Latest / Know Your Personnel Pod / KYP - Ep#7 - The Players, Jaylen Waddle Trade, Future of the AFC West, and World Baseball Classic

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KYP - Ep#7 - The Players, Jaylen Waddle Trade, Future of the AFC West, and World Baseball Classic · Know Your Personnel Pod

• Nathan Hawthorne: Here we go. And look at that. We both got the green on today. I like the green, a little bright green, a little forest green action. I think both of our water bottles match as well too. Ladies and gentlemen, ⁓ side note, it's Patrick's Day. That's why you got both Jared and I in green today. Little bit of forest green, little bit of bright green, but the greatest part, matching water bottles for the fits. Jarod McInroy: Alright. ⁓ yeah. Nathan Hawthorne: You can go ahead and show your water bottle off. See, and that's the kind of coordination that it takes to get to the next level. So we're going to keep bringing that to you guys. And speaking of bringing it to you, we've got episode seven of the Know Your Personnel podcast, AKA KYP, coming at you here live today. I'm Nathan Hawthorne. This is my co-host, Jared McEnroy. We've got plenty to get into today. Jared, what are we going to get into? Jarod McInroy: Yeah, right there. Yeah, for starters, it's my first hatless episode as well. I finally actually went and got a haircut, ⁓ that's big news. ⁓ We got a few things. We're gonna talk about the players. We're gonna sum that up. Couple trades in the NFL ⁓ that we're gonna get to. ⁓ Yeah, we'll talk about it. ⁓ And then, yeah, then I'll wrap it up with a ⁓ little bit of baseball. This World Baseball Classic really has hyped right now, so. just gonna talk about it a little bit. But let's start with the players. ⁓ What a week it was. let me get your take before we go too far into this. What do we think about? Like give an overview of what you thought of the weekend. Nathan Hawthorne: We gotta talk about ⁓ I mean, what do you mean just the weekend? ⁓ Jarod McInroy: Just the weekend, what, overall, you watched it, you spent four days watching this thing. What's your overall overview of how you felt about it? Nathan Hawthorne: The world baseball classic or what? Jarod McInroy: The players, are you listening to me? Nathan Hawthorne: Duh. You said we're gonna talk about, you said we are gonna talk, no, no, no, we're keeping this in. You were talking about the players. thought when you said the players, I thought you were talking about, okay, way to say personnel on my tray. Jarod McInroy: Make a cut. Make a cut. Make a cut. Make a note. Write it down. Jot it down. Jot it down. the players championship PGA tour at TPC Sodgrass. Nathan Hawthorne: I was like, yeah, I like players. Players are, they're playing and they're playing well. Jarod McInroy: Tell me about the four days that you watched golf at TPC Sawgrass. What is your feeling on it? Nathan Hawthorne: Man. I I Liked I liked the tournament. I just I'm struggling with their broadcast recently Because every week it feels like they want to pick the winner before Sunday comes and I get that right because then it gives you something to talk about and the storylines and you know day two I think was Was Xander Shafle? He started out hot on Friday and then all of a sudden it looked like ⁓ my gosh like this guy might be Untouchable and then Ludwig Eber started Jarod McInroy: Yeah. Nathan Hawthorne: showing off a little bit or Ludwig Ober-Zari. And I feel like on the broadcast, like there was a few guys that ultimately came in to play late because of how difficult the course was playing later. And we just didn't really hear anything about them. And then all of a sudden, know, Cam Young's your winner. So my beef is with the broadcast, but what an electric finish for Cam Young specifically, not anybody else other than Cam Young. You could argue Matt Fitzpatrick as well if you'd like, but wow. Jarod McInroy: Yeah. Nathan Hawthorne: The biggest drive of the week on 18. Just lights out, nails. He's certainly gonna be one of the consistent President's Cup, Ryder Cup guys here coming in the future. He's just got stones, man. He's got an elite putting ability. It's, man, he's got a really solid game. What about you? Jarod McInroy: ⁓ yeah. I think it's a bad, bad weekend for the camp of people who think that this need to be the fifth major. It just, didn't have the feeling. It didn't have the vibe. The whole, again, we saw another person dominating the whole time and then crumbles at the end. It's kind of been consistent with the last couple of tournaments, which is honestly really anticlimactic to watch. I mean, seeing a guy up by six strokes is also extremely anticlimactic, but ⁓ to then watch him crumble and honestly it couldn't happen to a worse, worse guy to see it happen to. Um, because Ohberg is honestly an easy guy to root for. He plays fast. He has such a clean game. Um, yeah, I don't know. It was just, it was a weird, weird weekend of golf. Um, and then yeah, I feel like the whole time I'm watching cam young, they're kind of do them every now and then he's on the leaderboard, but they really didn't show him much for a guy who was honestly playing Incredible golf the whole time and a lot of it was some ho-hum golf, know doing the right things But if you want to highlight this is a really tough golf course And this is a course that we have the greens playing as fast as they've ever been, you know there's there's so much so much to it that You want to highlight it as this competitive tournament that needs to be talked about as a us open It's just not You're not showing the guys who are out there actually managing the course. You're not showing the good golf. You're just showing like the big highlights. You're tracking. I don't, I don't need to see Scottie Scheffler who's five over on the day. I don't, you don't need to cut to him consistently. And I get it. You want to show your big names, your big guys. Okay. But it's a tournament show who's playing well, show who has a chance to win. And yeah, the coverage was weird. ⁓ Nathan Hawthorne: I do not. I do not. I do not. Jarod McInroy: It was unfortunate to see Fitzpatrick also crumble at the very end. Like, yes, Cam, Cam Young went and got it. ⁓ I mean, if you, you, you go to 17 Fitzpatrick plays to the middle of the green. So Cam Young says, okay, I have no other option than to go at this flag. And he did exactly that made the putt. ⁓ and then 18, like you said, farthest drive we've that's ever been recorded on 18. ⁓ and yeah, I think it just ultimately comes down to a guy having a mallet putter versus two guys who have blades. Nathan Hawthorne: ⁓ my goodness, he did not just go there. Wow. That's unbelievable. I tell you what, the whole Mallet versus Blade conversation, it's not looking good for my camp right now. Jarod McInroy: and he capitalized. It's bonito. That's 10 Kurtovitz out of 10. Nathan Hawthorne: But if you stretch that out across all the different handicaps, there's really not a measurable difference across all handicaps and certainly not the most elite golfers in the world. say what you want. I'm gonna be Team Blade till I die. Jarod McInroy: Okay, you said something interesting to me the other day, moving off of that, because we don't need to do this again. The lazy takes of Ludwig Oberg not having experience in these moments. He's a 24 year old, maybe 25 now, and he's young. Yes, he hasn't been in this many tournaments. He's played one full year of majors and We're grilling the guy over inexperience. Tell me what you think of that. Elaborate a little bit and then tell me what you actually thought went wrong for him kind of down the stretch. Nathan Hawthorne: Yeah, lazy takes meaning you got people nitpicking his swing all of a sudden. He's got one of the most clean, simple actions and there's a reason the guy's on the PGA Tour and it's not because he has a weak swing. And are there some deficiencies in... every golf swing. Yes, maybe other than Tiger Woods in 1999 through 2001, that might have been the only perfect golf swing. But to sit there and start talking about, he has these flaws that come through in the big moments or he doesn't have it mentally. Like it's hard. You got to build up some battle scars and you're either on one end, you're either on the too young and too dumb to know the stakes of anything. So you just go out and win or you're on the side of, okay, you've been there. You haven't won, but now you know what it means to be up there. And sometimes you just got to get those battle scars. And what you saw from Ludwig Oberg was just struggling to keep some tempo. We know that sometimes when he wants to keep things calm, his hands do get a little bit late and he's trying to compensate for that. He's like, okay, I don't want to have late hands and have these flares out to the right. Like he had with his wrist injury that wasn't quite healthy. I want to be able, I want to attack this golf ball. It's what Cam Young did. You attack the golf ball, but unfortunately he just got a little bit quick. And that was his downfall. You duck hook one, you put it in the water, and you just start having a tough time managing your swing. that's the difficult part is when you stop thinking about executing golf shots and you start thinking about, OK, what are my mechanics in the golf shot? That's when you get into trouble. And I think that's what Ludwig Oberg started looking for was, hey, my mechanics are a little weird. How can I? figure this out to hit a good swing versus what Cam Young said, I'm going to step up and hit the best golf shot of my life right here. And I think that's what Ludwig Oberg is going to learn. He's already won on the PJ tour. He's not incapable of winning. He just had a, you know, a tough time at a tough close to a golf course like 16, 17, 18 aren't easy. We know the rest of the course. We don't necessarily love it, but it's a, it's a tough stretch of holes to finish. So for Ludwig, just, you know, keep getting those battle scars and Jarod McInroy: Exactly. Nathan Hawthorne: I'm sure that he's going to have the mental fortitude in the future. Jarod McInroy: Yeah, and I think it's this is honestly the perfect weekend for it to happen because you go and you look at the guy who won it He's the perfect example of somebody who has the battle scars He won he went 96 tournaments before he finally won one and now he's won two of the last 11 He let some of these guys marinate a little bit before we're judging them saying they're crumbling under pressure all this stuff Let's give him some years. This isn't his last players. This isn't his last big tournament like It's not now or never for him. ⁓ I hate this over dramatic now or never. ⁓ These takes on some of these golfers who are just, just give them a break, man. I don't know. And I've seen a lot of it. This isn't like some one guy kind of rubbed us the wrong way. I've seen a whole lot of ⁓ these takes that have just, yeah, they rubbed me the wrong way. But onto another part. Yes. Nathan Hawthorne: And one more, one more, can I talk about real quick is the takes on Scottie Scheffler right now. Everyone dissecting his swing, including Brando Shambly of course. ⁓ this is off, that's off. What? He's already won this year. Has he already won twice this year? I think maybe in, he's won I think twice this season, but not necessarily this calendar year. Like he's fine. Jarod McInroy: Mwahahah Nathan Hawthorne: And I know that our expectation all of a sudden became, nah, this guy's got to win every tournament. But let's reel it back in a little bit and remember that golf is a very difficult game week to week. You got to swing the swing you have that day. And sometimes it's just, no matter how great your swing is, sometimes you just don't have that little bit of sharpness. So let's chill on Scottie Scheffler too. Jarod McInroy: And it takes, and it can, it's literally the flip of a switch. Like he can find it in a day. It's just a matter of like it coming, him staying consistent and him continuing to play these tournaments. His cut streak is still going like he's fine and he's going to be fine. to the overreactions are absurd. Nathan Hawthorne: Did you see that video of him that they caught him after the range session? They were asking him how like, hey, like, you know, did you did you find what you were looking for on the range? He was like, well, to find something would imply that I'm lost. I'm not lost. not lost. I love that response. Jarod McInroy: That means I lost it. Yeah. Exactly, bro. He doesn't, he doesn't feel that way at all. And that's, it's the inside of the mind of these golfers. They're, they're not thinking the same thing. These media weekend warriors are thinking, but I digress. back to the course for a second. You talked about the last few holes being, ⁓ a little more challenging and stuff, but I think this kind of helped. Nathan Hawthorne: Absolutely, absolutely not. Jarod McInroy: prove our point that this tournament wasn't that entertaining until the last three holes. the whole round for both Fitzpatrick and Young was, I mean, most of it was us cutting to Ober, crumbling, and ⁓ bad shot here, bad shot there, whatever. But it was just a bunch of ho-hum golf, playing the same hole over and over and then playing the inverse of it and just some boring golf. And then yes, we finally hit 16 and we're like, okay, now we're really turning it on. Then we hit 17. Sawgrass, I just, don't get it. I don't see the hype of the, it being major worthy of a tournament, major worthy of a course. I don't know. Did this change your opinion? Do you still feel the same? What? Okay. Nathan Hawthorne: I feel the exact same. After four days of watching this event, it is great for it to be the most elevated event on the PGA Tour. I'm good with that. Again, PGA Tour, US Open, or the USGA, they're different, and it's fine. Jarod McInroy: Riviera is a better golf course. Nathan Hawthorne: Yes. Jarod McInroy: Pebble Beach is a better golf course. Nathan Hawthorne: Yes. Absolutely. Yeah, but... Yeah, I don't... Jarod McInroy: Like I can keep going if you want me to. Like I just, I don't get it. I get it. But here we are. ⁓ Last thing ⁓ to touch on kind of on the players and we can talk about anything else golf related if you'd like, but Matt Fitzpatrick looks great. I don't know if you saw the leaderboard this weekend though, but Team Europe is all over it, man. Matt Fitzpatrick again, looking great. Justin Rose, he had a couple not so great tournaments, I think it was more, I don't know if he was as invested as he typically has been. ⁓ Bobby McIntyre, like we can keep going. Victor Hovland was on fire all weekend. Team Europe's looking great yet again and I am struggling to find where the US steps in and has elevated their play in these big tournaments. ⁓ What can we, am I overreacting here? Do I need to give it a little more time or is it just looking real bad for us? Nathan Hawthorne: Bobby Mac. Let's give it a little bit more time. We're still in that early swing of the season. There's still a lot of guys who haven't hit their full playing schedule yet outside of playing in the signature event because of the, you know, the PJ tours requirements, et cetera. So I think once you hit the masters in the RBC heritage, the week after you start getting into the rest of the season, you will start to find. who the players that are gonna be on this next President's Cup team and you're gonna start to see more Americans start to shine. I just think it's the case of the schedule right now and guys adjusting, guys are still working on their game. Some of them who don't necessarily live in Florida, Arizona, Southern California, like they're down there right now working on their games to be ready for major championship season. Major championship season. Jarod McInroy: Yeah. Yeah. Nathan Hawthorne: Starting with the Masters like that's when golf season really starts to kick off and when those wins really start to matter I Mean they matter all the time, especially for the checkbook But that's when like the meat of golf season through August that that race for the FedEx Cup like that's when it kicks off Jarod McInroy: Yeah, well speaking of. Yeah. Speaking of, of president's cup, was thinking about it and I'm, I mean, that's far closer than the next writer cup, obviously. So, ⁓ thinking of how the team's going to shape up. don't know what the points are going to look like and who we're going to have to choose from and whatnot. But if I'm choosing today, let's say the writer cup starts today and I'm starting firing off names. Akshay, Chris Goddara, Cam Young, like these are the names I'm coming with like immediately. Nathan Hawthorne: You better watch out for Jacob Bridgman. Jarod McInroy: Enbridgement I mean is he deleting the FedEx cup right now in points like Nathan Hawthorne: He's I swear he's been top five every week for the since Pebble Beach He either he's in an elite zone right now or he's gonna be a guy that you know Something finally clicked on tour for him He hasn't won but something finally clicked on tour for him and he's you know starting to ascend into an excellent player Jarod McInroy: Yeah. Yeah, I, it's just this, this feeling of I'm telling you, it brings me back to what we talked about a few weeks ago of it feels like we have to make some big changes and we have to give some guys some chances. And I feel like you never want to treat the president's cup as an experiment because I mean, especially right now, the team that they're cooking up, um, you know, you have Min Woo Lee who's playing insane. Um, There's a lot of Aussies right now that are killing it. ⁓ There's people all over the board for the international team that will ultimately make it a good President's Cup, but you kind of want to treat it like, ⁓ I mean, it's always kind of been a warmup for what the outlook of the Ryder Cup is going to be. So ⁓ I don't know, man. I just, feel like we have to, we have to make some big swings when we fill out this roster. Nathan Hawthorne: Yeah. Yeah, no pun intended big swings. know, shout out to the international team. just, the depth of field once you leave Europe just isn't quite the same. And you mentioned a few guys who are great, but just not quite as dangerous. I would say as a Fitzpatrick, you're Robbie Mcintyre's, you're Justin Rose's like the guy Roy Mack. We're like, those guys are scary. Right? I want to see the U S get like young and cocky again. You know what I mean? Jarod McInroy: Exactly. But that's what I'm saying. Nathan Hawthorne: Like where you had that, you had that little bit of experience in there, you know, with your tiger, your Dustin Johnson's, your, ⁓ Brooks Koepka wasn't quite in those yet, but like, and then you have just like, yeah, young and cocky guys like Justin Thomas, just getting on the scene, Ricky Fowler getting on the scene, Justin Spieth, guys who are just aggressive and want to go play attacking golf. And I think like you're saying the guys like Chris Goddard up your guys like Jacob Bridgman, just honestly some assholes. Some guys that are out there and I'm winning this golf event. I love Pat Occha Occha is a dog Occha is a dog ⁓ You know say what you want about Colin Morikawa, but the guys He's got an aggressive Mindset and he's gonna put some jabs at you Mav McNeely is another guy who's really intense. He seems kind of nerdy, but the dude is intense Daniel Berger might Daniel Berger might play his way back up there. I know he's not necessarily young but Jarod McInroy: Yeah. Yeah, even Akshay dude Akshay's got a swagger to him that I'm like and he's playing Incredible yet again. And now you lost me. Okay. Nathan Hawthorne: Now I lost. But you're gonna have Scottie, you're probably gonna have Patrick Cantlay, you might have Brooks Koepka, he's starting, maybe, who knows? Yeah, and maybe not even Scottie Scheffler. Jarod McInroy: Maybe. Those are names that I'm talking like they might even get, they, honestly, Cantlay hasn't been playing well, like, we know he shows up in the, in, in these big team events. He always does and he'll make the team, but like, like you said. Nathan Hawthorne: But what I'm saying is he's got plenty of time to round out his game, right? This team's not gonna be set until what? Late July, early August, you 4 September. So like a lot of these guys have time to, like I said, round out their games. Jarod McInroy: Yeah. Yeah, we'll keep an eye on it. Let's get into some football. Jaylen Waldo gets traded to the Broncos for a first round pick, which is pick 30, a third round pick, ⁓ and what essentially a fourth round pick swap. ⁓ So that's a wash. ⁓ I don't know how I feel about it ⁓ for a of reasons. One, I think it's a perfect trade for both sides, ⁓ but... The fan in me, I've always loved Jalen Waddle. ⁓ I think he's going to be incredible for Denver. I think he's going to fit into the team perfectly. And I hate to be the, told you so guy, but I did say that the Denver Broncos need to go and get themselves a Tyree kill. What I meant was a Tyree kill like player, like maybe somebody who's been studying under him for a couple of years. And ⁓ Works on timing routes, can play inside the slot, honestly can go deep. He really can work any part of the field ⁓ and he's gonna be the fastest guy in the field at all times now since Tyreek's not next to him or to Von Achan. ⁓ Let's see what you have to say before I go into it. Nathan Hawthorne: I think that the trade worked out even in terms of assets acquired. I don't think that's a problem. I love the move mostly for the Broncos, because you're not, you're going out and getting a first round wide receiver, an elite talent, a wide receiver one, I think, a bonafide wide receiver one, to help smooth out what your receiving core looked like. Last year, Cortland Sutton had to play, and for the last several years, she's kind of had to play an in-between role of, is he backside? Is he the Z-wide receiver? We're not really sure. With Jaylen Waddle, Jaylen Waddle, he's definitely your Z-wide receiver. Now you can have Cortland Sutton. You already laughed. Jarod McInroy: The big, the big body backside receiver. Nathan Hawthorne: Big body backside X receiver. You've got him, Troy Franklin in your slot, ⁓ the young cat Bryant who's starting to ascend. So I just think you're helping out Bo Nix tremendously. And we can't forget about slant boy Michael Thomas and how successful he was with that Sean Payton offense. We know that Jaylen Waddle, you already mentioned it, timing routes, that quick slant over the middle, taking advantage of the defense, whether it's actually a run play and. You know, you check out and you throw the slant or whether it's a setup slant for Jaylen Waddle, then boom, now you got the slow go. We're probably going to see Jaylen Waddle have north of a hundred receptions this year. And if he doesn't, it's cause Cortland Sutton, you know, is right there with him. I just think it's such a great move for them. But for the dolphins, I'm just kind of confused because you signed Malik Willis to be your game manager. And then, you know, obviously Tyra Kill had already walked out the door. Jarod McInroy: Yeah. ⁓ huh. Nathan Hawthorne: Jaylen Waddle is obviously out the door now. And the word on the street is Devon A-Chain is likely out the door as well. So now you've brought in a guy to be a game manage and he doesn't even have weapons to manage with. And so I just want to know like why if you're the Dolphins, if A-Chain gets moved, why didn't you just fully commit to a tank, wait until next year, like you could still trade everybody away, wait until next year when you have a thicker, you know, more robust. Jarod McInroy: Mm-hmm. Nathan Hawthorne: QB selection opportunity, get yourself a good pick, get yourself a good quarterback. I know you love Dante more, and now all of a sudden you're smooth sailing. I just find it so interesting, and you got Bobby, you just, okay, let's go ahead, let's hear it. Because I'm concerned beyond what I just explained, and I got more, but you go ahead. Jarod McInroy: Yeah, I got an answer for you. all right here's the thing Here's the thing. It's I've said this before. They are. Well, first off, you have to acknowledge what they're inheriting. They're inheriting what Chris Greer turned into an absolute dumpster fire of a football team, both on roster, both on the money owed future money owed. Just the whole thing has been an absolute catastrophe. Where that, where that fits in. Nathan Hawthorne: And so what a time to commit to a tank. Jarod McInroy: Where that fits in is we're paying a quarterback $22 million a year for two years. He has two years of guaranteed money. It's a three year contract, he's gonna be fully paid by the end of next year. This has always been about a three year plan. And it's if we can be competitive next year, then we're competitive. It's not looking like it right now. But again, like you said, you tank, whatever. We're gonna if if this doesn't work out, we're gonna lose games regardless this year It doesn't matter in what fashion and who have who we have on the football field. We're acquiring as many assets as possible in a very very ⁓ Impressive draft on both sides of the football. So go and get whatever picks you can get right now You get rid of a receiver who's 27 again like I mean he's he's in his prime right now to waste away his two of probably what can be his best years and on a team that isn't probably winning, playing winning football. Like it doesn't really make sense to keep him here when we can go reset the clock on somebody like a Cardinal Tate or, or we wait and maybe it's a Jeremiah Smith next year. ⁓ there's, we have options, but again, the money for Malik Willis, that's where I get it now because it's a short term, not a long commitment. 22 million a year isn't that big of a deal. We're paying a bunch of nobodies anyways, a bunch of people don't even play for the team. So money is obviously not an object to it. It's whatever we, he goes out, here's my only issue with it. And it's the point of these two years is to see what Malik Willis is and see what he can be. So yes, I would prefer that we replenish some of these tools now and that be go get a rookie receiver, maybe with 11 or 30. ⁓ Maybe we make another trade like you said, A-chan can be out. I don't know if that looks like a, ⁓ I mean, it's probably going to be like a second rounder at best form, but if we can convince a team to maybe do a pick swap in the first round to get us up higher and maybe solidify a carnal tate, ⁓ I don't know. just, it's how is he going to prove himself in two years when he has no one around him to help prove if he can play football. So I get you on that side. But we also have an easy way of moving off of him if this plan doesn't work this year and we end up with the favorable pick and whatever quarterback we're wanting next year suddenly is available at that pick. it just, feel like we have more options this way and now we have no one to pay that is on the team. It's all dead cap, which I'm sure you're familiar with dead cap versus what's actually on your roster. So that's my explanation. We have a plan. I promise you it all just comes down to trying to clean up a mess. you ever used a mop? Have you used a mop before? The whole first... Listen, the whole... Hear me out. Hear me out. The whole first five minutes of using a mop is you just pushing stuff around. You're just pushing liquid around before you really start to absorb, get the clean water and the soap on the ground. Nathan Hawthorne: It's not a good plan. Yeah, I've used a mop and I've also used dynamite. Okay, sometimes you just got to fully blow it up. Sometimes a mop ain't gonna do it. Jarod McInroy: and you have a clean surface. we're just kind of pushing stuff around at this moment. That's all I got for you. Nathan Hawthorne: If it feels like you're doing the landlord special, turning over a home, you know what I'm saying? Using that big paint gun and just trying to paint over stuff. Like that's what you're doing. And you're getting those linoleum wood floors that everybody has inside rental units now. Like that's what's going on. It's just to me, it's not working. And a bigger problem, you got Bobby Sloak as your offensive coordinator, a guy who in today's NFL continues to be a half field read offensive coordinator. Jarod McInroy: You Nathan Hawthorne: And I think that that hurt CJ Stroud past his first year of development. And I think it's going to hurt Malik Willis. Bobby Sloak has not proved that he has any answers offensively. He's like, hey, we. Jarod McInroy: Prove it. You don't prove it, you're out. That's what I'm saying. Everybody's on the hot seat in Miami right now. We're trying to figure out who fits and who doesn't. Nathan Hawthorne: Right, and my deal is, it's a what have you done for me lately league, and if Halfley thinks that he's gonna get a really ugly year and then perhaps a not as ugly year but maybe better and then get a third, like, probably not. Because we saw that same grace afforded to Mike McDaniels and look where you are now. The Dolphins are not gonna wanna blow this up again, but if they see this in a year and a half, like Thanksgiving next year, Jarod McInroy: ⁓ here we go. Yes he will. Nathan Hawthorne: Thanksgiving 2027 season and things aren't looking in the right direction because you have no offensive weapons. Your defense still isn't repaired and you have a quarterback who's not going to be your future. Now you're really, really screwed. I would have said just commit to tanking this year. Let this year be your wash and then start your coaching clock 2027-2028. But right now I just think it it's not enough of a commitment to saying, Hey, we're resetting this whole thing. Jarod McInroy: I like it. It's different for me. We're getting it done in here. Nathan Hawthorne: I-I-I-I- Jarod McInroy: ⁓ yeah, we all are. But the only thing that's gonna help is time. the next thing up on this... The next thing up is Devon A-Chain. Devon A-Chain might get moved. So that's another piece of... We're moving off of a guy who we're about to have to pay. We're not gonna get anything out of him leaving us next year anyways. I'm sure he doesn't wanna be in Miami anymore. And maybe we do, maybe we... Nathan Hawthorne: You don't have that much time. Your division's getting better. Okay. Jarod McInroy: get a deal done with them, don't know, but let's assume we're moving off of him as well. An interesting idea would be with the Giants. And I know I talked to you a little bit about, and maybe I was kind of playing in Fairyland with what the compensation would look like. ⁓ But I don't see why we couldn't work out some sort of deal, whether that be swap 5 and 11, and then we get like a second or a third. So they move down to 11, we move up to 5, they get a chain. Because they're probably going to go linemen anyways, and they're probably leaning best player available or linemen, who will all probably be available at 11. But for the Dolphins it makes sense because now we solidify that Cardinal Tate is joining our team. ⁓ If we're, well that's what I'm, at five, yeah. Because I mean, that's where, when you get to six, seven, we're talking Saints, Commanders, even like Kansas City's, you never know what they're gonna do with their picks. ⁓ That's a lot of teams that could probably use a guy like him. Nathan Hawthorne: If he gets that far. ⁓ I guess, yeah, you're moving up to five. Yeah, okay, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Jarod McInroy: With Jordan Tyson's injuries, I don't want to use a pick as high as 11 on him. Um, Mikaile Lemon, he just, I love everything about him and he plays great. He runs weird, man. I don't know if you've noticed. No, no, no, I'm not. I'm not. I'm not. I'm watching. I'm talking. I'm talking, watching film. Like he just, I don't know the way he is and he runs hard in space and I just, I don't get the Amon Ra con. Nathan Hawthorne: You're getting caught up in that 40 yard dash video. Come on, cut the tape on. Jarod McInroy: Like I don't feel like he plays football with the same fluidity that some of, ⁓ some of these other receivers do. And maybe, maybe we'll see what he looks like in an NFL system and maybe it's just coaching. also he hasn't, it's not like he's had some crazy good quarterbacks at USC. but I don't know. I just feel like if we're going to take a swing on a guy that early on, we need to either talk someone like them into it or. We work out a deal with the Chargers they have picked 22 So maybe we move up from 30 to 22 and then we get some other compensation in a different round or I Ideally, I want something next year. I want a 2027 second or a 2027 Third first whatever whatever packages for HN we need to start building up for next year and that's gonna be how this three-year plan starts to turn around as we need to get future, ⁓ or compiled future draft picks, not just this year, cause I think we have like seven within the top a hundred already this year. like, we're going to be taking some swings already this year. Let's kind of cool it now, but I don't know. What do we think about HN? Do you see a fit for him somewhere? Who do you think should go and go and get him? Nathan Hawthorne: I don't know, it's tough because you look at a guy like HM and it's the last year of his contract, so if somebody is going to trade for him. They are hoping that they're also going to extend him. So you need somebody who's looking for a running back and you need somebody who's then going to be willing to spend the money on a running back and people for some reason tend to get cold hands when it comes to that running back contract or cold feet when it comes to it. So are you looking at a team like the Bengals or the Vikings who want to upgrade from their current running backs? Aaron Jones, a guy who's injured and doesn't really play very much. Chase Brown, like can you elevate your offense, right? Cause that's what the Bengals want to do. Can you bring in H-Hand? on a not too expensive, more so one year rental and then get yourself an even more explosive offense than you already have. That could be fun. A lot of people are talking about the Seahawks maybe replacing Kenneth Walker. I don't think that really makes a ton of sense. I don't think that's where, you know, ⁓ a head coach like McDonald's is gonna wanna take the team in that direction. I think he likes where they're going and. Jarod McInroy: Yeah. Nathan Hawthorne: A chain's not a part of it. You could look at the Bears, right? How in love with you are how in love with Kyle Monungay are you? How in love with you? How in love with Deandre Swift are you? Could he be a team that that goes after? So I mean, there's a lot of teams that could certainly use him, I think. But again, you have to be bringing him on knowing that you're going to extend him because the last thing you want to do is have, you know, one year rental and then he walks. Jarod McInroy: Yeah. Yeah, well that's why I picked two Harbaugh run teams as my trade targets because one we know that You know their players their player coaches. They're gonna Make you love where you're at and both teams are are headed in the right direction New York Giants have money Chargers have had kind of a lost running back room for a little while now Yeah, we'll see that'll be interesting just in fields goes to Kansas City. Nathan Hawthorne: Wow. Jarod McInroy: This is one of those non needle moving things where I'm like we have to talk about it because like it's whatever but like Nathan Hawthorne: What? What do you mean? It's the start of his official wide receiver career. That's why he's in Kansas City. No, you're right. I don't think it's needle moving. But I think it'll be I think it'll be interesting for Justin Fields. You know, now it means that you don't have to rush. You're getting a guy who's got NFL starting experience. Granted, it hasn't looked great. But so you don't have to rush Patrick Mahomes back from that injury. He wants to be ready. Jarod McInroy: Stop bro, stop. Nathan Hawthorne: week one, we'll see what happens and how the schedule looks. If your first three games are soft, maybe you don't need to rush them back. But maybe, you know, if you've got, you know, they're giving you the bills first round or not first round, but first game matchup, maybe like, ⁓ man, like that's not a game I want to lose. Or maybe you have a couple early division games. Like it's just how quickly do you want to get Pat back? I think what's interesting is Justin Fields did show signs of improvement two years ago with the Steelers. Right before that they ultimately decided to bench him for Russell Wilson, which was, we all felt was a strange move, right? Why not let him keep the momentum going? So we know that with a stable organization, he was able to grow a little bit. And then you throw them on the jets with a first time offensive coordinator, first time head coach. That was a mess. And then you flash back all the way to the disaster he was in in Chicago. So he hasn't had that chance to get high quality coaching for a lengthy period of time. So maybe. Jarod McInroy: Mm-hmm. Nathan Hawthorne: He gets a little bit of rehab in San, or not in San Francisco, in Kansas City. I don't think it's gonna be a career revival like we've seen with a couple of guys like your Sam Darnold and Baker Mayfield. But I think maybe we can see a little bit more competency, maybe a little bit more accuracy. And then yeah, just let him use his legs in Kansas City, right? Let him run around for a couple of games and get Pat healthy. So I think it's good. Jarod McInroy: Yeah. It is, it is always interesting when they bring in a backup quarterback that one they are honestly probably like planning on using him pretty early on in the season, like you mentioned, but somebody who plays, somebody who plays so differently than your existing quarterback. ⁓ I, in, I think he does. Yeah. I mean, he's, he's run first. He's P panics. Nathan Hawthorne: Here's the gadget. Does he? He plays it. He plays. Jarod McInroy: And again, maybe it just takes some maturing and maybe some Andy Reid love to get him comfortable, but. ⁓ Nathan Hawthorne: He plays the same, Pat just lets go of Justin does all the movement like he's looking downfield and then doesn't let it fly. Jarod McInroy: But yeah, I guess. I guess, but ⁓ no, it makes sense. If we're talking who is available to go over there as backup, ⁓ outside of people you would have had to trade for, he was the best like free agent option. ⁓ the only other person I thought of was like, maybe you go get Kurt Cousins who's like experienced a veteran, but then it's like, okay, he goes down week one. Then what? At least like with Justin Fields, ⁓ you can kind of assume any ways that He'll be somewhat durable to get you through whatever Down period you have with Pat. I don't know. It's just They're headed in a weird direction for Kansas City from what we've seen They have a lot of what-ifs on the roster right now specifically a wide receiver Travis Kelsey's old they don't necessarily have his successor on the roster ⁓ Running back you go and get Kenneth Walker. Okay, but Kenneth Walker's kind of proven that he's a tandem back, ⁓ your running back room looks kind of ⁓ in comparison. Like ⁓ I don't know. I don't know what to make of, of Kansas city at the moment. And I think that's why you see teams Denver go and get their Jaylen Waddle Cause I think, ⁓ I everybody, the general is ⁓ this might the only year. Like last year you got lucky, you tried to take advantage. Unfortunately you have the injury to bone X. ⁓ The division is just shaping up in a way where Las Vegas is maybe two, three years away from actually being a team that's ready to compete. they'll be competitive. ⁓ But what are the Chargers doing, man? Nathan Hawthorne: Man, yeah, I think you're kind of getting to it that AFC West is, don't know if shifting is the right word, but it's gonna be a really weird division this year because you don't know how Pat's gonna come back from injury, because we don't know what the Raiders are gonna be this year and the next couple of years, because we don't really know. What the chargers are going to do to address the old line. Like it's going to take more than one draft and more than one free agency signing to fix that offensive line. Cause it was awful. And then you've got the Broncos, which seems to be the only team that has a clear direction and like a, Hey, this is what we're going to do. And. Jarod McInroy: and but a quarterback who's coming off a big injury. Nathan Hawthorne: Big in a quarterback who's mobile. Bonix loves to use his legs. He have that ankle injury and I know that he had to get surgery, but I'm curious how maybe how severe the surgery was because it was the injury was enough to get him surgery, but was the surgery so invasive because it didn't sound like it was that invasive. It just sounded like hey, he actually can't play on this. Do know what I'm saying? Like so how much recovery has he needed? And I think that's something to look at too. Jarod McInroy: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, it's the the division is shaping up weird, but I just with all of those what-ifs I really would think that the Chargers would be a lot more aggressive than they've been they haven't added anyone really ⁓ They they lost a couple pieces. They waved to Mackay back in which I know he's Not quite who he used to be ⁓ but then they also ⁓ Lost Odafio away ⁓ they in I don't think they signed anyone of ⁓ Keaton Mitchell maybe? Is that who they brought in on the running back room? Nathan Hawthorne: That's their biggest signing. ⁓ Marion Hampton showed promise last year when healthy. But again, you're running, right, and then you bring in Keaton Mitchell who hasn't been healthy either, dating back to his time with the Ravens. And you're gonna run them out behind ⁓ a Wico line. And Justin Herbert who took more hits last year, there's no reason they should have been a playoff team. That's how good Justin Herbert is. But if you're gonna run them out behind a Wico line again, Jarod McInroy: When healthy for a running back or a rookie is... Nathan Hawthorne: And you've had a great defense, Skoducks. Jarod McInroy: That's how good Justin. You want to send me into a rant already? You're going to get a Josh Allen like rant except the guy has less than half of the talent of Josh Allen. Nathan Hawthorne: I mean, you can try. That's a crazy thing to say. That's an insane thing to say. Jarod McInroy: It's not a crazy thing to say at all, at all. Raw talent, yes. Refined, what, seventh year quarterback in the NFL? What year are we on now for that class? Nathan Hawthorne: I'm sorry, how many years did he have to endure Brandon Staley? Jarod McInroy: Okay, here we go with the Brandon Stanley. Enough excuses for the guy. I'm done. I'm done with the excuses for Justin Herbert. This is what just pisses me off about this guy. ⁓ my god, here we go. Nathan Hawthorne: I'm just saying. He hasn't had a great online. He hasn't had an elite wide receiving core that was actually on the field and healthy. He just hasn't. And he has carried this team on his shoulders. And he had one playoff blow Yeah, because people see the talent and they see the chaos around him. Yeah, I know, because when the Chargers were top three in scoring, Jarod McInroy: Nobody has Nobody is allowed more leeway and more excuses than Justin Herbert. That was his only playoff game! Like, what do you mean? Nathan Hawthorne: Their defense was the worst scoring defense in the league and they were giving up, they were scoring like 32 points in the game and their defense was giving up 33. What are you supposed to do? Jarod McInroy: Okay. How many more years are we gonna give him? How many more years are we gonna give him? Nathan Hawthorne: This is as many as he needs. As many as he needs. Jarod McInroy: Well, exactly bro. He'll be on his 14th year and he's going to have no no playoff wins. He's going to be he's going to be nowhere to be found. He'll probably be out of the league by then. But. Nathan Hawthorne: How many did we need for Drew Brees? How many did we need for Drew Brees? How many did we need for Drew Brees? For Peyton Manning. For a lot of these guys before they finally get over the- Jarod McInroy: fine I'll believe it when I see it but I don't know it's not it's not but I'll tell you what the fact that you just used Justin Herbert's name in the same sentence as Peyton Manning and Drew Brees makes me want to throw up you you're right it's not a Justin Herbert episode we'll move we'll move on Nathan Hawthorne: This is not a Justin Herbert episode. We'll have one. We'll have one. We'll have one. It will be one hour of Justin Herbert exclusivity. The guy who broke the rookie passing yard in touchdown records? That guy? Jarod McInroy: Okay, the rookie record holder for receptions in a year is Jarvis Landry. he amongst the best of the best? Nathan Hawthorne: And he, and he had an excellent career. Jarod McInroy: I'm a dolphin fan and I'm not gonna say he had an excellent career, he had a good career. okay, now we're going on a crazy tangent here to wrap up the AFC West. ⁓ It's interesting, like you said, we'll see how it unfolds. is, going back to the Broncos for a second, ⁓ that's another team where I understand you believe in Stiddy, ⁓ but maybe we beef up the QB room a little bit. Nathan Hawthorne: and he was plagued by bad quarterback play. Jarod McInroy: Like maybe that's a place that we can sign Kirk Cousins to a year. ⁓ Just have him on the roster. I'm sure he's a guy that'll get along with Sean Payton to an extent. ⁓ Just somebody that like, if for any reason, Bo Nicks can't go for two, three, you know how these injuries are coming back from them? Like a game turns into five games really quick. So having someone on the roster that you believe in. ⁓ you can trust to go out and at least be competitive in a few games. ⁓ I'd really like to see him, him go there, ⁓ and them to beef up the QB room a little bit. Cause I, they showed no, ⁓ confidence in Jared Stidham in that one game he played in my opinion. I felt like they played very, very scared. And I know you have to because the, it's the AFC championship game and it's not some random regular season game, but at the same time. You're only allotted 17 games in a year. Every game matters. So, ⁓ if you're not going to show confidence in a guy and let him lose, then maybe we try someone else. Nathan Hawthorne: Yeah, I don't hate that prospect. I do want to point out that the Raiders did a great job on the defensive side of the football. In this free agency, they've re-signed Coons, they signed N'Kobe Dean, they signed Quay. ⁓ my goodness, I'm blanking on his name. Quay Walker. Yeah, I think it's Quay Walker. Yeah, they both used to play for the Eagles. I think that's great for your defense, ⁓ addressing that problem. Obviously, you still got Max Crosby. I guess the football god said he's going to die a Raider. Jarod McInroy: Walk, er, no. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Nathan Hawthorne: And then on offense, we talked about them bringing in Jalen Naylor. He's going to be an interesting piece. You get Mendoza, you got Jonti. Maybe you've got another move up your sleeve here to get some more offensive talent. They could be feistier than we think, a lot faster. That's all I'm going to say. But yeah, this division is going to be really, really weird next year. Really weird. Jarod McInroy: Craft. Yeah. telling you they got they got draft capital they got picks to spend on ⁓ I'm sure they're gonna try and beef up their ⁓ DB room a little bit but they're gonna be I think they're gonna be a team that will be spending some picks on receivers too ⁓ you kind of you kind of have to ⁓ cool anything else on the NFL that was really noteworthy to you that you're passionate about this week Nathan Hawthorne: No doubt. Now, you know, I just can't wait for the schedule to drop now. I can't wait for the draft, obviously, but once that schedule drops and you start to like paint the picture for the season and you know, where you can win games, where you can lose games, and now you know what the rosters are gonna like, that's what I can't wait for. Jarod McInroy: Yeah. Hollywood brown to the eagles. That's a... Nathan Hawthorne: no, my needle! It's moving! Yeah, no. Jarod McInroy: Yeah, no, but I think we'll have ⁓ by next week's episode Maybe it'll take a little longer, but I think we're gonna see an AJ Brown trade soon I don't think this this offseason is is going quiet quite yet Yeah Nathan Hawthorne: That'd be big. That'd be big for AJ Brown. I've heard a lot about the Patriots being the number one team to kind of try and go after him. I heard there was another team who had also backed out of, you know, being in that pursuit. I just think that the Eagles aren't going to get it. Was it the Broncos? The Broncos? Okay. It makes sense. That means that they found the deal for Waddle and honestly, probably a better fit for, you know, what Sean Payton wanted to do. Cause otherwise Cortland Sutton and AJ Brown. Jarod McInroy: Broncos was one of the teams that were going after him. Nathan Hawthorne: not the same player, but serve a similar role on your team. Jarod McInroy: That's just a Spider-Man meme. Nathan Hawthorne: Yeah, so it could be interesting. It could be interesting. Jarod McInroy: Yeah, well, we'll see we'll see what what what's what's up for his future. I could see a ravens. could see a patriot's I could see um something like that, but uh quickly want to talk about the world baseball Classic, I don't know if you tuned in at all dude I I I'm having so much fun watching. Um, like I feel like a kid again with baseball and I think it just like it goes back to what I was saying. Um the last Nathan Hawthorne: USA, USA, USA, USA. Jarod McInroy: two, three years of baseball have been just electric to watch. ⁓ The number of good players and exciting players and cocky players who are bat flipping and just the theatrics of it all. I feel like it's a prime example of why the keep quiet, keep professional, like those people in sports. They need to be silenced a little bit because this is what makes for great viewership, but also it shows the passion you have for the sport and baseball is back. It's showing in the world baseball classic. These people are getting to, you know, represent their countries. It's really exciting. ⁓ but this U S versus Dominican Republic game was one of the most talented games, like just top to bottom roster talent that I've seen in a baseball game in a very long time. ⁓ But you hate to see, we were on the good side of it, but you hate to see a game get called by an umpire. ⁓ Mason Miller threw a filthy, filthy splitter and rung, I can't think of his name right now, rung him up for the final out and as a nine hitter too, you got Tatis coming up and then the top, or coming up next top of the order. I'm got a guy in scoring position to tie the game. It's and you ring him up like that. It's tough. It's tough to see ⁓ I feel like in any sport you don't but it brings me back to guys. We know it's we know what the rules of the game are. We know what it's going to come down to. We can't sit here and complain too much after the fact. The same guys in the same breath are talking about, in baseball there's never been a review, you can't review pitches, blah blah blah, that's not traditional. It's like, okay, you're the same person complaining about the bad pitch call. So it's one or the other. There's a solution to this. If you don't want the game decided by the umpire, you want the ninth inning to come down to, hey, I want to review this pitch. Okay. But from the viewer's perspective, we see a box at home. We see a little box. It's called a strike zone. Nathan Hawthorne: We get the bucks. We get the bucks. Jarod McInroy: They don't have that in real life. You take that box away, that pitch looks way different. Live, behind the dish, with that many people watching. The whole game on the line, like, it was a filthy pitch. He crossed him up. Honestly, he started walking toward the dugout too. He took like two steps toward the dugout and then throws his hands up once he sees everybody's outraged. And, I don't know, it was a little bit much for me. But, all of this to say. The World Baseball Classic has been an absolute blast to watch. Baseball is back. I can't wait for the season. I already talked about how the Dodgers are trying to ruin it at this moment. Venezuela is up 2-0 on USA, which kind of stinks. A lot of ball left. Love them when I'm getting out of baseball. Nathan Hawthorne: Is the World Baseball Classic every two, three years? Every four years? Meant to be every four years. ⁓ that's right. The COVID delayed. OK, yeah. I mean, I think it's so electric. I remember distinctly. I don't remember what happened, but I remember Trey Turner did something awesome in the previous rendition, right? Can't even remember what he did. And I'm not a baseball guy, but I can at least remember Trey Turner did something. The thing I love about the World Baseball Classic right now Jarod McInroy: It's meant to be every four years, yeah. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Nathan Hawthorne: is that it's before the season starts. You got MLB teams and players are in training camp. But yeah, you're getting the best of the best from the MLB together to play what's really like an exhibition tournament. But these guys just love it. And I think it's so cool. there's more energy. And there's more, it feels like camaraderie inside of these locker rooms. The guys that you grew up with, if you're from some of these smaller South American countries, it's cool. Jarod McInroy: Mm-hmm. Nathan Hawthorne: I'm huge fan. Jarod McInroy: Dude, and it's competitive. Like all of these teams are so evenly matched. Like even Italy, like you thought that they weren't that competitive a team. And they are, they are. They really are. Like Korea, like there's so many teams of just top to bottom talent where I feel like this is where they have the edge and they're closer to like soccer is versus basketball is just not competitive. Like it's the U S and everybody else. Nathan Hawthorne: I was about to say, why is Italy disgusting like that? Jarod McInroy: You don't get that same feeling. Football doesn't have any equivalent to it, which kind of stinks. ⁓ capitalize on it while you can because these dudes love it. They look like kids out there playing the game like they used to. Backyard baseball, ⁓ just doing their thing. It's awesome. Nathan Hawthorne: No notes from me on that end. Yeah, just great. No notes. Jarod McInroy: No notes. Nothing but love at the end of this thing. Except for the whiny people who are mad about a strike call. Nathan Hawthorne: And you know what people are always gonna complain and that's and that's a message I'm gonna leave everybody with today. No, no, I ain't preaching. Let's get out of here. You good? I'm gonna play us out. Yeah, let me let's play us out Jarod McInroy: All right. Yep. Nathan Hawthorne: Ladies and gentlemen, thank you so much for coming. This has been episode seven ⁓ of the Know Your Personnel podcast. Again, we are delivering this stuff to you guys weekly. you so much for tuning in. YouTube, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, you can find us just about anywhere. Until next time, we'll see you guys later.