Mike Reiss:<\/strong> “I am here, Mike. Tony, Jim. Great to be with you.”<\/p>\n Tony Masserotti:<\/strong> “Hi, Mike. Good for you for joining us.”<\/p>\n Michael Felger:<\/strong> “Great to have you, Mike. Thank you. We appreciate it. So how aggressive was ‘aggressive?'”<\/p>\n Mike Reiss:<\/strong> “Well, I think it’s bigger than the $28.5 [million]. That’s the first thing I heard, $30 [million] and even $32 [million] in terms of average annual per year. But to your guy’s point, I don’t know the guarantees, so I’m not going to sit here and tell you I know the guarantees, but the people that I’ve spoken with didn’t give me any indication that this was some phony offer or offers, depending on how long the deal would be, that would dress it up to make it look better than it actually was.”<\/p>\n Michael Felger:<\/strong> “Okay. I’m sure it’s a legit offer, but then there’s a difference between legit and blowing a guy out of the water. And that usually comes with the guaranteed money. We all have to agree. So the guaranteed number is the key number, is it not?”<\/p>\n Mike Reiss:<\/strong> “I think that’s very fair, Mike.”<\/p>\n Michael Felger:<\/strong> “Okay. So that to me, and I think the Patriots have a history of having a lot of bells and whistles in their contracts. I say bells and whistles. I don’t know how you would describe it. A lot of qualifications. There are strings attached, or there historically have been in their contracts, per game, roster bonuses, things of this nature. So I’m just curious because to me, Mike, it feels the only way you’re going to get a Brandon Aiyuk is if there is a no strings attached, massive guarantee offer. That, to me, is their only path to a guy like that.”<\/p>\n Mike Reiss:<\/strong> “So let me ask you this, Mike. You mentioned their history with contracts. What is the history that you’re referencing? Is it from 2000 to 2023? Or does that include this offseason?”<\/p>\n Michael Felger:<\/strong> “Okay, so this offseason, I guess, does not include this offseason.”<\/p>\n Mike Reiss:<\/strong> “So don’t you think that’s important? I mean, we’re talking about a totally different thing, right?”<\/p>\n Michael Felger:<\/strong> “Well, I don’t know. I don’t know, Mike, you tell me, you follow this. So the new contract, does Michael Onwenu not have any per-game roster bonuses?”<\/p>\n Mike Reiss:<\/strong> “I think he’s got weight bonuses. I’ll check on that, Mike. I don’t have that off the top of my head, but I think you hit at it, to me. So I haven’t been listening to you guys, and I’m ready to fight if you want to fight. But listen, the thing for me that I get people texting me, tweets coming up in the notifications, I think the insinuation that bothers me is that you think, Mike, that this information is coming from the team. So you think that the team would tell me that and that I would go on SportsCenter and report that. I have to be honest, Mike, I’m actually a little bit insulted by that, if that’s true. I don’t know if that’s true because I haven’t been listening.”<\/p>\n Michael Felger:<\/strong> “It’s definitely how I feel. It’s okay to have team sources.”<\/p>\n Michael Felger:<\/strong> “And that’s okay. You can feel that way. You can feel that way. But the fact that you think that I would go on SportsCenter on that platform and just say that based on something from the team? That’s why I wanted to call in. You’re creating a perception with listeners that that’s the way this works. That’s incredibly dangerous. Think about all the people involved in this. You have the agent, you have the player, you have four teams, but you are just going to narrow in that the team, ‘Hey, we’re going to tell Mike this. He’ll go out and say it.’ That’s not the way this works. That pisses me off because you’ve been in this position and you know that that’s not fair, and it’s not accurate in this case.”<\/p>\n Michael Felger:<\/strong> “Okay. I mean, I used to do it. They would tell me stuff and I’d report it.”<\/p>\n Mike Reiss:<\/strong> “No, Mike, you would check it, Mike. If they told you something, you would go check with the other side because that’s the right thing to do.”<\/p>\n Michael Felger:<\/strong> “Sometimes. Sometimes I did it and it burned me.”<\/p>\n Tony Masserotti:<\/strong> “Mike, I was going to ask you this, and frankly, I stopped myself. I’m glad that you opened this up.”<\/p>\n Mike Reiss:<\/strong> “Ask it, Tony.”<\/p>\n Tony Masserotti:<\/strong> “No, no. I was going to ask you this because I was going to say, when you report a story, do you try to get information validated on both sides? Because I know that some… And let me just say before you even answer. I oftentimes would get information from one side, and I would say, according to a source, if it was a credible source. And then I got to a stage where my employer at that time said, ‘Listen, we’re not going with one source anymore. We want two.’ So I was going to ask you, does ESPN have any standard in that? And I didn’t want to ask you outright which side did you get it from, but did you have to get it from multiple sides?”<\/p>\n Mike Reiss:<\/strong> “Absolutely, Tony. In this case, if you’re saying the team is being aggressive, you better have it from more than just the team. You can’t just take the team’s word for that. That’s what to me is stunning that you would think that. It’s actually insulting. I still love you, Mike.”<\/p>\n Michael Felger:<\/strong> “I understand.”<\/p>\n Mike Reiss:<\/strong> “And your point about the guarantees is fair. I don’t have that information. But when the initial information isn’t coming from the team, and then you go, of course, I’m going to go to the team and say, ‘This is what I have. What do you think?’ And they’re not going to confirm or deny, but I’m not taking their information as the gospel.”<\/p>\n Michael Felger:<\/strong> “I just don’t mean it to be as insulting as it surely is, but I’m not changing my mind. I do know how it works, and I’ve been there. There are reporters that have team sources. They’re reporters that are mobbed up with the players. They are reporters that are great with agents. So you sort of know where what information is coming from. It’s how you can sort of get to the truth that this reporter is reporting this, and he’s really good with the players, or this reporter is reporting that, and she’s really good with the teams, and this one’s good with this agent. I know if so-and-so reports something, I know this guy’s mobbed up with Drew Rosenhaus. So is this a Rosenhaus client? I mean, that’s sort of how you – and I don’t blame you for being upset – but it doesn’t change the way I feel about it.”<\/p>\n “And let me just say to you, on this specific case, presenting the AAV, but not the guarantee, feels like that’s doing the team a favor. I’m not saying that that’s exactly what you’re doing, but it’s really putting out there where their offer is good and ignoring where it probably isn’t. So you’re sitting there in front of the stadium. Your office used to be inside the stadium. You’ve covered the team longer than anyone. You’re incredibly well-sourced with the team, and it’s a report that makes the team look good. I mean, I don’t feel crazy for saying, ‘Oh, that’s coming from the team,’ which doesn’t make you a bad person, but you got to get it from somewhere.”<\/p>\n Mike Reiss:<\/strong> “Well, I’m not going to tell you how to feel, Mike, but I’m actually not sure how it makes them look good. I mean, you offer that much money and the player essentially says, ‘I don’t want to come.’ How does that make them look good? I’m telling you, in my opinion, I don’t think the team wants that stuff out there. I actually think this issue, if I’m being honest, highlights a bigger issue that you have with the team over the years with their spending.”<\/p>\n Michael Felger:<\/strong> “Oh, it’s definitely a core issue of mine because I feel they deserve to be called out on it. Yeah.”<\/p>\n Tony Masserotti:<\/strong> “Mike, I’m sorry, Mike Reiss. Let me just because you said you weren’t listening. Just so you know, he did say up front that this was not any commentary on you. Okay?”<\/p>\n Mike Reiss:<\/strong> “I know. I love you guys.”<\/p>\n Tony Masserotti:<\/strong> “Look, the fact Mike is, we’ve all been there. We’ve all covered teams, and we get used. Sometimes we get used. It’s done 100 %. And I’m not even saying that’s happening here, but the fact that it has happened in other cases means that it can happen. Okay, so that’s really all that that means. But let me ask you this. When you look at Mike, whose story was it, Chad Graff, of The Athletic, that listed the receivers, DeAndre Hopkins, Calvin Ridley?”<\/p>\n Michael Felger:<\/strong> “Yes, there was a tweet.”<\/p>\n Tony Masserotti:<\/strong> “Okay. So when we look at their history of receiver in the last, call it, two years. Did it feel like they blew DeAndre Hopkins out of the water?”<\/p>\n Mike Reiss:<\/strong> “They absolutely did not. That was one, and I would agree with Mike in that case, that was one where it wasn’t even close.”<\/p>\n Tony Masserotti:<\/strong> “Okay. Did it feel… Let me just go through the sequence. Did it feel like they blew Calvin Ridley out of the water?<\/p>\n Mike Reiss:<\/strong> “That one, I think, is more close to, yeah, we’re going to go above and beyond.”<\/p>\n Tony Masserotti:<\/strong> “Did Tennessee give him more?”<\/p>\n Mike Reiss:<\/strong> “I don’t know. I don’t know, Tony. Did they give him more? I don’t remember. I think the Patriots were giving him more, right?”<\/p>\n Tony Masserotti:<\/strong> “Okay. So again, I suppose an AAV maybe, but there’s no way to know on the guaranteed part of it. And I submit that we won’t know on the guaranteed part of it. Our general premise is this. They’re in no spot to be at the same level financially as another team right now and think they’re going to get the player. That’s the point, that even if they offer the same amount of money as someone else, they’re not going to get it because they’re going to have to outbid people by a significant margin to get the player. Do you agree?”<\/p>\n Mike Reiss:<\/strong> “A hundred percent, and I think they would agree. And you could call it the suck tax. When your team is not very good, you have to pay more to get a player to come here.”<\/p>\n Michael Felger:<\/strong> “So I just Googled quickly. Ridley signed for $23 [million] in Tennessee, and according to reports, the Patriots made a very competitive offer to Ridley, roughly $22 [million] per year. So again, that’s just on average value, which is… Because obviously there’s some wriggle room there. The money that matters is the guaranteed, the money in the first three years. All this minutiae, Mike, that you know, and I used to know really well, but guaranteed for injury, guaranteed for performance, per game, roster bonuses, that sort of thing. That’s the nitty-gritty of it, and that’s what determines what the best offers are, not necessarily the AAV.”<\/p>\n Mike Reiss:<\/strong> “Based on history, there’s two things here to me that are important. You guys are talking about… Like Hopkins, that was a different time. That was Belichick, and I’m not pinning anything on Bill.”<\/p>\n Tony Masserotti:<\/strong> “Same ownership, though, Mike.”<\/p>\n Mike Reiss:<\/strong> “Same ownership, but Bill was making the decisions.”<\/p>\n Michael Felger:<\/strong> “He was spending the money?”<\/p>\n Mike Reiss:<\/strong> “Bill was deciding what they would offer DeAndre Hopkins.”<\/p>\n Michael Felger:<\/strong> “But not what the team would spend, Mike.”<\/p>\n Mike Reiss:<\/strong> “I’m just talking about Hopkins. He was deciding in that case.”<\/p>\n Michael Felger:<\/strong> “Fine.”<\/p>\n Mike Reiss:<\/strong> “So to me, that’s a line I think is important to mention. And then the other point on this, we were talking about … I don’t remember the other point, but I think the separate regime, and what was the other point you made, Tony?”<\/p>\n Tony Masserotti:<\/strong> “God, I don’t even remember now.”<\/p>\n Jim Stewart:<\/strong> “About Hopkins and Ridley.”<\/p>\n Tony Masserotti:<\/strong> “Oh, Hopkins? Yeah, my recollection was, Ridley did get more money.”<\/p>\n Mike Reiss:<\/strong> “I know what I wanted to say. I understand, based on the history, why Mike and Tony, why you feel that way about the spending. I think the one thing, and maybe you have mentioned it, there are times where players just don’t want to come here. And usually it’s about the money. I think Eliot Wolf even said, ‘Usually it’s about the money.’ But there are a few cases where it’s not. And I think that’s just important to mention. Some players just don’t want to… If they’re from a different area or it’s… To our point, the Patriots have to offer that much more and sometimes that’s still not enough.”<\/p>\n Michael Felger:<\/strong> “The money thing, Mike, you’re right. It’s, I don’t know, you want to say an obsession with mine, with me, but I think ownership deserves to be brought into these conversations when we critique teams. There’s only a couple of things we critique critique owners on. They’re basically who they hire and what they spend. Roughly, there’s not much else after that. I think the team deserves the scrutiny. I think the numbers, basically the facts, have borne me out over the years. They’re the lowest spending team in the league over the last seven years, the last 10 years. The cap is incredibly lucid, malleable, and you can spend more if you want to spend more, and the Patriots aren’t one of those teams. And those are just the facts. And so it does bother me when they catch a lot of breaks locally when it just doesn’t add up to what’s happened. And I think they deserve that scrutiny.”<\/p>\n Mike Reiss:<\/strong> “And I think it’s fair, Mike. I’m not here to defend the team. I think the point that I would make to you, are you unhappy with their spending this year?”<\/p>\n Michael Felger:<\/strong> “I am unhappy with the Aiyuk situation. Did you want the guy or not? Because you’re going to have to blow them out of the water to get him, and I don’t think they did.”<\/p>\n Mike Reiss:<\/strong> “And so you must know that he would have come here no matter what?”<\/p>\n Michael Felger:<\/strong> “Oh, there’s a number. Yeah. I mean, who knows, Mike? But I believe there was a number. There usually is. And that’s the only way you’re going to get a guy here right now is to blow him out of the water with that kind of offer. And I don’t think they did.”<\/p>\n Mike Reiss:<\/strong> “So if you were running the Patriots, you would have paid him Justin Jefferson, $35 million a year. Who cares, right? It’s not your money. That’s what you would have done?”<\/p>\n Michael Felger:<\/strong> “Well, 35, no. But I would have made him the second guy if they wanted him. Look, that’s a different conversation. They clearly wanted him.”<\/p>\n Mike Reiss:<\/strong> “Mike, they were right up…I mean, I get your point. You’re going to come back to the guarantees. But in terms of average annual salary, from what I understand, they were right up there at the right behind Jefferson and the A.J. Brown, 32 over a four-year deal. But I understand we can keep going around and around. I think the important point to me is I just want people that are listening because you guys have the best show, everyone’s listening, to understand the way this works, that I would never go on SportsCenter and just pass along that on that platform. It’s not the way I do it.”<\/p>\n Michael Felger:<\/strong> “Okay. Respect that, Mike. Totally. Now that we have you, can I ask you something?<\/p>\n Mike Reiss:<\/strong> “Absolutely.”<\/p>\n Michael Felger:<\/strong> “Has Drake Maye disappointed you?”<\/p>\n Mike Reiss:<\/strong> “I would say it hasn’t been as decisive as I was wondering if it might be. Like the C. J. Stroud in Houston last year. I know everyone’s comparing rookie quarterbacks to him. I was wondering if he would do something like that, and he hasn’t, but it hasn’t changed my opinion, Mike, of where it’s ultimately going to lead. I think he’s going to be good.”<\/p>\n Michael Felger:<\/strong> “Okay, but you thought he would be more than he is right now. And obviously, it’s just two weeks, but that’s all we got.<\/p>\n Mike Reiss:<\/strong> “I thought it’d be more of a competition between him and Jacoby.”<\/p>\n Michael Felger:<\/strong> “Should there have been more of a competition between him and Jacoby? Should the coaches have done more to make it a competition?”<\/p>\n Mike Reiss:<\/strong> “So I think if Drake had shown a little more early Mike last week when the pads came on, then it probably would have happened. But I think they sort of just let what they saw on the field dictate where that would go.”<\/p>\n Tony Masserotti:<\/strong> “Can I ask a question before we let him go, please?”<\/p>\n Mike Reiss:<\/strong> “Absolutely, Tony.”<\/p>\n Tony Masserotti:<\/strong> “You’re going to chuckle Mike, but I’m like, How bad is it going to be, Mike? Are we looking at another top five pick? Is that what it is?”<\/p>\n Mike Reiss:<\/strong> “I think that’s probably fair, Tony. I think it’s going to take another offseason to stock the roster and get them where they need to go. I keep coming back… I know Mike loves Aiyuk, and I’m sure he would have been great. I’m just looking at the offensive line, and I’m just wondering how they’re going to protect. I mean, Vederian Lowe has been the left tackle for six of the practices. It’s just … there’s more holes, and to be honest, guys, for me, having seen it at the highest level with Tom [Brady], I have to remind myself not to always try to measure it up to that.”<\/p>\n Tony Masserotti:<\/strong> “I like how everybody uses Vederian Lowe as a standard of how bad the offensive line is. Well, look, the situation is you got Vedarian Lowe player left tackle. That pretty much says it all.”<\/p>\n Michael Felger:<\/strong> “All right, Mike, what’s going to happen with [Matthew] Judon? What should happen with Judon?”<\/p>\n Mike Reiss:<\/strong> “I think what should happen, Mike is they should sweeten his contract this year. I personally think that that’s warranted but not extended. I don’t know how many teams would extend a soon-to-be 32-year-old coming off an injury that limited him to four games last year. But I think it’s like the old Rob Gronkowski solution when the contract was so long, Mike, that they would sweeten each year to get him back up to the appropriate level. I think, so raise his base salary a couple million, maybe three, four million, and give him even more chance to earn with incentives to get him up into the mid-teens would be my educated guess where it goes.”<\/p>\n Michael Felger:<\/strong> “Okay, Mike. Thanks again for coming on. We appreciate it. Listen, Mike, get off the internet. Don’t listen to the Twitter. But in my case, I know it sounds like I’m ripping you. I’m really ripping the team. I try and make that clear, but it’s hard to differentiate the two. I understand it, but I really mean the team.”<\/p>\n Jim Stewart: <\/strong>“I didn’t think it was possible to make Mike Reiss mad, but boy, now I’ve seen it all on this show.”<\/p>\n Mike Reiss:<\/strong> “I love it.”<\/p>\n Tony Masserotti:<\/strong> “I think we’ve done it twice now, 15 years.”<\/p>\n Mike Reiss:<\/strong> “Twelve years apart, Wes Walker.”<\/p>\n Tony Masserotti:<\/strong> “Yeah, it’s called reporting Mike.”<\/p>\n Michael Felger:<\/strong> “Mike, I appreciate it.”<\/p>\n Tony Masserotti:<\/strong> “Mike, be well. Talk to you soon.”<\/p>\n Mike Reiss:<\/strong> “Thanks, guys.”<\/p>\n Here’s a video of the interview:<\/p>\n Watch as @MikeReiss<\/a> puts @mikefelger<\/a> and @TonyMassarotti<\/a> in a body bag @985TheSportsHub<\/a> @FelgerAndMazz<\/a> @mikefelger<\/a> @TonyMassarotti<\/a> @bigjimmurray<\/a> @MaggioreKevin<\/a> @ry_beaton<\/a> @kfabrizio985<\/a> pic.twitter.com\/1Gh3kfpuqO<\/a><\/p>\n — James Stewart ?? (@IAmJamesStewart) August 7, 2024<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n![\"Calvin](\"https:\/\/www.patsfans.com\/patriots\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/USATSI_21935175_168390408_lowres-660x440.jpg\")
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<\/p>\n![\"Matthew](\"https:\/\/www.patsfans.com\/patriots\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/USATSI_21231258_168390408_lowres-450x300.jpg\")
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