The Anatomy of a Las Vegas Raiders Trade? #raiders #raidernation #johnspytek #nfltraderumors #nfl

The Anatomy of a Las Vegas Raiders Trade? #raiders #raidernation #johnspytek #nfltraderumors #nfl

hello everybody this is Hondo Carpenter your Las Vegas Raiders beat writer on SI and the host of the Las Vegas Raiders insider podcast it’s great to have you with me today i’ve got one email and it is really going to frame the entirety of today’s podcast because it’s going to take some time to dig into so let me read it to you and then we’ll get right started it is from Carla V in Lagona California this is what Carla says dear Mr carpenter years ago under Al Davis my father long before he and my mother were married and obviously I or my siblings were born my dad worked as a security guard for the Raiders briefly because of that and his fondness for Mr davis and how he treated him he raised all of us to be Raider fans i would consider myself a fan probably although I didn’t much care about the team or the game during the off season i didn’t pay as much attention however when it was announced that the team’s going to Las Vegas my brothers were extremely excited so I got excited because they said it would give us the revenue to be able to be competitive every year all the time i started paying more attention once the the move was announced and then shortly after the move came because of one of my siblings I found your podcast and I listen every day thank you Carla i don’t know if I would change the term from fan to diehard fan or if I was an observer before and I’m a fan now i don’t quite understand the exact definition but I want to thank you for your podcast and the way that you teach both the Raiders and the game to us it helps a lot of us who don’t understand a lot and it e even has helped my brothers who do understand a lot i have a question for you you’ve often talked about trades and have briefly touched it but can you explain to me what exactly would go into a Las Vegas Raiders trade i work in the medical field and so an explanation here would be greatly helpful how do some trade rumors get out some don’t and just happens can you just explain the entirety of the trade process carla V and Lagona carla I thought this was a great email and I gotta tell you so it was passed up to me from a member of my staff and then Shannon read it and told me “You got to answer this one.” And it was too the answer’s too long for our weekly question and answer article so I wanted to literally give an entirety and take everyone behind the scenes of the anatomy of what a Las Vegas Raiders trade or anatomy of a NFL trade really looks like so thank you Carla i appreciate it now excuse me let’s get right in and dig right in on what does that look like so a couple of things that most fans even die hards don’t know is that 90% of the teams all of the successful ones know as much as humanly possible about every other team’s roster as they do about their own this is why you’ll hear me when we talk about practice squad can this guy be hidden so a lot goes into that they literally have a person who is the the director of pro scouting who oversees every other NFL team every person on the practice squad everywhere on the roster where did the Raiders or the current people in charge of Raiders like John Spitech came from the Bucks where did they have this player graded when they came out in the draft what do they think about where this player has you know been before so I’ll give you an example i’m not going to name the player of the team i’m not trying to make anyone look bad but to answer Carlos’s question I knew a guy that a team was very very high on and he went to a team that didn’t use them the way this team really liked and they didn’t think the team had good coaching at that position at all yes they scout coaches person goes to another team that wanted to use him the right way but still terrible coaching so this team was like “Hey we got to get this guy we think we’ve got the coaching and the system.” They went and got him for a song and dance gave him I think it was a three-year but it may have been a two-year deal for nothing and the guy exploded and became an allpro and everyone’s like “Oh you know he just needed to mature.” No he needed to be in a team that understood exactly who he was what he was so good scouting kept him on the radar and when they could go get him at cheap they did that’s how you build championship rosters everyone thinks you build championship rosters with the Max Crosby’s and you have to have those or with the Brock Parties look at how good San Francisco was when they were paying Brock Pury nothing literally nothing and so you’ve got to have those good players at cheaper contracts to be super successful in this league so when you understand that a team has maximum knowledge about everybody’s roster and practice squad and every free agent I mean they have boards and they understand so all of a sudden they’re looking for a will linebacker and they’re already know okay XYZ team may have too many wills so are we watching for them to cut somebody or do we consult and say hey is this player available for a trade that’s how they do that they’re watching practice squads they know everybody available so let’s say they have a they there’s a un there’s a a free agent available and they they think well our best option for this position is a one or twoear stop gap there’s nobody out there that we think we can get or we can develop that’s a long-term answer well we can go get this free agent for a lot less than a trade here or well we can go get this free agent for cheap but we can go over here and get this guy we think he’s a long-term answer so most people don’t understand the amount of knowledge and accumulated wisdom that each team has on every other team’s roster now there are a couple of teams that are cheap you can probably figure out who who don’t have that extensive knowledge and so you got guys in your building that are pouring over every single preseason game highlights that’s why teams don’t let you know media shoot certain parts of practice because if we get to shoot it we’ll put it up on social media and teams get to see that another reason is maybe they’re doing some this what you know where we can’t discuss changes or whatever is because they don’t want us to give away schematics that that makes complete sense to me that’s not illogical to me and so they know everything that’s out there they’re aware of every single thing that’s out there i’m going to give you two quick examples of this um a few years ago the Raiders had a video that they put out and it showed something in particular i’m not going to say what i’m not trying to give away anything but it showed something and and when I say that it’s not really the player because it was a few years ago i don’t want anyone within the organization to feel bad but they put something out and I get a call from a friend of mine who works at a scout at another team now let me just make this very clear i would never betray my friends and I would absolutely never betray the Raiders i wouldn’t do that it’s not integrous i just and and you know what my friends wouldn’t ask me to so when someone would ever ask me I just make a mental note we’re clearly not friends just like Sheldon White I don’t pick up the phone and ask him secrets about the Steelers we just don’t even have that discussion why because he works for the Steelers i I know him i know his integrity all of that so follow me but the Raiders had put something out on social media or or or YouTube one place and there was something in the background that’s why now you watch the videos they’re usually very very tight and a scout called me and goes “Listen I know you’re not going to give me any secrets but I’m going to send you a video.” So he sends me a video and says “It looks like this guy is injured.” And he goes “Do you think that’s accurate to which I just said to him I’m not going to answer that question now in case you’re wondering the player was injured and they were interested in that player and so they kind of moved on a little bit okay not a big deal and excuse me the player was not injured excuse me but they moved on because they thought the player looked injured all he was doing was just standing there what i don’t even know why they thought that but whatever but they’re constantly scouring every piece of information every single one literally every single one i’ll get calls hey do you think this guy’s going to be available and if I think he is I’m like yeah that because that’s not negative to the Raiders or no I don’t I don’t think he is anyways but that is constantly going on it is constant roster evaluation of every eligible player that can go be signed right now as a free agent or every player on a team then they’re constantly breaking down teams they know each team’s weaknesses so I’ll never forget one time I was covering a team and they were going into a draft and I mentioned to them “Are you concerned about XYZ team taking ABC player?” They said ‘N no they’ve got a good guy there but he’s older and expensive but man they got two really good ones behind him don’t see why they would take him so as the draft process was going up they eliminated that team for that player again you don’t do that if you don’t have extensive knowledge of every team every coaching staff everything it is a humongous deal so as a trade begins to develop now maybe somebody calls Spycch that has a relationship with him maybe he makes the call then maybe it’s somebody that he has no relationship with but they’re like “Hey we’re interested in this guy on your roster is he available?” No now there are some players that just aren’t available i have been told by some of the best general managers in NFL history both current and former that every player is available just what are you willing to spend for them so the answer is always yes then there are some novailable all right so then well yeah but well what do you think it’ll cost well you’re only allowed to give three years of one so we want six so you better go get three more ones from somebody else and that’s basically the he’s not available talk or if the chiefs called and said ‘We interested in this guy well if you’re not trading Patrick Mahomes we’re not interested okay we’re not it’s over then they start to talk about well we don’t want to trade this person but we would be XYZ compensation and usually the team shoots very very high and trying to get as much as they can it’s typical negotiation and then a lot of times they’re like “Hey you know we may be interested in this guy what do you think of him on your 53?” Yeah he’s going to make our 53 but you know he would be available okay so they know that so then they think okay you know what i’m not going to I I’m not going to make the trade right now but if there’s an injury or this guy doesn’t perform I know what it will cost me to go get this guy those conversations are happening regularly all the time they’re knowing then as the preeason gets going teams have injuries so let’s say John Spitech’s sitting in his office he gets a a weekly report on other teams whatever hey XYZ team has had this injury at guard we got a plethora of good guards he may pick up the phone and say “Hey I got some guards here are you in Are you Are you in the market?” Not saying he will i’m saying he might this is all different scenarios or trades that I’m aware of i’ll give you an example i remember a time that Cleveland was way down on centers and then they I think they had two centers in they were already down on centers and had two centers in injured in a preseason game and the next day a team with several three good centers called and Cleveland like no we got another guy we’re going to try to develop into one but they called to just kick the tires with with Cleveland on a trade so that all of that goes into a trade okay now there may be a player that a GM says you know I don’t necessarily need this player but he is an upgrade every good general manager is constantly looking to upgrade his roster this is why you say nobody is never available what are you willing to pay for them so let me give you an example i’m I’m going to go to baseball but it’s true in football okay years ago the uh Detroit Tigers had a young pitcher from Lancing Michigan who was an upand cominging minor league star and everyone thought he’s going to be a really really good player his name was Johnny Smoltz shout out to you Johnny great guy good friend good guy and everybody in Michigan was excited about Johnny Smoltz he was from Lancing he was a Michigan kid went you know was at Waverly and all at Catholic Central great kid and but the Tigers felt like they were one pitcher away from winning a World Series so they traded Johnny Smoltz for a pitcher by the name of Dole Alexander now Dole was a a good pitcher very good pitcher but at the end of his career not a guy you’re going to have for 30 years or 20 years like a Johnny Smoltz but their belief was “Hey if you get a a World Series you you can’t ignore a World Series ring so you’re willing to gamble the future for the present.” Here’s my point and it worked out for both Atlanta and Johnny Smoltz and the Tigers that won the World Series with Dole here’s my point you may be sitting there today and you’re a team that says “Okay we’re we’re rebuilding.” And we got a really an older player but a great player who’s still good but this team is willing to overpay us and give us big futures for that guy today and he may be a very popular player a great player let’s assume that let’s say that that that Max Crosby is sitting here in year 12 of his contract i mean year 12 of his career and he’s still playing great which I expect him to be at year 12 but you know hey you know what there may be just a year or two left on the tires with Max so somebody’s willing to trade you a great player no it’s Max Crosby i’m not advocating a trade i’m just using this as an example and you may say “Okay fans love him we love him he’s always going to be a Raider.” But man this makes us better for the next 12 years and XYZ team thinks they’re a edge rusher away from a Super Bowl um San Francisco and for whatever reason the guy’s name just eludes me uh Charles Haley had a a Charles Haley a a really good defensive guy but you know they were wondering what to do well the Cowboys ended up with him because they felt like hey let’s sign this guy he’s expensive but let’s sign this guy and bring him in he’s a hired gun for a couple of years i understand that’s not exactly apples to apples but it’s the mindset so that goes into a trade you know where are we at where’s this other team at you know this other team may not be willing to trade a player but we know that they’re not there in the future so what if we sell them some future you see this a lot in baseball you see it a lot in hockey occasionally in basketball but you you you don’t see it as much in football so that all goes into an anatomy of a trade so now let’s assume that two teams have interest and the trade is coming to fruition okay so they’re negotiating now sometimes you’re going to bring an agent in now one of the worst ways that information leaks is through agents okay i had a general manager one time that says “I if I ever start trade talks unless a guy is a no trade I tell the team I’m trading with if you’re going to tell an agent I’m not interested.” Now why would agents not always have a reason to talk but why would they talk from time to time all right maybe their their their client doesn’t have a no trade clause and they don’t want to be traded to that team so they’ll leak to certain media hey XYZ team’s trying to trade for my guy and he doesn’t want to play there he’ll retire he doesn’t want to he doesn’t want to be there or maybe they know their fan base isn’t going to be happy with it or a player on that roster isn’t going to be happy i’ll tell you a great story i’m not going to tell you the player but I had an agent tell me this story i was out to dinner with an agent one time and a GM both friends of mine and this is a great story and uh it wasn’t the same team but it was a different team but this agent was telling me the story so there was a team that had two players that were close but their wives were like sisters i mean sisters the one player was a good player the other player was a star on the team so team A is trying to trade this player the Star’s friend and their wives are super close the agent leaks it the wife of the star goes crazy the star goes crazy and goes in and goes “Hey what is this?” And the team’s like “Oh you know we don’t know where that stuff comes from you know that isn’t happening.” And the deal got killed was a great move by the agent so agents um are not you know they just don’t talk like Swiss cheese and give everything up but they will absolutely give up information if it’s beneficial i have learned things multiple times from agents multiple times i have learned things from agents who don’t have a player involved in the trade but they think it would the trade would negatively impact their client i I’ve had this happen several times i’ll give you one example i knew a team that was thinking about trading a player and uh at one position and bringing in a guy at another and they and bringing in the guy at another position would have affected one of this agent’s clients so they leaked it out there hoping to kill it now sometimes you get it leaked out because agents want to get it out there when they get massive deals anything that can make the agent look good is usually from the agent and that’s not a slam or talking poor about agents they want to be able to go to the next guy saying “Look at I just got this guy the largest contract in NFL history or I just got you know this is the biggest deal for this position or whatever.” I I know an agent who uh one time in trying to sell himself to players of a particular team would say “I’ve gotten alumni of your school x hundreds of millions of dollars in deals.” So you look at that sometimes the team has reason so let me give you an example i knew a player that was not performing well and there was a team actively trying to trade for him and I had a GM call me and just say “Hey I you can leak this out.” Okay I will now that player found out that player was mad his wife liked the community he lived in his kids like the community the agent calls “Hey Hondao just report out there that that you guys are talking about a trade.” Well we kind of are why well you know his effort hasn’t been great we think there’s more effort and clearly we’re not getting out of him and the player comes in and the agent comes in no this is not going to happen and they got it fixed so they use that it was a legitimate trade but they use that those things all go in into an anatomy of a trade so how does it leak out those types of ways now there are other ways it leaks so once a deal is getting either consummated or super closed they then send in the paperwork to the league some trades have to be approved there’s people within the league who leak oh come on oh yes there’s people within the league who leak absolutely i know for a fact i know I’ve had it happen and I know several people at the league and I remember one time a thing came out neither team wanted it out the agents at that point I don’t think the agents even knew they may have known but the agents weren’t going to really want this out there and it got out it was huge news and a slow period i I called my buddy i go “Huh so I think someone from the league’s been yapping.” He goes “Oh yeah somebody has the teams are mad.” I’ll just say mad that’s another way an anatomy of a deal gets revealed so once the deal is consummated then they send in the paperwork to the league who approves it and then by that time it’s out it gets leaked it then usually a day or two later the teams will announce it so that’s the anatomy of a trade there are so many different things that go into it the best teams know everything about everybody the best teams know the best about everybody now I’ll tell you another way that teams will get information so I’ll give you an example i know an agent who I respect and admire and if my child were looking for an agent I would want my kid to hire this guy in a minute i think he’s a tremendous agent all right so other teams will call him and just say “Hey I know you represent this guy can you tell me how he’s doing on this team?” And that agent’s going to give a good report which he should by the way that’s not immoral and he’s going to tell you what so I’ll give you an example this agent is at practice watching one of his clients gets some you know film on him on his phone and he sends it to another general manager hey my guy’s looking good i think he’d look really good in your system you should take a look and that’s sometimes how anatomy of a of a trade starts to work cuz sometimes they don’t know everything on other teams because they’re not getting to watch practice so agents will give information to teams as well remember they’re trying to keep interest in their player i’ll give you a a great example i knew a player who had zero interest in things of faith i’m not going to say whether it was Christian faith Muslim faith Buddhist faith whatever but he had no interest in any faith whatsoever and he was on a team that faith was really really important to and so he wanted to go do things that you would traditionally not considered a bunch of married guys of faith that they would want to do in their off time they had fam they just wouldn’t do it so he lets his agent know “Hey these are all good guys but I don’t really have any friends here i’d love to get traded.” And the agent started that process i’ll give you another one i knew a guy who was on a team where most of the guys every guy at his position were all married with kids so their wives were all friends their kids were all friends there was birthday parties and nobody excluded them they tried to include him in fact their kids called them uncle but he’s like “Man I I just they just don’t fit.” And everyone wants to work at a place that they fit especially when it’s a football season where you’re there all the time and so he literally just didn’t have any friends on the team it wasn’t that the team had nothing to do with faith it It wasn’t that the team wasn’t friendly he just didn’t fit the dynamics of the team tells his agent they work something and and it worked out that’s why when you talk about locker room dynamic it’s okay you know I know sometimes all right is this person going to fit we’re a strong team of faith or not a strong team of faith i knew a guy one time no I’m not talking about Max who had uh done worked very hard to get sober after his sophomore year in college he checked himself into rehab and he was on a team with a bunch of hard drinkers not bad guys just like to go drink every night and he just didn’t fit not because they were bad guys and he was the good guy or he was a bad guy and they it was just it didn’t fit because he didn’t fit the culture of the locker room i know a guy one time that um he was raised Quaker i think it was No not Quaker yeah maybe it was Quaker but it was a small Christian seg and he didn’t play cards he He didn’t want anything to do with cards nothing like that and these guys would just play Jin Rumier or Uker well probably not Uker but because that’s more of a Michigan type game but it’s just one I play a lot but whatever and so he just didn’t play cards and the guys all played cards and he just And you may say “Well that just seems dumb.” It does but remember you’re dealing with 22 year old kids some of them up to 35 but you got a lot of young kids i knew a guy one time that dated a player’s sister and didn’t abuse her or anything like that but just wasn’t good to her and it happened to be a star player on the team and a very popular player on the team and after word got out about how he treated her because everybody liked her it wasn’t her brother that told he got moved out so there are so many things that go into locker room dynamics all of that stuff and so when you understand all of that that literally Carla is the anatomy of an NFL trade sometimes it’s need sometimes it’s not need but this team needs to get rid of a player for whatever reason so we can get them a little cheaper all of that and that’s the anatomy of an NFL trade i hope that helps you all and I really appreciate you hope I listen it is hot all over the country luckily in Vegas the humidity is not like the rest of the world but I know where uh I’m from in Michigan it’s in the hundreds with 100% humidity or 95% humidity but it’s everywhere from the east coast to the west coast all over it’s hot so make sure you’re staying cool drink a lot of water god bless you all we’ll see you tomorrow

The Anatomy of a Las Vegas Raiders Trade? #raiders #raidernation #johnspytek #nfltraderumors #nfl