Our 2026 Draft Crushes + NFL Voicemails

Hey-o! Welcome to Heed the Call, an NFL podcast. And we're always Heed the Call around here. I'm Mark Sessler. Our fearless co-host, Dan Hansis, is out and about in parts unknown, but fear not. We've got the wonderful. The sanguine, the exploratory Connor Orr with us today. Connor, you're a fixture on the show. How you doing today? Little bit of a rocky week here in New Jersey. My son recently unwrapped over $1,000 worth of collectibles that I'd been storing in the basement to sell at another time. And so we're learning about financial responsibility here. How did he get his mitts on those? I don't know. I don't know. But we still love him. And I think that's the important thing. That's what you got to lead with, you know? So everything else is learning experience. How old is he? Five. So my son Colton, when he was about five, in one of our, like, I mean, talk about a parenting gap, he already was online all the time on podcasts or not podcasts on, on, like, Amazon, on his iPad and stuff. And we discovered we got a, we got a, I think it was even a text or something from Amazon that we had ordered a $570 Ghostbusters Lego mansion that was being shipped to the house. Colton, my son had done it without us knowing. So it was like, we're going to slow down the iPad, but they're very adept at spending one's money quickly. They are. And, you know, it's one of those things that you're just like, how I know that I'm going to react the perfect way when this happens. And then sometimes you're just so gobsmacked with like the idea of it happening. But then you're also like, I'm an old man who loves kids toys and this was bound to happen at some point, right? Like it's kind of my fault for, for collecting Pokemon cards. It is your fault. Yeah. It is your fault. Justin Graver, producer, want to come in? I have a question for you because Conor spent some money of his own. It sounds like, I like hotels. I like to stay at them. Even if I'm in LA here, I like to go take a couple days once in a while to a hotel and feel like you're somewhere else. But I don't know if I've ever seen another man as excited about getting a hotel as Conor is for your wedding week coming up. It's just out of his shell. Yeah. We are exactly one month, today's April 9th. One month away from the wedding. Today is the last day to book the hotel with the block rate, the discounted group rate. So good thing you did that today, Conor. I'm excited. I might not be as excited as Conor, but I'm excited. Hotel industry in general is fascinating to me. I love the machinations of a hotel for Easter because we stayed at a hotel in Easter because we go visit my wife's family who are about two hours away from us. Since nobody else was in the hotel, it was a complete ghost town. We got upgraded to a suite. The kids thought that was like, they were like the kid in blank check. They were just like millionaires. They were running around in this room with a sofa. Then they were just like storming through the Marriott Club lounge. This is a great thing. It's just like putting these little humans into a very strange world. I think that's why I love hotels. There's always a sense of possibility. Every new booking is a chance for something wild to happen. There seems to be a beeline theme of chaos with your children out in public settings. Constantly. Do you think, because I know it's your anniversary with your wife. We'll move on to the show in a second. Do you think that you could tug her to the schoolbook depository? That's something that would be on her bucket list. Yes. I pitched this trip and I was like, listen, because we were talking about going to Italy and I was like, how about Texas? There is an Italy, Texas city called Italy in Texas. There's also a Rome, Texas and a Paris, Texas. You can see all of Europe in Texas. See, yeah. So I think that's perfect. And so not only are we going to do that, we're going to issue the the the comfortability of the resort and we're going to go stand in a hot pavement circle where John F. Kennedy got his head blown off. Like this is going to be a total dream scenario. Happy 10 years of marriage. All right, we had a great show yesterday. We had Dave Hellman on a reef. Hasan to talk the NFC East, the NFC North draft scenarios today. We're each going to bring up a little draft crush of our own. Someone that's kind of fascinated us and that should be interesting. And then we're going to do NFL voicemails. We've procured some calls that are going from A to B in the NFL world. And some urgent messages that we hope someone will listen to. So that's what's teed up for our third show of a week here in early April. This thing never stops. Let's do some news. Oh, I didn't. I really don't give a shit. I mean, it had nothing to do with me. I mean, they moved the meeting. I didn't miss it. I was just trying to get a sweet haircut. I mean, that's what I was trying to do. And then they moved the meeting. Now you can blame that I should have been at the meeting when they moved it up and my ass would have known that's when it was. Yeah, OK, I got you. And was it disappointing that you're asked it was disappointing? We have my life to be a head coach. I'm not in the head coaches picture. You think with AI, they could have done that quickly and got me in there. But no, it's the way it is. It'll be under the bridge and what will matter most is whether we how we move from here and do we win or not that ultimately none of that will matter. Why do I like him more? I love him. He feels like the nephew of Bill Parcell is a little bit not to suggest that the results will be the same, but there's sort of a don't even press me with this so-called drama that you want to cook up about me missing a photo like I don't give an F. I what I think is great about Munkin is that he is so himself and you can blow into a place like Cleveland that has had its ideas of how to make itself look like a functional franchise and we're going to dress it up and we're going to do PR this way and we're going to have our coaches talk this way. And Munkin's just like, no, man, this is how I am. I'm going to say shit. I'm going to take a poop instead of going to the photo. I'm going to talk about my haircut and you're not going to tell me how to do anything. And ultimately, will the Browns devour him? Yes, because it's a mutant graveyard and this is what happens to everybody. No offense. But like along the way, he will maintain a sense of himself, which I think is a beautiful thing. Yeah, I feel like when you're he's one of the older coaches already in the league and I do I do like that about him. Because he's one guy that he even was in Cleveland as a non-play calling OC back in the day. And that was a one year thing because it was I think it was the Freddy Kitchen's year and that thing like to your point blew up like a graveyard of the nuclear bomb landing on it. But there I feel like he's pretty centered in who he is and he's not playing this game of trying to court everyone's feelings. I don't know. It does. I do. I heard someone else say that like he leads the the odds are the highest if he's a one and done coach. I hope that's not the case. But I mean, if you had to pick one situation that looks a little a little sketchy, that would be it. We're going to have Justin cycle us through some news items today. Grave Digger. Yeah. All right. Let's start with what might have been the biggest news that came out since the last time we we did anything news related on this show. Giants defensive tackle Dexter Lawrence has officially requested a trade. There are some rumblings out there that the Giants would want, you know, a second round pick in return for Dexter Lawrence, who has, I believe, the highest double team rate of any defensive tackle in the NFL over the last period of time. And a valuable player does not want to be in New York anymore. This obviously coming on the heels of Kavan Tividow not wanting to be in New York or maybe New York, not wanting him. What's going on in big blue? I think this is an interesting situation. And with Dexter Lawrence in particular, this is the same thing as Miles Garrett. It's the same thing as a lot of other people. My colleague, Albert Breer, pointed this out in his notes on si.com. I think yesterday or the day before the minute that you're guaranteed money is about to run out, you request a trade. I mean, that's what you do because it's the ultimate escape patch lever. You pull it and you expect the team to react in one way or another. If you're expendable, they'll trade you somewhere else where you're going to get a new contract. If you're not expendable, they'll give you a new contract. And what I think is particularly brilliant about Dexter Lawrence doing this, right, is that Joe Shane, the general manager is under a spotlight and he has had a historic run of letting go of giants, players who have had massive success elsewhere. Daniel Jones, Saquon Barkley, Julian Love, Xavier McKinney and Leonard Williams, like Super Bowl winners, all pros, like, you know, I mean, like comeback player of the year, like all of these really good players. And so Dexter Lawrence is like, OK, you want me to be the next one? Or you want to just put a little slap, a little more guaranteed money into that bank account? And so I think he's playing it perfectly. Do you? I mean, I guess I wonder if they target him under a new regime, coaching wise, like as someone they want to hand a massive bundle of money to. I mean, he's turning 29, he's coming off a down season. I still think he's an awesome player. There's no question. But I think you're right. Like he's looking at everyone who leaves the giants and also the worst stadium in the NFL, arguably, at MetLife to go to places, greener pastures and win titles, and that sets them up to make the money he wants to make now. And I mean, I guess it's sort of like John Harbaugh. It feels like there's there's still a honeymoon period with John Harbaugh until something's not right during the actual season. But it doesn't matter who you are. There's still these these challenges because the players have a plenty of control in this situation. Yeah. I'm with Dexter in particular. I mean, you bring up a good point, Mark. Last year, I think the the chatter was that he was having a bad season because he was somewhat out of shape and indifferent. And I think it's hard to blame a player like that when you're the cynicism bakes in, you know that you're going to be playing for a lame duck head coach. And maybe this year it's like, yeah, I don't feel like slamming my body into the line of scrimmage and taking 31 double teams a game anymore because there's literally no point to it. But John Harbaugh's that's his job is to suss out the character within him and to say, do I have two more seasons in you as literally the best interior pressure defensive tackle in the NFL? And if not, then, you know, Buffalo is right up the right up the road, you know, and hopefully we'll get a second round pick out of it. Do you think Kavon is out of here by September? Yes. Yes. Just because I my thought on Kavon and this is just my thought. If I was putting myself in the Giants Draft Room at that moment, they were probably thinking this is an edge class that's good and he's riding the heels of it, but in a normal draft class where we didn't need one or whatever, like maybe he's the 15th, 16th, 17th best pick. Right. But we have to take him here because this is positional value. This is where everything shook out and what we needed. And I just don't think they were playing him necessarily in the right way. I mean, I think they wanted him to be a certain kind of guy and he's just not. And sometimes it necessitates a little bit of a change of pace. It is like, I don't know, because we've been doing this collectively, the three of us for a long time. Like I really feel allergic to the zeal and enthusiasm that like you could feel for your own team that you root for or just the idea of them grabbing so and so player at the number one pick. When all these stories are about teams deciding not to pay the guy that they took at number one or in the first round. And most of them leave and like the giants are a huge example of that. And it's like, I don't know. I mean, I think your point about getting him for two years under Harbaugh, like that's all you can really ask for at this point. And like that would be a victory for the Giants. And I just think still like you have to, especially if you're not going to get what you want out of Tibido, like you have to believe that a guy who's going to routinely take up two blockers and knows how to do that is infinitely valuable to a team that wants to free up three different pass rushers. It's just math, right? And it's just like, I need a guy who's able to do that. And if I have to bite my lip and I have to pay him a little bit, I think it solves two woes for the Giants. I mean, it gives them what they need defensively and it gets them out of this mode of just shipping stars out of town and watching them just absolutely kick ass and talk crap about the Giants wherever they go. Justin, item number two. Well, Mark, you mentioned teams not paying their top picks. How about a team who did pay their top pick? Jacksonville Jaguars extend former number one overall pick. Defense event, Trayvon Walker, four year, $110 million contract that comes with 77 million in total guarantees and 50 million fully guaranteed. Well, OK, I mean, I think that they he's a really good football player. I think the thing is like it's hard to swallow the concept that they took him number one overall with the concept that he'd be the pass rushing would be a big part of his game from the interior, whatever it is. It's just not really been the case. And they picked him one spot ahead of Aiden Hutchinson. I think that's just it's he's a good player. They've got Josh Heinz Allen. I have no problem paying him, but I don't know if this is the player they thought they were drafting when they drafted him. I just have questions about that. I think it was interesting because when they drafted him in the first place, I said that this is going to be kind of like a hyper extended version of the Clio Mac pick because the Clio Mac thing was and Clio Mac ended up just being like a phenomenal peer edge rusher, but it was also a really good run set edge setter in the run. He could play multiple positions. And I think that was always the benefit of Walker is like we can be multiple on the defense because he's so talented. And the problem is you pick him number one knowing that he will probably never lead the NFL in any glamour statistical category and legitimize it in the eyes of the fan base. But if you're like Anthony Campanale, it's like, oh, wow, I can play him as a as a three technique here. I can play him out wide here. I can play him here. And this helps us out so much and it disguises things for us on defense. And it's great. And I think that the value, the acknowledgement of that value is in the payment, right? Because otherwise he'd be shipped out the door. And if you get like the season you're hoping for from Travis Hunter, which is a huge if suddenly you've got both of these guys, which is the opposite of the Giants. I mean, I think the Travis Hunter thing is huge here as well. Like this is meant to be a gigantic piece of the puzzle for this version of the Jaguars. Yeah. I mean, the Travis Hunter thing is interesting because it's like, I mean, at this point he's really got to develop into a top flight corner and at least do something interesting on offense or this is going to start to look heavily suspicious, especially, I mean, credit to your Browns, my former Browns. I mean, this this class that they got in exchange for him is looking awesome. And I think we'll look even better, especially guys like Fanon and Judkins under Todd Munkin. I mean, I think this is going to be a special group. They also, like speaking of Fanon, they brought in Kenyan Sadiq, the Browns for a visit. It's interesting to me to see Munkin potentially lining up for, they've got to first the idea of a monstrous, like too tight end offense. That to me is just, I think that would, that's sort of what he want. He had it in Baltimore and I could see him doing it in Cleveland. Next, Justin, let's keep rolling, baby. All right. Next one. Falcon's right tackle Caleb McGarry has announced his retirement after seven seasons in the NFL and to replace him, hopefully Atlanta thinks they have signed former chiefs offensive tackle, Joann Taylor, most infamous for jumping before the snap and not getting flagged for it. I think this is, you know, we're looking at the Dalman retirement in Chicago. Another wave of theoretically premature retirements and people walking away. We had that stretch where it was like Luke Keekley and Chris Borland and all those other guys. And I think we're hitting like another wave of players who were just like, you know what, like I made a lot of money. I'd like to feel what my body actually feels like when I wake up in the morning and I'd like to see if I can preserve some modicum of self reliance later on in my life. And so I'm going to walk away and like I think the NFL should be paying attention to this, especially when we're talking about it in the context of like, let's add another game to the schedule. Right. These guys aren't surviving and then they're just like walking away. You know, it's it's happening like, especially when you see it happening with the offensive linemen. And, you know, these are individuals now, unlike 10 years ago, the entire past of football coming out of college in many cases with a ton of money in their pocket, like with more money than most of us will ever dream of making some of these players have. So the idea that you got to go play offensive line for 14 years. And I mean, I don't know. We know what these offensive linemen have to do to their bodies, too. And I mean, in the case of Caleb McGarry, he missed the whole 25 season with a knee injury. Kevin Stafansky, though, I mean, it's a little bit of a surprise because Kevin Stafansky said he'd be good to go for training camp. So it's a bit of a it's a little bit of a rumble inside the organization, what you do there. But what these guys have to do to keep their bodies going, the amount of food they have to eat and what it does to their internal organs. Like these guys are too smart. I think Bordlin left for like a finance career or something. Like you take that initial capital and move on and don't get CTE and have your body exploding at age 36. I remember the best example was and it was funny. I mean, it was Chris knee of the Giants and I was covering the team at the time. He was like a legendary interior offensive linemen. I think he won both Super Bowls with the Giants. I can't remember if double check me on that. But he was saying like how happy he was that he goes, I don't have to eat third dinner anymore. And I said, third dinner, like third dinner. Think about that. Like not all the other meals, a third dinner just to keep his weight up and his body up. And this was a rule in beat writing. Like whenever we would be scouting out a potential offensive or defensive linemen retiring, it's you try to see them out in the wild and see how much weight they lost already. Right. And if they're thinking about announcing the retirement at some point, their weight loss is probably already in a free fall because they're just not gorging themselves at that point, you know, and they don't have to. And I think that there is really something to that. They they it's God, it must be such a relief to just not have to go to bed feeling like you're going to explode. I mean, it also sounds super cool to retire at a relatively early age with a ton of money. I mean, it sounds fantastic. I mean, I would just travel the world and stuff. I mean, I did. I spent some time with Ben Garland who played linemen for the Niners. He also played defense for them as well. But like we went out to dinner and it wasn't just it was a group of us, but like you're right. Like we were in a different country. We were in Italy, but he ordered like one plate, a gigantic like full fish. With tons of sides, but then also like a massive steak and then also like two corn on the cobs and like a big bowl of vegetables. I was like, how do you put this in your body? But it's like every meal was this way. And I'm ordering like a pizza for a ninth grader. I mean, so it's, you know, different body types, different needs. Everybody needs something different. Next story is interesting. Texans exercise fifth year options on their first round picks from a few years ago, CJ Stroud and Will Anderson. And I don't think anyone is surprised by this, but there has been some, I don't know, consternation over CJ Stroud's play, particularly in the playoffs, but they are locked in with him for another season. Twenty five million dollars. They seem more patient than some of us are about about the progress of CJ Stroud. I mean, they seem married to him. Like they're they're not questioning it. Well, what was the casario said? It was idiotic, the talk of him being traded at the scouting combine. And I just don't I don't think it's idiotic. I think that they could get max value for him right now. And then if everything falls off a cliff next year, you're looking at someone maybe giving you like the what the Sam Darnold comp as in thinking that they could fix him somewhere else. But this is a draft class with no quarterback talent outside of possibly the number one overall pick and you have the chance to to to get the most out of him. But it'll be interesting to see by picking up both fifth year options, what order they decide to do the mega extensions in, because I would have to believe that Will Anderson is by far the more obvious pick. But then if you sign will, does that then start the clock on CJ Stroud in terms of pressure being put on the Texans pressure being put on Stroud? I don't know. It's I think it can has the possibility of getting melodramatic there. Right. Yeah, I would do Anderson's deal as soon as possible, basically, like just because we already know it's going to top the market historically. So when do you feel like doing that? I wonder like inside a locker room, like I'm sure they're pretty tight. The Texans in general, they've had a lot of success, but like Stroud not getting the deal and Anderson getting one. I don't know what that like you think it's typically like quarterback first is the today's NFL. And if it if he's got a weight a year with a lot of pressure on him, he is. I don't know if there's a quarterback that reached certain heights in our minds. And we thought that we're looking at the next fill in the blank. And he's under incredible pressure right now to show he's that guy. I think it's like it's I've noticed the pattern in a couple other quarterbacks where it's like you're in a really good system. You have a good first year because you have a good defense and you have a good skill position around you. And then as a quarterback, the immediate desire is to want to grab power in that offense and be like, I want more responsibility. I want to be able to do this. I want to be able to check to that. But with great responsibility comes great responsibility, right? I mean, if if if an offensive line, if a if a block is missed, if the protection isn't slid the right way, if you're not checking to the right calls, like that's on you. And so this new, I think, offensive staff is trying to figure out like where are we with how you're seeing things, how you're progressing in this offense? I mean, is the offensive line even good enough to to to to allow the foundation for this stuff to happen and to grow? I don't know. I mean, they did a lot of work on the offensive line and free agency, too. I mean, I'd look at also like there's a bit of a parallel to a Trevor Lawrence where it's, you know, CJ Stroud has the same head coach, but he's had multiple offensive coordinators, shifting schemes, an unreliable line. And Lawrence went through a lot of ups and downs, too. And now it's like we're getting finally what last season, what we wanted out of them. And you hope it's the same for Stroud, but there's a lot of. And so I just think it's tough for these quarterbacks because we talk about Darnold Baker, they all went through so many play-caller switches. And it's got to just make your head swim left and right. Is there anything left in the barrel, Justin, news wise? One more story. I don't know where it is. The barrel. One more story here. Chiefs wide receiver, Rashid Rice, will not face any discipline from the league after their investigation into his recent legal troubles. I just kind of wish all my life was like that, right? Where, you know, just regardless of what I do, you know, there's like there's like an aura of a possible investigation. But all along, you just know that you can operate as normal and and expect no discipline. I mean, that's got to be like freeing to know that you're operating in the system where no rules apply to you at all. I mean, it kind of tells me that there's something something lingering, there's something on the mind that you have done that we've not discovered and there's that's it's a big week for that. So I had a dream once that I that I killed someone and it was gripping because like the anxiety of knowing like this is where I put the body. And I woke up like drenched in sweat because the whole time I'm like, well, I can't I hit it there, but I got to go. I kept switching the spot, you know, and and I was like, it's got to go. It's got to move here and then it's got to move here. And then by then I think, you know, I'm just covered in dead body by the time the police come, I'm just like a DNA billboard, you know. It's I had one the other night where I was accused in a dream. There were like 20 people around me who in real life I've never seen. But in the dream, they were close cohorts and friends and family. And a restaurant accused me of stealing late at night a large amount of beverages and food and in my I was like, I definitely didn't do it. But then I started to remember like, holy F, like I did do it and I've been caught in like I like you. I woke up in a in a hideous mind state and it's like, I don't know. What are we doing in our daytime that's causing this stress in the middle of Dreamland? I'm going to switch vitamins. I don't think it's going well. Yeah. That should do it. That should do it. That should do it. All right, that's news for the moment. And let's go to break. Let's take a little break here. 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It's time to turn those what ifs into with Shopify today. Sign up for your one dollar per month trial today at Shopify.com. Slash HTC. Go to Shopify.com slash HTC. That's Shopify.com slash HTC. OK, we're back and we we've crossed through six of eight divisions in our draft cram session yesterday, as I mentioned, was the NFC East and the NFC North. And it's you know, we've got these great guests coming on. But it's our job to be starting to fall in love, to fascinate over some of these picks. And I think we all kind of get the same idea of the top. The guys at the top and yes, we'll keep talking about them. But a crush typically happens when, you know, it could happen when you're young across like a lunchroom or across a park. And it's typically not someone that you even knew or expected on. It just forms and it happens. It's a very human thing. So I thought that we would do some draft crushes. Not necessarily Jeremiah Love. We all love him, but like guys that are maybe hanging out in the gloom in the mist. And Connor, why don't you get us going? I have a feeling you probably brought the goods here. All right. So yeah, we're going to this is the equivalent of like going over to look at someone's record collection and be like, oh, like, do you have any lead Zeppelin and I'm going to be like, no, I only have like golden smog records from the 1960s that you've never heard of. But this guy's name is Heinrich Harburg. OK. And this is a real person. This is a real person. Nebraska fans will remember him as a short stint as a starting quarterback. I think he went like five and seven and no, but five and two because two of those wins ended up being vacated. So I think it was undefeated as Nebraska's starting quarterback. What ended up happening was then NIL, Raola, who's like their star quarterback, he comes to be and, you know, Nebraska's got to play him and Heinrich has to decide between, OK, you know, I'm a legacy at Nebraska. My girlfriend plays volleyball for the Cornhuskers. I can either stay here and switch positions and learn something new or I can go try to play quarterback elsewhere. And so he changes to a tight end. But what's interesting now is like it is pro day and scouts are asking about, can you still throw? OK, you can block, you can catch and can you throw? And so what it's been presented to me as is like, hey, this is possibly this year's Taysom Hill. And a lot of times what'll happen is you'll just have mediocre quarterbacks come out and then scouts will say, well, I can turn them into the next Taysom Hill. But I think this is different in that this was a legitimate quarterback who I think learned well, the finer points of blocking, of doing all the stuff, the gadget stuff. And I think he could come to the NFL locked and loaded like as a legitimate Taysom Hill type prospect. So this is fun. Like I like draft crushes like this, right? Because easy person to root for fun situation. And what the hell else are you paying attention to in the sixth round of the NFL draft? Absolutely. Like you want you like it's going to be, first of all, because you're able to espouse your views publicly to people across the world about this person. When he is picked, you're going to receive a flood of attention that nears the idea that you knew this would happen and that you're sort of a crowning, probably day three draft moment for you. I like that. I like that situation. I'm looking at him also. Heinrich Harburg, I just wanted to, he looks very German. I mean, I mean, that makes sense. Probably very clearly has that going on for him. Where do they think he's going to go? Like, what's the, is he going to get drafted? I think it could be like a sixth, seventh round pick or an undrafted free agent. But I think what's interesting about it, right? Is that if you're a, if you're a head coach or if you're a scouting director, it's like this is your ultimate kind of high upside end of the draft pick because it's like, you know, I don't know what we're going to get out of him. But I do know that if I play him on punt team, I can put him as an up back and then he can throw and we can fake out of it. If I put him in field, go same thing, you know, like there's going to be a lot that I can do with him. And if he comes in to training camp and just starts messing people up and pushing people around like he's going to stick around in the NFL for five, six, seven or God, how long has Taysum Hill been in the NFL? 300 years? I mean, it's possible. Well, also, yes, let's say if Sean Peyton zeroes in on Taysum Hill 2.0, immediately furnishes him with a massive series of contracts. We like that. But yeah, I don't know. That's like the other side of is if he gets a sort of a cemented role, he's my favorite type of fantasy player where he's going to be used and dotted all over the place and you never know where the yards are going to come from. It's kind of like a little bit of an X factor on that front. You need to be. We need and this is like a soapbox ramp for another time, but it's sort of tied to why I like him so much. One of my coaches that I admire and respect more than anybody is the head coach at Princeton, who's been running a three quarterback offense for like 10 years. Right. There are three different players on the field that can throw the ball at any given time and like eventually defenses are going to get so good and so multiple that we need to have multiple players on the field who can throw the ball at the same time. And I think this is just like maybe a little window into into how we're seeing it. That's the one thing I kind of miss about covid was that there were a couple of games where the cupboard was so bare, the totally bizarre people were used in different positions. And really Dan Reeves once ran a two quarterback offense against the Cowboys and like, I believe like 1992 or something. And with each series, like he'd switch the quarterback like what a 10 times more fascinating game that is. I would love that. And the other thing he did at Princeton was he had a year where he had one quarterback from the zero to the 20 and the 20 to the zero and then another quarterback that went between the 20s. And so depending on where you were on the field, like there was a different guy that just specialized in that little area of grass. It's like, God, like there's just, you know, like we're seeing it now in baseball where it's like, OK, we're going to maybe start the game with a reliever. Like I don't give a shit. Let's blow the lid off this whole thing. Like let's go in the NFL and maybe Heinrich Harburg is going to get us there. I think you're right. I think like, OK, I'm plugged in with this guy. I mean, it's we can't both have the same level of crush. But I see why you have a crush. Yeah, like I'm not taking. I'm not going to take your crush. It's your it's your target. I'm going to go. I am a huge like if your dad played in the league or you have a brother in the league, like why are dumb teams picking someone whose father worked at like IBM in the 80s? Like if I really, really think that living that life, if your parent did matters, I'm going to Josea Trotter. Nice. Missouri linebacker. Naturally, his father, Jeremiah Trotter was an all pro with the Eagles played, I believe, eight seasons there also with at the time, the Redskins and the Buccaneers. Jeremiah Trotter, Jr. is a fifth round pick in his in his third season with the Eagles right now. So I just like this. And if you go and take a look at Josea Trotter, like he is. He's just got those linebacker traits. I remember in high school, one of my best friends, Matt Hogan, I melted off the football team pretty quick and started writing articles and stuff. But I watched him at linebacker grow into this player where the coach would always just say, Matt has these awesome instincts where I need someone like young players. I don't know what they're going to be where you need them to be at the ball. And he would just be there quicker than anyone else. And I use that as an example because watching Trotter like he is. He's got it. It's just in his mind. He sees it before it happens. He's an awesome run defender. He's not afraid of contact. He's the opposite. I was watching some stuff where he played. He went up against Missouri played Vanderbilt. And there's a play where he has to basically encounter what was a six four tackle or something, and he's not that size. And he just blew him up at the point of contact. And like this is a violent run stuffing guy who can get to the quarterback. And it seems to be of ease to him. I have seen him targeted because it sounds like he's about a second to fourth round guy. The Broncos have been mentioned. They've got to pick at 62. It's creeping up that the Rams are probably going to take a linebacker or a might in the second round. And I think that these are teams that would value and coaches who would value the lineage of Trotter as well. I want to just play this one because he's 20 and he's really young. And I think that we've talked about this kind of, you know, all the time when coaches have to take on young players and we know these guys from their tape. But who are they as people and what are you dealing with behind the scenes? And like I feel complete trust that this guy at age 20 is beyond his years. Justin, if we can play this little sound clip from one of his interviews. How competitive was it growing up with Jeremiah? Yeah, it was definitely experienced with him. You know, being a younger brother, you know, sometimes you get beat up. You know, sometimes, you know, you win games, you lose games with him. But, you know, it was fun. I love having him as an older brother. He's the reason I love playing football. Just watching him. He just means a lot to me. He's a big factor why, you know, I'm the player I am today. And just continue to help me, you know, check it out for me. And just, you know, a lot of mistakes he made. I was able to learn from him. That's about his brother. And he just seems mature upon his years and like beyond his years and is just a violent player. I kind of think like there aren't you don't know how many of these guys you're going to get at these positions who just are basically born to play football like this. So that's my dude, Connor. You know, who else would love this guy is Tad Bulls, right? Because Tad Bulls is another guy who's drafted the sons of NFL players before, right? But he also loves linebackers and off-ball linebackers who can generate interior pressure. And when you watch Trotter on film, you're right. It's like until you slow it down and you realize, oh, my God, he gained five steps on a ball carrier or a pass receiver just because he knew what was going to happen. He sees the field that well. But then when it's just like a strict blitzing snap, he is just in the backfield. He is a problem for quarterbacks. And I just I love that about him. And I wonder if Todd Bulls is like because Lavante David retired. Yeah, I wonder if he's like trying to elbow some people out of the way and say, give me that, give me some of that. I love that you could just fight for the draft pick. But that's two crushes off the board, Justin. I hope we didn't take your guy. You guys did not take my draft crush. And so I have fallen in love with a small school wide receiver prospect out of Georgia State, Ted Hearst. He is a big, deep threat type of guy, profiles like just one of those downfield weapons. He's taller than most of your like speedy outside receivers. He's almost six foot four, six, three and a half, 206 pounds, ran a 442 at the combine and his calling card at Georgia State was getting down the field, winning vertically, which every NFL team can use more guys who win vertically down the field, create explosive plays. That's the best way to create offenses, create explosives. And he will do that for somebody. I feel like his range of outcomes is pretty, pretty wide. Like in the best case scenario world, he could have like a George Pickens level impact where he develops over time into a wide receiver, one level player on the outside, can beat press coverage and man coverage and be that go to guy. I don't think he starts anywhere near that coming from such a small school like Georgia State, but he did go down to the senior bull and was one of the best receivers on the field, handled that step up in competition with a pretty impressive week at the senior bull, which gives me the confidence that he could have an instant impact. I feel like instant impact. He is like a Gabe Davis type of player, a taller down the field, explosive play weapon who could again develop into more. I think he's probably going to go towards the end of day two in this draft. Maybe he makes it to the fourth round, but like if I'm in charge of these teams, he's not making it to the fourth round. I'm really in love with this receiver prospect, who he like he could be. He's like Christian Watson, potentially in terms of his build and his athleticism or in like the worst case scenario again, like a Gabe Davis level player. You are on the party line with he is our friend, Lance Zeerline, where we've got a showdown coming with Lance Zeerline down the road here, but he's got him projected as round two. Wow. I feel like a lot of like what team couldn't use this player if he's going to be what Justin says? You know, I love and one of the coolest parts about really the NCAA tournament, but also the basketball tournament and the draft is that like we spend all this time scouting and analyzing and doing all this stuff. But then we miss guys and then they go up against the perceived top competition. And, you know, even maybe those players themselves believe that they just can't match up physically or speed wise and all of a sudden they're just kicking ass. And like I remember Ali Marpin a couple of years ago, the guard from Hobart, who all of a sudden like at the senior ball was destroying people from like Alabama and they're like, where on earth did like Division three player from Hobart? But that's the thing, right? It's like there is like there's still an unknown to this and speed and strength. And all these things are so relative until you see them all in the same plane. It's like very strange and cosmic in a lot of ways. I think we should each make like a mix tape for our individual crushes and send it snail mail to, I don't know, to their mailing address. How about that? Were you a big mix tape guy? Oh, geez. Well, yeah, I mean, I think you've got to talk mix tape batting average because I had a couple. I would I like to draw on stuff and like I would spend an entire weekend with like double stereo systems driving the household nuts, creating like a double mixtape, like a two tape like that you tape the two cassette tapes together and then put art all over it and stuff. And then I mail it to someone and it's like a girl that like, you know, you're in ninth grade, like she's you're not on her radar. You're not her draft crush. And then at her house, I mean, I had to learn not to this like at her house, I would would arrive this like dense manila envelope with a gigantic mix tape mostly with just songs that I liked. They weren't songs that I knew someone else liked. And I mean, the batting percentage for some of this was embarrassing. How about you? There was a kid, Joel, who I was friends with and and he would charge you like a dollar or two dollars to create the it was a CD when I was around. But you would give him the list and he'd also have some pretty good suggestions of like love songs. And so if you were in sixth, seventh, eighth grade and you're kind of in a tough spot in terms of like, I don't really have any income and an ability to like buy this girl Valentine, Joel was always good with just like kind of going to him and being like, here's here's kind of what I'm feeling about this. You know, you throw a couple of Christina Aguilera songs on here and you download them from Napster and you get a giant virus on your home computer and you allow me to to woo this girl. And so I think that was really, you know, that was it was always helpful for me, but I got a lot of history. Yeah, I see. I did have that era too. But like the earlier era for me was I didn't have Napster and I didn't have the friend at your school. It was like I'm only operating off of what music selection is in my in my actual house growing up and it's my parents records from like 1967. And it's my eight tapes that I owned at the time. So it was a very scattershot operation. It's like the Glenn Miller Orchestra and this girl gets these tapes and she's like, what on earth? Well, when you got a stretch, you know, it's like the 90 the 90 minute tape. You got to throw some stuff that you're not planning. So some WFAN, just 30 minutes of WFAN. Just like, can you have a girl opening like this love letter and then it just ends with Steve Summers being like, hello, I'm here and you're there. I love you. It's not the only thing that ended with that whole plan. So. All right, those are our crushes. Let's take one more break and then we'll come back with our NFL voicemails. Let's see what those bring to us. Understanding power requires more than headlines. I'm Peter Hamby, host of The Powers That Be, a podcast from Pocke examining politics, economics and media to provide context analysis and clarity without sensationalism. We ask how power operates, who benefits and what's at stake. If you want to move beyond breaking news to deeper understanding, join us on The Powers That Be new episodes every weekday. Follow The Powers That Be wherever you get your podcasts. OK, we are back as mentioned, we're going to do some NFL voicemails. So you can either leave a voicemail for an NFL figure or, you know, we've got a light, we've got access to stuff that's just out there in the hemisphere. It could be from one figure to another. So, Connor, why don't you get us going? All right, let's let it rip. You have reached the voicemail box of every NFL general manager at the tone. Please record your message. When you have finished recording, you may hang up or press one for more option. Hello, NFL GMs. This is Vic Casper from a New Earth estate planning LLC. I'm calling to urge you to trade everything for 2026 draft picks because this will be the last year of our planet. The Artemis to moon exploration has revealed what we've known inside our secret cabal for decades now. A gigantic space laser pointed for the state capital building in Topeka, Kansas is set to blast on February 27th, 2027. A plasma concentrates so potent that it will turn most of the continental United States into a mud bull body bag. Your final chance to win the Super Bowl awaits. Spend all of your cap dollars, live freely, love generously and donate to a new Earth estate planning LLC where we accept tax deductible gifts of land, property, boats, vehicles and stuffed mounted animals. Boats. Wait, so the NFL GMs understand that the earth is coming to a close, but anyone else in our hand, anyone else on earth does not know that according to this organization. I guess what Vic is trying to say is that like he knows that this is going to happen and he's trying to warn everybody much like, you know, some of the people who've read Mayan calendars or, you know, have predicted other doomsday scenarios. But in this case, he wants all the GMs to know like, hey, the earth isn't going to be here next year. Everyone's talking about this 2027 draft class. Like it's going to be great. Live right now, you know, trade for 2026 picks because this is, you know, we could die tomorrow. I would say if anything like Andrew Berry dialing up the five pick transaction scenario took the message to heart. Mm hmm. Yeah. He may have one more season to get a quarterback and they don't have one at the moment, so you sell the farm. I just miss like the inspiration for this is like I was traveling in like rural Pennsylvania the other day and you know, those are town newsletters that are like diners and, you know, like some of them are just like, there's a there's going to be a, you know, a polka dot dance this Thursday at the library. But then some of them are just like, this entire town is filled with aliens. And you know, and those are the ones like you start reading, you're like, whoa, shit, you know, and I really enjoy that kind of I really enjoy that kind of reading. So I love that. It is it would be befitting of a certain group of fans to come to the conclusion realization that they will never have a functional quarterback. But that probably being their biggest complaint over the earth ending and whatever else that means for them. But that would be doubly frustrating. So Justin, you got one. Very Kyle Shanahan. Yes, it is. Yes. Yes. Yes, I would like to place a call. Maybe I'll get him on the line. But if I don't, I will leave a voicemail. Pick up. Going home today. You have reached the voicemail box of Ben Johnson at the tone. Please record your message. When you have finished recording, you may hang up or press one for more options. Hey, Ben, this is Justin Graver, producer of Heed the Call. You don't know me, but I figured I'd give you a give you a call. See if I could give you some advice. I'm just thinking about what this upcoming season for the Bears might look like. And I wanted to give you a little bit of a warning that you have not arrived. The Bears are not just going to be a great team because they were a good team who exceeded expectations last year. Development in the NFL is often not linear. Now, I have a lot of hope for the Bears. I think they're an exciting team. I think you do a tremendous job coordinating this offense. But you got to restock the cupboard every offseason. I just want to heed you. Let me heed you. I want you to heed the warning of the Washington commanders who were in a similar position a year ago, expecting to take that next step after an improbable run to the NFC championship. But the wheels fell off and things were a disaster. I don't want to see the same thing happen to the Chicago Bears. The NFL is better when the Bears are good and we got that rivalry in the NFC north. So take this word of caution. If you ever want to come on the show, I am the producer, so I can make that happen. You know, I can pull some strings, get you on the podcast, but pull some strings, give me a call back if you can. Thanks. Appreciate it, Ben. He's like, wait, is that those guys from the podcast? What can we play that again? I want to listen to that message again and take some notes. I just imagined him getting that voicemail and then just turning to someone and being like, who the gave him my phone number and can we find him and wipe him off the face of the earth right now? Can we actually we had the slides yesterday for the NFC north, the free agency, the Cummings and Goeings and I like see this little if you're on if you're on YouTube. It's the grid that shows everything they've done. But in the bottom right, I asked Justin to put just a little picture of Ben Johnson on like, what's an Excel slide, like a slide sheet type here? And it's him from his his coach's photo because as mentioned, he looks like a complete and total psycho. He's one of those guys that like, you know, when there's like a kid on the playground that like will force everybody to do really strange things and like orchestrate total bedlam and you're like, he will be a leader of something one day. And like, you know, we know that that's true, whether or not he's like Obama or, you know, something horrifying that's going to like tear down a third world nation. We don't know. Yeah. And so I think Ben is the same way where it's like, we know he's going to like, you knew he was going to be an NFL head coach. And it seems like he's a very good NFL head coach. But like, you know, is this is this NFL like, you know, where's this going? You know, like he doesn't seem happy. He doesn't seem like constrained all the way. You know, like I'm like, is there like a burnout at some point? Like that, speaking of that, that what is that a PowerPoint? Justin, I know you put that together. That's probably not the software Photoshop. Photoshop, Photoshop. But like I hit Claude make it. It's beautiful. I'm kidding. I made it in Photoshop. Intentionally a little clunky that the Ben Johnson photo just sitting there. And there was a time when I'm back in the wilds. When I had a job at Wells Fargo along a highway in Arizona, when I had no car. And I was I worked in a basically HR and I would have to deliver a report on the hires that we made in the people that left at this sort of call center in front of about 20 people and I was a, you know, 20 something. And these were like real banking professionals. And it was a sheet I had to hand out. And so I would make like a PowerPoint type slide. But I started in populating them with images. And it reached the crescendo at one point when I put like a gigantic Jack Ruby photo, Lee Harvey Oswald, Marina Oswald and a bunch of other stuff. And like where some of this had been playful in weeks previous. This one got me. I was no longer doing those meetings after that. They found someone more in their culture to do that. So there you go. You see them as a commander's potential potential commanders entry. They're the bears, Justin. Yeah, I just feel like there's some of the same kind of warning signs. Just in the luck based outcomes, small sample size, like plays at the end of games, going your way, the commanders like infamously were really, really good, aggressive and successful on fourth downs in their run. They obviously had that Hail Mary against the bears of all teams that sort of propelled them. And then they just kept winning games on the backs of like incredible late game heroics and drives. There was the the pass from Daniels to I can't remember who in the end zone. Against the Bengals that like the Bengals looked like they were about to come back. They couldn't be stopped. But the commanders also couldn't be stopped on the other side. They just kept putting another score on the board. And they were just like low probability plays that worked out. And I feel like the same thing kind of happened to the bears down the stretch last season. I think there's obviously always room for improvement. Another year for Caleb Williams in Ben Johnson system. Another year of like Luther Burton becoming a real weapon instead of like a sub package, rarely used guy. But you trade away DJ Moore. We've talked a lot about how healthy their offensive line remained throughout all of last season. They lose their starting center to retirement. So I just think that some things can start to spiral quickly if things go poorly and I don't want to see that for the bears. But it's sort of just like it's a word of caution, you know, a word of warning. I like this. Like with commanders like Jayden Daniels got hurt too. I mean, it's it goes down to stuff like that. And I I don't know. Conner, I trust Ben Johnson to keep creating. Yes, maybe more than I do with year two or three of Cliff Kingsbury in Washington and what we got after that kind of rousing initial season there. Ben Johnson to me is McVeigh in terms of the fact that like he is so obsessed that he's not going to rest until he innovates and continues to create. It's just like McVeigh is experiencing now. It's how self sustainable is that, you know, you keep kind of. Treating your brain that way. But I'm very, you know, at this moment in time, we're so lucky to have had him for as long as we are like he's increased trick play rate in the NFL. He's increased like there's so many cool things that he's done to just make football more watchable that like, hell, yeah, man, do what you can, you know. All right. This third one, I just want to set it up a bit. It's this is not me to someone. This is a soon to be replacement official, Ernie Olive, leaving a voicemail for his mother. You have reached the voicemail box of mother at the tone. Please record your message. When you have finished recording, you may hang up or press one for more options. Mother, I'm calling you from the Richard Ramirez truck stop along I 10 outside El Paso. I have big news. I have a new job. Yesterday, I was a lowly football ref at the Del Monte Christian Methodist Prep School for students. Not anymore. I am on the moped heading west to California to join the NFL. You heard that right, mother. I have been invited to join a largely covert crash course put on by the league to become a replacement official. It's all thanks to Uncle Ted, of course. Uncle Ted took me to Taco Bell last night to celebrate my departure over and over. I said, Uncle Ted, thanks for greasing the skids. I don't know how to repay you, but how did you do it? Uncle Ted explained that he had just returned from doing a job, a job for someone special in the NFL. I asked him what kind of a job? Photography, he said. I didn't know Uncle Ted was into cameras, mother. I go where the work goes, Uncle Ted told me. This time it took me up country to a little cabin situated about two hours north of Phoenix. I asked, did the Phoenix Cardinals send you? The Arizona Cardinals? No, a fellow named Sean did. Uncle Ted fixed his gaze on me. Now Ernie, listen up. When you get on that gridiron, you look for a fellow named Sean. If you find yourself working a Broncos game this autumn, you tell him thanks yourself. I promised I would. Then Uncle Ted went into this shebang about what he described as a new kickoff rule in the NFL. Don't try to fool me, I laughed. No, Ernie, they genuinely changed the kickoff rule. A while ago. He went on and on about the ball going out of bounds at the 45 and some sort of safe zone for the return team. Classic Uncle Ted. He asked me where the referee training was. La Jolla, California. He frowned at me. Do you mean La Jolla? Yeah, it's near San Diego. You know where the Chargers play. Ernie, the Chargers moved to LA nearly 10 years ago. Mother, I have to be confident in my own compass. I am the game official. These are at best casual fans. Anyway, I better get back on the road. I love you, mother. If that's what the replacement officials look like, the NFL is in for an interesting September. I think it would be a problem. Mark, you're the best. You know that? You are just the best. Well, that's Ernie. I hope they know there's a new kickoff rule. A lot of people don't know this. We brought it up in drips and grabs over time. But we used to have, even before Slack, the groups between us, there was this other chat client. Mark would be able to create these characters in these worlds that, if I had the wherewithal, I would have copied and pasted and put into a compendium. It's still some of the funniest stuff that I've ever read in my entire life. And that just put me back into such a great space where it's like, God, it's like 9 a.m. Eastern and you just logged on for the dead hour NFL morning new shift. And you just start talking about a wafting prostitute in the Arizona desert or whatever. It's just this amazing tale of lust and heartbreak in the Midwest. And you're just like, this is more than I deserve at 9 a.m. in my job. That was also done at a time when it didn't strike me as obvious that HR had complete and total access to anything we were typing on our chat client. I was like, y'all, we're totally fine here. I've got Connor here, my boss at the time, other people floating around in this one room or in, just right away and operate out of anger. I loved it. There was one where I was watching House Hunters and I was sending you screenshots of this couple and we were creating this dialogue of like, these people are just looking for a duplex. But in our chat, it was this marriage coming to a complete implosion over something strange, an affair or something like that. And it was so fun to just sign on. And then you get Dan or Greg or Wes and they sign on. There'll be 182 unread messages. They're like, what is anyone doing a shred of business around here? So that's the reality. Well, all right. Look, it's Thursday, the weekend is ahead. If you're someone that celebrates the weekend or understands the concept of the weekend out there, I hope you have a good one. Maybe if you work on the weekend, that would suck. But like, call out sick. That's what I do. Call out sick. Take your job seriously. Connor, Justin, it's been a pleasure this week. We will be back next week. What day? What day, Justin? No, at this point. Monday. Monday. Oh, great. So right there will be no rest for the weird. We'll be right back on Monday. Dan will be back from his, his voyage on his journey. He's on a journey. And we can't wait. We're going to keep, we're going to keep doing what we do. You as well. We'll see you next week. He the call.