just talking about ten to eleven. That was a lot of thirteen personnel, and we did more of that this year as well. So you're always as what happened is is it was more spread. People found these more athletic defensive players to match up. And so now you're like, all right, if they're gonna go light and that, we're gonna try and pound them a little bit. We're gonna put a fullback in the game, We're gonna put you know, three tight ends. And so as defenses start to get big, guess what we'll start to do. We'll start to spread them out a little bit. So you're just constantly trying to stay ahead of the curve.

00:34:31
Speaker 1: Yeah, and you just resigned one of our favorites on the show, Alec Anderson, who can to help bring in that sixth offensive lineman trying.

00:34:38
Speaker 2: I know, you gotta get going.

00:34:40
Speaker 1: But a big change on the defensive side too, obviously with John McDermott moving on and maybe a little bit of a different system. Are you just looking for different types of players there on defensive offseason?

00:34:50
Speaker 9: Yeah, I mean I think at the end of the day, we're looking for good players.

00:34:53
Speaker 10: And you know, Jim Leonard came in and one of the attractive things that Jim was talking about, you know, defense, that's that's multiple and looks and uh five down front and three four, but there will still be some four to three looks like just trying to basically trying to mess with that quarterback. And and as Joe Brady even said, mess with the coordinator. He goes, I know what looks as the coordinator gives give me a little bit of like, oh man, I got to get him out of this play type of thing. So I think ultimately it's making sure that we have good football players. And Jim came in and talked to all I had our scouts in a couple of weeks ago, you know, for about ten days going through a lot of these draft prospects, and so I said, Jim, just come in and let's talk about you know what, what does an ideal Sam Becker look in your in your system? What does what does the ideal nickelback like? What is your your nose tackle? What does your front look like? And we talked about those, but he at the end of he really comforted all the personnel guys by saying, guys, it's my job and our and our coaches job to you give us good players. You know, we're not going to square peg round hold this thing. We'll get them on the field. And if our best look is a four down three, we'll do that too.

00:36:02
Speaker 9: And so that's refreshing to hear.

00:36:04
Speaker 1: So it been a lot of continuity in Buffalo since this man came aboard. General manager Brandon being appreciate your time.

00:36:11
Speaker 9: Yeah, thanks, guys.

00:36:13
Speaker 1: Really excited to be joined for the first time by Omar Khan, the general manager of the Pittsburgh Steelers, a man who I know is cooler than most gyms because he's from GM from New Orleans and uh a graduate of Tulane University like myself. You left right before I got there, and the good days started with Sean King.

00:36:31
Speaker 8: Oh nice one, were you there?

00:36:32
Speaker 2: I was there ninety seven to one.

00:36:34
Speaker 8: Oh wow.

00:36:35
Speaker 4: So yeah, yeah, let me just tell you the school spirit from this one. I love it.

00:36:41
Speaker 8: I love it.

00:36:42
Speaker 2: It is exciting to see the green wave, you know, rising.

00:36:45
Speaker 11: And how about what they've done with that program the last few years. It's been it's been a tremendous, absolutely tremendous.

00:36:52
Speaker 1: It has been amazing to see a little disarming. I did a little announcing actually when they went undefeated back in the day.

00:36:58
Speaker 2: So I wish we had the.

00:36:59
Speaker 8: Play back in nineteen ninety eight.

00:37:01
Speaker 1: I think Seaun King could have gone far. So that, yeah, he gave us some great quarterback play. How about that for a transition. You know, I watched a little bit of you at the podium and I saw you talk about Will Howard that you guys, you know you're looking for your forever franchise quarterback, and said he could be that guy. But with having him there prevent you from maybe looking hard and maybe draft at a quarterback in this draft.

00:37:26
Speaker 11: You know, it's it's it's early to tell, you know, right now Will's getting into our coaches.

00:37:30
Speaker 8: Our coaches getting no Will. But we think very highly of Will.

00:37:36
Speaker 11: You know, we liked him coming out last year and watched his progression last year. Unfortunately we didn't get see him play, so it's sort of a red shirt year for him.

00:37:45
Speaker 8: But I really like where he's at, and you know, what we know about him.

00:37:49
Speaker 4: It's kind of a weird thing in my head, so stick with me here. But when I remember Will Howard and him coming out and how much it meant for him to be a Pittsburgh Steeler, then fast to Mike McCarthy's press conference talking about how much it meant to him to be a Pittsburgh Steeler.

00:38:05
Speaker 3: They kind of.

00:38:06
Speaker 4: Match to me, like they feel like similar, very similar vibes, very similar people, and the passion is very clear about where they are.

00:38:13
Speaker 11: Oh absolutely, you know, we we when we go through the process with the scouts, I always talk to them about identifying guys that are Pittsburgh Steeler, people that are Pittsburgh Steelers, you know, and what does that mean? I mean, it's it's it's just hard to say, hey, these are the twenty characteristics of being a Pittsburgh Steeler.

00:38:30
Speaker 8: But when you're around it, you just know.

00:38:33
Speaker 11: And I can tell you we feel that way about Will Howard and Mike McCarthy. Certainly, Mike McCarthy and it's uh, you know, it's interesting with Mike. It just how much he loves Pittsburgh. Like it's it's I mean, we all love Pittsburgh. He loves Pittsburgh. I mean there is just when you bring up Pittsburgh, there's just the conversations are there.

00:38:53
Speaker 8: They're pretty cool.

00:38:54
Speaker 1: You said also that you spoke with Aaron Rodgers a week ago. You know the fact that you guys are so open to bringing him back, that tells me you thought there was like a baseline of performance from him that you guys were were happy with or felt good about.

00:39:11
Speaker 9: Last Yeah.

00:39:12
Speaker 8: You know, I think we we we signed him last year.

00:39:15
Speaker 11: You know, I think we all maybe expected it just to be a one year thing, you know, but the experience was awesome. I mean it really was. And Aaron was great to have around. He was a great teammate. You know, we had some great conversations. And I mentioned earlier, like the one thing about Aaron people don't talk enough about is.

00:39:31
Speaker 8: How tough he is.

00:39:31
Speaker 11: Like he is a tough football player, and he's a great leader, you know, and you don't know where this is gonna go with him, but you know, we've had some good conversations and he knows how we feel.

00:39:44
Speaker 12: And so we'll see you guys competed, especially down the stretch of the season, like nobody there's no quit in that team and the offense you could start to see and flashes some of the vision.

00:39:55
Speaker 4: And I kind of wonder, like, regardless of who the quarterback is, and especially with Mike coming in and knowing the way that he aligns just on that side of the ball, how do you raise the floor of what this offense can be, especially knowing how healthy your cap situation is right now and also how much you have invested currently on the defensive side.

00:40:14
Speaker 8: Yeah, that's that's a good question.

00:40:17
Speaker 11: So, Uh, the exciting part is, you know, Mike, Mike's got an offensive background and just listening to some of the stuff they want to do, some of the things they're gonna they're gonna do offensively, and that's this design helped the quarterback position.

00:40:30
Speaker 8: Uh. That that's that's that's really exciting to see.

00:40:34
Speaker 11: Now from my standpoint, obviously, you know we didn't we didn't win a football we didn't win a playoff game last year.

00:40:39
Speaker 8: That that's not good enough. We have to be better.

00:40:41
Speaker 11: And some of that is you know, we have to evaluate room by room, position by position, who's on the roster, and you know, it's my job to get better players that are going to help us and uh more players that are going to help us.

00:40:52
Speaker 8: And that's where we're at. It starts right here.

00:40:55
Speaker 1: Do you take kind of the obviously you take a big picture of you as a GM, but just like looking at literally just how the money was allotted last year, was you know, the most expensive defense in the league. If you look this year at least right now, the defense and the offense in terms of the difference in the money spent, is is even a little more? Is that something you want to like think about big picture to correct and make it more even Yeah, I.

00:41:21
Speaker 11: Would necessarily say it beeds correct. Some of that is a function of where the roster was. You know, we we you know, I don't think we go into the saying, hey we're gonna spend x percentage on defense.

00:41:32
Speaker 8: It's it's just a function.

00:41:33
Speaker 11: Of where players are, where players to develop, and who you're extending.

00:41:36
Speaker 8: You know, who comes available. So it's it's really just a fluid process.

00:41:39
Speaker 11: But I can tell you it's not someone where we say, hey, we're going to spend x percent of our money on defense versus.

00:41:46
Speaker 1: Receiver a position you know you just have three like on the roster right now that you think free agency would would be something you look for there.

00:41:55
Speaker 11: Well, certainly, you know, you go into the season with five or six some some teams go with more, and so obviously not just the receiver position, but other positions we're gonna be looking at to improve.

00:42:08
Speaker 4: Well, it's a fun week, combine week. I know you're very, very accustomed to it. I now we appreciate it because we you know, I know you've liked to be behind the.

00:42:15
Speaker 3: Scenes and all of that.

00:42:17
Speaker 4: We appreciate you kind of showing your voice, showing your face, your personality a little bit more. Omar Khan, the GM of the Pittsburgh Steelers, thanks for being on with us.

00:42:24
Speaker 8: Have me appreciate it.

00:42:25
Speaker 9: Thanks?

00:42:26
Speaker 1: Yeah, Hey, here's a test, Jordan, we tape that on Tuesday.

00:42:33
Speaker 2: What do you remember most from those two interviews.

00:42:36
Speaker 4: Yes, the thing that stuck out to me the most about Omar Khan was him truly buying into this concept or this theory that Mike McCarthy and Will Howard are extremely alike individuals and are very expressive in UH and open and how much they are similar, and the fact that Omar was gushing about Will Howard, whether it was on the podium or saying positive things with us as well, and notably also said really wants to make sure that the floor of this offense is lifted beyond what it was obviously last year with Aaron Rodgers at quarterback. That's us saying that he didn't overtly come out and say that, but he did agree that the floor needs to be lifted. And then on Brandon Bean, they've been saying it for a couple of years and now they might actually do it with Joe Brady. As head coaches, load up and get heavy personnel, make your tight ends at a lot bigger part of what you do in heavier personnels versus staying small. And then I think that also gets Brandon Bean sort of sliding sideways out of the receiver conversation.

00:43:39
Speaker 3: So it's a win win if you're branded Bean.

00:43:41
Speaker 1: And yet they will be signing receiver at least a receiver because they need some. I do think it was interesting to think about, though the sea change on defense. Jim Leonard is going to be their defensive coordinator and they're just going to be looking for entirely different types of players, so they were one of the teams. I'm really curious how they're gonna attack this offseason. And I did want to, you know, while we're talking, Bills mentioned Joe Brady had his first podium session here at you know, the Combine, and I did find this one quote telling of what his tenure is going to be.

00:44:13
Speaker 5: Like, this is your one, it's not your ten right, And I think that that's Look, there's been a foundation that's been set here and it might be a little different in a sense of we understand what expectations and everything that comes with it, right, but this isn't just Hey, you know, Joe Brady's in and everything's just as business as usual, right, And so it's important that everybody in the organization knows it because if we continue to speak about how things used to be, then we'll never continue to go forward. And so I have so much respect for the for the past, but it's your one in organization right now.

00:44:42
Speaker 1: I like how they are really positioning, like, hey, we know Brandon beans here, we know Josh Allen's here. It all kind of looks the same, but like, no, this is the Joe Brady era. It's going to be a little more coach run maybe than the last one, and more importantly, like we are starting over and it's going to be completely different. I've I've been impressed with what I I've heard from Joe Brady.

00:45:01
Speaker 4: Yeah, I mean I've covered Joe Brady for a long time, starting back when he's a GA at Penn State.

00:45:06
Speaker 2: Right, So I got to get him on the show.

00:45:07
Speaker 3: I know, I would love to have him on the show.

00:45:09
Speaker 4: It would be great to have him because the way he thinks about football is really cool, and he's he's kind of in that cross section between he came up and like a real old school but yet so progressive for its time, coaching trees under Payton for a while and then sort of started molding his own things. Was the fall guy in Carolina as well at one point. And you know, it's interesting, but he does think about the organization and the infrastructure of an organization in a similar way to a lot of these like young offensive coaches that are trending and all of these things. So I'm going to be really interested to see how this works out, kind of blending the traditionalist with the new that's I think the line that he wants to walk, I'd love to hear him talk about it on the show.

00:45:53
Speaker 1: Brady is part of the Sean Payton tree, and you said the tree is obviously the Shanahan McVay tree, but this Sean Payton tree's kind of sneaking up here. Yeah, Dan Campbell, Ben Johnson, Joe Brady, Declan Doyle. I think you can throw in there because he was an assistant back way back.

00:46:13
Speaker 3: I think for well and a Ben Johnson disciple too.

00:46:17
Speaker 1: It's happening. Yeah, that John Payton Tree. Let's get Jordan out of here. I'm getting out of here too. I am going to catch a flight in just a couple hours. But we are not done for the week. We have boots on the ground here in Indianapolis through the weekend. His name is Nick Shook. They're gigantic boots, also gigantic arms and triceps and just everything.

00:46:38
Speaker 4: He's also going to be participating in the combine bench press drills.

00:46:41
Speaker 1: Now he will not be doing that, but he will be in the stadium. He gets access that not a lot of the reporters get to have access. So we're going to be tapping into that and getting his recap of the combine winners and the losers. We also have a few more interviews coming up on the show where we have a big panther corner Dan Morgan and their head coach Dave Canalis.

00:47:05
Speaker 4: And also the absolute best line from Greg Rosenthal that nobody noticed in real time.

00:47:12
Speaker 1: Okay, you're gonna have to find out what that is. That's coming up on Thursday show, which also, yeah, have our first you know, results from the combine and we're excited to start really diving into these prospects. Until then, let's get to Jordan to our media on time. I gotta go catch up.

00:47:28
Speaker 2: We'll see you