Packers Offseason Chat w/ Matt Schneidman!!!

0:00Hey, it's Howie Mandel and I am inviting you to witness history as me and my Howie Do It gaming team take on Gilly DeKing and wallow $267 million gaming in an epic global gaming league video game showdown, four rounds, multiple games, one winner, plus a half-time performance by multi-platamartists, Traviem McCoy, watch all the action and see who wins in advances to the championship match against Neo right now at globalgamingleague.com. That's globalgamingleague.com. Welcome into the Wednesday edition of the Package Day Podcast. I'm Steve Perretsch. Join us always by Dusty Evelys, Sarah Keller and our special guest this evening. What's going on, buddy? Oh, nothing just getting over the first wave of free agency, ready for owners meetings.

1:04I was talking to some people today. I was actually talking to John Coon today on our podcast, Shameless Plug. I know that comes normally at the end of this show. I know how the drill works over here. Anytime you need to pump your stuff going on. We haven't heard from Matt LaFloris since the day after the season ended, so we haven't talked to him about his extension, the new DC, the new special teams coach, any of the signings. I'm excited to get to Phoenix for more reasons than just the weather here in a couple weeks. We haven't, correct me for wrong Matt, we still haven't heard from Gannon yet either. Have we? No, because the Packers don't make any new coaches available until the entire staff is finalized. And last year LaFloris didn't quote unquote finalize the staff where I should say they didn't announce the staff until after the owner's meetings. I don't know if they view it as a competitive advantage to not announce it. Everybody knows who the coaches are. But yeah, I mean, look, the Packers PR staff has helped me out in a lot of ways. But you saw how many teams had availability with their decision makers and new players last week. You didn't see anything for me.

2:05And there's a reason you had blessed the Green Bay Packers. I just want something to write of substance like I don't want to have to do as much. I hope my editors aren't listening to this because I understand mock drafts serve a purpose and all the speculative stuff and remaining needs. I understand that serves a purpose. I would rather talk to players, but I guess can't be choosers. You know, every once in a while you sprinkle in a good mock draft, but yeah, you know, you know, we kind of rely on you for the heavy hitting stuff. Not quite the like, ooh, who could the Packers pick in the second round this year? We got enough people covering that. So yeah, hopefully we'll get some of that and get out of the cold weather because man, it dumped in Green Bay this week like last couple of days, huh? Yeah, about two feet here over the last couple of days. The most it's ever been since I've lived here. I've lived here seven years now. Yeah, and having a house, it's way worse because you have to clear it yourself. I did not clear it myself today. I, you know what, I'll tell this very quick story.

3:06So I recently joined the West Side YMCA started playing pickleball and got introduced to a guy named Mitch, who's a 66 year old retired firefighter and paramedic. And he called me today and said, I'm driving around Green Bay, just clearing people's driveways for free with my snowblower. Can I come clear yours? I was like, yeah, I'll pay you $100 to do it. He was like, you're not paying me anything. I'm still going to drop off something at his house. I'm going to find his address. I asked him for his address. He would not give it to me, but that just shows you the good people at Green Bay. It stinks living here sometimes, but there are a bunch of times it's great. And that's one of them, just the kindness of people of clearing my driveway for nothing today. Got to love the Midwest nice. That is very, very cool. And to top it off, you saw somebody skiing through the city today as well. I did. Yeah. I was driving on my way to Walgreens today to people might think I'm weird for this, but I love printing out a bracket. I like having the physical copy in my hands for March Madness. I was driving to Walgreens, which was closed to print out a bracket.

4:09And I saw someone skiing on a main road, like with actual poles, because there was no road showing it was just all snow. Now, this is, this is, gets me a little very curious. So you need to print that off for your bracket, but when you write an article like you don't need to print it off and be able to like take a red pen to it and do it like, you know, edit it yourself, you just do that all through the computer, no piece of paper. Yeah, there's just something about having that, that hard copy of a bracket. Okay. Interesting. I don't know. I've always been like that. Did you print it somewhere like where you successful? Yes, I went to Walgreens closed, went to DigiCopy closed, and I went to UPS store open, paid $2 for it to print it, went home, filled out the first round, hated it, crumpled up the bracket and threw it away. So now I have no brackets. Man, that's a, that's a hell of a story. Well, we're going to do a little bit of fun before we get into all the packers. So just quick round robin, you know, we've done it before,

5:11but I'll start off here and then we'll go Sarah and then Dusty, but what's, what are you binge watching right now, man? And if you're not watching TV, is there anything you're reading? I don't read. I haven't read a book since Lord of the Flies, my freshman year of college. I'm pretty sure I've said that on this show before. Hasn't changed in the past year. I know we normally do this right before training camp. So it is a little bit shorter of a break in between my annual appearance. Still haven't read a book. Probably don't read as much as I showed. That's probably why I'm not as good of a writer as I could be shows. I don't really watch shows because my attention spans not that long. I watch a lot of YouTube golf and sports. And I love the world baseball classic. I watch the Yankee games every single night. So my palette is very narrow. That's probably not the right way to put it. But I need to expand my horizons a little bit. But I'm 30 years old and have just used to do that. Are you watching like old tiger stuff? Are you like going back to the 60s?

6:11No, not like that. Not like YouTube. Not like that. There's like a whole ecosystem of YouTube personalities and creators. Like good, good. And those guys. Yes, thank you. See someone who's around my age instead of you two old geezers. Yeah, we've got some of our cultures. Some of our cultures. Yeah, there's groups like Bob does sports and good, good golf and foreplay who are YouTube creators. They're not actual golfers, but they do videos with actual golfers. And it's good. OK. But I love watching the actual golf tournaments. Like the Masters is one of my top five sporting events to watch every year. Love that. OK, shifting to food. Because you know, we like to talk about food on the show. What's favorite candy both growing up and then now? Or is it the same? Because I know sometimes that changes. Yeah, growing up, it was probably KitKats, I would say. Right now, I've really tried to cut down on the suites. But if I have to get something, it'll be double stuffed Oreos or fish food ice cream.

7:14Ben and Jerry's. Never had fish food. What? Continue with food for a second. A little more healthy, nourishing at this point. What's the best thing you cook? If you have got like one dish that's like your specialty, do you have something? Now by cook, do you mean heat up or do you mean actually cook from scratch? You got to like, you have to get like, you have to get out of pan. Let's say that. You have to get out of pan. I bought a grill last year. I haven't used it in a while. I like a good steak on the grill, but what I eat a lot is fish. And I know that doesn't necessarily require a pan. I cook it in the oven. But it's like a lemon tilapia that I have a lot. Okay. And I think it's healthy. So I'll go with that. I cook it, but I don't really care. Did you do grilled salmon at all? You got the grill, you over to the grilled salmon on like the cedar planks? No, that takes too much time. Brother. Brother, it's worth it. I don't have the time for that. I have YouTube. He doesn't even read dusty.

8:14I don't know how to read. He doesn't read. He doesn't watch shows. I don't know what he does. I don't know what you do, Matt. All right. So you've had a little time off from football. I mean, not a lot, but you know, offseason keeps rolling on. But what's the favorite thing you've done outside of football since the sewer bowl has been done? That is a great question. It's going to be in the future. So I have a busy offseason planned. I'm flying. We're recording this Monday night. I'm flying home to Connecticut tomorrow morning on Tuesday because my dad turned 60 on Wednesday. And we are going to the NCAA tournament in Philadelphia this weekend. And then later this summer, I am going to Wimbledon with my mother and my sister. And then later in the summer, actually, I think that's earlier. I don't know when Wimbledon is. I'm also going to the college world series in Omaha with some college buddies. So a couple notable sporting events on my calendar. And that doesn't even include my first ever trip to Wrigley Field for Yankees Cubs later

9:15this summer. Have you done any of those things before? Is that like, is that first time for them? Never gone to Wimbledon. Never gone to the college world series. I have been to the NCAA tournament, both as a fan and covering it when I was in college. I went to the open championship a couple summers ago in Scotland. I still would like to go to the masters, though I don't know if I could go a whole day without my phone. And they don't let you bring it in. Sure. Yeah. Are you going to see the UCF game in Philly? Because I know they're playing one of the games that's I'm going on Sunday. Okay. So I'll see the Yukon UCLA game after UCLA beats UCF. Yeah. I know you're a UCF person. And then I think the other one is slated to be Tennessee Virginia. So if the favorites win, it would be Yukon UCLA and Tennessee Virginia since we're going on Sunday. Yeah. No. I'm just happy that we're in the tournaments for the first time in a long time. And the last time was one of the most heartbreaking sports losses I've ever experienced against against Duke. Oh, against Duke. Yeah. That's right.

10:15I remember that game. So yeah. I'm just glad that we're back in the mix. It makes it a little more fun. But I love it. Yeah. My team doesn't even have a head coach right now. So we're looking for that. I think we're hiring the South Florida coaches or our next head coach. Well, Mark Pope might be available before too long if you just want to wait out a little time. I don't want that guy. He'll have another year at Kentucky, although I did pick them to lose in the first round. Yeah. That's probably smart. Who's the most interesting player on the 2026 roster, whether it's fun interview or somebody who you're just like, people need to know more about this person? Well, this is not my answer, but I am looking forward to Zaire Franklin because I covered him in college. We were at Syracuse together. And I looked back in my archives and at the Daily Orange, the Syracuse student paper. In 2016, I wrote a player preview capsule for Syracuse football training camp 10 years ago about Zaire Franklin. And funny enough, I texted Zaire after he signed with the Packers just being like, yo, long time no talk.

11:15And he was like, I saw your tweet. That's crazy. He's a nice guy. We have a mutual friend, shout out Zach Mahoney, who was the backup quarterback at Syracuse when I was there. He's a good friend of mine now. He's good friends with his Zaire and so I'm excited to have him here to reconnect with him. I think I covered him two years in college when he was the captain for Syracuse. The most, I'll go, I'll answer that two different ways. Most interesting interview, I think everyone knows the guys we pick every year for that, the Tom Mulher and stand up guy award. I'll go outside that because that was last year it was Evan Williams, Josh Jacobs, Christian Watson. I am going to go with Tucker Kraft. He's kind of, yeah, I mean this in the most respectful way possible. He's wired a little bit differently, like he thinks about the game differently. You can tell that, you know, he is, I don't want to phrase it in an insulting way. I was going to say he has a screw loose, meaning it in a good way, but I'm not going to use

12:19that phrase. He just is wired differently and you can tell when you're talking to him that you are talking to a guy who is a little bit of a crazy person. And I mean that in the nicest way possible because that translates to kind of the way he plays, the way he runs through people. I don't mean crazy, you know, mentally, I mean crazy. We're not talking, Martell has been it crazy. We're talking just, no comment, but I like talking to Tucker and hearing because he's also very thoughtful in his answers and he's someone else who is always available, always makes himself available. The most interesting player in terms, Mike Parsons is the easy answer, crafts and easy answer. I am going to say Matthew Golden. I think everyone's waiting to see him break out. I'm not totally surprised that he didn't have a breakout year last year just because we know it's not Brian Gudakun's way of doing things to have that first round pick come in right away and contribute. I was maybe a little surprised that they finally took a wide receiver and he wasn't like a main player in the offense, but no Romeo dobs, you got to get Matthew Golden involved.

13:22And I think him and Jordan Morgan are two guys that I'm really intrigued to watch next year. Like Jordan Morgan's been saying he's a left tackle. That was his college position. That's clearly his best NFL position. Can he hold up there over a consistent basis? We know he played well there during the preseason. This is going to be a different animal here. That's interesting about Tucker Kraft because we talk about it. We talk about him a lot on our show because we're all big fans of him, but the way we describe it is like he's just a football freak. Like he's one of those guys where you're like that's the type of person you want on this team because they're crazy in a really good way just about football and their mentality. So it's cool to hear that even in your conversations with him that you feel that too. Yeah. And Tucker did one of my favorite things a player has done selfishly speaking. It was after the Arizona game this past year when he had the big catch on the fourth and two to set up the forget if they scored a touchdown or a field goal after that. But they won the game. And I'm in the locker room in Arizona after the game talking to Tucker.

14:24And it was just me talking to him. And I asked him about that play and kind of what he saw a pre snap and how it panned out. And he gave me the answer. And then all the TV cameras showed up and asked him again. And he goes, I just told Matt he has that answer. So they were he was they were like, but then he obviously answered it. So I think he was just giving them crap. But yeah, that's my layman's or no, we love that guy. I don't know what your relationship with social media is like these days, Matt. I know I know you are around and you've been around for a while. We know it's not just sports people. So who is your favorite non football Twitter follow? My favorite non football Twitter follow. Yeah, I don't really follow many non sports accounts, but I'll say non football. I just recently started following this account. I want to get the name right. I think it's called that dude rocks. And it's just video clips of random old college basketball players. Not like superstar college basketball players, but guys who are like full heroes in

15:25March madness, who if you say their name, you instantly remember what they did in like Kevin pit snuggle. You got like absolutely the name that dude Jerry McNamara was one of my favorite Syracuse player of all time. Like Adrian Payne, Scoochie Smith, Matt Howard from Butler, like those kinds of guys, not Steph Curry, not, you know, please, right exactly. So guys like that. So it's an account that just posts once a day video clips of a guy like that with the caption, the name that dude rocks. I follow that one as well. That's a good one. That's awesome. All right. You know, we talked about some of your favorite child look candy, things you're making for dinner. But what is like a comfort snack? Like, you know, something that takes you back to a kid, but you know, you're having a rough day. You just want to go home and sit down for and having a grab in a snack. What is it? That's a good question. That is a good question. Are we going to talk football on this? No, I'm just kidding.

16:26You know, I'm a sun chips guy. Okay. Now, those aren't necessarily like the most unhealthy thing dog sighting in the background. I'm a big sun chips guy. It's like a, if I just need something to munch on, I really do try like for dinner tonight. I had spinach, tilapia, and had some blackberries as a snack. I love blackberries too, but I don't really have, I've really cut down on the culvers and the junk food really. But if I'm going to snack, it's going to be some sort of chipper pretzel, so a flavored chipper pretzel. Well, you mentioned you own a home now. Are you more, so someone who wants to keep it completely clean all the time, or are you more on the messy side? I like to keep it clean. My apartment, when I lived in a studio apartment for my first five years living in Green Bay, I would say it was more on the messy side, but you know, every couple of weeks I'll do a dusting, a vacuuming, got to keep the bathroom clean. I take a little more pride just because it's a house, and I feel a little bit more ownership

17:30over it. It was a clean person of all time still, absolutely not. But it's also because I'm a single 30-year-old, I don't necessarily have to be. But I do still like to keep a little tidy space, just to feel a little bit better about myself, I would say. Well, the last question we'll line up is when you're already answered, which was next vacation. So I guess we'll just, we'll get to it, Matt, or 18 minutes in. Let's hit the football stuff, probably. Let's do it. The burning question, top of the docket here, man, what can you tell us about Kim Acord? I know you have not done anything of the podium, you've not done anything of that. What field do you have of, and there's a Basachi question later, in terms of like the kind of coach, the kind of dude, what he's going to do coming in. Do you have any feel for kind of what you think he's going to be as a special news coordinator in Grimea? It's a cop-out answer, but no, since we haven't talked to him yet, I don't really know kind of his philosophy. One thing that was interesting about Basachi Aguda Kunst is the emphasis on special team

18:31centric players versus guys who played offense and defense, but also played special teams. Rich Basachi had told us last preseason that in his 20 years as a special team's coordinator, he had never been part of a team that took a guy for special teams first and then offense or defense. It had always been, all right, they're on offense or defense. Now let's also find a role for special teams. Really in contrast to what Brian Guda Kunst said after the season, which was in the last four or five years, we've really started to emphasize special team centric players more. I don't know who's kind of, I don't think they're trying to lie, but someone's fabricating the truth a little bit. I'd be interested especially with how this team has struggled on special teams and the new kickoff rule specifically. I had one player tell me last year that the new kickoff rule is more like an inside-zone run, just because of the compact space and where you need to find gaps. It's not like a long run-up for a guy like Keishan Nixon to break something off. I think that's why they use Savion Williams because he did inside runs on offense too.

19:31Savion Williams is not the most explosive guy they have back there. He doesn't even seem close to the most explosive guy back there. I want to hear KMA court's philosophy on what type of return men he's looking for, how he, obviously it's not his decision specifically, but does he want guys on special teams that is just like a castaway fifth linebacker? Does he want special team specific guys to be those core guys on his units? I will be interested to see what they do with the return units though, because something clearly has to change. They were good on coverage, probably not as good as they say they were, but where they really struggled, obviously, is punt return and kick return, punt return partially because Jaden Reed got hurt, but kick return, they got to figure out something there. I mean, is that just, I mean, follow up on that as part of that just due to some of those guys, they thought they were going, I mean, they had a hardening, right? And the hardening was like, that was just special stuff that didn't work out. Right. Skymore, Skymore feels like this year's a hard man. Was the return stuff, does that feel more like the guy they got for that role just didn't

20:35work for that role? Like they thought he was going to more than like a philosophy thing though. It's interesting. You say that because Nicole Hardman was the first name that popped into my head when I saw this guy more signing and people are like, oh, well, he could be the returner and he averaged 27 and a half yards per kick return and 11.6 yards per punt return. And I thought, okay, well, Nicole Hardman, we saw how that panned out. That was also because he couldn't really carve out a role on offense. And if you can't carve out a role on offense, are you going to use a valuable roster spot on a guy who's only a return guy when you can maybe, maybe have a slightly worse return guy who's more valuable and offensive defense. It's all part of the calculus of making this roster. I do not envy that job. I think Nicole Hardman also fumbled a punt in one of the preseason games if I'm not mistaken. So look, it's just to me, I have learned with these signings and this is no disrespect to these guys, whether it's a Nicole Hardman, Isaiah Simmons, Jonathan Abram, like these guys who used to be prime time players and guys who you recognize their name, like a

21:37Skymore. People know that name, but I throw caution out there because we've seen so many instances. Jalen Smith is another one, like there's a reason they're free. There's a reason they're not on a team. So can Skymore come in here and be that return guy? He could, but let's not put the cart before the horse in my mock draft that I put out today. I used a seventh round pick on, oh boy, I don't even remember this guy's name. I need to look at his name right now. And I don't even know if I'm going to pronounce it correctly. Hayden Wettgen, I think is his name, a wide receiver from Iowa. He won, I didn't even know this was an award, the jet award, given annually to the top return specialist in the country. He won it each of the last two years, had six returns for touchdowns at Iowa in his career. Signed that guy, draft him in the seventh round. I mean, I feel like that's a conversation for you and good goods to have. Yeah. I'll let him know. I'm right on that. Exactly. We'll be right back.

22:41Bleacher Report is your destination for sports and, well, I wouldn't know. Hey, everybody, Tray Wingo here, a long time sports host, and it's my favorite time of the year. NFL free agencies and full swing. It's March Madness, Major League Baseball is back. The NBA and NHL are heating up as well. Every day there's a new headline, a new highlight, a new moment you've got to see for yourself. That's why I stay locked in with the Bleacher Report app. You could follow the team you care about, get real-time scores, breaking news, and highlights all in one place. And we all know the best part of sports is the community. Bleacher Report makes it easy to drop your takes and relive every moment with other fans. It's fast, it's personalized, and it keeps me in the game no matter where I am. Download the Bleacher Report app today so you never miss a moment. Today's show is sponsored by strawberry.me. Let me ask you something. Do you think championship athletes got to the top by guessing? No, they had coaching. Every elite athlete has a coach watching their forum calling the plays and spotting the blind spots they can't see themselves. That's how championships are won. So why are you trying to win your career without a coach?

23:43You're grinding, hoping for the promotion, trying to read the politics, guessing your next move. That's amateur hour. If you want to perform like a pro, you need coaching. Strawberry.me matches you with a professional career coach who breaks down your game film. They help you negotiate the raise, navigate workplace politics, and execute a strategy that actually works. Stop riding the bench in your own life. Go to strawberry.me slash podcast 50 to get 50% off your first coaching session. Strawberry.me because pros don't guess they get coached to win. Well, on that note, let's see, I always love the offseason rumor mill like, obviously Twitter is full of that stuff and most of it has no bearings whatsoever. But it's still fun as a fan. So was there something that almost happened this offseason? Was there any truth to the jail and Carter stuff? There was, Tarek Wullen was another one that they were mentioned with as well.

24:47So was there any truth behind any of that stuff that you know of or was there any story that we didn't hear about like an almost trade that had popped in your mind? I don't know that there was any substance to the jail and Carter stuff. I would find it hard to believe that the Packers would be able to afford him from a draft capital perspective. So I don't know how much validity there was to that. I think one thing that is still out there that I'm interested in and I know we'll probably touch on this later. I think there's more to the rich basacci resignation than just wanting to be closer to home. This is complete hypothesizing on my part. You know, I had a good relationship with Rich. We talked about the Yankees. We've texted before. He did not respond to either of my texts asking for some sort of explanation or trying to dig deeper into the story after he left. So this is not based on anything he said. I don't know the exact reason why he left. But I, this is just my hunch and I'm sure other people have this hunch too is that there's some sort of philosophical disagreement that caused him to step down.

25:50Maybe he does want to be closer to family. I'm not trying to discredit any reports out there. It's just my antenna went off even before any of these reports came out like, okay, the timing of this is a little strange. The decision is a little strange. We know he was contemplating retirement last year, but you know, to do it, to not only do it, but to do it and then go to Clemson. Could it be he just wants us work in more family time? Sure. He could be. He's at a stage in his life where that's completely understandable. But part of me thinks there's just a little more there and I don't know if that's ever going to come out. Okay. Actually, that was my next question. So we can, we'll kind of, but that's been my, the one thing that I've proposed to to these guys as well that kind of seems like it feels like you're kind of going along the same way of like, you know, Matt, Matt, the slower was like, you know, we're going to run it back with, with Pasadja, he's going to come back like, I trust him. He's, you know, just a good person and, you know, the people love him, but, you know, all they, they had the conversation of, we've got to do things differently this year.

26:52Like, it can't be the same over and expected to say a different result. And so I feel like they got into those meetings early on into this, you know, off season. And all of a sudden, Pasadja starts going, oh, shit, he was telling the truth. We are doing things like, I don't want to do this. Like, I want to coach it the way I want to coach it. They're not going to let me, I'm a walk. Yeah. And, and I know people online have said, oh, this was just a way to amicably phrase it when they actually pushed him out. And they didn't just want to say, oh, we fired him. So they're like, Rich, you can resign. I, 1000% believe he left on his own accord. Right. No pun intended, because I, I know that's not how you pronounce the new guy's name, but I really do think Rich left on his own decision. Obviously, we can't take everything a GM and head coach say at face value, because they're not required to tell us the truth when they're at the podium. But listen to the way Gudakunsten Laflore talked about Rich Pasadja. He just got the assistant head coach title. The players love him.

27:53If the players, actually, I'm not going to say that because I don't know if that's true. What I'll say is the players absolutely love Rich Pasadja, whether it's because of a leader of men, whether it's because of how he coaches special teams, he is loved in that locker room. So I find it hard to believe there was anybody in there pushing for him to be out. I really do think it was his decision. So if there was anything I could squash or any narrative that I think is definitively not true, it's that the Packers pushed him out. If you were the GM of the Packers and based off your assessment of the team right now, what would you have done differently so far this off season? I am a little skeptical of this ed rusher group still. I would have released for Shangri-La. I get Brian Gudakunsten massive props for getting a fourth round pick back for him. In same. Brian Gudakunsten's last four, well, Brian Gudakunsten's last five fourth round picks are in not this order. Baron Cerelle, Evan Williams, Zack Tom, Romeo Dobbs, and whom I'm forgetting.

28:57Baron Cerelle, Evan Williams, Zack Tom, Romeo Dobbs, and Colby Wooden. Brian Gudakunsten's great in the fourth round and you just got a fourth round pick for a guy you were clearly going to cut. He had a graphic made up saying goodbye. Now I know he was hacked. Do you believe that he was hacked? No, obviously not. What I think happened, and this is common sense, this is me not breaking news, is what probably happened is Goody or Russ Ball told them that they're moving on, whether it's a trader release, Roshan jumped the gun, posted a good bi-graphic that his team made. The packers said, dude, take that down, that maybe takes away a little leverage we have in a trade because people know we're going to release you, even though anyone with a brain in the NFL knows that the packers were going to release Roshan Gary, and then he deleted it. His agent probably is what I'm guessing, claimed he was hacked. And now I'm not trying, I love Rob Demovsky and Bill Huber, I'm not trying to discredit their reporting. I'm sure they were told that by someone reliable. I just don't know that anyone believed that.

29:57So yeah, I don't think he was hacked at all. Oh yes, sorry, I didn't answer your question. What would I have done differently? I agree with the Roshan Gary move. Elton Jenkins, he had to cut him, extending Sean Ryan, like this off-season went in terms of who they let walk and who they brought back, pretty much exactly how I thought it would. With the exception of I thought they could have brought back Kingsley and Igbari, although I understand not wanting to pay a number three, Ed rusher, $10 million, manual Wilson, I thought they were going to bring back. Now they need a new backup running back, who I don't think is on the roster right now. But other than that, I think the concern right now is Ed rusher depth specifically when Micah Parsons is not back yet. Now do they address that early in the draft? Do they sign another veteran? I don't know, but I think they approach this off-season pretty much how I would, given kind of the spending restrictions they had. Let's hit the draft real quick. You mentioned you've been doing some mock drafts. I know a grand total of a single person in this draft. I've not dug into it at all so far, but Packers do tend to.

31:01They like to, if there's a position that they can hit, they can spam, grab two, three guys in a draft to kind of address position of need, we've seen a willingness to do that. And then if one of those guys hits, they're good. They've got some positions in need this year. They've got, you know, well, the offensive line, especially like depth, I think starters, I don't think you'll find on cornerback, DL, you just mentioned edge, maybe linebacker. Do you see a position in terms of like what you've seen in the draft so far this year that you could see the Packers doubling up, maybe spam and a couple guys at a position to try to address it? Yeah, you said it does. It's offensive line. We've seen the quantity and significance of the injuries on the O line in recent years. I mean, last year alone, Zack Tom, Elton Jenkins, Aaron Banks, they need to get much better depth. But they're set for starters. It's going to be Jordan Morgan, Aaron Banks, Sean Ryan, Anthony Belton, Zack Tom. Knock on wood, assuming Zack Tom's six month recovery from his surgery for that partially torn patellar tendon goes well. Beyond that, they have Derry and Kenard, Donovan Jennings, LeCita Smith and Jacob Muck.

32:04Do you trust any of those guys besides Derry and Kenard, maybe a little to protect Jordan Love and Ophobul game? No. So I think you really need to fortify the depth of that unit, which is why I would not be surprised in the slightest if they draft a interior offensive lineman who can play a couple different positions with their first pick in the second round. And then I would be surprised if they don't double up on that position. I think this draft, and I think Goody's done a nice job, and it's his goal every year to do this, is portioning out the roster evenly enough so he can draft for best player available. When people say draft best player available, it's a little misguided because you're drafting best player available, but also with need in mind. They say that just to say, we're not reaching for need. I think Goody has filled this roster evenly enough, replacing Quay Wasier Franklin, replacing Colby Wooden with Javon Hargrave, replacing Hobbs with St. Juiced, where he doesn't have to reach for need. So I think he can draft, quote unquote, the best player available, but I would be surprised

33:07if he doesn't add multiple offensive lineman for depth to maybe develop into starters at left guard and centered or left tackle if Jordan Morgan doesn't work out. And then add some more bodies at corners, since I think you need more competition there. And maybe a safety, because they ain't Anderson's gone. I think they're going to draft a running back to be their number two running back. And potentially their future number one, whether Josh Jacobs has one, two, three more years left in them and maybe take a flyer on a guy late day two, early day three to perhaps become the next Aaron Jones here. So those are the couple positions corner running back offensive line that I think are most pertinent in this draft for the Packers. And then look, defensive lines are always going to be a need, especially they're going to have more three, four base principles this year, which means you need more beef on the interior, since you have more defensive lineman or interior defensive lineman in

34:07base. So I wouldn't be surprised if they draft some interior defensive lineman, but I don't really see the need to draft more defensive ends, because you already have young defensive ends that you're trying to develop in Barron, Surrell, and Colin Oliver. So if you draft a guy, they're not really going to play right away, and I'm not sure they're going to play in the near future anyway, because Surrell and Oliver clearly have a couple of years left here, Vaness might just have one, Micah's here. So I don't think defensive end is as high on the needs list as maybe some other people. All right. Continuing on with the draft, you've been covering a team for multiple years. Do you have a favorite draft day story? Dusty was informing us last week that he finally broke down from all the poking and prodding from me, but a blue ray copy of draft day for three dollars into it, he got him to do something that I wanted him to, and one of the worst movies of all time, but it's so bad that it's good. Man. Is there any high quits watches that movie on the morning on that Thursday morning of

35:12draft day every single year? My younger brother does it the night before, and we were up at the draft last year. He's making me do that's new tradition this year. So we're watching it draft eve on cheese already dreading it sucks so bad dude. My favorite draft story memory, you know, it's never really all that exciting with the Packers because they have kind of picks in boring spots. The one year they did like an interesting trade. It was 2022, but that was in the second round when they traded up for Christian Watson. My favorite part of draft weekend that is newly implemented at Lambo Field is what they used to do is have us in our regular offices in Lambo, and then we could watch the draft just in the media auditorium. Now they give each media outlet their own suite on the suite level at Lambo and couches to work from a whole buffet up on the suite level, and it started last year. And maybe it was because they just had less space with the draft, but I think it's coming

36:14back this year too. And this year we have new offices and a new media auditorium at Lambo that we have not seen yet. But my favorite part of the draft is just the accommodations we get from the Packers. I know I trashed them earlier for the lack of availability during free agency. But I am excited this year to literally just sit on a couch in a suite in Lambo Field for the entire first round and not have to do any work this year since they don't have a first round. So basically it's going to be like that picture of Clifft King's Berry back in the day. It's just sitting on a couch with nothing like laptops, and then you're just going to have your buffet. That's outstanding. It sounds like a dream right there. If you need assistance, bring you coffee or anything. I am local. These two jokers would have to fly in that exactly. I can help if you need help. What free agent move across the league? It doesn't have to be Packers related, but just anyone. What surprised you the most, but you know, notification that you got where you're like, whoa, is that for real?

37:15Or I have to double check that that's really Adam Schaefter and not Adam Schaefter with two ours or some other different letter in the handle. The first thing that jumps to mine, I know it's probably not what people around the league would say, but just because it's in my sphere is Rashid Walker's contract. I was expecting him to get a four year 80 million dollar contract and the Packers to get a third round compick. One year 10 million, I don't know what other teams saw, whether it was something in negotiations where teams weren't offering enough on a multi year deal. So he said, you know what? I'll just take one year 10 million, hit the market again next year. That surprised me based on all the projections that were out there for his contract. Look, he's not the best left tackle in the league, but he's a serviceable starting left tackle and those guys get paid because they don't grow on trees. So I was surprised by that outside that, hmm, what were some of your guys, I might be in my memory to be jogged a little bit here because there were certainly some, but they're not coming to the top of my head. I don't know that there were two, well, obviously the Max Crosby thing.

38:16Train Hendrix and going to the Ravens, there's some shady stuff going on over there. I think, but that's the easy answer. That's what everyone would say. That was insane. Yeah. I saw this last thing I'll say, sorry to cut you off, Dusty. I didn't. That statement, the Raiders put out, the Baltimore Ravens have backed out of someone photoshopped a Minnesota Viking statement and said the Minnesota Vikings have retracted the 13th overall pick of JJ McCarthy, like he will now go back into free agency or something like that. I was going to say one of my big ones is just, I guess it's the standard for the other stuff, but Wondail Robinson, as a Kentucky guy, I love Wondail Robinson, but the contract he got from the Titans and then it seems like the Titans just wanting to gather all the guys who played on terrible teams that these other guys coached with is kind of a strange strategy for free agency. Yeah, you know, guys always get overpaid in free agency and look, he might pan out to be good in Tennessee, but I mean, look at what I think on this, when Packer signed Aaron

39:20Banks for four years and 77 million, people are like, they're given that guy money. Sometimes it works out that has not so far. Same thing with Nate Hobbs. So maybe Brian Boutikun's just relaxed from taking some of those bigger swings because he had the Jacobs and McKinney ones, both absolute home runs. And then Banks and Hobbs, Banks, I'll give some more time because he played better when he was healthy. Nate Hobbs, failure of assigning, not a failure of a human or a football player. I'm just saying it was a flop of assigning. Yeah, I think the Javan Hargraves one is interesting to kind of pull it back to the Packers. Goody said to us at the combine, you know, I like guys in the 26 to 29 year old range. That's their prime, but if we had to sign an older guy on a shorter deal, I wouldn't, you know, shy away from doing that. That's not really his style. They not only trade a 25 year old starting defensive tackle and Colby Wooden's a fine player for a 30 year old middle linebacker soon to be 30 year old middle linebacker. They've then replaced that 25 year old with a 33 year old. Now, I get the Jonathan Ganon ties, but some of these signings, whether it's Hargrave

40:26or not necessarily St. Jews because he's only 28, but that Hargrave signing is like, that's not a, okay, we're trying to win the Super Bowl. We got Javan Hargrave. It's just Goody knows he has two years to win a Super Bowl. He said, right after the Micah trade, this is a three year window. They have to win a Super Bowl in one of the next two years or else people might lose their jobs. Maybe both the head coach and Jim, I know they just got extensions, but these guys have two years to win a Super Bowl realistically, I think. My next question was going to be about like free agents after the draft, but I'll scrap that just to kind of ask a follow up on kind of what you just said about the older players. Does that seem like a, I mean, the wooden stuff you can make a case right like in terms of, you mentioned the three, four base stuff, wouldn't played pretty well last year, but as far as like how that structural workout, maybe not the best fit for wooden if they're shifting that. So you could see that wooden for Franklin as like, we've got a guy, we may not even keep in and we'll get a guy that we think is going to come in and we need stability. The linebackers bought with Quagon or could it also be, we've heard for years and years

41:27now about like this youngest team in the league, right? Youngest team in the league, I know they keep saying it's youngest team in the league, but they played a lot of games like, you know, not an experience or not young. But is this all, could this also be not a huge shift, obviously, but a way for them philosophical way to say like, listen, we also just need like some experience dudes in the room. Like we can't rely on like second and third year guys to do this, is that, could that be part of this as well? I don't know if you've heard anything about that. Sure. I think it could be. Juvan Hargra has been to a Super Bowl with Jonathan Ganon. I think I agree with their kind of point that it's more about the experience than the age and they have that playoff experience. But a lot of these guys don't know how to win and when I say don't know how to win, I mean, don't know how to make deep runs in the playoffs. Maybe they need some of that veteran experience now, say you're Franklin, doesn't know about that in the NFL either, but you know, Juvan Hargrave does. Maybe they add some more veterans who do know about that. I think something needs to get this team over the hump in the playoffs. Now, I don't know if that's going to come from players.

42:29I don't know if it's a, you know, just a year of maturity, look, it's a cop-out answer. But Michael Parsons, Tucker Crafts, Zach Tom Devante, why their best player at four critical positions did not finish the season. If at least two of those guys are healthy, it could even be Zach Tom and Devante, why it? They beat the Bears and they probably aren't even playing in Chicago because they win the division. So it could very well be just getting healthy. And I think that's part of the reason LaFlure got a contract extension. Now I stand by kind of what I've said on other platforms that his job was more up in the air than the Packers made it out to be. I truly believe that. But I understand if Ed Policy did think this way of giving him the benefit of the doubt because of those injuries. But I do think there is value to bringing in guys from other organizations who know how to win and have gone on deep runs. I know they're not doing that across the board, but a guy like Juvan Hargrave. That could be of some value because you have Devante, why it?

43:31Who's never gone on a deep run? You have Carl Brooks and Stackhouse. And I mean, Michael Parsons has never gone on a deep run. I'm not saying he needs coaching, but that defensive line, if you're going to have the cornerback group you currently have, you need that D line to really man up. And Juvan Hargrave, he may not be the best player, but maybe he's the guy that whips those young guys into shape to really make them step up. All right. Keep an on with some free agency here. Who would be your choice as a Packers quote unquote, Julius Peppers? This year, that's kind of left on the free agent market that might surprise you a little that they would bring in, but just, you know, if there is anybody that's still out there that you think really could, could help the Packers turn the corner. I need to look at the remaining available free agents. So talk a little bit more and I'm going to pull up a list of the remaining guys and I'll have an answer for you. Okay. Yeah, I mean, I think the biggest thing is just because, you know, it's, is there anybody left of like a higher tier quality that, you know, just kind of floats out there for

44:36a little while, that maybe the Packers somehow sneak into Lambo and all of a sudden it's just that Saturday morning at 8 a.m. There's a new tweak coming out from the Packers that they signed this guy, you know, and maybe it's not, maybe it's not anything that big as Julius Peppers, but you know, kind of the age veteran. I mean, I think they, you know, they brought in the defensive tackle, but is there anybody else that you can see maybe like a cornerback or anything along those lines that might help? I'm not really seeing any on this list right now. Why not like David and Joku now? I think John who Smith, I'm looking at tight ends and here's why because I mean this with all due respect to the guy, Luke Musgrave is a lost cause. I don't think you can rely on him for anything of substance. We had an inkling about it before Tucker Kraft got hurt, Tucker Kraft gets hurt. You saw how big of a drop off there was. Now maybe that speaks more to Tucker Kraft as a player than Luke Musgrave as a player,

45:36but whether it's because of injuries, the kidney and the ankle or less rated, yeah, less rated kidney. He had a couple of years ago and then the ankle that he had surgery on, Musgrave just hasn't blossomed into the vertical threat or the blocker that we thought he was going to be. I think you need another mean nasty tight end. Now is it going to be David and Joku? I haven't watched enough of his film to know if he can block, but I think you need a guy besides Tucker Kraft at the position that you are confident can play in two tight end senses and play well and also Tucker Kraft's coming off to our NACL. It's just the fact of the matter. I hope he's okay. I hope he returns to great form. He's an awesome player to watch and cover, but he needs some insurance and if your insurance is Luke Musgrave, you're screwed at that position. Again, with all due respect, we've all seen him not be able to run after he catches the ball. Josh Wiley's a fine player, but John Fitzpatrick towards Achilles, like they need more

46:40bodies in that room. This is kind of a different question and I'm always curious about the science of this, but what's your process and shares much short little that you like of breaking news? Do you get a text? Do you get a call? How fast? Once you find the info, does it go on Twitter? I'm just curious what the process of that for you is like. Well, I appreciate that you asked me that, Sarah, because among people on the beat, I probably break the least amount of news. It's something I need to get better at. It's something that takes a lot of due diligence throughout the year and keeping up to date with agents and always checking in and it's something I think I quite frankly need to be better at. Robert's great at keeping in touch with all sorts of people. I envy him for that. Tom Silverstein and Rob Demovsky do a great job with their stuff too. Now I'll get something small here and there, I think, but I'm trying to think of something in the past that I can share. I think this wasn't breaking news, but in terms of getting an exclusive or anything, I think

47:44I've told the story on here about how I got Aaron Rodgers for that big story I wrote about the breakup. Yeah. I've talked about that on here. I don't know if I've broken any news since then. It's been a couple of years. Sometimes you'll get a tip from whether it's a coworker or someone else. Sometimes it could be something like hearing something from someone out in the community. These players and coaches live in closer proximity to regular everyday people in the community than they do us. Sometimes I've heard stuff about players and coaches, not necessarily that it's risen to the level of breaking news from people out in the community sometimes. It'll be something as minute as news happens and then I'll text someone, for example, Preston Smith was traded. This is such a minor example, but it just popped into my head. It's just kind of the process. Preston Smith traded to the Steelers. Nobody had reported the compensation. So I texted, I won't say who I texted, but texted someone gave me the compensation.

48:48Could be something as simple as that. But oftentimes it will arise just from casual conversation where it tips off something like, oh, let me check in on that. Often times the news doesn't come from just straight up asking someone, hey, is something happening here? It'll often come from you getting a tip from someone else and then presenting that to someone as, hey, I have this information. And then they're more incentivized to tell you what it is because they know you already have something. Interesting. Is it, sorry, follow up question here. You're totally fine. Is that stressful during, especially during kind of moments like this where it's busy, potentially in the off season and during the season, like, do you sleep with your phone ringer on because you're worried that like something's going to break or that you're going to hear something from someone and you're like, I need to report it. Like how do you manage that? I feel like I have trouble with that. Yeah. I have slept with my phone on like that before, but I've come to terms with the fact that

49:49Shafter, Rappaport, Rusini are most likely going to get all the major news before me. And sure, I'll try and seek it out, but I'm probably not going to break it. There's a reason they've gotten to the level of their careers that they are because they're great at developing sources all around the league and getting it where I find value in my job is, okay, someone will break the news. But that lasts for five, 10 seconds. Then as passionate as Packer fans are, they want to know what happens next. What does this mean for the team? What was the story behind this? So sure. I was never going to break that Aaron Rodgers got traded to the Jets. But selfishly speaking, I got Aaron Rodgers on the phone on the record for 35 minutes unloading on the organization and everything that happened in those three years. So that was a major example, but I find more value in myself of explaining the why and how behind the breaking news, rather than, I mean, sure, I'd love to break more news, but realistically where I add value, I think, more so is talking to the people on the

50:50ground who have developed relationships with because of the fact that I'm in the locker room every day to say, okay, this is how this happened. This is why this happened to provide some context behind that big news instead of breaking it. Interesting. Thanks. I was just curious. No, it's a great question. My last question. I mentioned earlier off season room one something that's been going around the past week. I guess now has been Packers tied to Anthony Richardson, which kind of gives me this like as far as the Packers backup QB plan this year, we saw what the floor did with Willis over the past two years. Right now, I think it's only Ritter. I think it's the only other quarterback on the roster. I know things will change a lot before the season. How dare you disrespect Syracuse legend Kyle McCord. I'm sorry. Forgot they brought in McCord. I apologize. I forgot they brought in McCord. All right. Two high quality backups, they already have on the roster. Where do you see them going this year? Does that seem like a stand put type of thing? Do you see them going with more? I mean, you mentioned already, like the Super Bowl window. You're figuring out the next two years.

51:50Could they be like in the market for a high floor vet, someone to get them through, or because of what Willis did so well, and what the floor did with him when he was asked to come in. Could they take a swing on a guy like Richardson or a guy like Tray Lance? What do you get to feel for, or what would you think? Perhaps they might be going to earn a dozen to be stuck. Oh, Steve, you stole the name right out of my mouth. So Dusty, it's a great question because we know how much this organization values two quarterbacks that can really play. Now Brian Guterkin, stuff Michael Pratt and Sean Clifford will not get the job done. So they went out and traded for Malik Willis. They drafted Jordan Love four years before they thought he could play because they value backup quarterback play, granted Tim Boyle was technically the backup that first year. But after seeing how valuable Malik Willis was in the value that a great backup quarterback can provide, I don't think Brian Guterkin's goes into this season with Desmond Ritter, Kyle McCord. Now, Kyle McCord, shout out, Syracuse University, set the ACC single season passing record,

52:55broke to Sean Watson's record in 2024, Desmond Ritter has experienced in this league. They do some great things in the off season and camp shore. But today of the upside to when you a game or two or three or four like Malik Willis did, I don't know. They're going to be enticed. I would imagine by the Anthony Richardson possibility because of the parallels with Malik Willis, kind of the same style of play comes from the AFC South, they'll say, you know what? If we could fix Malik Willis, we can fix Anthony Richardson. That being said, you're not trading for the contract of a third round pick, you're trading for the contract of a number four overall pick. So do they want, I think is Capit's like $10 million this year? Do they want their backup quarterback making that much? I don't know. Kurt Cousins is, let me preface this by saying he's probably going to want more money than the Packers are willing to pay a backup quarterback. If I were Kurt Cousins, I would go to a spot where the starting quarterback situation is a lot more shaky than that in Green Bay because I would want to play and I would want to play quicker than it looks like I would in Green Bay.

53:57However, maybe, and I don't know Kurt Cousins or his camp through a hole in the wall, maybe he says, you know what? At this point, I'm fine with being a mentor. There aren't really many spots where I can go in and realistically be a starter. I'm not unveiling any state secrets here, but you guys know who Kurt Cousins quarterback's coach was when he first got into the NFL. Yes. Obviously he's now the head coach of the Green Bay Packers. So that would be a fascinating one for him to come in. Now, like I said, I don't think it happens because I think he would want more money and I think he would probably want to go somewhere where there's probably more of a quarterback controversy than there clearly is here. I think the Packers have a top five quarterback in the NFL, perhaps higher if he has kept upright. But Anthony Richardson and Kurt Cousins are the two names that are most interesting. I don't know how realistic either of those is and I don't think they draft a guy to fill that role because I think they want someone more ready to take over. If your love gets hurt, we'll be right back.

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56:06So yeah, Dusty had mentioned, we talked a little last week of the low floor high ceiling type of bringing somebody in like that. And so I just want to pick your brain because I threw out an option last week and these two shot me down and told me it was the dumbest thing they'd ever heard. But again, it is low floor high ceiling. Dusty, for example, was trade lands. I said, Zach Wilson. I said, he, like, give me this guy, like, I remember watching his BYU days, like he was slinging the ball all over the yard. He was confident. He was like exciting to watch. And then he went and played for the Jets, got destroyed for three years and now he has no confidence. You know, if it is a one read, like, kind of like Malik Willis, he's going to be running the ball a little bit more, but he's got one read if it's not there, run. To me, like, I thought that was a bilo sell high ceiling type of thing. They told me I was absolutely insane because to be clear, just real quick, it's not the dumbest thing I've ever heard you say.

57:06But it was pretty dumb. We've heard you say dumb or things, Steve. Don't say you're so short. You're dumb. It is interesting, though, because like, we don't know the evaluations that Goody has on these guys. They liked what they saw from Malik Willis in Tennessee. Like, nobody in their right mind would have said, oh, Malik Willis is going to get $45 million guaranteed in two years after Will Levis is beating him out. So do I think it's the dumbest thing I've heard? No. I think it's easy. It's easy to draw those parallels because it's like a mobile style quarterback who's athletic who's a high draft pick and just rotted away and, well, Traylance didn't rotted away in an incompetent organization that was more so on him. But Goody's probably itching, which guy can my staff or my coaching staff save next. And who can I flip from a seventh round pick to a third round comp pick next? So I don't blame him for itching to look like that. Obviously, the fantasy is the Steelers are like, hey, we want Will Howard.

58:07And Aaron Rodgers is like, I want to back up Jordan love. But obviously that would never happen. We have been asked that question is like, do you think Aaron Rodgers would back up Jordan? That's crazy. No, I don't believe. No, I don't think that. No. Yeah. Um, curious, just personal opinion, what do you think about the NFL strategy, this queer path that they're trying to carve to expand internationally? Every year, there's more international games. I know you've covered some now, but it seems like it's a lot. I mean, I know there's going to be like an Australia game. Madrid was added to the mix. So just kind of curious, what are your thoughts on that? Because it seems to be a point of contention for a lot of people. Yeah, it's all about the money. That's what everything always comes down to. And I remember driving up to that game in Sao Paulo a couple of years ago. And you probably could count jerseys from 25 different NFL teams. It's about getting as many people engaged in the NFL and buying jerseys and buying tickets

59:08to games and buying these T Sunday ticket TV packages as possible. Because it's all about the bottom line and money. It's a cynical answer, but I think it's the accurate answer. It's about growing the game globally. It's about getting as many people as possible to pay to watch your product, to pay to buy jerseys and stuff like that. Now I love going abroad to see different places. I also don't like sitting on a plane for a long time. So Melbourne or anywhere in that area of the world would be tough for me to fly to. But I would imagine the packers are going to have to fly somewhere far next year since I don't have nine home games this year. So they would have to be the host for one of the international games and they are not. So I don't think they're going abroad this year. Unless the NFL just gives them seven away games, which I don't think they would. So I don't think we're going abroad this year. Next year, I think it will happen. That would be cool. I think Spain would be cool for already done Brazil. I've done London twice. I've done Mexico City covering the Raiders.

1:00:09I don't need to do any more of those, but I get why they're doing it. And from a journalist fan perspective, I appreciate it. I know these coaches absolutely despise going abroad because they're all creatures of habit and it totally f's up their entire week. Matt Laflore hated going to London more than probably anything on planet Earth that he'll ever be upset about ever again. I've never seen a human more disgusted with anything in my life than Matt Laflore was with going to London. How is he? How's he going to handle the extra game on Wednesday night before Thanksgiving now? Packers are probably going to play in that game just because it's actually now the packers are probably going to play the lions in the new game again because those games are always entertaining and Detroit, but yeah, he would probably, if, you know, I think he's grown from that week of complaining for London and grown to embrace it more, but he would probably

1:01:09still find something to complain about if they had to play on that Wednesday. That's not a shot at him. I get it because you want to get your guys' rest. I mean, you know, for all the claims of we were in this for player safety, it doesn't really feel like. Oh, no, nobody cares about player safety, no, no. So well, that's the kind of all the questions we've got for you. Do you have any? We, I don't know if we've ever given you the option to ask us questions at the, oh, wow. Dusty, what's going on in the dusty, evely film room right now? Just reviewing old stuff, man. I haven't looked at draft stuff at all, brother. I'm right in a series on down and distant stuff. So I just got done looking at all their second and medium stuff and what God bless you. God bless you. God bless you. Starting to think about two tight end sets and how that looks next year. So yeah, I'm, I'm deep into week four, second and medium film is where I'm at, right? Yeah, I'd be way better at my job if I had that kind of drive that you do instead.

1:02:10I can even remember who I mocked to them at pick 255 in my mock draft that posted this morning. Sarah, what about you? These are the questions that Steve asks all of you at the end. What do we got cooking? I'm asking the damn questions now. Let's go around the table. Sarah, you're up. Okay. I'm going to be on the Ohana Packers podcast this weekend. This is my annual draft, my one and only annual draft obligation that I commit to. So talking, running backs and state of the position for the Packers, which now it's a little bit interesting because I agree with you, Matt, that they definitely need to find a backup and then just talking about draft prospects in general, who's, you know, obviously the top guys, but then who could be a good fit for the Packers. So it's a pretty top heavy running back class this year. Last year, there was a lot more depth. So looking forward to that, I think it should come out next week or the week after I haven't figured that part out with them yet, but we're recording this weekend.

1:03:10So always looking forward to that. It's a good time on a scale of zero to 10. How much do you trust that Marshawn Lloyd can give the Packers anything of substance? Sarah, I don't mean that as a joke, I don't mean that as a talk of Marshawn Lloyd. So really? Yeah. So I've been banned from. Oh my God. That name on this show. He's kind of like, or tweeting about it. Yeah. It's kind of like the he who shall not be named, you know, Voldemort vibe here because every time I talk about him and I get really excited about him, like the next day you or someone else reports, like, oh, he didn't practice. Oh, he's like something else happened. And so everyone is out for six weeks. Yeah, everyone has just blamed me because it's no joke every time we do an episode. I'm like, I'm really excited about it. It's like a day or two later. And then some of our listeners are tweeting at me and they're like, thanks Sarah, like it was your fault again. So, you know, I was kind of not to bring it back to myself. We'll get to you, Steve. Don't worry. I was kind of the grim reaper this year too in the sense that I try and write a couple

1:04:13like big swing features every year. I did the sit down with Keishan Nixon before the season. And then I try to do one or two every regular season. And my first one this year was going to be Tucker Kraft. And I got the acceptance to fly to the Native American reservation in South Dakota that he's from. And I had all that stuff ready to go. I was going to travel there for a couple days during the week, write a big life story on him, basically, right when he was kind of breaking out. Next game he tears his ACL. So my obviously didn't do that story. My next big swing was going to be, I was going to sit down. Now he never officially okayed this, but I think he would have. And it was, I was going to do the sit down, I think, at a certain point with Michael Parsons where I was going to play him in Connect 4 as a segue into a story about how he's wired mentally and what makes him great between the ears because he talked to us about how

1:05:13he's so competitive, even playing board games that he hasn't lost playing Connect 4 and 5 years. And he didn't talk to his, his girl for two days after she beat him in a board game. So I said, you know what, there's so much that's been written about this guy is covered from every angle. Let me try and take a different angle and play him in a game of Connect 4, try and beat him and use that as a way to talk about kind of like how he's wired competitively. And then he tore his ACL right when I was about to sit down with him. So I stopped going for features because I didn't want to have any more guys tear their ACL. So now what I'm doing this off season is flying down to Miami and spending some time hopefully, I got okayed from my bosses to do this, I haven't contacted the dolphins yet. But since we don't have a dolphins beat rider, basically how the Miami Packers are trying to turn around the dolphins and hopefully spend some time with Malik Willis and John Eric Sullivan and Jeff Hathley and Zane Anderson, obviously down there in Miami.

1:06:13Yeah. That's awesome. So that's on my, so my, my off season trips are Omaha, Nebraska for the college world series London, England for Wimbledon, Philadelphia for the NCAA tournament and Miami. Get me out of this city. And these two people. I was going to say it's going to be hot by this time. You come down to Florida. It's going to be just brutal. So are you in Orlando? Yeah. I'm in Orlando. Okay. All right. Steve, what do you got? Well, I would say I'm, I'm kind of like the starship troopers meme of this podcast where we got, he's like, Dusty, what are you doing? And he's like, I'm doing this and I'm doing this and I'm like, I'm doing my part, Sarah. What are you doing? I'm doing this. And then it gets to me. It's like, Steve, what are you doing? And it's Tim Robbins. And he goes, I ain't doing shit. I mean, I just, I enjoyed doing the podcast. Like, I love it. I love these guys. I don't do, I don't know. I leave it to you guys to do all that kind of deep dive interesting stuff. Like every, it feels like every angle of, you know, like there's a guy for the salary

1:07:17cap for the Packers. There's Dusty does the passing game. You know, there's a guy who talks about defense. He talks about the run game. I'm like, I have no clue what I would go into. So I just, you know, Karel, these idiots every once in a while, once in a week. Nothing wrong with that. And we have a good time and yeah, I like it. So and then we get our, we get our break from the, for the draft. We let all the other pack of day, people take care of the, the draft stuff and, yeah, it's a nice little month. We're the only team now. They told us they're like, you know, if you guys want, you can just keep doing whatever you want to do. And we're like, no, we'll take the break. It's exactly. Um, yeah, I don't really have anything going on. And if obviously this is not a video podcast, but behind me is our great banner. So the only thing I would plug of myself is our weekly episode of the Tundra with me in John Kuhn, available on YouTube, wherever you get your podcast. Please subscribe. It's a year round podcast. So we have a new episode every week.

1:08:19We recorded today just talking about free agency after John got back from his Maui vacation with his family. We should expect from the packers going forward, kind of spinning it forward. And then talking about that sports business journal article, uh, will Lambo field be named Nikolay law field or Nikolay law stadium at Lambo fields in the next five years. Now, but we just talk about kind of the whole how the packers have to approach, you know, generating revenue given that they don't have a deep pocketed owner. It's kind of a, not a football centric discussion, but one that's, I think, in the news and relevant now, especially with some of the comments that gave to sports business journal. I think it was Ben Fisher who wrote that article. So, uh, lot to talk about. And then obviously I am flying down to Phoenix in two weeks for owner's meetings, where two weeks from today, actually, we will be talking to Matt LaFlor for the first time in a couple months and getting down to the nitty gritty of cam a cord. And that's how you pronounce it, right? It's a cord not. I think it's a cord.

1:09:19Yeah. Okay. I trust you, Dusty. Jonathan Ganon, new players. So excited to talk to Matt LaFlor and then get Brian Guterkin's take on everything he did. Slash didn't do in free agency. Well, just while you're here, Matt, let's tell you your face, man, a big fan of the Tundra. I listen to that every week. I love to see that. I love the rapport you and you and, uh, Koon have it. There are times it feels like you might fight each other, which I also enjoy. We do. It's a, it's a fun lesson every week. Big fan. We had an argument today, not on air, but I don't think there would be any problem with me sharing this. I know you work with him too, Dusty. Uh, John thinks that I am too much of a reporter when it comes to podcasting. I need to be more of a podcaster and not just be so by the book, journalistically, when it comes to podcasting. And I agree with him. I pride myself on backing up everything I say with concrete information, but sometimes I just need to let some opinions fly, which is kind of what I did here a little bit today.

1:10:21But I really enjoy working with John. He's great. He is the reason why I have the opportunities outside writing. So I'm forever grateful to him and he's great to work with. Yeah. He's awesome. Amazing. Well, uh, yeah. I mean, before, I think you stole my, you stole my closing line. I'm not exactly sure how to do this now like I close the show. I asked the, I asked what everyone's up to. I close this show. You don't do shit around here. You trick it yourself. Exactly. No. But obviously, thanks for joining us now. We love having you on. So we'll get you on again before the season starts to a preview of the season. But make sure we're following you on Twitter at management. I mean, got at Dusty, Evely, at Sarah Keller, her four at Steve Peretion, at Pack-A-Day podcast. We will be back next week. And as always, go pack, go.

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