March 22, 2022 • 21 mins
In this episode, Rhett Lewis is joined by insiders Steve Wyche and Ian Rapoport for their reaction to Malik Willis' pro day and the most consequential trade in NFL history. Steve shares how the Atlanta Falcons need to respond after trading Matt Ryan to the Indianapolis Colts and Ian provides potential landing spots for Baker Mayfield and Jimmy Garoppolo.
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Speaker 1 (00:05):
NFL Inside Report is the production of the NFL in
partnership with I Heart Radio. I'm rest and this is
NFL Inside Report coming to you after a wild first
(00:26):
week of free agency and now in the thick of
the pro day circuit, all as we kind of merge
these two worlds ahead of the NFL Draft in Las Vegas.
So much is happening right now from the personnel evaluation
standpoint in the NFL and has made for an absolutely
wild ride these last couple of weeks. And here to
(00:47):
help us make sense of it all, Steve Whitch in
ARTFL that we're consider Ian Rappaport, both of whom were
just at the Liberty Pro Day featuring the first quarterback
that's going to be drafted in the history of the
Liberty University program. Malik absolutely lit it up out there.
It was so much fun to watch. I had to
push your being with my buddies Daniel, Jeremiah and Bucky
(01:09):
Brooks here in studio to call the workout and and Steve,
I gotta start with you there because was it as
fun and was the atmosphere as lively inside that field house,
that indoor facility and Liberty as it was for us
watching it, it really was rhet I mean, he will
tell you like all the sidelines were packed with you know,
(01:29):
family members, Blake Bliss's family was there, a lot of students, UM,
So it was packed and you know, this was a
big day for Liberty. They got to showcase their program.
So they really went above and beyond in terms of
welcoming the media and everybody else. But the cool thing
was to see Malik and his teammates. I mean, they
had a ball. They knew all these eyes were on.
(01:51):
It was all thirty two teams you represented, but they
just went out there and cut it loose. It wasn't
a stressful prod. I've been a pro days where it
just seemed a little bit tense and this was really
just kind of a free for all. Lead it ripped
and whatever habits happened. And I think and I think
that all begins with Malik Willis because he was the
guy who was around his teammates all the time, even
(02:13):
when he wasn't doing the drills, encouraging those guys on. Yeah,
I thought that was really cool to see Um and Ian,
I know, an opportunity for you to be around, you know,
at least one or more representatives from all thirty two teams.
You get a sense at all of where the lead's
perspective one Malik Willis is at this point while you're
there watching him throw. So first of all, I want
(02:34):
to agree with Steve on the atmosphere. It's like they
let fans in. I think there were some friends in.
It was it was kind of electric, you know, and
these are fun, sort of non competitive events. Anyway, Um,
I have a lime into one other pro day and
it was Alabama and this was not like that. This
was fun, and you know, it seems like Malik Willis
(02:56):
really fed into that. And you know, we heard Steve
and I heard some really good things from Hugh Freeze
before the pro day just about what kind of guy
and malink Willis is, and that really showed up on
the field. I thought that was pretty cool. The other
thing is, guys, like I went into this pre draft
process thinking that there would not be a quarterback taken
probably until Pittsburgh at like twenty or whatever. They are
(03:18):
now based on the quarterback needs, based on the teams
that were here, based on the landscape of this situation,
it feels to me like we'll get a couple in
the top ten. Like that's just I don't know, maybe
Steve has a different field, but that is my feel,
And I mean it seems like we're gonna end up
where we always do, which is quarterbacks going in the
top ten and everybody's scrambling up together. Yeah. And I
think that's a good point in because basically we've seen
(03:41):
this crazy rush of quarterback dominoes falling really since the
combine like came back boom. We got the Russell Wilson trade,
we got all these trade We've got the Carson went
straight now, we've had the Matt Ryan trade, DeShawn Watson trade.
I mean, it feels like every day we've had a
monster move in. Like, you know, for us to here
sitting here evaluating the draft, knowing that as a whole,
(04:03):
this quarterback class was not as highly touted, probably league
wide and from a media perspective as the one we
saw last year, and so you had to work. You
had to wonder then, like is that why we're seeing
all of these teams kind of go all in to
try to get a quarterback that's been established in the NFL.
You know, whether it was a major move like the
Shawn Watson, Russell Wilson, or a smaller move like you know,
(04:25):
training for Carson Wentz or signing Mitchell Robiski or Marcus Mariota,
which we've all seen now. So did you get a
sense that the overall strength of the quarterback draft class
dictated some of these moves I that we've seen. Yes,
I definitely did. And it seems like, you know, like
every year there's a couple of teams where, you know,
(04:45):
let's say they draft one or two like Jets and
Jaguars last year. Grad example, like, okay, they are getting starters.
They are drafting starters. So in free agency, the Jets
didn't need and they needed to trade Sam Donald last year,
but they didn't need to go get a quarterback. They
were going to get one. This is not like that, right,
So what's gonna happen is by the time we get
(05:06):
to the draft, everyone will have a starter. Everyone will
have someone that did start to day one, and then
it's just a matter of where does everybody else go?
And that's why I like, it's actually kind of fascinating
because what it does is it opens up quarterbacks to
everyone who doesn't have a long term starter, like I
mean think about it, Steve, Like, think about the teams
(05:28):
they're here today, the Falcons, the Panthers, the Washington Commanders, um,
the Steelers, Like, all of those have starters and the
other one. So all of those could draft a quarterback
very early in this draft. Yeah, and I think to
that point, you know, they've got to project out a
(05:50):
little bit too. So let's look at the teams whose
rosters are kind of bear I mean Carolina and Atlanta.
You know they could put they could put players in
a hat and pick one in the first round. With
those two, you know each one is top ten pick
and be okay. But they may say, okay, look, if
I'm Atlanta, We're bringing in Marcus Mariota to be a starter.
He is a shotgun, r PO on the move, run
(06:11):
past quarterback. Well that's what Elie Willis does as well.
So you know we keep hearing Malik Willis right, is
a developmental guy. We could develop on the Marcus. He
could run, learn this game, run this game. So a
lot of this is gonna depend and this is talking
to some people. What team he goes to. If the
coaching staff is going to build around him, build a
(06:31):
roster around him to play to the strengths, because the
strengths are very high, Like he's not to be able
to go fit necessarily any team. But you know, with
all these teams paying all these millions of dollars to
hire these offensive wonder kins, it is their job to
fit the personnel. And so that's where I think this
comes up. But I'm with Ian, some team or two
(06:54):
is gonna get sweet on Kenny Pickett em Malik Willis
and draft them at the top ten, top twelve. Yeah, yeah,
you could very well happen. It could be a team
that's sitting there now, or could be a team that's
moving up, or maybe even one that's moving down. Let's
say the Detroit Lions, who like what they have and
Jared Golf they want to get there next. Yeah, and
the Lions were here today. Lance Newmark, one of the
(07:16):
top scouts, was here today, and um, you know, I
don't think they draft one it too, but like, does
somebody come up for maybe one of the tackles and
they go back to six. Maybe they see that happening.
And that's like that was so interesting about the Golf
trade last year, is like the Lions traded for him,
(07:36):
kind of thinking maybe he wasn't long term thing happ
because it's fine, but he's a placeholder. And then you
look around the league, it's like everyone's a placeholder except
for guy. It's very exactly right, because everybody's understanding that
if you don't have one of those five guys, we
better find a way to go get one pretty quick.
That so I think that's I think that's a real
good point. I thought for a while that the Lions
(07:57):
at thirty two might be a good spot for a quarterback,
you know, get that extra fifth year. But now they may,
like the top three guys may be gone by then,
so you know, you've got to think about that in
a in a different landscape. I do want to touch
on the Atlanta Falcons here because they are the last
team to make a trade, sending their franchise icon Matt
Ryan off to the Indianapolis Colts after Falcons flirted with
(08:22):
and ultimately failed to land DeShawn Watson from the Houston Texans,
who has now ended up in Cleveland. We'll get to
Deshaun Watson here in just a moment, but Steve, let
me start with you knowing the Falcons as you do
and having covered them during some of those transition periods.
This is a pretty momentous move for general manager Terry
Fontno in his second year now with the franchise to
(08:44):
move a player of Matt Ryan's stature and to now
try to build this future around Marcus Mariota and TBD. Right, yeah,
I mean that that that's the thing. And you know,
had they not gotten involved in the Deshaun Watson sweep sticks,
Matt Ryan would still be their quarterback, and and and
Ian knows. The fact that they decided to do this
(09:06):
now has a lot of people saying, well, if you're
gonna do this, shed is not last year when you
had the quarterback class, you could have got Justin Fields
or possibly Trail Lands who went to pick before they
selected to the Niners. But um, now that they're at
this point, they didn't matter solid by getting him to Indianapolis, right,
so he can finish out his career on a contender.
(09:28):
But now it's kind of what do you do because
they have got to nail this draft, whether they take
a quarterback or not in the first round, they have
so many holes. Next year they're gonna have a boatload
of money and free agency because it resorbing Matt Ryan's
forty million dollar cap and all this year. But the
big question he is do you wait? Because one thing
(09:52):
I have found in all my years of covering the
NFL in the NBA, when you try to wait for somebody,
you're really rolling the dice because that player could get hurt,
he could have a bad season. Um, he could get arrested,
and then that player or two you might have been
hoping to get, you might not get because you might
win too many ball games. There's someone could trade up.
So to me, if you like one of these quarterbacks,
(10:16):
you go get him. You get him into your system,
and you start developing him now, because there's a lot
of things that could factor in negatively if you wait
to try to get him. So, Steve in regards to
the Falcons making the move to send Matt Ryan on
his way, you know, I remember thinking back to to
how um, you know, John Mara talked about the h
(10:39):
the situation with moving on from Eli Manning and trying
to replace him and bench him, and like, when it
comes down to it, there's really no good way to
move on from a guy that has meant so much
to your franchise, Like It's just it's kind of hard
any way you think about it. So there's been a
lot of judgment about how, you know, the Falcons are
treating Matt Ryan, how the Browns are treating Baker Mayfield. Ultimately,
(11:00):
how do you feel like the whole situation was handled
here as the Falcons try to flour, you know, a
new future. Well, it's awkward because it wasn't like the
painful pill since it wentz say New England, let go
with Tom Brady, right, you know, or when the Niners
society to trade Joe Montana wasn't like that type of sufference.
(11:23):
This is more awkward, awkward because again they had planned
to move forward with Matt Ryan until they got involved
with the Shawn Watson So there was that outside trigger,
you know, the same thing in Cleveland with Bigger Mayfield.
So the difference is Matt He's He's the best player
in Falcon's history, right an m v P. Just somebody
(11:44):
salvats his team after the catastrophe in two thousand and seven,
he came as a rookie, got into the playoffs, replacing
incredibly popular player in Michael Fick. So you know, look,
I feel this way because I have special feeling towards
Matt Ryan. I think he's just a special dude and
a special player that the folks aren't really gonna you know,
(12:05):
that the so called fans or whatever you wanna call
are not going to appreciate him until he's gone and
then people remember everything he did and things he did
to help make you know, great players, and how he
was joined with Julio Jones and Roddy White and and
Algae Crumpler and and guys like that. Um to really
(12:26):
appreciate his impact on that club, you know. I mean,
this was a a franchise icon that was traded and
it was like it was totally fine. And I can't
believe we're in a place in the NFL or someone
like Matt Ryan can get traded and it seems normal.
But like you think of what has happened the last
two weeks with you know, Deshaun Watson and Carson Wentz
(12:49):
and Russell Wilson and Matt Ryan, like it really has
become the NBA. And I don't know that that's a
bad thing. I Mean, it's been incredibly stressful for me,
but it's been unbelievably fun and topsy turvy and crazy
fans um. But look, I mean, we're at a point
where if a star player or a quarterback or whoever
(13:10):
is not happy with the situation and wants out, they
can get out. And so the Matt Ryan trade from
the Falcons to the Cult just one of the dominoes
that fell as a result of the pursuit of Deshaun Watson.
Falcons weren't the only team that are now trying to
pick up the pieces of that failed pursuit. We will
(13:32):
talk the impact of the Deshaun Watson trade from Houston
to Cleveland and where that stands in the rankings here
in NFL history among impactful trades. You don't want to
miss it. Right after this here in NFL Inside Report, guys,
(14:04):
thinking about how we're talking about all these quarterback moves,
I mean, we talk about the compensation that went back
to the Houston Texans in a blockbuster deal, uh for
the Browns to acquire Deshaun Watson, and like, thinking about
the quarterback reverberations that have happened. I don't know that
if one quarterback ever getting traded has affected so many
other quarterbacks in the movement that they've had with teams.
(14:27):
If I right, Like you know, not only does not
only do the Falcons lose out in trade Matt Ryan away,
Baker Mayfield is going to get traded at some point,
we expect, traded released whatever. The Saints decided to go
back to Jamis Winston. I mean, they were just like
so many of these dominoes, and I've never seen a
trade have that much impact on so many different franchises.
(14:48):
About right, I agree. I mean this was to me
the most consequential trade in NFL history, and if and
I'm not just saying just because the Cleveland Grounds changed
the face of the franchise by acquiring you know, the
five quarterback in his prime, which is also very important.
U Um, it's also this affected the most people. I mean,
it basically got Matt Ryan traded. It's gonna get Banker
(15:10):
Mayfield probably not cut, probably traded. Um. Carolina Panthers franchise
was forever altered. The Saints sending up going back to
Jamis Wood's so much. Okay, but that's a lot of play,
that's a lot of different teams, and it's just you know,
we wonder, like you know, it was like with Seattle
and Russell Wilson, like he was only going to Denver. Yes,
(15:32):
that affected two teams, but it wasn't like a widespread
thing like it affected two teams. Well, this was, I mean,
it was seriously like the most impactful trade I think
in league history. Um almost why I think it committed
so much of our attention because we've never telt with
anything that meant so much to so many different people,
(15:53):
let alone the personal feelings associated with Deshaun Watson and
this off the field situation itself. Well, let's let's also
look at you know we have we may not have
seen the end of this cast aid. He got all
these these dollars guaranteed. He got all these years on
the contract guaranteed. And even though it seems like it's
a one off, because of the demand, right, there was
(16:16):
supply and demand, and there was a lot more demand
than supply to draw the guarantees. Well, we see Indianapolis
all of a sudden about guarantee the back two years
of Matt Ryan's dealing, and so agents are gonna be
asking for these guarantees. Now, this is the new Steve
Hutches and Poisonville, and so people are gonna ask for it.
(16:37):
They may not get it. But the Shawn Watson, his agent,
David Wogetta, also got him a no trade clause which
gave him unbelievable leverage in this situation. So more players
are gonna be asking for this no trade clause. Um.
So again we talked about the ripple effect. We saw
how it affected so many more teams. It's canna affect
others when it comes to negotiating deals, especially now that
(17:01):
when this era of general managers who are wheeling and
dealing like NBA general editors and trading players instead of
necessarily you know, waiting and trying to you know, find
a QB through the draft. Yeah. Ian, do you think
with the Watson contract becomes a one offer, do you
think it becomes more commonplace? I mean, like, I know,
we don't. We're not gonna see players like that hit
(17:22):
the open market essentially. I wouldn't say open market, but
hit the market in in some way, shape or form.
But do you think these guarantees, fully guaranteed contracts become
more common now? Yeah? I do? Um, And I would say,
like for someone like Russell Wilson who has a baseball
agent and Mark Rogers, you know, you know he's gonna
want a fully guaranteed deal. I mean, I don't think
(17:42):
it'll be now, but you know after next year, he's
gonna long one. And I mean, to me, that's the
biggest thing to kind of alter the landscape of the
NFL is quarterbacks are gonna want fully guaranteed deals and
and a lot of times they're gonna get it because quarterbacks,
as we've learned, to have as much power as anyone else.
So what they want, they generally get. So I imagine
we're going to see a more fully guaranteed deals from quarterback.
(18:05):
The other thing is, you guys talked about it, the
no trade clause. That is the absolute camera and I like,
I've done this for ten years. Steve's done it for longer.
I've done it for ten years, and probably until this offseason,
I did not understand what a no trade cause was.
I mean, I knew it meant you couldn't get traded,
but what I didn't understand was it actually meant I
(18:25):
can only get traded here, so trade me here. The
power you have within no trading clause is incredible and
I've probably underestimated that until this off season. And Ian,
lastly here on on the other pieces, to this Deshaun
Watson deal, Baker Mayfield, as we talked about, probably gonna
get traded out of Cleveland here at some point. Um.
The Colts now have their quarterback with Matt Ryan, so
(18:48):
that seat is filled. Uh, and then Jimmy Garoppolo out
there is another quarterback that we've talked about as the
potential being traded. Where do those two situations sit at
this point? We'll start with Baker Mayfield. Um. And obviously
that's sort of because of the Matt Ryan trade. That's
the most relevant right now. To me, the two teams
that make sense are the Carolina Panthers and the Seattle Seahawks.
(19:11):
I don't get the sense either of those teams are
doing that for that contract, in fact that I know
they're not. So to me, it's really about how much
money will the Cleveland Browns eat to make this happen?
And it seems that they're amenable to eating some, but
how much? And I don't get the sense it will
happen soon or though you never know. UM. I think
with Seattle it's more of like, okay, we can see it.
(19:32):
I think the Panthers probably make a little more sense
as far as the possible trade destination. You know they
still have Sam Donald. If it's Donald and Baker Mayfield, like,
that's an interesting quarterback room. Um, and that probably means
they don't have to draft. And as far as Jimmy Garoppolo,
you know, it's really fascinating because, um, I think we
(19:53):
all thought he was gonna get traded, never mind the
fact that he had major shoulder surgery. Now we're a
couple of weeks out from shoulder surgery, a lot of
the seats are taken. He's do a reasonable salary. He's
good person. I think maybe the foot and now is
just keep him right. I mean, save him for if
there's a quarterback injury before camp, or what if Trail
Lance isn't ready, or save him for whatever. There's no
(20:16):
need to get rid of them. You know, you can
bring him back. I mean, look, he's a starter who
led your team to the playoffs. You can do worse
as a franchise than to have Jimmy Garoppolo in as
your starter. To me, that's not the worst thing in
the world. There. It is a wild free agency, a
wild quarterback trade markets, and the draft talk is just
(20:36):
heating up so much intrigue still to come as we
approach April in Las Vegas. After we kind of assess
the dust settling on the quarterback blues that have happened
and those that will happen in the first round and
be on Steve why She and Rapping Bart set us up. Guys.
Thanks very much, appreciate you. Thanks guys, thank you, and
(21:01):
that's gonna do it for this episode of NFL Inside Report.
Takes some much for being with us here today. Reminder
to download, rate review our show on the I Heart
Radio app, on Apple podcasts, wherever you get your pods.
We certainly appreciate it and we'll be back with you
next week as we get closer to d two thousand,
twenty two NFL Draft. For our producers Thomas Warren and
(21:23):
Tim Perrotca, I'm your host, Frett Lewis. We'll catch you
next time. NFL Inside Report is the production of the
NFL and partnership with I Heart Radio. For more official
podcasts from the NFL, visit the I Heart Radio app,
Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
NFL Inside Report is the production of the NFL in
partnership with I Heart Radio. I'm rest and this is
NFL Inside Report coming to you after a wild first
(00:26):
week of free agency and now in the thick of
the pro day circuit, all as we kind of merge
these two worlds ahead of the NFL Draft in Las Vegas.
So much is happening right now from the personnel evaluation
standpoint in the NFL and has made for an absolutely
wild ride these last couple of weeks. And here to
(00:47):
help us make sense of it all, Steve Whitch in
ARTFL that we're consider Ian Rappaport, both of whom were
just at the Liberty Pro Day featuring the first quarterback
that's going to be drafted in the history of the
Liberty University program. Malik absolutely lit it up out there.
It was so much fun to watch. I had to
push your being with my buddies Daniel, Jeremiah and Bucky
(01:09):
Brooks here in studio to call the workout and and Steve,
I gotta start with you there because was it as
fun and was the atmosphere as lively inside that field house,
that indoor facility and Liberty as it was for us
watching it, it really was rhet I mean, he will
tell you like all the sidelines were packed with you know,
(01:29):
family members, Blake Bliss's family was there, a lot of students, UM,
So it was packed and you know, this was a
big day for Liberty. They got to showcase their program.
So they really went above and beyond in terms of
welcoming the media and everybody else. But the cool thing
was to see Malik and his teammates. I mean, they
had a ball. They knew all these eyes were on.
(01:51):
It was all thirty two teams you represented, but they
just went out there and cut it loose. It wasn't
a stressful prod. I've been a pro days where it
just seemed a little bit tense and this was really
just kind of a free for all. Lead it ripped
and whatever habits happened. And I think and I think
that all begins with Malik Willis because he was the
guy who was around his teammates all the time, even
(02:13):
when he wasn't doing the drills, encouraging those guys on. Yeah,
I thought that was really cool to see Um and Ian,
I know, an opportunity for you to be around, you know,
at least one or more representatives from all thirty two teams.
You get a sense at all of where the lead's
perspective one Malik Willis is at this point while you're
there watching him throw. So first of all, I want
(02:34):
to agree with Steve on the atmosphere. It's like they
let fans in. I think there were some friends in.
It was it was kind of electric, you know, and
these are fun, sort of non competitive events. Anyway, Um,
I have a lime into one other pro day and
it was Alabama and this was not like that. This
was fun, and you know, it seems like Malik Willis
(02:56):
really fed into that. And you know, we heard Steve
and I heard some really good things from Hugh Freeze
before the pro day just about what kind of guy
and malink Willis is, and that really showed up on
the field. I thought that was pretty cool. The other
thing is, guys, like I went into this pre draft
process thinking that there would not be a quarterback taken
probably until Pittsburgh at like twenty or whatever. They are
(03:18):
now based on the quarterback needs, based on the teams
that were here, based on the landscape of this situation,
it feels to me like we'll get a couple in
the top ten. Like that's just I don't know, maybe
Steve has a different field, but that is my feel,
And I mean it seems like we're gonna end up
where we always do, which is quarterbacks going in the
top ten and everybody's scrambling up together. Yeah. And I
think that's a good point in because basically we've seen
(03:41):
this crazy rush of quarterback dominoes falling really since the
combine like came back boom. We got the Russell Wilson trade,
we got all these trade We've got the Carson went
straight now, we've had the Matt Ryan trade, DeShawn Watson trade.
I mean, it feels like every day we've had a
monster move in. Like, you know, for us to here
sitting here evaluating the draft, knowing that as a whole,
(04:03):
this quarterback class was not as highly touted, probably league
wide and from a media perspective as the one we
saw last year, and so you had to work. You
had to wonder then, like is that why we're seeing
all of these teams kind of go all in to
try to get a quarterback that's been established in the NFL.
You know, whether it was a major move like the
Shawn Watson, Russell Wilson, or a smaller move like you know,
(04:25):
training for Carson Wentz or signing Mitchell Robiski or Marcus Mariota,
which we've all seen now. So did you get a
sense that the overall strength of the quarterback draft class
dictated some of these moves I that we've seen. Yes,
I definitely did. And it seems like, you know, like
every year there's a couple of teams where, you know,
(04:45):
let's say they draft one or two like Jets and
Jaguars last year. Grad example, like, okay, they are getting starters.
They are drafting starters. So in free agency, the Jets
didn't need and they needed to trade Sam Donald last year,
but they didn't need to go get a quarterback. They
were going to get one. This is not like that, right,
So what's gonna happen is by the time we get
(05:06):
to the draft, everyone will have a starter. Everyone will
have someone that did start to day one, and then
it's just a matter of where does everybody else go?
And that's why I like, it's actually kind of fascinating
because what it does is it opens up quarterbacks to
everyone who doesn't have a long term starter, like I
mean think about it, Steve, Like, think about the teams
(05:28):
they're here today, the Falcons, the Panthers, the Washington Commanders, um,
the Steelers, Like, all of those have starters and the
other one. So all of those could draft a quarterback
very early in this draft. Yeah, and I think to
that point, you know, they've got to project out a
(05:50):
little bit too. So let's look at the teams whose
rosters are kind of bear I mean Carolina and Atlanta.
You know they could put they could put players in
a hat and pick one in the first round. With
those two, you know each one is top ten pick
and be okay. But they may say, okay, look, if
I'm Atlanta, We're bringing in Marcus Mariota to be a starter.
He is a shotgun, r PO on the move, run
(06:11):
past quarterback. Well that's what Elie Willis does as well.
So you know we keep hearing Malik Willis right, is
a developmental guy. We could develop on the Marcus. He
could run, learn this game, run this game. So a
lot of this is gonna depend and this is talking
to some people. What team he goes to. If the
coaching staff is going to build around him, build a
(06:31):
roster around him to play to the strengths, because the
strengths are very high, Like he's not to be able
to go fit necessarily any team. But you know, with
all these teams paying all these millions of dollars to
hire these offensive wonder kins, it is their job to
fit the personnel. And so that's where I think this
comes up. But I'm with Ian, some team or two
(06:54):
is gonna get sweet on Kenny Pickett em Malik Willis
and draft them at the top ten, top twelve. Yeah, yeah,
you could very well happen. It could be a team
that's sitting there now, or could be a team that's
moving up, or maybe even one that's moving down. Let's
say the Detroit Lions, who like what they have and
Jared Golf they want to get there next. Yeah, and
the Lions were here today. Lance Newmark, one of the
(07:16):
top scouts, was here today, and um, you know, I
don't think they draft one it too, but like, does
somebody come up for maybe one of the tackles and
they go back to six. Maybe they see that happening.
And that's like that was so interesting about the Golf
trade last year, is like the Lions traded for him,
(07:36):
kind of thinking maybe he wasn't long term thing happ
because it's fine, but he's a placeholder. And then you
look around the league, it's like everyone's a placeholder except
for guy. It's very exactly right, because everybody's understanding that
if you don't have one of those five guys, we
better find a way to go get one pretty quick.
That so I think that's I think that's a real
good point. I thought for a while that the Lions
(07:57):
at thirty two might be a good spot for a quarterback,
you know, get that extra fifth year. But now they may,
like the top three guys may be gone by then,
so you know, you've got to think about that in
a in a different landscape. I do want to touch
on the Atlanta Falcons here because they are the last
team to make a trade, sending their franchise icon Matt
Ryan off to the Indianapolis Colts after Falcons flirted with
(08:22):
and ultimately failed to land DeShawn Watson from the Houston Texans,
who has now ended up in Cleveland. We'll get to
Deshaun Watson here in just a moment, but Steve, let
me start with you knowing the Falcons as you do
and having covered them during some of those transition periods.
This is a pretty momentous move for general manager Terry
Fontno in his second year now with the franchise to
(08:44):
move a player of Matt Ryan's stature and to now
try to build this future around Marcus Mariota and TBD. Right, yeah,
I mean that that that's the thing. And you know,
had they not gotten involved in the Deshaun Watson sweep sticks,
Matt Ryan would still be their quarterback, and and and
Ian knows. The fact that they decided to do this
(09:06):
now has a lot of people saying, well, if you're
gonna do this, shed is not last year when you
had the quarterback class, you could have got Justin Fields
or possibly Trail Lands who went to pick before they
selected to the Niners. But um, now that they're at
this point, they didn't matter solid by getting him to Indianapolis, right,
so he can finish out his career on a contender.
(09:28):
But now it's kind of what do you do because
they have got to nail this draft, whether they take
a quarterback or not in the first round, they have
so many holes. Next year they're gonna have a boatload
of money and free agency because it resorbing Matt Ryan's
forty million dollar cap and all this year. But the
big question he is do you wait? Because one thing
(09:52):
I have found in all my years of covering the
NFL in the NBA, when you try to wait for somebody,
you're really rolling the dice because that player could get hurt,
he could have a bad season. Um, he could get arrested,
and then that player or two you might have been
hoping to get, you might not get because you might
win too many ball games. There's someone could trade up.
So to me, if you like one of these quarterbacks,
(10:16):
you go get him. You get him into your system,
and you start developing him now, because there's a lot
of things that could factor in negatively if you wait
to try to get him. So, Steve in regards to
the Falcons making the move to send Matt Ryan on
his way, you know, I remember thinking back to to
how um, you know, John Mara talked about the h
(10:39):
the situation with moving on from Eli Manning and trying
to replace him and bench him, and like, when it
comes down to it, there's really no good way to
move on from a guy that has meant so much
to your franchise, Like It's just it's kind of hard
any way you think about it. So there's been a
lot of judgment about how, you know, the Falcons are
treating Matt Ryan, how the Browns are treating Baker Mayfield. Ultimately,
(11:00):
how do you feel like the whole situation was handled
here as the Falcons try to flour, you know, a
new future. Well, it's awkward because it wasn't like the
painful pill since it wentz say New England, let go
with Tom Brady, right, you know, or when the Niners
society to trade Joe Montana wasn't like that type of sufference.
(11:23):
This is more awkward, awkward because again they had planned
to move forward with Matt Ryan until they got involved
with the Shawn Watson So there was that outside trigger,
you know, the same thing in Cleveland with Bigger Mayfield.
So the difference is Matt He's He's the best player
in Falcon's history, right an m v P. Just somebody
(11:44):
salvats his team after the catastrophe in two thousand and seven,
he came as a rookie, got into the playoffs, replacing
incredibly popular player in Michael Fick. So you know, look,
I feel this way because I have special feeling towards
Matt Ryan. I think he's just a special dude and
a special player that the folks aren't really gonna you know,
(12:05):
that the so called fans or whatever you wanna call
are not going to appreciate him until he's gone and
then people remember everything he did and things he did
to help make you know, great players, and how he
was joined with Julio Jones and Roddy White and and
Algae Crumpler and and guys like that. Um to really
(12:26):
appreciate his impact on that club, you know. I mean,
this was a a franchise icon that was traded and
it was like it was totally fine. And I can't
believe we're in a place in the NFL or someone
like Matt Ryan can get traded and it seems normal.
But like you think of what has happened the last
two weeks with you know, Deshaun Watson and Carson Wentz
(12:49):
and Russell Wilson and Matt Ryan, like it really has
become the NBA. And I don't know that that's a
bad thing. I Mean, it's been incredibly stressful for me,
but it's been unbelievably fun and topsy turvy and crazy
fans um. But look, I mean, we're at a point
where if a star player or a quarterback or whoever
(13:10):
is not happy with the situation and wants out, they
can get out. And so the Matt Ryan trade from
the Falcons to the Cult just one of the dominoes
that fell as a result of the pursuit of Deshaun Watson.
Falcons weren't the only team that are now trying to
pick up the pieces of that failed pursuit. We will
(13:32):
talk the impact of the Deshaun Watson trade from Houston
to Cleveland and where that stands in the rankings here
in NFL history among impactful trades. You don't want to
miss it. Right after this here in NFL Inside Report, guys,
(14:04):
thinking about how we're talking about all these quarterback moves,
I mean, we talk about the compensation that went back
to the Houston Texans in a blockbuster deal, uh for
the Browns to acquire Deshaun Watson, and like, thinking about
the quarterback reverberations that have happened. I don't know that
if one quarterback ever getting traded has affected so many
other quarterbacks in the movement that they've had with teams.
(14:27):
If I right, Like you know, not only does not
only do the Falcons lose out in trade Matt Ryan away,
Baker Mayfield is going to get traded at some point,
we expect, traded released whatever. The Saints decided to go
back to Jamis Winston. I mean, they were just like
so many of these dominoes, and I've never seen a
trade have that much impact on so many different franchises.
(14:48):
About right, I agree. I mean this was to me
the most consequential trade in NFL history, and if and
I'm not just saying just because the Cleveland Grounds changed
the face of the franchise by acquiring you know, the
five quarterback in his prime, which is also very important.
U Um, it's also this affected the most people. I mean,
it basically got Matt Ryan traded. It's gonna get Banker
(15:10):
Mayfield probably not cut, probably traded. Um. Carolina Panthers franchise
was forever altered. The Saints sending up going back to
Jamis Wood's so much. Okay, but that's a lot of play,
that's a lot of different teams, and it's just you know,
we wonder, like you know, it was like with Seattle
and Russell Wilson, like he was only going to Denver. Yes,
(15:32):
that affected two teams, but it wasn't like a widespread
thing like it affected two teams. Well, this was, I mean,
it was seriously like the most impactful trade I think
in league history. Um almost why I think it committed
so much of our attention because we've never telt with
anything that meant so much to so many different people,
(15:53):
let alone the personal feelings associated with Deshaun Watson and
this off the field situation itself. Well, let's let's also
look at you know we have we may not have
seen the end of this cast aid. He got all
these these dollars guaranteed. He got all these years on
the contract guaranteed. And even though it seems like it's
a one off, because of the demand, right, there was
(16:16):
supply and demand, and there was a lot more demand
than supply to draw the guarantees. Well, we see Indianapolis
all of a sudden about guarantee the back two years
of Matt Ryan's dealing, and so agents are gonna be
asking for these guarantees. Now, this is the new Steve
Hutches and Poisonville, and so people are gonna ask for it.
(16:37):
They may not get it. But the Shawn Watson, his agent,
David Wogetta, also got him a no trade clause which
gave him unbelievable leverage in this situation. So more players
are gonna be asking for this no trade clause. Um.
So again we talked about the ripple effect. We saw
how it affected so many more teams. It's canna affect
others when it comes to negotiating deals, especially now that
(17:01):
when this era of general managers who are wheeling and
dealing like NBA general editors and trading players instead of
necessarily you know, waiting and trying to you know, find
a QB through the draft. Yeah. Ian, do you think
with the Watson contract becomes a one offer, do you
think it becomes more commonplace? I mean, like, I know,
we don't. We're not gonna see players like that hit
(17:22):
the open market essentially. I wouldn't say open market, but
hit the market in in some way, shape or form.
But do you think these guarantees, fully guaranteed contracts become
more common now? Yeah? I do? Um, And I would say,
like for someone like Russell Wilson who has a baseball
agent and Mark Rogers, you know, you know he's gonna
want a fully guaranteed deal. I mean, I don't think
(17:42):
it'll be now, but you know after next year, he's
gonna long one. And I mean, to me, that's the
biggest thing to kind of alter the landscape of the
NFL is quarterbacks are gonna want fully guaranteed deals and
and a lot of times they're gonna get it because quarterbacks,
as we've learned, to have as much power as anyone else.
So what they want, they generally get. So I imagine
we're going to see a more fully guaranteed deals from quarterback.
(18:05):
The other thing is, you guys talked about it, the
no trade clause. That is the absolute camera and I like,
I've done this for ten years. Steve's done it for longer.
I've done it for ten years, and probably until this offseason,
I did not understand what a no trade cause was.
I mean, I knew it meant you couldn't get traded,
but what I didn't understand was it actually meant I
(18:25):
can only get traded here, so trade me here. The
power you have within no trading clause is incredible and
I've probably underestimated that until this off season. And Ian,
lastly here on on the other pieces, to this Deshaun
Watson deal, Baker Mayfield, as we talked about, probably gonna
get traded out of Cleveland here at some point. Um.
The Colts now have their quarterback with Matt Ryan, so
(18:48):
that seat is filled. Uh, and then Jimmy Garoppolo out
there is another quarterback that we've talked about as the
potential being traded. Where do those two situations sit at
this point? We'll start with Baker Mayfield. Um. And obviously
that's sort of because of the Matt Ryan trade. That's
the most relevant right now. To me, the two teams
that make sense are the Carolina Panthers and the Seattle Seahawks.
(19:11):
I don't get the sense either of those teams are
doing that for that contract, in fact that I know
they're not. So to me, it's really about how much
money will the Cleveland Browns eat to make this happen?
And it seems that they're amenable to eating some, but
how much? And I don't get the sense it will
happen soon or though you never know. UM. I think
with Seattle it's more of like, okay, we can see it.
(19:32):
I think the Panthers probably make a little more sense
as far as the possible trade destination. You know they
still have Sam Donald. If it's Donald and Baker Mayfield, like,
that's an interesting quarterback room. Um, and that probably means
they don't have to draft. And as far as Jimmy Garoppolo,
you know, it's really fascinating because, um, I think we
(19:53):
all thought he was gonna get traded, never mind the
fact that he had major shoulder surgery. Now we're a
couple of weeks out from shoulder surgery, a lot of
the seats are taken. He's do a reasonable salary. He's
good person. I think maybe the foot and now is
just keep him right. I mean, save him for if
there's a quarterback injury before camp, or what if Trail
Lance isn't ready, or save him for whatever. There's no
(20:16):
need to get rid of them. You know, you can
bring him back. I mean, look, he's a starter who
led your team to the playoffs. You can do worse
as a franchise than to have Jimmy Garoppolo in as
your starter. To me, that's not the worst thing in
the world. There. It is a wild free agency, a
wild quarterback trade markets, and the draft talk is just
(20:36):
heating up so much intrigue still to come as we
approach April in Las Vegas. After we kind of assess
the dust settling on the quarterback blues that have happened
and those that will happen in the first round and
be on Steve why She and Rapping Bart set us up. Guys.
Thanks very much, appreciate you. Thanks guys, thank you, and
(21:01):
that's gonna do it for this episode of NFL Inside Report.
Takes some much for being with us here today. Reminder
to download, rate review our show on the I Heart
Radio app, on Apple podcasts, wherever you get your pods.
We certainly appreciate it and we'll be back with you
next week as we get closer to d two thousand,
twenty two NFL Draft. For our producers Thomas Warren and
(21:23):
Tim Perrotca, I'm your host, Frett Lewis. We'll catch you
next time. NFL Inside Report is the production of the
NFL and partnership with I Heart Radio. For more official
podcasts from the NFL, visit the I Heart Radio app,
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