Chargers Report For Camp, Penix or McCarthy, Brian Urlacher joins the show! | The Insiders

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Just 50 short days until kickoff
now, and we are counting down
the biggest storylines of the 2020 NFL season. Judy Battista
will reveal her top five list
tonight, and key contract questions are just part of the
picture. Young quarterbacks are
always a story this time of year, and it is not just the
rookies. Could Michael Penix Jr
be a breakout star? And what can we realistically expect from
J.J. McCarthy after the Vikings
QB missed his entire rookie season? We will break down new
faces in the same places. One
face. We never get tired of seeing Brian Urlacher, who is
getting ready to board a boat
with bears fans. Seriously? And he will tell you why they should
be just a bit more merry than
usual. Open bar or not. Welcome inside with the insiders
alongside Judy Battista and Mike
Garafolo. I am Tom Pelissero. That is right. We got 50 days
until kickoff. The Chargers
today became the first full squad to report to training
camp. One week from today. All
32 teams will officially be in camp football right around the
corner. For now. We still got
some business to take care of off the field to get some of
those players on the field.
That’s what the Denver Broncos did last night with their first
round draft pick. John Baron,
the number 20 overall pick, agreeing to terms on his four
year, fully guaranteed rookie
contract that, like all those first round contracts, includes
a fifth year option. Only one
first round pick, still unsigned. That is the guy taking
three spots ahead of him. Shemar
Stewart, who remains in a standoff over contract language
with the Bengals. Colston
Loveland, the bears rookie tight end, another first round draft
pick, went high in the draft
despite the fact that he underwent offseason surgery on
the AC joint in one of his
shoulders. Was not able to do a whole lot during the spring, but
sounds like Loveland is
progressing well. Feels good. Really good. Yeah, best. It’s
felt for sure. What’s the
difference in how it felt even since the last time we talked to
you in June, do you feel like
it’s made a lot of progress in the last month? Strength. The
strength there, you know, the
scar tissue barely there anymore. So it’s just. Yeah,
it’s all everything’s
increasing, which is good. Is the plan to be ready to go for
the start of training camp?
Yeah, that’s the plan. Okay. We’ll go like, you know,
restrictions. You’re not sure
yet? That’s the plan TBD. Don’t go down that water slide.
Colston bears rookies report to
training camp on Saturday. Chargers full squad already in
the building. Say hello to
Cameron Dicker, who looks like he’s ready to join the tour de
France, especially when he’s
drinking that energy drink. Ladd McConkey also in the house.
Predictably, a slightly more low
key for the friend of the insiders arrival today out there
in El Segundo. Najee Harris,
meanwhile, also expected to be in the building today but not
going to be ready for the start
of training camp. GM Joe Hortiz, speaking with local reporters,
including Daniel Popper, saying
that Najee Harris is expected to begin training camp on the
non-football injury list. He was
injured, suffered an eye injury in a 4th of July fireworks
explosion. Ortiz indicated that
from what he has heard, Mike, they’re not overly concerned
with this injury based on the
feedback they’ve gotten from doctors at Stanford. But Ortiz
said something like this there
is also still a bit of an unknown. This will be worth
monitoring here. Exactly when
Najee is able to get on the field. What more do we know?
Right, Tom? When Ortiz spoke to
the media, Najee Harris had not yet reported, so they haven’t
had a chance to get their own
look at the injury. They are taking the word of the agent and
those around him. We heard from
Najee Harris agent saying it’s a superficial wound to the eye or
injury that he suffered, which
is his way of saying, you know, no big deal, right? Everything’s
okay, but that’s fine. That’s
what the agent is supposed to say until Najee Harris gets in
and until the Chargers get their
own look at it and their own doctors make an evaluation. And
look, I did have some people
because I put out that news and said, hey, this is the injury
that his agent is saying is
superficial. And they were like, oh yeah, I go to the hospital
all the time and get treated by
doctors all the time for injuries that are superficial, I
get it. We’re getting that
solely from the agent. But now we are going to get answers. The
Chargers are going to get
answers and we shall see what happens. In the meantime. Judy,
it looks like Amari and Hampton.
At least the rookie is going to have a clearer path until Najee
Harris gets on the field to get
more reps and maybe make more of a statement early on, right.
Amari and Hampton was going to
get a whole lot of reps anyway whether Najee Harris was there
or not. But certainly now he is
going to get the overwhelming amount of workload. This is a
team that wants to lean into the
run, right? Harbaugh could not be any more in love with Justin
Herbert, but he wants a much
more balanced offensive attack. He wants to be able to run the
ball. That is why they drafted
Hampton. So he will get an enormous amount of the workload.
Now he was going to get a big
amount even if Najee Harris was there. And then hopefully they
get Najee Harris into camp very
soon. Hopefully the eye injury is indeed just superficial. The
group that they’re going to have
on the practice field initially is not going to look much like
the offensive group that they
hoped to have on the field when the season kicks off, for
instance. Obviously they hope
Najee Harris is healthy by then. Trey Harris, the wide receiver
they drafted in the second
round, is caught up in the same sort of contract situation that
so many other second rounders
are caught up in. So he is unsigned and Mike Williams, the
receiver who is back with the
Chargers, is also not going to be on the field. So right now
it’s sort of an incomplete group
that the Chargers are going to put out there initially. Of
course, they are reporting very
early, but eventually they hope to have this whole group
together. Of course they hope to
get Trey Harris signed as all of these second rounders hopefully
get signed in the next few days
and then they will be cohesive. Hopefully when Najee Harris gets
healthy. 51 days away from the
Chargers opener against the Chiefs on a Friday night in
Brazil. But did I mention 50
days until the opener? It is Cowboys Eagles in week one. That
is what we are continuing to
count down to. And with 50 days until the season kicks off, it
felt like a good time to talk
about some of the biggest storylines of the entire season,
not just the various contractual
things we’ll be working through here. Leading up to most teams
reporting for training camp in
the middle of next week. But Judy, we’re talking about actual
football coming up soon. Give me
your first of the biggest storylines ahead of us in the
2020 season. Well, shocking. It
involves Aaron Rodgers, which has been the biggest storyline
for the last two years as well.
But this time it is Aaron Rodgers at the Steelers and he
is a symbol of what the Steelers
are doing. He’s a big piece of what the Steelers are doing.
They’re going all in this season
around Aaron Rodgers veteran laden team. Of course they got
DK Metcalf at wide receiver as
well. They are making a push for a Super Bowl. They keep getting
to the playoffs. We know this.
And then they get halted. They brought in Aaron Rodgers. They
weren’t happy with their
quarterback play last year. Aaron Rodgers has made it pretty
clear that he believes this will
be the final season of his career. Well, the Steelers are
going to make a push to try to
get him to another Super Bowl. Judy, you’re seeing the work
that he did at minicamp, and
there was not much work that he did at minicamp. I was there,
Mike Tomlin speaking to the
media, and we asked him about the fact that Rodgers wasn’t
there for the entire spring, and
it’s the confidence in Rodgers that they had that he was going
to be able to arrive at training
camp and hit the ground running and get caught up by week one.
Well, here we are. And now here
I know he’s throwing with his guys on the side he was throwing
with DK Metcalf all the way back
in the spring. But now comes the real work. Now comes the time at
which he has got to get caught
up. So this is definitely something we’re going to be
watching in training camp to see
how comfortable he is, how comfortable he looks. I don’t
think we’ll I shouldn’t say
that. I don’t think we’ll see him in the preseason. But Mike
Tomlin loves to play his guys in
the preseason, so we shall see. It’s going to be interesting to
see how quickly he can get
caught up. Aaron Rodgers, DK Metcalf, Jalen Ramsey, Darius
Slay It’s going to be a vastly
different group of stars. These big names on that Steelers team.
They don’t necessarily need
Aaron Rodgers to be a star Judy. They just need him to play
better than what they’ve had at
the quarterback position in recent years. What’s your number
two storyline for the 2020 NFL
season? This is also a storyline we have talked about in the pas.
Are Josh Allen and Lamar Jackson
finally going to get to a Super Bowl? They have both gotten so,
so close. Both of course league
MVP’s. Josh Allen is the defending league MVP. They’ve
gotten so close to toppling the
Kansas City Chiefs. They haven’t been able to do it in the AFC
Championship game. Will one of
them finally get to a Super Bowl? Both of them are Super
Bowl caliber quarterbacks, and
until they get that championship on their resume, it’s always
going to be a black mark that of
course, Patrick Mahomes has over them. Yeah. Let me give the
graphics folks. By the way.
Everybody in the control room props for throwing together
these graphics really quickly.
These are cool. You know you got the one. You got the two. It
looks like a down marker. Even
though the down markers this year will just be there for show
because we’re measuring first
downs. That’s one of the storylines I’m watching for
2025. We’re measuring it,
Hawkeye like like they do in tennis. Anyway. Lamar Jackson,
look, this is easy for you to
say. See that style of play? That style of football doesn’t
win in the playoffs. Well, if
Mark Andrews, who’s usually short handed, makes a catch
there in the postseason, maybe
that game turns out differently. It’s hard to put that on Lamar
Jackson. But yeah, everybody’s
going to continue to be chirping until he wins in the postseason.
Advances far enough for people’s
liking. Kissing up to the control room, a good way to not
get wrapped in an extra few
seconds right there to finish off his answer. Lamar Jackson’s
contract. Also something that is
potentially going to be addressed before the season
here. Both sides have
acknowledged they’ve had some back and forth. Well, that
actually get done prior to the
start of the season. We all know we’re on Lamar time number three
Judy lay it on me. Again, a
topic we have talked about the last few years. What is the
Giants quarterback situation
going to wind up looking like? Russell Wilson is the starter
going into the season, unless
something very unexpected happens during training camp,
but Russell Wilson is going to
be the starter. That is how they want it. The question is how
fast is Jackson Dart going to
come along? The Giants have made clear that they would prefer
Jaxson Dart, the rookie, to sit
and learn as much as possible. The question is, are the Giants
going to be good enough? Is
Russell Wilson going to be good enough to keep Jaxson Dart on
the bench. And at what point
will they want to see him? One important piece of context here.
The Giants have an extremely
difficult schedule this season. They have a really, really
difficult first half of the
schedule so the team could be much better. The team certainly
looks much better on paper, and
the results still may not be showing up in the win column.
And how will that impact the
decision on whether to get Jaxson Dart onto the field this
season? On July 26th and 27th,
we do what’s known as Back Together weekend. We were at all
32 camps, I believe. Judy,
you’re with me. We’re going to be at the Giants. I think it’s
Sunday of that weekend, which
when you get that assignment for that back together weekend, you
either want a Super Bowl
contender or you want a team with juicy training camp
storylines. And this team has
got the juicy training camp storylines, particularly at the
quarterback spot. Russell Wilson
comes in. I know you can say some things about how things
have gone the last couple of
years in Denver and Pittsburgh, but there was a level of
professionalism. There was a
level of call it swag, like they always wanted Daniel Jones to
have that kind of swag. He never
really had it. At least Russell Wilson had it. So the hopeful
that number one, he’ll bring it
to the quarterback room and to the position but also
potentially help that rub rub
off on Jaxson Dart as well. And Russell Wilson played pretty
well out of the gate last year
in Pittsburgh. Obviously it didn’t end well for him or
anybody else. On the Steelers.
He showed flashes of what we’ve seen him do, mainly pushing the
football down the field. Will
that be enough to keep him on the field? We shall find out.
Number four storyline Judy
Battista. Can the Dallas Cowboys. And this is a perennial
one for sure. Can the Dallas
Cowboys just be a normal team without any drama? Could they
just get Micah Parsons under
contract? Can Dak Prescott stay healthy? Can they just be a
highly functioning team? It’s a
talented roster. Dak Prescott is still one of the top
quarterbacks in the league. Of
course Brian Schottenheimer is the new head coach this year.
But can there be a measure of
calm around the Dallas Cowboys? Can they finally get rid of the
distractions and just play up to
the level that we think they should be capable of playing?
Did I hear Tom say no when you
first posed the question, I think I did, I’ll probably add
the same, but that’s fine. Play
the odds. You you lean into it now. Now, Brian Schottenheimer
added to the mix is an
interesting one for me because he’s just like that. Such a,
like a lovable guy like you saw
when Micah Parsons was calling him to say, hey, coach, I’m just
calling to say good night, which
was a social media meme. And he’s like, that’s awesome, man.
Yeah, good night. And he had no
idea that he was being punked, but he was totally fine with it.
So he’s going to roll with the
punches. And one of those punches might be early on. A
little bit of a contract snafu
here with Micah Parsons, which I believe we have a quote from him
today. There it is from Fox
four. I’m just going to get mine no matter what. He has made it
clear he was willing to show up
for minicamp, even did a little bit of work. But he said when it
comes to training camp, I want
to be out there, but it’s not up to me. It’s up to that guy right
there in the hat on the right
side. So more work to be done here with Micah Parsons. We
shall see if Brian
Schottenheimer opens his first camp with a very big
distraction. Not pictured right
there. Micah Parsons agent. His name is David Mulugheta, which
I’m sure Jerry Jones knows by
this point. I do anticipate that Micah Parsons will report to
Oxnard, California, for training
camp. The Cowboys certainly expect that. How much is he
doing? He surprised me. He did
some stuff in OTAs. We’ll find out. But the Cowboys also have
shown, as is well documented,
they’re willing to wait a little bit if that’s what it takes to
get the type of deal that they
ultimately would like to get. All right, number five
storyline. Judy. Did the Kansas
City Chiefs do enough to get back on top of the NFL? I think
the nature of their Super Bowl
loss to the Philadelphia Eagles, because it was such a bad loss.
People think the dynasty is
over. Well, not quite think they’ve won three Super Bowls.
They lost two. The reason they
lost those two was because of the offensive line. They did a
lot of work on the offensive
line. They spent a lot of capital draft capital, free
agent capital to address the
offensive line. Did they do enough? They’ve also hopefully
got some healthy wide receivers.
If they can keep those guys on the field, the offense should be
more explosive. Again, the
Chiefs are still the best team in the AFC until proven
otherwise. I know that the
Philadelphia Eagles handled them easily, but until somebody in
the AFC topples them, I will not
believe that the dynasty is over. Yeah. Previously when we
saw them have offensive line
issues in the Super Bowl was against the Tampa Bay
Buccaneers. We saw what they did
in the off season offensive line a priority. Same kind of thing
here. They had an issue at left
tackle. Had to throw Joe Thuney out there. Great guard
overmatched at left tackle.
That’s not his natural position. So they go out and they sign a
free agent in Jalen Moore. And
then they go draft Simmons as well to be their left tackle of
the future. So they feel like
they’ve done enough to shore that spot up. Trey Smith gets
his deal at the guard position.
So they feel good about their offensive line. And that it will
be better than the last time we
saw them on the field. 50 days until kickoff, which means
Judy’s got 49 days to come up
with 45 more big storylines for the 2025 season. Speaking of the
Chiefs, by the way, they did
make one roster move earlier today. Wide receiver Justyn
Ross, who’s been on the team
mostly on the practice squad over the past three years, asked
for his release last week, the
Chiefs officially waived him. Today. He can be claimed he was
a very good player at Clemson,
had a serious injury coming out of school. My understanding is
he should have interest out
there, certainly a name that fans will be interested to see
exactly where he lands. We got a
lot more to come on this 50 days to kick off edition of The
Insiders, including talking
about some of these guys. Could Jaylen Wright be one of the
breakout stars of 2025? How
about Tyrone Tracy? Trey Benson? Our Bucky Brooks is here to tell
you about all those guys and so
much more. Nobody breaks it down like Bucky. He’s with us next on
the insiders. Before the
spotlight we struggled to keep would be a great day. Birthday
was yesterday. Get a dub today.
Dashing down the left sideline. To the ten. To the goal line.
It’s a touchdown. KC runs it in
from 45 yards out. Hand off for Tracy. Runs out of a tackle.
He’s to the 2015 ten to the five
to the goal line. Touchdown Giants. Tyrone Tracy on a 32
yard burst handoff Tracy makes a
man miss Tracy to the 40. Breaks to his left. Tracy still going
to the 4035 yard run for Tracy.
Time now for the Scout’s notebook with our scout Bucky
Brooks, who’s got a new story up
right now. NFL.com Brooks with his 2025 all breakout team on
offense. Bucky, give me a few
names that we should be watching for breakout seasons here in
2025. Okay. We’re going to talk
about the most important position in fantasy football.
And that would be running back.
So Tyrone Tracy from the New York Giants. And the reason why
I expect him to breakout is this
offense is ready to explode. And it’ll be much better now that
they’ve solved the quarterback
situation with Russell Wilson or Jameis Winston or Jaxson Dart
and Tyrone Tracy. You have a
former college receiver turned running back who ran for over
800 yards last year. Well, now
in this offense with Russell Wilson presumably leading the
way, look for him to be a factor
not only as a runner, but catching the ball out of the
backfield as more defenses pay
attention to Malik Nabers. That’s going to create great
opportunities for Tyrone Tracy
to be big at wide receiver. How about Rome? Odunze from the
Chicago Bears? The bears have
been all about Ben Johnson and how he’s going to fit Caleb
Williams. And so when I think
about the play calling creativity, the growth and
development that we expect from
Caleb Williams, more ball should head in the direction of a big
playmaker, someone who can get
it done in the slot or out wide. Look for him to have a big
breakout season in year two in
the bears uniform. But the guy that I’m most excited about is
the quarterback down in Atlanta,
Michael Penix. I was a big fan coming out of U-dub. I felt like
he threw the best deep ball that
we saw in that draft class, and I think it really parlays. It
translates into huge success for
the Falcons. When I think about the weapons around him, the
running backs Bijan Robinson,
Tyler Allgeier on the outside, I think about Drake, London, Kyle
Pitts, Darnell Mooney. There are
a lot of playmakers that should make the game easy for Michael
Penix. And as we think about him
settling in because he just gave us a short sample size, now that
he knows exactly what he’s
doing, he understands the scheme with all the mental reps, and I
think this offense is going to
be explosive and it’s going to be explosive because the deep
ball is back in Atlanta because
Michael Penix is at the helm. I’m reading this story right
now. Bucky NFL.com. Brooks your
tight end on here. Nobody go to NFL.com and read this because I
would not have thought of this
name as a top fantasy target. Nobody go to NFL.com and read
Bucky’s story. Bucky thank you
very much as always. Speaking of Michael Penix Jr, he of course
took over for Kirk Cousins down
the stretch of the 2024 season. And while the win loss record
was not what anyone would have
hoped, there were certainly flashes of what Penix can do. He
recently sat down with Michael
Vick to talk about how he prepared to play, even when he
wasn’t on the field. Just mental
stuff that you take away from it. And obviously you can’t be
in the game, but sitting on the
sideline playing the game in my head, you know the best I can
because obviously you can’t
simulate yeah, you can’t simulate the pressure and stuff
like that. But you know just
mental reps hearing the play calling in my helmet and you
know, and just thinking about
who I would throw it to in those situations. But I mean it was
good man. He like obviously he
did a lot of great things in this league. And he was in his
13th season. So it was like it
was good to be able to be somebody behind somebody that,
you know, had that experience
and doing it at a high level. All right. Mike Garafolo, let’s
talk a little bit more about the
second year quarterbacks who did not get on the field much or at
all in their rookie seasons,
Michael Penix Jr in Atlanta and J.J. McCarthy at the Minnesota
Vikings. Which one of them do
you think is in the best position for success this
season? It’s a tough one because
you could look up there, J.J. McCarthy and see everything he’s
surrounded by. He’s playing in a
while. They’re both playing in a dome, obviously, and he’s got a
great offensive coaching staff.
But I’m going to go Michael Penix for a few reasons. One, he
had at least that little bit of
regular season experience and he didn’t wilt. He played a Sunday
Night Football game. This is the
throw. I was going to talk about that dart. I think it was the to
tie the game or it was it was a
clutch situation and he showed his arm strength. He showed he
was willing to rely upon that
arm strength. And look at the guys he’s throwing to. I mean,
I’ll take Drake London, I will
take Bijan Robinson out of the backfield. We’ll see about Kyle
Pitts. They’re still waiting to
cash in on that, but Ray-Ray McCloud made plays. Darnell
Mooney right there. He made
plays as well. So it’s not like there’s not a great supporting
cast there. And there’s a really
good offensive line. So and I like what the offensive coaching
staff there, their philosophy it
didn’t quite work with Kirk Cousins. Well now they’ve got an
entire offseason to gear it up
on Penix. And you might say maybe it’s not a great situation
because cousins is behind him
the minute he struggles. But I don’t think Michael Penix is
worried about that or he’s going
to wilt because of that. Give me Penix, Judy. All right. I will
go the other side. J.J.
McCarthy, I agree with you. This was not an easy choice, but I go
with J.J. For a few reasons.
First of all, he’s going to helm a team that won 14 games last
season, and he’s got really,
really great receivers. Justin Jefferson, one of them to throw
to and maybe most of all in his
corner is Kevin O’Connell, who is the current vogue in
quarterback whisperers and play
callers in the NFL. Think about what he did with Sam Darnold’s
career, and now he has a
quarterback that he can mold from the very start of his
career. And don’t forget, they
are so sold on J.J. McCarthy that they let all the other
quarterbacks leave in Minnesota.
They made cursory attempts to keep some of them, but certainly
didn’t bowl any of them over
with the possibility of being the starter. It is J.J.
McCarthy’s team going forward. I
like the position he is in. Mike, thank you very much. And
when we return, yeah, I was just
going to say, when you’re making your point was one of the other
points for me, for Penix is
that, like J.J. McCarthy’s got to hit the ground running,
right? If this thing drops off a
little bit, it’s going to be like, well, this is a team that
was humming last year and
winning all those games. Again, the pressure on Penix is Cousins
behind him. Even if he didn’t
play well, he’s an established guy. They both have pressure,
but J.J. McCarthy has got to hit
the ground run. It’s not going to be like that game with Penn
State, Michigan where they ran
it like eight times. No, you’re gonna have to throw the ball 30
to 40 times. J.J. No question.
Enormous expectations at the Minnesota Vikings. And when we
come back, we’re going to talk
about another team that has enormous expectations, the
Chicago Bears, with someone who
knows them really well and who accomplished great things with
the Chicago Bears. Brian
Urlacher will join me next on The Insiders. Don’t you hate
that dirty old hose? It kinks
splits and it always leaks and morning. Football tomorrow at
eight on NFL network. Matt Ryan
rolling near side DJ more hits and it’s intercepted Brian
Urlacher with a takeaway Brian
Urlacher picks off Aaron Rodgers in the red zone. He’s back to
Hasselbeck. He’ll pressure
intercepted by Brian Ehrlich to the five end zone. Touchdown
bears look at the grin on his
face. Well if you’re a Chicago Bears fan this guy needs no
introduction. That music video
told you everything you need to remember about Brian Urlacher.
Chicago Bears legend, Hall of
Famer, and now guest on The Insiders. Brian, great to see
you. How have you been? Thanks
for having me on. I appreciate Judy, I’ve been good playing a
bunch of golf, hanging out with
my kids, just doing a little traveling, kind of enjoying
myself. Summers are nice. It’s
always warm here in Arizona, especially in the summer. But we
get out of here a little bit and
go go see a little bit of the country a little bit in the
summer. Well, we really
appreciate you taking a few moments out of your day to spend
time with us. I want to get to
the football part right away because obviously there have
been a lot of changes around
this offseason, pretty big expectations for the season.
Give me your initial impressions
of the changes. Ben Johnson, what you’re hoping for this
season. I’m excited about this
hearing because I like Ben Johnson. I like Dennis Allen as
a d-coordinator. I think he’s
done a really good job throughout his career,
especially down in New Orleans
as D-coordinator, you know, people, people are kind of
doubting Caleb. I think Caleb’s
the guy for the quarterback there. You know, I think his
rookie year was tough, but he
played pretty good. His number, if you just look at his numbers,
he didn’t throw a lot of picks,
didn’t turn the ball over that much and made some big plays. So
I’m looking for a lot out of him
this year. They’re in a tough division. I think that’s the one
thing working against them is
the division. Division is really tough, but they’re going to be
better as well. So you got to
look at that as part of that. He’s going to be his second
year. That got better up front
on both sides of the football, which I needed to do. I’m
excited. I just I think with Ben
Johnson at the helm, calling the plays and putting them in
position to make plays and other
guys in position to make plays, they should be a lot better.
Well, you mentioned Caleb. I
know you’ve said in the past you think he could have been the
rookie of the year if the
circumstances were a little bit better around him in Chicago
last season? From a defensive
players point of view. Give me a scouting report on Caleb. What
does he do well, what does he
need to improve this season to get to the level we think he can
be? I think number one, get rid
of the football. You know, you watch these great quarterbacks
and how fast the ball is gone.
Just from speaking from my perspective when I played
Rodgers the ball was gone so
fast Brady they threw it quick Peyton Manning Brees the ball
was gone so fast. They didn’t
take a bunch of sacks. And I understand that has a lot to do
with the offensive line as well.
But get rid of the ball a little faster. He’s dangerous though.
You know you get him out of the
pocket scrambling around back there. He’s going to he’s going
to make some plays. And we saw
that a little bit last year I think as a defensive player.
Keep them in the pocket. Keep
them in front of you. When you scramble hit him. If he doesn’t
slide. But he’s a dangerous guy.
I think he has a lot of potential and a chance to be
really good. You mentioned also
the defense. They hired Dennis Allen as the defensive
coordinator. The defensive the
defense certainly struggled a little bit last season. They
seem to focus this offseason on
shoring up the pass rush. What are you hoping to see from that
defense and from Dennis Allen’s
scheme? I think as a defensive player it starts up front. You
know, you get if you can get
pressure with four and not have to blitz it. Just put your
secondary and your linebackers
in better positions. You know being able to get pressure with
four guys is a big deal. They
didn’t do that a lot last year. Not as many takeaways as you’d
like to see from a defense. But
this is an aggressive guy. He’s going to get after the
quarterback. He’s going to make
sure he gets pressure and make them uncomfortable. They have
good players. You know, I think
that there’s no there’s no doubt they have really good players on
defense, just a matter of
putting them in better positions. I see them taking a
step forward again this year.
It’s they’ve always had a good defense. That’s never been an
issue in Chicago. They’ve always
had guys that can get to the football and make plays. I don’t
see that being any different
this year. Is there one guy, either a new guy or a returner,
that you’re really looking
forward to watching this season? Oh, Tremaine Edwards, as a
former middle linebacker myself,
I like watching him play. He’s very similar body type to mine.
He’s six five. I was only six
four, but he runs, he hits, he tackles, he gets takeaways. He
puts pressure on the
quarterback. I think he’s a guy that can take a big step in this
defense as well. But he’s always
been. When he was in Buffalo, I liked watching him. I like him
even more when I was in Chicago.
I want to turn our attention to the Hall of Fame. The Hall of
Fame induction is coming up in
just a couple of weeks. You went in, believe it or not, that was
seven years ago. Does not seem
like it could have possibly been that long this year. Among the
class is Jared Allen, who
obviously you guys saw a lot of each other during your careers
in the NFC North. Tell us why
Jared Allen belongs in the Hall of Fame. I was surprised to get
on his first ballot. Honestly, I
know it’s hard to get in. But Jared you know, you look at his
sacks per game throughout his
career, I think he’s number two in sacks per game in NFL
history, which is a big deal. I
want to say Reggie was number one. I could be wrong or Bruce
Smith. They played a long time,
but just his motor was unbelievable. They played Kansas
City, Chicago, Minnesota and I
think he ended up in Carolina. But his motor just never stopped
running. And as a as a guy who
likes playing with guys who play that way, he would have been fun
to be teammates with. But he
just never stopped going. You see the effort every game, just
the super high motor, great guy,
great guy to be around. And he always produced, you know, no
matter where he was at, his sack
numbers were always up there. Fumbles. Just just the guy that
made plays not only in the
passing game but he played the run as well. So I’m happy for
him. He deserved to be in there.
I wish it would have been a little earlier, but we want you
to get in. None of that stuff
really matters. All right, Brian, before we let you return
to your summer, we know you got
a pretty cool thing coming up. Tell us what you’re doing with
City cruises. Yeah. So on July
20th, Sunday, we’re going to myself, Alex Brown and Rex
Grossman, the three of the guys
from 2006, NFC Championship team and Super Bowl losing team.
We’re going to go take a little
boat cruise there in Chicago on city cruises and just meet the
fans. I think it’s a I’m not
sure how many fans are going to be on there, but we’re going to
take a cruise around Lake
Michigan. We’re going to have Jeff Joniak on there. Who was
who’s the bears play by play guy
and just talk about that season and what it was like, how much
fun we had and just kind of
reminisce a little bit and kind of be it’s kind of an intimate
setting because it’s not. It’s
not a big boat. So you’ll be it’s not like it’s a big
ballroom where you won’t be able
to see us. We’ll be right around everybody and just talk about
that season and how much fun we
had and what we accomplished. Brian, that sounds like a blast.
Thank you for taking a few
minutes to join us before you get on the party boat. We really
appreciate it and we hope you’ll
come back to the insiders during the season again. Thanks for
having me on, I appreciate it.
And when we return next, we’re going to talk about more teams
that have reported for training
camp. The Lions and the Broncos are on deck coming. Ladies and
gentlemen, our departure has
been delayed. Yes. Why are you flag. Chase rings. Chase gold.
Chase me. NFL flag chase
something. Hand off Barry Sanders left side. Sanders
breaks a tackle. Touchdown line.
There may have been a better runner, but I have never seen
it. You see Barry Sanders make
the moves he makes on this run. You know why this is the best
running back, if not the best
player in the National Football League. There goes his feet.
He’s got the ball. He’s not
running. He’s floating. He’s now cutting back. And now he’s gone.
The Barry spins free. Touchdown
Lions. Wow. You think you got him tackled. Oh some of those
moves. There’s only one guy in
this game that makes. And you just saw that guy. Maybe a
little celebration. What an
incredible run by the best back in the National Football League
Barry Sanders. Yeah. And by the
way, all these years later, we still haven’t seen anybody like
this guy, 57 year old Barry
Sanders. I don’t know if he can maybe juke that way anymore, but
I’m sure he could probably break
some ankles amongst those in their 50s right now. Barry
Sanders, 57 years old. He gets
the cheesy insider’s birthday music like we all get.
Congratulations, Barry. Happy
birthday to you, my friend. Hey, rookie. Hey, rookies. Everybody
get into the facility. We had
six teams report yesterday. Down the bottom today. The Lions and
Broncos rookies joining the
Chargers veterans. Folks, I don’t know if you noticed
football season baseball all
star game is over Judy. I mean, we’ll talk about the second half
with your Mets and Phillies
duking it out. But whatever, it’s football season. That’s the
point that I’m trying to make.
Bucky Brooks as you’re back to join us. So let’s talk about the
rookies and let’s talk about the
Broncos rookies. Tell me which Broncos rookie is going to have
the biggest impact in Denver.
Well Jay Baron the do it all playmaker in the secondary is
going to join Pat Surtain and
help this defense go to another level which is hard because
they’re already a top five unit.
But this guy can play anywhere in the back end whether out wide
in the slot. If he had to play
safety, he can do all of those things. And what it’s going to
do is allow Vance Joseph to heat
up opponents to a new level. And remember, this is a team that
really got after the passer, did
a lot of creative things up front. But now, because they can
play various coverages in the
back end, he can turn up the notch even more. Look for this
defense to be even more
impactful as they get a big time playmaker to put as a
centerpiece in the secondary. I
am looking at another do it all playmaker, and that’s RJ Harvey,
the rookie running back. He’s
not going to be there quite yet because he is unsigned like so
many other second rounders. But
he is a do it all guy. He can run the ball, he can catch the
ball out of the backfield. We
know that Sean Payton would like to run the ball a little bit
more, and he is the kind of guy
who can take some of the pressure off Bo Nix, RJ Harvey
when he gets there. Looking
forward to watching him. So a picture of JD Baron signing a
paper that was his contract,
which leaves only one first round pick yet to sign in
Cincinnati. We shall see what
happens with Shemar Stewart there. He’s not going back to
school. Everybody relax on that.
All right. The Lions the other team with rookies that reported
to camp today Bucky. Which Lions
rookie is going to have the biggest impact. And does he
sport a mullet. He does sport a
nice looking mullet Tate Ratledge coming from Georgia
being able to step in for Frank
Ragnow. The Lions offensive line is going under a little bit of a
makeover. Has some older guys
depart. And so Tate Ratledge and Myles Frazier, both guys who
have opportunities to play. And
the thing that we know about the Detroit Lions, for all the glitz
and glamor, the flash to
pizzazz, that was their offense, really, their blue collar unit
that relies on the offensive
line to set the tone. And as long as Ratledge is able to step
in there, man the pivot, make
sure all the protections are solid, but also give them some
of that attitude in the running
game. The Detroit Lions are going to be the Detroit Lions,
meaning they’re going to bully
people at the point of attack. They’re going to throw the ball
all over the yard and they’re
going to light up scoreboards. But it starts with the offensive
line, which is why I like
Ratledge and even Miles Frazier to come in and contribute. All
right. I’m going to go a little
bit off track here and say the two rookies that I am looking
forward to are the new
coordinators now in Detroit. Now, John Morton is not
technically a rookie offensive
coordinator. He was an offensive coordinator for one season with
the New York Jets. He had
nowhere near the level of talent that he’s inheriting with the
Detroit Lions and Kelvin
Sheppard, who is a rookie defensive coordinator. They are
replacing two guys who went on
to become head coaches in the NFL. Huge expectations for that
team, huge pressure on that team
to stay at the level that they were at. I am looking forward to
seeing how these two
coordinators perform this year. Good answer. Judy. You got those
creative juices flowing. That’s
what you get this time of year. Once we get into the season,
that stuff all gets beaten down.
You’re just trying to survive. But right now, a creative answer
to the question. Nice job, Judy
Battista and Bucky Brooks as always. Coming up, we got some
camp battles to talk about.
Yeah, there’s going to be one in green Bay. I mean, I know you
can play 4 to 5 receivers at a
time, but who’s going to be number one? We’re going to talk
about that coming up on the
insiders. Tonight in your spacious La Quinta suite. You
can be the agent of destruction.
We get Listening is a form of love.
Find ways to support your kids
at Sound It Out together.org. Football is back. Celebrate as
teams across the league take the
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interviews and behind the scenes access. It’s a can’t miss NFL
reunion July 26th and 27th. Go
to NFL.com back Together weekend for more information. A lot of
those training camps, it is
going to be hot, hot, hot. Which brings us to another training
camp competition heat index
segment. Welcome back to the insiders. Tom Pelissero, Judy
Battista, Mike Garafolo and
Bucky Brooks. Here’s the way that this works. If it’s your
first time seeing it here, we
talk about one of the many battles we’re looking forward to
seeing playing out in training
camp and the preseason. And then our panelists here tell you,
exactly how hot is it? No,
that’s not a Jerry Seinfeld set up, Mike. I want to come to you
on Saints quarterbacks. How hot
is it? Oh, it’s about a 75. That’s what I’d put it. But if
you’ve ever been to Metairie in
July or August you know it’s not the heat it’s the humidity. And
frankly look I’d probably put
this a little bit higher if we expected more out of the Saints
this year. But I’ll peg it right
at a 75. And it’s going to be a heated competition. Right now
Tyler Shuck is part of that
cluster of second round picks that isn’t signed yet. And
frankly, he’s one of the reasons
that there’s a big holdup because he’s got a shot at a
starting job right out of the
gate. You don’t usually see that with a second round quarterback.
So a lot of folks around him are
saying, hey, he may have the leverage to really get more
guaranteed money than you
usually see in these deals. In the meantime, Spencer Rattler
has recently been throwing with
some of the guys Tyler Shuck had a throwing like, my throwing
session is better than your
throwing session. All that stuff. Throw it all in the mix.
At Jake Haner, we got ourselves
a solid 75 down in Metairie. All right, Judy, I come to you on
something we will be talking
about. I would venture to say every single day we’ve got every
preseason game for this team
live on NFL network. There is one very big reason, really, for
reasons for that Browns
quarterback battle. How hot. This is a scorcher. I give this
a full 100 out of 100. This is
not just one quarterback battle. It’s two quarterback battles.
Really. It’s a battle between
the veterans Flacco and Kenny Pickett. And then a battle
between the rookies Dillon
Gabriel and Cheddar Sanders. Not only do we not know who’s going
to be the starting quarterback,
we don’t know what order they’re going to finish in. We don’t
know how it might change during
the season. A few things to keep in mind here. The Browns have a
very, very tough first half of
the schedule. Maybe that influences the decision.
Obviously all eyes are going to
be on Cheddar Sanders. We will see if he can move his way up
the depth chart. But this is a
solid 100 out of 100 in the dog pound. I requested a sound
effect and that was definitely
funnier even than I was thinking. Bucky one for you two
Packers wide receiver okay,
enough. Packers wide receiver one. How hot is this? Well, Tom,
if you’ve been begging for the
Packers to take a receiver in the first round for like 20
years, you got to say this is
100 out of 100. So the Packers finally succumbed to public
pressure. They take Matthew
Golden from the University of Texas to be their new number one
receiver, and the competition is
thick for the position. You think about Jayden Reed and
Christian Watson and some of the
other guys that have Christian Watson obviously injured, but
some of the other guys that they
have battling for the spot, Matthew Golden has to be the guy
that is in the mix. And so all
eyes on him and I’m going to be honest, this is self-serving.
He’s wearing number 22, my old
number in green Bay. So I got to kind of have my guy the inside
track because I want to see 22
running around making plays. But after we beg for the Packers to
finally do it, when Aaron
Rodgers was there, they waited after Aaron Rodgers was gone. It
got to be the hardest battle
that we’ve seen. Jordan love getting a new number one
receiver. Matthew Golden don’t
see a ton of number 22 wide receivers. You know what you
just did see a whole lot of 100
on the training camp battle heat index. Bucky Mike Judy thank you
very much. Still more to come on
this edition of the insiders, including a quote. You’re going
to want to hear from that man,
C.J. Gardner-johnson. He once again is no longer an eagle, and
he doesn’t sound overly thrilled
about the logic. We’ll explain after this. Si insiders. Outback
steakhouse has a three course
meal called the Aussie, Aussie The wait is over in the
countdown to kickoff has begun.
Single game tickets for the 2025 NFL season are on sale now.
Visit NFL.com. Tickets to
purchase through the NFL Ticket Network, including Ticketmaster,
SeatGeek and Sports Illustrated
tickets. So more news around the NFL today. The Bengals inducting
two more former players into
their Ring of Honor. Dave Lapham, who has been with the
team for coming up on 1000 games
both as a player and a broadcaster, and also one of the
best names nicknames in NFL
history. Leaping Lamar Parrish They’re both headed into the
Bengals Ring of Honor. Two more
names also revealed on the annual NFL top 100. Vida Villa,
the Buccaneers defensive lineman
checking in at number 76. Patrick Queen, linebacker of the
Steelers at 75. Two more
released every day through late August on X and NFL, plus Manny
Pacquiao up for some reason
making a visit to the Raiders facility. He’s wearing
sunglasses indoors. He’s dancing
with a football up. Yeah. Does he think that’s football? Like
I’m not certain. But yeah, that
that’s where we stand here. C.J. Gardner-johnson, appearing on
the pivot podcast, recently
asked why he was traded from the Eagles to the Texans, offered up
this, quote, scared of a
competitor. Simple as that. Second time as we welcome you
back to the insiders. Tom
Pelissero and Judy Battista, as well as Mike Garafolo that C.J.
Gardner-johnson has moved on
from Philadelphia. You see that quote, Judy? Your thoughts? I
just went back and thought about
when he was when Howie Roseman got rid of him. Didn’t he tweet
something like, they probably
won’t win a Super Bowl without me. Like it’s just all part of
the thing. It’s I would miss him
if I were a beat writer, C.J. I mean, listen, he left. He came
back. They felt like they needed
the swag. Now they had to make. It’s a financial thing foremost.
Like, they had to make tough
decisions across the roster. They get a guard back in Kenyon
Green a lot cheaper, but not
scared of a competitor. They like to compete in Philly. Tom.
Another safety who changed teams
the off season. Cam Bynum, Colts safety. He’s on the show
tomorrow. Roger McCreary is on
the show tomorrow.