August 3, 2020 • 47 mins
Mike Blewitt and George Kurtz are back again for another edition of Football Full Circle! In this episode, the guys discuss how the coronavirus has impacted the MLB and what this means for the NFL. Then, they talk about the recent player opt-outs in the NFL. Two key defensive players, Dont’a Hightower and Patrick Chung, have decided to opt-out amongst several other players for the Patriots. Why are so many Patriots' players deciding to opt-out? Does Bill Belichick have some type of plan?
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Sports grid dot Com Betting insights and entertainment at your
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sports grid dot Com. Hey, everybody, welcome to Football Full Circle.
(00:22):
Another addition right here on the grid. Thanks for joining us.
Mike Lewett, Lorge Kurtz talking about the NFL in this
hour and uh, I feel like things are changing every day,
George m We started out this week it was bad
news baseball had fallen victim to coronavirus. Are very on.
(00:45):
Craig Mish, who does fantasy sports today on sports Grid,
is also a Marlins reporter, so he was very We
had access to one of the people in this entire
sports industry that was most in packed it by it
and saw it sort of face to face. Now he
was in Florida, they were in Philly when all this
(01:05):
started to happen. But being the reporter that he is,
he was finding out information on a near nearly hourly
basis right um, And as you can see from his
tweet here on Tuesday, he said the Miami Marlins season,
at least temporarily has been paused. This will allow the
team to continue to monitor health and safety of players.
(01:28):
Now as we record this and through the weekend, the
Marlins still are not going to be playing. In fact,
Ken Rosenthal on the said another Marlin Marlin's player has
tested positive for COVID nineteen, but the team anticipated this
result from his contact tracing. A source tells The Athletic
the latest positive case brings team totals to seventeen players
(01:48):
and two coaches. That one of the coaches has since
tested negative. But the reality of the situation Georgia is
what happened with the Marlins was probably really my personally,
My biggest fear related to it not that players are
dropping like flies and we have to rush people to
the hospital and people are going to be on ventilators,
not necessarily that while that is a concern, it hasn't
(02:10):
been my greatest concern in terms of sports returning. My
greatest concern is something like this, is that a whole
bunch of people got sick and the team if is
unable to feeld a competitive team. So I'll lay that
at your feet and we can content continue to discuss it. Well,
one thing we've been saying, or I've been saying for
really months now, is you hope the NFL learns from
(02:33):
the mistakes of the other sports now that what happened
in Major League Baseball is a huge mistake. I mean,
is it. Craig misreported, we knew Sunday morning, right that
a couple of a couple of Moments players that tested positive.
It was two or three, maybe four the most. It's
for you, right, four and we know his coaches, not
all players. And then the Moments elected to play that game.
(02:55):
This wasn't baseball telling them they had to play. Apparently
it was decided and if group text, the Moans texted
each other, do you want to play? They want to
and they voted yes. We was major League Baseball here.
You know, we knew that medical experts and advice you
no order matic hat to no, you don't play. Four
is in as an outbreak. But they played right. If
you look at the Baseball's Health and Safety Protocols hundred
(03:18):
thirteen page document, there is nothing there, Mike. Nothing there says, oh,
if you have four tests, that's that you've done three tests,
three positive tests. That's that canceled there's nothing there. You know,
it's just kind of ridiculous. You looked it up to
the team, you leoked out to the players to decide. Players,
for the most part, are going to play. They're not
gonna vote the ton Pola. They're they they're not gonna
do the I don't want to say it with small things.
(03:38):
They don't know, they're not informed about it. You know,
this is the fact that the players do. Even a
Major League Baseball didn't go over this and decide, Okay,
this is you have four four test positive at one time.
That's it. We gott to cancel these games. Yeah, come
up with the percentage whatever. The number is something something
to guide people. So I thought that was silly, Mike.
And you hope football learns from this because this is
(03:59):
gonna happen it again. Uh And Alison, I think base
was a little different form football. I think the baseball
teams the forest. That's not to say I don't I'm
not watching, but I'm not enjoying it. But I think
it's a Joe Miami Marlins in Philadelphi, Phillies. Who those
are two teams playing each other on Sunday. Now, won't
play this entire week. That's seven games missed and a
sixty games season. Good luck making those games up and
(04:19):
how you're gonna make them up versus the right teams?
I said, good luck with that. You know, it's just
sort of a nightmare. But once again, season the forest. Anyway,
he's got so many idiotic new rules. I would just
have guys, any teams that can play each other play
each other. You know, let's just get that's the approach
of thought that this was the approach anyway, Let's just
air as many games as we can until week But
it's not because Washington and Toronto we're gonna have this
(04:43):
weekend as well. They have nothing to do with this.
But because Miami and Philippa are supposed to play those
two teams that it's gonna cancel them all. But why
not have Washed the Toronto just play each other? Then?
All right, the schedule is already walking. It's it's like,
it's it's citiotic. Why don't have those two teams play
each other rather than try and make up games on
off days or double headers? And I think football is
gonna need to cover this as well. Football is not
(05:05):
gonna want to cancel any games because it screws up
the schedule, right, How do you make up a game
in football? You have to pray that both teams at
the same bye week. Good luck with that. It's the
primary reason why I don't think it's necessarily going to work.
There's there's obviously a vibe out there from people that
are watching, listening that some in fact, you know, one
of the NFL network um personalities said earlier this week
(05:28):
he feels feels like some media is rooting against this
season happening. I am not one of those people. I
am concerned that it won't. I I think there could
be a moment where we are playing the season and
it will get to a point where it seems like
we shouldn't continue, and they might push past it. Now,
the irony is the I'm seeing a little bit of
(05:49):
light at the end of the tunnel in terms of baseball.
And yes, this is football full circle, but baseball. The
reality is baseball is a backdrop to everything in the
sports world right now, and the the ray of light
I'm trying to see, George, is that the other twenty
nine teams actually don't have any positives related to this
doesn't mean that they won't get any but they don't
(06:10):
have any related to this Marlin's outbreaking yet. So I wonder,
can we get by even if a team gets screwed
up tripped up along the way, as we welcome in
our radio audience. Can we get by by with this
one team quarantining, removing themselves from the population for two
weeks or whatever it is, and continue on. Maybe we'll
(06:31):
learn some lessons and actually get through most of this. Well.
Philidelia did have a couple of positive tests of the Miami.
It did go there, so but it's not a major
thing yet for Philadelphia. I think what football has to realize.
Football can't compare themselves to the NBA or NHL. They're
playing in bubbles, all right, but baseball is comparable, comparable
because they're traveling close to country as well. You know
(06:54):
how football is gonna do is? I don't know. I
understand football only travels one day a week. That helps somewhat,
but it's time physical back sport. I mean, really, I
want to look the play. I want to always book
the plug. Good luck. Yeah, the Bills have had a
minor so far situation with COVID. Will update you on that.
Sports grid dot Com betting, insights and entertainment at your
(07:17):
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(07:39):
sports grid TV. George guess all the hate now for
this show. He's at George Kurtz on Twitter, um at
Mike Luo. So let's get into how COVID has been
impacting in the NFL. And I know we don't like
to really do these segments, but it's the nature of
what we're doing. We're a slight bit of reporting a
lot of conjecture and speculative predictions on our part and
(07:59):
hopefully trying to get you the best information in terms
of sports wagering and fantasy and everything else. But uh,
it is important to report that as of the middle
of this week, the Buffalo Bills sent their rookies home
from the team's facility to send him home on Thursday
as a response to five positive coronavirus tests this week,
league source told ESPN. This is via Marcel Louis Jacques,
(08:23):
by the way, told ESPN that two players, including one rookie,
tested positive for COVID on Thursday, and the team made
the decision to conduct the day's meetings virtually. So we're
going to see more of this, obviously, it's going to
be how the teams react, George, and we're going to
get into the opt outs and the list of them
over the course of the next half hour or so.
(08:46):
But we're already seeing the sort of on intake testing.
We're already seeing some positive tests. Now, a couple of
positive tests, a handful of positive tests, like this might
not be the end of the world major ly, Baseball
did have some positive tests one point eight percent of
intake testing. If the NFL is around that number, even
(09:06):
slightly higher, you'd consider that a minor victory before things
get started. Yeah, I think you would. Once again, I'd
like to see what the what's the number? What is
the number of percentages where we start to worry? Four, five, six, seven,
They have five on the record is saying if it's yeah,
but they're saying if it's below five, you can continue
(09:30):
to test every other day. But if you if you
if you test at five percent or greater of your team,
then you gotta be tested every day. You've got five percent,
you've got a problem. Now. Once again, this is an
interesting situation because I wonder you mentioned five Buffalo bill
rookies and that that's it. We're done here. Everybody go home.
Got the fumigate. Imagine the facilities and all that other stuff.
How would the NFL have handled this if this happened
(09:52):
on a Sunday morning, you know, Sunday morning during the
radio season. Five bills test positive. You have to cancel
the game, don't you did? We just learn this mess
from mother Miami Marlins, and I wanted to This is
what I mean by the nfls to learn from the
mistakes of the other sports of baseball really in particular,
because I think it's the only sport that can really
compare themselves to right now, because baseb was the only
is what's going to travel? So I think that that
(10:14):
needs to be written in there. What percentage of the
I guess, fifty three forty five man roster traveling party
wherever it might be, what percentage of it comes up
positive on that morning? That's it, no game, We move on.
I agree, that's gonna be difficult, and when to break
down the numbers, like we're getting the rosters down to
eighty people, right, you want to throw the coaches on there,
(10:36):
even hundred you got twenty coaches. I'm talking about training staff,
just players. Coaches here at five five out of a
hundred doesn't seem terrible, but we all know that that
would be an average across the league. So Georgia saying
five is high, it's because when you start doing the math,
the Bills might have ten by the time this is
(10:58):
all done, and the Giants I'd come up clean because
everybody's quarantined more vigorously. Right, So then you have a
team with double digit coronavirus positives around other that have
now been around other team members. You don't know the
rate at which that is going to be transmitted to
(11:18):
the next and the next and the next, and before
you know it, it's twenty people mostly asymptomatic, mildly a
mildly symptomatic perhaps, but we all know we have um
linemen which are technically at risk because of their b
m I, and we have coaches that might be at risk.
We're going to get into some of the players that
(11:39):
are high risks that opted out. But I think that's
why we start to get tripped up and why I
don't just say or you don't just say, uh, they'll
be fine in the long run. It's only four guys,
quarantine them and will be fine. It's not really how
it's going to work out. It could be ten or
more at some of these facilities. The problem is you
will seven tight. So they only had four guys test
(12:01):
positive Sunday morning. By Monday was seventeen. Right. You just
don't know that the virus takes an incubation period. It
can be up to what two weeks we've heard, but
generally I know what the Marlins or the Phillies I
should should say, not the moments. The Phillies were told
after what happened Sunday and Monday that they would pretty
much know how bad they're going to be between Thursday
(12:23):
and Saturday. If they escape Saturday with a you got
old negative tests, you've probably passed it. You probably didn't
get it, you know, but if you if you start
getting positive test and we did see one today and
that was probably what a club the home clubhouse attendant,
not the visiting clubhouse attendant. The home now maybe he
has some interaction with the visitors. Who knows, you know,
anything could have happened here. But this starts the worry
(12:43):
a little bit. It's why the Philadelphia Phillies games were
canceled this Weekend's what's getting here. It starts again and
this is what people out coast. Exposure would have started
really nine days or so before this Saturday benchmarkt that
you're talking about. So the assumption is at no neg
at of tests through nine days, is unlikely that they
were exposed when the Mollins came to town. When he
(13:05):
looked at that's nine days away. Nine days that happened,
which makes perfect sense, all right, And wasn't you need
other rules here as far as the NFL is concerned,
because in Major League Baseball, the owners, which is shockingly
they agreed with the players. You need that. The Yankees, Phillies,
both Orioles, Nationals, I think Blue Jays as well. We'll
(13:26):
all get paid for any miss games. But not the
Miami Morlins, not right now, because right now they're being
blamed for this. And there are some rumors, and I
say rumors going around that this may have happened because
several Molins players went to a strip club. Once again,
this is alleged, it's not and this is not confirmed,
certainly unconfirmed, but that's why Major League Baseball was investigating.
(13:48):
If they find this out to be true, I'm guessing
they're gonna say, hey, you're not getting paid you close
as all these games you're not getting paid for. I
don't know, ten might miss or if they have the
four season for crying out loud, and this is going
to be need be written out in the NFL what
happens here If this would have happened to an NFL team,
I don't think you can dock the pay. I just
don't see that as being a reasonable option. I think
(14:10):
because it says and then and then new CD only
getting paid per game. The owners didn't didn't have to
say the Yankees or the once again, the Yankees, Phillies
or those other teams that weren't weren't at fault, but
they might lose games. Now they probably won't mind you
because you know, the Yankees only need to make up
two games. They should be able to make that up
at some point over the next eight weeks. Same thing,
same thing you think at Washington Toronto they can make
(14:32):
up the three games, but I don't know how phillies
and make it up seven. Yeah. So so like, well, well,
he's out of baseball here in a moment. But as
I've said, I think it's a backdrop now to everything
that's happening. Football does have the luxury of watching what
is going on here. Um, baseball culture is different from
(14:52):
football culture in this respect, George. Those guys really are
traveling nomads for like six months out of the year. Yes,
they are home for periods of time, but baseball players
go away for like ten days. A lot of guys
don't live with their families in the cities where they
played baseball, right, their families are at home in Cincinnati,
(15:13):
but they play for the Yankees. I've picked that because
I remember Paul O'Neil used to talk about it all
the time. His family lived in Cincinnati, but when he
was in season, he lived in New York by himself.
He would travel around when it was school was out.
This family would come visit him and live with him
in New York, but for short periods of time. I
(15:33):
say that because the culture of baseball is yeah, let's uh,
you know, we're in a new city, We're gonna go out.
We're in the next city, we go out. They need
to get out and sort of do something other than
hanging their hotel. Now, this is a sprint and they
should be able to hypothetically control themselves for two months,
but we already see that the horses out of the barn,
(15:54):
potentially with Miami. Yeah. Now, one thing UH Baseball is
trying to do right now is to early UH and
I guess new health of safety protocols. Don't go out,
stay at your hotel when you're on the road. Good
luck with that in the three games. Here's a three
days that's going to be rough. Football. Have been some
ideas where maybe these players should fly in Saturday nights.
You know, you stay in the hotel one night, you're
(16:15):
not gonna go out there. You'll be tired. Hopefully you
go to sleep, you go play the game the next
day and get the hell out again and go back home.
I've even heard some ideas that maybe you fly in
Sunday morning and delay the games don't start at one
o'clock anymore, start at three o'clock. I don't think that's
going to work with script the TV schedule, and let's
face that that's where the money is. So I don't
think that will happen, but there are some ideas being
thrown out there. I guess to be safer. Here's another
(16:36):
little thing now. I don't know the rules of every state,
but one Soto for the Nationals, who tested positive right
and hasn't been allowed to play. He's had two negative
tests in a row, which satisfies baseball, but the District
of Columbia says, uh, we don't care. You still can't
play for fourteen days at the first tested positive. Uh.
(16:56):
That's once again that this would not affect the Washington
football teams. I think they play in land of the Maryland,
not that's at the Columbia. Well. I do wonder about
other fifty states and what rules they might have if
you test positive and you play there. So Uh. The
team's statement will bring it full circle around to the Bills.
As we were informed by medical experts that just training
camp opened, we expected to have positive tests for COVID,
(17:19):
with five since the beginning of the testing period Tuesday,
we decided to take a discal and proactive for preventative
approach to hopefully eliminate additional cases within our team. We'll
talk about the opt outs across the NFL. After this
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(17:42):
expert picks, and more. Want the edge than get on
the grid Sports grid dot Com. Back on the Grid
(18:10):
Football full Circle, talking through the NFL opt out that
have occurred really over the course of this last week, George,
we had hints of this leading up to this week.
The deadline is Monday, August three, and we've seen some
higher profile names become part of this opt out program. Now,
for those listening watching, if you're not aware of the
(18:32):
two categories into which players can opt out, there are
two specific categories. One is the high risk category. For
those players that are deemed high risk due to pre
existing medical conditions or past medical history. They can opt in,
receive a three hundred fifty thou dollar loan and receive
an accruede season. That does differ from the players that
(18:52):
are opting into the one hundred and fifty thousand dollar
opt out, which is effectively a short term loan. We've
seen players of all all different um abilities stature within
the league. Take advantage of that, and they will be
um They will be looking forward to potentially catching on
(19:13):
with the team next year. But August three, that's the deadline.
I'd also like to welcome in a radio audience that
is listening to us talk about this. So your first
thoughts on this. It seems like a reasonable program. A
whole bunch of guys are taking advantage of it, but
at the moment we don't even have a roster's worth
of players. Yeah, I mean we're hearing some names that
(19:35):
that are you know, guys names we know, right, We're
not hearing a bunch of unknowns anymore. I think Kenny
Golladay's one with us, Mason Crosby, Jay Sternberger, the package
were just added a little bit ago. So I'm not worried. Listen,
first week in August. You don't worry that most of
these guys should be recovered. We're not hearing any bad stories,
but anybody having it really bad that the ship was
a terrible like Freddie Freeman the Braves had what a
(19:58):
month ago, and even he still made it by opening day. Right,
We'll just tell you that the guys have have it,
but they may be asymptomatic. So I don't think you're
panicking yet. But it's something to keep an eye on,
and we well, we'll worry about anything else. Mike, is
not so much the people having it. We know it's
out there, but are they going to spread it? How
are they going to stop it from being spread around?
That's really what you're concerned about. Yeah, the first player
(20:20):
to opt into this probably makes the most sense an
event ever any of this. It's uh Kansas City Chiefs
Super Bowl champion guard Lauren duvarn, a t our deef.
He is actually a medical doctor. He has been working
in a clinic in Canada to try to assist in
helping to beat the coronavirus in Canada. He was the
(20:42):
first one to say, you know what, I'm gonna hang
out here. I'm gonna keep doing what i'm doing. I'll
see you next year. So he's the first one to
say that publicly. We see other players to Anthony Thomas,
kick returner for the Ravens, Chance warmack Um. There were
several New England players which will get into almost as
a separate topic. Andre Smith, the offensive tackle from the
(21:02):
veteran tackle from the Ravens. Um we're looking at Eddie Goldman,
defensive tackle from the Bears. He's only twenty six years old. Uh,
he opted into this program. Star Littula from the Buffalo Bills.
Marquise Goodwin wide receiver. We got Jordan Mack linebacker from
the Panthers, Nate Solder the offensive tackle from the Giants,
(21:22):
which is obviously a big name, and then lastly Damien Williams.
Now there's at at present, I think we're at twenty
six players or so. I could be light on that,
but it's building a couple dozen players. George Nate Solder,
a cancer survivor, his son battling cancer right now, is
only five years old, made sense a lot of sense
(21:45):
for him, even though it's it should be noted some
of these players are leaving a lot of money on
the table. Hell of a lot of money on the table.
And we say it again football on the unlike you know, baseball. Uh,
their their clears, aren't you know, they're not infinite, their finite,
you know, so they're they're taking a chance. Yet they
maybe they don't come back, maybe they lose their job.
(22:06):
You know, I don't think any fan really or anybody
should really be upset of a player opting out. You
don't know their situation. You don't know why why they're
doing what they're doing. If the wife is pregnant, they
get a young child at home, whatever it might be.
As you put perfectly, where a baseball team is nomad's
when they travel all right, half here, half not here.
Football teams home most of the time of them the day,
(22:26):
maybe a couple of days where they go to the
state and travel on Saturday. You come back on Sunday night.
That's right now, So not you're at home. So your
Patriots playing the Bills, they're they're they're gone twenty four hours.
They play one o'clock on a Sunday at their home.
It's it's a twenty four trip. And what are you
gonna say, Oh, they expecially stay at a hotel them
for three month, lot what they shouldn't be around their
(22:46):
family for four months. That's a job, folks feel like
what it is here. So no, that's that's not fair
to them. So I said, I don't blame any player
for deciding to Once again, I'm going to opt out,
or you say, opt into the program, whatever it might be, uh,
what did it annoy me? On accoun what a fan
of a certain couple of cowboys the Marcus Lawrence is
on sort of on defensive. He did go for of
a testing, but he's not committed yet to playing. Sure,
(23:07):
as a fans, he might be annoyed, but I would understand.
I understand why he's doing what he's doing here. He's
going to look out for himself. I think once again,
I think with Lawrence, I believe it is a pregnant
wife at home, or it could be a young child
as well. I forget which. Yeah, yeah, Devin funches to
the Green Bay Packers and was caring for family members
who contracted the virus. He opted out. He's twenty six
years old. You know we're were we you mentioned I
(23:31):
think in the previous segment that Jay Sternberger of the Packers,
he's already on their COVID list. So you know, these
are discussions that are happening amongst players. It doesn't happen
in a vacuum. Guys are living their lives and some
of that have experienced with it. Others are like, I'm
good to go. Let's get out there in play. So
this is a list that's going to continue to be tracked. Frankly,
by the time you hear us talk about this, there'll
(23:53):
be additional players added the list because conceivably bigger names.
But right now, for fantasy owners, for people out there
that are concerned about this, it's obvious Damian Williams is
a huge impact. They drafted Clyde Edwards Hilaire as the
last pick in the first round this off season, but
Damian Williams was thought to be obviously a big part
(24:15):
of their offense. The guy scored two touchdowns in the
fourth quarter of the Super Bowl. It's arguable he could
have won Super Bowl m v P. But nonetheless he
has decided to opt out. Does that mean his career
doesn't continue after this in Kansas City? Possible. I think
you'll see that with some of these players, but there
they at least are hanging into this. Now. There's another
(24:36):
component to it, George, from a financial standpoint, is that
there are roster bonuses involved with some of these guaranteed contracts,
and as you lose games, you could conceivably be putting
yourself in harm's way relatively to the coronavirus and not
receiving some of these game checks, because as you illustrated earlier,
(24:58):
a game could be postponed outright canceled as a result
of this. What's happened to the Marlins could happen to
one of the NFL teams and then you're losing out
on these game checks, so to speak, so much we
have to be negotiated with you. You know how they're
going to figure all this out and what constitutes you know, hey,
you're not getting pay this and what you are going
to get paid for. Good luck with that worked out
(25:19):
so well in baseball was they had no problem agreeing
on everything. So it's going to be an issue. We
know that football. Like I said, I had to think
of a players opting out in football. He has legitimate worries.
Once again, these these guys, for the most part, these
guys are not gonna have ten twelve fifteen year careers
and you may be losing one third, one quarter, one
fifth of the money you would have made here by
(25:41):
not playing. You think Devin Funchiuso wasn't played now and
in a while, it's been hurt a lot for him
to do what he did. You know, he's got issues
going on at home from not to want to make
a mark with an Rodgers day, try and get a
bigger contract next year. So I said, I don't blame
anybody for doing what they've got to do. You know,
you've got to take care of your family first. Obviously,
any child comes first. You know, a pregnant wife, of course,
you know your family image, your mom and dad or
(26:02):
in laws might be living with you that have it
are much more susceptible to it. You know. That's why
I think anyone who's criticizing these players, I think it's
it's being selfish. This is what players should be doing.
They should be looking out for their own and Marquises
could win is a little baby at home. He and
his wife struggled with pregnancies in the past, and it
is a very human instinct for these guys to want
(26:28):
to stay home with their family. I get it, and
even and I'm sure some of them may say as
the season goes on, and if it continues, some of
them to say, you know what, I sort of wish
I was out there, but I made the decision with
the best information I had available at the time. We
even seen that in baseball. Nick Mark Cakiss of the
Atlanta Braves had opted out. Now he's opting back in,
(26:49):
so he's going to be with the team. Will the
NFL allow for that, I don't know, But with them
having a hard deadline on this on Monday, I it
may be less likely. But if somebody changed your mind
in August with the NFL letting back, maybe yeah. I
think they should because once again, things change. So I
didn't like the deadline being this early. Anyway, things change.
(27:10):
We find out in a month from now. Oh, it's
under control in my area's under control. My team hasn't
under control. I like the safety, health and safety protocols
they've gotten. I feel better, or you know, I've been
Maybe whatever is going on at home, Maybe you're not
able to find out by Monday how bad this virus
is for your situation at home. But you find out
in three weeks. Oh, it's not a big deal for
whatever is going on, We're gonna be okay. I want
(27:33):
to apply. Oh I can't. It's why would you want
to do that? So I think they should be allowed
to return at some point. Uh should they deem it that? Hey,
I'm it's better for me now I'm going to be okay.
My family is going to be Okay, I don't think
it should be a hard fast deadline. Wait what you
opted out? We'll see you next year. Yeah, agreed? Um
did Damian Williams. I can understand why they had the
(27:54):
deadline early. At the same time, George you said he
didn't like it being too early, and I'm sort of
like nodding and then realizing, well, if it was September three,
this could put general managers in a really difficult spot, right, Um.
If Damian Williams walked away sept on September nine as
(28:15):
opposed to July excuse me, August twenty nine as opposed
to uh, July twenty nine, that could put them in
a much more difficult position. What's you know? Something consult you.
It's like you're it's like your your August eighteenth magic data.
(28:38):
As to when the Major League Baseball season will fall apart,
I took the over I thought it would last longer.
I also think that it will last longer because I
don't think they'll be Um, I don't think they're good.
I'm just saying the reason I said these things will
go longer than some anticipate is because I think they'll
(28:59):
do it potentially against their better judgment, as we just
saw the Marlins played despite having a bunch of positive tests. So, um,
we're gonna talk about the paths. It's its own separate entity.
I'd like to the conspiracy theorists to pipe down a
little bit and I'll explain why after this. But they
(29:20):
did George George one of those conspiracy No, no, I
have not. I just like it's fun. But they did
lose some big name including Patrick chun at Chum and
High Tower as well. So we will Dante High Tower.
We'll come back talk about that after this break. It's
(29:40):
Mike and George on Football full Circle. Come back right
after this. I'll teach you on the Patriots and they're
tank for Trevor Plan. I don't think so. You'll come
right now. 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, pretty devetting models,
(30:00):
expert picks, and more want the edge than get on
the grid. Sports grid dot Com, everybody, Mike and George
back on Football full Circle, right here on the grid.
(30:23):
So we talked about the NFL OPT outs, and we
can get into each and every player and the guys
that are going on the COVID list and off the
COVID list. But the reality is the Patriots were the
most hard hit by this opt out situation, at least
at the time we filmed this. So Dante hid Tower
a defensive leader, obviously, Patrick Chung, similarly, Marcus Cannon an
(30:49):
offensive tackle. He has a history of non Hodgkin lymphoma,
which he overcame after he was drafted in So these
are three can tribute of players. Danny Vital fullback, maybe
wouldn't have even made the team although they have lost
James Devlin to retirement. Uh Now Turan, who's a center
(31:10):
guard for the Pats. He's an undrafted free agent out
of v C l a Inen uh and Brandon Bold,
and he was said to enter his ninth NFL season,
is eighth in New England. A lot of experience in
the backfield there in New England. Along with him and
James White, team leaders so to speak. He's a core
special teams player. And we set to earn one point
three million dollars in bass salary, which is the final
(31:32):
year of his contract. That tolls to one which means
it's just a pause in the contract, no accrued season,
no running off of the time of the contract. So George,
from purely football based perspective, how how badly does this
impact the Patriots? Oh? I think it's pretty brutal. I mean,
you lose high Tower and Chunk. I think you're in
(31:54):
your for Demons is already sort of depleted here Los
Tom Brady, I understand you're brought on Cam Nowton. Maybe
he can real he'd better be the came of old.
I'll tell you that. I think he just made me
to say this, or for me the most concise, I
no long will have them making the playoffs. I thought
they might be able to compete for that six seventh
though that you know, last two wild card spots. I
(32:14):
don't see it anymore. I don't think it's gonna be
a team that Bill Beltic was hoping for. That. Oh,
I'll play defense. You know, let's hope those the quarterbacks
can make plays, but I don't need them too. I'll
play good defense. We'll win games. You know, we'll points.
Now they're gonna need to score board next. I don't
think they're gonna be able to stop opponents. On any
kind of regular basis. I think this pretty much might
be that that dagger in their season. Yeah. What's interesting too,
(32:36):
is that I wonder and I'm sure, Look, these players
have to have these types of conversations with their family,
they have the conversations with the coach and general manager,
or maybe they didn't consult those guys at all. Right,
It's obviously different from player to player and team to team. Uh,
It's possible Dante Howard just picked up the phone one
day and said, you know what, I'm out. I'll see
(32:56):
you guys in one I don't feel comfortable, whatever the
reasons might be, but somebody like him, being the team
leader that is, I'm sure he had these discussions. What
is interesting though, is that, and this is where conspiracy
theorists will go crazy on this, is that they drafted
Joshi in the second round Anthony Jennings in the third
round this year. Those are both um linebackers, so at
(33:22):
the position and high tower vacates, they have a couple
of guys. Now. I would also submit that they lost
Kyle van Noy and other linebackers during this offseason to
free agency, and that's really why they what they were
drafting for not with the conspiracy theorists thinking that a
perfect they lost a linebacker due to the opt out
and they have another linebacker ready to step in. Well,
(33:43):
two of them left in free agencies that they had
to replace them. Kyle Dugger out of leonor Ryan second
round pick, small college guy, Belichick type of player he
gets to fill in potentially for Patrick Chung. Right, well,
I would submit that a rookie free safety may not
be the guy or strong safety may not be the
(34:04):
guy they can fill in for Patrick Chong with all
the experience he's had in New England. So um, the
conspiracy theorists are out there for the tank for Trevor situation.
I'm not down with it, George, what do you think? Listen,
it's fun to talk about. But even with all these moves,
they're not the worst team in the football, right They're not, no,
not even the work through in their conference? Alright, So
(34:25):
maybe not their division, definitely not their division. I don't know.
Do you think they're coming in last place? I wouldn't
shock me at this point as I think this this
is a killer. I think losing Higower and Chong is
a killer on defense. You just don't have the players now,
you know, and we don't know what's gonna get out
of the quarterback. You know. We hope that can can
(34:46):
be the camps can be superman like he used to be.
We don't know that. You know, there's not a lot
of offensive weapons here. This is this to me when
I look at it. If not for the fact that
Bill Belichick was there, you'd be like, oh, M, six
and five eleven here we could uh yeah, you know
this This is what I see when I look at
this team here. So yeah, I think, uh, I think
they might pay. I wouldn't. I'm not. I certainly wouldn't
(35:07):
pick them to last, mind you. That would probably be
the Jets or Miami, depends on how what direction they
go in there. I think those two teams are worse,
but it wouldn't shock me. Literally the Bills just run
away with this division now where it's it's not even
a fight, you know, assuming we do play a sixteen
game season where by December during the Bills are worried
about a seating. Yeah, I look, the Marcus Cannon thing
(35:30):
is a loss to He's got a lot of experience.
I don't think they're it's I don't think they're caught
by surprise on this one. According to Michael Lombardi from
the GM Shuffle, there's even talks that there's been some
retirement talks concerning Marcus Cannon. So I don't know that
he's all the way there for football. Maybe we never
(35:50):
see him again, but in terms of him lending experience
and being a three time Super Bowl champion, I think
it's a loss. Uh. Their offensive line is first round
left tackle from two years ago, Isaiah Win, Joe Thuney,
David Andrews, who's back after taking the year off due
to some clouting blood clotting issues that he was having,
Shack Mason, and Corey Cunningham, which they received in a
(36:12):
trade from the Arizona Cardinals. So uh, I think they're
okay there. They drafted a couple of more guys. They
drafted the two tight ends, ass and Dalton Keene. Dalton
Keene might slot in to be a little bit of
an h back scenario for them, George, so uh. Perhaps
all is not lost with Danny Vitala's departure and in
(36:32):
conjunction with James Devlin's retirement, So look, there are issues now.
I don't think there's any denying it. Even the most
ardent Pats fan has to be like God. I hope
Cam is is great, like you said, and overcomes a
lot of this, But the receiving corps is Julian edumand
Mohammed Sanu and hopefully Nikkil Harry is a winner. But
we don't know that. You know. It brings up the
(36:55):
question that was brought up weeks ago. Actually when we
talked about the Patriots, we went over their team. What
team would Chade would trade their skill posisition players for
the Patriots. It's a low number. Anybody could have had
Cam Newton, Nobody wanted them for various reasons. Sony was
show is no one's answer to Quan Valk, the Zell
or anything like that. Edelman is a nice receiver when
(37:15):
he was nice a Brady a short rings target that
he's not anywhere near Michael Thomas. You know it's about
the someone like that. He's just not that kind of player,
And you know you have to hope about the tight ends.
Rookie Tightensle'll see what happens. Your offensive line keep closing
people and the defense is just depleted. Here, Like I said,
this this is a I to see. This looks like
a bad, bad football team. Yeah, I got I have
(37:39):
a lot of faith in Belichick when it comes to
coaching up defensive players or whatever it might be. But
and clearly they had a plan in place here, right,
they were going to let due to cap issues and
everything else, they were going to let some veteran players go.
Whether you however you classified Tom Brady, I think that
was not a one way a decision, right. They just
(38:00):
couldn't come to agreements that terms that they were comfortable with.
They move on from the veteran quarterback. They let a
bunch of the veteran players go, some of whom I've mentioned,
particularly a linebacker, and they needed to replenish some of
these with younger players. It just can't all happen at
the same time. Does his defense come together. Here's the
defense and they've they've survived for a long time on
(38:23):
guys that may not pop as superstars. George but Lawrence,
Guy bo Allen, John Simon, that's your defensive line. Chase Winovich,
last year's third round pick from Michigan, is backing up
as a premium backup. We have u Shale Calhoun, Dante
Hi Tower, No. Longer, Juwan Bentley, Brandon Copeland. The defensive
(38:44):
backfield Jason mccordy, Terrence Brooks, Devin mccordy, Stefan Gilmore, bringing
Kyle Dugger lose Patrick Chung. The defensive backfield is still
the strength of the unit, the mccordy brothers and Stefan
Gilmore veterans, maybe a little older, but still strong. That's
the strength of the defense and it will remain that
(39:04):
and it is. But if you can't get to the quarterback,
doesn't matter how good your cornerbacks are or your safety
for that matter, You're gonna have issues here. I It's
just strange to me. But I'll tell you this, if
the if the Patriots make the playoffs, this is Bill
Belitic's best coaching job ever. Unless Cam is back to
being the man he was three, four or five six
years ago, and it just really no one can handle him.
(39:25):
I just don't see how it's happening here. I just
don't see the Bills certainly look like a better team.
I mean, they do get a break, and that the
Jets and Dolphins are still the Jets of Dolphins for now.
Dolphins seem to be on their way up. You know,
we'll see what they do with two. And they have
the Jets, you know, with the moves they've made this
off season, are pretty much puffing this season away already anyway,
So I said, I like the stuff. I don't want
to say they're done, but I can't see how this team,
(39:47):
even with the extra wild card spot. I just don't
see it. Not unless the Dolphins and Jets are just
much worse than I think with the pages can actually
sweep them in the division, then maybe they got a
shot to get the eight nine wins. But I'll be
banking on the under here. I always hesitate to think
that they're going to drastically change the way they play football.
I think the Patriots are the best at adapting to
(40:09):
their personnel. And if you look at the personnel top
to bottom, you would say, George, that the best way
for this team to win a lot of games is
ball control it all day. Let's keep our defense under exposed.
We've got a running quarterback, We've got two talented, three talented,
four talented running backs. Let's just hang onto the ball.
(40:32):
Lead the league in time of possession, and that's the
way we're gonna win that That's what it feels like
to me, it doesn't mean that they can't play ball
control passing attact with Edelman or even some new to
some extent. But do I think they're going to air
it out to Nikila Harry and make Mohamed's a new
a deep threat. I don't. I just think the way
that this team should win is ball controlling it. Oh,
(40:54):
I think you're a hund correct. I think if you're
stretching the word of talented running back is that they
have four talented I probably am stretching it if they
have four average running backs. You know, I do like
James White as far as the pairs catcher there, and
if you have listen, we all want him to be
in the cam of old but and there's any doubt
the wing needs him to be that person. But I
(41:16):
think if he tries to be that person where he's
gonna be running all over the place. He's not playing sixteen.
You know that that is gonna come again. He has
ankle injuries, shoulder injuries. We don't know how healthy they
truly are. I think he'll get her to get plus
the concussion problems he's had. You know, he's not a
big un sliding getting down here. I just don't. I
think they need him to be that person. But I
think that could be the worst thing for Cam. You know,
(41:37):
I don't think he'd be able to finish the seasons
that way. This team has issues. That's the bottom line here.
Do I think they're tanking? Uh? You know, but Trevor
Or losey for Lawrence. Now, I think it just worked
out this way? What do they Bill Belichick, Colt, Hey, Dante,
he can take the season off your buddy, Patrick, don't
even bother. Right, these guys aren't turning down money, the
money they were gonna make their to make Bill or
(41:58):
make the Patriots get the number one pick. That's not
And even with these the Patriots are still a better
team than the Jaguars, right, So they're not they they're
not gonna get that anyway. Bill Belitic, he wants to
get that all time win record. He wants that, which
is he needs to win you know, if many games
as possible early on before he gets older. I should
say so, No, they're not. They're not taking That's it's
(42:20):
a fun little conspiracy theory, but that's not what's going
on here. Yeah, So I'm gonna go to FanDuel right now,
their wind total for the better part, it fluctuated after
Cam got there. It actually bumped them up by a
half a win. But I want to look them up
alive as we record this. So wind totals for New
England right now on FanDuel are did they take it off? No?
(42:44):
There it is nine and a half, so they haven't
lowered it. It bumped. It went from nine to nine
and a half went Cam signed. So right now the
over is plus one five under is minus one sixty.
I think that becomes the heaviest juice bet on the
board that all happened in this last week for the
(43:05):
most part, so under nine and a half, even with
Cam Newton at quarterback, you're a hard under. Now on
the Pats, I able think you'd get the five or six. Well,
I'm not. I'm not looking at their schedule, so maybe
they're schedule easier than I thought. The division schedule is easy, right,
Jets Miami, I could certainly see you winning three of
those four games, but Miami is a better, a decent team,
(43:27):
so I'm not guaranteeing that at all. Here. Buffalo, I
don't know if you'd be Buffalo either time there. I
think those are two losses there, so there're still favored
on Fandal to win the division plus one fifteen. The
Bills are plus one once again. The Papers are one
of those teams with such a heavy following that they're
always juice on because he had a lot of fans. Yeah,
but the juice on the Wind total is all the
(43:48):
way down and under nine, under nine and a half.
That's one of the most heavily juice bets on the board.
I'm looking at. I know we're up against the here.
I guess we'll talk about it on the next segment here,
but no, they're not getting the schedule is easy. We'll
close it out after this hour of football full circle.
Right after this, get on the Grid sports grid dot
(44:10):
Com Betting insides 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.
(44:33):
Back on the Grid, closing out this hour, just a
couple of minutes here, a couple of stories. George give
me a depressing one during during the break, but I'm
not gonna air that one. Tom Coughlin had a bike accident.
It's awful. I don't know why why you can bring
it up on air. But another depressing story related to
the Jaguars, Yannaking gok Way h the unsigned franchise player,
(44:56):
has not reported to Jaguars camp. He wants out of Jacksonville.
This is according to Michael Dorocco on Twitter. He says
here that coach Jaguars coach Doug Morone says defensive indianic
and Gockway is the only player not at camp, says
he has not had any conversations within Gockway. Uh. Color
(45:17):
me not surprised, George, They I don't. It is odd
to me that it is continued. But I I think
the Jaguars just got to a point where they said,
we're obviously going to trade him. We're just going to
wait until the last possible moment to see if any
new offers can arise. Potentially with an opt out with
(45:39):
an injury during training camp, the market changes and a
team gets more desperate than they've been to this point.
Does that make sense? It makes sense, but it's unlikely
to happen because what's going on at that time, who's
going to have that kind of cap room, uh, to
sign him and to get what Jacksonville and jackson was
(46:01):
gonna want. Really, Uh, you know what, the what the
Jets got won one in the three. That's not gonna
happen in a player. It's not gonna happen. No one's
gonna trade happened late, But things are different this year.
We know the Caps going down next year? What team
is gonna get the draft picks for a guy? And
you don't know if she is gonna be played or
how many games gonna be played with this doesn't even matter.
It's just a terrible time for Jacksonville. They had to
(46:22):
trade him during the draft for whatever they could get
for him. Yeah, you know, I understand they party get
the offers they wanted. You know, you want to know
a number one, number three, whatever it might be. You
didn't get that. But now you're waiting here. Good luck
be a long term deal. There's no long term deal.
There can't happen. No, he doesn't want to be there.
He pretty much hates them. They hate him. He's I'm
saying for the new team, there's no long term deal.
(46:44):
No one's doing that. Of late right, you trade for
a guy, you get old the I mean the Cowboys
did it with Cooper, Hawks just did it with Adams.
You trade for a guy and then you don't get
the deal done. You give all the leverage to the player.
Just strange. Even though I haven't said, oh yeah, I'll
played for my number out my contact gum, but I don't.
I'm not going to demand a new trade because you
guys over level powers concept comes up. You give up
(47:06):
three picks in a player for me, gave me my
money or I'm god. Yeah, that's it. We're gonna talk
about Jamal Adams in the next edition. Trying to get
a Jets beat writer to discuss it with us. Hopefully
you join us next time on the Grid. Frank, thanks
for watching this hour of Football Full Circle the app
of Brian Rokowski and George kurtch On. Mike Luith, thanks
for watching. See you next time. Sports grid dot Com
(47:29):
betting insights and entertainment at your fingertips seven 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,
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. Hey, everybody, welcome to Football Full Circle.
(00:22):
Another addition right here on the grid. Thanks for joining us.
Mike Lewett, Lorge Kurtz talking about the NFL in this
hour and uh, I feel like things are changing every day,
George m We started out this week it was bad
news baseball had fallen victim to coronavirus. Are very on.
(00:45):
Craig Mish, who does fantasy sports today on sports Grid,
is also a Marlins reporter, so he was very We
had access to one of the people in this entire
sports industry that was most in packed it by it
and saw it sort of face to face. Now he
was in Florida, they were in Philly when all this
(01:05):
started to happen. But being the reporter that he is,
he was finding out information on a near nearly hourly
basis right um, And as you can see from his
tweet here on Tuesday, he said the Miami Marlins season,
at least temporarily has been paused. This will allow the
team to continue to monitor health and safety of players.
(01:28):
Now as we record this and through the weekend, the
Marlins still are not going to be playing. In fact,
Ken Rosenthal on the said another Marlin Marlin's player has
tested positive for COVID nineteen, but the team anticipated this
result from his contact tracing. A source tells The Athletic
the latest positive case brings team totals to seventeen players
(01:48):
and two coaches. That one of the coaches has since
tested negative. But the reality of the situation Georgia is
what happened with the Marlins was probably really my personally,
My biggest fear related to it not that players are
dropping like flies and we have to rush people to
the hospital and people are going to be on ventilators,
not necessarily that while that is a concern, it hasn't
(02:10):
been my greatest concern in terms of sports returning. My
greatest concern is something like this, is that a whole
bunch of people got sick and the team if is
unable to feeld a competitive team. So I'll lay that
at your feet and we can content continue to discuss it. Well,
one thing we've been saying, or I've been saying for
really months now, is you hope the NFL learns from
(02:33):
the mistakes of the other sports now that what happened
in Major League Baseball is a huge mistake. I mean,
is it. Craig misreported, we knew Sunday morning, right that
a couple of a couple of Moments players that tested positive.
It was two or three, maybe four the most. It's
for you, right, four and we know his coaches, not
all players. And then the Moments elected to play that game.
(02:55):
This wasn't baseball telling them they had to play. Apparently
it was decided and if group text, the Moans texted
each other, do you want to play? They want to
and they voted yes. We was major League Baseball here.
You know, we knew that medical experts and advice you
no order matic hat to no, you don't play. Four
is in as an outbreak. But they played right. If
you look at the Baseball's Health and Safety Protocols hundred
(03:18):
thirteen page document, there is nothing there, Mike. Nothing there says, oh,
if you have four tests, that's that you've done three tests,
three positive tests. That's that canceled there's nothing there. You know,
it's just kind of ridiculous. You looked it up to
the team, you leoked out to the players to decide. Players,
for the most part, are going to play. They're not
gonna vote the ton Pola. They're they they're not gonna
do the I don't want to say it with small things.
(03:38):
They don't know, they're not informed about it. You know,
this is the fact that the players do. Even a
Major League Baseball didn't go over this and decide, Okay,
this is you have four four test positive at one time.
That's it. We gott to cancel these games. Yeah, come
up with the percentage whatever. The number is something something
to guide people. So I thought that was silly, Mike.
And you hope football learns from this because this is
(03:59):
gonna happen it again. Uh And Alison, I think base
was a little different form football. I think the baseball
teams the forest. That's not to say I don't I'm
not watching, but I'm not enjoying it. But I think
it's a Joe Miami Marlins in Philadelphi, Phillies. Who those
are two teams playing each other on Sunday. Now, won't
play this entire week. That's seven games missed and a
sixty games season. Good luck making those games up and
(04:19):
how you're gonna make them up versus the right teams?
I said, good luck with that. You know, it's just
sort of a nightmare. But once again, season the forest. Anyway,
he's got so many idiotic new rules. I would just
have guys, any teams that can play each other play
each other. You know, let's just get that's the approach
of thought that this was the approach anyway, Let's just
air as many games as we can until week But
it's not because Washington and Toronto we're gonna have this
(04:43):
weekend as well. They have nothing to do with this.
But because Miami and Philippa are supposed to play those
two teams that it's gonna cancel them all. But why
not have Washed the Toronto just play each other? Then?
All right, the schedule is already walking. It's it's like,
it's it's citiotic. Why don't have those two teams play
each other rather than try and make up games on
off days or double headers? And I think football is
gonna need to cover this as well. Football is not
(05:05):
gonna want to cancel any games because it screws up
the schedule, right, How do you make up a game
in football? You have to pray that both teams at
the same bye week. Good luck with that. It's the
primary reason why I don't think it's necessarily going to work.
There's there's obviously a vibe out there from people that
are watching, listening that some in fact, you know, one
of the NFL network um personalities said earlier this week
(05:28):
he feels feels like some media is rooting against this
season happening. I am not one of those people. I
am concerned that it won't. I I think there could
be a moment where we are playing the season and
it will get to a point where it seems like
we shouldn't continue, and they might push past it. Now,
the irony is the I'm seeing a little bit of
(05:49):
light at the end of the tunnel in terms of baseball.
And yes, this is football full circle, but baseball. The
reality is baseball is a backdrop to everything in the
sports world right now, and the the ray of light
I'm trying to see, George, is that the other twenty
nine teams actually don't have any positives related to this
doesn't mean that they won't get any but they don't
(06:10):
have any related to this Marlin's outbreaking yet. So I wonder,
can we get by even if a team gets screwed
up tripped up along the way, as we welcome in
our radio audience. Can we get by by with this
one team quarantining, removing themselves from the population for two
weeks or whatever it is, and continue on. Maybe we'll
(06:31):
learn some lessons and actually get through most of this. Well.
Philidelia did have a couple of positive tests of the Miami.
It did go there, so but it's not a major
thing yet for Philadelphia. I think what football has to realize.
Football can't compare themselves to the NBA or NHL. They're
playing in bubbles, all right, but baseball is comparable, comparable
because they're traveling close to country as well. You know
(06:54):
how football is gonna do is? I don't know. I
understand football only travels one day a week. That helps somewhat,
but it's time physical back sport. I mean, really, I
want to look the play. I want to always book
the plug. Good luck. Yeah, the Bills have had a
minor so far situation with COVID. Will update you on that.
Sports grid dot Com betting, insights and entertainment at your
(07:17):
fingertips as our team covers the most important topics in
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(07:39):
sports grid TV. George guess all the hate now for
this show. He's at George Kurtz on Twitter, um at
Mike Luo. So let's get into how COVID has been
impacting in the NFL. And I know we don't like
to really do these segments, but it's the nature of
what we're doing. We're a slight bit of reporting a
lot of conjecture and speculative predictions on our part and
(07:59):
hopefully trying to get you the best information in terms
of sports wagering and fantasy and everything else. But uh,
it is important to report that as of the middle
of this week, the Buffalo Bills sent their rookies home
from the team's facility to send him home on Thursday
as a response to five positive coronavirus tests this week,
league source told ESPN. This is via Marcel Louis Jacques,
(08:23):
by the way, told ESPN that two players, including one rookie,
tested positive for COVID on Thursday, and the team made
the decision to conduct the day's meetings virtually. So we're
going to see more of this, obviously, it's going to
be how the teams react, George, and we're going to
get into the opt outs and the list of them
over the course of the next half hour or so.
(08:46):
But we're already seeing the sort of on intake testing.
We're already seeing some positive tests. Now, a couple of
positive tests, a handful of positive tests, like this might
not be the end of the world major ly, Baseball
did have some positive tests one point eight percent of
intake testing. If the NFL is around that number, even
(09:06):
slightly higher, you'd consider that a minor victory before things
get started. Yeah, I think you would. Once again, I'd
like to see what the what's the number? What is
the number of percentages where we start to worry? Four, five, six, seven,
They have five on the record is saying if it's yeah,
but they're saying if it's below five, you can continue
(09:30):
to test every other day. But if you if you
if you test at five percent or greater of your team,
then you gotta be tested every day. You've got five percent,
you've got a problem. Now. Once again, this is an
interesting situation because I wonder you mentioned five Buffalo bill
rookies and that that's it. We're done here. Everybody go home.
Got the fumigate. Imagine the facilities and all that other stuff.
How would the NFL have handled this if this happened
(09:52):
on a Sunday morning, you know, Sunday morning during the
radio season. Five bills test positive. You have to cancel
the game, don't you did? We just learn this mess
from mother Miami Marlins, and I wanted to This is
what I mean by the nfls to learn from the
mistakes of the other sports of baseball really in particular,
because I think it's the only sport that can really
compare themselves to right now, because baseb was the only
is what's going to travel? So I think that that
(10:14):
needs to be written in there. What percentage of the
I guess, fifty three forty five man roster traveling party
wherever it might be, what percentage of it comes up
positive on that morning? That's it, no game, We move on.
I agree, that's gonna be difficult, and when to break
down the numbers, like we're getting the rosters down to
eighty people, right, you want to throw the coaches on there,
(10:36):
even hundred you got twenty coaches. I'm talking about training staff,
just players. Coaches here at five five out of a
hundred doesn't seem terrible, but we all know that that
would be an average across the league. So Georgia saying
five is high, it's because when you start doing the math,
the Bills might have ten by the time this is
(10:58):
all done, and the Giants I'd come up clean because
everybody's quarantined more vigorously. Right, So then you have a
team with double digit coronavirus positives around other that have
now been around other team members. You don't know the
rate at which that is going to be transmitted to
(11:18):
the next and the next and the next, and before
you know it, it's twenty people mostly asymptomatic, mildly a
mildly symptomatic perhaps, but we all know we have um
linemen which are technically at risk because of their b
m I, and we have coaches that might be at risk.
We're going to get into some of the players that
(11:39):
are high risks that opted out. But I think that's
why we start to get tripped up and why I
don't just say or you don't just say, uh, they'll
be fine in the long run. It's only four guys,
quarantine them and will be fine. It's not really how
it's going to work out. It could be ten or
more at some of these facilities. The problem is you
will seven tight. So they only had four guys test
(12:01):
positive Sunday morning. By Monday was seventeen. Right. You just
don't know that the virus takes an incubation period. It
can be up to what two weeks we've heard, but
generally I know what the Marlins or the Phillies I
should should say, not the moments. The Phillies were told
after what happened Sunday and Monday that they would pretty
much know how bad they're going to be between Thursday
(12:23):
and Saturday. If they escape Saturday with a you got
old negative tests, you've probably passed it. You probably didn't
get it, you know, but if you if you start
getting positive test and we did see one today and
that was probably what a club the home clubhouse attendant,
not the visiting clubhouse attendant. The home now maybe he
has some interaction with the visitors. Who knows, you know,
anything could have happened here. But this starts the worry
(12:43):
a little bit. It's why the Philadelphia Phillies games were
canceled this Weekend's what's getting here. It starts again and
this is what people out coast. Exposure would have started
really nine days or so before this Saturday benchmarkt that
you're talking about. So the assumption is at no neg
at of tests through nine days, is unlikely that they
were exposed when the Mollins came to town. When he
(13:05):
looked at that's nine days away. Nine days that happened,
which makes perfect sense, all right, And wasn't you need
other rules here as far as the NFL is concerned,
because in Major League Baseball, the owners, which is shockingly
they agreed with the players. You need that. The Yankees, Phillies,
both Orioles, Nationals, I think Blue Jays as well. We'll
(13:26):
all get paid for any miss games. But not the
Miami Morlins, not right now, because right now they're being
blamed for this. And there are some rumors, and I
say rumors going around that this may have happened because
several Molins players went to a strip club. Once again,
this is alleged, it's not and this is not confirmed,
certainly unconfirmed, but that's why Major League Baseball was investigating.
(13:48):
If they find this out to be true, I'm guessing
they're gonna say, hey, you're not getting paid you close
as all these games you're not getting paid for. I
don't know, ten might miss or if they have the
four season for crying out loud, and this is going
to be need be written out in the NFL what
happens here If this would have happened to an NFL team,
I don't think you can dock the pay. I just
don't see that as being a reasonable option. I think
(14:10):
because it says and then and then new CD only
getting paid per game. The owners didn't didn't have to
say the Yankees or the once again, the Yankees, Phillies
or those other teams that weren't weren't at fault, but
they might lose games. Now they probably won't mind you
because you know, the Yankees only need to make up
two games. They should be able to make that up
at some point over the next eight weeks. Same thing,
same thing you think at Washington Toronto they can make
(14:32):
up the three games, but I don't know how phillies
and make it up seven. Yeah. So so like, well, well,
he's out of baseball here in a moment. But as
I've said, I think it's a backdrop now to everything
that's happening. Football does have the luxury of watching what
is going on here. Um, baseball culture is different from
(14:52):
football culture in this respect, George. Those guys really are
traveling nomads for like six months out of the year. Yes,
they are home for periods of time, but baseball players
go away for like ten days. A lot of guys
don't live with their families in the cities where they
played baseball, right, their families are at home in Cincinnati,
(15:13):
but they play for the Yankees. I've picked that because
I remember Paul O'Neil used to talk about it all
the time. His family lived in Cincinnati, but when he
was in season, he lived in New York by himself.
He would travel around when it was school was out.
This family would come visit him and live with him
in New York, but for short periods of time. I
(15:33):
say that because the culture of baseball is yeah, let's uh,
you know, we're in a new city, We're gonna go out.
We're in the next city, we go out. They need
to get out and sort of do something other than
hanging their hotel. Now, this is a sprint and they
should be able to hypothetically control themselves for two months,
but we already see that the horses out of the barn,
(15:54):
potentially with Miami. Yeah. Now, one thing UH Baseball is
trying to do right now is to early UH and
I guess new health of safety protocols. Don't go out,
stay at your hotel when you're on the road. Good
luck with that in the three games. Here's a three
days that's going to be rough. Football. Have been some
ideas where maybe these players should fly in Saturday nights.
You know, you stay in the hotel one night, you're
(16:15):
not gonna go out there. You'll be tired. Hopefully you
go to sleep, you go play the game the next
day and get the hell out again and go back home.
I've even heard some ideas that maybe you fly in
Sunday morning and delay the games don't start at one
o'clock anymore, start at three o'clock. I don't think that's
going to work with script the TV schedule, and let's
face that that's where the money is. So I don't
think that will happen, but there are some ideas being
thrown out there. I guess to be safer. Here's another
(16:36):
little thing now. I don't know the rules of every state,
but one Soto for the Nationals, who tested positive right
and hasn't been allowed to play. He's had two negative
tests in a row, which satisfies baseball, but the District
of Columbia says, uh, we don't care. You still can't
play for fourteen days at the first tested positive. Uh.
(16:56):
That's once again that this would not affect the Washington
football teams. I think they play in land of the Maryland,
not that's at the Columbia. Well. I do wonder about
other fifty states and what rules they might have if
you test positive and you play there. So Uh. The
team's statement will bring it full circle around to the Bills.
As we were informed by medical experts that just training
camp opened, we expected to have positive tests for COVID,
(17:19):
with five since the beginning of the testing period Tuesday,
we decided to take a discal and proactive for preventative
approach to hopefully eliminate additional cases within our team. We'll
talk about the opt outs across the NFL. After this
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(17:42):
expert picks, and more. Want the edge than get on
the grid Sports grid dot Com. Back on the Grid
(18:10):
Football full Circle, talking through the NFL opt out that
have occurred really over the course of this last week, George,
we had hints of this leading up to this week.
The deadline is Monday, August three, and we've seen some
higher profile names become part of this opt out program. Now,
for those listening watching, if you're not aware of the
(18:32):
two categories into which players can opt out, there are
two specific categories. One is the high risk category. For
those players that are deemed high risk due to pre
existing medical conditions or past medical history. They can opt in,
receive a three hundred fifty thou dollar loan and receive
an accruede season. That does differ from the players that
(18:52):
are opting into the one hundred and fifty thousand dollar
opt out, which is effectively a short term loan. We've
seen players of all all different um abilities stature within
the league. Take advantage of that, and they will be
um They will be looking forward to potentially catching on
(19:13):
with the team next year. But August three, that's the deadline.
I'd also like to welcome in a radio audience that
is listening to us talk about this. So your first
thoughts on this. It seems like a reasonable program. A
whole bunch of guys are taking advantage of it, but
at the moment we don't even have a roster's worth
of players. Yeah, I mean we're hearing some names that
(19:35):
that are you know, guys names we know, right, We're
not hearing a bunch of unknowns anymore. I think Kenny
Golladay's one with us, Mason Crosby, Jay Sternberger, the package
were just added a little bit ago. So I'm not worried. Listen,
first week in August. You don't worry that most of
these guys should be recovered. We're not hearing any bad stories,
but anybody having it really bad that the ship was
a terrible like Freddie Freeman the Braves had what a
(19:58):
month ago, and even he still made it by opening day. Right,
We'll just tell you that the guys have have it,
but they may be asymptomatic. So I don't think you're
panicking yet. But it's something to keep an eye on,
and we well, we'll worry about anything else. Mike, is
not so much the people having it. We know it's
out there, but are they going to spread it? How
are they going to stop it from being spread around?
That's really what you're concerned about. Yeah, the first player
(20:20):
to opt into this probably makes the most sense an
event ever any of this. It's uh Kansas City Chiefs
Super Bowl champion guard Lauren duvarn, a t our deef.
He is actually a medical doctor. He has been working
in a clinic in Canada to try to assist in
helping to beat the coronavirus in Canada. He was the
(20:42):
first one to say, you know what, I'm gonna hang
out here. I'm gonna keep doing what i'm doing. I'll
see you next year. So he's the first one to
say that publicly. We see other players to Anthony Thomas,
kick returner for the Ravens, Chance warmack Um. There were
several New England players which will get into almost as
a separate topic. Andre Smith, the offensive tackle from the
(21:02):
veteran tackle from the Ravens. Um we're looking at Eddie Goldman,
defensive tackle from the Bears. He's only twenty six years old. Uh,
he opted into this program. Star Littula from the Buffalo Bills.
Marquise Goodwin wide receiver. We got Jordan Mack linebacker from
the Panthers, Nate Solder the offensive tackle from the Giants,
(21:22):
which is obviously a big name, and then lastly Damien Williams.
Now there's at at present, I think we're at twenty
six players or so. I could be light on that,
but it's building a couple dozen players. George Nate Solder,
a cancer survivor, his son battling cancer right now, is
only five years old, made sense a lot of sense
(21:45):
for him, even though it's it should be noted some
of these players are leaving a lot of money on
the table. Hell of a lot of money on the table.
And we say it again football on the unlike you know, baseball. Uh,
their their clears, aren't you know, they're not infinite, their finite,
you know, so they're they're taking a chance. Yet they
maybe they don't come back, maybe they lose their job.
(22:06):
You know, I don't think any fan really or anybody
should really be upset of a player opting out. You
don't know their situation. You don't know why why they're
doing what they're doing. If the wife is pregnant, they
get a young child at home, whatever it might be.
As you put perfectly, where a baseball team is nomad's
when they travel all right, half here, half not here.
Football teams home most of the time of them the day,
(22:26):
maybe a couple of days where they go to the
state and travel on Saturday. You come back on Sunday night.
That's right now, So not you're at home. So your
Patriots playing the Bills, they're they're they're gone twenty four hours.
They play one o'clock on a Sunday at their home.
It's it's a twenty four trip. And what are you
gonna say, Oh, they expecially stay at a hotel them
for three month, lot what they shouldn't be around their
(22:46):
family for four months. That's a job, folks feel like
what it is here. So no, that's that's not fair
to them. So I said, I don't blame any player
for deciding to Once again, I'm going to opt out,
or you say, opt into the program, whatever it might be, uh,
what did it annoy me? On accoun what a fan
of a certain couple of cowboys the Marcus Lawrence is
on sort of on defensive. He did go for of
a testing, but he's not committed yet to playing. Sure,
(23:07):
as a fans, he might be annoyed, but I would understand.
I understand why he's doing what he's doing here. He's
going to look out for himself. I think once again,
I think with Lawrence, I believe it is a pregnant
wife at home, or it could be a young child
as well. I forget which. Yeah, yeah, Devin funches to
the Green Bay Packers and was caring for family members
who contracted the virus. He opted out. He's twenty six
years old. You know we're were we you mentioned I
(23:31):
think in the previous segment that Jay Sternberger of the Packers,
he's already on their COVID list. So you know, these
are discussions that are happening amongst players. It doesn't happen
in a vacuum. Guys are living their lives and some
of that have experienced with it. Others are like, I'm
good to go. Let's get out there in play. So
this is a list that's going to continue to be tracked. Frankly,
by the time you hear us talk about this, there'll
(23:53):
be additional players added the list because conceivably bigger names.
But right now, for fantasy owners, for people out there
that are concerned about this, it's obvious Damian Williams is
a huge impact. They drafted Clyde Edwards Hilaire as the
last pick in the first round this off season, but
Damian Williams was thought to be obviously a big part
(24:15):
of their offense. The guy scored two touchdowns in the
fourth quarter of the Super Bowl. It's arguable he could
have won Super Bowl m v P. But nonetheless he
has decided to opt out. Does that mean his career
doesn't continue after this in Kansas City? Possible. I think
you'll see that with some of these players, but there
they at least are hanging into this. Now. There's another
(24:36):
component to it, George, from a financial standpoint, is that
there are roster bonuses involved with some of these guaranteed contracts,
and as you lose games, you could conceivably be putting
yourself in harm's way relatively to the coronavirus and not
receiving some of these game checks, because as you illustrated earlier,
(24:58):
a game could be postponed outright canceled as a result
of this. What's happened to the Marlins could happen to
one of the NFL teams and then you're losing out
on these game checks, so to speak, so much we
have to be negotiated with you. You know how they're
going to figure all this out and what constitutes you know, hey,
you're not getting pay this and what you are going
to get paid for. Good luck with that worked out
(25:19):
so well in baseball was they had no problem agreeing
on everything. So it's going to be an issue. We
know that football. Like I said, I had to think
of a players opting out in football. He has legitimate worries.
Once again, these these guys, for the most part, these
guys are not gonna have ten twelve fifteen year careers
and you may be losing one third, one quarter, one
fifth of the money you would have made here by
(25:41):
not playing. You think Devin Funchiuso wasn't played now and
in a while, it's been hurt a lot for him
to do what he did. You know, he's got issues
going on at home from not to want to make
a mark with an Rodgers day, try and get a
bigger contract next year. So I said, I don't blame
anybody for doing what they've got to do. You know,
you've got to take care of your family first. Obviously,
any child comes first. You know, a pregnant wife, of course,
you know your family image, your mom and dad or
(26:02):
in laws might be living with you that have it
are much more susceptible to it. You know. That's why
I think anyone who's criticizing these players, I think it's
it's being selfish. This is what players should be doing.
They should be looking out for their own and Marquises
could win is a little baby at home. He and
his wife struggled with pregnancies in the past, and it
is a very human instinct for these guys to want
(26:28):
to stay home with their family. I get it, and
even and I'm sure some of them may say as
the season goes on, and if it continues, some of
them to say, you know what, I sort of wish
I was out there, but I made the decision with
the best information I had available at the time. We
even seen that in baseball. Nick Mark Cakiss of the
Atlanta Braves had opted out. Now he's opting back in,
(26:49):
so he's going to be with the team. Will the
NFL allow for that, I don't know, But with them
having a hard deadline on this on Monday, I it
may be less likely. But if somebody changed your mind
in August with the NFL letting back, maybe yeah. I
think they should because once again, things change. So I
didn't like the deadline being this early. Anyway, things change.
(27:10):
We find out in a month from now. Oh, it's
under control in my area's under control. My team hasn't
under control. I like the safety, health and safety protocols
they've gotten. I feel better, or you know, I've been
Maybe whatever is going on at home, Maybe you're not
able to find out by Monday how bad this virus
is for your situation at home. But you find out
in three weeks. Oh, it's not a big deal for
whatever is going on, We're gonna be okay. I want
(27:33):
to apply. Oh I can't. It's why would you want
to do that? So I think they should be allowed
to return at some point. Uh should they deem it that? Hey,
I'm it's better for me now I'm going to be okay.
My family is going to be Okay, I don't think
it should be a hard fast deadline. Wait what you
opted out? We'll see you next year. Yeah, agreed? Um
did Damian Williams. I can understand why they had the
(27:54):
deadline early. At the same time, George you said he
didn't like it being too early, and I'm sort of
like nodding and then realizing, well, if it was September three,
this could put general managers in a really difficult spot, right, Um.
If Damian Williams walked away sept on September nine as
(28:15):
opposed to July excuse me, August twenty nine as opposed
to uh, July twenty nine, that could put them in
a much more difficult position. What's you know? Something consult you.
It's like you're it's like your your August eighteenth magic data.
(28:38):
As to when the Major League Baseball season will fall apart,
I took the over I thought it would last longer.
I also think that it will last longer because I
don't think they'll be Um, I don't think they're good.
I'm just saying the reason I said these things will
go longer than some anticipate is because I think they'll
(28:59):
do it potentially against their better judgment, as we just
saw the Marlins played despite having a bunch of positive tests. So, um,
we're gonna talk about the paths. It's its own separate entity.
I'd like to the conspiracy theorists to pipe down a
little bit and I'll explain why after this. But they
(29:20):
did George George one of those conspiracy No, no, I
have not. I just like it's fun. But they did
lose some big name including Patrick chun at Chum and
High Tower as well. So we will Dante High Tower.
We'll come back talk about that after this break. It's
(29:40):
Mike and George on Football full Circle. Come back right
after this. I'll teach you on the Patriots and they're
tank for Trevor Plan. I don't think so. You'll come
right now. 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, pretty devetting models,
(30:00):
expert picks, and more want the edge than get on
the grid. Sports grid dot Com, everybody, Mike and George
back on Football full Circle, right here on the grid.
(30:23):
So we talked about the NFL OPT outs, and we
can get into each and every player and the guys
that are going on the COVID list and off the
COVID list. But the reality is the Patriots were the
most hard hit by this opt out situation, at least
at the time we filmed this. So Dante hid Tower
a defensive leader, obviously, Patrick Chung, similarly, Marcus Cannon an
(30:49):
offensive tackle. He has a history of non Hodgkin lymphoma,
which he overcame after he was drafted in So these
are three can tribute of players. Danny Vital fullback, maybe
wouldn't have even made the team although they have lost
James Devlin to retirement. Uh Now Turan, who's a center
(31:10):
guard for the Pats. He's an undrafted free agent out
of v C l a Inen uh and Brandon Bold,
and he was said to enter his ninth NFL season,
is eighth in New England. A lot of experience in
the backfield there in New England. Along with him and
James White, team leaders so to speak. He's a core
special teams player. And we set to earn one point
three million dollars in bass salary, which is the final
(31:32):
year of his contract. That tolls to one which means
it's just a pause in the contract, no accrued season,
no running off of the time of the contract. So George,
from purely football based perspective, how how badly does this
impact the Patriots? Oh? I think it's pretty brutal. I mean,
you lose high Tower and Chunk. I think you're in
(31:54):
your for Demons is already sort of depleted here Los
Tom Brady, I understand you're brought on Cam Nowton. Maybe
he can real he'd better be the came of old.
I'll tell you that. I think he just made me
to say this, or for me the most concise, I
no long will have them making the playoffs. I thought
they might be able to compete for that six seventh
though that you know, last two wild card spots. I
(32:14):
don't see it anymore. I don't think it's gonna be
a team that Bill Beltic was hoping for. That. Oh,
I'll play defense. You know, let's hope those the quarterbacks
can make plays, but I don't need them too. I'll
play good defense. We'll win games. You know, we'll points.
Now they're gonna need to score board next. I don't
think they're gonna be able to stop opponents. On any
kind of regular basis. I think this pretty much might
be that that dagger in their season. Yeah. What's interesting too,
(32:36):
is that I wonder and I'm sure, Look, these players
have to have these types of conversations with their family,
they have the conversations with the coach and general manager,
or maybe they didn't consult those guys at all. Right,
It's obviously different from player to player and team to team. Uh,
It's possible Dante Howard just picked up the phone one
day and said, you know what, I'm out. I'll see
(32:56):
you guys in one I don't feel comfortable, whatever the
reasons might be, but somebody like him, being the team
leader that is, I'm sure he had these discussions. What
is interesting though, is that, and this is where conspiracy
theorists will go crazy on this, is that they drafted
Joshi in the second round Anthony Jennings in the third
round this year. Those are both um linebackers, so at
(33:22):
the position and high tower vacates, they have a couple
of guys. Now. I would also submit that they lost
Kyle van Noy and other linebackers during this offseason to
free agency, and that's really why they what they were
drafting for not with the conspiracy theorists thinking that a
perfect they lost a linebacker due to the opt out
and they have another linebacker ready to step in. Well,
(33:43):
two of them left in free agencies that they had
to replace them. Kyle Dugger out of leonor Ryan second
round pick, small college guy, Belichick type of player he
gets to fill in potentially for Patrick Chung. Right, well,
I would submit that a rookie free safety may not
be the guy or strong safety may not be the
(34:04):
guy they can fill in for Patrick Chong with all
the experience he's had in New England. So um, the
conspiracy theorists are out there for the tank for Trevor situation.
I'm not down with it, George, what do you think? Listen,
it's fun to talk about. But even with all these moves,
they're not the worst team in the football, right They're not, no,
not even the work through in their conference? Alright, So
(34:25):
maybe not their division, definitely not their division. I don't know.
Do you think they're coming in last place? I wouldn't
shock me at this point as I think this this
is a killer. I think losing Higower and Chong is
a killer on defense. You just don't have the players now,
you know, and we don't know what's gonna get out
of the quarterback. You know. We hope that can can
(34:46):
be the camps can be superman like he used to be.
We don't know that. You know, there's not a lot
of offensive weapons here. This is this to me when
I look at it. If not for the fact that
Bill Belichick was there, you'd be like, oh, M, six
and five eleven here we could uh yeah, you know
this This is what I see when I look at
this team here. So yeah, I think, uh, I think
they might pay. I wouldn't. I'm not. I certainly wouldn't
(35:07):
pick them to last, mind you. That would probably be
the Jets or Miami, depends on how what direction they
go in there. I think those two teams are worse,
but it wouldn't shock me. Literally the Bills just run
away with this division now where it's it's not even
a fight, you know, assuming we do play a sixteen
game season where by December during the Bills are worried
about a seating. Yeah, I look, the Marcus Cannon thing
(35:30):
is a loss to He's got a lot of experience.
I don't think they're it's I don't think they're caught
by surprise on this one. According to Michael Lombardi from
the GM Shuffle, there's even talks that there's been some
retirement talks concerning Marcus Cannon. So I don't know that
he's all the way there for football. Maybe we never
(35:50):
see him again, but in terms of him lending experience
and being a three time Super Bowl champion, I think
it's a loss. Uh. Their offensive line is first round
left tackle from two years ago, Isaiah Win, Joe Thuney,
David Andrews, who's back after taking the year off due
to some clouting blood clotting issues that he was having,
Shack Mason, and Corey Cunningham, which they received in a
(36:12):
trade from the Arizona Cardinals. So uh, I think they're
okay there. They drafted a couple of more guys. They
drafted the two tight ends, ass and Dalton Keene. Dalton
Keene might slot in to be a little bit of
an h back scenario for them, George, so uh. Perhaps
all is not lost with Danny Vitala's departure and in
(36:32):
conjunction with James Devlin's retirement, So look, there are issues now.
I don't think there's any denying it. Even the most
ardent Pats fan has to be like God. I hope
Cam is is great, like you said, and overcomes a
lot of this, But the receiving corps is Julian edumand
Mohammed Sanu and hopefully Nikkil Harry is a winner. But
we don't know that. You know. It brings up the
(36:55):
question that was brought up weeks ago. Actually when we
talked about the Patriots, we went over their team. What
team would Chade would trade their skill posisition players for
the Patriots. It's a low number. Anybody could have had
Cam Newton, Nobody wanted them for various reasons. Sony was
show is no one's answer to Quan Valk, the Zell
or anything like that. Edelman is a nice receiver when
(37:15):
he was nice a Brady a short rings target that
he's not anywhere near Michael Thomas. You know it's about
the someone like that. He's just not that kind of player,
And you know you have to hope about the tight ends.
Rookie Tightensle'll see what happens. Your offensive line keep closing
people and the defense is just depleted. Here, Like I said,
this this is a I to see. This looks like
a bad, bad football team. Yeah, I got I have
(37:39):
a lot of faith in Belichick when it comes to
coaching up defensive players or whatever it might be. But
and clearly they had a plan in place here, right,
they were going to let due to cap issues and
everything else, they were going to let some veteran players go.
Whether you however you classified Tom Brady, I think that
was not a one way a decision, right. They just
(38:00):
couldn't come to agreements that terms that they were comfortable with.
They move on from the veteran quarterback. They let a
bunch of the veteran players go, some of whom I've mentioned,
particularly a linebacker, and they needed to replenish some of
these with younger players. It just can't all happen at
the same time. Does his defense come together. Here's the
defense and they've they've survived for a long time on
(38:23):
guys that may not pop as superstars. George but Lawrence,
Guy bo Allen, John Simon, that's your defensive line. Chase Winovich,
last year's third round pick from Michigan, is backing up
as a premium backup. We have u Shale Calhoun, Dante
Hi Tower, No. Longer, Juwan Bentley, Brandon Copeland. The defensive
(38:44):
backfield Jason mccordy, Terrence Brooks, Devin mccordy, Stefan Gilmore, bringing
Kyle Dugger lose Patrick Chung. The defensive backfield is still
the strength of the unit, the mccordy brothers and Stefan
Gilmore veterans, maybe a little older, but still strong. That's
the strength of the defense and it will remain that
(39:04):
and it is. But if you can't get to the quarterback,
doesn't matter how good your cornerbacks are or your safety
for that matter, You're gonna have issues here. I It's
just strange to me. But I'll tell you this, if
the if the Patriots make the playoffs, this is Bill
Belitic's best coaching job ever. Unless Cam is back to
being the man he was three, four or five six
years ago, and it just really no one can handle him.
(39:25):
I just don't see how it's happening here. I just
don't see the Bills certainly look like a better team.
I mean, they do get a break, and that the
Jets and Dolphins are still the Jets of Dolphins for now.
Dolphins seem to be on their way up. You know,
we'll see what they do with two. And they have
the Jets, you know, with the moves they've made this
off season, are pretty much puffing this season away already anyway,
So I said, I like the stuff. I don't want
to say they're done, but I can't see how this team,
(39:47):
even with the extra wild card spot. I just don't
see it. Not unless the Dolphins and Jets are just
much worse than I think with the pages can actually
sweep them in the division, then maybe they got a
shot to get the eight nine wins. But I'll be
banking on the under here. I always hesitate to think
that they're going to drastically change the way they play football.
I think the Patriots are the best at adapting to
(40:09):
their personnel. And if you look at the personnel top
to bottom, you would say, George, that the best way
for this team to win a lot of games is
ball control it all day. Let's keep our defense under exposed.
We've got a running quarterback, We've got two talented, three talented,
four talented running backs. Let's just hang onto the ball.
(40:32):
Lead the league in time of possession, and that's the
way we're gonna win that That's what it feels like
to me, it doesn't mean that they can't play ball
control passing attact with Edelman or even some new to
some extent. But do I think they're going to air
it out to Nikila Harry and make Mohamed's a new
a deep threat. I don't. I just think the way
that this team should win is ball controlling it. Oh,
(40:54):
I think you're a hund correct. I think if you're
stretching the word of talented running back is that they
have four talented I probably am stretching it if they
have four average running backs. You know, I do like
James White as far as the pairs catcher there, and
if you have listen, we all want him to be
in the cam of old but and there's any doubt
the wing needs him to be that person. But I
(41:16):
think if he tries to be that person where he's
gonna be running all over the place. He's not playing sixteen.
You know that that is gonna come again. He has
ankle injuries, shoulder injuries. We don't know how healthy they
truly are. I think he'll get her to get plus
the concussion problems he's had. You know, he's not a
big un sliding getting down here. I just don't. I
think they need him to be that person. But I
think that could be the worst thing for Cam. You know,
(41:37):
I don't think he'd be able to finish the seasons
that way. This team has issues. That's the bottom line here.
Do I think they're tanking? Uh? You know, but Trevor
Or losey for Lawrence. Now, I think it just worked
out this way? What do they Bill Belichick, Colt, Hey, Dante,
he can take the season off your buddy, Patrick, don't
even bother. Right, these guys aren't turning down money, the
money they were gonna make their to make Bill or
(41:58):
make the Patriots get the number one pick. That's not
And even with these the Patriots are still a better
team than the Jaguars, right, So they're not they they're
not gonna get that anyway. Bill Belitic, he wants to
get that all time win record. He wants that, which
is he needs to win you know, if many games
as possible early on before he gets older. I should
say so, No, they're not. They're not taking That's it's
(42:20):
a fun little conspiracy theory, but that's not what's going
on here. Yeah, So I'm gonna go to FanDuel right now,
their wind total for the better part, it fluctuated after
Cam got there. It actually bumped them up by a
half a win. But I want to look them up
alive as we record this. So wind totals for New
England right now on FanDuel are did they take it off? No?
(42:44):
There it is nine and a half, so they haven't
lowered it. It bumped. It went from nine to nine
and a half went Cam signed. So right now the
over is plus one five under is minus one sixty.
I think that becomes the heaviest juice bet on the
board that all happened in this last week for the
(43:05):
most part, so under nine and a half, even with
Cam Newton at quarterback, you're a hard under. Now on
the Pats, I able think you'd get the five or six. Well,
I'm not. I'm not looking at their schedule, so maybe
they're schedule easier than I thought. The division schedule is easy, right,
Jets Miami, I could certainly see you winning three of
those four games, but Miami is a better, a decent team,
(43:27):
so I'm not guaranteeing that at all. Here. Buffalo, I
don't know if you'd be Buffalo either time there. I
think those are two losses there, so there're still favored
on Fandal to win the division plus one fifteen. The
Bills are plus one once again. The Papers are one
of those teams with such a heavy following that they're
always juice on because he had a lot of fans. Yeah,
but the juice on the Wind total is all the
(43:48):
way down and under nine, under nine and a half.
That's one of the most heavily juice bets on the board.
I'm looking at. I know we're up against the here.
I guess we'll talk about it on the next segment here,
but no, they're not getting the schedule is easy. We'll
close it out after this hour of football full circle.
Right after this, get on the Grid sports grid dot
(44:10):
Com Betting insides and entertainment at your fingertips as our
team covers the most important topics in sports wagering, real
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(44:33):
Back on the Grid, closing out this hour, just a
couple of minutes here, a couple of stories. George give
me a depressing one during during the break, but I'm
not gonna air that one. Tom Coughlin had a bike accident.
It's awful. I don't know why why you can bring
it up on air. But another depressing story related to
the Jaguars, Yannaking gok Way h the unsigned franchise player,
(44:56):
has not reported to Jaguars camp. He wants out of Jacksonville.
This is according to Michael Dorocco on Twitter. He says
here that coach Jaguars coach Doug Morone says defensive indianic
and Gockway is the only player not at camp, says
he has not had any conversations within Gockway. Uh. Color
(45:17):
me not surprised, George, They I don't. It is odd
to me that it is continued. But I I think
the Jaguars just got to a point where they said,
we're obviously going to trade him. We're just going to
wait until the last possible moment to see if any
new offers can arise. Potentially with an opt out with
(45:39):
an injury during training camp, the market changes and a
team gets more desperate than they've been to this point.
Does that make sense? It makes sense, but it's unlikely
to happen because what's going on at that time, who's
going to have that kind of cap room, uh, to
sign him and to get what Jacksonville and jackson was
(46:01):
gonna want. Really, Uh, you know what, the what the
Jets got won one in the three. That's not gonna
happen in a player. It's not gonna happen. No one's
gonna trade happened late, But things are different this year.
We know the Caps going down next year? What team
is gonna get the draft picks for a guy? And
you don't know if she is gonna be played or
how many games gonna be played with this doesn't even matter.
It's just a terrible time for Jacksonville. They had to
(46:22):
trade him during the draft for whatever they could get
for him. Yeah, you know, I understand they party get
the offers they wanted. You know, you want to know
a number one, number three, whatever it might be. You
didn't get that. But now you're waiting here. Good luck
be a long term deal. There's no long term deal.
There can't happen. No, he doesn't want to be there.
He pretty much hates them. They hate him. He's I'm
saying for the new team, there's no long term deal.
(46:44):
No one's doing that. Of late right, you trade for
a guy, you get old the I mean the Cowboys
did it with Cooper, Hawks just did it with Adams.
You trade for a guy and then you don't get
the deal done. You give all the leverage to the player.
Just strange. Even though I haven't said, oh yeah, I'll
played for my number out my contact gum, but I don't.
I'm not going to demand a new trade because you
guys over level powers concept comes up. You give up
(47:06):
three picks in a player for me, gave me my
money or I'm god. Yeah, that's it. We're gonna talk
about Jamal Adams in the next edition. Trying to get
a Jets beat writer to discuss it with us. Hopefully
you join us next time on the Grid. Frank, thanks
for watching this hour of Football Full Circle the app
of Brian Rokowski and George kurtch On. Mike Luith, thanks
for watching. See you next time. Sports grid dot Com
(47:29):
betting insights and entertainment at your fingertips seven 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,
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