Will Aaron Rodgers play for the Broncos? (4/2 Hour 1)

Coming up to today on PFT Live, no April fools here. The Broncos have emerged as a possible destination. Recorder back Aaron Rodgers. A curiously timed report is shedding light on the dysfunction in Philadelphia. Plus, Chris Sims breaks down his draft edge rankings and there's a very familiar face at the top of the list. PFT Live starts next. Well, Arizona is just a faded memory if it ever even happened at all. Was it a mirage in the desert? Could he use the Oasis or two? Chris had his own personal Oasis after every break, during every break, and running to the air conditioning, which I should have done. It was hot, it was sticky, wasn't humid, didn't matter. But we're back now. It really is a trip like that that is so short and so intense when it's over and you're home and you're settled in. It is tempting to ask, did it even happen? Yeah, no, it was a world win for sure. It is one of those trips. But like I said, it's quick, it's fun, it's action-packed. I do love it. I really do. It's one of those things when I get ready to go every year, I'm like, oh, I don't want to do it. And then when we get there, I'm like, okay, reminder to future Chris, this is, I like this and it's important for me. And it's good to see my friends and hang out, but it is a lot. And it's a lot too, especially with the current status of flying in America right now, because I don't know, I mean, I didn't go to Bed Toll 415 last the other night, the night I got home, I didn't get home till 3.05 in the morning. So that was a disaster. So that added even more to this like, what, was that real? Did that happen? But we're back, baby. Here we go. What happened? Did you get delayed? Well, apparently, you know, in the airline industry, they're still writing notes and sending it by pigeons to place certain places. They really haven't come up with technology. So the flight was delayed, but we got told to board the flight. And as I was literally about to walk on the plane, they went, hold on, hold on, hold on. As I was, you know, two people, and they went, you know, we think the pilots hours are up. And I literally wanted to go, you're just figuring this out now, like now, you just flew in and landed. You gave us a spiel about get on the plane quickly, cause the pilots hours might run out. How is that not foreseen? How do we not have that on a digital something somewhere when he's flying in from the long flight that he was in, going, you know, he's not gonna make it to the long flight across the country with his hours. Like it's so archaic and stupid, the airlines right now, it makes you not wanna do anything ever. The good news is though, they actually enforce that rule, right? Yeah. That they don't let the pilot extend whatever the maximum hours are. Sure. In other industries, I handled a case back when I was practicing law. There was a guy who drove a truck and they fudged the logs all the time and every driver did it. And if you push back against it, you got in trouble. And that's how this guy ended up getting fired. He pushed back against chronic fudging of the logs. And it was amazing, the Department of Transportation to do Jack squat about it. You wouldn't even get a fine. You just get like a strongly worded letter if they caught you. I hear you. There are, at least there were 20 years ago. I don't know how it is now, but there were sleep deprived truckers all over the place because nobody was enforcing the rules. You know, you got a route X hours away. What do you do? You know, do you stop? Like some of these guys were in a position where, I mean, hour from home, I stop and sleep for eight hours. I'm an hour from home. So it's good that at least one American industry. Well, they always enforce it. That means they overly enforce it. My point is, however, we don't have something technology wise to be more prepared. How do we find out when he lands at the gate to go, oh, you mean you were supposed to fly on the next flight and now you can't fly? Cause your hours are up? Hold on, we'll have to call the airlines and get a pilot. Like that's stupid. Like for the amount and people's lives and the amount of money people are paying and how long you got to wait in the line to begin with because we've messed up the all DHS thing and all that crap. Yeah. I mean, so yes, it's like, it's an excusable. It's an excusable and they're way behind. I told you the story last time, Mike, forget all this. Like, hey, we, oh, hold on. We're delayed. We're delayed. We have to wait because the guy wrote on a piece of paper the wrong mileage as far as the gas we have. And like we looked at some of us in the plane, looked at each other like they can't just type that into an iPad and go, don't walk across the airport. We're going to fix it here. Like it's, it's insane when you say some of this stuff out loud about the airlines and yeah, American Airlines. I think I'm done with that one. I, they're cursed. Every time I go on them, they sucky ducky. There goes our potential. Screw you, American Airlines. And your sucky ducky system. I won't be back. How easy would it be to have an app that tracks the, Yeah, right. The flights, the hours, the gas and the, The last, right. By management. And they know, cause here's the thing. They had to take the pilot and replace him with maybe a junior college or high school pilot. Who knows who would have flying that plane all the way back to New York. You're funny. After the late change was made. Well, we had something that is not as a, now that I've experienced it twice on flights tour from Phoenix, I've learned it's not nearly as unusual as I thought it was. It still happens one to three times out of every thousand flights. I mentioned this yesterday on PFTPM for those of you who check that out. And if you did, thank you. We had an aborted landing coming down in Pittsburgh. Wow. That's a, that's a different, that's a new one. I know. I've had that one time. Yeah. Yeah. And, and you're coming in and you're getting ready to touch and everything is just right on cue. And then all of a sudden it is straight up. Yeah. I mean straight up full thrust. And you have no idea what happened. What's going on. Those three to five minutes are excruciating. We had it happen where we're landing in Phoenix for Super Bowl 57. Apparently there was something obstructing the runway. The Chittin' had been there, which is good that they pulled up. And eventually after this, what the hell is going on? Where are they going to crash this thing? Are they going to aim for the river? Are they aiming for the stadium? Where are we going to crash? And you think everything in those three or four minutes, like what the hell is going on here? Yeah. There was a wind shear warning and they have sensitive wind shear equipment that picks up, shifts in the way. So they, well, no, let's go. So, and I remember, I remember when I was a kid, there would be a crash every once in a while from wind shear because depending upon which way the wind's going, you can slam the plane into the ground. I bet you remember that. Certain storms, microbursts. Yeah, how could I forget that? It was a picture of it on the front page of the freaking newspaper of this mangled plane in Charlotte that got thrown into the ground by the wind. So anyway, yeah, that was, so it's twice now. In Phoenix. Since, yeah, Phoenix is cursed. So American Airlines and Phoenix are cursed. Although, you know what? I enjoy American Airlines for one very specific reason. What's that? It's not universal. They've got that Admiral's Lounge and I had a bunch of miles and I never used the miles. Like I've got a half million miles in Delta. I don't know how many miles I have with America. And I used to fly Delta all the time until they decided it was a good idea to put Tom Brady in an actual management job. It's like the dude's never been involved in aviation, but you're going to give him like a real job, see a Delta. And then it's American Airlines and they've got a great in Pittsburgh, at LaGuardia, in certain places they've got a really good Admiral's Lounge. In some airports, they don't. It's Russian roulette wherever you go as to whether it's going to be good. But I like that. I like getting there early, as you know. Settle in to work, get a little food, get a little coffee, having a great bathroom in an airport, having, as you know, given my various conditions. How does anybody know you've been bringing it up almost every other day? The bathroom. Thank you. Yeah. I, there are, there is a high quality in most American Airlines, Admiral's Lounge is a high quality. Let's not, let's let's just clarify for everybody out there too. Early is one thing. You've gone fast early. You know, there's early birds and there's all that. But when you start to get, wait, I got to the airport because I had a little laugh with you on Tuesday. Five hours, six hours before the flight. That's the next level of early. I don't get that. Okay. All right. No, we were there. We were there at 1.30 for a 4.15 flight. That's not bad. Okay. But we arrived at 1.30. We arrived at 1.30 for a 4.15 flight. We went through the security. You know, that takes time. You got to check your bags first, you know, and when my wife comes with me, if it's a three day trip, it's like one bag for every day we're going to be there. So we had to do all that. And then, and then we went to the American Airlines, Admiral's Lounge. And it was not great. There were too many people, way too crowded. I don't like being in big crowds, way too crowded at the Phoenix. It's like, let's just get the hell out of here. And eventually we just went to the gate, saw Mike Vrable. He was hustling to make a plane. It looked like he was late. He was moving. Unless he was just pretending to be really busy, so he would have to talk to me. That's entirely possible. That's a good way to do it. He was moving. Yeah. He was pushing that roller back. I'm actually surprised. He was going, I think, what? Well, most coaches get to fly on the team's private plane on the owner's meeting, you know, weekend. That's usually kind of part of it. So maybe he was going somewhere else. I don't know. But yeah. Maybe going to a product. Maybe that's exactly right. You're right. That's what I was just about to say that. Maybe that's where he was going. He's got to go do the. He's got to wrestle with some old linemen. Slap around. Yeah. Yeah. I hit him on the arm, man. That guy still is. I mean, he couldn't play, but he still is frigging big. I would say when we interview coaches. He's got to like, for an arm just like Miles Garrett. It is crazy. I have so many people that comment when they see our interviews or whatever. And it's just one of the things we always get. I always get is, I mean, how big is that Mike Vrable? Holy crap. Right. I mean, you hear that all the time. And he was huge as a player. And of course, now he's a little bigger and he's tipping the scales probably a little bit more than he was as a player, but naturally just a giant man. No doubt about it. You don't think he's he's as the cool kids say three spins. I do. Actually, I was going to say that, but I was like, I'm not going to put a coach Vrable on blast totally. But but yeah, I think I think the first letter when he steps on the scale says three now, I do. Yes, I do. Well, the first letter says the first number. There you go. Room, back room. There you go. He gave you one. Yep, exactly. Let's see what he was. I'm going to see what he was listed out as a player. I'm going to say 265 football reference right around there. Resource for this kind of stuff. Mike Vrable 261. OK, 261. Yeah. Yeah. Born in Akron. Yeah. Born in Akron, August 13, August 14, 1975. 261 as a player, as a player, as a player. Yeah. Yeah, those days are gone. Yeah, that the wheel on the scale is well oiled. Let's just say that. All right. He he was drafted by the Steelers. There's a segue before we get to Steelers business. I saw this last night and it's amazing. We can track our traffic in real time. And it's our top story of the day and the dumbest stuff. I don't know what it says about me. Yeah, or or the media out in 11 running for 25 years. The dumbest stuff ends up attracting a ton of traffic. And the top story as of this moment for April 2, 2026, is that the Steelers are putting black seats at Ackershire Stadium, not everywhere. Yeah, they're going to put them in randomly in the upper deck and it only took them 25 years. To realize you'll burn out your retinas by looking at those awful bright. It's like a giant bowl of corn. Like I finally aren't really disclosed this at the meetings. Finally, they're putting black seats in there because it's jarring when people leave early or yeah, that's what it is. You're out or any pit game, the upper deck of any pit game. It's just yellow everywhere. So thank you Steelers and Stadium authority in Pennsylvania. Twenty five years too late, but you're finally doing it because it is an awful, awful visual when you watch a Steelers game on TV. Yeah, well, it is a bright stadium. It's one of those where you turn on the TV and if you don't really see and they just show the stand, you're like, oh, that's Pittsburgh. I know that. But but they are black and yellow. I mean, come on, Wiz Khalifa, the great song. And they got to add a little black to the seats regardless. And yeah, I think the big thing is like you like you talked about. I saw in your article, which oddly I read too, because I was like, wait, huh, they're getting new seats. Let me see what this is to your point of stupid story. Sometimes get the most traction. I had to check it out, but it does have a bad look when you get late in the fourth quarter of a game, especially we had a few on Sunday night this year where yeah, they leave and you could see that there's a number of people missing and it just kind of takes away from the environment a little bit. It looks like the corn in like the fall, like, isn't there like yeah, that mixed corn. Different color. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That's what it looks like now. Maybe they need a little more black up there. I don't know. I think so. The super dome in the old days had the best effect with this. I think they still do it, but it doesn't look as good as it did in the 70s where even when it was empty, it looked like it was full because like every seat was a different color. Yeah, you're right. And in New Orleans, that was important because the seats were empty. So it did simulate the actual presence of human beings, but it's good they're doing it. I just don't think they put enough black. See, I never knew that about New Orleans. That makes sense now. I always used to go in there and see it and go, man, that looks stupid. Like what the hell are they doing with this stadium? Can they not buy? I used to literally go, are they that poor? They can't buy the same color seats. Like I really, that's what I was thinking for years. It is. It was one of the few stadiums you would go in and go, wait, what is going on here? So I never knew that little piece of history. Thank you for that there, old timer. I appreciate that. I assume that the goal was to make it look not empty. I think you're right. Yeah, because it works. It works. All right. Yeah. The Steelers Stadium is rarely empty for Steelers games. It's rarely even close to it. They are selling fewer seats for the Pitt Panther games this year, and they're going to cluster every one in the lower bowl. It's almost like a UFL game. Let's get all the people who are scattered throughout the stadium down here. So they'll actually be noise emanating from the lower bowl and will close down the upper deck. So maybe that's one of the reasons why they're putting the black seats in. I don't know, but the Steelers are still waiting patiently, more patiently than their fans would care for them to wait for Aaron Rodgers. And I caught wind of this one yesterday, and my first thought was, listen, man, don't be trying to pull some April Fool's shit on me. I'm not going to fall for the banana in the tailpipe. I'm not. And so I worked my source and worked my source and talked it through and checked around. And it was a suss, suss, suss, suss slow Wednesday morning. And it's like, hey, let's throw it out there and let's see what happens, because I'm hearing enough to make me think that it's at least a possibility. I don't think it's advanced very far. I don't think it will advance very far, especially now that the cat is out of the bag. And I have a theory as to how the cat got out of the bag and why the cat got out of the bag. But, but we went three plus weeks with no other team being connected in any way, shape or form, the four-time MVP, First Ballot Hall of Famer, Super Bowl 45 champion Aaron Rodgers. And as of yesterday, the talk begins to bubble that maybe the Broncos have an eye on the possibility of Aaron Rodgers. And it was five years ago that after the news hit on Draft Day, that the 49ers wanted to trade for him and the Packers ultimately said no. I remember throughout round one that year, Chris thinking, when are the Broncos going to make a move? When are the Broncos going to make a move? And it was the next year that we thought that when they hired Nathaniel Hackett and they ended up trading for Russell Wilson, we thought that was the year the Broncos would trade for him. But obviously he stayed in Green Bay through 2022. But the Broncos, given, given, Bonix recovering from the broken ankle, and I know they said he's ahead of schedule. I know they, I know that they are confident he's going to be ready to go for OTAs. Totally. But how close to 100%, full and complete 100% will he be week one? And the separate balance is if you're trying to win a Super Bowl, if your goal is to win a Super Bowl, if Sean Payton wants to become the first coach to win one with two different teams, and the window may be closing. Well, how many years Sean Payton wants to coach? He's 62 this year, I believe. And all in one year, I don't know, I'm not saying what's right or what's wrong here. Do you at least have the conversation? I don't think it's crazy to at least have the conversation. I hear that. I don't think it's crazy. Sure, sure. I don't think it's crazy either. I mean, it's not crazy to have the conversation. I think I think I would, if it did happen, I'd go, ooh, that's borderline crazy though, if it actually does happen. Why? Well, one, Bonix, this injury, he's going to be 100%. There's nothing to say. Now, maybe he's going to be 100% in the next few years. I don't think he's going to be 100% in the next few years. I don't think he's going to be 100%. There's nothing to say. Now, maybe he has a setback or whatever, but it just, everything goes as planned and where we know from this injury and where it's going. He will be himself. Why upset the apple cart and have Aaron Rodgers behind the scenes the whole time with all of this? Now, I mean, Aaron Rodgers doesn't want to be somebody that's going to sit in the background and tutor some young, you know, Bonix. I mean, he hasn't certainly given those impressions. He gives the impressions he wants to play. He wants to play. He still thinks he can do good things on the, on the field. So within that, that's the part I don't understand. Bonix is the man. They have a very good backup in Jared Stidham. Even being put in the worst situation in the world and the AFC championship game with some of the worst weather as that we ever saw. If Sean Payton just kicks the damn field goal, they're going to win the, go to the Super Bowl with Jared Stidham as their backup quarterback. He's good. And if he had time to actually play a few games and prepare and all that, who knows what that might have looked like. So they're set up in that situation. So that's where I like, and I'm interested to hear your theory of why it came out. Cause I was a little bit like, what, like, you know, I know it's Aaron Rodgers. I get it, but he's going to be a backup. And yet we're going to talk to him in the locker room every day and go, Hey, you know, what's it like being Bonix backup and everything about that? That's where I just don't know if it makes sense for total team building as, as you know, team building is, is what I would bring up there. I don't think that he would be brought in to be the backup. I think that he, if they did it, he'd be brought into play as part of this effort to go all in when you look at the, well, what then wait, if the defensive coordinator is still there, that's even crazier. You know, he's not as good as bonix right now. He's not as good as Bob picking bonix seven days a week, twice on Sunday. That's not even close. I mean, is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is So that's where you don't mess that up, Mike, but maybe you're right. I was thinking high in backup. Maybe Aaron Rogers was thinking that, but maybe, maybe you're right. Maybe that's the thought. So I'm interested to hear what you say. And I definitely want to hear your theory too. I think, I think, and I go back to 2023. The years are starting to get twisted in my brain a little bit. Are they all the time? Hey, where's Miles? Can I, I've never met Miles before. Can you introduce him to me? So after Sean Payton left the Saints and was eyeing the dolphins and Tom Brady had retired from the Buccaneers and was eyeing the dolphins to join them in a front office capacity. And then eventually in a round mayor thereabouts, the plan was he was going to decide he wanted to play again. They would have worked out a deal with the Buccaneers for compensation and you would have had Sean Payton and Tom Brady together in Miami. I mentioned that because at the time Tom Brady was 45. Aaron Rogers is 42. I could see Sean Payton catching a wild hair on the idea that I can find a way, I alone can find a way to get the most out of whatever Aaron Rogers has left while tapping into his uncanny experience. So when we get to the biggest of games, no one's going to freak out. No one's going to get wide eyed. No one's going to piss down their leg. And this is a chance for this guy to walk off into the sunset and he's going to make a big play in a big spot in a big moment where I can rely on him bigly to do it. I think that if that's my theory or hypothesis at a minimum and I think that one or more people within the organization was starting to think that Sean was getting himself cranked up about this possibility and decided to kill it by leaking it. That's what I think happened. Well, maybe. I mean, listen, I think that would have been just the total wrong decision in every couple. What in the recent history has told us Aaron Rogers is that good in a big game and can go win it? What? When in the last four years, like that's done, the ship sailed. I need some evidence. It's 2026, 2020 and 2019. Don't matter anymore. Don't give a shit. It's now. He's not capable. I know I hear you. No, no, I know you're not. I'm just throwing out the points. I mean, bonus. Let's just break it down. I mean, you got to play off team from last year that's sitting there waiting for this guy that had other options. I mean, that's what's crazy about exactly. He gets to the Steelers. No, but you have a team that made the playoffs that has assumed the position again and is waiting for this guy and saying, no, not even considering any other options. It really is crazy when you think of it. It's great. Well, we got, we got the brother of a guy that used to coach him in Arizona with an open spot in Arizona right now, who is of course, Matt LaFour's brother. We're not hearing them go, maybe we'll bring Aaron Rogers in. There's nothing. It's an open spot. You can go there. They don't, they want nothing to do with it. It does. It doesn't match up right now. He's not going to come in and be the savior of your organization. And bow Nix. I mean, he got to the AFC championship game and some of the things he did and some of the plays we saw him make down this direction. Buffalo. I mean, they were an average running football team last year with a middle of the tier, middle tier wide receiving core and bow Nix and a lot of the games where yeah, it was other, he made plays because of his physical ability, whether it was running, making a big throw down the field, buying time, backyard football, making a throw. So we're on the precipice here of like, this is something special. And I mean, Sean Payton's got something. I would think, you know, to your point of what you were saying, like, yeah, maybe it'd be cool to have Aaron Rogers and do this and blah, blah, blah, blah. I think it's cooler to go. I drafted a guy everybody was hating on in the world and I made him one of the best quarterbacks in football and I'm now officially a quarterback genius after Drew Brees and him and you know, we can win a Super Bowl with this guy. So that to me would be, you know, why you wouldn't want to mess any of this up. I think bow Nix is a hell of a football player. There's another argument you made to setting aside bow Nix's ascension, where he is, where he could go, what he could have done if he hadn't suffered the broken ankle. Yeah. There's this weird vibe that pops up from time to time between Payton and Nix. It's almost a parcels thing. Yeah. From Payton. Right. Remember, Payton had said that Nix was predisposed to the ankle injury and Nix clapped back, as the kids say, against Payton. And there's been a few of those things and like I watched Whiplash on the plane on, on Tuesday night and that movie gets better every time I watch it. I gotta watch it again. I know there's a small handful of movies that get better the more times you watch them and you can really focus on nuances and when you're on a plane and like I wasn't working in multitasking, I was able to really watch it and appreciate everything about it. It looks great. It's well written. It's incredibly acted and there's a little Terrence Fletcher sometimes in Sean Payton like I'm trying to draw greatness out of this guy and you don't always draw greatness out of a guy by kissing his ass. Sometimes you gotta be a dick to draw greatness out of a guy and that's the ultimate conflict of, of Whiplash. Yeah. Like how far do you go and how many people do you break along the way of finding the one great one that you push beyond the breaking point and the true test of greatness is they don't break. Yeah. You've got, you've got, you know, wreckage of all these people you've broken trying to find the one who's going to respond in the desired way to this effort to break them and I don't mean to suggest that Sean Payton is using those methods. All I'm saying is I feel like that yeah, there's some of that draw more out of it. And maybe this is it. Maybe maybe just this mere idea is just a little, it's just a little, a little hot poker, just not red hot, just like pink hot. Just a little something to keep bow nicks going. Yeah. Well, maybe, but I mean, he, I don't think bow nicks needs much going. He's motivated and he's coming off an injury and was so close and I can imagine him being as motivated as ever going, gosh, we could have got the Super Bowl. I didn't get hurt. Can we do it again? Can we climb the mountain? Sean Payton, I mean, I think you're saying it right, Mike. He's got some of that Bill Parcells in him. You know, John Groot in the same way a little bit. Who he was also with where if you get to, first off, they're demanding. They're demanding just like we've seen Ben Johnson or you've seen Shanahan or McVeigh. Like if they don't care who you are, how good you are, if you're not doing it exactly the way they want, they're going to let you know. And sometimes you might do it exactly the way they want and they don't see something live action on the field or whatever. And it doesn't work out. They're emotional and they can jump on you right away. But there's an aspect too that you can talk back to him, which is actually pretty cool when you've earned enough pelts on the wall. My dad will always tell you he'll always kind of laugh. I didn't realize until I was retired that, you know, Bill knew my name started with a pH because he was always Evan Sims. Evan Sims, what are you doing? I mean, John Groot in for years. Yeah, he would ride me hard. But once I became good and kind of showed him, hey, I'm a starting quarterback. We're going to the playoffs doing that. Could he sometimes irrationally yell at me as I was walking off the sideline? And I know he didn't see it clearly from his view. And could I go back to him and be like, Hey, would you shut up? The safety was over there. You don't know what the hell you were talking about. And it would be good. And I think that's, you know, Sean Payton's like that. And I think Bo Nix, being the son of a coach, he's lived that life his whole life. So he's like, Oh, yeah, dad coach, what? What? Who are you? Dad coach, shut up. You're wrong here. And they've gone back and forth. But I think in his heart, Sean Payton loves that about Bo Nix really. I think he likes that edgy brings to the table. And look, I don't, I don't want to get tied up in statistics, but we do need to at least factor in the numbers here. Yeah, well, this is great because the numbers will lie to you. And this is we got to go into the context here. And this is great though. Go ahead. Okay, yeah. Well, I'll put out the numbers and then you give me the context, 63.4 completion percentage, which once upon a time was great. Now it's like, Hey, that's pretty good. But we'd like you to be 65 to 70. So 63, four on six head 112 attempts last year in 17 starts, 3931 yards on 612 attempts, which works out to an a yard per attempt of 6.4. Again, there was a time 6.4 is pretty good. Now the minimum to be considered great is seven. I think we can agree on that 6.4 is below like that. Hey, all right, you're doing, you're, you're getting it done. Seven, you're getting it done. 6.4, you're, you're almost getting it done. The passer rating based on 25 touchdown passes, 11 interceptions, the yards per attempt I mentioned in the completion percentage, those are the four factors that go into it. The passer rating is 87.8. Again, there was a time, Hey, you're doing all right today, 78. Now if you're south of 100, it's like, well, all right, at least you're trying. So that's that those are the numbers. And I'm looking at the, the list of the qualifying leaders and I got to scroll this thing down. He's not on the first screen. I got to scroll down. I can't scroll. Yeah, there we go. He's, he's down there. He's, he's like bottom half of the league when you look at the 87.3 pass rating. Yeah. Yeah. So, so context. Yeah. Well, the context is first off, like we talked about middle of the road running football team, not a guy that you could ever say, Oh, wait, we have a receiver or anything that kind of changes the way they, you know, the way the defense has to play. There's nobody. Cortland Sutton, a real good player. Don't get me wrong. Not trying to, to disparage him in any way, but not DK Medcalf, where you go, Oh, wait, Oh, that's a matchup nightmare there. What do we do here? So there's that aspect. Then Aaron Rodgers, as we've talked about, he kind of manipulates, he manipulates stats. He kind of feast and makes a lot of plays when the competitive part of the game is over, when it's like, Oh, wait, they're down 27 and now he's going to let it rip. And you go, Oh, well, you ended up the game. Look at his stats. Oh, they're pretty good. And you go, Yeah, but when the game was competitive and we need them to make some plays, he made none. And that's the opposite of Bo Nix. Bo Nix is like, wait, yeah, we hit a few rough parts in the second and third quarter, but in the fourth quarter, he carried us. And that was the story of last year with all the comebacks. So that's what I would say is different. Rodgers plays to that. Bo Nix drops back and does, and if he sees a window downfield, he's like, wait, I'm going to try to throw a laser in there and make the play happen. Oh, it was incomplete because my receivers didn't get that much separation. And it just didn't work out. Rodgers could see a window the size of a truck and go, I'm going to check it down. Oh, well, good. Good completion percentage is good. Way to go. Good. But it's like he's not trying to win the football game. And Bo Nix is putting it out there to win the football game with, without a marquee receiver to help him out that way. And that's where I would say it's a little different. Rodgers pass rating last year was 94.8. Again, Bo Nix was 87.8, but that's not the most significant name that landed ahead of Nix. If we care at all about pass rating, Nick's finished just behind another starting quarterback in the NFL. I'll give you two guesses as to who the one who finished just ahead of Bo Nix in pass rating was. Two guesses. Yeah, another one that's a context bullcrap, a great is Tua. That is Tua who you're referring to here. Yeah, there it is. Yes. Right. So that's two guesses. Yes. Two ah. Two ah. Yeah. Hot Tua. Yes. But there again, everything manipulated for hot Tua. Okay. And Mike McDaniel and we got to do everything to kind of make him look good. And that's not how Denver played. Denver didn't go, oh gosh, we got to find out nine million ways to throw the ball and give a screen and do all this so Bo Nix can look like a real quarterback. And then, you know, Aaron Rodgers approaches. I just, I'm never going to hold the ball. I'm never going to make an aggressive decision. So I'm going to check it down, check it down, check it down, check it down, check it down. That's all he does. Bo Nix is going, wait, we're going down here to score. I'm going to win here. We're going to win the game. I'm not going to play politics or, oh, I got this completion and now my rating's a little bit better. And that to me is a difference. And that's to me again, where we get into explosive plays and stuff of that nature to where, yeah, Bo Nix can deliver that with his legs and his arm. And that's where to me, he's got a leg up on those guys in a big way. What if, and I'm just trying to sound this out. Yeah, cool, cool. What if Peyton thinks again, I can coach Aaron Rodgers to do the stuff that he's not doing for other coaches and I can design an offense with him in it where he's throwing the ball quickly, right? Jalen Waddle. Yeah. Doing the quick slant. Michael Thomas style. Boom. Aaron Rodgers delivers the ball in stride. There goes Jalen Waddle for 40 yards. Like I can get Rodgers to trust me and do what Rodgers want to do. And I keep coming back to how badly Peyton wanted to work with Tom Brady. And I just can't help but think that there's some level of fascination from Sean Peyton to possibly work with another all-time great. He's already worked with Drew Brees, but it was just Drew Brees for all those years. Didn't work with Peyton Manning. Didn't work with Tom Brady. Hey, maybe there's a chance to work with Aaron Rodgers. I don't look, I just, again, I make that, and you know how Sean is, you were at the pool when he's regaling folks with different thoughts. He may have just freaked somebody out. Yeah. Got it. Within the organization, one or more people may have said, oh no, this guy's, is it, he's thinking about, he's talking about Rodgers and what Rodgers can do to the office. Screw that. Let's kill, how do we kill this? One way you kill it potentially is to get the word of it out prematurely because I think that, I think it may be dead. If it was ever alive, it may be dead now that it's gotten out. Well, this is what I, this is a thought that really came through my mind when I heard this. And one, yeah, Sean Peyton's a psycho. And a psycho in a good way. He's entertaining. He's fun. He's all football all the time. He's got a million stories, a million stats to back it up, has all that. He does, he loves the sport. He likes legends. We, so yeah, okay, cool. We got that to your point with Brady and all that stuff. I hear you there. I'm sure stuff like that is percolated in the back of his mind before about, you know, being with a, another great quarterback. But I, when I, this all, when I started to hear this a little yesterday, I honestly thought, Oh, Sean Peyton or somebody's in Denver is doing Aaron Rogers is solid here and trying to like, just go like, Hey, we're kind of interested. We kind of like, that's what I thought. That's where my mind went right away to be like, Hey, we got nothing. It's the Steelers are nothing. And maybe there was a back channels communication. So my mind kind of went there that maybe somebody in the Broncos, most likely Sean Peyton was trying to help out a legend and Aaron Rogers a little bit hearing that he wants to play. Hey, we're not interested, but maybe, Hey, maybe I'll drop the report out there that we are interested just to get a little buzz, help you out a little that way. That's, that's where my mind went a little bit in the situation. Well, and there's another theory too. And I don't believe this to be accurate based upon the way I heard it, but that this is an effort by athletes first, which represents Aaron Rogers, Dave Dunn has represented in most, if not all of his career to try to kickstart something to get the Steelers to pay more than what they paid last year. Now, I was talking about this yesterday with the guys at 93 seven the fan in Pittsburgh, Pony and Muller, because Charlie Batch has a very strong opinion who any played with the Steelers for years, obviously he's still big in the Pittsburgh community. He thinks there's no way Aaron Rogers is playing for 13 million again this year. There's no way he's doing it. He won't do it. And I don't know why. I don't know why, because why would you do that below market deal for year one? And all of a sudden this year you want more money, unless you're just looking around saying, Hey man, the salary cap went up. Yeah, 301. Yeah, everybody's everybody's making money. Like I'm not gonna like there's a point where I'm a sucker. And, and I fully support as you know, I understand his thought there. Watch the show knows. Yeah, players getting paid. So 13 is ridiculously low. It is ridiculously low last year. Now the cap's over 300 million. Yeah, you got it. Yeah, I'm not you're not just going to get me for peanuts and the Steelers have benefited from that in recent years. They got Russell Wilson for 1.21 million, because the Broncos owed him the balance of that and 38. They had Justin Fields toward the back end of his rookie contract with a low salary. They had three quarterbacks. Ben Roffelsberger at the end when he took nothing. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, that's what's embarrassing about the Steelers. They thought he'd refuse and he took it. Yeah. So it's kind of embarrassing about, you know, the Steelers. That's the aspect where you go, man, they didn't even have to play a quarterback contract and they couldn't put a team out there that really you felt like and do anything in the playoffs. That's unfortunate. And again, that's where I don't blame Mike Tomlin for everything. Cause I go, he doesn't make all the picks and do all that. And so that's where it's a little different that way. But, but yeah, I understand that. I support that too. I mean, Aaron Rodgers too, he's made, we know so much money and he's been more than nice to the Steelers, the Jets before that and, and lessening the financial burden. So he's done, he doesn't need a dollar. We got that. But also at the same time, you got to go, you got to give him some dollars too, because he's got so many in the bank that you got to motivate him a little bit or make them feel respected. I mean, he's not, he doesn't, he doesn't need to just go out there for chop liver. And at the very least he's going to look at things and go, wait, I mean, me and Justin, Justin Fields made 20 last year. I made 13. Like, let's at least get there and above. Like, come on, like, let's get the hell out of here with that. And so I totally understand that standpoint. And maybe that is part of the issue here with Pittsburgh and why he did this with the Denver thing and whatever else. It's like when Phillip Rivers signed with the Colts the same year that Tom Brady signed with the Buccaneers. And it was the same year that Drew Brees did new contract with the Saints. They all got one year 25 million. That's like, man, Phillip Rivers isn't in the same class right now as Brees or Brady all do respect. But you want everyone to know he's the guy. Yeah, he's the guy. You can't have the lawyer driving around the beater car. That's why that whole image in Better Call Saul was so hilarious that the crappy yellow car with the red front fender that he drove around. Because, you know, you need to have a certain basic level of respect. The bookie, the bookie can't be driving around a piece of shit. I know that from my dad, it was the bookie, not that he had a what was he driving? Let me know. Okay, what was he driving? He had an Oldsmobile. Okay, Oldsmobile. Yeah, which like one of those big two door long ones. Yeah, yeah, kind of cool. He had he had an awesome and it was kind of it was like it was like Texas fight Texas fight burnt orange. Oh, I like it. 1972 Cutlass Supreme with a 350 and one of those old fake vinyl tops that what didn't come off. Yeah, why they made it like that. Right. But I saw when we were in where the hell was the Super Bowl this year at San Francisco as we were driving in from the airport. I looked out the window and I saw one of them on the street that that orange that it said burnt orange. And he wasn't flashy. It was so weird like dad, why the hell did you buy I never even thought about that like dad, why the hell did you buy a burnt orange car in 1972. But then he traded it. I don't know how many years later and got you know, he went with blue Oldsmobiles. But yeah, he wanted the Cadillac. But you know, the bookie business wasn't doing that well because we lived in Steelers country and people bet the Steelers every week and you took a bath every week on the freaking Steelers games. Yeah. So anyway, anyway, so back to Aaron Rodgers and the Steelers. It all ties together. I don't know how much of it is money, but how much leverage do you have when you have nothing else going on. So it would make sense, whether it's the agent that wants to push it or patents do him a favor or someone else doesn't. It's glaring that no one else has expressed any interest in this guy. No, last year, you at least had teams connected to him. You had the, the Giants who he, we reported during the scouting combine, he reached out to them. That never went anywhere. We had who else was involved last year, the Rams, if they had lost Matthew Stafford. We had the Vikings at least talking to him this year. It's, it's nothing. It's nothing but the Steelers. No, it's nothing but the Steelers. I don't think that's going to change. You're not going to see anything different. If it's going to change, it's going to take him sitting out and waiting for something major to happen and then coming in to save the day for a football team. But I think the Raiders will be the, I mean, the Steelers will be the only team interested here. I don't think the play warrants enough interest. I know the numbers look okay. We look at it, but it's still, we sit there and, and you know, kind of laugh about how they play and how he plays at times. And when we sit there in the viewing room, because it says, as you always hear me yelling, oh, slant, slant, oh, throw it two yards in the flat. Oh, finally DKs one on one. I'll throw a fade. Like there's no offense. And that's the other thing that's going to hurt him. It's because the last few places he's gone, he just hijacks the offense and does what he wants. So the offense coordinator just has to succumb to, oh, okay, this is what you're going to check to when they play this. Okay. All right. This is what you're doing. Okay. Okay. Hey, just, here's my play. Oh, forget it. You're going to check to your own play again. Okay. So you think like, you know, the Cardinals want to deal with that. I don't think so. Even with his best buddy there, Nathaniel Hackett, which is another huge thing, his best buddy with a brother from a head coach that used to coach him are like, uh, crickets, crickets, crickets, crickets. I can't make a cricket noise. So I just said the word. Okay. That's fine. We get it. We get it. But there's, there's no, there's no way he'd want to play for the Cardinals. What chance would he have in Arizona right now when they're stuck in the division with two of the, the two best teams in football and maybe the fourth best team in football? I don't know. No, no, I mean, 49ers, the Seahawks and the Rams all crammed in there. He wouldn't want that. That gets back to the other point that I was, you know, referring to yesterday. If you're Rogers and all things are equal between the Broncos and the Steelers, you're taking the Broncos. I mean, if your goal is to win a championship on your way out the door, you got a better shot in Denver than you do in Pittsburgh, don't you? Yes. No doubt about that. I don't think there's any doubt with the way the Denver defenses, it's going to be one of the best in football once again. And now you add Jalen Waddle, an RJ Harvey in a second year at running back. Yes. I think that's clearly the one. Now, what I'll say to you is Arizona in a lot of ways where I will stick up for them. I mean, I don't know. There's part of me there that go, you might be able to be more successful as a quarterback there. They got, they got some decent receivers. They got one of the best tight ends in football. Marvin Harris in junior, man, maybe he's not worth the number three or four pick in the draft, but he's still damn good. It's not like it's a total, you know, Michael Wilson, the other guy there. I mean, in totality, there's an argument I can make to go, I think Arizona might have more weapons passing the ball, but you do have those other three teams like you mentioned, and that's the problem. But yeah, to me, it's Pittsburgh or bust. That's what it is. And I think that's what it will be unless he's willing to sit out and then maybe come in for a team that, you know, is in the window of the Super Bowl and has a major injury with their starting quarterback. We mentioned earlier that Art Rooney, the second, the owner of the Steelers disclosed at the league meetings that they're going to have the black seats peppered throughout Accra sure stadium on a slightly more important subject. Here he is regarding the timeline for this year's the second annual. Will I or won't I play decision from Aaron Rodgers is really I have not talked to him. Coach has been in contact with him pretty regularly, and I think the decision is probably coming soon. Do you anticipate hearing one way or the other by the NFL draft? I would say by the draft, I expect an answer. Yep. The facial expression and the delivery of the word suggests to me that Art Rooney knows already what Aaron Rodgers is going to do. I hadn't I hadn't seen him deliver that. He seems not troubled at all. He seems not concerned almost a smirk ish there and yeah, maybe, you know, I raised this yesterday at 93 seven, like maybe they're waiting until the draft to do it, not to add excitement to the draft, but to maybe get the skeptical Steelers fans to embrace the idea by having Aaron Rodgers present and announcing he's going to be back during the excitement of the draft. You know, they were very skeptical about Mike McCarthy, his head coach, until he showed up at the press conference talked about being from Pittsburgh and started crying like you can manipulate the mob pretty easily. And you're going to have tens of thousands of people who are excited that the draft is in Pittsburgh. Maybe they announce it at the draft first round. I don't know. Maybe they're going to come up with something to try to get the fan base behind Aaron Rodgers because I think that's their biggest problem. It's a PR thing. The fans are like, What are we doing here? Why are we selling for this guy that no one else wants? I hear you. I mean, it's one where last year there was a lot of negative vibes about Aaron Rodgers and what he can do into the season. That was there. Then it kind of, you know, okay, calm down. And then at the end of the year, you kind of felt like, okay, they were a little bit like, where are we going at the quarterback position? What are we going to do here for the future? And really they've done nothing to where, yeah, you got Mason Rudolph, who is one of the best backups in football. So that's cool. But you got one young guy in Will Howard, where it seems like Mike McCarthy really likes him a lot. Now I will tell you that I don't think he's viewed that highly around the NFL. And there was a reason he was on the board to what the sixth round last year. But they don't have many options here right now. And I think that's where you and I are just shocked that they've kind of put themselves in the corner with like Aaron Rodgers or bust once again. Some believe, or many are saying, that this Will Howard stuff is, as you would say, a bush it, bush it, bush it. Sorry, Christian, because what a coincidence. What a coincidence that Mike McCarthy lands with the one team that has the one guy that he regards as this hidden gem who did the slip and slide all the way to round six. That's a hell of a coincidence, if that's true. The thinking is, they get Rodgers back on board before the draft. They've got Howard, they've got Rudolph. Maybe other teams won't think they're hot on the trail of Ty Simpson. And he can slide to them and they don't get leapfrog. Maybe. Hey, if I'm a Steelers fan, my reaction is, man, we just saw this movie four years ago with Kenny Pickett. In hindsight, you'll wish somebody had jumped you for Kenny Pickett. But one way to look at it is, we tried it once before. It didn't work. We'll flip the coin again and maybe it'll come up heads this time. But there is that thought that this Howard thing is just a distraction from the possibility of drafting a Ty Simpson. And that if everyone thinks we're all in with Will Howard, they won't think. If he's the future after Aaron Rodgers, they won't think they were looking for a guy in Ty Simpson. That maybe. And this is the time of year where you can't believe anything. You can't believe when it comes to strategy, team building and how they feel about these guys, you have to be careful because anything they say about the guys they have may be part of a broader plan to get the guy they want in the draft. Yeah. Agreed there. Now, they could say all they want. I don't think the legal buy, you know, what they're trying to sell. They're certainly one of the, being at the owners meetings, one of the teams everybody kind of looks at to go, I wonder if they'll take Ty Simpson. So that's on everybody's radar, despite or in spite or whatever you say, Mike McCarthy says about Will Howard. It's one of the few spots you can look at and match up. Now, I think Ty Simpson has more talent than Kenny Pickett. I'll say that I will. Now, he's not, he's not as big as Kenny Pickett either. Now that's going to be the other problem with Ty Simpson as well. And there is some plays the game in a way where I thought about Pittsburgh and go, Oh, well, you know, he, he plays the game a little bit like Aaron Rodgers did, can get the ball out of his hands real quick. He's a phenomenal athlete. I'm not trying to say he's Aaron Rodgers, because if he was Aaron Rodgers, I'd go, he's the number one pick of the draft. But regardless, like there's some style and play there that you go, who, if, if, if Mike McCarthy likes the style of how Rogers used to play and play, Ty Simpson can bring some of those attributes to the Pittsburgh Steelers. So we'll see where that goes. But yeah, Mike, I hear your, your thought there and you might be right. Steelers is sitting at number 21, just behind the Dallas Cowboys who won't be looking for a quarterback in that spot. That makes them a prime candidate for someone to cut the line in front of Pittsburgh. If that's what that team thinks Pittsburgh is going to do and they want Ty Simpson. All right. Well, it's all going to play out because the draft is only three days away or three weeks, but you know, three weeks, not three days, three weeks. You know what I'm saying? It's a senior moment. We don't have the, I need to remember because we don't have the, we hadn't. All right. Let's just go to commercial break and start real talks. There it is. Yeah. Thank you. I thought the pilot was out of hours for a second. There it is. Yeah. We're good to go. Yeah. Kristen's like, thank you. I'm doing a show and you want me to bring up a clock that has nothing. Thank you so much. Thank you. Yes. Well done. Thank you, Kristen. Chris, hopefully Kristen won't run out of available hours before the end of the show or we'll really be screwed. When we return, we're going to pivot to a topic that came up yesterday afternoon. It's a continuing story for the NFL and for the Rams and one of the NFL's best receivers. We'll get you up to speed on the latest with Pukinacua right after this.