13 Things We Learned at OTAs: A New Jalen Hurts (?), Daniel Jones' Timeline and the Worst Presser Question of the Year

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2:17Welcome to NFL Daily, where nothing can replace the greatness that Nick Shook and I have achieved together. That's my partner here on this Thursday, running through all the things we've learned on a busy week of organized team activities. I'm Greg Rosenthal. This is NFL Daily. I'm in my garage. It's going to be our last news update of the week. But we do have a big ranking show dropping on Friday. Good to see they didn't call you for jury duty yet, Nick Shook.

2:45Nick Shook:Yeah, still got two more days, but so far, so good. Yeah, I don't know. I might have just been talking to a wall today if you couldn't make it. But luckily, I've got you to talk about, yes, A.J. Brown a little bit. We got some fun stuff in this show, a little Jackson Dart update, Lamar, a lot of weird Jim Harbaugh sound. But we do start with Jalen Hurts and the Eagles. I thought it was interesting the wording that Jalen Hurts used to talk about his teammate, AJ Brown. If AJ is traded, how would that affect the offense? How would that affect you?

3:25Nick Shook:Picked the right question to sip on, huh? No, I think for us, you know, we're focused on learning the offense. It really doesn't change in terms of our approach to improve. You know, there's an if. Obviously been a lingering thing, but nothing can replace all the greatness that we achieved together. Definitely speaking in the past tense there, not a surprise, but A.J. Brown has not been there at OTAs. And just the fact that Jalen Hurts is addressing this publicly in such a way, you know, makes it feel a little more certain than ever before. For what it's worth, Ian Rappaport, who we're going to get to his reporting on the matter in just a second, said, hey, they're good personally.

4:12I think from a football perspective, maybe they're not so good there, but personally, they're good.

4:17Nick Shook:that's always a tough distinction to make because in this professional world of football those two things bleed into each other especially uh in the regular season and it really at this point in the off season yeah you get your little break in june but then you come back and and you know everything crosses over because that's your lives that you share together and i don't know if i agree with the whole football person h.a brown's a hell of a receiver and i feel like maybe it was on the eagles to try to figure out a way to maximize it but they couldn't figure out a way to get their offense going consistently basically every other year over the last three or four years.

4:49Nick Shook:And I think that's probably priority number one and not having A.J. Brown part of the equation is it puts them in the best position to move forward as a cohesive unit as opposed to one that's constantly fighting the drama of not getting him enough targets, which, hey, I'd feed him the football, but I understand. Here's the thing about what Jalen Hurd said there. He's right. I mean, A.J. Brown never been an all-pro receiver before he joined the Eagles. He made the second team All-Pro three straight years. He had over 1 ,450 yards in the regular seasons and back-to-back seasons with Jalen Hurts throwing him the ball.

5:25Jalen Hurts is so good throwing the ball down the field. Their marriage was incredible. I will never forget the catch that A.J. Brown had in the Super Bowl that they lost against the Chiefs and really that performance in general in the playoffs and especially that game. And then obviously a huge factor for when they do win the Super Bowl. So, yeah, not everything can last forever. The question is how long does A.J. Brown's spot on the roster last into the offseason? The idea is that, OK, June 1st hits, then there's less of a cap hit when you trade him. Our friend Ian, who appeared with Adam Schefter, talk about breaking barriers here on McAfee on primetime the other night.

6:06It's a new world we're living in. Reported on our air, NFL Network, that it might not be so simple as a quick trade to the Patriots.

6:15Nick Shook:As far as the actual trade, though, you know, we're all waiting for June 1st to happen. So the cap hit is in half for the Philadelphia Eagles and they could trade them. I just don't know that it's going to be like snap your fingers and the deal is done because the two sides are where they have been, which is the Eagles wanting a first round pick in 2027 and Patriots, the most likely destination. We'll see if someone else rises. But Patriots are most likely destination. Not being willing to give up a first-round pick as of right now, that means they're not particularly close. And yeah, there's a chance this could drag on for the foreseeable future.

6:50Shook, you know, I'm going to be leaving for Japan at some point. You'll be filling in on some of those shows. You're going to be writing articles, I'm sure, throughout the summer when you're around. This thing could continue. It is interesting. They're still playing it out in the media of like the Patriots will not give up a first round pick. It is still a little bit of a staring match right now.

7:09Nick Shook:I like you subtly predicting how frustrated I'm going to get with the A.J. Brown storyline by the time we get to July, because it's very true. It's going to drag on. We're going to update inch by inch as it progresses. But I also understand the current landscape between getting rid of A.J. Brown because, you know, you need to part ways with him and actually maximizing your return on him. And I think it's going to get interesting. I know we talked about this on the show last week, that another team I think will get involved. And maybe it's just a bidding more at that point. But I don't think it's a simple, you know, make a deal with the Patriots as soon as we hit June.

7:40Nick Shook:And I think that's smart on the part of Howie Roseman, who always makes smart decisions, even when it comes with parting with one of the, in my opinion, one of the better receivers in the NFL. Yet no reason why they can't kick it into training camp even. It really could last that long, because then an injury could pop up, and that's going to help their situation. The Chiefs did, you know, move money around, and George Galatis' contract? Could that be opening up some room for AJ Brown? Probably not, because they have to do more to make that happen. This was potentially just to get their rookie signed.

8:07They are very tight to the cap. Jalen Hurts also had some new quotes on the offense, and I thought it was interesting. He was asked about the West Coast attack, and he said, From a past game standpoint, as things have evolved, we were very one-on-one dependent. Now we're just trying to find a matchup. instead of full-flow West Coast reading the field offense. Like the way he said that because it does indicate a level of buy-in from Hurts.

8:37Nick Shook:What was our biggest criticism of Jalen Hurts over the last couple of years? It was that he often stood in the pocket trying to find and wait for the perfect throw instead of just taking what the defense gives him. That is not the philosophy of the West Coast system. The West Coast system is all about timing. It's pre-snap reads. It's getting the ball out and getting it to the guy that's designed to be open. It really encourages me. I think this could actually really open up the Eagles offense, even without A.J. Brown in the mix, because it'll capitalize on Hurts' accurate passing abilities, his ability to get the ball out on time, instead of putting him in a box where he's got to try to find the perfect throw, which is his problem.

9:10Nick Shook:That's not a design of the offense, but that's often his problem, especially when you're stuck in one-on-ones as you're waiting for one of those guys to get open. Instead, it's all about the way that the whole pass is designed, the way the patterns are designed. I think it's going to maximize his abilities and maybe finally lift the Eagles out of this rut that they've been stuck in pretty much every other year. So I'm really excited to see how this is all put into motion here in Philadelphia. Feels like a test run. And if Hurts doesn't pass it, who knows? He might be on a different team. I think his biggest issue just hasn't been willing or able to run nearly as much.

9:40Just hasn't, especially last year, was just not an asset in terms of his legs. Well, he likes to float. He likes to float. He doesn't like to actually take off. He likes to float. He's 27 years old. He should not be slowing down that much if for whatever reason he got hurt this year or just wasn't playing well. They got two options behind them and just wanted to pass along that Andy Dalton and Tanner McKee are sharing the second team reps there in Philadelphia. So a little bit of a backup quarterback competition. More on one of those later on. First, let's go to the Giants, same division. Jackson Dart addressed the entire team, according to Mike Garofalo on our show, The Insiders on NFL Network, that he wanted to really clear the air after his introduction of President Donald Trump over the weekend, got a lot of attention.

10:31And then Abdul-Karter came at him on Twitter, then said it was all fine. According to our insiders, multiple Giants leaders did speak at this. One of the big takeaways was handle this stuff privately, not publicly. Well, it still got out publicly, but it does feel like, okay, they handled it.

10:50Nick Shook:as men and we're moving on that's so it's so john harbaugh of them by the way to handle it internally and not let those things bleed out into the public so if giants fans are looking for any like sliver of of positivity to come from this whole i don't even know what you call this spectacle whatever this is incident uh it's the fact that the giants aren't the dysfunctional messy let everything leak out of the public organization that they've been over the last few years, at least so far. Okay. That's a fair, it's a fair comeback that they did handle what was, I believe a very minor issue that was never going to be an issue, but good on a little test to address it.

11:29Little test run. Lamar Jackson is back at Ravens OTAs. We mentioned that with, with Patrick on Wednesday's show, he was asked about his lingering contract situation. So he's going to be a free agent in about a year and a half because of the way they moved around his restructure this offseason he is do something like 75 85 million dollars in terms of a cap number next year that sounds untenable for the ravens so it's a good leverage position for lamar jackson's representative uh who happens to be lamar jackson doesn't have an agent let's hear from lamar in front of the media i was thinking about how i was going to respond to this question if i got it but you know i'm gonna give you the same answer i always get no but um no i just want to keep those conversations private, you know.

12:18We, you know, we restructured the deal, and that's what we have right now.

12:23Nick Shook:Is there a chance that you could play out this season and just bet on yourself and not sign a contract? We got the reconstruction done. Like I said, Jerry, we're just going to go from there. Do you feel, though, I mean, because it's now 20-some months until possibly be a free agent. James, are you trying to ask the question differently than Jerry just asking? I am, yeah. Yeah, that's smooth, but I'm going to do the same answer. No, I have a little different question. All right, go ahead. Do you still envision yourself long-term here with the Ravens? Absolutely. I love the Ravens. I love this organization.

12:52I love this city. My first takeaway is, like all of us, kind of stuck up on me. Lamar Jackson, no longer like a rookie, just aging a little bit. Just looks like, you know, he's about to be entering his 30s. He's looking more like a real adult man. He was an adult at 23, but it's a little different when you hear.

13:12Nick Shook:looking more like an adult man handling complex situations that you know often come with contracts like an adult you know knowing how to handle the questions that come being you know forthright but without you know causing any controversy good on lamar in all these areas uh and good on him as somebody who has experience negotiating contracts for himself now uh that he knows how this process is handled and instead of him just deferring to his agent he gets to be his own agent and you know keep some things close to the best however i have one complaint and those of you watching on YouTube probably saw I thought that the end of the Harbaugh era would mean the end of the gaudy awful patches on the practice jerseys with all your awards Lamar has a billion of them it's it's bigger than a jersey patch uh ad now like can we can we cut that out already okay uh that is an absolutely fair criticism and I think it's tricky with Lamar as his own agent but he did reveal one thing which he said we are gonna leave the guaranteed contract requests in the past Someone asked him, are you going to ask for a fully guaranteed contract, which is what he was looking for back in 2022?

14:14Didn't get it. He said, no, that was 2022. Why are we talking about that? That's not what we're going to do. So appreciate Lamar. Big season for him coming off a down year. Jim Harbaugh has so many good quotes. We can only use a couple of them. I could just listen to Jim Harbaugh talk all day. let's hear about his conversation involving his offensive coordinator and his quarterback yes Justin Herbert is back at OTAs one of the quotes we're not using was him being asked about Herbert missing practice and he said you know Herbert said he wanted to go support Madison he's on a first name basis apparently with Madison Beer who is the influencers slash pop star that I was definitely familiar with, that Jim Harbaugh was definitely familiar with before Justin Herbert started dating him and said, look, Madison's going to support him.

15:10We want him to support Madison. I said he was going to be gone for a couple of weeks. He said that was good. Can I drive you to the airport? This is a guy that, you know, is always playing through a broken hand. He thinks it's very healthy for Herbert to take some time off. So how about Jim Harbaugh being a modern coach? But he's not so modern that he can't just geek out over the two men that he gets to work

15:29Nick Shook:with every day you know the two of them it's been better it's been a better i mean mesh whatever uh you call it than i even thought it would be and i know i said they're both so smart a couple times but i mean they are so smart uh how smart are they coach uh well i wish i could tell you because i'm not smart enough to know how smart they really are uh it's just uh it's been great I appreciate that. Here's the secret, though. Harbaugh is smart enough to know he's not smart enough to know how smart they are, which is a level that most people just don't even get to. They don't even realize that they're not smart enough to understand how smart enough.

16:19That shows a level of emotional intelligence and maturity, I think, from Jim Harbaugh.

16:25Nick Shook:I believe that's what we call peak self-awareness. knowing when to get out of the way is a great quality of great leaders. However, in that clip there, he definitely started to say things and then realized I have no way to get to the end of this track. Like, I don't know where this sentence is ending. I don't know what I'm trying to say and just drifted off and said, yeah, it's great. Glad you pointed that out. We happen to have another clip, which I can't really describe other than Eric labeled it as sound. Awkward. Like we always look at that, you know, they can't have enough good players. And, um...

17:11Nick Shook:End. End sentence. I said and. End. Can't have enough good players and can't have enough good players. Stop sentence. Appreciate it. You should start doing it. I know I'm growing trying to learn just just trails off into nothing and I think he's he's gotten some coaching maybe actually from the media that they never know when his sentences end that they just keep going on and on it it's a tough thing to learn as someone that loves to talk I I don't know if I fully learned this lesson yeah I mean yeah if you listen to these shows you can hear me definitely uh struggling to figure out how to tie a bow on things.

17:54Nick Shook:But I mean, and maybe he'll just start adopting the trendy phase, period. Period. Okay. It's especially tough when you're getting asked questions. I don't think I'm, like I'm a decent podcast guest. That's different. But in the rare instances I'm ever being asked questions, like in an interview, it's tough. You do start rambling and then you immediately start thinking about your life as a journalist and you're like, no you want the people that are concise and say a great line or two and then stop the answer that's not jim harbaugh especially when he's talking ball no he's he's not really i don't know i mean i get i understand because sometimes i'll rip i'll say something and then in an interview setting then come all the way back around and repeat what i said at the beginning to tie it all together which is redundant and is not concise so we all we're all working on it and to loop back to the original point this is not a joke it took me about five years four or five years i think of reading about football covering football doing it on a day-to-day basis and getting into like everything i could to to i think fully even understand how much i didn't know you know what i mean and i see people who spend their whole life in this industry Prominent places.

19:17And I don't think they ever even get to that point to even really, because they don't want to like accept how little they know because they want to be able to speak authoritatively on it or just don't like being like in that position. It's like that it is a good lesson in life to learn in the different aspects of your life how little you might know about a particular subject. It's fine. As soon as you stop growing, you start dying, right? So always try to improve. I agree. Good quote. Who's back on the field? I could not transition. the sooner you start dying with the return of Rayshawn Slater and Joe all to the field, both doing team drills, both coming off major injuries last year.

19:55And I was just happy to see that so far, no restrictions on either of the tackles Harbaugh indicated that they are on track to be fully ready for training camp. Good news there. Let's go to Minnesota where we heard from Kyler Murray and more importantly, in my mind, J.J. McCarthy for the first time this offseason talking about each other. Here is J.J. Actually, we're going to hear from both and you can just kind of pick out the different ways they answered similar questions.

20:27Nick Shook:It's been great. Obviously, I know he's a younger guy. So any any way I can help him, obviously, I feel like, you know, I've played seven years now going on eight. So I'm considered a veteran, even though I don't see myself as that. Give him any knowledge that he needs. Again, we're both competitors, and I know we both won what's best for the team. Has he been receptive to hearing Curtis? Of course, of course. He's overly receptive, and he's always communicating, asking questions, stuff like that, so it's been good. It's just like two guys in a classroom. He sits on one side, I sit on the other side, and it's the coach's responsibility to teach us and coach us.

21:03Nick Shook:Is there any awkwardness between you two? But awkwardness, you know, it's just like the same feeling, you know, when you're in high school and there's another person on the other side of the room. That's just kind of how it is. So I wouldn't say there's any awkwardness. That was Kyler Murray speaking first and J.J. McCarthy next up. J.J. looks a little bulked up, by the way. Any takeaways from how the two quarterbacks kind of handled the quarterback competition question? I think you have one who is a pro and knows how to not be 100 % honest and just say what the media probably wants him to say and handle it properly.

21:36Nick Shook:And you have another one who is not well-versed in that and is not used to having to battle for his starting job and has a hard time hiding the fact that he's in an unusual situation that's uncomfortable to him. I read Alec Lewis from The Athletic and he thought the differences between the two of them were quite notable on the field. Just how confident Murray was running the offense and the types of plays that they were running. And it was a lot of like, oh, yeah, this is how it should look. Big play down the field to Jordan Addison. And I think the difference in terms of maturity at the pro level, you could see it in those answers, too, because McCarthy.

22:17I think was needlessly defensive if you watched his press conference in general, like he's just not wanting to share too much after last year. Maybe he shared everything and he feels burnt by it. And the truth of the answer is probably somewhere in the middle. It's like these two guys, they probably don't have much of a relationship. I always find it funny when brand new teammates are like, how has J.J. been in locker room? I mean, they've barely spent any time together. They're in a classroom, but I'm sure they've been cordial and it's fine. They don't really have a relationship and suddenly they have to talk about it.