May 1, 2024 • 35 mins
NFL Media Insider Tom Pelissero opens up his reporters notebook to give us the inside scoop on WHAT REALLY HAPPENED in the 1st round for the Patriots … the Giants … the Falcons .. the Vikings … & the Raiders
- He’ll school us on why the Cowboys Draft was … oddly … successful!
- … & why the Packers & Panthers deserve consideration for WINNERS OF THE DRAFT
STEFON WHO?
- Why Bills Rookie Wide Receiver Keon Coleman may soon be the most popular man in Buffalo!
KEENAN WHO?
- Why Ladd McConkey may be the perfect replacement for the production of longtime Chargers player Keenan Allen
REPORTER’S NOTEBOOK
- Tom Pelissero talks about the career defining decisions he faces regularly … knowing what to broadcast & what to bury
- Is it true that 95% of what an NFL reporter knows … is NEVER SHARED?
PLUS
- THE STEAL OF THE DRAFT
- TOM’S BIGGEST TAKEAWAY OF THE DRAFT
- & The one rookie who will channel his inner Brady & Rodgers & PUNISH EVERY TEAM THAT PASSED ON HIM!
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
NFL Total Access as a production of the NFL in
partnership with iHeartRadio.
Speaker 2 (00:04):
It's Wednesday, May first, and you are listening to NFL
Total Access, the podcast.
Speaker 1 (00:15):
That is the voice of today's special guest. He's the
Pride of the Hornets, the Adnah High School Hornets and
aDNA Minnesota. He's also the Pride of the Eagles of
Boston College. He's a twenty one year vet in this
biz who covered the vikings the Packers did turn for
The Leader Telegram and o'claire Wisconsin. He wrapped ESPN the
USA Today in award winning fashion. By the way, He's
(00:36):
a reporter, a radio and television host, a newsman, and
a podcast debutant. Please put your hands together for NFL
insider Tom Pellisero. You know.
Speaker 2 (00:45):
Yeah, when you lift it off like that, it makes
me feel like I have been doing this for a century.
It has been a couple of decades now, it's been
a couple of wen oh Claire Leader Telegram. Drop in there.
I'm sure the people back in O'claia.
Speaker 1 (00:57):
I'm a Badger, went to University Wisconsin. Any Wisconsin reference
that I can find a home for, I find a
home for I'm your host NFL Network senior writer Andrew Lady,
and on today show, I have draft questions, Tom has
draft answers. Oh. Yes, the twenty twenty four NFL Draft
three day, seven rounds, two hundred and fifty seven selections,
almost eight hundred thousand football fans showing up a Cadillac Square,
(01:18):
record crowds, great crowds, too huge. Thanks, big ups respect
to our friends in Detroit who hosted one hell of
an event and no listener. The dust has not settled
from all that ruckus in Detroit, and it won't settle
until we stop kicking it up, which we are certainly
not going to do with a guy like Tom Pelsaro
in the chair. Tom, you were there draft grades for
the city of Detroit.
Speaker 2 (01:39):
I mean high marks for sure. It's amazing. I wonder
I found myself thinking, you know, if this were ten
years ago, if you were maybe coming off an Owen
sixteen season, if the Lions weren't the Lions, would the
the interest, would the excitement be the same. And listen
to Detroit. It's a great football town. I have no
question that people would turn out anyway. When you walk
(02:01):
around there right now and you see the number of
Lions jerseys, and you see how many people were out there,
and just like the positive environment. There weren't incidents, there
weren't problems, and it was shoulder to shoulder. It was
like Coachella level crowd in the park. When I was
walking around on the first day, it was like, man,
the footprint of this event is huge, Like why is
(02:21):
it so big? And then you're like, oh, this is why.
I mean, it was like walking around when you got
there early on like a sound stage in Hollywood, where
it almost looked like this can't possibly be a real city,
and then you see the massive crowds that they were
able to pack in there, how much people were into
it. It was a really cool event with food and drink
and everything else. I mean, yeah, I mean I think
(02:44):
that all the drafts that I've covered have been great.
This one was definitely up there.
Speaker 1 (02:49):
Love that high marks for Detroit. A spike in Lions
fan temperature based on a surging Lions team fortunes. We'll
talk about that in the days to come. So many
headlines on Day one, Round one tom fourteenth straight offensive players,
a record twenty three offensive players selected in all. On
Day one, six quarterbacks in the first twelve picks. We've
talked about it. That's a first, but you could argue
(03:10):
that the most lingering noise, the real echo here comes
from the Falcons, who signed Kirk Cousins to an offseason deal,
gave him a one hundred mill guaranteed, and then did
this with the eighth.
Speaker 3 (03:20):
Pick in the twenty twenty four NFL Draft, the Lanta
Falcons select Michael Pennix, junior quarterback Washington.
Speaker 1 (03:32):
New Falcons head coach Rahie Morris cautions doubters to believe
that this Falcons team won't be in a position to
draft this high for a while. And Tom, I love
the confidence, but doubters cautioned that the player you could
have taken at eight coach at Drusher perhaps would have
come in handy. You know, now, Tom Pelasero, where do
you net out on this?
Speaker 2 (03:51):
Well? I think the time will tell on all these picks,
and maybe this is you know, they have remarkable foresight
that no one else in league has. As because every
year I do the same thing after the draft, after
night one of the draft, because I'm on Good Morning Football, right,
So draft ends at like twelve, twelve thirty East or
whatever it was, I gotta be up at five and
so the last thing I do is that the round ends,
(04:14):
I text everybody some different questions, but one of the
key questions just what was the biggest surprise to night
And I woke up and it was just Penox, Penix, Penix, Penix, Penix.
Everyone was shocked and it wasn't as if there wasn't
any scuttle but within the league, I mean Ian Rappaport
said it before round one began. Hey, don't overlook the
Falcons potentially taking Michael pencacald.
Speaker 1 (04:33):
He called it from his pool in Fort Lauderdale two
weeks before.
Speaker 2 (04:36):
All had the appearances of a smoke screen that you
want people to call you and trade up, and the
Falcons did listen. They had calls about moving back. They
would have liked to ideally moved back. Maybe that's a
pass rusher, then maybe you're able to get an extra pick,
and how you get both. We know for Bias Steve
Whites that they were trying to trade back up and
(04:56):
into the first round even after taking Penix to go
get Layatu Latu. When up coming off the board and
going to the Colts. It's just what is difficult about
the situation. It's not about Kirk cousins feelings. I'm so
sick of hearing people say, oh, you know why we're
worried about his feelings. It's not that think he's got
a hundred million reasons to feel fine. It's you are
now creating this environment that did not previously exist. Yes,
(05:19):
if Taylor Heineke is your backup quarterback and your offense
starts slow, you got a new quarterback, you got new receivers,
you got a first time offensive play caller, and Zach Robinson,
you go out and got off to a rocky start,
and Taylor Heineke's your backup. It's just all right, Kurse's
gonna get it together. We're gonna be fine. Now it's
gonna be Penanis Panis. It's a totally different type of
a dynamic. And I have to believe Terry fon O,
(05:42):
Raheem Morris were very conscientious in terms of they knew
that that potentially could happen here. They knew that they
were going against the grain and doing the unorthodox thing,
which is always going to get you criticized more. I'm
not here, and I said this over and over on TV.
I'm not here to say it's the right or wrong thing.
Maybe Pennix ends up being as good as his fans
thought he can be, But in the short term, there's
(06:03):
really no precedent for giving a quarterback one hundred million
dollars guaranteed, having him on stage at the draft party
his first off season. He's the bright, shiny new toy,
and six weeks after giving him that contract, you draft
his eventual replacement at number eight. Overall, it's just it's
so far afield. It's so not how the league has worked.
(06:24):
It's not like when the Packers drafted Jordan Love and
they sawed Aaron Rodgers. It would be like if last
year the pack the Jets had traded for Aaron Rodgers
and then they drafted a quarterback. He just got there.
It's a different type of a deal, and we'll see
how it works out.
Speaker 1 (06:38):
You know, they say in places like Minnesota, your home state,
where Kirk Cousins just played, where I went to school
in Wisconsin, you don't like the weather, wight fifteen minutes,
it will change. I don't think that Kirk Cousins expected
in Atlanta. You heard what Tom Pellisero just said that
The big surprise here is not potentially hurt feelings for
number eight. It's the fact that you know this was
a climate that wasn't that climate you know five minutes
(07:00):
before that pick was made, So very interesting to see
how this one plays out time. Your sources suggested a
run on wide receivers at the bottom of the first
round through the top of the second d Your sources
are good, because that is precisely what when.
Speaker 2 (07:11):
I'm glad you were watching.
Speaker 1 (07:12):
I'm always unconvinced I was watching.
Speaker 2 (07:14):
Let's talk about a.
Speaker 1 (07:15):
Couple of those picks. Bills fans who saw both Stefan
Diggs and Gave Davis walk out the door assume that
there would be more business at wide out for them,
and then they watched as their team, in successive trade
backs allowed the Chiefs, not the Chiefs, Yes, the Chiefs
to get Xavier Worthy, and then they allow the Panthers
to get Xavier leg At. I say lego, you say
it properly, which is thank you, leget and don't forget that. Ricky, Yes,
(07:37):
thank you and don't forget Ricky Pearsall was also gone
to the Niners at thirty one. Tom, can you at
least assuage concerns Bills fans have about that pick to
start the second round at thirty three. A prospect who
was on your first round surprise list wide receiver.
Speaker 2 (07:51):
Key sell Path credit on that.
Speaker 1 (07:53):
Yeah, you like the player and you like the pick.
Speaker 2 (07:55):
Tell us why, Well, you know anytime that you have
a team that trades down two times and then takes
the g with the top pick in the second round,
it's basically a first rounder. It's the same reason that
last year everyone was be like, oh is will Love
is not a first round pick? Well, he would have
been if anyone would have traded with the Titans because
they were trying to trade up the whole bottom of
the first round. So keon Coleman, it's about what he
can become. Okay, you are betting on the upside with him,
(08:17):
and listen, his highlight reels pretty cool. He does some
good stuff on the field. But this dude is also Yeah,
I know he ran slow in the forty. He ran
a four to six oz forty.
Speaker 1 (08:25):
But he ran fast where it matters most, which is.
Speaker 2 (08:28):
The gauntlet drill, which is poka nakula. He was the
fastest guy in that the previous year I had one
offensive coordinator who told me that gauntlet drill matters because
when you're able to play, when you're able to run
through that really fast. Remember you're catching the ball here,
you're catching the ball here, You're going back and forth.
What it says that you run the fastest in that
is that the ball looks slow to you. It's that
(08:50):
your reaction trying is really really good, very interesting. And
so I wasn't surprised Keon Coleman was a high draft pick.
I thought he'd be bottom of one. I'd argue he
basically was. And for the Bills, you know, they they
believed that they'd still be able to get him even
after trading back. I can't just wage the concerns that, hey,
Xavier Worthy might be the guy torching you in January
and keeping you out of the Super Bowl. I don't
(09:11):
think that they were going to take Xavier league get
because everybody knew the Panthers like him. They wouldn't have
traded that pick. But Keon Coleman two years ago was
still on the Michigan State basketball team. All right. He
wasn't training for football. He's not super muscled up yet.
He's got room to get bigger to put on muscle mass.
He's only going to get better. He's still a pretty
young dude. I mean, I totally understood it. Again, put
(09:34):
all ten of these guys in a basket and draw
a name out, and you tell me who the good
one is going to be. But I understood why the
Bills thought this guy for our play style in Buffalo
in the AFC East makes a lot of sense.
Speaker 1 (09:45):
I love the products of good coaching, and Kean Coleman's
best coach may have been Tom Is. Though Lad McConkie
goes to pick after Coleman. Your reporter's notebook Tom includes
an item from an offensive coordinator in the NFL about
Lad McConkie that tells Chargers fan, look, you cannot replace
Keenan Allen the man, but you may be able to
replace his numbers with a guy like Lad McConkie.
Speaker 2 (10:06):
Lab McConkie, you know, is a guy who doesn't necessarily
look the part when you meet him. He's always got
a big smile on his face, but something flips when
he puts the helmet on. And he was very productive
in the biggest moments in national title games for Georgia.
He was able to step up. There were some medical
questions about lab McConkie in terms of you know, some
teams flagged his back. It was nothing fatal, it was just,
(10:29):
you know, that was a concern when you're projecting these
guys out for the next five ten years. He's not
the biggest guy. He does put himself in positions where
he takes hits. He's got some pre existing stuff. Is
that going to be a problem.
Speaker 1 (10:39):
Oh my god, say something positive.
Speaker 2 (10:40):
But for the Chargers to trade up and get him,
you know, I was asked I was hosting The Rich
Eisen Show and one of the bits today was between
Lad McConkie, Romadunza and Melik Neighbors. Who's most likely to
be Rookie of the Year? I said, is Lad mcconkee,
because Roma Dunay's got to got to compete for targets.
Malik Neighbors, we don't totally even know who's throwing in
(11:01):
the football right now. Lad mccacky for Jim Harbaugh, Greg Roman,
those guys to go and get him suggests they've got
a very specific plan for the type of offense that
they want to run. You know, if they run a
bunch of condensed splits. That's something that plays to lab
McConkie's strengths. I think he would have been a good
fit in places like Detroit two. That style of offense
suits him really well. You know they're going to throw
(11:23):
the football, they're going to want to run it too.
And that's Greg Roman's whole background here. But you know, JK. Dobbins,
Gus Edwards, they didn't invest a ton in the position.
They'vested a high second rounder in Laddi McConkie that I
take as a sign that they're going to get on
the ball a lot.
Speaker 1 (11:37):
You are listening to NFL Total Access to podcast Andrew
Lavy with NFL Insider Tom pellisera twenty one years. You've
been doing this. We see you at drafts and owners meetings,
hosting the Rich Eisen Show, as you mentioned before, appearing
on everything from Dan Patrick to Jim Rome. You're the
co host of The Insiders on NFL Network. You're in
all of these rooms, Tom, where the NFL does what
it does, from the front office to the locker rooms,
(11:58):
from the tunnel to the sidelines and press rooms and
Pro bowls and playoff games and Super Bowls. Is your
job as awesome as it sounds.
Speaker 2 (12:06):
I mean, listen, I never take those things for granted.
And I think that last year in particular, for a
variety of reasons, I really reflected hard on that. And yeah,
I mean it is cool. It's not what people think
it is. It's not just hey, you get free tickets.
Speaker 1 (12:22):
It's like, no, it's not a steady stream of glamour. Cool.
Speaker 2 (12:26):
No. I mean that too. I mean when you're grinding
it out. I mean, the best way to describe my job,
just as an insider and somebody who news matters to,
is you know, during free agency, I moved to an
air mattress in the basement because I'm sleeping three hours
a night. I've got my air pods in. If the
phone rings at one in the morning, I've got to
try to answer it. I had one this year. Me
(12:47):
and Ian were going to report in the morning. We
had to wait till the morning. But that Sam Darnold
was signing with the Vikings pretty significant one, you know,
potential starting quarterbacks signing with the team.
Speaker 1 (12:55):
And ten million is a specific number that says a lot,
or at least we think it does.
Speaker 2 (13:00):
I at least that there was competition for his services,
but so I had my AirPods in, but I was
so tired my AirPods fell out and I did not
wake up. L Ian woke up to the text or
the call that we were waiting for, and he put
it out for both of us, and I woke up like, Hey,
we broke Sam Darnold. But that's a big part of
a big part of the job is just the availability
it does. It does get taxing, but I wouldn't trade
(13:21):
it for anything.
Speaker 1 (13:22):
What do sports media hopefuls listening need to know about
the journey many of them are about to take, because look,
veteran NFL players are welcoming new teammates right now, and
the best leaders amongst those vets will help prospects become
better pros. What's a piece of advice you can give
reporter prospects, media hopefuls. What's the pro tip to your
twenty year old self?
Speaker 2 (13:40):
Well, I think that you know there are college kids,
even high school kids who reach out to me, and
I try to get back to everybody because I remember
what it was like being that age and have no idea.
I'm impressed in a lot of cases by how much
not everybody, but how much some of them know and
how far ahead of the game they are, and they'll
tell me things about like what they're doing trying to do.
I'm like, yeah, that's exactly what you should be doing.
(14:02):
There's other people who don't get it at all, but
there's some of them who I think. It's just you know,
when I was coming up two thousand and three was
when I graduated from BC, and you know, at that point,
like blogs only were in their infancy, and there weren't
you know, website only type publications. YouTube as far as i'mware,
it did not exist. So there were all these barriers
(14:23):
of entry where you had to go and work. You know,
I worked at a radio station. That was my first job,
Kfan Radio in Minneapolis. I was making eight bucks an hour,
twenty hours a week with no benefits, but it was
I worked a lot more than the twenty hours, and
I put in the time and I was not good
at it, but I you know, figured out kind of
over time what I do well and what I should
(14:44):
build off of. And that's an ongoing growth process. I'm
still figuring that out every day. So what I always
tell people who are young and up and coming is
you got to find your voice there's a thousand other people,
a million other people who want the exact same job
as you. So what is it that's gonna make you
stand out? What's the thing that you can do that
nobody else can do? And the only way to figure
(15:06):
that out is to get reps. It's to write a lot,
read a lot, figure out what other people that you
respect and that you like in the industry, why do
you like them? And then how can you apply that
to yourself? And I always compare it to like a
pass rusher watching other pass rushers, like a wide receiver
watching other wide receivers. You can never be that other person.
(15:29):
But if you just go, man, I really like that, Okay,
why do I like them? Why do I think that
they're really good? Okay, I'm gonna try to integrate this.
I'm gonna put my own twist on it. It's not
imitating them, it's not talking like them, But it's why
do I respect them? Okay? Can I get better at that?
Is that something I can apply that to me? Is it?
It's a It's a rep based thing. Not everybody's gonna
(15:50):
be the same. I mean, I think of all the
different people that you know, I either came up with
or that you know I read and watched growing up,
and now it's cool. You know when you meet some
of the those people now and you know you're you're
talking with them and having those conversations, but it's you know,
you had to go through that process. I was bad, man,
I was not I was not good at that.
Speaker 1 (16:11):
I'm not buying that. But let's translate what Tom just said.
Find your voice, have a voice, have a voice worth sharing.
But you're gonna have to listen and watch others in
order to help you find that voice. And in the end,
I think Tom, you said it. If you want to
do it, then do it. I mean the just do it.
Speaker 2 (16:27):
It's a big there's no other use.
Speaker 1 (16:29):
Well played Nike for whoever came up with that one,
because the fact is it kind of all does come
down to that. You want to do the thing, then
do the damn thing. Why Boston College did you go
to BC games? Was it journalism? HYBC?
Speaker 2 (16:41):
I was a finance major. Initially I didn't know if
I wanted to see finance or journalism, so I applied
to journalism schools too, and it came down to Maryland
or BC Maryland for journalism. BC for Finance, chose BC
for Finance hard program to get into. I took one
E conclass one session and went to the registrar as
always said I need to switch to communications. They said
(17:02):
you can't. You can't switch for a year, and so
I just I dropped that class. Fine, yeah, exactly.
Speaker 1 (17:09):
I took all.
Speaker 2 (17:10):
I took all my arts and sciences class and started
taking some of those classes that I was able to
get into even though I was in a major it's
a liberal arts school. But yeah, that was that was
it was. You know, my grandpa was a banker. I
always thought that I'd like to do that. But I
was also really into sports. My dad, actually, one of
his brothers had found the old uh we had a
family fantasy football league going back to like probably late eighties,
(17:32):
early nineties, and he found uh like if he readout
of the newsletter. Because I was technically the I was
the commissioner. It was you know, kind of a running joke,
but I was the commission at least would write like
a newsletter about the league when I'm like thirteen years old,
and it's so funny because like I'm reading it, I'm
being like, you know, the names for one thing are
hilarious because like if you just think back, like who
the big players were in nineteen ninety four, and it's
(17:54):
like I was remembering these games, like oh, Emmitt Smith
had six touchdowns and again like I remember that game.
It's it's it's fun to look back on. But I
always had that passion for it. I you know, thought
growing up I wanted to be a baseball player or whatever.
I wasn't good enough to do those things. So next
best thing going, you know, in my market, go be
the next Sid Hartman, Dan Burero, Patrick ROYCEI you know,
(18:14):
that's that's kind of the path I followed.
Speaker 1 (18:16):
Well, played nine straight Bowl games for BC from nineteen
ninety nine to two thousand and seven, eight straight wins.
By the way, Music City, Alamo, all that stuff. Do
you miss the salad days of the Big East?
Speaker 2 (18:26):
I mean I remember being there when BC won the
Big East Tournament in men's basketball in two thousand and one.
Troy Bell, who was also from the Minneapolis Era Correct
and was a first round pick by the Celtics, was
the leader of that team. And so like going to
Madison Square Garden and watching them, you know, cut down
the Nets. That was a cool experience. Yeah, I mean
I miss I miss you know, just the old rivalries
(18:50):
and stuff like that. You know, they had pretty good
rivalries with some of those schools.
Speaker 1 (18:54):
Pitch, I grew up Georgetown's Miami Sea, I get it.
Two Eagles selected in this year's draft pop quiz? Who
were they in? Who picked them?
Speaker 2 (19:01):
Christian Mahogany went in like the fifth round, sixth round two,
sixth round Lions cut.
Speaker 1 (19:06):
To the Lions correct?
Speaker 2 (19:07):
And third rounder d back oh Elijah Jones.
Speaker 1 (19:12):
Elijah Jones went to the Arizona Cardinals. Correct. Tom. Let's
turn done.
Speaker 2 (19:18):
That was pretty good.
Speaker 1 (19:18):
Let's turn back to our draft recap. I reject the
draft grades process, Tom, that's a lie. I don't. I
don't reject it. I just don't think it has a
ton of value. And you said something earlier today, which
is the reason why we're going to find out. Time
will tell about these draft classes and nothing more. Chiefs
got failing grades for making that horrendously aggressive and patently
stupid move. Listener, you remember to climb seventeen spots and
draft an unorthodox stat gobbling project from Texas Tech named
(19:42):
oh right, Patrick mahomes all to say, we don't know
how good these classes are until time on the field
tells undeniable truths. Till then it's speculation, it's hypothesis, it's conjecture.
But we can tom judge. I think how well teams
did with regards to addressing roster needs, and you can
help us identify opportunities taken another's missed in the draft.
To wit there's a team some may be surprised. Makes
(20:04):
your list of draft success stories the kind of forgotten
this year anyway, Carolina Panthers.
Speaker 2 (20:10):
Yeah, I brought that up on TV. I thought that
that was really interesting watching a first time GM and
Dan Morgan, first time coach Dave Canalis, the way they
maneuvered the board normally for the worst team in the league.
The benefit of that is you have the number one
pick and you can either take somebody a franchise changing
type of player, or you trade it and you get
a boatload of picks. They didn't have that because they
traded it last year for Bryce Young, not thinking at
(20:31):
that time that they were going to be number one
and they would have a new GM and a new
head coach. But you look at what they did in
the draft. They need weapons for Bryce Young, they trade
up one spot to get Xavier League at with the
last pick in the first round, they trade down with
the second of their second rounders that they had acquired.
They acquired one of those in the Brian Burns trade,
the second one. They trade down from that, pick up
(20:52):
a second round pick next year, and then trade back
up again with a late round pick or mid round
pick to go get Jonathan Brooks, who's might have been
a first roundel best running back in the draft from
Texas but was coming off of the torn acl should
be ready before training camp. Fourth round, they got the
top pick in that too, to Tavian Sanders, another Texas guy.
It's a player that a lot of people thought was
going to go earlier than that, maybe second third round.
(21:13):
So you get a tight end to wide receiver and
a running back. Will any of these picks work out
to your point, we don't know. But you also pick
up a twenty twenty five second rounder. It's kind of
like a mini version what Monti Austin Ford did last year,
where you try to get some building block pieces but
also pick up more. Dan Morgan didn't have a lot
of a lot to work with, but it seems like
made the most, at least in terms of getting additional
(21:33):
value out of those picks.
Speaker 1 (21:34):
Money Austin Ford, of course, the GM for the Cardinals,
Steelers getting a lot of love, Rams getting some love,
Bears getting a lot of love. Is there a clear
winner in this draft or do you reject that question?
Speaker 2 (21:43):
No, I think that it's impossible to say. I think
that on paper. You look at the Bears, who only
had four picks going into the draft. They get Cata Williams,
they get Roma. What they did with them, they've built,
you know, it's always with the young quarterbacks, it's build
the nest around them. It's given them the best environment
to succeed. You signed DeAndre Swift, you trade for Keenan Allen,
you draft Roma Dounze, you give him Shane Waldron who
(22:04):
you know, there's gonna be debate about that and how
it works out. But he was a guy who had
worked for Belichick, had worked for McVeagh, had worked for
Pete Carroll, has worked with different types of quarterbacks, and
Caleb can do a lot of different things on the field.
I understood why they made that higher. I understood why
they retain Chris Morgan because he's a really good run
game guy, the offensive line coach, and they already got
a top ten caliber defense with Matt Eberflus calling the plays.
(22:26):
I mean, I think that they put themselves in a
good position. I just think the whole NFC North is fascinating.
With JJ McCarthy going to Minnesota, the Lions being as
good as they are, the Packers look like they're on
the ascent, and they pick up by the way, another
running back, Marshawn Lloyd to join Josh Jacobs AJ Dillon
in that backfield Must See TV.
Speaker 1 (22:42):
In the answer, he had a question about Marshall Lloyd
coming up. I know we're running short on time. We
interrupt this podcast to file a police report because a
couple of teams are guilty of theft. Coop, wake up
a little drama here, please, very nice, very quickly. Let's
talk steals of the draft. Is it's fair to say
that in a draft in which offensive players went one
(23:03):
through fourteen, a whole bunch of defensive players may turn
out to be steals of the twenty twenty four draft
based on well, at least for starters getting picked lower
than expected. Guys like Gerson, Newton Braden Fisk, kool Aid, McKinstry,
and an offensive player somebody that Tom mentioned earlier, USC
(23:24):
running back Marshawn Lloyd, who goes to the Packers with
the eighty eighth pick of the third round. And Tom
genuinely believes that this player is better than his draft position,
and he may be a perfect pick and may prove
to be one of the steals of the draft for
the Green Bay Packers. You are listening to NFL Total
Access to podcast Andrew Lavy with NFL Insider and first
(23:46):
time podcast guests Tom Pellisero The Pride of a Dina
a Dina, Minnesota. Tom, you covered both the Vikings and
the Packers in your career. Better stadium food, Packers or
Vikings go.
Speaker 2 (23:59):
Ooh in the press box or as a fan? Oh interesting,
I've never been to a game at Lambeau as a fan.
Very solid press box fair there, very solid press box
fair in Minneapolis A lot of times a carving station
for a night game, omelets for for noon games. Gives
the advantage to US Banks Stadium Boom.
Speaker 1 (24:20):
Vikings win at better draft Packers or Vikings.
Speaker 2 (24:23):
I mean the Vikings managed to get their quarterback without
giving up the second first rounder with Dallas Turner the
Packers draft though, too, Marshawn Lloyd being a piece of that.
Speaker 1 (24:32):
Potentially a push on food, potentially a push on the draft.
Let's talk Dallas. Cowboys made a trade, got some capital,
made some necessary online picks, got themselves a fascinating edge
prospect in marshaw neland a linebacker, a wide receiver, even
a corner, but no running back. Tom Pella Sero, concerned
and curious Cowboys fan wants to know, is the return
of Zeke Elliott enough a story you broke?
Speaker 2 (24:51):
By the way, Yeah, Zeke was. That was the wheels
were in motion before the draft was over. So everybody's
sitting there going why didn't they just do whatever it took.
This is why, because they knew that Edgy coming back
and listen, this was a need draft for the Cowboys.
You lose your starting left tackle, you're starting center, to
your pass rushers, and your running back. You need to
fill those positions. You can't fill them all. Well, what
do they do? Maneland fills the edge rusher role. They
(25:12):
get bb He potentially can be the center. Tyler Geyton
potentially can be the tackle that you need. I'll tell
you this. They had running backs on the board that
they were willing to go and get. The board didn't
fall that way. If you trade down, for instance, in
the second round, and go to you know, you feel
better about the value for the running back. Later now,
maybe you're not getting Marshaw Neeland. If you trade around
(25:34):
in the third, fourth rounds, maybe you're not in position
to get bib. They had to make some tough decisions.
I know this from covering Mike McCarthy a long time.
He believes in building through the lines. You get better
as a football team with the big guys. They got
several of them in this draft. That's going to be
the hallmark what Dallas did.
Speaker 1 (25:48):
Cowboys fans worried about your running back room. By the way,
go look up your depth chart. You've got seven guys
in the running back room. Currently. Patriots select Drake May
at three. There are wildly differing opinions about this player,
Tom and your estimation Drake May is a good fit.
That's what you said. Why scheme coaching the division? His
own upside? What are we looking at?
Speaker 2 (26:05):
It's based on my conversation with coaches and scouts. I
don't watch a lick of tape on these guys. I
see highlights like everybody else does. I'll catch a little
bit of a game on Saturdays. But when you talk
to people within the league, everybody, a lot of people,
I should say, would tell you Drake May is a
good fit for New England. It's because he's a guy
who needs time. They've got Chakobe Brissett there, good dude
in the room. He's gonna help Drake May come along
(26:26):
and there won't be as much pressure to put Drake
May on the field because listen, he's a young guy
who is coming from a really simplistic offense, so he
needs time. It's also when you look at him physically
AFC East. You think Tom Brady, you think Josh Allen,
you think big dudes who win the weather's bad are
going to be able to hold up in that division,
play the tough games December and January. Drake May has
(26:46):
those physical characteristics. I thought that it made sense, clearly
that was the guy they honed in on. It's the
guy the Vikings wanted if they traded up. It's probably
the guy the Giants wanted if they traded up. Everything
fell into place. New England had offers. None of them
were good enough. They take Drake May. Will find out
maybe not in twenty twenty four, although history I'll tell
you maybe twenty twenty four more likely if things go
well twenty twenty five.
Speaker 1 (27:06):
Can you help puzzled and perplexed Giants fan who thought
a quarterback move was coming in? While Giants fan may
believe in the talents of Melik Neighbors, they may be
worried about the man throwing Neighbors the ball. What's the
story of the Giants draft for you?
Speaker 2 (27:16):
Well, the Giants we're absolutely trying to trade into number three.
Most people believe those for Drake May. The Giants will
never tell you a straight answer on exactly what that
they were.
Speaker 1 (27:23):
Going to get, so they won't tell it.
Speaker 2 (27:25):
But in the end, you know, they rendered their verdict
on JJ McCarthy, and that'll be one of the lingering stories.
If he goes to Minnesota and has instant success here,
Giants fans will be going nuts. Butll why didn't we
take him? If JJ McCarthy doesn't play, or if he's mediocre,
Milik Neighbors an absolute dog on the field, are really
really good product? You know that's gonna work that's fascinating.
Speaker 1 (27:44):
I hope you were listening. Listener, Tom Pelisaera just told
us exactly what we haven't heard enough of. That we
got a scouting report from the Giants on JJ McCarthy
when they picked Malik Neighbors, and if they're right, then
the Vikings may have a problem. Let's turn it very
quickly to the Vikings a couple to fires. They moved
up a spot for JJ McCarthy, made that trade with
the Jets, then snagged Dallas Turner, as you mentioned before,
(28:05):
who was available arguably later than expected. Is it possible
that Dallas Turner, a young man you spoke with at
the Alabama Pro Day, is the Vikings pick we should
be talking about.
Speaker 2 (28:15):
Well, I think that nothing's more important than the quarterback.
But in terms of if you're right now making a
decision on who's going to be more impactful, you'd lean
Dallas Turner because you know he's going to be on
the field. We'll see what happens with JJ McCarthy more
pro ready than any draft pick, just in terms of
he's played under center pro style offense. But Dallas Turner
is one of the top They were ordered different ways
on people's boards, but definitely one of the top three
pass rushers. No more Daniel Hunter. Plug this guy in
(28:38):
and go.
Speaker 1 (28:39):
Is the Raiders draft? Was the Raiders draft a mess?
Let's stay positive. Could you make the argument that it
wasn't three O line picks and the best tight end
in the draft they got at thirteen? Gardner Minshew in
the house, Aid O'Connell in the house. Raiders fans are bummed.
They're bummed that they didn't make a move for a
quarterback themselves, But clearly that was a difficult move to
(28:59):
make when you consider what the Falcons did and the
fact that the Patriots stuck at three. Can you give
Raiders fans hope?
Speaker 2 (29:06):
Everybody in the league thought Michael Pennix was your mark
to go to the Raiders, whether they traded up, traded back,
whatever he comes off the board in the surprise move
to Atlanta. There certainly is a level of disappointment that
even would exist for certain people in that building because
Michael Penix had a lot of fans. But I also
tell you they are really fired up about brock Bowers.
There were people who told me around the league one
of the only players they would have considered trading up
(29:27):
for was brock Bowers. He's probably more of a wide
receiver than he is a tight end, but he is
a matchup nightmare. That's a guy who's going to make
an instantaneous impact, which is good for the Raiders because
now you're talking about your quarterback room being Gardner Minshew
and Aidan O'Connell. Minshew got fifteen million dollars guaranteed. He
probably is the starter. Antonio Pierce's are also said, you
(29:47):
got to go through Aiden Connell O'Connell to get that spot.
O'Connell is a specific type. He is a pocket passer
all the way. You would think this coaching staff would
like somebody with a little bit more mobility, but O'Connell
under tough circumstances. Yeah, we competed. They won some games
with them, and there's something to be said.
Speaker 1 (30:02):
For and they did bolster the O line in the draft.
Your favorite pick of the whole draft, Tom, It's hard.
It's hard to ask that. I mean, you know, forgive
the exhale, but I know that you're going to be
answering that question on TA the broadcast later on today,
So I'm just teeing you up. This is a rehearsal.
Who's your favorite pick? Do you have one?
Speaker 2 (30:18):
My favorite pick in the entire draft?
Speaker 1 (30:22):
That's a tough Okay, let's ask this one player who
dropped lower than expected and may just take out his
revenge on the thirty one teams that didn't call his name.
Speaker 2 (30:29):
Oh Keon Coleman certainly one of the guys in that category.
Speaker 1 (30:32):
A few final words on the draft, starting with the
final pick of the draft. Mister irrelevant this year, drum
roll please. Jalen Key, cornerback Atabama Brock Purdy has forever
changed our feelings about the last pick. Y'all. You know it.
I know it. It is empirically true. It's no longer
an awe. Isn't that nice moment when we see the
last guy off the board? Now it's a aw man.
(30:55):
I wonder what that kid can do? Jalen Key, spotlight
as you and you thoroughly deserve it. What do you
have floating around this year? What's your biggest takeaway from
the twenty twenty four NFL Draft.
Speaker 2 (31:06):
Well, besides some of those surprises, I mean, the Pennix
pick is the number one thing and all the tentacles
of that. Are we going to be thinking about Kirk
Cousins getting traded next year. Is Kirk Cousin's going to
go along with it. He's got a no trade clause.
It's all the quarterback fall out. To me, That's where
this entire league is driven. Is Caleb Williams is going
to live up to the height? How quickly can Jade
and Daniels play and can he stay on the field
taking those hilacious hits that he does. Is Drake may
(31:28):
really going to get the red shirt year that he
probably needs, what happens in the JJ McCarthy, Sam Darnold competition.
And then Bo Nicks, who we haven't talked about, going
to Denver, another guy who ever won in the league.
You talk to anyone, they're like, so Bonex is going
to Denver, right, But a lot of people thought this
is a trade down or maybe maybe a second round
if Denver could get a second round pick. Here him
competing with Zach Wilson and complete with Jared Stidham. Those
(31:50):
are there going to be the driving storylines for the
course of this offseason. There's obviously some other stuff, like
to the forty nineers at some point make a move
with those wide receivers, at this point, you'd say probably not,
because they're contending tea and you can't get anybody else
to help you with twenty twenty five draft picks in
this season. Those are probably the things I'm left with.
Speaker 1 (32:06):
Here's a question I wanted to ask you, and I
know you have to go. We're at the point now
where I'm going to be asking for forgiveness, not permission
for keeping you this long. But I'm really interested in
what you do for a living, and I know a
lot of our listeners are too. You gather a lot
of information, and it's important to remember, listener, we call
ourselves NFL Total Access. Those points of access come from
(32:26):
people like Tom. Tom is connected, and those connections reap
inside information. He's an NFL insider, not just titularly actually,
but with so much coming your way, how do you
decide what to deliver and what to digest? Because some
of what you gather becomes the stuff of headlines for us.
Other material, I assume becomes the stuff of context for you.
Is it fair to say that you're often in a
(32:48):
position to decide what is news and what's unnecessary.
Speaker 2 (32:52):
Yeah, I think that there's a lot of those occasions
I think that over time, what you realize is all
those little what I call half scoops, the little bits
of information that then exposes certain things, are less valuable
in the big picture than getting the whole thing.
Speaker 1 (33:07):
Do you learn and keep those to yourself.
Speaker 2 (33:10):
I think the ninety five percent of what I know
I don't report, certainly, not in real time. After things happen,
then you've got the backstory and I can explain to
you how JJ McCarthy got to Minnesota. You're not going
to use those things up front. I mean, that's liten.
Different people do it different ways. Some people hang up
the phone or get a text message and immediately put
it on the internet. I'm not in that category, you know,
(33:31):
but I get why different people do it. It doesn't
mean that everything's the right way. Like I said, everybody's
got to find their own voice. There's no two Tom Pellicero's,
there's no two of you know, Andrew Leavy, There's no
two of anybody out there. I can't do a podcast
the way that you do a podcast. We have our
own style.
Speaker 1 (33:45):
By stumbling a lot and having the editor fix it later.
Last question, and I mean it, I've got one hundred
more for you, but one more to go. What's the
most valuable currency in your line of work? Information or trust?
Speaker 2 (33:55):
Well, they go hand in hand. You don't get information
without the trust. If people don't think that they can
tell you things and say hey, you can't ever say this,
but you need to know this to understand where we're
coming from. You know, if you burn somebody on that,
you're never going to get that back. And I see
it happen all the time. Again, everybody's got to do
things their own way. Everybody's got different priorities on things.
But I will always play the long game. I'm never
(34:16):
going to burn somebody for the one thing, knowing that
then that could take away. You know, I care about
people above all else. It's not just it's not transactional
to me, Like I'd rather have a good relationship than
you know, toward somebody for one scoop. But there's times
where you listen. You know, if somebody promised you, hey,
I will let you know when it's good to go,
But somebody else gives you the information and then you're
(34:36):
sitting there going, I gotta When John Gruden resigns as
the Raiders coach, and I've got it and I'm waiting
for another callback, and I'm like, I gotta do this
right now. Those are tough spots to be in, but
you know, you figure everything out, and a lot of
times you're doing it under high pressure, high stress situation.
Speaker 1 (34:52):
Good dude and badass rarely occupy the same space they
do with today's special guest, Tom Pelsero, I've been wanting
to get you all year. I'm so glad you made
time for us today. Thank you, buddy. I want to
thank today's special guest, Tom Pellisera, and I want to
invite you the listener to join us next time, when
former Super Bowl winning front office exec Mark Ross will
be here for part three of our draft recap series.
(35:14):
I want to ask him about drafting for your division,
because that's a thing, and I also want to ask
him about the seemingly competing ideas of drafting for right
now and drafting for the future. There are a couple
of teams who managed to do both. Will tell you
who they are. That's next time. Till then, Thank you
so much for listening, and chau fa now. NFL Total
(35:40):
Access is a production of the NFL in partnership with iHeartRadio.
For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, Visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,
or wherever you get your podcasts.
NFL Total Access as a production of the NFL in
partnership with iHeartRadio.
Speaker 2 (00:04):
It's Wednesday, May first, and you are listening to NFL
Total Access, the podcast.
Speaker 1 (00:15):
That is the voice of today's special guest. He's the
Pride of the Hornets, the Adnah High School Hornets and
aDNA Minnesota. He's also the Pride of the Eagles of
Boston College. He's a twenty one year vet in this
biz who covered the vikings the Packers did turn for
The Leader Telegram and o'claire Wisconsin. He wrapped ESPN the
USA Today in award winning fashion. By the way, He's
(00:36):
a reporter, a radio and television host, a newsman, and
a podcast debutant. Please put your hands together for NFL
insider Tom Pellisero. You know.
Speaker 2 (00:45):
Yeah, when you lift it off like that, it makes
me feel like I have been doing this for a century.
It has been a couple of decades now, it's been
a couple of wen oh Claire Leader Telegram. Drop in there.
I'm sure the people back in O'claia.
Speaker 1 (00:57):
I'm a Badger, went to University Wisconsin. Any Wisconsin reference
that I can find a home for, I find a
home for I'm your host NFL Network senior writer Andrew Lady,
and on today show, I have draft questions, Tom has
draft answers. Oh. Yes, the twenty twenty four NFL Draft
three day, seven rounds, two hundred and fifty seven selections,
almost eight hundred thousand football fans showing up a Cadillac Square,
(01:18):
record crowds, great crowds, too huge. Thanks, big ups respect
to our friends in Detroit who hosted one hell of
an event and no listener. The dust has not settled
from all that ruckus in Detroit, and it won't settle
until we stop kicking it up, which we are certainly
not going to do with a guy like Tom Pelsaro
in the chair. Tom, you were there draft grades for
the city of Detroit.
Speaker 2 (01:39):
I mean high marks for sure. It's amazing. I wonder
I found myself thinking, you know, if this were ten
years ago, if you were maybe coming off an Owen
sixteen season, if the Lions weren't the Lions, would the
the interest, would the excitement be the same. And listen
to Detroit. It's a great football town. I have no
question that people would turn out anyway. When you walk
(02:01):
around there right now and you see the number of
Lions jerseys, and you see how many people were out there,
and just like the positive environment. There weren't incidents, there
weren't problems, and it was shoulder to shoulder. It was
like Coachella level crowd in the park. When I was
walking around on the first day, it was like, man,
the footprint of this event is huge, Like why is
(02:21):
it so big? And then you're like, oh, this is why.
I mean, it was like walking around when you got
there early on like a sound stage in Hollywood, where
it almost looked like this can't possibly be a real city,
and then you see the massive crowds that they were
able to pack in there, how much people were into
it. It was a really cool event with food and drink
and everything else. I mean, yeah, I mean I think
(02:44):
that all the drafts that I've covered have been great.
This one was definitely up there.
Speaker 1 (02:49):
Love that high marks for Detroit. A spike in Lions
fan temperature based on a surging Lions team fortunes. We'll
talk about that in the days to come. So many
headlines on Day one, Round one tom fourteenth straight offensive players,
a record twenty three offensive players selected in all. On
Day one, six quarterbacks in the first twelve picks. We've
talked about it. That's a first, but you could argue
(03:10):
that the most lingering noise, the real echo here comes
from the Falcons, who signed Kirk Cousins to an offseason deal,
gave him a one hundred mill guaranteed, and then did
this with the eighth.
Speaker 3 (03:20):
Pick in the twenty twenty four NFL Draft, the Lanta
Falcons select Michael Pennix, junior quarterback Washington.
Speaker 1 (03:32):
New Falcons head coach Rahie Morris cautions doubters to believe
that this Falcons team won't be in a position to
draft this high for a while. And Tom, I love
the confidence, but doubters cautioned that the player you could
have taken at eight coach at Drusher perhaps would have
come in handy. You know, now, Tom Pelasero, where do
you net out on this?
Speaker 2 (03:51):
Well? I think the time will tell on all these picks,
and maybe this is you know, they have remarkable foresight
that no one else in league has. As because every
year I do the same thing after the draft, after
night one of the draft, because I'm on Good Morning Football, right,
So draft ends at like twelve, twelve thirty East or
whatever it was, I gotta be up at five and
so the last thing I do is that the round ends,
(04:14):
I text everybody some different questions, but one of the
key questions just what was the biggest surprise to night
And I woke up and it was just Penox, Penix, Penix, Penix, Penix.
Everyone was shocked and it wasn't as if there wasn't
any scuttle but within the league, I mean Ian Rappaport
said it before round one began. Hey, don't overlook the
Falcons potentially taking Michael pencacald.
Speaker 1 (04:33):
He called it from his pool in Fort Lauderdale two
weeks before.
Speaker 2 (04:36):
All had the appearances of a smoke screen that you
want people to call you and trade up, and the
Falcons did listen. They had calls about moving back. They
would have liked to ideally moved back. Maybe that's a
pass rusher, then maybe you're able to get an extra pick,
and how you get both. We know for Bias Steve
Whites that they were trying to trade back up and
(04:56):
into the first round even after taking Penix to go
get Layatu Latu. When up coming off the board and
going to the Colts. It's just what is difficult about
the situation. It's not about Kirk cousins feelings. I'm so
sick of hearing people say, oh, you know why we're
worried about his feelings. It's not that think he's got
a hundred million reasons to feel fine. It's you are
now creating this environment that did not previously exist. Yes,
(05:19):
if Taylor Heineke is your backup quarterback and your offense
starts slow, you got a new quarterback, you got new receivers,
you got a first time offensive play caller, and Zach Robinson,
you go out and got off to a rocky start,
and Taylor Heineke's your backup. It's just all right, Kurse's
gonna get it together. We're gonna be fine. Now it's
gonna be Penanis Panis. It's a totally different type of
a dynamic. And I have to believe Terry fon O,
(05:42):
Raheem Morris were very conscientious in terms of they knew
that that potentially could happen here. They knew that they
were going against the grain and doing the unorthodox thing,
which is always going to get you criticized more. I'm
not here, and I said this over and over on TV.
I'm not here to say it's the right or wrong thing.
Maybe Pennix ends up being as good as his fans
thought he can be, But in the short term, there's
(06:03):
really no precedent for giving a quarterback one hundred million
dollars guaranteed, having him on stage at the draft party
his first off season. He's the bright, shiny new toy,
and six weeks after giving him that contract, you draft
his eventual replacement at number eight. Overall, it's just it's
so far afield. It's so not how the league has worked.
(06:24):
It's not like when the Packers drafted Jordan Love and
they sawed Aaron Rodgers. It would be like if last
year the pack the Jets had traded for Aaron Rodgers
and then they drafted a quarterback. He just got there.
It's a different type of a deal, and we'll see
how it works out.
Speaker 1 (06:38):
You know, they say in places like Minnesota, your home state,
where Kirk Cousins just played, where I went to school
in Wisconsin, you don't like the weather, wight fifteen minutes,
it will change. I don't think that Kirk Cousins expected
in Atlanta. You heard what Tom Pellisero just said that
The big surprise here is not potentially hurt feelings for
number eight. It's the fact that you know this was
a climate that wasn't that climate you know five minutes
(07:00):
before that pick was made, So very interesting to see
how this one plays out time. Your sources suggested a
run on wide receivers at the bottom of the first
round through the top of the second d Your sources
are good, because that is precisely what when.
Speaker 2 (07:11):
I'm glad you were watching.
Speaker 1 (07:12):
I'm always unconvinced I was watching.
Speaker 2 (07:14):
Let's talk about a.
Speaker 1 (07:15):
Couple of those picks. Bills fans who saw both Stefan
Diggs and Gave Davis walk out the door assume that
there would be more business at wide out for them,
and then they watched as their team, in successive trade
backs allowed the Chiefs, not the Chiefs, Yes, the Chiefs
to get Xavier Worthy, and then they allow the Panthers
to get Xavier leg At. I say lego, you say
it properly, which is thank you, leget and don't forget that. Ricky, Yes,
(07:37):
thank you and don't forget Ricky Pearsall was also gone
to the Niners at thirty one. Tom, can you at
least assuage concerns Bills fans have about that pick to
start the second round at thirty three. A prospect who
was on your first round surprise list wide receiver.
Speaker 2 (07:51):
Key sell Path credit on that.
Speaker 1 (07:53):
Yeah, you like the player and you like the pick.
Speaker 2 (07:55):
Tell us why, Well, you know anytime that you have
a team that trades down two times and then takes
the g with the top pick in the second round,
it's basically a first rounder. It's the same reason that
last year everyone was be like, oh is will Love
is not a first round pick? Well, he would have
been if anyone would have traded with the Titans because
they were trying to trade up the whole bottom of
the first round. So keon Coleman, it's about what he
can become. Okay, you are betting on the upside with him,
(08:17):
and listen, his highlight reels pretty cool. He does some
good stuff on the field. But this dude is also Yeah,
I know he ran slow in the forty. He ran
a four to six oz forty.
Speaker 1 (08:25):
But he ran fast where it matters most, which is.
Speaker 2 (08:28):
The gauntlet drill, which is poka nakula. He was the
fastest guy in that the previous year I had one
offensive coordinator who told me that gauntlet drill matters because
when you're able to play, when you're able to run
through that really fast. Remember you're catching the ball here,
you're catching the ball here, You're going back and forth.
What it says that you run the fastest in that
is that the ball looks slow to you. It's that
(08:50):
your reaction trying is really really good, very interesting. And
so I wasn't surprised Keon Coleman was a high draft pick.
I thought he'd be bottom of one. I'd argue he
basically was. And for the Bills, you know, they they
believed that they'd still be able to get him even
after trading back. I can't just wage the concerns that, hey,
Xavier Worthy might be the guy torching you in January
and keeping you out of the Super Bowl. I don't
(09:11):
think that they were going to take Xavier league get
because everybody knew the Panthers like him. They wouldn't have
traded that pick. But Keon Coleman two years ago was
still on the Michigan State basketball team. All right. He
wasn't training for football. He's not super muscled up yet.
He's got room to get bigger to put on muscle mass.
He's only going to get better. He's still a pretty
young dude. I mean, I totally understood it. Again, put
(09:34):
all ten of these guys in a basket and draw
a name out, and you tell me who the good
one is going to be. But I understood why the
Bills thought this guy for our play style in Buffalo
in the AFC East makes a lot of sense.
Speaker 1 (09:45):
I love the products of good coaching, and Kean Coleman's
best coach may have been Tom Is. Though Lad McConkie
goes to pick after Coleman. Your reporter's notebook Tom includes
an item from an offensive coordinator in the NFL about
Lad McConkie that tells Chargers fan, look, you cannot replace
Keenan Allen the man, but you may be able to
replace his numbers with a guy like Lad McConkie.
Speaker 2 (10:06):
Lab McConkie, you know, is a guy who doesn't necessarily
look the part when you meet him. He's always got
a big smile on his face, but something flips when
he puts the helmet on. And he was very productive
in the biggest moments in national title games for Georgia.
He was able to step up. There were some medical
questions about lab McConkie in terms of you know, some
teams flagged his back. It was nothing fatal, it was just,
(10:29):
you know, that was a concern when you're projecting these
guys out for the next five ten years. He's not
the biggest guy. He does put himself in positions where
he takes hits. He's got some pre existing stuff. Is
that going to be a problem.
Speaker 1 (10:39):
Oh my god, say something positive.
Speaker 2 (10:40):
But for the Chargers to trade up and get him,
you know, I was asked I was hosting The Rich
Eisen Show and one of the bits today was between
Lad McConkie, Romadunza and Melik Neighbors. Who's most likely to
be Rookie of the Year? I said, is Lad mcconkee,
because Roma Dunay's got to got to compete for targets.
Malik Neighbors, we don't totally even know who's throwing in
(11:01):
the football right now. Lad mccacky for Jim Harbaugh, Greg Roman,
those guys to go and get him suggests they've got
a very specific plan for the type of offense that
they want to run. You know, if they run a
bunch of condensed splits. That's something that plays to lab
McConkie's strengths. I think he would have been a good
fit in places like Detroit two. That style of offense
suits him really well. You know they're going to throw
(11:23):
the football, they're going to want to run it too.
And that's Greg Roman's whole background here. But you know, JK. Dobbins,
Gus Edwards, they didn't invest a ton in the position.
They'vested a high second rounder in Laddi McConkie that I
take as a sign that they're going to get on
the ball a lot.
Speaker 1 (11:37):
You are listening to NFL Total Access to podcast Andrew
Lavy with NFL Insider Tom pellisera twenty one years. You've
been doing this. We see you at drafts and owners meetings,
hosting the Rich Eisen Show, as you mentioned before, appearing
on everything from Dan Patrick to Jim Rome. You're the
co host of The Insiders on NFL Network. You're in
all of these rooms, Tom, where the NFL does what
it does, from the front office to the locker rooms,
(11:58):
from the tunnel to the sidelines and press rooms and
Pro bowls and playoff games and Super Bowls. Is your
job as awesome as it sounds.
Speaker 2 (12:06):
I mean, listen, I never take those things for granted.
And I think that last year in particular, for a
variety of reasons, I really reflected hard on that. And yeah,
I mean it is cool. It's not what people think
it is. It's not just hey, you get free tickets.
Speaker 1 (12:22):
It's like, no, it's not a steady stream of glamour. Cool.
Speaker 2 (12:26):
No. I mean that too. I mean when you're grinding
it out. I mean, the best way to describe my job,
just as an insider and somebody who news matters to,
is you know, during free agency, I moved to an
air mattress in the basement because I'm sleeping three hours
a night. I've got my air pods in. If the
phone rings at one in the morning, I've got to
try to answer it. I had one this year. Me
(12:47):
and Ian were going to report in the morning. We
had to wait till the morning. But that Sam Darnold
was signing with the Vikings pretty significant one, you know,
potential starting quarterbacks signing with the team.
Speaker 1 (12:55):
And ten million is a specific number that says a lot,
or at least we think it does.
Speaker 2 (13:00):
I at least that there was competition for his services,
but so I had my AirPods in, but I was
so tired my AirPods fell out and I did not
wake up. L Ian woke up to the text or
the call that we were waiting for, and he put
it out for both of us, and I woke up like, Hey,
we broke Sam Darnold. But that's a big part of
a big part of the job is just the availability
it does. It does get taxing, but I wouldn't trade
(13:21):
it for anything.
Speaker 1 (13:22):
What do sports media hopefuls listening need to know about
the journey many of them are about to take, because look,
veteran NFL players are welcoming new teammates right now, and
the best leaders amongst those vets will help prospects become
better pros. What's a piece of advice you can give
reporter prospects, media hopefuls. What's the pro tip to your
twenty year old self?
Speaker 2 (13:40):
Well, I think that you know there are college kids,
even high school kids who reach out to me, and
I try to get back to everybody because I remember
what it was like being that age and have no idea.
I'm impressed in a lot of cases by how much
not everybody, but how much some of them know and
how far ahead of the game they are, and they'll
tell me things about like what they're doing trying to do.
I'm like, yeah, that's exactly what you should be doing.
(14:02):
There's other people who don't get it at all, but
there's some of them who I think. It's just you know,
when I was coming up two thousand and three was
when I graduated from BC, and you know, at that point,
like blogs only were in their infancy, and there weren't
you know, website only type publications. YouTube as far as i'mware,
it did not exist. So there were all these barriers
(14:23):
of entry where you had to go and work. You know,
I worked at a radio station. That was my first job,
Kfan Radio in Minneapolis. I was making eight bucks an hour,
twenty hours a week with no benefits, but it was
I worked a lot more than the twenty hours, and
I put in the time and I was not good
at it, but I you know, figured out kind of
over time what I do well and what I should
(14:44):
build off of. And that's an ongoing growth process. I'm
still figuring that out every day. So what I always
tell people who are young and up and coming is
you got to find your voice there's a thousand other people,
a million other people who want the exact same job
as you. So what is it that's gonna make you
stand out? What's the thing that you can do that
nobody else can do? And the only way to figure
(15:06):
that out is to get reps. It's to write a lot,
read a lot, figure out what other people that you
respect and that you like in the industry, why do
you like them? And then how can you apply that
to yourself? And I always compare it to like a
pass rusher watching other pass rushers, like a wide receiver
watching other wide receivers. You can never be that other person.
(15:29):
But if you just go, man, I really like that, Okay,
why do I like them? Why do I think that
they're really good? Okay, I'm gonna try to integrate this.
I'm gonna put my own twist on it. It's not
imitating them, it's not talking like them, But it's why
do I respect them? Okay? Can I get better at that?
Is that something I can apply that to me? Is it?
It's a It's a rep based thing. Not everybody's gonna
(15:50):
be the same. I mean, I think of all the
different people that you know, I either came up with
or that you know I read and watched growing up,
and now it's cool. You know when you meet some
of the those people now and you know you're you're
talking with them and having those conversations, but it's you know,
you had to go through that process. I was bad, man,
I was not I was not good at that.
Speaker 1 (16:11):
I'm not buying that. But let's translate what Tom just said.
Find your voice, have a voice, have a voice worth sharing.
But you're gonna have to listen and watch others in
order to help you find that voice. And in the end,
I think Tom, you said it. If you want to
do it, then do it. I mean the just do it.
Speaker 2 (16:27):
It's a big there's no other use.
Speaker 1 (16:29):
Well played Nike for whoever came up with that one,
because the fact is it kind of all does come
down to that. You want to do the thing, then
do the damn thing. Why Boston College did you go
to BC games? Was it journalism? HYBC?
Speaker 2 (16:41):
I was a finance major. Initially I didn't know if
I wanted to see finance or journalism, so I applied
to journalism schools too, and it came down to Maryland
or BC Maryland for journalism. BC for Finance, chose BC
for Finance hard program to get into. I took one
E conclass one session and went to the registrar as
always said I need to switch to communications. They said
(17:02):
you can't. You can't switch for a year, and so
I just I dropped that class. Fine, yeah, exactly.
Speaker 1 (17:09):
I took all.
Speaker 2 (17:10):
I took all my arts and sciences class and started
taking some of those classes that I was able to
get into even though I was in a major it's
a liberal arts school. But yeah, that was that was
it was. You know, my grandpa was a banker. I
always thought that I'd like to do that. But I
was also really into sports. My dad, actually, one of
his brothers had found the old uh we had a
family fantasy football league going back to like probably late eighties,
(17:32):
early nineties, and he found uh like if he readout
of the newsletter. Because I was technically the I was
the commissioner. It was you know, kind of a running joke,
but I was the commission at least would write like
a newsletter about the league when I'm like thirteen years old,
and it's so funny because like I'm reading it, I'm
being like, you know, the names for one thing are
hilarious because like if you just think back, like who
the big players were in nineteen ninety four, and it's
(17:54):
like I was remembering these games, like oh, Emmitt Smith
had six touchdowns and again like I remember that game.
It's it's it's fun to look back on. But I
always had that passion for it. I you know, thought
growing up I wanted to be a baseball player or whatever.
I wasn't good enough to do those things. So next
best thing going, you know, in my market, go be
the next Sid Hartman, Dan Burero, Patrick ROYCEI you know,
(18:14):
that's that's kind of the path I followed.
Speaker 1 (18:16):
Well, played nine straight Bowl games for BC from nineteen
ninety nine to two thousand and seven, eight straight wins.
By the way, Music City, Alamo, all that stuff. Do
you miss the salad days of the Big East?
Speaker 2 (18:26):
I mean I remember being there when BC won the
Big East Tournament in men's basketball in two thousand and one.
Troy Bell, who was also from the Minneapolis Era Correct
and was a first round pick by the Celtics, was
the leader of that team. And so like going to
Madison Square Garden and watching them, you know, cut down
the Nets. That was a cool experience. Yeah, I mean
I miss I miss you know, just the old rivalries
(18:50):
and stuff like that. You know, they had pretty good
rivalries with some of those schools.
Speaker 1 (18:54):
Pitch, I grew up Georgetown's Miami Sea, I get it.
Two Eagles selected in this year's draft pop quiz? Who
were they in? Who picked them?
Speaker 2 (19:01):
Christian Mahogany went in like the fifth round, sixth round two,
sixth round Lions cut.
Speaker 1 (19:06):
To the Lions correct?
Speaker 2 (19:07):
And third rounder d back oh Elijah Jones.
Speaker 1 (19:12):
Elijah Jones went to the Arizona Cardinals. Correct. Tom. Let's
turn done.
Speaker 2 (19:18):
That was pretty good.
Speaker 1 (19:18):
Let's turn back to our draft recap. I reject the
draft grades process, Tom, that's a lie. I don't. I
don't reject it. I just don't think it has a
ton of value. And you said something earlier today, which
is the reason why we're going to find out. Time
will tell about these draft classes and nothing more. Chiefs
got failing grades for making that horrendously aggressive and patently
stupid move. Listener, you remember to climb seventeen spots and
draft an unorthodox stat gobbling project from Texas Tech named
(19:42):
oh right, Patrick mahomes all to say, we don't know
how good these classes are until time on the field
tells undeniable truths. Till then it's speculation, it's hypothesis, it's conjecture.
But we can tom judge. I think how well teams
did with regards to addressing roster needs, and you can
help us identify opportunities taken another's missed in the draft.
To wit there's a team some may be surprised. Makes
(20:04):
your list of draft success stories the kind of forgotten
this year anyway, Carolina Panthers.
Speaker 2 (20:10):
Yeah, I brought that up on TV. I thought that
that was really interesting watching a first time GM and
Dan Morgan, first time coach Dave Canalis, the way they
maneuvered the board normally for the worst team in the league.
The benefit of that is you have the number one
pick and you can either take somebody a franchise changing
type of player, or you trade it and you get
a boatload of picks. They didn't have that because they
traded it last year for Bryce Young, not thinking at
(20:31):
that time that they were going to be number one
and they would have a new GM and a new
head coach. But you look at what they did in
the draft. They need weapons for Bryce Young, they trade
up one spot to get Xavier League at with the
last pick in the first round, they trade down with
the second of their second rounders that they had acquired.
They acquired one of those in the Brian Burns trade,
the second one. They trade down from that, pick up
(20:52):
a second round pick next year, and then trade back
up again with a late round pick or mid round
pick to go get Jonathan Brooks, who's might have been
a first roundel best running back in the draft from
Texas but was coming off of the torn acl should
be ready before training camp. Fourth round, they got the
top pick in that too, to Tavian Sanders, another Texas guy.
It's a player that a lot of people thought was
going to go earlier than that, maybe second third round.
(21:13):
So you get a tight end to wide receiver and
a running back. Will any of these picks work out
to your point, we don't know. But you also pick
up a twenty twenty five second rounder. It's kind of
like a mini version what Monti Austin Ford did last year,
where you try to get some building block pieces but
also pick up more. Dan Morgan didn't have a lot
of a lot to work with, but it seems like
made the most, at least in terms of getting additional
(21:33):
value out of those picks.
Speaker 1 (21:34):
Money Austin Ford, of course, the GM for the Cardinals,
Steelers getting a lot of love, Rams getting some love,
Bears getting a lot of love. Is there a clear
winner in this draft or do you reject that question?
Speaker 2 (21:43):
No, I think that it's impossible to say. I think
that on paper. You look at the Bears, who only
had four picks going into the draft. They get Cata Williams,
they get Roma. What they did with them, they've built,
you know, it's always with the young quarterbacks, it's build
the nest around them. It's given them the best environment
to succeed. You signed DeAndre Swift, you trade for Keenan Allen,
you draft Roma Dounze, you give him Shane Waldron who
(22:04):
you know, there's gonna be debate about that and how
it works out. But he was a guy who had
worked for Belichick, had worked for McVeagh, had worked for
Pete Carroll, has worked with different types of quarterbacks, and
Caleb can do a lot of different things on the field.
I understood why they made that higher. I understood why
they retain Chris Morgan because he's a really good run
game guy, the offensive line coach, and they already got
a top ten caliber defense with Matt Eberflus calling the plays.
(22:26):
I mean, I think that they put themselves in a
good position. I just think the whole NFC North is fascinating.
With JJ McCarthy going to Minnesota, the Lions being as
good as they are, the Packers look like they're on
the ascent, and they pick up by the way, another
running back, Marshawn Lloyd to join Josh Jacobs AJ Dillon
in that backfield Must See TV.
Speaker 1 (22:42):
In the answer, he had a question about Marshall Lloyd
coming up. I know we're running short on time. We
interrupt this podcast to file a police report because a
couple of teams are guilty of theft. Coop, wake up
a little drama here, please, very nice, very quickly. Let's
talk steals of the draft. Is it's fair to say
that in a draft in which offensive players went one
(23:03):
through fourteen, a whole bunch of defensive players may turn
out to be steals of the twenty twenty four draft
based on well, at least for starters getting picked lower
than expected. Guys like Gerson, Newton Braden Fisk, kool Aid, McKinstry,
and an offensive player somebody that Tom mentioned earlier, USC
(23:24):
running back Marshawn Lloyd, who goes to the Packers with
the eighty eighth pick of the third round. And Tom
genuinely believes that this player is better than his draft position,
and he may be a perfect pick and may prove
to be one of the steals of the draft for
the Green Bay Packers. You are listening to NFL Total
Access to podcast Andrew Lavy with NFL Insider and first
(23:46):
time podcast guests Tom Pellisero The Pride of a Dina
a Dina, Minnesota. Tom, you covered both the Vikings and
the Packers in your career. Better stadium food, Packers or
Vikings go.
Speaker 2 (23:59):
Ooh in the press box or as a fan? Oh interesting,
I've never been to a game at Lambeau as a fan.
Very solid press box fair there, very solid press box
fair in Minneapolis A lot of times a carving station
for a night game, omelets for for noon games. Gives
the advantage to US Banks Stadium Boom.
Speaker 1 (24:20):
Vikings win at better draft Packers or Vikings.
Speaker 2 (24:23):
I mean the Vikings managed to get their quarterback without
giving up the second first rounder with Dallas Turner the
Packers draft though, too, Marshawn Lloyd being a piece of that.
Speaker 1 (24:32):
Potentially a push on food, potentially a push on the draft.
Let's talk Dallas. Cowboys made a trade, got some capital,
made some necessary online picks, got themselves a fascinating edge
prospect in marshaw neland a linebacker, a wide receiver, even
a corner, but no running back. Tom Pella Sero, concerned
and curious Cowboys fan wants to know, is the return
of Zeke Elliott enough a story you broke?
Speaker 2 (24:51):
By the way, Yeah, Zeke was. That was the wheels
were in motion before the draft was over. So everybody's
sitting there going why didn't they just do whatever it took.
This is why, because they knew that Edgy coming back
and listen, this was a need draft for the Cowboys.
You lose your starting left tackle, you're starting center, to
your pass rushers, and your running back. You need to
fill those positions. You can't fill them all. Well, what
do they do? Maneland fills the edge rusher role. They
(25:12):
get bb He potentially can be the center. Tyler Geyton
potentially can be the tackle that you need. I'll tell
you this. They had running backs on the board that
they were willing to go and get. The board didn't
fall that way. If you trade down, for instance, in
the second round, and go to you know, you feel
better about the value for the running back. Later now,
maybe you're not getting Marshaw Neeland. If you trade around
(25:34):
in the third, fourth rounds, maybe you're not in position
to get bib. They had to make some tough decisions.
I know this from covering Mike McCarthy a long time.
He believes in building through the lines. You get better
as a football team with the big guys. They got
several of them in this draft. That's going to be
the hallmark what Dallas did.
Speaker 1 (25:48):
Cowboys fans worried about your running back room. By the way,
go look up your depth chart. You've got seven guys
in the running back room. Currently. Patriots select Drake May
at three. There are wildly differing opinions about this player,
Tom and your estimation Drake May is a good fit.
That's what you said. Why scheme coaching the division? His
own upside? What are we looking at?
Speaker 2 (26:05):
It's based on my conversation with coaches and scouts. I
don't watch a lick of tape on these guys. I
see highlights like everybody else does. I'll catch a little
bit of a game on Saturdays. But when you talk
to people within the league, everybody, a lot of people,
I should say, would tell you Drake May is a
good fit for New England. It's because he's a guy
who needs time. They've got Chakobe Brissett there, good dude
in the room. He's gonna help Drake May come along
(26:26):
and there won't be as much pressure to put Drake
May on the field because listen, he's a young guy
who is coming from a really simplistic offense, so he
needs time. It's also when you look at him physically
AFC East. You think Tom Brady, you think Josh Allen,
you think big dudes who win the weather's bad are
going to be able to hold up in that division,
play the tough games December and January. Drake May has
(26:46):
those physical characteristics. I thought that it made sense, clearly
that was the guy they honed in on. It's the
guy the Vikings wanted if they traded up. It's probably
the guy the Giants wanted if they traded up. Everything
fell into place. New England had offers. None of them
were good enough. They take Drake May. Will find out
maybe not in twenty twenty four, although history I'll tell
you maybe twenty twenty four more likely if things go
well twenty twenty five.
Speaker 1 (27:06):
Can you help puzzled and perplexed Giants fan who thought
a quarterback move was coming in? While Giants fan may
believe in the talents of Melik Neighbors, they may be
worried about the man throwing Neighbors the ball. What's the
story of the Giants draft for you?
Speaker 2 (27:16):
Well, the Giants we're absolutely trying to trade into number three.
Most people believe those for Drake May. The Giants will
never tell you a straight answer on exactly what that
they were.
Speaker 1 (27:23):
Going to get, so they won't tell it.
Speaker 2 (27:25):
But in the end, you know, they rendered their verdict
on JJ McCarthy, and that'll be one of the lingering stories.
If he goes to Minnesota and has instant success here,
Giants fans will be going nuts. Butll why didn't we
take him? If JJ McCarthy doesn't play, or if he's mediocre,
Milik Neighbors an absolute dog on the field, are really
really good product? You know that's gonna work that's fascinating.
Speaker 1 (27:44):
I hope you were listening. Listener, Tom Pelisaera just told
us exactly what we haven't heard enough of. That we
got a scouting report from the Giants on JJ McCarthy
when they picked Malik Neighbors, and if they're right, then
the Vikings may have a problem. Let's turn it very
quickly to the Vikings a couple to fires. They moved
up a spot for JJ McCarthy, made that trade with
the Jets, then snagged Dallas Turner, as you mentioned before,
(28:05):
who was available arguably later than expected. Is it possible
that Dallas Turner, a young man you spoke with at
the Alabama Pro Day, is the Vikings pick we should
be talking about.
Speaker 2 (28:15):
Well, I think that nothing's more important than the quarterback.
But in terms of if you're right now making a
decision on who's going to be more impactful, you'd lean
Dallas Turner because you know he's going to be on
the field. We'll see what happens with JJ McCarthy more
pro ready than any draft pick, just in terms of
he's played under center pro style offense. But Dallas Turner
is one of the top They were ordered different ways
on people's boards, but definitely one of the top three
pass rushers. No more Daniel Hunter. Plug this guy in
(28:38):
and go.
Speaker 1 (28:39):
Is the Raiders draft? Was the Raiders draft a mess?
Let's stay positive. Could you make the argument that it
wasn't three O line picks and the best tight end
in the draft they got at thirteen? Gardner Minshew in
the house, Aid O'Connell in the house. Raiders fans are bummed.
They're bummed that they didn't make a move for a
quarterback themselves, But clearly that was a difficult move to
(28:59):
make when you consider what the Falcons did and the
fact that the Patriots stuck at three. Can you give
Raiders fans hope?
Speaker 2 (29:06):
Everybody in the league thought Michael Pennix was your mark
to go to the Raiders, whether they traded up, traded back,
whatever he comes off the board in the surprise move
to Atlanta. There certainly is a level of disappointment that
even would exist for certain people in that building because
Michael Penix had a lot of fans. But I also
tell you they are really fired up about brock Bowers.
There were people who told me around the league one
of the only players they would have considered trading up
(29:27):
for was brock Bowers. He's probably more of a wide
receiver than he is a tight end, but he is
a matchup nightmare. That's a guy who's going to make
an instantaneous impact, which is good for the Raiders because
now you're talking about your quarterback room being Gardner Minshew
and Aidan O'Connell. Minshew got fifteen million dollars guaranteed. He
probably is the starter. Antonio Pierce's are also said, you
(29:47):
got to go through Aiden Connell O'Connell to get that spot.
O'Connell is a specific type. He is a pocket passer
all the way. You would think this coaching staff would
like somebody with a little bit more mobility, but O'Connell
under tough circumstances. Yeah, we competed. They won some games
with them, and there's something to be said.
Speaker 1 (30:02):
For and they did bolster the O line in the draft.
Your favorite pick of the whole draft, Tom, It's hard.
It's hard to ask that. I mean, you know, forgive
the exhale, but I know that you're going to be
answering that question on TA the broadcast later on today,
So I'm just teeing you up. This is a rehearsal.
Who's your favorite pick? Do you have one?
Speaker 2 (30:18):
My favorite pick in the entire draft?
Speaker 1 (30:22):
That's a tough Okay, let's ask this one player who
dropped lower than expected and may just take out his
revenge on the thirty one teams that didn't call his name.
Speaker 2 (30:29):
Oh Keon Coleman certainly one of the guys in that category.
Speaker 1 (30:32):
A few final words on the draft, starting with the
final pick of the draft. Mister irrelevant this year, drum
roll please. Jalen Key, cornerback Atabama Brock Purdy has forever
changed our feelings about the last pick. Y'all. You know it.
I know it. It is empirically true. It's no longer
an awe. Isn't that nice moment when we see the
last guy off the board? Now it's a aw man.
(30:55):
I wonder what that kid can do? Jalen Key, spotlight
as you and you thoroughly deserve it. What do you
have floating around this year? What's your biggest takeaway from
the twenty twenty four NFL Draft.
Speaker 2 (31:06):
Well, besides some of those surprises, I mean, the Pennix
pick is the number one thing and all the tentacles
of that. Are we going to be thinking about Kirk
Cousins getting traded next year. Is Kirk Cousin's going to
go along with it. He's got a no trade clause.
It's all the quarterback fall out. To me, That's where
this entire league is driven. Is Caleb Williams is going
to live up to the height? How quickly can Jade
and Daniels play and can he stay on the field
taking those hilacious hits that he does. Is Drake may
(31:28):
really going to get the red shirt year that he
probably needs, what happens in the JJ McCarthy, Sam Darnold competition.
And then Bo Nicks, who we haven't talked about, going
to Denver, another guy who ever won in the league.
You talk to anyone, they're like, so Bonex is going
to Denver, right, But a lot of people thought this
is a trade down or maybe maybe a second round
if Denver could get a second round pick. Here him
competing with Zach Wilson and complete with Jared Stidham. Those
(31:50):
are there going to be the driving storylines for the
course of this offseason. There's obviously some other stuff, like
to the forty nineers at some point make a move
with those wide receivers, at this point, you'd say probably not,
because they're contending tea and you can't get anybody else
to help you with twenty twenty five draft picks in
this season. Those are probably the things I'm left with.
Speaker 1 (32:06):
Here's a question I wanted to ask you, and I
know you have to go. We're at the point now
where I'm going to be asking for forgiveness, not permission
for keeping you this long. But I'm really interested in
what you do for a living, and I know a
lot of our listeners are too. You gather a lot
of information, and it's important to remember, listener, we call
ourselves NFL Total Access. Those points of access come from
(32:26):
people like Tom. Tom is connected, and those connections reap
inside information. He's an NFL insider, not just titularly actually,
but with so much coming your way, how do you
decide what to deliver and what to digest? Because some
of what you gather becomes the stuff of headlines for us.
Other material, I assume becomes the stuff of context for you.
Is it fair to say that you're often in a
(32:48):
position to decide what is news and what's unnecessary.
Speaker 2 (32:52):
Yeah, I think that there's a lot of those occasions
I think that over time, what you realize is all
those little what I call half scoops, the little bits
of information that then exposes certain things, are less valuable
in the big picture than getting the whole thing.
Speaker 1 (33:07):
Do you learn and keep those to yourself.
Speaker 2 (33:10):
I think the ninety five percent of what I know
I don't report, certainly, not in real time. After things happen,
then you've got the backstory and I can explain to
you how JJ McCarthy got to Minnesota. You're not going
to use those things up front. I mean, that's liten.
Different people do it different ways. Some people hang up
the phone or get a text message and immediately put
it on the internet. I'm not in that category, you know,
(33:31):
but I get why different people do it. It doesn't
mean that everything's the right way. Like I said, everybody's
got to find their own voice. There's no two Tom Pellicero's,
there's no two of you know, Andrew Leavy, There's no
two of anybody out there. I can't do a podcast
the way that you do a podcast. We have our
own style.
Speaker 1 (33:45):
By stumbling a lot and having the editor fix it later.
Last question, and I mean it, I've got one hundred
more for you, but one more to go. What's the
most valuable currency in your line of work? Information or trust?
Speaker 2 (33:55):
Well, they go hand in hand. You don't get information
without the trust. If people don't think that they can
tell you things and say hey, you can't ever say this,
but you need to know this to understand where we're
coming from. You know, if you burn somebody on that,
you're never going to get that back. And I see
it happen all the time. Again, everybody's got to do
things their own way. Everybody's got different priorities on things.
But I will always play the long game. I'm never
(34:16):
going to burn somebody for the one thing, knowing that
then that could take away. You know, I care about
people above all else. It's not just it's not transactional
to me, Like I'd rather have a good relationship than
you know, toward somebody for one scoop. But there's times
where you listen. You know, if somebody promised you, hey,
I will let you know when it's good to go,
But somebody else gives you the information and then you're
(34:36):
sitting there going, I gotta When John Gruden resigns as
the Raiders coach, and I've got it and I'm waiting
for another callback, and I'm like, I gotta do this
right now. Those are tough spots to be in, but
you know, you figure everything out, and a lot of
times you're doing it under high pressure, high stress situation.
Speaker 1 (34:52):
Good dude and badass rarely occupy the same space they
do with today's special guest, Tom Pelsero, I've been wanting
to get you all year. I'm so glad you made
time for us today. Thank you, buddy. I want to
thank today's special guest, Tom Pellisera, and I want to
invite you the listener to join us next time, when
former Super Bowl winning front office exec Mark Ross will
be here for part three of our draft recap series.
(35:14):
I want to ask him about drafting for your division,
because that's a thing, and I also want to ask
him about the seemingly competing ideas of drafting for right
now and drafting for the future. There are a couple
of teams who managed to do both. Will tell you
who they are. That's next time. Till then, Thank you
so much for listening, and chau fa now. NFL Total
(35:40):
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