- 10 hours ago
Grant & Danny discuss the NFL's top storylines, including the Steelers signing Aaron Rodgers for $25 million, the Cardinals, and more.
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00:00Danny on the fan.
00:01Thanks to Toby for the update.
00:02He's over at Nats Park today.
00:04He was in on the press conferences.
00:06Paul Taboni, Blake Butera, Dylan Cruz.
00:08You'll hear what those guys had to say about Cruz's return to the majors
00:12in the stretch run of our show as we get you ready for the Nats tonight.
00:15They play at 645 right here on the fan.
00:19I wanted to get into the Aaron Rodgers return to Pittsburgh, though.
00:23He's 42 years old.
00:25He's coming back on a one-year deal.
00:26And in short order, he agreed to a contract and got back on the field
00:30because they have OTAs going on.
00:32So there's videos of him practicing with teammates today.
00:35But teammates said throughout the offseason and very recently
00:40that he was, quote, mysterious, that he was not telling anybody
00:43whether he was going to come back or not.
00:45This is my Alex Ovechkin thing that I talk about pretty frequently.
00:50It's one thing to want to have a little time.
00:53It's one thing to not know for sure.
00:55Do I want to hang him up?
00:57Do I not want to hang him up?
00:58This is not easy for one of the all-time greats like Aaron Rodgers
01:02or the greatest goal scorer ever, Alex Ovechkin.
01:05But there's a difference between needing to counsel with family
01:09and internally, in Rodgers' case, do your dark holes and your ayahuasca's
01:14or whatever you're going to do.
01:15In Ovechkin's case, go hang out in Russia and catch up with the wife,
01:19the kids, whoever else, and then dragging this thing out to a point
01:23where your teammates are deciding, am I re-signing or am I moving on
01:27in free agency?
01:28I don't know if Aaron Rodgers is going to be here or not.
01:31They couldn't get an answer on that.
01:33I'm an offensive lineman.
01:34Do I want to be a stealer or not?
01:35Well, is Aaron Rodgers here or is it some random deep-round quarterback
01:40like Will Howard?
01:41My career is at stake in a lot of these ways.
01:43And guys just didn't know until the last possible second
01:46where he decided he was coming back and he's now on the practice field today.
01:52I actually give him some credit here for this.
01:56Not the silence and keeping everyone in the dark and people being mystified
01:59as to what your plans are, but actually showing up.
02:01Because my thesis for so many years, why I couldn't stand Brett Favre
02:05at the end, and again, time is a flat circle.
02:07Rodgers sort of running the same playbook, by the way.
02:10Go back to the 80s commercial.
02:11I learned about watching you, right?
02:13It kind of, again, ended up in a similar spot, was this was just a hem-and-haw
02:18song and dance.
02:18Everyone had to tell him how much they loved him, how much they needed him,
02:21how important he was, how the world revolved around him,
02:24and he was the center, and he was the alpha and the omega,
02:27and we've got to have the kicker and a bunch of people fly to his home,
02:30wherever that is, and meet him and beg him to come play.
02:32Because he really wanted to skip all the off-season stuff.
02:35He really didn't.
02:35Come on, man.
02:36I'm 42.
02:37I'm going to the Hall of Fame.
02:38I don't need this.
02:39I don't need your 22 million bucks.
02:41I don't need any of this headache.
02:42Come on.
02:43I'll show up for training camp.
02:45I'll have dinner at the cafeteria.
02:46But for the most part, man, let me just come do my quarterbacking.
02:49I should give him credit that they actually got this done,
02:51and he got himself to the field.
02:52So that's kind of, you know, I would say egg on my face.
02:54But in that regard, I go, okay, fine.
02:56I have to change my thesis a little bit.
02:58That's a pretty low bar.
02:59Yeah, it's very low.
03:00That's what he's done.
03:0232 starting quarterbacks in the league.
03:03I'd imagine all 32 of them will be at OTAs for their team
03:07for the mandatory portion of the practice on the field.
03:10Barring a couple with some circumstances like Jacoby Brissett.
03:12Can't be bothered to do it right now.
03:13Well, he's at odds with the team.
03:15But I'm saying guys that are in good standing and are under contract
03:19and don't want out.
03:20He doesn't want out.
03:21He just opts back in.
03:22Those guys are all going to be there.
03:23That's not really a position where you can no-show.
03:25If you're a quarterback, there's just,
03:27you get paid the most money because you're supposed to lead the whole team.
03:30So you don't get to not be around at these workouts and at the facility.
03:34I mean, he's certainly done it in the past.
03:35There was the year where, you know, he was going on a retreat
03:38or I think it was maybe the first year he came back with the Steelers last year
03:42and he'd already decided he was going to have this obligation that would keep him away
03:46so he couldn't be there at that given week.
03:49But, yeah, that's a low threshold, I will say, for Aaron Rodgers.
03:53If him deciding within the last 48 hours and then being at their team-wide mandated OTAs
04:00practicing in their jog-throughs is worth a pat on the back.
04:03Yeah, I give him credit.
04:04My thesis was that he would skip it all and we'd have to go into June
04:09and it's a willy or wony and, you know, they'd have to beg him and tell him nice things.
04:12So I guess, you know, again, as you said, the bar's pretty low.
04:15First, they've got a new offense.
04:16Now, it's an offense he knows, but I'm sure it's changed some since he ran it in Green Bay.
04:21Their quarterback and head coach are back together.
04:23I remember Mike McCarthy coached him with the Packers for years.
04:27And they beat the Steelers in the Super Bowl forever ago.
04:29The Steelers did.
04:31The Packers.
04:32That was their Super Bowl win, wasn't it?
04:33That's what I'm saying.
04:33The Packers played the Steelers, right.
04:35You're just saying because now they play for the Steelers.
04:37Yeah, now they're the Steelers guys.
04:37Yeah, it's interesting.
04:39Yeah, but those two guys were together in Green Bay
04:41and now they're running some version variation of that offense.
04:44But I do think with a new offense, it means you've got to show up.
04:47And also, I don't know this, but I'd assume at 42, about to be 43,
04:51it might take a little longer to get the body going.
04:54I wonder if he almost needs more offseason
04:56or if camp would still satisfy any requirement he needs.
05:00But to be ready for training camp, does he need to get out there
05:04rather than being a little more dormant
05:05and just kind of laid up throughout the offseason?
05:08It's like starting a car.
05:10You have to go a mile before you hit the gas pedal of just coasting
05:15to get the really old car warmed up enough
05:17that now all of a sudden you can hit the gas pedal when you need to.
05:20It's funny.
05:21Yeah, who knows?
05:22I mean, who knows what the best prescription is?
05:26For some, it's I got limited bullets here.
05:28I'm just making up a number.
05:29I got 100.
05:30You want me to waste them in May?
05:32I'll do that, but I wouldn't think of it that way.
05:34Or maybe what you're saying is I need to be primed
05:37and put in a bunch of deposits just to kind of be average at this point.
05:40He does two things at a very, very high level still, I think.
05:43His arm talent is still exceptional.
05:45Yeah.
05:46When he throws the football, his accuracy, his ball placement, his touch,
05:51the ability to throw it to a spot where you lead a receiver
05:55and you keep them moving, his propensity on the back shoulder
05:59to be pinpoint and get a guy turned around to the sideline
06:03and the DB keeps running, like those types of things.
06:05I think arm talent still exists for him, clearly.
06:08Completed 66% of his passes last year, threw for 24 touchdowns, 3,300 yards.
06:14The other area where I think he's very good is the cerebral
06:17and intuitive element of the game, which is very obvious.
06:20When you have played as much football as this guy has,
06:23he has traditionally been known as a savant offensively as it is,
06:27and that was back early on, 05, 06, 07, he's sitting on the bench in Green Bay,
06:31certainly in his early time as a starter, 09, 10, 11, whatever.
06:34But you're talking about 21 seasons and a collective 264 NFL games of experience.
06:45A guy that has thrown 8,743 passes.
06:51I talked to Kirk Cousins about this not long ago,
06:53but he was saying how it's a shame as you get older as a quarterback
06:59that your mind gets sharper and sharper.
07:02You learn more and more and more.
07:04You see the field better and better and better.
07:06You could be the best that you've ever been, deeper into your career,
07:10but now your arm can't make the same throw it used to.
07:13So you're a tick behind.
07:15You're seeing it perfectly, but your elbow's barking, or your back's hurt,
07:20or in his case, he's coming off the Achilles,
07:22and he's got the different injuries.
07:23And this is the story with all quarterbacks.
07:25I was going to say, that's sports, dude.
07:26How much smarter as a pitcher are you at 40 than you were at 22?
07:29And this is his point.
07:30He's like, if you could just take the chip of everything you've learned
07:33and put it into the body of that 24-year-old rookie or whatever,
07:37that's when you get your goat.
07:39But Rodgers still avoids turnovers, still sees the field beautifully,
07:43just seven picks last year.
07:45He's the best ever at doing that.
07:47And I'm not just saying that as an opinion.
07:481.4%, the best ever.
07:50He is the greatest interception percentage, the lowest, in the history of the league.
07:54It's why he's got the best quarterback rating among starters that have qualified ever,
07:59all time.
08:00He's not mobile in any way anymore.
08:02He can barely move.
08:03He's always taken a lot of sacks because he just hung in the pocket
08:05and hung onto the ball a lot.
08:06But now he's almost like that Derek Carr, like, if you're near him,
08:11he's going to fall over kind of guy.
08:12So there's some given a take here.
08:14He's not what I would say anymore is top half the league or good.
08:19But he does a couple things at a high enough level that it's intriguing.
08:22You think about that winner-go-home game for the Steelers at the end of the year
08:25against the Ravens.
08:26You remember that one?
08:26Yes, I do.
08:28And 42-year-old Aaron Rodgers threw for 315 in the touchdown
08:31and let a game-winning drive.
08:32It's not like he can't do anything to help anymore.
08:35I would say that that would be overstated.
08:37It all depends on what you want, right?
08:39If you want caretaker Craig, who's, I mean, this was the complaint when he was in Green Bay
08:43towards the end, let alone when he's now in Pittsburgh multiple years later.
08:47But try to force one in there every once in a while.
08:51Try to get the big play.
08:52But he wouldn't do it.
08:53He's like, I'm not throwing interceptions.
08:55That was his MO.
08:56And a lot of Green Bay Packer fans complained about that.
08:59There weren't any high-risk throws ever in his profile, right?
09:01He just simply wouldn't do it.
09:03And that leads to maybe some playoff losses that shouldn't have happened
09:07or otherwise where, hey, at some point you've got to saddle up
09:10and make a big play.
09:11But if you need a caretaker because you're built on defense,
09:14you're built on running the football, you've got a couple playmakers now on the outside.
09:17I mean, they went and acquired D.K. Metcalf last year, Michael Pittman this year,
09:22Jeremy Bernard in round two.
09:23A guy a lot of people like in terms of now maybe a slot guy, something dynamic.
09:27You've got a little bit of weaponry there.
09:29You've got just enough.
09:30And if your plan is we're going to try to score 21, hold them to 20,
09:35let's see if we can win this crazy-ass division.
09:37It's not the craziest thing in the world.
09:38Again, it's not what I would do.
09:39I just simply wouldn't be doing it.
09:41I would just embrace one rebuild once over the last 50 years,
09:44which the Steelers do not do.
09:46But here they are.
09:47I get it.
09:47They do the thing that you shouldn't do more than anybody,
09:51and that is spinning their tires in mediocrity.
09:55I thought it was a Mike Tomlin thing, really,
09:57where he wouldn't let them take a step back.
09:59And they have subsequently now moved on from Tomlin,
10:02gone and gotten another winning Super Bowl caliber,
10:06long-time legendary-type coach, and brought Rodgers back.
10:09So it clearly wasn't just a Tomlin philosophy.
10:12It was bigger than that, permeating all the carpets and the walls and the chairs
10:16in that building.
10:18They just don't want to be the team that loses, by design, if you will,
10:25rebuilds in a grandiose way.
10:28They're going to try to win 10 games and go on the magical carpet ride
10:31and knock off some teams as a road playoff team.
10:33By the way, the AFC North odds right now, just looking at FanDuel,
10:37the Ravens are the favorites, minus 120.
10:40The Bengals, second, plus 190.
10:43And then the Steelers at 6-1.
10:45And the Browns, a very distant bottom feeder at 17-1,
10:49which checks out because, let's face it,
10:51if Deshaun Watson comes back four years since being relevant as a quarterback
10:55and is now the frontrunner to start for them again this year,
10:58what are we even talking about?
11:00That's going to be a long, long season for the Browns.
11:03But, sneaky, I like the Bengals.
11:05I know the Ravens will be everybody's prediction,
11:07and they're an easy team because of Lamar Jackson.
11:09Deshaun will win the division, and they may.
11:11I think they made a great hire with Jesse Minner,
11:13their new head coach, replacing John Harbaugh.
11:15But the Bengals have a pretty soft schedule.
11:17Looking at the schedule release,
11:19I think they had a great day on schedule release day
11:21in terms of how things broke for them.
11:24And they've added a ton to their defense to help Joe Burrow.
11:27They're in a, let's make sure Burrow's happy or else this could go sideways
11:32mode right now.
11:33So they got a little more aggressive on defense finally.
11:35At plus 190, that's good return, good value there.
11:38Well, they finally, talking about Cincinnati, completed the,
11:41and I'm sure they consulted with me,
11:43the this is how Danny would build a team team.
11:45Right?
11:46They've had the playmakers on offense forever.
11:48They run through running backs because they're expendable,
11:51because your quarterback is so incredible.
11:52You got a couple pass catchers, whatever.
11:54But you've got great receivers on the outside,
11:56a superstar quarterback,
11:57and now they finally went and paid for and bought some defense
12:01to try to be more staunch.
12:02You don't have to be great on that side of the ball.
12:05You got Joe Burrow.
12:05You're here to outscore people, but last year, you're like,
12:08if you score 37, they're going to get 38.
12:10It was a disaster.
12:11I don't think there'll be a disaster this year.
12:13Not good, but way better than before.
12:15It's basically all their assets on offense,
12:16and then they beefed up their D-line.
12:18Boy Mafé from Seattle, Dexter Lawrence in a trade from the Giants,
12:21and they brought in former commander John Allen in free agency
12:25and paid him $20 million as well.
12:27Grant and Danny on the fan.
12:30Next on G&D, we've been talking football.
12:32There is a quarterback who wants out of his team where he's expected to start
12:38would make them maybe the worst team on paper in all of football.
12:41That's next.
12:42See you next time.
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