Podcast: Pierce Hirings, Davante & Getsy, and So Much More
Las Vegas Raiders Insider Podcast on the Antonio Pierce hirings, Davante Adams and Luke Getsy, and so much more
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00:00 Hi everybody, welcome back to the Las Vegas Raiders Insider Podcast.
00:05 I'm your host, Hondo Carpenter.
00:07 Of course, you can follow all that we do at Sports Illustrated's Fan Nation.
00:12 Raiders today, when you go to si.com/nfl/raiders, you can follow me on Instagram @hondosr or
00:20 X formerly known as Twitter, when you go to @hondocarpenter.
00:24 Our next guy needs no introduction.
00:26 Close to 20 years, two decades, he and I have been working together each and every week
00:32 on radio and now on podcasts, bringing you a very macro look at the NFL, the National
00:40 Football League, everything that impacts the Raiders.
00:45 Usually the show is very micro with the Raiders.
00:47 On this show, it can be micro or macro.
00:49 It's all Raider related, but sometimes it's looking at things from a much broader standpoint.
00:53 John is a terrific journalist, a very successful attorney in the Buckhead area of Atlanta,
01:00 and we love having him on each and every week.
01:02 John, how you doing brother Johnny Guitars?
01:05 I'm doing good.
01:06 I got the iPads ready.
01:07 I got the notes ready.
01:09 And I know people, they don't all like this, but here we are, we're going around the NFL
01:13 from a Raider perspective.
01:15 So we're looking around the whole NFL from that Raider perspective.
01:19 In a sense, this is next year.
01:21 Next year has begun.
01:23 Everybody's turning over.
01:24 They're cultivating.
01:25 We're ready to start 2024.
01:27 The Raiders are ready as well.
01:29 You know, a lot of people don't get it, but the Super Bowl we just had, even though it
01:34 was conducted in the year 2024, it's still the 2023 Super Bowl.
01:42 Now when you start getting to combine and everything else, then it becomes of course
01:46 2023 in the NFL and the new league year starts next week or next week, next month.
01:52 Of course, with free agency.
01:54 John, real quick, I want you to share with everybody your Twitter handle.
01:59 Tell them where to find you because I've had a couple of people say, "Hey, when you have
02:03 guests, can you tell us how to find them?"
02:05 Tell them how to find you.
02:07 My handle has never changed.
02:08 It's @JPSpartan.
02:09 @JPSpartan is my handle.
02:12 And I, without a doubt, I follow Hondo on all this stuff, of course, but I like the
02:17 Instagram stuff maybe more than ever, more than any of them, because it gives you cool
02:22 clips and it shows you the words also in case you're not listening.
02:26 A lot of good stuff out there, a lot of junk out there, but it remains a great tool for
02:31 breaking news, breaking news in the NFL.
02:34 As we see teams starting to shape their rosters, cut guys, move guys, sign guys, obviously
02:40 filling out staffs, all that stuff's good to keep an eye on and everyone knows where
02:44 to go to follow the Raiders firsthand.
02:48 You know, John, it amazes me.
02:49 We've had our IG now, I'm going to guess a month.
02:53 It's only at 3,800 people, but it's still growing very, very fast.
02:58 Our Twitter's through the roof, plus all of our other social media.
03:03 Just amazes me.
03:04 We set records in viewership this month and John and I, and all of us, want to just take
03:09 a second and say thank you.
03:10 If you don't listen, it doesn't matter.
03:14 There's an old saying, what do you call a leader with nobody following?
03:17 A guy on a walk.
03:19 We just don't do these podcasts and we literally, millions of views a month, you guys are watching,
03:28 you're reading, you're subscribing.
03:30 We're constantly trying to bring you the most Raider information anywhere on the net and
03:35 it's 100% free.
03:37 We don't charge for it and we tell people all the time, don't pay for what we can give
03:41 you for free.
03:42 We mean there aren't places worth paying for, but don't pay for what we can give you for
03:47 free because we're pounding out the information for you and we greatly appreciate.
03:52 If you haven't liked or subscribed or shared, please do that.
03:55 Get that handled, but we appreciate all of you.
03:58 John, let's start right at the top.
04:00 We're going to get to Sean McVay and a hire that he made recently in a minute, but I want
04:08 to start with AP.
04:10 You like this staff.
04:12 Now tomorrow's podcast is all going to be about the new staff, but I like this staff.
04:18 I like what Antonio Pierce did.
04:20 I know that you do as well.
04:21 Could you share that with us?
04:23 Couple highlights and I am extraordinarily biased.
04:26 I like Marvin Lewis a lot.
04:28 If things have gone a different way, if maybe some people didn't have hard feelings from
04:31 20 years ago, Marvin Lewis might be the head coach at Michigan state still today and they're
04:36 rolling along well.
04:37 Marvin Lewis, a serious guy, knows defense.
04:41 Fantastic addition to the staff.
04:43 That stands out to me.
04:44 I like Joe Feldman because of his success in the past with specifics, especially really
04:50 obviously high functioning, high operating offenses and specifically with his specialty,
04:56 if you will.
04:57 Carnell Williams, I like.
04:59 Scott Turner's got some knowledge, got some pretty deep connection.
05:03 And one thing that stood out to me also, two names stood out to me later in the game, if
05:08 you will.
05:09 One is Rob Ryan coming in as a defensive assistant.
05:13 A lot of defensive knowledge.
05:14 Not coming in, but being elevated from not just in a defensive assistant, but to a senior
05:20 one.
05:21 I thought that was a big deal.
05:22 Yeah.
05:23 And the thing is, when you're talking about defensive knowledge, the last name Ryan says
05:27 a lot.
05:28 I like that one a lot.
05:29 And I think people need to take note that Deuce Gruden is going to be around in the
05:34 strength and conditioning.
05:35 He's been around that for a long time, but Deuce Gruden is who he is.
05:39 So that's an interesting dynamic.
05:41 It's something that people will probably not realize or gloss over, but this is a serious,
05:46 I mean, all you got to do is look at him.
05:48 You know, he knows what he's doing when it comes to strength and conditioning.
05:51 And it's an interesting, it's an interesting mix, but I like the staff overall.
05:57 It pops out to me to be like really kind of defensively constructed, but it looks like
06:03 there's a whole picture of what they were thinking, what Antonio Pierce wants to go
06:08 for.
06:09 And he thinks of course, like they all do, that he's got the pieces in place.
06:14 Antonio Pierce has been in organizations that function properly and coaching staffs that
06:20 function properly.
06:22 I think he's got guys that are going to get him there.
06:24 I do not expect a big blip or a big problem.
06:27 This is his staff.
06:29 Those are guys that excite me.
06:30 And again, I know I'm biased towards Marvin Lewis.
06:33 I think he is terrific.
06:34 And I think you're going to see a difference on an already good defensive staff with Patrick
06:39 Graham.
06:40 I think you're going to see really all bases are going to be covered.
06:44 The Raiders should be very prepared each week.
06:47 Yeah, I agree with you a hundred percent, John.
06:49 I love this staff.
06:51 Again, we're going to get into it a lot tomorrow, so we won't get in as much today, but I like
06:57 it.
06:58 I like the fact that AP goes out.
06:59 He knew what his weaknesses were.
07:01 He addressed them.
07:02 There's no ego.
07:03 You know, a lot of people, because they see him and the persona, he's not an ego driven
07:11 person at all.
07:13 It's just not him.
07:14 He is a purposeful driven person.
07:18 And I just, I like the way he approaches things and okay, you know what?
07:24 I don't care if you think I'm weak.
07:25 I know this is an area.
07:26 I need some help.
07:28 And he did it.
07:29 Okay, let's get to it.
07:30 Speaking of that, I want to get to a different issue.
07:33 Months ago, literally months ago before anyone was discussing it.
07:39 And in fact, you and I took criticism about talking about it.
07:47 We talked about how big game management is.
07:52 And we talked about how so many coaches, they're so into the X's and O's and into the trees,
07:58 they miss the forest when it comes to game management.
08:02 And we discussed, you brought it up, so I'm going to give you, tap you on the back, but
08:06 I agreed with you, the need to have a game manager on your staff.
08:13 Now, we saw when AP started as an intern, a couple of times with some timeouts or a
08:22 few times throwing a flag, that again, AP goes out, hires a game manager on his staff.
08:30 And oh, by the way, so did Sean McVay, Super Bowl winning coach, a darling of the media.
08:39 He does the same.
08:40 John, this is so relevant.
08:42 I thought it was a great when you brought it up a couple of months ago.
08:45 And I think it's great that people are talking about it now.
08:48 Please discuss that.
08:49 Such a big deal.
08:50 A lot of people out there, your time is your currency.
08:53 You could listen to a million different things, watch a million different things.
08:56 You're here.
08:57 We appreciate it.
08:58 This is what we're trying to bring you is some value, some vision, some insight.
09:03 We talked about the obvious need for a late clock coordinator, a clock manager, a timeout
09:08 manager, and we've seen this over a couple of decades.
09:13 Now you're seeing teams actively get there and hire them.
09:17 What we saw with the Rams this week was really maybe the most public expression of, I can't
09:25 do it all.
09:26 I need help.
09:27 I'm Sean McVay.
09:28 I'm arguably the smartest guy in football.
09:30 The photographic memory, some folks, look, I got a semi-photographic memory, which is
09:34 great.
09:35 This guy's next level.
09:36 He can remember plays that he made up the street here in Brookhaven when he was a high
09:40 schooler, like third down and eight, whatever game, he knows it.
09:44 He needs a guy to help him manage the clock, manage the timeouts.
09:49 This is a revolution coming to the NFL.
09:51 The teams that have this in place now are going to be ahead and they are going to make
09:56 a difference and they are going to get somebody this year who's resistant to it.
10:01 What will happen is everybody knows in the NFL, they follow along all the other franchises
10:06 that do not have a clock coordinator, a timeout manager, whatever you want to call it.
10:11 Everybody in the head coach's ear saying this is when we should call a timeout, this is
10:15 when we should not, we should keep the flag, they're going to be behind.
10:18 This is a revolution to the game that is needed.
10:22 It's not to say head coaches are lazy.
10:25 Of course they're not.
10:26 It's not to say, well, shouldn't somebody else already have that?
10:29 No, this game is changing and you got to be on the cutting edge.
10:33 So when it comes down to some of the decisions we even saw in the championship games, I'm
10:39 thinking about when the 49ers were down deep and they decided to run it in on first down.
10:44 There may be a time where somebody says we're actually going to kneel on first down because
10:48 we got to manage the clock and the timeouts better.
10:50 We want Detroit to burn a timeout.
10:52 We want to position ourselves to take the game and the clock, if you will.
10:58 This is a big deal, but there is a huge stamp on it when Sean McVay does it.
11:04 Right or wrong, like you said, a media darling, a football genius, the youngest guy, the brightest
11:09 guy in the sport when he's doing it, it says, wow, this is a big deal.
11:14 Good news for the Raiders is they're already there and they are working on this.
11:18 They are studying this.
11:19 They're breaking it down.
11:20 This is the time of year you have to do it.
11:22 Obviously, it's going to show up as soon as this fall.
11:25 We're going to see a team or a franchise that doesn't have one.
11:28 They're going to look ridiculous and look unprepared.
11:32 And after that, whoever doesn't have one of these, they'll have one for the 2025 season.
11:38 We will not see another pro football season where this clock coordinator is not a massive
11:43 position on any staff.
11:46 Let's talk about Russell Wilson because this is a guy a lot of people, somebody is going
11:51 to be able to get him for the veteran minimum.
11:53 He was playing really well.
11:56 That's why Denver shut him down, which made no sense to me.
12:00 But Denver shuts him down playing super well.
12:06 But he looks like he could just be a guy that would slide right into the broadcast booth
12:12 a la Tony Romo.
12:14 Really a lot like Alex Rodriguez.
12:16 Your thoughts on Russell?
12:17 Do you want to see him continue to play?
12:20 I mean, he was playing at a high level or would you like to see him slide into the booth?
12:25 I don't know how much is left there.
12:26 I know there were some dinks.
12:28 There were some dink passes and there were some deep balls that went well.
12:31 I don't think his priority number one, two or three is football.
12:34 That's not a criticism, but I don't think I, what is he doing playing still?
12:40 Does he really want to explore turnover all the rocks, be the best quarterback that he
12:46 can?
12:47 Or does he want everything to fit around him?
12:49 Does he have bigger ambitions off the field?
12:51 Alex Rodriguez is a great comparison.
12:53 That's a guy who reminds me of as well.
12:55 Rodriguez is extremely successful in business, no doubt, but he had a lot of other interests
13:01 and maybe or maybe not that steered him the wrong way on the baseball field.
13:06 He's a polarizing figure.
13:08 Wilson has become more polarizing over time.
13:10 I know people talk about he may be a fit for the Jets or he may be a fit there or here.
13:16 Does he want to show up as a backup?
13:17 Is he going to be a distraction?
13:19 What is he still doing trying to play in the NFL?
13:23 If he wants to be a public figure and explore a different kind of a life, why not take that
13:28 transition and get on a television?
13:30 He should be fantastic on TV.
13:33 He looks like he's ready for it now.
13:36 It's very hard to see him being a successful starting quarterback at the NFL in many folks'
13:43 opinion.
13:45 I do think that Denver shut him down because of what happened with the Derek Carr shutdown
13:53 and what did not happen in Atlanta with Matt Ryan.
13:56 Matt Ryan sticks in all these NFL teams' mind.
13:59 Matt Ryan should have been shut down by the Falcons.
14:02 He was not.
14:03 Their franchise has suffered for it.
14:05 Other franchises apparently have learned from it and have done it.
14:09 That's what we saw with Wilson.
14:10 As we sit here today, we can probably put a pin in the idea that somebody will be shut
14:17 down late in this coming up season.
14:20 We don't know who it's going to be, but this is another trend with managing quarterbacks,
14:23 roster space, cap, etc.
14:26 I don't think this trend is going to stop.
14:28 It was Wilson last year.
14:29 It'll be somebody else this year.
14:32 The Carr situation, though, Carr was not performing the way Russell Wilson was.
14:36 To me, that was what the surprise was.
14:40 We took a ton of criticism, John, immense criticism, when during COVID, I began to
14:49 sound the horn for the first time the salary cap was going backwards.
14:54 A lot of people were like, "Oh, he's just trying to scare people."
14:58 It ended up the salary cap was $198 million in 2020 and in 2021 went back to $182 million.
15:09 Now we're seeing the salary cap, it goes up $20 million in 2022, $20 million, almost $20
15:17 million, $16 million, and $23 million.
15:21 Now it's up $21 million this year to $255 million.
15:28 Listen, I think it is fair to say the NFL is struggling in some areas, because they
15:40 are, but to in any way preach the demise of the NFL is stupid, arrogant, and flat out
15:47 untrue.
15:49 This number is mammoth.
15:53 Your thoughts?
15:54 Yeah, I mean, it's $130 million up from like 15, almost 15 years ago.
16:01 The idea that the NFL was going to be struggling or going backward, that's obviously long gone.
16:06 It is America's pastime.
16:09 It is the single most popular form of entertainment in the country.
16:13 And yes, there are areas that need to be tightened up.
16:17 We look at this salary cap, the first thing that comes to many of our minds is expand
16:21 the roster.
16:22 We've got other stuff.
16:23 We talked about that last week.
16:24 We'll talk about it in the off season, but you have to be completely allergic to truth
16:31 if you don't recognize the NFL is healthier, bigger than ever.
16:36 I think as we mentioned last week a little bit, we probably need to give them a little
16:41 more credit for timing the introduction and acceptance of legal gambling into the sport.
16:48 If they had mis-timed that and not handled that well, if they had maybe opened that up
16:52 before the phones were tied in with these app bettings that have a pretty good level
16:58 of security.
17:00 Why do I say that?
17:01 Well, we've seen players get tagged for doing stuff on property because of their phone.
17:06 We probably need to give them a little more credit for that.
17:09 But yeah, you have to recognize this is just enormous and the salary cap going up is great,
17:16 but let's see the NFL do something with it.
17:20 Let's see them continue to improve their product, really take a notice and maybe expand the
17:26 competition committee, stick some people on there who that their only job is to be on
17:30 that committee.
17:32 Exciting times for the NFL.
17:34 I think about what Mark Cuban said.
17:36 It's always sitting in the back of my mind way back when he said, "Pigs get fat, hogs
17:41 get slaughtered."
17:42 I don't know if people heard him when he said that.
17:45 The NFL is not getting slaughtered.
17:47 It's got room to get even fatter from here and we love it.
17:52 Totally agree.
17:53 I'm going to take one umbrage with something you said about it's America's pastime.
17:59 Howie Long to me said it best, "Baseball is America's pastime, but football is America's
18:06 passion."
18:07 It clearly is.
18:08 As the NCAA game of which I loved for so many years is now tanking itself, coaches are jumping
18:17 out of college as fast as they can and trying to get to the NFL, retiring, whatever.
18:26 As the NCAA college football is destroying itself, the NFL just continues to get bigger.
18:32 All right, I want to talk about this.
18:37 It's a new era in Seattle, but I admire the way the Seahawks handled Geno Smith.
18:46 I thought the way they handled this was pretty amazing.
18:48 Can we discuss that please?
18:50 Well, you know, Geno Smith should get a lot of credit for being obviously resilient.
18:55 You know, he was a guy in some ways he looked like he was old when he was young and now
19:00 he's in his low 30s and he kind of looks the same.
19:04 But what you see is he has taken a lot of heat, he's taken a lot of struggles, and he's
19:10 turned that around to be a pretty productive player.
19:13 Now there is a new era in Seattle and what we're seeing here, like we're seeing with
19:17 Derek Carr this week also, is we're seeing a restructuring of the contract.
19:22 This is going to be an absolute constant.
19:24 We know Dak Prescott, we got to do something with him in Dallas here in the offseason.
19:29 We know, we don't know what that's going to be, but we know something.
19:32 So what I see here is interesting because the Seahawks have restructured Geno Smith,
19:37 there is a totally new era, it's going to be a somewhat different, you know, it's going
19:41 to be somewhat different offense.
19:43 And I think we have to have the expectation, like nearly every team, that the Seahawks
19:47 are going to draft a quarterback at some point.
19:50 And the intention is you got to stock your quarterback roster for a lot of reasons.
19:54 So I think we need to credit Geno Smith for being reasonable.
19:58 And we also need to keep an eye on, he's probably not their long-term answer there, but Geno
20:04 Smith and I suppose other guys, they could be more of a problem for their franchise if
20:09 they were like, I'm not touching my contract.
20:12 And maybe we've seen that somewhat in the past.
20:14 The trend right now in real time is that's not the issue.
20:18 So I guess you can credit Derek Carr and you can credit Geno Smith for being flexible and
20:24 reasonable and actually doing something to try to put their team in a better position
20:28 to win.
20:29 From a bigger picture, yes, we've probably got to credit you-know-who for starting that
20:34 trend.
20:35 How many years in a row did Tom Brady and the Patriots do something with his contract
20:41 and probably put them in a position to compete more often?
20:45 I know people don't want to always credit Tom Brady, but hey, you know, Tom Brady's
20:49 in the neighborhood these days.
20:52 His influence is there.
20:54 And the interesting thing to me is, okay, we've got these two.
20:58 Now I want to see what other teams do.
21:00 Let's see what Prescott does.
21:01 Cowboys feel a little bit fragile.
21:06 It feels like one or two things happen and they could kind of be back on the floor again.
21:11 It's going to be interesting these months.
21:14 So John, you know, a few weeks ago, actually probably a week and a half ago, I was told
21:21 that the Bears had yet to make a decision on what they were doing at quarterback and
21:26 that for the Raiders to move to 13-1 was going to cost three ones and three twos.
21:33 I've now learned, and I reported this a couple days ago, that they were pretty locked in
21:40 that they're going to take a quarterback.
21:44 Then Justin Fields goes, unfollows them on all of social media.
21:51 Now you know this.
21:52 I know Justin.
21:54 I like Justin.
21:56 I think he's got a big upside.
21:59 And for the Raiders to go get him with two years left on his deal, he's got two years
22:04 to show you something at a relatively cheap cost.
22:08 I think this is a no-brainer.
22:09 But now the Bears are trying to kind of, well, you know, we haven't made a decision yet because
22:19 they don't want the value for Justin to just fall through the floor because everyone knows
22:24 they've got to get rid of him.
22:26 To me, this goes back to Antonio Pierce speaking his mind now, doing the podcast that he wants.
22:34 He isn't a guy that gets handled.
22:36 Now players like Max Crosby have their own podcast that's not controlled by the league
22:41 or the team.
22:42 Devontae Adams is going to go talk to whoever he wants, whenever he wants.
22:45 He's not asking the team for permission.
22:48 I like this new age.
22:50 I think it's going to make the NFL better, the more personality shunning through.
22:55 I have zero problems with Justin.
22:57 I know his teammates want him.
22:59 I know if he gets traded, they're going to be mad.
23:02 But I like Justin.
23:04 I respect Justin.
23:05 I think this is fine.
23:06 I have no issue with it.
23:07 I'd like to hear your thoughts.
23:10 It's interesting.
23:11 The world of social media is more a young man's game than it is somebody our age, somebody
23:17 older.
23:18 We know what they're doing.
23:19 So Fields comes out and says, "Hey, I took these things off my feet because I didn't
23:24 want to see them.
23:25 I want a break from football."
23:26 Well, I understand that.
23:27 He could have a second or third account, I suppose, if you wanted to do that.
23:31 So it's hard to know what to read into that.
23:34 But here's what I think of Fields.
23:35 It struck me when I saw this story this week.
23:38 I would be curious to get like three independent evaluations of Justin Fields.
23:44 So I'm talking about outside of your franchise.
23:47 I'm talking about maybe a quarterback coach, a quarterback trainer, somebody maybe from
23:52 another team, maybe somebody that's retired.
23:55 I would be curious to get an outside perspective.
23:59 So I could go into our building and say, "Okay, here's what we think of Fields.
24:03 Here's what we think we could do with Fields.
24:05 Here's what these other folks think.
24:07 How do they cross over?"
24:09 If you pull out the old Venn diagram, how do they look together?
24:12 Where do we see some things the same?
24:14 Where do they maybe see something that we don't see?
24:17 Because when you talk about something like mechanics, it is a little curious.
24:22 Is a guy with a longer motion and delivery like Fields, who can certainly throw the deep
24:27 ball really well, is that something that we have to accept that is not going to change?
24:33 Or do we think there's a couple of things that can be done mechanically to maybe take
24:36 him to another level?
24:39 Because at this point in his career, it's either going to happen probably now or it's
24:41 probably not going to happen.
24:44 You think about Geno Smith, is he doing the same exact stuff he was doing when he started
24:48 with the Jets?
24:49 No.
24:50 That's a real credit to being a real pro.
24:53 Fields has a history of making decisions.
24:57 He's made a lot of decisions.
24:59 This one may not be in his control, but I am curious what the Raiders would do and what
25:05 kind of evaluation they would reach for outside of their own organization to really know what
25:13 they think they could get and what they think they could do with him.
25:16 What we don't want to see with Justin Fields is a misfit situation where he goes to some
25:21 place that he does not fit.
25:23 We have seen that problem before.
25:25 On the other side, we have seen a clear misfit with Tua in Miami, and then a new head coach
25:32 comes in that looks like a perfect fit.
25:35 And we saw some serious success there.
25:37 It is a very interesting thing to watch, Justin Fields.
25:40 It has been interesting to watch him since he was going to Penn State, Georgia, Ohio
25:46 State, and now he's going to have this new adventure, whether it's somehow ending up
25:52 staying in Chicago or more likely going elsewhere.
25:55 I'm interested in what kind of evaluation outside of whatever franchise teams are going
26:01 to get, because they got to really know what they're getting and make sure that they've
26:06 got a good fit.
26:07 Otherwise, they should not be in the Justin Fields mix at all.
26:10 Yeah, and I'm going to tell you something.
26:12 I think you bring a Justin in and you don't coronate him as a starting quarterback.
26:20 You still go draft somebody and then let Aiden, I mean, Aiden's here.
26:28 People need to remember this guy did not play poorly.
26:31 You let Aiden within the system, let everybody compete.
26:34 It just makes the Raiders better and it makes each of them better.
26:38 Exactly.
26:39 I agree.
26:40 John, I want to get to another, just a quick point.
26:45 I admire the Raiders having grass inside Allegiant Stadium.
26:51 They need to just eliminate all astroturf, all fake field.
26:57 I know in Detroit, the way the stadium's built, you really, it's almost impossible to put
27:03 a real field in.
27:04 You could, but with the Raiders, they're able to slide it in and out like they are in Glendale.
27:10 I think you give an exception to the Raiders and teams that are in positions that they
27:14 can't do it, but you make it clear.
27:16 Every team who can has to go to a real field, grass field, and all future stadiums have
27:22 to be grass.
27:24 The Bengals are doing it, which is stunning.
27:28 Your thoughts on that?
27:29 The Bengals are going from an old turf, slim turf, to field turf, which is kind of the
27:34 standard for these non-grass stadiums, which is good.
27:39 We've got field turf in Atlanta, Carolina, New England, Detroit, Seattle.
27:45 This is good.
27:47 We want to see constant improvement, but people's eyes are more open.
27:50 They saw the injuries this year that too often were on turf.
27:55 There's questions about the give in the turf.
27:57 The AstroTurf folks are up the road in very north Georgia.
28:02 They're continuing to improve their product.
28:04 We know it's not the same as it was, oh my gosh, in the Vette in Philly, which was like
28:09 the worst.
28:11 We know we're not seeing it like we would see way back when, when the Steelers were
28:14 playing in the same stadium as the Pirates.
28:18 But what you're seeing here is the laggards that are the Cincinnati Bengals.
28:23 Like, okay, we'll come along to the next level.
28:27 What you're talking about is I want to see a future where everything is grass.
28:30 I think that's a reasonable goal for the NFL.
28:33 Maybe they don't even need to say it publicly.
28:34 They just need to tell their franchises, look, the next time around, we got to go to grass.
28:39 We're going to spend the money to get the tray system going, indoor growth, all that
28:44 kind of stuff.
28:45 But what's interesting here, they're not trying to pick on the Bengals, but the Bengals are,
28:49 it's always been a strange feeling.
28:51 It's a franchise that kind of started out of some bitterness.
28:55 If you know some of the history with Paul Brown and the Browns, and it's got a reputation
28:59 of being maybe extraordinarily frugal in spots.
29:05 Yeah.
29:06 I mean, really frugal and really cheap.
29:08 And then sometimes they do other stuff where you're like, well, maybe they're not, maybe
29:10 they're evolving.
29:11 So a little credit here for the Bengals, but also do you want to be the last guys converting
29:17 to field turf?
29:18 I don't know.
29:20 But with that being said, field turf is absolutely in everybody's eyesight.
29:27 Everyone is going to be watching to see what kind of injuries happen this coming year.
29:32 And the tolerance for it is going down, no doubt.
29:35 So as we talk and we move to the mid twenties, let's see where we are as far as what kind
29:41 of grass and turf are on the field when we get to say 2030, there is a good bit of technology
29:47 for heating and cooling turf.
29:48 It's not like it was in the old days.
29:51 We don't have to have heated turf that's still frozen on the top.
29:54 Good things are probably coming for the sport.
29:58 The best football is played on grass.
30:00 I got to tell you, I had a person once who played in the vet.
30:04 Tell me it was literally cement with the thinnest of carpet over it.
30:09 They're just playing on cement with carpet.
30:12 They just said it was horrible.
30:13 And again, I want to go back.
30:16 I think Roger Goodell should come out right now.
30:19 No more AstroTurf.
30:21 If you cannot do grass, you have to do field turf and all future stadiums have to be grass.
30:27 I think he needs to make that very clear, very abundant right now.
30:31 All right, let's go now to Adams and Getzey.
30:36 And some interesting things there with their relationship.
30:41 Yeah, really interesting thing to me is Luke Getzey's coming in here.
30:47 They say, well, what kind of quarterback are you looking for?
30:50 And he says wisely with Bill Belichick back here kind of in his mind, I've got to adapt
30:57 to the roster that I have.
30:59 I've got to adapt to the personnel.
31:00 So I don't necessarily, I'm not just looking for a guy that can throw it deep or just looking
31:04 for a guy that can scramble or make plays after the thing's broken down.
31:09 This is interesting.
31:10 But what we all are going to be paying more attention to and what people are paying attention
31:14 to outside of the Raiders is Devante Adams' real working successful relationship with
31:22 Luke Getzey and the impact that that's got on coming into the Raiders.
31:28 I would think that it could be easily blown out of proportion.
31:32 This is a wide receiver.
31:33 It's not a quarterback.
31:34 So I'm going to start with the default setting that this is going to be blown out of proportion.
31:38 But when you look further and deeper, when you look what happened when Antonio Pierce
31:42 took over, they started getting the ball to playmakers.
31:44 I think there is a good sign.
31:47 I don't think at all that this is, the my way or the highway area is pretty much done.
31:53 We've seen that.
31:54 The square peg in the round hole doesn't work.
31:58 We saw the real struggles in Denver over a number of years.
32:01 So what you have is an offensive coordinator.
32:03 He's not coming in and saying, I don't know what to do.
32:05 I don't know.
32:06 He's coming in saying, I've got to be adaptable.
32:09 I've got to figure out what I can do, what offense we can design, run and call and execute
32:14 to put the guys in the best position to succeed.
32:17 Now you make an interesting point that the Raiders are going to have multiple quarterbacks
32:21 in camp.
32:23 They're all not going to have the same skill set or same abilities.
32:26 So there will be something to watch.
32:27 I know we just put the value of preseason games last year, but if you've got a quarterback
32:33 competition, maybe there's a little more value in it.
32:36 For the love of the game, competition is okay at the NFL level.
32:45 Players got to play, coaches got to coach.
32:47 The old adage or the old days of bringing in a rookie quarterback with a big fat salary
32:52 or just bring in a quarterback and see how it goes.
32:55 I don't want to pick on the Jets, but how did that go for them?
32:58 I'm not saying there was any competition.
33:00 Rogers was clearly the top guy, but did that go so well?
33:06 No, no, it didn't.
33:08 I think you need to be able to stock your quarterback room with guys that are able,
33:14 willing and ready to compete.
33:16 If Justin Fields or anybody else is not really feeling that, let's say there's a high draft
33:21 pick who's been a little bit coddled.
33:24 I don't want him in my franchise.
33:25 I want guys that want to compete starting with the quarterback.
33:28 Yeah, I agree with you, John.
33:31 And I got to tell you, it's fascinating to me.
33:34 I'm looking forward to being there every day at training camp, OTAs, mini camp, watching
33:39 the competition with the Raiders.
33:41 All right.
33:42 Lastly, this is a draft that has a lot of depth, but it's got some holes.
33:50 There are some positions where there's not necessarily that first round guys.
33:59 Let's talk about the holes in the draft.
34:02 It's interesting.
34:03 We know that there's heavy spots of the draft.
34:05 We also know the premium positions in the sport.
34:08 So it's interesting when you see some evaluations say, "Hey, there probably isn't a first round
34:13 running back draft pick here."
34:15 Now there are some good, solid running backs, and maybe they're a little underdeveloped
34:21 and they've got one thing they do really well.
34:23 I'm thinking about Audrick Estime, of course, from Notre Dame.
34:26 But look, we don't expect to see necessarily a first round running back picked.
34:31 There is a thin spot in the interior offensive line.
34:35 Some folks remember Swaronski, the fantastic interior lineman from Northwestern last year.
34:40 This year, don't look for any interior guys to go in the first round.
34:44 It also looks a little thin when you talk about the linebacker position and the safety
34:49 position.
34:50 So that in one end tells me something that maybe we don't expect to see these names going
34:54 off or these positions going off the board in the first round, maybe too much in the
34:58 second round.
34:59 It also tells you and reminds you the premium positions in the sport.
35:04 They are essentially the same.
35:06 Of course, the quarterback, the cornerbacks, the offensive tackles, the edge rushers, those
35:12 are the premium positions.
35:14 I'm not sure, and this is why you need a competition committee working 365.
35:19 I'm not sure if the league needs to keep an eye out and maybe tweak some things to prevent
35:24 the game from becoming imbalanced.
35:26 I think it's pretty okay now, but I fear that it's a little, I don't want it to get out
35:31 of balance.
35:32 We don't want it to just become way too pass heavy or way too, really way too dominated
35:39 by certain positions.
35:40 There's 11 on the field for a reason.
35:42 It's just something to keep in mind.
35:44 So if you're like, hey, nobody's really talking about new running backs so far, it might just
35:49 be because they're not likely to go in the first round this time.
35:53 Yeah.
35:54 And again, so I had heard, now you saw Matt Miller's report at ESPN, but I had heard interior
36:00 offensive lineman, linebacker, running back and safety were the four weakest.
36:08 So I think it's interesting he's hearing that as well.
36:12 Because that's all that I'm hearing as well.
36:14 John, what a podcast today.
36:17 Again, a lot of Raiders stuff with Getze and Devante and the staff and all that's going
36:23 on.
36:24 I appreciate you joining us today.
36:26 It's Combine Week.
36:27 So excited to get going on Combine.
36:29 We'll get back with you again next week.
36:31 I can't wait.
36:32 Remember, follow us on X, @HondoCarpenter on IG, @HondoSR and go to si.com/NFL/Raiders.
36:43 Combine Week.
36:44 We'll see you tomorrow from Indianapolis.