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You need Indeed. Good morning, everybody. Friday, July 28th. Welcome to another episode of the Bart Winkler Show. I am in a cranky ass mood. Very upset. I am upset that Aaron Rodgers took a pay cut.
Whether you think I should be or not, I am. That's just how it is. So coming up in this podcast, I will tell you why I'm so upset. It has a lot to do with I don't think Rodgers is happy. And I think he's trying to convince himself. And he paid $35 million for the adulation to do that. Does that make sense?
No. That soliloquy is also on YouTube. I posted that on Thursday on YouTube on the Dan Cheney YouTube stream. Thanks to our buddy, Dan Cheney.
Dan Cheney dot com. Get your insurance done. Home auto business. All of this can be taken care of where I think one of those I think insurance is one of those things where you just like let it pile up and you're like, I'll get to it. I'll get to it.
I'll get to it. Give Dan a call. Dan is standing by. The operator is Dan. Give him a call. Dan Cheney insurance.
Check him out online. The stuff about Rodgers, I think that he ever been to a school dance and everybody's got a partner or like prom and everybody's got everybody's got a date. And then like the last two people, like, I guess we'll go together. And then they're like, we're soulmates.
No, you're not. Nobody else wanted you. Nobody wanted Aaron Rodgers besides the Jets and the Jets haven't been able to find a quarterback forever. So they're like overly convincing each other that this is a match made in heaven. So more on Rogers coming up. Couple of other things I wanted to address, which I did not get the chance.
This is why I'm cranky. I did not get the chance to address this on writer than you. I go to set up my writer than you operations. The signal doesn't work. They change the Internet in this building. So I can't I can't do my show.
And that pisses me off. I need to be able to do my show. OK, so bad Internet couldn't do it. Hope it's fixed. Got to do that.
Gelb on Friday night would love to if I get the opportunity. So I had this whole Rogers thing plan and I started I started doing my Rogers thing. The thing you're going to hear later is the thing that I started to do on CBS and then the signal got bad. What a coincidence. Barty tries to emulate out of a New York Tower and all of a sudden the Internet doesn't work. OK, Aaron, I know you're on to me. I see what's going on there, bud.
But I couldn't do writer than you. There were a couple of things that I wanted to bring up, certainly to from a football standpoint. This Sean Payton article, as he told to Jarrett Bell of USA Today on what happened in Denver.
Everything I heard about last season, we're doing the opposite. There's so much dirt around that. There's 20 dirty hands for what was allowed, tolerated in the frickin training rooms, the meeting rooms, the offense.
I don't know. Hackett. But a lot of people had dirt on their hands. It just wasn't Russell. He didn't just flip.
He still has it. The B.S. that he hit a wall.
Shoot, they couldn't get a plan. They were twenty ninth in the league and pre snap penalties on both sides of the ball. It doesn't happen where an NFL team or organization gets embarrassed.
And that happened here. Part of it was their own fault relative to spending so much time trying to win the off season. We're not doing any of that. It might have been one of the worst coaching jobs in the history of the NFL. And we're trying to avoid that.
Do you find, do you see this? Do you see why Aaron Rodgers wants to be with Nathaniel Hackett so bad? He ain't going to get coached. He's going to do whatever he wants to with them. Push them around. Sean Payton.
I don't know. I don't think that he's going to be the savior in Denver, but the fact that he saw this and then said it, I will reconsider my tune. Many Russ does have it. I held out on Russ. I spent a lot of good every, every year in the second half of the season, I did a, like a twenty dollar draft King, something absurd where Russ was a quarterback and Tom Brady was a quarterback. Cause I figured at one, one week, both of those guys would go off.
I got one out of Brady, but none on a Russ. He also trashed the jets. He said, we're not doing any of that in the off season. The jets did all that this year.
You watch hard knocks, all of it. I can see it coming. Remember when Dan Snyder put the dream team together. I was at the giants. I was a young coach. I thought, how are we going to compete with them? Dion Sanders is there now, but the team won eight games or whatever. So listen, just put the work in. I might have to change my tune on the Denver Broncos.
How about that? The other thing that I didn't get the chance to talk about that I wanted to, Oh, and this was going to be the episode that I had Wes Hodkowitz on from packers.com and I have taped with him and it's, I think a really good conversation. You get to know more about Wes and behind the scenes of working for the Packers, especially Wes's case is very interesting because he was on the other side of it where he was critical journalist, man.
And now he's Packers team writer, man. And so, you know, obviously we talk about that as I'm sure he gets asked in every interview he does, but I didn't want to associate. I didn't want to contaminate Wes by having him on this episode. I didn't, I didn't want to, I didn't want to do this whole thing about me complaining about Rogers and then have Wes Hodkowitz.
I am sparing Wes. Maybe it matters. Maybe it doesn't maybe he'll care.
Maybe you won't, but that is the rationale there. So next week, we're going to do a couple of different things. The trade deadline I thought was Monday. Like an idiot is actually Tuesday. I do plan to do a live trade deadline show and a West Hodkowitz next week, Grant and Paul maybe some other stuff. So next week's still kind of taking shape, but we will be live in, I think it's the afternoon on Thursday. Is it like the NBA where there's that three o'clock deadline?
We'll be live on that on the Dan Cheney YouTube. The other thing that I wanted to talk about on writer than you is Colorado's moving to the big 12. And I absolutely hate this. I hate the constant realignment. They're actually going back to the big 12 and the big 12 this year is all messed up because it's got four new teams, BYU, Cincinnati, UCF, and who's the other one that joined Houston, but then it also still has Texas and Oklahoma. So they're going to play in this big 12.
Then they're going to bolt. Then Colorado is going to join. And at least there's still some like they were in the big 12 once before, and there's some geography, geographical history there, but I don't like what's happening. I like that we're getting to this playoff, but I also like do long for the days of this being more regional, the big 10, you should be able to say big 10 and feel cold. You should be able to think big 12 and think, Oh, 60 to 55 game in Texas.
I should be able to think these things. I can't keep straight where A&M is, where Texas is, where Texas tech is, where TCU is. How are all these Texas schools not in the same conference? Half of them now are joining the big 12 or SEC with Texas moving over to join Texas A&M. I still can't wrap my head around Texas in the SEC and in Missouri too. And just as you start to get used to this stuff, now Colorado's bolting and the pack 12, I don't know what's happening with them. I mean, they might be able to grab a Fresno state or a San Diego state, but they're pretty much screwed. I don't know what the pack 12 does cause USC and UCLA, as you know, are joining the big 10, which I guess it will be cool. I'm not going to complain when Wisconsin's playing USC in October.
That'd be kind of neat, but it also sucks. And nobody thinks about these other conferences or other sports like UCF. Okay. You have a women's soccer game. Sweet.
Where is it? Uh, bring them young university. Well, do we get the charter plane that the football team gets?
Nope. You're flying frontier. I mean, it's just, it shows you how big football is. I mean, obviously football is the driver basketball second. These other sports have their moments and their say, but I am just not a fan of this constant realignment. I would like everybody to just figure out where they want to be. And at least give us five years of that. Like maybe, maybe every five years, like, are we good here?
Are we good here? But they don't care about the geography anymore. It's chasing the money again. I get that, but it just like, I don't want to have to look up like what team of conferences is it? It's like the Tennessee Titans. Oh, AFC cell, the Tennessee Titans. Oh, did they, did they, are they still in that's that would never, that's stupid.
That's how it is in the big 12. All right. My Rogers disaster, which God, I don't even know why I just couldn't, I just couldn't be silent anymore. I have thoughts on Rogers and, and for like, you might agree with them.
You might not. I, I post out about Rogers. I get a lot of likes. I get a lot of retweets.
And then I get a lot of these accounts that are like, that have Rogers as their Twitter bio. I don't know. I just, I don't understand what the need to mercily, like, why do we got to defend them?
And for the counter that you could say, well, why do you got to attack them? I'm just calling it like it is. I don't think Rogers is happy. I think he's trying to convince himself. He's happy because he got dumped. How do I know that, bro? You should have seen me in college.
I thought my life was a TV show and I over-dramaticized moments in my life to make it that way. Who's that sound like Rogers doing the same shit. Happyplacehemp.com promo code is Bart 25% off your orders, all orders at happyplacehemp.com. If you even just want to try it, order one of the sampler packs.
There's like three in them. I mean, that's a good way to tell, should I take a whole gummy, a half gummy? You know, some of you guys just take the half gummies.
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You can use the code again. Check them out college court in Muskego happyplacehemp.com. Coming up, I talk Aaron Rogers. Then coming up, I am going to share an interview I did about the NFL prior to the Rogers stuff, but it was when the connection worked on writer than you with Doug Whaley, former Bills GM. Anytime I talk to a former GM, I think I could throw that on the podcast. So that'll be after my Rogers discussion. And then we'll talk some baseball.
This is the Bart Winkler show. We're driven by the search for better. But when it comes to hiring, the best way to search for a candidate isn't to search at all. Don't search match with Indeed. Indeed is your matching and hiring platform with over 350 million global monthly visitors, according to Indeed data and a matching engine that helps you find quality candidates fast.
Leveraging over 140 million qualifications and preferences every day, Indeed's matching engine is constantly learning from your preferences. Join more than 3.5 million businesses worldwide that use Indeed to hire great talent fast. And listeners of this show will get a $75 sponsored job credit to get your jobs more visibility at indeed.com slash blue wire. Just go to indeed.com slash blue wire right now and support our show by saying you heard about Indeed on this podcast.
Indeed.com slash blue wire terms and conditions apply. Need to hire? You need Indeed. It might matter to you. It might not. You might know my whole thing with Rogers.
You might not. What matters is this summer is once he was no longer a Green Bay Packer, I didn't want to talk about him anymore. Okay. Is he going to win 65% of the snaps or play 65% of the snaps? We'll keep an eye on that.
I guess it'll get the Packers a better pick, but if he wants to go and go to the Tony's and Taylor Swift and be the cover model for the Jets Instagram page and get the eight necklace from Sauce Gardener. And he wants to do all that. That's great.
This is Rogers. He's moved on. And so I will move on too. The relationship we had was Packer fan and Packer quarterback, and all of us have to move on, right? Some of you may still watch him and cheer for him. Some of you may not, but the relationship is over. So move on, move on to the next guy.
All right. And that's what we did this summer. Moved on to Jordan love, got to be excited about him. See him now at training camp, missing a throw here, making a throw there, feeling like a leader, feeling confident. It's a new era. It's a new day. We're all good.
We're here. Rogers is there. That's it. Big problem. Rogers doesn't want you to forget about him.
That's the, that's the thing. Rogers, Aaron Rogers wanted to retire a Green Bay Packer. He said it a thousand times, and he had his last contract structured to almost be like cut and trade proof. He wanted to retire a Green Bay Packer and he made it so that it would be very hard for him not to big cap it. If they were ever to cut him or whatever, they found a way to make a trade. They had to the Packers have a bunch of dead cap this year. And now Aaron Rogers is in New York and everybody's happy, right?
Everybody's where they want to be. So Aaron Rogers, then as soon as Packers training camp, number one is done. Mind you, as soon as that's done, Rogers news comes out, not a coincidence. He takes a pay cut $35 million pay cut something Packer fans have wondered why he wouldn't do for years. Tom Brady always took pay cuts. Tom Brady didn't make a lot of money, but we just kind of figured, you know what?
Aaron Rogers, you know, he's, he's great. He's four time MVP won a super bowl. He deserves all that money. And I'm not here to say that he didn't not here to say that he did it. And I'm not one that thinks people shouldn't get their money when they can get their money.
I just feel like he gave up $35 million as a payment to himself to try to make himself feel better about how the relationship ended. Why do I think this? Because I watch Aaron Rogers at 39, same age as me. And I see Bart Winkler at age 23, the same shit he's doing after a new relationship is the same stuff that I did when I was a kid, when I was a kid in relationships, you break up with one girl, you got dumped, you thought you'd be together forever.
Oh, that really sucks. So then what do you do? You date a new girl. Okay. And then you get in better shape to make sure like, look what you're missing. And then you make sure the old girl knows that you're with the new girl and how happy you are. All right. You like walk home from college classes together, but you make sure you take the one way just in case this in case she's home and is outside and might see you, Oh my God, I didn't know you were there.
By the way, this is my new beautiful girlfriend. That's what he's doing. Aaron Rogers is trying to admit to himself that he's happy about how things played out. When in truth, he wanted to retire a green Bay packer.
He wanted to, he said it a million times. And now everything he's doing with the jets, where he's showing up to OTAs and he's saying all the young guys, you know, I've learned, I've learned that I have to be better. I learned in my old relationship, how to make this relationship better. He's learned all these things in the new relationship.
What he's really trying to do is feel better about how the old one ended. He thought he was going to be a packer forever. They moved on. The Packers moved on. They went to a new quarterback. They drafted a new quarterback.
And ever since then it's been checkout mode. Even after then Rogers somehow got the Packers to give him a bunch of money. This contract that I said Rogers did to lock him in somehow the Packers agreed to that.
So Packers, you know, a little bit of fall here too. I got people messaging me saying, uh, the Packers did nothing for him. They did nothing for him. They gave him control of the team for a decade and gave him as much money as he wanted. He was constantly, he did it twice, at least, especially in 2018, signing new deals before the deal was even done. He made $22 million a year. All these other quarterbacks made more Rogers has a five-year deal.
Oh, you know what? Let's give me more money now. So I can at least catch up to these guys, take away more money for these other guys on our team. Why won't the Packers get me more weapons?
I don't know. Cause you eat up a third of the cap. I also tweeted about Devontae Adams. And I said that Aaron Rogers, remember when Aaron Rogers could have given a pay cut. So Devontae could have made more money. And instead he posted a last stance meme.
And a lot of people have rightfully reminded me, not reminded me. I knew, but show me the article that the Packers did. According to reports offer more than the Raiders after the initial low ball.
I also do remember reports where Devontae talked with Rogers about this and Rogers kind of guided him on, you know, how to work through this and never really saying at any moment, look, Devontae, I don't know how long I'm going to be here. I want you here. Let's make this work. I don't need to be making this much money.
I can take a pay cut and we'll get, we'll get what you need and maybe some other pieces. No, instead he goes to Devontae and is like, would it be funny if we posted a last dance meme on our Instagram reel at the same time, he put in Devontae's head that he wasn't going to be there forever. How does Devontae leave? Because he doesn't think he'll be catching passes from Aaron Rogers. And then Aaron Rogers is a Packard longer than Devontae.
How does that happen? Great question, Bart. I don't think Aaron Rogers is a bad person. I'm not obsessed with Aaron Rogers as I so slowly transform into a corn cob. Right.
I get it. But as much as I think I've done a good job as a fan of watching a relationship and letting it go like the Brett Favre stuff, when Brett Favre left, I wasn't over that. I watched every jets game rooting for them to lose. I watched every Vikings game rooting for them to lose. I watched the NFC championship game and immediately when he threw that interception, I went to saints pro shop and ordered a 2009 NFC championship shirt, which I wore three times a week for the next three years before I spilled some spaghetti sauce or something on it.
Well, I should all the time cause I felt good that somebody who left me then felt pain. And for Rogers, I was willing to be like, all right, you're there. We're here. We're the Packers. You're the jets. Do what you got to do.
Willing to be like that. But this pay cut I do take as an insult. I do take as an insult. You can tell me that I shouldn't.
You can tell me that I'm wrong, but I do. I take it as an insult to Packer fans as he never did that for you. I understand he restructured the cap. He pushed the cap down the road.
That's different than a straight out. Here's $35 million back. Oh, well, the jets did a lot to get me here.
Fam. We fired a coach for you. We brought in a coach who you could trounce all over.
We did all these things for you, sir, so that you could be in control. You know what? I really don't like how they let veterans walk out the door. I don't like that.
They don't get that, that big second contract that, that next contract, I would like $60 million, please. It's just not connecting for a lot of us in Packer nation. And there will always be the Rogers supporters that will always be the Rogers stands.
There will always be the people that think I'm obsessed and I'm not again, corn cob, but I just saw that news yesterday. Thought about it, tried not to care. And really it's, it's an insult to the Packer fans and it's insult to every time he's ever said it's not about the money. It's an insult to every time he's ever saw another veteran walk out the door. Cause they couldn't get their money. It's an insult to anybody that was on the Packers that they were cap strong when Rogers had this pay cut gene in him this whole time. And he never did. Like where we won free agent away in 2021, where we won free agent away in 2018, we'll never know these things cause Rogers did not even entertain taking a pay cut. Maybe you could turn it around and say, well, the Packers never asked them to, and I'm not sure how that went down. But if your instinct is the Packers never asked Rogers to take a pay cut, if you see Rogers just like rush to the front door to take a pay cut, this is Mr. Hard knocks is being forced down our throats three days later, volunteering to sign up for the Netflix quarterback thing.
What do you want my whole thought on this? And I've talked about Rogers a lot personality chameleon. I don't think he really knows who he is.
I don't think he wants to step away from the game of football. Cause I don't think he knows who he is. I think he's a good person.
He gets front fast pass to heaven. So this is not like a anti I hate you. You're everything that I hate.
You're a terrible person. This is a quarterback who left, who is clearly sad about how it ended and he won't admit it to himself that he's unhappy. So he's going to do everything he can to try to prove it to himself, including take a $35 million pay cut, which in turn is like an insult to everybody in green Bay.
And even if they're not going to take it that way, I'm telling you, you should, you should be insulted. You should be insulted to Aaron Rogers. I look forward to the day where you come back and we retire your Jersey. I never thought I would get there with Farve. I got there with Farve, cried like a little boy. When he got his Jersey retired, called my dad, who I was not with at the time and said, dad, I should be watching this game with you. You are Packers to me.
And there will be someday where I see Aaron Rogers back and he retires at number 12. And I'm like all the good times, all the good times, but right now he has left the situation. He's unhappy about it. He's trying to convince you and himself that he is. And everything he's doing along the way is petty and a complete 360 or 180 from everything he did here.
OTAs work with young receivers, take a pay cut magically you're wearing a different shade of green and you do all these things. I think as a Packer fan, you should be offended. And I'm happy to announce also, if you care, maybe you don't.
I think there's going to be a lot of comments on the YouTube that shut up. You suck obsessed freakazoid. I'm just here to tell you, I have no narrative. I have no narrative.
I'm not trying to narrative Rogers into a corner. Things are happening. I react. I do care how the jets do this year. I want them to lose every game. I don't want them to be good. I want them to lose miserably. I want them to get embarrassed. I want everything to fail. I want this to be one of the greatest NFL disasters of all time.
And I don't just want that as a spiteful human man. I want that as a Packer fan, because every time he does something for the jets, he's doing something that he didn't do for you. So why root for that guy to win? Go pack, go. Doug Whaley joining us, former GM of the Buffalo Bills, currently with the XFL as their SVP of player personnel, a league that I have championed many times on these airwaves.
I love spring football. I'm a DC defenders guy if I have to have a fan base. Why?
I don't know. That's the team I pick. Doug, how are you doing today? Good to be with you.
Good to be with you. Bart, thanks for having me on and much appreciated the support that you've given our league. There's nothing better than fans and getting exposure on the airways for what we are bringing to the football ecosystem.
Well, I love it, man. Year-long football. I'll ask about that maybe a little more in a few minutes. I think the most interesting thing about this whole week with the NFL is that I don't know what happened with this running back Zoom call, but it must have been awful.
It must have been like a bunch of people sitting there with the intention of having ideas and then what are we going to do? What can we do? Three days later, Saquon Barkley signs a deal, which is essentially the same deal he already had.
Just a few more things to smile about. This running back situation, I guess, I think the problem is just there's a lot of them. The league's kind of gone away from having that as the most important position. There's a lot of guys that could actually step up to do it in comparison to other positions.
Is there any solution? If you're a running back and you want to get paid and you see what these quarterbacks are signing, I don't know, Doug, that there is an easy solution. Well, the solution is they should have been born 20 years earlier because you got to look at it. The way football is constructed today, it is a quarterback passing-centric ecosystem.
I mean, think about it. Ten years ago, they didn't have seven-on-seven camps. They have seven-on-seven leagues.
And what don't you do in seven-on-seven leagues? You don't run the ball. So, the game is set up to pass, to set up the run.
Back 10, 15 years ago, it was more of a three yards in the cloud of dusting. So, running back was very important. So, now it's the quarterback that's important and that opens it up for the running game. So, you don't have to put so much either draft capital or cap space into that position because you aren't focusing on that as carrying your team. Now, some teams may do that, like the Pittsburgh Steelers. They're constructed to run the ball, to play the defense, but the majority of the league is not. So, if that's the case, then people aren't going to spend a lot of draft capital or cap space on that. And the history of guys recently, running backs that have signed second contracts, major second contracts. There's only one that's come close to even living up to that and that's Christian McCaffrey and he's had injury problems.
Everybody else hasn't lived up to that second contract. So, when you start at throwing the analytics in, where the game's going, this running back market, you can have all the meetings you want. It's not going to change the fact that football, the way it's played today, running back's just not that important. Yeah, and I was trying to think earlier in the week of like what they could actually do and I know that there were some that suggested a league-wide running back holdout, which is great in like theory, but it would never happen because you do have a lot of these guys that, okay, if the top 10 running backs say they're going to hold out, okay, you're not going to get the guy who's fighting for a roster spot. You're not going to get some of the guys that did well in your league and then are trying to make it in this league. You're not going to get them to agree because some of these other guys want a few more million dollars.
There's too many like sharks to eat and not enough fish, I guess. There's just too many guys that are able to do the position and Austin Eckler, who's spearheading the whole thing, good for him, but he only became Austin Eckler because Melvin Gordon in front of him had a holdout. And to your other point, if running backs didn't show up to camp, teams could then use receivers in the jet sweep or, hey, if I needed one yard, I'll have my big tight end to it or something. The league as it is, you could take running back out of it and it would look a little different at times, but would it? I still think this league without running backs, it's not that different from what we know now with football.
And you're seeing it. A lot of teams put receivers in the backfield and they do jet sweeps. So it's something that unfortunately running backs become a fungible position.
It's easily replaceable and there's nothing in my opinion they can do. They hold out like you said. I'm watching at our XFL combine, there's about 15 guys that would step right in. Maybe not be as dynamic, but for the way a lot of teams play, be able to get the production out of that running back position, probably maybe 70 to 75% of what the guys that are doing it now in the league are producing. Oh yeah, there were some big, big beast for running backs in the XFL.
I'm a big daily fantasy guy, so I always made sure to play those guys. So you were a general manager for a handful of years and you see what happens right now with talking running backs, but also some of these other holdouts on the defensive side. It looks like we're going to see that for Nick Bosa.
We're going to see that in Kansas City with Chris Jones. I'm not somebody who's ever been in a position to sign a contract and then not honor the full contract. When you're the GM and you sign these guys, are you like, all right, I'll sign him to this, but if he gets good, I know he's going to hold out and we'll have to do this thing all over again. I always get offended when people don't finish out a contract. I'm like, that's what you sign, finish out the contract, but this is their way to angle to try to get more money, I suppose.
As a GM, it's just the price of doing business. What we used to always concentrate on is the first few years of doing contracts, especially our own guys, but when we used to see contracts signed by other teams, because after three years, two things are going to happen. The guy's either going to live up to that contract, exceed it or not. And also the biggest issue is if he lives up to that contract or exceeds it, the surrounding contracts of people around him are going to trump him because every year the salary cap goes up. So you have more money to spend on players. And if you look at it, Patrick Mahomes, which everybody can say is the top quarterback in the NFL, right now, I think he slipped after Herbert's steal to ninth on the quarterback pay scale, but he had 500 million. So that's why you always get in your mindset, after three years, we're going to have to address this contract one way or the other.
So as GM, you expect it and you plan. Doug Whaley, former GM of the Buffalo Bills, now with the XFL, SVP of Player Personnel. Justin Herbert signs this big contract, which I don't think anybody looked at that and said, oh, he doesn't deserve it. I don't think that anybody looks at Patrick Mahomes' deal and thinks he doesn't deserve it. I think where there is a lot of people that could step in and play running back, quarterback's a position where maybe that's not the case. I see these teams, it feels like if you have a guy that's not bottom 10, you're almost stuck to sign him. I don't know where Daniel Jones ranks.
I don't know where Kyler Murray ranks. I don't know where some of these guys rank, but I don't think that they should be making as much as some of these other quarterbacks. It's just that I feel like if you're a team, and this is why you got to tell your kids to be quarterbacks and not running backs, but if you're a team that has somebody that's like just even serviceable, you almost have to give a good chunk of your salary to them because the other option is you're stuck in quarterback hell for 20 years, I think, Doug. No doubt.
And that's one of the things that we always say. You can get in quarterback purgatory very quickly as a GM and a personnel guy, and I mean that it's hard to find those guys, and they're some of the most special beings on this earth in sports. And you can put together the greatest roster ever, and you will need 21 guys to be playing at 90 to 95 percent of their capability to have a chance. If you have a quarterback, you just need one guy to be playing from 80 to 85 percent to have a chance.
So if you look at, and I know everybody likes to throw out analytics, would you rather depend on one guy for 80 to 85 percent or 21 and 90 to 95 percent? And that's why these quarterbacks, even the ones that aren't great, are getting paid because it at least gives them a chance to be in the conversation, just because of the way the position is and the way football is being played today. Doug Whaley joining us. I'll ask you about your former team and that division as you see it, because I think with Buffalo, they have one of the quarterbacks. They have one of these guys that he could be the highest paid quarterback and nobody would like bat an eye. Josh Allen's been very good. I know he had some red zone troubles last year with interceptions, but Josh Allen, as long as he's there, this is kind of like uncovering the Packers for so long. I would ask people, how are the Packers going to do? And they could say, well, defense is bad and offensive line stinks, but as long as you have Aaron Rodgers. And Josh Allen's one of those kinds of guys, as long as you have Josh Allen. There's a lot of people that think like after they lost to Cincinnati, I hear the windows closed, the bills, the windows closed.
I don't think so. I think for as long as they have Josh Allen, that window is open. How do you see, just from your view, their role in the AFC East and the AFC East in general with, I think any team could win that division. Maybe the Patriots, not as much, but you never know with Belichick. Where do you see the AFC East right now?
I think, first of all, you hit it on the head. He is one of the premier quarterback in the league and they will always be in the conversation. But what has happened is other teams like the Jets, like Miami have not stayed past. They gained on Buffalo, but I think the biggest thing for Josh Allen, the two biggest issues they have. Losing Brian Dable was one, and I think that's the major issue. And two is the lack of a running game.
And I'm not saying they have to commit to it, but at least have the defense respect it and honor it. And that's what happens in the red zone. If you don't have a running game and you're in the red zone, that field gets compressed and those windows get tighter and tighter. And defenses can really start guessing because they don't have so much field to cover. That's why I think people are saying maybe the Bills window is open because of everybody else in the division didn't gain. They were really a tick to three ticks lower than the Bills as teams.
They have closed the gap. Now you have Aaron Rodgers there. You have Tua there that's playing and the teams are getting better around them. So there's going to be a lot of competition. That division and the AFC North I think are going to be some dogfights. And I think whoever comes out of that, the second place team in that division, on both divisions, are really going to be fighting for that wildcard spot. And you might even have an AFC in the conference alone, you might have a double-digit AFC team win that doesn't even get into the playoffs. So it's a crowded field in that division, but most importantly, it's a clouded field in that AFC conference. Doug Whaley is now with the XFL, SVP of Player Personnel. I just had, I think, a successful season.
I thought the championship game was compelling. I think that the league being in all their home markets and seeing some, especially, you got to mention St. Louis, especially how great they have been in supporting their team. And I think it's good, like if you play baseball and you can't make the big league level, there's still an avenue for you to play for a little bit longer and make money doing that. If you play in the NBA and you don't make the NBA, there's still other leagues around the world where you can still continue to play and get paid for it. And that's one of the things I like so much about these spring leagues, the XFL specifically, is that there's still a chance for these guys to keep their career going, maybe find a diamond in the rough, maybe extend a career, that you don't just have to retire and wonder what if.
You can go and try to figure that out. Where do you think the league is headed in terms of what things you're hoping to achieve in the next year or two to really cement this thing as something that will stay forever this time, that can be a nice supplement to the NFL? Where do you think the discussions are, the improvements are, to make this thing even better? So I think you hit what we're really trying to do. First of all, we want to be a part of the football ecosystem. And I mean we want to be a part to be able to give not only players but coaches, performance staff, trainers, scouts, all these people a chance to be in professional football, develop their craft, get better in their vertical, and maybe in the second part of what we're looking to do, we're either going to be a springboard for all these people, players, coaches, strength staff, personnel, to springboard to the NFL or be a soft landing and say, hey, I didn't get to the NFL, but I am playing a professional sport, I'm coaching a professional, I'm training professionals, and I have a way to make a living as a professional in the avenue that I chose, in the sport I chose, and that's football. So it's a win-win for everybody. These players, especially when you focus on the players, these guys can now know that they're going to have a source of income for the first five months of the year and then they can start transitioning to say, what do I want to do with the rest of my life? And not have to go out there and be pressed to take a job just to have a job.
Now they can be more selective and say, all right, let me start developing my career instead of just getting a job because I have a source of income that can sustain me while I go to the next step in my life. Well, keep up the good work. I'll be watching. Doug, appreciate your time. Be well and hope to talk soon. Appreciate it, Bart. Good luck, rest of the season.
Take care. Doug Whaley, how about that? A little XFL conversation as well.
I was going to say a bunch of names and I didn't want to try to impress him too much. The DC Defenders, I was one of their first follows in 2020. They followed me back. We like DM'd a little bit. They don't follow me anymore.
Of all the unfollows, that might be the one that hurts the most. OmahaStakes.com, remember to check them out. There's going to be a time this weekend where you're like, I'm hungry. I wish we had some food in this house. Should have ordered those steaks. Promo code Bart, get you all the package with the chicken breast and the tenderloin and everything it always comes with.
Then the free burgers, eight free burgers thrown into the package at $99.99, which is discounted like 62% if you just got everything a la carte. Check out the package, type in Bart, and then the Bart Winkler podcast will come up and takes you to the deal, OmahaStakes.com. God willing, I will be on CBS Sports Radio tonight in for Zach Gell.
Problem is, well, you know what? Actually, what's good is all the segments I didn't do on Writer, I can now save for Zach Gelb. One of those was going to be talking about Shohei Ohtani. I've talked about Shohei Ohtani more. It seems like every time I get into a CBS pattern, I spend one topic on the same, one segment on the same topic every show.
I bounce around different shows, so it's a different audience. For a while, it was Kevin Durant last summer, and Damian Lillard a little bit this year. I've mentioned Shohei Ohtani a bunch because I thought the Angels should have traded him. I thought the Angels should have traded him. Instead, they're bringing in pitchers, Lucas Giolito, and they're going to go for it. This is what I thought might happen with the Angels. I thought that they might be in a position where they thought, let's go for it.
We have Shohei. They're thinking short term. They're thinking short term. They're thinking two months, and they're not even thinking playoffs. I hope they get in the playoffs.
I hope this proves them right. I want to see Shohei Ohtani in the playoffs. I want to see the Angels in the playoffs. Every year when we do our predictions, I take the Angels to win the West. They're likely not going to win the West, but the wild card is what they're going to go after, the wild card. Also, the Yankees and the Red Sox, they're a few games out of their division. They're six games over and in last place.
I find it cute when they complain. You're still very competitive. It's just your division's hard. Angels have a worse record than either of those teams, and you talk to any Yankee fan, and you think they're on pace to win 60 games.
It's bonkers. The Angels are four out of the wild card. They have to pass the Yankees, Red Sox, and Toronto or maybe Houston to get into that race.
It's going to be tough. There's time, but it will be tough for them to do that. They've been on a little bit of a winning streak and playing some winning baseball. That's why if you were somebody that wanted Ohtani, you had to look at how the Angels were doing every day to scoreboard watch. I don't know when they're going to get trout back sometime in this next month. I want to see the Angels in the playoffs. I want to see this pay off for them, and I want to see Shohei Ohtani in the playoffs.
That's what I want to see. I more wanted to see Ohtani get traded to somewhere random, but it does keep him out of the National League. There was, I don't know, maybe a realistic scenario where the Reds got him. That would have sucked, but Shohei Ohtani is going to stay with the Angels. Another report out of San Diego is that Josh Hader and Blake Snell are likely to be traded, which is ironic.
Bob Nightingale, so he's reporting it, says that the belief is Josh Hader and Blake Snell will be traded, particularly Hader. Padres are seventh place in the wild card race, six and a half back out of a playoff spot. Padres win for it last year. Obviously, you know that they got Hader and Juan Soto, but then they fell short.
This year, they are just terrible. They still have a lot of guys under contract for many years. So if you're a Padres fan, how did you get here?
Also, your era isn't ending anytime soon. You still have a window, you still have Bogarts, you still have Machado, you still have Tatis, you still have these guys. But if you're the Padres, you know you're not going anywhere this year.
So it's probably time to get what you can for rentals. Juan Soto does have one more year left. I would think maybe he gets traded.
I don't think he's going to resign there. Blake Snell, free agent, Josh Hader, free agent. So could Josh Hader wind up back in Milwaukee? That's $14 million that they'd have to add to their payroll.
Half a season, prorated about 6 million, 5, 6 million. They traded him not to pay him. If they somehow trade back Josh Hader for Robert Gasser, then I'll be okay with the Josh Hader trade. I want the brewers to trade for Josh Hader so that when we say the Josh Hader trade, we have to say, which one?
Which Josh Hader trade? Would hope that the brewers make some moves. Maybe there's a first baseman out there that they could grab. Oh, come on. I've been waiting my whole life for Carlos Santana to be a brewer.
Man, the amount of intros and bumps that I could have done had I been on my old show with Carlos Santana. Brewers make a trade. Carlos Santana is coming here from Pittsburgh. Matt Arnold probably calls David Stern and says, we're making a trade with Pittsburgh. No, not David Stern. I should re-edit this.
You know what I mean. Marc Antanasio. He goes, Pittsburgh? He drops all of his Andrew McCutcheon cards. He goes, did we get Kutch back?
No, we got Santana, Carlos Santana. Oh, how much do I have to pay him? I had 2.5 million the rest of the season.
Okay, I guess I can afford that. How's he doing? Is he hitting well? He's okay.
He has been to the plate 393 times and is batting 235 with a 321 OBP. It's about league average. Oh, shit. We suck. League average to us is like gold.
Whatever. I'm distracted by the music. We got Carlos Santana.
Like many, this is the only Santana album that I own. According to MLB TradeRumors.com, he's been productive at the plate as the season has shifted this summer. Going back to June 1st, he's hitting 244 with a 319 OBP. 9 of his 10 homers have been since June 1st.
11 of his 25 doubles. He has a strong walk rate, about 11%, and a lower than average strikeout rate, about 18%. Is he going to fit in this clubhouse? He's not going to be swinging at the first pitch all the time?
Is he going to fit in here? So he'll take over for Roddy Tellez until he comes back. Owen Miller's been playing first.
Abraham Toro played there. Keston Hira at this point, I think, wants to be a Nashville sound for life. There's got to be one of these times that they called someone up. They had to have gone, hey, do you want to come up? He's like, yeah, I don't know. Nashville.
Can we wait a little bit? Nashville's really nice in the summer. Johnny Severino, one of these kids that they have gone through the Dominican Republic. He's 18 years old. This kid that they traded for, they traded for Carlos Santana, who at 37 is younger than me, but considered a fossil in Major League Baseball. And they traded him for someone who was born in 2004 as I was in my sophomore year of college.
Jesus. All right. Brewers make a big trade, and they've got a big weekend series coming up this weekend against the Braves again. Should be some good stuff. We'll talk to you. We'll recap it on Monday.
I'm Bart Winkler. Go pack go. For the ones who work hard to ensure their crew can always go the extra mile, and the ones who get in early so everyone can go home on time, there's Grainger. Offering professional grade supplies backed by product experts so you can quickly and easily find what you need.
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Whisper: medium.en / 2024-02-14 01:41:06 / 2024-02-14 02:01:48 / 21
