Mike Tomlin ‘optimistic’ about T.J. Watt situation, Shemar Stewart skips minicamp | The Insiders

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Dak is back from another season
ending injury, and he hopes to
Pro Bowl form under a new head coach here with the Cowboys. QB
had to say today about the
team’s new regime as minicamp wraps up in Dallas. Who else
could be headed for an offensive
uptick? Well, Steve White and Marc Ross have some thoughts.
They’ll be here to tell you who
they believe has top ten potential in 2025. You would
think that the bears might make
that list, but the Chicago defense also will have a new
look. Two time Pro Bowl
cornerback Jaylon Johnson joins us tonight to give his outlook
on the NFC North and why it all
starts with Caleb Williams. Welcome inside with the insiders
alongside Ian Rapoport I am Tom
Pelissero. 84 days away from kickoff in the NFL. If you’re
doing the math on that that’s
right 12 weeks from tonight it’s Cowboys and Eagles to kick off
the 2025 season. The Cowboys won
a 25 teams wrapping up minicamp this week, which means that we
are required by law to take you
to Dallas right now. You had some new parts on the field in
Dallas. Certainly the coaching
staff with Brian Schottenheimer, also the likes of George Pickens
wearing that number three after
the big offseason trade from the Pittsburgh Steelers. Dak
Prescott, he’s back from the
hamstring injury that ended his 2024 campaign. He’s with Brian
Schottenheimer now as the head
coach so far. Sounds like Dak likes what he sees. I’m super
excited. I know we’ve made some
some some changes. I said or as you said, personnel and then the
scheme that will just come with
it. I think he’s done a good job with this minicamp of putting
guys in the right places,
putting guys in space and seeing allowing guys to see how he’s
going to use them. It’s been a
great offseason. It’s going to continue to be a great offseason
until we get into camp. So
honestly, just the momentum, just staying healthy and the
momentum of this minicamp, these
OTAs and making sure that that I’m not the only one who keeps
that momentum, but but the rest
of the guys and make sure some of these young guys are doing
the things necessary and taking
care of their bodies to hit the ground running when we get
together in July. This is a
unique situation as we welcome in Steve White to the
conversation, Ian, because Brian
Schottenheimer has been there as the offensive coordinator over
the past couple of years, he and
Mike McCarthy had a big influence in terms of how they
ran the offense. It was
obviously Mike calling the plays. Now it’s schotty. It’s
not totally a new offense, but
certainly you would anticipate there’s going to be some new
twists. What do we expect here
from Dak in this offense. Yeah I do expect a lot of familiarity.
And you know when Brian
Schottenheimer was hired by the Dallas Cowboys a really
surprising hire I mean now we’ve
heard about it for you know several weeks several months
doesn’t seem surprising anymore.
But at the time this was somewhat shocking. But inside
the Cowboys building, according
to Cowboys players, this was something they were extremely
happy with. And it wasn’t just
the familiarity they’ve always believed in shoddy on their
offense. They’ve always believed
that if given the opportunity, he could really take the offense
and run, let alone some of the
leadership things that head coach needs to do. But if you’re
Dak Prescott, if you’re the
Dallas Cowboys and you know there’s a couple new pieces
obviously George Pickens we know
about Miles Sanders Javonte Williams plenty of new pieces to
sprinkle in there. But there is
a good reason why they wanted Schottenheimer back, why they
wanted him to be the head coach,
why they wanted his offense, sort of a version of Mike
McCarthy’s offense because they
know it and they believe they can make it better. Last year
was not a good year for the
Dallas Cowboys. Obviously Dak was injured, never ended up
playing at the end of the season
with a significant hamstring injury. But even before that, it
just never really felt right.
This seems like a get right year for the Dallas Cowboys. Being
able to hit the ground running
with an offense they know, like the back of their hand is a
very, very good thing for the
Dallas Cowboys. And Ian we’ve seen this before. Is that a lot
of times when a coordinator gets
promoted, that familiarity really helps because a lot of
times we like our position
coaches, we like our coordinators because that’s who
we have the most direct contact
with. But, you know, you talk to people who coaches Brian
Schottenheimer and to people
within that building and they’ll tell you he knows what he’s
doing. He’s got a very good grip
on the personnel and the personalities in that building,
not just with the players. And I
think that’s why things have gone rather seamless. Other than
the Micah Parsons contract
issue, it seems like everybody is kind of on the same page. And
Tom and Ian, both of us, know
this. They lost a lot of gravitas in the coaching rooms
when Dan Quinn left that
building last year to go coach Washington, he really had the
players ears. They had a lot of
strong feelings towards him, and I think it left that building a
little vacant. I think he steps
into that void a little bit. He’s younger, he’s got some swag
and the relatability that I
think a lot of these players are looking for. Steve thank you.
More from you in just a little
bit. I like how you just sort of passed over. Other than Micah
Parsons situation, there’s not a
lot going on right now in Dallas other than the T.J. Watt
contract situation. Everything
is very calm right now in Pittsburgh. T.J. Watt not
attending the mandatory minicamp
after also skipping the voluntary portions of the
offseason program. The sides
have been in contract talks. Mike Tomlin was asked if he
believes what will be there come
training camp next month. I’m not going to get into
speculation there. You guys know
what negotiations is about. I’m optimistic we’re going to get
things done because we got two
sides that want to get things done. When that’s going to
occur, I do not know. There
certainly has been communication with him and communication
between he and I, but I have no
intentions of sharing any component of it with you guys. I
like how Mike Tomlin can tell
everybody to go to hell like that in the nicest possible way.
We all just kind of go, hey,
that’s Mike right there. Ian with T.J. Watt, he’s been
obviously a really, really good
player for a long time. He’s also 31 years old. He didn’t
play his best football down the
stretch last season. This is an interesting case where the
Steelers clearly want to pay
him. But the difference between where the market has gone and
where the value might be seems
to be the question at stake here. Yeah, and we’ve obviously
seen plenty of edge deals this
offseason. You know, including Max Crosby. Obviously that was a
huge one would you know, would
think would be comparable to T.J. Watt. Of course, Myles
Garrett getting the $40 million
per year. But but this market has really not been filled out
like you sort of would like like
you mentioned Micah Parsons deal. Certainly not done.
Doesn’t seem like that one is
going to be done anytime soon. Then the Trey Hendrickson deal,
another big time edge deal
player who is in a similar place. Similar productivity,
somewhat similar age. That is
not that deal has not been done either. And if those were done,
then you could sort of say,
well, obviously T.J. Watt slots in here because we are still
waiting on some of those massive
deals. It’s a little bit tricky to see where T.J. Watt belongs.
He has been one of the best
players in the NFL, regardless of position. His age is what it
is. His value to the
organization is obviously really strong. You know, if they
possibly can, they’re going to
try to not make him the highest paid edge rusher in the NFL, but
they do want to compensate him
properly because these are the guys you end up putting in your
team’s ring of honor or whoever.
Teams honor their great players. I believe Mike Tomlin, I believe
it will get done, but I
definitely understand why getting it done in the middle of
June probably is a little far
fetched in the situation, so he’s staying away. The team
seems to be handling it fine.
You could say the same for the Bengals right now in their
situation with Trey Hendrickson.
But they have a second issue on their hands, which is that their
first round draft pick Shemar
Stewart has not participated, has not practiced at all since
they drafted him in late April.
There’s a dispute right now over new contract language that the
Bengals want to insert into the
deal. Shamar Stewart shared some thoughts with the media about
that situation earlier this
week, and Zach Taylor shared his thoughts on those thoughts.
Number one, we want to protect
our team in our locker room. And so there’s some things I
understand when there’s
frustration there. But that’s how he chose to do it. And
that’s that’s his prerogative.
And we look forward to getting him back in the fold. He told us
that he won’t practice unless he
signs his contract. So at this point, are you confident that
he’ll have his contract signed
by the start of training camp? I’m not going to make any
predictions. Did you talk to him
following those comments he made the other day? We’ve had good
communication. It’s welcome in
our Mark Ross to the conversation. Now, once you get
to training camp, you can’t sign
a participation agreement. Let’s be clear on that. So either he
signs the contract or he is not
going to be on the field. Ian, as much as people may look at
this and say, what are you
having to dispute over language here? There are two sides of
this, particularly when it’s new
language that the Bengals are trying to put into the contract.
What do you make of the
situation right now in Cincinnati? Yeah, well, first of
all, I really can’t imagine a
head coach. There’s a couple of them, but not that many head
coaches having as many different
weird crisises or whatever the word is to talk about, like Zach
Taylor. I mean, he’s had so many
things. And now his first round draft pick rookie who they
really, really like inside the
organization decides to stage a dramatic walkout. Very Costanza
esque, like it’s over. Goodbye.
See you in the summer, Shamar Stewart, let me try to explain
what’s going on in these Shamar
Stewart situation. The Cincinnati Bengals are updating
their contract language, not
talking about the participation agreement. That’s over a
different language issue, but
they are updating their language contractually. It’s the same one
that Amarius Mims signed last
year, same one that several of their draft picks signed last
year. And according to sources,
several of the teams around them used the same language. But it’s
different from what the Bengals
have used in the past. Shemar Stewart and his agent, Zach
Miller, have opted not to
negotiate on that, not to accept that language. The Bengals, to
my understanding, have made
several different offers and several different options about
how to update it and make it
clear those have not taken either. So where we are, Mark,
is the Bengals first round draft
pick, being dramatic and walking out of minicamp now, will it
matter come training camp? I
don’t know, but I imagine the teammates in the front office
are, at the very least taking
note of this situation. Yeah, as a front office, the front office
perspective, you never want this
to get. Public like this. This is almost unprecedented that a
rookie just jumped out here. Of
course you don’t want that. And from the Bengals perspective you
know if they’re dug in if this
was new language I know Ian you talked about it was the players
last year the first round picks
last year. But I guess you know from Stewart’s side it was not
in there. So that really has to
be figured out and dug in about who is actually telling the
truth here. What is the actual
language and who is correct in that situation. But for Stewart,
I mean, you got to say like the
big question mark, obviously they invested a lot in the first
round pick, but you need to have
him on the field as a team perspective to say, hey, look
Guy, you didn’t have the
production in college. We need you to do here. Do this the
right way right from the start
and not cause this stir. So really, I think it will get
done. I think they should just
really iron out to say, okay, let’s get in front of each
other. This is a specific
language. This is what’s happened. This is the precedent.
Other teams do do this and it’s
not Qamar, we are singling you out. I don’t think that’s really
what’s happening, but I think he
feels that way. So they got to really get in front of each
other and iron this out before
training camp. The other piece of this issue too is the NFL
Players Association. This is not
the first time that they’ve seen a team trying to insert new
language and basically told
agents, don’t allow this to be agreed to, because then that
sets precedent for everybody
else. Or as Shemar Stewart himself might say, you all just
want to win arguments more than
winning more games. Mark more from you in just a little bit.
Sauce Gardner showed up to the
Jets mini camp, despite the fact that he, too, is looking for a
new contract. He talked today
about why he decided to be in the building even without that
big check hit in the bank. And I
just wanted to show my teammates, show the coaches how
much I’m bought into this and I
want to win. I want to change the organization. I want to be a
part of changing the
organization. You know, we got a new regime, you know, AG his
whole coaching staff that he
brought in. You know, just great guys. And I feel like Mr.
Johnson did a great job of
getting those type of guys to be here. And I feel like they’re
doing a great job in changing
the culture for sure. Yeah, I’m letting my team handle that. You
know, my main focus is being the
best football player I could be, you know? But my team and the
Jets have been talking. And, you
know, I feel pretty good about how the how the talks have been
going. Always a wise move when
you’re in the midst of a negotiation. Shout out the owner
when talking about all the great
things that are happening within the organization. We’ve seen it
this offseason Ian, Jaycee Horn,
Derek Stingley, that top of the corner market has been reset
multiple times. Are we headed
towards source being the latest before this thing kicks off in
September? Yeah, it certainly
appears that when Sauce Gardner signs his new deal, and I really
do expect the Jets to get this
done at some point before the season. Wouldn’t be surprised if
he’s the highest paid corner, or
at least right there with Derek Stingley. And this deal really
shouldn’t be that that difficult
to do. He is a great player. One of the faces of their franchise,
Derek Stingley, signed a three
year, $90 million deal this offseason. If it gets there, I
would imagine it gets done.
Maybe a little above that just because he’s the last. And I
would also say this because the
Jets have several good young players. Garrett Wilson, also in
line for an extension, wouldn’t
actually be surprised if the Jets do them. Similar timing.
They are both faces of this
organization. They came in the same draft class. They are
friends. Like it makes sense to
do them the same time. So certainly something to look
forward to for the Jets and Jets
fans before this season. It was one year ago tomorrow that
Trevor Lawrence got his big deal
from the Jacksonville Jaguars. These things tend to happen this
time of year. His first season
under that new contract did not go exactly the way that he
wanted to in Jacksonville. Of
course, the firing of Doug Peterson, a very disappointing
season for a variety of
different reasons, and also a injury to Lawrence’s
non-throwing shoulder that ended
up requiring surgery in December. As you can see here,
though, Trevor back on the field
throwing and sounds like so far so good. I hadn’t thrown since
before OTAs since December. So.
Really? Yeah, December. So it was about four months of not
throwing and that’s like I’ve
never, I don’t know, the last time I couldn’t tell you the
last time I didn’t throw for
four months, I guess four years ago when I got surgery. So I
think just going from that to I
threw, I started throwing a couple weeks before we started
the offseason program, but then
we jumped into practice and heavy volume. And I think just
over time, you know, obviously
you got to adjust and got to get in shape for that. So just a
little bit of soreness. The
compression helps just relieve some of that. But that’s all it
is. So nothing I’m concerned
about. The Dolphins also wrapped up their minicamp today. Some
new and old faces on the field a
familiar face on the sideline. Our guy Cameron Wolfe. He was at
minicamp and he’ll be here next
to break down what’s happening in Miami. That’s next on the
insiders. your family and plan together
for emergencies. We’re on the
street. Is that he thinks I’m a weirdo. Did you just look me up
playing catch? Cluck cluck cluck
cluck cluck cluck cluck cluck cluck cluck cluck cluck cluck
cluck cluck cluck cluck cluck
cluck cluck. Nice. Ha! No good. You know how non-offensive I
find. Weirdo. I youtubed you and
heard and saw this Trent Dilfer thing. Showing all this high
school from you and bro. Your
your technique was trash. Let’s go. It was cool though, because
you can see little elements of
like your swag. You heard him. You heard him. You heard him.
Guys, I got swag. He just told
me you heard guy. You heard those guys. They think I have
swag. That’s how you know you
don’t. Hey hey hey hey hey hey. You look like a young me. Don’t
be boring. You in Miami? Woo!
Let’s go, let’s go. Is anyone not watching the McDaniel cast?
If you’re just given the
alternate broadcast of just Mike miked up every single game, I’d
be there. I’ll be there for
this. Look at the blue skies behind the dolphins. They’re out
on the practice field, one of 25
teams wrapping up mandatory minicamp this week. Welcome back
to The insiders. Tom Pelissero
joined again by Steve Weiss along with Cameron Wolfe. Cam,
you spend more time around the
Dolphins than anybody we’ve got on the show. We talked so much
about Tua and obviously his
injury issues have been a huge part of their success, or lack
thereof, at various points over
the past three years. But they’ve also been missing some
really important pieces on their
defense for the better part of a couple of years. What’s the
latest what are the expectations
there for Bradley Chubb and Jaelan Phillips? Yeah, Tom the
two most essential players for
the Dolphins on defensive side for 2025 Bradley Chubb and
Jaelan Phillips. They’ve looked
excellent so far in OTAs and minicamp. Coming back from those
injuries. And look it’s just May
and June. But I’ll tell you this they’re banking on it. Miami is
banking on those two guys being
the forefront of their defense. We’ve talked a lot this
offseason about Jalen Ramsey and
the fact that he’s going to be traded soon. They need their
pass rush to be elite. And two
years ago when Bradley Chubb was healthy he had 11 sacks. He was
their lead pass rusher. He got
the orange jersey one day in practice. He’s been a powerful
specimen. And he’s talked to me
about being 99% ready to go. And the only 1% left is going to
happen in game action. And then
you got Jaelan Phillips, who’s going for back to back Achilles
and knee injuries. He’s also
working out really well. He had the orange jersey, which is
given to the practice player of
the day this week as well. And so you add those two guys with
Chop Robinson, their first round
pick who has been one of the breakout players so far in camp.
They believe their pass rush is
going to hide some of the youth and inexperience they have in
the secondary, and that’s really
their hope that Anthony Weaver’s defense is going to be built by
pass, rush and Cam. Those guys
aren’t the pass rushers. They’re very good against the run. But
on the other side of the ball,
running the football is something the Dolphins have got
to do a lot better than what
they did last season. We saw them fall off significantly,
rushing for about 500 fewer
yards, and they did the previous season when Raheem Mostert went
absolutely nuts. But Raheem
Mostert was banged up last year. They didn’t get a ton of
production from the running
backs other than Davon A, and the offensive line was banged
up. We know Terron Armstead was
an issue. He recently retired and this is what some things
that they’ve got to do. They’ve
juiced up the interior of their offensive line. That was a must.
They had to be able to get
tougher on the inside from guard to guard. So they added right
there they’ve got Jaylen Wright
the second year running back who they’re expecting big things out
of to complement A-chan. And we
know overall this offense flows a lot better when this running
game is going with explosive
runs like that. That is something that they’ve got to be
able to get back to again. Last
year it was a significant amount of issues again, offensive line
injuries, this lack of overall
execution. If they can get that going this year, the run game
and adding those two edge
rushers who are also good against the run, that’s
something they get Miami back
above 500 and competing for that division title. Fellas stick
around. Lot more to come around
the AFC as this show rolls on. I’ll tell you this. Get more of
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and conditions apply. Did I mention a lot of storylines
around the AFC? After this,
we’re going to break down all the photos from Josh Allen’s
wedding. Not really, but we’ll
talk about James Cook, the contract situation and what it’s
going to take for the bills to
finally get over that hump. That’s next on the insiders.
Confidence isn’t given. It’s
built one choice, game USA football, football for
all. 25 NFL teams wrapping up
their mandatory mini camps this week. Next time we’ll see J.J.
McCarthy on the field. We’ll be
in training camp, but he’s already gotten a lot of work in
ahead of his first season as a
starter. With that man number 18, he had some thoughts today
on his favorite weapon.
Extremely fortunate to just have them in the locker room and be
on our team because he really is
a true team player. You know, he sacrifices every single day to
be out here with us and work his
butt off every single practice. And you know, that just rubs off
on everyone, especially when
your best players, you know, giving it his all. So nobody has
any excuse to do anything less.
And you know, he’s just authentically him every single
day. And it’s a really special
human being and even, you know, pretty special athlete as well.
The number one pick, cam Ward,
wrapping up his first mandatory minicamp. Titans fans hoping to
see a lot of shots like this
down the field from their new quarterback cam Ward, already
looking and talking like a
veteran. I’m always locked in the trash talk, never mean
nothing to me. It won’t get to
me some type of way. I’m just somebody who likes doing it. So
what’s what’s the point of
playing something that you love? You can’t have fun with it. So
you know that’s where it comes
from. But I mean, I love the game. So any chance I get, you
know, to let somebody know that
they can’t with me, it really doesn’t matter. New QB in Las
Vegas as well Geno Smith
acquired from Seattle in one of the big trades of the offseason.
They’ve also got a new man
calling the shots. And Pete Carroll had a message for his
team heading into that break
before training camp. These next six weeks are huge. You know
these guys have to come back in
great shape. I challenged every one of them to be in the best
shape of their life. If they
want to make the most of this opportunity, they need to go
about it with that thought. And
so they’ve all got plans and how they’re going to get that done.
And we’ll see what happens when
we return. Turning our attention to the Buffalo Bills. There is
the man of the week, the month,
the year. Josh Allen made a little bit of news, got a little
married, doing a little bit of
handshakes with all of his friends. You can flash the
wedding ring while doing those
handshakes. I don’t think he wears it during football
practice. Anyway. One thing he
is doing is targeting Keon Coleman, who no doubt is
expected to have a huge, huge
role in this bills offense come 2025. You want to know exactly
what I see in that trash? You
got to be better, as simple as that. Like you got to be more
efficient here. You got to get
out of this break. You got to stack your DB. You got to give
Josh more room to throw the
ball. You got to catch that. You got to make that block. You got
to get that extra effort on the
touchdown block. So if Jimbo break it he up the sideline just
different things like that. Not
everything that you’re doing wrong to make it right. That is
some transparency right there
from player. The bills think is going to have a big time jump in
year two. This bills offense
despite everyone freaking out because they didn’t have any
receivers and traded Stefon
Diggs for this last season. You know what. Turns out they’re
pretty good. Turns out that Josh
Allen also is pretty good. But let’s put the spotlight just a
little bit closer on the Buffalo
Bills as we welcome in our good friends Cam Wolf, Mark Ross and
Steve Wyche. So cam let me start
with you. You heard Keon Coleman talk about his flaws, what he’s
doing to get better. Really
everything on his plate. What do you make of the prospects for
Keon Coleman this season. Yeah
Ian I think Keon Coleman should be a top a lot of year two
breakout candidates. And you
heard him discuss his rookie season as trash. I was told that
he sent Josh Allen a text
message shortly after the year and essentially said, I let you
down. I will be better. Last
year, taking that accountability earlier, he felt like his rookie
year was not up to expectations.
He started off hot and then he got injured and he never was the
same player coming back. And so
he told people around him that they made the Super Bowl. It
felt like he got an A on the
group project without contributing. He said that will
not happen again. He’s been
working on his explosiveness throughout camp. His flashed. A
lot of people have seen a
different version of Kiana stronger, a faster version, and
he wants to be that number one
receiver that people talk about. The bills not having another
player to watch Dalton Kincaid,
he dealt with a lot of injuries last year with the knee, with
the collarbone. He has had an
excellent camp, including today where I’m told he had three
touchdown catches, had a big day
and he expected to be that big target for Josh Allen in the
back of the end zone. Look, both
Keon and Dalton have been around throughout OTAs and the bills
thought is that the chemistry
with Josh Allen, the work they’ve done here on the field
that will make them better
internal development, rather than everyone asking who are the
bills going to bring in as a
wide receiver, Steve? Well, well, they’re still going to
kind of ask that. I mean, look,
Khalil Shakir was the one reliable receiver that they had
last year. You talked about Keon
Coleman. And you know he’s still got a lot to prove. Then they
add guys like Josh Palmer this
year they brought in Laviska Shenault and Elijah Moore from
the Cleveland Browns. These are
guys who still have to find ways to fit into the scheme. The one
reason why they may not
necessarily need that number one is Joe Brady. Joe Brady, the
offensive coordinator, is such a
creative play caller. You saw how they spread the ball around.
Yet Dalton Kincaid was the big
red zone target, the chain mover. But how they can spread
the ball around so they don’t
necessarily need that high volume receiver, but they need a
high production out of that
group. And again, they still have a lot to prove in that
regard. But we saw last year the
same thing we’re saying about this wide receiver corps was the
same thing we were saying at
this point last offseason. That’s exactly right. Steve and
Mark, you’re here too. We have
not forgotten about you. So I want to pick your brain a little
bit on the bills defensive
rookies. Which of the young players do we need to keep our
eyes on before Hard knocks kind
of features all of them and ruins the surprise for us
anyway. Yeah. Before I get to
the D, the four of us could line up with Josh Allen. He scored
2726, so I’m not worried about
whoever lines up with him on offense. It’s been the defense
that has really let the bills
down. They’ve been good during the regular season, not great.
And then in the playoffs in big
moments, they haven’t been able to get stops. So is this rookie
class finally that class that
will provide an impact player that can get those stops. And
that’s starting with the corner.
Maxwell Harrison, who I thought was the most dynamic athlete of
the cornerback position. And
then really Landon Jackson down there that they got in the
fourth round out of Arkansas.
You watch him against Will Campbell when he was in college.
If you want to see what Landon
Jackson can do, that goes with TJ Sanders and Owen Walker, who
they also took. So among all of
those rookies, they’re really hoping they provide an impact
because despite the bill’s
failure, they’ve invested a lot of capital with the editor,
Oliver’s and Greg Russo’s and
A.J. Epenesa. Boogie Basham is not on the team anymore. High
draft picks in the last three or
4 or 5 drafts that just really haven’t provided that impact. So
I’m really looking for Maxwell
Harrison and that guy Landon Jackson right there to say we’re
going to make that play, to beat
the Chiefs, to get us to the Super Bowl. Yeah, there’s a ton
of coaches who Harrison was
their favorite player in the draft. I was really surprised he
fell to the bills. I’m sure they
were surprised too, but I don’t think they’re mad about it at
all. One of the players to watch
no doubt this season guys thank you very much. Really appreciate
it. And great great info for the
bills. Didn’t even mention Josh Allen’s marriage once.
Meanwhile, the wait is over and
the countdown to kickoff has begun. Single game tickets for
the 2025 season are on sale
literally now. Visit NFL.com to purchase tickets today. Tickets
are available through the NFL
Ticket Network, including Ticketmaster, SeatGeek and
Sports Illustrated. Tickets
soon. Who you probably should get a ticket to go see Jalen
Johnson, our guest next. You
guys know I love to play golf this time of year. It’s all I
want to talk about except for
football. So let’s talk about football and let’s talk about
golf and a lot of other things.
Bears with their star cornerback coming up next on The Insider.
None of us make it very far
alone. It takes a team, a Where we at? Call me Richie
Tarantino. Where we at? We went.
Let me check in. Hey, y’all boys check, man. Watch out. Check in
with y’all. Swag, man. Yeah,
yeah, that’s all I’m saying today. Access denied. That’s all
they gonna see. They got a lot
better since Arizona. Yeah. Appreciate you gang. Drifts back
to throw. Sets his feet launches
right. Going deep down the field for Ridley. Breaking it up.
Jalen Johnson almost had a pick
at the two yard line. You were in great position to make that
fight. You got to bring it in.
Hey you gonna make the next one. Yeah no doubt. Hey turn over
turn over Levis swallow it up.
Gets rid of it at the last second and it is intercepted
down the sideline to the 20 to
the ten, to the five to the end zone. Oh my gosh. Oh my gosh.
Hey don’t give me another opp
eight fourth down conversion in a minute 16 to play in the game.
Throwing downfield. Intercepted
Jalen Johnson inside the 35. Jalen Johnson with a pick. The
third bears takeaway. And they
are celebrating at Chicago. Oh hey. We got your back one eight.
Oh yeah. Jalen Johnson one of
the best mic’d up segments you will see. And also now he’s
miked up with us here on the
insiders. Tom Pelissero Ian Rapoport man thanks a lot for
being here. You guys were the
only team in the NFL that already did your minicamp last
week. So how are you living
right now. You got a little extended vacation here. Yeah I’m
living good man. This out in
Vegas got right back to work. Just trying to train and keep
pushing my body and getting
right. So you guys Jalen have been through an offseason. Now
you got a new coaching staff.
Obviously last year did not go. How anyone in Chicago wanted
been through it all thus far.
What have you felt about this new coaching staff as it
pertains to just turning you
guys around and getting things in the right direction? I think
really just setting a new tone
and I feel like for me, it’s even hard to say because I feel
like every staff that’s come in
and try to set a new tone and establish a new way of doing
things. But I think the biggest
thing that I’ve been able to see, feel and take away, even
just talking to the guys, is
really just the details, the little things kind of just
pushing the pushing the new
standard and I think they’re not coming off of it and that’s
good. I feel like for us to, we
need that as a young team getting gaining certain vets. I
mean of course we got some vets
up front on the O-line, but really everywhere else we’re a
pretty young team. So I think
just having that accountability, having that staff that’s going
to come in and really show us
the way and almost pull us along and not just, okay, guys, let’s
go at your own pace, but not
like grabbing our hand. It’s like, no, let’s go. This is the
way that you want to go about
playing football. I mean, Dennis Allen, Al Harris, I mean Ben
Johnson. They coordinated,
played, done all of it really at the highest level. So I think
for us it’s one of those things
where we can trust them. And we really just got to be coachable
and then go out there and
execute. I don’t think anything that they’ll do or not do is
going to hurt us. I think for us
is really just going out there and execute, trusting them,
trusting what they say and going
out there and playing our best ball. So for the past few years,
you were going against Ben
Johnson’s offenses in Detroit. He’s a guy who will literally
run anything. He’ll throw the
ball to an offensive lineman, he’ll fake a stumble. You’ve
seen it all with him. Now that
he’s in the building with you every day, are there things? Is
there a little bit of byplay
between you guys? Are you trying to either give him ideas or pick
up on some of the things he’s
been doing against you guys for years? No, honestly, I haven’t
been too much of that. I think
too, for him, he’s just trying to establish a new a new way of
doing things on the offensive
side of the ball. Of course, with the elephant in the room
being, I feel like starting with
Caleb. And I think too, one thing that I really seen that
was different from him is the
first day he really came in and was like, you win based on your
quarterback play. So I think
just establishing that, I mean, that’s something that we know is
fans and being in the locker
room and things like that. But I feel like as far as the coach
coming out and saying, that’s
the first time I’ve heard that. So I think him really just
trying to keep his head low,
establish the culture, establish the standard of doing things and
really just trying to take care.
I feel like in spearhead the Caleb development, but for the
most part, I think every time I
see him, we kind of just give that look like it’s kind of
weird being on the same on the
same team because we’ve been going at it for a long time. But
I think really in practice, in
camp, it will be really fun. Then we’ll be able to really
compete against each other. So
Jalen, you mentioned Caleb and obviously so much of what
happens to the bears this year
is going to be centered around the quarterback. As as Ben
Johnson tells you guys early and
often. So tell us about it. What is Caleb been like. How has he
grown a little bit from what was
a, you know, trying at times but also impressive at times rookie
season last year? Honestly, I
feel like and it’s funny because I’ve been talking like my, my
friends and family and things
like that about it, but like, it’s hard to go from being a
Heisman Trophy winner and being
able to play a certain style of ball to now, last year, of
course, not having the structure
that was necessary to get him excelling in the right
direction, and then now coming
in and having a true offensive mastermind is going to take some
time. It’s going to be new. It’s
going to be different. Of course, I’m not an offensive
guru, so I can’t speak to too
too much. But I know the changing of the stance, the
changing of more under center,
the different ways of doing things I know that we didn’t do
last year and that I would say
he hasn’t done too much really in his career, but I would just
say it’s going to it’s going to
take a lot of learning. And I think he’s willing to learn. I
think he’s really coachable. And
again, it’s going to be uncomfortable because it’s going
to be different. But I think
he’s definitely had everything that he needs to have as far as
the physical makeup, the mental
makeup, it’s just going to be building down that old
foundation, that old way of
doing things, and then kind of reestablishing itself along with
who he already is. So you’re out
there in Vegas, you’re still training, hopefully getting to
unwind a little bit too. But you
also did something cool last Friday, your third annual
charity golf tournament. Tell me
about it. Yeah. So my nonprofit or one of my nonprofits, Kevin’s
Vision, we had a golf
tournament, really just a fundraiser for our initiative. I
mean, my best friend was shot
and killed back in 2021. So everything that we do is trying
to build the community, help
families. Just all throughout that Fresno, California area and
really just trying to expand.
But yeah, so Derek Carr showed up. It was big for him. He’s
from that area. Went to Fresno
State as well. So I got him to come out and really just brought
the city together to be able to
raise funds for the initiative of just really building
underprivileged communities. So
it was a really good turnout. Awesome. Looks very cool. It’s
that’s great that you spend so
much time giving back to your community. And I played golf
today. I always support golf, so
your head is in the right direction. We appreciate you.
Shirt or something. Yeah, I
will, I will, I will happily wear it and I will make a mess
of my golf course, as I usually
do better than what he’s wearing now. Thank you. I appreciate it
very mean, but not totally
wrong. Jalen, thank you very much for joining us. Really
appreciate your time. Enjoy
Vegas and have a good training camp. I’m sure we will both be
heading out to Chicago to see
you sooner rather than later. Yeah. No doubt. I’ll see you
guys soon. Great stuff from
Jalen Johnson who was hanging out in Vegas. Probably going to
check out a Cirque du Soleil
right about now. Meanwhile their the Chiefs. They are good.
They’re always good. How good is
this offense going to be. How good are some of the other top
ten offenses going to be this
year? Let’s get into it right now. Coming up next on the
insiders. People call it the
biggest small town festival in Org. You know 40 Niners fans are
looking at the screen and going
how nice is that to see Christian McCaffrey practicing
healthy looking like himself. I
mean, it’s good. This is what you if you’re a 40 Niners fan,
this is literally all you want
to see your best player healthy looking like a star. And listen
to McCaffrey telling himself he
feels pretty good. You know it’s funny I’ve I’ve had a lot of
people tell me that as you get
older you need to do less. And I, I think there’s just a middle
ground with that statement. And
so for me it’s, it’s kind of a constant evaluation of where
your body’s at and what you
need. And you put a lot of trust in other people. And you’re, and
you’re, you know, trainer, your
treatment people, the guys at the facility. And so if you
follow their plans and you like
where it’s going and you start to feel good, but you’re just
constantly evaluating where
you’re at and trusting the whole offseason process. All good for
the 40 Niners, who, by the way,
were a top ten offense for yards last year, didn’t quite get in
there for top ten points per
game. Couple other teams like that. Falcons also in the mix
there. But they’re your top ten
offenses for last year. Who is going to be a top ten offense
this year. Let’s talk to our
good friends Steve Wyche and Mark Ross. Once again. Steve, I
will start with you. Who’s
making the jump this year? Well, first of all, I hate the total
yards of the offense because to
me that doesn’t really tell you who’s a top ten offense. We saw
the Falcons were top ten
offense. They didn’t make the playoffs. So I want to also get
points in there. And this is why
I love the Denver Broncos. Because you look at their last
seven games. Now granted not all
of them were against great defenses, but they averaged
almost 33 points a game. Bo Nix
in year two. And Sean Payton’s offense he should be better.
They add a Jay Harvey, the
rookie running back out of Central Florida, an explosive
player. He fits the Alvin Kamara
mode. You know that Sean Payton had down with New Orleans. And
also JK Dobbins a tough runner.
But then you add Evan Ingram the versatile chess piece at tight
end I think with everything
they’ve got working on offense they should be better. But total
yards are not going to be there
because their defense is one of the best in the NFL. They’re not
going to give up long fields. So
that’s why I hate the total yards. And I’m more into a
scoring element when it comes to
top ten. Mark. I feel you, Steve. I will adjust the graphic
just for you next time. Mark,
what about you? Which team is making the leap in 2025 for
their offense? Steve, completely
agree with you. I always look at points per game, yards per game
and my team is totally
indicative of that. And that’s the Los Angeles Chargers, who
were 20th in yards per game but
11th in scoring last season. They scored when it mattered
most. And of course, it all
starts with Justin Herbert, the dynamic quarterback there who
under Harbaugh in in year two
should be a lot better. But also their personnel has gotten
tremendously better. Look they
may have the best tackle duo in all in Sean Slater. Now you get
Mekhi Becton, the number one
offensive lineman on the free agent market in there to say,
okay, we may have the best
offensive line in football now, but also Omarion Hampton, the
dynamic running back out of
North Carolina in the first round, and Trey Harris, the big
body wide receiver out of
Mississippi in the second round. Who should be able to get in
there. Pair with Ladd McConkey.
Let’s stop this Quintin Johnson stuff here. They brought Mike
Williams back. So I think with
the Chargers, with the influx of young talent and veteran talent
and year two with Herbert and
Harbaugh and Ladd, they’re going to definitely be maybe top five.
That’s that’s pretty bold I like
that I want to go back to the Niners a little bit though. I
kind of mentioned it off the top
though. I mean obviously Christian McCaffrey is back.
They traded Jordan Mason earlier
in this offseason which really was to me a little bit of a
surprising trade. He got paid
which is great but a surprising trade because you sort of
thought, all right, maybe this
is their backup plan for Christian McCaffrey. That goes
to show you how much confidence
they have in McCaffrey being like his old self. And they had
so many things on their to do
list this year. This offseason they had to pay a bunch of guys.
They let a couple friendly faces
go. But they did all of it right I mean Kittle’s gotten paid,
Purdy’s gotten paid. I mean,
they really have set themselves up. Assuming McCaffrey is
healthy, they really have set
themselves up to have a no frills, somewhat boring, very
effective, very efficient
training camp and get right back to probably where they should be
as an offense. That’s why to me,
that’s the team I’m looking at. It’s not like there was a huge,
massive, massive addition. But
certainly to me, the team that should make a leap. And by the
way, if you guys want a little
more on this, you can check out Gennaro Felice’s article
NFL.com. To get a little more on
this topic. I know you guys will actually, I’ll say goodbye to
you now. Bye guys. You can look
right yards not yards. Look up the article. There you go. I’m
on it Steve. For next full
screen. I got you. All right, one more to go on the insiders.
And that is number one Jalen
Hurts who did a little bit of a good thing today saluting his
number one fan. So cool coming
up. So what are you thinking I’m It’s our turn. Happy birthday to
the purveyor of the original
Jalen Hurts fan page, aka Hurts Fan Zone. A nice little B-day
package from Jalen himself,
including a fresh pair of Jordans right there. Ian. That’s
a that’s the type of thing you
send to your fans, right? If I had fans, Tom, I would
definitely send him a new pair
of Jordans. I’m just kidding. I would wear them myself. Maybe
some golden gooses would work
too. I also wear those. Here’s Patrick Mahomes with a fan. I’m
told his name is Lionel Messi.
He plays a different game. That’s called football. The two
of these guys making an Adidas
commercial together, that’s definitely how his name is
pronounced Jersey swap right
there. And speaking of goat to goat, well, Brian Baldinger
couldn’t be here tonight because
he’s hanging out and towering over the great one, Wayne
Gretzky. Ian, it can never just
be baldy, you know, had dinner tonight. It’s he’s swimming with
sharks with the greatest hockey
player of all time. I mean, I would like to know a little more
about what those two are up to.
Is it possible that there was a beverage involved in that
dinner? I mean, those two look
like they are having a fun. You could do worse than hanging out
with Baldy and Gretzky at a
hockey game. I can think of a lot of worse things. Like a lot.
Just saying. And like ten
minutes after that photo, I was told he actually ditched Gretzky
to go hang out with Alex
Ovechkin, which I thought was interesting. It’s a deep hockey
joke right there that’s
offensive. It’s been a long spring. Gretzky on next week.
And guess what? We’re still back