10 Takes with Kyle BrandtGMFB Selects: Kyle Brandt's Best Cuts 3/31/25
A selection of the best Kyle Brandt cuts from the Week of March 31st:
- Keep the tush push!
- Bring back FG Dunks
- The future of Kirk Cousins
- Parsons feuding with Cowboys?
- Rodgers-Steelers still on track
- Which teams want the tush push banned?
- Anything goes with Shedeur Sanders
10 Takes with Kyle Brandt is part of the NFL Podcast Network
Ten Takes is a production of the NFL in partnership with iHeartRadio.
The Injurie Dada is not there.
The only information that we know is the guys who run it, and they say it's less dangerous than a standard running play up the middle that they would have to run instead. In other words, the Eagles weren't allowed to do it and Jalen Hurts has to turn around and hand it to Saquon. That play presents more of an injury risk than the tush push. So listen, I love Sean McDermott. Whatever version of there running they ain't working. If that would have worked, they would have been in the Super Bowl last year. They tried it. So don't tell me you can't stop it. Because Shawn's very team was stopped more than once by the AFC champion, the Chiefs.
It can be stopped.
The reason I don't, I mean I almost I want to use the word outrage. I think I will be outrage of this as banned. I am so strongly against banning it because I don't see any argument to ban it. I've addressed this for months. What are you saying? It's not football? Yes it is.
That's the very basis of football. You push, we push. Who pushes harder in anything? That is the callback to when football was football.
I love it, and don't tell me the injuries and don't tell me it's ugly, Like I don't see the case. So if you do it, because we'd be like we don't like it, that sucks and so does your argument.
I hope they never been it. I love it.
Can we bring back dunks over the crossbar to celebrate touchdowns?
This is what I want.
There was a wonderful time when Tony Gonzalez at al would score a touchdown.
And elevate what's up, Dallas Clark.
And they would dunk over the crossbar and it was a very cool celebration and he was a show of athleticism. And Vernon Davis would do it and he got stuff.
But that's okay.
And then it all changed when that man Jimmy Graham was playing in a Saints versus Falcons game. He went up and he held on the crossbar and damn broke the thing. I haven't previewed this, but let's see. So Jimmy scores two handed. Oh no, all right, If you don't remember, this is twenty thirteen. He brings the thing almost down like students celebrating the victory. And they had this long delay in the game where they had to fix it and they had to get a level, and there was like this whole deal and it was there to go to home depot. And it's funny because the owner of the Falcons started at home depot. My point is that was a tough night for the crossbar dunks. I think we could bring him back. And if you want to penalize for hanging on the rim so to speak, that's fine, but you're not allowed to do it ever since then. And if you do it now, you get flagged if you touch the bar or something. It would always fire you up when seeing a guy do this. And I really think that Tony Gonzalez rule or the Jimmy Grahm rule should be revoked. You keep the tushbush, you bring back the Dunks. God knows basketball could use a little help from the NFL right now, So let's do it.
Bring it back. Are you there, football gods? It's me, Kirk. That's what I want for him. It's the perfect pole.
It is the question right now about what should I do to end this career the football gods.
Should I really move to Cleveland if they want a trade for me? Should I be a backup?
Still making these checks like a Benda says to a second year guy? Should I retire? What should I do? He's had such a fascinating career all over the place. Remember, the origin story of this movie is not only him being drafted by Washington. He was drafted in the same class as RG three. That's very strange. And RG three was the prince that was promised. And then Cousins takes over and now here we are and he's behind another young player. But it's always fascinating with him. And the true crime will be when he finally retires that we don't get to talk about him anymore. He needs a little help from the football gods. Now it's me Kirk, that's my title. I know I'm not the only person who feels a little bit scorirmy when I hear the power broker is negotiating directly with the talent. This is why the agent comes up. This is why Jerry Jones says that I'm paraphrasing. I have experience of dealing directly with players. There's a reason you have a professional representing you, and listen, let's just be candid all of us here on the show. We have agents and represents, and that's just an industry standard.
And I only speak for myself.
I've had little moments throughout my career where someone has said, let's talk about money or agreements or whatever, and you're like, oh, hold on, hold on, I have an employee who I'm paying to do this explicitly.
It's like if you're watching.
TV and someone sits down in the interrogation room and they start asking the questions like, oh, oh, I need a lawyer sitting here. There is a way for people at times, and I'm not saying this what Jerry's doing, who try to get a little bit more of a deal or try to get a little something more advantage by appealing to the relationship that they have with that person.
Let's not deal with agents and lawyer. Let's just you and me. Let's just talk.
No, we're not talking about our kids or baseball. This is my life and my future. Go to the professional. And I think that's what Micah is saying, and I in a tiny way relate.
To him, and I completely respect the move.
I'm just ready to talk about this as a reality, a reality of that Rogers at forty one years old, season twenty one, is now going to enter a scenario in which he plays Lamar Jackson twice, Joe Burrow twice, Miles Garrett twice.
Have you looked at the Steelers schedule next year? Who they play?
They play the Bills, the Lions, the Chargers, and yes, they played the Packers. What I just listed is ten games of all out of seventeen. That's a brutal, brutal slate for this guy, and probably.
It will work out.
I think the Steelers almost always win. I would just say this, if you look at the last maybe dozen or so NFL quarterbacks who've entered the Hall of Fame, you really struggle to find some team at the end of their career that they joined for a hot second and it didn't work out. Even when they do it, it's far from the Vikings.
It's Peyton on Denver. Really.
The only exception would be Warren Moon, who was very strangely a Chief at the end. But these legends, when they try a final project, it usually works.
Even Montana and the Chiefs worked.
You can come up with a bunch of examples for Rogers to go to Pittsburgh and for them to go let's say seven to ten and miss the playoffs and then he retires. It doesn't happen to guys of his ilk. The schedule is brutal, really really brutal. And this is this not last year where it's like, well, the Patriots kind of sucking a rebuilding, the Dolphins can't figure it out, and the Bills are the Bills. This is the AFC North like it's it feels like a different weight class in the fight game.
This is what he's jumping in.
I'm not ready to talk about this speculatively anymore. I'm ready to talk about it as reality. This is a fullback and linebacker from the NFL. He is the meat and potatoes of contact and collisions and physicality in football, and he is screaming at you that he loves the tush push and giving all credibility to arguments in favor of keeping it. I'm on record of this several times. Cabinda, I actually not only ignore, but I actually openly hate now that the word injury is being thrown around recklessly to fuel these people's campaigns. It's being weaponized. It's a trigger word. It's a dangerous word. It's you yell injury and twenty twenty five into a crowded theater and people say, oh wow, it's injury. We got to do something about it. Stop doing that. It's cheap and as I said many times, it's not as dangerous as a conventional running play. Also, I keep hearing the word rugby. It's a rugby play, it's rugby play. Maybe I'm crazy. I think the NFL could use a little bit of rugby. If you don't like them lining up five wide every single time, and you missed the game of your youth, and you're like me and you were raised on linemen like Nate Newton and Steve McMichael, and you want a little physicality, then maybe we do need a little rugby in the right type of place. Don't just yell injury in rugby if there was a real injury concern. Believe me, the NFL has never been more progressive about injuries and its history.
Did you see what they did.
To the kickoff? It's because of the injuries. They're not doing anything to this. And I just I think more importantly, if there's something that charged this, this that feels like a political topic. You as a citizen, and in this case as a fan, you need to understand where the elected officials if you will stand on the issues. Okay, so I have done the liberty of doing a very quick rundown of which coaches come out on which you should know this as a fan. Kevin Stefanski Cleveland Browns doesn't think it should go. Steike and Colts says, heck, yeah, we should keep it. Aaron Glenn says my job is to stop it. John Harbass says it's a football play. If you want to take out pushing, then you have to take it out across the board. Nick Sirianni obvious. Dan Campbell thinks that should have remain in the sport. Kellen Moore says he's very comfortable with the play. Mike McDonald thinks it's a good play. You have to defend it. Then you have the guys who I don't really understand their taker.
They don't have one.
Mike Tomlin says he's open minded, but his perspective is on player safety. Tamiko Ryan says it's hard to penalize the team for doing well, but it's also hard to stop it. There's lots of factors. Dan Quinn, on the coach of subcommittee, says, I think I spend more of my time thinking of ways.
To stop it. Sean McVay all over the place.
In one breath, he says, I don't think you penalize the team for being good at something. But also it doesn't look like a football play to me, So I don't know where Seawn and the Rams come out.
Then you have your staunch anti push push section.
It's a small group, but vocal Sean McDermot at Buffalo Bills. He cites injury concerns and being responded and proactive. Raheem Morris Atlanta Falcons. I don't like the play. I don't want for what I have to do to stop it. He wants it gone, and then of course, naturally Green Bay Packers Matt Lafleur says, this more of a rugby play, not really a football play. As an aside, the Packers also ran it last year with Tucker Craft and they used it. So that is where they come out with some exceptions, kind of holding out, we're not going to vote on this for a while. They table it. They said, we don't know, we need more time. I personally, as a fan and as an advocate of the game.
I've seen enough.
I've said enough, and I just want to read one final thing before we get to Connor Orr from Sports Illustrated wrote a blistering column on this, and I'm going to read the part of it. This is the most pathetic and truly American way to back your way out of a legitimate fistfight. It's like flagging your neighbor for a shrubbery violation with the HOA because you're mad at how badly they demolish you in the Christmas Lights contest every year.
They do it better.
You don't when when why let's scream about injuries and say it looks like rugby.
It's so pathetic, you cowards. Stop it.
Vote right in twenty twenty five. Keep the tush push where it belongs, right at the goal line. We are down at twenty four. And listen, Lance has done this a long time. He doesn't do it for clicks, he doesn't do it off the top of his head. But this is a really unusual thing from a guy who does this every single year.
Let's just put this into context.
Now. Maybe he will, maybe he won't these are hardly tablets of stone, But I want to look at it comparison to all the other people who do this every single year. What matters here is this is where all these people have Shauduur going Daniel Bucky Brook second third, second, seventh at omevs. I'm all the way down at fifteen, then go over to the right column again, second, second, third, ninth in the Sports Illustrated mock draft, with Zerlin saying no, no, no, no, it's gonna go all the way down.
To twenty four.
There's gonna be twenty three picks before someone takes Shaduur Sanders.
And I don't think it's crazy.
I think this is this kind of draft where there aren't a lot of good quarterbacks, but there's one incredibly fascinating quarterback, and at Shadure Sanders, where there will be nothing that shocks me in that he goes number one overall won't even shock me.
Number thirty two, second round.
It is a guy who you can't really put your finger on. The comp that I have for it is at the draft is Johnny Manzel, not the same player, not the same person.
But really, people showed up.
To that draft being like I don't know based on fifty different factors.
I don't know where he's going.
My gut is that he will not get that far shadure because I just don't think that teams, franchises, gms can resist the pedigree, the talents, the sizzle, the toughness. Like to see that name and that marquee. I just don't know if they can resist it that many times. I don't think he'll go as high as as maybe in the first two picks, but I don't see him going as low as twenty four. And yet this is what the draft is. Mantai like it's bedlam. Sometimes it's absolute chaos. Baker Mayfield goes number one overall when we were all positive, who's going to be Sam Darnold, Shador Sanders. Anything is on the table and we're three weeks away.
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