Amy Trask | Longtime Raiders CEO, NFL Analyst

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Two one-year upgrade requires financing qualifying device and upgrading in good condition after six months with half paid off. Our friend Amy Trask joining us from Southern California. She is the longtime Raiders CEO, has been part of CBS Sports as an analyst specifically on that other pregame show on Sunday mornings. She's an author and she is one of our favorite guests to do some team Amy radio. Amy, I was just asking listeners the last couple nights, what did they learn about the first month of the NFL season or about their team specifically?

I'll broaden it out for you. What's your biggest takeaway or takeaways after seeing one full month of the season unfold? Well, it has once again proven a point I love to make which is to expect the unexpected and that's not by happenstance. That's the way the league is designed. The league is designed based on the concept of parody so that every fan believes that his or her team can win on any given day and can win it all any given year.

So a lot of unexpected things and I think at some point people just have to realize that what to expect is the unexpected and that makes it fun. How does the league do that? How does the league get to a point where you can have a team go from worst to first or you could have half the playoff field turn over from one year to the next? Well, part of it is obviously the draft and then the way that is designed with the teams with the worst record drafting first.

The hope from the league's perspective of course is that that is somewhat equalizing because the teams that perhaps need the most help on the roster get the most help on the roster if they do things well and of course that doesn't always happen. When we think about some of the ways that changes it's obviously quarterbacks. It's pretty incredible what we've seen with the San Francisco 49ers where Brock Purdy wasn't their first option last year, he wasn't their second, he was their third and their last ditch. What stands out when you see this young man step into the job and still the team has not lost since he took over? I love to use him as an example when I'm speaking particularly with young people. He was drafted last, last and look what he's doing.

I had an opportunity today on the podcast that I do with Suzy Schuster. It's what's the football and we spoke with Kurt Warner and the reason I raise that is Brock Purdy was drafted last. Kurt wasn't drafted at all and there are undrafted free agents in the pro football hall of fame.

Look, the 49ers gave up a lot of draft capital to move up and take a quarterback who now is no longer with them because the guy that they drafted last they believed was going to be better for them in that position and Brock has been terrific. Listen up kids if you're picked last on the playground, if you're the last person in your class, if your sixth grade teacher tells your mother you'll never get into college, oh wait that was my sixth grade teacher who told my mom that. You know just do what Kurt Warner did. Do what Brock Purdy did. Prove people wrong. Prove that you can get it done.

Hey, I proved my sixth grade teacher wrong. I did get into college. Not just that but spent several decades, 30 years with the Raiders and longtime CEO Amy Trask. Maybe more people know you as an analyst, an author, and a podcast host. How do you enjoy the whole challenge creatively especially of being a podcast host, Amy? I'm learning.

You know, again there's a life lesson in this. When I resigned my position with the Raiders and I was contacted by CBS Sports I said oh no no no no no I'm never going on TV. I will not be on a television show no no no no and here I am in my 10th year on CBS Sports. When CBS Sports PR team asked me would I like to join social media no no no no no no no I will never ever join on social media.

Now I'm pretty sure that it was invented for me. Oh no no no no no I'm never going to do a podcast. I'm never going to do a podcast and now I have the tremendous honor and pleasure of working with Suzy Schuster on a new podcast and I'm having fun and the lesson in that for everyone do what scares you.

Sometimes doing what scares you can be fun. What's the focus of your podcast? What makes it stand out among many sports and football focused podcasts?

I love the question and I thank you for asking it and it is as is always the case when you ask questions very very insightful. We are different. We're not breaking down whether you should be rushing three men or four men.

We're not going to be looking specifically at schemes or every football xno nuance there is. I bring a business perspective. Suzy brings an Emmy award-winning journalism perspective so we we look at things differently than others do. Did you feel like it was all that different from TV or do you feel like it's an extension maybe gives you more time to be able to share some of the wisdom and experience from your days in the league?

Again great question. It is different and I'm learning how to adjust to that difference. In television you may have 30 seconds to make a point, 15 seconds to make a point. On the podcast I can just sit and yak and be me. We record the podcast at the Rich Eisen Studios, the Rich Eisen Show studio and everybody associated with the Rich Eisen Show including Rich and then Suzy have said you know just relax, just talk, just be you.

I think AIM they may be starting to regret that because I'm getting really relaxed and I am just yakking a lot and they may regret having told me that. Well you have now unlocked my secret which is that radio slash podcasting is way better because you can just kick back, relax and talk and you don't have the same guidelines and framework as TV which I think are kind of restrictive. So welcome to the, well you're pretty comfortable on the dark side but welcome to the other dark side, the radio dark side. Well thank you very much and by the way you do radio.

I don't even know if that's the right way to say it. You do radio. You are magnificent on the radio so it's always such a treat for me to join you. Thank you. Amy Tresk is with us here after our CBS Sports Radio. We decided it's been way too long since we've done our own brand of Amy radio so it was over. Right. Yes. I made this point on my show last night and I would be thrilled if you disagreed with me after seeing Daniel Jones get sacked and pummeled 11 times by the Seahawks defense. Congratulations to them.

I was making the point but I would rather have an above average QB so not an elite quarterback but an above average quarterback behind a stout cohesive consistent offensive line instead of an elite QB, unless you're giving me Patrick Mahomes, behind a shoddy offensive line. What do you think? That noise that you just heard, I don't know if you could hear that on your end and I apologize if it was disruptive. Every single four-legged member of this family, all of them, are on a rampage right now running around because they know I'm on the radio so of course they're going to make as much noise as they possibly can and I apologize if it was too noisy.

That's great. You know my funny answer to you is, can I have both please? But the answer is, look, I share a very similar view to yours which is most games are won or lost at the line of scrimmage. Past protection versus past rush dictates the outcome in a lot of games. Offensive line, defensive line dictate the outcome in a lot of games. And by the way, the line of scrimmage, you know, you can add people to it if you're having the problems that the Giants were having last night. Oh my gosh, 11 sacks. Okay fine, try to move some tight ends up to help with the blocking.

Leave a back end to chip. Do whatever you have to do but you've got to win at the line of scrimmage. So would I love to have an elite quarterback and a tremendous offensive line?

Yes. And by the way, I'm not suggesting that I think Daniel Jones is an elite quarterback. I don't think you were suggesting that either. We don't yet know what he may be. And until they can better protect him, we're not going to know what he can be. Now some of those sacks were on the line, a lot of them were. The quarterback can also contribute. You know, we heard the Seahawks after the game talking about the fact that as they were prepping for the game, they noticed that he locks in on his first receiver or his intended receiver.

And they said, I think the expression that the Seahawks players used was he stares them down. That's something he'll have to work on. Not doing certain things that make the job harder on the line is something he can help with. But yeah, they need a lot of help with pass protection. I love that you bring up Daniel Jones, still a young quarterback. We don't actually know what his future holds for him. And that reminds me, I mean, hearing some arguments about, let's say Justin Fields or even Zach Wilson or some other younger quarterbacks who were in their rookie deals.

Honestly, Aime, I actually had a caller to my show last night who said that Bryce Young was already a bust and there should be buyers remorse. So that's clearly impatience. But this is a tough question. I can't wait to hear your insight.

How do you know when to cut bait versus when to stay patient? It's a great, great, great question. And I think the answer is it depends. And no, that's not an effort on my part to punt, to use the football ism.

But I think it's an it depends. Am I going to give a quarterback more time to prove himself if I don't have a surrounding cast? If I've thrown him out there with no pass protection? If I've thrown a quarterback out there, and I'm trying to think of a good example right now, you know, sometimes you put a quarterback out there and you don't have a good running game. I believe a running game is important. If you're if you're the opposing defense, and you have to defend a dominant running game, that's less, you're going to be able to focus on the passing game. The running game opens up the passing game, the passing game opens up the running game. Do you have receivers for your quarterback? Do you have a running game?

Do you have pass protection? If I have all of those things, I may be giving him less leeway than if I don't have those things. Because if you don't have it, you don't know how good he can be with it. Are you one of those people that would err on the side of, hey, throw the young guy out there and give him reps, because he's only going to learn that way or protect the investment from the business side? Absolutely.

And it depends. You know, it used to be prior to the CDA that was done, you know, we're now in the second or third or fourth iteration of it, I still call it the new CDA, because it's the one that was put in place after the work stoppage a number of years ago. But prior to that CDA, it was very, very normal for teams to sit quarterbacks for a period of time. We saw Green Bay do that, right? Aaron Rogers sat for a while behind Brett Favre.

We saw other teams do that. The current CDA doesn't give teams the leeway to sit a quarterback as long as it used to be the case that teams would sit a quarterback. So quarterbacks are thrown out there faster now than they used to be, because it's less of a period to free agency.

After hours here on CBS Sports Radio, Amy Trask is with us, longtime Raiders CEO, now a podcast host, boom, as well as a member of CBS Sports and the other pregame show. You're already starting to hear people talk about, oh, this coach needs to be fired or, you know, you need to make changes. Mike Tomlin even addressed that on Tuesday about whether or not there would be coaching changes. How do you feel about drastic changes, coaching changes in the middle of a season? Well, I think anytime you're going to make a coaching change, whether in the middle of the season or after a season, whether it's management or ownership or both, has to ask the following question, and do what?

And has to have an answer to that question that is at a minimum as good as the status quo, if not better. Because, you know, and I used to say this to people all the time during my years in the league game, when people would say to me of a player, you need to cut that guy, you need to cut that quarterback. And by the way, I was laughing to myself, like, do you really think I'm the one cutting the players?

There's this guy named Al Davis. And, you know, but whenever someone would say of the team, you guys have to cut that player, you need to cut that quarterback, or you need to fire that coach. I always responded very graciously, very nicely. But I said, and do what? Because if you don't, as an organization, ask yourselves and do what, and come up with an answer that is at a minimum as good as the status quo, then what are you doing? And I remember asking that to Al, there was one coach firing in particular, where I said, okay, if you want to terminate this coach, and do what?

And it became very clear to me that his answer in that instance was, I don't care what I'm doing this, because anything is going to make me happier than the current situation. But that aside, and do what? You know, you have to have an answer for those things. In your experience in the league, how many owners are as involved as Al?

Oh, that is a great question. He was obviously one of the more if not the most involved in football. But look, you know, for those of your listeners who don't know this, he's also in the Pro Football Hall of Fame as a football man.

So the man knows new X's and O's. Look, here's my view on that. At the end of the day, the person who owns the business has ultimate responsibility and ultimate authority when there is a controlling owner, as is the case in the National Football League. In the National Football League, every team is required to have what is denominated a controlling owner.

I'll talk only to football, but this applies to all business. If you are the controlling owner of a business of a football team, you have ultimate responsibility and ultimate authority. And you can delegate as much of that responsibility and as much of that authority as you want. You can delegate it to a general manager, you can delegate it to a head coach, you can delegate it to others. But because you can yank it back at any time, you can yank back that responsibility you delegated, you can yank back that authority you delegated because ultimately, as the owner, that rests with you. So, you know, yes, Al was tremendously, tremendously involved, more so than most any other owner I can think of.

But every single owner had ultimate authority and ultimate responsibility. I'm going to add to Amy Trask's list of accomplishments and almost titles that we could throw behind her name and say that she's also an ice cream connoisseur. So I have crafted this question in honor of you, Amy, some way that we can end up with a little bit of fun. If the NFL were an ice cream flavor, what flavor would it be? To say that I am overwhelmed by the fact that you crafted an ice cream question for me. The girl who, by the way, prior to jumping on with you just finished the biggest ice cream sundae probably known to mankind. I was out with some friends and it was my spirit ice cream. It was a s'mores ice cream sundae.

So it was an ice cream sundae and in it, it had graham crackers and there were roasted marshmallows on top. Oh, Amy, we got to do that together. Yes, we do.

That's my favorite. Okay, so if the, and by the way, standing invitation to have ice cream with me, my treat anytime you're in California, Amy. Yes. Okay, what kind of what flavor would the league be? Okay, 32 flavors, right?

Because there's 32 different teams and each team is slightly different. So can we go with 32 flavors? I mean, isn't that one more than Baskin Robbins says it has? Or what if we do big giant bowl of ice cream? Maybe it's just vanilla or just chocolate, but 32 toppings. Oh yeah.

Now you're singing my song 30 and maybe 32 ounces of sprinkles and whipped cream and toppings. Oh yeah. Okay.

You know what? You're getting me so excited. I'm going to go have more ice cream. No, you're not. No, I am. I am. I mean, if I wasn't shy about it, I'd actually like FaceTime with you and show you what I'm about to go do.

But you know, I'm not doing that whole FaceTime thing. That's impressive. All right, so this time ice cream next time you join the show, I'm going to need a poem that you've turned into a brand new poet. This is really impressive on your Twitter. I do like to write my little poems. I love joining you on your show. I love your show. I love listening to your show. We're on opposite coasts so I adjust for the time zone and listen to you and love joining you and really it is always such a pleasure to do so. Thank you, Amy. This makes my night. Makes my week.

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