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Speaker 1: Good Morning Football is the production of the NFL in partnership with iHeartRadio. Good Morning, A big time deal for a big time wide receiver. DJ Metcalf gets paid. We'll break it all down in a bit. Kyler fires back and there's a big change to his contract. Shocking, not shocking. We'll talk about it. We welcome you too, Good Morning Football. We are live here in New York City. It's Friday, July twenty ninth. We have survived. My name is Jamie Urdall, alongside Kyle Brand Friday and if Ill Night work inside, Mike Gara follow and a Super Bowl champion Jason mccordy. And so it's time for the final of the week. All right, let's start out in the desert where we got the news last night courtesy of our own NFL network insider Ian Rapport that the controversial quote independent study clause and Kyler Murray's a massive extension was removed. The Cardinals then issued this statement after seeing a distraction it created, we removed the dentum from the contract. It was clearly perceived in ways that were never intended. Our confidence in Kyler Murray is as high as it's ever been, and nothing demonstrates our belief in his ability to lead this team more than the commitment reflected in this contract. Kyler himself addressed some of the heat he took in a surprise cress conference yesterday afternoon. Let's take a listen. I should think that I can accomplish everything that I've accomplished from my career and not be a student of the game and not have that passion and not take this serious is almost it's disrespectful. It's almost a joke, you know, to me. You know, I want to see flattered that y'all think that at my size, I can go out there and not prepare for the game and not take it serious. It's disrespectful, ifflect to my peers, to all the great athletes and great players that are in this league. Games too hard to play the position that I play in this league. It's it's too hard. And I don't do this often. I don't talk about myself, but today I feel like I have to. And so I'm a list to accolades, you know, to go forty three and oh in high school in Texas. So we're gonna say, oh, it's high school. That's cool. But nobody else has done it go to college when the Heisman get drafted number one overall to the NFL, get drafted number nine overall to MLB. Again, no one's ever done it. Offensive rookie of the year, two time pro bowler, and I'm not six seven to two thirty. I don't throw the ball eighty five yards. I'm already behind the eight ball. You know, I can't afford to take any shortcuts, no pun intended, but those those things you can't accomplish if you don't take the game serious, if you don't prepare the right way. And you know, it's like I said, it's it's laughable. So it was a pretty crazy Thursday all week in existence for the Cardinals. So we're gonna talk about what everyone's thinking about what has gone down, not just yesterday, but since last week when we heard the contract existed and then the clause and everything. So what do you got, Kyle? I got a deep breath first. I think we all need a deep breath all right, after watching what we just watched. I like that he stood up himself. I like that Kyler Murray showed some emotion and obviously was affected by this emotion. We haven't seen a lot from him. I'm out on him going on offense to the media. And this idea that this was some media creation, this is some dumb rumor that we all ran with. There's plenty of other stories like that. This is not one of them. Here's just the facts. Someone in the Cardinals organization, I have a pretty strong idea who, based on what they'd seen of Kyler Murray for years, said I don't trust his preparation and his work ethic. I don't I want something in the contract that assures of that. Okay. Then it went to his agent said okay, And then it went to Kyler and he took a pen and he signed below the thing that says hours and hours of study. So listen, don't come at us. And for making a thing out of this. This was a direct assignment from your employer that says you got to put your nose in that book and study. And I have another thing in the idea that like this all came too easy. See for Kyler, he just shows up a natural ability and that's why he made all this money. Can we see the shirt? Just maybe you don't wear a shirt that says easy money to the press conference, wear a Cardinal shirt. You probably walked past thirty of them on the way up to the stage. Easy. I know, Kyler, that's the problem. The game's too easy. You're too talented. You don't watch the film. So you signed the contract, so like, I actually liked that. He's like a hold on a second, because we've never seen that from Kyler. But don't come on offense to all of us who said, wow, that's crazy. The Cardinals don't trust him. That was in the contract because the Cardinals didn't trust him, and then you signed it. Bro, So this is not something we made up, Mike Garifolo, No, it's not. And the statement, the statement is more fuel on your fire because it says it was perceived. It's kind of and D notation. I forget which one is you. I think it d notation. They're blaming that part of everyone. I would say this, and I've signed up for a lot of things and they give you the disclaimer. And I went to the the Eagles the other day and they said please sign this waiver and it was like six pages. I didn't read it. I just signed it. I'm pretty sure I was gonna follow everything. And it's not a big deal or whatever. So if you are sitting there and saying, well, how did Kyler not know what he was signing? And I believe that he had no idea what he was signing? Well that was even in there, right, And so somebody kind of goes to the whole don't doesn't do the work now something. Well, okay, Jamie, there you go. But somebody at some point, because they you trust these people, even the team, to say, if we do this and we put this in the contract and somebody sees it, boy, it's gonna be a topic on Good Morning Football, and they're gonna have
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some hot takes on this one and some other shows across the boarding. People are gonna have a certain reaction, and it's gonna feed into things that they've already reported. It's gonna be basically a confirmation of a lot of the things that we were Super Bowl Sunday I had a whole report on why there was a standoff between Kyler Murray and the team, and it was about much more than money. It was about things like this, frankly, and so the team putting the clause in the contract kind of so somebody at some points got a lot out for Kyler and say, hey, we need to protect you and your image publicly. If this goes in there and you sign it, there's gonna be a reaction. So he I understand why he was angry, and he was angry at a lot of folks, including the team. He wouldn't even say that somebody's gotta watch out for Kyler on that one. I love it. You love Kyler recis today for sure, forty three in on high school Heisman Trophy winner, and we can say, all right, he definitely has hurdles to get over in the NFL. This guy's been in the league for three years. He's been to two Pro Bowls, excluding his rookie year, you know, without the quarterback that was the first overall pick that didn't go as rookie year, but then went to the next two years. Payton manny Am I saying he's gonna be paying no, but let's give the guy a break. Let's not act like what he just said. I've gotten here, I've performed here, and now we're just crushing him because of something the Cardinals said. I said it yesterday. The Cardinals will make this a huge distraction for more than just Kyler Murray by putting this in the contract. It was true because a day later it is no longer in the contract. But I love the fact that Kyler calls this press converse and he's not gonna let everybody, including the people at Good Morning Football, to sit here and just destroy him as if he just goes home, shows up, eat some skittles, and goes out there and just performs and plays. No, does guy's put into work. Is he watching as much film as some of the other quarterbacks. Possibly not, but he's still performing on Sunday. And that's what you get paid for, to perform on Sunday. And if I handed you one hundred million dollar contract, I think you would send it over to the lawyers, let him review all one hundred pages of it, and they say, hey, contracts a go. You take that, give him a hundred So I too can look up your Wikipedia page, Kyler Murray and read off all of the things that you have accomplished in your football career. That wasn't the question at hand. I know what you've done. What I want to know is why it was in there in the first place. We talked about the who, what, when, where, why of journalism. I want to know why it was there. It has nothing to do with what you did in high school. It has nothing to do with what you did in college. It has a little bit to do with what you did in the last two games in the season last year, and what you have done with the Cardinals thus far. I wanted him to call
that press conference and say, listen, I haven't done the highest performances of my career yet with the Cardinals. I need to take accountability of what I have yet to accomplish with the Cardinals. There is a reason why I want to be here, because I can accomplish these things with the Cardinals, not I was the best high school quarterback in Texas. Ever, I don't care. I don't care. This is so frustrating. I want accountability and maturity. I feel so when we see these contracts signed by young quarterbacks, oftentimes for the franchise, it's a page turn and it's such a launch for a rookie to sign this next contract and say, now I get to make the money, Now I get to pickome the face. But this is what we're talking about. This is so frustrating, and I just I'm happy he called the press conference. I'm so frustrated with that is the direction he chose to go with it. It's great. I almost feel like didn't totally understand the story. It's almost as if he wasn't fully prepared for the press conference, which is like call fifty different layers of irony. Maybe there should be a new clause and Mike, with due respect to like the wafer you signed with the Eagles, this is a quarter of a billion dollars contract. You gotta read it. And then if your Asian desert present, you gotta read it yourself. I know that's outlandish, and maybe you're doing the call of duty while you're signing it. But also, Jason, he's done very well. Okay, and he's done. It's great. He's right out the stets. He sucked in that playoff. He looked like he was not on the planet Earth. And so when you start to hear by his own words, by the way he read the New York Times, I don't watch much films, not me. It just kind of comes to me naturally. And then his own employer says, we don't get watched much film either. Sign this like it's all kind of there's not a lot of accountability, like Jamie saying like he was seven or no team last year, like they're like, oh my god, they're gonna win the NFC. His stats second after you're terrible. He fell off the table. So if it was because of the preparation, that's on him. Yeah, But in the article he said I don't watch twenty four hours a day of film. He didn't say I don't watch film. We just have heard some of these other quarterbacks that watch I was with Brady. He watches a ton of film. Why wouldn't he want to be like Brady? Well he's now we're going to be Brady. Brady's able to stand in the pocket and dissect you. That is not Kyler Murray. It is never going to be Kyler Murray. Here's a shorter quarterback. He's a guy who makes plays that aren't planned. He wants to get outside and that's the way to offense his design before us. They expect him to sit back there. I'm sure a guy like Lamar Jackson isn't looking at Hey, I'm gonna emulate my career after Tom Brady. No, it's just not his game. They're watching the Michael Vicks of the world seeing what he did. Yes, well, he probably started to prepare more he wants to win those big games in the playoffs. But we can't just discredit him because he hasn't won in the Playoffsky's been in the Pro Bowl two out of three years as the first overall pick Heisman Trophy one. What the implication is, do you want to go to the Pro Bowl or do you want to go to the Super Bowl. That's the implication it needs. That is the question, all right. Also in the NFCUS, we got some big news out of Seattle last night. DK Metcalf gets a huge contract extension. Mike, you were all over this one. What's up with the ill over? Because Ian Rappapart was lying and frankly nice beating me to a nice if he hadn't been sleeping on the plane. Nap naport three years, seventy two million, fifty eight point two million dollars in total guarantees for DK Metcalf. That ends his hold in after a couple of days. That's a victory for everybody involved right now because last year Jamal Adams, it took three and a half more weeks from right now for them to get the deal done and he was holding in the whole time. If you've got Drew Lock and you want him to get some reps. You know Smith as well, but you want him to get some reps and you want to start getting a vibe going. It's good to have dk Metcalf back at practice, and it's good to have dk Metcalf paid. It's tough to really compare wide receiver deals right now because they're structured very weirdly right now, summer backloaded, summer frontloaded, summer long, summer short. This is a really good deal and it gives him a chance to be a free agent one more time before he turns thirty. All I have to say is there's no independent workout clause. All right, Training camp is here, so it's time to talk about some of the biggest names of the story lines of the summer with another edition of training Wheels, which my three year old still has. Here's how it works. Each of you will take a turn spinning our training wheel, which has eight faces on it. Whichever the face of the wheel it lands on, you'll have to answer a question about them that makes sense. Yeah, okay, okay, okay, we're gonna sart with Mike. Take a spin on our training wheel. Oh yeah'll spit it. Okay, it's virtual, all right, Mike, you landed on Oh well, Matt. And earlier this week, he was asked about the goals, his goals for the season, So we're gonna buy you some time here. Here's what he had to say. I feel like, up to this point of my career, I've accomplished things, but ultimately, you want to get you want to get to a super Bowl and you want to win it, and that's the only thing on my mind at this point in my career. Should the Chargers be considered legitimate Super Bowl contenders heading into the season. That's what you say when you have already been paid. It's not about the individuals, it's about the team goals. And I love it and the team goal, yes, should be absolutely. How should they be considered contenders? Yes, my favorites contenders absolutely. Whoever comes out of that division, whoever wins that division, is going to be battle tested, and I give the Chargers a
real chance to win this division. They got a lot better on defense. They needed to get better up the middle. A matter of fact, Sebastian Joseph Day is the guy that I keep here and other teams were like, we were really in on that guy. We wanted to get him. They got a lot better in areas on defense than they need it to be, So this feels more like what Brandon Staley wants to do. From a personnel standpoint. They should be much better against the run. That is a big part of what they're doing. Justin Herbert is an MVP candidate on the other side of the ball. I think this team can put it together, and I think Brandon Staley is firm in his belief of how he's going to handle some of these tough decisions that he caught heat for it last year. He says, no, that's how we're doing business. I like the fact that he's staying the course right there. They believe in him, He believes in his players. Derwin James gonna get paid soon. Everybody's gonna be happy, Chargers content. You heard it here on training wheels, man, I love it. What a way to kick it off, all right, Jason, it's your time to spin the wheel. Man, get up here, give it a spin a real Oh that was wealth mine? All right? All right? It was very quickly, Eyrie Hill, I know. It really does kind of makes you think about the other faces are in there. Tyreek Hill was asked yesterday about how defenses will react to him and Jalen Waddle both being on the field at the same time, and he quickly came up with this answer, Oh, they're scary. I'm gonna tell you what. Jaydub like he's faster than I thought. Like when I first got here, I was like, Okay, he's a four to three because typically, like when you see poll three guys, they don't run his fast on the football field. But Jaydub like he actually he actually runs a fholl three on the football field. There's a difference. Jason, how do you think opposing defenses will adjust to cover Hill and Waddle? They will back up because, like he said, Jalen Waddle is fast. When I first got to Miami last year, the coaches on the defensive side of the ball, you know what player, they said, He reminded them of Tyreek Hill, the guy that's going to be on the other side. Defenses will have to put guys up in their face and then guys behind them. When I played against Tyreek Hill when he was in Kansas City and I was in New England, we put our fastest corner, Jonathan Jones on him on the line of scrimmage, and we put our fastest safety, Devil mccordy, behind him, and they shadow him the entire game. What do you think they're gonna do? Now, Now it's two of those guys, are you gonna have to commit two to each of them? Jail and Waddle led all rookies, broke a record in Miami last year for receptions for a rookie wide receiver. These guys are built for speed with the play action with most start getting that ball and being able to run fast. And then those guys on the outside defenses one two words back up and I know, like he said, they're scared. I can't say that word on TV. Look at the humility out of you. You're just like I wasn't. The fastest guy was thirty two, so maybe maybe when I was twenty five. Yep, absolutely absolutely, all right, well done. I like when the old grandmas can't spend the wheel, so Barker has to help him. Yeah, right now, Kyle, who do we got? Oh? Thank goodness, good Kenny Galladay. Yesterday he sat down with Brian Baldiger and Mike Gee. Before the end of their interview, Aldie had some keen insights on what makes holiday a very special player. Receiver size matters, Like I'm looking up here like reach, you know, and that's like, yeah, that matters. He's got that big window size matters. Does wide receiver size matter? What? What pervert produced this question? Why was I assigned in? Believe me, you're going the wrong place. You know what matters? Touchdowns matter? Kenny galldess and scored a touchdown in two years? How about the size of those stats? And I know he gave us the interview and everything, and that's great, But like Kenny Gallady, my god, you got you. We talk about all these players who have to have a big jump and have to break out this year. I don't know if he's been on the planet. Last year, I don't know if he existed because all the focuses on Daniel Jones. But like, he literally did not score a touchdown last last one he caught I think it was from Stafford with the Lions. So he looks great. He looks very tall, he looks very muscular. He does have size. But like, Mike, can you talk? You were there? What about the pure electricity of talking to Kenny Galladay? Kenny was pretty good. What is Kenny would Well? I asked him what his goals were for the upcoming season, and he gave me one. It was like a team oriented goal, and then he said the rest of them. I'm not going to tell you. He's internalizing it this year. I told him, I said, we're gonna come back at the end of the season and you tell me what those goals were, especially if you hit those goals. So he's feeling a lot better. The last regime things didn't really work for him. This offense now is really going to be tailored to making these guys, putting these guys in a position to succeed. So they're excited about that. There's a different kind of energy right now with these offensive guys. So we'll see that that Jason Garrett offense was a little stagnant, understand, and it didn't really work for their personnel. So these guys are excited about what Brian Dable is doing. We'll see coming up, where do you Lamar Jackson and the Raven stands when it comes to a new deal here from Lamar himself when we return Lamarkable, well, well, let's remain to be seen where the former VB Lamar Jackson, it's still in talks for his big contract. Well, yesterday camp, he addressed some of his critics and talked about when that deal just might get done. I mean, I guess this is what comes with it when you're trying to be great, trying to rink your tail off. It's gonna be negativity. But you know, they hated Jesus and I'm not Jesus, so I don't an't ready
rare about it. They don't know what I got going on. They don't know what I'm thinking. No, that's just he says, She say, really, but nobody know what I'm thinking. Set them upstairs. You No, I probably gonna be a cut off at some point. Yeah, something I think, so, I think, so we have to see it's gonna be a cutoff. So hopefully all right. Lamar being a bit cagy there with the timeline and just his own strategy, and it truly is his own strategy going into these meetings. Um So, guys, let's start with the confidence level and if you are confident that Lamar Jackson's deal will get done before this season starts, Mike am I confidence, I'm not confidence is zero confidence and I'm not saying it's not gonna get done. I'm just saying I have no read on this because Lamar Jackson's agent is not Jimmy Sexton, David Dunn, Todd France, Tom Condon, one of these names that you've heard connected with some players. It's Felicia Jones. That's his mother. And fine, I'm not saying that you should have an agent. I'm not gonna get into that debate here. What I'm saying is that's the wild card in all this. This has not been a typical negotiation. And when this first started out, I was told that the Ravens were sending Jackson offers and usually the agent will counter. There were no counters. It was just kind of like okay, cool, well yeah we're not going to sign that, and it would just kind of go for a while. So it's just not a typical flow here. So I have no confidence. I don't know how this is gonna work out. There is something refreshing though, the confidence or the swagger. I don't know. Maybe it's cockiness of Lamar Jackson to be like, yeah, I don't We'll figure out because I'm gonna be a quarterback in this league, and of this franchise for a while, it'll come. I got the com to me and I could power through this and continue to play. Well, yeah, I'll get it whatever. Yeah to what you just said, I think that's just kind of who he is, where he grew up, how he grew up, and everything about him is that he's not a guy that's gonna sweat these things. His main focus, I'm gonna go out here, I'm gonna have fun. His teammates love him, obviously, the organization says they love him, so he just wants to go there, have fun and enjoy playing. But along with you, how could you have confidence that this is gonna get done? I mean, Lamar Jackson is an MVP winner, Like, there's no reason for his deal not to be done yet. Like I start to wonder, and I mean, we have our inside here. He knows a lot more than me. But I start to wonder what kind of deals is he being offered? Because this is the same guy who won an MVP. He's gone to the same spot in the playoffs as Josh Allen as a quarterback. Is he being offered that type of deal? Is he being offered the Deshaun Watson to Kyler Murray type of deal and is that what he's not responding to or is the deal a lot less? And he's looking at and it's just like, hey, this isn't even in the ballpark or what these other guys are like, We're not even gonna here, So I wonder what it is that's going on. Why there's not And like he said, none of us know what he's thinking or anybody else, So we're all just speculating from the outside looking in. Well, I mean, it's getting late here, we're reaching the last supper portion of this thing. And this is for a guy who walks on water. Someone's gonna have to change water wine quickly. He's warn the crowny thorn of the MVP. My god, I'm going back to Sunday School. No, we've actually reached the comparison to Jesus Christ level of the story. That was a hell of a quote, so to speak from Lamar. We don't know, We're never gonna know. It's always gonna be unique with Lamar. I don't want to use the word weird. It's just it's unique. It was a very unique draft process, very unique. No one knew who to talk to. It wouldn't run a forty, And I think it always going to be let's just settle in because at some point after this deal and when he wants another contract five years from now, or when he wants to leave the Ravens or he wants to retire, it's always going to be unique. The whole rep thing, the whole I'm just kind of laid back and I want to play ball. The problem is, and I know that Jason, this particularly drives the X players crazy. They're like, dude, get your money, are you crazy? And of all the players in league, could you pick another player in the entire NFL who would want to have the contract before they stepped on the field of than Lamar Jackson, whose game is based on, Oh, I'm gonna run and I'm gonna have to take some hits, Like there's a million guys who should have less risk than he does, and yet he's still so laid back. And I think the Ravens are like, if he's not pushing for it right really in any hurry, because normally we got the Rosenhouse type spain, like my players not showing up. So if the players not insisting and Lamar's is gonna be out there. Why would we be in our interest to go out there and pay him. He's sitting there. You know how much Large Jackson made last year? He made about three million. He's made only nine million, nine million MVP and a guy. It's it's unbelievable. So I don't have the answer either other than this is how it's gonna go with Lamar laid back, different, unique, and I don't think we're gonna get the answer, and I don't think we're gonna get up before the season. So the logistics of this is, you're telling me that the man is gonna go to training camp, practice, he's going to perform, he's gonna be the face of your franchise. Then he's gonna walk up the stairs and sit down in these meetings. Maybe he gets a shower and change and put on a button down and then have these talks with his mother in the room right after he just practiced for you. What if he has a bad day, does he like get knocked a million dollars that day on whatever they were going to offer him. It's just the logistics of how these conversations are supposed to go. Because now we're in training camp. I'd be one thing if this was May and he had
gotten this done because we just quite hadn't seen maybe how he came back from the summertime or but the fact that this is still happening gives me zero confidence that there's any urgency. I feel like that's the world we're missing here, is urgency for this to get done on either side, for him to make the money that he is so well deserved, and for the team to lock somebody up that is supposed to be in a position the face of your franchise. I just I don't understand where they think this is going to go well if anything happens in training camp, God forbids something were to happen to him tomorrow. He ended the season hurt last year, Yeah, and didn't come back as quickly as he was supposed to. Yeah, so I want real quickly. I was talking to an agent yesterday who's got a guy who wants a contract, and he said, here's what's on the table. I promised that I wouldn't say anything, so I'll just keep it vague. And I said, well, that's nowhere near the top of the market, and he goes, yeah, but he could put thirty million dollars in your pocket right now, and I'm trying to tell my client, you really want to play this out, so I'm willing to take the rest. And that's usually what an agent will say, is like, let's get it. Will just say like, I got a guy and he's trying to get me thirty million dollars. That's great. Um, let's flash back to the wild Car Round when the Cowboys lost the forty nine ers in a head scratching fashion. Dak Prescott drove down the field, gets tangled up with a referee trying to set the ball, time expires. It was a very confusing. It was confusing for Twitter. Everyone wanted to ask a question. And now Dak is speaking to this moment. Spokes to the media yesterday and said it is a memory that he frequently visits, as we all do. Frankly, there's times that you reflect back, give chat bowling credit. I started off kind of with a meeting about that and showed a video of the press conferences, my press conferences, Zeke's and just kind of a video just to make sure that we reflect and keep that in our mind. Anthony Brown broke down the group yesterday. I mentioned as well, Oh, so that feeling is a nasty feeling, and that's the one that when you think about you want to go work, You want to go do whatever you can to make sure that you don't feel that way again. So Dak Prescott says, the Cowboys are actively trying to remember what it felt like to lose to the forty nine ers in the wild car round, watching that press conference and rewatching the final play of that game. It's interesting to say they're actively trying to remember this happen, as if it doesn't haunt them actively, it's only they have to try to bring this back up. What are the pros and cons of revisiting such a negative experience as opposed to putting it behind you and focusing on the future. Are you four or against this type of exposure. I'm four. I think you have to revisit the past to know what's coming ahead in the future. I can remember and twenty eighteen, I'm playing for New England Patriots. We're getting ready to play against the Indianapolis Colts. Frank Reich is the head coach for the Colts. But this week we're watching highlights from the Super Bowl fifty two. I'm sitting in there, and I'm wondering, why are we watching it now? But Frank Wright was the Eagles offensive coordinator, so we had to prepare for what they might do to us because Hale it worked in the Super Bowl, they put up a lot of points and a lot of yards on our defense. Fast forward to that Thursday night game, we're of twenty four to three in the first half, and we ended up beating up on the Colt the first time I ever beat Andrew Luck because when he was in Indianapolis, every time we played against some I lost. So it was a good feeling. I was able to learn from the past the mistakes they made in that Super Bowl that help prepare us for the Thursday night game to beat the indian Apolally, it depends what you're doing, though. Are you watching film because you're trying to take something from what you happened in the past to learn from it that you can use keys going forward, or are you doing it because you just want to flog yourself and say this is never gonna happen again. Because I remember, going back to when I was covering the Eagles back in two thousand and two, I guess it was and Donovan McNabb was saying, I never went back and watched the NFC Championship game that we lost to the Rams, and it was this controversial. How could he not go back and revisited that game. Well, if they were playing the Rams, or there was some kind of coach connection like you were talking about, and you go back and watch that game, that's one thing. But if you're an emotional person and going back and revisiting this is only going to send you in a spiral, a downward spiral, then avoid it, no problem. But if you're Dak Prescott, who says, you know, I want to remember that, I want that feeling. I want that to motivate me for that upcoming season. Fine, you've just got to do whatever works for you. I agree. I love it too. I adore teen PR people. I think some of them are some of my favorite people in my life. But I hate how it's become the narrative to just be like, wet, we don't talk about that stuff that didn't happen to us, let's look ahead, let's look at that is not real life. Of course, this stuff hangs with them, so to actually acknowledge and have an honest answer, that this is still hanging over these guys heads as it was the rest of us. Is it all unfolded in front of our eyes. Is legitimate, It's valid, And if you want to use that for some of the most competitive people on the planet as some juice, so be it. I agree. In most cases, one of the best things that happened to this play was the Bills losing to the Chiefs in overtime on a coin toss, because that's what the offseason was about. That was about the thirteen seconds and the controversy and changing the rule. Had it not been for that play, we're talking about this one a lot more because it's one of
the most woeful, ugly, awkward endings to a season you've ever seen in any sport ever, and your home field against like a classic rival. So does that do you any good to watch that? I don't. It just seems to me that maybe you look forward. Every single fiber of the Dallas Cowboys organization is about the past twenty five years ago, fifty years ago, six months ago. It's not also like, all right, so the season ended because the receiver dropped a pass or you made the wrong read. It ended in this weird, discombobulated psychological breakdown between the sideline and on the field. Like it wasn't something about because I dropped that pass, I'm going to get extra sessions with the jugs machines all offseason. No, it was just like the whole thing just exploded. I don't know what would be constructive about watching that and for me the Dallas Cowboys, anything about the actual present in future that is not the past is a constructive step forward. So I wouldn't move forward if I was there. Maybe this is what happened. Dak Prescott walks into Mike McCarthy's office and he's like, I got you. I'm not gonna have anybody to talk about your job security anymore. I'll bring that playback up and that's the thing that we're going to talk about, and then we can refocus the energy on the fact that we're thinking about that play and not whether or not he is the guy. Let's go from the NFC West to the NFC South, where our own Steve Watch is at Falcons training camp in Flowery Branch, Georgia. Steve, how are you do we have a quarterback battle brewing down there. What are you hearing about Marcus Mariota and their third round pick Desmond Ritter. Well, good morning, Jamie, and what you're hearing is that is Marcus Mariota's job to lose. Quarterback coach Charles London told The Athletic earlier this week that Marcus Mariota, with the caveat right now, is the starter. So in about thirty minutes when the team takes the field, Mariota will be working with the ones. And remember he's the veteran who actually played in Tennessee with head coach Arthur Smith, so he's familiar with the system, he's familiar with how Smith likes to coach. But that doesn't mean they don't like Desmond ritterd speaking with somebody, they said, the rookie out of Cincinnati has done everything they've asked him to do. And in the first two days of practices without pads, people are saying he's looked good, he's made certain throws, he's doing again what they want him to do. But Mariota's familiarity is a very important thing. And also, let's call up their first seven games. This may be some of the toughest opening schedule that any team will have. Do you think the Falcons really want to put a rookie out there when you open with the Saints, then go to the Rams, stay on the West Coast against the Seahawks. So you know, if Mariota keeps progressing and stays healthy, looks like he'll be the one to open the season against those tough matchups. Man, I love to hear my guy, Marcus Mariota is doing a great job out there. Steve is great to see you since la. But hey, those Falcon playmakers out there, the Kyle Pitts, the drink London's what are you saying from those guys and the rest of the offensive weapons for them? Well, look, those are the two big targets, right the two first round picks over the past two years. And we know pitches the tight end. He's an inline flex tight end and London is gonna play inside and outside. From someone that I spoke with, the big thing for both of those big targets isn't so much the catch radius. We know they can make the tough catches in coverage. It's the fact that both of them are catch and run guys. This is gonna be a quick hitting passing game where it could be a short you know, a short pass to London, but he can break tackles and run. That's what they want. But guys, you also know that this offense doesn't work unless the running game works, and that's where the real competition begins. Number last year, Cordarrell Patterson, kind of a slash player, was their leading rusher. They don't want to have that load on him this year, so they drafted Tyler Algier out of Brigham Young in the fifth round. They also have Damian Williams, remember him from the Super Bowl in Kansas City. So those guys will be competing for rotational spots because they've got to get the run game going and to make the offensive passing game work. The offensive line is the biggest question. That's why everything's going to be so quick and what they try to do so they don't put too much pressure on the offensive line to hold up. I love when an offseason edition pops up and you hear someone go, m like Jason, just like Damian Williams. I like it with the Falcons. Steve Whitch, we like you with the Falcons. Thank you so much for all that information. All right, let's head up to East Coast from Flowery Branch, Georgia to down the road from US at Floren Park, where our own Judy Battisa is at Jets training camp. Judy, we saw cj Uzama wearing that Zach Wilson Person of the Year t shirt I'm getting my Judy Battista one made earlier this week. But what did he say about what he expects to see on the field from his new buddy Zach in year two. This is what cj Uzama said. He was asked about what might the Jets look like if Zach Wilson can make a year to leap the way Joe Burrow did in Cincinnati. Of course, Juzama was signed as a free agent from the Cincinnati Bengals, and he said not if he will, meaning he expects Zach Wilson to make a year to leap the way Joe Burrow did. Frankly, that maybe asking for an awful lot. Joe Burrow had a much larger body of work coming out of college than Zach Wilson did. But certainly there is a level of optimism here at the New York Jets that quite frankly, I've been around the Jets for twenty something years, the level of Optimism around the team right now is at a level where it really hasn't been in a long time, and that's because they have done a lot of work to put pieces around Zach Wilson. Zach Wilson came in this
week and said he feels more confident, he feels more settled, he feels he knows what his job is better and coaches we know love to hear players say this. He feels like he can correct his own mistakes. Lots of pieces around him. Garrett Wilson, the first round draft pick, the wide receiver, Breeze Halt, the second round draft pick, the running back. They also did some work on the offensive line, and that's really important. This offense struggled last year in part because Zach Wilson was sacked forty four times. But and this is important to note, and it's part of the reason why they feel so good starting this season. When Zach Wilson came back after he missed four games with an injury, he looked like a different quarterback. Maybe the time on the bench watching the offense settled him, maybe it gave him time to study more, but he looked much better. Let me give you some stats. He had five touchdown throws, he ran for three touchdowns and they only had one interception in the games after that injury, So that was an improved player and they feel like he has all the potential in the world to make a big leap. CJ said, he's got a hell of an arm. They're hoping that he can unleash it to this year. I gotta tell you, Judy, after the last couple of months, it's refreshing to just hear some stories about Zach Wilson that are purely on the football field. And I like, Karen from you that you pick up a vibe there that you have not felt in a long time. That means a lot coming from you. They added to it yesterday too, because they added a Pro Bowl linebacker, Robert Salle. Getting the band back together kind of, Kwan Alexander is going to make a big impact on that defense that really needs to make strides this season. How's it going to happen? Tell us about it? Well, this actually fills a roster hole that was remaining for the Jets. They were looking for a veteran linebacker type. They've got CJ. Moseley penciled in as a starter in Quincy Williams pencils in as a starter, but that other linebacker spot was up for grabs enter Kwan Alexander. As you mentioned, Robert Sala had him in San Francisco, so familiarity with the defense is a big key. He's had some injury issues in his career, but when he is on the field, he is still very productive. He played twelve games for the New Orleans Saints last year. He had fifty tackles and three and a half sacks in only twelve games. The Jets defense could certainly take that this was the worst defense in the league last year. That is certainly not how Robert Salo wants to play. He actually made the point back at the Combine that one way you can help a young quarterback is to play better defense so that that young quarterback does not wake up every Sunday knowing he's going to have to dig himself out of a hole. This defense needs to play much better. Of course, they use that third first round draft pick under Johnson, paired with Carl Lawson, who's coming off an injury he suffered last season. They hope they finally have bookend pass rushers that they haven't had here in years. It's been seven seasons since they even had forty sacks. The Jets are looking for big improvement on the defense too, huge improvements all across the board for the New York Jets, and let's hope it creates some kind of production and success for them. Judy Batista, a big deal if you're there, Thank you so much. All Right. You heard Judy talk about that Joe Burrow like leap that cj Uzama expects from Zach Wilson, and he watched it happen firsthand. So whether it is a player or even a coach, you guys, who do you expect to make a massive leap so far this season? I'm excited to hear you. Let me keep it into Jay's Jason to Jamie to Judy. I'm going with Jerry, Judy going to make a massive leap. Has some injuries quarterback play, but this guy's route running ability is impressive, the amount of separation that he is able to create. How to play against this guy? And twenties spun me around a little bit with a whole three sixty and I think right now he's primed to take off early on. And training camp, they're saying down there. He's making big plays within the first two days. They even said he took time to walk into the QB room and sit down and just listen to what the quarterbacks are going over to make him a better player. This was the same guy drafted in the same draft ahead of Cede Lamb and Justin Jefferson, and I think he has the ability and the talent to have some of the success that a Justin Jefferson has had early on in his career. And I think this is going to be a huge year from him. Getting a guy like Russell Wilson. We saw with DK Metcalf, Tyler Lockett, even a guy that he reminds me of a Doug Baldwin who was in and out of his brakes hard off the line of scrimmage. With a quarterback like Russ I think Jerry Judy can take off the subscribe to that. Yeah, guys are gonna make a leap. The guys you hope do, the guys you expect to. My guy just better make a leap. I'm gonna just go. Trey Lance did better work. I think it's fascinating that Kyle Sham had just said this is Trey's team and even following the story for a year like we all have. Kyle Shannon's been the master of avoiding the question, master of dodging the take, even saying so far as well, well who's starting tomorrow. We don't gonna be alive tomorrow. Then he just comes down and says, this is Trey's team. That tells me that something he saw in the offseason. With all his acumen and all his experience, Kyle Shanahan said, yes, we got it. We can go to battle with this guy. Jimmy, we love you. You're gone. This young kid is going to go up against Aaron Donald et al. And we feel good about this. I don't feel good about it yet because we haven't seen it, but Kyle's been there the other Kyle sitting there watching it and being like, yes, Trey, we're ready. It's his team. I hope he's right. Here's Trivia pushing who was the running back. Who's running back last year entering week twelve, which is late in the season, who's running back that was leading the league in receptions and receiving yards. Because this guy is going to make a hugely for me this season. One DeAndre Swift got out of the back Detroit Lions pre injury. I know, big time jump for this young man, thirty fifth pick overall. He missed seven games though in his first two seasons with the Lions due to injury. So the consistency in his play just hasn't been there just yet. But I think he's there, he's ready. There have been improved. There's healthier, healthier offensive lineman with the Detroit Lions this year, which will help him immenttally. But he is a talented pass catcher coming out of the backfield, and his numbers were there. I'm not talking leading the league in week four like week twelve is a long time to go to still be the league leader. And he's healthy, the offensive line is healthy. Big leap for DeAndre Swift in twenty twenty two. Maybe he'll do a lambow leap. Remember writing your face all right? Training camp is here. An NFL network has all the reps you need with live reports from every camp, and sometimes Mike Rifola will break news right in your face. You never know. Right on the show, interviews with games the biggest stars. It's time to go to work on Inside Trading Camp live right here on NFL Network