July 14, 2020 • 53 mins
Mike Blewitt and George Kurtz are back again for another edition of Football Full Circle! In this episode, the guys discuss DeSean Jackson's recent comments and Julian Edelman's response to his comments. Mike and George take a deep look at the Las Vegas Raiders and their future. Who will be the starting QB for the Los Angeles Chargers in Week 1? How will the Chargers fare in their first season without Phillip Rivers?
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Sports grid dot Com Betting insights and entertainment at your
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and more. Want the edge than get on the grid
sports grid dot Com. Hey, everybody, welcome to another edition
(00:21):
of Football Full Circle right here on the grid. Mike
blew At George Kurtz ready to get into it. Regarding
the NFL, So, George, We've had to deal with a
lot of heavy topics in recent weeks, frankly, in recent months,
whether it's the pandemic, whether it's social justice issues, and
this week was no different. We had a different issue
(00:41):
arise this week regarding DeShawn Jackson of the Philadelphia Eagles.
As everybody I'm sure knows by now, he shared some
uh right, he shared some quotes that he related to
Adolf Hitler. Essentially in support of these quotes, I'm not
going to read them out loud. I'm not going to
(01:02):
post them on the screen because they're ignorant and offensive
and I don't really think it's property keep putting it
out there in any event, um, his stupidity might be
actually outweigh his anti Semitism in this case, which is
hard to do. But the reality is this happened, and
(01:24):
we've received a response which I thought was extremely well
done by Julian Edelman, who has Jewish heritage. He even
says is in in his Instagram post which we have
up on the screen, that he's really fighting for people
to come together. He says specifically compassion, empathy, and love
(01:44):
he talks in this video, and I thought he was
really eloquent with it. I thought he he probably obviously
wrote this statement prepared thought about it. I think that's
the wise thing to do when you're trying to speak
on an issue like this. But he's again, compassion, empathy
and love is what he focused on, and forgiveness in
this instance. I think some people were waiting for a
(02:04):
larger response, perhaps from the Eagles from the league, but
as probably the most widely known Jewish player in the NFL,
Julian Edelman responded and I thought he responded very well. Oh.
I thought he just wanted extremely well and what response was,
will go down to Washington, d C. We'll visit the
Slavery Museum, and we'll visit the Holocaust Museum, you know,
(02:25):
we can both learn more about about the other. You know,
that's a very measure response. That makes sense. We're we're
living in tough times right now. Yeah, we we say
this over and over again, Mike. Players have to think
before you hit the send button. Al right. Everything. This
is not the seventies, eighties and nineties for that matter,
where no one's gonna hear what you say, or very
few people. Everything is recorded nowadays. As soon as you
(02:48):
hit sent, it's out there. It's on the public medium,
public forum forever. All right, And I think before you talk.
I mean, I don't know what the shoan Jackson was
truly thinking. What was It isn't even a real So
he's going around just wildly picking things off the internet
and sharing it with people. It is obviously blatantly anti semitic,
(03:09):
which is gross, and it is also totally inaccurate. You
just don't do that. I mean, you can't do I
didn't know. You don't know. I mean, did you go
to school a day graduate in college? You can't tell
me you don't know. It's probably the first to tell you.
I don't think I know everything about slavery. I doubt
it very much, I've got everything about the Holocaust. You know,
obviously those don't don't affect me. I am not Jewish,
(03:31):
I have no I understand. I understand what happened was
terrible thing. You don't make light of it, you don't
talk about it. It just it was a strange thing
to him that even delve into you know, that's just weird.
You hope he just he meant something but said something else.
But once again, read what you say, and if you
have any doubt, you don't say it. It's really that simple.
I like what Edelman took it, you know, I think, uh,
(03:54):
I think it really equates to a wide variety of things.
If you don't know something, go find out more about it.
I think it equateness to sort of the name changes
that they're talking about throughout all sports, right, how the Indians, Braves,
chief Seminoles, the emoton Eskimos, how they're all told about
these name changes. If I'm an owner, you know, I think,
listen the Worston football team name. I don't need to
(04:14):
talk there. I know that's racist, I know that needs
to be changed. But for the stuff like the Indians, uh,
chief Seminoles, and go on and on here. I'd like
to talk to the once again that the Indians to
find out is that offensive to you? Is the Are
the Cleveland Indians defensive? It is? Why? Because to me
it's just it's just name a group of people, vikings
group of people. Is uh, it's defensive? Why? And I'd
(04:36):
want to hear a logic behind it if you could
tell me, Okay, I understand now, and now the names
should be changed? Ye? Yeah, actually leads you. I'll get
back to the main track in a moment. But I
was on with game Rency and Cam Steward on our
network which I am every week as you are in
Game Time Decisions, and the subject came up the Edmonton
(04:58):
Eskimos of the fl uh and they're on their way
to changing their name, and we had an open discussion,
and frankly, I admitted I'm pretty ignorant as to whether
or not that is an offensive term. I did a
little bit research. Maybe it's half pass internet research, but
I did a little bit of research, and I understand
how that phrase can be used in a derogatory manner.
(05:21):
And I think there are some Inuit people that are
offended by it, and there are some that are not,
but ultimately if it's it gave me the point that
if you have to really debate whether or not something
is offensive or racist, you probably should just get rid
of it or stop using it or whatever else. So
I think that's part of it. But to your point,
(05:41):
like you really need to educate yourself, it's not possible
for us to know every single thing about every issue
or etymology of particular names, So you have to do
some research, talk to somebody, do some of your own research,
and move on from there. But um at al Hitler,
I thought it was prettily widely rebuked any of his teachings,
(06:02):
his writings, whatever. But Sean Jackson had to learn this
yet again. But it follows up again at the end
of the week with Julian Edelman. He said he spoke
uh to Sean and I spoke for a while last night.
We're making plans to use our experiences to educate one
another and grow together. Stay tuned. I think it's a
really grown up, intelligent response. I think it is more
(06:25):
helpful in the long run to do something like this
than to cut to Sean Jackson and have him out
of league. I wouldn't criticize the Eagles had they made
that response, um both. We'll get to why that matters
in a moment, but I wouldn't necessarily Look, if you
and I said it on air, or if we said
it at a corporate job, we should be rightly fired.
(06:47):
In this instance, a high profile figure who obviously has
the added complication of being this talented player that they
need for their success of their team creates complications. Know,
if I was so valuable to sports Grid that I
could say something that like that on air and just
get suspended and come back, Uh you know, that would
(07:09):
mean that would mean I was extremely valuable. But I
don't really have the liberty of saying something like that.
I wouldn't in the first place. But uh so on
the Eagles front, George, it is something that has obviously
happened to their organization in the not too distant past.
Riley Cooper was caught on camera using a racial slur.
He was not cut by the team, he was basically
(07:32):
given a two days suspension, stayed with the team, ultimately
signed an extension with them, And now de Sean Jackson
finds himself in similar waters. I would not equate the two.
I think there are differences but nonetheless um the Eagles
with the same response that they had for Riley Cooper,
(07:53):
keeping the person in the organization, using it as a
teaching moment, and trying to move on. I give Jeff
Lury credit. I don't that everybody would be that tolerant
to do so. But he's doing the same thing that
he did a few years ago, even if the incidences
don't compare well. See I'm more. I don't think tell
(08:14):
Laurie's being tolerant at all, and he comes down to
the talent level once again. All owners care about is
how you can help the team. They hire criminals all
the time. Guys have been convicted of this, beating people,
beating their spouses. We see this all the time, and
you get second and third chances. If you can help
the team, you'll be forgiven. If you're a lesser player,
(08:34):
you're done. You know. The short Jason can help the
Philadelphi Eagles. He can be their deep threat. Take that
safety blow what top off, you know, open up things
on underneath for you know, whatever it might be. So
he can help the team. He gets away with it.
Raley Cooper back then could help the team. He gets
away with it. You know said two days suspension. Are
you kidding me? Laurie sort of has no choice here,
(08:56):
all right. If he were to release hey, the salary
cap implications as well, by the way to releasing all Jackson,
maybe they can get out of it. You know. See
if there's a close in there, you know, behavior close
the right to be a court battle, you know, maybe
you win, maybe you don't, you know that sort of thing.
So but the bottom line to me is he can
still help the team if he will, maybe two years
(09:17):
from now where his legs are gone. He's not fast,
can't really help he He's a fringe wide receiver. If
he's the sixth wide receiver on the team, he's already
on the straight looking for a johns Riley Cooper that
valuable got that five year extension, and he must I
mean I never thought he was anything. Especially we got
a five year extension. They must have thought he was valued.
He didn't play up to it, nowhere near close, but
they must have thought. So listen, maybe you want to
(09:38):
play the other side. Maybe they're a very tolerant organization.
I don't know, but in the end, I thought they
should have cut Cooper, and I think they should cut Jackson. Yeah,
it should be noted that Jeffrey Lowy is Jewish, as
is their general manager, Howie Roseman. So, um, you know
they're Look, there's been a bunch of this. This cycle
(10:00):
that we've gone through has happened several times recently, right
where somebody says something, they're rebuked for it, they quickly apologize,
and it moves out of the news cycle. Even if
the the egregious nature of the offenses is a different level,
(10:21):
it seems like it's sort of the same playbook. But
I'd like to end it on the positive note talking
about Edelman. You know, Drew Brees for what he said,
other people for what they said. Um, these things aren't
on equal levels. Drew Brees is a political slightly, it's not.
It's really like a personal stance of his. He didn't
say anything outright offensive. His his tweet, his um, his
(10:45):
video that surfaced was about his personal opinion. People thought
it was a distraction from what was going on. In fact,
I thought that I was critical of the timing of
his statement. I'm not really critical of the words within it,
only because feel it's his personal right to have that stance.
It's he would do he feels that way. Maybe I
feel a different way, But I wasn't criticizing him for
(11:07):
the words. There's more the timing of it, and I
thought his answer was out of place. Again, we don't
have to relitigate that. But again, I think what Edelman
did here is extremely admirable, and I hope it does
continue to educate people. I hope they film this. I
hope they make a mini documentary out of it, and
(11:29):
we get a tour of each of those museums so
that people want to go to those museums and learn
more about it themselves. That's what I hope would happen.
In the end. It is once again, knowledge is power.
You don't know, find out about it. If you truly
don't know what about slavery, about that, this country's history,
y slavery, all the Holocaust, and maybe you should. You
should visit these museums or go on do a deeper
(11:51):
Google search. You makes, it's not out there, all right.
We all don't know everything about everything, all right. I mean,
I understand there's a you know, people are gonna say
stupid things that they don't mean. But this is why
you're the old hermit, I which think think before you
hit sent, and then don't hit sent pretty much, don't
do it anyway as if you hit If you put
it out there, then it's you know, it's yours to
hang around your neck. You put it out there, and
(12:12):
now you've gotta live with it, you know. And I
think a part of the problem with the Shawn Jackson
his when he made his apology, and you know how
I feel about apologies in every sense, that's where the
pr people get above it. But even that he said,
well it was misunderstood, So you're not apologizing. You told
me I misunderstood it, right, I mean, now you just
not even apologize anymore. And I did that bother some
people as well. It wasn't very well done. Yeah, so
(12:35):
all right. So and on the positive note, Julian Edelman
and here are going to get together and hopefully we'll
learn a little bit more about their journey and how
uh Sean can be educated and how other people can
be educated on that. So, I know there's many other
tentacles to this topic, but it is a sports talk
show and we're going to try and get onto talking
(12:55):
some actual football, which we will. We're gonna focus on
the m C West today in subsequent segment, But it's
the Broncos next, Justin Simmons in the news. We'll talk
about him and everything else related to their season. Right
here on the grid, it's Mike and George f FC
will be right back. Sports grid dot Com Betting insights
(13:16):
and entertainment at your fingertips as our team covers the
most important topics in sports wagering, real time odds, predictive
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get on the grid sports grid dot Com Welcome back everybody.
Thanks for joining us on the grid. Mike and George.
(13:36):
You can find us all on Twitter at sports grid
and on Instagram at sports grid tv. If you want
to find us individually on Twitter, George is at George Kurtz.
I'm at Mike Blutt, so feel free to interact with
us there. Send the hate mail to George, the good
vibes to me, so no problem. So, uh, talking about
the Denver Broncos. That franchise tag deadline, George coming up
(13:58):
early this ear this next week, really um on July July,
I believe that is Wednesday. Yeah, so Wednesday afternoon is
the deadline to which these players now, none of the
franchise tagged players have signed an extension. Many have signed tenders,
but as you see on the screen right here, Broncos
(14:19):
safety Justin Simmons is via Adam Schefter is officially has
accepted his franchise tender and is expected to sign it
this weekend. Per sources. It's just a formality now. Four
franchise players have not signed their tender. Joanna King, Gockway,
Shack Barrett, Chris Jones, and A J. Green. Chris Jones
and Jan Gockway. I believe those are the most it's
(14:43):
the word I'm looking for, the most tenuous, the most
acrimonious right now between their current teams and got Ways
that's not even acrimonious, like they're just done with one another. Uh,
he's moved on. I don't know how that plays out
for him, but um A J. Green Shack Barrett will
see on that front, perhaps both looking for potential long
term extensions, although I'm not sure why A J. Green
(15:05):
wants to do that in any event where where he
currently plays. But on the Justin Simmons side, we've talked
about it for a while. Of all of the players
that signed the franchise tag, he seemed the most likely
to get a long term deal done. Many of these
franchise tags George were used, and there's fourteen players on it.
(15:28):
Many of them were used really because of the funky
nature of this season right now that this all happened
right about when the pandemic was starting to occur. Um,
you'd have to be pretty into pretty accomplished prognosticator to
realize the ripple effects that this pandemic was going to
(15:51):
have back in the second week of March. But it
was used pretty liberally, I think by teams because the
cat forget all the COVID stuff, the cap was sort
of unknown, right, we are we going to sign this
is the c b A. The CBA was locked down,
But are we going to get a huge bump? When
(16:13):
are we going to renegotiate the TV deals? What is
the capital like next year? And I think teams just
sort of liberally used the franchise tag this year in
order to just punt punt a year. Oh, I think
you're right. I think this is a This is a
weird season. I mean, for the reason you've mentioned, by
the way, the pandemic obviously screwing things up in old
(16:33):
sports as far as money is concerned, finances and the
fact that everyone knows these big TV deals are coming,
all right, so you sort of want to wait to
get the biggest slice of that pie, all right. So
I think, yes, I think this is all played into
it a lot. Nobody knows what's going to happen. I mean,
are the gonna play a full season? Are they gonna
play with fans without fans? Is next season affected? And
we all hope this is the dump by next season,
(16:55):
but we don't know that either, you know, a sort
of up in the end. We don't know. So this
is sort of a mess. And there's only it's anybody
who's great or the the expert at this right now,
because no, we've we've never done this before the history
of sports. We've had something like this, the Spanish flu
in nineteen seventeen. Ye there are a lot of opressional
sports going on then, so no one knows what they're
doing right now. Also, in the middle of a World
(17:17):
war then we still played through it, right at least
our issues the World War. Uh, this is it's a
weird timing it really, it truly is. I don't know
what's gonna happen Wednesday. I think you and I were
what we put the under under over on the franchise
players two and a half that signed long term deals
under But it could be three. We were we We
(17:37):
don't think it'll be any more than three. Three would
be Wow. They got I think Simmons, Barrett, maybe Dak
and maybe Dak. Right, that's the only three guys I
can even remotely consider. Sonny, you mentioned Nick Awkway, the
Jackson they you blew that head. You're not getting anywhere
near what you want to get for him, by the way,
it's not gonna happen, so good luck. Yeah, they played them,
(17:59):
They played them selves into a worst draft pick. Now, yeah,
you should should have just taken the second round pick
and moved on and then you could have gotten You
should have gotten rid of them. Now now it's buried
and he's never gonna show up and whatever. So so
justin Simmons, they're saying, so some of the uh from
via rotal World, they're talking about UH. Two sides talking
(18:21):
about this long term deal. He's twenty six years old.
By the way, he is a Boston College alum. George
and I'm a huge fan of his Uh, do you
have an overrun that how many times you had? Well,
if it comes up, it's what I'm gonna do a
half on that too. By the way, I'll probably take
the over all. Right, Well, so it's one so far. So.
Former Boston College great Justin Simmons will make eleven point
(18:42):
four for one million this upcoming season. He's Pro Football
Focus is number two grade at safety with an All
Pro nod this past season. He's going to garner a
four year contract worth upwards of fifteen million dollars annually. George,
we talked about safety is not getting paid. But Simmons
really good timing here. He's ob the said key cog
in their defense and it is a good defense led
(19:03):
by Vic Fangio von Miller on the field. And the
four year, fifteen million dollar deal really good money for
a safety. And he can be a free agent again
by the time he's thirty. Now, that deal that would
be a little bit harder to get. There's very few
guys that get that. You have to be in the
Palamalo Earl Thomas range in order to keep getting those deals.
But good deal is gonna get paid. I think he's
(19:25):
one of the guys that will sign that long term deal.
What it all comes down to, we say the safeties.
I like to say safeties don't get paid, the running
backs of defense. It all depends upon the team. Do
they value that position. Not every team does. The Broncos
seem to be one of those teams where they do well.
They're at the very least not against paying it, like
the Jets seemed to be against paying it with Jamal Adams. Right,
(19:45):
we think Jamal Adams is great, maybe the best safety
of the game, but they don't want to pay him,
you know. So he's like they're they're a team that
doesn't believe in that. The Broncos do seem to believe
in it. And listen, they also has played four seasons
and as an All Pro, like Jamal Adams hasn't done that.
I think he should get an extension from the Jets,
and he's been aggressive in negotiating all of this out
(20:06):
in public. Obviously, will it work for him, I don't know.
I'm not gonna be grudge him. I understand why Jets
fans are irritated by it, but guys trying to get
paid like it's a negotiating tactic. It is. And I
think part of it is why Jamal I'm just doing
what he's doing, is because of the position he plays.
I think he was another position where he knows, oh,
you're gonna get paid eventually, he'd be fine, he would
(20:27):
be taking this text. But the fact that he's not.
If you're not gonna pay me, get rid of me,
let me go someone who was gonna pay me that
if you have no one to let go. He's from Dallas.
Earl Thomas is from there. I'm sure they're talking. I'm
sure Earl Thomas and Jamal Adams have had a conversation
and he's given him some advice, some friendly advice, and
he's taking it. I don't know if it will work,
(20:49):
but we'll see, all right. So let's talking about the Broncos.
I'm gonna set up their season here. Will talk through
their schedule a little bit. But odds on the Broncos
this year to win the A of see West plus
eleven to win the AMC Championship, plus three thousand to
win the Super Bowl, plus six thousand. The wind totals
seven and a half. It's minus one tent on both sides,
(21:10):
So there's no juice and they were exactly like that
last year. So I think the Broncos are just one
of those teams perenni the perennial perennially now excuse me
that UM people have a tough time getting beat on,
and they actually ended up pushing last year. I think
it was seven, and they pushed UH to make the
(21:30):
playoffs plus one eighty and no as minus two. I'll
say one thing about the division as a whole. The
Chiefs obviously are in this division impacting all these odds.
But what's really interesting as you go through it the
wind totals for the teams Broncos seven and a half,
Raiders eight, Chargers eight. Excuse me, Raiders seven and a half,
(21:52):
Chargers eight. So you've got all three of the other
teams with odds that are sort of similar wind totals
that are not that far off off. And I think
it says a lot about how people, how the betting
market feels about this division, like they don't really have
care about the other teams or have done the homework
to sift through how much better the Chargers are than
(22:12):
the Broncos are the Raiders, because they're all coming in
outside of first place. I think by a wide margin.
All right, I think you're right. No, I mean, really,
does anyone not expect the Chiefs to win that division?
I mean, anyone truly believed the Broncos Raiders are charge
is gonna beat them out? And not unless Mo Homes
gets hurt? Right that more say one year, content's you're
(22:34):
back up, so there you go. But that's it. Other
than that, the Broncos aren't interesting things. I think Chiefs
are minus three ninety to win that division. So yeah,
you know, no thank I mean it's the it's the
worst odds in the league to win the division. It's
there's just no one there yet. I think, once again,
I think the Broncos are building the right way. I
(22:54):
do like their future assuming Drew luck is the man.
Yeah right, that brings three big questions, right it has.
I mean unless you have a established quarter like it's
always gonna be one of your big three. He came on,
but last third of the season played pretty well. He
looked at listen. He looked encouraging. It looks like John
Ollie might have finally gotten his man right, gotten it right.
(23:17):
They have somebody that they better be him because it's
not Driscot ripping and Riyal Riley Neil, so he can
once again he's the guy. I like the direction they're heading.
You signed Melvin Gordon was eight million a year. Do
you have a nice running back corps Gordon lindsay. I
assume Freeman still sticks with the team here, why receiver?
Love what you did there. You've got Judy. You can
see what they're trying to do for Lock. Put the
(23:39):
weapons around him, right, Noah fan at that tight end.
You've given the man weapons. You've got a good running
game to keep the pressure off officsive line still needs
to have some work to be done there, but it's
not it's not horrendous. Contracted Lloyd Cushionberry in the third
round this year, so they have a new center. They
drafted Dalton Reisner as a guard. Last year, they drafted
Garret Bawls. This will be his word season. Unfortunately, Garrett Bolls,
(24:02):
as a first round pick, isn't really living up to
be a premium left tackle. I don't know that he
has to get moved to right tackle. I think you're
just living with the fact that your left tackle isn't
a dominant one. That's an issue. Once against a lot
of blind side hits there. But I like what they've done.
You could see. I wish more teams would do that.
You have a young quarterback, give him the weapons he
needs to succeed. Yeah, they signed a guard fort four
(24:24):
million bucks, Graham Glasgow, So I like that. We know
a defense, all right. They they don't look know, they
don't look to have the no fly zone right now.
They have got me with some of those guys. But
you know, you're okay then you did son a j
boy who was good at one point, was okay with Jacksonville.
You know, we'll see. You don't have Chris Harris anymore.
You still have the Ron Miller. Bradley Chubb comes back
(24:46):
missed most of the last year because of the injury,
and Chubb's not as good as Miller, but Miller is
getting all the attention. So CHU would go one on one.
That should have a good season. This team, like I said,
the schedule is not the greatest, not the worst, but
it's it's you playing the the NFC South. That's Tampa, Bay,
New Orleans and Atlanta. It's not start it starts Tennessee, Pittsburgh, Tampa.
(25:08):
Not great to home games, Yeah, to home games there,
they got to go to New England. Um, that's all
in the first five weeks of this season. You know
they'll be the underdog in four of their first five games.
I think that they gotta be Tampa. I'm not sorry,
they gotta be Tennessee. If you lose that game to Tennessee,
(25:30):
you could be owing three real quick. Yes, you know,
I don't think you've eating Pittsburgh and Pittsburgh and I
don't even in Denver. I don't think you eat in
Tampa Bay. I would be surprised, you know the Jets, Okay,
but even that that's a Thursday night game. We don't
know what the numbers tell you about Thursday night games
in the home team. Home team generally wins. So that's
a problem. To go to New England. I don't know
now that Cam is gonna be the starter there. I
(25:51):
don't like your chances there rightther before you get Miami,
who's not a bad team than Casey. Like I said,
I think if you lose that Tennessee game. I know
it's silly to say, but your season may go shoon
real yeah. So, like I I do think the trades
for Darrell Casey and a j Boyer were really smart.
I think they got some veteran guys in there to
help bolster the defense. We'll see if Simmons gets that
(26:14):
long term deal, but I think they're gonna be right
around the same about a five hundred team will come back.
We'll talk about the Raiders after this on the Grid,
Michael George will be right back. Sports grid dot Com
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(26:37):
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watching sportscred get back on the grid talking about the
(27:04):
Las Vegas Raiders. I feel like I'm going to screw
that up left and I did San Diego Chargers, Los
Angeles Chargers. I don't know why, but Vegas, Baby Vegas.
Maybe that's why it's gonna be a little bit easier.
But you had a weird story related to the Raiders,
didn't you. I did. It just came up. It's not weird.
It's surprised. It's weird. It's surprising. It's not there something
(27:25):
I ever would have expected Randall Cunningham. Yes, that Randall Cunningham,
ex quarterback of the Eagles among other teams, has been
hired by the Raiders to be the team's chaplain. Interesting.
So I don't think it's weird. I don't think it's
a bad thing. It's just surprising because I didn't know
that he served in any kind of religious capacity. I
(27:47):
know he was a pastor or in line to be
a chaplain anywhere, and certainly not for the Raiders. But
good for him, I guess. Bring I don't know, Maybe
he and John Gruden had a long time related ship.
Maybe I don't. I don't know. I brut was his
o C where the Eagles. Oh yeah, that makes sense. Yeah,
(28:07):
so apparently that that's where the connection is. Hey, I said,
we don't know what Randalls went up to. Maybe went
in the seminary. I don't know. You know, good, good
for you. He would know football players, he would know
what they go through. So this does sort of make sense,
assuming he is truly on that religious path. So hey,
I guess you could work out for both parties. So
when when were they together? What are the years that
(28:28):
they are together in Philly? Well, obviously it's in the
nineties somewhere. I'm doing the math. He was the o
c back then. I'm trying to think he became a
head coach right around what would you say, oh, oh,
late nineties. Oh one, Scrutin became the Raiders coach. Then
(28:51):
he flipped over to then he flipped over to the Bucks. Yeah,
I want to do them. Started do this in the
middle of the segment. But I'm really curious about it.
I'm looking at Randall Cunningham's career. So he's in Philly
from eighty five to nine. Um, sort of retired, then
(29:12):
came out of retirement to hook up in Minnesota and
finished it out with a couple of one year stince
in Dallas, in Baltimore. But um, he became the offensive
coorded of the Eagles in ninety to three ninety five.
It looks like six onto onder Ray Roads got it.
(29:33):
But he would have been a positional coach Prior to that.
He was with Green Bay San Fran That's you're right,
he's with Mike, He's former boss at the stands is
to be the special offensive It's just that why receivers
coach with Green Bay got it. Well, here's the racing
(29:53):
Green Bay. They had known each other for twenty five years,
so it's good enough. They've known each other for twenty
five years. That's good enough for me. It was a
little surprising, but good for them. Like you said, he
knows the players go through and everything else. Let's talk
about the Raiders specifically seasons. So, like I said earlier
in the hour, the Benning market really doesn't know what
(30:15):
to do with this division if if it's not the Chiefs.
Their win totals at seven and a half the under
his minus one fifteen, So there's really not a lot
of juice either way on this one. UM to win
the a f C West plus twelve hundred, to win
the af C Championship, plus three thousand to win the
Super Bowl plus six thousand. Those are the same as
(30:36):
the Broncos, but they are the longest shop to win
this division. To make the playoffs plus two fifty no
minus three twenty. They won seven games last year. Um,
they had a couple of funky losses in there towards
the end of the year, including I think a one
point loss on the last game of the season to Denver,
(30:57):
which you know they did. They last sixteen five team
uh and they both ended up finishing seven and nine.
Denver wins the tiebreaker. But in any event, they look good. Right,
people are like, look at this. The Raiders to turn
it around, and then it all kind of fell apart
for them in the middle of the year. Last year,
they were at one point three and two, they got
(31:18):
to five, they got to six and four. They bid
that they had a good win against the Colts. They
were six and four, and then they finished it with
a one in five down the stretch. So they lost
to the Jets, Chiefs, Titans, Jags, Jaguars, Thus to the Jaguars.
Then they beat the Chargers and then lost to the Broncos.
So that was a brutal way to end the season.
(31:40):
It had people thinking like gosh, or they totally pointed
in the wrong direction. But it was an improvement from
the previous year. Right, they went from four to seven wins. Um,
give me your thoughts. What do you think they're big
questions here? Oh? I think we know what the big
question is, right, who's the quarterback? Is the is the
quarterback of the future on this roster? I'm thinking no,
(32:02):
I don't give it. I give us soft maybe because
I actually think they like Mariota enough, but I don't think.
I don't think it's Car. I don't. I agree with you.
I don't think it's a Car. I actually I would
have made a bet that Car was not going to
start one game in Vegas. I'd probably lose that. But
I didn't think that they wanted anything to do with him.
I thought they were going to be looking at quarterbacks
(32:23):
in the draft these last two seasons. But now they've
gone a different route. They're going to try and be
act number two for Mariota. Yeah, I think Cars gonna
very short leash. I think he will start the season
at the quarterback and it's not working. I think they'll
go to Mariota. The GM has a connection to Mariota.
I think Car at that point would have failed. In
Gruden's eyes, would be like, you know what, I got
nothing to lose here, Let's see it's in. The former
(32:45):
top pick can be the quarterback he was once projected
to be. So I think they'll give Mariota a shot.
Plus once again, I think you want to know what
you have in Mariota before you decide, Hey, we really
I spent big on a free agent quarterback. Or we're
spending big in the draft to go up and get
one on that one that falls to us next season
in the draft. So I think car. I would give
the over under four and a half starts for car
(33:10):
car Interesting, we're assuming sixty, we're assuming sixteen games. We've
got through the schedule here in a second, we'll take
it one by one. But um, all right, you you
threw curve ball at me. Yeah, I'm with you. If
you had the number pretty high for Mariota, would I
think Mariota is gonna start at least half the games,
(33:30):
assuming we're playing sixteen games, assuming we are. Um, he
doesn't get injured. Um, I like my bed. I like
my over under. Yea, just just looking at the schedule,
this is why I like it. All Right, he gets
the soft start at Carolina, right dead defense, he should
be able to do well. Then then he has to
gauntlet New Orleans, New England, Buffalo, Kansas City, and then
(33:59):
there's there's there's the week. It's the perfect time to
make that change. They're praying for two and three. Buddy
thrilled with two and three, But I think I look
at one and four and if he's not playing well,
you know if he didn't play well in those four losses,
because they might lose those four losses no matter who's
that quarterback, right, those are four good teams they're gonna play.
But if he's not playing well, he's put that in there.
(34:20):
It's there the bye week in week six, and then
you get Tampa Bay and it's not any more fun.
But you get Tampa Bay in week seven, so maybe
it's not four and maybe five and a half should
be my over under them. Yeah, and then the Tampa
Cleveland at the Chargers Denver, Kansas City's weird. They got
three divisional games in a row. Then at Atlanta at
New York, Indie Chargers Miami. Yeah, yeah, more winnable games there, clearly.
(34:45):
But um I just I just think that these guys
are treading water until they make a decision at QB.
I think you can. You can. Derek is interesting in
that you can look at a whole bunch of his stats,
and if you look at the stat lines at the
end of his games or even at the end of
(35:06):
the season, he'd be like, you know what, it was
not bad. Derek Carr completed a lot of passes, got
a bunch of you know, good touchdown interception ratio. You
know it's not bad, but the reality is for him,
he completed seventy four percent of his passes last year,
twenty one touchdowns, eight picks, UM average yard per attempt
(35:28):
uh eight point oh pretty good UM quarterback rating over
a hundred. So you're like, look at that pretty good
stat line. He didn't have a lot of weapons last year.
You know, Wooler sort of came out of nowhere, so
the same thing that Renfroe, but didn't have a lot
of great weapons to throw to. You know, even more evidence.
But what I would say is that it's the Alex
(35:48):
Smith's situation. You're not gonna make any mistakes. I'm gonna
play it safe. We're gonna complete a bunch of passes.
We're gonna move the ball down the field. Can't win
doing that anymore. It's just not how it works. Like buffaloes,
that's right, you need to push the ball down the field,
and car doesn't do it. He doesn't take chances, so
he doesn't throw picks, but doesn't take chances, and he
(36:11):
throws no interceptible balls. He keeps it safe. He's pretty
heady quarterback. I think he's the type of guy that
could continue to be a starter. But I don't think
he is the type of starter that's going to help
you overtake the Chiefs push towards the Super Bowl. I
just don't think he's that guy. I think he's in
the Andy Dalton mix. I would agree. I think you
actually have the pertment comparison more with Alex Smith mix.
(36:34):
Smart guy, not gonna turn the not gonna put you
in bad situations, but it's not gonna win a game
for you either. I'd rather have Smitty than car Well,
I mean, prior, prior to right the injury. I would
rather have Alexmith and car as well. You ever see
that documentary on Alex Smith's sidebar? You just see that,
Oh my goodness, highly recommend it. But if you're queasy,
you cannot watch, So continue along with Derek Carr. God
(36:56):
bless the Alex Smith. Hopefully you know you can return
if you so used to. Are they a car Like
I said, I think he's on a placeholder to me, right,
when you see a quarterback who's not gonna win you
a game, it's not the guy you want. I mean,
it's just not the guy you want. In this day
and today's NFL, where every rule is designed for the quarterback,
you need someone who's dynamic, who can make plays, you know,
go out there. They said, the fact that he doesn't,
(37:18):
and maybe saying he's afraid to throw the wall in
the secondary is not fair. He doesn't do it. He
just doesn't do it. I keep making safe playing the
same playing we checked down, Charlie. You know it's it's
not good. You can't be afraid to make those play,
those chunk plays. You need those. In the NFL relying
on you to go eighty yards or seventy five yards
on every drive and not gonna work. You're gonna have
paleties that back you up. You're gonna have play for
(37:40):
their negative plays. Not gonna work. You need chunk yardage
in today's game. Yeah, and um, you know, they obviously
are in a situation now where they've added a lot
of players, right They turned over this roster that Khalil
mctrade gave them a whole bunch of new players. We've
been surprised by some of their picks. But Josh Jacobs,
the rookie running back before he was well, he had
(38:01):
a great season regardless of the injury. Um he really
has added an interesting dynamic to the team. Do they
try to win with a run first off? And there
were eleven in rush, eleventh in rushing attempts last season,
thirteenth in yards. They had thirteen rushing touchdowns. They just
really didn't put a lot of points on the board
last year. Georgie's was their major issue. It's what you're
(38:23):
talking about. No chunk plays, not pushing the ball down
the field, kicking field goals instead of touchdowns, and being
a run heavy attack. It has to be more dynamic.
It can't be old school three yards in a cloud
of dust type of running attack. It has to be
what the Ravens look like, or what the Niners look like.
A zone blocking scheme, utilizing different guys, different formations, all
(38:46):
this kind of stuff to keep people on their toes.
The old school rushing formation and a conservative quarterback maybe
get you to the playoffs once in a while, but
you're not gonna win anything. I think. Think you put
it perfectly, it might get a pops every now and
then are a certain kind of year, but you're not
going anywhere after that. If you want to be that team,
No listen the anical's designs because they want to put
(39:07):
the bull in the air, put it deep, let's go,
let's go some points to be an NBA games go
forty points. It's how a Chiefs play. The Chief's defense
is so so they want to win two games so
they can outscore you. And the thing is they're being
drafted to be more dynamic. Henry Ruggs signed, Tyroll Williams, Hunter,
Renfroze your slot guy. You've got Darren Waller there. The
(39:29):
pieces are being put in. Brian Edwards they drafted as well,
so the pieces are put in place. Sports grid dot
Com Betting, insights and entertainment at your fingertips as our
team covers the most important topics in sports wagering, real
time odds, predictive betting models, expert picks, and more. Want
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Com closing out this hour on the Grid. We've talked
(39:55):
a lot about the a f C West today and
we're gonna talk about close it out here with the
Los Angeles Chargers. Obviously gone through a lot this offseason,
losing long time QB Philip Rivers. Uh. They draft Justin
Herbert in the first round. He's gonna team up with
to Rod Taylor, We'll see who starts there. Who starts
this season, I think George, given the nature of all
(40:16):
of this stuff and no O t a s. I
think teams are going to roll out the veteran qbs
there uh to start this season unless they see something
markedly different in camp. I think guys like to Rod
Taylor will get a shot to start, Ryan Fitzpatrick even
in Miami, to start before they make a move to
the rookies. Yeah, and there's a reason why most of
(40:37):
us believed that, you know, Joe Burrow might run away
with the Rookie of the year because he's I think
he's the only rookie quarterback who is going to start
in day one. Yeah, you know than that because of
what's going on. No many cans, pandemic shortened, you know,
no even I don't think have any preseason games either.
I know right now we're down to two. I don't
think there'll be any by the time we get to
uh say and do this not now much a chance
(40:58):
for them. You know, the first thing I looked at here,
look at the schedule here, They've got a sort of
a soft opening. If you did, you know, if Herbert
did show enough Yo Representcinnati, I could do much better
than that. Other than being at home. Even Kansas City
in week two not the greatest defense. You have to
throw the ball of Ton Carolina week three. I mean,
it's it's a soft opening as far as a good
(41:18):
quarterback matchups there, but I still expect it to be
tailor because I also wanted to this Mike with the Chargers.
This is not a team that's rebuilding. When you look
at the roster that's sort of built a win now.
Could be a good team now outside of the quarterback position. Agreed.
I think that they It's been a curious team the
(41:40):
way they've managed things here. Um I thought, Look, I
would say, now, given the options that they could have
had Cam Newton or the Rod Taylor justin Herbert Combo,
I would take Cam Newton, even with the unknowns, because
Herbert's is much of an unknown as Camas and Cam
is basically free. I would have just taken the flyer
(42:03):
on that. Now. I can't speak to the impact that
Trod Taylor had in their locker room, but it wasn't
Phil Rivers. Phil Rivers there for fifteen years. Trod Taylor
has been there a year two, So how much really
is he a fabric of the franchise of the team.
Doesn't mean everybody doesn't like him and that he's not
(42:24):
a good player, But I'm saying they could have unseated
him for Cam Newton in a second, especially when he
was on the cheap So um, they've got that hanging
over them. Let me give you their odds as well.
Like I said earlier, all these odds are about the
same for these teams. Their wind totals at eight flat
minus one ten on both sides over or under, which
(42:47):
means there's basically no action on this team right now.
But it's understandable, right you don't know who's starting at quarterback.
Technically you're gonna kind of hold off to see. Are
the Raiders of the Broncos gonna be any better? Um,
if you told me right now what order these teams
gonna finish in, I'll say Chargers are coming in second place.
(43:09):
But it's not gonna surprise me if it ended up
like last year, where they're all within one game of
one another trying to figure it out. So, uh, the
win totals at eight to make the playoffs plus one
not bad? Uh, Nos min two to win the a
f C West seven and one, uh n C Championship
seventeen to one, win the Super Bowl thirty two to one.
(43:31):
So those odds for them are a lot lower than
the Broncos and the Raiders. But to make the playoffs
a plus, that's probably I mean, that's pretty good odds.
I'd rather bet that that bet them winning nine, right,
just because I'm getting getting favorable odds there I'm getting
I would get the under on the window. I don't
(43:53):
think they were nine. I mean for the win nine.
You look at the schedule, it's not difficult, but you
think a lot of fifty fifty games, including those two
games against Vegas, two games against Denver. I pretty much
expecting to go to and four and division will split
with those two teams lose both to Kansas City. Maybe
that game, assuming we get this far, which is a
big assumption. Uh January three at Kansas City, last game
(44:16):
of the season, means nothing to Casey. Could they could
have everything wrapped up by them, but with only one
home field, maybe not. Maybe they do gotta play for that.
So they play Cincinnati, Carolina and Jacksonville, three teams that
might be in the bottom five of the league. That's
at least we go through real quick Sincinnati, Kantas City,
Carolina first three gotta go too and one. Then you
(44:36):
got Tampa New Orleans. That's two and three. I don't
think it's gonna be either one of those two. Both
are on the road. Now it's not gonna happen. I'll
give you the Jets three and three. I think you're
losing in Miami, but you'll beat jacksonvill You're at four
and four. Already said Vegas, you're gonna split with that's
five and five. Split with six and six at Buffalo,
Las six and seven. Now you got those three games's
New England Atlanta and how must have missed the game?
(44:58):
I mean maybe you can split New England Atlanta. Yeah,
and now you at seven and eight in that other game, whatever,
whichever when I missed, that's eight and mate. That's if
you split with newing On in Atlanta. And I'm not
seeing the nine and I'm not gonna I'm gonna take
the under here. I think they're a solid under. I
always think Evinceal're gonna I have to go to Joe Burrow.
I don't know whether when that's going to baby that
Herbert Joeyah, you wish you had Joe Burrow. You're gonna
(45:20):
go with Justin Herbert might feel differently if you had.
I'm gonna take the under here. And I don't think
they're gonna make the playoffs. I think that's a team
they built to make the playoffs now. But the corn
if I can, if I can, just try to accentuate
the positive. The rest of this team is pretty good.
They have Williams and Keenan Allen uh Austin Ekeler obviously
(45:42):
is a dynamic running back for them. They have Hunter
Henry is still on the team. The defense is loaded
with talent. They drafted Kenneth Murray. I don't love what
they did with their draft. It's another issue. They traded
a bunch of picks. They got a middle linebacker and
a quarterback that nobody's that a lot of people aren't
in love with so um. But the team on the surface.
(46:04):
To improve the offensive line, they signed Brian Balaga. They
traded for Trade Turner. So they made some decisions to
try to win now. Like you're saying, it's win now,
and I do think when you look at their roster
it is different from the Raiders and Brocos. I'm not
gonna say it's a true split on those four games
just because I think they're a better team. I look
at it on paper. I don't think to Rodd Taylor
(46:26):
is going to run them into the ground. So what
I don't like about this whole dynamic is going into
the season prepared to make a switch. I hate that.
I think if you're a team that is a playoff
worthy team, you just make decision and go. Your rookie
quarterback is gonna be good enough, or your veteran is
(46:47):
going to be good enough to last the season. Not
like having the veteran look over his shoulder for the
first seven games of the year to see when he
gets pulled. That's that's damaging. I agree with you in
the perfect world. I completely agree with you in the world,
but this all season is not that. I just don't
think any Rickie Cordock is gonna be able to start. Said.
Borrow has no choice. They get rid of Dalton, so
(47:08):
it's gonna be Borrow. But all these other guys, you know,
to Uh, Herbert whatever, anybody else, they're not gonna have
just not the experience, not the reps, you're better of
going with the story and if you want to make
the playoffs. By the way, if they stuck with Taylor
all season, they say, hey, we're gonna red shirt Herbert,
I would give a better shot because I might agree
with they They could beat Denver twice, so they could
(47:29):
beat the Raiders twice and maybe they get that break.
What kid, that last game verse case doesn't mean anything
the case say, maybe I would like them a little
bit more versus Miami in Miami in Week seven. Yeah,
I would go hardly give them a little bit more
edge there, But we don't know. When today's NFL, you're
not making a first round draft pic of a quarterback
and sitting him all season, right, all right? So where
do they go from here? Then? So you're you are
(47:51):
of the opinion that the Chiefs win this division going away,
nobody else makes the playoffs, right, I mean definitely on
the spot, right. We love the Chiefs there. I'll give
Tennessee one wild card, Pittsburgh and a wild card. I
think New England's a better team too. Yeah, I don't
think I'm not gonna put anybody else in the playoffs.
From the a f C West, did any of them
(48:13):
go over five hundred. I think it charges a blow
with that schedule. A lot has to go right for them.
Raiders the same thing. I don't like the quartoback situation.
Denver's the one interesting squad because if things full right
for them, if Drew Luck is that guy. I have
more faith in Drew Lock this season than the other
quarterbacks was talking about in this division outside of my homes,
but even there a lot. I do not have a
(48:34):
lot of confidence Drew like. I like, actually like him.
I think there's a chance there, but I don't say
it with a lot of confidence. I have a car
in Mariota and more than Tyrod, Taylor and Burrow. But
I keep seeing Brow and Herbert's first season. So that's
where I go with that. I did. I think I
feel better for this season. Next season that will change.
(48:54):
I'm probably gonna like Herbert more, assuming he uh comes out.
So I think Dev's got a shop. But no, I'm
gonna stick with no playoffs other than Kansas City from
this division. Okay, so let's look at some other questions
that they have. There's obviously the key question, when's Herbert
come in? We have that, um so what so what
(49:16):
do you feel then, I guess I'm having a hard
time understanding what you feel is the weak spot of
this team or is it all just that you think
to Rod, Taylor and Herbert aren't going to get it
done here. Well, a big partners the quarterback, and you're
right there. There are no other major questions, you know, like,
oh my god, you're something you're highlighting and red here
going this is a problem. I do wonder about running
(49:36):
back depth can equally be the guy. Yeah, God was
good running back, really good running back. Now he's not
there to take that pressure off. I don't want to
legally get run down that sort of will he not
be the same player later on in the season. So
I worry about that, and the same thing really at
wide receiver. You know kenaw and Mike Williams. Great starting point,
not much left after that if either one goes down, Ken,
(49:59):
what do it hurt? Again? Yeah? Justin Jackson interesting backup there.
We've seen him have okay success in very limited spots.
They drafted Josh Kelly Um. I think this team really
can do damage defensively. Remember they didn't have Derwin James
last year. They did sign Chris Harris, They got Casey
Hayward still there. In the defensive backfield, they drafted Kenneth Murray.
(50:23):
He's going to be their tone center at middle linebacker.
Linebacker was a week spot for them. And then that
front's got Joey Bosa, Melvin Ingram. The problem with this
team is after this season, a lot of these guys
are up for getting paid. George, they have to extend Bosa.
Obviously Ingram, you would think they would want to keep
him there. Keenan Allen injury history. Do you move forward
(50:46):
with Keenan Allen giving him another he's gonna be looking
for big money. He's not going to see top of
the market money, but he's gonna be looking for a
legitimately large contract. Do you do that? Or you move
forward with Mike Williams and try to he's sent around
Mike Williams. He'll be Allen. You're right, he's gonna want
big money, and he's got the talent to be a
(51:08):
big money player. But with the injury issues that he's had,
it becomes difficult to look at a thirty year old,
twenty nine year old wide receiver that isn't big with
all of these injuries and and Pam. I think Keenan
would have before I answered that question. I would need
to know two things which will find this season. One,
you know, the injury history was really more just passed.
(51:30):
He's played sixteen games the three straight seasons. That's interesting.
He plays sixteen again this season, I'm gonna forget about
the injuries. I'm gonna think he's passed that. So I
need to see that it gets hurt again. Well, then
it starts all over again. I'll also need to see
the chemistrier was in him and Herbert. Yeah, I need
to see that it's it's there. I'm probably be more
likely to pay him as he's not crazy. If he
wants a Marie Cooper money, I'm not giving. I'm not
(51:51):
you too old, You're not gonna get that. You know
you want to come down and work with me. I
think I want to pay you. You know, it's so
tough to rely on drafting a receiver then what you're
gonna have to I do believe next year is a
another decent wide receiver drip, but nothing like this year.
So I sort of lead towards paying you because I
think you need that. Today's game, once again, it's made
(52:12):
for the passing game. You need that. I'm gonna say
I'm leading towards now, but I need those first two
questions answered. That's part, probably part of the reason maybe
why they went the route that they did with the
rookie QB. When you start looking at the salary cap
and saying, well, we're gonna keep Alan here, we're gonna
keep Ingram and Bosa. We can't go out and sign
a free agent quarterback as the money is not going
(52:33):
to work. So, uh, you beat me on that one, George,
I never would have had that. He's got three years
in a row of sixteen games played. But nonetheless, thank
you for watching this hour of football Pool Circle to Happen.
Producer Brian rid Cows towards Birds on Mike Wood will
be again next time. Sports grid dot Com Betting insights
and entertainment at your fingertips as our team covers the
(52:56):
most important topics in sports wagering, real time odds, predictive models,
expert picks, and more. Want the edge than get on
the grid. Sports grid dot Com MHM
Sports grid dot Com Betting insights and entertainment at your
fingertips as our team covers the most important topics in
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and more. Want the edge than get on the grid
sports grid dot Com. Hey, everybody, welcome to another edition
(00:21):
of Football Full Circle right here on the grid. Mike
blew At George Kurtz ready to get into it. Regarding
the NFL, So, George, We've had to deal with a
lot of heavy topics in recent weeks, frankly, in recent months,
whether it's the pandemic, whether it's social justice issues, and
this week was no different. We had a different issue
(00:41):
arise this week regarding DeShawn Jackson of the Philadelphia Eagles.
As everybody I'm sure knows by now, he shared some
uh right, he shared some quotes that he related to
Adolf Hitler. Essentially in support of these quotes, I'm not
going to read them out loud. I'm not going to
(01:02):
post them on the screen because they're ignorant and offensive
and I don't really think it's property keep putting it
out there in any event, um, his stupidity might be
actually outweigh his anti Semitism in this case, which is
hard to do. But the reality is this happened, and
(01:24):
we've received a response which I thought was extremely well
done by Julian Edelman, who has Jewish heritage. He even
says is in in his Instagram post which we have
up on the screen, that he's really fighting for people
to come together. He says specifically compassion, empathy, and love
(01:44):
he talks in this video, and I thought he was
really eloquent with it. I thought he he probably obviously
wrote this statement prepared thought about it. I think that's
the wise thing to do when you're trying to speak
on an issue like this. But he's again, compassion, empathy
and love is what he focused on, and forgiveness in
this instance. I think some people were waiting for a
(02:04):
larger response, perhaps from the Eagles from the league, but
as probably the most widely known Jewish player in the NFL,
Julian Edelman responded and I thought he responded very well. Oh.
I thought he just wanted extremely well and what response was,
will go down to Washington, d C. We'll visit the
Slavery Museum, and we'll visit the Holocaust Museum, you know,
(02:25):
we can both learn more about about the other. You know,
that's a very measure response. That makes sense. We're we're
living in tough times right now. Yeah, we we say
this over and over again, Mike. Players have to think
before you hit the send button. Al right. Everything. This
is not the seventies, eighties and nineties for that matter,
where no one's gonna hear what you say, or very
few people. Everything is recorded nowadays. As soon as you
(02:48):
hit sent, it's out there. It's on the public medium,
public forum forever. All right, And I think before you talk.
I mean, I don't know what the shoan Jackson was
truly thinking. What was It isn't even a real So
he's going around just wildly picking things off the internet
and sharing it with people. It is obviously blatantly anti semitic,
(03:09):
which is gross, and it is also totally inaccurate. You
just don't do that. I mean, you can't do I
didn't know. You don't know. I mean, did you go
to school a day graduate in college? You can't tell
me you don't know. It's probably the first to tell you.
I don't think I know everything about slavery. I doubt
it very much, I've got everything about the Holocaust. You know,
obviously those don't don't affect me. I am not Jewish,
(03:31):
I have no I understand. I understand what happened was
terrible thing. You don't make light of it, you don't
talk about it. It just it was a strange thing
to him that even delve into you know, that's just weird.
You hope he just he meant something but said something else.
But once again, read what you say, and if you
have any doubt, you don't say it. It's really that simple.
I like what Edelman took it, you know, I think, uh,
(03:54):
I think it really equates to a wide variety of things.
If you don't know something, go find out more about it.
I think it equateness to sort of the name changes
that they're talking about throughout all sports, right, how the Indians, Braves,
chief Seminoles, the emoton Eskimos, how they're all told about
these name changes. If I'm an owner, you know, I think,
listen the Worston football team name. I don't need to
(04:14):
talk there. I know that's racist, I know that needs
to be changed. But for the stuff like the Indians, uh,
chief Seminoles, and go on and on here. I'd like
to talk to the once again that the Indians to
find out is that offensive to you? Is the Are
the Cleveland Indians defensive? It is? Why? Because to me
it's just it's just name a group of people, vikings
group of people. Is uh, it's defensive? Why? And I'd
(04:36):
want to hear a logic behind it if you could
tell me, Okay, I understand now, and now the names
should be changed? Ye? Yeah, actually leads you. I'll get
back to the main track in a moment. But I
was on with game Rency and Cam Steward on our
network which I am every week as you are in
Game Time Decisions, and the subject came up the Edmonton
(04:58):
Eskimos of the fl uh and they're on their way
to changing their name, and we had an open discussion,
and frankly, I admitted I'm pretty ignorant as to whether
or not that is an offensive term. I did a
little bit research. Maybe it's half pass internet research, but
I did a little bit of research, and I understand
how that phrase can be used in a derogatory manner.
(05:21):
And I think there are some Inuit people that are
offended by it, and there are some that are not,
but ultimately if it's it gave me the point that
if you have to really debate whether or not something
is offensive or racist, you probably should just get rid
of it or stop using it or whatever else. So
I think that's part of it. But to your point,
(05:41):
like you really need to educate yourself, it's not possible
for us to know every single thing about every issue
or etymology of particular names, So you have to do
some research, talk to somebody, do some of your own research,
and move on from there. But um at al Hitler,
I thought it was prettily widely rebuked any of his teachings,
(06:02):
his writings, whatever. But Sean Jackson had to learn this
yet again. But it follows up again at the end
of the week with Julian Edelman. He said he spoke
uh to Sean and I spoke for a while last night.
We're making plans to use our experiences to educate one
another and grow together. Stay tuned. I think it's a
really grown up, intelligent response. I think it is more
(06:25):
helpful in the long run to do something like this
than to cut to Sean Jackson and have him out
of league. I wouldn't criticize the Eagles had they made
that response, um both. We'll get to why that matters
in a moment, but I wouldn't necessarily Look, if you
and I said it on air, or if we said
it at a corporate job, we should be rightly fired.
(06:47):
In this instance, a high profile figure who obviously has
the added complication of being this talented player that they
need for their success of their team creates complications. Know,
if I was so valuable to sports Grid that I
could say something that like that on air and just
get suspended and come back, Uh you know, that would
(07:09):
mean that would mean I was extremely valuable. But I
don't really have the liberty of saying something like that.
I wouldn't in the first place. But uh so on
the Eagles front, George, it is something that has obviously
happened to their organization in the not too distant past.
Riley Cooper was caught on camera using a racial slur.
He was not cut by the team, he was basically
(07:32):
given a two days suspension, stayed with the team, ultimately
signed an extension with them, And now de Sean Jackson
finds himself in similar waters. I would not equate the two.
I think there are differences but nonetheless um the Eagles
with the same response that they had for Riley Cooper,
(07:53):
keeping the person in the organization, using it as a
teaching moment, and trying to move on. I give Jeff
Lury credit. I don't that everybody would be that tolerant
to do so. But he's doing the same thing that
he did a few years ago, even if the incidences
don't compare well. See I'm more. I don't think tell
(08:14):
Laurie's being tolerant at all, and he comes down to
the talent level once again. All owners care about is
how you can help the team. They hire criminals all
the time. Guys have been convicted of this, beating people,
beating their spouses. We see this all the time, and
you get second and third chances. If you can help
the team, you'll be forgiven. If you're a lesser player,
(08:34):
you're done. You know. The short Jason can help the
Philadelphi Eagles. He can be their deep threat. Take that
safety blow what top off, you know, open up things
on underneath for you know, whatever it might be. So
he can help the team. He gets away with it.
Raley Cooper back then could help the team. He gets
away with it. You know said two days suspension. Are
you kidding me? Laurie sort of has no choice here,
(08:56):
all right. If he were to release hey, the salary
cap implications as well, by the way to releasing all Jackson,
maybe they can get out of it. You know. See
if there's a close in there, you know, behavior close
the right to be a court battle, you know, maybe
you win, maybe you don't, you know that sort of thing.
So but the bottom line to me is he can
still help the team if he will, maybe two years
(09:17):
from now where his legs are gone. He's not fast,
can't really help he He's a fringe wide receiver. If
he's the sixth wide receiver on the team, he's already
on the straight looking for a johns Riley Cooper that
valuable got that five year extension, and he must I
mean I never thought he was anything. Especially we got
a five year extension. They must have thought he was valued.
He didn't play up to it, nowhere near close, but
they must have thought. So listen, maybe you want to
(09:38):
play the other side. Maybe they're a very tolerant organization.
I don't know, but in the end, I thought they
should have cut Cooper, and I think they should cut Jackson. Yeah,
it should be noted that Jeffrey Lowy is Jewish, as
is their general manager, Howie Roseman. So, um, you know
they're Look, there's been a bunch of this. This cycle
(10:00):
that we've gone through has happened several times recently, right
where somebody says something, they're rebuked for it, they quickly apologize,
and it moves out of the news cycle. Even if
the the egregious nature of the offenses is a different level,
(10:21):
it seems like it's sort of the same playbook. But
I'd like to end it on the positive note talking
about Edelman. You know, Drew Brees for what he said,
other people for what they said. Um, these things aren't
on equal levels. Drew Brees is a political slightly, it's not.
It's really like a personal stance of his. He didn't
say anything outright offensive. His his tweet, his um, his
(10:45):
video that surfaced was about his personal opinion. People thought
it was a distraction from what was going on. In fact,
I thought that I was critical of the timing of
his statement. I'm not really critical of the words within it,
only because feel it's his personal right to have that stance.
It's he would do he feels that way. Maybe I
feel a different way, But I wasn't criticizing him for
(11:07):
the words. There's more the timing of it, and I
thought his answer was out of place. Again, we don't
have to relitigate that. But again, I think what Edelman
did here is extremely admirable, and I hope it does
continue to educate people. I hope they film this. I
hope they make a mini documentary out of it, and
(11:29):
we get a tour of each of those museums so
that people want to go to those museums and learn
more about it themselves. That's what I hope would happen.
In the end. It is once again, knowledge is power.
You don't know, find out about it. If you truly
don't know what about slavery, about that, this country's history,
y slavery, all the Holocaust, and maybe you should. You
should visit these museums or go on do a deeper
(11:51):
Google search. You makes, it's not out there, all right.
We all don't know everything about everything, all right. I mean,
I understand there's a you know, people are gonna say
stupid things that they don't mean. But this is why
you're the old hermit, I which think think before you
hit sent, and then don't hit sent pretty much, don't
do it anyway as if you hit If you put
it out there, then it's you know, it's yours to
hang around your neck. You put it out there, and
(12:12):
now you've gotta live with it, you know. And I
think a part of the problem with the Shawn Jackson
his when he made his apology, and you know how
I feel about apologies in every sense, that's where the
pr people get above it. But even that he said,
well it was misunderstood, So you're not apologizing. You told
me I misunderstood it, right, I mean, now you just
not even apologize anymore. And I did that bother some
people as well. It wasn't very well done. Yeah, so
(12:35):
all right. So and on the positive note, Julian Edelman
and here are going to get together and hopefully we'll
learn a little bit more about their journey and how
uh Sean can be educated and how other people can
be educated on that. So, I know there's many other
tentacles to this topic, but it is a sports talk
show and we're going to try and get onto talking
(12:55):
some actual football, which we will. We're gonna focus on
the m C West today in subsequent segment, But it's
the Broncos next, Justin Simmons in the news. We'll talk
about him and everything else related to their season. Right
here on the grid, it's Mike and George f FC
will be right back. Sports grid dot Com Betting insights
(13:16):
and entertainment at your fingertips as our team covers the
most important topics in sports wagering, real time odds, predictive
betting models, expert picks, and more. Want the edge than
get on the grid sports grid dot Com Welcome back everybody.
Thanks for joining us on the grid. Mike and George.
(13:36):
You can find us all on Twitter at sports grid
and on Instagram at sports grid tv. If you want
to find us individually on Twitter, George is at George Kurtz.
I'm at Mike Blutt, so feel free to interact with
us there. Send the hate mail to George, the good
vibes to me, so no problem. So, uh, talking about
the Denver Broncos. That franchise tag deadline, George coming up
(13:58):
early this ear this next week, really um on July July,
I believe that is Wednesday. Yeah, so Wednesday afternoon is
the deadline to which these players now, none of the
franchise tagged players have signed an extension. Many have signed tenders,
but as you see on the screen right here, Broncos
(14:19):
safety Justin Simmons is via Adam Schefter is officially has
accepted his franchise tender and is expected to sign it
this weekend. Per sources. It's just a formality now. Four
franchise players have not signed their tender. Joanna King, Gockway,
Shack Barrett, Chris Jones, and A J. Green. Chris Jones
and Jan Gockway. I believe those are the most it's
(14:43):
the word I'm looking for, the most tenuous, the most
acrimonious right now between their current teams and got Ways
that's not even acrimonious, like they're just done with one another. Uh,
he's moved on. I don't know how that plays out
for him, but um A J. Green Shack Barrett will
see on that front, perhaps both looking for potential long
term extensions, although I'm not sure why A J. Green
(15:05):
wants to do that in any event where where he
currently plays. But on the Justin Simmons side, we've talked
about it for a while. Of all of the players
that signed the franchise tag, he seemed the most likely
to get a long term deal done. Many of these
franchise tags George were used, and there's fourteen players on it.
(15:28):
Many of them were used really because of the funky
nature of this season right now that this all happened
right about when the pandemic was starting to occur. Um,
you'd have to be pretty into pretty accomplished prognosticator to
realize the ripple effects that this pandemic was going to
(15:51):
have back in the second week of March. But it
was used pretty liberally, I think by teams because the
cat forget all the COVID stuff, the cap was sort
of unknown, right, we are we going to sign this
is the c b A. The CBA was locked down,
But are we going to get a huge bump? When
(16:13):
are we going to renegotiate the TV deals? What is
the capital like next year? And I think teams just
sort of liberally used the franchise tag this year in
order to just punt punt a year. Oh, I think
you're right. I think this is a This is a
weird season. I mean, for the reason you've mentioned, by
the way, the pandemic obviously screwing things up in old
(16:33):
sports as far as money is concerned, finances and the
fact that everyone knows these big TV deals are coming,
all right, so you sort of want to wait to
get the biggest slice of that pie, all right. So
I think, yes, I think this is all played into
it a lot. Nobody knows what's going to happen. I mean,
are the gonna play a full season? Are they gonna
play with fans without fans? Is next season affected? And
we all hope this is the dump by next season,
(16:55):
but we don't know that either, you know, a sort
of up in the end. We don't know. So this
is sort of a mess. And there's only it's anybody
who's great or the the expert at this right now,
because no, we've we've never done this before the history
of sports. We've had something like this, the Spanish flu
in nineteen seventeen. Ye there are a lot of opressional
sports going on then, so no one knows what they're
doing right now. Also, in the middle of a World
(17:17):
war then we still played through it, right at least
our issues the World War. Uh, this is it's a
weird timing it really, it truly is. I don't know
what's gonna happen Wednesday. I think you and I were
what we put the under under over on the franchise
players two and a half that signed long term deals
under But it could be three. We were we We
(17:37):
don't think it'll be any more than three. Three would
be Wow. They got I think Simmons, Barrett, maybe Dak
and maybe Dak. Right, that's the only three guys I
can even remotely consider. Sonny, you mentioned Nick Awkway, the
Jackson they you blew that head. You're not getting anywhere
near what you want to get for him, by the way,
it's not gonna happen, so good luck. Yeah, they played them,
(17:59):
They played them selves into a worst draft pick. Now, yeah,
you should should have just taken the second round pick
and moved on and then you could have gotten You
should have gotten rid of them. Now now it's buried
and he's never gonna show up and whatever. So so
justin Simmons, they're saying, so some of the uh from
via rotal World, they're talking about UH. Two sides talking
(18:21):
about this long term deal. He's twenty six years old.
By the way, he is a Boston College alum. George
and I'm a huge fan of his Uh, do you
have an overrun that how many times you had? Well,
if it comes up, it's what I'm gonna do a
half on that too. By the way, I'll probably take
the over all. Right, Well, so it's one so far. So.
Former Boston College great Justin Simmons will make eleven point
(18:42):
four for one million this upcoming season. He's Pro Football
Focus is number two grade at safety with an All
Pro nod this past season. He's going to garner a
four year contract worth upwards of fifteen million dollars annually. George,
we talked about safety is not getting paid. But Simmons
really good timing here. He's ob the said key cog
in their defense and it is a good defense led
(19:03):
by Vic Fangio von Miller on the field. And the
four year, fifteen million dollar deal really good money for
a safety. And he can be a free agent again
by the time he's thirty. Now, that deal that would
be a little bit harder to get. There's very few
guys that get that. You have to be in the
Palamalo Earl Thomas range in order to keep getting those deals.
But good deal is gonna get paid. I think he's
(19:25):
one of the guys that will sign that long term deal.
What it all comes down to, we say the safeties.
I like to say safeties don't get paid, the running
backs of defense. It all depends upon the team. Do
they value that position. Not every team does. The Broncos
seem to be one of those teams where they do well.
They're at the very least not against paying it, like
the Jets seemed to be against paying it with Jamal Adams. Right,
(19:45):
we think Jamal Adams is great, maybe the best safety
of the game, but they don't want to pay him,
you know. So he's like they're they're a team that
doesn't believe in that. The Broncos do seem to believe
in it. And listen, they also has played four seasons
and as an All Pro, like Jamal Adams hasn't done that.
I think he should get an extension from the Jets,
and he's been aggressive in negotiating all of this out
(20:06):
in public. Obviously, will it work for him, I don't know.
I'm not gonna be grudge him. I understand why Jets
fans are irritated by it, but guys trying to get
paid like it's a negotiating tactic. It is. And I
think part of it is why Jamal I'm just doing
what he's doing, is because of the position he plays.
I think he was another position where he knows, oh,
you're gonna get paid eventually, he'd be fine, he would
(20:27):
be taking this text. But the fact that he's not.
If you're not gonna pay me, get rid of me,
let me go someone who was gonna pay me that
if you have no one to let go. He's from Dallas.
Earl Thomas is from there. I'm sure they're talking. I'm
sure Earl Thomas and Jamal Adams have had a conversation
and he's given him some advice, some friendly advice, and
he's taking it. I don't know if it will work,
(20:49):
but we'll see, all right. So let's talking about the Broncos.
I'm gonna set up their season here. Will talk through
their schedule a little bit. But odds on the Broncos
this year to win the A of see West plus
eleven to win the AMC Championship, plus three thousand to
win the Super Bowl, plus six thousand. The wind totals
seven and a half. It's minus one tent on both sides,
(21:10):
So there's no juice and they were exactly like that
last year. So I think the Broncos are just one
of those teams perenni the perennial perennially now excuse me
that UM people have a tough time getting beat on,
and they actually ended up pushing last year. I think
it was seven, and they pushed UH to make the
(21:30):
playoffs plus one eighty and no as minus two. I'll
say one thing about the division as a whole. The
Chiefs obviously are in this division impacting all these odds.
But what's really interesting as you go through it the
wind totals for the teams Broncos seven and a half,
Raiders eight, Chargers eight. Excuse me, Raiders seven and a half,
(21:52):
Chargers eight. So you've got all three of the other
teams with odds that are sort of similar wind totals
that are not that far off off. And I think
it says a lot about how people, how the betting
market feels about this division, like they don't really have
care about the other teams or have done the homework
to sift through how much better the Chargers are than
(22:12):
the Broncos are the Raiders, because they're all coming in
outside of first place. I think by a wide margin.
All right, I think you're right. No, I mean, really,
does anyone not expect the Chiefs to win that division?
I mean, anyone truly believed the Broncos Raiders are charge
is gonna beat them out? And not unless Mo Homes
gets hurt? Right that more say one year, content's you're
(22:34):
back up, so there you go. But that's it. Other
than that, the Broncos aren't interesting things. I think Chiefs
are minus three ninety to win that division. So yeah,
you know, no thank I mean it's the it's the
worst odds in the league to win the division. It's
there's just no one there yet. I think, once again,
I think the Broncos are building the right way. I
(22:54):
do like their future assuming Drew luck is the man.
Yeah right, that brings three big questions, right it has.
I mean unless you have a established quarter like it's
always gonna be one of your big three. He came on,
but last third of the season played pretty well. He
looked at listen. He looked encouraging. It looks like John
Ollie might have finally gotten his man right, gotten it right.
(23:17):
They have somebody that they better be him because it's
not Driscot ripping and Riyal Riley Neil, so he can
once again he's the guy. I like the direction they're heading.
You signed Melvin Gordon was eight million a year. Do
you have a nice running back corps Gordon lindsay. I
assume Freeman still sticks with the team here, why receiver?
Love what you did there. You've got Judy. You can
see what they're trying to do for Lock. Put the
(23:39):
weapons around him, right, Noah fan at that tight end.
You've given the man weapons. You've got a good running
game to keep the pressure off officsive line still needs
to have some work to be done there, but it's
not it's not horrendous. Contracted Lloyd Cushionberry in the third
round this year, so they have a new center. They
drafted Dalton Reisner as a guard. Last year, they drafted
Garret Bawls. This will be his word season. Unfortunately, Garrett Bolls,
(24:02):
as a first round pick, isn't really living up to
be a premium left tackle. I don't know that he
has to get moved to right tackle. I think you're
just living with the fact that your left tackle isn't
a dominant one. That's an issue. Once against a lot
of blind side hits there. But I like what they've done.
You could see. I wish more teams would do that.
You have a young quarterback, give him the weapons he
needs to succeed. Yeah, they signed a guard fort four
(24:24):
million bucks, Graham Glasgow, So I like that. We know
a defense, all right. They they don't look know, they
don't look to have the no fly zone right now.
They have got me with some of those guys. But
you know, you're okay then you did son a j
boy who was good at one point, was okay with Jacksonville.
You know, we'll see. You don't have Chris Harris anymore.
You still have the Ron Miller. Bradley Chubb comes back
(24:46):
missed most of the last year because of the injury,
and Chubb's not as good as Miller, but Miller is
getting all the attention. So CHU would go one on one.
That should have a good season. This team, like I said,
the schedule is not the greatest, not the worst, but
it's it's you playing the the NFC South. That's Tampa, Bay,
New Orleans and Atlanta. It's not start it starts Tennessee, Pittsburgh, Tampa.
(25:08):
Not great to home games, Yeah, to home games there,
they got to go to New England. Um, that's all
in the first five weeks of this season. You know
they'll be the underdog in four of their first five games.
I think that they gotta be Tampa. I'm not sorry,
they gotta be Tennessee. If you lose that game to Tennessee,
(25:30):
you could be owing three real quick. Yes, you know,
I don't think you've eating Pittsburgh and Pittsburgh and I
don't even in Denver. I don't think you eat in
Tampa Bay. I would be surprised, you know the Jets, Okay,
but even that that's a Thursday night game. We don't
know what the numbers tell you about Thursday night games
in the home team. Home team generally wins. So that's
a problem. To go to New England. I don't know
now that Cam is gonna be the starter there. I
(25:51):
don't like your chances there rightther before you get Miami,
who's not a bad team than Casey. Like I said,
I think if you lose that Tennessee game. I know
it's silly to say, but your season may go shoon
real yeah. So, like I I do think the trades
for Darrell Casey and a j Boyer were really smart.
I think they got some veteran guys in there to
help bolster the defense. We'll see if Simmons gets that
(26:14):
long term deal, but I think they're gonna be right
around the same about a five hundred team will come back.
We'll talk about the Raiders after this on the Grid,
Michael George will be right back. Sports grid dot Com
Betting insights and entertainment at your fingertips as our team
covers the most important topics in sports wagering, real time odds,
(26:37):
predictive betting models, expert picks, and more. Want the edge
than Get on the grid sports grid dot Com. You're
watching sportscred get back on the grid talking about the
(27:04):
Las Vegas Raiders. I feel like I'm going to screw
that up left and I did San Diego Chargers, Los
Angeles Chargers. I don't know why, but Vegas, Baby Vegas.
Maybe that's why it's gonna be a little bit easier.
But you had a weird story related to the Raiders,
didn't you. I did. It just came up. It's not weird.
It's surprised. It's weird. It's surprising. It's not there something
(27:25):
I ever would have expected Randall Cunningham. Yes, that Randall Cunningham,
ex quarterback of the Eagles among other teams, has been
hired by the Raiders to be the team's chaplain. Interesting.
So I don't think it's weird. I don't think it's
a bad thing. It's just surprising because I didn't know
that he served in any kind of religious capacity. I
(27:47):
know he was a pastor or in line to be
a chaplain anywhere, and certainly not for the Raiders. But
good for him, I guess. Bring I don't know, Maybe
he and John Gruden had a long time related ship.
Maybe I don't. I don't know. I brut was his
o C where the Eagles. Oh yeah, that makes sense. Yeah,
(28:07):
so apparently that that's where the connection is. Hey, I said,
we don't know what Randalls went up to. Maybe went
in the seminary. I don't know. You know, good, good
for you. He would know football players, he would know
what they go through. So this does sort of make sense,
assuming he is truly on that religious path. So hey,
I guess you could work out for both parties. So
when when were they together? What are the years that
(28:28):
they are together in Philly? Well, obviously it's in the
nineties somewhere. I'm doing the math. He was the o
c back then. I'm trying to think he became a
head coach right around what would you say, oh, oh,
late nineties. Oh one, Scrutin became the Raiders coach. Then
(28:51):
he flipped over to then he flipped over to the Bucks. Yeah,
I want to do them. Started do this in the
middle of the segment. But I'm really curious about it.
I'm looking at Randall Cunningham's career. So he's in Philly
from eighty five to nine. Um, sort of retired, then
(29:12):
came out of retirement to hook up in Minnesota and
finished it out with a couple of one year stince
in Dallas, in Baltimore. But um, he became the offensive
coorded of the Eagles in ninety to three ninety five.
It looks like six onto onder Ray Roads got it.
(29:33):
But he would have been a positional coach Prior to that.
He was with Green Bay San Fran That's you're right,
he's with Mike, He's former boss at the stands is
to be the special offensive It's just that why receivers
coach with Green Bay got it. Well, here's the racing
(29:53):
Green Bay. They had known each other for twenty five years,
so it's good enough. They've known each other for twenty
five years. That's good enough for me. It was a
little surprising, but good for them. Like you said, he
knows the players go through and everything else. Let's talk
about the Raiders specifically seasons. So, like I said earlier
in the hour, the Benning market really doesn't know what
(30:15):
to do with this division if if it's not the Chiefs.
Their win totals at seven and a half the under
his minus one fifteen, So there's really not a lot
of juice either way on this one. UM to win
the a f C West plus twelve hundred, to win
the af C Championship, plus three thousand to win the
Super Bowl plus six thousand. Those are the same as
(30:36):
the Broncos, but they are the longest shop to win
this division. To make the playoffs plus two fifty no
minus three twenty. They won seven games last year. Um,
they had a couple of funky losses in there towards
the end of the year, including I think a one
point loss on the last game of the season to Denver,
(30:57):
which you know they did. They last sixteen five team
uh and they both ended up finishing seven and nine.
Denver wins the tiebreaker. But in any event, they look good. Right,
people are like, look at this. The Raiders to turn
it around, and then it all kind of fell apart
for them in the middle of the year. Last year,
they were at one point three and two, they got
(31:18):
to five, they got to six and four. They bid
that they had a good win against the Colts. They
were six and four, and then they finished it with
a one in five down the stretch. So they lost
to the Jets, Chiefs, Titans, Jags, Jaguars, Thus to the Jaguars.
Then they beat the Chargers and then lost to the Broncos.
So that was a brutal way to end the season.
(31:40):
It had people thinking like gosh, or they totally pointed
in the wrong direction. But it was an improvement from
the previous year. Right, they went from four to seven wins. Um,
give me your thoughts. What do you think they're big
questions here? Oh? I think we know what the big
question is, right, who's the quarterback? Is the is the
quarterback of the future on this roster? I'm thinking no,
(32:02):
I don't give it. I give us soft maybe because
I actually think they like Mariota enough, but I don't think.
I don't think it's Car. I don't. I agree with you.
I don't think it's a Car. I actually I would
have made a bet that Car was not going to
start one game in Vegas. I'd probably lose that. But
I didn't think that they wanted anything to do with him.
I thought they were going to be looking at quarterbacks
(32:23):
in the draft these last two seasons. But now they've
gone a different route. They're going to try and be
act number two for Mariota. Yeah, I think Cars gonna
very short leash. I think he will start the season
at the quarterback and it's not working. I think they'll
go to Mariota. The GM has a connection to Mariota.
I think Car at that point would have failed. In
Gruden's eyes, would be like, you know what, I got
nothing to lose here, Let's see it's in. The former
(32:45):
top pick can be the quarterback he was once projected
to be. So I think they'll give Mariota a shot.
Plus once again, I think you want to know what
you have in Mariota before you decide, Hey, we really
I spent big on a free agent quarterback. Or we're
spending big in the draft to go up and get
one on that one that falls to us next season
in the draft. So I think car. I would give
the over under four and a half starts for car
(33:10):
car Interesting, we're assuming sixty, we're assuming sixteen games. We've
got through the schedule here in a second, we'll take
it one by one. But um, all right, you you
threw curve ball at me. Yeah, I'm with you. If
you had the number pretty high for Mariota, would I
think Mariota is gonna start at least half the games,
(33:30):
assuming we're playing sixteen games, assuming we are. Um, he
doesn't get injured. Um, I like my bed. I like
my over under. Yea, just just looking at the schedule,
this is why I like it. All Right, he gets
the soft start at Carolina, right dead defense, he should
be able to do well. Then then he has to
gauntlet New Orleans, New England, Buffalo, Kansas City, and then
(33:59):
there's there's there's the week. It's the perfect time to
make that change. They're praying for two and three. Buddy
thrilled with two and three, But I think I look
at one and four and if he's not playing well,
you know if he didn't play well in those four losses,
because they might lose those four losses no matter who's
that quarterback, right, those are four good teams they're gonna play.
But if he's not playing well, he's put that in there.
(34:20):
It's there the bye week in week six, and then
you get Tampa Bay and it's not any more fun.
But you get Tampa Bay in week seven, so maybe
it's not four and maybe five and a half should
be my over under them. Yeah, and then the Tampa
Cleveland at the Chargers Denver, Kansas City's weird. They got
three divisional games in a row. Then at Atlanta at
New York, Indie Chargers Miami. Yeah, yeah, more winnable games there, clearly.
(34:45):
But um I just I just think that these guys
are treading water until they make a decision at QB.
I think you can. You can. Derek is interesting in
that you can look at a whole bunch of his stats,
and if you look at the stat lines at the
end of his games or even at the end of
(35:06):
the season, he'd be like, you know what, it was
not bad. Derek Carr completed a lot of passes, got
a bunch of you know, good touchdown interception ratio. You
know it's not bad, but the reality is for him,
he completed seventy four percent of his passes last year,
twenty one touchdowns, eight picks, UM average yard per attempt
(35:28):
uh eight point oh pretty good UM quarterback rating over
a hundred. So you're like, look at that pretty good
stat line. He didn't have a lot of weapons last year.
You know, Wooler sort of came out of nowhere, so
the same thing that Renfroe, but didn't have a lot
of great weapons to throw to. You know, even more evidence.
But what I would say is that it's the Alex
(35:48):
Smith's situation. You're not gonna make any mistakes. I'm gonna
play it safe. We're gonna complete a bunch of passes.
We're gonna move the ball down the field. Can't win
doing that anymore. It's just not how it works. Like buffaloes,
that's right, you need to push the ball down the field,
and car doesn't do it. He doesn't take chances, so
he doesn't throw picks, but doesn't take chances, and he
(36:11):
throws no interceptible balls. He keeps it safe. He's pretty
heady quarterback. I think he's the type of guy that
could continue to be a starter. But I don't think
he is the type of starter that's going to help
you overtake the Chiefs push towards the Super Bowl. I
just don't think he's that guy. I think he's in
the Andy Dalton mix. I would agree. I think you
actually have the pertment comparison more with Alex Smith mix.
(36:34):
Smart guy, not gonna turn the not gonna put you
in bad situations, but it's not gonna win a game
for you either. I'd rather have Smitty than car Well,
I mean, prior, prior to right the injury. I would
rather have Alexmith and car as well. You ever see
that documentary on Alex Smith's sidebar? You just see that,
Oh my goodness, highly recommend it. But if you're queasy,
you cannot watch, So continue along with Derek Carr. God
(36:56):
bless the Alex Smith. Hopefully you know you can return
if you so used to. Are they a car Like
I said, I think he's on a placeholder to me, right,
when you see a quarterback who's not gonna win you
a game, it's not the guy you want. I mean,
it's just not the guy you want. In this day
and today's NFL, where every rule is designed for the quarterback,
you need someone who's dynamic, who can make plays, you know,
go out there. They said, the fact that he doesn't,
(37:18):
and maybe saying he's afraid to throw the wall in
the secondary is not fair. He doesn't do it. He
just doesn't do it. I keep making safe playing the
same playing we checked down, Charlie. You know it's it's
not good. You can't be afraid to make those play,
those chunk plays. You need those. In the NFL relying
on you to go eighty yards or seventy five yards
on every drive and not gonna work. You're gonna have
paleties that back you up. You're gonna have play for
(37:40):
their negative plays. Not gonna work. You need chunk yardage
in today's game. Yeah, and um, you know, they obviously
are in a situation now where they've added a lot
of players, right They turned over this roster that Khalil
mctrade gave them a whole bunch of new players. We've
been surprised by some of their picks. But Josh Jacobs,
the rookie running back before he was well, he had
(38:01):
a great season regardless of the injury. Um he really
has added an interesting dynamic to the team. Do they
try to win with a run first off? And there
were eleven in rush, eleventh in rushing attempts last season,
thirteenth in yards. They had thirteen rushing touchdowns. They just
really didn't put a lot of points on the board
last year. Georgie's was their major issue. It's what you're
(38:23):
talking about. No chunk plays, not pushing the ball down
the field, kicking field goals instead of touchdowns, and being
a run heavy attack. It has to be more dynamic.
It can't be old school three yards in a cloud
of dust type of running attack. It has to be
what the Ravens look like, or what the Niners look like.
A zone blocking scheme, utilizing different guys, different formations, all
(38:46):
this kind of stuff to keep people on their toes.
The old school rushing formation and a conservative quarterback maybe
get you to the playoffs once in a while, but
you're not gonna win anything. I think. Think you put
it perfectly, it might get a pops every now and
then are a certain kind of year, but you're not
going anywhere after that. If you want to be that team,
No listen the anical's designs because they want to put
(39:07):
the bull in the air, put it deep, let's go,
let's go some points to be an NBA games go
forty points. It's how a Chiefs play. The Chief's defense
is so so they want to win two games so
they can outscore you. And the thing is they're being
drafted to be more dynamic. Henry Ruggs signed, Tyroll Williams, Hunter,
Renfroze your slot guy. You've got Darren Waller there. The
(39:29):
pieces are being put in. Brian Edwards they drafted as well,
so the pieces are put in place. Sports grid dot
Com Betting, insights and entertainment at your fingertips as our
team covers the most important topics in sports wagering, real
time odds, predictive betting models, expert picks, and more. Want
the edge than get on the grid. Sports grid dot
Com closing out this hour on the Grid. We've talked
(39:55):
a lot about the a f C West today and
we're gonna talk about close it out here with the
Los Angeles Chargers. Obviously gone through a lot this offseason,
losing long time QB Philip Rivers. Uh. They draft Justin
Herbert in the first round. He's gonna team up with
to Rod Taylor, We'll see who starts there. Who starts
this season, I think George, given the nature of all
(40:16):
of this stuff and no O t a s. I
think teams are going to roll out the veteran qbs
there uh to start this season unless they see something
markedly different in camp. I think guys like to Rod
Taylor will get a shot to start, Ryan Fitzpatrick even
in Miami, to start before they make a move to
the rookies. Yeah, and there's a reason why most of
(40:37):
us believed that, you know, Joe Burrow might run away
with the Rookie of the year because he's I think
he's the only rookie quarterback who is going to start
in day one. Yeah, you know than that because of
what's going on. No many cans, pandemic shortened, you know,
no even I don't think have any preseason games either.
I know right now we're down to two. I don't
think there'll be any by the time we get to
uh say and do this not now much a chance
(40:58):
for them. You know, the first thing I looked at here,
look at the schedule here, They've got a sort of
a soft opening. If you did, you know, if Herbert
did show enough Yo Representcinnati, I could do much better
than that. Other than being at home. Even Kansas City
in week two not the greatest defense. You have to
throw the ball of Ton Carolina week three. I mean,
it's it's a soft opening as far as a good
(41:18):
quarterback matchups there, but I still expect it to be
tailor because I also wanted to this Mike with the Chargers.
This is not a team that's rebuilding. When you look
at the roster that's sort of built a win now.
Could be a good team now outside of the quarterback position. Agreed.
I think that they It's been a curious team the
(41:40):
way they've managed things here. Um I thought, Look, I
would say, now, given the options that they could have
had Cam Newton or the Rod Taylor justin Herbert Combo,
I would take Cam Newton, even with the unknowns, because
Herbert's is much of an unknown as Camas and Cam
is basically free. I would have just taken the flyer
(42:03):
on that. Now. I can't speak to the impact that
Trod Taylor had in their locker room, but it wasn't
Phil Rivers. Phil Rivers there for fifteen years. Trod Taylor
has been there a year two, So how much really
is he a fabric of the franchise of the team.
Doesn't mean everybody doesn't like him and that he's not
(42:24):
a good player, But I'm saying they could have unseated
him for Cam Newton in a second, especially when he
was on the cheap So um, they've got that hanging
over them. Let me give you their odds as well.
Like I said earlier, all these odds are about the
same for these teams. Their wind totals at eight flat
minus one ten on both sides over or under, which
(42:47):
means there's basically no action on this team right now.
But it's understandable, right you don't know who's starting at quarterback.
Technically you're gonna kind of hold off to see. Are
the Raiders of the Broncos gonna be any better? Um,
if you told me right now what order these teams
gonna finish in, I'll say Chargers are coming in second place.
(43:09):
But it's not gonna surprise me if it ended up
like last year, where they're all within one game of
one another trying to figure it out. So, uh, the
win totals at eight to make the playoffs plus one
not bad? Uh, Nos min two to win the a
f C West seven and one, uh n C Championship
seventeen to one, win the Super Bowl thirty two to one.
(43:31):
So those odds for them are a lot lower than
the Broncos and the Raiders. But to make the playoffs
a plus, that's probably I mean, that's pretty good odds.
I'd rather bet that that bet them winning nine, right,
just because I'm getting getting favorable odds there I'm getting
I would get the under on the window. I don't
(43:53):
think they were nine. I mean for the win nine.
You look at the schedule, it's not difficult, but you
think a lot of fifty fifty games, including those two
games against Vegas, two games against Denver. I pretty much
expecting to go to and four and division will split
with those two teams lose both to Kansas City. Maybe
that game, assuming we get this far, which is a
big assumption. Uh January three at Kansas City, last game
(44:16):
of the season, means nothing to Casey. Could they could
have everything wrapped up by them, but with only one
home field, maybe not. Maybe they do gotta play for that.
So they play Cincinnati, Carolina and Jacksonville, three teams that
might be in the bottom five of the league. That's
at least we go through real quick Sincinnati, Kantas City,
Carolina first three gotta go too and one. Then you
(44:36):
got Tampa New Orleans. That's two and three. I don't
think it's gonna be either one of those two. Both
are on the road. Now it's not gonna happen. I'll
give you the Jets three and three. I think you're
losing in Miami, but you'll beat jacksonvill You're at four
and four. Already said Vegas, you're gonna split with that's
five and five. Split with six and six at Buffalo,
Las six and seven. Now you got those three games's
New England Atlanta and how must have missed the game?
(44:58):
I mean maybe you can split New England Atlanta. Yeah,
and now you at seven and eight in that other game, whatever,
whichever when I missed, that's eight and mate. That's if
you split with newing On in Atlanta. And I'm not
seeing the nine and I'm not gonna I'm gonna take
the under here. I think they're a solid under. I
always think Evinceal're gonna I have to go to Joe Burrow.
I don't know whether when that's going to baby that
Herbert Joeyah, you wish you had Joe Burrow. You're gonna
(45:20):
go with Justin Herbert might feel differently if you had.
I'm gonna take the under here. And I don't think
they're gonna make the playoffs. I think that's a team
they built to make the playoffs now. But the corn
if I can, if I can, just try to accentuate
the positive. The rest of this team is pretty good.
They have Williams and Keenan Allen uh Austin Ekeler obviously
(45:42):
is a dynamic running back for them. They have Hunter
Henry is still on the team. The defense is loaded
with talent. They drafted Kenneth Murray. I don't love what
they did with their draft. It's another issue. They traded
a bunch of picks. They got a middle linebacker and
a quarterback that nobody's that a lot of people aren't
in love with so um. But the team on the surface.
(46:04):
To improve the offensive line, they signed Brian Balaga. They
traded for Trade Turner. So they made some decisions to
try to win now. Like you're saying, it's win now,
and I do think when you look at their roster
it is different from the Raiders and Brocos. I'm not
gonna say it's a true split on those four games
just because I think they're a better team. I look
at it on paper. I don't think to Rodd Taylor
(46:26):
is going to run them into the ground. So what
I don't like about this whole dynamic is going into
the season prepared to make a switch. I hate that.
I think if you're a team that is a playoff
worthy team, you just make decision and go. Your rookie
quarterback is gonna be good enough, or your veteran is
(46:47):
going to be good enough to last the season. Not
like having the veteran look over his shoulder for the
first seven games of the year to see when he
gets pulled. That's that's damaging. I agree with you in
the perfect world. I completely agree with you in the world,
but this all season is not that. I just don't
think any Rickie Cordock is gonna be able to start. Said.
Borrow has no choice. They get rid of Dalton, so
(47:08):
it's gonna be Borrow. But all these other guys, you know,
to Uh, Herbert whatever, anybody else, they're not gonna have
just not the experience, not the reps, you're better of
going with the story and if you want to make
the playoffs. By the way, if they stuck with Taylor
all season, they say, hey, we're gonna red shirt Herbert,
I would give a better shot because I might agree
with they They could beat Denver twice, so they could
(47:29):
beat the Raiders twice and maybe they get that break.
What kid, that last game verse case doesn't mean anything
the case say, maybe I would like them a little
bit more versus Miami in Miami in Week seven. Yeah,
I would go hardly give them a little bit more
edge there, But we don't know. When today's NFL, you're
not making a first round draft pic of a quarterback
and sitting him all season, right, all right? So where
do they go from here? Then? So you're you are
(47:51):
of the opinion that the Chiefs win this division going away,
nobody else makes the playoffs, right, I mean definitely on
the spot, right. We love the Chiefs there. I'll give
Tennessee one wild card, Pittsburgh and a wild card. I
think New England's a better team too. Yeah, I don't
think I'm not gonna put anybody else in the playoffs.
From the a f C West, did any of them
(48:13):
go over five hundred. I think it charges a blow
with that schedule. A lot has to go right for them.
Raiders the same thing. I don't like the quartoback situation.
Denver's the one interesting squad because if things full right
for them, if Drew Luck is that guy. I have
more faith in Drew Lock this season than the other
quarterbacks was talking about in this division outside of my homes,
but even there a lot. I do not have a
(48:34):
lot of confidence Drew like. I like, actually like him.
I think there's a chance there, but I don't say
it with a lot of confidence. I have a car
in Mariota and more than Tyrod, Taylor and Burrow. But
I keep seeing Brow and Herbert's first season. So that's
where I go with that. I did. I think I
feel better for this season. Next season that will change.
(48:54):
I'm probably gonna like Herbert more, assuming he uh comes out.
So I think Dev's got a shop. But no, I'm
gonna stick with no playoffs other than Kansas City from
this division. Okay, so let's look at some other questions
that they have. There's obviously the key question, when's Herbert
come in? We have that, um so what so what
(49:16):
do you feel then, I guess I'm having a hard
time understanding what you feel is the weak spot of
this team or is it all just that you think
to Rod, Taylor and Herbert aren't going to get it
done here. Well, a big partners the quarterback, and you're
right there. There are no other major questions, you know, like,
oh my god, you're something you're highlighting and red here
going this is a problem. I do wonder about running
(49:36):
back depth can equally be the guy. Yeah, God was
good running back, really good running back. Now he's not
there to take that pressure off. I don't want to
legally get run down that sort of will he not
be the same player later on in the season. So
I worry about that, and the same thing really at
wide receiver. You know kenaw and Mike Williams. Great starting point,
not much left after that if either one goes down, Ken,
(49:59):
what do it hurt? Again? Yeah? Justin Jackson interesting backup there.
We've seen him have okay success in very limited spots.
They drafted Josh Kelly Um. I think this team really
can do damage defensively. Remember they didn't have Derwin James
last year. They did sign Chris Harris, They got Casey
Hayward still there. In the defensive backfield, they drafted Kenneth Murray.
(50:23):
He's going to be their tone center at middle linebacker.
Linebacker was a week spot for them. And then that
front's got Joey Bosa, Melvin Ingram. The problem with this
team is after this season, a lot of these guys
are up for getting paid. George, they have to extend Bosa.
Obviously Ingram, you would think they would want to keep
him there. Keenan Allen injury history. Do you move forward
(50:46):
with Keenan Allen giving him another he's gonna be looking
for big money. He's not going to see top of
the market money, but he's gonna be looking for a
legitimately large contract. Do you do that? Or you move
forward with Mike Williams and try to he's sent around
Mike Williams. He'll be Allen. You're right, he's gonna want
big money, and he's got the talent to be a
(51:08):
big money player. But with the injury issues that he's had,
it becomes difficult to look at a thirty year old,
twenty nine year old wide receiver that isn't big with
all of these injuries and and Pam. I think Keenan
would have before I answered that question. I would need
to know two things which will find this season. One,
you know, the injury history was really more just passed.
(51:30):
He's played sixteen games the three straight seasons. That's interesting.
He plays sixteen again this season, I'm gonna forget about
the injuries. I'm gonna think he's passed that. So I
need to see that it gets hurt again. Well, then
it starts all over again. I'll also need to see
the chemistrier was in him and Herbert. Yeah, I need
to see that it's it's there. I'm probably be more
likely to pay him as he's not crazy. If he
wants a Marie Cooper money, I'm not giving. I'm not
(51:51):
you too old, You're not gonna get that. You know
you want to come down and work with me. I
think I want to pay you. You know, it's so
tough to rely on drafting a receiver then what you're
gonna have to I do believe next year is a
another decent wide receiver drip, but nothing like this year.
So I sort of lead towards paying you because I
think you need that. Today's game, once again, it's made
(52:12):
for the passing game. You need that. I'm gonna say
I'm leading towards now, but I need those first two
questions answered. That's part, probably part of the reason maybe
why they went the route that they did with the
rookie QB. When you start looking at the salary cap
and saying, well, we're gonna keep Alan here, we're gonna
keep Ingram and Bosa. We can't go out and sign
a free agent quarterback as the money is not going
(52:33):
to work. So, uh, you beat me on that one, George,
I never would have had that. He's got three years
in a row of sixteen games played. But nonetheless, thank
you for watching this hour of football Pool Circle to Happen.
Producer Brian rid Cows towards Birds on Mike Wood will
be again next time. Sports grid dot Com Betting insights
and entertainment at your fingertips as our team covers the
(52:56):
most important topics in sports wagering, real time odds, predictive models,
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