May 6, 2026 • 12 mins
Mike Florio of PFT and NBC joins Softy and Dick Fain to discuss if 2026 will be the last year before the NFL moves to an 18-game schedule, when the NFL will release the ‘26 schedule and why the date isn’t set earlier, Kenneth Walker’s feelings that he was going to leave Seattle before the playoffs, and Russell Wilson’s decision to play or go to CBS.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
It's time for a weekly conversation with Pro Football Talks
Mike Florio, brought to you by Simply Seattle. Tired of
buying and repping the same old Seattle sports gear everyone
else asks for the best Storm, Seahawks, Mariners, Kraken, Rainiers, Sounders,
and not to mention, the largest Sonics collection in the world.
Check out simply Seattle dot com now with Mike Florio.
(00:21):
Here's Softy and Din.
Speaker 2 (00:22):
All right, bet Thanks to our friends at simply Seattle
dot com. You got your eye on something Sea Hot
gear for the upcoming season, madvinid gear for the summer
championship gear whatever, KJR fifteen for fifteen percent off anything
at simply Seattle dot com. Always use code KJR fifteen.
Here he is the heavyweight champion baby of the NFL
Press Corps. Our friend from PFT Live, Pro Football Talk
(00:45):
dot Com, the NFL and NBC, Michael Florio with us
on the radio program, Michael, how are.
Speaker 3 (00:51):
You hello about holes?
Speaker 2 (00:54):
Hello about hole? A couple of spot Great to hear
your voice again. I always love having you.
Speaker 4 (01:01):
What you winded about while I was on hold waiting
patiently for this to get started?
Speaker 3 (01:06):
What were you crying? About I wasn't whining about anything.
Speaker 2 (01:08):
I just made a point, which I would think for
a guy that works for NBC, you would love. I
tweeted out last night that outside of a live sporting event,
it's amazing to me how little I watch ESPN, never,
Sports Center, magazine shows, talk shows. Couldn't care less and
don't feel like I'm missing anything. Mike, how about you?
Speaker 4 (01:28):
Well, there is content on there that is very compelling.
I have to give him that. But yeah, I was
in my twenties when Sports Center was at its peak,
and those days are over and they're never coming back.
Speaker 3 (01:40):
It makes me wonder why they even do it, right?
What audience did sports Center?
Speaker 4 (01:46):
Sir? Who out there is just generally interested in sports?
When I used to watch it, I would suffer through
the stuff I didn't care about to get to the
stuff I did care about.
Speaker 3 (01:58):
Why would anyone consume that? Now?
Speaker 4 (02:00):
You can find whatever you're interested in clips online, social media.
Speaker 3 (02:05):
There are so many different ways to consume this sports
you're interested in. Now.
Speaker 4 (02:11):
Maybe there are some people who just are generally interested
in any in all sports, and they want to sit
there and be served up whatever they choose.
Speaker 3 (02:18):
To talk about. But I'm surprised it still exists. I
just think it's.
Speaker 4 (02:22):
Such a key part of ESPN history that the idea
of getting rid of it is unthinkable. But I've got
at some point they'll retire it and they'll move on
because the world has moved on.
Speaker 5 (02:34):
Well, Mike, we do listen and watch your talk show,
and you mentioned on your talk show this week that
this could be the last seventeen game season in the NFL,
And you also brought up the possibility that players could
be limited to seventeen games played even if we have
an eighteen game schedule.
Speaker 2 (02:51):
Is that right?
Speaker 3 (02:53):
Yeah, And let me start.
Speaker 4 (02:54):
With the possibility that this will be the last seventeen
game season.
Speaker 3 (02:58):
No date has been ticked for Super Bowl sixty two
to be.
Speaker 4 (03:02):
Played in Atlanta February twenty twenty eight. The reason no
date has been selected is they are holding out for
the possibility that a deal will be done with the
NFL Players Association to have a seventeen game season grow
to eighteen games by twenty twenty seven. If you're not
going to try to expand the season by twenty seven,
(03:24):
there's no reason to not have a firm and clear
date for the Super Bowl when you're twenty one months.
Speaker 3 (03:30):
Away from it, that's unheard of.
Speaker 4 (03:32):
You got to lock in Convention Center for the week.
You got to have thousands of hotel rooms lined up.
They haven't done it because they're still keeping the door
open for an eighteen game season by twenty twenty seven.
Speaker 3 (03:43):
Whether that happens or not, I don't know, But until.
Speaker 4 (03:45):
They tell us the Super Bowl will be February thirteen,
twenty twenty.
Speaker 3 (03:49):
Eight, it's still a possibility.
Speaker 4 (03:51):
And as to eighteen games with each player limited to seventeen,
I caught win to that a few months ago.
Speaker 3 (03:55):
As it's a possibility.
Speaker 4 (03:57):
As a way to get the rank and file to
agree to an eighteen game season is one thing to
get union management to understand, you know what, they're gonna
lock us out when the CBA expires anyway, and they're
gonna get eighteen games because we'll cave in and give
them what they want. It's another thing to convince the
players who will vote.
Speaker 3 (04:17):
On it to go along with that.
Speaker 4 (04:19):
And it was a close vote when they agreed to
go from sixteen to seventeen. So I think one way
to convince the rank and file to vote yes is
to do this whole eighteen with a limit of seventeen
and the reality is a lot of guys are going
to miss the game anyway due to injury at some point,
there aren't going to be a lot of tough decisions.
And if you accept quarterbacks, kickers, punters because they have
rules that protect them and make them safer, it's something
(04:41):
that I think they could pull off if that's the
only way to get to eighteen. But if they would
even put that on the table, it just shows how
desperate and intent they are on getting to eighteen games
and also sixteen international games played every single year.
Speaker 2 (04:55):
Mike Florio with US Mike, I'm looking at last year's
NFL schedule release was on May fourteenth, which is next
Thursday on the twenty twenty sixth calendar. Why is it
so hard to pin down when the NFL schedule's coming
out and when will it come out because.
Speaker 4 (05:12):
It doesn't come out until the commissioner says it's ready,
So they don't announce when they're going to have the
announcement until they know that the schedule is ready to
be announced.
Speaker 3 (05:23):
Mike North, the VP of broadcast Planning for.
Speaker 4 (05:25):
The NFL, explained that a couple of weeks ago in
a podcast appearance that at the end of the day,
they're not done until the commissioner says they're done.
Speaker 3 (05:33):
And they are looking at every one of these windows,
every one of these games.
Speaker 4 (05:37):
They want the standalone windows to have the biggest possible audiences.
And two hundred and seventy games continue to be wide open.
Only two have been set forty nine Ers Rams in
Australia Thursday, September ten and Ravens Cowboys in Brazil Sunday,
September twenty seven. The rest of them going into the direction,
(05:59):
but they're not going to announce it until the commissioner
believes it's set.
Speaker 3 (06:03):
I don't think.
Speaker 4 (06:03):
It'll be longer than a week after Wednesday, May thirteenth.
But that's why they don't tell us it's coming. They
don't tell us it's coming until they know it's done.
Speaker 5 (06:12):
Mike, you talked to Ken Walker this week. We kind
of had a feeling that last year would be his
last year in Seattle, kind of middle of the season,
but you got some information out of him.
Speaker 4 (06:22):
Well, he had that feeling too, whether it was the
contract discussions are.
Speaker 3 (06:27):
Lack thereof the vibe he was getting.
Speaker 4 (06:28):
He knew during the twenty twenty five season that he
would not be returning.
Speaker 3 (06:33):
To the Seahawks, and that makes what he ultimately.
Speaker 4 (06:34):
Accomplished even more impressed. If he had the ultimate carrot
dangling for him to go out have a strong finish
to the season. The injury to Zach Charbonnay in the
Division round of the playoffs, it's kicked in my new
colleague Mike Tomlins saying one man's misfortune is another man's opportunity,
and Ken Walker literally.
Speaker 3 (06:52):
Ran with it all the way to the Super Bowl.
Speaker 4 (06:54):
MVP award in a contract is gonna pay a twenty
seven million guaranteed over the first two years. It's a
damn good deal and it tells you that they plan
to use him.
Speaker 3 (07:03):
You don't give all running back that kind of money.
Speaker 4 (07:05):
Last year they paid between Isaiah pa Checko and Kareem
Hunt between two and three million total. They're paying thirteen
to five this year alone to Kenneth Walker the third.
So he's going to get a chance to flourish in
Seattle or in Kansas City. Excuse me, after his time
in Seattle.
Speaker 2 (07:20):
Ends, Yeah, Mike Florio with US Mike Russell Wilson told
the New York Post. He's got an offer from the Jets,
but he also could do TV. Do you believe that
Russell Wilson does have an offer from the Jets? Do
you believe he's got a standing offer to go join
a TV network? And what do you think he does?
Speaker 4 (07:39):
He's suggesting that Russell Wilson wouldn't be telling the truth.
Speaker 3 (07:41):
I'm confused, Yes, I am, Yes, I am.
Speaker 4 (07:44):
Why would you take him at his word? I have
no reason to think he's not telling the truth. If
he says it publicly and it's untrue, that can be
quickly debunked with anything. And it wouldn't necessarily be a
statement from the Jets or CBS, but they could leak to.
Speaker 3 (07:59):
Someone that it's not true.
Speaker 4 (08:00):
I think between the two options, if he's got an
offer to take one of the seats that the NFL
today on CBS take it, you don't see many guys
who were the highest paid players in the NFL decide
to continue to hang around and.
Speaker 3 (08:13):
Hold a clipboard.
Speaker 4 (08:15):
And it's the ultimate slap in the face for a
guy who still subjectively believes he's good enough to be
a starting quarterback to go to New York and be
the backup to the guy who was his backup his
final years in Seattle.
Speaker 3 (08:27):
Joe Flacco is.
Speaker 4 (08:27):
The only guy who continued to hang around and hang around,
and he's still in the NFL after his time as
a starter ended, a guy who was once the highest
paid player in the NFL franchise. Quarterbacks who have made
so much money, they don't need to keep playing. They
don't want to stand around and be anything other than
the guy. I don't think Russell Wilson wants to continue
to be a backup, which happened after three games last
(08:50):
year when he was bench for Jackson Dart, And I
think he wants to stay in New York. What better
way to stay in New York and to have a
pregame show set in New York. Once you get that seat,
they don't really fire people all that often, although they
do reshuffle from time to time, as we know at NBC.
So it's an opportunity that doesn't come around very often.
If he takes it, and if he does well, he'll
(09:11):
have that job for as long as he was it.
Speaker 5 (09:13):
Mike, is there any possibility at all of a reunion
between Aaron Rodgers and the Thane'll Hacket in Arizona.
Speaker 3 (09:19):
I don't think so. I believe what happened here.
Speaker 4 (09:22):
When the Steelers played that weird chess move last week
at a time when no one knew there was a
chess game even happening, including Aaron Rodgers. It sparked speculation
because the Steelers did it to get themselves compensatory draft
pick consideration if Rogers signs another team, So that gets
people thinking, well, maybe he's getting ready to sign with
(09:43):
another team. And then you look at the full roster
of thirty two teams and you say where would he signed,
And the only other place he would sign is Arizona.
Speaker 3 (09:51):
And that's been the case for two months. We've been talking.
Speaker 4 (09:53):
About how the Steelers and the Cardinals are the only
two viable options for starting.
Speaker 3 (09:58):
Jobs for Aaron Rodgers.
Speaker 4 (10:00):
It's free agency started, and the Cardinals have never shown
any interest in him.
Speaker 3 (10:03):
If the Cardinals were gonna pursue them, they would have
done it by now.
Speaker 4 (10:06):
You don't wait until after the draft to make a
run of Aaron Rodgers unless you have some double secret
thing going on that absolutely no one knows you're talking about,
and then all of a sudden they're gonna unveil Aaron
Rodgers is the Cardinals. But I'll submit this to you,
why would Aaron Rodgers want to play for the worst.
Speaker 3 (10:22):
Team in the toughest division in the NFL?
Speaker 4 (10:25):
Right now, You've got the two best teams from last
year in the Seahawks and Rams. In the division, you
got the forty nine Ers, who are always going to
be tough to be You're struggling if you're the Cardinals
and they play all the teams of the NFC East
this year, they play all.
Speaker 3 (10:40):
The teams of the AFC West.
Speaker 4 (10:42):
Yeah, they got the fourth place schedule, but you know what,
the Lions got the fourth place schedule too, They got
to play them. It's gonna be a long year for
the Cardinals. I don't know why Aaron Rodgers would want
to play for them, So I don't think it's gonna happen,
But I think the talk has happened because of what
the Steelers did last week.
Speaker 2 (10:56):
Okay, well, Mike, before you go, we mentioned Russell Wilson
there weighing the offer from the Jets to be Geno's
back up with New York. Frank Reich came out the
other day. He's the current OC of the Jets and said,
Gino Smith is perfect for this system. I think Aaron
Glenn may have said the same thing. Is that just
a couple of coaches pumping the tires of their guy
(11:17):
to make him feel good about their belief in him,
Or does the NFL actually think that maybe there's another
renaissance coming for Geno Smith to New York.
Speaker 3 (11:26):
They had options.
Speaker 4 (11:27):
They had a starting job to offer to any of
the quarterbacks who were available.
Speaker 3 (11:31):
They traded for Gino Smith.
Speaker 4 (11:33):
Now, they didn't give up much, but they could have
signed a free agent for nothing, and they knew that
it was going to create a little bit of a
pr question mark bringing Geno Smith back to the Jets
years after things there didn't work out. So you don't
bring him back unless you're willing to give up assets
to get him, even though it wasn't much, unless you're willing.
Speaker 3 (11:54):
To step into the wrath of fireman ed.
Speaker 4 (11:57):
If Gino Smith doesn't play well taking Kirk Cousins, they
could have tried to sign Kyler Murray, but they could have.
I think two all talk about low is undefeated against
the Jets, not that in MetLife Stadium is an ideal
place for him to play his home games. But they
had other guys they could have gone after. They go
after Gino Smith. That tells me they believe in him,
especially because they weren't afraid of bringing home a guy
(12:19):
who if it doesn't work out, they're gonna look like idiots.
Speaker 2 (12:22):
Mike Florio, Pro Footballtalk dot Com. Great stuff, and hopefully
by this time next week will either know when the
schedule's coming out, or maybe the schedules already come out.
So great stuff and we'll talk then pass. All right,
all right, Mike Florio with us on the radio show.
We got Mariners, we got Braves, we got the NBA playoffs,
we got Petros, we got Larry Stone. We got a
(12:42):
lot more to get to on a busy Wednesday right
here on ninety three three KJARFM
It's time for a weekly conversation with Pro Football Talks
Mike Florio, brought to you by Simply Seattle. Tired of
buying and repping the same old Seattle sports gear everyone
else asks for the best Storm, Seahawks, Mariners, Kraken, Rainiers, Sounders,
and not to mention, the largest Sonics collection in the world.
Check out simply Seattle dot com now with Mike Florio.
(00:21):
Here's Softy and Din.
Speaker 2 (00:22):
All right, bet Thanks to our friends at simply Seattle
dot com. You got your eye on something Sea Hot
gear for the upcoming season, madvinid gear for the summer
championship gear whatever, KJR fifteen for fifteen percent off anything
at simply Seattle dot com. Always use code KJR fifteen.
Here he is the heavyweight champion baby of the NFL
Press Corps. Our friend from PFT Live, Pro Football Talk
(00:45):
dot Com, the NFL and NBC, Michael Florio with us
on the radio program, Michael, how are.
Speaker 3 (00:51):
You hello about holes?
Speaker 2 (00:54):
Hello about hole? A couple of spot Great to hear
your voice again. I always love having you.
Speaker 4 (01:01):
What you winded about while I was on hold waiting
patiently for this to get started?
Speaker 3 (01:06):
What were you crying? About I wasn't whining about anything.
Speaker 2 (01:08):
I just made a point, which I would think for
a guy that works for NBC, you would love. I
tweeted out last night that outside of a live sporting event,
it's amazing to me how little I watch ESPN, never,
Sports Center, magazine shows, talk shows. Couldn't care less and
don't feel like I'm missing anything. Mike, how about you?
Speaker 4 (01:28):
Well, there is content on there that is very compelling.
I have to give him that. But yeah, I was
in my twenties when Sports Center was at its peak,
and those days are over and they're never coming back.
Speaker 3 (01:40):
It makes me wonder why they even do it, right?
What audience did sports Center?
Speaker 4 (01:46):
Sir? Who out there is just generally interested in sports?
When I used to watch it, I would suffer through
the stuff I didn't care about to get to the
stuff I did care about.
Speaker 3 (01:58):
Why would anyone consume that? Now?
Speaker 4 (02:00):
You can find whatever you're interested in clips online, social media.
Speaker 3 (02:05):
There are so many different ways to consume this sports
you're interested in. Now.
Speaker 4 (02:11):
Maybe there are some people who just are generally interested
in any in all sports, and they want to sit
there and be served up whatever they choose.
Speaker 3 (02:18):
To talk about. But I'm surprised it still exists. I
just think it's.
Speaker 4 (02:22):
Such a key part of ESPN history that the idea
of getting rid of it is unthinkable. But I've got
at some point they'll retire it and they'll move on
because the world has moved on.
Speaker 5 (02:34):
Well, Mike, we do listen and watch your talk show,
and you mentioned on your talk show this week that
this could be the last seventeen game season in the NFL,
And you also brought up the possibility that players could
be limited to seventeen games played even if we have
an eighteen game schedule.
Speaker 2 (02:51):
Is that right?
Speaker 3 (02:53):
Yeah, And let me start.
Speaker 4 (02:54):
With the possibility that this will be the last seventeen
game season.
Speaker 3 (02:58):
No date has been ticked for Super Bowl sixty two
to be.
Speaker 4 (03:02):
Played in Atlanta February twenty twenty eight. The reason no
date has been selected is they are holding out for
the possibility that a deal will be done with the
NFL Players Association to have a seventeen game season grow
to eighteen games by twenty twenty seven. If you're not
going to try to expand the season by twenty seven,
(03:24):
there's no reason to not have a firm and clear
date for the Super Bowl when you're twenty one months.
Speaker 3 (03:30):
Away from it, that's unheard of.
Speaker 4 (03:32):
You got to lock in Convention Center for the week.
You got to have thousands of hotel rooms lined up.
They haven't done it because they're still keeping the door
open for an eighteen game season by twenty twenty seven.
Speaker 3 (03:43):
Whether that happens or not, I don't know, But until.
Speaker 4 (03:45):
They tell us the Super Bowl will be February thirteen,
twenty twenty.
Speaker 3 (03:49):
Eight, it's still a possibility.
Speaker 4 (03:51):
And as to eighteen games with each player limited to seventeen,
I caught win to that a few months ago.
Speaker 3 (03:55):
As it's a possibility.
Speaker 4 (03:57):
As a way to get the rank and file to
agree to an eighteen game season is one thing to
get union management to understand, you know what, they're gonna
lock us out when the CBA expires anyway, and they're
gonna get eighteen games because we'll cave in and give
them what they want. It's another thing to convince the
players who will vote.
Speaker 3 (04:17):
On it to go along with that.
Speaker 4 (04:19):
And it was a close vote when they agreed to
go from sixteen to seventeen. So I think one way
to convince the rank and file to vote yes is
to do this whole eighteen with a limit of seventeen
and the reality is a lot of guys are going
to miss the game anyway due to injury at some point,
there aren't going to be a lot of tough decisions.
And if you accept quarterbacks, kickers, punters because they have
rules that protect them and make them safer, it's something
(04:41):
that I think they could pull off if that's the
only way to get to eighteen. But if they would
even put that on the table, it just shows how
desperate and intent they are on getting to eighteen games
and also sixteen international games played every single year.
Speaker 2 (04:55):
Mike Florio with US Mike, I'm looking at last year's
NFL schedule release was on May fourteenth, which is next
Thursday on the twenty twenty sixth calendar. Why is it
so hard to pin down when the NFL schedule's coming
out and when will it come out because.
Speaker 4 (05:12):
It doesn't come out until the commissioner says it's ready,
So they don't announce when they're going to have the
announcement until they know that the schedule is ready to
be announced.
Speaker 3 (05:23):
Mike North, the VP of broadcast Planning for.
Speaker 4 (05:25):
The NFL, explained that a couple of weeks ago in
a podcast appearance that at the end of the day,
they're not done until the commissioner says they're done.
Speaker 3 (05:33):
And they are looking at every one of these windows,
every one of these games.
Speaker 4 (05:37):
They want the standalone windows to have the biggest possible audiences.
And two hundred and seventy games continue to be wide open.
Only two have been set forty nine Ers Rams in
Australia Thursday, September ten and Ravens Cowboys in Brazil Sunday,
September twenty seven. The rest of them going into the direction,
(05:59):
but they're not going to announce it until the commissioner
believes it's set.
Speaker 3 (06:03):
I don't think.
Speaker 4 (06:03):
It'll be longer than a week after Wednesday, May thirteenth.
But that's why they don't tell us it's coming. They
don't tell us it's coming until they know it's done.
Speaker 5 (06:12):
Mike, you talked to Ken Walker this week. We kind
of had a feeling that last year would be his
last year in Seattle, kind of middle of the season,
but you got some information out of him.
Speaker 4 (06:22):
Well, he had that feeling too, whether it was the
contract discussions are.
Speaker 3 (06:27):
Lack thereof the vibe he was getting.
Speaker 4 (06:28):
He knew during the twenty twenty five season that he
would not be returning.
Speaker 3 (06:33):
To the Seahawks, and that makes what he ultimately.
Speaker 4 (06:34):
Accomplished even more impressed. If he had the ultimate carrot
dangling for him to go out have a strong finish
to the season. The injury to Zach Charbonnay in the
Division round of the playoffs, it's kicked in my new
colleague Mike Tomlins saying one man's misfortune is another man's opportunity,
and Ken Walker literally.
Speaker 3 (06:52):
Ran with it all the way to the Super Bowl.
Speaker 4 (06:54):
MVP award in a contract is gonna pay a twenty
seven million guaranteed over the first two years. It's a
damn good deal and it tells you that they plan
to use him.
Speaker 3 (07:03):
You don't give all running back that kind of money.
Speaker 4 (07:05):
Last year they paid between Isaiah pa Checko and Kareem
Hunt between two and three million total. They're paying thirteen
to five this year alone to Kenneth Walker the third.
So he's going to get a chance to flourish in
Seattle or in Kansas City. Excuse me, after his time
in Seattle.
Speaker 2 (07:20):
Ends, Yeah, Mike Florio with US Mike Russell Wilson told
the New York Post. He's got an offer from the Jets,
but he also could do TV. Do you believe that
Russell Wilson does have an offer from the Jets? Do
you believe he's got a standing offer to go join
a TV network? And what do you think he does?
Speaker 4 (07:39):
He's suggesting that Russell Wilson wouldn't be telling the truth.
Speaker 3 (07:41):
I'm confused, Yes, I am, Yes, I am.
Speaker 4 (07:44):
Why would you take him at his word? I have
no reason to think he's not telling the truth. If
he says it publicly and it's untrue, that can be
quickly debunked with anything. And it wouldn't necessarily be a
statement from the Jets or CBS, but they could leak to.
Speaker 3 (07:59):
Someone that it's not true.
Speaker 4 (08:00):
I think between the two options, if he's got an
offer to take one of the seats that the NFL
today on CBS take it, you don't see many guys
who were the highest paid players in the NFL decide
to continue to hang around and.
Speaker 3 (08:13):
Hold a clipboard.
Speaker 4 (08:15):
And it's the ultimate slap in the face for a
guy who still subjectively believes he's good enough to be
a starting quarterback to go to New York and be
the backup to the guy who was his backup his
final years in Seattle.
Speaker 3 (08:27):
Joe Flacco is.
Speaker 4 (08:27):
The only guy who continued to hang around and hang around,
and he's still in the NFL after his time as
a starter ended, a guy who was once the highest
paid player in the NFL franchise. Quarterbacks who have made
so much money, they don't need to keep playing. They
don't want to stand around and be anything other than
the guy. I don't think Russell Wilson wants to continue
to be a backup, which happened after three games last
(08:50):
year when he was bench for Jackson Dart, And I
think he wants to stay in New York. What better
way to stay in New York and to have a
pregame show set in New York. Once you get that seat,
they don't really fire people all that often, although they
do reshuffle from time to time, as we know at NBC.
So it's an opportunity that doesn't come around very often.
If he takes it, and if he does well, he'll
(09:11):
have that job for as long as he was it.
Speaker 5 (09:13):
Mike, is there any possibility at all of a reunion
between Aaron Rodgers and the Thane'll Hacket in Arizona.
Speaker 3 (09:19):
I don't think so. I believe what happened here.
Speaker 4 (09:22):
When the Steelers played that weird chess move last week
at a time when no one knew there was a
chess game even happening, including Aaron Rodgers. It sparked speculation
because the Steelers did it to get themselves compensatory draft
pick consideration if Rogers signs another team, So that gets
people thinking, well, maybe he's getting ready to sign with
(09:43):
another team. And then you look at the full roster
of thirty two teams and you say where would he signed,
And the only other place he would sign is Arizona.
Speaker 3 (09:51):
And that's been the case for two months. We've been talking.
Speaker 4 (09:53):
About how the Steelers and the Cardinals are the only
two viable options for starting.
Speaker 3 (09:58):
Jobs for Aaron Rodgers.
Speaker 4 (10:00):
It's free agency started, and the Cardinals have never shown
any interest in him.
Speaker 3 (10:03):
If the Cardinals were gonna pursue them, they would have
done it by now.
Speaker 4 (10:06):
You don't wait until after the draft to make a
run of Aaron Rodgers unless you have some double secret
thing going on that absolutely no one knows you're talking about,
and then all of a sudden they're gonna unveil Aaron
Rodgers is the Cardinals. But I'll submit this to you,
why would Aaron Rodgers want to play for the worst.
Speaker 3 (10:22):
Team in the toughest division in the NFL?
Speaker 4 (10:25):
Right now, You've got the two best teams from last
year in the Seahawks and Rams. In the division, you
got the forty nine Ers, who are always going to
be tough to be You're struggling if you're the Cardinals
and they play all the teams of the NFC East
this year, they play all.
Speaker 3 (10:40):
The teams of the AFC West.
Speaker 4 (10:42):
Yeah, they got the fourth place schedule, but you know what,
the Lions got the fourth place schedule too, They got
to play them. It's gonna be a long year for
the Cardinals. I don't know why Aaron Rodgers would want
to play for them, So I don't think it's gonna happen,
But I think the talk has happened because of what
the Steelers did last week.
Speaker 2 (10:56):
Okay, well, Mike, before you go, we mentioned Russell Wilson
there weighing the offer from the Jets to be Geno's
back up with New York. Frank Reich came out the
other day. He's the current OC of the Jets and said,
Gino Smith is perfect for this system. I think Aaron
Glenn may have said the same thing. Is that just
a couple of coaches pumping the tires of their guy
(11:17):
to make him feel good about their belief in him,
Or does the NFL actually think that maybe there's another
renaissance coming for Geno Smith to New York.
Speaker 3 (11:26):
They had options.
Speaker 4 (11:27):
They had a starting job to offer to any of
the quarterbacks who were available.
Speaker 3 (11:31):
They traded for Gino Smith.
Speaker 4 (11:33):
Now, they didn't give up much, but they could have
signed a free agent for nothing, and they knew that
it was going to create a little bit of a
pr question mark bringing Geno Smith back to the Jets
years after things there didn't work out. So you don't
bring him back unless you're willing to give up assets
to get him, even though it wasn't much, unless you're willing.
Speaker 3 (11:54):
To step into the wrath of fireman ed.
Speaker 4 (11:57):
If Gino Smith doesn't play well taking Kirk Cousins, they
could have tried to sign Kyler Murray, but they could have.
I think two all talk about low is undefeated against
the Jets, not that in MetLife Stadium is an ideal
place for him to play his home games. But they
had other guys they could have gone after. They go
after Gino Smith. That tells me they believe in him,
especially because they weren't afraid of bringing home a guy
(12:19):
who if it doesn't work out, they're gonna look like idiots.
Speaker 2 (12:22):
Mike Florio, Pro Footballtalk dot Com. Great stuff, and hopefully
by this time next week will either know when the
schedule's coming out, or maybe the schedules already come out.
So great stuff and we'll talk then pass. All right,
all right, Mike Florio with us on the radio show.
We got Mariners, we got Braves, we got the NBA playoffs,
we got Petros, we got Larry Stone. We got a
(12:42):
lot more to get to on a busy Wednesday right
here on ninety three three KJARFM
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