The NFL Scouting Combine Anger Translator

Posted by author February 26, 2025 NFL

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Coaches and general managers often can’t say what they really feel at the NFL scouting combine, so we took a stab at decoding some of their messages—from thoughts on Aaron Rodgers, to Myles Garrett’s trade request, to the Tush Push.

The former Comedy Central show Key & Peele had a recurring sketch called “Obama’s Anger Translator,” in which Jordan Peele would impersonate President Barack Obama, and Keegan-Michael Key, playing a translator, would scream what Obama was really trying to say. A lot of the exchanges went like this:

Peele (as Obama): “These achievements should serve as a reminder that I am on your side.”

Key (Obama’s Anger Translator) holding a megaphone: “I am not a Muslim.”

Peele (Obama): “And that my intentions, as your president, are coming from the right place.”

Key (Obama’s Anger Translator): “They’re coming from Hawaii, which is where I’m from, which is in the United States of America, y’all. OK? This is ridiculous.”

There is no anger translator at this week’s NFL scouting combine in Indianapolis, but we could sure use one. Head coaches and general managers, much like politicians, cannot always say what they mean. When you employ hundreds of people, spend $200 million-plus a year, and are the faces of a franchise worth billions, even simple questions sometimes need to be evaded.

Praising one player can be seen as taking a dig at another. Revealing draft, scheme, or injury information is a no-no. Too much honesty undermines strategy, but too little honesty undermines trust. It is a difficult path to walk. And that becomes especially evident when four dozen head coaches and general managers all get together to give press conferences during the week of the combine.

Almost all of the people who spoke on Tuesday could have used an anger translator to reveal what they actually meant (the only one who seemed to communicate their emotions authentically was Philadelphia Eagles head coach Nick Sirianni). But because translators were not provided, we here at The Ringer decided to go through some of the most notable things coaches and GMs said and parse what they really meant. Translation is, of course, an inexact science, but we did our best.

New York Giants general manager Joe Schoen on Saquon Barkley

Quote: “I’m happy for Saquon. Obviously he went on to win the Super Bowl. We wish him nothing but the best. Always going to evaluate all the decisions you make, and we were at a different place in our build.”

Translation: OBVIOUSLY I WISH WE HAD OFFERED SAQUON BARKLEY A FUCKING CONTRACT LAST OFFSEASON.

Quote: “I haven’t gotten any calls [from other general managers about doing Hard Knocks]. I think I know what I would tell them.”

Translation: Those HBO jerks almost edited me out of a job.

Most people don’t have the worst moment of their career broadcast on a reality television show. But that’s what happened to Schoen, who chose not to re-sign Barkley last offseason and had the decision captured on HBO’s offseason edition of Hard Knocks.

In truth, if the Giants had kept Saquon, they probably would have won somewhere between zero and two more games (they finished the year 3-14), and people might be spending this offseason making fun of the team for paying Barkley like he was going to be their difference maker, rather than mocking them for letting him go. But the last 12 months have gone about as poorly as possible for New York, and Schoen has had to watch it all unfold in slow motion. Now his decades-long career may be most remembered mostly for him telling a franchise icon “thanks but no thanks” while his boss presciently worried that his most popular player might go to the team’s biggest rival. Whoops!

Jets GM Darren Mougey on whether he asked Aaron Rodgers to stop going on The Pat McAfee Show

Quote: “I just want to address the Aaron Rodgers stuff, get ahead of that. I’m not going to discuss any private discussions that I had with Aaron throughout this process and really with any private discussion that I’ve had with any player for that matter. I’m not here to confirm or deny any rumors that happened during that process. I will say this: There was never an ultimatum or rules of engagement for Aaron to potentially join the Jets again. That never happened.”

Translation: I am not here to confirm or deny any rumors about Aaron Rodgers, HOWEVER there is one very specific rumor about Aaron Rodgers that I categorically deny!

A couple of weeks ago, The Athletic’s Diana Russini reported that the Jets approached Rodgers about potentially staying with the team for the 2025 season—albeit with some conditions, including:

No more outside media appearances, including his guest spots on Pat McAfee’s show
No skipping mandatory minicamp to investigate whether aliens built the pyramids—I mean, to visit Egypt or take other offseason trips

Apparently, either Rodgers decided that these terms were too much for him and the Jets are now denying that they asked him to make these concessions in the first place, or they never asked Rodgers if he could just be normal for one season and he decided to leave of his own accord. Either way, Mougey did confirm that Rodgers is not coming back to the Jets this season.

Mougey also spoke rousingly on Tuesday about Rodgers’s buddy, Davante Adams, and his future with the team.

Quote: “Davante is on the team right now.”

Translation: Davante Adams will not be on this team much longer.

The Jets can save nearly $30 million by cutting or trading Adams this offseason, and considering the baggage he could bring as a Rodgers guy in a post-Rodgers locker room, that likely means this new regime will be moving on from Adams sooner rather than later.

Browns GM Andrew Berry on defensive end Myles Garrett’s trade request

Within a five-minute span on Tuesday, Andrew Berry said five different things about Myles Garrett:

Quote: “We can’t imagine a situation where not having Myles as a part of the organization is best for the Browns.”

Quote: “We appreciate Myles and, like I said, we’re not interested in moving him.”

Quote: “Ultimately my responsibility is to make the decisions that are best for the Browns, and having Myles a part in the organization is a huge piece of that.”

Quote: “Again, our interest is in keeping Myles in Cleveland.”

Quote: “What’s best for the Browns is to have Myles on the roster.”

Translation: Please stop asking me about trading Myles Garrett.

Berry is in an impossible position. He’s working for an impossible man; his team has an impossibly bad quarterback situation; and the only thing Cleveland has going for it—Myles Garrett, a perennial Defensive Player of the Year candidate—said he wants out. Maybe Garrett got inspired by seeing Barkley leave an awful Giants situation last year and immediately break the record for most rushing yards in a season (including playoffs) and win the Super Bowl. Or maybe Garrett is just tired of playing for a franchise that has been to the playoffs just twice since he was drafted in 2017 and was bad enough last season to earn the no. 2 pick in this year’s draft. Either way, Garrett’s media tour to back up his trade request has only been bested by Timothée Chalamet’s campaign for an Oscar. (Maybe Garrett should host SNL and be the musical act, too.)

It is probably crushing for Browns fans to be thisclose to a potential pairing of Garrett and Penn State pass rusher Abdul Carter, who Cleveland could select if he falls to no. 2 in the draft, only for Garrett to ask out. But it’s probably been more crushing for Garrett to see his entire 20s wasted on this franchise. The Browns may not want to trade Garrett, but if a team puts multiple first-round picks on the table, they might have to listen.

Jaguars GM James Gladstone on where he lives after he was hired by Jacksonville just four days ago

Quote: “Currently I’m living in Indianapolis [for the week]. Then I will return to Jacksonville here in a handful of days and start looking for a new home that’s a little bit more permanent. But my wife is in fact pregnant and she’s due at the end of May, so we got about a 30-day travel window we can work with here, to bring it all to life. So there’s a shot clock, for sure.”

Translation: This is going to be the worst two months of my entire life.

I cannot stress enough how shocking it was to see the new Jacksonville Jaguars general manager in person on Tuesday. Gladstone looks as babyfaced as my former Ringer colleague Ben Solak. There is a serious, serious chance that, at a bar this week in Indianapolis, this man will be carded. He could easily pass for a kicker who’s working out at the combine this week. He looks more like a DOGE staffer than an NFL GM.

When Gladstone approached the podium on Tuesday, I assumed he was a Jaguars PR staffer who was adjusting the microphone. Then he started talking. My jaw dropped. I asked him how weird it was to go from living in Los Angeles, working for the Rams, to running the Jaguars 3,000 miles away, to representing the team in Indiana before he has a home in Jacksonville (all of this happened within 96 hours). Not to mention NFL free agency begins in two weeks and the NFL draft comes up not long after that. He admitted it was all a bit much.

But then Gladstone said that on top of that, his wife is due a month after the NFL draft (!!!), and my jaw hit the floor. I don’t know whether this 34-year-old man deserves my jealousy, or my pity. I think it’s both. I am in awe of him, and I genuinely worry for his well-being.

Falcons head coach Raheem Morris on the Tush Push

Quote: “It should’ve been illegal three years ago. No, the Tush Push play, I’ve never been a big fan. There’s no other play in our game where you can absolutely get behind somebody and push them, pull them off, do anything.”

Translation: Defense is hard enough, and now we let the Eagles do some weird-ass loophole????

This week, the Packers submitted a proposal to ban the Tush Push. The obvious implication is that teams are sick, tired, and jealous of the Eagles physically dominating them, and now they’re so embarrassed that they want to legislate the play off the field. For the most part, I’m on the Eagles side here—if it’s so unstoppable, just learn how to do it yourselves?!? (Only the Bills have come close to Philly’s roughly 5-in-6 conversion rate.)

But in a way, Morris is right that the Tush Push is the result of the Eagles finding a loophole in how rules are enforced. As the Los Angeles Times explained in 2022, pushing teammates was not allowed in the NFL until 2005, when the league decided the anti-pushing rule was too hard to enforce, and they instead banned pulling teammates. But it took a decade and a half for the Eagles to realize that such a change in officiating could cause a tectonic shift in short-yardage situations. Again, if everyone is allowed to do it, then complaining about it just sounds like whining.

Eagles head coach Nick Sirianni on teams wanting to ban the Tush Push

Quote: “The fact that it’s a successful play for the Eagles and people want to take that away, I think is a little unfair. … I almost feel a little insulted.”

Translation: No translation needed. If only more coaches could communicate like Nick Sirianni.