Realistic Expectations for Starting Rookie QBs

It's a new era for the SumerSports Show! Lindsay Rhodes takes over for Eric Eager as the host with Thomas Dimitroff. Thomas and Lindsay discuss DeShaun Watson's contract restructure, the Patriots QB situation and the three rookie starting QBs.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:05):
What Up?

Speaker 2 (00:06):
Football fans, Welcome to the Summer Sport Show. Lindsay Rhodes
here with the one and only Thomas Demittro. Thrilled to
be joining this show in the vacated metaphorical seat that
my friend Eric Eager wants filled. Totally ready Thomas to
geek out on some of that good Suomer data and
cross check it with the real world football experience of yourself.

(00:28):
This is in many ways an absolute dream show for me,
and so happy, so happy to get started.

Speaker 1 (00:33):
Look, you got it. What Up is exactly what's going on.
There's a lot going on. There's a lot going on
in this business, but more importantly our show. Right, talking
about great football again, I was going to say, and
I know you're not a big college football fan. You're
a USC fan. I know you agree with that, but
we're you know, this is a big weekend in Atlanta, right,
Chick fil A kickoff Clemson Georgia. A lot already buzzing

(00:55):
around this town. So again, I'm excited to be a
football person this weekend. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:00):
The thing about college for me is just bandwidth, right,
Like I got thirty two teams. I want to dedicate
every waking moment that I'm not with my kids to
focusing on the thirty two teams in the NFL, and
I just I can't do it all day on Saturday too.
So USC plays LSU this weekend and we'll see how
that goes. But let's get back to the NFL. I

(01:22):
want to say really quickly, because this is my first
summer sport show with you. I know you already have
an existing fan base. I am no Eric Eager. I
do not know how to run Python, as far as
I knew two years ago that was a snake. I
can hardly help my son with his fifth grade math,
so I will not be filling his role in any way.

(01:43):
I will, however, promise you that the tenor of the
show that I was a subscriber of I listened all
the time to you too last year, as a place
where you can come and have smart, multifaceted football conversations,
that's not going to change. I love data, I love
talking to people who know more about this sport than
I do. I love learning about football, and it's my
goal that we will all learn something new in every

(02:05):
episode that you will, by the way, be able to
find every Tuesday and Thursday on Apple Spotify, YouTube, and Twitter. Thomas,
it's also my goal that we have fun. Maybe it
should be my goal that I lower my word per
minute rate. I mean, holy coffee intake this morning, Lindsay,
slow your role. What do you I feel like I
have it in my brain that you don't drink coffee.

Speaker 1 (02:25):
No, I drink coffee and I drink the I manage.
I manage my caffeine.

Speaker 2 (02:29):
However, Okay, I feel like maybe it was just that
you're just in general much much healthier than me, and
so I had it in my brain that you you're
like out there like like bike riding, like you know,
like it's the Tour de France every day here.

Speaker 1 (02:44):
When you get when you get into your fifties, you
have to start thinking about longevity. You don't even bother
reading those books. Yet that's what we do in our fifties.
We have to keep keep on top of all that.

Speaker 2 (02:54):
Oh my gosh. The theme of today's show is going
to be rookie quarterbacks. But first, before we get to
the rookie quarterbacks, I want to bring up a veteran
quarterback who there's a little bit of news about that
came down today and that has to do with Deshaun
Watson and the fact that the Browns restructured his contract.
And I want to ask you about this for a

(03:14):
couple of reasons. One like, we know that his whole
contract is fully guaranteed. They're gonna have to pay all
of this money at some point anyway, So it's just
about structuring stuff for a variety of different reasons. His
cap hit now that they've restructured it is going to
be twenty seven point nine million this year, goes up
to seventy two point nine million next year, and then

(03:35):
it's seventy two point nine million the year after that.
That's twenty twenty six. What I think is interesting and
want to get your thoughts on Thomas, is that they
converted forty four million of his salary for this year
to a signing bonus to create cap room. Now, the
move cleared almost thirty six million dollars for them to
bring their available cap space at this moment to roughly
sixty million dollars. That's the most in the NFL. My brain,

(03:58):
as somebody who has never sat in the front office,
is what are they clearing all this cap space for?
Are they going to make a move, who are they
going to go out and get who's somebody that's expensive
that they might actually try to bring in. Is that
where your brain goes or is there a different reason
that they might be doing this.

Speaker 1 (04:13):
Honestly, my brain does go to we did a lot
of restructuring, and my brain goes to their restructuring for
the future, And it's not about the acquisition of What
you want to do is talk about Brandon Ayuk or
someone like Right.

Speaker 2 (04:27):
No, I didn't, that'd be fun.

Speaker 1 (04:29):
I think that the basic idea is that they are
just simply creating space with a player that they know
they're not going to be moving on from at this point.
And that's what we always did with our restructures, right.
We take the big players like Matt Ryan, like Julio
Jones back in the day. We make space and room
for the idea that we could make a move if
we wanted to. But in my mind, I'm thinking they

(04:51):
already had this in their brain about creating this was
part of their long term plan. That's how I'm looking
at it as a sound wealth general manager. But I
do want to go to what you're saying. The idea
of making moves, right, is that where your head's going
as a as a like big time follower and fan
of the NFL. What are they creating? Yeah?

Speaker 2 (05:13):
Yeah, well cause it's so for you know, I'm not
deep in the weeds about like what creating sixty million
dollars worth of cap space right now would would how
that would affect their books for next year or the
year after that. I mean, obviously we're looking at a
seventy two million dollars seventy three million dollars cap hit
next year. So I'm kind of thinking two things. One,
you better get it done now because that cap HiT's

(05:36):
massive and you're not gonna be able to go make
a lot of free agency moves next off season. Tell
me if I'm wrong. But also, if you're creating sixty
million dollars now and you didn't do this back before
free agency, when you could have just signed a bunch
of people, like what are you making that space for?
Who are these how do what do you need that
money for? Otherwise you just have sixty million dollars worth
of cap space to use on nothing like what It

(05:58):
doesn't make sense to me. But going back to the
AUK thing, I actually have thought about what you said,
and I don't think I do want him to go
to Cleveland because Deshaun Watson has been a little bit
iffy and Ayuk would help, But I don't know if
I want him there anyway. Well, but am I wrong
to think what I'm thinking?

Speaker 1 (06:17):
No, Look, I think again, we would look at it
every year and we would decide on who we are
going to restructure if in fact we needed to. And
again remember Atlanta Falcons, Arthur Blank, myself, our group, we
were always in the top third for sure, and spending right,
that's what we wanted to do. It's what Arthur Blank
wanted to do for the community. I only use that

(06:37):
as an example because we were always looking to see
where we could restructure and create more space. We would
spend a lot, and then we would try to create
space with the players that we knew again we're going
to be around for a while. You would never do that,
of course, you would never restructure a player that you're
going to cut in the next year. So it's I
just don't think we need to go overbearing on this

(06:59):
as far as idea that they're going to make a
move on it. You may knock on my door in
the next day and say Thomas. I told you I
M a better general manager prospect than you. Look what
I found out.

Speaker 2 (07:11):
I have guided several fantasy football teams to championships. So
I think we are a little bit same same, right.

Speaker 1 (07:18):
Yes, no question ah, We're there.

Speaker 2 (07:21):
Okay. So another veteran quarterback move that caught my eye
today and it's a little bit under the radar, but
it just has to do with like roster building type stuff.
The Chargers traded for Taylor Heinecke yesterday actually and just
for a conditional sixth. Herbert has been banged up in

(07:41):
the preseason. Could this be a sign that they think
that they might need to play a backup at some
point and that maybe we should be a little bit
like thinking that that injury might be a cause of
concern for them. Or is it just a sign that
they like heinekeey a lot a lot more than Easton Stick,
who didn't look particularly good in the preseason, and that
the compas.

Speaker 1 (08:00):
I think when you have a stud quarterback like they
do have, yes, you're always concerned about them going down
in the what ifs. We talked about that a lot
with Matt Ryan. We were very fortunate not to have
that situation. He missed one and a half games in
fourteen years Herbert. I don't know that the exact stats.
We probably need to check what they are. I think
it's just bring in a guy that they know if

(08:21):
there was a nick something happened to Herbert that he
could come in and manage a game, potentially win a game.
I mean Heineke's he's an aggressive, competitive football player. You
do want that. You want that as your backup quarterback.
You want that or one of your three quarterbacks. I
think that's important. I think they may be just thinking, like,
the last thing we need to do is miss a

(08:43):
run on a game if we have a sprained ankle.
I'm just making it something easy. And do we have
the right person to step in? I will tell you
there's nothing worse than that when your dude goes down
and you think, man, we are out two games and
we have no chance. That is an unnerving situation as
a team builder, for sure.

Speaker 2 (09:03):
Absolutely, and it's in a somewhat interesting situation. We talked
about this on cutdown Day, about the three quarterback rule
and the late changes to that, and so a lot
of teams only have two quarterbacks on their fifty three
men roster anyway, a few did carry three quarterbacks, one
that we're going to talk about today. But let's get
to the rookie quarterback conversation here and the big news

(09:28):
of the day out of New England that they're going
to start the season with Jacoby Brissett instead of Drake May.
This has been an interesting conversation point, I think, throughout
the preseason, because they're clearly pros and cons about whether
you would want to play Drake May out of the
gate or sit him and maybe protect him for the
long term. What do you think were some of the

(09:51):
things that they were going back and forth on there
in that front office that led them to this answer.

Speaker 1 (09:56):
Look, we all know that Drake May has legitimate skills, right,
He's got athletic ability to move. It's a really good
mixture as well as intelligence, et cetera, et cetera. I
know there's all types of talk out there, even from
their former head coach right saying that he was behind potentially.
You know, I believe that Bill Belichick had mentioned about

(10:16):
footwork and some of the nuanced elements of elements of
the quarterback. Yes, he's probably behind in that area, and
everyone deals with that, when you know the new quarterbacks
that come into your system, you want them to be
out there right away. You want them to develop. You
want to be proud that they are supporting and representing
what you did in the draft or in free agency.

(10:38):
Of course, in this situation in the draft, I think
personally they are thinking, let's ease him in a little bit.
I think I don't believe that there's that much pressure
from the front office and from the ownership that you
need to win right out the gate with this new
quarterback that you put your money on. I don't believe
that that's the mindset there.

Speaker 2 (10:58):
Yeah, I don't think. I mean, I don't think anybody thinks,
and this is the kind of thing that they can't
say out loud, right, but I don't think anybody is
looking at the Patriots this year and going, well, you know,
foot on the pedal, this is the year. I think
everybody knows that this is kind of a new evaluation year.
You get to read on a bunch of different things
and you're building towards something else. That said, I would

(11:18):
submit that as a reason to potentially start him right
out of the gate, because if you know that you're
not going to win the Super Bowl this year, that's
not what we're looking at. Then go ahead and just
get him as many reps as possible so that then
when you are able to cross your fingers be more
competitive next year. He has so much experience under his
belt and he's ready to hit the ground running. There

(11:39):
are clearly other factors in play here, But what do
you think in terms of just that approach, Like in general,
if you're looking at a year that is not expected
to be particularly competitive, getting that guy as many reps
as possible.

Speaker 1 (11:52):
Look, I could go on and on about this, Lindsay.
I mean, the simple fact in this league is you
need to win, and you need to win now. You
are not given as a general manager, as a new
head coach, you're not given five years to mess around,
right I Look, I am all about playing the quarterback
right away. I mean, we played Matt Ryan. I don't
want to continue to always come back to Atlanta, but
my experience there is the first shot we ever took

(12:14):
was to get him confidence and he threw a touchdown pass.
It was unbelievable, right, the emotion and what it did
for the team. You bring out your rookie quarterback even
though he's not necessarily ready. I get that, get him reps.
I think that's important. They could also be thinking, let's
see in the schedule where we think it's the best

(12:35):
to bring him in. Right If you're looking at New
England's schedule right now and you look at it and
you think, okay, is it the first quarter of the season,
you know, where do they make that decision to bring
in Drake? If Jacobe is struggling a little bit, does
it feel better to bring in a guy like Drake
May to say, Okay, you saved the day. What a
ramp up of confidence that is for you versus you

(12:58):
came in and you lost the three or four games,
and now we're struggling with our confidence and momentum within
the organization. So I'm sure there are some psychological again,
nuances to why they're doing this. Again. I'm a big
fan of playing your guy out the gate, and I
know Tom Brady made comments about this, and I get
whereas comments are coming from. This is a very different

(13:20):
NFL and a very different team than what it was
before when Tom was in that situation. And I say
that with huge respect, of course, to him. I would
want those young guys to get experienced sooner than later.
And that's where my head is as a team builder.

Speaker 2 (13:35):
Yeah, I mean we have on the flip side, we
don't even have to go back as far as Tom Brady.
You could look at Jordan love Right who sat on
the bench and this was a different situation when the
Falcons are likely looking at now with Michael PENNOCKX. But so,
I mean it can work both ways. But in this
particular case you mentioned Matt Ryan developing some confidence, he hits,
he makes that big play. I wonder in the case

(13:57):
of Drake May if they're protecting the opposite from happening
and or from making him the next David Carr behind
that O line, Because the one thing that everyone had
consensus on in the preseason, regardless of what you thought
about the quarterback play, was that the O line looked
like it might be a little bit shaky and might
need some work, and that whoever sits back there might
not be particularly protected or set up to succeed. And

(14:19):
so I wonder how much that didn't factor into this
decision that you know, no offense to Jacobe Presett, but
they're not as invested in him, so put him behind
that O line and then just make sure that the
O line gets some reps and that they're able better
able to put Drake May in a position where he
looks ready to play, whether he even is or not.
Like now, we're just evaluating him and not just looking

(14:41):
at him in a terrible situation. That's not really fair.

Speaker 1 (14:44):
No, that's a great point. It's another good GM mind
point there. Lind's a good job. I like it because
that is exactly one of the things that we'd be
going through. We would sit down as anyone as GM
and head coach, and you would go through all the
scenarios with that first year quarterback and how it's going
to affect, how it's not gonna affect. Again, remember with
Drake May, one of the most rounded individuals that came

(15:06):
out in the draft. Too, great guy, very smart guy.
You know, he's just he's a guy that you can
work with. And I also believe he's not only a
guy you can work with on the field. That's an undershoot,
but it's also he's the kind of guy that I think,
and I would believe, understands how this process is going
to be. He's not flipping off the cuff. Guy who's

(15:27):
going to lose his mind because he's not out there,
you know, being picked where he was that he's not
out there playing out out the gate. I'm sure he's competitive,
I get it, but he is probably listening to the
head coach and Elliott Wolf who Elliott's a very good
personnel man, and they're going to be talking about the
benefits of playing out the gate or maybe in time,
maybe in the first quarter of the season, or maybe

(15:49):
even earlier.

Speaker 2 (15:51):
You also mentioned Bill Belichick's eve al and talking about
his feet and his footwork, and that's something that I've
heard a lot of people who watch the tape and
do that kind of tape evaluation bring up jt. Osullivan
does I think a very good job, and he has
consistently harped on the fact that his footwork, he thinks
is a little bit inconsistent, And specifically he used a
phrase that I think goes to the offensive line, which

(16:13):
is that he moves to trouble sometimes in the pocket
and that behind this particular offensive line just connecting some dots.
I think that that could potentially be something that they
want him to work on before putting him back there.
There's also a strategy involved here. Right from a general
manager or even a head coaching standpoint, everybody's looking out
for their jobs, wanting to manage expectations, keep the fans happy,

(16:33):
give them something to point to at the end of
the season if it's not a particularly productive season from
a win loss standpoint. And so if you don't start
Drake May and you do bring him in later, now
your record might be what it is, but you can
always say, man, yeah that was rough, but look at
what we have to build on and we have hope
for the future. Which brings me to Bo Nix, who

(16:55):
is going to start Week one for Denver. They've gone
in the opposite way. They've decided to start him out
of the gate. They are and I alluded to this
beginning of the show, one of the teams that decided
to keep three quarterbacks, and I think it's an interesting
conversation to figure out what's going on in their head
as far as that's concerned, because on the surface, you
could look at, yeah, Bo Nicks in that quarterback room,

(17:16):
we want as many as possible because we're not totally
sure that it's going to hit with any of them.
But if you start the rookie out of the gate.
There's also a part of it that's going you can't
go backwards. You can't pull him after you use the
twelfth pick in the draft on him. If he struggles.
You can't just go, oh, well, that didn't work. Here's
Jared Stidham guys or Zach Wilson right, Like so, strategically

(17:39):
there's two totally different approaches here. What's your take on,
I guess the best approach and how much you think
these front offices are keeping these things I'm talking about
in mind?

Speaker 1 (17:48):
Well, in the spirit of bo Nicks. By the way,
I love the fact that you have a head coach
when the head coach is really behind the quarterback. And
I know that sounds a little odd, right. Sean Payton
does great work. Obviously, is a fantastic coach. He understands
about quarterbacks and quarterbacks in his system. A lah Kyle Shanahan, Right,
They're gonna take the quarterback that they truly do think

(18:10):
will maximize and even at a value with what you know. Look,
you see what they did in San Francisco versus Trey Lance, right.
They settled on someone who in the end Kyle believed
could run the system, and we've seen that he can
bow knicks back to Bo. Bo is a strong, big,
confident guy with really good maturity and an understanding of

(18:32):
systems and plays within the system really well. I love
the fact that bo Nicks is with Sean Payton, because
that's what that man needs as a head coach, right.
I don't think he needs that person who's just going
to gonna freewheel it right. He's gonna need someone that's
going to be mature enough to follow what's going on
with the system. So that is one of the things
that's been on my mind a lot. Again, I'm fond

(18:54):
of bo Nicks in the way that he plays. I
think he's tough. I think he could run the ball
when it's necessary. I mean, I've seen him take it
some big hits and deliver some blows on top of that.
Not that we want him to do it in the NFL,
but I just love that competitive side of him combined
with the maturity. So I will be excited to see
I don't know if that necessarily asks answers your question,

(19:14):
but this is a guy that I think all of
our eyes need to be on to see how that
ten to fifteen to twenty ranked quarterback or or picked
quarterback operates versus one, two, three, four five. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (19:27):
I think what you just said is really interesting because
it does bring there's a lot of psychological stuff that
goes on with a coach, right, like you have to
take care of especially with a younger quarterback, you have
to There's a lot that goes into it. We're all
like human nature is that if you think your boss
is a strong believer in you, you're going to feel
more free to make a mistake here there without fearing

(19:49):
that short hook. You're not going to play scared, You're
not going to be tight, all that kind of stuff.
And I think that there's a their psychological upside to
all of that. And I think when you're talking about
Sean Payton, I would sense that this would be huge
for Bo to feel kind of free Like you are
out of the gate, my guy. I saw you in

(20:09):
the draft. I wanted you in the draft. You're the
sixth quarterback to go in this year's class, and we
still took you with the twelfth pick because you are ours.
We like you so much, and I think that it's
easy in this case to know to sense that there's
probably some truth to that if you're Bo Nicks and
you're like, is this guy just blowing smoke at me?
Because I'm the guy that he got. They literally shift

(20:31):
Russell Wilson, who from a casual fans standpoint watching the
game was like, well, he was much better last year
than he was the year before, but he wasn't running
the offense the way that Sean Payton wanted him to
run the offense. And now he's in Pittsburgh as a result.
So you bring in Bo and you go, you are
the guy who's gonna run my offense. I like what
I'm seeing. You build up that confidence, and so to

(20:52):
go with that right out of the gate, I think
is probably a smart strategy.

Speaker 1 (20:56):
And you build it out of the gate with a
guy like Sean Payton again, who is going to pull
him aside before any of this, you know, and all
the meetings that they have, and he's going to be
very direct with him. I will come down on you. Bo.
You need to be the mature guy that understands that
you need to be able to have that conversation with
me off record in the meeting room alone. You know

(21:17):
you're not going to go in the tank because I
get after you on AB and C and X, Y
and Z, and that is something that is important. Everyone
has egos, right, Coaches have egos. Quarterbacks have egos, and
you want to kick it out, you know, kick it
off and jump out the gate in a positive way there,
and an understanding way there and back to an aggressive
in a way that you're not going to be dragging

(21:37):
your dauber because your head coach has strong ideas about
how he wants you to do things so that you
maximize your ability. And look, I am very curious. I mean,
you read some of the quotes about the veteran quarterbacks
that they had there that were competing. Right, do we
have a half a minute to talk about that? What
was your take on that? You know, Stidham, when you're

(21:57):
talking about that, Zach Wilson, like, what did you what
were your thoughts that way? Here's this young guy coming in.
These guys are both looking at how their careers are
going to move in the next little while. Here's a
young guy coming in twelfth pick, not the second or
the first pick of the draft. I find it really interesting.

Speaker 2 (22:15):
I do too, because I don't think that it was
as obvious like with the twelfth pick, if you take
a quarterback there in a number of other years, that
guy's automatically starting anyway. So that's really high to take
a quarterback, and I would think that the tea leaves
probably read he's going to start year one. But because
he was the sixth quarterback taken, then I think that

(22:35):
there was almost just narratively a little bit less pressure
on that to happen because all the attentions over here
in Chicago and in Washington and we're focusing on different
rookie quarterbacks. So in that room, I think you go
into the training camp and preseason is saying like, I
don't know, it's up for grabs, go win it. And
then when he does win it against people who are

(22:57):
admittedly not like high end veterans, you know, but they're
people who might be competent to run an offense, then
I think that maybe it makes it a little bit
more interesting that he was able to win the job
right out of the gate, because I could have very
easily seen them setting the table, and I think that
they brought those guys in in order to do this
just in case to take a Patriots approach right where

(23:20):
they would go like we'll have Stidham start the season
when you're ready go, which I think makes me feel confident,
more confident, maybe that Bo might actually just be ready.

Speaker 1 (23:30):
Think about it from the perspective as well as you
and I like him a lot. I mean, George Payton
is a great guy, and he's a really good football man.
After Russell Wilson, you want nothing more than a move
that's being made to fall into place. Well, right, You're
not as much thinking about the older free agents that
are coming in. You are thinking about I am being
evaluated on my ability to acquire quarterbacks. Right, whether that

(23:55):
was Sean Payton's pick or not, George was right there.
George is a general manager, and Geor is going to
be obviously very keenly aware of how that whole thing operates, right.
I find that fascinating as well. George is an even
keel guy and he knows football inside out. He's going
to be watching the building and the development of a
guy like bow Nix, and it's going to be very

(24:16):
important to how they continue to build their team into
the future years beyond this, you know, for him and
that team that's in place right now.

Speaker 2 (24:26):
To the point about him though, doing it in this
order by playing the rookie first, do you set yourself
up like did you now put yourself on the like,
you know, metaphorical hot seat if this goes south this season,
if you have to pull him and just say, hey, guys,
he needs more time, like we all know that nobody
has that kind of time to be like, oh well yeah,

(24:47):
I'll be super understanding about that. They're gonna be like
he's a bust. And then the narrative is one that's
out of control and you have to kind of pull
it back. And now you're doing pr damage and you're
trying to convince everybody that you didn't make a mistake
and he's totally fine and he might be fine. And
when you do it in this order, are you putting
yourself out on a limb? If you're the general manager
and the coach.

Speaker 1 (25:08):
I think yeah, I think you are, but again not
for long league. Let's get operational now as quickly as possible.
Let's move on from the Russell Wilson debacle, and let's
show the world, show everyone because they obviously believe in it. Right.
I get your point that your mind goes into really
interesting spots, right, questioning about that. We often say in football,

(25:31):
though you hesitate too much and you overthink too much,
you're not going to be able to sign that player.
You're not going to make the move all of a
sudden you're hesitant. There's just a fine line there, honestly, lindsay,
and they're great points. I think they are committed to
the fact that this guy is such an important part
of the relationship with Sean Payton, and I think George Peyton,

(25:53):
the general manager, understands that as well. The best chance
they have is for that head coach to be in
lock step with the quarterback, and he is in lockstep
at least apparently to us with a guy like bo. Next,
let's go with it, I would say, as a general manager,
let's go, let's go.

Speaker 2 (26:12):
I want to bring in our producer Matt Stopski because
he was doing some research.

Speaker 1 (26:19):
Hi.

Speaker 2 (26:19):
He was doing some research looking through some stuff Thomas
and had an interesting observation with regards to Bonx.

Speaker 1 (26:26):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (26:26):
So I looked at this offensive coaching group of Sean Payton,
Joel Lombardi, John Morton, Davis Webb, a group that goes
back to like the late nineties. As a QB coach
of Shawn and Philadelphia. None of these guys have ever
had a rookie starting quarterback in this almost three decades
of coaching experience.

Speaker 1 (26:44):
So it's a great stat there, Stopski jumping in. I
love that.

Speaker 3 (26:48):
That's what I'm paid for. See you all later.

Speaker 2 (26:50):
Stop specifically, not what you're paid for, but we love
that you're paid. You're jumping in any way to contribute
your analysis. I love that you're finding stats. That is
interesting because it means that you don't have that. Like
you know, we talk a lot. You call back to
your Atlanta days, which is what we want you to do,
because you that's your experience. These are the anecdotes that
you bring to the table that are relevant and you

(27:12):
can lift them up and put them in this interest.
So well, well, when this happened, here's how we handled
it in this case. None of them, it seems, have
any of that kind of experience to call back on
with regards to those young quarterbacks like that.

Speaker 1 (27:26):
That's right. Well, look, I mean this whole young quarterback
idea and I mentioned it in our I think on
the Cutdown show. If you are given if you're given
the go ahead from an owner, right, that you as
the head coach and the GMGM head coach are given
the go ahead like you have time to build here, right.

(27:47):
That does not happen much anymore, you know the owners
of course, And because of the way the NFL is set,
you're not given as a GM five years with this
quarterback and this head coach to really develop. It is
asked and furious out of the gate. I keep using
that line, but it is. It's like you better have
your your you know, your cleats, you know, tied up

(28:08):
and your helmet strapped up, et cetera, et cetera, and
ready to go. And you have to believe in yourself
because in two years and I experienced it. I mean,
Arthur Blank was a fantastic owner. He didn't bother with
me on picks. He didn't bother with Dan and me,
or Mike Smith and me on a lot of different levels.
But he had really high expectations. And if you're not
winning in year two, I'd say even in year one,

(28:31):
like what's going on, let's call out, let's pressure, let's
press here and figure out what's going on. It's very
different than saying That's why I come back to the
idea of first year quarterbacks. Yes, Green Bay did it.
They did it with Aaron Rodgers. They you know, done
it with Jordan Love. Of course, there are very few
programs that are given the go ahead. Yeah, that guy

(28:52):
can wait four years. That's a completely different space to
be in as a GM and a head coach.

Speaker 2 (28:59):
Adder. Yeah, So there are two rookie quarterbacks that we
haven't talked about yet that I think the expectations are
very very high for and their coaches and gentlemen will
get no leash whatsoever if this doesn't work out, because
people think it's going to right out of the gate.
So I'm gonna let you figure. I'm gonna let you
decide which one we talk about first by answering this question.

(29:22):
Let's assume that they're both going to be great, and
you think that they both have the potential to be
awesome in this league. Which of the two, Caleb ri Jaden?
Do you think that we will see that from first?

Speaker 1 (29:34):
So let's talk about Caleb Williams. But I don't necessarily
believe it's going to be that cut and dry, because
when we get into Jaden Daniels, I'll talk about how
much I do like Jayden Daniels. Of course, I like
Caleb Williams a lot. Let's talk about Chicago though, Let's
talk about that offense. Right, Let's talk about supporting cast.
Oh holy yeah, I mean that that is really it's

(29:57):
now as as positive as as it is. Right. You
can run down how you want to run down them.
You know, we've we've talked about you know, we've talked
about the supporting cast. We've talked about running back, We've
talked about receivers. We've talked about a tight end. You know,
we've talked about developing that is a positive for a
rookie quarterback. Move the ball, high percentage shots. You got

(30:18):
the tight end that you can hit. And I'm a
huge believer in tight ends for that reason, especially for
young guys. Get the quarterback who can believe in himself,
hitting the ball underneath, take some shots deep. Of course,
he can scramble, do all the things that he can do. However,
the however is it also is a it is a
strong machine that you have to keep happy. You know,

(30:39):
you're talking about all of a sudden, that free agent
receiver who we all know is a very good receiver
that they that they signed last year, Right, last year
or DJ well two years ago there. When you're talking
about DJ, you're you know, that guy wants to get
the ball all of a sudden, two games go by
and he's got a couple of grabs because balls are

(31:01):
underneath in a different way, it becomes complicated. All I'm
saying is that is a lot. That's a lot on
a coaching staff to keep you know, to keep everyone happy,
but also to make sure that you're developing that quarterback
in the best way. You have to think beyond the
other guys who might be myfed that they're not getting
enough balls, because ultimately it is about developing Caleb. Now,

(31:22):
if that means a lot of underneath shots, you're not
getting the ball deep and your guy, you know, DJ
Moore is open wide open play in play out, that's
that just becomes a little more complicated.

Speaker 2 (31:34):
Well, a few thoughts on that. First of all, Keenan
in the last you know, like last year, for sure,
it felt like his route tree kind of truncated a
little bit, and he had so much success with the Chargers,
but as he gets older and maybe loses a step,
then they kind of took away more of those longer
developing routes and he was a little bit more of

(31:55):
the short to intermediate And so in that mind, when
you say that guy that you can get the ball to,
I'm thinking Keenan is a nice safety blanket as.

Speaker 1 (32:04):
Well as Cole Kmet. But I'm I mean, look, and.

Speaker 2 (32:06):
Then you own Gerald Everett.

Speaker 1 (32:07):
Yeah, but then you roll with your You're bringing in
this this new other draft pick. You have Roman, and
you're like that that guy has ability, really really interesting
ability at a lot of levels. Obviously he can go
down and can go up and get the ball. He's
a tough ass. There's there. I just really like what
they're doing there as far as building it. You know,
when you look at Ryan Poles and his approach to this,

(32:29):
you know, and a head coach who was very hot
there out out from the very beginning, right, you know,
that's settling in a little bit here. This is going
to be a very interesting and fun year to watch
the Bears. And oh, by the way, they're trying to
get a stadium built.

Speaker 2 (32:44):
So this will help in that regard, That's right. I mean,
I look, i I'm I can't even there. It's no
secret I'm a huge fan of Caleb and it's not
just because I went to USC. I'm not blindly supporting
every Trojan. I mean I am in my heart, but
not in my analysis. For me, the only bias that

(33:04):
might creep in is I told you I don't watch
a ton of college football, and I actually have seen him,
And because I've seen him, I feel confident. I know,
not everything translates to the NFL that you see in
college and the hash marks and all this stuff is
so different and it makes it hard to just pick
up your evaluation PLoP it in the NFL. But I
think because of his strengths and I'd love to hear
your thoughts on what you see when you watch his tape,

(33:25):
the things that he does well, and I'm going to
do it. I'm just going to do it again. I'm
going to continue to use the name Patrick Mahomes, even
though that comp is like, whow, don't do that to
the guy. It's the style. It's the style. He's not
a shooter, he's a creator, you know. It's that like
the way that he you know, you're gonna talk about
Jaden Daniels in a second, and he's a guy who

(33:46):
people are going to talk about his rushing ability. Caleb
has the exact same rushing ability. I think he just
he's looking to throw. He's got his eyes up the
entire time that he's flushed out of the pocket. And
we saw like his time to throw time in you know,
college and the it's he's taking time to get the
ball out, but he's still throwing it right, So he's

(34:06):
still looking for what's going to develop downfield and then
make these crazy throws and all the armslots and all
that kind of stuff. And I just think there will
certainly be a learning curve and there will be things
mistakes that he'll make, But the talent is so wild
to me and so special and different and something that
you just don't see come along very frequently. That with

(34:27):
that roster, I know my expectations are very high out
of the gate, and so I hope I'm not pumping
him up too much in my own head with again
that roster, Like I just I think that my expectations
for the Bears are pretty high this season.

Speaker 1 (34:41):
When you think about when you think about Patrick Mahomes,
I believe it was what game was it in the
season that he finally started. It wasn't at the beginning
of the season, was it thirteen fourteen games in? I
don't know that right off all, we can find it
in Stopski. You might be able to provide us with that.
The reality is this guy's coming out from the very

(35:02):
beginning and he's playing now. He is all of that, right,
he is special his ability and love. I love quarterbacks
who can add lib. I don't care if there's six
four sixty five or there's sixty one sixty two. When
they can add lib and they can make plays, they
can make throws off off balance, off camber down here
up here, I love that right they're creating, And I

(35:24):
do think that is a very positive about what he
can do. He's such a competitive guy that way will
make a lot of big, big time plays. How will
he do that when the pressure is coming and when
you get again We always say this, he's outrageously in
my mind sometimes brilliant defensive coordinators in the NFL who
are going after these young quarterbacks. We just saw that

(35:45):
seventeen Mahomes started Week seventeen of his rookie year. There's
a little bit of a difference that way. Right did
he sit around that first year and how did it
affect now? Patrick Mahomes wasn't drafted first overall, so.

Speaker 2 (35:59):
Literally he had a little bit of time to get
his feet wet at practice at the very least. Another
thing that I wanted to say about Caleb in response
to the things that you said about the wide receiver
room and the personalities and the like many mouths to
feed and will they start chirping? The one thing that
I do think about Caleb's personality that some people think

(36:20):
is a knock right, that he is a little bit confident,
that he kind of does his own thing. I almost
think that the nil world of college creates the like
a mini pro and I think that he has had
so much experience taking so much shit from the outside
and dealing with all of that and in a way
and being a leader and being a professional, that I

(36:43):
think he will go into that situation with a lot
more confidence than a typical rookie quarterback would have done
even say even three years ago, but certainly five years
ago and whatever. I just think that they're coming in
different now, and I think that what I've seen from
him tells me that he can probably handle those persons.
I think that he'll be fine in that sense.

Speaker 1 (37:02):
So this is a great topic, and we could spin
on and on on this that don't and don't sort
of overestimate or underestimate, excuse me, the idea of how
important back to maturity. Right, we were talking about that with
bo Nix as a former general manager and working in
the league for almost thirty years. You want to make

(37:22):
sure that you're bringing that guy in who's at the
helm at that quarterback position. Your your bars are so
high on intelligence, they're high on management, they're high on positive,
passionate and persevering. That's my tagline, by the way. I
know it's a literation, but that's what I believe in.
You're looking for all that and that person that's now
going to be leading your team. Right, So it's a

(37:43):
it's a big deal. I am fascinated that this year's group.
Right across the board Caleb, again, there was some back
and forth the people were talking about as confident as
he is, but he's a sound guy in many many ways. Right,
But then you talk about Drake May you know, you
talk about Michael Pyx, you or you know, you also
talk about Bo Nix, JJ McCarthy, like those are all

(38:06):
really really sound people mentally. They're mature enough, they're interactive enough,
they're communicative enough. You don't have anyone that was folded
into that group who is an off the cuff, you know,
complete pia. Right in our world, we know what that is.
Pain in the assay. Sorry, yeah, so we think about

(38:26):
that when you This is another conversation we could have.
Are you willing, okay, put your GM hat on Lindsey
to bring in that quarterback that has unbelievable ability, big arm,
makes place, competitive, athletic, does all the stuff we're talking about.
But you literally need five handlers to take care of
this guy because he is that difficult. But you know

(38:48):
that he has the ability, pure ability to win a
Super Bowl. Do you make that move or do you
ease up a little bit and take someone a little
less who has all the other intangibles that you're looking
for from that quarterback position.

Speaker 2 (39:02):
That's a good question. I feel like that's kind of
a case by case thing. And my brain went immediately
to the Browns showing us that they are willing to
do that a few years back.

Speaker 1 (39:10):
But the.

Speaker 2 (39:14):
Who in this particular case, Do you think that Caleb
is that guy?

Speaker 1 (39:18):
No? I don't. I'm thinking there and I was painting
a very extreme Yeah, let's paint the picture of Let's
paint the picture of some of the quarterbacks that have
come out before Cam Newton. Again, in no way am
I parallel. I'm not saying that. I'm just saying he
had more complications to him, a lot of coaching staff
had to deal with, and he was unbelievably talented, probably

(39:41):
still is. When I hear him talk about you know,
why is he or I can't remember what was recently
happening with some of the banter. I mean that cat
is huge, he's athletic, he can still probably gun the ball,
all of that stuff. But let's come back to someone
like that. What would be your mind there? Not as
extreme as I described?

Speaker 2 (39:59):
Are you good? At the risk of sounding like I'm
avoiding answering the question or sitting on the fence, my
answer would probably depend on the makeup of my team
where I am already in terms of my competitiveness? Am
I starting from scratch? Am I a team like? I
don't know that. I don't think Sean thinks of his
team like this, But like the Broncos, who you know,

(40:20):
people are not expecting them to like this? Isn't the
year where they're like, hey, come win a super Bowl
for us. We're going to be really really good and
plug you in until they're good.

Speaker 1 (40:30):
I a C. J.

Speaker 2 (40:30):
Stroud, But or like the Patriots. You know, if you're
looking like we are in a full rebuild, the Patriots
are a better example because it's a new coach. They're
looking to like completely wipe you know, the old Patriot
way off and start something fresh. I think in that case,
you do not take the swing on the upside guy
who maybe is going to create issues for you in

(40:51):
the locker room, because you need to build a culture.
So if you're a team that doesn't check that box
and you're like, we've got a ton of guys here
who are really high up veterans and we're dis missing
that piece, and I think you're that piece, then I
think I would probably be more willing to go ahead
and take a swing on that guy.

Speaker 1 (41:09):
Yeah. I think in the end, back to bringing this
back to the young quarterbacks that we have and playing
quarterbacks early and how we all want to do that.
I've said this before, Lindsey, prior to you being on
this show. As a general manager, you are one hundred
percent evaluated amongst other things, but you as your ability

(41:30):
to bring in a quarterback and your ability to evaluate
a quarterback. I would say when we were talking about
this earlier, Rostovski and I were talking about the idea
of how many of those general managers who won Executives
of the Years over the last twenty thirty years had
a pedestrian quarterback. I think it's very very few. We

(41:52):
can run them. It might have been a big time
defense that brought them through for some reason. My point
on that is, it is really interesting. If you don't
have an adept ability to figure out the quarterback situation,
your time as a general manager, in my mind, high
level executive is limited because what we're talking about today

(42:13):
is massively important for you to parlay it into other
other you know, contracts, and to be you know, with
that team beyond the three four years, five years that
you even sign with.

Speaker 2 (42:24):
Yeah, yeah, I'm going to hit pause on the Jayden
Daniels conversation then because that takes me to Minnesota because
JJ McCarthy got hurt, so he's out for the year,
and so what about quasi Like you know, you talking
about general managers being on the hot seat and needing
to find a quarterback. Well, if they go through a
year here where they don't even have access to him

(42:45):
and they start, let's let's say doesn't work with ham
Donald and and they're not particularly competitive, I'm not convinced
that it will be bad with Sam Donald. That's a
separate conversation. What if it is then you know, does
does JJ getting hurt potently put Caraisey on the hot seat?
Or can he point to like I didn't even have him,
like wait till next year.

Speaker 1 (43:05):
Look, we've talked about this before. Every general manager is
on a hot seat. And you're kind of like, yeah, okay, okay.
My point is it's always hot. It's always warm, maybe
different degrees of it. You're looking at it right now
from a quarterback standpoint that you just mentioned with JJ
getting hurt, he got hurt. It's not something that Quacy
can deal with, right Quaycy's a very smart man and

(43:26):
he's he's learning more and more to be the general
manager of that football team. We know that how Donald
works out that does that does fall on on the
team builders, right If if Sam Donald does not pan out,
there better be the plan, of course, otherwise people will
start throwing darts like crazy, and how do you get
out of that? I think the Wilfs, I know that

(43:47):
the Wilfs, says I know of them. They're a very
smart ownership group. They're gonna look at that situation and
see how that whole thing is playing out. Again, there's
some good football players they have. By the way, I
don't know if you know this, I'm not being gentile here.
They have one of the best scouting staffs, Like, they
have a lot of really talented personnel men with the
Minnesota Vikings. So Quasi surrounded himself with really talented people,

(44:11):
and you know that was their decision to go with
Sam as the number two I guess or number one? Right?
Was it talked about early that he was going to
come into even as being the number one.

Speaker 2 (44:20):
Yeah, we didn't know. It was very Denver Broncos ish
right like where I don't know. I'm not saying anything
about the starter. They're all going to go compete. And
then obviously, I think JJ, the way that he looked
what little we did see of him, I think people
were like, Okay, this is set, let's go with JJ.
Very small sample size and obviously the preseason we know
we don't know what to make of that, but yeah,

(44:42):
I think it probably was trending in the direction of
JJ personally, but obviously that had yet to be announced.

Speaker 1 (44:49):
So these are This is an interesting point of SUMER
sports data gathering and data collection and the advanced analytics.
If you truly looked at that and you said, how
many times has a starting quarterback or projected starting quarterback
a big time investment, whether it's a draft or whether
it's a free agency for an organization gone down, backup

(45:10):
comes in or not projected to be starter comes in?
How often did that head coach and general manager face
dire circumstances where they were truly hot and truly we're
relieved of their duties, right, I just how much is
you know? It feels as though the ownership groups have

(45:30):
a really good grasp of that in the NFL, and
yet back to not for long? Do they really do
they really understand that was an injury and you know,
the veteran didn't really pan out. We'll just go to
the next year and start again. It's not that way anymore.

Speaker 2 (45:46):
Yeah, I would imagine that it depends on the owner
in every situation. I mean, it's like you know, we
can talk to fans a lot of times and explain
away certain circumstances, and regardless of how many examples you
can give or advanced analytics, they're like, I don't even
know what that number means. It didn't look good. I'm done,
you know. So I would imagine it just kind of

(46:08):
depends on who the owner is and how in the
weeds they are and their ability to understand all of
this different stuff and whether they think you're barking up
the right tree. Jade Daniels, let's get to it, and
you brought up a good point about the SUMER data.
We're gonna have a lot more data that will work
its way into this show once the regular season is underway,
So once we actually have that Week one, which, by

(46:29):
the way, is my favorite week of the year, which
I mean, I think that's because I love the off
season so freaking much that by the time Week one
rolls around, like, I like that more than you know
Week seventeen eighteen fighting for playoff spots because I want
to know. So, Okay, we've been talking about it all
off season, what it's going to look like, and now
we finally get to see it, and we get some
of those questions answered. And so I love Week one

(46:50):
and I'm looking forward to having some of the data
from it for us to react to and see what
we were right about, what we were wrong about, and
what environments actually are. But Jayden and Dan else is
a guy that I definitely want to talk to you
about here and what your expectations are for him, because
you talk about some of those advanced stats, and like
I've heard people say to me, Parker actually, who who

(47:14):
worked for super Sports, came on the fantasy podcast that
I do in the off season and mentioned a concern
about a high like pressure to sacrate in college and
the fact that that he was concerned about that being
so high when he is painted as the guy with
the rushing ability that he has. Like, what what do

(47:34):
you make of that? Is that something that is not
concerning to you that he's taken a lot of sacks
in that situation or did so in college, or is
that something that we're looking for here in the NFL
as a potential red flag or thing to keep our
eye on.

Speaker 1 (47:50):
No, I don't want to overdo you know that? That
idea in my mind again, pure evaluation of a player
like Jade and Daniels. There are so many positives did
this football player, you know, Lindsey and his ability to
move around. Back to athleticism. We talk about two rare
athletes here right in Caleb and Jaden Daniels, and what

(48:10):
they are doing and how they are functioning and what
they're going to do when the bullets again the proverbial
bullets are flying. You know, we won't know until it happens.
But you know, I know that was something that was
brought up in the off season about the pressure to
sack idea I don't we can be. It's funny we
look at those as former as general managers and head coaches,

(48:31):
and we sit there in our offices and we go
over and over it, and we continue to watch a
guy like this do all of the amazingly special things
that he does as an athlete as a quarterback. We
watch his progression from the junior year or sophomore year
to junior year. We see all of this and we're thinking,
we know that, we put it in the back of
our minds and we keep moving forward on what this

(48:52):
player can be for us. And so I'm not hung
up on the data in the stat that was was presented,
and it was presented not only by Parker, was presented
last year by Eric Eager to me, we had many
conversations about.

Speaker 2 (49:04):
It, Okay, but it's not one that you're particularly concerned
about another thing. And I almost hate that I'm bringing
up causes for concern for him and not for a
Caleb because they hate that it might actually make me
look biased. There are concerns about Caleb, but the specific
ones I feel like are a little bit more specific

(49:24):
that are coming up, so I'm able to get into
a specificity that we might be able to bring some
value to in terms of things that we're looking for
or not as the case maybe in your analysis about
pressure to secrate time to throw in the preseason, it
just seemed obvious. And I'm not even talking about like
the actual stat or anything like that. I'm just saying,
like when you watched him in the preseason, it was

(49:46):
clearly like a lot of it was a quick passing game,
A dot's low, get it out really fast, And so
I'm wondering what you think they were thinking in terms
of putting him in that position, because it felt like
it was somewhat purposeful, like not a lot of shots downfield,
not a lot of stand in the pocket, And like,
let's watch this drop back game develop. And so is

(50:08):
that something that we have now that we haven't seen it.
I'm wondering what it will actually look like. I don't
I don't know that answer yet, and I'll be looking
for it in week one. But what's your take on that?

Speaker 1 (50:17):
Well, think about it this way. When Dan Quinn came
in to the Atlanta Falcons, right, Dan was coming into
a veteran quarterback. Right, Matt Ryan was already established. When
Dan was in Seattle, he had a very talented veteran quarterback. Basically,
he wasn't in charge there, but as a decordinator. You know,
he comes into this situation. He's got a first time

(50:39):
quarterback now, right, He's got Cliff Kingsbury, who has dealt
with rookie quarterbacks. Right, I think we're talking about that.
Of course he did, right, he was. You know, Cliff
has got a really good understandab the understanding of that.
So I believe that Dan. This is how I'd imagine
it happening. Dan Quinn and Cliff Kingsbury were sitting there
and meeting after meeting, along with the staff and they're

(50:59):
talk talking about the best way to get this kid
jump started into the NFL. And it is great athleticism,
all of that, but let's make sure that we're in
a good spot where we're building confidence. We all know
Dan Quinn he is about conference confidence momentum. He's about
the energy in the building, and he wants to make

(51:20):
sure that someone's not kicking off their time as the
head of that organization, you know, as a quarterback and
throwing these long and intermediate balls and they're falling. You know,
they're falling aside their interceptions. Let's get this guy believing.
This doesn't surprise me at all about their approach with
a guy like Jayden Daniels and that cat can throw

(51:40):
the ball down the field, he can connect on deep balls.
You're exactly right on that though. It makes you think
and when you see how you know what the timing
was with the plays that they were putting him into.
I just find it again fascinating where Dan was with
quarterbacks and now he's got truly the young, young rookie,
very very important move for him in his second term

(52:01):
as a head coach.

Speaker 2 (52:02):
Yeah, well, I mean, at the very least I think
that they'll be exciting to watch. In Washington. I do
wonder who he's gonna have to throw the ball to,
Like we talked about Caleb and all of the many
pass catchers that we know we know are already good
that he has there. And then you look at Washington's
roster and Terry McLaurin, I think is a guy who

(52:24):
probably flies under the radar to a degree because he
hasn't had strong quarterback play. So I think he's not
somebody who's become like the household name that he could
have otherwise been and maybe will be now. But you
had Johan Dotson who didn't have the year last year
that a lot of people were expecting him to have
and kind of fell off a little bit, and then
they move him a little bit into the slot in

(52:44):
the preseason and then they deal him, and I don't know,
just in terms of like looking at the roster and
roster building, I'm wondering what this means for Jaden Well.

Speaker 1 (52:56):
I mean, and that's a great point. I mean again
comparatively speaking to the firepower in Chicago. You know, look,
I like zach Ertz. Is that how old zach now
is he? In his smid old. He's a tough ass,
a guy you want to lead with. You know, he's
a dan Quinn guy, right, there's no question about it.
But does he have that level of athleticism of some

(53:17):
of the others just down the street and here in Atlanta,
I mean Kyle Pitts and what he is as an
athlete compared to you know where Zach Ertz right now,
completely different. But that's what they went with, of course, right,
very very important, we do get that. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (53:32):
Also, I you mentioned since you mentioned the Titans, there
was part of me that went and I know, I'm
I'm this is fantasy draft time of year and we're
all looking for like those under the radar guys that whatever.
Ben Senate is a name that popped into my mind
the day that they got rid of Johan Dotson too,
because I know Zach is certainly the more sure thing,

(53:53):
but he's also older. Maybe he's a leader in that room.
Ben Senate with the type of player that he is,
like a big, physical, yack type guy. There have been
comparisons to Mark Andrews, and so I'm wondering if maybe
they're like, we like what we're seeing here and maybe
you can kind of occupy that space of the field,
but that might just be wishful thinking for the late

(54:14):
rounds of my fantasy draft. Okay, so that's the rookie quarterbacks.
Before I let you go today, I have to ask
you a question about a bit of news that came
out yesterday that I thought was very interesting and I
don't honestly know what to make of it, and that
is that Kyrine Williams is going to be fielding punts
for the Los Angeles Rams. And I ask you this
because the way that the Rams are with their backfield

(54:36):
is like we've gone away in the NFL from a
lot of teams rolling out feature backs, like there's a
lot of committees, and you know, you're the third down
and you're the early down, and and Kiren's one of them.
They're one of the few offenses that just rolls out
a guy consistently and you get all the volume. So
why would you put the guy that's going to get
all the volume in the back field also in a

(54:58):
position to return punts and potentially get hurt and or
just put more tread on your tires.

Speaker 1 (55:03):
Well, I mean, you'd have to look at that. We
don't know it yet, but we've talked about Blake Korn
before when we're talking about the acquisition, right, what do
you holding your head for it the wrong thing?

Speaker 2 (55:12):
No, I just wanted to be Kyne. I don't want
it to be Blake. My whole analysis all off season
is that he's insurance no.

Speaker 1 (55:19):
And when you do that, you start thinking about that,
like I start. That's where my head goes. We're going
to get a mixed up. It's about versatility. Let's get
a good punt return turn situation. I'm sure he's a
very good punt returner. You do run the risk. I
had a real hard time with that putting our star players,
our receivers back there catching punts or running backs or

(55:39):
whatever it may be. As much as I understand the
importance of special teams, it just used to just gnaw
at me thinking about that. Right the one time it's
this is a bad parallel, But I hated watching our
athletes every once in a while on the field kicking
field goals before practice. I'm like, are you kidding me?

(56:00):
This kid yanks his hamstring and we no longer have
Julio Jones as our number one receiver or Roddy White
back in the day. Right, those are the kind of
things and I know it's a bad parallel, but it
just has a GM on the edge of his seat
the whole time watching thinking about that. Right, what if
we did that and we injured him? Is it going
to be a big drop off? My mind would say

(56:22):
they're thinking it's not as much of a drop off maybe,
and they do have some committee action there. I know
it's killing you, definitely me.

Speaker 2 (56:29):
It's killing me. You're gonna this is gonna see the fantasy.
The fantasy person is going to sneak out every once
in a while. Thomas, I'm gonna try and you know,
keep it in check here. But but Kyron also could
could also mean, as you're talking, this occurs to me
that you know, we've kind of gone away from valuing
the running backs in the NFL in the last few years.

(56:50):
And if they know that they have a backup, even
if he is just going to be an insurance policy
this year in quorum, maybe they look at it and
they go, hey, let's just put but the guy we
think is the best punt returner out there, and if
he does get hurt, like no offense as a human,
but oh well, next man up.

Speaker 1 (57:08):
You know, no question, it's look all of this. I
know you can't wait because it's kicking off next next week, right,
so you'll be able to fire out. And I can
tell I love your passion, and I can tell you're
gonna we're gonna have some great, fiery conversations here which
will be fantastic.

Speaker 2 (57:24):
I know you're gonna be like, please stop texting me
on Sunday. I'm gonna be like, you should talk about this,
we should talk about that. What about this?

Speaker 1 (57:29):
I love it? I love it?

Speaker 2 (57:30):
Oh man, well, I'm looking forward to it. Thomas. Every
Tuesday and Thursday throughout the regular season, we'll be here
the Suomer Sports Show to break things down. You can
find us on Apple, Spotify. Again, as I mentioned, you
can watch us on YouTube and Twitter. Also also it's X.
I'm not I'm never pivoting Thomas. I just can't do it.
It has to be. It feels weird to say, like

(57:51):
you can find me on X.

Speaker 1 (57:53):
Yeah, that's a little that sounds a little odd, but
you know, you keep up with you you throughout the
word the other day steazy.

Speaker 2 (58:00):
Oh yeah, well that's describing you, by the way.

Speaker 1 (58:02):
That's a yeah, that's a young word. I had to
go back and look it up, and I thought, as
long as there wasn't an L in there in the
place of tea, I'm like that. Not that you know,
so obviously it worked out well.

Speaker 2 (58:11):
But you're easy.

Speaker 1 (58:13):
Yeah, my gosh, I.

Speaker 2 (58:14):
Just I just now got that. Yeah, there's gonna be
you can, I mean, if you're if you ever want
any notes on how the kids are talking these days,
I am. I am next. Keep in that.

Speaker 1 (58:25):
World, you're so call and I'm sure that's at the
you know, right at the right at the front of it.
All right, we get it across the country in a different.

Speaker 2 (58:32):
Way, Thomas. You're going to say something and I'm gonna go,
what the sigma just you wait.

Speaker 1 (58:38):
You wait.

Speaker 2 (58:39):
I'll just drop them every once in a while to
keep you on your toes. This has been a blast
for me, Thomas. I'm so looking forward to being able
to have these conversations with you throughout the season. Thank
you so much for joining us. For those of you
that did. If you are not already a subscriber, please
hit that subscribe button Lever Review. We'd love to hear
from you your thoughts on the ways that the things
that you'd like to hear us discussing as the show

(59:01):
goes on this season.

Speaker 1 (59:02):
Shout out to I know you want to do that too, fantastic, Yeah.

Speaker 2 (59:05):
And thank you and thank you. Stopski wants us to
thank him at the end of every I'm just joking,
he didn't say that, but we will. Thank you very
much to our producer, extraordinary Matt Stovsky for his hard
work today, and we'll be back again next week.