The Official Jets Podcast hits the road as Eric Allen checks in from the 2024 League Meetings in Orlando. He is joined first by ESPN Senior NFL Insider Adam Schefter and then visits with NFL Network Insider Tom Pelissero.
1:00 - Adam Schefter breaks down the Jets' moves in free agency
5:30 - Schefter's thoughts on Aaron Rodgers returning off the injury
9:55 - Update on the latest surrounding Zach Wilson
11:30 - How free agency could shape the Jets' draft strategy
15:30 - Tom Pelissero provides an update on the rules changes being discussed
21:40 - Pelissero comments on additions of WR Mike Williams and new O-Line faces
25:30 - What the Jets need from Aaron Rodgers in 2024
27:45 - The latest on free agent edge rusher Jadeveon Clowney
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:04):
It's always a joy here on the Official Jets Podcast
when we are joined by ESPN's Adam Schefter. Adam, so
great to see you down here at the league meetings
of Orlando, Florida.
Speaker 2 (00:15):
Nice to see you, Eric, Nice to be with you again.
Speaker 1 (00:17):
How is everything going for you progressing here this offseason?
Speaker 3 (00:21):
Well, you don't have an offseason.
Speaker 2 (00:23):
It never stops.
Speaker 4 (00:24):
The league gets to be more and more relentless. I
think we're through the thicker free agency. That's a good thing.
Jets have made some moves and now I think it's
on to the draft for most people.
Speaker 1 (00:36):
What do you make of some of those moves that
juts GM Joe Douglas has made.
Speaker 4 (00:40):
They've added a lot of really compelling players, and I
think you could ask this question for almost all of them.
Speaker 2 (00:47):
Can they and will they stay healthy?
Speaker 4 (00:50):
And if you could tell me right now that all
these guys are gonna stay healthy this year, then they're
gonna have a great year of the Jets.
Speaker 2 (00:56):
And if they can't stay healthy, they're not.
Speaker 1 (01:00):
Would you have been surprised if I told it before
free agency started in the league year commenced that the
Jets were going to land John Simpson, then trade for
Morgan Moses and then get Tyron Smith at the end
of that, well, I would.
Speaker 4 (01:10):
Have been surprised probably by those three names, but I
would not have been surprised at the effort and energy
and resources put into the offensive line. Look, we knew
that they were going to do something to beef up
the offensive line and improve.
Speaker 2 (01:22):
It, right no matter what.
Speaker 4 (01:23):
Now, it was just a combination or question of what
was going to be the combination that they were going
to go get.
Speaker 2 (01:29):
And I didn't know that that would.
Speaker 4 (01:30):
Be the trio Morgan Moses, Tyron Smith and John Simpson,
but that's what it turned out to be. And again,
if Tyron Smith is healthy and he hasn't been, that's
a great move. Morgan Moos has been pretty reliable and
John Simpson'll be reliable, but Tyron Smith, we don't know.
Mike Williams is coming off an acl you think he's
going to be healthy, but we still have to see
Aaron Rodgers coming.
Speaker 2 (01:51):
Off the corner of torn Achilles.
Speaker 4 (01:53):
We think he's gonna be healthy, but you have to
wait and see, and so there's a lot of wait
and sees.
Speaker 2 (01:57):
And while you wait and see, you won.
Speaker 4 (02:00):
Well, if they're playing these guys have a chance to
be really good and really competitive, and if one or
two or three of them are not playing well, you
saw what happens last year when there's injuries, right.
Speaker 1 (02:10):
Did you like the move picking up Mike Williams, the
guy who's been one of the best deep threats in
the National Football League when's been on the field.
Speaker 2 (02:18):
When he's healthy, he's tremendous.
Speaker 4 (02:20):
And I had a chance to speak to him Saturday
from my podcast, and he believes he's going to be
ready for opening Day.
Speaker 2 (02:27):
He's excited about the idea.
Speaker 4 (02:30):
He's still hadn't spoken to Aaron Rodgers on Saturday, so said, hey,
I still had his number, I would give it to you.
Speaker 3 (02:38):
What do you make of his personality? He's so engaging,
isn't he?
Speaker 2 (02:41):
My nice guy?
Speaker 4 (02:42):
Yeah, very nice guy, like I said, first time I
talked him at length like that, And he's excited about
the idea of being in New York. He loved his
ham and egg and cheese sandwich.
Speaker 3 (02:53):
How about that.
Speaker 2 (02:54):
He's looking forward to more of.
Speaker 4 (02:55):
Them as we talked about the podcast, and he was
a very nice, engaging guy.
Speaker 3 (03:00):
You'll like this.
Speaker 1 (03:00):
I actually went to my local pizza place the other
day and then said, hey, why are you doing the
egg sandwiches? How about the pizza?
Speaker 3 (03:06):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (03:07):
Yeah, there's a lot of different things you could do.
Speaker 1 (03:09):
Right, Yeah, no doubt about it.
Speaker 2 (03:10):
You know you want to come to New York, You're
not going to lack for good food. Yeah, that's true.
New York and New Jersey.
Speaker 4 (03:15):
I include New York metropolitan area.
Speaker 2 (03:17):
I want to be very clear.
Speaker 1 (03:18):
Of course Long Island the city I mean in New Jersey. Yeah,
everybody's included Aaron Rodgers, like you said, forty you're gonna
enter a season when he's going to be forty one
in December. It feels much differently being here at lead
meetings than it did last spring because we were talking
about what's going to happen done. Yeah right, that was
(03:41):
the story. In fact, I remember true story.
Speaker 4 (03:44):
I was checking into my hotel room at the Biltmore
in Arizona, and I was walking up the pathway to
get to the room with the Jets general manager Joe Douglas.
Speaker 2 (03:53):
There you go, and who's coming right at us?
Speaker 4 (03:56):
And we stop and talk but the Packers general manager
Brian Goodikins. Wow, there was the three of us. As
I was checking into the hotel and I thought, wow,
this is interesting. And obviously the deal got done, if
I remember correctly, two three weeks later, the trade got consummated.
Speaker 2 (04:12):
Now, of course tray got consummated.
Speaker 1 (04:16):
And.
Speaker 4 (04:18):
It was obviously a huge deal. Obviously a different energy
around the whole thing. And now the question again, as
we've talked about, is can he stay healthy?
Speaker 2 (04:26):
Can he be healthy? Will he be healthy? If he is,
he runs it on the field. We were there that night.
Speaker 4 (04:33):
And it was unbelievable the energy in the building and
then boom, all that energy was sucked right out of
the building the moment he went down.
Speaker 1 (04:40):
You've been to so many events, what was that night?
Like September eleventh, There aren't many that have.
Speaker 4 (04:51):
Gone that high in emotion, infinished tele And I remember
at the end of the game. You know, I live
in the New York area and I have so many
friends who are Jet fans, diehardship, and they texted me
all excited.
Speaker 2 (05:03):
That they won the game and overtime, and I'm.
Speaker 4 (05:05):
Thinking, you don't get it. You won the battle and
lost the war like it's over.
Speaker 2 (05:13):
It's over.
Speaker 4 (05:14):
Yeah, you enjoyed tonight because there aren't going to be
many more happy nights in this season, and that was
how I felt that night, and I remember feeling that
as I went on the Late Sports Center with Scott
Van Pelt and getting the word that they believed it
was an achilles and obviously needed the test to confirm
that it was torn, which came back the next morning.
(05:36):
But it was surreal because when he ran out with
that flag on that day, with that energy, it was unbelievable.
And then minutes later he's down and you know that
it's serious, and you're like, man, so just a night
with incredible highs and lows.
Speaker 1 (05:55):
He's always carried such a chip on his shoulder throughout
his career. What do you think the mentality of the
mindset's going to be like for him now this time? Right?
Speaker 4 (06:05):
Eric, what I would say, I don't really care about
the chip, and the chip has helped him get to
where he is and be who he is, But the
fact of the matter is the chip isn't going to
I don't believe play a part in whether he can
stay on the field, and that's what they need him
to do. They need him to be on the field
and to be healthy, and if he can do that,
(06:26):
then everything's great, and you just want him out there.
You want to see what he can do with this
organization and these players in this offense. And if he
could do that, then that's great. The chip doesn't enter
into that in my mind.
Speaker 1 (06:39):
That's Roberts. Sila is going to be addressed in the
media at the FC Coach's breakfast here Monday morning. He
actually talked earlier today and he said that it's been
a quiet offseason for the Jets.
Speaker 2 (06:52):
Would you agree, So far, so good for them.
Speaker 4 (06:55):
I mean again, last year, everybody was waiting for them
to trade for Aaron Rodgers, and so now Aaron Rodgers
is there. Now you're waiting to see how they shore
up the positions around Aaron Rodgers.
Speaker 2 (07:05):
And they've done a good job with that.
Speaker 4 (07:07):
But with all the respects signing John Simpson and trinding
for Morgan Moses their headlines absolutely, but they're not the
big splash. Oh my god, look what happened here the
way that landing Aaron Rodgers would be.
Speaker 2 (07:20):
So they've done what they're supposed to do.
Speaker 4 (07:23):
Joe Douglas has done a nice job adding the pieces
he should and again, can they all stay on the
field and stay healthy.
Speaker 1 (07:32):
Yeah, it's somebody so familiar with the deals all throughout
the league, no surprise. I would imagine the way he
structured these contracts with some of these guys incentives.
Speaker 2 (07:43):
I mean, listen, you know the reason for that, obviously.
Speaker 4 (07:46):
I think Aaron Rodgers is the impetus for a lot
of that because they saw what he went through and
they don't want to bring in another veteran have him
go down for injury and be on the hook for
all that money. So the idea is, if they play,
and they play well, they're gonna earn what should be
their salaries. And if they don't play, the Jets have
a little bit of a built in cushion there to
(08:09):
protect themselves in the event that these guys don't play
the extended season.
Speaker 2 (08:14):
That's the idea.
Speaker 4 (08:15):
And by the way, well, if Aaron Rodgers is here,
isn't here, would they still be adding Tyron Smith? I
don't know. Would they be structuring his deal, Mike Williams
deal the way they are.
Speaker 2 (08:24):
I don't know. Would Mike Williams come with that Aaron
Rodgers probably not.
Speaker 4 (08:27):
So, you know, it's all stemming from and off of
Aaron Rodgers, his presence and what he's been through.
Speaker 1 (08:35):
You're hoping he plays seventeen games and the Jets fans
I would love to see them want to see him
in the postseason for the first time in green and white.
Speaker 2 (08:44):
What does the player trot thirteen years?
Speaker 1 (08:46):
It's going back to twenty ten the Divisional playoffs, Divisional
playoffs time when they took down the Patriots Jillett's Stadium.
Speaker 2 (08:54):
I remember that game. What do you think?
Speaker 1 (08:57):
God bless you, sir? To Rod Taller. The reason why
I bring him into the conversation is you said it
was over after Aaron went down. Do you still like
the move if Rodgers does have to miss a couple
games whatever.
Speaker 2 (09:13):
Well, I like Tyrod Taylor.
Speaker 4 (09:14):
I think he's a good quarterback and he's never gotten
a fair shake and he's never been able to play
an extended season. I've always felt like he was capable
of doing really good things. But do I think that
Tyrod Taylor can get this team where it wants to go.
Speaker 2 (09:28):
I wonder anybody would, but I don't know.
Speaker 4 (09:31):
That he can get this team obviously, as far as
Aaron Rodgers can.
Speaker 2 (09:35):
I mean that just common sense. But Tyro Taylor is
a good quarterback, and.
Speaker 1 (09:40):
That's a good veteran backup, pickup any news on the
Zach Wilson front. You know, the Jets gave him and
his team permission to go out there and seek it.
Speaker 2 (09:49):
Trade.
Speaker 4 (09:50):
Well, you think at some point in the off season
they're going to move on from him, right, I mean
that seems to be a foregone conclusion. The question is
how and when that comes, and it just hasn't had yet.
And I think you know, there's money involved in there
that I think he's owed four point two million dollars
And we've seen other quarterbacks get traded this offseason. Mac
Jones win for a six and Justin Field's went for
(10:11):
a conditional six, and so I think you begin to
see where the market is and he hasn't really even
accomplished what some of those guys have. So it's just
really I think, you know, we'll see how it plays out.
Speaker 1 (10:21):
We'll see how the draft plays out as well. Yeah,
what do you make of the changing landscape of the
FC East? The Bill's got to make some cost cut.
He moves Miami. I think you would say the same
category in New England in a period transition.
Speaker 4 (10:34):
Well, the division's there if they again, Here's here's the
only thing that I would say to you, if all
these guys stay healthy, yep.
Speaker 2 (10:42):
They have a chance to have a good season.
Speaker 4 (10:44):
If they don't, it's not going to be the kind
of season that Jet fans want. If you can tell
me Aaron Rodgers is going to play a full year,
not miss any time or any extended time. If you
can tell me Tyron Smith's gonna play a full season
not missing any extended time.
Speaker 2 (10:56):
Mike Williams, same thing. Sign me up, Sign everybody up.
Speaker 4 (10:59):
They're gonna be good if some of those guys are missing,
all bets are off.
Speaker 1 (11:04):
What are you most looking forward to here this week?
Speaker 4 (11:08):
Oh, it's just nice to see people because you know,
I think in the world we live in, you know,
I work out of my home office so often you
don't come face to face very often with a lot
of people. So you have, you know, every organization well
represented here and it's nice to see some of the
people one final time because I may not see him
again until, you know, Yeah, maybe the summer training camp, maybe.
Speaker 2 (11:31):
The drift camp.
Speaker 1 (11:32):
You're gonna come to one Jets drive during the summer.
Speaker 2 (11:34):
Right, We'll say, maybe, uh possible.
Speaker 4 (11:37):
I never know, like if I'm gonna be out there
I would imagine there's a possibility I'll be out there
for a day.
Speaker 3 (11:43):
We'll see.
Speaker 1 (11:44):
Yeah, we ought to put that on the table. Uh,
the draft positioning for the Jets. Tenth overall, what do
you make of where they're at after these first waves
of free agency.
Speaker 4 (11:52):
Well, that's the great part about it, Eric, is that
they address so many needs that they don't have to
come away with anything. Yeah, I mean, in a way,
I don't mind the idea of Hey, if there's a
guy like a JJ McCarthy's still sitting there in Minnesota
or Denver or Las Vegas or somebody wants to come
up and they want to move up to the Jets
(12:13):
spot and the Jets get extra picks, like, nothing wrong
with that too, But they have options and if there's
somebody they love their attend, whether that's one of those
offensive linemen, which I still that's that would be my vote,
an offensive lineman still.
Speaker 2 (12:29):
Rock Bowers, whoever it may be.
Speaker 4 (12:31):
Whatever they want to do, they're gonna have some good
options and they've taken the pressure off them I think
by what they've done during free agency.
Speaker 1 (12:40):
Oh, finally, it's a great transition by you. Of course.
JJ McCarthy you are a Michigan man. Yeah, yeah. What
do you make of him as an NFL prospect? And
what's the word right now about a month away from
the draft.
Speaker 4 (12:57):
Well, I think if this is even possible, I think
his stock is rising, which I always laugh. He hasn't
played any games, but I think people have come around
on the fact that they recognize he's a really good
quarterback and he's He's a really positive, upbeat, energetic guy.
He's a guy you want to be around. I personally
(13:21):
like the young man, like he's engaging. He's a pretty
cool guy, and he's a pretty mature guy and he
gets it, I think, and I think other teams are
onto that. And I'm not a Johnny cum lately either.
My college buddies are are on a text chain. I
(13:42):
point this out before I'll point that out again. It's
not gonna be the last time. But our college buddies
were complaining, why is he coming out? I'm like, why
is he coming out?
Speaker 2 (13:52):
Why do you think he's coming out of this?
Speaker 4 (13:53):
He's gonna be a mid round pick. I'm like, mid
round pick, He's gonna be a first round pick. And
they said mid round picking me and a ten of
my college buddies, well, one of them. We bet dinner
for the entire group. I said JJ would be a one.
This was in December. The other guy said he would be.
I said, if he goes anywhere too or beyond, I
lose the bet and I buy this group dinner.
Speaker 2 (14:13):
So we have a big dinner. How big you as
a group ten people?
Speaker 4 (14:17):
You know it'll be you know, a nice place, not
a cheap dinner. Sure there'll be some drinking going on.
And I feel very confident and comfortable that JJ McCarthy
is going to be buying me and my friend's dinner
courtesy of I'm not going to expose his name. I
won't mention his name right here, but but yeah, one
of my college room mates. I expect us. I expect
(14:39):
him to be buying us dinner.
Speaker 1 (14:40):
Great scening, brother, Eric, Thank you for having me.
Speaker 4 (14:42):
I appreciate always a pleasure and continue to enjoy the
off season.
Speaker 3 (14:46):
Thanks pleasing.
Speaker 1 (14:48):
We're joining here on Official Jets Podcast by Tom Palissaro
NFL Networks. Tom Palissaro down in Orlando, Florida the annual
league meetings. You're brought out the pin strips today looking untackle.
Speaker 5 (15:01):
I've learned through the years of this event that we're
in the dark suit generally ends up being a bad move.
Looked like it was gonna be really hot today, but
I was just out there and it's actually very windy,
so might not have mattered. But we're doing the Insiders
live one pm Eastern Time both Monday and Tuesday here
from the league meeting.
Speaker 3 (15:18):
Got great guests lined up, So I don't want to be,
you know, s fitzing all over the place.
Speaker 1 (15:21):
Nice plug. What should we what should we know about
league rule proposals and what's going to happen?
Speaker 5 (15:27):
Well, they were debating them this morning to my knowledge,
check my phone real fast.
Speaker 3 (15:31):
I've not yet voted.
Speaker 5 (15:32):
You know, both the kickoff and the hip drop, the
swivel hip drop tackle are both.
Speaker 3 (15:37):
Going to be debated.
Speaker 5 (15:38):
And you know, the the hip drop is such a
priority for the league, and you've heard Roger Goodell say it,
Trey Vinson has said it, Rich McKay has said it.
Everybody wants it out. Nobody walks out of that room
going we want to keep that play in the game.
And so I think the one way or another.
Speaker 3 (15:54):
That's going to get passed.
Speaker 5 (15:55):
It's going to be a matter of you know, do
they feel like they can push it through here and
again that highly possible, that's what happens, But there's gonna
be enough questions raised.
Speaker 3 (16:03):
Is the language consistent enough?
Speaker 5 (16:04):
It doesn't song it's gonna be a big penalizing on
the field thing out of the gate. I bet you
see a bunch of flags and fins in the preseason
as they're just trying to correct technique.
Speaker 3 (16:14):
You know, is it going to make a huge difference
in games?
Speaker 5 (16:16):
I think that above all else, they just want to
make sure that nobody's teaching that style of tackling. It's
not a strategy with the kickoff, you know, that's another
one that the league has been pushing this for years.
But I think this will be the fourth time in
five years they've changed the kickoff rules. So just teams
coordinators have been you know, going round and round on this,
but they've been consulted throughout the process. Last year when
(16:36):
they made the legislation about the fair catch that we
did see and that was essentially like punishing the special
teams coordinators and the coaches like, hey, you didn't call
with anything better, so now it's just a dead play. Well,
they don't want a ceremonial dead play, as Troy Vincent
called it back in December. They wanted to have some excitement,
and so they're coming up with this new thing. They're
(16:57):
not calling it the XFL kickoff. It's the NFL hybrid kickoff.
You hear be in a setup zone at the forty
and the thirty five, and then there's a landing zone
where you need the ball to land, and then if
you kick it past the landing zone then that's touchback.
Then now is going to come out to the thirty,
not the thirty five, which was what the original proposal was.
So this has been tweet YadA, YadA, YadA. It's gonna
lead to a play that what they want to do
(17:18):
is reduce the space and the speed because what they've
been charged with for the NFL is come up with
a way to make this an exciting play with lots
of returns, but also an injury rate we can stomach
because they.
Speaker 3 (17:29):
Always cite that.
Speaker 5 (17:30):
It's however, many X injuries on kickoffs versus any other play,
and so I think it's going to be fascinating to see.
I do think that that it's going to You're gonna
have fewer high speed collisions. That's going to you would think,
lead to fewer injuries over the course of time. But
there's definitely skepticism among some of the coaches I've talked
to here about what exactly this is going to look like.
(17:51):
I mean, I had one head coach telling me yesterday
his concern is, you're gonna have too many big plays
on kickoffs because goes imagine like we're playing cover zero
zero blitz. If you get through that initial hole, you're gone. Well, now,
if you look at the drawings, the renderings, that's what
it is is it's everybody's lined up here.
Speaker 3 (18:08):
Well, if they all get blocked.
Speaker 5 (18:09):
Up and you get through, the first thing is that
are you gonna have just a ton of kick return touchdowns?
Is that can overemphasize that part of the game strategically.
It's gonna be really interesting because again special teams coordinators,
every year they've got a new rule. This one, you know,
has the possibility to have maybe some unintended consequences, but
to the extent that the league wants an exciting play
that's not going to get people hurt, this is the
(18:30):
best idea they've come up with yet.
Speaker 1 (18:31):
That's interesting how concerned is the league as far as
scoring being down over the less part of it too.
Speaker 5 (18:38):
I mean, when you have I remember the exact numbers,
but I want to say it's been cut by like
three quarters the number of kick return yards or no
kick returns from the Super Bowl, and they attribute that
in part to field position, the lack of big plays.
You know, just it has changed the you know, it
has changed the fabrica of the game to a degree.
And there's a lot of other factors involved with it,
but this is definitely one of them where last year,
(18:59):
you know, everybody could stand up and you know, go
get a beer on a kickoff and you weren't going
to miss anything. That NFL doesn't want that. It's the
same reason we now have thirty eight yard extra points
because they looked at that and it was like, well,
these are being converted in ninety nine percent. Well as
some of the kickers have lost their jobs because of it,
you know, the fact that now they have to make
essentially a mid range field goal however many times in
(19:20):
the game. That's not really the NFL's concern. It's how
do you make every play worth watching? How do you
make every moment exciting? The kickoff last year was not
an exciting play. It was a dead play to a
large degree. I still have real questions about the on
side kick aspect, because there was talk among this best
teams coordinators about maybe allowing like slight overload formations like
(19:43):
six on one side, four on the other side, or
being able to motion someone. If you read the proposal,
that doesn't exist. It's still five and five. So the
onside kick, which has been virtually impossible, remains virtually impossible.
The Eagles, like they do every year, proposed the fourth
and twenty alternative to the on side kick.
Speaker 3 (19:59):
It is not to this point gain traction.
Speaker 5 (20:01):
Some people just think it's too gimmicky, it's too far afield,
you can't go that direction. But until they come up
with some way that when there's four minutes to go,
when you score a touchdown to get down two scores,
you have, you know, until you can create a way
to get back into the game, they have to continue
talking about these things because right now, you know, one
of the beauties of the NFL has been for years,
(20:22):
like there weren't a lot of deficits late in games
that were insurmountable because you did have you know, even
if it was a ten or fifteen percent recovery rate,
that's way better than the three percent or whatever it is.
Speaker 2 (20:32):
Now.
Speaker 3 (20:33):
Now it's like, all right, well, we know this isn't
going to work.
Speaker 5 (20:35):
It's academic and it's again that's another dead play. So
that's one aspect I'm interested to see. Does that get changed,
does that get tabled for further discussion. We'll see on
the fourth and twenty thing. But the Eagles, like I said,
they propose it every single year and it hasn't got
anywhere yet.
Speaker 1 (20:50):
All Right, fans as opposed to getting up and getting
that beer at the stadium, you might have to order
a beer. Have somebody they get you a.
Speaker 3 (20:58):
Beer they have somewhere.
Speaker 1 (21:00):
Yeah, definitely, all right, So what do you think about
the jets of free agency to date? We've been through
multiple tiers. We talked to you in Indianapolis before.
Speaker 5 (21:11):
How my predictions come out? I can't remember who I predicted.
I'm pretty sure he was wrong.
Speaker 1 (21:14):
Well, I remember case Keno because you you know that
was your wild guys, right, that was definitely Wyron Taylor
kind of kind of in the same vein.
Speaker 5 (21:22):
I'll get myself a half a point. I had the
right idea of how they would they would get on.
Who do I say for a receiver, So Mike.
Speaker 1 (21:27):
Williams, I don't know if you had Mike Williams, you're
supposed to know this.
Speaker 5 (21:32):
Yes, I know, I wrote it out real fast for it.
I remember doing it. I just don't remember what I wrote.
Speaker 1 (21:36):
Yeah, I got to pull that up.
Speaker 5 (21:37):
Okay, Well, anyway, Mike Williams, you know, a significant addition.
It's an incentive laden contract, and you know, if he
plays well it comes back from the ACL and produces,
It'll be very happy. Because Mike Williams when he's on,
I mean, he's a big, strong receiver that you have
on the perimeter. Just let you know exactly the type
of guy that Aaron Rodgers would like to have at
that position. So I thought that that was a significant edition.
(21:59):
The obviously, you know, wanted to address the offensive line.
You know that there were you know, based on the
number of signings on Monday, they were I'm sure Jets
fans were stressed out, like what's going on? And then
Joe Douglas went on that late night run where he
signed Tyrod and he signed John Simpson as well, and
traded for Morgan Moses and then you bring in Tyron Smith.
You know, you can't say they didn't try to address it. Listen,
(22:21):
Tyrons dealt with a lot of injuries. He's got a
bad knee, he doesn't practice a whole lot, but he
still is such a huge guy, like he can engulf
people if he's healthy. You know, you're probably going in
this not thinking, all right, we can get seventeen games
out of Tyron Smith, must playoffs, that's probably not realistic.
But can we get twelve fourteen games out of him
and then have him healthy at the end of the season.
Speaker 3 (22:42):
That's really the focus.
Speaker 5 (22:43):
I would imagine that they really manage his reps, you know,
do everything that they have to do to make sure
that he gets into the postseason. But you know, if
you have to win a pinch, play Morgan Moses over there,
or you have to I know they want to keep
Elijah Vera Tucker in one spot. I think he's gonna
be the right guard since it's the left guard. You know,
they've done a lot with that group, and I think
that's you know, that's significant when you think back to
what the primary issues were last year. Yes, he lose
(23:05):
the quarterback after four snaps, you probably don't have a
chance no matter what. But you really don't have a
chance when you're playing thirteen or fourteen different offensive lineman
and your second, third, fourth quarterbacks.
Speaker 1 (23:13):
These contracts have a lot of incentives. No surprise, I
would imagine from your perspective. But with that being said,
were you surprised what happened with Tyrone Smith? How the
market kind of Okay, nobody jumped early.
Speaker 5 (23:30):
But Tyron took a cut last year. He was making
right around this same amount. I don't have it in
front of me, but I want, say to cut down
to like five million with upside. Just gave him what's
six point five with upside? So no, it's not a
huge shock, just because again, he's he's missed a lot
of time. I mean, he has his body's been through
a lot, and he's got that knee that he's always
got to manage.
Speaker 3 (23:50):
But when he's on, when.
Speaker 5 (23:51):
He's playing, he's still playing at a Pro Bowl type
of a level.
Speaker 3 (23:55):
So you're just hoping that you can get him there.
Speaker 5 (23:57):
You're hoping that you've given yourself enough options in terms of,
you know, if something does happen to them, how do
you rearrange everybody. There's still other offensive linemen out there,
but they got in terms of you know, just pure
left tackles, they got the best one out there. It's
it's merely a matter of how many games do you
get out of them? And those games in December and January.
I know they all count the same up until the playoffs,
(24:19):
but those are ultimately where you're going to you know,
make your hay. It's not in those games in September
and if they need to hold them back a little bit,
they need to take some snaps off and whatever it is,
I would anticipate they'll do that.
Speaker 1 (24:29):
Everybody emphasizes continuity along that offensive line. That's that's going
to have three new starters with day Forum mentioned Simpson, Moses,
Tyron Smith. How much does a healthy Aaron Rodgers help
those guys.
Speaker 5 (24:45):
It's huge and Aarin you know, listen, him and Nathaniel
hacketd have a very special relationship. Those guys are going
to be you know, they're going to be in sync.
I think that if there was any lesson out of
on my board. Yeah, Ridley, tell them Ridley signs a
big contract, that they get a big contract.
Speaker 3 (25:06):
But Fuaga listen, listen.
Speaker 5 (25:12):
I think that the the cautionary thing if you saw
of those four snaps right, and it's extremely small sample size,
but Aaron gets hit on two of them last year,
the second one of Taris's achilles. I think that when
you've seen Aaron Rodgers at his best in his career,
yes he can extend plays, Yes he can do some
unbelievable things on the run out of the pocket, but
he's forty years old and he probably needs to be
(25:33):
the Aaron Rodgers who's running. They're running the football, and
then it's the backside options and it's a boom getting
it out one step routes, smoke routs, slants, it's getting
the football out of his hands if you take a
lot of hits. And I'm sure he's doing a million
different things and things I've never even heard of to
get his body right for this season, but realistically, like
(25:54):
you need to get the ball out of your hands
more often. And I think that when you go back,
I get it. He's in a new place. He's always
played like you might not be able to play like
that all the time anymore. You have that tool in
your toolbox, you don't have to go to the toolbox
all the time. So what he can do to help
the offensive line is get the football out of his hands.
You not have to block forty true dropbacks every time
because a lot of the stuff, a lot of his
(26:15):
passing yard and stuff. If you go back to the Packers,
and this is something that you know, the Packers sort
of invented with Brett Favre in the nineties, was you
know this idea and you see it all over the
league now, which is you have these zone running plays
and on the back side of it, you have some
type of route built in and you see one on
one there, you like the route, you like the alignment,
you just chuck it out there. Aaron did that all
(26:35):
the time, which is why sometimes when it was Hey,
I threw the ball forty five times, why didn't you
run it more, It's like, well, yeah, half of those
were called run plays. And Hackett's entire offense was built
to give Rogers the authority at the line of scrubbers,
not to audible, not to change the play, but it
was he could have a bunch of different plays all
available to him at the line.
Speaker 3 (26:54):
A lot of that's going to be built on the
Hey it's.
Speaker 5 (26:56):
The three step drop, take a shot, it's one step round,
it's all these different things. That's what he's done really
well throughout the course of his career. That's what's going
to help keep him healthy, take the pressure off the
offensive line, elevate everybody around him, which is what the
Jets brought him in to do.
Speaker 1 (27:11):
What do you make of the edge market out there
right now? Bright so Uff of course signs the Lucra
deal and free agency. I think a lot of people
were expecting that the Jets do have. Jermaine Johnson made
a huge seismic jump in the year two, John Franklin
Myers a versatile piece up there, Will McDonald. They took
fifteenth overall in last April's draft. They hosted j Davian
(27:34):
Clowney at the Complex last week. Jets fans are circling Clowney.
What do you think about the possibility there?
Speaker 5 (27:43):
I mean, Clowney's been on you know, a series. I
think he's had a two year deal in there somewhere,
but he's more or less play his whole career on
one year deals. And you know last year he came
off a strong season, so you would anticipate the market.
It's going to be a little bit richer for him
this year as he gets close to fifteen million. We'll see,
you know, there's probably gonna be a bunch of incentives
the one year get built into it, you know, I mean,
it could be something different, but at this stage in
(28:03):
his career is the number one picking what twenty fourteen?
He's probably better off just doing one year deals.
Speaker 3 (28:09):
You never know.
Speaker 5 (28:10):
I mean, you could do a longer one with him,
but he's shown the appetite to continue to go a
year to year throughout the course of his career. Here,
I think the fact that the Jets have invested what
they have in the defensive line probably gives them a
little bit more flexibility to wait and see whose prices
come down into the arrangement. Bryce Huff goes and gets
what eighteen nineteen million from the Eagles, Like, good for him, man,
(28:30):
I mean, they were getting offered like late round picks
for him in camp last year, and Joe wisely did
not take any of those those offers. But you know,
he's somebody who you know, grew into it and maybe
now with you know him not being there, maybe this
is where will McDonald you see him step in and
take on a bigger role. Obviously, Jermaine is just one
of the baddest dudes that you're going to see on
(28:50):
the field. Really, to John Franklin Myers, there'll be somebody
out there. There's enough pass rushers, there are veterans available.
Clowny at this point, you know, the top guy, but
you're also going to have to beat out the likes
of Baltimore to you know, trying to bring them back.
Speaker 1 (29:03):
Yeah, nine a half sex last year a career high
for Clowney. How about the flexibility maybe Joe Douglas has
right now entering the draft. He's got seven picks tenth overall.
What to see how the quarterbacks shake out at the
top of the draft. But after addressing the offensive line,
even though you got to keep these guys healthy, we
know that some tankering on the defensive side of the ball,
(29:24):
but this still should be one of the top units
in the National Football League. How do you think this
sets up for them as far as the draft is.
Speaker 5 (29:32):
Concerned now, Well, I think that you've got enough of
a base built that you do have a lot of
different options, and you filled some of your needs offensive
linewise through free agency, and a trade you signed Mike Williams,
who you know, became available here. I think there's a
lot of different options there. I mean, you're not taking
a running back up that high. You've obviously you got
briefs and there's no running backs that are really you know,
(29:53):
you want to take up there. But you know, could
you take a running back in the second round. But
there's a bunch of good players, it's certainly a possibility,
you know. In terms of with their top pick, I
think that there's a lot of different directions that you
can go. I think that the fact that those top
picks probably be a lot of quarterbacks sets up well
for teams that don't need one to be taken one high. So,
(30:14):
you know, from the Jets' perspective here, I think that
they're in a good position. We were talking about them
last year, so are they going to win the Super Bowl?
It's largely the same group. It's a lot of the
same pieces here, so just I don't think you need
you know, big wave types of stuff. I think that
whether you draft a receiver, you draft another lineman, you
draft somebody on defense, I think there's a bunch of
different ways go get another good football player on a
(30:35):
pretty talented roster, and let's see what happens.
Speaker 1 (30:37):
This is awesome. Let's end here. What do you think
about the message from Robert Salad this morning. I know
you were working sixteen respective tables, so you're not able
to take in each of these thirty minute sessions. But
something's stuck out to me when he said that you
don't win in an offseason. Winning is about winning games
(30:58):
in the regular season.
Speaker 5 (31:00):
Yeah, I mean, I think that that's the lesson out
of last year. Right again, I don't know how much
you can read into anything that happened last year, because
you lost the guy who your entire offense was built
for after four snaps, and you had to play people
who weren't supposed to be playing, like Zach who was
supposed to, you know, sit for the entire year. Here,
I think that after all the hype of last year
and Salla is certainly somebody who's like aware kind of
(31:23):
the environment around the team. Everything was building toward this
and it was at a fever pitch going into last year,
so then you know, everybody forgets those first what six
games after Aaron gets hurt, They they battled and they
won some games, and Zach played well at times, but
you know, realistically, you were never going to You weren't
going to win.
Speaker 3 (31:42):
The Super Bowl.
Speaker 5 (31:43):
Once Aaron went down, you probably weren't going to make
the playoffs. Even if everything fell right now, the expectations
are far lower. The last thing they're going to do
is start amping them up again. It's let's let's actually
get to the games and then decide who who's going
to win them.
Speaker 1 (31:56):
Appreciate your time as always, Tom,
It's always a joy here on the Official Jets Podcast
when we are joined by ESPN's Adam Schefter. Adam, so
great to see you down here at the league meetings
of Orlando, Florida.
Speaker 2 (00:15):
Nice to see you, Eric, Nice to be with you again.
Speaker 1 (00:17):
How is everything going for you progressing here this offseason?
Speaker 3 (00:21):
Well, you don't have an offseason.
Speaker 2 (00:23):
It never stops.
Speaker 4 (00:24):
The league gets to be more and more relentless. I
think we're through the thicker free agency. That's a good thing.
Jets have made some moves and now I think it's
on to the draft for most people.
Speaker 1 (00:36):
What do you make of some of those moves that
juts GM Joe Douglas has made.
Speaker 4 (00:40):
They've added a lot of really compelling players, and I
think you could ask this question for almost all of them.
Speaker 2 (00:47):
Can they and will they stay healthy?
Speaker 4 (00:50):
And if you could tell me right now that all
these guys are gonna stay healthy this year, then they're
gonna have a great year of the Jets.
Speaker 2 (00:56):
And if they can't stay healthy, they're not.
Speaker 1 (01:00):
Would you have been surprised if I told it before
free agency started in the league year commenced that the
Jets were going to land John Simpson, then trade for
Morgan Moses and then get Tyron Smith at the end
of that, well, I would.
Speaker 4 (01:10):
Have been surprised probably by those three names, but I
would not have been surprised at the effort and energy
and resources put into the offensive line. Look, we knew
that they were going to do something to beef up
the offensive line and improve.
Speaker 2 (01:22):
It, right no matter what.
Speaker 4 (01:23):
Now, it was just a combination or question of what
was going to be the combination that they were going
to go get.
Speaker 2 (01:29):
And I didn't know that that would.
Speaker 4 (01:30):
Be the trio Morgan Moses, Tyron Smith and John Simpson,
but that's what it turned out to be. And again,
if Tyron Smith is healthy and he hasn't been, that's
a great move. Morgan Moos has been pretty reliable and
John Simpson'll be reliable, but Tyron Smith, we don't know.
Mike Williams is coming off an acl you think he's
going to be healthy, but we still have to see
Aaron Rodgers coming.
Speaker 2 (01:51):
Off the corner of torn Achilles.
Speaker 4 (01:53):
We think he's gonna be healthy, but you have to
wait and see, and so there's a lot of wait
and sees.
Speaker 2 (01:57):
And while you wait and see, you won.
Speaker 4 (02:00):
Well, if they're playing these guys have a chance to
be really good and really competitive, and if one or
two or three of them are not playing well, you
saw what happens last year when there's injuries, right.
Speaker 1 (02:10):
Did you like the move picking up Mike Williams, the
guy who's been one of the best deep threats in
the National Football League when's been on the field.
Speaker 2 (02:18):
When he's healthy, he's tremendous.
Speaker 4 (02:20):
And I had a chance to speak to him Saturday
from my podcast, and he believes he's going to be
ready for opening Day.
Speaker 2 (02:27):
He's excited about the idea.
Speaker 4 (02:30):
He's still hadn't spoken to Aaron Rodgers on Saturday, so said, hey,
I still had his number, I would give it to you.
Speaker 3 (02:38):
What do you make of his personality? He's so engaging,
isn't he?
Speaker 2 (02:41):
My nice guy?
Speaker 4 (02:42):
Yeah, very nice guy, like I said, first time I
talked him at length like that, And he's excited about
the idea of being in New York. He loved his
ham and egg and cheese sandwich.
Speaker 3 (02:53):
How about that.
Speaker 2 (02:54):
He's looking forward to more of.
Speaker 4 (02:55):
Them as we talked about the podcast, and he was
a very nice, engaging guy.
Speaker 3 (03:00):
You'll like this.
Speaker 1 (03:00):
I actually went to my local pizza place the other
day and then said, hey, why are you doing the
egg sandwiches? How about the pizza?
Speaker 3 (03:06):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (03:07):
Yeah, there's a lot of different things you could do.
Speaker 1 (03:09):
Right, Yeah, no doubt about it.
Speaker 2 (03:10):
You know you want to come to New York, You're
not going to lack for good food. Yeah, that's true.
New York and New Jersey.
Speaker 4 (03:15):
I include New York metropolitan area.
Speaker 2 (03:17):
I want to be very clear.
Speaker 1 (03:18):
Of course Long Island the city I mean in New Jersey. Yeah,
everybody's included Aaron Rodgers, like you said, forty you're gonna
enter a season when he's going to be forty one
in December. It feels much differently being here at lead
meetings than it did last spring because we were talking
about what's going to happen done. Yeah right, that was
(03:41):
the story. In fact, I remember true story.
Speaker 4 (03:44):
I was checking into my hotel room at the Biltmore
in Arizona, and I was walking up the pathway to
get to the room with the Jets general manager Joe Douglas.
Speaker 2 (03:53):
There you go, and who's coming right at us?
Speaker 4 (03:56):
And we stop and talk but the Packers general manager
Brian Goodikins. Wow, there was the three of us. As
I was checking into the hotel and I thought, wow,
this is interesting. And obviously the deal got done, if
I remember correctly, two three weeks later, the trade got consummated.
Speaker 2 (04:12):
Now, of course tray got consummated.
Speaker 1 (04:16):
And.
Speaker 4 (04:18):
It was obviously a huge deal. Obviously a different energy
around the whole thing. And now the question again, as
we've talked about, is can he stay healthy?
Speaker 2 (04:26):
Can he be healthy? Will he be healthy? If he is,
he runs it on the field. We were there that night.
Speaker 4 (04:33):
And it was unbelievable the energy in the building and
then boom, all that energy was sucked right out of
the building the moment he went down.
Speaker 1 (04:40):
You've been to so many events, what was that night?
Like September eleventh, There aren't many that have.
Speaker 4 (04:51):
Gone that high in emotion, infinished tele And I remember
at the end of the game. You know, I live
in the New York area and I have so many
friends who are Jet fans, diehardship, and they texted me
all excited.
Speaker 2 (05:03):
That they won the game and overtime, and I'm.
Speaker 4 (05:05):
Thinking, you don't get it. You won the battle and
lost the war like it's over.
Speaker 2 (05:13):
It's over.
Speaker 4 (05:14):
Yeah, you enjoyed tonight because there aren't going to be
many more happy nights in this season, and that was
how I felt that night, and I remember feeling that
as I went on the Late Sports Center with Scott
Van Pelt and getting the word that they believed it
was an achilles and obviously needed the test to confirm
that it was torn, which came back the next morning.
(05:36):
But it was surreal because when he ran out with
that flag on that day, with that energy, it was unbelievable.
And then minutes later he's down and you know that
it's serious, and you're like, man, so just a night
with incredible highs and lows.
Speaker 1 (05:55):
He's always carried such a chip on his shoulder throughout
his career. What do you think the mentality of the
mindset's going to be like for him now this time? Right?
Speaker 4 (06:05):
Eric, what I would say, I don't really care about
the chip, and the chip has helped him get to
where he is and be who he is, But the
fact of the matter is the chip isn't going to
I don't believe play a part in whether he can
stay on the field, and that's what they need him
to do. They need him to be on the field
and to be healthy, and if he can do that,
(06:26):
then everything's great, and you just want him out there.
You want to see what he can do with this
organization and these players in this offense. And if he
could do that, then that's great. The chip doesn't enter
into that in my mind.
Speaker 1 (06:39):
That's Roberts. Sila is going to be addressed in the
media at the FC Coach's breakfast here Monday morning. He
actually talked earlier today and he said that it's been
a quiet offseason for the Jets.
Speaker 2 (06:52):
Would you agree, So far, so good for them.
Speaker 4 (06:55):
I mean again, last year, everybody was waiting for them
to trade for Aaron Rodgers, and so now Aaron Rodgers
is there. Now you're waiting to see how they shore
up the positions around Aaron Rodgers.
Speaker 2 (07:05):
And they've done a good job with that.
Speaker 4 (07:07):
But with all the respects signing John Simpson and trinding
for Morgan Moses their headlines absolutely, but they're not the
big splash. Oh my god, look what happened here the
way that landing Aaron Rodgers would be.
Speaker 2 (07:20):
So they've done what they're supposed to do.
Speaker 4 (07:23):
Joe Douglas has done a nice job adding the pieces
he should and again, can they all stay on the
field and stay healthy.
Speaker 1 (07:32):
Yeah, it's somebody so familiar with the deals all throughout
the league, no surprise. I would imagine the way he
structured these contracts with some of these guys incentives.
Speaker 2 (07:43):
I mean, listen, you know the reason for that, obviously.
Speaker 4 (07:46):
I think Aaron Rodgers is the impetus for a lot
of that because they saw what he went through and
they don't want to bring in another veteran have him
go down for injury and be on the hook for
all that money. So the idea is, if they play,
and they play well, they're gonna earn what should be
their salaries. And if they don't play, the Jets have
a little bit of a built in cushion there to
(08:09):
protect themselves in the event that these guys don't play
the extended season.
Speaker 2 (08:14):
That's the idea.
Speaker 4 (08:15):
And by the way, well, if Aaron Rodgers is here,
isn't here, would they still be adding Tyron Smith? I
don't know. Would they be structuring his deal, Mike Williams
deal the way they are.
Speaker 2 (08:24):
I don't know. Would Mike Williams come with that Aaron
Rodgers probably not.
Speaker 4 (08:27):
So, you know, it's all stemming from and off of
Aaron Rodgers, his presence and what he's been through.
Speaker 1 (08:35):
You're hoping he plays seventeen games and the Jets fans
I would love to see them want to see him
in the postseason for the first time in green and white.
Speaker 2 (08:44):
What does the player trot thirteen years?
Speaker 1 (08:46):
It's going back to twenty ten the Divisional playoffs, Divisional
playoffs time when they took down the Patriots Jillett's Stadium.
Speaker 2 (08:54):
I remember that game. What do you think?
Speaker 1 (08:57):
God bless you, sir? To Rod Taller. The reason why
I bring him into the conversation is you said it
was over after Aaron went down. Do you still like
the move if Rodgers does have to miss a couple
games whatever.
Speaker 2 (09:13):
Well, I like Tyrod Taylor.
Speaker 4 (09:14):
I think he's a good quarterback and he's never gotten
a fair shake and he's never been able to play
an extended season. I've always felt like he was capable
of doing really good things. But do I think that
Tyrod Taylor can get this team where it wants to go.
Speaker 2 (09:28):
I wonder anybody would, but I don't know.
Speaker 4 (09:31):
That he can get this team obviously, as far as
Aaron Rodgers can.
Speaker 2 (09:35):
I mean that just common sense. But Tyro Taylor is
a good quarterback, and.
Speaker 1 (09:40):
That's a good veteran backup, pickup any news on the
Zach Wilson front. You know, the Jets gave him and
his team permission to go out there and seek it.
Speaker 2 (09:49):
Trade.
Speaker 4 (09:50):
Well, you think at some point in the off season
they're going to move on from him, right, I mean
that seems to be a foregone conclusion. The question is
how and when that comes, and it just hasn't had yet.
And I think you know, there's money involved in there
that I think he's owed four point two million dollars
And we've seen other quarterbacks get traded this offseason. Mac
Jones win for a six and Justin Field's went for
(10:11):
a conditional six, and so I think you begin to
see where the market is and he hasn't really even
accomplished what some of those guys have. So it's just
really I think, you know, we'll see how it plays out.
Speaker 1 (10:21):
We'll see how the draft plays out as well. Yeah,
what do you make of the changing landscape of the
FC East? The Bill's got to make some cost cut.
He moves Miami. I think you would say the same
category in New England in a period transition.
Speaker 4 (10:34):
Well, the division's there if they again, Here's here's the
only thing that I would say to you, if all
these guys stay healthy, yep.
Speaker 2 (10:42):
They have a chance to have a good season.
Speaker 4 (10:44):
If they don't, it's not going to be the kind
of season that Jet fans want. If you can tell
me Aaron Rodgers is going to play a full year,
not miss any time or any extended time. If you
can tell me Tyron Smith's gonna play a full season
not missing any extended time.
Speaker 2 (10:56):
Mike Williams, same thing. Sign me up, Sign everybody up.
Speaker 4 (10:59):
They're gonna be good if some of those guys are missing,
all bets are off.
Speaker 1 (11:04):
What are you most looking forward to here this week?
Speaker 4 (11:08):
Oh, it's just nice to see people because you know,
I think in the world we live in, you know,
I work out of my home office so often you
don't come face to face very often with a lot
of people. So you have, you know, every organization well
represented here and it's nice to see some of the
people one final time because I may not see him
again until, you know, Yeah, maybe the summer training camp, maybe.
Speaker 2 (11:31):
The drift camp.
Speaker 1 (11:32):
You're gonna come to one Jets drive during the summer.
Speaker 2 (11:34):
Right, We'll say, maybe, uh possible.
Speaker 4 (11:37):
I never know, like if I'm gonna be out there
I would imagine there's a possibility I'll be out there
for a day.
Speaker 3 (11:43):
We'll see.
Speaker 1 (11:44):
Yeah, we ought to put that on the table. Uh,
the draft positioning for the Jets. Tenth overall, what do
you make of where they're at after these first waves
of free agency.
Speaker 4 (11:52):
Well, that's the great part about it, Eric, is that
they address so many needs that they don't have to
come away with anything. Yeah, I mean, in a way,
I don't mind the idea of Hey, if there's a
guy like a JJ McCarthy's still sitting there in Minnesota
or Denver or Las Vegas or somebody wants to come
up and they want to move up to the Jets
(12:13):
spot and the Jets get extra picks, like, nothing wrong
with that too, But they have options and if there's
somebody they love their attend, whether that's one of those
offensive linemen, which I still that's that would be my vote,
an offensive lineman still.
Speaker 2 (12:29):
Rock Bowers, whoever it may be.
Speaker 4 (12:31):
Whatever they want to do, they're gonna have some good
options and they've taken the pressure off them I think
by what they've done during free agency.
Speaker 1 (12:40):
Oh, finally, it's a great transition by you. Of course.
JJ McCarthy you are a Michigan man. Yeah, yeah. What
do you make of him as an NFL prospect? And
what's the word right now about a month away from
the draft.
Speaker 4 (12:57):
Well, I think if this is even possible, I think
his stock is rising, which I always laugh. He hasn't
played any games, but I think people have come around
on the fact that they recognize he's a really good
quarterback and he's He's a really positive, upbeat, energetic guy.
He's a guy you want to be around. I personally
(13:21):
like the young man, like he's engaging. He's a pretty
cool guy, and he's a pretty mature guy and he
gets it, I think, and I think other teams are
onto that. And I'm not a Johnny cum lately either.
My college buddies are are on a text chain. I
(13:42):
point this out before I'll point that out again. It's
not gonna be the last time. But our college buddies
were complaining, why is he coming out? I'm like, why
is he coming out?
Speaker 2 (13:52):
Why do you think he's coming out of this?
Speaker 4 (13:53):
He's gonna be a mid round pick. I'm like, mid
round pick, He's gonna be a first round pick. And
they said mid round picking me and a ten of
my college buddies, well, one of them. We bet dinner
for the entire group. I said JJ would be a one.
This was in December. The other guy said he would be.
I said, if he goes anywhere too or beyond, I
lose the bet and I buy this group dinner.
Speaker 2 (14:13):
So we have a big dinner. How big you as
a group ten people?
Speaker 4 (14:17):
You know it'll be you know, a nice place, not
a cheap dinner. Sure there'll be some drinking going on.
And I feel very confident and comfortable that JJ McCarthy
is going to be buying me and my friend's dinner
courtesy of I'm not going to expose his name. I
won't mention his name right here, but but yeah, one
of my college room mates. I expect us. I expect
(14:39):
him to be buying us dinner.
Speaker 1 (14:40):
Great scening, brother, Eric, Thank you for having me.
Speaker 4 (14:42):
I appreciate always a pleasure and continue to enjoy the
off season.
Speaker 3 (14:46):
Thanks pleasing.
Speaker 1 (14:48):
We're joining here on Official Jets Podcast by Tom Palissaro
NFL Networks. Tom Palissaro down in Orlando, Florida the annual
league meetings. You're brought out the pin strips today looking untackle.
Speaker 5 (15:01):
I've learned through the years of this event that we're
in the dark suit generally ends up being a bad move.
Looked like it was gonna be really hot today, but
I was just out there and it's actually very windy,
so might not have mattered. But we're doing the Insiders
live one pm Eastern Time both Monday and Tuesday here
from the league meeting.
Speaker 3 (15:18):
Got great guests lined up, So I don't want to be,
you know, s fitzing all over the place.
Speaker 1 (15:21):
Nice plug. What should we what should we know about
league rule proposals and what's going to happen?
Speaker 5 (15:27):
Well, they were debating them this morning to my knowledge,
check my phone real fast.
Speaker 3 (15:31):
I've not yet voted.
Speaker 5 (15:32):
You know, both the kickoff and the hip drop, the
swivel hip drop tackle are both.
Speaker 3 (15:37):
Going to be debated.
Speaker 5 (15:38):
And you know, the the hip drop is such a
priority for the league, and you've heard Roger Goodell say it,
Trey Vinson has said it, Rich McKay has said it.
Everybody wants it out. Nobody walks out of that room
going we want to keep that play in the game.
And so I think the one way or another.
Speaker 3 (15:54):
That's going to get passed.
Speaker 5 (15:55):
It's going to be a matter of you know, do
they feel like they can push it through here and
again that highly possible, that's what happens, But there's gonna
be enough questions raised.
Speaker 3 (16:03):
Is the language consistent enough?
Speaker 5 (16:04):
It doesn't song it's gonna be a big penalizing on
the field thing out of the gate. I bet you
see a bunch of flags and fins in the preseason
as they're just trying to correct technique.
Speaker 3 (16:14):
You know, is it going to make a huge difference
in games?
Speaker 5 (16:16):
I think that above all else, they just want to
make sure that nobody's teaching that style of tackling. It's
not a strategy with the kickoff, you know, that's another
one that the league has been pushing this for years.
But I think this will be the fourth time in
five years they've changed the kickoff rules. So just teams
coordinators have been you know, going round and round on this,
but they've been consulted throughout the process. Last year when
(16:36):
they made the legislation about the fair catch that we
did see and that was essentially like punishing the special
teams coordinators and the coaches like, hey, you didn't call
with anything better, so now it's just a dead play. Well,
they don't want a ceremonial dead play, as Troy Vincent
called it back in December. They wanted to have some excitement,
and so they're coming up with this new thing. They're
(16:57):
not calling it the XFL kickoff. It's the NFL hybrid kickoff.
You hear be in a setup zone at the forty
and the thirty five, and then there's a landing zone
where you need the ball to land, and then if
you kick it past the landing zone then that's touchback.
Then now is going to come out to the thirty,
not the thirty five, which was what the original proposal was.
So this has been tweet YadA, YadA, YadA. It's gonna
lead to a play that what they want to do
(17:18):
is reduce the space and the speed because what they've
been charged with for the NFL is come up with
a way to make this an exciting play with lots
of returns, but also an injury rate we can stomach
because they.
Speaker 3 (17:29):
Always cite that.
Speaker 5 (17:30):
It's however, many X injuries on kickoffs versus any other play,
and so I think it's going to be fascinating to see.
I do think that that it's going to You're gonna
have fewer high speed collisions. That's going to you would think,
lead to fewer injuries over the course of time. But
there's definitely skepticism among some of the coaches I've talked
to here about what exactly this is going to look like.
(17:51):
I mean, I had one head coach telling me yesterday
his concern is, you're gonna have too many big plays
on kickoffs because goes imagine like we're playing cover zero
zero blitz. If you get through that initial hole, you're gone. Well, now,
if you look at the drawings, the renderings, that's what
it is is it's everybody's lined up here.
Speaker 3 (18:08):
Well, if they all get blocked.
Speaker 5 (18:09):
Up and you get through, the first thing is that
are you gonna have just a ton of kick return touchdowns?
Is that can overemphasize that part of the game strategically.
It's gonna be really interesting because again special teams coordinators,
every year they've got a new rule. This one, you know,
has the possibility to have maybe some unintended consequences, but
to the extent that the league wants an exciting play
that's not going to get people hurt, this is the
(18:30):
best idea they've come up with yet.
Speaker 1 (18:31):
That's interesting how concerned is the league as far as
scoring being down over the less part of it too.
Speaker 5 (18:38):
I mean, when you have I remember the exact numbers,
but I want to say it's been cut by like
three quarters the number of kick return yards or no
kick returns from the Super Bowl, and they attribute that
in part to field position, the lack of big plays.
You know, just it has changed the you know, it
has changed the fabrica of the game to a degree.
And there's a lot of other factors involved with it,
but this is definitely one of them where last year,
(18:59):
you know, everybody could stand up and you know, go
get a beer on a kickoff and you weren't going
to miss anything. That NFL doesn't want that. It's the
same reason we now have thirty eight yard extra points
because they looked at that and it was like, well,
these are being converted in ninety nine percent. Well as
some of the kickers have lost their jobs because of it,
you know, the fact that now they have to make
essentially a mid range field goal however many times in
(19:20):
the game. That's not really the NFL's concern. It's how
do you make every play worth watching? How do you
make every moment exciting? The kickoff last year was not
an exciting play. It was a dead play to a
large degree. I still have real questions about the on
side kick aspect, because there was talk among this best
teams coordinators about maybe allowing like slight overload formations like
(19:43):
six on one side, four on the other side, or
being able to motion someone. If you read the proposal,
that doesn't exist. It's still five and five. So the
onside kick, which has been virtually impossible, remains virtually impossible.
The Eagles, like they do every year, proposed the fourth
and twenty alternative to the on side kick.
Speaker 3 (19:59):
It is not to this point gain traction.
Speaker 5 (20:01):
Some people just think it's too gimmicky, it's too far afield,
you can't go that direction. But until they come up
with some way that when there's four minutes to go,
when you score a touchdown to get down two scores,
you have, you know, until you can create a way
to get back into the game, they have to continue
talking about these things because right now, you know, one
of the beauties of the NFL has been for years,
(20:22):
like there weren't a lot of deficits late in games
that were insurmountable because you did have you know, even
if it was a ten or fifteen percent recovery rate,
that's way better than the three percent or whatever it is.
Speaker 2 (20:32):
Now.
Speaker 3 (20:33):
Now it's like, all right, well, we know this isn't
going to work.
Speaker 5 (20:35):
It's academic and it's again that's another dead play. So
that's one aspect I'm interested to see. Does that get changed,
does that get tabled for further discussion. We'll see on
the fourth and twenty thing. But the Eagles, like I said,
they propose it every single year and it hasn't got
anywhere yet.
Speaker 1 (20:50):
All Right, fans as opposed to getting up and getting
that beer at the stadium, you might have to order
a beer. Have somebody they get you a.
Speaker 3 (20:58):
Beer they have somewhere.
Speaker 1 (21:00):
Yeah, definitely, all right, So what do you think about
the jets of free agency to date? We've been through
multiple tiers. We talked to you in Indianapolis before.
Speaker 5 (21:11):
How my predictions come out? I can't remember who I predicted.
I'm pretty sure he was wrong.
Speaker 1 (21:14):
Well, I remember case Keno because you you know that
was your wild guys, right, that was definitely Wyron Taylor
kind of kind of in the same vein.
Speaker 5 (21:22):
I'll get myself a half a point. I had the
right idea of how they would they would get on.
Who do I say for a receiver, So Mike.
Speaker 1 (21:27):
Williams, I don't know if you had Mike Williams, you're
supposed to know this.
Speaker 5 (21:32):
Yes, I know, I wrote it out real fast for it.
I remember doing it. I just don't remember what I wrote.
Speaker 1 (21:36):
Yeah, I got to pull that up.
Speaker 5 (21:37):
Okay, Well, anyway, Mike Williams, you know, a significant addition.
It's an incentive laden contract, and you know, if he
plays well it comes back from the ACL and produces,
It'll be very happy. Because Mike Williams when he's on,
I mean, he's a big, strong receiver that you have
on the perimeter. Just let you know exactly the type
of guy that Aaron Rodgers would like to have at
that position. So I thought that that was a significant edition.
(21:59):
The obviously, you know, wanted to address the offensive line.
You know that there were you know, based on the
number of signings on Monday, they were I'm sure Jets
fans were stressed out, like what's going on? And then
Joe Douglas went on that late night run where he
signed Tyrod and he signed John Simpson as well, and
traded for Morgan Moses and then you bring in Tyron Smith.
You know, you can't say they didn't try to address it. Listen,
(22:21):
Tyrons dealt with a lot of injuries. He's got a
bad knee, he doesn't practice a whole lot, but he
still is such a huge guy, like he can engulf
people if he's healthy. You know, you're probably going in
this not thinking, all right, we can get seventeen games
out of Tyron Smith, must playoffs, that's probably not realistic.
But can we get twelve fourteen games out of him
and then have him healthy at the end of the season.
Speaker 3 (22:42):
That's really the focus.
Speaker 5 (22:43):
I would imagine that they really manage his reps, you know,
do everything that they have to do to make sure
that he gets into the postseason. But you know, if
you have to win a pinch, play Morgan Moses over there,
or you have to I know they want to keep
Elijah Vera Tucker in one spot. I think he's gonna
be the right guard since it's the left guard. You know,
they've done a lot with that group, and I think
that's you know, that's significant when you think back to
what the primary issues were last year. Yes, he lose
(23:05):
the quarterback after four snaps, you probably don't have a
chance no matter what. But you really don't have a
chance when you're playing thirteen or fourteen different offensive lineman
and your second, third, fourth quarterbacks.
Speaker 1 (23:13):
These contracts have a lot of incentives. No surprise, I
would imagine from your perspective. But with that being said,
were you surprised what happened with Tyrone Smith? How the
market kind of Okay, nobody jumped early.
Speaker 5 (23:30):
But Tyron took a cut last year. He was making
right around this same amount. I don't have it in
front of me, but I want, say to cut down
to like five million with upside. Just gave him what's
six point five with upside? So no, it's not a
huge shock, just because again, he's he's missed a lot
of time. I mean, he has his body's been through
a lot, and he's got that knee that he's always
got to manage.
Speaker 3 (23:50):
But when he's on, when.
Speaker 5 (23:51):
He's playing, he's still playing at a Pro Bowl type
of a level.
Speaker 3 (23:55):
So you're just hoping that you can get him there.
Speaker 5 (23:57):
You're hoping that you've given yourself enough options in terms of,
you know, if something does happen to them, how do
you rearrange everybody. There's still other offensive linemen out there,
but they got in terms of you know, just pure
left tackles, they got the best one out there. It's
it's merely a matter of how many games do you
get out of them? And those games in December and January.
I know they all count the same up until the playoffs,
(24:19):
but those are ultimately where you're going to you know,
make your hay. It's not in those games in September
and if they need to hold them back a little bit,
they need to take some snaps off and whatever it is,
I would anticipate they'll do that.
Speaker 1 (24:29):
Everybody emphasizes continuity along that offensive line. That's that's going
to have three new starters with day Forum mentioned Simpson, Moses,
Tyron Smith. How much does a healthy Aaron Rodgers help
those guys.
Speaker 5 (24:45):
It's huge and Aarin you know, listen, him and Nathaniel
hacketd have a very special relationship. Those guys are going
to be you know, they're going to be in sync.
I think that if there was any lesson out of
on my board. Yeah, Ridley, tell them Ridley signs a
big contract, that they get a big contract.
Speaker 3 (25:06):
But Fuaga listen, listen.
Speaker 5 (25:12):
I think that the the cautionary thing if you saw
of those four snaps right, and it's extremely small sample size,
but Aaron gets hit on two of them last year,
the second one of Taris's achilles. I think that when
you've seen Aaron Rodgers at his best in his career,
yes he can extend plays, Yes he can do some
unbelievable things on the run out of the pocket, but
he's forty years old and he probably needs to be
(25:33):
the Aaron Rodgers who's running. They're running the football, and
then it's the backside options and it's a boom getting
it out one step routes, smoke routs, slants, it's getting
the football out of his hands if you take a
lot of hits. And I'm sure he's doing a million
different things and things I've never even heard of to
get his body right for this season, but realistically, like
(25:54):
you need to get the ball out of your hands
more often. And I think that when you go back,
I get it. He's in a new place. He's always
played like you might not be able to play like
that all the time anymore. You have that tool in
your toolbox, you don't have to go to the toolbox
all the time. So what he can do to help
the offensive line is get the football out of his hands.
You not have to block forty true dropbacks every time
because a lot of the stuff, a lot of his
(26:15):
passing yard and stuff. If you go back to the Packers,
and this is something that you know, the Packers sort
of invented with Brett Favre in the nineties, was you
know this idea and you see it all over the
league now, which is you have these zone running plays
and on the back side of it, you have some
type of route built in and you see one on
one there, you like the route, you like the alignment,
you just chuck it out there. Aaron did that all
(26:35):
the time, which is why sometimes when it was Hey,
I threw the ball forty five times, why didn't you
run it more, It's like, well, yeah, half of those
were called run plays. And Hackett's entire offense was built
to give Rogers the authority at the line of scrubbers,
not to audible, not to change the play, but it
was he could have a bunch of different plays all
available to him at the line.
Speaker 3 (26:54):
A lot of that's going to be built on the
Hey it's.
Speaker 5 (26:56):
The three step drop, take a shot, it's one step round,
it's all these different things. That's what he's done really
well throughout the course of his career. That's what's going
to help keep him healthy, take the pressure off the
offensive line, elevate everybody around him, which is what the
Jets brought him in to do.
Speaker 1 (27:11):
What do you make of the edge market out there
right now? Bright so Uff of course signs the Lucra
deal and free agency. I think a lot of people
were expecting that the Jets do have. Jermaine Johnson made
a huge seismic jump in the year two, John Franklin
Myers a versatile piece up there, Will McDonald. They took
fifteenth overall in last April's draft. They hosted j Davian
(27:34):
Clowney at the Complex last week. Jets fans are circling Clowney.
What do you think about the possibility there?
Speaker 5 (27:43):
I mean, Clowney's been on you know, a series. I
think he's had a two year deal in there somewhere,
but he's more or less play his whole career on
one year deals. And you know last year he came
off a strong season, so you would anticipate the market.
It's going to be a little bit richer for him
this year as he gets close to fifteen million. We'll see,
you know, there's probably gonna be a bunch of incentives
the one year get built into it, you know, I mean,
it could be something different, but at this stage in
(28:03):
his career is the number one picking what twenty fourteen?
He's probably better off just doing one year deals.
Speaker 3 (28:09):
You never know.
Speaker 5 (28:10):
I mean, you could do a longer one with him,
but he's shown the appetite to continue to go a
year to year throughout the course of his career. Here,
I think the fact that the Jets have invested what
they have in the defensive line probably gives them a
little bit more flexibility to wait and see whose prices
come down into the arrangement. Bryce Huff goes and gets
what eighteen nineteen million from the Eagles, Like, good for him, man,
(28:30):
I mean, they were getting offered like late round picks
for him in camp last year, and Joe wisely did
not take any of those those offers. But you know,
he's somebody who you know, grew into it and maybe
now with you know him not being there, maybe this
is where will McDonald you see him step in and
take on a bigger role. Obviously, Jermaine is just one
of the baddest dudes that you're going to see on
(28:50):
the field. Really, to John Franklin Myers, there'll be somebody
out there. There's enough pass rushers, there are veterans available.
Clowny at this point, you know, the top guy, but
you're also going to have to beat out the likes
of Baltimore to you know, trying to bring them back.
Speaker 1 (29:03):
Yeah, nine a half sex last year a career high
for Clowney. How about the flexibility maybe Joe Douglas has
right now entering the draft. He's got seven picks tenth overall.
What to see how the quarterbacks shake out at the
top of the draft. But after addressing the offensive line,
even though you got to keep these guys healthy, we
know that some tankering on the defensive side of the ball,
(29:24):
but this still should be one of the top units
in the National Football League. How do you think this
sets up for them as far as the draft is.
Speaker 5 (29:32):
Concerned now, Well, I think that you've got enough of
a base built that you do have a lot of
different options, and you filled some of your needs offensive
linewise through free agency, and a trade you signed Mike Williams,
who you know, became available here. I think there's a
lot of different options there. I mean, you're not taking
a running back up that high. You've obviously you got
briefs and there's no running backs that are really you know,
(29:53):
you want to take up there. But you know, could
you take a running back in the second round. But
there's a bunch of good players, it's certainly a possibility,
you know. In terms of with their top pick, I
think that there's a lot of different directions that you
can go. I think that the fact that those top
picks probably be a lot of quarterbacks sets up well
for teams that don't need one to be taken one high. So,
(30:14):
you know, from the Jets' perspective here, I think that
they're in a good position. We were talking about them
last year, so are they going to win the Super Bowl?
It's largely the same group. It's a lot of the
same pieces here, so just I don't think you need
you know, big wave types of stuff. I think that
whether you draft a receiver, you draft another lineman, you
draft somebody on defense, I think there's a bunch of
different ways go get another good football player on a
(30:35):
pretty talented roster, and let's see what happens.
Speaker 1 (30:37):
This is awesome. Let's end here. What do you think
about the message from Robert Salad this morning. I know
you were working sixteen respective tables, so you're not able
to take in each of these thirty minute sessions. But
something's stuck out to me when he said that you
don't win in an offseason. Winning is about winning games
(30:58):
in the regular season.
Speaker 5 (31:00):
Yeah, I mean, I think that that's the lesson out
of last year. Right again, I don't know how much
you can read into anything that happened last year, because
you lost the guy who your entire offense was built
for after four snaps, and you had to play people
who weren't supposed to be playing, like Zach who was
supposed to, you know, sit for the entire year. Here,
I think that after all the hype of last year
and Salla is certainly somebody who's like aware kind of
(31:23):
the environment around the team. Everything was building toward this
and it was at a fever pitch going into last year,
so then you know, everybody forgets those first what six
games after Aaron gets hurt, They they battled and they
won some games, and Zach played well at times, but
you know, realistically, you were never going to You weren't
going to win.
Speaker 3 (31:42):
The Super Bowl.
Speaker 5 (31:43):
Once Aaron went down, you probably weren't going to make
the playoffs. Even if everything fell right now, the expectations
are far lower. The last thing they're going to do
is start amping them up again. It's let's let's actually
get to the games and then decide who who's going
to win them.
Speaker 1 (31:56):
Appreciate your time as always, Tom,
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