1 on 1 With Ceedee Lamb & Under The Radar Rookies | 'The Insiders'

And we start the regular season Fantasy Live coming Just when you think you know where the wide receiver drama might lead, there's another twist or two. We'll tell you what we know on where things stand now. The Gantlet has been thrown down with Brandon Aiyuk and maybe Ja'Marr Chase as well. CeeDee lamb is back on the field. He got his deal. Also got a chance to catch up with our Jane Slater in Dallas. Now the drama turns to whether his quarterback gets paid. Hear what Jerry Jones had to say about Dak Prescott's future. And speaking of 40 Niners drama, it's not just Aiyuk. Trent Williams has already racked up millions of dollars in fines as he continues his holdout. Our Baldi will be here to help us break down how important Trent is to the 40 Niners. Super Bowl chances. Welcome inside with the insiders alongside a very dapper dressed Ian Rapoport, who might be wearing a sport coat in the prime time history of this show, and Mike Garafolo. I am Tom Pelissero. What are you doing there? Ian, where are you? You want to tell us, there was a league office, hosted a reception for media members. I came, I was social, I talked to people, and I came downstairs to do the show. And now I'm talking to you guys, which is more fun? Definitely more fun. No, he's he's he's trying to show me up. Yes, I was invited as well. I just, I couldn't make it. I mean, were you a little too much going on? Ian, are you sure my kids are too small. Your kids are older. You can't show me up like that. I got to take a flight the opposite direction to Los Angeles later on tonight. So a little a little difficult logistically here. But here's the important thing. We are eight days away from kickoff. We got unresolved questions seemingly all over the league, but one question has been answered in Pittsburgh. As expected, Russell Wilson is going to be the Steelers starting quarterback for their week one game against the Falcons. Mike Tomlin had said at the start of the offseason that Russell was in the pole position. He never relinquished it, even as Justin Fields got a lot of opportunities to show what he could do. So what exactly went into this final decision? Mike I met with both quarterbacks here just a few minutes ago, after practice, and I informed them that Russell is QB one going into week one, it was a difficult decision, but not difficult in a negative way, to be quite honest with you, it was difficult in a positive way. That decision was difficult because of what they're capable of doing. The decision was difficult because of how they have conducted themselves as opposed to the things that they fall short in, in terms of capabilities or negative conduct. Yeah. You know, listen, I think I came here to be a Pittsburgh Steeler to help us win another Super Bowl. I mean, that's that's the bottom line. That's that's the focus. You know, I'm not going to sugarcoat it. You know, it's you know I believe in this football team, you know, we believe in each other. And we got to do the work. And that's that's just what it is. And so I'm excited about it, man. I'm excited about the challenge. I look forward to it. I look forward to the obstacles ahead. And let's let's get ready to play some football. Mike, there are a lot of reasons to believe all along that this was the direction it was going to go with Russell Wilson. One, I kept coming back to even as the door remained ajar for the past six months or so, is when Mike Tomlin commits to something and he had committed to it's Russ's job. He's in the pole position early on in the off season. He tends to give people every opportunity to come through for him and continue to stay that course. In your mind, was this ever actually a competition or was this a fait accompli? And we just didn't get the answer here until late August. I believe it was a competition. I believe Russell Wilson had the leg up on the competition, and there was a sliver of an opening when he was down with a calf injury where Justin Fields could have really taken this thing by the horns, and if he had played really well, could have won the job and stolen it away from Russell Wilson, you know, he showed some flashes and he was improving as training camp was going on. He was taking coaching very well from my understanding. But then Russ came back and I think it was just a little bit more solid. He's got I mean both had experience. It's not like we're talking about an inexperienced Justin Fields. He started plenty of games in the NFL. But Russell Wilson had more experience. And I think that Mike Tomlin is a little bit more comfortable with him out there running the show. So right now he's going to be the guy for that first game that you see right there, but he's going to have to keep performing and not making mistakes and making sure that he is on point, because there will be a temptation at some point to turn to Justin Fields. If Wilson struggles. If you have enjoyed talking about Steelers quarterbacks over the course of the last month, and I for sure have, and I know you guys have as well get ready for a season where we are going to talk about Steelers quarterbacks. Probably a lot. Yes, Russell Wilson won the job today as Mike Tomlin essentially insinuated several weeks ago. Actually several months ago. Really not a surprise there. Had the calf injury came back. Both guys were mostly fine during the preseason games. Russ is now the starter. This story is very far from written because while Russ is solid, fields did from my understanding, do plenty over the course of the last three or so weeks to show the personnel department the coaches, that his upside is pretty high. And if this does go the wrong direction, I wouldn't be surprised if we see Justin Fields at some point, maybe even soon. I also wouldn't be surprised if we see both guys in the same game. That is what Russ is. Calf injury did. It really opened the door for Justin Fields to show everyone what he can do? He did, and the fact that he didn't end up being named starter doesn't mean we're not going to see Justin Fields in the 2024 season. Let's also come back to the fundamentals of how the Steelers and Mike Tomlin want to win football games this season. This goes back to hiring Arthur Smith as the offensive coordinator. They want to play really good defense. They want to run the crap out of the football here. And they need a quarterback who's not going to put him in bad spots. Russell Wilson historically has been careful with the football. Justin Fields got a lot of opportunities, but there were botched exchanges. There were some of those same mistakes that have popped up during his time in Chicago. If you went with Justin Fields out of the gate, it's very hard later on to go to Russell Wilson at least now you have that in your back pocket and who knows, we might see Justin Fields out there doing something as soon as week one. That leaves just one starting quarterback job in which officially, we do not yet have an answer on who is going to be there out of the gate. The Patriots open up at Cincinnati against a pretty tough Bengals defense here. Jacoby Brissett. Jerod Mayo has referred to repeatedly as the guy at the top of the depth chart. He referred to Drake Maye as the number two quarterback. Also said he just now is making the decision going to inform the team on Thursday and then talk to the media after that. So here's what Jerod Mayo had to say on that earlier today. You know, I know everyone wants to know that I'm going to talk to the individual players tomorrow. I'm going to have a team meeting tomorrow, and then I'll get it to you guys. So does that assume you made a decision you just haven't communicated yet to them? Yes. We've made a decision. Just haven't communicated. And honestly, I want those guys to hear it first from me before they hear it from someone else. Why can't it be done this morning? Because I'd rather do it tomorrow. That's that's a good. That's a good reason. It's like the conversations I had with my kids where it's like, dad, why can't we just do this now? Because we're not. Because we're doing it tomorrow and I'm the one in charge. I make the rules all along, Ian. It has seemed like the plan has been for Jacoby Brissett to be the first one out of the gate to give Drake Maye time, particularly with some of the offensive line issues that they've had. And Jerod Mayo has referred repeatedly to the plan. We're sticking with the plan even as he has said Drake Maye has outperformed Jacoby. Brissett keeps leaning back on the body of work. What do you make of it? Well, I want to talk about two things. One, how Jerod Mayo makes this decision, how he announces it, how he deals with it is all part of it being a team leader, being essentially the CEO of an organization has many different parts. The fact that Jerod Mayo wants to talk to his team first and then deal with the media is, to me, at least, interesting about how he wants to lead and how he wants to handle things, making sure that his players know first. Obviously, this is something that coaches do in different ways. Sean Payton kind of pulled his quarterbacks over. I believe it was before practice. It was like, this is what I'm doing. Then they practice Jerod Mayo wanting to do it this way is at least interesting to me, and shows about his leadership style. I would also say, as you kind of mentioned, it does seem like this has been Jacoby Brissett job. Probably ever since he signed and became one of the highest paid backups or very well paid starter in the NFL. We talked to Jacoby Brissett in August and he referred to himself as the best option for this team. As a starter as well that this team we don't know what the Patriots are. We don't know what the Patriots offensive line is. We don't know how they're going to run the ball. We don't know what this receiver group is going to be like. Mike. It does seem like it makes a lot of sense to have Brissett out there, who is also a veteran, who is very solid, and if this team starts to come together, the offensive line starts to block. Then maybe at that point you say, you know what, let's see if the future is now. We'll get a final decision tomorrow. But we does seem like we've had some inklings along the way. They start out with some really good defensive teams, defensive coordinators they have to face, beginning with Lou Anarumo and the Bengals in Week one. So you might want the veteran out there. I don't I don't know that it would break Drake Maye to be out there and have to go up against those tough defenses and maybe not quite to the point where he's comfortable enough or at least they're comfortable enough with him to feel like there won't be some kind of regression. I mean, that that's basically what it comes down to when you sit the quarterback of the future. You don't want him to go out there and struggle so much so early that he kind of regresses, and it takes him a while to come out of that, or maybe never even does. Right? I mean, that's the great fear of all this stuff. So it sounds like that's sort of what Jerod Mayo is thinking. And that's sort of the thought process here and where he's leaning. So we'll find out for sure tomorrow. I thought Drake Maye again got better as the preseason went on and we talked about it. I believe it was last night on the program here about how the fact that he lost a shoe on one play and still completed a pass. There was a bobbled snap. There was a scramble on third down. So I think he showed some resiliency. But the Patriots clearly seem like they want to play this from the safe route. If that indeed winds up happening with them turning it over to Brissett. All right. From the quarterbacks to the wide receivers guys let's prepare to get weird because there are some weird things that have been happening throughout the offseason with a couple of these guys, namely that one Brandon Aiyuk. Today we had the latest development in which the 40 Niners brass, Kyle Shanahan and John Lynch both said, hey, Aiyuk's been cleared to practice medically. The neck, the back, whatever the I'm not going to say fake injury, but whatever the complaint was that allegedly had been the reason that he was off the field for the past month here. Mike, that's now cleared up. And they said they expect him to practice. Practice begins. And according to some of our buddies, Cam Inman and company out there in San Francisco, no sign of Brandon Aiyuk on the field. Mike this was always a point where if they didn't work something out and if there couldn't be a trade, we would get here because loyal viewers of the show, both of them, know that. I've repeatedly said there's no such thing as a hold in. This isn't a thing at any point. The team can go. You need to practice. If you are not injured. We appear to have reached that point today. Both of them, in reference to the viewers. Got to be what my dad and your dad, Ian's parents, watched the show to my mom. My parents watch? No, I was leaving them out. Yeah. I don't want to watch this as we as we sit here. Practice is still ongoing there in Santa Clara. Now, the media was kicked out. It's not like in training camp where you can watch the whole practice. But my understanding is he did not make an appearance after the media left. It's not like he was just waiting for them to leave. He's not going to be on the practice field tonight. From my understanding. You can kind of see where this is going, right? I mean, this is the 40 niners saying, look, we allowed for a hold in and a quote unquote back injury that kept Kyle Shanahan kept referencing. But now we said he's medically cleared. Now we made it clear, like you can hold in and we'll allow it and we'll be nice about it. But now it's Mr. Nice Guy no more right. Like it's time for you to start practicing. Because if you're going to play in the last year of the deal, or if you're going to continue to work on a contract extension, you have to be on the field like you're one of 53 people you count against the roster. We need you. So that's what today was all about. And Aiyuk did not respond to that by being out there on the field. So yeah, fines, suspensions potentially I mean this is the road that this thing is going down now and already contentious situation probably got worse today, which is absolutely wild because of how close as you documented Mike, on this show, they appeared to be to having a long term contract extension in place instead, it seems like we're as sideways as we've been at any point during this months long saga. Meanwhile, in Cincinnati, we also had, I guess you could call it, a bit of a surprise development if any of this stuff is a surprise at this point. Ja'Marr Chase, who had reported he'd been there throughout training camp but had actually been on the field Sunday and Monday. Zack Taylor was feeling good, he said. On Wednesday, we do expect Ja'Marr Chase to practice the rest of this week full participant. We expect him to be out there week one. Then practice began today and Kelsey Conway and Company in Cincinnati showed Jamaar showed up. I want to say it was about 13 minutes late, walked in in street clothes, which is what he had been doing for quite a while. Zack Taylor, what happened? Has something changed between yesterday when you said that you expected Jamar to practice and today him not showing up, I said that yesterday. I think every day is a new day. We'll keep working through it. I'm not going to make predictions on what tomorrow brings, at the end of the day, Jamar is a great dude. That means a lot to this team and we'll just continue to take it day to day. This is a different situation. I'm Mike, you got whatever you got on the floor there. Everything good just plugging stuff in. You spill some food. Okay. I'm just checking on you, with Jamaar Chase. He is in a different spot. This is not a guy you. Could he potentially be traded? He's entering the fifth and final year of his deal. Chase has two years left. There's a lot of wide receivers. Ian, who have played out that fourth year, Justin Jefferson, his former LSU teammate among them, and then got in there. Big deal. Next year. The Bengals have been willing to do a deal, but they haven't gotten there. Now there's this odd back and forth. Where is he practicing? Is he not? Is he sending a message by what happened today? What do you know? First of all, that was a great tweet that we showed coming into this from Kelsey Conway that got, I think, a thousand retweets on literally Jamaar Chase walking from one side of the end zone to like a third of the way to the other side. It was it's amazing that these things become things. But this is I mean, look at that great tweet. Literally him walking because whether or not Jamaar Chase practices is of incredible importance with the season right around the corner, here's my understanding of this situation. Jamaar Chase practices for a couple of days, talked to people close to him. It's like, well, you know, he wanted to get out there. He just did individual drills. And then you judge from what the Bengals have said, what Zach Taylor has said. Yep, he'll be out there week one. Yep. Practice. And it does seem like that kind of struck a chord being like hang on, hang on. This is just me reading into it like hang on, I'm not doing anything yet. I still want that new deal. That's what this felt like to me was Jamaar Chase pumping the brakes and saying, yes, I've been practicing. But no, that doesn't mean I'm stepping on the field unless and until I get that mega deal. They have had discussions. I know Mike Brown, the owner, said. It's unlikely from my understanding. It's not impossible. You know, he wants to be at least tied with the highest paid receiver in the NFL, which is Justin Jefferson. They still got some time and I just can't wait tomorrow to see the tweets about whether or not he walks onto a field in street clothes or in football clothes. That's going to be awesome. For anybody who says this is stupid, this doesn't just impact the Bengals. This is fantasy football all over the country. This is the other team playing the Bengals in the early portion of the season. So there's a lot of drama. I would also say this GM's hate to hold it again, not a real thing. Nothing in the CBA saying they hate all of this. They hate holdouts too. You're but they hold in though. Is this uncomfortable situation where the guys in the meetings but he's not practicing. You don't know when it's going to end. And again it's all on this. Like trust basis because none of this exists at any point. The team can say, all right, now we're going to start to find you here. We'll see where exactly those situations go. As you mentioned, Ian, the holdout. Also no picnic, but thankfully for the Dallas Cowboys, CeeDee lamb is over agreeing to terms on that four year, $136 million contract extension earlier this week. This footage is from yesterday. Back on the field. Spent time with our Jane Slater. We will get to that one on one interview in just a little bit. But there's always some drama with the Cowboys now the focus turns to Dak Prescott. Isn't that right Jerry Jones. If you hadn't seen it by now you haven't seen it. And so I'm I'm such a fan of Dak's and appreciate all of the great things that we all know that he's there. And I appreciate his work ethic probably more than anything out here. And I can't tell you how proud I am that we've got him this year to start this campaig. So needing to see, I just gave an explanation of where when you look at a situation, you've also got to weigh, okay, what are the consequences of the other side of the coin? And so Dak's situation right now for me, from my mirror has more to do with our situation than it does with the merits of Dak Prescott being the quarterback of the Dallas Cowboys before Jane Slater talks to CeeDee lamb, she's going to talk to me right here on the insiders. Jane you've been to a lot of these Jerry Jones kick off press conferences I believe he's the only owner slash GM in the league that does the big hoopla the week before the season opener here. This is not going to be inexpensive for Jerry. We know, he said at the start of training camp. There's some things that he's always wanted to afford that he never could afford, which I didn't really buy. But what do you make of what he's saying and how things now play out here with Dak Prescott? Well, Tom we've covered quite a few of these negotiations with Dak moving forward. And I don't know about you. This one does feel a little bit different. And you know when I've reached out to both sides on this it sounds like right now there's no concrete numbers that have been kicked around. There have been conversations is how it's been described to me. But I do believe that some of this is Dak Prescott. In other words, when we talk to him at camp, he talked about the desire to be respected. He talked about the desire to make sure that he was looking out for other quarterbacks. In other words, if he takes a hometown discount that essentially hurts other guys that are up next and the importance of looking out for his family, this is not Dak being greedy. This is him being realistic and then you've got the Cowboys on their side simply saying look, there's only so much we can do as it relates to paying this guy. Now what the market bears my only thing with this. And you and I Tom we can kind of kick this around a little bit. We saw some of the details of the CeeDee lamb contract that just got released. He got the $38 million signing bonus. He's essentially stands to make about 1.15, and his AP this year. Then that goes up to 2625 in the next couple of year. You can get creative with these things and we both know that the cap is about to explode in the next two years. So the point is the Cowboys could get it done if they wanted to, we do know that Dak essentially wants to be here. And what is a little different about this thing is in the past, Dak has essentially said once the season starts, he just wants to focus on the season. But what I'm kind of hearing from both sides, they'll continue to talk through this. And then you've got Jerry talking about dangling the carrot and using it as motivation. Maybe he's waiting to see how deep they go into the postseason. Maybe a contract extension doesn't necessarily happen in March or April. Maybe it would happen depending on how they play in the playoffs. So this one just feels a little different than some of their negotiations in the past. I don't know what your thoughts are on that, but that's just how it's feeling on my side. I think the one thing that's interesting, Jane, it's a good point, is that Dak played out his fourth round rookie contract in 2019, when he really hadn't made any big time money in the NFL. He then played out 2020 on the franchise tag, got hurt and still got the monster contract. So at this point he's made a ton of money. He's seen that even if you get hurt as a quarterback who's facing free agency, you still can get paid a big number. In other words, if you're Dak, you could still resign with the Cowboys out in March, but they'd be bidding against the other 31 teams. This better be a really good deal if you're going to take it right now. But I do anticipate those conversations as you put it, are going to continue. Meanwhile, the Cowboys are not done. All offseason. We've been saying it's so slow. They're not signing anybody. How about this four time Pro Bowl running back Dalvin Cook signing with the Cowboys that took place earlier today. Dalvin I'm told is already in Dallas. He was waiting for the right opportunity here Jane. He always wanted to be with the Cowboys. We'll see how things shake out in the backfield. He's going to start out on the practice squad here. But hearing Jerry Jones talk about Dalvin it's clear they're hopeful they're going to get that guy who ran for 1000 yards four times in Minnesota. And what a lot of fans don't know. And I've been piecing this together this off season as the Cowboys were heading into that green Bay game. They knew that they needed help at the running back position and it showed. If you look at that green Bay game, 123 rushing yards and 45 of those were Dak. I was under the impression that they had reached out to a few running backs about possibly joining them in the postseason. Well, now I've learned Dalvin Cook was one of them. The issue was that Dalvin Cook son had just been born, and a lot of people are pointing to, well, what happened to him in New York? Well, let me take you back through New York, New York, they didn't have the offensive line that Dalvin Cook expected that he was going to get. They lost their starting quarterback in week one. And then ultimately a lot of those carries went to Breece Hall as they saw that he was the future. I'm told cook is this energy guy. And ultimately the energy, the vibes were off, so to speak. But he was always interested in Dallas. So there has been a dialog that has been maintained. But the Cowboys are very loyal to their own. So in other words, they want to see how some of these guys do and maybe the first couple of games, as you said, Dalvin Cook is going to start on the practice squad, learn the offense. But it's my sense that even though he's on the practice squad and of course some other team could come in here and pick him up. He truly at 29 years old, wants to rebuild here in Dallas and more importantly, I think we're seeing some of the footprints of Mike Zimmer here. Jerry alluded to it today talking about there are certain people when they say, wow, about a player that you listen. It's my understanding that during Dalvin Cook's workout, the entire coaching staff was there, and it was Zimmer who turned and said, that's the player that I had in Minnesota. And to remind you guys, when he was in Minnesota in 2020, 1918 scrimmage yards and 15 games, didn't finish out that last game of the season because his father passed away. My point in saying all of this is it sounds like there's still some gas in the tank and he's in shape, so let's see where this goes. It's going to be fun to watch in Dallas this season for all kinds of reasons. Jane. Thank you very much. Good to be talking with you again soon. The NFL is back with four days of football in the 2024 season begins. Baltimore Ravens, Kansas City Chiefs it's eight days away. Watch Live on September 5th, 7:30 p.m. Eastern Time on NBC. NFL kickoff presented by YouTube TV. You'll be there. I'll be there for week one. Will Trent Williams be there? His presence slightly more important to the 49 ers than anything I'm going to do on this show are Brian Baldinger is going to be with us next to talk about the impact that Trent being with the 49 ers or not. Stick around. It's the insiders. I love being an adult because bringing a fruit platter to a party takes didn't realize that one pill could change your whole life. More kids should know. On occasion, my social media algorithms will just feed me nothing but highlights of Trent Williams destroying people at the line of scrimmage might be an indication I have a problem, or might be an indication that, much like Brian Baldinger, I watch way too many highlight reels on Instagram. Check out Brock Purdy's numbers with and without Trent Williams during the 2023 season. You can see the numbers right there. The passing touchdown to interception ratio obviously significantly better. Not a surprise. You're talking about one of the best blindside protectors in the NFL as Baldi joins the conversation here. Baldi we've talked, I think, a lot more about Brandon Aiyuk for a variety of different reasons through this offseason than we have about Trent Williams. One of them might be that Aiyuk is constantly on social media, posting things and stirring up the drama. Trent's kind of just disappeared. He's off the map. He's done this before. He did it in Washington. Here. What do you make of the situation and what type of impact will it have on the 40 niners if he is or is not out there starting in week one? Well, let's just make a bold statement to start this conversation with Tom. He is the best left tackle in football. Christian Darrisaw got paid. Tristan Wirfs got paid. Penei Sewell on the other side got paid. I got it. Trent's the best. And you know last year without him in the lineup against Minnesota and Cincinnati I mean all you got to do is look at they were 17 point offense. You look at McCaffrey. He averaged less than three yards a carry. Every even every run that starts to the right ends up coming behind Trent. Now at the point right here. He gets out on the move when these toss crack type plays, there's nobody more ferocious. But just his style of play, the way that he can dominate that position, the way he makes Aaron Banks left guard or the tight ends better. How he can give Brock Purdy the extra tick to hold on to the ball to find his second or third receiver on a consistent basis, regardless of who he's going against. That's Trent Williams, but he also does something, Tom, that nobody else in this league does. On the backside of plays. He literally takes his hands. His big meat hooks, and he takes defensive ends and tackles by the back of their head. The scruff of their necks, and he slams him to the ground. And then he goes and gets the second block, and nobody seems to be able to stop it when he wants to do it, he is. He literally has that block and it's his block. Nobody else can do it quite like he can. Others try to imitate i, I think he's their best football player on the team, regardless of position. I think he's their best football player. Speaking spoken like a true offensive lineman, Tom. But I think he's their best player. If you had a pecking order of the top 53 players on the team, he comes in at number one. For me. Baldy stick around because we're going to take you from a holdout that's not over to one that is coming up after this. I want to get your take on CeeDee lamb. That big deal. Where does he rank now among the 88 in Dallas history? Maybe our Jane Slater might get some answers on that. And more important things coming up right after this, when CeeDee lamb goes one on one with Jane on the insiders. Change can be scary, but when you add slow four days of games starting Thursday, September fifth. There is CeeDee lamb at practice last night back with the team after signing that four year, $136 million contract extension right up against Justin Jefferson for most, wide receiver for most, the highest paid wide receiver. He's number two when it comes to gross pay, so that'll get you back on the field. There he is working to make sure he is ready for week one. After practice, he spoke to our Jane Slater. Welcome back. After three months away KD how good does it feel to be back out here at practice and amongst the fans? It's amazing. A great home welcome I guess it was worth the wait. I'm happy to be out. Be back out here with my guys. Get this timing down. Ready to hit Cleveland? Where were you? What were you doing when you got the call from your agent? I was actually in Florida. Just chopping it up with my guys, and I just ended up getting a random phone call from my, obviously from my agent. And I was expecting it. But at that moment, he kind of was he cracked a little joke, you know what I'm saying? He took it the opposite direction and I was a bit upset. But what was the opposite direction? Like, yeah, everything went south. I was like, what do you mean? And he's like, yeah, they're only trying to give you 34 a year. I'm like, oh, okay, appreciate it. But yeah, no, it was a very fulfillment moment, fulfilling moment. Blessed is an understatement. I'm ready to go. Ball. Now take me through the process. You know, you've got what they call the bird in the hand. The 18 million guaranteed to come back this year. And it was getting close to the start of the season. Or if you just could stomach it out, listen to the talking heads. Continue to do work down in South Florida. You could get a guarantee of five times that. Were there moments where you had a gut check? Absolutely. But then that's when my agent came in, and that's why he's the best at what he does, shout out to me for doing that and keeping me mentally locked in. He would check on me maybe three times a week. You know, just seeing how I'm doing mentally, physically, how I'm holding up workouts and all those other things. So, just staying on top of my game as far as preparation, mentally just staying locked in and let the rest take care of itself. Let's talk about those workouts. I caught up with Sharif Tabak, who you worked with in South Florida, and he said every single day you came in with a smile. You were positive you were ready to work. You were working out anywhere from 3 to 5 days a week. You were in playing tempo in July, but you had to taper it back a little bit. What kept you motivated throughout all of that? Just not being there with my guys. And I know that they're working without me. And, I know them. Roots can be mad tiring, you know what I'm saying? So I'm putting all my all in. So when I get out here and exert all my effort for them, knowing that it's going to be just enough to get us to where we need to be, and here we are. Fast forward maybe 2 or 3 months later. I mean, I ain't complaining, Shareef shout out Shareef. Actually, he got me. He got me mentally. He got me physically ready for this moment. You know what I'm saying, his workouts were tough. Three hour workouts, a day. Five times a day. I mean, five times a week. You do the math and you put on 14 pounds of muscle mass. Worked on. He said, top of your route, some of the footwork. Why was that important to you, so I don't lose a step. Obviously, when you gain weight, your body kind of tends to it takes a long time for your body to adjust to that. But as for me and Shareef, we, like we were locked in and we understood. We had a plan and we executed the plan. And that's to be more explosive. Obviously gain more muscle mass, look more full. As far as in the pads and in and out of my breaks, I'm just trying to consistently stay open. All right. Final question for you. We're seeing more and more of these players now holding out, wanting the shorter contract, wanting it earlier. Do you think that you've set a precedent for others to do this moving forward? Just trusting yourself, believe in your worth and let the rest take care of itself. If it doesn't, I mean, you know your values. Just believe in yourself, man, and let God handle the rest. Obviously, if you have a great agent, believe in him and he should do what his job. And that's that's what I did. It didn't work for me. And your payoff was one hell of a contract. Congratulations. Good to see you back here in Frisco. Thank you. Good interview Jane. Appreciate that. The agent gets a shout out, the trainer gets a shout out. God gets a shout out. Everybody got a shout out. All right, here are your cowboys 88 club wide receivers. The career accolades and how they rank. Now if we did a and it's you know listen these guys played in other eras. But if we did a career earnings right now CeeDee lamb would be blowing those guys away. Bucky Brooks Brian Baldinger joining. Us. They make that kind of money now. That's what we pay them to do. Segments like this. So here's what we're going to do. We're going to rank our Cowboys 88 I'm going to start with you Baldy. How do you how do you rank these guys. Well first of all congratulations to KD Mike. And I think he made more money in his signing bonus than the other three. All combined. But I'm going to start with KD fourth only because he's only been there four years and he's a rising star. Whereas I have Dez Bryant ranked third because he had eight great seasons with the Cowboys. He put up the 73 touchdowns, some Golden moments, returning punts, game winning touchdowns. You name it pretty good in the postseason, followed by the playmaker. I know there's controversy right now all over Cowboy Nation. When I have the playmaker number two if there's only one playmaker and I was in three Super Bowls but I'm going with Drew Pearson. Number one Bucky because he was my teammate. He was the captain of our all season basketball team. I made a lot of extra cash from Drew Pearson. He caught the original Hail Mary pass from Roger Staubach. He started building this cowboy lore that we all can't get enough of right now. Buddy, I get it, and I appreciate it, because now that I've heard your list, I knew they had to be an ulterior motive to that. I knew with Drew Pearson, who was a legend. I remember as a kid watching him and the Hail Marys and all the great things that he did, but there's no way you cannot have Michael Irvin as the top of the charts when it comes to 88. I know he did it all. Who really set the table in terms of the energy, the enthusiasm. I think he created the 88 club. I know Drew Pearson Ward, but Michael Irvin made it famous. And look, I believe he certainly deserves to be at the top of the list. All the things that he was able to do, the Super Bowls, that they won, how they dominated. When you talk about the triplets is him, Emmitt Smith and it's playmaker. That's what the Cowboys are about. And I'm gonna say this I feel like you're being a little disrespectful to Dez Bryant I feel like you need to throw up the X. I think you must have forgotten how impactful Dez Bryant was on the perimeter. I look for the Black Mamba. Was special. Drew Pearson he like I just leap-frog and Bucky I mean we can debate this thing like to the end of time. I'm not putting Dez in front of Duke Pearson. No way you can have the argument for the playmaker. I got it. But there's an emotional connection there that I can't ever let go. Like being in the huddle with Drew Pearson. Like that was the that was Sunday afternoon for me. Like nothing will ever take place of that. Yeah, we could debate it till the end of time but but we g to go. Right. So maybe we'll just take it offline and buy those baldies breakdown sweatshirts. I joked about how much money Baldy needs some help out there. Go Google it. Baldies breakdown story. Bucky's back, he's going to talk rookie quarterbacks after this. Sundays in the fall can only mean one thing game day. And we're all over it. Let's go go wild Touchdown! What a beautiful thing to watch, man. There is just something cool about the number one Malik Nabers. Now where do you think the Giants think this dude is going to be good? Check with the Flaherty family that number has not been worn in forever. Malik Nabers will now rock number one. And I would imagine that's probably where he's. That's the finger he's going to be holding up like this when he goes into the end zone or, I don't know, something like that. Anyway, Bucky Brooks, back with us. What is going on? Bucky I want to talk about some rookies. Maybe that one. Maybe some others. Maybe that that people are not exactly talking about. So. So let's get started. Give me one rookie. That offensive rookie that maybe we aren't spending enough time discussing. I don't think enough people are talking about Jermaine Burton and the work that he's doing in Cincinnati with Jamaar Chase potentially holding out not being available. Burton's emergence as a big play threat could certainly help Joe Burrow in this offense move. Without Jamaar Chase on the perimeter. When you look at what Jermaine Burton has already done in the preseason, he averaged almost 20 yards per catch, put up two touchdowns and really solidified himself as the vertical threat opposite Tee Higgins. When Jamaar Chase eventually comes back, the thought of defending Tee Higgins, Ja'Marr Chase and Jermaine Burton is going to be a lot for defensive coordinators to handle, and this guy should crush it as the number three option in this passing game in Cincinnati. Appreciate it. Taking notes from my fantasy team, I'll do that exactly when I draft them late. Thank you for that Bucky. Let's talk about the Chicago Bears now a rookie who's going to have a huge impact. Tell me about Caleb Williams right. So Caleb Williams is everything right Caleb Williams is terrific. And he's going to be great running this offense. You think about Keenan Allen and all the weapons that he has around him. He's going to be good. But let's go on the other side. Let's think about Austin Booker and what they should be able to do at defensive end. This dude had two and a half sacks already. He's an Energizer bunny off the perimeter. He's a nonstop relentless competitor, which is what Matt Eberflus wants. And so when you think about what you have in Montez Sweat on one side, Booker on the other side, it is a nice complement and is one of the reasons why this defense should continue to excel in 2024. After a strong finish under Matt Eberflus. Man, they spent so much time the last couple of weeks looking for an edge presence. Maybe they have one. All right, let's go back to the offensive side of the ball. I need some more fantasy help. Give me an offensive rookie running back who maybe I should be talking more about. And I'll take some notes. Look, you can't if you're looking for fantasy options, you got to go to South Florida in Miami because they always have big time playmakers. So how about Jaylen Wright. Look rookie out of Tennessee a speedster. And you saw that speed put on display when he was with the Dolphins in preseason. He averaged five yards a carry. Had 91 yards. You saw the speed the explosiveness and even though it's a very crowded running back room. But Raheem Mostert and David Chain, this guy is so good that I think they have to put it on the field. He's going to be a nice option for the Dolphins. All right, let's go back to the quarterback position a rookie quarterback who we need to be hitting on here. Obviously I assume now you're going to tell me about Caleb Williams right I mean Caleb Williams is a nice option. Everyone knows what he's going to do. But let's go under the radar a little bit in terms of Bo Nix for the Denver Broncos. And the reason why Bo Nix is my choice is because sometimes in the scouting evaluation it is about fit and scheme. And Bo Nix is the perfect fit for Sean Payton's scheme. We saw it in the preseason. Bo Nix completed 76% of his passes as a rookie. He comes out, passer rating is well over 116. He's throwing it all over the place, keeping it efficient and effective. Just like Sean Payton wants it. And I'm not ready to proclaim that he's going to be Drew Brees. But I think when Sean Payton squints, he sees some of the legendary quarterback in front of him. That's why Bo Nix is going to be terrific for the Broncos. What a perfect fit for Sean Payton and this Broncos offense. And Broncos organization. Bucky I would say goodbye, but it's not actually goodbye. It's more like just sit there and someone else will be talking to you about this guy right here. Trevor Lawrence I know you know about as much as the Jacksonville Jaguars as anyone in this world are the Jaguars really going to win the South this year? Bucky stay right there and tell us everything we need to know about what I just said. Coming up after the break. The first step Cool. Yay! Don't forget to check in on yourself. Love your mind. Eight days until kickoff of the 2024 NFL regular season. 11 days until the first full Sunday of action, including the Jaguars visiting the Miami Dolphins somewhere. Scott Hanson heard me say that and immediately did 3000 crunches to get ready for the first red zone of the year. Welcome back to the insiders. It's Tom Pelissero, it's Bucky Brooks. Bucky. The Jaguars have had an interesting ride over the past couple of seasons. Two, nine and eight finishes, one of which got them into the playoffs. They won a playoff game, another one that left them just short in the end of last season. Didn't finish the greatest. The Texans have been the sexy team. The Colts have been the team that people are really interested in. Not many people talking about the Jaguars. What do you think of your team's chances to surprise people and be that team in the AFC South this season? Well, Tom, I think they are sitting pretty. I think they're well positioned to reemerge as the team to beat in the AFC South. And I say that knowing that the AFC South is so much better, not only with the quarterback play, the young quarterbacks that are coming over, but the way the teams have been constructed with the Texans and the Colts and even the Titans rebuilding the roster, that is very competitive. But for the Jaguars, it's all the pieces coming together. It's the offense being able to really help elevate Trevor Lawrence to be a top five quarterback. The pieces of the puzzle really fit on the perimeter, and because of that, Trevor Lawrence should have a fantastic year throwing to the likes of Christian Kirk, Evan Ingram, Gabe Davis and TJ. I think you can see the fireworks that we expect to see last year. They'll happen this year in Jacksonville. Bucky thank you very much. We will look forward to talking with you again soon. Maybe even mixing another team besides the Jaguars. Those are our teams you can get excited about tier two. Maybe you can get excited about the Jets. They're 12 days away from their opener against the 49 ers. And Sauce Gardner is getting ready by reviewing pizza sauces. We'll explain after this on the insiders a Taco Bell taco filled with slow roasted chicken. Unheard of a crispy p.m. eastern on NBC. Cut down day has passed, but that does not mean that we are out of transactions to reveal. How about this trade the Falcons sending there at this point, third string quarterback Taylor Heinicke to the LA Chargers. Chargers of course, dealing with the fact that Justin Herbert still making his way back from the plantar fascia injury, all signs point to him being ready for week one. Easton stick has been up and down through the course of the preseason. Now, Heinicke, who started a lot of games, headed to L.A. Sauce Gardner has started a lot of games himself. He's parlayed that into a variety of things a big social media presence, big online gaming presence and now reviewing pizza slices. Because when your name is sauce, you don't mess around. Even when it comes to toppings. So, Ian, I would be curious about this since you fancy yourself a food critic. How would you judge the judging of sauce Gardner? I would say New York pizza is way better than Detroit Pizza or Chicago pizza. But you're right, I am a food critic. Tune in tomorrow to the food Network, where I'm on the episode of Beat Bobby Flay game day grapple. That's me and my fellow judge, Eddie Jackson. One of the coolest things I have ever done. I'm not going to tell you the dramatic result. I would just say this. Tune in Food