Mike Florio

if the team that would trade for him is going to be willing to do that.

You know, a lot of it comes down to how many teams want him and how many teams get in the fray to try to get him.

And the more teams that are trying to get him, the more obvious it is that people around the league think he can play.

You know my feelings on this.

The whole problem with the process is, and this is a point that DeMora Smith, the former NFL PA executive director, made a few years ago.

He and I talked about it at the Super Bowl in an interview where we really just tried to peel the onion on the fact that there is no accountability.

There's no one to make the NFL accountable for decades of hiring practices that don't comply with the requirements of state and federal law.

So all of these other devices to try to fix the problem

they create their own problems.

And there's always going to be unintended consequences when you create this strange carrot where if you properly develop a guy who gets promoted somewhere else, you're going to get compensation, and then you're drawing these lines.

Well, when are you getting a true promotion, and is it a true promotion, and who's in charge of the football operation in Atlanta?

And you've got Matt Ryan, the president of the football operation, saying things that make it sound like Ian Cunningham's the GM.

not just basically the guy who set the table for Matt Ryan to make his decision.

So when you've got Ryan saying it, when you've got Cunningham saying it, when you've got polls saying it, it becomes more glaring that the league office continues to say, Nope, Nope, Nope.

Matt Ryan is the primary football executive.

The general manager in Atlanta isn't.

And you just wonder if the NFL is going to stay stubborn on that or whether or not they'll,

eventually relent to what the facts seem to be telling us.

I think that's a great point.

Now, Matt Ryan is here interviewing prospects in these meetings that they do, and I was surprised to hear that.