Albert Breer on Sorsby to NFL? Rodgers & Steelers Latest, Titans President Steps Down

This is a guy who's got the tools to be a top 5 pick.

All right.

Welcome in.

It's the Breer Report for April the twenty-ninth.

The NFL draft is now in the rearview mirror.

OTA is still a couple of weeks off.

We still have a lot to get to, cleaning up after the draft, some veteran, uh, moves, some team structure moves, and we're gonna start all of that with what the Steelers did this week with Aaron Rodgers, placing the rarely used UFA tender on the quarterback who, if he plays this year, will head into his 22nd.

NFL season.

So, this is a mechanism that's rarely used in the CBA but we've seen it more commonly over the last couple of years.

So it actually happened twice last year.

Um, the Chargers put the UFA tender on JK Dobbins.

Um, he wound up signing with the Broncos in June, and the Browns put the UFA tender on Elijah Moore after the draft.

He wound up signing with the Bills in May.

So, functionally, what does this do?

Well, this means that between now and the start of training camp, the Steelers retain matching rights on, on, on Aaron Rodgers, and if he, if he were to leave, they would still get a compensatory pick.

Generally, you get past a certain date in the calendar, the comp pick formula doesn't, doesn't, doesn't, isn't in play anymore.

You put this tender on it, extends the comp pick formula all the way to the start of training camp.

And then at the start of training camp, once you get to that checkpoint in the calendar, he can't sign with anybody but the Steelers, which would mean the Steelers for him to play in 2026, if he's not signed with them and he wants to play somewhere else, they'd have to sign and trade him.

So it does complicate things a little bit.

I, I would assume that this has been communicated to Aaron Rodgers and his camp while they're doing this.

Um, in the case of both, um, above both Dobbins and Moore, the teams putting the UFA tenders on those guys did not wind up getting, uh, draft picks in return.

I'm sure part of it in the convict formula is kept under lock and key, but I'm sure part of it in the case of Dobbins, who was projected to bring back a sixth-round pick was the fact that Dobbins wound up getting hurt.

Um, and there is playtime, um, or there's a playtime element to the, to, to the equation for the compact formula.

So does this have an effect on Aaron Rodgers going forward?

I don't think so.

Um, I'd still lean towards him playing in 2026.

The Steelers haven't gotten any official word on that.

Remember, the official word didn't come down last year until the first week in June.

Um, but it does protect the Steelers to some degree.

Now, what I don't think is gonna happen is I don't think he is gonna go sign an offer sheet with another team and the Steelers are gonna say, no, no, no, you come play for us now because in that case, uh, if he didn't want to play for the Steelers, he could just retire.

So I, I don't think that that's really a factor here.

It does give them a little bit of control over the situation though, where if he was to go somewhere else, they are able to get some sort of return, whether it's by, by a comp pick now or later in the calendar via a draft pick coming back for him.

So, um, again, a rarely used mechanism that we saw used twice this year, and now the Steelers are putting in play.

Um, do I think it's gonna wind up being a big deal going forward?

Probably not, but it is notable and it's something worth, uh, paying attention to as we move forward with the Aaron Rodgers thing still uncertain.

Second topic for today, Brendan Soarsby, the Texas Tech quarterback, caught up in a In a gambling scandal.

Um, he, um, is reported now to have placed thousands of bets, um, when he was a quarterback at the University of Indiana.

And if you want to look at his timeline, he was a quarterback at Indiana at 22 and 23 while Tom Allen was still the coach there before Curtis said now he got there, transferred to Cincinnati in 24, was the quarterback at Cincinnati in 24 and 25, and now has transferred again and was set to play at Texas Tech in the fall.

Um, my understanding of the money, and, and this is, this is what I've heard on it was that he was set to get $6 million in NIL from Texas Tech.

$1 million of that $6 million will go to Cincinnati as part of a buyout, so he would be making $5 million in NIL from Texas Tech in the fall.

Obviously, all of that is now in question.

Um, this was announced as, as Brendan Soars he's going into rehab for a gambling addiction.

Um.

You know, again, that, that, that would indicate that this was an isolated to what happened when he was a freshman at Indiana, when he was actually gambling on Indiana football games, which is a huge part of this story as well, of course.

Now, why am I talking about this on an NFL show?

Uh, because I do think this is a guy who would have been a relatively high pick, maybe a very high pick in the 2027 NFL draft, but we're not there yet.

So I think things could get accelerated here.

Now, the people that I've talked to at the college football level have told me there's almost no chance that Soarsby walks away from this without the NCAA revoking his eligibility.

It's very clear in the rules that if you bet on um any team at your school, um, that your eligibility will be revoked.

So, let's say the NCAA does what everyone expects them to do and revokes Brendan Soarsby's eligibility.

So what's his next option?

Well, he could take the NCAA to court.

Um, if you want to take the NCAA to court, you can do that.

A lot of players have been successful doing that.

The next step after that would be filing for an injunction, and if you file for an injunction, which essentially would make it so he could play while the case is going through the courts.

You gotta prove that you've got a reasonable chance of winning the case.

And since this is such a clear violation of a, of a rule, the lawyers that I've talked to say he's probably not getting an injunction.

So, essentially, if, you know, he doesn't get an injunction, and he wants to take this into court to try to make, to, to try to make it so he can recover the $5 million he would have to wait for the case to be adjudicated, um, before he can play again.

And what does that mean for the $5 million that he has coming?

Well, that gets tricky for Texas Tech now because you're not supposed to pay to play, but here we are.

It's A very complicated situation.

The easier path for him right now.

And I don't know if it's the right path for him.

I'm not him, I'm not his agent.

The easier path for him would seem to be now to try to apply for eligibility for the 2026 supplemental draft.

Some people have made the mistake of saying, well, you know, if they have a supplemental draft, the supplemental draft isn't an event that they have every year .

It is only held when players are declared eligible for it, when players enter, enter into it, and then are declared eligible for it.

Um, we've seen cases where guys have lost eligibility over drugs.

That was, uh, that was Josh Gordon in 2012.

We've seen where players have lost eligibility over NCAA violations.

That was Terrell Pryor in 2011.

We've seen a ton of cases over the years, and this is going back further, where guys have lost eligibility because of academic, um, issues.

And like that obviously has led to guys getting in.

So there's been tons of reasons for guys being, being declared eligible for the, the, the, the supplemental draft.

This is basically what it's here for.

It's for guys in a circumstance that happens after, um, the, the NFL draft, after they're allowed to declare for the NFL draft, um, they, they lose their eligibility.

And so, this is a thorny one for the NFL.

How does the NFL handle it?

Obviously, um, you know, they're in business with a ton of the gambling companies.

There's a ton of, of, of money changing hands there between the NFL, their clubs, all these gambling outlets, they got to be very careful because of that, like, and, and because of the integrity of the game issue there is.

There, and now you have a player who's admitted to betting on his own team coming into the league .

So has this become like a Terrell Pryor situation where he's facing a suspension when he comes into the league if they do declare him eligible for, for the supplemental draft, um, you know, do they say, no, we can't let you in because of the gambling violation, in which case, then maybe the NFL risks going to court with Brendan Soresby.

Um, and we can get into the legal, you can get into the legal, you know, uh, mumbo jumbo over all that.

The NFL is technically a trade association.

Is a trade association allowed to declare somebody or, or to, to allow to deny somebody employment, or do they have to leave that up to the companies, which would be, in this case, the teams.

Um, and it's a complicated situation, but my guess would be, for the legal reasons I just outlined.

The NFL probably would let him in the supplemental draft, and now we're talking about some of these teams looking at it and saying, you've got a guy who's got, you know, maybe top of the draft type of arm talent, very, very, very high-end athleticism.

I mean this is a guy who's got the tools to be a top 5 pick.

Now, whether or not he becomes that, we'll see.

Um, he wasn't great in big games last year at Cincinnati, um, so there's a lot to pick apart there.

But say you're the Browns, or you're the Dolphins, or you're the Jets, um, you're one of these teams that Has kicked the can down the road on selecting a quarterback and said, the quarterback isn't there for us in 2026, so we're waiting for the 2027 class, which could have Dante Moore and Arch Manning and CJ Carr and Lenora Sellers and all these guys in it.

And you look at it and you say, what if we could take care of that now?

And what if we take care of that now, and we toss the 2nd-round pick out there, um, to get Brendan Sosby, and then if we get him with the 2nd-round pick, now, OK, we, we've got a year to develop him, and maybe he makes it, maybe he doesn't.

But if he does make it now, if we have a top 5 pick next year, now we can get a hall for that top 5 pick, or we wind up with Jeremiah Smith, Dylan Stewart, whoever it is.

And we've seen teams expend second-round picks before taking a quarterback very high the next year.

It happened with the Panthers in 2010.

They took Jimmy Clawson in the second round.

The next year, they came back and took Cam Newton first overall.

The Browns in 2017 took DeSean Kiser in the second round.

They came back the next year and took Baker Mayfield first overall.

So, you'd be leaving open the possibility that you still do that, but you get the guy who's got high-end traits in your building right now, maybe for a second-round pick, right?

So I, I can't imagine, again, the Browns, the Dolphins, the Jets, one of these teams that the Cardinals, one of these teams that has kicked the can down the road on the quarterback question for a year, would spend their 1st-round pick on Brendan Soresby.

But I could see where they would maybe spend a 2nd round pick if they view them that way on him.

And remember, this is a silent auction, so you just enter the pick, and then whoever is the highest team in the draft order winds up getting him for whatever that round is.

Then are there teams that will give him, give up a first-round pick to to get him.

Would the Steelers do it?

The situation that they're in right now.

If at that point they have Aaron Rodgers back, they're locked in.

They think they're gonna be a 10 or 11 win team.

Now you're talking about maybe solving a quarterback question or having a chance to solve your quarterback question.

Do you look at the idea of giving up your first-round pick next year for Brendan Soresby?

The Vikings would be another one where if you go through the spring and maybe, you know, you look at it and say like, we don't think.

JJ McCarthy is gonna make it.

We got Kyler Murray here.

We want to put another developmental guy in the pipeline.

Do you do that?

It's fascinating.

Uh , I'm interested to see how it plays out.

Obviously, Brendan Soarsby's got a personal situation to take care of, and that's most important right now.

But to me, um, this is a really, really interesting case, a test case for the NFL and how they handle.

Um, the gambling question, um, it's thorny as hell.

And I, I wouldn't want to be the guys at the league office who are gonna have to sort through this, but I think it is something that could wind up being on their plate in the coming weeks.

Uh, finally, our third topic, the Tennessee Titans, more changes.

Uh, their president of football operations, Chad Brinker , has stepped down.

Um, that leaves Mike Borganzi, their general manager, as the no doubt about it, head of football operations in Tennessee, which is sort of how they were operating in the last four months anyway.

Uh, Brinker said in his statement that he wants to get back to what he loves doing, which is personnel.

Um, and it indicates that his job had taken him away from that, and I think that's the truth.

Um, you know, in that role of president of Football Ops was a little bit like what a Mike Disner is in Detroit or Brent Tillis is in Carolina, where you're sort of handling a lot of the stuff outside of personnel and scouting.

And so, um, you know, I think that that streamlines things in Tennessee now where you have a more traditional structure with your general manager, Mike Borganzi, with your head coach Robert Salah.

Um, but I think it's instructive to, to look at the timeline here and look at where the Tennessee Titans are and where they've been over the last 40 months.

Now, that's, again, 3 years and 4 months, and this is a remarkable level of turnover to the point where I had to write everything down to remember everything.

So, December 2022, they fired John Robinson as the general manager.

Um, shortly after extending him to, they had just extended him and Mike Vrabel at that point.

A month later, January 2023, they hire Rand Carthon as general manager, Chad Brinker as assistant general manager.

So they go forward with Carthon Brinker Vrabel for a year.

The next January, January 2024, they fired Mike Vrabel as head coach.

Um, later that month, they promoted Chad Brinker, so he essentially leapfrogged Rand Carthon, named him president of football operations, moved him atop, um, the masthead, um, with Rand Carthon and the new head coach, Brian Callahan coming in, reporting to him.

So that lasted for a year.

Then in January 2025, they fired Grant Carthon as, as, as general manager.

Later that month, they hired Mike Borganzi as general manager.

Um, then, uh, nine months after that, in October of 2025 , that's last October, they fired Brian Callahan as head coach.

Um, and then three months after that, in January 2026, they restructured.

And so that uh meant Mike Borganzi would report directly to the owner at that point rather than reporting to Brinker.

Um, and Borganzi would give final say over, over the 53 man roster and lead the search for the next head coach that, of course, later that month wound up becoming Robert Salah.

That moved again, Brinker into the role that he served over the last few months, which again was like a, like a Mike Disner in Detroit, like a Brent Tillis.

In, um, in Carolina.

And that, of course, was, um, the way they work for the last 4 months before Brinker steps down.

I really like the people um that they have now there.

I, I look at the depth of the, uh, the front office, um, and what they have with Mike Morganzi and the group that he put together, the Assistant General Manager, Dave Ziegler, um, their director of player person or vice president of player personnel, um, Uh, Dan Sagany, who came over from the Browns, um, another Borgganzi hire.

The director of player personnel, John Sali, who's been there forever.

It is a, uh, it is a deep roster of personnel people there.

On the coaching side, a ton of experience.

You've got Robert Sall, second-time head coach.

You've got Brian Daball as your offensive coordinator, former head coach.

You've got Gus Bradley as your defensive coordinator, former head coach.

And you've got your special teams coach, one of the most experienced special teams coach in the game, and actually a guy who was an interim head coach for the Rams at one point, and that's John Fossil.

And so, I, I, I like where they are, but this is gonna take time, and the roster is still not right.

And one of the reasons the roster is not right is you've had all of these different people picking for all of these different systems over the last few years, and that's how a roster gets sideways.

So, this is now on Amy Adams Strong to give these guys some time, to give Bor Ganzi and his staff some time, to give Saul and his staff some time.

And I, I'd suggest you got to give them three years from here.

So, 26, 27, 28, this is the group you're moving into the new stadium with.

This is the group you're building around Cam Ward with.

This is the group that you have to have the highest level of trust in, and you see where it goes.

Because what this organization cannot Sustain is another hard reset.

So you've got your structure now, you've got your people in place after the last 40 months, and all that change, I just, I just went through, the Titans have to stay the course and see where it goes.

And I think the good news is they've got good people to help carry out what the plan has been since Borgganzi got there a year ago.

Um, the plan, what the plan has been on the coaching side since Robert Salas gotten there 4 months ago.

Um, I think that, I think those, those are the right people to, to bring them out of this, but it's gonna take some time, and that's gonna mean for the owner, having some patience, the type of patience she has not existed.

exhibited over the last 40 months.

Appreciate you guys coming out.

Appreciate one more time, all of the viewership, the readership, all of it, uh, the audience that we have for our draft coverage.

I love the draft.

You guys know that .

This time of year is great.

We're able to, you know, talk about all of the different things that go into building a team and all the different rumors that are out there and all the different stuff, the information that we've collected, and now we get to debrief on all of it.

So I appreciate you guys following us for the ride on all of that.

Um, any feedback you got, please send it along.

You can put it down below here on the YouTube page or you get to me on my social media.

Um, that's at Albert Breer on Twitter, at Albert Aubrey on Facebook , at Albert_Breer on Instagram.

We got 2 more shows coming for you this week.

The mailbags tomorrow.

We'll see you guys then.