The NFL Now Podcast begins with an insider report on the potential sale of the Washington Commanders.
Host, Andrew Siciliano is joined by Judy Battista for a discussion on next season's Quarterback helmets. Also, the notable additions to the AFC East. Plus, Stacey Dales on her time with Lift Athletes.
The NFL Now Podcast is part of the NFL Podcast Network.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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Speaker 1 (00:05):
NFL Now is a production of the NFL in partnership
with iHeartRadio. We are inside of two weeks now, thirteen
days away from night number one of the NFL Draft.
(00:25):
Welcome to a Friday edition. It's almost the weekend of
NFL Now one NFL Network from our news room by
Los Angeles. My name is Andrew Ceciliano. We're presented today
by IKEA. Coming up one of the better offensive linemen
in that draft. A guy you need to know from TCU,
Steve of Vila, is going to be here. We open
up this hour, however, with the latest as we know,
(00:45):
it's on the potential sale of the Washington Commander's NFL
networking sider Ian Rappa, work with us. Happy Friday to U. Ian.
We had the news yesterday that it looks as if
we are close, and I stressed close. Nothing done yet
on the sale finally from Daniel Snyder potentially here to
Josh Harris, who owns the Philadelphia seventy six Versus group
(01:07):
as well the New Jersey Devils among other teams there.
It's north of six million. How close or six billion?
Bigger part? How close are we truly? Six point o
five billion? A little bit of a hike up in
the price to get this done yesterday afternoon. And my
understanding is there is an agreement in principle for Josh Harris,
(01:28):
the Devils and seventy six Ers owner and his group
which also includes Magic Johnson by the way, to purchase
the Commanders finally, finally from owner Dan Snyder, no doubt,
something the fans have been waiting for for some time,
given all the struggles on the field, more and more
serious struggles off the field for Dan Snyder. Josh Harris
expected to come in when this deal is finalized. There
(01:50):
is a caveat, though, and that's why I believe you're
asking how close is it? Though there is an agreement
in principle, it is not signed and it is not exclusive.
Presumably someone could come in with six point one billion
dollars and they would start all over again. I would
highly doubt that would be the case, though, because if
you're someone who might offer more, you might have offered
(02:10):
more already, This would already be done, you would already
be the new owner. So it looks like it is
going to be Josh Harris. The plan now is to
essentially to finalize this and to turn it into the
league and say this is the new owner, approve it
at the May meetings, and then they are often running
and Dan Snodder will officially be out and Josh Harrison's
(02:31):
group officially be in. But we are not there yet.
So I would say this is more of a developing
story than a breaking story as of now. But you
kind of took my next question not exclusive. It's like, hey,
I'm gonna buy this house, all right, We've got a deal,
but not exclusive. Means if I'm selling the house, I could,
you know, still keep it up on Redfinn And if
(02:53):
somebody you know wants to click and say can I
come see it? I could, right. I mean, yeah, I'm
more of a Zillo guy myself, but sure, I think
that that is kind of what's going on here. But
if this has been on the market, we've known for
several months. If someone was going to commit with a
bigger bid, you would think they would have done it already.
Maybe this is Dan Standerson, you know what. Just gonna
keep myself open. But one thing I would want to mention,
(03:15):
By the way, so Josh Harris also owns two other teams.
I don't get the sense at all that he plans
to sell any of them, so it does seem Mike
he will move forward owning the Devil Sixers, and when
it is finalized, the Commanders and the new stadium would
be the first list of priorities for the new owners, right,
and they've been trying to do that for a while. Currently,
(03:36):
the stadium is in Maryland, east of DC and PG County.
They've obviously talked for years about potentially returning to the
site of RFK, and the district also looked potentially, you know,
the other side of town in Virginia that would seemingly
be third on the list here potentially, but the new
stadium becomes priority number one if and when this finally
does go through. All right, to the football side of things,
we haven't seen Gerald McCoy on a field for a while.
(03:58):
One of my favorite people here and McCoy made it
official today, Ian, the former third overall pick in the draft,
is calling it quits. Yeah. An incredible career, multi time
pro bowler, and you know, as dominant as he was
on the field, especially during his prime, probably just as
well known off the field. Affable guy, great guy face
(04:18):
of the Bucks franchise for years and years and years,
and you know, I would say someone where if you're
another player, a younger player, and you want to be like,
how do you just build your profile off the field?
Just be like Jerald McCoy. He is officially retiring today.
I got a funny feeling we may not have seen
the last of Jerald McCoy. He does have an interest
(04:38):
in broadcasting, as we've seen on the network. He is
very good at it. So though it's a goodbye officially
to Jerald McCoy on the field, I think off the
field it's probably more of a hello than anything else. Yeah,
he was here for broadcast boot camp last season or
last offseason at NFL Networking, Gerald McCoy was awesome. If
he wants a new career on this side of the business,
(04:59):
he will do just fine. We'll talk budget free a
little bit later. Thank you and rapping for our NFL
Networking cider. Bodo Beckham Junior is heading to Baltimore on
a one year deal. Look, we've got to win a champion, shill.
Hey going to check the replay for the clip. Put
them from my city for my stay some training. We
(05:22):
go and look back on the track and get that
baby pitch of the greatest catch I've ever seen in
my life. Wow, catch back Beckham with a right hand particular.
That is absolutely impossible. Whether you just know we got
a long road to the goat and we still committed
to stay grounding on our Joz yes ten down. No,
(05:42):
you was a hero. You ain't been down in Now
we're do the upness while you're looking for the friends
get Speaking of players we haven't seen on the field
in a long time, not Gerald mccoybo Odo, Beckham Junior,
who is gonna wear number three? Sorry? James Crochet in
Baltimore smiled for the Cambridge yesterday up there with Carball
and the Costa. Obviously, all anyone who wanted to talk
(06:04):
about was Lamar Jackson. I didn't get any assurances for anything.
You know, life's uncertain. I think that you know, we
don't We don't know what's gonna happen tomorrow the next day.
You know, we only know what's happened in the past.
So to me, it just was excited about the possibility
of that. You know, my thoughts would be that he
(06:24):
would be here. We're hopeful still that we'll get a
long term deal done. He's the right player for this
team to lead us to where we want to be.
I think the locker room knows that, the organization knows that.
I think the fan base knows that. So it's ongoing.
But I can't think of a situation where we wouldn't
think that our best team is with Lamar Jackson on
(06:45):
the team in September. It's ongoing, meaning Hi, Sherry Burrs,
who was there yesterday, Mark Ross, we still do not
yet have a deal for Lamar Jackson. Sure, it's interesting.
I think a lot of people say, oh, well, Odell
wouldn't be there if he didn't know Lamar was going
to be there. Maybe, but you know, fifteen million dollars. Also,
(07:05):
it's a big motivation. Yeah, I mean that speaks volumes Andrew.
But like Odell was saying there, he too is uncertain
if Lamar is going to be the quarterback in Baltimore
this next season. He's optimistic, he's hopeful. He's catching balls
from number eight. Even at one point there was a
funny moment in the press conference. Odell looked that back
(07:25):
row of cameras in the auditorium was like, hey, Lamar,
if you're watching, hi, he's playing the waiting game. Like us,
but we do know the two have a closed connection.
We saw them on social media, face timing, even possibly
them going out afterwards. But there was a key point
coming from general manager Erica Costa. He said he has
not spoken to Lamar since the signing of OBJ earlier
(07:48):
this week. Yeah, that's the interesting thing about not speaking.
I think with Odell was two differentsiduations. Yes, he would
love to go play with Lamar, but when they showed
him that bag, he said, yeah, I'm gonna come there
and get that from the Ravens and just the Lamar situation.
As far as the organization going into the draft, if
(08:08):
they're not speaking, usually with an agent, we keep going
back to this. I keep going back to why it's
important to have an agent, Eric Decasa and the agent
would be in constant communications talking about what's going on
with Lamar and the contract. Now they're not speaking. What
did the Ravens do now with their draft plans? Do
they take a quarterback? Are they looking at other avenues?
(08:29):
Only they really know how far along how close this
situation with Lamar is and if it's going to get done,
and if it's not going to then okay, do we
draft for the future. Do we try to help this
position out. They know they've got the pro bowler Tyler
Huntley there, but he's not the answer. As we saw
last year. When Lamar plays, he produces the Ravens win.
When he doesn't, they lose. So it's interesting to see
(08:52):
how they'll approach this draft. Andrew, it's it's it's never ending.
I'm a Tyler Huntley fan. I also always smile, Mark
when you throw in pro bowler. Tyler Huntley was participants
the Pro Bowl games in Vegas. Who doesn't like a
fun week in Vegas? Although two days for me is
(09:12):
more than enough. All right, let's get back to Odell
and Lamar. Just because Odell is there doesn't mean Lamar
is going to change his demands. That's the way I
look at it. But hopefully maybe this will give him
a little motivation to get the job done. But if
not for Lamar, what were Odell's motivations here? Sherry to
pick Baltimore well? Based off of his introductory press conference,
(09:34):
O'Dell saying what really stuck out about Baltimore was that
they really made him feel wanted and he now believed
that they really believe in him, which is going to
help him be motivated to want to go out there
and perform for that who wouldn't want to be somewhere
where they're absolutely wanted, And it was a longer courtship,
Odell said. The first conversations with Ravens owner Stiva Shotti
(09:55):
started last October. Even had a couple of conversations with
John Harbaugh. They're along the way to get to this point.
But ultimately Obj saying at this point in his career,
what he needs to come into a place where he's
believed in and he's able to put then his best
foot forward, and also he wants to learn while he's there.
(10:15):
He's like, Yeah, I'm kind of a vet in the
game and I want to be a mentor for this
young wide receiver room. But he said he's still very
open to still learning whenever he gets back on the field.
We still don't have a timeline yet of when that
will happen. You were one hundred percent right with Odell
in the way he feels being part of the draft
process with the Giants. With Odell very very close with
(10:36):
his family, with his mother and the tight knit group
of friends, and that's how he thrives when he feels
comfortable with that. So definitely when he got around and
saw that family environment with the Ravens was very, very
appealing to him, I'm sure because he does like that
close knit community and family around him. I'm sure he
felt that. As I mentioned before, I don't think the
(10:56):
contract at all to help the tyson to go there,
So I think that'll be really good for Odell. As
far as Odell the player, you know, I think that
the situation he really needed to be in at this
point is not to be the number one guy. I
don't know if they're going to count on him to
be the number one. When you look at their receiving group,
I think they still have a lot of work to
be done there. Don't preclude them not taking a receiver
(11:19):
in the draft because I think at this point Odell
coming off the ACL and the age may not be that, hey,
let's throw the ball ten times and this guy is
more of a specialist couple explosive plays a game to
help the team win. So interested to see how again
the Ravens attack the receiver group in the draft Andrew.
For me, the low key under the radar headline from
yesterday is the fact that Odell basically admitted that it
(11:41):
is a minor miracle his knee made it to Super
Bowl fifty six, then those final three months with the
Rams there, he basically showed up in La without an
acl It's a miracle. He made it to the second
quarter of that game, scored a touchdown early to help
the Rams get that ring. He called it bittersweet champagne.
Now he gets another chance here in Baltimore. Thank you, Sherry,
(12:04):
Thank you Mark. You're watching NFL now, NFL Network. See
that helmet Patrick Mahomes is wearing pretty distinctive. Everyone knows. Hey,
Mahomes helmets a little bit different. It's made by a
company called Vices. It's called the zero two helmet. Not
the only guy in the NFL that wears it, but
you know, Mahomes helmet. Look, we're all about players safety here.
(12:25):
We're all about making these helmets better. High their Judy Batista,
Patrick Mahomes is gonna wear, or has the option rather
of wearing this coming season, a different version of that
helmet specifically designed for quarterbacks. Tell me about that. Yeah,
all quarterbacks are going to have the option of wearing it. Actually,
it is a new helmet just coming on the market
(12:47):
and approved by the NFL and the players Union for
use this year, and it is specially designed to mitigate
the impact that quarterbacks take and most half of all
concussions and quarterbacks are called when their head hits the ground,
like when they're sacked. Once they land on the back
of their head or on the side of the head.
So this helmet, which actually looks the same on the outside,
(13:09):
it's the internal structure that is different. The internal structure
is different to better absorb that impact. I'm not a
structural engineer, but I'll try to explain this. They are
very very tiny little rods inside that helmet, and by
changing the diameter and the length and the number of
those rods, the engineers can make it so that it
(13:30):
better absorbs the force of hitting the ground. And they
say in their initial testing this year it was seven
percent better at mitigating the impact. That doesn't seem like
much maybe to those of us on the outside, but
obviously this is, first of all, the first generation of
these kinds of helmets, and the idea is any improvement
(13:52):
is better than nothing, And especially in a year when
we saw a rise in diagnosed concussions, especially among quarterbacks. Yeah,
I think of the Ti plant Cincinnati back of the
head against the turf, and obviously everything that that led
to the helmet was called the zero two, the one
that Mahomes was wearing. This new quarterback one, the zero
two matrix. Judy, do we know how many quarterbacks potentially
(14:12):
could be wearing it any idea? We don't know yet,
and it's early. I will say this. Quarterbacks and actually
players in general, are usually slow to change equipment because
obviously they get very comfortable and very confident in the
equipment that they are wearing, so sometimes it takes a
few years for them to embrace new equipment, especially quarterbacks
(14:34):
and their helmets, because sight lines are so important to them.
Obviously comfort is important to every player. They would like
to see quarterbacks try this. But just as an example,
last year, the same company came out with a helmet
designed specifically for lineman offensive and defensive linemen to help
the impact they take. They take more impact on the
(14:55):
forehead and the face mask, and only a handful of
players wore that last year, so I think it takes time,
It takes some education. The equipment managers for the teams
are all than that too. Before players are comfortable changing equipment.
But certainly this seems to be the direction that helmet
manufacturers are going in position specific helmets, and this is
(15:15):
just another step here potentially in lowering the number of concussions,
including this season expanding the use of the Guardian cap, which,
even though they kind of look a little bit different,
the numbers showed were effective last year in cutting down
concussions before the season and during training camp. Jiji Batista
with the latest Thank you Judy Thriskie Man fifteen minutes.
(15:37):
I love it, I love it, I love it. A
laser from Josh Allen. Who are looking clips at, don't
peel white old man. Let touchmith sho start the thirty
half ahead twenty five twenty shoes to fifteen ten five touchdown.
Caught in the end zone for a touchdown. Helen Lasar
with a great catch. Take that home with you. Tua
(15:58):
could put it only there, jew jew Smith Shoe start
toutch down Helenasar left side of the end zone. Yeah,
as we await the Aaron Rodgers news, who knows, Maybe
it happens today, I doubt it. Let's hit the roster
(16:20):
reset button on the AFC East and look at some
of these moves. Here, Damien Harris goes within division to Buffalo.
Ju Ju is the new guy replacing Kobe Myers in
New England, catch and passes, Chuck Clark, Allen Lazard among
the notable Jets moves. Still waiting for another move, Sherry
(16:41):
burst Mark Ross with us now it hit the roster
reset button on this division here, Sherry, let's start in
Buffalo as they try to redo their secondary. I mean
huge that Jordan Poyer is back. Obviously. I don't know
if anyone saw that one coming. Yeah, absolutely, I mean really,
the question when you look ahead to the draft of
the Bills is how aggressive are they going to be
in the secondary. The Bills won the division three consecutive seasons,
(17:03):
so we know they think they're close, right, maybe just
missing one or two key pieces to get them over
that hump. In this past year, we saw that depth
really became an issue, playing third and fourth string guys,
particularly in the secondary. But as you mentioned it, Jordan poyerback,
also Micah Hyde, and some consider them one of the
best one two punches in the secondary in the NFL.
(17:26):
But you got to remember these guys are in their thirties.
They're both coming back. This could be their last year
playing together. Talking to folks with the Bills, that kind
of feels that last dance by between the two of them.
So the Bill secondary, they were in the middle of
the pack in the league last year, ranking fifteenth, allowing
about two hundred and fourteen passing yards per game. So
as we look ahead, we wonder what will they do,
(17:48):
how aggressive will they be with that twenty seventh pick
there in Kansas City. Well, Jerry revamping that secondary, but
I think what really let them down last year in
the playoff game against Cincinnati when they just got absolutely steamrolled,
was their defensive line. And the Bills had invested a
lot first round pick on Ed Oliver, a first round
pick on Greg Russo's second round pick on aj Epinenza's
(18:11):
second round pick on Boogie Bashup, and then a ton
of money for von Miller who got hurt last year,
and none of those guys really have stepped up and
performed to the level that the Bills thought they would get.
And I can here you go. You draft those four
guys the first two rounds, it was going to be
your cornerstone, and they really haven't stepped up. Now you
got von Miller coming back off the injury thirty four
(18:33):
years old. What is he going to bring you? So,
although there's a lot of resources and a lot of
value that was placed in that D line, I think
they still have to really look at that based off
of how they performed against Cincinnati. Yes, during the regular season,
the Bills can get by Josh Allen work at his
magic the offense, but when it comes to playing Cincinnati
in Kansas City charges coming on the better teams, that
(18:55):
D line really has to step up, and they have
not shown the ability to do that in the last
two playoff losses. So it'll be interesting. Yes, the secondary
has to be addressed, but I'm thinking it all starts
up front there and those guys really have underperformed. The
Bills might have to look that way too. Andrew Listen,
it's the same I don't want to say the same
old song here. It's the off season, it's Buffalo. We're
trying to figure out how this team gets over the
(19:17):
hump here. I know they're sick of hearing it in Buffalo,
but it is kind of sort of the story here.
The Bills pick twenty seventh overall, they have more picks,
or almost as many picks in the top one hundred
and three as the Dolphins having the entire draft. Miami
has only four selections. Let's transition to them in the
entire draft as they try to find a way to
(19:38):
take the next step as well. Here to build around
two who we saw at his charity event earlier this
week in Miami were in the lay at the lou
Ale with the new mustache, with his fifth year option
already picked up. Here as we try to figure out
how to build around work with that mark? You don't
(19:59):
you don't like the dance. Yeah, we gotta work with
that too. I don't know about that one, right, I'm
a talent evaluated, not a dance round. They got to
work on that. They do not pick in the first
round because they had that pick taken from them the
tampering punishment from this past year. Mark, they don't pick
until fifty first overall, how do they build around Twoa's
(20:21):
burgeoning dance career. Yeah, well, remember a couple of years
ago and it seemed like they had what the fifty
picks Andrew, We're talking about all these picks that the
Dolphins have, right, But it's all about you got to
hit on those picks and you got to make those
picks come into great players. And still up in the
air whether the Dolphins have done that, but yes, they
were supposed to have two first round picks of this
(20:41):
drap One got taken away the tampering with Brady and
Sean Payton, and the other one was in the form
of Bradley Chubb. So first round pick for Bradley Chub.
Sorry about that for Bradley Chubb. So that's where the
two first round picks are there. Third round pick up
to Jalen Ramsey this year as well. So that's why
you see them with only four picks in this draft.
(21:02):
So when I'm looking at the Dolphins, the team that
you see there for the Dolphs, I think is the
team that you're going to trot out there. A bunch
of veterans, rookies, I mean, young guys that they drafted
a couple first couple of years. I wouldn't expect a
lot of big impact from this year's draft class. But
with the Dolphins, you have to say, this is a
team got Ramsey, We've got Chubb, these are our draft picks.
You guys have to go up there and perform and
(21:24):
win games for US now, and of course it always
gets back to two and his health. But those draft
picks are veterans now who have to perform YEP, and
they have Mike White now backing up to his name
was on that list we started our AFC East roster
reset with. So the O'Dell thing was nice, But the
coolest thing that happened this week in the Ravens building
(21:45):
is Stacy Dale's being there on Wednesday speak at the
eighth annual Lift Conference leading and inspiring females to thrive.
It's a leadership seminar where Stacy was there talking to
young women student athletes from local high school. Stacy did
so not only as an NFL broadcaster, but as an
All America and as a w NBA All Star, as
(22:07):
an Olympian, as a basketball legend. Bring it on, Stacy.
How cool was that? Andrew? This was one of the
best experiences I've had. This is my fifteenth season as
I entered in the NFL and to go to a
first class organization like the Baltimore Ravens and get an
invitation at first from their PR staff. Patrick Gleason sent
(22:29):
me the email and they did such a fine job
in Baltimore, and then to become sort of connected to
Heather Darney, who who's the VP of Community Relations, and
then Drew Meyer, their community community relations coordinator, and the
way they treated me and then what they presented to me.
This was an opportunity for me to talk to ninth, tenth,
(22:51):
and eleventh graders. These kids chosen, these young ladies chosen
by their athletic directors across Maryland. Their coaches kind of
nominated or referred, and then it's it's really basically a
leadership seminar orference that we go through. I got to
do some different activities with the ladies afterwards. I love
this so much. It was the eighth annual that they
(23:12):
did these ravens with LYFT, and I would love for
the league to adopt this because I can only imagine
all thirty two and I think they're the only team
that is actually doing something like this. We're talking about
one hundred and fifty gals. Coach Harbos spoke for thirty minutes.
He was awesome. He talked about Lamar Jackson a little bit.
I'm going to keep that tight to the vest here,
(23:33):
but ultimately it's just such an inspiring day for them
and the questions they ask. These are such bright individuals again,
really a group of ladies from across Maryland, and they
were so eager, and I loved that I could share
some of the messages that I've learned along the way
in the journey, because the journey is what it is, Andrew,
and all the years that we've done TV in my
(23:54):
sports career, there's a lot of ups and downs along
the way, and I love that I had the chance
to impart that upon these young ladies. Again, I hope
the league adopts this because I think it could be
monstrous for females across our country in NFL cities and
grow to great heights. Absolutely, Stacey ad like thirty seconds,
give me your number one message for these young ladies.
(24:15):
Number one message for these ladies and for all gals
really is to be a self starter in everything you do.
You know, we are so into Instagram and TikTok and
all these things and we want to post stuff, But
what are you doing behind the scenes to better your craft?
And that was kind of the big message that I
gave these young ladies and they loved it, and I
(24:35):
hope I get to go back again and do it again.
So cool. And I hope other teams hear what you
said earlier and that is this is something they can
adopt as well. The LIFT conference there for young student
athletes that the Ravens have held for now the eighth year.
Stacy Dale is a huge part of it. Stacy, thank
you great stuff. As always appreciate you and I know
(24:56):
they appreciate it there in Maryland as well. NFL Now
is a production of the NFL in partnership with iHeartRadio.
For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,
(25:19):
or wherever you get your podcasts.
NFL Now is a production of the NFL in partnership
with iHeartRadio. We are inside of two weeks now, thirteen
days away from night number one of the NFL Draft.
(00:25):
Welcome to a Friday edition. It's almost the weekend of
NFL Now one NFL Network from our news room by
Los Angeles. My name is Andrew Ceciliano. We're presented today
by IKEA. Coming up one of the better offensive linemen
in that draft. A guy you need to know from TCU,
Steve of Vila, is going to be here. We open
up this hour, however, with the latest as we know,
(00:45):
it's on the potential sale of the Washington Commander's NFL
networking sider Ian Rappa, work with us. Happy Friday to U. Ian.
We had the news yesterday that it looks as if
we are close, and I stressed close. Nothing done yet
on the sale finally from Daniel Snyder potentially here to
Josh Harris, who owns the Philadelphia seventy six Versus group
(01:07):
as well the New Jersey Devils among other teams there.
It's north of six million. How close or six billion?
Bigger part? How close are we truly? Six point o
five billion? A little bit of a hike up in
the price to get this done yesterday afternoon. And my
understanding is there is an agreement in principle for Josh Harris,
(01:28):
the Devils and seventy six Ers owner and his group
which also includes Magic Johnson by the way, to purchase
the Commanders finally, finally from owner Dan Snyder, no doubt,
something the fans have been waiting for for some time,
given all the struggles on the field, more and more
serious struggles off the field for Dan Snyder. Josh Harris
expected to come in when this deal is finalized. There
(01:50):
is a caveat, though, and that's why I believe you're
asking how close is it? Though there is an agreement
in principle, it is not signed and it is not exclusive.
Presumably someone could come in with six point one billion
dollars and they would start all over again. I would
highly doubt that would be the case, though, because if
you're someone who might offer more, you might have offered
(02:10):
more already, This would already be done, you would already
be the new owner. So it looks like it is
going to be Josh Harris. The plan now is to
essentially to finalize this and to turn it into the
league and say this is the new owner, approve it
at the May meetings, and then they are often running
and Dan Snodder will officially be out and Josh Harrison's
(02:31):
group officially be in. But we are not there yet.
So I would say this is more of a developing
story than a breaking story as of now. But you
kind of took my next question not exclusive. It's like, hey,
I'm gonna buy this house, all right, We've got a deal,
but not exclusive. Means if I'm selling the house, I could,
you know, still keep it up on Redfinn And if
(02:53):
somebody you know wants to click and say can I
come see it? I could, right. I mean, yeah, I'm
more of a Zillo guy myself, but sure, I think
that that is kind of what's going on here. But
if this has been on the market, we've known for
several months. If someone was going to commit with a
bigger bid, you would think they would have done it already.
Maybe this is Dan Standerson, you know what. Just gonna
keep myself open. But one thing I would want to mention,
(03:15):
By the way, so Josh Harris also owns two other teams.
I don't get the sense at all that he plans
to sell any of them, so it does seem Mike
he will move forward owning the Devil Sixers, and when
it is finalized, the Commanders and the new stadium would
be the first list of priorities for the new owners, right,
and they've been trying to do that for a while. Currently,
(03:36):
the stadium is in Maryland, east of DC and PG County.
They've obviously talked for years about potentially returning to the
site of RFK, and the district also looked potentially, you know,
the other side of town in Virginia that would seemingly
be third on the list here potentially, but the new
stadium becomes priority number one if and when this finally
does go through. All right, to the football side of things,
we haven't seen Gerald McCoy on a field for a while.
(03:58):
One of my favorite people here and McCoy made it
official today, Ian, the former third overall pick in the draft,
is calling it quits. Yeah. An incredible career, multi time
pro bowler, and you know, as dominant as he was
on the field, especially during his prime, probably just as
well known off the field. Affable guy, great guy face
(04:18):
of the Bucks franchise for years and years and years,
and you know, I would say someone where if you're
another player, a younger player, and you want to be like,
how do you just build your profile off the field?
Just be like Jerald McCoy. He is officially retiring today.
I got a funny feeling we may not have seen
the last of Jerald McCoy. He does have an interest
(04:38):
in broadcasting, as we've seen on the network. He is
very good at it. So though it's a goodbye officially
to Jerald McCoy on the field, I think off the
field it's probably more of a hello than anything else. Yeah,
he was here for broadcast boot camp last season or
last offseason at NFL Networking, Gerald McCoy was awesome. If
he wants a new career on this side of the business,
(04:59):
he will do just fine. We'll talk budget free a
little bit later. Thank you and rapping for our NFL
Networking cider. Bodo Beckham Junior is heading to Baltimore on
a one year deal. Look, we've got to win a champion, shill.
Hey going to check the replay for the clip. Put
them from my city for my stay some training. We
(05:22):
go and look back on the track and get that
baby pitch of the greatest catch I've ever seen in
my life. Wow, catch back Beckham with a right hand particular.
That is absolutely impossible. Whether you just know we got
a long road to the goat and we still committed
to stay grounding on our Joz yes ten down. No,
(05:42):
you was a hero. You ain't been down in Now
we're do the upness while you're looking for the friends
get Speaking of players we haven't seen on the field
in a long time, not Gerald mccoybo Odo, Beckham Junior,
who is gonna wear number three? Sorry? James Crochet in
Baltimore smiled for the Cambridge yesterday up there with Carball
and the Costa. Obviously, all anyone who wanted to talk
(06:04):
about was Lamar Jackson. I didn't get any assurances for anything.
You know, life's uncertain. I think that you know, we
don't We don't know what's gonna happen tomorrow the next day.
You know, we only know what's happened in the past.
So to me, it just was excited about the possibility
of that. You know, my thoughts would be that he
(06:24):
would be here. We're hopeful still that we'll get a
long term deal done. He's the right player for this
team to lead us to where we want to be.
I think the locker room knows that, the organization knows that.
I think the fan base knows that. So it's ongoing.
But I can't think of a situation where we wouldn't
think that our best team is with Lamar Jackson on
(06:45):
the team in September. It's ongoing, meaning Hi, Sherry Burrs,
who was there yesterday, Mark Ross, we still do not
yet have a deal for Lamar Jackson. Sure, it's interesting.
I think a lot of people say, oh, well, Odell
wouldn't be there if he didn't know Lamar was going
to be there. Maybe, but you know, fifteen million dollars. Also,
(07:05):
it's a big motivation. Yeah, I mean that speaks volumes Andrew.
But like Odell was saying there, he too is uncertain
if Lamar is going to be the quarterback in Baltimore
this next season. He's optimistic, he's hopeful. He's catching balls
from number eight. Even at one point there was a
funny moment in the press conference. Odell looked that back
(07:25):
row of cameras in the auditorium was like, hey, Lamar,
if you're watching, hi, he's playing the waiting game. Like us,
but we do know the two have a closed connection.
We saw them on social media, face timing, even possibly
them going out afterwards. But there was a key point
coming from general manager Erica Costa. He said he has
not spoken to Lamar since the signing of OBJ earlier
(07:48):
this week. Yeah, that's the interesting thing about not speaking.
I think with Odell was two differentsiduations. Yes, he would
love to go play with Lamar, but when they showed
him that bag, he said, yeah, I'm gonna come there
and get that from the Ravens and just the Lamar situation.
As far as the organization going into the draft, if
(08:08):
they're not speaking, usually with an agent, we keep going
back to this. I keep going back to why it's
important to have an agent, Eric Decasa and the agent
would be in constant communications talking about what's going on
with Lamar and the contract. Now they're not speaking. What
did the Ravens do now with their draft plans? Do
they take a quarterback? Are they looking at other avenues?
(08:29):
Only they really know how far along how close this
situation with Lamar is and if it's going to get done,
and if it's not going to then okay, do we
draft for the future. Do we try to help this
position out. They know they've got the pro bowler Tyler
Huntley there, but he's not the answer. As we saw
last year. When Lamar plays, he produces the Ravens win.
When he doesn't, they lose. So it's interesting to see
(08:52):
how they'll approach this draft. Andrew, it's it's it's never ending.
I'm a Tyler Huntley fan. I also always smile, Mark
when you throw in pro bowler. Tyler Huntley was participants
the Pro Bowl games in Vegas. Who doesn't like a
fun week in Vegas? Although two days for me is
(09:12):
more than enough. All right, let's get back to Odell
and Lamar. Just because Odell is there doesn't mean Lamar
is going to change his demands. That's the way I
look at it. But hopefully maybe this will give him
a little motivation to get the job done. But if
not for Lamar, what were Odell's motivations here? Sherry to
pick Baltimore well? Based off of his introductory press conference,
(09:34):
O'Dell saying what really stuck out about Baltimore was that
they really made him feel wanted and he now believed
that they really believe in him, which is going to
help him be motivated to want to go out there
and perform for that who wouldn't want to be somewhere
where they're absolutely wanted, And it was a longer courtship,
Odell said. The first conversations with Ravens owner Stiva Shotti
(09:55):
started last October. Even had a couple of conversations with
John Harbaugh. They're along the way to get to this point.
But ultimately Obj saying at this point in his career,
what he needs to come into a place where he's
believed in and he's able to put then his best
foot forward, and also he wants to learn while he's there.
(10:15):
He's like, Yeah, I'm kind of a vet in the
game and I want to be a mentor for this
young wide receiver room. But he said he's still very
open to still learning whenever he gets back on the field.
We still don't have a timeline yet of when that
will happen. You were one hundred percent right with Odell
in the way he feels being part of the draft
process with the Giants. With Odell very very close with
(10:36):
his family, with his mother and the tight knit group
of friends, and that's how he thrives when he feels
comfortable with that. So definitely when he got around and
saw that family environment with the Ravens was very, very
appealing to him, I'm sure because he does like that
close knit community and family around him. I'm sure he
felt that. As I mentioned before, I don't think the
(10:56):
contract at all to help the tyson to go there,
So I think that'll be really good for Odell. As
far as Odell the player, you know, I think that
the situation he really needed to be in at this
point is not to be the number one guy. I
don't know if they're going to count on him to
be the number one. When you look at their receiving group,
I think they still have a lot of work to
be done there. Don't preclude them not taking a receiver
(11:19):
in the draft because I think at this point Odell
coming off the ACL and the age may not be that, hey,
let's throw the ball ten times and this guy is
more of a specialist couple explosive plays a game to
help the team win. So interested to see how again
the Ravens attack the receiver group in the draft Andrew.
For me, the low key under the radar headline from
yesterday is the fact that Odell basically admitted that it
(11:41):
is a minor miracle his knee made it to Super
Bowl fifty six, then those final three months with the
Rams there, he basically showed up in La without an
acl It's a miracle. He made it to the second
quarter of that game, scored a touchdown early to help
the Rams get that ring. He called it bittersweet champagne.
Now he gets another chance here in Baltimore. Thank you, Sherry,
(12:04):
Thank you Mark. You're watching NFL now, NFL Network. See
that helmet Patrick Mahomes is wearing pretty distinctive. Everyone knows. Hey,
Mahomes helmets a little bit different. It's made by a
company called Vices. It's called the zero two helmet. Not
the only guy in the NFL that wears it, but
you know, Mahomes helmet. Look, we're all about players safety here.
(12:25):
We're all about making these helmets better. High their Judy Batista,
Patrick Mahomes is gonna wear, or has the option rather
of wearing this coming season, a different version of that
helmet specifically designed for quarterbacks. Tell me about that. Yeah,
all quarterbacks are going to have the option of wearing it. Actually,
it is a new helmet just coming on the market
(12:47):
and approved by the NFL and the players Union for
use this year, and it is specially designed to mitigate
the impact that quarterbacks take and most half of all
concussions and quarterbacks are called when their head hits the ground,
like when they're sacked. Once they land on the back
of their head or on the side of the head.
So this helmet, which actually looks the same on the outside,
(13:09):
it's the internal structure that is different. The internal structure
is different to better absorb that impact. I'm not a
structural engineer, but I'll try to explain this. They are
very very tiny little rods inside that helmet, and by
changing the diameter and the length and the number of
those rods, the engineers can make it so that it
(13:30):
better absorbs the force of hitting the ground. And they
say in their initial testing this year it was seven
percent better at mitigating the impact. That doesn't seem like
much maybe to those of us on the outside, but
obviously this is, first of all, the first generation of
these kinds of helmets, and the idea is any improvement
(13:52):
is better than nothing, And especially in a year when
we saw a rise in diagnosed concussions, especially among quarterbacks. Yeah,
I think of the Ti plant Cincinnati back of the
head against the turf, and obviously everything that that led
to the helmet was called the zero two, the one
that Mahomes was wearing. This new quarterback one, the zero
two matrix. Judy, do we know how many quarterbacks potentially
(14:12):
could be wearing it any idea? We don't know yet,
and it's early. I will say this. Quarterbacks and actually
players in general, are usually slow to change equipment because
obviously they get very comfortable and very confident in the
equipment that they are wearing, so sometimes it takes a
few years for them to embrace new equipment, especially quarterbacks
(14:34):
and their helmets, because sight lines are so important to them.
Obviously comfort is important to every player. They would like
to see quarterbacks try this. But just as an example,
last year, the same company came out with a helmet
designed specifically for lineman offensive and defensive linemen to help
the impact they take. They take more impact on the
(14:55):
forehead and the face mask, and only a handful of
players wore that last year, so I think it takes time,
It takes some education. The equipment managers for the teams
are all than that too. Before players are comfortable changing equipment.
But certainly this seems to be the direction that helmet
manufacturers are going in position specific helmets, and this is
(15:15):
just another step here potentially in lowering the number of concussions,
including this season expanding the use of the Guardian cap, which,
even though they kind of look a little bit different,
the numbers showed were effective last year in cutting down
concussions before the season and during training camp. Jiji Batista
with the latest Thank you Judy Thriskie Man fifteen minutes.
(15:37):
I love it, I love it, I love it. A
laser from Josh Allen. Who are looking clips at, don't
peel white old man. Let touchmith sho start the thirty
half ahead twenty five twenty shoes to fifteen ten five touchdown.
Caught in the end zone for a touchdown. Helen Lasar
with a great catch. Take that home with you. Tua
(15:58):
could put it only there, jew jew Smith Shoe start
toutch down Helenasar left side of the end zone. Yeah,
as we await the Aaron Rodgers news, who knows, Maybe
it happens today, I doubt it. Let's hit the roster
(16:20):
reset button on the AFC East and look at some
of these moves. Here, Damien Harris goes within division to Buffalo.
Ju Ju is the new guy replacing Kobe Myers in
New England, catch and passes, Chuck Clark, Allen Lazard among
the notable Jets moves. Still waiting for another move, Sherry
(16:41):
burst Mark Ross with us now it hit the roster
reset button on this division here, Sherry, let's start in
Buffalo as they try to redo their secondary. I mean
huge that Jordan Poyer is back. Obviously. I don't know
if anyone saw that one coming. Yeah, absolutely, I mean really,
the question when you look ahead to the draft of
the Bills is how aggressive are they going to be
in the secondary. The Bills won the division three consecutive seasons,
(17:03):
so we know they think they're close, right, maybe just
missing one or two key pieces to get them over
that hump. In this past year, we saw that depth
really became an issue, playing third and fourth string guys,
particularly in the secondary. But as you mentioned it, Jordan poyerback,
also Micah Hyde, and some consider them one of the
best one two punches in the secondary in the NFL.
(17:26):
But you got to remember these guys are in their thirties.
They're both coming back. This could be their last year
playing together. Talking to folks with the Bills, that kind
of feels that last dance by between the two of them.
So the Bill secondary, they were in the middle of
the pack in the league last year, ranking fifteenth, allowing
about two hundred and fourteen passing yards per game. So
as we look ahead, we wonder what will they do,
(17:48):
how aggressive will they be with that twenty seventh pick
there in Kansas City. Well, Jerry revamping that secondary, but
I think what really let them down last year in
the playoff game against Cincinnati when they just got absolutely steamrolled,
was their defensive line. And the Bills had invested a
lot first round pick on Ed Oliver, a first round
pick on Greg Russo's second round pick on aj Epinenza's
(18:11):
second round pick on Boogie Bashup, and then a ton
of money for von Miller who got hurt last year,
and none of those guys really have stepped up and
performed to the level that the Bills thought they would get.
And I can here you go. You draft those four
guys the first two rounds, it was going to be
your cornerstone, and they really haven't stepped up. Now you
got von Miller coming back off the injury thirty four
(18:33):
years old. What is he going to bring you? So,
although there's a lot of resources and a lot of
value that was placed in that D line, I think
they still have to really look at that based off
of how they performed against Cincinnati. Yes, during the regular season,
the Bills can get by Josh Allen work at his
magic the offense, but when it comes to playing Cincinnati
in Kansas City charges coming on the better teams, that
(18:55):
D line really has to step up, and they have
not shown the ability to do that in the last
two playoff losses. So it'll be interesting. Yes, the secondary
has to be addressed, but I'm thinking it all starts
up front there and those guys really have underperformed. The
Bills might have to look that way too. Andrew Listen,
it's the same I don't want to say the same
old song here. It's the off season, it's Buffalo. We're
trying to figure out how this team gets over the
(19:17):
hump here. I know they're sick of hearing it in Buffalo,
but it is kind of sort of the story here.
The Bills pick twenty seventh overall, they have more picks,
or almost as many picks in the top one hundred
and three as the Dolphins having the entire draft. Miami
has only four selections. Let's transition to them in the
entire draft as they try to find a way to
(19:38):
take the next step as well. Here to build around
two who we saw at his charity event earlier this
week in Miami were in the lay at the lou
Ale with the new mustache, with his fifth year option
already picked up. Here as we try to figure out
how to build around work with that mark? You don't
(19:59):
you don't like the dance. Yeah, we gotta work with
that too. I don't know about that one, right, I'm
a talent evaluated, not a dance round. They got to
work on that. They do not pick in the first
round because they had that pick taken from them the
tampering punishment from this past year. Mark, they don't pick
until fifty first overall, how do they build around Twoa's
(20:21):
burgeoning dance career. Yeah, well, remember a couple of years
ago and it seemed like they had what the fifty
picks Andrew, We're talking about all these picks that the
Dolphins have, right, But it's all about you got to
hit on those picks and you got to make those
picks come into great players. And still up in the
air whether the Dolphins have done that, but yes, they
were supposed to have two first round picks of this
(20:41):
drap One got taken away the tampering with Brady and
Sean Payton, and the other one was in the form
of Bradley Chubb. So first round pick for Bradley Chub.
Sorry about that for Bradley Chubb. So that's where the
two first round picks are there. Third round pick up
to Jalen Ramsey this year as well. So that's why
you see them with only four picks in this draft.
(21:02):
So when I'm looking at the Dolphins, the team that
you see there for the Dolphs, I think is the
team that you're going to trot out there. A bunch
of veterans, rookies, I mean, young guys that they drafted
a couple first couple of years. I wouldn't expect a
lot of big impact from this year's draft class. But
with the Dolphins, you have to say, this is a
team got Ramsey, We've got Chubb, these are our draft picks.
You guys have to go up there and perform and
(21:24):
win games for US now, and of course it always
gets back to two and his health. But those draft
picks are veterans now who have to perform YEP, and
they have Mike White now backing up to his name
was on that list we started our AFC East roster
reset with. So the O'Dell thing was nice, But the
coolest thing that happened this week in the Ravens building
(21:45):
is Stacy Dale's being there on Wednesday speak at the
eighth annual Lift Conference leading and inspiring females to thrive.
It's a leadership seminar where Stacy was there talking to
young women student athletes from local high school. Stacy did
so not only as an NFL broadcaster, but as an
All America and as a w NBA All Star, as
(22:07):
an Olympian, as a basketball legend. Bring it on, Stacy.
How cool was that? Andrew? This was one of the
best experiences I've had. This is my fifteenth season as
I entered in the NFL and to go to a
first class organization like the Baltimore Ravens and get an
invitation at first from their PR staff. Patrick Gleason sent
(22:29):
me the email and they did such a fine job
in Baltimore, and then to become sort of connected to
Heather Darney, who who's the VP of Community Relations, and
then Drew Meyer, their community community relations coordinator, and the
way they treated me and then what they presented to me.
This was an opportunity for me to talk to ninth, tenth,
(22:51):
and eleventh graders. These kids chosen, these young ladies chosen
by their athletic directors across Maryland. Their coaches kind of
nominated or referred, and then it's it's really basically a
leadership seminar orference that we go through. I got to
do some different activities with the ladies afterwards. I love
this so much. It was the eighth annual that they
(23:12):
did these ravens with LYFT, and I would love for
the league to adopt this because I can only imagine
all thirty two and I think they're the only team
that is actually doing something like this. We're talking about
one hundred and fifty gals. Coach Harbos spoke for thirty minutes.
He was awesome. He talked about Lamar Jackson a little bit.
I'm going to keep that tight to the vest here,
(23:33):
but ultimately it's just such an inspiring day for them
and the questions they ask. These are such bright individuals again,
really a group of ladies from across Maryland, and they
were so eager, and I loved that I could share
some of the messages that I've learned along the way
in the journey, because the journey is what it is, Andrew,
and all the years that we've done TV in my
(23:54):
sports career, there's a lot of ups and downs along
the way, and I love that I had the chance
to impart that upon these young ladies. Again, I hope
the league adopts this because I think it could be
monstrous for females across our country in NFL cities and
grow to great heights. Absolutely, Stacey ad like thirty seconds,
give me your number one message for these young ladies.
(24:15):
Number one message for these ladies and for all gals
really is to be a self starter in everything you do.
You know, we are so into Instagram and TikTok and
all these things and we want to post stuff, But
what are you doing behind the scenes to better your craft?
And that was kind of the big message that I
gave these young ladies and they loved it, and I
(24:35):
hope I get to go back again and do it again.
So cool. And I hope other teams hear what you
said earlier and that is this is something they can
adopt as well. The LIFT conference there for young student
athletes that the Ravens have held for now the eighth year.
Stacy Dale is a huge part of it. Stacy, thank
you great stuff. As always appreciate you and I know
(24:56):
they appreciate it there in Maryland as well. NFL Now
is a production of the NFL in partnership with iHeartRadio.
For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,
(25:19):
or wherever you get your podcasts.
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