Grant and Danny
Lance Newmark On The Roster Improvements
This episode is brought to you by Progressive Insurance. Whether you love true crime or comedy, celebrity interviews or news, you call the shots on what's in your podcast queue, and guess what? Now you can call them on your auto insurance too, with the name of your price tool from Progressive. It works just the way it sounds. You tell Progressive how much you want to pay for car insurance, and they'll show you coverage options that fit your budget. Get your quote today at Progressive.com to join the over 28 million drivers who trust Progressive. Progressive Casualty Insurance Company and affiliates, price and coverage match limited by state law. Hey NFL fans, you can start the season with a big return on FanDul, America's number one sports book. So when you get a hunch in the middle of the game, you can check out the latest stats, view live play-by-play, and so much more on the same page where you place your bets. You'll get started with $200 in bonus bets guaranteed when you place your first $5 bet. That's FanDul.com/sportsfan. Never waste a hunch, and make every moment more with FanDul, an official sports book partner of the NFL. Must be 21 plus and present in Colorado. First online real money weights are only $10 first deposit required. Bonus issued is now a throwable bonus bets that expire seven days after receipt. Restrictions apply. See terms at sportsbook.fanDul.com, gambling problem, call 1-800-522-4700. The seasons may be changing, but the deals at the sharpest rides are unbeatable as ever. Hey, what's going on? It's your girl, Tasha McKia, and I need you to join the sharpest rides for their fall into savings event, where they're offering incredible prices on their massive inventory. That's right, everything is on sale now. Shot from sleek sedans to rugged SUVs and sporty convertibles. The sharpest rides has the perfect ride to match your fall adventures. Plus, with their exclusive financing options, getting behind the wheel of your dream car has never been easier. Log on and shop online at the sharpestrides.com, right from the palm of your hands. Or check other massive inventory in person at the sharpest rides, located 2250 South Sea Home Street in Inglewood. Either way, you will fall into savings. Don't miss out, head on over to the sharpestrides.com today and explore the deals that make every season better. And tell them that your girl, Tasha McKia sent you the sharpest ride, affordable, sexy, sharp. His assistant general manager is Lance Newmark. He actually spoke today and he doesn't speak very often. So this was kind of cool to see him meeting with the media after the roster cut down and the off season that's now coming gone as week one really kicks off officially after the holiday day off for the players on Monday. And they're actually going to be at the facility on Monday working, I guess I should say, but that'll be the next time that they're there because they're getting the day off tomorrow. But Newmark talked about the fact that they got more done, that they were able to make more moves and that from whatever the expectations were for this front office going into the off season to what they were actually able to accomplish, they did more than he anticipated an aspirin today with the media. Well, it's been it's been a very active five or six months, whatever it's been. Every day we've come in here with the attitude of trying to get this better to make this team as competitive as it can be right away while also trying to build a team that's going to be competitive for the long be competitive for the long haul. So every day, we just try to find ways to get better, try to try to find ways to improve our roster, improve our process, whether it's for agency, whether it's draft, whether it's, you know, workouts, whether it's, you know, going back on guys that have been hurt. We try to, you know, look under every rock and find every opportunity to improve and we're trying to do that as fast as we can. What do you make of it? Because I think you and I at different points have kind of been both excited and occasionally whelmed. I'm not under overwhelmed with what they've been able to pull off. It was a busy off season. The quantity was there. Yeah. The quality maybe was underwhelming some in the sense that we both wanted like a really good wide receiver. We both wanted a really good tackle. And clearly, if he's coming out saying we did more than we thought we'd do, what they thought was going to happen going in and what we were kind of expecting were two different things. Yeah. So they kind of showed you what the thought was taking over a dreadful roster that went 4 and 13 needed a lot of turnover. And I, the way I interpreted it was, we didn't think the Bobby Wagner's of the world would choose us, right? You know, like a guy that's going to be in demand where you'd go, we're going to sign you to a one year deal for not that much money. Bobby Wagner would go choose. You wouldn't think it's Washington because it hasn't been in decades. You would choose, I don't know, something that's going to be good or a team that's on the ascent. Like, like if Houston offered Bobby Wagner the same amount of money, you probably choose there. That's a team that's that's on the rise. But maybe you won more of those little battles or those face offs or you got guys that you weren't sure you were going to get. You know, it's like it's like a college coach. You got, you're waiting for signing day, six different five stars, you're hoping for three of them and you got four. That doesn't necessarily mean you're going to win everything, but it just, it's maybe more than you thought. That was my guess as to what he meant. I just took it to mean we made a lot of moves. You don't normally make this many moves. By the time the season starts, there's going to be probably 35 players out of 53 that were not here the last season. Think about that. There's not another team in the league that can say that that is a massive overhaul. So I just think he means how many teams went out and signed 25 free agents in the first couple of weeks of free agency, like the commanders did. I think it's a quantity conversation that he's having. He came from Detroit where he was instrumental in helping to build what was a really, really good team with Brad Holmes, the general manager there, Dan Campbell, Ben Johnson, Aaron Glenn, leading that coaching staff as the head coach and the coordinators. But I always wonder when you go get a guy, the way that I would do it. And that's what Adam Peterson. Who are the ascending awesome teams in my conference? Let's bring as many of those people in that built that so that they can replicate it here. How do you take those previous experiences, like putting together a Lions team where you've got Jamir Gibbs, David Montgomery, Craig Reynolds in the backfield and Ammanra St. Brown with Jamison Williams, Khalifa Raymond, Isaiah Williams at receiver in the tight end room with Laporta and Brock Wright and Parker has to like they're loaded everywhere. Really good line, golf and Henan Hooker at quarterback, they're stellar on defense. There just aren't holes on that team. He was a part of that operation. So how do you try to then implement that here? Going back to, you know, you brought Dan Campbell and I think there's a lot of similarities between coach Campbell and coach Quinn in terms of they really believe in team, they really believe in brotherhood, they really believe in, you know, character and love of football. I think that the kind of people we're trying to get here believe in football, they believe in work, they believe in, you know, team first and just that mentality that you see, you know, anybody, anywhere, anytime, there's really people that love to be around the game day in and day out. And I think that's what we're trying to do here. And it's similar to what I've done in the past. As far as slogans go, and that's like Hall of Fame tough guy slogan, anybody anywhere, anytime. I kind of like it. Like it looks good on a T-shirt. You need stuff like that. I mean, it is such a football cowboy bit, like anybody, anywhere, anytime I'll fight you in a barn, I'll fight you in my living room. I'll just fight because I'm a fighter. We'll do it on the moon. I mean, it's a little bit cringe, but I love it in a way too. It's just kind of, it's football, man. This stuff is cheesy. It's cheesy. If you and me in the office space, you know, we're getting together at the Monday morning staff meeting, we won our attitude here at G&D. Our attitude is we'll fight you anywhere. That's our ideas. We're going to work every single person around. We will fight you anywhere here. Moon, Mars, doesn't matter. We're fighting. All right. Okay. We're fighting for ratings. He was still going to contract it. Ross, so we'll slap him when he needs, you know what? No, we're not. But it's football. But in football, you do it. You fight. You organize fighting. Not the actual fighting around everyone to get out of the league. You claw with your fingernails. But figuratively trying hard. That's the fighting. This was more on Newmark on the changes that they made and it exceeding the original expectation. I'm excited about where we are. You know, I think we're always, like we said, we're always trying to get better. But I'm excited with what we've done. I feel like we've worked really hard. We've done a lot of things in every avenue possible, whether it's free agency, whether it's the draft. I feel like it's a good balance of new and old. You know, I think there's you know, 22 players from last year's team on this one. So it's some guys that have been here that have shown that they, you know, want to be here and that they've earned a spot on this team. But there's also a lot of new energy and a lot of new excitement, you know, from the outside. So it's a cool blend of existing players and new talent. Overall, like I said, I feel really excited about where we are in the process. Probably we probably were able to do a little bit more in this six months than I thought we were going to be able to in terms of player acquisition and getting to where I think, you know, we're going to be a fun team to watch. So yeah, it's been a great six months. I'm really happy with where we are. So that even speaks to maybe them getting to a point where they feel like they're a better team than they thought they'd be able to be coming off the four wins last season. This episode is brought to you by Progressive Insurance. Whether you love true crime or comedy, celebrity interviews or news, you call the shots on what's in your podcast queue. And guess what? Now you can call them on your auto insurance too, with the name of your price tool from Progressive. It works just the way it sounds. You tell Progressive how much you want to pay for car insurance, and they'll show you coverage options that fit your budget. Get your quote today at Progressive.com to join the over 28 million drivers who trust Progressive. Progressive casualty insurance company and affiliates price and coverage match limited by state law. Hey NFL fans, you can start the season with a big return on Fandal America's number one sports book. So when you get a hunch in the middle of the game, you can check out the latest stats, view live play by play, and so much more on the same page where you place your bets. You'll get started with $200 in bonus bets guaranteed when you place your first $5 bet. That's Fandal.com/sportsfan. Never waste a hunch and make every moment more with Fandal, an official sports book partner of the NFL. Must be 21 plus and present in Colorado. First online real money weights are only $10 first deposit required. Bonus issued is now with drawable bonus bets that expire seven days after receipt, restrictions apply. See terms at sportsbook.fandal.com, gambling problem, call 1-800-522-4700. The seasons may be changing, but the deals at the sharpest rides are unbeatable as ever. Hey, what's going on? It's your girl Tasha McKia, and I need you to join the sharpest rides for their fall into savings events, where they're offering incredible prices on their massive inventory. That's right, everything is on sale now. Shot from sleek sedans to rugged SUVs and sporty convertibles. The sharpest rides has the perfect ride to match your fall adventures, plus with their exclusive financing options, getting behind the wheel of your dream car has never been easier. Log on and shop online at the sharpestrides.com, right from the palm of your hands. Or check other massive inventory in person at the sharpest rides, located 2250 Southsea home street in Inglewood. Either way, you will fall into savings. Don't miss out, head on over to the sharpestrides.com today and explore the deals that make every season better. And tell them that your girl Tasha McKia sent you the sharpest rides, affordable, sexy, sharp.