SPEAKER_01 0:00

All right, welcome to the season. It's episode 45. Uh if you are watching on YouTube, please hit subscribe. It'd be much appreciated. And um Apple Spotify hit follow. Uh five stars, whatever usually gets done on there. We really appreciate that as well. Uh Nick, we're we're heading into a quiet time of the year in the NFL. We are now approaching mid-June. I believe there's 17 teams that are wrapping up minicamp this week. They kind of went from like June 8th to June 11th, so they're about done. Um and that will be the last time most of these rosters are together until late in July when they come back in training camp when we really get going on our show too for season two. Um minicamps are interesting because a couple teams, at least a couple, decided to not even do them, which is pretty common uh based on attendance throughout OTAs, throughout the spring and early summer. Some teams decide, you know, we've got a lot of veteran players, we had a lot of good attendance. Maybe our health isn't great. We're not gonna do minicamp because there's an extra sort of level of intensity that comes with mini camp oftentimes. They don't want to get anybody hurt, especially if health isn't where they want, and if they've had good attendance. Um I remember my rookie year, we went through OTAs in Green Bay, and moderately intense, I'd say. I mean, you know, I mean, we were Green Bay at that time it was gonna be Aaron Rodgers' first year starting, so there was a little bit of intensity from that standpoint. But once we hit minicamp that year, and we we did mini camp because there was still a lot for this team to to prove and and and to take advantage of, I remember some guys showed up, like Charles Woodson showed up to minicamp. He had not been at OTAs, and there was an escalated level of intensity. This depends on the team, but there was an escalated level of intensity where I'm like, that's Charles Woodson. And this is a little different than OTAs. Every rep, even though we're not even wearing pads, um, was taken to a new level. So I don't know like what your experiences in mini camp were, but sometimes they're unnecessary, sometimes teams really need them, but they're kind of an eye-opener for rookies, I think.

SPEAKER_00 1:57

Yeah, it is. I mean, it's your first real taste of like a like it's a mini camp. So training camp's a big deal in the NFL. You're gonna get a lot of reps, a lot of work. Like once many once training camp starts, uh, it's football. And you're really just gonna have your blinders on and just be football, football, football all the way through, hopefully into mid-February. Um, but you know, the three-day mini camp during OTAs is different, you know, there's no pads, um, there's more time throughout the day to watch film, prepare for practice. Um, probably a similar practice, maybe one extra period during a mini camp sort of thing. And um, but you sort of get that feel. I I mean it listen, you and I've talked about OTAs, they are a great time. You're you're back with your guys, it's structured. So a lot of our audience, um, you know, off-season training activities, right? Hopefully that is what it is. I always just OTA off-season training activities, but then it there it's broken down into like three different sections, like weeks one and two. You're getting back into it four hours a day at the facility. It's really your strength and conditioning. I know during that time, uh, different teams I was on, you'd sit down with your quarterback coach or your coordinator and be like, hey, I'm gonna go throw with the guys. Uh let's work through a workout routine. You know, we'll be on the field for 30 minutes or so after we lift. Um, the quarterbacks would run them through a throw-in routine just to get those reps, getting ready for phase two, which is you know, weeks three to five football school. You know, position coaches return, individual drills, group drills, install work. That's like the routes on air where you're just running plays on air, getting the reps, starting to build it, starting to acclimate. Um, then you get to uh phase three, weeks six through nine. This is like OTAs plus minicamp, right? So there's 10 OTAs, usually spreads three, three, four across three weeks. You got seven on seven, nine on seven, eleven on eleven drills. The big point for like fans and people listening is like you're not in pads, right? I don't even remember if you're I don't even think you're in shells. I think it's just jersey shorts. So O-line D O-line's at a huge disadvantage during this time. So you really need to have that um, you know, coaches step in and be like, hey, like, you know, whatever it is, rush hard, three to five steps, and you got to sort of stand there. I mean, you saw I saw a clip right before we got on of Shadur Sanders in practice, and he's just sitting in the pocket, and the defensive line stops and just puts up his right hand, and Shadur hits it perfectly in the palm. It's sort of annoying because like you're used to guys running with their hand, you know, their heads down and not putting their arms up that much, and D linemen will just stop and just sort of act like they're a post player with their hands up. But anyway, you're getting that working. So these teams that cancel their mini camps, the reason they do that is like, hey, if everyone shows up for OTAs or we get a great attendance, you know, the little chariot into this is hey, we'll we'll probably cancel mini camp, or they just do it as a surprise. Listen, they want that time off as well. The summertime's a great time for coaches, for players to get off to get ready for training camp, because once training camp starts, it is go time. So the coaches want it off as well. But you know, it's a good time for young players. What do you see like during OTAs in your time? What do you what was the benefit um, you know, from a player's perspective, and what do you think the coaches saw during OTAs? Like, what's the benefit of OTAs?

SPEAKER_01 5:13

Uh, well, I think for young players and unproven guys, it's a chance to make a name for yourself. I know that sounds a little silly, um, but if you are undrafted or you you were kind of a fringe roster guy the year before and you're looking for a chance to get more reps, you can really give coaches a reason to feel good about you towards the end of OTAs and mini-camp. So, like let's say by mid-June, when you're off for the summer before you come back for training camp, you can really give yourself a chance for like for coaches to feel good about you, right, moving into the season. And look, that pisses off a lot of veterans too. Uh, when you're if you have a lot of established veterans on the roster that are trying to like stay in shape for OTAs, but also not get themselves hurt, and you've got young guys that are going really hard during OTAs that are trying to prove themselves. I've seen a lot of veterans like get pissed off at young guys because they're like, hey, will you chill out? Right. And I don't blame the young guy because he's trying to prove himself. Now, he's not doing anything cheap or anything like that, but he's he's going as hard as he possibly can in May. And a lot of older vets don't really like that, right? They're like, Will you relax, man? Like, this is not the season, right? And I totally understand where they come from with that. But here's the other thing that I think with especially with regard to mini camp for teams that actually do it, I think it's more about the coaches. So if you're a coach, you know, even though the season runs from like let's just say training camp, like August all the way through like February, if you take it all the way through, or like early January, if you're not a playoff team, you need other things throughout the year to make you feel good about the job you and your staff are doing. And so I think for the most part, minicamp is really more about coaches putting their team through three days of tough stuff and scheme so the coaches can leave for the summer feeling good about where this team is at. Right? Coaches work their tails off, right? They're like, they oftentimes confuse effort with achievement and they're sleeping in their office and they're just giving all the effort in the world, and then sometimes it's stupid because it's like just go home and go to bed and then come back and work in the morning. Like it's always this race to see who can do more in coaching, right? But coaches need those barometers from time to time throughout the offseason to feel good about where they're at. And I think minicamp is a really good barometer for a coach before they depart for the summer to get things right and leave for the summer feeling good about it. I'm not even talking about bad teams, too. Teams that we know are not gonna win more than five or six games this year. They want to have a good mini camp, and I guarantee you that coach is leaving in July being like, we got a chance this year. You get a lot of false hope because I promise you those teams, I could I can name them to you now. They're not gonna win more than five games this year. But I'll bet you their coaches leaving OTAs being like, we got a chance to go to the playoffs this year, right? Because and that's part of what OTAs is, is I think what I often notice too, Nick, is a lot of coaches in OTAs scheme for success. So offensive coaches will tell, hey, scout defense, like this is what we're gonna do, this is what we need you to do. They're scheming for success because they want to leave feeling good about themselves. As silly as that sounds, it's true. They want to let the guys go in July or late June, and they want to go on their little late trips in July and June, feeling good about where things are at. And sometimes they'll even scheme it up a little bit to feel extra good about it before they leave.

SPEAKER_00 8:21

Well, I think the thing that the remember too is, and there's been times where man, you just think, man, we really crushed it as an offense during OTAs. Uh, but then you hit the season, and then you know, maybe your defense is bottom ten, and you're like, Well, we were going against our defense during OTAs, and we're going against our defense in training camp, so this makes a little bit more sense. I think, you know, those are the best teams. Iron sharpens iron, right? So the the teams that are well-rounded, well coached on both sides of the bar ball just get better during OTAs, mini camp, and training camp because they know like they're not really scripting for success. They're wanting to sharpen each other up each and every day. So they go out to practice, it's a battle. And I know we're going to talk Eagles football. Um, you know, that'll always be a part of what we talk about along with the entire NFL. But I sort of like that with Philadelphia. I think that's a huge advantage for a young OC and Sean Mannion, a you know, O-line coach that's replacing Jeff Stoutland and Chris Cooper, um, getting to go against a Vic Fangio defense every day. I mean, you couldn't you couldn't ask for anything more. You're going against one of the greatest defensive coaches of all time every single day. You're not going against a crappy defense, you're going against a really good defense that's really well coached with an with your first time doing this. And then obviously the biggest thing that we're going to go into is you know Chris Cooper replacing Jeff Statlin and what that looks like. But I think that's a huge advantage during this time for the Philadelphia Eagles and teams like them that have are well coached on both sides of the ball.

SPEAKER_01 9:57

Yeah, Nick, I would argue though that like, and I realize Philly didn't have the year they wanted last year. They're still a playoff team and a very proud franchise. And as a whole, a staff that's accomplished a lot. Won a Super Bowl, been to another Super Bowl. Teams like that, like proud franchises, they approach the offseason differently. That's just the reality of it, right? Um, I played for Cleveland for several years. And when I was in Cleveland, like every offseason, the staff and the coaches approach it differently because we hadn't won. We didn't know how to win. We didn't know what it was like to win, right? And so you approach it differently, like every day is you know, you're probably a little more you're you're almost looking to prove yourself every day, right? Really good franchises, proud franchises with good players that are very accomplished that know how to win during the season, they approach it totally differently. It's just one step in the process of getting to the season because ultimately it's all about winning in the season, right? Bad franchises, bad teams, yes, they want to win in the season, but you almost get they they become very myopic. They're so focused on training camp and so it's like, God, guys, we're forgetting what the overall objective here is. It's to win when we get to September, October, November, December. That's the objective. The objective is not for us to beat up on the defense here today in minicamp and to get somebody hurt doing it. This is ridiculous. This is stupid, right? So I I think really I think bad teams become very myopic in the offseason. And really good teams, you see, they see the big picture. They have coaches like Andy Reid, for example, right? And even they have coaches that see the big picture and they know what it takes to win, and they realize July is not where we're gonna win football games. So that's that. I just that we can go down a black hole with that too. But I I played for for a couple teams where in July, I'm like, we're losing sight of what the objective is here. There's no question.

SPEAKER_00 11:43

No, I I think you made a good point. It made me think, you know, you can't, you're not gonna win it in July or in June. Right.

SPEAKER_01 11:49

It doesn't mean take it lightly, but you No, no, you're not gonna, but but you potentially could lose it.

SPEAKER_00 11:53

Right. Right? Like you if you go about it the wrong way and like guys get injured, good point. You could potentially lose it in June during this time, and it's just about developing skill set. And I mean, this is the off-season, this is off-season show right here. Um, you know, OTAs are a great time to develop. I agree with you. You know, guys get seen. I I think the biggest thing when I was thinking through it is, you know, it allows guys, you know, when coaches leave for the summer, you know, they watch all this film, they'll take this film with them, especially like new OCs, new DCs. They're gonna be watching all the film from off-season training more than coaches that are established. And they're gonna have their eyes circled on guys that are like fringe players. Like, hey, maybe they there they weren't really a thought, but now, hey, this guy might make the team. So it's like those guys in OTAs that are fringe players like can really make a name for themselves because then they're sort of circled going in the training camp by GMs and coaches, like, hey, this guy at a great OTAs, let's see if he takes a step. And then the big thing in training camp is when the pads come on, players play different. I mean, you and I have both seen it when guys don't have pads on, they play at a speed. And all of a sudden the pads come on, it's like, what happened to you? Same thing happens when the lights come on in games during um preseason games. You know, you'll have these guys in training camp that are like training camp hall of famers like, man, this dude's gonna make the team. This dude's having a uh balling out. All of a sudden the lights come on and they disappear.

SPEAKER_01 13:15

And you're like, okay, that point you just made, Tom Brady recently made some comments publicly about having a place on rosters for practice squad players and and and guys that were incredible practice players. And he he basically said, I'm paraphrasing, he basically said that these guys sometimes these guys may not even realize it, but they don't even want to move beyond that. They're not ready to do it, you know, in prime time under the lights. He got some criticism for it. People were saying, like, that's a ridiculous assertion to say that like guys that some guys on practice squad that are kicking ass in practice don't want to actually get a chance to do it in the game. I saw people fire back at him saying, Oh, it's ridiculous. I actually agree with him wholeheartedly. I think there are a lot of guys in the NFL that are kicking butt in practice, are comfortable doing it, and whether or not they want to admit it, they're not ready for the next step. And there's a part of them that's like, I actually like this. I'm kicking butt in practice, I'm on practice, what I'm at, oh, I'm not ready for that. Like it sounds crazy, but I this is basically what Tom Brady said. Again, I'm paraphrasing. And so and a lot of people disagreed with him. I agreed with him, I thought it was a great point. And obviously, he's been around for a very long time. He's seen a number of different practice players come through. And but I but I do think there are a percentage of guys that do this and are good practice players that actually, whether or not they want to admit it, have no interest in taking it to another level because they're not ready for it, and that's a whole nother ballgame for them. But you still need those guys. No, there's a reason the practice squad, there's a reason they allot, you know, what is it, 10 of them or 12 of them now, and those guys get paid. You need them. And if they want to give you everything they have in practice, then great, right?

SPEAKER_00 14:54

And I think like no, I get in a fan's perspective, it's like, man, I would do anything to play the playing in the NFL, you and I both know is a blessing. Um, it's not easy, but you know, we look back on our careers and like, man, like very blessed to play in the NFL, lived a childhood dream, all those different things. So a fan is taking that perspective, right? There's no way he's right, though. Listen, Tom has been around the league and is one of the greatest, if not the greatest, quarterback of all time. Like he has some discernment with that, and he's right. As hard as it is to hear that for fans, like it is true. These guys are still making good practice squad money and they're in the locker room, but it there's there's a fear factor stepping onto the field, going to play, doing those things. We've seen it, and what I think the biggest thing that I've noticed is in practice, their eyes look one way, intense, ready to go, locked in. And I've seen a dramatic change because there's been times, even at the end of my career, like I wasn't a starter. I wasn't, you know, I was even demoted at sometimes for three for whatever reason that the owners wanted to do that. They knew I could handle it. And I'm playing in the third and fourth quarter of preseason games with guys that, you know, some guys, I'm like, this guy's gonna make the team because he he he has developed, he had a great offseason, and his eye, like in the huddle, his eyes are locked in. And I know there was guys I play with that I'm like, I'm gonna help you make the team, you're gonna make the team. And like, sure enough, they make the team. They're like one of the last guys that the GM just bets on. Then there are guys you're looking at and their eyes just look so big, and you can see the fear in them. Listen, it I get it. Like, football is an aggressive, violent, those things, and honestly, for us, it's more about the execution aspect, but that's what we're talking about when the lights come on and it matters. It's like you hear the deer in the headlights look, you see that, and that's the hardest thing. Like, you don't want that to play at the highest level, you know, everyone's feeling fear, emotions, and it's overcoming it when you step on the field, but like when you can't overcome it, that's where it becomes more difficult. That's where you know, where I believe Tom is talking about with the practice squad and guys being comfortable, you're still in the NFL, you can ball out during the week and do your part and make a living doing so, but it's just not going to translate to the field on game day. That's what he's talking about.

SPEAKER_01 17:04

It's the biggest reason why if I were a GM and I were drafting, the number one thing that I would, the number one of the all the criteria for drafting a player, the number one thing for me would be production in college and experience. Because now I know what you just said is not a factor. Right? It's why when I look at Amon Ross St. Brown coming out of USC, he had all the physical abilities. And then by the way, most importantly, he had an insane amount of production and experience. And it's why I draft a guy like that higher than the fourth round. It's crazy how he slipped as far as he did. That's why I like Mikhail Lemon, right? It's because I'm not working off of conjecture, I'm not working off of potential, I'm working off of like I'm watching what this guy does on film on Saturdays, and that directly carries over to what I want him to do. I've actually seen what I want him to do, I've seen it, and I can carry that over directly to the NFL. Those things translate directly. So I don't have to worry about that variable, right? There are other things that I watch where I'm like, that won't carry over as well. But there are certain things I know will carry over, and then I can eliminate this element that we're talking about right now. Look, altogether though, training camps present other value for other teams. It varies per team. Like Rams canceled because we know what the Rams are, right? They had good attendance for the most part, they feel like they're in a good spot, no need to do it. There are other teams that are in a much different position. Okay, so here are some interesting storylines. Kyler Murray for the Minnesota Vikings. This is this is an interesting situation here because we all know the Vikings in like the post, I mean, if I go back to like Dante Culpeper, in the post-Dante Culpeper era, like this team has just been searching for a veteran, or I should say, searching for the right quarterback for a long time. They've had like, it's been a turnstile for like veterans that have been like somewhat accomplished to come in, give them their best for a couple years, and see you later. Right? Like a couple examples would be like Kirk Cousins and uh who they have when you played them. Why am I blanking?

SPEAKER_00 18:57

Case Keenum.

SPEAKER_01 18:58

Yeah, Case Keenum, right? So they they they've cycled through a lot of guys like that. They're trying with JJ McCarthy. It kind of feels like he might not be the guy. And so what's happening now, Nick, and you've been in a situation like this before, you have JJ who's a first-round pick and hasn't been there very long, right? He's going to his, I believe he's going into his third year. Year one was injury, year two, very up and down. And you've got Kyler Murray coming in who's sort of his, I think, the presumptive starter. And they're splitting reps. And throughout the offseason or throughout the summer, an all-pro receiver like Justin Jefferson, guess what he has to do? He has to go work with both of them. Right? He's got to spend time working with Kyler Murray, and he's got to spend time working with JJ McCarthy because he's not certain which direction they're gonna go this year. At least that's what he's saying publicly. So that so here's the interesting thing too. This year, if both fail, if this Kyler Murray one-year deal experiment fails, and JJ gets some time and he doesn't do well, you could see the Vikings back on the market. I mean, maybe they go for maybe Baker Mayfield, who's going in, like doesn't re-sign in Tampa. I don't know, right? But Minnesota's in an interesting spot. And like you're gonna make these two guys compete. I think ultimately it might set you back a little bit. I don't know how far into August they'll make a decision, but this is still an interesting one to follow, and it's been going on all the way through OTAs and minicamp, and it's gonna be an interesting, it's gonna be an interesting competition, even though I think it's kind of Keller Murray's to lose. It'll be an interesting competition come August.

SPEAKER_00 20:27

Yeah, I mean, I don't I don't like the situation. I just don't see how their offense is going to take a step this year. And then, you know, Carson Wentz is also coming back from injury, who's still on the roster, and he might even be the best fit out of all these guys, having run the offense last year, be a veteran guy, ups and downs, played through an uh shoulder injury last year, ultimately sidelined him with a surgery. He's probably, in my opinion, their best bet going forward. Because I don't there's things that JJ JJ shows me immaturity, like even with his press conferences, like that a lot of his responses sort of remind me of like high school football, or like even, you know, just like, hey, whatever, like we're listening you're a professional, you're in the NFL, you're in a QB room, you have a veteran, utilize the veteran. I've been with young players, with veterans in the room, like me being one of them, that like for some reason young players don't want to seek the wisdom of older players, and I think that's a huge mistake. And guys that I've seen that have done that where they don't seek the wisdom, don't usually succeed because they're not asking questions. They're not figuring out, like, hey, like, how would you read this? How would you handle this? Like, if you have a veteran in a room, let's utilize them. But right, so and then Kyler, like, I don't know, like one leadership has listened, he's he's a great athlete. Um, all these different things. He's gonna make some amazing plays, but like, are his leadership qualities that that'll propel a franchise to a Super Bowl? I don't know. I haven't seen it yet. Uh, just everything out of Arizona. I think that was the biggest thing, even when they were redoing his contract, talking about the video games. Listen, you can play video games, guys love video games, but if that's like something that they're having to talk about in a contract. And everything. Like, there's a leadership aspect. You have to be a leader as a quarterback.

SPEAKER_01 22:04

You know, but on that note, though, what concerns me even more. Now, granted, he had been in the Oh, you just got the zoom in.

SPEAKER_00 22:11

Look at that.

SPEAKER_01 22:13

Look at that. Look at that. Oh, is that the hand signal for you? I guess. I just learned it was. I didn't even know that.

SPEAKER_00 22:18

Oh, I thought it was like, oh, I love these new cameras.

SPEAKER_01 22:20

I'm sorry, if you get an audio here, my camera just zoomed in because I did a little hand motion. It was very strange. Anyway, what concerns me even more on that note, though, is Kyler, I know, is exposed to more than one system in Arizona when he was there for roughly seven years or whatever it was. But Kevin O'Connell's system is notoriously difficult to wrap, it's it's complicated for a quarterback, right? And so Kyler not only is splitting reps for the most part with JJ, but he's also learning a new system.

SPEAKER_00 22:45

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 22:45

And so if you felt the need to throw in a study film clause in his contract in Arizona, that means that's kind of who he is, right? And so is that gonna change in in Minnesota? Like, so I guess what I'm getting at here is the learning curve for Kyler Murray. How much is he willing to accelerate that learning curve by putting extra time in to making sure he masters this offense before that first game if he's gonna be the guy? Also, and that could give JJ the the advantage, right?

SPEAKER_00 23:12

Could it oh a hundred percent it gives JJ has the advantage? Like, let's not say it gives him it JJ has it when it comes to the offense. And listen, I could argue at Arizona he was always the franchise guy. He was paid to be the franchise guy, he was drafted to be the franchise guy. So a lot of it, even you know, when Kingsbury was there, like building an offense that was something that he could execute at a high level, and then obviously different coordinators. Every coordinator came in, their job was build this offense around Kyler, right? It wasn't, hey, Kyler, acclimate to this offense. It was build this offense around what Kyler can do. Well, now he's going to the Minnesota Vikings where it's like, hey, this is our offense. You need to run our offense. This is very different for him, right? So I know in his press clipping the other day, he talked about the disadvantage of splitting first team reps. Well, this is honestly normal NFL football when you are not the guy and you're earning the job. He's not used to that, right? This is very different for him. You're having to split first team reps, the offense isn't built around you. Yeah, they can add some wrinkles in there of hey, zone read on third and short, RPO on third and short to like help convert in those situations, but this is a different situation. So the way you expedite, and it's hard. The way you expedite it is you got to watch a lot of film, you got to study your playbook. And the way I would approach it is honestly like film is great, seeing your reps is great, but studying your playbook and getting down the play calls. If you can get down the verbiage to where it's second nature, when you step in the huddle, you don't have to think about it. It really does expedite the process. The hardest thing for a quarterback in their first year is stepping into the huddle and saying a new play call with conviction. Even when I went from, you know, uh Chicago Bears to Indianapolis Colts with Frank Reich. I remember talking to Frank when I signed there. And I was like, hey man, how much how similar is this offense to what we ran in Philly? That was sort of one, I wanted to play for Frank. Two, I want to make sure that this offense was like what, because they had had so many quarterbacks changing the offense in terms of, man, it's so much similar. The verbiage is almost the same. And like it had been a long time. Not that Frank like said lied or anything, he'd just been away from Philadelphia for a long time and he went back to his old San Diego verbiage. I mean, the verbiage was very, very different. So I might have known conceptually a lot of the concepts, but when the verbiage is like 80% different, that's hard when you get into a huddle and you're calling a whole different it's like learning a new language, right? Like different operating systems takes time.

SPEAKER_01 25:35

It's a different operating system. I mean to translate it in your own first before you absorb it, right?

SPEAKER_00 25:39

And that's what I would have to do. I would I would then like when a play would come in, I would then recite it in the huddle and I would I would say it with conviction by this time I can do that. But then when I'm going up to the line of scrimmage, I'm like, all right, we're calling this here scissors or whatever it is. All right, this was Raptor. I'm not saying that's accurate, but like I I would then have to translate it into my old language in my brain, so my operating went up to speed. Because if I'm constantly thinking about like what we're calling it, I'm not thinking about executing the play. But regardless, because I'm doing that, it is slowing down my ability to execute. That's why there's such a big jump. And I know you have Caleb Williams on the sheet. Year one to year two in a system is a huge jump. And there's a lot of quarterbacks like Jalen Hurts who don't get that. Every year they're changing coordinators. But when you get that second year, you go into OTAs and training camp, you're not having to learn a new operating system. You know the operating system. Now you're building on it, and it's it's it's coding. It's like Claude. Like you have coding in the background, right? And then you can just go out to OTAs and you can breathe, and you're just executing. You're you're actually taking that next step of like, I know this play, I'm stepping the huddle. This is a play call, we're building off it. Then you can start messing with cadences and motions and different things. And at that point, you can even change little routes here and there because you're so comfortable with the operating system, you can do that. Whereas in year one, it's very difficult to do all those things.

SPEAKER_01 26:57

We'll get to Caleb in a second, but Kyler's not the only one drinking from a fire hose in an important role in Minicamp. Uh, the other one is Fernando Mendoza. So let's remember Fernando, unbelievable year at Indiana. Number one overall pick, Heisman Trophy, 16-0. Amazing year. And he's a smart kid, too. This kid graduated from Cal, I think, in three years, and then transferred to Indiana to play at Indiana. And it was number one overall pick and spent most of his time in college in the shotgun. Right. Now he gets to the Raiders. Now, granted, I think the Raiders have a plan for him, even if he were really ready. I don't we've talked about this before. It's why you have Kirk Cousins on your roster, is to give him a longer runway to be ready, meaning Fernando, that is. Um the new head coach, Clint Kubiak, says that he's improving fast. Obviously, Clint's an offensive guy, he's in charge of the offense. Says that he's improving fast, but then NFL networks Mike Garrifolo says, look, he's got an uphill battle to start this season, which tells me that like they've already predetermined. So they control the narrative, right? The team does. And they'll point to things, they'll be positive and say, oh, he's doing great, but there's a little bit of a learning curve with XYZ and it's an uphill battle to start, which tells me he won't. And that is okay. It doesn't mean that he's behind, it means that he's probably on schedule to where if Kirk Cousins is either hurt or struggling by mid-season, they might make a move in his direction. But it does make a lot of sense for the Rams, like we've, or excuse me, for the Raiders, like we've talked about many times on this show. It makes a lot of sense for them to be patient, even if he shows that he's got it totally mastered. You can still control the narrative and say, yeah, yeah, he's doing great. He's on he's on he's on schedule, but we're not ready to throw him out there week one. We want to, I think they want to make sure their offensive line is where it needs to be. They want all other facets of their offense to be in place, the infrastructure to be in place before they move on a guy like that. Because you just took a quarterback number one overall, right? You don't want to screw this up. And you have Kirk Cousins on your roster, you're paying him like 20 million bucks. Get your money's worth on Kirk and let him go out there first and and figure out where your team is at before you make a move to Fernando. So we'll see how that goes.

SPEAKER_00 29:03

No, I agree with you 100%. Um, I think you know, when Garrett Falls says it's an uphill battle, I think that's I think that's great. I think it needs to be uphill battle. I think they need to take their time. I think we talked a lot about it, you know, last season on this show of you know the Green Bay Packers and how they've treated quarterbacks through the years. I mean, when you have a a number one draft pick like Fernando Mendoza that you believe can be a f the franchise guy for the next 15 years, be smart. Take it slow. Establish your team. This is a new coaching staff. This is an offensive coordinator that just won the Super Bowl. Like he knows what he's doing. His dad was a head coach that you know won a won a Super Bowl in Denver. Like you, you know, there's a pedigree there. So take it slow. And then, mind you, like, you got Kirk Cousins. Kirk Cousins knows how to run an offense. He he has a great work ethic. Um, he's a smart guy, he's a great guy. You you you really have a great QB room. You did a really nice job of getting Kirk, drafting Fernando. Now you have to steward it well, right? Like, steward it well, um, develop it well. I mean, Kirk can win for you. Kirk can go out there and run the offense and do great things for you. And Fernando can continue to develop as a player, learn how to go through an NFL season, play in mop-up minutes. If for some reason you guys come out and actually play some good ball and like he can play in some mop-up minutes, I think that's great to get out there and play a little bit. Fans will be excited. But I think this year is all about stewarding a young player well and hoping that Kirk Cousins goes out there and plays his best ball.

SPEAKER_01 30:36

Yeah. Um, lastly on Caleb, and we've talked a lot about Caleb Williams on this show. We've talked a lot about the Bears because if you go back to one of our first one of our first shows we did, remember from Hawaii last August, um, we talked about the Bears likely exceeding expectations in 2025. Uh, largely due in part to their new coaching staff. Uh, new offensive line. We feel like they filled a lot of voids on the offensive line. They had a new tight end in Colston Loveland, who's a total stud to go with Cole Komet. Good receivers, good running backs, and then defensively we thought they would they would take a step forward. Well, they did, and that team was really good last year. Now, here's the thing the the Bears also played with fire a lot and lived on the edge. They won a lot of games that like maybe they won't win this year if they let it get to that point. They had the ball bounce their way a number of times, especially from a turnover standpoint defensively. But one thing to keep in mind about Caleb Williams, you you already sort of hit on it. I I kind of throw away Caleb's rookie year because playing in that Matt Eberflus coached system, it just felt like that team had no chance, right? Last year felt like his rookie year, where he was coached correctly, he was in the right system, he had people around him, and he flourished. They were 11 and 6, he threw for almost 4,000 yards, 27 touchdowns, seven interceptions. It's a great season. Okay. So the other way to look at this is even if you don't if you don't necessarily subscribe to my my belief that like his rookie year didn't matter, well, he's only going into season two under Ben Johnson. This is his second year in the system. Okay, so he's got a full year under his uh under his belt with Ben, and now he's gonna get a full offseason with Ben, who's who's very good as an offensive coach and bringing quarterbacks along. Now, you know, did they lose DJ Moore? Sure. But there's plenty of other weapons to go around on this offense, Romadunze being one of them, and then the tight end position is stacked with really good players. Colston Levelin, by the way, the last four games of the season, including the two playoff games, I think he had like 48 targets. He's going to have a massive season if you do fantasy. Keep that in mind. That's not a secret. Everyone knows that. But like Colston Lovlin's going to be a huge part of what this offense is this year, assuming he stays healthy. But like people know this. He's on the Madden cover this year, but expect Caleb to take an even bigger jump this year. I think. I think that's the ceiling for him this year is extremely high. And we mentioned on the last episode, can he play boring football? Caleb gets himself in trouble when he feels like he has to play hero ball. Can he play within the system? But you're but Nick, another year in Ben Johnson's system and an offseason seems like it can only help him immensely in a situation like this.

SPEAKER_00 33:11

Yeah, I mean, I think the big thing is always uh, you know, and guys are better equipped, especially him being a Heisman trophy winner in high profile in college. Like he's used to all the notoriety, he's used to all the uh production days that he's going through with all his marketing, um, even being on the cover, Madden, like what a great honor. But like he's used to those things. Like he's been a high-profile player for um a while now. So he just has to continue to manage that. Well, the thing that's gonna be the biggest issue, not biggest issue, but a big hurdle is you know, when you're the NFC North champs, um, you're gonna have a tougher schedule the falling of the year. That's how you know the NFL works. Your schedule, you're gonna play other, you know, ones and other conferences and whatsoever. So they're gonna have a tougher schedule. And then, like you said, they were playing with fire a little bit last year. So will he be able to take that step? And the biggest thing is the mindset. Um, I think where I feel most comfortable with them taking that step is their head coach Ben Johnson. You know, I'm focused on coaching him comment. Like he's not like playing into all the off-field narrative, all the different things, or even having fun with it. It's so easy for these coaches to get complacent during OTAs and offseason because nothing really matters at this point, even though they would say everything matters. Um, and I like that he's continued to stay locked in because ultimately the head coach will help create that culture in the locker room and that mindset. So that shows me like every day the Chicago Bears are locking into their work ethic and what they're doing. And you know, they can have fun off the field, but I think that's why I feel confident in him taking another leap in this year. It will be a tougher schedule, so that'll be a big hurdle. Very true. All the off-field stuff. I know the biggest thing with the Chicago Bears is talking about the stadium in Indy in Hammond, Indiana, um, all that, like moving the team to Indiana. Obviously, not they won't move, they'll keep their facility, they'll just be a longer drive to the stadium, and they'll still be the Chicago Bears, which ultimately doesn't really affect the players at all because that's many years away, and players will play ball wherever they put them. So um I think the Bears will take another step forward this year. The tougher schedule will be the biggest thing, but I liked what Ben Johnson's ultimately saying in the offseason.

SPEAKER_01 35:18

Well, another note on Kyler Murray, the reason it's important that the Minnesota Vikings get this right is look at their division. You have Caleb Williams, you have Jordan Love, you have Jared Goff.

SPEAKER_00 35:28

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 35:28

Okay, you can't compete in this division if you don't have good quarterback play, right? Now, granted, at times, like defensively, they they were pretty solid, but quarterback's got to get right because uh Caleb is Caleb has made this division even stronger in addition to Jordan Love and Jared Goff. Uh, one more note on a very notable quarterback that has made significant headlines this week, sometimes for the wrong reasons, meaning the way these deals are reported. Pat Mahomes uh rewrites the record books. He has gotten a two-year extension that now takes his current deal through 2033. Okay, so like it already ran through 2031, now they've extended it to 2033. Teams do this a lot so they can move money around, change cap hits, and give the player a little extra money in the process, right? Bring them up to date, so to speak, when the market resets and other guys get paid. Um this runs through 2033. Here's the interesting thing about this. What you so often people hear numbers and they're not sure what to make of it. So, what agents often do in today's world of extensions is they'll say, Hey, we took the existing deal and we extended it. And the new money, which this is this is true, it is a fact, it's just sort of inflated because of the way they describe it. The new money over the over the two-year extension, the final two years of the deal, is $239 million over two years. So it's roughly $119.5 million of new money per year, is what you'll hear from the agent. Hey, this broke records. He got a $239 million extension, and it's only a two-year extension, so that means the new money is $119.5 million a year, which is a it's a record. That's never been done before. Here's the truth. That's a little it's sort of silly to describe it that way. Because when you extend a deal, there's really no such thing. You're actually taking the existing deal and tearing it up and writing a new one. Okay, so if the existing deal goes for five years, let's say five more years, and you give them a two-year extension, you're tearing up the existing deal and you're doing a new seven-year deal. Okay, and it's silly to report the 119 million of new money over two years and saying it just comes over two years or 119 per year over two years, because that just creates headlines, right? So if I can make like an analogy, let's say Nick, you're currently on a two-year deal and there's tot and there's 20 million of total dollars on that two-year deal. Okay, so it's 10 million bucks a year. That's the average per year, right? And then let's say I do an extension of three years and I offer you 150 million of new money. As your agent, I would then go out and say, hey, guess what? I just got Nick to a three-year extension, 50 million a year in new money. But the truth of your new deal is it's a five-year deal, your ex your existing two plus your new three. It's a five-year deal for 200 million total, which is your existing 20 plus, or excuse me, it's a five-year deal for 170 million dollars total. Because it's your existing 20 million dollars plus 150. Okay. So 170 divided by five is $34 million, your average per year, APY, which you see a lot in these articles. $34 million. Everyone's like, okay, that's good. I mean, for a quarterback, it's not great, but depending on what position you play, you're like, now I now I know what Nick is making. It's $34 million a year is your average per year. So Mahomes, no question, is now looking at an average per year of $64 million a year. Breaking records. It's why they do this, right? They want to make him like the highest paid guy and make him feel good about that. But when you see extensions and new money and new money average per year, it's a really silly way to report it. I'm just like, I I love to look at that and think every time I read it, I'm like, this is so stupid. So, what does this do to the what is the new deal? And you finally get the details of the new deal, and it's like, okay, total value of like $504 million all the way through 2023. Forget the fact it's an extension, and I divide it per year, it's roughly $64 million per year, average per year, uh, in cash. Okay, great. Like Mahomes is now like the highest paid, technically average per year, the highest paid quarterback in the league, which he should be. But these these, you know, new money average per year is silly to say, did you see Mahomes is getting like 120 120 million per year on new money? Silly. Just focus on the new deal and what it is. There's really no such thing as an extension. You tear up the old one, you give them a new one, and that's where it is.

SPEAKER_00 39:39

Yeah, I think you did a great job. I mean, I don't think there's times that I don't need to comment on anything. I think I just let you roll over the next segment, and I think our our fans will be really appreciative that I do so. Great job, Evan.

SPEAKER_01 39:50

The great thing they did with Mahomes is getting this done, they don't take a big cap hit a cap hit this year, which is big. They still keep a pretty good his cap hit is is is negligible this year with regard to with or with respect to how quarterbacks typically hit the cap. It's totally workable to have arguably the best quarterback in the league at a reasonable cap number. He's obviously coming off injury, but that doesn't matter. That's not why they're doing this. Um, so we'll see how it plays out. But Mahomes is making a lot of money, and he's probably where he should be uh in the ranks of quarterbacks on average per year on on total money. Um, because he you know, obviously that goes without saying everyone knows Mahomes is is gonna go down as easily one of the greatest of all time, no question about that. Um, all right, let's move on to the Eagles. So when I think about Eagles in Minicamp, um yes, Sean Mannion comes to mind. Yes, AJ Brown moving on and going to the Patriots comes to mind. These are all things we've talked about. And Sean Mannion probably should be front and center in my mind. But I'm gonna be honest with you, Nick. And we had Jeff Stoutlin on our show uh this spring. And you only have to listen to five minutes of our show to see that Jeff Stoutlin is such a critical piece of what that team has been for the last, what has he been there, 13 years? I mean, such a critical piece of what's gone on there. His his ability to two two critical things, the boxes he's checked developing players and scheme. Right? And he checked both things with flying colors. And so in comes Chris Cooper. And there's a lot of pressure on Chris Cooper, like whether or not you ought to accept it. Like, obviously, people you're following Jeff Stoutlin, and obviously last year the team didn't run the ball as well for reasons that I think were largely outside of Jeff Stoutlin's control. Sometimes health was a problem too. But Chris Cooper's job is is critically important this year. And Chris Cooper comes from sort of the mindset or the scheme, if you will, of doing things probably a little differently than Eagles have in the past, more stuff under center, more zone run blocking schemes, more nakeds in boots. Oddly enough, most of what he does offensively, Nick, I know you know this scheme-wise, he can actually hide a lot of deficiencies up front. If if teams have them. Now, thankfully, this team with Jordan Mylotta, Landon Dickerson, Cam Jurgens, Tyler Steen, Lane Johnson from left to right, I mean, that's a strong group as long as they're healthy. Like Landon Dickerson's gotta be healthy, like these guys are gotta be healthy. But most of what he does scheme-wise can actually hide deficiencies if a group really maybe struggles at the point of attack. However, um his scheme also will typically have guys in it that when you end up in like one-on-one, like straight drop back blocking schemes, you can struggle a little bit. Thankfully, I don't think the Eagles necessarily have that in their starting group, but there's unproven depth, and that's where you're gonna test his ability to develop a little bit. But I'm curious what you've been hearing, what your thoughts are of Chris Cooper and how things are going so far in the spring.

SPEAKER_00 42:37

Yeah, just talking to different guys about him. Um, I don't know Chris personally. Um, don't honestly don't know a lot about him just from you know just researching just what he did in Minnesota, um, ending up in Philadelphia. Obviously, we're gonna do a deep dive because I'm really close with Stout, and you know, I feel a certain way about that. I think this is the biggest hurdle of the Eagles' offense this year. Um, I'm not as worried because they have you know freaks up front that are so talented and Malotta and Lane Johnson that really can do anything. He's not inheriting a bad offensive line. He's literally inheriting one of the best, if not the best, offensive line cast in the league that has been developed through 13 years of hard work and just diving in from detail of Coach Statlin. So I'm not really worried in that sense. He's inheriting great people. What I worry about is the future of the offensive line. I think the biggest challenge for coaches, and I had a lot of offensive line coaches in my career. There's some that can manage the offensive line and sort of break down a scheme and just like, hey, here's the protection and that, but they're not great developers. They don't develop guys, they don't develop talent. Um, they they get draft picks and just expect them to plug and play and do their part and hey, do this. See, that's where Jeff Stoutlin is different. He is the greatest developer of O lineman. I mean, he's he's proven that through the through the years, you know, having Jason Kelsey become a Hall of Famer, uh, you know, six time all pro, sixth round pick, mulata, rugby play. Never played it down. I was with Jordan his first year in Philadelphia when I was running scout team, and he didn't obviously amazing athlete, freak of an athlete, amazing human being, did not know football, had no skill set. And at playing tackle, you have to have a ton of skill set. So you need a coach that is patient and is a great teacher and develops. And that is what they had in Jeff Stoutland. Is Chris Cooper that coach? I don't know. I mean, he doesn't have enough history. I was looking up information. Uh, you know, the Jeff Stoutland has all this information. Um, here it's like there's not much that's comparable. There's not enough time. A lot of it's just up ups and downs in one really good year in 2023. Um, so that being said, I do think this offensive scheme, talking around and knowing it, uh, can hide deficiencies. Uh, quoted, this was a quote it's among the easiest in football for offensive linemen. Heavy under center, run first, play action based. So, therefore, they have an elite offensive line already. They should be fine this year, but they need to develop the skill set to then what happens if these guys get injured. That's going to be the big issue. And also a deficiency of this offensive scheme, and this is something to watch for during this year, because I know this was an issue last year's third and long situations, because then it becomes drop back pass. Now, once again, the Eagles are already well trained from Jeff Stoutland to handle this type of situation. But historically, with this type of scheme, you know, what do you got? Uh you got San Francisco, Minnesota, the Rams, uh, before Stafford, because obviously Stafford can handle that and handle all the deficiencies. When it became third and long, it became an issue. If you get down in the game and you're not controlling the game, do you have the ability to fight back, drop back passing? It's always been a struggle with these type of schemes. Yeah. Um, having those guys up front will handle that. But I think if I had to circle it going into this season, um, you know, like I said, he seems like he's well liked. He's a former player. I think that's a positive. When you're a former player, you can relate to the guys. Um, will he be able to develop the you know, guys they get that need to be developed? That's the biggest thing with O-line. That's where Jeff Stoutlin was amazing. And then how's your personality gonna go over with the new guys when you know they sort of feel like a Hall of Famer coach for the Eagles was sort of pushed to the side and you know ran out of Philadelphia in a way where they weren't gonna like make him let him be the O-line coach as he's talked about on our show, and then the new Heights podcast. Uh, how are you gonna feel with that? So there's a lot to look for in this season, but fortunately for fans out there, Eagles fans, you can take a breath. Like this this scheme is very O-line friendly. It's just make sure you stay in third and medium, the third and short so you execute.

SPEAKER_01 46:49

Yeah, I mean, like you just said, O-line friendly. There's a lot of times I've been around offensive linemen where they're struggling and we continue just to call straight drop back passing, and they just keep getting pounded. And they're like, Can you guys come up with something different? Some misdirection, something to help us out a little bit here and get angles on defensive players to help us out, right? And I think this offense is gonna do a good job at that. And everything you've said, we're not expressing doubt in Chris Cooper. We're just assessing like whether or not he can adequately fill in for or not fill in, replace Jeff Stalin. And a couple mitigating factors here that I think are really important to point out. And you've kind of already done this on the talent side. All these places he's been as an offensive line coach, or the experience he's had as an offensive line coach, I don't think he's had a group like this before. Okay, so we we already said left to right, Jordan Mylotta, Landa Dickerson, Cam Jurgens, Tyler Steen, Lane Johnson. This will be the best group that Chris Cooper's ever worked with. Assuming these guys all stay healthy. Now, granted, depth is a little bit of a question mark, he's gonna have to develop that. But assuming these guys all stay healthy, this is the best group he's worked with. So that's a that's a huge positive for Chris Cooper as he comes in, looks at what he's got, and goes, My God, I've never had talent like this to work with. Okay. That kind of talent's gonna make any offensive line coach look better. Now, secondly, Sean Manning's gonna be a big factor in this, right? In working with Chris Cooper and assessing the scheme. Now, granted, like he comes in with a scheme in mind, but the best coaches always look at what they're dealing with from a talent standpoint and tailor it to their players, right? Tailor it to our quarterback, our running back, our receivers, especially our offensive line, right? And things those guys do well. And so Sean Manion, like I mean, Chris Cooper is a big part of evaluating that, but ultimately he's not he's not he's not even the run game coordinator, right? The run game coordinator is that guy that came over from um is it Mahaffey? He came over from from the Packers, I believe. Uh and so Sean Mannion doing it this in concert with Mahaffey and Chris Cooper is going to be critical. And doing this the right way. He like Sean, and the good thing about Sean guys, you know all I've heard from Jordan Mylotta and Lane Johnson? They call him the smartest guy in the room. They said, if we got all like like uh Jordan had a funny quote. He said, if we got all the smartest guys in the building together and put them in one room, I think we would have only invited Sean Mannion. Now that was pretty funny, right? Like it obviously, like it's it's it's he's he's almost exaggerating the fact that Sean Mannion's very bright and he's already like had a good first impression on everybody. You have experience with Sean Mannion. The all the early returns on him there are that he's very bright. And you pair that with Chris Cooper, Ryan Mahaffey, like this group has to succeed in that regard. And they've got a really, really good group up front to be able to do that with as long as they can keep these guys healthy.

SPEAKER_00 49:27

No, I think what what Jordan's saying is par for the course when it's talking about Sean Mannion. I mean, that makes a lot of sense. I agree. I mean, I was with Sean his rookie year, and he was one of the most impressive rookies I've been around from his recall, his memory, his work ethic. Um, you could see right then and there that you know he'd have a career in the NFL, whatever role that would be, which he did, and then ultimately coaching would be in his future be just just because of like his intelligence. And I think the fact that he was a quarterback, he played quarterback, he's been in a locker room. There's just something about that that the guys can relate to the players, they can relate to the O line, they can have fun with them, they know the intensity of football, they can relate to that. Um, and then with intel, you know, tack on the intelligence aspect, this is leading to Sean Mannion being a potential, you know, if everything goes well in a few years, a head coach in the NFL. And he knows that. That's the career trajectory. And he's in a you know, well-established franchise with the Philadelphia Eagles that has a great talent pool in that locker room to go out there and succeed. So I I think the bit it goes back to the biggest circle is how does the O-line respond to Chris Cooper, in my opinion, going in this season. I'm not worried about Sean. I'm worried about just like maybe the run scheme and the O-line, how everything responds. I'm not worried about the guys that are actually playing O-line. Um, if I had to have a circle and something we'll have we'll come back to a month into the season, it's like how that how is that O-line responding to the new coaches and the new scheme? Um, but I I love Sean. I think he's very bright. Um, I'm excited for him, and I know he'll, you know, the big thing is being calm and cool and composed in this situation, being the offensive coordinator for the Philadelphia Eagles. Don't let the emotions of the game get ahead of you. You know, just call the play, play the game. There's gonna be a lot of emotions. This is a historic franchise. This is a passionate fan base. You're gonna hear some yells, you're gonna hear some booze, but just call your play, focus on it. I think he can do that, and he'll do it at a high level.

SPEAKER_01 51:23

All right, quick show note to all you Philly fans that probably went straight to that segment because you want to hear Nick talk about the Philadelphia Eagles. Um, we will be making an announcement regarding the show sometime very soon. Uh we haven't decided on exact yet our date yet, Nick, right? Maybe late, late June, early July. Um, and I think folks in Philly will be pleased with an announcement on the show. And we'll be doing that sometime very soon. So stay tuned on that. Um we had intended to do it by like mid to late June. I think we're sort of on schedule to do it at the right time. Uh we want to find the right time to do it, but I think everybody will appreciate that. Those of you that listen, watch this show, um, and especially those of you that like the Philadelphia Eagles, um, I think you'll be pretty happy about it. Um, I'm gonna throw one big curveball at Nick, though, before we sign off here. Um one other story, this is not NFL news per se, although it could end up having NFL repercussions, but one other story that's out there right now is Texas is Texas Tech quarterback Brendan Soresby. Uh Brendan, this offseason was a transfer from Cincinnati, and it was uncovered that he plays thousands of bets, even on games that he that his team was playing in when he was in college or what previously to arriving at Texas Tech. Um gambling addiction, but not just gambling, like gambling on games that he was a part of or his team was a part of, right? In all in all levels of sports, credibility-wise, huge no-no, right? Like the Pete we we know the craziest stories being like the Pete Roses of the world. Um, gambling is a huge no-no as a player, right? For credibility, um, integrity of the game, all those things. There's a reason those things are in place. And the assumption was is that Brendan Soresby's done for college, like in college. Like, we won't see him play in a college field again. And we got some crazy news last week. Um, so his attorney is Jeffrey Kessler, and Jeffrey Kessler's been involved with the NFL PA and a number of different things relating to the NFL and the NCAA and all things antitrust. Jeffrey Kessler's been a thorn on the NCAA's side for a long time. Um basically anything the NCAA does in the eyes of Jeffrey Kessler is an antitrust violation, or at least it feels that way. And he's already had victories against the NCAA that have changed the landscape of college sports. And so he took it upon himself to represent Brendan Soresby in this case and argue for his reinstatement. And he basically argued that the NCAA was punishing somebody for a gambling addiction. And that's a mental health condition, is what they argued. And so it's a mental health condition rather than willful misconduct, which is what would have gotten him suspended or you know, kicked out of college football, whatever it is in the first place. And so Kessler argued that if he's suspended, he'd have irreparable injury from missing the entire season. And therefore, the court should consider reinstating him or granting him an injunction to stop this suspension and get him back on the field and allow him to seek treatment. Presented without comment on that. However, he got the injunction and he's now eligible to play. He's only going to get a two-game suspension and has to go through counseling and is eligible to play. Um, this is a very, and I think the very obvious thing is this is a very, very slippery slope for sports in general. Now, here's the thing: the NCAA has no teeth to enforce this. They tried to. Don't come at the NCAA on this. Like they they tried to, like they said, no, he's done, he's ineligible, he's out. But everything the NCAA has done now for several years gets challenged at court because of all these antitrust issues and all these things that now granted, you can make an argument that for years the NCA overlooked certain things they had to do to give themselves the teeth and the power to enforce these rules. But for whatever, however you want to argue it, the reality is we're at a place now where the NCAA can almost can enforce basically nothing. It's why players are allowed to transfer as freely as they'd like. It's why NIL is where it's at, is because the NCAA didn't get out in front of it enough to be able to govern it as we move forward. And as it stands now, there's not going to be any changes until there's some new entity in place that can sort of govern sports and college football, probably through collective bargaining and all those things, which we're nowhere near at this point. So it is a complete mess. And instead of diving deep into why the NCAA is where it's at, I just want to point out um it's not the same as the NFL. The NFL is in a much different situation. They're dealing with professionals, they'll deal with they're dealing with employees that are operating under a collective bargaining agreement, and the NFL can punish players if they find out they can ban them, they can suspend them for a very long period of time or even kick them out of football if they find out that players are gambling on games, right? So yes, this is a slippery slope for college sports. There's no question about that. And the direction of college sports, it's where it's going. However, pro sports are structured far differently and are in a much better position to be able to govern this stuff as they look at it. But I but I will say, Nick, just from a college sports standpoint, it's disappointing, right? Like I there's a lot about college sports I don't love in the direction it's going, especially transferring. But to now see that guys are able to get out of a situation like this, um, blatantly disregarding rules that are in place for a good reason, uh it's it's pretty frustrating to see Texas Tech supporting him as well. I'll put it that way. So I don't know how you feel about it, but it's a bummer to see where the what this has gotten to with him.

SPEAKER_00 56:46

Yeah, I think you just lose a lot of the integrity of the game. And, you know, I I'm glad, you know, it is an issue, right? Like gambling is an issue. We, you know, you and I have talked about it. Um, you know, getting help for that, mental health for that, I think that's fantastic. I think that's great. Um, but it does hurt the integrity of the game, regardless of what's going on. And I think the biggest thing you said is what, you know, if I'm the if I'm college football and college sports, what is the entity that is governing us, right?

SPEAKER_01 57:13

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 57:14

That's the biggest thing with the NFL is you know, there's rules and regulations, and the entity that governs the NFL. What is the entity that governs college sports? And there's a lot of things that are broken with college sports that need to be fixed. And when we had Joel Clyde on the show, we talked about like the calendar was a big thing in college football. So I don't know. I think the biggest thing they figure out is what is the entity? Um, it is a slippery slope. Um, the NFL is structured to handle all these situations. And if this same situation happened on an NFL team, I think you just have to ask yourself like what would happen to that player? Um, he would be fined, he would probably be suspended for a year. Um, you know, that I said probably. I I'm guessing, like I'm not saying that as like a black and white, but like there would be large repercussions that there's no, like, and you would appeal it as a player. Like, I, you know, if you get fined, you can appeal it, but I don't think the appeal would be heard or upheld. Like, it would just be like this is what it is, this is our governing rules, this is the entity, this is the bylaws, this is what's said, this is during training camp. We showed you videos, we talked about it. Because you know, in trading camp, every every night, like the NFL or NFLPA has something that they're showing you that's educating you so they can cover everything that the NFL, the entity of the NFL, has in like all the regulations, right? Whether it's the drug testing, whether it's the gambling off the field, they will show you are gonna watch a video throughout training camp and they're going to educate you and have people come speak to you about all these things. And then if you do go against them or you do you know fall short or you do, you know, gamble and these things, like you're gonna be suspended, you're gonna be find a lot of money. So the NCAA has a lot of way, you know, they got a long way to go. But I think the biggest thing is if you had to choose one thing, what's the one thing? Well, what's the governing entity of NCA sports that professional sports does? Like, how do you create that? I don't have that answer. If I did and I was running that, I don't think we'd be sitting here right now.

SPEAKER_01 59:06

Yeah, that's that's a ways off, I think. Unfortunately, when when people are yelling at the clouds, basically saying, we need to do this, we need to do that, it's like, who's gonna do it? The NCA can't even stop a kid from gambling on games and making him ineligible. So who's gonna do it?

SPEAKER_00 59:20

And there's so much money on the line now, right? I mean, and all like how much money is on the line, like four to five million dollars? And then, you know, Texas Tech has lawyers and they have money to go out there and get the best lawyers, so it's different.

SPEAKER_01 59:30

Here's the other wild card though. Texas Tech may have had a uh if if if getting Brendan Sores be eligible, they were sort of unofficially supporting him, obviously, legally. If if him being eligible is a win for them from a legal standpoint, then Texas Tech has taken big hits in the court of public opinion, big time. Because everyone knows they're sort of supporting this kid trying to become eligible again. And they're trying to then they're they've released videos and all trying to tell people why they're standing by Brendan Soresby. And the question will become between now and August, or late August, I should say, how strong is Texas Tech willing to be and to throw him out on the field? That's what I'm that's what I I I I wonder is are they going to stand by their support for him as they continue to get all this criticism as an institution? They've even had teams in other schools around the country say we will not play against Texas Tech. We're not going to play against them. Some teams don't even play them in football. They're just saying all of our other sports won't compete against Texas Tech because we feel like they've compromised the integrity of the game across the board. So if they continue to see this kind of criticism, will Texas Tech continue to stand by him? That's the question. And will they throw him out on the field? Because if they do, they're gonna get endless amounts of criticism for it because of what he's participated in and sort of done to the integrity of the game over the last few years. And it's hard for me to disagree with it. So I disagree with the criticism that's coming at Texas Tech at this point, right? So we'll see where it goes. I I just thought that I found that to be somewhat relevant to the sports world, and I wanted to discuss it briefly briefly today because it's a very unique situation. In a lot of ways, it's unprecedented. Uh, in many ways, it sort of underscores the Wild West's unstructured nature of college football and where it's at. I don't think it will forever be like this, but that that's where it is now. And stuff like this is gonna kind of fall through the cracks, if you will, of enforcement while we're just in this odd period of time. But I don't I don't think this translates to the NFL at all because the NFL is is completely different. Okay. I don't think this translates into the NFL because the NFL is in a completely different situation with collectively bargained rights for employees and they can enforce things differently than the MCA. So enough said on that, we'll leave it at that. It's a it's a very interesting story to follow and to see the the support that that Texas Tech will continue to give him throughout camp. So uh any other final thoughts, Nick, before my internet gives me another issue?

SPEAKER_00 1:02:12

No, no final thoughts. Uh, you know, great show. I think the big thing is, you know, we're a lot of a lot of teams are breaking for OTAs and summer break. Uh we are as well. Um we'll we'll have a show. We have an announcement that we'll share coming up in the in the coming week. So follow, um, follow, like, subscribe so you can hear the announcement. Um, you know, an early happy birthday to your dad. He's turning 70, so we're gonna do a little family vacation for your dad with all the grandkids, and we'll have a lot of fun. So I think that'll be great. So happy birthday, Dan, from Evan and I. And uh, yeah, summer break's great. And then August comes and we'll have everything dialed in for season two of our show. Big announcement will have happened. I think you know, NFL fans all around will be excited, but I think Philadelphia specifically will be really excited. So comment what you think this big announcement will be, and we'll look at the comments. I know Eagles fans like to have fun in the comments, and all our fans like that as well. So please comment, subscribe, and um, we're excited for season two of the season.

SPEAKER_01 1:03:14

Love it. Uh, this has been episode 45. Uh, as always, thank you for listening. Make sure to subscribe on YouTube and follow rate five stars, all that on Apple, Spotify, wherever you get your podcast. Have a great weekend.