NFL Daily with Gregg RosenthalLatest trade buzz, Panthers coach Dave Canales, Bucs GM Jason Licht and Bears GM Ryan Poles
Gregg Rosenthal and Jourdan Rodrigue of The Athletic are LIVE from Indianapolis for the NFL Scouting Combine to get you caught on buzz from around the NFL, including a quarterback battle brewing for Anthony Richardson and the Colts (01:50), Bobby Wagner's status with the Commanders (12:44), Kevin Stefanski's opinion's on this year's quarterback class (15:00) and more! After the break, Buccaneers General Manager Jason Licht (17:01), Panthers Head Coach Dave Canales (27:21), and Bears General Manager Ryan Poles (37:59) join the show.
Welcome to NFL Daily, where we're proud to just be a couple of women of the NFL Scouting Combine. I'm Greg Rosenthal here with Jordan rod Rieg from the Indianapolis Convention Center, and yes, we were both attendees at the Women of the NFL Happy Hour last night. Thank you for inviting me, Jordan.
You are so welcome, Greg.
I was so happy to see you there, along with a couple of other very supportive men in our industry and a crapload of women, and it was so cool. I first attended that event seven years ago when it started. My good friend Courtney Cronin was the one who started it. Had a lot of support from the less than ten women who were actually here at the combine at that time. Wow, like seven people were at the first one in twenty nineteen. There was probably three hundred people there last night.
It was a party.
Some of some our favorites here at NFL and Network, Jane Slater, Stacy Dale's and yeah, Courtney Cronan does awesome work at ESPN, So that was fine night. We brought Adam from the Block Party podcast. He's gotta do a little work for us for the combine. Next week as well. We are setting the table today Jordan for our interviews will be the last ones to hear that we taped. I'm really excited for you guys to hear the interviews we did with Jason Light It was spicy.
I'm excited for listeners to hear that one specifically.
Gave me a little grief.
The Bucks general manager, one of the best in the game, Dave Canalis, the head coach of the Carolina Panthers, talking about their team building process, what they need to do on defense, Little Bryce Young of course, and then Ryan Poles, the Bears general manager. Now Wednesday here at the combine, much quieter from a general manager and coaching perspective. So we're going to hit you with just like a little bit of news, some from the insiders, some from the podium, and then we'll get to the interviews and we will get out of here and we're going to start Jordan more veteran trade news. Yesterday it was Jonathan Allen. Today it's Harold Landry. Ian Rappaport, our insider says the Titans longtime pass rusher who has a lot of sacks over the last few years, they've allowed him to seek a trade. Usually that's code for we're gonna cut you if you can't find a trade. Mildly surprising, but Titans fans will tell you he maybe hasn't been quite as good as the sack.
Numbers show a little up and down as a player.
Yeah, former second round pick too, and if they cut him, it would save them about ten and a half million, a little bit more against the cap. But yeah, that's that's one of those moves where you could tell new regime is in town, in the front office in Tennessee, gonna kind of clean out a little bit of what's left there and try to recoup some assets.
I appreciate the listeners should really appreciate Jordan's playing hurt tonight.
Okay, I am so glad by the way that we got our interviews done before my voice went out.
I don't know what happened after I saw you leaving Saint Elmos, but Jordan looked like she was on a spaceship to having a good time.
Let's be clear, professional, you know, let's be clear. This is the start of the combined week where you just trade in.
Secrets all week.
Yes, a lot of information.
Sawiddle insiders, you know, saw some insiders.
On the surface, things just happened.
I walked into Nate Tice right as we were leaving, and now he's going to join the show actually on Thursday, just because I happened to walk past him, and he'll break down some draft stuff. It's really great to see everyone in one spot, and that includes the GMS as I was talking about.
Yeah, the Harold Landry. I think it's gonna happen.
He has a lot of production, but he might end up being on my top one on one free agency if they can't find a trade for him. I thought it was interesting. Chris Ballard said, very plainly, Anthony Richardson will be facing an open competition at quarterback coming up this season.
What do you think that means.
For the type of quarterback that they will bring in because there's not really a guy to compete with him that's currently on the roster Joe Flacco as a free agent.
I know, and we've talked about this on previous shows.
There are a slew of like quote unquote bridge quarterbacks who could also maybe serve as possible number two or competitive quarterbacks to like put a little juice in that room. This seems like one of those things we see every year from coaches who are maybe not satisfied with the level of play so far to this point of their quarterback where they try to put a little fire under them. They try to make sure that you know, they feel like they're being challenged a little bit in training camp in OTAs. So I think some of these quarterbacks, you know, it's not going to be Gardner Minshew, we know this, Jacoby Brissette, you know, Mac Jones. It's not a great situation for them to be in to say that they're going to bring in a competition this way. But I could also see them looking in the draft middle to later rounds, like there's some really solid number twos that might be available.
I'm going to throw a name out there. Derek Carr would make sense.
Derek Carr would make sense.
To me on the Colts.
I don't know if they'd give up anything for him, but I think he would be a guy that fits about the level of the right competition Because I the way he said it, I think he was meaning Anthony's got to play well. This is going to be good for Anthony to have to compete, and that they should.
They will have someone at the level.
Of a Brissette or a Derek Carr, which will not necessarily be a total home run to beat out.
So we will see how that goes.
Interesting, they are not just putting all their chips in the Anthony Richardson basket.
This year.
Darren Mujie talked that the Jets general manager and he mentioned DeVante Adams, something we didn't talk about on Tuesday's show, and he gave the dreaded Davante is on the team quote unquote.
Right now ooo death sentence.
Yeah he's done. I guess it really is. Yeah, can you get it? Can you get a draft pick?
Do you think for DeVante Adams in the year twenty twenty five with a quite a large contract?
The contract I think is going to be a sticking point for a lot of teams. But I think he can obviously, I mean it's Davante Adams. I think he can still contribute at a high level or medium high level anywhere he goes. I think this is a little bit interesting because it kind of is tied to Aaron Rodgers' potential market or lack thereof, whichever way that shakes out, because that's one of those situations where I think Aaron Rodgers is the one who gets maybe a pick swapped or something because he if he really wants DeVante Adams, which there's some reporting as of the morning we're recording this, that he would want to bring him with him wherever he does go. If he does go somewhere, and if it is a certain a team that is willing to give up any capital, then that would be the case. Which is like, it's almost a two person deal.
It's so strange to me because like, are they at the point is Rogers, especially at the point of his career, that he can dictate any of this.
So I don't think that he is personally and I don't think he should be or should feel that way.
Yeah, but I think the right.
Team, say the right team might say that the team easily manipulated would probably be able to he would probably be able to do that with them.
To me, Devanta Adams has more value. I think he would be able to get a higher salary. He is due thirty five million dollars this year. I have a hard time imagining a team giving him all that. Florio, my old boss, Mike Florio, not.
The we were next to them all week.
Yes, not the fantasy guy from the NFL, who's a real Mike Florio too, the other Mike Florio throughout that Rogers might have expressed some interest to the Giants, that he might be interested in the Giants. Could they just go across town? Either way, don't expect Devanta Adams to be on that team. Well, while we're doing it, let's do our daily, let's limit it to like ninety seconds on Matthew Stafford. We can't go too log in Stafford.
Every single year National Nightmare continues.
You know, I like it. I just it's gonna be a daily upty number one.
Sean McVay had some very interesting quotes and comments on the Fits and wit podcast new podcast Ryan Fitzpatrick Andrew Witworth. I recommend people just listen to the whole segment because Sean mcvac can speak better and longer. Like it's hard to find a little clip to cut out here, but I think it was nuanced and I didn't leave that conversation feeling any different other than of course, they would be happy to have Matthew Stafford back at their price, and people should just check that out. The news of the day to me was more from the Las Vegas Review Journal, who said Tom Brady has reached out specifically to Matthew Stafford's representatives.
Like Jimmy Sixton.
Yeah, who is allowed who As we reported and I reported earlier this week over at the Athletic, like was given permission by the Rams to have these types of communications with teams. I do think it's really interesting because we've been saying forever Greg that it's potentially the Raiders who would be interested because they want to be aggressive.
John Spytech, You've been saying it for weeks.
That's the receipts people trying to do some breaking news.
Forget it. She's been breaking this for.
Weeks, and you know the Giants and that's obviously that's been kind of the fun sub element of what this combine has been is the poor giants beat reporters.
I mean, but it's exciting.
But like, man, they are just running all over the place like frazzle, just trying to make sure that they're on top of this situation. If they do finally get a quarterback, like love that for them.
If so.
My friend Charlotte Carroll was at her wits end yesterday on this that's when you saw us.
I kind of like, I kind of actually think Rogers makes more sense with the Giants than any other team I've heard suggested.
So maybe it kind of feels like the equivalent of the U up text, Like he he sent them expressed interest, expressed potential interests. You just sent him a little Joe Shane sent him a little U up.
Text, you know.
Yeah, so we'll see if by the end of the our time in Indianapolis all the reporters will be out of here. By the end of the weekend, there could be some movement on this front. We will see. So I have watched, you know, some of the coaches that have been up at the podium today.
One of them Mike McDonald's.
He was over at the NFL networks at very unassuming you know, coach walking in. I was walking right behind him, didn't realize it was him, you know, as coaches go, not as not closer to my size than most.
I was gonna say he was there another like miscalculation. Is I mean you were blown away by how tall Ben Johnson, Yes, I.
Would say I was surprised that Mike McDonald's more of just like an average yeah, on the smaller side. Type of coach like that about him. Was asked if Gino, you know, anticipates him being the starter. He says, I do. John Schneider, their GM was a little more aggressive, saying he will be our starter. Yesterday, just in case you were curious, it was in, you know, watching Pete Carroll at the podium. I was like, Man, a Pete Carroll Gino reunion. That's that's why I know that matchup. That would make a little bit of sense. But I don't get the sense Seattle's looking to do that. It's more if someone came in hot. I just don't think that's gonna happen.
Yeah, if someone came in real hot, they'd probably at least have to listen to it, right. But yeah, we talked about the just off to the side of the set. We talked about the potential of how cool would it be if Pete Carroll and Gino loved the Raiders like I just it would be cool.
But the fact that they were.
So emphatic, that Mike was so emphatic about talking about Gino that way, it's not only keeping him, but also you have to go part and parcel with the contract that he has due that the extension that he's probably due coming up as well.
Yeah, we'll see if they test Geno Smith in terms of like, we just like to stay on this contract, play out your contract and see if he really is gonna become an issue.
He might not.
He might be like, actually, I just am going to show up to work and be a little annoyed. I'm on a contract here, but try to play my ass off.
One thing I think listeners will appreciate is later in the show you'll hear from Dave Kanalis. He and Greg had a little bit of a geek out like moment over their love for Gino Smith. It was endearing to watch.
It was cute.
I also enjoyed hearing not that I wanted Jason Peters to retire all time great tackle. I think he'll have a real legitimate chance to make the Hall of Fame. He'll certainly be discussed seriously and have a real shot finish his career with the Seahawks.
People might have forgotten he is joining.
The Seahawks front office, which I always think it's really cool when a player retires and immediately joins a front office, Like that's a thinking man's player, and anyone that's ever played with Jason Peters. Cannot speak highly more highly of him, So just happy trails to Jason Peters. Came into the league as a tight end for about a year and a half and they switched positions.
What a great career he has had. Congratulations to him.
A former Seahawk was mentioned by Dan Quinn, who spoke longer today than any coach I've seen, not only at the podium, but then had a backdrop for like a thirty minute side session with a ton of reporters. The Washington Commanders are back like there's so many media, and man, he talked about Bobby Wagner in such a that I think they're really going to try to get him back on the team.
I mean, and he played well, you know, he played well for them. They're not asking him we talked about this, Greg. They're not asking him to go outside of himself the way that maybe some teams are even late in his Seahawks tenure, certainly the Rams were asking him to do to be that sideline to sideline guy anymore. No, they would like him to go downhill into gaps and stop the run and to be a captain, a team leader and a real pal to Jayden Daniels.
And listening to Quinn more than anything, I think they look up to him. He looks up to him. He almost sees him as like the dan Quinn of players and man. There is something about how intelligently dan Quinn frames every question that he's asked that you really understand why an entire building would follow that dude. Truly a great hire. They had the report cards. We don't have time to get into all the NFLPA report cards. I might add a future day because some of the report card grades are funny, but dan Quinn got an A plus one of the coaches to do so not a surprise.
I was talking to someone from the Commanders yesterday and I said I basically I was kind of sort of one off joke.
I was like, hey, welcome.
To Joy, yes, and he just lit up and he was like, oh my gosh, it feels so much better.
The fans agree, Patriots fans not feeling a lot of joy lately.
Watched Elliott Wolf speak today.
A couple of little nuggets there, you know, mentioned Christian Barmore's career in the NFL is quite up in the air because of the blood clots that he has a great desire to play again, but they don't know that he's doing everything that he can to play again. But that's a little up in the air, which is obviously concerning for one of their very best players.
I also appreciated his honesty.
He thought, this draft is, you know, not too deep at the top, not great, but great in the middle, which you know, not exactly what you want to hear when you have the fourth pick of the draft.
But love the honesty there.
And some people describe me stop.
And then finally Stefanski, Kevin Stefan. You just admire how that man lines up his beard daily.
He there's got to be like a protractor situation that's happening there.
Sure it just the neck line, the beard line. It's all awesome. And I really liked hearing him talking at length about the differences in the fifteen minute speed dating sessions that he's had with Shoudar Sanders, cam Ward Jalen Milroe and really pointing out the differences between them, being very complimentary. He's not giving away who he likes, but especially with cam Ward. You really thought the recall was really impressive, going back being able to talk about all the different plays at all the different spots that he had. Shoulder stands more about the person, more about the leader, more about how he was raised and how he commands a room. And there they're obviously looking hard at quarterback in Cleveland.
This is going to turn into the most annoying time of year that we have every single year, where little rumors and whispers and unfair things are spread about the quarterbacks, especially at the top of this draft class. I have heard nothing but great things about how Shoulder Sanders has killed his interviews, Like I've heard nothing but awesome things about teams coming away, just so impressed by how beyond his years.
He has seen.
This is why I'm glad Like you passed the ball that Jordan's I.
Told you, I said, Greg, I'm what I said, going to have? Do you go to bed? Greg, I'm thirty three. I will stay up and hear the guy.
Wait.
I admit I'm not really in the drinking mode anymore, but.
I mean, nor am I, But I'll stay up.
It was up late last night.
I did it. We did it. We did these interviews. Excited about him. We're going to take a quick break. We're going to come back on the other side. Of the break, you will hear our conversations, like I said, with Bucks general manager Jason Light, Panthers coach Dave Canalis, and Bear's GM Ryan Poles, and then we'll say goodbye on the other side right after this break. All right, we are here with Jason Light, general manager of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, and yeah, we're chatting before we even start. Jason, you said you don't have any gotcha's like you had for our friend Connor or back in the day when he didn't predict your record to be good.
And poor Connor in that spot.
Yeah, back in the day. It was only a year ago. That hasn't gone away yet.
I've aged quite a bit. No, we give the Bucks a lot of popping. Just last week we were previewing your off season, I said, quietly, one of the best run organizations in the NFL. Your draft record has been outstanding over the last few years. Now you're at the point, though, we have to decide to prioritize which of these draft picks, which of the homegrown guys that you are able to keep.
Do you have anything for us?
Let's say, on Chris Godwin, who I know you extended that negotiating period with in your confidence and trying to talk to him.
Yeah, Chris means a world to this team, into all of us. I mean, there's no I mean, he's gonna be on the mount rush more of bucks. What's all said and done, So you know, we hope it works out. You know, he's had a major injury, so we needed to extend that to give us some more flexibilities, more options with that, So hopefully it all works out.
Yeah. A couple of the guys that came up too. I was thinking something you guys have done a good job is getting contracts done early. So you have some guys like Luke Geticky, Zion McCullum, Kate I and who have all been really good contributors. Like, how do you kind of look at that process balancing this time of year, you're evaluating players, you're valuing free agents, then also thinking about the future with guys like that.
Well, it definitely goes into the planning. Mike Greenberg, Jackie Davidson, are do a great job for me with that the cash and I mean the cap and all that stuff. So that definitely goes into the planning because we don't want to lose those guys, and we'd love to have those guys, all of those guys in our future, whether we do them, you know, in the coming months, or whether it's know later on we're it's definitely something that we will approach.
What I have loved about the way you guys have operated over the last several years is that you've had a lot of different types of teams, a lot of different personalities, big personalities. You love, a big personality at quarterback as it turns out, And I just I'm fascinated by how you can move so agilely when you're looking at what your roster is and quickly, because there was a time where I think everybody thought, you know, you take on that significant amount of dead money.
It's over for a few years.
But you guys pivoted so quickly into the next thing, into the next phase. It wasn't a rebuild per se, but it was just like a next iteration. And I guess, how do you look at your roster from that like sort of telescopic lens.
That so we getting Baker was key there, getting a quarterback at the time for what we got him, for what he was willing to take. He wasn't about the dollars. Then he was about the opportunity, and he saw us as an awesome opportunity. He had the foresight to know that we had a good young team, a good and some good veterans to win with, and then we benefited by having that. It didn't we didn't take a big hit there, and while we were eating over eighty million dollars in dead cap that year, but it forced my staff and our coaches to go out and rely on rookies and to draft the right ones and to sign these undrafted rookie free agents that made contributions, and to sign some affordable free agents.
I don't say cheap, but affordable.
And uh, you know I I think I made a mistake last year saying we're gonna go to the dollar store to find players.
But we had to. Yeah, we had to find cheap, cheap ones. Are you know, you know we got it.
We got it.
But they all made a lot of them. We hit on a lot of them for their roles, and you know, it showed us that we have a great foundation of some young players right now, so that we're going to keep rolling with and we're gonna try to draft, keep drafting well and I think we were hit a sweet spot where we're competing every year.
And that's coaching no because when you do have those players and you identify it and you guys, you basically say, okay, like we're pushing you into the world as we've drafted you, and here you go, like we're handing you off to the coaching staff. That has not been without turnover either, but every year it seems like a lot of these young guys are really getting coached up. So how do you go about that identification process of coaching talent?
What do you look for in your teachers?
Well, Todd does a great job.
The last two years we've you know, obviously a lot of turnover at offensive coordinator and he's let me be a part of that, let lets me advise him and all those things.
But he makes the call.
But he's hired two really good ones, Dave Canals and then Liam Cohen and then now Josh Grizzard, And I think I think grizz is going to do an out standy job. I think he's going to follow suit with those guys, and I think in some ways, you know, we can pick up where we left off and maybe have some fresh ideas too.
Yes or no.
Baker and Grizz is the name of the TV show that you guys should be producing about those two specifically.
I know, and you have to somehow incorporate I was looking up when we hired Josh last year. He's from a town called Lizard Lick.
Oh wow, you got that, like one of the Dakota's or something.
Oh it's in North Carolina. Okay, yeah, I.
Can't even actually wrap my head around what a.
Cool hoodie like Lizard Lick High.
Yeah.
Yeah, And then you should do a sports jersey get his name on the back too. I mean, that's that's a mind twister.
I haven't thought a lot about like how that offense is going to be different. You're a good person to ask, like, do you what what do you think that he brings Maybe that the previous coordinators didn't. That's particular particular to him.
You know that that's still going to evolve.
It's it kind of it's going to depend on if we've made any additions through the draft. Who we have accentuate the strengths of you know, Rashad and and and Bucky and Sean Tucker. I think it's we're going to kind of pick up where we left off and then just like every year, evolve a little bit differently and do some new things and some new twists.
When you when you lose in the playoffs, like that, a game that that could have gone either way, do you like, do you take it specific lessons from that game that you'll you'll use to implement this offseason.
Yeah.
You see where we were lacking, and I'm not blind where we needed some help, particularly on one side of the ball, and you try to you try to do your best to upgrade there and get some more depth. It's not as easy as what some people think. The answer isn't always just throwing a lot of cash and buying expensive free agents.
No way.
We've found that. It's you can there's other ways you can do it. Now sometimes there's an opportunity for a big splash. But yeah, yeah it did. And you know, after the season, it takes me a while unless you win the whole thing just to get over the and.
You have you have won the whole thing. Yeah, you know, doesn't.
Try to be a little crazy football because I live in like this all. Like one thing I said about this year's Bucks is if you re ran that playoff tournament, let's say twenty times, ten times, even like I actually think there's there's at least one or two of those times, maybe more. You would you would argue where Baker Mayfield is up on that podium with like a Super Bowl MVP and that the margins are one or.
Two that receipt.
Okay, yes, that's pretty good.
You know what, Greg, I knew it was going to be you. Somehow I knew it was going to be you.
I'm saying there's probably like six or seventeen that I thought.
Could have won.
You're one of them.
Appreciate it, but I'm not giving them all equal chances to be fair, to be honest, Like, I don't know, does it is that like the beauty of the sports here or does that drive you crazy a little?
Both? I mean, it's it's it feels good.
To know that you know, you feel and you're you're trying to think objectively that you know, we we can win the division and get in. We have as good a shot as anybody to get to the big dance in the NFC. So just but we have to keep up, we have to keep adding. We kind of can't just sit in our hands.
So you know, this defense always plays hard under Todd. We know that we see it explodes off the tape as well, but obviously shorthanded in some elements there. What what kind of defense do you want to be? What do you want this identity of this group to be past the effort that they put in.
Well, I want to.
Be aggressive, we want to be fast, we want to be physical, and we want to be I mean all things Todd would say, and we want to be a good tackling team. And you know Todd's always you know, every few years does completely does a makeover and changes a lot of the things that he does defensively to keep it fresh. And I know he's been he's been in the lab lately doing some things to make things a little bit differently this year. So it but it all depends on the personnel that you have. So we have to we have to help as much as we can there.
So we had your your former co worker, Don spy Tech on the show. How does it feel that you've now got a tree like a Jason light GM tree out there in the wild.
He's a great one to put out there. He's he's been ready for a while and for a long time. And he and I go way back to two thousand and five when he was a intern with the Dolphins, and I remember we were going to promote him to a scouting assistant after two years of being an intern, and I took him out golfing, and my boss at the time, Tom Heckert, said, yeah, offer him the scouting assistant job, and I did, and he he teed off and he turned around and looked at me and goes, you know what better than that? I think, Oh, I think I went a little bit better title, And I.
Was like what? And we ended up giving it to him. That rules.
That's one of those moments I almost imagine, like Baker Mayfield's got a little bit of that.
You're almost like, see, that's what I'm saying.
You guys like big personality.
You're almost like I asked him in half a second, maybe who is this guy?
But also that's badass?
I like. Later on, I asked him, what were you going to do? What was your backup plany because I didn't have one.
How was the shot he hit? Oh he's a good golfer, all right, I was gonna say, because if you shanked it, and then you said that it wouldn't have the same effect.
I mean, it's not like he it was. It was a walk off. You know, your game, it's getting a little bit better, but I'm still.
It's getting better on the golf course, Jason light but has been killing it in terms of the draft. Looking forward to all the moves the Bucks are making this offseason.
Thanks for joining the show. Appreciate it.
Greg for the bulletin board material.
Oh come on, that was I'm saying they could have won the title.
That's thanks Jason.
We are here with Dave Kanalis, the head coach of the Carolina Panthers.
Welcome to the show.
Dave, you said, as we're getting going, you actually like doing the media stuff that that's refreshed to hear.
Yeah, why is that?
I think it just kind of helps crystallize perspective, goals, vision, all those things like what do we really want to accomplish? And so when you get asked those questions like, oh, it's a good one. You know, I didn't thought about that, or I know exactly how to answer this one.
You know.
Yeah, you're you're big on manifesting, are you?
So I almost feel like talking it like basically having a written record or an audible record in this case, would help with that manifestation.
Absolutely, and there's accountability to it too. I think, you know, primarily my commitment is to Panthers fans and to the Carolinas and and to tell them this is what we're trying to build. And if it doesn't look like that, that's when I get those comments and those things like, well, you said you're gonna build this team off of this this and that you know, It's like, yeah, I did say that, we're not doing that right now, or hey, did you see this?
This is exactly what we're looking for.
So so we do a national show and yeah, the Panthers fans they know you well by now. I feel like the Bucks fans got a chance to know you. But but nationally, I feel like the Panthers relatively under the radar. So I was I was thinking, I've heard you have a lot of energy. You know, I've seen it. But I'm curious, behind closed doors, what is a Dave Canalis meeting? Like, like, how are you running this team? How would you describe that? Behind the scenes?
Just connecting.
I want to make sure that I'm connecting with the humans who are these guys and what are they going through? I'd like to say this, you know going into the off season, is they're different. You know, the names may be the same in different positions, they have changed, They come off of different seasons. Some have gotten married, some have had kids, some have had deaths in the family. These are different people with different expectations and goals. I think it's really critical that we reconnect as a staff with what that is and create a joint vision for what the next steps are for them, because I believe that you can go a lot, go far places, go really go where you can go to the plate, to your potential when you're connected that way.
You always hear too that if players talk about this, I think especially a younger generation of coaches talk about this too, about if you understand a little bit more about someone else's why, you are more likely to push harder for them because you feel like, I know a little bit more about that person's story, so now I don't want to let them down. Are you feeling that mutuality between yourself and your players are entering your two now?
Absolutely?
And so it's us learning the players, and then it's the players hearing the consistent messaging, and that's where I have people that say, hey, remember go back to this, you know, and have people around me that remind me of the principles and so that the narrative, so that the goal stays the same for everybody.
You keep the receipts in a positive way.
Yeah, and let you know the receipts are They're great. Yes. I am a huge Geno Smith fan to thank you.
For that point where we have a sub series called Quarterback Island where we put a select number of quarterbacks on Quarterback Island.
He is on the island.
Oh, but we call it Geno Island because when Greg gets going on Geno Smith, it's it's a lot.
I always like, like Dayfere, I always believed in him, even when he was back to the jet. I was like, he absolutely could be a high quality start it all happens. So thank you for your contributions to him obviously, and then Baker Mayfield and then this year with Bryce young Y. Yes, I feel like he was a theme of our show that we were talking about week to week as far back as that first game he came back against the Broncos where I thought on tape he was made better decisions even if it didn't show up on that box score, He's thrown it where he wants to and good decisions all the way through the rest of the season. I guess from your vantage point, just what was it that helped him improve throughout the course of the season so much?
Yeah, just his toughness. You said it.
That Broncos game, we score a touchdown on the opening drive, it felt different. I have so much respect for Bryce taking the challenges of the situation and just going right back to work. He just kept working and when he got his opportunity, he took it and he was letting me know, he was letting the team know, I'm here, this is my team. Here we go. And it was just a weekly commitment to that, you know. And I'm so excited to just get back going. I know, we still got a couple of months, you know, to really, you know, start reconnecting on the things that I was kind of teaching.
For the first time.
But to be able to build off of the those things, but to have it just helps me visualize what we can become. Knowing Bryce is going to be our quarterback, how do we build this thing out so that we can achieve our best.
It was a joyful thing watching him be so kind. It was like he remembered who the f he is, really no doubt, and that was a joyful thing to see.
And we did not, obviously get to see.
Behind the scenes, behind closed doors, what those little turning points are, because I don't think with anyone in life, it's not one massive catalytic moment. It's a series of small moments back to yourself, right, And so I wonder what you saw from him, how he came back to himself and the group around him, how they supported him in that.
Yeah, I think you're right.
I think it was a mental discipline, toughness to remember who he is, to remember how he got here, who he's always been, and he's always had challenges and he's always overcome. And that's the belief that he has in himself first and foremost. You know, don't wait on me to make decisions for you, and he didn't. He got in there and he took it. And that's the thing that I respect the most. And such a cool meeting to leave this season, kind of like your exit interview type of thing, and I can feel this mutual respect for each other of I respect you for how you responded to this challenge, and I could feel his respect for me to like and as we've done it, I'm going to shape this offense to have your signature on it, to make the things that you do well come to life. And I want your input, I want you involved. This is your team. Let's do this thing together.
So really empowering, I think.
Yeah.
At the wide receiver position, you draft Xavier lag At how you mentioned earlier on Tuesday that he's gonna be overcoming foot surgery offseason, you found a good undrafted rookie and Jail and Coker. Do you expect that group to be added to and do you think Adam Feelin is going to be part of your future plans too.
I certainly hope Adam is hopefully.
You know, he had fun down the stretch as he came back to us, and Bryce found a to hit him down the field and short and intermediate, and I just was like, man, he's such a phenomenal player still, you know, and the impact that he has on Xavier and Jalen, you know, and guys like David Moore who are veteran ride receivers who know how to work, you know, and do that, but we're always going to try to challenge the roster. We're always going to try to like make everyone's play step up. I don't think you can ever go into any offseason and just go to, ah, now we're good here, you know. I would love to just just mess things up a little bit by adding somebody really talented and see if these other players can find another level.
Yeah, you know, and that's the beauty of competition.
That's why I truly believe you challenge your roster by adding in free agency and the draft every year instead of just staying away from certain positions.
And that's that's a process. Obviously, you collaborate with dan on and I'm kind of wondering, you know, now that you guys have some momentum, some experience together, what is that like, what have you taken from each other? How do you identify talent together? And maybe what has changed about each other that you've taken from each other.
Yeah.
I think spending a year of just talking about our team has really helped come to the combine this year, you know, with different eyes. I think that the more that he understands about my offense, defense, our schemes, and he says, Okay, I know how to fit these players into our schemes, you know, and for us to continue to become aligned and to make those decisions with all of those things in mind. The more our coaches talk, the more the scouts tell us how they're profiling these players, you know, the tighter we can get in our decisions, you know. And I think we'll see that the more time we spend together.
Do you think it's safe to say you might have more needs on defense? And is there anything you're looking for specifically defensively this offseason?
I think it's just about stopping the run. We got to stop the run.
You know.
That was It's no secret you know that was our kryptonite, you know, and philosophically, that's something that we all believe in. It starts there, and we address some things on the offensive line. We'll address some things up front on the defense, but it comes from different spots. It's not just the front play. It starts there, but it's your inside backers, it's your safety play. Do they show up physically and aggressive at the point of attack? Are we playing that high level of pursuit of defense that I know we can and should play it's demanding those types of things, you know, and I really think that we can make an impact this year.
I have studied Jiro everywe in that defensive system for a long time, and I think it's under under It was under discussed that some of the technique that you have to play with up front, it's just not for everybody. It's not a fit for everybody, and it takes some time to match, like you said, to match the right players with that scheme. Getting a certain very very very very good defensive tackle healthy and back for you guys next year will probably helped too.
Being in Tampa for a year, laying against Derek Brown, you ask yourself, do you want to run at him or away from him? There's no right answer. You just have to You have to know that there's going to be an issue at this place, so you have to find creative ways to run either way, you know.
So that's a that's a real challenge.
So we just got better getting Derek Brown back and having him be out there.
You know.
But it's not just about his ability, it's about his character. It's about how he practices the strain that he plays with. He's the energizer. Bunny he's sidelined a sideline as big as he is. He chases things down and gets there in a bad mood and you just can't move him. So that's a big piece of it, you know. But getting the whole unit to play together, you know, but certainly, certainly having that mentality back in that in that room is gonna be helpful.
Love hearing about that energy this man, Dave Canalis, the head coach of the Carolina Panthers, appreciate your energy, that you actually like doing this with us, So thank you for joining us.
Thanks for having me.
All Right, we are here with Ryan Poles, the general manager of the Chicago Bears, a popular man here in a crowded convention center in Indianapolis. I'm going through the cap space. I'm a dork, I like, you know, checking out the cap space, and I want to ask you a theoretical question to get to get going here. You have seventy nine million dollars in cap space right now, according to over the cap Do you think there is such a thing as too much cap space?
No?
No, no, no.
You want as much flexibility as possible.
But don't you want to be like sometimes I find there's almost more cap space sometimes than great players to spend the cap space on. So as a general manager kind of how do you balance that short and long term in terms of being able to spend that cap space?
Yeah, I think you know, you can usually start off with a quarterback position and where you are there and build from there. But yeah, having the flexibility to acquire players to bring on your roster. But I think the other important piece that we don't really talk about that much is is extending and paying the guys that are on your roster, and we should have some opportunities to do both of those things this year. So the flexibility has been great. And I got to give a lot of credit to Matt Feinstein, who's are just promoted to VP of Football Operations our administration for setting us up well and making sure that we're thoughtful in the way that we spend how we do our contracts, both short term and long term. So it's helped us be in this position to keep going.
How do you guys talk as a staff about combinations, Because obviously you guys always like to add and develop in the draft, and you have done that. You also always like to bring in key pieces one or two that really can supplement that young core as well. How do you talk about combinations? How do you I guess how do you argue too about combinations?
Yeah, we go around and around and different philosophies on how to build a roster. Obviously, you would love to always go through the draft and develop your own players, but there's gonna be opportunities that pop up where there's certain teams that have situations where they're kind of maxed out based on having a veteran quarterback on the roster that they have to make tough decisions, and that brings up opportunities for us that have cap space to bring those players on.
So you want to be strategic with it.
I think the big thing is making sure you know what type of player you're getting because you don't get to do the research that you do while you're at the combat. You can't sit down and talk to them, so there is some risk there, so previous relationships and also some research along the way to make sure you're bringing.
The right type of guys that fit your culture.
I think that's so interesting because you also have a brand new perspective via Ben coming in sort of a fresh set of eyes on not just you guys's processes, the collaborative efforts as well, but also just his relationships with players and these people that he knows what has that been like onboarding him, but also I imagine he's looking at different parts of of y'all's process with a brand new set of eyes on it.
Yeah, it's been really good.
Anytime you can add a different and make those tweaks and changes to make your process even better, it's critical to growth and make sure that you you you know, you're keeping up with the times and you're also staying open mind on how you do things. One thing that we do what I'm proud of is any new staff member that comes in, Uh, we do a cohabitation report, so that player goes through all of let's you say, all the players in free agency that they've touched and that could be over the last three, four or five years, and they do a one or two liner to just give us some more information about the players that we could potentially bring in the building.
Yeah, and some of the guys that are are on my top one oh one free agents list. Uh, you know we're coached up by by Ben Johnson last year Kevin Zeitler. So that sort of brings a question. I can almost hear the Bears fans in my life like at you know, saying, ask them about the offensive line. You haven't spent a lot in free agency, not that you haven't brought in free agents in the past, but you've built a little more through the draft. On the offensive line. You have, you know, three guys that were playing starting snaps last year that are free agency. Do you think you'll push a little more in free agency with the offensive line this year?
Yeah, I think there's a good opportunity for us to do that. You know, when you look at our interior, there's some space there where I think we can move the needle and get our team to take the next step. Obviously, when you do that, you get added protection in the past game, but I think more importantly running the ball efficiently, which creates balance, and we all know when you get to the backside of the season December January February, the ability to run the ball is critical. So we'll be taking a hard look at that spot.
I think an underrated and probably not spoken about as much element of finding those guys is the partnerships and the relationships that you have to the players have to learn each other to with the center quarterback, Those guys have to learn each other just as much as you have to project what will be the right fit. Yeah, so what kind of center does Caleb Williams need in his life right now? Like what qualities do you think are best partnered with him? Because that could be a ten year relationship if it works.
Yeah.
No, it's important.
I start with overall just intelligence, and that can come in different ways.
You know, if you were to go through the draft process, that player has to have.
A great understanding of the game of defenses and be a high end communicator to get everything lined up as much as possible. If you go the route of free agency, that command up front is going to be critical. The more you can take off young quarterbacks play at the lone of scrimmage, the faster that they can play and make their decisions, which is important. So we'll be looking at both both of those things on both the draft and for agency.
Yeah, you're you're a former alignment. I don't need to tell you that. It is hard to know.
I saw I'm kind of light up a little bit when we were like, oh, oh line, here we go. Hard.
It is hard every year I make that list.
It is hard to find offensive linement in free agency just because they are that value.
You have one.
So I'm gonna throw up just a couple of your free agent names at you. Just Tevin Jenkins is a guy who's played a lot for you, and then Keenan Allen. Kind of where are you at with maybe trying to retain those two guys this year?
Yeah, So that's part of the combine process. We're gonna spend time with their reps and and clear that up with them in terms of direction.
There's a lot of different factors.
There's there's money, there's age, there's durability, things like that. So we'll make sure we get with them and get a clear picture on how we're going to move forward.
At the same time, you guys will be interviewing prospects. And again, it's kind of I kind of love this when you have a new head coach because you learn a lot about each other in a tiny room very quickly. Right And I know you went through the interview process and you know him pretty well already, But what if you learned about Ben how does he interview players?
What what do you like about it?
What might you say yeah, that we can't see that, we don't know about.
That, A little extra.
Chip watch, little chip watch on the shoulder, I think.
Yeah, I talked about that there was a weird narrative before that he didn't have a lot of juice and he was just kind of a smart guy that would sit in the corner that is not even close to being the truth. He's got a lot of energy. But what I like about just the interview process with the players or you know, talking strategy on how to put a team together or even building a staff. He's very, very thoughtful and strategic on how he wants to do it. He values the team dynamics of the chemistry of how everything is going to work together. But in these interviews, I think also coming from the offensive coordinator's position, you know, we did some defensive guys yesterday, he took a step back and just let Dennis and our position coaches do their things so we all can learn, you know, about the player and what he knows and.
What he doesn't know.
And I liked that energy. I liked that he was calling people out by name. Oh absolutely far into certain coaching trees, by dynamic and yeah.
I loved it.
It were so easy in the media, just give us a little red meat. Like after seeing him, I was like, he is not what I heard. It is absolutely great and so kind of thinking about that him as the Barts head coach. It's interesting because you've been there since twenty two and he is a new head coach, and sometimes when there's a new head coach, you have a little bit of a timeline of Okay, we're going to give this guy a little time to contend and compete. But you're in a very competitive vision statistically one of the best of all of all time. How do you see your timeline and his timeline meeting up and are you guys ready to go win that division this year?
To compete to go win it? Yeah, And he talked about that in the opener. We're going to get after it and really not afraid of that at all.
Man.
We believe we have the pieces to compete fast. And it's a beautiful thing because he's from in the division and he knows what it looks like.
So we're excited to get started, all right.
Ryan Poles, general manager of the Chicago Bears, just has you know, one of the most loyal, best fan bases in the entire world. You've got their hearts in your hand. Good luck to you this week. Thank you so much, Thank you all right, that.
Was a lot of fun.
I love being back in the Combine mix. First time I've been here in three years, and I hope we can do this again. And yeah, I loved Jason Light holding my feet to the fire and doing some quick math getting on me for like you gave us a five ten percent chance and when I was like, yeah, that's fair, I mean that's like you're one of six or seven teams that would have been that high.
It was everything, and listeners, I would encourage you to go check that one out specifically on YouTube because Greg's reaction when Jason Light caught him in like almost mid sentence was just it was everything.
It was so good. It was awesome.
This is my eighth Combine. This is probably the most fun so far that I've had with you, Greg.
It's been awesome.
Yes, thank you to all our friends at ihart who have helped us with the week, and obviously Eric Roberts and Chris Babona back in Los Angeles editing in it and making it look great. We will have one more show from Indianapolis. It's me and Nate Ty starting to look ahead to some of the combine drills and yeah, we actually will have our first night of combine drills to start recapping. That's all gonna start. So really excited for that. And I guess once we said football was back last episode, dost mean it stays back?
We can't go back. I guess it's back. We'll see you Friday
