Falcons QB depth chart; New kickoff rules + more (Full PFT PM) | Pro Football Talk | NFL on NBC

Intro June 30 edition of pfpm recorded as it will be during the Olympics in the AM plenty of stuff to talk about in the National Football League and I promised yesterday that I would find a shirt that I haven't worn in this setting before I don't think I've worn this one I ironed it it's ready to go I'll try to do the same thing tomorrow dig through the the drawer pull out a shirt get it properly ironed and today was a struggle because I was up late last night reading the Sunday Ticket transcript went to bed at 1 fell asleep at 2 storm starts at 5: and we've got a dog that doesn't do all that well when it's pouring down rain and I worry about her getting a little too stressed out so I went down to the gym she likes to hang out there it's the farthest she can get away from the noise outside and and she was okay it didn't rain very long and then I was wide awake so I got to it and I'm getting pretty tired right now so right after pfpm I'm gonna take a nap and I'm probably not even gonna change out of this shirt I'm G to go straight to the bed and conk out and get back to it so let's get right to it first item on the agenda today I saw that rich bace special teams coordinator guy who frankly should have been given the chance to be the head coach the Raiders he believes that there will be some amendments to the kickoff rule as we get closer to the regular season we're going to see some experimentation in the pre-season and there might be some Packers ST coach Rich Bisaccia expects “amendments” to new kickoff rule refinement they're expecting some refinement and there was some contemplation in the documents that the NFL created back in March of maybe some tweaks but there's a challenge here because you can only go so far without activating the requirement that at least 24 owners agree to a rule change for example when it started to become apparent that plenty of teams might just kick the ball out of the end zone and surrender the 30 yard line and it was originally proposed that a Touchback through the end zone would go to the 35 and they changed that to the 30 at the league meetings in March I poked around whether or not there could be a change from the 30 back to the 35 and I was told that will not change that cannot change so I'm not sure what can be changed the news from yesterday about the NFL telling teams that the ball can't be put flat on the te that's a pre-existing rule that wasn't a change made to the new kickoff rule that's just a recognition by those who are observing practices and they're seeing the ball being placed in a way that is not allowed to be placed on the te that's an existing rule that's not a change the one thing that I thought was fascinating and I don't know whether it's the accounts on Twitter but somebody is making a big deal out of the fact that the surprise onside kick is now dead welcome to March we knew that in March we knew that once the NFL agreed to adopt this new formation on a one-year trial basis which means next year they got to get 24 votes to continue it only takes nine to get rid of it if nine teams say I don't like this thing it's gone once you change that kickoff formation to the XFL Style Electric football all those guys standing there 10 yards apart ball gets kicked into the landing Landing Zone you can't do an onside kick the 10 players other than the kicker are yards down field it's impossible to do a surprise onside kick so the surprise onside kick is dead and if you didn't know that before today you either have memory issues or you don't pay as much attention as you should in the off season and I'm not using this as an advertisement to visit profootballtalk.com and consume PFT live in March but if you're a true football fan you should be because you want to exercise your voice exercise it before they make a change that can't be changed back if you want to ground swell against possibly getting rid of the surprise onside kick which doesn't happen very often anymore well it's not going to happen anymore at all in 2024 it had become a rarity but it's still a possibility and it's been part of some special moments in league history the Super Bowl 44 surprise onside kick to start the second half that the Saints pulled off against the Colts that was the first moment that many said holy crap they could win this game it was a surprise onside kick in Super Bowl 30 by the Steelers and Sims and I talked at length about this it's the first time the NFL has made a rule change that takes something off the table something about the options you have the strategies available to a coach when deciding how to go about trying to win the game surpris onside kick gone you can only do an onside kick in the fourth quarter if you're trailing and the other team's going to know because it's going to be the old formation see I think they just need to do that fourth and 15 play where if you convert you keep possession if you don't the other team gets the ball and I know there are concerns about a long interference penalty a guy getting behind the defense there's all sorts of things that could happen but but you need to have a viable way for the team that's trailing to make it interesting and the NFL is obsessed with making the games interesting so people will keep watching and we've seen it in other leagues it works it's effective it's compelling it gives a team that is down by more than one score late in the game a chance to make it interesting to force overtime Andor win the game so this whole onside kick if you're not going to have the possib possibility for a surprise onside kick just get rid of the damn thing and embrace the fourth and 15 fourth and 20 whatever it is that somebody keeps proposing it every year I think it's the Eagles that keep proposing it it never gets anywhere it should it's far less revolutionary than the kickoff formation change we're going to see this year but but we still need to see how many teams are actually going to do it how many coaches are going to pin their careers on the possibility of a great return specialist hitting one hole and being gone if he can beat the kicker I they're going to see a lot of teams kicking the ball out of the end zone now in the preseason that's going to be the great experimentation ground how many changes are we going to see how many tweaks are we going to see and once the regular season starts I think the league would avoid tweaking anything the league doesn't like to undermine the Integrity of the season the league doesn't like to change anything that could have been changed before the season except when it comes to pushing John guden out of his job never mind that never mind that could have been pushed out of the job before the season started they did it during they undermined the Integrity of the 2021 season but other than that they don't like to make changes during the season because if you have a certain way that the rules are applied the first two three four weeks and then you change it there's a lack of consistency and continuity from the beginning of the season to the end of the season so look I I said on Pat McAfee's show several months ago as we get closer to the start of the season the people who don't pay close attention in the off season are going to wake up to this new kickoff formation and what it means and they're going to be like what the hell and there's going to be people who tune in on Thursday September 5 for Ravens Chiefs and they're going to see that and they're gonna say what what what's going on here what am I looking at what is this why are they all down there and so it's going to be incumbent on all the networks and all the media Outlets to make sure people understand and I think what happened yesterday is people are coming back to football and they're realizing wait there's no surprise onside kick anymore I missed the memo no you didn't miss the memo the memo was published you just weren't paying attention so get ready for more and more of this holy crap you mean this changed holy crap you mean that changed that's coming because the biggest change I think we've ever seen I I'd say since 1974 when they both took the goal post from the goal line to the backline and implemented sudden death overtime for regular season games I think this is the biggest change since then 50 years later here we are another change that's coming this year and I found this in the Sunday Ticket transcript I may have mentioned this yesterday one of the things that was mentioned by Kathy yansy one of the VPS NFL requiring in-game interviews with head coaches or coordinators at the NFL who's in charge of compliance and relationships with network she pointed out during her testimony that in an effort to make the game better for fans here's another Innovation we're going to require the head coach to be available of each team every game well the NFL later clarified it's not the head coach it can be the head coach or the offensive or defensive coordinator it can happen during a timeout or at halftime and it is mandatory though somebody's got to do it and one of things that I've seen people don't want this like the NFL is creating something under the impression that the fans are going to say yes give me giveme givee givee give me the fans are saying we don't want it we don't want it because number one let them do their jobs and number two it's going to be useless it's going to be cliche it's going to be pointless it's going to be the bare minimum crap that we hear all the time and we usually hear it when the coach talks on camera or off camera to the sideline reporter on on the way to the locker room for halftime or on the way out and remember last year there was that whole thing about fabricating the reports and it's easy to fabricate because it's the same stuff we got to play better we got to get off the field on third down we got to get the ball to the open man we got to be more disciplined whatever whatever it is we know what the teams need to do we're watching the game so we have a poll on X and I haven't checked it lately but you usually what happens the the trend that emerges for the first thousand or so respondents holds the rest of the way so Excuse me while I multitask here and scroll scroll scroll here it is here it is there's still a few hours left I posted this at 1:12 p.m Eastern on Monday so you well by the time you get this it won't matter so never mind as of right now as I'm speaking there's still time left there have been 17 1,184 votes on this question do you want to see Slash hear interviews with NL coaches during games no 64% that's almost two out of three doesn't matter either way 25% that's one out of four so you know what that leaves for yes I'm not doing the math because I'm looking right at the number 11% almost one out of 10 want this which means nine out of 10 either don't or don't care I don't know maybe it's skewed maybe there's a different mindset well I'm answering my own question because we know there's a different mindset on social media but I'd love to know what kind of focus groups or research the NFL did before they decided to do it was this just somebody thought this would be nice somebody thinks this will work and they didn't bother to look into whether or not the fans really want it maybe the fans will like it when they get it but I think more often than not probably is going to be just check a box useless comment could be entertaining from time to time if it's Mike McDaniel but for the most part I'd say the fans instincts are right these things are not going to be all that interesting in the grand scheme of things and you know we've seen them in other sports it's like what the guy like there's something with something weird here like let the guy go coach we can talk to him after the game we we can stipulate there's not going to be anything particularly useful that comes from the coach during the game all right on the new scoop City Podcast Kirk Cousins was interviewed and it dovet Tales was something that we talked about yesterday at PFT about Michael penck when is he going to be number one on the depth chart now I suspect that as soon as Tuesday because they were off on Monday we're going to see the second team reps go more and more to Michael Falcons QB depth chart, Kirk Cousins on Vikings negotiations Pennock Jr and less and less to Taylor Hy remember they started Camp splitting the second team reps and I was like why are they doing that let's get the kid ready let's get him ready and I wonder whether there are some forces there that are trying to trying to keep it in check and let Kirk Cousins be the guy this year and get Michael penck ready for next year or the year after because one of the things to keep an eye on what does the owner want the owners are much more involved than they'll ever admit they don't want to be accused of meddling but it's their team at a certain level meddle Away Jerry Jones made himself the GM when he bought the team a lot of the other owners kind of hide behind the people that they've hired and they let them know what they want to do we've used this example time and again you don't have to come out and say it it's one of the Privileges of being a billionaire if the people who work for you are smart enough to understand what it is that you're saying they'll act accordingly and you never have to order the code R you don't have to do it they're smart enough to know this is what they need to do so what kind of messages are being sent by Arthur Blank about Michael penck Junior and when will Kirk Cousins make it to the bench we we delved into that yesterday at PFT the cousins comments to scoop City focus on Minnesota and Kevin Seaford of espn.com had an item a week week and a half two weeks ago now I don't know it's all blurring together for me but he looked in depth at the Vikings quarterback Odyssey over the past few years and and he said in this article which seemed to be based upon off the record conversations with people all the way up to GM qu do fensa the plan was because they were going into the draft picking 11th overall and they're rarely in that kind of position they're going to draft a quarterback and they wanted to keep Kirk Cousins as the starter for this year and maybe beyond that was the plan as reported by espn.com cousins told scoop City that Kevin OK conell told him and it was enough of a fuzziness to it we're not planning on doing it we're not playing on take a quarterback if you come back but and and cousins said himself I'm not holding him to it well he didn't stay so there's nothing to hold him to but they were probably taking the quarterback they wanted to emerge from this draft with somebody who they can groom as a long-term answer they haven't had a true franchise quarterback since Fran Tarkington and JJ McCarthy at 10 overall is the highest they have ever taken a quarterback in their history Target was a third round draft pick they used a first round pick on Tommy Kramer late in round one he became the replacement for Fran targon they used a first round pick on Christian Ponder that didn't work out very well they used a first- round pick on Dante c pepper 11th overall and they used a first round pick on on on who else there was another first round quarterback other than McCarthy I'm blanking maybe there isn't maybe it was Kramer C pepper Ponder and then McCarthy either way I think the Vikings would have liked to have found a way to keep cousins for a year and let McCarthy develop and that is kind of consistent with what we're seeing I feel like Kevin McCarthy Kevin McCarthy Kevin I'm mixing my worlds here Kevin oconnell wants to keep JJ McCarthy on the bench and let him develop and ride with Sam darnold and one of the things that was in the espn.com article that caught my attention oconnell was scarred by the manner in which Washington thrust Dwayne H Haskins into the fry before he was ready that's the danger because once you go with the Young quarterback it's hard to go back and then you start messing with his head and did he get overwhelmed do you become Zach Wilson you're in the live Fray and things are happening fast and you're making mistakes you're seeing ghosts like Sam darnold did in his time with the Jets maybe there's value in giving darnold a shot getting McCarthy ready let's see what happens this year and by next year McCarthy's good to go kind of like what happened with Patrick Mahomes although the is there's no equity that's been built up by darnold Alex Smith had done well the question was were the Chiefs content to kind of just do well or did they want to take it next level and they definitely took it next level so either way I think if cousins had stayed in Minnesota and he said he didn't want to do a one-year at a time contract and he got more security from the Falcons he definitely did 90 million over two years and there's another 10 million ion unlocks in 2026 next March so he'll make 100 million at least over the next three years the Vikings weren't going to do that the Vikings were going to bring him back for one year and then maybe another year and maybe another year after that but that would have meant that JJ McCarthy wouldn't be ready for three years and that translates to what's happening in Atlanta how long do you want to keep a guy who's already 24 years old on the bench when you've sold out your season tickets for the first time in nearly 20 years I mean think about it they had playoff appearances five or six times they had a Super Bowl run Matt Ryan was the MVP in none of those years did they follow that success with selling out their season tickets and now after six straight seasons of not getting to the playoffs they have how much of that is cousins how much of that is pennic and how loud are the fans going to get if cousins is struggling at all and pennx is a completely open book B and we have no idea what he's going to do and at some point those fans are going to want to see him on the field and the owner the owner is gonna say hey look the goal is to get this guy ready does he get ready standing there or does he get ready out there playing so it's something to keep an eye on but the best news for cousins he's still making 100 million over the next three years he was one of the cash flow Kings of 2020 to 2023 he's still going to be doing pretty well over the next three years all right uh hold in Brandon auk still holding in Matthew judon wasn't and now he is and this is an interesting wrinkle because Matthew judon the Patriots pass Matthew Judon doesn’t participate in Patriots first padded practice of training camp rusher not happy with his contract showed up to avoid the fines practiced the first few days when it was time to put pads on he's not practicing there was a video that was circulating yesterday that showed us somewhat spirited I don't want to oversell it somewhat animated not a lot but just enough where you look at it and say yeah they're they're having a not a heated conversation but but it's not just small talk between gerod Mayo the new head coach and judon and it'd be interesting to see what Mayo says the next time he talks to reporters because the thing about a holding is the team's got to go along with it because if the team isn't willing to let a guy deliberately not practice the team has rights under the collective bargaining agreement the team can find the player to be engaged in conduct detrimental of the team among other things if you have remaining guarantees on your contract the team can invalidate them for a refusal to practice or play you can't just show up and say I don't like my contract so I came here so I wouldn't get fined but I'm not practicing I refused to practice until you give me a new contract the team has to agree to that so what I saw yesterday in that video was enough to make me wonder are they okay with this are they okay with judon not participating in padded practices is that his line see this is a new twist to the whole hold in thing I'll practice some of the time but not all of the time I'm not going out there in full path I don't want to get myself hurt until I get the contract that I'm looking for so it Bears watching what the Patriots do and I'm trying to remember we have the two holdin done at the quarterback position in tuango and Jordan law we've got Brandon auk holding in the 49ers you've got Jamar Chase holding in with the Bengals you've got Trent Williams holding out with the 49ers youve got Matthew judon holding in with the Patriots I feel like I'm missing somebody but maybe I'm not and the thing we learned yesterday too you know it's all subject to change Tyreek Hill wants his contract with the dolphins would he get sufficiently exasperated that he all of a sudden won't practice I don't know I don't know that's the thing about the judon issue from yesterday it tells us basically be ready for anything because when a guy wants a contract and if he's not getting it he can try to stop practicing and again the team has rights the team can find him to be in violation of the CBA and committing conduct detrimental but the team has to want to do it the team has to be willing to pick a fight with a guy who's already upset with with his contract okay question time finding the tweet it invites the questions there it is okay what do we got first question by the way by the way just Florio opens up the #PFTPM Mailbag to and I I've said this time and again and I appreciate the questions because I know you're not on this every day August 12th that's when Chris Sims and I will be back on peacock SiriusXM NFL radio not NFL radio just Sirius xm885 and Sky Sports NFL that's where the NFL got thrown in there and podcast wherever you find your podcast but until then it's pfpm every single day ideally okay Dan mushman hello from London if Dak leaves the Cowboys next year as a free agent which any semi-competent front office shouldn't allow how does that affect interest in the head coaching job from say Bill bich or other big names well here's the thing if you fire Mike McCarthy after this season or not renew his contract which is still the same thing but people who don't renew someone's contract we'll say well we didn't fire him we just didn't renew his contract well he still wanted to work there you fired him so if McCarthy gets fired and belich gets hired Prescott still hasn't signed a deal they hold his exclusive negotiating rights until the Monday before the start of free agency so you better be ready to not have dck and what it could do is it could force the Cowboys to maybe get something done you know Bill belich may say I'll gladly become your head coach once Dak Prescott has a new contract will that be enough to get it done I don't know I really do think the Cowboys want Dack to see what else is out there because they think that someone else is going to offer more than they're willing to pay but not so much more that Dak would leave the cowboys that there's an inherent value in playing for the Cowboys there's a dollar value and whatever they offer plus that inherent value is still going to be better than whatever someone else would offer Dak Prescott I think the Cowboys are confident of that we'll find out if they're right or wrong Jerry Jones was boasting recently about his ability to see around corners we'll see about that as it relates to Dak Prescott next question Paul zulak what is your take on the Eagles this upcoming season with new coordinators Kell Moore and Vic fangio perhaps a return to the Super Bowl in a rematch with old friend big red and the underpaid Patrick Mahomes look I don't know what's going to happen because I still don't know what went wrong down the stretch last year they were phenomenal out of the gates and then it all fell apart why did it fall apart now the coordinators got blamed they're gone but the coach is still there yes there's new coordinators but you know no one was clamoring for Kell Moore all due respect we have these recycled coordinators that get fired one place hired somewhere else fired this place hired somewhere else Vic fangio is the guy that they wanted in the first place when Jonathan Ganon left but the whole tampering thing and the Eagles didn't know Ganon was leaving to take the Cardinal job and it kept them from getting fangio well now they have fangio we'll see look there's a lot of pressure on the Eagles this year there's a lot of pressure on serani when Bill bich che's in play and last year there was a very strong belief in League circles that it was Cowboys and Eagles possibly trying to hire Bill bich now you've got Cowboys Eagles and maybe the Giants in that same division looking at belich for next year a lot of pressure on serani to get it right because if they keep serani they may have to deal with belich twice a year in their division with Dallas or New York so I think that this is an important year for the Eagles to get it right and we'll see if they can pull it off Irish coffee have you heard any more about the extra padded helmets or more teams most teams planning to wear them what are your thoughts on the look also have you played NCA 25 and which team I'll answer that one first I've been playing NCA 25 as a supplement to Madden while I work out I do my bike for an hour every day and I play either or just to kind of get the hour to pass in a somewhat reasonable way I still play Madden because my ultimate team's like a 98 so I started the ultimate team with West Virginia of course as the default Squad and it's it's slow going because it's different it's football yes but it just feels different you got to get used to the different look and it it feels like it takes a little bit longer there's a little you know a little more bells and whistles that get old very fast I like to get right to it I don't need a lot of stuff going on on the screen as you move from one task to the next you know they're unveiling whatever player you managed to unlock with whatever you did in the last challenge let's just get to it let's move through it and there's probably a way to do it that I'm too stupid to realize how to do as to the other question it's not a team decision it's a player decision on whether or not to wear the guardian cap and we've seen the photos because the Chargers practicing like they play are wearing the shell over the guardian cap that makes it look like their helmet but it's got a Great Gazoo quality to it it's like Bubba Paris Mark Kelo back in the 80s they had that extra padding Willie lanir had the padding over the top of his helmet back in the 60s and 70s he's the Chiefs Hall of Fame linebacker part of the Super Bowl four- winning team so it's it's going to take an adjustment and people aren't going to like how it looks what are they gonna do they gonna not watch football I mean most recently Geno Smith said he might wear one quarterback wearing one it's going to take some time to get used to but we got used to all these funky helmets with gaps and holes and divots and twists and turns and they look nothing like the old smooth helmets we got used to that we'll get used to this the one question I have and I've been trying to think of how best articulate it so I'll just go ahead and articulate it and if it works it works if it doesn't it doesn't the NFL's effort to make the game safer and safer and on one hand you can say hey good for them Bravo you're doing the right thing also you had a pretty significant liability nothing like the Sunday Ticket liability in the grand scheme of things but a pretty significant liability because of years of downplaying the risks of concussions and not explaining it to players or protecting from it not that many players would have said oh thanks for telling me I'm not going to play football anymore but still it blew up on them the concerns that parents won't let their kids play football that was an issue that's what's driving it but also the idea that they want to play more games how do you go from 17 to 18 unless you keep making the game safer how do you go from 18 to 19 or 19 to 20 unless you're making the game safer the guardian cap works it makes the game safer how can you say no to that but but I've said for years now at some point the NFL is going to cross a bridge that is going to open the door for somebody with a lot of money to say we're going to set up a football league it plays its games in the fall it competes with the National Football League and that turns the clock back to the 80s and the 90s when players were beating the crap out of each other and they didn't mind it and the fans loved it there's a segment of the fan base that I think would flock to that and and if they can't tolerate the look of the Guardian caps that may be the thing I mean football as I said last week it's a very visual medium and the helmet has always been I remember when I was a kid like there were these NFL books that showed the evolution of the helmet and how it looked different over the years and just the helmet is that tangible thing that screams out football you put that big mushroom on top of it and you know it's I don't know if that that that the skin the Chargers are wearing kind of packs it down a little bit because they they do look very large and very cumbersome that may turn some people off and that may be the thing and I've been waiting for that thing and I'm surprised it h hasn't happened yet that someone has said we're going to play football the old school way and everyone's going to sign a waiver and everyone's going to be fine with it and everyone's going to understand these are the risks and there are far more brutal Sports out there than pro football as it's currently constituted just watch UFC I don't even watch it anymore it's too brutal it's too much but nobody ever says boo about that but with football it's like oh oh they got to shut the sport down so all I'm saying is as the NFL skews safer and safer there's an Avenue there and the NFL is going to potentially pave that that space for someone else to come in and get rid of the Guardian caps and get rid of all the rural changes and spin it back to the 80s and the 90s and maybe this Guardian caps thing which I fully support but maybe it's the thing that that does bring to fruition something that could be a real problem for the NFL football played the way it used to be played Rough and Tumble and brutal as brutal as some other sports that we see all the time next question Tom Marshall could Shawn Payton seat warm up if the Broncos have a bad start to the season it seems like the Walton Penner group is committed to Shawn Payton he's only entering year two and he's got a big salary that would have to be bought out but you know what what is it like 20 million a year in the amount of time that we've talked about it Walmart has made 20 million oh wait they made another 20 million oh they made another 20 million so and it's a write off too you get tax benefits and whatnot I know that two things one the current owners of the team are committed to turning this thing around it's the longest a Super Bowl winner has ever gone without getting back to the playoffs they won Super Bowl 50 to cap the 20 15 season they haven't been back to the playoffs 16 17 18 19 20 one two three eight years John Elway I believe on pardon my take said his biggest regret was not drafting Josh Allen he did draft Paxton Lynch traded up I think to draft Paxton Lynch so they've had bad quarterback play they took a big swing with Russell Wilson it didn't work out they took a big swing with Shawn pton if it doesn't work out the other thing I believe about the Walton Penner group based upon the fact that Walmart has risen to great success by virtue of the fact that management can be and I don't mean this in in a pejorative way frakin ruthless Cutthroat no excuses no hesitation do what needs to be done in the name of making the business better if the Walton pener group decides that their best interests aren't being served by Shawn pton he will be gone and they will write the check and they will move on and they'll hire some else and they've got the unlimited resources to do it Burn Unit Burn Unit was the Sunday Ticket transcript expensive and hard to get through the courthouse or did you have to hire somebody independently to get it and mail it to you you know people really are interested in this whole Sunday Ticket case the ins and outs the twists and turns the 2500 page transcript I'm somewhere in the 1800s now so I'm getting there I'm getting there I keep saying that eventually one of these days I will get there um it's a fairly simple process you you track down the name of the court reporter you get in touch with the court reporter you ask for the price quote you send the money and you get the transcript and this I don't there's nothing secret about it was $3,000 for the transcrip $3,000 but in hindsight it's been money well spent because we have I think I'll leave it to others to decide I mean I know for myself I get a lot of satisfaction from the fact that we have covered this case the gap between the way we've covered it and everyone else has covered it is enormous and it's right in my sweet spot I practiced law long enough to understand the way the case is coming in the way the evidence was presented the way the questions were asked the way it all fits together and I found a lot of great stuff relating to the case relating to other things there's still more to come we wrote something today about how the plaintiffs didn't take advantage of the blackout policy when the NFL was saying well we're all about we're all about every game of every team being on free TV in its Market well yeah but for part of the class period 2011 through 2014 you had a blackout policy and if the local team was playing at home and didn't sell all the non- premium seats within 72 hours before kickoff they weren't going to get to see the game on free TV how do you mess that with this messaging to the jury it's all about free TV it's all about the fans so it's been a fascinating experience it's been worth the money and there's another event tomorrow that I'll be getting the transcript of as well probably for less than $3,000 the hearing on the NFL's request to throw the entire verdict out so 4.7 billion hanging in the balance tomorrow and thereafter while the judge takes up the question of whether or not to Grant the NFL's motion okay Manuel Villa as a well-known conspiracy theorist what has been a story that the league and fans might have brushed off but you were right about well I I hate the term conspiracy theory I like a good conspiracy theory but it's kind of morphed into nut job if you're a conspiracy theorist you're not rooted in reality my Approach is to constantly be looking for BS and so much of what is presented to us doesn't mesh with what's really going on that's one of the reasons why I've enjoyed the offseason Hard Knocks think about the scene where they're planning the messaging that Giants GM Joe Shane is going to give to reporters at the scouting combine about saquon Barkley they knew they weren't gonna use the franchise tag on him at the time but they came up with a messaging that we're keeping all options on the table or whatever so and I'm not picking on the Giants here everybody does it there's the truth and then there's what they tell us and a lot of times they're not telling us the truth and from time to time especially if I feel like they think we're stupid that's when I really get activated like don't act like we're stupid here don't we are but don't act like it okay uh it's I mean we're so we're we're we're we're stupid but we still can see through this how how dare you how dare you think you can outwit someone so stupid but um and then fail to do so but the one thing that because I was trying to ponder some of the stories from the past that we have really really been all over I mean I go all the way back to Mike Vic I knew from the get-go Mike Vic was involved in that dog fighting ring I mean it was obvious he's got property that he owns in Virginia and he goes there from time to time how does he not know this dog fighting operation and I think he tried to test out this idea that I never go there and I remember writing about this 17 years ago the idea that oh he's using a credit card somewhere they'll be able to figure out where he was you put him in that property at any time this property that he owns and there's all this sheds and Equipment of course he knows of course he was involved so you know that was one where it wasn't a conspir conspiracy theory this is a guy who said to the commissioner's face I didn't know anything about it and systematically it was proven otherwise more recently think back to two years ago when Chris and I worked together together on the idea that the Dolphins after firing Brian Flores wanted to move on from TU aong of aloa and bring in a package deal of Tom Brady and Shawn pton and Sims and I talked about it and you know it was just ignored and people knew that's the thing people in the media who knew about it and for whatever reason wouldn't talk about it ignored it and then lo and behold right around the time of the Hall of Fame game I you know this week two years ago stevenh Ross and the Dolphins got whacked for tampering with Tom Brady and Shawn pton and it all came out and I I think to the dismay of of Mrs Brady at the time you know it wasn't long after that that he left training camp for like 10 days he's lining up this gig in Miami and she might not have known about but we did and you know it's funny and I don't I really don't care like when we go out on limb with something like that right no one ever says hey you were right but if you're wrong about the dumbest little thing that isn't even a report just you predict that somebody's gonna win a game and they don't you never hear the end of it but that's okay as Charles Barkley said earlier this year as long as the postman shows up on the 15th and the 30th with the check I really don't care all right uh another question Manuel Villa does St Louis ever get an NFL franchise again or are they on a figur Blacklist I think at some point and I firmly believe St Louis is a viable NFL City look at the number of fans that packed the stadium where the Rams used to play for the battle Hawks of the XFL or now the UFL but they did it for both St Louis should have an NFL team Stan Kony shouldn't have left they lied and cheated their way out of town as it relates to the way the NFL's relocation policy is supposed to operate this was an inside job where the NFL allowed it KY wanted to go to La there were truths not told the people in St Louis and then they moved St Louis should have a team I don't know that St Louis is going to get one anytime soon would a team move there again they've had the Cardinals move to town they've had the Rams move to town both left would someone move there maybe would an expansion team go there I don't know now I think as time goes by and people who were involved in this fight with St Louis on both sides the legal fight that resulted in a massive not not not 14 billion less than one billion massive before the Sunday Ticket verdict settlement with St Louis once you get the personalities out of there the hard feelings start to dissipate and it's all about money if it's ever in the NFL's best financial interest to put a team in St Louis they will put a team in St Louis they will swallow their pride they will let bygones be bygones and they will put a team in St Louis if they think it makes sense financially and I had someone suggest via email yesterday and this is one of those that you know maybe I am stupid because I should have thought of this with the NFL having to come up with 14 billion do the easiest way to do it is expand the league and sell franchises you you if if the final number is 14 billion let me do the math here real quick I should probably be able to do it in my head but I want to get this right let's go with 141 141 divided by four 3.5 billion and and I hell the expansion fee would be more than that teams are worth like 789 billion now you could have two teams seven b the math is easier there 7.05 billion expansion fee a year ago the commander sold for 6.05 billion just add a billion two teams expand to 34 problem solved you've paid off the 14 billion dollars and you've added two teams now that doesn't address the problems with what do we do about Sunday taket going forward I mean you may have to expand by two more teams if you don't change your ways but maybe that's the way St Louis gets back in and and that would be fitting right the last big negative outcome for the NFL in court although it was a settlement was St Louis then you've got the much bigger negative outcome for the NFL through Sunday Ticket well how do we come up with 14 billion two new teams two expansion teams St Louis and I don't know where would the other one be second team in Chicago so the Bears could pay for that Stadium on their own I think that it makes a ton of sense and the other thing too remember so much of the money comes from TV now I saw in the Sunday Ticket transcript 61% of the money generated by the NFL comes from TV you could pick smaller markets and smaller stadiums because it really doesn't matter and look you just you price the tickets accordingly I I've had people in ownership suggest that if they were doing it all over again they would just get rid of the second deck of their Stadium because the profit from the second deck doesn't justify it because you've got cheap receipts you still got to have more security more concessions more everything to service those people if you just peel that up Upper Deck off all together you might still be as profitable as a stadium that would open up Oklahoma City as potential NFL home a lot of cities that we would look at and say that's really not a Major League City doesn't matter it doesn't matter you put a stadium there you make it the right size to correspond with the population and you get another place where you can stage games get put on TV that's the key we all we need are places to Stage games that we put on TV I mean we've seen and and this is a ridiculous example but we've seen some of these spring leagues have every team in one place and they play all the games there the NFL could do that they could and they'd make almost as much money doing that and the money they'd save traveling all over the place I mean think about it my point is this you don't need a big Stadium you don't need a massive population Center so St Louis which is showing that I think that it could fill a big stadium and maybe some other place that would ordinarily not be expected to bring 80,000 fans into the building each and every week all right let's call it there because I really am I'm getting a little loopy tired nap time for me back to PFT for you check out pro football talk.com all day long we have updates regarding all news all developments all information coming out of the various training camps Hall of Fame game is coming later this week enshrinement ceremonies on Saturday Shireen Williams is going to go cover those she's one of the voters full preseason gets started next week it is really going after that slow time that slow time has ended with a very loud thud football is back thanks as always for choosing pfpm PFT live and profootballtalk.com as your sources for your NFL information we'll see you again on Wednesday hi it's Mike Florio thanks for watching p F on YouTube hit subscribe for the latest news and Analysis from pro football talk