FULL NFL LIVE | Aaron Rodgers-Steelers major update? – NFL fines Falcons over Sanders prank call

FULL NFL LIVE | Aaron Rodgers-Steelers major update? – NFL fines Falcons over Sanders prank call

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here. We’re also going to be joined by Ryan Clark, Booger McFarland a little bit later on, so don’t worry. The defense is well represented, you guys. Did I miss the wave, Sweat? Oh, there it is. Oh, okay. Thank you. You’re on mute, but we read your lips. You said, “Boogie, there’s the wave.” We’re going to begin with some news, though, you guys. The NFL fined the Falcons $250,000 and defensive coordinator Jeff Olrich $100,000 for failing to prevent the disclosure of confidential information distributed to the club in advance of the NFL draft. All because of course the prank call to Shador Sanders which Olrich’s son was involved in. Here’s more from Olrich who spoke today. My actions my actions of not protecting confidential data were inexcusable. My son’s actions were absolutely inexcusable and for that we are both deeply sorry. The NFL has taken action and I fully respect the punishment. It’s hard because those people should be celebrated in these moments and and they probably weren’t as much as they should have been. Lewis, there’s so many different conversations that have happened around this. I I think we all agree that what happened was unacceptable, but I guess to push it forward, how is this still happening? How is there not a way to control this a little bit better, Lou? Yeah, you know, Laura, I mean, I I don’t really know if there is a way. Well, one of the ways in which you can control this kind of thing in in Jeff’s specific case is for him to be more careful as far as who has access to his own personal computer and make sure that I guess even people who are his own, you know, immediate family don’t have access to it and they can’t even see it. Although, look, I mean, to be quite honest with you, if I was in that same situation as Jeff Albrich in particular, since that’s the one we’re talking about and the one that’s getting most of the most of the coverage, the last thing I would expect is for my son, who understands my own journey, one, as a player, two, as an assistant coach, three, over top of it all, as his father, the last thing I would expect is would be for him to violate that kind of like familial trust and then try to use that information to kind of just, you know, play a joke on someone. on in one of the most important days of their lives. So I don’t I don’t really look I I feel bad for Jeff Albert quite honestly. Look honest I mean obviously he could have done maybe a better job at protecting that information but at the same time he shouldn’t be the one who’s up there having the answer for those actions right there or rather what what took place. his son at 21 years old should be up there having the answer for that because those are the kind of things that I think as a family, you know, as a father with a son, you would trust that he would understand that this is this is something that is to be respected, not something that is to be trivialized or diminished in any sake of you like having some fun and trying to like play a prank on someone. It it it really is out of line, out of touch. Um, I think overall, I mean, obviously the NFL probably is now and teams in particular now are going to really really safeguard these numbers, these these uh individual numbers of the of the potential prospects and only have very few have access to him like namely an owner, a head coach, and the general manager and that’s about it because otherwise I mean these are kind of things that you run the risk of happening and they’re just unacceptable. They really are. We also enough of that. He trying to be all professional. Yeah, I know. We don’t need that on this show. The draft’s over. We’re left with some major question marks at quarterback. There there are some important situations that still need answers. Let’s talk Pittsburgh Steelers. They brought back Mason Rudolph after his one-year stent with the Titans and then drafted Ohio State’s Will Howard in the sixth round. He joins the signing of the former Dolphins backup Skyler Thompson. And of course, Pittsburgh could land Aaron Rogers, but the four-time MVP has yet to make a firm commitment to sign with the team. So, Ryan, you’ve been a player in the Steelers locker room. What are you thinking at this point about your quarterback situation after the draft? That they better have either the steel curtain or the 2008 Steelers defense if they want to be a team that could be near 500. Listen, they put themselves in an extremely difficult situation. Whether it was waiting on Aaron Rodgers or not addressing it in free agency or not picking someone in the draft before they picked Will Howard that could be a viable starter for this year. When you look at the plan that Omar Khan has put in place, I don’t believe this allows you to compete with the Baltimore Ravens or the Cincinnati Bengals, even the Cleveland Browns improving. And we know how good that AFC is. This could be the first losing season of Mike Tomlin’s tenure as Pittsburgh’s head coach. Yeah, I’m just thinking here we go again. As a defensive player, I’m I’m starting to get ready, lift these weights, and run these heels, and I’m like, here we go again. Like, how are we gonna score more than 17 points? Like, so why am I out here busting my behind running trying to get bigger, faster, stronger, and y’all gonna get a 42 year old off the beach with a blanket around his shoulders to play quarterback for us? Like, at some point, y’all got to help me help you. And so, I’m just saying to myself, like, here we go again. Are we going to do this one more time? But you’re right on it, bro. Which is which is why which is why for the for the for the black community that think I hates I hate Shadura Sanders is why I thought he should have went 21 which I talked about at Nauseium did because I did think he was the second best quarterback in this draft but also if you are the Pittsburgh Steelers and you have a higher grade on another quarterback why you ain’t take them at 21 why we got to wait like you knew Mason Rudolph wasn’t the answer everybody in the world know that right we look at the rest of the quarter hopefully they hope and will would turn into a ton breaking situation and he surprised him is all I can assume. But this waffling at this quarterback position that’s been going on for so long in Pittsburgh is starting to grow will real weary on these fans. And me and RC talked about it during the draft. What are they going to do to not only instill some hope at that position, but more importantly reinvigorate the dudes in that locker room? You go get receivers in DK Medav and you don’t have anybody to get them the ball consistently. If it ain’t Aaron Rogers, which y’all know I said I wouldn’t touch with a 10- foot pole. I think they should have took one of these quarterbacks, which I thought would be Shadur at 21. Yeah, look, the profile of the guy that they have ultimately is going to be important, Marcus, because of the thing that you just alluded to. Look, DK Metaf and George Pickkins, do they come across as the kind of guys that are going to take real kindly to a quarterback who can’t get them to rock on a consistent basis? I think that’s going to bode well for their football team. I’m just asking. I’m just asking. You know what I mean? Beat him up. They need to make sure they they just need to make sure that that dude is that dude. M and look, Mason Rudolph has played a role in this league for a long time and he’ll continue to play that role, but it’s a role. They need a franchise quarterback and they now they painted themselves into a corner and it’s either Aaron Rogers to me or Bust or otherwise exactly as RC said, you’re looking at a real troubling season, I believe. Oh, boy. All right. Well, 100 picks today on ESPN.com. He evaluated all of the players taken and the value that teams got out of them based on where they were picked. You can see the top 15 picks are going to be on the board. We’ll show you there. That’s the article that you just saw there on ESPN.com. Shador Sanders at 10 overall. Let’s welcome in Matt here. Matt, take us through your top five picks. Let’s start with number five. Yeah, number five. One of my favorite players in the entire draft was Jaylen Walker, the linebacker from Georgia who lands with the Atlanta Falcons. I actually had him as my number five overall player. So, to get him at 15, it was a great value in terms of where he was ranked versus where he was picked. It’s also a great scheme fit. This is a team that was desperate for pass rushers. They needed more speed on defense. Getting Jaylen Walker, who’s ready to go right away as an offball linebacker at and as an edge rusher really is going to bolster this defense that went heavy on the edge and at safety in this draft. Let’s just stay in the SEC because there’s a lot of those guys in this article. Jiad Campbell going number 31 overall to the Philadelphia Eagles. The rich get richer. We just saw Zack Bond have an allp pro breakout year with the Eagles in a role that is very similar to what Campbell can do. He could play offball. He could play out in the slot as a rusher. He could play as a blitzer. He’s a spy going against mobile quarterbacks. As long as he’s healthy, he’s someone that could be very, very special. We got to get Ashton Genty in here. The number three overall player on my board and the final blue chip player on my board after Adel Carter and Travis Hunter. He is going to be the focal point of the Las Vegas Raiders offense under Chip Kelly who wants to run the rock between the tackles. If you play fantasy football and dynasty football, Ashen Genty 1-1 this year’s draft if you’re adding rookies. Number two, Will Johnson. He was my number seven overall player. Somehow falls to number 47 because of the injury questions and concerns. I’ve heard the audio from the Cardinals room where they said, “How the heck is this guy still on the board?” I was wondering the exact same thing. As long as he’s healthy, he could be a star in the NFL. someone very similar to Trarevon Diggs. He’s great in his own coverage and he is a playmaker. Last year, two picks, he took both back for pick sixes and touchdowns. And my final guy, if you’ve watched our draft coverage this year, you know my guys, Luther Burn the third from Missouri. I had him as a top 15 player. He fell to the Chicago Bears. This is one of those I’m betting that the NFL was wrong and I was right on. Burton can be a factor in the Chicago offense. He’ll start as a slot receiver. He was the best of any receiver in this class in terms of yards after catch ability. the way he sees the field and his speed at 206 pounds. He can run around you, he can run through you, and he is paired with a great offensive mind in Ben Johnson. Oh, I love it. We’ll dive into that just a little bit more. We welcome Ryan Clark to the show. What’s up, RC? Glad to have you now. And I’ll I’ll start with you, Ryan. The biggest difference you think that Ben Johnson will make on this offense now, they’ve solidified the O line in a lot of good ways ahead of Caleb Williams and also given him so many options on that offense weapon-wise. You know what’s crazy is as much as they’ve given Caleb Williams options, I think what Ben Johnson can do to take some of the game off of Caleb Williams is where he’ll be most impactful. Look at what they’re done they’ve done with building. Now you have Lovelin who’s that Sam Leapora type tight end opposite Cole KT on the outside. DJ Moore, Roma Dun, and Luther Bird. And I love the fact that Matt talked about this guy with his run after the catch. If he comes out last year, I believe he has the ability to go even earlier. He had a year that was a little low on stats in Missouri, but when this guy came out of high school, he was one of the best players in the entire country, and he played that way in 2023. It’s going to be run game first into play action to keep Caleb Williams from having to do everything that’s above the X’s and O’s. He won’t have to do too much. The big thing is about protecting him first and allowing Caleb Williams to play on time. And when you have these types of players on the outside, that allows you to do that. Yeah. I I think look with Ben Johnson now with the kind of weaponry that he has at his disposal to really, you know, allow, you know, Caleb Williams to use. I think really it comes now it comes down to play design and then play sequencing. And I think that’s where really you’re going to see Caleb Williams really benefit because look, there was many times last year under Shane Waldron that you wind up like watching the tape and going, “Look, these wide receivers don’t have very good spacing.” I don’t understand why that play call on second down followed the play call that they had on first down. That’s Ben Johnson’s specialty. And look, RC talked about the fact that, you know, they want to protect Caleb Williams first and foremost. Well, how do you protect him? By running the football, setting up play action, have a real credible running threat, right? So, they rebuilt the interior three of their offensive line. That should be able to get some movement at the point of attack. I said earlier today, Nick Chub needs to go ahead right now and be beating down the door of the Chicago Bears and saying, “Hey, look, I want to run behind this offensive line. I want to be a part of this.” And Caleb Williams should be going, “Yeah, Nick, come play for us.” Cuz think about this. Think about some of the people that we have on the perimeter now as far as us being able to stretch the field, attack every blade of grass. Not every team can just load the box and play eightman fronts. So, there’s going to be space for anyone. And who’s better at calling plays depending upon how defenses are trying to to play his offense than Ben Johnson. So Caleb Williams, look in year two right now, the sky’s the limit for this young man. The sky’s is the limit. I and I think personally the conversation RC is going to quickly turn to how you know him and Jaden Daniels. Now it’s going to be I think it’s going to be a conversation where they’re going to be talked about together in unison again because Caleb has so much more at his disposal now. And you know what, Lewis? Last off seasonason we talked about the Chicago Bears being a great place for a rookie quarterback. Now what they’ve done, Ryan Po and the investment that he’s made in this offense and building around Caleb Williams, it truly is what we thought it was last year. So now the the look, right? So now the the onus is squarely on Caleb Williams should sold shoulders to execute what Ben Johnson has in place for him because everything around him is ready to go. And it’s the ideal situation for a young talented quarterback. Yeah, we talked about a lot of the ads there. We didn’t even get to Coulson Lovelin, the tight end, who of course we all know Ben Johnson loves to utilize a tight end in his offenses. I can’t wait to see him be a huge part of this. Miller released an article on ESPN.com. You can go check it out with his top 100 draft picks in the NFL this year. They’re all based on the value of where the teams were able to select the players. So, some nitty-gritty stuff. Really interesting though. We take a look here at the seven quarterback.