Latest / The Philadelphia Sports Table | Philly Sports News & Views / The NFL Offseason: Roster Evaluation, Free Agency, And The Draft

Transcript

The NFL Offseason: Roster Evaluation, Free Agency, And The Draft · The Philadelphia Sports Table | Philly Sports News & Views

0:00
Hey there, everybody, it's Jeff. We wanted to let you know we
0:02
recorded this podcast episode on Wednesday, February seventh, twenty twenty four, so
0:07
by the time you hear this, some things may have changed here there,
0:10
but we hope you enjoy the show. All right, everybody, you're listening
0:38
to the Philadelphia Sports Table podcast show, the longest running weekly Philly sports podcast
0:42
show in the world, over ten and a half years strong. We have
0:45
got a great show coming your way this week. Of course, we're gonna
0:48
getting into some Philadelphia seventy six Ers talk. Let's talk about what happens with
0:52
this team now that Joel Embiid is gonna be out for the foreseeable future.
0:57
We're gonna be bringing back a segment that we have liked over the years called
1:00
Up or Down. We're gonna getting into some Eagles talk, some Phillies talk
1:03
as well, have some Phillies talk a little later on in the show as
1:07
well with the potential pitching prospect and the farm system. And then we're also
1:11
gonna be doing our one segment that we have brought to the show, and
1:17
it's newer, Shoot them Off a DM. We're gonna be getting into some
1:21
fun, fun conversation. Fun conversations. Is that what I'm calling it now?
1:25
Fun conversations? Dear Lord, Well, we're thrown down on the table.
1:29
We got Mark Scofield for Metsvination. He's gonna be joining us to take
1:32
a look at the NFL offseason and just how teams evaluate their rosters, prepare
1:36
for free agency, the draft, and just how they're looking to enhance their
1:40
team for the start of the next season. So looking forward to that discussion
1:42
with Mark. I'm Jeff Warren and I'm here my buddy Eric Leonard. Eric,
1:48
how you doing? After having listened to that rambling crap, I just
1:52
just said, Jesus, well, I mean the nice thing is you I
1:57
have no pressure on me to say anything. WITTI er small After all these
2:02
years, I can't do an intro in an outro. It's amazing. I
2:06
can't bomb as bad as you bombed. So I'm like an opener at a
2:12
comic chill. You know. It's just it's like there's no pressure. It's
2:15
like, yeah, all right, he's stunk. So making a chuckle once
2:19
or twice. We're in good shape. Oh my gosh, We're in one
2:23
of those moods man where it's it's kind of nice to just like talk about
2:28
sports, you know, but it's a rough time of the season. It's
2:30
the rough time of the year, I should say, because we're kind of
2:32
like, I know, we stole the super Bowl, you know, before
2:37
you know, the end of the season. But it's that time where it's
2:39
like between football, between baseball. We've got the Sixers that are completely and
2:45
it feels like there are no man's land and you know, the Flyers they've
2:49
been crapping the bed as of late two man. Like Philly sports, it
2:53
just goes up and down. It's an up and down roller coaster of immense
2:55
proportions throughout the year. And now it's that that down time for us,
3:00
you know. Well, and this is when the rubber hits the road if
3:02
you're a real Philadelphia sports fan, Yeah, things are are dog shit all
3:07
around. I know. When the Eagles uh finish their their ship pile collapse
3:15
at the maybe lost of Tampa, my first thought was, will this had
3:19
got the Sixers and that lasted how many weeks? Like that lasted about a
3:24
week or two, maybe maybe three weeks. Yeah, and then the thing
3:29
happened and now we're just now I'm looking at uh, could they get Luke
3:32
Canard? Oh my gosh, Well, let's get into some the Let's get
3:42
into some sixers talk to start us off here, buddy, because like,
3:46
by the time folks listen to this, though, the trade deadline is likely
3:50
going to be passed, So we're probably not going to get into too too
3:52
much trade deadline stuff. I don't want it to necessarily be a moot point
3:55
for the folks who are listening and stuff. But Daryl Maury, I mean,
3:59
he's in a bit of a predicament as to what happens with this team
4:02
right here. We all know that Joel Embiid had a corrective procedure this week
4:06
to address that moniscous injury in his left knee. He's going to be evaluated
4:13
in another four weeks to see, you know, where he can possibly go.
4:16
Can he come back before the postseason. It's just, man, you
4:23
look at this team, Eric and what was it early January? They lost
4:26
three games in a row. Then they immediately followed up that with a six
4:30
game win streak that put him I think at that point at like twenty nine
4:33
and thirteen, and that Joel Embiid has that seventy point performance against the Spurs
4:39
on January twenty second, Are things are humming along? And then like right
4:43
after that, just like losing and losing and the embid injury, and it
4:47
just was a spiral. And it's like, I felt like we should have
4:51
known that something was going to happen like this because it was way too good.
4:55
It was way too good of a feel with this team and what we
5:00
were seeing on the court and Joe ell Embiid's absolute MVP performance before that left
5:05
knee injury, And I don't I don't know, man, Like it's like,
5:10
how should they proceed from here when it comes to this remainder of the
5:13
season. You know, do you keep Joe Ellenbiid out for longer than maybe
5:16
he needs to be. But then again, this team, as they are
5:19
fifth in the East right now, I mean the playoffs start today. Man,
5:24
this team, this team, they're not gonna have home court advantage.
5:28
It's gonna it's gonna be tough for them, I think, even to keep
5:30
the fifth seed. When you got the New York Knicks and the Cleveland Cavaliers.
5:33
You know, they're they're hot, They've been hot recently. So what
5:38
are your thoughts here when it comes to this Sixers team and organization, you
5:41
know where they're where they're really gonna go from here, given the situation they're
5:44
in, Let's just start with Embid real quick, because I do think he's
5:48
gonna come back. The problem is everyone says, well, he'll be back
5:53
in four weeks. Well he's being reevaluated in four weeks. But even he
5:58
even he even he comes back in four weeks, Like when is he actually
6:00
played basketball again? Right? I mean the playoffs start what April fifth or
6:04
something like that, and that's a whole another month after after the four weeks,
6:10
there's a whole nother four weeks before the playoffs start. Can he start
6:14
within those four weeks? And I don't know if that's even possible. And
6:17
they're they're they're sinking quickly. They they got clobber tonight. I mean I
6:23
looked at their starting lineup and I was I was just shocked. Like there's
6:28
a lot of Marcus Morris, there's a lot of Mobamba. Those were cute
6:31
names when mb was putting up fifty points. They come off the bench and
6:34
hit a couple of threes and you know the crowd will go crazy. But
6:38
now they have uh, they have real roles on the team, and this
6:42
is just not the same team. One of the one of the good things
6:46
we do have that we did not have the past year or two. I
6:48
think Nick Nurse is an awesome coach, yep. I think he can coach
6:54
the hell out of a team that doesn't have superstars. I think he's still
6:58
trying to figure out the chemistry of what he has right now, whereas Doc
7:01
is a total stars coach, and if they don't have stars, he's not
7:05
interested and it just turns to a shit situation. But yeah, I mean
7:10
they're sinking fast, like they're they're the fifth seed. The Cavaliers are the
7:15
second seed in the East. Man they're killing people. The Knicks, I
7:20
mean the Knicks are just the Knicks blew right past us. I saw that
7:24
coming by a mile. Yea. They have the Rockets crowded MSG and it's
7:31
what happened to him be just so sucks because it, like I've heard it
7:39
talked about on podcasts and I kind of thought it was hyperbole, but people
7:42
were trying to say, like this is one of this is one of the
7:45
best scoring offensive seasons in NBA history, so far, And I was just
7:50
like, that sounds ridiculous, Like I mean, and people saying this is
7:55
definitely the best big man scoring offensive scoring season ever. Absolutely I was.
8:01
I was like, Okay, I remember Shack, there was Kareem, there
8:05
was Wilt back in the day. Like those guys you know will average freaking
8:09
fifty points a game in one season. But I think what they're talking about
8:13
is Embiid was doing it from every spot on the court that no big man
8:18
they've never seen that before. Right, He's hitting threes, he's sitting twenty
8:20
footers, he's shooting ninety one percent from the free throw line, forty two
8:24
percent from three is true or the true field goal whatever the hell it is,
8:28
is like seventy percent from the field. Like he just wasn't missing,
8:33
And it was like for him to follo up last season with what he was
8:35
doing was just incredible. That seventy point performance was kind of overrated. The
8:41
Spurs are just horrendous defensively, yes, but it was he was actually in
8:48
contention for the MVP again just based on his offense and to see it go
8:52
down like that, you know, where it like, why couldn't that have
8:56
happened? In December, exactly beginning of end of November. It's just such
9:03
bad timing. And again, if you're if you're a phil if you're sports
9:05
fan, this was your one kind of This was it, man, this
9:11
was the team that really the Phillies of course are gonna start playing. But
9:13
it's a long way to the Phillies first game. Yeah, and uh,
9:16
for it to go down like that, I think Nurse is gonna, like
9:20
I said earlier, coach the shit out of this team and get some wins
9:22
where they shouldn't even get wins. We can talk trade deadline later, but
9:26
you know, I'd be interested to seeing what they do and not while not
9:30
mortgaging their future because you have to think about next season because then Beat's probably
9:33
sticking around and you have a lot of assets going in next season. So
9:37
yeah, I kind of look at you know, I go back to before
9:41
the start of the season. I remember you and I were talking about it,
9:43
and I was like, you know, what their depth, you know,
9:45
it's actually not that bad, you know, And I think that a
9:48
lot of circles within the NBA applauded the Sixers for their improved depth this season.
9:54
I mean there's and there's no denying that when everybody's healthy, just they
9:58
have a ton of contributors that can really set a high level in terms of
10:01
NBA standards. You know, starting lineup as we know talented. Their bench
10:05
depth gels nicely with the starters. But the thing is, you know,
10:11
the roster depth though, is important at a time like this, but the
10:15
depth just hasn't been able to overcome the adversity that they have faced over the
10:18
last few weeks. The depth is good, but it's just not good enough
10:22
to make up for losing Joel Embiid for this extended period of time. Their
10:28
depth is good, but it's not good enough to compete with the teams that
10:31
sit at the top of the Eastern Conference, like the Boston Celtics, like
10:35
the Cleveland Cavaliers. Now, like you said, they're number two in the
10:39
East. Just the depth is good when the starters are healthy, but man,
10:43
when they're not, and you talked earlier about you know, when they
10:45
actually have some roles that they need to play, it's just it's just not
10:48
happening for this team. And I think part of this is mental too.
10:52
When you lose Joel Embiid, it's gonna affect just about everybody on the team.
10:56
It really is. I think that, you know, even though this
10:58
is an opportunity for Tyress MAXI I think to have the keys to this offense,
11:03
and to an extent, Tobias Harris, he is an opportunity to shine,
11:07
you know, if he wants to. If he wants to, I
11:09
don't know if that's necessarily going to happen. So there could be some you
11:13
know, quote good that comes from this period of time, especially again with
11:16
regard to Maxie, because he holds the keys I think to the Sixers offense
11:20
right now. Still we're seeing just a lot of the bad here. And
11:24
I just don't think that this bench and depth, as much as I liked
11:30
it coming into this season, is going to have the opportunity to overcome this
11:33
adversity not having Joel Embiide out there. Well, yeah, of course,
11:37
And I'm sorry I said. I know what I said was just completely obvious.
11:41
No, no, no. In my defense, when I when I
11:45
kind of went back at you earlier this year when you were like, I
11:48
like their death, and I was like, I don't. That was before
11:50
the Harden trade. That's true, Yeah, for the Harden trade, the
11:54
death was like, you're really relying on Mo Bomba to step up. Yeah.
11:58
Absolutely, it was a little shaky, but no, they absolutely fulfill
12:03
that depth with that trade. But I mean, Maxi is a fledgling superstar,
12:09
you know, or he's butting superstar. But if he's your best player,
12:13
you're gonna win twenty five games. You know, If Tobias Harris is
12:18
your second best player, that might bump you up to thirty. And that's
12:20
what this team is right now. Yeah, you know this is not I
12:24
mean, Jayden Springer started tonight for the love of God, like, seems
12:28
like a nice kid, seems like he's talented. He could turn into something
12:31
down the road. And when I say that, like a role player,
12:33
like and you know, in a seven seven man rotation. But I mean,
12:39
it's just it's just I just look down the roster. I'm like,
12:43
wow, you take him beat and you're right. Once you lose your big
12:46
brother, once you lose that guy. I mean, when he walks into
12:50
a visiting arena, Embiid, like, I don't care who who's on the
12:56
home team, all eyes go to him. Yep, he's he's seven to
13:01
he's charismatics hell, huge smile. But he's also intimidating as hell when he
13:05
plays, and he takes all the pressure, not just playing, but just
13:09
all the eyes and all the media. Like he takes all the pressure off
13:13
all of you. And he can put up fifty points and you're you're you've
13:16
got fifty points in the hole, and then you just got to go from
13:20
there. You remove that, you know, not just the points, but
13:22
everything goes along with it. It's like now Maxi has to do all the
13:26
press conferences and like it just it shifts the dynamics for a team. Whereas
13:31
like you think of okay, even if if the Nuggets lock lost Jokic like
13:37
for for two months, they have some players that are pretty good better than
13:41
what we have. You know, Jamal Murray is really damn good. They
13:46
they're not going to win as many obviously becausek is an incredible basketball player.
13:50
But like I think embiids impact on this team is almost more than any other
13:54
team. Like I mean, even Dane go through all the rosters, he's
14:01
he's the guy when it comes to that there if you, like I said,
14:03
you go down the thirty thirty rosters, He's the one that like takes
14:07
the pressure off everybody and to lose him, it just it puts a lot
14:13
of pressure on the front office. Now for the next what have thirty six
14:16
hours? Where the hell it is? So? Yeah? Absolutely. I
14:18
was watching the Warriors game Warrior Sixers game tonight. Paul Reid actually followed up
14:24
a shot Eric, and I was like, oh, you know what,
14:28
better days maybe ahead. Listen. I can't make fun of Paul Reid,
14:33
I know, I don't want to make fun of him. Oh, he's
14:35
apparently he's a really sweet guy. Yeah, he lives in my brother's neighborhood.
14:39
Does it really okay? In media? Okay? I think he lives
14:43
with two of his sisters. So I think he's like twenty four and he's
14:46
single, and he just he wanted a house. I guess it sounds like
14:50
and he just lives in media? Yeah right, nice? All right?
14:54
Yeah, and a little in snide scoop. Nice. Like I said,
14:58
he followed up a shot tonight. I think better days maybe ahead for this
15:01
team. Maybe maybe you'll start doing it more. Oh my gosh, it's
15:07
been it's been rough. It's gonna probably continue to be rough. We're certainly
15:09
gonna keep talking about this Sixers team in the coming weeks for sure. So
15:13
let's now get to our next next topic, our next segment. Here,
15:18
we're bringing back our upper down segment. Up or down, all right,
15:24
Eric up er down. Here got two different topics. The first one the
15:28
Philadelphia Eagles have a new quarterback coach. Now everybody's probably like, Okay,
15:31
yeah, who cares, you know, is this really gonna make a difference.
15:35
I don't know, folks. We saw a bit of a different Jalen
15:37
Hurts this past year. And not that. Not that the coaching was one
15:43
hundred percent the reason why we may have seen some regression here and there with
15:48
Hurts, but the fact of the matter was Alex Tanny, who was the
15:50
former Eagles quarterback coach. He only entered the coaching ranks in twenty twenty one,
15:56
immediately after retiring as a player, and you know he was hired as
16:03
a quarterback coach. Now the Eagles have Doug Nussmeyer. He worked specifically with
16:08
Kellen Moore when Kellen Moore was with the Dallas Cowboys when he was with the
16:12
Los Angeles Chargers last year, but Doug Nussmeyer has been a quarterbacks coach and
16:18
coaching different units since two thousand and one. He's got a ton of experience.
16:23
So in terms of up or down, Eric, I am going up.
16:27
As it pertains to Doug Nussmeyer. I don't know much about him.
16:30
I'm just looking at his resume. I mean, he was in the college
16:33
coaching ranks at Michigan State, Washington, Alabama, Michigan, Florida. The
16:40
guy has been around over the years. He knows the quarterback position, of
16:45
course, and Jalen Hurts definitely needs somebody that's gonna be able to give him
16:48
a little more direction in the future. For sure. Alex Tanney was definitely
16:52
not the guy. He's not there anymore. There's a reason why I'm going
16:55
up on this particular Eagles higher. What are you thinking in terms of nuss
17:00
Meyer? And uh this this this higher by the Eagles for their new quarterback
17:03
coach. Well, I mean, I considering what we saw in the field
17:07
and he didn't have any experience, I would have to say this his thumbs
17:11
up. Okay, yeah, I mean and and also you know what,
17:15
thumbs up to his wife, Christy Haybar, because maybe he sticks around just
17:22
the the list you just gave me, like that poor woman had to move
17:26
every year and not not like from Alabama to Arkansas, like you just listed
17:30
Michigan to Alabama. Fresno stay I think was on the list. Yes,
17:34
Like I hope she liked moving because that that sounds that sounds like a rough
17:38
life man. Sounds like a pain in the ass. Oh my god.
17:41
Like I a couple weeks ago on the show, I brought up, you
17:45
know, Doc getting the job of the Bucks and having an apartment of Milwaukee.
17:48
Yeah, you know, like like this that family had to move constantly
17:52
just all over the country for this guy's you know, first job, but
17:56
has to be thumbs up. And the Alex Tanney thing, I think,
18:02
you know, having a good offensive coordinator in the house probably helped him out,
18:07
you know, whereas we didn't have one this past year. I think
18:11
it's more of a Shane Stike in situation leaving as opposed to maybe Tanny,
18:17
a combination of Tanny not being ready and him not having Stike in there.
18:22
It was probably probably one of his downfalls. I like to take. I
18:26
like to take a lot, honestly, I love to take too. With
18:27
regard to his wife, God bless her, because I'll tell you Michelle and
18:30
I have been married for this year, it'll be eighteen years that we're going
18:33
to be married. And we've had three houses together during the course of our
18:37
marriage, three houses, and it was a pain in the ass on all
18:41
three of them. I couldn't imagine this. This is like twelve, like
18:45
twelve different coaching jobs. I moved from Philly to Harrisburg, Harrisburg to Pittsburgh,
18:51
right back to Philly for a little bit, then back to this shittho
18:55
I live in now. But and that was like difficult in like a what
19:00
six year span? Yes, no, more than that because the Philadelphia part.
19:04
But yeah, I can't imagine every year like going, hey, honey,
19:08
you like Michigan, right, yeah, Well guess what we're going to
19:15
Arizona? Yeah? Wow. Just get Airbnbs from here on out, Yes,
19:22
alive, like just paying rent Airbnbs. I love it. Yeah,
19:26
all right, Well let's move on to the next one here on upper down,
19:30
up or down. The reports about the Phillies trying to go after Cody
19:33
Bellinger and Jordan Montgomery, the takes on this online have been fantastic, and
19:41
I have to say I agree with our Budy. I was listening to our
19:44
friends of the pod, John Stalling is Liz Roach or justin Clue. On
19:48
the Hitting Season podcast, they were actually talking about this as well. But
19:51
I saw the report about this, and I'm like, the Phillies are going
19:53
to try to go after Cody Bellinger and Jordan Montgomery. I'm like, no,
19:56
they're not, Like, they're not gonna do that, Like this is
20:00
the roster's basically said. I mean, they may make some smaller moves here
20:06
or there, but they're they're gonna run this back and god willing, Bryce
20:10
Harper is gonna be healthy and we're gonna have a healthy infield. We're gonna
20:14
figure out what's going on in the outfield designated hit or I think, you
20:18
know, I think stuff has gotten figured out with this Philadelphia Phillies team.
20:22
And I absolutely think John Stalliness was correct. He's like, it's total bs.
20:26
Scott Boris is just doing this to increase these players value since they have
20:32
not gotten picked up yet by a team. And I absolutely think that's happening.
20:34
So with regard to the reports that the Phillies are trying to go after
20:38
Cody Bellinger and Jordan Montgomery, I say, down, it is such a
20:44
down. It's like, no, don't do that. Look would I mind
20:47
having these guys on the team. No, I wouldn't mind it at all.
20:49
But I just don't think it's reality. I don't think it's gonna happen.
20:52
It's one of those ridiculous clickbait storylines. And again Scott Boris trying to
20:59
stick his no was into this, not necessarily stick his nose, but like
21:03
he is in the market because he's an agent for these guys and trying to
21:06
increase their value. If I was an agent, I'd probably be doing the
21:08
same thing. But the ridiculousness and trying to bring us fans into the fold
21:11
with it, it's it's down for me, man, It's way thumbs down.
21:15
What are you thinking? I'll give it. Well, the whole story
21:19
sounds like like bullshit, right, I'm sure the Phillies aren't exactly upset that
21:26
the stories in the news because their names in the news, right, some
21:29
good players, If it makes sense, I will say thumbs up though,
21:33
for like the the the fact that an agent is like, has his name
21:41
out there that powerful? Yeah, yeah, because like but like I don't
21:45
feel like the power agents totally exist anymore, not like they used to,
21:49
you know, Like, uh, god, what was Jordan's agent back in
21:55
the day, he like owned the NBA. Oh god, yeah, you
21:56
know, I can't think it was whatever, but its Scott Boris used to
22:00
be the biggest name in baseball. Football agents too, used to have huge
22:04
names. Yeah yeah, yeah, but but but their names aren't out there
22:10
like they used to be, just because of social media, I think players
22:14
and the coverage of this stuff gets so it just gets washed through the news
22:18
cycle so fast that the like like woes is more important to the NBA than
22:25
the agents are at this point, like Adam Adam what's his name, Adam
22:30
Schefter, Adam Schefter right from Schefter yep, yeah, Like his name is
22:33
more important than than any like Drew Rosenhouse. So I like the fact that
22:38
this old cojure Scott Boris is like still a thing. Like I kind of
22:44
missed that, So thumbs up to that. Okay. It harkens back to
22:48
the nineties two thousands when agents actually had like cachet and name out in the
22:53
public. Yeah, okay, all right, I like it. I like
22:56
it. I like your your your thought process there for sure. You gave
23:00
me a story it's not even real, and I had with something we're in
23:06
that time of year, folks. It's one of those stories everyone admits is
23:08
not real. Even Scott Boris is like, yeah, this is bullshit.
23:15
Even pH like it's bullshit. But our names in the news so awesome.
23:18
I don't care. If you're new to listening to the PST podcast show here,
23:22
subscribe on whatever podcast platform you're on if anything ever happens to your feed,
23:26
or if you just want to head over to Philadelphia Sports Table dot com.
23:29
We've got all of our shows over there. Also shoot us off an
23:32
email. We'd love to read your email here in the show and respond to
23:36
whatever it is you want us to talk about in the world of Philly sports.
23:40
Philadelphia Sports Table at gmail dot com, whether it's Philly sports or just
23:42
the sports world in general. We love talking sports here obviously, so we
23:48
are on the social media sites out there. Yes, Twitter and X follow
23:52
Eric atpric Politt. You can follow me at Jeffrey Underscore Warren and the Show
23:56
at Philadelphia PST. I am on threads at mister jeff Warren. The show
24:03
is on threads at Philadelphia Sports Table, and Eric is on threads as well.
24:07
I don't think you've done that much on there, but at slen ten
24:11
twenty three. Have you done anything on threads yet? I downloaded the app?
24:15
There you go, there's a first time, the first step, man,
24:18
first step, and I logged in. Oh there you go? All
24:22
right, I think I've tagged a few times. It's some show stuff.
24:26
What's going on with Mastadon? Did that take off? Or I'm done with
24:30
it? You suggested that one to me and I downloaded. I'm like,
24:34
this is stupid. I did. I did. It was a time in
24:37
my life when I was confused. Masted On was the other one. Blue
24:41
Sky tried that when you needed a special code for that, I love that.
24:45
I love that you need a special code for it. It's like,
24:47
don't you want people on your platform? Why do you need a special code
24:51
from somebody in order to get on this? Anyway? Well, speaking of
24:55
Twitter real quick, yeah, ex and I've been updating my resume in certain
25:00
places looking for something else possibly, And you know, I'm on LinkedIn and
25:04
indeed and all the all the zip recruiter and and there's a spot you put
25:08
your Twitter account and oh god, yeah, I copy and pasted into one
25:14
and I'm like, hmm, maybe I shouldn't do that. Oh, God,
25:18
not that I tweet. I don't tweet anything else, don't tweet anything.
25:22
You are like the master retweeter. But I retweet stuff that I think
25:26
is hilarious. Ye, that's not sure for the people would think hilarious.
25:30
There have been a couple questionable ones this past week. I'll tell you that
25:33
I don't even know which one you're referencing, but I'm sure an employer would
25:37
think the same thing. I'm actually forgetting off the top of my head,
25:38
but I saw one. I was like, okay, all right, follow
25:45
follow Eric on Twitter for the retweets, folks again at Brick poll Itt.
25:48
He's a fantastic follow there for the retweets. All right, We're gonna take
25:52
quick break to pay some bills. We'll be back in just a bit.
25:56
All right, we are back, and Eric, let's get into our next
25:59
segment. Here, shoot them off a DM. So, if you're new
26:02
to the show, if you had the opportunity to DM anyone in the world
26:06
of Philly sports players, coaches, owners, anyone about anything, any subject
26:11
matter, and you were guaranteed to get a response back from that individual,
26:18
who would you DM and what would that DM be? Buddy, I'm gonna
26:21
let you go first here shoot them off a DM. Who are you DM?
26:23
And and what is it going to be about? All right, listen,
26:26
I told you a few weeks ago we need to call this slide into
26:29
their DM. Slide into the DMS. That's right, yes, because that's
26:33
what the kids say, So that's right. I stink. So I'm gonna
26:37
slide into the DMS with Darryl Moury tonight, okay, like late at night,
26:41
like one in the morning, you know, seductive and kind of slither
26:45
in there and go, what are you gonna do? Pal? I'm not
26:49
gonna get into details who I think you should get, but what's your thought
26:53
pattern? Like you're you are genius level trader. You know, even if
27:00
you don't like his trades, some of the trades he's made in the past,
27:03
are they rank from like preposterously successful to head scratching and everything else in
27:11
between. He knows every other owner in the league, GM in the league,
27:15
and he has assets this time, he has a superstar that is not
27:18
coming back for foreseeable future, like six weeks possibly, and he knows he
27:22
has a team that is good enough just to get in if they get in
27:26
and BEA's healthy, Like, then they can make a run. I would
27:30
love to know, not who you're going for, just what what you're thinking,
27:33
Like what's your strategy because this is this is a massive trade deadline and
27:38
if they just if they do nothing, then I kind of know they're going
27:42
to go all in for next season and not this season. So just just
27:47
to just to like, yo, DM, what do you think or oh
27:49
my god, his name DM, Oh my god, Oh oh wow,
27:56
Yo DM, I'm DM, and you My head almost exploded right there,
28:00
right now. I'm a fucking wizard of the show. But like, yeah,
28:03
that would be my thought, Like I just would like, yell man,
28:04
what's what's up? What's cracking tonight? Yeah? Yeah, I like
28:10
hey, I like that. I'd love that. That's what this segment is
28:11
about, getting in the head and understanding certain individuals that that we just you
28:18
know, we need to understand. We need to have a certain understanding of
28:21
why decisions are made, why people make the choices that they make, or
28:25
that are they're planning on making. And it's a good it's good segue into
28:29
my slide into their DMS here because mine actually doesn't go to a team coach
28:34
An owner a GM or anything like that. It actually goes to the Philly
28:40
sports media. If I could like slide into all their dms and say,
28:45
what the hell are you doing creating rumors that Aj Brown and Devonte Smith may
28:51
possibly be traded, Like what are you doing? You know, coming off
28:56
a terrible collapse of a season? The team, these players, the coaches,
29:02
the organization in general just absolutely downtrodden at where they were at. They
29:07
were one of the hottest teams in the league. The quarterback was the perennial
29:11
MVP after the first ten weeks of the season. And now you are going
29:15
to completely shit on a team who is already in the mud, and you
29:22
are going to create, create lies and just made up stories to help splinter
29:30
the team that much more, to raise more doubt, to simply put something
29:37
out there in the Philly media sports media sphere for clicks, of course,
29:42
and we know that, you know, these guys are running a business.
29:45
You know, we know that, we get that. But to take a
29:48
beloved team and one that has a ton of talent on it and try to
29:52
actually splinter it that much more, I want to know, like what the
29:55
fuck you're doing? Like why do it just making stuff up that has absolutely
30:00
no possible uh like outcome, Like AJ Brown's not getting traded DeVante Smith,
30:07
They're not getting traded from this Eagles team. They are some of the top
30:11
receivers in this league. It's not happening. And when you have a quarterback
30:15
like Jalen Hurts, it's not happening. Who do you want is your number
30:18
one? Ques Watkins? Do you want Quez coming back after free agency?
30:23
I hate the way the Philly sports media makes shit up. It makes me
30:29
feel good that people can listen to this podcast and have to get honest talk
30:33
sports talk about the world of Philly sports. Eric, Like I would love
30:37
to slide into their dms and just say, what the hell are you doing?
30:41
Why are you doing this outside of like the clickbait stuff, because we
30:45
know that it's a business, but do you have to be that much of
30:48
a bottom feeder at this particular point in time? Like I, it drives
30:52
me crazy. It drives me crazy what the Philly sports media does, especially
30:57
during this time of year, to drum up story because the Eagle season is
31:00
over, and it absolutely drives me crazy. So that's how I'd love to
31:06
slide into their DMS. Okay, So to piggyback on yours, this was
31:12
a team that up through Week ten, you know, nationally, people were
31:17
saying, besides the forty nine ers, probably like this was the best collection
31:22
of offensive talent in the league, especially the receivers based on contract age talent.
31:30
Right, So those two receivers were like the kind of the cornerstone of
31:34
it besides hurts it, Like I just said, age and everything. Like
31:40
to think that they would move off of those two after a bad a couple
31:45
of weeks is insanity. But so what I'll say is, since you created
31:48
a collective recipient, you know, the Philly sports media, I'm gonna I'm
31:53
gonna go even further and go Philly sports fans of like who actually believe this
32:00
bullshit? Oh yeah? Like I like to slip into theirs and go,
32:04
how are you buying this? Like are you just that easily manipulated by a
32:08
flashy Marcus Hazian shitty headline? Like I'm just imagining fifty Marcus Hayeses like writing
32:17
these awful stories, just trying to get like pre clickbait. You know,
32:22
I lived, you know, we all know Marcus Hayes. We all got
32:23
the Philly Daily News back in the day, and he was the ultimate shit
32:28
star and he would just write stuff you need just be like, fuck you,
32:30
how do you this is? This is how you make a living.
32:34
But like I would like to slip into the fans heads that believe like you
32:37
can't be that stupid, but of course you probably could and real quick.
32:42
When I lived in Old City, I went to the same gym as Marcus
32:45
Hayes. I remember you said, Yeah, he would run in the treadmill
32:47
in the tightest biker shorts you've ever seen. It was so disgusting, like
32:52
like just you can see his butt crack. It was. It was so
32:57
gross. Yeah, he's a gross person physically and professionally. So the the
33:02
mere concept that the Eagles would trade aj Brown, a wide receiver that set
33:07
an NFL record this year with six straight games of one hundred and twenty five
33:12
plus receiving yards, it is mind boggling. And like you said, the
33:15
fact that people are talking about fans being like, oh, maybe they will
33:19
maybe they will trade him. Why my gosh, maybe they could get this
33:22
for him, and then shut up. He's a true number one receiver,
33:28
you dopes. It's a perfect pairing. You finally have a true number one
33:31
and a true number two. I was an Eagles fan back in the day
33:35
when McNabb had James Thrash and fucking and Todd Kink's steak. Yes, and
33:40
they made NFC Championships game championship games like I was there. Yes, And
33:45
they couldn't give her the hunt because they didn't have a too. They have
33:47
a t O, and they have like a guy just almost as good as
33:50
t O on the other side, and they're gonna trade it. That makes
33:52
a whole lot of sense. Idiots, a bunch of dopes. Bunch of
33:54
dopes. All right, good, good segment there, Slide slide into the
33:59
d there. Let us know if you have any DMS that you would love
34:04
to slide into somebody's you know, somebody's electronic direct messages here. Oh my
34:09
gosh, sound like an old man here. All right, let's get to
34:12
the next story here. Did you explain how what DMS are? I did
34:15
direct messages? I think we're good electronically. God, all right, last
34:23
story we want to get into before we get to what we're throwing out on
34:25
the table this week. Uh, it is something that I think is interesting.
34:30
Oh, crack and open a beer nice yep. So back in January,
34:38
Philadelphia Phillies they signed too, and he's gonna be playing in the minor
34:45
leagues. Uh, Lachland Wells. Who is Lachland Wells? Everybody's probably saying,
34:50
possibly listening to this. Well, he was the MVP of the Australian
34:54
Baseball League, the ABL. He's somebody who's been in the in Major League
35:00
Baseball. Prior to this, he took some time off from the game dealing
35:06
with some mental mental issues and battles challenges. More recently, basically in twenty
35:14
nineteen, I think that was his final season when he was actually in minor
35:17
league baseball here in America. But he is back, and my goodness,
35:22
Lachlan Wells again. MVP of the Australian Baseball League twenty twenty three twenty twenty
35:29
four season. He's not on the forty man roster for the Phillies. He's
35:32
going to likely start the season in the minor league somewhere, but he could
35:36
quickly find his way to the cuffs of a call up to the majors if
35:40
he has similar success to what he had in the ABL. And what was
35:45
that success, folks? Let me go through it with you really quick.
35:49
He's twenty six years old. He had a zero point nine to four ERA
35:52
across forty seven and two thirds innings during last season, so check this out.
36:00
He only allowed five earned runs, struck out sixty three batters. He
36:04
finished with a six and zero record. Every game he started his team won.
36:07
So yes, it's not Major League baseball season. However, those are
36:13
pretty impressive numbers in my opinion. And while I don't know what the talent
36:16
is in the Australian Baseball League, eric baseball is baseball to an extent,
36:22
and I think it's pretty impressive. And if he is back in the minors,
36:28
could potentially get a call up to the majors and to the Phillies at
36:30
some point. You know, it seems that this farm system for the Phillies,
36:36
you know, we're seeing some good stuff happening here, and I'm going
36:38
to be really focused on what Lachlan Wells is going to be doing during the
36:44
course of this upcoming season and whether or not they may actually be able to
36:46
bring him up and be able to develop a guy more within this farm system.
36:51
So I don't know what were your thoughts when you heard about this well,
36:55
stemming off our back last story, this is actually a good story.
37:01
I love that he comes from an Australian league. That I mean, I
37:06
just look at his stats. He's six and oh, like, how many
37:07
games does that league play like? It doesn't seem like a lot. No,
37:12
no, yeah, I don't know how many. I don't. Yeah,
37:15
it doesn't look like a whole bunch. But great numbers, great story.
37:20
I love the uh he was going through some mental health stuff came back.
37:23
I did watch him on YouTube a little bit. I like his arm,
37:27
so I can't argue with that, but I have no idea the level
37:30
of talent. He's a lefty too, by the way, he's a lefty.
37:32
Yeah. Yeah, he's six to two tall kid. I'm there's no
37:37
downside, Like it's just an interesting story if he actually makes the majors,
37:44
like that's a that's an that's a layup for TMAC and whoever else is in
37:47
the booth, you know, Like, yes, I'll give you at least
37:50
three innings of of of stories. I do want to ask, are one
37:55
of our top fans. Simon is Aachland like Australian kind of name, like
38:04
New Zealander kind of name is that it's not very common here in the United
38:07
States. Good question. Yeah, maybe I know Simon's not sleeping a whole
38:13
time with the new with the kid. Like if you do catch this and
38:15
you you know, you want to shoot us a d M. Want to
38:17
slap my DMS, Simon, an electronic direct message? You got electronic electronic
38:27
Like you go to the you go to the post office. I'd like to
38:30
send a DM. Okay, we have a DM department. Actually, I'll
38:35
just send a stamp. Can I get a stamp to send this? But
38:38
Simon, if you let us know if Lachlan is a name like from that
38:43
area of the of the world. I'm just curious. But I love the
38:46
story and uh I also just really quickly if if he does make the majors.
38:53
I mean, there's not a whole lot of Australian born players. No,
38:59
I don't think so history Leam Hendrix is probably the most famous. Grant
39:02
Balfour was from. They all have very Australian sounding names, Graham, Lloyd,
39:08
Shane, Bennett. He'd be on the short list of all time Australian
39:15
born players. Yeah, yeah, all right, Simon, if you're listening,
39:19
let us know. We hope you're getting some sleep, buddy, and
39:22
I think that's gonna do it for us. Eric here, I'm gonna let
39:24
you go. We're gonna get to our interview here in just a bit.
39:28
Any final thoughts before before I let you go, Bud. One of the
39:32
guys on this list is Warwick Suphold. What a name. Oh my gosh,
39:37
amazing. That is great. That's all I have. Okay, that's
39:42
it. All right, it's getting late, folks. We're gonna take a
39:46
quick break and we will be back to get into some off season NFL Talk.
39:52
Got a great interview coming your way. Stick around, we'll be right
39:53
back. All right, we are back. We're gonna be talking to Mark
39:58
Schofield from SP Nation about this NFL off season and basically the process that front
40:04
offices take in order to reevaluate their their roster looking at free agency and the
40:10
draft. Great discussion, it's what we're throwing down on the table and now
40:15
on the table. It's great to have back on the podcast coming to us
40:21
from SB Nation. He has been coming on for many, many years,
40:23
and we got to get into this NFL off season, what it means,
40:28
what it looks like for various teams and organizations as they're looking at their player
40:31
personnel free agency, the NFL Draft. We have got again from SB Nation,
40:37
mister Mark Schofield. It is great to see you, buddy. Over
40:39
over zoom here and everybody can see you. But it's it's great to see
40:44
and great to be able to talk to you, my friend. It's great
40:45
to be bad Jeff. Always loved coming on, Always love you. Like
40:49
I say, it's time, you know, we get the time to catch
40:51
up a little bit. It's good to see you now. For those that
40:53
might not remember, Jeff and I have on out together before. We've had
40:57
we've broke a bread together before. We go back a long time. What
41:00
a fantastic Italian restaurant and fantastic. Yes, we've had a great time,
41:06
Mam luci Is. It's a great spot now. The Fedichine Alfredo will wonderful.
41:12
My cardiologies probably didn't like the fact that I had a whole play to
41:15
that for lunch, but well, it's great to be here. It's a
41:19
an absolutely fascinating top of year because we we're recording this of the days before
41:22
the super Bowl, but there's only two teams in Vegas. The other thirty
41:27
are thinking about how they can get there next year, and that's gonna be
41:30
the focus of our chat here today. So I'm excited to dive in.
41:32
All right, let's dive into it. But before folks, Mark is on
41:37
I'm so used to saying Twitter, and I have to do that, no
41:39
matter that's threads, you are threads. I'm on threads. But my fine
41:45
Mark on threads at Mark Scofield three nine one six again at Mark Scofield three
41:50
nine one six, A great, great follow, lots of great NFL content,
41:52
F one content if you are into it as well. And uh yeah,
41:57
let's get into this NFL offseason here, because, like Mark, I
42:00
first wanted to talk about, like how teams and front offices really do go
42:05
about approaching the off season. You know, of course GM's in front office
42:08
staff, they're evaluating their own rosters at this point, what free agency moves
42:13
they may need to make, and of course what the NFL Draft might look
42:16
like for their team and their organization here. So I'm wondering, can you
42:20
take us through, perhaps some more detail here and depth, how NFL franchises
42:25
really start looking at their off season at this point in the year they're almost
42:31
done. And let me put it to you this way. So let's go
42:36
back to last year's draft, so the twenty twenty three NFL Draft, and
42:39
I can sort of take you through the timeline. And this is something I
42:43
know from working with the NFL teams, from you know, talking to scouts,
42:46
talking to former scouts and gms and things like that. This is how
42:50
the timeline sort of generally works. And so you get out of the draft
42:53
and you've got rookie mini camp and all that stuff. And the thing that
42:57
the teams are focused on then and will be through like the first couple of
43:00
weeks of May, is getting their ninety man roster set. So so that's
43:04
what they're doing. Once that's done, say mid May, that's when they
43:08
start the next free agency cycle. And so in mid May of last year,
43:15
they started stacking their sort of free agency boards for what's going to happen
43:19
over the next couple of weeks. Right as we get into the combine free
43:22
agency in the draft, you know, we get that lead tampering day in
43:27
that tamper and window, which is the silliest thing as a you know,
43:30
as a as a once lawyer turned sports right like legal tamper and like,
43:35
what are we talking about? But Jeff, they've done the work already.
43:38
They started that process last spread in summer, watching film on income and perspective,
43:45
free agents, stacking sort of their big boards in terms of the next
43:49
free agency class. So going into this year, a lot of their work
43:53
was already done. Now they might review it over the winter and into the
43:59
spring. Like if you have a player, for example, I'll use Josh
44:01
Dobbs as an example. Okay, whose circumstances perhaps changed. I was gonna
44:07
actually ask you about this. What happens if the circumstances changed. What happens
44:09
if there's a player where you're not expecting it to potentially get to a certain
44:13
free agent echelon, but they end up getting there, Teams start looking reevaluating
44:17
perhaps, Yeah, I mean they'll take this period of time from when their
44:22
season ends into say February or so pre combined to do sort of like a
44:29
second look at a player. So well, Josh Dobbs, for example,
44:31
he's with you know, Tennessee. Last year it had what two starts near
44:36
the end of the season, so people had like two starts of work to
44:39
go on, and so they might have had a sort of cursory film grade
44:44
on him for a free agency class. Now, you know, look started
44:46
a number of games, or Arizona started a number of games from Minnesota.
44:50
What they'll do is they'll go back and sort of look at that film on
44:53
Josh Dobbs and get an idea of, Okay, well that's what it looked
44:57
like in Tennessee. So that's where our grade was based in those two games.
45:00
But now we see what it looked like in Arizona, we see what
45:04
it looked like in Minnesota, and they'll adjust their grades. And so they'll
45:07
do throughout this course of the season and into the offseason sort of a second
45:12
look on players whose circumstances have changed. But a lot of this stuff gets
45:17
done well before you would even think like that. They were doing this last
45:22
spring, getting their board set, and then as players resign or players get
45:27
tagged, they'll move things around. But they've got a pretty good idea of
45:30
what the free agency pitcher will look like. You know, coming into this
45:34
year, it seems like there's a balancing act when it comes to how teams
45:38
really need to look at free agency. I mean, of course there's a
45:42
cap that we all know about that the NFL imposes and teams need stay under
45:45
that cap. Of course, cap usually increases year after year. But Mark,
45:51
how do organizations really generate that balance between the resources and the money that
45:55
they have on hand and the needs for the team that really need to be
46:00
addressed. I know that's a general question, but that striking that balance.
46:05
How have you seen that done with certain NFL You don't have to say certain
46:07
NFL teams, but with NFL teams in general. Yeah, I mean this
46:13
is where you start getting into the area of positional value in a sense.
46:16
And I saw somebody sort of phrase it this way, and it's something that
46:22
I've thought about a lot, like ever since there was one draft. I
46:27
forget who the player was, but the Dolphins drafted a pass rusher like it
46:30
was pretty early Dion The name just escapes me, like six eight years ago,
46:37
and Mike Mayock said, you know, this is just a reminder that
46:40
the most important place on a football field right now is the pocket, and
46:45
it starts with the quarterback and goes from there. And somebody framed it in
46:47
a similar way recently on either X or threads, whereas you start from the
46:53
pocket and work out and that's where the priorities are. You need a quarterback
46:57
that can throw from there. Then you need players that can protect that spot,
47:00
players that can attack that spot, the players that can catch the ball,
47:02
players that can stop people from catching the ball leg and so that gets
47:06
you to the idea of positional value in you've got capspased draft capital to work
47:12
with, and you've got your priorities. Okay, do we have the quarterback.
47:15
If so, great, move to step two. If not, that's
47:19
where the conversation begins. And whether it's via free agency or the draft,
47:25
that's where the conversation begins for pretty much every team Like yeah, save say
47:29
Kansas City, Like we've got Patrick Mahomes, We're good. We don't have
47:31
Patrick Mahomes, Well, nobody might need to take a look at this,
47:35
And so it starts there to builds from there, and so balance in that
47:42
is part of the process. Balance in short term versus long term is another
47:46
part of the process. And this sort of gets into the job stability component
47:52
of it, which is something I always remind people of when we get to
47:55
free agency, we get towards the draft, it's this the men and women
48:00
making these decisions have mortgages to pay, they have bills to pay, they
48:04
have children to put through school, they have parents to help retire, and
48:07
things like that. And so when it gets to the question of oh,
48:09
okay, here's player X, here's player why they're the same position for a
48:15
team that needs to draft this position. One's the whole run swing. One's
48:19
the nice safe double. Well, if you feel pretty comfortable in your jaw
48:22
position and you don't worried about getting fired, you might take the big swing.
48:27
If you're worried about getting fired and having to pay that mortgage bill next
48:30
month, you might leave lean towards the safe double type of player. And
48:35
so that's another balance that has to be sort of managed, not just between
48:39
the cap and the draft capital, but the types of players you're going to
48:43
swin for at free agency or the draft. And so there's a lot that
48:46
goes into this. It's why you have hits, you have misses, you
48:50
have picks that work out, picks that don't busts, diamonds in the rough
48:53
and all that stuff. It's because there's so much that these teams in front
48:57
offices have to balance over these next couple of months. Yeah, within that
49:01
balance mark it seems like there are or there is a certain amount of gambling
49:07
in a way that's involved with it. You know, you're gambling the future
49:12
on this position. You're gambling, you know, like you were saying,
49:15
you know, front office personnel, they got to pay the mortgage, you
49:17
know, they got to put their kids through school. You know, we're
49:21
gonna take this gamble on this particular player and hope that they will be working
49:24
out. And we've seen a number of times over the years where a player,
49:30
Yeah, let's say, for example, a player has a great few
49:31
years at their position, they become a free agent, they get picked up
49:36
in free agency from a team, make a ton of money, get a
49:37
great contract, but their productivity on the field just drops, and inevitably people
49:44
are saying, oh my gosh, it was a terrible free agent pick up.
49:46
It was a terrible signing for this team. Why did SO and so
49:51
do this? I'm wondering, why do we see that happen so very often
49:54
in the NFL. Is it really a case where when players get the big
49:58
payday in free agency, they kind of are able to take a step back,
50:01
perhaps a little bit, and say, who, Okay, maybe I
50:05
don't have to work that hard. I hate thinking that way, but I
50:07
wonder if that's part of the process. But why do we kind of see
50:10
that drop sometimes with certain players. I mean, I know part of its
50:14
relationships as well. I don't know what's your thoughts here, Yeah, I
50:16
mean there may be some instances where there are players who get the big payday
50:21
and decide, hey, you know, I don't have to get up at
50:22
five am to work out. I don't have to do this. I don't
50:24
have to do that. Like I've gotten my pay day and I don't need
50:30
to work the way I wanted to. There might be some instances where that
50:34
is, indeed the case. I think a lot of it is. And
50:36
this is a concept to you and I have talked about so much over the
50:38
years, And that's the idea of context, the idea of fit environment,
50:43
Like it matters a ton. The player in the previous spot might have had
50:47
the right offensive system to be in, like a slot receiver in a slot
50:51
receiver heavy offense, or you know, they might have had the right coaching
50:54
around them that kept the best out of them. They they might have really
50:59
liked just the environment they were in from a personal standpoint, like they were
51:01
in Jacksonville. They love Duval County, they love that. And now suddenly
51:05
they're in Philadelphia or they're in Foxborough, and it's kind of in between Providence
51:09
in Boston, and it's you know, a little cluster and life's changed a
51:14
little bit and you're not as comfortable as you once were. And there's a
51:16
lot that goes into it from sort of that environmental standpoint that maybe isn't the
51:24
same as it was in the previous spot, and it isn't as conducive to
51:29
success on the field as it was in the previous spot. Then of course,
51:32
look, there's you know, the college evaluation process, the college scouting
51:37
departments they miss right, Oh, because I've talked to many former and current
51:43
scouts, many former and current coaches and gms and the light that say that,
51:46
look, when we do the college part of this process, when we
51:51
stack our draft boards, we all sort of agree, generally speaking, on
51:57
like this person's a you know, a ninety grade out of one hundred,
52:00
or an eight grade out of a nine scale, or a third round grade,
52:04
Like, however you want to do the draft grade upon it. That's
52:07
not what we fight. Like. We haven't had arguments in the draft meetings
52:10
about all this players viewed as a round one prospect by one scout and a
52:15
round seven prospect by it. We all see this stuff generally uniformly on the
52:19
same page. The scheme fit is where the fights happen, because that's the
52:23
thing that these teams are doing when they do the scouting board right it's for
52:27
the college draft. It's this player is going to fit in our system where
52:30
this player won't. That's the biggest projection that happens. And that's where the
52:34
fights happen. And the same happens in the pro scouting department. Like they
52:37
will view players as Okay, this is a high priority free agent we want
52:40
to target, or a low priority free agent we don't really want to target
52:44
unless we get to the end of free agency and they're still around there.
52:46
Those discussions all pan out the same way. They're all the scouts, the
52:51
gms and the like view these players the same way. It's the scheme fit
52:55
where they have the fights. Same with the draft. And so you may
52:59
have an off as a coordinator saying, look, we can coach this quarterback
53:02
up, he'd bring a great fit for us in our system. But the
53:06
QB coach might say no, no, no, no, you don't understand,
53:08
like the footwork isn't there, the eye discipline isn't there. Yeah,
53:13
And that might be the tension. And then ultimately somebody makes the decision they
53:15
bring this player in and it doesn't work, and the QB coach is saying,
53:17
I told you so behind the scenes, right. And so it's the
53:21
scheme fit component that leads to some of these misses in the free agency side
53:25
as well as the draft side. Well, you mentioned the college football aspect
53:30
of this, So I mean as we look to the draft mark because we're
53:34
moving along here, you know, the NFL Combine is going to be the
53:36
next big NFL event for draft purposes and prospects here. So we've talked here
53:43
and there over the years, you and I have about the combine, just
53:45
about draft talent, who should be doing what, how certain players should be
53:51
performing at the combine, what teams and organizations are looking for. So what
53:57
should us hardcore NFL fans be looking for this year when it comes to the
54:01
talent that's really going to be at this combine and who we may see getting
54:06
drafted. Yeah, I mean that that's there's a lot to sort of get
54:10
into there, and I think the main thing to start with is this the
54:15
stuff that really matters at the combine. We won't see, you know,
54:20
and I know I've said this to you both, but yeah, it's the
54:22
interviews of the medicals, like those are the two big things that matter.
54:28
And you know, with respect to the medicals, like you might have a
54:30
player that is looked at as one of the best players at a given position,
54:36
but that medical component that is done at the combine is a huge part
54:39
of it. I'm going to take, for example, just one player that
54:43
I know, Lata Latau, the pass rusher from UCLA. The medicals will
54:46
be big for him, No, because he's played himself into a top ten,
54:52
top fifteen sort of projection. NFL Walk Draft database hasn't been allowed eleven
54:57
right now. But medicals are going to be a big part of that story
55:00
and we won't see it well here after indeed, you know you'll hear stories
55:08
about combine rechecks. That's a big part of this. And so the medicals
55:13
are big, the interviews are big, and again we don't get you know,
55:16
we're not privy to that now. The on field testing, though,
55:22
there are some things that matter certainly, things like maybe not just the forty
55:25
for lawn speed and things like that that matters, but you know, three
55:29
cone shuttles and things like that, verticals like explosives, the broad jump,
55:32
like you see players rise through this process as a result of what they do
55:37
on the field. In Indianapolis, I remember being in the building when Anthony
55:40
Richardson had his you know, throwing session and you know, his forty and
55:45
you could I know, I told you this last year, Jeff. You
55:47
could feel the conversation shift in that building in Lucas Oil because it went from
55:52
coming into Indianapolis. Hey, you know he's a top fifteen type player too.
55:57
Okay, this kid could go first overall. There's literally a world where
56:00
Anthony Richardson goes first overall. So the workouts do matter, but the big
56:06
things, the big events, happened behind the scenes. And you know,
56:08
similar to the Senior Bowl and Shrine, this is the one of the biggest
56:14
and strangest job interview processes there are in the world. Because there's a lot
56:19
that happens at night. There's a lot that happens in the restaurants and the
56:22
bars in Indie. This is when you're gonna start here a rumblins. I
56:23
mean, I remember being out there one year with all the Patriots beat writers
56:28
when it became apparent that Tom Brady was going to leave in the next couple
56:31
of days. And the big conversations do happen at Prime and all those restaurants
56:37
in Indianapolis, and so a lot of the big stuff happens behind the scenes.
56:42
But in terms of workouts, like, yes, there's just there are
56:44
things that will happen in Indianapolis. There are players that we're going to get,
56:49
will move up and down boards as a result of what they do in
56:52
tested We're going to have some interesting first round draft picks this coming year,
56:55
for sure, Mark, And it's looking like the Bears may want to move
57:00
on possibly from Justin Fields. And you're, you know, Patriots, who,
57:05
if you've covered in the past, maybe looking to draft their quarterback of
57:08
the future after the mac Jones experiment not going as well as they probably wanted.
57:15
And you being a former college quarterback and being a quarterback scout evaluator,
57:21
we know the names right off the back. Caleb Williams, Drake May,
57:23
Jaden Daniels the top quarterback names in this draft here. So I'm wondering what
57:29
are your overall assessments of this upcoming quarterback draft class, even from like a
57:34
more general macro standpoint, but is there a quarterback that's not necessarily getting the
57:38
national attention at this moment that we should really be keeping our eyes on.
57:43
Yeah, I mean, look, we know the big three, you know,
57:45
Caleb dray Jaden, like, those are the big three. In almost
57:49
every single mock draft, you see two, if not three of those go
57:52
off the board within the first three picks. You know, given the fact
57:55
you have Chicago, you have Washington, U out New England, three quarterback
58:00
eighty teams at the top of the draft, so you know, it's a
58:02
very intriguing class at the top. Where it gets very interesting for me is
58:08
the QB four discussion because and it used to be the QB three discussion,
58:13
because it used to be Okay, it's Caleb A Strake and then who's next,
58:15
right, Jada Daniels has put himself into their conversation, you know,
58:19
in bold and sharpie. And there will be teams. I have been told
58:22
there are teams that have him either at one or two. And so we
58:29
got a lot of long way to go before that first card gets turned in
58:31
by Chicago or another team because our scenarios where Chicago says, you know what
58:37
you know. George Kittle was out there this week in Vegas saying build around,
58:42
you know, justin fields. So who knows what happens. But now
58:45
it's become who's QB four and when does QB four come off the board?
58:51
Because Bo Knicks could be that player, and there are certainly, you know,
58:57
the consensus mock drafts right now have him coming off the board twelve to
59:00
Denver. JJ McCarthy could potentially be that player. It seems a little risky
59:06
for me just in my own evaluations of him. But he was injured,
59:08
you know, and he did like the Penn State game where he threw eight
59:12
passes all in the first half. He was dealing with an ankle injury.
59:15
Now there are also moments where he made some impressive throws and there are some
59:20
highlight real throws you can see of his And so is he that player?
59:23
Is Michael Pennick Junior? That player? I think he's probably gonna be hampered
59:28
by the injuries in the age, so he probably falls to the second round.
59:31
But just takes one team to like them and so I think the QB
59:36
four discussion is the one that fascinates me. And those are the three players
59:39
most associated with that spot as you get a little bit deeper. Michael Pratt
59:44
from Tulane, Spencer Rattler from South Carolina. Those are two players who were
59:47
at the Senior Bowl and I think kind of helped themselves a little bit with
59:52
what they did down in Mobile, And so those are players to keep in
59:54
mind. There. You know, there's a big wild card in all of
59:59
this, and it's a player that I liked coming in who had a brutal
1:00:02
injury at the end of his season. That's Shordan Travis of Florida State,
1:00:06
who I liked coming into this year and who had put that team on the
1:00:09
cusp of a playoff berth before his brutal injury. So you don't know what
1:00:14
the rehab is going to look like, you don't know what that process is
1:00:15
going to look like, you don't know what the medicals will look like and
1:00:19
how his recovery is going. But there's a player that did some very nice
1:00:22
things on the field, and you know, certainly had that team on the
1:00:25
cusp of a playoff berth, it would be a draft and developed situation for
1:00:30
sure, given the injury and we don't know what his football future holds,
1:00:35
but somebody that I think if a team gets into Day three and likes what
1:00:38
they've seen from a film and medical standpoint, that's another name to watch.
1:00:44
I love it, I really do, and love the analysis for sure.
1:00:46
Again, folks talking to Mark Schofield from SB Nation fall him on threads at
1:00:51
Mark Scofield three nine one six Again at Mark Scofield three nine one six and
1:00:57
to close us out here, Mark, I just wanted to talk you know,
1:01:00
some Philadelphia Eagles in terms of where the where this NFL league is going
1:01:05
here. The Eagles are going to be playing the first game of next season.
1:01:08
They're gonna be playing it in Brazil, which was just announced this past
1:01:12
week. First time an NFL games gonna be played there. From my understanding,
1:01:15
what are your thoughts on the overall I guess globalization of the NFL.
1:01:20
As they've been playing games in Europe over the years. Here, you know,
1:01:22
Mexico City they've played as well, and now they're heading to South America.
1:01:27
What are your thoughts here? Yeah, I mean there's a there's a
1:01:30
couple of things I want to touch on here. I mean Robert Roger Goodell
1:01:32
earlier the week had a sort of State of the NFL, you know,
1:01:36
annual press conference, and he was talking about the Peacock playoff game that was
1:01:40
streaming only, and he basically said, we have to fish with a fish
1:01:44
are And the NFL has been extremely good at that. They've been extremely good
1:01:47
at expanding their fan base internationally with the International Series, and I think it's
1:01:53
brilliant and it's obviously brought in waves and waves and legions of new fans.
1:02:00
And one of the things that the NFL is extremely good at it and you
1:02:02
and I both know this extremely well. They keep themselves in the conversation year
1:02:07
round. It's something you know, My favorite example of this is schedule a
1:02:12
release day. We know what the games are, we know who's playing who,
1:02:15
right but in the middle of May, after the draft and before training
1:02:20
camp and before the summer, they have schedule release date and it drives a
1:02:22
week of content, if not more. It's such a brilliant thing. And
1:02:27
you're seeing other sports leagues do this as well, Like you know, the
1:02:31
NHL and the NBA have started doing this. F One has started doing this
1:02:35
and as a way to sort of drive the conversation year round. I do
1:02:39
wonder though, And you know, the NFL hasn't screwed this up yet,
1:02:45
and it's hard to think that I'll ever screw it up. But do we
1:02:46
get to a point where it's just too much? Right? And that was
1:02:50
the interesting thing, Jeff with this Eagles Brazil game, not that they were
1:02:54
playing down to Brazil, but it was going to be on Friday of the
1:02:58
first week of the season, right because the Thursday season opener with a Super
1:03:01
Bowl team. You know, now you're gonna get a Friday game, you're
1:03:05
gonna get a Sunday game, all the Sunday games obviously, then you get
1:03:08
probably the Monday doubleheader, which they've done before. Do we get to a
1:03:12
point where it's just that's too much like Thursday, Sunday, Monday? Even
1:03:17
that sometimes feels like a lot our families get upset with us sometimes. I
1:03:22
mean it easy. You get Black Friday game after Thanksgibbing. Now you get
1:03:25
the Saturday games. And I generally like the Saturday games because it's a nice
1:03:30
reminder that the Holidays are around the corner and stuff like that. But now
1:03:34
we get Friday games Christmas Day games to day games. I was rough having
1:03:37
the Eagles on Christmas Day this past year. I was like, oh no,
1:03:42
it's it's a lot. And at some point do you see diminishing returns
1:03:45
with this? Now, look, this sounds like something that people probably could
1:03:50
have said, what hey, the draft is going to three days? Like
1:03:52
really and it's obviously huge. Yeah, this is probably what people were saying
1:03:55
before the International series expanded. It's like, look, one game in line,
1:04:00
that is cool, but you know Germany really yeah, and it's all
1:04:02
been of success. The NFL manages to turn everything then touch into gold and
1:04:06
so this Friday thing will probably work out as well. But at some point
1:04:12
the general public is gonna say, all right, enough, I don't need
1:04:15
games on Tuesday afternoons in the fall, Like that's just too much. So
1:04:20
we probably get there at some point. But something tells me, Jeff,
1:04:24
this Friday International game won't be the last time. We're going probably gonna be
1:04:28
a huge hit too, because by the by the time August rolls around,
1:04:31
we are so starved for football. We will watch the first three quarters of
1:04:36
the Hall of Fame game when it's all players that aren't going to make the
1:04:40
team possible, so they know they know full well. Oh, one Friday
1:04:45
game, one Thursday game to kick it off. No, no, we'll
1:04:46
give you a Friday one two. We'll be watching it. We absolutely will
1:04:49
be. It's a it's gonna be interesting to follow for sure. Again,
1:04:53
folks. Mark Schofield from SB Nation, Mark, Buddy, it was great
1:04:56
talking to you. Would love to talk to you more about the draft maybe
1:04:59
when we we get around to that time frame and that time period and a
1:05:02
couple months. Would love to have you back on the show, my friend.
1:05:05
Absolutely, Buddy, happy to come on anytime. You know where to
1:05:08
find me. So great talking to Mark. What a fun conversation, What
1:05:12
a fun way to end the conversation too. Really, I mean, Mark
1:05:15
is right. I think it's gonna get to a point where the NFL is
1:05:17
gonna keep pushing the envelope with regard to how many games that we are gonna
1:05:23
be able to watch during the course of a week, and it's just gonna
1:05:25
get too much. It's just gonna get way too much. Like I said,
1:05:29
I mean, I had family members being like, Jeff, are you
1:05:30
serious on Christmas Day and it's like, yes, I gotta do the postgame
1:05:34
show. I gotta do it. You know, the listeners want the postgame
1:05:40
show. I mean, at least I think so. Anyway, great great
1:05:44
discussion with Mark there. It was a great, great time talking to him
1:05:47
and lots lots of awesome information in terms of the NFL. Love having him
1:05:50
on, and that's gonna do it for us this week. Make sure you
1:05:54
are following the show on threads. We are on threads. If you did
1:05:59
not know Philadelphia Sports Table, that's where you can find the podcast. You
1:06:01
can find me at mister jeff Warren and you can, you know, just
1:06:09
search us out online see that. You can follow the show wherever you know.
1:06:13
We're not on Facebook anymore. I'm just throwing that out there, which
1:06:15
we haven't done that for quite some time. Still on the Twitter slash x
1:06:19
at Philadelphia PST. You can find me at Jeffrey Underscore Warren and anyway.
1:06:25
I hope everybody has a great rest of their week here. Whenever you're listening
1:06:29
to this, have a great day, have a great evening. Wherever you're
1:06:31
listening to us, we appreciate it. Spread the word about the Philadelphia Sports
1:06:35
Table to your friends and family. Take care everybody. We'll catch it next time.