What The Football w/Suzy Shuster and Amy Trask: Senior NFL Insider Dianna Russini

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Learn more at AmericanExpress.com slash Amex Business. Hey, everybody. It's a post-Combine edition of What the Football. Amy and Suzie back with you, and Diana Rossini from The Athletic will join us momentarily. We got through the Combine.

We got through the franchise tag break. We have a lot of information to share from her to you. We'll get to that momentarily. But first, Amy, you've got some real thoughts on the Combine, and I wanted to send the floor to you.

And you know I'm not a hot take girl. Well, I have some strong takes on the Combine, and I'm a contrarian when it comes to a lot of things. I think the Combine is a boondoggle, and I just use boondoggle on our podcast. I don't see a value in the Combine at this point.

There's nothing. Look, teams have, it used to be filmed, then it was taped, now it's video. Hours and hours and hours of players playing on the field. They don't need those exercises at the Combine. They don't need those tests at the Combine. They don't need to measure body parts at the Combine. All of the players that teams are interested in drafting high are going to make visits to the team. A lot of players don't work out at the Combine. Let me tell you who enjoys the Combine. The people from every team that enjoy going and mingling and networking and going out to dinner and going to all those steakhouses. And it's a boondoggle. And having been the person who wrote the checks for the flights and the hotels and the expenses, it's a boondoggle.

You know, it's so funny. Marshall Faulk was on with me last week when I was sitting in for Rich when he was at the Combine. And if you missed that interview, I would highly suggest you go take a look at it. There was the first interview he did after he announced that he was going to be the running backs coach.

Which I love. At Colorado, along with Dion, clearly, and Warren Sapp. And I said, holy crap, what a trio of yellow jackets to go coach a team, right? And he was saying something very similar, which is that he has an app that he can see whatever he wants of anybody. And he said, why do I have to go back to Indy?

And he loves Indy because clearly the city loves him. It's so interesting. It's a boondoggle.

And the only people that enjoy going are the people with the teams that use it to network and mingle. And by the way, let me let you in on a little secret and to tamper because tampering goes on. I don't know if I let you in on that little secret. What? Breaking news, breaking news, teams tamper. And I think the statute of limitations has run so that I can admit teams tamper.

And look, I think the combine's worthless. And as promised, Diana Rossini joins us now. We are thrilled to have you on. Your information is always spot on. And thank you for taking the time to join us for the first time here on What the Football. Yes, it is that time of year where it is so busy. So there may be a second where I looked out at my phone, but it's it's it's either actually checking my kids daycare updates or perhaps information on Sam Darnold not getting tagged.

I think the first one's clearly a little bit more important. And as we mentioned earlier, we are taping this with the deadline looming. So, guys, if something happens in an outdated, just like get over it. Fast forward.

What can you do? Let's start. Let's start with the situation in Cincinnati. And you have been so on top of of this entire, as I should say, scenario. So we're going to go scenarios just in case things change. So and that's across the board in this conversation.

So what do you suspect is happening right now with the franchise tags, with moving forward, with Jamar Chase, T. Higgins and obviously Trey Hendrickson? Yeah, I appreciate how you guys approach it, as it's always so fluid. Things change so quickly. And I think sometimes when fans get angry or frustrated by information that is different by the hour at times, it's usually not because the information is wrong. It's things do change.

You both know that well. So with that in mind, though, I think the Bengals look, they've been very public about wanting to pay their stars and paying the important pieces, pieces of this team. The pillars of this Bengals team moving forward, knowing that that Joe Burrow, he wants his weapon signed up. He wants T. Higgins there. He obviously wants Jamar Chase there. And I expect Jamar Chase to get this payday.

He's going to be the highest paid non quarterback in football. They're not there yet, though. They're the negotiations started recently. And I think they will arrive at that number around 40 million a year. I think they'll get there.

They're just not there at this moment. And, you know, guys, the T. Higgins situation, I really thought that there was going to be a harder push over the last few days to knock out a deal. Because I know internally, especially all the way up from ownership to the people in the front office, there has been a commitment to bringing T. back. And we've heard Joe talk about it multiple times as well. And I've always thought, too, of Joe saying this so publicly to us and we've watched him maneuver and he's the ultimate professional and he's also very private.

I can't imagine what those private conversations are like, you know, when he's sitting there with the front office and even with the owner of what are we doing? We are not going to be able to win if we lose our guys. So I still expect over the next few days for conversations to heat up between T. Higgins's representation and the Bengals to see if they can do something here. Otherwise, I know there are teams lurking right now hoping, hoping that the Bengals are going to be open to treating him.

But, you know, the Trey Hendrickson side to this as well. He obviously is going to want an extension here. I just think when you talk about the order of how they're addressing everything, I think the Bengals organization is comfortable right now just pushing off Trey until they have to deal with it, knowing that they've got to figure out Jamar and T. I know that Amy's going to want to come back to Trey, but before you just you just put out that little, you know, that little snippet of teams are lurking.

Who are the teams that are lurking? Essentially, any team that needs a wide receiver right now is making calls. I just got back from Indy at the combine where I think one of the most common questions I was getting outside of how are they going to pay all these guys? The other layer to it was, do you think that the Bengals will actually really trade them?

I think that's that's the question everyone's looking at right now. And when you look around the league at teams that could use it, the teams that could use it are also teams that are looking for quarterbacks to a lot of those teams. So that makes it complicated as well for organizations to get that settled with trying to get a trade done for T if that becomes a possibility without even knowing who their quarterback is going to be. Then you got teams like San Francisco, who are, you know, they're trying to shed some of their weapons right now, hoping to clear some of their books. You got the New England Patriots with a young rookie quarterback.

They are starving for weapons. I'd be surprised if they haven't made calls already to try to see what the, you know, realistic possibility would be for T to move on or for the Bengals to move on from T. So he's going to have a market. It's just going to be whether or not Cincinnati is going to be willing to do this, knowing that, look, historically, you know, I don't have to tell you guys, we've seen how they've done it.

And they've never really been the team that's going to break the bank for their players. Well, Suzy, you're right. I do want to turn back to Trey Hendrickson. And, Diana, I've read and enjoyed all your coverage. And I certainly understand all the points that you've made, both in that which you've written and that which you just shared about the prioritization of the receivers and Joe Burrows' interest and or insistence on that prioritization. But I'm a firm, firm believer that games are, for the most part, overwhelmingly won or lost at the line of scrimmage.

And I worked for decades for the man who told me that the quarterback must go down and he must go down hard. I'm you know, I don't know whether the word is perplexed and it probably isn't perplexed, but. You're worried and concerned, probably. Thank you.

It's almost like you're a phenomenal writer or something because you just gave me the best words. They should be prioritizing Trey Hendrickson more than they are, in my view. Is that not a discussion or is it a discussion or push me, pull you within the organization? Yeah, the philosophy in Cincinnati is is definitely one that needs to be questioned, especially with how we saw the season turned out. The offense was OK, right? They were winning them games in the end that they should have been winning. And obviously the defense was old or older, not as talented as we've seen in years past. But Trey delivers every single week. And the performance of the defense collectively, you know, most likely costs Lou Anaruma, the defensive coordinator who is very well respected in football, his job, because that side of the ball just isn't good enough. And it certainly doesn't match what the offense is, especially in this division.

So in terms of of criticizing them, I think that that's all very fair. And I don't necessarily believe that there haven't been conversations with, you know, we should get Trey done first. And it's always been clear that Jamar is the priority. And I think the three of us could agree that that makes the most sense because of how wildly talented he is. But the fact that the defense isn't being addressed and maybe it's just a timing thing with knowing that, you know, the franchise tag came up here so they had to address this first to buy themselves more time to get this deal done.

It could have been perhaps being presented to me that way because of it's literally the timetable of it all. But I don't get the sense that somebody in that building is going, we got to get Trey done right now because he's such an important part of the future here. And I think we all saw it up close at the Super Bowl with what the Philadelphia Eagles did against the Kansas City Chiefs offense in terms of the trenches. And that easily proves that that is the most important piece, at least the foundation of a successful team. And I'll add one thing to that because, yes, that's where games are won and lost at the line of scrimmage.

And your point as to the Eagles is a tremendous point. But let's add to that also that football is math and we can talk about offense and defense. But the stronger your defense is and the fewer points you allow your opponent to score, the fewer points your offense needs to score to win a game. So we can look at Trey Hendrickson and you're absolutely right, he is just an extraordinarily important part of that defense. But the better the defense, the easier the job is for Joe Burrow and the offense.

Exactly. And I mean, Joe is aware and has said it over and over that they have to spend more money. And I've heard about this internally from people there, the frustration that they're feeling there is not a good place to be in, as Zach Taylor is going to have to come up with a plan here this season to not only make this work with whatever roster this turns out to be, but to avoid starting off so slow. Every year it's the same story with this team and they come out of the gate asleep. And I can tell you, because you can just ask the San Francisco 49ers, anytime you have contract situations looming over, becoming a problem, you're doomed. No one likes to admit it. Everyone just wants to say, oh, it's not a distraction.

It's just part of it. We have examples from the last year, even in Cincinnati, dealing with tea and the hamstring, all these different problems that pop up because players want to get paid and their problems and financial situations that could have been fixed and dealt with months prior. Well, it's funny when you were talking about starting slow and the relationship with the locker room and with the GMs, etc.

I just thought this might as well be the Browns, and it might as well be an issue with starting slow with Myles Garrett and trying to figure out if he's coming back. And Andrew Berry has said he wants to keep him and is planning on him being there. I saw him sitting in the front row at the SCU-CLA game the other day. He's out and about. He's making the rounds. He's made it clear he doesn't want to be in Cleveland. And he was on Rich's show during the Super Bowl talking about this is not about money, but everything's about money, right?

What's the scenario that you see with Myles Garrett? Well, just going back to the day that he put out to all of us that he wants to trade. It's always funny when you get a text from people that never text, you know, like, oh, they must want something.

Oh, they want us to tell everyone they want to trade. As soon as that broke at the Super Bowl and then obviously became the story of the week, as a reporter, you start digging on all sides, talking to as many people involved as you can to just kind of take the temperature. Is this just an emotional reaction?

Is this somebody that just wants a fully guaranteed contract like he saw his quarterback get? What is really truly at play? And the first conversation I had with someone involved was like, this is going to get messy. I'm just saying it right now. This is going to get messy.

And I define messy as just two sides that really want different things. And that's where we're at at this moment where the Browns are very vocal and very public about they are not moving him. Teams from the AFC, teams from the NFC, it does not matter. Teams from the XFL have called. Everyone has called the Browns and they are being told essentially the same thing, which is we're not moving him for now. And I do think the for now part is interesting. I don't want to overstate what that could be, but I think Andrew Berry is smart enough to know if Miles Garrett is going to stand this tall in this demand. And after meeting with ownership, because he sat down with Jimmy Haslam and talked it out and said, I don't agree with the plan. I don't agree with the future of this Cleveland Browns team. So everyone is very they're all on the same page in terms of, yeah, he doesn't want to be here. This isn't going to work. It's just they don't want to let him go.

Not a player of this caliber. So if there's going to be movement, let's say at some point here, they say, all right, we're not going to deal with all the drama of this. I can tell you people around the league are are assuming if this does start to move, it's going to move right before the draft. That's where we're going to see it.

I have to take this from a player who I think is retiring and he's telling me it. Yeah, we can chat. You turn off your mic. We will chat amongst ourselves for a second. No, I think that's so fun.

I would like to keep having this conversation with you just because I've never had somebody stop down and need to take a call. I think that's actually very cool. And maybe we'll have breaking news on our podcast. I sincerely doubt it, but I'd love to.

Maybe she'll tweet it fast and then we can react to it. What are your thoughts, by the way, on and we talked a little bit before in the green room about experience, the disgruntled player. I would tell you from my perspective that it doesn't matter how great he is and how you want him to play in the system. An unhappy player infects a locker room.

And I'm not saying that Miles Garrett would do that. But I'd have obvious concerns in my my prediction is that he won't be there in the fall because there's going to have to find some way to package him in some way to make him happy because you don't have a player go out publicly like he did. You're right, Susie, of course, as to not wanting someone there who is so vocal and impassioned about not wanting to be there. My goal would be to convince him that he wants to be there, if that's at all possible. In other words, not to force him to be where he doesn't want to be, but to sit down with him and have an open, direct dialogue. What can we do to convince you that you want to be here? Not that you have to stay against your will, but that you want to be here because he is a generational talent. And if you can convince him that he wants to give it a go, that's what I think the goal should be.

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Not obligations of Navy Federal and may lose value. Hey, Rich Eisen here. I hear from a lot of business owners like you about the work it takes to pursue your passions. So I know how important it is to have the tools that can help keep you moving forward. And with access to world-class business and travel benefits, the American Express Business Platinum Card helps you take your business to the next level. It offers a flexible spending limit that adapts with your business. Plus, you'll have complimentary access to more than 1,400 airport lounges worldwide, including the Centurion Lounge, so you can keep running your business while you're on the go. See how the Amex Business Platinum Card gives business owners like you the tools and rewards to do more of what you love. Not all purchases will be approved. Terms apply.

Learn more at AmericanExpress.com slash Amex Business. All right, Diana, you're back with us. Anything exciting?

Anything sexy? It was. Not sexy on a transactional front, but I don't know if you guys saw, but the MVP votes were made public this year. I was not aware of that. And I did not know it was going to be made public, by the way.

But before, I was able to vote this year, which was an honor and was awesome, and I was taking it very seriously. So I did my homework on it, meaning I had my own opinion based on what I saw this past season, but I wanted to check in with people who play the game and watch the game and coach the game and manage the game. So I reached out to tons of GMs and head coaches and players to get an idea of who they think the MVP is. And I had somebody that had nothing to do with Philadelphia. He actually played on Kansas City. Tell me that he thought that Saquon Barkley was the MVP and wouldn't not get off the phone with me until he finished his argument that day. I still voted for Lamar Jackson in the end.

So Saquon Barkley just got this new deal, making the highest paid running back. And this person called me to rub it in my face that he still thinks I was wrong about picking Lamar Jackson as MVP over Saquon Barkley. So it was it was more of a vengeful phone call than it was news, unfortunately.

But sometimes that stuff's good, too. As we called them when we were kids, the I told you so phone call. That's what that's kind of what it was. He said, I told you. And I think you could make this argument that I just made to him, which was the offensive line was a gigantic reason why Saquon Barkley was able to have so much success.

He was phenomenal. Amazing. I understand that. But I was looking as Lamar did a lot of Lamar magic on his own without those pieces, which is why I thought he was the best player in football. That's fascinating.

Yeah. I mean, and then I'd argue back because I have this conversation with Marshall Falk all the time that when a running back does things that are so dramatic, moving from team to team and just because of the way in which he did this year, I almost thought that it would have been you know, it would have made more sense to give it to Saquon for that reason alone. And then I love seeing that he's being rewarded the way he is.

Before we move on to San Francisco, let's just sit on Saquon for one second. What is your reaction to his absolutely land landfall of a deal that he just got that two year extension? Was it 41? A little bit.

A little over 41, I think. Yeah. It almost felt like a thank you contract to me.

Right? Like it felt like thank you for what you've done, but also this is your value. And that's something Philadelphia has always valued. This time last year, you know, we're talking about Saquon Barkley being told by the New York Giants to go.

Go see what your market is. And he did. And he obviously round up at the rival that just won the Super Bowl.

I don't know if we could have written a story any better. And, you know, I feel like the Giants, they just keep taking hits left and right here on this situation. They can't hide from it. You know, it's one thing for him to have a few touchdowns against them in the regular season then. But then for him to go on to have the type of year he did with the Super Bowl ring now and looking the happiest I've ever seen him in all the years I've covered him.

And now getting this contract, it's just like the Giants cannot avoid this. Look, I think at the end of the day, these these athletes are our people. And if you're in the media, you're fortunate where you get to know some of these guys. And there is no better person I have met in the NFL than Saquon Barkley in the years I've been doing this. So as a person from human being to human being, I am so over the moon for him and happy for him and his family.

As a reporter, this makes sense for Philadelphia. He's such a gigantic piece of why he won, of why this team won. And he's not slowing down. He's not getting worse as somebody that is continually motivated by just being the greatest at what they do. I could see Saquon just continuing to stick with this a little chip on the shoulder with everything to prove, because that's just really how he functions day to day. Well, and I will underscore one thing that you just said, which is moving from one team in a division to another team in the same division. And I will tell you, as someone who was with a team for the length of time I was, there is nothing worse when you lose a player of that caliber to lose him to a division rival.

There are teams that will engage in trade discussions and attempts to move a team player just to get him out of the conference, let alone the division. And I don't know how John Mara sleeps at night. How do you think this will affect the running back market? It's back, baby. I do.

Look, I don't think it's fully back. Like, I'm excited. The fact that he is now changing the—I do think he's going to change the number and is going to get a bump. I just believe Seguin's special.

I think the work he puts into what he's doing and the situation he's in in Philadelphia, I don't believe he's having this type of success in New York. In fact, we saw it. Well, that's true.

That's true. Right? Like, we knew what he was out of Penn State. We all watched that and we knew he was special. To quote the great Dave Gettleman, he was touched by the hand of God, right? Like, one of the best quotes I've ever heard in a press conference.

I'm like, what is happening? But he was right. He actually lives around the corner from me.

I should go knock on his door and be like, I should have never doubted you. Because Seguin truly has lived up to that. So, look, I still think organizations aren't going to be breaking the bank for backs, but this can't hurt it.

There's no way. I just don't think we're going to completely reset this thing back to what we saw years ago. Well, some of us have never given up on the running game and I have believed in it throughout my career. A quarterback's two best friends are defense and a running game. The better the running game, that makes a quarterback's job easier. So, yay, running backs. You've done some great reporting on San Francisco and clearly things look awfully different out there right now.

I'm wondering what your thoughts are on after Debo going to Washington, if they will potentially be moving Gwen and I as well. First off, thank you for reading all my reporting. It's like my mom, my dad, and you guys. So, thank you.

I don't think so. I write a column on Saturdays and I love it. But it's so hard to write a column about inside information and making sure you're right on everything.

So, I just appreciate that you took the time to read it. You know, I'm going to step you down really quick. How do you do your job? Before we keep going, look, it's all well and good to be a reporter. Obviously, Amy's a first of her kind, but the insider job is really tough. So, just take us behind the velvet rope for a second and explain to us how you do your job.

I don't think there's one way I do it every day. I think I started off as just a normal news reporter. And I used to always talk to the police officers and the firemen at the scene to just find out what was happening.

And I realized pretty quickly that I liked knowing more than everybody else in the moment. And so, then when I switched to sports, I just took that same skill set I learned being a news reporter and just applied it to football, specifically as I went a couple of different paths, but I eventually wound up at the NFL. And news is really what got me here and what separated me, I think, from some others to really give me some opportunity when I was at ESPN. But it's really a relationship-based position I'm in, and it's all relationship. It's investing time, a lot of time, with people in the league, decision makers, players, agents, getting to know them past just, hello, what's up, I need something.

And guys, getting older stinks, especially as a woman. But one thing I value so much now is your experience, and the time that I've put into so much of this becomes fruitful as I'm getting older. I met Saquon at his pro day years ago, and we always stayed in touch. And I started a podcast this year at The Athletic, and I was nervous about it all going down. I don't know how I was going to get interviews, and so I just text him. I'm like, would you come on my podcast?

And he's like, of course I will. And I don't have that if I never stayed in touch with him all these years and always kept that relationship really good. And by the way, I've made tons of mistakes doing this. I've had problems with tons of GMs and head coaches in the league who don't like the way I report stuff or don't want stuff out.

Mike Silver said this to me years ago. There are only certain people who can do this, and the quality that separates insiders, I think, from the other reporters who do a great job as well, but just the thing that separates them is nerve. You have to have nerve to sit in some stuff and to put out information that you know most people don't want out, or they want to put it out themselves, or they want to present it a certain way.

So I think naturally I have that, which is helpful, but it comes with a lot of stress, and I've got two little boys at home too. So the juggling act is really hard. That is, I can't tell you guys how many times I am strapping Mikey and Joey in their car seats and news is breaking.

It's clockwork. It's going to happen today. I don't know what it is about those car seats, and obviously I have to make a decision in that moment because they're rambunctious, so they want to jump out. I've got to lock them in before I grab my phone. So fortunately over the years, I mean, I've got wonderful people in the NFL who are so supportive of me being a mom doing this. I get calls from people.

The boys are screaming in the background. It's mortifying. I'm always so embarrassed by it, and there is nothing better than when a man on the other side of the call goes, hey, I don't care about the crying. Keep talking, or I'm here. Don't worry, or do you want to call me back?

No worries. I got kids too. That was the most surprising thing to me, by the way, when I became a mom is how accepting and incredibly understanding football has been about it.

And I'm going to tell you this right now because I'm older than you and have lived through it already. Don't you dare apologize for that because let's face it, all those guys that you're talking to have great wives who are helping them take care of their kids. Or assistants or nannies or housekeepers. Don't you dare apologize because you're doing two jobs at once. I just want to say that right now because I'm really tired of women apologizing for trying to multitask. I know. I catch myself doing it, and I know I shouldn't say that.

And I even tease my competition all the time. Adam Schefter taught me how to do this. He's a mentor of mine. And I will never forget, Michael was six months old, and he's screaming and Adam and I are talking through the Matt Ryan trade to Indy. And Adam's like, what is that? What's going on? I go, it's Mikey. I'm home. He's like, where's your nanny? I'm like, I don't have a nanny. I'm home with my baby right now. It's my day off. I'm not, I'm not like it doesn't work. Come on.

Oh, please. He's so supportive of the whole thing. He was the first person to send me a gift.

He's amazing. But I don't think most of the men doing this while they are parents, I don't think that they're the main all the time. And then sometimes I wonder if I get scooped a lot because I have the boys and I think it happens.

But but it's OK. And there's other ways I make up for it. And it's definitely become a great connector, you know, going back to the relationships in football. I've met more people in the NFL since I became a parent because you have this common ground. We're all in this club, you know, I think it's great. I think it's great. Yeah. Don't apologize.

All right. We'll go back to San Francisco now and let's talk about Brandon. I do believe that he will be shipped out as well. I think he's available for sure. They were getting calls on him early last week during the Indianapolis City during the scouting combine in Indy. I think there's some desperate teams out there that definitely need some weapons here knowing that T. We don't know what's going to happen there.

Chris Godwin, I think he'll hit the open market. But there's a thought that maybe he stays in Tampa, kind of like we saw Mike Evans do. I think a lot of these guys want to test it just to see it a little bit like Stafford. You get a taste of it.

And then in the end, they're like, you know what, I just want to go home. But for Brandon, I look, San Francisco's got a lot of contracts they got to deal with older players, expensive deals. I wouldn't say this is a rebuild, but I look at it as this. They're open to trading Brandon at you because they got they have to pay Brock Purdy. They are choosing Brock Purdy. And I think we can all agree that's probably the right play. That's what they need to do.

They need to get the quarterback signed up as they've begun negotiations in that deal. So we should be learning about that. I'm I'm hoping in the next few weeks, you know, knowing that Brock is probably want to get he's going to want to get paid. Well, I'm just curious, is it going to be top of the market? I think we could probably debate.

Do you think that he deserves that? The market is what the market is. Bill Parcells once told me. So stop fighting over whether or not guys are worth it.

Sometimes it doesn't matter. So we'll see what what Brock and his agent decide is the number that they're comfortable with. While we're on the topic of quarterbacks, how do the dominoes fall or the chips fall or whatever expression we want to use with some of these veteran quarterbacks that are either currently available?

Like an Aaron Rodgers and some that may become available, perhaps a Sam Darnold, although he may end up staying in Minnesota. How do these chips fall? The dominoes fall, whatever falls.

How do they fall? Yeah. And it's it.

People are waiting for this thing to fall. So Sam Darnold obviously has not been tagged. So we'll see who's going to be interested in him and what his market's going to look like. I think Minnesota is hoping that they can bring him back in. That's definitely the mindset there.

They've had it. They probably gauged it in for them to make the decision to let Sam walk. You know, obviously, Daniel Jones is an option for them if they want to go in that direction. They brought him there last year for a reason.

But Russell Wilson, I'm having a hard time finding a team for him right now. The Giants are connected to Aaron Rodgers. They're definitely very interested. They've had conversations with his camp. The question to me is, is this what Aaron wants to do? Does Aaron want to stay in New York? So weird to me.

That is just so weird to me. The way things went down, I get it. He can walk to the other locker room.

He can stay put. But like, I just I just don't get it. Well, as a as a lady that lives 10 minutes away from there, I don't get it either. I don't get it from a Giants perspective. They kind of saw they saw what it was in New York. And it definitely did not live up to what Woody Johnson was hoping that was going to be. And it was just a really disappointing two years. And it was. And I'm sure you guys read Mike Silver and I's piece on so much of the dysfunction. And I'm not saying it was all Aaron Rodgers fault.

It was not. Aaron Rodgers wanted to play with Sean McVeigh because at the end of the day, I think there has to be a tremendous amount of respect coming from the quarterback to the coach for him to listen and trust the direction that that coach is taking him in. And Sean McVeigh is that person. So then my next question is, well, in New York, is that Brian Dable?

Right. Some people say, yeah, I don't necessarily see that as being a good match between, you know, Brian's a very good coach. But for where Aaron is at his age in his career, the only reason why I don't want Aaron not to play is I don't want it to his last page of his NFL book to be New York with the Jets.

Like, I want him to go somewhere and at least win eight games, do something good, because it just, you know, I think we all have a sour taste in our mouth about how it all went down. Some people just know they could save hundreds on car insurance by checking Allstate first, the same way, you know, you've got to make sure your lucky jersey is clean on game day or your team might lose. Checking first is smart. So check Allstate first for a quote that could save you hundreds. You're in good hands with Allstate. Savings vary, subject to terms, conditions and availability.

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See store or sleepnumber.com for details. Can you just clean that up, please, sir? Well, and I will just throw in from a business perspective that which you both know, which is it's always a very, very interested back and forth as between building for the future versus winning now. And that's a discussion that can be had with respect to every single one of these veteran quarterbacks. Because if you're an organization that wants to, quote, build for the future, close quote, if that's the desire of ownership. But if your coach and your GM know that their future may not be very long if they don't win right now, they're going to prioritize winning now versus long term if they know that they may not have a long term. So it's just a very interesting dynamic within an organization. It's one thing to say, I want to build for the long term.

But if you know you don't have a long term, you're looking at winning now. Can you go with Rogers to Pittsburgh? Do you see that being a possibility?

I don't see that. You know, Arthur Smith interviewed for the Jets job. And I don't know anyone that interviewed for the Jets job that said to keep Aaron Rodgers. So and look, maybe it's a different situation in Pittsburgh.

But my thought is if they didn't want to ride with him in New York with an opportunity to be coach there, why would? All right, Diane, we got to ask you. We got to ask you for all my fans that I will forever love, Raider fans that I will forever love, not fans of Amy, but fans of the Raiders that I will forever love. What's going to happen there with the quarterback situation?

They are searching. They really thought they had a chance at getting Matthew Stafford. That was real. I know that there's a narrative out there that Matthew and his wife really just wanted to see and one of the Rams to see what Matthew's value was and how other teams saw him. And then they got a little taste of it, right? The teams were willing to pay for the next two years, you know, 50 million a year, 47 a year to bring Matthew in. And then, of course, in the end, he wound up going back to L.A. But the Raiders, Tom Brady, they had very good discussions with Matthew about what it could look like, and they believed that he was bought in on them. So I do think that there were some moments there where the Raiders were going to be put in a really good position.

I thought that was that was an awesome idea by them to try to go after Stafford, because I do think that that would have been a good situation for where they're at now. But now they have to bring on some veteran quarterback here. Is it going to be Justin Fields? From what I was told, the Steelers are still looking to keep Fields there.

They had to choose between him and Russ, and it's been Justin for a while. Sam Darnell now, is that an option? Is that a type of quarterback that they think can come in here and help out? And then, of course, in the draft, that appears to be another area that they can go in a pretty light quarterback class.

So I have no fireworks for you in terms of this is the answer. I just think the timing was really bad, mixed with a lot of older quarterbacks that are in the mix right now that I don't really think solved the answer. Yeah. And it's really tricky because we we had Pete on right after he got the job and he had mentioned Russ and then everybody went crazy talking about is Russ going back there? And, you know, there's often you can't go home again. And yet at the same time, then the names are dwindling.

I mean, like, who are they going to get there? Well, that's no good question to you because I don't have an answer. As Diana noted, the focus could be on the draft and you find a solution to sort of tide you over while you develop someone you draft. And you think you think if Tom Brady's the allure, the weight Tom Brady carries, he must have thought, I'm going to help get Stafford over that. And yet at the same time, I look and you get this with two kids.

Stafford's at four kids. They're settled. They're in a system that they like. He thinks he can win again.

It seems so much safer. And yet Tom Brady must be like, wait a minute, I'm Tom Brady. I'm Tom frickin' Brady.

What do you mean you're not coming to Vegas? I just had this conversation this morning with a head coach about the exact idea of what you're saying. There's this free agent coming up who has a family, was drafted by this team. He's about to be a free agent. And I know the numbers that are being spoken about right now in terms of a new deal for him.

And his agent had shared with me that he's going to probably take less because his wife doesn't want to move. If you guys said that to me four years ago or three years ago, I'd have been like, is she crazy? I get it now. There's just so much to it. And I don't even think fans really understand how much goes into it. And look, the Kelly Stafford element to all this. She loves living in LA. She's got a life out there. She's got her friends. And she had health issues earlier. She feels comfortable in the community.

Correct. It all makes sense as to them. But at the same time, we all have egos and we all value ourselves. I get why they were like, no, no, maybe we should go. Like, you know what? I'm ride or die for you.

Whatever you want to do. I could totally see that conversation going down between them. We've all been annoyed with our employer at some point of you don't value me. But I look at it as Matthew Stafford obviously looked at the situation going, all right, eight, nine million dollars more a year isn't really worth doing this. It would be worth a little bit more than that because there is no state income tax in Las Vegas, although it's not a one to one calculation. And yes, I'm the weirdo who when we're discussing free agency and trades and things of that nature is going to focus on taxation issues. But there's a duty day calculation.

He wouldn't save all the money, one would think, but there would be a higher value with no state income tax. You always have a different perspective for me. I love it. Let's let's go back to Vikings now that the deadline to tag has passed. What are they going to do?

What do you think? Because they've got JJ, they've got him on the rookie. And yet, as Amy was versing me again in the back about the new rules with the rookies, et cetera, what do you see happening there? What's the scenario?

Let's work out the scenarios there. Well, let's start with just where JJ's at. Kevin O'Connell told me at the Super Bowl that JJ is coming along really well, and they're expecting to see him out there by OTAs. So that's great news for them of just the progression from that injury, because even just going back to camp last year, I was with them in Cleveland when it was the morning we found out. That was the morning JJ, it became public that he was out for the year. They were devastated when this happened, because he was having a really good camp. Kevin was spending tons of time with him, teaching him the playbook. And in terms of his ability to comprehend it at this level already for such a young guy, he was doing a really good job. So everything I heard about him in Minnesota was really great, which is obviously good for them, a team that really wanted to keep Kirk Cousins, and they made a decision to let him walk.

Look, I think Daniel Jones is a real option. I think this is something that they're going to wind up discussing, like we've been talking about here, about trying to get Sam to come back. But what's that number, right? I mean, 25? Sam's not going to come back for 25. Someone's going to give him more money than that. You have to figure. But let's just say, Sam, let's just talk about the situation we're talking about where people are comfortable.

He knows Kevin O'Connell got the best version of him. Why wouldn't you consider that if it can continue to make you more money and put you in a position to win? It makes sense. I mean, if I'm Jimmy Sexton, I'm at least considering that when, I mean, Jimmy Sexton is probably not considering that because it's less money. But for the well-being of Sam Darnold, it's got to be on the table. Otherwise, you got to figure that the Raiders are going to dip on that. I don't get the sense the Giants are in on him. The Colts, perhaps, right? The Colts have said that they want to bring in a player to give Anthony Richardson some competition, also known as they probably know that that experiment is over and they're going to need somebody here to step in and be day one starter. So yeah, look, Minnesota has to feel good about their scenario for them to make these decisions.

And by the way, I've never sensed panic from them. I originally thought that they were going to tag and trade Sam, but they obviously did their homework and realized that they were not going to get a partner. And it's risky, Amy, right?

It's risky if you make that decision and you can't trade them and then you're stuck paying this guy tons of money and then you have to sort and figure that all out. Yep. I mean, you punctuated that one. Yep. I mean, she's absolutely right. Couldn't have stated it better.

Yep. What about rumors from the Combine? Rich's favorite thing to go on the show on the Monday after the Combine is to report what he heard in various stake houses and hallways in Indianapolis.

What was the what's the best storyline or rumor that you heard from the Combine? The difference between what Rich can do and what I can do is Rich says it and he could be totally wrong, which I love when he admits when he is. It always makes me laugh. I love that he was so wrong. He's like, yep, I got that one wrong. But he gets it right a lot. I probably should talk to him before he goes on the air next time to be like, just give me some scoop.

But when I say it, it becomes a thing. So it's hard to I try not to report the rumors, but it's funny. I was sitting on the Aaron Rodgers and Giants stuff on Thursday night and I flew out Friday morning and I was sitting in my chair. I knew Stafford was meeting with the Rams at that time. And my thought was, all right, Stafford will tell the Rams he's in, which will then play out. OK, what happens to the Raiders, the Giants, and then I'll put the Roger stuff out.

And it actually played that way. It was perfect. But that was my my big scoop towards the end of the week.

Trying to go through of anything juicy. I mean, I kept running into Patriots people the whole time and it it just sounds like they have a lot of work to do. That was my takeaway.

Oh, do you think because the terrible like I did not I know what you're saying, but maybe this is a little bit naivete. I view them as a dynasty. I view them as an organization from ownership down, you know, steering this thing in the right way because they know how to do it the right way.

They do it in the classy way. But I'm realizing that that's not it anymore. And I don't know why I'm just catching up, but I am. Oh, let me tell you, when I was on the air last week and started interrupting, when I was sitting in the chair during Rich's show, the NFLPA grades came out and Bronfman and I are both total homers, right? I mean, we're both Patriots homers and the great Smalls and and she gets upset about the tech rule anyway. So the grades come out, Amy. I don't know if you saw them, but the Patriots just got absolutely shit on like the planes outdated.

It's got ashtrays. Mr. Kraft, I still call him Mr. Kraft because I grew up with a Kraft family. Mr. Kraft got a horrible reading and I thought to myself, what are you talking about? I mean, like, okay, thank you. You have this up. I got to take my glasses off.

I can't see, but I mean, C plus F B F B plus D. I would take me in my junior high grades. If that was Sanders, I would have taken away his iPhone by now. You lost your tech. Like, what are you talking about? And so you say it's a dynasty, but Diana, here's this sad, sad, cold hell that Bronfman and I live in right now. Because he this morning tries to throw out Joe Milton's on the, on the market. And I mean, the sad, the sad truth is the dynasty is over and this is a rebuild. It is a rebuild. And I question how Bill Belichick left it. And if the process, like it worked for them then and the way they conducted business and obviously having the greatest quarterback of all time there all those years helps. But I think when, when you have to turn the page on that error, even ownership has to learn about the new way that people are doing it in the NFL.

And this is no disrespect to, to John Mayo, but there was no way for him to know. So now you have this new group that comes from Tennessee. They're a tight group, they have a very clear identity of what they are, their philosophy, you may not agree with it, but they know what they are, which I've learned covering football this many over the years that that is the most important thing.

If you, it doesn't matter if it's right or wrong, if you know what it is, and you lean into that and you can teach it and build it that way, you're going to have success. So I think for Patriot fans, the thing that they have working in their favor is that they're going to know who the New England Patriots are by week one, it's going to be very, very apparent. I just think in order to get there, it's going to take more time than this, this upcoming season. I was on local Boston radio recently and they were like, give us, give us your, your, on your meter of optimism for this upcoming year, one through 10. I'm like six.

I'm like 26 though, nine. I give me, I think this group needs a year and then, and then we're going to be on here talking about how good they are. God, you're brave to go on local Boston radio. That can be really, that can be pretty dark. They are harsh. So Philly and Boston, they get, they yell at me. I'm like, I'm just telling you what I know. And I married a Philly guy, so I know how nuts they are.

That's tough. That, that, that takes balls to go on Boston radio. Let's leave you with one last question, please. Titans number one, what are you thinking? I think they trade out. I think, I think they know they gotta build. I think they're, you know, you look at the people that are part of that organization. Chad Brinker, for example, oversees, he essentially is overseeing a lot right now, but I know Mike Berganzi is there as the general manager. But you just, I always just go to where they come from and you go to Green Bay and you think about how they've built their teams over the years.

And I use that to think, to guess initially, but also then I start having conversations with people around the league as well of, you know, what they think and what the conversations have been with the team, what the tone has been. And look, they need a quarterback. I get it. I could see it happening.

I just think they're on a plan here, a long four or five year plan here to build something great with patients from the owner now that I think that they are to have patients here to get more picks, to continue to build a better roster that we've seen last year as they were the worst team in football. Oh my goodness. All right.

So many more questions, but we're going to talk for like 7,000 years. Thank you so much for your time. Thank you, Diana. The kids were great.

They were, I mean, come on. I didn't know, like, are they a daycare still? Are they home and you put them in a closet? What happened here? So I have 15 minutes left and look, my mom says to me all the time, the second you're done, get in that car and go pick those boys up. They're waiting. Do you know that sometimes I will drive, I will drive, I'll go get a cup of coffee and I'll just drive around before 4.30 because I just, I just want to look quiet. And then I pick them up and it's like corralling sheep to get them in.

They don't, you know, and then they want to go get pizza. They're, they're great. I love them to death, but it's, you guys know, it's, it's a lot of work. How old are they?

Three and two. Yeah. Let me just, yeah, I get it. So Rich will often say to me, like, when they, when I get to the house, why, why am I sitting in the car? He's like, you can come in the house. He opens the door of the garage.

He's like, are you coming in? I'm like, I've been in a couple and it's because I am hiding from my kids. So I hear you loud and clear little kids, little problems, big kids, big problems, lucky to have them and all that. But I get it. You take every last second before that 4.30 pick up.

Every last second. Thank you. You're awesome.

Come back on whenever you want. Thank you guys. I appreciate it. I look up to you guys. I admire all your work. I listen to all the stuff that you guys do. So just really thank you for having me. Thank you. Any time.

Great to have you. Well, she was delightful. So I guess we'll have Diana Rossini on again anytime she's willing to impart her great information.

We will be back for another edition of What the Football after the draft. Amy, it's been a minute. It has been a minute.

Now it's going to be another minute. Are you going to miss me, Suzy? I miss you every day of the year. That makes me feel really good. I miss you too. Thank you again for taking in this edition of What the Football.