Latest / NFL Now / Lamar jackson's Trade Request, Sean Payton's Free Agency Rumors, & The Latest on the Lions

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Lamar jackson's Trade Request, Sean Payton's Free Agency Rumors, & The Latest on the Lions · NFL Now

0:05
Speaker 1: NFL Now is a production of the NFL in partnership
0:08
Speaker 1: with iHeartRadio. Hello and welcome into NFL Now. I'm a
0:20
Speaker 1: Maurice in the NFL Network news room. The NFL's annual
0:25
Speaker 1: meeting beginning in Arizona. A lot to talk about in
0:28
Speaker 1: terms of the business of the National Football League taking
0:32
Speaker 1: center stage right now, We're going to get to the
0:35
Speaker 1: top story and all. The NFL broke a little earlier today,
0:38
Speaker 1: and that is Lamar Jackson revealing that he has put
0:42
Speaker 1: in a trade request three and a half weeks ago
0:46
Speaker 1: with the Baltimore Ravens. Lamar Jackson, the twenty nineteen unanimous MVP,
0:51
Speaker 1: tweeting that he did put in that trade request on
0:54
Speaker 1: March second. Of course, he has been franchise tagged by
0:57
Speaker 1: the Baltimore Ravens. He has not signed it. Of course,
1:00
Speaker 1: his freed to negotiate with other teams as we speak.
1:04
Speaker 1: Let's show you that tweet in its entirety. He addresses
1:07
Speaker 1: it as a letter to my fans. I want to
1:10
Speaker 1: first thank you all for the love and support you
1:13
Speaker 1: consistently show towards me. All of you are amazing and
1:16
Speaker 1: I appreciate y'all so much. I want you all to
1:18
Speaker 1: know not to believe everything you read about me. Let
1:21
Speaker 1: me personally answer your questions in regards to my future plans.
1:25
Speaker 1: As of March second, I requested a trade from the
1:28
Speaker 1: Ravens organization, for which the Ravens have not been interested
1:32
Speaker 1: in meeting my value. Any and everyone that's met me
1:37
Speaker 1: or been around me know that I love the game
1:39
Speaker 1: of football and my dream is to help a team
1:41
Speaker 1: win the Super Bowl. You're all great, but I had
1:44
Speaker 1: to make a business decision that was best for my
1:47
Speaker 1: family and I. No matter how far I go or
1:50
Speaker 1: where my career takes me, I'll continue to be close
1:53
Speaker 1: to my fans of Baltimore, Flock Nation, and the entire
1:56
Speaker 1: state of Maryland. You'll see me again. That tweet sent
2:02
Speaker 1: right before John Harbaugh addressed the meet yet at the
2:05
Speaker 1: AFC Head Coaches Breakfast. Do you intertubate him being her
2:10
Speaker 1: quarterback in Week one? I do you know? You got?
2:14
Speaker 1: You gotta plan for all the contingencies for sure, But
2:17
Speaker 1: I'm pretty I'm pretty fired up about Lamar Jackson. I mean,
2:19
Speaker 1: Lamar Jackson is a great player. Lamar came back in
2:23
Speaker 1: great jape last year. He's fired up a play that's
2:26
Speaker 1: the Lamar that I'm looking for, looking forward to seeing.
2:28
Speaker 1: Can't wait to get back on the grass and go
2:30
Speaker 1: to work and the coffee that's gonna happen. We made
2:32
Speaker 1: a decision to go with Lamar Jackson five years ago,
2:35
Speaker 1: right and why because we love him. We love him,
2:38
Speaker 1: We love the way he plays, We love his mindset,
2:41
Speaker 1: his charisma, his style, either way he's in the locker room,
2:45
Speaker 1: everything about him. We love him. I love him personally.
2:48
Speaker 1: I love being the coach and the team that he's
2:49
Speaker 1: playing quarterback for. So that's what you do, you know,
2:52
Speaker 1: you build the team around your players, and that's what
2:54
Speaker 1: I'm excited to do. Lamar is a great guy. And
2:57
Speaker 1: Lamar's doing a nice job with the negotiations, and I
2:59
Speaker 1: think that needs to be said. People need to understand
3:01
Speaker 1: he's doing a good job, okay, and Eric's doing a
3:04
Speaker 1: good job, and Eric's getting advice from Ozzy, from Steve
3:07
Speaker 1: and all those things are being discussed. Yeah, I'm involved
3:09
Speaker 1: in those conversations too, so I know where we're at.
3:11
Speaker 1: There really is no frustration other than the natural normal. Hey,
3:15
Speaker 1: this is how pro football works, you know, and I
3:17
Speaker 1: think you know, Lamar believes in us, and we believe
3:19
Speaker 1: in Lamar, and we know where we want to go forward.
3:22
Speaker 1: So it's a monetary thing that can be figured out,
3:24
Speaker 1: that can be worked out. That's just a matter of negotiating.
3:26
Speaker 1: And I think we just continue down that road and
3:28
Speaker 1: eventually it'll get it'll it'll work out. There's always gonna
3:31
Speaker 1: be creative ways to figure that stuff out. So John
3:34
Speaker 1: Harbaugh and the Ravens continue to say all the right things,
3:37
Speaker 1: spinning it positive about this Lamar Jackson negotiation. As we're
3:41
Speaker 1: welcome in by Mike Garofolo swatting down Ian Rappaports and
3:45
Speaker 1: Tom Pellizero, our NFL insiders take it away. I had
3:48
Speaker 1: to see if there were I had to see if
3:50
Speaker 1: someone was sending me some sort of a scoop. Oh,
3:53
Speaker 1: look at the watch doesn't mean time anymore, it means
3:55
Speaker 1: what text messages are coming in? All right, Yes, Omar,
3:57
Speaker 1: we are down here at the NFL Annual Meeting. John
4:01
Speaker 1: Harbaugh sat down at the breakfast almost simultaneous with Lamar
4:05
Speaker 1: Jackson's tweet hitting that was not a coincidence. The first
4:09
Speaker 1: that John Harbaugh found out that had become public was
4:11
Speaker 1: when a reporter read him the start of Lamar's tweet.
4:15
Speaker 1: Another unusual twist in this saga, and unusual as well,
4:19
Speaker 1: because for a player to request a trade at a
4:23
Speaker 1: time that they're already free to negotiate with the other
4:25
Speaker 1: thirty one teams is out of order. Let's say it
4:29
Speaker 1: that way. In order to do a trade, you would
4:30
Speaker 1: not trade him on the tag. You would trade him
4:33
Speaker 1: after he's worked out a deal with the new team.
4:35
Speaker 1: And to the extent that Lamar Jackson would say in trade,
4:37
Speaker 1: by the way, it could be sign it I it
4:40
Speaker 1: depends what it is. Point being, you have to work
4:42
Speaker 1: out the deal first. And to the extent that he's saying,
4:44
Speaker 1: the Ravens have not been interested in meeting my value.
4:47
Speaker 1: Here's your opportunity to see your value. Is someone else
4:50
Speaker 1: going to do this contract? And maybe they are? If not,
4:53
Speaker 1: your value is what the market bears for Lamar Jackson.
4:56
Speaker 1: He's obviously not thrilled with what that has been so far.
4:58
Speaker 1: Ian But we'll see exactly what, if anything, this truly means.
5:01
Speaker 1: Is things move forward? Yeah, I mean there have been
5:03
Speaker 1: teams interested. There have been team researching and trying to
5:06
Speaker 1: figure out is a Lamar Jackson contracts something they want
5:09
Speaker 1: to do. But part of the reason that this hasn't
5:12
Speaker 1: happened is everyone knows that if they are somehow able
5:16
Speaker 1: to reach a deal with Lamar Jackson, somehow able to
5:19
Speaker 1: get him to agree to an offer Shade that would
5:21
Speaker 1: give him the type of fully guaranteed money that he
5:23
Speaker 1: would want. Doesn't have to be a fully guaranteed contract,
5:26
Speaker 1: but the type of fully guaranteed money that he would want.
5:29
Speaker 1: Everyone thinks the Ravens would just match. So that probably
5:32
Speaker 1: reduces the amount of teams interested because they they might
5:35
Speaker 1: just be doing the Ravens work for them. I would
5:38
Speaker 1: also add this mic. Of course, there is the Lamar
5:41
Speaker 1: Jackson trade request that he made several weeks ago, which
5:44
Speaker 1: now has been made public. My understanding is in the
5:47
Speaker 1: last week or so, Lamar Jackson has been actively negotiating
5:50
Speaker 1: with the Ravens on a deal, which leads me to
5:53
Speaker 1: believe that the trade request is more about money financials
5:57
Speaker 1: rather than any sort of fractured relationship. Well, you go
6:00
Speaker 1: back to that bit that we just ran one of
6:02
Speaker 1: them from John Harball talking about how they drafted him
6:05
Speaker 1: a couple of years ago. They did that when a
6:07
Speaker 1: lot other teams passed on him, right, They made him
6:11
Speaker 1: their starting quarterback early in his career because they believed
6:15
Speaker 1: in him and what he was gonna be able to do.
6:16
Speaker 1: They tailored their offense to what they thought he could
6:20
Speaker 1: do best. They have made him contract offers that rival
6:25
Speaker 1: some of the top quarterback deals in the league. Right now,
6:29
Speaker 1: he has the franchise tag. No one else has approached
6:32
Speaker 1: him with anything. So this notion that Lamar Jackson is
6:36
Speaker 1: being disrespected by the Ravens organization by not giving him
6:39
Speaker 1: his full value, when in effect, they're negotiating against themselves
6:43
Speaker 1: right now. I mean, at some point, it's a business.
6:47
Speaker 1: It's not charity, right, Like, just go into the building
6:50
Speaker 1: over there if they'll let you with your passes and
6:52
Speaker 1: listen to the meetings that they're having about business right now.
6:55
Speaker 1: So the Ravens are making the best business decisions while
6:58
Speaker 1: also trying to give him the full value based on
7:00
Speaker 1: what the market tells him. If he wants to get
7:02
Speaker 1: to the point where he wants a fully guaranteed contractor
7:05
Speaker 1: big whatever he wants, he's gonna to play out this tag.
7:09
Speaker 1: He's gonna have to play out the next tag can
7:10
Speaker 1: get there. He's got to finish the season because he
7:12
Speaker 1: hasn't done that the last two years and show everybody
7:14
Speaker 1: that he could stay healthy and play at a top level.
7:17
Speaker 1: I just don't know if they don't get a long
7:18
Speaker 1: term deal by July seventeenth, which is the deadline to
7:21
Speaker 1: do one on the franchise tag, how's that now going
7:24
Speaker 1: to play out? That's the next question. And he can
7:25
Speaker 1: stream this all the way until the Tuesday after week ten,
7:28
Speaker 1: that's the deadline for signing an offer sheet. So we'll
7:30
Speaker 1: see how things move forward. Here we do the whole
7:32
Speaker 1: show on this. Let's talk about some other quarterbacks though.
7:34
Speaker 1: Tell me about San Francisco Ian. Yeah. San Francisco forty
7:37
Speaker 1: nine ers came out today and gentlemanager John Lynch talking
7:39
Speaker 1: to reporters and basically said what our eyeballs had seen
7:42
Speaker 1: all last year, which is that Brock Purdy is the
7:45
Speaker 1: leader in the clubhouse to be their starting quarterback, which
7:48
Speaker 1: has not been a question. Really. The biggest question is
7:50
Speaker 1: is he going to be healthy enough to do it.
7:52
Speaker 1: He did get some very good news surgery related he had.
7:56
Speaker 1: I would say the best case scenario as it pertains
7:58
Speaker 1: to surgery, had the internal brace put on as ucl
8:01
Speaker 1: not throwing for three months, should be able to throw
8:04
Speaker 1: about three months after surgery and then slowly ramp his
8:08
Speaker 1: way up, and is he going to be one hundred
8:10
Speaker 1: percent ready for training camp. Does not seem like he will,
8:14
Speaker 1: but it does sound like the team is optimistic he'll
8:16
Speaker 1: be participating on some level and if that's the case,
8:18
Speaker 1: then he should be ready to go for the season.
8:21
Speaker 1: So I don't get the sense it's a quarterback competition.
8:24
Speaker 1: It's more of if Rock is good to go, this
8:26
Speaker 1: is our guy. The biggest news from Bill Belichick's session
8:28
Speaker 1: at the AFC Coach's Breakfast was probably that Bill Belichick
8:31
Speaker 1: showed up to the AFC Coach's Breakfast talked for a
8:33
Speaker 1: half hour in terms of the quarterbacks Mike, I would
8:36
Speaker 1: fairly categorize his answer as non specific. Well, I fairly
8:39
Speaker 1: categorize a lot of the things that he says is
8:41
Speaker 1: not specific, So you could potentially read into what he
8:44
Speaker 1: said which is on your screen there quote everyone will
8:45
Speaker 1: get a chance to play. We will play the best player.
8:48
Speaker 1: So you're saying, is it Mac Jones against Bailey Zappy
8:50
Speaker 1: in a competition for the starting job? I don't think so,
8:54
Speaker 1: And there is respect between Mac Jones and Bill O'Brien,
8:57
Speaker 1: who is now the offensive coordinator in Foxborough. So I
8:59
Speaker 1: think that that's a big part of it. I believe
9:01
Speaker 1: that Mac Jones thinks and the Patriots think that he
9:04
Speaker 1: is going to play better with Bill O'Brien, an experienced
9:07
Speaker 1: offensive coordinator and play caller at the Helm this year.
9:10
Speaker 1: But I think if you read between the lines there
9:12
Speaker 1: and get close to your TV, don't wear your eyes
9:14
Speaker 1: are gonna be just fine. Look between the lines because
9:16
Speaker 1: I think that there's a message in there from Bill
9:18
Speaker 1: Belichick to Mac Jones, we need you to play a
9:20
Speaker 1: little bit better. So yes, the play calling, the coordinating
9:23
Speaker 1: should be better this year. We need the quarterback plate
9:25
Speaker 1: to rise with it as well. I Meanwhile, Sean Payton
9:27
Speaker 1: doing his first AFC Coaches Breakfast been his whole career,
9:30
Speaker 1: he told me this yesterday, reminded me it's been the
9:31
Speaker 1: NFC his entire career, even as an assistant, so first
9:34
Speaker 1: time on the FC side with the Broncos. He reiterated
9:36
Speaker 1: what he told me yesterday was just that despite a
9:38
Speaker 1: lot of reports, rumors, and certainly calls about Jerry Judy
9:42
Speaker 1: and Courtland Sutton, he said, I don't often touch these
9:45
Speaker 1: types of things. Every now and then I have to
9:46
Speaker 1: throw a fastball and knock somebody back from the plate.
9:48
Speaker 1: We're not trading those guys. We've gotten calls, there's interest.
9:52
Speaker 1: They shopped Corton Sutton or had conversations about him a
9:55
Speaker 1: year ago. He said, right now, we're in the talent
9:57
Speaker 1: acquisition phase. No plans omar to move on from those
10:00
Speaker 1: players as of now. According to Sean Payton, Lee improved
10:06
Speaker 1: from what we saw from Russell Wilson in twenty twenty
10:09
Speaker 1: two to twenty twenty three. Tom Ian, Mike, thank you
10:12
Speaker 1: very much. Much more from you in just a little bit. Well,
10:14
Speaker 1: there's the Chiefs, Andy Reid, Clark Hunt, Brett Beach, the
10:18
Speaker 1: Chiefs brain trust, the toast of the town. There at
10:21
Speaker 1: the annual meeting in Arizona, celebrating their second Super Bowl
10:24
Speaker 1: in four years. They did it with Patrick Mahomes on
10:27
Speaker 1: a rookie contract. They did it with Patrick Mahomes on
10:30
Speaker 1: a blockbuster contract. Here's Andy Reid talking about keeping the
10:33
Speaker 1: team together. It is not going to change your quarterback,
10:35
Speaker 1: Patrick Mahomes. Just first off, an update, how is the
10:38
Speaker 1: ankle coming along? We know he played through it, but
10:40
Speaker 1: did he have to have anything done to it or
10:43
Speaker 1: where now he didn't have to have anything done. He's
10:45
Speaker 1: doing good. Actually, it feels good. This time. He jumped
10:50
Speaker 1: right back into workouts and working the ankle, rehabbing the
10:53
Speaker 1: ankle and lifting and running the parts that he could run.
10:58
Speaker 1: And I didn't miss a bead on that. So we
11:01
Speaker 1: hear this. It's tough to build a championship roster when
11:03
Speaker 1: you've got a quarterback making money. You guys are doing
11:07
Speaker 1: it right. What's the secret? Yeah, well, listen, Pat did
11:11
Speaker 1: a longer term deal, which you don't see that often
11:14
Speaker 1: in the NFL. My hat goes off to him because
11:17
Speaker 1: he wants to win, you know, he wants to win
11:19
Speaker 1: and do it not just one year, but he wants
11:21
Speaker 1: to keep that thing going. So with that, you're allowed
11:24
Speaker 1: to kind of move things around and people understand what
11:28
Speaker 1: we're trying to get done. You know, the Kelsey's is
11:30
Speaker 1: taken a little bit less past taking a little bit
11:33
Speaker 1: you know less, and the because of the contract length,
11:35
Speaker 1: and Chris Jones is another one. So these guys they
11:38
Speaker 1: understand that we've got to fill this thing in and
11:41
Speaker 1: be able to have a team to go out and compete.
11:44
Speaker 1: If you if you're really into it for championships. There's
11:48
Speaker 1: Andy Reid with his signature Hawaiian shirt there at the
11:51
Speaker 1: annual meeting with our Steve White, our James Palmer joining
11:54
Speaker 1: us now James, and it was the talk of the
11:56
Speaker 1: off season all of last year for the Chiefs rebuilding
11:59
Speaker 1: that receiver room, and so far coming into twenty twenty
12:02
Speaker 1: three off season, looks like they're going to have to
12:04
Speaker 1: do it again. Well more, can you tell us about that, James? Yeah,
12:07
Speaker 1: you're right, But first before we get to the receiver's omar,
12:10
Speaker 1: we'll see if Chris Jones is going to take a
12:12
Speaker 1: little bit less. I'm not sure if that's exactly accurate
12:15
Speaker 1: in terms of the way things are going to go
12:17
Speaker 1: this offseason, as he might be due for a big
12:19
Speaker 1: contract extension that could be massive. But you're right, they're
12:22
Speaker 1: gonna look to add to this wide receiver group because
12:25
Speaker 1: the plan this offseason was that they were hoping Patrick
12:28
Speaker 1: Mahomes was gonna be throwing to essentially the same group
12:30
Speaker 1: he was in the Super Bowl. Was gonna be NVS.
12:32
Speaker 1: It was gonna be Juju Smith Schuster was the plan
12:35
Speaker 1: to bring him back. But then when the numbers came
12:37
Speaker 1: from the New England Patriots. They were just never going
12:39
Speaker 1: to get near those numbers, so he ended up to parting.
12:41
Speaker 1: But it was gonna be Cadarius Tony, who they expect
12:44
Speaker 1: to even play even better and do even more in
12:46
Speaker 1: this offense in year two. And we know Travis Kelsey
12:49
Speaker 1: is really the leading receiver out of all this group,
12:51
Speaker 1: even though we placed tight end and then they're rookie
12:53
Speaker 1: and Skymore. Moving now into year two, they are going
12:55
Speaker 1: to add to this group. But if you look at
12:57
Speaker 1: the way the receiver market has played out, it's been
12:59
Speaker 1: rather interesting. Now they are looking at DeAndre Hopkins and
13:03
Speaker 1: they're monitoring Odell Beckham Junior, where they were one of
13:05
Speaker 1: the teams represented at Odell's workout. They're looking at both
13:09
Speaker 1: of them, but they're also taking their time, like a
13:12
Speaker 1: lot of teams because of the way the wide receiver
13:14
Speaker 1: market is playing out, because of the lack of wide
13:16
Speaker 1: receiver talent in this upcoming draft, and because free agency
13:20
Speaker 1: lacked a lot of number one overall guys, teams that
13:23
Speaker 1: have receivers that they'd be interested in moving. As you
13:25
Speaker 1: heard Tom just talking about Jerry Judy and Courtland Sutton
13:28
Speaker 1: and Denver, they're asking price for both those guys, I
13:31
Speaker 1: was told by multiple teams was extremely high because the
13:33
Speaker 1: teams that have these receivers have leveraged. So if you
13:36
Speaker 1: wait and you see what Arizona's doing with DeAndre Hopkins
13:39
Speaker 1: or if Odell Beckham Junior continues to wait and the
13:41
Speaker 1: price gets lower because the Chiefs have had interest in
13:44
Speaker 1: him for well over a year, then they'll make their play.
13:47
Speaker 1: As Andy Reid mentioned, some guys have taken less to
13:50
Speaker 1: work with Patrick Mahomes contract. But at the same time,
13:53
Speaker 1: not every position get paid an exorbitant amount, and the
13:56
Speaker 1: Chiefs are not paying wide receivers a whole lot of
13:58
Speaker 1: money and where they're built right now, so look for
14:00
Speaker 1: them to continue to monitor those top guys, keep an
14:03
Speaker 1: eye on every other capacity. But the same time, they
14:05
Speaker 1: did bring back all of their tight ends and Jody
14:08
Speaker 1: Forston Blake Bell, they have Noah Gray. They like to
14:10
Speaker 1: use both of all of those guys Omar as well,
14:12
Speaker 1: and how they use different formations with multiple tight ends.
14:16
Speaker 1: Andy Reid uses his offense very differently than a lot
14:18
Speaker 1: of other people. So it's not a pressing pressing need,
14:20
Speaker 1: it's a need end receiver could be a position of
14:23
Speaker 1: need for them in the draft to look toward. But
14:25
Speaker 1: if they can get one of those superstars like DeAndre
14:28
Speaker 1: Hopkins and Odell Beckham's junior in that offense, James, that
14:31
Speaker 1: would be fun to watch here in twenty twenty three.
14:34
Speaker 1: Thank you very much. I'm excited to be there. Here
14:36
Speaker 1: we are back to Arizona, the NFL Annual Meeting. A
14:40
Speaker 1: lot more than just Aaron Rodgers and Lamar Jackson and
14:44
Speaker 1: happening in the National Football League for much more from Arizona.
14:47
Speaker 1: Let's send it back to Andrew Ceciliano, Judy Batista, and
14:52
Speaker 1: Tom Pella Sero, Hey, Andrew Omar. Hello, Let's talk competition
14:56
Speaker 1: committee here at Judy and the changes that could be
14:59
Speaker 1: coming to special teams here, notably starting with the punt
15:02
Speaker 1: game proposal, which we think is going to pass. There's
15:06
Speaker 1: a good chance of passing here, which would make any
15:10
Speaker 1: touchback on a punt the ball goes out to the
15:12
Speaker 1: twenty five. Of the passes the twenty this would even
15:14
Speaker 1: it with the kickoffs bring it out to the twenty five.
15:16
Speaker 1: We think this is a potential go. We do because
15:18
Speaker 1: this is a player's safety issue. There is a disproportionate
15:21
Speaker 1: number of injuries happen on the punt and the kickoff,
15:24
Speaker 1: which we'll get to. There's also a potential rules change
15:27
Speaker 1: on kickoffs, and the idea is they don't want to
15:31
Speaker 1: take the punt out of the game, you know, they
15:32
Speaker 1: want to keep the foot in the game, they always say.
15:35
Speaker 1: But frankly, they want to have fewer returns because it
15:37
Speaker 1: is on the returns that there are the big collisions.
15:40
Speaker 1: You have heard players say over and over it is
15:42
Speaker 1: like running into a garage door when players are at
15:45
Speaker 1: that high speed. So they would like to reduce the
15:48
Speaker 1: number of returns because they hope that will lead to
15:50
Speaker 1: fewer injuries, particularly concussions. On the kickoff, it is any
15:57
Speaker 1: fair catch on a kickoff would go to the twenty five.
16:00
Speaker 1: So again they think that if you had the kickoff
16:04
Speaker 1: like to the four yard line, if your fair catch it,
16:07
Speaker 1: teams would be encouraged to fair catches, so you get
16:10
Speaker 1: to the twenty five, and again that would reduce the
16:12
Speaker 1: number of returns, which is the entire point of these proposes.
16:16
Speaker 1: And that was something strategically that may have been an
16:18
Speaker 1: unintended consequences some other rules changes, which was people realized, okay,
16:22
Speaker 1: you moved it up five yards to kickoff. Now we're
16:24
Speaker 1: just going to pop the ball up, get good hang
16:26
Speaker 1: time on almost make it like a punt, and so
16:28
Speaker 1: you did end up with more returns. It's also Rich McKay,
16:31
Speaker 1: the Competition committee chair, justified the change about the punts
16:34
Speaker 1: come out to the twenty five this way, which was
16:35
Speaker 1: he said, somebody on the committee made the point, why
16:38
Speaker 1: do we reward an extra five yard for someone playing
16:40
Speaker 1: bad defense giving up a touchdown and then you have
16:43
Speaker 1: a touchback on the kickoff, but then you play good
16:46
Speaker 1: defense and force a punt and it only comes out
16:48
Speaker 1: to the twenty. It's interesting. It's definitely an interesting It's
16:50
Speaker 1: also worth adding they are going to continue to look
16:53
Speaker 1: at ways to work on the punt and kickoff again.
16:56
Speaker 1: They don't this comes up over and over again. They
16:59
Speaker 1: don't want to remove these plays entirely from the game,
17:02
Speaker 1: but they are disproportionately dangerous plays for players, and so
17:07
Speaker 1: they have to do something to make them safer. And
17:09
Speaker 1: Mike Rabel, who's a strong voice on the competition, but
17:11
Speaker 1: he said that to me today. I asked him what's
17:13
Speaker 1: the one change he thinks should be made, And the
17:14
Speaker 1: first thing he said was, we have to keep the
17:16
Speaker 1: kick in the game. So we're looking at some of
17:18
Speaker 1: these other changes. That's been an important part of this.
17:20
Speaker 1: Nobody wants to as football coaches. I don't think live
17:23
Speaker 1: in a world where that play has gone entirely, which
17:25
Speaker 1: of course brings us to the proposal once again of
17:28
Speaker 1: eliminating on site kicks effectively and having a fourth down
17:30
Speaker 1: play instead. But if you want to have that purity
17:33
Speaker 1: of that aspect of the game, you have to find
17:34
Speaker 1: a way to make it safer because of the injury rates.
17:36
Speaker 1: I thought what Rich McKay said as well about the
17:38
Speaker 1: potential moving the touchback for the punts out to the
17:40
Speaker 1: twenty five He also thinks that it might encourage teams
17:43
Speaker 1: to go for it more on fourth down. So if
17:47
Speaker 1: I'm going to punt it and I know it's going
17:48
Speaker 1: to be on the twenty five yard line, maybe I
17:50
Speaker 1: will be a little bit more aggressive offensively, and maybe
17:52
Speaker 1: that could be a positive or punted better. There's always
17:56
Speaker 1: that angle as well. Also on the table here Judy
17:59
Speaker 1: fine tuning some of the language on the use of
18:02
Speaker 1: the helmet when it comes to tack. Right, we think
18:04
Speaker 1: of the can't lower your head to make forcible contact
18:07
Speaker 1: that's still prohibited, but there is language that would add
18:10
Speaker 1: this part. Player would be penalized if he uses any
18:13
Speaker 1: part of the helmet or face mask to butt or
18:16
Speaker 1: make forcible contact with an opponent's head or neck. So
18:20
Speaker 1: it's basically expanding it. They'll show some plays where you
18:23
Speaker 1: see guys like perhaps running up the sideline and the
18:26
Speaker 1: tackler will come and go like this, not lowering the head,
18:30
Speaker 1: but using the head as a weapon. The whole point
18:33
Speaker 1: is the big pictures. They want to change the culture.
18:36
Speaker 1: They want to get the head out of the game
18:38
Speaker 1: as much as they can. These are almost certainly going
18:40
Speaker 1: to be only called on plays in space. They expect
18:44
Speaker 1: that it's not going to result in a lot of
18:45
Speaker 1: flags in real time. It is likely to result in
18:48
Speaker 1: fines coming out on Monday, and again it wouldn't happen
18:52
Speaker 1: on those like goal line plays where there's a whole
18:54
Speaker 1: lot of contact, there wouldn't be flags thrown there. But
18:56
Speaker 1: the plays in space where guys are making contact with
18:59
Speaker 1: their head, they want that out. Big part of this
19:00
Speaker 1: too is enforceability. That's one of the things that comes
19:02
Speaker 1: up on all these potential rule changes is can you
19:05
Speaker 1: actually see this? Can you actually call it. And of
19:09
Speaker 1: course one of the concerns or the criticisms of NFL
19:11
Speaker 1: efficiing has just been the inconsistency from crew to crew.
19:14
Speaker 1: So something like that where you're drastically expanding the penalized
19:19
Speaker 1: penalizeable plays could potentially create some inconsistencies because it's hard
19:23
Speaker 1: to imagine you're going to have that enforced all the
19:25
Speaker 1: time because frankly, there's some level of head contact that's
19:28
Speaker 1: always going to be a part of the games by nature.
19:30
Speaker 1: And Troy Vincent, the VP of OPS, made the point
19:32
Speaker 1: last week on the conference call, this in consistency amongst
19:34
Speaker 1: the crews is goal number one here. Goal number one
19:38
Speaker 1: is just have these games for the most part as
19:41
Speaker 1: consistently called on Sunday or Monday or Thursday or Saturday
19:46
Speaker 1: across the board, and if they can get to a
19:48
Speaker 1: level of consistency, obviously that would be the goal. Those
19:52
Speaker 1: will be voted on potentially coming up Omar to Marrow.
20:01
Speaker 1: He is a big play machine. There's a Truman Johns.
20:09
Speaker 1: He holds you get chance put in the world, put
20:13
Speaker 1: it it's on. I wants to advanced You ignore a
20:15
Speaker 1: man in order band shots to spend more he can't fly.
20:20
Speaker 1: He's wide open Britain Johnson collection on the Man, the Man,
20:25
Speaker 1: not the Man, the Man in the Man's done it
20:30
Speaker 1: over the solar cash bombs to the ensode, Quiet open
20:34
Speaker 1: Johnson touchdown. My goodness is he died in her man
20:43
Speaker 1: out of TCU. There you see his NFL combine comparison
20:47
Speaker 1: Sydney Rice, the former Viking and Seattle Seahawks Super Bowl champion.
20:52
Speaker 1: By the numbers, their height, their weight, hands armed vert
20:56
Speaker 1: very similar, of course, Sydney Rice a great career. Quentin
21:01
Speaker 1: Johnson now joining us here on NFL now looking for
21:04
Speaker 1: a great NFL career in his own right. Lancer Line,
21:08
Speaker 1: our draft expert, also joining us. I want to start
21:10
Speaker 1: with that shirt there, Dion Sanders. Tell us about your
21:15
Speaker 1: love for prime time. Oh yeah, for sure. It's just uh,
21:18
Speaker 1: he's he's one of those you know, you know, great
21:20
Speaker 1: football itels that you grew up watching. So you know,
21:22
Speaker 1: I see the shirt in one of the stores. I said,
21:24
Speaker 1: why not, Quinn, I'm curious. You know you got people
21:28
Speaker 1: like me writing your scattering report picking at you here
21:30
Speaker 1: and there, giving your strengths. Also, no one ever gives
21:33
Speaker 1: me credit for the strengths. I say about players, you got,
21:36
Speaker 1: you know, mock drafts moving you up and down, people
21:39
Speaker 1: talking about you. Then you got to worry about the
21:41
Speaker 1: combine and the Pro Day and everything that goes into that.
21:43
Speaker 1: Have you had a chance to to appreciate the process.
21:46
Speaker 1: Is it just a grind for you? Or are you
21:49
Speaker 1: enjoying this at all? Oh? Yeah, sure, I'm gonna you know,
21:52
Speaker 1: enjoining a lot you kind of just you kind of
21:54
Speaker 1: just think that there's not a lot of people that
21:56
Speaker 1: you know, get the opportunity to do it, so, you know,
21:58
Speaker 1: I just um, you know, you know, going to every day,
22:00
Speaker 1: if you practice every meeting, you know, like it's my
22:03
Speaker 1: last thing, you know, just learning to have fun with it.
22:05
Speaker 1: You saw that Sydney Rice comparison, Quentin a couple other
22:07
Speaker 1: receivers you're compared to, Alshon Jeffrey and Mike Williams, a
22:11
Speaker 1: couple of electrifying playmakers in their owner right. What receivers
22:14
Speaker 1: do you pattern your game after? Yeah? Okay, yeah for sure,
22:19
Speaker 1: especially especially somebody I've been watching, you know, coming into
22:22
Speaker 1: college all the way through UM as far as like
22:25
Speaker 1: coming off the line and stuff like that, would be
22:27
Speaker 1: Devantae Adams. You know, obviously one of the one of
22:29
Speaker 1: the great receivers in them in the league right now.
22:32
Speaker 1: So yeah, some it's somebody that I always try to,
22:36
Speaker 1: you know, model my game. App tell us about you
22:39
Speaker 1: know a lot of people say you just run down
22:41
Speaker 1: the field make catches, and there's so much more that
22:42
Speaker 1: goes into being a receiver. Tell us about when you
22:45
Speaker 1: watch tape, what are you looking for in terms of, uh,
22:48
Speaker 1: you know, from a standpoint of getting an advantage on
22:51
Speaker 1: a cornerback or a coverage. Give us some insight into
22:53
Speaker 1: what you're looking for once the ball snapped, or maybe
22:56
Speaker 1: even before the ball is snap to give yourself, you know,
22:59
Speaker 1: an advantage over the defense. Oh yeah, for sure. Okay, Well,
23:03
Speaker 1: going going into that week playing playing a certain player,
23:06
Speaker 1: I kind of I kind of look at his tendencies
23:07
Speaker 1: a lot. So so if he tends to um you know,
23:10
Speaker 1: you know, get out quicker, if he's more aggressive, is
23:13
Speaker 1: if he's not more aggressive, if he's if he gets
23:15
Speaker 1: caught watching the quarterback. A lot of just different things
23:17
Speaker 1: like that. And then you know, at the end of
23:18
Speaker 1: the day, when I line up, kind of seeing you know,
23:20
Speaker 1: like if he's flat footed, kind of kind of kind
23:22
Speaker 1: of seeing how um I guess. I guess hype is
23:26
Speaker 1: initially if he if he wants to get out and
23:28
Speaker 1: run or or I do have to sit it down
23:29
Speaker 1: and make a certain round look a certain way on him. Hey, Quentnin,
23:32
Speaker 1: you've got your pro day on Thursday. What do you
23:34
Speaker 1: want to show the scouts there? Uh? Really? Really my forty?
23:38
Speaker 1: I feel like, Um, I feel like I pretty much
23:40
Speaker 1: proved myself as far as my um, as far as
23:42
Speaker 1: my routes and my my actual catching ability. Um but
23:45
Speaker 1: but but the forty was the only thing that I
23:46
Speaker 1: didn't run there. So yeah, I'm I'm trying my best
23:49
Speaker 1: to uh, you know, run as fast as I can
23:51
Speaker 1: on that. I know there's a lot of expectations that
23:54
Speaker 1: you're gonna run really well. We saw you could jump
23:56
Speaker 1: out of the gym at the at the combine. Um,
23:59
Speaker 1: what do you expect to run? And where are your
24:01
Speaker 1: training right now? How what's that been like to to
24:03
Speaker 1: train to run fast as is supposed to just being
24:06
Speaker 1: a football guy. Oh yeah, sure, Umbo, Obviously it's different
24:10
Speaker 1: because it's more like a it's more like track workouts.
24:13
Speaker 1: Now you gotta you gotta get time and take nick
24:14
Speaker 1: and everything right. Um, but but I mean, I mean
24:18
Speaker 1: as far as time, you know, you know, I'm gonna
24:20
Speaker 1: just go out there and try to run as fast
24:21
Speaker 1: as I can. But I've been working, uh working out
24:23
Speaker 1: in Frisco, Texas, Exos with uh with with Brent Callaway
24:29
Speaker 1: Bent Brent makes them fast. Now. Yeah, well Lance mentioned
24:35
Speaker 1: jumping out of the gym. I want to show you
24:36
Speaker 1: this picture here, Quentin, that we saw in your social media.
24:39
Speaker 1: This is an awesome photo. Number one. Look at the
24:43
Speaker 1: athleticism there. I want this as a pick as a poster. Quentin,
24:47
Speaker 1: this was amazing. You talk about Dion Sanders being a
24:49
Speaker 1: two sports star. What about your basketball background. Oh yeah,
24:53
Speaker 1: for sure. Honestly, honestly, growing up, basketball as my first love.
24:57
Speaker 1: It was something that I always just you know, had
24:59
Speaker 1: an interested is I played. I played through the four
25:00
Speaker 1: different sports, you know, growing up, not really sure which one. Um.
25:04
Speaker 1: I kind of want to go to college for days,
25:05
Speaker 1: to go to type of camps and you know, play
25:08
Speaker 1: with all type of secrets and stuff to try to
25:10
Speaker 1: get my name out there. But you know, at the
25:12
Speaker 1: end of the day, I was, you know, I feel
25:14
Speaker 1: a football more, you know, like when I actually came
25:16
Speaker 1: down to it. Yeah, well that's an awesome photo. You
25:18
Speaker 1: see the goalpost in the background, combining your level of
25:21
Speaker 1: basketball your future in football. We can't wait to see
25:24
Speaker 1: where you end up next month in the draft one
25:27
Speaker 1: month from today. Quentin Johnston, good luck the rest of
25:30
Speaker 1: the way. Yes, our appreciate you. Jared Goff returning to
25:40
Speaker 1: Pro Bowl form in twenty twenty two. As the Lions
25:44
Speaker 1: showed a lot of resiliency in twenty twenty two. They
25:47
Speaker 1: were in the playoff hunt all the way until the
25:50
Speaker 1: final Sunday afternoon of the regular season. There you see
25:54
Speaker 1: them finishing second in the NFC North eight and two
25:58
Speaker 1: and their last ten games, and so a lot of
26:00
Speaker 1: optimism heading into twenty twenty three. James Palmer for more
26:05
Speaker 1: the Detroit Lions. James, and it seems like the Lions
26:07
Speaker 1: or everybody's darlings heading into the twenty twenty thirty season.
26:10
Speaker 1: What market he tells about what they're building there in Detroit,
26:14
Speaker 1: Oh Or maybe they should be with the way that
26:16
Speaker 1: they're putting this together, and as excited as we all
26:18
Speaker 1: should be about this draft that they have coming up.
26:20
Speaker 1: Where they had pick six, eighteen, forty eight, fifty five
26:24
Speaker 1: and eighty one, that's a lot of capital when you
26:26
Speaker 1: already feel like they filled a lot of their needs
26:28
Speaker 1: in their holes in the early portion of free agency.
26:31
Speaker 1: But when let's start on this offensive side of the ball.
26:33
Speaker 1: That was a top five offense in almost every category
26:36
Speaker 1: that you could really look at, and you look at
26:39
Speaker 1: the way that they're built with one of the best
26:40
Speaker 1: offensive lines in football. You saw the way Jared Goff
26:42
Speaker 1: played a Monross Saint Brown, and then I want to
26:45
Speaker 1: focus on Jamison Williams and remember what they did. They
26:48
Speaker 1: traded up to get him in the draft to where
26:50
Speaker 1: there were multiple receivers that they could go after, and
26:53
Speaker 1: this was a very deep draft at receiver. What they
26:55
Speaker 1: liked is the ceiling that he had. Yes, he was
26:58
Speaker 1: coming off the ACL, but there was a risk they
27:00
Speaker 1: were going to take. They wanted to see where they
27:02
Speaker 1: could take him in year two. That's what we're all
27:04
Speaker 1: going to focus on. But it's specifically because of the
27:07
Speaker 1: way that he is wired. I was at Alabama for
27:09
Speaker 1: his pro day, spend time in Tuscaloosa. Many people down
27:12
Speaker 1: there belief he was one of the best special teams
27:15
Speaker 1: players Alabama has ever had. That's the love he has
27:17
Speaker 1: for football, That's the way he's wired. That's the way
27:20
Speaker 1: Brad Holmes and Dan Campbell liked to build this roster.
27:23
Speaker 1: It's those traits they're looking for in this upcoming draft,
27:25
Speaker 1: and it shows you with that move and other ones
27:27
Speaker 1: with Penny Sewell when they did it and they trade
27:29
Speaker 1: t J. Hopkinson that they're going to do what they
27:31
Speaker 1: want to do Omar and with all that draft capital,
27:34
Speaker 1: it's going to be interesting to see what direction they
27:36
Speaker 1: go in the first round because they can go a
27:37
Speaker 1: lot of different ones. If they had a great tight end,
27:39
Speaker 1: would say that eighteenth pick, this could be an exciting,
27:42
Speaker 1: exciting offense to watch. Yeah, one that already is. And
27:45
Speaker 1: they've retooled their secondary now James, not just with talented players,
27:49
Speaker 1: but with tough players. And what more can you tell
27:51
Speaker 1: about the back end of their defense this year? As
27:54
Speaker 1: I rave about the statistics of the offense, this defense
27:57
Speaker 1: was at the bottom of the NFL and almost every
28:00
Speaker 1: single category, and they knew the secondary was one thing
28:02
Speaker 1: that they needed to change, and quickly they make the
28:04
Speaker 1: move for Cam Sutton, who they believe, even at twenty nine,
28:07
Speaker 1: has a lot of growth to go within his game
28:10
Speaker 1: and he can play inside, he can play outside. They
28:12
Speaker 1: add Emmanuel Moseley as well, who is yes, coming off
28:15
Speaker 1: the ACL but to my understanding, they believe he will
28:17
Speaker 1: be ready for the start of the regular season. And
28:20
Speaker 1: then the guy that they really know well, that Aaron
28:23
Speaker 1: len Fund knows very well, the defense coordinator since his
28:25
Speaker 1: days in high school, actually is CJ. Gardner Johnson and
28:28
Speaker 1: that model on the backside having versatile players because CJ
28:33
Speaker 1: can guard tight ends, he can blitz from the edge,
28:35
Speaker 1: he can play safety, can play nickel. But when he
28:37
Speaker 1: missed that time in Philadelphia, and I spent time there
28:40
Speaker 1: this past season, Omar, it was when he missed those
28:43
Speaker 1: five games, practice just wasn't the same. The competitiveness between
28:46
Speaker 1: the offense and the defense wasn't the same, The juice
28:48
Speaker 1: wasn't there, the energy wasn't there. That's what they need
28:51
Speaker 1: to bring to this defense to play up to the
28:53
Speaker 1: caliber of their offensive side of the ball. So building
28:56
Speaker 1: all of that back there as well as the draft
28:58
Speaker 1: capital we talked about earlier. If you bolstered that defensive
29:01
Speaker 1: line at number six, you can get Tyree Wilson, you
29:03
Speaker 1: can get you know, Jalen Carry, get one of these
29:05
Speaker 1: guys that are at the top of the draft in
29:07
Speaker 1: terms of the defensive side of the ball because of
29:09
Speaker 1: how quarterback needy teams are ahead of them. What helps
29:12
Speaker 1: your secondary better than a pass rush that can help
29:15
Speaker 1: Aiden Hutchinson. Yeah, they rebuild the secondary through free agency,
29:18
Speaker 1: perhaps build their defensive line through the draft, in addition
29:21
Speaker 1: to having that great in the trenches team on offense.
29:24
Speaker 1: Red Holmes looking to do the same, theyre NFL Now
29:32
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29:35
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