Mike Tannenbaum and Jeff Darlington on ESPN's "Get Up." Mike Tannenbaum and Jeff Darlington on ESPN’s “Get Up.”
ESPNFoxBy Sam Neumann on

Hailing from Kansas City itself, Nick Wright wears his Chiefs passion as a badge of honor. On FS1, he’s an unwavering advocate for Patrick Mahomes, Travis Kelce and Andy Reid, proudly celebrating their back-to-back Super Bowl victories.

Wright also isn’t shy about engaging with other media outlets when it comes to his favorite team. Recent comments on Get Up made by Mike Tannenbaum and Jeff Darlington seemingly drew a response from Wright while potentially adding a couple more names to his “media rivals” list, which includes, but is not limited to, Pablo Torre and Mina Kimes.

Wright, without explicitly mentioning Tannenbaum or Darlington by name, took issue with suggestions to trade Chiefs second-year cornerback Trent McDuffie for Jaylen Waddle, let alone Tyreek Hill. He also disagreed with the idea that Mike Evans would be a better fit than Chris Jones.

Tannenbaum has the propensity to propose some ridiculous trades on ESPN airwaves, which may point to why he’s no longer in an NFL front office somewhere. Just recently, he proposed that the New York Giants and Cleveland Browns swap Daniel Jones and Deshaun Watson, which interestingly drew the ire of Rick Pitino.

He also suggested earlier this week that the New York Jets make a play for Russell Wilson as their backup quarterback, which saw Dan Graziano nearly walk off the set and Bart Scott check just what type of liquid was in his coffee cup.

McDuffie, who very well could’ve been named Super Bowl LIII MVP, has three years remaining on his rookie contract and is increasingly more valuable to Kansas City than Waddle. Heck, they won a Super Bowl with a rag-tag group of wide receivers, and McDuffie shutting down the opposing team’s leading receivers.

The same argument can be made for Jones and Evans.

“I would rather Mike Evans in this offense than Chris Jones on this defense,” said Darlington. “Look, this is a team that redefines themselves from one year to the next, right? We saw them flip-flop. They were an offensive team that won the Super Bowl two years ago. They were a defensive team that won it this year. I also recognize that they did it without Tyreek Hill. They’ve got to put weapons around Mahomes. They can’t fall into this trap where they believe they can just win Super Bowls year after year without weapons. They need to do it. They got through this year. Brett Veach is smart enough, though; the free agents weren’t available last year, and he redefined the team. But I still think that this team should pursue offensive weapons.”

As you might imagine, that clip got a lot of attention across social media, which led to Darlington clarifying his comments, saying that he was baited into his remarks by Tannenbaum in the replies.

While one can acknowledge the Chiefs’ need for improved wide receiver depth, Wright stresses the value of retaining Jones, citing his key contributions to their Super Bowl wins. He points to Jones’s disruptive plays and reminds everyone that the current roster, including Jones, just achieved back-to-back championships, making the proposed trade for Evans questionable.

We’ll have to see if Darlington or Tannenbaum elects to reply to Wright’s transgressions. In any event, Wright is doing his best to subtweet ESPN personalities on Wednesday, including JJ Redick.

[Nick Wright, Jeff Darlington]

About Sam Neumann

Since the beginning of 2023, Sam has been a staff writer for Awful Announcing and The Comeback. A 2021 graduate of Temple University, Sam is a Charlotte native, who currently calls Greenville, South Carolina his home. He also has a love/hate relationship with the New York Mets and Jets.

View all posts by Sam Neumann