August 7, 2020 • 53 mins
Mike Blewitt and George Kurtz are back again for another edition of Football Full Circle! In this episode, the guys discuss how the coronavirus has impacted the MLB and what this means for the NFL. Then, they talk about the recent player opt-outs in the NFL. Two key defensive players, Dont’a Hightower and Patrick Chung, have decided to opt-out amongst several other players for the Patriots. Why are so many Patriots' players deciding to opt-out? Does Bill Belichick have some type of plan?
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Episode Transcript
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get on the grid. Sports grid dot Com. Hey, everybody,
welcome to Football Full Circle. Another addition right here on
the grid. Thanks for joining us. Mike Lewett, Lord Kurtz
talking about the NFL in this hour and I feel
(01:49):
like things are changing every day, George. Um. We started
out this week it was bad news. Baseball had fallen
victim to coronavirus. US are very young. Craig Mish, who
does fantasy sports today on sports Grid, is also a
Marlins reporter, so he was very We had access to
(02:11):
one of the people in this entire sports industry that
was most impacted by it and saw it sort of
face to face. Now he was in Florida, they were
in Philly when all this started to happen. But being
the reporter that he is, he was finding out information
on a near nearly hourly basis, right Um. And as
(02:31):
you can see from his tweet here on Tuesday, he said,
the Miami Marlins season, at least temporarily has been paused.
This will allow the team to continue to monitor health
and safety of players. Now as we record this and
through the weekend, the Marlins still are not going to
be playing. In fact, Ken Rosenthal on the said another
(02:53):
Marlin Marlin's player has tested positive for COVID nineteen, but
the team anticipated this result from his contact trace. A
source tells The Athletic the latest positive case brings team
totals to seventeen players and two coaches. That one of
the coaches has since tested negative. But the reality of
the situation Georgia is what happened with the Marlins was
probably really my personally, My biggest fear related to it
(03:17):
not that players are dropping like flies and we have
to rush people to the hospital and people are going
to be on ventilators, not necessarily that while that is
a concern, it hasn't been my greatest concern in terms
of sports returning. My greatest concern is something like this,
is that a whole bunch of people got sick in
the team. If is unable to feel a competitive team.
(03:38):
So I'll lay that at your feet and we can
content continue to discuss it. Well, one thing we've been saying,
or I've been saying for really months now, is you
hope the NFL learns from the mistakes of the other
sports now that what happened in Major League Baseball is
a huge mistake. I mean, is it. Craig mis reported,
(03:58):
we knew Sunday morning, right that a couple of a
couple of Moments players that tested positive. I think it
was two or three, maybe four the most right, four
and when it was coach is not all players? And
then the moments elected to play that game. This wasn't
Baseball telling them they had to play. Apparently it was
decided in a group text. The moments texted each other,
do you want to play? They want to and they
(04:19):
they voted yes. We was major League Baseball here. You know,
we knew that medical experts and advise you no order
matting hats to no, you don't play. Four is in
as an outbreak. But they played right. If you look
at the Baseball's Health and Safety Protocols hundred thirteen page document,
there is nothing there, Mike. Nothing there says, oh, you
have four tests. That's that you've done three tests, three
(04:41):
positive tests. That's that canceled. There's nothing there, you know,
it's just kind of ridiculous. You looked it up to
the team, you leoked out to the players to decide. Players,
for the most part, are going to play. They're not
gonna vote the to not play. They're not. They don't
they're not gonna do the I don't want to say
it was small things. They don't know that, they're not
informed about it. You know, this is the fact that
the players union a major league Baseball didn't go over
this and decide, Okay, this is you have four four
(05:02):
test positive at one time. That's it. We got to
cancel these games. Yeah, come up with the percentage whatever.
The number is something something to guide people. So I
thought that was silly, Mike, And you hope football learns
from this because this is gonna happen again. Uh, And Alison,
I think base was a little different from football. I
think the baseball seams the forest. That's not to say
I don't I'm not watching, We'm not enjoying it. But
(05:24):
I think it's a Joe Miami Marlins in Philadelphia Phillies.
Who those are two teams playing each other on Sunday
now won't play this entire week. That's seven games missed
and a sixty game season. Good luck making those games up.
And how you're gonna make up versus the right teams?
I said, good luck with that. You know, it's just
sort of a nightmare. But once again, season the forest. Anyway,
he's got so many idiotic new rules. I aloud, just
(05:45):
have guys, any things, I can play each other, play
each other, you know, let's just get Yeah, that's the approach.
I kind of thought that this was the approach anyway.
Let's just air as many games as we can until
week But it's not because Washington and Toronto we're gonna
have this weekend as well. They have nothing to do
with this. But because Miami and Philip are supposed to
play those two teams that it's gonna cancel them all. Well,
(06:05):
why not have whed the tod that just play each other? Then, alright,
the schedule is already walking. It's it's like, it's it's idiotic.
Why does it have those two teams play each other
rather than try and make up games on off days
or doubleheaders? And I think football is gonna need to
cover this as well. Football is not gonna want to
cancel any games because it screws up a schedule, right,
How do you make up a game in football? You
(06:26):
have to pray that both teams have the same bye week.
Good luck with that. It's the primary reason why I
don't think it's necessarily going to work. There's there's obviously
a vibe out there from people that are watching, listening
that some in fact, you know, one of the NFL
network um personalities said earlier this week he feels feels
like some media is rooting against this season happening. I
(06:49):
am not one of those people. I am concerned that
it won't. I I think there could be a moment
where we are playing the season and it will get
to a point where it seems like we should and continue,
and they might push past it. Now, the irony is
the I'm seeing a little bit of light at the
end of the tunnel in terms of baseball, and yes,
this is football full circle, but baseball. The reality is
(07:12):
baseball is a backdrop to everything in the sports world
right now, and the the ray of light I'm trying
to see, George, is that the other twenty nine teams
actually don't have any positives related to this doesn't mean
that they won't get any. But they don't have any
related to this Marlin's outbreak yet. So I wonder can
we get by even if a team gets screwed up
(07:33):
tripped up along the way, as we welcome in our
radio audience. Can we get by by this one team quarantining,
removing themselves from the population for two weeks or whatever
it is, and continue on. Maybe we'll learn some lessons
and actually get through most of this well. Philipepia did
have a couple of positive tests of the Miami. It
(07:54):
did go there, so but it's not a major thing
yet for Philadelphia. I think with foutballos to realized football
can't compare themselves to the NBA or n h L.
They're playing in bubbles, all right, but baseball is comparable,
comparable because they're traveling close to country as well. You
know how football is gonna do this? I don't know.
I understand football only travels one day a week. That
(08:14):
helps somewhat. Look, it's kind of physical contact sport. I mean, really,
I won't food the player. I would always bok to
play what good luck. Yeah, the Bills have had a
minor so far situation with covid will update you on
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Listen on the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or
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(11:29):
Mike LeWitt. So let's get into how COVID has been
impacting in NFL. And I know we don't like to
really do these segments, but it's the nature of what
we're doing. We're a slight bit of reporting a lot
of conjecture and speculative predictions on our part and hopefully
trying to get you the best information in terms of
sports wagering and fantasy and everything else. But uh, it
(11:50):
is important to report that as of the middle of
this week, the Buffalo Bills sent their rookies home from
the team's facility. To send him home on Thursday as
a response to five positive coronavirus tests this week, league
source told ESPN. This is via Marcel Louis Jacques, by
the way, told ESPN that two players, including one rookie,
(12:12):
tested positive for COVID on Thursday, and the team made
the decision to conduct the day's meetings virtually. So we're
going to see more of this, Obviously, it's going to
be how the teams react, George, and we're going to
get into the opt outs and the list of them
over the course of the next half hour or so.
But we're already seeing the sort of on intake testing.
(12:36):
We're already seeing some positive tests. Now, a couple of
positive tests, a handful of positive tests like this might
not be the end of the world. Major League Baseball
did have some positive tests one point eight percent of
intake testing. If the NFL is around that number, even
slightly higher, you'd consider that a minor victory before things
get started. Yeah, I think you would. Once again, I'd
(12:59):
like to see what the what's the number? What is
the number of percentages where we start to worry? Four, five, six, seven,
They have five on the record is saying if it's yeah,
but they're saying if it's below five, you can continue
to test every other day. But if you if you,
if you test at five percent or greater of your team,
(13:21):
then you gotta be tested every day. You've got five percent,
you've got a problem. Now. Once again, this is an
interesting situation because I wonder you mentioned five Buffalo bill
rookies and that that's it. We're done here. Everybody go home.
We got the fumigate. I imagine the facilities and all
that other stuff. How would the NFL have handled this
if this happened on a Sunday morning, you know, Sunday
morning during the regio season. Five Bills test positive, you
(13:43):
have to cancel the game, don't you. We did. We
just learn this mess from Mother Miami Malins, and I
wanted to This is what I mean by the NFL
has to learn from the mistakes of the other sports
of baseball, really in particular, because I think it's the
only sport they can really compare themselves to right now,
because baseb is the only on this what's going to travel?
So I think that that needs to be written in there.
What percentage of the guess roster traveling party wherever it
(14:05):
might be, what percentage of it comes up positive on
that morning, that's it, no game, We move on. I agree,
that's gonna be difficult. And when to break down the numbers,
we're getting the rosters down to eighty people, right, you
want to throw the coaches on there, even hundred you
got twenty coaches. I'm talking about training staff, just players.
(14:25):
Coaches here at five five out of a hundred doesn't
seem terrible, but we all know that that would be
an average across the league. So Georgia saying five is high.
It's because when you start doing the math, the Bills
might have ten by the time this is all done,
and the Giants might come up clean because everybody's quarantined
(14:48):
more vigorously. Right, So then you have a team with
double digit coronavirus positives around other that have now been
around other team members. You don't know the rate at
which that is going to be transmitted to the next
and the next and the next, and before you know it,
it's twenty people, mostly asymptomatic, mildly a mildly symptomatic perhaps,
(15:12):
but we all know we have um linemen which are
technically at risk because of their b m I, and
we have coaches that might be at risk. We're going
to get into some of the players that are high
risks that opted out. But I think that's why we
start to get tripped up, and why I don't just
say or you don't just say, uh, they'll be fine
(15:33):
in the long run. It's only four guys. Quarantine them
and we'll be fine. It's not really how it's going
to work out. It could be ten or more at
some of these facilities. The problem is you won't seven.
So they only had four guys test positive Sunday morning.
By Monday it was seventeen. Right. You just don't know
that the virus takes an incubation period. It can be
(15:54):
up to what two weeks we've heard, but generally I
know what the Morlins or the Phillies I should should say,
not the moments. The Phillies were told after what happened
Sunday and Monday that they would pretty much know how
bad they're going to be between Thursday and Saturday. If
they escaped Saturday with a you got old negative tests,
you've probably passed it. You probably didn't get it, you know,
(16:14):
but if you if you start getting positive test and
we did see one today and that was probably what
a club the home clubhouse attendant, not the visiting clubhouse attendant.
The home Now maybe he has some interaction with the visitors.
Who knows, you know, anything could have happened here. But
this starts the worry a little bit. It's why the
Philadelphia Philiates games were canceled this weekend because what's getting here.
It starts again and this is what people help. Their
(16:34):
exposure would have started really nine days or so before
this Saturday benchmark that you're talking about. So the assumption
is that no negative tests through nine days is unlikely
that they were exposed when the moments came to town.
When you've got that's nine days away, nine days that happened,
which makes perfect sense, all right, And we wasn't you
(16:56):
need other rules here as far as the NFL is concerned,
because is in Major League Baseball the owners which is
shockingly they agreed with the players. You need that. The Yankees, Phillies,
both Orioles, Nationals, I think a Blue Jays as well.
We'll all get paid for any miss games, but not
the Miami Morlins, not right now, because right now they're
(17:18):
being blamed for this. And there are some rumors and
I say rumors going around that this may have happened
because several Molins players went to a strip club. Once again,
this is allegend, it's not and this is not confirmed,
certainly unconfirmed, but that's why Major Leage Baseball is investigating.
If they find this out to be true, I'm guessing
they're gonna say, hey, you're not getting paid you coos
as all these games you're not getting paid for I
(17:39):
don't know ten you might miss or if they have
the four fifth season for crying out loud, and this
is going to be needly written out in the NFL
what happens here. If this would have happened to an
NFL team, I don't think you can dock the pay.
I just don't see that as being a reasonable option.
I can't because it says and then and then new
CD you're only getting paid per game. The owners didn't
didn't have to say the Yankees, well the once again,
(18:00):
the Yankees, Phillies, those other teams that weren't at fault,
but they might lose games. Now they probably won't mind
you because you know, the Yankees only need to make
up two games. They should be able to make that
up at some point over the next eight weeks, same thing,
same thing. You think at Washington Toronto they can make
up the three games, but I don't know how Phillies
are making up seven. Yeah, so so like, well, we'll
(18:24):
he's out of baseball here in a moment. But as
I've said, I think it's a backdrop now to everything
that's happening. Football does have the luxury of watching what
is going on here. Um, baseball culture is different from
football culture in this respect, George. Those guys really are
traveling nomads for like six months out of the year. Yes,
(18:45):
they are home for periods of time, but baseball players
go away for like ten days. A lot of guys
don't live with their families in the cities where they
played baseball, right their families are at home in Cincinnati,
but they play for the Yankees. I've picked that because
I remember Paul O'Neil used to talk about it all
the time. His family lived in Cincinnati, but when he
(19:06):
was in season, he lived in New York by himself.
He would travel around when it was school was out.
This family would come visit him and live with him
in New York, but for short periods of time. I
say that because the culture of baseball is, yeah, let's uh,
you know, we're in a new city. We're gonna go out.
We're in the next city, we go out. They need
to get out and sort of do something other than
(19:28):
hanging their hotel. Now, this is a sprint and they
should be able to hypothetically control themselves for two months.
But we already see that the horses out of the
barn potentially with Miami. Yeah. Now, one thing UH Baseball
is trying to do right now is tell the U
and I guess new health of safety protocols. Don't go out,
(19:49):
stay at your hotel when you're on the road. Good
luck with that in the three games. Here's for three days.
That's going to be rough. Football. Have been some ideas
where maybe these players should fly in Saturday nights. Yeah,
you stay in the hotel one night. You're not gonna
go out there. You'll be tired. Hopefully you go to sleep,
you go play the game the next day and get
the hell out again and go back home. I've even
heard some ideas that maybe you fly in Sunday morning
and delay the games. Don't start at one o'clock anymore,
(20:10):
start at three o'clock. I don't think that's going to
work with script the TV schedule, and let's face that,
that's where the money is. So I don't think that
will happen, but there are some ideas being thrown out there.
I guess to be safer. Here's another little thing now.
I don't know the rules of every state, but one
Soto for the Nationals, who tested positive right and hasn't
been allowed to play. He's had two negative tests in
(20:31):
a row, which satisfies baseball, but the District of Columbia says, uh,
we don't care. You still can't play for fourteen days
at the first tested positive. Uh. That's once again that
this would not affect the Washington football teams. I think
they play in land of the Maryland, not that's just
the Columbia. But I do wonder about other fifty states
and what rules they might have if you test positive
(20:52):
and you play there. So Uh, the team's statement will
bring it full circle around to the Bills. As we
were informed by medical experts at training camp open, we
expected to have positive test for COVID with five since
the beginning of the testing period Tuesday. We decided to
take a discal and proactive for preventative approach to hopefully
eliminate additional cases within our team. We'll talk about the
(21:12):
opt outs across the NFL after this. On the Grid
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(22:56):
Circle talking through the NFL opt out that are heard
really over the course of this last week, George, we
had hints of this leading up to this week. The
deadline is Monday, August three, and we've seen some higher
profile names become part of this opt out program. Now,
for those listening watching, if you're not aware of the
(23:17):
two categories into which players can opt out, there are
two specific categories. One is the high risk category. For
those players that are deemed high risk due to pre
existing medical conditions or past medical history. They can opt in,
receive a three hundred fifty thousand dollar loan and receive
an ac crude season. That does differ from the players
(23:38):
that are opting into the one hundred and fifty thousand
dollar opt out, which is effectively a short term loan.
We've seen players of all different um abilities stature within
the league take advantage of that and they will be
um They will be looking forward to potentially catching on
(23:59):
with the team next year, but August three, that's the deadline.
I'd also like to welcome in a radio audience that
is listening to us talk about this. So your first
thoughts on this. It seems like a reasonable program. A
whole bunch of guys are taking advantage of it, but
at the moment we don't even have a roster's worth
of players. Yeah, I mean we're hearing some names that
(24:20):
that are you know, guys names we know, right, We're
not hearing a bunch of unknowns anymore. I think Kenny
Golladay's on with us, Mason Crosby, Jay Sternberger, the Packers
were just added a little bit ago. So I'm not worried.
It's listen, first week in August. You don't worry it
that most of these guys should be recovered. We're not
hearing any bad stories, but anybody having it really bad,
that the sip was a terrible like Freddie Freeman the
(24:42):
Braves had what a month ago, and even he still
made it by opening day. Right, We'll just tell you
that that guys have have it, but they may be asymptomatic.
So I don't think you're panicking yet, but it's something
to keep an eye on, and we well, we're worried
about that anything else, Mike, it's not so much the
people having it. We know it's out there, but they're
going to spread it. How are they going to stop
it from being spread around? That's really what you're concerned about. Yeah.
(25:05):
The first player to opt into this probably makes the
most sense an event ever any of this as uh
Kansas City Chiefs Super Bowl champion guard Laurent Duvarne Tardef.
He is actually a medical doctor. He has been working
in a clinic in Canada to try to assist in
helping to beat the coronavirus in Canada. He was the
(25:27):
first one to say, you know what, I'm gonna hang
out here. I'm gonna keep doing what I'm doing. I'll
see you next year. So he's the first one to
say that publicly. We see other players to Anthony Thomas,
kick returner for the Ravens Chance warmack Um. There were
several New England players which will get into almost as
a separate topic. Andre Smith, the offensive tackle from the
(25:48):
veteran tackle from the Ravens. Um. We're looking at Eddie Goldman,
defensive tackle from the Bears. He's only twenty six years old. Uh,
he opted into this program. Star Littula from the Buffalo Bills,
Marquise Goodwin wide receiver. We got Jordan Mack linebacker from
the Panthers, Nate Solder the offensive tackle from the Giants,
(26:08):
which is obviously a big name, and then lastly Damien Williams.
Now there's at at present, I think we're at twenty
six players or so. I could be light on that,
but it's building a couple dozen players. George Nate Solder,
a cancer survivor, his son battling cancer right now, is
only five years old, made sense, a lot of sense
(26:31):
for him, even though it's it should be noted some
of these players are leaving a lot of money on
the table, a hell of a lot of money on
the table. And we say it again football on the
unlike you know, baseball. Uh, their their careers, aren't you know,
they're not infinite, their finite, you know, so they're they're
taking a chance. Yet they maybe they don't come, maybe
they lose their job. You know, I don't think any
(26:53):
fan really or anybody should really be upset of a
player opting out. You don't know their situation. You don't
know why why they're doing what they're doing. If the
wife is pregnant, they have a young child at home,
whatever it might be. As you put perfectly, where a
baseball team is nomad's when they travel all right, half here,
half not here. Football teams home most of the time
of them the day, maybe a couple of days where
they go to the state and travel on a Saturday.
(27:15):
You come back on Sunday night. That's right now, So
not you're at home. So your patriots playing the Bills,
they're they're they're gone twenty four hours. They play him
one o'clock on a Sunday at their home. It's it's
a twenty four trip. And what are you gonna say, Oh,
they stayed to stay at a hotel them for three month,
lot what they shouldn't be around their family for four once.
That's a job, folks, really what it is here? So no,
that's that's not fair to them. So I said, I
(27:37):
don't blame any player for deciding to once again, I'm
gonna opt out, or you say, opt into the program,
whatever it might be. Uh, what did annoy me? I'm
a cowboy fan of a certain a couple of cowboys.
The Marcus Lawrence is on sort of on the fencier.
He did go for the testing, but he's not committed
yet the playing. Sure, as a fans, he might be annoyed,
but I would understand. I understand why he's doing what
he's doing here. He's got to look out for himself.
(27:59):
I think once again, they but Lawrence. I believe it
is a pregnant wife at home, or it could be
a young child as well. I forget which Yeah, yeah,
Devin Funches to the Green Bay Packers that was caring
for family members who contracted the virus. He opted out.
He's twenty six years old. You know, we're were we
you mentioned I think in the previous segment that Jay
Sternberger of the Packers, he's already on their COVID list.
(28:21):
So you know, these are discussions that are happening amongst players.
It doesn't happen in a vacuum. Guys are living their
lives and some of that have experienced with it. Others
are like, I'm good to go. Let's get out there
in play. So this is a list that's going to
continue to be tracked. Frankly, by the time you hear
us talk about this, they'll be additional players added the
list because conceivably bigger names. But right now, for fantasy owners,
(28:44):
for people out there that are concerned about this, it's
obvious Damian Williams is a huge impact. They drafted Clyde
Edwards Hilaire as the last pick in the first round
this offseason, but Damian Williams was thought to be obviously
a big part of their offense. The guy scored two
touchdowns in the fourth quarter of the Super Bowl. It's
(29:05):
arguable he could have won Super Bowl m v P.
But nonetheless he has decided to opt out. Does that
mean his career doesn't continue after this in Kansas City? Possible.
I think you'll see that with some of these players,
but there they at least are hanging into this. Now.
There's another component to it, George, from a financial standpoint,
is that there are roster bonuses involved with some of
(29:28):
these guaranteed contracts, and as you lose games, you could
conceivably be putting yourself in harm's way relatively to the
coronavirus and not receiving some of these game checks because,
as you illustrated earlier, again, could be postponed, outright canceled
as a result of this. What's happened to the Marlins
(29:49):
could happen to one of the NFL teams and then
you're losing out on these game checks, so to speak,
so much. We have to be negotiate with you. You
know how they're going to figure all this out and whattitutes.
You know, hey, you're not getting pay for this and
what you are going to get paid for? Good luck
with that worked out so well in baseball was they
had no problem agreeing on everything. So it's going to
be an issue. We know that football. Like I said,
(30:12):
I had to think of a players opting out in football.
He has legitimate worries. Once again, these these guys, for
the most part, these guys are not gonna have ten twelve,
fifteen year careers and you may be losing one third,
one quarter, one fifth of the money you would have
made here by not playing. You think Devin Funchiuso wasn't
played now and a while, it's been hurt a lot
for him to do what he did. You know, he's
got issues going on at home from not to want
(30:33):
to make a mark with down Rodgers. They try and
get a bigger contract next year. So I said, I
don't blame anybody for doing what they've got to do.
You know, you gotta take care of your family first. Obviously,
any child comes first. You know, a pregnant wife of
course that you know, your family image, your mom and dad,
or in laws that might be living with you that
have it, or much more susceptible to it. You know,
That's why I think anyone who's criticizing these players, I
(30:55):
think it's it's just being selfish. This is what players
should be doing. They should be looking out for their
own and Key's Goodwin is a little baby at home.
He and his wife struggled with pregnancies in the past,
and it is a very human instinct for these guys
to want to stay home with their family. I get it,
(31:16):
and even and I'm sure some of them may say
as the season goes on, and if it continues, some
of them to say, you know what, I sort of
wish I was out there, but I made the decision
with the best information I had available at the time.
We even seen that in baseball, Nick Mark Cacus of
the Atlanta Braves had opted out. Now he's opting back in.
So he's going to be with the team. Will the
(31:37):
NFL allow for that, I don't know, But with them
having a hard deadline on this on Monday, I it
may be less likely. But if somebody changed your mind
in August with the NFL let him back, maybe yeah.
I think they should, because once you get things changed.
So I didn't like the deadline being this early. Anyway,
things change. We find out in a month from now. Oh,
(31:58):
it's under control in my area, it's on the control.
My team hasn't under control. I like the safety, health
and safety protocols they've gotten. I feel better, or you know,
I've been Maybe whatever was going on at home, maybe
you're not able to find out by Monday how bad
this virus is for your situation at home. But you
find out in three weeks. Oh, it's not a big
deal for whatever was going on. We're gonna be okay.
I want to apply. Oh I can't. It's why would
(32:20):
you want to do that? You know? So I think
they should be allowed to return at some point. Uh
should they deem it that? Hey, UM, it's better for
me now I'm going to be okay, my family is
going to be okay. I don't think it should be
a hard fast deadline. Wait what you opted out? We'll
see you next year. Yeah, agreed, Um did Damien Williams.
I can understand why they had the deadline early. At
(32:41):
the same time, George, you said you didn't like it
being too early, and I'm sort of like nodding and
then realizing, well, if it was September three, this could
put general managers in a really difficult spot. Right, Um.
If Damian Williams walked away sept on September twenty nine
as opposed to July, excuse me, August twenty nine as
(33:03):
opposed to uh, July twenty nine, that could put them
in a much more difficult position. You know something that
should have consulted you. It's like you, it's like your
your August eighteenth magic data. As to when the Major
(33:25):
League Baseball season will fall apart, I took the over
I thought it would last longer. I also think that
it will last longer because I don't think they'll be Um,
I don't think they're good. I'm just saying the reason
I said these things will go longer than some anticipate
is because I think they'll do it potentially against their
(33:47):
better judgment. As we just saw the Marlins played despite
having a bunch of positive tests. So um, we're gonna
talk about the paths. It's its own separate entity. I'd
like to the conspiracy theorists to pipe down a little
bit and I'll explain why after what they did. George,
(34:08):
George one of those conspiracy No, no, I have not,
I just like it. But they did lose some big
name including Patrick chun Chum and High Tower as well.
So we will dante a High Tower. We'll come back
talk about that after this break. It's Mike and George
on football pull circle. Come back right after this. I'll
(34:29):
teach you on the Patriots and they're tank for Trevor plan,
I don't think. So we'll come right now. Sports grid
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want the edge than get on the grid sports grid
(34:50):
dot Com, everybody, Mike and George back on football full circle,
right here on the grid. So we talked about the
NFL opt outs, and we can get into each and
(35:11):
every player and the guys that are going on the
COVID list and off the COVID list. But the reality
is the Patriots were the most hard hit by this
opt out situation, at least at the time we filmed this.
So Dante high Tower a defensive leader, obviously, Patrick Chung similarly,
(35:32):
Marcus Cannon an offensive tackle. He has a history of
non Hodgkin lymphoma, which he overcame after he was drafted
in So these are three contributive players. Danny Bital fullback,
maybe wouldn't have even made the team, although they have
lost James Devlan to retirement. Uh NJ. Turan, who's a
(35:55):
center guard for the Pats. He's an undrafted free agent
out of U C. L A and Brandon Bold, and
he was said to enter his ninth NFL season, is
eighth in New England. A lot of experience in the
backfield there in New England. Along with him and James White,
team leaders so to speak. He's a core special teams player.
And and we've set to earn one point three million
dollars in bass salary, which was the final year of
(36:17):
his contract. That tolls to one, which means it's just
a pause in the contract. No accrude season, no running
off of the time of the contract. So George, from
purely football based perspective, how how badly does this impact
the Patriots. Oh? I think it's pretty brutal. I mean,
you lose High Tower and Chung. I think you're in
(36:39):
your for a demon is already sort of depleted. Here
he lois Tom Brady. I understand you brought on Cam Newton.
Maybe he can real he'd better be the camp of old.
I'll tell you that. I think he just made me
to say this, or for me the most concise I
know the will have them making the playoffs. I thought
they might be able to compete for that six seventh
that you know, last two wild cards. I don't see
(37:00):
it anymore. I don't think it's gonna be a team
that Bill Beils it was hoping for that. Oh. I'll
play defense. You know, let's hope those the quarterbacks can
make plays. But I don't need them too. I'll play
good defense. We'll win games. You know, we'll go four
points now, they're gonna need to score board next. I
don't think they're gonna be able to stop opponents on
any kind of regular basis. I think this pretty much
might be that that dagger in their season. Yeah. What's
interesting too, is that I wonder and I'm sure, Look,
(37:24):
these players have to have these types of conversations with
their family, they have the conversations with the coach, the
general manager, or maybe they didn't consult those guys at all. Right,
It's obviously different from player to player and team to team. Uh,
It's possible Dante Howard just picked up the phone one
day and said, you know what, I'm out. I'll see
you guys in one I don't feel comfortable, whatever the
(37:45):
reasons might be, but somebody like him, being the team
leader that is, I'm sure he had these discussions. What
is interesting though, is that, and this is where conspiracy
theorists will go crazy on this, is that they drafted
Joshi in the second round down Anthony Jennings in the
third round this year. Those are both um linebackers, so
(38:07):
at the position and high tower vacates, they have a
couple of guys. Now. I would also submit that they
lost Kyle van Noy and other linebackers during this offseason
to free agency, and that's really why they what they
were drafting for. Not with the conspiracy theorists thinking that
a perfect they lost a linebacker due to the opt
out and they have another linebacker ready to step in. Well,
(38:29):
two of them left in free agencies, so they had
to replace them. Kyle Dugger out of leonor Ryan second
round pick, small college guy, Belichick type of player he
gets to fill in potentially for Patrick Chung. Right, well,
I would submit that a rookie UH free safety may
not be the guy or strong safety may not be
(38:50):
the guy they can fill in for Patrick Chung with
all the experience he's had a New England. So um,
the conspiracy theorists are out there for the tank for
Trevor situation. I'm not down with it, you're what do
you think? Listen? It's fun to talk about. But even
with all these moves, they're not the worst team in
the football, right They're not, no, not even the worst
two in their conference. Alright, So maybe not theirsion, definitely
(39:13):
not their division. I don't know. Do you think they're
coming in last place? I wouldn't shock me at this
point as I think this this is a killer. I
think they're losing high tower and Chung is a killer
on defense. You just don't have the players now, you know,
and we don't know what's gonna get out of the quarterback.
You know, we hope that can can be the camp
can be superman like he used to be. We don't
(39:33):
know that. You know, there's not a lot of offensive
weapons here. This is this to me when I look
at it, If not for the fact that Bill Belichick
was there, you'd be like, oh, M, six and five
and eleven here we come. Yeah, you know this This
is what I see when I look at this team here.
So yeah, I think, uh, I think they might pay.
I wouldn't. I'm not. I certainly wouldn't pick them to last,
(39:53):
mind you that would I'll probably be the Jets or Miami,
depends on how what direction they go in there. I
think those two teams are worse. But it wouldn't shock me.
Literally the Bills just run away with this division now
where it's it's not even a fight, you know, assuming
we do play a sixteen game season where by December
joining the Bills are worried about a seating. Yeah, look,
(40:14):
the Marcus Cannon thing is a loss to He's got
a lot of experience. I don't think there it's I
don't think they're caught by surprise on this one. According
to Michael Lombardi from the GM Shuffle, there's even talks
that there's been some retirement talks concerning Marcus Cannon. So
I don't know that he's all the way there for football.
(40:35):
Maybe we never see him again, but in terms of
him lending experience and being a three time Super Bowl champion,
I think it's a loss. Uh. Their offensive line is
first round left tackle from two years ago, Isaiah Win,
Joe Thuney, David Andrews, who's back after taking the year
off due to some clouting blood clotting issues that he
was having, Shack Mason, and Corey Cunningham, which they received
(40:57):
in a trade from the Arizona Cardinals. So uh, I
think they're okay there. They drafted a couple of more guides.
They drafted the two tight ends and Talton Keene Dalton
King might slot in to be a little bit of
an h back scenario for them, George, So uh, perhaps
all is not lost with Danny Vitala's departure and in
(41:17):
conjunction with James Devlin's retirement. So look, there are issues now.
I don't think there's any denying it, even the most
ardent Pats fan has to be like God. I hope
Cam is is great like you said, and overcomes a
lot of this. But the receiving corps is Julian Edeman,
Mohammed Sanu and hopefully Nikkil Harry is a winner. But
we don't know that. You know. It brings up the
(41:40):
question that was brought up weeks ago. Actually when we
talked about the Patriots, we went over their team. What
team would Shade would trade their skill posishition players for
the Patriots. It's a low number anybody could have had.
Cam Newton, Nobody wanted them for various reasons. Sonny Michelle
is no one's answer to Quan balk Ke or anything
like that. Edelman, it's a nice receiver when it was
(42:01):
nice a Brady a short range target that he's not
anywhere near Michael Thomas. You know it's about them someone
like that. He's just not that kind of player. And
you know you have to holpe aout the tight ends,
lucky tightitles. See what happens your offensive line keep goosing
people and the defense is just depleted. Here. Like I said,
this this is a I hate to see. This looks
like a bad, bad football team. Yeah, I got. I
(42:24):
have a lot of faith in Belichick when it comes
to coaching up defensive players or whatever it might be.
But and clearly they had a plan in place here,
right they were going to let due to cap issues
and everything else, they were going to let some veteran
players go. Whether you however you classified Tom Brady, I
think that was not a one way a decision, right.
(42:45):
They just couldn't come to agreements that terms that they
were comfortable with. They move on from the veteran quarterback.
They let a bunch of the veteran players go, some
of whom I've mentioned, particularly linebacker, and they needed to
replenish some of these with the young players. It just
can't all happen at the same time. Does this defense
come together. Here's the defense and they've they've survived for
(43:08):
a long time on guys that may not pop as superstars.
George but Lawrence, Guy bo Allen, John Simon, that's your
defensive line. Chase Winovitch, last year's third round pick from Michigan,
is backing up as a premium backup. We have uh
Shale Calhoun, Dante Hi Tower no longer, Juwan Bentley, Brandon Copeland.
(43:29):
The defensive backfield, Jason mccordy, Terrence Brooks, Stevin mccordy, Stefan Gilmore,
bringing Kyle Dugger lose Patrick Chung. The defensive backfield is
still the strength of the unit, the mccordy brothers and
Stefan Gilmore veterans, maybe a little older, but still strong.
That's the strength of the defense and it will remain
that and it is. But if you can't get to
(43:51):
the quarterback doesn't mean how good your cornerbacks are, oh
your safety for that matter, You're gonna have issues here.
I It's just strange to me. But I'll tell you this,
if of if the Patriots make the playoffs, this is
Bill Belartic's best coaching job ever. Unless Cam is back
to being the man he was three, four or five
six years ago, and it just really no one can
handle him. I just don't see how it's happening here.
(44:12):
I just don't see the Bills look like a better team.
I mean, they do get a break, and that the
Jets and Dolphins are still the Jets of Dolphins for now.
Dolphins seemed to be on their way up. You know,
we'll see what they do with two of their The Jets,
you know, with the moves they've made this off season,
are pretty much puffing this season away already anyway, So
I said, I like to say, I don't want to
say they're done, but I can't see how this team,
(44:32):
even with the extra wild card spot. I just don't
see it. Not unless the Dolphins and Jets are just
much worse than I think with the Pagots can actually
sweep them in the division, then maybe they got a
shot to get the eight nine wins. But I'll be
banking on the under here. Always hesitate to think that
they're going to drastically change the way they play football.
I think the Patriots are the best at adapting to
(44:55):
their personnel, and if you look at the personnel top
to bottom, you would say, a George that the best
way for this team to win a lot of games
is ball control it all day. Let's keep our defense
under exposed. We've got a running quarterback, We've got two talented,
three talented, four talented running backs. Let's just hang onto
(45:16):
the ball. Lead the league in time of possession, and
that's the way we're gonna win that. That's what it
feels like to me. It doesn't mean that they can't
play ball control passing attact with Edelman or even some
new to some extent. But do I think they're going
to air it out to Nikila Harry and make Mohammed
Sanu a deep threat. I don't. I just think the
way that this team should win is ball controlling it. Oh,
(45:39):
I think you're a hundred correct. I think you're stretching
the word of talented running back and that they have
four talented I probably am stretching it. They have four
average running backs. You know. I do like James White
as far as a pass catcher there, and if you
have listen, we all want him to be the came
of old but and any doubt and the wing needs
him to be that person. But I think he tries
(46:02):
to be that person where he's gonna be running all
over the place. He's not playing sixteen. You know that
that is gonna come again. He has ankle injury, his
shoulder injuries. We don't know how healthy they truly are.
I think he'll get hurt to get plus the concussion
problems he's had. You know, he's not a big on
sliding and getting down here. I just don't I think
they need him to be that person. But I think
that could be the worst thing for Camp. You know,
(46:22):
I don't think he'd be able to finish the seasons
that way. This team has issues. That's the bottom line here.
Do I think they're tanking? Uh? You know, but travor
or losey for Lawrence? Now, I think it just worked
out this way? What do they Bill Belichick, Colt Dante,
can you take the season off your buddy? Patrick? Don't
even bother Right, these guys aren't turning down money, the
money they were gonna make their to make Bill or
(46:43):
make the Patriots get the number one pick. That's nuts.
It's crazy. And even with these the Patriots are still
a better team than the Jaguars, right, So they're not
they they're not gonna get that anyway. Bill Beligick is not.
He wants to get that old time win record. He
wants that, which is he needs to win you know
many it is possible early on before he gets older.
I should say so, No, they're not. They're not taking
(47:05):
That's it's a fun little conspiracy theory, but that's not
what's going on here. Yeah, So I'm gonna go to
FanDuel right now. Their wind total for the better part.
It fluctuated after Cam got there. They actually bumped them
up by a half a wind. But I want to
look them up alive as we record this. So wind
totals for New England right now on FanDuel are did
(47:28):
they take it off? No? There it is nine and
a half, so they haven't lowered it. It bumped it
went from nine to nine and a half. I went
Cam signed, So right now the over is plus one
five under is minus one sixty. I think that becomes
the heaviest juice bet on the board that all happened
(47:48):
in this last week for the most part, so under
nine and a half, even with Cam Newton at quarterback,
you're a hard under. Now on the Pats, I don't
think you'd get the five or six. Well, I'm not
looking at their schedules, so maybe they're schedule easier than
I thought. The division schedule is easy, right Jets Miami,
I could certainly see you winning three of those four games,
(48:09):
but Miami is a better, a decent team, so I'm
not guaranteeing that at all. Here Buffalo, I don't know
if you'd beat Buffalo either time. There I think goes
to two losses there, so I care still favored on
Fandal to win the division plus one fifteen. The Bills
are plus one once again. The Papers are one of
those teams with such a heavy following that they're always
juiced on because he had a lot of fans go
(48:31):
oh yeah. But the juice on the Wind total is
all the way down and under nine, under nine and
a half, so it's one of the most heavily juice
bets on the board. I'm looking at I know we're
up against the here. I guess we'll talk about were
on the next segment here, but no, they're not getting
nine at the schedule is easy. We'll close it out
after on this hour of football full Circle. Right after this,
(48:52):
get on the Grid sports grid dot Com Betting insights
and entertainment at your fingertips seven as team covers the
most important topics in sports wagering, real time odds, predictive
betting models, expert picks, and more want the edge than
Get on the Grid sports grid dot Com Back on
(49:19):
the Grid, closing out this hour, just a couple of
minutes here, a couple of stories. George give me a
depressing one during during the break, but I'm not gonna
air that one. Tom Coughlin had a bike accident. It's awful.
I don't know why why I would even bring it
up on air. But another depressing story related to the Jaguars,
Yannick and Gockway. Uh, the unsigned franchise player has not
(49:42):
reported to Jaguars camp. He wants out of Jacksonville. Uh.
This is according to Michael di Rocco on Twitter. He
says here that coach Jaguars coach Doug Morone says defensive
Indianick and Gockway is the only player not at camp,
says he has not had any conversations within Gockway. Uh.
Color me not surprised, George, they I don't. It is
(50:07):
odd to me that it is continued. But I I
think the Jaguars just got to a point where they said,
we're obviously going to trade him. We're just going to
wait until the last possible moment to see if any
new offers can arise. Potentially with an opt out with
an injury during training camp, the market changes and a
(50:29):
team gets more desperate than they've been to this point.
Does that make sense? It makes sense, but it's unlikely
to happen because what's going on at that time. Who's
going to have that kind of cap room to sign
him and to get what Jacksonville and jackson was gonna want. Really, uh,
you know what? The what the Jets got one one
(50:51):
and a three. That's not going to happen in a player.
It's not gonna happen now. It's trade happened late. But
things are different this year. We know the Caps going
down next year? What team is gonna get the draft
picks for a guy? And you don't know if she's
gonna be played or how many games gonna be played
with this doesn't even matter. It's just a terrible time
for Jacksonville. They had to trade him during the draft
for whatever they could get for him. Yeah, you know,
(51:11):
I understand they party get the offers they wanted. You know,
you wanted a number one, number three, whatever it might be.
You didn't get that. But now you're waiting here. Good luck,
give me a long term deal. There's no long term deal.
There can't happen. No, he doesn't want to be there.
He pretty much hates them. They hate him. He's I'm saying,
for the new team, there's no long term deal. No
one's doing that of late. Right, you trade for a guy,
(51:32):
you get up all the I mean the Cowboys did
it with Cooper, Hawks just did it with Adams. You
trade for a guy and then you don't get the
deal done. You give all the leverage to the player.
Just strange. Even though I'm said, oh yeah, I'll play
for my number, my contract number, I don't. I'm not
going to demand a new trade. Of course he's not
because he has over leverage powers. Concept comes up. You
give up three picks in the player for me, pay
(51:53):
me my money or I'm gone. Yeah, that's it. We're
gonna talk about Jamal Adams in the next edition, trying
to at at Jets beat writer to discuss it with us.
Hopefully you join us next time on the Grid. Frank,
thanks for watching this hour of Football Full Circle the
half of Brian Rogowski and George kurtch On Mike Bluid,
thanks for watching. See you next time. Sports grid dot
(52:14):
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get on the grid. Sports grid dot Com. Hey, everybody,
welcome to Football Full Circle. Another addition right here on
the grid. Thanks for joining us. Mike Lewett, Lord Kurtz
talking about the NFL in this hour and I feel
(01:49):
like things are changing every day, George. Um. We started
out this week it was bad news. Baseball had fallen
victim to coronavirus. US are very young. Craig Mish, who
does fantasy sports today on sports Grid, is also a
Marlins reporter, so he was very We had access to
(02:11):
one of the people in this entire sports industry that
was most impacted by it and saw it sort of
face to face. Now he was in Florida, they were
in Philly when all this started to happen. But being
the reporter that he is, he was finding out information
on a near nearly hourly basis, right Um. And as
(02:31):
you can see from his tweet here on Tuesday, he said,
the Miami Marlins season, at least temporarily has been paused.
This will allow the team to continue to monitor health
and safety of players. Now as we record this and
through the weekend, the Marlins still are not going to
be playing. In fact, Ken Rosenthal on the said another
(02:53):
Marlin Marlin's player has tested positive for COVID nineteen, but
the team anticipated this result from his contact trace. A
source tells The Athletic the latest positive case brings team
totals to seventeen players and two coaches. That one of
the coaches has since tested negative. But the reality of
the situation Georgia is what happened with the Marlins was
probably really my personally, My biggest fear related to it
(03:17):
not that players are dropping like flies and we have
to rush people to the hospital and people are going
to be on ventilators, not necessarily that while that is
a concern, it hasn't been my greatest concern in terms
of sports returning. My greatest concern is something like this,
is that a whole bunch of people got sick in
the team. If is unable to feel a competitive team.
(03:38):
So I'll lay that at your feet and we can
content continue to discuss it. Well, one thing we've been saying,
or I've been saying for really months now, is you
hope the NFL learns from the mistakes of the other
sports now that what happened in Major League Baseball is
a huge mistake. I mean, is it. Craig mis reported,
(03:58):
we knew Sunday morning, right that a couple of a
couple of Moments players that tested positive. I think it
was two or three, maybe four the most right, four
and when it was coach is not all players? And
then the moments elected to play that game. This wasn't
Baseball telling them they had to play. Apparently it was
decided in a group text. The moments texted each other,
do you want to play? They want to and they
(04:19):
they voted yes. We was major League Baseball here. You know,
we knew that medical experts and advise you no order
matting hats to no, you don't play. Four is in
as an outbreak. But they played right. If you look
at the Baseball's Health and Safety Protocols hundred thirteen page document,
there is nothing there, Mike. Nothing there says, oh, you
have four tests. That's that you've done three tests, three
(04:41):
positive tests. That's that canceled. There's nothing there, you know,
it's just kind of ridiculous. You looked it up to
the team, you leoked out to the players to decide. Players,
for the most part, are going to play. They're not
gonna vote the to not play. They're not. They don't
they're not gonna do the I don't want to say
it was small things. They don't know that, they're not
informed about it. You know, this is the fact that
the players union a major league Baseball didn't go over
this and decide, Okay, this is you have four four
(05:02):
test positive at one time. That's it. We got to
cancel these games. Yeah, come up with the percentage whatever.
The number is something something to guide people. So I
thought that was silly, Mike, And you hope football learns
from this because this is gonna happen again. Uh, And Alison,
I think base was a little different from football. I
think the baseball seams the forest. That's not to say
I don't I'm not watching, We'm not enjoying it. But
(05:24):
I think it's a Joe Miami Marlins in Philadelphia Phillies.
Who those are two teams playing each other on Sunday
now won't play this entire week. That's seven games missed
and a sixty game season. Good luck making those games up.
And how you're gonna make up versus the right teams?
I said, good luck with that. You know, it's just
sort of a nightmare. But once again, season the forest. Anyway,
he's got so many idiotic new rules. I aloud, just
(05:45):
have guys, any things, I can play each other, play
each other, you know, let's just get Yeah, that's the approach.
I kind of thought that this was the approach anyway.
Let's just air as many games as we can until
week But it's not because Washington and Toronto we're gonna
have this weekend as well. They have nothing to do
with this. But because Miami and Philip are supposed to
play those two teams that it's gonna cancel them all. Well,
(06:05):
why not have whed the tod that just play each other? Then, alright,
the schedule is already walking. It's it's like, it's it's idiotic.
Why does it have those two teams play each other
rather than try and make up games on off days
or doubleheaders? And I think football is gonna need to
cover this as well. Football is not gonna want to
cancel any games because it screws up a schedule, right,
How do you make up a game in football? You
(06:26):
have to pray that both teams have the same bye week.
Good luck with that. It's the primary reason why I
don't think it's necessarily going to work. There's there's obviously
a vibe out there from people that are watching, listening
that some in fact, you know, one of the NFL
network um personalities said earlier this week he feels feels
like some media is rooting against this season happening. I
(06:49):
am not one of those people. I am concerned that
it won't. I I think there could be a moment
where we are playing the season and it will get
to a point where it seems like we should and continue,
and they might push past it. Now, the irony is
the I'm seeing a little bit of light at the
end of the tunnel in terms of baseball, and yes,
this is football full circle, but baseball. The reality is
(07:12):
baseball is a backdrop to everything in the sports world
right now, and the the ray of light I'm trying
to see, George, is that the other twenty nine teams
actually don't have any positives related to this doesn't mean
that they won't get any. But they don't have any
related to this Marlin's outbreak yet. So I wonder can
we get by even if a team gets screwed up
(07:33):
tripped up along the way, as we welcome in our
radio audience. Can we get by by this one team quarantining,
removing themselves from the population for two weeks or whatever
it is, and continue on. Maybe we'll learn some lessons
and actually get through most of this well. Philipepia did
have a couple of positive tests of the Miami. It
(07:54):
did go there, so but it's not a major thing
yet for Philadelphia. I think with foutballos to realized football
can't compare themselves to the NBA or n h L.
They're playing in bubbles, all right, but baseball is comparable,
comparable because they're traveling close to country as well. You
know how football is gonna do this? I don't know.
I understand football only travels one day a week. That
(08:14):
helps somewhat. Look, it's kind of physical contact sport. I mean, really,
I won't food the player. I would always bok to
play what good luck. Yeah, the Bills have had a
minor so far situation with covid will update you on
that Sports grid dot com betting insights and entertainment at
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(08:36):
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Listen on the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or
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(11:29):
Mike LeWitt. So let's get into how COVID has been
impacting in NFL. And I know we don't like to
really do these segments, but it's the nature of what
we're doing. We're a slight bit of reporting a lot
of conjecture and speculative predictions on our part and hopefully
trying to get you the best information in terms of
sports wagering and fantasy and everything else. But uh, it
(11:50):
is important to report that as of the middle of
this week, the Buffalo Bills sent their rookies home from
the team's facility. To send him home on Thursday as
a response to five positive coronavirus tests this week, league
source told ESPN. This is via Marcel Louis Jacques, by
the way, told ESPN that two players, including one rookie,
(12:12):
tested positive for COVID on Thursday, and the team made
the decision to conduct the day's meetings virtually. So we're
going to see more of this, Obviously, it's going to
be how the teams react, George, and we're going to
get into the opt outs and the list of them
over the course of the next half hour or so.
But we're already seeing the sort of on intake testing.
(12:36):
We're already seeing some positive tests. Now, a couple of
positive tests, a handful of positive tests like this might
not be the end of the world. Major League Baseball
did have some positive tests one point eight percent of
intake testing. If the NFL is around that number, even
slightly higher, you'd consider that a minor victory before things
get started. Yeah, I think you would. Once again, I'd
(12:59):
like to see what the what's the number? What is
the number of percentages where we start to worry? Four, five, six, seven,
They have five on the record is saying if it's yeah,
but they're saying if it's below five, you can continue
to test every other day. But if you if you,
if you test at five percent or greater of your team,
(13:21):
then you gotta be tested every day. You've got five percent,
you've got a problem. Now. Once again, this is an
interesting situation because I wonder you mentioned five Buffalo bill
rookies and that that's it. We're done here. Everybody go home.
We got the fumigate. I imagine the facilities and all
that other stuff. How would the NFL have handled this
if this happened on a Sunday morning, you know, Sunday
morning during the regio season. Five Bills test positive, you
(13:43):
have to cancel the game, don't you. We did. We
just learn this mess from Mother Miami Malins, and I
wanted to This is what I mean by the NFL
has to learn from the mistakes of the other sports
of baseball, really in particular, because I think it's the
only sport they can really compare themselves to right now,
because baseb is the only on this what's going to travel?
So I think that that needs to be written in there.
What percentage of the guess roster traveling party wherever it
(14:05):
might be, what percentage of it comes up positive on
that morning, that's it, no game, We move on. I agree,
that's gonna be difficult. And when to break down the numbers,
we're getting the rosters down to eighty people, right, you
want to throw the coaches on there, even hundred you
got twenty coaches. I'm talking about training staff, just players.
(14:25):
Coaches here at five five out of a hundred doesn't
seem terrible, but we all know that that would be
an average across the league. So Georgia saying five is high.
It's because when you start doing the math, the Bills
might have ten by the time this is all done,
and the Giants might come up clean because everybody's quarantined
(14:48):
more vigorously. Right, So then you have a team with
double digit coronavirus positives around other that have now been
around other team members. You don't know the rate at
which that is going to be transmitted to the next
and the next and the next, and before you know it,
it's twenty people, mostly asymptomatic, mildly a mildly symptomatic perhaps,
(15:12):
but we all know we have um linemen which are
technically at risk because of their b m I, and
we have coaches that might be at risk. We're going
to get into some of the players that are high
risks that opted out. But I think that's why we
start to get tripped up, and why I don't just
say or you don't just say, uh, they'll be fine
(15:33):
in the long run. It's only four guys. Quarantine them
and we'll be fine. It's not really how it's going
to work out. It could be ten or more at
some of these facilities. The problem is you won't seven.
So they only had four guys test positive Sunday morning.
By Monday it was seventeen. Right. You just don't know
that the virus takes an incubation period. It can be
(15:54):
up to what two weeks we've heard, but generally I
know what the Morlins or the Phillies I should should say,
not the moments. The Phillies were told after what happened
Sunday and Monday that they would pretty much know how
bad they're going to be between Thursday and Saturday. If
they escaped Saturday with a you got old negative tests,
you've probably passed it. You probably didn't get it, you know,
(16:14):
but if you if you start getting positive test and
we did see one today and that was probably what
a club the home clubhouse attendant, not the visiting clubhouse attendant.
The home Now maybe he has some interaction with the visitors.
Who knows, you know, anything could have happened here. But
this starts the worry a little bit. It's why the
Philadelphia Philiates games were canceled this weekend because what's getting here.
It starts again and this is what people help. Their
(16:34):
exposure would have started really nine days or so before
this Saturday benchmark that you're talking about. So the assumption
is that no negative tests through nine days is unlikely
that they were exposed when the moments came to town.
When you've got that's nine days away, nine days that happened,
which makes perfect sense, all right, And we wasn't you
(16:56):
need other rules here as far as the NFL is concerned,
because is in Major League Baseball the owners which is
shockingly they agreed with the players. You need that. The Yankees, Phillies,
both Orioles, Nationals, I think a Blue Jays as well.
We'll all get paid for any miss games, but not
the Miami Morlins, not right now, because right now they're
(17:18):
being blamed for this. And there are some rumors and
I say rumors going around that this may have happened
because several Molins players went to a strip club. Once again,
this is allegend, it's not and this is not confirmed,
certainly unconfirmed, but that's why Major Leage Baseball is investigating.
If they find this out to be true, I'm guessing
they're gonna say, hey, you're not getting paid you coos
as all these games you're not getting paid for I
(17:39):
don't know ten you might miss or if they have
the four fifth season for crying out loud, and this
is going to be needly written out in the NFL
what happens here. If this would have happened to an
NFL team, I don't think you can dock the pay.
I just don't see that as being a reasonable option.
I can't because it says and then and then new
CD you're only getting paid per game. The owners didn't
didn't have to say the Yankees, well the once again,
(18:00):
the Yankees, Phillies, those other teams that weren't at fault,
but they might lose games. Now they probably won't mind
you because you know, the Yankees only need to make
up two games. They should be able to make that
up at some point over the next eight weeks, same thing,
same thing. You think at Washington Toronto they can make
up the three games, but I don't know how Phillies
are making up seven. Yeah, so so like, well, we'll
(18:24):
he's out of baseball here in a moment. But as
I've said, I think it's a backdrop now to everything
that's happening. Football does have the luxury of watching what
is going on here. Um, baseball culture is different from
football culture in this respect, George. Those guys really are
traveling nomads for like six months out of the year. Yes,
(18:45):
they are home for periods of time, but baseball players
go away for like ten days. A lot of guys
don't live with their families in the cities where they
played baseball, right their families are at home in Cincinnati,
but they play for the Yankees. I've picked that because
I remember Paul O'Neil used to talk about it all
the time. His family lived in Cincinnati, but when he
(19:06):
was in season, he lived in New York by himself.
He would travel around when it was school was out.
This family would come visit him and live with him
in New York, but for short periods of time. I
say that because the culture of baseball is, yeah, let's uh,
you know, we're in a new city. We're gonna go out.
We're in the next city, we go out. They need
to get out and sort of do something other than
(19:28):
hanging their hotel. Now, this is a sprint and they
should be able to hypothetically control themselves for two months.
But we already see that the horses out of the
barn potentially with Miami. Yeah. Now, one thing UH Baseball
is trying to do right now is tell the U
and I guess new health of safety protocols. Don't go out,
(19:49):
stay at your hotel when you're on the road. Good
luck with that in the three games. Here's for three days.
That's going to be rough. Football. Have been some ideas
where maybe these players should fly in Saturday nights. Yeah,
you stay in the hotel one night. You're not gonna
go out there. You'll be tired. Hopefully you go to sleep,
you go play the game the next day and get
the hell out again and go back home. I've even
heard some ideas that maybe you fly in Sunday morning
and delay the games. Don't start at one o'clock anymore,
(20:10):
start at three o'clock. I don't think that's going to
work with script the TV schedule, and let's face that,
that's where the money is. So I don't think that
will happen, but there are some ideas being thrown out there.
I guess to be safer. Here's another little thing now.
I don't know the rules of every state, but one
Soto for the Nationals, who tested positive right and hasn't
been allowed to play. He's had two negative tests in
(20:31):
a row, which satisfies baseball, but the District of Columbia says, uh,
we don't care. You still can't play for fourteen days
at the first tested positive. Uh. That's once again that
this would not affect the Washington football teams. I think
they play in land of the Maryland, not that's just
the Columbia. But I do wonder about other fifty states
and what rules they might have if you test positive
(20:52):
and you play there. So Uh, the team's statement will
bring it full circle around to the Bills. As we
were informed by medical experts at training camp open, we
expected to have positive test for COVID with five since
the beginning of the testing period Tuesday. We decided to
take a discal and proactive for preventative approach to hopefully
eliminate additional cases within our team. We'll talk about the
(21:12):
opt outs across the NFL after this. On the Grid
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(22:56):
Circle talking through the NFL opt out that are heard
really over the course of this last week, George, we
had hints of this leading up to this week. The
deadline is Monday, August three, and we've seen some higher
profile names become part of this opt out program. Now,
for those listening watching, if you're not aware of the
(23:17):
two categories into which players can opt out, there are
two specific categories. One is the high risk category. For
those players that are deemed high risk due to pre
existing medical conditions or past medical history. They can opt in,
receive a three hundred fifty thousand dollar loan and receive
an ac crude season. That does differ from the players
(23:38):
that are opting into the one hundred and fifty thousand
dollar opt out, which is effectively a short term loan.
We've seen players of all different um abilities stature within
the league take advantage of that and they will be
um They will be looking forward to potentially catching on
(23:59):
with the team next year, but August three, that's the deadline.
I'd also like to welcome in a radio audience that
is listening to us talk about this. So your first
thoughts on this. It seems like a reasonable program. A
whole bunch of guys are taking advantage of it, but
at the moment we don't even have a roster's worth
of players. Yeah, I mean we're hearing some names that
(24:20):
that are you know, guys names we know, right, We're
not hearing a bunch of unknowns anymore. I think Kenny
Golladay's on with us, Mason Crosby, Jay Sternberger, the Packers
were just added a little bit ago. So I'm not worried.
It's listen, first week in August. You don't worry it
that most of these guys should be recovered. We're not
hearing any bad stories, but anybody having it really bad,
that the sip was a terrible like Freddie Freeman the
(24:42):
Braves had what a month ago, and even he still
made it by opening day. Right, We'll just tell you
that that guys have have it, but they may be asymptomatic.
So I don't think you're panicking yet, but it's something
to keep an eye on, and we well, we're worried
about that anything else, Mike, it's not so much the
people having it. We know it's out there, but they're
going to spread it. How are they going to stop
it from being spread around? That's really what you're concerned about. Yeah.
(25:05):
The first player to opt into this probably makes the
most sense an event ever any of this as uh
Kansas City Chiefs Super Bowl champion guard Laurent Duvarne Tardef.
He is actually a medical doctor. He has been working
in a clinic in Canada to try to assist in
helping to beat the coronavirus in Canada. He was the
(25:27):
first one to say, you know what, I'm gonna hang
out here. I'm gonna keep doing what I'm doing. I'll
see you next year. So he's the first one to
say that publicly. We see other players to Anthony Thomas,
kick returner for the Ravens Chance warmack Um. There were
several New England players which will get into almost as
a separate topic. Andre Smith, the offensive tackle from the
(25:48):
veteran tackle from the Ravens. Um. We're looking at Eddie Goldman,
defensive tackle from the Bears. He's only twenty six years old. Uh,
he opted into this program. Star Littula from the Buffalo Bills,
Marquise Goodwin wide receiver. We got Jordan Mack linebacker from
the Panthers, Nate Solder the offensive tackle from the Giants,
(26:08):
which is obviously a big name, and then lastly Damien Williams.
Now there's at at present, I think we're at twenty
six players or so. I could be light on that,
but it's building a couple dozen players. George Nate Solder,
a cancer survivor, his son battling cancer right now, is
only five years old, made sense, a lot of sense
(26:31):
for him, even though it's it should be noted some
of these players are leaving a lot of money on
the table, a hell of a lot of money on
the table. And we say it again football on the
unlike you know, baseball. Uh, their their careers, aren't you know,
they're not infinite, their finite, you know, so they're they're
taking a chance. Yet they maybe they don't come, maybe
they lose their job. You know, I don't think any
(26:53):
fan really or anybody should really be upset of a
player opting out. You don't know their situation. You don't
know why why they're doing what they're doing. If the
wife is pregnant, they have a young child at home,
whatever it might be. As you put perfectly, where a
baseball team is nomad's when they travel all right, half here,
half not here. Football teams home most of the time
of them the day, maybe a couple of days where
they go to the state and travel on a Saturday.
(27:15):
You come back on Sunday night. That's right now, So
not you're at home. So your patriots playing the Bills,
they're they're they're gone twenty four hours. They play him
one o'clock on a Sunday at their home. It's it's
a twenty four trip. And what are you gonna say, Oh,
they stayed to stay at a hotel them for three month,
lot what they shouldn't be around their family for four once.
That's a job, folks, really what it is here? So no,
that's that's not fair to them. So I said, I
(27:37):
don't blame any player for deciding to once again, I'm
gonna opt out, or you say, opt into the program,
whatever it might be. Uh, what did annoy me? I'm
a cowboy fan of a certain a couple of cowboys.
The Marcus Lawrence is on sort of on the fencier.
He did go for the testing, but he's not committed
yet the playing. Sure, as a fans, he might be annoyed,
but I would understand. I understand why he's doing what
he's doing here. He's got to look out for himself.
(27:59):
I think once again, they but Lawrence. I believe it
is a pregnant wife at home, or it could be
a young child as well. I forget which Yeah, yeah,
Devin Funches to the Green Bay Packers that was caring
for family members who contracted the virus. He opted out.
He's twenty six years old. You know, we're were we
you mentioned I think in the previous segment that Jay
Sternberger of the Packers, he's already on their COVID list.
(28:21):
So you know, these are discussions that are happening amongst players.
It doesn't happen in a vacuum. Guys are living their
lives and some of that have experienced with it. Others
are like, I'm good to go. Let's get out there
in play. So this is a list that's going to
continue to be tracked. Frankly, by the time you hear
us talk about this, they'll be additional players added the
list because conceivably bigger names. But right now, for fantasy owners,
(28:44):
for people out there that are concerned about this, it's
obvious Damian Williams is a huge impact. They drafted Clyde
Edwards Hilaire as the last pick in the first round
this offseason, but Damian Williams was thought to be obviously
a big part of their offense. The guy scored two
touchdowns in the fourth quarter of the Super Bowl. It's
(29:05):
arguable he could have won Super Bowl m v P.
But nonetheless he has decided to opt out. Does that
mean his career doesn't continue after this in Kansas City? Possible.
I think you'll see that with some of these players,
but there they at least are hanging into this. Now.
There's another component to it, George, from a financial standpoint,
is that there are roster bonuses involved with some of
(29:28):
these guaranteed contracts, and as you lose games, you could
conceivably be putting yourself in harm's way relatively to the
coronavirus and not receiving some of these game checks because,
as you illustrated earlier, again, could be postponed, outright canceled
as a result of this. What's happened to the Marlins
(29:49):
could happen to one of the NFL teams and then
you're losing out on these game checks, so to speak,
so much. We have to be negotiate with you. You
know how they're going to figure all this out and whattitutes.
You know, hey, you're not getting pay for this and
what you are going to get paid for? Good luck
with that worked out so well in baseball was they
had no problem agreeing on everything. So it's going to
be an issue. We know that football. Like I said,
(30:12):
I had to think of a players opting out in football.
He has legitimate worries. Once again, these these guys, for
the most part, these guys are not gonna have ten twelve,
fifteen year careers and you may be losing one third,
one quarter, one fifth of the money you would have
made here by not playing. You think Devin Funchiuso wasn't
played now and a while, it's been hurt a lot
for him to do what he did. You know, he's
got issues going on at home from not to want
(30:33):
to make a mark with down Rodgers. They try and
get a bigger contract next year. So I said, I
don't blame anybody for doing what they've got to do.
You know, you gotta take care of your family first. Obviously,
any child comes first. You know, a pregnant wife of
course that you know, your family image, your mom and dad,
or in laws that might be living with you that
have it, or much more susceptible to it. You know,
That's why I think anyone who's criticizing these players, I
(30:55):
think it's it's just being selfish. This is what players
should be doing. They should be looking out for their
own and Key's Goodwin is a little baby at home.
He and his wife struggled with pregnancies in the past,
and it is a very human instinct for these guys
to want to stay home with their family. I get it,
(31:16):
and even and I'm sure some of them may say
as the season goes on, and if it continues, some
of them to say, you know what, I sort of
wish I was out there, but I made the decision
with the best information I had available at the time.
We even seen that in baseball, Nick Mark Cacus of
the Atlanta Braves had opted out. Now he's opting back in.
So he's going to be with the team. Will the
(31:37):
NFL allow for that, I don't know, But with them
having a hard deadline on this on Monday, I it
may be less likely. But if somebody changed your mind
in August with the NFL let him back, maybe yeah.
I think they should, because once you get things changed.
So I didn't like the deadline being this early. Anyway,
things change. We find out in a month from now. Oh,
(31:58):
it's under control in my area, it's on the control.
My team hasn't under control. I like the safety, health
and safety protocols they've gotten. I feel better, or you know,
I've been Maybe whatever was going on at home, maybe
you're not able to find out by Monday how bad
this virus is for your situation at home. But you
find out in three weeks. Oh, it's not a big
deal for whatever was going on. We're gonna be okay.
I want to apply. Oh I can't. It's why would
(32:20):
you want to do that? You know? So I think
they should be allowed to return at some point. Uh
should they deem it that? Hey, UM, it's better for
me now I'm going to be okay, my family is
going to be okay. I don't think it should be
a hard fast deadline. Wait what you opted out? We'll
see you next year. Yeah, agreed, Um did Damien Williams.
I can understand why they had the deadline early. At
(32:41):
the same time, George, you said you didn't like it
being too early, and I'm sort of like nodding and
then realizing, well, if it was September three, this could
put general managers in a really difficult spot. Right, Um.
If Damian Williams walked away sept on September twenty nine
as opposed to July, excuse me, August twenty nine as
(33:03):
opposed to uh, July twenty nine, that could put them
in a much more difficult position. You know something that
should have consulted you. It's like you, it's like your
your August eighteenth magic data. As to when the Major
(33:25):
League Baseball season will fall apart, I took the over
I thought it would last longer. I also think that
it will last longer because I don't think they'll be Um,
I don't think they're good. I'm just saying the reason
I said these things will go longer than some anticipate
is because I think they'll do it potentially against their
(33:47):
better judgment. As we just saw the Marlins played despite
having a bunch of positive tests. So um, we're gonna
talk about the paths. It's its own separate entity. I'd
like to the conspiracy theorists to pipe down a little
bit and I'll explain why after what they did. George,
(34:08):
George one of those conspiracy No, no, I have not,
I just like it. But they did lose some big
name including Patrick chun Chum and High Tower as well.
So we will dante a High Tower. We'll come back
talk about that after this break. It's Mike and George
on football pull circle. Come back right after this. I'll
(34:29):
teach you on the Patriots and they're tank for Trevor plan,
I don't think. So we'll come right now. Sports grid
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want the edge than get on the grid sports grid
(34:50):
dot Com, everybody, Mike and George back on football full circle,
right here on the grid. So we talked about the
NFL opt outs, and we can get into each and
(35:11):
every player and the guys that are going on the
COVID list and off the COVID list. But the reality
is the Patriots were the most hard hit by this
opt out situation, at least at the time we filmed this.
So Dante high Tower a defensive leader, obviously, Patrick Chung similarly,
(35:32):
Marcus Cannon an offensive tackle. He has a history of
non Hodgkin lymphoma, which he overcame after he was drafted
in So these are three contributive players. Danny Bital fullback,
maybe wouldn't have even made the team, although they have
lost James Devlan to retirement. Uh NJ. Turan, who's a
(35:55):
center guard for the Pats. He's an undrafted free agent
out of U C. L A and Brandon Bold, and
he was said to enter his ninth NFL season, is
eighth in New England. A lot of experience in the
backfield there in New England. Along with him and James White,
team leaders so to speak. He's a core special teams player.
And and we've set to earn one point three million
dollars in bass salary, which was the final year of
(36:17):
his contract. That tolls to one, which means it's just
a pause in the contract. No accrude season, no running
off of the time of the contract. So George, from
purely football based perspective, how how badly does this impact
the Patriots. Oh? I think it's pretty brutal. I mean,
you lose High Tower and Chung. I think you're in
(36:39):
your for a demon is already sort of depleted. Here
he lois Tom Brady. I understand you brought on Cam Newton.
Maybe he can real he'd better be the camp of old.
I'll tell you that. I think he just made me
to say this, or for me the most concise I
know the will have them making the playoffs. I thought
they might be able to compete for that six seventh
that you know, last two wild cards. I don't see
(37:00):
it anymore. I don't think it's gonna be a team
that Bill Beils it was hoping for that. Oh. I'll
play defense. You know, let's hope those the quarterbacks can
make plays. But I don't need them too. I'll play
good defense. We'll win games. You know, we'll go four
points now, they're gonna need to score board next. I
don't think they're gonna be able to stop opponents on
any kind of regular basis. I think this pretty much
might be that that dagger in their season. Yeah. What's
interesting too, is that I wonder and I'm sure, Look,
(37:24):
these players have to have these types of conversations with
their family, they have the conversations with the coach, the
general manager, or maybe they didn't consult those guys at all. Right,
It's obviously different from player to player and team to team. Uh,
It's possible Dante Howard just picked up the phone one
day and said, you know what, I'm out. I'll see
you guys in one I don't feel comfortable, whatever the
(37:45):
reasons might be, but somebody like him, being the team
leader that is, I'm sure he had these discussions. What
is interesting though, is that, and this is where conspiracy
theorists will go crazy on this, is that they drafted
Joshi in the second round down Anthony Jennings in the
third round this year. Those are both um linebackers, so
(38:07):
at the position and high tower vacates, they have a
couple of guys. Now. I would also submit that they
lost Kyle van Noy and other linebackers during this offseason
to free agency, and that's really why they what they
were drafting for. Not with the conspiracy theorists thinking that
a perfect they lost a linebacker due to the opt
out and they have another linebacker ready to step in. Well,
(38:29):
two of them left in free agencies, so they had
to replace them. Kyle Dugger out of leonor Ryan second
round pick, small college guy, Belichick type of player he
gets to fill in potentially for Patrick Chung. Right, well,
I would submit that a rookie UH free safety may
not be the guy or strong safety may not be
(38:50):
the guy they can fill in for Patrick Chung with
all the experience he's had a New England. So um,
the conspiracy theorists are out there for the tank for
Trevor situation. I'm not down with it, you're what do
you think? Listen? It's fun to talk about. But even
with all these moves, they're not the worst team in
the football, right They're not, no, not even the worst
two in their conference. Alright, So maybe not theirsion, definitely
(39:13):
not their division. I don't know. Do you think they're
coming in last place? I wouldn't shock me at this
point as I think this this is a killer. I
think they're losing high tower and Chung is a killer
on defense. You just don't have the players now, you know,
and we don't know what's gonna get out of the quarterback.
You know, we hope that can can be the camp
can be superman like he used to be. We don't
(39:33):
know that. You know, there's not a lot of offensive
weapons here. This is this to me when I look
at it, If not for the fact that Bill Belichick
was there, you'd be like, oh, M, six and five
and eleven here we come. Yeah, you know this This
is what I see when I look at this team here.
So yeah, I think, uh, I think they might pay.
I wouldn't. I'm not. I certainly wouldn't pick them to last,
(39:53):
mind you that would I'll probably be the Jets or Miami,
depends on how what direction they go in there. I
think those two teams are worse. But it wouldn't shock me.
Literally the Bills just run away with this division now
where it's it's not even a fight, you know, assuming
we do play a sixteen game season where by December
joining the Bills are worried about a seating. Yeah, look,
(40:14):
the Marcus Cannon thing is a loss to He's got
a lot of experience. I don't think there it's I
don't think they're caught by surprise on this one. According
to Michael Lombardi from the GM Shuffle, there's even talks
that there's been some retirement talks concerning Marcus Cannon. So
I don't know that he's all the way there for football.
(40:35):
Maybe we never see him again, but in terms of
him lending experience and being a three time Super Bowl champion,
I think it's a loss. Uh. Their offensive line is
first round left tackle from two years ago, Isaiah Win,
Joe Thuney, David Andrews, who's back after taking the year
off due to some clouting blood clotting issues that he
was having, Shack Mason, and Corey Cunningham, which they received
(40:57):
in a trade from the Arizona Cardinals. So uh, I
think they're okay there. They drafted a couple of more guides.
They drafted the two tight ends and Talton Keene Dalton
King might slot in to be a little bit of
an h back scenario for them, George, So uh, perhaps
all is not lost with Danny Vitala's departure and in
(41:17):
conjunction with James Devlin's retirement. So look, there are issues now.
I don't think there's any denying it, even the most
ardent Pats fan has to be like God. I hope
Cam is is great like you said, and overcomes a
lot of this. But the receiving corps is Julian Edeman,
Mohammed Sanu and hopefully Nikkil Harry is a winner. But
we don't know that. You know. It brings up the
(41:40):
question that was brought up weeks ago. Actually when we
talked about the Patriots, we went over their team. What
team would Shade would trade their skill posishition players for
the Patriots. It's a low number anybody could have had.
Cam Newton, Nobody wanted them for various reasons. Sonny Michelle
is no one's answer to Quan balk Ke or anything
like that. Edelman, it's a nice receiver when it was
(42:01):
nice a Brady a short range target that he's not
anywhere near Michael Thomas. You know it's about them someone
like that. He's just not that kind of player. And
you know you have to holpe aout the tight ends,
lucky tightitles. See what happens your offensive line keep goosing
people and the defense is just depleted. Here. Like I said,
this this is a I hate to see. This looks
like a bad, bad football team. Yeah, I got. I
(42:24):
have a lot of faith in Belichick when it comes
to coaching up defensive players or whatever it might be.
But and clearly they had a plan in place here,
right they were going to let due to cap issues
and everything else, they were going to let some veteran
players go. Whether you however you classified Tom Brady, I
think that was not a one way a decision, right.
(42:45):
They just couldn't come to agreements that terms that they
were comfortable with. They move on from the veteran quarterback.
They let a bunch of the veteran players go, some
of whom I've mentioned, particularly linebacker, and they needed to
replenish some of these with the young players. It just
can't all happen at the same time. Does this defense
come together. Here's the defense and they've they've survived for
(43:08):
a long time on guys that may not pop as superstars.
George but Lawrence, Guy bo Allen, John Simon, that's your
defensive line. Chase Winovitch, last year's third round pick from Michigan,
is backing up as a premium backup. We have uh
Shale Calhoun, Dante Hi Tower no longer, Juwan Bentley, Brandon Copeland.
(43:29):
The defensive backfield, Jason mccordy, Terrence Brooks, Stevin mccordy, Stefan Gilmore,
bringing Kyle Dugger lose Patrick Chung. The defensive backfield is
still the strength of the unit, the mccordy brothers and
Stefan Gilmore veterans, maybe a little older, but still strong.
That's the strength of the defense and it will remain
that and it is. But if you can't get to
(43:51):
the quarterback doesn't mean how good your cornerbacks are, oh
your safety for that matter, You're gonna have issues here.
I It's just strange to me. But I'll tell you this,
if of if the Patriots make the playoffs, this is
Bill Belartic's best coaching job ever. Unless Cam is back
to being the man he was three, four or five
six years ago, and it just really no one can
handle him. I just don't see how it's happening here.
(44:12):
I just don't see the Bills look like a better team.
I mean, they do get a break, and that the
Jets and Dolphins are still the Jets of Dolphins for now.
Dolphins seemed to be on their way up. You know,
we'll see what they do with two of their The Jets,
you know, with the moves they've made this off season,
are pretty much puffing this season away already anyway, So
I said, I like to say, I don't want to
say they're done, but I can't see how this team,
(44:32):
even with the extra wild card spot. I just don't
see it. Not unless the Dolphins and Jets are just
much worse than I think with the Pagots can actually
sweep them in the division, then maybe they got a
shot to get the eight nine wins. But I'll be
banking on the under here. Always hesitate to think that
they're going to drastically change the way they play football.
I think the Patriots are the best at adapting to
(44:55):
their personnel, and if you look at the personnel top
to bottom, you would say, a George that the best
way for this team to win a lot of games
is ball control it all day. Let's keep our defense
under exposed. We've got a running quarterback, We've got two talented,
three talented, four talented running backs. Let's just hang onto
(45:16):
the ball. Lead the league in time of possession, and
that's the way we're gonna win that. That's what it
feels like to me. It doesn't mean that they can't
play ball control passing attact with Edelman or even some
new to some extent. But do I think they're going
to air it out to Nikila Harry and make Mohammed
Sanu a deep threat. I don't. I just think the
way that this team should win is ball controlling it. Oh,
(45:39):
I think you're a hundred correct. I think you're stretching
the word of talented running back and that they have
four talented I probably am stretching it. They have four
average running backs. You know. I do like James White
as far as a pass catcher there, and if you
have listen, we all want him to be the came
of old but and any doubt and the wing needs
him to be that person. But I think he tries
(46:02):
to be that person where he's gonna be running all
over the place. He's not playing sixteen. You know that
that is gonna come again. He has ankle injury, his
shoulder injuries. We don't know how healthy they truly are.
I think he'll get hurt to get plus the concussion
problems he's had. You know, he's not a big on
sliding and getting down here. I just don't I think
they need him to be that person. But I think
that could be the worst thing for Camp. You know,
(46:22):
I don't think he'd be able to finish the seasons
that way. This team has issues. That's the bottom line here.
Do I think they're tanking? Uh? You know, but travor
or losey for Lawrence? Now, I think it just worked
out this way? What do they Bill Belichick, Colt Dante,
can you take the season off your buddy? Patrick? Don't
even bother Right, these guys aren't turning down money, the
money they were gonna make their to make Bill or
(46:43):
make the Patriots get the number one pick. That's nuts.
It's crazy. And even with these the Patriots are still
a better team than the Jaguars, right, So they're not
they they're not gonna get that anyway. Bill Beligick is not.
He wants to get that old time win record. He
wants that, which is he needs to win you know
many it is possible early on before he gets older.
I should say so, No, they're not. They're not taking
(47:05):
That's it's a fun little conspiracy theory, but that's not
what's going on here. Yeah, So I'm gonna go to
FanDuel right now. Their wind total for the better part.
It fluctuated after Cam got there. They actually bumped them
up by a half a wind. But I want to
look them up alive as we record this. So wind
totals for New England right now on FanDuel are did
(47:28):
they take it off? No? There it is nine and
a half, so they haven't lowered it. It bumped it
went from nine to nine and a half. I went
Cam signed, So right now the over is plus one
five under is minus one sixty. I think that becomes
the heaviest juice bet on the board that all happened
(47:48):
in this last week for the most part, so under
nine and a half, even with Cam Newton at quarterback,
you're a hard under. Now on the Pats, I don't
think you'd get the five or six. Well, I'm not
looking at their schedules, so maybe they're schedule easier than
I thought. The division schedule is easy, right Jets Miami,
I could certainly see you winning three of those four games,
(48:09):
but Miami is a better, a decent team, so I'm
not guaranteeing that at all. Here Buffalo, I don't know
if you'd beat Buffalo either time. There I think goes
to two losses there, so I care still favored on
Fandal to win the division plus one fifteen. The Bills
are plus one once again. The Papers are one of
those teams with such a heavy following that they're always
juiced on because he had a lot of fans go
(48:31):
oh yeah. But the juice on the Wind total is
all the way down and under nine, under nine and
a half, so it's one of the most heavily juice
bets on the board. I'm looking at I know we're
up against the here. I guess we'll talk about were
on the next segment here, but no, they're not getting
nine at the schedule is easy. We'll close it out
after on this hour of football full Circle. Right after this,
(48:52):
get on the Grid sports grid dot Com Betting insights
and entertainment at your fingertips seven as team covers the
most important topics in sports wagering, real time odds, predictive
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Get on the Grid sports grid dot Com Back on
(49:19):
the Grid, closing out this hour, just a couple of
minutes here, a couple of stories. George give me a
depressing one during during the break, but I'm not gonna
air that one. Tom Coughlin had a bike accident. It's awful.
I don't know why why I would even bring it
up on air. But another depressing story related to the Jaguars,
Yannick and Gockway. Uh, the unsigned franchise player has not
(49:42):
reported to Jaguars camp. He wants out of Jacksonville. Uh.
This is according to Michael di Rocco on Twitter. He
says here that coach Jaguars coach Doug Morone says defensive
Indianick and Gockway is the only player not at camp,
says he has not had any conversations within Gockway. Uh.
Color me not surprised, George, they I don't. It is
(50:07):
odd to me that it is continued. But I I
think the Jaguars just got to a point where they said,
we're obviously going to trade him. We're just going to
wait until the last possible moment to see if any
new offers can arise. Potentially with an opt out with
an injury during training camp, the market changes and a
(50:29):
team gets more desperate than they've been to this point.
Does that make sense? It makes sense, but it's unlikely
to happen because what's going on at that time. Who's
going to have that kind of cap room to sign
him and to get what Jacksonville and jackson was gonna want. Really, uh,
you know what? The what the Jets got one one
(50:51):
and a three. That's not going to happen in a player.
It's not gonna happen now. It's trade happened late. But
things are different this year. We know the Caps going
down next year? What team is gonna get the draft
picks for a guy? And you don't know if she's
gonna be played or how many games gonna be played
with this doesn't even matter. It's just a terrible time
for Jacksonville. They had to trade him during the draft
for whatever they could get for him. Yeah, you know,
(51:11):
I understand they party get the offers they wanted. You know,
you wanted a number one, number three, whatever it might be.
You didn't get that. But now you're waiting here. Good luck,
give me a long term deal. There's no long term deal.
There can't happen. No, he doesn't want to be there.
He pretty much hates them. They hate him. He's I'm saying,
for the new team, there's no long term deal. No
one's doing that of late. Right, you trade for a guy,
(51:32):
you get up all the I mean the Cowboys did
it with Cooper, Hawks just did it with Adams. You
trade for a guy and then you don't get the
deal done. You give all the leverage to the player.
Just strange. Even though I'm said, oh yeah, I'll play
for my number, my contract number, I don't. I'm not
going to demand a new trade. Of course he's not
because he has over leverage powers. Concept comes up. You
give up three picks in the player for me, pay
(51:53):
me my money or I'm gone. Yeah, that's it. We're
gonna talk about Jamal Adams in the next edition, trying
to at at Jets beat writer to discuss it with us.
Hopefully you join us next time on the Grid. Frank,
thanks for watching this hour of Football Full Circle the
half of Brian Rogowski and George kurtch On Mike Bluid,
thanks for watching. See you next time. Sports grid dot
(52:14):
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