Las Vegas Raiders Insider Podcast tackles Justin Fields, Antonio Pierce, Jim Harbaugh, and more
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00:00 Hi everybody, this is Hondo Carpenter from Sports Illustrated's Fan Nation Las Vegas
00:06 Raiders Insider Podcast.
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00:59 Let's welcome in our guy, the one and only, one of the most terrific attorneys, great
01:03 journalist, the wonderful Johnny Guitars, as the fans call him.
01:07 How you doing, Johnny Guitars?
01:09 I'm doing good.
01:10 All of a sudden, we've gone from the heat of the summer before camp to the final week
01:15 of the regular season.
01:18 We've got notes, we got things to look at after the season as far as our predictions.
01:23 I ran into those the other day.
01:24 Some were okay, some were not.
01:26 That's part of the fun.
01:28 But here we go.
01:29 We're circling the wagons.
01:31 Week 18, final game, relatively big one for the Raiders, relatively.
01:38 It's not playing for a playoff game.
01:40 It is playing to stick a little bit of a streak and extend it against one of the bigger rivals.
01:46 And it's probably to position the franchise for the next step.
01:51 As you know, that step's coming pretty quick.
01:53 But first, one more to play.
01:56 John, I want to talk about the job.
01:59 I mean, Jim Harbaugh is clearly a candidate.
02:02 He's a great coach.
02:04 No one's questioning that at all.
02:07 Gruden, great coach, Super Bowl winner.
02:11 And then there's AP and Champ Kelly, who I think are the no-brainer decision to go higher.
02:19 That's not discrediting.
02:21 I said yesterday on the podcast, if somebody disagrees with me, I'm not God.
02:26 I don't care.
02:27 That's fine.
02:28 And you know what?
02:29 You can make a case for Gruden.
02:30 You can make a case for Jim Harbaugh.
02:35 But my case is this.
02:37 You don't have to be the greatest commander of X's and O's to be a great head coach.
02:41 You have to be a CEO and a motivator of men.
02:45 You've got to be able to assemble a staff, which no one seems to remember.
02:51 AP is doing this with the staff he inherited and lost two offensive guys, cut a bunch of
03:00 the playbook out, no OTAs, no minicamps, nothing.
03:05 And then he loses Josh Jacobs, which no one's talking about how big of a loss that that
03:11 was.
03:12 So, we're going to get into a bunch of issues today that have nothing to do with coaching.
03:17 But your thoughts on the process, what would you do if you were Mark Davis?
03:29 This isn't college football, where we've seen a huge advantage to potentially having an
03:34 NFL-level play caller, Steve Sarkeesian, Jim Harbaugh.
03:40 That's not the case here.
03:41 What you need at the NFL level is somebody that can be organized, somebody that can instill
03:47 some discipline and command some respect.
03:49 It doesn't need to be X's and O's.
03:52 These are not the same days of the NFL we've seen in the past.
03:56 You watch just the press coverage this week.
03:59 You watch hard knocks.
04:01 The Dolphins call their coach, Mike.
04:03 The Browns, AJ Brown is, I'm sorry, the Eagles, AJ Brown is talking about Nick.
04:09 This is stuff not on the map.
04:12 Not on the map for John Robinson.
04:14 Not on the map for Bill Parcells.
04:16 Not on the map all over the place for Bud Grant.
04:19 So it's a whole different era.
04:21 What you need out of a head coach at the NFL level is not the same.
04:24 It has evolved.
04:25 Antonio Pierce, I think, is a humongous plus in that he played in, relatively speaking,
04:31 the modern era.
04:32 We talked before about people need to remember who he played for.
04:37 He played for a guy that wasn't going by Tom.
04:40 He wasn't going by Tom.
04:42 No.
04:43 So what you've seen here is an organic process of a guy finding his own way in the universe
04:50 lining up.
04:51 He is an NFL head coach without any doubt.
04:54 The no-brainer is for the Raiders to hire him.
04:57 There's a no-brainer there.
04:58 If they don't, somebody else surely will.
05:01 And we've also talked about before today the credit, really more credit that he needs for
05:08 figuring out that maybe less is more.
05:11 This coach is not a fit for what I want to do.
05:13 We're going to send him out during the season.
05:14 We're going to trim back the playbook.
05:16 That does not mean, as you point out, that the entire staff would be coming back next
05:21 year.
05:22 In fact, I would think that a head coach, if he gets the position, basically starts
05:26 with the approach of, we're going to interview for everything.
05:29 Now in reality, we're probably going to keep a good bit of the core, a good bit of stuff
05:33 that aligns.
05:34 They will keep a bunch of them.
05:35 Yeah.
05:36 Because it's a good staff.
05:37 There's just a couple of weak points.
05:38 Yeah.
05:39 And you have to.
05:40 You have to.
05:41 If you've learned nothing else from watching years of hard knocks in a season with, which
05:46 again, folks should check out if they haven't, it's basically a season long hard knocks.
05:50 If you've learned nothing else, you've seen how much damage can be done by a staff if
05:55 you've got somebody pulling in a different direction or somebody not pushing with everybody
05:59 else.
06:00 You talk about the tush push, every single coach and staff member needs to get behind
06:04 the head coach and push on the same direction.
06:07 We saw what does not work.
06:09 We saw Jason Garrett lay that out years ago on that show really clearly.
06:14 There's not a whole lot of that by the looks of it in Las Vegas right now, but you are
06:20 giving Antonio Pierce, he's basically got a half a hand tie behind his back just because
06:24 of the nature of the situation he stepped into.
06:27 I'm not his agent.
06:29 We don't need to sell him.
06:30 The market will sell him.
06:32 If the Raiders don't move on him, somebody else is going to say, Hey, we would like to
06:36 interview him to be our head coach.
06:38 No doubt about that.
06:40 Yep.
06:41 I agree.
06:42 I want to say something to our listeners real quick.
06:45 If you're watching, if you're just listening to the audio on Spotify or Apple, you're not
06:48 noticing this, but if you're watching the video, I'm not eating.
06:52 I keep putting lozenges in my mouth.
06:55 Yesterday, traveled for the day to LA for my next deep dive article, spent several hours
07:00 talking and then flew back.
07:03 So I'm just throat.
07:04 I apologize.
07:05 I don't want anybody to think I'm being disrespectful on them.
07:09 These are my guys.
07:11 If we're scoring at home, this is my go-to fishermen's friend.
07:14 I've gone probably eight or 10 years.
07:16 That's my ride.
07:17 I'm not talking lozenges.
07:19 It's that time of year folks traveling.
07:22 You're probably going to need them.
07:24 You need them as badly as the Raiders need Josh Jacobs as the Raiders have fallen out
07:29 of the, of the playoff contention at the end.
07:31 There's no doubt that that's an under reported or under notice story because the Raiders
07:36 don't get a ton of attention nationally.
07:38 Cause they're not at the top of the NFL, as we know for good reasons like winning, but
07:43 make no mistake that.
07:45 Now that's probably the, the, the, the straw that broke the camel's back as, as, as far
07:50 as one more injury that you can't take, you can't take a top flight player out of any
07:54 team and have them be the same.
07:56 And we will Mark these words, somebody who is right now in the mix, going to the playoffs
08:02 thinks they have a chance to make a run.
08:03 There's probably going to be one more major injury and that's going to just knock that
08:07 team out too.
08:08 So it's part of the game, but this is probably a little bit better team at the end of the
08:14 year than we've seen only because Jacobs has been out.
08:19 I agree with you.
08:21 All right.
08:22 I want to talk about Max Crosby, who I think is the best defensive player in the national
08:26 football league.
08:27 I know there are several people who agree with me.
08:31 Not just fans and journalists, but I mean people around the league.
08:36 But they've told me his thing is he's not on a good team.
08:42 And it's just the way that it goes.
08:46 Max Crosby's a Raider.
08:47 He wants to stay a Raider.
08:49 This guy is an elite player.
08:51 He's a game changer.
08:54 How much do you think it hurts him not being on a great team?
08:58 Or even, forget great, just being on a playoff team.
09:03 Yeah, I think it hurts a little bit.
09:05 You know, TJ Watt is a comparison.
09:07 TJ Watt is with one of the gold standard franchises, of course, just like the Raiders are.
09:12 I do think there is a difference because he's on the East Coast.
09:15 Yep, 100%.
09:16 I just think if you flipped Watt and you flipped Crosby as far as attention and hype, there
09:23 would be more his way.
09:25 I'm not sure that we know quite the extent of the knee injury that he's dealt with.
09:31 There was an article talking about it.
09:33 We don't really know how that's affected him.
09:35 But as far as current impact on each play and each snap, whether it's Mike McDaniel
09:42 that we saw in Hard Knocks talking about every snap, they've got to account for him, or whatever
09:47 game we've seen.
09:48 And hopefully, he'll go out with a bang to finish the year.
09:52 I think he's impacting the game as much as anybody in the front seven right now.
09:58 I don't know what happens from here only because every team is different and every year is
10:05 different.
10:06 But I don't know that we would see a quick decline in Max Crosby.
10:10 There's some things that he does before the snap, after the snap.
10:14 There's things that are going on inside of his football mind that remind me a bit of
10:18 Ray Lewis.
10:20 Here's what I mean by that.
10:21 As Ray Lewis got older, his mind got so much better, he arguably didn't slip that much
10:26 because he could account for a whole lot of the loss of the physical ability that is just
10:30 natural with father time.
10:32 Crosby to me looks like a guy that's going to have some of that.
10:35 I think he's going to be effective for a long time.
10:38 And he's certainly right in the mix and could easily be argued as the most effective and
10:43 best defensive player in the sport right now.
10:45 For sure.
10:46 People don't even think about, he's not, I mean, he's 60 to 70%.
10:52 And you know.
10:54 That's what it's hard to, it's hard to even know.
10:57 And it's not a guy that's going to fly a flag and say, "Hey, look how hurt I am."
11:01 People will learn a little more about it in the off season.
11:04 And I understand that's part of the game.
11:06 But when we're trying to evaluate how effective is the guy, when some of us think back to
11:11 Howie Long, Reggie White, when we think back to Bruce Smith, when we think back to different
11:16 guys, when we see the freak of nature that is Aaron Donald, which is guy in the middle
11:20 of the field that get the front of the line of scrimmage that moves like a linebacker,
11:24 we think, "Okay, these guys are affecting the way the game is played."
11:29 He is doing that in a unique way, but I wonder if he doesn't get enough credit for some of
11:33 the thinking that he's doing and some of the intangible stuff, not just the physical running,
11:39 tackling, breaking off blocks.
11:42 It looks like there's a little more going on up there, which makes me think he's going
11:45 to continue to be effective for a longer period than some where it just goes on and then drops.
11:51 He's not even at his best yet, which is phenomenal to me.
11:54 All right.
11:55 I want to switch gears a little bit.
11:58 No matter who comes in as coach, this is not a rebuild at all.
12:05 There are positions that they need to go address, for sure, but there's no rebuild here.
12:13 If you bring in anyone other really than AP, there's going to be some element of a rebuild.
12:21 Now, you're not a Raider fan.
12:24 I'm not, but I'm clearly tapped into the Raider Nation.
12:28 These people are worn out.
12:30 This franchise has sold them.
12:35 They have sold them that it's just win, baby, and they haven't.
12:39 The two coaches that take them to the playoffs, Del Rio and Basaccia, they fire them.
12:45 I told someone the other day, it's almost like battered women syndrome, which I'm not
12:50 in any way precluding or comparing that losing football games compares to a woman being abused.
13:00 I'm not saying that.
13:02 Please hear that.
13:05 As a person who had a sister that was a victim of domestic violence, I can tell you, I don't
13:11 make light of that.
13:12 That being said, though, they have just been so beat up.
13:18 Keep getting sold, just win, baby, and they don't.
13:21 Just win, baby, they don't.
13:22 Let's move to Vegas.
13:24 Just win, and they don't.
13:28 I think it would be malpractice to do a rebuild.
13:35 Josh McDaniels and Dave Ziegler were brought in here, and Mark Davis said, "No, not a rebuild.
13:42 We're going to continue."
13:43 Remember, they were in the playoffs.
13:45 We're going to continue going forward, and oh, by the way, they went backwards.
13:50 It's not fair to these fans, John.
13:53 You got all these weapons on defense, offense, special teams.
14:01 Can they upgrade?
14:02 Yes.
14:03 Do they need to upgrade?
14:04 Yes, but this is not a rebuild.
14:05 Do you agree or disagree with me?
14:07 No, I do.
14:09 When you've got Adams, Jacobs, and Crosby, and then you've got some other guys that maybe
14:14 can ascend-
14:15 Colton Miller.
14:16 The left tackle.
14:17 When you've got those pieces, no, it's not a rebuild.
14:21 The danger they have, it's somewhat of a danger is, well, first of all, it's great that they
14:27 don't have Russell Wilson.
14:29 Let's start there, but if you get to a coach or GM outside, and they want to make a change
14:35 at the quarterback position, it's not that it's a rebuild, but it's like, "Wait a minute.
14:40 Is that where we're going?"
14:41 If somebody was rebuilding, they would pretty much trade all of those guys for if they were
14:46 going to get a maximum value, they'd get a ton of value, and we'd be rebuilding and seeing
14:50 how it turns out in 2026.
14:54 That's not-
14:55 Because remember, a rebuild is three years.
14:57 Yeah.
14:58 If they come in and ... I'm telling you, that would be malfeasance with this franchise if
15:07 you're taking three years.
15:09 It would be another promise that's broken.
15:12 Promise, get the hopes up.
15:14 The promise gets broken, back around.
15:16 Promise from the franchise, the fans get their hopes up, knock down, back around.
15:21 That's the repetitive syndrome that needs to be broken.
15:24 That would be a mistake.
15:26 Even if the Raiders decide to get another quarterback or try another quarterback, draft
15:30 another quarterback, I don't see ... Yeah, this is not a rebuild.
15:34 There's too much top-end talent.
15:37 There's not one or two guys.
15:38 We've got guys at different spots on the field that are absolute killer playmakers.
15:46 They're guys that win and make a difference.
15:49 Filling in the holes or filling in the blanks is one thing, and it's not that we would expect
15:54 Aiden O'Connell to make a big jump next year, but this does not look like a guy that's going
15:59 to be prone to have a big backslide.
16:01 The quarterback production, I would think, is reasonable to expect somewhere in the same
16:07 zone or hopefully a better situation.
16:11 I think he would get better, but I still think you go draft a quarterback and let him compete,
16:16 let the best guy win it.
16:18 That would seem to be, by far, the best move.
16:21 I'm with you.
16:22 I don't get the impression that the folks around the sport think that the Raider job
16:26 is a rebuild.
16:27 I don't think so.
16:28 No.
16:29 Nor do they have some kind of albatross hanging around, like, "What do we do with Justin Fields
16:34 and what do we do with all these draft picks?"
16:36 Those are not the situations.
16:38 I think that the person that would come in or stay is going to know that this is not
16:46 a rebuild process.
16:48 It's not as silly as playoffs or bust next year or we want to contend for the division,
16:54 but in reality, that's exactly where the Raider franchise is.
16:57 When you look who's on the team and you look what they have coming back, for sure that's
17:02 what they should be looking for.
17:04 They're not looking to rebuild.
17:05 No.
17:06 I'm going to say something that I have not written yet, but I had a conversation recently
17:12 with a player and they said to me, talking about AP, and this person speaks very highly
17:23 of Mark Davis.
17:24 There is nothing, they don't dislike Mark at all.
17:28 I want to make sure that's clear.
17:30 But they said, "Don't tell us that the franchise is all about the players.
17:35 We listen to the players.
17:36 We're not like any other franchise.
17:38 You guys matter."
17:40 And then for the second time in two years, ignore us and who we think should get the
17:45 coach.
17:46 Again, we got other things to talk about to get to.
17:49 I don't want to make this all about AP, but this is a legacy defining hire for Mark Davis.
17:57 If he doesn't go get AP, then that's twice in two years he's ignored his locker room.
18:08 And he's not like other owners.
18:12 Bob Kraft doesn't give a crap what his Patriots players think.
18:15 It's about the direction of the franchise.
18:17 But this franchise sells that.
18:20 Once a Raider, always a Raider.
18:22 I mean, part of the reason he fired Josh McDaniels was because guys were not having any fun.
18:27 He can go do whatever he wants.
18:28 Your opinion doesn't matter.
18:29 Mine doesn't.
18:30 But if he does not go get AP and the next guy fails, that is going to be his legacy.
18:39 If he gets AP and AP fails, in three years he goes and makes a change, everyone's like,
18:44 "Oh man, Mark really tried.
18:46 All right, let's go swing for the fences."
18:48 John, you are an attorney.
18:52 You work in communication every single day.
18:56 You are not a guy who's afraid to disagree with me.
19:00 Where am I wrong in that assessment?
19:04 I don't think necessarily wrong.
19:06 I think the thing to point out is if the Raiders go away from Antonio Pierce, they are going
19:14 to immediately risk the chemistry of their team relative to the owner and relative to
19:20 whoever's coming in.
19:22 There's going to be built in concern or a little animosity immediately.
19:27 Yes, these are employees.
19:29 We all get that, but they are going to really, I think the main thing I would be worried
19:33 about is you're potentially sacrificing the chemistry there.
19:38 If you bring in a guy who is a successful head coach, who was successful in the NFL
19:42 before, but who had multiple guys retire before he was ultimately fired, that is a risk of
19:50 chemistry.
19:52 If you've got potentially Jim Harbaugh on one end of it, which is not ideal chemistry-wise,
19:58 and you've got another guy that the players want to play for, it's really a no-brainer.
20:03 They both can be successful coaches in the NFL.
20:05 There's no doubt that this situation is much more akin to keeping Antonio Pierce, given
20:11 all that's gone on and all the momentum going on behind him.
20:14 If the Raiders go another direction, they throw all that momentum out the window, they
20:18 pull a wild card, and they immediately disrupt some chemistry.
20:21 It's fascinating to me.
20:23 All right, John, I got some stuff I want to get into.
20:27 You and I are big fans of Hard Knocks.
20:30 We love it.
20:31 Boy, did Hard Knocks become an infomercial for Lamar Alexander, I mean Lamar Jackson,
20:39 to win a big award?
20:42 A little bit.
20:43 Yeah, I mean, you know, when you saw, first of all, what a contrast to see the Dolphins
20:48 preparing for this game in Baltimore.
20:50 They're ready.
20:51 They think they've got a shot to win.
20:54 It starts going sour fast.
20:56 Real fast, real sour.
20:58 But what you saw in Lamar Jackson, and hearing the coaches talk about it, Mike Pantano said,
21:03 "Look, we haven't seen anything like this in the league since Michael Vick, and this
21:05 guy's probably a little better because he's bigger."
21:08 That's just running.
21:09 That's just half the equation.
21:11 I think Lamar Jackson streamed up to the top of the MVP list with that performance.
21:17 And when people get a look behind the scenes through Hard Knocks, and make no mistake,
21:21 folks, as much as you love it and we love it, the people around the sport who look and
21:25 vote on those things, they tune in when they can, too.
21:28 This is, for some people, the biggest exposure and the most inside exposure.
21:33 They're going to get to Jackson all year before the season ends.
21:37 It was impressive, and there's something about the way NFL Films does it.
21:42 The guys look quicker and more agile on film than he does on TV.
21:47 But when you hear the amount of non-blusterous respect that Vic Fangio and Mike McDaniel
21:53 have and all those guys in Miami have, and he just destroyed them.
21:58 It looks very difficult to stop.
22:00 And this is even without his backup tight end.
22:02 I'm sorry, without the starting tight end, who of course is gone.
22:06 And before, Dalvin Cook comes in there, which potentially is a little chemistry disruptor
22:13 itself.
22:14 I thought that's a surprising move myself, because they're going so well.
22:17 But the main point is, Jackson is nearly video game unstoppable right now, to quote one of
22:23 the Dolphin coaches.
22:24 I want to talk to you about Lamar.
22:26 So you know this.
22:28 I've always been a humongous fan of his.
22:31 I think he's an elite talent.
22:34 People like to say he was just a runner.
22:36 I said, well, he's just a runner because they don't have any receivers for him.
22:40 They now have done that.
22:42 Do you think he has usurped Patrick Mahomes as the best quarterback in the NFL?
22:49 Right now, I think so.
22:50 Yeah, I'm not sure historically how amazing this is going to look, because we've seen
22:55 a guy that was asked to run a run first offense and ran it very successfully.
22:59 They really nearly got into the Super Bowl, got a couple looks at it, right?
23:03 Then he's asked to completely change gears.
23:07 But the thing is, he's more than capable of doing so.
23:11 So some of us are old enough to remember John Elway, and we saw maybe some of that, but
23:17 not anywhere near to this extent.
23:19 If anything, it was kind of stop running around doing everything and start handing the ball
23:24 off.
23:25 I don't remember the last time we've seen somebody make such a change from really, yes,
23:31 you're a dual threat quarterback, but can you master and elevate to the top of the sport
23:36 doing each thing?
23:38 Michael Vick did not do that.
23:40 He really did not do that.
23:41 We haven't seen anybody do that.
23:43 And the idea that somebody like Ben Roethlisberger or Peyton Manning would all of a sudden switch
23:48 from top flight passing to running, it wasn't even in the possibility scheme.
23:53 Peyton Manning can't run from here to there, as they talk about all the time they're doing
23:57 those games.
23:58 This is version 2.0 of the dual threat quarterback, because he's doing both things at the top
24:05 of the sport.
24:06 Mahomes should never be asked to or have to do that incredible amount of running with
24:12 the scheme that they had, the Roman scheme that was successful.
24:15 So I don't even think he's going to have a chance to do it.
24:17 But right now, there's no question.
24:20 It's Lamar Jackson's NFL.
24:23 He's at the top of it right now.
24:24 And I don't think he's done, at least for this year.
24:26 It's remarkably impressive.
24:29 But to go from all the way as a running guy, all the way as a good a passer as there is,
24:38 he's the guy.
24:39 All right, let's turn our attention now.
24:43 I want to talk to you about Justin Fields.
24:47 The Bears have to make a decision.
24:50 Players have been very vocal.
24:51 They want to keep him.
24:52 I'm hearing from people in the organization.
24:55 You know who some of the people in the organization I know are, that the organization from the
25:01 coaching level wants to stick with Justin Fields.
25:04 It's a matter of what the GM wants to do.
25:07 What do you think is the value of a Justin Fields?
25:11 Well, the value is, it's not that he can be a Lamar Jackson, but he's got obviously dual
25:17 thread ability, as we know.
25:20 He's got a big arm.
25:21 It's not the fastest release in the world, but he looks like if you're talking like a
25:28 five tool player in baseball, he's got four and a half tools at least.
25:32 So I'm long on Fields as long as everybody is aligned.
25:36 So if your coach is aligned, your GM is aligned, your players are aligned, the light is green.
25:42 You got to go forward.
25:43 Of course, the interesting things come up with the contract and also what would people
25:49 be willing to offer?
25:51 Are they willing to offer a first round pick?
25:52 Are they willing to offer a top 10 pick?
25:55 Which would, I mean, the Bears can have three of the first top whatever picks.
26:01 Those are things that have to be considered because they're potentially franchise changing.
26:06 If the Bears somehow have three first round picks, call me crazy, they're probably trying
26:10 to move one of them to have two first round picks next year and not repeat what the Patriots
26:15 once did, but build an incredible pipeline.
26:18 So I do think they need to consider that at the same time, if you could get two very effective
26:24 playmaking, one on probably each side of the ball, or maybe a difference making offensive
26:31 lineman and Harrison, for example, the Bears of 2024, not much like what we've seen the
26:40 last couple of years.
26:41 Now here's what I like about Fields.
26:43 And in the interest of full disclosure, I know him, covered him and wonderful kid, great
26:50 talent, great leader, super smart.
26:53 I have no issues if the Raiders want to go get him.
26:57 I just know talking to people who know him, he's going to want that 40, 45, $50 million
27:04 a year deal.
27:05 Now he's got two years left.
27:07 One of them would be a fifth year option.
27:10 But still, if you're the Raiders and can get him cheap enough, then you go and say, okay,
27:19 we'll take him.
27:20 We know we're going to have two years with him.
27:22 We'll pick up the fifth year right away.
27:24 And he's still relatively expensive before I have to go give him that 45, $50 million
27:29 deal to let him prove who he is.
27:32 He's a guy, you put him with a Devante Adams, you put him with this team, Michael Mayer,
27:36 the weapons, you put them with this defense.
27:40 I think he has an opportunity to be really special.
27:43 I'm not saying that's what I would do.
27:45 Right now we're looking at every option, but I think Fields is somebody the Raiders at
27:49 least have to kick the tires on.
27:51 And we know that Champ Kelly is very aware of him from his time in Chicago.
27:55 Your thoughts?
27:56 Oh, no doubt.
27:57 Yeah.
27:58 The Raiders would want to find out what it would take.
28:01 We know the Washington football team might be in there.
28:04 If Fields is available, I'm thinking there's probably as many teams not publicly saying
28:11 what would it take to get him as there would be public interest from this team or that
28:15 team.
28:16 Absolutely.
28:17 Let me just say this.
28:18 I talked to somebody, and you know my connections with the Bears.
28:24 I talked to somebody very close to the situation that told me they think Atlanta's the team
28:30 to beat, that they're not sure the Bears would move on, but that if the Bears decide to move
28:36 on, Atlanta is big time interested in him.
28:42 So I'm just saying all that to go on.
28:44 Keep going.
28:45 Yeah.
28:46 I mean, they'd have to be.
28:47 Look, Atlanta made a big mistake not drafting Justin Fields.
28:49 He's from Georgia.
28:50 Yeah.
28:51 I think he's in Kennesaw.
28:55 Fell into their hands.
28:57 He's from the other side of town, but I mean, when it fell that he fell for them to draft,
29:03 it was a no brainer.
29:04 They overthought it and took Kyle Pitts, who is a fine tight end.
29:08 Not great, but cannot and will never affect the game at the NFL level like a quarterback.
29:13 A quarterback is not a starting pitcher, but it's closer to that than it's ever been.
29:20 They blew it.
29:21 So yeah, I'm just thinking if the Falcons would have a chance to remedy and try to right
29:25 the ship of a franchise that's gone backward, for sure you would think they'd be at the
29:29 top of the list.
29:30 But all eyes really are going to be on the Bears.
29:33 I'm just curious what people would offer and what it would actually take for them to seriously
29:39 consider making move.
29:41 Otherwise, you stick with Fields.
29:42 You take that option.
29:44 You go ahead and draft a quarterback because again, we're just going to start doing that
29:47 pretty much every year.
29:48 And this is a big quarterback year.
29:50 And you go forward.
29:52 Your football team is going to be better with two first round picks next year, unless you
29:56 blow it.
29:57 They're not going to blow it.
29:59 They're going to take guys that are good.
30:00 Can you imagine if they decide to keep Fields?
30:07 They can trade number one and maybe I think their second pick is seven, six, seven.
30:13 They can, ten, it's ten.
30:17 They could parlay that into four more first round picks and set their franchise up like
30:24 Jimmy Johnson with the Herschel Walker trade.
30:26 This is mammoth.
30:28 I was talking to a general manager today on the phone when I was in California, or yesterday,
30:35 I guess.
30:36 And we were just talking about the Bears situation.
30:40 And he said to me, if I'm not 100% convinced he's not the guy, I'm keeping him.
30:48 Because if I can get four more first rounders out of this in a couple of seconds, even if
30:54 he's not, I've got weapons to go get players all over the field so I can go sign a free
30:58 agent or whatever.
31:00 I thought that was fascinating to me.
31:02 And again, if champ Kelly says no, I mean, he's named the GM.
31:08 He's got to be able to have the leeway to do whatever he wants.
31:11 And I think you trust him.
31:12 All right, let's get to our four big picks this week.
31:15 I mean, they're all over the place, aren't they?
31:19 They're basically playoff games.
31:20 The featured foursome, no doubt.
31:23 Texans at Colts, winner makes playoff, loser makes vacation reservations.
31:30 We know what happened last week with the Raiders and the Colts.
31:33 We don't really know what's going to happen with Houston.
31:35 Houston's such a good feel good story.
31:37 I want a good ending here.
31:39 I like the surprise, the Texans, because we know the Colts.
31:44 Is it in Texas?
31:45 No, it's in Indianapolis, I believe.
31:49 Yeah, Will Anderson though right now is just playing out of his mind.
31:53 Yeah, I'm going to go with the Texans too, reluctantly.
31:56 I should go with Indiana, but I'm not.
31:59 I'm going to go with the Colts.
32:00 I'm going to go with Texans.
32:04 We know the Colts history in these games.
32:07 So they got to be nervous up there.
32:09 Now Buffalo at Miami is also critically important.
32:13 It's getting a little wild for Miami.
32:15 They're getting a little injured.
32:16 They have a horrible off field distraction with the house on fire earlier this week.
32:22 Buffalo at Miami, I don't think this one ends well.
32:26 Buffalo steals it.
32:27 Yeah, Buffalo, I don't think it's a steal.
32:29 I mean, I know what I was told by Shula, every win on the road is a steal, but I think Buffalo
32:35 just goes in and punches them in the face.
32:38 Miami's on their heels a bit.
32:40 Everything they've done so far this year is being tested.
32:42 I'm concerned how injured they are.
32:45 Jacksonville at Tennessee, spoiler city, music city, that's what it looks like.
32:51 Jaguars, that thing got off track.
32:53 They got a chance.
32:55 They got a chance.
32:56 Oh boy, the spoil continues.
32:59 You know I'm going with the low countries team.
33:00 I got to go with the Jaguars.
33:02 They got to reverse the course and turn this thing around.
33:04 The guy with the big head, the guy with the big hair, hopefully back, but there's so much
33:10 need here.
33:12 Let me just say something here.
33:14 Let me say something here.
33:15 I'm going on Trevor not playing.
33:18 So if Trevor plays, I'm going to go with the Jags.
33:23 I'm impressed with how speedy ATN is, the running back there.
33:27 He is very, very quick.
33:29 He's special.
33:30 Nobody, it's not your eyes, folks.
33:31 He's that quick.
33:33 Chicago at Green Bay, no brainer.
33:37 The Packers are developing into a pretty good story.
33:40 There's some talent.
33:43 There's always an edge.
33:44 There's some guys playing for fields on the other side.
33:47 I'm going with the good story again.
33:49 I think the Packers by less than four.
33:52 I think Packers win it.
33:55 I think it's super close.
33:58 Like a field goal to end the game wins it.
34:01 I would not be shocked if Chicago wins it.
34:03 And if this was in Chicago, I would take Chicago.
34:06 So I'm going to go with Green Bay, but a Chicago win would not surprise me.
34:11 It looks like a great, great week overall.
34:14 And of course, we've got the finale for the Raiders.
34:17 If you want that score, I'll get this wrong again.
34:19 I've got one or two real close, but I'm ready to get this one wrong like I did last week.
34:24 I see this one as, you know, yes, we all know about the streaks.
34:29 We all know how many of the Raiders have won in a row against the Broncos.
34:32 We all know this stuff.
34:33 And we also know pretty much doesn't have anything to do with this year, except maybe
34:38 the last year, maybe the last two.
34:40 So I know what you're thinking.
34:43 It's too good to be true.
34:44 Put that aside.
34:45 This is a game the Raiders win, 23-17.
34:48 There's not a chance.
34:51 I'm going to throw an extra point in this week.
34:56 National championship.
34:57 I don't think Washington has a chance.
35:01 Your thoughts.
35:03 I've seen a lot of Washington this year, including very, very late.
35:06 There was a game earlier this year where they were in serious trouble and it was like, whoa,
35:11 this is about to end.
35:12 And they got a pretty fortunate bounce and turnover.
35:15 And then they took that game and went away with it.
35:18 Michael Penix is an interesting guy to watch.
35:21 He throws the ball.
35:22 Sometimes it looks like he's throwing punts because they just float and they're so well
35:26 timing.
35:27 I think that's the one thing to watch is what is the timing?
35:31 Is it disrupted?
35:32 And we should know that pretty early.
35:34 I don't think that Washington is a dual threat team.
35:37 I don't think they can run and pass as needed.
35:40 This has all been building.
35:42 The mountain has been building.
35:43 It will forever be mired in massive controversy, if not completely forfeited or vacated before
35:49 July 1st of 2024.
35:52 But Monday night, I think Michigan is probably 10 points better than Washington.
35:58 It's going to be a fascinating thing to watch.
36:01 All right, John, I appreciate you.
36:02 It's great to talk to you again.
36:04 Thanks for joining us.
36:05 Remember, you're listening to Sports Illustrated's Fan Nation, Las Vegas Raiders Insider Podcast,
36:10 part of the Fans First Sports Network.
36:12 Check us out.
36:13 Don't forget to sign up for the newsletter, si.com/nfl/raiders.
36:18 Go there, check it out.
36:20 Don't forget to check us out on Spotify, on Apple, and all of that on Instagram, Hondo
36:25 SR, Twitter.
36:26 You can find me @HondoCarpenter.
36:29 Thanks a lot for being with us, John, and we'll see you all again tomorrow.
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