'Looks like I reached a dead end'

Big news in our lil’ corner of the Upper West Side this week.

The quintessential New York TV show is filming in our quintessentially New York neighborhood on Thursday morning, and putting the parking complications to the side, I’m kind of pumped.

The original recipe “Law & Order” debuted in 1990, and when I was in my 20s, I liked to argue that at any minute of a given day, an episode of that series or one of its variants was airing on one cable channel (A&E) or another (TNT).

In retrospect, it was probably an exaggeration, but not by much

“Law & Order” is, in my opinion, the most quintessentially New York show now that we’re more than 25 years removed from the final episode of “Seinfeld” though I’m sure some would argue for “30 Rock.”

The show is so embedded in my consciousness that I will rasp the words “Make a deal” whenever my wife is describing a potential compromise, quoting the ancient DA who was forever telling the bushy-eyebrowed Sam Waterston to reach a plea agreement in a sticky case.

Will I be taking my dog on an early walk on Thursday? Yes, I will.

The sign says the shoot starts at 6 a.m., and while that may be set up, it’s also possible that they’re filming the opening scene in which a jogger’s body is discovered and one of the detective’s says, “I guess somebody ran out of time.”

Or perhaps, “It looks like this was her road to nowhere.”

Rest in peace Jerry Orbach. He’s the actor who played Lennie Briscoe, who absolutely had the show’s best one-liners. Just try to watch this without laughing:

Running back Kenneth Walker is going to hit the open market next week, becoming an unrestricted free agent on the heels of being named the Super Bowl MVP.

We know this because Tuesday’s deadline passed without the Seahawks using their franchise tag.

This is not a surprise. At all.

The Seahawks have applied the franchise tag to exactly two players in John Schneider’s 16 years as general manager.

The first was kicker Olindo Mare back in 2010.

The second was defensive end Frank Clark in 2019, who was then traded to Kansas City. ¹  

When it comes to Seattle re-signing Walker, I’ve been more optimistic than most, believing that Seattle could lure Walker back with a higher salary on a shorter deal. I even went as far as suggesting Seattle could offer a two-year deal totaling $30 million.

In retrospect, my logic was flawed.

The cost of franchise tagging a running back is $14.3 million. The fact Seattle wasn’t willing to use the tag shows even that price is prohibitive.

The only way I see Walker coming back is if he can’t find anyone to pay him more than $10 million annually. I have a hard time seeing that happening especially when you consider that the New York Jets did apply the franchise tag to their running back, Breece Hall.

Like Walker, Hall was a second-round choice in 2022.

Walker has appeared in more games. Hall has been the more consistent receiving threat. They’re rushing averages are fairly comparable.

Only three players received franchise tags this year: Hall, receiver George Pickens in Dallas and tight end Kyle Pitts in Atlanta. Quarterback Daniel Jones was hit with the Steve Hutchinson Special, I mean, the transition tag.

The NFL scouting combine is not an actual sporting competition.

It strikes me as absurd that this even needs to be explained.

There are no prizes that are awarded. No purse. And while I won’t go so far as saying that nothing is on the line, no one actually wins anything.

The reason I feel compelled to point this out is that I have seen a number of stories about some “dispute” or “question” over just how fast Ohio State receiver Carnell Tate ran 40 yards on Saturday in Indianapolis.

Here’s what happened: The people who run the combine recorded Tate’s time at 4.52 seconds. This time was announced on the networks televising the event and was considered slower than expected for a wide receiver who could be chosen in the top 10.

On Sunday, ESPN’s Adam Schefter posted this:

This was greeted with a round of derision as people assumed Schefter was performing damage control at the behest of Tate’s agent, who is Drew Rosenhaus.

That is the entirety of what constitutes this “dispute” as The Athletic termed it or “a curious question” according to NBC Sports.

This all has led to tortured explanations about the actual process of data collection. The organizers of the event do log the times, using a hand-timed start and a laser to denote the finish. The results are provided to the broadcasters at ESPN and NFL Network as well as the teams, who also log their own hand-timed results.

So I’ll say it again: The NFL scouting combine is not a competition.

It is a job interview.

The reason it looks like a competition is because the participants — who are auditioning to join the NFL — are asked to do a series of physical tasks. Teams quantify their proficiency at these tasks in an effort to project a specific player’s ability to perform the tasks they would be responsible for as part of a pro football team.

The results of these tests, though, in and of themselves don’t actually mean anything, and I’m not exactly sure why, but it annoys the hell out of me when people pretend they do.

If the fastest receiver at the NFL combine was guaranteed to be the first receiver chosen in the NFL draft, then the idea of an official time would matter.

But that’s not how it works.

Each and every team is looking at the overall performances of these athletes and trying to project how good they will be in the NFL. They’re all coming up with their own opinions and perhaps more importantly, making their own determinations about risk tolerance.

The time in the 40-yard dash is one data point among a long list of considerations, which — by the way — will include OTHER TIMES HE WAS TIMED IN THE 40-YARD DASH.

The idea that teams are somehow beholden to the time that is announced on television in Indianapolis is felony-level stupid.

OK. I’m done. I’ll leave with one question about this post from the agent Drew Rosenhaus, whom I mentioned earlier.

What was the person who took the picture was thinking?

1  Interestingly, the trade of Clark occurred in part because Demarcus Lawrence had signed a new deal with Dallas that averaged $20 million annually, essentially setting the market for Clark’s deal. The Seahawks weren’t going to go that high and traded him to the Chiefs for the No. 29 overall pick in that year’s draft and a second-round choice the following year.