03-11-25 Matt Barrows with KOA Sports

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Good, Ryan Edwards.

Speaker 2 (00:03):
The Ravens are getting DeAndre Hopkins on a one year
deal that is just now coming out. Looks like, yeah,
there you go, DeAndre Hopkins signing a one year deal
with the Baltimore Ravens.

Speaker 1 (00:17):
So NFL Free Agency.

Speaker 2 (00:19):
Rolls on will of course bring you updates throughout the
rest of the afternoon. We got Broncos Country tonight coming
up here at the top of the hour. They're going
to have updates as well for you. But right now
we're going to head out to the Kawa Common Spirit
Health Hotline and bring on Matt Barrows, who does a
terrific job with the Athletic.

Speaker 1 (00:36):
Covering the forty nine ers.

Speaker 2 (00:38):
At Matt Barrows on Twitter, Matt, you're on with Dave
Logan and Ryan Edwards.

Speaker 1 (00:42):
How are you this afternoon, my friend, I'm doing well.

Speaker 3 (00:44):
Thanks for having me on.

Speaker 1 (00:46):
Absolutely good to talk with you, Matt.

Speaker 4 (00:47):
So, the forty nine Ers look like they have I'm
not sure they're if they're dismantling the team, but I
know a couple of forty nine Ers fans that have
reached out and said, man, oh man, there's a lot
of very familiar faces that are going to be gone
next year when the season rolls around.

Speaker 1 (01:04):
What do you make of what they've done so far?

Speaker 3 (01:07):
Yeah, I think it's a result of them having spent
a lot of money, including last free agency period and
then going six and eleven, and they're basically, you know,
this is a big pivot. They are sort of bracing
for a new era with the forty nine ers, So
it'll be some carryover. Red Warner will carry over, George Kittle,

(01:33):
Nick Bosa, and the quarterback Brock Perty, but it's it's
a bit of a reset otherwise. And you know the
number of guys, for example, the defensive line there, they're
Week one starting defensive line against the New York Jets
on Monday Night Football. Last year had Mollie Kahan, Javon Hargrave,
Lennard Floyd, and Nick Bosa. Three of those guys are

(01:56):
being cut this week, and one of them has already
been signed by the Atlanta Falcons. So it's gonna look
like a different team in a lot of ways this season.

Speaker 2 (02:06):
What can you tell us about why Tellanoga Hufanga and
Drake Greenlaw were available, Well, Hufanga because.

Speaker 3 (02:16):
They made a really good pick last year, and Malick Mustafa.
They got him out of Wake Forest in the fourth round,
and he came on and really played well. And he
didn't actually replace Teleanoghulfanga who got hurt last year. When
Malick Mustafa started playing, he replaced Jaira Brown, who was

(02:37):
a third round pick the season prior. And then when
Hufanga came back, he got his starting job back and
it was Brown who went to the bench. So my
point being they had one of these younger, cheaper guys
already in place at that position. You know, this team
loves Tellano Hufanga. I tell the story about when when

(02:59):
Day three, before Day three of the draft began in
twenty twenty one, the then assistant general manager Adam Peters
who's now in Washington, went around the room and he
said he wanted everybody to stand up and make a
pitch for one player that they wanted a draft on
that day, the last day of the draft, and Hubanga

(03:21):
got the most votes, and is just from coaches and
from scouts and from various executives. People were just really
taken with him. And I think he fell in that
draft because he had a very mediocre, mediocre to slow
forty time. But he didn't play that way when he
was here, and so I think the Broncers are getting

(03:44):
somebody really good. The forty nine Ers always talked about
what a good communicator he was in that secondary and
that's why when he was able to come back last year,
he immediately went back into the starting lineup and you
could you could just see it just got a little
tighter when he was back on the field. And then

(04:05):
Great green Law. I mean, if there's one guy that
forty nine Ers fans are sort of gnashing their teeth about,
it's green Law. He's been here since twenty nineteen. He
plays with such a ferocity and fire you feel it.
It's palpable, and I'm sure that's what the Broncos shines

(04:27):
him for. Sometimes it gets a little out of hand.
Probably a lot of your listeners were watching the game
against the Eagles in Philadelphia where green Law got into
a fight with a big dom on the sideline last year,
where I guess it was in twenty twenty three. And
he's had some of those types of penalties over his

(04:49):
stint with the forty nine Ers, but that was something
that the coaches would always accept because he was also
kind of firing up the team and the forty nine
ers didn't play very well on defense last year without him,
and that was a something that they cited over and
over again for their subpar play not having him in
the lineup. So I think you guys, Roccos are getting

(05:11):
two really good defenders and it sounds like a good
plan for both of them as well.

Speaker 1 (05:17):
As you mentioned, and we obviously know that too.

Speaker 4 (05:20):
Hufunga and green Law have have had injuries, and Ryan
and I in talking about that, I mean, you pretty
much have to acknowledge if you play in this league,
you're gonna have to find a way to battle through
some injuries.

Speaker 1 (05:31):
You just hope that.

Speaker 4 (05:31):
They're not not all that serious. Green Law had the
torn achilles. But as you look at both of those
players separately in totality, is there a concern of yours
about either guy being as a as I'm air quoting here,
injury prone.

Speaker 3 (05:52):
I don't think so. With Hufunga was an ACL in
twenty twenty three, and you know he hurt his wrist
last year. That was the second injury he had and
that was a freak accident. You know, I think there's
more concern about green Law. He's an older player. You know,

(06:15):
one of the kind of the odd things that happened
in that Super Bowl when everybody knows that he tore
his achilles coming off the sideline. He had been dealing
with an achilles injury late in the season that year,
sort of uh tendonitis or soreness in that area, but
it was the other achilles, uh, not the one that

(06:35):
that tore ultimately, So usually, I mean sometimes when someone
tears their right achilles, they have a greater propensity for
tearing the left just because that's a that's a weakness
in in their in their body. So, I mean, you know,
does that happen all the time? No, I And I

(06:56):
think he recovered from the achilles really well. Uh as
that game against the Rams showed, you know, his body
wasn't used to playing, and he didn't play after that.
It was a week fifteen game. But it wasn't because
the achilles was still damaged or there was something wrong
with it.

Speaker 1 (07:13):
It was just a.

Speaker 3 (07:15):
Factor of him not having played up until that point.

Speaker 1 (07:19):
Matt Barrow's joining us last one, I hal for you.

Speaker 2 (07:20):
Matt really appreciates the time Dave mentioned did Ralph at
the beginning sort of the reaction. I think around the
league watching the forty nine ers sort of gets stripped
away here in free agency.

Speaker 1 (07:32):
How are fans.

Speaker 2 (07:33):
Feeling about the job that John Lynch and Kyle Shanahan
are doing and is there a potential hot seat happening
with either of those two gentlemen?

Speaker 3 (07:42):
Oh not right now. I mean the owner really kind
of cherishes both of them, no other way to put it.
You know, they did finish six and eleven in twenty
twenty four, So if there's another season like that, yeah,
I think the seed start to heating up a little bit.
But right now you talk to the owner and it's

(08:05):
still sort of gushing praise about everything that they've accomplished
and more to the point, how well they worked together,
which was something that the organization was really lacking. You
might remember the Jim Harbaugh Trent Balkey era out here.
You know, the two sides of the organization didn't really

(08:26):
mesh very well at all. And front office and coaching
staff do do that really well.

Speaker 2 (08:32):
Right now, Matt, really appreciate the time, man, Thanks so
much for the insight.

Speaker 3 (08:36):
All right, anytime, guys, tuck you.

Speaker 1 (08:37):
Soon, Thank you, thank you man.

Speaker 2 (08:39):
Matt Barrows from the Athletic Yeah, I think I was
thinking about earlier today Dave about adding green Law and
Ifanga is their experience in the playoffs, Like though those
guys having experienced with with a team that wins, right,
I mean you even just being around in a Hufanga
didn't play a lot in twenty twenty three or even
in twenty twenty four because he needed to pick up

(09:00):
the wrist injury as well. And then Greenlaw came back
late last year, but that obviously wasn't a good year,
but he played in multiple Super Bowls for the forty
nine ers. There's something to that, like bringing those types
of players into the building, right, I mean bringing that
kind of experience, especially in positions like that, like leadership
positions on the defensive side of the ball, talking about

(09:21):
an inside linebacker whether he's gonna wear the green dot
or not, and as well as was a safety, which
is now in a lot of ways in the NFL
a major leadership position in the secondary.

Speaker 1 (09:32):
I was thinking about in terms of how.

Speaker 2 (09:34):
Much that can be sort of an added benefit of
not only getting two players that are starters for you,
but guys that had that kind of experience.

Speaker 1 (09:40):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (09:41):
I mean, first I would say Drake Greenlaw will will
wear the green dot.

Speaker 1 (09:45):
That would be my guess.

Speaker 4 (09:46):
I think it goes back to what you and I've
talked about with respect to the kind of players that
Sean Payton and to a certain degree, George Payton as well,
want in the law locker room, right and you want
you want high character guys. You you want guys that
are not divas. You want guys that love football. You

(10:08):
want guys who are going to get there early and
stay late. You want guys that are team oriented, and
they I mean, I think the Broncos have done a
really good job in the two year period. Sean has
been here at identifying some of those guys and making
them part of the team.

Speaker 1 (10:22):
The reason you do that, I think those guys are
easier to coach.

Speaker 4 (10:27):
And also when you bring a guy, let's just speak
of Drake Greenlaw into the locker room. I mean, he's,
as you said, been in two Super Bowl games. He's
been in four, I believe four NFC championship games. So
he has the street cred walking in with the right
kind of teammates or he can say that are paraphrasing.

Speaker 1 (10:52):
Hey, listen, I know what it takes.

Speaker 4 (10:54):
I've been there, here's how we here's how we have
to do this in terms of the work. You want
your best players to be your hardest workers. It can't
on good teams, it cannot be any way other than that.
And so that's what I that's why I think it's
important for Sean to get the right kind of players

(11:18):
in the locker room. And I remember back we had
several conversations a couple of players that have played for Sean,
a couple of guys that had coached with Sean in
New Orleans, and basically in two or three maybe four
interviews separately, they all said the same thing. He's going
to find out who loves football. If you don't love ball,

(11:39):
I don't want you here, and I'm not going to
bring you here. You're gonna hate it here and you're
not going to be here long. So they've I think,
and then George and then Greg Penner talking about I
want Sean to come in and change the cultures.

Speaker 1 (11:57):
He's empowered him to do that.

Speaker 4 (12:00):
Maybe he's ruffled some feathers in the process, but you
know what, he's done it, and he's got more of
his kind of guys in the locker room right now,
easily than when he first walked in the door, and
Greenlaw and Hufunga appear to be two more of those
kind of guys.

Speaker 2 (12:20):
And honestly, if you think about it in terms of
the kinds of players he's continuing to put in here,
the forty nine ers are the team that they keep
tapping to. I mean, even Mike McGlinchey, right, it was
one of the first signings he had here in free
agency a couple of years ago. Another forty nine er
had a lot of experience in the postseason. And you
sure you get enough of those kinds of guys in
the locker room, because what it is right now is

(12:40):
a team that they may be overachieved a little bit
last year, they're not gonna be sneaking up on anybody
this year.

Speaker 1 (12:46):
Like nobody's gonna go into this year.

Speaker 2 (12:48):
Saying, well, I don't know about the moroncos they got
a rookie quarterback.

Speaker 1 (12:51):
That's no longer the case.

Speaker 2 (12:52):
So second year quarterback who had a very good season,
and now the expectation, despite you know whatever they end
up surrounding him with on the offensive side of the ball,
the expectations is this gonna be a playoff team or
a team that's competing for something, but you need people
in the building, especially in the locker room, that know
what it's like to get not only get there, but
to also succeed in it. Because we saw and I
think it's a start contrast because of where Buffalo has been,

(13:16):
what it looks like for a team to just get
to the playoffs and a team that knows what it's
like to play in the playoffs. When the Rocks and
the Bills play show uplastually.

Speaker 4 (13:24):
I think that's a good point. You want guys that.
I mean, it's if you're winning. I mean, there are
a lot of leaders and it's fun to come to work.
I mean it's it's it's hard. I mean, it's it's
good to go to practice, it's good to watch practice film.
It's good to go home and watch your opponent. I mean,
it's it's good. You're making a lot of money, you're winning,

(13:47):
Everybody loves you. Everything's great. The key to having really
good leadership guys that understand what it takes is when
it's not going well, when you've lost two or three games,
maybe you've lost three in a row. That's when now
the coach, obviously is going to have a message to

(14:10):
the team.

Speaker 1 (14:10):
He has won every single week. But trust me on this, it's.

Speaker 4 (14:15):
More important and has more impact on players if the
leaders of that locker room gather guys in their own
way and say, hey, listen, we'll get out of this.
We we know how to we know how to get
out of this. We just got it, and then whatever, whatever,
whatever the message is. It was one of the things

(14:35):
that I was concerned about with Nathaniel Hackett. Yeah, I
remember saying, listen, I mean he's he's obviously he's worked
in an offense with a great quarterback. He's given credit for,
whether true or not, he was given credit for being
a creative kind of offensive mind. I said, my concern

(14:56):
with hiring a guy that has had absolutely and I'm
not saying it couldn't work, but the concern was he's
going to be fine if things are going well. What
happens when you have to stand up in front of
that team on Wednesday morning and you've lost three games
in a row and you've got a whole room full
of grown ass men looking at you, and what they

(15:17):
want to know is, what are we going to do
to get out of this? How do we get out
of it. That's all they want to know, nothing else.
And I think that's that's one of the things that
Peyton has done a good job both Peyton's with the
Broncos of making sure he's got the right kind of
guys as many of those guys as you possibly can

(15:38):
find that can still play and put them in that
locker room.

Speaker 2 (15:42):
Well, because we've talked about it, like confidence is one
of those It's not fickle, right, but in some ways
it is because it can sort of right on that
razor's edge. It's your one moment when you are in
the midst of a winning streak. Everything feels great. It
feels like you never can lose again.

Speaker 1 (15:57):
Right.

Speaker 2 (15:58):
We talked about it when the Broncos was the Super
Bowl in twenty fifteen. That was the belief around the building.
That was a belief inside the locker room. Somebody's gonna
show up. We don't know who's gonna be. It's gonna
be DT, it's gonna be CJ. Somebody's gonna show up
and make a play. The defense, somebody's gonna make a play.

Speaker 1 (16:13):
We're gonna win this game.

Speaker 2 (16:15):
But on the other side of that, you see what
happens in some of those losing seasons. When you get
that culture of the locker room and you have the
leadership being what it is and it's a little bit wonky,
it can just as easily go the other direction. And
you can obviously speak to that, being in part of
many locker rooms about what that's like when you're all
look at each other like, okay, we believe in this
or the other side of that, we really don't. And
I agree, I agree with you, well, Sean, if nothing else,

(16:37):
he's worth his weight in gold for that reason alone,
because I think he has not only instilled that because
of his experience and I think with his resume when
he brings.

Speaker 1 (16:45):
To the building.

Speaker 2 (16:46):
But the other side of that is the kind of
players that he intentionally brought in and simultaneously moved on from.

Speaker 1 (16:54):
And that's part of that too. No, I think it
was part of the plan.

Speaker 4 (16:57):
With that question, he did it with intention And again
it's still I mean, this is still a work in progress.
They've got to have a good draft, they've got to
have continued good work and free agency, and then you
go out and you battle like crazy this year. You
want to improve on this year, and I think they
can what that means, I don't know.

Speaker 1 (17:18):
And then next year you do the same thing. And
I think in twenty twenty six, if.

Speaker 4 (17:23):
They continue to do what they have shown an ability
to do off the field by putting the right pieces
into that locker room, then I think that's a super
Bowl caliber team in twenty twenty six.

Speaker 1 (17:39):
So I want to catch people on a couple of moves.

Speaker 2 (17:41):
We talked about it right before we brought on Matt
Barrows that DeAndre Hopkins going to the Ravens on a
one year deal. Moments ago, Devin Bush signed a one year,
three point twenty five million dollar deal with your Cleveland Browns.
Xavier Woods signed a two year deal with the Tennessee type.
Some of these players are like, are name players getting

(18:04):
like one in two year contracts. Eric Stokes for a
first round pick, just had a one year, four million
dollar deal with the Raiders, like somebody. These are former
for devil Bush, Remember he was the first round pick.
Sager Woods was a top corner at one point. Uh.
These guys are all and of course DeAndre Hopkins was
the name. It's it's a fascinating sort of glimpse into
kind of what free agency in some ways has become

(18:26):
where you're you're kind of into the second wave.

Speaker 1 (18:28):
I guess technically we're in this into the.

Speaker 2 (18:30):
Second wave of it, and some of these guys not
getting first wave deals and so you know, I'll take
a short deal, maybe I can parlay that into into
something more next year.

Speaker 4 (18:40):
That's how they have to look at it. It's it's
an opportunity to go out and have.

Speaker 1 (18:47):
And have a year like Bond did with Philadelphia, right right,
because it's a great example.

Speaker 4 (18:55):
It's that it's that kind of opportunity. And I think
that's what teams say all these guys on as well.
There are very few guys that are going to sit
back after after becoming a free agent and have teams
blowing up their phone and knocking down their door figuratively
speaking and saying, hey, I mean we're going to give
you and then just.

Speaker 1 (19:15):
Filling the blank two hundred million, three hundred million.

Speaker 4 (19:18):
Very very few guys and most of their quarterbacks or elite,
elite running backs, and every now and then you'll find
a receiver.

Speaker 1 (19:26):
I mean, DeVante.

Speaker 4 (19:26):
Adams, even at his age, still got a very very
good deal. DK metcalf is going to sign an extension
five year one point fifty. But that's those deals are atypical.
That's not the norm. The norms are veteran players that
have played four or five six years that now are
in free agency and are not going to be able

(19:48):
to command what maybe their agent told them they're worth,
or what they think they're worth. And now they get
an opportunity for a one or two year deal or
as you said, four or five million per go out
and show us what you have, and then you know what,
if you do, you hit the jackpot.

Speaker 1 (20:04):
It might be an opportunity for the Broncos to pick
up a player or two.

Speaker 2 (20:07):
We talked about JK. Dobbins. Yeah, good, one of these
tied ends. You get them on one year deal and.

Speaker 1 (20:11):
See what happens. Hey said.

Speaker 2 (20:13):
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Say that all the time. All right, we'll come back.
There was there was a big free agency story today
that we have not gotten to yet, and we'll address
that ne