Armando Salguero | NFL Insider

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Call clickgrainger.com or just stop by. Grainger, for the ones who get it done. We are pleased to welcome Armando Salguero, who is a long time NFL insider from Outkick and Fox News. And Armando, I'm actually interested in moving this story forward a little bit. We know the NFLPA is investigating what happened with Tua and investigating whether or not his health was compromised. The NFL is doing its own due diligence. What outcome do you think might be a positive step to ensure this whole situation isn't a waste?

That it didn't play out for nothing? Right, so clearly when people hear, Amy, that there's an investigation and a joint investigation by the NFL and the NFLPA, they're thinking someone is going to get fined. People are going, you know, teams are in trouble. Players are in trouble. Team staff is in trouble.

And I don't believe that to be the case. Obviously, it was announced over the weekend that the unaffiliated neurotrauma consultant was fired. That's the person that is chosen by both the NFL and the PA, the Players Association, to be the independent person in the room and to have no agenda. And to be the one that could say independently, you can't go back into a game because you're displaying concussion symptoms. Well, apparently that person, you know, didn't meet the requisites of whatever the PA and the NFL is looking to accomplish. Obviously, because Tua Tungavailoa went into halftime of a Buffalo game to be examined for head trauma, a head injury, and came out with a back injury and came back into the game and played. And so that was problematic for everyone who saw the optics.

The thing about it is, that's it. I mean, the Miami Dolphins, from what I can see, are very comfortable with having followed, you know, all the rules and having followed the guidelines. And it's like what Mike McDaniel has said, so we follow the guidelines, we do what the doctors tell us, and you're going to somehow think that we're in the wrong.

That's not how it works. And they realize that the optics are bad, and they realize that they got really bad when they played the Cincinnati Bengals and Tua suffered a concussion. And so he's not playing against the Jets on Sunday. I wouldn't be surprised if he misses a couple of games at least. And the investigation goes forward.

But as far as, you know, finding the team and things like that, I don't think that's going to be the result. I have a hard time believing as much as this was the narrative that Mike McDaniel would put his star quarterback at risk. He genuinely seems to care. Now I can be naive sometimes and take people at their word, but it doesn't seem like this was something that he conspired to do. So then, does that mean the independent neurologist did this on his own? Or Tua somehow convinced him that he was fine? That's crazy because he also stands to lose a job. Right.

I don't think Tua was trying to convince him of anything other than, you know, go through the test. And I don't know exactly what mistakes were made by the unaffiliated consultant because the association and the NFL have not outlined those. But as far as Mike McDaniel, you know, so history has sort of a way of predicting what's going to come in the future. The Miami Dolphins have a player on the concussion protocol. His name is Steven Carter. And he's a tight end. And he suffered a concussion in the first game.

And he hasn't played since. And so this guy, this coach has a history of when there is something tangible and medically provable that says the player has a concussion, the player is going to sit. And that's what he has done with the tight end. That's what he's going to do with the quarterback.

It's not one of those situations where he's pushing anybody to get back in a game. And and and what's really weird is that what seems to be an otherwise tight fraternity of coaches and next coaches, a lot of these guys are coming after McDaniel for whatever reason, when their history of handling concussion and the concussion protocol is questionable in and of itself. I saw a quote in which you describe the Dolphins as having made themselves an easy target.

Right. So the reason I said that the Dolphins are an easy target is this is, in fact, the third investigation involving the NFL or the NFL P.A. or both in in the last, you know, like six months. They were investigated this year for tampering in in in the last six, eight months, two years as well with Tom Brady and Sean Sean Payton of the New Orleans Saints. And they were found guilty of tampering and widespread tampering to the point where the owner, Stephen Ross, is suspended. They had to yield a first round draft pick as a result. And they were also investigated for tanking in 2019, which, by the way, from all visual evidence they did and some of the reporting that I did back then, they absolutely did. But they were exonerated for that by the NFL. So this concussion protocol investigation is their third in in recent memory. And oh, by the way, they're being sued by former coach Brian Flores for, you know, racial discrimination. He's also suing multiple other teams and the NFL. The point that I'm making is when you have a new coach without a huge reputation, when you have a recent history of being investigated and maybe running afoul of some rules, you you make yourself you lose the benefit of the doubt in many respects.

Yes. And I think that's what's happening to some degree with the Dolphins now. We're so excited to have Armando Salguero back on the show with us from Outkick and Fox. He's a senior NFL writer and insider. And whenever we can snag a few minutes, it's awesome.

After hours here on CBS Sports Radio. So the Bucks and Chiefs did play in Tampa. The Buccaneers defense maybe displaced a little bit. Of course, that's what happens a lot of time when you face a locked in Patrick Mahomes. But I actually want to ask you about the Buccaneers offense.

It's a little bit odd. They do have playmakers. I know they've had guys on and off the field. Still, they have plenty of playmakers around Tom Brady, and yet they have struggled to put the ball in the end zone and this past week only bothered to try to run the ball six times.

What's going on there Armando? Well, so part of it is the game and opening kickoff. They fumbled the opening kickoff.

Right. And so, you know, Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs went on a 20-yard drive for a touchdown. And they're leading. And it's great, but now you're playing catch-up if you're the Buccaneers. And the Chiefs were in sync and locked into stopping Leonard Fournette and the running game. I think they rushed for minus three yards. Meanwhile, Tom Brady threw for 385 yards.

Right. So it was a combination of the Chiefs playing great up front, the situation of the game, and the Bucs needing to play from behind. Armando, we've seen a bunch of moving parts so far in the first month, but this one may be anticipated not just by Steelers fans, but also by NFL analysts around the country. What are you hearing about Kenny Pickett, this rookie, who enters his first game and has two touchdowns, but also has three interceptions? What are you hearing about his opportunity to take over for the Steelers?

More than the opportunity. I think that Mike Tomlin is just looking for something to light up his team a little bit. Especially on offense, they've lacked energy, they've lacked consistency for sure, they've lacked points.

But it hasn't felt like there's urgency and a high degree of motivation. And so I think that what Tomlin is looking for is for Kenny Pickett, who is a hometown hero kind of guy. The fans love him, he played at Pitt, so they love him, they're familiar with him. And it really did kind of work in the Jets game because they were just kind of slogging along and Pickett comes in the game and they scored a couple of touchdowns. He scored a couple of touchdowns running the ball, so there was life injected in there and I think that's what Tomlin has been looking for. And now he's going to have to live with the decision and he intends to as well because you don't put in the rookie and then decide you're going to put out the rookie. Once he's in there, you don't want to mess with his head and go back and forth.

You don't want to make decisions as the wind blows, to quote Tomlin. So he's going to get his chance to grow a little bit and we'll see where that goes. Well welcome to the NFL rookie. It's one thing to have a game at home in front of your amazing fans who obviously went crazy when he came on the field in the second half. It's entirely another thing to head into Orchard Park and take on the Bills who have one of the best defenses in the NFL.

Entirely different. It's like night and day and night is coming for young Kenny Pickett. But I would say this, you know the Bills have been kind of like an interesting situation as well. You know I saw them in a game where their entire secondary was injured and out and they lost you know as a result or not as a result but they lost to the Dolphins.

And obviously if your entire secondary is out, you're likely to lose in the past happy NFL. But it's their offense that's a little out of whack a little bit. It just hasn't been right.

It hasn't been cohesive. They lean on Josh Allen and well they should. Josh Allen is amazing and great. But they have no running back other or remaining game rather other than Josh Allen.

And that's not good. Josh Allen in my estimation should be in addition an addition to the running game right. He shouldn't be the running the running game exactly. And yet that's what he's been the last couple of weeks. And it feels weird and it feels dangerous because eventually if you're expecting Josh Allen to carry the ball eight 10 times a game and be that that guy. People are you know are keying off on Josh Allen and I know that he's big I know that he's strong I know that he's fat but I also know that he's human.

Yes Armando Salguero is with us after hours here on CBS Sports Radio. OK quickly I'll just tell you a couple of unexpected storylines that I have appreciated from the first month. First of all Cooper Rush taking over for Dak and no there's no quarterback controversy. But the fact that the Cowboys have won every game that Cooper started is pretty amazing. The defense has been great and I love the turnaround in Jacksonville with Doug Peterson and the Jaguars. So what are a couple of unexpected headlines for you Armando after the first month of the season.

Right. By the way Doug Peterson has been doing a great job. He really he's a better coach now than he was when he won the Super Bowl. If you can believe that and he understands that I visited with him during the preseason during training camp and he understands that his is not a complete team yet. It's not a ready program yet but they've made strides and a couple of more strides and they're going to be a team to you know be reckoned with and in that division. As far as surprises this year I expected more from Matt Ryan and the Colts.

You know I think they've been kind of what what I don't know what what what the problem is there. But Matt Ryan Atlanta Matt Ryan even last year on a middling team he was way better than he is now with the Colts and he didn't fumble nearly as much. And I don't know that that feels weird to me. I'm surprised that Justin Herbert is playing with you know a fractured rib cartilage because number one I didn't know fractured rib cartilages was a thing until two weeks ago. I mean whoever heard of fractured fractured cartilage and number two I realized that it's painful to the point where at one point it hurt him to call out the signals to bark out the line of scrimmage. And yet he is bawling. So God bless him for that.

So that's a little bit surprising to me. Armando before I let you go you are a pro football Hall of Fame voter. Obviously Brett Favre is already in the Hall of Fame.

He went in back in 2016. So it's been a few years. But in light of some of the accusations against him I'm interested in your reaction because you're one of the members of the voters that kind of protects that institution. Yeah.

That's an interesting one. So a couple of things. Amy number one we're told that what we should do as selectors is gauge a player or a coach or contributors contribution on the field and in the locker room. We're not gauging his lifestyle not gauging his you know his his record with the police or other law enforcement agencies or gauging his record with pro football reference.

So two different records that were one of them were paying attention to and the other one not. You know number two I don't think we know everything that that needs to be known with the Brett Favre thing. I'm sure it could get uglier. And I'm you know there's nothing that I know of that the Pro Football Hall of Fame can do to change anything. You know that O.J.

Simpson is in the Pro Football Hall of Fame. Oh yes it's not like we're talking about all angels. But it's interesting that you point out though that you are specifically instructed not to consider what they do away from football. Exactly. So away from football is away from the locker room as well because there are some players who you know on the field did amazing things and yet were kind of difficult on their teams.

And ultimately you know a lot of teams moved on from them and a lot of players had problems with them and even a lot of coaches had problems with them. But and that is indeed something that we're allowed to think about. But as far as you know trouble with the law trouble with law enforcement moral stuff. Right.

That's a different matter. Well I always feel like the Hall of Fame voters in football take the not only the honor very seriously but they take the process seriously with the number of rounds that you all go through. I appreciate you sharing that insight. You can find Armando Salguero on Twitter with exactly that.

If you can spell it you can spell it it's easy and he's an NFL insider and writer without kick and Fox and we always enjoy snagging a couple of minutes. Glad that you made it safely through that hurricane and I know just so devastating but we appreciate your insight. Gracias mi hermano. Es un gusto, Amy.

Siempre el bacido y siempre el cera. Thank you so much. You're the one who protects the flock and that requires an eye for detail because when safety and well-being are on the line it's the details that can save lives.

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